Chapter 5#
Running into Qi Yiming first thing in the morning was truly appetite-ruining. Ji Yang took two bites of breakfast and put down his chopsticks.#
Ji Mingyue had lent him her car.
According to her description, after the original host’s car accident, he had smashed every sports car in his entire garage, and on top of that, smashed two of Ji Chengyi’s as well. Back then he went around every day shouting that Ji Chengyi was trying to kill him, which led the original host’s dear father to suspect he had paranoia, having nurses inject him with sedatives daily.
Sure enough, where there’s a stepmother, there’s a stepfather. Even the minor villain version couldn’t escape this law.
The stepmother, Yao Zhaoling, was Ji Chengyi’s biological mother.
She was the pure, innocent first love that Ji Changshou—Ji Yang and Ji Chengyi’s biological father—had abandoned in his youth.
In the author’s portrayal, she was a pitiful woman, abandoned by a man, giving birth to her child alone. Later, out of soft-heartedness and that sliver of the man’s remorse, she chose to marry Ji Changshou after his wife passed away.
That year, Ji Chengyi was ten years old.
The original host was nine.
Yao Zhaoling entered the household, not competing for anything, teaching Ji Chengyi at every turn to learn forbearance. Ji Changshou carried on countless affairs outside and barely attended to family matters, making many readers feel sympathy for Ji Chengyi as a pitiful little thing who got bullied.
When Ji Yang read the book, he had thought: this moral compass? There’s at least some water in that brain.
Good thing that couple was still abroad and hadn’t returned yet, otherwise Ji Yang would’ve at least thrown up right in front of them.
Ji Yang opened the car window.
The car drove along the estate’s smooth asphalt road, and after about ten minutes, merged onto the main road of the Central District. Cars suddenly multiplied. The widely spaced palm trees lining both sides, paired with the azure sea and blue sky, gave Ji Yang a grounded feeling of being truly alive in the human world.
Horns blared in overlapping waves. While waiting at a red light, he could hear other drivers cursing Fanzhou’s excessively congested traffic.
Ji Yang fully acknowledged that the world he was now in wasn’t virtual.
Just like Jinzhou where he had lived in his previous life.
It wasn’t impossible that it had appeared in someone else’s manuscript, or even a world created based on reality.
Old Liu, the driver, received a phone call midway.
He was quite old—had once served as a driver for Ji Yansong. Now retired and living out his years, he would only step in when family members needed a car and no one else was available.
“Yes, heading to the company.” Old Liu replied into the call, glancing toward the back seat from time to time.
Ji Yang noticed. He turned his head and asked: “Uncle Liu, who is it?”
Ji Yang saw that Uncle Liu seemed to have received some kind of instruction, then turned and handed the phone over.
“Hello?” Ji Yang took the phone, somewhat baffled.
A familiar voice came through the receiver: “Fifteen minutes ago, the tracking showed that Miss Ji’s car, originally heading to Nancheng Shopping Mall, went in the opposite direction. For safety reasons, if the Fourth Young Master has any private itinerary beyond going to the Group, I will dispatch separate personnel to accompany.”
Ji Yang: “I don’t think there are…?”
The other end: “Understood.”
That ice-cold, perfunctory tone.
Ji Yang: “What if I do? What if it’s a spontaneous decision?”
Nie Xu: “The Group is the top security priority. As long as you don’t go out specifically avoiding people like last time, I can divert personnel over—”
Ji Yang interrupted: “What are you doing right now?”
There was a two-second silence on the other end. “Cargo just arrived at the port terminal. I’m busy.”
Ji Yang: “So busy and you still care about me?”
Ji Yang clung to the car window edge, letting the wind lift his hair.
Without waiting for a reply, he continued on his own: “Brother Xu, you’re so cold—you won’t even answer me. Grandpa and Big Brother both care a lot about what’s going on between you and me.” As he spoke, he ended up laughing at himself. “Also, aren’t you my personal bodyguard? The twenty-four-hour kind? I told you to rest and recover from your injuries, but you say you’re busy. Is being busy more important than me?”
Ji Yang could still hear the sound of waves from the port coming through the receiver.
There seemed to be quite a few people around him.
Occasional faint conversation drifted through.
“Over here, over here! Move the cargo this way!”
“Gently! Careful!”
“Boss, all accounted for! Quantities match.”
“Seal the crates once the tally is done.” Ji Yang heard Nie Xu respond, then when he spoke again, it was directed at him: “Twenty-four-hour close protection is industry jargon. On-duty time doesn’t exceed fifteen percent of all work content. If there are daily outings, separate dedicated personnel will handle rotating shifts.”
Ji Yang rested his head against the window. “Oh, so being busy is more important than me?”
No sooner had Ji Yang finished than he heard Old Liu’s laughter from the front seat.
Having gotten back at him for being refused five times, Ji Yang, struck by guilt, simply hung up the phone.
He looked forward: “Uncle Liu, is it that funny?”
“My apologies, Fourth Young Master.” Old Liu said with a smile: “It’s just that youth is truly something. Reminds me of when I was young and worked as a dock hand. My wife would call me several times a day too, rambling about nothing and everything.”
Ji Yang thought: I wouldn’t dare compare myself to you.
I’m just idle to the point of boredom.
Besides, Nie Xu wasn’t some dock laborer. Once the time was ripe, he could blow up the entire port and reclaim land from the sea.
Blow up the port to reclaim land? Thinking of this, something flashed through Ji Yang’s mind.
Why did he want to blow up the port again? It shouldn’t be happening at this point in time. Cargo just arrived at the port? Cargo that required Nie Xu’s personal presence. Compared to the original plot where the original host was completely despised and Nie Xu was reassigned to serve beside the Old Master—what exactly had happened?
It’s over.
Ji Yang’s entire body shuddered.
Looking at the phone he had just hung up, he immediately redialed.
Beep, beep… beep—busy.
He tried again. Still busy.
Old Liu saw this and said: “Does the Fourth Young Master have an urgent matter? My line to the security center is always single-channel, and the number changes every time. Besides, I’ve had this phone for years—often malfunctions, and the signal isn’t great either.”
Ji Yang immediately pulled out his own phone. The contact list was a chaotic mess of people—not a single one he recognized.
He instinctively logged back into his old account.
The moment he did, a cascade of notification sounds erupted.
Besides that group chat called “Rule-Taming Selection Institute,” there were a multitude of private messages.
“Fourth Young Master? What’s going on? Why did you block Brother Wei?”
“Did something happen?”
At first, they were all questions like these.
Later.
“Saw the news—congratulations, Fourth Young Master. You finally won one back against Ji Chengyi.”
“Ji Chengyi must be fuming hahaha.” Gateway: Ranking List | Transmigration MC-focused Lighthearted Audios
“But hurry up and add Brother Wei back. He’s been going around asking everyone, wondering if he did something wrong to make you angry.”
Ji Yang ignored this pile of nonsense and found the person who had been shoved far down his contact list.
Two messages: “Is there someone named Jiang Lei around you?”
“Don’t let him board the ship!”
No reply.
Ji Yang, afraid the other party wouldn’t believe him, typed another line: “There’s someone on that ship. He’ll be crippled there.”
The cargo that had arrived was real.
It was a secret agreement made between the Old Master and the Ji Corporation’s rivals. The cargo goes to them—they wanted one of Jiang Lei’s hands.
For no reason other than this: the Ji family only needed obedient people.
And Jiang Lei, Nie Xu’s right-hand man, had long since—sometime no one knew—stopped taking orders from the Ji family.
That was Ji Yansong’s warning.
Jiang Lei wouldn’t just be crippled there. Because of his crippled hand, during a sea mission two months later, due to a trap set by someone named Lu Li, he never set foot on land again.
That was the scene of Nie Xu’s revenge described in the book.
A sea of dark-clad figures stood at the docks, watching the towering flames ignited by gasoline burn through the entire night.
Ji Yang always felt that Nie Xu’s reckless, consequence-ignoring revenge in its later stages had a direct connection to what happened to Jiang Lei at this point.
Warning the other party without any groundwork—it was reckless, to be sure. Standing in the original host’s position, it could also be called biting the hand that fed him.
But what could be done?
The Ji Corporation’s fall was already destined.
Was it going to rely on the cold-blooded grandfather, the awakened elder brother, the biased biological father, and a useless me?
Ji Chengyi might still have some ambition left.
After all, the Ji family’s crisis was another turning point between him and Nie Xu. From there, the saga of love and hatred officially commenced.
Ji Yang had read the spoilers posted online by readers.
Ji Chengyi cursed Nie Xu for being unscrupulous and harboring sinister motives. Nie Xu threw him into the basement and locked him in for five full days.
That savage, violent atmosphere cranked to maximum made Ji Yang’s head ache just reading about it.
He couldn’t bear to imagine what fate would await him—how many times worse than the original ending it would be.
While he still had the chance.
When he could still be of use, he had to step forward.
Unfortunately, by the time the car stopped in front of an enormous office building, his phone had received no reply whatsoever.
Uncle Liu took out a wheelchair from the trunk and carefully supported him. “Fourth Young Master, take it easy.”
“It’s fine.” Ji Yang set his left foot down first and sat down into the wheelchair with ease.
It was the morning shift at the entrance, with people coming and going.
Ji Yang’s arrival drew quite a few gazes.
Some curious, some appraising.
No one should have recognized who he was.
Until they noticed Uncle Liu’s familiar face, and vaguely guessed his identity.
At that moment, all kinds of gazes instantly sharpened.
Suspicion, shock, and even disdain and disgust.
Ji Yang ignored those gazes and spread out the light gray thin blanket Uncle Liu had handed him, draping it over his knees.
Uncle Liu asked carefully: “Shall I take you up?”
Uncle Liu just thought: the Fourth Young Master never had a good reputation at the Group, had caused quite a few incidents. Today with that clean face, dark hair and dark eyes sitting there like that, he actually looked excessively well-behaved. There was still a sickly pallor on his face, and he was in a wheelchair—what if he got bullied going into the company like this?
Ji Yang had no idea Uncle Liu was so invested. He simply smiled and declined: “It’s fine, there aren’t any slopes or bumps. I can manage on my own.”
It was precisely at this moment that another voice came from the side.
“Why are you here?” It was Ji Chengyi.
He also seemed fond of wearing white, but unlike Ji Yang’s casual style, his suit was impeccably pressed, lending him an air of scholarly rigor.
Ji Yang curved his eyes in a smile, perfunctory yet enthusiastic: “Ah, it’s Third Brother. Good morning.”
Not only did Ji Chengyi pause slightly, but the several office workers beside him also exchanged bewildered glances.
Ji Yang said: “It’s been so long since I visited. I was worried everyone missed me too much.”
A middle-aged man behind Ji Chengyi’s left side said: “The Fourth Young Master really shouldn’t joke. Our President Ji has been running around busy the bidding conference since early morning, and here you are, still thinking about coming to make trouble.”
“It’s fine.” Ji Chengyi raised his hand to stop the man behind him.
Ji Chengyi nodded to Old Liu, who had been standing to the side all along. After exchanging greetings, he discreetly surveyed the surroundings.
Ji Yang’s smile persisted: “Looking for Nie Xu?”
Ji Chengyi’s expression darkened a degree. He seemed to care more than one might have imagined about not getting to take Nie Xu away. In the book, he was also someone skilled at concealing his feelings—the Old Master had personally spoken up, and logically, he would have chosen to bide his time and wait for the next opportunity.
But now, he couldn’t even be bothered to hide his displeasure.
He even spoke: “I thought you showing up here was specifically to bring someone along to flaunt your power.”
“I’d like to.” Ji Yang’s smile trembled lightly. “But he’s injured, and my heart aches for him.”
Ji Yang was actually in a better mood now.
He discovered that every time he encountered this Ji Chengyi, his mood wasn’t half bad.
Ji Yang tilted his head up to look at the top of the building, where the blurry words “Ji Corporation Haicheng Group” were displayed.
He thought of those netizens’ excited comments when he had searched for the basement spoiler.
“Confinement—yes! That’s the flavor! They met when both were nobodies, forced apart by status disparity. He runs, he chases—there’s no escape!”
“Angst, angst, angst! Hurry up and get to the angst! I love this type where the shou suffers first and then the gong. I can’t wait to see Nie Xu full of heartache and regret, wishing he could endure the suffering in the other’s place.”
“Chengyi, poor little thing—whatever you do, don’t forgive him easily!”
“Right! Big Brother loves so restrainedly. Lu Li, with his yandere tendencies, is still waiting for you. Wang Weitao is a good man too… So many people who like you—there’s absolutely no need to hang yourself on someone who would use you!”
“You must not give in. One day, Nie Xu will regret everything, and you will reclaim the Ji family sooner or later.”
“Love can overcome all hardships. It can also let one set aside hatred.”
“Just wait for the day when Nie Xu hands over everything on bended knee, letting our Chengyi take and demand as he pleases!”
Ji Yang sighed inwardly—these people had truly poisoned their brains shipping CPs.
Could a person whose parents and brothers all perished in the lightless depths of the sea, whose heart had been scorched by the flames of hatred for over a decade, really do something like that?
No matter how heartbroken and remorseful he became, it was far more likely he’d keep Ji Chengyi locked up for life.
“What’s the Fourth Young Master looking at? You won’t see high from sitting—shall I help you?” someone behind Ji Chengyi asked again, accompanied by an unmistakably malicious laugh.
Ji Yang withdrew his gaze: “Are you mocking me?”
In his peripheral vision, Ji Zhonglin had just walked out of the building with people behind him.
Playing the role of this wicked villain was quite the experience—going to work, and the important characters kept appearing one after another.
Ji Yang lowered his gaze and rested his hands on his legs. The next second, he smiled tragically and said softly: “You’re right. In my current state, where do I get the right to compete with anyone? I’m not even worthy of competing. The way you all target me for Third Brother’s sake—I can understand.”
The other man had also noticed Ji Zhonglin. He turned back and saw Ji Yang’s smiling face, and became furious and exasperated.
“You—”
“He didn’t mean it that way.” Ji Chengyi frowned, looking at Ji Yang.
“Is that so?” Ji Yang propped up his chin and looked at Ji Chengyi: “Then when Third Brother ascends to the highest seat of this Ji Corporation someday in the future, you must not forget to give this dedicated employee of yours—here—a promotion and a raise… Oh.”