CH 5

Shen Group Headquarters Building

In the conference room, Shen Ji was solemnly listening to the report on his subsidiary. The annual report of the previous year had come out and the figures were not as good as expected. Everyone in the company knew that this subsidiary was taken over by Shen Ji last year and he had put a lot of effort into it during the year. But no one expected that after a year of hard work, not only did it fail to meet the set goals, but compared to the previous year, the growth rate was lower by a few percentage points. No wonder that Shen Ji’s face was as cold as icy water at this time, and everyone in the conference room was trembling under Shen Ji’s powerful aura, barely daring to breathe.

While the business manager carefully analysed the reasons for last year’s poor performance, the heavy conference room door was quietly pushed open. Lily, Shen Ji’s secretary, walked up to Shen Ji with an apologetic gesture to everyone and whispered in a low voice, “Dashao (eldest young master), Xuan Shao has come to see you and is waiting for you in the office.”

When Shen Ji heard the words “Xuan Shao”, his sullen face finally relaxed.

As Shen Ji’s expression eased, everyone in the conference room could not help but quietly let out a sigh of relief. Shen Ji coldly swept his gaze over the crowd, making sure to attract everyone’s attention, and said in a deep voice, “I want to see the new year’s rectification plan from all of you before tomorrow morning.”

After saying that, Shen Ji didn’t look at the sad expressions of the people in the conference room and walked towards his office briskly. His aura was overwhelming, and all the employees he passed by bowed their heads, working seriously, none of them daring to sit back.

Li Mingxuan saw Shen Ji’s extremely serious face and immediately raised his eyebrows, “What, work is not going well?”

Shen Ji nodded and explained while taking off his jacket, “One of the subsidiaries did not do well in sales last year.”

Li Mingxuan didn’t care much, “The economic situation was bad last year, everyone is in the same boat.”

Shen Ji glanced at Li Mingxuan, “Is that comforting? I’ve heard that Uncle made a huge profit last year.” Without waiting for Li Mingxuan to say anything, Shen Ji threw his jacket aside and sat down on the sofa, watching the very leisurely Li Mingxuan, “How come you have time to visit? Aren’t you preparing to accept the business in Uncle’s hands?” (Uncle here is the husband of father’s sister)

Hearing the concern in Shen Ji’s words, Li Mingxuan casually pulled a chair and sat down opposite Shen Ji, “I’m fine, I had a rare day off and came to see you, but I saw a very interesting scene downstairs.”

Shen Ji’s interest piqued, “What could be interesting to you?”

Li Mingxuan gave Shen Ji a meaningful glance, “Does Shen Xi and Wang Changlin walking together count?”

“Wang Changlin?” Shen Ji was taken aback, then thought of something, “Shen Xi is already eighteen years old.”

“?” Li Mingxuan looked puzzled.

Shen Ji relaxed and leaned back on the sofa, “Wang Changlin was Elder Han’s personal lawyer back then, so I think Elder Han must have left something for Shen Xi before he passed away.”

Li Mingxuan was quite surprised, “You don’t seem worried?”

Shen Ji said frankly, “Shen Xi has already been raised to be a waste, so what do I have to worry about? What’s more, it’s not like you don’t know the deal between Elder Han and the Shen family back then. What could he leave for Shen Xi apart from some mementoes? As for Wang Changlin, his professional ethics are very good, and since he has father’s trust, I’m sure he knows what he can and cannot do.”

Li Mingxuan nodded indifferently, “It’s good that you have a clear picture in mind. I won’t interfere in the Shen family’s affairs, but you know my mother is getting softer as she gets older. The other day she also mentioned that Shen Xi is still Uncle’s son, so I don’t want Uncle and him to get into too much trouble. You know, the family scandals of father and son falling out, brothers fighting over property and whatnot are the favourite stories of those reporters.”

Shen Ji chuckled, “Don’t worry, the Shen family will definitely not be on the front page like this. Shen Xi is going abroad soon, and when he returns in a few years, it will be time for father to retire. As long as Shen Xi is obedient, I don’t mind keeping an extra brother.”

The word “abroad” caught Li Mingxuan’s attention. Looking at Shen Ji’s indifferent expression, he pointed out, “There is a word in this world called accident, and some people are better not to be kept under the radar.”

The word “accident” stirred Shen Ji’s sensitive nerves. His brow wrinkled invisibly, but he quickly let it go, “With my father pressing him down, Shen Xi can’t make any waves. Instead of having them face each other in front of our eyes, it’s better to keep them apart.”

When Li Mingxuan heard Shen Ji say this, he no longer mentioned Shen Xi and changed the subject, “I haven’t been to Shutu for a long time, how about going for a drink together tonight?”

Shen Ji laughed, “If you’re going to go to Shutu, don’t wait until the evening, let’s go now. By the way, I haven’t eaten yet.”

It was only half an hour’s drive from Shen Group to Shutu, and soon Shen Ji and Li Mingxuan were already at the entrance of Shutu.

Unlike the nighttime Shutou, the daytime Shutou was much cleaner.

Shen Ji was saying something to Li Mingxuan, but when he saw an approaching man with his peripheral vision, his face darkened.

Li Mingxuan quickly noticed Shen Ji’s strangeness, followed his gaze and met Shen Cheng’s ingratiating smile. Li Mingxuan glanced at Shen Cheng’s obedient face with a smile, shrugged helplessly and quickly moved his gaze to the man next to Shen Cheng, showing a hint of surprise in his eyes.

Next to Shen Cheng was a young man about seventeen or eighteen years old, with a delicate and very eye-catching appearance. At a rough glance, the young man looked quite similar to Shen Ji and Shen Cheng, but on closer inspection, one could see the shadow of another person in the young man’s looks. Li Mingxuan glanced sideways at Shen Ji and understood the knot in his heart.

The young man seemed to be very surprised to meet Shen Ji, looking with a mixture of astonishment and yearning on his face. But as Shen Ji’s expression became gloomy, the surprise disappeared from the young man’s face and was replaced with a look of apprehension. After reluctantly glancing at Shen Ji a few times, the young man lowered his head and walked after Shen Cheng.

Li Mingxuan watched the teenager’s movements thoughtfully, the corners of his mouth slowly curling up with a trace of ridicule.

In the blink of an eye, Shen Cheng had already walked to the two of them and smiled flatteringly, “Big brother, cousin.” 

Li Mingxuan smiled and nodded in greeting, but Shen Ji glanced behind Shen Cheng’s back in disgust and said to Shen Cheng coldly, “Go home immediately.”

Shen Cheng’s smile froze on his face, but he did not dare to retort, nodded obediently and hurriedly left. Behind Shen Cheng, the teenager peeked at Shen Ji. When he met Shen Ji’s disgusted eyes, grievances flashed on the young man’s face. He lowered his head and walked away quickly with Shen Cheng.

Li Mingxuan curiously watched the series of changes in the teenager’s expression, and when the young man was far away, he bumped Shen Ji beside him, pointing in the teenager’s direction, “Shen Rong?”

Shen Ji nodded with unconcealed disgust.

Li Mingxuan was puzzled, “When did he get friendly with Xiao Cheng?”

Shen Ji snorted coldly, “Just last year, you were abroad at the time. I don’t know how he found Shen Cheng. Shen Cheng is also a fool to let him follow around.”

Li Mingxuan was amused, “Xiao Cheng is spoiled by you, but that Shen Rong does seem to have some ideas.”

Shen Ji laughed coldly, “He just wants the luxury of something that doesn’t belong to him.”

There were many illegitimate children in their circle who wanted to be recognized by their parents. If it was someone else, Li Mingxuan could regard it as a joke, but when it came to his mother’s family, Li Mingxuan was much more cautious, “You’d better watch out for Shen Rong, he doesn’t look like he’s willing to be an illegitimate child.”

When Li Mingxuan commented on Shen Rong, he suddenly thought of Shen Xi, whom he didn’t really know well. Because he had grown up with Shen Ji, and because of the coldness of Shen Dehan towards Shen Xi since childhood, naturally, Li Mingxuan intentionally or unintentionally favoured Shen Ji and felt nothing but some superficial affection towards Shen Xi. To be honest, the number of times the two had spent time together since they were young could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Compared to Shen Rong’s carefulness, the short-tempered Shen Xi was really not a threat, so no wonder that Shen Ji had never taken Shen Xi to heart.

Shen Xi didn’t know or care about Li Mingxuan’s mental activities at this time. After a day of casually wandering around Zhongjing, Shen Xi returned to the Shen family home at nightfall.

After replacing his mobile phone card with a newly bought anonymous card, Shen Xi linked to the internet and clicked on the video he had recorded a few days ago.

Ambiguous moans echoed in the room as two naked bodies tangled together, moving fiercely in unison with the gasps. Thanks to the phone’s HD camera, even in the dim light, the appearance of the two people in the video could be clearly seen.

Shen Xi’s fingers brushed over the keys and stopped on the word upload. As his finger gently pressed down, the corners of his mouth curled up in a narrow smile. He was going abroad tomorrow, so this could be regarded as a big gift for them before he left. It had been several days since that night, so he didn’t think anyone would suspect him; after all, he was known in his circle of friends for his irritable and violent nature.

In just a few minutes, the video had already received over a thousand hits. Netizens were frantically leaving comments below. As the number of hits increased, the video began to spread at a rapid pace on different websites. Shen Xi patiently went through the netizens’ comments page by page, then pretended to inadvertently recognise the two people in the video and gossiped about their identities in shock. As he watched the names Tian Wenyao and Shen Rong being mentioned time and time again, Shen Xi laughed happily.

In his previous life, after he was imprisoned, he accidentally saw Shen Rong on TV, a popular idol in the entertainment industry. Who knows if in this life, with such a scandal behind his back, he would still be as popular as he was in his previous life? As for Tian Wenyao, the Tian family and the Fang family had long planned to join forces through marriage. With this video, the Fang family would likely have to give serious consideration to it.

Shen Xi took one last look at the video’s wildly rising click rate. Satisfied, he turned off his phone and pulled the card out, threw it down the toilet and flushed it.

Destroy the corpse!