Cheng Huanzhen’s eyes shot up, “Who said that?!”

Cheng Zhaorui said matter-of-factly, “I heard it from the people at the old residence. Otherwise, why would they call Yiming back? I heard that after Yiming went back, he was so angry he didn’t even eat dinner all night. Look at you, he’s your little uncle after all, and you two have been getting along well these days, how could you… sigh.”

Cheng Zhaorui sighed, disappointed in his son.

Cheng Huanzhen’s eyes widened.

The old residence said it?

Said that he found Little Uncle annoying?

…Although he had indeed thought so before. But he never intended to put it into practice!

His legs were rooted to the spot for about half a minute.

Anger belatedly gathered, rose, and then expanded in his chest. This fire flared up, much more intense than the anger he felt when Little Uncle casually disrupted his plans in the past few days.

He bolted to the top of the stairs, following closely behind Cheng Zhaorui, his face tense, “I never said such a thing!”

Cheng Zhaorui looked at his son in surprise, “It wasn’t you who complained? I was just saying, although you’re usually a bit wooden, it’s rare to make a friend of the same age you can have fun with. You shouldn’t be so foolish.”

Cheng Zhaorui had come back early, before lunchtime, but the kitchen had already started cooking in a hurry after seeing him return. Now, as Cheng Zhaorui led Cheng Huanzhen into the dining room, they could at least have a bite to eat.

But Cheng Huanzhen had no appetite at all.

He grabbed his father’s wrist, every muscle and joint tense. He asked his father, “Who at the old residence said that? The old housekeeper? Grandfather? Little Uncle was so angry he didn’t eat all night? What about him today?”

Cheng Zhaorui frowned, “I’m not sure about the situation today. I don’t keep track of news from the old residence all the time. But I estimate with Yiming’s personality, he won’t calm down in a short while… Hey, Huanzhen, what are you doing?”

Cheng Huanzhen strode towards the study with a blank expression, saying, “I’m going to ask Grandfather what this is all about.”

Cheng Huanzhen strode into the room.

His heart pounded, blood rushing to his head and limbs.

This was anger, rage, agitation. He was certain of it.

Because this emotion was exactly the same as the one he felt when he was ten years old and discovered that the lively rabbit he was raising had suddenly died at the old residence. When he asked for the reason, it was simply because he hadn’t done a piece of homework well!

That incident had happened many years ago.

He had long since stopped caring about it and wouldn’t even remember it.

But why, after ten years, were the old residence and his grandfather still using such methods to force him, to force him…

Emotions pulsed in his mind, expanding and contracting, rising and falling, as if emotions had a heart of their own.

He forced himself to divert his attention from the matter of the rabbit.

Don’t think about it.

Don’t think about what happened back then.

The past is the past.

It’s not important.

Don’t think about it.

His index finger clenched into a fist, the knuckles making a cracking sound.

He stared intently at the red potted plant on the windowsill, his breathing short and heavy.

He thought of Little Uncle.

And then he thought of his childhood.

He thought of the time when he and a group of uncles, aunts, younger brothers, and sisters were trained by his grandfather at the old residence.

He remembered their crying, their breakdowns, their weakness, their escape attempts.

Of course, all of them were driven out of the old residence by his grandfather and sent back to their respective homes.

Almost every member of the Cheng family had undergone Grandfather’s “education.” What about Little Uncle? He had thought Little Uncle was special to Grandfather and wouldn’t be treated the same way, but… but what if?

Little Uncle’s personality was absolutely unbearable to Grandfather. If Grandfather really wanted to teach Little Uncle a lesson, with Little Uncle’s personality…

No, no, no. It couldn’t be. Little Uncle was different from them. He had returned to the country as an adult. Grandfather couldn’t possibly force him to undergo business training.

Grandfather taking Little Uncle back to the old residence must just be because he found out about Little Uncle’s recent influence on his work!

During this time, his plans had been severely disrupted, his work was not fulfilling enough, and he hadn’t shown up at the company for a whole week.

Plus, the meeting yesterday morning… Could Grandfather have found out about Little Uncle appearing in his meeting? Had some gossip at the company been caught by Grandfather?

But it was too late to say anything now.

His top priority was to contact the old residence or Grandfather directly, ask for Grandfather’s opinion on this matter, ask what Grandfather required of him, and then find a way to get Grandfather to let Little Uncle come back!

Cheng Huanzhen clenched his fists and slowly calmed down.

He quickly formulated a plan in his mind for handling the whole matter.

Yes, he first needed to make a phone call to Grandfather.

Go and talk to Grandfather directly!

However, calling Grandfather required a certain procedure. He first had to call Little Uncle—as expected, Little Uncle hung up on him.

Then he had to call the old housekeeper—the old housekeeper answered and informed him that Grandfather was not busy at the moment, nor was he resting, so he could contact Grandfather’s private number directly.

After following the procedure, Cheng Huanzhen finally found his grandfather’s number.

Perhaps because he had lived with his grandfather for so long over the years, his fear and nervousness towards his grandfather were much less than others’.

He hadn’t been aware of this before.

But after his father had to move back home to live, he found that his father usually didn’t dare to contact Grandfather when he encountered problems, at most contacting the old housekeeper. If it couldn’t be resolved, he would rather come to him for help in contacting Grandfather than make the call himself…

Cheng Huanzhen expressionlessly crushed these meaningless complaints and thoughts in his mind and directly dialed his grandfather’s number.

A tingling in the spine, tense muscles, an accelerated heartbeat.

These were all normal reactions of the human body when calling Grandfather.

Soon, the call connected.

Grandfather’s steady and serious voice came from the other side of the phone, “Speak.”

Cheng Huanzhen subconsciously clenched his fists, keeping his voice calm as he greeted his grandfather, “Good afternoon, Grandfather. I apologize for disturbing your afternoon rest. It’s just that Little Uncle went to the old residence last night and hasn’t returned yet, nor has he sent me any messages. I heard from the housekeeper that you intend for Little Uncle to move back to the old residence?”

Grandfather hummed in agreement, “Hmm? What about it?”

Cheng Huanzhen asked calmly, “Is it that Little Uncle is not happy living here? If my father and I have done anything wrong to make Little Uncle unhappy, I will personally bring a gift to apologize to Little Uncle after I finish my work this afternoon. Do you think that’s acceptable, Grandfather?”

However, Grandfather snorted coldly, “Not happy living here? I think you two are having so much fun you’re forgetting about serious business! I heard you’ve thrown all your work to others this week? You even let Yiming join your meeting yesterday? You have a new product to launch this quarter, and now look at what you’re doing every day! How are you going to do a good job with the new product like this, how are you going to…”

When Grandfather got angry, he loved to scold.

At this moment, even if Cheng Huanzhen had countless words of defense in his heart, such as the fact that this week’s work focus was not at the company headquarters, that he was tracking and adjusting the progress of all aspects of the new product launch in real time every day, that…

He couldn’t say them.

He habitually and silently waited for his grandfather to finish scolding. Only when his grandfather paused to drink tea did he say, “I’m sorry, Grandfather. My work has been a bit lax this week, but it has nothing to do with Little Uncle. Little Uncle did not disturb me; it was my own momentary laziness. Please rest assured, I will make up for all the work I fell behind on this week next week. I will also take the issues related to the new product launch seriously and will not be lax in the slightest.”

He paused, “Little Uncle living at home this week has, on the contrary, often supervised and helped me with my work. If you agree, I hope to bring Little Uncle back to live here. With Little Uncle’s help, my work efficiency will surely improve.”

Grandfather asked suspiciously, “How can you prove that Yiming has not affected your work?”

Cheng Huanzhen took a deep breath, “I can give you my military pledge. Within one month of the new product launch, its revenue will definitely increase by at least twenty percent compared to last year’s latest model.”

Cheng Huanzhen didn’t know if such words would be effective.

Fortunately, Grandfather’s mood seemed not too bad today. After expressing some slight dissatisfaction and saying a few more words to him, he relented, “Then you go and ask Yiming yourself. If Yiming is willing, then let him go back to your place to live. It will save me from his constant noise at the old residence.”

…Grandfather agreed!

The heart that had been hanging high in Cheng Huanzhen’s chest finally fell back into his chest cavity.

A faint smile appeared on his face. He tried to maintain his composure and said to his grandfather, “Grandfather, is Little Uncle with you now? Could you let Little Uncle take the call?”

Grandfather had no objection and immediately sent someone to call Cheng Yiming.

However, after waiting for half a minute, the old housekeeper’s voice came from the other end of the line, “Mr. Cheng, Young Master Yiming said he doesn’t want to take the call.”

Cheng Huanzhen heard this without needing his grandfather to repeat it.

The mood that had just lightened instantly became tense again.

He held the phone in a daze. It wasn’t until the line went dead that he thought blankly: Could Little Uncle… really think that I found him annoying and complained to get him sent back to the old residence?

…

The old residence, the chess room.

The old housekeeper had been in the chess room all morning.

From the moment Old Mr. Cheng woke up in the morning and eagerly called Mr. Lin to the chess room for a game, he had been waiting on the side.

Old Mr. Cheng had always loved playing chess. He played Go, and he also played chess.

Therefore, every member of the Cheng family knew that the easiest way to please Old Mr. Cheng was to show off on the chessboard and let him have a happy game.

But this was easier said than done.

Old Mr. Cheng’s chess skills were superb. Looking at the entire Cheng family, everyone learned chess, but no one could beat him.

But unexpectedly, this highly-paid Mr. Lin also had some skill on the chessboard. Since Mr. Lin came to the house, it didn’t take long for him to make Mr. Cheng very happy with his excellent chess skills.

Old Mr. Cheng was quick when playing chess, his moves fast, steady, and sharp, with a murderous aura that could often cause some mentally unstable younger generations to have a breakdown.

But this did not include Mr. Lin.

Mr. Lin looked young, but his chess style was very mature. He never rushed his moves, which were slow and steady, and he could always hold his own against Old Mr. Cheng. Occasionally, when he fell into a disadvantage, he could reverse the game with a clever move. It was no wonder that Old Mr. Cheng had been thinking about having another go with this “cheap son” of his these past few days.

Of course, if that were all, then Mr. Lin would just be an ordinary amateur player with excellent chess skills.

In the old housekeeper’s opinion, Mr. Lin’s emotional intelligence on the chessboard was even more valuable. Mr. Lin was very good at “feeding” Old Mr. Cheng moves. Not only was his feeding very subtle each time, but he didn’t feed him every single game. He would let him win seven out of ten games, which both pleased Old Mr. Cheng and kept him from getting bored. It could be said that his feeding was truly superb.

But that was also true. Otherwise, how could Old Mr. Cheng tolerate Mr. Lin’s behavior, which repeatedly broke his habitual bottom line?

“Pa!”

A crisp sound of a chess piece being placed interrupted the old housekeeper’s thoughts.

He focused his attention and stopped daydreaming.

Old Mr. Cheng hung up the phone and placed a piece with satisfaction.

Old Mr. Cheng: “You see, this kid Huanzhen is not bad, right? He has a business mind, and his character and courage are not bad either. He remains calm even when Mount Tai collapses before him, and he can stand straight and hold up the sky even if it falls. He makes military pledges without hesitation—the only bad thing is that this kid is too passive. He won’t do anything unless I personally order him to.”

“Pa.”

A soft, almost silent sound of a chess piece being placed. This was Lin Chen’s move.

Lin Chen showed a ninety-million-dollar smile and said, “Doesn’t this just prove that the first step of your education has been a great success?”

Old Mr. Cheng was intrigued, “Oh?”

Lin Chen: “By eliminating all emotions, Huanzhen will naturally grow quickly. But you clearly also know that a ruthless person walks fast, but a complete person walks far. You seek both speed and distance, which is why I am sitting here.”

“Pa!”

Old Mr. Cheng was satisfied. He smiled at him, “You really have a silver tongue.”

Lin Chen was modest, “It’s what I use to eat, after all.”

Old Mr. Cheng: “I’ve always liked outstanding children. Since you’re already here, why don’t you just become my godson? It will save you from having to be someone else’s son to earn money next year.”

Lin Chen asked, “As your godson, can I earn a hundred million a year?”

Old Mr. Cheng: “You’re so greedy at such a young age. But in the Cheng family, as long as your ability is sufficient, there is no upper limit to the money you can earn.”

Lin Chen thought what Old Mr. Cheng said made sense, and smiled as he declined.

Old Mr. Cheng was greatly disappointed.

The game ended, and Lin Chen won.

The pieces were collected and reset, and a new game began.

Just then, the old housekeeper reported, “Mr. Cheng, Dr. Yang has arrived.”

Cheng Yiming immediately pouted and slammed a chess piece on the table impatiently, “Oh, Dad, there’s nothing wrong with me, why do I need to see a doctor? I don’t want to see one!”

Old Mr. Cheng glared at him, “How can you not? The weekly check-up cannot be missed! Sit properly and let Little Yang take a good look at you. Don’t be unaware of any hidden dangers in your body one day. Sit!”