Chapter 8

He got up and turned on the projection screen for Lan Luo, his voice warm with amusement. "If you're hungry, go to the kitchen. I left you some food. Be good and stay home."

After spending several days together, Qi Chao knew the little puppet was very smart and didn't need too much worrying over. He had always been an easygoing person, so after a few reminders, he said no more.

There was nothing else to say anyway. He would be back soon. Qi Chao had already decided that once he reached the old residence, he would avoid the original owner's family, head straight for the library, find the information, and immediately return home. It shouldn't take long.

But no matter how well he planned things, reality dealt him a crushing blow. The moment Qi Chao stepped off the aircraft and entered the old residence's living room, he ran into the original owner's father, whom he had not seen in nearly a year.

Father Qi, his stern face marked by deep nasolabial folds, sat on the sofa drinking black tea. Not far away, the original owner's two younger brothers were kneeling.

Both brothers had bruised, swollen faces, yet their expressions remained defiant. Broken porcelain and glass littered the side of the coffee table.

This was clearly not a scene for outsiders to witness.

Qi Chao silently withdrew one foot, but the next second, he heard the original owner's father call his name.

Well then.

He was really miserable.

Qi Chao had not expected that his first time coming home would actually bring him face-to-face with a once-in-a-century final boss.

The three people in the living room all turned their eyes toward him. Qi Chao braced himself, smiled, and walked in.

"Dad, you're back?" As he spoke, he walked over to stand beside the original owner's two younger brothers and joked, "Did these two little brats make you angry again?"

Qi Chao was somewhat relieved that although the original owner had been a pervert in private, he had still appeared to be an obedient son and a good older brother in his family's eyes. Otherwise, Qi Chao truly would not have known how to start talking.

Father Qi gave a cold hum and looked at the two unfilial sons kneeling before him. "Didn't you think you were in the right? Go on, keep talking."

Qi Feng and Qi Ye were Twinborn. They looked alike, and at sixteen or seventeen, they were at an age when their sharp edges were on full display. One had dyed red hair, the other white, and their eyes held the exact same arrogance.

"What did we do wrong?" Qi Feng snapped. "That woman liked both of us brothers, so we agreed to it. Was that wrong?"

Qi Ye, with his dyed white hair, had a quieter personality, but he apparently agreed with his brother as well. "She wanted us to take her to a hotel. We went to the hotel, and before we even did anything, the vice squad showed up."

Qi Chao: ...

Ah, well.

Those few sentences contained an enormous amount of information. Qi Chao could only marvel at their audacity. Before he had even recovered, Father Qi smashed the teacup in his hand onto the floor and berated the two of them, ordering them back to their rooms to write self-criticisms.

The two younger brothers stood and left, their eyes filled with resentful hostility. They clearly still believed they had done nothing wrong.

Father Qi, his face dark, instructed the young butler nearby to lock the two of them in the house. They would not be allowed out until they admitted their mistakes.

"And you, why haven't you been going to the company?"

Qi Chao, who had been watching the spectacle, was suddenly called out. His heart skipped a beat, but he forced a smile and calmly answered, "I haven't been feeling well lately."

That was naturally a lie. The truth was that he had forgotten the original owner even had a job.

The original owner was twenty-eight this year. After graduating from Blue Star's top-ranked university, he had gone directly to work at a subsidiary under his father's corporation. Because he was quite capable, he had a great deal of prestige within the company and was practically the undisputed heir.

The original owner had also regarded the company as his personal property. He worked diligently and performed actively every day, even refusing a salary and working overtime constantly, as though he cared for nothing but work. His daily expenses relied entirely on the allowance his old father gave him.

After buying the puppet and the regulator, the original owner's savings had been wiped out, leaving him waiting for his father to send money. But Qi Chao, wearing the original owner's identity, really had no face to accept someone else's money.

Besides, he did not understand finance at all and had no intention of continuing the job. Once he returned, he planned to write a resignation letter.

Qi Chenming nodded slightly, seemingly unconcerned about what exactly was wrong with his son's health. His brows were tightly furrowed, deepening the lines around his mouth, and his eyes fixed on Qi Chao like a hawk's. "What did you meet the Li family's youngest son for?"

The Li family's youngest son was the V-necked man from the private room that day.

"The Li family has connections to the black market. I wanted to buy a little something at the time." Qi Chao did not panic. He had long learned from the original owner's memories that Father Qi was exceptionally controlling. This could easily be investigated, so there was no point in lying.

Qi Chenming glanced at him and warned, "Don't get involved with the black market again."

"Okay." Qi Chao nodded.

Qi Chenming pursed his lips, as though he wanted to say something more. But he was not good with words to begin with, and the relationship between father and son was distant. Words of concern caught in his throat, unable to come out.

Qi Chao, seated at the other end of the sofa, watched Father Qi remain motionless. After thinking for a moment, he asked, "What happened to Qi Feng and Qi Ye's faces?"

Father Qi's previously calm expression immediately darkened. "When the vice squad came, they refused to go to the station and got into a fight with them."

Seeing Father Qi grow angry again, Qi Chao hurriedly consoled him. "They're still young and don't know better. Dad, don't be angry. I'll talk to them later."

If it had been the original owner, he would definitely have fanned the flames in secret at this point, hoping Father Qi would become even angrier. The worse those illegitimate sons were, the more secure his own position as heir would be.

Qi Chao was different. He had never intended to inherit the company, so he simply said what was on his mind. When he comforted Father Qi, he was sincere as well.

Seeing the expression in his eldest son's eyes, Qi Chenming's perpetually tense face became somewhat

relaxed

more relaxed. He nodded meticulously. "Your younger brothers listen to you. You have proper values, so teach them well. If they do that filthy sort of thing again, chop off their hands."

Qi Chao thought, Give me a break. The original owner had proper values? Wasn't that an insult to the very phrase?

Qi Chenming had only come home today by coincidence. He had a client to meet in an hour, so he did not stay any longer. He patted his eldest son on the shoulder, then rose and left.

Before leaving, Qi Chao heard Father Qi emphasize to the butler once more that the two brothers upstairs were not to be let out.

The living room returned to silence as the cleaning robot cleared away the shattered teacup from the floor.