BF Chapter 51

At 5:30 P.M., Zhan Shili returned from handling business outside and knocked before entering Xu Shen’s office.

 

The subordinate who had been reporting on the progress of work had just left. Xu Shen looked somewhat tired, but when he raised his eyes and saw it was Zhan Shili, his expression relaxed a little: “You’re back.”

 

Zhan Shili walked over and asked, “Things aren’t going smoothly with Silicon?”

 

Xu Shen shook his head: “They still haven’t responded to the demands Zhaoqi put forward. They’re probably planning to drag this out for as long as they can. The lawyers are preparing the materials for a lawsuit, so there’s still a long legal battle ahead.”

 

Zhan Shili walked straight around behind his desk and reached out to stroke his face: “You look really tired. It’s almost time to get off work. Want to go eat?”

 

Xu Shen tilted his head up to look at him and smiled: “Are you the one making it for me?”

 

Zhan Shili said, “Let’s go.”

 

After packing up their things, they went downstairs together.

 

As usual, they took Zhan Shili’s car. They had only just started the engine in the parking lot when someone suddenly rushed out and blocked their way. Zhan Shili reacted quickly and slammed on the brakes, bringing the car to an abrupt stop.

 

It was Huang Minli.

 

Xu Shen narrowed his eyes and looked over. Huang Minli had already gone around to the passenger side and was pounding hard on the window.

 

Xu Shen gestured for Zhan Shili to wait for him a moment, then opened the door and got out.

 

“Eldest Sister-in-law, is there something you need?” he asked directly.

 

Huang Minli looked agitated as she demanded in a low voice: “Joyce got into a car accident in the UK, was that your doing?”

 

Xu Shen neither admitted nor denied it: “It’s just a few scrapes. She didn’t even need to go to the hospital, it’s nothing.”

 

“So it really was you! What do you want?!” The woman was furious and only barely managed not to completely lose control. The accident truly hadn’t injured anyone, but it had frightened her daughter badly, and she herself had been unable to eat or sleep properly because of it.

 

Xu Shen said indifferently, “What I want, I already made clear to you last time, Eldest Sister-in-law. Your daughter or your lover, you choose.”

 

Huang Minli snapped angrily, “Aren’t you afraid of retribution for doing things like this? We have no grudge against you. Why do you insist on targeting us?”

 

There was only indifference in Xu Shen’s eyes: “I’ve told you before, the moment you chose to help Xu Ziren, you chose to oppose me. As for your daughter, she can only blame herself for being Xu Ziren’s child. If even her own mother doesn’t feel sorry for her, why should I, her uncle, go easy on her?”

 

Huang Minli was enraged: “You!”

 

“I don’t care whether there’s any retribution or not. If there is, let it come,” Xu Shen cut her off directly. “That’s enough, Eldest Sister-in-law. My patience has limits too. Go back and think it through. I warned you last time, I want something truly valuable that can bring Xu Ziren down. If you want to live peacefully with your daughter in the future, don’t even think about tricking me.”

 

Before getting back into the car, he added one last thing: “Oh, by the way, I sent a copy of the concerted action agreement to your email. Sign that too while you’re at it.”

 

He paid no further attention to how ugly Huang Minli’s expression had become, opened the car door, and sat back inside.

 

Zhan Shili glanced at the woman outside, started the car, and stepped on the accelerator.

 

After they left the parking lot, Zhan Shili asked, “How do you know she definitely has something that can bring the Second Young Master down?”

 

Xu Shen said, “A guess. Xu Ziren’s methods have never exactly been clean. This eldest sister-in-law of mine has been with him for more than twenty years. She’s been devoted to him all this time and even killed her own husband for him. I don’t believe for a second that she doesn’t have any dirt on him.”

 

“That makes sense.” Zhan Shili agreed. “You’ve pushed her this far, so she doesn’t have much of a choice anymore.”

 

“I’m helping her,” Xu Shen said faintly. “What good could there be from following Xu Ziren? Anyone smart knows what to choose.”

 

Zhan Shili said nothing more. Xu Shen’s way of “helping people” was certainly too unique, but if he said he was helping, then so be it.

 

After they got home, Xu Shen went to make coffee first, while Zhan Shili opened the refrigerator and took out ingredients to prepare dinner.

 

Xu Shen was standing to the side drinking coffee as he watched Zhan Shili skillfully wash and prepare the vegetables when he suddenly remarked, “Nic, if you were a woman, I’d marry you and bring you home to be the Fourth Young Mistress.”

 

Zhan Shili glanced at him and asked, “What’s so good about becoming a young mistress of the Xu Family? Ending up like the Eldest Young Mistress, driven to kill her own husband and then threatened by her brother-in-law, or like the Second Young Mistress, arguing with her husband every day over the women outside and her useless children?”

 

Xu Shen laughed at that: “Can’t you think of any positives? I’m not like them.”

 

“You’re not,” Zhan Shili said. “Young Master Shen is even harder to serve than the Eldest and Second Young Masters.”

 

Xu Shen deliberately asked, “How am I difficult to serve?”

 

Zhan Shili replied, “You’re difficult in every way. I’ve never met anyone as troublesome as you.”

 

Xu Shen refused to let it go: “Why do you always think I’m troublesome? Isn’t it because you’ve put the most thought into me?”

 

Zhan Shili took the coffee cup from his hand, drank the last mouthful, and said as he set it down, “Good that you know.”

 

After dinner, Zhan Shili went to shower first. Once again, Xu Shen came in halfway through, stripped off his clothes, and walked naturally beneath the shower.

 

Zhan Shili turned around and wiped the water from his face. Through the rising heat and steam, he saw the smile in Xu Shen’s eyes, threaded his fingers through his hair, pressed him toward himself, tilted his head, and kissed him.

 

Their lips rubbed together, and Xu Shen parted his lips to grant Zhan Shili’s tongue access as it swept through his mouth.

 

At times like these, Zhan Shili was always impatient. Ever since he stopped deliberately restraining himself, even a simple kiss had become especially rough and forceful.

 

Xu Shen sensed that his tongue might have been bitten hard enough to break the skin; a tingling itch, accompanied by faint pain spread from the tip of his tongue and soon went numb.

 

Zhan Shili acted wildly, lacing their fingers together and pinning Xu Shen against the cold tiles as he plundered his breath.

 

Xu Shen was panting heavily when Zhan Shili pulled one of his legs up to his waist and pushed into him with full strength.

 

His back was pressed against the tiles, rubbing painfully against them with each of Zhan Shili’s movements. Later, Zhan Shili lifted him completely off the ground and supported him entirely with the strength of his body, making him truly experience both fire and ice at once.

 

The position was too deep, and even Xu Shen, who had always been able to withstand plenty, found it a little too much. Half-dazed and overwhelmed, he muttered hoarsely: “Where did you learn all this? You’re getting more and more skilled…”

 

“So you won’t keep saying I don’t put in enough effort.” Zhan Shili’s breathing was heavy as he bit at his ear: “How does it feel?”

 

Xu Shen laughed breathlessly: “Mn.”

 

Zhan Shili asked, “Mn what?”

 

Xu Shen said, “Very good.”

 

Zhan Shili’s movements became even more fierce. Xu Shen struggled to endure it, broken moans escaping him despite himself as his fingers clawed marks into Zhan Shili’s shoulders and back.

 

The second time was on the bed. Their bodies, which had already been cleaned and dried, quickly became slick with sweat again, as though they had just been pulled out of the water.

 

Zhan Shili kissed Xu Shen, his warm lips traveling downward, kissing every part of his body before finally coming to rest on his fingertips.

 

Xu Shen kept his eyes closed, lashes slowly trembling as he murmured, “It’s a little itchy.”

 

Zhan Shili propped himself up and lowered his eyes to look at him.

 

Xu Shen noticed and lazily opened his eyes: “What?”

 

Zhan Shili reached out, brushed aside the damp hair plastered to his forehead, and gently stroked the space between his brows with the pad of his thumb: “Where does it itch?”

 

“Everywhere,” Xu Shen’s eyes glistened with moisture. “Stop keeping me in suspense, just do it.”

 

Zhan Shili looked at him in silence. In truth, he was the one Xu Shen had kept in suspense from the very beginning. As for that so-called taste of sweetness, he had indeed gotten a taste of it, and now he couldn’t stop.

 

“Nic…” Xu Shen urged.

 

Zhan Shili stopped holding back, lifting his legs and thrusting in hard.

 

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Xu Shen had been busy with work lately and hadn’t been resting well. Once he was completely exhausted, he fell asleep quickly.

 

Zhan Shili left a bedside lamp on for him, got up, closed the door behind him, and went to the living room.

 

He made himself a cup of coffee and checked the time; it wasn’t even ten yet.

 

The call came in. Zhan Shili frowned slightly and answered.

 

The person on the other end opened with a question: “The big boss is asking if our plan can be implemented now.”

 

Zhan Shili said without much emotion, “Not yet. Xu Ziren is still on Zhaoqi’s board. Wait a little longer.”

 

The other party sounded displeased: “Still waiting? You’re not playing some kind of trick, are you? The big boss already told you before not to let Zhaoqi’s asset-sale plan proceed too smoothly. Ideally, their project funding chain should be broken so things get even worse for them, but how did I hear that the agreements for the first batch of sales have already been signed, and that Assistant Zhan contributed quite a lot to it?”

 

Zhan Shili pressed down his growing irritation: “Xu Ziren found out about Silicon in advance, and also knew I had a fairly good personal relationship with one of their senior executives. At Zhaoqi’s administrative board meeting, he publicly questioned whether I had known and failed to report it, and proposed suspending me for investigation. Who leaked the information? If I tamper with the asset sales again now, I’ll immediately be kicked out by them. What do you expect me to do?”

 

The voice on the phone went silent, then turned the tables around, questioning him instead: “How did Xu Ziren know about Silicon? No one on our side could possibly have heard anything beforehand.”

 

“I don’t know,” Zhan Shili said decisively, with no interest in continuing to argue with him. “In any case, this is the situation now. We can only wait and see. I know what I’m doing, and I don’t need to explain every single thing to you.”

 

The other party was very dissatisfied with his tone and warned him: “It had better be as you say, rather than you secretly developing some ulterior motive and betraying the big boss’s trust.”

 

Zhan Shili said, “That’s all.” Without waiting for the other person to say anything more, he hung up.

 

He stood by the window for a while. The lights of the city outside were still bright and steady; the only thing unsettled was his own state of mind.

 

The coffee in his cup had already gone somewhat cold. He drank half of it, poured out the rest, set down the empty cup, and turned to head back to the bedroom.

 

The sounds of the door opening and closing woke Xu Shen. He rolled over, opened his eyes, and looked over, asking in a slightly hoarse voice: “Where did you go?”

 

“Nowhere. I went to the living room to take a call.” Zhan Shili walked over and sat beside the bed, petting his messy hair: “Weren’t you asleep just now?”

 

Xu Shen leaned closer to sniff him: “You’re not being honest. You smell like coffee. You won’t let me drink coffee at night, but you secretly drink it yourself.”

 

Zhan Shili said, “I don’t get insomnia.”

 

“Fine,” Xu Shen had nothing to say to that. “I don’t sleep soundly when you’re not here, the room is too dark.”

 

Zhan Shili pinched his chin: “I left a light on for you and it’s still dark?”

 

“Ah,” Xu Shen lost interest. “Can’t you just play along?”

 

Zhan Shili asked, “Play along with what?”

 

Xu Shen lifted his eyes to look at him, light rippling through them, very naturally assuming the pitiful air of an innocent little white lotus: “Nic, I really am a little scared when you’re not here. Please don’t leave me alone, okay?”

 

Zhan Shili’s fingers tightened slightly, his voice lowering: “Understood.”

 

Xu Shen laughed; Zhan Shili’s reaction was way too funny.

 

After laughing for a while, he completely lost his sleepiness. He sat up against the headboard, picked up his laptop, and opened it, intending to see whether there had been any replies to his work emails from Europe, only to find a new email Huang Minli had sent half an hour earlier in his inbox.

 

Xu Shen casually opened it. Huang Minli had already signed the concerted action agreement and sent back a scanned copy with her signature. From now on, the exercise of the voting rights attached to her Zhaoqi shares would unconditionally align with Xu Shen’s will.

 

Besides that, there was also a photo of several antique vases, along with a voice message in the email: “These were purchased from Chanxin Pavilion Antiques. A few years ago, Xu Ziren spent thirty million on them, and they were all fakes. After he bought them, he had his secretary at the time dispose of them, but I secretly kept them. The owner behind this antique shop is the brother-in-law of Shao Zhenghong, the former deputy director of the Development Bureau. Back then, the person in charge of the land tender for the West District high-speed rail station development project was this Director Shao.”

 

Huang Minli’s voice was cold and flat. Since she had chosen to betray Xu Ziren, she no longer hesitated. Perhaps the day she secretly kept these things as leverage had already foreshadowed that this moment would come.

 

“The high-speed rail station development project?” Xu Shen asked. “Xu Ziren handled that project back then?”

 

“Mn,” Zhan Shili confirmed. “Almost every major real estate company bid for that piece of land at the time, and Zhaoqi ultimately won it for more than forty billion. The Second Young Master was the project’s overall person in charge. He gained enormous prestige on the board through that project, and from then on, almost everyone believed he would replace the Eldest Young Master as Zhaoqi’s successor.”

 

Ridicule appeared in Xu Shen’s eyes: “He spent a fortune buying fake antiques to bribe a senior government official. The way he earned that prestige is how he can prepare to give it all back.”

 

Zhan Shili reminded him, “If this comes to light, the impact on Zhaoqi will also be significant. Even if the boss hates the Second Young Master now, he probably still wouldn’t want to see you send him straight to prison and drag Zhaoqi’s reputation down with him.”

 

Xu Shen said coolly, “You think I’m still going to consider him? I already said before, at the appropriate time, he can get a bit more ill.”

 

Zhan Shili stopped trying to persuade him: “As long as you’ve thought it through.”

 

Xu Shen closed his laptop, turned, buried himself into Zhan Shili’s arms, hugging his neck: “Nic.”

 

Xu Shen proposed a tempting offer: “After I drive Xu Ziren out, I’ll make you CEO. What do you think?”

 

Zhan Shili stared at him for a few seconds, his gaze unwavering: “Up to you.”

 

“This is up to me too?” Xu Shen gave a soft laugh. “Your self-control really is impressive. Even the position of Zhaoqi’s CEO can’t move you?”

 

Zhan Shili wrapped an arm around his waist: “I want Zhaoqi’s chairman.”

 

Xu Shen’s eyes flickered. Zhan Shili said it with complete seriousness. Perhaps he was referring to Xu Shen himself, but it seemed more like a double entendre in some sense.

 

Xu Shen didn’t expose him and instead grinned: “Assistant Zhan is very ambitious.”

 

“Mn,” Zhan Shili didn’t deny it, only asking, “Will you give it to me?”

 

With their lips pressed together, Xu Shen murmured: “Whatever I can give you, I’ll give you.”

 

Xu Shen was captivated by the utter tenderness and affection in Zhan Shili’s eyes at that moment and leaned in to kiss him.

 

With their lips pressed together, Xu Shen murmured: “Whatever I can give you, I’ll give it all.”

 

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t/n: Advance chapters up to ch 68 are up on kofi shop~ ^^ Again, I’ll work on tling some more since my stock is gonna be used up soon, may finish tling up to ch 88 within this week…? My progress is kinda slow…. esp w the whole thing with CG

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Continue Reading Ch. 52-68: click me <3