0017 017 Replace him
Boss Cheng laughed exaggeratedly, and Qi Yu laughed along with him. Only after he had finished laughing did he ask a question.
"Have all the old items in the house been disposed of?"
"It's spotless, thoroughly cleaned inside and out, and shines brightly, without a trace of the previous dust."
Qi Yu smiled and clinked glasses with him, downing one glass after another. After the meal, Boss Cheng was carried back by several people. Young Master Cheng paid the bill and walked over from behind Qi Yu, his expression remaining unfriendly.
Qi Yu didn't even look at him. He was scrolling through his phone, thinking that it was too late to go back today, and he would just spend the night in the office.
He made do until Friday, and just as he was about to leave the office, his colleagues stopped him and treated him to a late dinner. He drank until he was dizzy and spent the night in a hotel. He came out on Saturday noon with a throbbing head. Before he knew it, it was mid-September. The wind had cooled down and felt comfortable on his body. Some yellow leaves had started to fall, blocking his view for a second at a time.
A leaf fell and landed at Qi Yu's feet. His gaze lowered and then rose again. A pair of very attractive and well-matched young men and women walked past on the other side of the road. The boy, whom he hadn't seen in a long time, had grown quite a bit taller. The girl beside him was jumping around, and when she was happy, the hand that grabbed his arm became more and more dazzling to look at.
The man's feet followed them involuntarily, walking with them down a long street. The autumn wind blew away their conversation, and no one could hear a word. The street ended at a wide road. The boy reached out his hand, and the girl naturally offered hers. She was led across the road by the boy, just as she had been led by him before.
Their figures blended into the crowd, indistinguishable from others. They held hands all the way to the other side of the road without letting go. That afternoon, Qi Yu accompanied them from shop to shop under the blazing sun. The boy carried more and more bags, and finally let go of their clasped hands. But he took the ice cream from the shopkeeper and handed it to the girl beside him.
They entered a restaurant one after the other and sat down by the window, facing each other. The girl checked her eyelashes through her phone camera when suddenly she heard a series of banging sounds.
She looked up, turned her head, and stared at Qi Yu's expressionless face in stunned surprise.
The boy, however, reacted, waved to him, and called him "Uncle Qi."
The atmosphere at the table was somewhat awkward. A man and a woman sat facing each other in silence, while a dark-faced man sat between them, pouring himself a teacup and drinking.
The atmosphere remained awkward for almost a minute before Qi Shuyao finally broke the silence and tried to change the subject.
"Dad, what are you doing here?"
"What are you doing here?"
"My brother and I are out having fun. It's Saturday today."
"Your brother."
Qi Yu's expression darkened further as he turned to the politely smiling boy beside him.
"Your sister will be graduating from junior high school soon, right?"
"Yes, Uncle Qi, my mom is with her over there."
"Then you, as the older brother, should spend more time with your younger sister. Don't let her know you're out with other people, or she'll get angry."
Qi Shuyao frowned as she looked at Qi Yu. She reached out and tugged at his sleeve, but was slapped down.
"I was with my sister before I came back, but I didn't expect that Uncle Qi's family had already moved. I almost didn't get to deliver the gifts I brought back for Yao Yao. Today is Yao Yao's day off, so I took her out for a walk."
"Hmm..." Qi Yu then picked up the small teapot and poured water back and forth, then pushed the cup in front of Qi Shuyao.
"So, are you going back this time? You're all grown up now. Has your uncle arranged for you to go somewhere?"
“My uncle said that it’s not bad for me to stay abroad, since the situation in China isn’t very good right now.”
This time, Qi Shuyao finally found a place to interject, and quickly spoke up.
"Uncle Xu is retired, why should he care about these things? He should go out and enjoy himself."
"And where did you get that information from?" Qi Yu's tone naturally shifted back to her.
"I went out with Sister Yunyun the day before yesterday, and she brought Yaoyao with her. Aunt Xie said..."
"You're already a senior in high school, and you still have time to go out and have fun?"
"That was..."
In front of Xu Chaoyi, Qi Shuyao couldn't speak her mind directly. Qi Yu, who used to understand her with just a glance, was acting strangely today, insisting that she explain everything clearly and wouldn't give an inch. The father and daughter stared at each other with their necks stiffened, and in the end, Xu Chaoyi had to mediate.
"Perhaps Sister Tang just wanted to take Yao Yao out to relax. Uncle Qi, please don't be too angry. Yao Yao is a very good student."
"Yes, she spent every day at her academically gifted brother's house when she was little, so she was naturally influenced by him a lot."
Something's not right. Qi Yu is acting very strangely today. Every word he says is laced with barbs and he won't listen to any explanations. Qi Shuyao is too lazy to talk to him anymore. She glances apologetically at Xu Chaoyi, then lowers her head and pretends to be dead while holding her teacup.
The waiter hesitated for a long time, not daring to approach. She waved him away, picked up her bag, and prepared to get up.
"sit down."
Qi Yu's words were icy, but she didn't argue. She obediently sat down, looking out the window. Then it was Xu Chaoyi's turn to get up.
"It's very late, I'm going home now. My uncle and aunt want me to go home for dinner."
"Okay, be careful on the road."
The boy went outside, and the father and daughter in the restaurant stared out the window together. Not long after, Xu Jingchuan's car stopped by the roadside, Xu Chaoyi opened the door and got in, and the car merged back into the traffic.
Qi Yu leaned back, his gaze now fixed on Qi Shuyao. After staring at her for a while without her looking back, he suddenly laughed.
"You were having a good time on the way here, so why are you unhappy as soon as you see me?"
"How can I be happy? Look at you."
“What’s wrong with my appearance? I’m just politely checking in on a neighbor’s kid I haven’t seen in five or six years. What’s the problem?”
"Still asking questions? Look at your attitude. Is that concern? It's like you're interrogating a criminal. No wonder you came from the National Security Bureau. You haven't forgotten your old profession after all these years."
Qi Shuyao muttered a complaint, rubbing her stiff body against the chair to ease her pain, touching her empty stomach, and then kneed her father's leg hard on the table.
"I'm hungry, it's all your fault."
"The food is here, but I'm not thinking about you; I'm only focused on your brother."
He emphasized the pronunciation of "brother" but didn't look up at her.
"What's wrong with my brother? I call him brother because you made me when we were kids. Why are you being sarcastic now?"
The waiter placed the dishes on the table and quickly ran away.
"You don't have a brother, remember that."
"No older brother, maybe he has a younger brother now."
These words came out of his mouth without thinking, and both of them were stunned after he finished speaking, but Qi Yu calmly denied them.
"No, you don't have an older brother or a younger brother."
How can you be so sure that you're still in contact with my mom?
Once that person was mentioned, there were fewer concerns and difficulties in speaking about her again. She could even call her "Mom" smoothly, as if she had always been by her side.
"There's no contact, and you don't have a younger brother."
"That means you know where she is now and you know her current situation."
They were both too calm, as if discussing a wisp of air in front of them, knowing full well that there would be no answer, yet still trying to delve deeper into it.
Do you miss her? Do you want to go see her?
"I don't want to, I don't want to look for her. But it's strange. I can only remember one sentence about her. The words are clear, but her image is blurry. But since I have memories, it means I've seen her before. I saw her after I could understand words and had memories. But why can I only remember one sentence? I can't figure it out."
Qi Shuyao took the initiative to end the topic. She turned a strand of her hair and looked out the window again, until the seafood salad and tomato soup were served together.
Qi Yu had already sat down in the seat opposite her, and even left the chair that Xu Chaoyi had just sat in empty, seemingly with disdain. He spoke casually.
"How did Xu Chaoyi find you?"
"I don't know who he asked, but he brought a lot of things over in the morning, which made Han's mother and the others very happy. They even said they would take me out shopping."
"He said you just came out with me and bought so much stuff, their family..."
“I know, I said no, but he said that the money he had before was given to him by his uncle and his aunt. Now that he is earning his own money, he wants to take me out to spend it. I couldn’t refuse, so that’s how it is.”
"Has he graduated from university? Is he already working?"
"He just graduated, he graduated early, and found a job at an internet company. I don't know much about it, but it seems to be similar to Bei Huisi's company. Anyway, it's the same major he studied in college."
"You two met once and chatted quite a bit."
“We used to talk about everything, and we had a good relationship. What’s wrong with that?”
"Yes, you two are so close, so close that I was called to the school when my daughter was just starting junior high and they said she was dating too early."
"That's just the homeroom teacher talking nonsense because he can't tell the difference. No one starts dating as soon as they enter junior high school. It doesn't happen that fast."
"Didn't you say that you were dating someone when you were in elementary school?"
"ah!"
Qi Shuyao thought for a long time before recalling that there were indeed two such people in her class when she was about to graduate from elementary school. However, she couldn't remember whether they were teased by others or whether they had admitted it themselves. It seemed that when they came back, they just casually mentioned it to Qi Yu as something new.
"Your memory is amazing. I just said it casually, and you still remember it now, and you're even teasing me."
She channeled her anger into her appetite, devouring the food on the table with gusto, while not forgetting to throw in another jab.
"I know you've never liked him. It was fine before, but ever since the homeroom teacher called you over, you've become increasingly neurotic and won't let me go to his house anymore. But you're not very observant either. After we actually got together, you stopped watching me so closely."
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