Chapter Ninety-Two: The Small Matter of My Father Actually Being a Hidden Big Shot, Part Two

He had spent three years licking the boots of the unreachable dream man of the Meng family, doing everything in his power to please him. Everyone thought he had succeeded, that he had truly made the man fall for him.

But he had been wrong. To that man, he was nothing more than a clown to pass the time.

To win his favor, and to make himself worthy of him, he had even cut himself off from his adoptive parents, who had loved him as their own child.

He had stood helplessly by while the brother who had always been kind to him since childhood had his leg crushed, and yet, because of one glance from that man, he had chosen to stand against his own brother.

He had cast aside his dignity, his pride, and everything else, only to become a joke.

Yes, Meng Yuan was the crown prince of the capital’s elite circle. If he had not been taken back by the Tan family, he would have been nothing but an ugly duckling. How could he have dared to hope for Meng Yuan’s affection?

Years later, he thought he had long since let go of the past, until a class reunion brought him face to face with Meng Yuan again.

Unlike back then, Meng Yuan now had a sweet-faced,娇憨 girl at his side.

Tan Yuanyuan had thought she would not be hurt, but she found she had overestimated herself.

Meng Yuan treated the girl with utmost tenderness and care, a stark contrast to how he had treated her in the past.

Feeling bleak inside, she drank bitterly and bitterly mocked herself. After the gathering ended, she only wanted to leave as quickly as possible, but in the elevator at her residence, she ran into Meng Yuan and the girl.

She treated him like a stranger, as though she had never known him. Yet after seeing the girl off, Meng Yuan cornered her at her door.

Reeking of alcohol, Meng Yuan forcibly drew her into his arms, and his domineering kiss swallowed her every breath.

Her heart turned cold. What did he take her for?

Tan Yuanyuan angrily pushed Meng Yuan away, only to compromise because of a single sentence from him.

“Don’t you want to know where your crippled brother is?”

Tan Yuanyuan became Meng Yuan’s secret lover, putting up with his inexplicable attempt to rekindle old flames, all for the sake of finding her adoptive family’s whereabouts and making amends for her own mistakes back then.

She warned herself never to fall in love, but in the end, she still could not avoid sinking into it.

When the Meng family learned of her existence and took the initiative to bring news of her adoptive parents before her, she knew it was over.

She boarded a plane without farewell or reluctance, leaving as though waking from a dream.

Who could have known that a small life had already taken root in her womb?

Fortunately, her adoptive parents forgave her mistakes. They treated her as they always had and were willing to accept her and the child.

She thought the absurdity of youth had finally been left behind, and that her life would return to peace, when Meng Yuan came looking for her again.

His eyes were red as he stared at her savagely. “You think you can run off happily with Qin Yancheng? I’m telling you, dream on. That cripple will pay the price he deserves!”

For the sake of her family, she chose compromise once more. But what, in the end, did she amount to in Meng Yuan’s eyes?

She was so weary that at one point she even thought of ending her life.

But her aging adoptive parents, her brother, and her still-young son—all of them seemed able to become leverage for this man to threaten her with. She had nowhere to run.

If life could begin again, she thought, she would probably stay as far away from Meng Yuan as possible, instead of throwing herself toward the raging fire of a abyss she knew would burn her to ash.

After reading the story, Qin Ye touched his chin and fell into thought.

Ah?

Ah!

Ah.

So the original family was merely one part of the male and female leads’ game. They were pure cannon fodder.

He had thought this time he had the script of switched true and fake heiresses. Who would have imagined that the true and fake heiresses did not even deserve any screen time?

Good heavens, Qin Ye could only call it good heavens. What exactly was love?

This was what they called love.

Qin Ye could not help leaning back in tactical astonishment.

Although one of his legs was in a cast and suspended high in the air, it did not affect Qin Yancheng at all as he played games. Seeing this, he asked, “Dad, what’s wrong? Cramps in your leg?”

“I just thought of something that would shatter your worldview.”

“What is it?”

“My son says he likes my daughter.”

Qin Yancheng: ...

“Hey, my leg’s already broken because of you. Can we let that go?”

If he went back and his roommates found out his leg had been broken, and then found out it had been broken by his own father, and then dug further and learned it was because he had said he wanted to be with his own sister—

He would become a living joke his roommates would never be able to live down for the rest of their lives!

A brother falling for his sister, getting his leg broken by his own father and sent to orthopedics. A living meme brought into reality.

At that thought, Qin Yancheng suddenly felt a bit like giving up on life.

No, he absolutely had to keep this secret. No one could ever know why his leg had been broken.

Qin Yancheng made up his mind, his expression solemn, determined to guard the truth of his broken leg to the death.

Qin Ye, after all, was a man with a system. He knew quite a bit about artificial intelligence.

After learning about the current world’s progress in AI, Qin Ye decided to have Little Third make him a somewhat less intelligent artificial intelligence.

Little Third: ...

Not very willing to help.

“Little Martial Uncle gave me a high-level dao soldier, not yet awakened, the kind with no consciousness at all.”

[The host’s business is my business. Give me three minutes!]

Three minutes later, Little Third uploaded a data package onto the network and transferred the permissions to Qin Ye.

The weak AI created by Little Third could perfectly masquerade as a human without being discovered, but it had no human emotions.

The emotions it displayed were all predetermined by its programming; it could not understand human feelings at all.

Moreover, it had no ability to learn and evolve on its own. In other words, whatever it was like when it was born, it would remain that way forever after. Its upper limit was locked.

But that did not mean it had no hope of evolving at all.

If human technology advanced further, if mankind reached the starry sea and artificial intelligence became commonplace, it might one day be completed and refined.

But for now, its birth served only one purpose: to let Qin Ye use it as a foundation to gain, in the shortest possible time, assets far beyond the Tan family’s.

From the plot, it seemed the wealthy families in this world were rather troublesome, even a bit dangerous. So, to prevent the Qin family from once again becoming a mere piece in the male and female leads’ game—

Qin Ye might not only have to surpass the Tan family; he might also need to outstrip the Meng family from the capital in the original story.

So what could be stronger than standing behind the nation itself?

Conveniently, the original body had worked in programming.

Then surely he would be able to accept the fact that he was, in truth, an astonishing genius who had never been discovered. Through the company’s utterly unpresentable, junk-grade equipment, he had somehow, by himself, created a true artificial intelligence far beyond anything on the market.

That should not be too difficult, right?

Qin Ye set down his computer with confidence and stood up.

“The Tan family has gone too far. They claimed our two daughters had been switched when they were little, and came strutting over to take Tan Yuanyuan, not, Tan Yuanyuan away.

But then they refuse to send my daughter back. Since that’s how it is, fine. They forced my hand. I’m done pretending!”

Qin Yancheng was once again dumbfounded. “Dad, I remember you don’t read novels.”

How had he suddenly become so cringey? Was he about to transform into some crooked-mouthed dragon king in the next second?

Qin Ye wore an arrogant expression. “Actually, I’ve always been an astonishing genius. I just don’t like trouble, and I don’t want to attract too much attention. I only want to be an ordinary person, so I’ve kept a low profile and hidden my brilliance.

Alas, there are always people who force my hand. Why force me? I only wanted to be an ordinary middle-aged handsome man!”

Qin Yancheng: ...

He admitted that his father really had been ridiculously handsome when he was young, but now?

Just look at that sparse hair, that obviously bulging beer belly, and that face shining with grease. Truly, there was nothing about him that had the slightest connection to the word handsome.

Qin Ye still had not properly looked in a mirror, so how could he know that time had already murdered the original body, once the moonlight idol in the hearts of countless young girls, and turned him into an oily fat pig?

In the original body’s memory, he himself was devastatingly handsome. Qin Ye felt his understanding was perfectly correct.

After delivering his cringey declaration, he put away the computer and stood up.

“If your mother calls, you know what to say, right?”

“Yeeees~”

Qin Yancheng drew out the final syllable, already thinking that he would tattle to his mother in a little while.

Qin Ye glanced at him. “If I find out you’ve gone tattling to your mother, believe it or not, I’ll break your other leg too?”

His tone was perfectly calm. Qin Yancheng had been about to say he did not believe it, but before the words even left his mouth, a chill shot down his back and warning bells rang in his mind. He immediately broke into a bright smile.

“Dad, what are you saying? I’ve been closest to you since I was little. How could I ever tattle on you to Mom?”

Closest, my ass.

Children are always closest to their mothers, because it is usually the mother who raises them.

The Qin family was no exception. It was just that after work, the original body did not come home complaining that he was exhausted from a day at the office, put his feet up, and do nothing while waiting to be hand-fed and served.

He would instead take the initiative to help with housework and childcare, and would occasionally give his wife a gift—perhaps not exceptionally valuable, but certainly exquisite and lovely.

Qin Ye returned to the company. This small firm, called Sincerity Network, primarily worked in internet-related fields.

After years in operation, its revenue was fairly decent, though the boss himself came from wealth and had only founded the company as a hobby.

He also had no intention of making it bigger or stronger. As long as it did not lose money, that was enough.

No one at the company knew what had happened in the original body’s family; they only knew he had taken an extended leave.

Qin Ye nodded in greeting to the employees who waved at him along the way. Once in his office, he took out the computer and transferred the artificial intelligence into a new home.

The original body’s computer was the latest model and very capable, but for the little AI, it was still far too cramped.

Mm. Qin Ye had named the AI Little Account, because after all, it was a smaller account produced by Little Third.

No comparison to the main account, but still pretty good.

Perhaps because it came from Little Third, Little Account had simulated its outward form as a sword.

It was clearly trying to cater to his tastes.