The Xie Family's Suckers' Money Is There for the Taking!

Xie Yuchen, the second son of the Xie Family, had been driven crazy lately.

He had originally been in charge of the Xie Group's entertainment division, which had nothing whatsoever to do with the legal department.

Yet because of one disobedient adopted son, he had been forced to study legal clauses and the wording of statements every day.

He was terrified that a single imprecise phrase would give the police something to seize on.

The pressure was immense. He was bluffing his way through it, yet there were still brainless department heads coming to ask him for advice.

"Vice President, what do you think of this response to the police?!"

Xie Yuchen rolled his eyes internally, but put on a profound expression as he picked up the document and skimmed it. "I don't think it's perfect enough. There are too many potential loopholes. Take it back and revise it."

The department head adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses. "Vice President, I heard you graduated from Harvard Law School. Could you give our department some guidance?"

"Guidance?!" Xie Yuchen sneered. "If I have to do all this work myself, why the hell am I paying you people?!"

"Finish it tonight, or all of you can get the hell out!"

The legal department head was a middle-aged man with elderly parents and young children, plus car and mortgage payments. Naturally, he could not afford to lose his job so easily. But when he returned to the office area, the post-2000s employees refused to accept it and immediately erupted.

"What isn't perfect?! Tell Xie Yuchen to mark it out! Other than sitting in his office barking orders, what else can he do?! Didn't he graduate from Harvard Law School?! Let him show us what he's got."

The department head frowned and silently gestured for the younger employee to lower his voice and stop pulling that workplace-reform nonsense.

But he refused to listen. He was practically ready to shout outside Xie Yuchen's office, "Whoever wants to work overtime can do it. I'm going home to watch variety shows!"

"I'm watching the part where Xie Chen tears Xie Ran apart,"

"Over and over again,"

"The more I watch, the better it feels!"

As he spoke, the young man grabbed his bag and strode away from his workstation.

The department head could only shake his head helplessly.

The surveillance footage froze on the screen. Xie Yuchen was so furious that he slammed the desk. "He's got some nerve?! Fire him tomorrow!"

"Calm down," Xie Zhenting said blandly from behind the executive chair. "You can't fire him."

"What, are we keeping him around for the New Year?!" Xie Yuchen turned around, his face full of indignation.

"Silencing one person is easy, but there are plenty of post-2000s employees in the company. You can't silence them one by one." Xie Zhenting rose from his chair and walked to the floor-to-ceiling window, looking down over the city. "That transfer case is troublesome. The inspection team is still investigating it. Didn't you say there was a renowned professor at your school who specialized in this type of lawsuit?"

He paused and turned back. "Can you invite him here?"

The moment Xie Yuchen heard that, his entire body went stiff. He cleared his throat before speaking. "Big Brother, I'm not actually that familiar with Professor Smith..."

"You never took his class?!" Xie Zhenting narrowed his eyes, displeasure written all over his face.

"I didn't choose it." Xie Yuchen did not dare meet his gaze. "Professor Smith was famously strict. Even if you took his class, there was no guarantee you'd get a high grade, so..."

"Uh, Big Brother, I just remembered I have another contract negotiation. I'll be going now!"

He turned and ran, terrified that if they kept talking, his secret of switching majors without permission would be exposed.

Once the office door shut, Xie Zhenting sighed. He picked up the phone from his desk and made a call.

It rang for a while before someone answered. "Could you help me contact Professor Smith at Harvard Law School? I'd like to hire him for some assistance. The consulting fee isn't an issue. Even an astronomical price is acceptable..."

Xie Chen had been sleeping soundly in his single dorm room when his phone started going off just as he turned over.

Too lazy to reach for it, he craned his neck to look. Seeing Lu Fei's name on the screen, he swiped to answer and held it to his ear. "This better be something huge, or I'll crawl through the phone line and scratch you!"

"Don't threaten me. Be careful, or I'll expose your identity!" Lu Fei laughed smugly.

"Oh, you've learned how to threaten people now?" Xie Chen spoke with his eyes closed. "You have one minute. If you don't get to the point, I'm hanging up!"

"Wait!" Lu Fei finally grew anxious. "The Xie Group wants to hire you as a legal consultant. The consulting fee is ridiculously high. Do you want to consider it?"

"How high?" Xie Chen asked carelessly.

"One million per hour."

Xie Chen curled his lips. "You really dared to name that price."

Lu Fei nodded matter-of-factly into the phone. "Even at that rate, you might not get an opening."

Xie Chen yawned. "Fine. Set up an online meeting, then. Tell Xie Zhenting I won't show my face."

"Sure," Lu Fei said brightly. "You should've come around sooner. The Xie Family's suckers' money is there for the taking!"

"Oh, right." He suddenly remembered something. "I've been wanting to ask—why did you call yourself Smith overseas?"

"Because I'm a movie fan."

Xie Chen hung up immediately after saying that.

He had intended to go back to sleep, but no matter what he did, he could not fall asleep again.

He opened his eyes and recalled the scene at the guesthouse restaurant last night. Something about Huo Wenye felt off.

His attempts to get close had been far too obvious,

And he kept touching him at every turn... Didn't they say he was a germophobe?

Could I have offended him before?!

Xie Chen unconsciously rotated his wrist. It seemed to still hold a scorching warmth, making his heart race for a moment.

Then he abruptly sat up.

"Fuck, what am I thinking? We're both men. A little touching is no big deal!"

Xie Chen jumped out of bed and headed to the communal bathroom to wash up.

He turned the faucet to its coldest setting and splashed his face hard, trying to wake himself up.

But at some point, someone had appeared behind him and poked the soft flesh at his waist.

"Fuck, who was that?!"

Ignoring the water still on his face, Xie Chen straightened and turned around. Just as he was about to curse out "pervert," he saw Huo Wenye's devastatingly handsome face—the kind that made people's legs go weak.

"..."

Just as he was about to speak, someone hurried into the hallway. "Hey, hey, hey! Observers and transformation guests are not allowed to meet in private!"

Director Li shouted at the top of his lungs, looking like he had caught them cheating in the washroom.

"Last night was an exception, a celebration for getting the village connected to a water supply. But the basic rules haven't changed. You two..."

"We merely ran into each other," Huo Wenye said, his expression turning colder. "There's no need to make such a fuss."

As he spoke, he placed a small bottle beside the sink. "It cures hangovers. Drink it."

Then, while Xie Chen was still staring blankly, he strode out of the washroom.

As he brushed past Director Li, he did not forget to shoot him a warning look, as though blaming him for meddling.

Xie Ran, hiding behind the door, witnessed the entire scene.

His face twisted with jealousy and hatred. He clenched his fists hard, then turned and ran to Xie Jinran, unable to wait any longer before saying,

"Third Brother, release the photos. I don't want to see Brother Xie Chen falling deeper and deeper!"

"Only when the scandal breaks will he understand that he and Huo Wenye are not from the same world at all!"

"That noble Buddha of the Beijing elite circle is only playing with him!"