⌈”Do you want me to dig a hole for you to crawl out of?”⌋
Ji Min nearly laughed in anger.
He stayed in place for quite a while, letting the cold wind blow.
Butler Chen came out to look for him. Upon seeing his expression, Butler Chen paused in surprise, “Why are you out here cooling off to this extent?”
Considering Ji Min’s usual habit of not showing his emotions, for him to get so worked up was rare.
“Who knows,” Ji Min sneered, then controlled his wheelchair to head back inside.
He didn’t forget to instruct Butler Chen, “Withdraw that private sponsorship.”
Back in the meeting room, Lu Ran naturally proceeded to sign the contract with the Shen family.
Lu Ran knew that the Shen family would turn hostile once this sponsorship event was over, so he finalized the contract on the spot.
Taking the opportunity, he raised the terms of the sponsorship.
He even brought up the matter of rent.
The boomerang hit again and Madam Shen’s face turned terribly unpleasant.
After the sponsorship event ended, Lu Ran wandered around the campus alone.
It was very cold.
All the leaves had fallen from the trees on campus, layering the cobblestone paths.
Suddenly, Lu Ran missed Da Huang very much.
Da Huang would have loved walking along this leaf-strewn path.
But Da Huang wasn’t here, nor could he enter the school.
Lu Ran stood there and dazed, looking over at the KFC near the school gate.
Checking his phone balance, he went inside and waited in line.
He didn’t order fried chicken or burgers, just four crispy ice cream cones—the type they didn’t often sell in this season.
As Ji Min’s car left the school gate, he immediately spotted a certain someone who had messed with him earlier, clutching four ice cream cones in both hands and gnawing on them.
Recently, the weather has been especially cold.
The northwest wind was fierce.
This person was shivering in the cold wind while stubbornly biting into his ice creams.
Remembering to take turns, he took a bite from each of the four cones.
After each bite, he shivered from the chill.
Then, after a pause, he would extend his head and take another bite.
Perhaps it was out of satisfaction, but Ji Min unknowingly watched him for quite a while.
Until Butler Chen’s amused voice sounded from the front seat, “Shall I pull over, sir?”
“What for?” Ji Min’s tone was harsh. “If you want to be a taxi driver, go change cars yourself.”
Butler Chen sighed, “Ah, I’m too old to be a taxi driver. Can’t compare to some people, who still get inspired to play kidnappers like a child.”
Ji Min: “…”
Butler Chen continued, “And nearly made the other party… oh no, they already called the police.”
“…Uncle Chen!” Ji Min said helplessly.
Butler Chen finally laughed it off, letting the matter drop.
Silence returned to the car.
The person outside munching on ice cream eventually ducked into a shop to escape the wind.
In the end, they passed by this spacious car with its well-adjusted air conditioning.
A long time passed.
Inside the car, Ji Min’s voice eventually broke the silence with a faint sigh, “What’s the point of helping someone who can’t be saved?”
“A bastard child with ulterior motives, that’s all.”
After the sponsorship event, life gradually returned to its usual rhythm.
Lu Ran finally welcomed the official start of winter break.
He began a new round of part-time work.
This time, he had truly managed to pull one over on the Shen family; the previous little tricks couldn’t compare.
As a result, Shen Hongyuan erupted in a genuine fit of rage.
Lu Ran, however, carried on as usual, quietly adding to his small savings.
Now that he had a contract with the Shen family, the Shen Corporation would be covering his tuition and living expenses over the next four years.
Of course, Madam Shen wasn’t a fool; she wasn’t about to let him mess around at the Shen Corporation after graduation.
She’d added plenty of restrictive terms for his post-graduation employment.
Nonetheless, a significant weight had been lifted from Lu Ran’s shoulders.
During the winter break, he found a part-time job at a cafe.
The cafe was located near an office building and the work was fairly relaxed most of the time, with only specific busy hours and no evening shifts.
This allowed Lu Ran to focus on his studies.
Around lunchtime, a few young women in professional attire came into the cafe for lunch.
Another barista, Xiao Wang, leaned on the counter, watching them with a touch of envy.
He chatted idly with Lu Ran, “They all work for the Ji Corporation. I hear the company offers amazing benefits. But I guess the assessments are tough and strict.”
“The benefits must be great…” Lu Ran replied while silently going over English vocabulary in his mind.
“Oh, absolutely.” Xiao Wang sighed a bit regretfully. “If I’d scored better in college, I might have gotten into Ji Corporation myself.”
Saying this, he patted Lu Ran’s shoulder. “You’ve got a chance—keep it up!”
Lu Ran chuckled.
Just then, an order for delivery came in and the two of them got back to work.
Meanwhile, two of the Ji Corporation employees were chatting at a nearby table.
One of them subtly gestured upward and asked curiously, “Aren’t you stationed up there now? So, how’s it been? Is he as fierce as they say?”
At that, the girl across from her leaned in.
“Don’t even ask. I made a mistake the moment I started—I was terrified!”
“What happened? What happened?”
“Well, you know how the chairman uses a wheelchair, right? I saw him coming out of the elevator and instinctively went to help push…”
“Huh? So what’s the big deal?”
“Yeah!” The girl speaking seemed a bit puzzled too.
“So what happened then?”
“Not much, really. The chairman just looked at me and said, ‘Go mind your own business’.”
She took a sip of water to calm herself, “But you know that cold look and tone he has, right?”
“Oh my, I thought I was done for in that moment. Later, I asked around and found out he absolutely hates people touching his wheelchair.”
“A real quirk… though, with his legs in that condition, it’s kind of understandable he’d be a bit temperamental.”
“Here’s your pasta,” Lu Ran’s voice interrupted.
He placed the pasta and utensils on the table.
The girl who had been complaining just now, perhaps feeling the chill of talking about her boss behind his back, nervously waved her hands, “He’s actually pretty decent; unlike my previous boss, he doesn’t randomly lash out at employees. Our chairman’s mood is pretty stable…”
Stable, as in permanently unhappy?
Lu Ran silently snarked to himself.
At first, he hadn’t realized that this cafe was so close to the Ji Corporation’s office building.
But after a few days, he started hearing Ji Min’s name mentioned regularly.
A perpetual dark cloud.
Not exactly a bad temper, but distant and cold. And with his disability, it just made him seem all the more eccentric.
As Lu Ran walked away with his tray, he overheard the two continue their conversation.
“If it weren’t for his legs, the boss would be a top-notch eligible bachelor.”
“What exactly happened to his legs? Was it a birth condition?”
“…I heard it was a car accident.”
As Lu Ran returned to the counter, Xiao Wang called over to him, “These orders are all packed up and they’re all going to the same address.”
Lu Ran responded with a nod, picked up the bags, and walked out of the cafe.
At Ji Corporation, in the meeting room.
It was lunchtime and a negotiation over an acquisition deal was paused.
A man chased after him, “President Ji!”
Ji Min’s wheelchair didn’t stop.
The man, once away from the negotiating table, lost much of his polished businessman persona.
Clearly, he was unfamiliar with Ji Min’s habits.
He took a few steps to catch up and continued negotiating, “President Ji, don’t you think your terms are unreasonable? There’s no such thing as a free lunch!”
Ji Min’s wheelchair finally stopped and he looked up at this persistent client.
He was surrounded by a crowd of hungry office workers.
His expression was as grim as ever, his skin pale to the point of translucence.
Not a hint of hunger or impatience showed on his face.
He was as cold as an immortal, yet also like a ghost.
Ji Min said, “You know the state of your own company. I don’t have a habit of spending money on trash.”
The man’s face froze, hovering on the edge of both anger and guilt.
Ji Min’s words were utterly blunt.
The surrounding employees who had been hurrying off to lunch couldn’t help but pause.
Some of the new hires who had worked on this acquisition for the past month felt their hearts skip a beat, worried all their efforts might have been wasted.
The more experienced employees, however, remained unruffled.
After leaving the meeting room, Ji Min didn’t head downstairs to eat; he returned to his office first.
He’d just gotten back when his assistant knocked and entered, saying, “Chairman, they’ve agreed to sign the contract.”
Ji Min nodded.
The assistant didn’t leave after that.
“Something else?” Ji Min paused his wheelchair to ask.
The assistant showed him the phone that had been vibrating throughout half the meeting and hesitated, “It’s a call from the prison.”
Ji Min looked at him silently.
The assistant grimaced but continued, touching on a near-taboo subject, “They said…your brother isn’t doing well lately and insisted on seeing you.”
Ji Min didn’t react with the anger the assistant had expected.
He even let out a faint laugh.
His lips curved slightly and his entire expression was laced with a chilling indifference.
“Tell him,” he said, “if he wants to see me, he can break his own legs and crawl out.”
“And besides, he’s not my brother—just a Ji family bastard. If he has a problem, he can go find his actual parents.”
Ji Min’s tone was so calm that it put the previously nervous assistant at ease, too. “Understood, I’ll inform them.”
After handling a few more tasks, Ji Min controlled his wheelchair and left the office.
Outside, the employees were enjoying their lunch break.
Some were chatting, while others ate slowly and leisurely.
Noticing his arrival, their conversations hushed momentarily before resuming, but everyone kept an eye on Ji Min, as if worried he might suddenly fall from his wheelchair.
Ignoring the stares, Ji Min moved alone to the elevator.
He pressed the button and watched the elevator indicator descend.
The chairman’s office was always located on the top floor of Ji Corporation.
But after Ji Min took over, due to his physical condition, he relocated it to a middle floor where emergencies would be easier to handle.
“Ding.”
The elevator arrived. As the doors opened, Ji Min maneuvered his wheelchair in.
Looking up, he saw a young man in a cafe uniform.
The boy was juggling at least eight or nine large bags.
The oversized paper bags made his slim, fragile frame appear even thinner and his light uniform looked even less suited for warmth than the insulated bags he was carrying.
He was fumbling with his phone, trying to check the order details.
His slightly long bangs fell forward, the soft black strands catching the elevator lights, reflecting a warm, toffee-like sheen.
Ji Min froze for a moment.
Without thinking, he pressed the stop button.
But his wheelchair had already crossed the elevator threshold and now stopped right in the center.
After a brief pause, he still maneuvered his wheelchair inside.
Lu Ran also noticed Ji Min.
He hadn’t expected his luck to be this bad—to come to Ji Corporation and, by pure chance, run into him.
The man, along with his imposing, wide, black wheelchair, entered the elevator.
The spacious elevator immediately felt a bit cramped.
The man in the wheelchair didn’t fit the stereotypical image of frailty.
With broad shoulders and a commanding aura, he exuded the natural authority of someone in power.
His features were sharp, his expression calm.
The sense of pressure intensified.
As the elevator doors closed completely, the tightness in the space grew even more palpable.
Lu Ran glanced at him but didn’t say a word.
Recalling the gossip he’d overheard at the cafe, he looked down at the unruly bags in his hands.
Silently, he squeezed himself to the side, trying his best to avoid letting even the edge of the bags brush against the wheelchair.
But in this confined space, it was practically impossible.
After a lot of struggling, Lu Ran finally managed to shrink himself into place.
Ji Min sat in his wheelchair, eyes fixed ahead.
Then suddenly, the man spoke coldly, “Need me to dig a hole for you to crawl out of?”
Lu Ran: “…”
Ji Min’s voice was low and deep, carrying his characteristic gloom and sarcasm.
For some reason, it made Lu Ran feel a surge of irritation.
He rolled his eyes and stopped trying to hold back, instead letting his arms relax freely.
With a “whoosh”, four or five bags tumbled over to Ji Min’s side.
A few even brazenly made it over the armrest and onto his legs.
