Ding Zhi’s car drove directly into the villa compound and pulled up outside the residence, only for Hu Lai to step out of the front passenger seat.
“My, my, thank you so much, Teacher Ding, for giving me a ride back,” Hu Lai said with a beaming smile.
Ding Zhi shot him a faint glance and replied, “As long as you remember this small favor of mine in the future and show me some mercy, our old classmate camaraderie won’t have been spent in vain.”
These words left Yan Jingyu, who was the first to step out of the door, completely dumbfounded. He had not expected these two to be former classmates. Judging solely by their appearances, anyone who didn’t know better would think there was a generational gap between them.
Yet, despite such a relationship, they showed zero regard for their classmate bond during every industry battle, using any and every means necessary to get ahead. What was with this picture of harmony and joy right now? Had they beaten their swords into plowshares? Or were they just posturing for each other?
“Can we head back now?” Ding Zhi’s gaze landed on Yan Jingyu.
“Oh, Teacher Chi, what an honor to have you visit! Look at these foolish kids; they didn’t even bother to tell me,” Hu Lai said warmly, exchanging pleasantries.
Yan Jingyu paid no attention to Hu Lai, walking straight toward Ding Zhi instead.
“What are you doing here?” Yan Jingyu did not display an ounce of remorse for doing wrong; instead, his tone carried an edge of interrogation. However, one couldn’t really blame him, Ding Zhi’s ruthless methods were truly something he could not bring himself to admire.
Ding Zhi narrowed his eyes slightly upon hearing his words. “Do you truly not know why I’m here?”
“Brother Ding, why did you come in person? Honestly, if you had just let…” Fan Rong originally wanted to step forward to ease the tense atmosphere between the two, but halfway through his sentence, he was scared off by Ding Zhi’s piercing glare.
“As for your matter, I’ll deal with it properly once we get back.” Ding Zhi pulled open the rear car door and said to Yan Jingyu, “Get in.”
Yan Jingyu did not accept his courtesy, however. He walked around to the other side of the car, pulled open the door, and sat inside. Fan Rong didn’t dare look at Ding Zhi’s current expression at all; hunching his shoulders, he scurried behind Yan Jingyu and scrambled into the front passenger seat.
Ding Zhi said nothing either. He simply shut the car door and took the driver’s seat.
Standing upstairs, Chi Dianqing witnessed the entire scene. Seeing Yan Jingyu make Ding Zhi suffer a setback brought a wave of delight to his heart, and he couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
Ding Zhi had originally been sent by his brother to monitor him, so their relationship was far from good; both harbored plenty of silent grievances against each other.
Once the car exited the villa area and merged onto the main road, it immediately accelerated. Yan Jingyu glanced backward while making a turn, and sure enough, a white car was tailing them from a distance. That vehicle happened to be the exact same one that had chased them into the alley earlier during the day.
“Damn it, why are they so relentless, still following us?” Yan Jingyu cursed. “Don’t they have jobs or anything better to do? How are they this free?”
“Just like how you have a job and things to do, yet can still manage to be this idle, let alone them,” Ding Zhi executed a sharp drift, throwing Yan Jingyu in the back seat so hard that his face slammed directly against the car window. If Chi Dianqing’s face had contained cosmetic implants, that level of force would have been enough to send him back to the hospital for another round of plastic surgery.
After Yan Jingyu stabilized his sitting posture, he raised a hand to feel his face; no part of it had suffered any deformation. It seemed Chi Dianqing’s face hadn’t been tampered with by plastic surgery after all. Then again, with a face like this, no matter how much one altered it, the natural foundation was right here, though ultimately, it still couldn’t compare to his, Yan Jingyu’s, natural-born perfection.
After a long pause, Yan Jingyu suddenly remembered that Ding Zhi seemed to have insulted him just now, and had even caused his face to hit the window. Only then did he say with immense displeasure, “What level of standing do you think you have to dare talk to me like that?”
Setting aside how Ding Zhi reacted upon hearing this, Fan Rong in the front passenger seat sat upright and rigid. Before his eyes could even shift toward Ding Zhi, he could already feel the icy aura rising from his left side. He gripped the seatbelt tightly with both hands and didn’t even dare to exhale properly, doing everything possible to minimize his own presence.
Ding Zhi said nothing. Glancing at the rearview mirror, he executed another tail-sliding drift and stepped harder on the gas.
Yan Jingyu was once again thrown sliding from one end of the seat to the other, making the dumplings he had just eaten churn in his stomach.
“Do you even know how to drive?!” Yan Jingyu finally snapped, unable to bear it any longer.
Only after the car behind them was completely shaken off did Ding Zhi slowly speak: “You’ve been letting yourself go a bit too much lately.”
“Hmph.” Yan Jingyu let out a cold snort and turned his gaze toward the window.
“It’s still what I told you before: if you’re tired, take two days off to rest. Coincidentally, your brother wants to see you, so head back home tomorrow.” Yan Jingyu didn’t catch any secondary meaning from these words, but Fan Rong swallowed hard, his complexion turning several shades paler.
Yan Jingyu simply closed his eyes and chose to ignore Ding Zhi. After all, he naturally had no objections to resting; working meant working on Chi Dianqing’s behalf anyway, and he was no fool to do unpaid labor for someone else.
Ding Zhi glanced at him through the rearview mirror. Seeing that he remained silent, he said, “Then I’ll take it as your agreement. At eleven o’clock tomorrow morning, I will come to pick you up in person.”
Saying that, he turned to Fan Rong and asked, “You know what you need to do, right?”
Fan Rong, being put on the spot, nodded frantically. “I know, I know.”
Upon returning to Chi Dianqing’s house, Yan Jingyu thought it over carefully and felt this matter ought to be made known to Chi Dianqing. After all, the person he was going to meet was Chi Dianqing’s biological older brother; if he went without making any preparations, it would be extremely easy to blow his cover.
“Argh, seriously, this is so annoying!” After tossing and turning, Yan Jingyu suddenly flipped himself up from the bed, grabbed the phone on the nightstand with an agitated face, pulled up his own phone number, and dialed it.
The phone rang for a long time before Chi Dianqing finally picked up. From his voice, he had likely been woken up by Yan Jingyu’s call after falling asleep. Extremely displeased, he said, “Are you sick in the head?”
Yan Jingyu glanced at the time on his phone, surprised to find it was already two in the morning. Instead of getting angry at Chi Dianqing’s cursing, he suddenly split into a wide grin and chuckled: “So, were you just woken up by my phone call?”
Chi Dianqing probably sensed the tone in Yan Jingyu’s voice that made him uncomfortable, and he cursed once more: “If you’re truly so bored, you can dig out a few teething sticks I bought back when I kept a dog from the trunk in the storage room and chew on them, but do not call me. Because receiving your call makes me feel worse than swallowing a fly.”
Seeing that Chi Dianqing sounded this furious, Yan Jingyu even bounced up and down on the bed twice in delight, then gloated, “Are you sure you want me to use this precious mouth of yours to chew on dog teething sticks?”
Chi Dianqing really didn’t want to stay awake in the middle of the night bickering with a lunatic. “You’d better have something important to say for calling at this hour. Otherwise, I can’t guarantee I won’t do something to retaliate against you.”
Yan Jingyu heard the threat underlying his words. Though disdainful, he couldn’t afford not to believe it. After all, his own physical body and phone were currently in Chi Dianqing’s hands, and he had already stomped on Chi Dianqing’s minefield several times.
Given how narrow-minded and vengeful this man was, he was probably already brewing retaliation methods in his heart for a long time. If he were to add fuel to the fire right now, it would undoubtedly allow Chi Dianqing to set a trap for him, which wasn’t worth the loss.
“That fine agent of yours said he’s taking me to see your brother tomorrow, so I came to.”
Before Yan Jingyu could finish his sentence, Chi Dianqing exclaimed in shock from the other end of the line: “What did you say?!”
Yan Jingyu knit his brows and pulled the phone a bit farther away, feeling as though Chi Dianqing’s sharp yell had pierced straight through his ear and into his brain. “Are you sick? What are you shrieking like a ghost for?”
“You said you’re going to see my brother tomorrow?” Chi Dianqing asked once more.
“Yes! Going to see that dear older brother of yours tomorrow, are you really that impatient?” Yan Jingyu said ill-temperedly.
“If you can avoid going, try your best not to go,” Chi Dianqing suddenly said.
Yan Jingyu didn’t catch his meaning and asked, “What do you mean? Are you afraid I’ll ruin things for you? That your brother will discover his dear little brother has been swapped out?”
“This is my advice to you,” Chi Dianqing said. “You’d better take it.”
Upon hearing this, the rebellious streak in Yan Jingyu’s nature flared up again. “Are you afraid that after I go, I’ll take the opportunity to strip you of your assets? Well, let me tell you, I’m definitely going!”
“You…” After spitting out a single word, Chi Dianqing fell into an endless silence.
“Ha,” Yan Jingyu let out a laugh. “Could it be that I hit the nail on the head?”
“Did you buy that brain of yours from a second-hand market? The kind where you can’t return it after the trial period expires?” Chi Dianqing truly couldn’t fathom Yan Jingyu’s miraculous line of reasoning and couldn’t help but mock him.
However, given Yan Jingyu’s temperament, the more Chi Dianqing acted like this, the more he wanted to see what kind of person this brother was, and why Chi Dianqing wouldn’t let him go.
Chi Dianqing, clearly understanding Yan Jingyu’s petty and rebellious nature, explained patiently: “I’ll say it one more time: my brother, if you can avoid meeting him, do not meet him.”
“Why?” Yan Jingyu pressed.
“This is my family matter; you don’t need to know,” Chi Dianqing refused to explain.
“Ding Zhi is coming to pick me up in person tomorrow. Can I just say I’m not going and get away with it?” Yan Jingyu rolled around on Chi Dianqing’s soft, comfortable large bed.
“You just need to firmly insist that you aren’t going. You don’t need any other superfluous reasons,” Chi Dianqing said.
“Chi Dianqing, could it be that you’re afraid of your brother?” Yan Jingyu probed.
“I’m advising you patiently one last time: don’t ask too much about things you shouldn’t know,” Chi Dianqing said coldly.
“Then I really do want to see what kind of person could make someone like you so wary.” Yan Jingyu flipped over and pulled the quilt over himself. “Tomorrow at noon, I will set off right on time.”
Without waiting for Chi Dianqing to say anything further, Yan Jingyu directly hung up the phone. In the darkness, he could even picture it: after he hung up, Chi Dianqing’s entire body would freeze for ten seconds before he grimly clenched his fists. In the next moment, he would forcefully suppress the urge to smash the phone, set it on the table, and lie back on the bed with an utterly foul look on his face…
Just thinking about all this made Yan Jingyu uncontrollably excited, and he even thrashingly kicked around on the bed. It seemed that watching Chi Dianqing fly into a rage had become the most enjoyable pastime in his life, and he seemed to have started relishing hovering around Chi Dianqing’s minefield just to get a reaction out of him.