Rebirth: Different Way

by Usui Takumii

not mine, yun yun yun translations. Beware BL. Total: 101 chapters.

1. 00 to 10

Rebirth: Different Way / (重生）殊途

Author: 李松儒

"If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."

Nietzsche

For ten years in prison, Shen Xi, a son of a wealthy family, felt that he was living in the abyss every day.

Killed during a prison riot, Shen Xi awakens at the moment when his fate has turned at the age of eighteen.

In this life, Shen Xi vows to drag everyone into the abyss with him.

Chapter 1

"Have you had enough trouble?!" There was a sound of an impatient male voice.

"You said you didn't like him." Another young voice immediately cried out in reply.

"When did I ever say I liked him?"

"Then what are you doing here? Aren't you looking for him?"

The first voice grew more and more impatient, "How many times have I said, I don't like him! I approached him at first because I lost a bet to your second brother, and I came here tonight just to meet a friend. I didn't know Shen Xi was here."

The familiar conversation echoed in his ears once again. Shen Xi listened in a daze, habitually trying to wave his hand to dispel it, but his arms were weak and his body was filled with a sense of emptiness after getting high.

Shen Xi tried to open his eyes but they seemed to be covered with something, and he could not open them. Shen Xi struggled to get up but his body was not controlled by his brain and did not respond in any way. After struggling for a long time, a thought flashed through Shen Xi's mind, "Where am I?"

"Where am I?" This question was like a bolt of lightning splitting the murkiness in Shen Xi's mind, and Shen Xi came to his senses almost instantly.

His eyes snapped open and he was confronted with a magnificent, cumbersome crystal lamp above his head, the blinding light shining straight into his eyes. Shen Xi instinctively tried to raise his hand to shield himself from the light, but his body's weakness prevented him from doing so. Shen Xi closed his eyes again, and everything returned to the previous darkness.

This time, his senses were extraordinarily clear, and the feeling of emptiness and powerlessness was like a tidal wave surging through his entire body. Shen Xi tentatively tried to move but stopped when he heard a sweet moan, accompanied by the man's ragged breath.

The corners of Shen Xi's mouth slowly curled up in a mocking smile. Sure enough, it was this dream again, this dream that had haunted him for ten years. With a flash of self-deprecation, Shen Xi gave up struggling and gradually adjusted to the blinding light. Anyway, it was a dream, it didn't make any difference whether he could move or not.

"Ah, yes!"

Shen Xi stared at the crystal lamp above his head in boredom. Every time his dream started with him opening his eyes. Naturally, the first thing he saw each time was the lamp, magnificent to the extreme. And then what? Shen Xi tilted his head. What's next?

"Ah! Brother Wenyao, use a little more force." A greasy voice begged.

A sneer appeared on Shen Xi's face. It was so boring. For ten years he kept repeating this dream; everything in the dream was deeply imprinted in his mind and he knew the follow up like the back of his hand. Next, it was time for Tian Wenyao to speak.

Sure enough, the first male voice said, "Xiao Rong, you are so violent every time you are in bed."

"Brother Wenyao, ah!" The long, drawn out moans were interspersed with the man's heavy breathing, and after a few violent thumps, the room began to quiet down.

The sneer on Shen Xi's face faded away, a gloomy look faintly appearing in its stead. This next conversation, which he could practically recite backwards, was the dialogue that completely enraged the young Shen Xi and changed his fate.

"Brother Wenyao, did Second Brother say when Big Brother would be willing to see me?"

"What do you want to see Shen Ji for?" The man said carelessly

"As long as Big Brother accepts me, Father will accept me into the Shen family."

"Even if he does accept you, it's too late. Old man Shen had already made a will before he died. The family assets are divided into three, one for each of his three grandchildren. You will have nothing even if you are accepted."

"Father doesn't like Shen Xi."

"You want Shen Xi's share?" There was a hint of amusement in the man's words.

"I won't fight with Big Brother and Second Brother, but Shen Xi and I are both my grandfather's grandsons."

Shen Xi closed his eyes as the flames of anger in his heart rose again. He was the rightful third young master of the Shen family, but because his father disliked him, he was treated coldly and ostracised and even the things that belonged to him were coveted by Shen Rong, his father's illegitimate son.

Recalling his childhood experience, Shen Xi clenched his fists fiercely. If he hadn't clearly known that he was in a dream now, he wouldn't be able to resist going out and beating the two of them up.

In his current state of mind, he was still furious, let alone his younger self back then. It was because of these words that, in a fit of rage, he recklessly drove his car into Tian Wenyao and Shen Rong in the early morning of the next day. As a result, Shen Rong was unharmed, just having some scratches, but Tian Wenyao's legs were crushed and he was never able to walk again.

The incident caused a stir in Zhongjing. He was arrested on the spot and barely reacted before he was sentenced to life imprisonment for attempted murder.

After sobering up, he couldn't accept the fact that he was going to stay in prison for the rest of his life, so he gave up his self-esteem and begged his father to save him. At the time of the incident, he had taken a large amount of hallucinogenic drugs and had no control over his behaviour. He hoped his father would use it to help him file an appeal. But no matter how much he begged, all he got was a cold look from his father. In the end he simply never saw his father again, left with the lawyer's words, "Mr. Shen hopes you'll do well by yourself."

"Do well by yourself." Once again, a sneer appeared on Shen Xi's face; indeed, he did well by himself.

Tian Wenyao was the only male heir of the Tian family. Hit by Shen Xi's car, he was incapacitated for the rest of his life, so it was natural the Tian family hated Shen Xi to the bone… not to mention the fact that he had hurt his father's favourite illegitimate son.

Shen Xi no longer wanted to remember how he survived the first three years in prison. Without the protection of the Shen family and with the Tian family's hatred for him, if he hadn't put his life on the line to secure his place in prison, he wouldn't have survived the next few years. After all, he was not afraid of death, but others were, weren't they? Even if the Tian family offered more money, a man had to live to spend it.

Shen Xi coolly hooked the corners of his mouth as he went down the memory lane, but in the next moment his eyes snapped open wide. No, shouldn't he be dead already?

Shen Xi stared at the crystal lamp above his head. The scene of him falling to the ground and closing his eyes flashed through his mind again and again. The riot during the factory labor hours, the knife that stabbed him, the helpless feeling of his blood flowing out, Fang Luowei who was protecting him in the chaos and the sneering face of his murderer who saw him finally going down. Shen Xi closed his eyes fiercely and opened them once more. There was still the dazzling light, his body still felt weak and another gasp reached his ears.

A trace of disbelief flashed in Shen Xi's eyes, and then he began to struggle with all his might.

"Move, move, fucking move for me."

As if he was let out of confinement, Shen Xi clearly felt his strength begin to return and the sense of powerlessness in his body was subsiding. Struggling, Shen Xi lifted his hand and viciously pinched his leg. A sharp pain that came made Shen Xi freeze in shock.

There was a feeling! He actually felt something!

How could he feel anything in a dream? What's more, wasn't he already dead?

Countless thoughts surged in waves, and Shen Xi dumbly reached out and pinched his leg once again, still in pain. A look of disbelief appeared on Shen Xi's face; it was not an illusion, he really felt it.

The groans and chants in his ears were unmistakably clear, and Shen Xi listened to them as if he was listening to a fairy's voice. Slowly, a look of ecstasy appeared on Shen Xi's face. This was not a dream. He was back. He was really back.

After the initial ecstasy, Shen Xi quickly calmed down. No matter why he died and why he was reborn, this time he had to do right by himself.

The moaning and groaning continued, and it looked like it wouldn't stop for a while. Shen Xi lay there, moving his body carefully on the soft carpet, not making a single sound. The place where Shen Xi was lying was in the corner, and in front of Shen Xi, there was a set of huge European-style palace sofas, hiding Shen Xi's entire figure safely.

Shen Xi's fingers accidentally brushed over his pocket, and a certain metallic texture under his touch caught his attention. A thought flashed through Shen Xi's mind as he remembered the mobile phone he had with him, and a strange smile appeared on his face.

After a while, the shaking of the king-size bed stopped once more, and a few grumpy knocks sounded outside the room.

"Wenyao, are you in there, hurry up and get your ass out here, it's time for Lao Tzu to go home." (Lao Tzu – an arrogant way to say "I")

"Shen Cheng, have you not been weaned yet!"

The sound of dressing, the sound of greetings from inside and outside the room, Shen Rong's slightly ingratiating laughter, until the door was closed and all sounds were isolated.

Shen Xi slowly sat up holding onto the sofa, glanced at the crumpled king-size bed, lowered his head and clicked on the video that he had just recorded on his phone. The corners of his mouth slowly curled up.

Chapter 2

It was a March night, and the weather in Zhongjing still carried a biting chill.

The wind that brushed across his cheeks was so cold that even his nose was frozen red, but Shen Xi did not seem to feel the cold as he stood there greedily breathing in the air in huge gulps. Obviously, Shen Xi had been breathing this kind of air for decades, but at this moment, Shen Xi closed his eyes in intoxication, as if the taste of the air was palpable.

It was the taste of freedom, the taste that Shen Xi had been longing for for ten years.

Under the dazzling neon lights, the word "Shutu" (different way) was quietly hanging there, attracting wave after wave of the city's nocturnal crowd. This was the place Shen Xi was most familiar with except for the Shen family. Since the age of fifteen, Shen Xi had been a regular customer here. Compared with the coldness of the Shen family, Shen Xi greatly preferred the hustle and bustle of Shutu.

It was here that Shen Xi laughed, fooled around, got drunk and dreamed, and it was also here that fate played a joke on Shen Xi, and he ruined everything he had with his own hands.

Now, time had turned. Shen Xi stood at the entrance, looking at the word Shutu steadily, and the corners of his mouth slowly curved up, the arc growing bigger and bigger until he finally laughed out loud.

As he laughed, Shen Xi remembered how he had been waiting for Tian Wenyao to come and spend his eighteenth birthday with him, how he had been disappointed, how he had taken a large amount of psychedelics at the urging of his dog friends, how he had found an empty room and slept on the floor until he suddenly woke up in the middle of the night.

What happened next he repeated again and again in his dreams for the next ten years. He felt betrayed, he felt humiliated, he was angry, he was furious, there was a fire burning in his heart.

He endured the cold and waited for hours in the night wind, and then drove his car into two people without hesitation. Finally, with blood flowing in his eyes, he was taken away by the police in a hurry. Before leaving, he turned his head inadvertently, and the word Shutu pierced his eyes.

In this life, Shen Xi was not angry. He walked out of Shutu soberly and calmly. Standing at the entrance of Shutu, feeling the scent of freedom, Shen Xi finished laughing and completely left it behind.

Without a car, Shen Xi just walked aimlessly along the road in Zhongjing alone late at night. Without the ups and downs of his temper of his previous life, Shen Xi settled down to quietly contemplate the path he intended to take in this life.

In his previous life, Shen Xi had been ignorant for the first eighteen years and numb for the next ten years. He had never thought clearly about his path.

No, Shen Xi had actually thought about it.

In the beginning when he was imprisoned, Shen Xi had a very difficult time in prison because of the Tian family. He had to watch for being stabbed in the back from all sides and face all kinds of malicious looks all day long. The Tian family did not intend to kill Shen Xi quickly, but instead tried to torture him like a cat playing with a mouse. In the beginning, Shen Xi was often injured. At night, Shen Xi would be in so much pain that he could not sleep. Without a doctor and no medicine, Shen Xi could only desperately grit his teeth and bear the pain and imagine time and time again: if he hadn't driven into Tian Wenyao and Shen Rong, what would his life have been like?

Shen Xi envisioned all sorts of wonderful lives for himself, but it was just wishful thinking. Once he returned to reality, the huge contrast only doubled Shen Xi's pain.

As Shen Xi's life in prison continued day by day and as freedom became more and more unattainable, with Shen Xi's father extinguishing the last bit of his hope, Shen Xi was finally completely dead, thinking only of how to get through another day. In his spare time, he would never think about what his life would have been like if he had not driven his car into Tian Wenyao and Shen Rong again.

Now standing on a high pedestrian bridge, with the lights of Zhongjing glowing in the night, Shen Xi suddenly had a moment of trepidation. After ten years of an abnormal life in prison, would he still be able to adapt to this world?

In his memory, the eighteen-year-old Shen Xi was gloomy, cranky and unruly, hanging out with a gang of dog friends day in and day out. Ten years later, Shen Xi was still gloomy, but his temperament had been through a lot and the angles of his body had been smoothed out by the years. Could such two completely different Shen Xi still be the same Shen Xi?

Without the ecstasy of just being reborn and the excitement of being free, Shen Xi stood on the bridge as the night wind swept over his body. In the biting cold, Shen Xi asked himself how he was going to continue his journey.

If the eighteen-year-old Shen Xi was a confused beast, full of hatred but not knowing how to vent it, and could only do so by drinking, racing cars and clashing with his family, then the twenty-eight-year-old Shen Xi was not so different from the eighteen-year-old Shen Xi. His heart was still full of hatred, but his painful experience had made him realise that this time he should vent in a different way.

Shen Xi stared coldly in the direction of the Shen family's house, where tonight likely was no different from before. His father would be in the study, helping Shen Ji familiarise himself with the affairs of the company, while the two waited together for Shen Cheng who was returning late. When the father and two sons reunited and began to stage the great family drama, he himself would always be the one forgotten by them. Not to mention that none of them remembered that tonight was his birthday, the eighteenth birthday of their son, their younger brother.

Shen Xi recalled a saying that Fang Luowei had once quoted to him, "if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you." At that time, Fang Luowei used these words to persuade Shen Xi to give up the hatred in his heart. Shen Xi wondered what he said to Fang Luowei then. He seemed to have said that he did not need to gaze into the abyss because he was living in it.

Shen Xi was not Fang Luowei. He was not so magnanimous that he could laugh at those who had hurt him. He was narrow-minded, he was vindictive, he remembered all the hurts inflicted on him and then looked for the right opportunity to retaliate. Because of this, no one dared to take a casual shot at him in the following years, knowing that unless he was killed, he would definitely even the score.

Thinking of Fang Luowei, he wondered how he was doing now. Unfortunately, he only knew that Fang Luowei would come to Zhongjing five years later but knew nothing about where he was five years before. In his previous life, they met in prison. Fang Luowei was imprisoned five years later than Shen Xi and they became friends by chance. If Fang Luowei were by his side now, he would definitely say that it was rare to have a chance to start over and he had to let go of the past and live a good life.

Alone, Shen Xi laughed out loud as he thought about it.

He also wanted to let go of the past as Fang Luowei said, but how could he easily forget? Not to mention the ten years in prison, how could he forget why he had developed that gloomy, irascible nature at the age of just eighteen?

For as long as he could remember, his father had always looked at him with a cold, blatant disgust in his eyes; he was the child his father didn't want. Although his mother loved him, she was too preoccupied with her own emotions because of her relationship with his father and often completely ignored him. When he was six, his mother took a decisive leap from the window sill of the third floor, leaving him with only a blurred image of her back. His maternal grandfather, who loved him with all his heart, also left him right after his mother when he was six years old. His elder brother, Shen Ji, was extremely cold to him and always treated him like a stranger, while his second brother, Shen Cheng, bullied him since he was a child.

Not being loved by his family and having no friends, what else could he be but gloomy and irritable?

Speaking of which, Shen Xi felt that he was really pitiful. In the long eighteen years, except for his mother and grandfather, the only one who had given him some warmth was Tian Wenyao. Unfortunately, the warmth Shen Xi cherished in his heart was nothing more than a random bet by the other party.

With negative emotions clamouring in his mind, Shen Xi closed his eyes.

Since I am already in the abyss, all of you, come and keep me company.

Chapter 3

Shen Xi walked aimlessly on the empty streets of Zhongjing all night. Unbeknownst to him, the sky was gradually getting lighter.

Shen Xi was surprised to see the word "Cemetery" appearing in the mist ahead of him. He actually walked by accident to the place where his mother was sleeping.

Speaking of which, if you counted the previous life, Shen Xi had not been here for ten years. Judging by the relationship between his father and his mother, his father must have rarely visited his mother in those ten years. Was his mother lonely lying here alone?

Thinking of it, Shen Xi walked around, exploring. The cemetery was silent in the early morning and there was no sign of anyone. Shen Xi climbed over the wall and followed his memory to his mother's grave.

On the white marble tombstone, his mother smiled brightly, neither as unhappy as Shen Xi remembered, nor as scornful as when she argued with his father. His mother was really a beautiful woman, but it was a pity that his father didn't love her. All her beauty was no different from a painting hanging on the wall in his father's eyes.

Shen Xi slowly knelt down and placed his hand on his mother's face, tracing her eyebrows on the picture. The stone under his fingers was very cold, but Shen Xi felt a warmth well up in his heart and smiled slightly.

Shen Xi's mother came from Zhongjing's Han family. Her father, Han Fuli, was a famous jewellery tycoon in China, and the family had been in the jewellery business for generations. Although the Han family was wealthy, they did not have many children, and in Shen Xi's mother's generation, there were only two of them, his mother Han Rou and his uncle Han Yu.

Shen Xi didn't have much of an impression of his uncle. Before he was six years old, his uncle Han Yu was busy taking over the family business and Shen Xi could only see him during the New Year holidays. When Shen Xi was six, his mother jumped from the window to her death and his uncle was killed in a car accident while rushing to his mother's funeral. In the end, the only impression Shen Xi had of his uncle was of a tall and thin figure.

At that time, with his children passing away one after another and the Han family's business in trouble due to a major mistake made by Han Yu during his lifetime, Grandpa Han's body collapsed under the double blow and soon the news of his critical illness spread.

Before the young Shen Xi could understand the meaning of his mother's death, he had to face the fact that his grandfather was also leaving him. At his deathbed, his grandfather took his hand, trembling and repeating over and over again, "From now on, you will be the only one left, Xiao Xi."

Over the years, many things had gradually faded from Shen Xi's mind, but this was the only thing he had always remembered. Since his grandfather had passed away, he was really alone.

Thinking of this, Shen Xi let out a soft sigh, rubbed his numb legs, and sat down leaning against his mother's tombstone. This was Shen Xi's favourite pose in the past. Every time he did this, Shen Xi would have the illusion of leaning into his mother's arms. Shen Xi liked to talk to his mother about his thoughts and all the bad things that happened to him in the Shen family, as if this could give him the strength to fight against all the cold treatment.

But this time, Shen Xi suddenly did not know what he should say. He had thought he had a lot of grievances to talk to his mother about, but when the words reached his lips, Shen Xi realised that not all of the grievances could be told. Some things, some pain, were too heavy and light words could not bear that weight.

Shen Xi sat in silence against his mother's tombstone for a whole morning, until the sound of footsteps reached him. Only then did he snap back to his senses.

Shen Xi let out a long breath, rubbed his frozen face with his hands and stood up supporting himself on the tombstone. In the pale golden morning glow, Shen Xi took one last look at his mother and turned to leave. He had already decided. He was leaving Shen's house and leaving Zhongjing. He was afraid that he would not have the opportunity to visit his mother again in a short time. But unlike in the previous life, this time he had the right to choose when he would come back.

Shen Xi left the cemetery at a determined pace, casually waved for a taxi and gave the address of the Shen family.

The driver looked curiously in the rear-view mirror at the pale teenager in the back seat. The young man seemed to have not rested well and closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep as soon as he got into the car. From the driver's angle, he could only see the teenager's soft hair hanging down, blocking his face and revealing his bloodless lips and sharp chin.

The driver thought for a while and reached out to turn down the radio in the car, but when he looked up, he met the boy's eyes in the mirror, dark and cold.

The driver shivered and immediately sat upright, looking at the road carefully, not daring to look left or right.

Shen Xi indifferently looked away from the driver and stared out the window unconsciously.

Outside the window, Zhongjing seemed like a different world to Shen Xi. It was the morning rush hour in Zhongjing, and countless people and vehicles were congregating, horns, human voices and all sorts of sounds mingling, the whole city lively and energetic.

Shen Xi looked at everything in front of him greedily. That deathly silence and depression of ten years in prison almost immediately crumbled in this vibrant morning. Shen Xi could clearly feel the beating of his heart in his chest, alive and full of vitality.

This feeling was so good that when the taxi left the main city and turned into the western suburb where the Shen family lived, Shen Xi felt uncomfortable for a moment. This was the so-called wealthy area of Zhongjing, and unlike the hustle and bustle of the main city, the western suburbs were always neat and quiet. On both sides of the road there were tall trees surrounding mansions of all kinds, and the Shen family's house was one of them.

As he got closer to the house, Shen Xi's emotions became more and more uncontrollable, and a deep disgust emerged in his heart. This disgust was not the weak, powerless disgust of the eighteen-year-old Shen Xi, but the twenty-eight-year-old Shen Xi's uncontrollable destructive emotions towards the Shen family. These emotions were so strong that Shen Xi desperately had to try to control them until he could stand at the entrance of the Shen family's mansion looking as normal as ever.

Looking at the house that was exactly as he remembered it, Shen Xi lowered his head in silence for a while, speculating on the emotions his eighteen-year-old self would have felt, finally raising his head again with an angry expression.

Full of impatient anger, Shen Xi pushed open the front door, ignoring the eyes of the surrounding servants who were used to seeing him like that, strode into the house and went straight to the dining room. According to his memory, at this time of the day, his father and Shen Ji would usually be eating in the dining room, and Shen Cheng would also join them if he woke up early. As for him, Shen Xi couldn't help but sneer, who would care? He hadn't had breakfast with his father since his grandfather's death anyway.

As Shen Xi had expected, in the clean and cosy dining room, Shen Dehan, who was over fifty years old, was sitting at the main table, sipping his coffee and talking to Shen Ji beside him. Unlike the distasteful way he looked at Shen Xi, the man had always been a kind father to Shen Ji. At this moment, with a soft smile on his face, he was looking at Shen Ji intently. Shen Ji also had a smile on his face, and his body leaned slightly in the direction of his father. From a distance, it was really a picture of fatherly kindness and filial piety.

Shen Xi stood indifferently at the entrance of the dining room, looking at the warm scene in front of him. He sneered in his heart but his face wore a grumpy and irritable look as he barged in, casually pulled away the nearest chair and sat down heavily.

The warm atmosphere between Shen Dehan and Shen Ji was interrupted by Shen Xi's behaviour. Shen Ji frowned imperceptibly and Shen Dehan gave Shen Xi a disgusted look and gently patted Shen Ji's shoulder, "Your proposal is good, just do what you said."

After saying that, he got up and prepared to leave at once.

Shen Xi watched his father's figure coldly until he was about to disappear in the dining room's door and then suddenly said, "I want to go abroad."

Shen Dehan paused; without even bothering to turn his head, he directly instructed, "Ah Ji, make the arrangements."

Shen Ji glanced at Shen Xi and said softly, "Yes, Father."

Even though he understood how indifferent his father was to him, seeing him not even bother to look, Shen Xi still felt a stabbing pain in his heart for a moment. Then Shen Xi scorned himself. Could it be that he was still praying for his ridiculous father's love even now?

The self-deprecation flashed on Shen Xi's face momentarily, but Shen Ji caught it keenly. He glanced at Shen Xi silently, without any expression.

Shen Ji's attitude towards his half-brother had always been to ignore him. But thinking of his father's order, Shen Ji took the rare initiative to speak up, "Which country are you planning to go to?"

Shen Xi gave Shen Ji a mocking glance, "Can I make the decision?"

Shen Ji watched as Shen Xi resentfully pushed the chair under him and got up to leave, frowned, thought of something and turned to Shen Cheng's room.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, it was still Shen Cheng's sleep time. Shen Ji unceremoniously opened the window and yanked off Shen Cheng's blanket. When the cold wind blew in, Shen Cheng jumped up, complaining angrily, "Big Brother, today is the weekend, there are no classes at school."

Shen Ji gave a faint "en", ignoring Shen Cheng's complaint, and asked, "Have you provoked Shen Xi in the past few days?"

"Shen Xi?" Shen Cheng was surprised that his elder brother would actually bother to talk about Shen Xi, and shook his head quickly.

Shen Ji watched Shen Cheng's movement and raised an eyebrow.

Shen Cheng immediately chose to confess and hurriedly defended himself, "I didn't do anything, I just wanted to see how excited Shen Xi would be."

"Excited?" Shen Ji sounded puzzled.

Shen Cheng explained consciously, "Big Brother, you don't know, last night was Shen Xi's eighteenth birthday. That boy is bent on Wenyao, and last night he was waiting with bated breath for Wenyao to celebrate his birthday. I took Shen Rong with me on purpose. I thought I would see a good show, but who knew that Shen Xi would run off somewhere and wouldn't meet him."

When Shen Ji heard Shen Rong's name, his expression turned ugly, "Stay away from Shen Rong."

Shen Cheng looked at Shen Ji's dark face and nodded vigorously, "I know, he's just an illegitimate child, I just took him along for fun, don't worry, Big Brother."

Shen Ji gave Shen Cheng a warning glance and left Shen Cheng's room.

Shen Xi's room was on the other side of the corridor. Shen Ji stared at Shen Xi's door for a while, then turned and walked to the study. Was yesterday actually Shen Xi's birthday? In that case, could the last night be the trigger that made Shen Xi suddenly decide to leave the country?

Shen Ji raised his hand and rubbed his brow. The family had gotten used to ignoring Shen Xi over the years and he hadn't thought that Shen Xi was already eighteen years old.

He thought of the will in the lawyer's hand, and his gaze sharpened.

Chapter 4

Shen Ji handled the matter of Shen Xi going abroad very quickly. In just three days, Shen Ji completed the relevant formalities and put a bunch of documents in front of Shen Xi.

"This is the admission notice from St. Rudolf Language School. You will first study the language there for a year, and after a year I will arrange for you to go to university."

As Shen Ji was standing in the door of Shen Xi's room with a business-like look, his attitude was as alienated as ever.

Shen Xi blocked the doorway, having no intention of letting Shen Ji in. Taking the information from Shen Ji's hand blankly, Shen Xi sneered while looking through it quickly. So fast; it seemed that Shen Ji didn't want him to continue to be an eyesore in front of him either.

Shen Xi's head was lowered and Shen Ji couldn't see his face clearly, but when Shen Ji casually glanced past him, a look of surprise flashed on his face. Shen Xi's room was unexpectedly neat and tidy, with all the items arranged in order from largest to smallest. Shen Ji was surprised, inadvertently looked at Shen Xi and met his impatient eyes, "Money!"

The grumpy look on Shen Xi's face was all too familiar, and the hint of incongruity that Shen Ji felt at the sight of Shen Xi's room was left behind. Handing over the card in his hand, Shen Ji added, "I've booked a flight for you for the day after tomorrow, so pack up and someone will take you to the airport."

Shen Ji's words were greeted by Shen Xi's turned back and the door slamming shut.

Shen Ji's brows furrowed tightly as he looked at the closed door for half a second before turning to leave.

Inside the room, Shen Xi looked at the bank card in his hand, a sneer habitually appearing on his face. There was no need to check it specifically, he knew there was a lot of money in it. He had never understood why his father, who clearly disliked him, was so indulgent with him when it came to money. Not only did he not care about his reckless spending, but there was even a hidden sense of connivance. Only after he was imprisoned did he realise: wasn't it as simple as trying to raise a waste of a man?

Shen Xi smirked and stuffed the card into his wallet. No matter what his father's intentions were, the more money he had, the better.

After putting the card away, Shen Xi was about to put the information in his hand into his luggage when his mobile phone rang all of a sudden.

Shen Xi grabbed the phone. He didn't need to look at it to guess that it must be a call from one of his so-called friends, nothing but curiosity to see if he was really as irritated as it was rumoured among them. In the past few days, Shen Xi had received many such calls, each of them probing his relationship with Shen Rong under the banner of concern. Tian Wenyao and Shen Rong had been seen by many people when they appeared at Shutu that night.

Shen Xi subconsciously wanted to hang up, but stopped when he saw that it was an unfamiliar number. After a moment of hesitation, Shen Xi picked up the phone and soon a look of surprise appeared on his face. A few minutes later, Shen Xi hung up the phone and pondered.

The person who called him was his father's personal lawyer, Wang Changlin, with whom Shen Xi had not had any contact in the past. Shen Xi couldn't understand what Wang Changlin had to say to him, and the other party did not reveal any information on the phone, but only said that he had been entrusted to give something to him.

Entrusted? By whom? And what was it that he was going to give him?

With these questions in mind, the next day Shen Xi appeared at a coffee house near the Shen Group according to the address provided by the phone.

At this time, it was office hours and there were very few customers in the coffee house, so Shen Xi saw the man who had called him almost at a glance.

In his impression, Wang Changlin seemed to be a little older than his father, but the man in front of him looked only about forty. At this time, he was wearing a light grey suit, his hair was neatly combed, and he was wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses. He was elegant and looked quite polished in his gestures.

Wang Changlin obviously also saw Shen Xi, nodded at him and beckoned, "Sanshao (third young master)."

Shen Xi walked over expressionlessly and sat down without saying a word, looking at the other party in silence.

Wang Changlin was not at all impressed by Shen Xi's attitude and looked at him with a complicated gaze, then said with emotion, "In the blink of an eye, Sanshao is already so big."

Shen Xi frowned unconsciously. He was a little confused by Wang Changlin's attitude. This comment was a little too intimate for their relationship.

Wang Changlin also seemed to realise it, smiled covertly and beckoned to the waiter, "A cup of mocha." He then looked at Shen Xi, "Sanshao?"

Shen Xi shook his head. He didn't come for any coffee. He was just curious about what Wang Changlin revealed over the phone.

Wang Changlin did not insist, pushed up the glasses on the bridge of his nose and smiled slightly at Shen Xi, "Sanshao must be curious about what I said over the phone."

Shen Xi nodded and said, "What do you want to give me?"

Shen Xi's directness took Wang Changlin by surprise. He couldn't help but smile bitterly, "Sanshao's temper is really exactly as rumoured."

Impatience flashed in Shen Xi's eyes and the bitter smile on Wang Changlin's face intensified. He could only pretend not to see Shen Xi's expression, "I am Mr. Shen's personal lawyer, Sanshao must have known about it."

Shen Xi said nothing with a cold face.

Wang Changlin knew what was going on between the father and the son and didn't say anything more about it, but continued, "Before I came to Mr. Shen's side, I had been Elder Han's personal lawyer."

The words "Elder Han" made Shen Xi's heart jolt, and he looked at Wang Changlin in surprise.

The bitter smile on Wang Changlin's face changed to a nostalgic look, "Elder Han was kind to me, and I was fortunate enough to be by his side for a few years." Seeing that Shen Xi did not say anything, Wang Changlin stopped selling the nostalgia, "I think Sanshao has guessed that it was Elder Han who left some things for Sanshao as a reminder. According to Elder Han's request, these things can only be handed over to Sanshao after Sanshao turns eighteen years old. I have been in charge of them before."

Wang Changlin's words were like a bomb thrown into Shen Xi's heart, and Shen Xi was in shock at this point. Grandfather had left something for him? Why had he been completely unaware of this in his previous life? Even if he had been imprisoned the next day after his birthday, why had no one ever mentioned it in the ten years that followed? And where did all those things end up?

The questions in his mind followed one after another, but Shen Xi forced himself to calm down. There was no way to verify what happened in his previous life, and no matter what, the things would be in his hands in this life.

Wang Changlin seemed to be waiting for Shen Xi to digest this news. Only when Shen Xi's expression calmed down did Wang Changlin speak softly, "Very few people know about this matter. It is normal for Sanshao to be surprised."

Shen Xi was silent. Wang Changlin pushed the documents in his hand in front of Shen Xi, "This is the specific information of the items that Elder Han left to Sanshao. The items have been kept in the safe of the Bank of Zhongjing. They can be collected only by Sanshao himself. Sanshao, please take a look."

Shen Xi's gaze fell on the papers, his expression serious.

The Zhongjing's Han family was a well-known jewellery family in China. Anyone in such a family would know that there inevitably would be some treasures at the bottom of the box. Back then, when the Han family's business was in trouble, there were rumours in Zhongjing that Han Fuli had sent a few of his unparalleled treasures abroad to dispose of them in an attempt to save the family from its predicament. But no one could have predicted that within just a few days Han Fuli would receive the tragic news that both children had died. In the face of great grief, business was no longer Han Fuli's concern. Instead of selling the jewellery, he left it to the only person in the world he cared about, his grandson, Shen Xi.

As he turned page after page, Shen Xi's expression became more and more solemn. The documents indicated in detail every item left behind by Grandpa, until the last page, where a slightly yellowed photograph was sandwiched on top of a clean white paper. The photograph appeared to have been taken accidentally. It showed Grandpa sitting in a wide rattan chair, smiling kindly, holding a tiny baby in his arms. Behind Grandpa, his frail uncle was staring at the baby in his arms curiously, and beside him, his mother was looking at him tenderly with a light smile on her face.

Shen Xi's hands trembled, his eyes instantly moistened.

As he was still very young when his mother and grandfather passed away, he did not have anything in his hands to keep as a souvenir. He didn't think that there would be a family photo left here. If only he knew… What if he knew?

Shen Xi clenched his hand hard, lowering his head to hide the tears in his eyes as he tried to calm the emotions in his heart.

A hand gently patted Shen Xi's shoulder, and Shen Xi's emotions slowly calmed down. Carefully laying down the crumpled papers in his hands, Shen Xi raised his head and glanced at Wang Changlin gratefully.

Wang Changlin looked at Shen Xi with concern in his eyes, "Sanshao, when do you think we will go to the bank?"

Shen Xi shook his head, "I'm going abroad soon, so these things should continue to be kept in the bank. I just need to take this photo and that's it."

Wang Changlin was obviously very surprised by the news that Shen Xi was going abroad and looked at Shen Xi for half a second before shaking his head and sighing, "Mr. Shen is a bit too strict to Sanshao."

When Shen Xi didn't answer this comment, Wang Changlin hesitated for a moment before making up his mind to speak, "Does Sanshao know about the handling of the Han family's property before the death of Elder Han?"

Shen Xi nodded, "Grandfather used all of the Han family's assets in exchange for a third of the Shen family's inheritance rights for me."

Wang Changlin smiled bitterly, "When Elder Han passed away, Sanshao should have been the only heir to the Han family. But at that time, the Han family's business suffered a heavy blow and Sanshao was too young to take over the family business. Elder Han had no choice but to make this decision."

Shen Xi laughed at himself, "Grandfather was making plans for me because he knew that Father didn't like me and was worried that he wouldn't leave me anything in the future."

Wang Changlin shook his head, "Of course Elder Han meant this, but he also thought about finding a safe person to guard the family's property for Sanshao. But Mr. Shen took the initiative to make this proposal and Elder Han chose to agree after some deliberation."

Shen Xi was suddenly taken aback, "What did you say?"

There was a hint of pity in Wang Changlin's eyes, "This offer was mentioned by Mr. Shen first."

Shen Xi's face looked ugly. It turned out that his father was the one who proposed it. No wonder! Although the Han family's business had been badly hit back then, it had been in operation for decades and could not be shaken so easily. It was simply economically unreasonable for his grandfather to exchange the Han family's business for one-third of the inheritance rights of the Shen family for him. Shen Xi always thought that his grandfather was worried that he would not be able to keep the Han family's business because he was too young and that his father was too biassed and wouldn't give a share of the Shen family's business to him, so he used the Han family's business in exchange for Shen Xi to become a heir of the Shen family. But it turned out that everything was just his father's calculations.

Wang Changlin sighed, "I wasn't going to tell Sanshao about this, but Elder Han had high hopes for Sahshao. So if Sanshao continues to be ridiculous like this, I really feel sorry for Elder Han. I just hope you won't let Elder Han down again after you go abroad."

At the mention of his grandfather, Shen Xi nodded forcefully with a gloomy face.

Because of Wang Changlin's attitude, by the time the two left the coffee house, they were no longer strangers to each other like at the beginning and were much closer. Wang Changlin also repeatedly asked Shen Xi to take care of his health after he left the country and to remember to contact him if he needed anything.

Shen Xi nodded in a rare moment of good temper and watched Wang Changlin leave.

The moment he turned around and walked away, Shen Xi lowered his head to hide the vigilance in his eyes.

There was nothing wrong with Wang Changlin's words, but for someone who had been by his father's side for ten years and had gained his trust, his attitude, Shen Xi vaguely felt, was unspeakably incongruous. Wang Changlin encouraged him to be motivated, but he should have known his father's intentions well after ten years by his father's side. Him being motivated was the last thing his father wanted to see. Could it really be because of Grandpa?

Shen Xi was a bit confused and silently repeated the name "Wang Changlin" in his mind.

As Shen Xi watched Wang Changlin leave, he was unaware that on the other side of the road, a tall man stared at him thoughtfully for a while before turning away to go.

Chapter 5

Shen Group Headquarters Building

In the conference room, Shen Ji was solemnly listening to the report on his subsidiary. The annual report of the previous year had come out and the figures were not as good as expected. Everyone in the company knew that this subsidiary was taken over by Shen Ji last year and he had put a lot of effort into it during the year. But no one expected that after a year of hard work, not only did it fail to meet the set goals, but compared to the previous year, the growth rate was lower by a few percentage points. No wonder that Shen Ji's face was as cold as icy water at this time, and everyone in the conference room was trembling under Shen Ji's powerful aura, barely daring to breathe.

While the business manager carefully analysed the reasons for last year's poor performance, the heavy conference room door was quietly pushed open. Lily, Shen Ji's secretary, walked up to Shen Ji with an apologetic gesture to everyone and whispered in a low voice, "Dashao (eldest young master), Xuan Shao has come to see you and is waiting for you in the office."

When Shen Ji heard the words "Xuan Shao", his sullen face finally relaxed.

As Shen Ji's expression eased, everyone in the conference room could not help but quietly let out a sigh of relief. Shen Ji coldly swept his gaze over the crowd, making sure to attract everyone's attention, and said in a deep voice, "I want to see the new year's rectification plan from all of you before tomorrow morning."

After saying that, Shen Ji didn't look at the sad expressions of the people in the conference room and walked towards his office briskly. His aura was overwhelming, and all the employees he passed by bowed their heads, working seriously, none of them daring to sit back.

Li Mingxuan saw Shen Ji's extremely serious face and immediately raised his eyebrows, "What, work is not going well?"

Shen Ji nodded and explained while taking off his jacket, "One of the subsidiaries did not do well in sales last year."

Li Mingxuan didn't care much, "The economic situation was bad last year, everyone is in the same boat."

Shen Ji glanced at Li Mingxuan, "Is that comforting? I've heard that Uncle made a huge profit last year." Without waiting for Li Mingxuan to say anything, Shen Ji threw his jacket aside and sat down on the sofa, watching the very leisurely Li Mingxuan, "How come you have time to visit? Aren't you preparing to accept the business in Uncle's hands?" (Uncle here is the husband of father's sister)

Hearing the concern in Shen Ji's words, Li Mingxuan casually pulled a chair and sat down opposite Shen Ji, "I'm fine, I had a rare day off and came to see you, but I saw a very interesting scene downstairs."

Shen Ji's interest piqued, "What could be interesting to you?"

Li Mingxuan gave Shen Ji a meaningful glance, "Does Shen Xi and Wang Changlin walking together count?"

"Wang Changlin?" Shen Ji was taken aback, then thought of something, "Shen Xi is already eighteen years old."

"?" Li Mingxuan looked puzzled.

Shen Ji relaxed and leaned back on the sofa, "Wang Changlin was Elder Han's personal lawyer back then, so I think Elder Han must have left something for Shen Xi before he passed away."

Li Mingxuan was quite surprised, "You don't seem worried?"

Shen Ji said frankly, "Shen Xi has already been raised to be a waste, so what do I have to worry about? What's more, it's not like you don't know the deal between Elder Han and the Shen family back then. What could he leave for Shen Xi apart from some mementoes? As for Wang Changlin, his professional ethics are very good, and since he has Father's trust, I'm sure he knows what he can and cannot do."

Li Mingxuan nodded indifferently, "It's good that you have a clear picture in mind. I won't interfere in the Shen family's affairs, but you know my mother is getting softer as she gets older. The other day she also mentioned that Shen Xi is still Uncle's son, so I don't want Uncle and him to get into too much trouble. You know, the family scandals of father and son falling out, brothers fighting over property and whatnot are the favourite stories of those reporters."

Shen Ji chuckled, "Don't worry, the Shen family will definitely not be on the front page like this. Shen Xi is going abroad soon, and when he returns in a few years, it will be time for Father to retire. As long as Shen Xi is obedient, I don't mind raising an extra brother."

The word "abroad" caught Li Mingxuan's attention. Looking at Shen Ji's indifferent expression, he pointed out, "There is a word in this world called accident, and some people are better not to be kept under the radar."

The word "accident" stirred Shen Ji's sensitive nerves. His brow wrinkled invisibly, but he quickly let it go, "With my father pressing him down, Shen Xi can't make any waves. Instead of having them face each other in front of our eyes, it's better to keep them apart."

When Li Mingxuan heard Shen Ji say this, he no longer mentioned Shen Xi and changed the subject, "I haven't been to Shutu for a long time, how about going for a drink together tonight?"

Shen Ji laughed, "If you're going to go to Shutu, don't wait until the evening, let's go now. By the way, I haven't eaten yet."

It was only half an hour's drive from Shen Group to Shutu, and soon Shen Ji and Li Mingxuan were already at the entrance of Shutu.

Unlike the nighttime Shutu, the daytime Shutu was much cleaner.

Shen Ji was saying something to Li Mingxuan, but when he saw an approaching man with his peripheral vision, his face darkened.

Li Mingxuan quickly noticed Shen Ji's strangeness, followed his gaze and met Shen Cheng's ingratiating smile. Li Mingxuan glanced at Shen Cheng's obedient face with a smile, shrugged helplessly and quickly moved his gaze to the man next to Shen Cheng, showing a hint of surprise in his eyes.

Next to Shen Cheng was a young man about seventeen or eighteen years old, with a delicate and very eye-catching appearance. At a rough glance, the young man looked quite similar to Shen Ji and Shen Cheng, but on closer inspection, one could see the shadow of another person in the young man's looks. Li Mingxuan glanced sideways at Shen Ji and understood the knot in his heart.

The young man seemed to be very surprised to meet Shen Ji, looking with a mixture of astonishment and yearning on his face. But as Shen Ji's expression became gloomy, the surprise disappeared from the young man's face and was replaced with a look of apprehension. After reluctantly glancing at Shen Ji a few times, the young man lowered his head and walked after Shen Cheng.

Li Mingxuan watched the teenager's movements thoughtfully, the corners of his mouth slowly curling up with a trace of ridicule.

In the blink of an eye, Shen Cheng had already walked to the two of them and smiled flatteringly, "Big Brother, Cousin."

Li Mingxuan smiled and nodded in greeting, but Shen Ji glanced behind Shen Cheng's back in disgust and said to Shen Cheng coldly, "Go home immediately."

Shen Cheng's smile froze on his face, but he did not dare to retort, nodded obediently and hurriedly left. Behind Shen Cheng, the teenager peeked at Shen Ji. When he met Shen Ji's disgusted eyes, grievances flashed on the young man's face. He lowered his head and walked away quickly with Shen Cheng.

Li Mingxuan curiously watched the series of changes in the teenager's expression, and when the young man was far away, he bumped Shen Ji beside him, pointing in the teenager's direction, "Shen Rong?"

Shen Ji nodded with unconcealed disgust.

Li Mingxuan was puzzled, "When did he get friendly with Xiao Cheng?"

Shen Ji snorted coldly, "Just last year, you were abroad at the time. I don't know how he found Shen Cheng. Shen Cheng is also a fool to let him follow around."

Li Mingxuan was amused, "Xiao Cheng is spoiled by you, but that Shen Rong does seem to have some ideas."

Shen Ji laughed coldly, "He just wants the luxury of something that doesn't belong to him."

There were many illegitimate children in their circle who wanted to be recognized by their parents. If it was someone else, Li Mingxuan could regard it as a joke, but when it came to his mother's family, Li Mingxuan was much more cautious, "You'd better watch out for Shen Rong, he doesn't look like he's willing to be an illegitimate child."

When Li Mingxuan commented on Shen Rong, he suddenly thought of Shen Xi, whom he didn't really know well. Because he had grown up with Shen Ji, and because of the coldness of Shen Dehan towards Shen Xi since childhood, naturally, Li Mingxuan intentionally or unintentionally favoured Shen Ji and felt nothing but some superficial affection towards Shen Xi. To be honest, the number of times the two had spent time together since they were young could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Compared to Shen Rong's carefulness, the short-tempered Shen Xi was really not a threat, so no wonder that Shen Ji had never taken Shen Xi to heart.

Shen Xi didn't know or care about Li Mingxuan's mental activities at this time. After a day of casually wandering around Zhongjing, Shen Xi returned to the Shen family home at nightfall.

After replacing his mobile phone card with a newly bought anonymous card, Shen Xi linked to the internet and clicked on the video he had recorded a few days ago.

Ambiguous moans echoed in the room as two naked bodies tangled together, moving fiercely in unison with the gasps. Thanks to the phone's HD camera, even in the dim light, the appearance of the two people in the video could be clearly seen.

Shen Xi's fingers brushed over the keys and stopped on the word "Upload". As his finger gently pressed down, the corners of his mouth curled up in a narrow smile. He was going abroad tomorrow, so this could be regarded as a big gift for them before he left. It had been several days since that night, so he didn't think anyone would suspect him; after all, he was known in his circle of friends for his irritable and violent nature.

In just a few minutes, the video had already received over a thousand hits. Netizens were frantically leaving comments below. As the number of hits increased, the video began to spread at a rapid pace on different websites. Shen Xi patiently went through the netizens' comments page by page, then pretended to inadvertently recognise the two people in the video and gossiped about their identities in shock. As he watched the names Tian Wenyao and Shen Rong being mentioned time and time again, Shen Xi laughed happily.

In his previous life, after he was imprisoned, he accidentally saw Shen Rong on TV, a popular idol in the entertainment industry. Who knows if in this life, with such a scandal behind his back, he would still be as popular as he was in his previous life? As for Tian Wenyao, the Tian family and the Fang family had long planned to join forces through marriage. With this video, the Fang family would likely have to give serious consideration to it.

Shen Xi took one last look at the video's wildly rising click rate. Satisfied, he turned off his phone and pulled the card out, threw it down the toilet and flushed it.

Destroy the corpse!

Chapter 6

"The Tian family's Dashao and the Shen family's illegitimate son's love video revealed!"

"The Shen family's illegitimate son bangs the Tian's family Dashao, Shen Ershao (second young master) pimping!?"

"Tian Wenyao has a crush on Shen Dashao, and the illegitimate son is just a substitute!"

"The status of Shen Sanshao is in jeopardy, and the bastard son is relying on the Tian family to counterattack!"

For reporters in Zhongjing, this was definitely a day of excitement to the point of shivering. Eye-catching reports after eye-catching reports littered the front pages of major websites and entertainment magazines.

In front of Shen and Tian's mansions in the suburbs, there were countless reporters squatting in the early morning, frantically approaching anyone who came out from inside, asking for news related to the story.

Shen Xi stood by the window looking at the distant commotion at the gate. The corners of his mouth curved up in a pleasant arc.

Just now his father had gone on a rampage in the dining room, and Shen Cheng had been grounded and was not allowed to go anywhere but school for the next month. Shen Ji also suffered the consequences and was ordered by Shen Dehan to keep his distance from Tian Wenyao to prevent the reporters from spreading more rumours. Even Shen Xi was confronted by his father for the first time and was given a strict warning not to talk nonsense when he went out. Shen Xi ignored it and kept eating without saying a word with his head down. Unexpectedly, from the corner of his eye he saw his father's face turn even more ugly.

Shen Xi's father's black as the bottom of a pot look obviously made Shen Xi very happy, and this good mood continued until now.

Shen Xi's eyes narrowed. Just now his father and Shen Ji were escorted to the gate by bodyguards as if facing an enemy, and listening to the noise there, they were probably still trapped in the crowd.

Shen Xi was about to walk away from the window when the commotion at the gate suddenly diminished. Shen Xi raised an eyebrow; it seemed that his father and Shen Ji had managed to successfully break out under the protection of the bodyguards. He just wondered if his father was going to the company now or to Shen Rong's place? Shen Xi desperately imagined his father and Shen Rong meeting each other and his mood grew better and better.

While Shen Xi was leisurely waiting to head to the airport to leave Zhongjing, the two parties involved in the video were in a terrible mess.

"Unfilial son!" Slapping the table heavily, Mr. Tian cursed at Tian Wenyao who was standing in front of him.

Tian Wenyao lowered his head and did not dare to say a word.

The more Mr. Tian thought about it, the angrier he became, "It's fine if you were with a woman, but you're involved with a man. Especially with Shen Rong. What is he? He is just a bastard raised outside by Shen Dehan. The Fang family has already loosely agreed to the marriage between you and their daughter, and you pulled this stunt at a critical moment. How do you expect me to explain it to the Fang family?!"

Tian Wenyao looked up apologetically, "Dad, I'm sorry."

His father tried to suppress his anger, "Did you find out the IP from where it was uploaded?"

Tian Wenyao shook his head, "The other party used a mobile phone to upload. We only found the mobile phone number but the other party only used this number once and then there was no more activity."

His father grimaced, "So someone is trying to set you up?"

Tian Wenyao frowned and didn't say anything, but in his mind he was eliminating suspected candidates one by one. This video was definitely taken on the night of Shen Xi's birthday, and it was said that Shen Xi was also at Shutu that night. No, Tian Wenyao shook his head and ruled out any suspicion of Shen Xi. According to Shen Xi's character, if it really was him, he would surely make trouble the next day or even make a fuss right then and there. How could he hold back until now? But if it wasn't Shen Xi, who else could it be? An employee of Shutu? Or?

Tian Wenyao thought of a name and his eyes darkened.

His father probably thought of the same person and said with a gloomy face, "Could it be Shen Rong who set you up?"

Tian Wenyao did not say anything, but his doubts deepened.

While Tian Wenyao was trying to think of a countermeasure, Shen Rong was watching the video on the computer over and over again, his face pale.

"You've let me down so much!" An icy female voice sounded behind him.

Shen Rong's body trembled; he turned around pretending to be tough and looked at the woman who appeared behind him.

The woman looked to be in her thirties, well maintained and wearing exquisite makeup. A well-fitting cheongsam matched her temperament. However, at this moment the woman was staring coldly at Shen Rong with a look of hating iron for not being made of steel.

Shen Rong straightened his back under the woman's gaze.

The woman was irritated by Shen Rong's tough attitude. Her anger surged, a grimace appearing on her beautiful face as she loudly rebuked, "What, you think you are right?"

Shen Rong did not speak, and the woman said angrily, "How much I have secretly schemed for you all these years in order for you to be recognised by the Shen family?! But now all those plans have been ruined by you. How many times have I told you, if you want to be recognised by the Shen family and be the fair and upright young master of the Shen family, you have to rely on your own hard work and progress, so that your father can see how good you are, instead of engaging in these eccentric tactics. You think that if you climb on Shen Cheng and call him Second Brother, he will really treat you like a younger brother, but he just takes you along for fun. What is Tian Wenyao's status, what is the status of the Tian family, you and Tian Wenyao are nothing but a joke!"

The woman's words were getting meaner and meaner. Shen Rong clenched his fists and tried to control his temper, but finally couldn't help but burst out when he heard the word joke, "Yes, I am a joke, I was originally a joke! I am obviously the son of the Shen family, yet my father refuses to recognise me. You talk every day about having to fight to get ahead and show my father how good I am. And I listened to you! Haven't I done enough reading, sports, piano and dancing? But did Father see that? Not at all! Shen Xi can do nothing, he doesn't know anything, he's an uneducated straw bag (good-for-nothing), but he's the rightful heir of the Shen family! Is there anything I can't do better than him? I am better than him in everything! I dare not compete with my eldest brother and my second brother, but why can't I even compete with Shen Xi? Is it because I'm an illegitimate child, because I was born to a mistress, so I deserve nothing?"

"Pop!"

With a crisp sound, Shen Rong covered his face in disbelief and looked at the woman in front of him.

The woman looked at Shen Rong calmly, "Are you complaining that I shouldn't have given birth to you?"

Shen Rong slowly lowered his head under the woman's gloomy expression, "I'm sorry, Mom."

The woman looked at Shen Rong steadily, "I will find a way to help you settle this matter. Don't let it happen again, and don't let me down again. Stay away from Shen Cheng in the future, Zhou Mingmei's son will be recognized by the Shen family in an open and honest way, not by ingratiating himself."

Shen Rong nodded stiffly. The woman gave Shen Rong a satisfied look and turned to leave, stopping abruptly when she reached the door, "Don't let me see you have anything to do with Tian Wenyao again."

Shen Rong did not say anything and stood there in silence.

The woman did not care about Shen Rong's silence and left the room with these words.

Shen Rong looked at the woman's back and clenched his fists again.

The matter of the video was quickly left behind by Shen Xi. Standing in the huge terminal hall, Shen Xi looked at the bustling crowd around him and revealed his first real smile since his rebirth.

He was really leaving this place. Even though he was not showing it on the surface, Shen Xi had to admit in his heart that he was constantly worrying, worrying that one day his fate would suddenly repeat itself and his rebirth would be nothing but an illusory dream. After leaving this place, after leaving the people whose fates were intertwined with his in his previous life, the uneasiness that Shen Xi had been hiding in his heart disappeared completely.

The plane took off, and as it rose, Zhongjing below became smaller and smaller. Shen Xi slowly pressed his hand to the window. From this perspective, the entire city of Zhongjing was within the grasp of his hand. Shen Xi slowly clenched his palm and smiled in satisfaction.

Chapter 7

Five years later

"Shen, I heard you're going back to China, come out for a drink sometime."

"Shen, we're having a farewell party for you, join us Friday night at King Bar at 7pm sharp, oh."

"Shen, it's Old John, I need to talk to you."

It was a very ordinary single apartment, not very big but very empty because of the few items in it.

In one corner of the apartment, Shen Xi was bending down to pack his luggage while listening to the messages on the phone absent-mindedly. Compared to five years ago, Shen Xi's figure was considerably taller, with the youthfulness of a teenager beginning to fade and the outline of a young man becoming more apparent. Due to regular exercise, Shen Xi's physique was lean but perfectly muscled, a far cry from his thinness of five years ago.

Unlike Shen Ji and Shen Cheng who looked like their father and Shen Rong who looked like his mother, Shen Xi resembled neither his father nor his deceased mother. At first glance, the grown-up Shen Xi looked more like a replica of his uncle, Han Yu. Without the gloomy and violent aura of his youth, the current Shen Xi looked gentle and introspective.

The phone messages were still playing one after another, most of them coming from one person – Old John.

Defeated by his perseverance, Shen Xi had to stop what he was doing, grab the phone and call back.

"Hi John, it's Shen."

"Thank God, Shen, you finally contacted me. I think we need to talk."

Even through the phone line, Shen Xi could feel Old John's relieved mood on the other side.

A warm current surged through Shen Xi's heart, "Thank you, John, but I don't need to."

"Shen, believe me, hatred can never save our hearts." Old John rushed to speak, only to be interrupted by Shen Xi.

"I don't need saving, thank you! Goodbye!"

Hanging up the phone, Shen Xi simply unplugged the line. The expression of Old John blowing his beard and glaring after he couldn't get through flashed in his mind, and the corners of Shen Xi's mouth slowly curled up.

Old John that Shen Xi had been talking to was a kindly and compassionate old man who ran a psychological clinic near the residential area where Shen Xi lived. Since Shen Xi went to him four years ago because of continuous nightmares, Old John had become Shen Xi's exclusive counsellor.

Shen Xi once described to Old John his past life as an absurd dream. Perhaps because there was too much resentment in Shen Xi's words, Old John insisted that Shen Xi needed to learn to let go of the hatred in his heart if he wanted to get rid of the nightmares.

Shen Xi did not take Old John's words seriously. Hatred was the only thing that kept him going, and without it, what was the point of his rebirth?

While recalling the soft-hearted old man, Shen Xi quickly packed his luggage. Soon the last thing was put away. Shen Xi looked at the empty room, turned and left with his luggage without any nostalgia.

The place where Shen Xi lived was still a long way from the airport. Busy packing up in the past few days, Shen Xi didn't have a good rest. Therefore, as soon as he got in the car, Shen Xi took the time to close his eyes and rest.

Speaking of which, Shen Xi's scheduled return to China was three months later, which was also the time when Fang Luowei appeared in Zhongjing in his previous life. Unfortunately, plans never kept up with changes, and a phone call a few days ago changed Shen Xi's agenda.

Thinking about the content of that phone call, Shen Xi's brow furrowed. The phone rang at that moment, and the words "Lao K" flashed on the big screen.

"Hello!"

"Why can't I get through to your home phone?" The voice in the receiver was full of accusations, as if Shen Xi had done something unforgivable to the other party. With the way the other party was pinching his throat, as his shrill voice entered Shen Xi's ears, Shen Xi held his forehead fighting a headache.

He could imagine the person on the other side of the phone pouting and sobbing. Such an expression on a beautiful girl's face would be pleasing to the eye and on a beautiful boy it would be bearable, but when a man in his thirties with a scruffy beard made such an expression, Shen Xi felt goosebumps all over his body.

Before Shen Xi could adjust his emotions, the man on the other side went all out, "Nasty, why are you ignoring me?!"

"I have a flight this afternoon and I'm on my way to the airport." Shen Xi kept his face as blank as possible, trying to talk in a calm tone. The other party obviously didn't expect Shen Xi to move so quickly, was taken aback for a moment, then chirped, "Ah ah, what if I'm not ready to see you yet? Is it too late to go for a beauty treatment? Will you dislike me?"

Shen Xi gritted his teeth, "Speak human language!"

The other party seemed to know that this was Shen Xi's bottom line and smiled coquettishly, "Aiya, Xiao Xixi, you are so short-tempered!" The next moment, before Shen Xi could hang up the phone, Lao K's tone became normal, "Shen Dehan has been discharged from the hospital this morning. I got his medical records. It looks like he fainted a few days ago just due to overexertion and there was no other reason."

Without waiting for Shen Xi's response, Lao K couldn't help but tease again, "Xiao Xixi, you are too miserable, Shen Dehan was secretly hospitalised and even that bastard son of his was notified urgently, but you're the only one kept in the dark. Shen Dehan is not really planning to disinherit you for that bastard son, is he? You should be careful, you haven't paid my investigation fee yet."

Shen Xi had already gotten used to the other party's flirtatious words, but after listening to Lao K go from the fact that the investigation fee should be raised due to inflation to the fact that he couldn't afford to buy cosmetics these days, he finally couldn't help but interrupt, "Have you found the person I asked you to find?"

When it came to business, Lao K immediately became serious, "Living up to my promise, I finally found one."

"How similar?" Shen Xi directly asked the question he was most concerned about.

"Depends on who you want to compare to. If you want to compare to Zhou Mingmei, it will be only a seven-point resemblance. But if you compare to the photo you gave me, it will be a full nine points."

Shen Xi smiled in satisfaction, "I will go straight to your place when I get off the plane, make an appointment with this person for me." After thinking about it, Shen Xi added, "If the person you found is really as similar as you say, I will double the fee."

After saying this, Shen Xi simply hung up the phone, stopping any nagging from the other party.

After putting down the phone, Shen Xi closed his eyes once again, but the corner of his mouth was unconsciously hooked up to reveal a cold smile.

He thought he didn't care. After ten years in prison and five years of being ignored, he had already no expectations of the Shen family. He pretended to be a dandy, he held back his hatred, and he spent five years slowly building up his strength. He felt that his heart was already ruthless and cold enough, but when he heard the news that his father fainted and was admitted to the hospital, he still subconsciously hesitated.

But the reality was so ridiculous and cruel that his hesitation was only rewarded with a resounding slap in the face! Everyone associated with the Shen family received the news that Shen Dehan had been admitted to hospital, except for him. Had he not had someone to keep an eye on the Shen family, if his father hadn't just fainted from fatigue, he wouldn't have even known about his father's death and would have been sidelined by everyone.

The little beast in his heart called hatred began to screech, and Shen Xi opened his eyes and showed himself a harmless smile in the rear view mirror.

Half an hour later, in the first class cabin of the flight to Zhongjing, Shen Xi sat quietly in his seat. There was still some time before the plane took off and Shen Xi was bored, flicking through the video player to pass the long journey time.

"Excuse me, may I?" A low, magnetic voice sounded above his head.

Shen Xi quickly stood up and side-stepped out of the way, only to find that the man speaking had no intention of getting past him.

Shen Xi looked over in confusion, and when he saw the other party's face, his eyes flashed. Before he could figure out what expression to wear, the other party already said, "Shen Xi?"

Shen Xi was surprised; he hadn't thought that the man could recognise him. After all, counting the five years he had spent abroad, it should have been seven or eight years since they had seen each other.

Nodding hesitantly, Shen Xi put on a puzzled look, "Cousin Mingxuan?"

The other party was obviously not expecting Shen Xi to address him in this way, and after a slight pause he smiled gently.

Li Mingxuan's smile was very nice, and even though he had a lot of disdain for the man in his heart, Shen Xi had to admit this. Speaking of which, Shen Xi was no stranger to Li Mingxuan's current appearance. Lao K was doing his best collecting all the information about the Shen family. As a close friend and cousin of Shen Ji, Li Mingxuan had appeared in the information a lot. So much, in fact, that Lao K once swore that the two of them definitely had an affair.

When Shen Xi thought of this, he could not help but laugh at himself. He was also Li Mingxuan's cousin, but the treatment he and Shen Ji enjoyed as cousins was really different. Maybe Lao K's words were not groundless, and the two of them really had an affair.

The thought was fleeting, and Li Mingxuan had already sat down beside Shen Xi.

When Shen Xi sat down as well, he heard Li Mingxuan speak, "Is Xiao Xi going back to China?"

The words "Xiao Xi" really irritated Shen Xi, who only felt a bitter cold and nodded silently.

Li Mingxuan looked at Shen Xi, seemingly unintentionally, "I heard that Xiao Xi is doing well abroad, why do you suddenly think of going back home?"

At the word "heard" Shen Xi wanted to laugh out loud. The Shen family had ignored him for five years, where had Li Mingxuan heard about him?

He said, "I'm tired of staying abroad and want to go back to China for a while."

Li Mingxuan looked at Shen Xi's calm face and nodded approvingly, "There's really no point in staying abroad, so it's good that Xiao Xi wants to go back home."

Shen Xi smiled coldly in his heart, knowing that his return to China at this time must have attracted the other party's suspicion. But what about that? He would be met with suspicion whenever he went back. Shen Xi had been waiting for five years for the big show to start, so how could he be willing to miss it?

Li Mingxuan seemed to be very interested in Shen Xi's life abroad, and intentionally or unintentionally steered the conversation towards it. Shen Xi did not disappoint him and told him all about his foreign life that consisted of eating, drinking and playing.

The plane soon took off, and midway through the flight Shen Xi excused himself to go to the toilet, quickly took out his mobile phone to turn it on and typed a few lines.

"I'm with Li Mingxuan, flight number CA981, you know what to do."

Satisfied, Shen Xi watched the phone turn off and walked out. Under Li Mingxuan's gaze, the corners of Shen Xi's mouth curled up in a harmless smile.

Chapter 8

Along flight is actually a very boring thing.

Shen Xi was originally planning to sleep all the way back to Zhongjing, but he didn't expect to meet Li Mingxuan on the plane. After holding on for dear life, Shen Xi could not endure in the end and fell asleep without realising it.

When Li Mingxuan turned his head, he saw Shen Xi's sleeping face leaning against the back of the chair. It seemed that because of the flight, Shen Xi slept very restlessly, his long eyelashes fluttering incessantly.

Li Mingxuan stared at Shen Xi with complicated eyes for half a second, then bent down and took out a prepared blanket from the table cabinet next to the seat and gently covered Shen Xi's body.

This was the first time in his memory that Li Mingxuan had been so close to Shen Xi. Compared to the young man he remembered meeting outside the coffee house, the current Shen Xi had changed a lot. Perhaps because he was less repressed by the Shen family, or perhaps he had lived a good life abroad, but Shen Xi's bearing had become peaceful instead of violent like in the past. In addition, he had grown up into a unique appearance of the Han family and no one would associate him with the pale, gloomy teenager from before.

If it wasn't for the fact that Shen Ji would regularly follow Shen Xi's movements, Li Mingxuan wouldn't have recognised him at first glance.

Although Shen Xi called Li Mingxuan "Cousin", their relationship was not much different from that of strangers.

When Shen Xi was born, Li Mingxuan was still a child. Due to the cold attitude of the adults towards Shen Xi, coupled with Shen Ji's hatred of his younger brother, Li Mingxuan couldn't help being affected and also rejected Shen Xi. By the time Shen Xi had grown from a baby to a child, Li Mingxuan and Shen Ji went to primary school together, hand in hand. How could a cousin who was not close to him at all be comparable to Shen Ji, with whom he played every day?

As Li Mingxuan grew, he began to understand things. By then he had learned about the complicated situation of his uncle's family from his parents. Although it was inevitable that he had a touch of sympathy for Shen Xi, human hearts are biassed. Weighing his best friend against his younger cousin, the scales of his heart unsurprisingly chose to tilt.

Not long afterwards, Li Mingxuan went abroad to study and had no contact with Shen Xi at all. When he occasionally heard Shen Xi's name, it was only from Shen Cheng's words that Shen Xi had gotten into some kind of trouble again.

Li Mingxuan sighed in his heart. The words "blood bond" were nice to say but how could there be any love without a reason in this world? Any kind of relationship, be it affection or love, would soon scatter like a withered flower without the care and attention of both parties.

Wasn't it the case with him and Shen Xi?

As his eyes fell back on Shen Xi's sleeping face, Li Mingxuan only hoped that Shen Xi was telling the truth and was going back to China because he was tired of staying abroad, rather than because he was thinking of something he shouldn't have.

The Li family and the Shen family were linked by marriage and business interests, so they could be said to be united in glory and in loss. Whether from a personal or business point of view, Li Mingxuan hoped that the Shen family would remain stable and that there would not be any upheaval, especially in terms of inheritance rights.

However, when he thought of Shen Xi's choice to return to China at this moment, Li Mingxuan had a subtle feeling in his heart. He just wondered if Shen Xi was doing it intentionally or unintentionally.

There was also Shen Rong. Thinking about the phone call from Shen Ji in the middle of the night a few days ago, Li Mingxuan was very flabbergasted. He didn't know what his uncle was thinking. It was just an illegitimate child, did he really want to recognize Shen Rong? If that were to happen, the Shen family would become a joke in Zhongjing.

Li Mingxuan shook his head and didn't continue to think about it, opened the file beside him and started to read it.

The sleeping Shen Xi seemed to feel uncomfortable in this position and quickly moved to change his pose, turning his head towards the aisle. The blanket that originally covered Shen Xi's body slid down to his lap as he moved.

Li Mingxuan, who caught a glimpse of all this out of the corner of his eye, didn't think much of it, but leaned over, picked up the blanket on Shen Xi's lap, covered him and immersed himself in his papers once again. He did not know that the moment he lowered his head, Shen Xi's eyes suddenly opened, clear and without the slightest hint of drowsiness at all.

Ten years in prison forced Shen Xi to develop many habits, and being alert in his sleep was one of them. No matter how tired he was, Shen Xi would wake up instantly whenever someone got close to him.

The moment Li Mingxuan approached, Shen Xi was already awake. He did not open his eyes because he wanted to see what the other party was planning to do; but he didn't expect Li Mingxuan's actions. Shen Xi glanced at the blanket covering his body and lowered his head to hide the expression on his face.

Even the longest journey has its end. Shen Xi did not know when he fell asleep again. By the time he woke up, the plane was already over Zhongjing and ready to land.

"Awake?" Li Mingxuan's voice sounded next to him.

Shen Xi nodded.

Li Mingxuan packed up the documents in his hands and looked at Shen Xi, "You didn't tell Uncle about coming back, right? Do you want me to send you home?"

Shen Xi shook his head, "I'm not going home."

"Not going home?" Li Mingxuan was slightly startled by Shen Xi's words. He looked at Shen Xi's expression; it didn't seem that he lied. Li Mingxuan thought about it and said, "Uncle was unwell a few days ago and just got out of the hospital, so if you don't have anything to do, you should go home and take a look."

Shen Xi seemed surprised by the news, but quickly laughed at himself, "Father must not want to see me, so why should I go and make a nuisance of myself?"

Li Mingxuan sighed and didn't say anything else.

The hatch soon opened and the two walked out.

Shen Xi purposely did not catch up with Li Mingxuan who was in front of him but followed him a step behind.

Glancing at Li Mingxuan's back, Shen Xi turned on his mobile phone and a text message from Lao K popped up, "Done!"

Shen Xi quickly deleted it and slowly followed Li Mingxuan along the long corridor bridge into the airport hall.

As soon as the two of them showed up, numerous flashes flickered around them. Amidst the chaos, Shen Xi grabbed Li Mingxuan's arm and said in a low voice, "What's going on?"

Li Mingxuan subconsciously turned around under the sound of countless clicks as the reporters went crazy.

"Quickly, quickly, here, the two of them are together."

"Make way, make way, be careful of the camera."

In the blink of an eye, the two were surrounded by a crowd, dozens of microphones scrambling to be the first to approach them.

"Sanshao, we received a record of Mr. Shen's secret hospitalisation a few days ago, it is said that Mr. Shen will die soon. Is this news true?"

"Sanshao, are you coming back this time for the inheritance rights of the Shen family?

"Sanshao, you are with Li Shao. Did Li Shao specially go abroad to pick you up? Does this mean that the Li family is on your side?"

"I heard that Mr. Shen intends to recognize Shen Rong before he dies. Do you have any comments? Sanshao, is Mr. Shen really going to die soon?"

One by one, questions were piled up in front of Shen Xi, who lowered his head expressionlessly and did not say a word.

Li Mingxuan glanced at the reporters around him with an ugly look, coldly striding forward, not forgetting to protect Shen Xi at his side. Shen Xi followed closely behind Li Mingxuan, which in the eyes of the reporters reinforced the rumour that Li Mingxuan had deliberately gone abroad to fetch Shen Xi.

As the two of them walked forward, the reporters also followed closely, constantly asking questions to Shen Xi. Seeing that the reporters were not going to give up, Li Mingxuan whispered to Shen Xi, "Forget about the luggage for now, there is someone outside to pick me up, I will take you with me."

Shen Xi had no problem with this. He originally wanted to make it look like the two of them were coming back from abroad together, and now not only had he achieved the effect he wanted, but the result also greatly exceeded expectations.

However, in just a few short steps, the two of them finally broke out of the crowd of reporters and got into the private car waiting outside.

Almost as soon as the door was closed, the car started. Obviously the driver knew that it would be very difficult to get away in case he was trapped here.

It was not until they had completely gotten rid of the reporters behind them that Li Mingxuan secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Then his expression became uneasy. Who on earth let out the news of his uncle's hospitalisation? Who said he was dying soon? Who had leaked his own itinerary? And Shen Xi, was his appearance on this flight intentional or a genuine accident?

Li Mingxuan gazed at Shen Xi thoughtfully, but unexpectedly Shen Xi looked up directly at him, "Is it true what the reporters said? Is Father really going to die soon or is he just unwell as Cousin said?"

Shen Xi's eyes were very direct, revealing an emotion that Li Mingxuan could not understand. Li Mingxuan shook his head, "Uncle's health is fine, what the reporters said is just a rumour."

Shen Xi suddenly laughed. "Anyway, no one will tell me whether it's true or not. If this news was true and I hadn't made it back in time, it would be really…"

Shen Xi didn't continue, turned away and looked out the window as if nothing happened. But his profile still revealed an expression of disappointment and self-deprecation, mixed with indescribable sadness. This look was imprinted in Li Mingxuan's eyes, and even he, who had been standing firmly on Shen Ji's side, could not help but feel a trace of guilt towards Shen Xi. Shen Xi's return to China was really unintentional, and he was overthinking.

As the car became quiet, Li Mingxuan took the initiative to say, "I'll take you home."

Shen Xi flatly refused, "Don't, it'll be troublesome if Father really thinks that I heard that he is about to die and come back to fight for the inheritance. I'd better stay in a hotel."

Shen Xi's words were playful, but there was an indescribable loss on his face. Li Mingxuan didn't know what to say for a while, and the car was quiet again.

The car soon stopped in front of the most prestigious hotel in Zhongjing. Li Mingxuan watched Shen Xi enter the hotel before picking up the phone and dialling. "I'm back."

The background at the other end of the phone seemed very noisy. Li Mingxuan frowned slightly and finally heard Shen Ji's voice, "I saw the news."

Li Mingxuan froze, "What do you think?"

There was anger in Shen Ji's voice, "Someone must be behind this, no matter who it is, I will find him."

"Did something happen?" Li Mingxuan sensed that something was wrong.

"Father also saw the news and fainted from anger."

A worried look appeared on Li Mingxuan's face, "Is Uncle alright?"

Shen Ji smiled bitterly, "It doesn't look good. I'm preparing to take him to the hospital, let's talk about it later."

Hanging up the phone, Li Mingxuan opened his notebook and searched up. It had just happened, and it was already all over the internet. If someone said that there was no one behind this scheme, he would never believe it. Just who would the schemer be?

Shen Xi? This thought flashed through Li Mingxuan's mind, and then he recalled the complex look on Shen Xi's face from before, a mixture of frustration and self-deprecation, as well as unspeakable melancholy. With a sigh, Li Mingxuan skipped Shen Xi and turned his thoughts to other suspects.

Chapter 9

Shen Dehan's hospitalisation was originally a secret, but it was quickly discovered by well-informed reporters. As soon as Shen Dehan entered the hospital, a large number of reporters surrounded the hospital. Had the hospital not reacted quickly and dispatched a large number of security guards to keep the reporters away, the whole hospital would likely have been stirred up.

Despite the strict security measures, many reporters managed to sneak into the hospital with the intention of obtaining Shen Dehan's hospitalisation records.

If not everyone believed that Shen Dehan was seriously ill before, then the second hospitalisation within a short period of time added a heavy weight to the authenticity of the news. All of a sudden, various families in Zhongjing who had business dealings with the Shen family called to confirm Shen Dehan's condition. Although Shen Ji explained on the phone that his father was just overtired, they were still sceptical. After all, as the head of the Shen family, Shen Dehan and his condition were directly related to the rise and fall of the Shen family's stock price, and it was not impossible that his state of health was concealed in the eyes of the public for this reason.

After a round of phone calls, Shen Ji felt deeply powerless and his hatred for the person who broke the news also increased.

As the person who had caused Shen Ji's hatred, Shen Xi was also quite astonished. It was just an impromptu move to stimulate the crowd and he didn't expect the results to be so surprisingly good.

Shen Xi watched the various speculations of the reporters on TV regarding the consequences of Shen Dehan's hospitalisation on the Shen family, and smiled slightly. Since everyone knew that he was back, it would be unreasonable not to play the role of a filial son of a doting father at this time.

Looking in the mirror to put on a sad face, Shen Xi ran out of the hotel anxiously and hurried to the hospital.

Shen Xi's arrival made the reporters at the hospital entrance very excited. Unfortunately, Shen Xi looked pale and concerned throughout the whole process and was not in the mood for an interview. As they watched Shen Xi hastily push through the crowd and rush into the hospital, many reporters were secretly surprised. It was no secret in Zhongjing that Shen Xi and his father were not getting along, but looking at Shen Xi's anxious expression, the reporters could not help but sigh in their hearts. No matter what, a father and a son were naturally related by blood and Shen Sanshao apparently had really grown up.

Shen Dehan's ward was arranged on the top floor, and Shen Ji had taken the liberty of reserving the entire top floor to avoid harassment from reporters and brought the family's bodyguards there.

When Shen Xi arrived at the top floor, all he saw was seven or eight men in black guarding the corridor vigilantly. The bodyguard closest to Shen Xi did not seem to know him and subconsciously wanted to come up to block his way, but another bodyguard stopped him.

"Sanshao!" The other bodyguard greeted in a low voice, and everyone in the corridor looked over with surprised expressions on their faces, clearly not expecting Shen Xi to appear here.

Shen Xi glanced over, ignoring everyone's surprise, walked to the ward with an unchanged expression and pushed the door in.

"Shen Xi!" Shen Cheng, who was closest to the door, was the first to shout out. He obviously did not know that Shen Xi had returned to Zhongjing and was currently looking shocked.

Shen Xi ignored him and instead turned his gaze to the centre of the ward. At this moment, there were quite a few people there, five or six doctors with nurses gathered together, doing various tests in an orderly manner. Because there were too many people, Shen Xi did not see his father. But he didn't think Shen Dehan would have any reaction to his arrival anyway; it seemed that he was unconscious at the moment.

Shen Xi only had time for a fleeting judgement; Shen Cheng had already walked up to him and asked in a low voice, "What are you doing coming back?"

Shen Xi turned his eyes to Shen Cheng, gave him a provocative look and lowered his voice to a whisper, "I heard that my father is seriously ill and about to die. What do you think I am coming back for?"

"You!" Shen Cheng was obviously infuriated by these words and instantly forgot where he was, grabbed Shen Xi's collar and raised his hand to punch him.

Shen Cheng's action immediately alarmed everyone in the room, making the people there look over.

Shen Xi looked at Shen Cheng with a pale and shocked face, seemingly not expecting him to make a sudden move. Shen Ji said quickly, "Stop, Shen Cheng."

Shen Cheng's movements stopped after these words, his fist just a few centimetres away from Shen Xi's face.

The doctors and nurses in the room regained their senses after Shen Ji's words and hastily lowered their heads to continue to do what they were doing, not daring to look at the two brothers again. Shen Xi turned his head sideways, avoiding Shen Ji's gaze, and gave a malicious smile to Shen Cheng.

Shen Cheng looked at Shen Xi angrily, breathing heavily and appearing extremely tempted to swing his fist. But perhaps because he thought of where this was, Shen Cheng's raised fist eventually slowly went down.

A wave of disappointment welled up in Shen Xi's heart. It seemed that trying to provoke Shen Cheng was not going to work. Shrugging off Shen Cheng's restraint, Shen Xi softly said to Shen Ji who came over, "Big Brother!"

Shen Ji gave Shen Xi a cold look, "When did you come back?"

Shen Xi raised his eyebrows with a look of surprise, "Didn't Cousin Mingxuan tell Big Brother? We came back together."

Shen Ji's face turned ugly. If it weren't for Shen Xi and Mingxuan to come back together and be blocked by reporters at the airport, how could his father have been so irritated that he was hospitalised?

As if Shen Xi could not see Shen Ji's face, he lamented with a fearful expression, "Fortunately, I suddenly wanted to go back to China, otherwise, if there was an accident with Father, wouldn't it be too regrettable that I was far away from home?"

Shen Ji's eyes flickered as he was about to speak, but Shen Xi had already said first, "Speaking of which, what happened to Father? What the reporters said is not true, right?"

The words once again succeeded in angering Shen Cheng, who was about to lunge at him, but Shen Ji stopped him in time, looked at Shen Xi and said word for word, "Father is just a little irritated, there is nothing serious. Because he was worried about your studies, Father specifically instructed not to tell you."

Shen Xi relaxed and spoke in a light tone, "That's good, I thought you were deliberately hiding it from me because Father was seriously ill. But it turned out Father arranged it this way because he cared about me."

Shen Xi deliberately emphasised the word "cared", allowing everyone in the audience to interpret it according to their wishes.

Shen Ji did not speak again and only looked coldly at Shen Xi, who looked back without fear, a provocation flashing in his eyes.

Although the conversation between the three of them at the door was quiet, it still reached the ears of the doctors and nurses. Seeing that the three brothers seemed to have finished talking, one of the doctors said, "Mr. Shen's examination is over."

Shen Ji, not bothering to look at Shen Xi, strode back to the hospital bed, followed closely by Shen Cheng. Shen Xi nodded amicably to the doctor who had spoken, and then followed suit.

Shen Dehan's examination report was not much different from last time, except that his blood pressure was a little high due to the stimulation. The doctor made it clear that at his age, high blood pressure was the most dangerous for Shen Dehan and could easily cause brain haemorrhage, cerebral infarction and a series of other old age diseases, and hoped that his family would pay more attention in the future. The brothers nodded in assurance. Perhaps it was an illusion, but the doctor deliberately glanced at Shen Xi when he talked about the stimulation. Shen Xi pretended to be oblivious, but in his heart he remembered the doctor's name, intending to ask Lao K to check the doctor's background.

As the doctors left, Shen Ji instructed Shen Cheng to go back and rest first and come back tomorrow. Shen Cheng was a little reluctant, but nodded in agreement when he saw the look in Shen Ji's eyes. Shen Ji then looked at Shen Xi, who, without waiting for him to say anything, took the initiative to say that he was too tired after a day of flying and needed to get over jet lag, so he would go back first. Shen Ji didn't say anything, thinking that he couldn't wait for Shen Xi to leave.

Before he left, Shen Xi went to his father's bed and looked at unconscious Shen Dehan. A strange smile flashed across his face very quickly.

Hurry up and wake up, Father, you'll love the big surprise I've prepared for you!

Chapter 10

Why didn't his father like him? This was a question that Shen Xi had never been able to understand when he was a child.

Father would smile affectionately at his brothers, Father would hold Shen Cheng high in his arms, Father would take his brothers to the playground, Father would praise his brothers as his beloved sons, but Father would never notice him in the corner and would never meet his longing eyes.

The little Shen Xi wondered why this was so. He once asked his mother this question, which resulted in a big fight between his mother and his father that very night. Shen Xi, who was hiding under his mother's bed, clearly heard his father's angry shout, "I didn't want that child from the beginning, it was you who insisted on having it."

That child, did his father mean him?

Shen Xi felt as if he understood something and yet he didn't understand anything.

That night he did not go to bed as he always did, but slipped out of his room when his mother was not looking. He wandered alone into the empty hallway of the Shen family home, and then he saw his father.

In a room that was often locked in the corner of the third floor, his father stood motionless like a statue, looking at the large and small photo frames hanging on the wall. Inside all the frames there was a person, a woman Shen Xi did not know.

His father's face had an expression that Shen Xi had never seen before, wistful and tender, and Shen Xi looked on, dumbfounded, not even knowing when his mother appeared behind him.

Father and Mother had another fierce quarrel, and then his mother picked up a chair in anger and slammed it against the photo on the wall. In the splash of glass, Shen Xi looked down at the photo that fell at his feet. In the photo, a woman smiled at him gently.

Shen Xi quietly hid the photo and took it to his grandfather. From Grandpa's unexpected exclamation he learnt the woman's name – Fang Yun, the mother of Shen Ji and Shen Cheng.

After the death of his mother and grandfather, Shen Xi grew up day by day and from outsiders, he heard more and more about Fang Yun, his father's beloved woman.

Beloved? Shen Xi laughed coldly in his heart. Then what was Zhou Mingmei?

Shen Xi's memories were only fleeting when an unfamiliar female voice reached him from across the room, "Mr. Shen, how much do you intend to pay?"

Shen Xi looked quietly at the woman who was talking. Chu Qianqian, the person Lao K had found for him.

Chu Qianqian looked about twenty years old, with thin eyebrows, big eyes and fair skin, and her face was more similar to that woman's than Zhou Mingmei's. Unfortunately, too much makeup made her look a little dissolute and ruined the graceful expression integral to that face.

Shen Xi lowered his eyes, "How much do you want?"

Chu Qianqian slowly exhaled a ring of smoke at Shen Xi, "Five million, not negotiable!"

Shen Xi laughed softly, "You think you're worth that price?"

Chu Qianqian leaned forward and the V-neck of her blouse shifted, revealing a white piece inside. She glanced at Shen Xi flirtatiously and said meaningfully, "Do you think I'm worth it?"

Shen Xi looked blankly and commented impartially, "But that's it."

Chu Qianqian immediately straightened up and glared fiercely at Shen Xi, who laughed in reply, "I'll give you ten million. One year. Find a way to stay by his side and make him fall in love with you."

Chu Qianqian was obviously taken aback by this number, then reacted, afraid that Shen Xi would backtrack, and quickly nodded, "No problem."

Shen Xi looked at her and said softly, "Don't think that this matter is easy, that man is not the kind of man you used to have around you. If it wasn't for this face of yours, believe me, even if you stood naked in front of him, he wouldn't look at you."

Perhaps because of the seriousness of Shen Xi's words, Chu Qianqian put away her careless expression, "Who is the man you want me to seduce?"

The corner of Shen Xi's mouth hooked up, "You must have heard of his name, Shen Dehan of the Shen Group, my father."

Chu Qianqian looked at Shen Xi in surprise, "Shen Dehan? You're asking me to seduce your father."

Shen Xi looked at her reaction with amusement and nodded.

Chu Qianqian looked incredulous, "You're not afraid that I'll make you a younger brother?"

Shen Xi was amused by this statement and could not help but laugh out loud. Half a second later, Shen Xi stopped laughing and said, "If you are really capable of getting pregnant, I will pay an extra 10 million regardless of whether the child is born or not. Of course, whatever my father gives you during this process will be yours after it's over."

Chu Qianqian stared at Shen Xi seriously for a while, making sure that Shen Xi was not joking, and finally nodded fiercely, "Done. This money is enough for me to spend for the rest of my life."

Shen Xi smiled in satisfaction and gestured to the bag beside him, "Go wash your face and change your clothes for me to have a look."

As Chu Qianqian disappeared, Shen Xi's eyes fell on a photo on the table. The woman in the photo was wearing a white dress and was smiling gently at Shen Xi. He reached his hand to block the woman's smiling face.

But after a while, Chu Qianqian walked out; she had washed away the glamorous makeup on her face, and a white dress made her look extremely pure.

Shen Xi looked straight at that face and smiled faintly.

"You're such a lunatic!" This was Lao K's comment to Shen Xi after Chu Qianqian had left.

Shen Xi raised his eyebrows, "Many thanks for the compliment."

"Do you think Shen Dehan will be tempted?" Lao K was a little sceptical.

The corner of Shen Xi's mouth curled up, "Why not? A young and energetic Fang Yun is no less than the best aphrodisiac for my father who is now old and frail."

Lao K laughed, "Shen Ji will definitely hate you to death."

Shen Xi's expression was pleasant, "I'm just trying to be a filial son. What's more, there's already a Zhou Mingmei. One more Chu Qianqian is nothing. Shen Ji and Father have a strong father-son bond, so I'm sure he will understand Father."

Lao K had a look of amusement on his face, "Zhou Mingmei is not easy, she might make trouble."

Shen Xi lowered his eyes, "That's exactly what I hope for."

Yes, that was exactly what Shen Xi hoped for.

There had been three women in Shen Dehan's life. The first woman was Fang Yun, Shen Dehan's true love, the second was Shen Xi's mother Han Rou, and the third was Zhou Mingmei.

For Han Rou, if her marriage to Shen Dehan was a tragedy, then Fang Yun was the source of the tragedy, and Zhou Mingmei was the driving force behind the tragedy.

When Zhou Mingmei met Shen Dehan, he had just married Han Rou. At that time, Zhou Mingmei was only eighteen years old and had just entered the entertainment industry as a newcomer to an entertainment company. Because of Zhou Mingmei's appearance that resembled Fang Yun, she quickly became Shen Dehan's mistress and had since disappeared from the entertainment circle.

If things stayed this way, it would just be an ordinary incident of a rich businessman keeping a woman on the side. Not to mention the fact that up until this point Han Rou had been kept in the dark, believing that Shen Dehan's heart was full of Fang Yun and secretly competing with the deceased.

But soon, as smart as Zhou Mingmei was, she understood from Shen Dehan's attitude towards Han Rou that Han Rou was not to Shen Dehan's liking. In the beginning Zhou Mingmei wanted nothing more but to follow Shen Dehan in peace and live a prosperous life without worrying about food and clothing. But as Shen Dehan and Han Rou's relationship got worse, and with Zhou Mingmei's pregnancy, her desires grew larger step by step. Why should her own child bear the name of an illegitimate child and why can't he be the rightful young master of the Shen family? This thought fermented in her mind with the news of Han Rou's pregnancy, and comparing the different lives of the two children in the future, Zhou Mingmei began to calculate step by step.

It didn't take long for Zhou Mingmei to reveal her existence to Han Rou, who predictably went for a kill. Coincidentally, Shen Dehan saw how Han Rou was bullying poor Zhou Mingmei.

As Zhou Mingmei expected, Han Rou's relationship with Shen Dehan deteriorated further and they argued every day. And Shen Xi was also forced to come into the world early during one of their quarrels. On the other hand, Zhou Mingmei, who got pregnant before Han Rou, gave birth almost two months later than Han Rou.

At that time, Han Rou's relationship with Shen Dehan broke down completely. Shen Dehan was not happy about the birth of Shen Xi, but was very happy about the birth of Shen Rong.

All this was seen by Zhou Mingmei, who thought that her wish would soon be fulfilled. But unexpectedly Elder Shen scolded Shen Dehan for his affair with Zhou Mingmei and announced that Han Rou was his only acknowledged daughter-in-law, completely cutting off Zhou Mingmei's hopes.

Later, Han Rou jumped out of the window to her death, and Shen Xi was not liked by Shen Dehan. Zhou Mingmei became the only woman around Shen Dehan until today.

Shen Xi thought, of course he hated his father, but how could he forget about that woman?

With the appearance of the young and energetic "Fang Yun", would his father still be attached to the old and declining Zhou Mingmei?

He had not forgotten that his father had always told Shen Ji that Zhou Mingmei was just a substitute for their mother. Since she was a substitute, it was only natural that the old one would be replaced by the new one, right?

Shen Xi smiled faintly. He wanted Zhou Mingmei to go through what his mother had suffered back then, little by little.