Chapter 234: Ye Shuang Outsmarts a Six-Year-Old
Translator: Lonelytree Editor: Millman97
Brother Shuang had always been very photogenic. Even though that was not really her intention this time, the final result was sadder than what she could have imagined. In w.a.n.g Xueyu’s original plan, he had prepared to conduct a test first. After both parties had a good impression of each other, he would then slowly announce that he had a girlfriend.
Throughout this process, even though he would not openly announce that Xiao Yu was his girlfriend, other people would naturally think, Does this girl have some kind of relations.h.i.+p with our son to warrant this kind of treatment?
With that, the attention would be on her, and they would start to consider her in the capacity of daughter-in-law and then make their own judgment based on that. In return, w.a.n.g Xueyu would adjust the plan and tempo of his confession based on the att.i.tude showcased by his family. However, that plan had completely failed!
Even though she had come with a visiting present that was obviously beyond what a ‘normal friend’ should bring, Xiao Yu failed to get the attention of w.a.n.g Xueyu’s family. She was promptly ignored. When w.a.n.g Xueyu came downstairs and saw this scene, one could imagine how complicated his feeling was.
…
“The first step can be deemed very successful. The fact that there was no initial rejection is very important.”
When they were brought upstairs to be given a tour of the place, seeing the complicated expression on his first boss and second boss’ faces, Xu Jian scratched his mind before coming up with this conclusion.
“Of course, there is no rejection. Have you seen someone reject a random stranger on the street for no reason?” w.a.n.g Xueyu failed to resist the urge to roll his eyes. “Only a mad person would hate a stranger for no reason. The biggest problem is that now my mother has completely ignored Xiao Yu as a parson.”
Focus! Being focused and showered with attention was more important! Whether it was acceptance or rejection, that would have to be decided in the future, but the premise was that she had to be seen first. If she was not even seen by his family, how was he going to bring up the fact that she was his girlfriend?
w.a.n.g Xueyu’s girlfriend’s name was Qiu Yu. Both of them had attended the same university, but their subjects were completely different. Qiu Yu was a typical arts stream student, and her course was in translation. She could speak and write four different languages fluently, and if placed in the work field, she had a bright future. Even though she had not yet graduated, she had already been approached by many large companies. However, that was not enough. Mrs. w.a.n.g was only concerned with family background and not ability. As much potential as Qiu Yu had, that was in the future, and that potential might not even help w.a.n.g Xueyu expand his business. Thus, if the two of them wanted to be together, they still had a very long journey to traverse together.
Eventually, they arrived at the room that w.a.n.g Xueyu had prepared. w.a.n.g Xueyu commented on a few things before he left with Xu Jian. He cracked his knuckles, all prepared to ‘discuss’ with Ye Shuang about his earlier attempt to steal the spotlight away from his girlfriend.
Qiu Yu stood in the room and studied it for a while. Even though it was just a guest room, the décor was exquisite and luxurious. It went to show the wealth behind the w.a.n.g family. Her fingers trailed the surface of the table, and she sat down by the window to look out at the scenery outside the window. Qiu Yu suddenly sighed. She did not say anything but turned around to unpack her luggage.
…
After one night of discussion and rest, the focus on Ye Shuang still had not dropped. As long as the wild child refused to quiet down, Brother Shuang’s glow would not be taken away. Probably trying to reclaim the face that he had lost the day before, or perhaps not willing to rest until he pranked Ye Shuang at least once, the wild child’s target on the second day naturally returned to Brother Shuang.
There were only a few running themes to a little boy’s pranks—suddenly jumping out from behind and shouting to scare people, silently putting caterpillars or his pet snake into other people’s personal bags, putting water balloons above the semi-closed doors… It was fine even if the boy had small legs and hands. There were maids in the family. As wild as the boy was, he was ultimately one of the young masters. Furthermore, if they did not help him, they were afraid that they would be targeted.
Throughout the long day, Ye Shuang resolved the traps set up by the boy one by one. The pranks made by the boy were as simple as a walk in the park for Ye Shuang. Ye Shuang had a good eye and was good at making observations. Then again, even if she wandered around the house with her eyes closed, whenever she got closed enough and heard the sound of someone’s m.u.f.fled breathing, she instantly knew that something was not right.
Mrs. w.a.n.g even got up from the mahjong table to see the martial art expert clear the many problems that were set up in her own home. Old Man w.a.n.g was feeling embarra.s.sed. He was fine with the boy’s occasional pranks, but doing it with such intensity… if it was relayed to outsiders, people would say he did not know how to teach his son.
Qiu Yu, Xu Jian, and w.a.n.g Xueyu had been demoted to the state of backdrop. Sister w.a.n.g would cheer along with Mrs. w.a.n.g or scold the boy with Old Man w.a.n.g depending on the situation.
After dinner, probably because Old Man w.a.n.g berated the child heavily at the dinner table, which was incredibly rare, the boy prepared to do something big and horrible when Ye Shuang prepared to go for a walk after dinner. When Ye Shuang stepped out of the gate of the w.a.n.g family mansion, five local ruffians followed him silently.
…
It was rare that Old Man w.a.n.g found his youngest son to be so obedient. After finis.h.i.+ng his dinner, he did not jump onto the sofa to watch the television, run to his own room to play his games, or even get out of the house to terrorize the village… bullying those “friends” of his that were younger than him. Instead, he picked up a bowl of fruit and sat beside the adults quietly. He looked so quiet and silent just like a normal boy. Even though he did not value this son as much as he valued his eldest son, this was ultimately his own flesh and blood. Old Man w.a.n.g felt comforted with his son’s action, thinking that he had finally grown up. He smiled with great satisfaction and personally added several pieces of melon to the boy’s bowl.
The others thought that the boy was acting very weird, too, but they would not say anything considering the good mood that Old Man w.a.n.g was in. They would not warn Old Man w.a.n.g to be careful—considering how out of character the boy was acting, perhaps he was cooking up a storm in the background. Even Qiu Yu, who had just stayed a night, knew that the boy was not someone who would turn over a new leaf that easily. However, at most, everyone put up their guard silently to prevent themselves from falling into the boy’s trap.
Just as the atmosphere turned curious in the living room, Ye Shuang came back with a smile that was already hanging on his face when he left. His body was still so tall and large, his face still one hundred percent perfect, and there was not even a crease on his s.h.i.+rt.
The boy’s eyes lit up with glee when he heard Ye Shuang come back. However, when he saw Ye Shuang in person, he felt that something was wrong. The feeling intensified when the man looked at him and gave him a smile. The boy felt instinctively that this was a source of danger, and he pulled back his body and hid behind Old Man w.a.n.g.
“Xiao Ye has returned from the walk? Why did you come back so soon this morning… Hmm, who are these people?” Old Man w.a.n.g had a good impression of Ye Shuang. One was because of his physical ability, and two was because he was able to chat very well with Ye Shuang. Initially, he already had a good impression of Ye Shuang. When he was out on the walk that morning, he had the chance to have a private conversation with Ye Shuang, and Old Man w.a.n.g realized that the young man knew quite a lot.
Old Man w.a.n.g had three hobbies in life—smoking his Chinese pipe, cards, and Go. There was not much to say about the first. After a few rounds of cards with Ye Shuang, he noticed how good Ye Shuang was at cutting the cards, and he was impressed by Ye Shuang’s high win rate. Because of that, his good impression of Ye Shuang grew tremendously.
The game of Go gave him a bigger surprise. In any case, the whole afternoon, Old Man w.a.n.g failed to win a single game. In the end, Ye Shuang even managed to get the schedule for the special Go cla.s.s from the Go a.s.sociation of the local city with just a call. The cla.s.s was not for amateurs but for those who had the intention to train for the national games.
They had similar hobbies and could chat freely. After spending the day with Ye Shuang, Old Man w.a.n.g thought that the friend whom his son had brought back this time was very good. Even though San Lin City was quite far, it was close enough to reach with a five-hour car ride. If he had close relations.h.i.+p with Ye Shuang, it would be a good connection to have. Therefore, after a day of interaction, compared to his att.i.tude the previous night, which was already friendly to begin with, Old Man w.a.n.g was even closer to Ye Shuang. It was because of this that he berated his youngest son so severely during dinner.
This time, Ye Shuang returned with a strange look. The strangeness though was not on Ye Shuang but because five people was chased into the room after Ye Shuang. The five had their faces punched in, and their clothes were dirtied and worn. It was clear from their appearance that they had been taught a lesson. With just one glance, Old Man w.a.n.g knew that something was not right. He did not notice the child’s face that was pale, and after he recovered from the initial shock, Old Man w.a.n.g’s face dropped. “Someone dares to give you trouble on my territory?”
“It’s not really trouble. We were just trying out each other’s capability.” Ye Shuang smiled gently. There was no sign of anger on the man. However, that gentle smile caused the five people to s.h.i.+ver once more. They had unshed tears in their eyes like they were seriously aggrieved.
This man was seriously scary, wasn’t he? He managed to beat up the whole gang of them without even getting tired. He was able to smile like nothing was out of the ordinary. The man’s methods were cruel and harsh. He interrogated and forced them to spill everything or else he would have undressed them all and drop them at the middle of the city.
The five ruffians dropped to their knees to plead for mercy. How did the man even come up with a punishment as ridiculous and as cruel as this?
With tragedy threatening their livelihood, the code of brotherhood was immediately tossed out of the window. The five immediately told Ye Shuang that they had been paid to teach Ye Shuang a lesson. They thought, since Ye Shuang was not a local, even if he was beaten up, he would not have come back to take revenge. However, they failed to antic.i.p.ate that since he was an outsider, he had no reason to hold back.
Ye Shuang abandoned the five and punished them to stand there. Ye Shuang moved to the sofa and glanced at the boy. Then, he turned to tell Old Man w.a.n.g with a smile. “I also found this out recently. These five dared to steal three thousand from Uncle w.a.n.g’s family member. Even though Uncle w.a.n.g’s family is rich, but the red envelope money that was given to the little young master couldn’t be cheated away like that, so I dragged them back here to apologize to you.”
Tricked‽ A child this wicked could be tricked? n.o.body bought that. Old Man w.a.n.g turned subconsciously around at the boy and stared at him with disbelief. The wild child was so nervous that he was on the verge of tears.
Three thousand… making trouble for Ye Shuang but failing… Ye Shuang dragged the culprits home…
After connecting all the dots, as long as the person was not an idiot, they would understand what Ye Shuang was trying to hint at.
Obviously, the boy had turned to someone to buy out other people to do his dirty bidding. The family had always been generous during new year, and new year was not that long ago. Therefore, this wild child went through his own stash and found people to fight the war for him.
“You… Go to your room!” Old Man w.a.n.g exploded. If not for his temperament improving after he struck the mother load, with his previous personality, he would have sent the boy flying with a slap to the face. The boy winced and finally got his lesson. He jumped down from the sofa and staggered his way up to the second floor.
w.a.n.g Xueyu looked at the five ruffians with curiosity. Since he had grown up there, he naturally could recognize the five as bad news, but w.a.n.g Xueyu was more curious about another thing. “You said you brought them back, but why would they follow your order so obediently? Why wouldn’t they just run?”
The five ruffians cried even harder. It was not that they did not want to run—they simply could not. The man was too powerful. He had his hands casually in his pockets, but there was a bag of chocolate b.a.l.l.s in his pocket. Of course, the chocolate b.a.l.l.s were not the main point—the main point was that whoever dared to run would be shot by a chocolate ball! The man aimed at the back of their knees, so before they could run away, they would be forced to kneel down to the ground. The worst thing was, when they were dragged back, they would be forced to compensate for the chocolate ball—one piece for 100. Even handcrafted chocolate from Belgium did not cost that much!
The five ruffians were filled with sadness and sourness. Under the both pressure from physical threats and money loss, the five ruffians eventually chose to surrender.
…
After that one night, Ye Shuang’s presence at the w.a.n.g family was noticed even more. The despaired w.a.n.g Xueyu became even more saddened. To everyone’s surprise, even the wild child had surrendered—he at least would not dare come at Ye Shuang openly anymore.
There was no choice; he had to admit defeat. The bad things that he had done were exposed, and that night, he had been beaten up severely by Old Man w.a.n.g. This kind of punishment that happened ever so rarely made the wild child’s resentment toward Ye Shuang disappear completely.
The boy was not an idiot. With the teaching from his biological mother, he had learned how to watch people’s expressions at a young age. When it came to who he needed to play nice with and who he could bully, the boy knew it clearer than anyone else. The boy did not dare to come after anyone of the family, but similarly, the family would not purposely make life difficult for a six-year-old. Therefore, they had been co-existing in relative peace. Other than the people that even Old Man w.a.n.g had to be respectful around, he could freely bully other outsiders. After all, no matter how big the prank the boy had played on them, they did not dare to really take revenge on him.
It was because of this realization that the child had not been physically punished before. However, this time, he came up against his natural enemy—the target this time was a big character and someone that Old Man w.a.n.g admired. At the same time, Ye Shuang was someone that would not hesitate to not give the boy face. Who said a child had to be forgiven for his every mistake? She forgave you because she was being understanding of his naivete, but he should not expect that she would forgive him every time.
Because of that, on the second day, when the wild child saw Ye Shuang, one could imagine how obedient he was. Now, whenever he saw Ye Shuang, he could feel the pain on his behind. He really did not expect that Ye Shuang was the kind of person that would say anything that was on his mind.
“Ha ha, I’m shocked that there is someone in this world that youngest son would be afraid of.” Old Man w.a.n.g faced Ye Shuang and laughed heartily. The sight of the awkwardness on his face from the day before when the boy was pulling all those pranks had completely disappeared. He raised his hand to make a lousy move on the Go board and said, “Xiao Ye, why don’t you stay with us? I’ll give you a salary of 10,000 a month. You can stay here at the home, and your job scope will only be to teach my son.”
Ye Shuang smiled and ended the game with another move. She saw the twitch on the old man’s lips, and she replied, “If Uncle w.a.n.g is really willing, I can introduce you to a good private school with boarding. The students will be allowed to return home every two weeks, and everything is done in a military fas.h.i.+on. Every morning, the students are hauled up from bed to run for one kilometer and then breakfast and cla.s.s. The whole day is spent in cla.s.s, and at night, the students have to do their homework. As long as you are willing to part with your son for one semester, I swear to you he’ll return a changed person.”
The teachers at the school could not be said to be of good quality, but every one of them had a steel heart. The headmaster had a clear philosophy. He believed that an idle mind was the devil’s playground, and that was especially true for kids. Therefore, he would make them tire like a dog every day and dry out all of their energy, leaving no energy for fights and romance.
Of course, skipping school was impossible. After the bell rang, the teachers would check the rooms with the student council. Those who came late to cla.s.s would be openly shamed at the weekly school gathering, much less those who were caught skipping school.
People liked to say that children were shameless, but actually, a child’s sense of pride was bigger than anyone else. The school’s politics were no different from an army’s. In any case, Ye Shuang knew the school well because quite a few wild children from her own neighborhood had been corrected after attending this school.
“That won’t work.” Old Man w.a.n.g shook his head. “My youngest son couldn’t be left at a full boarding school. His mother comes to see him every half a month—that was our argument.”
“A child’s education should be separated from visitation.” Ye Shuang smiled. “Uncle w.a.n.g, this is ultimately for the child’s own good. You shouldn’t really consider making the child stay at home and skip school simply because the mother wants to see him, right? Actually, you know that is the woman’s trick, and if Uncle w.a.n.g had just let Mrs. w.a.n.g handle this issue, the woman would have been taken care of already, and things would not have reached this current state.”
Old Man w.a.n.g was both persuaded and embarra.s.sed. He did not want to appear like he was unable to handle a small incident like this, so he had never considered asking his wife to deal with the mistress. It was fine for a man to have a little something on the side, but it was a different issue if he brought something home with him.
Of course, Mrs. w.a.n.g did not know about Old Man w.a.n.g’s issue of pride—she a.s.sumed her husband was giving face to the mistress and taking good care of the b*stard son. To not influence their relations.h.i.+p, especially since there was a ticking time bomb in the b*stard son, Mrs. w.a.n.g did not dare to take over the issue on her own, afraid that it might lead to an argument within the family.
Therefore, one wanted the other to take over but did not have the face to ask for it, and the other wanted to take over but was afraid of crossing the line. Neither wanted to talk about this awkward issue, and it had been allowed to fester until now.
Ye Shuang saw through Old Man w.a.n.g’s thoughts, and she sighed. “I hope Uncle w.a.n.g does not mind me saying something honest. It is really not a long-term solution to allow the child to continue like this. Even if you don’t wish for him to do anything great, at the very least, he should be taught not to harm his own family.
“At his age, he already knows how to buy out others to do his bidding. In the future, if this is not corrected, it will only lead to something worse. Many people think that one should not bother too much about what a child does, but if you do not teach him while he is young, when he grows up, it will be much too late.”
“I’ll think about it.” Old Man w.a.n.g brushed it off. Many things were easier said than done. He already knew about what Ye Shuang was saying, but he did not know how to take the first step.
He would consider talking it out with Mrs. w.a.n.g, but it was true that they could not leave the son’s education any further. It was about time for the boy to enter school. Starting from the second half of the year, it was time for his schooling age. Old Man w.a.n.g’s original intention was to send the boy to the city’s upscale school, but thinking about it once more, perhaps a military school was not such a bad idea.
Ye Shuang did not say anything more than that. After lunch, she sat around the house for a while before standing up and leaving the house to take a call. When she returned, she said that she needed to leave because something had come up. Old Man w.a.n.g wanted her to stay; after the chat in the morning, he wanted to get to know the young man. He was surprised that Ye Shuang would leave in such a hurry.
However, w.a.n.g Xueyu was very happy. Qiu Yu had been left stranded at the home for two days already. If Ye Shuang continued to stay, after the whole week was over, Qiu Yu would have returned to university without even raising a ripple at the family. When she returned next time, people probably would not even remember that this female friend of his had stayed over for a weekend.
Ye Shuang left the w.a.n.g family’s mansion at 9 pm. Ye Shuang exited the small town and went on the highway. She used five hours to drive back to San Lin City. Even though the highway was deserted since it was late at night, she did not make use of the chance to drift. This was because she wanted to buy time so that she could return to San Lin City in her female form. She changed her clothes and shoes in the car. The important issue was a lie; mainly, it was because Ye Shuang did not want to find a child to kiss.
It was true that Old Man w.a.n.g’s village was wealthy, but since none of the adults wasted time to learn about manners, the children had been reared the village way. The kids were left wandering the street, and they rubbed their snot and saliva on their sleeves. Seeing that, Ye Shuang did not have the appet.i.te to kiss anyone of them.
The next morning, she woke up early. She left home to go shopping for some cooking ingredients. When she left, she ran into Anthony, who was leaving his place to get to work. He saw Ye Shuang and asked in surprise, “Xiao Shuang, when did you return?”
“I came back last night and went to sleep directly.” Ye Shuang greeted the man and walked into the elevator with Anthony. She pressed the elevator b.u.t.ton and asked, “Is Albert still following you everywhere?”
“He is busy with other things.” Anthony used his hands to make a wicked expression and added with glee, “After he was dragged into the illegal possession of items earlier, Albert’s ident.i.ty was fully exposed in the city. When people heard that an FBI agent was on holiday in San Lin City, the local police force and Interpol were over the moon. To resolve the earlier misunderstanding and to make it seem like they were not trying to go after Albert and were biased against him, they invited him to do a friendly lecture.”
FBI agent coming to China to give a lecture? That must be a joke. Even though it was not impossible, it had to have gotten the yes from the leaders of all the parties involved.
Ye Shuang could see Han Chu’s involvement all over this. Perhaps even Yao Zhixing had gotten himself involved somehow. In any case, both of them had broad connections—one was all over the nation, and the other was famed locally. With their combined power, it was simple if they wanted to make things difficult for someone.
After the lecture, they could bring Albert to visit some unimportant location, and after the visitation, he could be invited to observe the military practice. After that, perhaps they could bring him to chat with the important officials. As long as Han Chu and Yao Zhixing felt like it, they could give Albert the best treatment.
China was most famous for chatting with leaders, having dinner, visitation and observation—one San Lin City was enough for Albert to ‘play’ for a whole month, but what about one month later?
Since he had such close relations.h.i.+p with the Chinese government, it would be strange if Albert was not summoned back to the FBI for questioning. To be frank, this was an open conspiracy.