Fang Ji hung up on his second brother’s call.

The moment he pressed the red reject button, it felt as if something that had been tightly wound inside him had snapped.

He stared fixedly at his phone screen.

He thought, this was the first time he had ever hung up on his parents or siblings. Would it also be the last—

“Jingle bells~ jingle bells~”

His second brother’s call invitation rang again.

Fang Ji: “…!”

He’s… he’s still calling me?

Fang Ji hesitated for a moment, then poked the hang-up button again.

The next second, the call invitation popped up again.

“Jingle bells~…”

The chat box simultaneously refreshed with a line of text: [Xiao Ji, answer the phone.]

Fang Ji stared at the call invitation that his second brother persistently sent, his hard, cold heart feeling a momentary pang of melancholy.

Before Brother Chengyu came home, his second brother had been the eldest child in the family.

Throughout his own childhood, from elementary school to middle school to high school, he could see his second brother’s photo on the honor wall of every school.

When he had just started middle school, his second brother, already a sophomore in college, had entered the family business early and set an outstanding record of opening up the market in an F continent country in a single summer!

But the trade-off was his second brother’s schedule, which was always packed to the brim, without a single weekend off.

As far back as Fang Ji could remember, his second brother was always busy with studies and work.

For the vast majority of the time, his second brother, just like his parents, was in a state of “person not found” at home.

He and his second brother had almost never done any of the things that normal brothers would do.

Brother Chengyu would wake him up, coax him to sleep, put on his bells for him, take them off, and would take him to school on rainy days.

Every paid-for brother, at the very least, would take him for a ride on their motorcycle in their spare time, chat with him, listen to him brag when he got good grades, listen to him complain when he did poorly, and go to his school-level and city-level swimming competitions to cheer for him.

And his second brother?

Fang Ji thought for a long time, and could only manage to come up with one thing: Oh, he would give him money.

It wasn’t that he hadn’t called his second brother when he was envious of other people’s normal sibling relationships, whining and begging him to find time to take him out to play.

But in his second brother’s schedule, Fang Ji had never seen a weekend that was free and leisurely.

As a result, he still hadn’t been able to get on his second brother’s weekend schedule to this day.

But today, his second brother had actually called him three times in a row!

Just as Fang Ji’s hard, cold heart was about to waver, he suddenly thought:

When his second brother hung up on him in the past because he was busy, did he feel as conflicted as he did now?

Fang Ji let out a silent, self-deprecating laugh.

Of course not.

His heart immediately hardened again, and he fiercely pressed his finger on the red reject button!

Fang Chengyu, who had been silent all this time, suddenly patted his head at this moment and praised him, “Good job.”

Fang Ji’s face flushed red, and he instantly forgot all his melancholy.

Fang Ji smiled shyly. After seeing that no new call invitation popped up on his phone, he tilted his head and brought his right ear close to Fang Chengyu. “Then can brother give me a reward? Help me put it on?”

He was referring to putting on his bell earring.

Sometimes, when his brother was free, he liked to find random reasons to help him put on and take off his bells.

Fang Ji was very receptive to this and liked it very much.

Fang Chengyu also doted on him, said “okay,” and reached into his pocket to get the earring box.

But just at that moment, an unfamiliar ringtone sounded.

It was a purely instrumental piece of music, spacious and melodious, with a very gentle tune.

Fang Ji was stunned and subconsciously glanced at his brother.

Sure enough, he saw his brother take out his phone. The screen was brightly displaying a video call invitation from his second brother.

Fang Ji panicked for a moment, not daring to continue sitting there. “…Brother!”

But Fang Chengyu pressed down on his shoulder with one hand, and with the other, he placed a finger on Fang Ji’s lips.

Fang Chengyu leaned close to his ear and whispered, “Listen carefully. In a moment, you…”

…

At this time, in the country where Fang Lian was, it was four or five in the afternoon.

He had just finished a round of discussions about a business cooperation with a tycoon in a certain industry in this country. The issue had not yet been settled, and he still needed to continue working on it tonight.

But right after the first round of discussions ended, Fang Lian received the message in the group chat and found that his little brother hadn’t actively sought him out in three months.

Perhaps because he was used to being in the F continent, having seen plenty of gunshots and dead people, Fang Lian’s first reaction upon discovering this problem was to worry about Fang Ji’s safety.

So he quickly contacted his father, asked about the situation with the other family members, and after finding out that no one had been contacted by Xiao Ji recently, he solemnly initiated a family call and listened to a professional report from the family butler.

According to the butler, not only was Xiao Ji’s recent life going well, but he was also living very happily, appearing more fulfilled and joyful than he had been most of the time before.

Hearing this, Fang Lian couldn’t help but feel a little bewildered.

It didn’t sound like Xiao Ji was in a bad mood, so why would he suddenly disappear on them?

Fang Lian didn’t know.

After the second round of talks ended, Fang Lian once again got a 15-minute break.

Fang Lian thought seriously for three seconds and decided to use eight of those minutes for work, summarizing the main points of the last round of talks and adjusting the main attack direction for the next round with his subordinates.

For the remaining seven minutes, he borrowed an empty conference room and started calling his little brother.

No answer.

No answer.

Still no answer.

What was going on?

Fang Lian’s brow furrowed. His intuition told him the problem must lie with that “Sixty-Million-Dollar Big Brother.” He immediately exited Fang Ji’s chat interface, searched for Fang Chengyu, and clicked to invite him to a video call.

The video call was quickly answered.

Fang Lian’s gaze paused for a second on Fang Chengyu’s face, which was so exquisite it didn’t look fake at all. Then, he shifted his gaze and saw a pair of hands tightly clutching the corner of Fang Chengyu’s clothes at the edge of the screen.

It was Xiao Ji.

Safe, no accidents.

Fang Lian breathed a sigh of relief and politely asked Fang Chengyu, “Hello, big brother. Is Xiao Ji there? I’d like to talk to Xiao Ji.”

Fang Chengyu was a little surprised to receive his video call. Hearing his words, he nodded and said, “He’s here, please wait a moment.”

He tilted the phone to the side and said gently to the person beside him, “Come on, Xiao Ji, want to talk to your second brother?”

However, the camera had just turned to the side, revealing half of Fang Ji’s face, when Fang Ji leaped up from the side of the bed like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

Fang Ji’s figure hastily dodged away, out of the camera’s view.

His voice sounded very aggrieved and a little unhappy. “Aiya, brother, I said no! You can talk to them, don’t include me!”

The video camera immediately got stuck halfway, not continuing to turn to the side.

For a moment, the screen only showed half of Fang Chengyu’s shoulder and a completely unfamiliar room setting—

In the center of the frame, an entire bookshelf was fully packed. On the edge of the bookshelf, a few strings of jewelry were scattered.

The jewelry was clearly his little brother’s style, but the fully packed bookshelf was clearly not something his little brother would own.

…Whose room was this?

Fang Chengyu helplessly coaxed Fang Ji in the video, his voice sounding very gentle. “Come on, Xiao Ji. Haven’t you always been looking for a chance to chat more with them? Your second brother is usually very busy with work, it’s not easy for him to find time to make a call.”

Fang Ji’s voice suddenly took on an angry tone. “If he’s busy, let him be busy! Let him go make his own money! I… I don’t care. Having brother with me is enough!”

The sound of rapid footsteps ran into the distance.

The camera shook violently. Fang Chengyu suddenly stood up, as if wanting to chase after him out the door. “Hey, Xiao Ji…!”

But he suddenly remembered something, didn’t run two steps, and then stopped.

Fang Chengyu’s face reappeared on the screen. He said apologetically, “Sorry, Xiao Ji is not in a good mood these two days. I’ll go coax him first. If I can coax him, I’ll have him call you back.”

After speaking, without waiting for Fang Lian to reply, Fang Chengyu hung up the video call with a click.

Fang Lian’s brow was tightly furrowed. His brain hadn’t yet processed the phrase Fang Ji had just shouted, “Having brother with me is enough.”

Brother, isn’t that me?

The next moment, he suddenly realized.

Oh, so he was talking about this fake brother.

Fang Lian: “…”

Fang Lian sat expressionlessly in the empty office.

Ten seconds later, Fang Lian stood up and calmly went to continue preparing for the next round of discussions.

The day’s work went very smoothly.

If there were no accidents, the best trade route in this country would soon be pried open by him.

However, that night, when he finished his work and went to bed at his standard bedtime, he, who usually fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, somehow lay in bed with his eyes closed for ten minutes without feeling the slightest bit of sleepiness.

Memories of the video call with Fang Chengyu in the afternoon kept popping up in Fang Lian’s mind.

Xiao Ji was safe.

Just in a bad mood.

Xiao Ji called the fake brother “brother.”

Then what did he call him?

Xiao Ji said having the fake brother with him was enough.

What did Xiao Ji mean?

Fang Lian’s eyes snapped open.

In the darkness, his mouth was tense, pulled into a straight line.

The fake brother was a professional hired for sixty million.

Professional is professional, but what was he doing to his younger brother?

The fake brother was hired for sixty million; this was his job.

Work is work, but why did Xiao Ji look like his feelings had been swindled?

In recent years, various types of scams have been developing rapidly in Southeast Asia.

He heard that there was a type of scam called a “pig-butchering scam,” which involved first establishing a close emotional connection with the target, gaining their trust, and then proceeding with a series of subsequent fraudulent activities.

…Wait!

Fang Lian suddenly sat up in bed!

He quickly dialed a number. “Check if there have been any large, unknown transfers on Fang Ji’s bank card in the last three and a half months… No? Then what about the transaction details between him and these bank cards? … Also no? … Okay, it’s nothing. Keep an eye on his bank card situation. If a large, unknown transfer suddenly appears, notify me immediately.”

He hung up the phone and slowly lay back down with a sense of relief.

Oh, it wasn’t an offline “pig-butchering scam.” Xiao Ji hadn’t been scammed… at least not yet.

However, Fang Lian’s mood did not improve in the slightest.

He lay in bed, frowning, still feeling that something wasn’t right.

So Fang Lian carefully went over the day’s events again, twice.

But even after half an hour, he still couldn’t figure out what exactly was making him feel that something was “not right.”

…What was it?

What exactly was it?

Fang Lian was at a complete loss.

Finally, in a state of confusion, he fell into a deep sleep.