Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
Qin Baobao answered with an ‘oh’ before sitting at the start of the bed and leaning her head in to look at the computer. “What are you fiddling with? Stocks?”
The screen was filled with red and green, which caused her head to hurt.
Qin Ze stared at the computer and moved his body to make space for her. He said in a hushed voice, “Don’t we have a financial crisis? I’m trying to see if I can earn money from the stock market.”
“You’re so meticulous.” Qin Baobao touched his brother’s head happily, and her face instantly changed. She laughed out loud. “You can dabble with stocks? Do you have the intelligence for that?”
“If you can be a star, why can’t I dabble in stocks?” Qin Ze retaliated while rolling his eyes. He was indeed at a bit of a loss as the stock market was too complicated. Originally, he could directly exchange for the related skills. However, the system was low on ‘energy’ so it was stuck in sleep mode, and Qin Ze did not dare to disturb it.
Following this, it was the everyday scene of the siblings’ ‘love and quarrel’.
“Mom, why don’t you wash his hair? It’s so dirty.”
“Mom, Qin Baobao is so annoying, bring her back quickly.”
“Mom, Qin Ze touched my butt.”
“Mom, help. Qin Baobao tore my wound.”
In the washroom, Mother Qin sighed.
…
“I have a little donkey that I never rode…” A happy child’s voice rang; it was Qin Baobao’s ringtone.
“Hello? Dad, what’s the matter?” Qin Baobao jumped onto the couch as she took out her phone from the bag. Her face suddenly became tense, and after she was done listening, she said lightly, “Mm, mm… I will tell him… okay, bye, Dad.”
“What’s the matter?” Once Qin Ze saw her face, he knew that something was up.
“Dad has been waiting at the police station, and an officer told him just now that the results of the investigation were out. The person who stabbed you—Shi Qifeng—was instructed by a fella called Yang Chen… it seems like he’s from your school?”
Instantly, Qin Ze was shocked, and his mouth agape. He had never imagined it to be Yang Chen. He had even suspected Zhang Mingyu; after all, that bunch of gangsters clearly came to cause trouble, and their target was him. Besides, he had slapped Zhang Mingyu’s face harshly—twice.
However, he did not have much major conflict with Yang Chen. He did not even slap his face on his own accord, and yet he sent someone to mess with him.
What was his deal?
Qin Ze told his conflict that was not really counted as one to his sister. His sister was an old hand in the career world—at least to Qin Ze. She pouted. “This is the so-called conflict of interest. That Zhang—what, Yu?—person… he would only be upset for a while after he lost face and doesn’t have any actual loss. However, for Yang Chen, you threatened his group leader position; and his bonus was cut. There was a real loss in interest so, of course, he would find someone to ‘kill’ you.
“Business people are all the same. If you slap his left face, he would even show his right face to you as long as you can give him some benefits. However, if you threaten his interests, he would push you to your death even if you two have no conflict.”
Qin Ze was shocked. “So he wanted to push me to my death just because of a few thousand dollars?”
Qin Baobao analyzed. “I think he only wanted to beat you up. It’ll be good if he could delay your work, but he did not expect things would end up like this.”
Qin Ze remembered this and took a lesson from it.
When he remembered about him getting stabbed due to a small incident, he felt wronged and indignant. He said, “There will always be commoners who want to hurt the emperor.”
Qin Baobao knocked his head and said in a thin voice, “Emperor, don’t worry. Leave this issue to Concubine and Elder statesmen. We will kill those traitors and ensure their ashes fly away.”
Qin Ze said delightfully, “My love, you’re too kind. I’ll flip your plaque1.”
Mother Qin coincidentally came out of the washroom and was holding his underwear. She coughed, “How old are you all? Still so childish.”
Qin Baobao stuck her tongue out and pulled a face.
Afternoon, the next day, Shanghai Police Station announced the investigation results on an official platform: Wang Guomin was fired from the police force; and he would be subjected to punishments by the law.
On the other hand, they had charged Shi Qifeng and Yang Chen for a criminal case after the injury report was released that morning and confirmed that his injury was a minor one. As Qin Ze was still injured, he did not have to appear in court; and Old Master became the litigant in the lawsuit.
After they ate, the nurse came to help clean Qin Ze’s wound and said shockingly, “Your wound is recovering very well. We can remove the thread now.”
Qin Ze was immediately energized. “I can remove the thread now? It has only been three days.”
Under normal circumstances, one could only remove the threads after seven days; as for Qin Ze’s injury, it had to take even longer.
The nurse thought for a while. “I’ll come over and check it again tomorrow. If it’s possible, I’ll tell the doctor to remove the thread for you.”
Fresh, red meat was already growing at the wound area, and Qin Ze felt that it was not as painful as before. As long as he did not put pressure on it or do strenuous exercises, it generally did not have much of an effect. The system said he could recover in seven days and was really honest. He guessed that it was because of the Energy Cultivation Manual; that was why he could recover so speedily.
At night, Qin Baobao and Old Master came to the hospital. Qin Baobao was wearing her OL outfit, and her hair was silky and tied up in a bun; she looked exactly like a professional office lady, which was her idea to purposely mislead her parents.
Old Master told Qin Ze about the lawsuit process, and it would end within half a month. As this incident had too much public opinion and was not a serious criminal case, the case would progress rapidly. Usually, criminal cases would be convicted within a month at the prosecution side while serious and complicated cases would drag for about half a year.
Other than this, Old Master sighed, “After work today, Professor Li crossed the road without looking at the traffic light; and his right leg was run over by a car. Now, he’s hospitalized in this hospital.”
This hospital was the closest to school; if any student had a fever, headache; or any other discomfort; they would generally choose to seek medical help here.
Qin Ze was shocked. “What happened?”
“Yang Chen is his student and was detained by the police because of you. The school has already decided to expel him. Professor Li felt that it was because of him that you were hospitalized and Yang Chen detained,” Old Master said, “His shin is fractured, and his muscles were shocked. His right wrist bone broke, and he would not recover without a few months of rest.”
“How unfortunate…”
Before he could finish his sentence—ding! The sound rang in his head clearly: it was the system’s voice that had not sounded in a while: “Main Mission: Be a Deity in Front of Everyone (3/15): Take over Professor Li’s mathematics modeling investment analysis. Complete it in four days. If you succeed, you will be rewarded with 250 points; if you fail, 250 points would be deducted.”
Qin Ze’s eyelids jumped. “Why not let me visit him?”
Old Master nodded. “He’s in Ward 3014 downstairs.”
When the father and son were talking, the ward door was pushed open; and someone barged in. Upon hearing the sound, the family looked up; and their faces immediately darkened. The middle-aged couple came—Shi Qifeng’s parents.
Both of them looked weak and anxious, and they did not act highly. However, their tone was still cold. “Let’s settle this issue privately. Say, how much money do you want?”
Even though Qin Ze did not know much about the law, he still understood it a little. He knitted his brows. “We can’t say we’ll not sue them as and when we want for this lawsuit.”
“If there’s a letter of mercy by the person involved, my son’s punishment can be lessened.” The middle-aged woman took out a form from her bag and threw it on the table. She said lightly, “I know you’re an average family. I’ll pay you one hundred thousand dollars, and you can just sign this.”
The letter of mercy was also called the ‘Dissolution Agreement’. With this item, the court will consider reducing his sentence. According to the law, one convicted of intentionally harming someone would be given a sentence of three years and below. If they had the plaintiff’s letter of mercy, their son’s sentence would be reduced; and he might even be put on probation. Once he was given probation, by pulling their connections, they could reduce the problem to a small one and remove it altogether.
Old Master said unhappily, “We won’t sign the letter of mercy. Please go back.”
Previously, this couple bullied others with their authority. They did not only stab someone, but they had even accused them back and wanted to cheat them of the medical bill. Additionally, they were even clamoring to detain Qin Ze. The four people in the Qin family had held this in the whole time, and they should lower their heads in this kind of situation now. However, even if so, their attitude was still terrible. Did they really think that having money was all that important? Could money really solve everything?
The middle-aged lady was furious and sneered, “Is the money not enough? Okay, I’ll give you one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. This money is enough for your family to stop working for a year. Besides, your son isn’t injured too badly; and he would recover after lying in the hospital for two weeks or half a month. How easy.”
Qin Baobao was furious and laughed instead as she tore the agreement apart. She said lightly, “Our family is average, but we’re not short of this hundred thousand dollars. This brother of mine is the only son in our family, and as his sister, I can’t help but dote on him with all I have. Now that your son stabbed him, I don’t want your money. I just want your son to be jailed. You can forget about the agreement; we won’t take this lying. You can try to appeal and see if the court will support you. Now, get out.”
The middle-aged man boomed, “Don’t be overboard. My son is still young; you need to give him a chance to start anew.”
Qin Baobao erupted, “To hell with your start anew. A b*tch gave birth to him.”
Even though the incident of ‘doting with all I have’ did not exist at all, Qin Ze still gave a hundred likes to his sister in his heart.
The middle-aged lady yelled and scratched Qin Baobao’s face. “My brother is in serious trouble because of you, but you won’t even let go of my son. You bunch of monsters, I’ll fight with you.”
Upon seeing the sharp nails about to scratch Qin Baobao’s pretty face, Old Master and Mother Qin had no time to react; but Qin Ze threw his blanket away and jumped up from the bed. With one leg flying out, he kicked the middle-aged lady.
He himself then stumbled back to the bed and felt a burning sensation at his abdomen.
Old Master and Mother Qin were people of culture, but their faces changed. They rushed forward to fight with the other two people.
The commotion in the ward alerted the nurses at the station. Two sisters wearing the pink nurse uniform ran in to stop the fight. They said loudly, “Don’t cause trouble in the hospital. If not, I’ll report to the police.”
They pulled the four people apart with much difficulty before the police came after a while. After they asked for the reason, they warned the two of them sternly and brought them away.
With this commotion, Old Master and Mother Qin felt dispirited; but they were afraid that the couple would cause havoc again so they told Qin Baobao to stay in the hospital for the night. Then, the couple returned to their home.
Qin Baobao immediately protested, but there was no use.
After her parents left, Qin Baobao unleashed her anger onto her brother. “Look, it’s all because of you. I don’t want to sleep on the couch.”