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It was also possible that he no longer had a place in this home. To keep himself from looking too pathetic or self-indulgent, Shi Zhongye had even booked a hotel for an entire week.

But what lay before him was nothing like what he had imagined.

The room had been cleaned spotless and preserved exactly as it had been when he left, everything familiar yet strange.

The newly placed greenery on the desk had been misted, lush and fresh.

When the wind lifted the curtains toward him, Shi Zhongye caught a whiff of...

Mm, the creamy scent on his own face.

Shi Zhongye cursed, "Fuck."

What the hell was he being sentimental about? This was all Shi Jihan's scheme.

Leaving his room for him, trying to make him soften up? Shi Zhongye tossed his luggage onto the floor, thinking, Dream on. He had come back this time to expose Shi Jihan's true colors.

And that Shen Qinghuai—was that his name? Sooner or later, he would find proof that Shen Qinghuai and Shi Jihan had joined forces to screw over that idiot Shi Bochuan.

With that thought, Shi Zhongye stormed into the bathroom, cursing under his breath.

He had to wash off the cream. He could not wait even one more second.

The mirror in Shi Zhongye's bathroom was the biggest in the entire villa, because he wanted to admire his beauty from every angle without a single blind spot.

But now, after washing his face, he stood before the mirror with his mouth open while brushing his teeth, and Shi Jihan's joke drifted through his mind.

"If someone steps on you, you open your mouth wide. That's why humans are trash cans, hahaha."

With a gulp.

Shi Zhongye closed his mouth and accidentally swallowed a mouthful of extra-strength mint toothpaste.

His expression began to twist in the mirror.

Then he thought of the face on the cake, chopped into a mangled mess by Shi Jihan, equally distorted.

Shi Zhongye clenched his toothbrush, his anger shooting up again.

[Ding, Malice Points +2]

[Ding, Malice Points +4]

There was a knock at the door. When he opened it, the butler stood there and politely asked the second young master who had just returned home, "Second Young Master, if there is anything you would like added or changed in your room, you may tell me."

"There is." Shi Zhongye gritted out.

"Tomorrow—no, now! Remove the mirror in my room, and everything else that can reflect anything. Get rid of all of it!"

He did not want to see that face of his that was insured for a fortune anymore!

Shi Zhongye had the butler hurry in and remove everything while he went to sit in the entertainment room to calm down.

But the more he sat there, the more something felt wrong.

Forget the three people from the Shi Family—why was Zhou Jingcheng here too? And his younger brother... that dumb kid was his brother, right?

Shi Zhongye headed downstairs to demand an explanation from Zhou Jingcheng. He poked his head out and immediately met his own smiling gaze from the huge hanging poster: Not every face deserves insurance.

Murder was illegal.

Killing his brother was illegal too.

He tried his best to calm down, immediately abandoning the idea of going downstairs and switching to online communication instead.

[Ye: Zhou Jingcheng, you'd better explain why you're here.]

It took a long time for the other side to reply.

[Z: What kind of question is that? It's your welcome party, of course I came to welcome your arrival.]

Not only had he offered a sincere welcome, he had personally participated as well.

Shi Zhongye was half-convinced. [Ye: Seriously?]

Zhou Jingcheng replied slowly, as if he were busy with something. [Z: Seriously. Brother's got you in his heart.]

That reply made Shi Zhongye feel a little guilty.

His brother was always busy with work. Every time Shi Zhongye went to find him, he was told Zhou Jingcheng was unavailable. Now that he had finally made time to welcome him back, Shi Zhongye had even punched him twice.

[Ye: All right, I was impulsive. Do you have time now? Let's go out for a drink. I'll apologize to you.]

As he typed, he got up and left the entertainment room, mentally preparing himself to go down to the second floor.

After another while.

[Z: I appreciate the thought, but I don't have time right now.]

[Z: I'm dealing with a business pain point at my company.]

Shi Zhongye had just typed, "Then get busy, we can talk another day," but before he could send it, he saw around the corner that his good brother was gathered downstairs in the first-floor hall with his so-called family, happily sampling his giant face cake. His enormous poster and a grinning balloon were even sitting on the table.

Business pain point? No time to reply?

Shi Zhongye gripped the railing tightly.

Pain point my ass. Zhou Jingcheng, I'll stab you to death.

Zhou Jingcheng's nose itched slightly, and he turned his head to sneeze.

He rubbed the tip of his nose. "A cold? That shouldn't be possible." But why did he feel chills all over? Was the air conditioning too low?

Like he was in his own home, he took out the smart remote and raised the central air conditioning by two degrees.

Shi Bochuan, who had seen everything, thought: ? This was his house, right? Right?

He turned to seek confirmation from his wife, only to find that she was sitting gracefully on the sofa, eating Shi Zhongye's pointy chin.

Shi Bochuan: "..."

How strange. How abstract.

Shi Jihan was applying medicine to Zhou Jingcheng's face. When Zhou Jingcheng turned away to dodge, Shi Jihan reached out and turned his head back. "Hey, hey, don't move."

Shi Zhongye's two punches had not been light, and he had specifically aimed for Zhou Jingcheng's face. Zhou Jingcheng's cheekbone was now bruised.

The cool medicine eased the pain somewhat when applied.

Zhou Jingcheng took out his phone and used it as a mirror to inspect the injury. "Tsk."

Annoying. Damn Shi Zhongye.

Drinking? He could drink shit.

And this little runt who had stood by and done nothing.

When the mirror tilted, it also caught Shi Jihan, who was applying medicine to him.

Shi Jihan was lowering his head to dab on the medicine. When lowered, his round eyes naturally had a dewy gleam, and whenever he blinked, his lashes fluttered like a butterfly beating its wings, making one want to catch that trembling shadow with a finger. His naturally upturned lips were pressed together, the little curve of his upper lip tucked between them, but if he opened his mouth to speak, his small canine teeth would show.

Little runt... Fine. That little runt's face looked better without bruises.

As Zhou Jingcheng thought that, he recalled the feeling of tugging Shi Jihan's cheek the last time Shi Jihan had gotten drunk.

His skin had been tender and smooth as a peeled egg, with a little baby fat too. Last time, Zhou Jingcheng had only lightly tugged and pinched it, yet it had left a red mark that took ages to fade.

Shi Jihan noticed Zhou Jingcheng staring at him for too long. Tilting his head, he asked, "Why are you looking at me?"

After asking, he realized something was wrong. Oh no, oh no. Could Dianjia Bro, with his petty little mind, be holding a grudge because I didn't save him?

He hurriedly searched for a remedy in his mind and tried pushing his portion of cake toward Zhou Jingcheng, sliding it in front of him. "Um, how about another piece?" he sincerely suggested. "Eat more. Make up for it."

Zhou Jingcheng lowered his eyes, looking at the cake painted with Shi Zhongye's nostrils.

Replenish what?

Ugh, was this food? And he was serving it to him?

Zhou Jingcheng made a disgusted face. "Thanks, but I don't need that many air intakes."

Shi Jihan was puzzled. "But every time I see you, you're desperately taking deep breaths. Someone who didn't know better would think you were preparing for a deep-sea diving certification exam. Do you really need that much lung capacity?"

Beside them, Zhou Zeyang coughed. "Cough, cough cough!"

Shi Jihan said, "I was talking about your brother. Why are you choking?"

Zhou Zeyang waved his hands repeatedly, not daring to look at his brother's expression.

Zhou Jingcheng's temple twitched, and he began taking deep breaths again.

Calm down, calm down. What was there to argue about with a silly little idiot whose thought process was so bizarre?

Right, that was it. Peace led to great distance; inaction carried one across oneself.

Zhou Jingcheng calmed down again. [He pressed his hands together.]

Then he raised his fork and stabbed it straight into Shi Zhongye's nostril.

Shi Jihan silently sighed at how irritable this person was when the task assignment notification sounded in his ear.

[Ding, task issued: While Shi Zhongye investigates Shen Qinghuai's dark history, fabricate intimate photos and send them to him, smearing Shen Qinghuai for marriage fraud. Task reward: Malice Points +15]

Shi Jihan clicked his tongue. [The pure-hatred warrior is back again.]

000 had him look up. Shi Jihan raised his head and looked toward the second-floor railing.

Shi Zhongye was standing there, staring at them with a dark expression and murderous intent.

[As expected of the Main System's correction mechanism,] 000 praised. [That hatred level is high. This one is definitely in the bag.]

The intimate photos would not be easy to arrange, though. 000 offered a suggestion: [Your back looks a bit like Shen Qinghuai's. How about being a body double from behind?]

That could work, but choosing the other lead would be difficult. They could not use anyone Shi Zhongye knew well, or they would not be able to fool him.

Shi Bochuan would not work; that was the actual person. Zhou Jingcheng would not work either. Zhou Zeyang... forget it. After all the task failures, Shi Jihan had decided to bench him. The foolish son of a rich family—useless at everything, first place only when it came to eating.

Shi Jihan was thinking when his peripheral vision inadvertently landed on Zhou Jingcheng's phone lock screen.

The wallpaper was the same as Zhou Jingcheng's profile picture: a hand holding a dog paw. But the wallpaper showed more, revealing half of Pizza's body.

[I've got it. I can buy Pizza a curly wig!]

Long, wavy curls paired with Pizza's slender, graceful figure—she would be a total rich, beautiful heiress.

What did Pizza lack? Nothing at all.

Shi Jihan made his decision in a second. He immediately wanted to ask Pizza out for an unresolved romance between man and dog.

[But asking only Pizza won't work. Dianjia Bro will get suspicious,] his brain finally came online. [I need to find a way to ask both the person and the dog out.]

000 was secretly scooping out a piece of cake to taste. Hearing that, it instinctively asked, [Which one is the dog?]

Shi Jihan: [? Dianjia Bro will chop you up.]

He quickly sorted out his plan. [Ask both dogs out, use the moonlight to get someone to take blurry back-view photos. Make them as intimate as possible.]

[I can even hold Pizza and give her a huge smooch.]

Hehe, Little Beagle was adorable.

000: [And then? Let Shi Zhongye see the three of you walking together?]

[We can just crop Dianjia Bro out.]

Three was too crowded.

He patted Zhou Jingcheng on the shoulder and asked, "Do you have anything to do all day tomorrow?"

"Yes." Zhou Jingcheng lifted his cup and took a sip of water. "I need to walk the dog morning and evening."

Shi Jihan said, "That's great. Then you'll definitely be willing to take me along for a stroll."