DLRAS Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Look up Chen Wengang

A black Rolls-Royce Ghost was parked in the underground garage.

Yu Shanding attentively opened the car door for Huo Niansheng.

Then he circled around to the other side, got in, and rubbed his smooth bald head.

The driver in the front seat was professional, so quiet it was as though he did not exist at all.

Huo Niansheng absentmindedly played with his phone. “Go on. What is it?”

Yu Shanding leaned closer and lowered his voice mysteriously. “Someone got hold of a video that’s bad for He Jiajun. It’s about what happened tonight. He bullied a waiter in a restaurant and it was filmed—one of the waiter’s coworkers took it. They contacted a reporter and want to offer the tip as a scoop. It just so happens that reporter knows us, so he asked first whether this story should be published.”

“Let me see.”

Yu Shanding pressed play.

The footage had been taken in a local high-end members-only restaurant. The angle was very hidden, but it clearly captured He Jiajun acting arrogant and overbearing. He made things difficult for a waiter, who had no choice but to crouch on the floor and pick up shattered glass piece by piece with bare hands.

The video lasted about five minutes.

There were also two photos—close-up shots taken afterward. The waiter’s hands had been pierced until they were covered in blood.

After watching, Huo Niansheng showed no reaction. “Can you believe this? Someone surnamed He is still this stupid.”

He had never been on good terms with the He family. Yu Shanding echoed him, “Isn’t that so? This He Jiajun—some old hit-and-run case of his was recently dug up again, and people online have been cursing him nonstop. He really doesn’t know how to restrain himself. If he were my son, I’d break one of his legs first.”

Then he explained the whole sequence of events to Huo Niansheng—

The waiter had not even provoked He Jiajun. He had simply been unlucky.

He Jiajun had first gotten into an argument with another table of diners. The two tables had argued fiercely, emotions ran high, and one of the other diners smashed a bottle, spilling glass marbles all over the floor. That caused He Jiajun to slip and hit his head. He was dazed from the fall, and by the time he recovered, the people truly responsible had already slipped away. With all that pent-up anger and nowhere to vent it, he accused the restaurant of having safety hazards and grabbed someone to take it out on, forcing him to pick up the shards.

According to the reporter, that was the whole situation.

Yu Shanding was just relaying the message and waiting for Huo Niansheng to decide.

But Huo Niansheng tapped one of the photos on the phone. “That’s all?”

Without waiting for an answer, he gave a cold laugh. “Half-hidden, half-covered, and you’re only showing me half the story. What exactly are they expecting me to say?”

The familiar reporter did not work for any serious media outlet, just an entertainment tabloid. Yu Shanding knew their methods well too—reports had to grab attention above all else, and they especially loved making a spectacle out of disputes involving rich people. The reporter had even already sent Yu Shanding the draft headline they planned to use.

Two rich young masters fighting over a woman, the powerful clashing while the little people suffered, innocent service staff dragged in and harmed—sounded tragic enough.

But now Yu Shanding did not dare repeat it word for word. He gave a dry laugh. “Still can’t hide anything from you. I already told them to send over the earlier surveillance footage so we can see what really happened. The restaurant definitely has it. They probably just can’t easily get access to it since they’re leaking this on their own. I’ll push them again.”

Ten minutes passed with no movement, so Yu Shanding waved a hand and told the driver to get on the road.

Another half hour passed, and they were almost at their destination when the other side finally sent over an additional surveillance clip.

It really did differ from the reporter’s version. The earlier diners clearly had only been unable to endure the harassment anymore—they had not fought with He Jiajun in any direct way, and there was nothing to suggest jealousy or romantic rivalry.

Yu Shanding made his judgment immediately. “I’d say these two little waiters are trying to gamble on this. After getting caught up in something like this, they were smart enough to realize that if they could stir up public attention and force the He family to pay some compensation, then their suffering wouldn’t be for nothing. They might even get more than they’d make from working for years. Sure, they probably won’t be able to stay on at the restaurant after this, but if they get the money, who still needs to stay and serve people?”

Leaking the matter first into Huo Niansheng’s orbit was probably the reporter’s idea of the smart route. If they could find someone willing to shield them, then they would dare say anything.

Huo Niansheng’s eyes remained cool and indifferent as he monopolized Yu Shanding’s phone, pausing the clip on a particular frame to look at it closely.

Yu Shanding had no idea what he was studying. The surveillance camera had been mounted high up, so the angle was wide, the image blurry, and on a phone screen everyone in it looked especially tiny, their faces indistinct. Yu Shanding could only tell which one was He Jiajun.

But Huo Niansheng asked, “Boss Yu, look familiar or not?”

Yu Shanding leaned over, squinting for a long time before he finally vaguely guessed who Huo Niansheng meant.

He was startled.

He still remembered Chen Wengang. And in the footage, Chen Wengang had brought along a pretty young girl.

“All the ugly business of these dutiful sons and worthy grandsons of the He family—publish it if you want.” Huo Niansheng smiled without warmth. “I enjoy watching it. But don’t let them write nonsense.”

Yu Shanding understood immediately and called the reporter right there in front of him.

Resting his head on one hand, Huo Niansheng listened to them bargain—

“You media people should at least care a little about restoring the facts, shouldn’t you?”

“Throw out the original article. Throw out the headline too. Rewrite it. What, do you need me to teach you how not to make things up?”

“What do you mean, silencing them? To hell with that. Fine then—they can take the tip to some other outlet if they want, go wherever they please. If they’re in such a panic, why did they come to Mr. Huo first? You tell them this: food can be eaten carelessly, but words cannot be spoken carelessly. If they say even one word too many, they shouldn’t count on Mr. Huo still being willing to bother with this trivial business.”

Yu Shanding emerged in complete victory, hung up the phone, and cursed. “Still dared to bargain with me.”

Huo Niansheng narrowed his peach-blossom eyes and smiled ambiguously, then said, “Look into Chen Wengang.”

Yu Shanding paused in surprise. “You’re still worried his appearance was too suspicious, that his background isn’t proper?”

“No, it’s proper—of course it’s proper,” Huo Niansheng said. “The Zheng family raised him for more than ten years. How could his background not be proper?”

“Ah, listen to me, that wasn’t the right way to put it.” Yu Shanding corrected himself. “What I meant was, are you worried his intentions aren’t proper? That he has some ulterior motive?”

Huo Niansheng went back to tapping at his phone, a near-flippant smile lingering at the corner of his lips. “I never said that either.”

“I’m a rough man. You’re speaking in riddles to me.”

“I’m only saying, Boss Yu, relax a bit. Having no motive at all would be the abnormal thing.” Huo Niansheng said, “If it were you taking the initiative to approach someone, would you really be doing it with no purpose at all? I’m the kind of person who likes it most when others have motives.”

The waiters. The reporter. The assorted men and women in the private room just now.

A purpose meant desire, and desire meant something that could be controlled.

He thought of Chen Wengang’s refined, warm-looking shell.

If you peeled that shell away, what color would the desire inside be?

Yu Shanding burst out laughing after hearing that and rolled the Buddhist prayer beads on his wrist. “That’s true enough. In life, people are after money, or power, or, if not that, then beauty. Who doesn’t want something? Anyone with no desire and no demands—that’s a bodhisattva. Let me go bow to one first.”

Chen Wengang himself did not have much to worry about. He only feared that someone idle and malicious might go bother Chen Xiangling.

Life was unpredictable.

Yet when he woke up the next day, it was He Jiajun who had made the trending hot searches online.

Only then did Chen Wengang find out what had happened after they left the night before.

Young Master He of the He family had bullied a restaurant waiter for no reason, and someone had secretly filmed it and posted it online.

By midnight, the attention had fermented. The views exploded exponentially, and it rose to the top headlines of all the major portals.

Soon after, the restaurant surveillance footage was released as well. Fortunately, all the faces were blurred, and the news did not mention the cousin pair at all.

As Chen Wengang walked downstairs, he kept thinking. When he reached the dining room, he saw the twins with their heads together, whispering as they looked at the trending news too.

“Brother Wengang, come look at the news,” Zheng Baoqiu said happily. “This is karma for He Jiajun. It counts as getting revenge for you two.”

“I thought I’d be seeing him in the hospital,” Chen Wengang said with a helpless smile. “Didn’t expect to see him in the headlines instead.”

“Ah, that’s rough.” Zheng Baoqiu had not thought too deeply about it. “Though that waiter is the really pitiful one.”

Zheng Maoxun looked listless and let out a huge yawn. “What’s pitiful about it? It looks fake as hell. Who would get that many cuts in their hands just from picking up a few pieces of glass? And for it to be exposed and blow up overnight—doesn’t that obviously mean someone set a trap for the He family?”

Chen Wengang and Zheng Baoqiu both looked at him at the same time.

“What?” Zheng Maoxun snorted. “You don’t believe me? Baoqiu, I’m telling you, stop being so blindly soft-hearted. Not everyone outside is some poor little thing waiting for your kindness. If you stay this naive, you’ll just get used by people.”

Zheng Baoqiu straightened up and reached over to hit him, and the brother and sister instantly fell into their usual bickering.

Chen Wengang sat down to eat breakfast, but even on the drive to work, he still said nothing.

He stayed quiet, and Zheng Maoxun started feeling guilty. “Hey, come on, you’re not still mad, are you?”

Because of what he said yesterday?

He almost wished Chen Wengang would just lose his temper. If he got angry, Zheng Maoxun thought, then he could at least apologize.

Chen Wengang looked back at him, puzzled. “Hm? Mad about what?”

It felt like punching cotton. Zheng Maoxun suddenly deflated. “Then why are you wearing such a stiff face?”

“I was thinking about something else.” Chen Wengang suddenly gave him a mild smile. “What’s wrong? You’d actually be afraid I was angry?”

Zheng Maoxun said, “Afraid, my ass. Whether you’re angry or not has nothing to do with me—are you going or not, you idiot in the car ahead?!”

He rolled the window down in two quick motions and stuck his hand out to give a solid middle finger.

Rush-hour traffic made everyone irritable, and one badly changing lane was enough to trigger road rage in an instant. Zheng Maoxun slammed on the horn in the flow of cars. Sensibly, Chen Wengang shut his mouth and, for once, did not correct his behavior—he was the passenger, and smart people did not provoke the driver.

By the time they got to the company, that road rage had finally faded.

After calming down, Zheng Maoxun sat in his office shifting restlessly in his chair. In the end, he still had not apologized, and that itself became a thorn in his throat. Only then did he remember that he still owed Chen Wengang a favor.

Since he had promised, Zheng Maoxun was not the sort to refuse to honor it.

By late morning, after finishing the work at hand and finding himself idle, he sent Chen Wengang a contact.

He had not even finished typing the rest of the message when Chen Wengang pushed the door open and asked in confusion, “Who is this?”

“…I was just about to tell you. A friend of mine.” Actually, he was a friend of a classmate, someone Zheng Maoxun had dug out of his network after thinking for a long time. “He seems to like men too. I thought I’d introduce you two.”

This time Chen Wengang genuinely stood stunned for a while, not entirely sure whether Zheng Maoxun meant exactly what it sounded like.

Zheng Maoxun took it upon himself to continue, “I’m not saying you two definitely have to hit it off. You can just get to know him as a friend first.”

“…”
Chen Wengang did not know whether to laugh or cry. “Who taught you to play matchmaker so randomly?”

“I mean well!” Zheng Maoxun coughed. “Normally I wouldn’t bother meddling in something like this! It just so happened that one of my classmates likes men too, and he also just got dumped recently. I saw some friends planning to introduce him to someone new, and then I thought—aren’t you basically in the same situation?”

Chen Wengang made as if to close the door and leave.

“Wait!” Zheng Maoxun jumped up and shouted after him. “Really, he’s got pretty good conditions. There’s no harm in just getting to know him.”

Chen Wengang had no way of dealing with him.

Back at his own desk, he actually did receive a friend request. The note said: “Qi Tongzhou.”

He had no idea how Zheng Maoxun had communicated with the other side. Instinctively, Chen Wengang felt that this second young master was unreliable and wanted to explain a bit, but after he accepted the request, this classmate Qi Tongzhou did not say a single extra word either. He too seemed to be perfunctorily going through the motions for the sake of social obligation.

Since that was the case, it was better to avoid making more trouble. So Chen Wengang simply pretended not to notice, and the two of them silently left each other lying in the contact list in mutual tacit understanding.

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