DASFAM_CH 10

Knock, knock.

The butler knocked on the bedroom door from outside.

After a long and laborious struggle, Shang Queyan had managed to change his clothes on his own. He maneuvered his wheelchair around, "Come in."

With his permission, Uncle Lin opened the door, "Fourth Young Master, the shuttle is already waiting outside. We can set off now."

The Shang family held a family dinner every month, scheduled at five-thirty sharp. The head of the family, Old Master Shang, was a man who placed extreme importance on punctuality, and under his rule, no one dared to arrive late on such occasions.

Shang Queyan glanced at the time and let out an involuntary breath, "Mm, let's go."

Leaving the bedroom, Uncle Lin's gaze drifted instinctively toward the second floor "Fourth Young Master, Young Master Bai hasn't come down yet. Shall I go up and call for him?"

"No need."

Shang Queyan's eyes lifted briefly, then fell again.

Bai Xu's marriage arrangement with his own older brother was plainly a scheming trick from the second branch. If Bai Xu were to attend the family dinner with them, the second branch would surely use him as a means to humiliate Shang Yanxiao, whether openly or in subtle ways.

Shang Queyan had no desire to let that happen. He steered his wheelchair straight out the door, "We're leaving."

Uncle Lin hesitated for two seconds, then followed Shang Queyan out.

Three minutes later, the shuttle carrying Shang Queyan and Uncle Lin drove away, conspicuously missing Bai Xu.

"……"

Shang Yanxiao watched the scene from upstairs in secret, and let out a helpless sigh.

He caught a glimpse of the burn scars on his arm that had yet to fully fade, and instinctively instructed, "Xie Qi, go check on what Bai Xu is doing. Tell him to hurry up, and have the family's shuttle come pick him up."

He was new here—it would be a problem if he hadn't even figured out which direction the main house was, and showing up late to a family dinner like this would surely leave a bad impression on Old Master Shang.

A faint trace of surprise flickered across Xie Qi's face before he quickly acquiesced, "Yes, Third Young Master. I'll go right now."

"Wait."

Shang Yanxiao called him back, thought for a moment, and added, "You go along with him."

Xie Qi was taken aback, "Me?"

Shang Yanxiao gave a nod. A vague premonition stirred within him—

This was the first family dinner since the third branch's incident. Both Shang Queyan and Bai Xu were likely to become the prime targets of others' snide and cutting remarks.

Deliberate verbal provocations were, after all, a form of suppression in their own right.

Shang Yanxiao knew all too well the various schemes running through the minds of everyone in the family, "Keep a close eye on the second branch's side. Come back and report the details to me."

Xie Qi understood, "Understood."

...

The largest building in the entire estate was the residence of the old Shang couple—a nearly four-and-a-half-story duplex, and the venue where the monthly family dinner was held.

When the shuttle arrived at the main house entrance once more, there were ten minutes left before the family dinner was scheduled to begin.

Bai Xu and Xie Qi stepped off the vehicle. The latter was the first to notice something, "Young Master Bai, Fourth Young Master and the others haven't gone in yet."

Bai Xu said nothing, simply following the other's gaze—

By the garden fountain slightly ahead, Shang Queyan was sitting quietly in his wheelchair, staring vacantly at the jets of water spraying up one after another, while the butler Uncle Lin stood behind him without a word.

Xie Qi was uncertain, "Should we call out to them?"

Bai Xu seemed to understand something. His brow lifted slightly, "No, give him some time."

This was the first time Shang Queyan would be facing the Shang family in person since the accident. He had probably arrived at the main house entrance only to feel his courage falter—he needed time to process it, to overcome it.

The words had barely faded when an arrogant, deliberately raised voice cut through the air in provocation, "Well, well, isn't this our family's genius champion racing driver, Queyan?"

"……"

Picking at exactly the sorest spot.

Coming straight for someone's most painful nerve right off the bat, truly despicable.

Bai Xu's brow furrowed in instinctive disgust. Moments later, the owner of that voice pushed into his field of view—

The newcomer was dressed in a casual open-collar suit, his hair combed to impeccable neatness, yet a rough glance at his features brought only the words 'unremarkable-looking' to mind.

At the same time, Xie Qi beside him recognized the person and said quietly, "It's Second Young Master."

The Shang family was vast in both wealth and numbers. The old couple had raised four children altogether—

Their eldest daughter, Shang Keyi, whose husband had taken the Shang family name upon marriage. The two had one son after the wedding: the eldest grandson, Shang Qishun.

Their eldest son, Shang Yun, whose wife was Fang Yuhua. The two had a son and a daughter: the son being the Second Young Master standing before them now, Shang Songming, and the daughter being Fifth Miss, Shang Le'er.

Their second son, Shang Qi, whose wife was Chi Li— the biological parents of Shang Yanxiao and Shang Queyan.

Their youngest daughter, Shang Keshu— being the old couple's 'late-in-life daughter', she had been spoiled into willfulness by her parents and siblings from childhood. She was also a devoted non-believer in marriage, and rarely came home even once throughout the year.

The original novel had laid out the Shang family members quite clearly. Bai Xu matched the name to the face at once, "This person is Shang Songming?"

Xie Qi answered, "Mm."

In the brief exchange, Shang Songming had already swaggered his way to Shang Queyan's side and was looking down at him from above, his gaze naked with gleeful schadenfreude.

"First time seeing you like this. Still a bit unaccustomed to it."

"......"

Shang Queyan's hands suddenly clenched tight around the armrests of his wheelchair, his expression stiffening.

The butler Uncle Bo sensed Shang Songming's ill intent and suppressed his anger, "Second Young Master, mind your words."

Though the two were cousins, they had been locked in open and covert rivalry since childhood. In the past they could at least keep up appearances when they met, but now, seeing the third branch decimated—some dead, some injured—and no longer a threat, he actually dared to tear open someone's wounds directly.

Shang Songming paid Uncle Lin no mind, his smile hollow and false, "What did I say? Queyan and I really haven't seen each other in ages. I just haven't quite gotten used to you going from this tall—"

He held out a hand to indicate a height, then dropped it down, "To suddenly being a whole head shorter than me."

A trace of red was provoked into Shang Queyan's eyes, "Shang Songming, don't push it too far!"

"Come on, I'm joking. I've been thinking about you and Yanxiao this whole time. It's just that the Old Master gave the order telling everyone not to disturb you two without reason."

"……"

Joking? Thinking about them?

What utter nonsense.

Shang Queyan had no desire to waste time on someone like this, "Uncle Lin, let's go."

The next second, Shang Songming casually stepped into his path, "Look at that temper. Don't be angry. I heard today that you were coming to the family dinner, so I specifically brought along the champagne I had prepared for you two months ago."

Something came to Shang Queyan's mind, and his thoughts froze.

Then he heard Shang Songming break into a smile that was almost cruel, "To celebrate your first championship trophy in this life, and what should also be your last."

"……"

Shang Queyan's breath caught, grief and fury surging up in an instant. Just as he was on the verge of wanting to lunge up and go down fighting with Shang Songming, a familiar voice suddenly reached him—

"Fourth Young Master, Uncle Lin, so you're here."

"……"

The air that had been on the verge of igniting seemed to have had a solidifying agent injected into it. Shang Queyan took several long seconds before he raised his eyes.

Bai Xu had already walked over to their side, yet his expression was nothing like the coldness he had shown by the lakeside yesterday—instead, he wore a warm and gentle, almost bashful smile.

His well-behaved face also carried a faint trace of subtle curiosity as he looked toward Shang Songming.

Before Shang Queyan could even react, Bai Xu let that 'curiosity' grow as he took in Shang Songming's thoroughly unremarkable face, "Uncle Lin, is this person also a butler here in the estate?"

"......"

The question came out soft and gentle, seeming entirely guileless and polite—and yet precisely because of that, it was all the more humiliating.

The already hollow smile on Shang Songming's face froze, "What did you say?"

Bai Xu feigned obliviousness to the sharpness in his tone, his confusion deepening, "You, you're not a butler? I thought from the way you were dressed you must be one. I'm sorry."

"……"

Uncle Lin had caught every note of what Bai Xu was implying beneath the surface. He gave Shang Queyan a discreet pat on the back in comfort, and offered a perfunctory reminder. "Young Master Bai, this is the Second Young Master."

"Ah?"

Bai Xu made a show of looking Shang Songming up and down, brow furrowing as though in disbelief.

Shang Songming was stung by his reaction, "You—"

"My apologies."

Bai Xu cut him off in time with a single 'apology'.

He explained with an expression of utter sincerity, "I'm new here and don't know the other members of the family yet. I just thought, Third Young Master and Fourth Young Master are so good-looking—"

Bai Xu paused and pressed his lips together, deliberately leaving the next words a little vague, yet pitched just precisely enough for everyone nearby to catch the murmur.

"You don't quite look like the two of them, I mistook you for someone else for a moment. Truly sorry about that."

As the saying goes, comparison reveals the difference.

Anyone with eyes could see that Shang Queyan's looks fell squarely in the strikingly handsome category, and the bedridden Shang Yanxiao was even more incomparably fine-featured—a young man of legendary reputation in the capital's social circles.

As for their cousin Shang Songming, his appearance was thoroughly unremarkable and his bearing utterly undistinguished among a crowd.

Shang Queyan had already pulled himself free from the flash of white-hot fury, and laughed with particular shamelessness, "No wonder you couldn't tell. Second Brother's looks don't quite take after the rest of us in the Shang family."

A perfectly landed finishing blow, aimed straight at the sorest spot.

"Shang Queyan! What is that supposed to mean!"

The color of Shang Songming's face grew darker and darker. He was so furious his throat visibly clenched—

Among the four cousins of their generation in the Shang family, he alone was the least remarkable in both looks and stature. Nothing like Shang Yanxiao, whose appearance and ability were the very image of Old Master Shang in his youth.

Old Master Shang had always been most fond of the third branch of the family. He found Shang Yanxiao satisfactory in every way, and harbored a degree of favoritism toward his little grandson Shang Queyan as well.

For as long as he could remember, whenever the brothers appeared together in public, Shang Songming was always the one who got 'overlooked' and 'looked down upon'. No one understood the feeling of being beneath others better than he did.

Shang Songming despised Shang Queyan, and hated Shang Yanxiao even more.

Upon learning that the third branch had met with an accident overseas, a secret, nearly uncontrollable surge of joy rose within him.

And so, after repeatedly confirming that one of the two brothers lay in a coma with no sign of waking, and the other was crippled for life, Shang Songming believed that his day to rise above the rest and hold his head high had finally come.

He had originally planned to gloat and provoke Shang Queyan—ideally forcing him to lose composure at the family dinner, cause a scene, and displease the Old Master. But then Bai Xu appeared out of nowhere—

The dignified Second Young Master of the Shang family, mistaken for a butler? Was that not a blatant humiliation? It would be a laughingstock if word got out.

For no particular reason, Shang Songming felt a sting on his face. He glared daggers at the culprit and said through gritted teeth, "Bai Xu, is it? I'll remember you."

Why did he have to stick his nose in?

Just as insufferable as the rumors made him out to be.

"……"

Whether in the original novel's descriptions or in person upon their first meeting, Bai Xu had always had a poor impression of Shang Songming, and had no patience for him whatsoever deep down.

Faced with this warning, he replied with deliberate seriousness in a completely off-topic manner: "Don't bother remembering me, I have no interest in you. I like the type of the Third Young Master."

Shang Songming choked, "What did you say?"

The corner of Shang Queyan's mouth twitched. He wanted to laugh but didn't dare let himself.

The next second, Bai Xu met his gaze and continued to needle him effortlessly: "Your brother is way better-looking~"

Seeing Shang Songming's deflated expression, the frustration that had been building in Shang Queyan's chest instantly cleared away, "That's right. There's nothing to fault about my brother's looks."

Watching the two play off each other, Shang Songming seethed with rage, "You—!"

Before he could lash out, a deeply authoritative rebuke rang out: "What are you two brothers still doing standing outside?"

–

TL: Muji

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