Hearing someone call him cousin, Jiang Han looked blankly at the other person.
"Since when did I have a cousin?"
Jiang Chenyu said enthusiastically, "My name is Jiang Chenyu, and my father is Jiang Jianxin, which makes you my third uncle."
"I saw you at a family gathering before, and when I heard from Dad that my cousin goes to the same school as me, you left a deep impression on me."
After Jiang Chenyu's explanation, Jiang Han recalled a major scandal in the family.
Last year, his third uncle and third aunt had a messy divorce, and within just two months, the third uncle brought his mistress and the mistress's child right into the family home.
Because of this incident, his cousin Jiang Zhe, with whom he had a very close relationship, ran away from home.
Nobody knew what had gotten into the third uncle, parading the mistress around and pampering the child she gave birth to.
To top it all off, that child wasn't even his third uncle's biological offspring.
At the time, he and Jiang Zhe had spent every day cursing that old mistress over this matter.
He never expected to run into the old mistress's free-loading parasite today.
A cold glint flashed in Jiang Han's eyes as he sized up Jiang Chenyu.
He had a crafty look on his face, a true match for his shameless mother.
On top of that, he was wearing a watch worth tens of thousands, clearly bought with his third uncle's money.
It was pitiful that his actual cousin was still out there working and studying part-time on his own.
He had originally planned to have his parents look after Jiang Zhe, but his cousin had too much backbone.
He insisted on surviving entirely by the sweat of his brow.
Right now, Jiang Han couldn't help cursing Jiang Zhe in his heart for being so stupid, letting some wild bastard outside enjoy the family's money for nothing.
He was just so damn stupid.
"Who are you trying to claim as family? Who's your cousin? Aren't you just the free-loading parasite brought by the old mistress?" Jiang Han rolled his eyes at him, too lazy to even put on basic courtesy.
Jiang Chenyu's expression stiffened.
"Brother Jiang Han, that's a bit harsh. My mom and Uncle Jiang got together through free love, she isn't a mistress."
Jiang Han sneered, "It sure was free. My third uncle wasn't even divorced yet when your mom, that slutty fox, crawled into his bed."
"And the son of a slutty fox looks like he's full of bad intentions, too. Everything you're enjoying right now should belong to my real cousin, yet here you are wearing a designer watch, just terrified people won't know your mother is a whore?"
At school, Jiang Chenyu was the student council president whom everyone fawned over. He wore designer clothes and ate expensive food, leading everyone to believe Jiang Jianxin was his biological father.
This thin veil of decency was suddenly ripped away by Jiang Han, humiliating him so fiercely that his face turned pale.
Yet Jiang Han felt not a shred of guilt; in fact, he longed to beat Jiang Chenyu up just to make that old mistress furious to death.
His third aunt had doted on him dearly when he was little, caring for him just like her own son.
In Jiang Han's heart, she was half a mother—how could he possibly swallow this anger?
"Damn it!" Jiang Han spat, and threw the application form right into Jiang Chenyu's face.
"This form has Teacher Zhang's newly released competition rules. Pass the word down. If you don't handle this properly, I don't mind spreading the word around school about what kind of trashy whore your mother is."
Jiang Han felt disgusted just looking at him for another second, and walked away right after tossing the paper.
Jiang Chenyu picked up the form, his pale face burning with humiliation.
Not only had this bastard stolen An Yangning, but he had also insulted his mother. Was there really no way to get revenge on him?
...
Returning to the classroom, Jiang Han grew angry just thinking about Jiang Chenyu's face.
How wonderful it would be if Cousin Jiang Zhe could go back, reclaim the family property, and kick that old mistress out.
It was so infuriating!
Jiang Han slammed his desk twice in anger, scaring Sun Deming beside him so much that he didn't even dare to breathe heavily.
At that moment, Xu Guangming walked in and announced the monthly exams.
They would take place in just one day.
Once the exams were over, he would give the students time to prepare for the sports meeting.
The students didn't have any particularly unusual reactions; after all, tracking exams only happened once.
As long as they took the test normally, they wouldn't drop out of the Rocket Class.
Most of them felt no anxiety before the exams.
Right now, Jiang Han himself was completely distracted, his mind entirely occupied with how to persuade Jiang Zhe to come home.
After school, Jiang Han felt such lingering anxiety over the matter that he asked An Yangning to go home first to study.
He wanted to go look for Jiang Zhe tonight to chat; some things involved his cousin's privacy, so it wouldn't be appropriate for An Yangning to tag along.
An Yangning understood and simply urged Jiang Han not to get drunk outside.
After sending his girlfriend off, Jiang Han hailed a cab and headed straight for Qingjiang University.
Qingda was a comprehensive undergraduate institution where most majors were second-tier, a very ordinary university.
Standing on the vast campus, Jiang Han called his cousin.
It took a long time for someone to answer, and Jiang Zhe's hearty voice came through the receiver.
"Xiaohan, what made you suddenly think of calling your older brother?"
Jiang Han forced a smile. "Nothing, I just missed you all of a sudden and came to see you."
Cousin Jiang Zhe was currently pursuing his master's degree at Qingda, and over the past two years, Jiang Han only got to see him during the Lunar New Year.
"Alright, little bro, send me your location and I'll come find you right now."
Jiang Han sent over his location.
After waiting about twenty minutes, Jiang Zhe finally arrived tardily.
He was wearing a food delivery uniform from a certain delivery platform, a sight that gave Jiang Han a pang of heartache.
The wild son wore designer brands, while the biological son delivered takeout—what kind of logic was that?
Jiang Zhe wiped the sweat from his forehead, looking extremely happy to see his younger brother.
It felt as though all the fatigue of the day had vanished.
"What does Xiaohan want to eat? Big brother will take you."
Jiang Han smiled. "Let's get the barbecue outside the school, let me experience a bit of university life."
His words were phrased very cleverly, preventing Jiang Zhe from realizing he was deliberately trying to save his brother money, and instead making Jiang Zhe quite happy.
"Alright, big brother's treating you to your heart's content."
The two found a food stall, ordered a large number of meat skewers, and called for some beer.
"Brother, actually I came here today to persuade you to go home. You being stubborn with Third Uncle is just letting that whore cash in."
Jiang Zhe's expression turned cold. "Xiaohan, don't try to persuade me. I feel sick just looking at those two faces when I go back."
"And that little bastard the whore brought along—seeing them just reminds me of the grievances my mom suffered."
If it were last year, Jiang Han would still have been a rather willful high schooler.
But now, having experienced certain things, he had a deeper understanding of society.
"Big brother, listen to me. Just go back, don't fight with Third Uncle. You're his biological son, a father-son bond of over twenty years can't be severed."
"When the old mistress plays the victim, you play the victim too; when she cries, you cry. She hasn't even gotten a marriage certificate with Third Uncle—even if you can't stop her from cashing in, you'll feel a bit better inside."
Jiang Zhe found this a bit strange and asked, "What happened? How come I feel like you're even angrier than I am?"
Jiang Han took a swig of his beer and told Jiang Zhe about Jiang Chenyu's incident, adding plenty of dramatic flair.
A few minutes later.
"That's how it is, big brother. Why are you swallowing this anger? Half of the company's achievements belong to Third Aunt; when she got divorced, she didn't ask for company shares precisely so you could inherit the company properly."
"Brother, do you really want that little wild bastard to usurp Third Aunt's money? Seriously, stop being stubborn. What can you do nowadays without money? Playing the rich second-generation heir only to go deliver takeout like some idiot—just suffering for no reason?"
That final remark about "suffering for no reason" actually struck a chord with Jiang Zhe.
The money he made in a month right now didn't even cover his daily expenses from the past.
Not only did he suffer through hardship and exhaustion, but people even cursed him for being a rich kid stealing other people's job opportunities.
"Damn it! Xiaohan, don't laugh, but these past few days I've actually been thinking about going home. Should I ask my girlfriend about it?"