Raking in Forty Million

That sentence contained so much information that Zheng Mother's breath caught. Her lips parted slightly, but she could not speak for a long moment.

Seeing this, Zheng Father hurried over, supported Zheng Mother, and patted her back to help her catch her breath.

The Zheng Family had vast wealth and extensive businesses. Even if the whole family spent the rest of their lives doing nothing but living off their fortune, bankruptcy should have been impossible.

But since the things Ning Shile had mentioned earlier had all checked out, they had to take precautions, even if this prediction was false.

Now, Zheng Father had no choice but to reassess Ning Shile.

Zheng Mother had originally brought up the marriage alliance on a whim. If Ning Shile refused, she would have let it go.

But now, the Zheng Family had changed their minds.

Ning Shile had to join the Zheng Family, and he had to do it immediately.

Zheng Father and Zheng Mother went straight past Ning Shile and raised the matter with Ning Father.

Naturally, Ning Father was more than willing. He agreed to the marriage on Ning Shile's behalf.

The engagement banquet proceeded as scheduled, only now Ning Shile was the one getting engaged.

After the engagement banquet, Ning Shile was bundled into the Zheng Family's luxury car and taken to their villa estate.

Zheng Mother sat beside Ning Shile and held his hand. "Shile, you can go see Little Ye first."

Ning Shile lowered his eyes. "Mm."

Seeing Ning Shile's lack of enthusiasm, Zheng Mother took a black card from her bag and pressed it into his hand. "I know you don't want this. There's ten million in this account. Consider it compensation."

Ning Shile looked at the black card in his hand and pressed his lips together. With a sincere gaze, he pushed it back. "Auntie, I can't accept this."

[Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands... eight digits! So much lovely money!!]

[Once you've given it to me, Auntie, you can't take it back!!!]

Watching Ning Shile act reserved and conflicted while inwardly bubbling with excitement, Zheng Mother found him rather amusing. Unable to resist teasing him, she said, "Since you don't want it, I'll hold on to it for you."

"...Huh?" Ning Shile froze at her words, his eyes widening in apparent disbelief.

Then he watched helplessly as the black card was taken away and returned to Zheng Mother's bag.

[Oh, no!]

Ning Shile took a deep breath.

[Talk about twisting the knife!]

[Boohoo, my lovely money, my ten million, my sports car and villa and savings, boohoo!!]

Zheng Father could not help laughing at Ning Shile's devastated expression.

Zheng Mother laughed too. She stopped teasing him and pressed the card back into his hand. "This money isn't a gift."

Ning Shile: "?"

"Now that we've held the engagement banquet, we can't cancel it," Zheng Mother said. "I know you're unwilling. In that case, how would you feel about a contract marriage?"

"You and Little Ye would stay married under the agreement for one year. After that, the agreement expires, and you divorce," Zheng Mother explained. "This ten million is part of your payment for the marriage. After a year, another thirty million will be transferred to your account."

Hearing that astronomical sum, Ning Shile grew excited, then began to ponder.

[One year, huh? Will the Zheng Family have gone bankrupt by then?]

[Looks like I'll have to make sure the Zheng Family doesn't go bankrupt during that year.]

"All right." Ning Shile nodded and stopped refusing. After putting the card away, he added, "But I have another question."

Having achieved her goal, Zheng Mother was in an excellent mood. "Ask away."

Ning Shile tilted his head. "Is this agreement of ours legally sound?"

Zheng Mother: "..."

Ning Shile blinked. "I mean, will it be legally binding? Will the guarantees actually be enforceable?"

Zheng Mother: "..."

"I think we should have a lawyer draft a contract," Ning Shile said earnestly. "After all, this involves a huge amount of money, not to mention a major life decision."

Wait... Zheng Mother was momentarily speechless. Why was this nothing like what she expected? In TV dramas, didn't people offered a contract marriage either refuse or fly into a rage, throw the bank card down, and say something like, "Don't think your filthy money can buy me"?

Zheng Mother took a deep breath. But Ning Shile was right. A verbal agreement offered no guarantees; having a contract drafted would be better.

She looked at Zheng Father, who immediately said, "I'll have the legal team deliver the contract before dawn."

Reassured, Ning Shile nodded. "All right. Here's to a successful partnership."

[Then I'll go meet my bargain husband!]

[Oh, wait, he's worth forty million! My gold-trimmed, deluxe vegetative husband—Zheng Ye!]

Zheng Ye.

Ning Shile was no stranger to that name. After all, half the book was devoted to his grand exploits. His deranged deeds sent chills down Ning Shile's spine even when he merely read their descriptions.

He was the book's ultimate villain, a paranoid, unhinged, lovesick obsessive. To win over Protagonist Shou, Su Jinyu, and eliminate everyone standing between them, he resorted to every means imaginable. He was the one who ruined the Zheng Family's businesses.

Ning Shile had a good impression of Zheng Father and Zheng Mother. They even struck him as a loving couple who treated others gently. Surely they could not have raised a twisted son.

So it was very likely that Zheng Ye had damaged his brain by sleeping through those years in a vegetative state.

A vegetative patient whose brain had been eaten by zombies really was dangerous.

The car drove into the Zheng Family's villa estate, where the Butler, servants, and housekeepers stood in rows at the entrance to welcome them.

Gravel paved the path, with dim yellow streetlights on either side. When the wind blew, the leaves overhead rustled.

Before getting out, Ning Shile specifically checked for a private doctor or someone similar. After all, that role was indispensable in domineering CEO novels!

It was a high-risk profession: even at three in the morning, one phone call from the domineering CEO meant the private doctor had to arrive within minutes or be fired!

"Ye's room is on the second floor. You can go up and see him," Zheng Mother said.

Ning Shile came back to himself and nodded. "All right."

The Zheng Family lived in a five-story mansion with a backyard, a swimming pool, and even a small elevator.

Ning Shile climbed the spiral staircase and looked down into the hall.

In the hall, the Butler respectfully took Zheng Father's coat and withdrew, while the servants approached Zheng Mother to massage her shoulders and legs.

Being rich was wonderful.

One floor of the Zheng Family's home was larger than his family's entire house.

Having finished marveling, Ning Shile continued upstairs.

Zheng Ye's room was at the end of the second floor. When Ning Shile pushed the door open, the scent of sandalwood greeted him.

He looked around and saw plush carpeting covering the floor. A large bed stood beneath the window, its curtains half drawn, offering a view of a sky full of stars.

A small night-light sat on the table, and incense burned beside the bed.

Perhaps because today was the engagement banquet, the Zheng Family had shown their sincerity by dressing Zheng Ye in formal attire as he lay in bed.

Ning Shile took off his shoes and walked slowly over, barefoot on the carpet.

He had expected Zheng Ye to have a vicious, obsessive look, but instead, the man's face was strikingly handsome and gentle.

[This forty-million vegetative patient is pretty handsome!]

Downstairs, Zheng Father and Zheng Mother raised their eyebrows.

Wait, they could hear him even when he was speaking on the second floor?

Zheng Ye had excellent bone structure. From his brow ridge to his jaw, he had inherited all of Zheng Father's best features.

Lying in bed with his eyes peacefully closed and his lashes lowered, his face showed no signs of sagging. Instead, he had a peculiar air of aloofness, as though he were merely asleep.

Ning Shile could not resist taking a few more looks. [Now I finally know how the prince felt looking at Sleeping Beauty!]

[This little thing is quite pretty!]

Ning Shile crouched beside the bed, studying Zheng Ye's profile, and suddenly felt a little sorry for him.

[Thinking about it, Zheng Ye had it pretty rough too. An academic genius and business tycoon, with top-tier intelligence and cunning. Yet he got into a car accident saving Protagonist Shou, Su Jinyu, and spent three years lying here.]

Protagonist Shou, Su Jinyu?

Zheng Father and Zheng Mother pricked up their ears. Zheng Ye really had crashed while trying to avoid a pedestrian.

[By the time he woke up, the Imperial Capital's business world had changed completely.]

[The Zheng Corporation, once the established industry leader, had lost its glory, replaced by a rising star—the Chu Corporation.]

[Although Zheng Ye did everything he could to turn things around immediately, the Zheng Corporation was already rotten at the roots. Its employees had turned disloyal and become parasites.]

[Zheng Father and Zheng Mother were manipulated into divorcing, too. Zheng Father's second wife cared only about money and sold the Zheng Family's comeback project to their rival.]

Zheng Mother shot Zheng Father a fierce glare.

Zheng Father raised both hands, inwardly wondering what kind of garbage novel this was. How could he possibly divorce Zheng Mother and remarry?! Utter nonsense!

[On top of that, Zheng Ye fell in love with Su Jinyu and lost his mind over him. He went crazy for him, went wild for him, and practically bashed his head against walls for him.]

[But Su Jinyu only had eyes for his cherished first love, Chu Ran, the top protagonist. He had no interest in Zheng Ye at all.]

[That was when Zheng Ye went down the dark path: locking people in gloomy little rooms, tormenting Protagonist Shou, and trampling on the top protagonist.]

[But doing all that was like handing the top protagonist a knife himself. Chu Ran climbed step by step over the Zheng Corporation, swallowed up every business around him, and built his own commercial empire.]

[As for Zheng Ye, he lost in both love and business. The two protagonists turned the tables and tormented him, body and soul, until he finally died in that little dark room.]

[What a tragedy.]

Zheng Father and Zheng Mother listened with their hearts pounding. Was their entire family's future really that miserable?

They were all wiped out?

[I think Zheng Mother was disfigured too. Who did that again?]

At those words, Zheng Mother's blood pressure shot straight up.

Disfigured!? She was disfigured?! Zheng Mother could no longer sit still. Her face was what she valued most; she spent millions on skincare alone every year.

Zheng Mother sprang to her feet and dragged Zheng Father upstairs.

Enough. That was all the spoilers they could take today. They could not withstand any more!

Bang!

Zheng Ye's bedroom door flew open.

“?” Startled, Ning Shile lost his train of thought and stared blankly at Zheng Father and Zheng Mother before him.

Before he could react, Zheng Ye suddenly stirred on the bed.

Zheng Ye was indeed in a vegetative state, but he was not dead.

He was conscious.

For a while now, he had heard the person before him going on beside his ear about the Zheng Family being doomed, villains, torment of body and soul, and all sorts of other grating terms.

Something about falling in love with some Su-something Protagonist Shou, bashing his head against walls, turning evil, and finally even being tortured to death.

Lying in bed, Zheng Ye felt rage surge through him. The more he heard, the more alert he became. His mind was clearer than it had ever been, and the blood throughout his body seemed to start flowing again.

Then came sensations he had not felt in a long time.

The warmth in his fingertips.

The scent beneath his nose.

The touch against his body.

Oh, and that little mouth chattering away beside his ear.

As though he had finally regained control of his body, Zheng Ye struggled to open his eyes.

At first, everything before him was blurred, gray and white intertwining into indistinct shapes.

Then his pupils focused, and the things before him began to take form.

Finally, a young man leaned toward him.

Their eyes met.

The young man had fair, clear skin, round, bright eyes, curled lashes, and a gaze full of concern.

Zheng Ye's gaze shifted slightly. Before he could gather his thoughts, the young man made another move.

He slowly reached out and closed Zheng Ye's eyes.

[Holy shit, vegetative patients can open their eyes?]

Zheng Ye: “...”

Had he considered the possibility that Zheng Ye had woken up?