Leaving Home with Yuxue

The principal was still waiting, but Xia Yu didn't dwell on the issue any longer and agreed for now.

If it didn't feel right, he could just go along for the ride – he had nothing to lose, after all.

After Xia Yu left, the Chinese teacher approached the principal:

"Principal, are you really going to get a Hua University recommendation for Xia Yu?"

The Chinese teacher had no doubt about the principal's ability. Though other teachers in the school were unaware, he knew it all too well.

The principal's wife was an honorary principal at Hua University.

The principal laughed heartily, "I said he has to show some results before I'll try to get him a recommendation. Those results have to be at least top ten level. How could he possibly achieve that?"

"You crafty fellow!" the Chinese teacher scolded with a smile.

"Alright, don't waste your time here. Go revise your report!"

The Chinese teacher returned to his office and spent an hour revising the report before hurrying to Xia Yu's class for the last lesson.

Standing at the lectern, he glanced at Xia Yu below and sighed.

This poor child was deceived by the principal. Did he really think the district competition would be so easy?

He and the principal thought that Xia Yu had optimistically underestimated the difficulty of the district competition, which was why he was moved by the prospect of a Hua University recommendation. In reality, Xia Yu had already calculated the difficulty to be even greater.

Confident in his own abilities thanks to An Siyao, Xia Yu had no doubts that he could achieve good results.

Now, the troublesome part was that the district competition would definitely attract a lot of attention. People would surely ask when he learned to play the piano, and how would he explain it then?

Did he learn it from a girl in a previous life?

That wasn't even the main problem - the main problem was that An Siyao might come looking for him because of the competition!

After all, he had learned the piano from the young girl and practiced with her. She couldn't possibly not recognize his playing.

This was also true if he switched to the violin.

Concealing his true identity was his top priority, so Xia Yu began to back out.

Maybe he would just casually play along when the time came.

Having made up his mind, he curiously searched online for information about the competition.

There was a lot of related news and information, but Xia Yu hadn't paid attention to it before.

Checking the official announcement, he fixated on the prize money.

The first prize was one million, the second prize was five hundred thousand, the third prize was three hundred thousand, and the remaining top ten prizes were one hundred thousand each.

Seeing that one million, Xia Yu's breath quickened. He told himself to stay calm – it wouldn't matter if it was ten million or a billion, he would have it all eventually.

Moreover, one million wasn't much; a second-hand house in Ziyu City would cost at least that much.

After calming himself, he resumed his mundane activities, going to work at the café after school as usual.

As soon as he got off the subway, his phone rang.

The call was from Yuxue.

This puzzled Xia Yu, since the girl had never called him at this time before.

Had something happened?

Feeling a sinking sensation in his heart, Xia Yu pressed the answer button.

The sound of Yuxue's tearful voice came from the phone, "Brother, Dad…"

"What happened? Did someone beat him up?" Xia Yu's first thought was that something had happened to Xia Dongyang. As someone with a petty sense of self-esteem, it wouldn't be surprising for Xia Dongyang to have a conflict with anyone.

"No, Dad has disappeared." Yuxue's voice was choked with sobs, and because she was too heartbroken, she couldn't get to the point.

"I'm coming home now, you take your time to tell me." Xiayu turned around and got back on the subway. "Isn't his disappearance a good thing? Why cry?"

"But someone came and said Dad had sold the house." Yuxue had already started crying.

Xiayu, however, breathed a sigh of relief.

Although he didn't expect Xia Dongyang to have already degraded to the point of selling the house and running away, the problem wasn't too big if it was just the house. They could simply move out and live somewhere else, conveniently away from Xia Dongyang, so that he wouldn't keep scaring Yuxue.

If it were back when he was a cashier, this would be a disaster for Xiayu. After all, since Xia Dongyang had already run away, the money for the monthly living expenses and school fees would definitely not be given any more, and his cashier's salary would not be enough to cover them.

But now, with his monthly salary of 10,000, he was already earning more than most of the people in Zi Lingshi City.

However, he only had 2,000 yuan on him now, so he needed to borrow some from the store manager.

While keeping the call with Yuxue, Xiayu sent a message to the store manager, telling him that he had an emergency and couldn't go to work today. The manager simply replied with an "ok."

After getting off the high-speed train, Xiayu directly hailed a taxi to his apartment.

As he entered the building, he saw Yuxue standing at the door.

The girl grabbed Xiayu's hand. She was no longer panicked, but the sudden loss of the home she'd lived in for over a decade was still somewhat depressing.

Patting her head gently, Xiayu looked at the group of people who were examining the house.

At a glance , Xiayu could tell these weren't decent people.

"Did they say any dirty words to you?" Xiayu asked Yuxue, not minding giving them a beating if the girl replied affirmatively.

"No," Yuxue answered. Now the country is rectifying the social atmosphere, no one dares to mess around.

Xiayu left Yuxue outside and walked in.

"Yo, big brother is back," a man in the living room whistled at Xiayu, "Your dad sold the house, and from what your sister says, he's also missing. You want to move to my house? My room has a big bed."

The other three men laughed.

Xiayu didn't respond. Instead, he walked up to the man and punched him down to the ground.

The remaining three men immediately jumped up to fight.

Despite being able to handle the four of them, Xiayu didn't rashly fight, as Yuxue was still outside the door.

He held up his phone and said to the four of them, "If you lay a finger on me, I will call the police. I believe reporters would love the news of two high school siblings being kicked out of their house by four bullies. In addition, my sister and I look good on camera, huh."

The four men, especially the one who was punched, had their faces flushed as they were held back by their companions.

"Calm down! Calm down!"

"If it gets on the news, we're done for!"

"Stay cool. Stay cool."

After crushing the four men's arrogant spirits, Xiayu began to inquire, "How did that guy Xia Dongyang sell the house to you guys?"

Xiayu felt that something was off. Xia Dongyang might not be a competent father, but he was still a father after all. He had not abandoned him and Yuxue these years, so why would he suddenly sell the house and run away?

The four men didn't want to deal with Xiayu, but they were threatened by him using the same trick.

"We're just a lending company; he mortgaged this house for a million, we don't know anything else," one of them said.

"No, you know," Xia Yu walked towards the four of them.

The four looked a bit panicked as Xia Yu approached, afraid that he might act aggressively.

However, as bad guys, their dignity didn't allow them to back down.

Xia Yu grabbed the collar of the man he had hit earlier.

"Hey, what are you doing? I told you I don't know..."

Before he could finish, Xia Yu punched him in the stomach.

"Do you know now?" Xia Yu used intimidation.

The four looked terrified; except for the man Xia Yu was holding, the other three couldn't help but step back.

They began to wonder who was the real villain between them and Xia Yu.

"I heard he was trapped by Gong Liuzi," the man told the truth.

Letting go of him, Xia Yu rubbed his forehead; he knew of Gong Liuzi, a gambler.

Xia Dongyang, although a thug, was relatively principled; except for lust, he didn't touch the other two things. Surprisingly, his intelligence was lacking this time, and he was caught in Gong Liuzi's trap.

Without saying anything else, Xia Yu went into the bedroom, picked up the suitcase, packed his and Yuxue's clothes, and carried the black cat before leaving the house.

Taking the black cat handed over by Xia Yu, Yuxue looked back at the washing machine on the balcony.

The contract signed by Xia Dongyang covered not only the house but also all the furniture inside. Xia Yu didn't know if this contract was illegal or not, but he knew that if he took away the washing machine, he would become the unreasonable party, and these four men might do something bad.

Walking on the road, neither Xia Yu nor Yuxue spoke.

Xia Yu had plans to move out of Xia Dongyang's place for a long time, so losing the house wasn't a big problem for him. However, leaving home in such a disgraceful manner and the reason being Gong Liuzi tricking Xia Dongyang made Xia Yu somewhat angry.

Gong Liuzi knew the existence of Xia Yu and Yuxue and Xia Dongyang's character. He knew what would happen to them after tricking Xia Dongyang into selling the house. Moreover, looking at Xia Dongyang's disappearance, the trap that Gong Liuzi had set for him was not just the million for the house; otherwise, he wouldn't run away directly.

The previous visit from the tattooed man and Xia Dongyang's abnormal behavior had already foreshadowed that something was going to happen, but they didn't expect Xia Dongyang to fall so hard this time.

If it weren't for his job change to the coffee shop, he wouldn't know what to do right now.

Taking revenge is Xia Yu's style, and he was calculating in his heart how to give Gong Liuzi some payback.