CH 60

After Shang Youyou’s affair was settled, Shang Jin moved back to the the dormitory the next day.

When he returned, the other people in the dorm were reviewing in the library, but Ye Zhou, who had always resided in the library, was in the dorm.

“You didn’t go to the library?” Shang Jin took out the textbooks from his bag one after the other, and the table that he’d tidied up before leaving quickly became a mess again.

“It’s still reviewing no matter where I review. There’s no difference.” Ye Zhou leaned back in his chair and glanced at Shang Jin from time to time. “How’s Youyou? Did she change her view about her little brother?”

Shang Jin turned around and leaned on Ye Zhou’s table. “After we got back yesterday, Little Ji grabbed Youyou’s finger and Youyou thought that Little Ji liked her very much. She also ‘reluctantly’ became friends with Little Ji. Your nonsense actually worked.”

“I was telling the truth. You’re the one who talked nonsense yesterday! Do you understand that what I did is called a white lie? Youyou, this pure and kind little girl would usually believe it.”

Shang Jin flicked Ye Zhou’s forehead and returned to his seat. He searched for a book and began reviewing. Ye Zhou also continued to read his textbook.

The dorm was quiet for a moment.

But the silence was soon broken by a telephone ring.

Shang Jin looked at the caller ID on the phone and frowned.

Liang Jingmin.

‘One doesn’t visit the temple without a cause’. But this call was expected, and was even later than Shang Jin had expected.

“Why don’t you answer?” With a kick of his leg, Ye Zhou moved the swivel chair over to Shang Jin’s side. He leaned against the ladder and looked at the vibrating phone on the desk. “Who is it?”

“Trouble.” Shang Jin snorted and said, “What are you doing?”

Ye Zhou looked at him and quietly returned to his desk. Shang Jin had once answered the phone with a very bad tone and it had left an impression on him at that time. Hearing Shang Jin’s tone, Ye Zhou reflexively thought of whether or not it was that person again.

“I have an exam tomorrow.”

“It’s just a final exam. Isn’t it easy for you?” Liang Jingmin said disdainfully. “Come have a meal with me in a while. Mom’s inviting you to eat today.”

Shang Jin raised his eyebrows. This was the sun rising from the west: Liang Jingmin actually took the initiative to invite him to eat. Shang Jin sneered, “You’re inviting? It won’t still be me who’s paying at the end, right?”

Liang Jingmin choked. She took a deep breath and said, “I’m your mother. Don’t say that today I invited you to eat, even if you as my son invited me to eat, isn’t that as it should be?”

“Don’t be so haughty. Ye Zhou’s more like my mom than you!”

Ye Zhou who had been listening to Shang Jin’s words with perked ears: ???

Did he just hear something that he’d never thought he’d hear in this life, this title that Shang Jin had bestowed on him for the second time?

Shang Jin wouldn’t, because he lacked motherly love, just have his heart moved because he’d taken care of him, right?

Thunderstruck by this idea, Ye Zhou covered his heart and glanced at Shang Jin. It didn’t look like he was craving for motherly love and pinning this feeling on another person. For Shang Jin, since it cannot be obtained, then he didn’t need it.

Shang Jin hung up the phone and stood up. Seeing that Ye Zhou was looking at him with a strange look, he asked, “What are you looking at?”

Ye Zhou blurted out, “You’re not really taking me as your mother, right?”

“What as what?” Shang Jin was baffled. “How could I compare you to that kind of person?”

Ye Zhou awkwardly coughed and said, “That…why’s she looking for you?”

“She didn’t say on the phone, but…” Shang Jin snorted. “It’s easy to figure out. Isn’t it because Auntie’s baby was born and she wants to raise my sense of crisis?”

Ye Zhou was unclear. “What sense of crisis?”

“Yeah, what sense of crisis? What can a newborn child do? She has no ability so she thinks about other people’s land and wealth. Ridiculous.” Not even an hour after he came back, Shang Jin stood up again, grabbed his phone and card, and said, “I’m going first. I won’t be back for lunch.”

“Eh…”

“Hm?”

“Nothing.” Ye Zhou pulled his attention back to the book and no longer spoke.

Shang Jin looked at him, then at the time and said, “It’ll take three hours at most. I’ll be back then.”

Ye Zhou pursed his lips and hmphed. “I didn’t ask you.”

Liang Jingmin’s meeting was at a very cheap restaurant. Once Shang Jin saw this environment, he knew that perhaps Liang Jinmin was really planning to treat him today.

This time, it was a private room again.

Shang Jin didn’t mind. After all, there were some words that really weren’t good to speak out in public.

After pushing the door open, Liang Jingmin smiled at Shang Jin and said, “I just ordered. Have some tea first.”

Shang Jin casually pulled out the nearest chair and sat down. He said a bit bluntly, “You invited me to have a meal, but don’t ask me, this guest, what I want to eat?”

“We’re all a family. What does it matter?” After the private room door closed, Liang Jingmin asked impatiently, “I heard that in your family, that person was born?”

Shang Jin lifted the tea cup, blew on the floating tea leaves and took a sip. He calmly said, “You’ve already heard, so why are you still asking me?”

Liang Jingmin frowned and said, “You’ve almost graduated. What’s he doing with another son?”

Shang Jin laughed and said, “He wasn’t born to me. You ask me, then who should I ask?”

Liang Jingmin was speechless. The next second, she said while ‘hating iron for not becoming steel’, “How could you not understand? When your dad was in his entrepreneurial period, he treated you like a plant: feed you when you’re hungry, clothe you when you’re cold. It’s fine as long as you live. At that time, he had no time or energy to invest feelings in you, so your father-and-son relationship isn’t deep. But this child is different. You father now has a stable career and he’s getting older. Thinking of the parent-child time he’d once missed, now he wants to put his feelings into this child. Then, don’t you see who’d be close and who’d be neglected?”

Shang Jin looked at the constantly floating tea leaves and asked, “So what?”

“Youー”

“I say, can you not find me for every little thing?”

“Is this a trivial matter? Afterwards, what if your dad gives his little son the business he’d built up all his life?”

“Yes, he wants to give the business to his youngest son, so all the more you shouldn’t come to me at this time.” Shang Jin rapped the table and indifferently said, “After all, I, this person who can’t get a part of the family property, needs to get the highest scholarship to keep my pitiful life, isn’t it?”

Liang Jingmin hatefully said, “How could you not be like me at all? There’s obviously a shortcut, why not take it!”

Shang Jin said contemptuously, “So, did your shortcut lead to success?”

Liang Jingmin finished her cup of water in one go. She set down the glass and said in ill-will, “You will regret not listening to me. Young people just don’t know how tall the sky is and just think of how capable they are. When your head is broken and blood is flowing, then you’d know how right I am.”

“Oh, right. After you reminded me so much, I feel more and more that I have no advantage in front of dad.” Shang Jin said with a smile, “Because I’m in a relationship and it’s with a boy. You say, if dad knows of this, would he drive me out of the house or not? But it won’t matter if I’m driven out. I still have this mother. At that time, I’ll go directly to your home and we won’t need to stand by politeness. I can take your home as my home, right?”

Liang Jingmin was so angry that she began to tremble. She tried to suppress her anger and said, “Shang Jin, do you know what you are doing? You’re not a little child anymore. You can’t casually act in a fit of pique.”

“I’m not acting in a fit.” Shang Jin shrugged, opened the private room door and said, “Waiter, when can we be served?”

“I’m sorry, we’ll serve you right away.”

During the entire meal, Shang Jin ate without any worries, while Liang Jingmin simply couldn’t even eat a few mouthfuls.

After the meal, Shang Jin wiped his mouth and stood up. “Thank you for the meal, I’m leaving first.”

The place where Liang Jingmin picked this time was near, and by the time Shang Jin returned to school, only two hours had past.

Walking to the ground floor of the dorm, Shang Jin always felt that someone was calling him.

“Shang Jin, over here!”

Shang Jin looked around and finally saw Zhou Wendao and Zhan Xing behind the ShangYe. He walked over suspiciously and asked, “Why are you two hiding here?”

“Come over quickly.” Zhan Xing beckoned to him and pulled him behind the car. Then he pulled his shoulder and, like a thief, took something out of his pocket…a USB drive?

Zhou Wendao took the USB drive and put it in Shang Jin’s hand. “This is what we specially prepared for you.”

Shang Jin squeezed the thing in his hand and said, “What is it?”

Zhou Wendao coughed. “You and Ye Zhou should best see it in a place with no one else.”

“The main point is: it’s been nearly a year and you two haven’t even made any progress…” Zhan Xing cupped a hand to Shang Jin’s ear and said, “Yesterday, I asked Zhou a few words and he lost his temper. Eighty percent, it’s because his desires aren’t satisfied.”

Shang Jin held his forehead and was immediately clear on what was inside. “OK, I know. If there’s nothing else, I’m going back first.” For the thing inside, Shang Jin really couldn’t say the two words ‘thank you’.

Zhou Wendao urged him again and again, “This is what we got with great difficulty. You must take a look.”

Shang Jin put the USB drive in his pocket and shook his head helplessly. What was this group of people thinking all day long.

Back in the dorm, Ye Zhou was eating a bowl of rice while reading a book. Shang Jin put the USB drive on the table and said, “Why are you eating so late?”

“Wasn’t hungry.” Ye Zhou moved to Shang Jin’s side and picked up the USB drive on the table. “What’s this?”

Shang Jin curled his lips and said, “Open it and see. You’ll know once you see it.”

Ye Zhou’s hand stopped and he guardedly said, “Abnormal. There must be something fishy.”

Shang Jin said innocently, “This isn’t mine. I really haven’t seen it.”

Ye Zhou’s mouth twitched. He was curious, but seeing Shang Jin’s expression, he felt that things weren’t simple.

Shang Jin threw the USB drive into the drawer and said, “Go review. After the test, you can think of this nonsense again.”

Ye Zhou was unwilling, but he could only suppress the curiosity at the bottom of his heart for now.