Chapter 46#

Playboy (16)#

Why would Lu Yi be here? As soon as this thought popped into Li Tang’s mind, he saw the company’s current executive director come out of the office, nearly bumping into Lu Yi.

He was about to gloat when he saw the man, who even Li’s father had to tolerate, first frown, then recognize who he had nearly collided with, and immediately reveal a very surprised expression: “Why did you come so suddenly?”

Shi Fang quickly and politely invited Lu Yi into the office, then casually closed the door behind them.

Before Li Tang could react, his phone rang from inside his pocket: “Li Tang, where are you? President Ren is waiting for you to bring the documents over.”

“Alright, I’ll be right there.” Li Tang responded quickly, setting aside the matter of Lu Yi for the moment to focus on completing his own work.

After some time working at the company, he had come to understand that this large corporation wasn’t solely controlled by his father.

Back when he was studying, the generation he belonged to was still young. Now that he was in graduate school, his cousins had more or less grown up, and with the old man getting on in years, they had started vying for power and influence.

Originally, Li Tang didn’t care about any of this. But after suffering the consequences of being broke, he had instead begun to take things seriously. He was harboring a fierce determination, projecting an image of diligence and striving upward, which had earned back some goodwill in his parents’ eyes.

If this had been in the past, he might have impulsively gone to investigate further. But remembering that he was now just a low-level manager, he held himself back and chose to focus on his own work first.

After delivering the documents, he glanced again at the chairman’s office. There were still two people inside. The company’s offices all had transparent glass walls. Though he couldn’t hear what was being said, he could see clearly that Lu Yi was chatting and laughing inside with the CEO, apparently having a very pleasant conversation.

He immediately asked a coworker he was close with: “I just saw someone in the chairman’s office chatting and laughing with the chairman. Do you know who he is?”

This coworker was from the business office, which directly faced the chairman’s office; with a lift of the head, you could clearly see the people inside. He looked up, glanced, and then asked Li Tang in surprise: “He’s our company’s new boss. Didn’t you know?”

Li Tang really didn’t know. His fingers froze over the keyboard, and it was a long moment before he sent a reply.

Marketing Department - Li Tang: New boss?

Because it was a large company, minor decisions were made by the chairman, but whenever major decisions came up, a shareholders’ meeting had to be convened.

Nowadays, many large companies hired professionals to serve as their CEOs. From what he understood, the current chairman of the company was just such a high-level hired hand. Though he was called the chairman, he actually didn’t hold many shares; he was still working for the Li family.

He took a deep breath and asked again: “Isn’t the largest shareholder of this company named Li? That new boss seems to be a college classmate of mine, surnamed Lu.”

Business Office - Jiang Hong: What surnamed Li? What you’re talking about is all in the past. The company now has been through asset restructuring; it hasn’t belonged to the Li family for a long time—it belongs to the Lu family instead. That new boss holds 45% of the company’s shares. The Chairman Li you mentioned before now only holds about 20%.

Our current chairman holds 6% of the company’s shares and is the fourth-largest shareholder.

But this Chairman Lu basically never comes to the company; he only shows up occasionally. He leaves everything to our new chairman. But together, the two of them hold more than half the shares, giving them absolute control. Do you think he counts as the true boss behind the scenes?

Li Tang could hardly believe his eyes. He didn’t reply to his coworker but instead used the company’s internal messaging system to contact his biological father: “So many things have happened with the company, and you didn’t tell me a single thing?”

Originally, Li’s father had been angry about this whole affair. But since his son was willing to turn over a new leaf and start fresh, he had let the matter drop.

After all, he had only just now had a second child. The age gap between the eldest and the second was huge, so the younger one would definitely need help from his older brother, Li Tang, in the future. Li Tang liked men and wouldn’t have any descendants. If he didn’t support his own blood brother, would he instead rely on those cousins?

For that reason alone, Li’s father hadn’t argued further with his eldest son. But now that Li Tang had brought it up, and with a tone that showed a lack of respect, he felt a bit uncomfortable.

A long passage appeared on Li Tang’s internal messaging screen.

Dad: You still have the nerve to bring this up? Back then, I wanted to tell you, to have you go apologize and salvage the relationship. That negotiation wouldn’t have gone so badly. My shares were originally 40%, and now they’ve been diluted to just 20%.

When had he ever been told to apologize? Li Tang was about to retort when the scene of him storming out that day suddenly flashed into his mind.

His hands were trembling violently. What a joke! Lu Yi was just an ordinary, poor boy from an average family. He had to be lying: “Company shares aren’t cheap. How could he possibly have that kind of money?”

“A poor boy? Our country’s current richest man was also a poor boy back in the day. The ones who started that shared [X] bike company were a bunch of college students. You compare yourself to others by comparing dads—why not compare yourself to yourself?”

Driven by the inspiration of the poor boy’s rise, he had also done some digging. What he found was that Shi Fang was truly talented. Apparently, he had been playing the stock market overseas.

Different country, no price limits or circuit breakers abroad. When you lose, you lose without limits; when you win, it’s just as insane.

He had background but no talent, and he was the worst off among his three brothers. Some people were just born to work in finance. Even if they started with no money, they could still turn things around and become masters through sheer entrepreneurial spirit.

Besides—on the surface, it might seem glamorous, but financially, it had been running at a loss for years, and its credit rating had been downgraded a notch. So when his company was acquired by Shi Fang, it was only natural.

“It must be Rong Huan. It’s all because of Rong Huan. Lu Yi might be smart, but Shi Fang is just a bookworm. How could he…”

He told himself it was all Rong Huan’s help. But deep down, a voice was telling him that wasn’t true at all. Back when he was still infatuated with Rong Huan, he already knew that Rong Huan had a bad relationship with his family and didn’t have much money either.

He was involved in the arts—spending more than he earned. Plus, Old Man Rong had always opposed the relationship between Lu Yi and Rong Huan, so it was even more impossible for him to provide any help.

The reality was simple: he was no match for Lu Yi. Far from it.

Li Tang refused to acknowledge this fact, and he couldn’t accept it.

Once upon a time, Lu Yi was just a poor boy he could summon or dismiss at will, fawning over him. One word from him, and Shi Fang would shamefully try to drink pesticide and kill himself. Now they were telling him that the poor boy had turned his life around, not only ending up with the man he loved most but also acquiring his father’s company and becoming Chairman Lu, looming over him.

What a joke! Even TV dramas wouldn’t dare to write a plot like that.

If Lu Yi could do it, then of course he could do it better. At first, he had even set an ambitious plan: since Lu Yi held 45% of the shares, he would strive to get the other 51%. That way, he would be the absolute controlling shareholder and could trample all over Lu Yi without mercy.

But after struggling at the company for a year, he not only failed but also, because he was too eager for quick success, messed up a major project and was subsequently dismissed on the grounds that his abilities did not meet the requirements of his position.

Li’s father naturally wanted to protect his son. But because of this incident, the company even called a special shareholders’ meeting, at which they particularly criticized certain board members for running the company like a family business, causing major losses.

Li’s father was no spring chicken, nearly fifty years old. He had originally been a successful man among his peers. But in the end, on the family front, because his biological mother had remarried and his father had taken another wife, even though he was from a wealthy family, his position was awkward. On the career front, he had been dragged down by his son. Listening to those pointed remarks, his hands under the table were clenching so hard he was practically tearing apart his high-quality suit trousers.

But even so, during the meeting, he still had to maintain a humble attitude and sincerely admit to his own mistakes.

After taking all that humiliation at the company, Li’s father went home and gave Li Tang a thorough scolding. He felt that this son of his had been born just to be a thorn in his side.

After Li Tang was fired, he had a direct fight with his son. The result of that fight was that he decided not to help his son for the time being, letting him fend for himself and seeing what he could accomplish on his own.

Leaving the company, Li Tang chose to start his own business. He thought simply: if Lu Yi could succeed as an entrepreneur, with his connections and money, why couldn’t he?

Connections? He had made quite a few, that was true. Money? He didn’t have much of his own, so he asked his mother for a loan.

Over the past year or two, her son had really changed a lot. She still felt sorry for him in the end, gritted her teeth, and lent him all her private savings.

At first, Li Tang’s business venture actually went quite well; it was fairly successful.

One morning, gazing at the traffic flowing below the high-rise buildings, he couldn’t help feeling a surge of excitement. Then, impatiently, he typed up a long string of text messages, rambling about this and that, and then pointedly said: “If you stay with Lu Yi, you’ll regret it sooner or later.”

Rong Huan received a bizarre text from an unfamiliar number and had no idea who sent it.

After all, since the previous incident, he had also changed his number and blocked his little nephew Li Tang on both ends.

He had been practicing Pilates when he saw the message. Now he lost his focus, picked up his phone, and went into the bedroom to find Lu Yi: “Who is this? Sending these weird texts. Is someone warning me about something? Fess up—what kind of troublesome admirer have you provoked this time?”

Lu Yi stared at the number for a while, thought about the area code, and said: “What do you mean my troublesome admirer? This should be yours. You can ask the old man what Li Tang’s new number is.”

Hearing the name Li Tang, Rong Huan felt as if a lifetime had passed: “It’s him? I’d almost forgotten. Wait—how do you know this is his number?”

He wouldn’t forget that Li Tang was Lu Yi’s first love: “I’m his little uncle and I don’t even know. And you, his ex-boyfriend, you still remember?”

Lu Yi chuckled: “I don’t know his new number either. It’s just that I saw the area code, and then looking at the content of the message, it’s clearly your little nephew thinking that you’ve suffered a great loss by being with me, hoping you would change your mind and throw yourself into his arms.”

Lu Yi mimicked Rong Huan’s tone, feigning jealousy: “How could I possibly compare to you? I was the one he deceived and dumped. Some people, on the other hand, are the unattainable moonlight in someone else’s heart—yearned for, never forgotten.”

Rong Huan couldn’t win this argument: “That’s just an obsession, not real affection.”

Lu Yi sat up on the bed and beckoned to him: “Come here.”

Rong Huan leaned in: “What?”

The next second, he let out a startled yelp as he was caught off guard and pulled into someone’s arms. The man’s breath was a bit rushed: “I think you just haven’t exercised enough, that’s why you’re thinking about nonsense. I’ll accompany you now, so you won’t let your mind wander.”

Over at Li Tang’s end, he was still waiting for a reply. Little did he know that his text message hadn’t stirred Rong Huan’s heart at all. Instead, it sent the couple into their room to do two hours of the “Eighth Set of Broadcast Gymnastics.”

After waiting a day and getting no response, Li Tang wasn’t discouraged. He worked diligently, striving to build his business, and then, one year later, he successfully made the headlines of the city’s news programs and X City Daily. The reason? Tax evasion.

Of course, to protect privacy, the news only referred to “Li X,” without giving the full name, and his face was pixelated. But anyone familiar with him could tell that this Li X was none other than the former young master Li Tang.

Li Tang’s business had failed, and on top of that, he had gotten involved in such a scandal. The Li family couldn’t completely abandon him; they spent money and pulled strings to get him out. But their attitude toward him was certainly not warm.

Even business tycoons had failed before—failed badly. But in the end, they succeeded because they could withstand failure.

Lu Yi’s journey had also not been smooth sailing. He had gone through a crisis of trust, and just when things were looking up, his business partner took people and suddenly fled.

But he could steady his mind and work through it; he could endure failure. Stumbling along, he still succeeded in the end.

Li Tang was different. Having been pampered since childhood, he was always the object of envy. Then his family’s company was taken over by his ex-boyfriend, and his own business venture failed.

On top of that, his mother had started focusing her attention on his newborn younger sibling, constantly busy with the baby and having no energy left for her eldest son.

Unable to bear such a fall from grace and obsessed with comparing himself to Lu Yi, his mentality finally collapsed completely. He chose suicide as a way out.

But unlike the original protagonist, who had silently drunk pesticide, Li Tang’s suicide attempt was quite dramatic. First, he smashed things around the room, then he slit his wrist.

In the end, Li Tang was, of course, rescued. And this wrist-slashing did successfully regain his family’s attention.

Many people came to see him, telling him not to lose heart, that he would surely make a comeback. But to Li Tang’s ears, it all sounded like mockery.

During this time, Lu Yi and Rong Huan also went to visit Shi Fang. Rong Huan initially didn’t want to go, but after being persuaded, he went anyway. He didn’t intend to say anything harsh.

But even now, Li Tang couldn’t stand the sight of his beloved little uncle, the moonlight of his heart. He started shouting and causing a scene, then grabbed a cup and hurled it in Lu Yi’s direction. Rong Huan instinctively blocked for Lu Yi.

It wasn’t serious, but the cup still hit Rong Huan on the nose, breaking it. Bright red blood streamed down Rong Huan’s fair face, shocking everyone in the hospital room.

Lu Yi quickly told Rong Huan to tilt his head back and took him to see a doctor. After the doctor checked and said it was fine, Lu Yi returned to the hospital room, his face dark as a storm cloud. He threw a punch straight at Li Tang’s nose. His gaze was as cold as deep-sea water: “I hope you understand: we came here today because your parents begged us, not because we were desperate to see you make a fool of yourself. That punch was for Rong Huan.”

He unclenched his fist and then slapped Li Tang across the face: “And this slap is for the version of myself that you once deceived.”

He looked down at Li Tang from above: “From beginning to end, you were the one who did wrong, and yet you only know how to take it out on others. Aside from your family background and the good looks your parents gave you, what else do you have that’s worth anyone’s sincerity? You really make people despise you!”

He withdrew his hand and did not intend to strike again: “Don’t worry, I won’t deliberately target you—on the condition that you stop disturbing our peaceful life. Because I find it disgusting.”

After saying this, he walked out of the room.

Rong Huan was standing by the door waiting for him. He looked at his man and said, “Let’s go home.”

Li Tang, stunned by the slap, watched the two figures in silence from the moment they stood at the door until they left. His little uncle didn’t even spare him a glance.

He stared for a long, long time, and then suddenly burst into loud sobs, like a child. But when he was a child, his gentle little uncle would have put a piece of toffee into his hand. Now, he had nothing.

After leaving the hospital, Lu Yi and Rong Huan never asked about Li Tang again. He was someone who had nothing to do with them, and whether he lived well or badly was none of their concern.

The domestic environment was hardly tolerant. Lu Yi was used to same-sex marriage being legal in his own world, and he couldn’t bear to see Rong Huan unhappy because of what others said.

Combined with various other factors in work and life, and because their business required it and Rong Huan liked it, the two of them eventually chose to settle abroad, a year after returning to the country.

Rong Huan’s health began to decline when he was fifty. Although he lived his life with great effort, back when he came out of the closet, in order to resist his stubborn old father, he had truly suffered too much and damaged his constitution.

Lu Yi was only in his early forties then, at the peak of his career. But in order to accompany his partner, he chose to step down while he was ahead. Since they hadn’t adopted any children, he handed over his business and made a will donating all his assets after his death.

As they watched the magnificent aurora together, Rong Huan smiled and said to Lu Yi, “I’m so happy. In my lifetime, I got to see such beautiful scenery.”

He was already very weak by then, with fine wrinkles at the corners of his eyes that he couldn’t hide. But his face still looked as gentle and refined as it did in his youth.

Lu Yi bent down and kissed his forehead: “In my eyes, you are more beautiful than the aurora.”

After handling Rong Huan’s funeral arrangements, Lu Yi slept in the bed that belonged to the two of them, feeling that the entire house was empty. He couldn’t sleep, suffering from insomnia night after night.

Finally, when his body could no longer take it and he closed his eyes in exhaustion, the same ball of light was drawn out from this body, which should have died long ago. At the same instant, Lu Yi also stopped breathing.

When he opened his eyes again, Lu Yi felt as if his head had been filled with lead, heavy and sluggish.

Even in this unclear state, a flood of memories kept pouring into his mind.

The cold air from the air conditioner blew over him, helping him barely stay awake. He remembered that he was originally called Lu Yi, the chairman of some corporation, whose wife—from a contractual marriage—had been run over and killed on their wedding night, and who had inexplicably formed a contract with an unknown creature from some planet to retrieve the fragments scattered in the pile of books beneath him when he died, fragments of Yu Ke.

Only by finding Yu Ke’s fragments could he leave this world. So becoming Lu Xingchen, an eighteen-tier entertainer, was his biggest and only goal.

But now, he wasn’t thinking at all about how to find the fragments or whose body they were in. Besides his leaden head and weak limbs, his entire body was burning hot, as if he had taken some legendary elixir.

The minor celebrity Lu Xingchen had risen to fame through a singing competition show. Before his debut, he was also named Lu Yi, but his agent felt the name lacked character and made him change it to Lu Xingchen.

But Lu Xingchen had only his face and figure to offer. Unwilling to go with the flow and having offended a certain Boss X who wanted to exploit him, he was indefinitely shelved.

To get a movie role, he attended a dinner party on a friend’s recommendation, where he was set up and accidentally stumbled into a certain room, where he ended up sleeping with another celebrity.

The later plot was extremely clichéd, involving doppelgängers, framing, showbiz, and wealthy families—exactly matching the titles of the books Yu Ke had bought: Starlight Shining: XX and XX CEO.

But Lu Xingchen wasn’t the protagonist; he was just a cannon fodder unfortunate.

For a moment, Lu Yi’s mind was filled with jumbled memory fragments. He didn’t have the energy to sort through them because his intuition told him that if he didn’t get out of there soon, he might really end up being taken advantage of.

Even as Lu Xingchen, he absolutely would not allow himself to be inexplicably slept with under these circumstances.

Hearing the sound of a doorknob turning, Lu Yi lifted his head, mustered the last of this body’s strength, and staggered out.

From the original owner’s memory, the room where Lu Xingchen was supposed to be violated was 409. After confirming that he had rushed into room 406, which was empty, Lu Yi locked the door and let all his strength drain away.

I should be safe now, he thought just before passing out. However, when he woke up the next morning, he found himself lying on a bed. Next to him lay another man, also naked, looking quite disheveled. Judging from the state of the room, the previous night’s battle had been intense.

Lu Yi stared blankly at the face of the person beside him. He felt that this person’s appearance looked very familiar.

But it wasn’t that his face was similar to the president who had unilaterally abused Lu Xingchen, treating the eighteen-tier entertainer as a stand-in. Wait… this face—he finally remembered who the person lying there resembled.

This person and the original owner—that is, his current body, Lu Xingchen—were actually about sixty percent similar.

Could someone tell him what exactly happened last night? Lu Yi had lived for twenty-eight years, and everything he did was within his expectations and calculations.

But this was clearly not something he could have calculated. For the first time in his life, he felt flustered by an out-of-control situation.

“Ahh… it hurts…”

The man lying there also opened his eyes. Staring at the young man sitting up, covering his body with the blanket like a virtuous housewife, he clearly had no idea what was going on either.

They looked at each other, the atmosphere extremely awkward for a moment. Just before the other man could speak, Lu Yi’s instinct for facing a crisis kicked in. Quick as a flash, he grabbed the man’s hand: “I don’t understand what happened either, but I will take responsibility for you.”