Chapter 13
Although Yu Sui had his misgivings about Shi Luo’s family, he never asked Shi Luo anything about them.
Judging from the previous situation, anyone with eyes could see that Shi Luo’s family relationship was very complicated. Yu Sui wasn’t good at helping people work through their issues and he also didn’t want to pry into another’s private matters. So by tacit mutual understanding, they shelved that matter. Until one day, when Yu Sui together with Shi Luo had to drive for ten kilometers before they found a wonton shop. Yu Sui, finally couldn’t help but ask, “Ke Hao was loaded when we were in junior high school. So, why was…”
Why was your situation so miserable that now, you’d even feel uneasy if you don’t get to eat breakfast every day?
“Captain, among your relatives, do you have one who’s …” Shi Luo’s tongue was scalded by the hot wonton. He quickly sucked in some air to cool it down. “Outrageous? Or relatively outrageous?”
After a bit of hesitation, Yu Sui nodded.
Shi Luo said, “For everyone in my extended family, my dad was that outrageous relative.”
“Starting from when he was young, he was already ignorant and incompetent. When he grew up, he began to run amok. All his romantic relationships were a mess. His decision to get married was an impulsive one and after he got married he didn’t want to bear any responsibilities. At the post my grandfather arranged for him, he enjoyed all the privileges without doing a stroke of work and he stole funds to invest in get rich quick schemes …” Shi Luo sneered. “’Engaged in every kind of evil imaginable’, that’s him, alright.”
Yu Sui frowned slightly.
When he was a teenager, Yu Sui occasionally went to Ke Hao’s house. That year when he left home, his visits there became more frequent and he would freeload meals off them almost every month.
At that time, Ke Hao lived with his parents in a little family of three. Their house wasn’t very big, but a single glance was enough to see that it was a very exquisite home.
Ke Hao’s father was gentle and refined. Ke Hao’s mother was gentle and elegant. They treated others with respect. When they found out about Yu Sui’s profession, they were very understanding. They even often advised Yu Sui to keep in touch with his parents, hoping that they could resolve their conflict as soon as possible. Family was, after all, family.
That year, Ke Hao’s family was a source of great comfort for the young Yu Sui. So when he found out that Ke Hao had an uncle and cousin, Yu Sui instinctively thought that, given they came from the same clan, even if their situation wasn’t as good as Ke Hao’s, it wouldn’t be that different either.
This clearly wasn’t the case.
Shi Luo preferred strong and rich tasting foods. When eating wonton, he would put a lot of condiments in his bowl. Soon, he had dumped half a bottle of vinegar into his soup. He continued to add vinegar and asked, “Do you think my father’s a lot poorer than my uncle?”
Yu Sui said nothing.
Shi Luo, himself, wasn’t the least bit concerned. “It’s nothing that can’t be said. He really doesn’t have much money. Think about it, if you were my grandfather, would you trust someone like him to hold an important position? Can you trust him to be in-charge of a lot money?”
Yu Sui smiled but said nothing.
“Maybe, grandfather did give him a lot of money but my father’s great at squandering away a family fortune. He was always throwing money at things I always felt were no good. When he lost big time, it was my grandfather who told me the whole story. My uncle and my aunt don’t say anything outwardly, but inwardly… “Shi Luo laughed at himself,” I was always the one who was embarra.s.sed for him. But he didn’t feel ashamed. He was always asking money from my grandfather. My grandfather also felt that things couldn’t go on like that. It would be very unfair to my uncle. So, my dad was paid a little less than half of the company five years ago. After that, he wasn’t to be given any more money. ”
Shi Luo quickly ate half his bowl of wontons and said, “But every month, he could still receive some dividends. All he needed to do was be a b.u.m, do nothing and just spend money. But he was unwilling. He keeps trying to create some big news so that my grandfather would acknowledge him and give him back the family business. As you can guess, my grandfather grew more and more disappointed in him and his share of the dividends was docked. “
Something flashed in Yu Sui’s eyes. His lips moved, but he still didn’t speak.
Shi Luo took a sip of soup and raised an eyebrow. “So, now, the only thing my dad has that’s presentable enough is me. Although my grandfather doesn’t like me, I am still his grandson. And my grades are really good, so he needed to give it more consideration. After that … my grandpa is already eighty years old this year. Do you understand? ”
Yu Sui looked quietly at Shi Luo. “So you dropped out?”
“Yes.” Shi Luo said indifferently. “I won’t help my dad to fight for a share of the will. Even if he does manage to get something someday, he won’t give it to me anyway. Besides, I don’t want any part of it.”
Shi Luo held the soup bowl with both hands. “So, while it’s still early, better smash the pot because it’s cracked. Let my grandfather give up on both father and son altogether. It would be best if he leaves us not even a single penny. I can already support myself. He……”
“He won’t go hungry. He’ll just have to live the rest of his life depending on my uncle’s handouts and my aunt rolling her eyes at him.”
Shi Luo let his imagination run wild and thought about that scene. He gave his thigh a loud slap. “If things really turn out that way, I’ll be ecstatic!”
Yu Sui looked at Shi Luo with a smile on his face and an unlit cigarette between his lips.
Were it someone else, they would have perhaps impatiently or maybe earnestly persuaded Shi Luo to not sabotage himself for the sake of some momentary satisfaction. The future is yours. You mustn’t hurt yourself for revenge, let alone against your own father. How can there be intense and deep-seated hatred between father and son?
But the person before him had been Yu Sui.
At that time, Yu Sui simply said, “Your choice, your freedom.”
His future was his own, his father was his own, and the pain and torment he had suffered since childhood was also his own.
Yu Sui didn’t want to interfere with anything. He hadn’t suffered the same bitterness as Shi Luo. It wasn’t Yu Sui’s place to forgive anyone for the wrongs Shi Luo had suffered.
However, Yu Sui definitely didn’t like Shi Luo’s suicide-style revenge and attack. At that time, he warned Shi Luo that there won’t be another matter like this again.
Yu Sui had just come to his rescue and helped preserve his dignity in front of his father. Shi Luo listened to Yu Sui’s words and hurriedly nodded his head, agreeing with him.
Before he had promised so earnestly and in the blink of an eye, two years had pa.s.sed and here was Shi Luo frantically giving Yu Sui ten cups of lemon tea for the price of an entire season of his free service.
In his core, Shi Luo was such a person.
Even at this moment, Shi Luo didn’t regret it. His only regret was that he hadn’t executed it beautifully enough this time. There wasn’t any of that great satisfaction from that year.
After two years, Shi Luo once again sat in this renovated breakfast shop and looked at the same large bowl of wonton. Shi Luo gently sniffed and thought to himself; he hadn’t failed because he’d been reduced to some weak chicken these past two years or because his own brain had turned wooden and he hadn’t prepared thoroughly enough. It was simply because the one who had provided the follow-up blow that year was now standing against him.
That day during that year, as soon as Ke Chunjie stepped out of the training room, Shi Luo hurriedly placed the keycaps on the table. He hurriedly turned to the sole witness of the incident and asked Yu Sui to testify for himself that he had just played with the keycaps; that after playing, there had absolutely been no damage, and he hadn’t caused any wear and tear on those keycaps.
Yu Sui’s game was already in the second half. His stomach hurt from trying to hold back his laughter. He said, “I’ll testify for you.”
“Four thousand each, four thousand each …” Shi Luo looked around blankly. He felt like he understood less and less the prices of these things around him. He looked in awe at the plain takeaway bag on the table, not daring to underestimate it. After studying it for a long while, his attention was gradually attracted by the words on the takeaway bag. He said slowly, “Captain, although … but, shouldn’t a private kitchen as expensive as that have a special food box with dry ice or something? Why … are they using Red Armor takeaway boxes and takeaway bags? ”
Yu Sui took a cigarette and lit it. He stared at the screen and said, “Because that’s take-away crayfish from Red Armor.”
Shi Luo was tongue-tied. “Just now, you said …”
“I made it up. So what?” Yu Sui said without a change in his expression. “The private kitchen I mentioned does regularly deliver to us but we happened to order crayfish last night. I didn’t make it up from out of nothing. I just pretended a little. So what?”
Yu Sui’s argument seemed to hold up, but Shi Luo couldn’t help casting another suspicious look at those keycaps on the table. “Then, these little things …”
Yu Sui said, “Those are really four thousand each. If you don’t believe me, pick it up and take a look. There should be special serial number inside the keycaps.”
Shi Luo didn’t want to touch these more than 10,000 yuan things at all, and he shook his head: “No need, no, I believe it.”
There was a smile in Yu Sui’s eyes. He took a puff of his cigarette and continued playing.
Very few of what Yu Sui said then were true. He especially loved to tease Shi Luo. But, at the time, Shi Luo was still at that honest young age when he’d believe anything. He couldn’t distinguish between jokes and serious talk. As long as Yu Sui said it, Shi Luo believed it without the slightest doubt.
Although Yu Sui was very young at that time, he was already a veteran-level figure in the circle. He was also at the pinnacle of all medics and he was their division’s strongest shield. So many haloes had been bestowed upon his person that it was all too easy to be duped by Yu Sui. So, it wasn’t until long after that, when Shi Luo had entered NSN and then IAC; after being beaten down several times by reality and having received wages from both teams did he realize, that wages should have been paid by the club’s finance department. They weren’t paid via direct cash transfer from the team captain’s Alipay account.
It was then that Shi Luo found out that the two months salary he had received from FS that year were all from Yu Sui’s personal account.
Until now, the former senior executives of FS didn’t even know that their club had a parasite of a subst.i.tute who had been earning that much of an annual salary.
Those two months’ high monthly salary was just Yu Sui’s way of letting Shi Luo maintain his dignity in front of Ke Chunjie.
Shi Luo, who came to understand afterwards, also wanted to question Yu Sui. But Yu Sui had already left for Europe. He thought of returning the hundreds of thousands to Yu Sui. But, of course, these simply remained as thoughts.
The two had long since broken all relations with each other and they’ve both said they’d never contact the other again.
At that time, Shi Luo looked at the transfer records from Yu Sui and found it hard to breathe. He suddenly realized why, despite Yu Sui’s situation, despite hurting so many people with what he did, he still had so many die-hard followers.
Some people were able to treat you so well and also break off things with you so decisively that in the following years, you would hate them to the bone but you would be unable to let go.
For a time, Shi Luo hated Yu Sui so much he’d almost gone crazy. He wanted to tell everyone. Don’t be fooled by this person. Don’t let him treat you well. Otherwise, he’ll dig a pit for you from which you won’t be able to crawl out of and you’ll regret it to death. But later, Shi Luo gradually found out that the only one who couldn’t crawl out of his pit of memories, was only himself.
Shi Luo’s eyes were reddened by the hot steam coming from the wonton soup. He forced himself to eat all of the wontons and then drink the soup until there wasn’t a single drop left.
Shi Luo wiped the corners of his mouth with a tissue. He hung his head low as he swiped his QR code to pay. He turned around and headed out of the breakfast shop, walking back to the IAC base.
It was only seven o’clock in the morning and the base was silent. Shi Luo dragged his feet towards the stairs. When he pa.s.sed by the meeting room on the first floor, the door to the meeting room opened.
Shi Luo looked out from the corner of his eyes. It was Zhao Feng.
Zhao Feng looked up and down at Shi Luo. Shi Luo’s eyes, ears and neck were all red, but his lips were slightly pale, and his eyes were slightly ashen. He was obviously in a bad state. Zhao Feng was speechless. “You, you are …”
“I drank too much. Have the subst.i.tute join the afternoon training matches instead. I need to sleep this off.” Shi Luo’s voice was hoa.r.s.e, “Don’t call if there’s isn’t anything the matter.”
Zhao Feng nodded hurriedly.
Shi Luo turned and started climbing the stairs. Zhao Feng hesitantly called out, “Evil.”
Shi Luo frowned. “Is there anything else?”
Zhao Feng gulped. “I don’t want to disturb you, but I wouldn’t be able to hide this. It’s just that…”
Shi Luo had a splitting headache, and said irritably, “Can you just spit it out?”
Zhao Feng said, “Whisper will be coming over tonight, should I … call you?”
Shi Luo froze in place.