The outside world seemed to have completely disappeared during the Lunar New Year period, and Ruan Bei happily spent a reunion year with his family at home.
Aside from Lu Minghai sending someone to invite his family to the Lu family home for the New Year before the Lu New Year—perhaps seeing how much Ruan Bei valued the Ruan family, he wanted to take a roundabout approach, but Ruan Bei refused without hesitation.
Later, when they sent New Year's gifts, Ruan Bei refused to accept them and didn't even let the people from the Lu family who came to deliver the gifts into the house.
As for what happened to Feng Zhihui after she went home, he neither cared nor asked.
Perhaps in his previous life he had some expectations for Feng Zhihui, his biological mother, but after she repeatedly protected her beloved child Lu Sibai, embarrassed Ruan Bei, and intentionally or unintentionally hurt him, Ruan Bei no longer regarded her as his mother.
The holiday after the New Year was spent in a regular and leisurely manner, reading, exercising, and practicing meditation.
She also visited her friends. Niu Niu has been sent back to her mother. Zhou Linlin has started a new life, regained her vitality, and begun to accept the reality of her daughter's passing, able to view it with a calm mind.
During the Spring Festival, she took the initiative to bring her child back home. In her words, she didn't know how many more Spring Festivals she could spend with her child, but she would take it one at a time.
Ruan Bei took Pudding to see Le Yuan. Pudding absorbed a lot of the Yin Qi Talisman given by Qin Gu and has become much stronger. At the very least, she can go to prison with Ruan Bei.
Le Yuan seems to be in good condition. Her house is rented out, and her aunt helps look after it, delivering food and supplies whenever possible.
Le Yuan behaved well. During the Spring Festival, the prison organized a party, and she even sang and played the piano on stage, which was very popular.
Moreover, the prison has applied for a sentence reduction for her, which is said to be approved after the new year. Her sentence was not long to begin with, and if she behaves well, she will be released soon.
He also went to see Wang Bufan; Teacher Li didn't go home for the Chinese New Year.
He published many papers under the name Wang Bufan. Previously, research institutes and universities had approached him, wanting to hire him, but he refused them all.
The school now values him highly. Seeing that he comes early every day and goes back late at night, they simply assigned him a two-bedroom dormitory with a kitchen and bathroom on the first floor, which is much more convenient than his original house.
He stayed at school during the Spring Festival to spend it with Wang Bufan. The two of them cooked a couple of dishes and watched the Spring Festival Gala together, which was quite nice.
Ruan Bei had also given Wang Bufan a Yin Qi talisman. Judging from the solidity of his body, he was probably the most powerful ghost Ruan Bei had ever seen. Even that hundred-year-old evil ghost didn't look as solid as him.
Aside from not having a shadow, in Ruan Bei's eyes, Wang Bufan was almost like a normal person.
Of course, when it comes to fighting, he definitely can't beat that evil spirit.
Moreover, he said that as he published one paper after another, he felt as if his abilities had also improved, but he couldn't explain why.
Qin Gu was also baffled. This was the first time he had heard of Wang Bufan's situation, and he had even asked his master about it.
The master thought about it for a moment and then told them that Wang Bufan might have embarked on a special path of ghost cultivation.
Generally, ghost cultivators cultivate spiritual energy, malevolent energy, murderous energy, evil energy, blood energy, and even merit—they cultivate all sorts of things. Wang Bufan is a bit special; perhaps he cultivates literary energy? Academic energy?
This is quite shocking, but it's also a good thing. Very few ghosts can enter the path of cultivation, so it's rare for Wang Bufan to have this opportunity.
Besides these old friends, Ruan Bei also gave the ghosts in the eastern suburbs a holiday. It's inhumane to make them keep keeping watch during the Lunar New Year.
They were already very happy to receive the Yin Qi Talisman as a New Year's gift. This talisman is practically a panacea for ghosts, and no one dislikes it.
Unfortunately, it's too difficult to draw. He inquired with his junior apprentice and found that there are very few talisman masters who can draw this talisman, and even those with the ability might not be willing to draw it, so it's useless.
Qin Gu, seeing that he dealt with ghosts quite a bit, even raised two little ones and kept them to support him.
The ghosts in the eastern suburbs have been diligently monitoring Lu Sibai in shifts for so long, and I heard that he has been relatively well-behaved recently.
He couldn't stay still, so he was kicked out. But he was quite flexible and adaptable. He hid in his apartment and sent greetings to the Lu family and Qin Shen three times a day.
However, Qin Shen is currently in the capital, which is too far away. This frequency is fine once or twice, but it gets annoying if it happens too often. The two have argued on the phone before, and Lu Siyuan cried terribly.
Lu Siyuan, feeling sorry for him, visited him at the Lu family's place, bringing him some money, food, and other necessities.
When Feng Zhihui first moved out, she was sad and couldn't accept the speculations Lu Minghai had made to her. She felt she couldn't face him, so she didn't come to see him.
After finally calming down, she suffered another major blow from Ruan Bei. For a long time after returning home, she was filled with resentment, agonizing over Ruan Bei's relationship with Madam Ran, and resenting him for choosing Min Zhenzhen, whom she disliked, over them.
Letting go completely is impossible; she's never suffered such a loss in her life, and she has to get her revenge somehow.
She needs to figure out exactly how to get back on her feet and how to get her son back.
However, given her previous disastrous experience with Ruan Bei, she didn't rush in recklessly like before. Instead, she planned to slowly mend the mother-son relationship and then try to win back Ruan Bei's heart once she brought him back.
Whether her little schemes will succeed is another matter, but thinking about them all day long has certainly taken up most of her energy, resulting in insufficient attention to Lu Sibai.
If it weren't for the three daily text messages of concern and lamentation she received, she would have almost forgotten that she had a son who had been kicked out of the house and was alone outside.
Lu Sibai isn't truly a heartthrob; some people like him while others dislike him. Besides Bai Miaomiao, many other second-generation rich kids also dislike him.
Most of the people here are cautious and not impulsive, but there are always a few reckless ones who, upon discovering Lu Sibai's downfall, happily step on him.
While Lu Sibai was out shopping, he was ambushed by a group of spoiled brats.
The leader said, "You didn't give me face when I invited you out before, but you should at least give me face now."
Lu Sibai didn't want to give it, but a group of people dragged him to a club and forced him to drink a mixture of baijiu and foreign liquor. They said that if he didn't drink, they would be disrespecting him, so they forced him to drink.
Finally, Lu Sibai vomited from drinking. Only then did the others let go of him with disgusted expressions. They found an excuse to beat him up because they thought his vomit was disgusting, and then left him in the toilet without paying any attention to him.
Lu Sibai was lying slumped in the bathroom, his clothes disheveled. He wasn't bad-looking, and the place was so messy; he almost got picked up while he was still naked.
When Lu Siyuan found him and took him back to the apartment, he hugged Lu Siyuan's leg and cried his heart out, calling out "brother" over and over again, saying that he knew he was wrong and begging him to take him home.
Lu Siyuan's heart softened at his crying, but he knew very well that once he took him back, it would be difficult to get rid of him again. If it happened once, it would happen again. If it happened a few more times, Lu Sibai would just go home.
His father would never allow such a thing to happen. Before Lu Sibai's biological parents appeared, his family could not have any further involvement with Lu Sibai, let alone take him back.
Finally, he hardened his heart and left.
After he left, Lu Sibai listened to the sound of the door closing and smashed everything in the house that she could break.
Finally, he curled up in the corner, his eyes swirling with astonishing hatred and resentment.
During the latter part of the holiday, Ruan Bei went to visit Bai Miaomiao quite often. His house had all kinds of amusement facilities. Playing alone was not fun, but it was very happy to play with friends.
Ruan Bei even played a few games with him after he kept nagging her. They were both noobs, so it was hard to say who was sabotaging whom.
He had met Bai Sen at the Bai family home. Bai Sen was noticeably more relaxed at home than outside, especially when he was with Bai Miaomiao. His eyebrows softened and his eyes became more serene.
Bosen's attitude towards him remained unchanged; he was still polite and courteous to his younger brother's good friend.
School started after the Lantern Festival.
Ruan Bei packed up and went back to school for classes. Ruan Xi went back to work at Bai's early on. She had excellent internship results and would be able to officially start working once she received her graduation certificate and degree certificate.
Ruan Bei had specifically instructed Bai Miaomiao not to give his sister any special treatment, as she wanted to rely on her own abilities—he was really scared by Bai Miaomiao's idol drama-like scripts. His sister actually liked her current job and didn't want to be forced to change jobs.
Bai Miaomiao nodded in agreement, thinking she knew what she was talking about. Her older sister must be the kind of self-reliant woman who was so different from him, a lazy bum.
After the start of the semester, Lu Siyuan changed his habit of not liking to come to school and started going to school every few days. In the end, he simply moved back to his own dormitory.
He not only stayed there, but he would also frequently run upstairs to bring Ruan Bei this and that, food, drinks, and other necessities.
He also sent Ruan Bei cakes and pastries baked by Feng Zhihui, saying that his mother made them especially for him.
Ruan Bei almost threw him out back then. He remembered it all too well. Neither Lu Minghai nor Lu Siyuan liked sweets, but Ruan Bei did. However, Feng Zhihui would never cook for him.
She usually makes desserts for Lu Sibai, and then Lu Sibai pretends to mention Ruan Bei. Feng Zhihui calls him to eat them as a reward, and she also praises Lu Sibai, saying that he is generous and that he is thinking of Ruan Bei.
He also took the opportunity to teach Ruan Bei a few words of advice, telling him not to always bully Lu Sibai and to know how to repay kindness.
How could he possibly eat that? He'd rather starve than have the nerve to eat these few pastries.
Ruan Bei claimed that he didn't like sweets, but perhaps because of his poor acting skills and Lu Sibai's sabotage, Feng Zhihui felt that he was petty and held a grudge against him after a few words, so she chased him away and said that she would never make him desserts again.
He refrained from throwing the cake in Lu Siyuan's face, and in the end, he simply shoved it back into Lu Siyuan's arms, coldly tossing out, "I don't like sweets."
Using the exact same excuse, Lu Siyuan opened his mouth, stared at the cup of hot cocoa on his table that smelled sweet from afar, but ultimately said nothing.
Bai Miaomiao, bored, went to investigate the results and came back to tell Ruan Bei that Lu Siyuan had eaten the whole box of cake himself.
Ruan Bei was stunned. He remembered that Lu Siyuan's taste was very similar to Lu Minghai's, and they both hated sweets. However, Feng Zhihui's cakes were even sweeter than those from ordinary cake shops.
For Lu Siyuan, this was no different from eating syrup directly, and no one knew how he managed to swallow it.
Later, Lu Siyuan would still send Ruan Bei things—designer clothes, limited-edition shoes, newly released electronic devices—he sent her everything, but he never sent food again.
However, Ruan Bei still refused to accept anything and even felt annoyed.
As he came more often, people in the neighboring dorms saw him and started spreading rumors. By the time Ruan Bei found out, some people on the school forum were even saying that Lu Siyuan was pursuing him.
Ruan Bei nearly choked to death and promptly reported those posts spreading rumors.
Unexpectedly, the day after he made the report, Lu Siyuan took action and posted a clarification, saying that he and Ruan Bei were brothers, the kind of brothers who were related by blood, and asked everyone not to misunderstand and not to continue spreading rumors so as not to cause trouble for the parties involved.
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