In the faint scent of incense, Ye Lanting closed her eyes, and let the beautician gently knead the moisturizing lotion on her carefully maintained skin.

This is a moment of relaxation that soothes the body and mind at the same time. Her thoughts drifted away, and a smile gradually appeared on her gorgeous red lips.

She is very satisfied with her life now.

Under the patient guidance of several tutors, Pei Yan has made great progress in many aspects, basically improved the bad posture of bending over and hunchback, and is also familiar with the whole set of etiquette process when dining, at least it looks like this The kids in the family are gone.

It's a pity that in school, Pei Yan's grades are still not outstanding, the regular cultural courses are passable, and those courses of artistic specialty are a mess.

Ye Lanting knew that the dismissed family teacher was right. This is a child without much aura, who is smart and pure enough for ordinary people. Appears dull and mediocre.

Fortunately, Pei Yan worked very hard, often staying alone in the room until late at night, learning everything he didn't know.

Regardless of whether diligence can make up for one's weakness, at least Ye Lanting is satisfied with this child's obedience, which is completely different from the rebellious Pei Qingyuan. This is her ideal child.

She could always teach him.

After instructing the servants at home to prepare supper for Pei Yan every night, Ye Lanting began to restore her life to the previous track with peace of mind.

Socialize with women who live in the same emptiness, pick and choose among the new seasons that luxury brand managers regularly deliver to your door, perform beauty and skin care, watch art exhibitions together, and listen to concerts...

The beautician's technique was slightly aggravated, causing Ye Lanting to regain his focus from these expensive and beautiful memories and opened his eyes.

She suddenly became aware of the strange silence that was constantly spreading around her.

The women around me who were also receiving massages did not happily chat about the gossip they learned in their spare time as usual, and all of them kept their voices back. No one spoke, and there seemed to be complicated expressions on their faces that were hesitant to speak. .

A trace of uneasiness surged in Ye Lanting's heart.

She remembered the last time she had a beauty treatment with these women, but the atmosphere was very quiet, after they heard that Pei Qingyuan had no blood relationship with her.

This is a seemingly polite silence, but there is the most noisy curiosity hidden behind it. When she asks "what's the matter", those prying desires wearing a false concern mask can't wait to emerge.

But she had to ask.

"This incense smells good." Ye Lanting broke the silence with an intimate tone, "Manning, I remember that it is similar to the one you use at home. What is it?"

Even though she knew that there might be an abyss ahead, she couldn't show her timidity.

The woman named Manning groaned and said softly, "I can't tell. My husband is in charge of this."

Hearing the other party mention her husband inexplicably, Ye Lanting felt more and more ominous.

She gritted her teeth and obediently steered the topic in the direction everyone expected.

"It's still your luck, my Minghong doesn't care about anything."

When the words fell to the ground, there was a long-overdue jump of joy in the air.

"Speaking of Minghong—" someone raised his voice, "Alan, you have to be careful, I don't know whether I should tell you or not..."

The beautiful woman at the center of the topic finally used their expected surprised tone: "What's wrong?"

The smell of incense is getting more and more blurred.

Early on Sunday morning, Pei Yan wanted to sleep in for ten more minutes before getting up for class, but was awakened by the sharp quarrels from the next room.

It was the first time he had heard his parents argue in the huge house.

It was also the first time he heard Pei Minghong's voice on a weekend morning.

Pei Yan folded his hands on his knees, nestled on the bed, and listened silently.

"You called me from home early in the morning, just for this kind of thing?"

In Pei Minghong's low voice, there was uncontrollable anger.

"Home? Where is your home? Which woman's home is that with you!"

Pei Yan knew that Pei Minghong had an apartment in the building where the company was located. In order to save time on the way back and forth, he often lived there and didn't go home often. The time when Pei Yan just came back was already the most diligent time for him to go home. .

"What are you crazy about!" Pei Minghong scolded, "Isn't that what you usually say? Why did something go wrong today!"

"You talk about staying in the company every day, who knows what you are doing? I visit you occasionally at the company, and I think I am too busy." Ye Lanting sneered, "I think you are not working overtime at the company at night. Work overtime on women? Otherwise, how can you make a child?"

Pei Yan huddled into a ball under the quilt, and looked out of the dimly lit window in some panic. This shocking key word made him almost think he was dreaming.

The cool morning breeze flowed in from the open window, and a brightly colored bird landed on the window sill, looking at him quietly, really like a dream.

"What a mess!" Pei Minghong lost his patience, "Do you know how much money I lost in the ten minutes I wasted here? Please wake me up!"

"I'm not sober enough? I'm the only one who supports this family. When Yan Yan doesn't adapt to school life, where are you?!"

Then the noisy sound gradually died down, and Pei Yan vaguely heard the sound of his mother crying. In front of the tears, Pei Minghong finally restrained his anger and said something in a low voice.

Worried that the next whisper would be related to him, Pei Yan tried his best to get close to the wall, but only picked up a few intermittent fragments here and there.

"Okay, I swear I didn't mess around outside, I don't have the time..."

"I just asked yesterday. Dad's health is almost in good condition. He's coming back from abroad soon... Don't worry about it. Think about how to deal with Dad. Qingyuan is still hiding from him..."

"...There are two very important meetings in the morning, it's too late, I have to go to the company."

Soon, hurried footsteps sounded in the corridor, and the sobbing disappeared.

Everything returned to tranquility.

Distraught, Pei Yan stared blankly at the bird that had stopped to listen. After a long time, he got up to wash up amidst the servant's knock on the door and hurried to the study.

He was absent-minded and full of random thoughts during the whole day of home professors.

After finally resting in the evening, Ye Lanting went somewhere. In the huge Pei family, Pei Yan had only one person who could talk with confidence.

"Dad, does he... really have another son outside?"

Pei Yan hesitantly asked Xiang Jinyang who was playing games in the room.

He thought this close friend would comfort him: Don't worry, it won't. Like the words of reassurance he'd said every time he worried he'd be left behind forever in school.

But this time, Xiang Jinyang put down the game controller, but shook his head expressionlessly: "I don't know."

He wears an expensive watch on his wrist, which is a gift bought by Pei Yan with his pocket money. In return for thanking him for helping him integrate into the Pei family, Pei Minghong is very generous to this lost and recovered biological son, giving him a jaw-dropping amount of pocket money with company shares.

So not only the watch, Pei Yan also gave Xiang Jinyang many other gifts, such as the high-end game console in front of him, which Xiang Jinyang had mentioned to him enviously. Almost like a brother of his own status.

Pei Yan repeated his answer in astonishment: "I don't know?"

"Who can say this kind of thing well?" Facing his surprise, Xiang Jinyang shrugged his shoulders relaxedly, "It's too common, I have a useless uncle who relies on his wife to support him secretly. Women, not to mention Uncle Pei's conditions, not to mention being an illegitimate child, even if there are a group of them, I don't think it's strange."

Pei Yan's eyes widened when he heard this, and he wanted to refute, but he didn't know what to say: "But, but..."

Seeing his incoherent appearance, Xiang Jinyang couldn't help laughing: "Qin Yujie reported this, do you know? I heard about it before Aunt Ye."

Pei Yan reacted for a while before responding. After he came back, he met too many people, and it took him a long time to find a handsome but slightly listless face from his memory and match it with this name.

"Let's just say he's fine. Do you know how many girls his parents have dealt with because they're pregnant?" Xiang Jinyang said surprisingly, "Some of them were due to his negligence and didn't take good measures, and some were caused by the woman's deliberate actions. hands and feet."

"But his parents didn't blame him, they just told him to be careful in the future. Because he is the kind that stayed after his mother punctured that thing in advance."

Under Pei Yan's shocked eyes, Xiang Jinyang spoke faster and faster.

"After Uncle Qin had a one-night affair, he just gave money to get rid of the trouble, but unexpectedly, his wife's two sons both got sick when they grew up, and their lifespan was not long. The examination revealed that it was a recessive disease caused by his wife's genes. At that time, Uncle Qin The best years have passed, and it is too late to have another one, and I am afraid that the quality will not be high, but with so many properties, there must be a son guarding them, so Qin Yujie's mother is so superior."

"Now that my son is on the way of Lao Tzu, the two couples don't think there is a problem. After all, who knows what will happen in the future, let alone illness, even if they are walking on the road, they may encounter mental illness that does not violate the law."

"What do they call this—" Xiang Jinyang thought for a moment, then suddenly said, "Oh, yes, diversification of investment, eggs can't be put in the same basket."

"This world is like this." He said casually, "At least for now you are the only egg, as long as you don't have an accident, it won't be anyone else's turn."

This pile of rich family secrets was thrown down lightly, making Pei Yan dizzy. In the end, he only remembered three words.

Low quality, spread out, the only egg.

The parent-child relationship that Pei Yan thought was in Xiang Jinyang's mouth is like an investment game that exudes the fragrance of money, and people are commodities that carry functions and need to be evaluated urgently.

He is not used to this way of thinking, but he is trying to force himself to accept and remember, after all, this is what he does most often now.

But... is he really the only one?

A shadow that has always been dormant in Pei Yan's heart passed by again.

Why would even a person suspected of being an illegitimate child of his father appear beside that person in an intimate way?

Why did the parents hide the fact that the man left from the grandfather he hadn't met yet?

Why didn't they let that person change Pei, a surname that didn't belong to him?

His thoughts drifted, and he walked alone through the long corridor and returned to his room.

The two masters who had quarreled in the morning were not at home at the moment, and there was only silence around them.

Father went to work, where did mother go?

Did she really believe her father's explanation?

There were too many puzzles in Pei Yan's heart, his eyes subconsciously fell on the window sill, which was empty, covered only with the golden glow of the evening.

The little bird who had listened to his parents' quarrel with him had somehow crossed the cold pane and flew away lightly.

Trapped in the sunset glow that repeats every day, he almost can't remember the colorful colors of that bird.

Pei Yan was stunned for a while, and finally remembered that he didn't have much time to squander.

He has so much to learn.

He took a deep breath, cleared his mind, quietly bent over the table, and opened a heavy book filled with knowledge far beyond the scope of high school.

On the branches with luxuriant autumn leaves, the birds that landed quietly raised their emerald tail feathers, like an emerald growing in the brilliant gold, reflecting the dim yellow and warm colors of the world below.

On Pei Qingyuan's first day working at Xingyue Bakery, the flow of people suddenly increased by 57%, the average time spent in the shop increased by two minutes, and the per capita consumption nearly doubled. The frequency straight up to once every five minutes.

The above are real-time statistics from a professional system.

He Shiwen didn't expect that Pei Qingyuan's part-time job in the store would bring such great popularity. Even when he was announcing the good news to his daughter via video, his daughter, who was only in kindergarten, clamored to see the big brother who flashed by in the camera, watching the fun from the side His wife rolled her eyes with a smile, and actually sent her daughter to the store on a special trip.

In the bakery where people come and go, He Shiwen and Pei Qingyuan are busy greeting the guests. The little girl named Xing Xing is sitting obediently in the corner, nibbling a lollipop, and chasing her handsome big brother with eyes as nimbly as a sunflower.

At the same time, the little robot, who has been smoky all morning with the aroma of baking, followed him around the garden step by step.

As soon as Pei Qingyuan took over the plate full of pastries from the guests, Ji Tong hurriedly reported the name of the dish in his mind: "Craissant croissant with milky milk, cranberry mochi, caramel sea salt crunchy..."

Then finish with a standard concluding sentence: "So soft, the bread is delicious, and the business is good."

Pei Qingyuan, who had listened all morning, understood his meaning skillfully: "Are you hungry? Uncle He has ordered lunch, so you can have it too."

The hungry Ji Tong rushed to the closet immediately after hearing the words, and did not forget to emphasize: "I am data, and data will not be hungry."

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the little girl turning around like a sunflower in the corner, and tried to take the opportunity to refuse and return the favor: "I'm afraid that Uncle He will think that I'm a good-looking talent, and then make a baby marriage for me and Xing Xing."

"No." Pei Qingyuan smiled, and something heavy seemed to have been removed from his brows and eyes, showing focused concern, "Come out quickly."

He turned his head and asked He Shiwen: "Uncle He, my brother's child care get out of class is over, can I pick him up for lunch?"

"Okay, that's great, I can just be with Xing Xing as a company, you go and pick it up, I'll order some more dishes quickly..."

Pei Qingyuan walked out of the store, walked to a corner where no one was around, and waited for the magic to appear.

The bird stopped on the treetop and flapped its wings. Under the warm sunlight, a child who was carrying a small schoolbag and waving happily to him suddenly appeared in front of Pei Qingyuan's eyes.

He felt in a trance that he seemed to have started to have a real home.

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