Skinny Dog

Seeing Xu Laoba like that, Cao Xiaochun suddenly felt his molars ache. What the hell kind of people had he made friends with?

This was the eighth floor!

Suppressing his anger, he reached out and hauled Xu Laoba up.

No wonder Xu Laoba had been coming over so often lately. At first, Cao Xiaochun had thought he might be interested in his profession. Who knew his real intentions lay elsewhere!

"Do you know that if you pulled something like this in ancient times, Xu Song would beat you to death, and you'd go down in history with eternal infamy?"

Cao Xiaochun's eye twitched, clearly exasperated by his inability to improve.

"No, you can't blame me for this. I didn't want it either! I came over to hang out with you, but somehow I went through the wrong door. It was all a misunderstanding!"

Xu Laoba's eyes darted about. Clearly, even he probably did not believe that excuse.

"And you ended up looking like this?" Cao Xiaochun scoffed, utterly helpless as he looked at Xu Laoba's bedraggled state.

"I'd just walked in when that girl poured me a glass of water, but she accidentally spilled it on me. That's normal, right?"

"I wanted to dry my clothes, so I took them off. Then her boyfriend came knocking and came home. That was just a coincidence, right?"

"To protect the feelings of that young couple and avoid any misunderstanding, I climbed out the window to escape. Wasn't I thinking of them?"

Xu Laoba widened his eyes and spoke with righteous conviction, as though everything he had done had been an unavoidable sacrifice.

Cao Xiaochun rubbed his brow and let out a heavy sigh. He had heard this nearly identical excuse countless times over the years. By now, he genuinely found it strange that no one had beaten this menace to death already.

"Enough. Sooner or later, someone's going to beat you to death. Stay here and don't move. I'll find you some clothes."

"Why?"

Xu Laoba looked puzzled at Cao Xiaochun's words. They were both men—what was wrong with him being like this?

"Just stay put when I tell you to. Why are you asking so many pointless questions?"

Naturally, Cao Xiaochun could not let Xu Laoba go out like this. If he had been home alone, it would not have mattered, but Li Hanyi was outside.

He turned and went back into the room, casually found some clothes, and irritably tossed them to Xu Laoba. When the two came out, Xu Laoba was instantly dumbfounded.

Li Hanyi was holding a cup and sipping tea in small mouthfuls, but the way she looked at Xu Laoba seemed rather off.

"There's someone else in this house?"

Xu Laoba panicked. He had not expected to see Li Hanyi here, and judging by how naturally familiar she looked, he would bet this was far from her first time visiting.

"You're that skinny mutt?"

Li Hanyi raised a brow and said blandly as she looked at Xu Laoba.

Though she had not seen him in his embarrassing state, she had heard every word of the conversation between the two on the balcony. Li Hanyi had no interest in such matters, but she had heard enough about them growing up.

So the moment she saw Xu Laoba, "skinny mutt" slipped right out of her mouth.

Heaven knew Li Hanyi had no idea what the phrase meant, but given Xu Laoba's rib-thin frame, it clearly suited him perfectly.

Xu Laoba froze, and then his face visibly turned scarlet. He was completely mortified. Had the two of them heard what he said earlier?

"Hahahaha! Sorry, skinny mutt, but this building's soundproofing is really terrible."

Cao Xiaochun burst out laughing on the spot and patted Xu Laoba on the shoulder, seeming to imply something more.

"Fuck off, I'm a real man, okay?!"

Xu Laoba glared and instantly puffed out his chest, as though trying to prove the truth of his words!

But it had absolutely no effect. After all, this was something someone had personally verified.

"Cao Xiaochun, you bastard! How could you do this to Shui Yunji? As your brother, I advise you to watch yourself!"

Seeing that his words and actions had accomplished nothing, the humiliated Xu Laoba began lashing out wildly. In his eyes, Cao Xiaochun already had such a beautiful and formidable fiancée, yet he was still flirting with Li Hanyi.

From the looks of it, they were even living together now!

While Xu Laoba was furious, he was also deeply envious. This was Li Hanyi—the universally acknowledged school beauty of their class. Who knew what kind of love potion his brother had fed her?

Did that not mean Cao Xiaochun had swept up the school beauties of two generations at Third High School in one net?

As a righteous man, he had to strongly condemn such behavior!

"Tsk. I wonder what Han Mengmeng would think if she found out about your performance today?"

Cao Xiaochun smiled at Xu Laoba's words, then folded his arms and replied indifferently. The way Xu Laoba talked made it sound like nobody had a fiancée these days.

Besides, the matter concerning him was entirely fabricated, while Xu Laoba had been caught red-handed and branded with it.

Cao Xiaochun had a vivid memory of the name Han Mengmeng. That girl was full of martial spirit; even he had taken plenty of beatings from her as a child. What could they do when she was two years older than them?

Like himself, Han Mengmeng and the skinny mutt before him had been betrothed since childhood.

But unlike him, those two childhood friends had actually fallen for each other, and Xu Laoba had accepted that heaven-sent marriage during his agonizing teenage years.

Sure enough, upon hearing Han Mengmeng's name, Xu Laoba's expression stiffened, and the image of a tall, purple-clad girl appeared in his mind.

"Don't slander my innocence out of thin air!"

Even if today's incident was exposed, that guy would not be able to beat him to death on the spot. But if Han Mengmeng found out, he was afraid he would not even get to remain a skinny mutt in the future!

"Hmph, hmph..."

"Brother, you're my real brother. Your little brother Xu is kneeling before you."

In an instant, Xu Laoba grabbed Cao Xiaochun's hand and said with an awful expression.

"Get lost, get lost, get lost!"

Hearing Xu Laoba's utterly shameless words, Cao Xiaochun felt utterly helpless.

"Alright then, Big Bro, Second Sister-in-law, I'll be off."

Having received an affirmative answer, Xu Laoba abruptly released Cao Xiaochun's arm, hurried to the door, casually tossed out a remark, then shut the door and left!

However, that careless remark made Li Hanyi freeze with her cup in hand. She raised her head in disbelief, clearly unable to believe her own ears!

"Second Sister-in-law? Did that bastard take the wrong medicine?"

Their gazes met. Looking at Cao Xiaochun's refined face, Li Hanyi inexplicably recalled the somewhat ambiguous scene between them in the Dark Forest.

At the thought of it, Li Hanyi's heart began pounding like a startled deer.

Cao Xiaochun, sitting opposite her, also looked rather awkward. Xu Laoba was born with a rebellious streak—could he just casually say something like that?

"Well, you know Laoba has always been loose-lipped. He loves spouting nonsense, so don't take it too seriously."

Cao Xiaochun rubbed his nose. Li Hanyi had kindly brought this strange dungeon instance to share with him; if Xu Laoba ruined things with a single sentence, that would be more trouble than it was worth.

Besides, if such a thing got out, it would be bad for Li Hanyi as a girl, and it wouldn't do him any good either. Thus, he tried to explain things for Xu Laoba.

"It's fine. I don't mind."

Hearing Cao Xiaochun's words, Li Hanyi instantly came back to her senses and subconsciously took a sip of water. However, her slightly trembling voice gave away her current state.

"Alright, it's getting late. I should head back too. We'll meet in the outskirts three days from now."

Unable to think of anything else to say, Li Hanyi drained the tea in her cup in one gulp. She then stood up somewhat flusteredly, hurriedly said her goodbyes, and quickly left.

Watching Li Hanyi's retreating figure, Cao Xiaochun could not help but sigh. What kind of things had he been running into lately?

Meanwhile, Hong Jianjun sat on a luxurious sofa beside his father, looking at the extremely excited man in a suit across from them with disdain.

After the sexy little secretary brought over a contract, Hong Tao signed it with a few swift strokes without even looking at it. The person in charge across from him excitedly extended his hand and said enthusiastically.

"Thank you, Boss Hong, for your support of Imperial Capital Academy. Rest assured, when the building is completed, you must attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony!"

"You're too polite!"

Hong Tao waved a hand indifferently, indicating that it was only a trivial matter.

After the person in charge left, Hong Jianjun turned to look at his father in confusion, his face full of incomprehension.

"Dad, I got into Imperial Capital Academy on my own. There was no need for all this today. Do you really have so much money at home that you don't know where to spend it?"

If he had been eliminated by Imperial Capital Academy in today's test, then he could still understand why Hong Tao had done all this. But what the hell was this now?

"What the hell do you know? You just got lucky and barely passed. Don't show off in front of me."

"The Imperial Capital isn't H City. I can't stay by your side all the time, and you're a chef. What if people bully you after you get there?"

"I'm doing this as an early investment for you. It's all business!"

"Get lost, get lost, get lost! Just seeing you annoys me, you little wastrel!"