Cousin Kneels: Brother, Please Spare Me

Early the next morning, the Tomson Riviera sales office called Lu Yuan. "Chairman Lu! The paper agreement for the transfer of your equity ownership is ready. When would you have time to come sign it?"

"I'll head over now. I'll be there soon!"

A few minutes later, Lu Yuan went to the Tomson Riviera sales office.

Outside the sales office stood two rows of young, beautiful women holding two banners, each bearing large characters: Welcome, Chairman.

"Greetings, Chairman!" the two rows called out in perfect unison.

A mother and daughter who had come to the office stared at the scene in shock. They exchanged a glance. "Lu Yuan is actually the chairman of Tomson Riviera?"

His aunt remembered the bad blood between her and Lu Yuan. Now, she had no choice but to lower her head. "Lu Yuan, my dear nephew, so you're the mysterious tycoon who bought Tomson Riviera? Wonderful! This is really so convenient!"

"Nephew, your cousin got into high school, and it happens to be quite close to Tomson Riviera. We're family, after all. Could you make an exception and rent us an apartment cheaply?" His aunt had none of her usual arrogance and smugness, only a humble, pleading manner.

Lu Yuan was surprised too. He hadn't expected to run into this disgusting mother and daughter here.

Zhang Jiaojiao's home was at least four or five hours away from the high school she had gotten into. If she lived at Tomson Riviera, she could walk to school in ten minutes. It was extremely convenient.

Lu Yuan sat in an office chair, his face cold and distant. "Tomson Riviera has no spare apartments to rent to you. Go try another residential complex!"

Tomson Riviera had no shortage of apartments at the moment; Lu Yuan simply didn't want to rent one to them.

Over the years, his aunt's family had claimed to pity his family, sending them expired food or rotten melons and peaches that even dogs wouldn't eat. When they lent his parents money, they charged interest higher than a bank's...

Whenever anything happened to him, they blew it wildly out of proportion, saying he was a bad influence on himself and fooled around all day, using it as an excuse to mock and humiliate Lu Yuan in every possible way.

After everything this mother and daughter had done, they still wanted to rent an apartment from him, Lu Yuan?

Heh, they could dream on!

His aunt looked embarrassed, but plastered a smile on her face. "Lu Yuan, I checked before we came. Only three households have moved in. All the others are empty..."

Lu Yuan folded his arms and said coldly, "I know. I just don't want to rent to you, that's all."

"Why are you holding such a grudge, child? I'll apologize. Won't an apology do?"

Lu Yuan sneered. "Your family bullied mine for so long, and you think a casual apology will get me to rent you an apartment? Auntie, aren't you being a little naively self-righteous?"

"Mom, don't be such a pushover. You're his elder, so why should you apologize to a useless junior like him? What the hell is he? Tomson Riviera isn't the only place with school district housing. It's not like we can't rent somewhere else!" Zhang Jiaojiao immediately objected when she saw her mother was about to apologize.

She had always been the pride of her generation, a favored daughter of heaven, while Lu Yuan was the useless failure everyone talked about. How could she let her mother bow her head to a good-for-nothing beneath her?

So what if Lu Yuan was the chairman of Tomson Riviera? With her grades, getting into Tsinghua University or Peking University wouldn't be hard. As long as she chose a teacher-training major at Tsinghua University or Peking University, those credentials would get her a teaching job at a prestigious school.

With a year's worth of gifts, and by getting into a tycoon's bed, her achievements in life would be ones Lu Yuan, the chairman of a lousy Tomson Riviera, was destined never to catch up to. That was what she thought to herself.

Hearing this, his aunt slapped her thigh. "That's right! Tomson Riviera isn't the only place with school district housing. Fine, let's go look somewhere else! Who cares about living in your lousy Tomson Riviera? I wouldn't live there even if you gave it to me for free!"

Lu Yuan found it rather funny. He said to the two of them, "Suit yourselves. Just don't come back begging me later."

"Beg you? You're so ordinary yet so confident. Dream on!" Zhang Jiaojiao shot back.

The mother and daughter turned and left in a huff.

Lu Yuan said nothing. He casually opened a group chat called the Magic City School District Housing General Group.

Lu Yuan typed a message and sent it:

"A mother and daughter will be coming to you shortly to rent an apartment. The daughter is named Zhang Jiaojiao. She's fifteen, 1.65 meters tall, and just got into high school. Her mother is named Zhao Fengxia, and her phone number is 155... ending in 2761."

"None of you are to rent an apartment to either of them, or you can wait to get fired!"

The group members were all the current general managers of school district housing in Magic City. When they saw the new chairman's order, they all came forward to post matching replies.

"Splendid Academy Residential Complex received!"

"Hanlin Academy Residential Complex received!"

"Scholarly Household Residential Complex received!"

Thanks to Lu Yuan's arrangements, renting an apartment became difficult for Zhang Jiaojiao and her mother.

A sales manager at one residential complex said, "Sorry, ma'am, the apartments in our complex are only for sale, not for rent!"

"We don't have any vacant apartments at Scholarly Household. Please try somewhere else!"

The two went to several places in succession, but still failed to rent an apartment.

His aunt and Zhang Jiaojiao finally managed to rent an apartment. When signing the contract, his aunt wrote down her full name, Zhao Fengxia, and her phone number.

Zhang Jiaojiao called Lu Yuan to brag, her face full of smugness. "Good-for-nothing! We rented an apartment without living in your Tomson Riviera. I'll take a picture of the contract and send it to you on WeChat in a bit. So, now that we've rented an apartment, are you upset?"

But after seeing the name and phone number, the real estate agent suddenly grabbed the rental contract and tore it to shreds. "Sorry! We can't rent this apartment to you!"

What? They couldn't rent it?!

"Huh? We already signed the contract! What gives you the right to suddenly refuse to rent it?" His aunt and Zhang Jiaojiao were utterly baffled.

The real estate agent said coldly, "Because those are the chairman's wishes. Anyone who rents an apartment to you will lose their job!"

"What's your chairman's surname?" Zhang Jiaojiao asked, biting her red lips, unwilling to accept it.

"Lu!"

The chairman? And his surname was Lu? Could it be Lu Yuan?!

Wasn't Lu Yuan the chairman of Tomson Riviera? How had he become the chairman of this residential complex too?

Remembering how they had run into walls everywhere they tried to rent for more than an hour, the mother and daughter exchanged a glance and voiced the question on both their minds. "Is it possible that all those residential complexes belong to Lu Yuan?"

"Mom! What do we do? Am I going to have nowhere to live? I called the school and asked. The dormitory building is still being rebuilt, and it'll take at least a few months to finish. Mom, help me!"

His aunt sighed. "Sigh! Let's go back and beg your cousin Lu Yuan. Give in to him a little, and don't go saying whatever you please in front of him this time. Otherwise, you really will have to repeat your studies..."

The two returned to Lu Yuan's office with their tails between their legs.

His aunt dropped to her knees with a thud and begged, "Dear nephew, please spare your cousin... Rent your little sister an apartment. Your cousin can't be left without an education!"

"Does whether she gets an education have a damn thing to do with me? What a joke!" Lu Yuan snapped.

Lu Yuan said harshly, "Besides, who cares about living in my lousy Tomson Riviera? I wonder who said they wouldn't live here even if I gave it to them for free!"

His aunt was rebuffed. Zhang Jiaojiao also dropped to her knees with a thud and cried, "Boo-hoo, Brother, I was wrong. Spare me, please spare me! I can't be left without an education. I'll be your ox or your horse from now on if that's what it takes..."

Lu Yuan remembered the humiliation Zhang Jiaojiao had subjected him to over the years, and his resentment surged straight to the top of his head. "It's just a high school. If you can't rent an apartment, then don't go. Go take the entrance exam again in another city. You can't rent an apartment, but you still insist on going to this high school?"

Zhang Jiaojiao looked aggrieved. "Brother, taking the exam again means waiting another three years. How many three-year stretches do I have in my life? Brother, it was all because I had a foul mouth before. An ivory tusk can't grow out of a dog's mouth. If you think beating me up will help you vent, then hit me... scold me!"

Zhang Jiaojiao was truly afraid now. Lu Yuan hadn't lied at the entrance celebration. He really did have the power to leave her without a place to live even after she got into high school.

The people at the sales office began jeering at her:

"You were acting like you owned the heavens just now, throwing your weight around in front of our chairman. What makes you think you have the standing?"

"Weren't you acting all high and mighty with our chairman just now? Where's all that swagger gone?"

"You kept calling our chairman a good-for-nothing. You got into high school, but you don't even have a place to live. If he's a good-for-nothing, what the hell does that make you?"

The other parents who had come hoping to rent apartments also spoke up. "If we had that kind of connection, we'd be falling over ourselves to curry favor with Chairman Lu, hoping to rent an apartment a little cheaper. But look at you, offending Chairman Lu as badly as you possibly could. You two really are a pair of fucking idiots!"

His aunt and Zhang Jiaojiao looked ashamed, their faces burning with pain. They had never imagined that Lu Yuan had already reached such heights, becoming someone they could only look up to.

Zhang Jiaojiao wept bitterly, her voice choking. "Boo-hoo, Brother, what will it take for you to forgive me?"