If transmigrating into a novel was real, then… if it really was…
For a moment, Cui Leilei didn’t even dare to complete the assumption.
He nervously waited for the doctor to return for a follow up examination. He waited for his mother to come back and see him and he waited for his eldest brother, Cui Baocheng, who had rushed through a night of connecting flights to return from overseas.
Cui Baocheng had a square, dignified face, sharply defined brows and bright, expressive eyes. His build was sturdy and imposing, making him a handsome man in the traditional sense.
He appeared to possess an intimidating presence at first glance but he also carried an exceptionally strong sense of justice. He had even undergone military training, which had further refined his upright and righteous bearing.
As a result, every word and action of his carried the principled, disciplined nature of a veteran cadre.
Within the Cui family, he was the person who disciplined Cui Leilei most strictly.
No matter how Cui Leilei looked at him, he simply couldn’t connect this man with the vicious eldest brother in the novel, the one who had indulged Cui Leilei’s increasingly despicable behavior without limit.
Thinking about this, Cui Leilei suddenly found himself unable to look at his older brother, whom he had always both respected and feared.
He lowered his eyes and spoke with a choked voice.
“Big brother.”
Cui Baocheng: “…………”
Cui Baocheng looked at his younger brother, who was wearing an oversized hospital gown.
The young man had his eyes lowered and his hands were nervously clasped together, his fingers twisting against one another.
He looked exactly like someone who had done something wrong and was now feeling guilty about it.
Seeing this, Cui Baocheng forced himself to remain upright on the sofa. He resisted the urge to reach over and ruffle his beloved younger brother’s hair, to reassure him that everything was fine and instead kept his voice stern.
“Tell me yourself. What exactly did you do wrong? Explain it clearly.”
As his words fell, the warm and cozy living room of the VIP hospital suite gradually took on a heavy, solemn atmosphere. The once relaxed space suddenly felt almost like a serious conference room, the air thick with an oppressive sense of gravity.
Hearing this, Cui Leilei lowered his head and glanced at his hospital gown. His voice was so soft it was barely audible as he apologized.
“I… I shouldn’t have secretly eaten junk food. I shouldn’t have neglected my health and hygiene, pushing myself until my old condition flared up again and making all of you worry about me.”
He had been born prematurely and had been raised with exceptional care, leaving him with an especially delicate stomach. On top of that, he was allergic to peanuts, so his family kept an extremely strict watch over his diet.
Seeing his younger brother, who had always been spoiled and allowed to do whatever he pleased by their parents, admit his mistakes so obediently, Cui Baocheng’s gaze swiftly swept toward their father, who was sitting upright nearby like a stone sculpture.
Unlike their mother, who was still busy with work, their father had officially retired and handed over complete responsibility for the company to him. This meant he had plenty of time to give his younger brother all sorts of ridiculous advice.
Cui’s father held his head high and puffed out his chest, showing not the slightest hint of guilt over having secretly informed his eldest son. Instead, he even joined in to defend the younger one.
“That’s enough, Big Brother. Little Stone already knows he did something wrong.”
“Hmph!” Cui Baocheng’s expression hardened as he continued questioning him. “What else?”
“I shouldn’t have chosen a boyfriend based only on his looks without considering his talent, which is why I ended up with a scumbag.” As Cui Leilei spoke, he secretly glanced at Cui Baocheng from the corner of his eye, his voice dropping even lower. “And when I got a boyfriend, I should have told my family about it right away.”
“That’s all?” Cui Baocheng leaned back against the sofa. His fingers tapped casually against the armrest of the redwood sofa and his eyes darkened slightly as he asked with profound meaning, “Really?”
Cui Leilei jolted at his words.
Seeing the warning signs that his elder brother was about to lose his temper, he carefully thought through everything again. Then he glanced at his father.
His father merely spread his hands, wearing an expression that clearly said he was powerless to help.
Cui Leilei cautiously began speaking.
“Brother, I… I haven’t caused any other trouble recently. I’ve been obediently preparing my graduation thesis.”
“Xu Congcong has already told me everything! You were curious about keeping a canary and not only did you compete with others over private jets and yachts, you even competed over buying a canary?” Cui Baocheng suddenly slapped the armrest hard, his voice involuntarily rising several notches. “Cui Leilei, if you want a canary, can’t you just raise one? If you want something that causes a little more trouble, we can buy a zoo. The paperwork will all be in order. Tigers, leopards, giant pandas, we’ll have everything. Why can’t you learn to do something proper?”
“Our family doesn’t even run an entertainment company. What are you raising a little celebrity for? Do you know how much money that costs? Apart from you, nobody gets to take a single cent from the Cui family for free! If they don’t earn back their investment, they’d be insulting the very title of capitalist!”
Hearing this, Cui Leilei felt a tremendous storm rise within his heart.
Emotion and guilt swept through his entire body.
His elder brother had personally witnessed how the Cui family had built its wealth. He knew how difficult it had been for their parents to establish their business back then, which was why frugality and thrift had been carved into his very bones.
Even now, he still ran to and from work every day, combining low carbon environmental protection with physical exercise. Because he insisted on spending money only where it truly mattered, he had even been rejected by several blind date prospects for being too poor.
Yet the very man who was so stingy with his own money was exceptionally generous toward him. He could hand over millions in pocket money without even blinking.
As he thought about this, Cui Leilei didn’t even realize that his fingers had begun gripping his own nails, which were tinged with a bluish purple color.
“Brother, I’m sorry. I promise I won’t waste money competing with others anymore.”
Seeing his beloved younger brother lower his head so far that it seemed he wanted to bury it in the floor, the tense veins on the backs of his hands standing out, Cui Baocheng abruptly straightened up.
He hurriedly reached over and rubbed Cui Leilei’s head, his expression softening considerably. There was even a hint of lingering fear in his eyes as he spoke.
“Good boy. As long as you don’t compare yourself with others anymore, that’s all that matters. You still have to spend money when it’s necessary, right?”
As he spoke, Cui Baocheng secretly exchanged a meaningful look with their father, who had been sitting on the sidelines watching the show. His eyes clearly urged the man to hurry up and support the spoiled little troublemaker.
Cui’s father responded by rolling his eyes dramatically.
His eldest son was good in every way. The only problem was that he loved bragging.
He was always boasting about how he could fulfill the role of a strict father, even drawing up thick stacks of plans about how he would become a good older brother.
Yet every time a crucial moment arrived, this so called good older brother backed down faster than anyone else.
While silently mocking him, Cui’s father leisurely opened his mouth.
“Oldest, you finally said something sensible. If we don’t spend money, what have I worked so hard to earn it for? Isn’t it precisely so that you little brats can spend it enjoying yourselves?”
“Father is right,” Cui Baocheng immediately agreed. He reached over and ruffled Cui Leilei’s hair, putting on an expression of helpless resignation. “Forget it. Consider the money spent on making you happy. If you really like pretty people, your brother can send someone to investigate the matter later and we’ll simply open an entertainment company ourselves.”
As he spoke, Cui Baocheng looked at his younger brother’s stunned expression and his heart couldn’t help but ache with emotion.
He really couldn’t bring himself to discipline him too harshly.
Especially when his younger brother blinked those moist, glistening eyes and looked at him with the trusting expression of a puppy that hadn’t even been weaned. Every time he saw that look, he couldn’t help remembering the scene of their first meeting years ago, at the temporary hospital,
Inside the incubator, his prematurely born younger brother lay connected to various medical instruments. The cold, lifeless looking equipment seemed to carry the chill of death itself.
Six year old Cui Baocheng had stood on the other side of the incubator, watching his little brother in that unfamiliar environment while aftershocks continued to shake the area.
Then, all of a sudden, his younger brother opened his eyes.
They were pitch black, beautiful eyes, resembling stars scattered across the night sky.
Bright and dazzling, they seemed to carry their own light.
And his little brother smiled at him.
The tiny baby, covered from head to toe in bluish purple marks, had looked terribly ugly. He resembled one of the little monkeys at the zoo.
Yet the moment he smiled, his appearance unexpectedly became so beautiful.
In that instant, all of Cui Baocheng’s panic and fear disappeared.
For a brief moment, he understood that he was an older brother.
He had to be strong. He had to be brave. He had to take good care of his younger brother.
Returning to the present after recalling those memories, Cui Baocheng once again rubbed his brother’s head.
“All right, cheer up. Once you obediently finish your graduation thesis, I’ll upgrade your pocket money to ten million, okay? Our Little Stone has grown up too. You need to socialize and there are more places where you’ll need to spend money now.”
Hearing this, Cui Leilei’s guilt grew even heavier.
He immediately raised his arms and hugged Cui Baocheng in return, his emotions surging uncontrollably.
“Dad, you should hug me too. I… I… All of you have treated me so well. I… I don’t even know how I’m supposed to repay you in the future.”
Cui Baocheng looked at his younger brother, who was behaving exactly as he had when he was little. He buried his head and cried, his emotions coming in waves and his older brother could only pat him on the back with an expression of helplessness.
“What kind of enormous trouble have you gotten yourself into this time?”
Upon hearing this, Cui’s father looked at Cui Leilei, whose eyes had turned red from crying. Without the slightest hesitation, he stood up and reached over to pat his younger son.
However, his words carried a teasing undertone.
“Otherwise, our little young master wouldn’t be shedding golden beans, would he?”
His younger son had also been born prematurely.
When they had first seen him, he had been even more pitiful than a frozen kitten. Even the tiny mewing sounds he made had been so weak they could barely be heard.
Raising him into a chubby, lively, energetic child had been no easy task for the Cui family.
And then, before they knew it… well, they had spoiled him just a tiny, tiny bit too much.
But it wasn’t a major problem.
The boy was gay, handsome, beautiful and full of confidence and audacity.
As the saying went, men didn’t love good men; they loved bad men.
Several people had already secretly come to their door to declare their determination to pursue him!
All they needed to do was choose a reliable one, arrange a marriage alliance and send him off to be married.
His maternal family would be responsible for spoiling him, while his husband’s family would be responsible for cleaning up the aftermath.
Perfect!
As he imagined drinking tea served by his future son in law, Cui’s father happily rubbed Cui Leilei’s head.
“It’s all right. Even if the sky falls, someone will take care of the aftermath for you. Our Little Stone just needs to be happy.”
Hearing one indulgent, pampering statement after another, Cui Leilei’s eyes grew even wetter with tears. He was utterly at a loss.
The father and son exchanged a glance, assuming that he was still upset and hurting over being cheated on. Neither of them gave the matter any further thought, instead finding one way after another to comfort him.
=======
Finally, after it had been confirmed that he could be discharged from the hospital, Cui Leilei looked at the eighteen consecutive messages his mother had sent explaining that she was busy with business.
He immediately replied:
【Mom, I’m already grown up. I can go home on my own now and Dad and Big Brother are here with me. I’m fine! Really. I know you’re busy with work but don’t forget to maintain a healthy schedule, okay? Don’t push yourself too hard.】
He did his best to emphasize that he had grown up and was no longer the spoiled troublemaker who demanded that the entire family stay by his side whenever he fell ill.
After persuading Cui Baocheng to return to the company as well, Cui Leilei simply took his retired father home with him, the two of them happily making their way back together.
Once he arrived home, Cui Leilei looked at the ultra luxurious villa, which occupied an enormous area and was no less impressive than a castle.
After seeing his father off as the man went out to walk the dogs, Cui Leilei took a deep breath.
For once, he entered the small study inside his suite.
His hands trembled slightly as he turned on the computer and typed in the words Shen Qian.
The Baidu search page instantly filled with results, an entire page of them.
Cui Leilei’s heart pounded wildly.
However, as he clicked on the links one after another, he discovered that every result belonged to someone with the same name.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead and stared at his reflection on the computer screen.
The lively, radiant expression he usually wore was nowhere to be seen. His face looked listless and there was even an indescribable gloominess in his eyes.
He resembled a filthy rat that had grown up in some dark corner, secretly spying on the happy, complete family that was supposed to belong to the original protagonist.
As he viciously subjected himself to the harshest and most negative self judgment, Cui Leilei bit his lip tightly.
His fingers moved across the keyboard, pressing each key one by one as he solemnly typed the words work study program.
In the blink of an eye, countless pages appeared.
He clicked into one at random and immediately found a description of a life completely different from the happiness he had always known.
1. University students seeking work study opportunities generally find positions at KFC, McDonald’s, handing out flyers and similar jobs. The average hourly wage is approximately fifteen yuan.
However, there are actually quite a few utterly heartless people in society who target hardworking, impoverished university students and carry out all kinds of scams.
A student named Xiao Li from Yancheng was one of their victims.
Xiao Li’s family lived in a mountainous region of Lingcheng. Although both of his parents worked as construction laborers in Yancheng, his family still had an elderly grandmother suffering from an illness who needed medical treatment.
Moreover, after years of working outdoors through wind and rain, his parents had developed various health problems of their own.
Because Xiao Li was deeply filial, he took on three separate part time jobs during his spare time.
The scammers, however, had also set their sights on him because of his hard work and financial circumstances. They cheated him out of a full thirty thousand yuan in hard earned wages, causing Xiao Li to become so enraged that he literally vomited blood.
2. The university quietly extends a helping hand offering support to students who eat all three meals in the cafeteria while spending less than four hundred yuan.
According to reports, the school can use big data to screen students and accurately identify those who are genuinely experiencing financial hardship, silently providing every student in need with the assistance they deserve.
…………
Line after line, word after word, every page was filled with the hardships of life.
They described difficulties that Cui Leilei had never once encountered during the first half of his life.
Cui Leilei lifted his eyes and forced the tears that had gathered there back inside.
Then he glanced around the small study, which was a full hundred square meters in size.
Although it was called a study, the bookshelves inside were filled with manga, novels, magazines, posters and all sorts of other things…
There wasn’t a single book that actually had anything to do with studying.
The room also housed a collection of professional gaming equipment, the kind of high end gear that even professional esports players would envy yet Cui Leilei was not only an amateur player but also hopelessly bad at gaming. He used such expensive equipment for nothing more than showing off, competing with others and indulging in his insistence that he had to use the very best.
Thinking about this, Cui Leilei slowly closed his eyes.
He no longer dared to look at the content on the screen. These people weren’t even Shen Qian. He couldn’t begin to imagine what kind of suffering Shen Qian had endured, or what other hardships he might have faced.
The novel was written from Shen Qian’s perspective and Shen Qian was a taciturn person who rarely mentioned his past.
Cui Leilei had only learned a few scattered details through the words of Shen Qian’s childhood sweetheart.
For example, Shen Qian’s parents had died when he was young, leaving behind a considerable amount of debt. Apparently, the debt had amounted to nearly a million yuan.
Because of this, none of his relatives had been willing to take him in yet they had also been unable to refuse outright because of social expectations and the pressure of maintaining appearances.
As a result, Shen Qian had spent almost his entire childhood living under someone else’s roof, moving from place to place and enduring an unsettled, difficult existence.
The moment he turned eighteen, Shen Qian had completely set out on his own and embarked on his journey as the Emperor of Part Time Jobs.
He had sold notebooks, worked as a private tutor, carried cement and hauled bricks. He had practically taken on several jobs at once, all so that he could repay his debts as quickly as possible.
He had even given up his opportunity to study abroad.
All for the sake of paying off his debts faster.
One million yuan.
A mere one million yuan had forced an academic prodigy to bow his head to the harsh realities of life and choose a major that wasn’t suited to him.
But…
Cui Leilei slammed his head hard against the tabletop.
Pain shot from his forehead straight into his brain. He hissed sharply and sucked in a breath, feeling himself begin to doubt everything all over again.
The Cui family was a nouveau riche family and they possessed one of the traits commonly associated with nouveau riche families,
They loved educated people.
With Shen Qian’s doctoral level academic credentials, he should have been enthusiastically welcomed into the Cui family. He should have been treated like a precious treasure by every member of the family.
Then why, for no apparent reason, would his parents dislike him?
Even if it had been for the sake of profit, something about it still didn’t make sense.
His older brother had already inherited Heyue Group. Couldn’t they simply let Shen Qian inherit Tianyi Clothing?
After all, the Cui family had already held a family meeting regarding the inheritance of their companies long ago.
Cui Leilei was a complete academic failure. If they forcibly made him choose business administration and inherit the company, there was a good chance he would only end up running the business into bankruptcy.
Therefore, they had decided to have a professional manager oversee Tianyi Clothing instead.
As for Cui Leilei, he could simply remain a happy, wealthy young master and choose whatever major he liked.
Thinking about this, Cui Leilei once again felt that there had to be something wrong with his head for him to have conjured up such a nightmare, one that contradicted reality so thoroughly.
But regardless of how he looked at it, Cui Leilei truly was a child who had been born with memories of a previous life. He had been born knowing things, carrying memories of every little detail from his past existence.
In other words, there really did seem to be some element of the supernatural at work in this world.
But even the supernatural, apparently, couldn’t change a person’s intelligence.
Take him, Cui Leilei, for example.
He had repeatedly demonstrated one undeniable truth by failing mathematics over and over again,
A leopard cannot change its spots. A poor student remains a poor student.
He had studied mathematics across two lifetimes. He had attended remedial classes across two lifetimes.
And he still couldn’t pass.
So there was no way his parents or his older brother would suddenly undergo a complete change in personality either, ahhhhh!
The more he thought about it, the more tangled his thoughts became.
Cui Leilei angrily knocked his head against the table.
“So annoying, ahhhhhhh!”
Just as his loud, frustrated scream rang out, he suddenly heard a resounding bang as someone slammed against the door.
Cui Leilei immediately shut off the computer and sat up straight. His face tightened as he looked toward his father, who pushed the door open and entered.
“Dad! I already told you that you have to knock! I’m grown up now, too. I have little secrets of my own!”
“All right, all right, stop howling.”
Cui’s father looked at his son, whose forehead was covered in red marks and his expression immediately filled with concern.
“Can’t write your thesis, or what? Old Li originally called you down for dinner but you scared the poor man half to death.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Cui’s father noticed that his son had suddenly gone completely still, as though someone had pressed a standby button.
Only his eyes continued darting around.
Then they shifted toward his father’s head.
Seeing this, Cui’s father immediately became wary.
“You little brat. What are you planning?”
“Dad, baldness… baldness seems to be hereditary, you know.”
Cui Leilei placed both hands over his thick, luxuriant hair. He forced the utterly outrageous statement out of his throat, doing his best to deliver it with the same carefree, brazen attitude he usually possessed.
But the words were no less than a knife stabbing straight into his own heart.
Even so, despite how brutally painful the thought was, Cui Leilei felt his heart harden in an instant.
Rather than continuing to let his imagination run wild, he might as well pull out a single strand of hair and get a DNA test done first.
The moment Cui’s father heard this, he became so furious that he immediately removed one of his shoes and threw it at Cui Leilei.
“You little bastard! You still dare bring that up? Back then, your father was the one who accompanied you when you dyed your hair into that rainbow colored fried chicken hairstyle! And now you won’t even accompany me in shaving my head yet you still have the nerve to make fun of me?”
Although he was indeed getting older and gradually developing a receding hairline that was turning into male pattern baldness, which was why he had eventually decided to shave his head completely, he absolutely refused to acknowledge that as the reason.
It was all because he was fashionable!
It was because he and his son were as close as brothers!
They were being fashionable together!
