Li Mingyu fell silent. He liked Xiao Qian and truly feared that she would ignore him.
“Then go ahead and invest. You’d better even take out a loan and put it all in,” Xiao Chen sneered. “Just don’t cry when the time comes.”
If she wanted to be stubborn, let her be stubborn. No amount of good advice could save someone determined to ruin themselves. Xiao Qian was clearly doing this just to go against him.
But it did not matter. He was not reminding her anyway. If she wanted to throw her entire savings into the market, that was her choice.
“It’s none of your business. Stop appearing in front of me,” Xiao Qian rolled her eyes and pulled Li Mingyu away, even though he still looked like he wanted to say something.
Xiao Chen shrugged and boarded a bus to leave.
In his previous life, Beifang Timber’s stock had crashed because of the pest outbreak in Southeast Asia. It would happen within these few days.
Judging from Xiao Qian’s attitude, not only would she invest all her money, she would drag Li Mingyu down with her.
If she wanted to ruin herself, fine. But dragging someone else along? He clicked his tongue inwardly. Hopefully Li Mingyu would learn his lesson this time and wake up.
“Qianqian, Beifang Timber has been performing well, but going all in still carries risk,” Li Mingyu said nervously on the way back, watching her decisively buy more shares on her phone.
He had been a full-time stock trader for several years and had his own unique analysis of market trends.
He was optimistic about Beifang Timber, but putting everything into it was still risky.
“You. Immediately invest all your money into Beifang Timber,” Xiao Qian ordered.
“That’s not right. It’s too risky,” Li Mingyu refused instinctively. “Besides, what your brother said…”
“You actually believe a lousy high school student knows anything about stocks? If he really understood them, would he still be working in a milk tea shop? Would he have stolen my Cartier Bracelet?” Xiao Qian snapped angrily.
The mention of Xiao Chen only made her more furious. “Li Mingyu, if you don’t listen to me, then we won’t see each other anymore.”
Li Mingyu felt torn. He knew Xiao Qian was just venting her anger at her brother.
But he truly liked her. He had been optimistic about Beifang Timber from the start.
Still, Xiao Chen’s words had planted a seed of doubt.
“You’d rather believe Xiao Chen than stand on my side?” Xiao Qian asked incredulously.
“If that’s the case, then let’s not see each other again.”
“Don’t… Qianqian, don’t go. I’ll listen to you. I’ll buy all of Beifang Timber,” Li Mingyu finally gave in.
“That’s more like it. Let’s go eat,” Xiao Qian said, her anger turning into satisfaction as she hooked her arm through his and walked away.
Back at school, Xiao Chen attended one class. During the break, he kept his head down and read. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
“Xiao Chen, someone’s looking for you,” a classmate called out while passing by. “Says they’re your family.”
“My family?” Xiao Chen frowned in confusion. What family did he even have now?
When he walked outside the school, he saw a familiar BMW 5 Series. There was no need to guess. It was Xiao Yan.
“What are you doing here?” Xiao Chen asked, frowning.
The moment Xiao Yan saw him, she felt an unfamiliar distance from him, which made her knit her brows.
She had planned to talk to him properly, but seeing his cold attitude, anger rose within her.
“What kind of attitude is that toward your family? I’m your sister.”
“Family? Sister? I wouldn’t dare. Your only brother is Xiao Ming,” Xiao Chen said mockingly. “In your eyes, I’m nothing but a jinx.”
“Xiao Chen, I came today to talk to you. Can you speak properly?” Xiao Yan’s brows tightened further.
“What’s there to talk about? We’ve already cut ties,” Xiao Chen said, baffled. “What else do you want to discuss with me?”
Xiao Yan took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. “Come home for dinner tonight.”
“I don’t have a home. That’s your home. Don’t drag me into it,” Xiao Chen interrupted.
Xiao Yan looked at him quietly and said through clenched teeth, “Can you stop making trouble?”
“Who’s making trouble?” Xiao Chen felt both irritated and amused. “I’m living just fine at school, and you insist on coming here. Isn’t it enough that I’ve already stayed far away from the Xiao family?”
“What? Do you expect me to go back, kneel down, and beg the Xiao family, crying that I can’t live without you?”
“Xiao Chen.” Xiao Yan raised her voice. “We’re family. Come home. We can forget about everything that happened before.”
“Forget about it? Thank you. Thank you and your whole family.”
“I’ve already cut ties with that couple from the Xiao family.”
“Other than sharing the surname Xiao, I have nothing to do with you anymore.”
“I just want to study properly and get into the university I like.”
Xiao Yan was left speechless. After a moment of silence, she said softly, “The Blue-and-White Porcelain wasn’t broken by you, was it?”
“It was. I’m just a country bumpkin who’s never seen something that expensive. I took it to my room to play with it and accidentally smashed it.”
“Can you stop being angry?” Xiao Yan sighed.
“That’s what your brother told you, right? No matter how I explained myself back then, none of you believed me,” Xiao Chen sneered. “In your eyes, I was just a crude country boy.”
“Now I’ve stayed far away from you. The Xiao family has regained its peace. So what exactly do you want?”
Xiao Yan had no answer. She knew he was still angry. No matter how she tried to persuade him, it would be useless.
Helplessly, she said, “You’re too emotional right now. We can’t talk properly.”
“I’ll come see you another day. This… is a new pair of AJ sneakers. They’re for you.” She turned back to the car and took out a shoebox.
Xiao Chen felt bewildered. Suddenly being so nice to him? What was going on?
Wait. Could it be that that green tea Xiao Ming had kidney failure, and they wanted to use him as a donor?
At that thought, Xiao Chen took two wary steps back, putting distance between them.
In his previous life, he had seen every trick the Xiao family was capable of.
So this was not impossible. No matter what, protecting himself was the most important thing.
“What are you doing?” Xiao Yan froze, staring at Xiao Chen’s guarded expression as she handed over the shoes. “They’re size 39. You…”
“Size 39 is Xiao Ming’s size. I wear size 41. You bought these according to his size. Why not just give them to him?” Xiao Chen said coldly. “Do you have to bring them here to disgust me?”
“That’s not what I meant. I thought you and Xiao Ming wore the same size,” Xiao Yan said, stunned.
After all, they were twins. She had assumed their sizes were identical.
But she had forgotten that Xiao Ming had been sickly and slower to develop than others his age.
In many ways, he was much smaller than Xiao Chen. Seeing the coldness on Xiao Chen’s face, she knew he had misunderstood again.
She wanted to explain but did not know how, so she quietly put the shoes back.
“Then I’ll transfer 10,000 to you as living expenses.”
“No need. If there’s nothing else, you can leave. I can support myself,” Xiao Chen said impatiently.