The person on the other end of the phone was caught off guard when his name was suddenly called out. 
His tendency to bully the weak and fear the strong was immediately apparent. He cautiously asked, “Who are you?”
Nie Xu said, “Your brother, Jin Hucheng, was only a former manager of a branch. He was expelled from the inner circle three years ago because of internal power struggles. You’ve been hanging around the outer circle for three years. Have you forgotten how your brother got in?”
The other end of the line fell silent for quite a while. When he finally spoke again, his voice stuttered slightly. “Brother Nie…?”
“At least your brain is still working,” Nie Xu said.
Jin Husheng’s arrogance immediately evaporated.
“Brother Nie, this is a misunderstanding! A complete misunderstanding. I heard that Fourth Young Master had left the Ji family, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to help him out and give us both a chance. If I’d known you were handling things, I would never have meddled in someone else’s business.”
Nie Xu’s tone softened for a moment before he scoffed. “You were helping him?”
Jin Husheng hurriedly corrected himself. “No, helping me. I was hoping Fourth Young Master would help me.”
Resting his arm on the top of the car window, Nie Xu glanced at the person sitting inside before replying, “I don’t care where you heard the news about the Ji family. Keep those filthy thoughts of yours to yourself. I’ll only warn you once. Otherwise, I’ll make you go around asking every day whether there’s still another path for you to survive in this business.”
The person on the other end hurriedly replied, “I understand, I understand. Someone Brother Nie is protecting? How could I possibly dare lay a finger on him?”
By the time Ji Yang got his phone back, the call had already ended.
Ji Yang was rather surprised. Teasingly, he said, “Isn’t Jin Husheng from Xilemen? Are people in the underworld all afraid of you?”
“He’s afraid of the police,” Nie Xu replied.
Ji Yang recalled how familiar Nie Xu seemed with dealing with the police. Whether it was going to the police station to bail him out in the past or bringing the police onto the cruise ship that time for Ji Mingyue’s sake, he had always handled things with such ease, as though dealing with them was second nature.
Ji Yang remarked, “No wonder they say the government and the underworld are in cahoots. You operate on both sides, black and white. It’s no surprise Jin Husheng is afraid of you.”
Nie Xu neither confirmed nor denied it. Still leaning against the car window, he kept his gaze fixed on Ji Yang and began explaining.
“Xilemen switched to the entertainment business a long time ago. Jin Husheng is, at most, a minor character. More than ten years ago, Xilemen was at the height of its power. The reason the authorities launched such a fierce crackdown on it was a kidnapping involving a wealthy man’s son.”
Ji Yang knew about that incident.
Ji Chengyi had been the biggest victim of the incident, and his illegitimate-son status had once become widely known.
Ji Yang asked, “Were everyone involved in the case arrested?”
“More or less.” Nie Xu’s answer was somewhat vague. “The boss at the time was convicted of multiple crimes and executed by firing squad. Several others received life sentences, while even the shortest prison terms were ten years or more.”
Those were certainly severe punishments.
Ji Chengyi hadn’t been killed after being kidnapped, yet the punishments had still been so harsh. It was clear that the perpetrators must have committed some truly serious crimes.
Ji Yang thought of something else. “So Jin Husheng isn’t that important. Then who’s the current head of Xilemen?”
“You’ve met him,” Nie Xu replied.
Ji Yang was surprised. “I’ve met him?” He frowned and thought for a moment. “How could I have met him?”
Nie Xu tapped the roof of the car, reminding him, “That night, in the hotel lobby. The second man walking on the old master’s left.”
Following Nie Xu’s words, Ji Yang recalled the scene.
That’s right. He was an unremarkable-looking man, probably in his late forties. At first glance, there had been nothing particularly memorable about him. But the fact that someone from Xilemen had appeared at such an occasion was already suspicious enough.
The old master’s grandson had been kidnapped by this very organization, yet more than ten years later, they could sit at the same table and drink tea from the same pot.
Ji Yang remarked, “That’s seriously shady. Could the Ji family and Xilemen have been working together more than ten years ago?”
Although he said it casually, the smile never reached his eyes. His mind was turning over the possibility, and the thought made his temples throb faintly.
Nie Xu watched him without saying anything.
The wind by the sea had grown rather strong.
Some sand blew into Ji Yang’s right eye. He pressed a hand against it and rubbed, keeping his other eye open as he continued asking, “Why are you looking at me like that?”
Nie Xu caught his hand and reached beside the car for a bottle of water. As he unscrewed the cap, he stared at Ji Yang and said, “Nothing. I just don’t quite want to believe that you’ve taken so much medicine you’ve actually damaged your brain.”
Even though that was technically a compliment about his intelligence, Ji Yang instinctively tried to pull his hand away.
Nie Xu held his wrist firmly, preventing him from moving.
“Lower your head. Rinse it with water. Don’t use your hand.”
Ji Yang had no choice but to cooperate.
He leaned halfway out of the car window, cupped some water in his hands twice, and rinsed his eye.
Once he was done, Nie Xu asked, “Does it still hurt?”
Ji Yang straightened up and shook his head slightly, flicking the water droplets from his damp hair. With his eyes closed, he said, “A little.”
Water droplets slid from the corners of his eyes down to his chin, resembling tears. The salty sea breeze blew past, and they eventually fell with little drops.
Nie Xu watched him for two seconds. In the end, he still reached out and gently lifted Ji Yang’s chin.
“Don’t move. Let me take a look.”
Just as Nie Xu’s fingertips were about to touch his thin eyelid, Ji Yang suddenly opened his eyes. They were filled with laughter, and his voice rose lightly, the final syllable almost lilting.
“I was kidding.”
Nie Xu’s hand paused slightly.
Looking into his eyes, he suddenly asked, “Do you have any childhood photos of yourself?”
“Huh?”
Ji Yang couldn’t understand why Nie Xu had suddenly jumped to such an unrelated question. He shook his head and replied, without exactly lying, “No. I heard from Auntie Mo that Ji Changshou had a fight with my… mother. In a fit of anger, Ji Changshou burned all the photographs. The only two that remained were lost when the main building was renovated. Anyway, I’ve never seen any.”
Nie Xu nodded. A fleeting hint of absurdity flashed through his eyes, so quickly that it might have been an illusion.
Ji Yang was puzzled. “You should know what I looked like as a kid, right? You entered the Ji family when you were in your teens. I would’ve been five or six back then. Or did I used to be a troublemaker who bullied cats and dogs, so you hated me from childhood?”
Nie Xu said, “Not all the candidates for Building No. 4 were living in the manor from the very beginning.”
He didn’t need to elaborate. Ji Yang could already guess most of the truth.
They must have had their own selection process and training system. This also meant that the supposed foundation of their childhood friendship was even shakier than he had thought.
Nie Xu got back into the car and returned to the original topic.
“More than ten years ago, the Ji family really did have dealings with Xilemen. The kidnapping case back then actually originated from a dispute over how the spoils were divided. However, at the time, the various major families in Fanzhou were fighting for power. Outsiders focused too much on the kidnapping itself. Even when someone tried to trace the incident back to its origins, it was easy for them to go in the wrong direction.”
Ji Yang could imagine that.
During a chaotic period like that, when something of this nature happened, most people’s first reaction would naturally be to suspect a rival or an enemy. Who would have guessed that the root of the incident lay within the Ji family itself?
Ji Yang asked, “So what’s the situation now? Have they started working together in secret again?”
Nie Xu looked at him deeply.
“They never stopped.”
Ji Yang’s breathing briefly faltered.
Those few short words made him feel as though an icy chill was flooding over the stone steps. It wasn’t roaring amid a thunderstorm, nor was it lurking in some abyss. Evil was taking root in the most ordinary cracks, in every seemingly uneventful sunrise and sunset.
They didn’t stay by the sea for long before Nie Xu turned the car around and headed back.
They arrived at the hotel entrance at four in the afternoon.
Ji Yang wasn’t in a particularly good mood. First, there was the matter involving Ji Cheng. Second, he had realized that the seemingly ordinary, increasingly peaceful life he was living now was built upon far too many uncertainties.
An oppressive emotion lingered in his chest, as though he desperately needed to find an outlet for it.
As soon as he got out of the car at the hotel entrance, someone suddenly collided with him.
A black van pulled over and came to an abrupt stop by the roadside.
A person with his hands and feet bound and black tape covering his mouth was shoved out of the vehicle and dumped right in front of Ji Yang.
Ji Yang: “…”
He took a moment to recognize the person.
“Lin Yue?”
The person who had thrown him out appeared to be merely following orders. His expression was so emotionless that he seemed almost wooden as he said, “Fourth Young Master, our Boss Jin said he’ll leave this person in your hands.”
“Troubled you?” Ji Yang was completely dumbfounded. He almost wondered whether he was really standing on a public road in broad daylight or at the entrance to a red-light district in the middle of the night.
Ji Yang’s temples throbbed. He pointed at the man on the ground, who was sobbing and crying his eyes out.
“Jin Husheng beat someone up this badly, and now he’s troubling me? What exactly is he troubling me with? Am I supposed to take responsibility for his reputation as someone who assaults people in the middle of the street?”
The man standing opposite him probably hadn’t expected such a reaction. His expression went blank for a moment.
After hesitating for quite a while, he finally added, “Master Jin said he only laid hands on him. The man’s still… clean.”
Ji Yang gritted his back teeth.
Then the man added, “Master Jin said to trouble Fourth Young Master with delivering this person to Brother Nie. He considers it a small token of his respect.”
Ji Yang: “…”
The anger that had been building up inside him suddenly got stuck. He was left feeling utterly choked, unable to swallow it or spit it out.
Give him to whom? And as a token of respect?
Nie Xu parked his car and finally walked over.
Seeing the scene before him, a flicker of understanding passed through his eyes.
Ji Yang turned around and gave him a faint, sarcastic smile.
“Who would’ve thought? Looks like Brother Xu must have received quite a few gifts like this in the past.”
Nie Xu looked at the man who had just spoken.
“Jin Husheng sent you?”
“Y-yes.” The man glanced up at him, then quickly lowered his head again.
Nie Xu said, “Go back and tell him that if his eyes are still this bad, I’ll personally come over and dig them out for him.”
The man shuddered.
Nie Xu frowned. “Why are you still standing there?”
The man immediately turned to leave.
“Take your man with you,” Nie Xu added.
The man hurriedly turned back to pick up Lin Yue.
He half-dragged, half-carried him away. In the hands of that hulking brute, the whimpering Lin Yue looked like a broken rag doll.
“Wait.”
Ji Yang called out and stopped him.
After a brief pause, he said, “Leave him here.”
The man glanced at Ji Yang, then at Nie Xu behind him. After thinking for two seconds, he dropped Lin Yue and ran off.
Ji Yang caught Lin Yue, who nearly stumbled, and reached up to peel the tape from the corner of his mouth.
Frowning, he said, “Do you really have to keep following that Jin guy? Does he have something on you? Or does he have your contract of indenture? Are you like me, missing a leg or something? Don’t you know how to run?”
Lin Yue sniffled.
“F-Fourth Young Master, thank you.”
“I never said I was helping you.”
Ji Yang turned around and began untying his restraints.
He had no idea how the ropes had been knotted, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t get them undone.
Ji Yang was even beginning to think that if he couldn’t untie them soon, someone might secretly film him and upload the video online, making it look like he was bullying someone in broad daylight.
Just then, someone stepped forward to help.
“It’s a hangman’s knot. The more you struggle, the tighter it gets.”
Ji Yang stepped aside. “Jin Husheng is sick in the head.”
Nie Xu untied the rope. The moment Lin Yue was free, he immediately retreated several steps.
Holding the rope in his hand, Nie Xu made a phone call.
“Shut down Jin Husheng’s two establishments on Pan Street.”
“Why?” the person on the other end asked.
Nie Xu replied, “Because he doesn’t understand human language.”
Ji Yang stood where he was without moving.
Suddenly, a trembling hand grabbed his arm.
“What are you doing?” Ji Yang asked.
Lin Yue looked as though he was about to cry.
“F-Fourth Young Master, I don’t want to follow him. Can you please not hand me over to someone else?”
Ji Yang pressed a hand to his forehead.
He pointed at himself, then at Lin Yue.
“One of us has a bad leg, and the other has a bruised and swollen face. Where exactly do you get the confidence to think I can protect you?”
Lin Yue said nothing. He simply kept trying to hide behind him.
Ji Yang looked at Nie Xu, who was walking over.
“What was that phone call about?”
Nie Xu’s gaze swept over Lin Yue before returning to Ji Yang’s face.
“Didn’t you say you weren’t a philanthropist?”
“I’m not.” Ji Yang smiled. “Didn’t he say he was giving this person to you?”
He was clearly softhearted but refused to admit it.
Nie Xu gave a quiet hum.
“Yet somehow, all your temper is directed at me.”
Lin Yue seemed to realize something.
He quietly let go of Ji Yang.
Ji Yang asked, “You’re not sticking with me anymore?”
Lin Yue’s face turned deathly pale.
He didn’t dare.