CH 2.1

“Guan Yue is dead!”

“Shh!”

Wen Tianhe, who had slept all afternoon, lay on the sofa with his slightly curly black hair disheveled, covered by a woolen blanket. The chef was preparing dinner, while Aunt Fang, the housekeeper, went upstairs to neatly stack the pile of debt details that were delivered by the company. She put them in a folder and took them back to the study.

The driver followed Aunt Fang from the living room to the study, and quietly gave a brief overview of the situation.

In the study, the parrot noticed Aunt Fang and flapped its wings, continuously yelling. “Guan Yue is dead, Guan Yue is dead!”

“Shh,” Aunt Fang patiently said to the parrot. She drew the curtains to dim the light and turned to the driver, “You should go and have your dinner. You’ve had a hard day. Bring two chickens if you go back to the countryside this weekend.”

The driver nodded, thinking to himself, ‘We’re going bankrupt, why bother with chickens? This villa, this furniture, all the large and small assets will have to be auctioned off before the end of next month. Maybe the chicken would also be taken away for auction halfway through the meal!’

“Xiao Tian,” Aunt Fang woke Wen Tianhe up, saying, “It’s time for dinner.”

Wen Tianhe groggily got up. For a moment, he thought that everything that happened today was just a dream. When he walked into the dining room, Aunt Fang was sitting behind the counter, wearing reading glasses and tallying up last month’s accounts.

There was a bowl of steamed chicken with matsutake mushrooms, a plate of steamed saury fish, and a stir-fried Shanghai green vegetable dish.

“July is the best time for eels, August for bass, and September for crucian carp,” Aunt Fang said. “Eels are delicious now, but unfortunately, they’re too fatty for your liking. If you want to try them, I can give you a taste when I pick some for myself another day.”

Wen Tianhe sighed. He picked up the chopsticks, looked at the dishes, and then put them down again. “The company is going bankrupt.”

Aunt Fang continued to look at the accounts and said, “Even if we’re going bankrupt, we still need to eat.”

Wen Tianhe spoke again, “My second brother didn’t tell me anything, he kept it from me for over a year.”

“He didn’t want you to worry,” Aunt Fang said.

Wen Tianhe said again, “I hope that’s the case. Where is my phone? I need to give him a call. He should be in San Francisco by now.”

Aunt Fang said, “I already tried calling, I wanted to find him too, but his phone is off.”

Wen Tianhe threw the chopsticks onto the table, feeling frustrated. He ran his fingers through his hair, saying, “Tonight, I’ll arrange for everyone in the house to take turns calling him. Each person will call for three hours until he answers.”

Aunt Fang made a sound of agreement, and Wen Tianhe ate a little bit before going upstairs to the study. He uncovered the cage of the parrot and fed it.

He shook his head, and sat down, taking out the corporate ownership change contract from the locked drawer. Three months ago, his second brother handed him this stack of documents to sign, but Wen Tianhe didn’t even bother to read them carefully.

After the parrot finished eating, it flapped its wings and exclaimed, “Guan Yue is cold!”

Whether Guan Yue was cold or not, Wen Tianhe didn’t know, but as he read through the pages of the contract, he felt a chill himself. He flipped to the last page of the contract, where a small note was inserted.

Wen Tianhe laughed like a madman.

He stood up, walked to the bookshelf and took out a photo frame. It contained a picture of his father, mother, eldest brother, second brother, and himself—a picture of the family when they were still together.

The sound of breaking glass resonated as the photo frame flew out of the study and landed outside the front door, shattering into pieces.

Three days later…

“The commercial streets, inns, restaurants, horse farms, workshops, processing factories, and more under your two brothers’ names will all be evaluated and auctioned one by one. However, the two charity funds and the donated library will not be affected. In addition, the private club in the Changshan Villa area that your family used to entertain guests…”

Wen Tianhe said, “The club has already been sold to a friend. All the procedures were completed in July, I know about that.”

The financial advisor nodded. ”For the joint assets of Wen Tianyue and Wen Tianhe, there is still a remaining 30 million. We have established a family trust fund for it. This fund has been effectively isolated, and I suggest you don’t touch it for now.”

“Only 30 million is left?” Wen Tianhe poured a glass of wine for the financial advisor.

“Yes.” the financial advisor added, “your brother already removed the liquid funds that we were entrusted to manage. 30 million is the minimum amount for a family trust fund.”

“First transfer 6 million to the company account.” Wen Tianhe looked at the number on the bottom of the pay slip and added, “The finance department will contact you tomorrow morning to verify .”

“President Wen, personally speaking, I suggest…” The financial advisor started to say.

Wen Tianhe glanced at him, and he immediately nodded and said, “Alright.”

“You’ve been managing my family’s money for almost ten years,” Wen Tianhe said.

The middle aged financial advisor nodded. Wen Tianhe thought for a moment before saying, “I apologize for embarrassing you with this matter.”

“You’re too serious,” the advisor replied. “You are a kind person, you’re still concerned about your employees’ salaries. Before I came here, our bank president even said that as long as you get through this difficult time, a comeback is not a problem for someone as young and talented as you.”

Wen Tianhe asked, “Has the news already spread?”

The advisor thought for a moment and said, “There have been some rumors, but most people understand the situation.”

Wen Tianhe said, “Is there any way to safeguard my assets against this? Can you teach me?”

The advisor looked hesitant, showing that this was beyond his scope.

Wen Tianhe only stared into his eyes and the financial advisor finally spoke, “Under no circumstances should you borrow from high-interest loans. That’s my only advice. And never guarantee any loans for others. Originally, if you could ensure your assets weren’t seized, you would recover within a year. But now… sigh.”

Despite the fact that Wen Tianyue’s company was struggling now, he had been an investment expert a few years ago. The income from his assets alone was enough to support this tech company. However, the moment the capital chain broke and it entered the bankruptcy process, all assets had to be discounted and auctioned.

The banks don’t care about the actual value of the assets, they would discount everything back to cash. Cars would be sold at a 20% or 10% discount, real estate at a 30% or 40% discount, with the appraisals valuing them much lower. This would cut off almost all of the income from the remaining assets of the Wen family.

Aunt Fang escorted the financial advisor to the door and then turned to Wen Tianhe. “Xiao Jiang is here to see you.”

In the living room, Jiang Zijian was leaning on the sofa, earnestly poking at Wen Tianhe’s pet blue cat’s balls. This blue cat was born with intellectual disabilities. It wouldn’t move if you didn’t move, resulting in a stalemate where neither side moved. No matter how you tried to provoke it, it remained unresponsive.

Wen Tianhe came out holding a birdcage and handed it to a servant, instructing them to hang it in the garden for a while to bask in the sun.

Jiang Zijian, “I broke up.”

“I went bankrupt,” Wen Tianhe sat down on the sofa. “Do you want wine or coffee?”

Jiang Zijian: “Both. The company hasn’t gone bankrupt yet but it’s already in the news. ‘The former legal representative of Epeus has disappeared’. Haven’t you been able to contact your brother?”

“Tell me about your breakup first, let me be happy for a moment.”

“Hey, let me tell you,” Jiang Zijian complained about his own difficulties and finally showed some enthusiasm, “I feel like I can’t continue like this anymore. The guy I have been dating treated me like an ATM! He absolutely refused to have sex with me, saying he was afraid of pain and had psychological trauma. Fine, I endured it. Intimacy is something that can be worked out. We can explore together. But his lifestyle habits are simply…intolerable. He spent 800,000 yuan of my money in one month! What did he spend it on? It all went into buying Apple products.”

“What do you mean?”

“Apple phones, computers, speakers, desktops, watches, various models of iPads, all top-of-the-line. He even bought fifty protective cases! All of this is because he used a cheap phone in college called ‘Little Pepper.’”

“What is ‘Little Pepper’?”

“A knockoff phone, I don’t know, that’s what he called it. He was teased by his roommates and wanted revenge. He took my car back to my hometown to attend a college classmate’s wedding, and when he returned, the car was full of vomit, and he asked me for one million to repair the roads in his hometown. He has four older sisters, and each one wants a house. Moreover, he just told his parents that he met a kind brother outside. I suggested that he immigrate and we get married, but he refused, saying his parents couldn’t handle having a gay son. He was afraid that his sixty-seven-year-old mother would hang herself in their hometown.”

“He stayed at my place for three months, scolded Xiao Zhou for not giving him hot water for a bath. Although Xiao Zhou can’t compare to Aunt Fang, but she took care of me for seven years.” Jiang Zijian said, receiving the Irish coffee and thanking Aunt Fang.

“We were together for three months, and I finally managed to take off his shorts once. Guess what I saw?” Jiang Zijian angrily complained to Wen Tianhe.

Wen Tianhe immediately focused his attention, turning towards Jiang Zijian with a serious expression.

Jiang Zijian lowered his voice and said solemnly, “Stainless steel underwear.”

Wen Tianhe: “…”

Jiang Zijian: “There was even a password lock on it! He asked me to guess the password, and guess what? The password was related to his size! I told him we break and stop this nonsense, and he asked for compensation for mental distress. I refused, so he went online, posted some pictures, and made up stories about how I burned him with cigarette butts and threatened him, even though I’ve never seen his butt to know if it’s round or flat.”

Wen Tianhe asked, “And then?”

Jiang Zijian continued, “I actually had someone burn a scar on his butt. After that, he kept quiet and deleted the posts. Now, it’s your turn. How did your bankruptcy happen?”

“My brother applied for a change in the company’s legal representative three months ago,” Wen Tianhe said. “He transferred the ownership to me and then disappeared. I have no idea where he is.”

Jiang Zijian asked, “Is something wrong with him?”

Tianhe took out a note from his pocket. It read: [Baobao, I’m sorry, I messed up everything. You handle it the way you see fit.]

Jiang Zijian sighed, “Well, it hasn’t been auctioned yet. I can lend you some money to get by for now.”

Wen Tianhe replied, “The pit is too deep. How much can you lend me?”

Jiang Zijian said, “I’ve searched high and low and managed to gather some of my secret savings. I can lend you over two hundred million yuan, give or take. I don’t know the exact amount, but it’s everything I can come up with.”

Naturally, Wen Tianhe couldn’t borrow money from Jiang Zijian. Even if he did, he wouldn’t be able to repay the annual interest of five percent given the current situation.

“The bank will come to seal the houses and cars next week,” Wen Tianhe said absentmindedly. “Everything will be taken away for auction, and I’ll have to rent a house.”

Jiang Zijian asked, “What about the company? When will it be liquidated? No wonder my dad bought all the shares of the Jiangyue Club in July.”

“It’s being liquidated,” Wen Tianhe replied. “They’ll put up the seals tomorrow, I’ll pay the employees’ unpaid salaries before the layoffs.”

“Will Xiao Jin also be auctioned off?” Jiang Zijian asked, looking up at the parrot outside the floor-to-ceiling window in the living room. The sun was shining brightly, and the parrot flapped its wings.

Wen Tianhe said with an expressionless face, “Xiao Jin only knows three phrases: ‘Guan Yue is dead’, ‘Guan Yue is cold,’ and ‘The A-share market crashed again.’ Who would buy it? Guan Yue?”

Jiang Zijian and Wen Tianhe burst into laughter. Tianhe laughed so hard that tears came out.

Wen Tianhe looked at his best friend, Jiang Zijian. Jiang Zijian was handsome, standing at 182 centimeters tall with an athlete’s physique. His muscles were well-defined, and in the white thin shirt, his skin seemed to glow in the sunlight. He had classic features, not as bright and handsome as Wen Tianhe, but he had his own charm. Jiang Zijian had multiple nicknames, with the most elegant one being “Handsome Jiang”. The rest were “Teddy Heart Wolf,” “Sex Engine,” “Nuclear Fusion Power Pile Machine”, “Master-Level Marathon Bed Friend” among others.

In their year at the Cambridge Department of Philosophy, there was a saying: “Science and technology are the primary productive forces of human society, and sex is Jiang Zijian’s primary engine.” There was also the saying, “Sex is Jiang Zijian’s first instinct.”

Jiang Zijian was a “casual” person, which was one of the reasons why he and Wen Tianhe became close friends. As long as Jiang Zijian liked and cared for someone, nothing was a problem. Even if it meant being a loyal dog gong, flying in a helicopter to deliver breakfast, or air-freighting Brazilian irises to the classroom doorstep, or being tied to a bed and whipped by a little bottom, he wouldn’t mind at all.

Jiang Zijian said, “I was thinking, maybe you should take all my money and I start a new life as an ordinary working class. Maybe become a teaching assistant at a university. Who knows, maybe I’ll find true love someday.”

Wen Tianhe replied, “No need to go that far. Let me recommend you a book: ‘Actor’s Self-Cultivation.’”

After many years of being best friends with Tianhe, Jiang Zi immediately understood what he was hinting at and slapped his thigh, “That’s right!”

The two fell into silence and remained quiet for nearly half a minute before the parrot outside the window let out a loud squawk.

“Guan Yue is cold!”