Page 5

But Chi Yang was different. No matter how much the eldest young master of the Chi family messed around, he was still the heir Chi Baichuan had painstakingly groomed. If the Jiang Family wanted a foothold in the pharmaceutical industry, they had to build ties with the Chi family.

Jiang Shijie's expression shifted several times, leaving him somewhat embarrassed.

Chi Yang timely gave him an out. "I'll teach my own little brother. Why are you sticking your nose in?"

The tense atmosphere immediately relaxed.

The friends gathered around breathed a sigh of relief and teased:

"Didn't expect it, Brother Yang. You're so protective of your own?"

"Come on, we're all only children. Even if we have siblings, they're illegitimate ones outside the family. How could that compare to real brothers?"

A few people trying to curry favor with Jiang Shijie suggested, "Chi Ning probably hasn't played billiards before, right? Why not let your brother teach you, then have a round with Jiang Shijie?"

Before Chi Ning could respond, Jiang Shijie said, "Sure. Let me see Brother Yang's teaching skills for myself."

"Fine." Chi Ning nodded despite his eldest brother's disapproving gaze. "Let's play."

Anyway, he was here to have fun. Besides, billiards did not require much physical strength, so his poor constitution should not matter much.

Chi Ning picked out a cue and returned to his brother's side. "Brother, teach me."

Chi Yang's head throbbed.

Jiang Shijie was not good at billiards, but he still had to be far better than Chi Ning, who had never played before. Forget it. Even if Chi Ning lost, he could help him win back his pride.

He sighed softly and began teaching Chi Ning how to hold the cue.

His little brother was smart and learned everything quickly. In just ten minutes, his posture was already as standard as it was in a textbook. He was just too skinny. Shrimp pancakes were so high in calories—how was he still so frail after eating one every day?

"All right, try it yourself."

Chi Ning took the cue his brother handed him, bent down, and struck. "Screech—"

His first shot missed completely. The cue tip hit the table with a dull thud.

Jiang Shijie sneered. "You really don't know anything, do you? Then how did you dare say you wanted to play with me? What exactly did you want to play with me?"

He had always been loose-lipped. Only after speaking did he realize Chi Yang was staring at him, so he laughed again. "No way, Sir Yang. You can't even take a joke? Aren't you a cop?"

Chi Yang ignored him and adjusted Chi Ning's stance. "Your right arm and right leg should form a ninety-degree angle. When you draw back, use your elbow as the pivot. Don't move your wrist. Hit—"

"Thunk."

Before Chi Yang could finish, Chi Ning suddenly drove the cue into the center of the white ball before him.

The white ball struck the yellow ball, then came to a steady stop at the center of the table. Another ball dropped into a pocket with a muted clack under everyone's stunned gazes.

Chi Yang: He was this good on his first try?

Jiang Shijie frowned. "Isn't this your first time playing? How do you know how to stop the cue ball?"

Chi Ning was also confused. "What do you mean, stop the cue ball?"

Jiang Shijie said, "When the cue ball stops at the point of contact after hitting another ball, that's called stopping the cue ball."

"Oh." Chi Ning suddenly understood.

"This? Isn't this basic physics? When the cue strikes the center of the cue ball, the forward force sends it toward the target ball. When the force point on the cue ball and the contact point on the target ball are on the same horizontal line, the forward force and the backward force after the cue ball hits the target ball cancel each other out. Naturally, the cue ball stops."

Chi Ning looked at Jiang Shijie as if he were some slacker messing around in a laboratory. "You didn't know that?"

Jiang Shijie choked.

Chi Ning ignored his reddening face. Billiards was, plainly speaking, a game combining mathematics and physics. Once he learned the posture, he could play fairly well. Did Jiang Shijie think he had dared provoke him based on arrogance alone?

Other than his weak arm strength, which made long shots difficult, he should be fine with everything else.

After learning the posture and rules, Chi Ning walked over to Jiang Shijie and opened his palm toward the table. "Mr. Jiang, I'm not strong enough to break. You go first."

"Fine." Jiang Shijie was irritated and showed no courtesy at all.

"Bang!"

A crisp impact rang beside their ears.

The billiard balls on the table scattered beneath the overhead lights. Some collided with the raised felt rails along the sides, producing dull thuds. A few fell into the pockets amid the collisions.

The player who potted a ball on the break had the right to shoot first. Jiang Shijie said smugly, "Sorry, I'll choose first."

His gaze swept over Chi Ning's chest.

The second young master of the Chi family had a slender frame. His shirt hem was tucked into his trousers, and his short suit pants clung tightly to him, outlining a waist that could be encircled by two hands. The Chi family had raised him fair and clean, and a vivid red string was even tied around his ankle, making him look utterly delectable.

As Jiang Shijie played, he kept thinking about the red string around Chi Ning's pale, slender ankle. Distracted, he sent one shot wide.

Under American billiards rules, once a player missed, he had to surrender the turn to his opponent.

Jiang Shijie did not care. Grinning, he asked, "Second Young Master Chi, want to make it interesting?"

"I don't gamble," Chi Ning said.

"Who said anything about money?" Jiang Shijie raised his brows, then exchanged looks with the friends beside him. "I won't make things difficult for you. If you lose, just call me big brother."

Was this revenge for what he had said earlier about taking Jiang Shijie's surname?

Chi Ning knew that big brother in Jiang Shijie's mouth did not mean an actual elder brother.

That man's gaze made him sick. He did not want to say another word. "Whatever."

Chi Ning took the cue from his brother's hand and said to the worried-looking Chi Yang, "Brother, don't worry. You'll be my only eldest brother for the rest of my life."

Chi Yang: ...

Wake up, little lamb.

Did Jiang Shijie want to be your eldest brother?

He wanted to strip you bare, skewer you over a fire, and make lamb kebabs out of you!

Everyone thought Chi Ning was definitely going to end up calling him big brother.

What was the use of knowing physics and mechanics theory? Watching more and playing more was what really mattered.

Chi Ning circled the table once, then used the cue as a ruler to measure the angle. Before long, he bent down and struck.

A dull pocketing sound rang out.

One ball, two balls, three balls...

Jiang Shijie's expression gradually turned solemn.

Could this little brat's claim that he could not play have been an act?

He began regretting why he had gone easy on Chi Ning when only two balls remained. If he had finished properly, he could have humiliated Chi Yang, who was always so arrogantly untouchable.

No, there was still one black ball left.

That black ball was pressed against the felt rail of the table, making it extremely difficult to hit. Even Jiang Shijie himself was not confident he could sink it.

Chi Ning should fail.

But as Jiang Shijie thought this, he saw Chi Ning bend down. As he struck, his waist thrust forward, using the strength of his waist to drive the cue. The white ball immediately shot forward, clipped the side of the black ball, and sent it into the corner pocket.

Chi Ning turned to Jiang Shijie. "Mr. Jiang. What was your stake?"

Jiang Shijie had never considered that he might lose, so how could he have thought about a stake? "What do you want?"

"I won't make things difficult for you either." Chi Ning copied Jiang Shijie's earlier tone. "If you lose, just call me daddy."

Chi Yang could not hold back and burst out laughing. His little brother had done him proud. He raised a hand and ruffled Chi Ning's soft hair. "Ning, don't imitate everything."

Jiang Shijie angrily threw down his cue.

Though he had not actually called the second young master of the Chi family daddy, it made little difference whether he had said it or not. From now on, he would always be beneath Chi Yang. Even if the Jiang Family and the Chi family truly worked together in the future, it would still be so.

Jiang Shijie could not do anything to Chi Ning or Chi Yang, so his gloomy gaze shot toward the person who had suggested Chi Ning compete with him.

Chi Yang understood. A dog-eat-dog show was filthy, and Ning did not understand anything. He should not be watching this.

He picked up his coat and draped it over Chi Ning, then raised a hand to fasten the buttons. "We're leaving. It's windy in the car. Wear my clothes."

Chi Ning lifted his arms and waved the sleeves. His brother was only five years older than him, yet the coat could cover him entirely.

His eldest brother's height of one meter ninety had not gone to waste. The trench coat looked like a robe on him.

Chi Ning was pulled out through the door of the activity area. Looking back at the brightly lit Gangnan Universal Entertainment Center, he could not understand how anyone could be such a sucker as to spend five hundred yuan playing billiards for over two hours in 2001.

He hesitated several times, wanting to speak but stopping himself.

Only after Chi Yang brought out his motorcycle and put a helmet over his head did he ask, "You're not wearing protective gear?"

Chi Yang said, "What's wrong? Is it illegal?"

Chi Ning climbed onto the back seat of the motorcycle, wrapped his arms around his brother's waist, and knocked his hard helmet against Chi Yang's back.

It was his first time riding in his brother's vehicle across both lifetimes, yet all he could think was: Wearing no helmet was not illegal now, but twenty years later, it definitely would be.

The moment the throttle revved, Chi Ning immediately muttered, "Brother, drive slower."

Chi Yang finally understood why that beast Jiang Shijie wanted to hear Chi Ning call him brother. The meaning was different, but Chi Yang liked it too.

Chi Yang turned on the headlights and laughed flamboyantly. "Can't go slow. There are paparazzi nearby."

Paparazzi?

Why could they not go slowly if there were paparazzi?

Wouldn't speeding up just hand them a scoop?

Vroom!

The motorcycle suddenly accelerated. Chi Ning lurched backward from inertia and clung tightly to his eldest brother's waist to avoid being thrown off.

He immediately had no mind left to ponder the meaning of Chi Yang's earlier words.

It was too thrilling.

Where had he ever seen anything like this in his previous life?

Chi Ning looked at the dazzling lights of Yangcheng, at the traffic left far behind them, at the motorcycle's taillight stretching into a long red streak.

He suddenly remembered something Qin Heng had said in his previous life. "There are too many speed limits in Yangcheng. My car can't perform to its full potential. When you're free, I'll take you for a drive in the suburbs."

In his previous life, he had always put experiments and business first. His first reaction upon hearing that had been: What was so fun about going for a drive?

But now, he felt that going for a drive really was interesting.

When they got home, Chi Ning removed his helmet and handed it to Chi Yang, whose hair had been blown into a mess. Suddenly, he felt that he should not be so forceful about stopping his brother from riding motorcycles.

To be fair, people needed to relieve stress.

As long as he followed traffic rules when speeding outside, it would be fine. He just should not go to mountain roads or anything like that.