Chapter 9
All right, that was getting off topic. Back to the main point.
After that incident, even though Jiang Qingyu had deliberately tried to learn about car brands, in the end, he still could not remember every car model, its corresponding logo, and its price. Even after he later got his driver’s license, he still did not know much about these things.
But now, with just a light tap, the vehicle introduced on the virtual screen would appear before his eyes in real life. He could examine it however he wanted.
It was as if he had suddenly become addicted to a dress-up game. Relying on the fact that the place where he had parked was remote, and after asking the system to help confirm that there were no cameras nearby, he played even more recklessly.
In his eyes, this one looked good, and that one looked good too. The numbers on the virtual screen were not nearly as interesting to Jiang Qingyu as the cars’ colors and appearances.
There was no game on the market as realistic as this. Even though Jiang Qingyu was not very interested in luxury cars, that did not stop him from constantly taking photos and changing skins, having so much fun that he could not stop. He was so excited, like a little boy who had just come into contact with a new toy and could happily fiddle with it for over an hour.
Of course, there came a point when any game became tiring. Jiang Qingyu more or less changed through most of the luxury car models available on the market. He took a few photos of the ones he liked and saved them on his phone as a collection. Then he adjusted the exterior back to that original little RV and happily returned inside.
He had originally planned to tidy up and go to sleep, but before bed, he still could not resist playing on his phone for a while. While scrolling through his Moments, Jiang Qingyu saw someone there whom even he had forgotten when he had added as a friend.
It was his cousin’s girlfriend.
She had been preparing for her wedding recently, so everything she posted on Moments was related to the wedding: invitations, bouquets, and the three gold jewelry pieces. The nine-photo grid was packed full. Among them were several wedding photos taken in Dali, and they were quite beautiful.
His cousin, standing beside her, also looked very much like a proper person.
Jiang Qingyu looked at their chat history and remembered why he had her as a friend.
Before, when his eldest uncle had come to his grandmother’s house, he had brought his cousin and his girlfriend along. Later, his eldest uncle said he had something to discuss with Jiang Qingyu’s grandparents and sent the young people out to have fun. This future cousin-in-law said she wanted to go shopping, so she ordered Jiang Qingyu around like a bag-carrying lackey and even bossed him into buying milk tea and desserts.
She added him on WeChat, saying she would transfer the money to him. In reality, she forgot as soon as she turned around. Sometimes, when the whim suddenly struck her, she would send him a WeChat message saying she wanted to eat something from a certain shop and tell Jiang Qingyu to buy it for her. Her tone was as if she were speaking to a servant.
Of course, Jiang Qingyu ignored her.
Later, as more messages came in, her chat box was gradually pushed down, and Jiang Qingyu forgot about this person. The last time his eldest uncle sent a message saying that his cousin was getting married, he had not even remembered that he still had his cousin’s girlfriend on WeChat.
Now that he realized this person was still in his friends list, Jiang Qingyu’s first reaction was to put her on the blacklist too. But halfway through the operation, he suddenly thought of something and instead went to his photo album to choose pictures.
He pressed his lips together, a sly smile flashing through his eyes. He selected one of the luxury car photos he had just taken and added the caption: Finally have my own car. So happy~
When typing that little tilde, Jiang Qingyu could not help laughing out loud. With a light tap of his finger, he set this Moments post to be visible only to her.
Perhaps his cousin’s girlfriend had also forgotten that she had added Jiang Qingyu, but as long as she saw this Moments post, she would definitely remember.
Afraid that she might think he had photoshopped it, Jiang Qingyu even specially ran out of the RV, changed the “skin” back again, and took a photo of himself with the car, as well as a photo sitting in the driver’s seat.
When people were doing bad things, they did not mind a little trouble.
In any case, the sky was high and the emperor was far away. He was traveling by RV, and his stopping point changed every day. Even if they used connections to find out where Jiang Qingyu was, that would only be temporary.
If his eldest uncle’s family had their heads turned by Jiang Qingyu’s so-called luxury car and came looking for him, they would only see an empty RV campsite.
A luxury car?
Sorry, the security guard at the entrance had never seen one. The people at the RV campsite had never seen one either.
Besides, they were not Jiang Qingyu’s biological parents. The child was already an adult, so they could not very well call the police and say he was missing, right? As soon as the police contacted Jiang Qingyu, would everything not be exposed? Making a false police report was also a very serious matter.
But Jiang Qingyu understood this family of relatives from his eldest uncle’s side very well. Watching him drive a luxury car and live a good life, yet being unable to see it, touch it, or leech off him—this would simply be more unbearable than death for them.
Maybe they would even gnash their teeth and curse him behind his back for being heartless and ungrateful, saying that after getting lucky and becoming rich, he did not even know to help his relatives.
Just thinking of that scene made Jiang Qingyu happy enough to eat an extra bowl of rice.
But not tonight. If he was going to eat more, he would do it tomorrow.
Jiang Qingyu set his phone to Do Not Disturb mode, then lay back down on the bed in an excellent mood. He pulled the blanket up under his neck and entered dreamland with a smile.
As expected, Jiang Qingyu’s Moments post caused a huge uproar in his eldest uncle’s family group chat.
Jiang Qingyu’s future cousin-in-law was a young woman who spent a lot of time online. During the day aside, even before bed at night, she had to scroll through short-video apps and Moments before she could fall asleep. At first, she had not paid attention to the Moments post Jiang Qingyu made. After all, there were plenty of people on her friends list flaunting wealth, though whether they had stolen the photos or not was another matter.
But just as she scrolled past it, her brain reminded her that the note name just now had seemed wrong. She hurriedly swiped back, only to discover that beside the luxury car stood a face that was somewhat unfamiliar, but which she absolutely remembered.
It was that poor nephew from her future father-in-law’s family. His parents had abandoned him and run away, and he had grown up with his grandparents.
Those two old people, honestly. This boy had clearly gotten into a decent university, and it looked like he would soon be able to earn money and let the old couple enjoy life. Who would have thought his grandmother’s body would be so useless? It was only a minor illness, yet she actually passed away just like that.
The old couple had a good relationship. Once his wife left, the grandfather could not hold on for long either and followed her.
She had met Jiang Qingyu a few times. He looked all right, but he was too thin. Most of the time, he was silent and did not like talking to people. He was also a little obedient on the surface while doing the opposite behind people’s backs.
When she told him to buy something, he agreed verbally and said he understood, but in the blink of an eye he disappeared and would not reply to messages. What kind of person was that?
If her future mother-in-law had not casually complained to her a few days ago that this person was an ungrateful wretch who did not know how to appreciate kindness, disappearing after taking money and not even coming to attend his cousin’s wedding, she probably would not have remembered him at all.
But had they not said Jiang Qingyu did not have much money, had not received a share of the house, and had only gotten a tiny bit of his grandparents’ inheritance?
He would not even qualify for a loan to buy this car, right?
On top of that, Jiang Qingyu had been taking good care of himself during this period. His complexion was rosy, and he looked extremely well, so at first glance, she had not even matched the face in her memory to the person in the photo.
Was it photoshopped?
She saved the photo and specially went to an app to check whether there were any traces of Photoshop. She even opened a membership just for it.
But the result made her furious. Forget photoshopping in a luxury car—he had not even used basic beautification filters like skin smoothing, face slimming, or eye enlargement!
No, this had to be wrong, right? Jiang Qingyu had the ability to buy a car worth over a million? On what basis? Maybe the software had failed to recognize it. How could this not be photoshopped?
Unwilling to give up, she switched to another app to test it. She went on a shopping platform to find someone to verify it, and even censored the photo before posting it on social media, asking netizens to help identify it.
Jiang Qingyu must have used some relatively advanced technology to synthesize this picture… right?
Software could not speak and would only give her results, but netizens’ mouths were much sharper.
People spent all day online reviewing “memorials,” selling goods, starting accounts, plagiarizing—because the internet was convenient, the world was full of strange things. Everyone saw through her little thoughts clearly and commented under her post one after another, telling her to tone down the sourness. They said she was jealous. What was wrong with someone buying a luxury car with his own ability? If she liked one, she should go earn money and buy one herself.
In the middle of the night, she was so angry at the netizens’ comments that she could not sleep, tossing and turning in bed.
What “through his own effort”? Half a month ago, this person was still an unemployed young man who had been kicked out of his home and had nowhere to go, all right? Aside from winning the lottery, what method could let him drive a million-yuan luxury car in such a short time?
Wait. Buying lottery tickets?
She suddenly understood something.
Jiang Qingyu, who was sound asleep, could never have imagined that this cousin-in-law of his would toss and turn all night, only to finally arrive at such a conclusion.
But it seemed… this was also the most reasonable explanation?
Surely it could not be that he had attached himself to some rich person and suddenly met someone with a feverish brain who immediately gave him a million-yuan luxury car.
That possibility was far too low.
And so, the screenshot of this Moments post was quickly sent to the family group chat. Ever since her boyfriend had taken her home to meet the parents, she had been pulled into this group and often chatted in it.
At this hour, aside from her boyfriend, probably no one else was still awake. Naturally, he saw this message and likely found it unbelievable too, sending her a question mark.
He had gone home today because he had something to do, so he was not with his girlfriend. Originally, after finishing his game, he had already been getting ready to sleep. But when he saw this message from his girlfriend, he instantly woke up again.
A few hours later, his eldest uncle and aunt also saw this Moments post.
Someone they had once looked down on had suddenly struck it lucky and started driving a luxury car. On top of that, he looked like he was living even better than before. This was something they had no way of accepting.
Most importantly, they had just happened to be looking at cars these days, wanting to buy a commuting car for their son and daughter-in-law to use for work in the future.
A car in the hundred-thousand-yuan range—they had chosen over and over, yet were not very satisfied with any of them.
If Jiang Qingyu’s car were given to them…
Jiang Qingyu had even been worried that his Moments post would not be seen by his cousin-in-law. He had planned that if there was no movement on WeChat tomorrow, he would post a few more. Unexpectedly, the moment he opened his eyes and drowsily reached for his phone to check the time, the screen showed that WeChat had dozens of unread messages.
Jiang Qingyu immediately became much more awake. He tucked the blanket slightly under his chin and unlocked his phone in a daze to read the messages.
Sure enough, aside from promotional messages, almost all of them had been sent by that cousin-in-law of his.
Some were text, and some were voice messages.
The text was probably written by her herself. It completely changed from her previous bossy tone, as if she had become a different person, asking after him with warmth and concern.
If the contact note and the photo on her Moments had not been correct, Jiang Qingyu might really have thought he had mistaken her for someone else.
She wrote a long essay, giving Jiang Qingyu a round of emotional manipulation. She said things like how the elders at home could not contact him and were extremely worried. He should know that older people were sharp-tongued but soft-hearted. In truth, everyone cared about him, and so on. During the time he had left home, his eldest uncle and the others had nearly gone crazy looking for him.
She also told Jiang Qingyu not to be willful and to hurry home.
Jiang Qingyu only found it funny as he read it. Home? Whose home? His and his grandparents’ home had long since been impatiently sold off by his eldest uncle and the others after the two old people passed away.
If he remembered correctly, when they kicked him out, his aunt had even mocked him, telling him to work hard in the future, though he probably should not dream of buying a house. As long as he did not end up sleeping under a bridge, that would be good enough.
Of course, Jiang Qingyu had fired back at the time. It was just that their ugly faces were still vivid in his memory even now.
Not only that, he tapped open a few voice messages and listened. They were actually from his eldest uncle and aunt.
After realizing this, Jiang Qingyu immediately converted the voice messages to text. He did not want to hear the voices of those two people at all.
The content was still the same sort of thing, said in hypocritical tones. They spouted high-sounding words like, “Your eldest uncle’s home will always welcome you.”
Jiang Qingyu stroked the tail Meimei had placed beside his arm and calmly typed:
“No need. I recently made a huge fortune, so next I plan to travel around the world. Since Grandpa and Grandma aren’t here anymore anyway, I probably won’t ever go back.”
