C64 —– Truthfulness

 

The one who suddenly ran in was a boy who looked about thirteen or fourteen years old, and he shouted while raising his hands and hit Qiao An hard, without any mercy at all.

 

Instead of stopping him, Qiao An’s mother continued to look at Qiao An angrily, “Even your brother knows that it is definitely wrong to disobey us, you are so old now, yet you don’t even understand such a simple truth, Xiao An, you really let me down too much.”

 

Qiao An lowered his head and endured the pain brought by his brother without speaking, he had long been used to such an attitude from his family, so what was there to defend?

 

Qiao An’s father, on the other hand, directly put out harsh words, threatening, “Listen to me clearly, either you do what I say, or you get out of this house and never come back!”

 

Qiao An was silent for half a second before he finally raised his hand to block his brother Qiao Kang’s hard slap, then put one hand on the wrist of the other and said through clenched teeth, “Father, can you repeat carefully what you wanted me to do before?”

 

Qiao An’s father thought he was finally giving in, his attitude finally eased slightly: “What I asked you to do is very simple, it is also the Brant family’s request, they have provided us with a perfect set of monitoring equipment, you just need to install them in He Yishu’s apartment bedroom. Also, aren’t you a friend of Yishu now? Then try to set up a conversation to see how he actually made those charm cards, and if you have the chance, you can also rummage around in his room, there might be relevant material information.”

 

 

Qiao An’s gaze flickered slightly: “I know.”

 

Qiao An’s father added, “Don’t worry, as long as you make this happen, the Brandt family will not treat us badly.”

 

“But what if He Yishu finds out?” Qiao An clenched his fist worriedly and asked his father rhetorically, “Right now He Yishu doesn’t have many friends in the academy, if he really finds out about the surveillance system installed in his bedroom, he will definitely suspect me.”

 

“Don’t worry, the people of the Brandt family have already said that the surveillance system they gave us is equivalent to the surveillance system used by the military, it will never be easily discovered by ordinary people, so you don’t have to worry about that at all,” Qiao An’s father waved his hand, unconcerned about it, “and even if he really finds out, so what? With the Brandt family as our backer, do you still need to be afraid of a guy who was kicked out of his family?”

 

Qiao An thought for a moment and asked again, “Then …… did the Brandt family say clearly what benefits they would give us? I am now risking so much to do this, if I do not get to make me satisfied with the payment, is not it a great loss?”

 

 

Qiao An’s father waved his hand, and didn’t want to answer this question: “You don’t need to think about this kind of thing, you just need to do what I instructed you to do.”

 

Qiao An wanted to ask something more, but he was glared at by his father, “You’ve been at home long enough, go back to the academy and do what you need to do.”

 

After saying that, his father handed the monitoring system provided by the Brandt family to Joanne, and then urged him to go back to the academy.

 

Before leaving, Qiao An’s father finally gave the last order, “If there are any problems with the installation of the monitoring system, you must contact me in time, and also you must maintain a good relationship between you and He Yishu lately, you must remember that what you are doing now is about the future of you and your brother, absolutely do not allow any mistakes.”

 

Qiao An glanced at his brother who hadn’t looked at him more than once since he had just hit him and was currently sitting leisurely on the sofa eating a snack, and nodded in silence.

 

On the way back to the academy, Qiao An’s expression had been very tense, he was thinking about a problem that he would never have considered before, and at the same time he had to make a decision that would require all his courage.

 

 

When he returned to his apartment, He Yishu was sitting in the living room chatting with Adrian. As He Yishu’s friend, Qiao An was well aware of their relationship so he wasn’t surprised by Adrian’s appearance.

 

When he saw Qiao An, He Yishu greeted him with a smile: “You’re finally back, have things at home been taken care of?”

 

Qiao An looked at He Yishu and then looked at Adrian: “Not yet.”

 

Seeing that Qiao An’s expression was not quite right, He Yishu put away the smile on his face and asked, “Is something wrong? Do you need help?”

 

“Well, I do have something to tell you,” Qiao An sat down opposite He Yishu and took out the surveillance equipment his father had given him from his backpack, “Actually, I was called home by my parents this time, and it has something to do with you.”

 

He Yishu raised his eyebrows, took the black metal case that Qiao An handed over, and looked at it uncertainly.

 

Adrian, who was sitting beside him, smoothly took the item over and opened it with cautious movements, then his expression sank: “Where did this come from?”

 

 

“What is this thing?” The things in the black metal box actually looked very simple, only a few metal needles placed in the gaps, He Yishu couldn’t see what it was at all.

 

Adrian glanced at Qiao An: “This is a high-end micro surveillance equipment commonly used in military surveillance systems, or should I say, this degree of micro surveillance equipment, generally only in military missions is it qualified for use.”

 

 

Hearing these words, He Yishu already had a guess in his heart, but he still pretended to be relaxed and turned his head to look at Qiao An and said, “It looks like something very high-end, Qiao An, are you going to give this to me as a gift?”

 

Qiao An clenched his fist and gathered the courage to start telling what he had experienced at home before: “This was given to me by my father, he said it was given to him by someone from the Brandt family in order to use these surveillance devices to spy on you ……”

 

After listening to Qiao An’s heavy narrative, He Yishu’s expression didn’t change, it looked as if what Qiao An said had nothing to do with him, instead Qiao An looked extra guilty and filled self-condemnation, almost afraid to look He Yishu in the eyes: “I’m sorry, I also did not expect my parents would ask me to do such a thing, but I would never do that, you can be rest assured and I recorded the video, I’ll send it to you now.”

 

 

Saying that, Qiao An directly lowered his head and sent the video that he had specially recorded earlier to He Yishu.

 

 

He Yishu didn’t stop Qiao An’, nor did he change his attitude: “Qiao An, even if you had not told me about this, I would not have suspected you, because I know you’re a kind person who would never do anything to hurt others, and the fault of this matter does not lie with you, so there is absolutely no need for you to apologize to me for your parents’ behavior. On the contrary, I should thank you for being willing to tell me these things, otherwise I couldn’t have known what your parents and the Brandt family did.”

 

“But I still feel sorry.” Qiao An gave He Yishu an apologetic look, but in his heart, he was really relieved, although he already knew He Yishu’s character, he was still inevitably worried that He Yishu wouldn’t want to be friends with him because of this incident.

 

He Yishu didn’t continue to discuss his own affairs, but looked at Qiao An worriedly, “Although I’m very happy that you made such a decision, this will bring you a very huge impact.”

“I know.” From the moment he made his choice, Qiao An knew what he was about to face, he knew that his father’s words were not a joke, and if he chose to refuse, he would probably really lose his eligibility to go home.

 

“So …… have you already made your plans?” He Yishu inquired.

 

Qiao An’s fists clenched once again, but his attitude was resolute: “Actually, the reason I chose to turn on the light computer’s monitoring system at that time was because I had already made my choice, and I wanted to know exactly what they would do.”

 

He Yishu understood Qiao An’s words, so he was a little surprised, “You want to be like me?”

 

 

“I …… I still don’t actually have enough courage to break away from them voluntarily, but I think they should make a choice for me.” Even after his own thoughts had changed, Qiao An knew very well that he was not as brave and decisive as He Yishu.

 

So he needed to let his mother and father help him make that choice; in other words, Qiao An wanted to be kicked out of his home, rather than him taking the initiative to get rid of his relatives.

 

 

He Yishu thought this was quite good.

 

 

For one thing, Qiao An was really different from him, and if he really did take the initiative to leave his family, he might feel guilty and apprehensive about it afterwards, and even bring some unnecessary trouble to himself.

 

 

Secondly, very often, when conflicts occurred, most people would subconsciously choose to side with the weaker side, regardless of the truth.

 

So if it was Qiao An who took the initiative to disengage from his family, maybe this would be a weakness for him in the future, and in turn, it would be difficult to stand on a higher moral ground even if his family came back to haunt him.

 

 

Of course, the most important thing was, it was estimated that with the virtue of Qiao An’s family, after knowing that Qiao An didn’t act according to their request, they may really kick Qiao An out of the house directly.

 

 

“I know it might be hard for you right now, but I personally think that getting rid of those people is not a bad thing for you, on the contrary, it will most likely free you from a lot of restrictions and repression,” He Yishu patted Qiao An’s shoulder and comforted him, “And you are my best friend, if you encounter any difficulties, you can tell me.”

 

 

This comment made the depressed Qiao An feel a warmth in his heart, Qiao An’s mind was more delicate than the average person, he could obviously feel before that although He Yishu did treat him as a friend and treated him well, he also didn’t trust him completely, but now, he said he was his best friend.

 

From friend, to best friend, this was a huge difference both for He Yishu and for Qiao An.

 

Of course, this matter was also hugely different for Adrian, for example, now he inevitably felt jealous.

 

 

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