Song Ci hates his parents, and he hates that house.
Every day at dinner, his mother grills him about his grades, while his father is like a silent wall.
All he wants is to get into a school far away, as far away as possible.
In his second year of high school, his father dies, and the house is transferred to a stranger.
His mother calls the man a "mistress's lover."
Then his mother dies too.
Song Ci is an orphan with nowhere to go.
In the end, he has no choice but to knock on the door of the home he knows so well.
A man in a loose T-shirt, looking careless and louche, opens the door. "Ma'am, how many times have I told you? Your husband and I really have nothing to do with each other..."
At a glance, Song Ci knows Zhang Xuan is exactly the sort of person he hates most.
But he has no other choice, so he wedges his luggage in the doorway.
"I don't have a home anymore. This is my home. I'm coming back."
"Wait, kid. You can't just accuse someone of being a scammer like that."
*
A few years ago, Song Ci's father lost his investment, took Zhang Xuan's money, and ran off. Zhang Xuan never expected that before he died, the man would have enough conscience to mortgage the house back to him.
It's just... why did the house come with an extra inheritance?
The kid is hard to handle and clearly looks down on him.
Song Ci can't be bothered to talk to him and snaps whenever he does. They haven't even lived together for a week before Song Ci tries to run away.
Fine, fine... Since you have to go to school every day, I, Zhang Xuan, will magnanimously forgive you.
*
Song Ci thinks Zhang Xuan is materialistic, troublesome, and shameless.
He even wonders if Zhang Xuan took him in only because of the little bit of money his parents left behind.
He used to want to escape his parents. Now he wants to escape this man. All he can do is study as hard as he can. He has to get into a school far away.
But Zhang Xuan drifts through his life with his usual careless air, and from then on, nobody talks about studying at the dinner table.
Riding his beat-up three-wheeled cart, he passes Song Ci's school, tells the teacher he has "important business," then brings Song Ci milk tea, apples, and water.
Living with the "other man," Song Ci should have left without a second thought after the college entrance exams.
But this drab, gray man left a vivid mark on his life.
In the meaningless, unbearable first half of his life, he found something he most wanted to take with him.
*
"Zhang Xuan, come to Beijing with me."
Theme: Study hard and make progress every day.
