Chapter 28

After warning her son, An Xiang walked up to Pei Yizhou again.

She tried her best to hide her embarrassment, too ashamed even to look up and meet his gaze.

"...He was talking nonsense. Mr. Pei, please don't misunderstand."

An Xiang offered a weak explanation. Her skin beneath the sunlight was as lustrous and delicate as white porcelain.

Pei Yizhou instantly became certain: she was embarrassed.

"Who's this kid? He looks quite a bit like you."

As he spoke, three people approached side by side.

Apart from Xu Chuan, she knew the other two—and knew them well.

An Yanze, and An Ruoming, who was two years younger than him.

Looking at that smiling face drawing nearer, An Xiang's temples throbbed painfully. Her nerves ached, and her face immediately turned pale.

She did not hear what An Ruoming said, nor did she dare look at her cousin again. She grabbed An Zimo, picked him up, and prepared to leave.

"Hey, that..."

An Ruoming had clearly recognized An Xiang, and surprise flashed across his face.

"It's not her," An Yanze reminded him, his gaze landing on An Xiang from afar.

"Mr. Pei, I won't disturb you any longer." An Xiang ignored the An brothers. Wanting to leave as quickly as possible, she unconsciously sped up. "When you're free another day, I'll treat you to dinner." With that, she held An Zimo tighter and hurried out of the riding grounds.

Her figure grew farther and farther away until she completely vanished from sight.

Pei Yizhou could not help feeling disappointed. He was also immensely irritated by the brothers' arrival.

He had never been one to show his emotions, yet impatience was written plainly across his face at that moment.

"Then let's take a break and discuss the cooperation while we're at it." Xu Chuan vaguely sensed that Pei Yizhou was about to lose his temper. He hurried forward and stood between the two groups, smiling as he changed the subject. "Please, go ahead."

"Does President Pei know that woman from earlier?"

That woman...

The form of address made Pei Yizhou's expression turn cold, and his sharp gaze immediately fell on An Ruoming's face.

Completely unaware, An Ruoming continued, "She really does look like our useless little sister. Tsk, Pei Yizhou, you can't possibly have anything to do with that kind of trash, can you?"

In Jiang City, the An Family and the Pei Family were the only remaining pureblood families.

They were all around the same age and had played together as children. An Ruoming considered himself Pei Yizhou's "friend," calling him by name and treating him with little respect.

He had no manners and behaved frivolously. From his appearance to his character, Pei Yizhou found everything about him deeply repulsive.

"I may need to reconsider the cooperation matter," he said softly, lowering his lashes as he leisurely removed his gloves.

The An brothers, along with Xu Chuan, were all stunned.

"You two enjoy yourselves these next few days. Put everything on my tab." Pei Yizhou turned around as he spoke, leaving the three dumbfounded men behind.

Xu Chuan stood there stupidly for several seconds before rushing after him. He grabbed Pei Yizhou by the arm and demanded in a low voice, "Pei Yizhou, what's wrong with you? The contract only needs a signature. Are you just dropping everything now?"

Pei Yizhou did not slow down. He gave a soft scoff. "With that kind of personality, even if we cooperate, he might not take the work seriously. I don't want to throw money at someone like that."

"But we already agreed on this. Besides, An Yanze is mainly responsible for the project. If you do this today, it'll be the company that loses face once word gets out." Xu Chuan's voice cracked with anxiety. "You're acting strange today. Are you sick?" As he spoke, he reached for Pei Yizhou's forehead.

Pei Yizhou frowned and avoided him, swatting away the arm blocking his path. "Annoying."

"Cousin..."

"I have my own plans. Go back and send them away first."

Xu Chuan fell silent.

He also knew that Pei Yizhou had only come on this trip because he had been forced to make an appearance.

Pei Yizhou had disliked the An brothers since childhood. This cooperation between the two families was purely for business interests.

"Then how are you going to explain this to Uncle?"

At the thought of his father, Pei Yizhou's expression worsened.

The Pei Family had once been thriving, but later, some died and some scattered. Other than him and Xu Chuan, Pei Chen and his siblings were the last remaining descendants.

Pei Yizhou's parents had always been carefree by nature. After losing their brothers one after another, they suddenly gained a new perspective on life. Not long after, they abandoned Pei Yizhou, traveled far away, and never returned.

Pei Yizhou had only been thirteen when they left. Besides taking care of himself and managing the entire Pei Family, he had also needed to care for the newly born Pei Chen. He had no room to complain. After all, he was the eldest elder in the family.

Later, when the younger generation died in a plane crash, he had to take care of the twins, Pei Yan and Pei Nuo.

Pei Yizhou was only twenty-nine this year. Among vampires with an average lifespan of three hundred years, he was still practically a baby. It was one thing for his parents never to understand how hard he worked, but this time, they had returned claiming they wanted to cooperate with the An Family when they actually wanted to find him a partner from that family.

They were insane.

Annoying.

"The shares are all in my hands. He has no say in this."

When his parents left, they had transferred all their assets and shares to Pei Yizhou. The two of them were now effectively on their own and truly had little say in anything.

At this point, Xu Chuan could not say much else. He sighed and went to deal with the two brothers.

Pei Yizhou returned home first, took a shower, and changed into a proper outfit. He selected a naturally scented, long-lasting perfume and dabbed it on his wrist. Once he made sure everything was in order, he sent An Xiang a message.

[Would it be convenient to add each other as friends?]

After a while, An Xiang sent him a friend request.

[Mommy Isn't Some Kind of Demon has requested to add you as a friend.]

Pei Yizhou curled his lips. Just as he impatiently wanted to tap accept, his finger abruptly stopped.

No.

Accepting immediately would make him seem too eager. It was not reserved enough.

Girls liked reserved men.

He raised his wrist and timed the passing seconds on his watch. The moment ten minutes passed, he immediately accepted.

[Pei Yizhou: Sorry, I was busy just now and didn't see it.]

After sending it, Pei Yizhou leisurely sat on the sofa and waited for a reply.

One minute passed.

Two minutes passed.

Ten minutes...

The chat screen still contained only that one message.

Pei Yizhou adjusted his sitting posture, his long fingertips tapping endlessly against his knee. As time passed, his patience vanished along with it. His brows gradually furrowed, and checking his phone once a minute slowly became checking it every second.

Was her phone dead?

Pei Yizhou could no longer sit still. Without waiting for An Xiang to invite him, he got up and headed straight for where she was currently staying.

Inside the villa, An Xiang, exhausted in both body and mind, was sleeping soundly in bed.

An Zimo was not asleep. He lay alone on the bed in another room, working on math problems.

They were all Pei Chen's homework for the week, which he had secretly brought over while An Xiang was not paying attention.

High school problems posed no challenge whatsoever to An Zimo.

He held the pen in his left hand and imitated Pei Chen's handwriting perfectly, not even overlooking the smallest details of each stroke.

Of course, An Zimo was not foolish enough to get everything right. He left all the difficult advanced problems blank and occasionally made a few simple mistakes that matched Pei Chen's intelligence. Even if the teacher had eagle eyes, they would not find a single flaw.

An Zimo bit the end of his pencil.

He had had enough of sharing the same space with that woman. He needed to get the money for the house as soon as possible and leave early.

A child's wrist could not endure holding a pen for too long, and it soon became weak and sore.

An Zimo shook his aching wrist. Looking at the indentation on the pad of his thumb, he suddenly fell into a daze.

In his previous life, he had displayed an extraordinary talent for numbers at a very young age.

An Xiang had been the first to notice his difference. She spent a great deal of money hiring famous teachers to teach him how to solve problems. When An Zimo was still very young, he spent ten hours a day at his desk.

Back then, he had been innocent and genuinely loved studying, so he had never complained. That was until his mother forced him to appear on shows and enter all kinds of competitions, making his body spin endlessly like a top.

Numbers no longer brought him happiness. The pen in his hand became a blade that constantly damaged his body.

By the time he died, his fingers had already become deformed from prolonged strain.

An Zimo looked at his short fingers, still chubby with baby fat. He lowered his gaze to hide the resentment in his eyes and continued doing his homework.

He would not forgive her.

Even if An Xiang in this life had not done what she had done in the previous one, he could not bring himself to forgive her when looking at that face. Nor could he let go of the past and get along with her.

As he was lost in thought—

The doorbell rang.

An Zimo swiftly hid the homework notebook among the children's books, carefully zipped up his backpack, and went barefoot to answer the door.

Outside, all he saw at first were the man's long legs.

An Zimo followed those legs upward, and the gazes of one adult and one child collided directly.

"What do you want?" An Zimo had no favorable impression of Pei Yizhou. His two words were cold and rejecting.

"I was passing by, so I came to take a look."

"Then you've seen enough. Can you leave now?"

Pei Yizhou looked inside, but after a long while, he still did not see that figure.

Disappointment filled his heart. Before Pei Yizhou could ask anything, he heard An Zimo say, "She's asleep."

"..." Annoying.

An Zimo grumbled inwardly, Being annoyed won't help you.

Pei Yizhou still did not leave. He lowered his eyes and stared at An Zimo for several seconds, then crouched down halfway. "Your name is An Zimo?"

An Zimo remained expressionless. "Don't talk to me. I don't know you."

Pei Yizhou likewise studied him without expression, still finding it hard to believe that this might be his bloodline.

Not cute at all.

Hearing that inner voice, An Zimo's eyebrow twitched sharply.

What did he mean, might be his bloodline?

What was this man thinking?

"Tell Uncle, how old are you?"

An Zimo narrowed his eyes. A flash of inspiration struck him, and he finally realized that something had changed.

He looked at Pei Yizhou, his clever mind spinning rapidly.

In his previous life, An Zimo had not known who his father was. The same was true in this life.

As for his mother, she never spoke of his father, though he did not care either.

[Maybe.]

[Bloodline.]

Putting those two words together meant only one thing: he might be an illegitimate son this man had fathered without knowing.

An Zimo felt as though he had suddenly understood the truth. Instead of answering, he asked, "Uncle, do you have a girlfriend?"

Pei Yizhou pressed his thin lips together. "You haven't answered my question yet."

Leaning against the door, An Zimo crossed his arms over his chest with an utterly relaxed and arrogant posture. "I'm only asking for An Xiang."

Pei Yizhou froze, countless thoughts turning through his mind.

Asking for An Xiang meant An Xiang wanted to know. Therefore, An Xiang wanted to understand his personal relationship status.

"I've never had a girlfriend," Pei Yizhou answered truthfully. "Nor have I had a boyfriend."

He spoke again. "Can you tell me when your birthday is now?"

An Zimo leaned against the wall without saying a word, turning up the volume as he listened to Pei Yizhou's thoughts.

[Could it be December?]

[Maybe An Xiang gave birth prematurely...]

[No, no. He looks so healthy, so he probably wasn't premature.]

[What if I'm mistaken? It's fine. I don't mind.]

Beneath Pei Yizhou's calm eyes churned a raging sea, and An Zimo heard every last thought perfectly clearly.

An Zimo: No one can defeat me within half a meter. (Raises middle finger.)

**

Two hundred red envelopes. See you tomorrow.

I've got another advance collection here again. I'm starting to struggle over which story to write next.

"An Effeminate Green Tea Guy Wants to Win Me Over"

Gu Mingyin suddenly transmigrated into a famous angst novel. In this novel, the original protagonist had her kidney, eyes, and uterus removed by the male lead. After faking her death, the male lead wept bitterly and begged for her forgiveness, so the original protagonist was deeply moved and forgave him.

When she transmigrated over, the white moonlight supporting female character was pretending to miscarry in order to frame her.

Gu Mingyin stared silently at the female character lying on the ground for two seconds, then kindly reminded her, "Sis, you put your blood pack in the wrong place. What kind of miscarriage bleeds from the belly button?"

Female character: "?"

The cold wind howled. After seeing through the female character's scheme, the male lead drove both of them out of the house.

Just as Gu Mingyin thought she was about to fight the female character to the death, the delicate-looking female character suddenly unbuttoned his clothes in front of her, revealing his abs. He lit a cigarette, his voice hoarse. "If I can't win over the male lead, winning over the female lead seems pretty good too."

Gu Mingyin: "??"

He said, "Follow me, and I'll make you feel good."

Gu Mingyin: "????"

A goofy story about a trash-talking king and a cross-dressing boss fighting each other to the death.