MFMBSA 35

Chapter 35 – Courage

 

The table was behind Qi Xi, and it was embedded with the chair, making the space extremely small. He let go of Fu Yanchuan and sat down completely with all his weight on Fu Yanchuan’s legs.

 

He couldn’t answer Fu Yanchuan’s question. Apart from being a substitute, he seemed to have no identity that could stay with Fu Yanchuan. But Fu Yanchuan was so kind, and his status as a substitute made him feel that Fu Yanchuan’s kindness to him was not for him.

 

Obviously he had never thought about the disadvantages of being a substitute before, so how can he say that he doesn’t want to be a substitute anymore.

 

“I, I…I am-“

 

Qi Xi stummered to Fu Yanchuan several times without saying anything. Fu Yanchuan looked at him and saw that Qi Xi looked like he was about to cry. He pinched his cheeks that were hardened by gritting his teeth and said, “If you can’t say it, don’t say it.” 

 

“No!”

 

Qi Xi was unwilling as if he would lose something if he couldn’t say it. After thinking for a long time, an idea suddenly flashed through his mind, “Let me be your lifelong friend, your best friend.”

 

Fu Yanchuan laughed, and Qi Xi continued seriously: “You have lost your only friend. From now on, I will be your best friend in your life, okay?”

 

When he didn’t answer, Qi Xi became anxious and grabbed his collar and asked, “Aren’t you willing?”

 

“I do not want to.”

 

“Then what do you want?”

 

Qi Xi’s already weak brain was paralyzed, and he said anxiously to Fu Yanchuan: “I know I’m useless. I can’t help you, and I will always have to trouble you. But I, I -“

 

“Qi Xi, stop talking.”

 

Fu Yanchuan interrupted Qi Xi. He pressed his strangled neck, leaned close to him and kissed the corners of his lips, saying, “Whatever you want is whatever you want. I have plenty of time. You can think about it slowly and tell me once you’ve made up your mind ”

 

“Okay.” Qi Xi responded with a thick nasal voice. He nodded again and asked Fu Yanchuan, “Do you hate me?”

 

Fu Yanchuan bit his lip and told him in a very nice voice, “I like you.”

 

Qi Xi suddenly blushed again. He straightened his neck and distanced himself from Fu Yanchuan. He looked around and said, “Don’t say you like me. It feels like a confession! I’m going to continue reviewing. Goodbye!”

 

The person who said goodbye actually only sat next to him. Fu Yanchuan glanced over. Qi Xi seemed to be staring at the paper seriously. After looking at him for a long time, he reminded him: “The paper is upside down.”

 

“Ah! Oh.”

 

Qi Xi quickly turned the paper back, glanced sideways at him and ordered, “Don’t look at me and disturb me from memorizing the questions.”

 

Fu Yanchuan didn’t bother him, but within two minutes Qi Xi started playing with his pen and drawing on the draft paper. After drawing for a long time, he suddenly ran out again.

 

He looked over and took a look at the picture Qi Xi had drawn. It was another small cartoon. A cute little man was endorsing the test paper. Suddenly a monster emerged from the test paper. The little man also transformed and started a wild battle with the monster.

 

After reading it, he couldn’t help but leave two words below.

 

Qi Xi washed a basket of fruit and came in. He sat down and started to nibble. With his other hand, he pushed the fruit basket towards Fu Yanchuan, and then he saw the extra words on his draft paper.

 

[Be Serious]

 

He glanced sideways at Fu Yanchuan, and when he saw Fu Yanchuan working seriously, he immediately picked up the pen and continued drawing.

 

There are many villains fighting monsters next to them

 

He picked up a comrade, who came over and said to the villain: “Be friends with me!”

 

The villain ignored him and his comrade was knocked away by the monster.

 

But even though his comrade was injured, he still came back and said, “I want to be best friends with you.”

 

The villain still ignored him, and his comrade cried and begged him, “Don’t you really want to be my best friend?”

 

The villain opened the test paper and faced his comrade with a bubble box that took up half of the page. There were three big words written inside – Be serious! !

 

Qi Xi was very satisfied with the painting and put it in front of Fu Yanchuan for Fu Yanchuan to see.

 

Fu Yanchuan saw the comics that suddenly covered his keyboard and turned to Qi Xi with a smile, “Come here.”

 

Qi Xi obediently moved his chair over to squeeze in with him, and put one of his legs on his lap. He said to him with a serious expression: “Mr. Fu, you have to work more seriously.”

 

Fu Yanchuan’s eyes darkened. He grabbed Qi Xi’s draped leg, pulled him over, and pinned him between him and the table. He then retorted, “Who is not serious?”

 

Qi Xi refused to admit it, and casually took a freshly washed fruit and stuffed it into Fu Yanchuan’s mouth, “Brother Yan, do you want to eat it? It’s very sweet.”

 

Fu Yanchuan took a bite of the fruit from Qi Xi’s hand and said, “There are no rules.”

 

Qi Xi fed Fu Yanchuan and then he had bitten onto it as well into his mouth. He chewed it until it made a popping sound, and then asked him, “Is it sweet?”

 

“I’ll try it again.”

 

Qi Xi fed Fu Yanchuan again, but Fu Yanchuan took his hand away and tasted it in his mouth.

 

In the next few days, Qi Xi still insisted on coming to Fu Yanchuan’s desk to memorize the questions, but he didn’t memorize any of them. He always had a reason to disturb Fu Yanchuan and ask Fu Yanchuan to fish with him.

 

Zhou Zhiwei, who used to receive Fu Yanchuan’s work arrangements at night, suddenly couldn’t receive anything. She couldn’t help but wonder if Fu Yanchuan was sick. However, when she saw Fu Yanchuan during the day, she felt that Fu Yanchuan was radiant and looked more beautiful than before. He became more alive, no longer has the same cold routine, and even his eyes became richer.

 

However, Qi Xi failed the exam without any surprise. For the first time he was not sad at all, and he didn’t even care about being scolded by the teacher.

 

Fu Yanchuan was right. Graduation was not the only path he could choose. He decided to thank Fu Yanchuan for making him enlightened.

 

But thanking Fu Yanchuan was too troublesome. He didn’t know what Fu Yanchuan wanted, so he sent a message directly to Fu Yanchuan.

 

[Brother Yan, I failed the exam. I want to thank you for your help. What do you want?]

 

Fu Yanchuan was looking at the plans for the group’s annual meeting. When he saw Qi Xi’s message, he couldn’t understand Qi Xi’s logic, but he would follow it.

 

[On your vacation? Would you like to go out with me in a few days?]

 

When Qi Xi received Fu Yanchuan’s reply, he jumped up in surprise and quickly replied.

 

[That’s right, I’m already on winter vacation. Are you envious?]

 

[When will we go? Are you going on a business trip and going to be sleeping alone? Are you going to feel lonely and want me to accompany you?]

 

[Don’t worry, I will accompany you wherever you go, and whatever you want to do will be fine!]

 

[Then what should we bring? I haven’t seen snow. Is there snow there? I also like the sea. Where can there be both the sea and snow?]

 

When Fu Yanchuan saw Qi Xi’s series of messages, he put down his cell phone and said to Zhou Xiaowei: “Change the location to a place with sea and snow.”

 

After he finished speaking, he thought for a moment and said, “Geography shouldn’t be poor. The differences should not be too large to cause acclimatization.]

 

Zhou Zhiwei stared in shock [This request is too detailed.]

 

In previous group annual meetings, Fu Yanchuan’s attitude was extremely perfunctory. He just treated it as if it was an established process that had to be followed. This was the first time he seriously raised his opinions.

 

Usually Fu Yanchuan only uses his mobile phone as a tool and rarely uses it to chat.  So when he goes out, Zhou Zhiwei can’t help but look back.

 

Fu Yanchuan was typing on his mobile phone with a smile on his lips. She was shocked again!

 

Qi Xi received the news from Fu Yanchuan that there was snow and sea to where they are going and immediately thought about what to bring. He searched online first, but thinking that he was already a rich man, he immediately decided to go to the mall counter to buy it. 

 

There was a huge shopping mall not far from where he lived. He walked downstairs and walked to the square in front of the shopping mall when someone suddenly grabbed him.

 

This was the only place in the square where cars could pass. He was startled and turned around to face Qi Zhounan. Before he could ask why Qi Zhounan was here, he was slapped by someone who got out of the car next to him on the face.

 

He was stunned. Qi Feng turned to him and cursed angrily: “I still don’t believe what Qi Zhounan told me. I didn’t expect you to be so shameless. A man goes to support a man! Qi Xi, my face has been hurt by you. Shame on you! I didn’t ask you to achieve anything, but I didn’t ask you to do such a shameless thing!”

 

Qi Xi rubbed his sore face, and it took him a long time to regain his consciousness. He stared at Qi Feng and asked inexplicably: “What did you say? I don’t understand what you said!”

 

“You’re still pretending to be stupid!”

 

Qi Feng raised his hand again, and Qi Zhounan on the side quickly pulled Qi Xi over and said to Qi Feng: “Dad, calm down! We are here to take my brother back. We are still on the street here.”

 

When he heard that he was going back, Qi Xi immediately pushed Qi Zhounan away, “I’m not going back! I have a place to live now, and you have kicked me out. That is not my home!”

 

Qi Feng’s anger instantly rushed to the top of his head, and he glared at Qi Xi and cursed: “Do you have a place to live? Who gave you a place to live? Qi Xi, even if you have been uneducated, why are you so shameless?! You have hands and feet! Even if your grandpa’s house is sold, you didn’t know how to come back? Did I say I wouldn’t let you go back? You actually went to sell it out—”

 

When he saw the people around him staring at them, without saying anything else, he took a deep breath, grabbed Qi Xi’s wrist and pulled the person into the car.

 

“Tell me when we get home!”

 

“I won’t!”

 

Qi Xi shook off Qi Feng’s hand, but Qi Feng was taller and stronger than him, so he was caught again before he could run away.

 

This time Qi Feng threw him directly into the car, turned around and scolded the onlookers: “What are you looking at? You had never seen anyone teach their son a lesson?!”

 

Qi Xi wanted to get out of the car, but Qi Feng pushed him in again. Then Qi Feng got into the car and closed the door.

 

Qi Zhounan sat in the passenger seat and the driver drove away.

 

Qi Xi didn’t quite understand what was going on, but he was sure that Qi Feng was going to take him back to his extra home. When he was kicked out, he didn’t want to go back, and he didn’t want to go back now.

 

He took out his cell phone and called Fu Yanchuan, but before the call was made, Qi Feng snatched his cell phone away and scolded him, “You still want to call that man? You are not allowed to contact him again.”

 

Qi Feng looked through Qi Xi’s cell phone. The number that Qi Xi was about to call was called “Good Handsome Guy.” He glanced at Qi Xi with disgust and dismissed the number.

 

The number has been deleted.

 

Then he opened Qi Xi’s V-mail, and the person he chatted with Qi Xi the most, apart from Xie Hui  was a person named “Brother Yan” in the remarks.

 

He read the chat history between Qi Xi and the two of them, smashed Qi Xi’s cell phone on the back of the front seat, turned to look at Qi Xi, and was so angry that he almost couldn’t breathe.

 

Qi Xi was frightened. In his impression, Qi Feng had always been a father who had no sense of presence. He was often not at home when he was a child. When he was sick, he only looked at him without saying a word of concern.

 

Later, his mother was gone, and Qi Feng’s presence became even less important to him. He couldn’t even speak a word for several days.

 

He didn’t understand. If Qi Feng had never cared about him for so many years and didn’t care about him at all, why was he angry now?

 

But he had never seen Qi Feng be so arrogant. He was frightened and retreated to the other side of the car without daring to speak.

 

The driver drove the car back to the villa where he thought he would never return. When the car door opened, he wanted to escape, but Qi Feng caught him again and was forcibly dragged into the house.

 

Qi Xi was thrown on the sofa in the living room. Cui Tingting looked at him coldly with her hands folded, Qi Feng and Qi Zhounan walked opposite him as if they wanted to interrogate him.

 

Qi Feng stared for a long time and then lit up a cigarette. Qi Zhounan sat next to him, took his arm and said, “Brother, have you been bullied? Is that man——”

 

After all, Qi Zhounan was only 14 years old and didn’t understand the rules of adults. He felt that Qi Xi was so stupid that he must have been deceived.

 

In fact, on the second day after Qi Xi moved out, he went to Qi Xi’s grandpa’s house to look for Qi Xi, thinking that he was going to live with Qi Xi. Only when he went there did he find that someone else lived in the house.

 

He guessed that Qi Xi was unwilling to come back, so he didn’t tell them about the house. But when he went to Qi Xi’s school to find him, he unexpectedly saw Qi Xi being picked up and dropped off by a luxury car.

 

Although he is only 14 years old, he has known that he is the child of a mistress and he is not completely ignorant of those dirty transactions.

 

He felt that Qi Xi was just like his mother back then, so he didn’t tell anyone. After that, he kept going to Qi Xi’s school. It took him a long time to finally track down where Qi Xi lived.

 

Qi Xi didn’t have much money and couldn’t afford to live in such an expensive community. He followed Qi Xi for confirmation until he saw Qi Xi pick up a man with a large bouquet of red roses.

 

Afterwards, he went to find Qi Xi and tried to persuade Qi Xi to go home. Qi Xi refused and was still with the man, so he told Qi Feng.

 

Qi Feng put out the remaining half of the cigarette and said, “Qi Zhounan, go back to your room.”

 

Qi Zhounan refused, so Qi Feng yelled at him, “Go back to the room!”

 

Qi Xi felt that Qi Feng was planning to beat him by calling Qi Zhounan away, so he looked around and considered how to escape.

 

Qi Zhounan finally left. Qi Feng turned his eyes to Qi Xi and spoke angrily again.

 

“What happened between you and that man? Did he lie to you? Or threatened you?”

 

Qi Xi picked up the pillow and put it in front of him as a precaution, and asked Qi Feng in confusion, “Did you say it was Brother Yan?”

 

“Brother Yan?”

 

Qi Feng snorted coldly, “How much did he give you? What did he tell you? Is he already married? But he loves you and wants you to be his lover? Do you believe what that kind of man says?”

 

“No.” Qi Xi corrected seriously, “I’m a substitute.”

 

Qi Feng suddenly kicked the coffee table, “Substitute? He didn’t lie to you, did you do it yourself?”

 

Qi Xi nodded, and Qi Feng seemed to have been ignited by explosives and cursed: “Qi Xi, you are a man. You just like to cry and cry! How can you be so shameless and sell your body to be taken care of by a man!”

 

The more he scolded, the angrier he became. He stood up and pointed at Qi Xi and continued to scold him, “You are said to be worthless, incompetent, and brainless. Why do you just do this kind of thing that requires no brains? I don’t expect you to do anything big in the future, but at least live with dignity! What is the difference between what you are doing now and those women who come out to sell themselves?”

 

“Dad!”

 

Qi Xi screamed subconsciously. He was just used to not thinking carefully about those who looked down on him. He just didn’t take other people’s jokes to heart. It wasn’t that he didn’t really understand what humiliation was.

 

And the person who is talking about him now is his biological father.

 

Tears welled up in his eyes uncontrollably, but he remembered what Fu Yanchuan had said to him.

 

“Qi Xi, you are excellent.”

 

“The so-called smartness is only in other people’s eyes. You don’t have to force yourself to learn a major that you are not good at.”

 

“Your paintings are the most shocking I have ever seen. They are special and unique.”

 

“You don’t have to worry about people who say you are bad, but trust people who can understand you.”

 

Qi Xi held back his tears, stood up, and looked directly at Qi Feng. He gritted his teeth to give himself courage and finally spoke out.

 

“I’m not! Brother Yan is my friend. He encourages me and helps me. He tells me that everyone’s talents are different. I’m not smart, but I have other things that I’m good at. I can make money on my own! Even if I don’t graduate from college, I can find a job. In your eyes, I will only embarrass you, but Brother Yan said that I am excellent! I am with him because he is good to me, better than all of you! Because I just like him! “