AZG 13

Chapter 13

And so, he vented his anger onto me.

If he couldn’t get a date, he would make sure I couldn’t get one either.

This caused me a great deal of annoyance. Not only did he eat my chocolates, but he also had to sabotage my dates.

As a result, I started asking the gym teacher out, and every single time I asked him out for a run. Eventually, Zhao Gongzi slimmed down, and I also won second place in the city’s youth marathon.

First place was Zhao Gongzi.

That wasn’t important. What was important was that Zhao Gongzi had developed a bad habit out of it, frequently following me around like a ghost. After all, following me could keep him slim, and following me could win him first place in competitions.

But for me, it was an absolute nightmare.

No one ever pursued me again, nor did anyone dare to accept my pursuits.

With my passionate energy having nowhere to be spent, I could only bury my head in intensive studying. Zhao Gongzi, however, replaced me and became a highly sought-after dating partner.

And just like that, my school years—which should have been romantic—came to a hasty, lackluster close.

This is why I find Zhao Gongzi so loathsome.

If I were a bit more malicious, I would feed him chocolates every single day and never take him running again.

Third Brother went back home to pack his bags, planning to run away from home. Meanwhile, Zhao Gongzi and I walked slowly along the road.

He said triumphantly, “That letter was meant for Third Brother. You lied to me on purpose.”

I said meaningfully, “I could also go and audit classes.”

Zhao Gongzi pulled a chocolate out of his pocket and silently scoffed it down.

I said, “Stop eating.”

He retorted, “None of your fucking business.”

I said, “That was a gift to me from Jin Xian’er. It’s very hard to buy, and I hid it away. How on earth did you find it?”

He intentionally crunched the chocolate loudly in his mouth. “Do you think there’s anything you do that I don’t fucking know about?”

Since he was so capable, how come he didn’t know that back then, I only went to tell Fifth Brother that I had no intention of eloping?

I loved Fifth Brother’s wild and dashing nature, but admiring it from afar was quite enough. I was someone who still had to go to work the next day. All my energy for wandering and displacement had already been used up before I turned ten, and I never wanted that kind of life ever again. In fact, I have never been willing to live that kind of life, which is why I have always sincerely and genuinely felt grateful to Fourth Master Zhao.

But I would never tell Zhao Gongzi this. After all, Fifth Brother hadn’t actually intended to elope with me in the first place, so it would be quite humiliating.

Zhao Gongzi pulled another piece of chocolate out of his pocket. Biting half of it into his mouth triumphantly, he asked if I wanted to eat the other half.

Zhao Gongzi is loathsome.

In the early morning, I heard Zhao Gongzi wrapped in his bathrobe, speaking to someone on the phone in the living room: “Get lost! Wrong number! None of your fucking business! Call again and I’ll shoot you dead!”

Taking him off guard, I snatched the phone away and said, “Hello, this is Qiu Yixin.”

Zhao Gongzi glared at me furiously.

A very familiar laugh came from the other end of the line: “Long time no see, Yixin.”

Long time no see, Teacher Lin.

Ever since Zhao Gongzi gave him a thorough thrashing, he vanished from the local area, and I hadn’t seen him since.

Teacher Lin was my piano teacher, the teacher for the piano lessons I had traded Zhao Gongzi’s report cards to get. Back then, with his elegant demeanor and my youthful, yearning heart, a mutual, ambiguous attraction had once developed between us. Only later did I find out that he had a wife back in his hometown and lovers in this city—three of them, to be exact: a man, a woman, and one whose gender could not be verified.

Well.

In short, it was somewhat complicated.

Teacher Lin said over the phone, “I’m back. May I treat you to dinner?”

I said, “Let’s make it lunch.”

Zhao Gongzi crumpled the newspaper he used as a disguise into a ball and slammed it fiercely onto the floor.

After settling on the place and time with Teacher Lin, I hung up the phone.

Zhao Gongzi roared at me, “I am going to beat you to death today! You can’t even wait until evening to see him! I’m beating you to death this morning!”

I asked him, “Did you read yesterday’s newspaper?”

Zhao Gongzi subscribed to many different newspapers, but every time he put on airs to read them, nobody knew what he was actually looking at. I picked up the newspaper, smoothed it flat, and showed him the massive photograph on the front-page headline. It was Teacher Lin along with the other members of his orchestra; he was now a member of a highly renowned orchestra abroad.

Zhao Gongzi snapped, “If I wanted to get on the newspaper, I could get on it every single day! What’s the big fucking deal? If you want to get on it, I can make sure you’re on it every day too!”

No, thank you. I didn’t want to be on the newspaper at all.

I said, “Calm down a bit and take another look.”

On the other side of the photograph stood Fourth Master Zhao and Ambassador Andrew.

Fourth Master Zhao’s business talks had gone very smoothly, and the orchestra happened to be invited by Andrew.

Zhao Gongzi barked at me, “What the fuck does that have to do with you?”

I explained, “Actually, our trading firm has some matters to discuss with Andrew’s younger brother, but unfortunately, his secretaries and advisors are far too difficult to deal with. The firm’s director mentioned that Andrew’s brother shares a deep connection with Teacher Lin, so he asked me to secure a meeting with Andrew’s brother as soon as possible.”

Zhao Gongzi cursed the director, “I can make him lose his job and pack his bags at any moment!”

This seemed somewhat unlikely. Perhaps because Zhao Gongzi was constantly threatening the director, the director’s daughter had now started dating Fourth Master Zhao.

But it was inconvenient for me to inform Zhao Gongzi of this matter. He wouldn’t dare scold Fourth Master Zhao anyway; he would only scold me.

Zhao Gongzi is very loathsome.

I laid down three rules with Zhao Gongzi: he was absolutely forbidden from following me and ruining my business, otherwise I would—well, I couldn’t really do anything either. I was merely a piece of floating duckweed, relying on the favor of the Zhao family. I was just a sheltered plaything, a kept creature living in the shadows, a pitiful wretch dependent on Zhao Gongzi for survival.

Seeing how cooperative and sensible I was being, Zhao Gongzi showed a burst of grand magnanimity. He claimed he had no interest in bothering with me and that mere ant, and then asked who on earth had scolded me like that.

I didn’t want to betray Jin Xian’er just yet, so I said the entire city viewed me that way.

Zhao Gongzi cursed, “Damn it, are you a coward or what? You only know how to act tough at home and beat me up. If anyone else insults you, why the fuck don’t you beat them to death?!”

I am merely a piece of floating duckweed, drifting unsteadily in these troubled times, just muddling along day by day. Why should I lose my temper with anyone?

Zhao Gongzi roared at me, “Get out! Get far the fuck away! I’m going to be driven to death by anger because of you!”