CH 44

There was the sound of the iron gate opening and shutting outside the window.

Pei Yi’s mind couldn’t help but shift from the group chat interface. He got up and peered out — a familiar black car drove to the inner courtyard of the villa, then toward the garage.

Pei Yi checked the time in the lower right corner of the computer and raised his eyebrows in surprise.

Back before five o’clock?

Why did Bo Yueming get off work so early today?

Pei Yi hurriedly ended the work chat with Li Yuan and crew, and turned off the computer before leaving the room to go downstairs.

Uncle Kai, who was residing on the first floor, opened the door in a timely manner. Bo Yueming and Lin Zhong walked inside first, followed by two people behind them—

It was the driver Lao Zhang, and a young man on crutches who was being helped along by him.

Although there was still a distance between them, Pei Yi on the stairs recognized the other party right away. It was Qiao Dong, who they accidentally met in the parking lot that night.

Pei Yi had originally thought the two of them wouldn’t have a chance to meet again, but now the other party had been brought home by Bo Yueming? He approached curiously, staring right at Qiao Dong.

When meeting again after more than a month, Qiao Dong’s cheeks were still thin, but there was obviously a little more color to them. His long bangs had been cut short, revealing a pair of good-looking eyes.

Other than the broken left leg, the other bruises and abrasions on his exposed hands and feet had pretty much healed.

“…….”

Qiao Dong looked at Pei Yi, lacking the proudness and stubbornness of when they first met, and ducked his head unconsciously.

Uncle Kai noticed Pei Yi following behind, and was curious. “Little Sir, why did you come down?”

Pei Yi looked at Bo Yueming, who had suddenly brought someone home, and called out, “Er-ge.”

He didn’t mean to accuse him of anything, he just didn’t understand.

Hearing this soft and delicate address, Bo Yueming seemed to fear that Pei Yi would misunderstand him, so he gave a rare muffled cough. 

Lin Zhong immediately understood. “Little Sir, Uncle Kai, Qiao Dong received a threatening phone call today. He has no place to go for the time being, so we brought him back first to ask about the situation.”

Bo Yueming knew that Pei Yi would understand, so he said with seeming casualness, “Let’s talk about it in the living room, I’m also uncertain.”

If Pei Yi didn’t answer, that meant he acquiesced.

In fact, he was quite curious about Qiao Dong’s secrets and grievances, and it would be nice to hear his story.

. . . . . .

The group of people sat down in the living room.

Uncle Kai thoughtfully delivered corresponding drinks to everyone, and rushed to the kitchen without pause to work on dinner. There were many people eating tonight, so more needed to be prepared.

Pei Yi stared intently at Qiao Dong who was sitting alone, and became even more curious.

Bo Yueming snuck a peek at the curious kitten beside him while he drank his coffee, and after seeing the cute little mole on the back of his neck—

He was inexplicably itchy, but restrained himself.

Bo Yueming shifted his gaze hidden under the lenses, and said softly, “Qiao Dong, if you still refuse to tell the truth at this point, then no one can help you.”

“…….”

Qiao Dong unconsciously clenched the glass of water in his hands.

Even though Bo Yueming didn’t specifically look at him when speaking, he still felt the other person’s powerful aura.

Qiao Dong knew that only Bo Yueming had the ability to seek justice for him.

As soon as he received the threatening phone call today, he contacted the other party’s assistant, Lin Zhong. After weighing the pros and cons, he wanted to confess everything and ask the other party for help.

Taking advantage of the silence, Bo Yueming cut straight to the point. “What is the relationship between Song Dazhi and Zhao Hui?”

“You!”

Qiao Dong exclaimed in astonishment, but then restrained himself. “How do you know about them?”

Pei Yi thought to himself, isn’t it simple?

There was no impenetrable wall in this world. Let alone a company as big as the Shuntian Group, it was easy to pick up clues if one investigated deeply.

Sure enough, Lin Zhong gave an explanation of the investigation following Bo Yueming, “We learned that your brother Zhao Hui passed away more than three months ago, and five months ago, Song Dazhi accidentally fell to his death on the construction site.”

Two people died in succession?

Were they both related to the Shuntian Group?

Pei Yi became more and more curious about the twists and turns. Qiao Dong, who was sitting diagonally opposite, finally sorted out his emotions and said frankly, “Zhao Hui was my half-brother, eight years older than me. He used to be a construction contractor, and led seventy or eighty construction workers.”

Song Dazhi was one of the workers Zhao Hui led.

For a large enterprise such as Shuntian Group, once a real estate project was launched, in addition to their own core construction team, a large number of basic chores and rough work would be outsourced to the contract team.

Qiao Dong’s older brother, Zhao Hui, was one of the contract teams who heard the news and came to work.

Qiao Dong choked up and swallowed, continuing, “My brother and the others used to work on a construction site in Shencheng.”

“At the beginning of this year, he found out that the big company in Wencheng had a longer construction period and paid more, so he asked to be hired as one of the outsourced teams of Shuntian Group.”

Half a year ago, Zhao Hui led his workers to participate in the construction and development of “Jiu Metro,” which was the largest real estate project of Shuntian Group in the past two years.

But after a month and a half, an accident happened in the team.

The steel parts on the high-altitude scaffolding suddenly loosened. As a result, Song Dazhi accidentally fell, and the safety rope tied to him did not play its role of stopping him, but broke directly in response.

If a person fell from a ten story building, they would soon die, and it would not help if he was sent to the hospital for treatment.

“As the contractor, my brother naturally took responsibility. He secretly took the safety equipment on the construction site to inspect it, and it was found that the group cut corners with the material. The parts, helmets, and aerial work ropes used were all mixed with inferior products.”

“He took Song Dazhi’s family members to the general manager of the construction site to confront him. The other party played nice at the beginning and spoke very sincerely, but in the end only offered 200,000 yuan in compensation as a hush-up fee.”

That was a human life, ah! Just this little money and they were sent away?

The family members naturally refused, but the general manager avoided contact with them, so they could only go tearfully to Zhao Hui.

“Song Dazhi was the person who had traveled far and wide with my brother for the longest time. My brother has always been loyal and obstinate, so there were many workers who followed him. He promised that the Song family would definitely seek justice and real compensation.”

Later, Zhao Hui learned—

The chief person in charge of Jiu Metro real estate was Chen Shun’s son-in-law, and the other party had indeed privately reported high prices for safety equipment and masqueraded shoddy ones as new.

“The son-in-law is not kind, and is greedy for the group’s money. My brother thought about it, and had no choice but to wait at the gate of Shuntian Group with the evidence he had found, and stopped Chen Shun to tell him everything.”

“Chen Shun was angry at first, and said that he would take care of everything within three days.”

Zhao Hui thought that the boss of such a huge business would not renege on his debts, but three days later, not only did he not receive answers from the other party, he was arrested by the police for the unwarranted charges of “stealing construction site materials” and “extortion.”

Lin Zhong frowned. “What?!”

The eyes of Bo Yueming and Pei Yi flickered, and they simultaneously felt extreme disgust—

In many cases, the confrontation between those at the top and those at the bottom was tantamount to an ant meeting an elephant!

What’s more, one was his own relative and the other was a construction site employee, so who would Chen Shun help? In fact, it was obvious, but this way of handling it was too inappropriate!

“My brother had originally cited evidence to the police and asked Song Dazhi’s family to testify, but!”

Qiao Dong took a deep breath, and the corners of his eyes once again became red with unwillingness. “But on the other hand, they said that the compensation from Shuntian Group was in place from the beginning, and it was my brother who wanted to use this incident to extort another sum of money!”

“……..”

Driver Lao Zhang and Lin Zhong looked at each other, not having expected this sort of result. It was obvious that the Song family was dissatisfied with the compensation at the beginning, so why did they become the accused in the end?

Bo Yueming saw it clearly. “The Song family was settled by Chen Shun and the others?”

Pei Yi agreed with this guess.

In the end, compared to Zhao Hui, who had earnest motives, Song Dazhi’s family members should be easier to handle.

People could not be resurrected after death, but the reality of suffering was right in front of them. How many people were willing to give up money and fight meaninglessly against the powerful?

People’s hearts were complicated and unpredictable.

The Song family were not in the wrong to keep things quiet, but they helped the Shuntian Group pour dirty water on Zhao Hui, which really violated the moral bottom line.

“I came here to help after hearing my pregnant sister-in-law cry and say these things.”

Although they were half-brothers, the relationship between the two had always been very good. Zhao Hui had the responsibility of the eldest brother and son. He knew that his younger brother did well in school, so he took over his father’s responsibilities since he was a child and made money for his younger brother’s education.

Qiao Dong respected and admired his older brother from the bottom of his heart.

“My brother was detained for fourteen days and fined a lot of money before he was released. My sister-in-law and I originally wanted to set up a table of delicious food and wine to help him get rid of his bad luck, but when we came back from the market, we found my brother unconscious in a pool of blood.”

Later, after investigation, it was found that—

Two gangsters who claimed to be workmates broke into the rental house and had an argument with Zhao Hui. The back of his head was hit at a fatal point after a struggle, and he lost so much blood that he couldn’t be saved in the end.

Due to her husband’s death, Qiao Dong’s sister-in-law became so emotional that she had a miscarriage. Not only did she fail to keep the child, but she also lost the ability to become a mother again.

Father Qiao had married into the Zhao family when he was young, so Zhao Hui took the surname of his deceased mother. Father Qiao raised Zhao Hui until he was seven years old before marrying Qiao Dong’s mother and having a child.

The eldest son was getting married and starting a business, and the younger son was about to graduate and earn money. Just when everything was looking better, this sort of bad news happened. Qiao Dong’s father had a heart attack and collapsed to the ground, dying two days later.

“I had just graduated from university, and my eldest brother was the pillar of the family. Without that pillar, the sky collapsed.” Qiao Dong quickly wiped away his tears, his hatred undiminished.

Although the two gangsters were caught by the police, due to the lack of evidence and their lawyers, they were only sentenced to three years for “manslaughter,” and the case was closed some time ago.

Qiao Dong was no fool. He knew that even if it was manslaughter, they were sent by Chen Shun to threaten Zhao Hui!

Bo Yueming connected everything together. “So, you secretly followed Chen Shun? You blocked him in the underground parking lot on impulse?”

“…….”

Qiao Dong silently acquiesced.

After taking care of his brother and father’s funerals, he handed over all the family money to his sister-in-law, then returned to Wencheng alone to seek justice.

“Chen Shun acted guilty. As soon as he heard that I was Zhao Hui’s younger brother, he immediately called the security guards! The threatening phone call this morning must have been made by him! He knows I haven’t left Wencheng yet, and is afraid that I’ll cause trouble again!”

Pei Yi frowned for a moment, and thought to himself—

Chen Shun was like a local snake in Wencheng, and after the beating in the parking lot, he made a threatening phone call. So what would happen next?

Qiao Dong disregarded his left leg, which was still recovering, and got up to kneel down. “Mr. Bo! I know your identity is not simple! Please help me! I beg you!”

Lao Zhang next to him saw this and quickly stopped him. “Hey, your leg injury still isn’t healed!”

Bo Yueming pretended not to see their tugging, and took a steady sip of coffee. “I asked Lin Zhong and Lao Zhang to bring you back today because it is relatively safe here, so Chen Shun won’t dare to do anything for a while.”

“From today onwards, you will stay here to continue to recuperate. Before I make up my mind to deal with Chen Shun, you are not allowed to act rashly.” Bo Yueming set the cup back on the cup holder. “Of course, if you don’t trust me, you can leave at any time.”

Qiao Dong hastily nodded. “I, I trust you! I’ll listen to Mr. Bo!”

When he was in the parking lot, he suspected that Bo Yueming and his group were friends with Chen Shun, and was extra vigilant because of the “stress reaction” after getting injured.

After a month of observation and thought, he had already decided—

Even if Bo Yueming and the others took care of him with “ulterior motives,” he was also willing to be used as long as Chen Shun could get his retribution in the end and Shuntian Group could collapse!

After hearing what happened to Qiao Dong, Lao Zhang felt sorry for the family. “Mr. Bo, which room should Qiao Dong stay in? His small bag of luggage is still in the trunk of the car.”

The one master bedroom and three other bedrooms in this villa were fully occupied. As for Lao Zhang, because he was a native of Wencheng, he lived at his own home every day.

Where would he stay?

Bo Yueming glanced at Pei Yi beside him from the corner of his eye.

At the same time, the silent Pei Yi felt something subtle. Before Bo Yueming could speak, he played the fool and raised his hand. “Me!”

Thinking about it carefully, Qiao Dong didn’t know the four of them very well, so it would be more comfortable for him to stay in a room alone.

But Uncle Kai and Lin Zhong who resided downstairs were too different in age, and had many things to do every day, so it was impossible to share a room with them.

As for the “head of the family,” Bo Yueming? That was even more impossible.

In Pei Yi’s case, he could either share with Qiao Dong, or give up the bedroom on the second floor and then use their “marriage” relationship to live in the master bedroom with Bo Yueming again. Anyway, it would not be the first time they slept together.

But when Pei Yi thought of his dishonest sleeping habits, and thought that he would hold Bo Yueming tightly in his arms while asleep, the heat went to his head again and his heartstrings tensed.

He swallowed and looked at Bo Yueming, adding, “I, I live with him!”

Anyway, the two were about the same age. One wanted to play the fool at home and one wanted to rest at home.

“…….”

Bo Yueming had originally planned to take this opportunity to let Pei Yi move back into the master bedroom, but didn’t expect the other party to think and react faster than him.

He would rather stay with the unfamiliar Qiao Dong than sleep with him?

Bo Yueming looked at Pei Yi playing the fool, and there was a trace of panic in his eyes as he thought of the other party wrapping his arms and legs around Qiao Dong in his sleep—

He ground his molars unnoticeably and refused. “That won’t work.”

Pei Yi sucked in a light breath. “W-why?”

Bo Yueming made sure to kill with one blow, “You sleep dishonestly. What if you pester Qiao Dong in the middle of the night and press on his leg wound?”

“…….”

This was reasonable and could not be refuted.

Pei Yi closed up like a gourd on the spot, his cheeks flushed.

Qiao Dong was unsure of the relationship between Bo Yueming and Pei Yi, but he was accustomed to paying attention to words and feelings—

Just now when Pei Yi said that he would bring him to stay in his room, Bo Yueming’s jaw tensed instantly, and a trace of sourness flashed across his face. Something was very wrong!

Qiao Dong had just arrived, so how could he dare ask for so much, ah? He hastened to say, “M-Mr. Bo, you don’t need to make room for me, I’ll just sleep on the sofa!”

He paused for a moment, then took another step back. “It’s fine to sleep on the floor too!”

Lin Zhong, who was also paying attention, quickly said, “Mr. Bo, Qiao Dong and I can sleep in the same room, right? Recently, I’ve been following you out early and returning late due to the bidding. I don’t stay at home much, so it won’t delay Qiao Dong’s rest during the day.”

“And staying on the first floor, it will be more convenient to call Uncle Kai for help.”

Bo Yueming nodded his head.

To be honest, even if Pei Yi agreed to move back to the master bedroom, he would not want Qiao Dong to stay in Pei Yi’s room.

Seeing as Bo Yueming had agreed, Qiao Dong quickly cast a grateful look at Lin Zhong for being willing to take him in. “Thank you, Brother Lin.”

“You’re welcome. Come on, I’ll help you back to the room,” Lin Zhong said, and gave the driver Lao Zhang another look. “Lao Zhang, go and bring Qiao Dong’s luggage.”

Lao Zhang was also a sensible person, so he got up quickly and left.

Less than half a minute later.

Only Bo Yueming and Pei Yi were left in the living room.

Pei Yi hadn’t been alone with Bo Yueming for a long time, and before he knew it, he felt a little uncomfortable. He put the milk he was drinking back on the coffee table, and tried to escape when he saw the right moment.

In the next second, Bo Yueming “felt around” and grasped his wrist. “Where are you going?”

“…….”

Was this the ability of a villain?

Why was his instinct to catch people so strong when his eyes hadn’t even healed yet?

Pei Yi complained from the bottom of his heart, and grumbled on the surface, “I’m sleepy.”

He spent the whole afternoon clacking away at his keyboard, and listened to Qiao Dong’s story for so long, so he was indeed a little tired.

Bo Yueming relaxed his tone and requested, “It’s time to eat. Eat before resting.”

The tension on his wrist did not relax.

Bo Yueming continued, “Pei Yi, I have something to ask you.”

Uncomprehending, Pei Yi made an airy sound to express his doubt.

Bo Yueming moved closer. “You don’t want to sleep with me?”

“…….”

Pei Yi got stuck.

What kind of problem was this, ah?

Besides, when the word “sleep” came out of Bo Yueming’s mouth, why did it feel strangely astringent?

Pei Yi pretended to be confused. “Er-ge?”

Bo Yueming chose to be more specific. “It’s not just now. That morning, you sneaked back to your room without saying a word.”

“…….”

The scene of that morning once again flashed through Pei Yi’s mind. The tips of their noses rubbing lightly, their breaths intertwined, lips just about to kiss. The memory made his palms sweat.

Pei Yi tried to get those pictures out of his mind, and didn’t know if he was playing the fool or really stuttering. “N-no, I sleep, don’t behave, not good.”

Right after saying this, Pei Yi wanted to bite his own tongue—

It was strange. He was clearly able to deal with everyone calmly, but everything changed when he encountered Bo Yueming. It was an indescribable feeling.

Perhaps he really was dazzled by the face in front of him.

Bo Yueming pretended not to see, and instead followed the sound of Pei Yi’s breathing to say, “Who says you don’t behave?”

His breathing became unbalanced again, and Pei Yi swallowed unconsciously.

Bo Yueming sensed his nervousness, but the desire to tease the kitten remained undiminished. “You sleep in my arms every night, and there is never a time when you are not well-behaved.”

Never…..a time…..he was not well-behaved?

Pei Yi’s breath shook, and he inwardly pondered the meaning of the second half of the sentence.

His heart was wreathed in tension, beating faster and harder, making him unable to think at all.

Pei Yi suddenly stood up from the sofa and stared at Bo Yueming sitting there. Then he blinked unnaturally and ran away, playing the fool.

“…….”

Looking at his back as he fled in a hurry, Bo Yueming allowed himself to laugh a couple of times.

What could he do?

There was a kitten who was looking cuter and cuter.