Chapter 6: The Arrogant and Domineering Fake Young Master 06 Part 1

Wang Shao finally couldn’t take it anymore. He grabbed Li Ye’s arm and said urgently, “You’re just letting him walk away?”

Li Ye shook him off, chin lifted, and said coldly, “Are you telling me what to do?”

Wang Shao drew a deep breath and softened his tone, trying to talk him down. “That kid won’t just fall in line. You let him leave with the money today, and it’ll be ten times harder to catch him again.”

“Is that so…” Li Ye’s eyes curved into crescents. He turned to Shen Ji. “Will you?”

Shen Ji’s heart was pounding so hard he could barely think—the rush of blood slowed his thoughts to a crawl. Even if he escaped today, if he agreed to Li Ye’s terms, there’d be no easy way to shake him off later. The humiliation he’d just endured was probably only the beginning. The future yawned before him like an abyss with its jaws wide open.

Every instinct screamed at him to run.

But…

Shen Ji met those smiling eyes. His throat bobbed. The hand clutching the money went white-knuckled—and then, as if possessed, he shook his head.

Wang Shao was frantic now. “You can’t trust him,” he said, low and urgent.

Li Ye had no intention of changing his mind. Xu Zhaochen was willful by nature and never listened to reason once his mind was made up. He waved Wang Shao off impatiently. “That’s enough.”

Wang Shao’s face twisted, but in the end he didn’t dare say another word.

The others were caught off guard too. If Li Ye hadn’t given the order, none of them dared make a move. Were they really just letting this go?

Li Ye glanced down at Shen Ji. “What are you still doing here? Get lost.”

Shen Ji seemed to finally snap out of it. He turned and walked away in silence, and this time, no one stopped him.

The atmosphere in the private room turned strange. Li Ye had no interest in sticking around either—he muttered “boring” and left soon after. Only Wang Shao and a handful of confused underlings remained.

One of them crept up to Wang Shao. “Brother Shao, what do we do now…”

Wang Shao slammed his foot into the wall, eyes cold and venomous, his face twisted with rage. It took a long while before his expression smoothed out. He let out a cold laugh. “What’s the rush? That kid can’t run far.”

He was not going to let Shen Ji off easy.

…

Li Ye left as soon as the scene was done.

009 was spinning in circles, frantic. After hesitating for ages, it finally ventured timidly, “Host, your plot today seemed… kind of… a little off? You were supposed to have Shen Ji beaten up first, and then let him take the money and go…”

009 was being extremely careful and diplomatic. After all, the host was so brilliant—maybe he had his reasons?

But the plot really had gone differently…

Li Ye said, “The purpose of this scene is to make Shen Ji and Xu Zhaochen bitter enemies—to lay the groundwork for Shen Ji’s hostility toward Xu Zhaochen after he returns to the Xu family. Correct?”

“Yes…”

“Then it’s simple. The point is to make Shen Ji resent Xu Zhaochen.” Li Ye smiled faintly. “Shen Ji was already braced for a beating. Hitting him and then paying him—that’s exactly what he expected, well within what he could endure. Doing that would’ve played right into his hands. Boring.”

“But for someone like Shen Ji—low-born, with all that pride—isn’t trampling his dignity and grinding him underfoot a far better way to humiliate him?”

009 went dazed. Put that way… the host actually made a lot of sense?

Generally speaking, when the host carried out the plot, as long as he didn’t violate the character persona, he had some room for improvisation. It was hard to replicate things a hundred percent. If it achieved a better plot effect, minor changes weren’t necessarily forbidden…?

But a host like this… was kind of terrifying?

More of a villain than Xu Zhaochen ever was.

009 shut up immediately.

Li Ye recalled the plot that followed. The next stretch was written rather vaguely in the book—roughly, Xu Zhaochen would coerce Shen Ji, boss him around, put him through all sorts of ordeals to make him look foolish.

That was easy enough to understand. With how much Xu Zhaochen resented Shen Ji, how could he possibly let him off? He’d suffered plenty of frustration at Shen Ji’s hands before. One beating alone wouldn’t satisfy his hatred. So what if Shen Ji was heaven’s favored son? Didn’t he still have to jump at Xu Zhaochen’s command?

…

Shen Ji left the club carrying a plastic bag.

Late at night, he walked alone for a long, long time before finally stopping at an ATM. He deposited the bills, stack by stack.

A full hundred thousand.

Real money, all of it.

Shen Ji stared at the balance on his card, still feeling like he was dreaming. Before he’d gone, he’d prepared for the worst.

Maybe Xu Zhaochen was just toying with him and had no intention of paying—in which case he’d have to fight his way out. Or maybe Xu Zhaochen really would pay, but he’d have to take a beating first.

In neither scenario had there been an option to walk away unscathed. Only mutual destruction, or submission and humiliation.

But now…

Submission and humiliation, sure—but not quite the way he’d imagined.

The outcome felt absurd. And vaguely unsettling.

It was like every time he faced this person, he lost control, and something drifted further off course, heading somewhere unpredictable.

Shen Ji smiled bitterly and shoved the thoughts from his mind. Whatever Li Ye’s intentions, he’d given him the money that could save a life, and Shen Ji would hold up his end. That was his bottom line as a person.

It was too late to go back to the dorm, so he found an internet café and spent the night there. Only the next morning did he return.

Chen Ziping was just about to head out to class when he saw Shen Ji come in. He asked, worried, “Why didn’t you come back last night? Did Xu Zhaochen give you trouble again?”

Shen Ji was silent for a moment.

Chen Ziping’s voice shot up. “Are you okay? He didn’t hit you again, did he?”

Shen Ji shook his head, voice low and hoarse. “I’m fine… I just came back to grab my textbook. Let’s go, we’ll be late.”

Seeing that Shen Ji didn’t seem injured and clearly didn’t want to talk, Chen Ziping let it drop. They walked to the academic building together.

The morning passed quietly.

But Shen Ji was unusually restless—even during class his mind wandered. He’d agreed to Li Ye’s terms, but he had no idea what Li Ye would demand. The waiting was always the hardest part.

Then, in the afternoon, a message arrived.

“Come now.”

An address followed.

It was an unfamiliar number, but Shen Ji didn’t need to guess who it was. He let out a slow breath and said to Chen Ziping, “Can you request a leave for me this afternoon?”

Chen Ziping stared. “On what grounds?”

Shen Ji turned away. “Make something up.”

Chen Ziping stood frozen. It took him a good while to process—their Academic God Shen was skipping class?!?!

…

In the billiard room.

Li Ye bent low over the table and sank another ball. The underlings nearby clapped and cheered.

It was class time, but Xu Zhaochen—an unrepentant heir with more money than sense—skipped class as a matter of course. Birds of a feather: the ones who ran with him were all playboy scions themselves.

Xu Zhaochen didn’t attend class, and he wouldn’t let Shen Ji attend either. Dragging someone like Shen Ji down to his level, turning him into the same kind of trash—that was Xu Zhaochen’s favorite game.

Since the book didn’t describe this stretch in much detail, most of it was left to Li Ye’s improvisation.

So just now, Li Ye had texted Shen Ji. Told him to come.

Shen Ji didn’t keep him waiting long.

Jeers and laughter rose behind him. Li Ye knew Shen Ji had arrived.

But he didn’t turn around. He kept playing as if nothing were out of the ordinary. The game ended soon enough, and an underling immediately racked the balls, fawning and flattering. No one reminded him that Shen Ji was here, so he simply acted as though he didn’t know.

This wasn’t Shen Ji’s first time at the club—last time he’d cornered Li Ye in the parking lot—but it was his first time inside.

Hostile eyes followed him.

Shen Ji didn’t care.

He just stood near the doorway, watching the young man bent over the table.

The young man’s expression was focused as he leaned in, a strand of black hair falling by his cheek. His dark eyes were deep and fathomless, as if even light couldn’t escape them. He wore a loose black T-shirt, but the bend of his waist traced a slender line, a flash of pale skin showing. Beneath the taut curve of his rear, his legs were long and straight.

Every shot was clean and decisive. Every movement—elegant, beautiful.

Shen Ji didn’t make a sound. He even softened his breathing.

By all rights, this should have been agony. But watching that person, he lost track of time without realizing it.

Before long, the young man seemed tired. He tossed his cue to an underling impatiently and lounged onto the sofa like a cat sinking into cushions. Wang Shao attentively handed him a glass of water and leaned in to whisper something—a joke, apparently, because the young man laughed.

That laugh curved his brows and eyes. The smile lit up his face with a kind of layered, blooming beauty.

Gilded on the outside, rotten within.

The phrase surfaced in Shen Ji’s mind. His heart was racing. He averted his gaze, flustered.

Li Ye glanced lazily at Wang Shao. Sure, the man was the type of dog to bite the hand that fed him, but credit where it was due—he knew how to please. No wonder Xu Zhaochen, spoiled as he was, kept his number-one lackey so firmly in place.

Pity his luck was so bad he had to go and offend Shen Ji. Xu Zhaochen was destined for a bad end, sure—but after Shen Ji took power, the first family to go bankrupt was the Wangs.

Li Ye’s gaze held a hint of pity as he looked at Wang Shao. He took a sip of water, then—as if only now noticing Shen Ji was there—raised his eyes and said, “Come here.”

Shen Ji walked over, step by step.

As he lowered his head, his gaze skimmed past the hand Li Ye used to hold the cup.

The young man’s fingers were long and lovely. Each nail was clean and rounded. As he held the glass, the refracted light of the water fell across them like polished warm jade.

Shen Ji took a deep breath and quietly looked away.

Li Ye gave him a cool glance. “I don’t like people looking down at me.”

Shen Ji’s thin lips pressed tight. Beneath his bangs, his dark eyes were utterly bleak. He’d probably prepared himself already—the humiliation buried deep in his chest—and slowly, he knelt.