Chapter 6#
Ji Zhonglin strode out from inside, his brow deeply furrowed.#
Flanking him were his assistant, the foreign trade business partners, and others.
At least a third of Ji Corporation’s business had already been handed over to him, but the group’s core shipbuilding and offshore oil and gas industries still remained firmly in the hands of several uncles. The old master was intent on testing him, and the overseas company they were meeting with this time was especially critical to second-half performance. It would also secure him a more favorable position at the year-end shareholders’ meeting.
That was why this round of negotiations was personally supervised by him from start to finish.
He had no particular interest in Ji Yang, but catching a glimpse of Ji Chengyi’s figure in his peripheral vision, he deliberated briefly and walked over.
He knew this younger brother all too well.
Wherever Ji Chengyi went, there was guaranteed to be a massive scene, and it always ended up impossible to contain.
And that sentence—“True enough. Looking like this now, what right do I have to compete with anyone…"—landed crystal clear in every person’s ears, and made his steps hitch.
Especially as he drew closer, his gaze fell on Ji Yang sitting in the wheelchair, and he was visibly startled.
He had never seen him present himself in a wheelchair. Or perhaps, with the heavy weight on his chest from last night finally gone, in such fine weather, he was for the first time able to clearly see the change in Ji Yang.
At first glance, he looked clean and put-together from head to toe, yet even the angle of his downcast lashes carried a hint of lingering pallor from serious illness.
He recalled that the servants had indeed mentioned last night that his phantom limb pain had flared up.
He knew exactly what Ji Yang looked like after an episode.
It was never like this.
“What’s going on?” Ji Zhonglin’s gaze swept across the group.
Though he asked, he already understood in his heart, deep down, who his instincts would favor.
“President Ji.” One of the employees behind Ji Chengyi reacted first, hastily stepping forward with an awkward smile. “It was nothing really, just a little joke with the Fourth Young Master. Who knew he’d be so sensitive.”
Someone chimed in to agree. “The Fourth Young Master even said Chengyi wants to take over the highest position at Ji Corporation—clearly that’s deliberate provocation. Who doesn’t know that the Third Young Master has been diligent and dedicated ever since joining the group, doing nothing beyond his own duties?”
“Exactly. With the bidding conference coming up, one’s running himself ragged, and the other as soon as he comes back just…”
What that meant went without saying.
By all rights, hearing these remarks about Ji Yang should have struck Ji Zhonglin as perfectly reasonable. But the fact that everyone was saying them made it somehow twice as grating to his ears.
“Big brother, what brings you here?” Ji Chengyi turned to ask.
“I’m heading to the factory.” Ji Zhonglin noticed the dark circles under his eyes, and that faint oddness from moments ago mostly dissipated. He showed just the right amount of proper concern befitting an older brother. “Work can wait—make sure you rest.”
Ji Chengyi nodded. “It was me—I knew things had been tense because of Nie Xu, and I still brought it up on my own. That’s how it ended up like this.” Seeing the people behind Ji Zhonglin, he added in a small, troubled voice, “Did I interrupt your meeting?”
Ji Zhonglin suddenly recalled the phrase “I’ve been pining for him.” His temple twitched.
He shook his head in denial. “It’s fine. It’s not your fault. Don’t shoulder every responsibility.”
Watching from the side, Ji Yang was thoroughly impressed.
Not just at Ji Chengyi’s ability to win everyone’s hearts, but at the sheer artistry of his conversational tactics—ostensibly taking the blame, yet effortlessly placing himself in the innocent party’s position. It was truly beyond Ji Yang’s reach.
If the original owner had been here, things would have already descended into absolute chaos by now.
Yet Ji Yang hadn’t interjected a single word from start to finish, just sitting there quietly and silently.
Even when Ji Zhonglin asked, “Don’t you have anything to say?”
Those who had been waiting for Ji Yang to throw a tantrum, or even go completely unhinged, were met with nothing but a breezy, “Since I won the man fair and square, wouldn’t saying anything else make me seem like I’m rubbing it in?”
An eerie, absolute silence fell over the entire scene.
Ji Zhonglin’s face darkened. Before he could speak, Ji Yang delivered another blow: “After all, no matter what I say, big brother won’t believe me, right?” It caught everyone completely off guard once more.
Ji Zhonglin frowned. Before he could speak, Ji Chengyi cut in.
Ji Chengyi took two steps forward, standing directly across from Ji Yang. “Ji Yang, this has nothing to do with big brother. If you really feel that badly about it—fine, I’ll apologize on behalf of my people.”
Ji Yang smiled faintly. “So Third Brother is admitting he couldn’t keep his people’s mouths in check?”
Ji Chengyi’s expression shifted slightly. “Don’t twist my words.”
“Now, I am curious.” Ji Yang continued propping his chin on one hand while the index finger of his right hand slowly traced through the air, pointing one by one at several people behind Ji Chengyi. “Third Brother is so busy and dedicated, yet in broad daylight you let your people act shamelessly provocative. This one, and this one, this one—they were all the ones loudly defending Third Brother. You stopped them neither early nor late, and now you’re rushing to apologize. If you weren’t really trying to stand up for your people, then I can’t help but suspect that you used them to slap the label of ‘making trouble out of nothing’ on my head.” He added one more line: “Or should Third Brother admit that he failed to steal someone else’s man, flew into a rage, and is deliberately retaliating against me?”
Every single person present wore a truly spectacular range of expressions.
Especially those Ji Yang had pointed out, their faces flushed deep red, turned the color of pig liver.
Ji Yang had had his fill of the show.
He met Ji Zhonglin’s gaze again.
This eldest brother was not a run-of-the-mill person, and certainly not a fool.
Ji Yang said, “Big brother, the position of Deputy General Manager of the District Office was promised to me by Grandpa two years ago after the car accident. Now Big Brother has quietly handed the position to Third Brother. I haven’t brought it up because I know my own limits and can see my own situation clearly.”
He closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again, sweeping his gaze across the partners’ side before looking back at Ji Zhonglin. “Big brother is juggling a thousand affairs—I’m sure you have important matters to attend to. I really shouldn’t trouble you with such trivial things.”
“It’s a bit cold outside. Let’s just leave it at that.”
Just when he seemed to have already gained the upper hand, he suddenly withdrew. Having said his piece, Ji Yang pushed his wheelchair and turned away, heading into the building.
Thanks, Ji Chengyi.
This image of himself—a weak victim who had only recently turned over a new leaf, only to be left disheartened—had surely left an impression on Ji Zhonglin.
Once he left, the atmosphere behind him instantly froze.
Ji Zhonglin withdrew his gaze from Ji Yang’s retreating figure. When he turned to look at those employees, his expression turned icy.
Ji Chengyi clenched his hand. “Big brother…”
“Starting trouble at the entrance of the corporation, damaging the company’s image. All year-end bonuses for the individuals involved are hereby forfeited. The matter ends here.”
A verdict with no room for appeal.
Ji Yang pushed his wheelchair slowly, his back to them, the corners of his lips curving ever so slightly without a trace of change on his face. When he glanced back, he caught Ji Chengyi’s fleeting look of utter disbelief.
It seemed he had never expected Ji Zhonglin to actually punish his people.
By deliberately bringing up Nie Xu—given Ji Zhonglin’s preexisting wariness of the man, he certainly wouldn’t want Ji Chengyi entangled with him—and by mentioning the District Deputy GM position, Ji Yang had aimed to stir up whatever sliver of guilt lingered in Ji Zhonglin’s heart.
He needed to survive the remaining days in the Ji household. They couldn’t be too miserable.
As long as the method worked, it didn’t matter how elegant it was.
In less than a morning, Ji Yang’s name had spread throughout the entire corporation, and the fact that several people had run into Ji Zhonglin’s line of fire first thing that morning was common knowledge.
The floor divisions of the Ji Corporation building subtly reflected status and hierarchy. The high-ranking core departments occupied the top floors.
The New Media Department was located on the 12th floor.
Due to its orientation, the natural lighting was mediocre. The office door was ajar. True to its reputation as a department stuck on the cold bench—some were playing games, some slacking off, some watching TV or browsing online—everyone was busy in their own way.
Until the company’s gossip king, Qian Yitian from New Media Operations, came rushing through the door clutching a bag of soup dumplings.
“Big news—check the group chat.”
The people at neighboring desks instinctively gathered around. Meanwhile, in every major group chat, messages were scrolling by at breakneck speed.
[📷][📹].
[…What a magnificent Rich family power struggle, a proper battlefield of the gods.]
[I hereby dub this battle: the domineering legitimate grandson of the Ji family’s first branch, Young Master Ji Yang, versus the gentle-as-jade illegitimate son, Ji Chengyi—rematch edition. Clearly, the legitimate one won.]
[Is this really Fourth Young Master Ji? What a dramatic change.]
[Shouldn’t we be shocked that the rumor about fighting over a man is actually real??? I said only a fool would believe it at first—turns out I really am that fool.]
[You keep saying ‘fighting over,’ but who? Fighting over whom? This is baseless hearsay, isn’t it?]
At this point, someone jumped in and simply typed two words: 【Nie Xu.】
Then came a string of question marks.
The person who had spoken before elaborated: 【All you have to do is pull up the execution roster from Ji Corporation’s major events over the years, and you’ll find this name has always been on it. This guy has deep ties to the Ji family. On the surface he’s just the Ji family’s bodyguard, but in reality he’s involved in a lot of the family’s business dealings. Don’t let the fact that the current board is full of old men in fancy suits fool you—dig up some of these things and they’d piss their pants on the spot.】
[Now that you mention it, I remember—wasn’t he the lead on the Lanhai Bay project two years ago? His title was parachuted in, directly appointed by the old chairman. Nobody knew where he came from, and then for some reason the project just stopped.]
[I looked it up—there’s literally zero information anywhere.]
[Duh. A guy like that? Do you think they’d let you find anything?]
[So—the “his man” that the Fourth Young Master mentioned—was it really this guy named Nie Xu? Is this a domineering young master forcing love, or a bodyguard forced to submit under duress?]
Ji Yang didn’t know exactly what kind of gossip was circulating through the various back channels.
But the moment he arrived at the New Media Department’s entrance, he overheard something.
“Young master and bodyguard—if this were a novel or a script, wouldn’t you say it’s heading for a bad ending?”
“Falling in love with each other at the same time?”
“Uh… in the end, everyone dies?”
“That tragic?” Ji Yang pushed the door open and walked in.
The crowd that had been huddled together looked over, and the expression on their faces truly embodied the phrase “everyone dies.”
It made Ji Yang laugh out loud. He placed a hand over his heart and solemnly delivered a classic line: “But for me, loving him is more important. Even if there’s no happy ending in the end, at least it proves that I tried.”
The entire New Media Department, staring at this sudden appearance of a Rich family young master, sank into deep self-doubt.
What exactly was he doing here?
After entertaining everyone, Ji Yang asked, “Where’s Director Peng?”
His main goal today was to find the New Media Director, Peng Jiaying.
As it turned out, this person was completely different from what he had imagined.
In Ji Yang’s mental picture, someone capable of extricating himself from Ji Corporation’s sinking ship without a scratch and actually making something of himself should have looked shrewd and socially polished.
But Peng Jiaying was around thirty, wearing a pair of beer-bottle-thick glasses, and looked like he had the makings of a perpetual angry young man.
He blended into the crowd, didn’t talk much, and was neither warm nor cold toward Ji Yang.
Still, he organized a welcome party for Ji Yang, rallying the entire department.
At a well-known bar in Fanzhou called Baiyi.
At eight in the evening, Ji Yang had long since sent his driver Uncle Liu home. He rode in Peng Jiaying’s car, with two other colleagues squeezed in as well. They didn’t chat much on the way.
Inside the bar, dazzling lights and a roaring crowd.
The entire department—a dozen or so people—sat in a large booth that could hold about thirty. They were all a bunch of demoralized office workers, forced into team-building, and quite stiff. Fortunately, there were two people like Qian Yitian who were naturals at livening things up, and gradually the atmosphere began to warm.
They were all young people; once they got going, it was actually pretty relaxed.
Peng Jiaying sat off to the side the whole time, drinking by himself. No one went to bother him, and he just went glass after glass without stopping.
Two of the colleagues who had spoken with Ji Yang that morning, being bolder than the rest, squeezed over to Ji Yang’s side.
They were a bit flattering, probably not having figured out what he was actually here for.
“Fourth Young Master, don’t take it the wrong way—our director is actually a good person, just in a bad mood.”
“Yeah.” Another one picked up the thread. “I heard the Project Department had a meeting last week saying they want to cut our entire department. Director Peng has been stressed about it nonstop these past few days.”
“He just has a strong sense of responsibility. He feels he should be accountable for everyone.”
Ji Yang watched Peng Jiaying and thought to himself: a person like this—without a sense of responsibility—truly wouldn’t have ended up the way he eventually did.
Right at that moment.
Thud!
Peng Jiaying slammed a bottle of imported liquor onto the table in front of Ji Yang.
His face was already flushed with drunken redness as he declared loudly, “Young Master, this department of ours was established by the group after comprehensive consideration of current affairs and technological development. I know that young masters like you look down on our kind.”
As he spoke, he let out a tremendous belch.
The colleague beside him tried to reach out and stop him.
Peng Jiaying swatted the hand away, waving his own large hand as he kept talking. “How’s this place we picked today? I heard the Fourth Young Master used to love places like this—yeah, it’s lively enough… Us common folks, facing young masters like you, well, we’ve just got to flatter and pamper, make sure you’re happy!”
Peng Jiaying: “You happy? I’m plenty happy.”
Was this liquid courage?
Ji Yang nodded. “Happy, sure.”
Peng Jiaying looked at him. Behind those thick lenses, his eyes looked even smaller.
“You…”
“Young Yang?” Peng Jiaying’s words were interrupted by another voice.
Everyone turned to look at the suave man who had appeared out of nowhere.
He appeared to be around thirty, with a slicked-back mature hairstyle—the kind of man who, at first glance, came across as a charmingly successful figure.
He walked over to Ji Yang with ease, wearing just the right amount of surprise. “Why didn’t you tell Wei Ge you were coming here? And—these people are all your friends?”
“We’re the Fourth Young Master’s colleagues.” Qian Yitian held up a glass and offered it to him, then asked in return, “And you are?”
“Wei Qiming.”
Wei Qiming nodded and, without missing a beat, sat down right next to Ji Yang. He smiled and said, “Consider me… a friend and elder brother figure to Young Yang.”
What an act.
Not only did this man sit down without any hesitation, he very naturally placed his hand behind Ji Yang.
Leaning in to whisper, “Young Yang, you started working? Why didn’t you mention something this big?” His gaze then swept down to Ji Yang’s legs. “And—going out dressed like this? A place this chaotic—someone like you could easily be taken advantage of.”
Ji Yang caught the heavy scent of men’s cologne wafting off him, and an inexplicable wave of nausea hit him.
He turned his head and offered a fake smile. “Taken advantage of? Your advantage?”
“Still angry?” Wei Qiming let his gaze—full of a kind of discomfort that made Ji Yang’s skin crawl—sweep over Ji Yang from head to toe, before settling on his face. “With Wei Ge around, you’ll never be taken advantage of. You still haven’t told me what I did to offend you. Are you really not going to take me off your blacklist?”
How blind had the original owner been, to trust a person like this?
Ji Yang really couldn’t be bothered to exchange pleasantries with him.
He leaned forward, rapped his knuckles on the coffee table, and called out, “Old Peng.”
Peng Jiaying pushed his glasses up his nose, looking over in confusion.
Ji Yang let a smile spread across his face, pointed at Wei Qiming, and said, in a very soft voice, the words that made everyone’s blood run cold:
“If you hit him today, I’ll make sure the New Media Department is saved. How about it?”
“Young Yang.” Wei Qiming’s tone was exasperated, as though looking at an unreasonable child.
Meanwhile, Peng Jiaying stood up unsteadily, frowning at Ji Yang. Through the haze of drunkenness, a flicker of struggle crossed his eyes before being quickly replaced by a reckless, all-or-nothing resolve.
“You’re sure?” he asked. “You’re a fallen young master—what makes you think you can protect anything?”
Ji Yang didn’t mention that he knew Ji Corporation was about to face a major PR crisis. After all, his goal wasn’t truly to help the Ji family. He just smiled. “When a young master makes a promise, it’s worth its weight in gold.”
As for whether they could truly be tied together—well, that would depend on whether Peng Jiaying had the resolve to go all in and the courage to fight for survival from the brink.
The next second—CRACK!
Glass fragments from the beer bottle flew in all directions, and screams of colleagues echoed throughout the bar.
Those who, after spending the entire evening, had concluded that Ji Yang was quite easygoing, and quite nice-looking when he smiled, now stared at the person sitting there perfectly still, with the faintest trace of a smile still lingering at the corners of his lips, and thought: the rumors were always wrong. This young master was even more terrifying than before.
Twenty minutes later, Fanzhou Central Police Station, branch office.
A group of colleagues stood in the open area outside the police station, anxiously waiting for the outcome.
Then they saw a low-key black sedan pull up slowly.
“Who’s that?”
“Ji family, here to post bail?”
“Their case isn’t that serious, right? Director Peng was the one who swung—plus he was drunk.”
“How come I feel like our director was actually happy to do it? The swing was so clean and decisive.”
“Will the young master get yelled at?”
“Oh my god, who would dare yell at him?”
Just as the words left their mouths, someone stepped out of the car.
It was already very late, and the light outside the police station wasn’t great, but they could make out the man’s broad shoulders, long legs, and imposing presence. On his bronze forearms, where his black sleeves were rolled up, faint traces of scars seemed to coil beneath the skin. He wore a pair of sunglasses, sweeping them casually over the crowd before looking away. As he walked, he was on the phone. “Mm. I’m here. Incitement to assault. Send me the surveillance footage… Doesn’t matter if it’s unclear.”
The voice on the other end of the phone was faintly audible in the night air, and it mentioned a name—Nie Xu.
Nie Xu????
Isn’t that the Fourth Young Master’s man?
Something must have been said on the other end because his steps paused briefly.
“If you want to thank him, pick a better time.”
He looked up at the police station’s entrance, the sneer on his lips carried away by the wind, leaving behind only the barest trace, imperceptible to all. “Here I thought I could keep up the act a couple more days.”
The group behind him exchanged looks tinged with doubt.
This man probably wasn’t fond of the young master at all.
That kind of dislike seemed to be built on a foundation that was already hostile to begin with, compounded yet again after something—or someone—had temporarily eased it.
And so, the last thing he said:
“Never changes.”
Left hanging in the air, it was his final verdict on the man.
He walked straight into the police station without noticing the group behind him shaking their heads and sighing.
“Turns out, the man you love doesn’t love you back—winning him over doesn’t mean a thing.”
“So is this the kind of trouble rich young masters have?”
“What trouble? Oh—you mean, at midnight, my man comes to bail me out of the police station?”
“Mm. And calls you a hopeless case while he’s at it.”