Xu Qichen and He Yanyin agreed to meet at the cafe opened by her second brother.
It was not much different from the last time they met, but Xu Qichen could clearly feel that He Yanyin had completely put down her previous feelings for him.
In fact, he also knew that it was only because of the conversation they had when they first met, that made the woman, who longed for equal rights, feel respected, so she had a favourable impression of him, which was nowhere like a romantic attraction.
As Lin Nianzhi had said, they each had to get married eventually, so they might as well find a partner who was convenient for each other. The same was true of He Yanyin, who would naturally prefer someone who respected her.
However, compared to the last time, the content of this conversation was much more private. Xu Qichen would not dare to make such a request if the other party was not He Yanyin. After all, not every woman has such courage and boldness.
“Your plan is very dangerous.”
Xu Qichen smiled, “I would not have chosen this if there was any other way.”
He Yanyin nodded, “No matter what, I will do my best to help you.”
After parting with He Yanyin, Xu Qichen returned to the Xie Mansion. For his own plan, he told Master Xie that he wanted to wait on his father. Xu Qichen had been sitting in Xie Rujun’s room almost every day these days. Although Xie Rujun was not his biological father, Sun Lin’s tragedy was not caused by him. In fact, he was also a victim of it. Xu Qichen only had pity for him.
“Young master Lin, the medicine is ready,” a servant girl stood at the door, holding a bowl of traditional Chinese medicine.
Xu Qichen turned his head and smiled at her, “Okay, just leave it on the table. I’ll feed it to my father later.”
She nodded. With a caring expression, she added, “Young master, you should also take care of your own health.”
“I will,” Xu Qichen replied with a gentle smile. “Please close the door on your way out, my father does not like noise. Thank you.”
The room became quiet. Xu Qichen walked up to the table, and took a small palm-sized bottle out of his pocket. He poured some of the medicine into the bottle, kept it, then poured the rest of the medicine into the flowerpot by the window.
Every time Xu Qichen sat by Xie Rujun’s bed and held his paralyzed palm, he would quietly look at Xu Qichen, slightly smiling, but his eyes were always misty.
He could not say anything, but his silence spoke a thousand words.
Over time, Xu Qichen’s innermost feelings also seemed to be awakened.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Compared with Xu Qichen, Liu Mingde was having a hard time recently. He used to be the only son of Xie family’s eldest daughter and swaggered around Jiangqu all day long. Now the legitimate grandson had returned, and he suddenly lost favor. Even the theatre’s manager did not flatter him like before. This made Liu Mingde angry, and he spent all his days thinking of ways to get rid of Xu Qichen, but could never find the right opportunity.
According to tradition, the relatives of the Xie family started arriving at the Xie Mansion, the day before the New Year’s Eve. Xu Qichen disregarded the practice of arranging residences according to family background and redistributed them according to seniority, which angered Liu Mingde, who used to always act arrogantly in the Xie Mansion.
“Where’s that Xie Lin!?”
The servant was so scared that she stuttered, unable to speak up. Liu Mingde slapped her harshly and she fell to the ground. “Damn, you can’t even answer such a simple question! What’s the point of feeding such useless things?”
“Young master Lin… is… in the stud… study…”
Liu Mingde spat, “He really fucking thinks he’s the young master!” Then he angrily marched to the study and kicked the door open without warning. “Xie Lin! You’d better fucking explain yourself to me!”
Xu Qichen was checking the account book with the housekeeper in the study. At this, he did not even lift his eyes and simply ignored him, focusing on the ledger. Seeing that he did not even pay attention to himself, Liu Mingde became even more angry. “When was I ever not given the best room when I stayed over in the Xie mansion? What do you mean by assigning me to a small and far-off courtyard? Did you think that you’re really the owner of the Xie family?!”
Xu Qichen put down his account book and said mildly, “Cousin, I have reported to grandfather about the allocation of residences this time, and he also agrees with this method. Of course, if cousin insists that I am interfering, I am willing to exchange residences with you, and cousin can move into my room today, is that agreeable?”
Liu Mingde’s expression turned even uglier. He rushed up and grabbed Xu Qichen by the collar. “Exchange with you? Who the hell do you think you are?”
Seeing this situation, the housekeeper rushed to grab Liu Mingde, “Young Master, please calm down…”
Liu Mingde elbowed him, causing him to fall onto the floor, “Mind your own business, old man! Get lost!”
Xu Qichen, who was still being grabbed by the collar, said calmly, “Housekeeper Liu, you may leave.”
The housekeeper stood up and left the study, sighing.
Liu Mingde refused to give up easily. “You bastard, just because I turned a blind eye to you, you forget your own position!”
Xu Qichen suddenly smiled, the previous obedience and gentleness disappeared without a trace. “You are right. I am a bastard. Your mother is Xie family’s daughter, and my mother is just an unknown female worker who died when I was born. Since birth, I have only been a servant who existed to carry someone else’s bad luck, while you have been rich and precious heir. But so what?”
His tone was soft and sincere, but somehow, this created a strange sense of contempt. “Cousin, you know that I will inherit the Xie family property soon, while you, who have been yearning about it for 20 years, have become just a person with a different surname who won’t get anything.”
“Don’t forget, in the past 20 years, you were never allowed to live in the main house, and could only live in that slowly dilapidating Liu residence. It’s too bad, isn’t it? That you don’t have grandfather’s surname.”
Hearing this, Liu Mingde saw red. He punched him in the face.
Xu Qichen felt a sharp pain at the root of his teeth and the taste of blood filled his mouth, but he was still smiling. He pushed Liu Mingde away and walked out of the study in an indifferent manner, “It’s no use beating me. As long as I’m still at home, you’ll always be only a cousin. You’ll have to live where I want you to live. And if I decide that you can’t set foot in the Xie Mansion in the future, there’s nothing you can do about it either.”
Xu Qichen opened the door of the study, and the last words were very light, as if he were saying something to himself.
Liu Mingde was totally irritated by him, and he grabbed his neck and pushed him against the wall, with ten fingers nearly embedded in the skin around his neck.
The sudden action rendered Xu Qichen unable to make a sound and he could only struggle to move towards the door.
At this point, Liu Mingde had already lost his mind, and he shouted hysterically, “I’m going to kill you, you bastard!”
Overcoming the dizziness caused by suffocation, Xu Qichen stretched out his arm and knocked down the two foot high blue jade vase at the entrance of the study. The sound of the broken vase alerted several servants on the second floor. Seeing this scene, they immediately pulled Liu Mingde away. Only then did Xu Qichen escape the threat to his life and slowly slid down against the wall until he sat on the ground.
Fortunately, Liu Mingde was a chain smoker and was in the habit of visiting brothels, so over the many years, his body had long been weakened. Otherwise, Xu Qichen would have been strangled dead by him.
Xu Qichen fell to the ground, and a servant carried him downstairs. Master Xie, who had been informed over the phone, hurried back to Xie Mansion.
“Where’s Lin’er?”
The servant standing at the door saw that the master was very angry and said timidly, “Master Lin is lying in his room, and the doctor has just left.”
Master Xie went upstairs on crutches. He saw Xu Qichen lying on the bed weakly with red finger prints on his neck. His temper came up suddenly: “What happened here!?”
The housekeeper said, “Just now… I was going through the account book with Young master Lin in the study, and Young master Liu rushed in and immediately grabbed Young master Lin’s collar. I tried to persuade him to make peace, but he ignored me. Later, Young master Lin asked me to go out first so he could speak to his cousin privately, who knew that later…”
Master Xie’s crutch thumped heavily on the ground. “But why did he go to the study?!”
The housekeeper explained, “Young master Liu was not satisfied with the residence assigned by Young master Lin. However, when Young master Lin offered to change rooms with him, he…”
Master Xie slapped the cupboard beside the bed and said, “Where is that evil creature?!”
Several servants were silent. Master Xie became angry and asked again. Only then did someone timidly say, “I saw him call the driver to go out and said he was going to the theatre to relieve his anger.”
“That evil spawn…”
Xu Qichen now opened his eyes and sat up with difficulty with his elbows, “… Grandfather, you’re here.”
Master Xie immediately sat down by the bed, “Don’t say anything. Seeing how violently that evil creature acted, he must have been after your life!”
Xu Qichen coughed a few times and touched his neck. His voice was weak, “My cousin… that was just a momentary lapse of judgement, don’t take it seriously.”
“A momentary lapse?” Master Xie gripped his crutch tightly, “He has never had a day of proper judgement his whole life!”
The servant at the side couldn’t help but finally said, “Sir, Young master Lin is very kind to speak up for Young master Liu. Just now, we all saw it, he was very serious. Young master Liu pinched Young master Lin’s neck and shouted that “I’m going to kill you, you bastard!” The grip was very violent, Young master Lin couldn’t even stand up at that time.”
Xu Qichen glanced at the girl and remembered that sometime ago, she had accidentally spilled some tea on Liu Mingde when she was pouring tea. It was he who had blocked her from being tortured by Liu Mingde.
“Master, Young master Lin is very kind to everyone in the mansion, and he has been patient with Young master Liu many times. However, he had privately scolded Young master Lin often, and has said all kinds of terrible words…”
“That’s enough, Xiao Yu.” Xu Qichen coughed a few times, “Grandfather, let’s leave it at that. Cousin only said such things because he was furious, I’m sure he did not mean them.”
Master Xie’s face was gloomy. After a long time, he said, “You’ve been working hard these days. Take a good rest.” Then he dismissed the servants in the room to let him sleep. Xu Qichen nodded and watched Master Xie leave the room. After lying in the quilt for a while, he sat up, held his neck and walked to the desk. He picked up a pen to write something at the desk.
Liu Mingde did not come back at dinner time and Master Xie was visibly upset. The Xie residence was only so big; in no time at all, the news had spread all over the house. People in and out of the house also talked about it. There was no way to explain not punishing him. Besides, he himself was very disgusted with this unruly grandson.
In the early morning, Liu Mingde went back to Xie Mansion in a drunken state and made a ruckus again. Xu Qichen heard the noise in his room, put on his coat and went downstairs to help Liu Mingde walk to his room. Liu Mingde didn’t drink too much, so when he saw Xu Qichen holding himself up, he rushed up again and pushed him away with a wave of his hand. “Get away from me, you son of a bitch!”
Xu Qichen simply allowed several servants to help him instead, and calmly went back to his room.
An update!!!! 😭😭😭 Thank you for the translations❤️
Thank you for the chapter😋
Xu Qichen, i like you
thanks for the chapter <3
thank you for the chapter 😍💜
Oooo playing fire with kindness eh? He is solving the murder issue by making it obvious who would try and get him. I hope the marriage plans go through 😭😭
♥️