CH 23

Ruan Yingyin was pouring water for Jiang Xing Yuan.

Jiang Xingyuan just wanted to walk around Ruan Yingyin’s apartment, but at that time, his phone rang.

Jiang Xingyuan glanced at the caller ID on the phone screen, and his footsteps halted.

Without glancing up from his phone, he said to Ruan Yingyin, who was pouring water, “No need.”

After saying that, he bent down and took the school bag he threw on the sofa, opened the door and walked out.

He didn’t close the front door of Ruan Yingyin apartment. So when Ruan Yingyin looked up holding a glass, she saw Jiang Xingyuan took out a set of keys and opened the door on the opposite of her apartment.

Before he entered, he noticed Ruan Yingyin was looking his way and hooked the corner of his mouth.

The distance was not far, so Ruan Yingyin understood the meaning of his glance smile.

He was saying: I am monitoring you. I’ll be always watching you, so don’t you dare to escape.

Ruan Yingyin silently withdrew her eyes.

She put the glass back, walked to the door and closed it.

After she walked back, the first thing she did was to put the school bag that was knocked down by Jiang Xingyuan in its place.

****

In just one day, the room has all been set up according to Jiang Xingyuan’s requirements.

Jiang Xingyuan threw himself onto the sofa and answered the phone, “Grandpa.”

The voice of an old man filled with the heaviness of age and majesty of being at the top position for a long time came from the other side, “Xingyuan, your parents came to me. They said you’ve moved out?”

Jiang Xingyuan didn’t reveal the fact but said, “Grandpa, I will come to visit you sometime.”

The other side got the hint and hung up the phone with a hum.

Jiang Xingyuan hooked the corner of his mouth. His eyes looking at the ceiling, held a cold glint.

After a while, he called Dr. Yang from S University.

Yang Qiqun of the University of S is a nationally renowned doctor of chemistry who has won numerous awards and has many achievements in chemical composition research.

After Jiang Xingyuan got the bottle of skincare lotion from Yang Tong on Monday, he searched in his circle of people and found Dr. Yang.

Just now in Ruan Yingyin’s apartment, it was this Dr. Yang who called him.

In just less than a day, Dr. Yang seemed to have made a very significant discovery.

“Jiang Shao*.” Dr. Yang’s voice could not hide his excitement, “May I ask where did you find this bottle of skin lotion?”

[T/N: Shao (少) or Shao ye (少爷) means Young Master. A honourable way to call the future head/son of the head of a family.]

Jiang Xingyuan casually took a stuffed toy and played with it in his hand: “A micro business that just sold it a few days ago. Why? Did Dr. Yang found something?”

He has always had a keen sense of judgment, such as when he saw this bottle of lotion, he felt that a huge business opportunity was hidden in this bottle of lotion.

So he immediately approached Yang Qiqun and asked him to research it. As expected, Yang Qiqun’s reaction confirmed his suspicions.

“Jiang Shao, the composition of the lotion is extremely complex, and there are even several brand new chemical components in it! My students and I haven’t researched it in detail. But I can say that this lotion does have an unparalleled whitening effect, and it’s harmless to the human body! This is just incredible! Products with the effect of making the skin fairer have always been very popular within the cosmetic industry. But products that have a whitening effect but are harmless to the body have never been made. The chemical world has never found such a component either.” Yang Qiqun could not hide his excitement and paced around the lab as he spoke, “My students and I will continue our research, but if we can find the person who made this lotion and convince him to provide us the formula, we can greatly speed up the research process!”

Jiang Xingyuan sat up straight: “Really?”

Yang Qiqun immediately replied in affirmative, “Absolutely! Jiang Shao, if we can know about the new found chemical components, the whole chemical world will be thrown upside down!”

“I know.” Jiang Xingyuan said, “I hope Dr. Yang will continue his research on this matter, but there is one thing I would like to say to Dr. Yang to keep in mind. This matter must be kept confidential. As for the formula of the lotion, I will find a way to get my hands on it.”

“Don’t worry, Jiang Shao, we have signed a confidentiality agreement on this matter. Neither I nor my students will disclose it.” After repeatedly assuring Jiang Xingyuan, he hung up the phone to rejoin his research.

Jiang Xingyuan stood up from the sofa.

It was already dark and the sun was about to set.

He walked to the window and looked down at the traffic below from a high position.

In his previous life, Yang Qingwei pulled the Ruan Group up, used the high profits from skincare products, and invested in the real estate market. After joining forces with Liang Group, they both competed against Jiang Xingyuan.

Jiang Xingyuan had to fight against these two big obstacles in his way. Although it was difficult to handle the situation, they were in a stalemate.

But he never knew how vicious this Yang Qingwei really was. She schemed against him and sent a white faced boy* to Ruan Yingyin to hook up with her.

[T/N: White faced boy/little white face ( 小白脸) is a term to describe young, innocent and good-looking men. It could be used to express admiration or affection for someone but it can also be used as a derogatory way to refer to those men who rely on rich women to survive. Basically male mistress.]

Ruan Yingyin hooked up with the white faced boy, even though she was in a relationship with Jiang Xingyuan. She abetted the guy by secretly putting a small microphonic device on Jiang Xingyuan’s clothes.

At that time, Jiang Xingyuan happened to be competing with Yang Qingwei and Liang Yuan for a big project. But all the plans of Jiang Group went to the ears of Yang Qingwei and Liang Yuan with the help of Ruan Yingyin.

In the end, Jiang Xingyuan failed miserably. But Jiang Group had deep roots in business. Even if he faced a big loss for failing to get the project, Jiang Xingyuan was confident that he would be able to pull his company up as long as he just waited a little and gave more effort.

But he didn’t expect Ruan Yingyin to cheat on him. She joined hands with Yang Qingwei and Liang Yuan and used his vulnerable time to betray him more. She used despising means and stole Jiang Xingyuan’s money to escape with the white faced boy.

His last bit of wealth was taken, so when his two big enemies, Yang Qingwei and Liang Yuan hit him from the back and front, he couldn’t defend himself properly. After drowning in numerous debts, Jiang Xingyuan finally went bankrupt and eventually died on the street, freezing to death.

But Jiang Xingyuan who was reborn, he couldn’t, wouldn’t give Yang Qingwei and Liang Yuan another chance. He wanted to squash these two big bugs under his feet at the beginning.

He intended to attack the Ruan Group first. Because he knew that Ruan Group was the chassis of Yang Qingwei in his previous life.

Jiang Xingyuan originally wanted to use Ruan Yingyin to destroy the Ruan Group from inside.

But the Ruan Yingyin of this life, who knew which screw of her head was loose, she actually left the Ruan family, and seems to have no ambition on returning. She also doesn’t seem to care whose hand the Ruan Group will fall to.

It seems that he needs to find his own way to destroy the Ruan Group.

This lotion may give him that opportunity.

Jiang Xingyuan is now only a sophomore in high school, and still has little stay in Jiang Group to improve further. So he doesn’t want anyone in the Jiang family to know about his works.

He didn’t have many trustworthy people. Thinking about it for a while, he called Cheng Yang and Wei Xiangsong: “Find a way to contact the seller of the Silver Hamster Brand’s lotion. Tell the other party that we are interested in partnering with them.”

****

At night, Ruan Yingyin was lying in the middle of her bottles of lotion, holding her cell phone and replying to her customers.

She suddenly started to have many customers as the night fell. When she asked around, she realized that these new customers were all recommended by the customers who had previously bought her lotion. Each one of them was eagerly asking about the time of the delivery of the lotion.

Ruan Yingyin is the most important material for making the lotion. So there’s no way she could produce more than she usually does.

Today, she is producing a bit more than usual.

One by one, she clicked on the dialog box, copied and pasted, and told the other party to wait patiently.

There was just one customer who didn’t ask when the goods would be available.

Song: Hello, my surname is Wei. I’ve been looking for you to talk to you about partnership. If it is convenient, please call me on my phone.

Then the phone number was given.

Ruan Yingyin froze for a moment.

She always wanted to find a partner. But she had a bad promotion seeing the names ‘Song’ and ‘Wei’.

Silver Hamster Brand: May I ask your name?

Song: I am Wei Xiangsong.

Shit.

Ruan Yingyin bit her finger, Wei Xiangsong must be contacting her on behalf of Jiang Xingyuan. Wei Xiangsong wanted to be partner with her, which means Jiang Xingyuan wanted to be her partner.

But Ruan Yingyin absolutely would never have any kind of relationship with Jiang Xingyuan, let alone being his partner.

On Monday, Jiang Xingyuan took away a bottle of lotion from Yang Tong. She was wondering what Jiang Xingyuan wanted to do. But she didn’t expect that he actually wanted to be her partner.

Silver Hamster Brand: Sorry, I have no intention to find a partner at the moment, sorry.

Wei Xiangsong and Cheng Yang, who saw the reply of the other party in the school dormitory, looked at each other in surprise.

Cheng Yang: “This seller is too strange, right? He asked for your name and then said no partnership? If he didn’t have the intention to be a partner, why ask your name?”

Wei Xiangsong replied in a thoughtful manner: “Maybe the seller does have the intention to find a partner. It’s just we didn’t meet his requirements.”

Cheng Yang touched his pig head and replied: “Right, he may dislike us because we’re just minions. But Brother Yuan said that we can’t disclose Jiang Group’s name. So what do we do?”

Wei Xiangsong pushed his glasses and replied, “I’ll try to convince the seller again.”

But no matter how much Wei Xiangsong persuaded, Ruan Yingyin gritted her teeth and said no. Reaching at the end of her patience, she directly went offline and switched off her phone.

The next day, when Jiang Xingyuan asked him about the progress, Wei Xiangsong reported the whole thing.

Jiang Xingyuan, who was lazing around in the playground, raised his eyebrows at what Wei Xiangsong said and asked, “Not answering the phone, and not even returning messages?”

Wei Xiangsong nodded his head.

Jiang Xingyuan smiled gently. Since the seller of the lotion refused to listen to him, the only way to find out who the store owner was through underhanded means.

Now he just needs a person who can hack into the system and see the seller’s information. It would be a piece of cake for him to know the seller’s identity.

Jiang Xingyuan then made a phone call.

T/N: This chapter is pretty big, so I’m splitting it into two parts.