The system practically screamed: “Host! What on earth happened during the half-month I was gone? How—how did your cover get blown?!”

The system was in a total panic: “And you blew it right in front of Cheng Huanzhen! His—his family’s order is worth 90 million! With your cover blown, are they going to demand a refund for that 90 million?!”

Lin Chen: “?”

Lin Chen sneered: “Do you not realize what kind of host you’re working with? Refund? Absolutely impossible!”

His tone then turned sharp, stabbing straight at the system’s heart: “Never mind him, let’s talk about you. You call yourself an advanced system, yet three seconds after boasting, you put yourself into hibernation!”

“And you didn’t even recover quickly during hibernation. It’s been half a month, so why haven’t I fully recovered yet? Hmm? AC9999?”

The system replied shyly and aggrievedly: “Host, I didn’t mean to hibernate, I just lost control…”

“But look, Host, your body can now handle most daily needs! Just give me a few more days, and you’ll be completely recovered!”

By this time, the continuous thunder had ceased.

Cheng Huanzhen finally let go of his hands and coaxed concernedly: “It’s okay now, Uncle. The thunder has stopped.”

The thunder had lasted for several seconds.

From the second the thunder started, the young man before him had fallen into a dazed state of shock. Even after Cheng Huanzhen covered his ears and turned his head away, he couldn’t snap out of it immediately.

It wasn’t until the thunder finally ended that the young man seemed to come back to his senses, blinking slowly twice before his gaze refocused on Cheng Huanzhen.

He smiled: “Thank you, Huanzhen.”

Lin Chen’s ears were completely red from being covered. Cheng Huanzhen stared for a moment, then quietly and gently rubbed them twice before saying slowly: “Uncle, the weather is so bad tonight, there will definitely be more thunder later.”

He paused, then asked naturally: “Let me stay and keep you company tonight, Uncle?”

Lin Chen checked the time.

In this weather and at this hour, there was certainly no reason to send a guest away.

But he asked: “Staying for a night is fine, but you’ve been at my place for so many days—don’t you need to handle company matters?”

The system was chirping noisily about something. Lin Chen found it extremely annoying and simply muted it.

Cheng Huanzhen explained with a normal expression: “I’ll find time to handle company matters when I go back, Uncle, don’t worry.”

He paused, then added: “Besides, Grandfather is different now. Before, if I didn’t show up for so many days, he would definitely be angry. But recently… or rather, ever since you left, Uncle, Grandfather has gradually stopped managing these things.”

Thinking back carefully on all the changes in the family during the year his uncle was there, Cheng Huanzhen couldn’t help but wonder: Was this the purpose of his uncle’s actions back then?

If so, then who was the person who invited his uncle into the family in the first place?

It couldn’t be Father, so it must have been Grandfather.

But why would Grandfather invite his uncle? His uncle had even joined him in opposing Grandfather’s decisions back then…

Cheng Huanzhen followed Lin Chen into the bedroom.

Leaning against the doorframe, Lin Chen said to him: “By the way, whether or not to tell your father and Old Master Cheng about this is up to you. But whatever you decide, I hope your family matters can be resolved within your family and not involve me. After all—”

He blinked and chuckled softly: “I only decided to acknowledge you because of your persistence. I don’t want a moment of soft-heartedness to bring me a lot of trouble later. Do you understand what I mean?”

Cheng Huanzhen could guess the reason for Lin Chen’s words.

Assuming Grandfather really did invite his uncle into the family, then that action must have been a paid transaction, and the purpose likely centered on him—after all, during the year his uncle was home, he spent all his time with him.

Now that he had discovered his uncle’s identity, Grandfather’s contract with his uncle might be affected… Would this get his uncle into contractual trouble?

Cheng Huanzhen nodded seriously: “Okay, Uncle. I’ll handle it properly.”

Receiving the promise, Lin Chen felt slightly less bothered by the fact that Cheng Huanzhen had been pestering him these past few days without thinking about the questions he had left him.

He generously turned the room over to Cheng Huanzhen: “Then tonight…”

Cheng Huanzhen placed a hand on Lin Chen’s wrist and interrupted him with a soft call: “Uncle.”

Lin Chen tilted his head in confusion: “Hm?”

Cheng Huanzhen said: “Your bedroom is on the second floor, mine is on the third. If it thunders tonight, I can’t keep you company from a floor away.”

He paused, then asked in a very serious tone: “I saw there’s another room on the second floor. How about I move there?”

Lin Chen raised an eyebrow slightly: “I’m letting you stay tonight because of the weather and the time. What, are you planning to live here long-term?”

Cheng Huanzhen lowered his eyes and said: “Uncle, you disappeared suddenly at night back then. I…”

He whispered: “If I’m too far away, I’m afraid I’ll wake up and not find you again.”

Cheng Huanzhen looked a bit pitiful.

Lin Chen sighed: “You’re so clingy.”

Cheng Huanzhen looked dejected: “Uncle…”

Lin Chen looked away: “I haven’t had time to clean up the room on the second floor.”

Cheng Huanzhen’s eyes brightened slightly: “I’ll clean it, Uncle.”

Lin Chen chuckled and relented: “You really want to move that badly? Fine, I’ll help you…”

“Beep beep—”

Lin Chen: “Hm? Wait a moment.”

Lin Chen took out his phone and saw a message from Qi Jingming.

Ever since the Qi family order ended, every time Qi Jingming messaged him, it was about money.

This time was no exception.

Third Dad: [Talked to a family for you tonight.]

Third Dad: [They’re rich too, but the situation is a bit special. I tried my best to do the ideological work. Whether to take the order depends on my son’s confidence.]

…Confidence?

What strange wording. Such a vague description.

Lin Chen: […What kind of family needs ideological work just to discuss an order? Is the payment actually reliable?]

He apologized to Cheng Huanzhen: “I have something to handle. Wait for me a bit, I’ll help you move rooms once I’m done.”

Cheng Huanzhen: “Oh, okay. Uncle, I’ll wait for you.”

Lin Chen returned to the living room sofa and sat down. Seeing Cheng Huanzhen choose a seat where he couldn’t see the phone screen, he silently allowed it.

Qi Jingming sent him the other party’s WeChat account.

Remark: Head of the Wen Family.

Looking at the words “Wen Family,” Lin Chen felt a momentary familiarity.

He began to recall all his knowledge of the capital’s wealthy circles over the past four years and finally remembered when he had met someone from the Wen family.

He had met the head of the Wen family and the young master of the Wen family once at Fang Ji’s birthday party. At that time, his impression of the Wen family head was that this was someone unlikely to become his client.

Unexpectedly, Qi Jingming had pushed him over now.

No wonder Qi Jingming said he needed to do some ideological work.

…In his impression, the head of the Wen family was probably the type who was very confident in his own education methods.

For someone like that to come to him, it was indeed a forced match.

Lin Chen wasn’t very interested, but trusting the sales department head’s judgment, he decided to have a chat.

After adding the friend, Lin Chen chatted politely and professionally with the other party for a few sentences, asking him to explain the child’s situation in detail.

The Wen family head quickly sent a long string of voice messages.

Lin Chen converted them to text with one click. A rough glance showed the situation was roughly as follows:

Introverted, doesn’t like to communicate, draws every day, doesn’t study, doesn’t socialize, doesn’t know how to maintain connections, doesn’t learn about the family business, very disobedient…

Lin Chen scanned it in a glance and thought there should be at least a second or third voice message. But he waited for three to five minutes and didn’t see any more messages from the other side.

Lin Chen: [That’s it?]

Wen: [That’s his basic situation. Do you need his transcripts from over the years or any other information?]

Lin Chen: “…”

Lin Chen carefully worded his reply: [Mr. Wen, the formulation of the plan depends entirely on my judgment of Young Master Wen’s situation. If the judgment is wrong, the plan will likely be ineffective and might even make the situation worse. If you want our cooperation to go smoothly, please do not hide anything from me in this matter.]

The other side was quiet for a while.

Wen: [What would I have to hide?]

Lin Chen typed patiently: [If the child’s situation were only this, you wouldn’t have contacted us, Mr. Wen.]

The other side was quiet for another long while.

Lin Chen waited for ages, boredly looking up to discuss tomorrow’s breakfast with Cheng Huanzhen. After about ten minutes, a message finally came from the other side.

Wen: [There are two things you might need to know.]

Wen: [First, he was diagnosed with depression by the hospital two years ago and has been on medication, but there’s been no effect. Second, recently he’s been acting up, threatening suicide at home every day.]

Wen: [But regarding these two things, I think…]

The Wen family head added a lengthy commentary.

For example, the child’s depression was all because he couldn’t get along with classmates… couldn’t get along with teachers… couldn’t get along with friends… and they always had to step in to solve everything for him…

Or that the suicide threats were just a tactic to threaten them… that he hugged his drawing board every day and did nothing but draw… that he didn’t do a single proper thing he was supposed to do…

The system had already been unmuted.

Looking at these comments, the system was very dissatisfied: “Host asked for the problems, so just state the problems! What is all this blah blah explanation? Do they know the rules of placing an order?!”

Lin Chen’s eyes scanned rapidly, feeling a bit annoyed.

After chatting with the Wen family head for less than twenty minutes, he already didn’t want to take the Wen family’s order.

Leaving aside the young master’s situation.

Just listening to the parent’s remarks, he could already imagine how big the family problems were, how great the conflict, how strong the resistance, and how troublesome this job would be!

Did he lack this money?

He didn’t lack this money!

Just then, a glass of water was suddenly handed to him.

Lin Chen looked up in surprise to see Cheng Huanzhen staring at him intently, asking: “Uncle, you look a little unhappy. Want some music? Shall I pick a disc for you?”