Chapter 49

Chapter 49

This fierce pheromone scent—if this had been before, Su Xingze wouldn't have been able to sense it. But after their intimate encounters, Su Xingze could now detect an Alpha's emotions.

He patted Xiaolu's back, soothing the agitated Alpha.

Su Xingze had grown up with Lu Xingwen—how could he not know what he was thinking?

Su Xingze reminded him, "We live in a society ruled by law. Murder is illegal. If you end up in prison, I'd be a widow for life."

"I know." Lu Xingwen held Su Xingze tightly, unwilling to let go, but he couldn't help it—especially at a time like this.

Su Xingze punched Lu Xingwen's chest. "If you know, then don't get any ideas. Ying Ying has done so many wrong things. As long as we find the evidence, we can definitely nail him. Even if he's the Child of Destiny, he can't get away from the law."

"But what if destiny itself is on his side?" Lu Xingwen asked with lingering fear.

Su Xingze said indignantly, "Then this destiny is not only blind, but also heartless! It'll end up destroying itself!"

Lu Xingwen leaned against Su Xingze's shoulder. "Chen Chen, am I being too dramatic? I'm always making you worry."

Su Xingze patted him. "It's fine. I like spoiling you."

He looked up, and Lu Xingwen's lips met his. The two kissed, their pheromones intertwining. The tingling sensation of their tongues reminded Su Xingze of what it felt like during heat, and he couldn't stop himself from shivering.

But in the end, they didn't go further. They just held each other, lying on the bed, basking in the sunlight.

When they woke up, Lu Xingwen was gone.

When he called, Assistant Yin answered, saying the boss was busy with work.

Su Xingze hung up. But Yin Zhi's palms were sweating. He didn't dare mention that the boss was going after the Ying Corporation, because the boss's ruthlessness was basically driving the Ying Corporation into the ground.

Su Xingze didn't have Huo Fuye's contact information, so he couldn't ask how Fu Yao was doing.

He went to Xiaolu to ask for it. Xiaolu gave it to him, but the friend request wasn't accepted for a long time—probably because Huo Fuye had been at the hospital and hadn't looked at his phone.

Over twenty bodyguards had been posted around the villa, with four guarding the entrance alone. Forget about people—even a fly couldn't get in.

But he couldn't go out. He had to stay home, period.

Su Xingze went up to the sunroom on the top floor to read for a while. He still couldn't understand the math, and the English put him to sleep. Bored out of his mind, he lay down to sunbathe.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn't cooperating today. The sun came and went, and it looked like it might rain.

Su Xingze actually liked the sound of rain, especially heavy rain pounding the ground. The sunroom was made of transparent glass, so if it rained heavily, he could lie inside and let it drown out his worries.

Sure enough, it started to rain.

It wasn't a torrential downpour, nor a light drizzle, but the sound of it falling was loud enough to drown out all the noise outside.

Aunt Zhang brought up a hot pot and prepared plenty of ingredients, suggesting they have hot pot to lift the mood.

The pot bubbled and steamed, food tumbling inside. Su Xingze's phone rang twice.

He picked it up—Huo Fuye had accepted his friend request. There was also another person, the source of all this trouble. All of this was because of him.

Huo Fuye hadn't said anything. Su Xingze kept typing and deleting in the chat box. Huo Fuye must be hurting badly too. If he asked now, it would only make it worse.

So Su Xingze opened the other chat window, clearly angry, he typed.

Xingchen: [What do you actually want?]

Ying Ying: [What if I told you it wasn't me? Would you believe me?]

Xingchen: [You tell me.]

Ying Ying: [It's fine. Investigate all you want. I've got nothing to hide.]

Xingchen: [So you just messaged me to say that?]

Ying Ying: [Because you won't listen to anything I say right now. If I asked you to leave Lu Xingwen, would you do it?]

Xingchen: [Of course not. I'm not your lapdog.]

Ying Ying: [Most people don't learn until it's too late. You only trust your own heart without seeing the truth, so you're drowning in it, unwilling to break free.]

Xingchen: [...]

Xingchen: [So giving you money makes me smart? Liking you means I'm true to myself? Just because you're the Child of Destiny, everything you do is right?]

Ying Ying: [Have you ever considered that the people you care about have been lying to you all along? Sooner or later, the world will turn its back on him. And I'm trying to save you.]

Xingchen: [I don't buy it.]

Ying Ying: [You've lost your memory. Don't you want to know what happened in those five years? And the truth about this world.]

Xingchen: [Sorry, not interested. If you ever land in jail, maybe I'll come visit and listen to your stories.]

Ying Ying: [You'll regret this.]

Xingchen: [Do you know why you always fail? Because you're too full of yourself.]

Maybe that pissed him off, because Ying Ying stopped responding.

Su Xingze added some shrimp paste and enjoyed the hot pot with Aunt Zhang while listening to the rain.

*

At Xingze Group, in the office.

All three assistants were present. Lu Xingwen's computer screen kept flashing code, constantly refreshing with new lines.

Wang Xin was dying for a cigarette, but smoking was banned in the office, so he had to tough it out.

Yin Zhi and Xu Xiaoping had dug up a lot of Ying Ying's dirt, compiled it into a document, sent it to marketing accounts, and paid for trending topics.

Most of the content was real; a small portion was fabricated. Assistant Xu had even added some embellishments, with clickbait headlines and content.

In the office, over a dozen programmers were busy working, trying to dig up evidence of the car accident on the Ying Corporation's computers.

But after combing through everything a dozen times, they found nothing—not a trace.

Assistant Yin reported to Lu Xingwen, "No evidence. Not even a scrap of dirt."

"I already guessed as much." Lu Xingwen lit a cigarette in frustration. He didn't usually smoke, but when he was in a really bad mood, he would.

"Because he's the Child of Destiny. Everything goes his way. These tactics can't touch him." Lu Xingwen stubbed out the cigarette with his fingers and tossed it in the trash.

Assistant Yin and Assistant Xu exchanged glances. Child of Destiny? Fortune? Was this still the twenty-first century? What were they even talking about?

Since the boss was smoking, Wang Xin lit one too, grinning around the cigarette. "Why don't I just..." He made a throat-slitting gesture, his brow furrowed.

Lu Xingwen recalled Su Xingze's words and shook his head: "If you go in, what about the cats and dogs you keep? And the kid you picked up."

"The kid's eighteen now, he can take care of himself and the courtyard too." Wang Xin flicked his ashes: "I've never seen you this restless. Back then I owed you my life—helping you out this once should square that debt."

Wang Xin's mother died giving birth to him, his father drank all day and racked up a pile of loan-shark debts. Back then he worked multiple jobs, but the debt collectors always tracked him down—loan-shark interest compounds, so there was no way he could ever pay it off.

Debt collectors chased him, threatening to break his leg and carve out a kidney to settle the debt. Lu Xingwen saved him and even paid off the debt. After that, he worked under Lu Xingwen, and life gradually got better—he was pulling in tens of thousands a month.

"I saved you back then, not so you could go and throw your life away." Lu Xingwen patted Wang Xin's shoulder. "The three of you have been with me from the start—you're my friends, my right-hand men. Don't throw your life away so easily for someone who's done nothing but wrong."

Wang Xin nodded and stubbed out his cigarette.

The document quickly caused an uproar online, hitting the trending searches within minutes.

Next came the waiting—waiting for Ying Corporation to take the hit, for its stocks to plummet, for panic to spread. Then they could create equivalent industry value, sell at low prices, and when Ying's goods piled up and its capital chain snapped, they'd seize the chance to buy up shares, gradually taking control of Ying Corporation.

Lu Xingwen finished his preparations, grabbed his suit jacket, and headed home.

Wang Xin was headed the same way, so they went down together.

On the way, Lu Xingwen got a call, and his expression changed drastically.

"Boss, lately there's been a suspicious figure lurking around the villa, always trying to get inside. Every time we spot him, he ducks into the flower beds, and by the time we look again, he's gone."

"Wait for me to get home," Lu Xingwen said.

Wang Xin didn't go home either: "I'll go with you to check it out."

At the same time, Su Xingze's unease spiked, as if something was about to happen.

He took Aunt Zhang downstairs, hid in the room's bathroom, and told her to stay quiet.

A normal person definitely couldn't get into the villa, but Ying Ying was clearly not a normal person—whether he could get in was another question entirely.

==========Author's Note:==========

Originally planned to update every three days, ten thousand+ words per chapter. Suddenly realized the leaderboard wasn't finished yet, so I'm posting a bit first.

After this, I'll update one chapter every three days, ten thousand+ words each.

(Outline's been organized—about seven or eight chapters left.)

Or do you guys prefer I update daily?