CH 45.1

“Why did the Shen family come over today?” Chen Qizhao stood by after taking the milk and asked the housekeeper in a slightly hesitant manner.

“Mr Shen called last night. The master originally wanted to go to the Shen house but Mr Shen decided to come over today instead,” The housekeeper explained. “The Shen family hasn’t celebrated the New Year in S City for many years and came over this year when they had time. In the past, Mr Shen often came to celebrate the New Year on the first day of the new year.”

The Shen family was based in S City. Due to Shen Xuelan’s resolute business style, they got into the Internet business early and divided up the market. Their business territory expanded to other cities and B City was one of them. Shen Yuhuai had been studying abroad for many years and there were few relatives in the Shen family. This meant they basically went to B City to celebrate the New Year. This year, Shen Yuhuai happened to be in S City so the Shen family celebrated the New Year here.

Chen Qizhao’s memories of his childhood were a bit vague. In his impression, Uncle Shen and his father were on good terms. Later, there was less communication and part of the reason was the Shen family itself.

Today, there were three people from the Shen family. In addition to Shen Yuhuai, the others were Uncle Shen and Shen Xuelan.

Chen Qizhao looked over the free spots on the sofa and finally chose to sit on the outer position next to Shen Yuhuai.

He sat down and greeted Shen Yuhuai. “Brother Huai.”

Shen Yuhuai’s eyes stayed on the other person’s slightly raised hair for a moment and he smiled slightly. “Did you just get up?”

“Yes.” Chen Qizhao took a sip of milk. “You didn’t tell me about this yesterday.”

“I only heard from my father this morning.”

Chen Qizhao was a bit restless. He glanced at what Shen Yuhuai was wearing today and finally stopped on Shen Yuhuai’s glasses.

Shen Yuhuai noticed Chen Qizhao’s gaze and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Chen Qizhao wondered, “Brother Huai, did you change your glasses today?”

“Yes.” Shen Yuhuai nodded. “There was something wrong with the previous frames so I sent it for repair.”

He wondered, “Is it strange?”

“No, it is quite suitable.” Shen Yuhuai’s eyes from last night appeared in Chen Qizhao’s mind. They seemed to be a bit brighter in reality and Shen Yuhuai’s eyes weren’t as dark.

Strange, why did he keep thinking about this?

Chen Qizhao diverted his attention and was quickly attracted by a female voice.

Sitting opposite him were Shen Xuelan and Chen Shiming. The two of them were talking and Chen Shiming’s often tense face had relaxed a lot. He didn’t have a stinky expression. Chen Qizhao’s eyes moved away from Chen Shiming’s face and finally stopped on Shen Xuelan.

He suddenly remembered the figure of Shen Xuelan standing in front of a tombstone in a black suit in his previous life. It was a cloudy day and there were many people who came to visit the scene, but Shen Xuelan stopped in front of the gravestone for a long time. It was only when most of the people were gone that she put down her bouquet and left.

In this life, he had only seen Shen Xuelan at a distance at the Lin family’s charity party. Yet in fact, Chen Qizhao and Shen Xuelan had quite a lot of exchanges. He had received help from the Shen family after the Chen family went bankrupt and he often met Shen Xuelan on various occasions. When Chen Qizhao re-entered the social circle of S City to support the Chen family, he faced ridicule and embarrassment from all directions and Shen Xuelan once helped him out.

Shen Xuelan liked to wear suits all year round. Chen Qizhao’s biggest impression of her was when she clinked glasses with others with a smile on her face at parties. She was strong and self-contained. Her eyes could always see through to the bottom of other people’s hearts at once. Even if the two of them didn’t communicate much, she rarely took the initiative to talk to him and helped him out a lot.

Chen Shiming was chatting with Shen Xuelan about the recently popular e-commerce sector. Then after a short chat, he noticed Chen Qizhao on the opposite side. He caught a glimpse of the milk on the table and looked at Chen Qizhao in surprise.

“Chen Qizhao, haven’t you eaten breakfast yet?” Chen Shiming suddenly spoke.

Then he paid attention to the other person. He saw Chen Qizhao frown and thought the other person was going to start an argument again.

Chen Qizhao stopped his words. “…I just woke up and I’m not hungry. I’ll eat later.”

“I heard Xuelan say that Feihong’s project is really good.” Father Shen looked at Chen Qizhao. “I heard that Xiao Zhao has made great achievements in this project.”

The Chen family members had different expressions after hearing Father Shen mention the Feihong project. The Feihong Glory project was indeed doing well but Chen Qizhao didn’t like to mention it very much. Every time this project was mentioned, Chen Qizhao always had to say a few more words.

Chen Qizhao replied, “It’s okay.”

Chen Jianhong glanced sideways and saw Chen Qizhao sitting obediently in place. “This kid is playful but he was attentive to this project. He handed in a good answer sheet.”

Chen Qizhao said, “Yes.”

Chen Jianhong: “……”

Why did this kid talk so little today?

Chen Qizhao this morning was much quieter compared to his eloquence when the guests came last night. Even if Father Shen mentioned Feihong, he simply answered with a few sentences and didn’t say any strangely sarcastic sentences. He behaved very abnormally.

It was abnormal like he hadn’t woken up. After the three members of the Shen family left, Chen Shiming saw Chen Qizhao take the half-unfinished bottle of milk and prepared to leave. Chen Shiming couldn’t help frowning. “You haven’t woken up today?”

Chen Qizhao turned around. “Oh, I’m more awake than you.”

Chen Shiming saw Chen Qizhao walking toward the stairs. “…Where are you going? The porridge is in the kitchen.”

Chen Qizhao didn’t look back. “I won’t eat. I’ll wait a while and have lunch later.”

Chen Shiming: “……”

He ignored Chen Qizhao and turned to Chen Jianhong. “There might be other things to do in the new year. You said that you wanted to go to Uncle Lin’s house. When do you plan to go?”

Chen Jianhong replied, “Then let’s go in the afternoon. I really have to go over and take a look.”

Chen Shiming nodded. There were still some doubts about Feihong’s matter. Why did the relationship between the Lin family and Yicheng suddenly go bad? The rumored news on the outside was due to a project conflict but the timing was too coincidental… in addition, there was the drug problem at last year’s charity party and it was really difficult not to have doubts.

Did Uncle Lin really have nothing to do with this?

He was deep in thought and had just walked out when he saw Chen Qizhao standing on the stairs and looking at him.

Chen Shiming paused. “…Didn’t you go upstairs?”

“Are you going to give New Year’s greetings to Uncle Lin?” Chen Qizhao had a smile on his face. “Brother, I want to go as well. Take me with you.”

In the car while driving, Father Shen gave rare praise. “Today, the Chen family’s youngest son seems to be different from the rumors outside. Isn’t he a good child? It seems that it is good for Old Chen to let the child go to the company to gain experience.”

Shen Yuhuai responded briefly, “Yes.”

“Little brother, why do I feel like you’ve been paying a lot of attention to that kid from the Chen family recently?” Shen Xuelan looked at Shen Yuhuai. “Your relationship isn’t bad?”

“Isn’t this normal? Our two families have a good relationship. In addition, didn’t Yuhuai have a good relationship with Xiao Zhao when they were children?”

Father Shen added, “Xiao Zhao has been very good recently. Old Chen should be happy.”

Shen Xuelan recalled the quiet Chen Qizhao in the living room. This was indeed a bit unexpected. She knew a bit more than Father Shen and also heard about the Feihong matter that had made a lot of noise. She heard about Chen Qizhao choosing Nie Chenxiao on a while and that he argued with Chen Shiming about marketing. “Maybe he is just restrained today. Chen Shiming just told me that Feihong might want a smart system and wants to discuss cooperation with me.”

Shen Yuhuai looked at her when he heard this. “Cooperation?”

“It is Chen Qizhao’s previous Glory project. After all, the Chen family didn’t start with the Internet and hasn’t focused on intelligence. Many of their technologies aren’t mature in this area.”

On the contrary, the Shen family occupied most of the Internet market. The company’s development focused on technological intelligence and the core technology had made breakthroughs in the past two years. It could be called thriving. For the Chen family, which had shortcomings in this regard, the Shen family could make up for this deficiency. They really needed external support if they wanted to build a smart home system.

Shen Xuelan was a bit moved. This was a win-win cooperation after all. “The only thing I’m not sure about is the cooperation partner. Uncle Chen seems to be planning to hand over Feihong to Chen Qizhao to practice. I wouldn’t hesitate if it was cooperating with Chen Shiming but…” She spoke while paying attention to Shen Yuhuai’s reaction next to her and noticed his subtle behavior when she mentioned Chen Qizhao.

She suddenly changed her words. “However, I still need to look into this matter. Let’s talk about it later.”

—

How could he miss giving Lin Shizong a New Year’s greeting?

Chen Qizhao also followed when Chen Jianhong and Chen Shiming went out.

The Lin house wasn’t far from the Chen house. It was only a half an hour drive. This was the first time Chen Qizhao had come to Lin Shizong’s territory in this life. He looked at the familiar scenery and involuntarily thought about the things from his previous life. He had come to this place many times to beg Lin Shizong.

Soon, under the guidance of a servant, the three members of the Chen family entered the living room and saw Lin Shizong sitting on the sofa. Chen Qizhao’s eyes focused on the table for a moment and noticed the cigarette butts in the ashtray. Then he looked at the cigar box next to Lin Shizong…

Lin Shizong had a guest before them?

“You all came?” Lin Shizong smiled. “Sit down quickly. Xiao Zhao is also here?”

Compared with his appearance at the charity party, Lin Shizong seemed older now. It seemed that he was having a ‘good time’ this year.

Chen Qizhao’s mood was a bit happier and he said, “Uncle Lin, Happy New Year. You should pay more attention to your body in the new year.”

Lin Shizong’s expression became a bit unnatural but he soon restored his kind and friendly face. “Happy New Year. You are becoming older and should help your family more.”

Chen Jianhong glanced at Chen Qizhao and explained, “It just so happened that he was home so I brought him with me. Sister-in-law isn’t here today?”

“She went with Xiao Xu to her parent’s house,” Lin Shizong explained. “I don’t plan to go there. I heard you were coming over and waited at home. This year is too busy and I couldn’t come to your place to chat.”

Lin Shizong added, “Shiming did a good job this time. You should help your father more. The group now needs your young blood to support it.”

Chen Shiming nodded slightly. “I will.”

Chen Jianhong chatted with Lin Shizong and inevitably talked about the matter with the Lin Group and Yicheng. Lin Shizong picked himself clean with a few words. “It is true that my subordinates did something wrong. Some times weren’t handled well and touched the market on Yicheng’s side. Add the contradictions that have accumulated from before and Yicheng started targeting us.”

“If you need help…” Chen Jianhong said.

Lin Shizong smiled. “I will naturally look for you, rest assured. I heard that Shiming has recently found a lot of problems in the group?”

“They are all commercial spies eating us from inside and out.” Chen Qizhao looked at Lin Shizong and continued, “Uncle Lin, you might not know that Chen Shiming pulled out two people from my father’s assistant group some time ago. One of them was called Yu Jie and he was with me for a while.”

Lin Shizong’s voice sank. “Is that so?”

“Yes.” Chen Qizhao sighed while staring straight at Lin Shizong. “Uncle Lin, my father wasn’t bad to you. Say, don’t you think is pretending to be human? Who would’ve thought that his heart would be so dark?”

“It is all about interests in business.” Lin Shizong glanced at Chen Qizhao before turning to Chen Jianhong. “You have exposed many problems and you should be careful about things over there. In particular, the people on the board. They might target Shiming. You need to pay more attention to this.”

“Yes.” Chen Jianhong added, “Shiming, did you hear what your Uncle Lin said?”

Chen Shiming was just watching. He couldn’t help looking sideways when he heard Chen Qizhao’s words. Then he heard Chen Jianhong’s question and replied, “Yes, I know about this matter well. I will pay attention to the board of directors.”