Chapter 010 – Indestructible small round bottle
Zhai Zhi didn’t feel flustered at being caught in the act and calmly stated, “Just seeing if it works.”
Xie Chenyang grumpily snapped, “Even if you resort to provocation, I won’t do anything to you until we’re married!” Xie Chenyang reached out and dragged him into his arms, saying forcefully, “Sleep.”
Zhai Zhi quietly said, “Bring all your identification tomorrow and officially register the shares under your name.” The shares that they discussed in the company today were merely a verbal agreement. It was just a way to let the company’s management know where he stood, after all.
“Let’s settle Cen He first.”
“Alright.” Zhai Zhi paused. “Can you let go of my hand now?” Although Xie Chenyang captured his hand, he did not remove it, so he could clearly feel it changing.
Xie Chenyang let go of his hand, the irritation in his heart worsening as he abruptly let go of him. “I’m going to take a shower.”
Zhai Zhi reached out and tugged at him. “It doesn’t have to wait until marriage.”
Xie Chenyang said gruffly, “Do you know what you’re saying?”
The words were no less than thunderous to him.
As far back as he could remember, Xie Chenyang didn’t once have this kind of experience and wasn’t all that keen on the subject. Even if he occasionally had a physical reaction, it would subside shortly.
But with nothing more than a touch and a squeeze from Zhai Zhi, he was somewhat unable to suppress himself.
Zhai Zhi rolled over and smushed him down, lowering his head to kiss him on the lips. “I know.”
Xie Chenyang’s eyes flashed with a layer of sparks unexpectedly, and his hands clasped Zhai Zhi’s waist.
System: “I would advise against this. You’re inexperienced; you’ll hurt him.” And if he had truly been holding back for tens of thousands of years, then…it’s afraid the ending would be somewhat tragic.
Xie Chenyang heeded the system’s counsel and pinned Zhai Zhi down on his chest after exchanging another kiss: “Wait a little longer; let’s settle Cen He first.”
Zhai Zhi struggled, but Xie Chenyang’s strength was too great for him to break away. Letting his voice go down several degrees of frigidity, he demanded, “Is it possible that you’re not interested in me?”
Xie Chenyang’s voice carried fire. “Whether there’s interest or not, can’t you feel it?!”
[This stupid guy, he’s the first one who’s gotten me… UP. I don’t want to hurt him, but I don’t know how to do anything about it either, humph.]
System: “…Then tell him, ah, what’s the use of telling me?”
【No way! He’ll get overjoyed if I say that, and may just pester me for it every day in the future… Alas, I didn’t expect him to look so cold, but he’s actually so seductive.】
System: “… ” Got it, it’s not about whether to do it or not. It’s to irritate me. I’m withdrawing.
“So what are you hesitating for?” Zhai Zhi moved down and kissed his Adam’s apple lightly.
Xie Chenyang subconsciously tilted his head back slightly and blurted nonsense, “I’m more of a ceremonial person. I want to wait for our wedding night…”
Zhai Zhi sneered in his heart. Ceremonious? Then how come you and Cen He haven’t done it?
The more he thought about it, the more he felt something was wrong. Even if Cen He couldn’t, shouldn’t Li Xuyang be capable? They’ve been together for a few years in a purely spiritual relationship? It couldn’t be…that he had some kind of affliction, would he? Three seconds or something. “Then we won’t do it. However, even if we don’t, I can still help you in relieving, ah… Isn’t it uncomfortable for you?”
Hearing the seductive quality in Zhai Zhi’s aloof voice, Xie Chenyang had no hesitation, “Okay.” As long as it didn’t hurt Zhai Zhi.
— Half an hour later. —
Zhai Zhi got up from the bed expressionlessly and went to the bathroom to rinse his mouth and wash his face.
Xie Chenyang followed into the bathroom.
Zhai Zhi thought he was going to try to soothe him and glanced up in the mirror to watch his approaching figure, but to his surprise, Xie Chenyang directly bypassed him and went to the shower, lathering up.
He strolled out of the bathroom, walked over to the nightstand, picked up his cigarettes, and lit one, calling Zou Hao at the same time.
Zou Hao: “Mr. Zhai?” How come you always call at night, ugh.
“Re-investigate Li Xuyang’s information, be thorough.”
“The last investigation…”
“Investigate it again. You’re to personally oversee it. It is important to emphasize that you must personally supervise the investigation to ensure the authenticity of the information.”
“Will do.” Zou Hao hesitated. “Mr. Zhai, do you have a cold? Your voice sounds hoarse.”
“Hmm, that’s it for now. I’m hanging up.” Zhai Zhi hung up the phone.
When Xie Chenyang came out of the shower, clad only in a towel around his waist, he pulled the remaining half a cigarette out of his hand and said unhappily, “You shouldn’t smoke during this time, eh?”
Not even worried about damaging his throat.
Zhai Zhi: “Fine.”
Xie Chenyang frowned while extinguishing the cigarette: [System, give me a throat balm].
System: “There are no free ones. As a matter of fact, if you haven’t completed a single world, the Points Mall shouldn’t be opened… but I can open it for you in advance.”
Xie Chenyang: [You’re a good system]
System: “Since you don’t have any points, credit is allowed; the interest rate is one point a year. Well, isn’t it just a little discomfort in his throat? It will be fine after getting some sleep.” The system chuckled. “This body of yours is not even thirty years old; it can live for a long time yet. At one point a year, you’ll have to pay at least a few dozen of them, and you only get one hundred points for completing a world… Are you sure you want to buy a throat balm on credit?”
Xie Chenyang sidled up to Zhai Zhi, who was already back in bed, and unhesitatingly said: [Buy! Put it under my pillow, thanks!]
System: “Not asking how many points?”
[Quickly!]
System: “Bought.”
Xie Chenyang bent over, and under Zhai Zhi’s puzzled line of sight, he extracted a small circular bottle from under his pillow and opened it, which was then brought to his lips. “Drink it.”
“What is it?” Zhai Zhi was a bit perplexed Just how many things did this person hide under his pillow?
Xie Chenyang raised his eyebrows. “Poison, drink it or not?”
Zhai Zhi rose slightly and used his hand to drink down the bottle of medicine. It was sweet and slightly cold. After drinking it, his originally somewhat dry throat immediately felt comfortable. Zhai Zhi raised his eyes. “Is there any more?”
Xie Chenyang threw the bottle into the trash can casually. “No more.” He laid beside him on the bed and reached out to scoop him up into his arms. “Don’t be greedy, just this bottle is enough to help. Sleep.”
“… Mm.”
After Xie Chenyang fell asleep, Zhai Zhi quietly got out of bed, retrieved the small round bottle from the trash can, and put it together with the previous porcelain bottle of injury medicine. He looked at Xie Chenyang’s sleeping face and had one more cigarette before he fell asleep tiredly.
——
After having breakfast, Xie Chenyang and Zhai Zhi went to the office.
Xie Chenyang looked down at the artist’s directory in his hands, ticked off a few names, and said to Zou Hao, who was following him around, “The ones that are ticked off should be focused on cultivation, the ones that are circled should be retained for normal cultivation, and the ones that are crossed should be stuffed into Feiyang Entertainment by any means possible.”
Zou Hao accepted the directory. “Yes, Mr. Li.”
Xie Chenyang: “Collect Feiyang Entertainment’s current artists’ information and give it to me.”
Zou Hao: “Yes, Mr. Li.”
“Where’s Ah-Zhi?”
“Yes, Mr. Li–” Zou Hao reflexively responded before coughing lightly. “Mr. Zhai has only been back in China for a short while; he’s gone to a friend’s meeting and will be back soon .”
“Hm, you can go and get to work.”
“Yes, Mr. Li.”
After Zou Hao left, Xie Chenyang leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. [System, what’s the current status of Cen He?]
System: “His exposed lover was dumped by her foreign boyfriend, and is now haunting Cen He with her child. She wants to use this opportunity to become Cen He’s legal wife.”
[Hm.]
“Feiyang has been impacted because of public opinion, and the shareholders are very dissatisfied. However, as Cen He has the majority of shares, even if they are dissatisfied, they cannot shake his position in the company. On the contrary, there are many potential artists who have taken the opportunity to leave.”
Xie Chenyang grinned: [That trash.]
The system queried, “Host, what do you want to do?”
Xie Chenyang: [Develop Zhiyang into an entertainment industry leader, then go all out to suppress Feiyang.]
System: “…That’s the Li family’s company.”
Xie Chenyang: [I will eventually take back Feiyang and merge it with Zhiyang.]
System: “Oh.”
—- A Jade Appraisal Center. —-
Zhai Zhi’s face was cold as he patiently watched the experts study the small round vial he had brought with him for a very long time.
Then a middle-aged man with glasses came forward. “Mr. Zhai, long time no see.”
Zhai Zhi: “What’s the result?”
“Nothing.”
“What do you mean?”
“This bottle is made of a different material, but it’s different from any known material on the market,” the middle-aged man said solemnly. “This could be something that hasn’t been detected or hasn’t begun to circulate openly on the market. I was curious as to where Mr. Zhai got it from.”
Zhai Zhi’s hand on the armrest tightened slightly. “It’s not jade?”
“While it has the appearance of jade, it is not. The degree of durability alone is not on the same level at all… Would Mr. Zhai mind if we demonstrate it by brute force?”
“…Not a problem.”
Zhai Zhi watched as they took a hammer, secured the small round bottle, and struck down with the hammer. It remained undamaged.
The middle-aged man’s gaze heated slightly. “Mr. Zhai, do you see? We used our full strength behind this blow, but the bottle is perfectly intact, not even a single blemish! Mr. Zhai, may I have the honor to inquire–”
Zhai Zhi stepped forward, retrieved the small round bottle, and stuffed it back into his pocket, and said indifferently, “I obtained this bottle by chance. I would like to emphasize that I trust your company’s confidentiality policy… In your line of work, if you don’t have any credibility, well…”
Before he had finished speaking, the middle-aged man understood what he meant. But he was still a bit reluctant. “Mr. Zhai, can you really not sell it to us? The price is negotiable…”
Zhai Zhi regarded him coldly.
The middle-aged man regretfully said, “I see, Mr. Zhai, if–”
“There will be no ifs,” Zhai Zhi said and turned on his heel to leave.
Instead of returning to the company, he went back home first. After trying various means, he was unable to destroy the small round bottle. He sat on the sofa with deep eyes and took a deep drag on his cigarette.
After smoking a few cigarettes in silence, he picked up his car keys and went out, going to the official antiquities appraisal center. “This is something I found at a stall before I returned to China. It looked like our country’s craftsmanship, so I bought it. I thought it was just an ordinary jade bottle, but last night I accidentally dropped it on the ground and found that it didn’t break let alone that it was without a single blemish… I was a little bit surprised.” Zhai Zhi stated, “So earlier today, I asked a Jade Appraisal Center to authenticate it, but they couldn’t give me a verdict. When I had the idea that it might be an antique, I came here.”
The staff tentatively tested it and found that ordinary external force really couldn’t damage it.
Half an hour later, an old man came out. “Mr. Zhai, do you really want to give us this bottle?”
Zhai Zhi indifferently declared, “It’s just a bottle.”
“To you, it’s just a bottle, to us it might be a new material to be explored!” the old man said amiably. “Mr. Zhai, we appreciate your kind contribution. May I take the liberty of asking if we can know the exact location of the foreign city in which you discovered it?”
Zhai Zhi casually named a location, “There are often many people setting up stalls there selling small things from different countries. A foreign old man sold it to me. I was just passing by and that’s when I saw that it was quite pretty and looked like our country’s craftsmanship, so I bought it.”
He finished his story and bade his farewells.
The old man did not stop him and watched him leave.
“Elder Qin, do you think he’s telling the truth?”
The old man withdrew his gaze and looked at the person next to him. “Whether it’s the truth or not, he gave us the bottle.”
“Maybe it was found by accident…do you think it’s really an antique?”
“There’s a pattern on the bottom of that bottle. Start our investigation with that.”
—–
It was already noon when Zhai Zhi returned to the company.
Xie Chenyang was sitting in his office, and when he saw Zhai Zhi, the irritability and impatience in his eyes were not hidden at all. “You disappeared right after we arrived at the company. Zhai Zhi, I’m not trying to interfere with your friendships, but you didn’t even bother to tell me goodbye, aren’t you disregarding me a little bit?”
He had been waiting for him all morning at the office. The bottom line was that Zhai Zhi had clearly come to the company with him, yet he had to learn about him leaving from Zou Hao’s mouth.
System: “I can investigate…”
Xie Chenyang: [No investigating! No spying on him!]
The system puffed. “Don’t worry; if you didn’t take the initiative to mention it, I’d be too lazy to bother with it.”
Edited: Krone
Proofread: Choux_choux
