Only the sound of the TV remained in the living room. Chen Jianhong and Chen Shiming’s eyes stopped on Chen Qizhao. Then Zhang Yazhi looked at the father and son in surprise when she came over. “What’s wrong? Have you finished talking?”
“It is almost over.” Chen Shiming opened his mouth to break the silence. “Mom, have you finished explaining the matter over in the kitchen?”
“Yes, I’ve explained it.” Zhang Yazhi looked at Chen Shiming. She noticed that the medicine bowl on the table was empty, and her mood relaxed.
Chen Qizhao sat in the living room for a while, listening to Zhang Yazhi nagging about how to arrange the birthday party on Wednesday. He listened while reading the message sent by Shen Yuhuai. Shen Yuhuai had just arrived home and replied to his message.
[Shen Yuhuai: Didn’t you take the photo at night?]
[Zhao: What did I take?]
[Shen Yuhuai: The one taken before eating.]
Chen Qizhao paused for a moment. He flipped through his phone’s photo album and found the photo he took when the two of them went out for dinner tonight.
The two of them had gone to Huang’s restaurant at night. At that time, he found an excuse to take a photo of the noodles and took a few photos of Shen Yuhuai. There were several photos of Shen Yuhuai hidden in his photo album. Chen Qizhao picked and chose. Finally, he found one of the few photos of the noodles that was quite good and sent it out.
[Shen Yuhuai: Just one?]
[Zhao: Just one.]
Chen Qizhao lowered his eyes slightly and put the other photos into another album. Then when he looked up, he noticed that Zhang Yazhi was looking at him.
“Were you looking at photos?” Zhang Yazhi asked.
Chen Qizhao exited out of it. “Yes. What did you just say?”
“I was talking about how many friends you are going to have come over.” Zhang Yazhi was looking at the guest list.
“It is just Yan Kailin and the others. I’ll send you their VX later,” Chen Qizhao said.
Zhang Yazhi finished discussing this matter, and Chen Qizhao proposed to go back to his room to take a bath and eat.
During this time, Chen Qizhao had gone to bed early. Zhang Yazhi knew that he had been out playing all day. He should be very tired now. “Yes, go quickly.”
Zhang Yazhi continued to watch TV. She was completely uninterested in the work of the father and son. Chen Jianhong’s gaze followed Chen Qizhao until he disappeared from the living room. Finally, he withdrew his gaze and looked at the documents on the desk.
Chen Shiming said tactfully, “Dad.”
Chen Jianhong responded positively. Then the two of them got up and walked upstairs.
Chen Shiming didn’t follow directly to the study. He first called the criminal investigation team of the city bureau. Then he followed his father to the study.
An orange light was hanging high in the study, and documents were neatly tidied up on the desk.
Chen Shiming hesitated for a while after closing the door. “I didn’t tell Qizhao in advance about the ambush at noon.”
Just now in the living room, they talked about the situation of the Gu family. Considering Zhang Yazhi’s presence, they intuitively didn’t mention the ambush in the underground garage of the Chen Group. However, Chen Qizhao naturally listed this incident as the basis for Gu Zhengsong’s actions. Chen Shiming knew that Chen Qizhao had unknown ways and wasn’t against Chen Qizhao’s involvement in this matter. He was just a bit worried that Chen Qizhao would be involved too much.
Following the police to the hotel was risky enough. It wasn’t known to what extent Gu Zhengsong and Gu Shen had exchanged information. It was very likely that Gu Shen already knew that Chen Qizhao wasn’t ordinary. The more things that were involved, the easier it was for Chen Qizhao to be in danger.
Naturally, it couldn’t just be a ‘suggestion’ as Chen Qizhao said. They had learned today that there was a news leakage outside. Chen Shiming didn’t have time to let Special Assistant Xu tell Chen Qizhao the news. However, if the hypothesis behind this suggestion was true, then Gu Zhengsong’s next actions would be critical.
“I’m worried…” Chen Shiming was halfway through speaking.
Chen Jianhong interrupted. “At least now he is telling us about it.”
IF Chen Qizhao didn’t care about this matter at all, or if he wanted to solve it alone, he wouldn’t take the initiative to talk to them. Nor would he express his views in an ordinary way as ‘making a suggestion.’
The father and son didn’t speak. The current situation was actually much better than before.
Some things couldn’t be forced. Chen Shiming thought about what happened during this time. Add up the previous ten years, and it was difficult to consider everything. He couldn’t forcefully make Chen Qizhao say everything. The gap of time was still there. Family relationships couldn’t be achieved overnight. Some things could only be done slowly.
Chen Shiming saw Chen Jianhong, who was sitting in the main seat, and looking at his phone. He paused for a moment before saying, “I called the police station.”
Chen Jianhong looked up. “You’ve worked hard.”
The father and son didn’t stay in the study for too long. After briefly discussing the rest of the arrangements, Chen Shiming left the study. He asked a maid to bring him a glass of warm water. After returning to his room, he arranged other things before having the leisure to reply to the messages on his phone.
It was just that when he clicked into his Moments, he found Chen Qizhao’s Moments from among the Moments of his business friends.
Chen Qizhao only sent a photo that happened to include their family of three in it. Chen Shiming clicked into the photo to look at it for a while before giving it a like. After liking it, he clicked into Chen Qizhao’s other Moments. He was about to scroll down when he saw Chen Qizhao’s profile picture.
Chen Shiming seldom paid attention to his VX profile picture. Even his own VX profile picture hadn’t changed since he started working. For him, VX was a contact online work chat. It was convenient to contact his work partners or business objects.
Now he looked at Chen Qizhao’s profile picture and clicked on it to enlarge it. He saw the mobile phone in the photo and didn’t quite understand the meaning.
Chen Qizhao’s phone was covered with a case, but it wasn’t this type of transparent case… Was it a photo found on the Internet?
Chen Shiming just thought about it. Then after exiting Chen Qizhao’s Moments, he casually looked through a few other Moments. Then he saw the one posted by Shen Yuhuai two hours ago. Some time ago, he had a lot of chats with Shen Yuhuai, and they were all about the Gu family. Chen Shiming rarely saw Shen Yuhuai when he looked through his friends’ Moments. Now that he saw it, he couldn’t help stopping.
There were two children in the Shen family. Shen Xuelan was flamboyant while Shen Yuhuai was reserved.
Shen Xuelan could post three or four Moments a day, either for business dinners or business trips. Each of her Moments contained things she wanted to publicize. Shen Yuhuai was different. Chen Shiming had never seen his Moments. When he clicked in, he occasionally saw professional things. There were very few traces of Shen Yuhuai’s life.
The dish in the photo was Chinese food, so it was probably from when he went out to eat with Chen Qizhao. He simply took photos of the noodles.
The composition was quite good. There was a bit of an artistic conception.
Just as Chen Shiming was thinking, he suddenly saw the mobile phone in the corner of the photo. The phone was placed on the desk and had a transparent phone case. He could see the mobile phone style on the back, so it was clear which model it was.
From the phone style… it wasn’t the phone used by Chen Qizhao.
Chen Shiming was slightly surprised. Whose phone was this? He saw that the background of the dining table looked familiar. He seemed to have seen it somewhere.
Then he soon hesitantly thought of another thing. Didn’t Chen Qizhao go out to eat dinner with Shen Yuhuai at night? Or did Chen Qizhao not go out with Shen Yuhuai and went to do something else…?
The night was getting quieter and quieter. Once it was quiet, they could hear the chirping of summer cicadas outside.
After going out to play all day, he was actually not as tired as Chen Qizhao imagined. He was still very energetic when he lay in bed after taking a shower. His mind skimmed some information randomly. He thought of the scene of them sitting together and watching TV series in the living room downstairs. He thought of the behavior of Chen Jianhong and Chen Shiming when they were hospitalized, and all sorts of strange emotions surged up. Chen Qizhao had an indescribable feeling.
The phone was buzzing. Chen Qizhao casually picked up his phone and looked at it. It was a private chat sent to him by Yan Kailin. He was shouting for Chen Qizhao to watch the large group.
The large group wasn’t very big. It was people pulled by Yan Kailin, and there were only four people in it. In addition to them, only Cheng Rong and Liu Kai were left. Zhang Yazhi said that she wanted to hold a birthday party and asked Chen Qizhao to invite a few friends. Chen Qizhao simply said something in the group. As a result, these people were discussing what gifts to give up all day.
[Yan Kailin: It seems that there is nothing else. Brother, let me give you a pair of shoes.]
[Liu Kai: Why do you give shoes every day? You gave high-heeled shoes to Brother Rong’s girlfriend on her birthday before. I heard that you also gave shoes for Shen Yuhuai’s birthday last time?]
[Yan Kailin: I can’t think of it. @Cheng Rong, what are you giving? Let me copy the homework.]
[Cheng Rong: How can you ask in front of the recipient when giving a gift?]
Before Chen Qizhao finished looking through the messages of the group, Yan Kailin quickly called him.
“Brother, have you looked at the group?” Yan Kailin struggled for a while. “I really can’t think of what to give you. Why don’t you just tell me what you want?”
Chen Qizhao hadn’t really celebrated his birthday in a long time. The meaning of the so-called birthdays in his past life was just to remind him that he was one year older and to remind him that some heinous people were still at large. Seeing these friends trying their best to prepare a birthday present for him now, it was like going back to a carefree 19 year old. He wasn’t thinking about the future but about the present.
“Straight to the point?” Chen Qizhao laughed. “Have you become rich recently?”
“Isn’t that because I performed well some time ago? My brother paid me enough living expenses for the next two months,” Yan Kailin said. “Don’t be polite with me. Tell me bluntly what gift you want. I also have a small treasury. I didn’t catch up with your birthday before. Now that I am in China…”
Chen Qizhao told him, “Then give me shoes.”
“Huh?” Yan Kailin had thought for a long time but couldn’t think of anything. He ran to ask the birthday star. After going around for a while, he returned to the matter of giving shoes. “Should I really give you shoes?”
Chen Qizhao chatted with Yan Kailin for a while. The voice from the earpiece was exceptionally loud, but it didn’t seem so obtrusive when matched with Yan Kailin’s big voice. After hanging up the phone, he looked at the group that was still chatting. He casually said a few words and clicked on his messages to check.
There were so many messages on his phone. He couldn’t go back to his youth to communicate with his college classmates. In the past, he had a lot of college classmates in the group. Now, except for the class groups to receive news and the course groups of various subjects, he didn’t have any other group chats. It was empty and happy. It took him too long to recall the classmates who were with him in college for four years in his previous life. There were only a handful of faces that he could remember.
Their majors were different. Strong students entered a research institute or stayed in school to teach, while other students changed careers one after another.
Chen Qizhao could also be regarded as changing careers. He studied artificial intelligence and finally went into finance.
The lights in the room were on. Chen Qizhao glanced at the bookshelf in the distance, saw one or two professional books, and vaguely remembered what was written in them. He couldn’t help sitting up again. He walked to the bookshelf to pick up the dusty books. He turned the pages and saw the neat and correct handwriting inside. It felt like a world away. His handwriting was indeed like this when he was young.
Now Chen Qizhao’s handwriting was a bit more scribbled. Looking at the notes in the books, he could vaguely recognize the font similar to the current one.
Reading journals was one thing, but it was another thing to read professional books. His foundation was still there. Even if he was tired from other work in those years, some procedural memories were deep in his muscles, just like instinct. It seemed it wouldn’t take too long to read this theoretical knowledge again.
Doing a double major or going to graduate school…
The actual operation was okay, but he had almost forgotten the theory.
It was easy to lose track of the time when reading through a book. He didn’t notice that more than half an hour had passed when he finished reading the chapter.
Chen Qizhao closed the professional book, and his eyes stopped on the glass table that was placed far away on the table. He paused for a while before pouring out a mint from it.
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Thanks for the chapter!
He is regaining his life!
I feel like a CLOWN! I was hoping that other than noticing his brother’s secret dating, Chen Shiming would think something romantic about Shen Xuelan. But no, the most I got was “Shen Xuelan was flamboyant”. I really want to grab Chen Shiming by the shoulders, shake him, and scream “why are you not marrying this woman?” at him.