Chapter 41

The living room was especially quiet after lunch. Though the two of them sat on the sofa, neither spoke, each absorbed in their phone. The aunt could not help sighing over how young people communicated these days—gathering together without a word, all with their heads down, playing on their phones.

Though perhaps it was because Su Yu could not speak, so she had to relay everything for him.

[Su Yu: Uncle, you still haven't told me why you came into my livestream last night to send gifts. What do you want?]

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: Didn't I tell you last night?]

[Su Yu: What did you tell me?]

If nothing unexpected happened, he would receive a string of ellipses again.

Ellipses were fine. At least they were better than Lu Chengfei's way of doing things. They did not make his obsessive-compulsive tendencies act up so badly. At the very least, this uncle was a particular sort of person.

Sure enough, the other party sent six dots.

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: Don't stream after nine thirty. You're disturbing me.]

[Su Yu: Then don't click into my stream.]

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: That's my only request.]

Su Yu glanced at Gu Lin beside him and found that he was also on his phone. He wondered why this uncle's tone sounded so much like Gu Lin's. It was not a negotiation at all; it was as if he absolutely had to do what he said.

Could he tolerate that?

Absolutely not.

Even if the man was older, he still could not tolerate it.

[Su Yu: Don't think I won't talk back just because you're old. I'll stream whenever I want. It has nothing to do with you.]

Gu Lin slightly turned his eyes toward him. An omega had never been able to hide his emotions, and Su Yu's little face was already filled with indignation.

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: Are you short of money?]

Gu Lin even began to wonder whether the money he gave Su Yu every month was not enough, which was why he streamed so often.

[Su Yu: I'm not short of money. I just like streaming. Watch if you want.]

At the end, Su Yu even sent a sweating soybean emoji.

Su Yu's attitude was impressively arrogant. Those twelve words left Gu Lin with no desire to increase his allowance.

Aaa Building Materials Wholesale ended the conversation with ellipses, and Su Yu could not be bothered to reply, so he exited the chat. The two put away their phones together and prepared to return to their rooms. When they stood up, they realized their movements had been far too synchronized. Su Yu hesitated and did not move forward, while Gu Lin merely gave him a sidelong glance, his gaze calm and somewhat like he was looking at an idiot.

Su Yu watched him head upstairs in confusion, frowning slightly. He had clearly done nothing. He had only lowered his head to chat for a bit. Why was Gu Lin looking at him like that?

[What the hell? Is he sick?]

Gu Lin: "..." He badmouthed him in his head all day long. Why had he ever had the brainless impulse to raise this omega's allowance?

If he did raise it, then he would be the one who looked sick.

Yun Shang's gathering ended without anything happening. On the way back, Lu Chengfei told him that he had added Yun Shang's mother on WeChat and had also applied for a QQ account for Yun Shang.

"Why didn't Yun Shang tell us his family was so well-off? I thought he really was some unlucky guy from a poor family."

Su Yu, the genuinely unlucky guy from a poor family, replied while peeling grapes. "Can you use your brain? What unlucky kid from a poor family can attend a private school that costs tens of thousands per semester? You're no good at studying, no good at fighting either. You're hopeless."

Lu Chengfei replied, "Can you stop making personal attacks?"

"Seriously, you can't even win an argument. Every other word out of your mouth is 'my fucking.' Your manners are impressive. Even a dog would shake its head after hearing you."

"Yun Shang's dad's stare was kind of scary. It was like he had a grudge against me, especially when I was talking to Yun Shang. He kept staring at me. Is he usually like that?"

Su Yu recalled what his younger uncle was usually like. He was tall, handsome, and kind-looking, with an easygoing personality. He did not look scary at all. His younger aunt was the same—her features were soft and delicate, and she loved to smile, always giving people the impression that she was easy to get along with.

"Don't maliciously speculate about people."

"I'm serious. The way he looked at me was like he wanted to throw me out."

Su Yu imagined it. He truly had never seen his younger uncle look stern. On one hand, he had only met him twice; on the other, the man spoke in a humorous, interesting way. Su Yu popped a grape into his mouth and said indistinctly, "Then you deserve it. Who told you to bully his son?"

There was a stretch of sound from the earpiece, but Lu Chengfei did not speak. A moment later, Su Yu heard Lu Chengfei stammer out, "C-Cousin," clearly not speaking to him.

Cousin?

Had Lu Heyun come to pick him up?

He heard Lu Heyun answer with a detached "Mm." His voice sounded nothing like the gentle way he usually spoke to Su Yu.

Then came the sound of a car door shutting. Lu Chengfei had probably gotten into the car. But that idiot had forgotten to hang up the voice call.

Su Yu was not in the habit of eavesdropping on others. He said, "Lu Chengfei, I'm hanging up first."

Lu Chengfei answered, "Okay," and Su Yu ended the call. Yet the atmosphere on Lu Chengfei's end was unbearably tense. With Lu Heyun sitting there, he felt uncomfortable all over.

"You and him... when did you become so close?"

They could count the number of times they had met on one hand, yet they had grown familiar enough to call each other.

Lu Chengfei thought that he and Su Yu were not really close. It was mainly because both of them were naturally outgoing. Put them together, as long as they had no grudge against each other, they could keep chatting back and forth. But what did his cousin mean by that? Could he be jealous?

"No, we're not close."

Lu Chengfei hurriedly distanced himself from Su Yu. He told Lu Heyun about running into Yun Shang's parents on Friday and being invited to dinner with them. He also said that Su Yu had only chatted with him to keep an eye on him and prevent him from causing trouble.

That was indeed the truth.

Su Yu only chatted with him to stop him from causing trouble. Usually, he would never seek him out for no reason.

Lu Heyun lowered his eyes thoughtfully. Before Lu Chengfei got into the car, the message he had sent Su Yu had still gone unanswered.

The car slowly started moving. Lu Chengfei glanced at Lu Heyun and asked, "Cousin, have you not been busy lately?"

How did he have time to come pick him up? And last time, he had even acted as his guardian.

"Your mother asked me to pick you up for dinner. She's back."

Lu Chengfei grumbled inwardly, Why didn't she come herself? Being alone with Lu Heyun was simply suffocating.

He felt like he was sitting on pins and needles.

Lu Chengfei's mother had no time to manage him. Whenever anything came up, she usually handed it off to someone else. His father was the same, always busy. Lu Heyun's mother and Lu Chengfei's mother had been close friends. After his mother passed away, Lu Chengfei's mother had always helped take care of him, so Lu Heyun never refused whenever she needed help.

He had only acted as Lu Chengfei's guardian that day because Lu Chengfei's mother happened to be unavailable. He just had not expected to run into Su Yu as well.

It was only after the car had been driving for a while that Su Yu replied to his message, saying that he had not seen it earlier.

Lu Heyun replied that it was fine. They exchanged two or three sentences, ran out of things to say, and temporarily ended their chat.

*

After nine thirty, Su Yu was still livestreaming. Gu Lin did not understand why his mind was so active at this hour. He could hum a song in his head while responding to comments on the livestream.

Humming was not the problem. The problem was that he hummed terribly.

No, incredibly terribly.

He had never heard anyone hum a tune so badly in his life. Every note flew wildly off-key; not a single one was accurate. For him, this was perhaps mental torture.

Gu Lin, who was in the study and desperately craving peace and quiet, put down his pen and picked up his phone to message Su Yu.

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: End the stream. It's too noisy.]

The other party did not reply. Maybe he was busy playing a game. Su Yu hummed intermittently, making a great deal of noise.

Gu Lin entered his livestream. The moment he went in, comments began flooding the screen with "The top donor is here," making it difficult not to draw attention. But this time, he did not send any gifts. Instead, he told Su Yu on the public chat to end the stream.

[The top donor actually spoke.]

[He actually spoke.]

[This guy has been sending gifts in the stream for so many days without saying a word, and the first thing he says today is telling the streamer to end the stream.]

Gu Lin's message was quickly pushed upward by the flood of comments. He heard Su Yu say, "What did he say? I didn't even see it."

Gu Lin told him to check WeChat.

A moment later, Su Yu gave an "Oh." "You're telling me to end the stream? I won't. I'm streaming until eleven tonight."

Though that was unlikely. If he streamed past eleven, Gu Lin would go over and shut down his computer.

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: I'll send you gifts. End the stream.]

At that point, money was no longer so important.

[Su Yu: I already told you, I don't need your little bit of money.]

Gu Lin stared expressionlessly at the screen, lost in thought. Before long, the other party began humming again.

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: I'll take you into business. Don't stream at night in the future. It's too noisy.]

[Su Yu: How do I know whether you're trying to scam me? I barely have any assets to my name.]

Gu Lin: "..." Most of his assets had been given to him by Gu Lin.

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: I'm not interested in your assets.]

[Su Yu: Not interested.]

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: Restaurant.]

Su Yu immediately replied with three heart-eyes emojis and asked: Uncle, uncle, uncle, if I join you, will my meals be free? You don't seem short of money either. If we make money, it's mine; if we lose money, it's yours.

For a moment, Gu Lin could not tell whether he was joking or serious. If anyone else had made such a proposal, Gu Lin would have coldly told them to get lost. What businessman wanted to make a losing deal?

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: Fine.]

That was fine too?

How rich was he?

Su Yu was quite shocked when he saw those two words. He had only said that casually.

Right after that, the other party asked what day he had time to come out and sign a contract. This uncle was too straightforward—so straightforward that Su Yu felt he was a scammer with extremely impure motives.

Su Yu asked from the bottom of his heart: When we meet, you're not going to harvest my kidney, are you?

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: ...]

[Su Yu: I know pies don't fall from the sky, and even if they did, they wouldn't land on me. Uncle, if you've got nothing to do, go dance in the square with the old men and ladies in your neighborhood. Stop making empty promises to people online.]

[Su Yu: Oh, right, Uncle, are you married? Want me to introduce you to someone? One of my bosses has a matchmaking agency. I know him well, so I can introduce you two.]

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: ...You choose the time and place. Travel and meal expenses will be reimbursed.]

Su Yu readily agreed.

[Su Yu: Honestly, Uncle, you should've said so earlier. Even if the business doesn't work out, we can still be friends.]

That was right.

Even if the business did not work out, they could still go out for a meal.

The food at home was delicious, but Su Yu thought food paid for with money tasted even better. Most importantly, it would not be his money being spent.

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: End the stream.]

[Su Yu: Sure.]

In high spirits, Su Yu bid farewell to his viewers. "Ending the stream, ending the stream. That's it for work today."