Publicly announcing that Ji Chen was about to take over the Qingsheng Group, with current Chairman Ji Heng slowly releasing his authority and stepping down step by step, sent shockwaves through the capital. The Liuguang company was practically surrounded by a gathering of elite heavyweights, all coming to offer their congratulatory wishes.
The Qingsheng headquarters had over a dozen companies transferred to Ji Chen’s direct control in a single flash. Fortunately, since nobody could pin down exactly which company office Ji Chen was currently working out of, most of these visitors ended up striking out.
Those fair-weather friends who had previously gone radio silent with disconnected numbers suddenly became active again, lining up in queues waiting for a chance to hang out with Ji Chen. Ironically, Ji Chen was now the one impossible to reach.
Fu Chi, who had likewise gone a month and a half without seeing Ji Chen, grew increasingly gloomy by the day, leaving the employees walking on eggshells inside the Fu Corporation tower.
On this particular day, the front doors of the Fu Corporation swung open, and the stubble-laden Second Young Master, Fu Xi, stumbled in reeking of alcohol while brandishing a paternity test report.
He screamed across the entire office: “Fu Chi, you aren’t even Dad’s biological child at all! If you have any shred of shame left, you’ll pack up and leave the Fu family with nothing!”
The Fu Corporation employees wore faces of sheer shock.
Ten minutes later, Fu Xi appeared inside the chairman’s office, and the test report in his hand was already in Fu Chi’s possession.
Rather than experiencing the collapse Fu Xi had envisioned, Fu Chi asked him calmly: “Where did you get this?”
Fu Xi raged: “You don’t need to question whether it’s real! I dug this out of Mom’s room. It must have been done when you were a kid. You share zero blood relation with Dad, so what possible qualification do you have to own the Fu Corporation?”
“If you don’t believe it, you can go right now and redo a test with Dad. I didn’t tell Dad first because I didn’t want to blow things out of proportion. If you have any decency left, voluntarily transfer your shares to me. I’ll give you some money and you can get the hell out of the capital!”
“Heh.”
Fu Chi lowered the report and looked at him as if he were an absolute idiot: “Decency? Can decency be spent like cash? The shares in my hands were bought with hard-earned money. Even if I’m not Fu Cheng’s son, right now I am still the chairman of the Fu Corporation.”
“The shares Fu Cheng gave me were things I paid for out of pocket, not gifts or inheritance. What I was guarding against was precisely this kind of future headache, and it’s precisely because you know that clear fact which leaves you reduced to trying to use the moral high ground to threaten me.”
“Otherwise, you’d have dragged this straight to court ages ago. Now you expect to use a piece of appraisal paper and a drop of blood to make me cough up the entire Fu Corporation? Are you dreaming, or just utterly delusional?”
Fu Xi’s face twisted in ugly rage: “You bastard!”
Fu Chi calmly picked up the phone: “Security, get up here and drag our over-intoxicated Fu Corporation shareholder out to sober up, before he starts spouting things beyond human comprehension.”
Once the man was dragged away, Fu Chi fell into a bitter self-mockery.
He had occasionally doubted his blood relation with his mother, but it had never crossed his mind that he shared no blood ties with his father instead.
Casually tossing the test report into the trash can, Fu Chi then bent down, fished it back out, and wore a momentarily inscrutable expression.
He picked up his phone, snapped a photo, and sent it to Ji Chen. One minute later, the person he hadn’t been able to contact for a month and a half called him back.
Fu Chi’s gaze darkened. Did this matter have something to do with Ji Chen?
The phone rang a total of three times before Fu Chi finally texted back an address and time.
He grabbed the test report and headed out.
The Pure Bar, a ridiculous name given by Cheng Qu.
Right then, the three of them were drinking on the second floor as usual. Holding the test report, Cheng Qu looked utterly astonished: “I always figured you were Fu Cheng’s illegitimate son, which was why your mother couldn’t stand the sight of you, but I never imagined the reality was completely flipped.”
“So what’s the actual situation then? Your mom knew you weren’t Fu Cheng’s kid and figured it would eventually blow up and hurt her status, so she harassed you just to chase you out of the Fu family as fast as possible?”
Fu Chi paused for a moment: “Has Li Wei’s whereabouts been tracked down?”
Cheng Qu shook his head: “Not that easily. The flight she boarded was bound for Country L, but the moment she stepped off the plane, she completely vanished off the grid. Plus, coupled with the confession from the guy hired back home to poison you, every angle makes it look like Li Wei got played.”
“Someone deliberately set up a trap just to make Li Wei disappear. Eight out of ten times she fell right into the hands of the person behind the scenes, and whether she’s alive or dead is anyone’s guess. This person…”
Beishan took over: “It has to be Ji Chen. Even if Li Wei colluded with the Lin family in the Golden Triangle to set a trap for him and let Fu Xi play the savior to buy a favor, there was zero need to hit her with a retaliation this vicious. I suspect he has another objective entirely.”
Cheng Qu’s peach-blossom eyes began spinning like mosquito coils: “What the hell is going on here? What does the Fu family’s mess have to do with Ji Chen?”
Just as the three of them fell silent, unable to make sense of it, someone came walking up from downstairs.
The silver-gray wisps of hair were gone, dyed back to jet black, and his fashionable attire had been swapped out for a far more luxurious, mature suit.
Carrying his jacket draped over his wrist in a pure white shirt, the outfit made his eyes look all the more piercingly bright.
Though his frame remained slender, he stood straight and tall. Whether it was due to gradually taking on more authority or something else, Ji Chen’s demeanor had shed a bit of that rebellious teenage arrogance, replaced instead by a growing composure.
Walking right up to Cheng Qu, he snatched the test report away, glanced at it, and calmly tore it to pieces: “You finally got your hands on the Fu Corporation, you surely aren’t planning to spit it back out.”
Fu Chi glanced sideways at him: “You don’t seem surprised at all.”
“Yeah, nothing to be surprised about. High society is full of dirty little secrets, this is nothing compared to those. What else did Fu Xi say?” Ji Chen sat down and asked offhandedly.
“Do you know who my father is?”
That sudden question made Ji Chen pause his hand as he poured a drink, before he replied as naturally as ever: “I’m your dad, you buying that?”
“Pfft! Hahaha!” Cheng Qu didn’t want to laugh, but he couldn’t help himself.
Especially given the deadpan expression Ji Chen wore while delivering the words “I’m your dad.” Nope, he genuinely couldn’t hold it in anymore.
“Trying to brush it off that way isn’t very clever. Li Wei is in your hands.” The moment Fu Chi dropped those words, the smile vanished completely from Cheng Qu’s face.
Unbothered, Ji Chen took a sip of his drink.
“Your speculations have zero to do with me. I moved against the Fu family purely because I hate being calculated against. As for the reason I happened to show up here, it’s because we’re together now. I care about you, and that’s the end of it.”
A jolt ran through Fu Chi’s heart as he fixed his gaze entirely on Ji Chen.
“Cough… cough-cough.” Cheng Qu choked hard on a mouthful of alcohol. After taking a long while to swallow it down, he stared in shock: “You guys are together? Since when? Beishan, did you know about this?”
Beishan shook his head.
Ji Chen calmly stated: “Ever since I was hospitalized. Fu Chi agreed to take the bottom position, so I said yes.”
Silence descended upon the world. The expressions in Cheng Qu and Beishan’s eyes grew remarkably clear and enlightened.
Fu Chi didn’t find it humiliating in the slightest, smiling as he asked: “Wanna come stay at my place tonight? We haven’t seen each other in a while.”
Seeing Ji Chen fall silent, Fu Chi wore a smile that was not quite a smile: “What are you scared of? Scared you won’t be able to pin down your own position accurately?”
With a deadpan look, Ji Chen replied: “I’ve been really busy lately, haven’t you watched the news? I don’t have time, career comes first for me. If you have needs, you can go find Cheng Qu—he doesn’t even have mysophobia and he’s totally open to playing around. Helping a bro out is no big deal.”
“Ji Chen, I’m gonna beat your brains out, I am a normal straight man, stop insulting my character! Come on, if I don’t drink you under the table tonight, I’d be doing a disservice to my veteran status in the romance field. Bottoms up!”
Giving him face, Ji Chen raised his glass, but after two drinks he started looking for an opportunity to bolt, only to be pinned down by Cheng Qu for another round of forced toasts.
Friendships among men build up fast. After a trip to soak in the hot spring at the Golden Triangle, Ji Chen was no longer viewed merely as an untouchable little crown prince in their eyes.
Making friends is always a mutual process—just like how Ji Chen remembered Beishan’s severe mysophobia and would proactively help him clear the air.
Yet friendships also carry varying degrees of emotional depth. Seeing Ji Chen slumped over the table unable to get back up, Cheng Qu burst into a proud, triumphant laugh.
“Fu Chi, don’t say your bro didn’t look out for you. Whether you can turn things around now depends entirely on yourself. What are you standing there spacing out for? Go carry your man back home!”