“The truth is, he only kicked me that one time. When he was drunk, he even hugged me and cried. After that, he just looked at me while others beat me up. He didn’t want to get his own hands dirty.”

“Mm, you’ll have me in the future.” Bai Wu lifted Xu Lan by the chin and kissed him right above the eyebrow.

The scar slanted horizontally across his supraorbital ridge, and the flesh that covered it up looked exceptionally menacing. Bai Wu, however, found it cute, and could not resist kissing it once more.

“They always beat me. I was always admitted to the hospital. They called me a b*stard and peed on me.”

“Just let your tears flow out. I’ll be here to wipe them.” With an even tighter hug, Bai Wu whispered in Xu Lan’s ear.

Xu Lan started sobbing softly. Bai Wu began patting him on the shoulder and waited for him to relax.

“Can’t we just be on good terms with each other? I will make good on my promise.” Xu Lan changed the subject abruptly.

From being high up in heaven, old man Xu threw him into the dirt, wrecking him ruthlessly. Xu Lan was left without knowing who his real father was! The ordeal had distorted Xu Lan’s view of fatherly love, leaving him with a biased opinion of it. He went mad trying to search for something that was not even there to begin with.

“…” Bai Wu kept mum and kissed him on the head, saying, “Go to sleep.”

Xu Lan’s tears began flowing ever more fervently, seemingly a result of spending too much time with Bai Wu. Xu Lan originally intended to utilize his state of intoxication to be honest with Bai Wu and reach a compromise once and for all, but the feelings that he meticulously kept to himself were all revealed to Bai Wu.

However, Bai Wu was already a grown man and had other pursuits in life.

Despite their respective trouble thoughts, they remained silent about them. Bai Wu felt sleepy rather easily as of late, and so joined Xu Lan – who cried himself to sleep – in slumber.

Like a thief in the night, the crack appeared just outside the window. It looked at the soundly sleeping Bai Wu and expanded into a giant hole before rushing toward him with an evil grin.

Through unknown means, the Xu family managed to find out where Xu Lan’s workplace was. They came to the hotel en masse. Xu Lan sat for a fair amount of time in the hall. The family members were able to source some funds, and they wanted to bank them into Xu Lan’s account so he could help them inherit the bequest.

“Why should I let you all be so well off? Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten how you’ve treated me in the past? I’m used to having no money anyway. Inherit or not, it doesn’t affect me. Besides, I’ll be glad to see the Xu family’s estate go bankrupt,” Xu Lan remarked while looking at the transfer agreement.

Those who came began cursing out loud. Xu Lan found it so detrimental to his hearing that he wanted to clean his ears up. He would always wait for Bai Wu to bring him up and chase them away.

There was one time that Wang Hao went looking for him and was met with that very scene. He asked, “Why didn’t you just sign it? You’ll be living in peace if you let them retrieve the inheritance.”

Xu Lan then posed another question, “Can’t I have my revenge for all the things they did to me? And another thing, if they manage to get the inheritance, would they still be so friendly toward me?” He described their present attitude as ‘friendliness’.

Wang Hao was unsure of what to say next. Embarrassed, he went straight down to business.

The task force had another meeting, and Wang Hao came over bringing the case of the collapsed mine in Chengdu.

A total of ten people descended into the mine when the incident happened, but only nine came out. The elder employees who visited the mine all said that the tenth person was a madman, a reckless idiot. He was kidnapped – but no one knew from where – and was sold to the mine owner as a coolie.

Since he had no family, friends, or relatives, the mine owner gave the other nine miners hush money after the incident happened. The matter ended there and then, and no one ever spoke about it again. That was why the papers only published news of the collapse, with no mention of any casualties.