Don’t Covet the Beautiful System!! - Chap 5
Fu Chengze wondered if there was something wrong with his hearing.
Why didn’t he understand what this child was saying?
“Who is your brother?”
He suddenly remembered the two brothers the girls had mentioned just now. He immediately looked up and saw Pei Qingyuan lining up to buy the savory crepes.
However, this teenager wearing the same school uniform as him just glanced at him coldly before looking away.
Fu Chengze was even more puzzled. “Your brother? I don’t even know him. Why would I beat him up?”
He was a school tyrant in the 2nd High School and his daily routine was to go to class, sleep and play basketball after class. After school, he would go to the Internet cafe to fight to the death on the computer with his sworn opponents from the 5th High School. He occasionally fought and didn’t pay attention to anyone in school except for the beauties.
It wasn’t long after the new semester started in September and Pei Qingyuan was transferred to another class according to the normal process. His outstanding appearance attracted the attention of some girls, but he wasn’t very famous at school. Fu Chengze hadn’t known about him. Then this weekend, he heard about the strange event of the leopard cat being exchanged for the prince from Pei Yan and he remembered the name Pei Qingyuan.
So even though he said he wanted to beat up Pei Qingyuan, he couldn’t know at all that it was Pei Qingyuan standing in front of him.
The little boy heard this and his cute smile was immediately filled with confusion. “If you don’t know him, why did you say that the fake’s family is bad?”
Fu Chengze froze a bit at this sharp question. He opened his mouth to speak, only to stop. His undeveloped brain had finally realized. “Your brother is Pei…”
Ji Tong didn’t wait for him to finish. He tiptoed and tugged at the hem of the school uniform, interrupting. “You are too tall and it is so tiring to look up. Can you crouch down and talk to me?”
Hearing the first half of the child’s sentence, a type of pride engraved in his DNA surged in Fu Chengze’s heart. He coughed and fake complained, “A height of 1.85 meters is so troublesome.”
Fu Chengze immediately crouched down obediently and stared into the little boy’s eyes.
He was interrupted by the child like this and it seemed that more than half the energy he used to vow that he would vent his anger for Pei Yan had disappeared.
He controlled his volume and calmly confirmed it. “Is your brother Pei Qingyuan?”
Ji Tong nodded and looked at him seriously. “Don’t call him a fake. He has done nothing wrong and he is innocent.”
His voice was very soft. He deliberately didn’t want Pei Qingyuan to hear it through the chattering crowd.
“He was very young when he was replaced, so young that he didn’t know anything. It is the fault of the adults. If my brother could choose by himself, he would want to be with his mother daily.”
Ji Tong’s tone was clear, without too many emotions. His big eyes stared at Fu Chengze brightly, as if he was just stating an ordinary thing. But for some reason, Fu Chengze was a bit sad after hearing it.
He recalled the harsh words he said a moment ago and felt a bit guilty.
Pei Yan hadn’t said anything bad about Pei Qingyuan. He only said that his adoptive mother secretly switched him and Pei Qingyuan in the hospital. He thought that after correcting the mistake, the two families would be able to live their own lives. Then at the welcome banquet held for him by the Pei family, he saw Pei Qingyuan suddenly appear at the banquet. He didn’t know if it was a coincidence or for some other reason.
Fu Chengze had preconceived ideas. He thought that Pei Qingyuan, who had lived a rich life for over 10 years, must be nostalgic for the life of the Pei family and was unwilling to leave. He wanted to compete with Pei Yan for his parents and it was in the same vein as his mother, who could switch babies at birth.
In fact, he didn’t know Pei Qingyuan at all and he had no way of knowing what was in this person’s heart. It was just the prejudice caused by stereotypes that defined him.
Therefore, Fu Chengze crouched down even lower. His originally tight calves and belly softened and he said a bit awkwardly, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.”
Then he suddenly had a question. “Aren’t they both the only children in their family?”
Why was there a child who called Pei Qingyuan his brother?
Ji Tong thought about how this would help the host get rid of a potential villain. He was worthy of being the smartest AI in the system world. He lied without changing his expression, “Brother Qingyuan is my tutor and I really like him. My parents are too busy with work and don’t care about me. I wish I really had such a brother.”
Ji Tong became even more satisfied with the nonsense setting of ‘a three year old child of a wealthy family who is being tutored by Pei Qingyuan.’ He decided to use it as his external identity and improve it.
In this way, it didn’t matter if someone needed to find his parents. He might not be able to turn into an adult form for the time being but he could invade the communication systems through data. He could create the voice of a strong, elegant woman or a cold boss when answering the phone. He could also quarrel or act spoiled with his parents on the phone.
He liked to call it a fun cyber double act.
Fu Chengze didn’t doubt his explanation at all. He had already spontaneously made up a sad story about two non-blood related brothers who weren’t loved by their parents accompanying each other.
He patted his chest and promised, “Don’t worry, I definitely won’t bully your brother in school. I’ll protect him from now on.”
“Big brother is so nice.” Ji Tong moved his gaze down to the hot savory crepe in this person’s hands. “The savory crepe smells so delicious.”
Fu Chengze smirked when he heard this and hadn’t yet realized what he would lose.
“Are you so tall because you eat savory crepes every day? I also want to grow as tall as you. I’m so envious.”
The next second, Fu Chengze waved his hand and gave the savory crepe to Ji Tong without hesitation.
“I have good genes and there is nothing I can do. You should eat this and strive to grow taller!”
Ji Tong smiled and took a mouthful of his delicious trophy. “Thank you, Brother Gao.” (Gao=tall)
Fu Chengze was quite satisfied with this title. He got on his bicycle and whistled while riding to school. He had long forgotten his bold ambition to beat someone to the point of calling him Father.
On the other side, Pei Qingyuan saw Ji Tong, who ran back using his short legs with an extra crepe in his hands. Ji Tong’s tone was very proud. “We have one each. I tricked him out of his breakfast and he is going to be hungry.”
Pei Qingyuan didn’t ask what he said to Fu Chengze, but Pei Qingyuan’s understanding of the intelligence of his system rose to a new level.
He originally bought a crepe with egg and meat for Ji Tong. Now there was one per person. He might’ve already eaten breakfast but it was just porridge that didn’t make him full. Now he saw Ji Tong eating so deliciously and was also hungry.
The autumn morning sun was warm and bright. Pei Qingyuan and Ji Tong stood beside each other, eating crepes on the bicycle. The shade of the trees were mottled with spots of light.
Ji Tong had been hungry since yesterday evening and he now ate very devoutly. “The crepes are so delicious. It is nice to be a human.”
Pei Qingyuan smiled slightly when he heard this strange emotion from the artificial intelligence. “If you like it, I will bring you to buy it every morning.”
“Let’s have breakfast together.” Ji Tong hurriedly nodded. “It isn’t that I don’t think it is delicious, but this is more delicious.”
The Luo family wasn’t poor enough that they could only eat porridge to get by. It was just that this was the most trouble-free way. It also proved that Luo Xiuyun really wasn’t paying attention to her own son, Pei Qingyuan, who needed adequate nutrition in adolescence.
He didn’t know what breakfast Luo Xiuyun prepared for Pei Yan every morning when he was in school.
Ji Tong felt it shouldn’t be porridge, side dishes and fermented bean curd.
Pei Qingyuan obviously understood this too. He lowered his eyes and replied, “Okay.”
He liked this morning when his life’s trajectory went off track.
The sunlight engraved the two figures next to each other on the asphalt road, shining brightly.
In the days after he moved to the Luo family, he was always alone. Now there was a small shadow next to him.
“System, what shape are you?” Pei Qingyuan suddenly asked. “You… what do you look like?”
Ji Tong quickly replied, “A little robot, not very tall, formed from data streams. I am full of green light and sometimes drop electron particles, just like human hair loss. I can also change color.”
He could’ve shown it directly to Pei Qingyuan, but it was inconvenient in public.
“Host, you have to work hard to do the task. Once your growth value is sufficient, we can meet at any time in the consciousness space.
Pei Qingyuan carefully imagined what he described and promised. “I will.”
Ji Tong rubbed his belly with satisfaction after eating all of the savory crepe. At the same time, he received a piece of data released by the system center.
[An emergency meeting will be held in the system center in 20 minutes. All systems are requested to arrange today’s schedule to avoid affecting the host and plotline. Be sure to attend on time.]
…The editor of this system center was quite human-like when it came to notifications.
Ji Tong couldn’t help being excited at the thought that he would soon see other system colleagues. He looked at Pei Qingyuan. “Host, I will soon go to the system center for a meeting. The length is uncertain and you might not be able to contact me for a while. Don’t be nervous.”
Pei Qingyuan was surprised by what the system was going to do today. He digested the novel knowledge that systems actually had meetings. “Okay, I understand.”
He also finished his second breakfast and it was time to go to school.
Ji Tong sat on the curb and waved happily at him. “I’ll see you after school in the evening.”
Pei Qingyuan got on the bicycle and answered in the midst of the wind, “See you after school.”
No one had ever told him that they would see him after school.
Luo Xiuyun didn’t say it, nor did his former mother Ye Lanting. There was no need to mention Pei Minghong, who was busy with work all year round and left early and returned late.
Ye Lanting’s evenings were always spent with a group of equally exquisite and beautiful ladies. They watched the sunset in well-tended gardens and complained about their husbands, who weren’t home and only knew how to spend money to please others. They also talked about the news of wealthy families that were updated every day. Ye Lanting just hadn’t expected that her own family affairs would become part of it one day.
Would Pei Yan’s arrival change all of that?
Pei Qingyuan thought vaguely while speeding up and rushing harder into the wind.
At the gate of the 2nd middle school, the campus was extremely noisy today. The faces of the students were filled with a type of subtle excitement; many were whispering with each other.
“Is that true? Our school has such a rich second generation?”
“Of course, it is true. Have you seen that transfer student? What class is he in? Those parents were really ruthless, letting the fake son transfer to the school their real son attended.”
“It is the third class. I’ve seen him. He is quite handsome—f*k, the one who came in just now!”
“Where is Brother Fu? I heard Brother Fu saying in the morning that he was going to clean up the fake goods… Brother Fu, Brother Fu, over here!”
After arriving at school, Fu Chengze had walked into class and sat down. Then he saw his classmate at the next table eating bread and his stomach grumbled with hunger. He finally remembered that he didn’t seem to have eaten breakfast.
He had to go downstairs to buy it again, only to be stopped halfway by a classmate who wanted to watch something good.
Fu Chengze turned his head impatiently and looked straight at Pei Qingyuan, who was pushing his bicycle in.
Under the fiery gazes of the crowd watching the excitement, Pei Qingyuan was expressionless. He naturally remembered Fu Chengze’s words about beating him up at the savory crepes stall.
He hadn’t fought much but he had received some self-defense education such as taekwondo and karate since he was a child. He might not necessarily lose to Fu Chengze, a tall man who was showing his anger right now.
He was just about to roll up his sleeves when he saw Fu Chengze walk to the boy who ignited the flames and mercilessly hit him on the back of the head.
“The one I am protecting, I dare you!”
Pei Qingyuan: “……?”
The author has something to say:
Pei Qingyuan: Are you stupid from hunger?
