OL CH40

Using the discovery of the bedroom’s secrets as a convenient excuse, Chen Tian thoroughly indulged himself once again.

Naturally, Bai Su was exceedingly satisfied as well—in fact, his heart brimmed with joy, feeling that his uncle doted on him to an incredible degree, not even holding a grudge after everything he had done!

Remembering how Uncle Qin had promised to deal with Mu Jingming during their tender afterglow, the sensation of being protected by his beloved was simply sublime.

Perhaps he didn’t need to be in such a rush; he could coordinate with Uncle Qin and make his own move a little later.

And so, shortly thereafter, several major projects managed by Mu Jingming mysteriously fell through one after another.

At first, one might chalk it up to misfortune, but as the failures mounted, Mu Jingming couldn’t help growing suspicious. After hiring people to investigate, he discovered the Qin Corporation’s fingerprints all over the disruptions. The truth became immediately obvious.

He never expected that despite taking such stealthy precautions, Qin Yichen would still sniff him out.

Was the man just that terrifyingly sharp, or had he severely underestimated Bai Su’s weight in Qin Yichen’s heart?

To make matters worse, Bai Su had severed all contact with him, leaving calls and messages completely unanswered, adopting a stance of cold, unyielding rejection.

Yet this setback didn’t force him to give up; instead, it only stoked Mu Jingming’s stubborn unwillingness. The more unattainable something was, the more desirable it seemed.

To have gained nothing yet end up covered in mud before he could even make a move—he simply could not swallow this humiliation.

Bai Su was a prize he was determined to claim. Even if the Qin Corporation couldn’t be shaken overnight, he had to teach Chensu Studio a lesson!

The man narrowed his eyes, recalling an insider at Chensu Studio he had painstakingly bribed a while back. It was time to put that pawn to work.

Hanging up the phone after arranging everything, Mu Jingming still found the dark rage burning in his chest difficult to vent. Right at that moment, Ji Yirou came knocking at his door.

“Jingming, why have you been ignoring my calls lately?! How are things going with Bai Su?”

Gazing at the heavily made-up woman wearing an expression of blatant displeasure, Mu Jingming sneered inwardly.

Ji Yirou was merely an illegitimate daughter; the intelligence she could extract from the Ji family was limited at best.

Acting all gentle and subservient before had only been for the sake of the Ji family. Now that he had squeezed every ounce of profit from them, this woman held zero utility value.

Even in bed, she was just a piece of cheap goods, growing utterly tedious after a few encounters.

To think she had the nerve to barge in uninvited, putting on haughty airs. As expected of a brainless fool who couldn’t even recognize her own standing.

Still, her timing was impeccable—he happened to have a stomach full of wrath.

With that thought, Mu Jingming locked the office door, seized Ji Yirou by her hair, and amid her terrified shrieks, dragged her brutally into the lounge.

A few days later, that old forum post showcasing ‘Bai’s’ appearance suddenly blew up again. This time, someone went a step further, exposing ‘Bai’s’ real identity: a freshman at B University named Bai Su.

The original poster claimed that Bai Su rarely showed his face on campus, only showing up for lectures before hurrying away without staying in the dorms or joining clubs.

Yet purely by virtue of his striking looks and refined demeanor, he had already earned the title of campus heartthrob.

Upon realizing that Bai Su was merely a freshman, yet already the principal mastermind behind Chensu Studio, netizens were stunned.

Rumors also began circulating that Chensu was founded almost single-handedly by Bai Su, and that he had simply entrusted daily operations to a close friend due to his devotion to the technical field. This ignited a fresh surge of viral commentary:

[People really are born unequal; the gap is just too wide! High visual, insane talent! By the way, streaming Divine Realm right now—it’s an absolute masterpiece!]

[Hubby! Male god! Nobody fight me for him! From today on, I am a diehard fan of Master Bai!]

[B University student here, typing this live! I’ve actually seen Bai Su on campus. Junior is beyond handsome in person. Too bad he doesn’t live on campus; we barely ever catch a glimpse of him, so there’s not even a chance to shoot my shot.]

[So jealous of the senior sister from the same school! Boosting Divine Realm again!]

[A true prodigy is built different from us mortals. What was I doing at eighteen or nineteen? Still plotting how to skip class to pull all-nighters at internet cafes! Can’t compare, simply can’t compare!]

Online chatter erupted continuously. At first, the coverage was overwhelmingly positive, but soon, someone leaked ties between Chensu Studio and the Qin Corporation.

Photographs surfaced of Bai Su entering and leaving the Qin Corporation headquarters, as well as pictures of him hanging out with the young master of the Qin family, Qin Fei.

Then, self-proclaimed “insiders” sprouted out of nowhere. Some claimed Bai Su was Qin Yichen’s adopted son; others alleged he was Qin Fei’s friend who had leveraged the friendship to latch onto the Qin Corporation.

The most absurd, yet closest to the truth, was a claim that Bai Su was the Qin family’s “child bride.” The only mistake was the pairing—the target he was being raised for wasn’t Qin Fei, but Qin Yichen.

Perhaps out of respect and fear toward the formidable patriarch of the Qin family, no one dared drag Chen Tian directly into the tabloids.

Yet when all was said and done, the underlying consensus of the discourse remained identical: Bai Su had little actual capability and owed everything to the Qin Corporation’s backing.

Many seized upon the Qin Corporation’s recent capital injection into Chensu Studio, with some even arguing whether the games supposedly developed by Bai Su had anything to do with him at all.

Such rumors quickly reached Chen Tian’s ears. He was about to order his PR team to suppress them immediately, but Bai Su intervened before the operation could launch, insisting on letting the rumors ferment freely.

Seeing the calm confidence in Bai Su’s eyes, Chen Tian knew his partner had a master plan, so he obediently called off his subordinates.

Immediately following that, another explosive rumor dropped: Bai Su was allegedly keeping a famous female influencer as his sugar baby.

This had virtually nothing to do with the previous allegations, yet despite being utterly bizarre, it spread like wildfire.

The whistleblower not only sounded completely certain, but also attached a large batch of photos. In the images, the young man and woman laughed and chatted together; the boy appeared to be presenting her with an expensive gift, while the girl reached out affectionately to tug at Bai Su’s sleeve.

Gossip was a vice even the gods couldn’t resist, let alone mortal netizens. As soon as the leak dropped, it circulated far faster than any of the earlier business controversies.

Catching the aggrieved, sour glare from the man beside him, Bai Su hurriedly squeezed Chen Tian’s hand with a wheedling smile: “Uncle Qin, we had an agreement! You know full well these rumors are completely fabricated!”

Chen Tian snorted petulantly: “Are the photos fabricated too?”

“The photos are real, but you already know that’s Zhaozhao! That was Zhaozhao’s birthday, and I wasn’t even alone with her—Heipi, Xiao Lei, and even that brat Qin Fei were all there! How could anything possibly happen between Zhaozhao and me? Besides, I reported my itinerary to you before leaving that day! Uncle Qin~”

The youth softened his tone, melting completely into Chen Tian’s embrace.

In truth, likely due to Chen Tian’s intervention, Su Zhaozhao’s fate had diverged drastically from the original timeline.

In this life, the orphanage children had received top-notch educations, and Su Zhaozhao’s academic achievements were even better than in the original plot.

Moreover, her looks were naturally striking. During a campus anniversary festival, she wore a traditional qipao to help drum up business for a booth; after photos of her were posted online, she earned the affectionate moniker of the “Qipao Campus Belle.”

Although Su Zhaozhao had no desire to enter the entertainment industry, she was subsequently scouted by an agency due to those viral photos.

Enticed by generous compensation, she agreed to shoot a perfume advertisement.

Blessed by the world’s lingering protagonist halo, she blew up into an influencer with millions of followers without even needing much corporate management.

Her friends viewed it as a wonderful opportunity, and Su Zhaozhao didn’t mind it either. Now, she occasionally shared updates on social media and accepted suitable brand sponsorships. The income not only fully covered her academic and living expenses, but allowed her to live far more comfortably than before.

This subsequent “sugar baby” scandal instantly convinced Chen Tian that Mu Jingming was behind it.

These so-called smears were easy to debunk, but the camera angles in the photos had been deliberately framed to look ambiguously romantic.

Bai Su and Su Zhaozhao had grown up together, and standing side-by-side, they made a strikingly handsome pair—easily sparking misunderstandings.

If Chen Tian harbored even a shred of doubt toward his lover, a bitter rift could have easily opened between them.

Chen Tian could never tolerate anyone speaking ill of his partner; seeing Bai Su smeared online naturally left him seething.

Yet held back by Bai Su, he could only channel his energy elsewhere while biding his time.

Ever since the last incident, he had placed Bai Su’s social circle under tight surveillance. The moment a mole emerged within Chensu Studio, Chen Tian had tipped Bai Su off immediately.

Seeing the knowing smirk on the youth’s face, he realized his partner had already seen through it long ago.

Touched by his uncle’s doting vigilance, Bai Su rewarded him with an extra-sweet intimate session before telling him to sit back and enjoy the show.

Sure enough, half a month later, M Company rolled out a brand-new title: All Realms.

The moment All Realms hit the market, it received a massive promotional blitz. At the exact same time, on the night of its launch, an ominous gloom hung over Chensu Studio.

Because All Realms was none other than the second flagship blockbuster they had been developing following the triumph of Divine Realm.

By now, Chensu Studio was no longer that tiny team of a dozen people; factoring in marketing channels, artists, developers, and personnel loaned from the Qin Corporation, it numbered in the hundreds.

Of course, the original core team remained the founding veterans, holding the easiest access to critical secrets.

All Realms had been in development for nearly a year. Bai Su hadn’t taken sole credit for this title; rather, the team had conceived it based on conceptual lore he had compiled early on.

Because the worldbuilding of All Realms was far more expansive, and Bai Su had envisioned novel technical architectures for it, they had temporarily shelved the launch to polish it further over the coming year before beta testing. Who could have foreseen that the project they had poured their souls into would be brazenly stolen by M Company—without them even bothering to change the title!

Although industry professionals could tell it had been rushed out prematurely, M Company possessed deep capital and premier engineering talent.

Thus, while the finished product was a defective, half-baked mess in Bai Su’s eyes, it still managed to turn heads upon release, siphoning away half of Divine Realm’s player traffic.

The day before All Realms was released, two core developers at Chensu Studio had abruptly resigned.

Needless to say, they were directly responsible.

The most insidious part was that prior to leaving, they had meticulously wiped all source data and development records related to All Realms from Chensu Studio’s servers.

Having verified their tracks repeatedly, the traitors believed their scheme was foolproof, confident that Chensu Studio could never produce proof that All Realms belonged to them.

That very evening, the two published a joint public statement online, claiming that Bai Su’s previous Divine Realm had actually been spearheaded by them, and that Bai Su had used his executive position to steal the fruits of their labor. They claimed that left with no recourse or evidence, they had been forced to resign from Chensu Studio in tears.

Having genuinely participated in the later optimization stages of Divine Realm, the two were intimately familiar with the title. Their weeping, impassioned accusations made it sound as though they had suffered endless oppression over the past two years.

Human nature instinctively sympathized with the seemingly weak. Public outrage ignited instantly; irrational netizens began raining abuse upon Bai Su before learning the facts, dredging up the earlier claims that he was an untalented puppet riding the Qin family’s coattails.

Clad in a silk bathrobe, Mu Jingming stood before his floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at Bai Su’s ruined reputation on his phone screen with a triumphant sneer.

As expected, those fabricated tabloid rumors had done their work.

What kind of titan was the head of the Qin family? Even if he fancied Bai Su somewhat, the boy was merely a fleeting boy-toy. Finding out that Bai Su was carrying on ambiguously with other women, how could Qin Yichen stomach it?

Looking at the current situation, the man had likely cast Bai Su aside. If Qin Yichen still cared, he would have intervened long ago; how could Chensu be dragged through the mud like this otherwise?

It seemed Bai Su would soon hit rock bottom. When that happened, wouldn’t the boy be entirely at his mercy?

At this thought, the man’s grin grew even more gloating.

Catching the sinister smile on Mu Jingming’s face, the woman lying discarded like trash on the floor—covered in bruises with disheveled hair—shivered violently.

Ji Yirou was drowning in regret. Had she known earlier, she never would have sought out Mu Jingming for revenge.

This man was an outright lunatic, a demon incarnate!

After the first time he had beaten her, Ji Yirou had tried fleeing back to the Ji family to demand justice through her father.

Yet the moment she stepped inside, she was confronted with the revelation that she had sold out the Ji Corporation’s classified files.

Stripped of all her assets and cast out by the Ji family, she had been dragged right back by Mu Jingming into a nightmare of endless torment.

Whenever the man was in a foul mood, he subjected her to vicious beatings; Ji Yirou had been reduced to a punching bag for his depraved wrath.

Meanwhile, Bai Su was lounging blissfully in Chen Tian’s embrace, feeding fresh strawberries to his beloved Uncle Qin while musing that the scandal had fermented long enough. The buzz they needed was secured; it was time for a total counterattack!

Shortly after, M Company’s prized All Realms began exhibiting catastrophic game-breaking bugs, triggering a flood of player outrage. Worse still, their technical engineers found themselves entirely incapable of fixing the underlying code.

Immediately following that, Chensu Studio released the complete original development logs, initial source code, and comprehensive design documents for All Realms. They even presented hidden audio recordings of the two traitors conspiring with M Company executives, alongside bank transfer trails, formally filing lawsuits against both M Company and the two defectors.

Just as public opinion swung violently against M Company and the two traitors, realizing Chensu Studio had been victimized by corporate espionage, Bai Su dropped the definitive proof regarding Divine Realm.

Not only did he publish his personal version-control commit histories from the very inception of the project, but he also presented a thick stack of hand-drawn design journals dating back over a year—something impossible to forge overnight.

It turned out that the vast majority of Divine Realm’s conceptual lore and artistic archetypes had been conceived and illustrated by Bai Su himself!

Furthermore, several world-class overseas computer scientists whom Bai Su had met during the academic conference stepped forward on social media to vouch for his peerless technical prowess.

Su Zhaozhao, who had remained silent throughout, also published a long post detailing her relationship with Bai Su.

She recounted how they were all children from the same welfare home, and how the Qin Corporation’s philanthropic patronage had provided them with quality education, clean clothes, warm meals, and a sheltered, happy childhood.

Bai Su had always looked after them like an elder brother.

The orphanage director mother, who held a verified social media account, retweeted Su Zhaozhao’s post, attaching transaction receipts of financial donations Bai Su had sent back to the orphanage ever since starting his business.

The director mother lived a comfortable life nowadays, keeping up with trends by scrolling videos on her phone. Hearing that her boy had been framed, she was incensed and immediately hosted a livestream with the orphanage children.

She shared stories of the children’s upbringing, highlighting Bai Su—how sensible and caring he had always been toward his younger peers.

The camera panned across the lively welfare home, showcasing the bright, carefree smiles of the children. When asked about Bai Su, every child beamed with pride and adoration, declaring that Bai Su was their big brother and that they wanted to grow up to be just as amazing as him!

Netizens were deeply moved by the scene. Those innocent smiles were living proof of a happy, worry-free childhood.

Who could have guessed that an exceptional prodigy like Bai Su and the brilliant “Qipao Campus Belle” Su Zhaozhao had once been impoverished orphans? It was all thanks to the orphanage that they stood where they were today.

Seeing the director mother’s kind demeanor, the public felt profound gratitude toward her and the Qin Corporation’s philanthropy; without them, these children could never have thrived so brightly.

Somehow, the discourse organically pivoted into a viral charity campaign, with citizens calling on everyone with means to contribute toward making the world a kinder place!

In an instant, the public image of both Bai Su and Chensu Studio was completely reversed, earning them massive waves of public affection and support.

Even the Qin Corporation benefited immensely from the positive PR wave, with consumer goods under their brand flying off store shelves.

Everyone praised the Qin Corporation as a conscientious, ethical conglomerate worthy of the utmost esteem!

The two traitors who had colluded with M Company were swiftly detained by the police, and their confessions directly implicated Mu Jingming’s personal secretary.

Mu Jingming stared at the online fallout in mounting terror, realizing M Company had suffered a devastating blow from the disastrous launch of All Realms.

Worse, every commercial enterprise tied to his name was collapsing into chaos. Even his own father had summoned him, delivering a scathing rebuke.

Enraged, he grabbed Ji Yirou by the wrist and unleashed another vicious beating, the room quickly echoing with her piercing screams.

Yet after a few blows, it dawned on Mu Jingming that the failure of his companies was only the tip of the iceberg—the recent tax evasion investigations and evidence tying him to money laundering for shady syndicates were what would truly destroy him.

Although he had been cautious and operated through cutouts, given the current momentum, his only option was to flee abroad and lay low.

Retrieving pre-booked plane tickets, Mu Jingming hurriedly packed his bags and stepped out the door.

He failed to notice the woman behind him, her face slashed and bleeding from a table edge, staring at his retreating back with pure, murderous malice.

Chen Tian had 009 monitoring Mu Jingming’s movements around the clock. The second the man attempted to flee the country, Chen Tian had 009 tip off the authorities anonymously.

Backed by evidence gathered through the Qin Corporation’s reporting, the police were never going to let him slip away.

Thus, a day later, when Mu Jingming arrived hurriedly at the airport boarding gate, a squad of officers stepped forward to intercept him.

Seeing this, Mu Jingming panicked. He swung his suitcase at an officer and shoved past the crowd, desperate to escape.

Yet before he could make it more than a few steps, a woman lunged out of the crowd like a mad beast, tackling him to the ground and plunging a pair of sharpened wooden chopsticks ruthlessly into his eye.

As Mu Jingming collapsed, howling in agony and unable to defend himself, the woman ripped the chopsticks out and drove them straight into his other eye, cackling hysterically like a maniac.

It was Ji Yirou, her face horribly disfigured.

Both Mu Jingming and Ji Yirou were ultimately hauled away by the police. However, both of Mu Jingming’s eyes had been completely destroyed, his eyeballs gouged beyond any hope of restoration.

Neither Bai Su nor Chen Tian had any interest in watching the downfalls of minor cannon fodder, though they learned of Ji Yirou’s gruesome retaliation through other channels.

Chen Tian hadn’t expected Ji Yirou to be so ruthless. Still, it was Mu Jingming’s own depravity catching up to him; having two villains destroy each other spared them the trouble of dirtying their own hands.

With everything back on track, Chensu Studio continued its meteoric rise. Two years later, the gaming enterprises under Bai Su’s name stood at the absolute pinnacle of the industry.

The moment Bai Su reached legal marriage age, he proposed to Uncle Qin in public.

Even though they had flaunted their couple rings for two whole years, being proposed to in broad daylight still caught Chen Tian completely by surprise.

Pulling up the youth kneeling before him with a bouquet of roses, he hauled him into his arms and kissed him breathless.

That very day, an impatient Chen Tian dragged him abroad to register their marriage certificate, immediately snapping photos and posting them to social media to show off relentlessly.

Seeing his uncle and Brother Bai officially tie the knot, Qin Fei was stimulated as well. Gathering his courage at long last, he confessed to Su Zhaozhao, whom he had loved in secret for years.

The two young people, having harbored mutual affection for ages, naturally got together without a hitch.

Holding his freshly minted girlfriend, Qin Fei was so moved he nearly wept.

Finally, he wouldn’t have to endure being stuffed with dog food by Brother Bai and Brother Heipi’s couples every single day—from this day forward, he was a taken man too!

In this lifetime, Chen Tian and Bai Su remained deeply, passionately in love.

Not long after registering their marriage, they held a grand, magnificent wedding.

At the wedding, Bai Su finally met Sophia, who had flown in specially to offer her congratulations. One had to admit that Sophia had maintained her youth remarkably well; though over sixty, she looked barely in her forties. Her features and figure offered a clear glimpse of the peerless beauty she must have been in her youth.

By now, Chen Tian had long discovered that his gentle little puppy was, in truth, a fierce wolf pup at heart. Yet he didn’t care in the slightest, because whatever form his lover took, it was always the version he adored most.

At the wedding ceremony, they embraced, kissed, and exchanged their vows, their eyes reflecting only the radiant happiness of having each other.

Three years after their marriage, seeing that Qin Fei had matured enough to hold his own, Chen Tian tossed the reins of the Qin Corporation entirely onto his nephew’s shoulders. As for himself, he spent every single day glued to his partner’s side, bringing Bai Su’s heart ever greater peace and contentment.

In this lifetime, they didn’t travel to far-flung destinations; both preferred their warm, cozy little home, reveling in the quiet joys of ordinary life.

Every day, they cooked together, chatted, watched movies, and curled up beneath the blankets sharing sweet kisses, cherishing each mundane yet beautiful moment.

Until their twilight years, when, gray-haired and holding each other tightly in a final embrace, they departed this world together.