DLWAV CH160

But how could this be?

He didn’t even have enough time to hate Ao Ruize, and he didn’t like men at all, so how could he have gotten handsy with Ao Ruize in his sleep?

Still, to avoid unnecessary trouble, Gao Zong felt he ought to do something.

So he reached out, intending to pull Ao Ruize’s tank top back down.

Fortunately, this wasn’t difficult to begin with, so within a few seconds, he effortlessly pulled Ao Ruize’s tank top down.

Of course, it would have been utterly perfect if, in the very next second, Ao Ruize hadn’t suddenly rolled over and pinned him underneath.

He said, “Why pull it down? Director Gao was clearly having a great time playing last night.”

As he spoke, he gestured for Gao Zong to look at the finger marks beside it.

Gao Zong: “…”

So, Ao Ruize’s tank top really had been pushed up by him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Gao Zong’s face instantly went taut.

He pushed Ao Ruize off him directly, then got up and stepped out of bed.

Ao Ruize lounged openly on the bed, propping himself up on the bedboard with both hands. Watching Gao Zong with both ears bright red, feigning composure yet failing several times in a row to slip his feet into his shoes, Ao Ruize couldn’t help narrowing his eyes.

After all, when had he ever seen his wife look so shy and restrained?

He suddenly felt that playing the villain was actually quite nice.

However, Gao Zong didn’t leave right away.

Soon, his expression recovered its previous steadiness and gravity: “Since you have already gotten what you wanted… what about the antidote you promised me?”

Ao Ruize corrected him: “It was just a single kiss, nowhere near the point of having gotten what I want.”

Gao Zong: “…”

This made it hard for Gao Zong not to recall both last night’s events and what had just happened.

His composure nearly shattered again instantly.

Shameless!

Fortunately, Ao Ruize had naturally mastered the art of knowing when to quit while ahead.

“However, I believe Director Gao is not someone who goes back on his word, so I can give you the antidote first.”

“That said, refining the antidote takes four days. In four days, I will hand a complete dose over to you.”

Gao Zong’s expression improved considerably at once: “Deal.”

Then Gao Zong headed straight back to the apartment next door, since his toiletries were all still over there.

Seeing Gao Zong return, Zhao Mingyu and the others suspected nothing, simply assuming Gao Zong had been keeping night watch over Ao Ruize.

They immediately called out, “Director Gao, you came back just in time. The Zhang family is hosting a grand banquet today, and Master Zhang just sent over a big pot of pork offal congee.”

Because they were hosting a banquet, the Zhang household had been bustling since early morning.

Many people came to help out, and the Zhang family naturally couldn’t leave them unfed.

So on one side, the plump pig weighing over two hundred catties had just been butchered, and on the other, a massive pot of congee was already simmering.

Gao Zong: “…”

You guys are enjoying the Zhang family’s food so heartily, yet do you have any idea that your Director Gao is about to be eaten clean without even the bones left by the Zhang family?

Thinking of this, Gao Zong looked again at the big basin of pork offal congee on the table and said through gritted teeth, “Eat.”

Eating free food was better than nothing; at least he could recoup a tiny bit of his losses.

Not only that, from now on, he was going to eat every single bit of whatever Ao Ruize sent over.

The Zhang family’s banquet could only be described as magnificent. The two-hundred-catty pig was merely an appetizer; beyond that, every table was served a chicken, a duck, a fish, and a huge basin of boiled mutton, while melon seeds, peanuts, and white rice were provided in unlimited quantities for guests to eat to their hearts’ content.

Everyone in the electronics factory dormitory compound ate until their bellies were round as melons.

Someone roughly tallied the expenses: even deducting the two hundred-plus yuan in cash gifts the Zhang family received, the family had spent at least four hundred yuan out of pocket.

One had to realize that ninety percent of households in the electronics factory didn’t even make that much in net annual income.

Now, whenever they spoke of Zhang Ruize and Zhang Jianguo, they truly couldn’t utter a single word of belittlement or mockery.

Pity the naughty kids in the compound, though, as quite a few of them subsequently got a beating from their sour-hearted parents over some random excuse.

Soon, the news spread outward.

That very afternoon, Kong Li and Shen Weijie heard about it.

“What? Zhang Ruize invented a new type of washing machine and got hired as a teacher by Qianda?”

“Good, good, good!”

Shen Weijie was overjoyed.

He truly hadn’t expected Zhang Ruize to bring such tremendous face to their Shen family.

It was Kong Li who snapped him awake with a scolding: “What’s good about it? Haven’t you seen clearly what kind of person your fine son is? He’s a sly fox, an ungrateful white-eyed wolf.”

“With such a huge event, he didn’t even notify us, his biological parents. If word hadn’t spread, we’d probably still be kept in the dark right now.”

“Most importantly, he threw such a massive celebratory banquet at the Old Zhang family’s place and didn’t invite us to attend. What does that mean? It means he is dead set on cutting all ties with us, and dead set on being Old Zhang’s son!”

Hearing this, Shen Weijie’s face darkened as expected.

Kong Li kept going: “Makes sense, though. How could our Old Shen family compare to their Old Zhang family? Becoming Old Man Zhang’s son means all of Old Man Zhang’s property will be his in the future, and his background record becomes spotless. If he returned to our Old Shen family, not only would he have to support us in old age, he’d also carry the stigma of being a labor-camp convict’s son…”

She had completely forgotten that if they hadn’t favored Shen Xinghui back then, Zhang Ruize wouldn’t have run back to the Zhang household.

She had also completely forgotten that when Zhang Ruize ran back to the Zhang family, they were actually quite pleased, because it effectively meant they had gifted a son to Zhang Jianguo in the end, so others could no longer accuse their family of being shameless and treating Zhang Jianguo like a sucker.

Precisely for that reason, they hadn’t really tried to stop Zhang Ruize back then.

Yet they never anticipated that Zhang Ruize would genuinely sever all ties with them.

“I’m going to find that little beast right now! I have to teach him a proper lesson and make him remember who his biological father is…”

Shen Weijie made to storm out immediately.

“Enough.”

Kong Li said, “Do you think our family hasn’t become enough of a laughingstock already?”

“Zhang Ruize just got lucky inventing some newfangled washing machine. I refuse to believe Xinghui won’t surpass a little punk like him in the future.”

At this point, she gritted her teeth: “Xinghui, don’t you want to study abroad?”

“Fine. Tomorrow I’ll go to the housing exchange center and put our house up for sale.”

Hearing this, Shen Weijie stopped dead in his tracks.

Although he certainly couldn’t swallow this insult, he was even more reluctant to sell the house.

After all, housing prices were so high right now; if he sold their current place, relying solely on his and Kong Li’s meager wages, there was no telling when they’d ever live in a nice house again.

Shen Xinghui never expected this incident to produce such a result. Instantly forgetting his envy and hatred toward Ao Ruize, he said, “Dad, do you think I couldn’t invent an even more advanced washing machine?”

Having lived so many years in his previous life, he had memorized far more than just dozens of advanced machines.

“I simply don’t want to research them right now. Even if I developed more advanced washing machine technology now, it wouldn’t belong to me, it would belong to the state. At most, I’d just become a university professor like Zhang Ruize.”

“But if I can go abroad, invent these technologies, register patents, and sell them off, I can easily make tens or hundreds of thousands. When that time comes, how many houses couldn’t we buy back?”

“No, we won’t buy regular houses then, we’ll buy villas and courtyard mansions, and we’ll host dozens, no, hundreds of banquet tables…”

Hearing this, Shen Weijie felt as though he could already see their future glory.

Most importantly, Shen Xinghui had mentioned earlier that they only needed to cover his first year’s tuition, living expenses, and travel fare to Country W, so they would still have a sizeable surplus left over after selling the house.

They could easily use the remaining money to rent a large apartment for the time being, and once Shen Xinghui made his mark, they could move straight into a villa.

Thinking of this, Shen Weijie hesitated no longer: “Alright, we’ll do as you say. We’ll sell the house and send Xinghui to study in Country W.”

“Great.”

A sharp glint suddenly flashed in Shen Xinghui’s eyes.

So what if Qianda canceled its government-sponsored study abroad selection this year?

He could still go abroad all the same.

Thus, the very next day, after receiving his admission letter from University K in Country W, Shen Xinghui rushed eagerly to the Country W Embassy, hoping to get his visa processed and leave the country as soon as possible.

Upon reviewing Shen Xinghui’s resume and University K’s admission letter, the visa officer glanced quietly at Shen Xinghui before deliberately furrowing his brows: “Hold on, your father served time in prison?”

“Yes.”

Shen Xinghui remained completely composed, as the visa officer had asked this exact question in his previous life.

He simply repeated his answer from back then: “However, that wasn’t because my father did anything bad.”

“As you should know, over twenty years ago, because of that meteor shower, Great Yang suffered an unprecedented catastrophe, and the Great Yang government subsequently made the erroneous decision to close off the country and implement a planned economy.”

“At the time, my family was extremely impoverished. To feed us, my father was forced to take a risk, purchasing a batch of goods to sell in the countryside to earn money and supplement our household income.”

“Unexpectedly, before long, someone reported him, and he was arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison.”

“…Yet wouldn’t such an act be completely legal in any normal country? Therefore, my father is actually innocent.”

Sure enough, upon hearing this, the visa officer immediately broke into a satisfied expression.

Not only because his favorite thing to hear was Great Yang citizens disparaging the Great Yang government, but even more so because Shen Xinghui was exceptionally talented; being able to belittle Great Yang at a time like this proved he was deeply dissatisfied with his homeland, meaning he would very likely stay in Country W permanently in the future.

He promptly picked up the stamp beside him and pressed it onto Shen Xinghui’s passport: “Country W welcomes you.”

Upon learning of this, however, Principal Li’s brows furrowed deeply.

Although he couldn’t tell Shen Xinghui the truth, he still urged him: “Xinghui, you must have faith in the government. Great Yang’s rise might very well happen within these next few years…”

“So there’s really no need for you to study abroad right now…”

“I wouldn’t steer you wrong; the Qianda laboratory truly is a wonderful place to be…”

This was also the other reason Qianda had abruptly canceled its government-funded study abroad program.

Moreover, just yesterday, upon learning that Ao Ruize had actually developed the antidote for the Heart of Claire in just four short days, the government had waved a hand, slashing half the government cafeteria’s budget and allocating it all toward building their laboratories.

Shen Xinghui, however, thought nothing of it.

Were it not out of deference to Principal Li, he might have laughed mockingly right on the spot.

After all, in his previous life, Great Yang had never risen to prominence even up until his death.

Country W’s naval fleets even sailed into the four inner seas every year to flex their military might without Great Yang daring to utter a single peep. Furthermore, the very year he died, an incident occurred where a Country W police officer shot and killed Great Yang’s passing ambassador to Country W, mistaking him for a rioter. When the Country W court acquitted the officer, the Great Yang government did nothing beyond granting the ambassador a state funeral, still not daring to utter a single tough word.

Thus, Shen Xinghui merely put on a look of guilt and said, “Thank you for your concern, Principal, but I have already made up my mind to go abroad, learn more advanced technologies, and return to serve my country.”

Hearing Shen Xinghui speak so earnestly of serving his country, Principal Li’s tightly furrowed brows relaxed considerably.

He nodded: “Very well then.”

With that, he took the fountain pen from his breast pocket and signed his name on Shen Xinghui’s study abroad application.

Watching this scene, Shen Xinghui finally broke into a satisfied smile.

Prosperous and free Country W, here he came.