At exactly 5 PM, Yu Yan packed his things and finished work.

Yu Chen, who had been on a business trip for a few days, returned to the country today and said he would take Yu Yan and Shen Yuchen out for dinner in the evening to help him get some support at the company.

Before leaving work, Yu Chen messaged saying he’d come pick him up. Since he hadn’t arrived yet, Yu Yan sat on a stone bench playing with his phone.

A shadow fell over him, and when he looked up, he saw a familiar face.

“What are you doing here?” Yu Yan put away his phone, his expression slightly impatient.

Recently, Shen Mu Yang hadn’t been bothering him with messages, but Yu Yan hadn’t expected Shen Mu Yang to come straight to the company.

“I heard you work at Xinghai?” Shen Mu Yang glanced at the building, the large, glaring characters of Minghua Group visible.

Yu Yan casually nodded, “What’s up?”

Shen Mu Yang’s fingers curled slightly, suppressing the dissatisfaction in his heart. His expression was hesitant, “Xinghai… it’s quite good.”

“Spit it out. Don’t beat around the bush.”

“Xinghai is good, but after all, it’s working for someone else. It’s not as comfortable as being in your own company. More importantly, now that you’ve left the senior management of Zhaoxing, do you still have a foothold if you want to go back?” Shen Mu Yang looked worried, as if he truly cared about Yu Yan.

In contrast, Yu Yan appeared extremely indifferent, “I have no intention of going back.”

As long as he stayed away from Zhaoxing, Zhaoxing would only improve.

He had said this to his family and Shen Mu Yang before, but no one believed him!

The original person had wasted all his credibility, so now his words had no persuasive power.

If only he had come here two years earlier!

After a long pause, Shen Mu Yang seemed to be thinking about something. Just as Yu Yan was about to ask him to leave, he spoke again, “I understand now. You want to make Yu Chen lower his guard, have him clean up the mess you left behind, and when the time is right, you’ll return and give him a fatal blow, taking the company back!”

Yu Yan: “…”

It’s a shame this person isn’t writing novels.

“It’s indeed a good idea. Your parents trust you so much, they’ll definitely give you the shares then,” Shen Mu Yang said with envy. “Your brother won’t have a choice, even if he doesn’t want to.”

OK, fine.

Explaining doesn’t work, so he would change his approach.

Yu Yan took a deep breath, calming his emotions, “Yes, that’s right. I want to make my parents and brother lower their guard. Once Zhaoxing’s overseas market opens, I’ll return to the company. To prevent my brother from getting suspicious, don’t come looking for me.”

“Well, alright, I’ll be careful from now on.”

“When are you leaving?” Yu Yan started to usher him out. If Yu Chen misunderstood, he wouldn’t be able to explain himself.

Considering Yu Chen’s personality, even if he heard something, he wouldn’t show it but would secretly guard against him.

Yu Chen wouldn’t do anything that would harm family harmony.

As soon as the words were out, Shen Mu Yang suddenly placed his hand on Yu Yan’s right shoulder and lowered his voice, “Anyway, it’s still early, how about we go out and have some fun?”

The familiar feeling, the familiar tone!

Yu Yan’s eyelids twitched. “What kind of fun?”

“You just arrived at Xinghai, right? Did you just sign a batch of female artists? I saw the photos and videos, they look quite impressive!”

While saying this, Shen Mu Yang observed Yu Yan’s expression.

Men are like that, as long as they’ve hung out a few times, the relationship naturally gets closer. Would Yu Yan still be wary of him?

Once he got something on Yu Yan, he wouldn’t have to worry about him not behaving.

“But I don’t like those underdeveloped little girls. I prefer someone with more charm. There’s an actress at Xinghai named Song Yun Jing, she’s really beautiful. Too bad her personality is too strong to be controlled. I’ll try again in a few days.”

Yu Yan’s face darkened to the extreme, his voice trembling as he suppressed his anger, “Really? Are you using resources to exchange with them?”

Shen Mu Yang, a bastard, couldn’t even get into his own company, how dare he stick his hands into Xinghai?

“The newly signed artists are easy to fool. I just make up a few promises, and they’ll come running. Once I get what I want, who cares about them?”

Shen Mu Yang said proudly, “Don’t worry, they all want to debut as stars. They won’t make a fuss about this, and won’t be like an annoying plaster that sticks to you.”

The noisy voice kept going as Shen Mu Yang recounted his “great deeds.” He had used this trick to deceive a lot of people.

Many of the new artists signed by Xinghai were just of legal age, naive, and didn’t understand how the world worked. He could easily deceive them with a few words, but they didn’t get anything in return.

Yu Yan’s gaze slightly darkened, his tongue pressing against the roof of his mouth, suppressing his emotions.

“Really? But why would they believe you?”

“You know Zhang Yuan, right? The boss of Xinghai? He’s my cousin,” Shen Mu Yang said casually.

So he’s that old bastard’s cousin. They’re really all the same.

While speaking, Shen Mu Yang again placed his hand on Yu Yan’s shoulder, saying he wanted to introduce him to a new trainee who had just turned 18 a few months ago.

Yu Yan took a deep breath, grabbed the arm that was on his shoulder, and with one swift move, threw Shen Mu Yang to the ground.

“Ah—”

Shen Mu Yang grimaced in pain, unable to speak, holding his shoulder and not moving for a while.

Yu Yan still wasn’t satisfied and kicked him twice.

“What are you doing?”

Even though Shen Mu Yang usually humbled himself in front of Yu Yan, he couldn’t tolerate being treated this way. He struggled to get up, but a foot suddenly landed on his chest, grinding hard twice.

The intense pain made it hard for him to breathe, and his throat felt like something was blocking it.

He raised his head in panic and saw a completely different Yu Yan.

Yu Yan was still wearing his usual flashy clothing, complete with a big logo on his shoes and clothes, but his expression carried a cold, menacing aura that made people shudder—nothing like the usual carefree, spoiled second-generation demeanor.

“From now on… don’t let me see you at Xinghai.”

Yu Yan’s emotions swirled in his eyes, and he kicked again.

Shen Mu Yang seemed to have just realized the situation. He stared at him with an unclear expression for a while before finally walking away without saying anything.

The original body had terrible taste in friends, always associating with shady people.

Just as Yu Yan turned around, he met a scrutinizing gaze.

The black Rolls-Royce by the roadside had its window rolled down at some point, revealing a man in a black suit, the top button of his shirt done up, and a golden diamond-shaped tie pin gleaming in the light.

His elbow rested lightly on the car window, his hand exposed with visible veins, holding a cigarette between his long fingers. The smoke from the cigarette was scattered by the wind, and the orange flame flickered intermittently.

Yu Yan wasn’t sure how long he’d been watching, but the man’s gaze felt like he was inspecting a plaything, which made Yu Yan uncomfortable. He glared back defiantly.

The next second, the Rolls-Royce window rolled up, blocking his view, and the car quickly drove away.

Yu Yan sent a few messages to Yu Chen, asking where he was.

Ten minutes later, Yu Yan finally got into Yu Chen’s car, and they headed to a nearby private restaurant.

The restaurant had an elegant environment and wasn’t crowded.

“Brother, is your friend really busy?” Yu Yan asked.

Yu Chen pondered for a moment, “Hmm, he had something to do in the morning. He wasn’t deliberately ignoring you.”

“It’s fine. Having an assistant is already good.” Yu Yan chuckled. “What’s he like? Easy to get along with?”

Remembering Shen Yuming’s bad temper and how Yu Yan was inexplicably afraid of him, Yu Chen thought for a moment. “He’s alright. He’s the type with a cold exterior but a warm heart.”

“That’s good.”

At least it wouldn’t cause trouble for his brother.

The heavy wooden door was pushed open by a waiter, and the faint scent of tobacco lingered in the air.

Yu Chen greeted the people inside and turned to let Yu Yan in.

Yu Yan glanced up and suddenly saw a familiar face.

—It was the man from the black car half an hour ago.

Yu Yan could see the man’s mocking expression behind his raven-like long eyelashes.

Yu Chen introduced them, “This is my friend Shen Yuchen, you can just call him Shen Ge.”

Yu Yan flashed his signature smile. “Hello, Shen Ge. I’m Yu Yan, just call me Xiao Yan.”

Shen Yuming nodded, acknowledging him.

The wine on the table was dry white wine from Yu Chen’s family’s winery, with a higher acidity and a light, fruity flavor.

This type of wine didn’t get you drunk but left a pleasant aftertaste.

Shen Yuchen seemed to have OCD. Before eating, he deliberately rinsed the dishes with tea and immediately wiped off any water stains on the table.

The whole process was fluid and graceful, which made it pleasant to watch.

“My younger brother is your younger brother, take care of him from now on,” Yu Chen said, making some polite remarks.

Yu Yan poured a glass of wine for Shen Yuming. “Shen Ge, I’ll toast to you.”

Shen Yuming didn’t raise his glass. His intense gaze gradually moved down from Yu Yan’s smiling face, and his voice was low and magnetic. “Have your wounds been bandaged?”

Yu Yan’s heart tightened unexpectedly. He instinctively curled his fingers, about to speak when he heard a chair scraping across the floor.

The next second, Yu Chen was in front of him. “What injury? You’re hurt?”

Yu Yan sighed lightly, reluctantly putting down his glass. “Brother, I’m not hurt, just a scrape.”

“What happened?” Yu Chen asked, his voice strained with anger and worry.

Yu Yan explained the whole situation, emphasizing the reason he got into a fight.

“I didn’t want to fight him on purpose, he just really deserved a beating.”

Yu Chen snapped back to attention. “Yeah, he deserves a beating. You should go to the hospital to clean that wound?”

“It’ll be healed soon enough,” Shen Yuming glanced at them, and, as expected, earned a sharp look from Yu Chen.

“It’s fine, just a scrape. No need for a band-aid.”

If Shen Yuming hadn’t brought it up earlier, Yu Yan would’ve completely forgotten about his injury. It was probably from the shoulder throw, where his skin scraped against the ground.

Suddenly, the phone on the table lit up—it was a message from Shen Mu Yang, apologizing for the incident earlier in a sincere but evasive manner.

【Shen Mu Yang: Xiao Yan, I’m sorry for what happened this afternoon. I wasn’t thoughtful enough. These past few days, I’ve been investing in a securities company with some friends, and things were looking up a little, but my brother secretly sabotaged it a few times. Now the company’s barely hanging on, and we’re in debt. I’ve been really tired lately, didn’t think things through. Don’t take it to heart.】

The casual “I’ve been really tired” covered everything up.

But a securities company…

If he remembered correctly, in the original story, Shen Mu Yang used a shell company to get a large investment from the original body, which directly caused Chaoxing’s financial collapse.

“By the way, Shen Mu Yang…”

Yu Yan turned off his phone without replying. “He probably won’t come again. I don’t want to have anything to do with him.”

Thinking of the message, he added, “Both brothers are trouble.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Shen Yuming suddenly raised his eyes, his dark gaze as still as an ancient well, giving no hint of emotion.

The toast never happened. Yu Yan picked up the half glass of dry white wine on the table, raised it in a gesture of toast, and drank it all in one go.

Maybe it was a common trait of those in power, or maybe it was because his earlier conversation with Shen Mu Yang was overheard, but Yu Yan couldn’t shake the feeling that Shen Yuming’s gaze carried an air of scrutiny.

Thinking this, Yu Yan was preparing to say something, when he saw Shen Yuming lean forward slightly, as if he had something to say.

“Are you dissatisfied with Shen Yuming?”