FLBCP: Chapter 17

Before Zhao Yao could bring the person home, Uncle Wang called. The atmosphere in the car was quiet. There were only Ji Heyu and Zhao Yao in the backseat.

Zhao Yao answered the phone and spoke calmly, “Let him wait. I’m almost there.”

Yao Bai asked, “Is Uncle Wang calling about what to eat in the evening? Can I have dinner?”

Zhao Yao hung up “Just stay for dinner in the evening.”

Ji Heyu glanced at Zhao Yao. He always felt that Mr Zhao was in a bad mood after answering the phone.

After arriving in the rich neighborhood, Yao Bai pushed the wheelchair in front and was followed by the slightly frightened Ji Heyu. This was the first time Ji Heyu had come to a rich area. He had heard that the house prices in S City were amazing but he didn’t expect to one day go to the boss’ house for two days.

They soon arrived at Zhao Yao’s house. Yao Bai opened the door and noticed the leather shoes left at the entrance. He was a bit stunned. “Is there someone here?”

Zhao Yao looked calm. “Zhao Zhikai came.”

!!!

Yao Bai exclaimed, “Brother, why didn’t you say that earlier?”

Zhao Yao simply changed his shoes. “Would it make any difference?”

Uncle Wang hadn’t called about what to eat in the evening. It was to tell him that Zhao Zhikai was now in his house. Zhao Yao had expected that Zhao Zhikai would come to him but he hadn’t expected the person to come to his door at this time.

In his last life, he was cheated by Zhao Zhikai in the late stages of the Qichen project. In the past, he had believed wholeheartedly in his second uncle who helped him plan against Zhao Changshuo. He hadn’t expected to be used by Zhao Zhikai from beginning to end. His insomnia symptoms gradually worsened during this time. Yao Bai had gone abroad and most of his confidants were chess pieces arranged by Zhao Zhikai in advance. This almost forced him into a desperate state.

Fortunately, he left a hand behind in advance so he didn’t lose his family business to Zhao Zhikai. In fact, the hatred between himself and Zhao Zhikai had actually been settled in his previous life. At the very least, Zhao Zhikai was still in prison when he was seriously ill in the long-term care facility.

Zhao Yao suddenly felt that he wasn’t interested in dealing with this former enemy. The means of a defeated general was like undisguised childish behavior. The hypocrisy of self-righteousness was easily revealed. It was just that Zhao Yao felt a bit curious. Zhao Zhikai was tricked by him at the beginning of his plan in this life. Now there was no one around him who could be used. What else would Zhao Zhikai do?

“Xiao Yao, you’re back?” Zhao Zhikai was sitting in the living room in a formal suit. Once he saw Zhao Yao had come back, he got up and walked over. “Uncle Wang said you have gone for a check-up today. How did it go?”

Uncle Wang hadn’t told Zhao Zhikai the truth about his trip to Huihua.

Zhao Yao handed the coat to Uncle Wang next to him. “Add two more sets of chopsticks and bowls for dinner. Xiao Ji will be staying here for two days.”

Uncle Wang looked at Ji Heyu who had a large suitcase and responded, “Yes, Young  Master.”

Zhao Yao looked at Zhao Zhikai after he finished putting things in order. “Second Uncle, did you come to talk about something? Let’s go upstairs to the study.”

Ji Heyu’s chest was tight with panic. He had an unspeakable feeling as he looked at the kind man he just met. He asked in a whisper, “Was that Mr Zhao’s uncle just now?”

Yao Bai glanced upstairs. “Yes, I don’t know why he came to the third young master at this time.” He had trusted Zhao Zhikai before. It was only after Zhao Yao gave him a reminder that he noticed Zhao Zhikai did a lot of small tricks behind the scenes.

Zhao Zhikai previously had a proud attitude when he wanted to push Zhao Qizhen to the top. Now Zhao Qizhen was useless and he asked his secretary to call every day to make an appointment. He knew that Brother Yao’s legs were bad but still did everything to make things difficult for Brother Yao. Now he condescended to come to the door.

***

The curtains of the study were closed. Zhao Zhikai turned on the light of the study and the dark room suddenly lit up.

“Xiao Yao, I won’t beat around the bush. What did you think of before the meeting? DIdn’t you say you would help me deal with Zhao Changshuo and take him down?” Zhao Zhikai pushed Zhao Yao to the mahogany table and looked down at him. “I remember that you hated Zhao Changshuo. Why did you take the initiative to stand with him and support him at the meeting?”

Zhao Yao smiled when he heard the words. His fingers were intertwined together on his legs but he stared straight at Zhao Zhikai as he spoke in a flat voice, “I don’t want to fight so I can only support him. Did you want me to push up that useless Zhao Qizhen like you did?”

Zhao Qizhen often targeted Zhao Yao. It was like a tickle but Zhao Yao didn’t like Zhao Qizhen.

The atmosphere of the study suddenly fell into a strange silence. Zhao Yao looked at Zhao Zhikai with frank eyes.

The latter looked gloomy as he spoke in a slightly angry voice, “The property of the Zhao family can’t fall into Zhao Changshuo’s hands. Have you ever thought about this problem?”

Zhao Yao looked at Zhao Zhikai without any fluctuations and his words were very direct. “Who should the Zhao’s family business fall to?”

Zhao Zhikai was stunned when he heard this. “What do you mean? If it wasn’t for Zhao Changshuo, your father wouldn’t have been out on a business trip and unable to come back when your mother died of illness.  I’ve been planning for you for so many years but in the end, you made a joke like this and supported him at the Qichen meeting.”

Seeing that Zhao Yao didn’t respond, Zhao Zhikai’s voice deepened. “Zhao Yao, what are you thinking? Do you really want to give your family property to Zhao Changshuo? You are no less capable than him. Your father is very ill and all your performances are likely to win in the end. Now you have ruined this opportunity.”

Zhao Yao wondered, “Is this my chance?”

Zhao Zhikai suddenly thought of something. “Are you talking about how I asked Zhao Qizhen to take your place at the second meeting? Once the Qichen plan fell into Zhao Qizhen’s hand, we could push him to step down due to his bad performance. However, it is difficult to get it back once it is in Zhao Changshuo’s hands. Why don’t you understand my good intentions?”

Zhao Wei calmly looked at Zhao Zhikai who was explaining. The man in front of him was in a hurry but eager to make up for it. He packaged his ambition into good intentions for Zhao Yao. Zhao Zhikai was still like his previous life. Zhao Yao wrote the hypocritical look of a good man while secretly plotting to seize the Zhao Group.

It was ridiculous…

There were obviously many signs but his former self was deceived until the end. Finally, he fell into a dilemma and almost lost the Zhao family’s property. Now thinking about this broken family business, there was nothing to argue over. However, if his father’s things were going to fall into the hands of someone like Zhao Zhikai, it was better to let Zhao Changshuo have it.

After waiting for Zhao Zhikai to reveal his ambition, Zhao Yao looked at his white fingers and asked coldly, “Second Uncle, are you doing this for me or for yourself?”

“What the hell is in your mind?” Zhao Zhikai controlled his expression.”It is simply ridiculous. I won’t argue with you now. Just wait for Zhao Changshuo to deal with you after his hands cover the sky.” He no longer reasoned with Zhao Yao and opened the door to walk out.

After he left, Zhao Yao picked up his phone and contacted EV: Check the use of the assets under Zhao Zhikai’s name.

EV soon replied: Don’t you have a good relationship with your second uncle? Why do you want to check him all of a sudden?

Zhao Yao: Is there not enough money?

EV: Hey, of course it is enough. By the way, I helped you check Zhao Zhikai’s mistress. Last time, my brother took many good photos of him.

Zhao Yao actually didn’t want to get involved with the Zhao family’s mess but after hearing Zhao Zhikai mention his brother, he thought it was too cheap to let Zhao Zhikai go. He didn’t know how long it would take for Zhao Changshuo to get rid of the cancer called Zhao Zhikai but he didn’t mind doing his older brother another favor.

After all, his brother had just sent a team over.

Zhao Yao locked his phone screen and spoke to himself, “Do people’s hearts become different when they are born again?”

***

The discussion in the study broke up unhappily. Zhao Zhikai angrily came out of the study and left. Ji Heyu was sitting downstairs in the living room and saw Mr Zhao’s uncle leave. “He isn’t staying for dinner?”

Yao Bai was looking at files on his mobile phone. His work had increased since Zhao Yao cooperated with Chen Xi. “President Zhao has to manage so many things. How can he have time to eat in our small place? Don’t you see that Brother didn’t even set a bowl and chopsticks for him?”

Once it was almost time for dinner, Uncle Wang pushed Zhao Yao downstairs. Then after dinner ended, Yao Bai talked to Ji Heyu about the work schedule before leaving. Ji Heyu couldn’t sleep in the middle of the night and heard a sound coming from outside the room. He pushed open the door and saw a light from the living room not far away. The sound was coming from the television.

Mr Zhao hadn’t rested yet?

Ji Heyu walked over and found that there was someone sitting on the sofa. Zhao Yao was wearing loose pajamas. He had a slightly tired expression on his face and a heavy paper book on his lap.

Zhao Yao noticed that a person had come. “Is it too loud for you?”

He turned off the sound of the TV.

Ji Heyu shook his head. “It is so late. Mr Zhao, you aren’t resting?” It was early in the morning. It might be normal for a night owl to stay up late but Zhao Yao didn’t look like someone who would take the initiative to stay up late.

“I can’t sleep due to poor sleep quality. “ Zhao Yao spoke while flipping through all the programs on the network TV. He found that he had already seen all the latest relationship shows and he wasn’t interested in other entertainment shows. Thus, he couldn’t find anything suitable to relieve his boredom. “What movie do you young people like to watch recently?”

“Movies?” Ji Heyu sat down next to Zhao Yao. “I haven’t seen many movies but there have recently been many good TV series.”

Zhao Yao looked at him before clicking to the most popular program of the day column. There, the image of Pei Mingzhan caught his eye.

The cursor of the remote control stopped on Pei Mingzhan’s portrait. Zhao Yao hadn’t seen this two days ago. “Is this a new drama?”

There was no such thing two days ago… Drowning?

Ji Heyu had heard about this drama. “It isn’t a new drama. It was a hit a few months ago. It seemed to be one of Pei Mingzhan’s rare drama works and I previously followed it with my colleagues.”

Zhao Yao used to spend all his free time at work and he had never been interested in the entertainment industry, let alone followed dramas. Pei Mingzhan was appearing in front of Zhao Yao more and more often. He couldn’t help thinking that there seemed to be Pei Mingzhan’s figure, no matter whether it was a movie, TV series or variety show.

This guy didn’t have the usual amount of traffic in the domestic entertainment industry…

“Then watch this.”

Zhao Yao directly clicked n. He always had an indescribable sense of familiarity with this person called Pei Mingzhan. He was a bit curious about what Pei Mingzhan was like acting in a drama.

Ji Heyu was forced to stay and watch with him and said dryly, “Okay.”

In fact, he wanted to say that there was no need to be difficult. If Mr Zhao couldn’t sleep, he could lie down and play with his phone.

It was quite late at night. Only the theme song of ‘Drowning’ played slowly and sequentially. Zhao Yao lost a lot of the tiredness on his face. His calm eyes showed a bit of delight like a child who found a toy he was interested in.

Ji Heyu was worried that the atmosphere would be too awkward and occasionally raised a few topics to chat.

Zhao Yao occasionally responded but his tone was as plain as ever.

“Did he sing the theme song? It isn’t bad.”

“He looks a lot younger. It should’ve been filmed two years ago.”

“The plot of TV series is much slower than movies.”

Ji Heyu gradually became sleepy.  Then his eyes swept over the books next to him and he saw titles like ‘Gender Relations’ and ‘Love Strategy’…

He glanced wide-eyed at Zhao Yao who was watching the drama intently. He suddenly felt a sense of bewilderment.

Were the interests of a boss so widespread?

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