On the stairs.

The Li family’s young master was slowly climbing the stairs.

The system was secretly eavesdropping on their conversation, anxiously reporting to its host: “Host! Cheng Huanzhen has been holding it in for so long, he finally called Li Yunhui!”

Lin Chen: “Oh. I heard. You don’t need to tell me.”

The system was worried: “Host, host, Li Yunhui’s methods are troublesome. We absolutely cannot let him restart the investigation at this time!”

Lin Chen: “You’re right. His investigation methods are too heavy-handed. I don’t like it. So… it’s time to make him too busy for such idle matters.”

The system hesitated: “Host, what about Cheng Huanzhen? His progress is much faster than Li Yunhui’s now!”

The system was anxious: “If you continue to let Cheng Huanzhen be, what if he, what if he really exposes your identity? If your identity is exposed and things come to light, you, you won’t be asked for a refund, will you?!”

Lin Chen became vigilant: “What refund? Absolutely not possible!”

“As for his investigation progress…”

Lin Chen let out a light laugh, tinged with a trace of imperceptible regret: “No matter how much soft evidence there is, it will always be blocked by a hard threshold.”

He paused and cautiously asked the system, “Are you sure that no matter what, you can restore my body to its original state after the contract ends?”

The system swore seriously: “Host, please rest assured! My current energy is sufficient to support at least one complete restoration for you, Host. As long as you’re not burned to ashes in an incinerator, the system can definitely restore you!”

Lin Chen was gratified and praised, “Very good, that’s the kind of confidence I want to see!”

---

Cheng family, a subsidiary company.

They had spent a month preparing for the new interview program.

The program received high attention from the Cheng family’s management. It was rumored that the Cheng family’s most likely next heir, the young master Cheng, had personally tracked the progress of the interview preparations multiple times and had been present for the entire duration of the first two crucial interviews!

After following the first two interviews, the young master was very satisfied with their preparatory work and confidently entrusted all subsequent interview work to them.

This matter quickly spread within the company, and all sorts of rumors about “high bonuses” and “shortcuts to promotion” flew around. For a time, the company’s enthusiasm for preparing the new program soared!

Cheng Huanzhen successfully used the excuse of the interviews to gain an in-depth understanding of Qi Xiuyi’s and Fang Ji’s brothers.

From living habits and dietary preferences to the way the brothers interacted and their memorable moments… many details that were simply impossible to obtain through normal inquiries were completely revealed during the interviews.

Long before the interviews began, Cheng Huanzhen had imagined the results countless times and believed he had made sufficient mental preparations.

However, the moment the interviews truly ended, holding the interview records of Qi and Fang, he still couldn’t close his eyes all night.

He was not acquainted with Qi Wendong.

He had only met Fang Chengyu once.

But when he finished the interviews and found those subtle, yet Uncle-like habits and preferences between the lines of the interview records.

In a daze, Cheng Huanzhen felt as if he had, across time, gotten to know Qi Wendong and Fang Chengyu.

He seemed to see, through their almost unfamiliar photos, his Little Uncle sitting behind them, smiling and swinging his feet.

…Little Uncle.

Little Uncle, Little Uncle, Little Uncle.

Cheng Huanzhen didn’t know if there were indeed numerous extraordinary similarities among these four, or if all this “extraordinariness” came from his subconscious filtering of information.

Ever since this crazy guess was born in his mind, what he saw became more and more biased towards those subtle similarities.

Thus, the more he looked and the more he thought, the more his heart trembled.

He. Them. Could they really be… Little Uncle?

The question appeared clearly in his mind, and it could no longer be suppressed.

Crazy and unbelievable thoughts tightly bound Cheng Huanzhen’s mind.

He tried to refute himself. But looking left and right, he found his mind was shouting everywhere: “He is, he is, he is!”

No. No. Can’t be impulsive.

He still needed… he still needed more, conclusive evidence!

Tormented by insomnia for many days, Cheng Huanzhen struggled to make a call.

He chose that perceptive person, the one who had first noticed the signs of everything.

The call connected, and a rather displeased voice came from the other end: “Cheng Huanzhen?”

The other party sneered, “What… finally remembered to give me some intel back?”

Cheng Huanzhen blinked slowly twice.

Only then did he remember that he had indeed not fulfilled his obligations of cooperation.

The fatigue accumulated from days of insomnia consciously disappeared at this moment. All his remaining calmness surfaced. He said in a steady voice, “Sorry, Yunhui. I haven’t been able to obtain enough evidence during this time, so I haven’t given you any feedback.”

“However, the reason I’m calling you today is precisely for this matter.”

Cheng Huanzhen lowered his voice and said seriously and earnestly, “If we follow your previous analysis, a very key similarity between Qi Wendong, Fang Chengyu, and my Little Uncle is their time of returning home—all in January at the beginning of the year.”

“Assuming there is indeed a special connection between the three of them, then this pattern has continued for three years.”

“But this January, no new young master returned home in the capital.”

Li Yunhui frowned. “That doesn’t prove anything.”

Cheng Huanzhen continued, “I think this is very strange. So I checked the list of all the new young masters who returned home in the capital this year. After excluding families where the return caused obvious inheritance disputes, I found that the one closest to January…”

He said softly, “is Shuyun.”

Li Yunhui’s eyelids twitched heavily.

He was very perceptive. As soon as Cheng Huanzhen said this, he immediately understood his implication.

Li Yunhui: “…What do you mean. Are you trying to say that Shuyun might be the fourth person after them?”

He was extremely resistant. “That’s absolutely impossible!”

He shot up from the sofa, his speech as fast as a cannonball. “Shuyun returned from my dad’s side. You know what my dad does; he’s always sensitive to these things. If someone was manipulating Shuyun’s return, my dad couldn’t have missed it!”

He was a little annoyed. “Cheng Huanzhen, Shuyun is your friend too. Can you wish him something good for a change?”

Once a similarity with those three was established, the first thing to be similar would be their “fate” a year after returning home.

…He was trying to say his brother’s fate would be the same as those three?

How could that be? Absolutely impossible!

Cheng Huanzhen said calmly, “This isn’t a matter of wishing or not. I’m just presenting my findings. This matter involves my Little Uncle, after all. I wouldn’t joke with you about it.”

He paused and said, “You know, I’ve been in contact with Shuyun a lot during this time, and I’ve actually discovered…”

Li Yunhui was too perceptive and wouldn’t be easily baited. Cheng Huanzhen thought for a moment and decided to pick out the safest piece of intelligence from his truly valuable findings to tempt this cautious eldest young master of the Li family.

However, just then, a commotion suddenly came from the other end of the phone.

Immediately after, Cheng Huanzhen heard an anxious “Shuyun!”, and the next second, the call was hung up.

Cheng Huanzhen’s heart skipped a beat, and a bad premonition suddenly washed over him.

He immediately called his driver and said quickly, “Go to the Li family’s house! Now, immediately, quickly!”

Then he grabbed his coat, threw it on, and ran down the stairs, leaving the house in a hurry.

---

When Li Yunhui saw his brother fall on the stairs, he initially just thought his brother had been too careless.

However, as he hurried closer and saw his brother’s pained expression and abnormally pale face, his heart leaped into his throat. He strode towards the stairs, taking three steps at a time, and quickly rushed to his brother’s side.

At this time, the butler and bodyguards had also noticed the commotion.

The butler hurried down from upstairs and asked loudly, “Eldest Young Master, what happened?”

But Li Yunhui had no time to deal with the butler right now.

He anxiously helped his brother up from the middle of the stairs.

He saw his brother’s pained face, one hand clutching his abdomen tightly, the other hand having directly collided with the stairs while trying to protect his head during the fall. Now, looking at it after being helped up, a large bruise covered his entire arm.

Li Yunhui didn’t know how it had happened.

He asked worriedly and anxiously, “Where did you fall? Did you hit any important places? What’s wrong with your stomach? Shuyun, say something!”

A fine layer of cold sweat covered Li Shuyun’s forehead.

His voice was weak, with an uncontrollable tremor, sounding extremely pained. “Ow, it hurts… Brother, my stomach suddenly hurts so much…”

His face was contorted in pain, his eyelashes trembling lightly. He looked countless times worse than when he had sprained his ankle before.

Li Yunhui had never seen his brother in such pain.

His mind went blank for a moment. In his mind, in his eyes, all that was left was his brother’s pained appearance.

To the hospital… I have to take my brother to the hospital!

Li Yunhui tried hard to remain calm, looked up, and shouted at the butler, “Get the car ready! Quick! Call the hospital immediately!”

Then he turned his head, went down a step, squatted in front of his brother, and tried his best not to let his voice tremble too much, trying to speak gently to his brother. “Come on, Shuyun, put your hands on me. Brother will carry you down first. Don’t stay in the middle of the stairs, it’s too dangerous here.”

However, Li Shuyun’s hands were tightly clutching his stomach. He was enduring immense pain, his breathing trembling, and he didn’t have the strength to free his hands.

“Bro, brother… it hurts… so much…”

Li Shuyun’s voice was weak and intermittent, as if it were being squeezed out of his throat with great difficulty. There was a hint of an uncontrollable sob in his voice, and tears even welled up in the corners of his eyes from the excessive pain.

Li Yunhui’s heart twisted in pain. He simply picked up his brother horizontally in his arms.

His brother was much lighter than he had imagined, but at this moment, he had no energy to think about such things.

He carried his brother and walked quickly down the stairs, roaring loudly, “Where’s the car? Is it ready? Hurry up!!”

The butler was also very anxious. “It’s here, it’s here, Eldest Young Master, quick, get in the car!”

Li Yunhui quickly got into the car with his brother.

As soon as they got in, his brother curled up in pain on the car seat. His face was devoid of color, he was covered in a cold sweat, and the back of his clothes was soaked.