Translator: Dragon Boat Translation
Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Since the principal was still waiting, Xia Yu didn’t agonize any further and promised to do the competition.
If it didn’t feel right, he could treat it as practice. It wouldn’t be a loss to him.
After Xia Yu left, the Chinese teacher went toward the principal.
“Principal, are you really going to recommend Xia Yu to Huada University?”
The Chinese teacher wasn’t doubting the principal. Other teachers may not be aware, but he knew the principal’s level of power.
The principal’s wife was an honorary president of Huada University.
The principal chuckled. “I said I’d recommend him if he did well. It’d have to be at least top 10. There’s no way he would rank within the top 10!”
“You rascal!” The Chinese teacher chuckled too.
“Well, don’t waste time here. Go and fix your report!”
The Chinese teacher returned to his office, spending an hour fixing the report. Then, he rushed to Xia Yu’s class, teaching the last class of the day.
He looked at Xia Yu, who was sitting in class, and sighed.
The kid was being swindled by the principal… did he think a district-wide competition would be that easy?
Both the teacher and the principal thought Xia Yu was underestimating the difficulty of the district competition, and that was why he was tempted by the Huada recommendation. In fact, Xia Yu was thinking of other obstacles.
Xia Yu didn’t doubt that he would do well in the competition; after all, he had An Siyao’s support.
What gave him a headache: The district competition would get a lot of attention, and someone was going to ask when he learned the piano. What could he say?
That he learned it by possessing the body of a girl?
That wasn’t the key, the key was how An Siyao could easily find him through this competition!
He learned all of his piano-skills from the girl, and there was no way she couldn’t recognize his style.
Even if he played the violin, it’d be just as recognizable.
He needed to stay hidden. Xia Yu wanted to back out of the competition.
He’d just have to play randomly at the competition.
He made up his mind. Then, he started searching for this competition online.
There was a lot of related news and information on this, which he’d never paid attention to before.
He opened the official announcement and looked at the prizes.
Grand prize: one million yuan. Second prize: 500 thousand yuan. Third prize: 300 thousand yuan. The rest of the top 10 would receive 100 thousand yuan each.
Looking at the one million yuan for the grand prize, Xia Yu’s breathing became labored. He told himself to be calm. So what if it was one million? He could earn 10 million, 100 million, eventually.
One million yuan wasn’t that much money. A second-hand home in Zilang City started at one million yuan.
He eased his mind and started to goof off. After school, he walked toward the coffee shop.
As soon as he got off the subway, his phone rang.
It was Youxue calling him.
This surprised Xia Yu. His sister had never called him at this hour.
Did something happen?
His heart sank. He pressed the answer button to take the call.
Youxue’s teary voice could be heard through the phone.
“Brother, dad, dad…”
“What happened? Did he get beaten up again?” Xia Yu’s first reaction was concluding Xia Dongyang did something. As a pathetically proud man, it wouldn’t surprise him if the man got into another fight with someone.
“No. Dad is gone.” Youxue’s voice was choking. She was so upset that she couldn’t describe the problem.
“I’m coming home now. Take your time to tell me.” Xia Yu rode the subway again. “Isn’t it good that he’s gone? Why are you crying?”
“But there are people here. They said dad sold our place to them.” Youxue started crying again.
Xia Yu breathed a sigh of relief.
While he didn’t think Xia Dongyang was evil enough to sell their apartment and run, if it’s just their apartment, it wasn’t a huge deal. They could move out. They would be far away from Xia Dongyang, who always scared Youxue.
This would have been a disaster for Xia Yu if he was just a cashier. Since Xia Dongyang had taken off, there was no way to get money for food and school fees anymore. And his cashier salary wouldn’t have been enough.
Now, he earned 10 thousand yuan a month, which was higher than many people’s salaries in Zilang City.
However, he only had two thousand now, he’d need to borrow some from the coffee shop owner.
While he kept talking to Youxue, he sent a message to the owner, telling him there was an emergency, and he couldn’t go to work today.
The owner replied with a straightforward “OK.”
When Xia Yu got off the subway, he took a cab to his building.
He got to the apartment and saw Youxue standing at the door.
The girl grabbed his hand. She was no longer panicked, but disappointed at losing the home she’s lived in for more than 10 years.
Patting her head, Xia Yu glanced at the gang of people looking at their place.
Xia Yu could tell they weren’t decent people.
“Did they curse at you?” Xia Yu asked Youxue. If she said yes, he wouldn’t mind beating them up.
“No,” Youxue answered. The country was going through reform, and no one dared to break the rules.
Telling Youxue to stay outside, Xia Yu walked inside the place.
“Hah. The son is back.” A man in the living room whistled at Xia Yu. “Your dad sold the place. Your sister said he’s missing. Do you want to move in with me? I have a big bed.”
The other three men chuckled.
Xia Yu didn’t answer. He walked toward the man and knocked him to the floor with one punch.
The other three men jumped up, wanting to fight.
While he could beat four men on his own, Youxue was still outside. He didn’t want to be impulsive.
Holding up his cell phone, he told the four men, “If you try anything, I’ll call the police. I’m sure reporters would love a story about two kids getting kicked out of their home by thugs. And my sister and I get to appear on TV too.”
The four men, especially the one beaten by Xia Yu, had a red face and wanted to retaliate. He was held back by his friends.
“Calm down!”
“We’re done if we are seen on TV!”
“Relax, relax.”
After taking down their attitude, Xia Yu started to question them. “How did Xia Dongyang sell you this place?”
Xia Yu figured there was something odd here. Xia Dongyang wasn’t a good father, but he was a father. For years, he has managed to not abandon Xia Yu and Youxue. Why sell their home and run now?
The four men didn’t want to answer. But Xia Yu threatened them again with the same thing.
“We’re just the lending company. He borrowed a million yuan with this apartment. We don’t know the rest,” one of them said.
“No. You do know.” Xia Yu walked toward the men.
The four of them looked at Xia Yu with some trepidation. They were afraid he’d do something.
But their pride as bad men stopped them from backing up.
Reaching the man he beat up earlier, Xia Yu gripped his collar.
“Hey, what are you doing? I told you I don’t know…”
Before he finished talking, Xia Yu punched his belly.
“How about now?” Xia Yu used Scaring.
Terrified, the men stared at Xia Yu. Other than the man Xia Yu held up, the other three started retreating.
They started to think who was evil here, themselves or Xia Yu.
“I heard he got in trouble with Tumor Gong,” the man answered.
Letting the man go, Xia Yu rubbed his forehead. He knew Tumor Gong. He was a gambler.
Xia Dongyang was a thug, but he had some principles. He didn’t do drugs or gambling. But this time, he got into a trap with Tumor Gong.
Not saying anything else, Xia Yu walked into the bedroom, packed some of his and Youxue’s clothes in a suitcase, grabbed the black cat, and left the place.
Taking the black cat Xia Yu handed over, Youxue looked at the washing machine on the terrace.
Xia Dongyang signed a contract covering not only the apartment but everything in it. Xia Yu didn’t know if the contract was legal, but he knew that if he took the washing machine, he’d lose some moral ground. The four men might do something.
Neither he nor Youxue said anything while walking.
Xia Yu had planned to move out of Xia Dongyang’s place a long time ago, so losing the place wasn’t terrible. But having to leave with Youxue in such a sheepish way, all because Tumor Gong took advantage of Xia Dongyang, had angered him.
Tumor Gong knew of him and Youxue, as well as what Xia Dongyang was like. He knew what cheating Xia Dongyang of his home would do to Xia Yu and Youxue.
Seeing how Xia Dongyang had gone missing, Tumor Gong had taken more than one million for the apartment from his father. The man wouldn’t have run off otherwise.
The Tattoo Sleeve guy was here earlier, plus Xia Dongyang’s odd behavior, had all signaled something was happening. Xia Yu just didn’t realize Xia Dongyang would lose this much this time.
If he hadn’t found the coffee house job, he’d really be out of sorts now.
Not taking revenge wasn’t Xia Yu’s style. He plotted what to do to Tumor Gong.