Chapter 4

Chi Ning sat down and looked at the screen.

Within minutes, a boy in a windbreaker appeared on the footage. His hood was pulled over his head, and he walked slowly, swaying slightly. After stopping in front of the milk box, he stuffed an envelope and a bottle of bayberry juice from his bike basket inside.

It was obvious at a glance that he was the person injured yesterday.

Chi Ning got to his feet. "Uncle, we can stop here."

"Alright." The security guard switched off the screen. After hesitating for a moment, he reminded him, "Boss Chi didn't order any bayberry juice for you. You'd better not drink something from an unknown source."

"I know." Chi Ning answered verbally, but the moment he left the surveillance room, he pried open the cap and took a sip.

The deep crimson juice, fragrant with bayberries, slid down his throat and swept away all the summer irritability.

Chi Ning drained the bottle in one go and let out a lingering breath.

Delicious!

Why did it taste so much like the bayberry juice Qin Heng had made in his previous life?

That unlucky guy had been injured these past two days, so he definitely would not be setting up his stall. Once he recovered, Chi Ning could go support his business again.

Chi Ning rinsed out the empty glass bottle. Just as he was about to toss it into the trash, he thought of the scar on that person's forehead that resembled Qin Heng's, and his hand paused.

An absurd guess surfaced in his mind.

Could that little unlucky guy be Qin Heng?

Chi Ning pulled his hand back from above the trash can. Carrying the bottle, he returned to his room and placed it on the windowsill.

Sunlight poured through the window into the empty bottle, then refracted onto the bookshelf, forming an arched rainbow halo.

Chi Ning looked at the blooming yellow roses in the garden downstairs. With scissors in hand, he ruthlessly cut three flowers and placed them in the glass bottle.

Admiring flowers, taking naps, basking in the sun.

When someone suddenly had nothing to do, the leisure came with an overwhelming sense of emptiness.

Chi Ning sat in the recliner by the window and stared at the roses for an hour, until he felt wilted himself.

What did other people do when they were not in school?

He could not possibly spend the entire day sunbathing, could he?

He went over his entertainment habits from his previous life.

Only three words came to mind—reading papers.

No, he had not been reborn just to read papers.

Chi Ning turned over in the recliner, and his phone slipped from his pocket, hitting the floor with a clatter.

Looking at the phone, an excellent idea popped into his head.

His older brother loved having fun, and their father had double standards.

So if he went out to have fun with his older brother, then when their father came back, he probably would not blame only his older brother, right?

That way, without a comparison target, his brother would not become more rebellious by the day.

He could first build a good relationship with his older brother, then persuade him to quit street racing and develop some safer hobbies, preventing him from dying in an accident while racing on mountain roads with his bad friends.

Kill two birds with one stone.

Chi Ning picked up his phone and called Chi Yang. "Brother, where are you? I'm so bored at home alone. Take me out to have fun."

At the largest entertainment center in Yangcheng, Chi Yang listened to his younger brother's voice over the phone while looking at the gaudy, glittering decor in front of him and the KTV host writhing against one of his friends. He refused, "It's not fun here. This isn't a place you should come."

Chi Ning smiled.

Should not go?

Did that not mean he needed to go even more?

If he went and had some fun, then the paparazzi stirred things up a little, what shareholder with a brain would still think he could be the heir?

Chi Ning snorted. "If you won't take me out, I'll find an internet café and play by myself."

In 2001, internet cafés were all the rage. This was an era before minors were banned from going online. Other than being a little expensive, a little crowded with all sorts of people, and having slow internet, there was nothing bad about them.

"Don't go." Chi Yang immediately grew nervous.

His younger brother had skin smoother and more delicate than a minor celebrity's. He had never suffered even a little hardship growing up. His brain was only useful when it came to studying; at other times, he was like a blank sheet of paper. He was also stubborn as a little lamb—if bad people caught him and turned him into grilled lamb skewers, he probably would not even know it.

How could Chi Yang let him go to an internet café alone?

Even if he was going out to play, Chi Yang had to keep him in sight.

Chi Yang sighed and compromised. "Forget it. Come over here. I'm at the South Harbor Grand Hotel. Wait for me on the first floor."

"Okay."

Chi Ning smiled. His older brother probably thought he did not know what kind of place the South Harbor Grand Hotel was. But after inheriting the family business in his previous life, he had come here several times for business entertainment.

The South Harbor Hotel was inside the Gangnan Universal Entertainment Center, the largest business and entertainment venue in Yangcheng. It had everything, both legitimate and shady.

Chi Ning opened his wardrobe, intending to change into something that matched an entertainment center. But at a glance, the wardrobe held nothing but white dress shirts and black shorts, all in identical styles—copy and paste could not have made them any neater.

Chi Ning: ...

He reluctantly found one with loose sleeves, pulled on a pair of black school uniform pants, and called the driver to take him to his destination.

Yangcheng truly deserved to become the nation's foreign trade center.

Even in 2001, the Gangnan Universal Entertainment Center already possessed the grandeur it would have in the future.

Chi Ning entered the South Harbor Grand Hotel and spotted Chi Yang leaning against the front desk.

He wore a loose sapphire-blue shirt, with two buttons undone to reveal the collar of a white undershirt. His hair stuck up messily from his head, but despite the disorder, it looked quite nice.

Chi Yang leaned against the counter and beckoned to Chi Ning. "Come here."

Chi Ning walked over. Before he had even steadied himself, he saw his older brother pull five red bills from his pocket and casually toss them onto the counter. "First floor. Add one person."

The woman at the front desk had beautiful wool curls. She looked up at Chi Ning, her eyes widening in shock, then turned to Chi Yang with an expression that said, "Are you even human?"

Having worked at the front desk for so many years, she knew what not to ask. She could only toss the money into the bill counter, count it, then rip off an activity voucher from the side and hand it to Chi Yang. "Go out. Last building."

Chi Ning had never seen this kind of voucher.

By the time he came here in his previous life, Gangnan used card payments.

Curiously, he tore one off and unfolded it. It listed several fitness activities, things like bowling and billiards.

Chi Ning curiously glanced deeper into the South Harbor Grand Hotel and saw a woman in a red dress carrying a handbag and staggering out of the elevator in high heels.

Just as he wanted to take a closer look, someone grabbed the back of his neck and turned him aside. Chi Yang's voice sounded beside his ear. "Let's go."

Chi Ning's eyes curved into crescents.

His older brother might not know how to express himself, but he secretly cared about him quite a lot.

The two held hands and entered the first floor of the activity center like elementary school students.

The air-conditioning was strong, but few lights were on, making the place feel somewhat gloomy. Only several overhead lamps above the billiards table at the far end were lit.

A man in a black shirt with a cigarette in his mouth raised a cue and viciously jabbed at the black ball on the table. He cursed, "Fuck, why did picking someone up take so long?"

Chi Yang walked over and kicked him right in the ass. "Didn't I tell you not to smoke?"

"Fuck, who kicked me—" The man in black turned around, and his arrogant tone immediately dropped. "Brother Yang?"

Chi Ning quietly lifted his foot and copied his older brother's movement, lightly kicking the leg of the billiards table beside him.

Pretty cool. He would learn it first.

Maybe it would come in handy someday.

The man in black stubbed out his cigarette, opened the nearby window, and fanned the smoke outside. With a flattering smile, he asked, "This must be your younger brother?"

"Yeah." Chi Yang pressed Chi Ning onto the sofa beside them, rang for a waiter, and said, "Bring him a bottle of juice."

Chi Ning smacked his lips, thinking of the bayberry juice from that morning. "Do you have bayberry juice?"

"Yes." The young waitress smiled sweetly and soon brought over a small glass.

Chi Ning took a sip, decided it was not as good as the morning's, and put it down critically.

The man in black looked at Chi Ning's clothes, neat and proper like a school uniform, then looked at Chi Yang, who was wild and uninhibited, at the forefront of fashion. His mouth started running again. "Does he know how to have fun? You brought him here before his hair's even fully grown?"

Chi Yang paused in the middle of chalking his cue.

There were no real feelings between bad friends. When they teased each other normally, they had no filter and never held back.

But his younger brother was treasured by the entire family, held in their hands for fear of dropping him and kept in their mouths for fear of melting him. Even Chi Baichuan had never said a single harsh word to him. What gave these people the right?

"You want to bully my brother?" Chi Yang struck him with the thick end of his cue. "Did you ask me first?"

The man in black hissed. "Fine, fine, fine. I get it now. Your precious little brother."

He gave in verbally, but he was unconvinced inside. What real brotherly affection existed among Yangcheng's wealthy families?

This boy looked like a little white rabbit. Who knew how he would fight for the family fortune once he grew up?

"Since you're here to have fun, what's the point of sitting around?" The man in black grinned and pulled out a cue, handing it to Chi Ning. "Do you know how to play? If not, big brother can teach you."

"No." Chi Ning's eyes curved into crescents.

The man in black froze.

He had grown up in Yangcheng, yet he had never seen such a beautiful, refined boy. Compared to Chi Ning, even the KTV hosts selling alcohol looked crooked and ugly. If he could get his hands on Chi Yang's younger brother...

The smile on Chi Ning's face did not reach his eyes.

He really wanted to know which people had invited his older brother to race on mountain roads in his previous life. Was it one of the people standing before him? He was not good at political maneuvering, but he could still do his best to keep his older brother away from trash.

"Playing is fine, but I only have one older brother." Chi Ning stood up, tilted his head, and asked, "How about this? Why don't you take my surname, Chi?"

Chapter 4

"What did you say?"

The man in the black shirt stepped forward.

He was tall, a full one meter eighty-five, making Chi Ning appear somewhat weak by comparison.

Chi Yang stepped sideways to stand in front of Chi Ning and said in a low voice, "Jiang Shijie, don't go too far."

Jiang Shijie dared to glare at Chi Ning because Chi Ning had never appeared in public, and the Chi family might not necessarily value this younger son.