章 15: Do You Want to Be My Adopted Grandson? Part I

Though Bai Zhe was asleep that night, the ten girls who were Xi Mo’s fans were still wide awake. They were talking in their group chat.

[Can anybody recall how we ended up lying there?]

[No clue. We woke up at the same time, didn’t we?]

[Weren’t we waiting to meet Bai Zhe at the front of our school before that?]

[Girls…you better watch this first.] The owner of this message sent a picture from her smartphone to their group chat. It was the picture of her friends trying to take Bai Zhe’s clothes off, exposing his beautiful six-pack.

[Ack! How could we do that without even knowing about it?]

[I’m almost bloodless. Tissues, tissues.]

[Bai Zhe has hidden his figure well.]

[What a fine piece. No wonder why I lost control.]

[Erm, will Bai Zhe have us arrested?] After this message popped up, the group chat went quiet for a moment.

[No, probably not. If that were true, we would’ve already been taken in by the police, or the teachers, for investigation.]

[Should we go apologise to him?]

[I agree. Oh, what about the report for Mr. Jang? Bai Zhe isn’t in any group yet. We should invite him to work with us, as a form of redemption. Sound good?]

[Great idea. Let’s do that. I agree.]

[Agree.]

[Me too.]

Their conversation ended not long after that. The girls needed to sleep early because they also had an examination in the morning as well.

The next morning

Bai Zhe took a shower and got dressed. He put the notebooks containing the novel, of which there were up to ten, into a bag. They were the reason why he did not take the books for today’s examination to study with.

He left the apartment earlier than usual and chose to walk to school instead. It was because reporters with cameras were milling around, trying to find the martial artist. They hoped they could find the mysterious martial artist of the park around this area. Bai Zhe frequently saw the reflection of light from the camera lenses. He wanted to wait until people forgot about the news before using his floating technique to jump from roof to roof again.

Bai Zhe’s School

“Bai Zhe,” a girl's voice rang, making Bai Zhe jump. He remembered the voice. It belonged to one of the ten girls from yesterday who had almost ravished him.

‘Bloody hell, what did I do to you all? Why do you have to wait to meet me this early like you are enemies from my previous life?’ he cursed inside his mind.

“Wh…What is it? Do you need something?” He walked toward the girls to discover that they looked shy. He could not help but think that he might have done something wrong when he erased their memories. But no matter how much he thought it over, he was rather sure he had not made any mistakes in the memory erasure process.

“We want to apologise about yesterday. Could you please forgive us?” said the girl, looking at Bai Zhe's face. When their eyes met, she suddenly lowered her face. Her ears were as red as a tomato.

“It’s all right. I forgive you. But don’t do it again. Only this much, and I’m already wary of you guys.” He felt relieved when he did not see them trying to attack like yesterday, so he talked to them normally.

“We are definitely not going to do it again. Ummm…Bai Zhe, have you finished the physical education report for Mr. Jang?” one of the schoolgirls asked.

“Oh, the one about one sport or martial art, right?” he asked.

“Yes. We haven’t done it yet. If you haven’t done it either, we’d like to invite you to join our group. The teacher said we could work in a group if we chose the same sport. It is no more than 10 people per sport, so we will have two separate groups. You can join any group you like. Consider it our redemption…for the bad things…we did to you. Sound good?” the one who looked like the leader said.

“I already finished it. I wrote about martial arts,” answered Bai Zhe.

“Wow, I didn’t expect that. Are you sure? You have to demonstrate it. Mr. Jang will be the examiner himself. I heard that he’s good at kung fu. You might get hurt,” a girl in the group warned him.

“That’s not a problem. I think it is you guys who are in trouble. Will you finish it in time?” he asked the ten girls.

“We are fine. We are the biggest group of girls in our class, did you know? We have the advantage of our numbers,” answered the leader, whose nervousness when talking to Bai Zhe had decreased, making her mannerisms more natural.

“Good luck then. I will go to the examination room.” Bai Zhe turned back, about to leave them. The girls suddenly rushed forward and locked their arms with his before bringing out a smartphone to take a selfie with the unprepared Bai Zhe.

“Off we go. See you!” The girls swiftly ran away, not giving him a chance to respond.

‘They are really scary. They erased their intention to the point where I couldn’t sense their movements. Did my senses get blunter? Seems like I need to find time to practice them,’ the boy thought.

Bai Zhe could feel many female students’ eyes on him when he entered the building. Yes. That was because the girls in the morning had sent his picture to the others who were in the group chat, and it had been spread all over the school in a matter of minutes, making the atmosphere as heated as a fire. Many of the girls tried to come up to ask Bai Zhe for pictures with him, but he refused because he was in a hurry to get to the examination room.

Bai Zhe quickly did his exam. Then, he hid out on the rooftop until it was time for the next subject’s exam. He went down only when it was time for the exam. During the last subject, Bai Zhe finished his exam as fast as he could so he could flee from the girls who wanted to take a picture with him.

‘Did he just guess on his exam? How could he have done it this fast?’ a boy sitting behind Bai Zhe thought.

‘Does he have something to do after this?’ thought a girl sitting on Bai Zhe’s left side.

‘No! If it’s like that, I won’t have a chance to take a picture with him then,’ another girl mentally screamed.

Female students were looking for Bai Zhe after the exam. His classmate told them that he had already finished his exam and gone back home. The girls felt disappointed; still, they hoped to see Bai Zhe again after the midterm exam.

Bai Zhe went to Xi Lua’s company as scheduled. He used the VIP lift like he had before. The moment the lift doors opened, he found Xi Lua sitting on the sofa in the living room in front of the office.

“Oh, you’re here. Let’s go inside.” The old man stood up and opened the door for Bai Zhe.

Xi Lua’s office was drastically changed, which surprised the boy a little bit. Up on the wall behind the desk, the calligraphy painting he had given to Xi Lua had been hung so that it was the centre of attention. The placement suited the intention of the painting very well, too.

“That's an excellent placement,” the boy praised him.

“Hahaha, Meng Dong handled it. Did you bring it?” The old man rubbed his hands together before holding them out. Bai Zhe put down his bag, then took out the notebooks and handed them to Xi Lua.

“Oh, there are this many?” The man was surprised by the number of notebooks.

“Yes. All of them are my novel about a martial artist who people called the greatest swordsman.” He confirmed that the notebooks were all the full-length novel that he had written.

“Just a moment.” Xi Lua called ten of his employees up to his office before telling them to get these notebooks scanned and put onto a drive.

“I’ll keep this handwritten manuscript. I will give the one on this drive to you, along with the documents from the Office of Intellectual Property showing that this novel is yours. As for putting forth a price to the publishers and Chen Feng, do you want to put forth a price yourself or do you want me to do it for you?” asked Xi Lua.

“It would be all right for you to do it. If the publishers give me a high copyright fee, I will be happy to add the condition that I offer them my new novel first when it is finished,” said Bai Zhe.

“All right, let’s agree on that. Wait a moment. I’m sending the file to my friend who is the owner of the publishing company,” said Xi Lua. While he did this, the old man wondered why he was helping this boy without wanting something in return. Bai Zhe was not his grandson. Maybe it was because he was impressed that the boy was talented and filial, trying to lighten his parents’ financial burdens. Bai Zhe was also frugal.

“Bai Zhe, let me be frank. Are you interested in being my adopted grandson?”

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