At nine that evening, both parties had eaten and drunk their fill. They waved goodbye outside the restaurant before getting into their respective cars and leaving.
Qian Yitian had only had a few drinks, but he was already so thoroughly drunk that he couldn’t tell up from down. He clung to Nie Xu and refused to let go.
Mumbling that Assistant Nie was incredibly impressive and asking whether he could give him more guidance in the future, he proceeded to recount his entire life story—from nearly falling into a pond and becoming fish food at the age of three, to raiding bird nests at five, to skipping school at ten.
He was practically about to reveal his bank card PIN.
There wasn’t the slightest trace of the fear of Nie Xu he had claimed to feel earlier.
Although Huizhou’s nightlife wasn’t as lively as Fanzhou’s, it was still early at this hour. Standing around on the main road like this was more than a little embarrassing.
Nie Xu let Qian Yitian cling to him all the way into the car and back to the hotel.
The man was like a piece of stubborn chewing gum that simply wouldn’t come off.
“His alcohol tolerance is really terrible,” Ji Yang said, following behind them and nearly dying of laughter.
Deng Jiao remarked, “His behavior when drunk is worrying.”
Qiao Qiao was busy recording Qian Yitian’s embarrassing drunken antics so she could blackmail him with them in the future.
Hearing Deng Jiao’s remark, she quietly chimed in, “I never realized Assistant Nie was actually so good-tempered. We came on the same flight today. Although we barely spoke, he even carried my luggage for me.”
Ji Yang was incredulous.
“Your standards for men are that low? Wouldn’t any man do that?”
Qiao Qiao replied matter-of-factly, “No! Take my ex, for example. Whenever we traveled together, either his eyes were blind or his hands were broken. Because of him, I now have an extremely high tolerance for normal men, let alone someone as outstanding as Assistant Nie.”
Deng Jiao seemed to be hearing this kind of assessment for the first time too. She raised an eyebrow.
“Outstanding?”
“Of course!” Qiao Qiao counted on her fingers as she walked. “He’s handsome, capable, and although his position as an assistant isn’t high, someone at the company dug up the fact that his watch alone is worth over a million yuan. He also owns more than one private vehicle, including a Hummer. It’s only a matter of time before the Ji Corporation fails to keep him.”
Ji Yang was stunned by how much he had underestimated the public’s appetite for gossip. He hadn’t even known Nie Xu owned other private vehicles.
Let alone paid attention to what kind of watch he wore.
As she spoke, Qiao Qiao glanced at Ji Yang and seemed to suddenly realize something. She cautiously asked, “Fourth Young Master, you won’t be angry that I said all that, will you?”
“Why would I be angry?” Ji Yang asked, genuinely confused.
Qiao Qiao said, “Aren’t you… aren’t you interested in Nie—”
She had almost forgotten about that.
Ji Yang put his hands in his pockets. “I’m a very broad-minded person. How could I possibly become an obstacle in his path? If he really wants to leave the Ji Corporation, I’ll support him one hundred percent.”
An obstacle? If Nie Xu doesn’t turn around and kill me, I’ll already have every reason to thank my lucky stars.
Besides, Nie Xu had never belonged to the Ji Corporation in the first place.
Not in the past, and certainly not in the future.
Ji Yang instinctively looked up at the man walking ahead of them.
Wonderful. He was carrying Qian Yitian as casually as if he were holding a little chicken.
Even more carelessly than he had carried Ji Yang before.
When they reached the room, Ji Yang looked up.
“Isn’t this my room?” he asked.
Nie Xu was already standing at the door, holding Qian Yitian by the back of his collar to keep him from sliding onto the floor.
He looked at Ji Yang and said, “Qian Yitian will stay in your room tonight. In his current state, he won’t be able to participate in tomorrow’s seminar anyway. Deng Jiao will stay behind to look after him. Qiao Qiao, prepare the materials for tomorrow. You and I will attend the seminar together.”
Qiao Qiao immediately replied, “Don’t worry, Assistant Nie. I’ll have everything ready.”
Ji Yang had no objections to this arrangement either. Together, they settled Qian Yitian onto the bed. Then Ji Yang picked up his luggage and went to the twin room.
The bed in the twin room was probably about 1.3 meters wide. Ji Yang chose the side closer to the window.
The first thing he did after entering was unbutton his vest and toss it onto the bed. Then he sat at the foot of the bed and looked around.
“Do you want to shower first?” Nie Xu asked him.
Ji Yang shook his head. “I’ll rest for a bit. I ate too much tonight. You go first.”
Nie Xu nodded and went into the bathroom with his clothes.
Ji Yang lay on his stomach across the bed, playing with his phone.
He hadn’t had much free time during the day, and only now, when he opened his messages, did he realize that Fu Cheng had sent him a whole string of them.
And they were all private messages to his “One Yang” account.
He tapped on a voice message.
“Fourth Young Master, isn’t this going a bit too far? You can’t just screw me over like this, can you?”
“What happened two years ago was something we were both involved in, more or less. You pushed me into the spotlight with one livestream. Did you ever consider that you might become a target of public outrage yourself?”
Perhaps because Ji Yang had taken too long to reply, Fu Cheng’s tone grew increasingly agitated.
“What good does it do you to get my factory shut down?”
When threats failed to work, he began offering a deal.
“Fifty million is still too outrageous. You know I can’t come up with that much money on short notice. But I can tell you a secret, something about Ji Chengyi.”
Ji Yang smiled.
Oh, I’m absolutely fascinated.
Fu Cheng really wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. Why would he think that after what had happened with Wei Qiming, Ji Yang would still react strongly just because he heard the name Ji Chengyi?
Ji Yang rolled over and lay on his back.
Holding his phone, he replied with a voice message. “If you don’t have the money, then stop contacting me. Sorry, but there’s nothing I can do.”
Fu Cheng replied instantly.
“Let’s talk in person. Can we meet and talk face-to-face?”
Ji Yang: “Nope. I’m on a business trip.”
Ji Yang held up his phone, trying to take a picture that would make it obvious he was in a hotel room. The instant he pressed the shutter, the bathroom door opened, and he instinctively lowered the camera slightly.
The photo was sent successfully. A blurry half-profile was visible in the picture.
Fu Cheng’s voice was practically a roar.
“Ji Yang! At a time like this, you still have the nerve to fool around with men? You really are something!”
Ji Yang looked at the man whose hair was still dripping wet.
He replied to Fu Cheng with a smile in his voice.
“Getting anxious won’t help. You might as well have some fun first.”
He infuriated Fu Cheng so badly that the other man sent him a long string of voice messages specifically to curse him out, completely losing his composure.
Seeing how much Ji Yang enjoyed listening to other people swear, Nie Xu asked, “Do you really have to entertain him?”
Ji Yang hummed in acknowledgment. “He even tracked down my social media account. If I don’t respond, it’ll make me look rude.”
Nie Xu tossed aside the towel in his hand and reminded him, “Go take a shower.”
Then, as if a rare trace of conscience had struck him, he asked, “Want me to help?”
Ji Yang immediately remembered what had happened that night before the business trip. The shadow of his humiliating defeat resurfaced.
He said warily, “No, thanks.”
Then he grabbed his clothes and went into the bathroom.
By the time he came out, Nie Xu was still sitting at the head of the bed, typing away on his computer.
The screen was filled with stock charts Ji Yang couldn’t understand and densely packed lines of code.
Ji Yang dried his hair with a hair dryer, then slipped under the covers.
In his half-asleep state, it seemed as though the sound of typing continued for most of the night. Yet when he opened his eyes the next morning, Nie Xu was already fully dressed.
Hearing him stir, Nie Xu turned to look at him.
“Get up. The news about the Fu family has hit the headlines.”
Ji Yang scratched his hair, taking half a minute to wake up before slowly mumbling, “Oh.”
What had initially broken the news was a newly released report analyzing abnormal water-quality monitoring points in the coastal waters near Fanzhou.
The shocking finding was that three kilometers east of Lanhai Bay, the COD indicator had suddenly surged to 180% of the standard level, while the ammonia nitrogen content had exceeded the limit by 2.7 times. At the same time, only 800 meters in a straight line from that monitoring point was the wastewater discharge outlet of the Fu Family’s agricultural and food processing factory.
Two years earlier, the Lanhai Bay project had been urgently suspended because it failed to meet ecological assessment standards. Yet the wastewater discharge permit for the Fu family’s factory had completed its renewal review at the end of that very same year.
Because of the Fu family scandal, the Ji Corporation’s Haicheng Group had also been dragged into the public spotlight.
After all, the Ji family had originally built its business on the shipping industry and had always placed great importance on its public reputation. Now, it was suspected of colluding with the Fu family for profit while disregarding ordinary people’s safety and environmental protection.
If the allegations were confirmed, the damage to the group’s reputation would be devastating.
The seminar was being held in downtown Huizhou.
On the way there, Ji Yang received one phone call after another.
There were calls from the headquarters’ secretarial office, the public relations department, Ji Zhonglin himself, and even one from Ji Chengyi.
His phone was practically being bombarded.
Ji Yang didn’t answer a single one.
Not until Peng Jiaying called.
“The group has ordered an emergency PR response. Our entire department has been reassigned to handle it.”
Ji Yang rested his elbow against the car window and laughed. “So they’re not laying anyone off anymore?”
“Of course not, not at a time like this,” Peng Jiaying said. “They held an emergency shareholders’ meeting at noon. From what I heard, they’re probably going to protect you. The public’s impression of you is still fairly positive after that livestream a couple of days ago. The group probably wants you to make a public appearance.”
“I can’t,” Ji Yang said.
Peng Jiaying was confused. “What?”
Ji Yang said, “Didn’t I ask you to find out how many people in the new media department were willing to leave outright? Old Peng, now’s the perfect opportunity.”
Peng Jiaying’s voice tightened, growing hoarse with anxiety. “If we all resign together at a time like this, won’t it make us look disloyal?”
“How could it?” Ji Yang said, resting his head on his arms. His voice sounded completely untroubled. “With your leader setting such a fine example ahead of you, it wouldn’t be disloyalty. It would be standing up for justice.”
Peng Jiaying was speechless with shock.
“You’ve gone crazy!”
“I’m perfectly fine,” Ji Yang replied. “I personally handled that data report two years ago. It’s all there in black and white. There’s no denying it.”
As Ji Yang continued speaking, he felt a gaze beside him, so tangible it was almost physical, fixed firmly on his face.
Ji Yang turned his head.
“What?” he asked, completely unapologetic. “You’re using me as the sacrificial lamb. Have you never seen a sacrifice willingly walk up to the blade?”
Nie Xu studied him.
“No, I haven’t.”
His nerve was truly outrageous.
Ji Yang said, “I can’t play all those mind games you people specialize in. Anyway, I have my own rhythm. I won’t get in your way, as long as you do what you promised me.”
Nie Xu looked ahead. “I’ve dealt with Peng Jiaying before. He has decent foresight, but as for having any great ambition, I’m not so sure.”
Ji Yang complained, “I never planned to become number one in the industry, either.”
He simply needed a deeper foundation, something solid enough to keep him from being tossed around by the enormous waves now rushing toward him—and to keep him from losing his life in the process.
They arrived at the seminar’s conference center right on time. The event had attracted quite a few companies from Huizhou and surrounding cities, including those involved in real estate, engineering, and environmental protection.
Ji Yang’s appearance still caused quite a stir among those present.
They all belonged to the same circle. The moment even the slightest rumor surfaced, word spread like wildfire.
Vice President Ma from the previous day was also there. When he saw Ji Yang, his expression twisted noticeably, but he still stepped forward to greet him.
“Fourth Young Master, we didn’t entertain you properly yesterday. I hope you won’t hold it against us.”
Ji Yang feigned surprise. “You’re too polite, Vice President Ma. After getting drunk yesterday, I was actually wondering where you’d gone. I couldn’t find you anywhere.”
Vice President Ma’s expression became stiff and ugly.
He had tried to scheme against someone, only to end up being outmaneuvered himself.
He had never suffered such a humiliating setback.
Someone nearby who didn’t know Ji Yang leaned over and asked, “President Ma, who’s this?”
Vice President Ma deliberately raised his voice.
“This is the manager of the new media department at Haicheng Group, the Ji family’s Fourth Young Master.”
Then he added pointedly, “I hear Fourth Young Master is quite close to the Fu family’s young master. It was Fourth Young Master who put him on the trending searches a couple of days ago.”
As soon as he said that, the murmuring around them grew noticeably louder.
Ji Yang pretended not to hear a thing.
He scanned the room and spotted Nie Xu. Through an introducer from Shengji, Nie Xu was already chatting amiably with Shengji’s general manager, with senior executives from Hengyuan standing nearby as well.
Less than two minutes later, someone leaned over to whisper something in Vice President Ma’s ear. His expression turned ugly, and he left.
Nie Xu returned to his seat.
Ji Yang gestured toward the direction Vice President Ma had gone and asked, “Was that your doing?”
Nie Xu glanced over there.
“The business dealings between Shengji, Hengyuan, and Haicheng aren’t clean. No one wants to get dragged into a scandal at a time like this.”
He reminded Ji Yang, “Mr. Li from Shengji has an original backup copy of the water-quality monitoring data for the Lanhai Bay project from two years ago.”
Ji Yang gave him a sidelong look. “You arranged that too?”
“Not officially,” Nie Xu said. “Shengji taking advantage of the situation to kick someone when they’re down is perfectly normal.”
Not officially, huh?
He wasn’t just scheming against the Ji Corporation. The Ji family’s business partners, its competitors—without exception, they were all caught in this enormous web.
When the seminar reached the presentation and question-and-answer session, things unfolded exactly as expected.
Ji Yang became the person everyone singled out for attention.
Mr. Li from Shengji, a man nearing fifty, held up the paper copy in his hands and said, “I hear you were involved in the data report the Fu family submitted back then?”
Ji Yang stood up.
Every pair of eyes in the industry was fixed on him, along with the cameras recording the proceedings from the stage.
Would he make excuses, act guilty, vehemently deny everything, or lose his temper and launch into a string of curses, just as everyone had come to expect from him?
None of that happened.
All anyone saw was a very handsome young man. In a setting like this, he was almost excessively young.
He even appeared well-mannered, addressing the man onstage with a smile.
“Uncle Li.”
Then he gave an embarrassed little smile.
“As you know, I’ve never had much real authority at Haicheng. Two years ago, I wasn’t involved in the Lanhai Bay project at all. But I admit that the report containing falsified data was submitted. However—”
That turn in the conversation left everyone holding their breath as they waited to hear what came next.
“The Fu family’s approval documents, the scanned signatures of everyone who handled them, the environmental protection bureau’s archived records—there were countless steps involved. As an outsider, I simply didn’t have that kind of authority.”
The entire venue erupted in an uproar.
People had seen unfilial descendants before.
But they had never seen anyone so willing to turn their back on their own family.
The Ji family had barely gotten into trouble before one of its own was rushing to pour oil on the fire. It was certainly an eye-opener.
Wasn’t he essentially saying, Yes, I did it, but I’m just a powerless young master. If there were nothing shady going on at the Ji Corporation, could this matter really have been swept under the rug so easily?
This Fourth Young Master had only just finished publicly tearing into the Ji family, and now he was pulling another stunt like this. Had the internal family conflict reached its boiling point?
Nor had anyone heard of any recent changes in Haicheng’s shareholding structure or personnel.
That was probably the question on countless people’s minds.
Even Mr. Li from Shengji had been left with no opportunity to make a move. He descended from the stage with a stiff expression.
Less than an hour after that day’s seminar ended, Ji Corporation’s stock prices fell again, and the decline showed signs of getting worse.
The internet was in an uproar, with people cursing up a storm. Amid all the noise, Ji Yang simply turned off his phone and closed his eyes to sleep.
When they returned to the hotel entrance, Ji Yang noticed two cars parked outside.
One of them was facing the car they had just driven back in.
A man stepped out of the car opposite them. He looked around twenty-five or twenty-six, with his hair tied into a ponytail at the back of his head, phoenix-shaped eyes, and a black tactical training outfit.
He knocked twice on the car door.
Smiling, he said, “Brother Xu. I’m here to take over. The old man told me to bring the young master back.”
Nie Xu raised his chin toward the front. “You’re taking over like this?”
“Can’t be helped.” The man braced both hands against the driver’s side window. “The old man says the young master needs to settle down. Brother Xu, you’ve spent the past two years cleaning up enough messes. Why not leave this one to me?”
Nie Xu chuckled twice under his breath. “Lu Li, you know this time is different.”
“So what?” Lu Li shrugged. “We follow orders. I do, and so do you, Brother Xu.”
“From the sound of that, you’re planning to drag me back by force?” Ji Yang waited until the two had finished talking before speaking up. “No need for that. Mr. Lu, have you ever considered that I could simply get into the car myself?”
His speaking up seemed to be outside Lu Li’s expectations.
Lu Li finally spared him a tiny sliver of his pitifully limited attention.
Even that seemed like an act of charity.
Ji Yang waved. “Hi.”
Hello, you obsessive, deranged third male lead who’s madly in love with Ji Chengyi in the novel.
That smiling face made Lu Li’s eyelid twitch. He glanced at Nie Xu, who remained completely unmoved, then turned to Ji Yang.
“If Fourth Young Master is willing to cooperate, that would certainly be best.”
It was just after nightfall.
The street outside the hotel was wide. Cars parked along the roadside had only just switched on their low beams, and a final streak of gray-white still lingered along the horizon.
Nie Xu had remained seated in the car the entire time without moving.
When Deng Jiao came looking for him, there was a nearly burned-out cigarette between the fingers of the hand he had resting outside the car window.
“Boss, they’re gone?”
“Mm.” Nie Xu tapped the ash from his cigarette.
Qi Songqing’s voice came through his earpiece, tinged with amusement. “What? You’ve gone soft?”
Jiang Lei’s voice followed, sounding thoroughly exasperated.
“Hey, Qi, can you stop stirring things up for once?”
Jiang Lei seemed to be somewhere else. The rapid clatter of a keyboard could be heard as he spoke.
“This young master is something else. He’s had three times the impact we anticipated. All he had to do was stand there and play his part, but of course he couldn’t resist doing more. Now the old man has even brought in that lunatic Lu Li. Looks like he’s finally getting serious.”
Qi Songqing said, “Surely not. He is the old man’s own grandson, after all.”
Nie Xu spoke up. “Have you settled on the timing?”
Qi Songqing replied, “Eight p.m. three days from now. The cumulative trading volume over consecutive trading days will be enough to trigger the delisting process directly.”
Qi Songqing still wasn’t ready to let it go. “You really haven’t gone soft?”
“No.” Nie Xu stubbed out his cigarette against a piece of cardboard on the dashboard.
When he lifted his eyes to look at the road ahead, it was almost as if the figure of the man who had walked away while flashing an OK sign over his shoulder was still there.
Nie Xu spoke calmly. “Push things forward on Peng Jiaying’s end. As quickly as possible.”
Qi Songqing clicked his tongue. “You really are stubborn. Three days, huh? That little young master’s frail body probably wouldn’t even survive kneeling in the ancestral hall without fainting.”
“The Ji family doesn’t have an ancestral hall,” Nie Xu said.
Ji Yansong had never shown any respect for his ancestors, because his own forebears had been fishermen.
The Ji family had no ancestral tablets and erected no memorial steles.
It was because they had resorted to too many unscrupulous methods. Perhaps they were afraid that the vengeful spirits of those they had wronged would eventually come knocking.
Soft-hearted?
Perhaps he had been, for a moment, when that young master turned back just before getting into the car.
Was it because Ji Yang had been so cooperative lately, or because he accepted being used as a matter of course?
In his world, it seemed that a one-to-one exchange of equal value was simply how things should be. Under the Ji family’s house rules, where the strong preyed on the weak, he had somehow become an unusually conspicuous oddity.
He hadn’t been asking Nie Xu to save him, nor had he been begging for mercy.
Nie Xu had understood what he mouthed.
He had been lamenting—
Fuck, this car’s chassis is really low.
It was so damn low, it practically screamed wealth. It hardly looked like a prison van at all.