In the evening, just as Xu Shen was preparing to leave work, the hospital called to inform him that Xu Shiji had just disappeared from his hospital room.
Xu Shen frowned and took the phone from his secretary, personally asking the caregiver on the other end, “When did this happen?”
“About twenty minutes ago. I went into the room before that, and the Old Master was still in bed at the time.”
Xu Shen asked, “Did anyone come to the hospital during that period?”
The caregiver said, “We just asked the nurses at the front desk. Earlier, a woman came claiming to be a member of the Xu Family and said she wanted to see the Old Master. The nurse told her that given the Old Master’s condition, it wasn’t convenient for him to see outsiders and that they needed your approval, Young Master Shen, so they didn’t let her in. Later, she probably took advantage of no one paying attention and took the Old Master away. We checked the surveillance footage too. She was dressed entirely in black and wearing a hat, with her head lowered so we couldn’t make out her face. She used a wheelchair to take the Old Master out of the ward.”
After hanging up, Xu Shen immediately set off: “Go to Jianglong Bay.”
Jianglong Bay was a Xu Family vacation villa in the New Territories, not far from the hospital where Xu Shiji was recuperating.
Xu Shen had deliberately transferred Xu Shiji to the New Territories before because he didn’t want the Xu Family to find him, but if someone was determined enough to have him followed, there would always be a way to track him down.
He didn’t go alone; he also brought several bodyguards, or rather, hired muscle.
The villa gates were tightly shut. Xu Shen had someone ring the doorbell, and sure enough, no one answered. In the end, his bodyguards simply smashed the door open and charged in first.
As Xu Shen stepped inside, a woman’s scream came from within. It was indeed Lin Meina, who had already been subdued by his bodyguards and was sitting on the sofa, unable to move.
On the wheelchair beside her, Xu Shiji trembled all over, shakily raising an aged hand to point at Xu Shen. Dry, hoarse sounds kept coming from his throat, but he could barely get out a complete sentence: “You…”
“What are you doing!” Lin Meina struggled, then looked up and saw Xu Shen, angrily demanding, “What exactly are you trying to do bringing these people here?”
“I should be the one asking what Second Sister-in-law is trying to do,” Xu Shen said. “You took Father out of the hospital without a word. In his current condition, he can’t withstand being moved around like this at all. What are you planning by bringing him here?”
Lin Meina said hatefully, “You beast! You imprisoned and deceived Father-in-law! You even changed his medication to make his health worse and worse, and now you’re pretending here! Father-in-law already knows your true face. Don’t even think about harming him again!”
There was no panic on Xu Shen’s face. He was too lazy even to give Xu Shiji another look: “So what?”
“You beast! Harming our whole family like this… sooner or later you’ll get your retribution!” Lin Meina cursed him aggressively.
Xu Shen said indifferently, “If retribution really exists, not one person in your Xu Family can escape it.”
Lin Meina kept spewing vicious curses. Xu Shen remained unmoved, finding it filthy to listen to, and had the bodyguards gag her and throw her out.
“You and that ungrateful wolf Nic are in this together! The two of you even have some shameless relationship, you’re disgusting, mmph—”
Lin Meina’s mouth was gagged, and a trace of emotion finally appeared in Xu Shen’s expression, as he stared at her coldly: “How do you know about me and Nic?”
Lin Meina glared at him viciously. Xu Shen asked, “Was it that cripple Xu Zikang who told you?”
There was no need for Lin Meina to answer. Xu Shen had already gotten the answer from her eyes.
Xu Zikang had been driven out of the company and the Xu Family in Xu Shiji’s name by him. Now he had nothing, yet he was still thinking of causing trouble for him.
“Go back and tell Xu Zikang,” a mocking laugh rolled out from Xu Shen’s throat, “that if he wants to play, I’ll play with him. Right now he’s nothing but a rat in the gutter. I can take my time slowly torturing him to death.”
Lin Meina was kicked out. Xu Shen had everyone else leave too, leaving only him and Xu Shiji to speak alone.
Xu Shiji’s face was red with anger. He braced himself against one armrest of the wheelchair and stubbornly tried to stand, only to collapse back into the seat in a humiliating mess.
Xu Shen sat down on the sofa, watching him struggle in vain. Only after a long while did he slowly say, “Father, stop wasting your strength. It’s useless.”
Xu Shiji’s face contorted in a grimace, rasping between breaths: “You… you really are…”
“Am what?” Xu Shen asked unhurriedly. “What did Second Sister-in-law tell you? That Nic and I colluded together, and that from the very beginning I only came back to the Xu Family because I wanted revenge on you?”
“Yeah,” He simply admitted it. “There’s nothing wrong with my brain. I remember everything from when I was a child, and I remember it very clearly. I came back specifically to take revenge on you.”
Xu Shiji said angrily, “That was all in the past…”
“It’s not in the past.” Xu Shen cut him off coldly. “I’m not that magnanimous. Unless I see the Xu Family suffer, what happened before will never be bygones.
But I do have to thank you for giving me the opportunity. If you hadn’t wanted to use me as a weapon against your sons and keep them in check, I wouldn’t have been able to come back. There are some things you probably don’t know. I don’t mind telling you about them one by one.”
Xu Shen’s expression held a hint of schadenfreude as he met Xu Shiji’s cloudy, bloodshot eyes: “Your eldest son Xu Zijie was actually killed by his wife. The person who switched his dessert was your eldest daughter-in-law’s cousin. I happened to run into it at the time, so I helped clean up the loose ends and kept the evidence as leverage to threaten your eldest daughter-in-law.”
“Your Third Son, Xu Zikang—you already know about him. It really was a pleasant surprise for me. If that bastard’s parentage hadn’t been exposed at just the right time, you would’ve lost your position as Zhaoqi’s chairman, and I, the acting chairman, would’ve been kicked off the board too.
The photos of your young wife cuckolding you were also sent to your Second Daughter-in-law by me. If I hadn’t angered you into the hospital, I wouldn’t have had the chance to become the company’s acting chairman.
What else? Oh, that kidnapping of yours—”
A deeply sardonic smile curved Xu Shen’s lips: “I know that at first, you planned the whole thing yourself to test everyone else. Actually, me getting stabbed while delivering the ransom was an act too. Nic was the one who turned that fake kidnapping into a real one. Later, the kidnapper you found in the Philippines was fake. Nic deliberately misled you into thinking Xu Ziren had orchestrated the kidnapping, made the two of you father and son turn against each other, and helped me rise to power.”
Xu Shiji’s eyes bulged with rage: “You… you beast…”
“No need to get so worked up,” Xu Shen reminded him calmly. “I know you want to say you can make a will and leave me nothing. It’s useless. In your current condition, even if you make one, it won’t count. Your eldest son is dead. Whether your Second Son gets out of prison depends on my mood. Your Third Son isn’t yours. Other than me, you can’t exactly hand the family fortune to your youngest son who’s still a baby.
Didn’t you always say I’m the most like you? I admit it. I learned this heartlessness and lack of loyalty from you. Or rather, because your blood flows in my veins, it’s simply part of my nature.”
Xu Shiji was once again thoroughly angered into unconsciousness, and Xu Shen had someone send him back to the hospital.
After examining him, the doctor said his condition was not optimistic. He was in a deep coma and might have great difficulty waking again. Xu Shen only said, “No matter what method you use, just keep him hanging on to one breath.”
Before all the trouble in the Xu Family was completely resolved, Xu Shiji couldn’t die this quickly.
The man who had once been arrogant and controlling, treating himself as supreme, could now only lie on a hospital bed barely clinging to life, tubes inserted all over his body as various machines struggled to keep him alive.
Xu Shen stood beside the bed and looked at him in silence.
It still wasn’t enough—
He had waited far too long for this day. It was almost here.
Before evening, the police came to the hospital.
After being kicked out, Lin Meina had been unwilling to let the matter go and chose to report it to the police.
Xu Shen had expected as much and deliberately stayed at the hospital to wait. He handed over the surveillance footage of Lin Meina secretly taking Xu Shiji away and turned the accusation back on her, saying that Lin Meina, as his daughter-in-law, had ulterior motives and intended to kidnap Xu Shiji.
As for Lin Meina’s claim that Xu Shen had switched Xu Shiji’s medication, that was completely fabricated. He hadn’t switched Xu Shiji’s medicine; he had merely had the dosage reduced. There was a ready-made excuse too: Xu Shiji had a bad temper and refused to take his medicine himself, so no one else could be blamed.
Xu Shen was taken back to the police station for questioning and gave a statement, then sauntered out in the end. With the surveillance footage and the testimony of the nurses and caregivers as evidence, it was Lin Meina who was detained by the police instead.
By the time he came out of the police station, night had already fallen.
Xu Shen got into the car, and saw that Brandon sent him a video. In it, a drunken Ma Shouliang had a basin of ice water dumped over his head and was struggling and wailing.
Brandon’s call came in, and Xu Shen answered.
Ma Shouliang’s howls could be heard in the background too.
Brandon said cautiously, “Young Master Shen, we’ve already taught Young Master Ma a lesson according to your instructions…”
“What I said before was to dislocate his jaw and knock out his teeth,” Xu Shen said. “You don’t dare?”
He had specifically sent Brandon to observe, wanting to test just how much courage this new assistant of his really had.
“No,” Brandon said, clearly hesitant. “I’ll have them do it.”
“Wait,” Xu Shen said coldly. “Doesn’t he like calling other people dogs? Then let him crawl on the ground a few times and learn how a dog barks first.”
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A little after nine that night, Zhan Shili drove back to his apartment complex. Just as he parked, Xu Zikang, who had been waiting there for him, appeared and rolled his wheelchair over to the side of his car.
Zhan Shili acted as though he hadn’t seen him. After getting out, he was about to leave when Xu Zikang called anxiously, “Nic!”
He hadn’t known where Zhan Shili lived before, but later went out of his way to investigate it. He had waited here for several days in a row and finally caught Zhan Shili coming home tonight.
Zhan Shili stopped, with little patience: “Third Young Master, I don’t think there’s anything for us to talk about.”
Even though Xu Zikang had known perfectly well Zhan Shili would have this attitude, he just couldn’t accept it: “You’re treating me like this now because my shares have been frozen, I’ve been kicked out of the company, and if I lose the lawsuit, I’ll truly have nothing left. I have no value to you anymore, is that it?”
Zhan Shili said dismissively, “Guess you’re not so stupid beyond saving. What else is there to ask?”
Looking into his eyes, which held not the slightest trace of warmth, Xu Zikang finally became fully aware of just how cold-blooded this man was.
“I told you last time, if you don’t want me anymore, I’d rather die…”
“Then go die,” Zhan Shili interrupted him directly. “It has nothing to do with me.”
He had always been a morally bankrupt person. Threatening him with something like this was nothing but a joke, especially coming from someone like Xu Zikang who no longer had any value to him. Even if Xu Zikang rushed into the road and killed himself right in front of him now, he wouldn’t so much as bat an eye.
Xu Zikang’s eyes were bloodshot. He looked even more disheveled and miserable than if he had been slapped: “Are you really this heartless? Even if you were only using me, at least I helped you. Do you really have to be so cruel?”
“Third Young Master, people need to know their own worth. I’m still calling you Third Young Master right now out of respect. Do you really think you’re still the Third Young Master of the Xu Family?” Zhan Shili lowered his voice, his expression growing even colder. “A useless piece of trash like you—very lucky, back then, that the kidnappers didn’t manage to kill you. You even managed to get a new heart and lived perfectly well. You got off easy.”
Xu Zikang froze. Zhan Shili actually knew. He actually knew about what had happened between him and Xu Shen too.
“…He told you?”
Disgust showed in Zhan Shili’s eyes: “You really didn’t want me to know? Third Young Master, I like bad people, but I like people who are openly bad. Someone like you, who does something and then doesn’t dare admit it, deceiving yourself into pretending you never did it, only makes me sick.”
Xu Zikang gripped the wheelchair armrests so tightly that, under Zhan Shili’s words and the undisguised contempt in his eyes, he could barely hold himself together: “I make you sick… I actually make you feel sick—”
As though he had suffered an enormous blow, tears streamed down his face: “You hate me this much because the person I hurt was Xu Shen. You’re actually taking his side, aren’t you? He could drive you out of Zhaoqi without the slightest mercy, and you still can’t stop thinking about him. It’s not that you don’t have sincerity, you just never had any for me.”
Zhan Shili said indifferently, “You’re not worthy of being compared to him.”
“You think he’s any better?!”
Xu Zikang was nearly hysterical to the point of madness: “Do you know what he’s really like? He dares to kill people and set fires, there’s nothing he won’t do! He and Cai Lihao were clearly on the same side all along. We were all fooled by him!”
Zhan Shili’s gaze paused, his expression growing even colder: “What do you know?”
Xu Zikang’s teeth chattered: “I only did that one thing wrong in my entire life, but what about him?! Do you know what he used to be like overseas? He took a triad boss as his godfather and godbrother. What kind of evil thing hasn’t he done?! Why does he get to stand in the spotlight now? What right does someone like him have to be Zhaoqi’s acting chairman?!”
Zhan Shili pressed him: “What do you know?”
Xu Zikang had indeed investigated Xu Shen’s background. Ever since discovering the relationship between Xu Shen and Zhan Shili, he had spent a great deal of money hiring people overseas to look into Xu Shen. It hadn’t been easy. By some miraculous stroke of luck, the people he hired found an old enemy who had once had conflicts with Xu Shen and Cai Lihao, and only then did they finally uncover a little of Xu Shen’s past.
Unfortunately, by the time he got those materials, he had already been driven out of Zhaoqi and could no longer do anything with them.
Zhan Shili had probably guessed it. His expression turned several degrees colder as he bent down and pressed hard against the other armrest of Xu Zikang’s wheelchair, staring him down: “Listen to me carefully. No matter what he did, it was because you and the Xu Family persecuted him and forced him into it back then. You are the one responsible for all of it.
“You’d better pretend to be deaf and mute and act like you know nothing. Otherwise, I’ll make you wish you were dead.”
Xu Zikang stared at him in shock, and his blood seemed to freeze at that moment.
For the first time, he truly saw murderous intent in Zhan Shili’s eyes; this man wanted him dead.
For Xu Shen, Zhan Shili wanted him dead.
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t/n: Man I rlly need to stock more updates… Sorry for inconsistency this week, I got a lil busy ^^” (reconciliation countdown: 8)
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Continue Reading Ch. 63-69: click me <3
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