Cheng Ran had never dreamed that one day, Jiang Yu would bring his white moonlight to the love nest they built together.
But the situation was so surreal. Not only did Jiang Yu bring Yu Qiuze back home, but he blatantly told Cheng Ran that Yu Qiuze had just returned to the country and had nowhere to stay for the time being, so he would be staying at their home for a while.
At that moment, Cheng Ran’s mind went blank. Upon seeing the man who resembled him by seventy percent standing behind Jiang Yu, he nearly lost his balance, stumbling back into his room and slamming the door shut.
Hearing the thunderous slam of the door, a hint of embarrassment flashed across Jiang Yu’s eyes, clearly already berating Cheng Ran in his heart for not giving him face, especially in front of Yu Qiuze.
Jiang Yu flashed an awkward smile at Yu Qiuze, covering up, “That was just Cheng Ran, my friend’s younger brother. He’s staying with us, and I’ve spoiled him too much. Don’t mind him.”
Despite Jiang Yu’s convincing explanation, Yu Qiuze knew better. After seeing Cheng Ran’s face, which was strikingly similar to his own, and Jiang Yu’s attitude along the way, how could he not understand the situation?
“It’s fine, he’s just a kid. I understand. He does look a bit like me, so it’s not surprising we have a connection.” Although he understood the situation, Yu Qiuze didn’t call it out. Instead, he brushed a stray strand of hair from his ear and apologized, “I should be the one apologizing.”
“Xiao Yu, this is your home. It’s not convenient for me to stay here. I’ll just find a hotel. There’s no need to trouble you.”
This wasn’t an act. When Cheng Ran saw him and broke down, Yu Qiuze’s heart shattered as well!
He never expected that idiot Jiang Yu wouldn’t arrange a hotel for him but would instead bring him straight to his home!
Something felt off during the ride, but Jiang Yu kept it a secret, claiming he had a surprise. When the car stopped in the villa area, Yu Qiuze thought Jiang Yu had bought him a house.
Little did he know that when the door opened, someone resembling him would come jumping out!
What a f*cking surprise! It was more of a scare! Was Jiang Yu so broke that he had gone insane, bringing Yu Qiuze to his home? He must be mentally ill!
While the villa might seem luxurious to ordinary people, was Yu Qiuze ordinary? No, he wasn’t.
During the heyday of the Yu family, they were on par with the Jiang family. As the youngest grandson of the Yu family, Yu Qiuze was pampered from a young age due to his health condition and exposed to all sorts of luxuries.
With a mere glance around the living room, Yu Qiuze could tell that the painting on the wall was fake. How did he know? Because the original hung in his grandfather’s study for years until the Yu family’s downfall. Relatives from the main and branch families flocked to the old mansion, taking away everything of value.
That painting was damaged during the frantic looting. Yu Qiuze watched helplessly as the frame was broken and the canvas trampled.
Apart from the fake painting, Yu Qiuze also noticed several fake vases. While the villa’s decor could be considered luxurious, the styles clashed, making it appear gaudy, to put it bluntly.
Living in such a house was truly difficult for Yu Qiuze. He would rather stay in a hotel.
However, Jiang Yu had finally managed to bring his white moonlight home, so how could he let Yu Qiuze leave? Entangled by Jiang Yu’s persistence and hoping to pry information about Jiang Tingyuan from him in the future, Yu Qiuze didn’t want to create a rift and ended up staying temporarily.
Yu Qiuze’s greatest amusement while living there was watching Cheng Ran and Jiang Yu argue. It was incredibly entertaining, and if not for his persona, he would have grabbed some melon seeds to munch on while enjoying the show.
Cheng Ran harbored great hostility towards him, especially when he saw Yu Qiuze talking to Jiang Yu. But did Yu Qiuze fear him? With Cheng Ran’s meager capabilities, Yu Qiuze never took him seriously.
The key reason was that Yu Qiuze didn’t like Jiang Yu. If it were Jiang Tingyuan instead, Yu Qiuze would have been willing to teach the kid Cheng Ran a lesson and let him experience the cruelty of human nature.
Cheng Ran had been seething with resentment during this period. They were both ancient foxes1Not literally lol, just a metaphor; what was this, a supernatural tale? The moment he saw Yu Qiuze, Cheng Ran knew this man was trouble. While Cheng Ran considered himself no less capable, the problem was that Jiang Yu liked Yu Qiuze.
For Cheng Ran, there was nothing more infuriating than the person he loved liking someone else.
No wonder Jiang Yu liked frail men – it was because Yu Qiuze was a sickly wimp. Despite being so ill, he still came to cause trouble. Why couldn’t he just die abroad?
During Yu Qiuze’s stay, Cheng Ran viewed him as a thorn in his side. His hatred was fueled by Jiang Yu’s attentiveness towards Yu Qiuze, even surpassing his contempt for the lunatic Ye Zhou.
One day, when Jiang Yu attended a sudden meeting at the company, only Yu Qiuze and Cheng Ran remained at home.
Cheng Ran could no longer restrain himself and confronted Yu Qiuze, unleashing a barrage of cold mockery.
Logically, Cheng Ran’s verbal attacks should have caused no substantial harm to Yu Qiuze. However, the problem was that just as Yu Qiuze had noticed Cheng Ran’s feelings for Jiang Yu, Cheng Ran had also realized Yu Qiuze’s indifference toward Jiang Yu and his repeated attempts to inquire about Jiang Tingyuan’s situation.
Cheng Ran realized that the scenarios he made up in front of Ye Zhou were unfolding in reality. As he berated Yu Qiuze, he couldn’t resist mocking Yu Qiuze’s feelings for Jiang Tingyuan.
“You’ve been back for so long, haven’t you wondered why he hasn’t agreed to meet you even once?” After his initial taunts failed to anger Yu Qiuze, Cheng Ran impulsively posed a soul-piercing question in a fit of rage.
This statement dealt a devastating blow, shattering Yu Qiuze’s composed demeanor. He pointed at Cheng Ran and warned, enunciating each word, “Kid, you can eat recklessly, but you can’t speak recklessly.2“饭可以乱吃，话可不能乱说” – “One can eat recklessly, but one must not speak carelessly.” It emphasizes the importance of being cautious with one’s words. While eating indiscriminately may only harm oneself physically, speaking without consideration can harm others emotionally, lead to conflicts, or even cause disasters.”
Unexpectedly, this reaction helped Cheng Ran regain some balance, prompting him to intensify his attacks instead of backing down. “Perhaps you don’t know, while you were abroad these years, Jiang Tingyuan has been keeping a little lover, spoiling them endlessly.”
“After the Yu family’s downfall, you’ve endured hardships abroad, haven’t you?” Cheng Ran smiled at him.
Seeing Yu Qiuze’s distressed expression, Cheng Ran leaned closer and whispered in his ear, “You might not know how well Mr. Jiang treats his little lover, giving them the moon if they want the stars. He treasures them beyond measure.”
“While you struggled to make ends meet abroad, Jiang Tingyuan lavished his darling with fortunes. Just the amount I know of is nearly one hundred million, a hundred million! Do you understand the magnitude?”
“If Jiang Tingyuan had extended a helping hand to your Yu family back then, even though you chose the wrong side, you wouldn’t have met such a miserable fate, right?”
Before the words had fully left his mouth, before Cheng Ran could even revel in his taunts, a swift shadow flashed before his eyes, and the sound of the wind accompanied a slap that struck his face in the next second.
Cheng Ran was completely unprepared. He never expected Yu Qiuze, a well-educated son raised in a prestigious family, to resort to physical violence. When the slap came, he was dumbfounded, unable to react or evade.
The solid slap left half of Cheng Ran’s face numb.
Yu Qiuze looked down at him with a disdainful smile, grasping Cheng Ran’s chin and barely concealing his malice. “Little thing, I advise you not to provoke me, or else…”
Before he could finish, Cheng Ran broke free from his grip. Seizing Yu Qiuze’s momentary lapse, he kicked him to the ground, straddled his chest, gripped his throat with one hand, and relentlessly struck him with the other.
Just as Cheng Ran never expected Yu Qiuze to resort to violence, Yu Qiuze, who was accustomed to asserting dominance at home, didn’t anticipate Cheng Ran daring to retaliate physically despite his frail condition. Rarely did anyone dare to fight back against him, as his bodyguards would typically intervene first.
This lack of experience being on the receiving end left Yu Qiuze equally unprepared for Cheng Ran’s counterattack.
The resounding slap echoed alongside Yu Qiuze’s cries of pain as the two ended up brawling on the ground. The commotion was so loud that it alerted the bodyguards outside.
Although Yu Qiuze was full of scheming, he lacked real combat experience, and his poor health only worsened his disadvantage. After a few exchanges, he was overpowered.
In contrast, Cheng Ran, whom Ye Zhou regarded as a weakling, fought with the vigor of a mighty sailor3大力水手 (Dà lì Shuǐ shǒu) – Popeye (the Sailor). He unleashed all his pent-up frustrations on Yu Qiuze and relished every blow.
When the bodyguards arrived, Yu Qiuze’s lips were turning blue, and he was nearly losing consciousness from Cheng Ran’s relentless assault. His awareness blurred, yet his grip on Cheng Ran’s hair remained firm.
Cheng Ran was even more vicious, twisting Yu Qiuze’s face until his handsome features were distorted beyond recognition, his mouth unable to close properly.
Despite their best efforts, the bodyguards couldn’t separate the two. Seeing Yu Qiuze’s dire condition, they had no choice but to carry them both to the nearest hospital.
At the same moment Yu Qiuze and Cheng Ran were rushed to the hospital, Ye Zhou found himself in an off-road vehicle at a wildlife sanctuary in South Africa.
The vehicle sped across the terrain, its tires nearly smoking from the intense friction. It left long tire tracks and trailed thick dust clouds in its wake.
Six people occupied the vehicle, with Ye Zhou protected in the center, though he felt anything but safe, perhaps because…
“Faster, faster! Step on it! They’re catching up! Hit the gas! If you don’t want to die, f*cking floor it!” The guide shouted at the driver in a heavily accented local dialect, sounding hysterical.
The driver was equally frantic. He was sweating profusely, the perspiration dripping into his eyes, stinging them, yet he dared not blink, wide-eyed as he floored the accelerator.
The sanctuary’s grounds were far from the smooth pavement of man-made roads, littered with scattered rubble and mud patches, occasionally obstructed by fallen trees blocking the path.
The vehicle’s breakneck speed only amplified the rough ride over the uneven terrain. Had it not been for the specially modified seatbelts and the safety crew’s strict orders to hold on tightly throughout the journey, the violent jostling could have easily flung everyone out.
Ye Zhou had been in South Africa for a month, but he didn’t start filming right away. Instead, he had to attend various outdoor survival courses led by local guides and safety crews, learning survival techniques for handling emergencies.
Additionally, with the help of zoologists, he had to gain a basic understanding of the species they might encounter in South Africa during filming, studying temperature, humidity, light, and other factors to recognize potential weather conditions.
This vast and complex knowledge, coupled with physical training requirements to meet fitness standards before officially entering the reserve, left Ye Zhou exhausted nearly every day as he mastered these essential skills.
Just a few days ago, Ye Zhou finally passed all the evaluations, earning permission to film in the reserve. However, due to unfavorable weather conditions, it wasn’t until yesterday morning that he began his first day of filming in the reserve.
However, no matter how much preparation was made, the unexpected remained unforgiving, as the current situation demonstrated.
Ye Zhou’s filming team had chosen a pride consisting of nine lionesses, one male lion, and six cubs as their subjects. The team had already filmed this pride for some time before Ye Zhou’s arrival. By now, they were already intimately familiar with their habits and temperaments.
In theory, a familiar pride should pose less danger than an unfamiliar one, and this proved true, with the first day of filming proceeding smoothly.
With the guidance and assistance of the guides and safety crew, they successfully approached the pride to within approximately eight meters, allowing Ye Zhou to capture rare footage of the male lion playing with the cubs.
However, their good fortune was short-lived. The unexpected occurred this morning.
A stranger male lion suddenly appeared in this pride’s territory. In the ensuing fight for dominance, the aging lion king succumbed to this younger male lion in his prime. After a fierce battle, the young lion bit through the old lion’s neck.
Afterward, the victorious stranger male officially took over the former king’s territory, first killing the six cubs before shamelessly devouring the prey caught by the lionesses. Once sated, he then chose a lioness to mate with.
Although saddened by the old lion’s fate, the filming crew couldn’t intervene, as not disrupting the natural order was an unwritten rule in their industry.
Around 2 PM, under the guidance of the guides and safety crew, the team slowly approached the new, young lion king. Due to their lack of knowledge about this particular lion’s behavior, they initially maintained a distance of about fifty meters. Their intention was to gauge the lion’s reaction before deciding on their next move.
However, they never expected this seemingly safe distance to instantly enrage the young king, who agilely charged toward their off-road vehicle.
If not for the distance and the sharp instincts of their guide, who promptly instructed the driver to accelerate, the six people in the vehicle might not have remained safely inside.
They assumed that though lions had explosive power, their endurance was limited, so it would eventually give up after a chase. However, both the filming crew and the experienced local guides underestimated this young lion king’s aggressiveness and combativeness.
Ye Zhou was jostled until dizzy, covering his mouth to avoid inhaling the flying sand and mud as he shouted, “How much longer until we’re out of its territory? How long has it been chasing us? Twenty minutes?? Since when can lions run so much?!”
The guide rattled off a long response, but the wind and vehicle noise made it incomprehensible to Ye Zhou.
Fortunately, one of his colleagues translated loudly, “He says this new king lion killed the lionesses’ cubs, so it needs to demonstrate its dominance to be accepted by the pride.”
Ye Zhou finally understood – this lion had been chasing them for nearly twenty minutes, treating them like sacrificial chickens to intimidate the pride!
Was it insane?!
Even worse news followed. After another ten minutes of pursuit, the driver said something to the safety crew, whose faces turned grim.
The teacher who invited Ye Zhou also turned pale after overhearing their conversation, shouting to his team, “The gas tank is nearly empty! We need to stop and transfer the spare fuel!”
Ye Zhou was stunned. “???”
Surely it couldn’t be that bad!
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