KN | Chapter 23

I Have No Other Friends

Zhao Shengge was not the sort of person who would ask for humiliation. Once he decided he would no longer interfere, then he truly did stop interfering.

Occasionally, when he could not avoid hearing Tan Youming, Zhuo Zhixuan, and the others bring Chen Wan up, he was still able to keep his mind undisturbed, no longer stirred by it.

Zhao Shengge was not someone who would let himself make the same mistake a third time.

Things should not happen more than three times. Businessmen cared most about cutting their losses in time.

Fortunately, Shi Zhangmin kept his word and quickly found Chen Wan an opening. Chen Wan had strong execution, and moved on it with remarkable speed.

Shi Zhangmin truly had not lied to him. The waters here ran very deep, so deep that for a time even Chen Wan felt alarmed, almost fearful, and did not know where to begin.

For several months in a row, Zhuo Zhixuan could not catch sight of Chen Wan at all. Even his replies to messages were intermittent.

Worried, he called him directly and asked, “What, are you busier than Zhao Shengge now? Monica said you skipped your follow-up appointment again last week. Seriously, Chen Wan, do I have to come to your door and drag you out myself?”

Strictly speaking, doctors were not supposed to disclose a patient’s situation to other people. But Chen Wan’s circumstances were special, and Zhuo Zhixuan truly cared about him.

Monica hoped he could offer Chen Wan some comfort and persuasion, so from time to time she would tell Zhuo Zhixuan a few things that did not involve Chen Wan’s privacy.

Chen Wan was working overtime and overwhelmed. From his friend’s concern, he felt a bit of warmth. “Ah, I asked the doctor for leave. I really have been very busy lately. Once this is done, I’ll treat you to a meal.”

“…” Zhuo Zhixuan was a young master. He knew Chen Wan had it hard, but he had never personally experienced what it meant for someone with no one backing him to smile at others, flatter them, and run himself ragged for a single business deal. After a moment of silence, he sighed. “What exactly is going on with you? If something’s happened, you have to tell us.”

“I’m fine. I’m still working on that project from last time. There’s still a lot of running around to do. How about you all? How have things been lately?”

“Boring,” Zhuo Zhixuan said. “It’s really boring when you’re not around.”

Chen Wan pressed the bridge of his nose. “Even if I went, I wouldn’t say much.” Most of the time he only watched the young masters enjoying themselves. In truth, he did not participate much.

“That’s different. Though actually, Zhao Shengge doesn’t come out much now either.” Zhuo Zhixuan had not met with him much more often than Chen Wan had.

These past few days, Chen Wan had been running himself ragged, so busy he barely had time to eat or sleep. Every so often, hearing that name felt like tearing himself free from all the bowing and scraping, the constant scrambling and weary running around, only to look up and see a wash of rosy light.

The glow was beautiful, vast, and distant. It belonged to another world, and it gave Chen Wan a fleeting moment of release.

“Forget about him.” Zhuo Zhixuan sounded a little indignant. Chen Wan had not shown up for so long, yet Zhao Shengge had not asked about him even once. Even Jiang Ying, who had only gotten to know Chen Wan later, checked in on him from time to time.

Zhao Shengge’s coldness was not in his words, not in his bearing, not in the surface of him.

It was in his bones.

Zhuo Zhixuan felt he had already seen through him. Cold-hearted, blind to people, and full of trouble.

Chen Wan, however, thought, Why stop talking about him? Say more.

Zhuo Zhixuan told him about some other things, then repeatedly reminded Chen Wan that if there was really something he could not handle, he absolutely must not carry it alone and had to tell him.

Chen Wan agreed to everything properly.

That night, Zhao Shengge turned down Tan Youming’s invitation. Wherever Tan Youming and Zhuo Zhixuan were, that name would come up.

Zhao Shengge no longer wanted to hear it.

He had no interest in Chen Wan’s affairs. He only felt that the man was not very smart. From childhood, Zhao Shengge had been educated to believe in the law of the jungle, that the strong devoured the weak, and victors were kings.

Zhao Shengge did not believe that Heaven rewarded diligence. He did not believe that dripping water could wear through stone.

A turtle could only win inside the story of the tortoise and the hare. That was entirely accidental, entirely luck.

If someone insisted on taking the long way around, then he deserved to suffer a little and learn some sense.

Until he saw Chen Wan again at the casino hotel in Galaxy Bay.

He was even thinner.

Like a scattered leaf that was nearly sucked dry of all its moisture, Zhao Shengge could hardly recognize that this had once been the one that had accidentally drifted into his window.

He was wearing a simple black silk shirt, understated but obviously expensive in texture, making his face look all the more extravagantly beautiful. Suit trousers, a finely drawn waist. He wore a flawless smile as he toasted people and accompanied them at the card table.

Smooth in every direction, good at dealing with everyone, at ease thanks to a handsome face and a pleasant temperament.

The poker cards, gold coins, and chips made him seem unlike his usual gentle, clean self. He looked vulgar instead, vulgar in a way that gave rise to an indescribable desire.

Chen Wan was beautiful, but his status was low, so there was a kind of brokenness in the way he bent himself, something that made people’s hearts itch unbearably when they looked at him.

In the splendid lights, Zhao Shengge could not distinguish Chen Wan’s true expression, so he presumptuously decided it was a kind of formula, a kind of numbness and perfunctory social play that still bewitched people.

He truly wanted to call Zhuo Zhixuan and Tan Youming over and let them see what kind of state their little friend was in now.

Zhao Shengge had made up his mind not to cross the line again and offer himself up for another cold face, but then he thought that showing a little charity now and then was not impossible either. The amount Minglong signed off on every month for charitable donations was far more than this anyway.

But the facts proved that Zhao Shengge had been too arrogant.

When the secretary reported that the project had already been placed on the shortlist before they could even make a move, Zhao Shengge lifted his head from the report.

The secretary opened the folder for him and said a few things. Zhao Shengge slowly frowned.

The morning his partner called to tell him that Kexiang had won the bid, Chen Wan’s heart, which had been strung tight for a whole month, finally settled. His whole body felt strangely hollow, like someone who had suddenly found ground beneath his feet after standing on the edge of a cliff.

He had even prepared himself for the final step, because that day at Galaxy Bay he had drunk a great deal, and the other side still had shown no sign of relenting.

But once again, Heaven rewarded diligence, and effort was never wasted. Chen Wan was very happy. He was preparing to fulfill his promise and treat Zhuo Zhixuan to a celebratory meal, but before he could, Zhuo Zhixuan arrived at his door in a furious rush to confront him.

“Chen Wan, what the hell is wrong with you? You went to the customs hearing? You appeared there as an accuser? If someone else hadn’t told me, I still wouldn’t know. Who gave you the nerve!?”

If it had not been for someone in his family holding a post in customs, he would never have known that Chen Wan had taken part, as a third-party inspection representative, in giving testimony against a major foreign-trade smuggling case.

Behind the case lay a whole chain of officials involved in corruption and bribery, with enormous consequences at stake. A role pushed out into the open like that, used as a target in factional struggle, was exactly the kind of thing everyone avoided like the plague.

When Zhuo Zhixuan heard that Chen Wan had appeared there, he was scared out of his mind.

“Do you even know who’s behind Luo Qiansheng? You think one hearing is enough to bring him down? That’s too naive, Chen Wan. I’m telling you, once someone gets him protected and pulls him back out, you’ll be nothing but a discarded pawn. Once you’ve lost your value, anyone can carve you up.”

Chen Wan quietly waited for him to vent everything, then calmly explained, “Ah Xuan, this is how business works. If you gain something, you lose something.”

If he wanted to secure that project, then he had to pay the price. The people he was asking for help wanted to take down Luo’s faction. He had the professional qualifications to appear as a third party and make the accusation. Others were unwilling. He was willing. Then the business would be his.

That single sentence from Chen Wan only made the anger in Zhuo Zhixuan’s chest flare even higher. He was thoroughly sick of this habit his friend had, doing whatever he wanted and leaving no room for discussion once he made up his mind.

“So this is what you meant when you said you had a way? That you could solve it? Didn’t I tell you that if there was something you couldn’t handle, you had to tell me? I said that, didn’t I? And you agreed, didn’t you? Or do your promises come that cheaply? Were you just brushing me off? Or did you just not trust me?”

“Yes, I’m useless, fine, but isn’t there still Tan Youming? If Tan Youming can’t do it, there’s still Shen Zongnian! And if that still doesn’t work, then I’ll go beg Zhao Shengge, alright? I’ll go to his door and beg him myself. In all of Haishi, is there anything Zhao Shengge can’t solve?!!”

“Why do you have to be this stubborn?! Why is it that you can go beg other people, but you can’t trouble Zhao Shengge? Is Zhao Shengge really that special, that noble?”

Zhuo Zhixuan was truly furious. His voice had started to rasp. “Chen Wan, you’re always like this, always stubborn, always refusing to listen to anyone else! You never want to accept help from other people. Do you think it’s noble to only give and never ask for anything in return? Do you think licking blood off the tip of a knife makes you brave?!!”

Back when Chen Wan had just been starting out, he had done things even crazier than this. To seize one contract, he had drunk with a client until he bled from the stomach. To get a document signed, he had played at shooting targets with officials and staked his life on it.

He looked so quiet and refined, like a gentleman in appearance, but in truth he was mad. Ruthless to others, even more ruthless to himself. Once he set his sights on something, he would never stop until he got it.

In the past, Zhuo Zhixuan often used to say that if only he were capable enough, things would be better. He had nothing but the empty-sounding title of a young master. When his friend was suffering, he could not help at all.

Whenever he said that, Chen Wan would look at him in puzzlement. “What nonsense are you talking? What does it have to do with you?”

He was the one unwilling to remain a bug at the mercy of humiliation and grinding abuse in the Chen family.

He was the one who, out of sheer stubbornness, wanted to get a little closer to Zhao Shengge.

Once he made that choice, then he had to bear it himself.

But this time Zhuo Zhixuan had truly been driven half mad with anger. Chen Wan had nearly burst his lungs from rage, and when he cursed him, he showed no mercy at all.

“Let me say this plainly, Chen Wan. I know that people like Tan Youming and Shen Zongnian don’t even count as real friends to you. Don’t argue. You think that because you always look attentive to everyone, always ready to help whenever someone asks, I can’t see that in fact you draw the line in everything, clear as Chu and Han, waters of Jing and Wei separate.”

“I know all of that. Fine, leave everyone else aside, but what about me! Have you ever treated me as a friend or not!!”

“Search your own heart. Have you? From the moment Zhuo Shengyan pushed me into the water that year, and everyone else stood by watching the spectacle while only you were willing to jump in and save me, I’ve treated you as my very best friend. And you? What have you thought of me in your heart?”

“Is it really that hard to tell me about something this big? You think you’re standing there like some pillar holding up the sky, but really you’re cold-blooded, utterly conscience-less. You, Chen Wan, look like the most loyal and affectionate person in the world, but in truth you’re the most heartless of all, the clearest-cut blade in everything you do.”

Zhuo Zhixuan practically accused him in a frenzy, partly because of Chen Wan’s stubbornness and obstinacy, partly because of his own helplessness.

“What kind of business is this, that you just have to take this risk, that you have to drag yourself into it no matter what!”

“What happens if you fail? Will Kexiang shut down?”

“Of course I treat you as a friend!”

Chen Wan did not refute anything else. Only on this one point did he have to explain himself.

Chen Wan fell quiet for a moment, then said softly, “I don’t have any other friends, Ah Xuan.”

Author’s Note:

Young Master Zhuo: Fine, let everything be destroyed.