NOVEL NEXT Chapter 25.1: Even Tenfold? (1)
Naturally, Bai Zhou didn’t believe Song Shiyu. He sneered, “How would you not know the whereabouts of someone who took care of you for an entire night?”
The two of them met eyes once more. One had a fake smile and the other a look of contempt. With this, the two of them parted ways.
Bai Zhou grabbed a cup of champagne before finding a place to camp till his father’s chief secretary returned. It was just that someone of his identity was bound to be in the center of attention. Eyes were on him from the moment he made an entrance.
While Bai Zhou was irritatedly dealing with them one by one, Song Shiyu was not faring any better.
It was at this moment that Cen Xiangyang made his entrance.
Bai Zhou didn’t notice him at the start. It was only when a woman beside him asked “Is that young man snapping our photos” that he casually turned his head to take a look.
The arrogant young master Bai of course didn’t recognize Cen Xiangyang.
Cen Xiangyang’s fringe drooped a little as he tilted his head down to type on his phone. His neat features and cleanly shaven lower jaws gave him a mild appearance. He looked like the typical good student, the type which Bai Zhou was completely uninterested in.
Bai Zhou was about to turn his gaze away when the latter suddenly finished typing and raised his head.
Upon noticing Bai Zhou’s gaze, Cen Xiangyang smiled at him.
Bai Zhou couldn’t really describe what was wrong with that smile, but he suddenly felt a strong feeling of discomfort, nearly shuddering even. However, his pride forced him to keep his poise, and he responded with a provocative smile.
Cen Xiangyang innocently tilted his head before turning his eyes in Song Shiyu’s direction.
Bai Zhou subconsciously directed his gaze over too, only to find that Song Shiyu was staring at Cen Xiangyang.
This queer interaction brought an epiphany to Bai Zhou: He must be the man whom Ji Fanyin was with earlier.
Bai Zhou assessed Cen Xiangyang from head to toe and came to an evaluation: A weakling, just like Song Shiyu. Ji Fanyin’s has horrible taste in man.
“Young master Bai.” The elusive chief secretary finally made his appearance. “Please come with me.”
Bai Zhou tore his attention away from Cen Xiangyang and asked impatiently, “Can I leave after meeting those two?”
To him, Cen Xiangyang and Song Shiyu were of secondary concern here. His priority was to quickly finish up whatever he had to do here so that he could rush home to game with Ji Xinxin.
“Yes, you’re free to leave afterward,” replied the chief secretary with a smile. He gestured for Bai Zhou to follow him to a more private location.
Bai Zhou followed the chief secretary’s lead with his hands in his pocket. He couldn’t help but wonder: Just who am I meeting that requires such secrecy…
It was then that the chief secretary came to a halt and pushed a door open.
In the room were a woman and a teenage boy, who appeared to be a high schooler. They were sitting side-by-side on a sofa.
Bai Zhou recognized the woman right away.
She was his father’s mistress… one of them.
This clue made it easy for him to figure out the identity of the teenage boy too.
Bai Zhou’s footsteps screeched to a halt. He turned to the chief secretary and bellowed, “My father told you to bring me here in order to meet them? What does he mean by this?!”
“It’s just a meeting,” replied the chief secretary as he calmly propped his glasses up. “There are too many people out here. Let’s talk inside.”
Bai Zhou threw him a nasty ‘I’ve nothing to say to them’ expression and stomped off.
The chief secretary raised his hand to block Bai Zhou’s path and said, “Young master Bai, you have nothing to worry about. You’re the only successor to the Bai Family.”
The infuriated Bai Zhou threw a punch into the chief secretary’s face without any warning, sending the latter’s glasses flying across the room.
It stirred a huge commotion, drawing many eyes over.
Bai Zhou shot a deathly glare at the mother and son inside the room before striding off, not paying any heed to the chief secretary.
“Young master Bai,” the chief secretary quickly called out to him. “This is your father’s will.”
Bai Zhou turned his head around and sneered coldly, “I’ll call my mother to see what she thinks about this.”
“Your mother has already given her consent,” the chief secretary said with a hushed voice.
Bai Zhou’s face immediately froze up.
“It’s a mutually beneficial exchange. You should try to understand it too.”
Bai Zhou slowly turned his eyes back into the room. The two people inside had stood up at some point and were currently walking to the doorway.
Bai Zhou didn’t even want to look at the woman’s face, but he could see the teenage boy standing in front of his mother protectively, warily staring at him like a young beast.
The chief secretary raised his hand to stop the mother and son from walking any further, “You have to stay inside.”
“… Exchange, you said? That means that my mother also…” murmured Bai Zhou.
The chief secretary didn’t refute Bai Zhou’s guess. “This will not affect your inheritance. The two of them have already agreed on it.”
The term, ‘mutually beneficial exchange’, left Bai Zhou feeling indescribably queasy. It felt even more disgusting than Cen Xiangyang’s smile.
He quietly raised his arm toward the chief secretary.
The chief secretary hesitated for a moment before handing Bai Zhou’s phone back to him. “Please calm down a little before you call your parents to talk to them about this matter.”
“Talk to them about this matter?” sneered Bai Zhou. “I reckon that they’re too busy with their ‘mutually beneficial exchange’ to even talk about this! I’ll find someone else who will come at my beck and call instead.”
He tapped into his contacts and scrolled down. He stopped at Ji Xinxin’s name for a moment, but in the end, he still chose the name directly above it—Ji Fanyin.