⌈Bang!⌋
Ji Min walked toward Lu Ran’s bedroom.
Upon entering, he realized the kid had only removed his shoes.
Still wearing his clothes, Lu Ran lay sprawled on the blanket, fast asleep.
His face was buried in the blanket. Because he was sleeping in a twisted position, his breathing was slightly heavy.
He was clearly exhausted, sleeping so soundly that he didn’t even notice someone entering the room.
Ji Min sighed, grabbed a thin blanket from the side, unfolded it, and covered Lu Ran with it.
As he bent down, he glanced at Lu Ran’s collar.
The marks from being pinched by the neck two days ago had already faded significantly.
“Faded pretty quickly,” Ji Min muttered in a low voice.
“Should we wake him up?” Butler Chen asked.
Ji Min hesitated for a moment but then shook his head. “He’s this tired—let him sleep. Today’s chaos is better without him involved.”
After a brief pause, he added instructions to the butler, “Seal off the inner courtyard later. Don’t let anyone barge in and disturb him.”
The butler responded affirmatively.
Today was Ji Min’s 29th birthday.
He usually didn’t care much about birthdays and didn’t like lively celebrations, treating them as just another day in his schedule.
However, for others in the business circles of Jing City, it was a rare and significant event.
If they could manage to attend—even just to make connections or eavesdrop on a few tidbits of information—it was already worthwhile.
But Ji Min’s invitations were scarce. Each one was strictly for one individual, making it difficult even to sneak in.
The main gate of the Ji family’s estate opened.
Outside, however, it wasn’t exactly bustling.
Compared to the usual extravagant banquets held by the Shen family, it could almost be described as “quiet”.
Everyone respectfully handed over their invitations and gifts before silently entering the courtyard.
It seemed that just stepping into the Ji family’s threshold was enough to make people lower their voices and adopt a restrained tone even when speaking to those nearby.
The scene didn’t resemble a birthday party at all.
Instead, it felt more like a meeting in a different venue.
Gu Zhi was very unaccustomed to this kind of atmosphere.
The moment he stepped in, he couldn’t stop himself from twitching all over, feeling as if he’d freeze up completely if he didn’t move around.
But relying on his familiarity with Ji Min, he kept twitching while complaining.
“I didn’t even want to come in the first place. How can a senior like me be expected to come congratulate a junior like you?”
Ji Min glanced up at him, his eyes plainly conveying: If you don’t want to stay, you can leave.
Gu Zhi found this a bit unusual.
He shook his head and sighed, “Your temper’s improved lately, huh?”
In the past, Ji Min would have already told him to get lost.
Ji Min remained silent for a moment, suspecting that someone had annoyed him so much recently that his tolerance threshold had increased.
“It’s not like I came willingly,” Gu Zhi sighed again. “My old man takes your affairs very seriously. He originally planned to send that kid Ningqi over.”
“But for some reason, as soon as that kid heard he’d have to come here, he absolutely refused.”
Hearing Gu Ningqi’s name, Ji Min chuckled softly.
He knew exactly why the Gu family’s eldest grandson didn’t want to come.
It was probably because he was afraid of running into Lu Ran.
If Lu Ran brought up that whole “golden needle mushroom” remark again, this young master Gu might be so furious he’d jump off the balcony on the spot.
Ji Min’s laugh piqued Gu Zhi’s curiosity, so he gave him another look.
And with that glance, Gu Zhi’s eyes widened as he spotted something extraordinary.
“Holy crap!”
Gu Zhi couldn’t hold back and raised his voice.
Pointing at Ji Min’s neck, he exclaimed, “What—what’s with your neck! This is way too intense!”
The courtyard was already quite quiet.
Gu Zhi’s shout drew everyone’s attention. Whether they were sitting nearby chatting, walking along the path, or just stepping through the door, they all turned their heads to look at Ji Min.
At first glance, it wasn’t noticeable. But now that Gu Zhi had drawn a clear road map, everyone could see it.
On Ji Min’s neck, near his collar, was a conspicuous dark mark.
Realizing what it was, many people’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
Ji Min: “…”
Yep, that’s exactly what it looked like.
This was still the mark left by Lu Ran from that day.
The kid’s own neck had been covered in bruises from being pinched, yet after applying some medicine and sleeping it off, the marks vanished almost instantly.
In contrast, the one on Ji Min’s neck proved to be remarkably stubborn.
Though it had faded from red to a purplish-brown hue, its color clearly and unmistakably declared to everyone: this was a hickey.
It looked so real that it seemed even faker than a fake one.
The worst part was that the kid’s careless pinch had left it in a spot the collar couldn’t quite cover.
Ji Min had noticed it that morning but couldn’t be bothered to deal with it—nor did he have a way to fix it.
He thought it wouldn’t matter much.
Who would’ve thought that Gu Zhi would shout about it at the top of his lungs?
After shouting, Gu Zhi belatedly clamped his mouth shut, but his inner turmoil was raging.
The way he stared at Ji Min practically oozed jealousy.
He had thought Ji Min’s little lover was just a bluff!
Over the past few weeks, Ji Min hadn’t even been to the office. Gu Zhi had assumed the two had already split up.
But apparently not!
The other guests were equally shocked.
Everyone attending this banquet might not have the most prestigious status, but they were all long-time collaborators with Ji Min.
Many of them, when first dealing with Ji Min, had projected their own assumptions onto him.
They figured that the more reserved Ji Min was, the more he must desire. They had tried various ways to send people his way.
Those attempts, however, had always ended disastrously.
The ones still around had learned not to play such petty tricks and were familiar with Ji Min’s habits.
None of them had expected to see such a mark on him one day.
After the initial wave of shock, the courtyard buzzed with hushed gossip.
Someone quietly asked, “Could it be… that Shen family kid?”
“Shh! Don’t say such nonsense.”
“President Ji has made it clear—that’s just a junior.”
This statement quelled the gossip for only a few minutes.
But just a few.
Before long, someone else couldn’t hold back and whispered, “I heard… they moved in?”
“Then why haven’t we seen them?”
Or perhaps…
“Did Ji Min switch to someone else?”
The guests couldn’t help but entertain their own thoughts, each with their own interpretation.
Ji Min found it all tiresome.
Noticing the time, he waved his hand to signal the attendants to prepare.
Unlike the current trend in high society to host evening banquets that drag on until midnight, Ji Min adhered to the older generation’s traditions: Start at noon and finish in the afternoon.
Dinner is over and everyone leaves. He didn’t like having people in his home at night.
The guests began taking their seats one after another.
Someone with sharp eyes noticed that a seat next to Ji Min remained empty.
All the dishes had been served, yet that particular spot—conveniently the seat to his immediate right—was still unoccupied.
This prompted someone to whisper, “Who else hasn’t arrived yet?”
An informed guest replied, “It’s President Ji’s aunt and her family. They’re still not here.”
The one who had asked nodded in understanding.
By all accounts, Ji Min’s aunt was his only remaining family.
Yet, for this birthday banquet, his only family member was fashionably late.
It wasn’t until several courses had been served that the harmonious chatter of a family of three echoed from the entrance.
First came a somewhat domineering female voice.
“Finally made it back! The traffic was just awful.”
Then, as if noticing something unsatisfactory, she added disdainfully, “Who trimmed this podocarpus? It looks terrible.”
Following that was the discontented voice of a boy about fourteen or fifteen.
“Mom, when are we going back?”
Their voices carried unabashedly into the courtyard, immediately disrupting its previously quiet atmosphere with a sudden cacophony.
The woman said something else, after which the boy finally quieted down.
Hearing their voices, the guests began whispering among themselves.
Ji Min, however, remained indifferent, though his eyes darkened slightly.
It had been several years since he last saw his aunt, Ji Yue.
Spoiled from a young age by Old Master Ji, Ji Yue had lived a pampered life.
When the Ji family’s situation became turbulent, she had already moved abroad with the Li family.
After Ji Min’s downfall, Ji Yue did return briefly.
However, she didn’t stay long before leaving again.
Even so, abroad, the Li family continued to act under the Ji family’s name.
With Ji Yue’s father and brother no longer around, Ji Min, mindful of the many years of familial ties, turned a blind eye to these actions, treating it as a way to support his aunt who had married far away.
But this year, Ji Yue and her husband had done quite a few outrageous things, pinning all the blame squarely on the Ji family.
Ji Min had always avoided doing anything without purpose.
Learning that the Li family would be attending his birthday banquet this time, he intended to use the occasion to give them a proper warning.
The situation later would likely not be pleasant.
But now… Ji Min suddenly regretted his own arrangements.
He glanced upward, his gaze subtly shifting to the floor above.
The upstairs window was silent and still.
After a moment’s thought, Ji Min turned his head and instructed Butler Chen.
“Go upstairs and see if he’s awake. If he is, let the kitchen know to send up whatever he feels like eating. Don’t let him come down and see all this unpleasantness—it’ll only annoy him.”
But this time, Butler Chen didn’t respond immediately.
Instead, he looked at Ji Min and asked, “Are you sure about that?”
Ji Min was taken aback by the question but quickly understood.
He sighed and said, “Forget it. Let him decide for himself.”
His initial intention for keeping Lu Ran upstairs was to spare the boy from being troubled.
Lu Ran had always been obedient—if Ji Min told him to stay put, the teenager would quietly remain in his room.
However, that might inevitably remind him of the way he was treated back in the Shen family.
After all…
In the Shen family, he had likely been told countless times not to leave his room and not to participate in family social events.
“In that case, tell the kitchen to prepare more desserts,” Ji Min said.
He remembered Lu Ran’s fondness for cakes.
As he spoke, he glanced at the Li family trio who had just entered. His brows furrowed slightly, his temper flaring but quickly subdued.
Even Ji Min himself didn’t notice the faint trace of tension hidden between his brows.
Butler Chen chuckled, his aged eyes seeming to see right through him.
In a low voice, he remarked, “You’re overthinking it. Young Master Lu Ran and you aren’t at the ‘meeting the family’ stage yet. He won’t let Miss Ji Yue’s inappropriate behavior affect his impression of you.”
Ji Min: “…”
His eye twitched slightly as he forced an explanation.
“I wasn’t thinking that at all. I just don’t want the situation to look too ugly.”
Butler Chen nearly rolled his eyes on the spot.
“You’ve never seemed to care about this before,” Butler Chen commented as he left to carry out the instructions.
After the butler departed, Ji Min didn’t touch his chopsticks much.
He thought to himself that perhaps he truly was a bit anxious.
To be precise, this feeling had started the day Lu Ran overheard his assistant reporting on his family affairs.
It wasn’t just for the reasons Butler Chen had mentioned.
Every prominent family inevitably had its share of messy affairs.
The Ji family wasn’t any better than the Shen family.
In fact, because of its vast wealth and influence, its conflicts were sometimes even bloodier.
He had ended up in a wheelchair.
His illegitimate half-brother had been sent to prison by his own hands.
Add to that the tangled and chaotic issues of the previous generation.
Now, with his only remaining aunt visiting, she seemed to bring yet another storm of trouble.
It felt as if all the chaos and darkness hidden behind Ji Min were being laid bare.
Growing up in such a family and becoming its ultimate victor, Ji Min could never truly be the reliable elder or the exceptional boss that Lu Ran imagined him to be.
That day, the boy had asked him, “Did they bully you?“
Ji Min hadn’t given a direct answer.
Because…
What Lu Ran probably didn’t understand was that, with his methods, Ji Min had long since become the one doing the bullying.
Ji Min closed his eyes briefly.
For the first time, he felt some hesitation about a decision he’d already made.
Lu Ran had grown up in the Shen family’s kind of environment; surely, he must value familial bonds deeply.
If he saw how Ji Min dealt with the Li family, would he think Ji Min was no different from Shen Xingyu?
Though…
He might actually be far more ruthless than Shen Xingyu.
After deliberating for a while, Ji Min eventually let out a sigh.
Forget it, he thought. He’d deal with it another day.
As long as the Li family didn’t overstep their bounds today, having a peaceful meal together would suffice.
Ji Min was quietly contemplating when he suddenly heard the sound of a chair being pulled out beside him.
Ji Min turned his head and saw his aunt, Ji Yue.
She offered an apologetic smile. “Sorry, Xiao Min, we’re a bit late.”
Ji Min nodded without making an issue of it.
Ji Yue then pulled her son closer.
“Come greet your cousin. Didn’t you always call him cousin this, cousin that when you were little?”
Facing Ji Min, the young man finally managed to force a smile and said, “Hello, cousin.”
However, his inability to mask his emotions was evident as his gaze flicked to Ji Min’s wheelchair while speaking.
Ji Min, who had little patience for children aside from Lu Ran, responded indifferently with a curt acknowledgment.
Ji Yue then pulled out a chair and pushed her son into it. “Come, sit next to your cousin,” she instructed, pressing him down into the seat.
As she seated him, she added, “Your cousin isn’t in great health. You should take good care of him.”
Hearing this, the boy’s displeasure was apparent.
Ji Min wasn’t pleased either.
He glanced at the chair beside him, his brow twitching slightly as he said, “Your seats are elsewhere.”
This statement left everyone, including Ji Yue, momentarily stunned.
Your seats are elsewhere.
It implied that this spot wasn’t reserved for them.
This raised the question…
Was someone more important than Ji Yue expected to take this seat?
Ji Yue’s brows furrowed slightly, but she maintained her composure.
“You and your cousin haven’t seen each other for so many years. What’s the harm in letting him sit here with you?”
As she spoke, she pressed down harder, attempting to seat her son in the chair.
Ji Min’s dark eyes swept over her with a palpable sense of oppression.
The intensity of his gaze froze the smile on Ji Yue’s face.
Her son didn’t dare to sit either.
In the end, the mother and son retreated to their assigned seats.
Back at their table, Ji Yue’s expression turned noticeably cooler.
Ji Yue: It seems the rumors I heard on the way here are true.
Her crippled nephew apparently does have someone now.
Ji Yue found this somewhat surprising.
She vaguely recalled that this nephew of hers had always had a bit of a temper.
By the time Ji Min was in his teens, in families like theirs, people expected him to start settling down.
Back then, a young woman of appropriate age and social standing had pestered Old Master Ji, saying she wanted to stay at the Ji residence for a few days.
It was obvious she had an interest in Ji Min.
However, after arriving, she hadn’t even manage to see Ji Min’s shadow.
On the rare occasions she did catch sight of him, she persistently tried to follow him.
But this persistence only succeeded in angering Ji Min.
He coldly confronted her on the spot, saying, “Why are you always in my house? Don’t you have a home of your own?”
One sentence was enough to make the girl cry.
The very next day, she hurriedly left.
Later, after Ji Min’s accident, his temper grew even colder.
Because of his legs, no one dared to approach him anymore.
But now… Ji Yue couldn’t help but wonder who had the ability to break through that icy shell.
On the other side of the table, Ji Min hardly touched his food.
The brief commotion caused by the Li family’s arrival soon subsided and the banquet proceeded as normal.
Halfway through the meal, Ji Yue’s son suddenly lost his temper for no apparent reason.
He slammed his chopsticks down and snapped, “I said I’m not eating this!”
Ji Yue frowned, pulling her son close and whispering, “Did you forget what I told you before we came?”
Her son, however, suddenly erupted.
“So annoying! If you hadn’t said that once he’s dead, all of Ji family’s things would be mine, I wouldn’t have bothered coming here!”
The boy’s newly broken voice carried a startling sharpness, cutting through the banquet’s subdued atmosphere and leaving an awkward silence in its wake.
Some guests couldn’t help but glance at Ji Min.
They saw the man leaning back against his wheelchair, his fingers idly stroking the remote on the armrest.
Hearing such a spiteful remark, his lips merely curled into a faint smile.
Ji Yue, on the other hand, looked deeply embarrassed.
She inwardly blamed her husband for spoiling the boy.
Although what he said wasn’t untrue—Ji Min was disabled and unlikely to have heirs. Without other close relatives, everything would eventually fall to their family—how could he say such things out loud?
She didn’t exert much force, but she still tugged on her son’s ear, scolding, “What nonsense are you saying? Hurry and apologize to your cousin!”
Dragging her son over to Ji Min, Ji Yue reprimanded him lightly but firmly.
“He’s only fifteen, just a kid who doesn’t know how to talk properly. Xiao Min, don’t stoop to his level.”
“Fifteen?” Ji Min picked up his glass and took a sip of water.
Lifting his gaze to Ji Yue, he asked, “Do you remember what I was doing when I was fifteen?”
But as soon as he said this, he seemed to recall something, his gaze dimming.
“Forget it. Just keep your son in check.”
Coming from Ji Min, this was already unusually tolerant.
Ji Yue: It seems that being crippled has softened him, making him cherish family bonds.
Seeing his leniency, she pressed on and nudged her son again.
“Hurry up, toast your cousin and apologize.”
Unexpectedly, as soon as she said this, her son shoved her hand away and spat, “I’m not apologizing to this cripple!”
The entire courtyard instantly fell into an oppressive silence.
The only sound was her son’s continued ranting.
“Did I say something wrong?”
He even pointed directly at Ji Min, saying, “My dad said you’re a useless cripple for life! When you’re old, you’ll have to rely on me!”
Ji Min raised an eyebrow, finding the scene rather intriguing.
He even chuckled softly and said, “Not bad. Go on.”
Ji Yue couldn’t help but feel a chill down her spine at Ji Min’s reaction.
But she quickly composed herself.
After all, she was Ji Min’s only relative.
She knew her position well.
Just as Ji Min was about to say something, the glass doors near the inner courtyard suddenly opened.
Out walked a drowsy young man, his hair sticking up in all directions from sleep.
The unexpected appearance drew everyone’s attention.
He was wearing a loose sweatshirt, his feet in slippers, and his face still groggy from sleep.
This soft and sleepy appearance seemed entirely out of place in the meticulously elite atmosphere of the banquet—or even the solemn Ji residence itself.
Yet, in that instant, the icy, menacing aura emanating from the man in the wheelchair dissipated entirely.
Everyone heard Ji Min, who moments ago had been sneering coldly as if ready to kill, speak to the boy with a tone that was half scolding, half indulgent.
“You’re finally awake. Do you even know what time it is?”
Though the words sounded like a reprimand, the tone was so light it could make one’s teeth ache.
“Mm…”
Lu Ran murmured lazily, stepping down the stairs slowly.
Seeing this, the onlookers suddenly understood.
No wonder this young man hadn’t shown up earlier.
So he just woke up late, huh?
Ji Min reached out to pull out the chair beside him, motioning for Ji Yue to take her unruly son and leave quickly.
But the brat’s eyes lit up the moment he saw Lu Ran.
He walked over directly and blurted out, “So you’re the one this cripple—”
He didn’t even finish the sentence.
The next moment, the boy who looked only slightly older than him, the same one who had been rubbing his eyes moments ago with a soft and sleepy demeanor, turned and shot him a cold, piercing glare.
Before anyone could react, Lu Ran grabbed his hair and delivered a crisp slap to his face with a resounding smack.
As if it were an afterthought, Lu Ran yawned lazily and said one word.
“Scram.”
