Chapter 6

Shi Jihan was so angry he wanted to scratch someone. He stomped hard on Zhou Jingcheng's foot and strode away.

Zhou Jingcheng stood with his hands in his pockets, watching him leave.

Only after he had vanished completely did Zhou Jingcheng finally stop pretending. He hopped on one foot to brace himself against the wall, his composed expression cracking bit by bit as his brows furrowed in pain.

"Damn... that hard?"

He looked down to find a clear footprint on his shoe.

After stepping on him, Shi Jihan had even ground his foot down, apparently afraid he had not used enough force.

He was short, but surprisingly strong.

So who exactly was supposed to be angry here?

Zhou Jingcheng thought that he had not even called Shi Jihan a pervert yet.

Only after Shi Jihan entered the changing room and shut the door did it belatedly occur to him that he might have just laid hands on Dianjia Bro.

"000," he swallowed, "will he throw me abroad tomorrow and leave me to fend for myself?"

000: [It'll probably be fine.]

Shi Jihan let out a breath of relief.

[Wasn't that bound to happen sooner or later?]

That breath caught in his throat again.

Shi Jihan silently checked his Malice Points and became even more despairing when he saw they had risen by another two points.

He comforted himself. It was fine, it was fine. He had not even caused his biggest disaster yet, so how could he possibly be sent abroad already?

That was what he said, but when he saw Zhou Jingcheng after leaving, he silently detoured around him and slipped away along the wall, terrified of being noticed.

Only when he reached the entrance did he realize Uncle Wang, the driver, had not arrived yet. He had forgotten to say he was leaving early, and at this hour, Uncle Wang was probably getting the car serviced.

By the time he drove over, the sun would probably be down.

He opened the ride-hailing app again, but the "214 yuan" next to the fixed price shocked him so badly that he covered it with his hand.

Never look at your wallet. It was a horror movie.

Shi Jihan asked whether the Lip-Piercing Bro Club offered pickup service.

[Yep, I'll find one for you.]

Shi Jihan was delighted.

So this was the quality service rich people got. It even came with after-sales support.

He waited for a while, then saw a Bugatti pull up.

Shi Jihan recognized the car. Boss Gou from his internship company dreamed of buying this Voice of the Night, which cost 120 million.

Excitedly, he opened the passenger-side door and told 000: [Lip-Piercing Bro, you're such a good person!]

He had barely stepped one foot inside when he met a familiar face in the driver's seat.

Zhou Jingcheng held the steering wheel with one hand. "Give me the address."

Shi Jihan's brain crashed. After a long pause, he said, "...Huh?"

Zhou Jingcheng said, "Tang Huiming asked me to take you home. He said it was on the way."

"Who?" Shi Jihan reacted a beat late. "Oh... Lip-Piercing Bro."

Lip-Piercing Bro, you've done every bad thing there is!

Zhou Jingcheng raised an eyebrow and praised him. "Very vivid."

Then he added, "Getting in or not? If not, I'm leaving."

After weighing the pros and cons, Shi Jihan reluctantly brought his other leg in and slowly shut the door. Zhou Jingcheng asked for the address again, and Shi Jihan obediently told him. He sat quietly in the passenger seat with both hands on his knees, watching the car pull away.

He was absurdly well-behaved.

Inside, he frantically hammered at 000: [Help!! He's not going to hold a grudge and directly kidnap me abroad, is he?]

000: [How could he? This car can't cross the sea.]

Shi Jihan fumed: [What if he's a birdman?]

He would grab Shi Jihan by the back of the neck and toss him into the Southern Hemisphere.

000: [This novel doesn't involve fantasy. Even if he has a big bird, he can't be a birdman.]

[Who said his was big?] Shi Jihan got angry. [Tiny bird, tiny bird! Mine is the big bird!]

000: [...]

Oh my god, why was he so triggered?

Zhou Jingcheng's nose suddenly itched.

Strange. Why did he keep wanting to sneeze lately?

Maybe two showers in a row had given him a cold. He would buy some medicine at the pharmacy later.

He first dropped Shi Jihan off at the entrance to his residential complex.

Shi Jihan had been on edge the entire ride. He instantly sprang out of his seat. "Thank you so much! I can walk the rest of the way myself, sorry for the trouble!"

"Sure." Zhou Jingcheng parked the car steadily and nodded.

"Settle the fare."

Shi Jihan turned around in disbelief. "What?!"

"The fare." To accommodate the other man's intelligence, Zhou Jingcheng thoughtfully slowed down. "How should I explain what a fare is to you?"

"I know what a fare is!" Shi Jihan said. "But you never told me you were charging money!"

Zhou Jingcheng smiled. "You never told me you wanted to look before I got out of the shower either. Enjoy first, pay later. Didn't Young Master Shi teach me that?"

Shi Jihan raged helplessly. He wanted to flip Zhou Jingcheng off, but he was afraid Zhou Jingcheng would enjoy it.

"How much?"

"Eighty-eight. A lucky number."

After transferring the money, Shi Jihan plopped back into the car, clicked his seat belt firmly into place, and put on the air of a client. "Take me to my front door."

Zhou Jingcheng neither agreed nor objected.

After the Bugatti was registered, it slowly drove toward the Shi Family villa and stopped at the entrance.

Shi Jihan opened the door and made to leave.

Then the seat belt yanked him back into his seat, leaving him dazed for a moment.

Zhou Jingcheng clicked his tongue. "Young Master Shi, are you planning to carry my car home for eighty-eight?"

The answer was an earth-shaking slam of the car door.

Having lost a painful eighty-eight yuan, Shi Jihan marched forward aggressively and charged straight into the villa.

He ran headlong into Shi Bochuan and Shen Qinghuai, who were having dinner in the dining room.

"Third brother." Shi Bochuan called out to him, dark circles beneath his eyes.

His momentum deflated instantly like a balloon pricked by a needle.

Shi Jihan awkwardly greeted them, terrified that the two would cause trouble for him over what had happened at the banquet. "Big Brother, Brother Huai, good evening."

Look, his brother even had dark circles. He had been so angry that he had not slept all night.

Shen Qinghuai also had faint shadows beneath his eyes. He asked, "Hungry? Want to eat?"

"...Yes." While inwardly scorning himself for having no backbone and being unable to resist the temptation of food, Shi Jihan inched toward his seat.

[My brother isn't going to get mad and hit me, is he?]

000: [Probably not? Didn't you help the company gain prestige?]

[...By telling the whole internet who the big and little kings of the Shi Family are? You can have that blessing. Want it?]

Shi Bochuan raised his hand, but Shi Jihan shrank back and dodged it. Instead, Shi Bochuan stroked the little curl sticking up on top of his head.

"It's my fault, Little Brother. I was wrong." Shi Bochuan comforted him in his gentlest voice, but it seemed to have the opposite effect. The body beneath his hand went completely rigid. He simply stopped talking, placed three eggs on Shi Jihan's plate, and said, "I'm done eating. Take your time."

[ Ding, Malice Points +8 ]

000 asked in confusion: [That much? How did the Malice Points go up?]

After the others left, Shi Jihan looked at the goose egg, chicken egg, and quail egg lined up on his plate.

O, o, .

What did that mean? Was he telling Shi Jihan who the big, middle, and little egg among the Shi Family's three brothers was, warning him to behave?

Shi Jihan angrily took a bite of the goose egg.

Wow, delicious.

Shi Bochuan returned to his bedroom filled with guilt. He felt that his third brother was nothing like what the others at the company had said—ambitious and obsessed with fighting for power and profit. Look, his most malicious scheme had merely been making Shi Bochuan help him lose weight.

His third brother really did not have any bad intentions.

Shi Bochuan said to Shen Qinghuai, who entered looking exhausted, "I'm planning to give Third Brother the shares our parents left behind early, so he won't be bound by marriage like we were. It's just difficult to explain to the board."

He failed to notice Shen Qinghuai's expression gradually darkening as he muttered to himself, "He needs to build up his résumé... I've got it. Starting tomorrow, Third Brother will clock in for work at eight every morning. He must really want to shine in his position and create value."

When he turned around after speaking, he found Shen Qinghuai silently packing up his pillow and blanket. Panicking, he asked, "Where are you going? You're not sleeping here tonight?"

Shen Qinghuai picked up his things and left. "Of course not. I have nothing to sleep with President Shi, who likes bondage play, about."

Shi Bochuan chased after him. "That's not what I meant, listen to me explain!"

"I'm not listening." Shen Qinghuai moved quickly. "Don't come looking for me."

Shi Jihan, who had just come upstairs, watched the two men run out one after the other and slowly swallowed the quail egg in his mouth. "What, are they playing hawk catches chicks?"

Pretty childlike.

Early the next morning, Shi Jihan was dragged out of bed by the butler.

The butler hauled him up and shook him, trying to shake every last bit of sleepiness out of him.

"Stop shaking me," Shi Jihan said without being able to open his eyes. "I'll lose my punchlines."

The butler said seriously, "Young Master Shi, you jest. You need to go to work today. The eldest young master told me to wake you early."

Shi Jihan broke down.

He had stayed up gaming all night and had not gone to sleep until three in the morning.

The thing that could jump awake the moment it was called every day was toast in a toaster.

[Give me one reason I absolutely have to go to work today,] he poked Lurdan floating spread-eagled in the air, [or I'm taking leave.]

000 flipped through the original novel. [You need to go. There's a regular meeting today. Since Shen Qinghuai failed to secure President Wang's investment, employees from your faction will use that to mock Shen Qinghuai, force him to hand over his projects, hollow out his authority, and help you rise to power.]

[I have a career arc now?] Shi Jihan perked up and rolled out of bed. [Come on, come on. Let me show you what a high-energy career man does in a day.]

Wasn't President Wang the bald guy

uncle

from the banquet? Shi Jihan had very maliciously talked him out of investing and ruined Shen Qinghuai's reputation.

Facing the mirror, Shi Jihan adjusted his suit and tie, imagining himself harvesting Malice Points and following Shi Aotian's script toward the pinnacle of life.

How could this possibly go wrong? This round was in the bag!

Chapter 6

The automatic doors of Shi Group slowly slid apart, and a tall, slender figure approached from the other end of the carpet.

His back was straight as he strolled forward at an unhurried pace. Sunlight spilled behind him, stretching his shadow long.

A gentle breeze lifted the hem of his clothes, tousled his hair, then brushed past his cheek and left a kiss.

[The malicious cannon fodder Shi Aotian makes his entrance!]

[Lighting, okay.]

[BGM, okay.]

[Entrance speed, okay.]