When the knock on the door sounded, Li Weiyi was already sitting at the desk, looking through an illustrated art collection.

Xu Yi pushed the door open, carrying a tray in his hands. The fragrant aroma wafted over, and only then did Li Weiyi realize she was starving.

Seeing her reading, Xu Yi smiled and said, “This art collection is very hard to find. I knew you’d like it.”

Li Weiyi ignored him.

He didn’t mind, set down the tray, took the book from her hands, and said, “Eat first. You haven’t had dinner yet.”

Li Weiyi glanced down—three small dishes she liked, a bowl of white rice, and a bowl of bird’s nest soup. She picked up her chopsticks and ate silently.

Xu Yi pulled over a chair and sat beside her. He had already changed out of his severe black suit and was wearing a dark blue sweater that revealed his shirt collar, with casual trousers below, which made his skin appear very fair and his features clear and refined.

However long Li Weiyi ate, he watched silently for that long.

After a while, Li Weiyi couldn’t take it anymore and turned to say, “Why do you keep staring at me?”

Xu Yi’s thumb and forefinger touched his jaw as he smiled and said, “I feel very content.”

Just watching you remain by my side makes me feel very content.

Li Weiyi bit her lip and fell silent, burying her head to continue eating. But the more she ate, the less appetite she had, finding it difficult to swallow. She thought, what kind of person is he really? He can love someone so humbly and calmly, yet his heart is darker than anyone’s.

Li Weiyi put down her chopsticks. Xu Yi asked, “Full? You haven’t drunk the bird’s nest soup yet.”

Seeing the bird’s nest soup now and thinking of the housekeeper Sister Liu made Li Weiyi irritated. She answered, “I’m not drinking it. I’m full.”

Xu Yi stood up and approached. Li Weiyi’s whole body tensed, but he only picked up the bowl of bird’s nest soup she had disdained and drank it all in one go. He set down the bowl, wiped his mouth with a napkin, and said, “You used to be so happy every time you had bird’s nest soup… It’s fine, what you can’t finish, I’ll eat.”

His tone carried obvious indulgence. Li Weiyi acted as if she hadn’t heard and asked, “Why did you do those things? With your abilities, even if you hadn’t extracted money from Fu Ming back then, in time you could have built your own business empire. Why?”

Xu Yi sat across the desk from her, long legs crossed, hands resting on his knees, his posture composed and calm.

Yes, when did it start? Why did he step onto that inglorious path, so that even with half a lifetime of brilliance, darkness was hidden underneath?

Xu Yi smiled slightly.

Probably, it began with his sister Liu Ying’s plea for help.

But perhaps it was in his nature. With or without Liu Ying, he probably couldn’t resist the temptation, couldn’t go against his instincts, and would take that faster, riskier, more rugged path straight to the top.

Back then he was only 22, fresh out of college, but had already been in business for two years. He’d walked some borderline legal paths and made a fortune. Everyone thought he was a gentle, mild-mannered person, not knowing his natural inclination toward risk-taking, his dislike for following safe, conventional paths. After all, with 100% profit, capital will take risks at any cost.

At that time, he hadn’t yet determined his next direction—the old money-making routes could no longer be used. In the dead of night, Liu Ying came to her younger brother in tears: “I don’t know what to do anymore! Boss Zhang might discover what we’ve done! He’s an especially ruthless person—he’ll definitely send us to prison, or even have us killed… Conglan, you’re smart, much smarter than your sister. Help me think of something—what should we do next?”

Only then did Xu Yi learn what a mess his sister had made of her life. She toyed with men, and men toyed with her. But she was a woman unwilling to be a plaything, and turned to using them instead. A web of money, power, and sex was secretly woven within Fu Ming, tying her and them together like grasshoppers on a string.

Initially, Liu Ying had been deceived. Cheng Chuanming clearly had a wife but claimed to be single. He spent lavishly and was a senior executive at the city’s most powerful company. Liu Ying quickly went to bed with him. After half a year together, Liu Ying learned she was a mistress and viciously tried to confront Cheng Chuanming. In the end, his compensation was getting her into Fu Ming as marketing director.

Liu Ying herself had some talent in marketing and interpersonal relations, and her credentials looked good, so she secured the marketing director position.

Soon, Zhang Fengming also took a fancy to Liu Ying. Whether Zhang Fengming used tactics, or Cheng Chuanming went with the flow, or Liu Ying was willing to find another powerful backer, she and Zhang Fengming also became ambiguously involved.

Both men treated Liu Ying as their private possession, but Liu Ying was no pushover. After discovering Cheng Chuanming was secretly embezzling money from Fu Ming’s Furui Da subsidiary, Liu Ying demanded she must have a share. The more they took and the bigger the operation became, the more cover-up was needed. At this point, Zhang Fengming, who served as procurement director and was also Liu Ying’s paramour, obviously became the best choice.

The three maintained this deformed but stable relationship of money and sex.

However, these people’s methods weren’t sophisticated enough. After just one year of embezzling several million, word had leaked and their situation was precarious.

That’s why Liu Ying sought help, because she knew very clearly that once things fell apart, those two men were both Zhang Moyun’s sworn brothers—Zhang Moyun might even let them off for old times’ sake. But she would definitely not escape, and might even be pushed out by them as a scapegoat.

At that time, looking at his sister’s gloomy, rigid expression, Xu Yi remained silent for a long time.

“Can’t get away?” he asked.

“Too deeply involved. I signed many documents. As long as Zhang Moyun reports this, I’m finished,” Liu Ying answered. “And I’m not willing to give up either. 2.4 million! Conglan, just in the second half of last year alone, I got 2.4 million!”

After a long silence, Xu Yi sighed and said, “I’ll figure something out.”

Xu Yi quickly came up with a method to help Liu Ying get through that crisis, and also proposed many improvements, teaching them how to make the accounts look more beautiful and flawless.

At the end of that year, Xu Yi was hired by Fu Ming Group as the chairman’s assistant. With his excellent university credentials and entrepreneurial track record, he unsurprisingly won Zhang Moyun’s favor.

No one knew he was Liu Ying’s younger brother—even Zhang Fengming and Cheng Chuanming didn’t know for the first few years.

…

Xu Yi stood in that advantageous position, time and again helping them through crises, devising strategies. Gradually, their operation grew bigger and they took more and more. From general assistant to executive to subsidiary company, this entire chain deceived those above and below, becoming unbreakable.

Xu Yi’s annual salary was 400,000—extremely impressive for his age and experience.

But what was 400,000 compared to the gray income? After he came to Fu Ming, in the first year alone, the siblings took 5 million, and 10 million the second year. Under Xu Yi’s operation, Cheng Chuanming and Zhang Fengming only got small shares while smugly thinking they were in control.

…

Recalling these distant and obscure past events, Xu Yi merely smiled calmly, rested his hand on the chair’s armrest, tapped his fingers a few times, and answered Li Weiyi’s question: “Probably because money really is a wonderful thing. The more wealth you possess, the greater the things you can accomplish. The rules of this world were originally made for mediocrities—I don’t consider myself among them. If I could get it, why shouldn’t I get it ahead of time? Xiaoyi, do you remember Zhang Moyun’s crazy expansion back then? Actually, he and I had an emotional bond, and I sincerely advised him several times. But he wouldn’t listen at all—he was too arrogant and conceited, stubborn and self-willed. Since that money was destined to go down the drain, turning into a pile of steel and cement rotting at construction sites, why not let me have it instead?”