Chapter 2
Edward Quan ·
8
“You steal someone else's results, I'll kill you!”
Caught off guard, my cousin took a cut to the face deep enough to reach bone. He clutched his eyes, screamed, and fell.
Blood splashed across the ground. The banquet dissolved into chaos.
The man was the father of Chen Ze, our school's best student.
His eyes were bloodshot, his rage beyond control.
“My son was in the province's top three in every mock exam! How could he score zero? He sat right next to you. He said you slept from start to finish, barely even turned the paper. How could you come first?
“You think getting rich means your family can do whatever it likes?”
Eldest Aunt screamed, “It's right there in black and white! My son came first! Take it up with the education bureau if you're so clever!”
But someone at a table spoke up.
“He never goes to school. He spends every day in an internet café. How could he be the top scorer?”
“I heard he harmed a schoolgirl last year. His family paid a fortune. Can someone with that history still get into university?”
“The Ma family suddenly gets rich, and of course money finds a way. Hmph. If he can get into Qingbei, pigs can fly!”
The story quickly made the news.
The authorities launched an investigation. The school retrieved the surveillance footage. Throughout the exams, Ma Defu slept with drool running from his mouth, randomly circled a few multiple-choice answers, and left.
The evidence was overwhelming. Uncle still refused to admit it.
“My son studied hard in secret at home. What do you know?”
The admissions officers produced two sets of papers.
“These are reserve exams. Ma Defu and Chen Ze can both sit them. If your son is genuinely capable, he should be able to do them.”
Uncle's face went blue, then white.
Chen Ze turned in a nearly perfect paper. My cousin could not even understand the questions, let alone answer them.
The guests had had their fill of the spectacle and were preparing to leave. I cleared my throat and stood.
“Don't rush off.”
Every eye turned to me.
Smiling, I produced an admission letter from Qingbei.
“What a coincidence. Mine has just arrived too. Please, keep eating. We can't have you coming all this way for nothing.”
9
Uncle's whole family changed color.
Second Aunt never missed a chance to fan the flames.
“Well! All that work, and someone else gets the benefit!”
Convinced I had used the brush, Eldest Aunt blocked the admissions officers and pointed at me, her face vicious.
“I want to report Ma Xun! She must have cheated!”
The relatives stared. Whispers spread.
The admissions officers did not answer at once. One looked at me, then spoke sternly.
“You say she cheated. Where is your evidence?”
Eldest Aunt was full of righteous certainty.
“A poor girl living in a basement, who can't even afford tutoring, getting into Qingbei? Hah!”
“Exactly,” Uncle added. “I'll testify. Her usual marks were never that good!”
The officers immediately took documents from a briefcase and showed everyone.
“Look carefully. Ma Xun earned direct admission through a Mathematics Olympiad award. Our university admitted her three months ago. Both the provincial education department and the university conducted strict reviews. Her achievements are fully documented. There has been no violation.”
Uncle and Aunt froze.
In all those years, they had never attended a single parent-teacher meeting.
Naturally, they knew nothing of my actual performance.
“As for cheating,” the admissions officer continued, “your son Ma Defu's results have been seriously falsified. We have formally reported the theft of another student's results and the alteration of his admissions information to the police. We expect answers soon.”
10
The knife wound was severe.
One day, visiting my cousin in hospital, I recognized the nurse giving his injection.
She was the mother of the girl he had harmed.
Behind her mask, her face was expressionless as she injected an excessive dose.
I watched with interest. As I passed, she politely thanked me.
I smiled.
“It was nothing.”
A reminder to swap shifts, then a message. What else would you call it?
My cousin lost both eyes. Infection made surgical removal necessary.
When he woke, he went wild, smashing the hospital room and punching and kicking his mother.
“It's your fault! If you hadn't gone on every day about Ma Xun's good grades, would I have drawn that damned thing? It's all your fault!”
Listening to fists striking flesh and Aunt's screams, I thoughtfully closed the door.
The investigation soon produced its findings.
On paper, Ma Defu had scored only three points. No one could discover why the system and admission letter had been switched.
That confirmed my suspicion: things drawn by the brush did not simply appear from nothing.
They were transferred.
Understanding that, I used the brush that night to draw my first wish.
12
A bankbook.
Its principal came from large deposits lying dormant in Swiss banks.
I had researched them. More than ten thousand accounts had seen no transactions for a long time. Under the brush's rules, taking a large sum of cash would certainly trigger an investigation. Leaving the principal untouched and taking only interest would be safer.
Those dormant accounts held enormous sums.
Even a little interest was astronomical.
First, I bought several properties in Jing City, then deposited the money in separate installments. After enrolling, I still lived in a dormitory. My clothes, transport, and daily life were no different from before.
My younger cousin used money to secure direct admission to the arts department.
One day, we met in the cafeteria. Covered in designer logos, she brazenly held my boyfriend's arm.
“Cousin, Wu Zhen and I are together now. You don't mind, do you?”
Tall and handsome, Wu Zhen was the department's heartthrob.
We had been dating for three days.
My roommate was furious for me.
“Has she nothing better to do than steal your boyfriends? Watches, cash—she just keeps showering them with gifts. Something's wrong with her!”
13
My younger cousin was intensely jealous.
Perhaps it began when a boy she liked in high school confessed to me. She had never let it go. In everything, she had to get the better of me.
When she could not, she lied, framed me, or sabotaged me.
She put my photograph on cards advertising sexual services and scattered them around. She tore up my homework and formed little groups to isolate me. That was not even the worst of it.
What she should never have done was deliberately smash my parents' urn.
Still less should she have stepped on it afterward.
“Why use glass? Plastic's cheap and durable. Much more suitable for your family.”
In an instant, shame and anger brought tears to my eyes. She smiled with pursed lips.
“Don't blame Zhen, cousin. Look at yourself, dressed like a pauper. Of course you can't keep a man.
“A woman with nothing extra to offer is just like you. Worthless.”
After they left, a message arrived.
“I've raised enough for Mother's surgery. Thank you.”
Yes. The romance was a sham.
Knowing how jealous my cousin was, I had arranged this performance with Wu Zhen.
Outwardly furious, I deliberately went to her usual bar and pretended to get drunk.
“What's so special about Wu Zhen? I can find a better boyfriend. Perfect. He'd never betray me. I only have to draw… draw him…”
My roommates thought I had drunk too much. My cousin, however, was frightened.
She believed me.
Afraid I would get ahead of her again, she used the brush that very night to draw a handsome, perfect boyfriend.
But drawing a person with a calligraphy brush was difficult. She wasted two chances.
That was how to goad someone into acting.
When I was little, Dad taught me Go. I had a quick temper, and a few words from him could always make me lose my head.
He would smile.
“See? The most competitive people are easiest to provoke. Make her lose her composure, and the initiative falls to you.”
Dad, look. I learned.
I learned very well.
Suffering taught me endurance, the patience you could never teach me before. Can you see?
Would you be proud of me?
14
Less than half a month later, Eldest Aunt contacted me in a panic. Something had happened to Uncle.
He had drawn a die that could win every time.
At first, it brought him huge winnings. Presidential suites, money spent like water, wild nights of indulgence. He never realized the casino had already marked him.
“He kept betting bigger. He even lost the building!” Aunt was frantic. “The interest is two million a day. They say if he doesn't pay, they'll cut off his fingers!”
Since going blind, my cousin had become helpless. He could no longer use the brush.
Naturally, Aunt turned to me.
“Xun, you can use it too! Hurry! They said they'd cut off his fingers if he doesn't pay!”
I smiled, hung up, and boarded a flight abroad for a two-week competition held in isolation.
Friends told me Uncle's family had been having quite a time.
Desperate to save her husband, Aunt tried to sell the rental building. But a building that had appeared from nowhere had no ownership certificate. Instead, the housing and construction bureau declared it an illegal structure.
For an illegal building that tall, the fine alone was astronomical.
She begged Second Aunt.
“Gold is so expensive now. Sell the mine and save your brother! You still have wishes left. You can make more money. He's your own brother!”
Second Aunt snorted.
“At least money thrown in water makes a splash. Lend it to a gambler? Do you think I'm stupid?”
The casino received no money. They cut off one of Uncle's fingers.
One day late, one finger.
By the time he had only two left…
I finally came home.
15
The woman who had always bullied everyone knelt before me, tears and snot covering her face. She clutched my trouser leg.
“Xunxun! He's your own uncle. Save him!
“Draw something! A gold mine, an ATM, anything. Hurry!”
Looking down at her abject face, I curled my lips, pretending to be deeply sympathetic and distressed.
“But Aunt, it isn't that I don't want to help. Second Aunt specifically told me not to. She said your family needed a lesson.”
Straight through the heart. Her face twitched.
Under her relentless questioning, I finally stammered, “She also said if we save Uncle this time, there'll be a next time. Even if we bring him back, he'll be a helpless cripple in bed, just like my cousin… a burden on the whole family.”
I looked terribly regretful.
“I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do.”
16
Uncle must have wondered why his all-powerful die stopped working.
Simple. I had Qin Juan, the dealer, swap it while dealing.
She had been my desk mate. In middle school, when I was growing fast, Eldest Aunt never made me breakfast. Once, when hunger nearly made me faint, Qin Juan roughly tossed me a bread roll.
“Eat it! Your stomach's so noisy, it's driving me mad!”
She threatened me fiercely.
“Disturb my sleep again, and I'll beat you to death!”
In tenth grade, Uncle lost at gambling, drugged me, and took me to a hotel to settle his debt.
Qin Juan happened to be working part-time at reception. She secretly called the police.
She saved my life. My gratitude to her was as deep as my hatred of them.
She taught me that there was still human kindness.
It came not through blood, but trust.
Once I had money, the first thing I did was transfer a sum and a house to her.
She was uneasy.
“Ma Xun, where did this come from? I can't accept it. You mustn't do anything foolish!”
Afraid I might take the wrong path, she needed reassuring.
“Trust me. I won't do anything stupid. How's Uncle doing over there?”
She sent a video.
Bodyguards beat him until he rolled on the floor. Pinned down to have his finger cut off, he screamed like a madman.
“Don't! I'm descended from Ma Liang! I can draw things into reality!
“I can win it back! I can win!
“I'm not cheating. I just have a magic brush!”