Xia Yu was still holding a meat skewer. He swiped at the meat as he talked.
“I was so scared. Those people really wanted to fight!” One guy patted his chest.
“Yeah. Were they crazy?” The girls were also shaken.
“You are the crazy ones. Provoking so many people at a street cart? How were they supposed to know who you were.” Xia Yu commented, “You should feel lucky that they were older and 30-something. If they were in their 20s, they wouldn’t have stopped if you spilled diamonds on the ground.”
Everyone looked to Jiao Heyu.
“They provoked me first!” Jiao Heyu tried to explain himself.
“Why were you cursing back at them? Couldn’t you just hit his face with money?” Xia Yu thought these people were too young and naive.
“Right. I have read in novels that it’s smart to show off your expensive watch, sports car, or just find the shopkeeper and buy the street cart, then we can throw those people out!”
“Buying the street cart?”
“Why didn’t you say this earlier?”
The group of young people found a new topic as they moved to a BBQ shop and chatted.
Xia Yu ate the meat skewers silently. This wasn’t a wasted trip.
An Siyao’s body didn’t have much alcohol tolerance, so she felt dizzy from Xia Yu’s drinking. She didn’t realize Shen Xiaowen and Jiao Heyu were secretly watching her.
Thinking back to Xia Yu’s sudden move to overpower the bare-chested man, and throwing money on the ground to make more than ten people fight over the bills, Shen Xiaowen’s face heated.
Remembering how Xia Yu reached into her clothes to take out her wallet, her body felt warm too.
She thought An Siyao was much more amazing than the uselessly barking Jiao Heyu!
Meanwhile, Jiao Heyu had the same thought. Unlike Shen Xiaowen, who was impressed, Jiao Heyu felt afraid.
That bare-chested man was tall and burly, yet he was still easily dropped to the ground by An Siyao. If it was him, he’d be laying around, needing an ambulance.
If he did get together with An Siyao, wouldn’t he be beaten up by her for the rest of his life?
His crush on An Siyao dissipated.
From now on, Yao Bro would be my best buddy!
The two of them reconsidered their opinion of An Siyao and began to eagerly feed Xia Yu food and drinks.
By 10 p.m., the group took a taxi back to the mansion. They had all drunk a little, and it was dangerous driving like that.
When he got in the car, Xia Yu felt a little shaky. He overestimated An Siyao’s alcohol tolerance. He felt dizzy and really out of it.
On the way, he couldn’t help but start snoring.
When they reached their destination, Jiao Heyu wanted to help Xia Yu up but was slapped aside by Shen Xiaowen.
“Let me!” Shen Xiaowen looked ferocious.
Jiao Heyu rubbed the wrist which got slapped, feeling wronged.
You could hold her if you wanted to, why did you hit me? You were never so mean to me before!
He watched Shen Xiaowen and another girl prop up Xia Yu and walk toward the mansion.
Xia Yu, still conscious, could tell it was two girls helping him. He then relaxed and fell asleep again.
By the time he woke up, he was back in his own body.
Recalling the previous night of happily eating meat skewers, he felt really hungry.
He got dressed and went out for skewers again.
He remembered to bring a sausage back for the black cat.
After feeding the sausage to the black cat, he yawned and went back to sleep.
In the morning, he stood up and got ready. Then, he took out his cell phone and composed a text message.
“Mom, can I visit you on Friday night? I need to talk to you about something.”
If he wanted to prevent An Siyao from recognizing him at the music competition, he’d need his mom’s help.
Soon, he got a reply.
“Sure. Come over for dinner.”
Ten seconds later, another text came.
“Don’t bring Xia Youxue.”
He rubbed his head and wrote back about arriving around 6 p.m.
Putting the phone back in his pocket, he thought of how to avoid telling Youxue about this visit.
In this lifetime, his mom was a woman named Kong Hanyue. She was a reasonably competent mother, but she had some mental issues.
Kong Hanyue got together with Xia Dongyang of her own free will. If she was of sound mind, she’d not have picked a sketchy man like Xia Dongyang.
She was a total hedonist. When she was dating Xia Dongyang, he’d take her to have fun everywhere, so she thought he was a good mate for her.
After they got married, however, Xia Dongyang had used up all of his parents’ money and got into financial trouble. Plus, with the early passion fading, Xia Dongyang became less and less patient with her. Her life became harder.
Nine years ago, after much suffering, Kong Hanyue finally divorced him and left with nothing.
She disliked Youxue because of what happened when she was a kid.
Kids were kids and often made messes, Xia Dongyang didn’t hit the young Youxue. He just hit Kong Hanyue instead.
She hated Xia Dongyang, while also feeling resentful of Youxue.
This was also partly Xia Yu’s fault. He was such an agreeable child that not only did he not make trouble for his mom, he also stopped his father from hitting her. In contrast, Kong Hanyue felt that Youxue was the bad one.
When she was divorcing Xia Dongyang, he tried to make Xia Yu and Youxue stop her. Xia Yu didn’t care and supported her leaving, while Youxue, terrified by her dad’s words, cried and tried to make her stay, making Kong Hanyue resent her even more.
The worst incident was, when Kong Hanyue, having lied about being married and having had children before, was recognized by Youxue on the street, who called out for her. It made her new husband learn the truth, almost leading to a divorce.
Based on all of the above, Kong Hanyue was always not happy with Youxue.
Of course, Xia Yu was on Youxue’s side, but Kong Hanyue only disliked Youxue and treated him well. She’d even send gifts to him on his birthdays.
Otherwise, Xia Yu wouldn’t ask her for help.
After thinking this through, Xia Yu began to consider that evening’s party.
It was the birthday party for An Siyao’s step-mom. What kind of delicious foods would be there?
…
Fangzhang City, 4 p.m.
Jiao Heyu and four others paced in the garden. They also invited An Siyao, but the girl, without Xia Yu logged in, refused their invite.
A man was among them.
It was the same man who had tried something with Feng Yumo and was confronted by Xia Yu. He was that teacher.
“You’re a teacher at East Land School, right?” Shen Xiaowen asked the man.
When the man confirmed it, she asked with excitement, “What’s An Siyao like at school?”
She wasn’t the only one who wanted to know. The other four people also looked toward him.
The man, assessing the group’s relationship with An Siyao, could tell they weren’t close to her. He began to plot something.
The five of them were all offspring of stockholders of the An family business. One family might not have more shares than An Siyao’s father, but combined, they’d be able to control the An Group.
This was his chance to take revenge on that fight at the cafeteria!