Chapter 31

Chapter 31

The Zhao family's world turned upside down in an instant.

In the morning, the company was thrown into panic due to a batch of cease-and-desist letters sent by the Yao family's legal team. In the afternoon, the police took several executives and senior managers into custody.

Within less than an hour, the news reached Zhao Jin.

Zhao Jin's tone was calm, as if it weren't his own company in trouble. "Did you ask what it's about?"

Mr. and Mrs. Zhao, who had left in the morning, rushed back in a hurry, their faces grim.

The couple weren't businesspeople themselves, but they were fully aware of all aspects of the family's businesses—the good and the bad alike. They just didn’t know what had gone wrong this time.

Hearing their son's question, they placed all their hopes on him, their son with a natural talent for business.

Mr. Zhao quickly spoke up, "They said there were suspicious activities in the company's business dealings and they needed to take them in for questioning."

As he spoke, he kept his eyes fixed on his son. The family's businesses were all managed by Zhao Jin now; his son ought to know something.

Just as he was thinking this, he caught a glimpse of his eldest son's expression—cold and terrifying, like a poisonous snake in the wild, as if he had thought of someone or something.

A shiver ran through Mr. Zhao. For a moment, he felt as though he didn’t really know the son standing before him.

But in the blink of an eye, Zhao Jin regained his composure, as if what his father had just seen was an illusion. "Help me get discharged from the hospital first."

Upon hearing this, Mrs. Zhao immediately stood up and hurried to her son's bedside. "Do you know who tipped them off?"

Zhao Jin didn’t answer. Instead, he said something abrupt.

"Yao Xianqing likes You Nan. He wants to become engaged to You Nan with plans to marry."

Who is You Nan? The name sounded very familiar.

Mrs. Zhao was stunned, not understanding why her son suddenly brought up this person. Her hand touched the cold clasp of her small bag, and she remembered a test report inside.

The name on the report was You Nan.

The young man who had made her son get erect!

Yao Xianqing likes that young man?

"Yao Xianqing…" Mrs. Zhao wanted to ask what Yao Xianqing's feelings for You Nan had to do with their family company, but she only managed to say the name before her words stuck in her throat.

She looked at her son with sudden suspicion. "Do you like You Nan?"

As soon as she asked the question, it seemed everything suddenly made sense!

She knew a little about her son's temperament.

He had high self-esteem, held grudges, and usually sought revenge on the spot.

Yet, after being kicked in the groin, he hadn’t said a word about making the perpetrator pay or driving them away. This was strange and unlike Zhao Jin's usual style.

But if Zhao Jin also liked You Nan, then it all made sense—why he had remained silent even after such a blow to his dignity.

Zhao Jin didn’t answer his mother's question. He simply picked up the water the nurse had poured for him earlier on the bedside table and took a few sips.

Those few seconds of silence, to Mrs. Zhao, were tantamount to admission.

She now had a pretty good idea. "It seems the Yao family is behind this."

Mr. Zhao, however, wasn’t so sure. With just one sentence from his son, his wife could make such leaps in logic. It felt a bit impulsive to confirm it so quickly.

Still, he didn’t think it was a bad thing to go up against the Yao family now.

"Most of the Yao family's business overlaps with ours. Over the past few years, both families have been trying to advance further. But our strengths have been too evenly matched, and we’ve been at a standoff for some time."

Mr. Zhao pulled out his phone to send messages to his contacts. "Now might be an opportunity."

"Right, right!" Mrs. Zhao nodded in agreement, suddenly breaking into a smile. "Even if we set aside the conflict between our two families for now, Mom still has to help you get You Nan for you."

Zhao Jin's hand paused, and he pretended not to understand as he looked at his mother.

His mother took out a report from her designer handbag—You Nan's sonogram report.

She carefully placed the report in front of her son, unable to contain her excitement.

"You Nan can get pregnant. He can carry your child."

Although there was already one in You Nan's womb, it didn’t matter.

They could just terminate the current pregnancy.

She couldn’t have any more children herself, and Zhao Jin's condition was also a medical issue. She had thought the Zhao family had no hope left. But unexpectedly, they had met a man who could get pregnant—and what’s more, one who could make her son erect again.

It seemed fate was on their side.

Seeing that his parents had made up their minds, Zhao Jin felt a surge of annoyance.

He knew what his parents would do next, but he didn’t want to interfere.

Zhao Jin didn’t bring up getting discharged from the hospital again.

He looked at his mother, letting a flash of shock at You Nan's pregnancy show on his face—just enough for his mother to notice.

Zhao Jin placed his cup down, his voice softening a bit. "Mom, Dad, I’m a little tired."

Mr. Zhao immediately stood up. "Alright, rest well. We’ll come see you tomorrow."

.

That afternoon, the police had taken many people from the company into custody, including You Nan's direct supervisor.

The entire company was left without leadership.

Zhao Jin hadn’t come in today, and with none of the management present, no one focused on their work. Anxiety gripped everyone, fearing the Zhao company might suddenly go bankrupt on this otherwise ordinary afternoon.

But none of this had much to do with You Nan. While he was working, an HR representative walked in and called everyone out of his office, one by one.

"I'm sorry, but some of your conduct and statements in the company have negatively impacted our reputation. Therefore, the company has decided to let you go."

"What?! You’re firing me? No, no! I have a mortgage and car loans. I can’t afford to lose this job!"

"I'm sorry, but this isn’t something I have the authority to decide. I can only say I'm sorry about your situation. Also, the company will not compensate you with a severance package."

"Why?! This is a dismissal. If you don’t compensate me, I can file for labor arbitration!"

"The original employment contract you signed clearly states this. You can look over the agreement you signed yourself. Causing negative impact to the company results in dismissal without compensation. In fact, the company can even sue you for financial damages."

"Of course, if you still wish to file for arbitration, we are prepared to respond at any time."

Similar conversations were happening with other employees.

The HR department was swamped with work, conducting meetings back-to-back with employees.

They had a list in hand, and everyone was in the know.

Not a single person who had spread rumors in the group chat was left out.

When one person returned to the office, looking glum while packing their things and leaving, You Nan only shot them a surprised glance.

But as more and more people left one after another, things started to feel off.

By the end, the entire office was left with only You Nan and a few other colleagues who kept to themselves and liked peace and quiet.

These colleagues were puzzled, but they all had a wild guess in their minds, though no one dared to voice it. They could only keep trying to talk themselves out of it.

The company had fired so many people all at once. It couldn’t be that they had all done something wrong together, could it?

Some sharp ones began to realize something.

Everyone who left the office had been in that small group chat where they had bad-mouthed You Nan. They were also the ones who had spread those nasty rumors about him.

That morning, they had all been huddled together, talking about the legal notice from the Yao Group, trying to figure out what to do, and by the afternoon, they were all gone.

If anyone thought these two things weren’t connected, they wouldn’t believe it.

Meanwhile, at another company, an intern who had just started two days ago was following behind a senior colleague, getting the hang of things.

This company’s perks were even better than the previous Zhao company he had worked at. It was still arranged by his teacher.

After he went back that day, he had dramatized what went down at the company to his teacher, who became furious, sympathized with his experience, and promised to hook him up with better opportunities.

After all, the student was one he had referred, and he had trusted Zhao’s company, but they had betrayed that trust and mistreated his student.

This made the teacher feel guilty, so he offered a good connection he had on hand to make up for it.

Too bad for his other student.

The intern accepted it happily, without a hint of guilt or hesitation.

He was happily thinking about his probationary salary of over 6,000 yuan and was about to punch out when someone called out to him.

It was his supervisor.

"Ms. Zhang! What did you need me for?" the intern asked, thrown off. Surely, they wouldn’t have him pull overtime after just two days on the job.

Ms. Zhang could tell what he was thinking. Her expression was serious, and her tone wasn’t her usual warm self when speaking to him. "Don’t worry, I’m not asking you to stay overtime. You’ve only been here two days. Even if we needed overtime work, we wouldn’t put someone at your level on overtime."

Hearing this, the intern’s face fell. He felt called out in front of everyone and was resentful, but since she was his supervisor, he didn’t have the guts to talk back.

The intern followed Ms. Zhang into her office and only then found out that he was getting canned.

"That’s the deal."

After Ms. Zhang finished speaking, her expression was stone-cold. "We’re now aware of everything you did at the previous company. I assume the legal notice has already been sent to your email. You can check it when you go home tonight."

"That’s all," Ms. Zhang stood up, not wanting to say anything more. As a woman who had climbed to a high position herself, she had experienced plenty of gossip and rumors, so she deeply despised those who spread them. She had no respect for people who had no skills and only knew how to run their mouths off. "You can go now. Come back tomorrow to return your elevator card and employee badge to HR, and then you don’t need to come back."

The intern was in a daze, totally shell-shocked by what he had just heard.

You Nan had actually got lawyers to go after everyone who spread rumors about him at Zhao’s company?

Was he crazy?

And Zhao’s Group had agreed? No way!

You Nan was just someone who relied on his looks to curry favor with others. How could President Zhao possibly fire so many people for him? How much compensation would they have to pay!

The intern couldn’t believe it. Even after returning to his rented apartment, he still couldn’t wrap his head around it.

But little did he know, there was even more despair waiting for him.

His teacher called him and cut to the chase: "I’ve already heard about the terrible things you did at Zhao’s! Not only did you not tell me, but you also lied to me and deceived me. You’ve stirred up drama between me and Zhao’s company, as well as your current company."

"You’re so selfish! This opportunity was originally meant for your senior. I was too kind in helping you, and I’ve wronged your senior. Now I have to make amends for my other students. From now on, I don’t want you as my student. Find another advisor for your capstone project!"

The teacher hung up immediately after speaking, giving the intern no chance to defend himself. He was also kicked out of the teacher’s group chat and blocked from rejoining.

The intern was totally floored.

He had already completed half of his capstone project. How could he change advisors at this point? If this news got out, what teacher at the school would still be willing to take him?

The intern was finally scared. He desperately tried calling his teacher, but the calls wouldn’t go through—he had been blacklisted.

The intern then opened his computer and saw the legal notice from the Yao Group and the notice from Zhao’s Group in his email.

Panicking, he hurriedly opened the school’s forum, hoping to search for posts with advice on how to handle the situation.

But to his surprise, as soon as he clicked in, he saw a hot discussion thread at the top: "Spill the Tea On That Student Who Pulled Strings Twice to Get Job Offers from Two Listed Companies."

The intern’s hand froze. He stared wide-eyed at the post.

Could it be that the person this post was talking about was him?

His hand trembled uncontrollably as he clicked into the post.

The first post by the thread starter directly revealed his major, class, and year.

In the second post, the starter provided concrete receipts.

They posted the exam rankings of all students in that major over the past three years.

"L2 (OP): Realistically speaking, his grades are only mid to low in his year. So, I have no idea how he managed to sweet-talked his teacher into getting the first internal referral offer. Then, after causing trouble at the first company, he hid the truth, came back, muscled out his own senior, and got a second offer."

"L3: Damn! That’s so sketchy! I’d be so pissed if I were the senior!"

"L4: I think I know who it is! I’m in the same class. We all have each other on WeChat, so I can see his moments. Ever since he got into that big company, he’s been posting every day, showing off. Either posting about coworkers treating him to milk tea or sharing some corny motivational posts about hard work and choices leading to a better self. Who would’ve thought he got the offer like this? It’s a whole new level of audacity."

"L5: Wow! He’s such an asshole! This clearly isn’t something he earned, and he had the nerve to accept it. Isn’t he afraid karma will bite him back?"

"L6 (OP): There’s more tea! About why he was fired from the first company! It’s because he was bullying coworkers there! After he was kicked out, he badmouthed and stirred up drama among colleagues. Then he came back, hid the truth, cried to the teacher, and got a second offer!"

"L7: Damn! What a villain! Bullies should just drop dead!!!"

The comments were filled with condemnation.

The intern read the furious comments, his hand shaking uncontrollably as he held his phone.

It’s over. He’s done for!

He lost his job, his graduation prospects are uncertain, and now his reputation at school is completely ruined. His classmates will soon piece together the clues and identify him.

What should he do now?

The original poster of that thread must be his senior from his program.

The intern broke down, burying his face in his hands.

If he had known that speaking recklessly and bullying others would lead to such consequences, he would never have done it.

He regretted it.

He truly regretted it!

.

Qi Yuwen hadn’t left after work hours; he stayed late with the HR colleagues.

Only after all the employees on the list had been terminated did everyone breathe a sigh of relief.

"With so many employees fired today, we’ll probably need to hire a lot of people later."

The HR department was already getting energized.

Unlike the usual process of selecting the best from a pool of outstanding candidates, large-scale recruitment only requires hiring a group of qualified candidates, without too much effort.

With so many positions now vacant, the boss would likely hire more experienced new employees with slightly higher salaries.

Higher salaries would attract more applicants, making it easier for the HR department to meet their hiring quotas.

Qi Yuwen saw what they were thinking and smiled.

He rested his hand on the back of the chair.

On the ring finger of his left hand, he wore the ring he had privately bought before marrying You Nan.

Before You Nan divorced him, he had hardly ever worn it. But after the divorce, Qi Yuwen dug it out from an out-of-the-way corner and started wearing it alone.

The matching ring that belonged to You Nan sat alone in its box, unclaimed by its owner.

Qi Yuwen’s gaze fell on the ring, and he forcibly suppressed his longing for You Nan, speaking to his colleagues, "The recruitment process ahead won’t be easy. We'll all need to put in the work."

"No sweat, Qi bro! It’s not hard at all!"

"But it’s good that things were handled this way. After You Nan left, some people were still gossiping behind his back. Well, this is what they deserved for gossiping."

"Alright, don’t be angry. Anyway, they’ve received legal notices. They’ll probably have a hard time finding good jobs in the future, so it doesn’t matter."

The HR employees had no sympathy for these people.

No one wanted to work in a toxic workplace. Before the rumors spread, the work atmosphere was quite good, and the HR department often interacted with the accounting and other departments.

You Nan was a longtime staff member at their hotel, and they had a good relationship with him.

When the rumors emerged, they didn’t believe them.

You Nan was clearly a decent guy—how could he possibly have that kind of illness?

Sure enough, the truth matched their instincts.

Thankfully, the matter was finally resolved. The best part was the mass-sending of legal notices—it was such a powerful move! It was also You Nan’s explanation and forceful rebuttal.

If anyone really thought he was improper, they could take it to court.

That kind of attitude was just badass!

Qi Yuwen listened to his colleagues discussing You Nan, the corners of his lips twitching into a smile.

But there was little actual warmth in his eyes.

He knew who had helped You Nan.

It wasn’t him, but someone he had once loved and no longer did.

A young girl, chatting with a coworker nearby, shouldered her bag and turned off the lights. When she looked up, she noticed Qi Yuwen still standing motionless inside, lost in thought, with clear loneliness and what seemed like a tinge of regret on his face.

The emotion was too faint, and the girl wasn’t sure if she was imagining it.

She interrupted Qi Yuwen’s thoughts, "Um, Qi bro, I’m turning off the lights. It’s time to go."

Qi Yuwen snapped back to attention and looked up, realizing he had been so absorbed in thoughts of You Nan that he hadn’t noticed the changes around him.

"Alright, I’ll head back too. See you tomorrow."

Qi Yuwen smiled.

The girl responded, withdrawing her gaze from Qi Yuwen. She felt his smile was strained, hiding a hint of bitterness.

.

In the month before You Nan left Zhao’s company, he was mainly tying up loose ends and training an intern.

This intern was much better than the previous one.

He was quiet, had a good memory, excellent grades, and was top-ranked among students from a prestigious university.

You Nan couldn’t help but admire his talent.

This made the intern feel awkward.

Every time You Nan praised him, he could tell it was sincere and heartfelt. It always made him a little shy, so he kept to himself and focused on learning more from You Nan.

By the time You Nan was about to leave, he was nearly three months pregnant.

He was tall and slender, and his small bump was quite noticeable. However, as the weather grew colder, he wore thicker clothes, making it less obvious.

But this didn’t apply to the intern, who was always around him and observed him closely.

"You Nan bro, have you put on weight recently? I noticed your belly is a bit protruding."

The intern looked at You Nan’s slightly rounded stomach, feeling an urge to reach out and touch it.

His hand was lightly slapped away, and he realized he had almost touched You Nan without realizing.

You Nan pushed himself back with his foot, causing his swivel chair to roll back slightly, putting space between him and the intern.

He had promised Yao Xianqing, and Yao Xianqing had promised him. They had an agreement: no matter who they were with at work, they had to think of the other and maintain a certain distance from others, adhering to the principles of "male virtue."

"Don’t touch my belly," You Nan said in a joking tone. "I’m not used to others touching me; it tickles."

The intern pulled back his hand with some regret. "Oh, I see."

A moment later, he heard You Nan ask quietly, "Is my belly really that noticeable?"

"Oh, it's all because I've been eating way too well at home lately," You Nan explained deliberately.

But that statement was true.

Yao Xianqing had resumed sexual activity three months ago and, unexpectedly, conceived immediately—just one time and he had to hold off for three months.

For these three months, Yao Xianqing had been holding him every day, almost practicing extreme self-control. He’d take a shower before bed each night, then get up alone for another one around midnight.

At first, You Nan found it amusing and laughed about it, but later he started feeling sorry for the other man. Especially now that the weather had turned cold, taking a shower in the middle of the night was a real chore.

Fortunately, as they approached the three-month mark, with the pregnancy a bit more stable, they could finally do something about it.

He couldn’t resist Yao Xianqing’s wheedling and let him scratch that itch a little.

But then he suffered for indulging the man’s pleading.

Too much nighttime activity tends to make one hungry.

Hunger leads to midnight snacks, and midnight snacks lead to weight gain.

However, all that energy seemed to go straight to the baby—You Nan’s limbs remained as slim as before, with no noticeable change.

The intern exclaimed with a mix of awe and envy, "That’s great. I just wonder where you live, You Nan? I’d love to be your neighbor. That way, if we ever feel like grabbing a meal late at night, we could go out together—partner up!"

You Nan let out an awkward, dry laugh, not daring to respond to this "partner up" invitation.

He was afraid Yao Xianqing might catch wind of it.

The intern risked nothing, but if the man found out, it would be You Nan who’d face the consequences.