On the second day, which was a Saturday, Mu Qingyan slept in and didn’t get up until 10:30. If it weren’t for his phone vibrating incessantly on the bedside table, he felt like he could have slept until noon.

Buzzing…

Mu Qingyan struggled to climb out of bed and picked up his phone. It was a call from Shen Huai.

He answered the phone lazily, dragging out his words, “Hello…”

“Oh my god,” came the exaggerated exclamation from the other end of the phone. “Old Yan, you finally answered the phone!”

Mu Qingyan suppressed his irritation and asked unwillingly, “What’s wrong? Who’s causing trouble again?”

“I saw the news that you were almost assassinated last night! Are you okay?!”

“Oh, that thing,” Mu Qingyan thought for a moment and then suppressed his anger since the other person was showing concern. He sat up and rubbed his eyes before saying, “I’m totally fine. After finishing the transcript yesterday, I went straight home.”

Shen Huai breathed a sigh of relief. “You don’t know, the news made it sound like your life was hanging by a thread and you had a narrow escape. They even said you fought to the death with the attacker and suffered serious injuries!”

Mu Qingyan chuckled, “You know some news reports are exaggerating. Don’t worry, I’m neither seriously injured nor on the brink of death.”

“Haha, that’s good to hear!” Upon hearing his friend say that, Shen Huai finally let go of his worries and joked, “I mean, if you were hurt, what would our company do for bodyguard business? We might as well close down!”

“Uh-huh.”

Mu Qingyan was about to say “thank you for your concern”, but he realized that saying such polite words between the two of them would only create distance.

Shen Huai continued, “To celebrate your close call, I’m organizing a gathering tonight. You have to come!”

Looking back at the original book, the original protagonist was brainwashed by Xing Hao after marriage and was isolated from his original circle of friends, leaving only Shen Huai who stood by his side, even though Shen Huai himself was in danger.

Mu Qingyan was not very sociable before entering the book, and had no close friends.

But after experiencing these things in the book, he deeply felt that sincere and loyal friends are very important, especially childhood friends who grew up together, like Ji Liyun and Shen Huai.

He said, “Okay, but I don’t want to drink… “

As soon as Mu Qingyan agreed, Shen Huai immediately said, “I understand! The aftermath of the last video incident. Don’t worry, I’ve arranged for the Intelligence Bureau this time!”

What is… the Intelligence Bureau?

Mu Qingyan didn’t ask too much, he just said “See you tonight” and hung up the phone.

After the phone call, he was completely sober, and he checked his phone and found that there were hundreds of unread messages and dozens of missed calls, including Shen Huai, Ye Qiqi, his mother Shen Xiaoxiao, as well as his work partners and subordinates, and the original protagonist’s friends.

Without exception, they were all inquiring about his safety after seeing the news of his attack late at night.

Mu Qingyan called Shen Xiaoxiao back and told her that he was completely fine, and asked his parents to rest assured. After that, he posted on his social media accounts.

He stated that he was safe and sound, and also praised the bodyguard company of Shen Huai’s family, saying that the bodyguards were very professional, which was why he was able to escape safely.

After all, his image was that of the young master of the Mu family, who had never learned martial arts or fighting, and was used to a life of luxury.

Mu Qingyan spent most of the day with his parents at the Mu family mansion, and in the evening, he kept his appointment and arrived at Shen Huai’s EVOL bar.

It wasn’t until he entered the 888 VVIP private room that Shen Huai had prepared for them that he learned about the so-called “Intelligence Bureau.”

They were a group of rich second-generation or even third-generation people who were bored with nightclubs and bars, and were looking for something new. They played murder mystery games in the bar, and called this kind of drinking and playing games gathering the “Intelligence Bureau.”

The EVOL bar gave people the feeling of “red lights and green wine” and “paper-drunk gold-fascinated”, but this VVIP private room was much more elegant and simple in style.

In the memories left by the original owner, this private room was decorated according to their preferences, as specially requested by Shen Huai. So every time the original owner came to EVOL bar, they either sat in the booth on the first floor or in this private room.

Shen Huai saw Mu Qingyan’s arrival and waved to him, smiling. “Young Maste Mu, who narrowly escaped death, has arrived! Come over and have a drink with us.”

Mu Qingyan greeted the wealthy children already sitting together, sat next to Shen Huai, and said, “I don’t feel like drinking today.”

“I know,” Shen Huai winked at him and whispered, “I had our bartender develop a few non-alcoholic drinks for us to try.”

Mu Qingyan took a sip from the glass in front of him and said, “It looks like Long Island iced tea, and tastes pretty similar too, but there is indeed no alcohol taste.”

He smiled and said, “This non-alcoholic drink is suitable for me. From now on, I’ll use this to fake it.”

“Absolutely,” Shen Huai made a face, “This is your special treatment with me.”

At this time, a drunken rich second-generation named Song Tao loudly said, “Shen Huai, when are we going to start the play, the script killing, let’s kill!”

Shen Huai looked at the time and said, “We’re still missing one person. It should be ready to start in ten minutes.”

“Hey, okay,” Song Tao tilted his head back and finished the whiskey in his cup, then shouted to the waiter at the door, “Tommy, give me another one!”

Another rich second-generation asked, “Ah Huai, who else hasn’t come yet?”

Shen Huai said mysteriously, “A new friend.”

When the group of wealthy young masters heard this, they all teased, “Oh, a new friend? Who’s the new friend? Your new boyfriend, Ah Huai?”

“Phew, stop talking nonsense!” Shen Huai immediately interrupted them.

At this moment, the door to the VIP room 888 opened, and the person who came in was indeed a “new friend” who had never played with this group of wealthy young masters before.

“Ji Liyun?!” These wealthy young masters were stunned.

To them, Ji Liyun was “someone else’s child” and the “legendary President.” He had always been a top student from a young age, and always had the highest grades in the school.

When they were in their twenties, squandering their family’s wealth in college, Ji Liyun had already skipped several grades, studied abroad, and returned to enter the Ji Group.

He had a great eye for business and was wise in the marketplace. The shareholders and directors of the Ji Group respected and admired him, so within three years, he became the President.

Nightclubs? Bars? Drinking and carousing?

In the eyes of everyone, these words are insulated and irrelevant to Ji Liyun.

So why is Ji Liyun in this private room, dressed in sportswear instead of his usual high-end suit and ice-cold President demeanor?

A drunken rich second-generation blurted out, “Mr. Ji, did you come to the wrong room?”

Shen Huai immediately covered the rich kid’s mouth with one hand and beckoned to Ji Liyun with the other, “Come on, we have a new friend here. Let’s start today’s game of deduction!”

After a brief greeting, Ji Liyun found an empty seat and sat down.

This is a murder mystery game, with a total of twelve players drawing identity cards and assigning roles.

Shen Huai said, “I drew the role of the victim’s father. What did you all draw?”

Mu Qingyan looked at his identity card and said, “I drew the role of the victim’s mother, and Shen Huai is my husband.”

Everyone else reported their identities one by one, but Ji Liyun’s face was dark, and he seemed unhappy.

Mu Qingyan asked him through Shen Huai, “What did you draw?”

Ji Liyun forcibly swapped his identity card with Shen Huai’s and said, “The victim’s father, your husband.”

“…”

Shen Huai looked at the identity card he had just received and was speechless, “I went from being the father to the son, the victim’s younger brother.”

Half of the twelve players were first-timers at this murder mystery game, including Mu Qingyan, Shen Huai, and Ji Liyun.

So they drank and played happily.

Shen Huai and Mu Qingyan were almost inseparable, leaning against each other and making fun of Song Tao, who drew the role of the “killer” and couldn’t act at all.

Ji Liyun played along and watched Mu Qingyan with a smile on his face, his eyes full of love.

He didn’t mind meeting strangers or joining unfamiliar groups as long as he could integrate into Mu Qingyan’s life and stay by his side.

Song Tao and Shen Huai got drunk and bantered back and forth. Shen Huai even left his seat and pounced on Song Tao.

Ji Liyun took the opportunity to move to a seat next to Mu Qingyan.

Once the “killer” was exposed, they set aside the script and drank and laughed together.

Mu Qingyan watched Shen Huai and Song Tao bickering like they were singing a duet and couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

The joyful atmosphere inside the private room infected everyone, even Ji Liyun, who rarely showed a smile in public, had let loose and was drinking and laughing while sharing the mishaps and funny stories from work.

Soon, this group of rich young men and the CEO of the Ji Group went from strangers to close friends.

After finishing his drink, Mu Qingyan asked the server for another one, thinking it would be another non-alcoholic drink with the same taste as the Long Island Iced Tea.

But to his surprise, his second and third drinks were actually Long Island Iced Teas.

Ji Liyun, who was a little tipsy, looked at Mu Qingyan’s flushed cheeks and said, “Didn’t you tell me earlier that Shen Huai gave you special treatment and let you drink non-alcoholic drinks? Why is your face so red? Are you feeling hot?”

As he finished speaking, Ji Liyun reached out to touch Mu Qingyan’s face, wanting to feel the temperature of his skin.

But as he touched Mu Qingyan’s delicate and smooth, slightly warm face, Ji Liyun suddenly became sober and realized, “What am I doing? Why am I touching his face?”

Mu Qingyan, who was already feeling the effects of the alcohol, didn’t pay much attention to Ji Liyun’s actions. He simply held onto Ji Liyun’s hand that was on his face and then let it go, saying loudly, “It’s fine! I just had two glasses of iced tea!”

His voice echoed throughout the private room.

Everyone knew that when Mu Qingyan was drunk, he tended to speak loudly.

Shen Huai, who was also drunk, laughed and said, “What’s going on? Lao Yan, you’re getting drunk just from drinking beverages?”

Mu Qingyan squinted at Shen Huai and shouted, “Go away! I’m not drunk!”

“Okay, okay, you’re not drunk,” Ji Liyun said, soothing Mu Qingyan while pulling his hand away from his face.

Mu Qingyan smiled and touched Ji Liyun’s face, leaning in close to him and saying, “Why is your face so red? Did you drink too much?”

This was the first time since Ji Liyun returned to China that Mu Qingyan had been this close to him. Ji Liyun instantly felt his blood rushing to his head, and his heart was pounding.

God knows, he was often praised as “able to drink a thousand cups without getting drunk,” and his face was only red because he was shy.

---

Mu Qingyan reacted very quickly, immediately grabbing the hand that held the short blade and punching the attacker in the stomach.

The black-clothed man who had ambushed Mu Qingyan winced in pain and staggered back two steps.

He struggled to break free but was unable to do so because Mu Qingyan’s strength was too great.

With a loud clang, the black-clothed man’s right hand was nearly crushed and the short blade in his hand fell to the ground.

Mu Qingyan kicked the blade away and then punched the black-clothed man hard in the face.

The man was knocked unconscious by the blow, two teeth falling out. He inwardly cursed his employer for describing Mu Qingyan as a weakling, and sending a novice like himself to deal with him. Clearly, Mu Qingyan was an experienced fighter, no less skilled than a half-professional killer like him.

He realized that he was the weakling, and that his organization should have sent his master to assassinate Mu Qingyan instead.

To save face, the black-clothed man attacked Mu Qingyan again.

Mu Qingyan, who hadn’t been in a fight for a long time, stretched his muscles and bones and fought back fiercely, causing the man to beg for mercy.

Within ten minutes, the black-clothed man was beaten to the ground and unable to move.

Mu Qingyan stepped on the man’s back, dialed his quick-dial on his phone and called for the security guards who were resting on the second floor lounge.

When the two security guards heard that someone had attacked Mu Qingyan, they were scared and rushed to the sixteenth floor, even though Mu’s voice on the phone was extremely calm.

Just then, Ji Liyun, humming a tune and carrying two bags of late-night snacks, arrived on the sixteenth floor.

But when he saw the unconscious security guard, his heart skipped a beat and he ran towards Mu Qingyan’s office as fast as he could.

Ji Liyun remembered clearly how he had felt when he saw the news of Mu Qingyan’s death before his rebirth, how he had felt as if his heart was being cut by a knife, how he had wished he could start all over again.

The feeling of icy blood churning in his chest, like falling into an abyss of despair.

He was afraid that death would appear before him again, and afraid that he would still lose Mu Qingyan after his rebirth.

But when he arrived outside the President’s office, he found that everything was completely different from what he had imagined

Mu Qingyan looked unscathed, while the black-clothed man on the ground was covered in bruises, his arm broken, and howling in pain.

The security guards arrived from another direction and restrained the already injured and immobilized black-clothed man, preventing him from escaping.

Ji Liyun walked up to Mu Qingyan, still a bit worried, and asked, “Are you okay?”

Mu Qingyan shook his head. “No.”

Before transmigrating, he was a professional actor who had studied martial arts and Sanda from a professional coach in order to perform well in action movies.

So this rookie killer had no lethal power in front of him at all.

In Ji Liyun’s memory, although Mu Qingyan was a bit delicate, he never fought. So he thought it was a timely arrival of the bodyguard who subdued the person who attacked Mu Qingyan.

Mu Qingyan raised his hand and gestured with his finger.

The bodyguard understood and dragged the man in black up from the ground like a chicken.

The man in black had his leg broken by Mu Qingyan and couldn’t stand properly. He was sweating profusely from the pain and crying out, “Ah! It hurts, it hurts!”

Mu Qingyan looked at him disdainfully and asked, “You came alone to kill me, without even a partner?”

The man in black was nervous and scared, his voice trembling, “No, I didn’t…”

He didn’t seem like he was lying.

Mu Qingyan said to one of the bodyguards, “Contact the security guards on other floors and have them turn on all the lights in the building, carefully search for any unknown individuals or objects.”

“Yes!”

Ji Liyun saw the short blade that had been kicked to the wall and frowned. He asked the man in black in a cold voice, “Who sent you?”

The man in black gritted his teeth, enduring the pain and the taste of blood in his mouth, and kept his lips tightly shut, refusing to answer.

Mu Qingyan sneered, “It seems that the person who sent you paid you a lot of hush money.”

The man in black, who had failed the assassination, thought Mu Qingyan was going to transfer money to buy him off. He stuck to his professional ethics and said firmly, “I won’t sell out my boss for just a few million!”

“Huh, you’re underestimating me.”

“Do you need to offer me tens of millions to buy me off?” The black-clad man with a pig face looked at the future inheritor of the Mu Group in front of him, his eyes shining.

Little did he know, Mu Qingyan immediately called 110: “Hello, I want to report a crime.”

The black-clad man: “…” I was wrong, I was really wrong!

Other rich heirs would spend a lot of money to hire assassins and find out who the mastermind was behind the scenes if they knew someone was trying to assassinate them. Why did Young Master Mu of the Mu family call the police directly instead of following the norm?

“Mr. Mu, Young Master Mu, please don’t call the police. I’ll talk, I’ll say everything!” The black-clad man shouted anxiously.

Mu Qingyan still looked disdainful, waving his hand: “Okay, go tell the police uncle then.”

“With all this commotion, we’re going to spend the night at the police station, and the police interview will surely take a long time to record.” Ji Liyun turned around to pick up the supper he had thrown aside earlier. “I wonder if these pan-fried buns have gone cold.”

Mu Qingyan, who had not eaten dinner and had also expended energy from the fight, had not felt hungry yet. However, when Ji Liyun opened the package of the supper, a fragrant smell wafted over, and her stomach immediately growled.

Ji Liyun carefully placed the pan-fried buns and beef soup on the table and asked, “Who do you think sent someone to kill you?”

“Only someone with a low IQ would send such a dumb and weak assassin.” Mu Qingyan laughed and took a bite of the pan-fried bun, clearly not affected by the attack.

Ji Liyun asked, “Could it be him?”

“Simple-minded and clumsy, who else could it be besides him?” Mu Qingyan raised his eyebrows.

“What are you going to do?” Ji Liyun asked again.

“Let the police handle it.” Mu Qingyan wiped the soup on the table with a tissue. “As far as I know, assassin organizations usually only tell their hired assassins who to kill, and they don’t know who hired them.”

“Moreover, this assassin is obviously a rookie and may not know much about the organization that hired him.”

Ji Liyun nodded. “Indeed, whether we use force or hand him over to the police, it won’t have much impact on Xing Hao. We just need to let him know that assassination won’t work.”

“Exactly.” Mu Qingyan continued to eat the pan-fried bun leisurely.

Compared to his previous pure affection, Ji Liyun’s current admiration for Mu Qingyan also included appreciation.

He watched as the other person had a good appetite, but still ate gracefully. Under the illumination of the light, his skin was like jade, and his eyebrows and eyes were beautiful.

Mu Qingyan raised his eyes and found that Ji Liyun was looking at him, seeming to be lost in thought. He asked, “What are you thinking about?”

Ji Liyun smiled and said, “I remember when we were kids, because our fathers were close, we always played together. Back then, you were several heads shorter than me and always liked to follow me and call me Brother Yun.”

Mu Qingyan didn’t deny it because it was indeed the case in his memory.

“I didn’t expect that after a few years abroad, you would be somewhat distant from me, always calling me Ji Liyun or President Ji.” Ji Liyun laughed helplessly.

Looking at the overbearing President in front of him being sentimental, Mu Qingyan didn’t know how to comfort him for a moment.

However, Ji Liyun quickly changed his expression, as if he didn’t care about this change, and only said, “But it’s good like this now. After all, you’ve grown up, and you’re not the little kid from ten years ago.”

Mu Qingyan chewed on a pan-fried bun and patted Ji Liyun’s shoulder comfortingly, “Yeah, that’s right. Even if I don’t call you Brother Yun anymore, we’re still good brothers!”

Ji Liyun gave a faint smile.

–I don’t want to be just brothers with you.

Soon, the police arrived at the MU Building, and after shooting and investigating the scene, they took them all to the police station to record their statements.

It wasn’t until after one o’clock in the middle of the night that Mu Qingyan and Ji Liyun walked out of the police station.

Mu Qingyan said to Ji Liyun, “My driver is here, let him take you home.”

“Okay.” Ji Liyun followed Mu Qingyan into the car.

The night was already deep, but S City’s nightlife had not ended, and the streets in the city center were still lively.

Mu Qingyan looked out the window without speaking. He liked the lively nights of international metropolises.

Ji Liyun asked, “I know that you were invited to many variety shows and movies recently, but why did you refuse them all?”

“I’m busy,” Mu Qingyan said bluntly.

“In fact, I can tell that you have a talent for acting, and you can try a few movies you like, just relax and don’t bury yourself in company affairs all day long.”

Mu Qingyan curled his lips. He was a national child star known to everyone before he transmigrated, and he had even won the Oscar for Best Actor. How could he not have talent for acting? He just wanted to experience a different life after transmigrating, so he didn’t want to deal with the entertainment circle too much.

Ji Liyun thought Mu Qingyan didn’t believe him and said, “You have your own fan club now, and the director of the drama you guest-starred in praised you many times and even gave you a nickname.”

“What nickname?” Mu Qingyan asked curiously.

Ji Liyun blinked, “One Take.”

Okay, this stage name is at least a recognition of their own abilities. Mu Qingyan made a face.

The Jishi Group has a wide range of businesses, including several companies in the cultural and entertainment industries. Among them, the most famous is the Shengguang Entertainment Company, which has produced many well-known movies and TV shows.

Mu Qingyan withdrew his gaze from the window and looked at Ji Liyun’s soft expression, slyly asking, “President Ji, are you trying to convince me to develop in the entertainment industry because you’ve already decided which role I should take?”

“I can’t hide it from you,” Ji Liyun gently rubbed Mu Qingyan’s fine hair on his head. “I’ll bring the script to you in a few days to discuss it in detail. It’s late today, let’s not talk about work.”

“You’re the one who brought it up first!”

Mu Qingyan smoothed out his hair that Ji Liyun had messed up and felt like he was being treated like a child. With a competitive spirit, he reached out and started messing up Ji Liyun’s hair.

Ji Liyun was 28 years old and it was the first time someone other than his family had ever messed up his hair. Especially after he became an adult, people were wary of him as the young master of the Jishi Group and were too busy flattering him to even touch him.

The kid has some nerve.

Ji Liyun refused to lose and reached out to mess up Mu Qingyan’s hair again. Mu Qingyan was quick to react. The two of them played around in the car, laughing recklessly.

It was as if they had returned to their teenage years ten years ago.

---

Author’s Note:

Paparazzi A: Why is the car that Xiao Mu and Manager Ji are sitting in shaking like that?

Paparazzi B: Could it be…

Paparazzi A: Could it be…

Paparazzi AB: Hehehehe.

---

Xue Yuan collapsed in front of the front camera of his mobile phone.

He swallowed nervously and said in a trembling voice, “Xing Hao bought this video from me. I thought he was just going to secretly mock Mu Qingyan. I didn’t know he directly uploaded it to the internet.” After speaking, he begged again, “Brother Huai, let me go this time! Brother Yan, I really didn’t mean it, Brother Yan…”

Shen Huai ignored him and directly ended the video call.

He asked Mu Qingyan, “You are the person involved, how do you want to handle this?”

“Xue Yuan has been scared like this, it’s already a lesson for him. There’s no need to really beat him up,” Mu Qingyan played with his phone and curled his lips.

“The important thing is that we know how the video ended up in Xing Hao’s hands.” As soon as he finished speaking, Mu Qingyan’s phone rang – it was Xing Hao calling.

“Speak of the devil and he shall appear,” Mu Qingyan answered the phone and said blandly, “Hello.” Xing Hao on the other end of the phone was obviously furious.

He shouted loudly, “Mu Qingyan, don’t go too far. Don’t involve Xie Ming in our grievances. He didn’t do anything to offend you. Why do you keep targeting him?”

It was like a divorced ex-husband questioning his ex-wife about his new lover, shameless.

Mu Qingyan didn’t answer, he just heard Xing Hao continue to shout, “Xie Ming almost committed suicide today because of you and your depression! If you keep targeting him like this, I won’t be polite to you!”

As for the so-called intentional targeting, Mu Qingyan couldn’t be bothered to explain. He retorted, “Laughable. You’ve already been impolite to me many times, do you think I’m afraid of you?” Xing Hao became even more angry at his words.

“Just you wait and see!” he yelled. “Okay, okay, I’ll be waiting,” Mu Qingyan rolled his eyes and hung up the phone.

Shen Huai made a face. “Your phone’s volume is so loud, I could hear it too.”

Mu Qingyan shrugged. “Doesn’t matter.”

“This Xing Hao is really ridiculous. It hasn’t even been two months since the divorce, and he’s shouting at you for someone else. And he even says he won’t be polite to you,” Shen Huai said indignantly, “What’s his relationship with Xie Ming? If he wants to commit suicide, then let him do it. Why does he have to get so worked up?”

Just after speaking, Shen Huai immediately realized something: “Could it be that Xie Ming is the person who… kissed and spent the night with Xing Hao by the window on the night you two got your marriage certificate?”

Seeing Mu Qingyan’s tacit agreement, Shen Huai exclaimed, “I only found out now! They were really good at keeping it a secret before your wedding!”

Mu Qingyan did not respond.

He opened Weibo and found that Xie Ming was rumored to have taken pills and was sent to the hospital by an ambulance.

Someone claiming to be Xie Ming’s friend had posted a photo of Xie Ming being taken to the hospital.

Looking at Xie Ming’s Weibo, which was posted an hour ago, every sentence implied that Mu Qingyan had intentionally set him up and framed him, making him feel extremely wronged, so he chose to commit suicide.

Netizens were discussing the situation, saying that there had been many scandals in the past month, especially today.

Shen Huai asked, “Did Xie Ming really commit suicide?”

Mu Qingyan stood up and stretched lazily, “Who knows? I’m going home now.”

EVOL Bar was half an hour’s drive from his villa.

He had just gotten into the car and was about to take a nap when he received a message from Ji Liyun, “I have a gift for you.”

“What gift?” Mu Qingyan asked.

Ji Liyun didn’t directly answer, he only replied, “Check the top trending topic in five minutes.”

“Tsk.” Mu Qingyan smiled and shook his head, thinking that when did this domineering President start to like being mysterious?

Although he said “I know” and “I’m not interested” on the surface, he still checked the trending topics on his phone, waiting for the five-minute mark to arrive.

Xie Ming took a large amount of effervescent tablets and falsely claimed to have committed suicide.

Mu Qingyan almost burst out laughing.

He clicked on the topic and found out that the hospital nurse had denied the rumors, saying that Xie Ming had not taken sleeping pills or cut his wrist as rumored on the internet.

He had only taken a large amount of vitamin C effervescent tablets and a melatonin pill.

He had woken up shortly after being admitted to the hospital and did not need to have his stomach pumped.

This caused another stir on the internet.

[The situation has changed again tonight, these scandals have filled me up.]

[Taking vitamin C and melatonin, this is hilarious!]

[Yeah, haha, it’s been a long time since I’ve had such a fun piece of gossip.]

[Thank goodness I didn’t join in on the criticism of Mu Qingyan, otherwise I would be the one getting called out right now.]

After experiencing two rounds of public ridicule in one day, Xie Ming silently closed the comments section on his Weibo.

Meanwhile, Xing Hao was preoccupied with his own thoughts. Despite knowing that Xie Ming had lost a significant number of followers and was being criticized by netizens, he didn’t feel like consoling his poor boyfriend.

This was because during the family gathering the next day, Xing Hao felt that his father was treating him coldly. His half-brother and sister-in-law were also increasingly mocking and suppressing him.

Xing Hao felt that all of this was Mu Qingyan’s fault, because he insisted on divorcing him, causing his father to take back 10% of his shares in the company and allowing his brother to continue suppressing him.

In addition, because of interference from the Ji Group, he had already gone bankrupt twice.

He began to formulate another plan for revenge.

---

Ever since Mu Qingyan agreed to enter the management of the Mu Group and participate in its business operations, he often had to shuttle between both the Mu Group and the Mu Company.

To his surprise, Ji Liyun would come and visit the Mu Company every few days, claiming that he was there to discuss business, but actually just chatting aimlessly. Occasionally, he would help him with some work and accompany him to work late into the night.

Ye Qiqi often joked that Ji Liyun was becoming Mu Qingyan’s assistant, just like his personal secretary.

Seeing that Ji Liyun loved to come to the Mu Company so much, Mu Qingyan had the security team issue him a special pass that would allow him to go directly to the general manager’s office on the 16th floor.

One day, after attending a meeting at the Mu Group, Mu Qingyan stayed late to work at the Mu Company. Just past 9 o’clock, Ji Liyun showed up.

“It’s a bit late today. Looks like the Ji Group has a lot of work these days,” Mu Qingyan joked.

Ji Liyun didn’t deny it, “Yeah, after finishing work, I wanted to take a walk and ended up at your place again.”

Seeing that Mu Qingyan was buried in his work, Ji Liyun poured himself a glass of water and asked, “Have you had dinner yet?”

“No,” Mu Qingyan glanced at the time, “but now that you mention it, I am getting a little hungry.”

Ji Liyun chuckled, “You can’t skip meals. What do you want to eat? I’ll buy it for you.”

Mu Qingyan didn’t hesitate at all, “Pan-fried buns.”

“Okay.”

Just as Ji Liyun left, Ye Qiqi came in and placed the organized files on Mu Qingyan’s desk, looking curious. “Why did President Ji leave so soon today? That’s rare.”

“He went to buy me Pan-fried buns.”

“…” Ji Liyun is the President of the top domestic corporation. Is it really okay to boss him around like that?

Mu Qingyan looked up, as if sensing Ye Qiqi’s thoughts, and said, “He’s happy to do it.”

“…”

“It’s getting late. You can go home first. I’ll have Lin and Shen escort you.”

“No need. I’ll drive myself home.” Ye Qiqi declined, knowing that Lin and Shen were Mu Qingyan’s personal bodyguards.

“You received a threatening letter this morning, didn’t you? Let them escort you tonight. Tomorrow, I’ll have two bodyguards from Shen Huai’s team pick you up for work.” Mu Qingyan said.

Ye Qiqi did receive a threatening letter, but she wanted to handle it herself and didn’t tell Mu Qingyan. She didn’t expect him to already know.

She could only accept and say, “Thank you, boss.”

After Lin, Shen, and Ye Qiqi left, only Mu Qingyan and two security guards remained on the sixteenth floor.

No one noticed that danger was approaching.

It was deep into the night.

A man dressed in black walked towards MU Building, wearing a black cap to cover his face.

The man deftly avoided the security guards’ gaze and climbed through a window, heading towards the safe passage.

He knocked out the two security guards on the sixteenth floor and disappeared into the darkness.

Just as Mu Qingyan finished his work and walked out of his office, he felt someone approaching, and a cold light flew towards him from the side.

---

Author’s Note:

Ji Liyun: Yeah, yeah, I’m happy to do anything for A Yan! (Wags tail)

Mu Qingyan (shrugs): See for yourself.

---

After the end of the shoot, the director felt that Xie Ming’s acting was terrible, and he was impatiently said, “Xie Ming, go to the dressing room and touch up your makeup again,” especially since his face was slightly swollen and red.

“Okay, director.”

Xie Ming was about to walk to the dressing room when the director added, “Your acting skills, sigh, are a waste of everyone’s time.”

The assistant director said, “Exactly, with this level of acting, he even wants to be the male lead. I think even the third male lead would be a challenge for him.”

These words were like long thorns, deeply piercing Xie Ming’s heart.

He forced back his shame and the tears that were about to burst out of his eyes and walked quickly into the dressing room.

“Brother Ming?” Assistant Ma Xiaofen, who had been in the dressing room all along, saw Xie Ming walking in with a fierce aura and asked with concern, “What happened to your face?”

Xie Ming looked fierce and walked up to Ma Xiaofen and slapped her. He angrily said, “What’s wrong? What did you say was wrong with my face?”

Not satisfied with just one slap, Xie Ming raised his hand and viciously slapped Ma Xiaofen’s face five more times.

“…” Ma Xiaofen had never been hit like this before and was momentarily stunned.

Her mouth was filled with the taste of blood, and tears flowed uncontrollably as she covered her face and cried.

At this time, the broker Fang Jie walked up and stopped Xie Ming, who still wanted to hit Ma Xiaofen. She whispered, “Xiao Ming, getting slapped while acting is a common occurrence, don’t be angry.”

“Common occurrence? Why am I the one being slapped, not him, Mu Qingyan?” Xie Ming’s eyes were filled with anger and didn’t resemble his usual gentle, pitiful appearance.

He threw all the tools on the dressing table to the ground, still feeling frustrated and angry, and then slapped Fang Jie three times in a row.

Fang Jie was both shocked and angry. “I’m your broker, and you’re hitting me?”

Xie Ming snorted, “I’m still your boss. That damn assistant kept messing up and causing delays, and that bitch slapped me over and over again. Why didn’t you speak up for me?”

Fang Jie thought to herself, “You’re blaming others for your bad acting skills? If it weren’t for the fact that Xing Hao pays well, who would want to be your agent?”

Seeing that her agent didn’t speak up, Xie Ming started throwing things and swearing, using extremely vulgar language.

Little did he know, there were three of his fans standing outside the door.

They had originally wanted to sneak in and give gifts to their idol, but they were shocked by the commotion in the dressing room.

Xie Ming, who appeared polite and humble, was actually berating his agent and assistant, using foul language and even physical violence.

The three “original fans” who had turned into black fans on the spot quietly took out their phones, filmed Xie Ming’s outburst through the slightly ajar door, and posted it online in their fan group and on the internet.

The biggest feature of the internet is its fast dissemination and wide reach.

That evening, this video caused a huge uproar.

When the first episode of “Acting Skill Showdown” ended, Xie Ming lost more than 300,000 fans due to his mediocre acting skills and became a foil to Mu Qingyan.

This time, the video revelation directly caused her to lose over a million fans.

Xie Ming saw news articles and posts from various entertainment apps and public accounts, and the clear video of his ugly tantrum.

All of the comments below these news articles and posts were criticisms of him.

Some people criticized him for his poor acting skills and fake emotions; others criticized his for being two-faced and treating people poorly in private.

Xie Ming was so angry that he trembled all over and locked himself in his room, cursing everyone in his heart.

At this moment, his phone rang, and it was Xing Hao calling.

Xie Ming kept a cold face, but his tone of voice was still weak as he cried to the only person who could help him now.

“It must be Mu Qingyan’s doing!” Xing Hao didn’t even hesitate, he was sure that Mu Qingyan was behind everything that happened to Xie Ming. He said, “Just wait, in half an hour, all those people who were criticizing you will be mocking Mu Qingyan.”

Sure enough, half an hour later, a news story broke online: “Mu Qingyan Partying at a Bar with Extreme Behavior.”

Mu Qingyan, who was working overtime at the Mu Group, felt both angry and amused when he saw the news.

There’s a video in the news showing the original owner drinking and having fun at a bar before getting married. He appears to be drunk, twisting his waist and shaking his butt while dancing.

The so-called “extremely suggestive” part of the news title refers to the fact that the original owner was only wearing a flashy pair of shorts that reached mid-calf, with colorful little light bulbs wrapped around his body.

Looking at his dress style, it’s even more flamboyant than Shen Huai’s.

Mu Qingyan put down his work and carefully thought about it, but he couldn’t find any memory of this incident left by the original owner.

It seems that the original owner was really drunk at that time.

Ye Qiqi walked into the office and said, “Boss, you’re on the hot search.”

Mu Qingyan raised his eyebrows and said, “I saw it. I look like a spoiled rich kid.”

“You’re not even angry…” Ye Qiqi looked at him in surprise and continued scrolling through her phone. She wanted to contact someone on the platform to suppress the hot search. “I don’t know who leaked this news. It’s been three or four months since it happened.”

“Do you know that I was dressed like a neon light that night?” Mu Qingyan asked.

Ye Qiqi shrugged and said, “You were so drunk that night that you took off your clothes and said you wanted to be the brightest star in the night sky. You even dismantled the decorative lights in Shen Huai’s bar and wrapped them around yourself.”

Mu Qingyan smiled wryly and said, “But why didn’t anyone stop me?”

“Boss, you’re the young master of the Mu Group. Besides Shen Huai, who was there to stop you? If Shen Huai hadn’t instructed the security guard to hold the door of the private room firmly, you would have rushed out onto the street!”

Ye Qiqi rolled her eyes and said, “I heard about this from Shen Huai later. But who leaked this video?”

“Let’s investigate,” Mu Qingyan said.

Now that he was the original owner, exposing his own video was like slapping himself in the face. This grudge must be avenged.

“I’ll contact the platform first to remove the hot search,” Ye Qiqi said, opening the chat box of the platform’s contact person. However, she found that she was too slow. “Hey? Boss, someone has already removed the hot search and deleted the video from the entire network.”

“Who did it so quickly?” Mu Qingyan asked.

Ye Qiqi called the person in charge of the platform and after learning the situation, she reported to Mu Qingyan, “It was Ji Liyun, the CEO of the Ji Group. Not only did he have the platform remove the hot search and delete the video, but he also pushed the video of Xie Ming’s assistant and manager being slapped to the top of the hot search.”

Mu Qingyan didn’t expect Ji Liyun to move so fast. He guessed the reason why he did this: “Could it be that my video was sent to the entertainment reporters by Xie Ming and Xing Hao?”

“According to what Mr. Ji knows, Xing Hao gave the video to the paparazzi,” Ye Qiqi said.

“Now that Ji Liyun has already taken care of everything, you should go home and rest. It’s quite late,” Mu Qingyan said.

“Okay, boss. Call me if you need anything.”

After Ye Qiqi left, Mu Qingyan leaned back on the leather chair and tapped his index fingers lightly together. In his memory, although the original owner had been engaged to Xing Hao a year ago, he never played with Xing Hao during the months of his “single party” before the wedding.

According to Ye Qiqi, the original owner was wearing neon lights on the night he was recorded at Shen Huai’s bar. Xing Hao and Shen Huai had always had a bad relationship, so how did he get hold of this video?

Mu Qingyan called Shen Huai and arranged to meet him at the bar. When he arrived, he found that the large “EVOL” sign had gone dark. The bouncers were concerned and escorted Mu Qingyan into the bar, with three in front and three behind.

As expected, the bar was pitch black inside, with only a few dim wall lights on. The previously noisy music had disappeared completely, and the bouncers’ breathing could be heard in the quiet.

The bar’s server, Daniel, came over and led them: “President Mu, President Shen is waiting for you in the control room. Please follow me.”

Mu Qingyan was very curious and followed Daniel to the monitoring room on the fourth floor of the bar. Sure enough, Shen Huai was sitting in front of six or seven computer screens, supervising with his legs crossed.

He patted Shen Huai on the shoulder and smiled intentionally, “What are you doing? Is the bar not open? You’re so mysterious.”

Shen Huai pulled Mu Qingyan to sit in the chair next to him, signaled the server to pour him a glass of juice, and then said, “My brother’s scandalous video in my bar was uploaded to the internet, so I have to find out who the traitor is.”

“Bullshit.” Mu Qingyan rolled his eyes.

“On the other hand, although everyone who was present that night usually played together, I can’t remember who took the video of you on their phone.” Shen Huai said somewhat shyly.

Mu Qingyan nodded, “From what I saw in the video, you were drunk too, and there were at least ten people playing together that night. How could you remember who took the video?”

At this time, a technician called in by Shen Huai to find the surveillance footage from that night shouted, “President Shen, I found it!”

Shen Huai immediately went up, “Enlarge the picture! Let’s see who took the phone.”

After the technician enlarged the picture and adjusted the clarity, other technicians found another surveillance video from a different angle.

Mu Qingyan frowned as he looked at the face of the person taking the video, “Who is this person? I’ve seen him somewhere before.”

“Fck, it’s Xue Yuan! I treated him as my brother, and he actually betrayed us! Fck!” Shen Huai was so angry that he was even more excited than Mu Qingyan, who was the person involved.

Mu Qingyan didn’t have many memories of Xue Yuan, only that they had drunk together a few times.

“Li Batian!” Shen Huai called his bodyguard over, “Take a few people and bring Xue Yuan to me. I’ll teach him a lesson.”

Li Batian lived up to his name, with dark skin and a strong build, even his speech was rough and forceful, “Yes, sir.”

Mu Qingyan thought Shen Huai wanted his bodyguard to beat up Xue Yuan to let him know who he can mess with and who he can’t.

Little did he know that Xue Yuan was a coward, and when he saw Li Batian and other muscular men coming for him, he was so scared that he peed his pants and didn’t dare to come to EVOL bar.

Li Batian reluctantly called Shen Huai, “Sir, I haven’t even laid a finger on him yet, and he has confessed everything.”

Shen Huai asked, “Huh? Doesn’t he usually seem quite capable?”

“I’ll turn on video call, and you can see what to do next,” Li Batian said.

---

In the private room on the third floor of Eve, Mu Qingyan and Ji Liyun were leisurely eating steak.

Mu Qingyan didn’t like Western food, especially steak. He knew that Ji Liyun brought him to Eve because the original owner liked Western food.

He had intended to take a few bites just to be polite, and prepare to go home for a late night snack when he discovered after one bite that the steak served by this restaurant was indeed incredibly tender and delicious, and the other dishes were also impeccable.

It was no wonder that it was a restaurant favored by Ji Liyun, and a three-star Michelin restaurant.

After eating and drinking their fill, Mu Qingyan wiped his mouth.

Ji Liyun also put down his knife and fork, wiped his mouth clean, took a sip of wine, and asked, “Does the Mu Group have many cooperation projects with Xingh] Hao’s companies now?”

“After I divorced Xing Hao, the Mu Group has terminated all cooperation with Xing Hao’s company, but we still maintain a cooperative relationship with the Planet Company,” Mu Qingyan replied frankly.

He felt that Ji Liyun must have had a reason for asking him this question, so he asked, “Why did you say earlier that you hoped the Mu Group would withdraw from the Polar Plan?”

The original novel did not mention the Polar Plan, so even though Mu Qingyan knew that it was a project that the Mu Group was cooperating with the Planet Company on, he thought that this Polar Plan had no impact on the main story.

Ji Liyun gestured to the waiter in the room to leave with his eyes, and then said, “As far as I know, the Planet Company will hand over the Polar Plan project to Xinghao.”

Mu Qingyan had a hunch, “It’s not just for this, is it?”

“The most important thing is that Xinghao doesn’t want to do just geological and biological research like you agreed on,” Ji Liyun consciously lowered his voice, “He wants to use that place for dark web transactions.”

“It seems that Xing Hao is really getting impatient,” Mu Qingyan raised his eyebrows and chuckled lightly.

He knew that Ji Liyun had many connections and must have verified this information before telling him. Besides, Ji Liyun had no reason to lie to him.

Mu Qingyan messaged Ye Qiqi and asked her to check the progress of the Polar Plan and send him all the relevant electronic materials.

When Ji Liyun drove him to the MU company building and dropped him off, Mu Qingyan happened to receive a call from Ye Qiqi.

“Boss, I have checked it out. The Polar Plan is currently progressing normally, and the work progress of each company is consistent with the plan. I have copied the electronic version to your computer, and the hard copies are also on your desk.”

“Thank you, take a rest early,” Mu Qingyan said.

“Okay, boss.”

Ji Liyun got out of the car and opened the passenger door for Mu Qingyan, saying, “Looks like you’re going to be busy tonight.”

“Yes, thank you for dinner,” Mu Qingyan replied politely.

He was about to bid farewell to Ji Liyun and walk towards the elevator to MU company’s building, when Ji Liyun said, “Do you mind having a cup of tea with me?”

If it was someone else who said this, Mu Qingyan would have bluntly said “I mind”, but the other person was President Ji who provided him with reliable information.

Mu Qingyan smiled and said, “Sure.”

He led Ji Liyun to the President’s office on the sixteenth floor and personally brewed two cups of Pu’er tea.

“Your office decor is tasteful,” Ji Liyun sat on the sofa, took the tea from Mu Qingyan, and said, “You go ahead with your work, I’ll look at the documents.”

“Okay.”

Ji Liyun took out his gold-rimmed glasses from his briefcase and put them on. His temperament changed from a “domineering President” to a “refined gentleman”.

Mu Qingyan felt that Ji Liyun was more suited to being a “refined gentleman”.

Ji Liyun opened his tablet and read the documents while saying, “You can ask me anything you want.”

“Okay.”

Although he didn’t say it directly, Mu Qingyan guessed that the reason why Ji Liyun stayed to work overtime with him was because he cared about the “Polar Plan” and didn’t want him to be undermined by Xing Hao.

Mu Qingyan didn’t say anything else, but looked carefully at the files that Ye Qiqi had already sorted and classified for him.

On the surface, everything was normal, and all work and project progress were according to plan, neither delayed nor ahead of schedule.

However, at the routine meeting, Xing Hao did submit a signed authorization letter authorizing him to be in charge of the North Polar Plan.

Indeed, Ji Liyun’s information was accurate.

Mu Qingyan spent nearly two hours reading through the hundred or so documents and said to Ji Liyun, “You’re right, Xing Hao is indeed going to be involved in this project. But for now, I can’t tell if he’s going to make any moves.”

“Will you advise Uncle Mu to withdraw from the Polar Plan?” Ji Liyun asked.

“Of course not. On the contrary, I’m going to use this Polar Plan to catch Xing Hao’s weaknesses,” Mu Qingyan said.

Ji Liyun didn’t stop him and only said, “If you need it, Ji Group is willing to provide help at any time.”

“Thank you, but we don’t need it for now,” Mu Qingyan told Ji Liyun his guess, “I suspect that Xing Hao wants to use the Polar Plan for dark web transactions, not just to make more money.”

Ji Liyun put down his tablet and nodded, “I also think so. What do you think Xing Hao’s goal is?”

“Transfer the crime of dark web transactions to the Mu Group. After all, the Mu Group is the main person in charge of the Polar Plan. If he bribes the other two research institutes, he can fabricate evidence of Mu Group’s crimes.” Mu Qingyan speculated.

“That sounds like an idea that Xing Hao would come up with,” Ji Liyun laughed, with a hint of sarcasm.

“You know, the brain is a good thing, but Xing Hao doesn’t have one,” Mu Qingyan raised an eyebrow.

Ji Liyun didn’t know if Xing Hao had a brain before, but now, looking at the things Xing Hao has done, he had the same thoughts as Mu Qingyan.

“Ah, there’s nothing to worry about,” Mu Qingyan stood up and stretched his arms backward, “just wait for the right opportunity.”

“Not bad,” Ji Liyun took off his glasses and said warmly.

“It’s already half past ten,” Mu Qingyan looked at his watch and said, “let’s go back.”

“Before we go back, I want to give you something,” Ji Liyun said.

“What is it?”

“A guest role,” Ji Liyun smirked mischievously, “not many lines, but there’s an action scene.”

“An action scene? What kind of action?” This unclear term confused Mu Qingyan even more.

Ji Liyun sent Mu Qingyan the director’s contact information and said, “slap Xie Ming’s face.”

Mu Qingyan accepted eagerly, “sounds good.”

---

On Saturday afternoon, Ye Qiqi arranged a nanny car, assistant, and bodyguards to take Mu Qingyan to the filming location of the costume drama <Flying Sky Little Catcher>

At this time, there was a large group of fans outside the set, constantly looking into the filming area, hoping to catch a glimpse of their idols.

When Mu Qingyan arrived, this group of fans all recognized him.

“Hey? Does Xiao Mu have scenes today? What role is he playing?”

“I heard he’s the younger brother of the deceased.”

“Pfft, he’s not even a professionally trained actor. What’s the use of being good-looking? He’s just a guest appearance.”

“Exactly. I bet that ‘Acting PK Battle’ show had a script, and he probably secretly practiced for months just for those ten or so minutes in front of the camera. Hahaha.”

Mu Qingyan overheard the gossip, but paid it no attention and went straight to greet the director before heading to the dressing room.

Before coming, he had read the script and heard some rumors about Xie Ming. Xie Ming was originally the male lead in “Flying Detective,” but due to his poor performance and declining popularity in the “Acting PK Battle” show, the director replaced him with the third male lead.

Xie Ming was furious and caused a scene, even declaring, “Even if I don’t have a role, I won’t lower my worth to play the third male lead.”

But after a few days, he realized that the third male lead was actually the best role he could get at the moment. He apologized to the director and producer and reluctantly took on the role.

Mu Qingyan’s guest role was not important, just the younger brother of a deceased character in the show who mistakenly thought the third male lead was responsible for his brother’s death, and slapped him three times at the funeral.

As the CEO of the investment company, Ji Shi Group, Ji Liyun recommended Mu Qingyan to the director when he heard of this role.

The director had heard of Mu Qingyan and readily agreed.

“Xiao Mu, are you ready? You’re up for the next scene!”

The staff knocked on the door of the dressing room, urging Mu Qingyan on, but when they saw him, they were stunned.

He had been in the business for over ten years, working on hundreds of movies and TV shows, and had seen countless actors and stars, but no one was as stunning and dazzling as Mu Qingyan.

Even in mourning clothes, he looked like a fallen immortal.

Mu Qingyan straightened his clothes. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”

Walking onto the set, he appeared on camera with a natural look and almost no makeup, but his bone structure was truly perfect, making him photogenic from any angle.

Even the director, who had seen countless actors, deeply felt that Mu Qingyan was born for the big screen, with no angles left unflattering in 360 degrees.

In this scene, Mu Qingyan completely immersed himself in the character, his emotions were on point, and his performance was very genuine. His close-up shots numbered more than a dozen and were all done in one take.

The director couldn’t help but praise him, “Of all the actors I’ve worked with, Mu Qingyan is by far the easiest to work with. You can tell he has a natural talent.”

The background actors also chattered during breaks.

“Who said variety shows have scripts? I think Mu Qingyan was born to act.”

“Yeah, with such a good figure and looks, it would be a shame not to be an actor.”

“He’s just guest starring this time, but will he take on a formal role in the future? If he does, I’m really looking forward to it.”

On the other hand, Xie Mingben was unhappy because of the scene where he had to act opposite Mu Qingyan, repeatedly making mistakes even with a few lines of dialogue.

And to make matters worse, it was a scene where he had to take slaps.

Watching from the sidelines, Ye Qiqi counted and found that Xie Mingben had taken 37 slaps from Mu Qingyan. By the end of the scene, his face was swollen.

Ye Qiqi clicked her tongue and said, “Tsk tsk tsk…”

---

Author’s note:

Ji Liyun: I’m really a little clever.

---

“Withdraw from the polar plan? Why?”

Mu Qingyan knew that the base plan was a project jointly led by the Mu Group, with the participation of the Planet Corporation, the Wu-Zhong Group, and two other research institutes. The project was conducted in the extreme south of the Earth, exploring geology and biology and investigating extraterrestrial worlds.

To the best of Mu Qingyan’s knowledge, there was nothing wrong with the polar plan.

Ji Liyun said, “Although the Ji Group did not participate in this polar plan, we have received some confidential information.”

“What is it?” Mu Qingyan asked.

Ji Liyun did not answer directly but instead sold a hint with a smile, “I just made a reservation for dinner at Eve tonight. Why don’t we eat together and talk slowly?”

“Sure,” Mu Qingyan did not refuse and got into Ji Liyun’s Rolls-Royce.

He knew that since Ji Liyun had opened his mouth, he must have anticipated that Mu Qingyan would agree to dinner in order to get the information.

After all, Ji Liyun was a smart person.

After interacting with his “little brother” who he hadn’t seen for many years a few times, he knew that Mu Qingyan was no longer the same person from his memories and had transformed into someone who only socialized with a purpose and made calculated moves.

Ji Liyun drove the car himself and played rock music that Mu Qingyan liked, even the car perfume was the orange blossom scent that Mu Qingyan liked. This made Mu Qingyan very curious whether Ji Liyun had similar tastes as him or was it just something he bought based on Mu Qingyan’s preferences.

Ji Liyun dismissed the driver and asked the handsome young man sitting in the passenger seat who seemed lost in thought, “What are you thinking about?”

“Work-related matters.”

“Okay,” Ji Liyun could tell that Mu Qingyan was just giving a perfunctory answer, but still said, “If it’s because you’re in charge of the real estate project for the first time, don’t worry too much. You can ask me about anything, big or small.”

Mu Qingyan responded with a “Hmm.”

Eve Restaurant was located on a mountain in the suburbs of S City, in a serene European-style garden. It takes at least an hour and a half to drive from the city center, and even the salad is pricey, let alone the steak which costs at least two thousand.

Despite this, the restaurant’s popularity remained undiminished and even increased year by year.

As far as Mu Qingyan knew, reservations for Eve’s dinner were already booked three months in advance, and even if you paid extra to book a VIP box, it would still take at least a month to secure a reservation.

Mu Qingyan wondered how the powerful President Ji was able to book and dine on the same day.

When the Rolls-Royce with license plate number 66888 arrived at the entrance of Eve Restaurant, the parking attendant immediately came over and respectfully opened the door, “Mr. Ji, Mr. Mu, good evening.”

Ji Liyun handed the car key to the parking attendant and led Mu Qingyan into the restaurant.

This restaurant has three floors in total, and the entire building and decor are in the Baroque style. Oil paintings are hanging on the walls, and crimson roses are inserted in vases.

Luxurious and perfect in detail, it’s no wonder that everyone who has been here says that this restaurant is the pinnacle of Western dining.

As luck would have it, they saw Xing Hao and Xie Ming in the waiting area of the restaurant as they were passing by.

Xie Ming’s eyes were slightly red, looking pitiful, while Xing Hao’s anger had not subsided, as he was arguing with the restaurant server.

“I made a reservation back in June. Why was it canceled today?” Xing Hao shouted.

The server patiently explained, “I’m sorry, Mr. Xing. When you made the reservation, you requested a tomahawk steak. Now you’ve changed it to a Wellington steak at the last minute, so you’ll have to make a new reservation.”

“Why? When I made the reservation, it was just the two of us coming to eat, and nothing has changed. I just asked the chef to change the dish!” Xing Hao felt incredulous.

The server continued to smile professionally and explained, “It’s clearly stated in our reservation policy that the menu cannot be changed. Otherwise, you’ll need to make a new reservation.”

Upon hearing Xing Hao say that he made a reservation back in June to come to this restaurant with Xie Ming, Mu Qingyan scoffed and gave the two of them a very disdainful glance.

Back then, the original owner hadn’t even divorced him yet!

Xing Hao was about to continue shouting when Xie Ming gently tugged on his sleeve. He turned his gaze and saw Mu Qingyan and Ji Liyun.

“When I made my reservation, I didn’t see their names on the guest list for today. Why are they able to eat here?” Xing Hao pointed at Mu Qingyan and Ji Liyun and angrily shouted at the server, “Did they steal our reservation? And now you’re using the excuse that the menu can’t be changed to dodge my question?”

“That’s not the case, Mr. Xing…”

The server’s words were interrupted by Xing Hao, “Call your restaurant manager here! I’m going to expose you guys!”

Mu Qingyan rolled his eyes, “What a lunatic.”

As he was about to continue walking in with Ji Liyun, Xing Hao grabbed his wrist, “You two, don’t leave!”

“What’s wrong with you?” Mu Qingyan wanted to pull his hand away, but Xing Hao’s five fingers were like pliers, tightly gripping his wrist.

Ji Liyun frowned and coldly ordered Xing Hao, “Let go.”

Xing Hao is like an infuriated lunatic, biting whoever he sees: “Why? You want to steal from me? You always have to win every time?”

Ji Liyun didn’t waste his breath on him. He just grabbed Xing Hao’s arm tightly, causing him to wince in pain and almost scream, and had to let go of Mu Qingyan’s wrist.

“Are you okay?” Ji Liyun asked Mu Qingyan softly.

Mu Qingyan wiped the wrist that Xing Hao had grabbed with a tissue, saying with disgust, “I’m fine, just dirty.”

Xing Hao had suffered a few losses and already hated Mu Qingyan to the bone. Now, hearing the other party say that he was dirty, he was even more angry and wanted to hit someone.

But he had just witnessed Ji Liyun’s strength and didn’t dare to act rashly.

Xie Ming pulled Xing Hao, feeling wronged and whispered, “Let it go, anyway, Young Master Mu has targeted me like this more than once.”

Hey! A big pot really fell from the sky.

Mu Qingyan laughed, “Big Star Xie, I don’t have time to target you. If you have this acting skills on variety shows, viewers might be willing to vote for your resurrection.”

At this moment, Eve’s manager ran over, first greeting Ji Liyun with a “Mr. Ji, hello,” and then handing Xing Hao a white envelope on the ground. “Mr. Xing, this is the deposit you paid when you made the reservation. It’s now being refunded to you.”

Xing Hao accepted the envelope and asked, “What does this mean?”

The manager politely bowed and said, “According to the reservation rules, the menu you booked cannot be changed. If you need to, you can make a new reservation. But considering your disturbance in the restaurant, we have decided to refund your deposit and no longer accept your reservation in the future, sorry.”

“Okay, even if I caused trouble,” Xing Hao pinched the envelope containing the money and still pointed to Mu Qingyan and Ji Liyun stubbornly, “What about them? Why can they come without making a reservation?”

Seeing him pointing rudely at Ji Liyun, the manager was scared and immediately pulled down his arm. “Ji’s group has acquired this restaurant, so Mr. Ji can come whenever he wants.”

Xing Hao: “…”

The server who had been yelled at by Xing Hao more than ten minutes ago finally had a feeling of relief following the manager. He sneered and muttered under his breath, “If you have the ability, acquire Eve like Mr. Ji did, so you can come whenever you want and eat whatever you like.”

Acquiring an ordinary restaurant may be feasible, but acquiring a Michelin three-star restaurant is no small task, and Xing Hao naturally doesn’t have the ability to do so.

At this point, Xie Ming is no longer pretending to be pitiful by holding Xing Hao’s arm as before. Instead, he feels embarrassed and walks away in a fit of pique.

Xing Hao glared fiercely at the restaurant manager and waiter and said, “I won’t come even if you invite me in the future!” before running out of the restaurant to chase after his sweetheart.

The manager apologized repeatedly, fearing that Ji Liyun would be angry.

But Ji Liyun didn’t say anything, just asked Mu Qingyan, “Did it affect your mood for eating?”

“There’s nothing to be affected. Let’s go,” Mu Qingyan replied.

Seeing that Mu Qingyan really didn’t care, Ji Liyun smiled and said, “Okay.”

After leaving Eve, Xing Hao tried to persuade Xie Ming for a long time before he agreed to get in his car and find another restaurant to eat at.

Along the way, Xie Ming was sulking, regretting how he had fallen for Xing Hao in the first place.

He had thought he was a wealthy third-generation with generous gestures, who had helped pave the way for his in the entertainment industry, and was a rich and powerful backer.

But he never thought he would turn out to be so useless, repeatedly being bitten back by Mu Qingyan. He had even caused his to be targeted by Mu Qingyan, losing face several times.

Now, not only was he eliminated from variety shows, but he couldn’t even get decent roles.

Looking at Mu Qingyan again, he used to be so frivolous and unproductive, only immersed in the glamorous world. He had thought he was a useless vase, but it turned out he was not easy to deal with.

Moreover, Ji Liyun had helped Mu Qingyan several times, both publicly and secretly…

Why did Mu Qingyan get Ji Liyun’s favor and affection? Wasn’t it just because he looked good, had more money, and had a strong background?

Why couldn’t I do it? I have a good-looking face too, and I’m not that much worse than Mu Qingyan! Damn it!

The more Xie Ming thought about it, the more jealous he became, clenching his fists tightly, and his eyes turned red.

Xing Hao, who was driving, glanced over and thought Xie Ming was wronged. He quickly said, “Baby, don’t be sad. I will definitely help you vent your anger!”

Xie Ming rolled his eyes in his heart. Last time, you said you would help me vent my anger, but you ended up becoming a laughing stock.

But he didn’t show it, just tears in his eyes, muttering, “How can you help me vent my anger?”

Xing Hao said, “Our company is working on a plan. If it succeeds, it will not only bankrupt the Mu Group, but also make Mu Qingyan and his father go to jail.”

Xie Ming’s eyes lit up, “Really?”

“Absolutely,” Xing Hao snorted and sneered, “I want Mu Qingyan to taste the feeling of being spurned and stepped on by others. And I want my half-brother to see who is the most qualified to inherit the Planet Company.”

“Brother Hao, I believe you can do it!” Xie Ming said, but he was thinking to himself, “I’ll encourage you since you’re so confident, but if you fail again, don’t blame me for seeking other opportunities.”

---

After reading the documents, Mu Qingyan had an understanding of the cooperative project. He said, “It seems that Chen Gu has already negotiated twice with the general manager of Ye Yun Real Estate Company. Both sides have a strong willingness to cooperate, and we just need to finalize the project list.”

Mu Yuchen was pleased to see his son finish reading the thick stack of documents in just a few minutes and accurately report on the project progress. He nodded in agreement and said, “Indeed, the Jishi Group is very mature in the real estate industry, with three real estate companies under its umbrella. Among them, Ye Yun Company not only has the strongest comprehensive strength in the Jishi Group, but also in the entire country.”

Mu Qingyan added, “So, by choosing to work with Ye Yun, we can not only ensure the successful completion of the project, but also learn from their business model.”

“Exactly,” Mu Yuchen said, satisfied.

Mu Qingyan analyzed, “The senior living apartment project in the new development zone has great potential and can also raise the profile of the Mu’s Group in the real estate industry. But it’s an independent project that requires a lot of upfront work. On the other hand, if we can finalize the cooperative project for this development, it can be launched immediately after the real estate company is established.”

Mu Yuchen and Shen Xiaoxiao smiled at each other, feeling relieved. “It looks like it was completely right to entrust the real estate company and this project to Yan Yan,” they said.

Not long after their discussion, Shen Huai, wearing a red shirt and green pants, arrived at the Mu estate with five female bodyguards. As soon as he entered the villa, he enthusiastically shouted, “Godfather, godmother! I’m here!”

Although Shen Huai was a third-generation wealthy person and his family owned the top bodyguard company in the country, he did not have a happy life at home. He was the third son of his father, with two older brothers and one younger brother. The brothers often fought for shares and the position of President.

As he looked the most like his father, Shen Huai received the most love from him since childhood and was groomed as the heir. Wherever his father went, he would take Shen Huai, his favorite third son, along with him. Therefore, Shen Huai’s brothers always saw him as a thorn in their side.

Even though Shen Huai chose to open a bar and work as a flamboyant bartender to avoid the power struggles, his brothers only thought that he was using the bar as a smokescreen, when in reality he was still fighting for power.

Shen Huai once said that he would rather stay at the Mu’s house to take care of his godparents than go home and fight with these people.

Mu Qingyan was relieved when he saw that his mother was satisfied with the female bodyguard she chose for Shen Huai and was willing to have her accompany him everywhere.

That night, he slept directly in the pre-marriage bedroom in the manor.

In the following days, Mu Qingyan was busy with MU Company’s affairs and also had to attend meetings with the top executives of Mu’s Group to familiarize himself with the company’s affairs.

Because he had achieved remarkable results in managing MU Company and had not made any mistakes during meetings with Mu’s Group, he also proposed many constructive suggestions, so many of the high-level executives of Mu’s Group had a better opinion of him.

Especially the vice chairman, Qiu Congbo, had high expectations of Mu Qingyan.

However, the other vice chairman, Guo Rong, still liked to contradict him. Whatever Mu Qingyan said, he would oppose it, regardless of whether it was right or wrong.

However, Mu Qingyan was still full of tricks.

“If you dare to contradict me, I will immediately fight back and mock you a few times.

“If you dare to collect dirt on me, I will send someone to collect evidence of your three sons’ illegal activities and send them to the police station.

After a few times, Guo Rong became obedient and no longer dared to have any thoughts of changing Mu’s Group’s surname.

Mu Yuchen saw all of this but never intervened because in his heart, Mu’s Group would eventually be handed over to his son.

As the saying goes, starting a business is easy, but keeping it going is difficult. If his son did not have these means of self-protection, he might really be devoured by old monsters like Guo Rong.

This morning, Ye Qiqi walked into the general manager’s office: “Boss, Ye Yun Real Estate Company contacted us and said they can meet this afternoon at three o’clock for the third round of negotiations.”

Mu Qingyan looked at the memo: “There is no meeting or other business scheduled this afternoon, so just reply that it’s okay. You can confirm the specific meeting place with them.”

Although Mu Qingyan’s personality and preferences were completely different from the original owner, Ye Qiqi was smart and quickly figured out his temperament, so Mu Qingyan trusted her to handle many small matters.

Half an hour later, Ye Qiqi appeared again in his office.

Mu Qingyan was signing several documents and looked up to see Ye Qiqi’s mysterious expression. He asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I made an appointment with the secretary of the general manager of Ye Yun Company. We are meeting at the coffee shop on the first floor of MU this afternoon.”

“Okay.”

Ye Qiqi lowered his voice and said, “From what the secretary said, the person coming to negotiate the project list is not the general manager of Ye Yun Company, nor the main person in charge of this project.”

“Hmm?” Mu Qingyan furrowed his brow slightly. “Then who is coming?”

“I asked around later. It’s Mr. Ji who is coming in person.”

“Ji Liyun?” As a rule, the general manager would not need to come to negotiate with another general manager. Ji Liyun, as the president of Mu Shi Group, did not need to come in person.

Moreover, Ji Liyun did not appear in the previous two negotiations for this project. It was strange.

At 3:45 pm, Mu Qingyan arrived at the coffee shop on the first floor of the MU building.

This coffee shop was built according to the original owner’s preferences. After all, the original owner and Mu Qingyan shared a strong love for coffee.

The decoration and furnishings of the coffee shop were all in a retro European medieval style. Mu Qingyan had been there a few times after transmigrating and found that he and the original owner, although different in many ways, had the same taste when it came to the coffee shop’s aesthetics.

Mu Qingyan had just sat down on the leather sofa in the VIP room when Ji Liyun pushed open the door and walked in.

The waiter from the coffee shop followed him to the door of the VIP room and asked, “What would Mr. Mu and Mr. Ji like to drink?”

“Hand-brewed coffee, please. Thank you,” Mu Qingyan and Ji Liyun said in unison.

“Okay, please wait a moment.” The waiter bowed and retreated.

Mu Qingyan placed a proposal in front of Ji Liyun and said, “This is a new plan modified according to the records of the previous two negotiations. Take a look.”

“I didn’t expect you to come in person to talk about this project. As far as I know, the direction of the cooperation has already been determined in the previous two negotiations, and the remaining work is just some details.”

“Not bad.” Ji Liyun carefully looked over the new plan. “I didn’t know this project would be handed over to you. Now that I know, I naturally want to take a look.”

“It seems you are here to nitpick.” Mu Qingyan joked.

Ji Liyun didn’t deny it, just smiled and said, “If there are any mistakes or misunderstandings, I won’t help you cover them up.”

Mu Qingyan nodded. “The more strict, the better!”

Ji Liyun took out his customized pen from his bag and scribbled on the document, very seriously, like a middle school student doing homework.

When the waiter brought the coffee, he didn’t dare to disturb Ji Liyun.

Mu Qingyan propped up his chin and found that his serious working appearance was quite charming. On his already handsome face, it added a touch of attraction.

He had long known that Ji Liyun was the object of admiration for many unmarried second-generation and Nth-generation wealthy individuals. Originally, he thought those people were only interested in his money and appearance, but now it seemed that it was not just that.

“I am being shallow,” Mu Qingyan thought.

In the memories left by the original owner, Ji Liyun preferred sweets and would drink fruit juice and milk tea instead of coffee. Even if he had to drink coffee to conform to the image of a President, he would order something like vanilla latte or caramel macchiato, which were sweetened coffees.

When did he start drinking hand-brewed coffee without milk or sugar, just like Mu Qingyan?

After seriously revising the plan, Ji Liyun handed it back to Mu Qingyan and said, “Take a look at the modifications I made. If you have any questions, you can ask me directly.”

Mu Qingyan immediately started reading the plan from the first page. He was curious how many mistakes and loopholes the plan had to make Ji Liyun revise it for so long.

It wasn’t until he finished reading that he realized – Ji Liyun’s serious revision wasn’t because of how many errors or mistakes there were, but because he was earnestly compromising benefits.

“I originally thought this cooperation plan was quite fair, but after your modifications, I think it’s too unfair,” Mu Qingyan didn’t know whether to laugh or be helpless. He took a sip of coffee, “The modified cooperation plan looks like both parties benefit, but upon closer inspection, it’s clear that Mu Shi is the only one gaining.”

Ji Liyun also took a sip of coffee, then raised his eyebrows and shrugged, indicating that it didn’t matter to him.

Mu Qingyan reminded him, “According to civil law, as long as both parties agree and don’t violate laws and regulations, the contract is valid. Are you sure you want to sign the cooperation agreement based on the terms you revised? By then, it will become Yeyun working for Mu Shi.”

“If I say I’m willing, what then?” Ji Liyun smiled.

“… President, are you being too stubborn?”

Ji Liyun saw that Mu Qingyan still seemed somewhat uneasy, so he said, “Actually, my purpose is very simple. I am interested in the commercial strength of Mu Group, and I am also interested in your personal abilities. I hope that through this cooperation, Ji Group can have one more business partner.”

Mu Qingyan knew that, according to the original book’s setting, the original host and Ji Liyun had known each other since they were young and had a good relationship when they were young. This was largely due to the fact that Mu Yuchen and Ji Liyun’s father were good friends with long-term business cooperation.

Therefore, Ji Liyun’s so-called “letting Ji Group have one more business partner” was just a poor excuse—Ji Group and Mu Group had already been close business partners for a long time.

But Mu Qingyan didn’t expose him, he just thought of it as Ji Liyun wanting to mentor this newly emerging “little brother” as an older brother.

“Since you are willing, then let’s go with your modifications. I will have the legal department prepare the contract tomorrow and hand it over to your legal department,” Mu Qingyan said.

“Okay.” Ji Liyun took a slow sip from his coffee cup, and a glint flashed in his eyes, as if he had remembered something.

He said, “It would be even better if Mu Group could give up the Polar Plan.”

---

Mu Qingyan raised his glass to his parents and casually asked, “Dad, Mom, do you still have bodyguards with you when you go out?”

“Of course,” Mu Yuchen put the peeled shrimp meat into his wife’s bowl and smiled, “But your mom doesn’t like too many people following her, so she often goes out alone without bodyguards.”

Shen Xiaoxiao didn’t care at all and said, “Whenever I go out, I either go shopping or have tea with my sisters. There’s no need for bodyguards.”

She then complained, “As soon as I married your father, I was forced to go out with a dozen bodyguards, all of them strong and burly men. It’s so stressful even to just go shopping.”

Mu Yuchen laughed, “You’re so clever. You manage to slip away a few times while out shopping. I think it’s the bodyguards who are under the most pressure following you. If they lose you, I’ll scold them.”

“What happened later? Did you just get rid of the bodyguards?” Mu Qingyan asked.

“Yes, it was originally for your mother’s safety that we provided bodyguards, but since she really didn’t like them, we stopped,” Mu Yuchen said.

He looked indulgently at Shen Xiaoxiao, with a smile in his eyes, and added, “I thought since she always goes out with her group of sisters, and they all have bodyguards with them, then they could also take care of her without us needing to assign bodyguards.”

Unexpectedly, their son spoke up, “That won’t do.”

Mu Qingyan opened his phone and directly called Shen Huai, the third son of the top bodyguard company in China.

“Hey! Old Yan, you rarely take the initiative to call me! Let me see, this is the first time you’ve called me in a month! Is it because you didn’t drink enough last night and want to continue tonight?” Shen Huai’s tone of voice was as flamboyant as his dress style.

Mu Qingyan knew that he couldn’t stop once he started talking, so she interrupted, “I’m calling you for a serious matter.”

As soon as Shen Huai heard this, he asked, “What’s the matter?”

“I want to find two female bodyguards for my mother,” Mu Qingyan said.

“No problem, I’ll send our company’s best five female bodyguards, two top-level personal bodyguards and three rotating bodyguards. Is your stepmother at home? I’ll bring them over, and if she doesn’t like these female bodyguards, I’ll send other ones over.”

“I trust your judgement. Just pick two and send them over. You don’t have to come over yourself. It saves you the trouble,” Mu Qingyan said.

Shen Huai hurriedly said, “What’s the trouble? It’s only 6:30 now. I’ll be there at 8 o’clock.”

Mu Qingyan knew that Shen Huai was a warm-hearted person, so he didn’t refuse again and said, “Okay.”

Mu Yuchen and Shen Xiaoxiao looked at each other. Their son used to only care about himself and rarely cared about his parents, let alone whether they had bodyguards or not.

Maybe the divorce made him grow up?

But regardless of the reason for their son’s change, they still felt grateful and moved.

“Mom,” after hanging up the phone, Mu Qingyan continued to persuade Shen Xiaoxiao, “Although it’s inconvenient to go out with a bodyguard, you are still the wife of a wealthy family. It’s not appropriate to have no bodyguards around you. I asked Shen Huai to find two female bodyguards for you. I believe they are very professional.”

“If Mom still doesn’t like it, just treat them as invisible.” He added.

Seeing her son being so considerate, Shen Xiaoxiao naturally wouldn’t refuse and smiled and said, “Okay.”

After dinner, Mu Yuchen and Mu Qingyan sat on the sofa chatting.

“We father and son haven’t sat down and talked like this for a long time,” Mu Yuchen took a puff of his cigar and patted his son’s shoulder, “Actually, your mother and I hope you can come home more often, sit together and have a meal, and talk.”

Mu Yuchen was already in his fifties. Due to his wealthy background and extremely disciplined lifestyle, his skin and figure had been well maintained, making him look no more than forty.

However, in the memories of the previous owner’s dream the night before, this father had turned gray overnight because of his wife’s death and had become an old man in his sixties or seventies.

In the end, he died of a heart attack because he couldn’t bear the pain of losing his wife.

Mu Qingyan clenched his fists and made up his mind: this kind of ending must not happen.

Seeing that his son didn’t answer and seemed to be in deep thought, Mu Yuchen lowered his voice and spoke to him so that Shen Xiaoxiao, who was arranging for the maid to cut fruits in the kitchen, couldn’t hear: “Are you blaming your mother for arranging this marriage for you? In fact, she was angry and regretful after learning about Xing Hao’s affair and couldn’t sleep well for a few days.”

“How could I blame Mom? No one could have expected Xing Hao to be such a person. He hid it too well before we got married.”

Mu Qingyan paused and added, “Actually, the divorce has no impact on me. After all, I don’t have any feelings for him. Moreover, going through this has been a kind of growth for me, helping me understand what is truly important.”

Mu Yuchen saw that his son’s expression was sincere and didn’t seem to be comforting his parents on purpose, so he nodded in relief.

“I found that you have indeed changed a lot compared to before after the divorce,” Mu Yuchen took another puff of his cigar and felt relieved that his son had finally matured, “Before, you only loved to indulge in pleasure, but now you finally focus on your career.”

“I believe Dad agreed to the marriage with the Xing family largely because of Xing Hao’s strong business acumen and higher ability. I hope he can help me manage the Mu Corporation in the future.”

“Um,” Mu Yuchen did not deny it. He did not expect his son to guess his intentions and frankly said, “Actually, I prefer someone else. He is four years older than you and is the President of one of the top three conglomerates in the country. But, he himself is busy with affairs and may not have time for you.”

Four years older than me and the President of one of the top three conglomerates in the country, isn’t that…

He laughed and took another puff of his cigar, “But now it seems that my son can handle it himself…”

When it comes to the recent situation of MU Company, Mu Yuchen praised his son again and felt that the autumn launch was even more outstanding and successful than he expected.

“You know, my intention in letting you manage MU Company was to let you practice, even if it loses money, Mu’s Group can afford it. I didn’t expect MU Company to firmly hold the position of the top domestic luxury brand, and this month’s profit is ten times that of last year.”

He put down his cigar and said seriously: “I hope you can maintain this career mindset, and I also hope you can continue to participate in the management of Mu’s Group.”

In fact, Mu Yuchen had always wanted his son to take over Mu’s Group, but the original reason was that he was often suppressed by several vice-chairmen and shareholders led by Guo Rong, who often ridiculed him.

Therefore, the original owner refused his father’s proposal after exiting the management of Mu’s Group.

The original owner knew that he was incompetent and afraid of making a fool of himself, willing to be an ostrich that only buried his head in the ground and evaded.

Because he knew that he could act arrogantly as the young master of the Mu family, but he couldn’t act recklessly and ruin Mu’s Group, which was the family business.

But Mu Qingyan was different.

He always had absolute confidence in himself, and he was a true black lotus. If someone dared to provoke him, he would return twice as much.

Just like when he rebutted Guo Rong, who had been talking behind his back.

As the young master of Mu’s Group, he also understood his father’s thoughts in front of him – he didn’t want Mu’s Group to fall into the hands of others and change its name.

Sure enough, Mu Yuchen said again: “You are my only son, and I don’t want Mu’s Group to be handed over to someone else in my hands.”

“Don’t worry, Dad,” Mu Qingyan picked up the teapot and poured a cup of tea for his father. He said confidently, “I will continue to participate in the board of directors and shareholders’ meetings of Mu’s Group, and I will also spend half of my time managing Mu’s Group’s affairs.”

Only then did Mu Yuchen laugh comfortably: “Haha, that’s good.”

As one of the three major groups in the country, outsiders always thought that Mu Yuchen, the chairman and President of Mu’s Group, would have several concubines and at least four or five children like other wealthy families.

But Mu Yuchen only loved Shen Xiaoxiao, who came from an academic family. Not to mention concubines, there was not even a single gossip about him in the news.

Shen Xiaoxiao fell ill when she gave birth to Mu Qingyan and could no longer have children. Despite this, Mu Yuchen did not change his mind or look for other women for the sake of having more children. He devoted all his love to his wife and only son.

The wives and young ladies in the wealthy circle, and even the entire country of C, envied Shen Xiaoxiao for having such a fairy-tale love.

They also envied Mu Qingyan for being so lucky.

“What are you two talking about? So happy,” Shen Xiaoxiao walked over with a large plate of sliced fruit.

After placing the fruits on the coffee table, she sat next to Mu Qingyan and touched his arm, feeling sorry for him, “Yanyan has lost so much weight during this time. I heard Qi Qi say that you often get too busy with work to eat properly. That won’t do.”

“I know, I will eat on time,” Mu Qingyan said as he used his fork to pick up a piece of kiwi and praised it, “Mm, it’s delicious!”

No matter how old their children are, they are still babies in their parents’ eyes.

Shen Xiaoxiao fondly rubbed Mu Qingyan’s head and said with a smile, “Eat more if you like it. Boys need to be strong.”

“Yeah, at least like me, I still have eight-pack abs,” Mu Yuchen winked at him.

“Stop being sarcastic,” Shen Xiaoxiao picked up a piece of mango and put it into her husband’s mouth.

Mu Yuchen chewed and, imitating his son’s tone, said, “It’s delicious,” and then gestured to Zhao, the butler, to go to the study on the third floor and bring back the blue-covered document on the table.

“Yes,” Zhao immediately went upstairs and brought the document to Mu Yuchen.

However, Mu Yuchen directly handed the document to Mu Qingyan and said, “Since you said you’re willing to continue participating in Mu’s Group’s business affairs, this is your project.”

“A real estate project?” Mu Qingyan asked, looking at the words on the folder cover.

Mu Yuchen said, “Not bad. Because you obtained the land in the new development zone, the establishment process of Mu’s real estate company has been accelerated. According to the current progress, the Mu’s real estate company can be established and begin operation by the end of November. I want you to be the general manager of the real estate company, and this is the first project of the company.”

Mu Qingyan looked through the documents and murmured, “It’s a cooperation with Ye Yun Real Estate Company… Ye Yun Real Estate… it seems familiar.”

As soon as Shen Xiaoxiao heard the name of the company, she immediately replied, “I remember, this real estate company is owned by the Ji’s Group.”

---

Author’s note:

Ji Liyun: That’s right, I’m four years older than you, and I’m the President of one of the three major groups in China, the Ji’s Group.

(I didn’t expect to gain the recognition of my future father-in-law. I’m happy!)

---

Strong chest, pleasant scent of perfume. And a certain familiar and comforting feeling tightly enveloping him.

Mu Qingyan lifted his head to see who had caught him, but the strength of the alcohol in his body was too much. He couldn’t see clearly and fell asleep directly.

The night wind rustled, causing the deep purple velvet robe on Mu Qingyan’s body to swell and make a rustling sound.

Although it wasn’t the weather of midwinter, the cold wind blowing on his face still felt like a sharp pain.

Mu Qingyan opened his eyes and found himself standing on the edge of the rooftop platform. If he took a small step forward, he would fall and shatter to pieces.

He tried to move back but couldn’t.

Where was he?

Mu Qingyan’s brain spun rapidly, and finally, he remembered. This building was where his husband Xing Hao and his mistress Xie Ming had their secret rendezvous. It was where he had been held captive by Xing Hao and Xie Ming after he caught them in their affair!

Since his parents died, he had been having all sorts of hallucinations. Xing Hao and Xie Ming had labeled him as a “mental patient,” and he had been under the constant surveillance of nurses and bodyguards, suffering in agony.

A mental patient… why would he be a mental patient…

Mu Qingyan’s headache was splitting.

His mind was in chaos, with the faces of Xing Hao and Xie Ming mocking him, making him angry and nauseous. He wanted to escape from this terrible world, he wanted to jump and end it all.

After all, he had nothing left.

In the eyes of others, he was just an incredibly ridiculous joke.

Mu Qingyan’s tears flowed uncontrollably, and he felt lost and helpless.

At this moment, a pair of hands suddenly pushed him from behind!

Caught off guard, he fell off the building, without even a chance to scream. Memories flashed through his mind like a revolving lantern as he fell for dozens of seconds.

Xing Hao had inherited Mu Qingyan’s billions, and Xie Ming was nestled in his arms, counting Mu Qingyan’s money.

All his anger, all his resentment, surged up in his heart.

I don’t want to die!

I can’t die like this!

Mu Qingyan suddenly woke up from a nightmare, his forehead was sweating and he was breathing heavily. He stared blankly at the ceiling, feeling that the dream was too real and terrifying.

But then he thought, perhaps this was not a dream at all. It could be the system letting him experience the original owner’s ending firsthand.

Could it be that the original owner’s resentment and anger summoned him to transmigrate into the original owner’s body and seek revenge?

Or perhaps the transmigration system wanted him to write a different life story using the original owner’s identity?

Mu Qingyan felt that regardless of the reason, he had already transmigrated to replace the original owner, possessing all of the original owner’s memories and fully immersing himself in them.

However, he couldn’t help but wonder who was the one who pushed the original owner off the building?

Mu Qingyan opened his phone and located the part in the novel where the original owner jumped off the building. The author did not give too much description about the original owner’s jump, just a few simple sentences without mentioning whether someone pushed him from behind.

The main story of the original book was about the entangled and difficult-to-let-go love between Xing Hao and Xie Ming, so naturally, the author used the best words to describe them, only showing the fake and glamorous side of their lives to the readers.

Mu Qingyan knew that these two protagonists were actually scum.

His intuition told him that the hand that pushed the original owner off the building was either Xing Hao’s or Xie Ming’s. After all, in the original book, the original owner did not divorce Xing Hao, and he was the biggest beneficiary of the original owner’s death.

Mu Qingyan sat up on the bed and realized that he was in an unfamiliar bedroom, not his own in the real world, nor the original owner’s.

Could it be another transmigration?

Knock, knock, knock–

Someone knocked on the bedroom door.

Before Mu Qingyan could ask who it was, the door was opened and a housemaid in her thirties walked in.

The housemaid saw that Mu Qingyan was already out of bed and smiled at him, “Mr. Mu, you’re awake. I’ll inform the master right away.”

Which master? The one who caught me when I fell down yesterday? The one whose house I got drunk and slept over? Is it Shen Huai? But the guest room in Shen Huai’s house doesn’t look like this.

Could it be someone I don’t know? Wouldn’t that create entertainment news?

Why didn’t the bodyguards just take me home?

In just two or three minutes, Mu Qingyan had already thought of countless possibilities and various ways to deal with them.

Soon, the so-called “master” walked into the bedroom.

It turned out to be Ji Liyun.

Mu Qingyan breathed a sigh of relief and said, “I didn’t expect to get drunk last night and end up sleeping at your place. I’m really sorry.”

“It’s okay.” Ji Liyun handed him a cup of honey water to help with his hangover and asked, “Did you sleep well last night?”

“Yeah.”

“The wine was pretty good, you didn’t cause any trouble.” Ji Liyun chuckled lightly and led Mu Qingyan downstairs, “You just vomited a few times.”

Mu Qingyan felt embarrassed that he got drunk and vomited at someone else’s house: “I’m sorry, I bothered you… My bodyguards were too incompetent yesterday. They didn’t take me home, so I fired them.”

Ji Liyun took him to the dining table in the living room, asked him to sit down and have breakfast, and explained, “Yesterday, I originally planned to take you home, but you kept holding onto my wrist and refused to let go, so I had no choice but to bring you here.”

“…” How embarrassing?

Mu Qingyan said, “Are you lying to me?”

Ji Liyun blinked at him, “I’m kidding, little puppy.”

“…” What about his tough guy image?

So, the embrace he fell into yesterday… was Ji Liyun’s.

Mu Qingyan quietly ate the breakfast made by the Ji family chef and found that the taste was really good. The complex emotions of not knowing whether to be happy or worried suddenly became better.

He calculated silently, that if Ji Liyun goes abroad to develop overseas markets again in the future, he would dig up the Ji family chef.

Mu Qingyan enjoyed the exquisite and rich breakfast leisurely. He saw that Ji Liyun had put on his gold-rimmed glasses and was reading financial news on his tablet with great interest.

He asked, “Aren’t you going to work today?”

“I haven’t rested in a long time, I want to take a break today.” Ji Liyun raised his eyes and smiled faintly, “By the way, congratulations, yesterday’s autumn product launch was very successful.”

Mu Qingyan raised his eyebrows, “I enjoyed beating the scum.”

Ji Liyun adjusted his glasses and looked at him with interest, “To be honest, you really surprised me.”

“Then you will be surprised by me more in the future.”

Ji Liyun smiled slightly, looking forward to it, “Oh? I can’t wait.”

Mu Qingyan had eaten and drunk his fill and didn’t continue to argue with Ji Liyun. He stood up and said, “Thank you for your hospitality, I have to go to the company now.”

“Okay, I’ll have the driver take you there.”

As he sent Mu Qingyan to the private estate parking lot, he suddenly asked, “Are you…?”

“What?”

Ji Liyun originally wanted to ask if he had also been reborn, after all, the current Mu Qingyan was very different from the Mu Qingyan he knew before he was reborn, even carrying a strong hatred towards Xing Hao and Xie Ming.

But suddenly he felt that the answer didn’t matter. Because the current Mu Qingyan fascinated him more.

Ji Liyun opened the car door, “It’s nothing, let me drive you.”

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As soon as Mu Qingyan arrived at the MU Company, he was overwhelmed with various reports.

Among them, the head of the sales department was the most excited. He said that orders for the entire new series of MU products had exploded and orders were now being scheduled for the Spring Festival.

After the deputy general manager Ye Qiqi and the heads of various departments reported their work, they entered the general manager’s office.

Ye Qiqi handed her the tablet and said, “The first episode of ‘Acting Battle’ had a particularly good effect, with a lot of live viewers, and it has been on Weibo’s hot search list for 24 hours after the broadcast.”

“And, most of the barrage contents and hot search topics were about Mu Qingyan.”

He was willing to participate in the first episode before, partly because Ji Liyun had helped him, and partly to promote the MU brand’s autumn release conference.

But now, he doesn’t need to repay any favors, nor does he need to do any promotion, so he naturally doesn’t want to participate in variety shows anymore.

In Mu Qingyan’s view, apart from maintaining relationships, anything that needs to be done must have a reason or a purpose, and time should not be wasted on unnecessary things.

Ye Qiqi didn’t ask much either. She felt that the boss was becoming more and more mysterious, and as long as she followed his instructions, everything would be fine.

Perhaps because he had drunk too much the previous night and had a nightmare, Mu Qingyan felt very tired all day. Memories of the original owner’s past life kept floating in his mind, especially his longing for his parents.

He could feel that Mu Yuchen and Shen Xiaoxiao loved their son very much.

He decided to go home for dinner, because on the day he transmigrated, he had eaten a meal with his parents and had never gone back since because he was too busy with work.

Sure enough, when Shen Xiaoxiao received a call from her beloved son, she happily said she would cook personally and asked Mu Yuchen to join her in the kitchen.

Mu Yuchen has always doted on his wife, so when he heard Shen Xiaoxiao’s call, he naturally agreed.

When Mu Qingyan got home, the table was already filled with hot and delicious dishes.

The three of them ate, drank, and chatted happily.

Mu Qingyan really enjoyed the feeling of being surrounded by this gentle and intense family affection, just like the love his parents had for him in the real world. Therefore, he was even more unwilling for the tragic ending described in the book to happen.

The original owner’s mother died in a car accident, and his father died of a heart attack less than a week after her death. According to the original book’s pace, the original owner also died a month after his parents.

How could this be so coincidental? A family of three died in such a short period of two months? Mu Qingyan felt that there must be something fishy going on.

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At the press conference, there was a commotion.

“Out of the 20 new fashion items, 12 of them are copied?”

“Who did they copy from?”

“No wonder I thought one of the collections looked very different from before.”

“Is it true? Isn’t Xing Hao the cheating ex-husband? Maybe he’s intentionally causing trouble.”

“It’s precisely because of the ex-husband that we know more. I’m almost certain they copied.”

Shen Huai stood up and shouted at Xing Hao, “You’re talking nonsense! How could MU use copied designs?”

The security guards who were maintaining order at the scene rushed towards Xing Hao when they saw Shen Huai getting angry, intending to drag him out of the conference hall.

But Mu Qingyan raised his arm and gestured for them to stop, asking calmly, “Mr. Xing, if you’re so certain that 12 of the new products just released are copied, then please tell us which 12 are copied?”

Xing Hao looked confidently at the cameras pointed at him and said, “One coat, three dresses, two pairs of pants, and one pair of boots from the Autumn Moon series, as well as two coats, two tops, and one dress from the Maple Flower series.”

After he finished speaking, he looked at Mu Qingyan, who appeared shocked and unable to refute him, feeling that he had finally gotten his revenge and was extremely pleased.

But what Mu Qingyan was thinking was, is that all?

Qiao Lengnan, who was standing on stage, was furious. “Where is the evidence?”

Xing Hao took out several initial design drafts and line drawings and handed them to the reporters closest to him, saying, “These clothes are actually designed by designers Fang Yiming and Yuan Youzhi.”

A reporter asked, “Aren’t Fang Yiming and Yuan Youzhi designers at MU?”

“They were, but they’ve been designers at my company for the past few weeks.”

Seeing that everyone’s eyes were on him, Xingh Ho raised his voice a few decibels and said, “After Fang Yiming and Yuan Youzhi left MU, Mu Qingyan instructed Yang Rui to steal their latest designs and use them in the new products released at the autumn press conference.”

“Oh my god, Mu Qingyan is such a person!”

“MU is done for. I just ordered more than a dozen luxury items, I need to cancel my order right away!”

“Thank goodness I turned on my recorder early, I have some big news to write about this time, haha.”

“Mu Qingyan has been in the news a lot recently, looks like he’ll be trending number one in five minutes.”

“I hope the stock price of Mu Group won’t drop. I need to sell it quickly.”

“On site, there were people who were shocked, some who were regretful, and some who were schadenfreude watching the show.

The audience below had a strong reaction, and many people casted unfriendly glances at Mu Qingyan.

However, Mu Qingyan was calm and composed, not anxious or angry.

He looked at Xing Hao with a mixture of disdain and mockery: “It’s really hard for you, an outsider, to remember all twelve products.”

“Hmph.” Xing Hao snorted coldly. He thought Mu Qingyan was just struggling to survive and wanted to ridicule him before he completely failed.

“There are some things you said that are correct. Fang Yiming and Yuan You were indeed poached by you, just last week,” Mu Qingyan said slowly, as if he was only talking about someone else’s affairs. “After the two designers left, Yang Rui did indeed contact them and obtained their latest design drawings.”

Mu Qingyan admitted it so quickly?

The reporter’s cameras all turned to the handsome and calm man on stage.

Xing Hao was delighted, “So you admit it?”

Mu Qingyan pretended to be surprised and sneered, “How could it be? Have you watched too many IQ-lowering dramas, thinking that I’m a silly, sweet person?”

“You!” Xing Hao’s face sank, and he didn’t expect Mu Qingyan to tease him like this.

The audience below were anxious and expectant because of Mu Qingyan’s teasing.

“Mr. Mu, please tell us…”

“Yes, tell us what’s going on?”

Mu Qingyan’s gaze turned into a sharp blade, and he said sternly, “The design drawings were not stolen by Yang Rui, but were deliberately given to him by Fang Yiming.”

The audience below shone with excitement – the press conference turned into a scene from a spy movie.

And, it’s quite exciting.

Xing Hao was not panicked either. He pretended to be calm and retorted, “Ridiculous, you can say whatever you want? Why would Fang Yiming deliberately give his own design to him? Yang Rui is not his disciple!”

Several other designers from other companies below were at a loss, “Isn’t Yang Rui Fang Yiming’s disciple? We all know that in the industry.”

“You see, you obviously don’t know much. Yang Rui has been Fang Yiming’s disciple for ten years,” Mu Qingyan smiled, and it was a naked ridicule, “So what? The disciple stole the master’s design, which is unjust.”

“What’s the point of that? If you’re going to be unreasonable, then I’ll make you convinced.”

Mu Qingyan had Ye Qiqi hand a USB drive to the staff member who controlled the screen. Soon, two people appeared on the big screen, Fang Yiming and Yang Rui.

This was a surveillance video retrieved from a coffee shop.

As Mu Qingyan said, Fang Yiming did give the design to Yang Rui himself.

Fang Yiming said he felt guilty for leaving MU company during such an important time of the autumn release, so he wanted to provide the styles he and Yuan You recently designed, which could help the old employer.

Someone in the audience said, “Did Fang Yiming do it on purpose? If he really feels guilty, why did he leave MU a week before the press conference? He could have waited until after the press conference to leave.”

Others also said, “Yeah, it feels like he’s trying to have his cake and eat it too.”

“After Yang Rui told me about his meeting with Fang Yiming, I found it very suspicious, so I never used Fang Yiming and Yuan You’s design drawings.”

With that, Mu Qingyan clicked the remote control and several design sketches drawn by Fang Yiming and Yuan You appeared on the screen.

At this moment, a designer exclaimed, “These design sketches are not for the new products that were just released.”

Another designer chimed in, “Yes, they are completely unrelated designs, and the difference is night and day.”

“That’s why I said Mr. Xing is an outsider and didn’t realize that we never used these designs,” Mu Qingyan said with a mocking smile, continuing to taunt Xing Hao. “I heard that you acquired a clothing company recently. Now it seems that the future of that company is worrying.”

“How could that be,” Xing Hao said incredulously, considering he had paid a high price to buy off Fang Yiming and Yuan You.

Moreover, Fang Yiming told him that he had already convinced Yang Rui and even told him which styles in the new products were using their new designs.

Did Fang Yiming suddenly turn against him? Or did Mu Qingyan become smarter?

Looking at Xing Hao, who was speechless, Mu Qingyan laughed and said, “Mr. Xing, how does it feel to lose both your money and your wife?”

Xing Hao refused to admit defeat and shouted even louder, “If you didn’t steal someone else’s design, how could you redesign so many styles in just a week? There are no other designers at MU who can design as well as Fang Yiming and Yuan You!”

“Fuck!” Sun Qian, the head of the design department, wanted to punch someone after hearing that.

Mu Qingyan, amused by Xing Hao’s unreasonable behavior, switched the screen to the MU company logo and said, “In that case, please welcome the designers of the Autumn Moon and Maple Flower series to the stage.”

Music played as two young men walked on stage.

One of them was wearing the men’s Autumn Moon series, with a delicate and handsome appearance despite being only in his late twenties.

The other was wearing the men’s Maple Flower series, looking only in his thirties, with a bright and elegant appearance.

There were cries of surprise from the audience, “Fei Zhe! Lucas!”

Click, click…

Reporters rushed to take pictures and ask questions, “Were the Autumn Moon and Maple Flower series designed by Fei Zhe and Lucas?”

“When did they join the MU brand?”

“How long did it take each designer to design these two series?”

Mu Qingyan introduced, “Yes, Fei Zhe and Lucas are MU’s new designers. These two talented designers designed these two new series in just three days.”

“Truly amazing.”

“It turns out to be Fei Zhe and Lucas, no wonder these two series are very different from the previous MU style, but there is a certain inner connection. It’s like the MU brand has undergone transformation, reborn and upgraded to a higher level and taste.”

“Haha, you put it very well.”

After Fei Zhe and Lucas proved Mu Qingyan’s words to be true, they thanked their many supporters and asked the public to continue to pay attention to the MU brand before stepping down from the stage.

“I have to say, Mu Qingyan really has a good eye, he picked Fei Zhe and Lucas.”

“Yeah, he definitely knows his stuff!”

“Fortunately, my response was slow, and I didn’t return the bag and necklace. Xing Hao almost caused me to lose them.”

Back on the stage, Qiao Lengnan asked Sun Qian, “I heard they refused invitations from many big brands before, saying that they only do independent design and only accept brand collaborations, not any brand company employment. How did you manage to get them to our company? You’re really talented!”

Sun Qian shrugged, “Fei Zhe and Lucas came not because of me, but because of President Mu.”

“President Mu? How did he do it?” Qiao Lengnan became even more curious.

“It’s his personal charm. President Mu, after his divorce, is really different from before.”

Sun Qian looked at Mu Qingyan, who was still mocking Xing Hao on stage, and whispered to Qiao Lengnan, “Do you think President Mu calculated all this beforehand and expected Xing Hao to make a scene today? That’s why he made us keep it a secret until today before announcing the new designers.”

Qiao Lengnan nodded, “I think our President Mu has become a bit cunning.”

The man in front of the camera, radiating endless charm and brilliance, looked at Xing Hao and said with a smile, “Mr. Xing, do you have anything else to say?”

Xing Hao’s face turned pale and embarrassed, “…”

Mu Qingyan said, “Since the truth is out, please have the security throw Mr. Xing, who has defamed himself, out.”

Looking at the two burly men propping up Xing Hao, who was already weak in the legs, Mu Qingyan seemed to remember something and said to him, “Oh, by the way, I heard that you coerced Fang Yiming to hand over the design drawings to Yang Rui. Spreading rumors, slandering and defaming are illegal, Mr. Xing. Those who do evil will eventually meet their own downfall.”

The security guards were very obedient, and after carrying Xing Hao to the hotel entrance, they really lifted him up and threw him out of the YX Star Hotel.

Xing Hao fell to the ground and ate mud.

Reporters stationed outside the hotel captured the scene.

Soon, the entertainment news “Xing Hao uses tricks to slander ex-husband Mu Qingyan, fails and gets thrown out of YX Star Hotel” was wildly circulated on the internet.

After the banquet, Mu Qingyan had his driver take him to EVOL Bar owned by Shen Huai.

Shen Huai, who had left the banquet early, welcomed him with a few bottles of champagne and shouted with his other friends, “Welcome our young master Mu!”

The loud noise startled Mu Qingyan awake.

Shen Huai, dressed in colorful clothes, jumped off the table, grabbed Mu Qingyan’s shoulder with his right arm and laughed, “You can’t escape today, we won’t go back until we’re drunk!”

“Okay, okay.” Mu Qingyan smiled and drank a glass of champagne.

A wealthy second generation who often hung out with them laughed and said, “Huai bro, your bodyguard company not only has powerful bodyguards, but also tough security guards. I saw the video of them throwing Xing Hao out of the YX Star Hotel today, it was really amazing!”

Shen Huai rolled his eyes to the sky and said, “It was polite of them not to beat him up.”

Amidst the laughter and noise, Mu Qingyan drank several more glasses.

The group of people stayed at EVOL Bar until half past two in the morning before leaving. Mu Qingyan was already drunk and stumbling when he walked out of the bar.

He didn’t take a few steps before falling into someone’s arms.

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ry’s note: Hello guys, starting from today, my project “Black Lotus Flower Transmigrates into a Dog Blood Novel’s Male Supporting Role” will be updated every day (,,◕　⋏　◕,,).

Enjoy! (ᗒᗨᗕ)

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