In a shanty town on the outskirts of Wenhua City, Tao Jian had just finished arguing with the landlord who was urging the rent. He had been renting this house of less than 10 square meters these days. He went out to look for work during the day, but had not been able to find one.

There were many foreign rural people like him who come to work in Wenhua City, but he did not have any advantage to compete with those migrant workers in their young and strong years.

Without academic qualifications and skills that could be used, he was destined to struggle only at the bottom of the city.

There were only two or three hundred yuan left in Tao Jian’s hand. He squatted at the door, fumbled out the last cigarette, lit it and took a big puff.

He wondered if he still had to go to Tao Xi, this time he had to get money no matter what.

With a cigarette in his hand, Tao Jian got up from the bumpy ground and was about to rush to Wenhua No. 1 High School when he saw a young woman in a white skirt approaching.

She wore delicate makeup, neat short hair, and a pair of stiletto, as if walking out of the most expensive office building in the city center, her whole body was incompatible with this place.

Tao Jian looked at it a few times, feeling a little strange. When he was going to pass by, the woman stopped and asked him, “Are you Mr. Tao Jian?”

Tao Jian was stunned, then subconsciously nodded.

“Hello, I’m Su Yun, assistant to the chairman of Ruize Group.” Su Yun showed a formulaic smile, “Can I find another place to talk to you in detail?”

The next thing was far beyond Tao Jian’s imagination. He was taken into a coffee shop he had never entered before by this woman named Su Yun. After two cups of coffee that worth his meal for several days came up, Su Yun directly explained her intentions:

“I’m here this time mainly to solve work problems for Mr. Tao.” She took out a document from her briefcase and put it in front of Tao Jian, “This is a security post for a property subsidiary of Ruize Group. It provides board and lodging. Today you can directly start.”

Tao Jian looked at the job description on this document with disbelief. He had never encountered a salary like that after working for so many years.

But there was no good thing in the world. He looked at Su Yun suspiciously and asked: “I don’t know the chairman of your group, why should he offer me a job? There must be some conditions?”

He had just been scammed of money by the so-called fellow, and he remained wary of everything, but he didn’t figure out what else could be scammed from him, he was almost penniless.

Su Yun took a sip of coffee and slowly said, “Of course there are conditions. The condition is that you can’t disturb your son Tao Xi for a minute and even a second before he graduates from high school.”

Tao Jian’s eyes widened suddenly. He had already smelled the weirdness of this incident, and said in a huff: “Laozi is his father. It is only right to find my son. You are an outsider. Why do you care about other people’s father and son affairs?”

Su Yun chuckled lightly, and replied slowly: “As my young master is his sponsor, everything during his studies in Wenhua No. 1High School is under the control of my young master.”

Tao Jian’s complexion turned pale, he suppressed his anger and said in a deep voice, “What are you trying to do with my son?! I tell you, even if I don’t have a penny, I will never allow you rich people to do anything dirty to my son!”

He had been wandering and working outside these years, so he had heard of the special habits of the upper class. He asked why Tao Xi was suddenly sponsored to study at Wenhua No. 1 High School. It turned out that someone had ulterior motives for Tao Xi.

Su Yun frowned, and disgust appeared in her eyes. It was obvious that Tao Jian’s malicious speculation had offended her. She sneered:

“My young master is about the same age as your son. What can you do to support your son? It’s a shame that you, as Tao Xi’s father, have to rely on your son for support.”

Although she didn’t understand why her young master was so concerned about the poor student from another place, she would never allow anyone to slander him.

Tao Jian was so angry that he almost lifted the table, but he finally endured it.

This woman was right. He had to rely on his son to support him, and he was indeed a scumbag.

“But I’m his father, can’t I just go to school and just take a simple look at my son?” Tao Jian took a step back and asked with raised eyebrows.

Su Yun said calmly: “I don’t think your ‘simple look’ is a good thing for high school students who need to concentrate on their studies.”

Not long ago, the young master of her family gave her a monitoring video at the entrance of Wenhua No. 1 High School and asked her to check. This father obviously did not have enough quality, there was no care or love for his son.

She paused and said seriously: “Your son will be admitted to a good university and have a life completely different from yours. If you really want to be good for him, not disturbing him is the most useful thing you can do. “

Tao Jian was silent for a long time.

He finally agreed to this condition and signed the contract that Su Yun took out. Before Su Yun left, he said coldly: “Remember to abide by the regulations. Besides, you can’t tell Tao Xi about this.”

Tao Jian waved his hand irritably.

Tao Xi soon received the money from the school and gave most of the money to Guo Ping for Tao Le’s medicine, and the remaining part was not only the living expenses, but also the money intended to be given to Tao Jian.

He wanted to wait for him to become an adult, except for Tao Le, he would no longer care about these two people.

But Tao Jian never came to him. He thought that maybe Tao Jian finally found a job and he didn’t need to ask him for money.

Tao Xi didn’t take this matter to heart anymore. He had one more important thing, and that was to invite Lin Qinhe to dinner on Sunday.

He had searched for a long time these days, and initially selected five restaurants near the downtown business district.

“You look at this seafood restaurant in this AAode Square? I heard from my roommate that it’s delicious.” Tao Xi approached Lin Qinhe during class and showed him his cell phone. On the phone was a restaurant in a review app.

In fact, he had never eaten seafood himself and would like to try it.

Lin Qinhe said: “I don’t eat seafood.” He was allergic to seafood.

“Okay, then I’ll change to another restaurant.”

Tao Xi didn’t notice that he was a little too close to Lin Qinhe. He just leaned close to Lin Qinhe, lowered his head and flipped through his favorite restaurant on his mobile phone.

Lin Qinhe looked down. and he could clearly see Tao Xi’s white and slender back of the neck, which extends downward because of the thin and slightly raised spine. Further down, it was hidden by the neckline of the white shirt, and only the faint peach-scented shower gel could be smelled.

“How about this hot pot restaurant? I think the rating is quite high.” Tao Xi raised his head and asked Lin Qinhe, blinking.

“I don’t eat spicy food.” Lin Qinhe said flatly.

“Okay.” Tao Xi lowered his head and flipped the phone again.

“How about this Southeast Asian restaurant? I see the environment in the picture is pretty good.” Tao Xi asked, looking up.

“Too far.”

Tao Xi had to look down at other restaurants again, but he had asked all five restaurants in turn, Lin Qinhe always had reason to say no, he could only look down and search again and again.

Tao Xi thought that rich people were too difficult to serve.

Finally he couldn’t help asking directly: “Then what do you like to eat?”

Lin Qinhe retracted his gaze and said, “Whatever, I’m okay with anything.”

“???”

Tao Xi stared at Lin Qinhe.

Can you really eat whatever?

He became a little angry. He squinted his eyes, slumped down and got closer to Lin Qinhe, he stared at Lin Qinhe’s eyes as he asked: “Lin Qinhe, are you teasing me again?”

Lin Qinhe looked down into his eyes and with a nonchalant tone he said: “Yes.”

Tao Xi didn’t expect this person to admit it. He didn’t find a good expression for a while, and slightly opened his ruddy lips, staring at Lin Qinhe blankly, forgetting how to fight back.

But the next second he felt that his neck was pinched neither lightly nor heavily by one hand, and he moved back. He subconsciously shrank his body, like a cat whose neck was bitten and raised, and was lifted to the side.

“What are you doing?!” Tao Xi couldn’t help but tremble, and hurriedly covered the back of his neck with his hand, his eyes rounded.

He never knew that his back neck was so sensitive. The place where Lin Qinhe’s fingers touched seemed to have an electric current rushing down his spine, even his heart couldn’t help but tremble.

He put on an angry face, attempting to hide his reddened face and ears.

“You are too close to me.” Lin Qinhe said lightly, twisting the thumb and index finger that had been retracted.

Tao Xi suddenly felt that his heart was about to jump out.

He slapped the table in a panic, saying loudly, all bark no bite1: “I don’t care. At 6:30 on Sunday night, you must come to the Guangdong-Hong Kong tea restaurant in Aode Square!”

Lin Qinhe lifted the corners of his lips slightly and said, “Okay.”

外强中干 (wài qiáng zhōng gān): strong in appearance but weak in reality