He Mu Sheng replied in one word, “Okay.” Then he hung up the phone and threw it on the table.

  He wasn’t worried that Meng Yuan would refuse. After all, the He group was the best in the industry. There were countless people who wanted the connection but were never able to get it, so any man with even a little ambition wouldn’t miss this opportunity.

  He Cheng Ming heaved a sigh of relief. He had to resolve the issue of Meng Yuan and Xu Ai Wen’s jobs well or he wouldn’t be able to explain it to Ji Liao.

  “Thanks, bro.” He said to He Mu Sheng.

  It was strange that in the He family, the two people with blood relations to him were making trouble for him whereas the half-brother in front of him was willing to stand sincerely beside him.

  “No need to thank me. Just don’t forget our agreement.” He Mu Sheng’s tone was light.

  Half an hour ago, the boy had called to invite him for a meal. After he came over, he had been asked to deal with the Meng Yuan issue before he had even warmed the chair. If not for the agreement between them, he wouldn’t have had the time for this. Moreover, he was a businessman, not a philanthropist, and only did things that were beneficial.

  He Mu Sheng was now free and picked up his chopsticks with clean fingers. He looked at the dishes on the table, picked up a thin slice of lotus root and put it into his mouth, chewing gracefully.

  “I remember.” He Cheng Ming reclined casually against his chair while replying indifferently.

  The two of them had previously made a verbal agreement that he would unconditionally transfer all of whatever assets he might get from He Yue Jin to him.

  This was the reason He Mu Sheng was willing to help.

  “But aren’t you afraid that I wouldn’t acknowledge the agreement when it’s time?”


  After all, it was just verbal and there wasn’t any black and white contract.

  He Mu Sheng glanced at him and said expressionlessly, “All your wealth is in my account. Why should I be afraid?”


  He Cheng Ming snorted and continued to tease him, “In case Dad doesn’t open his eyes and hands over the company directly to me, it wouldn’t be worth just that.”


  He used to speculate in stocks and in order to avoid Zhao Mei Lan’s surveillance, he had borrowed He Mu Sheng’s account. Now, all the money was also with him. But compared to the shares of the He group, it was just a drop in the ocean.

  He Mu Sheng frowned and not wanting the boy to be so cocky, he said coldly, “Eat more and talk less.”


  He Cheng Ming smiled. In fact, he knew that his brother really wanted to help him, just that he had too many restrictions and needed a reasonable excuse.

  Compared to him, He Mu Sheng’s responsibilities were much more.

  “By the way, how’s the company now?”


  It wasn’t a simple matter to bring down He Yue Jin.

  “He can’t touch me.” He Mu Sheng put down his chopsticks and wiped his mouth with a napkin.

  He Yue Jin had already called him impatiently yesterday to teach him a lesson but it would be impossible for the man to dismiss him.

  When He Yue Jin had first married his mother, he used fifteen percent of the He group shares as dowry. When they divorced, his mother was afraid that he would be pushed aside by Zhao Mei Lan’s son, He Cheng Ming, and transferred all her shares to him before leaving.

  In addition, he had married his current wife, Jiang Qi, a year ago. Her father was the second-largest shareholder of the He group, holding thirty percent of the He group shares. As long as his father-in-law protected him on the board of directors, their shares added up to three percent more than He Yue Jin’s.

  So now, the person that was really in charge of the He group was actually him.

  Besides, there were only two in the He family — him and He Cheng Ming. If He Yue Jin was a little cleverer, he would give up his position voluntarily to save He Mu Sheng the trouble of forcing him to step down.

  “Tut.”


  After hearing his analysis, He Cheng Ming immediately felt that there was a bright future ahead. He didn’t ask for much and wasn’t interested in taking over any company. He only wanted to occasionally speculate in stocks, earn a little money and live a good life with Ji Liao.

  The Meng family was having a meal.

  Meng Yuan hadn’t told Xu Ai Wen about it. Instead, he went to talk to Ji Liao after the meal.

  Seeing that it seemed like the boy already knew about He Cheng Ming’s identity, he didn’t say much more and just reminded him, “Still waters run deep in rich and powerful families. If you can’t handle it, you can leave.”


  At first, Ji Liao didn’t understand until Meng Yuan told him about being fired and hired. Ji Liao was shocked and said, “Then my mom……”


  He was afraid that Xu Ai Wen would reject He Cheng Ming even more.

  “Don’t worry, I didn’t tell your mom.” Meng Yuan said.

  He didn’t treat Ji Liao like a child. He was seventeen years old and would soon become an adult. Boys had the responsibility of boys and he respected Ji Liao’s choice to remain with He Cheng Ming even after knowing of the dangerous situation.

  “Thank you, Uncle Meng.” Ji Liao thanked softly.

  He was a little angry with He Cheng Ming. There had clearly been a situation about his family and the other boy had kept it from him. This feeling of not knowing anything was disappointing. He wasn’t a canary and didn’t want to be one.

  Their social classes were different but they were equals in their relationship. He didn’t want this kind of self-righteous protection.

  “Ji Liao, quick, come see the gift that big sis bought for you!” Meng Yao Yao called out to him from the room.

  The two of them had been getting to know each other for some time and became quite close. Just that Ji Liao found the calling of herself big sis slightly unacceptable. It felt like a challenge to the dignity of his manhood.

  He walked to Meng Yao Yao’s room and saw that her room was in a mess. Clothes were piled on the bed and bags of snacks on the desk, which was slightly inconceivable.

  Look at this bright and beautiful girl. Was she like this in private?!

  Meng Yao Yao took out a gift box from the suitcase and gave it to him. Seeing his surprise, she warned, “You’re not allowed to speak ill of me in school. My perfect school flower image must be maintained!”


  Ji Liao chuckled, received the gift and hummed.

  Right then, Meng Yao Yao noticed that he was wearing a ring! She was elated and said with a wry smile, “Did He Cheng Ming give you that? Are the two of you wearing couple rings?!”


  And she hadn’t found herself a partner yet!

  It was a tragedy of life.

  Ji Liao looked at his right hand and was a little embarrassed but didn’t deny it and nodded.

  With a wail, Meng Yao Yao flung herself onto the bed and rolled around twice to express her envy.

  “Thanks for the gift. I’m going off, okay?” Ji Liao asked.

  “Go, go. Anyway, I’m already dead.” Meng Yao Yao replied him.

  Ji Liao didn’t understand what that meant. Most of the time, he couldn’t understand what Meng Yao Yao and Xu Xiao Jing said, always feeling that it was strange.

  Back in his room, he looked at his bony finger again. The ring on it was really eye-catching, so he took it off and found a red string to put through it, then hung it on his neck before tucking it behind his shirt.

  The next day at school, He Cheng Ming immediately noticed that the ring on his hand was missing and asked nervously, “Where’s your ring?”


  Ji Liao pulled out the red string around his neck to show it was hanging there.

  He Cheng Ming was relieved but felt a little dissatisfied and complained, “Why aren’t you wearing it?”


  It had scared him to death, thinking something had happened to make the other boy regret.

  Ji Liao stopped and turned to ask him, “Are you hiding anything from me?”


  His expression was unhappy and the serious look in his eyes was rare. It made He Cheng Ming’s heart tense and his mind blank. “Like what?”


  He thought he no longer had any secrets from the other boy. For a while, he didn’t know what he had hidden.

  Seeing that he wasn’t saying anything, Ji Liao turned sullenly and walked away.

  He Cheng Ming was confused and thought that Ji Liao was, for the most part, acting out. He didn’t take it seriously and coaxed enticingly, “Baby, how about a hint? What did hubby do wrong?”


  His completely improper expression made Ji Liao more suspicious. Did he really treat him like a canary?

  With just some coaxing, was he supposed to obey?

  Ji Liao walked silently toward his classroom, ignoring the person behind him.

  It wasn’t until the whole morning had vaguely passed that He Cheng Ming had managed to figure out something was wrong. He sent Ji Liao a message but he didn’t reply. So, school bully He was grumpy inside the classroom and all his classmates in class two stayed away, knowing that he was in a bad mood.

  Seeing this, Lin Jiang swallowed and secretly sent a message to Ji Liao:

  Ji Liao replied to him:

  Lin Jiang’s heart trembled and decided that today, he would behave by tucking his tail between his legs or shrink into his shell like a turtle.

  However, before he could shrink, his phone was snatched away by someone. He turned to see his Ming Ge and pressed his lips together.

  He Cheng Ming stared angrily at Ji Liao’s reply of “yes”. He wasn’t replying to him but he replied to Lin Jiang!

  He returned to his seat and leaned back, lifting his long legs onto the table with an aura of “whoever dares to fucking disturb me is dead.”


  After a thought, he used Lin Jiang’s phone to send to Ji Liao:

  He felt puzzled. It was still fine this morning. Wrong, it wasn’t fine this morning and Ji Liao had asked whether he was hiding something.

  By then, Ji Liao had already replied:

  He was right! Just that He Cheng Ming still didn’t know what he was hiding from him.

  Again, he quickly imitated Lin Jiang’s tone when he typed:

  Over in class twelve, Ji Liao looked at this long message and exited repeatedly. After confirming that it was Lin Jiang’s WeChat, his face heated up.

  Had Lin Jiang been mixing with He Cheng Ming for such a long time that even his tone had become similar to his?

  He was deciding how to reply when there was another message from Lin Jiang’s WeChat:

  Ji Liao typed and deleted, in the end replying with just one word:

  When He Cheng Ming saw this reply, his face, originally covered with dark clouds, finally showed a little sunshine. Before returning the phone to Lin Jiang, he deleted all the messages that he had just sent.

  Then, he rushed out of class two and went to look for Ji Liao to talk.

  Just as the figure appeared in the window of class twelve, Xu Xiao Jing’s sharp eyes saw it and she turned to tap on Ji Liao’s shoulder.

  Ji Liao looked up from his textbook, saw the person outside the window and got up to walk outside.

  He Cheng Ming immediately hugged him and apologised, “I’m sorry. Just tell me if you have any complaints. Don’t torment me like this, okay?”


  When he was running over, the things that he had been hiding from the other boy came to him and all of it poured out, “Is it about me leaving home? Or the stock speculation? Or about your mom getting fired?”


  Ji Liao’s face was full of surprise, not expecting to catch so many things with one hook!

  “You left home?” He picked the one he was most concerned about and questioned.