CH 24

Shen Yuzhi and the others’ gazes landed on their intertwined hands. They looked at each other and could see the doubts in each other’s eyes. 

The way they are holding their hands… So it was not his lover who came, but our sister-in-law?

Jiang Li was not scared when he saw their questioning look. He greeted generously, “Hi, I’m Jiang Li.” 

If it was someone normal who greeted them, Shen Yuzhi and the others would most probably glance at them or answer half-heartedly. 

However, Jiang Li was different, he was brought here by Jiang Zhan. Moreover, he appeared in the room in an indescribable way. The way both of them entered the room made Shen Yuzhi think that Jiang Zhan was bringing his partner to meet his brothers. 

After seeing what had happened, the three of them were polite to Jiang Li and greeted him back. 

“Shen Yuzhi.” 

“Zhao Guanyu.” 

“Sun Zelin.” 

After hearing their names, Jiang Li froze, his sight hovered between them, and he said with a subtle tone, “… So it was you guys?” 

“Hm mh.” Shen Yuzhi smiled, “Be there or be square!” 

“You guys know each other?” Jiang Zhan asked. 

“It’s not that we know each other.” Jiang Li gave a faint smile and looked at Shen Yuzhi and the others, “Thanks to these three masters, I got pushed up the hot search.” 

Jiang Zhan did not know about Shen Yuzhi and the others sharing Jiang Li’s Weibo, he looked at them after he heard what Jiang Li said, “What happened?” 

“Nothing nothing.” Zhao Guanyu waved his hands and told him about how they shared Jiang Li’s weibo and pushed him up the hot search, “We just supported Jiang Li on Weibo to make him more popular, since he’s your ‘that’ right, we should support as well.” 

“That?” Jiang Li did not understand what he was talking about, he then looked towards Jiang Zhan, “What’s that?” 

“Nothing?” Jiang Zhan pretended to push him lightly and brought him to sit on the sofa. 

Shen Yuzhi and the others saw what happened, they looked at each other again — there’s something wrong. 

The reason why they had the gathering was because they wanted to call Jiang Zhan out, so Shen Yuzhi and the others did not ask someone to accompany them, they only called two waitresses in to be in charge of the wine and karaoke. 

When everyone sat down, Sun Zelin asked Jiang Zhan why he was so late. They were about to become dried salted fish. He then asked him to punish himself by drinking three glasses of wine; he had even prepared them for him. 

The reason why Jiang Zhan was late was because of Jiang Li’s delayed shoot; he could not let Jiang Zhan take the blame. So he took the glass of wine from the table and said to them, “President Jiang was late because he was waiting for me, I’ll take the blame, so I should drink this glass of wine, I’ll make a toast to you guys.” 

“Straight-forward!” Zhao Guanyu clapped his hands, he took his own wine glass, “I’ll drink with you.” 

Jiang Li touched his glass with his own and lifted up his head, wanting to drink the wine, but before the glass touched his lips, Jiang Zhan who was beside suddenly took the glass from his hand, drank it in one gulp, and placed the glass back on the table. 

His actions were really fast. After finishing the first glass, he acted like nothing happened and went to take the second glass, when Jiang Li realized what had happened, he had already taken the third glass, he then quickly halted his hand, “Leave this to me.” 

Jiang Zhan looked at him, his hand that was holding the wine did not move, Jiang Li added, “Give it to me, I’m thirsty.” 

Shen Yuzhi, “…” I might as well leave the whole room for you guys, it’s blinding me.

The last glass was drunk by Jiang Li. 

After the three glasses were drank, Sun Zelin changed them into a large glass, he poured another full glass of wine and placed it in front of Jiang Zhan, he then said in a hoarse tone, “Helping to drink is considered cheating, it’s just drinking wine, don’t make it look like I’m forcing you to drink poison.”

“Yeah, this is a proper place, we don’t add anything filthy into your drink.” Shen Yuzhi also agreed. 

Jiang Li laughed, he did not stop Jiang Zhan anymore, since they were coming out to play, enjoying it is key. 

Sun Zelin only let him go after Jiang Zhan finished drinking the large glass of wine. But he also did not forget to complain about Jiang Zhan for directly returning home after work as if he was cultivating himself and ditching their gatherings recently. They would even need to go to his company to book an appointment to meet him. 

“I’m a bit busy these days.” Jiang Zhan said, “There are some procedures needed to be done for the newly bade land, we’ll be able to start the construction as soon as the end of this year if the procedures are done early.” 

Shen Yuzhi and the others knew that the Jiang Group entered the property field; they had even discussed it with Jiang Zhan before. When Jiang Zhan successfully bade the land, a new announcement was made as well. However, no matter how busy he was, he must have time during the night. Everyone knew at heart that he was spending the daytime in company, while the nighttime in another place. 

“You’re even busy at night?” Zhao Guanyu stretched the ending of his word meaningfully as he looked at Jiang Li with an ambiguous look, everyone knew clearly what he was indicating. 

Jiang Zhan glanced at him, he pushed him to the side and said indifferently, “Someone so free like you won’t understand.” 

“What, who doesn’t understand? I’m also very busy at night, okay?!” Zhao Guanyu laughed as he scolded and stopped joking with him and Jiang Li. 

They have been friends with Jiang Zhan for so many years and understood each other quite well. From the action of Jiang Zhan snatching those glasses of wine, they could see that Jiang Li must be someone important in his heart. Although they did not know how important he was, Jiang Zhan is someone who’s protective, he would not want other people to ridicule his own person. 

Jiang Li was eating beside. He, of course, did not understand what Zhao Guanyu meant. He was busy shooting in the afternoon and simply ate fast food for dinner, so Jiang Zhan specially called someone to prepare food for him. 

Shen Yuzhi saw him busy eating and signaled towards a waitress beside, he then asked her to bring a few desserts to the table. 

When Jiang Li finished eating, Shen Yuzhi threw a microphone towards him and said, “If Jiang Li is done with eating, go and sing some songs. We had already sung till our throats got dry earlier, just in time to listen to some songs.” 

“Sure.” Jiang Li was not embarrassed as well, he tilted his head and asked Jiang Zhan, “Do you wanna sing?” 

Jiang Zhan’s action of drinking the wine stopped suddenly, “No need.” 

“Don’t let him sing!” Sun Zelin said, “Ah Zhan’s is always out of tune, let alone you, even the god of singing’s tune will be brought out of the earth by him, it’s so terrible.” 

“…” Jiang Zhan got criticized in front of Jiang Li; he took a clean, warm towel that was placed beside and threw it to his face, “Shut up.” 

“Hah?” Jiang Li looked at Jiang Zhan with curiosity, “Is it really that terrible? I haven’t heard your singing before, so try?” 

“No.” 

“Sing a song please?” 

“…” 

Jiang Zhan pushed away the microphone Jiang Li gave him and said with annoyance, “I said I don’t wanna sing, why are you so annoying?” 

The light in the private room was dim, but because both of them were really close to each other, Jiang Li still saw Jiang Zhan’s uneasy expression, showing that he was repulsive towards singing, he then stopped joking with him. He went nearer and whispered by his ear, “When we both get home, we’ll sing ourselves, we’ll not let them listen, is that alright?” 

It sounded like he was coaxing him, Jiang Zhan’s ear became itchy due to the warm breath released when Jiang Li was speaking, he felt better and did not agree or reject him. 

Sun Zeling saw both of them dilly-dallying and not singing, he went to pick a song called ‘Tibetan Plateau’, took the microphone up and started singing. 

Shen Yuzhi saw what happened and shouted towards Jiang Li who was the nearest to Sun Zelin, “Don’t let him sing, Jiang Li, stop him…” 

“Who was the one, who called me from afar——-” 

Before Shen Yuzhi finished talking, Sun Zelin’s vast Mongolian-like voice covered his words. 

It was a limitless, vast voice, it sounded firm and high, once he started singing, he pulled his tone to the highest. Jiang Li who was the nearest, bore the largest effect, the voice that sounded like a murdered pig was forced into his ears, making his eardrums vibrate vigorously. 

A voice like that, how daring of him to complain about Jiang Zhan going out of tune.

Just when Jiang Li was still stunned, Jiang Zhan covered his ears and pressed his head against his chest, he raised up his long legs and kicked Sun Zelin’s butt lightly. 

“What if there is a song without words, or an… aiya.” 

Sun Zelin staggered due to the kick; he then stopped singing. Shen Yuzhi took the opportunity to skip that song. 

Sun Zelin, “…” 

Sun Zelin threw the microphone aside and pounced towards Shen Yuzhi, pressing him onto the sofa and beating the hell out of him, Zhao Guanyu who was beside clapped his hands and mocked them. 

Jiang Li looked at them and felt funny. He decided to pick some songs to sing, but before he got to do so, his phone rang. He lowered his head and saw Mother Jiang’s incoming call. 

It was almost midnight, it was rare for Mother Jiang to call him at this late hour as she was afraid that she would disturb him from resting, something must have happened that caused her to make the call. 

Jiang Li picked up his phone and told Jiang Zhan that he would be going out to accept the call. 

Jiang Zhan was just sitting beside him, he also saw the incoming call when the phone rang, so he nodded. 

Jiang Li left the room and found a quiet corner at the junction to accept the call. 

“Mum.” 

Mother Jiang’s voice echoed from the other side of the phone, she sounded worried and anxious, “Is this Xiao Li? Where are you?” 

“I’m outside with my friends.” Jiang Li could hear that something was wrong from her voice, “Why are you not asleep yet? Did something happen?” 

“Nothing, I had a dream and something happened to you, so I’m worried.” Mother Jiang laughed, it sounded like she was relieved, “It’s good that you’re fine.” 

Jiang Li heard her voice filled with fatigue. When he thought of her waking up from a nightmare and calling her own son to confirm if he was still safe, he felt uncomfortable in his heart, he did not dare to tell her that her son was no longer in this world. 

“I’m fine, don’t worry, mum.” Jiang Li comforted her, “I’ll go visit you after a few days, rest early.” 

“Okay, okay.” Mother Jiang answered consecutively and urged him to go back home early. 

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Li took a deep breath and suppressed the bitter emotions in his heart. When he was about to return to the room and just took two steps, someone pulled him from behind. After regaining his balance, he found out that it was Zhang Ziyang. 

“What are you doing?” Jiang Li frowned and swatted away the hand that was grasping his wrist. 

“Xiao Li.” Zhang Ziyang called his name, the evil tendencies that could be seen last time had vanished, instead, he looked like he wanted to please someone this time, “I heard you talking to Auntie Jiang on the phone earlier, you’re going back to visit her right? I’ll go back with you?” 

Jiang Li did not know why he suddenly had this change of attitude despite looking like he was going to murder him yesterday. But he did not care much. He took two steps back and avoided his hand that was stretching out towards him, “No need for that.” 

He wanted to leave after finishing his words, but Zhang Ziyang pulled him again. 

Zhang Ziyang grasped his hand tightly, “Ah Li, I know it was my fault last time, I should not have threatened you. What about this, I’ll delete the chat record and pretend that nothing had happened before, okay?” 

“What kind of tricks are you playing now?” Jiang Li gave him a weird look and asked. He did not want to get involved with this person any longer, he thought of Jiang Zhan who was still waiting for him in the room, he then swayed away his hand and left. 

Zhang Ziyang was unwilling to give up and halted him, he wanted to push him back into the corner as he said, “I know it’s my fault at first, but our relationship for so many years is not fake, didn’t you say you like me? So what about asking President Jiang to give me a spot in the Jiang Group1?” 

President Jiang? Jiang Zhan? 

Jiang Li suddenly understood the sudden change of his attitude, he probably acted this way as he saw Jiang Zhan was with him earlier, since people who are in the entertainment industry knew how much power Jiang Zhan has. 

Zhang Ziyang saw that he did not say anything and thought that his heart softened, he took the chance and pulled his hand, “Xiao Li, I know that it was my fault for asking you to accompany Vice-director Jiang, but I was doing it for our future, didn’t we agree that we’ll go back to our hometown to live together in the future? You… “

“What did you say?” 

A cold, stern voice interrupted his words. Both of them turned around and saw Jiang Zhan standing at the back, he had obviously heard their conversation. 

He glared at Zhang Ziyang with a stormy expression and said one word after another, “The words you said earlier, say it again.” 

When Jiang Li saw his expression, his heart sank. 

Oh shit, President Jiang is angry again.

—

[T/N: If you guys are interested in listening ‘Tibetan Plateau’ here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHX62AgJULM]

He wants to sign a contract under Jiang Group.