In the latter half of April, Chairman Yan, who had been skipping work, finally returned to his office. For a moment, the entirety of YL was celebrating the heartening news as they ran around the departments to spread the good news. Those who received the news were moved to tears.
Shao Yue was informed by Xiao Yu about their chairman’s return and had been waiting at the chairman’s office since early morning. When he saw Yan Jin walking towards him, he raised the company’s official stamp above his head and recited:
We respectfully welcome Your Majesty –
Smack
Yan Jin slapped his hand on Shao Yue’s head and ignored the company stamp. He bypassed Shao Yue as if he was avoiding something dirty and headed into his own office. Before he shut the door, he said,
Settle everything that you need by twelve noon. Don’t assume I have no idea what good deeds
you have done.
Shao Yue innocently scratched his head and shouted,
I’ll leave the company stamp at the door! Don’t blame me if you can’t find it!
as he left.
Director Shao let out a sigh of relief as he put down the company stamp as if relieved from a burden.
He strode off at a brisk pace, humming uneven tones of a song and gracefully heading towards the finance office.
Liberated at last.
After being exploited for so long, all that unused vacation leave could finally be of use now.
The doors to the finance department were right before his eyes. Behind those dreamy glass doors, it was as if Shao Yue could foresee himself receiving his generous paycheck and bonus and then holidaying at those little islands in Hawaii with babes in his arms.
Thankfully, he had gone to the finance department to settle his paycheck first and not the human resource department to apply for his vacation leave.
Director Shao, have a seat please.
Shao Yue was attended to by a gentle-looking and pleasant lady. She understood Shao Yue’s intentions and chuckled.
Shao Yue’s sixth sense was telling him that there was something wrong with that chuckle, but he didn’t think too much of it until the young lady took out a photocopied document that he would recognize even if it was burned to ashes.
Chairman Yan has made amendments to the figures. Please check through and see if there’s anything wrong with it,
the young lady explained as she blinked her big doe-like eyes and looked at Shao Yue with anticipation.
Shao Yue: ……
Why would he need to look at that thing? He did not want to see that thing ever again in his entire life. That thing costed one hundred and eighty million US dollars. Even without converting to local currency, it was already a sky-high price. Shao Yue had lost hopes on fully repaying that amount.
Of course, Yan Jin was aware of how much Shao Yue could repay him. However, they had been
friends
for so many years, it was not like Yan Jin would force him to fork over that amount. In fact, whenever that IOU had appeared, it could only mean that Yan Jin was feeling angry, again.
Erm. Can I ask a question? What does Chairman Yan mean by this?
Shao Yue’s tone instantly turned more cowardly as he lowered his previously arrogant head that had been up in the air.
He had no choice after all. That thin IOU was like the Mount Five Fingers to Sun Wukong¹. No matter how he tried to escape it, it could always immobilize him forever.
In Sun Wukong’s case, Xuanzang² was eventually there to save him. However, in Shao Yue’s case, no matter what he did for the rest of his life, he would never be freed from that IOU.
Even a lottery would not help. After tax deduction, the amount that would be left would still be an utterly inadequate amount compared to his IOU unless he won all the lotteries throughout the entire year.
Oh, it’s like this. Chairman mentioned that you have been slacking off at work, so he took away your two months’ salary and bonuses. Oh, and also this year’s year-end bonus as well. All of those have been used to repay this debt.
The young lady used her pleasant voice to convey such a tragic horror story.
What made it more terrifying was the fact that as she spoke, she was smiling throughout the entire conversation.
So, there’s no more money left~ We will not give you a single penny~ Is there anything else I can help you with, Director Shao?
Shao Yue: ?????
……
After convincing Yan Jin to return to the office, Xiao Yu immediately began to settle the final deal that he had taken charge of before he had returned to his human body. It was the contract that was worth eighty million dollars that he painstakingly snatched over from SI’s vicious grip.
The amount of work needed was quite large and they had separated it into two parts to complete. The first half was already completed with Nannan’s help, whereas the second half was incomplete due to Xiao Yu’s sudden absence that had left Nannan with no choice but to shelve it.
However, without Xiao Yu and Nannan’s assistance, YL could not afford to wait. They could only look for their internal designers to fill in the gap on the drawings needed for the second half of the deal. Thankfully, they had the first half as reference and managed to finish the drawings without any mishaps.
After such a long time, Xiao Yu felt lost as he used his account to find out more details.
Life was such a wonderful experience.
[Fish and Hamster – You Can’t Have Both]: I’m so sorry. I had an accident recently, so I was unable to contact you.
The other end replied almost immediately.
[Nannan]: MASTER!! YOU FINALLY APPEARED!!
[Fish and Hamster – You Can’t Have Both]: I’m really sorry about that. My situation was really complicated. I have let you down. I can’t explain it over QQ, could we meet up and talk face to face?
[Nannan]: Oh, sure. We’ve agreed to it.
[Nannan]: It’s just that I’m a little busy lately. Could we meet next week instead?
[Fish and Hamster – You Can’t Have Both]: Of course, of course. Get in touch with me once you’re free.
Time was not an issue. Xiao Yu was already satisfied that he would get to meet Nannan in person.
Although Yan Jin had already promised that he would help him to contact Nannan, Xiao Yu was keener to settle his own business by himself. This was his business and it would not be suitable for an outsider like Yan Jin to interfere.
Hence, Xiao Yu was completely unaware that there was something strange about Nannan’s answer. Neither did he realized that Yan Jin had already contacted Nannan on his behalf. The chairman had even fixed a time for his disciple to visit them, just to give the designer a big surprise (shock).
However, before Nannan had paid them a visit, there was another person who arrived first.
……
During this period, Chu Ge was in a state of complete isolation.
He could not blame it on others as it was all because of himself.
If he had not found out that Yan Jin had gathered the secret force that the Yan family had been hiding from everyone and then had requested to tag along because he was free and bored, he would not have ended up being used to keep those betrayers alive while they were interrogated for the past two weeks.
Sighs In all honesty, he was a doctor who took the burden of practicing medicine to help the public. Yet at this moment, the most outstanding, youngest doctor of the century was used as a part-time interrogator???
It was the degeneracy of humanity, the loss of the society!
Although there was not completely nothing in return.
At least Chu Ge had had found a way to remove the Nan family from Yan Jin’s
spring-cleaning
this time around.
In the end, he begrudged his family. It was what people referred as blood ties, that even if you broke its bone, there would be tendons attached to it.
When everything was just about settled, Chu Ge bade farewell to Yan Jin’s subordinates, put on a brand-new white robe, and dropped by on his own initiative.
His plan was as such: he would see if he could fool Yan Jin about what he had done for his family. It would be the best if he could so he could pretend that nothing had never happened. If he could not pull it off, he knew that based on their many years of friendship, Yan Jin would not really punish him. Chu Ge would have to at most confess his sins and beg for forgiveness.
And so, Chu Ge carried an expensive-looking chinchilla that he had bought on his way when he opened the door to Yan Jin’s villa.
When the door opened, he realized something was wrong. His brain that had been slowed down due to two weeks of formalin³ and the scent of blood, finally started to move.
He should have called beforehand.
For the past two weeks, he had been living like a caveman. Besides helping out with interrogations and covering up for the Nan family, he had not done anything else. However, on the outside world, that two weeks had turned everything on its head as a result of Yan Jin’s ravaging acts.
Yan Jin himself should have experienced great changes. He may have even left the country.
As he wondered, he had already halfway opened the door. Chu Ge pushed open the door open the rest of the way anyway as he took big steps into the villa.
Yan Jin was indeed not around.
Lying on the couch, covered with a thin blanket, was a young man who was teasing a cat with his left hand and browsing through a magazine with great interest with his right hand. Upon hearing the door opening, the young man turned around, revealing a face that Chu Ge had seen before.
At that moment, Chu Ge thought that he might have inhaled too much formalin that his brain was creating illusions.
Why are you back? Did you forget something?
Xiao Yu asked. When he did not receive a response, he turned around, puzzled.
Ah, it’s Chu Ge.
Realizing it was the doctor, Xiao Yu got off the couch, threw the magazine onto the coffee table, pushed Faye to the side, and made some space for Chu Ge to sit.
Have a seat.
Chu Ge looked at the floor covered with nutshells and the somewhat familiar thin blanket that was wrapped around Xiao Yu’s body. Lastly, he looked at the diamond ring that almost blinded his eyes on the ring finger that was pressed against the couch. At that moment, some famous internet slang suddenly appeared in his mind:
Don’t offend him at all costs.
I’ll sit at the side.
In the end, Chu Ge chose the couch that was on the left side of Xiao Yu.
Xiao Yu thought that Chu Ge was disgusted by the mess around him. He couldn’t help but to blush and stammered in his explanation.
These are not thrown by me. They were all eaten by Yan Jin.
Yan Jin who was faraway in YL, sneezed twice in a row and calmly said to his subordinates,
Carry on with the meeting.
Chu Ge studied Xiao Yu like a profound mystery and chose to remain silent.
Obviously, he would not point his finger at Xiao Yu and ask
What is a murderer like you doing here
after witnessing such a scene. Being rational was one thing, but his burning urge to gossip was another thing.
What the hell is happening? Love born from hatred? Forbidden love? Selling one’s body to repay his sin play? Or is this some kind of late-night drama where two people use fake love to dig out information and the first one to fall in love will die first?
Chu Ge started to regret that he did not give Yan Jin a call before he visited.
Xiao Yu was completely unaware that Chu Ge’s world view was on the verge of collapsing. He even happily went to pour Chu Ge a cup of hot tea.
Chu Ge looked at the drink and examined the clear water surface. He did not dare drink it.
You came here to look for Yan Jin, right? He’s almost off work now. I’ll give him a call and ask him to drive faster.
Xiao Yu took his mobile and added,
Or if you’re in a rush, you can tell me first and I promise to convey the message to him.
Hmm…
Chu Ge hummed and put down the cup of tea. He said in a serious tone.
Before you do so, can I ask something about both of you?
About us?
Xiao Yu subconsciously thought that Chu Ge was asking about his engagement with Yan Jin. He blushed as he explained,
It’s nothing special actually. It’s more or less what Yan Jin told you.
…… But he did not tell me anything.
Chu Ge grasped his own hands in front of himself and spoke solemnly,
My last impression of you, was that you’re the troublemaker who was targeted by the enemies. My job was to hand you over to Yan Jin and wait for his ruling.
Xiao Yu: ????
Translator’s Note:
[1] 孙悟空的那座五指山 – Part of the classical Chinese novel, Journey to the West, where the Monkey King, Sun Wukong was immobilized under the Mount Five Fingers, Hainan, China.
[2] 唐僧 (Táng sēng), Xuanzang (Tang dynasty Buddhist monk and translator, who traveled to India 629-645), and was Sun Wukong’s Master who eventually freed him from the Mount Five Fingers and took him on a journey.
[3] 福尔马林 – Formalin (too much to explain, read here)
