Zhao Shengge was not someone who went looking for humiliation. Once he resolved not to ask again, he truly did not ask again.
On the rare occasions he could not avoid Tan Youming, Zhuo Zhixuan, and the others mentioning that name, he could still keep his mind elsewhere and remain untouched.
Zhao Shengge was not someone who let himself make the same mistake a third time.
Three strikes were enough. Businessmen valued cutting losses in time more than anything.
Fortunately, Shi Zhangmin was a man who honored his promises, and he very quickly made the introduction for Chen Wan. Chen Wan was highly efficient and immediately began working the connection.
Shi Zhangmin truly had not lied to him. The water here was very deep—so deep that, for a time, even Chen Wan felt chilled and at a loss for where to begin.
For several months in a row, Zhuo Zhixuan could not catch even Chen Wan’s shadow. Even his messages were answered only now and then. Worried, he called him directly and asked, “What, are you even busier than Zhao Shengge now? Monica said you missed your follow-up again last week. No, Chen Wan, are you waiting for me to come to your door and drag you there myself?”
Strictly speaking, doctors should not disclose a patient’s condition to anyone else. But Chen Wan’s situation was special, and Zhuo Zhixuan truly cared about him. Monica hoped he could persuade and comfort Chen Wan somewhat, so now and then she would mention things to Zhuo Zhixuan that did not involve Chen Wan’s privacy.
Chen Wan was working overtime, drowning in problems. From his friend’s concern, he felt a little warmth. “Oh, right, I told the doctor I couldn’t make it. I really have been busy lately. Once this is done, I’ll treat you to dinner.”
“…” Zhuo Zhixuan was a young master. He knew Chen Wan had it hard, but he had never personally experienced what it was like for someone without backing to smile and curry favor and run himself ragged for a single deal. After a moment of silence, he sighed. “What’s going on with you, exactly? If something happens, you have to tell us.”
“I’m fine. It’s still that project from before. I’ll have to run around for a while yet. What about you? How have things been recently?”
“Boring,” Zhuo Zhixuan said. “It’s so boring when you’re not here.”
Chen Wan pressed the bridge of his nose. “Even when I go, I don’t talk much.” He mostly just watched the young masters amuse themselves. He did not actually participate very much.
“That’s different. But actually, Zhao Shengge doesn’t come out much now either.” Zhuo Zhixuan had not seen Zhao Shengge many more times than Chen Wan had.
Chen Wan had spent these days running everywhere, neglecting food and sleep. Hearing that name by chance was like suddenly lifting his head out of all that bowing, scraping, scheming, and scrambling, and seeing a sweep of rosy light.
The light was very beautiful, vast and distant, belonging to another world. It gave Chen Wan one brief instant of release.
“Forget him,” Zhuo Zhixuan said, a little resentful. Chen Wan had not appeared for so long, and Zhao Shengge had not asked a single word about him. Even Jiang Ying, who had only gotten to know Chen Wan later, occasionally asked after his situation.
Zhao Shengge’s coldness was not in his words, not in his posture, not on the surface.
It was in his bones and blood.
Zhuo Zhixuan had already seen through him. Coldhearted, blind as hell, and difficult on top of it.
Chen Wan, however, thought, why forget him? Say a little more.
Zhuo Zhixuan talked to him about a few other things, then reminded him over and over again that if there was anything he really could not handle, he absolutely had to tell him.
Chen Wan agreed properly to every word.
That evening, Zhao Shengge rejected Tan Youming’s invitation. Wherever Tan Youming and Zhuo Zhixuan were, that name would appear.
Zhao Shengge no longer wanted to hear it.
He was not interested in Chen Wan’s affairs. He only felt the other man was not smart. The education Zhao Shengge had received since childhood was that the weak were prey to the strong and the victor was king.
Zhao Shengge did not believe heaven rewarded diligence. He did not believe dripping water could pierce stone.
A turtle could only win in The Tortoise and the Hare. That was pure accident and luck.
Those who insisted on taking roundabout paths deserved to suffer a little and learn their lesson.
Until he saw Chen Wan again at the Galaxy Bay casino hotel.
He was even thinner.
The fallen leaf had nearly been drained dry. Zhao Shengge could almost no longer recognize it as the same leaf that had once drifted by chance into his window.
Chen Wan wore a simple but very textured black silk shirt that made his face look expensive, paired with suit trousers, his waist drawn in slenderly. Wearing an impeccable smile, he toasted people and accompanied them at cards.
Smooth in every direction, welcomed wherever he turned, he moved with ease by relying on a fine face and a fine temper.
The poker cards, gold coins, and weights made him seem unlike his usual gentle, pure self. He looked vulgar. So vulgar that it gave rise to a desire no one could name.
Chen Wan was beautiful, but his status was low, and so there was a shattered quality to the way he bent at the waist, one that made the itch beneath the skin almost unbearable to watch.
Amid the lavish lights, Zhao Shengge could not distinguish the other man’s true expression, so he arbitrarily decided it was a formula—a numbness, a false civility, yet somehow still bewitching.
He truly wanted to call Zhuo Zhixuan and Tan Youming over and let them see what their dear friend looked like now.
Zhao Shengge had made up his mind not to cross the line again and invite a cold reception, but he also felt that occasionally showing a little mercy was not impossible. Minglong signed off on more in charity donations every month than this by far.
But the facts proved Zhao Shengge had been too arrogant.
When his secretary reported that the project had already been placed on the shortlist before they could make a move, Zhao Shengge lifted his head from the reports.
His secretary opened the folder for him and said a few things. Zhao Shengge slowly frowned.
The morning Chen Wan’s partner called to tell him Kexiang had won the bid, the heart Chen Wan had kept taut for a full month finally landed. His whole body had a hollow, suspended feeling, like someone who had been standing at the edge of a cliff and suddenly found ground beneath his feet.
He had even already prepared for the final step, because that day at Galaxy Bay he had drunk a great deal, yet the other side still had shown no sign of relenting.
But the truth once again proved that heaven rewarded diligence, and effort never went to waste. Chen Wan was very happy and prepared to keep his promise by treating Zhuo Zhixuan to dinner in celebration. But before that, he first received Zhuo Zhixuan arriving at his door in a fury to question him.
“Chen Wan, what the fuck is wrong with you? You attended a Customs hearing? You appeared to give incriminating testimony? If someone else hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t even know. Who gave you the nerve?!”
If not for the fact that someone in his family held a position at Customs, he would never have known Chen Wan had participated as a third-party testing representative to testify in a major foreign-trade smuggling case. Behind the case was a series of officials involved in corruption and bribery, and its impact was serious. A target pushed into the open and used in factional fighting like this was something basically everyone avoided like the plague.
When Zhuo Zhixuan heard that Chen Wan had appeared, his soul nearly left his body.
“Do you know who Luo Qiansheng has behind him? You think one hearing will bring him down? Isn’t that too naive? Chen Wan, I’m telling you, once someone pulls strings to get him out, you’ll be an abandoned pawn. Without any bargaining chip left, you’ll be at their mercy.”
Chen Wan quietly waited for him to finish venting, then calmly explained, “Ah Xuan, this is what business is like. There are gains and losses.”
If he wanted to fight for that project, he had to pay a price. The people he was asking for help wanted to break the Luo faction. He had professional qualifications and could appear as a third party to give testimony. Other people were unwilling. He was willing. Then this deal was his.
With one sentence, Chen Wan made Zhuo Zhixuan’s anger flare even higher. Zhuo Zhixuan had truly had enough of his friend’s habit of going his own way, deciding something and then leaving no room for discussion. “So this is what you meant when you said you had a way? That you could solve it? Did I tell you or not that if there’s something you can’t handle, you have to tell me? We’d think of a way together. I said that, right? You agreed too, right? Do you just agree to things casually? Were you brushing me off? Or do you not trust me?”
“Yes, fine, I’m useless. But isn’t there still Tan Youming? If Tan Youming can’t do it, there’s still Shen Zongnian! And if it really won’t work, I’ll go beg Zhao Shengge, all right? I’ll personally go to his door and beg him. Is there anything in Hai City that Zhao Shengge can’t solve?!!”
“Why do you have to be so stubborn?! Why can you beg other people, but you can’t trouble Zhao Shengge? Is Zhao Shengge really that special, that precious?”
Zhuo Zhixuan was truly furious. His voice nearly cracked. “Chen Wan, you’re always like this. Stubborn as hell, never willing to listen to anyone! Never willing to accept anyone’s help. Do you think only giving and never asking for anything in return is noble? Do you think licking blood off a blade is heroic?!”
In Chen Wan’s early years, when he had first started out, he had done even more deranged things. To seize one order, he had drunk with the client until his stomach bled. To sign an approval document, he had played target shooting with officials and wagered even his life.
He looked so quiet and refined, with the appearance of a gentleman. In truth, he was a madman. Ruthless to others, even more ruthless to himself. Once he set a goal, he would not stop until he achieved it.
Zhuo Zhixuan used to say often that it would be good if he himself had any ability. He had nothing but the hollow title of young master, and when his friend suffered, he could not help with anything.
Whenever he said that, Chen Wan would look at him in confusion. “What nonsense are you saying? What does that have to do with you?”
It was Chen Wan who refused to remain an ant in the Chen family, trampled and humiliated by others. It was Chen Wan who insisted on his own path and wanted to get a little closer to Zhao Shengge.
Since he had chosen, he had to bear it himself.
But this time, Zhuo Zhixuan was truly enraged. His lungs were nearly ruined by anger, and when he started cursing, he held nothing back. “Chen Wan, let me be honest. I know people like Tan Youming and Shen Zongnian don’t count as friends in your eyes at all. Don’t bother denying it either. You think that because you look attentive to everyone and answer every request, I can’t see that you actually keep every boundary clear and every line sharply divided.”
“I know all of that. Fine, other people are one thing. But what about me? Have you ever treated me as a friend at all?!”
“Ask your own conscience. Have you? From the moment Zhuo Shengyan pushed me into the water that year and everyone stood by watching the show, and only you were willing to jump in and save me, I’ve treated you as my best, best friend. What about you? What do you think of me in your heart?”
“Was it that hard to tell me about something this big? You think you’re standing upright under heaven and earth, but actually you’re cold-blooded. You have no conscience. You, Chen Wan, look like the one with the most loyalty and feeling, but in truth you’re the most heartless, the one who draws every line with the cleanest blade.”
Zhuo Zhixuan accused him almost violently, both for Chen Wan’s stubbornness and for his own helplessness.
“What kind of business is this, that you have to take this risk no matter what? That you have to throw yourself into it?”
“What happens if it fails? Will Kexiang go bankrupt?”
“Of course I treat you as a friend!”
Chen Wan refuted none of the rest.
Only this point, he had to explain.
Chen Wan fell quiet for a moment, then said softly, “I don’t have any other friends, Ah Xuan.”
Author’s Note:
Young Master Zhuo: Destroy it all.