Rebirth: He Decides to Lie Flat
Chapter 434 - 434 429 Good Intentions Gone Awry

Chapter 434: Chapter 429: Good Intentions Gone Awry Chapter 434: Chapter 429: Good Intentions Gone Awry “Heard Uncle got promoted to principal?”

Erdan took the bottle of Jianlibao Auntie had handed him, opened it with a smile, and said, “Congratulations, Uncle, when did it happen?”

Hearing Erdan ask about this, Xie Yanhai’s face showed a hint of helplessness, “Don’t tease your uncle about that. What principal? It was just good timing—became a vice principal, that’s all.”

The county’s education bureau had originally planned to transfer someone from the county, but that person, I don’t know whom he offended, got caught in a hotel room with a married woman by her husband and was beaten up badly, and then there was a police report too.

Now, not to mention becoming a vice principal, even his original position was stripped from him.

This just happened to suit the principal of Jianghai Town junior high, Wang, because he was dissatisfied with the people sent from the county anyway. What do you mean transfer someone? That’s like transferring an ancestor!

Once they got here, don’t even talk about getting them to cooperate with work, if you weren’t serving them that’d be something already.

After all, they had backgrounds and connections. Coming to the countryside for a couple of years was just to gold-plate their resume, could you really expect such people to work?

Now that the person couldn’t come, it worked out perfectly. Principal Wang immediately submitted an application and pushed Xie Yanhai up the ranks.

Meanwhile, Xie Yanfen came to Yunzhou for business in June, and surprisingly donated five hundred thousand on the spot to build a library for the junior high section.

He originally intended to donate a million, but Xie Yanhai stopped him, told him to cut it in half; for their school, five hundred thousand was enough.

He truly hadn’t expected his cousin, who always claimed his family just ran a small company, to be so wealthy. Right, how could one run a brokerage firm without some capital?

Following this, Xie Yanhai suddenly became famous in Jianghai Town—a relative who’d returned from overseas and had a company in Haishi…

Erdan finally understood why Uncle Liu had said that Uncle Xie was now a celebrity in town. How could he not be?

With such connections and a background, if the town wanted to organize something, it was quite likely people would come looking for him for sponsorship… Actually, it’s quite bothersome.

Hearing Xie Yanhai venting, Li Yun rarely agreed with him out loud. She liked peace and quiet, but lately, she’d been prodded by friends trying to dig up information: Questions like, Will your family move to Haishi? Your big uncle donated five hundred thousand to the school, did he give you more?

Really, it’s none of your business!

So much so that when Erdan suggested taking Li Yun to Yunzhou to buy a car, she hesitated.

Because once this car was bought, just wait and see, people would 100% assume it was a gift from Xie Yanfen to their family.

“Even if we don’t buy the car, people would still think our family has that much money,” Xie Yanhai took the chance to persuade her, “You’ve got your driver’s license now, what’re you going to do with that little book if you don’t buy a car?”

Li Yun glared at him, “It’s not like it’s your money we’re spending.”

“Isn’t my money in your hands?”

While saying this, Xie Yanhai turned his pockets inside out for Erdan to see, “Look at this, Xiaotie, my pockets are cleaner than my face. I used to get a few hundred a month, now I get ten or twenty a day, I have to bum cigarettes off others… Of course, that’s my own doing.”

Seeing Li Yun’s expression turn sour, Xie Yanhai hurriedly changed his tone, causing Erdan to burst into laughter.

Thinking of Uncle Liu’s matter, he thought for a moment before asking, “Uncle, can our school admit a sixth grader to junior high if they’re just one point short?”

This wasn’t really a big deal, at least not for Vice Principal Xie Yanhai.

He agreed to have Uncle Liu bring Erdan to school the next day, and the subject was dropped.

The next day, Erdan went to the police station to change his name, thrilled at the sight of “Tie Yiming” on his household registration booklet.

From now on, he could proudly state his full name.

It would take some time before his ID card was ready, so Erdan asked his aunt to help him get it mailed over.

After that, Erdan took Li Yun to Yunzhou to buy a car.

Once they decided to buy a car, Li Yun did some research and comparison and found that Chery QQ offered the best value for money—that is, it was the cheapest.

Mu Jiawen had put 150,000 in the card, enough to buy two small Qs.

The second brother made a phone call to tell her about Auntie’s thoughts, and she didn’t insist.

What the second brother didn’t expect was that, at the Chery 4S dealership, he would bump into Xu Qian and Maomao unexpectedly.

Following closely behind the two sisters was a burly middle-aged man, who was Xu Qian’s foster father; he was also there to buy a car for Xu Qian.

“Bro, why didn’t you contact me when you returned to Yunzhou?”

Maomao’s eyes turned red at the sudden sight of the second brother, feeling both excited and aggrieved.

Although her sister and foster parents were very good to her after they all moved there, this kindness wasn’t the same as the affection she shared with Xiaotie; she always felt that the bond between her and Xiaotie was irreplaceable by anyone else.

The second brother felt a bit guilty when he saw her; ever since the last time Hong Jing got upset because of Maomao’s phone call, he had reduced contact with her.

“I’m sorry, Maomao. There was an emergency at home, I had to rush back to deal with it, and I also needed to take Auntie to buy a car, it’s just…”

Before he could finish, Maomao’s tears started to fall plip-plop, and the second brother panicked, “Hey, don’t cry, Maomao…”

The second brother clumsily fished out a pack of tissues from his pocket and took one to help wipe her tears.

They stood outside the 4S dealership, talking alone, while Li Yun and Xu Qian were sitting inside handling the paperwork, their actions visible through the bright glass, surprising both of them.

But since they were not familiar with each other, no one said anything.

When the car purchase and paperwork were finished and it was time to leave, Maomao grabbed the second brother’s sleeve and wouldn’t let go.

In such a situation, even a fool could see something was wrong.

“Bro, could you…”

“Maomao, you probably don’t know yet, but I have a girlfriend now. Next time you’re back in Beijing, I’ll introduce you to your sister-in-law.”

At his words, Maomao felt a buzz in her head, her face instantly turned pale, and her right hand trembled uncontrollably, letting the fabric she had been clutching slip from her grasp.

The second brother glanced at her, feeling somewhat sorry for her.

Maomao was only in the second year of senior high and not yet eighteen, he had always treated her like a sister. He thought she saw him as a relative and was just overly dependent on him, but the unfinished sentence she started made his heart skip a beat, and he involuntarily interrupted her.

It turned out to be true indeed…

The second brother sighed inwardly. No wonder his brother always said that his excessive kindness would bring trouble someday—look, it had come to pass now.

Xu Qian looked over with furrowed brows and a hostile expression, as if the second brother were luring an underage girl.

The second brother was simply at a loss for words. Finally, with gritted teeth, he said goodbye and left without looking back at the tearful Maomao, along with his aunt.

No sooner had they left, Xu Qian made a phone call to Mu Jiawen—

“Xiaosi, Maomao is very upset right now, crying nonstop. Xiaotie, this man, regarding my sister, do you know what happened between them before? Like, did he give her any promises?”

Promises?

How could that be possible.

Although Mu Jiawen didn’t know exactly what had happened, she understood what kind of person the second brother was.

So, she responded directly, “Promises? We all treat Maomao like a kid, like a little sister. If Xiaotie had anything special with her, it was that he was the earliest and most supportive of her. I thought Maomao would be grateful to him and see him as a brother… Sister, don’t take offense at my straightforwardness, but at this time I think you should be consoling Maomao, rather than probing into Xiaotie’s issues. His biggest flaw is being too kind-hearted, wanting to help anyone he sees in distress. Of course, if not for that flaw, he probably wouldn’t have met Maomao.”

Hearing her say this, Xu Qian’s face showed guilt; she realized she had misunderstood…