"You... you... you dare hit me?" the Dean sputtered in disbelief as he scrambled to his feet. He cradled his cheek, where the distinct red handprint was already forming. For a long moment, he couldn't snap out of his fiercely suppressed rage!
Qin Fan, the abandoned son of the Qin family, a boy anyone in the school could bully. This coward, who always presented a weak and timid image, had actually dared to strike him, the Dean? Does the boy not realize what this means? Has Qin Fan gone mad, or has the entire world?
In the pin-drop silent classroom, all eyes were fixed on Qin Fan. Let's see how this piece of trash handles the aftermath of hitting the Dean, someone even we don't dare to provoke!
Qin Fan simply shook his head with a disdainful smirk. With an icy gaze, he slowly walked toward the Dean. Leaning in close to the man's ear, he spoke in a voice as cold as a Shura's whisper, "You should be grateful I only hit you, not killed you!"
"Are you threatening me?" the Dean sputtered, his anger boiling over.
"Threaten you? No." Qin Fan grinned, his eerie, unsettling smile making the Dean freeze in place. "You're not worthy of my threats."
Taking advantage of the Dean's stunned silence, Qin Fan said nothing more and strode out of the classroom without a backward glance.
SWOOSH—
The instant Qin Fan stepped out, the Dean reflexively spun around. He stared at the retreating back—a back that had been kicked and stepped on more times than he could count. Involuntarily, a fine layer of sweat beaded on his forehead.
That gaze, that expression, that voice… could that really belong to a sixteen-year-old? Was that truly the outcast of the Qin family, the boy everyone could step on?
He shook his head, trying to banish the absurd thought. And yet, his instincts screamed at him that this outcast from the Qin family was not so simple. Or rather, he was no longer the simple boy he once was.
Walking out of the lively Qi Middle School, Qin Fan's heart pounded with excitement. He hadn't seen his parents, who had devoted everything to him, for several hundred years. Now, he was reborn, back to when he was sixteen or seventeen. At this moment, all he wanted was to hurry home and see them—his parents, who in his past life had endured countless humiliations, only to be framed and thrown in prison!
He dug out the last few dozen yuan from his school uniform pocket and flagged down a taxi. With a heart burning with an urgency he couldn't contain, he hurried home.
---
The walls were mottled and old, covered in stains. When the taxi stopped in front of a dated five-story rental building deep within the urban village, Qin Fan stepped out. He looked at the building, a place so familiar it hurt, as memories from his teenage and young adult years flooded his mind.
This building had been left to his father by his grandmother. After being driven out of the Qin family, his own family of three had moved here. They lived by renting out the second through fifth floors, which was enough to ensure they never went hungry and could cover their living expenses. It wasn't until later, due to the demolition and redevelopment of the urban village, that his parents used the compensation money to go into business. They had managed to build a family fortune of several hundred million.
But Creation was a cruel trickster. Just when they thought a bright future was ahead, that so-called Second Uncle of his colluded with the Du Family to destroy everything his parents had built. In the end, they even used false charges to send his parents to prison. It was because of this that he, feeling powerless to reverse their fate, had fallen into such despair that he'd even thought of suicide as an escape.
Looking up at the familiar mottled colors, mist began to form in Qin Fan's reddened eyes. In my last life, my family's end was too tragic!
His fists clenched of their own accord. Tilting his head to the sky, Qin Fan gritted his teeth and whispered, "Mom, Dad, in this life, I will lead you to look down on this world! I won't let a single one of our past debts go unpaid!"
He sniffled, unclenching his fists, and pulled the house key from his pocket. Just as he was about to open the door, he noticed a BMW 7 Series parked to one side of the entrance. The license plate number seemed vaguely familiar. He tried to place it but couldn't, so he let it go, inserted the key, and twisted the lock.
"Xiao Fan, why are you back? Aren't you supposed to be in class?" his mother, Wei Shuying, exclaimed in surprise upon seeing him enter.
"What is this about? Why have you come home during school hours?" his stern-faced father, Qin Chu, asked with a dissatisfied frown.
"Ah, Xiao Fan, you're back just in time. Your parents and I were just talking about you," a middle-aged man sitting on the old sofa said, rising to his feet. He pushed up his glasses and gave a strange, dry smile.
But the young woman sitting next to the man suddenly let out a cold snort, cutting through the tense atmosphere. "Since he's back, let's just get this over with. I've been uncomfortable since the moment I walked through this door! Dad, let's stop beating around the bush. Uncle Qin, Aunt Wei, let's call off the marriage agreement our families made eighteen years ago! It's impossible for Qin Fan and me. I could never accept my future being tied to such a universally bullied—! Ugh, forget it. As for compensation, my father and I have discussed it. Ten million. Consider it payment for the misunderstanding all these years!"
"Old Zhou, is this why you came to our home?" As Zhou Xueman's sharp words landed, Qin Chu's expression immediately darkened, his honest face filled with indignation.
"Old Qin!" Wei Shuying tugged on her husband's sleeve. Although her own face had turned grim, she kept her emotions in check. This wasn't unexpected; it was only a matter of time!
Pausing for a moment, she ignored Zhou Xueman and shook her head at the middle-aged man, Zhou Yihang. "Old Zhou, you're really overthinking this. My husband and I always considered that old arrangement a joke and never took it seriously. The fact that we never brought it up all these years proves that. Besides, times are different now. The days of arranged marriages decided by parents and matchmakers are long gone!"
"Shuying, I—!" Zhou Yihang pushed his glasses up again, his face a mask of embarrassment.
"It's alright. I know what you want to say, so don't feel burdened." Wei Shuying raised a hand to cut him off. "A melon forced off the vine is never sweet. My husband and I could never accept a daughter-in-law who is prejudiced against our son. What's more, I believe in my son! He may seem worthless in the eyes of the world, but in our hearts, Qin Fan has always been our pride! As the saying goes, 'Thirty years the river flows east, thirty years it flows west.' I believe in his future!"
Her fierce, protective nature was on full display.
Standing silently to the side, Qin Fan suddenly turned his head slightly, pursing his lips and blinking as he tilted his head back. Having been reborn, how could he not know how pathetic he used to be? And yet, his mother still held such unwavering faith in him. After hundreds of years spent numbing his inner hatred with slaughter and bloodshed, how could he possibly remain indifferent to this?
"Thirty years east, thirty years west? Heh." Zhou Xueman glanced disdainfully at the silent Qin Fan before turning back with a shrug and a sneer. "Aunt Wei, the old folks say a child's character is set by age three. Qin Fan is already sixteen or seventeen; the writing is on the wall for his future! As his mother, I understand your feelings, but from a realistic point of view, you should stop deceiving yourself!"
"Xueman, be respectful!" Zhou Yihang, already mortified at having to play the villain in this affair, couldn't take his daughter's repeated, tactless remarks any longer. His face flushed with shame.
"Dad, I'm just speaking the truth! Does Qin Fan have a future? Ask Uncle Qin and Aunt Wei to look into their hearts and answer that. Does he have a future? He hasn't even dared to say a single word this whole time. What kind of future can a person like that have? Dad, forget about me accepting him. Let's take a huge step back—could you accept a son-in-law like this?" Now that the floodgates were open and all pretenses were gone, Zhou Xueman spoke without restraint.
"Oh? And what is it you want to hear me say?"
Qin Fan cleaned out his ear, then stuffed his hands into his school uniform pockets, looking at Zhou Xueman with a sigh laced with mockery.