I’m Keeping the Overbearing CEO After He Went Bankrupt [Rebirth] 2

Chapter 2: The Overbearing CEO Unleashes His Power

Huo Li hadn’t even walked out of the hotel before he received a call from his assistant.

“CEO Huo, are you still at the hotel? Do you need me to come and pick you up?”

“No need. I’ll take a taxi back.”

“…”

A taxi?

Huo Li reminded him, “I’m bankrupt.”

“Ah, right…”

Then, Huo Li gave his instructions: “Remember to move the documents out of the villa, and then list it for sale under a different name.”

“Yes, sir.”

Huo Li got into the taxi he’d called and, sitting in the back seat, closed his eyes gently.

Last night, he really had… gone overboard.

To be honest, when he was applying the medicine last night and saw the marks on Chu Qing’s body, he too had wondered for a moment if he was some kind of beast.

But he couldn’t control himself. He couldn’t hold back.

He had waited for so long, and he had finally gotten back what he had lost.

“Sir!”

The taxi had arrived. Seeing Huo Li standing off to the side, lost in thought, the driver called out to remind him.

After getting in the car, Huo Li sat in the back and closed his eyes to rest.

He hadn’t slept a wink last night, holding Chu Qing and letting his thoughts run wild, his mind filled with scattered, chaotic fragments from his past life.

Now, as he closed his eyes, it was as if he had returned to those fragments.

Huo Li was Chu Qing’s sponsor. He could never quite define his feelings for Chu Qing, but in his previous life, when he was in the US and heard the news of Chu Qing’s suicide, he felt as if his entire world was about to collapse.

He had rushed back, only to be met with the still image of Chu Qing lying quietly in a coffin, eyes closed, as if waiting for something.

Chu Qing’s friend had tearfully grabbed him by the collar, asking why he had only come back now.

When Chu Qing was being tormented by depression, blacklisted by the entire internet, and relentlessly cornered by Huo Liao, where was he?

Back then, Chu Qing was all alone in the country. Battling depression, he was pushed into a corner by Huo Liao and was even hit with solid proof that he was being “kept.” Suspicious of the rumors, Huo Li had sent Chu Qing a message.

{What’s going on with you and Huo Liao?}

{If you like Huo Liao, then just be with him. You’re a grown-up now, you’ve graduated. I won’t interfere with your love life.}

In response, Chu Qing had simply sent back a “Thank you,” and then committed suicide in the middle of that same night.

Afterward, Huo Li returned to the US and was killed in an assassination attempt.

Huo Li took a deep breath.

The business he ran in the US was underground. On the surface, the company was legitimate, but it actually operated on the black market—a life of licking blood from the blade’s edge. He had always been used to being alone, but he hadn’t died completely in that assassination. When he opened his eyes, he had returned to two years in the past. So… in this life, not only would he find the person who had him killed in his past life, but he had also decided to wash his hands of it all. Most importantly…

—This time, he would hold on tightly to Chu Qing.

He would protect the only person he had ever loved in his life.

The car moved forward smoothly. After some thought, Huo Li changed his mind.

He could have his assistant get his luggage, but he just remembered that he had something more important to do.

Huo Liao…

Huo Li’s eyes narrowed.

What nerve. In his past life, he had persecuted Chu Qing and colluded with outsiders to assassinate him.

And last night, he had even made a move on Chu Qing…

Come to think of it, after his rebirth, he had rushed back from the US and immediately gone to see Chu Qing. He hadn’t yet had a proper meeting with that audacious brother of his.

Huo Li called his assistant again.

“Help me find out where Huo Liao is right now.”

…

Meanwhile, Chu Qing got dressed and went downstairs, feeling completely dazed. He was immediately stopped by a waiter.

The waiter said with a smile, “Hello, sir. The fee for your room hasn’t been paid yet.”

Chu Qing: “…”

The waiter continued politely, “The gentleman who was here earlier said that you would pay.”

“…”

Chu Qing pulled up his collar to hide the hickeys on his neck and resignedly went to the front desk to pay. One night in this high-end hotel cost more than half a month’s rent for his small apartment.

The man from last night… was probably more expensive than this room.

Ah…

…

It was only now that the reality of the situation was truly sinking in for Chu Qing.

He… he had slept with his benefactor, Mr. Huo, a man he had always respected and looked up to as an elder.

Chu Qing felt like his life was over.

And Mr. Huo had even said he wanted to be kept by him from now on. A starved camel is still bigger than a horse, so Chu Qing was incredibly confused. Did Mr. Huo really need his financial support?

[T.N:“A starved camel is still bigger than a horse”: It means that even a diminished power or a formerly rich person is still more formidable than an ordinary one.]

…No, wait.

He had just asked for fifty yuan this morning.

“…”

To be honest, Chu Qing didn’t dislike Huo Li. On the contrary, Chu Qing was an orphan, and Huo Li was the only person who had been good to him in his long life, his only elder. Secretly, in his heart, Chu Qing had regarded Huo Li as an elder, a source of support, and a role model.

But he had absolutely never associated him with anything related to romance, especially not being kept.

While Chu Qing was still trying to sort out the situation with his limited emotional intelligence, his phone rang. It was an unfamiliar number.

When he answered, he was met with a shout laced with fury.

“Chu Qing! Where are you?!”

Ah, it was Huo Liao.

Chu Qing frowned slightly.

The shock of what had happened with Huo Li was so great that he had almost forgotten that Huo Liao had drugged him last night. As luck would have it, he had run straight into Huo Li.

Chu Qing had no idea what happened to Huo Liao or the bodyguard who had been chasing him. All he remembered was being taken from that hotel by Huo Li to the one he was in now.

Although he had been in a daze all night, Chu Qing basically remembered what had happened.

Huo Li had gotten a room, carried him to the bed, and then…

The tips of Chu Qing’s ears turned slightly red.

Last night, it was actually he who had been the more proactive one.

On the other end of the line, Huo Liao grew even angrier when Chu Qing didn’t answer. “Feeling pretty pleased with yourself, are you? Who did you hook up with last night? Whose bed did you climb into?”

Huo Liao had waited all night, but the bodyguard had vanished as if he’d evaporated into thin air, and Chu Qing was gone too.

With a blank expression, Chu Qing ended the call.

A dog’s mouth can’t spit out ivory.

[T.N:“A dog’s mouth can’t spit out ivory”: It means you can’t expect kind or refined words from a vile person.]

Chu Qing thought to himself that since Huo Liao was capable of something as vile as drugging someone, he needed to stay far, far away from him in the future…

After hanging up, Chu Qing noticed a long list of missed calls on his phone screen. It was probably because he had overslept after his wild night with Huo Li and hadn’t checked his phone.

They were all from Huo Liao and his manager. When his manager couldn’t get through, he had left him a message telling him to come to the company as soon as he saw it.

Chu Qing was a bit surprised. Recently, aside from a few unsuitable variety shows that Huo Liao had deliberately pushed on him and some bit parts or crowd-filler activities for the company, he hadn’t had much going on. Why did he need to go to the company in person?

Puzzled, Chu Qing went to the company.

…And ran right into Huo Liao, who was waiting to block him at the main entrance.

Chu Qing’s heart lurched. He subconsciously took a few steps back, only to be immediately flanked by the bodyguards Huo Liao had brought with him.

Huo Liao said with a grin, “It’s not convenient here. Come on, let’s go around back.”

…

“Chu Qing, where were you last night?” As soon as they were behind the building, Huo Liao’s face twisted into a vicious expression.

“…” Chu Qing said nothing.

“You’ve got some nerve now, don’t you!” Huo Liao sneered.

“I think you’re the one with the nerve.”

Chu Qing heard a deep voice from behind him, and Huo Liao’s face instantly turned pale.

“Brother…?!”

Huo Liao’s heart pounded wildly. When did his brother get back?!

Huo Li stepped forward, pulled Chu Qing behind him, took off his own suit jacket, and gently draped it over Chu Qing’s shoulders. “You had business at the company, right?” he said softly. “You go on up. I need to have a few words with my little brother.”

“Okay…”

After Chu Qing left, Huo Li simply stood there, arms crossed, staring directly at Huo Liao. He didn’t say anything, and his expression wasn’t fierce, but Huo Liao felt his legs go weak.

The icy aura radiating from Huo Li was so oppressive it nearly suffocated him, like a leopard sizing up its prey, calculating its worth. Those eyes were stained with the air of a killer; he didn’t need to do anything deliberate to make someone’s hair stand on end.

After a moment, Huo Li finally spoke in a slow, unhurried tone. “Chu Qing was with me last night.”

Huo Liao’s eyes widened.

W-What…?

“Brother…” Huo Liao forced a dry laugh. “You didn’t even say you were back. And that Chu, Chu Qing… did he say something to you?”

“He didn’t say anything.” Huo Li took a few steps forward, ignoring the bodyguards as if they were nothing. He leaned down and said to Huo Liao, word by word, “But, you are not to bother him again.”

“This…”

“Do you hear me?”

Huo Liao trembled in fright.

Huo Li placed a hand on Huo Liao’s shoulder, applying a bit of pressure, his voice low and raspy. “I said, do you hear me?”

Huo Liao didn’t dare call his bodyguards. He had heard from people on the streets about Huo Li’s fighting skills and knew that these bodyguards were no match for his brother.

“I… I hear you…”

“Good.” Huo Li lowered his gaze. “From now on, show your sister-in-law some respect. What happened last night won’t happen a second time as far as I’m concerned. Understood?”

Sister-in-law…?

“Understood…” A fire of rage burned in Huo Liao’s heart, but he didn’t dare let it show and could only nod through gritted teeth.

Damn it, when did that bastard Chu Qing get so close to his brother?!

How did he not know that Huo Li cared so much about him? That he would even care about this kind of trivial crap?

Huo Liao felt as if he had missed something crucial, his mind completely reeling from that one word: “sister-in-law.”

“Also, behave yourself,” Huo Li added, raising an eyebrow suggestively.

After saying this cryptic sentence that left Huo Liao completely baffled, Huo Li turned and walked away.

I’ll let him be for now, Huo Li thought. He’s still useful.

Follow the vine to find the melon. Find the people Huo Liao colluded with in his past life.

[T.N: Follow the vine to find the melon” means to follow clues to get to the source of a problem.]

After Huo Li left, Huo Liao’s face was still deathly pale. The bodyguards beside him saw this and didn’t dare make a sound.

Meanwhile, Chu Qing, who had gone up first, didn’t end up seeing his manager. It seemed he was too late, and the manager had already gone to a studio shoot with another star. He was told to wait downstairs for a while, with a completely dismissive and casual attitude.

Chu Qing didn’t mind. His reputation was in tatters, and he wasn’t proactive about work, so of course his manager looked down on him.

Chu Qing found a quiet spot in the small café on the ground floor of the company, reading an e-book and waiting for his manager’s call.

“Chu Qing.”

“Mr. Huo…” Seeing Huo Li approach, Chu Qing jogged over to him, worried. “Did Huo Liao give you any trouble?”

After all, Chu Qing thought, Huo Li seems to be bankrupt, while Huo Liao is still doing well in the country. Could it be that…

Huo Li paused and sighed. “Yes, he did. He stole my house and, now that I’m bankrupt, he’s trampled all over me and humiliated me. Such is the cold-blooded nature of the wealthy.”

Huo Li shook his head. “I’m bankrupt, and now I have nowhere to live.”

At that moment, Huo Li looked like a leopard with its ears drooping.

“…” Chu Qing had heard Huo Li say he was going to pack his things and move in with him and had already prepared nearly three pages of rejection speeches in his head. But hearing this now, he was at a complete loss for words.

“I… Mr. Huo, please don’t be sad.”

“I’m not sad,” Huo Li said, looking up. “I have a sponsor now, after all.”

“…”

Huo Li glanced around. The spot Chu Qing had chosen was a small nook in the café, separated by a partition, so outsiders couldn’t see them. He raised a hand and intimately straightened Chu Qing’s collar.

His rough fingers brushed lightly against Chu Qing’s neck, grazing over the marks Huo Li had left last night. The neck was a sensitive area, and Chu Qing immediately flinched, shrinking back.

“Mr. Huo… what are you doing?” The tips of Chu Qing’s ears turned red again. No one had ever been able to make his emotions fluctuate so much.

“Pleasing my sponsor. Fulfilling my duties. I hope my sponsor can make my life a little easier from now on.”

Chu Qing asked in a small voice, “Mr. Huo, are you really going to my place?”

“Of course,” Huo Li said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“I… um.”

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s just, it’s just…” Chu Qing couldn’t bring himself to say no, so he tried a different approach. “I can get you a room at a nearby hotel, is that okay?”

“No. The debt collectors will track me down.”

“…”

After a pause, Chu Qing asked, “Then if it weren’t for me, where would you plan on staying?”

“The park. I’d sleep on the ground.”

“What about your friends?”

“When a wall is about to collapse, everyone gives it a push. Sigh.” Huo Li maintained a completely indifferent expression while saying the most pitiful things.

“…”