Fang Ji felt as though he was back in high school geography class.

He was dizzy, his limbs were weak, and the entire world’s scenery was spinning, moving, and overlapping before his eyes, a blurry mess.

Words floated into his ears one by one. He understood the meaning of each word clearly, but once they were strung together, he couldn’t remember a thing.

Finally, all these strange visions suddenly dissipated with He Wenyan’s raised voice, “Oh no, it’s five past six. I have to go!”

Fang Ji abruptly came back to his senses.

He saved the entire discussion they had just had as a video recording, temporarily storing it in his mind to watch later when his head was clearer.

He showed a sincere and joyful smile, thanking He Wenyan, “Thank you, Brother Wenyan! Brother Wenyan is truly a man of action. This experience is priceless.”

He Wenyan felt too embarrassed to expose him. “Do you absolutely have to start this company? Why not just find a partner? You provide the money, he provides the effort. Wouldn’t that be much easier for you?”

Fang Ji smiled sheepishly. “It’s just that I always want to test my own abilities.”

He Wenyan looked at him and smiled. “Alright, then when you really get the company started and run into problems, we can meet again. Oh, it’s best to let me know three to five days in advance, otherwise I might not be able to free up my schedule.”

Fang Ji happily saw him off. “Thank you, Brother Wenyan. Goodbye, Brother Wenyan!”

Li Yunhui glanced at the time and decided to leave with He Wenyan as well.

Fang Chengyu stood up and walked them to the door.

As they were leaving, he suddenly asked He Wenyan, “By the way, Wenyan, I heard you mention during your chat just now that your biggest investor is named ‘Lin Chen’? Is his Green Letter profile picture a big strawberry?”

He Wenyan was surprised and stopped closing the car door. “You know him too?”

Fang Chengyu was puzzled. “What do you mean by ‘too’?”

He Wenyan: “Oh, because that lost Qi Wentong from the Qi family also knew him back then… What’s wrong with him?”

Fang Chengyu smiled kindly and said, “He’s from City A. I remember… isn’t that where Mingliang grew up?”

He Wenyan was stunned.

The place where He Mingliang grew up… Was he talking about his biological parents’ hometown?

After he was kicked out of the He family, he had tried to find his biological parents.

But He Mingliang had grown up in an orphanage, and He Wenyan couldn’t get any clues about his biological parents from him.

With his busy career, the matter had been put on hold.

What did Fang Chengyu mean by specifically reminding him that Lin Chen was also from City A?

Oh, Lin Chen seemed to have a very large social network.

Was Fang Chengyu implying that Lin Chen’s network was so vast that he might even know his unknown parents?

He Wenyan was a little confused, but he politely thanked Fang Chengyu.

He Wenyan: “I understand. Thank you, Brother Chengyu. I’ll talk to him about this when I get the chance.”

He Wenyan and Li Yunhui left.

Fang Ji smiled and waved them goodbye.

After watching the two figures disappear, he turned his head, linked his arm with his brother’s, and said pitifully, “Brother—did you understand what Brother Wenyan was talking about just now?”

Fang Chengyu sighed and took his younger brother’s hand, leading him home indulgently.

Fang Chengyu: “Alright, Xiao Ji, don’t be upset. Can’t brother give you some extra lessons?”

Fang Ji bounced up and down happily, his jewelry jingling and clanking. “I knew brother would understand everything! Hehe, brother, I want to hear you explain it to me. I’ll definitely be able to remember it if you explain it!”

…

These days, Fang Lian felt that the whole family had become somewhat unfamiliar.

His expression was extremely solemn as he looked at the score records in his notes.

Except for the first round of action when he got full marks for speed and barely maintained a tie for second place with his sister, in the following two weeks of scoring, he had actually… actually…

Been at the bottom of the family group!!

Yes, that’s right. The weekly scores were only given, not made public, and certainly not ranked.

But there were only so many people in the group. If one wanted to inquire about others’ scores, there were always ways and means.

Being at the bottom in the first week could still be explained as his starting core score being too low, and it would take some time and adaptation to catch up.

But being at the bottom in the second week was something Fang Lian could not tolerate.

Being at the bottom once was embarrassing.

Being at the bottom twice was humiliating.

If there was a third time at the bottom, then that would be a stain on his life, an eternal dark history!!

He was so angry that he immediately dismissed his specially-appointed deputy minister.

Alone in his office, he held the “Communication Manual,” which had long been dog-eared, covered with countless labels, and for which he had taken a whole notebook of notes, flipping through it over and over again.

He, his parents, and his sister had all started from the same point. How could their scores improve so much more week after week??

His mother was the most ridiculous. In just two short weeks, her score had already reached the 80s!

And him?

Excluding the speed score, his core score had only barely improved from 58 in the first round of action to 69 now… he hadn’t even reached the 70s!

Damn it, who was the one who spread the rumor that this deputy minister was particularly good at pleasing people and that there was no one he couldn’t win over?

Completely useless!

On top of that, he didn’t know who Xiao Ji had learned it from.

Now, whenever Xiao Ji was unhappy, he would give people the cold shoulder, often leaving his messages on read for ten or so hours before replying.

Sometimes he would even just leave him hanging, not replying at all, making him anxious about both his score and whether Xiao Ji would be angry for a long time again, like last time.

For example, now.

Look at the chat with Xiao Ji. It had been almost 20 hours since he had said something last night, and he still hadn’t received a reply from Xiao Ji!

In the meantime, unable to bear it any longer, he had asked Xiao Ji if he was busy, if something was holding him up, but Xiao Ji hadn’t replied to a single message!

If he hadn’t asked the housekeeper and learned that Xiao Ji was currently at home and that no accident had occurred, he would have started to let his imagination run wild!

…Would his final score for this week even be able to stay at 69?

Fang Lian was very puzzled, not knowing where he had offended Xiao Ji again.

He flipped through the “Communication Manual” for a long time, even reading the chapters beyond the “Younger Brother” section, but he couldn’t find a corresponding solution for this situation at all.

…Did he still have to ask the 60 million big brother?

Fang Lian was a little unwilling.

But being at the bottom for two consecutive weeks made his desire not to lose face fiercely override this “unwillingness.”

The moonlight was bleak, and the man in the office cast a long, lonely shadow.

He finally picked up his phone, struggling and slowly opening Lin Chen’s Green Letter window, and asked: [(Screenshot.jpg) Can you help me see what Xiao Ji is angry about this time?]

Fang Lian: [Xiao Ji is really too difficult to handle. Good brother, if you have time recently, why don’t you give me some guidance?]

Fang Lian: [As long as you nod, I’ll immediately have someone prepare an electronic contract. The price will surely satisfy you.]

Fang Lian waited anxiously for ten minutes.

During this time, he couldn’t focus on his work. As soon as he tried to think or look at it, his eyes would instinctively dart to his phone.

Fortunately, the other party did not make him wait too long. Ten minutes later, a reply came on time.

Liu Fang: [Half a year of guidance for a fixed price of 15 million. Xiao Ji is quite busy today, and I have to accompany him. I have time tomorrow evening. We can schedule a half-hour to an hour session, and I will give you a detailed analysis of the score increases and decreases for each action in the first round and these two weeks.]

Liu Fang: [I will include a PDF version of the report with the service, but I highly recommend that you make time for a voice call with me. Your current score is quite far behind theirs, and just looking at the summary report won’t be much more effective than you trying to cram the “Communication Manual.”]

Liu Fang: [Busy now, will reply later. Once the electronic contract is ready, encrypt it and send it directly to my work email hengyuf@.]

Fang Lian: …

Wait, how much? 15 million?

What kind of precious price was this? Did he even agree to it?!

Fang Lian was furious and dialed the phone.

Subordinates: “Good evening, CEO Fang. What are your orders, CEO Fang!”

Fang Lian: “Put your work aside for a moment. Immediately prepare a contract for me…”

…

With four 15-million payments received, Lin Chen happily contemplated what to do with this 60 million.

Should he first go and acquire some RVs and properties that he liked?

But on second thought, the tasks he currently needed to advance week by week were: preparing for classes at B University, accompanying Xiao Ji, acting as a 1v1 tutor for four students, tracking He Wenyan’s career progress, and writing a story script for He Wenyan’s exclusive reading…

A little busy.

Forget it.

He might as well just enjoy the exclusive young master treatment for now.

Lin Chen only thought for a second before deciding to continue investing this money.

However, this time, he did not continue to invest in He Wenyan.

The bulk of the new sixty million was spread across some of the existing enterprises in this plane.

Some of them were chosen based on his own judgment, while others were selected based on the criteria of “which enterprises in the original novel were able to withstand the pressure and even grow with the wind under the influence of the darkened protagonist.”

And the remaining small portion was invested in the students of B University and their related relatives, according to his own preferences.

In the past six months, he had met many good students on the B University campus.

“Teacher Chengyu” had also become the famous “listening teacher” of B University over the past six months.

From freshmen to doctoral students, no matter what confusion they had in their life, studies, relationships, or even life planning, as long as they found Teacher Chengyu, he would listen to their stories gently and patiently, and guide them as someone who had been through it all.

Teacher Chengyu was not a psychology teacher, and the content he taught was completely unrelated.

But ever since the first student who tried to confide in Teacher Chengyu appeared, his reputation as a “gentle listener” had rapidly spread throughout the entire school.

And for Teacher Chengyu, this was also a good way to get to know the students.

Over the course of a semester, Teacher Chengyu had indeed discovered many promising potential talents among these students.

Some were recommended to “Lin Chen,” while others were recommended to He Wenyan.

Not a single one was missed; they were divided up cleanly.

Reviewing the list again now, Lin Chen specifically circled some students who he thought had great entrepreneurial potential and set aside a small sum for them from the sixty million. The day they came to ask, he could raise his hand and invest.

…

The months of June and July passed in a flash.

The two-month ranking competition quietly came to an end.

Apart from the five people in the group, no one in this world could guess what a fierce contest the four CEOs had secretly engaged in during these seemingly peaceful days.

Fang Lian felt as if he had transformed into a different species these days:

Every day he woke up, the first thing he did was send “Good morning” to his younger brother.

Before putting down his chopsticks at breakfast, he would take three seconds to take a picture of his breakfast and send it to his younger brother.

After a few bites, he would add a simple comment or two about the taste.

Checking in with good morning, good afternoon, and good night for 5 days a week earned 1 point, and for 7 days, 3 points; checking in with breakfast, lunch, and dinner for 5 days a week earned 3 points, and for 7 days, 5 points.

Pinning his younger brother’s Green Letter chat to the top and setting a special notification tone for a week earned 1 point.

His actions had to exceed the baseline set by Xiao Ji:

Replying to Xiao Ji’s message within 10 minutes counted as a quick reply. If the proportion of “quick replies” in a day’s messages reached 70%, and the quality of each reply was above the passing line, he would get 2 points.

He was required to proactively make time for voice and video calls with Xiao Ji every week.

A voice call lasting more than 8 minutes earned 2 points.

A video call lasting more than 5 minutes earned 3 points.

The weekly score limit for this item was 10 points.

In addition to the mandatory monthly visit home required by Xiao Ji, for every extra 5 hours spent with Xiao Ji, he could earn an additional 1 point.

The requirements for replying to Xiao Ji’s messages…

The timely grasp of Xiao Ji’s recent activities and changing preferences…

Deduction items…

Ever since he paid the 15 million, Fang Lian had memorized all the above scoring items clearly!

As soon as Xiao Ji’s chat bubble moved, he would instinctively think about what he should do to get the highest “Xiao Ji satisfaction score.”

Fang Lian: …

Had he turned into some kind of Xiao Ji score robot?

Fang Lian was bewildered.

But it was obvious that instead of having time to be bewildered, it was better to make a phone call to Xiao Ji to earn some points.

He, Fang Lian, was determined to reclaim his place from being at the bottom in the first month and second to last in the second month, and re-establish his ranking in the family!!

The phone beeped.

Fang Lian’s expression was solemn as he picked it up to look.

Liu Fang: [@All Members, starting from next month (August), please try to count your own weekly scores. Record all scored and deducted items in a table, calculate your final score based on a baseline of 60, and proactively post the table and score in the group by 8 PM every Sunday.]

Liu Fang: [Please note that I will carefully check each family member’s score. Once any false or exaggerated items are found, I will publicly tag and criticize them in the group!]

Liu Fang: [Other family members can also supervise at any time. If you have any doubts about anyone’s scored or deducted items, you can tag them in the group and request proof. Any time-stamped screenshots, photos, or Xiao Ji’s personal confirmation can be used as proof. Please pay attention to leaving traces ^^]

Before Fang Lian could even faint, he saw Liu Fang post another notice.

Liu Fang: [Note: In case of special anniversaries and holidays, such as Xiao Ji’s birthday, Chinese New Year, etc., preparing for/participating in offline celebration activities for Xiao Ji can increase this month’s Ji score by 2~10 points, depending on the actual effectiveness of the activity.]

Fang Lian: …

Wait.

Xiao Ji’s birthday?

One of the pieces of information he had diligently studied and memorized to get points in the past few months instantly popped into Fang Lian’s mind.

August 21st.

Xiao Ji’s birthday was coming up!!

The random thoughts in Fang Lian’s mind disappeared in a second.

He immediately took out a pen and notebook, glanced at today’s date, and quickly wrote down a preparation plan for the birthday celebration activities starting from now.

August…

First! First!

He had to get first place in the family at least once.