Chapter 2 - 1#
“Raising you is just paying off a debt,” Jiang Qin said. “Come up and sit.”
Li Meng nimbly climbed onto the large hotel bed and sat shoulder to shoulder with Jiang Qin, looking at the original German novel in his hand.
Li Meng and Jiang Qin had no blood relation whatsoever, yet they were surprisingly similar in various aspects: temper, personality, hobbies, looks, and so on. A more significant point was that Jiang Qin had an extremely high IQ, and Li Meng was not far behind, having skipped grades three times since starting school.
Friends around them often suspected they were long-lost relatives, or that Li Meng was a seed Jiang Qin had sown in his teens. However, Jin Yan repeatedly and firmly denied this possibility, with an expression that said, “This is fate, you stupid humans.”
Li Meng watched for a while and said, “The murderer is that ski instructor.”
“Don’t show off that you know the plot every time you get halfway through, or I’ll kick you out.”
“Do you have the heart to treat your own biological son like this, Comrade Jiang Qin!” Li Meng accused. “It’s bad enough you ran away from home and stopped cooking, but to be so petty over a mere spoiler!”
Jiang Qin looked at him silently.
“…Not biological but better than biological,” Li Meng immediately wagged his tail and asked, “When do you plan to go home, Comrade Jiang Qin? Do you want me to escort Comrade Jin Yan to your door to apologize? That’s about enough, let me tell you. If you go home now, you can still enjoy the handsome son’s luxury compensation package of acting cute and stripping. If it’s too late, it’ll be gone! Gone! Better to act than to be moved, you should hurry back with me!”
“…Comrade Li Meng,” Jiang Qin said, “You and Jin Yan are truly father and son, no adulteration. You’re so alike even when playing the rogue.”
He was wearing a thick white bathrobe provided by the hotel. His eyes looked clearer and brighter without the obstruction of glasses. His long eyebrows were slightly raised, showing he didn’t buy Li Meng’s act at all.
“You don’t have curves, nor do you have 36D. Even if you strip, there’s nothing to see. Besides, even if you could dance, it wouldn’t cover up the fact that you’re a student skipping class. With my temper, I should drag you to school and make you dance in front of the dean.”
Li Meng was tongue-tied for a while, then suddenly denied, “No, she’ll fall in love with me.”
“Compared to stripping, you need to worry about another thing,” Jiang Qin said. “After Jin Yan and I divorce, who do you plan to live with?”
Li Meng knew the conversation had finally turned to the direction he least wanted.
Like every child asked “Who do you want to live with, Dad or Mom” during a divorce, Li Meng’s first thought was: What the hell! The young master doesn’t want to answer!
“I hope you go with Jin Yan,” Jiang Qin said.
“—Huh? You don’t want me?”
“Jin Yan is your biological father.”
“But you’re my mom!” Li Meng immediately retorted with a sharp tongue. “Not a biological mom but better than a biological mom!”
Jiang Qin stared at him for a while, and finally sighed.
“Li Meng,” he said wearily, “You know you have seven percent of Star Entertainment’s shares in your name, right?”
“Even so…”
“Star Entertainment isn’t listed. The shares are all in the hands of the few original major shareholders. Jin Yan has forty percent, you have seven, I have twelve. Do you know how many shares are floating outside?”
Li Meng reacted instantly: “Forty-one percent!”
“Yes,” Jiang Qin said. “A very subtle number, just a tiny bit more than Jin Yan’s personal shares. That means his control over the company is only completely safe when either I or you stand with Jin Yan.”
“From another angle, if you are with me, after the property division, Jin Yan’s share ratio will be twenty-six. As a guardian, besides my own twenty-six, I would also control your seven percent…”
“Isn’t that great? You become the big boss, and you can go to the company and drive away all those little stars who can’t wait to stick to my dad…”
“Too naive,” Jiang Qin said. “This means the equity floating outside is greater than mine or Jin Yan. As long as it’s manipulated properly, it’s completely possible for the company to change hands.”
Li Meng’s worldview was instantly shaken. “Then… you… you shouldn’t divorce Jin Yan!”
Jiang Qin sneered.
Li Meng was wearing a school uniform shirt. His features carried a childishness and distinctness between youth and adolescence. When he frowned, he had a flavor unique to Jin Yan.
However, Jin Yan gave people a feeling of depth and solemnity, while Li Meng, not having reached that age, only made people feel annoyed.
“Is it because of that woman last time? It’s said to be settled. Jin Yan has you in his heart. You don’t know, his hands were shaking when he found out about it. He kept saying to Uncle Wei: ‘Give her as much money as needed, just don’t let Jiang Qin know, or I’ll jump off a building…’”
“Oh, he said that?”
“Truer than real gold! Unfortunately, you found out later. During that time, I was wondering if I should get someone to install a railing outside the window. What if he really jumped?”
Jiang Qin patted Li Meng’s head and said, “If he wanted to jump, he would have jumped long ago. People who shout about jumping are the ones who won’t jump. Don’t worry.”
Li Meng agreed deeply, then felt something was wrong. “Then why exactly are you divorcing?”
Jiang Qin frowned, seeming very hesitant.
But he had one point that satisfied Student Li Meng very much: Jin Yan often said, “Kids shouldn’t care about adult matters!”, while Jiang Qin tried his best to show the adult world to the child and guide him to think with his own brain and find the answer.
Sure enough, he finally said, “I don’t know either.”
“Starting from last year, I felt very annoyed whenever I saw him.”
“I don’t know why. It seems he is no longer the Jin Yan I’ve known for more than ten years. It seems that from that time on, he turned into someone I’m not familiar with, or even a stranger.”
Li Meng was stunned.
“Sometimes I’m very afraid,” Jiang Qin said. “Where did the Jin Yan I loved deeply for more than ten years go? Did he change secretly where I didn’t notice, or did he never exist, and the past was just my one-sided wishful fantasy?”
“Jiang, Jiang Qin…”
“Later, that actress texted me saying she was pregnant with Jin Yan’s child. At that time, I wasn’t surprised at all. I only felt a sense of relief like the end of a story.”
Jiang Qin paused, his voice hoarse like a sigh, as if it disappeared into the cold and quiet air of the hotel room as soon as it was spoken:
“I only had one sentence in my mind: it finally came.”
When Li Meng went home at night, he saw Jin Yan sleeping on the sofa. Wei Hong didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, holding two empty wine bottles. “Don’t blame me. Your dad couldn’t stop drinking. He drank more than half a jin by himself.”
Li Meng said expressionlessly, “You can smash the wine bottle directly on his head, thanks. Jiang Qin will thank you. You did what he wanted to do yesterday but didn’t succeed.”
Wei Hong asked curiously, “What did your mom say?”
Li Meng shrugged and went into his room to throw down his schoolbag.
“I want to eat oyster sauce shrimp, eight-treasure tofu, sweet and sour pork ribs, and moo shu pork. Go make them for me now.” A few minutes later, he poked his head out of the room and ordered bossily, “If you dare to slip away, I’ll tell my dad that the female star saw my mom’s phone number on your phone and texted my mom saying she was pregnant.”