Beating a Dog Means Looking at Its Owner

Li Junshan had seen the old "Wen Shuang." No matter how harmless and innocent he pretended to be, the stench of years of scheming seeped from his very bones. His eyes were full of fame and profit as he clung to the powerful, and he would do anything for those things. The sight of him was disgusting.

So even though Wen Shuang had acted out of character and wanted New Orchid to "come back from the dead," Li Junshan had never considered that it might be out of guilt or a desire to make amends.

Perhaps both New Orchid and Yu Feng had some unknown value, and Wen Shuang simply thought it would be better to squeeze them dry than let them go to waste.

Li Junshan still looked down on him immensely.

He set the red wine he had casually tossed onto the floor on the table. The bottom of the bottle hit the tabletop with a thud. Li Junshan wore an amused expression, though his eyes were icy. "It's not impossible for my brother to help. Chug this whole bottle in one go."

Lei Wenxu clearly saw Wen Shuang let out a breath of relief.

Did that mean he had a high alcohol tolerance?

Not really.

Wen Shuang had merely remembered a passage from the novel describing the original owner of this body. Near the end, the cannon fodder was supposed to walk his tragic, despairing path. The original owner had become a rat in the streets. After being kicked out by his landlord, he went to work as a male prostitute at a large entertainment club. Even then, he still naively hoped to hook one or two wealthy young masters. By sheer coincidence, he ran into an old enemy he had once humiliated. That enemy had become the treasured lover of an overbearing CEO, and to make his darling happy, the CEO had someone shove a red wine bottle up the original owner's ass... The scene had been bloody and brutal, while the comments section applauded in unison.

Honestly, if Wen Shuang had not ended up in this body, he would have sighed that evil people got what they deserved. But he had become the cannon fodder, so the moment he saw Li Junshan pick up the red wine, he instinctively thought of that scene. His hair stood on end, and he prepared to run at any moment.

Fortunately, it was only drinking.

Compared to the original owner's fate, drinking was nothing!

After considering it for a moment, Wen Shuang stepped forward and stared seriously at Li Junshan. "If I drink it, will you give New Orchid a chance?" He understood the art of speaking. Even now, he was negotiating rather than making a transaction.

That attitude inexplicably eased some of Li Junshan's anger. He nodded. "Drink it, and I'll consider it."

There was an eighty or ninety percent chance it was a trap, but Wen Shuang had no choice. The setting this world had given him was utterly fucked. Even if he turned around and left, Lei Wenxu was one of the leading figures in the domestic liquor industry, and he and Li Junshan were childhood friends. As long as Li Junshan refused to relent, Lei Wenxu would grant his brother this favor no matter what. Even if he had not run into Li Junshan today, and even if Lei Wenxu agreed, they would still meet someday in the future. The plot would not change in the slightest. The only solution was to make Li Junshan let go of his grudge.

In his previous life, Wen Shuang had barely touched alcohol. His relatives and friends all substituted tea for wine, so he had no clear idea of his own tolerance.

I should be able to handle it...

Wen Shuang looked conflicted.

But Li Junshan thought he was scared and laughed. "If you regret it, crawl out of here now. Yu Feng hates you to the bone anyway. Even if you pull this off, you won't change his desire to skin you alive."

Wen Shuang took a deep breath. Under the watchful eyes of Li Junshan and Lei Wenxu, he picked up the bottle and began chugging.

It tasted fine when sipped slowly, but drinking it like this was unbearable. After two gulps, the taste of red wine made Wen Shuang dizzy, and he vaguely wanted to throw up. But then he remembered how Yu Feng had gotten drunk beyond recognition at a business dinner, stripped of all dignity, just to revive New Orchid and pay for his mother's treatment. Suddenly, this little compensation felt like nothing. He had always had a feeling that only by making up for some of the original owner's mistakes could he carve out a path of his own in this world.

Li Junshan's expression had initially been mocking, but as the wine level fell, he frowned slightly. He could no longer laugh.

He had not expected Wen Shuang to hold his liquor so well. No matter. If one bottle was not enough, then two. If two were not enough, then a whole case. Back when this bastard had toyed with his brother's feelings, he had been utterly ruthless. What did this little bit of revenge amount to now?

Once Li Junshan thought of it that way, he immediately felt justified and reached for another unopened bottle.

Lei Wenxu ate while watching the show. He even casually handed Li Junshan a corkscrew. As expected of childhood friends—their hearts were equally black.

Bang! Wen Shuang forcibly finished the bottle of red wine. He felt as if the alcohol had reached his teeth, like he would spray it out the moment he opened his mouth. His stomach was bloated, and the feeling was awful. But after a few seconds, the discomfort passed. His body seemed to slowly sink into a ball of cotton, becoming light and weightless. His reason was like a loose ball of thread. Wen Shuang felt that everything made sense, yet everything was gradually slipping out of control.

"Finished?" Li Junshan asked.

Wen Shuang stared directly at him, his gaze unfocused. "Mm."

Seeing this, Li Junshan became interested. As if remembering something, he asked, "Tell me, why did you think of helping Yu Feng?"

"Pitiful!" Wen Shuang began slurring.

Li Junshan suddenly found Wen Shuang quite interesting. Anyone could say Yu Feng was pitiful, but did Wen Shuang have the right?

"So your conscience finally woke up?"

People said that drunken words were sober thoughts, and Wen Shuang was no exception. He immediately made a miserable face, his cheeks rapidly flushing red. "I had no choice. I had no choice, you know? I-I came here for no reason, and then I had to take the blame. Such a huge pot of blame..." Wen Shuang shakily used his hands to draw a circle for Li Junshan, then lowered it heavily, his tone grief-stricken. "It just smashed down on me!"

Li Junshan: "...Are we talking about the same thing?"

Then Wen Shuang caught sight of the wine under Li Junshan's hand. He grabbed it for himself, sat in the chair hugging the bottle, and began drinking again. As he drank, he complained, "I woke up from one sleep and just, just came here. Who am I supposed to reason with?!"

"Since the day I came out of my mother's womb, I've never run into something this absurd!"

"They're all chasing after me and biting me, and I can't even feel wronged..."

"...Sob, sob, sob."

"Heaven is so unfair!!!"

Li Junshan: "..."

Lei Wenxu: "..."

They were both veterans at the drinking table, especially Lei Wenxu, whose ability to read people was first-rate. There was no fooling him with lousy acting. Yet right now, Wen Shuang truly seemed drunk enough not to recognize his own mother.

Lei Wenxu said softly, "Are you sure he did all those things?"

Li Junshan immediately objected. "Would I lie to you?"

Lei Wenxu rarely showed such confusion. "That shouldn't be... He looks so useless."

Wen Shuang abruptly raised his head. Beneath his dazed look was a trace of sharpness. "Who are you calling useless?"

Lei Wenxu had no response for a moment.

Just then, Wen Shuang's phone rang. It urged him insistently, one ring after another. He made a pause gesture, poking at the screen for ages before finally hitting the answer button. Both Li Junshan and Lei Wenxu could clearly see the words "President Xuan."

Xuan Zhe?

A bad feeling rose in Lei Wenxu's heart.

Sure enough, drunk people did not just enjoy courting death themselves. They also liked dragging others down with them.

"Hello!" Wen Shuang roared into the phone.

Li Junshan suddenly felt as if he had lifted a stone only to smash his own foot.

Xuan Zhe was nearly deafened by that shout.

After the brief ringing in his ears faded, he narrowed his eyes dangerously and asked coldly, "Where are you?"

"Drinking with Young Master Li!" Wen Shuang had completely melted into a puddle on the chair. "Li Junshan, Young Master Li! He's treated me to two, two bottles already!"

Li Junshan? Had they not been at each other's throats with Wen Shuang that night? How had they ended up drinking together?

Xuan Zhe temporarily suppressed his anger. "Mr. Dilanda may be coming out tonight. I need you to interpret for him."

The private room fell deathly silent. Xuan Zhe's voice was unusually clear, and both Lei Wenxu and Li Junshan held their breaths.

Wen Shuang took a long time to process those words. "B-but I'm off work already."

Li Junshan slapped a hand over his face. Even though he disliked Wen Shuang, he could barely stand to watch this.

Xuan Zhe enunciated every word. "Wen Shuang, stop making a drunken scene. If you don't come, then don't ever come again."

Wen Shuang paused. "I'm not making a drunken scene..." His voice grew softer and softer. "Why is your temper so bad? You're arrogant and conceited, and your personality is like a block of ice."

Beside Xuan Zhe, Cao Nanyu was already silently reciting the Rebirth Mantra.

Xuan Zhe lost patience. Just as he was about to hang up and kick Wen Shuang out for good, he heard the man's soft voice. "But after I came to this world, you've been the nicest person to me..."

Xuan Zhe paused.

Wen Shuang was overcome with emotion. He had been quick-witted since childhood, and occasionally played dumb only so that life would not exhaust him quite so much. In this rolling sea of humanity, people's hearts were often cold. Caring too much would only hurt himself. But he was all alone. No matter how calmly he had entered this perilous situation, it was impossible for him not to be afraid at all. Xuan Zhe had contempt and mockery for all living things deep in his bones, yet he would not casually destroy someone's future. No matter how much he tested or doubted Wen Shuang, he had never tried to crush him into the dirt.

When he had passed out at the hotel that night and Xuan Zhe caught him, Wen Shuang had felt that embrace was exceptionally steady.

Instinctively, he trusted Xuan Zhe a little more.

The man had only said a few utterly ordinary words. Xuan Zhe had every reason to suspect that he was putting on a pathetic act. Yet somehow, the goal he had always pursued had suddenly been achieved: he had torn off Wen Shuang's mask. At this moment, he actually felt that this gentle, soft-spoken, utterly non-threatening person was the real Wen Shuang.

Then Xuan Zhe said something he would never have said in his entire life. "Send me your location."

His voice was low and rich, making Wen Shuang think of a golden autumn afternoon. He immediately became so sleepy that he could barely keep his eyes open. Dazedly, he said, "I don't know..."

"Let Li Junshan answer the phone," Xuan Zhe said in a deep voice.

Li Junshan's grandfather had received favors from the Xuan Household years ago. Li Junshan was merely a spoiled young master, and Xuan Zhe intimidated him. Hearing that, he proactively took the phone, swallowing nervously. "President Xuan?"

There was silence on Xuan Zhe's end for two seconds, followed by the click of a lighter. The man drew in a breath and slowly exhaled. "Even when beating a dog, you have to consider its owner. Young Master Li, did you ask me before targeting Wen Shuang?"