Chapter 107
Zhou Lei opened the door to their house, and this was what he first heard.
"I'm home..." He removed his shoes, placed them on the floor and proceeded to his room.
Zhou Zhenya didn't spare even a glance as the TV show attracted her attention, leaving her no room to care about anything else for now.
She attentively watched the cartoon as she picked a snack up from her bowl and bit on it.
The bowl beside her was filled to the brim with a variety of snacks, including but not limited to, Piattas, Doritas, and Novo.
In his room, Zhou Lei looked around for the jacket that was recently taken for a wash. After all, he had been using it every day, it was about time for the jacket to be washed.
"Hmm? Why is it not here?" Shuffling through dressers and drawers, he realized that his room did not have any dressers nor drawers...
He exited the room and entered his parents' room at the end of the hallway, catching a brief glimpse of his sister who delectably licked her fingers.
'That's dirty! Did she wash her hands? Sheesh.'
He opened the door and started browsing through his father's closet. "There it is. The jacket."
Taking it off the clothes hanger, Zhou Lei wore it around his body, making the temperature around him twice as hot as it already was.
Sweat leaked out his pores as he kept looking for the next item: the facemask. Well, he knew where he placed the previous one that he wore.
But he couldn't keep using the same facemask over and over again. In the first place, he was using disposable facemasks. He already overdid it by using one for three days...
"...Should I just buy one at the mall?" After all, Zhou Lei still had some left-over money from the piggy bank that he broke.
In the end, he decided to just buy. He exited his parents' room and glanced at his little sister.
He noticed that his sister's mouth kept moving.
Upon closer speculation, there were traces of powder around her lips.
"...Zhenya, what are you eating?"
This startled Zhou Zhenya quite a bit. She regained her composure not long after and said, "Snacks."
As her eyes never left the screen, she heard the sounds of footsteps coming closer. She turned her head around in a slow pace when the figure of her brother came into her vision.
"What are you doing-" Before she finished her sentence, Zhou Lei already reached out his hand and grabbed some snacks from her bowl. He then walked toward the door.
"Hey!"
He didn't even spare a glance as he left the house, jamming each chip into his mouth and closing the door behind him.
"..." Zhou Zhenya.
.....
Meanwhile, in a forest not far away from the city, there was a large manor...
A female student walked towards the gate that blocked the pathway. As soon as the guards saw her, they opened the entrance without delay.
She removed her red hair
Her name was Ye Muqi, the first daughter of a rich family. Coincidentally, she was also Zhou Lei's cla.s.smate.
As she arrived at the door of the main house, she heard the chatter of the maids.
"Madam and Sir are fighting again. You can tell that they don't love each other anymore."
"For sure, they've been fighting everyday for the past decade. I think the only reason they're still together is-"
Ye Muqi opened the door, startling the maids. They stopped their conversation and continued sweeping the floor.
Avoiding to step on the places the maids already cleaned, Ye Muqi walked up the stairs carefully.
When she got to her room, she crashed on the huge bed immediately, not even bothering to remove her clothes.
"Those maids... they should be fired." Ye Muqi thought of the maids that had a conversation on the front the door and got irritated.
Annoyance dominated on her face as she covered it with a pillow. Holding it in place was her two hands. Her two feet hanged down the bed, but she didn't even bother raise them. Before long, she fell asleep.
Outside, a hand knocked on the door, only to get no response. It was from someone much younger than Ye Muqi.
It was her little brother, Mo Muqi. "Oh, big sis still isn't here..."
He went down the stairs. His two feet went by each other in a fast pace, frightening his mother who watched from the bottom.
"Mo, be careful!" Ling Muqi lifted her hands in an attempt to catch her child should he trip and fall.
"Mama, big sis is not responding..." Ignoring his mother, the five-year-old continued walking down the stairs.
'That means she's either not there or asleep.' Ling Muqi, the wife of the master and the three children's mother, deduced this much. "...Let's just eat."
Mo Muqi arrived at the bottom of the stairs without injury, making his mother feel relieved. She grabbed his hand as fast as possible to keep him from any other incidents.
He got startled by her sudden action and resisted, but his mother was much stronger than him, rendering him helpless in the situation.
As the mother and son pair arrived at the dinner table, there was the master of the household, Wei Muqi, sitting at the farther end of the table.
"Where is Xiaoye[1]?" Wei Muqi noticed that only his wife and his son returned.
"Dad, she didn't respond when I called her in her room." Mo Muqi proceeded to sit beside his father.
"That brat! I'll need to teach her a lesson later... Always pulling this kind of trick to escape dinner?!"
Ling Muqi sighed as she was already used to seeing the sight of her husband reprimanding their daughter.
.....
Lu Xi headed home. Two of her lackeys followed her from a considerable distance.
She scratched her short blonde hair while she chewed on her gum for little longer. The minty taste lingered in her mouth, making it feel colder than it really was.
After this, she put her hands back in her pockets.
The two lackeys behind her talked.
"So... wh- what are we doing right now?" The girl with the big nose stuttered.
"We are following boss home." The girl with excessive makeup peeked her head out the tree they were both using as cover.
Feeling a gaze directed at her, Lu Xi spun around and scanned the area.
"Who's there?"
The makeup girl retracted her head as fast as she could. She only hoped that their boss didn't see her.
After looking around and seeing nothing, Lu Xi squinted her eyes in suspicion before resuming her walk.
Makeup Girl peeked again and saw that their boss didn't see her. She inhaled a deep breath as she proceeded to follow Lu Xi.
"Yue, maybe this isn't such a good idea... What if she gets angry at us?" The big nose girl worried too much.
"I'll take responsibility if she catches us. Besides, there's like, almost zero percent chance of her catching us with me around!" Yue, the makeup girl, had a prideful smile on her face as she spoke.
"OK then..." Without any choice but to conform to her friend, the timid girl just rubbed her nose as she followed behind Makeup Girl.
Lu Xi sighed as she continued walking back. She really didn't want to go back to that sad excuse for a home.
Constant fights between her parents, the smell of alcohol all throughout the house, and the lack of food always made it hard for her to return after school.
The only upside was her two little brothers that made her smile every time she saw them. Those two angels were the sole reason Lu Xi hadn't run away from that h.e.l.lhole.
As she arrived nearer and nearer, she heard a small innocent voice enter her ears. "Big sis!"
"Ah, it's my cute little Tian!" She ran up to Lu Tian who was buying something from the shop in front of their house. "Are you buying candy again?"
"Um... no? Hehehe..." Lu Tian felt embarra.s.sed. He didn't expect that his sister would catch him buying some candy!
"I already told you to minimize your candy buying!" Lu Xi reprimanded her brother.
At the corner of the street, Yue the Makeup Girl and Big Nose were dumbfounded. They had never seen this side of their boss before!
At school, she was an absolute tyrant, how did that monster transform into a caring big sister?!
"B- boss... is so awesome!" Big Nose's eyes sparkled at the sight.
Yue's reactions were similar as she bit her lip to inhibit her ever-increasing smile.
They pictured themselves as the little brother... Ah, that would be bliss!
The two's legs s.h.i.+vered as they resisted running up to their boss!