The Journey Itself Chapter 6

Blake played with Edward and his friends in class during the day, and they had a good relationship. His home was far away, so Edward would occasionally send him some food to his dormitory to improve his life. As time went by, he became familiar with the group of athletes. The group was very polite to Edward, and they would greet each other when they met. When they were not training, Blake would occasionally pull him to play basketball and go out to eat together.

But overall, Edward had no close friendship or conflicts with them, and they kept to themselves.

He had indeed heard some rumors coming from the dormitory area, but after all, he had never seen it with his own eyes, and it was not convenient for him to ask Blake about it.

Edward looked back at Owen's desk. Most people would only take home the things they needed, unless it was a winter or summer vacation or an exam, because there were too many things and they were too heavy. Most of the books and other items were left in the classroom. Only Owen's desk was empty, without even a piece of paper left, as if no one had ever used it.

Carrying a schoolbag weighing more than ten kilograms every day...this is simply a sick idea.

Is it possible that anyone would touch his junk?

Edward asked casually: "How do we deal with him? Beat him up?"

Blake smiled gently, like a superpowered person with an extra secret. He was usually on the margins in the class, but at this moment, those "margins" seemed to have found reasonable reasons on their own, and were all beautified into "outstanding".

"It's too easy for him to be beaten up." The outstanding Blake said lightly.

Edward suddenly felt annoyed by Blake's expression. He didn't say anything for a while, thinking: "You are so powerful. When those loan sharks blocked Ryan outside, you didn't do anything."

But Edward didn't embarrass Blake in person, he just said: "Forget it, you don't know, today in the office on the third floor, Qilixiang was targeting me alone - I think that boy is her darling now, don't make trouble."

Blake was unwilling to accept this, and squinted his eyes to deliberately irritate Edward: "Qilixiang? That old woman is nothing. I'm not saying, brother, if you can tolerate this, you have a really good temper."

Edward's face darkened.

He could tell that Blake was just looking for trouble, but he couldn't do it without a good reason, so he used him as an excuse. He really hated Owen, but Edward didn't want to be used as a gun by a bunch of bored boarding students. Besides, even if he really wanted to deal with Owen, did he need others to help him vent his anger?

"I can't handle that girl by myself, so I have to cry and ask for help outside the venue?" Edward looked at Blake with a smile, "Brother Tao, I'm always so nice to you, why don't you take my place?"

He said it in a joking tone, but there was a tough nail hidden in his words. Although he left room for both parties to back out, one could still tell that he was a little angry.

Blake's face changed, and the other boys around him also looked at each other and fell silent.

But Edward stood up again, hooked his arm around Blake's neck as if nothing had happened, and smoothed things over himself: "It's a good weekend, why do you keep bringing up spoilers? My mother came back from a business trip in the south this week and brought some fruit. Do you want mango or mangosteen?"

Blake felt very unhappy, but Edward had already given him a way out. After a slight consideration, he felt that it was not worth creating a conflict with Edward for such a small discomfort, so he drooped his eyebrows and reluctantly took the way out: "...Mango, mangosteen is a problem."

"Okay, I'll move a box to your dormitory on Monday," Edward stroked Blake's short hair, "Wash it and wait for me on the bed."

Blake cursed: "Fcuk, my hair!"

The two of them had brought the matter to light.

Despite the fight during the day and a minor friction with Blake at night, Edward was still in a good mood when he returned home on Friday because his mother was back from a business trip.

Edward actually took his mother's surname. He has a mother, a grandmother, an Aunt Du and a Doudou dog in his family. Except for himself, who is a male, the whole family, even the dog, are female.

His parents broke up a long time ago, but his mother never told him in detail why they broke up. She just told him casually, "Your father doesn't want to live with us anymore."

"Father" disappeared from Edward's life before he had a clear memory.

In the early years, "divorce" was still a matter that could alarm the neighbors. Edward remembered that there were many expert gossips in the community at that time. They loved to stroke his dog's head and spit out a string of "sympathetic" sarcastic remarks about their family. This happened when he was about three or four years old. Children of that age have incomplete memories. In fact, Edward didn't even remember what his biological father looked like, but he inexplicably remembered those people's faces and what they said.

He certainly didn't understand what was said at the time, but he could smell the malice behind the words without using his brain to understand.

One time, the rumors were heard by Edward's mother, who immediately rushed forward in her eight-centimeter high heels and argued with the group of aunties without using any dirty words, resulting in a legendary war of words in which the outnumbered side won.

Edward's mother's original name was "Edward". After the divorce, she changed her name to "Xu Jin". She used to be a lawyer.

She is of medium build and has a strong personality. After winning the war of words, she simply left her child to her mother, resigned from the law firm, and rolled up her sleeves to start her own business.

Ms. Xu Jin has long seen through it. Children without fathers will not be looked down upon, but children with poor fathers will.

After resigning, she relied on the connections she had accumulated over the years, gathered a group of professionals from various fields, and set up her own company, specializing in providing legal consulting and related program design for cross-border mergers and acquisitions, traveling around the world all day long.

As the company's performance improved, the family's conditions also continued to improve, and they moved out of the old residential area with three rats and four eyes. Their family now has a good environment, the neighbors are very polite, and know how to keep their distance, and Edward has never been criticized by anyone again.

For Edward, his grandmother who brought him up since childhood is the person closest to him and who dotes on him the most, but children are naturally fond of the strong, and the resolute Xu Jin has a more profound influence on him.

When Edward returned home, Xu Jin had just finished a phone call and waved for him to come over.

Edward: "What are you doing, beautiful lady?"

"I want to tell you something..." Xu Jin saw his face clearly, paused, and pinched his chin, "What's going on? Did you have a fight?"

"Oh my god, your nails are too sharp!" Edward complained, "Don't worry, I've taken care of it. Qilixiang won't cause you any trouble...hiss!"

Xu Jin pressed hard on the bruise on his chin: "If I hear you give the teacher a nickname again, I will..."

Edward shook his head and tail and smiled at her evilly: "Will you hit me?"

Xu Jin looked at the tall and strong little ba5tard and felt that beating him would hurt his hands, so he said: "I will record it and let your class teacher listen to it."

Edward: ...

He is worthy of being a lawyer.

Xu Jin said, "Your Chengzi's godmother has returned to China. She is divorcing her husband recently. There is chaos at home. She wants to send her child to live with us for a few days. Is that okay?"

"Just stay here. It's so pitiful." Edward put down his schoolbag indifferently and agreed immediately.

"Chengzi" is a nickname. Her real name is "Zhu Xiaocheng". She is Grandma Xu's goddaughter and Edward's godmother.

The two families were old friends of the grandfather's generation and had a very good relationship in the past. When Zhu Xiaocheng was a child, her parents were unable to take care of her due to work reasons, so they sent the child directly to Xu Jin's home to raise her for more than a year.

Later, the two families had their own experiences and were separated by distance. Transportation was not very convenient in the past few years, so they gradually lost contact. It was only in the last three or four years that they became close again.

I wish Xiao Cheng is a great beauty, as pretty as a flower. Even though she is over 40, she still gets as many people turning their heads to look at her as she did back then.

It's a pity that she is all show and no substance. Apart from being a spoiled brat and vain, she has no other strengths. She doesn't even have good luck. She married a rich man who turned out to be a big sgumbag.

Zhu Xiaocheng was unwilling to give up her status as a wealthy wife, so she had to maintain her marriage in a half-dead state. When she could not go on any longer, she did something very strange - Comrade Zhu Xiaocheng abandoned her family and career, took her sgumbag husband's credit card, and ran to the United States to worship Buddha, trying to pretend that she didn't see it!

...Speaking of this matter, no matter the time, place or characters, it is full of bizarre flaws. Except for Zhu Xiaocheng, no ordinary person would do this.

She is middle-aged, has no interest in career, and does not like to manage the family. She has gradually lost common language with her peers and is inevitably lonely and depressed. She increasingly regards Xu Jin as her own exclusive tree hole - because she considers herself a failure in marriage, she and Xu Jin share the same pain.

Every time Zhu Xiaocheng returned to China, even if he didn't go back to his own home, he would first grab Xu Jin and pour out his loneliness.

Xu Jin was too lazy to sympathize with her. In fact, she had been annoyed with Zhu Xiaocheng since she was a child. Every time she entertained this person, the usually eloquent Ms. Xu Jin would become a mouthless gourd, with only "hmm hmm" and "okay okay" to say, and she would change her sitting position every three seconds on average, as if she was in a hurry to pee.

Unfortunately, it’s useless for her to be annoyed, because both her biological mother and son like Zhu Xiaocheng.

Zhu Xiaocheng was sweet and well-behaved when she was a child. Compared with Xu Jin, who had an exceptionally long rebellious period, she was a real "sweet little cotton-padded jacket". Grandma Xu raised Zhu Xiaocheng for more than a year and treated her like her own child and loved her very much.

As for Edward, the reason why he likes Zhu Xiaocheng is very simple: first, she is a great beauty; second, the great beauty never comes empty-handed, with limited edition sneakers, watches, electronic products...she buys him whatever he likes.

As a biological mother, Zhu Xiaocheng is not very good, but as a godmother, she can give it a 120-point score. Anyway, Edward took the gift and ran away, and the one who stayed to listen to her crying and chanting was his mother Xu Jin.

"By the way, Mom," Edward asked casually, "How old is Chengzi's child? Is it a boy or a girl?"

Xu Jin was stunned for a moment: "...Yes, I really don't know, she never mentioned it to me."

It turned out that every time Zhu Xiaocheng complained to her at length, she never went off topic and refused to leave her own loneliness, and never mentioned the child at all!

Edward shook his head, feeling that to be reborn as Zhu Xiaocheng's child, he must have committed many evil deeds in his previous life to have such bad luck in this life.

Just as he was thinking about it, his cell phone rang. It was a local landline.

Edward picked up the phone: "Hello?"

"I," Ryan's voice rang out from the other end, low and silent, "I'm calling from a public phone. I want to tell you something."

Edward was very happy when he heard Ryan's voice. He asked with a smile in his eyes: "Why do you have to tell me something today? What is it?"

Ryan: "Old Huang asked me to help him organize some things in my spare time, you know that, right?"

"Old Huang" was the Chinese teacher of their class, an old man who had been rehired. He was very kind and valued Ryan's talent. After knowing his family situation, he always tried to find some money-making jobs for him. He often asked Ryan to help him organize manuscripts and save some books. The tasks were not heavy and the money he paid was very generous.

Edward: "Well, what's wrong?"

"I stayed in Mr. Huang's office for a while, and before leaving I remembered that a math test paper was left in our class, so I went back to get it," Ryan said, "and heard Brother Tao talking to the tall guy in Class 6 in the corridor..."

"Li Bozhi from the track and field team?" Edward paused as he was going upstairs. This Li Bozhi had a bad reputation. Last semester, he had a conflict with someone in the repeater class and was punished for fighting outside the school. "What did you say?"

"It seems like he wants to make trouble for Owen, and he even mentioned you." Ryan whispered, "I saw that you were quite unhappy when he brought up this topic today, so I want to tell you something."