Chen Zhezhe had tried to persuade Liu Yi to give up on Xu Shanshan before, and seeing Chen Zhezhe's expression, Liu Yi understood what he meant.
"Chen Zhezhe, I know you're doing this for my own good, but Shanshan has changed now. She has broken up with her ex-boyfriend and she's moved on."
I hope so. Seeing how happy Liu Yi looked, Chen Zhezhe didn't have the heart to crush his spirits. He truly hoped that, as Liu Yi said, Xu Shanshan had actually changed!
Pushing these messy thoughts aside, the idea of someone treating him to dinner in the afternoon still cheered him up.
He should invite Liu Yi and the others along to bleed that little Mei Yangyang dry.
"Liu Yi, someone is treating me to dinner at Fucheng this afternoon. You and Xu Shanshan come over!"
The moment Liu Yi heard "Fucheng," he said excitedly, "Not bad at all! Someone's treating you at Fucheng? No problem, I'm definitely in for a free meal!"
"Fine, you freeloader. How are you going to repay me for this chance to eat at Fucheng? Let your buddy score?" Chen Zhezhe chuckled.
Liu Yi cursed him with a smile, "Go to hell! Unless I get to top!"
With a resentful look in his eyes, Chen Zhezhe said, "Fine! Actually, do you know why I've always hated you being with Xu Shanshan? The truth is, I love you. This humble monk has roamed the pugilistic world for decades without finding a single bro, known in the martial arts realm as 'The Lonely Seeker of DP.' Why don't you bring Xu Shanshan tonight and we can have a threesome..."
Liu Yi scrambled back in a panic to Xu Shanshan's seat and whispered a few words to her. Xu Shanshan hesitated for a moment, then nodded and agreed.
"What were you two talking about just now?" Qin Xin asked curiously, leaning her head closer.
Chen Zhezhe laughed heartily, "We were praising how pretty you look."
Qin Xin burst out laughing, "Nonsense."
There was only three o'clock left after this class, and it was still a long way from dinnertime, so Chen Zhezhe decided to take Qin Xin home first. Meanwhile, Liu Yi and Xu Shanshan had other plans, so they wouldn't be going with Chen Zhezhe to dinner.
After yesterday's commotion, Chen Zhezhe's apartment was in complete disarray. He tidied up briefly, grateful that only worthless items like tables, chairs, and stools had been smashed, while the electrical appliances were still mostly intact.
He really couldn't bring himself to leave Qin Xin behind here while he went out to eat. Fearing she would be bored, he decided to teach her how to find some amusement when she had nothing to do.
"This is a television. If you're bored, you can watch TV shows and things like that!" Chen Zhezhe turned on the TV. Although Qin Xin spent most of her time cultivating in the mountains, she wasn't completely ignorant of the mortal world; she just didn't quite know how to operate electronics, though she knew what they were for.
Going into the bedroom, Chen Zhezhe turned on the computer and randomly opened a few files: "This is a computer. You can browse the internet and watch movies... But I'm guessing that with your level of intelligence, you definitely won't figure out how to use it."
Seeing Chen Zhezhe underestimate her, Qin Xin looked unconvinced. "No way! I'm the smartest person in Tianxin Pavilion, and Master often praises me." With that, mimicking Chen Zhezhe's actions, she randomly clicked the mouse a few times on the computer and opened a dialog box.
Then she turned back to Chen Zhezhe with a triumphant look and said, "How about that? I'm not stupid at all!"
Chen Zhezhe's expression changed. Of all the things she could have clicked, the dialog box Qin Xin had opened happened to be the one he used most frequently.
*Yada, yamete, ya-go,* and other such unbearable sounds poured out from the speakers.
"What is this..." Qin Xin looked curiously at the men and women on the screen. As the plot progressed, her face turned as red as fire, and she slammed the mouse down. "How can you be so shameless..."
She covered her eyes tightly, the redness spreading all the way up her neck. Qin Xin felt her heart pounding and her whole body growing hot. As she squirmed, unable to resist being drawn in by the sound, she kept trying to steal a peek through the gaps in her fingers.
"It's a misunderstanding!" Chen Zhezhe rushed forward, closed the media player, and threw the file into the recycle bin.
Seeing this, Qin Xin let out a breath and muttered, "Good, good!" Though deep down she felt an incomparable sense of regret.
"Here! There are plenty of movies here. You can watch them one by one!" Chen Zhezhe was still shaken and didn't notice Qin Xin's expression.
Qin Xin gave an "oh" in response.
At that moment, someone banged on the door, making a deafening racket, and a muffled voice came from outside: "Open the door! Open the door!"
The voice sounded somewhat familiar.
"I'll get the door!" Qin Xin spun around and bolted out like a gust of wind.
Chen Zhezhe followed right behind her. When the door opened, three people swarmed in all at once.
Walking in front was a middle-aged woman with a plump figure and a round face that made her eyes look as though they were about to disappear. Her clothes were quite decent, and as she stepped inside, she placed her "Yizhibi" brand handbag aside. "Well, if it isn't Yangyang! Look how big you've grown. I even held you when you were a baby!"
Yangyang was Chen Zhezhe's childhood nickname, known only to a few close relatives.
This plump woman was none other than Chen Zhezhe's aunt, Liu Yinggui. Ever since Chen Zhezhe's parents died in a car accident, the two families had barely kept in touch for several years.
Chen Zhezhe narrowed his eyes. "What brings you here, Auntie? I haven't seen you in years."
"That's right! I was thinking, we're family after all, and never visiting each other isn't right. Didn't something come up the year you got into university and I couldn't make it? Look! This is for you!"
Liu Yinggui handed the fruit she was holding to Chen Zhezhe, but he didn't take it, saying coldly, "Auntie, you'd better just spit out whatever you're here for. Otherwise, I wouldn't dare accept your things."
Seeing the look in Chen Zhezhe's eyes, Liu Yinggui let out an awkward, dry laugh and set the fruit on the table.
"My, is this your little girlfriend? I must say, our family's Yangyang has good taste! Look how delicate and pretty she is, just like a porcelain doll!" Liu Yinggui praised admiringly, looking Qin Xin up and down until Qin Xin grew too embarrassed to meet her gaze.
A woman of about twenty-seven or twenty-eight came in along with Liu Yinggui. She had a tall figure and carried a pungent wave of perfume that made Qin Xin want to sneeze.
The moment this woman stepped inside, she started looking around the room, then, putting on the air of a homeowner, she shook her head and said, "The decor in this place must be from decades ago! Look at these tiles, look at this flooring—we'll have to replace all of it with imported Ooden flooring. And that wall? Knock it down. Open-concept living is trendy now. Put an LCD TV right here... My, can an antique fridge like that even still be used?"
As she spoke, she pushed open the room where Chen Zhezhe's older sister used to live. "This room is not bad, spacious enough. Even though the decor is a bit outdated, we can make do..."
"Hey! Why are you just barging into other people's rooms?" Chen Zhezhe gritted his teeth and rushed forward. If she weren't a relative, he would have swept these people out the door with a broom today. At the same time, he finally understood what these people were really here for.
Liu Yinggui grabbed Chen Zhezhe. "Look at me, I haven't even introduced her. This is your sister-in-law, Xiaozhong's wife!"
The woman didn't even look at Chen Zhezhe. "My name is Yang Linzhi!"
Chen Zhezhe's father had an older brother named Chen Hezhong, who was married to this Liu Yinggui, and they had a son named Chen Zhong—Chen Zhong was Chen Zhezhe's paternal cousin.
It seemed this woman with such a heavy aura of worldly dust was Chen Zhong's wife.
Chen Zhong had also come in with them, but he had simply stood quietly behind Liu Yinggui the whole time, occasionally casting furtive glances at Qin Xin.
"Auntie, Brother, if you have something to say, just say it straight. Though whether I'll agree to it is another matter entirely," Chen Zhezhe said, looking straight into Liu Yinggui's eyes.
Under Qin Xin's guidance, he had just taken his first steps into cultivation, though he hadn't yet realized that he was currently exuding a sharp, imposing aura.
Liu Yinggui gave an awkward smile.
"Let me talk!"
Chen Zhong stepped forward. "Yangyang, I got married just last month, but constantly living with my parents isn't really working out. Isn't this convenient? You're still in college, so you can live in the dorms. This apartment can be left vacant for me to move into first as our bridal home."
Since childhood, Chen Zhong and his street-smart cousin had never gotten along, and this cousin probably didn't think much of him either. The two of them could truly be said to despise the sight of each other.
"No way!" Chen Zhezhe replied decisively.
Chen Zhezhe had absolutely no good impressions of these relatives. After his parents passed away, his sister went to work in the south, and back then the Chen family didn't have much money. Chen Hezhong happened to owe Chen Zhezhe's father two thousand yuan, and Chen Zhezhe's sister had wanted to ask for that money back to use as travel expenses for the south.
Yet Chen Hezhong, who never cared for the orphaned siblings after their parents' deaths, flatly denied owing any money. At the time, because they were relatives, no IOU had been written. But Chen Zhezhe's sister had witnessed the loan with her own eyes.
Money matters could sometimes be very complicated, yet sometimes very simple.
From then on, the two families essentially cut off all ties—who could have imagined that they would actually set their sights on this apartment?
"Well! Chen Zhezhe, you think you're the one in the right?" Liu Yinggui glared at him. "This apartment was originally left by the old man for our family. Our Hezhong has a share in it too, so there's no telling who it really belongs to. Besides, we're not going to let you lose out!"
She pulled a paper parcel from her bosom. "There's twenty thousand yuan in here. If you don't like living in the dorms, I can rent an apartment for you."
Anger raged in Chen Zhezhe's heart, but they were still relatives after all. He knew this family well enough: they clearly had their eyes on the apartment left by his parents and wanted to scheme to get their hands on it. Once they moved in, getting it back would be impossible.
Just thinking about how they could instantly deny the two thousand yuan his parents had lent them years ago told him everything he needed to know about their character.
This apartment had originally been assigned by Jiangcheng University to Chen Zhezhe's grandfather when he was a professor. Before he passed away, he had left behind an apartment and a hundred thousand yuan in savings. Chen Zhezhe's father had been very filial to the old man, whereas Chen Zhezhe's uncle, Chen Hezhong, fell far short, practically ignoring the old man completely after getting married.
Even so, the old man had originally decided to leave the apartment to Chen Hezhong and give the savings passbook of a hundred thousand yuan to Chen Zhezhe's father.
Judging by property prices back then, the apartment was worth seventy or eighty thousand yuan at most. Although Chen Hezhong and his wife hadn't fulfilled their filial duties, they still felt the old man was playing favorites, and they nagged and cajoled Chen Zhezhe's father into letting them have the hundred thousand yuan while taking the apartment worth only seventy or eighty thousand yuan for himself.
As property prices in Jiangcheng City skyrocketed, this apartment had appreciated at least tenfold. Although it was an old building, the location was prime, adjacent to the campus with a pleasant environment.
Of course Liu Yinggui and Chen Hezhong regretted it deeply in their hearts, which was why they had hatched this scheme to take the apartment back.
Their calculation was crystal clear to Chen Zhezhe:
"There is no discussing this. It's out of the question. You guys can leave!"