At the same time, in the top-floor office of Jianyuan, Qi Songqing—the man who served as the public face of decision-making—was holding an emergency video conference with someone on his computer.

The spare phone sitting beside him had originally been lying there in silence. But after a burst of static, a familiar voice suddenly came through.

Just a few brief lines of dialogue were enough to leave everyone in the office stunned.

Qi Songqing ended the meeting decisively after exchanging a couple of words. He leaned back in his chair and sat there in a daze for a moment before suddenly bursting into a snickering laugh. Even after he had finished laughing, he couldn’t resist making a comment.

“Who would’ve thought the young master was so damn horny?”

Jiang Lei finally came to his senses. He stepped forward and picked up the phone.

“The listening device is made of pretty ordinary materials. Han Biao had someone plant it casually last time. I figured it wouldn’t still be working after all these days, especially since it rained in between.” Jiang Lei quickly turned the volume down. “I was just testing it. I didn’t expect it to still work, let alone come through so clearly.”

Qi Songqing teased him, “Are you so broke now that you’ve resorted to using shoddy equipment?”

“Is that the point?” Jiang Lei shot him a look.

Almost simultaneously, the two of them turned toward the window.

The man who should have been in Huizhou was currently leaning against it. He met their gazes.

“Are you two very free?”

“Not at all.” Jiang Lei immediately denied it. “Busy. Extremely busy.”

Qi Songqing crossed one leg over the other and tilted his head toward Jiang Lei, deliberately provoking him.

“Do you think that little young master can handle this kind of punishment?”

Jiang Lei hesitated. “…He sounds like he’s holding up mentally, at least? The Ji family has only been respectable for ten or twenty years at most. They’ve never learned the refined methods scholars use to discipline their children. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have agreed to lock him in a warehouse.”

Jiang Lei turned back to Nie Xu.

“So when are you planning to return? Lu Li’s acting completely out of character. He clearly thinks he can get evidence of our involvement from Fourth Young Master, so he won’t let him go easily.”

Nie Xu turned away from the window.

“I’m not going back for now.”

He continued directly, “Lu Li left people behind in Huizhou. Ji Yansong still wants him to reveal where that batch of goods from back then went, so he’s hedging his bets on two fronts. Release the bait ahead of schedule. The Ji family has far too much free time on its hands.”

His refusal to return was straightforward, exactly as expected.

But the words far too much free time had been spoken so lightly that Jiang Lei almost thought he could hear a deeper meaning behind them.

Because the Ji family had too much free time, they had the energy to punish a young master in the middle of the night.

In a family like the Ji family, it was absurd—and yet, somehow, perfectly reasonable.

Jianyuan’s towering building stood on the eastern bank of Fanzhou.

Because the company publicly provided security services and had long held the reputation of being number one in the industry, its building formed a triangle with the Fanzhou People’s Court and the military garrison on the eastern bank. People online occasionally joked that residents living nearby felt especially safe. They could go for a walk at two in the morning without worrying about being robbed.

The truth was that what Jiang Lei had told Ji Yang earlier about cooperation between the government and private enterprises was not false.

If anything, he had only scratched the surface.

The countless intricate connections involved had not been built in a single day.

No one knew that the Ji family, which had controlled most of Fanzhou’s port business for years, had an estate that had remained under Jianyuan’s watchful eye for a full decade.

Jiang Lei walked over to stand beside Nie Xu, looking out with him.

From a distance, the estate resembled a beautiful, imposing fortress.

Filth, corruption, struggles over profit, and the transfer of power were all concealed beneath that exquisite glass dome.

Inside the warehouse, the atmosphere felt thick and sticky, like coagulated glue.

Ji Yang had no idea that there was a listening device here as well.

The wound on his temple wasn’t particularly deep, but it throbbed with a dull, pulsing pain.

There were no lights in the warehouse. Only occasional glimmers reflected off the blades of the exhaust fans high above, slicing the shadows into fragmented pieces.

Ji Yang removed his prosthetic leg and set it beside his feet. He pressed and massaged the area to help restore his circulation.

Lu Li had gone quiet. He had probably left.

Ji Yang could hear the croaking of frogs in June. He had thought he would be unable to sleep, but in reality, he soon fell asleep leaning against the chair.

His dreams were a complete mess. One moment, he was still doing a gaming livestream; the next, he dreamed of having a meal with his friends, eating hot pot outdoors in the middle of winter. They had been to that famous old hot pot restaurant in Jinzhou many times. His friend had constantly complained that the owner was a complete bastard, making them work overtime every day while paying them a pitiful salary.

Ji Yang subconsciously said, “The cost of living in Jinzhou isn’t high, and the pace of life is pretty reasonable. Besides, it was even renamed Huizhou.”

His thoughts suddenly shifted. Huizhou?

Right, hadn’t he gone to Huizhou on a business trip?

He had originally wanted to look around and see whether that hot pot restaurant actually existed. Then that sick, obsessive Lu Li had shown up.

What had he done after returning to the Ji family?

His nominal grandfather had given him an inkstone and then ordered someone to confine him.

Thinking of this, Ji Yang finally opened his eyes slowly.

The moment he opened them, he let out a huge sneeze. As he rubbed his neck, which crackled painfully with every movement, the curse on the tip of his tongue was abruptly swallowed by the pain.

He had slept wrong and gotten a stiff neck.

Truly, when it rains, it pours.

The sky outside had only just begun to brighten. It was still early, but people were already moving around.

They were probably from the servants’ quarters at the front. Their footsteps were hurried, and since there was hardly anyone around so early in the morning, they did not bother lowering their voices.

“Hurry up. Be careful today. Second Madam lost her temper first thing this morning.”

“Why? Did she lose at cards last night?”

“No. I heard it was because Third Young Master from the main branch showed up in the old master’s study. Everyone knows that, in the past, only the eldest young master was allowed into that study. Second Madam already dislikes Third Young Master and his mother. Of course she’d be upset when she heard about this.”

“I don’t think that’s the reason. Haven’t you been watching the news these past two days? Fourth Young Master got himself into trouble.”

“I saw it. I even secretly followed his account. I haven’t told anyone else about that.”

…

Just then, a man outside began shouting at them impatiently, ordering them to leave quickly and warning them not to wander around the warehouse for no reason.

Ji Yang rubbed his neck, got up, and walked to the door.

Only then did he realize that although Lu Li wasn’t here himself, he had specifically arranged for people to keep watch over him.

Ji Yang asked them a few questions, but not one of them bothered to answer.

His food consisted of a bottle of water and three pieces of bread. That was his allowance for the entire day. If he needed to use the toilet, there was one behind the warehouse.

It seemed this punishment would continue until he finally lowered his head and admitted defeat.

Ji Mingyue came by once during this time, and Aunt Mo came too.

Ji Yang could hear their voices from a distance, but both had been turned away with the same excuse: it was the old master’s order. He didn’t need to guess to know that by now, the entire Ji family probably knew he was being punished.

Ji Yang ate when he was hungry and drank when he was thirsty.

He just felt as though he was running a slight fever.

He kept sneezing one time after another, purely because he had been freezing the previous night.

From morning to dusk, from the dead of night until the first light of dawn, the people guarding him changed shifts several times. Ji Yang made no particular effort to keep track of how much time had passed.

Little White would occasionally squeeze through a hole in the corner of the wall to beg for the bread in his hand. Ji Yang was afraid of upsetting its stomach, so he only dared to feed it a little.

At night, he simply held the cat and slept. It wasn’t nearly as cold as it had been on the first night.

However, the number of people guarding him had increased from one to three.

The tension in the air grew tighter by the day.

After two days and nights, the guards saw that he neither lost his temper nor resisted, and they began to let their guard down. From the bits of information they occasionally revealed during shift changes, Ji Yang finally learned that the Ji family had been too busy dealing with its own troubles to worry about him ever since the very first day he had arrived.

The moment the Ji Corporation came under suspicion of having improper dealings with the Fu family, it was dragged into another scandal involving financial irregularities in the Lan Hai Bay project.

One stone had stirred up a thousand waves.

The municipal finance department launched an urgent investigation.

One senior executive after another from the Ji Corporation was taken away for questioning. Among them was Ji Zhonglin, who hadn’t slept for several days.

Apparently, Second Madam had completely lost her composure and run straight back to her maiden home to cry and complain. The old master flew into a rage over her behavior, probably thinking she was embarrassing the family and lacked the composure to handle a crisis.

The stock market was in turmoil, and investors were protesting and demanding answers.

The Ji family had fallen into unprecedented chaos.

The old master had no choice but to come out of retirement and personally take charge at Haicheng.

Nie Xu was urgently summoned back to assist Ji Chengyi in holding an emergency press conference.

Ji Yang learned about this because the people outside played the press conference video aloud on a speaker.

Ji Chengyi’s voice came through, each word clearly audible.

“The Ji family will not shirk its responsibilities.”

“When we decided to begin with traditional industries, we understood very well…”

Ji Yang fed Little White some bread crumbs as he listened to the people outside discussing the situation.

One of them said, “Nie Xu had only just returned from Huizhou when he took over all the group’s security operations. And this afternoon, those people nearly knocked Third Young Master down the steps at the group’s entrance. It was Nie Xu who showed up and brought the situation under control. Lu-ge clearly cares about him, so why is he making us stay here and stand guard?”

Another person replied, “We’d better not ask too many questions. Those are matters for the higher-ups. But surely nothing will happen to Eldest Young Master, right?”

“No. The company has triggered a delisting warning, and the final outcome depends on the investigation. Besides, even a starving camel is bigger than a horse. Even if the company is delisted, that doesn’t mean it’ll go bankrupt. After suffering such a heavy blow, Third Young Master has probably secured an even stronger position in the family thanks to what he accomplished today.”

Ji Yang thought to himself: His position has indeed improved, but that’s only useful if the Ji family can recover its former glory.

Clearly, it wouldn’t be able to.

The Ji family’s downfall was inevitable. In the original novel, “Ji Yang” had never returned to the new media department, much less gone on a business trip, so he had never been locked up.

This was his own path, and the Ji family had its own path to follow.

Just as Nie Xu would be summoned back and cross paths with Ji Chengyi, that was their path, too.

Ji Yang scratched Little White under the chin. “Little White, you’re about to get a stepmother. Why don’t you come with me? When the day comes that I leave the Ji family, I’ll buy you biscuits. Lots of them.”

Meanwhile, in the conference room on the top floor of Haicheng’s headquarters, several elderly shareholders who had been on the verge of exploding were being forcibly subdued.

Nie Xu, who had only just “returned” to Fanzhou, exerted a little more force with his hand, causing the veins in the neck of a white-haired old man to bulge.

Ji Yansong concealed the trace of silent satisfaction in his eyes and waved a hand with an apparently genial expression.

“A-Xu, don’t hurt anyone.”

He then turned to the other elderly men present.

“You are all veterans of Haicheng. You’ve spent decades weathering the ups and downs of the business world. It makes no sense that, at a time like this…”

Ji Yansong’s steady voice flowed into the ears of everyone present, leaving the shareholders with a variety of expressions.

Nie Xu released his grip. The white-haired old man immediately sprang to his feet and launched into a furious tirade.

“Ji Yansong! Look at the situation we’re in now! Cutting our losses in time is the best course of action, yet you’ve ordered the two dogs you’ve raised to use every filthy and despicable method imaginable! Are you trying to drag everyone down to their deaths with you?”

Ji Yansong didn’t bother responding. He simply said, “A-Xu, Uncle Sun is getting on in years. Take him outside so he can rest for a while. Also, tell Lu Li to take good care of Uncle Sun’s family. This is a civilized society. You can’t just bring the methods you use to discipline your subordinates into the company whenever you feel like it.”

“Understood.”

Nie Xu coldly grabbed the old man and dragged him out.

Everyone else remaining in the conference room looked apprehensive.

Nie Xu dragged the man into the stairwell.

With a bang, he shut the stairwell door.

Several people in the secretary’s office exchanged bewildered glances. One of them, who had dealt with Nie Xu before, stared in disbelief.

“Was that Assistant Nie just now?”

The person beside him tugged at his sleeve. “Stop talking nonsense. The new media department doesn’t even exist anymore. What assistant?”

“Fourth Young Master’s personal assistant…”

Then he thought about it. Ever since Fourth Young Master had caused trouble in Huizhou, he hadn’t shown his face at all.

Now, the group’s senior director was calling the shots.

Assistant Nie’s attitude toward the senior shareholder must naturally have been authorized by the senior director as well.

In reality, however, the stairwell was quiet at that moment.

Nie Xu tugged at the old man’s collar and said in a low voice, “Uncle Sun, I’m sorry for being rough with you just now.”

“Why are you saying that?” The old man sighed. “I’m only doing this to keep my conscience clear. A lot of people are dumping their shares on the market right now. If it’s inconvenient for you to step forward personally…”

“Please don’t worry about these matters,” Nie Xu said. “You don’t need to worry about your family, either. They’ll be fine.”

Old Man Sun immediately burst into tears.

“Nearly twenty years… It’s been nearly twenty years. I… I…”

Nie Xu held the old man’s shoulders, offering silent comfort.

Only after the old man had calmed down a little did he continue.

“That Lu Li. We have to find a way to draw him away. We can’t let him set his sights on those scattered shares at a time like this.”

Nie Xu replied, “Don’t worry. He won’t have the time.”

The reason Lu Li wouldn’t have the time was the trouble Ji Yang was causing.

That very evening, after the press conference, two groups confronted each other.

One side was led by Han Biao. On the other side was Fang Qi, the man Ji Yang had encountered with Nie Xu at the entrance to the manor on the day Ji Yang went to the police station.

Han Biao’s reasoning was simple and blunt.

“Our boss is Fourth Young Master’s personal bodyguard. You’ve been keeping him locked up for several days now. What exactly is the meaning of this?”

Fang Qi’s attitude was equally firm.

“Releasing him is out of the question unless we receive the old master’s instructions.”

Han Biao said, “The old master has already agreed.”

Fang Qi replied, “I haven’t received any such notice, so no.”

The two sides had been at odds for quite some time already. This confrontation made it look as though they were about to come to blows.

Even Ji Yang could see it. On the surface, the two sides had longstanding grudges and were using this opportunity to teach the other side’s people a lesson.

But Ji Yang sensed something else beneath it all—that familiar feeling of someone pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

Ji Chengyi also appeared at just the right moment.

Even while crouching inside, Ji Yang could more or less imagine what he looked like.

He no longer had the radiant appearance he’d shown at the press conference. His suit was impeccable, and he looked handsome and refined, though the exhaustion from days of rushing around was beginning to show.

“What are you people making such a fuss about?” he asked.

Fang Qi, mindful of the other man’s status, explained, “The people from Building Four were the ones who refused to follow the rules first. Fourth Young Master was confined by the old master’s personal order. Before Lu-ge left, he specifically instructed us that unless he or the old master gave the word, nobody was to hand over the key, no matter who came asking.”