Jin Si returned to the 15th floor, did another hundred sets of sit-ups, took a shower, and then lay down on the bed. He picked up his phone and saw a WeChat message from Xue Shao.
“Ancestor!! Shang Lübai is digging into you!!”
“Luckily I forged a resume for you in advance, otherwise you’d have been exposed!”
“But I don’t think Shang Lübai is that easy to fool. He’ll definitely keep digging. What if he finds out… (terrified) (terrified)”
Jin Si curled the corner of his mouth. “If he finds out, I’ll beat you up.”
Xue Shao: “??”
Xue Shao: lying flat.jpg
Xue Shao: “Then you might as well just beat me now. That’s Shang Lübai we’re talking about!! You have no idea how formidable he is. He’s absolutely terrifying. A useless second-generation rich kid like me would walk around him just to avoid him. How would I dare to go against him!”
Jin Si rarely took an interest in people he didn’t know. “How terrifying? Tell me.”
Xue Shao was useless at everything else, but he was number one at gossiping. He immediately started introducing him like an HR:
“Shang Lübai, male, 28 years old, CEO of Shangxun Group, a Fortune 500 company. He’s the third son of the Shang family in Shanghai, with two older brothers, both of whom are ruthless characters.”
“The Shang family wasn’t supposed to be inherited by him, the third son. Old Shang had groomed the eldest son as his heir from a young age, but he managed to send his eldest brother to prison and force his second brother out of the country. Just like that, he forcibly seized half the power of the Shang family!”
“PS: The other half is controlled by Old Shang.”
“Another PS: The father and son only have a superficial relationship now.”
“Daring to seize power, daring to turn his back—full of boldness. A figure like that, in ancient times, would be a prince who forces the emperor to abdicate and usurps the throne! I’ve heard he’s also a bit psychologically twisted. He likes raising snakes and has a huge black mamba. Eww~”
What came to Jin Si’s mind was the rumor about Shang Lübai and Ying Chan, and the subtle atmosphere between the two. He gave a faint, mocking smile.
“Oh.”
“What does that have to do with me?”
“Anyway, if he finds out about me, I’ll beat you up.”
Xue Shao: tears streaming down face.jpg
Jin Si tossed his phone aside and stared at the ceiling. He tried to fall asleep for over ten minutes but still couldn’t.
He picked up his phone again and called Xue Shao. “Did you find that tattoo artist I asked you to look for? Is this the best you can do? What use are you?”
Xue Shao wished he could teleport to Jin Si’s side and cling to his leg. “Ancestor! My ancestor! Are you trying to kick me out and find another dog? No way! You can only have me as your dog!”
Jin Si was disgusted by him. “Get lost.”
Xue Shao said cheekily, “Aww, don’t be like that. I’ve got a lead. I was going to wait until I had a confirmed result in a couple of days before telling you, but if you’re in a hurry, you can hear the half-finished version first.”
Jin Si sat up in bed, his Adam’s apple rolling unconsciously. “What is it?”
No one knew that he had secretly returned to the country to investigate something that happened three years ago.
The only clue to that matter was the flying dove tattoo on his Adam’s apple.
Every tattoo is a unique work. Even the same tattoo artist can’t produce two identical tattoos.
He had been investigating based on the tattoo for a long time and finally found out that it should have been designed by a tattoo artist named “Tao Tao.”
So he returned to the country and had Xue Shao look for this Tao Tao.
Xue Shao began, “Tao Tao’s studio is in an alley behind Shanghai Affiliated High School. It looks ordinary and shabby on the outside, and he doesn’t have many clients on a regular basis. The neighbors all think he can’t make ends meet.”
“But actually, his original tattoo designs are very popular online. He’s sold a lot of copyrights and has long achieved financial freedom. I’ll send you his studio’s account later. Go check it out—your flying dove design is in there.”
“I found his studio, but unfortunately, he recently went out of town. Apparently someone paid him a lot of money to do a tattoo. Where exactly he went and when he’ll be back, even his apprentice at the studio doesn’t know.”
“His phone can’t be reached, and he doesn’t reply to messages. His apprentice said that’s normal—when their boss is working, he goes ‘off the grid.'”
Jin Si frowned.
As soon as Xue Shao heard him go silent, he knew the ancestor wasn’t satisfied with his findings, so he quickly added, “He’s been gone for almost half a month now. Based on past experience, his apprentice said he should be back in a couple of days. Let’s just wait two days.”
Only then did Jin Si give an “Mm.”
Xue Shao was a funny guy. “Ancestor, since I’ve already found it for you, are you still going to replace your dog?”
Jin Si laughed despite being speechless. “Does your ancestor know you’re out here doing this kind of thing?”
Xue Shao was bold as can be. “The only son of the Jin family can be kept by a woman outside, so me being a dog is no big deal.”
Jin Si’s lips curled slightly, then he cursed at him, “I have a legitimate job.”
Whether it was legitimate or not, he knew it himself. Anyway, Xue Shao didn’t believe that he would stoop so low as to become Ying Chan’s bodyguard without some other motive.
“The moment Tao Tao returns to Shanghai, you go find him immediately.”
Xue Shao dutifully agreed. “As you command!”
After hanging up, Jin Si received the tattoo studio’s account from Xue Shao. It had many of Tao Tao’s works on it, and he casually tapped on a few photos.
Although he didn’t know the ins and outs of tattooing, the style and brushwork were very similar to the flying pigeon on his neck.
Jin Si waited patiently. Perhaps Tao Tao could tell him something, filling in the missing pieces of that blank stretch of his memory.
…
The next afternoon, Sister Wei came to Ying Chan’s place to discuss matters with her.
“That account that sent you the message is a virtual number online—it’s very hard to trace who’s behind it. But that message didn’t really say anything, so it might just be someone trying to scare you. I don’t think we need to pay it too much attention for now.”
Ying Chan raised an eyebrow. “If it were ‘just’ a message cursing me or wishing me dead, that wouldn’t be a big deal—it’s probably just a hater or a rival fan, the usual fan circle antics.”
“But the problem is, that message said nothing at all, yet they went through all the trouble of getting my phone number and sending it through a virtual number. I think that’s what’s actually more unsettling, isn’t it?”
Hearing her put it that way, Sister Wei realized she had a point and pulled up the message again to examine it closely.
Ying Chan had initially thought the message was nothing much too, but the more she thought about it last night, the more she felt it wasn’t that simple: “And I only hired a bodyguard a few days ago—he hasn’t even shown his face in front of my fans. How did that account know I have a bodyguard?”
Sister Wei frowned. “What are you getting at?”
“The most reasonable explanation is that the sasaeng who broke in illegally leaked the information about me hiring a bodyguard to his accomplice.”
At that point, Ying Chan took the opportunity to tell her, “On the first day I hired the bodyguard, I moved back to Heshan Bay. That very night, I encountered another illegal break-in. That person climbed from the 15th floor to my balcony, came straight into my bedroom, and was holding a knife.”
!
Sister Wei was so shocked she stood up: “What? Another sasaeng?!”
Ying Chan made a calming gesture toward her. “Luckily Jin Si was there. Jin Si subdued him in no time, but he did suffer a minor injury.”
“Even the bodyguard got hurt?!”
Sister Wei’s expression completely changed. “How could you not tell me about something this big earlier? Two illegal break-ins in a row—whoever this is won’t stop until they’ve ‘done you in’!”
The reason she hadn’t told her was, of course, because she didn’t want Shang Lübai to find out.
Ying Chan rubbed her nose and said, “It’s already been handed over to the police, and nothing else has happened recently.”
“No, no, no, this place is too dangerous. You need to move. I’ll find you a new high-end apartment with the highest security rating, and I’ll hire you more bodyguards… hire a female bodyguard! She’ll live with you, providing 24-hour close protection!”
Sister Wei was treating this like a major crisis!