CH 10

After sending the last message, Wu Siyuan didn’t wait stupidly for Shi Yuze’s reply or any contact thereof.

He was busy, engrossed in both studying and making money. Everything they did was done in a low-key manner. Those who weren’t involved with, were not aware, including the two protagonists. Those two people didn’t notice the crisis outside of the impending disaster.

Xiaoyou kept reporting the number of times Jiang Jingtong and Shi Yuanbai had any contact. It was inferred through the number of times Jiang Jingtong came to him.

On Chen Xuyao’s side, he had already found out the numbers of Jiang Jingtong’s Peach Blossom targets, as well as Shi Yuanbai’s remaining Fishes and Shrimps.

The numbers of the former were higher than the latter. Though that didn’t mean Jiang Jingtong’s lovers were loyal while Shi Yuanbai’s lovers suck in comparison. It’s just that, one depended on money and the other on love.

It was easy to see which one was more reliable. 

***

Knowing that the two of them had been meeting each other quite frequently recently, Wu Siyuan decided to give Jiang Jingtong another new strategy.

[It’s good to see each other often, but it may become boring without new variations. There’s nothing wrong with being generous either, but romantic actions hit the best. These days the season is suitable for traveling. Xuege can take advantage of the weekend to take a short trip. Such occasion has a high probability to bring the two of you closer.]

Originally Jiang Jingtong still held some grudge left, over how he was blatantly told to examine his worth by Gu Siyuan at the beginning. Nevertheless, it was all due to Gu Siyuan’s excellent strategies that his relationship with Shi Yuanbai had been getting better and better. He felt he was a magnanimous person, so he let go of the remaining grudge. He thought since he was not a narrow-minded person, he could let go of this small offense and spare him a chance.

Every suggestion Gu Siyuan gave him was worth the money, but actually, most importantly, he had started to feel bored of Xiaoyou.

If he were to change to a new one, Gu Siyuan was the best candidate.

Even if Gu Siyuan’s skin seemed to be too thick, unable to feel his charm, but later, soon, he would enter and manage his own enterprise. At that time, it was not Gu Siyuan’s turn to say whether he was willing or unwilling.

He had conducted a thorough investigation on him. He was simply pure and clean. There was no romantic past, and possibly he had never been in love so far.

After mulling the current and future affairs, Jiang Jingtong decided not to go invite Shi Yuanbai for dinner. Taking out his phone instead, he dialed one of the contacts,

“Xiaoyou, I’ll come over today.”

On his way to Xiaoyou’s place, he typed a reply to Wu Siyuan’s message earlier. 

[That’s a good suggestion. I will ask others to recommend a place suitable for short trips. Or, perhaps do you have one? By the way, I also feel ashamed having to trouble you all this time for help. If there’s time, let me treat you to a meal, okay?]

Have a meal?

Together with Jiang Jingtong?

Could he still be able to eat looking at his greasy face? Just seeing him would have made him lose both hunger and appetite. 

‘It’s not expressing gratitude, this is obviously revenge, right?!’

[Firstly, I’d like to thank Xuege for his generosity. That being said, let’s wait until Jiang Xuege and Shi Xuege successfully get together!]

Oh…Men.

They always ended up with ulterior motives.

Look, facing all kinds of adults, such as Jiang Jingtong, was the price of growing up.

***

Meanwhile, after receiving Jiang Jingtong’s call, Xiaoyou immediately reported the new situation to Wu Siyuan.

[Gu Xuedi, he suddenly changed his mind and come to me tonight.]

Wu Siyuan was actually perplexed. 

Whether it was Jiang Jingtong’s hints, or Xiaoyou’s reports, all information told him that Jiang Jingtong was already fed up with Xiaoyou and had no interest to touch him anymore. 

Then, why did Jiang Jingtong’s response after receiving the suggestion to travel just now, was to find Xiaoyou immediately? Could it be he needed to rehearse or grind his Riding Skill[1]before going on a trip?

‘This…this much effort and dedication, must be true love, right?’

Wu Siyuan stared at the chat messages on his phone and couldn’t help feeling impressed.

***

Jiang Jingtong walked to the place where Xiaoyou lived and called Shi Yuanbai by the way.

“Yuanbai, we don’t have any classes recently, why don’t we go out to play? I found a nice Holiday Resort just now. It’s not that far, we can go there during the weekend.”

The invitation came just right. 

Recently, Shi Yuanbai was a little uneasy. He was wondering if his older brother had found out about his clandestine moves. The subordinates whom he secretly bribed or placed in the Family or in the Company were having mishaps and got obstructed in every corner. 

Moreover, both he and Shi Yuze hadn’t gone back to the main house for a long time. However, even his parents seemed to be a lot colder to him. Such an unforeseen situation caused him to feel at a loss. 

As the youngest in his family, he had always been given more care and affection by his parents in the past. But even his Grandfather, recently, when he called him yesterday that he was going to visit him, had coldly rejected. Listening to his indifferent voice, it sounded like his Grandfather didn’t want to see him either. 

Shi Yuanbai was clueless about what was going on. He received no news so far. Somehow it felt like the calm before the storm.

Jiang Jingtong’s phone call was like a ray of light, giving him new hope.

So he agreed without any more hesitation, “Okay, as long as it’s your invitation, I’ll spare my time.” 

The two talked sweet nothings for a while until Jiang Jingtong arrived at Xiaoyou’s current residence.

“Great, then we have an appointment this week.”

After concluding the conversation, Jiang Jingtong hung up the phone call.

His hand quickly changed its job from holding the phone to holding Xiaoyou who opened the door to greet him.

***

In the beginning, after striking a deal with Wu Siyuan and Chen Xuyao, Wu Siyuan had informed Xiaoyou that if he wanted to, they could help him to avoid and free himself from Jiang Jingtong’s entanglement.    

However, Xiaoyou declined the offer. To be honest, aside from the risks of being known and taught a lesson by Shi Yuanbai, actually, Jiang Jingtong was remarkably generous with his lover. 

Before, Xiaoyou naively believed that Jiang Jingtong really liked him. Even when he was beaten and sent to the hospital, he still thought it was enough in exchange for Jiang Jingtong’s care. He had never coveted anything in Jiang Jingtong. But in Jiang Jingtong’s eyes, he had always been regarded as a money chaser, from the very beginning.

Then, so be it. Let’s live up to his assumption.

Xiaoyou lamented how stupid his past self was. Never got himself a broken silver, all he got was a broken bone instead.

He decided to take as much as he could from now on. So what if they had no specific title? So what if their relationship had no clear future? Xiaoyou couldn’t care less about such resplendent. All he wanted to do was the chance to wreak havoc within Jiang Jingtong and Shi Yuanbai’s relationship in the future.

Xiaoyu had been paying attention to how many people Jiang Jingtong had had a good time with. He intended to gather all the pieces of evidence quietly. Later, when those two Dog-men got married, let’s see how they’d look like when they accept such a gift. 

***

Wu Siyuan didn’t care about Xiaoyou’s choices. Everyone had their own ideas and could not be forced. 

On another note, Shi Yuze finally got in touch with him after half a month of silence.

[What do you want?]

Wu Siyuan pondered for a while, then typed his reply,

[Your dear little brother is thinking to run abroad.]

He just nonchalantly gave this Big Brother a warning in advance without any specific intention. Unexpectedly, God knew why, Shi Yuze decided to make up a lot of assumptions about it instead.

[You don’t want him to go abroad? Did you intend to keep him in the country so that it’ll be convenient for you to get revenge? I have to remind you, he is still my family member.]

Shi Yuze contacting him meant that he had found out the truth of his dear brother’s little moves. What he didn’t expect was, looking at this reply, Shi Yuze still had the heart to defend Shi Yuanbai apparently.

[If I wanted to get revenge on him, we wouldn’t have this conversation at all.]

The mobile phone Wu Siyuan used to contact him was specifically owned for this purpose only. Unless Shi Yuze inquired the relevant departments to locate him, it was impossible to know his identity.

Even determining the exact location would have no result. He had never used this phone and card number at all. Even if Shi Yuze owned some contacts in the relevant departments, they might not be so idle to keep monitoring his location like a wanted criminal.

Wu Siyuan didn’t have many worries over being discovered anyway. 

Soon, a new reply came from the other side. 

[Alright. You can rest assured that he won’t go abroad.]

It seemed like Shi Yuze had finally acquiesced upon Wu Siyuan’s request.

[You can also rest assured, I won’t really do anything to him. Even the matter of going abroad is not a permanent demand. All I need is just to delay his plan for some period.]

Shi Yuze didn’t understand what this person was trying to do.

He perceived no malice from this person so far. Initially, he guessed this person might hold a grudge over his younger brother, hence the action of informing him that he had been drugged. But his recent demand had confused his previous conjecture. What exactly did this person want to do?

He tried to speculate on this person’s real identity or his background. The most suspicious of them all was the Chen Family. 

These past years the Chen Family had gradually estranged from his Shi Family. Shi Yuze had also explored the reason for the falling-out before. It’s just a matter of love between children. In his opinion such a broken heart or unrequited love were no big deals, so he didn’t take the disagreement to heart.

Who knew that when he investigated Shi Yuanbai’s case recently, he also found out about the matter of the Chen Family’s Young Miss. That year, it turned out Shi Yuanbai had put a lot of hands on the incident that happened to the young lady.

Shi Yuze couldn’t understand. 

There was nothing he should feel sorry about to this good brother of his. How could he treat him like this? Where did so much hatred come from?

Was it for Family properties?

He felt even more incredulous. What era was this, for someone to still have the custom of killing biological siblings just for the sake of an inheritance?

Nevertheless, this was exactly the result of his investigation reports in many aspects. 

Shi Yuze laughed angrily. ‘Want to be the heir? Want to control the Company? Fine.’

Originally, he really didn’t pay attention to these superficial matters. Between the two brothers, there was no need to care about who hold the Leader position on the surface. When Shi Yuanbai graduated, since he was actually a capable person after all, Shi Yuze didn’t mind giving him any position or transferring any power if he wanted to.

Of course, now it was completely different. 

The more Shi Yuanbai coveted it, the more Shi Yuze would hold it to himself. He’d let him stay to keep watching him accomplish all kinds of achievements.

His family had also been informed about the good things Shi Yuanbai had done. His parents were still reluctant to accept and tried to make some excuses for Shi Yuanbai. However, their Company had long been controlled in his hands. Even if his parents wanted to help Shi Yuanbai, there wouldn’t be much they could do. 

As for his Grandfather, he seemed like he refused to be in contact with Shi Yuanbai anymore. Although he had not been drugged as Shi Yuze was, who could guarantee that he would not be in the future?

His parents unexpectedly still want to live in harmony with Shi Yuanbai. The foods he once brought back in his visit were thrown away by them over the same night.

They told him to be magnanimous. As the big brother, he should be forgiving. Well, it couldn’t be helped. After all, the ones who received drugged meals were not the two of them.

Shi Yuze suddenly contemplated another possibility. If he were to truly had an accident in the future, would his parents give up on him without hesitation, or would they be willing to give him justice?

Upon this question, there seemed to be no need to choose at all. Shi Yuze already knew the answer. Otherwise, all these years, all kinds of deeds Shi Yuanbai had done, how could it be so smooth without anyone ever finding it out?

Shi Yuze had no idea why this unknown person wanted Shi Yuanbai to stay in the country for a period of time. Even so, he decided to cooperate with them.

The reply he got was,

[Cooperate? That’s not necessary. As long as you didn’t die by his hands, it’s already a great help.]

Sure enough. He just needed to sleep early and get up early. He should have minded my own business!

***

On Wu Siyuan’s side, finding that everything was going well, he could finally breathe in satisfaction. It’s time to continue to work his ass off and study hard. 

The freshmen in Business Administration Department were about to face a test in one of their subjects.

Really, next time he needed to have a proper conversation with the System. If it were possible, let’s avoid any task whose identity must study hard and still had to face the exam. 

It’s really a pain in the ass!

Speaking about the task, now Shi Yuanbai should also realize that Shi Yuze had found out about what he did. Which meant, he must have faced some pressure.

Wu Siyuan carefully calculated the time and estimated, maybe the next semester, for them to finally get a certificate from the Marriage Bureau.

After all, in order to secure his status, there’s no other choice aside from tying the knot with Jiang Jingtong and reducing the loss.

Wu Siyuan held his cheeks, thinking,

‘Let’s see, in what way should I convince Shi Yuze to push Shi Yuanbai and Jingtong to the marriage hall?’

***

Jiang Jingtong sent a new message.

He expressed his gratitude for the recommendation of the short trip destination. 

Wu Siyuan smiled faintly. It was to be expected. This scenic spot he recommended must be 100% guaranteed to help warm up their feelings.

After all, in the original plot, it was at this scenic spot that the original body and Jiang Jingtong fixed their relationship. 

Right now the cannon fodder stand-in Siyuan refused to go, but surely the Protagonist Shou would love to replace it and accompany his Gong, no?

Besides, at this moment, having their feelings heated up must be beneficial to Shi Yuanbai.

Well then, he must respond to Jiang Jingtong’s report properly.

[If I’m not mistaken, both Jiang Xuege and Shi Xuege would officially enter the legal age at your birthday at the beginning of the next year, right? That means you two should be able to get a certificate at that time!]