Chapter 98: Everyone Bullies Him

Bian Yang came to an abrupt stop. His fists clenched so tightly that the knuckles went white, yet he said nothing.

Old Wang hurried over to Bian Cheng and lowered his voice in anxious warning. “Sir, that was too harsh. Young Master is not the sort to strike people without reason. There must be more to this. The way you’re saying it is just too ugly...”

It was he who had gone to such lengths to lure the young master back, and now he was the one speaking so brutally.

Even Old Wang felt anxious for him.

“Ugly?” Bian Cheng gave a cold laugh. “I haven’t even said the really ugly stuff yet. Stop defending him all the time. You think I don’t know what kind of person he is?”

“Always looking down on everyone, never finishing what he starts. Just look at what he has accomplished all these years.”

“If his mother hadn’t given him a good brain and I hadn’t given him a decent background, would he even be standing here talking to me?”

Bian Cheng spoke far too bluntly, and once his temper flared, he became even more reckless with his words.

“When he was little, the one I liked least was that brat from the Qin family. Always so sharp and sly. But look at them now. He only just came of age and has already passed several major legal examinations. That damn Qin fellow kept flaunting it in my face every day, saying that the highest score my son ever got on an intelligence test was a childhood record, and that now my son has the worst reputation in the entire circle. Damn it! No matter how useless my son is, is it his place to stand in front of me and run his mouth?!”

Old Wang felt a tightness in his chest at those words. “...You didn’t fight someone again, did you?”

“So what if I did? I hit him. Let him bark in my ear!”

With Bian Cheng’s temper, no one knew how he had managed to survive in the business world at all. In the past, there had been Qi Mingwan to keep him in line and clean up after him. Now that he had actually beaten someone, and one from the Qin family at that, with their powerful political backing, there was bound to be another round of trouble.

Old Wang rubbed his temples, already feeling a headache coming on.

Bian Yang turned around and met Bian Cheng’s heavy gaze. His own features were carved with coldness and distance.

“Fine. If you like Qin Mingyu so much, let him be your son instead. From now on, don’t interfere in my affairs.”

Bian Cheng’s chest tightened painfully. He lifted a hand and pointed at him. “You little beast, you want to sever father-son ties with me, is that it?”

“Take it that way if you like.”

Bian Yang’s eyelashes trembled faintly. His voice was level, neither loud nor soft, and carried no emotion at all. It was calmer than at any other time.

Bian Cheng understood perfectly what that tone meant. Both of them were stubborn to the core; neither would yield to the other.

“Fine. Sever the ties, then. Everything you eat, wear, and spend was bought with my money. From this day on, I’m freezing every card you have. Cutting off every connection you’ve got. Let’s see if you still dare to ask anyone around me for help, or anyone from the Qin family. And your uncle, too. I’m warning you, your uncle’s business overseas is at a critical stage. Don’t go causing trouble for people!”

Bian Yang pressed the tip of his tongue against his lower palate. He lowered his head, took his wallet from his pocket, pulled out every card and every bill, then turned and flung them into the air.

“Fine.”

He left only those two indifferent words behind him.

Bian Cheng watched through the rain of scattered banknotes as Bian Yang walked away without once looking back.

Old Wang chased after him for a couple of steps, but once Bian Yang’s temper rose, he was even more stubborn than Bian Cheng. There was no way Old Wang could hold him back.

When he returned to the villa, he sighed heavily at Bian Cheng. “Why must you do this?”

“What did I do?” Bian Cheng snapped. “Was I wrong?”

After a full day of work, exhaustion had already settled in Bian Cheng’s face.

The moment Bian Yang left, he threw himself heavily into the sofa, tilted his head back against it, and pressed hard at the bridge of his nose. He looked utterly drained. The rough edge in his smoke-and-liquor-soaked voice dulled as he said, “I don’t believe that once I cut off his allowance, that little beast won’t come back.”

Old Wang did not know what else to say. Seeing how worn out he looked, he said, “Sir, go upstairs and rest for a while.”

He set the keys on the table in front of him and crouched down to gather up the cards and cash Bian Yang had thrown away.

Almost every night, Bian Cheng spent his time in Madam’s room.

Bian Cheng pressed his forearm across his forehead and leaned back, recovering for a moment. After a while, he lit a cigarette.

With his arm propped on his knee, he sat in silence and smoked the entire cigarette to its end. Just before standing, he glanced at the pile of things on the table. “He brought these?”

“Yes. Young Master brought them back. They look like local specialties.”

Old Wang opened the plastic bags so he could see.

Bian Cheng poked at the free-range chicken, unable to tell what was so different about it compared to any ordinary bird. Very softly, he muttered, “At least he still has some conscience,” then instructed Old Wang, “Stew it for me.”

“But this was left for me by Young Master...”

Bian Cheng looked at him. “It’s only a chicken. Look at how stingy you are.”

He bent down, picked up the keys from the table, and closed his hand around them. “I’m eating it anyway.”

With that, he went upstairs.

Old Wang shook his head helplessly and carried the local specialties into the kitchen.

Bian Cheng opened the bedroom door, stood there quietly for a while, then walked inside and picked up the frame from the tabletop.

Inside was a woman with a gentle, refined beauty, holding a baby still wrapped in swaddling cloth. She stood beside him, smiling toward the camera.

He blinked slowly, his eyes gradually growing damp. After wiping away the tears with force, he spoke in a hoarse voice, very softly, as if lodging a complaint to the woman in the frame.

“Darling, look at how that little beast treats me...”

“They all bully me.”

Tears splashed onto the frame. In the silence of the room, this grown man clutched the photograph and gradually bent his proud back. The choking pain in his throat made it nearly impossible to breathe, as though a knife were slicing through him inch by inch until he could no longer make a sound.

He curled up on the cold floor, fragile and helpless, together with the frame.

Only stifled sobs remained, and endless sorrow.

“How could you bear to leave me all alone...”

Without Qi Mingwan, everyone bullied him.

—

Bian Yang had lived this long, yet never once had he felt so lost.

He stood alone on a crowded street, surrounded by streams of people and towering buildings. Raising his head, he looked at the faint morning light, and it stung his eyes.

Crowds came and went. Traffic never stopped.

Every inch of land here was clearly familiar, and yet somehow it all felt utterly strange.

Qin Mingyu had just come out of Qingbei and was sitting in the car when he glimpsed a passing figure and thought he must have seen wrongly. He immediately told the driver to back up.

“Brother Yang?” Qin Mingyu leaned out the window. His hair had already been dyed black again, making him look properly well-behaved.

“You’re back and didn’t even say anything? If I’d known, we could’ve come back together.”

Bian Yang glanced at him and kept walking in the opposite direction. Qin Mingyu was a little stunned and quickly got out to chase after him.

“What’s wrong? Why the long face? Did you fight with Uncle Bian again?”

Bian Yang had both hands in his pockets and kept walking forward without so much as glancing at him. Qin Mingyu followed beside him.

The car rolled smoothly along behind them.

When the two of them quarreled before, Bian Yang’s expression might have been unpleasant, but he would not have ignored him like this.

Qin Mingyu suddenly thought of something his father had done and hurried to explain, “Is this about my dad fighting with Uncle Bian?”

Bian Yang gave him a look.

Seeing that reaction, Qin Mingyu was practically certain it was because of that.

When he first heard about it, he had been quite helpless too. His father and Uncle Bian had been childhood friends, fighting since they were kids, and yet even at their age they had still come to blows.

The key issue was that his father’s health was not good, and one punch from Uncle Bian had sent him straight to the hospital.

Honestly, his father had been asking for it. At a time like that, he had to go provoking someone right at their bottom line. Uncle Bian’s feelings for Aunt Qi were so deep that bringing her up was practically inviting a beating. He had not been wronged at all.

“What does their business have to do with us? You’re not going to cut ties with me over something this stupid, are you?”

Qin Mingyu would not stand for that. He grabbed his arm and refused to let him leave.

“You really want to sever ties with me? Good grief. If you dare, I’ll go to Liangcheng and tell the girl you like on you!”