After a few years of tempering, Qi Xiuyi’s professional knowledge deepened. For every object in the museum, even objects from other museums in the joint exhibition, Qi Xiuyi could readily recount their past and present lives.

However, regarding the “past life” of objects, Qi Xiuyi never liked to talk too much.

Much of that was information directly available in text documents. Since he wasn’t a docent relying on this to earn a salary, he really had no interest in reciting it to people.

So when introducing the “past life” of objects, he always stopped at a suitable point. He spent more of his words on the “present life” of the objects.

This was also true for the items from the Big E Museum.

Qi Xiuyi recounted to the two how he met the curator of the Big E Museum by chance, how they became familiar, how the idea of holding a joint exhibition arose, and how the objects for the exhibition were finalized…

Qi Xiuyi didn’t know if others would be interested in these stories.

After all, he indeed only told stories to holders of the first three tickets.

His dad was someone clueless about cultural relics and antiques. Whatever he said went in one ear and out the other. Since he never cared about their stories, naturally, it didn’t matter if he was interested or not.

Excluding his dad, plus Lin Chen, he had told these stories to a total of only three people.

And among them, two were no longer around.

Thinking of this, Qi Xiuyi suddenly felt a bit sentimental.

Just then, he led the two past the northeast corner of the museum’s first floor.

The museum underwent a relatively major renovation and upgrade during these four years. At that time, designers proposed many design suggestions for this corner overlooking the river, thinking it could be transformed into a dedicated scenic viewing corner.

Qi Xiuyi did not agree.

The designers couldn’t understand, but Qi Xiuyi knew very clearly that no matter how the museum was renovated, he would absolutely never touch the chairs in this corner.

…That was the only place Qi Wendong had ever stayed in this museum.

“Xiuyi… Xiuyi?”

Lin Chen’s voice fell into his ears, and Qi Xiuyi snapped back to reality, remembering that he was still guiding two visitors.

Qi Xiuyi: “Ah, sorry, just now I recalled… an old friend.”

Lin Chen was curious: “Old friend?”

Qi Xiuyi led Lin Chen to the river-viewing corner, looking melancholically at the surging river water outside the window, and said: “Yes. Before the museum was fully built, I brought my brother here to look around. At that time, he sat on this chair, basking in the sun, looking at the river, asking me what this museum would look like after it was built.”

Lin Chen patiently followed Qi Xiuyi’s words and asked: “And then?”

“And then…”

Qi Xiuyi put his hands in his pockets, looked at the scenery outside the French window, and let out a light and long sigh.

He said in a low voice: “Before the museum was built, he died of illness. It’s been several years since then.”

Perhaps it had been too long since he met someone whose temperament felt so… familiar.

Facing Lin Chen, Qi Xiuyi couldn’t help but want to say more to him: “Do you know how the name ‘Wendong Museum’ came about? Hey, actually my brother’s name was Wendong! Initially, I wanted to build this museum entirely because of him.”

“You see the museum is built pretty well now, right? But if my brother were still here, the museum would definitely be built even better now! Don’t disbelieve it; my brother was amazing back then. His grades were among the best even in B University. Club activities, interpersonal relationships—there was no field he wasn’t good at! If he could build the museum with me, the museum now would definitely…”

Lin Chen’s reaction wasn’t strong.

Qi Xiuyi felt that people like Qi Wendong and Lin Chen never seemed to have overly strong emotional reactions.

Just like now, Lin Chen just stood there looking at the river, occasionally turning his eyes to listen attentively and seriously to a few sentences he said, then simply echoing a sentence or two.

…What if it were Qi Wendong?

Ha, if Qi Wendong heard him praising him like this, he would definitely show an expression as if the sun rose from the west and mock him viciously with a few sentences.

But Qi Wendong only had thorns on the surface.

When recalling the past over these years, the more he recalled Qi Wendong, the more he could discover the stable core beneath Qi Wendong’s vicious little thorns.

No matter how childishly he provoked or annoyed Qi Wendong back then, his emotions could remain very stable. Thinking about it now, Qi Wendong probably never truly saw him as an opponent back then!

Qi Xiuyi recalled back and forth, feeling increasingly melancholy.

This melancholy mood made him unable to stop himself from saying a bit more to this person beside him who carried a tiny shadow of Qi Wendong.

Qi Xiuyi: “Sigh, don’t think I’m someone who loves to immerse in memories… Actually, I’m not. Just encountered something these few days. My dad didn’t know what got into him, suddenly said he wanted to adopt a godbrother for me from outside… Tell me, can these middle-aged people nowadays save us some worry! What do I need a godbrother for? Can a godbrother compare to even a finger of Qi Wendong? Don’t you think so? Sigh…”

Listening, Lin Chen just smiled.

Thinking he was echoing and agreeing with him, Qi Xiuyi spoke even more vigorously to him.

In one afternoon, the museum was toured from the first floor to the rooftop.

Taking advantage of the time after closing when no one was around, Qi Xiuyi even took the two to the out-of-print collector’s edition helicopter on the rooftop and showed off his helicopter collection to them.

Lin Chen had great interest in the helicopter. After listening to him, he went to ask the pilot beside him for details.

Leaving Qi Xiuyi and Cheng Huanzhen here.

Qi Xiuyi rarely had the chance to talk so thoroughly for an afternoon.

He lamented, sighed, savored briefly, very politely withdrew his emotions quickly, turned to strike up a conversation with Cheng Huanzhen: “Previously you invited me to attend a birthday banquet on the tenth; is it his birthday?”

Cheng Huanzhen said: “Yes. Can you come? If it’s the difficulty you mentioned to me last time, if needed, I can help communicate with the other party to change your meeting time.”

Qi Xiuyi raised an eyebrow: “Oho, trying so hard. No need, I’ll adjust the time myself. Didn’t know him before, right? Since I know him now, of course, I have to try my best to free up time to go.”

Cheng Huanzhen thanked him seriously: “Thank you, hope you can try your best to make time to come. After all, you…” He paused, “are different.”

Qi Xiuyi didn’t know how he was different.

Didn’t he just meet Lin Chen for the first day? How could he be different?

But no matter why Cheng Huanzhen was so persistent in inviting him to Lin Chen’s birthday banquet, after meeting Lin Chen, he would definitely try his best to make time to attend.

After all, Lin Chen even got his No. 000003 ticket!

Just like this, Qi Xiuyi returned home with faint melancholy, faint joy, and faint mixed feelings.

Opening the door, he saw Qi Jingming sitting alone in the living room brewing tea.

Qi Jingming greeted him actively: “Back?”

Qi Xiuyi immediately remembered the godbrother matter from last night. He decided to give Qi Jingming the cold shoulder so Qi Jingming would know exactly how angry he was!

So he became expressionless: “Mn!”

Qi Jingming seemed unaware of his sulking: “Come drink tea. The event today went smoothly, right? I heard Little Chen also went to visit the museum. Did you see him?”

Qi Xiuyi: “Saw him… Hmm? Wait, who is Little Chen?”

Qi Xiuyi became alert in a second.

Qi Jingming calmly poured tea: “Lin Chen. He is your godbrother. Oh, did I forget to tell you his name yesterday?”

Qi Xiuyi: “…”

Qi Xiuyi’s feet instantly rooted to the spot at the door.

Qi Xiuyi’s eyes slowly widened, unknowingly repeating: “Lin Chen… Godbrother…?”

Two familiar terms connected in his mind in an unexpected way. The next moment, Qi Xiuyi’s incredulous voice pierced through the villa: “Lin Chen?!! My godbrother?!!”

…

Qi Xiuyi’s sky collapsed.

He was extremely angry. From the moment Qi Jingming said that sentence, he circled around Qi Jingming non-stop, blabbering into Qi Jingming’s ear.

“Qi, Jing, Ming! How could you do this? You are actually looking for a substitute for Qi Wendong; I misjudged you!!!”

“Are you worthy of Qi Wendong doing this? Worthy of Lin Chen? Worthy of my mom? Worthy of me? Worthy of yourself? You…”

Qi Jingming finished his tea calmly, prepared to take a bath, arrived at the bathroom door, turned around, and saw his silly son still clamoring.

He sighed and interrupted his son.

Qi Jingming: “Where are Little Chen and Wendong alike? You open your mouth and say they have a substitute relationship; are you worthy of Qi Wendong? Worthy of Lin Chen? Worthy of your mom? Worthy of me? Worthy of yourself?”

Qi Xiuyi was shocked by these words.

Qi Xiuyi: “Where are they not alike? They are clearly alike everywhere! If this isn’t finding a substitute, Dad, why would you adopt a godson for no reason!”

Qi Jingming was surprised: “Little Chen has outstanding ability and excellent character, and his parents happen not to be around. What’s wrong with me adopting a godson to tie him to our Qi family boat? It’s you, insisting on connecting two people who look different and have different personalities; you have bad intentions!”

Qi Xiuyi widened his eyes: “I have bad intentions??! …Hey, Dad, what are you doing, come back! You…”

Qi Xiuyi still wanted to argue, but Qi Jingming didn’t argue with him, leisurely tossing his head and going into the bathroom to soak.

Qi Xiuyi stamped his feet in anxiety. In a fit of anger, he simply called Lin Chen.

As soon as the call connected, he questioned Lin Chen aggressively: “Lin Chen! So you are my dad’s godson! Then why didn’t you say so when you saw me today? You… watching me being kept in the dark complaining about you to yourself, were you very happy?!”

The young man on the other end of the phone was a bit surprised.

But immediately, the surprise turned into a chuckle: “Ah, yes. Seeing you didn’t know I was your godbrother, teasing you was quite interesting.”

Qi Xiuyi held the phone stiffly. The young man’s teasing chuckle penetrated the phone, seemingly turning into another person’s voice, falling into his ears.

The call ended at some point unknown.

He stared blankly at the darkened phone screen, suddenly cursed angrily in a low voice, and smashed the phone hard onto the bed.

What… what not alike!

This belly full of bad water appearance clearly resembled Qi Wendong extremely!

Does Qi Jingming understand Qi Wendong at all, does he understand his godson at all!