Song Shi had never liked Song Ci mingling too closely with these friends. Therefore, even though the Song family owned ready-made clubs, the venues for heavy drinking and gambling among this group of friends were always provided by Xu Kai.
And this house was specifically bought by the party-loving Xu Kai to serve as a "base of operations" for him and his shady friends to fool around in.
Although it was a detached single-family home on expensive land, the soundproofing of the rooms was not nearly as good as the developers had advertised.
Even though Song Ci repeatedly and intentionally turned up the TV volume, the increasingly loud, ambiguous noises coming from the bedroom still caught everyone's attention.
The noisy room suddenly fell silent for a moment. Then, a wave of lewd, frivolous, collective laughter erupted.
Song Ci was a veteran in the romantic battlefield; he couldn't be bothered to pay attention to this level of commotion.
"What star? She's honestly no different from the girls with clear price tags at Tiandihui."
Someone made this highly fitting remark.
And so, everyone joined in the jeering.
Watching TV, Song Ci chimed in with a noncommittal smile.
That popular young actress with a face tender enough to pinch water out of was actually a full-grown adult. Having long grown accustomed to fighting in the vanity fair, she was a ruthless character who wasn't truly blind to whether others had ulterior motives.
Yet, despite possessing invincible youth and a face and figure that ordinary people could only envy...
She was still willing to be easily plucked and casually trampled. At such a young age, she willingly sacrificed both her body and soul to the altar of money.
But then again, in any relationship, who is to say that someone who values emotions is necessarily nobler than someone who values material wealth?
One is willing to hit, and the other is willing to endure the beating; it's a fair trade where each gets what they need.
Choosing to completely ignore one's own gradually rotting heart in exchange for the stench of money—there was inherently no right or wrong to this kind of transactional relationship.
Perhaps, sooner or later, the girl selling herself would eventually regret it. But no matter what, it was her own choice.
After all, adults ultimately have to clean up their own messes. Even the kind that has rotted thoroughly from the inside out.
An hour later, having finished his fun, Xu Kai returned to the front of the TV. After a bout of intimacy, he had sobered up a bit. Seeing that Song Ci still hadn't left, he was quite surprised.
"Brother Ci is really giving face today! I hope you keep up the good work for my future parties too, and stop playing the big shot by always arriving late and leaving early."
Xu Kai's white shirt was smeared with the woman's lipstick, and on his thin, short neck was an eye-catching string of hickeys.
Song Ci glared at him in annoyance. "I wasn't in the mood the day before yesterday because I went to the hospital to see my brother. You don't know shit!" As he spoke, he pushed the red wine glass on the table over to him, casually pouring a little into his own empty glass as well.
Seeing that he still wanted to drink, Xu Kai sat down to keep him company.
Always afraid of awkward silences, Xu Kai casually started chatting about Xiao Xinyu's performance in bed just now.
Listening to his bullshit, Song Ci played along with the narrative, occasionally flashing a wicked smile.
However, the hand holding the remote didn't sit idle, randomly flipping through the news channels and naturally pausing the screen at a certain frame.
"Who's this? Looks pretty good."
Xu Kai, who had his head tilted back drinking, instantly perked up upon hearing Song Ci praise someone's looks. Squinting his drunken eyes, he followed the direction of Song Ci's finger.
He assumed Song Ci had taken a fancy to some minor celebrity. He was just thinking that if Song Ci liked her, they could call her over to play.
Who knew that when he looked up, the paused news frame Song Ci pointed at showed—the face of Yuannan Group's helmsman, Chu Huainan.
The mouthful of alcohol he hadn't managed to swallow immediately sprayed everywhere.
Is that really necessary...
Taking this opportunity, Song Ci openly shot him a look of utter disdain. His face brightly displayed the words Useless Trash.
Even though this was a news report about a murder case, it wasn't like he had paused the screen on a close-up of the dismembered body parts. Getting scared into spitting out his drink was a bit much.
Reading the contempt in Song Ci's eyes immediately, Xu Kai put on an expression that said, Young man, you simply do not understand!
"Anyone with eyes knows he's handsome. But it doesn't matter how good-looking he is, it's a no-go!"
"Why is it a no-go? I've slept with so many people, I've never seen..."
Before Song Ci could finish, he was cut off by Xu Kai. It was as if the elegantly handsome, high-mountain-flower-like✦ translator's noteHigh mountain flower (高岭之花): A Japanese/Chinese internet slang term describing someone who is breathtakingly beautiful/handsome, outstanding, but incredibly aloof and seemingly unreachable. man on the screen was Voldemort, whose name could not be spoken: "Hey, hey, hey, hey, I advise you to drop this terrifying idea right now. Turn back to the shore and start anew as a proper human being!"
Song Ci: ???
Xu Kai was a notoriously tough nut to crack in their circle. Once, he fought with a wealthy, powerful, and vicious young master from the capital over a woman.
A bunch of his brothers advised him: "The other guy has a massive background, deep roots, and a ton of lackeys. There's plenty of fish in the sea! Why fight over the same flavor with him? Why not chase someone else and avoid the conflict?"
Xu Kai sneered and blurted out: "Who the hell does he think he is? Just some lackey who's messed around for a few years and got some empty fame? Back when I was rolling around in piles of makeup and perfume, who knows which gutter his boat was capsizing in! Domestically, as a 'weak' rich person, I only avoid conflict for political reasons! Does some random dog or cat deserve to make me back down? He can go fuck himself!"
When things are abnormal, there must be a demon at work. Faced with such a top-tier beauty, the usually lust-crazed, overly audacious Xu Kai actually wasn't blinded by desire. Instead, wearing the face of a terrified eunuch whose expression screamed This servant is guilty, this servant is terrified, he was actually advising Song Ci to turn back to the shore?
When it came to Chu Huainan, the once tough-as-nails Xu Kai was as soft as an invertebrate: "Let me tell you, if you wanted to sleep with Lu Xinghe today, I could find a way for you. But this one... don't blame me for not warning you. It's best if you don't even think about it. Otherwise, when the grass on your grave is three feet high, you won't even know how you died!"
"Who is he? Is he that badass?"
"Of course he's badass! You haven't been back in Jianghu for years so you might not know, but let me tell you, a person like Chu Huainan isn't even on the same level as us, understand?"
Xu Kai poured himself another glass of wine: "Sigh, let's put it this way. Forget about you and me—even if your brother and my old man wanted to carry his shoes for him, they'd have to fight for the privilege! A man only has two legs and one pair of shoes. Do you know how many people in this city are queuing up with numbers, waiting to hug those limited-edition thighs?"
Song Ci shrugged, looking completely unbothered.
"You absolutely cannot take this lightly! There are as many listed companies in Jianghu City as there are hairs on a cow, yet the Yuannan Group has firmly held the top spot for a long time. Don't you ever wonder why?"
Xu Kai swallowed a large gulp of wine: "Chu Huainan holds massive amounts of non-renewable resources and equity in unicorn companies across various fields. Someone like him is a true capitalist—the kind that stands at the very apex of the bourgeois pyramid!
"You and I, who rely on our families and whose assets under our names only barely hit nine digits because of inheritance tax planning... placed in front of Chu Huainan, we're basically just at the 'recently lifted out of poverty' level.
"Who doesn't like good-looking people! Normally, we flex our wealth, throw some money around, and find a few minor celebrities who are willing to lower themselves to play with us just for fun, and that's about it. Right now, your brother is still lying in the hospital. Don't ruin your good life by going out and provoking people you shouldn't!
"These are words straight from my heart, brother! In the future, if you see Chu Huainan, I'd rather you hug the wall and sneak away than bump into him face-to-face, you hear me?"
The more Xu Kai spoke, the more exaggerated and agitated he became. Yet Song Ci remained absentmindedly swirling the red wine in his glass, as if listening to a stand-up comedy routine full of terrible, stale jokes.
Seeing that he still looked as though he hadn't taken a single word to heart, Xu Kai felt it was highly necessary to dig up some extreme cases—people who had lusted after Chu Huainan and subsequently vanished completely from their circle—to help Song Ci stay away from seeking death and cherish his life.
But on second thought, he let it go: "Forget it, forget it, if you don't believe me, whatever! You probably won't get the chance to meet him anyway. If you secretly use him as fantasy material, your brother here will keep your secret." He patted Song Ci's shoulder and gave an exaggerated wink with his slit-like little eyes. "Pretty loyal of me, right?"
"I just saw him the day before yesterday."
"Huh?!" Xu Kai was flabbergasted. He knew Song Ci's face always attracted peach blossoms✦ translator's noteAttract peach blossoms (招桃花): A Chinese astrology/slang term meaning to naturally attract romantic or sexual attention from others., but if he really made a move on Chu Huainan, what he'd attract would highly likely be a bloody disaster. "You saw him? How did you see him? You didn't cause any trouble, did you?"
Song Ci thought to himself: I dragged him into a police station with me. Does that count as causing trouble?
"How exactly did you see him? Where did you see him! Holy shit! Such massive news! And you're only telling me now! Brother Ci, you're really not playing by the rules!"
"I told you, on my domestic transfer flight I ran into a bunch of idiots and ended up going to the police station. The guy who went to the station to give a statement with me was him."
"Holy shit!!! The guy sitting next to you on the plane that day?!" Xu Kai let out an exaggerated gasp, then yelled: "His Gulfstreams, Bombardiers, and Cessnas outnumber your brother's cars! And you managed to run into him on a commercial flight? Is smoke rising from your ancestors' graves✦ translator's noteSmoke rising from ancestors' graves (祖坟冒青烟): A Chinese idiom meaning someone is experiencing incredibly, unbelievably good luck, supposedly because their ancestors are blessing them from the afterlife.? Hey, why do you think he was taking a commercial flight? What is this? Experiencing the life of the commoners?"
"How should I know?"
Alcohol makes people's emotions swing wildly and boosts their courage significantly. Emboldened by the liquor, Xu Kai suddenly asked with lust-fueled audacity, "Hey, how does he look in person?"
Song Ci took another serious look at the TV screen and answered truthfully: "A little bit better-looking than on TV."
Xu Kai also turned to look at the screen, instantly revealing an expression of intoxication. Then, he quickly shook his head and shot Song Ci an incredibly resentful look: "If you're tired of living and want to seek death by messing with Chu Huainan, then go die happily by yourself! Don't you dare dream of dragging me down with you! My old man only has me as his son! He's still counting on me to live a few more years and carry on the family line!"
"Get lost!" Seeing his useless, dog-like behavior, Song Ci felt both annoyed and amused. He raised his elbow and gave the closely-pressed Xu Kai a forceful shove. From the bottom of his heart, he wanted him to roll as far away as possible.
Lacking telepathy, Xu Kai couldn't hear Song Ci's inner thoughts. Not long after being pushed away, he shamelessly glued himself back on.
"Seriously though, you really should stay as far away from this Chu Huainan as possible. With your beast-in-human-clothing, lust-addled morals, combined with your absolute lack of integrity of letting the eagle loose the moment you see a rabbit✦ translator's noteLet the eagle loose the moment you see a rabbit (见了兔子必撒鹰): An adaptation of the idiom "Never let the eagle loose until you see the rabbit" (meaning to act only when success is guaranteed). Xu Kai flips it to mean Song Ci is so impulsive and lustful that the moment he sees someone attractive (the rabbit), he instantly pounces (lets the eagle loose).... The fact that you saw him in the flesh the other day and didn't get casually disposed of is purely your good fortune! Absolutely do not go provoke him again. Lest you end up getting crushed to death by his pinky finger when you're not paying attention! I wouldn't even have a place to cry for you."
"Alright, I get it. Are you a science popularization program now? Acting all neurotic and endlessly nagging!"
Song Ci downed the red wine in his glass in one gulp, took one last look at the ascetic, beautiful man on the TV with the smooth jawline and gold-rimmed glasses, picked up the remote, and decisively turned off the television.
Xu Kai figured that after his earnest, painstaking persuasion, Song Ci must have recognized the stakes and given up on the idea of "tainting" Chu Huainan. Thus, he finally felt relieved.
The next morning, in the Chairman's office of the Yuannan Group.
Completely unaware that he was being "lusted after" by someone else, Chu Huainan sat with furrowed brows, scrolling through analysis posts on a certain internet platform regarding the indiscriminate murder on the pedestrian street 15 years ago and the current cop-killing case.
Sitting in front of him was a highly anxious subordinate who had been called in for a private meeting—Guan Hongfen, the head of the PR Department.
Having worked with Chu Huainan for many years, Guan Hongfen knew her direct superior's temper. Therefore, on the way to his office after being summoned, she had already mentally prepared herself to be severely reprimanded.
Guan Hongfen also knew she had no reason to feel wronged.
Chu Huainan wasn't the type of boss who would reprimand subordinates without cause just to vent his personal emotions. And she wasn't the type to shirk responsibility.
Only incompetent people constantly try to pass the buck. Guan Hongfen only wanted to clean up the mess as quickly as possible and minimize the negative impact caused by her oversight.
"I apologize. The occurrence of this situation is due to my negligence. I request a self-imposed penalty of one month's salary suspension! Currently, our department's public sentiment monitoring team has done a rough sweep of such posts online, and various platforms have already begun deleting them one after another."
She knew full well that deleting posts was merely mending the fold after the sheep had bolted; the news causing the negative impact had already fermented on a massive scale. So, she continued: "We have also utilized certain methods. In the short term, the keywords related to these rumors will be automatically blocked by all top-tier social media platforms."
Chu Huainan had just finished reading a rumor post titled Massive Expose! Pedestrian Street Plagued by Murders! Former Yuannan Chairman Chu Zhentang Hired Hitman to Kill Wife and Cop! There were originally many similar posts on the same platform, but they had all been completely deleted by now.
Even the one he had just read, upon clicking into it again, only displayed the text: [This post violates community guidelines and has been deleted]. Aside from these rumor-mongering posts, the anonymous leaker had left no other traces.
Even his rippling, peach-blossom eyes couldn't hide Chu Huainan's dark expression at this moment: "Find out who posted the very first rumor."
No matter how good-tempered a person is, when faced with their deceased father being smeared by internet rumors as the murderer of their mother, they could hardly remain gentle and calm.
Furthermore, Chu Huainan—who had grasped actual power at the age of twenty-nine and used thunderous methods to exponentially expand an already massive conglomerate within just a few years—was not nearly as affectionate and harmless as his appearance suggested.
Five years ago, when Chu Zhentang passed away, he was only twenty-four.
The Chu family had always believed that a tiger father does not beget a dog son✦ translator's noteTiger father does not beget a dog son (虎父无犬子): A Chinese idiom meaning a capable and formidable father will raise an equally capable son.. As the young successor of the Yuannan Group, Chu Huainan did not lack love, but he was no spoiled, pampered young master either.
For the past three generations, the Chu family had been advocates of wolf-pack culture.
Chu Huainan still remembered a phrase his grandfather, Chu Qiaoxin, often repeated when he was a child: "A wolf travels a thousand miles to eat meat; a dog travels a thousand miles to eat shit."
From a young age, Chu Huainan intimately understood the cruelty of this world. The weak are prey to the strong; survival of the fittest.
From the moment he was born, he was destined to be a carnivore standing at the very top of the jungle's food chain.
After his father's death, from his very first day entering the company, he knew clearly: in a conglomerate that had weathered countless storms, a Chairman around the age of an intern, who rose to power relying purely on bloodline, could never convince people or grasp true power.
Some of Chu Zhentang's trusted confidants had out of goodwill advised him to offer concessions and show goodwill to the "usurper faction" on the board—those who had long coveted the group—in order to bide his time and maintain long-term harmony. Chu Huainan disagreed, but at the time, he merely smiled as if silently acquiescing.
Weakness is the original sin. How can the weak speak of equality and friendship?
Blindly offering family treasures to please opponents is meaningless; it only makes it easier to invite the wolf into the house. Because as long as they defeat and enslave you, everything of yours becomes theirs anyway.
In his second year in office, at the age of twenty-five, Chu Huainan chose to take the initiative. He efficiently reorganized the internal personnel deployment of the group and optimized the management structure.
While consolidating the group's core business of medical high-tech R&D and imports, Chu Huainan also leveraged the unique sensitivity to the market possessed by young people. He invested in multiple gaming companies and social platform companies, and heavily cultivated the OTT✦ translator's noteOTT (Over-the-Top): Media services offered directly to viewers via the Internet, bypassing traditional cable/broadcast platforms (e.g., streaming services like Netflix or iQiyi). and live-streaming businesses of the group's subsidiary entertainment companies.
In Chu Qiaoxin's era, when Jianghu citizens mentioned Yuannan, they always called it "Yuannan Pharmaceuticals." In Chu Zhentang's era, they called it "Yuannan Pharmaceuticals" or "Yuannan Real Estate."
But today, under Chu Huainan's leadership, Yuannan was rarely referred to in such terms anymore. Because a single industry name could no longer represent the entirety of Yuannan.
Pharmaceuticals, real estate, entertainment, esports, social media... The "Yuannan Group," with its vast array of investment sectors, had undeniably grown into a premier, unshakable super-conglomerate.
Guan Hongfen still remembered a joke Chu Huainan made during his first board meeting after truly taking power—having spent exactly one year dealing with the restless "usurper faction."
"We children of the Chu family are very open-minded about everything, but that doesn't stop us from holding grudges."
Those who offend me shall be punished. That was Chu Huainan.
A beautiful day begins with an update! I'll post the text at the same time tomorrow—love you all!
My cuties, see you in the comments section!~
Attract peach blossoms (招桃花): A Chinese astrology/slang term meaning to naturally attract romantic or sexual attention from others.
Smoke rising from ancestors' graves (祖坟冒青烟): A Chinese idiom meaning someone is experiencing incredibly, unbelievably good luck, supposedly because their ancestors are blessing them from the afterlife.
High mountain flower (高岭之花): A Japanese/Chinese internet slang term describing someone who is breathtakingly beautiful/handsome, outstanding, but incredibly aloof and seemingly unreachable.
Let the eagle loose the moment you see a rabbit (见了兔子必撒鹰): An adaptation of the idiom "Never let the eagle loose until you see the rabbit" (meaning to act only when success is guaranteed). Xu Kai flips it to mean Song Ci is so impulsive and lustful that the moment he sees someone attractive (the rabbit), he instantly pounces (lets the eagle loose).
Tiger father does not beget a dog son (虎父无犬子): A Chinese idiom meaning a capable and formidable father will raise an equally capable son.
OTT (Over-the-Top): Media services offered directly to viewers via the Internet, bypassing traditional cable/broadcast platforms (e.g., streaming services like Netflix or iQiyi).