Married A Man I Hate - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: The Hated Man • 90%

“Mr. Fu is Yue…”

“In your situation, you must call a parent over.”

Outside the door of the Jinggang University Student Code of Conduct Office (SC), Yue Qingfei argued with the director with red eyes: “W-Why? I am about to turn nineteen… Why do I still have to call a parent?”

He didn’t want to cry, nor did he want to stutter when speaking, but he just had no way to control it.

“If we don’t call a parent over to handle this, are we going to wait for the person you beat up to call the police?”

“It’s all of you who don’t believe me,” Yue Qingfei’s tears fell rustlingly. “It wasn’t my fault at all…”

Good-looking children always look exceptionally pitiful when they cry.

The director originally thought that over these past few months he had already become immune to Yue Qingfei’s tears, but in the end, he couldn’t quite bear it.

But early this morning, a person from outside the school society came holding an injury verification report and surveillance footage to demand an explanation, saying a student from the school had beaten him up a few days ago, and even produced Yue Qingfei’s student ID.

This wasn’t the first time Yue Qingfei had fought with someone, but he hadn’t expected him to be bold enough to actually dare to beat someone up outside the school.

With such a small frame, how does he cause trouble everywhere?

“You say he took some kind of photos, where is the evidence? You don’t have any, but the other party has evidence of you beating someone up. To take ten thousand steps back [even if we grant that scenario], even if he really did something, you still can’t beat people up, right?”

“There is absolutely n-no taking ten thousand steps back, it is his fault, why… do you have to blame me?”

“No matter what, you just cannot beat people up!”

The director was full of vigor; his shout caused Yue Qingfei’s shoulders to shake. Looking at the middle-aged man in front of him becoming very large and himself becoming very small, it was just like returning to when he was seven years old being scolded for the first time—not daring to cry, and not daring to speak.

Yue Qingfei couldn’t hear anything; his ears felt as if a very busy bee had flown inside: buzz buzz buzz.

If he spoke it was talking back, if he didn’t speak it was giving a sour face. Even if the ones without reason were them, they would still shout loudly at people.

Yue Qingfei turned his head away, his shoulders twitching slightly.

The director frowned. “Why are you such a stubborn child? Isn’t it good to let your uncle come and handle it? Your uncle is so good to you…”

Suddenly, a deep and gentle male voice rang out from behind.

“Sorry, I came late.”

Yue Qingfei’s hand wiping his tears paused. He turned around with red eyes.

Fu Li, clad in a black overcoat, stepped across the gleaming tiles of the bright corridor and came to a stop right beside him.

Within his tear-blurred vision, the familiar yet unfamiliar face caused Yue Qingfei’s heart to skip a beat, but it was quickly suppressed. He shifted his eyes away and stopped looking at him.

Fu Li lowered his eyes, his gaze passing through the lenses on the bridge of his nose, falling fixedly onto his eyelashes that were wet with tears.

The director felt the newcomer looked a bit familiar, but couldn’t recall where he had seen him. “This person is?”

The man did not raise his eyes, still looking at Yue Qingfei’s sorrowfully twitching nostrils, his hand clad in a black leather glove holding out a handkerchief.

But the other party seemingly didn’t appreciate the kindness and never took it.

A lawyer carrying a briefcase stepped out from behind Fu Li, took a step forward, and extended his hand. “Hello, this is Mr. Fu Li, Mr. Fu. I am Mr. Fu’s lawyer. Moving forward, I will handle all matters concerning Young Master Qingfei with full authority.”

The director instantly froze.

After coming back to his senses, he immediately shook the lawyer’s hand firmly, speaking probing-wise: “But, for this kind of matter, we need to carry out communication with Yue Qingfei’s family.”

“Mr. Fu is Yue Qingfei’s…?”

Yue Qingfei was the first to react. Widening his eyes, he gazed at Fu Li pleadingly. If he had a tail, it would certainly be wagging gently right now in a plea for mercy.

Fu Li extended the handkerchief forward a bit more. Waiting until Yue Qingfei took it, he then turned back and said, “Yes, roughly a marriage-relative relationship [in-law].”

Yue Qingfei: “……”

The director came to a sudden realization. Although he hadn’t heard of it before, it wasn’t strange for these wealthy people to be connected by marriage, so he hurriedly invited the group into the office.

Fu Li didn’t let Yue Qingfei follow along. “Your eyes are all red from crying, go rest.”

Yue Qingfei stood in place, not knowing whether he should believe him or not, but the gaze Fu Li directed toward him was gentle to a too-familiar degree.

“Don’t worry, I will handle it well.”

The words spoken were the same too.

Yue Qingfei nodded subconsciously, sat down on the corridor bench, and looked at the handkerchief in his hand embroidered with Fu Li’s English name, not knowing what he was thinking about.

“Qingfei, is President Fu of the Fu Group really your relative?”

The most idle administrative teacher in the entire university ran over, using chocolate to bribe his old acquaintance Yue Qingfei. Patting the apple-style ponytail tied on the top of his head, she asked: “Grapevine rumors say he is married, is it true or false?”

Reasonably speaking, as long as you stuffed a piece of chocolate into Yue Qingfei’s hand, he could throw anything to the back of his mind unless a meteorite hit the earth.

But clearly, Fu Li was that meteorite that hit him.

“How can there still be people caring about whether he gets married or not.”

“That is Fu Li, after all.” The teacher’s eyes shone brightly. “The eldest son of the Fu Group’s chairman and his original wife. He met with a shipwreck abroad many years ago and his whereabouts were unknown. In the end, half a year ago, the chairman suffered a stroke and fell into a coma, and he suddenly appeared and returned to the country, fighting his stepmother for the company and snatching shares… Wealthy clan gossip is practically more exciting than a novel, how could anyone not be curious?”

Yue Qingfei listened, completely stunned.

From the moment he looked at Fu Li’s data and knew he couldn’t possibly be Yan Song, Yue Qingfei had zero curiosity toward him.

Right now, he wanted even more to know what exactly they were talking about inside.

He suddenly regretted it a bit—why did he have to be obedient and wait outside? Even his uncle would never believe him; how could a big bad guy whom he had only met twice, and who always said strange words, possibly do so?

The teacher continued to gossip in his ear about Fu Li’s rumored marriage partner.

Yue Qingfei lowered his head and typed out the words he wanted to say in his memo app, lest he get so angry later that he couldn’t speak.

A wave of footsteps came from the corridor; it was the police.

Yue Qingfei truly thought they were here to arrest him. He stood up and prepared to run—

His white plush hood was grabbed by someone.

“Where do you want to go again?” Fu Li teased him. “Absconding and escaping a wedding are not the same thing.”

Yue Qingfei shrank his neck, saying tremulously: “Are they really here to arrest me?”

At this moment, that man who sat in a wheelchair and came to the school with an injury report to demand money from him happened to be led out by the police.

While he was writing his “testimony,” Fu Li’s lawyer had already obtained the surveillance from the coffee shop and the bus, as well as the complete video of him photographing illegally.

“My client acted merely to stop an unlawful infringement and delete illegal images; no intentional injury behavior exists. The other party’s evaluation report…”

Yue Qingfei listened, his mind wandering a bit. The person behind him noticed and said to him: “No need to mind it, the lawyer will handle it well.”

Yue Qingfei let out an “oh” and bowed to the lawyer. “Thank you, you’ve worked hard.”

The balding lawyer was so startled his glasses almost fell off. He hurriedly gave a hollow support gesture and left along with the police.

Not until the crowd had vanished from sight did Yue Qingfei ask Fu Li in a small voice: “Will the police believe me?”

“Of course.”

“But I have beaten someone up before, will they still believe me?”

Inside Yue Qingfei’s large, dark-grape-like eyes, there was anticipation, and also fear.

Fu Li stared at him fixedly for a few seconds, then suddenly gripped his shoulder, entering into the office together.

“Call your principal over.”

Fu Li pressed down lightly on Yue Qingfei’s shoulder, settling him into a chair. Standing behind him, he said in a deep voice: “Is this your prestigious school’s standard for handling disputes? I would like to ask, is your handling process to rashly draw conclusions before investigating clearly?”

“Mr. Fu…”

“Before verifying any evidence, you allowed preconceived notions to characterize fault based solely on one side of the story. From the looks of it, this shouldn’t be the first time. And now, there isn’t even a single word of apology?”

Yue Qingfei blinked his eyes. He suddenly felt that an AI robot had an AI robot’s benefits; the words he spoke made extraordinary sense.

More and more people arrived in the office, from the principal to members of the school board.

Yue Qingfei sat in front of Fu Li, his waist and back straightening more and more. The ponytail on his head that had originally drooped stood up high, as he laid out all of those “unjust, false, and wrongful cases.”

“I did have a fight with Professor Edward, but his car wasn’t smashed by me.”

Fu Li: “It wasn’t smashed by him.”

“That time with the cafeteria fight, it was also because that person was showing videos of his partner to other people that I hit him!”

Fu Li: “He should have made a move.”

“Last time was too, it was Fu Qian…” Yue Qingfei glanced at Fu Li. “It was other people who moved their hands first, so I fought back.”

Fu Li acted as if he hadn’t heard the name of his half-brother, continuing to act as Yue Qingfei’s “defense lawyer.” “He was acting in lawful self-defense.”

……

“Those people at the school are all very bad. Regardless of whether there is surveillance or not, they are always more partial to the professors and those wealthy people. Your willingness to listen to me speak today is also because you are a wealthy person too.”

Yue Qingfei slid down from the flowerbed slope, stood firmly, recalled something, and turned back to look at Fu Li who was stepping down slowly from the stairs.

“I wasn’t insulting you.”

Fu Li placed both hands in the pockets of his suit trousers and smiled softly. “Indeed, this is a fact; it doesn’t count as an insult.”

“I’ll send you home.”

“Oh, okay.”

This time Yue Qingfei didn’t refuse either. After all, Fu Li had just helped him out; even if the man wanted to eat the chocolate in his pocket, it wouldn’t matter.

Inside the car, without waiting for Yue Qingfei to ask, Fu Li proactively spoke up.

“All of your primary family contact information has been changed to me. I came as soon as I received the call.”

Yue Qingfei nodded, taking the warm mineral water from Fu Li’s hand. “Then why did you believe me?”

“Why wouldn’t I believe you?”

“Counting today, we have only met three times. You don’t understand me at all.”

This seemed to be a difficult question to answer. Fu Li pondered for a moment. “We are family now. Even if you did something wrong, it should be resolved by us privately, rather than letting you suffer grievances in front of outsiders.”

Such a reason was more convincing than “I like you,” and just as he expected, it did not cause resentment in Yue Qingfei.

“But I really didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Yes, I know. It’s just that if you encounter a similar situation next time, there can be a better way to resolve it from the very start.”

Yue Qingfei was puzzled. “How to resolve it?”

Fu Li took the mineral water from his hand, twisted open the bottle cap, and handed it back again. “When you encounter it, I’ll teach you.”

Sounds strange.

Yue Qingfei pursed his lips, picked up the water bottle, and took a large gulp.

The vehicle stopped.

“Thank you for today’s matter, and thank you for driving me home. Here.”

Fu Li smiled as he took the chocolate ball handed over by Yue Qingfei. “You’re welcome.”

Yue Qingfei pulled out his long hair trapped inside the scarf and waved his hand. “Bye-bye.”

Fu Li did not respond.

He took off his gloves, peeling open the wrapper of the chocolate ball at his own leisure, not moving, seemingly waiting for something.

A few seconds later, the car door was pulled open with a clack.

Yue Qingfei, who had left and returned, widened his eyes, questioning in a high voice: “Where did you drive me to?”

Fu Li smiled. “Home.”

“This isn’t my home…!”

“Yes, it is our home.”

“……”

Yue Qingfei snatched the chocolate from Fu Li’s hand in one swipe and stuffed it into his mouth.

Ding—

The elevator doors of the iconic large flat in the center of Jinggang City opened.

Clutching the scarf in his arms, Yue Qingfei followed behind Fu Li with small steps into this unfamiliar house.

Ivory white and black-gray tones flooded the entire top-floor duplex apartment—rigid and cold. Geometric cuts could be seen everywhere. The furniture was mainly matte glass and silver chrome plating; even the sofa was a lifeless black leather.

Yue Qingfei, wearing a water-pink sweater, was the only color in the entire space.

“Have you watched American Psycho?” Yue Qingfei swallowed his throat. “It looks very similar.”

He even suspected Fu Li would speak to himself in front of a mirror.

Fu Li took the scarf and coat from his hands and hung them up. “Sorry, living alone and having never had a visitor, I indeed didn’t put too much heart into this area.”

He looked at Yue Qingfei, who was peering around curiously, and said softly: “But I can guarantee that after you move in…”

“Stop stop stop.”

Yue Qingfei stood on his tiptoes, his hand making a pause gesture practically poking into Fu Li’s face. “I just came up to take a look, you said so yourself.”

Fu Li had helped him a big deal today; in terms of reason or emotion, it seemed he should agree to the proposal of “taking a look.”

Fu Li made a “please” gesture.

Yue Qingfei stood in place and looked around, looking left and right. Taking off his dirty shoes, he stuffed them into the furthest corner of the shoe cabinet, set down his schoolbag, and ran into the house with caution yet boldness. Like a little deer released back into the forest.

Fu Li smiled softly, walked into the kitchen, washed his hands, and tied on an apron.

Yue Qingfei finished wandering around and came downstairs, wanting to ask Fu Li what the open space with a table and many empty acrylic display boxes was used for.

“I didn’t enter the rooms, okay? I only looked outside…”

Yue Qingfei’s voice stopped abruptly. He stared blankly at Fu Li, who was standing by the French windows making a phone call.

Fu Li was wearing a black apron, softening the cold sharpness of his suit trousers and shirt. His left hand pinched the temple of his glasses, and his uncovered profile appeared just like that in Yue Qingfei’s eyes.

“……” Fu Li put on his glasses. “Okay, goodbye.”

Fu Li hung up the phone, turned around to look at the dazed Yue Qingfei, his tone gentle as always. “How is it, are you somewhat satisfied?”

Yue Qingfei felt as if someone had knocked him on the head. “Ah, oh.”

Failing to focus his mind, Yue Qingfei didn’t know how he ended up agreeing to stay for dinner. However, Fu Li’s cooking was quite delicious; the meat pieces were large, and the sauce was super fragrant.

“Is it delicious?” Fu Li asked.

Yue Qingfei nodded repeatedly, lifting his face from the dining plate. Just as he was preparing to praise him, the man beat him to the punch.

“Cohabit with me,” Fu Li said. “I’ll make delicious food for you every day.”