The man extended his hand and crooked his fingers, signaling for Lan Yin to hand over her cigarettes. Lan Yin rolled her eyes, threw the pack at him, then turned to face Ke Bu and the others. Pointing disdainfully at the man beside her, whose expression had remained unchanged from beginning to end, she said, “There. This is my ex-husband, Zhi Zuo Si.”
For once, the group moved in perfect unison. They placed their hands in front of themselves and bowed slightly. It was obvious they had watched far too many gangster films, but for some reason, their bodies instinctively wanted to behave this way. “Hello, Uncle.” Calling Zhi Zuo Si “Uncle” felt rather strange because he looked no older than thirty, but addressing him by name as they did Lan Yin would have felt even stranger. Zhi Zuo Si quickly looked them over without saying anything, then walked straight into the shop and sat opposite Zhi Li.
“School.”
“Good.”
“Dormitory.”
“Good.”
“Friends.”
“Poor.”
“Causing trouble.”
“Excellent.”
This was the first time in Ke Bu’s life that he had heard such an unusual conversation between father and son. He turned to Lan Yin and asked, “What are they doing?”
“Their annual status report.”
“Isn’t their method of communication a little too brief?”
“They’ve already added two more questions this year.”
“As parents, shouldn’t you give your child more care and affection?” Ke Bu quietly offered his opinion, then cowardly added, “Of course, Your Highness, that’s only my personal view.”
“Care and affection? So he can grow up and become useless like that one, that one, and that one?” As Lan Yin said “that one, that one, and that one,” she pointed toward several ordinary people on the beach.
When Lan Yin saw that the two had finished talking, she walked over and tapped the table with her finger. “You’re done, right? You can leave now.”
“I’m finished talking to him. I’ve only just begun with you.” Zhi Zuo Si rested one hand on his knee, his fingers tapping it slowly.
Lan Yin sat beside Zhi Li. “I have nothing to discuss with you. Unless, of course, you apologize.”
Ying Xiu Jie was someone who had absolutely no sense of timing. “Excuse me for asking, but why exactly did the two of you divorce?”
Lan Yin snorted and looked coldly at Zhi Zuo Si. “Because Zhi Li is a child I secretly had with another man behind his back.”
Everyone sucked in a sharp breath. Ke Bu’s thoughts flew in every direction, leaving him unable to react. Countless images merely spun around inside his mind. Zhi Zuo Si looked at the group, whose faces had gone pale with fright. “Are all of you idiots?”
“Fun, isn’t it? They believe anything I say.” Lan Yin gave Zhi Zuo Si a mischievous smile.
“Please don’t make jokes like that at a time like this!!!” Ke Bu stamped his feet in frustration, then looked at Zhi Li, hoping to obtain the answer from him. It would have been a lie to say he was not curious. Zhi Li closed his sketchbook and lazily said, “It seems that one day, Yin got drunk and kept wailing like a ghost while singing. In the end, her mouth was sealed with tape, and she was thrown into the storage room for the entire night.”
“I see.” Ke Bu calmly accepted it for one second, then broke down the next. “How was your divorce even more casual than your marriage? Over something that trivial?!”
“Trivial?” Lan Yin swept Ke Bu a glance, then looked calmly at Zhi Zuo Si. “I distinctly remember someone saying when we married that he would spoil me properly. Is that how you spoil me—locking me in a storage room?”
Zhi Zuo Si was even calmer than Lan Yin. “My exact words were that I could spoil you under ordinary circumstances. I never said I would do so while you were singing. I hate noise.”
“Are you saying my singing is noise?”
“Yes,” Zhi Li and Zhi Zuo Si answered Lan Yin at the same time.
Zhi Li then added another stab. “Extremely noisy.”
Could these two possibly become any more childish? Ke Bu could hardly believe it, yet an inexplicable bitterness welled up inside him. They were different. His own tragic family and Zhi Li’s family were not the same after all.
“It seems divorcing you was the correct decision.”
“Just how long can you hold a grudge?”
“Didn’t you know that from the moment we met?”
“I’ll ask you one last time. Remarry me. The condition is that you never sing again for the rest of your life.”
Lan Yin shrugged. “It seems we have nothing to discuss. Goodbye.”
“Since you refuse, I’ll decide for you.”
“Don’t even think about it.”
“Zhi Li won’t come here again. You don’t have to leave with me if you don’t want to see him.”
Lan Yin finally lost some of her composure, her brows lifting. “You’re using him to threaten me? Do you think he’ll obediently listen to you?”
Zhi Zuo Si took out a credit card and pushed it toward Zhi Li with one finger. Just how filthy was this family? They were openly conducting such a filthy monetary transaction in front of so many people.
“You think you can bully me because I have no money?” Lan Yin shamelessly wrapped her arms around Zhi Li. “Don’t listen to him. Mommy will compensate you with her body.”
Zhi Li pushed Lan Yin away. “You can take this woman with you. The farther away, the better. However…” Zhi Li stared at the credit card on the table. “This isn’t enough.”
“What else do you want?”
“I want you to acknowledge one thing.”
Ke Bu had a bad feeling—a very, very bad feeling. His legs began trembling. He wanted to run, but the moment he stepped backward, Su You Yan grabbed the back of his collar. “Stand properly.”
Zhi Li extended a finger—a long, beautiful finger—and pointed first at himself, then at Ke Bu. Zhi Zuo Si’s intelligence needed no explanation. He stared expressionlessly at Ke Bu, though not at his face. He was staring below his waist.
“No need to look. That thing may be a little small, but it’s real,” Zhi Li said.
Ke Bu felt as though all the blood in his body was about to spray across the entire ocean.
Silence. Grave silence. The air seemed to solidify. Ke Bu did not dare meet Zhi Zuo Si’s eyes. He had already been frightened out of his soul and had received no mental preparation whatsoever. Events had changed so quickly that his mind was completely blank. At a loss for what to do, he did not want to deny it, yet he lacked the courage to admit it. In his confusion, he tried to offer Zhi Zuo Si some comfort. “Uncle, d-don’t worry. I’m the one who gets fucked.”
Chu Hao Yu and the others stared at Ke Bu with wide eyes. Ke Bu had no idea what he had just said. His unfocused eyes stared straight ahead. Evidently, the sudden development had dealt him an enormous blow.
After a long silence, Zhi Zuo Si looked coldly at Lan Yin. “You knew long ago?”
“I’ve dreamed of seeing the expression you’d make when you found out.” Although it was nearly impossible to detect any change in Zhi Zuo Si’s expression, how could Lan Yin, who had spent so many years with him, fail to notice that momentary shift?
Zhi Zuo Si’s voice did not change in the slightest. “I told you long ago not to look at strange things while you were pregnant.”
Zhi Li rested his elbow on his sketchbook and leaned slightly forward. “Well? Exchange your marriage for my love.”
Once again, Ke Bu experienced the terror of Zhi Li’s intelligence. Just when had this schemer planned everything? He had even used Lan Yin as part of his plot!!
Futile Devices Scans 
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