Chapter 18 Part 2

They bought him tailored, high-end luxury clothes. They hired famous tutors at great expense to come teach him all sorts of skills at home. They used the best cosmetic medical technology to erase some of the more obvious scars on his hands…

In Li Xuan’s memory, Li Zhuo had been very bright. Given a little time, he would mature quickly. But who would such a situation hurt?

That was obvious.

So, Li Xuan naturally made his move.

Over the course of their decade-plus living together, Li Xuan had already seen right through his adoptive father. He thoroughly understood just how cold and selfish, just how profit-driven, the man’s true nature was. And his adoptive mother was little more than a gutless yes-woman.

Dealing with them was too easy!

As long as he didn’t care about familial love, fatherly or motherly, as long as he demonstrated traits that proved useful to them, and as long as he played along with their little performances, they would naturally side with him, naturally put on a display of “love.”

But Li Zhuo didn’t know any of this. As a child just newly found, he held a natural, innocent, yearning affection for these biological parents who had been missing for so many years.

He grew close to them, cared about them, hung on their every word, their every glance.

It was precisely because he cared so much that he later became so hysterical toward them, tried every little stunt he could think of to get their attention, thinking that would win him the care he craved.

But whether running away from home or setting petty traps to embarrass Li Xuan… in the eyes of real adults, his behavior was nothing more than a series of harmless, childish pranks.

What he didn’t know was that, to Li Huachuan, sons and family affections weren’t truly that important. What mattered was who could bring him more profit, who could make him look better.

Forget the fact that in Li Huachuan’s eyes, Li Xuan was also his own son—even if he were nothing more than a foster child, as long as he performed better, Li Huachuan would still be ready to cast his own blood aside.

In Li Xuan’s previous life, Li Zhuo had been a great conversation piece that made Li Huachuan proud in front of outsiders, so of course he treated Li Zhuo with a pleasant, beaming face. But in this life… what about this little country bumpkin with the thick accent?

Maybe there’d been a faint wisp of parental love during those first couple of days after they met.

Narcissistically convinced that his own genes couldn’t be that bad, Li Huachuan had packed Li Zhuo off to an international school. Did Li Huachuan care whether Li Zhuo was adjusting well? Did he care whether Li Zhuo was being excluded or bullied?

No—he only wanted to see how Li Zhuo performed.

And Li Zhuo indeed had no real experience of the world. On top of that, he was so desperate to prove himself. Under the simplest provocations, he committed one laughably idiotic blunder after another, and with Li Xuan pulling the strings behind the scenes, those blunders became known to everyone…

This clearly struck at Li Huachuan’s tender, face-obsessed weak spot. And so, his patience for this “stupid son” he had only just recovered—and barely spent any time with—wore thinner and thinner.

It was like he and Li Zhuo were sitting the same exam: one taking it open-book, the other closed-book. The open-book Li Xuan couldn’t even imagine how he could possibly lose.

And so, the matter of sending Li Zhuo off to study in another province was naturally brought to the table.

Li Huachuan’s original thoughts had been even more cold-blooded. He hadn’t wanted to acknowledge this son at all, just wanted to hurry up and throw him into a regular public school, leave him to sink or swim on his own.

After all, it’d only been just over a year. He wasn’t really all that familiar with this son. It didn’t matter whether he was there or not. Li Huachuan hadn’t even thought about giving him a living allowance at first…

Perhaps Li Zhuo’s mother truly was reluctant. Even though more than a decade had passed, he was still the child she’d given birth to. But she was also so accustomed to unthinkingly obeying her husband that her opinion became entirely dispensable.

Far more easily than he’d imagined, Li Xuan had shoved Li Zhuo, the real young master of the Li family, right out the door—like a turtledove that had successfully seized the magpie’s nest.

Pretty vicious, wasn’t it?

Li Xuan himself thought so too. He was indeed a great villain who would stop at nothing to achieve his goals. As long as the plan worked, he was perfectly willing to exploit anything and anyone.

And now, he had already quietly swapped a portion of the board of directors’ seats with his own people. Across the entire group, he’d promoted a crop of fresh faces he was cultivating…

The Erosion Plan was about to bear fruit.

Li Xuan let his gaze drift lightly onto the nameplate on his desk, his eyes lingering especially pointedly on those two words: Acting President. Very soon now. It wouldn’t be long before those two words could be erased.

A pleased smile tugged at the corner of his lips. After all, he’d waited for this day far, far too long.

“Knock, knock, knock…”

A crisp rapping came from outside, followed by a familiar, deep male voice.

“President Li, you’ve been working all morning. It’s late now—time for lunch.”

Li Xuan raised his voice: “Noted.”

He hated above all else to be disturbed while working. The other assistants knew this and never dared to interrupt on their own. But the one reminding him outside was Hong Lin, Li Xuan’s personal bodyguard and, more importantly, his most trusted confidant who had stuck with him all this way.

Freshly reborn, Li Xuan was, at most, a little runt only a few years old. Even if his head was bursting with grand schemes, his age was too young for him to do anything conveniently. He could only send this man out to act on his behalf.

Whether it was obediently buying up certain stocks ahead of time, or contacting, intimidating, and threatening specific people at designated spots, or secretly communicating with some wealthy household’s nanny—for nearly all these kinds of things, Hong Lin was the one who did it for him.

In his previous life, Hong Lin had been a dropout, a small-time thug with an elderly grandmother at home. He survived by doing violent, in-person debt collection for loan sharks, until he was eventually jailed for manslaughter.

After his rebirth, Li Xuan went looking for him.

At the time, Hong Lin had just finished a gang fight. His fierce, menacing eyes carried an imposing edge without needing to glare. A fresh wound on his brow was still dripping blood, and a crumpled cigarette he’d picked up off who-knows-where dangled from his lips.

Any other kid who saw him like that would’ve run off long ago. But Li Xuan, with an adult soul inside him, only admired it more. Perfect! This was exactly the sharp, lethal blade he needed!

And so, this little brat who didn’t even stand as tall as the man’s thigh brazenly called out Hong Lin’s full name and declared that he knew absolutely everything about him. If Hong Lin wanted to make money, he had to listen.

Hong Lin’s first reaction was to laugh out loud. He looked down at this little beggar in tatters, rummaged in his pocket, and fished out a squashed milk candy.

“Here. Take it and eat.”

Li Xuan didn’t take it. He simply fixed those dark eyes on Hong Lin with unshakable intensity and, in a tone that could only be called eerie, repeated: “You’ll go to prison someday. But as long as you listen to me, I can let you earn lots and lots of money. Enough to afford to cure your grandma…”

In the end, Hong Lin agreed.

He followed Li Xuan all the way from that run-down little county town to the first-rate metropolis of Hai City. With his own eyes, he watched how Li Xuan “seized the magpie’s nest,” and he even lent quite a bit of muscle to the process.

When Li Xuan had just arrived and hadn’t yet gained a solid foothold in the Li family, when there were things he wanted to do but found it awkward to show his face, when he wanted someone silenced—no matter the time, Hong Lin was always the fist and the weapon clearing his path.

Later, Hong Lin’s grandmother, his last remaining family, passed away. After that, he didn’t even take his monthly leave anymore. Virtually twenty-four hours a day without break, he stayed at Li Xuan’s side, safeguarding him and executing his orders.

Just like that, over a decade slipped by, almost without notice. He had always been one loyal-to-the-bone dog.

But still… Li Xuan had a concern. Hong Lin simply knew far too much.

Back in those early years after his rebirth, in order to earn Hong Lin’s trust and raise funds fast to get more things done, Li Xuan had exposed far too many inexplicable abnormalities. With just a little thought, anyone would discover the secret of his rebirth…

And also later… he held too many handles over Li Xuan.

Even knowing the chance of Hong Lin betraying him was astronomically slim, this man’s existence felt to Li Xuan like a hidden danger, a needle buried in his flesh, a time bomb that could detonate he didn’t even know when.

A thought naturally surfaced in his heart: after the Erosion Plan succeeds, quietly eliminate him.

This morning, Li Xuan hadn’t brought up summer vacation for no reason. He’d simply heard an employee on the phone while going upstairs, and through the speakerphone, he’d caught the word “brother.”

It suddenly struck him that Li Zhuo had also called him “brother” once. Back when they’d just arrived at the Li household, Li Zhuo had tentatively, cautiously tried to get close to him, clumsily tried to connect, hoping they could get along well…

What a shame…

In truth, Li Xuan had not been completely opposed to working with Li Zhuo. Especially after seeing the harsh environment of Pingshan Village through the show’s camera footage, he had thought this “little sparrow,” tempered by so much suffering, would harbor hatred for the Li couple upon his return. If that were the case, they might have even become allies.

But Li Zhuo was too soft-hearted. He truly loved that couple as his parents. Even after being abandoned, he still held onto a last shred of hope. It was really… really just too pitiful.

He had no idea that Li Huachuan had long since forgotten all about him. Even when Li Xuan deliberately mentioned summer vacation, the man hadn’t once thought that there was still a son studying far away in Changyang.

Li Xuan rose to leave his desk. It suddenly occurred to him that today was already June 1st. He pulled out his cell phone, opened a certain app, and navigated to the transfer page with practiced ease.

What should he write for his little brother in the message this time?

He felt a minor headache. Previously, he’d just scribbled whatever came to mind. What should he write this time? Just then, a holiday notification popped up on his phone, so he simply copied it down.

Account Name: 【…】

Account Number: 【…】

Transfer Amount: 30,000.00

Transfer Note: 【The summer heat is coming. Remember to stay hydrated.】