Fu Bozhong waited until Lin Jie had left Shen Yi’s room before going to find Shen Yi himself.

Upon entering the room, the first thing Fu Bozhong did was close the door behind him—a rule for entering this room, with only one exception: Rong Qian.

“You’re here, sit down.” Shen Yi walked over to the tea table and sat down, pouring tea for Fu Bozhong.

Fu Bozhong asked with concern, “Young Master, did something happen?”

“Steward Fu, do you know who got Lin Jie hooked on gambling?” Shen Yi picked up the teacup and handed it to him with both hands—a basic gesture of respect for an elder, ingrained in him to his very bones.

Fu Bozhong shook his head. Even Lin Jie’s gambling addiction was something he’d just learned about.

Shen Yi told him, “It was Shen Fengran.”

“Was it him?!”

Fu Bozhong’s reaction was strong. Although Lin Jie had indeed attended the same school as Shen Fengran in America, Shen Fengran shouldn’t have known that Lin Jie was attending school under Shen Yi’s sponsorship.

How could Lin Jie have ended up associating with someone like him?

“While at school, Lin Jie didn’t hold back from telling people he knew me. Shen Fengran must have heard about it too, and deliberately drew close to him, turning him into what he is today,” Shen Yi said, feeling like sighing. Perhaps he should never have sent Lin Jie to that kind of aristocratic school in the first place.

He had thought that giving him the best education meant sending him to the best school, but he’d forgotten that Lin Jie had previously lived in the slums. With such a contrast, it was no different from suddenly becoming wealthy overnight—of course it would create psychological imbalance.

A massive contrast like this would push someone either toward feelings of inferiority, or toward competing and comparing themselves with others—and clearly, Lin Jie had gone the latter route.

That’s why he ended up mixing with the group of rich second-generation kids led by Shen Fengran, thinking that this way, he too would become someone wealthy.

“Young Master, I’ve been keeping an eye on Shen Fengran’s changes over the years. His social circle is very messy—at sixteen, he was already bringing a mature, sexy blonde woman home to spend the night. Gambling, drugs, womanizing—he’s done it all. With Lin Jie hanging around him, who knows how corrupted he’ll become?” Fu Bozhong’s brows furrowed deeply, worried.

Over the years, although Shen Yi hadn’t paid much attention to Shen Fengran, he’d heard a bit here and there—under Meng Yuxin’s “indulgence,” Shen Fengran had grown increasingly reckless.

When it came to Shen Fengran, Fu Bozhong hesitated, unsure whether he should say something.

“Steward Fu, there’s nothing you can’t say to me,” Shen Yi said, seeing his hesitation, smiling slightly to ease the dilemma for him.

Fu Bozhong studied his expression and said carefully, “Young Master, Shen Fengran seems to have always treated you as his role model. Even bringing women home—it seems he’s imitating you too…”

Shen Yi’s hand, holding the teapot pouring water, paused. His eyes darkened slightly. Shen Fengran—imitating him?

“Of course, this is just a guess, not necessarily true. Young Master, don’t overthink it.” Fu Bozhong didn’t know what Shen Yi was thinking; he just noticed something was off with his expression and quickly tried to smooth things over.

Shen Yi shook his head, indicating he was fine and that there was no need to worry.

As for what he was actually thinking inside, no one could know…

After Fu Bozhong left, Shen Yi leaned back against the sofa, closed his eyes, and rubbed his brow wearily.

There was too much for him to think about—his mind often felt overloaded, giving him headaches.

At that moment, the sound of the door opening came from outside. Shen Yi immediately lowered the hand rubbing his brow, and straightened his posture accordingly.

He adjusted his state very quickly, as if the weary person from a moment ago wasn’t him at all.

After the door opened, Rong Qian’s head poked out from behind it, sneaking around like a thief.

Seeing her, the corners of Shen Yi’s mouth couldn’t help curving upward, and his earlier exhaustion vanished completely.

Once Rong Qian confirmed there was no one else in his room, she walked in, not forgetting to close the door behind her.

After sitting down across from him, Rong Qian asked, “Next Sunday, isn’t Yao Zhengxing’s casino holding some kind of party, and he invited you to come?”

“He did mention it to me, but the exact date hasn’t been finalized yet.”

Shen Yi wasn’t at all surprised that Rong Qian knew about this. On the contrary, hearing her say this confirmed something for him—”But based on what you’re saying, it seems he’s set the date for next Sunday.”

“Then that’s it.” Rong Qian’s expression turned serious and earnest as she said to Shen Yi, “I just remembered when it was you got into trouble—it was next Sunday, and the location was the casino.”

But there was still something Rong Qian wasn’t satisfied with. She said, “Although I now know the time and place, I don’t know exactly what happened—the newspapers didn’t seem to write about it. All I know is you nearly had an accident, but luckily, you came out unharmed.”

Thinking about it now, Rong Qian suspected whether the report at the time had been deliberately suppressed.

After all, a piece of news that big couldn’t possibly have been just briefly mentioned—it should have been heavily covered. It was clear that someone had suppressed it.

Shen Yi asked thoughtfully, “A’Qian, do you think the outcome where I came out unharmed after my accident—was that always going to happen anyway, or was it because of your intervention that I avoided that disaster?”

“Honestly, that’s something I’d like to know too.”

Rong Qian couldn’t help a bitter smile. If it was the former, that was fine—but if it was the latter, and she hadn’t saved him, would Shen Yi’s history have been rewritten?

Learning that Rong Qian had no idea about this, Shen Yi’s eyes showed a flicker of confusion as he looked at her.

In that moment, Shen Yi suddenly sensed something, but the feeling vanished in an instant, too fleeting for him to grasp.

Because of this, he couldn’t even pinpoint what felt off.

“I suspect I might have been thinking about this wrong,” Rong Qian said calmly and steadily at this point.

Shen Yi asked, “How so?”

“At first, I thought you’d get hurt because of Thomas, so I focused all my attention on him. But just now, when I thought about the fact that the location was the casino, it suddenly occurred to me—could the real culprit who hurts you be someone else entirely?”

Rong Qian had just realized this herself—she needed to break free from her fixed thinking and re-examine the current situation.

“Are you suspecting He Jicheng?” Shen Yi could keep up with her line of thought.

Rong Qian nodded. “That’s right. You should know, the casino is also his territory. If he wanted to hurt you, he could easily do it—especially since he has a motive against you.”

Rong Qian didn’t believe that, given He Jicheng’s abilities and capability, he wouldn’t know about what Yao Zhengxing had said to Shen Yi.

“Shen Yi, what do you think?” Rong Qian still wanted to hear his opinion.

Shen Yi, however, just looked at her and said, “After next Sunday—are you about to leave?”