Chapter 27

Qin Heng's eyes were wide as bells, not a trace of sleepiness left in them. He lay stiff and straight; in a different setting, he could have been laid directly into a coffin.

Half asleep, Chi Ning felt too hot under the blanket. His hands and feet sprawled restlessly, and in his daze, he kicked the blanket away.

Qin Heng stared at that pearly white calf that could practically crush him. Grinding his back teeth together, he got out of bed, spread the blanket over the floor, and lay down there.

When he had sold the sofa to scheme against someone, he had never imagined that he would one day willingly sleep on the floor.

In his imagination, he should have been holding Chi Ning, then lying to him in the morning that Chi Ning had rolled over on his own.

The more Qin Heng thought about it, the more irritated he became. He rolled over carelessly, feeling inexplicably aggrieved.

Ever since he was young, he had basically had to fight for everything he wanted. When he got a little older, fighting was no longer enough. He had to use tricks, know how to lie, and know how to play all sides.

But he even felt guilty about lying to Chi Ning. He could not bring himself to use any means at all and was completely at a loss.

Just like now, he was so close to Chi Ning, yet it was like scratching an itch through a boot. He could not reach the itch in his heart and could only stare blankly at the moon until he finally fell asleep near dawn.

The next day.

Chi Ning was jolted awake by his phone. Still groggy, he felt around for the phone by his pillow. Without looking at the caller ID, he flipped it open with his thumb, held it to his ear, and said, "Hello?"

"Ningning?" A woman's voice sounded in his ear, and Chi Ning woke up at once. He pulled the phone away and saw the two characters in the contact name—Mom.

Stunned, he pressed the receiver to his ear again. "Mom?"

"Mm." Chen Mingxian's voice carried a smile. "Did you just wake up? Why are you so groggy?"

Clutching the blanket, Chi Ning glanced toward where Qin Heng had slept and only then noticed that he was on the floor. He immediately felt awkward and guilty. "Mm..."

Had his sleeping posture been so bad that he kicked Qin Heng off the bed in the middle of the night? How could he sleep so soundly on the floor?

Chen Mingxian said, "Your dad said you went to celebrate a classmate's gold medal? How was it?"

"It was okay." Chi Ning answered vaguely.

"You should have more fun." Chen Mingxian glanced at Chi Baichuan, who kept signaling at her with his eyes, and reluctantly added, "When are you coming home?"

Chi Ning said, "I'll take a taxi back in a little while."

In his previous life, he had not even seen his parents one last time. His memories of his mother's face had long since become blurry.

Chen Mingxian was a workaholic. Afraid that he would not see his mother if he returned too late, he did not bother being cautious. Since Qin Heng was still asleep anyway, he quickly stripped off the T-shirt and shorts he had worn for just one night and changed into his own clothes.

Without pausing for even a moment, he sprinted downstairs, ran out, and hailed a taxi in one smooth motion.

By the time he got home, only a little over ten minutes had passed since he hung up, and lunch had just been set on the table.

Chi Baichuan looked at Chi Ning meaningfully. "This classmate of yours lives quite close to us."

Seeing that he was about to dig into every last detail, Chen Mingxian slapped Father Chi's thigh. "Stop meddling and eat."

Chi Baichuan held himself back, then finally grabbed his wife's hand and pressed it firmly against his leg. "How many days are you staying in the country this time?"

Chen Mingxian said, "That depends on how you behave."

Watching his parents' love, Chi Ning's lips curled up on their own. He grabbed a pineapple bun from the table, wrapped it in baking paper, and carried it upstairs. Teasingly, he said, "Dad, then make sure you behave. I'm going upstairs first."

Chi Baichuan said, "Go on."

The moment their son went upstairs, Chen Mingxian took out her laptop. "Hurry up. Mrs. Shen did something stupid, and our plan has reached the end. Reel it in."

Chi Baichuan turned serious. "All right."

-

Chi Ning thought his parents were being lovey-dovey downstairs. Happily humming a tune, he flopped into the little rocking chair and read an entertainment tabloid while eating his pineapple bun.

Ever since he discovered that his older brother had been deliberately putting on an act, he had subscribed to a newspaper himself. This paper specialized in secrets of wealthy families and entertainment gossip, paying particular attention to the Shen Family and the Chi family.

What it wrote would tell him what his brother had been acting out lately.

Unexpectedly, when he spread open the newspaper, what Chi Ning saw was not a report about his eldest brother, but a full-page photograph on the front page.

In the photograph, Qin Heng was looking down at him, while he held a gold medal and bit one corner of it against his canine tooth. Shen Minyi's figure was faintly visible in the background.

Chi Ning suddenly sat upright.

Holding up the paper, he examined it carefully. There were gray edges around the photograph, shaped very much like the edges of the PVC strip curtain by the door.

Xu Jiahao's shop was located in the safest part of Gangnan. On top of that, Boss Xu had deliberately protected him. He had gone there so many times without ever being photographed.

Yet the moment Shen Minyi showed up, they got photographed!

The tabloid's huge headline was even more absurd—Two Dragons Playing with a Pearl? The Chi Family's Second Young Master Won Two Gold Medals Without Competing in Anything.

Frowning, Chi Ning skimmed through it at a glance. The paparazzi solemnly portrayed him as a useless young master who flitted between two men, promiscuous and fickle.

Compared with the previous article published in another newspaper about his victory over Jiang Shijie, this piece was far more explicit and could practically be called slander.

The person who wrote it clearly knew something about his former life. They had even devoted plenty of ink to how he gave up the Olympiad for a man, how he willingly degraded himself by hanging around billiard halls to seduce men, and how he dressed himself up until he had people utterly captivated.

The logic was clear and coherent.

It was made up so convincingly that it sounded real.

Turning the page, he found interviews with passersby. Entertainment papers had always understood better what the public liked to read.

Q: What do you think about this matter?

A: Elderly man at the market: Young men these days have no shame. Getting involved in male-male relationships, there's something wrong with their thinking. What's the use of having money? Didn't they still give birth to a lunatic?

Q: What do you think about the Chi Family's second young master seducing the Shen Family heir?

A: Auntie investor: I know that Shen Minyi. Wasn't he in the newspapers not long ago? Some national competition champion... Anyway, he can get recommended admission to S University. A child like that cannot be led astray by some improper person.

I think this Chi family really did grow bad shoots from good bamboo. Mrs. Chen gave birth to two useless sons. Chairman Chi should hurry up and find a concubine to have children with while he's still young.

Q: How would you evaluate the Chi Family's second young master?

A: Taxi driver: People like him are what make Yangcheng such a mess. Too bad messing around like this isn't criminalized, or they should haul him away already.

There were more unbearable comments afterward, but Chi Ning did not finish reading them. This publishing house's gossip magazine had broad distribution and high sales. The impact of this report on him and his family would be no small matter.

The Chi family's reputation would fall to rock bottom along with its stock price.

On the surface, only the Shen Family stood to benefit.

Could Shen Minyi have done this?

Chi Ning stared thoughtfully at the empty bottle on the windowsill. The yellow roses inside had withered long ago, and now the bottle was completely empty.

Probably not.

Shen Minyi's act of giving him the gold medal had been a little too bold. Given Chairman Shen's usual grand escort, the fact that his son had come without bodyguards basically meant he had sneaked out.

Then it must have been Chairman Shen or Mrs. Shen.

Did Mrs. Shen think he had really seduced Shen Minyi and intend to warn him this way?

Chi Ning's expression went blank for a moment.

Compared with the Chi family's upright family traditions, the Shen Family was utterly absurd just from looking at its family tree.

First of all, Chairman Shen had five wives. Shen Minyi was born to the legal wife, with another eight siblings around him, so his inheritance rights were far from secure.

Under such circumstances, Shen Minyi could like men, but he could not truly marry one.

Chi Ning drew in a deep breath. "Wow—"

He turned on the bulky computer in his room, navigated to the stock webpage, found the details page for Chongning Group's stock, and let out a breath as he looked at the all-green, cliff-like downward curve.

"Brilliant—"

He had not even done anything, yet one gossip piece from Mrs. Shen had accomplished what his father and brother had spent three years acting out without managing to achieve.

The Chi family's stock had hit the daily limit down.

The gossip paper and retail investors might have contributed, but more importantly, Mrs. Shen had bribed Chi family shareholders to sell, intending to teach the Chi family a lesson.

Chi Ning said, "..."

What a cheap lesson. The Chi family's tight funds had suddenly become much more flexible.

No wonder his mother had suddenly come home. It turned out she was here to reel in the net.

He folded the paper shut, lay down on the bed fully clothed, propped up one calf, and swung it back and forth. "I got to pick up another bargain~"

He had originally planned to file some patents early, squeeze into the Shen Family's market, cooperate with his father and brother's act, and wait until they gradually bought back the shares.

But one thing after another, either the Shen Family's partners were courting death, or Chairman Shen's wife was handing them points.

Picking up bargains felt so damn good.

It would be even better if he could see Shen Minyi, Chairman Shen, and Mrs. Shen's expressions after they discovered everything.

Chi Ning rolled halfway across the bed and raised a hand to grab a miscellaneous book he had swiped from his eldest brother. He had only opened it to the first page when his phone started going "biubiubiu."

"Hello? Who is it?"

Qin Heng took a heavy breath. "Me."

He had only been awake for a short while. Because he had not slept well yesterday, his head was splitting with pain. "Zhang Qiuwen called me and told me about the newspaper. Sorry, when I gave you the gold medal, I didn't notice there were paparazzi over there."

"Oh, it's fine. It was written pretty well." Chi Ning's praise was completely sincere.

Qin Heng thought he had been driven mad with anger. "Did you get home safely?"

"I did." Thinking of something, Chi Ning added, "The photo showed you pretty clearly, and what they wrote was explicit too. They even said you were involved with the underworld. Are you okay?"

Qin Heng froze. "I'm fine."

Chi Ning had such a good temper. His first reaction after being slandered was not to explain himself or get angry, but to worry about how someone else was doing.

When he first met Chi Ning, he had thought Chi Ning was interested in him. Later, he discovered that Chi Ning treated many people well. Later still... he realized that his own thoughts toward Chi Ning were improper, while Chi Ning seemed to only want to be brothers with him.