E ⋆ Chapter 35

Yang Ke’s expression shifted slightly, his brow furrowing as he listened to the voice on the other end of the phone.

Yu Zhinian and Yang Ke were sitting close together, and he could make out that the person on the line was Li Lu, speaking about their marriage and his grandfather’s inheritance, but the specifics were unclear.

After listening to Li Lu speak for a while, Yang Ke told him, “I understand.”

He hung up the phone, and Yu Zhinian asked carefully, “What’s wrong?”

“A small problem,” Yang Ke said simply to Yu Zhinian. “You don’t need to worry.”

He had become unusually patient these past few days, making Yu Zhinian feel as though he were living in some wrong kind of dream, unable to express himself as he normally would.

Seeing that Yang Ke didn’t want to elaborate, Yu Zhinian didn’t press further and just hummed in acknowledgment.

Yang Ke raised his hand and gently touched Yu Zhinian’s forehead, saying, “Go to sleep early.”

Neither of them returned to the earlier conversation about Yu Zhinian moving.

After washing up in his room, Yu Zhinian came out to get water and take his medicine, and heard Yang Ke on the phone again. The person on the other end was likely Zhai Di.

“I’ll go explain things to the investors tomorrow,” Yang Ke said quietly. “…I know, I’m sorry.”

“Still not sure if I’ll have to appear in court,” he said. “For now, the prosecutor has only applied for a temporary restraining order, which has halted the share transfer.”

Yu Zhinian felt that Yang Ke’s tone sounded quite serious. He called out to Yang Ke. Yang Ke was sitting on the sofa and turned to look at him, asking, “Why aren’t you asleep yet?”

Yu Zhinian shook his head. Yang Ke stood up, walked over, and assured him, “It’s nothing serious. You just need to rest well.”

Yu Zhinian took his medicine and slept deeply, but it couldn’t be said that he slept well. He had one dream after another, and they all ended with him fleeing.

Early the next morning, Yang Ke knocked on his door and called him to get up.

Breakfast was brought to the room and laid out on the dining table. The daylight was bright, and outside the glass windows was the cityscape of Meng City, which looked gray because there was no sun.

The sitting room was filled with the aroma of freshly baked bread and eggs and milk.

Yu Zhinian sat down and ate some. Yang Ke told him, “We need to head back after you finish.”

Yang Ke said he had things to do and needed to return to the company.

He was very busy. During breakfast alone, he had already had his secretary schedule several appointments, and he took another call from Li Lu.

The two of them seemed to be discussing Yu Zhinian. Yang Ke briefly looked up at Yu Zhinian and said, “Try not to let him appear in public if possible. He’s a student, not a public figure.”

On the drive back to He City, Yang Ke didn’t say much.

He took several work calls, and Yu Zhinian could tell from them that there seemed to be some problem with their trust transfer process, and quite a few well-informed people already knew about it.

Yang Ke’s clients were suspicious that the company’s operations and investment situation had problems, which put considerable pressure on him.

Yu Zhinian watched the cliff scenery he had seen on the way there, not daring to ask Yang Ke too much. But he suddenly received a message from Ren Heng.

Ren Heng said that he and Chu Sifan had moved out the day before and was very grateful to Yu Zhinian for the help he had given them during their difficult time. He also said, “Zhinian, I saw an article online that seems to be related to you and Yang Ke.”

“But the content isn’t very good. I’m not sure if you’ve seen it.”

Yu Zhinian replied that he hadn’t.

Just then, Yang Ke happened not to be on a call, and Yu Zhinian couldn’t help but tell him about it.

“The media are all so boring,” Yang Ke said to Yu Zhinian. “Don’t read so much of that stuff. It affects your mood.”

Yu Zhinian nodded.

Yang Ke drove steadily but fast. At half past ten in the morning, they arrived at Luoser district. Yang Ke dropped Yu Zhinian off and immediately left for the company.

Yu Zhinian went upstairs and received a call from Attorney Li.

“Is Yang Ke with you?” Attorney Li asked Yu Zhinian.

Yu Zhinian said he wasn’t. Only then did Attorney Li say, “He won’t let me tell you anything. How am I supposed to get around that?”

“A shareholder at Deqin couldn’t sit still,” Attorney Li told Yu Zhinian plainly. “He’s sued me and Yang Ke, and even had someone write an article about it. Whatever you do, don’t read it. It’ll dirty your eyes.”

“Is it serious?” Yu Zhinian asked worriedly. “Attorney Li, did Yang Ke receive the dividend money?”

Attorney Li paused and said, “He did.”

“Is it enough?”

“Actually…” Attorney Li hesitated. “It should be enough.”

“So if Yang Ke and I divorce, could we avoid being sued?” Yu Zhinian had only taken one of the most basic law courses and understood almost nothing about these matters. He just felt that things were more serious than he had thought.

“No, absolutely not,” Attorney Li said in alarm. “Divorce won’t work.” He paused and said, “Zhinian, it’s not that simple.”

Yu Zhinian really didn’t understand any of this. After chatting with Attorney Li for a bit, Attorney Li only told him not to worry too much, and if there was anything he needed Yu Zhinian to cooperate with later, he hoped Yu Zhinian would be willing to do so.

Yu Zhinian agreed and went upstairs.

Yang Ke didn’t come back for lunch. In the afternoon, Yu Zhinian went to the library and happened to run into Shao Xilin.

The two of them chatted for a while about course selection for the summer break. Then Yu Zhinian received another message from Ren Heng.

Ren Heng said they had just finished cleaning up their new place and told Yu Zhinian that there was a new article that was extremely outrageous and was now spreading widely. Chu Sifan’s classmates and friends in the finance circle were all discussing it. He suggested that Yu Zhinian read it and, if necessary, consider suing the media outlet.

Ren Heng attached a link. Yu Zhinian hesitated for a moment, then clicked it open. A photo of Deqin Group’s headquarters appeared at the top of the article. The title was “The Transformation of Deqin,” published in both Chinese and English versions.

It began with the will dispute following Yang Zhongyin’s death two years ago, and had interviewed Fang Liang, a director of Deqin Group. The first section was background introduction, and the second section was mainly a Q&A dialogue with Fang Liang, directly accusing Yang Zhongyin’s own grandson, a well-known private equity fund partner, of attempting to fraudulently obtain the group’s shares.

In the Q&A, Fang Liang referred to Yu Zhinian as “a certain Yu,” laying bare Yang Zhongyin’s private affairs.

“Old Yang had a way with business. We went public here, moved the main factory to Sangte City, all under his direction. But he’s not the person he portrayed in those press releases he used to put out. We old friends all know he was domineering and very stubborn in how he did things.

“Look at all those young actresses he used to date. They all had the same face, all resembling that old flame of his. What was her name, a certain Zhou. Back in the eighties when we returned home to make our way, he was always looking for this woman.

“Right, so this certain Yu, who was originally supposed to inherit the trust shares, is the grandson of his former lover. After he dug heaven and earth to find him, he tricked him out of the mountains.

“I’ve seen this certain Yu a few times. A well-behaved kid, very kind. During the time Old Yang was ill at the end, he was always at his bedside attending to him. I heard from his real estate agent that he originally didn’t want the inheritance and didn’t want to marry Yang Ke. Yang Ke used all sorts of reasons to drag things out and deceive him into a fraudulent marriage.

“The reason for the fraudulent marriage does no one any good. He hates Old Yang and wants to bring Deqin down.

“Yang Ke’s mother was taken away by Old Yang. The custody battle back then lasted a long time. Old Yang took her but didn’t raise her well. Yang Nian developed depression at a very young age, and in her early teens she was cutting her wrists. He sent her for treatment, and the medication left her mind in a fog.

“Later she got pregnant and stopped taking the medicine. She committed suicide just days after giving birth.

“Old Yang didn’t raise Yang Ke well either. But he mentioned to us several times that he knew Yang Ke hated him, couldn’t wait to run away from this family. Old Yang had a habit: he liked to oppress people who resisted him. Yang Ke had a rough time of it growing up.

“Now that he’s an adult, Old Yang still wanted to interfere in Yang Ke’s marriage, making him marry the grandson of his old flame. Wouldn’t that make Yang Ke hate him even more?

“Yang Ke’s company has no financial problems. It’s perfectly healthy. He doesn’t lack money at all. I suspect he has an antisocial personality. He used so many tactics, colluding with a real estate manager to buy a house and rent it to this certain Yu, claiming the house had water leaks, then breaking the locks on the doors, even conspiring with the trust administrator, pretending to be short on money, to trick this certain Yu into marrying him in a short period of time, all just to get one-third of the shares and destroy what Old Yang built over many years.

“Fortunately, Deqin Group has always been the economic and employment backbone of Sangte City. This time we also received help and protection from the state attorney general, who urgently halted the share transfer.”

When Yu Zhinian first started reading, he felt nothing. A few minutes after finishing the article, he suddenly felt his hands and feet go cold, a numbness spreading from the soles of his feet all the way to the top of his head.

The library was crowded, brightly lit, with whispers all around.

Yu Zhinian felt a little frightened, utterly bewildered. He suddenly remembered that Yang Ke had asked him about his grandmother, not long after they had started living together.

Yu Zhinian couldn’t quite recall the exact details of that conversation, because he had been the one to actively kiss Yang Ke that day. Afterward, every time he thought about it, he felt ashamed, and so he had forcibly erased the details of that entire stretch of memory from his mind.

This article, “The Transformation of Deqin,” was extremely rigorous. At the end, it attached a selection from an ethnographic study that Yang Zhongyin had referenced when searching for his former lover.

Yu Zhinian glanced at it and saw the two characters “Qin Qin.”

“‘Qin Qin, ah,’ Zhao Xi’er said, ‘she used to be the prettiest one around here. She liked to wear white dresses and a red string bracelet on her wrist. But her fate was hard. She went to work in the university cafeteria and came back pregnant. When we asked her who the baby’s father was, she wouldn’t say no matter what.'”

Yu Zhinian felt that Yang Ke was not the kind of person with an antisocial personality as they described.

Yang Ke was calm and composed, worked seriously, and would not use Yu Zhinian to take revenge on someone who was already dead. That would have made no sense at all.

But it seemed Yang Ke had really deceived him. Yu Zhinian thought back to that day when he had wanted to leave Yang Ke’s house, and Yang Ke had chased after him and admitted that he was short on money.

Yu Zhinian had immediately wanted to help him without reservation, his heart full of hope that the inheritance would quickly pull Yang Ke’s company out of its difficulties. He had never once imagined that Yang Ke would tell him so many lies.