I was just being polite, why did you take it seriously

Late summer rain always came without reason. One second it was a stifling sauna, and the next, it was as if someone had overturned a massive basin of water in the sky.

Just as the school bell rang, the world outside the window was already a hazy expanse of white. Raindrops smashed against the glass with a loud, crackling clatter, making everyone feel anxious.

A chorus of wails echoed through the classroom.

Most of the students who hadn't brought umbrellas were stranded. They either crowded into the corridors to call home or slumped back into their seats in dismay, praying for the rain to let up soon.

Chen Zhi packed his schoolbag and was just about to take out his phone to check the traffic when a fragrant breeze suddenly wafted by his side.

"Chen Zhi!"

Lin Wanwan wore her backpack, her ponytail swishing back and forth. Her face was written all over with an expression that said "praise me." "My dad just texted saying he's passing by the school and is coming to pick me up. You should come with me."

Chen Zhi raised an eyebrow, taking a look at the torrential downpour outside the window.

His parents finished work around the same time school let out, so they were probably stuck on the elevated highway right now.

He pulled out his phone and sent a WeChat message to his mom: [Mom, I'm taking Uncle Lin's car back. Don't worry.]

After sending it, he shoved the phone back into his pocket. Just as he was about to get up, he caught sight of his desk-mate, Pei Ningxue, still sitting there out of the corner of his eye.

Her back, which was always kept perfectly straight, somehow looked a bit frail at this moment.

The books on her desk were neatly packed away, but she remained motionless, her head turned to the side as her cold, clear eyes stared blankly at the heavy rain outside.

Normally at this time, the Pei family's black Mercedes-Benz would already be parked at the school gates.

"Why haven't you left yet?" Chen Zhi asked casually. "Driver didn't show up?"

Pei Ningxue snapped back to reality. Her long eyelashes fluttered slightly, and she gently shook her head.

"Didn't bring an umbrella?" Chen Zhi asked again.

Pei Ningxue pursed her lips and nodded.

Her fingers, resting on her knees, curled slightly. Actually, she had messaged her driver, but she hadn't received a reply.

Chen Zhi clicked his tongue.

Without another word, he reached into the side pocket of his backpack, pulled out a black folding umbrella, and casually tossed it onto Pei Ningxue's desk.

"Take it."

Pei Ningxue froze.

She tilted her head. For the first time, her eyes held clear confusion as she looked at Chen Zhi, as if asking: If you give me your umbrella, what will you do?

Before Chen Zhi could say something cool, Lin Wanwan's urging voice rang out from the classroom door.

"Chen Zhi! What are you dawdling for? My dad's car is almost at the gate!"

Lin Wanwan was impatient. Seeing Chen Zhi still dragging his feet, she simply ran in, grabbed his arm, and yanked him outward. "Hurry up, hurry up, don't make my dad wait, or he'll start nagging me again."

Chen Zhi stumbled from her pull and smoothly took the umbrella right out of Lin Wanwan's hand.

"Alright, alright, let's go."

He replied dismissively while opening the umbrella, naturally holding it over Lin Wanwan's head and bringing himself under it as well.

Lin Wanwan was taken aback. She blinked her big eyes at the umbrella above her, then looked at Chen Zhi's empty hands.

"Hey? Where's your umbrella? I remember you brought one this morning."

Without missing a beat, Chen Zhi made up a lie on the spot: "I lent it to Li Zihan. That guy is going to the bookstore to buy Dragon Raja, and he was afraid the book would get wet without an umbrella."

"Oh." Lin Wanwan didn't overthink it and instead squeezed closer to Chen Zhi. "Then lean in a bit closer, don't get wet."

The two of them shared the single umbrella and walked out into the rain.

The rain was too heavy, and one small umbrella was clearly a stretch for two people. Chen Zhi tilted the handle mostly toward Lin Wanwan, and half of his own shoulder was instantly soaked.

"Hey, move over a bit, your shoulder is all wet!" Lin Wanwan complained, reaching out to push his arm.

"Don't move, if you move you'll get wet too." Chen Zhi pressed a hand to her head. "Do you want to go home and take a hot shower, or do you want to catch a cold and have a runny nose tomorrow?"

"You're the one with a runny nose!" Lin Wanwan, annoyed, pinched his waist.

The sounds of their playful bickering faded into the distance, quickly disappearing into the noisy downpour.

Inside the classroom.

Pei Ningxue was still sitting in her seat.

She slowly lowered her head, looking at the black folding umbrella on her desk.

The handle still held the warmth of that guy's palm.

She reached out, her fingertips gently brushing against the cold ribs of the umbrella. Then she turned her head, looking through the fogged-up glass window at the two figures huddled closely together in the rain, lost in thought.

...

At the school gate, a black Audi was parked with its hazard lights flashing.

The window was rolled halfway down, revealing the slightly stern face of a middle-aged man.

Lin Shuxian checked his watch, frowning slightly. This girl said she was coming right out, but it's been ten minutes already.

Just as he was thinking this, he saw two people dashing through the rain.

Under a small pink umbrella, his daughter was practically glued to that brat. Who knew what they were talking about, but they were laughing without a care in the world.

Lin Shuxian's eyelid twitched violently, and a vein threatened to pop on his forehead.

The car door was pulled open, and a rush of damp moisture, mixed with youthful energy, flooded in.

"Dad! Have you been waiting long?" Lin Wanwan closed the umbrella and quickly slid into the backseat. "The rain is too heavy, the roads are terrible."

Chen Zhi followed closely behind. He put the umbrella away and greeted politely, "Hello, Uncle Lin. Sorry for the trouble."

"It's fine, it's on the way."

Lin Shuxian glanced in the rearview mirror. Seeing that the left half of Chen Zhi's body was soaked while his daughter was completely dry, the anger in his heart subsided just a tiny bit.

At least the kid had some sense.

The car slowly started up and merged into the congested traffic.

In the backseat, Lin Wanwan clearly hadn't recovered from her excitement and kept chattering away to Chen Zhi about class gossip.

"Oh right, is Li Zihan really going to buy a book? In this heavy rain?"

"That's faith, you wouldn't understand," Chen Zhi replied lazily, leaning against the seat back. "For Erii, let alone rain, he'd go even if it was raining knives."

"Tch, what a nerd," Lin Wanwan curled her lip and pulled a pack of gummy candies from her bag. "Want some?"

"Orange flavored? I'll take one."

"Ah! Don't snatch it!"

"Delicious."

"Chen Zhi, you're a dog!"

As the two shoved each other in the backseat over a gummy candy, Lin Shuxian's grip on the steering wheel tightened, his knuckles turning white.

He took a deep breath, trying to maintain the authority and grace of an elder.

"Ahem, Wanwan, sit properly. Stop yelling and shouting back there."

Lin Wanwan stuck her tongue out and settled down slightly, but her hands were still secretly pinching Chen Zhi's thigh.

Chen Zhi grimaced in pain but had to keep smiling in front of Uncle Lin. It was truly a mix of pain and pleasure.

The car stopped and started along the way, finally managing to crawl to the bottom of their apartment building.

The rain had let up a bit.

Lin Shuxian parked the car and turned to look at Chen Zhi, wearing that polite yet distant smile unique to adults.

"Xiao Chen, it's getting late. Are your parents home?"

It was just a polite formality.

According to normal social etiquette, Chen Zhi was supposed to say "Yes, they are," and then tactfully say his goodbyes and go home.

Lin Shuxian had calculated exactly that.

However, who was Chen Zhi?

He was a reincarnated veteran whose skin was thicker than a city wall.

A perfectly measured hint of loneliness appeared on Chen Zhi's face as he sighed, "Sigh, Uncle Lin, both my parents are working overtime today. They said they'd be back very late and told me to just go home and boil some instant noodles for myself."

As he spoke, he rubbed his stomach, which let out a perfectly timed grumble.

The smile at the corner of Lin Shuxian's mouth stiffened.

This... wasn't how the script was supposed to go, was it?

But since he had already asked, he couldn't exactly just chase the kid away, could he? That would be too graceless.

So, Lin Shuxian bit the bullet and feigned a warm, polite offer: "How can you do that? You're at the age where you're growing; instant noodles have no nutrition. Why don't you... come over to our house for dinner tonight?"

In his heart, he prayed silently: Reject me, hurry up and reject me, say you don't want to trouble us.

Who would have thought that Chen Zhi's eyes would instantly light up? The loneliness on his face vanished into thin air, replaced by a radiant smile.

"Really? That's wonderful! Thank you, Uncle Lin! I was just craving Auntie's cooking!"

With that said, before Lin Shuxian could even react, Chen Zhi had already pulled open the car door and slipped out nimbly, not forgetting to turn back and call out to Lin Wanwan.

"Wanwan, hurry up, I'm starving to death!"

Lin Wanwan cheered along with him, "Yay! Mom definitely made something delicious today!"

The two kids dashed into the stairwell like a puff of smoke.

Leaving Lin Shuxian sitting alone in the driver's seat, his hand still frozen in mid-air.

He looked at the empty back seat, then looked at his own stiff face in the rearview mirror.

After a long while, he finally choked out a sentence: "...Does this kid not understand polite banter?"

...

Meanwhile, at the Pei family villa.

The sky had completely darkened, and the streetlights in the villa district cast blurry halos of dim yellow light through the rainy mist.

A black Mercedes-Benz slowly drove through the carved gates.

Before the car had even come to a complete stop, Pei Ningxue heard the sounds of an argument coming from inside the house. The voices were loud, still piercing even through the heavy curtain of rain and the car windows.

"I'm sorry, Miss." The driver in the front, Uncle Wang, looked guilty as he carefully turned his head back. "President Pei and Madam... seem to have gotten into a fight over some personnel changes at the company, which is why I was a bit late picking you up."

Pei Ningxue slung her backpack over her shoulder expressionlessly, tightly gripping the black folding umbrella in her hand.

"It's fine, Uncle Wang."

Her voice was very light, betraying neither joy nor anger.

She pushed open the car door and opened the umbrella.

The umbrella was very large, enough to completely shield her entirely, but that sense of emptiness became even more pronounced.

Walking into the entryway, the arguing instantly became clear.

"Pei Dongcheng! What do you mean by this? You want to burn the bridge after crossing the river now, don't you?"

The woman's voice was shrill and ear-piercing, filled with hysterical anger. "Don't forget, if my dad hadn't injected capital into your business back then, your Pei family would have been finished long ago! Now that the company is doing better, you want to kick all my people out? You want to sideline me?"

The living room was a mess, with shattered vase fragments scattered across the floor.

Her stepmother, Liu Yi, wearing an expensive silk nightgown, pointed at the man sitting on the sofa and cursed at him.

Pei Dongcheng's face was ashen, a cigarette pinched between his fingers.

"Can you be reasonable for a second? The finance department is the core of the company. You want your nephew, who can't even balance a ledger, to be the director? Are you trying to ruin the company?"

"I don't care! Either way, that position must belong to someone from our Liu family!"

Pei Ningxue changed her shoes and, as if she hadn't seen the two of them, walked straight through the living room and headed upstairs.

"Ningxue is back?"

Seeing his daughter, the expression on Pei Dongcheng's face softened slightly, and he tried to stand up.

But Liu Yi was in the heat of her anger and grabbed him. "Don't think you can change the subject! This isn't over today!"

Pei Ningxue didn't stop walking; she merely dropped a faint sentence: "I'm going back to my room to do homework."

Bang.

The bedroom door closed, shutting all the arguing and toxic atmosphere outside.

The room was very quiet, with only the sound of raindrops tapping against the window.

Pei Ningxue tossed her backpack onto the bed, walked over to her desk, and sat down.

The black folding umbrella was placed at the corner of the desk, still dripping water, pooling into a small puddle on the surface.

She stared at the puddle of water for a moment, then silently pulled out her workbook and started doing her exercises.

The pen tip rustled against the paper.

She didn't know how much time had passed, but the arguing downstairs finally stopped. It was followed by the sound of a door slamming and a car starting.

The world was finally quiet.

Pei Ningxue stretched her waist and rubbed her somewhat aching neck.

Her stomach growled right on cue.

She hadn't eaten dinner yet.

She checked the time; it was almost nine o'clock.

Just then, there was a gentle knock on her door.

"Ningxue, are you asleep?"

It was Pei Dongcheng's voice.

"No."

The door was pushed open, and Pei Dongcheng walked in.

He looked very tired; the argument just now seemed to have drained his energy. The President Pei who looked so glamorous in front of outsiders was now just a middle-aged man bent over by the weight of life.

He held a cup of hot milk in his hands, placing it somewhat awkwardly on Pei Ningxue's desk.

"You haven't eaten yet, right? Drink some milk first to tide you over."

Pei Dongcheng pulled over a chair and sat next to his daughter.

He looked at Pei Ningxue's profile, which somewhat resembled his late wife's, and his eyes suddenly grew a little red.

"Ningxue, I'm sorry..."

His voice was a bit hoarse, carrying deep guilt. "These past few years, I've let you suffer grievances."

The hand Pei Ningxue used to hold her pen paused for a moment.

She turned her head, looked at this man who, although handsome, already had white hair, and gently shook her head.

"It's fine, Dad."

Pei Dongcheng felt even worse in his heart. The more sensible his daughter was, the more incompetent he felt.

"Don't worry." Pei Dongcheng took a deep breath, as if he had made up his mind about something. "Just give Dad a little more time. In just a few more years, once that project is finalized, I'll be able to completely break free from the Liu family's control and take back everything that belongs to us."

"When that time comes, Dad will definitely make it up to you properly."

Pei Ningxue looked down at the math problems in her workbook and said nothing.

Seeing his daughter remain silent, Pei Dongcheng didn't know how to continue the topic. The silence between father and daughter was even more suffocating than the argument from earlier.

"Um... do you have enough money to spend?"

Pei Dongcheng ultimately chose the most direct method. He took out his phone and transferred a sum of money to Pei Ningxue.

"If it's not enough, just ask Dad for more. Buy whatever you want, don't mistreat yourself."

"Mhm, thanks, Dad."

Pei Dongcheng sighed, stood up, and patted his daughter's shoulder. "Rest early, don't study too late."

With that said, he hurriedly left the room.

The door closed once again.

Pei Ningxue picked up her phone and glanced at it.

A transfer of twenty thousand.

She collected the money expressionlessly and tossed the phone to the side.

Her gaze fell once again on the black folding umbrella.

The umbrella had dried and lay there quietly.

She suddenly remembered the look in Chen Zhi's eyes when he tossed the umbrella to her after school, and the way he joked around with Lin Wanwan in the rain.

That kind of vibrant, youthful, and lively bustle felt so far away from her.

Driven by some inexplicable impulse, Pei Ningxue reached out, picked up the umbrella, and gently opened it just a fraction.

A faint scent wafted out.

Wait, was that the smell of spicy snacks?

Pei Ningxue froze for a second, and then the corners of her lips curled up, tracing an incredibly faint smile.

Did this guy stash his umbrella right next to his junk food?

She closed the umbrella again, carefully tucking it away into the deepest corner of her drawer. Then, she picked up the glass of milk that had gradually gone cold and downed it in one gulp.

If he could survive drinking expired milk, what was a little chill?

Tomorrow, she would have to return the umbrella to him.