After Playing the Fool and Marrying the Blind Villain [Transmigration] - Chap 6
The next morning, there was a knock on the door.
Then the housekeeper, Uncle Kai, woke him respectfully, “Young Mister Pei, are you up?”
Pei Yi, who hadn’t slept enough, tried to block out the sound with the blanket. Then he recalled where he was and had to struggle out of the blanket’s embrace, getting up to open the door.
—Knock, knock.
Uncle Kai, who had been outside knocking on the door for a long time, finally saw it open.
“Uncle Kai.”
With sleepy hair and sleepy eyes, Pei Yi spoke with a unique lazy softness. There was also a red indentation on his fair cheek, and his dazed appearance was truly cute.
Uncle Kai thought of his youngest son, who was still in high school, and smiled a little more. “Little Sir, are you hungry? Do you want to go downstairs for breakfast?”
When Pei Yi heard Uncle Kai change his form of address, his thoughts were delayed by sleepiness for a few seconds.
Uncle Kai seemed to notice his doubts, and took the initiative to explain, “There is also a ‘little young master’ in this family according to age, so in order to avoid unnecessary troubles in the future, the Second Young Master asked us to change our words.”
Hearing this, Pei Yi remembered that there was such a little young master in the Bo family in the original book, so he nodded.
It was just a title, it was convenient to change it.
Uncle Kai glanced at the time on his watch. “Little Sir, will you tidy up before going downstairs? Do you need help?”
Pei Yi shook his head.
Even the original owner could take care of his own washing up, let alone himself, who was sane.
Uncle Kai didn’t press him, and went downstairs after that simple answer. Pei Yi went back to the room to wash up, and it was only when he opened the suitcase that he ran into trouble—
In his haste to leave the miasma of the Pei residence last night, he had casually taken a few sets of clothes from the closet and left. Now that he took a closer look, most of the original owner’s old clothes had been worn for many years, and almost all of them had been washed until they were white and faded.
Pei Yi could only pick out a simple set of a white T-shirt and black trousers and grudgingly put them on.
Perhaps due to the environment he grew up in and his mentality, the original owner’s appearance was fair and young, not sharp at all, looking like a soft little milk cat or a little white rabbit.
It was only that now, he had such a black heart inside.
After tidying up, Pei Yi went downstairs. The kitchen on the first floor was still filled with the aroma of breakfast.
Bo Yueming sat in his seat with only one empty plate left on the table. He should have eaten already.
“Little Sir, come and sit down, what do you want to eat?” Uncle Kai placed the brewed coffee into Bo Yueming’s hand. “There are sandwiches and pastries, and I can also ask the kitchen to fry steak and eggs.”
Pei Yi didn’t have much need for breakfast, so he casually picked up the small rolls in the dining box on the table.
Seeing this, Uncle Kai asked, “What do you want to drink? Coffee?”
Pei Yi caught a glimpse of the hot coffee in Bo Yueming’s hand, and felt that the back of his tongue could already taste the bitterness. He suddenly remembered the red wine that he failed to drink last night, and lightly pursed his lips.
Before he could speak, Bo Yueming answered instead, “Is there any milk at home? Ask the kitchen to warm him a cup.”
“……”
Pei Yi was speechless.
Having received his instructions, Uncle Kai nodded and asked Pei Yi, “Little Sir, do you like warm milk?”
Pei Yi’s “no” got stuck in his throat, and he had to change his words in order to maintain his image. “En, I like.”
Compared with red wine or coffee, sweet drinks like milk did match the image of the original owner better.
Uncle Kai promptly went into the kitchen to order it to be prepared, and only Pei Yi and Bo Yueming were left in the spacious dining room. It was very quiet.
While pulling apart his roll, Pei Yi unconsciously glanced at the other’s elbow.
Compared with the relatively simple medicinal powder to stop the bleeding last night, the wound had been covered with a layer of waterproof anti-infection medical plaster.
Bo Yueming took a sip of coffee. “The wound is fine now.”
Pei Yi stopped tearing the roll and look at Bo Yueming uncertainly—
The other party’s eyes were still so deep, like a deep sea without ripples. They were obviously unable to see anything, but were filled with every subtle detail of light.
Bo Yueming set down his coffee. “Still staring at me?”
“Not, I’m not.”
Caught, Pei Yie got a little stuck for once. He had just swallowed the roll when Bo Yueming asked from the other side, “Pei Yi, would you like to see your mother?”
“……”
Pei Yi was taken aback for a moment, clearly not expecting the other party to bring this up.
Bo Yueming didn’t hear a response from Pei Yi, nor could he observe his expression, but the words had already been spoken, and he didn’t intend to stop halfway.
“Before the two families proposed marriage, I sent someone to inquire about your general situation.” Bo Yueming did not hide this fact. “I heard that Ms. Shu and Ms. Pei have been living in the Imperial Capital these years. Do they know about your marriage?”
Pei Yi shook his head, and immediately remembered Bo Yueming’s eyes. “Grandpa won’t let me see them.”
Bo Yueming had guessed that this would be the case. “If you feel the need to let them know about this, you can ask Uncle Kai to take you to them in the afternoon.”
When Pei Yi heard this proposal, a trace of surprise flickered in his eyes.
Before falling asleep last night, he was still thinking about how to meet the original owner’s mother and sister, but he didn’t expect that when he woke up, Bo Yueming would give them a chance to meet outright.
Pei Yi had made up his mind, but didn’t forget the original owner’s behavior. “I, I can go?”
Bo Yueming tapped the outside of the coffee cup with his fingertips. “You can.”
Last night, Pei Yi had mentioned his biological mother when treating the wound. Although it was just a word, it still reminded Bo Yueming of his own upbringing.
Since the other party wanted to meet, he would follow suit and let Uncle Kai take him to meet them.
Firstly, to “repay” Pei Yi’s kindness to him last night.
And secondly, to let Uncle Kai take the opportunity to discover the true nature of the mother and daughter, lest some greedy and unreliable people use Pei Yi’s name to cause trouble for the Bo family in the future.
. . . . . .
At two o’clock in the afternoon, the car stopped at the entrance of a dilapidated alley.
The original owner’s diary recorded the address of the original owner’s mother, Shu Wan. This was the same as the address that Bo Yueming had privately sought out, No. 26 Baiyang Alley.
The path made of stone slabs was full of potholes, and the walls of the alley on both sides were covered with moss and various printed advertisements. To be honest, the houses in this area could not be counted as good, and deviated from the norm.
As soon as Pei Yi stepped into the alley, the remnants of memory in his mind flooded out. The original owner’s mother and sister had always lived here, never moving away.
Uncle Kai approached. “Little Sir, do you remember this place? Is it here?”
Pei Yi nodded. Before he could say anything, there was a commotion in the depths of the alley.
“Am I the landlord or are you the landlord?”
“If you can’t pay the rent, then get out of here! If you live here for a long time, does that make it your own house? You still want to occupy my house by force and not leave?”
“So what if it’s not the end of the month? If you won’t sign the agreement today, then get out of here! There’s nothing to discuss!”
As their footsteps approached, the dispute became louder and louder.
— Bang!
A mess of items were thrown out through the gate of No. 26 and scattered all over the ground. Immediately afterwards, a middle-aged woman was violently pushed, and fell heavily from the house through the door.
“Hiss, ah.”
The woman’s hair was a little disheveled, and her wrist was bloodied by the stone path when she fell to the ground.
She paid no mind to the pain, and quickly picked up two photos on the ground with a forbearing and helpless look on her face. “Mr. Zheng, don’t bully people too much!”
Pei Yi caught a glimpse of the photos from the corner of his eye, and his expression shifted slightly.
An ordinary-looking man with a buzz cut stepped through the threshold and sneered at the middle-aged woman. “Don’t sell misery, I’m not buying it!”
After saying that, he noticed Pei Yi, Uncle Kai, and other nearby, and shouted impolitely, “Who are you, ah, why are you standing in front of my house watching the show? Leave, leave, leave!”
When the middle-aged woman heard this, she belatedly looked to the side, and the moment her eyes landed on Pei Yi, they reddened with surprise and joy.
“Xiao, Xiao Yi! How did you come here?”
Pei Yi officially confirmed the identity of the other party. That is, the original owner’s mother, Shu Wan. He quickly walked forward, helped the other party up from the ground, and looked at her scratched wrist with a heavy gaze.
“Does it hurt?”
“Xiao Yi, it’s really my Xiao Yi, ah!”
Shu Wan was immersed in the shock of seeing her own son, so she didn’t notice the tone of the inquiry. She tremblingly stroked Pei Yi’s shoulders, speechless, and didn’t know where to start.
“Let mom take a good look. Why have you lost so much weight? What about the bruises on your hands?”
Before the warmth of the mother-child meeting could last a few seconds, the landlord with the buzzcut opened his mouth to regain a sense of existence, “Hey, is this the foolish son you always talk about, ah?”
“He came just in time! If you don’t make up for the rent increase today, then get out of here together!”
His tone of voice became much ruder.
Shu Wang feared that the landlord’s violent temper would scare Pei Yi, so she forcibly shelved her inner helplessness and closely guarded her son behind her. “Mr. Zheng, my youngest son cannot be stimulated. Let’s talk politely if you have something to say, I beg you not to frighten him.”
Her voice was still lingering when a gentle but firm voice followed closely behind. “Mom! What are you talking about with such a shameless scoundrel!”
Everyone looked in unison at the person who had come, and a young girl with a beautiful and gentle appearance ran up. Their eyes met, and Pei Yi recognized her as the original owner’s sister, Pei Yuan.
Pei Yuan looked at Pei Yi with a pleasantly surprised smile, and then at Shu Wan’s injured wrist with distress. “Mom, why is Xiao Yi here? Are you all right?”
The landlord with a buzzcut who was called a “scoundrel” took a step forward with an angry look on his face. “Fuck, who the hell are you calling a scoundrel?”
Pei Yuan took a deep breath. She was clearly petite, but she still mustered the courage to stand in front of her mother and younger brother. “Zheng Bin, don’t think that this mother and daughter will tolerate you again and again!”
“In the past six months, you have violated the rental contract we made in the beginning and increased the monthly rent from 5,000 to 6,000, and then to 8,000. And now you want to increase it to 10,000!”[1]
“In any case, we are unwilling, and you just barged in to make trouble! You pushed my mom and sprained her foot last time, and now her wrist! In the end, who is the smelly, shameless person making fallacious arguments!”
The layout of this apartment was very small, and was also the place where Shu Wan and her husband Pei Ruye started their “household.”
The original landlord was Zheng Bin’s mother, a very gentle soul.
For more than twenty years, she, who was also a woman, knew that Shu Wan’s difficulties were not small, and they always took good care of each other during the holidays. Even if the price of goods rose over time, the rent increases were always within the means of the mother and daughter.
A year ago, the old landlord transferred the ownership of the house to her son, Zheng Bin. After the other party received it, he immediately demanded a price increase.
Shu Wan and Pei Yuan both agreed at the beginning. They couldn’t keep accepting the mother’s favor, so the two parties re-signed the rental contract, paid a deposit, and agreed to pay the rent every two months.
Shu Wan didn’t want her daughter to bear too much of the rent, and would rather get up early and return late to work two part-time jobs, but she never complained about suffering or exhaustion. Coupled with the savings left over from living frugally over the years, the rent was not difficult to settle.
They never thought that in half a year, Zheng Bin would outright renege on the price increase.
This house carried so many memories for Shu Wan, so she was unwilling to move away easily. In addition, after Old Mrs. Pei’s death, the mother and daughter had been rejected by the Pei family and hadn’t seen Pei Yi for a long time.
The address of this house was the only way Pei Yi knew to find them.
For the sake of the son and younger brother.
The mother and daughter gritted their teeth time and time again and agreed to the rent increases, but they didn’t expect Zheng Bin to be so outrageous!
The more Pei Yuan thought about it, the more angry and aggrieved she felt, and accused in a shaking voice, “Zheng Bin, the houses in this area cannot be rented at such a price! You just assume that we absolutely need this house, and think that orphans and widows are soft persimmons, so you raise the rent arbitrarily and unreasonably!”
He wildly breached the contract and increased the price during the lease period, and each time, the door-to-door rent shakedown violence became increasingly severe. The rent of 10,000 yuan was not a small amount in the Imperial Capital, either!
“Let me tell you! I’ve kept all the rental contacts and transfer records!”
Pei Yuan was also afraid of this big and tall Zheng Bin, but for the sake of the thin mother and ignorant younger brother, she took a choked breath, “If you dare to act recklessly again, we will go to the police station to deal with it! They’ll see who the real unreasonable scoundrel is!”
“You…..”
Zheng Bin knew he was in the wrong, but he didn’t want to lose face to Pei Yuan. He angrily raised a fist to scare off the person in front of him. “Don’t think I dare not hit a woman!”
As soon as the threatening words came out—
Pei Yi, who was being protected by the mother and daughter, couldn’t take it any longer and rushed forward to punch him!
[1] In USD, about $700, $850, $1200, and $1500 respectively. ⮐
