On the third floor of the He family villa, in the southeast-facing study.
The antique-style Chinese chandelier remained unextinguished all night. He Lin sat in front of the wide, black-lacquered wooden desk, having worked continuously for six hours, during which assistant Lin Yishui had remained by his side the entire time.
He Lin did not have the habit of torturing himself and never worked all night; of course, he also possessed sufficient capability and energy to handle all matters within the stipulated time. Today was the sole exception in nearly five years.
Having pulled an all-nighter, Lin Yishui’s azure-blue eyes had already lost their luster, yet he still forced himself to perk up, silently handing over pens, spreading out documents, searching for information, not daring to utter a single extra word.
He knew his Second Master was in a rather poor mood right now and did not dare to court disaster at this moment.
In truth, when He Lin returned from the basement yesterday afternoon, his emotions had been fairly decent. Although his expression remained cold, his breathing was visibly much more relaxed, and he had even singled out and praised a branch company’s strategic planning document during a video conference.
Until after dinner, when the elder Butler delivered a flash drive, which was reportedly transferred by young Master Chi.
He Lin took only a single glance before slamming the laptop shut fiercely.
Lin Yishui watched with his own eyes as a face that could remain calm even if Mount Tai collapsed before it changed through several colors within the space of a few seconds, turning from red to white, white to cyan, and ultimately almost to iron-blue. Even his earlobes flushed crimson, and his temples throbbed heavily a few times.
His Adam’s apple slid up and down his reddened neck, yet he said nothing, his tightly pressed thin lips forming nearly a straight line.
He Lin unplugged the flash drive, tossed it into a drawer, and locked it.
Then he began to work; all night, his posture hadn’t changed once.
Clearly angered quite deeply.
…
The edge of the sky was already faintly whitening. Finally, after Lin Yishui turned around and secretly stifled his fourth yawn, He Lin put down his fountain pen, pulled open the second drawer on his right-hand side, and rummaged through it.
Insightful of his master’s intentions, Lin Yishui decisively took out a new box of polymer clay from his briefcase and handed it over.
He Lin had a little-known minor hobby—sculpting clay.
A habit formed in childhood, he would sculpt whenever he was in a good or bad mood; unchangeable, and he never intended to change it.
With concentrated expression, He Lin spent a full twenty minutes sculpting a lifelike green-haired turtle.
Lin Yishui felt this color carried profound significance.
He Lin half-closed his eyes, leaning against the genuine leather backrest of the chair, “What did he say?”
Referring to Chi Ye.
“He didn’t say anything,” Lin Yishui reported factually, item by item: “Butler Zhu said that Madam…”
Catching the sudden, sharp, chilling gaze cast over by He Lin, Lin Yishui patted the air softly over his own mouth, “Oh, sorry… it’s young Master Chi.”
“Young Master Chi has been acting somewhat abnormally today; he didn’t curse, didn’t throw a huge tantrum, and didn’t resist at all. From start to finish, he has been extremely cooperative, bringing nothing except that Xigadu dog named ‘Bobo,’ and has now returned to the basement.”
He Lin’s dense, heroic brows arched upward imperceptibly, his gaze still lowered. After a long while, he emitted an unfathomable nasal hum: “Mhm.”
Lin Yishui breathed a sigh of relief.
“Where is the thing you were supposed to give me last night?” He Lin said, “Bring it over.”
“Alright.” A flash of indescribable emotion flickered through his azure-blue eyes before being swiftly and neatly concealed. Lin Yishui briskly turned around, bent over to pull a stack of things out from his document bag resting on the sofa by the door, and by the time he returned to He Lin’s side, no trace of any clue could be discerned on his face.
Materials as thick as a Xinhua Dictionary were presented one by one by Lin Yishui for He Lin to review.
“This is young Master Chi’s asset report, including evidence of his transferring all shops, properties, shares, bonds, and other real estate under his name.”
“This is all of young Master Chi’s cash transactions and bank liquidity since last year, primarily detailing income and expenditures from reselling confidential documents.”
“This is the interaction records between young Master Chi, bodyguard Li Da, and Xinghai Group CEO Mu Liang; the appendices contain some photos and dialogue screenshots from social media accounts.”
“This is…”
He Lin remained entirely wordless throughout, his brow peaks furrowing.
Upon mentioning “Mu Liang,” he tapped his fingers twice rhythmically against the desk, repeating the name in a deep voice.
The evidence of the original owner’s infidelity and betrayal was laid out thoroughly. Observing He Lin’s expression, Lin Yishui placed the very last document squarely on top.
It was only a single sheet of paper.
“This is young Master Chi’s death report. The relevant departments have already stamped and certified it; you only need to sign your name for it to take effect,” Lin Yishui said, quickly adding a supplementary sentence: “Once this report takes effect, young Master Chi will lose all rights as a natural person in this society, and by then, he will no longer have any chance of escaping the basement.”
Lin Yishui had followed He Lin for ten years and was always best at guessing his intentions.
Second Master did not want to kill people, yet letting them go was impossible. Utilizing this method of social death was a permanent, once-and-for-all solution.
He Lin’s gaze swept past the flash drive delivered by the elder Butler, his earlobes seemingly reddening briefly—though not quite distinctly—before halting instead upon those four words: “Death Report.” He raised a hand to press against his temple.
Lin Yishui’s spine instantly broke out in a layer of cold sweat—Second Master was dissatisfied with this. Although He Lin usually lacked facial expressions, the corners of his mouth were pressed visibly lower right now.
True to form, the next second, those few sheets of paper that He Lin had just picked up casually landed right before his eyes with a “slap” sound.
Lin Yishui didn’t dare to breathe loudly, hesitating for a good while before steeling his scalp to pull out PLAN B, which he had thought would absolutely never be needed, trembling as he held it up before He Lin’s eyes: “I also prepared a missing person certificate here. Its function is roughly the same as that report just now; barring accidents, the judicial authorities will automatically deem young Master Chi dead after two years. But it simply provides a two-year buffer margin. During this period, if you soften your heart or change your mind…”
Realizing he had spoken out of turn here, Lin Yishui rapidly clamped his mouth shut.
How could he possibly change his mind?
The person before him was none other than He Second Master, whose name struck terror into both the underworld and righteous realms. Toward those who had betrayed him, he had always been decisive and ruthless, leaving not the slightest margin. A few years ago during the family business struggles, He Lin could cast his own paternal uncle into a desperate situation without a moment’s hesitation. “Softness of heart” was a phrase that simply would not appear in He Lin’s dictionary.
While Lin Yishui was still immersed in his sentimentality over past events, he lifted his eyes to see that He Lin had already drawn his fountain pen and signed his name swiftly across the missing person certificate in strokes of “shh-shh-shh.”
“Second Master?”
He Lin lifted his eyelids: “What?”
“Nothing, nothing… at all.” Shifting his thoughts, Lin Yishui swallowed down the reminder that had almost slipped past his lips and chose to shut up.
Looking thoughtfully at his assistant, He Lin stood up abruptly, the high-end boss chair behind him spinning half a circle in place.
He strode over to the floor-to-ceiling bookshelf lining the entire wall on the other side of the room, crossing his arms and searching up and down with his gaze for a long time, finally finding a small booklet wedged between the cracks of Political History of Thought and Philosophical Cycles. The book title was Explanations on the Basic Contents of Socialist Harmonious Values.
His earlobes seemed to turn a bit red again.
Turning around, He Lin tossed it into Lin Yishui’s hands, instructing coldly: “Take this to Chi Ye, and have him…”
“Read the full text thoroughly, and memorize it,” Lin Yishui continued naturally without even thinking.
He Lin nodded, saying nothing further, waved his hand, and turned to head into the resting room inside the study.
Granted a reprieve, Lin Yishui immediately grabbed the booklet and dashed out of the study, terrified of running too slowly and being frozen to death by He Lin’s icy aura.
The elder Butler was coming upstairs from the dining room carrying He Lin’s breakfast when he collided right into Lin Yishui, whose eye sockets were dark with exhaustion, and eagerly inquired: “Was that flash drive from young Master Chi shown to Second Master?”
Lin Yishui: “Seen.”
Butler Zhu: “And then?” The tone of expectation couldn’t be concealed at all.
Lin Yishui wore a mournful face: “Worked all night overtime.”
Snorting softly, Butler Zhu harbored the intention of offering a few words of comfort, yet cared even more about He Lin’s attitude toward Chi Ye.
Refusing to give up, he continued to pursue the question: “Then did Second Master give any instructions?”
“Second Master said I should deliver this to young Master Chi,” Lin Yishui raised the Core Socialist Values in his hand.
Assistant Lin sought humble instruction: “Butler Zhu, do you know if Second Master has any profound meaning behind this move?”
Staring at the pale-yellow book cover, the elder Butler shared the exact same windswept confusion.
Despite living over sixty years and being widely experienced, the old man genuinely could not analyze the profundity within it, shaking his head as he said with a weathered tone: “Perhaps it’s simply that he doesn’t want to install Wi-Fi for young Master Chi.”
Chi Ye had waited in the basement all night, yet failed to wait for news of He Lin releasing him. Instead, he waited for Lin Yishui and this incomprehensible Explanations on the Basic Contents of Socialist Harmonious Values in his hand.
Chi Ye held extreme vigilance toward Lin Yishui.
He still remembered all those things Lin Yishui had done to the original owner in the original text. Although the original owner truly deserved his retribution, this assistant who had single-handedly catalyzed the exposure of the scandal clearly harbored no good intentions either.
Unbothered by Chi Ye’s hostile attitude, Lin Yishui delivered every word required without omission: “Second Master instructs young Master Chi to thoroughly read and memorize the full text.”
Too lazy to pretend to be obedient, Chi Ye let out a casual “humph.”
Facing the wall, he didn’t even reach out to take the book handed over by the other party.
For reasons unknown, some nerve in Lin Yishui misfired, as he refused to leave. Bending over to place the book on the bed, he even weighed his words as he tried to persuade Chi Ye: “Actually, young Master Chi doesn’t need to be overly resistant; the book Second Master chose for you isn’t actually thick.”
“Not thick?”
Turning around, Chi Ye angrily flung the book onto the floor. If possible, he actually wanted to throw it directly onto He Lin’s face: “Why don’t you try memorizing it?”
The corners of the latter’s mouth twitched, falling silent with a somewhat bizarre expression.
Chi Ye immediately perked up: “Could it be that you’ve actually memorized this sort of nonsense?”
With a darkened face, Lin Yishui pulled the iron door shut from the outside with a loud “clatter.”
Startling Bobo into shaking all the fur on its body, it snapped up the Socialist Harmonious Values that had fallen from the sky into its mouth for self-comfort.
Staring at Bobo’s scampering short legs, sudden enlightenment dawned on Chi Ye.
Snatching the book back from Bobo’s mouth in a flash, he squatted on the floor and began flipping through it page by page for a careful search.
Sure enough, right on the first page among the large characters of “Prosperity, Democracy, Civility, Harmony, Freedom, Equality…”, the word “Harmony” was circled with a prominent mark in black ink.
Tilting his annoyed head, Chi Ye analyzed it for half a day without grasping the mystery behind the word “Harmony.”
Abandoning himself to despair as he plopped down onto the floor, he stated dejectedly: “What on earth does this mean? Wouldn’t it be better to just speak plainly if you have something to say?”
Clearly lacking any mutual understanding whatsoever, yet playing at passing messages like wild geese—damn it.
Simultaneously, on the third floor of that same villa.
The man who couldn’t speak plainly was similarly red-ear lobed and brow-knotted.
All the curtains in He Lin’s bedroom were draped down to the floor, blocking things up tightly. The bedroom door was locked dead from the inside, with instructions left that no one was permitted to disturb him.
Plugged into the computer before him was the flash drive Chi Ye had sent over.
On the gloomy screen were rows of movie thumbnail images: pale white flesh, sadomasochistic romance between men, pain-fetish erotic props…
An entire disk full of adult movies, surprisingly.
Vibrant in color, with touchingly moving texture.
High-definition, uncensored, unharmonious.
!
He Lin closed his eyes for a moment, ten fingers tightening: “Attempting to seduce me using this method—clearly the lesson wasn’t harsh enough.”