"Chairman, it's time to take your medicine."
Steward Qian stood hunched over, holding water in one hand and a dozen or so capsules of various colors in the other.
On the bed in the recovery room, Gao Shanhe looked at the handful of capsules and gave a bitter smile. "I'm practically living on medicine now."
"Chairman, you have to take it for the sake of your health."
Gao Shanhe took the capsules and water, smiling. "Qian, stop calling me Chairman. I've stepped down now. Just call me Brother like you used to."
"Bro... ther." The familiar yet unfamiliar form of address left Steward Qian briefly dazed.
Before Gao Shanhe became chairman, he had always called him Brother. After Gao Shanhe took office, he had intended to keep doing so, but someone told him that things were different now. Everyone else called him Chairman, yet he alone called him Brother.
If he insisted on being different, the people beneath them would resent it. Besides, given Gao Shanhe's position as chairman, would he really be happy being called Brother?
From then on, Steward Qian had never called him Brother again.
It was just like an emperor ascending the throne in ancient times. While conquering the realm, he could call his soldiers brothers, but once he truly took the throne, there were no brothers left at his side-only a sovereign and his subjects.
"That's right." Gao Shanhe answered with a smile. "That's more like it. We've been brothers all our lives. Why be so distant? You changed how you addressed me to help establish my authority, but now my third son is chairman. We're better off going back to how we were when we were young."
"Yes, Brother." Steward Qian bowed respectfully, like the most professional of butlers. Some habits had been with