“How is that even possible?!”
Startled, Qiao Yan quickly denied it out of sheer subconscious reflex.
“Why wouldn’t it be possible?” Jiang Cai was also taken aback, seemingly frightened by Qiao Yan’s overblown reaction. “I saw him playing a game a few days ago.”
Qiao Yan’s heart skipped another beat, but he still stubbornly kept up a stiff upper lip. “Isn’t it completely normal to play games?”
“It’s the kind of game that’s super cozy, the one that’s been wildly popular lately called Dreamy Forest Whispers.” Jiang Cai glanced at Qiao Yan again as if suddenly remembering something. “Hey, I remember you play it too, don’t you?”
Qiao Yan hit her with a triple denial: “I don’t, I haven’t, you remembered wrong.”
“Don’t you play a pink female character? The kind that’s completely useless except for looking pretty,” Jiang Cai assumed Qiao Yan was just experiencing a straight-guy awakening and felt too embarrassed to admit it, so she rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t act like I didn’t see you.”
“Based on what are you calling her completely useless except for looking pretty!” Qiao Yan defended his character to the death, then shifted the topic with a guilty conscience. “Weren’t we talking about He Yanzhou? Why are you dragging me into this?”
Realizing she had drifted off-topic, Jiang Cai leaned close to Qiao Yan’s ear and lowered her voice mysteriously to get back to the main point: “Let me tell you, a while back, I randomly added a beautiful girl online for my brother. To my surprise, he’s actually still chatting with her.”
She paused, letting out a chuckle. “Maybe something will actually come of it! The iron tree is finally about to blossom!”
Qiao Yan: “…”
So you were the culprit all along, Comrade Jiang Cai!
The expression on Qiao Yan’s face was extraordinarily spectacular, turning practically green from holding himself back. He genuinely didn’t have the heart to tell Jiang Cai: Your brother is actually a massive scumbag!!
One foot already in a sugar-baby relationship with Qiao Yunguang, while the other foot was tirelessly flirting with a decent girl like Little Peach online—if that wasn’t a scumbag, then what was!
Qiao Yan patted Jiang Cai’s shoulder with profound meaning, indicating that he would absolutely help her teach her brother a good lesson and turn him into a reformed man.
Right at that moment, a soft knock sounded on the office door.
Without lifting his head, He Yanzhou said, “Come in.”
A man dressed in a business suit pushed the door open and entered, carrying a stack of documents in his hands.
“President He, this is the preliminary draft of the third-quarter financial report for the overseas division, as well as the budget plan for the next quarter.” The man placed the documents on the edge of the desk, his voice trembling slightly. “The finance department hopes you can give some initial feedback today so they can make adjustments.”
Only then did He Yanzhou set down the tablet in his hand and pick up the stack of documents.
He didn’t speak, merely flipping open the first page as his gaze rapidly swept over the numbers and charts on it.
The man stood before the desk with his hands clasped in front of him, his posture as rigidly upright as if he were undergoing military training. Qiao Yan could even see a faint layer of sweat breaking out on the back of the man’s neck.
Half a minute later, He Yanzhou’s fingertip tapped against a certain line of numbers.
“This data,” He Yanzhou spoke, his tone flat. “It shows a 12% drop quarter-on-quarter, and an 8% drop year-on-year. Yet the report writes it off as a ‘normal correction caused by market fluctuations’.”
He lifted his head, looking squarely at the man before him. “Do you think this is a normal correction?”
“The feedback from the overseas side stated that it was mainly due to local policy shifts and competitors—”
“I don’t want to hear excuses,” He Yanzhou cut him off, the atmospheric pressure in the room dropping a notch. “I want solutions. Market fluctuations are an objective reality, but why did our response strategy fail? Why did our competitor’s data only drop by 3% during the same period?”
He tossed the documents onto the desk with a sharp thud.
“Take it back and have the overseas division and the marketing department redo the analysis report.” He Yanzhou picked his pen back up to sign another document. “Before noon tomorrow, I want to see at least three actionable improvement plans, along with their corresponding risk assessments and budget adjustments.”
“Yes, yes, President He.” The man immediately gathered the documents, bowing slightly. “I’ll go notify them right away.”
“Furthermore,” He Yanzhou added one last line before the man could turn around, “for the next report, place the reasons behind critical data fluctuations at the very front. I don’t want to waste time on irrelevant filler words.”
“Understood.”
With that final word, the man fled the office as if running for his life.
Qiao Yan remained squatted on the floor, his fingers still frozen inside Pipi’s fur. He blinked, looking at Jiang Cai, and soundlessly mouthed: Is your brother always like this? This fierce?
Jiang Cai shrugged, flashing a face that said “you’re just finding out?”.
Leaning close to Qiao Yan’s ear, she whispered in a breathy tone, “This is already him on a good day. You haven’t seen him when he’s firing people; now that is terrifying.”
Qiao Yan curled his lip, replying in a whisper as well: “Is it really necessary to use such a heavy tone just because he’s a leader? He’s like the King of Hell.”
Before the words had completely left his mouth, He Yanzhou suddenly cast a glance in their direction.
Qiao Yan shut his mouth instantly, pretending to be utterly absorbed in scratching the cat’s chin.
Pipi let out a comfortable, loud purr that sounded exceptionally crisp within the silent office.
He Yanzhou looked at them for two seconds, his gaze lingering on Qiao Yan for a brief moment.
Qiao Yan was wearing a cream-white cashmere sweater today. The neckline was a bit wide, and as he squatted, a section of his fair collarbone was exposed, still bearing some faint bruises that hadn’t fully faded away.
Jiang Cai tugged Qiao Yan’s sleeve, pointing toward the door and gesturing with her eyes: Let’s slip away, slip away.
Qiao Yan nodded, standing up with feather-light steps.
Like two thieves, the pair tiptoed their way outward. Upon reaching the door, Jiang Cai even turned back to wave at He Yanzhou, mouthing: Brother, we’re leaving!
He Yanzhou didn’t even lift his head, merely offering a very soft “Mm.”
The moment the door clicked shut, Qiao Yan breathed a massive sigh of relief.
“My god,” he said, patting his chest. “Your brother’s aura… if I stayed in his office for one more second, I feel like I would have suffocated.”
The two of them stepped into the elevator. Jiang Cai pressed the floor button and let out a sigh.
“Actually, he didn’t use to be like this,” her voice grew a bit softer. “Or rather, he wasn’t born this way.”
Qiao Yan arched an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
Jiang Cai shook her head, ultimately choosing not to answer.
Realizing she probably didn’t want to talk about it, Qiao Yan didn’t press any further. He rode back to campus in Jiang Cai’s car, where the two of them said their goodbyes and parted ways.
At eleven o’clock that night, Qiao Yan logged onto Dreamy Forest Whispers right on time.
The moment he came online, he received a team invite.
[System] Player [YYYan] has invited you to join the team.
Qiao Yan accepted within a split second.
There were only the two of them in the team.
YYYan‘s level had already surged to level 45. Although his gear wasn’t top-tier yet, it was obvious at a glance that it had been meticulously paired; the attributes were perfectly balanced, consisting entirely of the absolute best items obtainable at his current level.
[Team] Little Peach Bites Super Painfully: daddy! You level up so fast!
[Team] YYYan: Mm.
[Team] Little Peach Bites Super Painfully: Are we going to get revenge today?! (*＾3＾)
[Team] YYYan: Mm.
He Yanzhou didn’t waste any words, directly sending over a set of coordinates.
It was a neutral map in the game called Ghost Canyon. Players could engage in PvP against each other there, but the death penalty was somewhat severe, making it a sacred dueling ground for settling personal vendettas.
When Qiao Yan teleported over, he found He Yanzhou already waiting there.
Ghost Canyon could be considered one of the few places in the game shrouded in perpetual darkness. Two blood moons hung within the purplish-black sky, casting highly distorted shadows beneath the jagged, grotesque rocks, while the low growls of distant monsters echoed occasionally.
YYYan stood upon a protruding boulder, clad in full armor with his cloak billowing slightly in the wind, holding a longsword.
He really knows how to strike a cool pose. Qiao Yan hurriedly manipulated his pink-skirted little figure to jog over.
[Nearby] Mighty Brother Light: Oh, you actually dare to show up?
[Nearby] Light Light Blossom: Don’t go playing dead on the floor again this time~
Cen Zihao and Qiao Yunguang had long been waiting there, flanked by four or five lackeys. Every single one of them possessed a high level, their equipment gleaming brilliantly.
They had clearly come prepared, already arrayed in a proper formation: tanks at the front, damage dealers in the middle, and healers at the back.
For the sake of this battle, Qiao Yan had intentionally switched over to his PC client to play, though it probably didn’t grant any actual buff to his utterly atrocious skills.
Qiao Yan gripped his mouse with a trace of nervousness.
[Team] Little Peach Bites Super Painfully: daddy, there are so many of them QAQ
[Team] YYYan: Follow me.
The moment the words left his mouth, He Yanzhou’s character had already lunged outward.
His movements were so fast they were practically a blur. The sword light drew an incredibly swift arc through the air, piercing straight toward the weak point of the opposing frontline tank. That tank clearly hadn’t anticipated him charging in so aggressively; his parry was a beat too slow, and his health bar instantly plummeted by a chunk.
“Holy crap!” Cen Zihao barked in exasperation.
Qiao Yan frantically manipulated his pink-skirted figure to cast heals on He Yanzhou, but his meager amount of healing was truly a drop in the bucket. Just as the skills of several enemy damage-dealing classes were about to slam onto He Yanzhou’s head—
YYYan suddenly executed an incredibly bizarre side-step slide, evading the two most lethal attacks. Simultaneously, he whipped his longsword backward, accurately striking the throat of a squishy enemy mage.
Critical hit!
The mage’s health bar cleared out instantly, and the character collapsed straight to the ground.
“Beautiful!” Qiao Yan couldn’t help but shout aloud.
Over the next three minutes, Qiao Yan felt as though he were watching a one-man show. It was as if He Yanzhou could predict everyone’s movements; every single step of his positioning was flawless. Qiao Yan only needed to throw out random heals from behind, spending the rest of the time entirely dumbfounded.
[Nearby] Mighty Brother Light: Damn it! Surround him! Surround him!
[Nearby] Light Light Blossom: Where’s the healing! Heal me! Heal me!
But it was already too late.
He Yanzhou forcefully carved an opening through the enemy formation, bursting down the second damage dealer in a flash, before casually landing two additional sword strikes onto Qiao Yunguang’s Priest character.
Light Light Blossom collapsed to the ground instantly.
In the end, only Cen Zihao’s Berserker was left making a dying struggle, but his health bar had already hit rock bottom as well.
[Nearby] Mighty Brother Light: You fucking wait for me!
He Yanzhou didn’t give him the chance to finish his trash talk.
As the final sword strike descended, Mighty Brother Light’s health bar cleared out completely. The tall Berserker character crashed heavily to the ground, bursting into a pile of dropped equipment and materials.
YYYan sheathed his sword and stood in place. All around his feet lay corpses strewn in every direction, a gray death countdown floating above each one.
Qiao Yan’s character stood behind him, her pink puffy skirt fluttering wildly in the canyon wind like a little windmill.
Three seconds passed.
Qiao Yan let out a cheer within his dorm: “Yay—!!!”
His fingers clattered madly across the keyboard:
[Team] Little Peach Bites Super Painfully: We won we won we won!!! daddy you are my god!!! I want to set up an altar for you and burn incense every single day!!!
[Team] Little Peach Bites Super Painfully: (Cat tossing flowers.gif) (Cat spinning around.gif) (Cat setting off fireworks.gif)
Feeling like sending messages wasn’t enough, Qiao Yan didn’t hesitate for a second, manipulating his character to lunge straight forward.
In the game, the little figure in the pink puffy skirt opened her arms, slamming into YYYan’s embrace like a pink cannonball with a bang.
The system automatically triggered the embrace interaction effect. A massive pink heart suddenly popped up above Little Peach Bites Super Painfully’s head, complete with an animated spring that caused it to wobble back and forth.
He Yanzhou seemingly hadn’t anticipated this action. The character on his screen was knocked half a step backward by the impact, the sword in his hand nearly slipping to the ground.
[System] Intimate interaction detected. Would you like to play the [Gentle Comfort] response animation?
Two options appeared underneath: Yes (Cost: 1 Silver Coin) and No.
He Yanzhou looked at the pink-skirted little figure on his screen. The avatar had buried her face against his chest, nuzzling it as her little skirt spun even more cheerfully.
As if possessed by some ghost or deity, He Yanzhou shifted his cursor and clicked Yes.
Thus, the warrior he controlled stiffened for two seconds, before very, very slowly raising his hands to pat the head that was continuously rubbing against his chest, followed by a couple of pats on her back.
The nearby fluorescent flowers converged toward them at the same time, emitting a soft radiance, while dream-butterflies fluttered over to dance around the pair, dropping glowing motes of light like a miniature meteor shower.
The transparent surface of the lake reflected the silhouette of the two figures embracing, as the gentle moonlight enveloped them.
In the end, it was He Yanzhou who first controlled his character to let go.
[Team] YYYan: Go pick up the loot.
[Team] Little Peach Bites Super Painfully: Oh oh oh!!!
Yet just as Qiao Yan snapped back to reality and buried his head in gathering the items, He Yanzhou’s private chat channel suddenly flashed.
[Private Chat] Light Light Blossom: brother is so amazing~ Your plays just now were truly too handsome, they actually made my heart race (,,>﹏<,,)