At that moment, Pei Cizhou noticed Xiao Gao, who had left less than two minutes earlier, suddenly heading back. He could only say anxiously, “Mm, I’m running out of time. Let’s talk later.”
After a pause, he asked, “Can you wait for me at Cheng Garden on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year?”
Pei Cizhou was afraid Miss Qiu would refuse, so he pleaded pitifully, “Please.”
Unfortunately, Xiao Gao was moving faster than usual this time. He had already reached the third lattice window, and Pei Cizhou still hadn’t received Miss Qiu’s answer.
“Someone’s coming. I have to hang up.”
With that, he immediately ended the call, held down the power button, and tucked the phone beneath the memorial tablet of his great-grandfather.
“Madam.” Xiao Gao had been about to use the restroom, but when he turned to close the door, he saw Madam approaching from the corridor in the distance. He hurriedly held it in and rushed back to the ancestral hall to resume his post.
“Mm.” Ruan Shuyi stood at the entrance to the ancestral hall. “Has Young Master been coming here on time lately?”
“Yes,” Xiao Gao reported. “Young Master comes every day without fail. I’ve checked all the passages he was punished to copy, and he’s been copying them seriously.”
“You’ve worked hard. Go downstairs and rest for a while.”
“Yes, Madam.”
After Xiao Gao left, Ruan Shuyi climbed the steps and entered the ancestral hall.
Pei Cizhou was kneeling before a low table, copying from a book.
“Do you admit your mistake?” Ruan Shuyi asked coldly.
His brush continued moving, and he didn’t even raise his head. “I don’t know what I did wrong.”
“So you refuse to admit it?”
“Mom, I don’t even know what I did wrong. How am I supposed to admit to it?”
Thinking of the old madam’s instructions—and remembering that today was his birthday—Ruan Shuyi forced down her anger and said bluntly, “Transfer the company to Siheng. For the next six months, prepare seriously for the college entrance exams until you get into Beizheng University.”
At that, Pei Cizhou set down his brush and looked up. “Mom, why don’t you go see a psychologist? Being this obsessive really is a mental illness.”
“Shut up!” Ruan Shuyi shouted furiously. “Do you know who you’re talking to? Are you saying that I’m sick?”
Pei Cizhou gave a soft laugh. “Isn’t that the truth? Haven’t you always treated me as a replacement for Big Brother, making me follow in his footsteps one step at a time so I could become your most obedient and most beloved son?”
Ruan Shuyi barely managed to suppress her fury and sneered, “Hah. You think far too highly of yourself. You don’t measure up to your brother in the slightest.”
“Tsk, Mom, that makes me unhappy.” He propped his chin on his hand and thought for a moment. “Before I turned twelve, I should have been pretty similar, right?”
“I remember that back then, I liked playing badminton, but you insisted I take up tennis. I liked freestyle swimming, but you insisted I learn butterfly. There are countless examples like that. I was young then and dependent on you, so I thought everything you did was for my own good and went along with it all.”
Ruan Shuyi’s expression stiffened.
Yes. Xiao Zhou had been so obedient before the age of twelve. Whatever she said went. He had practically treated her words as sacred edicts. If he had followed the path she’d planned for him, he would have skipped grades and gotten into Beizheng University by now. In another two years, he might even have qualified for a central government selection position.
Unlike now, when he slept through exams, handed in blank papers, and wasted his time on pointless ventures. He had even taken five hundred million from Ruan Siheng to fiddle around with some game company!
Was that something a proper student ought to be doing?
“But what a pity.” Pei Cizhou sounded regretful as well. “Who could have imagined that after seeing Big Brother’s tennis medals and his trophies from winning major butterfly-swimming championships, I’d realize that the family called me Young Master not because I was young? It was because there was a true Young Master. The word ‘young’ was there to distinguish me from him.”
His elder brother was named Pei Xingzhou, while he was named Pei Cizhou.
“Bid farewell to Xingzhou”—even his nickname had probably been inherited from his older brother.
“Why are you so hung up on this?” Ruan Shuyi couldn’t understand him at all. “Your brother is—he’s someone who’s gone. Why are you still competing with him?!”
Could he really not compete with him?
Pei Cizhou turned to look out the window. It was November, and the bare branches of the trees outside the courtyard reached over the wall as two withered leaves drifted gracefully downward.
“I suppose there isn’t a child in the world who doesn’t long for their mother’s love,” Pei Cizhou murmured. “I experienced genuine maternal love before I turned twelve. Only later did I learn that it had never been meant for me.”
“What?” Ruan Shuyi hadn’t heard him clearly.
He smiled, then raised his eyes. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with starting a company, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with pursuing the life I want. Besides, I came of age today. The family can now send me out to support myself without anyone being able to object.”
Ruan Shuyi sneered. “Your life’s ambition is to start a game company? What a joke!”
By now, Pei Cizhou had completely stripped away the halo surrounding the title of “mother.” He gave a derisive laugh. “So what? Big Brother only died too young. If he’d lived long enough to come to his senses, he definitely wouldn’t have been able to tolerate your extreme need for control.”
—Smack!
Ruan Shuyi bent down and slapped him across the face. “Who gave you permission to speak to your mother like that? Have you forgotten every rule and etiquette you were taught?”
Pei Cizhou’s head turned with the force of the blow, but his gaze remained indifferent. “Really? I think I’m still a pretty polite person. You hit me, and I wouldn’t dare hit you back.”
“You ungrateful brat!”
Ruan Shuyi raised her hand to slap him again, but he leaned backward and dodged.
“Hey, if you hit me again, that wouldn’t be polite at all.”
What a rebellious son!
Ruan Shuyi’s chest heaved rapidly with rage. Not wanting to keep arguing with this impossible piece of work, she flung down her hand and left.
As for the old madam’s instruction that he come out for a birthday meal—well, now? Forget it. Who cared about the damn meal!
After she left, Xiao Gao finished using the restroom and returned to his post. Pei Cizhou continued copying the text, half his face bearing the mark of a slap.
Normally, they were supposed to visit his maternal grandparents’ home on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year. Since his mother had come over today, it was clearly on the old madam’s orders. He just didn’t know whether he could persuade them to let him go to Cheng Garden alone.
Miss Qiu had never been patient about waiting for him…
Oh no!
Had he forgotten to arrange a time with Miss Qiu?!
—
Although the supplies for Friday’s charity event at the welfare home were being prepared by Butler Lin, and the purchases consisted of high-end medical equipment—even imported products, in fact, with the whole affair practically screaming “money is no object”—the young lady, as the primary participant, couldn’t possibly show up without preparing anything herself.
Besides the cookies baked by the household staff, Jiang Chuling had also bought a huge number of toys and sports equipment for children from three to twelve years old. Altogether, she had spent fifty thousand yuan.
The group arrived at the venue.
This charity event was being handled by the group’s public relations department, and the media presence was far more impressive than last time.
As the head of the charitable foundation, Ge Furen (Mrs. Ge) had been specifically invited to attend. Today, she wanted to put on an act of kindness and compassion, but the children might have been young—they certainly weren’t fools.
Could they really not tell who was sincere and who was merely putting on a show?
When the children at the welfare home saw that Jiang Chuling had truly kept her word, they immediately crowded around her, chattering excitedly about how useful the things she had sent before were and how much everyone loved them.
The media cameras flashed repeatedly as Jiang Chuling had the toys carried inside.
“I told you, I’m a child, and children always keep their promises! I bought all of these with my allowance, and they’re all for you!”
“Wow!”
“There are so many!”
“I want this one!”
The moment the toys arrived, the children erupted in cheers, and the orderly line gradually dissolved into chaos.
