Chapter 29

Perhaps to make himself seem more pitiable on the show, Weng Yingxiong was still wearing the shirt and casual trousers Yu Huixin and Weng Shao had bought him at the market many years ago. The clothes had been washed nearly white, and hanging on Weng Yingxiong's skeletal frame, he looked at first glance like a freshly papered funeral effigy.

Because his legs were crippled, this "paper effigy" had been placed in a wheelchair, sitting there crookedly.

The midsummer sunlight shone upon him, yet it could not dispel the resentment and gloom in Weng Yingxiong's heart. A decaying stench of impending death seemed to seep from his body.

Like a corpse dug out of a coffin—too dead to live, yet not rotten enough to truly decompose.

Weng Shao clicked his tongue and shook his head, his face full of regret. "I thought that with all Weng Yingjie's money, he could at least send you to the hospital for a comprehensive checkup."

As he spoke, Weng Shao fixed his bright eyes on Weng Yingxiong's. His seemingly casual tone was full of coaxing and implication. "Actually, there's something I've been wondering about all these years. Can your illness really be cured?"

"Medical standards were limited back then, and our family had no money, so there was nothing we could do for you. Now that there are means, hasn't Weng Yingjie taken you, his lifesaver, to the hospital for another examination?"

"Aren't you curious whether you'll ever be able to stand again in this life?"

With every one of Weng Shao's loaded prompts, Weng Yingxiong's gaze began to waver.

The people passing by the entrance also unconsciously drifted closer to the Weng family.

Seeing the undisguised curiosity in everyone's eyes, Old Master Weng's heart skipped a beat. Afraid that Weng Shao would redirect the trouble onto his younger son, Weng Yingjie, with just a few words, he hurriedly snapped, "You've got the nerve to say that! After becoming the top scorer on the college entrance exam, you made so much money from advertisements, yet instead of treating your father, you took your mother to the city to live the good life and dumped your paralyzed adoptive father on an old man like me. Do you even have a conscience?"

"You think an eighteen-year-old high school graduate working sales to earn tuition was living the good life? Or that a laboring woman who had never left the village for half her life was living the good life by becoming a cleaner at a sales office?" Without waiting for Old Master Weng to respond, Weng Shao smiled. "If that's truly what you think, then staying home as a caregiver and looking after your own son should count as living the good life too. Why are you still so resentful?"

Knowing he could not outargue sharp-tongued Weng Shao, Old Master Weng snorted angrily. "Don't try to argue your way out of this. No matter how prettily you dress it up, it's only right for children to support their parents. If you want to abandon your paralyzed and disabled adoptive father to live well on your own, heaven will strike you down."

Weng Shao smiled. "Then when it thunders on rainy days, remember to stay far away from me. Otherwise, when lightning strikes me, it might take you out too."

"Pfft!" Someone burst out laughing.

The onlookers all struggled to hold back their laughter as they looked over, and some even pointed at Old Master Weng.

Anyone who came and went from a television station in this era was bound to be well-informed. Besides, the ugly business between Weng Shao and the Weng family had long been blown up by the media and online marketing accounts. Those who did not know the details were the minority instead.

Old Master Weng's face flushed with rage as he cursed, "You inhuman little bastard—"

"Before coming to record the show, didn't Weng Yingjie tell you exactly what you were supposed to do?" Weng Shao cut off Old Master Weng's tirade and kindly reminded him, "It's fine if you curse now, but won't that ruin your precious son's grand plan?"

Old Master Weng's curses were shoved back down his throat by a single sentence from Weng Shao. His old face turned first green, then purple.

Weng Shao smiled. "All right, stop wasting your breath arguing with me here. Aren't you here to record Online Mediation? Save whatever you want to say against me for the show. Don't enjoy cursing now only to find later that it doesn't match the script you prepared, wasting all of Weng Yingjie's painstaking effort."

Weng Shao even urged them considerately, "Go on in. Don't keep an entire production crew waiting too long."

With that, Weng Shao waved at the father and son, whose faces had gone livid, then strode away.

Chapter 29

On the morning after filming ended, Weng Shao flew back to Qingyuan City.

He had actually wanted to return that very afternoon, but Pei Xingze had kept him behind.

Pei Xingze's reason was perfectly sound. "It's your first time in Jinghai. As your host, I should at least show you around Jinghai City and help you get familiar with the area."

What Pei Xingze did not know was that Weng Shao had already lived in Jinghai City for twenty years in his previous life.

Not only did he know the city as it had been twenty years ago, he even knew Jinghai City's urban development plans for the next twenty years by heart. Still, he stayed.

He let Pei Xingze drive him aimlessly through the city's aging scenery. Everything from the past was like fine dust swept up by a broom during a thorough cleaning, drifting through the mind that had been still and silent for so long.

Like a gust of wind suddenly rising over a parched plain, time that had stood still began to turn once more. Old memories, like aged photographs weathered by time, yellowed and curled little by little. Images spanning twenty years repeatedly overlapped before his eyes.

In the distant future and the unknown past, they had once driven through the streets and alleys of this city just as they did now. They had sampled every good or terrible restaurant, watched movies that were either wonderful or boring, and visited the beautiful mountains and rivers around the city...

The past remained vividly before his eyes.

So that night, Weng Shao had another dream.

In the dream, Pei Xingze glared at him and demanded, "Weng Shao, have you never loved me?"

The mottled light and shadows swayed violently in the dream. Weng Shao vaguely remembered that this seemed to be the argument they had after joining forces to bring down the Weng Group, supposedly over an "uneven division of the spoils."

But it was not really about dividing spoils. After taking over the Weng Group, Weng Shao had planned to change course and shift the company's core business from real estate development to internet finance. His proposal met fierce opposition from the group's shareholders and board members. Even Pei Xingze had voiced some reservations.

Pei Xingze believed Weng Shao had no need to be so aggressive—the group could change its primary direction, but there was no need to overturn everything overnight. Weng Shao acted as though he were a newly favored consort taking control of the inner palace, unable to tolerate even the slightest remnant of his predecessor. It inevitably made him seem impulsive.

What Pei Xingze did not say was whether Weng Shao's rush to change course after taking control of the Weng Group was also meant to shake off Pei Xingze's restraints as soon as possible.

After all, everyone knew that Weng Shao had been able to smoothly acquire the Weng Group and even kick Weng Yingjie and his father off the board entirely because of Pei Xingze and the Pei Group's support. But with Weng Shao's boundless ambition, how could he possibly be content to remain beneath someone else for the rest of his life?

So burning the bridge after crossing it, killing the donkey once the millstone was no longer needed, or even turning against each other over profit—those were all to be expected.

Two wicked accomplices had joined hands for profit, then turned on each other for profit and tore each other apart. How ordinary that sounded.

No one believed they could keep going forever, including Weng Shao himself. Because he knew better than anyone that they were not on the same path. They had merely encountered a common goal halfway along the road and walked together for a while. Once that stretch ended, bridges would return to bridges, roads to roads, dust to dust, earth to earth.

That had been clear from the first time Weng Shao slept with Pei Xingze. He knew exactly why he had done it—not for love, obviously. He had regarded it as a transaction of interests. He sold his body in exchange for Pei Xingze's support. He had assumed Pei Xingze saw it the same way.

So when Pei Xingze stormed into his office and angrily demanded to know whether he had ever loved him, Weng Shao's first reaction was actually disbelief.

He did not know why Pei Xingze had gotten such an absurd idea, why he thought they were in love.

In truth, if Weng Shao had to define their relationship, they could be lovers, bed partners, or business partners—but never beloveds.

How could they possibly be lovers?

Not even his biological parents or brothers had ever loved him. How could an enemy of the Weng family, someone who had gone to great lengths to seduce him into bed and use him to take revenge on the Weng family, ever fall in love with him?

The only possibility was that Pei Xingze wanted to control him in the name of love. Just as the Weng family had controlled and exploited him in the name of family, then cast him out once he lost his value.

At that time, Weng Shao had still been able to summon enough strength to board Pei Xingze's pirate ship. But if it happened again, he no longer had the energy to take revenge on Pei Xingze.

So he chose not to believe it!

He did not believe Pei Xingze could love him. He would rather keep things strictly business and draw clear lines with profit. A man who loved money as much as he did had been willing to hand over most of the Weng Group's profits, yet Pei Xingze still argued with him.

As their arguments multiplied, the estrangement and suspicion between them naturally deepened.

—Perhaps they had never been shallow to begin with. Before their shared goal was achieved, their interests aligned, and they could temporarily seek common ground while setting aside their differences. But contradictions hidden beneath deep water would one day surface.

Once their common enemy fell, the infighting between them would begin.

And Weng Shao had always been too lazy to torment himself over emotions. Whether Pei Xingze truly intended to fight him or not, Weng Shao did not want to indulge him.

Since they were never meant to walk the same path, then they should part ways.

So Weng Shao pushed through all opposition and sold the Weng Group's undeveloped prime land and related channels to Pei Real Estate. The group gradually shifted its efforts into emerging technology and conceptual finance.

This series of changes was naturally related to Weng Shao's professional expertise. But in Pei Xingze's eyes, Weng Shao's actions looked like a deliberate attempt to distance himself from him. So one evening, Pei Xingze stormed into Weng Shao's office and demanded, "What exactly do you take me for?"

It was their first fierce argument since meeting, and also the first time they had openly exposed the crisis of trust between them.