DBSNTM- Chapter- 29

………

Zhan wasn’t going to cook, but Yijun pleaded him, “We are both victims of cousin Yibo. You should cook breakfast for the sake of that…..”

Although Zhan wanted to deny it, it was the truth.

Zhan cooked three bowls of noodles.

After Yijun took his bowl out, Zhan took another bowl and added half a jar of salt into it. And then, he slowly stirred the noodles.

Zhan beamed with satisfaction. He took it to the dining room and placed it in front of Yibo.

Yibo was surprised to see that Zhan cooked breakfast for him.

With a faint smile, Zhan served the noodles to Yibo mouth. “Try some,” he said gently.

Yibo looked up and saw the excitement in Zhan beautiful round eyes.

There must be something fishy about his noodles.

Under Yibo’s insightful gaze, Zhan was so intimidated that he even wanted to change the bowl before it was too late..

However, the next minute, Yibo ate the noodles Zhan served.

“It tastes good,” Yibo said with a straight face.

Even if it was bitterly salty, it was still like the ones his mother used to cook for him.

The look on his face wasn’t what Zhan had expected.

Zhan watched as Yibo finished all his noodles without even batting an eye.

Was he still the same Yibo who was threatening me the night before?

Zhan looked at him with a complicated look and then served him a large glass of water.

Yibo took the glass with a little laugh. The joy of victory flashed through his eyes.

Whether it was playing tricks or the victim, Zhan was no match for him.

Zhan tried to take revenge on him, and Yibo simply followed his will.

Zhan went straight back to the kitchen after handing the water to Yibo. He didn’t see the smile on Yibo face.

Yijun, however, saw the whole thing from aside.

He took a chopstick, dipped a little soup from that bowl and tasted it. His face changed color immediately.

Yijun threw away his chopsticks and gulped down a whole glass of water to relieve the salty taste.

“Cunning!” he muttered as he pouted.

Zhan was so soft-hearted that he would definitely forgive Yibo after he took the “punishment”.

This man always had a way with schemes!

Yibo cast a cold glance at him, “Louder.”

Yijun didn’t dare.

He shrugged, got up and ran into the kitchen.

Zhan was leaning against the table having some yogurt. His bowl of noodles was no longer edible. He wasn’t quite hungry either, so some yogurt will do.

Seeing Yijun walk in, Zhan gave him another box of yogurt from the fridge.

Yijun stood next to him and sipped a mouthful of yogurt. “Zhan, don’t be fooled by brother Yibo. He’s way too cunning for you,”

“Okay,” Zhan answered absent-mindedly. He then turned to him and said, “I’m six years older than you. Even if you don’t address me with respect, you should at least call me brother.”

Yijun curled his lips and said, “brother it is!”

Yijun didn’t want to address him as brother-in-law at all. He heaved a deep sigh at how his cunning brother got a wonderful boy for nothing.

Zhan was totally at a loss. How could this kid be so sentimental after having some yogurt?

………

The three of them went out together. Bowen drove to pick them up.

Zhan pulled Yijun into the seat first because he didn’t want to sit with Yibo.

Yijun stole a glance at Yibo before getting in.

There came the awkward scene where Yijun sat in the middle of Zhan and Yibo.

Yijun could feel the intimidation coming from Yibo beside him. He knew he might have done something unwise.

After Zhan got off at the Xiao Group, their next stop should be at Yijun’ school.

But not long after Zhan left, Yibo said to Bowen, “Stop the car,”

When the car stopped, Yibo took a glance at Yijun, “Get off.”

“But it’s not my school yet!” Yibo took him to school yesterday. It was at least a dozen minutes’ drive from here.

“I’m not giving you the ride.”

“What?”

Before Yijun could react, Yibo had already kicked him out of the car.

It almost got Yijun’s nose out of joint. “You’re revenging on me just because I was sitting between you and Zhan. Why not do this in front of him? Huh?” he shouted.

Yibo turned a deaf ear and told Bowen to drive on, “Let’s go.”

Bowen cast a sympathetic look at Yijun. He couldn’t say anything even though he knew the school was in exactly the same direction as Yuehua.

Yijun kicked hard on a tree as he watched the car driving away.

But the only consequence was a sharp pain on his foot.

There was still dozen minutes’ drive to his school. He wouldn’t make it on time even if he ran all the way there. What made it worse was that….

He had no money with him.

“Kick me out of the car? I’ll go ask your wife for money!” Yijun said to himself.

It wasn’t far, so he headed for the Xiao Group.

…….

Xiao Group
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

When Zhan arrived at the company, he was called to the office by Jianmin.

After the press conference, the Xiao Group’s reputation remained a wreck online. People were not buying it.

Jianmin was counting all his hopes on Zhan.

“Zhan, how did it go with Yibo?” He stood up at once the minute Zhan walked in.

Zhan was still a little mad to hear Yibo’s name. “We fell out. And he said he won’t help.”

Jianmin became anxious, “Then what should we do now? I helped you retrieve the black card, and you promised me….”

“That card belongs to Yibo. Even if you don’t help me, he will find out eventually and get it back, probably together with the money consumed on it.” Zhan said.

Jianmin’s face changed color when he heard it..

“Dad, don’t worry. I’ll think of something.” Zhan didn’t say it in a sincere way and Jianmin didn’t take it seriously, either.

***

After Zhan walked out, a colleague came to him and said, “Someone is looking for you.”

He walked over and saw Yijun.

“What are you doing here? Why aren’t you at school?” Zhan checked the time. It was already nine o’clock.

Yijun leaned against the wall in his schoolbag. “Guess what? My cousin kicked me out right after you left. It’s still so far away from school and I have no money. I have to borrow some from you,” he sighed.

“Why did he do that?” as Zhan asked, he took out some cash and gave it to him. “If you need money, just ask me or your cousin. Don’t mess around and fool other people.”

Although fooling people was also a necessary skill, Yijun wasn’t old enough for that. He needed the right guidance to become a decent man.

“Thank you, Brother Zhan.” Yijun took the money with a beam.

Zhan also smiled. He was a good kid.

“Alright, hurry up! Don’t be late on your first day to school and stay out of trouble!”

“When was I ever in trouble?” Yijun looked unhappy.

When wasn’t he?

But Zhan didn’t argue with him anymore and told him to get moving.

Yijun stuffed the cash into his pockets. Then, he suddenly became serious, “There’s something else I need to talk to you.”

“What?” Zhan became curious because Yijun was seldom serious.

“You should divorce my cousin. He’s not a good man.” Later, he added, “I’m not saying this to persuade you to be my boyfriend.”

If Yijun hadn’t added the last statement, Zhan would have believed him.

Zhan glared at Yijun, “Don’t talk nonsense, kid. If you stay here any longer, I’ll call your cousin.”

“Alright, I’ll go.” He took a few steps and turned around again, “I’m serious.”

Zhan made a gesture of calling someone on the phone. Yijun shrugged and ran off in a flash.

Yijun was just a kid. There were many things he didn’t understand. But he was right about one thing-Yibo wasn’t a good man indeed.

….

When Zhan went back, he ran into Zanilla.

Zanilla crossed her arms and cast a sidelong glance at Zhan with her chin up high, “I heard you failed to persuade Yibo to help the Xiao Group?”

“That’s right. He isn’t someone who can be persuaded. Will you give it a try?” Zhan was straightforward.

“I will. You don’t think I have the guts, do you?” Zanilla snorted coldly and left.

Did she really think all the men in the world were revolving around her? And she was so attractive that all of them should fall in love with her?

She was indeed hopeless.

Although Zhan knew they were the same person, Zanilla didn’t.

Zhan laughed a little.

Hooking up with Yibo? She might not even get a chance to meet him in person.

……….

Yuehua Media Company.
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

Yibo entered his office and Cheng followed him.

“I heard you had Bowen bring you some clothes to the Golden Cauldron Club on Saturday night?” Cheng mocked as if he saw through everything.

But Yibo’s heart sank when he mentioned it.

“Don’t you have better things to do?” Yibo looked up from a pile of documents.

“I do. I’m fine…. ” Cheng had a bad premonition.

Since Yibo started to take over issues in the company recently, the dummy president Zhou Cheng didn’t have much work to do.

Yibo turned on his computer and a piece of news popped out.

[A Baron in the Showbiz Was Witnessed Entering a Bar with Two Women.]

He clicked on the news to read it.

After he skimmed through the article, he raised his brows and said, “You will not be fine pretty soon.”

“What is it?” Cheng leaned over with a puzzled look and saw the huge title with a picture of himself bringing two women into the Club.

The two women were following him, one on the left and the other on the right. They seemed intimate judging from the photo.

“Bullshit! This is that Saturday night when I was out there with two employees of the Golden Cauldron. At that time, one of them stumbled and I just held her up!”

Cheng was incredibly pissed off.

Yibo didn’t bother to remind him that Ziyi might see the news.

Cheng was still cursing the paparazzi when he suddenly realized it. He immediately gave Ziyi a call.

The call was soon picked up. Cheng was a little surprised since she never answered his call so quickly.

But what came next was all yelling and scolding from the other side of the phone. “Shame on you! What are you calling me for? To show off how good you are that you can handle more than two women? I wish sooner you could go to hell! Fuck off! You make me sick! Don’t call me again!”

She then hung up the phone just like that.

“Ziyi, keep going! Why are you hanging up on me again?” Cheng was a little anxious. Ziyi usually didn’t answer his phone, and even if she did, she was impatient. But this time, she was furious.

When Cheng called again, Ziyi didn’t answer the phone.

“Sorry, the number you have dialed is busy.”

“Sorry, the phone you have dialed is power off.”

“Sorry, the number you have dialed does not exist.”

She blocked him again?

He had made great effort to get himself off Ziyi’s blacklist. Now he was back on it again just because of that stupid news!

“Damn!”

Cheng was no longer in the mood of teasing Yibo. He went out and told his secretary, “Inform the public relations department to hold a meeting.”

If he found out who was responsible for the news, he would kill him.

……..

Zhan suddenly received a phone call from Ziyi.

He heard Ziyi’s crazy voice coming through, “Cheng is a bastard, a jerk, an asshole, a stinking coward!”

Zhan rubbed his ear which was numb from her loud voice. “What did he do?”

“Didn’t you see the news? He took two women to the clubhouse and didn’t come out all night. What else could he do?”

Zhan opened the webpage of the entertainment sector and saw the picture in which Cheng brought the two women into the club. It was still soaring as a trending topic.

Rumors online had it that Cheng was a playboy. He changed the girlfriends frequently. He had many scandals. There were only a few blurred photos. There was no real evidence to prove it.

Cheng had a lot of scandals, but he had never admitted who was his girlfriend.

Zhan checked the photo again and analyzed, “The photo was taken at the entrance of the Golden Cauldron Club at night. This means that someone had kept eyes on Cheng. Zhou Cheng is famous in the entertainment industry. The general media don’t have the guts to offend him.”

“So what?” Ziyi calmed down. “He went to the club with two women and didn’t come out all night.”

Zhan didn’t know what had happened between Ziyi and Cheng, but he knew that Ziyi and Cheng still cared about each other.

…

The comments on Cheng’s Weibo were strange.

“Mr. Cheng slept with two women together.”

“Do you have the guts to announce who is your girlfriend?”

“Aren’t you afraid of being infected?”

“Mr. Cheng, how can I be accepted by the Yuehua Media Company?”

“It’s strange. The women aren’t stars.”

“You only care about Cheng’s scandals. Do you forget the scandal of the Xiao Group’s factory?”

Many people replied the comment.

“It makes sense.”

“Mr. Cheng always take the blame for others.”

“If so, the Xiao Group is shameless!”

“Poor Mr. Cheng.”

…

After Zhan browsed these comments, he browsed the trending topics. The topic about the scandal of the Xiao Group’s factory disappeared.

Zhan sent the screenshot of the comments to Ziyi and sent a message to advise her, “If you care, you’d better listen to Cheng’s explanation.”

Although Zhan didn’t know much about Cheng, he knew Ziyi well.

In the past six years, countless boys chased after Ziyi. But Ziyi disliked them and had never been moved by them.

Ziyi had a crush on Cheng. No matter how excellent others were, Ziyi wouldn’t like anyone else.

“There is no need to listen to his explanation.” Although Ziyi scolded Cheng, she wasn’t that angry anymore.

…..

When Zhan got off work, Bowen came to pick up Zhan again.

Yijun was also in the car. Bowen picked up Yijun first and then picked him up.

“Zhan,” Yijun greeted him.

Then he looked for something in his schoolbag. He took out a book and used the calculator on his phone to calculate something.

“What are you doing?” Zhan turned around curiously.

Yijun stuffed the book into his schoolbag and whispered in his ear, “Don’t tell my cousin.”

Zhan asked, “What is it? What are you doing?”

“I’m earning money. I help them do their homework. It takes one hundred yuan for each book.”

Zhan was surprised.

Zhan asked, “Are you short of money?”

“My cousin deducted my allowance. I don’t have the money to play games,” Yijun said sadly.

Then he asked Zhan doubtfully, “What happened between you and my cousin? Although I know that you are in conflict, I don’t understand what happened between you. Moreover, I feel that my cousin dislikes me. Although he was strict with me before, he didn’t deduct all my allowance.”

It was because Yijun disrupted Yibo’s plan and exposed Yibo’s deception.

I had to thank Yijun. Otherwise, I shouldn’t have known the truth.

However, there was no need to tell Yijun that.

Zhan patted Yijun and said, “If you lack money, I can give you money….”

Yijun waved his hand and sneered, “You earn less than me.”

Zhan was awkward.

Zhan glanced at these exercise books in Yijun’s schoolbag. There were a dozen books.

He could earn a thousand yuan a day.

I earned less than Yijun.

“Are pupils so rich?” They paid one hundred yuan for each book.

Yijun nodded, “There is a noble primary school behind our school.”

Zhan was surprised. His imagination was limited by poverty.

…..

Yibo Mansion
°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°

As soon as Yijun returned home, he went to his room and started earning money.

Zhan went back to his room to write scripts. Yijun could earn so much money. He should take advantage of his major.

Zhan was writing a suspense script. After he finished it, Ziyi would help him contact with the directors and the companies to buy his scripts.

Zhan couldn’t work in the Xiao Group all the time. After writing for a while, he lacked inspiration, so he got up and walked out of the room.

---

Yibo returned home. He was having a talk with Cheng in the hall.

Zhan didn’t like eavesdropping on their conversations, but he heard the words “the Xiao Group.”

He came back and approached them quietly. Cheng said angrily, “Are the Xiao crazy? They don’t solve the problem and bribe the media to frame me to distract the attention of the public. They take advantage of me to take the blame for them. They’re shameless! Don’t stop me. I will kill them!”

Yibo said faintly, “My wife is also the member of the Xiao.”

Cheng calmed down. He cleared his throat and said, “Besides Zhan, the Xiao are shameless.”

Yibo ignored Cheng and turned around to look at Zhan.

Zhan wanted to leave, but he was stopped by him.

“Zhan.”

Zhan turned around and faked a smile, “I have to go.”

Then he passed them and went to the kitchen to pour a glass of water.

When he came out, Yibo and Cheng stopped talking.

“Zhan, did Ziyi call you?” Cheng smiled when he saw him.

“Yes.” Zhan hold the cup and sat down on the sofa opposite them.

Cheng was happy.

However, Cheng was disappointed because of what Zhan said next.

“She told me that you were shameless,” Zhan smiled innocently.

Cheng was in a bad mood.

“They framed me. I have nothing to do with the two women. That day, I was in…” Cheng stopped suddenly. He looked up at Yibo and shut his mouth.

Yibo asked Cheng to be in charge of the Golden Cauldron Club and the Yuehua and kept it as a secret. Cheng couldn’t expose it.

“I drank too much that day, so I stayed in the club. I didn’t sleep with them.”

“Explain it to Ziyi.” Zhan looked at Cheng coldly.

Cheng said hopelessly, “She doesn’t answer my phone.”

“Find her. You know where she is. If you can’t explain such a small misunderstanding, it’s better not to pester her.” Zhan stopped talking, drank a mouthful of water and got up to leave.

Yibo, who had been silent, reached out to take Zhan cup and drank a mouthful of water.

“I….” ‘I drank it.

Noticing that Yibo had drunk the water, Zhan stopped talking. His ears turned red.

He wasn’t as thick-skinned as Yibo. Cheng was here.

Zhan didn’t take the cup. He turned around and ran upstairs.

Cheng watched Zhan go upstairs and said to Yibo thoughtfully, “Why didn’t I feel that Zhan’s words were so sharp?”

Before Yibo replied, Cheng said, “His tone is as sharp as yours.”

“Cut the crap and find your unknown star.” Yibo was about to get up and go upstairs.

Cheng was surprised. “Why don’t you invite me for dinner?”

Yibo looked at him coldly and said, “Get out.”

Yibo ate the salty noodles in this morning thanks to Yijun.

Ever since Zhan knew that he was Yibo, he treated him badly. How could he cook for him?

………

When Yibo returned to the bedroom, he saw Zhan hugging his laptop and sitting on the sofa.

He wore earplugs and looked at the screen. He was watching a movie.

Yibo walked over and leaned over to take a look. It was Haoxuan’s movie.

He pulled the screen down unhappily.

Zhan pulled off his earplugs and asked him angrily, “What are you doing?”

Zhan controlled himself not to lose temper because he was afraid of him.

Yibo noticed that. His wife is so was cute.

Yibo smiled and looked at him. “Did you hear that?”

Zhan pretended that he didn’t hear their conversation. “What are you talking about?”

“The Xiao bribed the media to release Cheng’s news. Cheng is influential in the entertainment industry. Their goal is to distract the attention of the public, so they can solve the problem.”

Yibo spoke slowly and calmly. He observed Zhan expressions.

“Who did it?” Zhan thought for a moment and said, “Zanilla?”

Zanilla is stupid.

Yuehua Media Company was influential in the entertainment industry and was countless times stronger than the Xiao Group.

How could Cheng let go of the Xiao Group easily after they framed him?

Yibo said seriously, “Do you want me to help the Xiao Group solve the problem?”

“What do you mean?” Zhan felt that Yibo implied something.

“If you asked for help. I would help you. If you were reluctant, I wouldn’t interfere.” Yibo smiled. He doted on him.

Yibo was handsome. In the entertainment industry, there were few people who were more handsome than him. Even if there were, their temperaments weren’t comparable to Yibo.

Zhan was fascinated by his gentle gazes.

Did he flirt with me again?

If I asked for help, would he help me?

They looked at each other. They remained silent and didn’t look away.

Someone knocked at the door. “Mr. Wang, Mrs. Wang, the food is ready!”

Zhan regained his senses, bit his lips and said, “I need your help.”

“OK.”

Without any hesitation, Yibo agreed.

Zhan was reluctant to help the Xiao Group. He didn’t believe what Yibo said, so he had a try.

Helping the Xiao Group wasn’t beneficial to Yibo. It was troublesome and laborious for him.

Smart people were reluctant to do such a thing.

---