CH 50

Gu Cheng couldn’t be bothered to debate the issue of his age. Hands folded behind his back, he lifted his chin slightly.

“I’ll get straight to the point. How much money do you want?”

This made Ji Ran frown. “What?”

“The hot search was your doing, wasn’t it?”

It took a lot of time for Gu Cheng to investigate before he heard from the team that Ji Ran once asked a friend some things about the hot search. Afterwards, the staff he hired to control the momentum online also found that the other party had copied the method he used against Ji Ran. Even the order was exactly the same – the breaking news, the buying of a water army, and finally, ‘family and friends’ appeared.

The only difference is that while the explosive news about Ji Ran from his friends and family were fake, Gu Zhe’s were completely true.

Evidently, this was an act of revenge.

Ji Ran raised a brow in surprise. His feud with Gu Zhe had been more than a month old and Gu Zhe’s enemies were more than the number of hairs on an ox. Why did Gu Cheng guess it was him?

Nonetheless, he wasn’t frightened and even admitted it happily. “I did have this thought, but your son has committed too many atrocities. I didn’t even need to do anything.”

Gu Cheng’s expression changed. “Alright, we’re all straight forward people. What do you want before you’re willing to settle this matter?”

Ji Ran’s eyebrows raised. Did this person not understand words?

Without waiting for Ji Ran’s reply, Gu Cheng continued, “Ji Ran, one must learn how to judge others. I’ve already given you a way out, so you should take it. It’d be better for both of us, otherwise… Since I have the ability to make you famous once, I can do it again. What’s the point of mutually hurting each other?”

Ji Ran froze as he replayed the words in his mind. Instantly, his face darkened. “So you were the one behind the hot search incident?”

Seeing his expression, Gu Cheng finally realised something was wrong.

Did Ji Ran not know before this? How could it be?

He maintained his calm. Since he had already spoken, whether or not Ji Ran knew before, he had to admit it. “What will it take for you to resolve this matter?”

Ji Ran sneered as he prepared to open the metal gate.

However, just as he touched the lock, a weight fell onto his shoulders.

“What delivery took so long?” Qin Man’s hand landed on his shoulder.

Ji Ran’s hands immediately froze.

He turned back. “…What did you come out for?”

Qin Man looked innocently at him. “I thought the parcel was too heavy and you couldn’t lift it alone, so I came out to help.”

Afterwards, he turned back to Gu Cheng. “But this person doesn’t appear to be a delivery man.”

Gu Cheng naturally recognised Qin Man.

He had some doubts initially. Ji Ran had solved the incident too quickly and cleanly; it was impossible without having connections. He also knew Ji Guo Zheng was extremely proud and wouldn’t help someone because of this. So, how did Ji Ran settle it so quickly?

Looks like Qin Man had intervened.

But how did Qin Man get involved with Ji Ran? Gu Cheng frowned with a pursed lip, wanting to go back and investigate this further.

“I was wondering who it was, it turned out to be the Qin family’s young master. How is your father? I haven’t seen him for a long time.” He had some business dealings with the Qin family before. Though it hadn’t gone through, they had crossed paths before.

Qin Man smiled. “Pretty well.”

Gu Cheng had always been arrogant and didn’t put anyone younger than him in his eyes. “I have something to talk about with Ji Ran, you can go in first.”

“There’s nothing to go back for. If you mind, just pretend I’m not here.” Qin Man’s smile didn’t change.

Ji Ran had wanted to rush out and beat Gu Cheng up but was interrupted by Qin Man. He clicked his tongue in annoyance. “Go in first.”

“Don’t want to.”

“You…”

Gu Cheng lost his patience and frowned. “Ji Ran, just tell me straight. Can we have a peaceful resolution?”

“Peaceful resolution?”

Ji Ran seemed as if he’d heard a funny joke. He scoffed, “You fucking dare to attack me online, yet you still dream of a peaceful resolution? Let me tell you, even though I wasn’t the one behind the hot search, I’ll definitely find someone to push it up until the day it falls. I want your son to go down in the history of the web.”

Gu Cheng exploded. “I dare you to say it again!”

“Who do you think you are? Why should I have to listen to you? Go to the hospital if there’s a problem with your ears!” Ji Ran yelled.

The lackeys in Gu Cheng’s car heard the commotion and all prepared to come down.

“There are CCTVs all around.” Qin Man lazily explained, “if you want to go in and accompany Gu Zhe, by all means.”

Ji Ran was still cursing, “I was wondering how Gu Zhe was so stupid. Now I know he must have learnt it from you. Not daring to do things openly and choosing the resort to dirty tricks. Pui!”

Gu Cheng laughed in anger. “Very good. Not listening when I’m still being nice? Do you think I’m here to lower my head? I just don’t have the time to waste on a child like you.”

“I’m asking you one last time. Can you or can you not resolve this?” Gu Cheng’s voice was cold and gloomy. “Don’t blame me for not reminding you. Your mother’s death anniversary is almost here, I’m sure you don’t want to see people scolding her even when she’s already dead, unable to have a peaceful rest.”

Ji Ran cursed softly under his breath.

Qin Man’s brows pinched. He hurriedly stepped forward before Ji Ran could act and held tightly onto his waist.

He wanted to rush up and give Gu Cheng a beating, but was stopped. Even his face turned red from holding in his fury.

Seeing Ji Ran’s current appearance, Gu Cheng finally relaxed. He tilted his head and smiled. “I’m giving you one last chance, don’t blame uncle for not leaving you any face. If the hot search doesn’t fall by tomorrow, you had better not regret anything that may happen in the future.”

Ji Ran also couldn’t be bothered to explain how this matter had nothing to do with him. “Fuck you! Who the hell do you think you are?! Who needs your face?!”

He was panting with anger as he watched Gu Cheng get into the car and swagger off with his group of lackeys.

Ji Ran only calmed down when he could no longer see the back of the car.

Only the sound of his breath was left.

“Qin Man, who’s side are you fucking on?” After a moment, Ji Ran suddenly asked.

“Of course it’s yours.”

“Why the hell did you stop me then?!” Ji Ran didn’t hold back and punched his arm.

“What happens after I let you go? Can you beat him to the ground?” Qin Man allowed himself to be hit without resisting and continued lightly, “He has so many lackeys with him. Do you think you are Superman, able to defeat ten at once? If you make the first move, it won’t be advantageous for us when things escalate to the level of the law. Why would you want to do something so unbeneficial?”

“So what?” Ji Ran retorted. “So I have to endure and allow him to mock me? To mock my mom? Qin Man, not everyone is like you, a turtle hiding in your shell whenever you please.”

Qin Man narrowed his eyes and sighed. “I’m just protecting you.”

“There are many ways to solve a problem. With your method of using force, it will be a big loss if you’re at a disadvantage.”

Ji Ran had wanted to continue scolding him. However, these words left him speechless.

After a moment, he was like a deflated balloon. “Let me go.”

Qin Man said, “Don’t be angry. If you’re upset, you can…”

“Can?”

“You can go online and scold Gu Zhe.” Qin Man chuckled. “I’ll give you a side account. You can curse him to your heart’s content.”

“… Aren’t you childish?”

Ji Ran’s anger had somewhat subsided. He knew that Qin Man was doing it for his own good and if he had really rushed out just now, he would definitely be beaten black and blue.

Besides, he didn’t want to take his anger out on unrelated people.

Just as he was about to say something, he saw a few middle-aged women passing them by, talking and laughing.

Ji Ran has zero relationship with his neighbours in the neighborhood. Although he has lived here for many years, he has never spoken to anyone except the security guard.

They talked and laughed, and suddenly met Ji Ran’s gaze.

Qin Man’s hand was still around his waist to stop Ji Ran earlier, so they appeared very close, with one side of his body almost pressing against the other person.

It wasn’t until the women looked at him strangely and began to whisper, that Ji Ran suddenly recovered. “…Quickly let go of me!”

Qin Man gave a polite smile and waited for them to hastily look away before he slowly released his arm.

When he returned home, Ji Ran called Yue Wen Wen and asked him to pay attention to Weibo for the next few days. If there was another hot search about Zhao Qing Tong, he wanted to be notified as soon as possible.

From Gu Cheng’s words just now, it was obvious that he would continue to make trouble for Ji Ran, so he had to take precautions in advance.

After hanging up the phone, Ji Ran lay down on the sofa. He didn’t expect a day where he would have to waste energy on messy things like this.

Remembering what Gu Cheng just said, he picked up the phone and opened the calendar.

He had been so busy with those projects from before which had been giving him a headache, that he almost forgot it would soon be Zhao Qing Tong’s death anniversary in a few days.

He nudged Qin Man’s thigh with his foot. “The car keys are all in the bedside cabinet. You can just pick any one the day after tomorrow to go to the company by yourself.”

Qin Man grabbed his feet. “What about you?”

Ji Ran subconsciously wanted to escape but he did not succeed. “I have something to do, so I’ll be on leave… Let go, isn’t it dirty?”

“It’s not.” Qin Man brought his feet to rest on his own thigh. “Where are you going? Should I accompany you?”

“I hired you to come work, not for you to be my bodyguard.”

Qin Man smiled. “That’s not right. Think about it carefully, what did you really hire me to do?”

“…” Ji Ran didn’t want to play games with him. He immediately sat upright and handed his phone to Qin Man.

Qin Man took it and was greeted by Weibo’s login interface.

“Log into your account.” Ji Ran said with a dark face, “My side account was banned from Weibo for scolding Gu Zhe.”

Qin Man had only been trying to comfort him. How could he have a side account? Even his main account was rarely used.

He casually logged into his account which had been registered from a few years ago and passed it back.

Ji Ran naturally clicked on the profile page and found that this trashy small account actually had over two thousand fans.

He stared at it. “This is your side account?”

“More or less. I registered a long time ago. I’ve never really used it.”

He would have lost it long ago if it weren’t for the account having been bound to his mobile phone.

Ji Ran continued to probe and found that this account only had a few Weibo posts, all of which were photos of the ugly dog called Jiao Jiao. The most recent one was almost three years ago.

This account only followed seven people. Out of curiosity, Ji Ran tapped on it and saw his own name.

The others were random meme accounts.

“You… since when did you follow me?” Ji Ran asked.

“Don’t remember.”

Ji Ran tapped on the most recent post and saw that there were over a hundred comments, all of which were from girls. Clicking onto any of them would show a ‘beauty influencer’ with tens of thousands of followers.

[What a cute doggy~~~]

[Gege actually likes the American Bully. What unique tastes O_O]

[I saw senior walking his dog today, how loving [seeking attention]]

Ji Ran let out a cold snort. “Senior?”

He had meant mock Qin Man. However, he didn’t expect for the sole of his feet to be lightly scratched, causing him to feel an indescribable itch.

Qin Man put down the file and asked with a smile. “What is it, little junior?”

“… Stop taking advantage of your daddy!” Ji Ran felt his face heat up. “I was just reading out the comments on your page!”

“Oh, those…” Qin Man asked, “I didn’t read them. What are they about?”

Ji Ran scoffed, “Stop pretending. What other comments could there be? Isn’t it all girls calling you senior brother gege.”

“Really.”

“Can’t you read it on your own?”

For the sake of seducing Qin Man, they could say almost anything. Even an ugly dog like Jiao Jiao could be praised to the high heavens.

Qin Man stared at him and suddenly asked, “Are you jealous?”

Ji Ran had intended to give him a few more mocking words. Once he heard these words, he exploded.

“…I’m jealous? Who am I jealous of?!” He closed Weibo and began to bullshit. “I was just seeing how these ladies were wholeheartedly commenting on your posts, yet you never replied to any. What scum!”

“I bet you did this on purpose. I asked for your side account, why did you give me your main account?”

Qin Man replied, “I don’t have another account. You can use this to scold others. It’s fine even if it’s banned.”

“…Forget it.” Ji Ran logged out of his account.

“You aren’t going to scold Gu Zhe any more?”

“No, it’s a waste of time.”

Ji Ran returned to his own accounts and clicked on his list of friends.

He only had a few hundred fans, so it didn’t take long for him to find Qin Man’s ID.

Yue Wen Wen’s ID was a few positions before him. If he counted… Qin Man seemed to have been following him since high school?

But why? Though they had long passed the time of mutually hurting each other, they weren’t close enough for one of them to follow the other.

He wanted to ask, but once he raised his head, he saw Qin Man concentrating on reading the document in his hand. His leg was still on the other person’s thigh and his feet had somehow reached under his shirt.

“…”

Forget it. Qin Man may not necessarily remember it if he asked about something that happened so many years ago. Instead, it might even seem as if he were overly concerned.

Ji Ran opened up the Weibo homepage and stared at Jiao Jiao for a while before his thumb pressed down lightly.

At the bottom left of the screen, an icon suddenly jumped to life. The relationship between them had turned “mutual.”

T/n: Hey guys, I’ve decided to take a break from translating for a while, maybe for a month or so (? depends on when I’m ready to come back but I’ll try not to extend it over a month). The reason is because I’m exhausted from school/translating(? idk) and the short break I took earlier this month to focus on my exams set me back quite a bit. So hopefully, I’ll spend the next month catching up and regaining any motivation to translate.