"Liao Kai."
Ji Yanzhi's voice carried an unmistakable threat the moment he spoke, and Liao Kai wisely shut his mouth.
Sensing Ji Ting looking his way out of the corner of his eye, he turned his face away coldly. "Don't flatter yourself. I went to Crane Garden for Ji Liping. He and his son broke the law, so they should pay the price. Even a dog shouldn't have to take the blame for them."
Ji Ting nodded lightly. So Ji Yanzhi wasn't targeting me. Even kind words turn harsh and grating in his mouth. He was born with no emotional intelligence.
Ji Yanzhi turned back with a frown, only to see Ji Ting, his lips pale, leaning against the car window with his eyes closed. He seemed tired.
Looking at the blood on his collar, Ji Yanzhi swallowed his anger and lowered his voice as he told Liao Kai, "There's a box of disinfectant wipes in the glove compartment. Find it."
Liao Kai took it out and handed it to him. Ji Yanzhi immediately pulled out two wipes and began cleaning his face with painstaking care.
A few minutes later, Liao Kai suddenly said, "President Ji, shouldn't we stop the Second Young Master from sleeping like that?"
Ji Yanzhi was carefully wiping the blood from between his fingers and didn't even look up. "What, are you worried he'll get a stiff neck?"
Liao Kai sounded anxious. "I remember that people who've lost too much blood shouldn't sleep. Something about it causing oxygen deprivation in the brain, or death from shock."
Ji Yanzhi's hands abruptly stopped. He turned to look at Ji Ting and realized that his face was far too pale.
Slap, slap. Slap, slap, slap...
The painful slaps to his face woke Ji Ting. He struggled to lift his eyelids and saw that the "culprit" was, unsurprisingly, Ji Yanzhi.
Seeing him close his eyes again, Ji Yanzhi ordered fiercely, "Ji Ting, open your eyes and talk to me."
"I have nothing to say to you," Ji Ting said drowsily.
Ji Yanzhi choked on his response, then simply reached over and hauled him upright. "Then tell a joke. Didn't you say telling jokes was your specialty?"
Even now, Ji Ting remembered his principles. "I'm not telling you one."
"Then tell Liao Kai."
Liao Kai immediately played along. "Yes, yes, I love hearing jokes."
Ji Ting took a deep breath and opened his eyes in utter resignation. "You need to lose at least two thousand milliliters of blood to go into hypovolemic shock. I lost no more than seven hundred and fifty earlier. You don't need to worry."
Ji Yanzhi narrowed his eyes, their depths pitch-black. "If you heard everything, why were you pretending just now?"
Ji Ting had vaguely heard their voices as he drifted off, but he couldn't be bothered to explain now. He sighed. "Can I go back to sleep now?"
"Say one more word and you're dead," Ji Yanzhi said through gritted teeth.
Over twenty minutes later, the car finally arrived at the hospital.
The wound behind Ji Ting's ear was sizeable and required thirteen stitches. Once it had been treated, he went for a blood transfusion.
Ji Yanzhi told Liao Kai to stay at the hospital and keep an eye on him, then drove back to the group headquarters himself.
"President Ji, aren't you going to the club anymore? Didn't you say..."
"It's too late to get there now. That Qin fellow must have taken Ling Xi away already." Qin Zaiye wouldn't hurt Ling Xi anyway. As long as Ling Xi was safe, there was no need to insist on keeping Ling Xi by his side.
Ji Yanzhi took the car keys and left, leaving Liao Kai scratching his cheek in confusion.
President Ji didn't seem to care all that much about Mr. Ling. Then why had he made them search day and night for him a while back?
Over an hour later.
Liao Kai accompanied Ji Ting out of the hospital and pointed toward the entrance. "Second Young Master, the car's already waiting at the door. I'll take you home."
Ji Ting shook his head. "I'm going to report this to the police."
"Huh?"
"A wound this long qualifies as at least a grade-two minor injury. This is intentional assault, and Ji Shilei has to be held legally responsible."
Liao Kai swallowed, looking troubled. "Then... shouldn't we ask the chairman first?"
Ji Ting looked at him coolly. "The parties involved are Ji Shilei and me. Why should we ask Ji Zhenting's opinion?"
Liao Kai instantly gained a new understanding of Ji Ting's temper. He wasn't even afraid of the chairman. No wonder President Ji was nearly driven mad every time.
Just to be safe, he sent Ji Yanzhi a message about it once they got into the car.
A few minutes later, a reply arrived: [Let him.]
In the president's office, Ji Yanzhi put down his phone and called his secretary in.
"Has Xu Ren left?"
"Engineer Sun and Mr. Xu went back to the meeting room after lunch. They're still on the twenty-second floor."
Ji Yanzhi nodded. "All right. Keep an eye on them. Once they're done, ask Xu Ren to come to my office."
"Yes." The secretary took out an invitation with an ornate cutout design and placed it on his desk. "President Ji, President Zhang of the Hengrui Group specifically had this delivered at noon. He's inviting you to a dinner banquet next Saturday."
Ji Yanzhi picked it up and looked it over, his brow furrowing slightly. "Hengrui?"
Shili and Hengrui had rarely worked together, and their social ties were limited. Why had they extended such a formal invitation?
"Yes. President Zhang also said he hoped you and the Second Young Master would both honor him with your presence."
The mention of Ji Ting suddenly reminded Ji Yanzhi of something. The Zhang Family's youngest son, Zhang Xu, seemed to be Ji Ting's friend. The two had always been out messing around together.
At that thought, Ji Yanzhi set the invitation aside with a cold expression. "Find some excuse to decline for me before Saturday."
"Of course, President Ji."
It was nearly dark by the time Xu Ren emerged from the meeting room.
As soon as he stepped out, he saw Ji Yanzhi's secretary and followed the secretary into the elevator.
When he entered the president's office, Ji Yanzhi was reading documents on his computer. "Find yourself a seat," he said.
Xu Ren sat neatly on the sofa. Looking at Ji Yanzhi's focused, stern face, he inexplicably felt that the man had become more real.
He had occasionally seen Ji Ting studying Ji Yanzhi's expressions. Ji Yanzhi always seemed angry in those photographs, so Xu Ren had always pictured him as a hot-tempered older brother.
But now, sitting in this enormous office, he belatedly realized that the man before him was a titan of Huaguo's technology industry, the president of the Shili Group.
A few minutes later, Ji Yanzhi finished reading the documents, got up, and walked over.
"Teacher Xu, come to Shili's laboratory this week to refine your data. You don't need to tutor Ji Ting."
"Huh?" Xu Ren's eyes widened, and he immediately grew agitated. "I'm not coming to Shili. I can do my experiments at school. I want to keep tutoring Old Ji... Ji Ting!"
Watching him get so worked up, Ji Yanzhi felt both disdainful and speechless. Although Ji Ting's face was certainly deceptive, he still couldn't understand Xu Ren's feverish infatuation at all.
Ji Yanzhi took a breath. "I'm not saying you can't tutor him anymore. Ji Ting was injured today, and he'll need to recover at home for the next few days."
Xu Ren's expression changed drastically in an instant. "Injured! Where? Is it serious?"
Faced with his three panicked questions in quick succession, Ji Yanzhi helplessly raised a hand toward his ear. "The injury is..."
"His head?" Xu Ren shot up from the sofa, his eyes reddening. "How could he have hurt his head? Do you know how important Teacher Ji's head is?!"
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