He noticed Assistant Zhou’s hesitation.

If Zhou continued working in his current state, it would easily result in half the effort for double the work. This wasn’t a particularly secretive matter, and Sui Yuesheng didn’t mind satisfying his capable assistant’s curiosity within reasonable limits.

Although Assistant Zhou was somewhat embarrassed, he still nodded, “Boss you are indeed perceptive.”

“It’s nothing really, just that I feel he’s still young and might spend money recklessly.” Sui Yuesheng dismissed his flattery, casually explaining before asking again, “Did I give him my supplementary card?”

“I gave it to Young Master Tao when I delivered your luggage to the Tao family earlier.”

“Alright.” Sui Yuesheng nodded, shifting his attention back to the documents in his hand without lifting his head, “That’ll do, you may go.”

The walnut wood doors closed again, and Sui Yuesheng glanced up with deep eyes.

In fact, “fearing Tao Fengche would spend money extravagantly” wasn’t the only reason.

After parting ways separately with Tao Fengche in front of the police station yesterday, Sui Yuesheng had suppressed his anger and returned to work at the Tao family’s business. It wasn’t until the end of the workday that he got into the car and instructed the driver to take him back to the Tao family’s main residence.

He had been fully immersed in work the entire afternoon. Now, freed from the tedious official duties, his earlier anger had subsided somewhat, and he began to ponder his doubts.

—Why did Tao Fengche show such strong hostility towards him?

Since Tao Fengche had most of his childhood memories, he should at least trust that Sui Yuesheng had no malicious intentions towards him, right?

But now it seemed like Tao Fengche regarded him completely as an enemy, even suspecting him of having something to do with Jiang Jingyun…

This situation was absurd to the extreme and couldn’t be explained simply by “the belated rebellious phase of a young alpha.”

Sui Yuesheng’s thoughts quickly turned to the troublesome incidents that had surfaced recently. Although he had identified and dealt with each one, if he hadn’t discovered them at the time, they would have undoubtedly caused major issues later on.

He had every reason to suspect that someone was deliberately sowing discord in front of Tao Fengche, intentionally trying to strain their relationship.

Who could be so eager to pit Tao Fengche against him?

Was it the murderer of Tao Zhixing, or simply someone who cared about Tao Fengche and feared he would be deceived by close relatives and friends?

On this point, Sui Yuesheng hadn’t figured it out yet. He planned to conduct further investigations later, but what he could be sure of was that Tao Fengche seemed to know more than he had imagined.

After finishing the silent dinner last night, Sui Yuesheng had gone to the study with Xu Song. He asked if Tao Zhixing had detailed the family’s secret drug business to Tao Fengche before his death, but unexpectedly received a negative answer.

“Why do you suddenly want to ask about this, Young Master Sui?” Xu Song was surprised.

Sui Yuesheng concealed the previous situation and directly stated the result, “Xiao Che came to ask me today if I had injected a banned drug.”

“Absolutely impossible!” Xu Song denied categorically, “This matter is highly confidential, carefully kept for many years, known to no more than five people. If Master had not passed away unexpectedly, everything would have been kept until Young Master returned to the country after finishing his university studies in the future…”

“I know that.” Sui Yuesheng shook his head. After the previous outburst of anger subsided, he was filled with helplessness, “He didn’t guess the truth, but he suspects I injected a marker inhibitor.”

Xu Song’s expression froze, blurting out, “The one specifically for the black market, commonly used by omega prostitutes?”

His words were filled with disbelief, but Sui Yuesheng nodded slowly, confirming his guess.

“Uncle Xu, during my absence all these years, did he spend any time in these places?”

Sui Yuesheng raised an eyebrow slightly, with a sharp and elegant demeanor, his words sounding somewhat teasing, but Xu Song dared not underestimate him. Although Sui Yuesheng’s attitude remained unchanged, he was no longer the omega picked up by Tao Zhixing, lonely and dependent, from years ago.

Moreover, he was indeed arranged by Tao Zhixing many years ago to immediately take over as the next head of the Tao family if something happened to him before Tao Fengche grew up.

Although there were still debates outside about the legitimacy of Sui Yuesheng’s inheritance rights, Xu Song was clear about it.

Therefore, even though Sui Yuesheng was younger than him by several rounds and was an omega from another surname, he quickly lowered his head and replied, saying that Tao Fengche would never go to such places, and logically, would not come into contact with relevant personnel.

Sui Yuesheng neither affirmed nor denied it, waiting until Xu Song finished speaking before nodding slightly and reassuring with a smile, “Uncle Xu, don’t be nervous. I just asked casually, without any other meaning.”

After a reprimand followed by immediate sweet words, Xu Song was a clever man and a loyal servant of the Tao family. Proper chastisement could work, but excessive discipline might backfire. Sui Yuesheng was well aware of this.

However, Xu Song’s response did not exceed his expectations. The Tao family had strict rules, and Tao Fengche, as an underage alpha without even his pheromones, wouldn’t have been entertained even if he had visited the red-light district.

That was quite interesting. Since Tao Zhixing hadn’t told him about the marker inhibitor, and he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, someone must have deliberately informed him.

Tao Fengche was still studying and had not yet entered society. Apart from deliberate misinformation, there was only casual talk with friends.

The former possibility needed further investigation, but the latter was simple—just stop Tao Fengche’s card.

The world was bustling, all for profit, and friendships needed a lot of money to maintain. Since he had publicly inherited the Tao family, Tao Fengche had become a complete “abandoned child” in the eyes of many. Without power, if people found out he had no money left, those so-called friends would naturally scatter.

Moreover, he did need a lesson. Sui Yuesheng thought so and pre-arranged his next steps with Xu Song.

···

Another dinner passed in silence. When Sui Yuesheng returned from work and Tao Fengche returned from school, they sat opposite each other. The table was so quiet that only the faint sound of clinking bowls and chopsticks could be heard, and the atmosphere was as dead as stagnant water.

Tao Fengche endured and endured, but eventually couldn’t hold back his anger. He was the first to lower his head in this silent contest of “whoever speaks first loses.”

“Sui Yuesheng, what do you mean?”

He no longer even called him “Ge,” addressing him directly by his full name. Even Xu Song couldn’t help but furrow his brows, but Sui Yuesheng remained unruffled: “Hmm?”

He even calmly placed his chopsticks on the rest, assuming a quiet listening posture. He had eaten half full, his face now a little flushed, tilting his head slightly, resembling a living portrait.

Even the maid who had just arrived less than two years ago couldn’t help but stare straight, but Tao Fengche felt that his pretending to be stupid and indifferent was extremely annoying, and went straight to the point with no good humor: “Did you cancel my card?”

“Hmm.” Sui Yuesheng remained calm, picked up his tea cup for a sip, then placed it back on the table, the nearby attendant hurriedly refilling it to four-fifths full.

“This is revenge!” Tao Fengche blurted out, “You’re just getting back at me for yesterday——”

His words suddenly stopped short.

His brain, angered by Sui Yuesheng’s too calm attitude, suddenly realized that the words he had spoken in the heat of yesterday were not suitable for repeating right now.

He choked for a moment, his face suddenly stiff, and after a long while, he whispered softly, “Not only did you take away my inheritance, but you also don’t want to give me the dividend from the Tao family, right?”

He didn’t expect Sui Yuesheng to really plan to exterminate him.

He thought…

“Wait, what are you saying?” Sui Yuesheng was taken aback, a hint of confusion in his eyes. “What revenge?”

Gathering his thoughts, he attempted to calmly reason with Tao Fengche, “Xiao Che, let me reiterate, I can’t just take away inheritance rights without Mr. Tao’s agreement. The bank card is temporarily frozen, and I won’t touch the money inside. I just worry you might spend recklessly.”

“As for revenge, it’s completely groundless.” How could it be true? How could he be arguing with an underage alpha who had been misled? Even if it were true, he would never admit it.

With that said, Sui Yuesheng carefully recalled his words, feeling satisfied with how he’d expressed himself. At this age, alphas were particularly concerned with friendship and loyalty.  Accusing him of having problematic friends or even “I’m afraid your bad friends will lead you to hire prostitutes,” was quite hurtful.

But to Tao Fengche, these words seemed no different from “Dad and Mom are temporarily holding onto your New Year’s money until you grow up.”

Tao Zhixing had never done such a thing, but before Wang Yuan went to high school, he cried every year to Tao Fengche about his New Year’s money disappearing without a trace, almost like “Schrodinger’s New Year’s money” and so on.

Tao Fengche had never lacked money to spend and didn’t understand Wang Yuan’s feelings. Naturally, he didn’t know how to comfort him, but as fate would have it, it was now his turn, which truly left him feeling conflicted.

Besides the sense of insecurity from losing control over all his savings, there was also… That New Year, he had actually thought about giving half of his New Year’s money to Sui Yuesheng.

And he did.

Young Tao Fengche had a simple thought: Since they both received New Year’s money, but only he got one from Tao Zhixing, and many others gave him money, why not just give half of his to his brother and spend it together?

The teacher said that good things should be shared with friends.

But Sui Yuesheng refused. Not only did he refuse, he even gave the money to the servant to buy fireworks for Tao Fengche.

Tao Fengche still remembered vividly how brilliant the fireworks were that year, like blooming camellia flowers.

As for his own New Year’s money, he finally decided to take out a portion of it when they went out shopping after the New Year and bought Sui Yuesheng a few sets of new clothes.

At that time, Sui Yuesheng’s eyelashes drooped slightly, his eyes filled with a smile. But now, he was calmly freezing his cards.

Tao Fengche couldn’t even put into words what he was feeling right now. He was furious but managed to suppress it. “What about my meals then? Are you planning to have the driver deliver every meal to me at home, or bring me back for lunch every day?”

He was dissatisfied, but he remembered that Sui Yuesheng was now his guardian and had the upper hand in their conversation. So he took a deep breath “If you’re thinking of the latter, forgive me for saying this, but those two hours of lunch break won’t even be enough to go home and back.”

“I think…you wouldn’t let me skip class just to come home for a meal, would you?”

Despite the servants bustling around the restaurant, Sui Yuesheng remained calm.

“I’ll have assistant Zhou top up your meal card monthly. But if you want to eat out, that’s fine too. Not long ago, I had Zhou give you a supplementary card, and I’ve adjusted the limit to one thousand a month. If you need money for anything else, let me know or talk to Uncle Xu.”

Tao Fengche: “…”