No one understood Zhong Yibin better than Chu Qin. Although he had a bit of a ‘young master’ temper, he was not innately bad. Having received a strict upbringing from young, apart from having a more easygoing personality, he was essentially no different from the Zhong family’s big brother – a gentle and self-disciplined gentleman.
“You mean someone wants to harm me?” Zhong Yibin rubbed his chin against the top of Chu Qin’s head. His originally heavy mood instantly vanished like smoke due to the trust the person in his embrace had in him, leaving only joy from the depths of his heart. In his current consciousness, Chu Qin was the most important. As long as Chu Qin was not angry, nothing else was important.
“En,” Chu Qin’s gaze lowered, his mind sweeping through all the suspicious people. The thing they were most worried about still happened. Zhong Yibin didn’t regain his memories and his amnesia was known to the person who wanted to harm him. Whereas the amnesiac Zhong Yibin didn’t have the strength to retaliate and could only take a beating.
But he wouldn’t let such a thing happen. The amnesiac Zhong chick had Chu Qin the large rooster as his protector. He would never let these substandard tricks prevail.
Only the Zhong family and Chu Qin knew that Zhong Yibin had amnesia. Father Zhong had also warned repeatedly not to let others know that Zhong Yibin had lost his memories. The psychology research specialist, Dave, had remained with the Zhong family for a long time but never cured Zhong Yibin, and was thus thrown back to America by Father Zhong. With Father Zhong’s means, he would definitely have ways of sealing that translator’s mouth.
Then, the person who still knew of this matter…
Chu Qin paused for a moment. He suddenly recalled that Zhong Yibin’s ‘fiancé’ seemed to have been called Su Ruiying. “Er Bing, do you still remember that fake fiancé?”
Zhong Yibin looked distracted. He lowering his head and put some distance between the two of them. His gaze met Chu Qin’s, immediately understanding what he meant. “I’ll contact mother.”
He picked up the phone but wavered. Mother Zhong was born into a family with a good background and was a talented student who had studied abroad. However, after living with Father Zhong for so many years, she had never once participated in external affairs. Her daily activities consisted of competing with rich married women on clothing and food. She had long lost her sensitivity towards interpersonal relationships. Speaking to her did not necessarily mean she would understand. Moreover, her character was both sensitive and weak. It would be difficult for her to comprehend things if Zhong Yibin directly gave voice to it. It was possible that her temper would flare up and she would refuse to cooperate.
“Forget it. It’s better for Father to ask about it,” Zhong Yibin sighed. He no longer bore any hope towards Mother Zhong’s muddled behavior.
Chu Qin listened to Zhong Yibin speaking to Father Zhong, his brows gradually wrinkling. He only truly understood the Zhong family’s situation after interacting with them frequently during this period of them. Father Zhong’s expectations of the brothers were extremely strict. He constantly went against Zhong Yibin because he was not as outstanding as the older son. During the previous years, it was likely that it was this unceasing comparison that caused Zhong Yibin to have rebellious thoughts and give up on himself.
“Yes. I suspect that someone is making use of what that person has divulged. On Shengshi Entertainment’s side, can big brother manage things for a while…” Zhong Yibin’s emotions had already completely calmed down and he was able to calmly handle this matter. He was now an amnesiac. The moment the news spread, there would certainly be innumerable people wanting to use this to their advantage. Though he was confident that he would be able to resolve this trouble, handing it over to big brother to manage would directly prevent such complications. He still needed to free his hands and dig out the person who wanted to harm him.
Father Zhong found it very unexpected that his youngest son understood the situation so quickly. His son had indeed matured considerably compared to the past. He couldn’t help but reflect over whether his teaching methods in the past were problematic. He was silent for a while before uttering one word of agreement, “Okay.”
When Mother Zhong heard the entire story, her face turned red for a while before turning pale. “I’ll ask the Su family. If they were the ones who leaked the secret, I’ll definitely give them a good show!”
Father Zhong no longer cared on her, ordering investigations on people the Su family had interacted with recently. He didn’t interfere much with other matters. If his son was never able to regain his memories, he would eventually need to learn how to manage many things on his own.
The next day, it was announced at Shengshi Group’s internal meeting that Zhong Jiabin would temporarily be managing Shengshi Entertainment and Shengshi TV. The company higher-ups had no objections towards this; Zhong Jiabin’s capabilities were never in doubt, handing them over to him was a huge relief. This sort of proactive action saved Shengshi’s stocks in a timely manner and there was no longer any trend of it falling.
But that family continued to block Shengshi Entertainment’s door. When they realized that Zhong Yibin was not coming to work, they ran over to Shengshi TV’s entrance to make a fuss. There were always a variety of media-related people coming and going from the television station, so they were naturally seen by even more people.
“Qin-ge, how do we settle this?” The station’s security guards didn’t dare to drive them away either. A single touch on that group of rogues and they would scream ‘you beat us’ loudly. They would even shamelessly lie on the ground. The police were also at a loss. Even the official entrance was surrounded the entire day, and so they could only resolve the matter through negotiation.
Chu Qin was about to speak when station chief Zhang walked out from the other end and spoke pleasantly to the elderly person’s son. “I am the station chief of the television station. This brother, come in and have a cup of tea. We can have a good talk.”
The elderly person’s son saw that there was drama and prepared to enter with station chief Zhang, his expression arrogant. However, he was sternly yelled at by Chu Qin. “He cannot enter!”
As a host, Chu Qin often trained his voice to be especially loud and clear. The moment he yelled, all those who were making a fuss, observing the drama, and maintaining order looked over.
“If they want to make a fuss, let them. Open the back door and let our partners enter from there,” Chu Qin ordered expressionlessly. He took the security guard’s loudhailer and spoke into it loudly. “The judicial authorities have already been involved in this matter. Whether our director knocked into someone cannot be proven solely based on a calico curtain. We are also not obligated to give you money just because you raised a fuss! If you insist on remaining here and in the future, the court judges that our director did not knock into someone, all of you will have to bear the losses that Shengshi made these few days.”
The elderly person’s son shrank back subtly.
“That’s true, there isn’t a single bit of proof even after making a fuss for two days,” Those watching the drama discussed spiritedly.
“There’s definitely something up, otherwise how would they dare to rush here and make a fuss? The Zhong family is aristocratic.”
“Will aristocrats lack this bit of money for compensation? A fixed sum of money has always been the way for resolution, who would be so silly to give money every month?” After being replied to by Chu Qin in such a way, those who originally only knew to sympathize with those who were making a ruckus started to realize that there were illogical aspects in this matter.
Station chief Zhang was somewhat anxious, inwardly scolding Chu Qin for being too young and lacking societal experience. How could one reason with this sort of ruffian? They were surely in possession of the director’s dark secrets. If not, how could they dare to come over and make such an overt show of things. And he still wanted to reason with them? The son of the elderly person suddenly cursed and rushed over mercilessly with his fists swinging in an attempt to hit Chu Qin.
Naturally, Chu Qin would not stand still and let himself be beaten. He swiftly ran behind the policemen who were maintaining order. The policeman immediately blocked the person and warned him severely, “I will immediately detain you if you hit someone.”
Nobody could prevent the protesters from holding up a calico curtain, but if it involved the beating of an innocent person, that would then be a reason to capture him.
Zhong Yibin checked his bank records as well as Secretary Jin’s. There were no payouts on a certain date the past few years. After checking the repair record of his two cars, there were no records of any major repairs at the timings stipulated by those hoodlums. This indicated that the matter of him knocking into someone was meant to frame him.
That was fine. Zhong Yibin smiled coldly. While waiting for the judicial authorities to investigate thoroughly, he arranged to meet up with Wu Wan, Bai Cheng, and Ji Yao.
The four childhood friends had not met up for a long time. They were seated in a quiet private room at a teahouse. Without the usual warm atmosphere, there was still more or less some awkwardness.
“Today, I invited you guys out to clear something up,” Zhong Yibin glanced at Wu Wan, who had his head lowered. “Who exactly is Nanshan High School’s school flower?”
“I saw that gossip article and wanted to ask you that!” Bai Cheng recalled Nanshan High School’s school flower and couldn’t help wanting to break out into laughter. “After so long, you don’t even remember that person.”
Zhong Yibin shook his head, indicating that he had forgotten. But his eyes were fixed on Wu Wan.
“Pfft, actually forgetting such a classic incident!” Bai Cheng still wanted to laugh upon thinking of it. He met Ji Yao’s gaze. Ji Yao also couldn’t help laughing.
That year, Nanshan High School’s school flower was indeed quite a good-looking girl. At that time, they had a basketball match with Nanshan High School and that girl took a fancy to Zhong Yibin, confessing on the spot. In the end, Zhong Yibin said that he had yet to accomplish his family’s mission and was not yet able to date.
“Family mission hahahahaha! Isn’t it the task of testing in the top ten in the cohort for the final exam! Hahahaha!” Bai Cheng laughed so hard that he teared up. They had teased Zhong Yibin about this matter when they were in the third year and it was still very funny even now when they recalled it.
Ji Yao raised her eyes and looked towards Zhong Yibin, who appeared calm. “Er Bing, what exactly happened to you?” Even if he forgot about that incident, would he also forget something like whether he had knocked a girl up? That piece of gossip had yet to be resolved, which was very unlike Zhong Yibin’s way of doing things.
Zhong Yibin’s lips hooked up coldly. “I have amnesia.”
“Ah?” Bai Cheng and Ji Yao let out sounds of shock simultaneously.
“Wu Wan should have already guessed it. That’s why you spoke to me about some red colored ice cream?” Zhong Yibin looked at Wu Wan.
“Red colored ice cream? That was Wu Wan’s favorite, the one he always borrowed money from you to buy during senior high school…” Bai Cheng watched the two of them, his voice slowly fading into silence.
Bai Cheng was not an idiot. From this statement, he very quickly gleaned the entire sequence of events clearly. Such meaningless slandering like the gossip surrounding Nanshan High School’s school flower could only have been committed by someone who was aware that Zhong Yibin had amnesia.
“This was done by you?” Ji Yao grabbed Wu Wan’s collar.
“I…I didn’t…” Wu Wan eyes turned red. He had heard from Zhou Zimeng’s father that the reason why Er Bing grew distant from them was because he had amnesia and that he could test it if he didn’t believe them. He couldn’t stop thinking about it, so when he coincidentally bumped into Zhong Yibin that day, he couldn’t resist probing a little.
“So, you told Zhou Zimeng’s father?” Zhong Yibin frowned slightly. If it was Father Zhou, it wouldn’t be unusual for him to be capable of doing such a thing. He was the one who sent Zhou Zimeng into prison; the one who hated him the most should be this Uncle Zhou.
“I didn’t tell him,” Wu Wan denied it firmly.
Ji Yao sighed and shook her head. Given Father Zhou’s experience, he wouldn’t need to ask directly. He would be able to understand the result of Wu Wan’s probing from two casual statements.
The author has something to say:
Small theater: <There will always be wicked citizens wanting to harm zhen>
Er Bing: Wu Wan leaked my secret, he wants to harm me
Qinqin: We won’t play with him anymore
Er Bing: Father Zhou planned it, he wants to harm me
Qinqin: We’ll think of a way to dig a pit for him
Er Bing: Qinqin is taking a bath, he wants to harm me