Ye Ci couldn't resist and quickly denied: "No, I'm not angry with you."
He couldn't figure out where the panic came from, but it was definitely not anger.
"Really?" Huo Tinglan confirmed.
The two were so close that Ye Ci could almost feel the velvety vibration of Huo Tinglan's Adam's apple when he spoke.
Numb and crispy.
He scratched his itchy ears, feeling anxious: "Really? Hurry up, get busy..."
"I'll go right away. By the way..." Huo Tinglan sneered and stared at Ye Ci's little red ears. In the final analysis, it was because those ears were too red, which made him feel bad. He slowly leaned against the door and asked in a low voice: "Dinner may be late today. Are you hungry? I'll ask someone to bring up some snacks. What do you want to eat, sweet or salty..."
Clearly, what he said were serious words, but maybe it was because his tone was too gentle or what, it sounded like flirtatious love words.
"... What? Then sweet..." Ye Ci was confused. He didn't know what was going on. He only knew that the voice made his ears numb. He looked at Huo Tinglan for help, "Salty... either is fine. I'm not picky."
The alpha gland on the back of his neck was agitated and hot. Huo Tinglan became more and more excited. He smiled and teased, "What would you like to drink? Tea? Juice?"
"Whatever."
"How do you like the Darjeeling tea?"
"Okay, Uncle Huo, I still have a lot of homework to do, so I need to hurry up and finish it..."
"… "
Seeing that Ye Ci was about to collapse if he continued to tease her, Huo Tinglan withdrew his magical power, turned around and left, closing the door. The room became quiet, and Ye Ci sat down at the desk, hurriedly spread out the test paper, and wrote furiously as if he was trying to escape from something, rubbing his ears from time to time, and the tip of the pen made the calculation paper rustle.
After doing some questions for a while, Ye Ci's mood gradually calmed down and he successfully focused on the test paper.
Thanks to Huo Tinglan's tutoring during this period, he made rapid progress. Moreover, these two sets of papers were stage test papers, and the knowledge points they targeted were the new content learned in class in the past two months, so there were not many questions that made him stuck.
The midterm exam is in a few days. It’s hard to say what his ranking will be. After all, the second-to-last student in the initial test was far ahead of him. But his score should be able to improve a lot.
After finishing two sets of papers, Ye Ci finally regained some of the feeling he had when he was doing questions before dropping out of school. He felt unusually happy. He shook his sore hands and planned to rest for a few minutes before continuing to write Chinese.
Just then, a few cat meows were heard outside the door.
Ye Ci raised his eyelids, opened the door, and looked towards the corridor with an anxious heart.
In the corridor, a chubby Napoleon cat was huddled in the corner, its shiny satin fur slightly puffing with anger. Ye Ci's "legitimate" brother Chu Rui was shooting rubber bullets at it with a toy gun he got from somewhere.
Chu Rui is eight years old this year. He inherited Chu Wenlin's vicious selfishness, and was extremely spoiled by his grandmother. He is so willful that he has no manners and upbringing of a noble family. Just now at the tea party, Chu Wenlin and his mother Ruan Jiayi were in charge of him. He barely pretended to be well-behaved for a while, but once he slipped out of the adults' jurisdiction, his true colors were immediately revealed.
Ye Ci didn't talk to him much. Not to mention that he didn't want to talk to him, even if he wanted to, he didn't have the chance.
—This thing will scream like a scalded piglet if it doesn't get its way.
Ye Ci glanced at Chu Rui without saying a word. He quietly picked up the cat, rubbed the place where it was hurt by the rubber bullet, and turned back to the room.
The chubby little cat in his arms was very coquettish. Seeing that Ye Ci was treating it in a friendly way, he twisted around and meowed, complaining in a delicate voice.
Ye Ci curled the corners of his mouth and ignored Chu Rui's noisy shouting behind him.
He simulated the sound of bullets being fired: "Bang! Bang! Bang!"
Immediately afterwards, a rubber bullet hit Ye Ci in the back of the head.
The blow to his occipital bone hurt so much, as if a little boy had punched him with all his strength while he was defenseless. Ye Ci even saw a black screen for a moment.
This toy gun has amazing destructive power. If aimed at the eyes, it can blind people.
"Hahahaha!" Chu Rui laughed excitedly and jumped around. His chubby face was stained with several uneven patches of red and his pair of narrow eyes were sunken in the flesh.
More like a pig.
Ye Ci took a deep breath and didn't dare to look back.
He could imagine Chu Rui's disgusting look at this moment, and was afraid that he would not be able to suppress the urge to use violence against an eight-year-old child.
However, trying to reason with this little beast would only bring humiliation upon himself, not to mention... he still needed the medical expenses from Chu Wenlin, so he couldn't act impulsively.
Ignoring is the only solution.
He walked back to his room, and suddenly heard an insult from behind him: "Bastard."
The child's voice is crisp and clear, but it carries a natural malice.
And morbid excitement.
Seeing that Ye Ci didn't get angry and just walked back quietly, Chu Rui became bolder and said with a smile like singing a nursery rhyme: "Illegitimate child, inferior person..."
He was as excited as a novice experimenter. He stole several dangerous reagents, poured them into the cage, and couldn't wait to observe the reactions of the experimental animals.
An eight-year-old child may be childish, but in some ways he is terribly cunning. He knows that his cheap brother can't afford to offend him, so he just bullies him.
Ye Ci closed his eyes and pretended not to hear.
Seeing that he was unmoved and ignored her, Chu Rui became furious and used his trump card, shouting: "My mother said your mother is-"
"!"
With just these few words, Ye Ci's eardrums buzzed.
His mother is his weak spot, a place he will not allow others to trample on no matter how hard he tries to swallow his anger...
But at this moment, Chu Rui's provocation came to an abrupt end.
Huo Tinglan's voice came from behind, steady and calm, with no emotion in his voice: "Whose child are you from?"
Ye Ci was startled and turned around.
Huo Tinglan stood beside Chu Rui, with one hand in his pocket. His slender five fingers covered Chu Rui's chubby head. He skillfully turned Chu Rui's front towards himself and turned him left and right.
The gesture did not seem like identifying a living person with dignity, but rather like searching for a signature on a spherical artifact.
"Ahhh—" Chu Rui used his best skills and screamed loudly.
Huo Tinglan nodded in understanding and let go.
"Dad! Mom!" Chu Rui jumped and threw a tantrum, running to complain.
Ye Ci watched Chu Rui wailing away, his boiling blood cooled down, and he regained his rationality.
In fact, he has a soft temper. He didn't beat people up because he was really angry. It was a habit he developed while living in the slums. Most people there bully the weak and fear the strong. If he didn't beat up the troublemakers to show his authority, he and his mother would have a restless life.
But Chu Rui would not really have any influence on him, and they would have few chances to see each other again in the future, so the provocation just now was interrupted.
Then there's no need.
If you take a step back, the world will be broader. He doesn't have the capital to argue with others endlessly just because of a few insults.
"Uncle Huo." Ye Ci stood tall and straight, like a bamboo that is impervious to wind and frost, and said calmly, "Yes, are you calling me to have dinner?"
Huo Tinglan was tall and slender. He stood quietly in the softly lit corridor, looking at Ye Ci.
Ye Ci's fingers that were resting on the cat's ears were shaking.
He was playing it cool.
Seeking shelter and comfort from one's own - even if it is nominal - alpha, acting like a spoiled child, complaining... These are all natural things in the eyes of any omega, but they are unimaginable for Ye Ci.
When faced with difficulties, he always chooses to be strong or to act tough.
After a moment of silence, Huo Tinglan smiled gently and said, "I just came up to see you... Dinner may have to wait a little longer, why don't you go back to your room and play with the cat for a while?"
"Okay." Ye Ci breathed a sigh of relief and hurried back to his room carrying the cute cat.
There is cat hair on my hands and it is not convenient to wipe my eyes.
Ye Ci turned his face away, rubbed the corner of his eye with his shoulder, and then buried his wet face in the fluffy cat's belly.
The cat exuded the faint scent of pet shower gel, and its fur was silky and smooth, which was very addictive to smell. Ye Ci was stepped on by the four soft little legs for a while, and the depression in his heart dissipated a little.
At this moment, Chu Rui's pig-killing scream pierced through the floor and came from the first floor.
You got scolded.
Ye Ci didn't care, he was used to hearing it.
It's not necessarily because of him that he got scolded. That kind of naughty kid can get into trouble eight hundred times a day.
But what was different from the past was that Chu Rui's screams stopped abruptly after just a few seconds. After a while, the screams turned into howling. Even Meng Jiangnu could not imitate that grievance and sadness.
—Chu Rui really cried.
It's not howling, shouting or yelling, it's crying.
Even someone as indifferent as Ye Ci found it fresh and unimaginable and wanted to see it for himself.
He was afraid of scaring the cat, so he put it on the bed and followed the sound. He didn't walk far, just down a few stairs, he saw a few people standing or sitting in a small side hall on the first floor. Chu Rui's fat face was printed with two bright red symmetrical slap marks. Chu Wenlin's face was as ugly as pig liver. He pointed at Chu Rui's nose and shouted: "I told you to cry! Cry again!!"
Huo Tinglan sat upright on the sofa, looking calm and elegant. As if he disdained the spit that splashed when Chu Rui howled, he gently wiped the front of his suit with a handkerchief. After wiping, he rolled up the expensive silk handkerchief and threw it into the trash can with a disrespectful attitude.
Chu Wenlin's first wife, Ruan Jiayi, cried so much that her makeup was smudged. She didn't care about being dignified and rushed forward to grab Chu Wenlin's raised hand, but was pushed back by her husband.
"You're the one who taught him those nonsense!" Chu Wenlin turned his attention to Ruan Jiayi, criticizing her for her poor parenting skills as if he was performing for everyone to see.
The riots escalated again.
Ruan Jiayi couldn't bear the humiliation, so she cried, dragged Chu Rui away, and left without attending the dinner.
After his wife and son left, Chu Wenlin humbled himself and apologized to Huo Tinglan, patting his chest and promising to discipline his son strictly when he got home, for fear that his youngest son's unintentional words would cause discord between the two families and affect future cooperation.
"...Mr. Chu, you are too kind." Huo Tinglan's words were unfamiliar, and he didn't care that he called him father-in-law. "Besides, you don't need to apologize to me. The person you should apologize to is my little master."
"Yes, yes, Mr. Huo is right." Chu Wenlin hunched his back, bent his waist, and nodded frequently.
“Xiao Ci…” Huo Tinglan tilted his head and glanced towards the stairs calmly.
The shadow squatting on the stairs a moment ago slipped away like a kitten, obviously unwilling to have any contact with Chu Wenlin and disdainful of accepting his hypocritical apology.
Huo Tinglan smiled faintly, afraid that the little ears on the other side of the wall might not hear clearly, so he changed the subject and raised his voice: "… He has a kind and generous personality and is too lazy to care about these little things. He might forget about them as soon as he turns his head. Only I, as a husband, can care about them for him."
A husband's...
Ye Ci slipped and almost tripped on the stairs.
…
When Huo Tinglan went upstairs to call Ye Ci to eat, Ye Ci had already slipped back to his room and was sniffing the cat for a while.
The noise in the side hall was quite loud, and unless one was deaf, it would be difficult not to know about it. But Ye Ci didn't know how to bring it up. Someone helped him vent his anger and taught him a lesson. This experience was too unfamiliar. His heart seemed to have curled up in a small hole behind his ribs, feeling sour and hot, almost melting him.
Huo Tinglan leaned against the door with his arms folded. After a moment's deliberation, he calmly helped him to open up the situation: "Did you hear everything just now?"
“… Yeah.” Ye Ci’s thin eyelids twitched slightly.
"I gave them a brief lecture downstairs." Huo Tinglan said lightly, "The noise was a bit loud. Did it disturb your studies?"
They, obviously, refer to Chu Wenlin's family of three.
In terms of family friendship, Chu Wenlin and Huo Tinglan are of the same generation, and Chu Wenlin is ten years older than Huo Tinglan. If we talk about the relationship based on marriage, his father-in-law is definitely an elder. The word "lesson" was used in a rather arrogant and rude way.
But it's quite satisfying.
Ye Ci suppressed the corners of his mouth that were raised, and defended the absolute legitimacy of Huo Tinglan's actions: "No, it didn't disturb my studies, I was just playing with the cat."
Playing cat...
Huo Tinglan laughed softly.
Then, he put away his smile and said seriously, "I made a mess of a nice family dinner. It's also my fault for my bad temper. I couldn't help myself in public and forgot to save some face for Mr. Chu..."
As he was reviewing himself, his tone was teasing, and his dark eyes also held a hint of mischief that he and Ye Ci had an unspoken understanding of.
"You won't blame me, will you?" he asked knowingly.
He wanted to get some sweetness from his ignorant little lover.
He is taking credit.