The dean of studies, middle-aged though he was, still had nimble feet, thanks to years of exercising in the little grove at school every single day. With a flashlight in hand, he could catch one with perfect accuracy.
As expected, the Baldie chased out of the internet cafe, with the white-haired guy following behind him.
“A-Huai, are you coming back for dinner tonight?”
Hearing that, Xie Huai even had the presence of mind to make an OK gesture at the white-haired guy.
As he chased, the dean of studies shouted, “Classmate, cast away your butcher’s knife and become a Buddha right where you stand. Don’t let Xie Huai lead you astray. You look unfamiliar to me, so this should be your first offense. The punishment won’t be too severe, just a self-criticism and a warning. If I catch you myself, though, that’s a different matter.”
Xie Huai felt the person behind him slow down, seeming to believe the Baldie’s pitch, and he turned to say, “Don’t believe him. If we stop now, we’ll definitely get punished. If we make it to the next street, we’re safe, less than a kilometer. Hang in there.”
“I sa…” The roar of a big truck rushing past the roadside cut off Qi Xu’s words.
That large hand, like a piece of hot iron, tightly circled his wrist, impossible to break free from. He could only keep running with Xie Huai.
After they ran to the next street, they finally shook off the Baldie. Middle-aged stamina still couldn’t compare to young people.
The two of them panted against the wall. Qi Xu was sweating all over, and he pulled open his school jacket, breathing lightly.
Qi Xu hadn’t run so freely in a long time. Every day he was cooped up in a single office, staring at endless documents. His body’s athletic function had deteriorated from lack of exercise, his immunity had dropped, and he had started getting minor illnesses more and more often.
After running, he finally had a real sense that he was eighteen now. The Qi Xu of youth was thin, but he often did odd jobs, so both his stamina and strength were stronger than the 28-year-old Qi Xu’s, and a little rest was enough for him to recover.
Xie Huai looked at the person across from him, lips flushed and slightly parted, panting like a puppy with its tongue out, and couldn’t help laughing. “Junior, you’re not very good at this. Don’t just focus on studying, you need to exercise more.”
Qi Xu looked at Xie Huai with an expression that was hard to describe. “You…”
Xie Huai straightened up and walked over to Qi Xu, then took off the baseball cap on his head and put it on him. “No need to say thank you. My name is Lei Feng.”
Qi Xu: “…”
He absolutely could not believe that the middle-school-chuunibyou teenager in front of him and the Xie Huai from ten years later, who controlled everything with ease, were the same person.
Through the baseball cap, Xie Huai pressed down on Qi Xu’s head and, in a serious tone, advised this junior who had skipped class to go online, “Study hard and improve every day. Remember to write my heroic deeds into your college entrance exam essay.”
Qi Xu: “…”
With his head pressed down, he couldn’t lift it, so he swatted the hand on his head away.
By the time Qi Xu looked up, Xie Huai was striding away with his long legs, carefree and unhurried.
He looked like someone who had done a good deed without leaving his name.
But he had left behind his hat.
Qi Xu took off the baseball cap. It was from some major brand, worth four digits.
If it had been the eighteen-year-old Qi Xu, he would definitely have thought it was just an ordinary hat, and he wouldn’t have understood at all why anyone would spend four digits on one.
It was only after Qi Xu came fully back to himself that he felt starving. He found a breakfast shop nearby and ordered a bowl of beef noodle soup.
As soon as the noodles were served, he buried his head and worked through them, finishing the bowl in no time at all, then ordering a serving of beef potstickers as well.
A young man’s appetite was huge. After one bowl of noodles, he was only about sixty percent full.
While waiting for the potstickers, Qi Xu took out the latest model of iPhone from his pocket. Assistant Shen had given him this phone as soon as he arrived in Qijia Village.
On the way back to the capital, Qi Xu had used this phone to call Shen Zhuohai, Shen Fengkai, and Zeng Yun, who were in Germany.
After the college entrance exams were over, the Shen family had accompanied Shen Zeyu on a trip abroad, leaving the matter of finding their biological son entirely to an assistant.
The call had been a week ago, so by now they should have been back.
Qi Xu used his phone to download WeChat and register an account. He subconsciously opened Moments, only to find a blank screen, not a single friend in sight.
There hadn’t been many before either. He had been gloomy by nature, and after entering university he devoted himself to studying. He had little interaction with his roommates and lived alone all four years.
After graduation, he had once again thrown himself into work. His WeChat was full of clients and business partners. Every night, he always habitually opened Moments to look at other people’s lives, and of course he would also come across Shen Zeyu’s rich and colorful posts.
He could no longer remember much of what Shen Zeyu posted, but one line from a caption had once made him envious,
The world is so big, my family wants me to go out and see more of it.
Back then, he had also thought of going out and seeing it, but the thought lasted only a second before he quickly suppressed it.
Now, looking at it, the Shen family’s tiny patch of land was not worth mentioning before the vast world at all.
The unfair treatment was like a raging fire burning in his heart. His anger and unwillingness had nowhere to go, and standing above Shen Zeyu had become his obsession.
In the end, things turned out exactly that way. He became vice president of Shen Group, with power and money, but so what. His biological parents said he had wolfish ambitions, and he fell out with his biological elder brother.
His life was branded with the name of the Shen family, controlled by the world, pulled off its original track, crashing into an iceberg and enduring utter ruin.
The beef potstickers arrived. Qi Xu put away his phone and focused on breakfast.
After eating his fill, Qi Xu took off the school uniform he was wearing and tossed it aside, then skillfully took the bus back to the Shen family mansion.
The security staff at the manor gate recognized Qi Xu and quickly let him through.
Such a huge matter had happened to the master of the house, and the servants were all discussing it in private. There was no way to muzzle everyone’s mouths.
Taking the manor shuttle, he went all the way without obstruction, and Qi Xu sat in the back seat, looking at the scenery with interest.
He had never properly looked at the manor before. Every time he returned to the Shen family mansion, it was like going into battle. He had no mind to pay attention to anything else.
Qi Xu walked up to the villa entrance, where the servants were watering flowers and cleaning in the front yard.
Someone noticed Qi Xu had returned and greeted him perfunctorily, “Young Master Qi Xu.”
The eighteen-year-old Qi Xu, hearing the word Young Master, became flustered and insisted the other person not call him that.
What he had then thought of as modesty became, in the servants’ eyes, grounds for comparison. The real young master was timid and shrinking, while the fake young master was confident and composed.
Qi Xu ignored them and walked straight into the villa.
The servants looked at one another. Why was he different from a few days ago?
Qi Xu stopped, but did not turn to look at them. “No need to knock and call me for lunch at noon.”
No one answered for a long time. Qi Xu then turned and gave them a glance.
That light, passing glance landed on them as though it had weight.
The servants stammered out their reply, “Yes, Young Master Qi Xu.”
Back in his room, Qi Xu took a hot bath. When he came out in pajamas, he adjusted the air conditioning to a suitable temperature and drew the blackout curtains. The room immediately turned dim.
He lay on the bed, adjusted into a sleeping position, and when he turned his head left, he found that his neck no longer hurt.
The run that morning had cured his crooked neck.
That chuunibyou teenager really was Hua Tuo reborn.
Qi Xu curled the corners of his mouth, closed his eyes, and sleepiness came over him.
The habit of staying up late from his previous life had followed him into this one.
On the first day after being reborn, Qi Xu slept from 9 a.m. until 7 p.m., sleeping especially deeply and not waking up even once in between.
Only when noisy voices came from downstairs did Qi Xu slowly open his eyes, staring at the dark room blankly.
He had not woken up in heaven. He was still in the world of his eighteen-year-old self.
Qi Xu had thought heaven was taking pity on him for never doing anything with a guilty conscience in his entire life and giving him a final gift, a one-day eighteenth-birthday trip.
For a true second life, how much virtue would he have to repay.
While laughter and chatter rose from downstairs, Qi Xu wore slippers and shuffled down.
The family of four was warm and harmonious. Shen Zeyu sat in the middle of Mr. and Mrs. Shen, while Shen Fengkai sat on a single sofa, looking at Shen Zeyu with undisguised fondness.
“I brought a gift for A-Huai, but I don’t know if he’ll like it.”
The eighteen-year-old Shen Zeyu wore a white long shirt with a black V-neck vest over it. Youthful and sunny, every movement and gesture carried nobility, already showing the bearing of a grown man.
Shen Fengkai said, “You two grew up together. No one knows what he likes better than you do. For his eighteenth birthday, didn’t you give him a car model you designed and assembled yourself? Isn’t it displayed in the most noticeable place in his room?”
Something seemed to occur to Shen Zeyu. He lowered his eyes, full of loneliness. “But things are different now. No one will like me.”
When Shen Zeyu learned that he was not the Shen family’s son, he was surfing by the seaside. He had enjoyed himself all day, then took a huge blow upon learning this at night. He had stood in the wind all night and come down with a high fever the next day.
The family took turns caring for him. In the midst of the fever, Shen Zeyu was fragile and helpless, crying out in his delirium, “Dad, Mom, Brother, don’t leave. I’m Zeyu. Don’t you want me anymore?”
He was a child they had watched grow up, a heaven-sent pride, forever full of spirit and vigor. When had he ever looked like this? Seeing Shen Zeyu crying and unable to stop, the three of them could not bear it.
Their biological son was waiting for them at home, and here was the son they had raised by their side for eighteen years.
Shen Fengkai said that this college entrance exam trip had been promised to Zeyu, and was also a long-awaited family trip of four. They should accompany Zeyu properly for this week, and as for Qi Xu, he would have Assistant Chen go pick him up.
Just like that, during that week abroad, the Shen family never mentioned Qi Xu in front of Shen Zeyu, as if the matter of the children being switched had never happened.
Zeng Yun could not bear to hear Shen Zeyu say that things were different from before. She wrapped an arm around his shoulder, her eyes reddening at once. “You will always be Mom’s child. We will always be a family.”
Shen Zhuohai put on a stern face and said, “Stop talking about leaving the Shen family. That would break your mother’s heart. A place like that has nothing to do with you.”
Thinking of Qijia Village in the video, Shen Zeyu had never seen such a poor and backward place before. So that was his home. At the thought of that middle-aged man with yellow teeth and a mouth full of filthy language, he subconsciously shivered.
“But the blood in my body isn’t yours. It’s dirty.”
After returning home, Shen Zeyu had grown more and more aware that this place did not belong to him. The servants no longer called him Little Young Master, but Young Master Zeyu.
“They all say I stole everything from someone else, that I replaced his life and occupied this nest for eighteen years.”
Shen Fengkai first comforted Shen Zeyu with a few words, then angrily rebuked the servants at home. “If I find out anyone says this kind of thing at home again, go get your dismissal letter from the butler.”
How could the servants have the nerve to discuss the master of the house? They only dared to say a few things about Qi Xu, the young master who had just returned and had no temper at all. They didn’t even dare breathe too loudly, and all lowered their heads to respond.
Qi Xu stood at the staircase landing, watching all of this with a calm heart.
In his previous life, after he returned to the Shen family, he had looked forward to meeting his biological parents. When he learned that his parents had accompanied Shen Zeyu to Germany and hadn’t come back, his eyes had gone cold. Was Shen Zeyu more important than their biological son?
After the family of four returned home, Shen Zeyu saw him and immediately, with red eyes, grabbed his luggage and turned to leave in defiance.
Everyone tried to stop him, to persuade him, all their thoughts focused on him.
At that moment, the dissatisfaction in Qi Xu’s heart erupted all at once.
“He wasn’t even this family’s son in the first place. Why does everyone want to keep him? Let him go back to Qijia Village and live with Qi Guohui.”
The parents’ faces were full of disappointment. Shen Fengkai’s expression darkened, and he even directly scolded him. From the moment they met, their relationship was destined never to be mended.
“May I ask.” Qi Xu’s voice interrupted the family of four’s harmony.
Everyone looked toward the source of the voice, startled by Qi Xu’s appearance.
Shen Zeyu shrank timidly toward Zeng Yun. Zeng Yun gently patted his hand in comfort, and Shen Fengkai rose to stand in front of their parents and younger brother.
Anyone who didn’t know better would have thought Qi Xu was some flood beast, ready to hurt Shen Zeyu.
Qi Xu continued, “When can we eat?”
The Shen family seemed stunned. They wordlessly stared at Qi Xu, and in the end it was a servant who said dinner was ready.
There was no joy of blood relatives recognizing one another, and no happiness of a family reunion.
Only helplessness, discomfort, and awkwardness surrounded them. They did not look like a family, and Qi Xu instead looked like a guest staying over.
Qi Xu, still in his pajamas, wandered into the dining room, opened the fridge, took out a bottle of mineral water, and drank more than half of it in one go. Turning around, he found the family of four still looking at him.
Qi Xu lifted a hand, his tone calm. “Go on.”
To the Shen family, Qi Xu’s behavior was a protest, a complaint over why they had left him at home for a whole week, why they had gone to keep company with that Shen Zeyu who had no blood relation to them.
A newly grown adult, venting his dissatisfaction through everything he did was so childish.
Shen Fengkai frowned at Qi Xu, then turned to look at his parents. Qi Xu’s attitude was different from what they had imagined, too calm. The parents still didn’t know how to face him, their eyes full of guilt, clearly having been completely taken in by Qi Xu’s little act.
“Qi Xu.” As the Shen family’s eldest son, Shen Fengkai had to step forward and take charge. “When you first meet your elders, why don’t you greet them?”
Qi Xu tilted his head slightly, then recited the greetings one by one as if entering a command. “Dad, Mom, eldest brother.”
He slowly looked toward Shen Zeyu and smiled at him. “Little brother.”
The moment Shen Zeyu saw Qi Xu, he felt bad. Even without a paternity test, Qi Xu’s face at a glance was clearly that of a Shen family member. His features resembled his mother, and his amber eyes, which his father often said were especially beautiful.
This person was the real young master of the Shen family. He was the fake one. He would soon lose everything he had and return to that backward, remote mountain village.
Suddenly, Shen Zeyu stood up and shouted at Qi Xu, “Don’t worry, I won’t steal your things. And don’t be mad at Dad and Mom. I’m leaving right now.”
It was the same scene as in his previous life. The Shen couple had not even said a single word to Qi Xu and hurriedly stopped Shen Zeyu instead.
“Where can you even go so late?”
“I’ll stay at A-Huai’s place. Aunt Qin said the Xie family will always leave a room for me.”
“Let him go. Let’s see where he can even go.”
“What are you saying, Old Shen? Your son just had a serious illness a while ago. What if he faints again?”
Qi Xu sat casually in a dining chair, leaning against the backrest, picked up an apple from the table, and ate while watching this family farce that already had its ending decided.
“Little brother, stay and eat before you go.”
Shen Zeyu: “…”
In the end, Shen Fengkai stepped in and pulled Shen Zeyu into his arms. Shen Zeyu punched and kicked at him, and after making enough fuss to grow tired, the Shen couple were finally comforted.
Fifteen minutes later, the five of them were seated in the dining room.
The Shen couple were physically and mentally exhausted and had no mind for the meal. But since this was the first time the family of five had gathered together, they had no choice but to summon their energy.
“Xiaoxu must be hungry. Eat more.”
Shen Zeyu was still throwing a tantrum, head drooped and not eating a single bite.
Shen Fengkai drank a few mouthfuls of wine, silent the whole time.
Qi Xu obediently buried his head in the food. After finishing the roast chicken leg, he moved on to roast duck, and even put on gloves to start eating king crab. The bone dish in front of him was changed again and again.