Chapter 95

Chapter 95

"Oh no, Mom and Dad already know about you two!"

When Ye Mingzhao received the message from his second brother, he was on set filming the final scenes of the drama. Chu Hengyi was lying on a rest chair playing a mobile game when a message suddenly popped up on the screen, blocking the game view.

In that split second, the hero Chu Hengyi was controlling died.

Chu Hengyi let out a quiet sigh, exited the game, and clicked into the "Brothers in Arms" group chat created by Ye Mingxi, which included him and Ye Mingzhao. Ye Mingxi, finding typing too slow, had already started sending voice messages.

He sent five or six in a row, each one sixty seconds long.

Hearing the constant buzz of message notifications, Chu Hengyi stared at the little red dots at the end of each long message and silently put down his phone.

He thought it wouldn't hurt to check the messages later.

Ye Mingxi, after sending several messages with no reply, started typing again: "Where are you? Ye Mingzhao, are you just watching? Reply quickly, stop pretending to be dead!"

Chu Hengyi tapped out a punctuation mark in response.

The punctuation mark was chosen at random, and only after sending it did he realize it was an exclamation mark.

Ye Mingxi, after a moment, asked directly: "Are you expressing shock?"

"Your shock is way too short-lived!"

Chu Hengyi then sent a full stop.

Frustrated, Ye Mingxi decided to call.

Chu Hengyi, who was on set with Ye Mingzhao, had his phone on silent to avoid disrupting the filming. Even his game was silent, so of course, he couldn't answer Ye Mingxi's call now.

He waited quietly for the call to end, and Ye Mingxi, furious, sent another flood of voice messages.

Realizing Chu Hengyi wasn't going to listen to his voice messages, Ye Mingxi kept typing: "Why aren't you picking up? Not answering calls or replying to messages, where are you fooling around? Don't make me snitch to Zhaozhao!"

Chu Hengyi laughed and quickly replied: "Can't answer, we're in the middle of filming."

Ye Mingxi asked: "If you can't answer, why didn't you just hang up earlier?"

Chu Hengyi: "It's impolite."

"What kind of nonsense is that!"

Ye Mingxi was amused by Chu Hengyi's response: "You're definitely ignoring me, aren't you?"

"Of course!" Chu Hengyi lazily lay on the rest chair, bantering with Ye Mingxi: "Be thankful I even gave you an out."

As they chatted, Chu Hengyi heard a voice from above: "Who are you chatting with, looking so happy?"

Chu Hengyi looked up to see Ye Mingzhao standing in front of him. The autumn sunlight poured down from above, casting a halo around Ye Mingzhao. The young swordsman in a green robe looked down at him, his sharp, clear eyes even more radiant in the sunlight, his handsome features and the faint smile at his lips leaving Chu Hengyi dazzled.

Seeing Chu Hengyi silent, Ye Mingzhao lifted the hem of his robe and sat down beside him. The makeup artist approached with a kit, ready to touch up Ye Mingzhao's makeup, but Ye Mingzhao waved his hand and softly said, "Let's take a ten-minute break."

The makeup artist nodded and quietly walked away.

Chu Hengyi handed his phone to Ye Mingzhao and softly said, "Mom and Dad know about us."

Ye Mingzhao's outstretched hand paused slightly, then he took the phone and began carefully reading through the group chat history.

Chu Hengyi crossed his arms behind his head and said leisurely, "Thanks to those meddling busybodies, we've saved a lot of trouble."

Before Ye Mingzhao could speak, Chu Hengyi added, "Ye Mingxi said that Mom and Dad have directly expressed their support for us being together and even wished us a hundred years of happiness. Do you think our relationship is out in the open now?"

"Once you finish filming, we can introduce each other to our parents, right?"

When he said this, Chu Hengyi chuckled for some reason, got up, and moved closer to Ye Mingzhao, smiling at him, "So, is this meeting your folks or mine?"

Ye Mingzhao ignored him and casually used Chu Hengyi's phone to send a message to Ye Mingxi: "How did Mom and Dad find out about this?"

You know what they say, no one understands a child like their parents. Having been the son of Chairman Ye and Mrs. Ye for over twenty years, Ye Mingzhao understood their thoughts well.

If it weren't for someone running their mouths and even insulting him and Chu Hengyi in front of them, with words so harsh that they angered them, Chairman Ye and Mrs. Ye, given their personalities and ways of handling things, would have just pretended not to know even if they heard rumors. They would have quietly tried to separate them behind the scenes.

"That's so you!" Ye Mingxi gave Ye Mingzhao a thumbs up and immediately recounted how the elders of the Ye family came to their home to plead for Zhou Heting but ended up angering their parents by gossiping.

"Mom and Dad are seriously pissed this time. Mom was furious, not only scolding those people but also having the legal team prepare evidence to sue those parasites!"

"Honestly, they had it coming. Instead of living peacefully, they had to get involved with Zhou Heting. Don't they know that besides Hua Rui, he's the one our parents can't stand the most?"

How could they not know? They were just playing dumb, thinking that Chairman Ye and Mrs. Ye would give in again out of family ties. Unfortunately, this time, their actions had completely crossed the line for Chairman Ye and Mrs. Ye.

Ye Mingzhao had never had any goodwill towards these pushy relatives. When he was adopted by the Ye family, he was often bullied by these relatives. The third uncle who had visited the Ye family last time had even opposed Chairman Ye and Mrs. Ye adopting Ye Mingzhao from the orphanage because he wanted to have his own grandson adopted by them, which Chairman Ye and Mrs. Ye refused.

That third uncle felt that Chairman Ye and Mrs. Ye were favoring outsiders and saw Ye Mingzhao as an obstacle to his grandson's prosperity. During family gatherings, he often used his seniority to talk down to Ye Mingzhao, implying that he was an outsider unworthy of the Ye family's resources. Other relatives were similar, holding a grudge against Ye Mingzhao because Chairman Ye and Mrs. Ye treated him better than their own nieces and nephews.

When Ye Mingzhao worked as an intern at the Ye family business, these people often sabotaged him. Out of respect for Chairman Ye and Mrs. Ye, Ye Mingzhao didn't confront these useless individuals. Instead, he subtly provided evidence of their embezzlement and corruption to Chairman Ye and Mrs. Ye—now it’s paying off.

Chu Hengyi let out a cold laugh. Ye Mingzhao had no goodwill towards these crooked relatives, and Chu Hengyi, after being reborn, had even less patience for them. In his past life, when Chu Hengyi first returned to the Ye family, he knew nothing and was often deceived and bullied by these people. They deliberately stirred up trouble between Chu Hengyi and Ye Mingzhao, and between Chu Hengyi and other members of the Ye family.

In his past life, you could say that the reason Chu Hengyi ended up isolated and driven to suicide was largely due to Ye Mingzhao's schemes, but these relatives also played a significant role in fanning the flames.

After being reborn, Chu Hengyi initially focused his revenge on Ye Mingzhao and the Ye family, ignoring those relatives. But that didn’t mean Chu Hengyi was about to forgive them; he knew these parasites had no real skills and were merely leeching off the Ye family. Once the Ye family business went under, these people would scatter like monkeys when the tree falls.

Not even worth a second thought.

Later, Chu Hengyi was drawn to Ye Mingzhao and unconsciously abandoned his goal of revenge. He no longer intended to retaliate against the Ye family, let alone those overbearing relatives.

Unexpectedly, these people ended up reaping what they sowed, being expelled from the Ye family business by Chairman Ye and Mrs. Ye.

Chu Hengyi laughed a couple of times, feeling quite satisfied.

"No point wasting time on these idiots," Ye Mingzhao casually listened to Mrs. Ye's handling of these parasites and then let it go. He wasn't interested in the downfall of these idiots, but he knew how much Chairman Ye and Mrs. Ye cared about these relatives. If it weren't for their deep attachment to family ties, they wouldn't have tolerated these parasites within the company for so many years.

Zhou Heting, having been connected to the Ye family for many years, certainly knew how much Chairman Ye and Mrs. Ye valued family. That's why he spent a fortune bribing these people to put in a good word for him, hoping to emotionally blackmail Chairman Ye and Mrs. Ye. If their pleas succeeded, Zhou Heting would get a breather; even if they failed, it would damage the relationship between Chairman Ye, Mrs. Ye, and these relatives—though not to the point of severing ties, it would certainly create a deep rift.

For Chairman Ye and Mrs. Ye, who cherished family and tradition, this was like a knife to the heart.

Ye Mingzhao had to admit that Zhou Heting's psychological tactics had indeed succeeded. Chairman Ye and Mrs. Ye were probably truly hurt, hence their drastic measures to expel these parasites from the Ye family business.

But even if Zhou Heting's scheme succeeded, he wouldn't get off easy. Ye Mingzhao would never let anyone who tried to harm the Ye family go unpunished.

However, before Ye Mingzhao could take action against Zhou Heting, Chairman Ye and Mrs. Ye struck first. Inspired by Zhou Heting, they actually approached Zhou Heting's parents and nephews, inciting them to fight Zhou Heting for the family fortune.

If Zhou Heting were still the authoritative chairman of the Zhou family business, the other Zhou family members wouldn't dare to challenge him. But with Zhou Heting being ousted from the Zhou family business board, Zhou Yueze imprisoned, and Zhou Heting repeatedly outmaneuvered by Ye Mingzhao, not only losing his followers but also most of his wealth, his aura as a self-made, infallible tycoon had clearly faded.

The fact that other Zhou family members targeted Zhou Heting wasn't just due to Chairman Ye and Mrs. Ye's instigation; they had long had their eyes on Zhou Heting's wealth.

If the Zhou and Ye families knew each other well due to their long association, then the other Zhou family members, connected by blood, obviously knew Zhou Heting's weaknesses even better.

It's unclear how these people were feuding among themselves, but the latest news Ye Mingzhao heard was that Zhou Heting had been so infuriated by his own parents, siblings, nieces, and nephews that he suffered a stroke and had to be hospitalized.

A stroke and hospitalized?!

Upon hearing the news, Ye Mingzhao was utterly shocked.

Chu Hengyi also found it unbelievable: "I really didn't expect this. Is this what they mean by 'the wicked are punished by the wicked'?"

Whatever it was, Ye Mingzhao, adhering to basic social etiquette, went with Chu Hengyi to buy a bouquet of lilies and visited the patient in the hospital.