Chapter 14#
Ji Yang actually felt it was a bit strange.
Strange that Ji Chengyi was taking the initiative.
His concern for Nie Xu had exceeded the level of mere favorable impressions at this stage of the book.
At least it shouldn’t have been this pronounced yet.
And yet, after failing to win Nie Xu over to the Bayshore project last time, he had arranged a private meeting so quickly—late at night, no less—right after the old man had just made it clear he wanted Nie Xu to be his personal assistant. He’d even taken the initiative to reminisce about the past, which made it very hard for Ji Yang to believe he wasn’t invested.
Moreover, his aggressiveness toward Ji Yang was also stronger than what was described in the book.
In the book, he was someone who could endure the original owner calling him a “bastard” all day long and still maintain his composure. No matter how much they clashed before, he had always kept up that refined and self-controlled demeanor.
Now, a single remark about “affair” had seemed to hit a nerve.
Ji Yang watched him walk over. Since he was sitting, their eye levels were roughly level.
A viciousness appeared between Ji Chengyi’s brows—something even he himself hadn’t noticed: “I’m very curious. On what grounds and with what standing do you say something like that?”
Ji Yang: “The standing of someone who’s sitting?”
Ji Chengyi didn’t lose his composure like before. Instead, he gave a cold smile. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you lately, Ji Yang. Between the two of us, who’s really the one who doesn’t belong in polite company—you know that yourself.”
Ji Yang smiled too. The tenacious and kind-hearted protagonist shou was suddenly being unkind, which actually made him look a bit easier on the eyes.
Ji Yang had no feelings beyond surprise. He lazily accepted the remark: “A rich family’s young master with a broken leg who’s out of favor—if I didn’t use these underhanded methods, what else could I possibly do?”
Ji Chengyi stared at him without speaking.
It was as if he wanted to stare hard enough to figure out how Ji Yang could be so brazenly shameless now.
“You befriended Wei Qiming to deal with me, and now his imprisonment is a foregone conclusion. You must be disappointed, right?”
Ji Yang raised an eyebrow. “If I said I’m actually quite grateful to you, would that seem insincere?”
Ji Chengyi sneered coldly. “Your brazenness comes from nothing more than your belief that Big Brother trusts that you called the police. But let me tell you, that means absolutely nothing.”
Why was this guy suddenly bringing up Ji Zhonglin? To make himself seem more important in Ji Zhonglin’s eyes?
Utterly baffling.
But Ji Chengyi didn’t continue.
Instead, he turned back to look at Nie Xu.
“Nie Xu, anyway, thank you for today. At the banquet three days from now, I’ll be waiting for your answer.”
Then he simply walked away.
Ji Yang looked toward Nie Xu and saw him gazing at Ji Chengyi’s retreating figure, half his face hidden in the shadows beneath the pavilion’s eaves, his expression unreadable.
Ji Mingyue whispered in his ear: “What’s going on?”
“How would I know?” Ji Yang whispered back just as quietly.
He couldn’t remember many details from the book, nor were they complete. All he knew was that there were quite a few banquets, big and small. Nie Xu had mentioned a banquet to Jiang Lei earlier during the day, and now Ji Chengyi was bringing it up too. Was this some major event from the original story?
Ji Yang asked Ji Mingyue, “What’s this banquet for?”
“It’s just a business banquet,” Ji Mingyue said. “Ji Chengyi won the government’s engineering design tender. Now, all across Fanzhou, everyone from raw material suppliers to downstream developers wants to jump on this bandwagon.” At this point, Ji Mingyue glanced at him somewhat hesitantly. “I heard that Grandpa intends to publicly introduce Ji Chengyi as a member of the Ji family at the banquet.”
Ji Yang remembered now.
It was the protagonist shou’s spotlight moment after his turnaround.
No wonder his attitude just now had shifted compared to before—it turned out they had arrived at the crucial moment when he would truly step onto the main stage.
And it was precisely at this banquet that he and Nie Xu formally reached their “cooperation”—not knowing that he was bargaining with a tiger for its skin. Nie Xu used the Bayshore project to deal a devastating blow to the Ji family shortly after, kicking off the true prelude to his revenge.
There was another key point: this was also an important milestone in the development of their relationship.
It seemed his own contribution as this vicious villain was involved.
Ji Yang could barely recall that the original owner had already started his dark scheming by this point in the book. He had been dead set on making Ji Chengyi humiliate himself, placing an hallucinogenic ice pearl at the bottom of the glass at the very top of the champagne tower.
In the end, it was spotted by the bodyguards on the scene.
Although Ji Chengyi hadn’t ingested much, it still had an effect. The old man asked Nie Xu to escort Ji Chengyi away from the venue, and the exposed instigator—“Ji Yang”—became the most pathetic joke of the entire banquet. The fallout rippled through all of Fanzhou’s upper-class circles, thoroughly grinding the former glory of the Ji family’s Fourth Young Master into dust.
“Brother Xu, Brother Xu.” Ji Yang called out from the corridor.
Nie Xu looked over.
And walked closer.
Stepping from the shadows just now into the corridor’s light, Ji Yang could see clearly the cold, sharp features of a face devoid of any emotion or trace of lingering feeling.
“Something you need?” Nie Xu asked.
Ji Yang: “That was a joke just now. You’re not offended, are you?”
Ji Mingyue covered her mouth, muttering softly beside him: “Although I always used to think he was hard to get along with when he was around Grandpa, weren’t you being pretty cocky just now? What are you being a coward for?”
Ji Yang also covered his mouth and whispered back: “You don’t understand.”
He and Nie Xu weren’t walking the same path as Ji Chengyi. Let them have their cooperation—whether it was exploitation or mutual entanglement, the premise was that it couldn’t affect him. He had no intention of actually playing “the other man” for now, nor did he want to stir up trouble, so he needed to make his stance clear.
Ji Yang looked at Nie Xu again and said with a smile: “Having an affair is fine too. We could just change locations. Here… hmm, bad feng shui.”
He had barely finished speaking before Ji Mingyue kicked him again with her foot.
Nie Xu’s gaze swept over him and Ji Mingyue.
In the end, his words were directed at Ji Mingyue: “It’s getting late, Miss. Do you need me to arrange an escort to see you home?”
“Um, no need.” Ji Mingyue waved her hand immediately. “About that—my own bodyguards went back to rest. Bro… Brother Xu, please don’t punish him.” She pushed Ji Yang’s wheelchair. “You see him off, then. If Grandpa asks, I’ll explain.”
Ji Mingyue finished speaking and turned right around to leave.
So fast that Ji Yang barely had time to react. He looked in the direction Ji Mingyue had gone, then turned back to Nie Xu: “Do you often mistreat your subordinates?”
Nie Xu glanced at him, then replied: “Shift scheduling isn’t my responsibility.”
Ji Yang: “…”
That still proves you’ve built up too much authority over them.
Ji Yang’s day had been quite the roller coaster.
Before falling asleep, he was still thinking about the upcoming banquet. Who would have thought that before the protagonist’s spotlight moment arrived, the auction incident would hit the headlines first.
A massive headline dominated the next morning’s phone screen.
Third Young Master of the Ji Family in Peril — Emergency Rescue at Auction House!
In a ten-second video clip, it showed a group of people emerging from the building.
Wei Qiming, pinned down by police officers.
Ji Chengyi, shielded by Ji Zhonglin, and the crowd of onlookers being held back by bodyguards.
Ji Yang hadn’t exited the building with them, so he wasn’t in the footage.
The absence of him in the footage didn’t mean the topic wasn’t about him.
Netizens were fired up.
“I was at the mall next door yesterday! Oh my god, my friend was asking what was happening at the time—who knew it was something like this!”
“Did you hear what the guy who got arrested said? The ‘Xiao Yang’ he mentioned—could that be the Ji family’s Fourth Young Master?”
“Has to be him. He ordered it.”
“So disgusting. Rich family power struggles are terrifying. So much blood—hope the injuries aren’t serious.”
“Everyone in Fanzhou knows what kind of person this Ji Fourth is, and everyone knows he hates the Ji family’s Third Young Master with a passion. No doubt he’s behind it.”
“Didn’t they say he was at the scene too? How come nobody saw him?”
“Somebody please post a photo, let us see what this disgrace of a rich family looks like.”
Ji Yang noticed that someone had actually dug up old tabloid photos of the original owner.
They were from before the car accident.
Ji Yang took a moment to appreciate them—garish red and green hair, some taken outside late-night bars, some with exaggerated, twisted expressions while bullying others. At least the foundation wasn’t bad; he didn’t look particularly ugly.
Ji Yang ran his fingers through his current hair. After the original owner broke his leg, he probably lost the motivation to dye it. Now it was pure black, just a bit long.
Since Ji Yang had transmigrated, he’d had it trimmed a bit. Compared to before, it had gained a bit more shape and layering.
On his phone, there was also a message Peng Jiaying had just sent.
“That Wei Qiming—isn’t he the guy from the bar last time? You already reported him to the police, so why is everyone saying you ordered it now?”
“Need us to handle PR?”
“Log on to your account right away. A ton of people are cursing you.”
Ji Yang logged into “One Yang” account.
The overall tone wasn’t purely abuse.
Apart from a few who directly cursed his parents, not many actually believed the account was his.
The ones cursing said things like, “Didn’t you claim to be the Ji family’s Ji Yang? Now that something happened, why are you hiding like a turtle?”
“Scared?”
“You flaunted your wealth, and now look—everyone’s coming after you. Come out and explain, blogger, or you deserve every bit of it.”
Ji Yang’s phone dinged again.
This time it was You Li.
He didn’t say anything—just dumped an account link directly.
Then he added: “This trend is rising extremely fast. You’d better contact someone to take it down ASAP.”
Ji Yang didn’t even click on it. First, he replied: “Aren’t you back at school? An intern bodyguard moonlighting as a network admin—your dedication really moves me.”
You Li sent him a smiley emoji: “The whole school is talking about this. I’d have to try hard not to know.”
Ji Yang clicked the link. It was a post by a netizen named “Snow White Little Bunny.”
He discovered it was a side profile photo of himself sitting in a car. The angle did seem consistent with what the girl who took the photo might have captured, and the timing was impeccable—a gentle breeze brushing his face, eyes closed for just a moment as he tilted his head to avoid the sunlight.
He opened the comments. The girl was explaining frantically below.
“I posted this photo before the news broke. I just thought he looked good—I had no idea who he was.”
Someone asked her: “Is this the only photo? Is this really Ji Fourth?”
The girl replied: “Really, this is the only one. I don’t know if it’s him either. My friend and I were just passing by, and I thought he might be some minor celebrity. I actually wanted to go up and ask for a photo.”
The netizen pressed on: “So why didn’t you? I don’t think he looks much like Ji Fourth. The guy in the photo is a bit too good-looking. Plus, a Hummer? They don’t exactly match.”
The girl: “Ahhh, I didn’t dare! That car must have belonged to the man next to him—he looked seriously intimidating. My friend and I were both so scared that we didn’t dare go over.”
The netizen: “I ran a facial feature comparison analysis on my computer. This person is definitely Ji Yang.”
“It really is him!”
“Then what was he doing there? Wanting to see if his scheme worked?”
The popularity kept climbing, visibly soaring at a pace anyone could see.
Ji Yang opened a direct message to the girl.
Ten minutes later.
“One Yang” posted a new update.
It was exactly that viral photo, with a caption: Just woke up to discover my good looks are now common knowledge.
Netizens: “!!! What a clout-chaser!”
“Stealing a netizen’s photo and you’re proud of that?”
“Fame through infamy is still fame?”
You Li: “…… What are you doing???”
Ji Yang sent back a screenshot.
On the freshly refreshed page, his follower count had surged by 9999+.
Ji Yang: “Even this heaven-dumping flood of traffic, I’ve managed to catch.”
You Li: “。”