“Anyone going to the parent-teacher meeting is fine.” After a pause, Bai Jiangxin said, “The one I specified to go isn’t a person, it’s a car.”

Bai Guang frowned, not understanding what he meant.

Bai Jiangxin said bluntly, “Aren’t there several Rolls-Royces in your garage? When the time comes, just have someone drive any one of them to our school.”

Bai Guang was still frowning. “…What?”

He didn’t care who went to attend the parent-teacher meeting for him, yet he cared about which car carried that person to attend the parent-teacher meeting?

Unheard of. Bai Guang even began to doubt whether the person in front of him was really his son.

Bai Jiangxin repeated what he had just said.

This time, Bai Guang was sure—his son truly had this demand. He turned his head and thought for a long time about what meaning this demand could possibly have, but still couldn’t figure it out.

He gave a low snort. It wasn’t that he felt his son’s requirement to specify which car to drive to school was unreasonable, but rather that his son had a designated slot for the car, yet none for the person helping him attend the parent-teacher meeting, as if the car were more important than the person attending it.

“Aren’t you usually someone who would rather ride that broken little electric scooter of yours everywhere than sit in any of my cars? Since when did you become interested in my cars?” Bai Guang raised his eyebrows and asked directly. “Tell me—did something happen to you at school?”

This time, it was Bai Jiangxin who frowned. “No.”

“Then tell me why only that car can be used to go to your school for the parent-teacher meeting.”

Bai Jiangxin and his father had never gotten along; they were always at odds. There was no father-son warmth between them, and they didn’t care about each other at all. He had thought that merely specifying a car to go to school was, logically speaking, something his father wouldn’t question too much.

Seeing that his son didn’t speak, Bai Guang could only guess.

What purpose could there be in driving a luxury car to school? Wouldn’t it just be that purpose.

Bai Guang spoke, his cold tone carrying a few traces of unsparing mockery. “Back then, when I sent you to an international school, you felt that the people around you comparing themselves every day were fake and boring. You felt that what your grandfather said—that only the proletariat is the greatest, that that is the truth—made sense. You felt that I, this capitalist reeking of copper stench, only accumulated wealth by exploiting the people. So what, Young Master Bai who once regarded money as dirt has finally seen the light?”

Bai Jiangxin was the type who wouldn’t respond to either softness or toughness. More difficult to deal with than the iceberg the Titanic crashed into. Even Bai Guang, his own father, had no idea how many times he had been shut out by him. Now that he finally had a chance to ridicule him, he directly treated his son like a business rival and mocked him.

Bai Jiangxin: “……”

For the first time in front of his father, Bai Jiangxin lowered his head somewhat awkwardly. He clicked his tongue softly and could only say the reason. “…I have a classmate who rather likes this brand, so I want them to experience it.”

Clearly it was that groundhog who was greedy for money and liked luxury cars—so why did he have to voice such a vulgar reason on her behalf.

Sure enough, the reason was so vulgar that even the usually serious Bai Guang shook his head and laughed softly several times. He was genuinely amused, and even asked his son with interest, “Which classmate of yours? That capable, to actually be able to make even you ask for something?”

“……” Bai Jiangxin lost his patience. “Just say whether it’s okay or not. If not, forget it.”

Bai Guang nodded. “Okay. It’s just a car. Driving which one isn’t driving? But have you decided who you’re going to have attend the parent-teacher meeting?”

Bai Jiangxin let out a slight breath, and still said the same thing. “Anyone is fine. You can just call someone to go.”

Bai Guang nodded.

“Since anyone is fine, then I’ll go.”

─── ꒰ঌ·✦·໒꒱ ───

Before Bai Jiangxin could ask how his father suddenly had time, Bai Guang received a call from a subordinate urging him, said a couple of sentences, and then hurriedly left the house.

But Bai Jiangxin quickly thought it through.

Even if he said he would go now, if work came up that day, he might not go after all, and would still have someone else substitute.

When he was young, there were many parent-teacher meetings. Especially at his previous school—though they were called parent-teacher meetings, they were actually networking gatherings for those rich and powerful parents under the guise of parent-teacher meetings.

At the beginning, when his father didn’t have time to go, he would still explain the reason to him and express a bit of helplessness. Later, when it happened too many times, his father grew used to it and didn’t even bother explaining anymore. Bai Jiangxin was also too lazy to ask again.

Even when his father did attend a parent-teacher meeting, when the teachers asked parents to hold their children’s hands and teach them how to write the character “家,” Bai Jiangxin was enveloped in his father’s presence. In his hand he was clearly writing “家,” yet what he heard was his father absentmindedly thinking about work and social engagements, and complaining about his mother.

Bai Jiangxin had grown up listening to his parents’ inner thoughts, so more than anyone else, he could clearly see the truth behind his parents’ broken marriage.

They both acted in front of him, thinking their acting was good, saying that divorce was not what they wanted, that they were just forced into it, and that after divorcing, they would still continue to love him and care about him. Yet they didn’t know that Bai Jiangxin could hear everything.

He could hear that, in their hearts, they were actually both counting down to and celebrating the day of divorce.

If they couldn’t live together anymore, then divorce—this idea was correct. Bai Jiangxin couldn’t blame anyone. He just felt rather powerless.

From the initial mutual admiration and liking, to later mutual deception and calculation, at every step it was impossible to say clearly who was more at fault. Anyway, one day, the two of them simply stopped loving each other, and along with that, he also stopped being loved.

So whether Bai Guang genuinely wanted to attend the parent-teacher meeting now or not was already unimportant to Bai Jiangxin.

Lunch was ready. Bai Jiangxin sat alone at the dining table eating. The aunt had also prepared a separate lunch for herself and sat eating in the kitchen area.

This was a rule many housekeepers strictly followed—not eating at the same table as the employer. Moreover, Bai Jiangxin was more difficult to serve than any employer, and there was no way he would be willing to eat at the same table as the aunt.

It had always been like this: he alone occupying such a big table to eat. But this morning, when he was at the bakery with Xiang Di, squeezed in front of a small table eating desserts together, it hadn’t made him feel that uncomfortable.

Seeing that half-eaten cream puff Xiang Di had left behind, he also hadn’t felt any aversion. He had even thought that if he ate the other half, then through saliva, and reestablished a new biological link with her, he would be able to hear her inner voice again.

Although he still didn’t know what kind of drug Xiang Di had given him, he truly had already grown used to her being by his side, whether he could hear her inner voice or not.

But deep down, his subconscious was still resisting and avoiding the formation of such a link. He was born in a peaceful era. He wasn’t as unfortunate as his grandfather, who had been forced to use this bodily trait of his to barely survive in times of war, but he also wasn’t as fortunate as his grandfather, who had encountered someone who could completely open their heart to him, someone worth devoting an entire lifetime to.

There was no way to permanently hear a person’s inner voice, and he couldn’t do such a thing. If this time he ate that half cream puff, and next time it stopped working again, then what should he do?

Sneak another bite? Or directly pry her mouth open and stick his tongue in to draw out what he wanted?

Bai Jiangxin couldn’t do that. What’s more, he couldn’t endlessly pry Xiang Di’s inner world. That wouldn’t be fair to her.

Her feelings were her own. Liking whoever she liked was her freedom. Since she didn’t want him to know, then he likewise shouldn’t know.

Her current liking toward him was real—vulgar, yet sincere; lustful, yet adorable. From all kinds of resistance at the beginning, to now, once he couldn’t hear it anymore, he would even experience withdrawal.

Bai Jiangxin had never felt that becoming addicted to an object or to a person was a good thing, because once he developed dependence, he would have to face the risk of being unable to hold onto it, of losing it one day. Objects were like that. People were the same.

Even the most intense love might one day disappear. And at that time, he would still be able to hear her inner voice. She wouldn’t even be able to pretend anymore, because she couldn’t hide it from him. What should he do then?

If one day she stopped liking him, would he beg her to like him again, or tie her up, force her to face only him every day, and compel her to continue liking him?

Everyone had a dark side in their heart. Bai Jiangxin was no exception. Xiang Di’s dark side was those fantasies about him. But his dark side was far more terrifying than hers.

When it came to rationality and boundaries in relationships, he was actually far inferior to Xiang Di. No matter how excessive her thoughts about him were, they only stayed at the level of fantasy and lustful imagination. She could restrain herself, because she understood the consequences of crossing the line. But he wouldn’t care about those things. He would really do it—perhaps even go further.

By then, he wouldn’t be the lofty, pure, upright Bai Jiangxin in her eyes anymore. She would probably cry and make a scene, desperately trying to escape from his side.

Putting down his chopsticks, Bai Jiangxin stood up and went to the refrigerator, taking out the desserts Xiang Di had bought for him.

These desserts were indeed made beautifully and tasted good, so once you liked eating them, it was very hard to quit.