Chapter 92: A Small Lie
Pei Qian’s family resided in a small county near Jingzhou City; it wasn’t that far away. After getting off a hired car, Pei Qian took a look at his bearings; he wanted to see if there were any loose ends. The suit, the leather belt, the leather shoes, etc. that he wore normally had all been left in his rented apartment; he had not brought any of those along.
Especially for things like a Rolex, he could never bring them home.
In the bag that he carried were also some daily necessities. That Alienware computer that cost 10,500 yuan; he naturally couldn’t bring it home. The notebook that Pei Qian had now was the one he had bought when he entered school.
It wasn’t that Pei Qian was overly cautious; the crux was that his parents were both super sleuths.
Did anyone really think that they could hide anything from their parents?
This person would be too naive and young.
Pei Qian did not want to start a huge debate with Old Pei about ‘whether games were mental opium or not’ if he was really found out.
After checking himself and his belongings, Pei Qian found that everything was in order. Pei Qian then walked to the apartment, took out his key, and opened the door. Once he entered, he immediately smelled an aroma of cooked food.
“Son, you’re back?” Pei Qian’s mom, who was cooking in the kitchen, heard the door open and asked as she continued cooking.
“Young brat is back? Come, come. Come and savor the tea leaves that your big uncle had specially brought back.” Old Pei was just arranging the tea set on the table.
It was still a familiar sight; nothing had changed. It seemed as if he had returned to ten years ago. Pei Qian noticed that at that time, his parents did not have so much white hair.
“I’ll put my bag down first. Where are my slippers?”
“I’ve kept them for you. Old Pei, go into the cabinet and take out your son’s slippers! I’m quite busy now,” Mom shouted from the kitchen.
Old Pei begrudgingly got up from the sofa. “Which cabinet?”
“The bottom of the closet in Son’s room!”
Pei Qian changed into his slippers, placed down his bag, and leaned into the sofa.
Comfortable!
Although this sofa at home wasn’t that expensive, it actually felt so much more comfortable than the tens of thousands of yuan sofa in the company guest room! Home-cooked food smelled so much better than the few-hundred-yuan buffet that he had eaten before during cohesion!
As for the tea leaves at home…
Pfft, what lousy tea leaves!
Pei Qian took a sip of this special tea that Old Pei said some big uncle had specially brought back as he almost spat it out.
It was so hard to drink!
He drank good tea in the company daily, and his taste buds had been spoiled; he found it so hard to drink this ordinary tea.
“How is it? This tea is not bad, right?” Old Pei sipped his tea as he smiled and asked.
“En, not bad.” Pei Qian quietly pushed his teacup away. It seemed like he had to find some chance to get some good tea for Old Pei to taste. He couldn’t take from the company as that was company assets; it could only be used to entertain guests and not for personal use.
However, Pei Qian wasn’t broke anymore; he could easily use his tens of thousands of Personal Wealth to buy a box of good tea for Old Pei. Thinking about his house’s condition, Pei Qian’s desire to generate more of his Personal Wealth grew exceedingly strong.
His family lived in an ordinary two-bedroom apartment; it was around a hundred square meters. Furthermore, as this was a rather recent purchase, his parents were still paying off a housing loan.
Although his mom had kept it sparkling clean—whether it was the furniture, electrical appliances or furnishings; everything was a little old. His family was an ordinary working-class one; while there weren’t financial difficulties, his parents were still rather thrifty.
Pei Qian looked at the television at home.
“Dad, should we change the television at home? It’s quite small.”
Old Pei squinted, “Why should we change it? It’s still usable! Furthermore, your mother and I do not watch much television normally.”
“How about this washing machine? Shall we get one with a drum?” Pei Qian asked again.
Old Pei still shook his head. “One with a drum? How expensive would that be? Furthermore, this one has served as well. If we changed to a new one, where are we going to put this one?”
“Our toilet’s floor is also not flat. Whenever this washing machine shakes, it feels as if it is going to fall apart; it’s quite disturbing,” Pei Qian said. “You two don’t have to worry; I’ll buy one as well as some support pads so that there wouldn’t be noise when it operates.”
“Support pads?”
“They can be used to adjust the height of the washing machine’s four legs. At that time, when the washing machine is placed flat, it wouldn’t shake uncontrollably anymore,” Pei Qian explained.
“Well, I think we can buy some support pads. However, we don’t have to use your money, little brat. Aye, wait, no, something’s not right.”
Old Pei thought about it and asked, “Why are you thinking of buying a washing machine on your own? Where are you getting this money from?”
Pei Qian knew that Old Pei would definitely ask this. He replied, “It’s like this. I got a job as an actor for a small-scale show. The director is giving me thirty thousand as remuneration.”
“How much? Thirty thousand?!” Old Pei blew out air as he continued, “Don’t lie to me! Even you can be in a show? The remuneration is also thirty thousand? More like you paying people thirty thousand to be in a show!”
“Dad, how can you say that? For someone like your son, don’t you think thirty thousand yuan is reasonable?” Pei Qian replied unhappily.
“Don’t even try; I don’t believe you!” Although Old Pei was evidently happy, he still said adamantly, “Unless you show me the clip!”
“The clip? It hasn’t been uploaded yet. I’m raising this matter to tell you guys that I can earn my own money now; you guys don’t have to give me allowance anymore,” Pei Qian said.
Old Pei shook his head. “We’ll still give you your allowance as usual. It’s good that you are earning your own keep. However, don’t put too much financial pressure on yourself; studies are still the most important, understand?”
As the two were talking, Mom shouted from the kitchen, “Time to eat!”
Pei Qian and Old Pei hurriedly washed their hands and brought the dishes out.
On the dinner table, Pei Qian—who normally didn’t like to drink—made an exception and accompanied Old Pei to drink two glasses of bulk-purchased baijiu1 with wolfberries. He also ate more than normal.
Home was still the best!
Old Pei evidently drank a little more than normal as he started to educate Pei Qian about things and even bragged to Pei Qian’s mom about how his son had been hired to shoot in a show—how that was because of his superior genes. Mom kept on rolling her eyes as she then mentioned that someone was going to wash the dishes tonight.
After eating, it was almost nine at night. Pei Qian had wanted to wash the dishes. However, he was forcibly pushed into his room by Old Pei who said that he must be tired from traveling and to rest soon.
It wasn’t too late to start doing chores tomorrow.
Pei Qian did not argue with Old Pei as he went back to his room and started to surf the internet.
Pei Qian was very clear that he could not keep hiding his company from his parents; he would be exposed sooner or later.
Before that happened, he had to make preparations first.
Pei Qian had more than fifty thousand yuan in Personal Wealth; changing some household electric appliances for his family was within his abilities. However, he had to be able to explain clearly where he got the money from.
If he said that he earned it from games, Old Pei was going to go all out against him. Hence, Pei Qian thought about it and decided to first let Old Pei know about the short videos to lay the groundwork. He wanted to let Old Pei know that he was able to earn his own keep now so that Old Pei would not persistently ask about his source of monies.
After that, Pei Qian would try to slowly change Old Pei’s thinking… to not have such a strong bias against games. He would then tell Old Pei the truth after that, saying that he had opened his own games company.
After surfing the internet for a while, Pei Qian felt very sleepy as he washed up and slept very early.