Chapter 90#

In the end, Ji Yang still didn’t tell Ji Mingyue what he had gone to the hospital for.

He opened the report Lin Yue had sent again and looked at the photo of himself with Nie Xu’s hand blocking his face. Nie Xu wore a black baseball cap, and because he had lowered his head, only the lower half of his face, cast in shadow, could be seen.

Pretty handsome.

Ji Yang turned his head. “You’re in the news. Is that okay?”

Nie Xu glanced back at his phone, then looked at the rearview mirror to change lanes, and said casually, “It’s fine. I avoided the camera when it was taken. No one knows who I am.”

Ji Yang remembered that he was naturally highly sensitive about this kind of thing. No wonder only half his face was shown.

Still, Ji Yang said, “There are a lot of idle people online these days.”

There was no guaranteeing someone wouldn’t dox him.

As he said that, he searched public platforms with his own search terms, and sure enough, this matter was being discussed again.

But it wasn’t as nasty as Ji Yang had imagined.

There were quite a lot of people cursing this media outlet.

[Media outlet XX has always been the tackiest, spreading rumors all over the internet. Can someone please sue them for me!]

[Exactly. And it’s not just one or two people they’ve slandered; they specifically target newcomers who have just emerged in entertainment. Isn’t it just because they see these people have no fame and no ability to sue them? But who is this so-called Fourth Young Master this time? Whose idol is he? How come I’ve never heard of him?]

[Hahahaha the young master is still too powerful; he can actually be mentioned in the same breath as entertainment idols.]

[Fourth Ji is probably a regular for this outlet. They just probably didn’t expect to fail this time—their official website is full of people cursing them. Thanks to the dramatic reversal in Fourth Young Master Ji’s reputation over the past year, the public has such a good impression of him.]

[I’ll say it straight: I’m his fan! Someone at the hospital already clarified long ago—it was that man who beat his wife and even wanted to fight people. The young master only said he was going to call the police!]

After all, it was a public place; Ji Yang didn’t need to clarify this himself at all.

In the internet age, news has always spread quickly.

And amid such discussion,

occasionally some other things were mixed in.

[Why isn’t anyone talking about it? Who is the man next to the young master?? That strong protective pose is absolutely maxed out.]

[These two are really a bit conspicuous.]

[I don’t know if it’s an illusion, but this is the one photographed at the night market last time, right? His build and side profile are very similar. What exactly is his identity? A bodyguard?]

[The young master probably can’t afford a bodyguard anymore…]

[So when exactly is the livestream? I want to send the young master money.]

Ji Yang scrolled for a long time and confirmed there were no remarks directly targeting Nie Xu; most were just speculation about his relationship with Ji Yang and discussion of his appearance. Then he put his phone away.

When he put it into his jacket pocket, his hand touched a hard edge.

Ji Yang pulled it out.

It was the business card of that psychologist who had just returned to the country.

“Yu Qin,” Ji Yang read the name on it.

Nie Xu noticed and asked him, “When you were at the hospital, did he say anything rather strange to you?”

“What do you mean by strange?” Ji Yang couldn’t quite get the point. He thought for a moment and shook his head. “I didn’t think so. It’s probably related to his profession. He was quite friendly. Before you came, he even helped me out.”

As Ji Yang said this, a light flashed in his mind. He sat up straight. “Do you think he saw that I was sick? That’s why he said I could go to him if I needed help.”

Screech—

Nie Xu braked and pulled the car to the side of the road.

He turned sideways. “Who told you you’re sick?”

“Having a bad memory is also a kind of problem, isn’t it?” Ji Yang didn’t think there was anything wrong with that. “But it doesn’t belong to psychology. Could it be neurology?”

Nie Xu paused for two seconds, raised his hand, and knocked him on the head.

“Does it hurt?” Nie Xu asked.

Ji Yang rubbed his forehead. “What nonsense!”

Nie Xu restarted the car. “Think about something serious.”

Ji Yang glared at him for a long while, and did indeed remember something serious.

“I want to find time to go to the cemetery.” Ji Yang thought for a moment and said, “Ji Changshou’s reaction yesterday made me feel something was off. When it came to the heart disease, his reaction was vague, but when it came to opening the coffin, I think he was afraid. I asked Aunt Mo, and Aunt Mo said they indeed hadn’t cremated her back then. But if Ji Changshou was really afraid people would find out, wouldn’t burning her be cleaner?”

Nie Xu asked him, “Do you really want to open the coffin?”

“No.” Ji Yang leaned back and looked up through the windshield at today’s somewhat smoggy, gloomy sky. “I don’t have any evidence right now. Why would I disturb her? I just want to go take a look.”

Yu Fei.

To Ji Yang, this name had originally been extremely unfamiliar.

But now, as it rolled around on his lips again, Ji Yang felt strange. That warm, warm feeling flowed through his limbs and bones and finally returned to his heart. It made him think of the woman he had seen in his dream, and his eye sockets began to heat up involuntarily.

All the evidence showed that her existence was his origin.

Ji Yang wanted to go see her.

Even if it was just a cold gravestone.

“Okay.” Nie Xu agreed and reached over to hold his hand. “You don’t have a chip on you. The source should lie with your mother. I’ll start investigating the evidence from the death records of that year. Don’t worry.”

Ji Yang nodded.

For the practical execution of this kind of thing, he really could only leave it to the other man.

Ji Changshou’s side could be dug into again, but it would inevitably involve Ji Chengyi.

Ji Yang: “Any progress on the wanted man?”

“Not yet.” Nie Xu’s left fingers tapped the steering wheel. “Ji Yansong must have left him a way out. He is now someone the entire Blue Sea Project wants to protect. Protecting him is protecting the last line of defense. Otherwise, back at the river channel, it would have been impossible for a helicopter to come pick him up.”

Ji Yang could actually understand.

Back then, starting with the Qiming, it was the Ji family who took the lead.

Now that old matters have been dredged up, the Ji family is still the first target. Ji Yansong is not only the person subject to enforcement; he is also a key focus of close police attention.

Even so, the Ji family’s many underground businesses—smuggling, trafficking in weapons and contraband, and the like—remain beneath the surface.

Even if the authorities have grasped part of the evidence and know that the water behind this is deeper and that there are more major crimes, it is impossible for them to expose everything at this time. As long as Ji Chengyi is still out there, the Ji family is the first living target.

The people in the dark want to push him out to act; the official side is trying to dig more important clues out of him.

This is actually a stalemate.

And the only thing that can break all this is all the materials Elara took away back then.

So Ji Chengyi must have used what he knew as a bargaining chip.

That is why Ji Yang became the target of kidnapping.

Precisely because he was clear on this, he understood even better why, since he came back, apart from going to see Ji Yansong yesterday, Nie Xu had been by his side almost around the clock.

Accompanying him to meetings at the company, accompanying him to the hospital.

When someone approached him, he became alert at the first moment.

Ji Yang took the initiative to say, “I saw you on the phone with Qi Songqing earlier. Is there something you need to handle?”

Nie Xu grunted in assent. “I won’t be here tomorrow. Han Biao will follow you.”

“Okay.” Ji Yang had no objection.

He wouldn’t be so arrogant as to say that, having experienced it once, he was still naive enough to think he was very safe. As for combat ability, at first he had even thought of going the disabled, vicious little white flower route; in this area, he was even more trash among trash.

When Ji Yang went out the next day, sure enough, the person he saw was Han Biao.

With his huge frame guarding downstairs, everyone going in and out had to look at him twice.

“Tone it down.” Ji Yang walked closer to him. “Everyone living here is an ordinary person. With that posture of yours, people who don’t know better would think you’re here to rob the place.”

Han Biao straightened up, puzzled. “What are you doing living here? Did you fight with the boss?”

Ji Yang: “…Do I have to fight with him to move out?”

Han Biao followed him out and opened the car door. “All I know is that last time, after the boss came back from Building 4 and found you were just gone, he went to South Island overnight.” Han Biao touched his nose. “I even made a bet with Sister Jiao.”

“Bet on what?” Ji Yang was curious.

Han Biao: “On whether the boss would settle accounts with you after finding you. So I’m also quite curious—how did you persuade the boss not to move back?”

Ji Yang got into the back seat and leaned back against it.

He thought about it. “Maybe I slept him into agreeing.”

“Huh?” Han Biao was confused. “Slept what into agreeing?”

Ji Yang played with the words. “Anyway, it was sleep-persuasion. Don’t worry about it.”

Han Biao: “…”

Ji Yang arrived at the company at nine in the morning.

Everyone who should come had come. Because the coordination with Jian Yuan’s side had gone smoothly, all departments had been very busy these two days.

Ji Yang had just entered the office.

Peng Jiaying followed right after and came looking for him.

“Something up?” Ji Yang asked.

Peng Jiaying put an invitation on his desk, sat opposite him, and said, “This was received this morning. It’s the public signing ceremony for the formal transition of Haicheng Assets to Jian Yuan. Quite a lot of parties are invited. After all, we count as having broken away from Haicheng, and now we’re in deep cooperation with Jian Yuan. I thought we should still send someone to attend.”

Ji Yang picked up the invitation and glanced at it. “Me?”

Peng Jiaying: “Don’t you want to witness it?”

Ji Yang had originally wanted to say what was there to witness; the Ji family was already in the past, nothing interesting. But in the end, after thinking about it, he went. After all, he was the idlest person in the company.

That afternoon, in the main hall of the Fanzhou Convention Center, on a dark blue backdrop were printed the white words “Ji Family Shipping Core Assets Transition Signing Ceremony.” Hundreds of people sat below the stage, and three chairs were placed on the stage.

On the left sat the head of the liquidation team; in the middle was a core representative sent by the chamber of commerce; the chair on the right was empty.

Ji Yang sat in the second row near the aisle.

Huang Kai was right beside him, tilting his head to say, “I don’t even know who Jian Yuan is sending today. I didn’t see any news beforehand.”

Ji Yang pressed at his phone aimlessly. “Qi Songqing, probably.”

“Are you sure? Are you very familiar with him?” Huang Kai asked.

Ji Yang pondered. “Barely, I guess?”

It was just that a couple of days ago they had attacked each other over the phone, that’s all.

Huang Kai was excited. “Then after the ceremony ends, you have to introduce me. It’s not that Jian Yuan Group is arrogant; their way of doing things is just really different from ordinary companies. Not to mention their boss, this President Qi is equally hard to approach.”

At this time the ceremony had not yet started, and the atmosphere in the exhibition hall was very relaxed.

People around them also came over to strike up conversations.

Seeing that Ji Yang was there,

some also spoke with hidden meaning: “The most prominent in the industry lately is definitely Yiyuan. While making people envious, one still has to admire Young President Yang’s mentality—probably unmatched.”

“With the Ji family having come to this point today, you must not feel good about it.”

Huang Kai had seen Ji Yang’s attitude toward the Ji family, and wanted to say something vague to ease the atmosphere.

At this moment, Ji Yang pulled a bit of energy away from looking down at his phone and raised his eyes.

He tilted his head and smiled slightly, looking at the person who had just spoken. “Since you know so much, how are you so sure I’m not here to kick them while they’re down?”