Chapter Thirty-Six

Dong Qi's route after running away from home was quite something. The spending records on the card in his hand showed that on the night he left, he'd gone to a five-star hotel ten minutes from home and charged a room that cost five thousand yuan a night.

The next morning, he'd gone to a nearby mall and bought four pairs of shoes for ten thousand yuan, plus a new game console for three thousand.

Dong Zhenghao had initially felt a little guilty for pushing his son to run away from home, but now the only thought in his mind was that the little brat just needed a good beating. Once they found him, he'd have to beat him twice.

Jiang Li looked at the spending records and found it hard to claim that her son had been suffering.

Especially when she got home and discovered that he'd taken his game console with him, too. It was the latest model released this year, and it was nowhere near due for an upgrade.

So the new console he'd bought was actually for Zhang Yang, the friend who'd run away with him.

"Tell me, how exactly did you raise our child? You raised him all these years just to spite me. I'd have been better off raising a barbecued pork bun!" Dong Zhenghao shouted at Jiang Li.

Jiang Li was annoyed, too. "Qiqi was raised by his grandma from the time he was little. When did I ever get a chance to raise him?"

Even if she'd wanted to raise him, she would've needed the opportunity.

"You can argue all you want, but what did the barbecued pork bun ever do wrong?" Liu Mumu said, walking between them with a bag of pan-fried buns.

Dong Yue followed behind her, a half-eaten bun still stuffed in her mouth. Jiang Li glanced at her daughter but said nothing.

In the past, if she'd seen her daughter being so ill-mannered, she would've scolded her right away. Now she'd actually gotten used to it.

That was the frightening thing about getting used to things. Liu Mumu had been in the house for less than half a year. How had she managed to turn the whole family into this?

Even Old Dong had started beating his son with a rolling pin. In all the previous years, he'd been just like his mother, believing that whatever his son did was right.

Dong Yue handed her paper bag of pan-fried buns to Jiang Li. She hadn't eaten all morning, having gone to check the security cameras and then intervened in the "domestic violence" next door. On top of that, her husband had accused her of not knowing how to raise a child. She was really hungry. She eyed the bag of buns for a long time as if inspecting a bomb, then finally picked one up with a look of distaste and started eating.

They were actually pretty good.

Dong Zhenghao had been about to start another argument, but his mood soured when he saw his wife and daughter sharing a bag. He could only edge closer to his eldest daughter, hoping to trade on their father-daughter bond for a couple of buns.

For the time being, the whole family was too busy eating to remember that Dong Qi had run away from home.

"Dong Qi, where are we going now? Are we staying at a hotel again?" Zhang Yang asked curiously from the taxi, holding the game console Dong Qi had given him and wearing the new shoes Dong Qi had bought for him.

Zhang Yang had grown up in circumstances very much like Dong Qi's. Both had been raised by their families' elders and spoiled rotten.

The difference was that Dong Zhenghao's current wife was Dong Qi's biological mother. But Zhang Yang's father's wife wasn't his biological mother.

His mother had been pregnant with her second child a few years earlier when she had an accident at home and fell. By the time they got her to the hospital, she was gone.

Just over two months later, his father brought his stepmother home. So Zhang Yang's personality was a little different from Dong Qi's, and he had very little pocket money.

Before this, Dong Qi hadn't been particularly close to him. They'd only become friends by running away from home together.

"We're not staying at a hotel. We'll go to my maternal grandparents' place for lunch. My dad will come get me this afternoon anyway."

He figured his parents would definitely come to his maternal grandparents' place to get him within two hours. His mother would surely cry and apologize, and there was no need for his father to apologize. He just had to buy him the sports car.

He'd already told his classmates at school that his dad would definitely buy him a sports car this year. How could his dad go back on his word?

Zhang Yang looked at him enviously. "Must be nice. My dad's still away on a business trip, and my grandma definitely won't let him come back."

"What about your stepmother?" Dong Qi asked curiously.

Zhang Yang immediately looked disgusted. "Don't mention her. She's a homewrecker. She doesn't get to interfere in my business."

He'd already told his dad he didn't want to live with that woman, but his dad wouldn't listen. This time, even if his dad refused, his grandparents would kick her out.

Then he asked Dong Qi, "Aren't your parents pretty good to you? Why did you leave?"

Dong Qi thought of Liu Mumu and made the same face as Zhang Yang, but after hesitating, he didn't say anything. He answered vaguely, "I did badly on an exam and argued with my family."

Zhang Yang went to the same school as him, though they were in different classes. He knew what kind of student Dong Qi was, and looked at him with sympathy.

When the two of them arrived at Jiang Li's parents' home, the elderly couple had just gotten dressed and seemed about to head out.

Seeing Dong Qi arrive with another boy, Jiang's mother hurried to usher them inside, asking repeatedly, "Qiqi, what are you doing here? Where's your mother?"

Dong Qi threw himself into his grandmother's arms and said miserably, "My dad beat me because my grades were bad. I don't want to live at home anymore. The whole family listens to that Liu Mumu now, and my dad takes her side, too."

Hearing this from her grandson, Jiang's mother's expression immediately darkened. "I knew Xiao Dong's child from before wasn't any good. She even tried to drive a wedge between Jiang Li and our Jiajia before."

"You're right," Jiang's father replied casually. He glanced at his watch and urged her, "We've only got twenty minutes. We have to hurry or we'll be late."

As if reminded, Jiang's mother pushed her grandson away and said, "You and your friend stay here for a while. Your grandpa and I have to go out. We'll be back at noon."

Dong Qi hurriedly asked, "Where are you going?"

It would be bad if they left. If his dad came looking for him now, there'd be nobody to back him up.

"Just to buy something," Jiang's father answered vaguely.

"Then we'll come, too," Dong Qi said quickly.

Zhang Yang didn't want to go, but this was Dong Qi's maternal grandparents' home, so he didn't feel he could say anything.

So Jiang's parents took the two boys, both in their teens, along to the place where they were going to buy something.

It was a shabby old apartment building. As soon as they reached the second floor, they saw a sheet of paper on the mottled wall, with "Shuanglin Health Products Company" scrawled on it in crooked letters.

His maternal grandparents had come to attend a lecture.

There were already more than thirty people in the "classroom," all elderly and around the same age. They sat quietly on wooden stools, eagerly waiting for the "professor" to begin.

Dong Qi's maternal grandparents had clearly been attending for a while; seats had already been assigned to them.

As soon as they entered the classroom, the first thing they did was turn off their phones and place them on the table, as if waiting to have them checked.

But since they'd brought two kids today, someone dragged two more stools over from the back. Once they sat down, Jiang's mother said quietly, "When the professor starts lecturing, you mustn't make a sound. Understand?"

Dong Qi was already thinking about calling the police. Unfortunately, he'd forgotten to bring his charger when he left home. His phone was at three percent, and it automatically shut down before he could even dial 110.

Zhang Yang was even worse off. He hadn't brought his phone at all.

He'd even left the house wearing nothing but slippers. Dong Qi didn't even want to look down on him; they were clearly on completely different levels intellectually.

Without a phone, Dong Qi could only sit still and wait for the so-called professor to start.

Not long afterward, a man in his thirties walked up to the lectern. He wore an ill-fitting suit and had his hair parted down the middle. He looked more or less respectable.

At first, he seemed a little nervous and stumbled over his words as he talked about their products. Finally, he took out a black pill.

Even though he hadn't gone to college, Dong Qi knew that real professors didn't act like this. This professor was almost certainly self-appointed.

And the man was talking complete nonsense. He claimed the pill could cure not only cancer, but also rheumatism, heart disease, pneumonia—in fact, there wasn't a single illness it couldn't cure.

Zhang Yang was listening so blankly that he was about to fall asleep, but Dong Qi had already rolled his eyes so far they nearly vanished. Come on, even if you were going to scam people, shouldn't you at least put some effort into it?

His maternal grandparents were pretty shrewd. How had they been taken in?

No one else knew what Dong Qi was thinking, but the "students" sitting in front were clearly waiting for this part.

The professor first brought out three boxes of pills and announced that he would sell only three boxes that day.

Then Dong Qi witnessed a frenzied auction.

Each box contained ten pills, and the starting price for a single pill was one thousand yuan.

What made him even more distraught was that his grandfather actually spent twenty thousand yuan on a box. He happily took the pills back to his seat, while his classmates looked at him with envy and jealousy.

The other two boxes were also auctioned off for about the same price. The other students immediately started complaining, so the professor reluctantly brought out three more boxes.

In short, an hour later, when class let out for a break, almost everyone had gotten the miracle medicine they wanted.

Dong Qi was numb. He felt he'd been terribly ignorant.

During the break, everyone was allowed to stroll around the second-floor hallway. Dong Qi needed to pee, so he told his grandfather and went out to find a restroom.

He searched the second floor without finding one, and finally went up to the third floor.

An Iron pull door had been installed at the entrance to the third floor. It was open now, and this floor seemed to belong to the health products company, probably serving as its offices or something. He saw a restroom sign at the end of the hallway and was about to head toward it when he heard someone talking in an office with its door partly open.

There were two men's voices, one of them belonging to the professor.

The professor said, "Brother, we made a fortune. More than four hundred thousand in one day. Why bother refining gu anymore? We should just leave the gu inside them. Once they've seen what the pills can do, they'll keep sending us money!"

The other man, a stranger, said, "You don't know a damn thing. Once we've refined the Longevity Gu, we'll have as much money as we want. Why settle for this petty cash?"

The professor seemed to disagree with him and argued, "We've had that thing for so many years, and it still hasn't worked. You keep telling me our family's connected to a powerful clan, but I still haven't seen any benefits. Aren't we still running errands for them everywhere?"

A sharp slap came from inside. The professor must have been hit. The stranger's voice turned cold. "Don't forget who brought you back, fed and clothed you, and taught you your skills. Otherwise, you'd be a con artist sitting in prison!"

Dong Qi didn't dare listen any longer. He covered his mouth and silently retreated to the second floor.

He didn't notice that as he left, his clothes brushed against the Iron pull door and picked up a layer of red rust. Once the rust got onto his clothes, it gradually seeped inside and soon disappeared without a trace.

As he went downstairs, his heart pounded wildly. He wanted to tell his maternal grandparents what he'd heard, but all their attention was on the pills, and they wouldn't listen to him at all.

Five minutes later, a man came downstairs. He looked a little like the professor, but was older. With great regret, he informed everyone that the professor had to attend a meeting, so the lecture had to end early. They'd be notified in the group when the next class was scheduled.

Everyone looked disappointed, but still left in small groups.

At last they'd gotten away from that awful place. Once they were in the car, Dong Qi grabbed his grandmother's hand and rapidly told them everything the professor and the other man had said.

Then, unsurprisingly, he got three looks of utter disbelief from his grandpa, his grandma, and Zhang Yang.

Zhang Yang even laughed at him. "Ha ha, Dong Qi, were you half-asleep or something? Or did you read too many novels last night? What gu?"

Not only did Zhang Yang not believe him, his maternal grandparents didn't either. Dong Qi was furious.

That Liu Mumu in his house was always going on about fortune-telling, and his dad practically wanted to worship her and burn incense for her. So why couldn't there be gu?

But no one listened. Jiang's parents would rather believe there was such a thing as miracle medicine than listen to him.