WRA CH85

Bai Qi remained completely motionless. Luckily, he wasn’t human and could hide his breathing. His true form had very low energy consumption, so he could hide here and outlast the homeowner for a week.

The homeowner would inevitably have to leave the house at some point. When that happened, he would get up, watch an episode, and immediately slip away.

Actually, he could have just left that night. But based on his observations of TVs in the outside world while working part-time, not a single one compared to the one here.

He was a snake who had standards for TV quality.

In the drama he was following, the beautiful protagonist was going to make a triumphant return and slap her ex-husband’s face in the very next episode. He simply couldn’t tear himself away.

Bai Qi waited and waited. He heard the homeowner talking on the phone with a classmate who called him “Chu Ren” and asked if he wanted to go to a bar, since they were adults now and could get into any bar they wanted.

Chu Ren said no. He got up, looked around for the remote, couldn’t find it, gave up, and lay back on the sofa with his left foot resting on the floor.

The eighteen-year-old Chu Ren had long, elegant limbs; Bai Qi guessed the boy was half a head taller than himself.

Chu Ren lay on the sofa all afternoon. For dinner, he ordered takeout: Cantonese poached chicken and dry-pot bullfrog—surprisingly, both were on a snake’s menu.

Bai Qi coiled himself up. He hadn’t expected this kid to have such a big appetite; a whole plate of poached chicken was eaten right down to the bones.

During the summer, Bai Qi had a high activity level, and when he needed to fill his stomach, he could also eat a whole poached chicken in one sitting. There was a shop at the Third Ring Road intersection that sold them for 78 yuan each, and he ate there often.

However, the one Chu Ren ordered seemed to smell a bit better.

Right after Chu Ren finished eating, the classmate who had invited him to the bar showed up, refusing to give up and insisting they drink their “first alcohol as adults.”

Chu Ren was already feeling annoyed, but seeing that the guy had lugged over two cases of beer—which wasn’t easy—he agreed.

Drinking, huh… Bai Qi didn’t like the smell of alcohol. In The Legend of the White Snake, Lady White Snake was forced to reveal her true form because of realgar wine, scaring a human to death.

Even though Bai Qi wouldn’t lose control due to alcohol, the smell was still choking. The snake planned to leave.

The classmate cracked open a can of beer. “Why isn’t the TV on?”

Chu Ren: “Can’t find the remote.”

Bai Qi paused, then used the chaos to silently flick the remote out with his snake tail. Watch it, turn it on.

The classmate looked down, saw the remote next to the sofa, picked it up, and turned on the TV. He muttered, “Let’s put on a variety show for background noise. Chu Ren, what major did you apply for again? Didn’t your uncle want you to study law?”

Chu Ren’s uncle was the most famous lawyer in Haishi. He was highly connected, single, and unmarried. He wanted his nephew to study law so he could pass his law firm down to him.

Chu Ren’s family was in the entertainment industry, and his parents also thought studying law was a good idea. Managing artists and business investments all required knowing a bit of contract law. Alternatively, he could major in investment management and inherit the family business later.

Chu Ren ignored his elders’ opinions and secretly changed his application to Artificial Intelligence.

After he was accepted, his uncle’s angry phone call followed. His uncle, who had a lot of authority in the family, told Chu Ren stiffly: “Keep your GPA up freshman year and change your major. I’m going to send a law student from your university to talk to you about the details.”

Talk about what? What was there to talk about? Baffling.

Looking down on Artificial Intelligence? Chu Ren, on the contrary, was very optimistic about it.

The youth was fearless, always wanting to cast off his family’s shadow and carve out his own world.

Neither of them liked hard liquor, so they chugged beer. After drinking for a while, the classmate collapsed on the floor, fast asleep.

Chu Ren nudged him with his foot. “Passes out after a few cups. Don’t ask me to drink next time.”

Too lazy to clean up, he lay back on the sofa. Having slept for three hours in the afternoon, he wasn’t sleepy at all now. He didn’t dare sleep anyway; since his classmate was drunk, he had to keep an eye on him occasionally so he wouldn’t choke on his own vomit.

His phone kept ringing non-stop with numerous messages and long essays—everyone had a clear plan for his life. Chu Ren took out his phone and blocked his uncle, father, and mother. Only then did he close his eyes in peace.

Tsk, he was simply too outstanding.

His peers were all a bunch of rats, while his own brilliance shone too brightly.

The elders all wanted him to walk a broad, paved road so he could shelter his gambling, drinking, and womanizing relatives later.

A bunch of scumbags. He didn’t care. Whoever wanted to do it could go do it.

Bai Qi didn’t like watching variety shows, so he ended up listening to more of their conversation.

That classmate loved to drink and loved to talk, spilling almost everything about Chu Ren’s family situation.

After a while, two long, steady breathing sounds came from the sofa. The room grew quiet, the air conditioning running silently, leaving only the laughter of the variety show guests on the TV.

Bai Qi never turned on the AC at Chu Ren’s house because the outdoor unit made noise, and the patrolling security guards outside would immediately know someone was inside.

The air conditioning was really comfortable. Right now, the TV was still on. If Bai Qi could just grab the remote and change the channel without anyone noticing, these two drunks wouldn’t know what happened when they woke up.

He would leave right after finishing this episode.

Bai Qi had his belongings packed in a small plastic bag—all little items he had scavenged from the villa’s trash cans, which he had hidden under the sofa, such as glasses, a small frog toy, and a hair clip.

Not many things, but since they were discarded by rich people, the quality was good, so Bai Qi carried them around.

He packed his things, slipped out from under the sofa, transformed into his human form, and silently circled to the front to pick up the remote from the coffee table in front of the drunk classmate.

He figured he would just stand behind the sofa and watch after changing the channel, then leave when it was done.

But the remote accidentally knocked against an empty aluminum can on the table.

Clink. Chu Ren opened his eyes.

Bai Qi, holding the remote: “……”

In his nervousness, he pressed the power button. The noisy variety show vanished, leaving only him and Chu Ren staring wide-eyed at each other.

An inexplicable anger flared up in Chu Ren’s chest. His uncle’s control over his life was absolutely pervasive—he even gave his house passcode to a stranger!

“Are you the one my uncle sent?” Hah, an aloof law student.

Bai Qi couldn’t explain how he got in. He was afraid Chu Ren would check the security cameras, realize he hadn’t used the front door, suspect him of being a thief, and drag him to the police station.

That would be the end of him.

“Oh, I am.”

Bai Qi replied, taking out the silver-rimmed glasses from his plastic bag and putting them on. They had no prescription; the previous owner probably bought them just for fashion.

Bai Qi also used them for fashion—no, for equipment.

He was a non-venomous snake. In emergency combat situations, he had to pretend to be a terrifying cobra to make his appearance more intimidating and scare the opponent out of their wits.

Bai Qi pushed his glasses up coldly.

His irises were pitch-black, and when his dark gaze locked onto someone, it gave off an unexplainable chill.

Chu Ren suddenly jumped up from the sofa and stared at him. His heart rate spiked from anger. This guy looked completely different after putting on the glasses—aloof and cold, as if he looked down on everyone.

Chu Ren glanced at the plastic bag in his hand—the kind of flimsy, transparent disposable bag breakfast stalls used for steamed buns. His jeans and shirt were washed out to a faded color, with loose threads sticking out.

Chu Ren actually felt as if his soul had been captured. It took him a long moment to speak.

“What are you here for?”

Bai Qi was very satisfied with the effect of the glasses: “To encourage your studies.”

Chu Ren scoffed. His uncle really hadn’t given up on trying to persuade him to change his major!

“Get out.”

“Oh.” Bai Qi nodded, turned around, and started to walk away.

Chu Ren: “……”

Leaving that fast? Now he was unhappy about it.

Chu Ren quickly ran up and blocked him. “You’re just going to leave like that? Will you even be able to get my uncle’s money? You’re an intern at my uncle’s law firm, aren’t you?”

Bai Qi smelled the alcohol on him, took a step back, thought about it, and said, “No.”

Seeing the other step back made Chu Ren even angrier. What an unethical intern. My uncle sent you to convince me to study law, and you retreat at the first hurdle. With such a cold attitude, are you here to persuade someone or kill someone?

His gaze locked onto Bai Qi’s collarbone. The collar of the shirt was coming undone, and a white thread clung to the hollow of his collarbone.

Aside from those glasses, which looked like they cost over a thousand, nothing else on his body exceeded a hundred yuan.

“Forget it, you can stay.”

His uncle had accurately predicted his soft-heartedness by sending over a poor college student.

Bai Qi: “……”

Stay for what? To encourage his studies?

Chu Ren: “If I agree to change my major, how much is my uncle giving you?”

Bai Qi opened his mouth wide like a lion: “Five hundred.”

Chu Ren gritted his teeth. What? This young master’s future is only worth five hundred?!

“I’ll just give it to you myself.”

Bai Qi was surprised. So Chu Ren really needs someone to supervise his studies. But he was an impostor, after all, and didn’t dare take the money: “No.”

Chu Ren: “…Can law students even tell right from wrong anymore? I’m the good guy here. My uncle is not a good guy.”

Fooling an intern with a mere five hundred bucks.

Bai Qi asked, “Since you are a good person, can I watch your TV?”

If Chu Ren hadn’t woken up, he would have almost succeeded. Missing it at the final hurdle was making his heart itch.

Chu Ren: “Sure.”

So, Bai Qi sat down on the floor and turned on the TV drama he hadn’t finished.

Chu Ren: “Why are you sitting on the floor? Think my sofa is too small?”

“Oh.” Bai Qi got up and sat on the sofa. He sat perfectly straight and proper, back rigid, hands resting on his knees.

Chu Ren also felt a bit baffled, not knowing why he had made the guy stay.

A cold, arrogant, highly prideful, and impoverished law student like this would sooner or later starve to death in the legal profession.

His uncle was so deeply scheming, how did he manage to recruit an intern like this?

“You can just be my follower from now on. When I start my own business, I’ll make you my legal advisor,” Chu Ren said as he cleaned up the empty beer bottles on the coffee table, crushing them flat and tossing them into the trash can.

Crush, crunch, crack.

Bai Qi couldn’t help but say, “Could you please not crush the cans?”

It was interfering with his ability to hear the dialogue.

Chu Ren subconsciously lightened his movements, but then felt a bit indignantly rebellious about it.

The drunk classmate rolled over and let out a boozy burp.

Bai Qi scrunched his nose; this guy smelled even worse than Chu Ren.

Chu Ren also felt his classmate was being a bit gross. “Wake up. Go home and sleep.”

The classmate woke up dizzy and disoriented. Before he could even see clearly who was in the room, he was hauled to the door by Chu Ren: “I called a car for you and called your mom. She’ll pick you up at the neighborhood gate.”

Classmate: “Didn’t… didn’t we agree to drink until dawn?”

Chu Ren: “Just sleep until dawn.”

Classmate: “I think I just saw someone on the sofa. Who came over?”

Chu Ren didn’t even have to think: “Nobody.”

Chu Ren had the feeling of a small animal wandering into his house; until he had his fill of playing with it, he didn’t want to let it out.

Even if this small animal looked at him with cold, guarded eyes and seemed untamable.

Well, he was bored anyway. Might as well keep him around.

He went to take a shower and changed into a fresh set of clothes. When he came out, however, he saw Bai Qi standing in the entryway holding his small plastic bag. He had taken off his glasses, revealing a jade-like profile and delicate earlobes, no longer looking so unapproachable.

Bai Qi had finished watching the climax of his show and figured it was time to go. He had wanted to wait for Chu Ren to come out to personally say thank you.

“Thank you for the TV. I’m leaving now.”

Chu Ren panicked. His eighteen-year-old brain couldn’t come up with any way to make a person stay. He could only watch as Bai Qi opened the door. To his surprise, a heavy downpour had started outside.

Chu Ren said, “Just leave tomorrow. The rain is too heavy.”

Bai Qi looked at the curtain of rain. This rain was even heavier than the day Bai Suzhen met Xu Xian.

But Chu Ren was no Xu Xian: “I don’t have an umbrella here.”