He couldn't hide it

The private room fell completely silent for five or six seconds before Fu Cheng suddenly snorted.

"Ji Ting? Ha."

In his eyes, apart from a face worth looking at, Ji Ting had the word "useless" written all over him. Calling him some kind of supergenius was an absolute joke.

The mockery in his voice was so obvious that Doctor Zhou asked in confusion, "Mr. Fu, what do you mean?"

"It's not directed at you. I just..." As though something had occurred to him, Fu Cheng laughed. "Have you heard the story of Shang Zhongyong?"

Shang Zhongyong?

Doctor Zhou quickly understood what he meant, but still shook his head. "At Ji Ting's level, he could never end up like Fang Zhongyong."

"Really? He couldn't even get into college."

Fu Cheng's words dealt a devastating blow. Doctor Zhou froze, his eyes full of astonishment. "That... that can't be possible, can it?"

Fu Cheng sneered inwardly. Why wouldn't it be?

After taking the college entrance exam last year, Ji Ting had gone home and announced that he could take his pick of the country's top universities. Bragging was one thing, but his family had actually believed him.

On the day the scores were released, Ji Father had specifically hosted a huge private banquet. Relatives, friends, and prominent figures from every field had all turned up.

They had made such a grand occasion of it, and what had happened? When the time came, they checked his score, only to find he had barely managed two hundred points.

The expressions on the guests' faces had been downright comical. Even Fu Cheng had felt embarrassed for the Ji Family. They had practically paraded their humiliation around for everyone to see.

After hearing the story, Doctor Zhou was utterly bewildered and couldn't speak for a long time.

Fu Cheng patted his shoulder sympathetically. "Thanks for coming all this way today. Don't worry, I'll definitely keep your matter in mind."

"You're too kind, Mr. Fu."

Seeing that the two men still had things to discuss, Doctor Zhou tactfully excused himself. Before leaving, he glanced at Ji Yanzhi, who hadn't said a word the entire time.

Although he didn't know exactly what grievances existed between the brothers, there was one thing he was certain he hadn't gotten wrong.

The saying that an unused brain would rust was only an expression, but it did have some scientific basis. No matter how gifted someone's brain was at birth, without acquiring knowledge to maintain neural activity, they could indeed fade into mediocrity like Fang Zhongyong.

But given Ji Ting's current condition, his neurons could never have displayed such extraordinarily efficient circuit responses unless he had maintained top-tier logical and computational abilities day after day for years.

Forget it, Doctor Zhou thought. I've already said everything I needed to. Whether they believe me isn't my concern.

Fu Cheng saw him out, and his expression changed the moment he closed the door.

Something seemed to be brewing in his mind. After a long while, he finally said, "Yanzhi, you didn't say anything just now. You're suspicious too, aren't you?"

Ji Yanzhi raised his dark eyes. As their gazes met, both men's expressions carried a trace of gravity.

Clearly, both had wondered whether Ji Ting had been hiding his abilities all these years.

Ji Yanzhi lowered his gaze again and said expressionlessly, "He doesn't have the temperament for that."

"Doesn't he?" Fu Cheng's tone was scathing. "Don't forget, he's that woman's son."

At the mention of "that woman," Ji Yanzhi's expression visibly chilled, and he even shot Fu Cheng an icy look.

"Glare all you want. I still have to say it." Fu Cheng didn't want to reopen his friend's wounds either, but some things had to be laid bare. "When you were little, you were always calling her Aunt Lin, and she doted on you as if you were her own son. Who could have imagined that barely after your mother died, she'd walk into the Ji Family with a baby already swelling her belly?"

"And that father of yours..." Just thinking about him made Fu Cheng feel sick, so he dropped the subject. "I just want to remind you that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. You're always softhearted, and you've never really come down hard on him all these years. But what if Ji Ting is a venomous insect lying in wait, ready to bite you one day?"

Ji Yanzhi remained silent for a long while. Fu Cheng thought he was brewing up a storm, but when he spoke, he said, "Whether he's been playing the fool or not, I'll know once I ask him."

Fu Cheng gave a laugh of disbelief. "What are you thinking? Ji Ting lies through his teeth. Do you really think he'll tell you the truth just because you ask?"

Before, perhaps not. But now...

The faintest curve actually appeared at the corner of Ji Yanzhi's lips. "It doesn't matter if he lies. He can't hide it anyway."

Lu Yanchu spent two full days undergoing more than a dozen examinations, but every result was normal. They hadn't found anything wrong with him.

His manager was so anxious that sores had broken out at the corners of his mouth, yet whenever he asked what exactly was wrong, Lu Yanchu refused to say.

Unable to find anything wrong with himself, Lu Yanchu thought it over and decided to use what he had heard that day to track down the person who had been "speaking" in his ear.

"Yanchu, my friend finally got back to me!"

His manager pushed the door open as he spoke. Lu Yanchu was at his computer in a meeting with the visual effects team and raised a hand, signaling for him to wait.

A little over ten minutes later, Lu Yanchu ended the video conference.

"Liang, what did they say?"

"My friend went to a lot of trouble to find out about this. He couldn't get a single word out of the doctors. In the end, he had to go through all sorts of roundabout channels before finally coaxing something out of a receptionist."

At that, his manager went to close the door, then returned and lowered his voice. "Would you believe it? On the day you went to Ruihe, a VIP patient really did have a chromosome test."

Lu Yanchu fell silent for a moment, some unspoken emotion lingering in his eyes. "Who was it?"

His manager licked his lips and said mysteriously, "He's someone with quite a background. He's the second son of the Shili Group's..."

"Ji Ting?" Lu Yanchu suddenly supplied.

The voice he had heard had actually come from Ji Ting?

His manager froze. "You... you know him?"

Lu Yanchu shook his head lightly. "No, but I've heard someone mention him."

"Who?"

Instead of answering his question directly, Lu Yanchu asked, "Is Ji Ting ill?"

"All I know is that he had brain examinations that day, quite a few of them. But as for what illness he has..." His manager pursed his lips and spread his hands. "You know how strictly Ruihe protects its clients' information. I had to shamelessly call in favors just to squeeze out this much."

They looked at each other for a few seconds before a resigned smile appeared on Lu Yanchu's lips. "All right, I promise to rest for another half month. Will that do, my esteemed manager Liang?"

Having successfully gotten his way, his manager stopped beating around the bush. "They didn't say it outright, but one thing is certain: Ji Ting has developed a problem with his intelligence."

"His intelligence?" Lu Yanchu was rather surprised.

"Yes. Some new pathological condition with a really complicated name caused his brain to deteriorate. Every doctor in the Neurology Department went in that day, and they were all shaking their heads and sighing when they came out." His manager added emphatically, "The receptionist saw all of this firsthand. It's absolutely reliable."

Lu Yanchu lowered his eyes, looking thoughtful.

In that case, certain things began to make sense.

From what little he knew of Ji Ting, even after being rejected by Ling Xi that day, he should have gone back the next day and kept pestering Ling Xi until he brought Ling Xi back to Jing City.

Instead of continuing to pester Ling Xi, Ji Ting had given the address to Liu. Presumably, he had already known he was ill by then, which was why he had been forced to entrust Ling Xi's care to someone else.

Seeing that he hadn't spoken for a long time, his manager asked in puzzlement, "Haven't we found out what you wanted to know? Why are you worrying now?"

Lu Yanchu gave a faint laugh. "I'm not worried. I'm thinking about something else."

He thought it was time he found an opportunity to meet this Ji Ting.