Chapter 143: In My Plan

(1)

On the dining table.

Pei Muyin sat with Dad on one side, Shu Lingchen sat with Mom on one side, Pei Du and Shu Shu faced each other, everyone was silent, quietly eating, occasionally there was the faint crisp sound of chopsticks touching the rim of a bowl.

Although all the dishes in this dinner were Shu Lingchen's favorites, his mind right now wasn't on the food at all.

The teenager was still dazedly immersed in that just‑now invincible, outrageous speculation.

He had mentioned his taste to the only person besides his familiar mom and sister, that is Xiao Gui, and then Pei Du prepared these four dishes exactly as if he had been monitoring his conversation with Xiao Gui on the spot, without any deviation.

He sent a message to Xiao Gui, then Pei Du's phone rang, Xiao Gui didn't reply to his message, and then Pei Du also never touched his phone.

This coincidence made him feel…… Xiao Gui is Pei Du.

But Xiao Gui is clearly an elementary school student—he has personally heard Xiao Gui speak.

The super‑spicy snack sound—Pei Du definitely isn't that.

Thinking this far.

Shu Lingchen couldn't help lifting his eyes, using the motion of reaching for the plate of lettuce in front of Pei Du to furtively size up Pei Du.

He unconsciously superimposed the super‑spicy snack sound onto the cold, aloof face of the man before him.

Then.

Imagining Pei Du saying to him in a fawning way:

"Great god, carry me! I'm begging you, 555!"

At the same time the expression should be like this: QAQ

Huh——!

Shu Lingchen directly shivered, goosebumps falling patteringly to the ground.

How strange.

The teenager shook his shoulders, hastily withdrew his gaze, and at that moment a plate of lettuce was swapped to be in front of him.

"Does Lingchen really like eating lettuce today?"

"Huh?"

Shu Lingchen was about to ask with a puzzled face what it meant, but lowering his head he discovered his bowl had piled up lettuce into a mountain.

He realized.

It turned out that while he was brainstorming just now, he was too focused; each time he glanced at Pei Du he would pick up a chopstick of lettuce, and after many glances he kept picking lettuce without noticing that most of it had already gone into his bowl.

This led Pei Du to think Shu Lingchen liked it, so he simply moved the lettuce to in front of Shu Lingchen.

"..."

After three seconds of silence, Shu Lingchen touched his nose and answered feigning ease: "Ahaha, yeah, I ate too much meat at lunch, so I wanted something light and healthy for dinner—lettuce is great, it clears the liver and gallbladder, is rich in vitamins C and E, helps eliminate excess body fat, basically a treasure vegetable!"

While saying this, he shoved lettuce into his mouth, looking like he was enjoying it: "You all should eat more too."

"Mm-hmm." Pei Muyin was convinced, nodding as if trusting her brother's word, and also seriously picked up two chopsticks of lettuce.

Shu Shu glanced at her son's nose‑touching gesture, raised an eyebrow without exposing him, and teased: "Have you been reading health‑preservation books lately?"

"No, chew chew chew, isn't this all just, chew chew chew, basic common sense?"

Shu Lingchen's voice muffled, he tried to look normal, then the next second he looked straight at Pei Du: "Hey, when you were cooking just now your phone rang many times, someone sent you a message, isn't it fine if you didn't reply?"

He couldn't wait and blinked: "You're free now, why not reply?"

"..."

Kid, do you know how abrupt your topic shift is?

Pei Du paused half a second, under Shu Lingchen's eagerly awaiting gaze, his eyes calm: "No problem, at this time the other person is probably also eating dinner, not convenient to look at the phone."

"Oh."

Shu Lingchen responded disappointedly, and a strand of hair that had stood up after his shower because he hadn't dried it properly drooped down.

He originally also wanted to test whether his phone would ring if Pei Du replied to his message.

Actually Shu Lingchen also knew just how outrageous the guess "Xiao Gui is Pei Du" was.

Even a slight immersion makes it feel impossible no matter what.

Although his impression of Pei Du isn't great, this person should be extremely busy, the kind of big boss TV dramas often describe as "making millions in minutes, a casual swipe consuming hundreds of millions in funds."

How could someone like that have leisure to play childish games with me?

Really, it's just too off‑key!

Just this point alone is enough to negate the guess.

But Shu Lingchen feels like there's a worm in his heart, drilling and drilling, making him restless all over; even though he knows the chance is zero, he can't help wanting to verify it.

…

After finishing dinner.

Shu Lingchen carried the dirty plates and followed Pei Du into the kitchen, watching the man half‑bent, neatly putting the utensils into the dishwasher, while his hand slowly reached for his own phone.

He directly opened the chat with Xiao Gui, tapped the sticker tab, didn't even look, and casually flung a sticker over.

"Ding‑dong."

A message notification sounded from the pocket of Pei Du's dark‑blue sports jacket.

Shu Lingchen: "!!!"

Pei Du turned as usual, taking the remaining dirty plates from Shu Lingchen's hands.

"You‑you have a new message." Shu Lingchen heard his own dry voice: "Now, should I reply?"

"Thanks for the reminder, Lingchen."

Pei Du placed all the bowls, pressed the dishwasher function, stood up, went to his pocket to pull out his phone, as if he hadn't "noticed" the teenager's death‑stare, he unlocked the screen nonchalantly.

Just before Pei Du was about to open vx, Shu Lingchen could even clearly feel himself swallowing saliva due to nervousness.

Then.

He helplessly watched Pei Du open that extremely familiar cartoon avatar in the chat list, the one with an unread red dot that he had used for several years.

Shu Lingchen's gaze followed, and he felt dazed.

He didn't even see clearly what Pei Du had sent, but the next second, his phone vibrated in his palm, and the vibration traveled up his arm to his nerves.

"Boom!"

Something huge in Shu Lingchen's mind collapsed instantly.

One step, two steps.

Shu Lingchen's pupils shook; he stumbled back three steps, then on the fourth step he suddenly turned and fled out of the kitchen, rushing upstairs.

While going up the stairs, he happened to run into Shu Shu, who was carrying a blanket downstairs to the audiovisual room to watch a movie with her daughter.

"Why are you in such a hurry?"

"I'm so sleepy! I'm about to die of sleepiness! I want to sleep!!!"

The boy's feet didn't stop; he answered his mother energetically, and finally rushed into his own bedroom.

"Bang—"

The door shut tightly.

Shu Shu: "...?"

Is this being sleepy? I feel like I could run ten laps around a mountain.

Shu Shu understood something, holding the blanket in her arms, she stood on the stairs looking down and locked eyes with Pei Du, who had just walked out of the kitchen.

She raised an eyebrow:

This is what you said, wouldn't it scare him?

Pei Du twitched his eyelashes:

It's within my plan, don't worry.

Shu Shu: "..."

She suddenly recalled herself before the exposure; back then, Pei Du probably felt the same way toward her.

Weave a net, finish it, and wait for her to jump in.

Making it impossible to escape.

Now he's doing the same one-to-one replication with his son.

Whether he has amnesia or not, he's still that cunning little brat.

Shu Shu turned her head and walked toward the audiovisual room.

"Does Yinyin want some fruit? I'll go cut some."

Pei Du asked from behind.

"I'll eat a hundred catties, thanks."

(2)

Second floor.

The boy's state of running back and forth in his bedroom had lasted nearly ten minutes.

At this moment, his mind was filled with:

Xiao Gui is Pei Du, Pei Du is Xiao Gui—the one who calls him 'great god', plays games with him, and buys him skins, that Xiao Gui!!

"Ahhhhhhh!"

Shu Lingchen used the invincible Starfire Hammer to land over two hundred consecutive hits on a pillow.

"Hallucination!"

That just had to be a hallucination!

Shu Lingchen took out his phone.

He scrolled to the chat labeled 'Xiao Gui' and then found the transfer function.

Now, social apps involving money require real-name verification, and when transferring you can see the last character of the other person's name.

How could Xiao Gui possibly be Pei Du!

"Hahahahahaha!"

But before his finger could press down, Shu Lingchen's hand still trembled twice, and finally, he resigned himself to fate.

"Press!"

Didn't dare to look.

The boy cautiously lifted his eyelids a little, and saw:

【*Du】.

"..."

Shu Lingchen suddenly shut his eyes.

＞? ＜

"Hallucination!"

Definitely still a hallucination!

Exactly!

As long as he waits until he opens his eyes again, what he sees won't be what he saw before.

【*Du】.

???

It's still Du, the Du in Pei Du—solid as iron evidence.

Xiao Gui=Pei Du.

A 'dong' sound.

The phone slipped from Shu Lingchen's palm, fell onto the sofa, he felt, his worldview, seemed, a bit, shattered.

Shu Lingchen always imagined the little ghost's face as the stereotypical image of a typical elementary school student.

Short buzz cut, possibly still because he was in the period of losing teeth, missing an upper or lower tooth, when he spoke air would leak, having a runny nose he wouldn't wipe, preferring to scrunch his nose, both hands holding the phone, the sweat from his fingers left streaks on both sides of the screen.

And then this face vanished with a 'boom'.

Turned into Pei Du.

The man had jet-black eyes, a high-bridged nose, and a sharp jawline.

Simply, cannot accept!

The pillow again began to suffer the Invincible Starfire Hammer, just then:

"Knock knock knock."

After the door was knocked three times in a regular rhythm, the man's low, faint voice sounded: 'Lingchen, can we chat?'

Pei Du!

Alert! Alert! Level three alert!

Shu Lingchen almost without thinking shouted: 'I'm asleep!'

Only after shouting did he realize, how could he still make a sound while asleep?

He was exposed.

He tried to pretend to be dead, but in the same villa, could he dodge the second and dodge the third?

Besides, furthermore.

What is he hiding for, it's not him who's guilty, he makes friends with a sincere heart, but Pei Du wears a mask to deceive him, the one who's in the wrong should obviously be Pei Du!

Upon thinking this,

Shu Lingchen instantly straightened his back and marched over to open the door.

Pei Du stood outside the door, holding a plate of sliced watermelon, with a piece of watermelon having a small silver fork stuck upright in it.

Shu Lingchen originally intended to look down on Pei Du with a gaze that was three parts disdain, seven parts indifference.

But he discovered he was shorter than Pei Du, unable to look down.

Then.

The boy looked up at Pei Du and said succinctly: 'Come in.'

…

This villa's area is not small, but there are few rooms, each room arranged as a small living area.

Front living room, rear bedroom and bathroom.

On the sofa with intricate patterns.

Pei Du and Shu Lingchen sat facing each other; Shu Lingchen's butt had just touched the sofa for two seconds when he felt his aura disappear, and he immediately stood up, crossing his arms, squinting at Pei Du, he commented:

"Scheming and meticulous, plotting for a long time, his scheming is deeper than the sea."

"Hmph! Don't think I don't know what you want to do; I tell you, everything you think of is impossible to achieve!"

From the moment Shu Lingchen said the first word, Pei Du listened quietly; after Shu Lingchen finished his last word, he then slowly asked: 'Then Lingchen, what exactly do you think I want to do?'

"You are certainly thinking——"

Shu Lingchen stopped mid-sentence, his thoughts turning to whether rashly tearing this layer of gauze in front of child traffickers would be bad for his sister.

Then he heard.

"Do you want to abduct you?"

Shu Lingchen: "!"

Pei Du: "Like abducting Mu Yin, abduct you?"

Shu Lingchen: "!!!"

"——You, you admitted?!"

"I don't have such thoughts." Pei Du shook his head, looking at the boy's eyes with hidden meaning: "I don't need to do that."

"You still want to make excuses?"

Shu Lingchen looked as if he had grabbed your ponytail, speaking firmly:

"You definitely wormed information out of Mu Yin, knowing I like to play games, so you deliberately went to play that game, then used some unknown means, posing as an elementary school student in the game to stalk me, got my VX, and started to get close to me."

"This is the first half of your plan, right?!"

The boy crossed his arms and sneered: "The money earned was all used to buy a voice changer, and they even specially bought the super awesome spicy strip sound; the preparations are truly thorough."

Silence for three seconds.

Pei Du carefully looked at his son, seriously pondering whether the son's rich imagination came from him or from Yinyin.

"I started playing this game when Lingchen first sent me a team invite link."

Shu Lingchen: "What?"

"The child Lingchen referred to in the game is real, not me; I knew your account earlier than this, but your friend permission had always been closed; I guess when you opened the permission for that child to add you, I also added you at the same time, and was a step faster, so you naturally took me to be that child."

"???"

How could there be such a coincidence? Shu Lingchen didn't believe it, immediately opened the game, found the chat logs from long ago of his alt account; at the time he thought the little ghost's original account was too long to bother searching, so he tossed his own account over.

After adding the little ghost as a friend, one day he happened to notice the little ghost's account had become simple, and thought it had just been changed recently.

Shu Lingchen, unwilling to believe, manually searched character by character for the original account the little ghost had sent.

Upon searching, it really was another account.

The avatar was still the same Ultraman he had seen in the game.

"……"

"……"

Shu Lingchen was speechless, looking incredulously at Pei Du: "You... you know I mistook someone and didn't say?"

Pei Du calmly: "Because Lingchen got a little right, I indeed wanted to get close to Lingchen."

Shu Lingchen exclaimed: "Ha, then you're not scheming with ulterior motives, wanting to do something bad?"

"I won't do anything that harms Lingchen; I just want to reintroduce myself to Lingchen."

Pei Du lifted his eyelids, his jet-black pupils meeting the boy's eyes, identical to his own; his voice, always carrying a wintery chill, gained a hint of warmth and solemnity.

"I am——Lingchen's father."

"???"

Shu Lingchen stared, mouth agape.

It's over.

This round seems...

He came for his mother.