Chapter 113 - The Qiu Family Storm (Low Xi content)

113:

After Mu Shaoyan finished eating candied hawthorns with Ye Qingxi, he left the bedroom and called Mu Zheng to tell him about what happened that evening.

"So please arrange for a few bodyguards to go over there and protect him and his mother," he said.

Mu Zheng: ...

Mu Zheng pinched the bridge of his nose.

He never expected that his younger brother would actually fight Qiu Lu directly, and so quickly!

But then I thought about it again, and it would be abnormal for Mu Shaoyan not to take action, given his personality.

He already had a good relationship with Ye Qingxi, and he had a fiery temper. Fighting was as easy for him as eating and drinking. Now that Ye Qingxi had been wronged, the fact that he didn't beat her into the hospital was already a testament to his twelve years of education.

But, surprisingly, his tutor was also involved in the fight?

"I remember your classmate as being very good at both academics and conduct, and he didn't seem like an impulsive person."

"That's because Xiaoxi goes to his tutoring class with me every day. Xiaoxi is so well-behaved, who wouldn't be confused by her?"

Mu Shaoyan leaned against the wall. "You have no idea how much he dotes on our baby. I'm the one who paid for the classes, but he buys things for Xiaoxi every day, and they're all high-quality items. When it comes to me, it's all discounted or promotional items."

"If Qiu Lu had hit me today, he probably wouldn't have gone."

Mu Zheng: ...If Qiu Lu had hit you today, he would be in the hospital by now.

"Understood," Mu Zheng said.

Upon hearing this, Mu Shaoyan hung up the phone and went to spend time with his beloved little baby again.

Meanwhile, Qiu Lu finally had his wrist set and returned home.

Qiu Yue was already waiting for him at home. As soon as he heard the door open, he immediately stood up and walked to the entrance.

He raised his hand, ready to slap his good-for-nothing brother, but when Qiu Lu turned his head, Qiu Yue's hand froze in place.

—What a bruised and swollen pig's head!

Qiu's mother's voice followed closely behind, "What happened to you?! Who did this?!"

"Mu Shaoyan!" Qiu Lu gritted his teeth. He had been brought to this state by a mere brat. He would not let this go!

"He went too far! He was too ruthless!" Qiu's mother cupped her son's bruised and battered face, then looked at his hands. "Even if he was avenging his nephew, he shouldn't have done this!"

Upon hearing this, Qiu Lu looked at his mother in surprise, "How did you know?"

Mr. Qiu then snorted, "Your older brother has already told us everything, and so have you. The other person is just a five-year-old child, why are you arguing with him?! Now look what's happened, he's the Mu family's grandson, aren't you just asking for trouble?!"

Qiu Lu felt indignant upon hearing his father's words, "I'm already like this, and you still say such things?!"

"Exactly," Qiu's mother chimed in. "The Mu family is so unreasonable! Why can't they talk things out? Why resort to such violence? Look at how badly Mu Shaoyan beat Xiao Lu!"

Qiu's mother was heartbroken and quickly helped Qiu Lu to sit down on the sofa.

"He deserved it," Qiu Yue said irritably. "He bullied a kid, and the kid's parents aren't pushovers. Of course they wouldn't let him off the hook. It's only because of Mu Shaoyan. If it were Mu Zheng or Mu Feng, it wouldn't have been just a minor injury!"

Qiu Yue looked at his younger brother and said, "Tomorrow you will come with me to the Mu family to apologize to Ye Qingxi and Qin Cheng."

Upon hearing this, Qiu Lu looked up in disbelief. What had his brother said?

Apologize?

He went to apologize?!

"It was Mu Shaoyan who hit me! You want me to apologize? Are you crazy?!"

"If you hadn't bullied his child, why would Mu Shaoyan have hit you? He only did it because you bullied his nephew, and he couldn't stand it anymore!"

"So all that beating was for nothing?!" Qiu Lu glared at him. "I got beaten up, and I'm supposed to apologize to the nephew of the guy who hit me? Qiu Yue, you really are my good older brother!"

Looking at the injuries on her son's face, Qiu's mother couldn't bear it. "Xiao Lu is right. This is an eye for an eye, and it's over. There's no reason for the Mu family to beat someone up and then expect an apology!"

Qiu Yue: ...

Qiu Yue was speechless. "You think the Mu family will reason with you?!"

"The current situation is that Qiu Luxian bullied two of their grandsons. They only have two grandsons, and your son bullied them both. Do you think the Mu family wants to reason with you? Do you think Mu Feng will reason with you?!"

"So what? I have to apologize to those two brats?! Why should I?!" Qiu Lu pointed at Qiu Yue and said, "If it weren't for you, if you hadn't disagreed with my suggestion and insisted on arguing with me, I wouldn't have been so upset and lost control when I encountered those two brats! Besides, it was their kid who bumped into me first! If they can't even control their own kids and they end up hurting others, they shouldn't blame others for teaching them a lesson!"

Qiu Yue grabbed his younger brother, angrily raising his hand to slap him, but his mother shielded Qiu Lu, shouting, "What are you doing!"

"Are you going to beat your brother for an outsider?!" Qiu's mother said sternly.

Qiu Lu also said, "When other people's children are bullied, their families know to protect them. But when it comes to me, you don't even think about helping me solve the problem, and you actually want to hit me! Hit me for his sake! Qiu Yue, do you even know what a human being is doing?!"

"Enough!" Qiu's father shouted, "Stop arguing! What's the point of arguing? What good will it do!"

Mr. Qiu looked at his eldest son and said, "Even if Xiao Lu did something wrong before, since Mu Shaoyan hit him, we're even now. Xiao Yue, take some gifts tomorrow and go to Mu Zheng to deal with this matter."

Upon hearing this, Qiu Yue looked at him in surprise, "Do you think this can be solved by giving some gifts?"

"Otherwise what?" Qiu's father looked at him. "We've already given him a lot of face; we've already bowed our heads! Otherwise, with Xiao Lu beaten like this, this matter should have been over!"

“Xiao Lu didn’t really have any conflicts with Mu Zheng’s son. He was just not as gentle with Ye Qingxi, but he doesn’t have the surname Mu after all, so it’s not as exaggerated as you think,” said Qiu’s father.

Qiu Yue was speechless. "He doesn't have the surname Mu, but Mu Feng personally brought him back to the Mu family, and he still has shares that Mu Feng allocated to him. Do you think he's not important?"

Mr. Qiu chuckled and said, "Xiao Yue, you're usually very smart, why are you so confused now?"

"Mu Zheng has his own son, Qin Cheng, who is his biological son. He didn't know before, but now that he does, he's bound to want to compensate him and hopes that his son will be more favored by Mu Feng and take over the Mu family business in the future. Ye Qingxi is an outsider, yet Mu Feng has allowed her to live with him and given her shares. What do you think Mu Zheng will think?"

“If this matter really blows up today, everyone will know that Ye Qingxi is favored by the Mu family. What about his son then? What will happen to his son in the future? People are biased. It’s impossible for a father not to favor his own son. So, it’s better for both of us to settle this matter this way.”

Mr. Qiu looked at him and said, "That's why I told you to go find Mu Zheng, not the Mu family."

"If you just let Mu Zheng turn a blind eye to this matter, he will deal with Mu Feng himself."

As Qiu Yue listened to him, all she could hear was the phrase, "Everyone has their biases."

Whether Mu Zheng favors his own son or not, he doesn't know.

However, his father must have favored his younger son.

Otherwise, it would have been easy for Qiu Lu to apologize, so why make him bring gifts to apologize to Mu Zheng?

Could he really just leave the gift after meeting Mu Zheng?

He would inevitably have to say "I'm sorry," that his younger brother acted impulsively, that he already knew he was wrong, and say one nice thing after another while smiling apologetically.

"I'm not going," Qiu Yue said in a deep voice. "I promised the child that Qiu Lu would apologize to him, so Qiu Lu must go and apologize to him."

"What are you saying?!" Qiu's mother said angrily. "Xiao Lu is your own brother, why are you bothering with Ye Qingxi? Is Ye Qingxi more important than your brother?"

Qiu Lu sneered, "I didn't know that my elder brother had such a good relationship with the Mu family. No wonder he kept making me apologize. After all that fuss, it turns out he was afraid it would affect his own interests."

"Stop talking nonsense!" Qiu Yue turned and glared at him. "I have no dealings with the Mu family. My acquaintance with Ye Qingxi was just by chance. I know his personality. He's not the kind of unreasonable kid. The reason he bumped into your cake today was because I ordered a piece of cake for him last time we ate together, so he wanted to return the favor. This whole thing started because of me, and I can't just ignore it. You have to go and apologize to him."

"What if I refuse to go?" Qiu Lu leaned back on the sofa and smiled provocatively at him.

"You..." Qiu Yue's anger flared up again as she looked at his shameless behavior.

“Since you know Ye Qingxi, this matter will be easier to handle,” said Qiu’s father. “Go and talk to Ye Qingxi as well, and tell her that Mu Shaoyan has already hit Xiao Lu and Xiao Lu knows he was wrong. Ask him to persuade Mu Feng, since he, as the person involved, is not holding a grudge. If Mu Zheng says a few more words, Mu Feng will not be willing to hurt his own son’s feelings for this grandson who is not his biological son. So this matter will naturally be over.”

Qiu Yue looked at his father, utterly bewildered as to how he could say such a thing. "You're asking a victim, a child at that, to advise others not to pursue the people who bullied them? Do you think that's appropriate?"

"Is there something wrong with it?" Qiu's father looked at him. "Qiu Yue, you need to understand, you are a member of the Qiu family, not the Mu family. What you should be doing now is resolving this matter, not dealing with your brother!"

"But this is clearly Qiu Lu's fault. He could have resolved it simply by apologizing. Why won't he apologize?! Just because he doesn't want to? Just because he doesn't want to, does that mean he can refuse to apologize and make me go through all the trouble of cleaning up his mess?!"

"You went to great lengths?!" Mr. Qiu retorted. "How did you go to great lengths?!"

"You're his brother! The eldest son of this family! Your brother is in trouble, are you going to stand aside and do nothing?!"

Pointing at his youngest son, Qiu's father said, "Can't you see the injuries on your brother's face and hands? Don't you feel any pain?! All you think about is yourself, don't you have any sense of family honor?!"

"He's already in this state, and he still has to apologize to a five-year-old child! What will others think of our Qiu family?!"

"You could have solved this by just going to Mu Zheng and Ye Qingxi's place. Why did you have to make others laugh at our family? Ultimately, if you hadn't ordered a cake for Ye Qingxi, making him insist on bringing you one, none of this would have happened!"

"You caused this mess, so you have to deal with it yourself!" said Qiu's father.

Qiu Lu sneered, "Big brother can even order cake for people? I'm so envious. You probably think Ye Qingxi is your brother."

“Xiao Yue,” Qiu’s mother spoke again, “no matter how good Ye Qingxi is, she is still someone else’s child. It’s not worth hurting your own brother for someone else’s child.”

“We are family,” she said.

"Us?" Qiu Yue looked at her, wanting to ask her if he was included in this "us".

Aren't they the real family? The three of them are the real family!

Qiu Yue found it ridiculous that, in the end, it turned out that he was the one in the wrong.

He shouldn't have gotten to know Ye Qingxi.

He shouldn't have ordered that cake for Ye Qingxi.

Ye Qingxi shouldn't have been thinking about him, missing him, and wanting to send him a cake.

He shouldn't have ignored his father's advice, failed to apologize to Mu Zheng, or failed to ask Ye Qingxi to persuade Mu Feng.

It's all his fault.

Qiu Lu was not wrong.

Qiu Lu was only "somewhat inappropriate".

Qiu Yue smiled, a smile that was both sarcastic and disappointed.

He confidently told Ye Qingxi that he would definitely make Qiu Lu apologize to him.

Ye Qingxi shook his head and said, "I believe you, but you are just my brother, not my father."

He's right.

He was indeed just the older brother, without any real power, caught in the middle, neither here nor there. He was the older brother who had to clean up his younger brother's messes when his brother needed him, but who didn't need him at all.

When something happens, he's the "eldest son"; when nothing happens, he's just a "son".

Qiu Yue took a step back and exhaled.

“Since Dad thinks it’s my fault and Mom thinks I did something wrong, then I’ll just quit. I’m resigning to take responsibility. Starting tomorrow, I won’t go to the company anymore. I believe that something like this will never happen again.”

After Qiu Yue finished speaking, the room fell silent instantly.

The next second, Qiu's father picked up a cup from the coffee table and smashed it at him, yelling, "You bastard!"

"What are you doing?! Trying to blackmail me?!"

"Fine!" Mr. Qiu nodded. "Get out! You're never coming to the company again! You really think the company can't function without you? Get out!"

Qiu Yue turned around, picked up his coat, walked to the entrance, and opened the door.

The cold January wind blew mercilessly in our faces.

The wind made him a little cold.

He stood at the door, paused for two seconds, and finally walked out of the house.

Ye Qingxi was completely unaware of the turmoil he had caused in the Qiu family; at that moment, he was on the phone with Mu Zheng.

Almost all the elders of the Mu family knew about what had happened to him today, except for Mu Shaowu, who was filming in another city, and Mu Feng, who had to go out to attend a party today.

Mu Zheng meant, "Since everyone knows, your father should know too. I originally wanted to tell him myself, but after thinking about it, I think it's better if you tell him."

His tone was gentle, “You are his son. If you have been wronged, tell him yourself. He will feel trusted and relied upon. If I tell him…”

Mu Zheng changed his identity and, speaking from the perspective of a father, said, "No father wants his son's affairs to be told to him by others, because that only means that his son is not close to him."

“So I hope you can tell him yourself. Of course,” Mu Zheng added, “if you’re really embarrassed and don’t want to say it, then I’ll tell your father. What do you think?”

Ye Qingxi: ...

Ye Qingxi thought it best if he could say it.

Judging from the way the Mu family relayed the message and described it, he was really afraid that after Mu Zheng finished speaking, Mu Shaowu would imagine that his hands were bleeding profusely and that he was about to die.

"I'll tell you," Ye Qingxi said.

“Okay,” Mu Zheng agreed. “Then you tell your father, and I’ll tell your grandfather.”

Ye Qingxi: !!

Ye Qingxi gripped his smartwatch tightly. Who was he supposed to tell?

His grandfather?!

Ye Qingxi quickly said, "How about I talk to Grandpa instead?"

Just kidding, his grandfather is a villain among villains who can kill three people by himself!

If his uncle had been a little more subjective and used slightly more exaggerated language, the Qiu family would have become the Qiu family—they would have been half-dead, if not dead.