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The plane landed in Huaicheng City in the evening.
Qi Ronghua and his wife specially came to pick up the flight and also invited Ye Xingzhou to dinner to personally thank him for taking care of Qi Xing over the past few days.
At the dinner table, Qi Xing played the role of a good boy throughout and just quietly ate his food while occasionally glancing at Ye Xingzhou, who was chatting and laughing comfortably with his parents across the table. He couldn't help but wonder how this person had such thick skin.
He had clearly taken care of him right up to the bed, yet in front of his parents, he showed no signs of guilt. Not only did he calmly accept their gratitude but he also shamelessly claimed to see him as a younger brother and saying it was just a small effort.
Indeed, those without shame are invincible in this world.
“Qi Xing, your gastroenteritis has just healed, so don’t eat such spicy food and drink some soup instead.”
Qi Xing paused while gripping his chopsticks. Ye Xingzhou’s gaze fell on him then reminded him, “Don’t forget what the doctor said.”
Qi Xing forced a smile. He just wanted to try that spicy chicken dish but why was this bastard staring at him even though he was talking to his parents?
Wang Cuilan quickly intervened, “Yes, yes, don’t eat such spicy food. You shouldn't not indulge.”
Qi Xing reluctantly withdrew his chopsticks.
His mouth was almost bland as water. It was just gastroenteritis, was it really that serious?
Qi Ronghua’s gaze shifted between his son and Ye Xingzhou and he once again said to Ye Xingzhou, “This kid Qi Xing has caused you quite a bit of trouble, so thank you for your help these past few days.”
Ye Xingzhou smiled, “It’s nothing as I’m happy to help.”
Qi Ronghua was somewhat speechless. After a long pause, he managed to say, “In any case, we must thank you.”
Ye Xingzhou replied, “Uncle Qi, there’s no need to be so polite. I consider Qi Xing as my own; his matters are my matters and I don’t find it troublesome.”
Qi Xing silently lowered his head.
You're really a bastard for saying such ambiguous things in front of my parents.
Qi Ronghua’s forehead twitched slightly but he didn’t continue the topic. He just awkwardly laughed a few times and changed the subject to chat with Ye Xingzhou about other things.
After dinner, Ye Xingzhou personally saw Qi Xing and his parents to the car then politely bid farewell to Qi Ronghua and his wife.
Qi Xing walked last and turned back to glare at Ye Xingzhou, who was staring at him.
Ye Xingzhou was unfazed, “See you.”
Qi Xing got into the car and slammed the door shut.
As the car drove away, Wang Cuilan, who didn’t sense anything wrong, praised Ye Xingzhou non-stop. Qi Xing suspected that if he had a sister, his mother would definitely be thinking about marrying him off.
Suddenly, Qi Ronghua asked, “Qi Xing, what’s your relationship with Ye Xingzhou?”
In the front passenger seat, Qi Xing was looking down at his phone. Ye Xingzhou had sent him a WeChat message half a minute ago and asked him to come over tomorrow night. He had replied with a bunch of eye-rolling emojis when he heard his dad ask this, causing his hand shook slightly. Luckily, his dad was in the back seat and didn’t notice his discomfort.
“Dad, you’ve already asked that several times before. It’s just like that we get along well enough now. He wants to build a good relationship with you and grandpa, so he’s been quite polite to me,” Qi Xing laughed it off.
Qi Ronghua didn’t quite believe it, “He stayed in the capital specifically to take care of you?”
“Impossible,” Qi Xing immediately replied, “He stayed there to meet someone for business and just happened to take care of me for a couple of days.”
Qi Ronghua said, “I told you not to get too close to him but you didn’t listen. You need to be cautious and not be deceived.”
Qi Xing: “…”
I’m over twenty, a grown up man and not an underage girl, okay?
Though in his parents' eyes, it didn’t make much difference.
Qi Ronghua was worried but didn’t want to point out to Qi Xing that Ye Xingzhou might have ulterior motives but fearing that it would turn a non-issue into a real one.
He secretly thought that his son was grown up and should consider his lifelong matters.
However, Qi Xing didn’t feel any of his father’s worries at all. For the next month, he continued to frequently hang out at Ye Xingzhou’s house. Sometimes it was Ye Xingzhou who invited him and other times he went over on his own accord when he felt like it.
Not only that, under the pretext of discussing business, he had also openly visited Ye Xingzhou’s company several times and they had done it twice in the office.
He cursed the beast in his mind but when it came to cooperation, Qi Xing was more cooperative than anyone else.
One afternoon, there happened to be a document that needed to be delivered to Ye’s Corporation. Originally, it was a task for a subordinate to run errands but Qi Xing took it upon himself. Before four o'clock, he brazenly skipped work and drove to Ye’s Corporation.
Unfortunately, he arrived at an inopportune time; Ye Xingzhou was in a meeting and wouldn’t be done anytime soon.
Ye Xingzhou’s secretary came down to greet him while explaining that it was a board meeting that had been going on all day and would likely last until six or seven in the evening.
“Young Master Qi, if you’re not in a hurry to leave, you can wait in the chairman’s office. He said to make yourself comfortable.”
Qi Xing listened absentmindedly and asked, “Where is he having the meeting?”
The secretary pointed him in the direction of the meeting room, which was on the same floor as Ye Xingzhou’s chairman office.
Qi Xing glanced over there and waved his hand, “Alright, I got it. You don’t need to worry about me and go back to your work.”
After sending off Ye Xingzhou’s secretary, he familiarized himself with Ye Xingzhou’s office then lay back on the sofa and started to play on his phone.
He had just been there last week, originally to discuss follow-up investments in Xingneng Technology with Ye Xingzhou. But after the serious business was done with his subordinate already left, that beast locked the door and directly stripped him on that sofa.
Qi Xing squinted his eyes while reminiscing about the details of that time and feeling a bit unsatisfied.
Doing it in an office where anyone could knock was shameful but it was also thrilling. After that day, his legs would tremble when he walked and it took him two whole days to recover. Although he had cursed at the time, he couldn’t stop thinking about it afterward. Even now, lying on that sofa while just playing games, he felt a bit restless.
As a result, he lost three rounds in a row in the game. He was annoyed and finally just threw his phone onto the carpet, not wanting to play anymore.
Ten minutes later with nothing to do, Qi Xing appeared outside the meeting room and peered through the slats of the blinds to look inside.
In the large meeting room, there were at least a dozen or twenty people seated. The atmosphere was not good, to say the least.
Ye Xingzhou wore his usual cold expression while slightly furrowing his brows as he listened to a subordinate speaking behind him. Someone at the conference table stood up and excitedly raised their arms while others were discussing among themselves but some were cautiously watching Ye Xingzhou’s reaction and the others were confronting the standing person. But some people were keeping their heads down, probably trying to stay out of it.
The whole meeting room was as lively as a market.
Unfortunately, the soundproofing in the meeting room was too good, so Qi Xing couldn’t hear a single word of what they were arguing about. Feeling a bit regretful for missing out on the gossip, his gaze finally locked onto Ye Xingzhou’s face and he couldn’t help but whistle in his heart.
Even with that fierce expression, he was still handsome and standing out among a room full of middle-aged men. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have taken a liking to him.
A few minutes later, Ye Xingzhou leaned back in his chair, crossed his legs and arrogantly lifted his chin towards the person still shouting loudly then saying a couple of words. That person’s expression immediately changed with his face contorting with unmasked anger and hatred.
Qi Xing clicked his tongue and suddenly remembered why this person looked familiar. Wasn’t he the main character from the previous wedding of the Ye family, Ye Wanqing?
He had looked quite spirited back then but today he resembled a dying stray dog, completely devoid of grace.
A few minutes later, Ye Wanqing angrily left his seat and stormed out.
Qi Xing stepped aside but the other party didn’t see him and just directly leave with a dark expression.
Qi Xing raised an eyebrow and turned back to continue watching the meeting room.
But Ye Xingzhou suddenly looked up and glanced in the direction where Qi Xing was standing. Qi Xing was startled and instinctively dodged then realized something was off. Ye Xingzhou shouldn’t be able to see him from inside, right?
His gaze returned and Ye Xingzhou was speaking. The noisy meeting room finally quieted down. That glance was probably just his imagination.
Feeling a bit dispirited, Qi Xing was about to leave when the meeting room door opened again and this time it was Ye Xingzhou’s secretary who came out.
“Young Master Qi, do you need something?”
Qi Xing replied, “...Can you see me from inside?”
“We can’t see you,” the secretary explained, “but the chairman saw you when the door opened just now.”
Qi Xing was speechless. How could this person have such sharp eyes? In front of a whole meeting room, he could still see everything.
Curiously, he asked, “Was that Ye Wanqing who just stormed out? What did your chairman do to him? I thought he was quite obedient to your chairman before?”
He had heard gossip about Ye Wanqing. This person wasn’t a complete wastrel like Ye Wanqi as he had some ability but not much. During the power transition in the Ye family, he had betrayed his own brother at the last moment to side with Ye Xingzhou, which was why he could still hang around the company. However, with his mother sent to a “nursing home” and his younger brother imprisoned by Ye Xingzhou, one could imagine how his life was going.
Qi Xing casually asked this question and not expecting the secretary to actually share internal company matters with him. However, the secretary cooperatively satisfied his curiosity: “Yes, it’s the Third Young Master. He’s been a bit unruly lately and was constantly making small moves behind the scenes and trying to use the company’s resources for his own benefit. The chairman just gave him a warning today, relieved him of his position and expelled him from the board.”
“Expelled from the board and it's still just a warning?” Qi Xing was surprised, “What would it take to really take action? Would it be like his brother, sent straight in the jail?”
The secretary smiled but didn’t answer: “Young Master Qi, you should head back to the office. The meeting should wrap up in about an hour.”
Qi Xing indeed had no interest in staying there any longer but he wasn’t too keen on waiting for Ye Xingzhou for another hour.
At that moment, a WeChat message from Yang Kaiming came in and invited him to dinner that evening.
Qi Xing replied, “Not going.”
Yang Kaiming: “Is it another date with your sugar daddy? Qi, are you still okay? You can’t just stay at home every day and just keep serving him after getting a sugar daddy!”
“Get lost!” After sending that one word, he changed his mind, “Fine, I’ll go then. Just send me the address.”
It didn’t matter who he was meeting..ah, wait, he couldn’t say “meeting,” or else that bastard Ye Xingzhou would find out and go crazy again.
By the time Yang Kaiming sent the address, Qi Xing had already taken the elevator down to the underground parking lot.
It wasn’t quite the end of the workday yet, so the parking lot was almost empty. Thus, the sound of someone talking on the phone was particularly noticeable.
Qi Xing wasn’t intentionally eavesdropping but it was that, the person’s voice was a bit loud and he was angrily cursing while standing not far from his car.
He looked up and, sure enough, it was Ye Wanqing, who's leaning against the car door with his back to him, seemingly on a call with every word filled with curses about Ye Xingzhou. Using terms like “bastard” and “born of a mother but raised without one.”
Qi Xing stood still for a moment then walked over.
When Ye Wanqing hung up the phone and heard someone tapping on his car’s hood, he turned around unhappily but seeing Qi Xing’s expression, he froze and gruffly asked, “What do you want?”
He clearly didn’t remember who Qi Xing was. He just thought he looked a bit familiar and assumed he was just some employee from the company.
Qi Xing scoffed and asked, “Who were you cursing just now?”
Hearing that tone, Ye Wanqing immediately felt provoked. His already foul mood darkened further and his face turned as grim as a pot bottom: “What’s it to you?”
Qi Xing replied, “You cursing Ye Xingzhou is my business since I happened to hear it. Sorry, but I just can’t stand by while you insult him.”
“Who the hell are you?” Ye Wanqing raised his voice, “If you want to suck up to him, at least pick a better time. He’s not even here, so what’s the point of your meddling?”
“Who said I want to suck up to him?” Qi Xing said coolly, “I just find you unpleasant. You were born of a mother but raised without one and with that pathetic look of yours, you’re doing worse than a coward.”
Ye Wanqing’s face twisted with anger: “What are you? You dare to insult me!”
Qi Xing replied, “What I am doesn’t matter; I just know you’re not worth anything.”
Ye Wanqing was furious. The pent-up anger he had been holding since earlier was ignited by Qi Xing’s few words and he charged forward while swinging his fist to hit him.
Qi Xing was already prepared and kept holding the baseball bat he had picked up by the trash can earlier and swung it directly at that bastard.