Chapter 45

Li Rongxiu's handsome face practically scrunched up into a bitter melon. He said bluntly, "Because I don't want to get up early. I hate the rigid nine-to-five office-worker life, I don't like boring company management with endless trivial matters, and I hate all that fake politeness and workplace socializing even more."

Li Rongyu smiled knowingly. "In that case... starting tomorrow, how about you come work as my assistant? You'll be with your big brother all day, so you won't get tired of it, right?"

"And we can sleep together and get up together, so you won't be unable to wake up. We can also go running with Grandpa and Dad. Your lifestyle is far too unhealthy; you should exercise more. This would also give the men of the Li family more time together. What do you think?"

"Huh?" Li Rongxiu looked at Li Rongyu suspiciously.

Li Rongyu continued persuading him with a smile. "Come help me. Try a different kind of life. If you still don't like it in the end, Big Brother won't force you."

Li Rongxiu thought it over and finally agreed somewhat hesitantly.

That night, urged on by his big brother, Li Rongxiu went back to his room to sleep before ten. Yet he tossed and turned in bed, unable to fall asleep, so he could only hug his laptop and watch a movie. After picking for ages, he realized that most of the movies online were ones he had already seen. Growing even more bored, Li Rongxiu began browsing gossip forums and websites, only to be drawn in by a post titled "The Untold Stories of a Wealthy Young Master and a Young Master from a Lesser Family (Real-Person Pairing: Li Huamei Chairman's Youngest Son Li Rongxiu and the Chi Family's Eldest Young Master Chi Junrui)."

Li Rongxiu's mouse hovered over the post title for a long while before he finally clicked it with a frown. He discovered that the irresponsible moderator had not only fantasized about stories of him being with Chi Junrui, but had also somehow learned to make up stories from gossip news and media photos. The moderator had concocted all sorts of revolting melodramatic plots: Chi Junrui stealing Li Rongxiu's fiancée out of love-turned-hate to attract his attention, Chi Junrui being madly in love and choosing beauty over power, you love me but I don't love you because I love him, melancholy gazes and the bitterness of unrequited love...

What made him even angrier was that people in the replies were actually shouting things like "So cute!" and "This is true love!" Li Rongxiu skimmed the entire post from beginning to end and nearly spat blood from the frustration. Because throughout the whole post, aside from fantasizing about the love-hate entanglement between him and Chi Junrui, that damned brainless moderator had actually fantasized that he was the one on the bottom—

Damn it, why was it that someone had stolen his wife and humiliated him, yet he was still the one on the bottom?

Furious beyond measure, Li Rongxiu did not even stop to think. He registered an account, logged into the forum, and began tearing into the moderator and the countless commenters. But he was badly outnumbered. He had barely refuted a few remarks before he was drowned by their shameless mob tactics. Lying on his bed and staring at the screen instantly filled with "OP is an idiot" and "Lanzhou pancake," Li Rongxiu got so angry that he directly flipped his laptop over.

In the end, with his rage meter maxed out, Li Rongxiu simply climbed out of bed, dug out the Palm Treasure Shen Yujun had given him before leaving, logged onto the site, and pinned a message—

"Tell me the real names and addresses of the moderator of xx and the people in these replies. I want to dox them!"

Chapter 45

Ten minutes after Li Rongxiu posted the pinned message, he successfully obtained everything he wanted—including, but not limited to, the real identities of the moderator who had written the post and those several "passersby" who had mocked him so viciously, the usernames and passwords for all their online accounts, as well as their home addresses, family members, and other information.

At the same time, Li Rongxiu received a call from Shen Yujun, who was on the other side of the ocean. Shen Yujun had just met his biological father and was resting in his room. "How does it feel to use your authority for the first time?"

At that moment, Li Rongxiu, who believed in finishing today's work today and settling online matters online, was lying under the covers. Following the information sent to him by the website, he logged into the moderator's forum account and discovered that the person who had written the post was actually one of the site's administrators. No wonder Li Rongxiu had reported that moderator more than ten times earlier without seeing any results. This was clearly the greatest drawback of using public power for private purposes.

Li Rongxiu gave a malicious sneer. He used the moderator's account to post an apology statement and manually pinned it. Then, after using that account to leave random comments on other people's posts and stir up a storm, he used that as an excuse to resign from his position as a forum administrator. Finally, he casually changed the account password and logged out.

He then logged into several of the moderator's other online chat accounts, deleted every contact, changed the passwords again, and logged out.

After dealing with several passersby in the same fashion, Li Rongxiu once again logged onto the original forum under an alternate account and replied beneath the real-person pairing post, "Haha, see that? This is what happens when you mess with me." Finally, he deleted the forum account he had just registered, brushing off his sleeves and leaving the matter behind, hiding his achievements and reputation.

Thus, upon hearing Shen Yujun's question, Li Rongxiu answered in high spirits, "Yeah. I never imagined that having information on other people could feel this great. I feel like an emperor wielding absolute power. Other people's lives and deaths are all decided by a single thought of mine."

So you used that power to steal other people's forum and chat accounts, just to do something this utterly pointless?

Looking at the information displayed on his laptop, Shen Yujun felt too drained to even complain. He collected himself slightly and continued, "I heard you're going to intern at the company tomorrow. It's so late already—will you be able to get up tomorrow?"

Those words jolted Li Rongxiu awake. Only after Shen Yujun mentioned it did he instinctively glance at the alarm clock and realize it was already past three in the morning. If he did not sleep now, he really would not be able to get up at seven-thirty tomorrow. But this was the first call Shen Yujun had made to him since arriving in Enoria. Shen Yujun had been so busy today, yet he still remembered to check on him. If Li Rongxiu did not ask how Shen Yujun was doing, it would feel like he did not care about his friend.

So Li Rongxiu forcibly ignored the overwhelming drowsiness and asked, "It's fine. At worst, I won't go tomorrow morning. Reporting in during the afternoon is the same. By the way, did you meet your father? Does he look like you? Is he good to you?"

As though he could see Li Rongxiu's furrowed brows and the slightly damp corners of his eyes after he held back a sleepy yawn, Shen Yujun did not notice that his expression had softened considerably. His tone also became a little lighter. "He's all right. A man around thirty-five or thirty-six, with brown hair and blue eyes. He looks seventy or eighty percent like me. If you saw him, you could probably see what I'll look like twenty years from now. His personality is pretty good too, at least he's talkative. He spent an entire afternoon telling me the romantic story of how he met my mother... It seems every man in Enoria is like that."

At this point, Li Rongxiu could not stop himself from covering his mouth and yawning again. Shen Yujun heard the sound of his breathing through the receiver and smiled knowingly. Although Enoria was seven hours behind the Empire, Shen Yujun still said, "Forget it. Get some rest first. We can talk about anything tomorrow. I've traveled such a long way today, and I'm tired too."

Once the sleepiness hit him, forcing himself to stay awake became uncomfortable. Hearing Shen Yujun say that, Li Rongxiu immediately agreed. "All right. See you tomorrow."

Early the next morning, Li Rongxiu was pushed awake by his big brother, Li Rongyu. Seeing his brother dressed in sportswear and preparing to go for a morning run, Li Rongxiu, who had not slept nearly enough, half-opened his eyes and waved a hand dismissively. "You, Dad, and Grandpa go running. I'm not going. Wake me up when you come back for breakfast."

Li Rongyu shook his head helplessly at the sight. He could only tuck Li Rongxiu in properly before leaving on his own.

Yet when the three generations returned from their morning run and the whole family was ready to eat breakfast, Li Rongxiu still could not get out of bed. This time, his excuse was, "I'm not eating breakfast. Come wake me up after you're done, and we can go to work together!"

In truth, Li Rongyu was ultimately unable to bring his little brother to work. When he saw Li Rongxiu curled up in a ball beneath the blankets and sleeping soundly, he truly could not bear to forcibly wake him.

By the time Li Rongxiu had slept his fill, gotten up, and washed, it was already past one in the afternoon. He had missed not only the morning run and breakfast, but even lunch. If he waited any longer, he would only catch afternoon tea.

Mo Wanrou and Zhuang Meiru were sitting in the living room discussing how to hold Zhuang Meiru's birthday banquet a month later. When they saw Li Rongxiu's idle, languid figure, Mo Wanrou could not help laughing. "You really are something, child. You clearly said you would go morning running with your grandfather and father, yet you slept so long that you even missed lunch. The kitchen has prepared bird's nest porridge, some pastries, and a few light dishes for you. I'll have the servants bring them over. You just woke up, so it's not good to eat anything too greasy."

Li Rongxiu responded with a slightly slow "Mm." His soft nasal voice carried the dullness of someone who had not fully woken up, making Mo Wanrou and Zhuang Meiru smile knowingly. Mo Wanrou beckoned Li Rongxiu over and asked with a smile, "Next month is your mother's birthday, and it's her fiftieth, too. They say that at fifty, one understands destiny. How do you think we should hold this birthday banquet? In my opinion, we should naturally make a grand affair of it and liven things up. What do you think?"

Li Rongxiu happened to agree with the old lady's suggestion. Besides, he had been a party animal in his previous life and loved lively occasions most. So he followed the old lady's lead and offered quite a few suggestions. When the maid brought bird's nest porridge, pastries, and light dishes from the kitchen, Li Rongxiu slowly walked into the dining room. Seeing such bland food, he found it tasteless and frowned. "Do we have duck blood vermicelli? I want duck blood vermicelli soup."

Mo Wanrou smiled at Li Rongxiu's picky, disdainful expression and waved for the maid to inform the kitchen to make duck blood vermicelli soup. Li Rongxiu did not forget to add, "No cilantro."

By the time Li Rongxiu had contentedly finished his duck blood vermicelli soup—whether it counted as breakfast, lunch, or afternoon tea was unclear—it was already past three in the afternoon. The company would be getting off work in two hours, so it was obvious that Li Rongxiu was no longer suited to report in today.

Having long grown accustomed to this sort of idle life, Li Rongxiu did not feel guilty about standing his big brother up. Still, he called his brother at the company and told him that he would not be going in today. He even said in a show-off manner, "I just heard from the servants that the kitchen bought several four-pound lobsters. Looks like we're in for a treat tonight. Big Brother, you, Dad, and Grandpa should come home early tonight. If you have any social engagements, turn them down. Lobsters this big are truly hard to come by!"

After hanging up, Li Rongyu, who was busy reviewing documents in his office, shook his head helplessly. His long index finger pressed the office phone on his desk as he instructed his secretary to come in. When Zhou Fan entered, Li Rongyu waved a hand and said, "Notify the secretariat. The welcome meeting and tonight's welcome dinner are canceled. Xiu Xiu isn't coming to the company today."

Hearing this, Zhou Fan asked tentatively, "What, it's this late and Young Master Xiu still hasn't gotten out of bed?"

"He's already up. He even had a bowl of duck blood vermicelli soup, and he told us to cancel all our engagements tonight and go home early to eat lobster." Li Rongyu spread his hands helplessly. "Anyway... tell the secretariat to cancel all of today's activities. Forget it, postpone the welcome dinner until tomorrow night. I trust Xiu Xiu won't be late tomorrow."

Zhou Fan, who had never held much hope for Li Rongxiu's sense of time, shrugged indifferently. He remained skeptical of his boss's words. Still, his professional ethics as a subordinate urged him to relay Li Rongyu's instructions to the secretariat. Finally, Zhou Fan added reassuringly, "Boss, there's no need to worry. The fact that Young Master Xiu agreed to intern at the company during summer vacation instead of going out to have fun is already a huge improvement."