Chapter 40#
With Nie Xu sitting on the sofa inside the room and Fang Qi stationed outside the door, Ji Yang had the bizarre illusion that he was some kind of high-profile felon.
Letting Nie Xu sleep in his bed was, of course, a lie.
But Ji Yang was kind enough to lend him a pillow.
He woke up the next morning to find the pillow had been placed back beside his head. Ji Yang stared at it in a drowsy haze for a long while, until a voice cut through: “Still not up?”
“You’re still here?” That surprised Ji Yang even more. He poked his head out from under the covers, eyeing the man whose sleep status last night remained entirely unclear.
Nie Xu’s appearance showed no trace of dishevelment. His gaze swept over Ji Yang’s bedhead, then he set what was in his hands onto the coffee table. “Get up. I’ll take you out to eat.”
Ji Yang sat up, clutching the blanket to his chest. “I’m allowed to go out?”
“Why wouldn’t you be?” Nie Xu retorted.
Ji Yang: “Aren’t I under restrictions on personal freedom?”
Nie Xu glanced at him. “That’s called imprisonment. What you’re under is surveillance.”
Ji Yang said “oh,” and crawled out of bed at a sluggish pace.
He usually slept in the simplest cotton tee and shorts—had to be the worn-in kind—because they were more comfortable and helped him fall asleep faster.
Halfway through getting dressed, Nie Xu’s phone rang.
It was Deng Jiao.
The woman’s brisk voice came through, bright and energized for so early in the morning. “Boss.”
“What is it?” Nie Xu asked.
Deng Jiao: “Before, the Second Madam insisted on having only female bodyguards, so I transferred people over. The ones who’ve been there these past few days want to transfer posts now, or else they’ll just resign outright. The others all have their assignments—I genuinely don’t know how to handle this.”
Nie Xu: “You can decide for yourself whether it’s resignation or a transfer. Is there a deeper issue?”
Deng Jiao hesitated for a moment, as if weighing whether this could be said over the phone. Certain that Nie Xu showed no objection, she continued: “Actually, the Second Madam was caught in the act having an affair. She’s been frequently visiting the Ji family’s branch households lately, so the moment things blew up, she wanted to use our people as scapegoats. This matter isn’t small, and I was worried it might affect your main work, so I thought I’d check with you.”
Nie Xu: “Don’t put up with this. Gather the evidence you need to gather.”
Deng Jiao, reassured, immediately said: “Understood.”
After that matter was settled, Deng Jiao added: “The main building just notified everyone—today at noon, they want to ensure every member of the Ji family is present. They said it’s about announcing the shipping business’s ownership and a vote on the core asset heir. You’re aware of this, right?”
Nie Xu hummed in acknowledgment. “I know.”
Deng Jiao, quietly: “Actually, I was asking whether Fourth Young Master can come back. I heard the old man personally went to invite him but couldn’t get him to budge.”
Just at that moment—
“Nie Xu, could you hand me what’s on the stool.”
Deng Jiao heard it. Her breath caught. She asked softly: “Boss, is there someone there with you?”
“Yes.” Nie Xu had no qualms about making a female subordinate uncomfortable.
When he turned his head, he saw Ji Yang—bedhead sticking up in every direction, clothes hanging loose and exposing most of his right collarbone, eyes barely half-open, every movement done at the pace of a crawling turtle.
Deng Jiao: “He didn’t hear what I said, did he?”
Nie Xu watched the person. “His brain hasn’t woken up yet.”
The call ended.
Ji Yang lifted his eyelids. “Who do you think hasn’t woken up? I heard everything.”
“Then move faster.” Nie Xu said: “The risks of last night’s transaction have passed. No one will notice or discover this in the short term. But the old man has you entangled in this. With his temperament, his wariness of you will be permanent. If you don’t want to be surveilled every single day, you have to go back today.”
Ji Yang raised his eyes. “You’re the one in charge of surveillance?”
Nie Xu: “The next person assigned won’t be me. Lu Li’s chances are very high.”
That jolted Ji Yang fully awake. He threw off the blanket. “I’m going.”
It took Ji Yang another half hour to get himself ready.
Fang Qi at the door had left at some unknown point.
Ji Yang said he was heading back to the Ji family estate. Going downstairs, he spotted Fang Qi—the one he supposedly couldn’t find—sitting in a car parked by the road, gnawing on a steamed bun. Lu Li was lying down beside him. Ji Yang walked up and knocked on the car window. “Stop gnawing.”
“Fourth Young Master?” Fang Qi froze, still haunted by last night’s verbal bombardment.
The man lying down also sat up, turned his head to look out, then glanced at Nie Xu behind Ji Yang.
“We going back?” Lu Li asked.
Ji Yang shook his phone. “Going for breakfast. How about you two join me? My treat.”
The air went still.
Ji Yang pressed something on his phone with a composed expression and slipped it into his pocket.
A few minutes later, this bizarre group sat at a small table of a street-side food stall, each with a steaming bowl of húladatang in front of them.
This inland regional staple silenced Fang Qi instantly.
One thought echoed in his mind: he’d expected the young master to treat them to some high-end restaurant, humiliate them in passing—and instead, the young master’s idea of treating them to a meal was this?
As the only person in this scene with absolutely zero status, and operating on the principle of why waste free food, he was the first to lift his bowl. Whatever this stuff was, it had to beat a bun.
One sip, and he was blown away.
“Seriously this good?” Fang Qi couldn’t help exclaiming.
Ji Yang sat across from him and smiled. “Not bad, right? This is the best place I’ve found near here in all my days here. Just a shame they’re not open on weekends—they mainly serve the office workers nearby. The owner lady said weekend business is slow, so they go somewhere else.”
The area had hotels, office buildings, and schools. Morning commuters streamed back and forth, the roadside alive with noise.
The cheap aroma of oil and the smoky sizzle of charcoal grilling, meeting the rising morning sun, came together into the most ordinary morning in all the world.
The other two deities beside him were each less inclined to speak than the other.
Lu Li was slightly better, half-smiling. “Fourth Young Master’s really come down to earth these days?”
“Isn’t that the truth.” Ji Yang fired back right away: “If Mr. Lu finds the food hard to stomach, there’s an Italian espresso bar on the second floor of the mall next door. Oh, and you could add a bottle of prune juice and some chia seeds, to take care of that overworked gut of yours, working around the clock.”
Fang Qi choked. The spiciness hit his head. He coughed violently.
Lu Li kicked his stool. “Look at you.”
“Is something wrong with you?” Ji Yang went at him again: “Always putting your hands on people.”
Lu Li pulled his leg back. He looked at Ji Yang and tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Scared you?”
“You scared the dog on the street.” Ji Yang pointed at a yellow stray wandering near the stall, frequently fed by the owner lady. “Even the dog has more civic sense than you—it knows not to just go around biting people on the street.”
Fang Qi waved his hands frantically, terrified that his Brother Lu would snap.
He turned to look, and was surprised to find that Lu Li—after being verbally thrashed multiple times in a row—showed no reaction whatsoever. The scene was eerily quiet.
Nie Xu finally moved.
He knocked on the table in front of Ji Yang, reminding him: “Eat.”
Nie Xu’s voice broke the silent standoff.
Throughout the entire breakfast, the two who talked the most were Ji Yang and Fang Qi. This kind of environment naturally put people at ease, and as long as sensitive topics were avoided, what couldn’t they chat about under the wide sky?
Just as the meal was about to end, Ji Yang took a selfie. In the frame, Nie Xu didn’t make the shot. Ji Yang was closest to the lens, wearing a big, bright smile. Lu Li sat with his arms crossed on a low stool, looking at the camera with no particular expression. Fang Qi still held his bowl, and you could see the astonishment in his eyes at the instant the shutter clicked.
“What are you doing?” Lu Li asked.
Ji Yang locked his phone screen and said casually: “Preserving evidence.”
“What? What evidence?” Fang Qi was confused.
Ji Yang shook his phone again, smiling. “Forgot to tell you guys—to preserve this beautiful morning, I made audio and photo backups as evidence of how well we get along.”
Fang Qi blanked out, feeling like the bowl in his hands had become a hot potato.
Ji Yang stood and continued: “I can’t eat for free, after all. Consider it a return gift for you putting things in my room. Going forward, no matter whose people you are, or whose orders you follow—” Ji Yang braced both hands on the low table, eyes on Lu Li, gave a soft smile, and said slowly: “Even if this recording and these photos can’t prove anything, you can’t rule out that someone might become suspicious and distrustful. That would be pretty uncomfortable, wouldn’t it?”
It had been a spur-of-the-moment idea when Ji Yang spotted them.
He needed to go back to the Ji family. If Ji Chengyi acted like he had in Zhouling, Lu Li would be the sharpest blade in Ji Chengyi’s hand.
This wasn’t really a threat on Ji Yang’s part. At best, it was… taking precautions ahead of time?
Ji Yang got up in a good mood.
He called out: “Owner lady, check please!”
“Oh, it’s you!” The owner lady was very friendly, wiping her apron. “There were so many customers just now I didn’t even notice. You patronize my stall every day—don’t worry about the change. Just give me a round number.”
“Thank you.” Ji Yang smiled. “I’ll give you a free ad some day.”
The owner lady giggled. “That’d be wonderful!”
The owner lady had no idea who he was—just a pleasant remark off the top of her head. But among the students waiting at the stall, several young people had been stealing glances at Ji Yang from the moment he spoke up.
Finally, a girl worked up the courage to step forward and asked quietly: “Are you ‘Yiyiyang’?”
This was the first time someone had called him by that handle in person. Ji Yang was a bit dazed too.
“You know me?”
“It really is you!” The girl got excited at once. “My classmate and I are huge fans of yours. We think you’re super good-looking.”
Ji Yang looked down at himself instinctively.
The girl laughed. “You look great right now, honestly.”
The others chimed in from beside her: “You look even better in person than on camera.”
“I thought I was going for a comedic image.” Ji Yang asked while pulling out his phone again to pay for their food.
The group was embarrassed and declined one after another.
Ji Yang: “It’s fine. Hurry up and get to school—don’t be late.”
“Okay, thank you, Yangyang!”
“Thank you, handsome!”
As they were about to leave, someone still asked him: “Are you here alone?”
Ji Yang pointed toward where they’d been sitting just moments ago. “Nope. Look over there.”
The group peeked over curiously, then quickly ducked back.
“That’s me.” Ji Yang pointed at himself, then pointed over there. “With my three bodyguards.”
Except they were all his keepers.
The group let out a collective “wow,” as if he really were some precious young master of a wealthy family.
Ji Yang urged them: “Hurry up and go. Linger any longer and you might end up writing a self-criticism.”
Ji Yang didn’t know that while he’d been chatting away, across the table Lu Li had been watching him the whole time, as if he’d fallen into some distant memory.
In the scenario Lu Li had once imagined, little Chengyi grown up should have been more like this—vivid and unburdened.
Finally coming back to himself, he said to Nie Xu: “I didn’t quite understand before why you seemed to have a soft spot for him. Now I know. Brother Xu, I always thought your heart was made of stone. Truly surprising.”
Nie Xu: “Your surprise means nothing.”
Lu Li: “Of course. Just like how finding out he’s actually not as annoying as I imagined doesn’t change the fact that he’s unimportant to me.”
Ji Yang walked back over.
“Let’s go.” Ji Yang said: “What were you talking about?”
Nie Xu stood up and glanced at Lu Li. “He expressed his admiration for your photography and recording earlier.”
One of Ji Yang’s eyebrows arched up.
His smile deepened.
He said to Nie Xu: “I really love the way you talk absolute nonsense.”
Lu Li looked like he was about to die of anger.