Chapter 64#
As soon as Fang Yuan fell ill, Jiang Qin immediately became restless.
For someone like Jiang Qin, who had superior conditions in his youth, a smooth family life in adulthood, and never actively made things difficult for others, although he could be ruthless to Fang Yuan at critical moments, he would still feel a subtle regret afterwards.
When he was still in the detention center, he had asked his lawyer and was relieved to hear that Fang Yuan had been transferred back to City S without receiving any administrative punishment. Afterwards, he also inquired through Guan Feng and heard that Fang Yuan had been under investigation for a period of time, but the Fang family had deep roots in the Public Security Department and was not overly embarrassed.
Now hearing that Fang Yuan was ill, and not knowing what illness it was—Jiang Qin had the idea of taking Li Meng back to City S to see his parents and visit Fang Yuan by the way.
Coincidentally, Li Meng’s competition had come to an end, and he was bored, holding Little Sheep every day and causing trouble at the Go Institute, almost being beaten out with a feather duster. Upon hearing that he could go to City S to eat zongzi, eight-treasure rice, and soup dumplings, he agreed immediately without thinking. Every night, he would act shy and cling to his parents’ bedside asking: “When are we going to see grandpa and grandma?”
Jin Yan said angrily: “Not going! Go out with daddy to eat ice cream! Let’s go!”
Jiang Qin felt a toothache hearing “grandpa and grandma”. He had always found it difficult to speak about Li Meng’s background. Although Li Meng was a child with a carefree personality, who knew what chuunibyou thoughts were in the mind of a fifteen or sixteen-year-old in puberty.
He had always been the apple of Jin Yan’s eye. If suddenly one day he was told that Jin Yan was not his father and the Jin family had nothing to do with him, could he accept it calmly?
Jiang Qin told Jin Yan about this concern, and Jin Yan also felt very worried. But not telling the child was unrealistic. When he grew up and looked in the mirror, who knows what melodramatic guesses he might come up with.
So the couple picked a good day and booked a private room in Li Meng’s favorite restaurant. They fed him several large pieces of cake from left and right (“Another piece of mango flavor!” Li Meng said); when he was full and the atmosphere was about right, Jin Yan coughed and said painfully: “Li Meng, Daddy has something he hasn’t told you…”
Li Meng was instantly alert: “Did you have a child with Xu Xiaoxuan?”
Jin Yan: “…”
“Want to split the family property with the young master?”
Jin Yan: “…”
“Dream on!” Li Meng said righteously, “You and Jiang Qin are both mine! The family property is also mine! Tashi and Little Sheep are both mine! (Tashi: “Eh?”) Whoever dares to snatch them will be beaten to death with a stick! Little Sheep, attack!”
Little Sheep immediately assumed an attacking posture, head lowered with horns, eyes fierce, and a short little tail sticking up.
“…” Jin Yan was thunderstruck and trembled: “What the hell does it have to do with that woman? Actually, I want to say you are not my biological son, Jiang Qin is the one who—”
Jiang Qin covered his mouth, but unfortunately, it was too late.
Li Meng was hit by this bomb without any buffer or foreshadowing, looking back and forth between the two adults in disbelief: “What did you say, I’m not biological?”
“Uh, Jiang Qin is the one who…”
“Are you kidding?”
“No no no, actually…”
“Jiang Qin had me with another woman?”
“Although it sounds a bit deserving of a beating, that’s correct…”
“Then why did you lie to me? Do I look very silly and naive?”
Jiang Qin defected immediately after being looked at by Li Meng’s accusatory gaze for a second, pointing at Jin Yan and reporting: “This has nothing to do with me, ask your dad.”
“Li Meng, listen to Daddy explain! This shows that Daddy has always treated you as his own son!…”
“Enough!” Li Meng said angrily, “You simply subverted my view of family! The mother I thought was actually the father! The father I thought was actually the mother! How do you expect me to face the puberty sex education books I secretly bought yesterday?!”
His words had a miraculous effect: Jiang Qin and Jin Yan both felt subtly unhappy at the same time, and even Tashi, who was eavesdropping outside the private room, began to feel unhappy.
“I decided to leave this suffocating family!” Li Meng stood up suddenly and said righteously: “Today I’m going to be a troubled teenager with a wounded heart because of a broken family! I’m going to drink! Smoke! Pick up girls! Rob elementary school students!”
Jin Yan: “…”
Jiang Qin: “…”
“Just you wait!” Li Meng turned and ran out the door in tears.
Then halfway through his tearful run, he hurriedly turned back, grabbed the half-eaten cake on the table, and ran away without looking back.
Li Meng thought his parents would immediately run out to find him and offer various conditions to coax him home, such as buying another little ewe (so he would have endless generations of Little Sheep to raise); such as never forcing him to learn housework again (because Jiang Qin said that no matter how high the IQ, one would starve without hands-on ability); such as allowing him to eat cake and watch cartoons all day (allowing here means not only approving of his behavior of watching cartoons but also sitting down to watch with him)…
But Li Meng was disappointed. Neither Daddy nor Mommy chased after him.
Heartbroken, Li Meng wandered the streets, completely unaware of a silent Tashi following ten meters behind him. Night fell, and the streetlights came on. The bar street was filled with an atmosphere of luxury and dissipation; Li Meng stared curiously at the magnificent door of a bar, finally couldn’t help but take a step forward, peeking inside.
Although he had been to the nightclub opened by Second Brother Jin before, as the only son of the Jin family, his status was so important that Second Brother Jin decisively had a quiet path opened from the side door to the private room just to avoid Li Meng having substantial contact with the nightclub.
Fifteen or sixteen-year-old teenagers have the strongest curiosity. Li Meng was the kind of child who would want to move more the less you let him move. Seeing the faint music and figures in the bar, he couldn’t hold back and wanted to go in and see what was going on.
Unexpectedly, he was stopped by the security guard as soon as he stepped on the stairs: “Little student, those under eighteen are not allowed in here. Are you an adult?”
Li Meng: “…”
“Looking at you, you’re still in junior high, right?”
Li Meng immediately said: “I’ve graduated from high school!”
“…”
“I just look small! Actually, I’m eighteen this year!”
Li Meng puffed out his chest forcefully and seriously—although he tried very hard, his small body was still very pitiful, making people want to pick him up and play with his tail hair and poke his little chrysanthemum.
The security guard didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Just as he was about to have someone drive him away, a black Bentley suddenly drove up to the bar door and stopped silently. Hellen, wearing a super short backless black dress and diamond high heels, got out of the car and opened the door respectfully. Out came a Guan Feng flapping black wings.
This Guan Feng was wearing a black Dior shirt, with ice-white skin and cold eyes, looking like a big bat flying out of a castle to eat people. Not sure if it was Li Meng’s illusion, but his first impulse upon seeing Guan Feng was to find a flyswatter and smack him back to Namek.
The Great Lord of Namek, Guan, glanced at Li Meng for a few seconds and asked: “What are you doing here?”
“…Playing.”
“…”
Li Meng glanced sideways and asked: “What are you doing here?”
“…Playing.”
“…”
The two looked at each other silently for a few seconds. Guan Feng walked into the bar, and the doorman opened the door for him respectfully.
“—Wait! Wait for me, Uncle Guan! Take me in with you, I promise to be obedient! As long as you give me rum cake, I can do anything—!” Li Meng pounced instantly, hugging Guan Feng’s thigh and crying: “Please don’t let Sister Hellen tie me up and send me home, you know I’ve already run away from home home home home home—!”
Hellen put down the rope with regret.
“Don’t dream,” Guan Feng said coldly, “She wants to tie you up to be a gigolo.”
Li Meng: “…”
Li Meng trembled on all fours, curled his tail, and was elegantly picked up by the scruff of his neck by Guan Feng, carried into the door like a pet.
As a result, Li Meng, who was domineering outside the door, shrank immediately upon entering. He had never stayed in a bar, didn’t know how to order drinks, let alone the difference between an Apple Martini and a Long Island Iced Tea; he peeked into Guan Feng’s glass, looked for a long time, and finally shrank back timidly, sipping his insane eighty-yuan-a-can Coca-Cola sip by sip.
With a burden by his side, it was inconvenient for Guan Feng to be hit on by handsome guys and beautiful girls, so he could only sit by the bar drinking with an icy face. Hellen, on the other hand, was hit on more than a dozen times with various bizarre reasons (“Beauty, want to read palms?” “Beauty, want a tarot reading?” “Beauty, do you know why cherry blossoms are so red?”); but the mad bees and butterflies were all thrown out by the Guan family bodyguards without exception.
Guan Feng had enough of appreciating the stupid looks of the silly little boy hitting on beautiful big sisters. Finally satisfied, he turned his head, took a sip of wine, and asked Li Meng casually: “Why did you run away from home?”
Not asking was fine, but once asked, Li Meng was immediately filled with hatred: “Jin Yan doesn’t respect me!”
“Isn’t that normal? He doesn’t respect me either.”
“It’s different! Did you also live in this world for sixteen years before discovering you weren’t Jin Yan’s biological son?!”
Guan Feng: “…”
“And he only told me now!” Li Meng complained indignantly: “Does he think he can control his children’s feelings at will? I am an independent person! I have the right to know! I want to sever the parent-child relationship with Jin Yan—!”
“…” Guan Feng said decisively: “Wait a moment.”
He turned around and quickly dialed a number on his mobile phone. A few seconds later, Duan Hanzhi’s lazy voice came: “Your Majesty Guan Feng, has your Namek mothership finally come to pick you up?”
“I’m at the bar with Li Meng, got gossip.”
“—What?! Jin Yan had a child with Xu Xiaoxuan?!”
“More or less.”
Guan Feng turned back to sit straight, put the phone on speaker, and looked at Li Meng kindly: “—Now you can start talking.”
Li Meng: “…”
Li Meng stood up suddenly and said coldly: “Wait a moment! I’ll go find a flyswatter first!”