After sighing, he looked in the mirror of the car and tried to fix his smile. At last, he was able to squeeze out a suitable one. Then, he followed his father while holding the statue in his hands and trying to maintain his smiling face.

　　They said that a smiling person was less likely to be hit. Hopefully, after seeing his bright smile, Uncle Song wouldn’t chase after him with a broom even after receiving the statue.

　　Old Lu arrived upstairs, and even before entering, he shouted, “Old Song, I’ve come. Wahaha!”

　　“…” Papa Song pushed his glasses up. After hearing this laughter, he felt a faint pain transmit from his liver.

　　Very soon, Old Lu opened the door and entered. Li Tianyou followed behind him.

　　“Old Lu, I haven’t seen you for a year. Did you finally remember the road to my house?” Papa Song tried to demoralize the opponent by mentioning the keyword ‘a year’.

　　“Wahahaha! It’s because I was too busy!” Old Lu laughed.

　　Papa Song frowned. He knew that Old Lu was going to boast about his son next.

　　They were worthily decades-old (harmful) friends; Papa Song correctly guessed Old Lu’s next move.

　　Old Lu loudly laughed and turned around, saying, “Haha, Tianyou! Quickly come here and greet your Uncle Song!”

　　Lu Tianyou came forward, the statue still in his hands. He had an awfully stiff smile on his face as he said, “Hello, Uncle Song.”

　　“Old Song, don’t you feel that Tianyou has become taller than before? He’s half a head taller than me now!” Old Lu said self-satisfied—from childhood to maturity, he had never lost to Old Song when it came to height!

　　Papa Song thought of his Shuhang. Although he wasn’t short with his 175 cm, there was still a big gap when compared to Lu Tianyou who was 190 cm tall!

　　After sighing, Papa Song prepared himself. He knew that after boasting about his son, Old Lu was going to boast about his son’s business.

　　Old Lu acted as if he was at home; he took a chair and sat near Papa Song, “Old Song, do you remember that Tianyou dropped out of school three years ago? The business he painstakingly managed for these past years has finally seen some success! You know about the trade in precious wood, right? A few years ago, Tianyou invested some money into that business. At the time, no one was keeping an eye on it, but now, it’s becoming more and more flourishing. Tianyou was really far-sighted! Just last year, he made a net profit of more than 10 million RMB!”

　　“He’s young and promising, and he seems much better compared to you, Old Lu!” Papa Song quietly mocked Old Lu.

　　Now that he is done boasting about his son’s business, he should start to boast about his son’s expensive car, right?

　　Old Lu acted just as Papa Song had predicted. He patted Papa Song’s shoulder and said self-satisfied, “My son is indeed better than me, and that’s how things should be! Now, Old Song, did you see that car parked downstairs? It’s a BMW 7 Series. However, it’s not such a good car after all, and its price was only around 2 million RMB. Unfortunately, Tianyou doesn’t like these low-grade cars too much. Therefore, he is planning to exchange it for a better car in two years. Be it a Maserati or a Ferrari, he can afford them all!”

　　Lu Tianyou wished he could find a hole to crawl into; he had already lost too much face. He could only bitterly smile when Papa Song was praising him.

　　A luxury car!

　　Sh*t! Once Shuhang has graduated, he must quickly make some money. At the time, what BMW 7 Series, I will directly make him buy a Ferrari! And if he can’t make that much money, I’ll whip him to death! Ah, forget it. After all, it’s not so easy to earn such money!

　　“Come, Old Song. Leaving other things aside, let’s look at what I brought along this time. I prepared this statue just for you. I’ve heard that you really like collecting this stuff. Therefore, I spent a great deal of time to have this statue carved. The original caused quite the commotion on the Internet. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to obtain the original and could only make someone carve an almost identical copy.” Old Lu had a regretful look on his face. He waved his hand and hinted his son to give the gift to Papa Song.

　　Lu Tianyou’s face was twitching, and he tried his best to maintain his bright smile as he handed the statue over.

　　Papa Song pushed up his glasses and received the statue— Dammit, if it’s something from Old Lu, it’s probably not a good thing.

　　It’s quite heavy. Is it made of copper?

　　Papa Song took the cloth covering the statue off, revealing the exquisite figure below.

　　It was the statue of a slender scholarly girl in a sitting position. Her head was slightly raised, and she had an open book on her knee. On the palm of her hand was a dove of peace with its wings spread, ready to fly.

　　This statue was quite good, and the creative concept wasn’t bad either. The scholarly girl seemed lifelike. Papa Song was confused. Had this stupid Old Lu turned over a new leaf to deliver him such a gift?

　　“Hahaha! It’s quite good, isn’t it? I think that this statue is really beautiful!” Old Lu had an exaggerated smile on his face, “Did you notice? The scholarly girl is reading a book and also holding a bird. At the time, this statue was very famous on the net and was known by the nickname of ‘studying isn’t worth bird’s poop’! After preparing for more than a year, I was finally able to deliver this gift to you!”

　　It was a naked and direct retaliation!

　　This was Old Lu’s revenge against Papa Song. Last year, Papa Song brought Shuhang to Old Lu’s house and did the same—shamelessly boasted.

　　…Even if your Shuhang is studying, what has he achieved? My son dropped out of school and still made a fortune! Studying isn’t worth bird’s poop! These were Old Lu’s thoughts right now.

　　“Ahahaha, good, good, good!” Papa Song clenched his teeth in anger and said the word ‘good’ three times, “I’ll accept this gift! And I’ll properly ‘treasure’ it!”

　　Papa Song had decided to keep this statue.

　　If Song Shuhang had good prospects in the future, he would use it to pound Old Lu’s head. If Shuhang ended up miserable, he would use it to pound Shuhang’s head!

　　At this time, Mama Song, who was in the kitchen, secretly shook her head. She felt that Papa Song and Old Lu were two incurable geezers! Unless they made the other party mad, they wouldn’t feel comfortable.

　　“Ahahaha! Then, properly treasure it. This statue contains all my kind feelings.” Old Lu was very satisfied—he was finally able to release the anger he had suppressed for a whole year. It wasn’t easy, but after seeing Old Song clench his teeth in anger and accept the gift, he felt a warm feeling spread all over his body. It was a magnificent feeling.

　　“You two, aren’t you afraid that the children will make fun of you? Anyway, enough chit-chat. Little You, sit down and have a meal.” Mama Song came out of the kitchen with some food. Then, she gave a bowl of rice to each person.

　　“Sister-in-law, do you have some wine? How about serving it first?” Old Lu looked at the rice and smacked his lips—he was very happy right now. He wished he could have a good drink.

　　Mama Song gave him a supercilious look, “You can’t drink with an empty stomach. Eat something first and drink afterward!”

　　“Right, here we eat before drinking. Old Lu, given your build, you should eat at least three bowls of rice before drinking!” Papa Song said with a serious face.

　　“As you wish, Old Song! If you want me to eat first, I’ll eat first! But after having my fill, I’ll make you drink till you lie on the ground!” Old Lu took the bowl of rice and started to gulp it down.

　　Lu Tianyou made a hollow laugh. He sat beside his father, and after apologizing to Mama Song, he started to eat.

　　“Right, Old Song. How come Shuhang hasn’t come back yet? Isn’t it summer vacation?” Old Lu asked after gulping down a mouthful of rice.

　　“The last time he called, he said that a friend had invited him to his house. Given the time, he should return soon.” Papa Song casually replied.

　　He was sure that Shuhang would have a rough time if he were to come back right now—Old Lu had a foul mouth. If Shuhang were here, he would definitely taunt him in many different ways! Luckily, his friend had invited him over. It was a very good thing.

　　“Ahaha! If so, it’s really regrettable.” Old Lu ate another mouthful of rice and asked, “Speaking of which, Shuhang should also be old enough to get a car license, right? Is he already going to the driving school?”

　　“I have no idea if he has started or not.” Papa Song casually replied.

　　“If he hasn’t started yet, I’ll come over with the BMW 7 Series during summer vacation and teach him! After all, I was once an instructor at the driving school.” Old Lu patted his chest.

　　Papa Song’s corner of the mouth twitched… Old Lu’s boasting skills were shameless to the point of being unsightly.

　　Screw it. One day, my Shuhang would also return driving a luxury car. At that point, see if I don’t boast!

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　Time flew by. In an instant, two hours already passed.

　　Along the way, Song Shuhang filled up the tractor— Did True Monarch Yellow Mountain foresee that Venerable White would use the tractor to bring me home, and therefore prepared an extra tank of fuel?

　　At first, Venerable White was happy to drive the tractor, but after driving for two hours, he was somewhat bored.

　　“Shuhang, how far is your home?” Venerable White asked.

　　“We’re almost there. At our current speed, we’ll be there in a little more than an hour.” Song Shuhang sighed with emotion. Only Venerable White could drive a tractor as fast as a sports car.

　　“Still one hour left?” Senior White heaved a sigh. However, his eyes suddenly lit up, “Shuhang, how about taking my place and driving?”

　　“Eh? But I don’t know how to drive a tractor.” Song Shuhang’s corner of the mouth twitched.

　　“It doesn’t matter. It’s quite easy, I’ll teach you!” Venerable White waited till there was no one on the road and stopped. After stopping the tractor, he leapt down and stretched himself.

　　Song Shuhang had no choice but to get hold of the steering wheel of the tractor.

　　Venerable White took Shuhang’s place and shrank into a small ball. Then, he taught Song Shuhang how to drive the tractor from the corner.

　　Some things worked more or less the same way, and as long as you knew how to drive one, you’d know how to drive all of them. Therefore, Song Shuhang quickly learned how to operate the tractor.

　　“Rumble, rumble, rumble…” the tractor started to emit black smoke once again, happily setting out on the road.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　Somewhere in China.

　　Daoist Priest Cloudy Mist was sitting cross-legged on his sword orb that had now changed into a layer of light, freely floating in the sky.

　　“It’s almost time to return to the Penniless Thief Sect. That Yellow Mountain is really pathetic. He wasn’t able to catch me in the end. For the past few days, I guarded day and night against a likely surprise attack, but he didn’t even show his face.” Daoist Priest Cloudy Mist stood up and stretched himself.

　　To guard against True Monarch Yellow Mountain, he hadn’t made contact with any disciple of the Penniless Thief Sect even after leaving the forbidden area where he was sealed so as to avoid leaving behind clues that would eventually lead to him.

　　Daoist Priest Cloudy Mist took out a map. After determining his current position, he muttered, “Slightly ahead of this place lies Wenzhou City…”