In the flat apartment in the city center, Ji Chenzhao lounged carelessly on the black sofa in the living room.
On the coffee table sat a newly opened bottle of limited-edition whiskey. At the bottom of the two glass cups remained a thin layer of amber-red liquor.
He Siyu sat on the side sofa. Two buttons of his white shirt were undone, exposing pale, delicate collarbones beneath the cold lighting, looking both sensual and dangerously alluring. His sleeves were rolled halfway up, the veins on his forearms standing out all the way to the back of his hands.
Ji Chenzhao glanced at the man sitting there with his head lowered, the corners of his lips lifting slightly.
“What? Unhappy that you’re spending your wedding night with me instead?”
He Siyu straightened up and shot him a look.
“You really have no self-awareness?”
“I’m pretty happy about it.”
“Get lost.”
After joking around, Ji Chenzhao put away the smile on his face and sat upright.
“Following your instructions, I turned a blind eye and let your father insert his people into the London branch. A few management positions have already been replaced with his men. When are you planning to reel in the net?”
“In the next couple of days.”
Suppressed by He Siyu within the country, He Chuanhan had nowhere else to go and could only target the overseas branches.
Over the past few years, every investment proposal He Chuanhan had submitted to Yi An had been rejected by He Siyu. The old man considered himself noble and aloof, so he used his own name to invest in the projects he personally favored.
The result was simple.
Every single investment lost money.
At this point, he barely had any spare cash left.
Ji Chenzhao looked solemnly at He Siyu’s indifferent expression.
Old Master He and Old Madam He had only one child in their lifetime—He Chuanhan. When he was young, they spoiled him excessively and raised him into a useless man. By the time Old Master He wanted to correct him, it was already too late.
As for He Siyu, Old Master He had raised him using the harshest methods possible, teaching him step by step.
The old man did not allow him to make friends, smoke, play games, or date young. He especially forbade him from acting pitiful and ingratiating himself with others the way his father did.
Every second of his time had to be spent learning how to manage a corporation and how to survive ruthless battles in the business world.
He Siyu had never had a childhood.
The only things accompanying him were disciplinary rulers and endless economics textbooks.
The moment he entered university, Old Master He had thrown him into the lowest levels of Yi An to toughen him up.
Everything He Siyu had today was achieved step by step through his own efforts.
Yet in He Chuanhan’s eyes, He Siyu had done nothing and had simply been effortlessly lifted by Old Master He into his current position.
Right after graduating from university, he had inherited Yi An Group in its entirety.
Being suppressed beneath his own son made He Chuanhan, as the father, feel humiliated.
He tried every possible method to prove before Old Master He that he was the best successor for Yi An.
But every investment ended in failure.
Old Master He had even mercilessly told him once:
“Eat more brains to nourish your own.”
That sentence reminded Ji Chenzhao of when he had first met He Siyu.
The two had been university classmates. Back then, He Siyu had been the famously untouchable prince of Jing University. Countless girls came to the school just to secretly catch a glimpse of him.
He never stayed in the dormitories. He always carried a backpack alone and rarely interacted with others. The only time people ever heard his voice was when professors asked him to analyze financial and business cases during class.
At the time, Ji Chenzhao had admired him just like everyone else.
He Siyu was the legend of Jing University.
He had broken the top score in the Finance and Management Department previously set decades ago by Old Master He himself.
He stood upon a pedestal no one dared approach.
Until one evening, Ji Chenzhao saw He Siyu sitting alone on the gymnasium steps, blankly staring at the basketball hoop illuminated under the lights.
Ji Chenzhao had taken a brand-new basketball from the sports equipment room and shamelessly gone over to strike up a conversation with the untouchable campus idol.
He had stubbornly insisted that He Siyu play basketball with him.
Despite never having seen He Siyu play before, Ji Chenzhao—the captain of Jing University’s basketball team—had been utterly crushed by him.
The final perfect three-pointer ended the game beautifully.
The orange glow of the sunset reflected against He Siyu’s white T-shirt. He casually brushed his slightly messy bangs back over his head.
A thin sheen of sweat covered his smooth forehead. His narrow phoenix eyes looked at Ji Chenzhao as though he were trash.
The corners of his lips lifted into a faint smile, and the words he spoke were enough to inflict critical damage.
“Take more calcium supplements.”
Ji Chenzhao was not much shorter than him, yet after being mocked like that, not only did he not get angry, he had even acted like an obedient puppy begging He Siyu to join the basketball team.
That had been the first time he had ever seen He Siyu smile.
Many girls who had come to the gym to see their boyfriends had also accidentally witnessed that fleeting smile.
“Oh my God, that smile just made me want to have his babies on the spot.”
“I’m already pregnant.”
“I knew he was handsome, but this level of handsome is criminal.”
“I’m filing a lawsuit against my ugly boyfriend.”
Ji Chenzhao truly could not ignore what those girls had said.
He Siyu was the most outrageously attractive man he had ever seen.
Seeing so many people staring at him with ill intentions, He Siyu quickly withdrew his smile and returned to his usual distant demeanor that warned strangers not to approach.
He turned around, picked up his jacket and backpack from the steps, and left the gym without looking back.
Only after graduation did Ji Chenzhao learn why He Siyu had looked so absent-minded that evening.
Ci Shiyi—He Siyu’s mother—was still alive.
/
Two days later, in the afternoon, Ni Yang and He Siyu moved into Yutang Villa.
That same night, He Siyu left for a one-month business trip to London.
Inside the high-ceilinged first-floor living room, the crystal chandelier glowed softly.
Ni Yang lay lazily on the rocking chair beside the floor-to-ceiling windows while wearing a face mask.
A recently popular idol drama played on the television. Outside the window, a gentle breeze rustled through the plane trees, their leaves glowing golden beneath the streetlights.
She bit down on the straw and took a sip of the milk tea personally made by Butler Zheng.
“So you’re really going to sleep alone for a month?”
Min Yan’s voice came through the phone speaker, accompanied by the sound of typing on a keyboard.
“Mhm. I’m insanely happy. Living alone in such a beautiful house feels amazing. If you have time, come stay with me for a few days.”
The smile on her face could not even be hidden beneath the face mask. Thinking about the huge grassy lawn outside, she suddenly wanted to raise an adorable dog.
“Sure. Once I finish editing the videos I’ve been working on recently, I’ll come over.”
Min Yan was a travel blogger. Her job was to travel around the world filming vlogs while occasionally accepting promotional advertising deals for businesses.
She was also the daughter of the country’s only actress who had won all three major film awards, though she kept her identity extremely well hidden. Only people close to her knew about it.
She and Ni Yang had met at a banquet and immediately clicked, quickly becoming inseparable best friends.
“Oh right, Yangyang, did you see the news? Qi Corporation went bankrupt. Qi Huaiyu’s father got arrested. According to the official announcement, Qi Huaiyu supposedly didn’t know about the things his father did, so he was released without charges. Their villa has now been mortgaged to repay debts, and his mother brought him back to her family home in Hai City.”
Ni Yang spoke in a mocking tone.
“How could he not know? Qi Huaiyu worked at Qi Corporation for years. Maybe it’s believable that he didn’t know about the charity foundation money laundering scheme, since that was personally managed by his father. But tax evasion? There’s no way he knew nothing at all. His mother probably had her family arrange his bail.”
Min Yan paused her video editing.
“What exactly does Qi Huaiyu’s maternal family do? They don’t seem simple either.”
“Jewelry business. They’re considered pretty influential in Hai City. I heard his mother eloped with his father and moved to Capital City.”
Min Yan exclaimed in shock,
“Damn. Men disapproved of by the parents really are unreliable. Eloping over twenty years ago took guts though.”
Then she frowned in confusion.
“But when the Qi Family’s cash flow collapsed, why didn’t the Lin Family step in to help?”
Ni Yang took a huge sip of milk tea and blinked. Butler Zheng walked over and placed a plate of fruit nearby.
“Uncle Zheng, just leave it on the coffee table. I’ll eat it later. Thank you.”
“You’re too polite, Madam. Please enjoy.”
Ni Yang nodded courteously before thinking for a moment.
“I think maybe they felt ashamed. Or perhaps Qi Huaiyu’s father refused to let Lin Yulang mention it to her family. Her family already disliked Qi Zhufeng in the first place. Once his company started collapsing, he probably had even less pride left to ask the Lin Family for help.”
Min Yan snorted.
“That’s possible. But at times like this, what’s the point of caring about pride? That old man seriously couldn’t tell what mattered.”
“Men without capability always suffer because they care too much about saving face.”
“Agreed.”
After chatting a little longer with Min Yan, Ni Yang returned to her room, removed her face mask, washed her face, then hurried downstairs again to lounge on the sofa eating fruit while watching dramas.
Idol dramas were always full of ambiguous tension and endless kissing scenes after the leads got together.
Ni Yang suddenly remembered the kiss at the engagement banquet.
He Siyu had completely followed her lead during that kiss.
She remembered the way his eyelashes lowered as he stared at her lips, his eyes darkening gradually. The pressure of the kiss had been very gentle—just lips brushing lightly against lips.
Watching the male and female leads on television kiss passionately with tongues entwined, she automatically began imagining what it would look like if she and He Siyu kissed like that.
The more she thought about it, the redder her face became.
She buried her face into the pillow and collapsed sideways onto the sofa.
At heart, she was still a conservative girl.
She believed that sleeping together immediately after starting a relationship was irresponsible toward oneself.
In this fast-food era, her way of thinking probably made her seem like some stubborn old relic from ancient times.
But her thoughts were actually very simple.
Only when love and sex existed together could pleasure truly reach the depths of the soul.
Fortunately, heaven had looked after her.
Thank goodness she had discovered Qi Huaiyu’s true nature before the engagement.
Otherwise, if she had gone even further with such a filthy man before learning the truth, she probably would have wanted to skip directly into her next life.