Chapter 33 Part 1

“Full authorization?”

The middle-aged man on the hospital bed frowned, flipping through the folder in his hands meticulously once more. When his eyes landed on the words “Full Authorization,” his voice spiked sharply, filled with disbelief and fury.

“What is the meaning of this? Are you trying to force me into retirement?” A sliver of hope crept into his voice. “Xiao Xuan, I don’t want to retire so early.”

The impeccably dressed young man offered no lengthy explanation. He merely chuckled lightly—a laugh devoid of any discernible emotion, yet it inexplicably sent a chill down the spine. “Father, I don’t wish to make this difficult either.”

Their gazes met mid-air, clashing as if possessing tangible force.

It didn’t take long before the middle-aged man in the hospital bed was the first to concede defeat. His face paled slightly, and he changed the subject. “What about your brother? Didn’t I ask you to bring him back before? How come he didn’t come to the hospital to see me?”

“I asked. He says he’s not coming back.”

“…”

After a brief silence, the middle-aged man sighed. The way he looked at the young man before him abruptly softened, and he adopted the tone of one sharing a secret. “You still don’t know, do you? I am actually your biological father… What happened with your mother back then, I can explain it…”

The middle-aged man spoke with clarity and logic, presenting his case methodically. He recounted how, the very first time they met, he had recognized the young boy’s identity from the pendant hanging around his neck. For various reasons, however, he hadn’t acknowledged him directly. Later, he secretly ran tests, utterly confirming that this was indeed his own flesh and blood.

“The reason I haven’t told you all this time is that I know you very well…”

“Know me?” As if hearing the most ridiculous joke in the world, a trace of mockery flashed across the handsome young man’s face. “I don’t even know myself.”

The middle-aged man coughed a few times as he spoke, gazing at the young man with an almost fatherly affection. “There’s really no need for you to be so hasty. Once I’m dead, the vast majority of this family estate will be left to you…”

“Oh? Is that so.”

The young man’s smile was skin-deep, his eyes narrowing into slits. That gaze was like a viper flicking its tongue.

He knew the old man had a call button in his hand and that bodyguards were on standby right outside. But he had long since made ample preparations, staying vigilant against any unforeseen changes at every moment.

…

When Li Xuan awoke from his dream, he could still faintly hear the sound of rain pattering outside. Unknowingly, the weather had once again stepped into the sweltering midsummer. The central air conditioner running in the room hummed a low, buzzing drone.

The glow from the phone by his bedside hadn’t completely faded. It was the phone’s notification sound that had roused him from his sleep.

He didn’t need to check to know what kind of message it was at this hour. So, Li Xuan didn’t rush to grab his phone. He simply lay flat on the bed, quietly relaxing all his muscles, closing his eyes to feign sleep.

The dream’s conclusion? There wasn’t much to say!

He had won.

However, one thing did surprise him—that old fox Li Huachuan, a man who valued profit above all else, had actually mentioned Li Zhuo at the very end…

He said he harbored some regrets. He’d been too cold and indifferent towards that child, Xiao Zhuo, in the past. He had originally meant for him to endure some hardship to temper his character, but he overlooked the fact that the kid had already suffered over a decade of hardship out in the world.

To that, Li Xuan’s response was:

“You regret it now, but he has absolutely no need for the scraps of love you’re pitying him with. Maybe he hates you quite a bit…”

Of course, Li Xuan knew that wasn’t true. His brother was the type to always search for the cause of any problem within himself—a fool who didn’t even know how to hate.

But Li Xuan was not the same.

He continued, his words jabbing at the man’s heart one sentence after another: “You never once took the initiative to call him, did you? What if, at that banquet, you had just a tiny bit of patience? What if you’d just said ‘Happy Birthday,’ cut him a slice of cake, and waited for him to make a wish? It wouldn’t have taken much time—five minutes at most.”

Had he been willing to spend just five minutes meeting Li Zhuo’s small request, perhaps so many things wouldn’t have happened afterward. But, correspondingly, that would have disrupted Li Xuan’s subsequent plans, forcing him to find another opportunity.

A pity… or perhaps, a blessing. A blessing that Li Huachuan was still the person Li Xuan knew him to be. He hadn’t done any of that.

“You weren’t even willing to give him five minutes…”

“Caring about him now—isn’t it just a joke? Do you love him? You don’t love him one bit. You’re just feeling regret right now.”

“Let me guess what’s going through your head. You’re thinking that if it were him, he’d definitely be more soft-hearted, right?”

“You want someone to be as obedient as a machine, yet also possess a soft heart? Where in the world do such good deals exist…”

The expression on the man’s face in the hospital bed grew uglier and uglier. A complex mix of emotions intertwined on his features. Eventually, he slowly closed his eyes, seemingly unable to withstand the impact of these words any longer.

After obtaining the signatures he needed, Li Xuan didn’t linger. He left quickly.

He hadn’t killed anyone. It was a law-abiding society now—there were plenty of methods. Like sending someone off to a nursing home, for instance. Wouldn’t that provide even more opportunities later?

He was still young; the future stretched long before him.

As for Lu Fei, that woman was shrewd. She’d always put on an act of knowing nothing, while secretly transferring a considerable amount of assets long ago. He heard that before leaving the country, she had even specifically sought out Li Zhuo. Maybe she wanted to take him with her, or maybe just to see him. In any case, Li Zhuo hadn’t gone along.

That was probably for the best. He heard the woman had incredibly bad luck, encountering a swindler who was all show and no substance. Who knows what her situation is now.

His thoughts turned to that foolish little brother who couldn’t even hate.

He’d gotten into a university different from the one in his memories and even created some kind of new material that had never appeared in Li Xuan’s recollection.

Perhaps few people knew about it now, and maybe some still didn’t take it seriously. But judging by Li Xuan’s experience and insight from his previous life, many people would benefit from it in the future. If his brother had even a little more cunning, using this to build up a business from scratch wasn’t out of the question.

Could Mo Liang be helping him?

The available information on that man was pitifully scarce, and his movements were extremely bizarre, as if he had appeared out of thin air. Details about his past were sparse in the extreme. Yet, he had an exceptionally close relationship with his brother, as thick as thieves.

He’d heard that the last time, just to celebrate his brother’s birthday, he spent a fortune having loads of fresh flowers air-freighted over. The scale of it was enormous; he certainly had a knack for making a kid happy.

Now that matters had developed to this stage, Li Xuan understood Li Zhuo’s nature more and more. He wasn’t worried about Li Zhuo seeking revenge against him. The person by his side, however… that was harder to say.

In any case, he remained on guard. Although no substantial retaliation ever truly came—just a period of being particularly unlucky—that was nothing to him.

Unlucky? Could it be any worse than his previous life?

In this life, he’d spent an enormous amount of time, energy, and effort cultivating connections and relationships. To pull those old diehards from the Li Family onto his boat, he’d paid a steep price!

What a joke.

Was it so easy to take his benefits?

Hmm… What else was going on recently?

Li Xuan rapidly reviewed all possible loose ends, and before he knew it, his mind drifted back to Li Zhuo.

For a fleeting moment, Li Xuan thought about what it would be like if they had truly been blood brothers. But the next second, he thoroughly banished that ridiculous notion from his mind.

With such a naive little brother…

How much worrying would he have to do?

Li Xuan took his phone from the nightstand and pressed the screen to life. The earlier notification came from a pitch-black app push.

A user with a scrambled username had sent a short message: ——【Task complete.】

There. The only person in this world who knew so very many of his secrets had just died silently. Li Xuan thought with peace of mind; he could now say he had absolutely no loose ends at all.

Next, he would gradually expand. First, over a week, he would methodically purge the shareholder meetings of the rats who were eating from the inside out. He might have needed them before, but now that he was calling the shots, such people absolutely could not be kept.

In his memory, the next market trend was supposed to be six years from now. But the plan had changed. His brother’s side had been the first to release that unheard-of new material. Should he contact his naive sibling?

His little brother was quite easy to coax. The only problem was the man next to him.

Oh, right. It seemed his brother also owned a small percentage of shares. Should he send those over? Though, to his brother now, he might not even care about such a trifling amount…

His little brother was really so lucky. Was this a case of fortune favoring fools? Or was it joy after hardship? He always had to rack his brains to get what he wanted, but without lifting a finger, things were voluntarily handed to his brother. How nice. But it was fine. His own plan was about to reach complete success.

Those old bastards who had tried to extort him with outrageous demands—he’d settle accounts with them one by one. Yes, he could also start laying out the next phase of his plan ahead of schedule.

Thinking about his recent physical condition, he’d visited several hospitals for check-ups, but no matter the test, nothing could be found. He felt he should go abroad for an examination.

Having thought of so much, Li Xuan fell asleep a little later than usual. Just as he was gradually sinking into slumber, a strange scent suddenly permeated the air.

By the time he realized it, it was already too late…

He abruptly remembered that he’d given the household staff the day off just that morning. He also recalled that the site he’d used excelled at crafting deliberate deaths to look like every kind of accident.

Who?!

Who was it exactly?!

A sensation of suffocation clamped down over his nose and mouth. It didn’t seem like a problem with the air itself, but rather some kind of change happening to his body’s organs…

If only his loyal dog were still by his side. Even though the man knew all his secrets, he would silently stand guard outside the door every night.

But he knew too much!!

Moreover, he’d previously seen him meeting with someone from a competitor’s side. Who knew if he was preparing for betrayal?

Of course, he had to strike first!

Years of obsession transformed into an invisible black hole. Unknowingly, he had long since become mired deep within it.

Suddenly, a certain image flickered through his mind. Li Xuan remembered that last month, after placing an anonymous order, he had inadvertently seen another order on the page with a date close to his own. That name was…