Novel Bin Chapter 34 - Getting Rid of that Bigshot (11)
Chapter 34 - Getting Rid of that Bigshot (11)
translator: baumkuchen editor: glitterypanda
On the morning of the second day, Zhou Kai’s company’s stock price continued to fall, but at a lower rate.
Many businessmen seemed to be driving luxury cars and living in luxury houses, unboundedly wealthy, but what sustained their companies’ operations was a set of closely linked, interconnected capital chains. The moment this capital chain ruptured, the company faced a complete crash.
Zhou Kai had no choice but to use his reserve capital to inject funds into the stock market in order to maintain the regular operation of his capital chain and prevent a margin call.
As for what happened to Lily, he already couldn’t care less.
He sneaked back to the villa, and began his temporary convalescence.
After expending a lot of effort returning to his home, Zhou Kai asked Yi Song who’d come to welcome him, “Where’s Mister Shen?”
Yi Song said, “Mister Shen had a fever after he got back yesterday. Doctor Aaron already came and had a look at him, he’s taken some medicine.”
Zhou Kai had also spent a full day without sleep or rest. Only after going upstairs and taking a look into his bedroom to confirm that Shen Changqing was sleeping soundly, tucked into his blanket, did Zhou Kai return to his own bedroom, wash up, and go to sleep.
The moment the bedroom door closed, the figure that had just been sitting by the bed re-appeared. He took down the cold towel plastered over Chi Xiaochi’s forehead and picked up a glass of water. He deconstructed the water once more, condensing it into ice, before placing the towel inside and spreading it back out over Chi Xiaochi’s forehead.
Chi Xiaochi cocked his head to the side, “Aren’t you wasting energy doing this?”
061, “When you’re sick, it’s always best to have someone you know staying by your side.”
After saying this, 061 also felt it a little strange.
When he first brought up this idea, he’d thought Chi Xiaochi would ask him to turn into Lou Ying.
But after thinking it over, Chi Xiaochi had said, ‘then turn into Lucas’.
Lucas was his manager. He was a little girly, but his family had a lot of money to spare. Being so idle with nothing to do, he decided to become a manager to play around.
He was a very emotional person who loved to laugh and loved to cry. His mouth was both playful and sharp. He especially liked to torment his own hair; one day, he would dye it silvery white, the next, he’d dye it dark green. Fortunately, he had a clean, pretty appearance, which could stand him bleaching his hair over and over.
When he and Chi Xiaochi first met, he had just been forced to dye his hair back to black by his father, but, unresigned, he’d snuck off to get some highlights done. Amongst the black, there was a streak of dark purple, looking extraordinarily unruly.
When he had free time, Chi Xiaochi liked to idly tease him, “Tony-laoshi?”
Lucas said, “Ahh stop it~ This one’s name is Lucas.”
Chi Xiaochi, “Okay, Tony-laoshi.”
In his own world, Chi Xiaochi had never seriously called him Lucas even once, but, on the contrary, when he came here, he finally remembered his real name.
Chi Xiaochi looked up at 061 using Lucas as a sockpuppet, “I don’t know who this brat is following now. Can anyone bear with him changing his hairstyle more diligently than the celebrity themself?”
061 said, “You’re sick, you should rest well. If you keep thinking about other things, it won’t help your recovery.”
Chi Xiaochi, “Liu-laoshi you’ve OOC-ed, Lucas doesn’t talk like that.”
The corners of 061’s mouth twitched.
After pondering over it for a good while, he decided to go along with the sick person, “......Since you’re sick you should rest well...... okay~”
Chi Xiaochi, “Hahahahahaha.”
061 reddened slightly, “......Sleep.”
Chi Xiaochi, extremely unrestrainedly, “Hahahahahahaha.”
061 turned stern, “Not going to listen to your teacher’s words anymore, are you? Then from now on, don’t call me teacher anymore.”
Chi Xiaochi said, “How could I not listen? A teacher for a day, a father for the rest of one’s life.”
061, “Then that’s just right, from now on, call me Daddy instead.”
For once in his life, Chi Xiaochi was made to choke, “......”
Chi Xiaochi thought, it’s over, he’s been corrupted.
Why was it that every person who spent time with him would end up falling so fast.
As Chi Xiaochi was thinking this, another person had already, without warning, completed the all-round high altitude free-fall from the peak all the way down to the trough.
Two days after Shen Changqing’s press conference, the company spokesperson Sam announced that after a consultation with six well-known experts, it was determined that Mister Zhou Kai indeed suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, and was preparing to formally step down from his position on the board of directors, and was hurrying abroad for treatment.
In this battle, Zhou Kai’s vitality suffered a huge injury.
He said nothing, but when he came back to himself, and began counting his losses one by one, his assets that had drained away like water made him tremble with pain.
That was all the foundation he’d painstakingly laid.
He’d contacted a hacking company, vowing to dig out the person who’d tripped him behind his back.
Were it not for Lily also being dragged into this huge storm, Zhou Kai almost suspected that she had purposefully set up this trap for him.
But after throwing away ten thousand in labour fees, he didn’t even hear a single ripple.
The person from the hacking company regretfully informed him that they really didn’t know what trick that person had used. They could only determine that the audio recording and the video had been released by the same person. As for their address, they hadn’t found a single clue.
After looking everywhere but getting no results, Zhou Kai was angered to the point of yelling at people every day.
Shen Changqing was bed-ridden with sickness, so Yi Song and the rest became the targets of his wrath.
After being slapped in the face with the telephone, the household’s maid cried to another servant, bruises on her face, saying that she wanted to leave this place.
Zhou Kai heard wind of this from somewhere. He called over all the people in the house except for Shen Changqing, and pointed at their noses and began to scold loudly, “If you want to leave, you can just fuck off! But I’ll warn you, I have here your addresses, your families’ addresses, if you dare to say a single unnecessary word outside, be warned——”
Each and every one of the servants became chickens with their heads hung low, not daring to even make a single unnecessary noise.
These few days, Zhou Kai, now idle at home, had nothing to do but try to figure out what enemies he might have.
On his fourth at home, he was so bored his entire body was feverish. He decided he might as well contact the golf course he usually went to, planning on playing a few holes, “Two o’ clock in the afternoon, the usual place.”
After checking up Zhou Kai’s phone number, the person on the other end of the line said politely, “Mister Zhou, your membership has been cancelled. The non-member venue in the golf course has already been fully booked, please pick another convenient time.”
Zhou Kai was shocked for a moment then went into a fury, “I paid this year’s membership fee, when was my membership cancelled, and why was it cancelled?”
The phone operator replied according to the usual rules, “If you have any problems, I can put you through to my manager.”
The call was successfully put through.
On the other end was someone speaking in a proper English accent, “Mister Zhou, after a check, I’ve found that your membership has indeed been cancelled and the membership fee has been refunded to your card. Two days ago, our phone operator contacted you both by phone and text messaging separately to inform you of this matter, but you never responded.”
......Zhou Kai had been bombarded with text messages and phone calls for the past few days, he’d simply left everything unanswered and basked in the tranquility of doing so.
Zhou Kai did his utmost to suppress his rising anger, “I want a reason.”
The person with the English accent replied, “Our chairman is black. Given the views you have publicly expressed, as well as the state of your health, we unanimously believe our golf course is perhaps already unsuited to provide your our service.”
The underlying meaning of his words was that we here can’t afford a Buddha as big as you. Please leave quickly, we won’t send you off, good-fucking-bye.
“......Refusing a customer?” Zhou Kai, cellphone in hand, trembled with anger, “What right do you have to unilaterally terminate the contract? I’m going to sue!”
The person with the English accent said, “Please do as you wish.”
Zhou Kai hung up. He clutched at the armrest of the sofa, panting heavily. Stars swum before his eyes.
After catching his breath, he walked over to the French window, and found that unexpectedly, there were still heads bobbing around at his doorstep.
Those damned housefly-like journalists!
The whole villa was silent as a grave. Zhou Kai’s thunderous rage had only himself as an audience.
Yi Song and the rest had long since grown used to Zhou Kai’s intermittent bursts of mania. If they could hide, they’d hide, unwilling to make a sound.
As for Shen Changqing, who was still bed-ridden, he of course wouldn’t take the initiative to run out and receive this stroke of bad luck.
In order to relieve the depression weighing on his chest, Zhou Kai turned on the television. But who knew that the first program to enter his eyes would be a talk show host enthusiastically analyzing when Lily, this Ximen Qing, had hooked Zhou Kai, this Pan Jinlian in a frivolous, gaudy manner, making the audience burst out laughing.
Zhou Kai immediately changed channels, skipping over boring soap operas, thinking of picking an interesting live sport to watch.
When he passed the news channel, he originally skipped straight over it, but immediately sensing something wasn’t right, he changed back to that channel.
Unexpectedly, the general headquarters of his modelling agency was on the news. The public square before the large building was filled with black people sitting. Banners filled with slogans of protest waved through the air.
In this crowd of people, the person in the lead was actually Fiona.
In early autumn, when the hot weather had yet to dissipate, she was dressed in extremely thick clothes. The sign she held in her hands read: “We’re still in the midst of harsh winter.”
Seeing this, Zhou Kai’s scalp went numb.
A demonstration? Had these n*****s had too much of a good life and were now too idle, so they had nothing better to do anymore?
But Zhou Kai soon thought of another, even worse matter.
He grabbed his cell phone, and quickly made a call.
The moment the call connected, before he could speak, noisy voices and footsteps entered Zhou Kai’s ears through the phone. Sam’s elegant voice was almost completely drowned out in the uproar, “Mister Zhou?”
Zhou Kai pelted him with questions, “Where are you?”
Sam replied, “At the company. Right now there’s a little issue at the company, so it’s inconvenient——”
Zhou Kai cut him off, “Is this about the demonstration?”
Sam, “You know about it already?”
“Such a serious matter has occurred, why haven’t you contacted me?! The entrance to my company has been blocked by people, and I actually didn’t know a thing? I had to see it in the news?”
Sam replied politely, “Considering the stage you’re at, I thought you would need to recuperate, so I didn’t inform you.”
A wave of uncontrollable frustration enveloped Zhou Kai, “......‘Recuperate’? Sam, what the fuck do you mean? Do you really think I’m sick?”
Sam said, neither humbly or arrogantly, “Mister Zhou, I don’t mean that. Right now, you can’t appear in public. Even if you know about the situation, you have no way of personally participating, and can only worry helplessly. I’m at the scene, and will handle everything, please rest assured.”
Zhou Kai gritted his teeth, and issued an order, “Tonight, come over to my house with the past two days’ backlog of important documents.”
Yesterday, Sam hadn’t sent over any documents. At the time, Zhou Kai hadn’t minded it, but today’s matters made it so he couldn’t not care.
Sam was silent for a moment, “Alright, please keep calm, and don’t be impatient.”
Zhou Kai put down the phone, turning his gaze back to the television screen.
Amongst the crowd of demonstrators, some people raised illustrated signs, on them drawn satirical cartoons with extremely exaggerated lines:
A fat-headed, big-eared Zhou Kai, sat on the sofa, his legs crossed in an Erlang pose, while a man with a striking resemblance to Shen Changqing spooned medicine into Zhou Kai’s mouth.
On the bottle of medicine, which bore a strong resemblance to a baby’s pacifier, was inscribed the word “Salis”.
Salis was a famous drug that treated Alzheimer’s disease, named after its developer, Salis, a black chemist.
There was even a caption beside the cartoon: “Go treat your illness with a black man’s medicine”.
He sat on the sofa, picked up his phone, and began to search the internet for information about himself.
“Led by Fiona, more than a dozen black models have left XX Company.”
“XX Company going through high-level shuffling, in a short period of time, there has been frequent personnel transfers amongst the staff.”
“Spokesperson Mister Sam expresses, personnel transfers are a normal occurence......”
Zhou Kai looked through all his search results one by one, until he reached the news article that had let him think he’d escaped everything.
......“Six experts consulted, Mister Zhou Kai has been confirmed to suffer from Alzheimer’s disease.”
Zhou Kai’s gaze slowly moved away from his phone screen, landed on the ranks of demonstrators on television for a moment, then shortly after, moved to the tightly-shut door to Shen Changqing’s bedroom.
A dark look flashed in his eyes. No one knew what he was thinking.
That night, at midnight.
Chi Xiaochi, who originally slept lightly, vaguely felt someone next to his bed.
The moment he opened his eyes, and saw Zhou Kai, silently sitting by his bedside watching him, his only thought was, motherfucker.
As Chi Xiaochi entered the act and got up in a panic, he asked 061, “Liu-laoshi, when did he get here?”
061’s tone wasn’t good, “Five minutes ago.”
“He just sat there and watched me for five minutes?”
“Watched you for five minutes.”
“Why didn’t you wake me?”
“I thought he’d just leave after watching for a while.”
Chi Xiaochi thought about it. He still felt that only one word could express his current mood, “......Motherfucker.”
This time, 061 didn’t stop Chi Xiaochi from swearing.
Zhou Kai spread his lips in a humourless smile, “Did you sleep well?”
Shen Changqing lowered his head, and neither nodded nor shook his head, “Why hasn’t Mister Zhou gone to sleep yet?”
Zhou Kai said, “I couldn’t sleep, so I came to see you.”
As he said this, he reached out a hand, and stroked Shen Changqing’s cheek.
Chi Xiaochi immediately had a reaction. His heart rate and blood pressure increased simultaneously. His stomach also lurched. His arm, supporting his body from behind, trembled violently.
061 couldn’t image how under such a strong physiological reaction, Chi Xiaochi could actually endure, not resisting, nor leaving, continuing to quietly play the role of his Shen Changqing.
He could even keep thinking under this kind of circumstance.
Chi Xiaochi had had a hunch this would happen since early on, he just hadn’t thought that Zhou Kai would come so quickly.
Today, when Sam came over, Zhou Kai had received him in his study. At first, they had still discussed work normally, but Zhou Kai’s emotions had become more and more agitated, slamming Sam against the desk, and raking him over the coals with verbal abuse, his words and actions all to make sure Sam wouldn’t grow any thoughts of disloyalty.
He, Zhou Kai, could lift him up, and he could also drag him down.
While from beginning to end, Sam’s attitude was indifferent.
Because he already didn’t put Zhou Kai in his eyes.
In his eyes, Zhou Kai had already become someone who wasn’t worth worrying about. Soon, the board of directors would act.
This time, his tumble had been too fierce, too unsightly, causing an inestimable amount of damages to the shareholders, whatever influence he had over them after cultivating them for so many years, at present, considering the benefits, not a single one would be willing to be tainted by an association with him.
Sam and the board of directors had vented their anger. They would announce this news during the mid-year gathering.
And Sam didn’t plan on informing Zhou Kai of this. After all, Zhou Kai was currently more angry at Sam’s concealment of the news, and towards Shen Changqing, some vague doubts had already formed.
......Could he be in contact with Sam privately? Did Sam instruct him to deliberately reveal his illness in front of the media so he could take the opportunity to push him off his position?
But he’d asked Yi Song, during this period of time, Shen Changqing had been peacefully recovering from his injury, and hadn’t stepped a foot out the front door nor the sidedoor, even making and taking calls had all been under Yi Song’s supervision, much less accessing the internet.
After finding out about all this, Zhou Kai temporarily put aside his suspicions.
Disregarding whether Sam had any thoughts of disloyalty or not, fortunately, Shen Changqing was a fool.
......He’d better not have the courage to betray him.
The author has something to say:
A-grade difficulty is after all A-grade difficulty _(:з」∠)_
baum: omg I’d forgotten about the moment when ZK just sat by the side of the bed staring at CXC, so when I got there, it was a real ‘Oh, fuck’ moment for me