Chapter 3

[ Ding, Malice Points +3! ]

Secretary Sun, who had just spoken to him, silently took a step back.

Chapter 3

Zhou Jingcheng instantly doubted his hearing. "What did you say? Say that again?"

Shi Jihan looked at him pityingly.

The man was handsome, sure, but what a shame that he was hard of hearing at such a young age.

He repeated loudly, "I said, this guy surnamed Zhou—"

000 screamed, [Host, that's Zhou Jingcheng! The Zhou Jingcheng who made you go to Australia to fight kangaroos and plant bananas in the desert!]

"Mr. Zhou, you have taste." Shi Jihan swallowed the words he had been chewing over and gave him a thumbs-up. "This flower bed doesn't look like a self-portrait. It looks like art—realist art."

Zhou Jingcheng gave him a deep look, then turned to the flower bed. "It is pretty realistic, especially those two streetlamps stuck in there. They look like two laser beams shooting out of my eyes straight into the sky."

Shi Jihan's shoulders shook.

Secretary Sun explained softly, "Madam specifically had the gardener trim it that way. She wanted to convey that your gaze is like a torch."

Shi Jihan shook even harder.

"Who asked you?" Zhou Jingcheng's tone was flat. He said to Shi Jihan, "Young Master Shi, long time no see. Where did you study popping? So I know to avoid it."

Shi Jihan blinked, looking extremely shy. "What popping? I'm trembling beneath the overwhelming dominance of Young Master Zhou's laser beams."

Zhou Jingcheng raised an eyebrow high.

Five parts shock, three parts confusion, and two parts Oh, piss off flashed through his eyes.

The emotional breakdown was practically a pie chart.

[Is he cursing me with his eyes?] Shi Jihan pointed accusingly. [Male lead of a webnovel, such a tiny little heart!]

[ Ding, Malice Points +2 ]

Then again, the market needed people with tiny hearts like that.

"So you're here." Shi Bochuan walked over with Shen Qinghuai. "President Zhou is here too. What are you talking about?"

Zhou Jingcheng put on a professional smile.

Oh, the whole family of middlemen legally robbing him had assembled.

He said, "We were catching up. After all, I've only been back in the country for a few months and haven't had time to meet with Young Master Shi."

"Things are busy after returning to the country," Shi Bochuan said. "There's no rush for friends to get together."

Friends? With the relationship between those two?

Because their companies had many business dealings, Zhou Jingcheng had known Shi Jihan for a long time. After getting to know him, he had realized that the other man was nothing more than a selfish, contemptible little man, so he kept his distance.

If that relationship counted as friendship, then while he had been abroad, Shi Bochuan must have been moonlighting as an editor for a Chinese dictionary.

While the two of them talked, Shi Jihan quietly made himself invisible and slipped off to the buffet, where he buried his head in the small cakes he had picked out onto his plate.

He poked 000 and complained, [I just realized, why is Zhou Jingcheng so tall?]

He was a full head taller, all long legs and height. When Zhou Jingcheng had leaned close earlier, Shi Jihan had needed to tilt his head up just to meet his gaze. His entire body had fallen beneath the man's shadow, and the faint scent of masculine cologne had enveloped him.

That guy really did have the capital to be narcissistic. Even from a death angle, there was nothing to criticize. His bone structure was exceptional, his brow ridge deep enough to shade his eyes, and his nose bridge was so high that Shi Jihan could slide down it with a whoosh.

000 said, [His ancestors were from the northwest. He may carry mixed Central Asian genes.]

[The northwest?] Shi Jihan's eyes lit up. [Big temperature differences between day and night. He must taste sweet.]

[...Host, are you from Guangdong?]

Shi Jihan wriggled coyly. [Hehe, after having too many Fujianese, you have to switch up the flavor once in a while.]

After saying that, he let out a satisfied burp.

The little cakes were delicious, but he had eaten too many and felt a little choked.

He took two wineglasses from a passing waiter and downed one after the other, washing it down.

A rainbow-haired guy led several people straight toward him. "Yo, isn't this Young Master Shi? Why are you drinking here by yourself instead of going to have some fun?"

One of the people who came with him casually slung an arm around his shoulders. "Is it your big brother again, forbidding this and that? I mean, you're already adults. He's seriously way too controlling!"

Shi Jihan silently moved his gaze away from their rainbow-dyed hair, off-the-shoulder shirts, and flashy lip piercings. Without saying anything, he put some distance between himself and them.

He had a fear of trendy people. He needed to keep wet and dry separate.

000 said, [Awooo, it's them! These little lackeys might help the host smear his big brother and complete the mission.]

"Hello, hello. Long time no see." Shi Jihan walked right into the tide.

At worst, it was humid weather. What was there to fear?

Zhou Jingcheng felt that not only was he from the northwest, he was also the woolliest sheep on the northwestern grasslands.

The Shi brothers had come to shear him.

Listening to Shi Bochuan talk about these new projects, he felt like the man had come to participate in a zero-dollar shopping spree.

Zhou Jingcheng changed the subject. "Your brother can drink? His tolerance is impressive. He's already been fed several glasses."

Couldn't tell. He was a vicious little drunkard.

Shi Bochuan followed his gaze and frowned.

He knew that rainbow-haired guy—a spoiled second-generation rich kid who smoked, drank, and permed his hair every day. These people spent all day stirring up trouble and were simply leading his younger brother astray.

What bad intentions could his younger brother possibly have? How old was he? What did he know?

Shi Bochuan strode over.

Shi Jihan clutched 000, the braised egg who was struggling desperately and unable to breathe, tightly in his arms. He held out an index finger toward the rainbow-haired guy who was still urging him to drink, narrowed his eyes, and tried hard to keep his balance. That finger wobbled from side to side for a long while before finally finding its target and poking the rainbow-haired guy squarely.

"Stay away, farther away." His face was full of pain. "I'm still so young. I can't get rheumatism."

The rainbow-haired guy looked confused. "Huh? What are you talking about? Forget it, never mind. Young Master Shi, try this Cuba Libre too. It's good. Tastes like cola."

Shi Jihan couldn't resist the temptation and drank another glass.

Lip Piercing Guy said, "I just opened a tennis club. Young Master Shi, come out and play tomorrow. It's settled, then. Don't listen to your brother."

Off-the-Shoulder Guy chimed in, "Does Shi Bochuan really think he's such a big shot? After your parents died, he didn't give you a single share. This time, he blamed the whole failed project on you. He obviously wants to screw you over!"

Shi Jihan was startled. What? The original owner had shares that had been withheld from him?

Warm reminder: There is only half an hour left before the banquet ends. If the host fails to complete the remaining tasks, 200 Malice Points will be deducted.

Shi Jihan: --? 0.-? O0O!!!

The capitalist trap of installment payments!!!

"You're absolutely right!" He waved a hand grandly, his momentum shaking the heavens. "Shi Bochuan is way too much! What failed project? I was helping him. No project means no funding. No funding means no company. No company means no eight a.m. classes every week, no socializing with classmates, no regularly producing several steaming piles of academic trash every six months. From then on, world peace."

Shi Jihan gave his final verdict. "He doesn't know what's good for him. I'll definitely show him some color and let him know who's the big joker and who's the little joker."

The entire venue fell silent.

Zhou Jingcheng said to Secretary Sun, "What a perfect equation. What a fresh brain. Feels like the day I acquire Shi Group isn't far off."

Secretary Sun raised an arm and shouted, "Boss is wise, with a gaze like a torch!"

Everyone's spectacle-hungry gazes landed on the wildly boastful Shi Jihan and the late-arriving Shi Bochuan as they whispered among themselves.

"Look, look, I told you the Shi Family is divided internally. Now even the last shred of pretense has been ripped off."

"Tsk, tsk. Let's see how they clean this up."

"Take a picture quick. If this gets out tomorrow, Shi Group's stock will definitely fluctuate!"

"Why are you so awful? Hey, hey, don't block my perfect angle."

A waiter also secretly pulled out his phone from his pocket. His listless mood abruptly turned excited as he quietly aimed the camera at the two parties involved.

He had actually stumbled upon some juicy rich-family gossip! This shift suddenly didn't feel quite so soul-crushing.

He even opened a small window and excitedly typed updates to his friend in real time.

[Live scene of a coup and power grab, get in now, first come first served!]

What kind of person was the Shi Family's young master? Compared to Shi Bochuan, he was like mud beneath the clouds. Even a scarecrow was sturdier than that straw-brained fool. Now he was hopping around like a clown, unable to weigh the seriousness of the situation. Maybe Shi Bochuan would be so furious that he would throw him out of the Shi Family tomorrow morning and leave him to fend for himself.

Shi Bochuan was indeed furious to the extreme. He had never imagined that, in his younger brother's eyes, he was such a thorn in his side that Shi Jihan wanted nothing more than to get rid of him.

He had thought only that he had been a little too strict, causing his younger brother to become a little rebellious, a little disobedient...

Shen Qinghuai arrived late and did not dare approach.

He had never seen Shi Bochuan this angry before.

When Shi Bochuan spoke again, his face was frosty. He shoved aside the rainbow-haired group, who knew they had caused trouble, walked straight up to Shi Jihan, and demanded coldly, "Big joker and little joker? Show me some color? Is that so? Then what do you plan to do?"

Shi Jihan's eyes were hazy with drink. He could not see the rainbow-haired group desperately signaling at him at all. Racking his brains, he came up with his most vicious scheme and declared forcefully, "I'll make him lower the plagiarism rate on all my final papers to ten percent!"

Tell me, wasn't that vicious?

Shi Bochuan slowly said, "...?"

No, that was not enough. "And make him run the one-thousand-meter test for me!"

"Check me in every day for eight a.m. classes!"

"Snatch the discounted braised-food coupons outside the school gate on time every Wednesday!"

Shi Bochuan: ???

Shi Jihan was like someone making wishes at a wishing pond turtle, happily spitting out wish after wish for himself. Amazed by how vicious he was, he proudly puffed out his chest. "That's all for now. I'll have more to add later."

Huh? You still had the nerve to add more?

The waiter silently lowered his phone, his face filled with the grief and indignation of someone who had bitten into rotten gossip.

No, if you two brothers want to flirt and bicker, do it at home. Why dump your crap in public?

"Add my ass!"

Shi Bochuan's emotions had swung wildly in a short span of time. So angry that he resorted to violence, he flicked Shi Jihan on the forehead. "Go sober up in the restroom!"

Ignoring Shi Jihan's struggles, he forcibly marched him into the restroom.

Even as he was shoved inside, Shi Jihan did not forget to shout, "I remembered! You're not allowed to use AI to lower the plagiarism rate for me!"