Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"012"

Xiao Mian was momentarily at a loss for words, then suddenly caught sight of an unfamiliar package in Xiao Lancui's hand. He quickly changed the subject, "What's that?"

Xiao Lancui followed his gaze, looking down at the unopened Brown Sugar Rice Cake Sticks. His expression darkened slightly as he said in a low voice, "Rice cake sticks. Want some?"

Xiao Mian muttered, "Rice cake sticks, what the hell are those..." He said disdainfully, "What kind of crap is that? No thanks!"

Xiao Lancui said nothing more and carried it inside.

Xiao Mian got brushed off again, and it pissed him off. He blurted out of nowhere, "Even if you begged me, I wouldn't help you carry your stuff! You bought so much crap, it's annoying."

Xiao Lancui didn't turn back, saying flatly, "Oh."

That one word gave Xiao Mian a near heart attack. Furious, he stormed back to his room.

Xiao Lancui then hauled everything into his room, working up a light sweat. He finished the rest of his herbal medicine for the day, rested briefly, and went to take a shower.

After his shower, it was past ten. He reviewed some vocabulary words before turning in.

The room fell into darkness. Xiao Lancui closed his eyes, his mind still churning.

He had publicly offended Lu Siye this afternoon, ripping apart the fake "friendship" between them. Starting tomorrow, the social dynamics would be completely reshuffled.

So next, that crew of princelings would be free to openly and shamelessly bully him.

This was his own little experiment.

In the original story, Xiao Anfeng's true identity gets exposed tomorrow. Lu Siye forcefully drags him to a nighttime mountain road racing competition, where they run into a group of the Princelings' rivals.

And that rival—who'd been secretly in love with Lu Siye all along—sees Lu Siye bringing Xiao Anfeng along and goes crazy with jealousy. He deliberately pretends to be interested in Xiao Anfeng and changes the bet: the winner gets to take Xiao Anfeng for the night.

That night was, of course, loaded with sexual tension.

The bet lit up that night. Xiao Anfeng had to save himself, so he proposes joining the race—if he wins, he gets to go free. Lu Siye agrees. In the end, it's just Lu Siye and Xiao Anfeng left. Seeing that Lu Siye's about to win, Xiao Anfeng floors it to overtake him, which sends him flipping off the mountain in a crash. He's rushed to the hospital with massive bleeding and needs a blood transfusion.

As one of the original male leads, Xiao Anfeng naturally has a rare blood type—the rarest of the rare: AB Rh-negative, the panda blood of panda blood.

Xiao Liqin can't hide it in time, and Xie Jingfang finds out the truth.

Both Xie Jingfang and Xiao Jingli have type O blood, so there's no way they could have produced an AB Rh-negative kid like Xiao Anfeng. And just like that, his identity is exposed.

Xiao Lancui's little experiment is meant to confirm two things. Unlike other minor subplots, Xiao Anfeng's identity reveal and the leap in Lu and Xiao's relationship are the first major climax of the original story. Can his arrival change it?

He needs to confirm just how much energy a butterfly's wings can stir.

It's not yet time for Xiao Anfeng's identity to be revealed. If the plot stays unchanged, he'll prevent it from happening tomorrow.

As Xiao Lancui thinks about this, his mind drifts back to Lu Ao.

The youngest son of the Lu family's burns haven't healed yet. He'd have to wait a while before he can confirm what his face looks like.

He doesn't need to go over for now.

But—

The young man's arm, covered in dense scars of varying depths, creeps back into his mind.

If his arm looks like that, his body must be even more covered in wounds.

Not letting him apply medicine—was that the Lu family's call?

Xiao Lancui frowns and gradually drifts off to sleep.

*

The next morning, Xiao Anfeng and Xiao Liqin still haven't come home all night. Xiao Jingli's face is especially grim, and he leaves without eating breakfast.

This morning, Xiao Lancui doesn't order soup dumplings. Instead, he asks for a bowl of clear beef noodle soup, which arrives topped with a thick layer of beef.

Xiao Lancui is halfway through when Xie Jingfang unexpectedly comes downstairs.

The last time Xie Jingfang had breakfast at the same table as the original him was over a decade ago.

The servants are all surprised and quickly serve Xie Jingfang's breakfast. Xie Jingfang also has a traditional Chinese palate and can't stomach Western breakfast.

A plate of crystal dumplings, a bowl of millet porridge, and a few plates of refreshing side dishes.

Xiao Lancui smiles and greets her, "Good morning."

Xie Jingfang still doesn't give him a good face, but she does hum in acknowledgment and starts eating.

Xiao Lancui doesn't say much either, just keeps eating his noodles. Xie Jingfang secretly watches him, but he doesn't call her out. He finishes his meal quietly, sets down his chopsticks, and says, "Take your time. I'm off to school."

He waits two seconds. Xie Jingfang still hasn't responded, so Xiao Lancui leaves.

Today, Xiao Lancui rides to school alone. When he arrives, he tells the driver, "No need to wait for me this afternoon."

The driver, a longtime employee of the Xiao family, doesn't ask questions and agrees with a smile.

As Xiao Lancui enters the school, students occasionally steal glances at him. First, because photos of him getting "beaten until he spat blood" by Lu Siye yesterday have spread across the school forum and group chats—everyone's seen what he looks like. Second—

It's a face that's simply impossible to ignore.

In the dead of winter, Xiao Lancui wears a long navy blue oversized cashmere coat, a simple beige-and-blue plaid cashmere scarf casually wrapped around his neck twice, and a brown messenger bag slung over one shoulder, resting against his waistline.

It's clear his bag is packed with a lot and is heavy, yet he still looks light and thin. Everyone else is trudging toward the teaching building looking bedraggled, but he looks like a walking editorial spread, bringing a crisp, clean scent to the dreary winter morning.

So much so that when Xiao Lancui enters the classroom, many classmates don't recognize him at first.

The change is too dramatic. It's still the same face, but something's different—he's simply more dazzling than before.

Despite Xiao Lancui keeping a very low profile, he walks to the empty seat by the window in the first row and sits down, ignoring all the prying eyes. He coolly and quietly pulls out a book. The classroom's fluorescent lights and the daylight from outside interweave across his profile, so dreamlike it seems he exists on a different layer from the rest of the world.

Time itself seems to become beautiful and serene, carrying a faint, crisp fragrance like snow.

Soon, however, that serenity is broken.

Two men walk in as the class bell rings. They'd been chatting and laughing, but when they see Xiao Lancui, they exchange a look and change course toward him. One sits down beside him, and the other takes the window seat two rows behind.

"Tsk, what's this—" The man sitting next to Xiao Lancui casually snatches away the book Xiao Lancui's reading. But when he sees the German on the cover, his words catch in his throat.

Xiao Lancui glances at the man.

Early twenties, hair slicked back, a mole on the left side of his nose.

Cross-referencing with the characters in the book, this should be Fu Chen—one of Lu Siye's friends, a member of the Princelings, who secretly had a thing for Xiao Anfeng.

Xiao Lancui says flatly, "Article 26 of the Public Security Administration Punishments Law: forcibly taking another person's property can get you five to ten days in detention."

Fu Chen was taken aback. "What?"

The man in the back row immediately burst out laughing, slapping the table. "Holy shit, hahaha."

By process of elimination, Lu Siye, Fu Chen, and Huo Shenan were childhood friends. The one in the back row was Huo Shenan, another devoted supporting male lead who was secretly in love with Xiao Anfeng but never confessed, quietly pining to the very end.

Fu Chen finally snapped out of it. Holding the book, he stared at Xiao Lancui in disbelief. "Little Lanzi, you wanna run that by me again?"

"Little Lanzi" was Fu Chen's nickname for the original body, a dig at him, really.

Xiao Lancui ignored him, simply took the book back, and pulled out the textbook for today's class from his bag.

Fu Chen was caught off guard by Xiao Lancui's series of actions. He turned to Huo Shenan and winked. "What the hell is this dumbass doing?"

Huo Shenan was already laughing his head off, banging the desk. The teacher had entered and, hearing the noise, said, "Class is starting—keep it down!"

City University was the top institution, and even the rich-kid clique had toned down their high school arrogance toward teachers. Huo Shenan sat up and said with a grin, "You got it!"

Fu Chen kept staring at Xiao Lancui, but the young man acted as if Fu Chen didn't exist, flipping open his book and listening to the lecture, occasionally jotting down notes.

Fu Chen didn't know Xiao Lancui had amnesia, only that he had been hospitalized after falling into the sea.

Yesterday, photos of Lu Siye beating Xiao Lancui until he was spitting up blood had gone viral. Fu Chen had immediately asked in the group chat, "A Ye, what's going on!"

Regardless of whether it was true, Lu Siye used to protect Xiao Lancui, and now he'd beaten him to the point of spitting blood. Fu Chen wasted no time asking around.

He had long found Xiao Lancui annoying—a foster kid who always upstaged Xiao Anfeng. He had fallen for Xiao Anfeng at first sight upon entering university, but since Lu Siye also seemed interested, he chose his bros over love. Yet he never understood why Lu Siye insisted on being friends with Xiao Lancui, so he never made a move.

Now that Lu Siye and Xiao Lancui had a falling out, he could use the excuse of avenging his buddy to put Xiao Lancui in his place.

"I've had enough of that dumbass Xiao Lancui. Want me to rough him up when I see him tomorrow?" Fu Chen probed.

Lu Siye replied, "Bring him along to the race tomorrow."

Fu Chen understood—Xiao Lancui had truly offended Lu Siye. Tomorrow, they had a race with the sports car club at Panling Mountain. In racing, accidents happen all the time.

When the class ended, Xiao Lancui continued flipping through his book. Fu Chen was annoyed and confused.

Xiao Lancui seemed different this time.

He used to be so quiet you couldn't get a peep out of him. Now, still just as quiet, he had this vibe of "can't be bothered with trash."

A foster kid, so full of himself!

Fu Chen leaned over with a grin. "Little Lanzi, I was just joking with you. You're not really mad, are you?"

They were all a few months older than Xiao Lancui.

Xiao Lancui still ignored him. Fu Chen was getting annoyed, but thinking of the night race, he kept his grin. "Oh, don't be so sensitive." He reached out to put an arm around Xiao Lancui's shoulder. "I just picked up a new whip a few days ago. Let's hit the streets tonight—you can take the wheel first!"

Just as his hand was about to touch Xiao Lancui's left shoulder, a pen pressed against his palm. Xiao Lancui, still focused on his book, said calmly, "I can't drive. You'd really let me?"

Fu Chen flashed his white teeth. "If you want to drive, of course I'd lend it. It's only a bit over ten million."

Xiao Lancui moved the pen slightly, signaling Fu Chen to withdraw his hand, while his other hand continued taking notes. "What time?"

Fu Chen mentally high-fived himself—he took the bait! He pulled his hand back and said with a smile, "10 PM."

The next moment, his smile froze.

Xiao Lancui put the pen away and said, "Oh, can't make it. I have plans."