Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty: Finally, The End
Fortunately, Yan Jin’s pride didn’t cause any unnecessary problems.
Yan Jin didn’t ask Chu Ge to repay the cost for ten years of treatment.
Because, a few days after Yan Jin told Xiao Yu his story, Xiao Yu came across Chu Ge by chance.
Chu Ge, not Nan Qi.
……
Perhaps it wasn’t really a coincidence.
It was a fine sunny morning. Because of their vigorous activities last night, Xiao Yu had decided to take the day off from work. As he went to take out the trash, he wasn’t paying attention to what was at his feet and kicked something. “The f.u.c.k is this?”
The person who had been squatting outside idly almost sprawled onto the ground.
Xiao Yu stared for a moment, then his face brightened. “What are you doing here?”
Chu Ge quickly stood up and scratched his head, embarra.s.sed. “Just pa.s.sing through, pa.s.sing through the area…”
Xiao Yu gave him a knowing look. He set the bag of trash down outside the door and stepped aside. “Come in then.”
Chu Ge lowered his head and came in. It had been many months since his last time there.
Normally, when people recall past memories of places, most would feel that the place was the same but the people had changed. However, Chu Ge felt like everything, including the people, were the same.
After settling Chu Ge onto the couch, Xiao Yu made him a cup of the same tea he had always made for Chu Ge. “I heard from Nan Wei that you went to Four Seasons Manor.”
“Mhmm, I’ve already returned the keys to him. Sorry for the trouble…”
“What’s there to be sorry about? I was just asking you how your trip went,” Xiao Yu said, puzzled. “You and Yan Jin are cousins. Surely you also have a stake in the Four Seasons Manor?”
“No.” Chu Ge shook his head. “Yan Jin owns the entire Four Seasons Manor. When the Du Family collapsed, I received my mother’s company stocks. Well, Yan Jin got most of the Du Family’s a.s.sets.”
“I get it, I get it.” Xiao Yu patted Chu Ge’s shoulder sympathetically. “It’s been hard on you.”
Chu Ge: “…”
That wasn’t what Chu Ge had meant.
“So, you came to find Yan Jin today?”
Chu Ge nodded.
“He went to the office today. You can still find him at YL though.”
Chu Ge’s moment of surprise was swiftly replaced by a look of annoyance.
“d.a.m.nit, it’s been so busy in the hospital. I thought today was a holiday…”
“It is, but YL’s on overtime today.” Xiao Yu laughed at the irony. One word at a time, he said, “There’s a strategy meeting on how to handle SI’s new chairman.”
“… Huh? I’ve already resigned though.”
“I can tell.” Xiao Yu looked at Chu Ge’s hospital scrubs and teased, “Your hospital sure is generous. They gave you your position back so quickly.”
“Uhh, yeah…”
Xiao Yu almost couldn’t contain his laughter. It was rare to see Chu Ge on tenterhooks. Chu Ge always seemed to be in a position of control. Xiao Yu felt it was a pity that it wasn’t quite appropriate to start recording him with a video camera.
It’d be so easy to blackmail him. Entertainment reporters would kill to have that tape.
It was important to note that in the short two months that Nan Qi had returned to the Nan Family, he had kicked Yan Jin off both of his number one positions as City S’s top young entrepreneur and most eligible bachelor.
Yan Jin and Chu Ge never paid attention to this kind of random entertainment news though. They would much rather use this time to browse through the latest in finance and economics. However, Xiao Yu wasn’t the same.
In the dark two months of YL and SI’s war, Xiao Yu’s only joy had been flipping through this celebrity news.
“Well, seeing that Yan Jin isn’t here, I’ll come back in a few days…” Chu Ge floundered.
“It’d be so much trouble to keep travelling back and forth. Just wait here for a bit.”
“It’s not even eleven yet though…” Surely Chu Ge couldn’t wait for another seven or eight hours.
Well, since today was a holiday and he had nothing else to do, there wasn’t actually anything stopping him from waiting that long.
In the end, the issue wasn’t whether Yan Jin was there or not; it was that Chu Ge was terrified of taking Yan Jin’s criticism face to face.
No matter the amount of mental preparation, when the time finally came, it was normal to still fear for the worst.
Chu Ge had already dithered outside the house for half an hour, not daring to press the doorbell. If Xiao Yu hadn’t run into him while taking out the trash, Chu Ge might have waited outside for another half an hour.
Chu Ge didn’t expect that no sooner had he finished his words than he heard the sound of the front door being unlocked from outside.
A second later, Yan Jin appeared in the living room.
Xiao Yu hid a smile and explained, “Today’s overtime is just a short meeting. After all, today’s a holiday. The other employees would complain if it went on for too long.”
Chu Ge: “…”
Yan Jin glanced at the unexpected guest and asked neutrally, “What brings you here today?”
There was a silence as Chu Ge tried to figure out what he should say. Then…
“Ah, um, we’ve missed six of your physical checkups this year.”
Yan Jin: “……”
Xiao Yu: “……”
Even Chu Ge thought his comment was out-of-place. He hung his head in embarra.s.sment.
“Grow up.” Yan Jin hmphed coldly.
“Hey, f.u.c.k you too! Any other wisdom to share?”
Xiao Yu couldn’t suppress a snort of laughter. The other two stared at him.
“Don’t mind me. I’m not laughing at you guys; it’s totally unrelated. You guys go on, go on…” As he said this, Xiao Yu retreated, leaving the living room to those two kindergarteners.
Xiao Yu wasn’t worried about them getting into a real fight. He was relaxing in the next room over ready to record their conversation. If neither side was willing to budge to save face, he would threaten to release the recording to the paparazzi.
……
In the bedroom, Xiao Yu played some mobile games. By the time he came out again, Yan Jin and Chu Ge had already come to terms and were discussing how to deal with the Nan Family.
“Oi, that definitely won’t work. It’s not like the Nan Family is dead. Have you heard of the saying that a local warlord should still be respected by regional powers? They’ll come back to bite you if you don’t treat them seriously,” Chu Ge derided.
Yan Jin rolled his eyes.
Xiao Yu cheerfully dropped down beside them on the sofa. Soon, their conversation was punctuated by the cracks of sunflower seeds.
Although he wasn’t interested in the high-level policies of companies, Xiao Yu didn’t think they could spend forever on this topic.
As expected—
“SI’s already done with all the new works for the upcoming season? How do your designers have so much free time?” Yan Jin asked sarcastically.
“Yeah, with so much free time, they kept causing trouble. I didn’t want to deal with any of that, so I gave them the projects for all of next year. And surprise, surprise! I didn’t hear any more issues from them. As a matter of fact, they all glumly went back to drawing,” Chu Ge responded.
Xiao Yu finally heard something he was interested in. He didn’t know how they got onto the topic, but he leaned in closer nevertheless. “Can I see the designs?”
“Sure, but I only have a few pictures on my phone. Here.”
“Leaking insider secrets is a crime.” Yan Jin was relentless.
Chu Ge rolled his eyes. “You can pretend you didn’t see then.”
“Huh? This is really good…” Xiao Yu was surprised. “It’s a huge improvement from before.”
Chu Ge was pleased with himself. “I randomly split them into teams and had them compete against each other. It worked quite well.”
“Wooow, come to YL. YL is in need of such talented people,” Xiao Yu said.
Yan Jin gave Xiao Yu a strange look.
Xiao Yu avoided Yan Jin’s glare. “Uhh, I wasn’t saying you were inferior to Chu Ge or anything…”
Yan Jin: “…”
Chu Ge guffawed. “Yan Bro, specializations are important in this field. What’s some finance guy doing in the design industry?”
Xiao Yu asked, “What finance guy?”
Yan Jin pulled Xiao Yu over to him and coldly said, “Wow, you’re so talented! You can clean up after your own mess!”
Chu Ge choked. Then, he huffily said, “Bro, aren’t we on the same side now?”
“Why would I want to be on the same side as someone who takes any opportunity to turn traitor?”
“f.u.c.k, man. That wasn’t my fault; how was I supposed to know the truth was so complicated? And what were you thinking? You kept me in the dark for twenty years. Twenty years!”
“Don’t blame others for your own ignorance.”
“…Are we even fellow brothers anymore?”
Xiao Yu didn’t at all mind being left out. He had missed the days of Yan Jin and Chu Ge making fun of each other (or perhaps just Chu Ge being verbally abused).
Yan Jin didn’t stop. “Sure, brothers repay their debts. You owe me three hundred million.”
“What?! When did I owe you three hundred million?” Chu Ge’s eyes widened.
“Thirty million per year for ten years,” Yan Jin reminded him.
Yan Jin’s reply jolted Chu Ge’s memory, and Chu Ge became downtrodden in an instant. He stammered pitifully, “…transferred to a different ward this year. So it should be two hundred and seventy million.”
Xiao Yu could sense Chu Ge’s sadness all the way from where he was. Before he could tell Yan Jin to stop bullying Chu Ge, Yan Jin asked, “Which month did the transfer happen?”
What was the supposed to mean…?
Did Yan Jin plan on collecting the monthly fee?
What happened to the chairman who looked down on any sum of money in the single millions?
Xiao Yu looked at Yan Jin strangely.
Chu Ge hummed and hawed. “The transfer happened, uhh, earlier this month…”
This month?
Xiao Yu looked at the calendar. It was currently December.
What was the difference between December and end-of-year?
This time, Xiao Yu looked at Chu Ge strangely.
Were their net worths of over a hundred million a lie? How did they both become such penny-pinchers?
Yan Jin hmphed coldly. “You still want to hide the truth after bringing up the topic?”
Chu Ge looked around and tried to change the topic. “Aiya, let’s get back to business. What time is it alread—”
“Was it August?”
To Xiao Yu, it seemed like Yan Jin had randomly guessed a month, but Chu Ge’s expression told the real story.
Perhaps it wasn’t a guess. Perhaps Yan Jin already knew.
August…
… was a fateful month.