Chapter 28 (Part 1)

Zhao Zhanhuai was still looking for a parking spot. Zhao Mo was impatient, so he got out of the car first.

“Don’t get out of the car first! I’m warning you, if you see Zhao Mingxi, don’t—” When he saw Zhao Mo rushing off to look for her, Zhao Zhanhuai frowned. He hurriedly parked the car at a tight parking spot.

Zhao Mo was the first to find Zhao Mingxi at the library.

Although he wasn’t some famous superstar, he still had a bit of fame. He wore a baseball cap, lowered the tip to cover his face and pretended to be mysterious as he walked speedily towards her. He smiled as he gave a heavy pat on Mingxi’s right shoulder.

Mingxi thought it was either He Yang or Fu Yangxi. She turned to her right.

But Zhao Mo’s voice appeared on her left, “Little Bean Sprout, are you pretending to study again? Let me see what questions you are answering.”

Before he finished speaking, he reached out and grabbed the Tournament questions on Mingxi’s table. He scoffed and habitually mocked her, “Oh, you’re doing Tournament questions. I advise you to give up. No matter how hard you study, your IQ is still stuck there.”

She never could have imagined that it would be Zhao Mo.

The veins in Mingxi’s head immediately started to throb.

But it made sense. No matter how busy Zhao Mo was, he had to return home for Madam Zhao’s birthday.

Mingxi instantly stood up and pushed Zhao Mo. Then, she snatched her book back from Zhao Mo’s hands before quickly keeping her pencil box and items back in her bag. The library was not a suitable place to fight, so Mingxi simply swung her bag on her shoulder and left without a word.

Mingxi used so much energy that Zhao Mo almost lost his balance.

He held onto the table and looked at Zhao Mingxi’s figure with an odd look— What’s going on?

Back then when he would play jokes like this on her, she wouldn’t have such a huge reaction. In fact, she would even cut up fruits for him while calling her er ge* like a little scaredy cat.

*er ge: second eldest brother

Why is it that after half a year of not seeing each other, my little sister’s attitude took a turn for the worst?

Zhao Mo hurriedly chased after her.

Outside the library.

Mingxi sped down the stairs.

In her past life, when she had just entered the gates of the Zhao family home, Zhao Mo hated her. With every sentence he spoke, he would carry a hint of mockery.

After two years, she did a lot of things to suck up to her family. Only then did Zhao Mo show signs of treating her as his younger sister— However, his sharp tongue was a habit of his, so his words were still unpleasant to hear.

Before she passed away at the age of 23, everyone from her family including Zhao Mo finally showed signs of fully letting down their walls around her. But that was already five years later. This time, Mingxi will never waste another five years on them— it was simply a huge waste of time!

“Little Bean Sprout, you’re getting arrogant. You’re no longer trying to imitate Zhao Yuan but instead turning to go down the rebellious road?” Zhao Mo caught up to her and habitually reached out his hand, trying to pinch Mingxi’s face.

However, Mingxi slapped him on the back of his hand.

“Go away.”

“What did you say?” Zhao Mo thought that his ears were malfunctioning.

Zhao Mingxi was asking him to go away?

His hand went stiff. He looked at Zhao Mingxi with a shocked expression, then he repeated dumbfoundedly, “You’re asking me to go away?”

“Yes, I’m asking you to go away.” Mingxi did not attempt to hide the contempt in her expression.

When she was at the tender age of 15, she did not know that people like Zhao Mo simply needed some form of discipline. She thought that those in the entertainment industry would all carry a bit of an artistic personality with them.

Later she realized that this ‘artistic personality’ was absolute bullsh*t. He just pissed people off.

“…” At this moment, Zhao Mo’s feelings were akin to having been abruptly struck by lightning a couple of times. It absolutely surprised him to the point that he forgot how to respond.

After he returned to his senses, he was absolutely enraged.

He caught up to Zhao Mingxi at the lane covered with trees and said in anger, “I just f*cking got back from an overseas trip. Forget about the fact that you didn’t even greet me, yet now you want me to go away? Zhao Mingxi, aren’t you acting a little too f*cking rebellious?”

This guy thought that she was being rebellious, huh.

Zhao Mo lowered his voice and said as he held on to Mingxi’s wrist, “Forget it. Let’s go to the hotel. Today is the banquet. I’m not in the mood to discipline bratty children like you who don’t know what’s good for you.”

Before his fingers could make contact with Mingxi’s wrist, Mingxi raised her arm and slapped his hand away.

There was a clear sound of a slap in the air.

Zhao Mo didn’t know if it was his misconception, but he felt as if the way Zhao Mingxi was looking at her was as if he was a fly that used to approach her. It also had a hint of regret— what was she regretting about?

Did she regret trying to gain the favour of this second eldest brother of hers?

Or did she regret coming to this home?

Zhao Mo immediately lost it when he saw how she gave him the cold shoulder. “Zhao Mingxi, you— what kind of look is that? Why are you looking at me like this?”

“Take it as how you want to interpret it,” Mingxi said. “Go back? In your dreams! If you still won’t leave me alone, I’ll call the guards on you. If you don’t want to appear on the cover page of tomorrow’s newspaper, leave now!

Zhao Mo said, “You’re gonna call—”

Mingxi cut him off, “Oh, I forgot. You’re just a minor D-List celebrity. Your fans are all zombies with practically none alive. It might be that no one cares about such a small thing.”

Zhao Mo: “…”

Zhao Mo was so angry that his blood pressure was shooting up while the whites of his eyes went red. In the midst of his anger, he saw Mingxi’s cold and disgusted expression, and he felt the prickly feeling of a needle continuously stabbing in his heart.

He finally understood why Zhao Zhanhuai was so hesitant before they left home.

The respect and ingratiation Mingxi once had towards him were all but gone. What was left was only the uncomfortable feeling of looking at a stranger who would not stop bothering her.

Why is this so?

Zhao Mo sucked in a mouthful of cold air. He noticed that a few people who were playing basketball had looked over to them. He knew that this was not the place to pick a fight. He reached out a hand and forcefully held on to Mingxi’s wrist. “We’ll talk once we get back to the hotel!”

Not far away from the shaded lane was Fu Yangxi and Ke Chengwen who were carrying take-outs with them as they walked towards the library. Before they could get close, they saw a stranger with a baseball cap dragging Zhao Mingxi.

With a buzz in his mind, Fu Yangxi lost all sense of rationality.

He ran over and gave Zhao Mo a kick which sent him flying.

Mingxi wanted to stop him, but it was too late.

As Zhao Mo did not see it coming, he hit the metal fencing surrounding the basketball court by the waist. Stars appeared in his eyes. And because his hat was sent flying as well, it hit his nose and blocked his vision, causing him to be unable to see who was the culprit.

Then, someone picked him up by his shoulder in apparent anger and with another punch, he fell to the ground.

After that, he heard those boys who were playing basketball shout in his direction.

“Oh my god, Xi ge? Xi ge is beating someone up. Who is it? Is it a hooligan?”

“A hooligan sneaked into school to disrespect a girl? My fist is ready!”

Zhao Mo couldn’t stop cursing mentally. F*ck, f*ck, f*ck! What the f*ck is happening!

He hastily tried to get up.

But in the next second, rain-like punches landed on his body and face.

By the time Zhao Zhanhuai caught up to him, he only saw a bloody and disfigured Zhao Mo.

*

30 minutes later. At the police station.

“A bunch of high school boys beating up a grown man. Do you guys ever think before you act? Did you know that if you were to fight on school grounds you would be punished?”

The policeman raised his chin up as he reprimanded the row of tall boys before him in great anger, “And you, why is your hair dyed red? Why did you lead the fight?!”

His group of followers all lowered their heads like chickens eating their feed.

“He’s a pervert! Who am I supposed to beat up if not him?” Fu Yangxi did not show any signs of backing down. He raised up his chin and said, “As for the red hair, that’s because I’m handsome. I don’t think there’s anything in the law that says that people with red hair are unable to act as a human—”

After he was done, Fu Yangxi turned and saw the lawyer who was rushing over with his briefcase. “Where is Zhao Mingxi?”

The capable and sharp Lawyer Zhang quickly walked over and said, “Young Master Fu, she is waiting outside.”

Fu Yangxi said, “Don’t leave her alone with that crazy hooligan.”

“Who the f*ck is a perverted hooligan?!” Zhao Mo, who was being reprimanded by another policeman, shouted. The moment he opened his mouth, the skin around the corner of his lips cracked, causing it to bleed.

He said through gritted teeth, “I am her brother! Her second eldest brother! I wanted to bring her home to attend the birthday banquet today!”

Zhao Zhanhuai frowned. “Zhao Mo, just don’t talk anymore. Shut up.”

The policeman instantly yelled back, “Don’t you cause trouble too! Since you are the complainant’s brother, why were you misunderstood by the public as a hooligan? Who allowed you to touch her?”

Zhao Mo shouted, “I am an artist! At that moment I saw people looking over, and I was afraid of being followed by stalker fans, so I was in a hurry to bring Zhao Mingxi back—”

“Ha.” Ke Chengwen and Fu Yangxi’s followers laughed. “Stalker fans? Our Xi ge has way more stalker fans than you do.”

Zhao Mo: “…”

Zhao Mo was angered to the point that his heart was about to burst, his blood pressure having gone up and down a few times already. If it wasn’t because they were at the police station, he would have definitely given this brat a good lesson.

Fu Yangxi said, “Ahem, although that is the truth, you guys shouldn’t have boasted about it.”

Zhao Mo and Zhao Zhanhuai: “…”

Fu Yangxi said to Lawyer Zhang, “Oh, I think I dropped a few strands of hair. Did you go to the scene and count them?”

“I counted them. Rest assured, Young Master.”

The policemen: “…”

Zhao Zhanhuai: “…”

Zhao Mo: “…”

Lawyer Zhang said to Zhao Mo who was shaking in anger and Zhao Zhanhuai who had gone pale, “Sirs, I will be taking over and will be the one to communicate with regards to everything that happens after this.”

Fu Yangxi and both of his followers walked out from the office of the police station.

Zhao Mingxi hugged her bag as waited anxiously in the corridor. Her shadow was pulled long. When she saw them come out, she immediately stood up. “How did it go?”

“It wasn’t that big of a deal. Because the people who were involved in the beating included Ke Chengwen and the others, in order to not cause trouble for them, Lawyer Zhang will most likely choose to settle.” Fu Yangxi looked at Mingxi’s wrist. When he saw that there wasn’t much of a mark left on her thin and pale wrist, the fire in his heart seemed to have dissipated a little.

The person inside the clinic rushed them, “Come here immediately!”

“Wait.” Fu Yangxi yelled towards the other end of the corridor.

He paused as the tip of his toes rubbed against the floor. He did not dare to raise his head and look at Zhao Mingxi because he felt guilty.

Mingxi looked at him.

After a short while, the person in the clinic urged him again. Only then did Fu Yangxi scratch his head and whispered, “I’m sorry, Little Mask, for hitting your brother. I didn’t know he was—”

Mingxi said, “It’s alright. I don’t care about them.”

So this was what he wanted to say.

Mingxi felt an itch in her nose. Aside from He Yang and Dong Shen who were her friends that she knew since her past life, no one else has ever stood up for her like this.

Actually, sometimes it doesn’t matter if that person is your family or not.

Only those who treat you well are the most important people in your life.

She looked towards Fu Yangxi and the people behind him. “So long as you guys are alright.”

Ke Chengwen quickly replied, “We’re fine. We’re brothers, so we have to stand up for each other. And don’t worry, Xi ge has already told us not to tell anyone about us bumping into your family members today.”

Fu Yangxi gently ruffled Zhao Mingxi’s hair, his tone light and fast, “So just wait for us for a short while, don’t go away. We’ll go clean up our wounds at the clinic. Then we’ll leave together.”

They didn’t suffer serious injuries, just that the skin on their knuckles were scratched.

As for Zhao Mo who had been beaten up to that extent, he most likely will have to move to the hospital later.

Mingxi nodded. “Alright.”

It was already 7p.m.. The birthday banquet had long since begun, but Zhao Zhanhuai, Zhao Mo and Zhao Mingxi were nowhere to be found nor were they picking up their phones.

Madam Zhao was getting extremely anxious.

Since this matter had blown up, it would be impossible to keep this a secret from the rest of the Zhao family any longer.

Zhao Zhanhuai gave an annoyed look to Zhao Mo who had got them into trouble. Then, with a heavy heart and a frown, he walked to the windows and called the others.