FIMA Ch13: Irrelevant

Xie Chengfeng was confused. “What won’t happen?”

Xie Qingxiao tucked a stray hair behind his ear and said, seemingly casually, “I won’t have any relationship with the Shen family anymore, nor will I have any relationship with Shen Ting anymore.”

Xie Chengfeng listened, but seemed unable to process it.

After a good while, he stared at Xie Qingxiao and said, “What did you say… won’t have any relationship anymore? What does that mean? Did you break up?”

Xie Qingxiao nodded. “Yeah, pretty much.”

Xie Chengfeng glared at him fixedly. If it weren’t for the crowd, it would be hard not to suspect he would rush up and strangle him to death on the spot.

Xie Qingxiao tried his best to ignore his gaze, looking down at his watch: “Didn’t you say you were preparing to go on a business trip to City B right away? A 7 PM flight. If you don’t leave now, you won’t make it.”

Xie Chengfeng seemed not to hear him. Frowning, he continued to ask, “Why did you break up? Did you throw your young master temper tantrums again? How many times have I told you, don’t always put on that aloof, deadpan face all day. Since you look good, smile more, learn to please people. Can’t you even do that?”

Xie Qingxiao said lazily, “Shen Ting has someone he likes.”

Xie Chengfeng: “Then isn’t that just because you’re useless? Otherwise, how could he fall for someone else?”

Xie Qingxiao narrowed his eyes.

Right at this moment, the phone in Xie Chengfeng’s pocket rang. It was his secretary calling to remind him to head to the airport.

After responding with a few sentences, Xie Chengfeng hung up. Gripping the phone, he pointed his right hand at Xie Qingxiao: “You… wait until I come back from City B. I will have a good talk with you then.”

After saying that, he turned directly and walked out of the school.

This time he was going to City B to negotiate a partnership with a major supplier; he absolutely couldn’t delay, otherwise…

“Mn, have a safe trip.”

Xie Qingxiao narrowed his eyes at his father’s departing back, a mocking smile curling the corners of his mouth.

…

Gu Siyuan was in a good mood today. After eating dinner in the cafeteria, he returned to his dorm to continue writing his code.

Seeing Xie Qingxiao’s earlier attitude towards Madam Shen, he could roughly guess that he and Shen Ting were pretty much finished. In that case, his own mission could be considered barely half-accomplished.

Looking at it this way, breaking up a romance was actually quite easy.

Xie Qingxiao’s tragedy in his past life was half due to Shen Ting’s irresponsibility, and the other half due to his money-grubbing father and stepmother.

Now that Shen Ting’s problem was resolved, next up were his parents.

Problems related to money are the most complex in this world, but they are also the simplest.

As Gu Siyuan wrote his program, he chatted with a WeChat friend whose messages popped up from time to time. This friend was naturally Jiang Hefeng, whom he had met a few days ago.

Ever since Gu Siyuan and Jiang Hefeng became WeChat friends, the two frequently chatted about programming issues.

Jiang Hefeng revealed to him that he was currently writing an outsourced program for a company introduced by his mentor, and it was tedious and full of troublesome details.

After hearing this, Gu Siyuan gave him a little bit of advice, which instantly made Jiang Hefeng revere him as a godsend genius.

Subsequently, Jiang Hefeng pulled Gu Siyuan into his work WeChat group. When this small project was completed, naturally, he wouldn’t miss out on his share of the profits.

Gu Siyuan joined this WeChat group, naturally, not for the petty profits of these outsourced chores.

However, things had to be taken slowly.

After all, he was still a high school senior right now. He had to first display enough skill to convince others, so he could form a team and start a real, big business.

High school senior life always seemed unruffled on the surface, like an iceberg beneath the deep sea, undergoing a long period of accumulating momentum, waiting for the day it would burst forth.

Even though the parent-teacher meeting the previous day had given everyone a very unforgettable day upon returning home, things went back to normal the next day, because a new round of unified examinations was about to start soon.

There wasn’t even enough time for everyone to fully grieve and reflect.

However, before he could completely settle down to study, Xie Qingxiao still had one matter to thoroughly wrap up.

“Shen Ting,” Xie Qingxiao called out softly.

Shen Ting turned a deaf ear to it, instead turning his head to talk and joke around with Lu Jiayang.

He naturally heard it; it was just that he was still extremely irritated by Xie Qingxiao’s words and actions from yesterday, so he deliberately pretended not to hear and ignored him.

Actually, this wasn’t the first time he had done this.

Ever since impulsively confirming their relationship on Qixi Festival, he would occasionally feel annoyed by Xie Qingxiao’s initiative. Whenever this happened, he would pretend not to hear or see him.

Speaking of which, Xie Qingxiao was actually quite a tactful person. He would usually know to leave in silence.

However, today was clearly different from the usual.

Xie Qingxiao stood in front of his desk, knocked on the tabletop, and said loudly, “Shen Ting, I need to talk to you.”

The people in the front and back seats were attracted by the commotion and cast sidelong glances.

Shen Ting finally raised his eyes, but brushed him off blatantly: “I’m busy right now, we’ll talk later!”

“One minute is enough.” Xie Qingxiao continued to look at him coldly, his eyes as if harboring fire within ice.

Shen Ting frowned impatiently. Did this guy take the wrong medicine…

Lu Jiayang also sensed that Xie Qingxiao’s whole mood was off. He shoved Shen Ting’s arm: “Sister-in-law has something to talk to you about, why are you dawdling here?”

Hearing this form of address, Shen Ting frowned in displeasure.

But when facing Lu Jiayang, his eyes remained gentle and accommodating. He ruffled Lu Jiayang’s hair, then nimbly stood up and jumped out of his seat. Passing by Xie Qingxiao, he said lazily, “Let’s go.”

Xie Qingxiao’s heart didn’t ripple at all. He nodded and took the lead to walk out, walking ahead of Shen Ting.

The two walked to the corner of the classroom hallway.

Their classroom was near the stairs, where there was a large, spacious area. It was generally where teachers stayed when they temporarily pulled students from various classes aside to talk.

Xie Qingxiao had been holding a box in his hand all along. At this moment, he reached out and handed it to Shen Ting: “Returning this to you.”

Shen Ting frowned and took it, looking it over: “This is…”

Xie Qingxiao looked at him and said calmly, “What you gave me on Qixi.”

Shen Ting opened it and took a look, then remembered. He had spent a lot of effort to buy this gift; although it didn’t end up in the hands of the right person, he still remembered it deeply.

Though later on, he had made something even more thoughtful to give to Lu Jiayang.

He casually squeezed it: “It was given to you. If you don’t want it, just throw it away.”

“It’s best to return things to their original owner.” Xie Qingxiao shook his head and continued, “Actually, at the time, you just threw this thing at me without saying anything. Maybe it was just my misunderstanding from the start, but right now, let’s still make it completely clear!”

“You want to break up?” Shen Ting finally seemed to understand what he wanted to do.

Xie Qingxiao finally couldn’t help but curl the corners of his lips. Perhaps even he himself didn’t realize that the arc of this mocking smile was almost exactly identical to Gu Siyuan’s.

He said calmly, “Saying ‘break up’… I’m afraid that’s flattering myself, because I feel like we were never even together in the first place. But, since you said it, that works too. Let’s just consider it a breakup. From now on, we are just regular classmates.”

Shen Ting narrowed his eyes and looked steadily at Xie Qingxiao, as if he were meeting this person for the very first time.

A moment later, he threw the item in his hand towards the trash can. It landed with a loud bang.

He looked at Xie Qingxiao and said word by word, “Fine. Suit yourself!”

The place where the two were talking was right at the corridor corner, not far from their class and the next class. Hearing this commotion, nosy people instantly poked their heads out.

Xie Qingxiao didn’t have any hobby of being a spectacle for a crowd. He nodded at Shen Ting and turned around directly to leave.

Shen Ting also turned around. Looking at his departing back, he felt some bizarre emotions.

In just a few short days, he seemed to have watched Xie Qingxiao’s back as he walked away several times. This was something that had never happened before… He, Shen Ting, had always been the first to leave, the first to let go.

When Xie Qingxiao walked back to his seat, his desk-mate Gu Siyuan was playing on his phone as if no one else were around, while Huo Yi was sitting in Xie Qingxiao’s seat, peeking with a constipated expression.

According to school rules, mobile phones and other electronic devices were not allowed to appear in school, otherwise they would be confiscated.

However, this rule clearly held no meaning for Gu Siyuan.

He had already been guaranteed college admission, but he stayed in school attending classes partly because he temporarily had nowhere else to live, and partly because the school begged him to stay and continue to participate in the college entrance exam.

Xie Qingxiao asked casually, “What are you looking at?”

Huo Yi quickly jumped up: “Qingxiao, you’re back! Holy crap, the Academic God is looking at some weird stuff. A whole bunch of numbers and lines going red and green, constantly changing. Just looking at it gives me a headache.”

Xie Qingxiao swept a glance at Gu Siyuan’s phone screen. If he wasn’t mistaken, wasn’t this thing called stocks?

He cast a doubtful look at Huo Yi.

But then, he looked at Gu Siyuan with even more surprise.

Even though he was still a high school student, he also knew a very popular jargon phrase nowadays: “Entering the market carries risks; investment requires caution.”

Gu Siyuan was all alone with nothing to his name; he was actually playing with such high-risk things. When the time came, he wouldn’t even have anyone to back him up financially.

However, he himself seemed to have quite a bit of savings. If push came to shove, he could temporarily…

“Are you okay? Did you go fight with Shen Ting?”

Huo Yi grabbed onto Xie Qingxiao. He had just seen Xie Qingxiao and Shen Ting walking out of the classroom with expressions like they were going to explode, which was why he ran over to check on his good friend.

Xie Qingxiao smiled and shook his head: “What are you thinking? Do you think I’m stupid? Could I even beat him in a fight? I went to break up.”

Huo Yi’s eyes widened in sheer amazement.

Gu Siyuan, who had been playing on his phone the whole time, also took a moment to raise his eyes and glance at him.

Xie Qingxiao sat back in his seat with a calm face, but for some reason, his tone carried a bit of smugness: “Just like that.”

Gu Siyuan lowered his eyes and chuckled softly, suddenly feeling that today’s stocks might continue to rise.

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