Chapter 9

Ning Luo held his milk, unsure how to tell Ning Yang not to go.

Chen Chuan'ang was Ning Xibai's biggest lover. The second daughter of the Chen Family was the flag he used to show Ning Xibai his affection.

There was a lot to unpack in those words. Ning Yang, who had been called a pig twice, pressed his lips together and endured it with difficulty, not interrupting.

The second daughter of the Chen Family was actually illegitimate. Her biological mother's life was in the hands of the legal wife, so she could only do whatever Chen Chuan'ang told her to do.

Like pretending to love you to death, asking to become your personal secretary, making you think you could seize the chance for some earth-shattering office play.

Ning Yang had barely lifted his coffee when he choked. "Cough, cough-cough."

He hurriedly grabbed a tissue and covered his mouth.

How did Ning Luo dare think about anything and everything?!

Ning Luo looked at him sympathetically, as though he had already become a fish on the chopping block, a pig for New Year's, a freshly slaughtered watermelon, and Bald Qiang.

His tone suddenly turned intense.

While you, Makka Pakka, are falling in love, they'll steal your official seal, your documents, and your secrets! They'll strip you down to your underwear, list it on Xianyu as secondhand goods, and write, "CEO's body fragrance, minor flaws, ninety percent new"!

Ning Yang clenched his fists.

Ning Yang was deeply considering whether murdering his younger brother was illegal.

Ning Luo delivered the final verdict.

Then they'll sell your company secrets to Chen Chuan'ang, make you suffer consecutive losses in your upcoming investments, make Dad question your ability, and then push Ning Xibai into the spotlight instead.

What is this? This is the price of being lovestruck! Happiness is like donkey meat flatbread—it simply doesn't suit you, Brother Phlegm!

After hearing the first sentence, Ning Yang's heart jolted. He did not even realize that, after Green Tea Brother, he had earned himself another new title.

Did Xibai and the Chen Family set this up because they wanted him out of the way and wanted to make room for him?

No, why was he letting Ning Luo lead him around by the nose?

What if, just like yesterday, Ning Luo was making wild guesses based on some kind of handbook? Wouldn't that mean he had misunderstood Xibai?

Ning Yang's mind was in utter turmoil. He did not even notice when Ning Xibai sat down beside him.

"Big Brother? Big Brother!"

"...Hm?"

Ning Xibai complained, "I called you several times. What's wrong, Big Brother? Are you in a bad mood?"

"No, you saw wrong." Ning Yang lifted his coffee and hid his emotions.

Ning Xibai felt that something was strangely off, but seeing that he did not want to say more, he said, "Aunt Zhang, bring me breakfast."

The moment Ning Luo saw Ning Xibai, his train of thought was immediately interrupted.

Early-rising green tea—guess a food.

Ning Yang subconsciously began guessing.

West Lake Longjing. Because Longjing is spring tea, the earliest batch of green tea. Hahahahaha!

Ning Yang: "..."

He should not have bothered thinking.

Now that all three brothers were present, Ning Luo could not reveal anything even if he wanted to. He temporarily shelved the matter, propped his chin on his hand, and looked at Ning Xibai. Smiling with his little canine teeth showing, he looked like an innocent, pure high school boy. "Wow, looking this close, Xiaobai's skin really is amazing."

As if you needed to say it. Ning Xibai had no idea what medicine Ning Luo was selling, so he looked at him warily and said nothing.

Ning Luo did not need an answer. He continued on his own. "With such nice skin, make sure you use plenty of sunscreen when you get to Africa. What if you get roasted into a little lump of coal? You'd lose a lot of fans, wouldn't you?"

"Oh, right. You should also be more careful normally. Africa has lots of flower mosquitoes and small wild animals, doesn't it? If one bites your face or scratches you with a claw, that would be troublesome."

Ning Luo put what he had learned into practice. With a worried expression, he spoke words that cut straight to the heart. Then, as Ning Xibai's anger began rising, he stepped right into his face and frowned slightly, pretending not to understand. "Xiaobai, I'm worried about you. Aren't you happy?"

Ning Xibai squeezed out the words through clenched teeth. "Happy."

Ning Luo was very satisfied. "Then hurry up and thank your brother."

"...Thank you, Brother," Ning Xibai said with a hollow laugh. "But I think Brother will be disappointed. Dad only mentioned it casually last night. He may not actually want me to go."

Ning Luo understood.

No wonder Ning Xibai had seemed completely unaffected today. So he wanted to start with Ning Father and make him abandon the idea.

How could that do? Ning Luo was the first to object.

His life could not be without Ning Xibai as entertainment!

Just as he was about to say something else, Ning Yang, who had remained silent the entire time, stood up. "You two eat. I'm leaving."

Business came first. Ning Luo hurriedly put down his milk, tapped rapidly on his phone a few times, then chased after him.

Ning Xibai also wanted to follow and ask what was going on. Ning Yang's attitude these past two days had seemed very strange, making him uneasy. But when he saw Ning Luo leave, he sat back down.

Forget it. It was not anything important. He should first think of a way to persuade Dad to abandon the idea.

Ning Yang's mind was a mess, emotion and reason constantly pulling against each other.

His emotions told him it was impossible. That was the younger brother he had raised since childhood.

But his reason said, what would Ning Luo gain from thinking that way? He did not know Ning Yang could read minds.

...And they were not even biological brothers. They had different fathers and mothers.

"Big Brother, wait!" Ning Luo chased after him, panting.

Ning Yang rolled down the car window, ready to hear what he wanted to say.

Ning Luo waved his phone at him. "Big Brother, I shared something good with you. Listen to it on the road. You have to listen to it!"

"Okay." Ning Yang guessed there was some hidden meaning in those things.

Ning Luo had been about to earnestly remind him again and again, but Ning Yang agreed so readily that he froze for a moment. Then he broke into a smile. "Then go ahead. Be careful on the road."

This was his powerful patron. He could not let him get bumped, bruised, or fall apart just yet.

The car drove away.

The driver said, "Second Young Master really cares about you."

Ning Yang gave an "Mm." For the first time, he felt that this extra younger brother was not so bad.

He opened his phone and found that Ning Luo had indeed sent him many audio files, with a note telling him to listen to them when he was relaxing.

Ning Yang pinched the bridge of his nose. The more he thought about things, the more irritated he became. He had the driver connect to the car's Bluetooth and opened the first recording.

"I've been reborn! Reborn as the CEO's personal secretary and also his contract lover. That man must never have imagined that I'm the ex-wife he abandoned. This time, I will reclaim everything that belongs to me! I'll make him kneel down and lick my toes like a dog..."

For the first time, panic appeared on Ning Yang's face. He hurriedly tapped the recording off, but it automatically switched to the next one and forced him to keep listening.

"...The CEO looked at his cute, rabbit-like personal secretary and gave a wicked smile. 'Woman, you are the first person to reject me.' The little rabbit shook her head in panic. 'CEO, I only went to 211 University. I'm not worthy of you.'

"'Heh, isn't that easy?' the CEO snorted.

"One month later, the personal secretary was promoted from 211 University to 598 University. Because the CEO, who had graduated from a 985 University, merged the two schools. Two hundred and eleven plus nine hundred and eighty-five, divided by two, equals five hundred and ninety-eight."

Ning Yang angrily realized that Ning Luo seemed to have sent him a virus along with it. He could not pause or exit; it could only loop through the list.

The driver froze, then burst out laughing. "Pfft—hahahahaha! Hahahahaha, 598 University, hahahaha..."

His laughter grew quieter and quieter beneath Ning Yang's terrifyingly cold gaze until he finally shut up.

Ning Yang gripped his phone until it creaked. "Your bonus for next month is gone too."

The driver weakly defended himself. "But I haven't even entered the company yet."

Ning Yang sneered. "You disturbed my eyes. Is there a problem?"

The driver felt wronged, but the driver could not say it.

The mechanical young voice from the tablet was still droning through those brain-dead lines.

"...The CEO gazed at the woman affectionately. 'Yaoyao, I've lost the ability to reproduce, but you still never abandoned me. You've been my personal secretary for years, always the same.'

"The woman interrupted him in tears. 'Don't feel inferior. I'm willing to transplant my uterus into you and give you new reproductive organs.' 'Yaoyao, you're so good. I love you'..."

Ning Yang abruptly disconnected the Bluetooth, turned down the volume, and shut off his phone.

The world was finally quiet.

He looked at the chat window and gritted out two words. "Ning. Luo."

He took back what he had said earlier. Ning Luo was terrible.

Had he eaten a moth or something? Why was he so restless all day long?!

For Ning Luo, the method did not matter as long as it worked.

The effect was indeed outstanding. The moment Ning Yang saw the second daughter of the Chen Family, the CEOs who licked toes and transplanted uteruses flashed through his mind, making his chest hitch.

Whether the things Ning Luo thought were true or false, he absolutely would not let the second daughter of the Chen Family become his personal secretary anytime soon.

As he pulled out a chair and sat down, Ning Yang thought despairingly.

This was not the first time the second daughter of the Chen Family had met Ning Yang. They had gone on many dates already, and she had clearly expressed her affection.

She thought she was beautiful and had a good personality, and she deeply liked him too. If it were anyone else, would they not have fallen for her already? Yet Ning Yang was blind in both eyes and heart.

No wonder he was still alone at his age. The second daughter of the Chen Family gritted her teeth and continued the previous topic. "It would be great if I could become your secretary."

After saying that, she blushed, as if she found herself abrupt and improper, and hurriedly tried to make up for it. "I don't mean anything else. I just mean, you often work overtime and stay up late. Your secretary definitely wouldn't dare manage you, but your body surely won't be able to take it if this keeps going. I thought, if I went..."

The second daughter of the Chen Family stopped there, leaving the rest for Ning Yang to imagine.

She had not expected to succeed in one try. She was only testing the waters first.

Ning Yang lowered his head and stirred his coffee.

His hanging fringe concealed the surging emotions in his eyes.

Word for word.

It was exactly what Ning Luo had said, word for word.

He set down his spoon and looked at the second daughter of the Chen Family. "Okay."

After seeing off the second daughter of the Chen Family, who was ecstatic and could hardly believe it, Ning Yang loosened his tie. He suddenly felt a suffocating inability to breathe, as if he had spent the first half of his life inside a transparent fish tank, every move he made seen through completely.

He messaged his assistant: Did you find what I asked you to investigate?

An hour later, his assistant replied: President Ning, I found it.

Chen Yan is indeed an illegitimate daughter. Third Young Master also does indeed have an overly close relationship with Chen Chuan'ang.

They had never hidden this fact, and the previous Ning Yang would never have suspected anything in that direction.

With the matter settled, Ning Yang realized that he had actually breathed a sigh of relief.

In Ning Luo's words, his emotions were stable.

Stablely dead.

The production crew was on break, so Ning Luo was also enjoying a rare day off. He lay flat on the sofa, eating the little cookies Aunt Zhang had made for him while counting his savings.

The original owner had only recently been brought back to the Ning Family. Although he now ate and lived well in every respect, he truly did not have much money on hand. Especially since nearly all his savings had been spent on his adoptive mother's medical treatment, and the original owner himself had been a spendthrift.

After doing the math, Ning Luo found that he only had twenty-three thousand in savings.

If the production crew could pay him his salary, he would definitely have more than this, but Wang Lin was currently poor enough to rattle too.

Ning Luo sighed mournfully. "I don't know how I manage to work hard to make money every day and still have nothing. Who stole my money?"

Before he could finish sighing, a shadow fell over him.

"Big Brother? You're back so early?" He scrambled upright with both hands and feet.

Ning Yang tugged at the corner of his mouth when he heard the question.

Because he had agreed too quickly, Chen Yan had become overjoyed and left early to report the progress to Chen Chuan'ang.

But he did not say that. He glanced at Ning Luo's online banking page. "Short on money?"

One of Ning Luo's few good qualities was honesty. He nodded vigorously. "Very short. So short that I think even the northwest wind smells delicious."

Ning Yang was speechless. "Don't make it look like the Ning Family is abusing you."

Ning Luo looked up at him, his watery eyes blinking with an extremely obvious hint.

"..." Ning Yang lowered his head, operated his phone a few times, and said, "Transferred."

Ning Luo grabbed his phone to check the notification, only to be met with a string of zeros.

He swallowed and counted three times, his hands beginning to tremble with excitement.

Five million!

A full five million!

He was so happy that he forgot himself. Leaping up from the sofa, he hugged Ning Yang and nearly wanted to plant several kisses on his big-spending sugar daddy. "Big Brother, I love you so much!"

Ning Yang pushed him away and frowned in disgust. "Stay away. You love money."

"I love both, I love both. My Buddha is compassionate; all living beings are equal."

"Heh, you're quite the philanthropist."

Seeing him happily biting his thumb and grinning foolishly, Ning Yang turned his head, a faint smile appearing at the corner of his mouth.

This new younger brother... did not seem so bad either.

"Oh, right," he said. "After a man gets a uterus transplant, how does he get pregnant? Tell me."

Ning Luo's excited smile suddenly froze on his face.