Keeping His Eyes on One Person to Exploit

Yan Xianjue regretted it now. Deeply regretted it.

He should not have deliberately crafted an innocent, sheltered persona just to laugh at his second brother.

How could I have known Li Yang was this kind of person? How could he have no bottom line whatsoever?!

Yan Xianjue wailed inwardly.

Mother Yan gave Yan Yi'an a look, signaling him to hurry up and save the situation.

Yan Xianjue's little schemes were simply too childish in their eyes.

Even Yan Ci had seen through them and silently played along, all so Yan Xianjue could witness how sinister people could be.

They already knew he was an addict, and he still wanted to talk about bottom lines?

Yan Yi'an gave Mother Yan a slight nod to show that he understood. "Xianjue, come sit over here."

At the same time, he swept Li Yang with an icy gaze, signaling him to put away his little schemes.

Li Yang broke out in a cold sweat.

He had not noticed that Yan Ci, some distance away, had finished changing his mouse and wrapped up the match as quickly as possible.

He directly claimed he was not in good form today and asked for a substitute.

The vice-captain sitting beside Yan Ci patted him on the shoulder in understanding.

He had been the first to notice that Yan Ci's mouse was broken. "You might be having some bad luck today. It's probably not a good day for gaming."

"So it was because his mouse broke. I was wondering how the captain could make such a rookie mistake."

Yan Ci: "..."

No, the first time really had been a mistake.

After hearing Yan Xianjue's inner thoughts, he had failed to keep himself under control.

"It's fine, it's fine. If you're having bad luck, don't play games. Captain, why don't you switch with Li Yang? Let him come over. He's been training and meshing well with us lately."

People in esports more or less believed in digital superstition.

Yan Ci looked at the teammates Yan Xianjue had thoroughly evaluated, his feelings a tangled mess.

Maybe their team should just rename itself All Villains.

Their results had been good these past few years, so naturally, they were quite popular in the esports scene.

With all the things Yan Xianjue had casually revealed, Yan Ci did not dare imagine how lively the trending searches would be if any of it got posted online.

With mixed feelings, he nodded, tacitly agreeing to their suggestion.

When Li Yang caught sight of Yan Ci walking over from the corner of his eye, his heart tightened.

He realized he probably would not have another chance today.

But to show that he had no ulterior motives, he had deliberately avoided asking the young master for his contact information.

How was he supposed to get close to him afterward?

Though countless thoughts raced through his mind, Li Yang still stood up to greet Yan Ci the moment he approached.

"Captain Yan, are you not continuing?"

Yan Ci casually brushed him off. "I'm not in good form today. You take my place."

Li Yang's eyes widened in surprise.

He had thought Yan Ci would not let him play today.

Yan Ci impatiently waved him away, telling him to hurry over.

If Li Yang stayed any longer, he did not know whether Yan Xianjue would go crazy.

But the rest of them would probably be driven crazy by Yan Xianjue's inner thoughts first.

Li Yang nodded in greeting to Father Yan and the others.

Then he said separately to Yan Xianjue, "I'll head over first, then."

Li Yang wanted to use this to get closer to Yan Xianjue and show Yan Ci how familiar they were with each other.

Unfortunately, Yan Xianjue did not follow his script at all. He casually patted the chair beside him and called Yan Ci over to sit.

Li Yang left with a face full of confusion. From the way the two had interacted before, their relationship clearly did not seem very good.

Why would the young master invite Yan Ci to sit beside him?

How could he know that Yan Xianjue had troubles he could not speak of?

There were only so many seats in the VIP section.

He and Yan Yi'an had originally been seated apart, but Yan Yi'an had just called him over.

If Yan Ci did not sit beside him, then he could only sit beside Yan Yi'an.

Then the three brothers would be arranged with their eldest brother stuck between the two of them.

Honestly, Yan Xianjue found it hard to imagine that scene.

The atmosphere would be far too much like a showdown!

I've really sacrificed too much for this family!

I need to resolve Second Brother's knot as soon as possible.

Father Yan and Mother Yan, seated together on a two-person sofa across from them, nodded along.

Of course, they could see that Yan Ci was not truly doing this for the family inheritance.

He had genuinely been misled into thinking his eldest brother intended to swallow up the Yan Household's assets.

He had projected those vicious adopted sons from television dramas onto Yan Yi'an.

The problem was that he did not know Yan Yi'an had always been a member of the Yan Household. He was entitled to a share of the family assets in the first place.

This also served as a reminder to Father Yan.

The Yan Household was not as united as it seemed.

If they had not suddenly gained the ability to hear Yan Xianjue's inner thoughts yesterday,

who knew whether their concealment and refusal to explain would have caused their second son to head down a dead end?

"Oh, right," Yan Xianjue suddenly remembered something. "Isn't your team under closed management?"

He remembered Yan Ci mentioning it once before, but he had not paid much attention at the time.

Yan Ci nodded. "You can't leave the base on training days. Even on rest days, you have to report it in advance if you want to go out."

He also did not understand how his teammates could still cause so much trouble when the rules were already this strict.

It was truly unbelievable.

Yan Xianjue hurriedly asked, "When was the last rest day?"

"We've had friendly matches back-to-back recently. The last rest day when we could go out should have been..." Yan Ci calculated silently. "Probably the week before last."

Then what are we waiting for? Just call the police!

Yan Xianjue picked up his phone and was about to call the police.

Yan Yi'an was the first to understand what Yan Xianjue meant.

If Li Yang was an addict, there was no way he could go half a month without it.

He grabbed Yan Xianjue's phone.

They could not call the police so publicly. If they did not prepare the public relations response in advance, Li Yang would be finished, but Yan Ci's team would not come out unscathed either.

Netizens had zero tolerance for addicts these days.

Yan Xianjue tugged several times but could not pull the phone from Yan Yi'an's hand.

He leaned close to Yan Yi'an's ear and whispered, "Big Brother, let go. Something seems wrong with Li Yang."

Yan Yi'an nodded, indicating that he understood.

The police absolutely had to be called, but Yan Xianjue could not be the one to do it. Yan Ci had to handle it himself.

Besides, Li Yang was involved in quite a few matters.

If he entered rehab, it would not be easy to get information out of him.

Yan Yi'an soothingly patted Yan Xianjue's hand, which was still struggling to unlock the phone.

Copying his approach, he whispered, "Leave it to Yan Ci to handle."

Big Brother's right! Second Brother won't give up until he hits a wall.

But can Second Brother handle it? He spent so much money on this team, yet he didn't even do background checks when recruiting people.

Yan Ci: "..."

Yan Ci gave an awkward but polite smile. "I can hear that."

Yan Xianjue instantly let go of the phone, looked straight ahead, and seriously watched the match.

As he watched, Yan Xianjue spotted something else that was off.

Oh, right!

Yan Xianjue suddenly slapped his thigh.

The most unbelievable one on Second Brother's team is the coach. After the team was banned from competing in the novel, that coach immediately broke his contract and joined a rival team.

That alone is fine. After all, working people need to eat.

The most outrageous part was that he packed up and took all the training data from Second Brother's base!

And the custom training software Second Brother paid for out of pocket—it cost several million!

The Yan family exchanged looks. What kind of sucker was Yan Ci, exactly?

Yan Ci drew a deep breath, started to speak, stopped, then wanted to speak again.

Was this damned novel specifically out to fleece him alone?