But Dou Xun didn't.

Dou Xun just stared at him gloomily for a while, then turned and left.

Even though Dou Junliang failed to live up to all his expectations of a father, Dou Junliang still gave birth to him, gave him a name, raised him, and sent him to school.

Even though he let his father down, he is still his father. It is unreasonable for a son to fight with his father.

"You... you are mentally ill!" Dou Junliang said behind him in a low voice, as if he was afraid of disturbing someone, "I'll contact some doctors for you... Dou Xun! Dou Xun, stop right there!"

Dou Xun turned a deaf ear and walked faster and faster.

Dou Junliang has focused on making money and spending it all his life, and has never bothered about his children. Dou Xun is like a field that thrives without watering or care, and has only ever brought him honor.

Dou Junliang finally understood today what it meant to "pay for what you have done." He smoked a few cigarettes like a trapped animal, then angrily slammed the car door and rushed into the house.

Wu Fenfen had seen the lawsuit between the father and son through the window a long time ago. After much effort, she suppressed her secret joy and came out with a flushed face: "Dou..."

"Don't think I don't know what you are up to." Dou Junliang no longer had the patience to even listen to her breathing. He preferred beautiful fools, but not smart-alone fools - especially when the fool was not so beautiful anymore.

"Wu Fenfen, let me tell you," Dou Junliang pointed at her nose and said, "If any word of this gets out, I won't care which bastard said it, I'll settle the score with you. Get out!"

Dou Xun was called out hastily by Dou Junliang. He didn't have a penny on him. The autumn night was as cold as water, and a thin layer of dew soon fell on his body. His burning cheeks slowly cooled down and then completely cooled down. Only when he was touched, he felt a little tingling like a needle.

Dou Xun walked eight kilometers, which took nearly an hour and a half.

When he got home, he didn't rush back. He sat in the community garden for a while and smoked the last cigarette in his pocket. After being with Xu Xilin, he gradually smoked less and less. It seemed that he didn't try to quit deliberately, but he just gradually couldn't remember to smoke.

That box of cigarettes was left over from a long time ago and had been in my windbreaker pocket for an entire autumn, like a pack of tissues that I never remember using.

When he thought Grandma Xu was almost asleep, Dou Xun stretched his frozen hands and feet, walked slowly towards home, and ran into Xu Xilin who came out to greet him.

"Grandma was worried, so she asked me to come out to greet you." Xu Xilin said, his eyes lingering on Dou Xun's slightly blue face for a moment, then slid away without saying anything.

The two of them went home together without turning on the lights. Grandma Xu came out and asked a few questions, but fortunately, she couldn't see clearly in the dark, so Xu Xilin coaxed her back with a few words.

Dou Xun's pent-up anger had been extinguished in the night wind and dew. He felt very tired. He went upstairs without washing his face or changing his clothes. As soon as he entered the room, he hugged Xu Xilin wetly.

Xu Xilin then asked hesitantly: "Your father..."

Dou Xun was impatient to mention Dou Junliang, so he turned his face and anxiously blocked Xu Xilin's mouth.

Xu Xilin originally had a 60% to 70% guess, and now it has all come true.

The secret that he had kept for several years was suddenly exposed. He was inevitably confused and panicked, but there was still Dou Xun who needed his comfort, so Xu Xilin had to force himself to regain his senses in his upset, raised his hands to wrap around Dou Xun's back, and slowly stroked his spine down.

Dou Xun seemed to be indulged. He pressed him against the door and tried to seek comfort from him silently.

Xu Xilin was obviously not in the mood to cooperate at this moment. He pretended not to understand Dou Xun's hint, grabbed Dou Xun's cold hand, put it in his arms and held it for a while, and at the same time turned on the bedroom light: "Show me your face."

Dou Xun's expression was as stiff as if he had been slapped. He took a step back and avoided Xu Xilin's hand listlessly: "Forget it, it's okay, I'll go wash my face."

Xu Xilin: "Wait..."

Dou Xun had already locked the bathroom door.

Xu Xilin pressed his forehead irritably and walked around the room a few times. He felt suffocated and always felt that everything was a mess recently and nothing good had happened.

He began to wonder how Dou Junliang had discovered it, and the more he thought about it, the more uneasy he became. In the end, he almost developed paranoia, as if everyone in the world already knew about it. After worrying about this for a while, Xu Xilin thought about the contract that he had no intention of modifying until now, and remembered that he would have to hold his nose and deal with those people again tomorrow afternoon...

He almost didn't want to live anymore.

Xu Xilin left the narrow bedroom in the darkness and went to the living room to get some fresh air.

He sat on the old sofa for a while with his mind empty. Then he heard a rustling sound and the grey parrot actually flew up and stood on the railing on the second floor looking at him.

When the bird grew up a little, it showed its intelligence. It recognized its family members and never flew around. It was a little mysophobic. If it lost a feather, it would pick it up by itself. Usually, they didn't like to lock it up. The grey parrot tilted its head and looked at Xu Xilin's face, then flapped its wings and landed on his arm, and put its clever head on his shoulder, with its feathers still puffed up, and approached him with disgust.

Xu Xilin couldn't help but smile bitterly - now, only a parrot in the world knew that he was unhappy.

He took a deep breath, grabbed two peanuts from the nut box next to him and fed it, then shook his arm and let it fly away.

Dou Xun was drying his hair. When he saw Xu Xilin enter the room, he lowered his head.

If Dou Junliang poured a basin of red-hot molten iron on him, then Xu Xilin's imperceptible dodging just now was like covering the basin with a layer of ice. The alternation of cold and hot, back and forth, formed a layer of iron cage that cleaved to his bones and flesh.

However, when facing Dou Junliang, he was invulnerable to swords and guns, but a look from Xu Xilin could make him feel like a thousand arrows pierced his heart.

Dou Xun is a little naive about the ways of the world, but he is not stupid at all. No matter how nice or clingy Xu Xilin is to him, he knows Xu Xilin's bottom line - Xu Xilin always feels that their relationship is not something that can be exposed to the public. He is sinking into depravity while awake, and may sink to the point of being unable to breathe one day, and might just run away in a panic.

Xu Xilin glanced downstairs, closed the door carefully, and asked him, "What's going on?"

"Dou Junliang has a few photos," Dou Xun said, "They must have been taken secretly downstairs, so they're not very clear."

Xu Xilin had just been silently comforted by the grey parrot, and he was finally able to concentrate on thinking - someone took a photo and gave it to Dou Junliang, which meant it must be Dou Xun's business. Who would follow Dou Xun, an ordinary student, for no reason?

Before he could figure it out, Dou Xun revealed the answer directly: "It's most likely his mentally retarded wife who did it. The scene in the photo should be summer. I remember that there were several houses around that were being renovated. He might have sneaked in with the renovation team. Dou Junliang's face is everything. Even if he secretly hired someone to kill me or his second wife, he would never reveal this matter. Don't worry."

Dou Xun rescued Xu Xilin from the fear of "the whole world knows" with just a few words. For a moment, Xu Xilin did feel relieved.

However, he soon heard the sarcasm in Dou Xun's words.

Putting "even if you secretly hire someone to kill me" and "don't worry" in one sentence doesn't sound right. Xu Xilin doesn't know which bullshit Dou Xun has gotten into again. He licked his lips and said, "Bean filling..."

Dou Xun stood up suddenly: "I'm going back to the house."

If he really let him go back to the room, it would be a big problem. Xu Xilin raised his hand and locked the door as he was well-trained, blocking Dou Xun from leaving.

The two of them remained silent for a moment, and Xu Xilin explained in a low voice: "I'm not worried about that, I'm a little worried about you."

Dou Xun looked at him deeply, and when their eyes met, Xu Xilin subconsciously wanted to avoid him, because he felt that Dou Xun saw through his fear and weakness. Then, he stiffened his neck to cover up his fear, took Dou Xun's hand, and said in a gentle voice: "I'll take care of everything, no matter what your father says."

After hearing this, Dou Xun stood there stiffly for a moment, but his expression finally softened. Xu Xilin hugged his waist, leaned over and kissed him in the ear, and coaxed him to go to bed.

After turning off the lights, no one fell asleep. Xu Xilin counted Dou Xun's breaths, while Dou Xun's mind was full of Xu Xilin's flashing eyes. The two of them shared the same bed, but had their own thoughts.

The next day, before dawn, Xu Xilin got up and revised the humiliating agreement, transferred it to a mobile hard drive, and prepared to take it to school. When he turned around, he found that Dou Xun had already gotten up.

Xu Xilin asked casually: "What's going on today?"

It's no wonder he asked this question, because Dou Xun had almost no classes during this period, and the remaining main tasks were graduation projects and related experiments. Dou Xun didn't have any traces of procrastination, a common disease among college students. When many people were not yet in their senior year, he had already used the summer vacation to sort out his thoughts and outlines. After school started, he didn't waste a single day, and went back to school to do experiments and record data. To date, other people's midterms were still far away, but he had already finished most of them, and rarely went to school when he had nothing to do.

Dou Xun said, "Hmm," "There's an interview."

Xu Xilin paused as he turned off his computer and asked, "Didn't you get the admission letter?"

Dou Xun evaded the question casually: "Internship."

Xu Xilin: "What position?"

Dou Xun hesitated for a moment before saying, "Pharmaceutical agent."

Xu Xilin thought he had misheard for a moment: "What?"

Dou Xun was originally undecided between postgraduate study and work, but now he finally made a choice under the pressure of Dou Junliang - why did Dou Junliang think he could dictate his affairs? Why can't Xu Xilin let go of his worries?

Isn’t it because he is a poor student with nothing?

Dou Xun has a light attitude towards money and has never taken material achievement as his goal in life.

At this moment, his mind echoed with what Xu Xilin had said to him a few years ago - when he becomes powerful, he won't have to worry about what others say.

Dou Xun tossed and turned all night, and the path that had been confused for a long time suddenly became clear. He planned to go straight to work after graduation, doing whatever he could, reselling medical equipment would be a good idea, and then during this time he would teach himself a highly applied major such as computer science or finance, just as if he had never been to college. He might as well change careers and start over.

After washing up in the morning, Dou Xun found that Xu Xilin, who was in a hurry, had not left. He was even standing there with a heavy heart, as if he had something to say to him.

Dou Xun raised his eyebrows, indicating that he had an early report.

Xu Xilin pondered for a moment before speaking: "Is it your father who put pressure on you? It's okay, Douxian'er, we are real dragons, we don't take the easy way out. I'm counting on you to win a Nobel Prize in the future, there's no need to give in... If you want to study, then study. I'm here, so you won't be wronged."

Dou Xun nodded on the spot, but he just listened. As soon as Xu Xilin left, he immediately changed his clothes and went out.

He couldn't wait to fly high, with great anxiety, and couldn't wait to show his lover that he had wings that were still immature and could rely on them, so he didn't hesitate to jump directly from the cliff.

Xu Xilin underestimated Dou Xun's stubbornness. After saying goodbye to Dou Xun, he returned to school.

Teacher Wang from the Education Supermarket finally vented his anger and let Xu Xilin and his immature vitamins go, and the matter was finally settled.

When Xu Xilin left his office, he felt both heavy and relieved. He used his phone to browse the vitamin message board while walking.

The message board was flooded with messages overnight.

"Fuck, the system is down for such a long time just for such a rubbish function?"

"Senior, please don't cancel the weekly supermarket. It's so painful to take a taxi to the supermarket..."

“I don’t understand why this change was made.”

"Jiao Chao has also gotten involved. I'm a little tempted to cancel my account."

The campus network is full of classmates, and compared to the anonymous forums outside, it is very harmonious. Xu Xilin knows that if this were an outsider's website, the people below would not be so civilized and would probably have cursed at each other a long time ago.

Even the genius who had written a 5,000-word plan for him that year left a message.

"I'm probably one of the earliest vitamin users. How should I put it? After so many things, I'm a little disappointed. Everyone has a lot of ideas. You've done it yourself, which is really amazing. The quality of your fruit used to be very good, and it's obvious that you put a lot of effort into purchasing. But now you've also taken over the school supermarket. Haha, I've foreseen the future. The so-called 'vitamins' are just carrying the garbage fruits from the education supermarket back to your dormitories for you, right? It's meaningless. You've been based in the school, but you've never been willing to step out of the school gate. The boss's vision is a bit narrow."

Xu Xilin was overwhelmed by these words.

But he still refused to let himself go and read all the messages cursing him in a self-torturing manner.

It is said that most people in the world have "visual memory", so sometimes when someone scolds you in person, although your emotions fluctuate greatly at the time, time has passed and the past is over. However, the words that get into your eyes are different. People will not feel any ups and downs after reading them, but they can always linger in your memory for a long time, like a thorn in your throat.

Xu Xilin was very disappointed with himself.

Just as he was walking out of the school with a heavy reputation, a car honked at him at the gate. Xu Xilin looked up and saw Dou Junliang, wearing sunglasses, getting out of the car and waving at him.

Xu Xilin was not surprised at all and went over to greet him politely: "Uncle."

"Hey," Dou Junliang pointed to his car in a very graceful manner, "The last time I talked to you properly was when Mr. Xu was with you. It's been so many years. Do you have time to chat?"

Xu Xilin would not sneer at him like Dou Xun did, so he got into the car obediently.

Dou Junliang drove him to a private restaurant that was perfect for chatting. After they sat down, he pushed the menu to him and said, "See what you like to eat."

Dou Junliang is a bastard to his wife, but he is always commendable to outsiders. He can almost be described as "respecting the elderly and loving the young." According to the past saying, he is probably a typical "beast in human form."

Although he was polite, Xu Xilin couldn't order food in front of his elders, so he pushed the menu back and said, "You come, I don't have any dietary restrictions."

Dou Junliang smiled, rolled up his sleeves, showing the rose gold watch on his wrist, and said meaningfully: "You are more sensible than my son."

Xu Xilin had a feeling that this meal might be even more stomach-breaking than yesterday's.

Dou Junliang didn't act like a "big boss" in front of him. He talked to Xu Xilin like a peer. He talked to Xu Xilin about the real estate market and stock market, which have become hot in recent years. At the end, Dou Junliang wiped his mouth, picked up the teacup and rinsed his mouth, then got to the point: "Do you know what is the most important thing for a man in his life?"

Xu Xilin smiled and said nothing.

"Dignity," Dou Junliang sighed, "Little brother, do you know what dignity is? You have to look respectable so that others will take you seriously. The Chinese character '人' has two legs, one left and one right. A person's dignity also has two legs, you must know that."

Money and power are also called "wealth" and "resources" in a more beautified way.

"When you were young, your teachers must have taught you that 'money and power are not omnipotent'. That's bullshit. Alas, uncle has never been to college, so I'm going to say a few swear words. Just listen to them for fun and don't take them to heart." Dou Junliang waved his hand, "I know you young people all believe in 'true love', but what is true love?"

"True love is happiness plus conscience, young man." Dou Junliang looked into Xu Xilin's eyes and said, "You have money in your pocket, and you can make a phone call and someone can help you. This is the only way for you and your partner to live happily. Without this, the two of you can only wear out each other's consciences."

Xu Xilin turned the white porcelain cup in his hand without saying a word.

"Let me be frank. This is not good for either of you. I won't say much about how it's bad for you. You know more than that idiot Dou Xun. Let me tell you about Dou Xun." Dou Junliang leaned back in his chair tiredly. "I was not idle today. I went to Dou Xun's school early in the morning."

Thinking back, it seems like it was just yesterday when he was living a life of debauchery and using shopping cards and necklaces to please Qilixiang.

Who would have thought that today I would have an appointment with an important client to visit my son's school?

It’s not that I don’t want to retaliate, it’s just that the time has not come yet.

"I didn't know who to look for, so I found a teacher I met last time. He told me that there was a famous professor abroad who had read the first draft of Dou Xun's graduation thesis and wanted Dou Xun to apply to be his student. He could guarantee that Dou Xun would get a full scholarship if he went." Dou Junliang spread his hands, "Did he tell you about this?"

Xu Xilin’s fingers paused—no.

"There is one more thing I guess you don't know. Dou Xun called his department today and confirmed that he had given up on his guaranteed admission to graduate school." Dou Junliang said, "He plans to break up with me completely and doesn't want me to support his studies anymore, so he hurried out to find a job."

Xu Xilin blurted out: "I told him that I was there..."

"Dou Xun has such a bad temper that he can't be a gigolo." Dou Junliang waved his hand, "Xiao Xu, use your brain and tell your uncle from the bottom of your heart, do you think he's worth it?"