Ji Zhouye had cut off Zhao Song’s financial lifeline, causing Zhao Song’s small enterprises to vanish overnight.
The trouble Zhao Song had provoked last time was not limited to Shen Li alone.
Realizing he had offended someone he shouldn’t have, Zhao Song asked Zhou Lifen to beg Shen Li for mercy.
Shen Li knew nothing about this matter until Zhou Lifen appeared.
Blocked and unable to get inside the building, Zhou Lifen waited for Shen Li in the parking lot after work.
She never expected that a place she used to enter and exit at will could no longer accommodate her, and that she would be driven away by security guards the moment she stepped through the door.
Things had long since changed, and the people were no longer the same.
She grabbed Shen Li’s arm. “Son, Mom is begging you, can you please leave us a way out?”
A flash of hostility crossed the depths of his eyes. Shen Li shook her hand off, a wave of irrepressible disgust welling up inside him. “Zhao Song’s matter is not something I did, and it has nothing to do with me.”
“Mom knows it wasn’t you. Could you please put in a good word with Ji Zhouye for Mom’s sake?” Zhou Lifen’s eyes turned red, tears swirling in her sockets.
The scene looked precisely like a benevolent mother and an unfilial son.
“Do you still think Ji Zhouye is the same Ji Zhouye as before?” A trace of sorrow crept into the corners of Shen Li’s eyes. “My words aren’t worth a damn right now. I’m already thanking my lucky stars that he hasn’t moved against Jiang Qing.”
“Mom knows you’re just speaking out of anger. It was my fault back then for forcing you to break up with him, and I apologize to you.” Zhou Lifen wept pearly tears. “Ji Zhouye definitely still has you in his heart. As long as you speak up, he’ll definitely listen to you.”
“Has me in his heart?” Shen Li gave a self-deprecating laugh. “You really think this is the past. Let me tell you the honest truth: in Ji Zhouye’s eyes, I’m worth less than nothing. Right under his nose, I have to walk on eggshells just to survive, terrified that if I provoke him, Jiang Qing will be wiped out.”
“Impossible. Believe Mom, Mom is very good at reading people.” Zhou Lifen shook her head while crying.
Shen Li’s gaze was aloof and detached, his brows filled with indifference. “I won’t go begging Ji Zhouye. I wish nothing more than for Zhao Song to go straight to hell.”
“What is so great about Zhao Song? He made you abandon your family and abandon me just to be with him.”
Zhou Lifen played the emotional card. “Mom didn’t abandon you, never.”
“Choosing Zhao Song is abandoning me.” Shen Li practically shouted it out. “In what way is my dad inferior to him? What kind of charm does Zhao Song even have to make you cheat during your marriage?”
“He was Mom’s first love.” Zhou Lifen lowered her eyes.
“So my dad deserved to be cuckolded by you?”
Playing the emotional card had zero effect on Shen Li; he simply wasn’t buying it.
“Shen Li, whether you acknowledge it or not, I am your mother. A blood relation cannot be changed, so don’t speak so harshly.”
Shen Li had no idea how she even had the face to utter such words. “Get lost immediately, or I’ll have every single storefront under your name shut down.”
Zhou Lifen owned a few clothing and cosmetics stores.
Looking at the cold-blooded person right before her, she regretted ever giving birth to him. “I never should have given birth to you.”
After failing to get any results, Zhou Lifen left.
Shen Li sat in his car for a long time to calm down.
Growing up, the family housekeeper had always taken care of him; living under the same roof as his mother, he had never felt any maternal love.
Zhou Lifen never cared about him. She never asked about his grades, never cared when he was sick, and could never even remember his birthday, always brushing it off with perfunctory excuses.
She treated his father with the same indifference on ordinary days.
Everything had traces leading back to it; it was just that he was too young back then and had never thought about it in that direction.
His father, moreover, had never suspected her once.
The difference between love and lack of love was far too obvious.
The first time he ever went against Zhou Lifen’s wishes was when she ordered him to break up with Ji Zhouye.
Yet, in the end, Zhou Lifen succeeded.
Several years ago, the Ji family was considered wealthy, but they were no match for Jiang Qing at the time, who was a business tycoon in Jiangcheng.
Zhou Lifen used the family’s power and influence to threaten him.
She said, “Will you break up with Ji Zhouye and go abroad, or do you want to ruin Ji Zhouye completely? The two of you will never be accepted by worldly society, nor will you ever have a future.”
Zhou Lifen usually never interfered with his life, save for this single instance.
That day, he asked very calmly, “If I don’t break up, what do you plan to do?”
“I will have reporters make this public. You know I can control public opinion. As long as I want to, the trending topics won’t cool down. He will constantly be on the hot searches, pointed at and condemned by society. His life, his family, and his company will all be affected.”
Back then, society had virtually zero tolerance for homosexuality.
Zhou Lifen continued, “If these aren’t enough to make you break up with him, then I will destroy JH. If Ji Zhouye finds out that it was me who destroyed the company his father spent half a lifetime building, do you think he would still be with you? He won’t. He will only hate you.”
He wanted to go beg his father to let him stay, but a single sentence from Zhou Lifen dashed that thought entirely.
“Shen Li, do you want to turn this entire household upside down just because of yourself? Your grandmother found out about this and used the threat of death to pressure your father. Your father has already compromised on the matter of sending you abroad.”
At that time, Jiang Qing could cover the sky with one hand in Jiangcheng. If Zhou Lifen wanted to ruin Ji Zhouye, it wouldn’t be difficult for her at all.
And so, he went abroad. On the night of his departure, his father told him many things.
He said, “Xiao Li, once you finish your studies and return to China, Dad will support whatever you do and whoever you want to be with. Your grandmother’s condition is getting worse by the day, and the doctor says she has at most two more years. I want to let your grandmother spend her final days in happiness. As a son, can you understand your Dad?”
Naturally, he understood.
“Dad also knows a bit about that young man; he’s bound to achieve great things in the future. When you return to China, if the two of you still have fate, Dad sincerely blesses you both.”
And so he went abroad. His grandmother passed away two years later; he returned to attend the funeral, only to be sent right back abroad again.
Shen Li was late picking Ji Zhouye up from work, so Ji Zhouye had waited for a short while.
Ji Zhouye didn’t ask, but Shen Li explained first, “There was a traffic jam on the road, I’ll pay attention next time.”
“Did you feel unwell anywhere today?”
“No.”
After Ji Zhouye got into the car, Shen Li didn’t rush to start the engine. He turned his head to look at him with a lazy, unserious expression. “Ji Zhouye, are you worrying about me?”
“If Divine Strength got sick, I’d worry too.”
Shen Li gave a silent sigh.
“Then if Divine Strength and I got sick at the same time, who would you care about first?”
“Divine Strength.” Ji Zhouye didn’t spare him a shred of face.
Splendid!
He wasn’t even as important as a dog.
Zhou Lifen had even claimed that Ji Zhouye still had him in his heart. Where was he in his heart? Divine Strength was probably in there.
Shen Li stopped talking.
A smile crept into the depths of Ji Zhouye’s eyes. “Why do you always insist on comparing yourself to a dog?”
“The perks of being a dog are higher than being a human.” Shen Li muttered under his breath.
Being a dog meant getting to rub against his leg and having his head petted; being a human meant getting nothing at all.
Ji Zhouye asked, “Such as?”
Shen Li wouldn’t dare voice what was actually on his mind. “Such as dogs get to eat lots and lots of meat jerky.”
“Have I ever starved you?” The amusement in Ji Zhouye’s eyes deepened.
“Not really.”
As soon as they arrived home, Shen Li began teasing the dog, feeding it a large amount of meat jerky. Divine Strength was thrilled, spinning in circles around Shen Li.
If Ji Zhouye hadn’t stopped him, Shen Li would have kept feeding it jerky endlessly.
Once Ji Zhouye forbade Divine Strength from eating any more jerky, Shen Li secretly went and opened a canned meal for it instead.