As Huo Cixiao listened to his bargain wife's voice, he sensed an indescribable sadness. Had his biological parents bullied him? Poor thing.
And why was he talking like that? It made Huo Cixiao feel strange inside. Hey, could he act normal?
Luo Beishi picked up the book and started making up another outrageous version of a story for Huo Cixiao. Of course, Luo Beishi himself had to be among the main characters.
Occasionally, his vegetative husband, Huo Cixiao, would make a guest appearance too.
Tonight, for instance, he played Sleeping Beauty.
"Princess... I'm going to kiss you now." Luo Beishi drew closer, leering, his voice perverted and sleazy.
Huo Cixiao: "!!!" Stay away! I take back what I said about you being pitiful tonight! Aaaaaah!!
Luo Beishi had no idea he had scared his vegetative husband half to death.
He stopped five centimeters above Huo Cixiao's lips, then clutched his stomach and rolled to the other side of the bed, laughing. "Hahahaha, hubby, your part is over."
Judging by the sounds, he probably hadn't kissed him. Huo Cixiao's heart finally settled. For the first time, he realized how terrifying it was to have no control over his surroundings.
His bargain wife coveted him... Whenever he heard his bargain wife's slightly strained panting as he massaged him each night, he couldn't suppress the urge to dig a hole and leave this world.
There were still many days ahead. Surely his bargain wife wouldn't make a move on him, a man in a vegetative state?
His bargain wife, Luo Beishi, grew sleepier as he laughed. He mumbled a groggy good night to him and fell asleep.
The Qin Family villa.
Mother Qin saw that the message she had sent had been rejected. Only when she called did she discover that she had been blocked.
"Honey, what should we do? Xiaoshi has even blocked my number, and he won't see me." Mother Qin's voice grew quieter as she spoke. She knew she had slapped him when he bullied Luo Bai.
But afterward, she had never found a chance to apologize.
Whenever she wanted to talk to Luo Beishi, Luo Bai would either have an asthma attack or suddenly faint...
As a result, she had always prioritized looking after Luo Bai back then, completely neglecting Luo Beishi, her biological son.
But after raising Luo Bai for fifteen years, she couldn't let go of the effort and love she had poured into him either.
"What can we do? He's ignoring you. Are you still going to go crawling after him?" Father Qin's voice was deep and gruff. He was unusually ill-tempered and impatient that day.
Nor would he go talk to this son with whom he had shared no emotional bond for twenty years and beg him to come back.
Father Qin said no more and returned to his study.
Mother Qin stared blankly at her phone for two seconds, then turned to Qin Feiyu. "Third, could you go to your youngest brother's school tomorrow and ask him to meet Mom?"
Qin Feiyu liked making snide remarks. "Which brother?"
Mother Qin sighed. "Luo Beishi. Your biological brother."
Ever since learning about the forum incident and the 150 yuan incident, Qin Feiyu had been even more displeased with Luo Bai.
He had been young before and never held things against Luo Bai. His mother always focused her attention on Luo Bai. Even when they both had parent-teacher meetings, she always attended Luo Bai's, offering Qin Feiyu only a few perfunctory words of comfort and sending the housekeeper to his.
She even told him that his younger brother was in poor health and he should be more accommodating.
He knew Luo Bai was in poor health too, so he had done everything he could as an older brother, giving him all the good things. Even his own birthday presents, if Luo Bai wanted them, he would hand them over without hesitation.
Now, thinking back to Luo Bai's words on the forum that twisted right and wrong, he really had been a stupid dog.
"Would you, Feiyu? It might not be a good idea for Mom to go... It would be more suitable for you to see him. You're both in college, and your schools are close."
Hearing his mother plead with him in a quiet voice for the first time, Qin Feiyu felt unsettled. After a brief hesitation, he finally nodded. "All right. I'll give it a try."
The next day.
Luo Beishi rose early too. He wore a comfortable khaki sweater and a necklace. He simply smoothed back his silver-white hair with a slight part, exposing his clear forehead.
His brows and eyes tilted slightly upward, giving him what people called a world-weary face. He looked like a villain capable of every evil.
Luo Beishi was actually rather proud of that. What was so great about being the protagonist? Wasn't being the villain more fun?
When it's nearly nine, I'll have the system send the holes in the Luo Family's finances to the tax inspection bureau.
Luo Beishi curled his lips at his reflection, then left the bathroom.
After getting Huo Cixiao cleaned up and ready, Luo Beishi hurried through breakfast and returned to school.
He had a computer class that day. In the computer lab, they listened to the instructor explain how to use financial software. The last two periods were a practical exam.
Even without listening to the lecture, Luo Beishi could complete the questions quickly. He submitted his work after just ten minutes or so.
The female instructor at the podium, her hair in a low bun, saw Luo Beishi stand and assumed he had a question. Instead, he said, "Professor, I've finished the exam. May I leave early?"
Luo Beishi spoke quite loudly, and the students around him all looked over.
Over the past two days, they had learned about both the 150 yuan incident and his net worth of hundreds of billions, so... the gap between them had suddenly become so enormous that they no longer seemed qualified to judge anything he did...
People were strange that way. Once someone had money.
The people around him would change their attitude toward him.
Some of the girls glanced at Luo Beishi's handsome, expressive face and shyly lowered their heads. They began to regret what they had said about him before. Now, they didn't even have a chance to curry favor with him.
The instructor for this specialized course was a relatively young female professor. She slowly nodded her permission, and Luo Beishi shut down his computer and left.
Though inwardly surprised, the professor didn't show it. Working that quickly-even she would probably need half an hour, wouldn't she?
She had also seen the news online over the past two days and actually felt a great deal of sympathy for this student. But now that he was a wealthy man worth hundreds of billions, she wasn't qualified to worry about him either.
In the past, she had often heard certain students saying things about Luo Beishi, but had never heard a single rebuttal from him...
He must have been very disappointed in his classmates, which was why he had always walked around campus alone.
The professor, Wen Ping, logged into the system to check Luo Beishi's scores. She worried that he had been so upset that he had submitted his work carelessly and left. Who would have thought the two scores of 100 that appeared next would practically blind her...
Since when had Luo Beishi become this good?
Before, he had taken forty minutes to score ninety. Now, in just over ten minutes, he could score a hundred-and on two practical tasks.
Was this what a student worth hundreds of billions was like? Wen Ping was now embarrassed even to recall how she had just felt sorry for Student Luo.
By comparison, people like them, paying their mortgages every month, were the more pitiful ones...
Luo Beishi, who should have left at noon, reached the parking lot at 10:20 and arrived home before eleven.
Huo Cixiao hadn't expected his bargain wife to skip class just to come back and keep him company. For a moment, he was filled with mixed feelings. No one had ever wanted to stay with him every moment like this...