LBC |Love Beyond Control/Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Five days ago, on the day he finished the overseas project and returned home, Xiang Zhufeng received a project bonus worth nearly six figures.

Not only that, Xin Jianye also personally came to find him and asked him whether he was willing to work as a private assistant.

Xiang Zhufeng almost thought that he had not gotten over his jet lag and was still lost in a dream.

It was only after he finished signing the fifteen-page contract with HR and received Xin Jianye’s personal praise that Xiang Zhufeng finally dared to believe it was all real.

But the surprise was soon replaced by regret.

Xiang Zhufeng deeply regretted that Xin Yuan was not by his side at that moment, leaving him with no way to celebrate this good news with him at the very first moment.

The last message from Xin Yuan had stopped before he boarded the plane, and from then until now, Xin Yuan had never replied to his messages again.

It was already time for school to start. Xiang Zhufeng had even specially asked someone to check at the school, only to learn that Xin Yuan had not even gone to school.

Xiang Zhufeng could only comfort himself that Xin Yuan must have had some unavoidable reason.

He left a small amount of emergency money and transferred all the remaining bonus to the uncle next door, but a few seconds later, he received a phone call.

his uncle told him that on the very day he went abroad, grandmother and younger sister had already left this world forever.

As for what kind of accident it was, his uncle refused to say another word. He only returned all the money to him and told him not to ask again, and to stay as far away from this matter as possible.

Xiang Zhufeng took leave overnight and rushed back to his hometown, only to find that his uncle’s family had already moved away from the house. After that, even the phone could no longer be reached.

And then, it was now.

On the way when Xiang Zhufeng had decided to go report it to the police, a completely unfamiliar woman, carrying surveillance footage, blocked him downstairs.

“I can tell you who the culprit is, but in exchange, you have to answer one question first.”

The woman knew that Xiang Zhufeng definitely would not refuse, and asked with complete confidence:

“What is your relationship with Xin Jianye’s son, Xin Yuan?”

Every word the woman said was especially clear, but Xiang Zhufeng still had to use all his willpower just to understand it.

Xin Jianye’s son, Xin Yuan?

For a moment, Xiang Zhufeng did not know whether he should be shocked by this fact, or think about why the woman was bringing up Xin Yuan at this moment.

“As far as I know, you are Xin Jianye’s newest private assistant, so you can’t even know that Xin Yuan is his son, right?”

Xiang Zhufeng had no time to be astonished, and did not dare think further, “How do you know all this, and what does all this have to do with the car accident?!”

“You’re so smart, and you still haven’t guessed the answer?”

The woman paused, then said the answer Xiang Zhufeng least wanted to hear:

“Of course Xin Jianye did all this for his precious son Xin Yuan. He went to great lengths to smooth things over and cover up this accident.”

Xiang Zhufeng could not care about any manners or courtesy anymore. He grabbed the woman by the collar, “Don’t think that just because you have this video, you can make things up recklessly and casually drag in some unrelated person!”

“Unrelated?”

The woman sneered and turned on her phone again.

She swiped lightly, and another angle of the surveillance appeared on the screen. The recorder was knocked flying into the air, flipping over and pointing toward the inside of the car.

Although it was only for a second, Xiang Zhufeng still saw clearly the person sitting in the car, it was Xin Yuan.

No words could describe what Xiang Zhufeng felt at this moment.

Anger, shock, confusion, all the complicated emotions surged into his chest in an instant. For those few seconds, Xiang Zhufeng wished he had seen nothing.

Even if he carried doubts and remained in the dark for his whole life, that would have been better than learning that everything behind this actually had something to do with Xin Yuan.

“Although you still haven’t answered my first question, I can already confirm that between you and Xin Yuan, it is definitely not a simple acquaintance.” The woman raised an eyebrow.

“…Then how is he now? How is he now?” Xiang Zhufeng’s voice was trembling.

She had not expected that even in such a situation, Xiang Zhufeng would still subconsciously care about whether Xin Yuan was alive or dead. The woman’s eyes darkened. “Do you think Xin Jianye would be willing to let his son, who is about to become a big star, have something happen to him?”

After saying that, she changed the subject. “But speaking of which, although Xin Jianye’s methods were impressive, if Xin Yuan had not provided those ‘testimonies’ for his mother, this matter really would not have been so easy to settle.”

Looking at Xiang Zhufeng’s instantly lifeless expression, the woman immediately pressed on with another question:

“So I’m very curious, for you right now, which is more important, the truth or Xin Yuan?”

Xiang Zhufeng’s hands clenched into fists, his knuckles almost about to tear through the flesh. He could not imagine that one day he would actually face this kind of question.

That was his grandmother and his younger sister, the only two people in his past life who had been the best to him, the benefactors he had sworn to repay for the rest of his life.

But for no reason, Xin Yuan’s face surfaced again.

Although it was only for a brief second, Xiang Zhufeng still felt that the one who deserved to die was not only Xin Yuan’s family, but also himself, who wanted to avoid this truth.

“Looking at you now, I almost can’t bear to tell you that, in fact, those two innocent victims could originally have both survived.”

The woman stared at Xiang Zhufeng. “But unfortunately, that day, for his precious son, Xin Jianye had all the blood in the blood bank illegally called out, so that little girl just lay helplessly on the bed, watching her own blood drain away little by little, little by little.”

“Don’t say another word!” Xiang Zhufeng suddenly shouted.

“That’s already too much for you? I haven’t even had time to tell you how your grandmother died yet!”

The woman continued to raise her voice. “Your grandmother, in order to save her little granddaughter, disregarded her own severe injuries and begged the doctor to let her donate blood. But until she died, she never knew that her own pitiful amount of blood had all flowed into Xin Yuan’s body.”

By the last few words, Xiang Zhufeng could no longer hear them clearly. He shook his head and staggered back two steps.

The truth was like a sharp blade, cutting Xiang Zhufeng apart out of thin air, letting him see the inferiority and cowardice hidden in his own flesh and blood.

His first reaction in the face of all this was actually to want to escape.

He wanted to escape the cruel cause of death of his grandmother and younger sister, and even more, he wanted to escape all the blood feud behind this, all of which bore the mark of Xin Yuan.

The woman kept watching Xiang Zhufeng’s expression, watching him shocked, watching him lose control, and then watching him little by little empty out all his emotions, leaving only hatred that wanted to burn everything to ashes.

“The evidence you want is all in my hands, but relying on these pieces of evidence alone, it still isn’t enough to threaten Xin Jianye even a little.”

“So that’s why you told me all this.” Xiang Zhufeng lifted his blood-red eyes. “Who exactly are you, and what do you want to use me for by having me stay by Xin Jianye’s side?!”

“Changing it to a nicer way of saying it, we could clearly become a relationship that helps each other.”

The woman slowly approached Xiang Zhufeng and stuffed a business card into his pocket.

“Remember my name, I’m called Lin Sheng. If you want to take revenge on Xin Jianye, then in this world, only I can help you.”

–

“Crack!!”

The sound of shattering glass rang through the entire room.

At the headquarters of Hanhai Group, inside Xin Jianye’s private office, the secretary was trembling as she cleaned up the antique glass cup that had just been smashed.

After smashing it, Xin Jianye still was not relieved. He kicked the coffee table, sending all the scattered contracts on top flying to the floor.

“I’ve already given in again and again! No matter how capable she Lin Sheng is, in the end she’s just an agent, and she actually dares to put on such a big show in front of me!”

The secretary’s hand shook hard again.

Seeing that Xiang Zhufeng still stood to the side, his expression unchanged, and even took the initiative to step forward and pick up the contracts scattered on the floor, she could not help but cast a look at this newly appointed assistant as if he were a martyr.

“Mr. Xin, although I did not take part in the previous contract drafts, and have not been in contact with Lin Sheng herself, from the conditions you gave this time, if Lin Sheng still refuses, I think it may not be because of the conditions themselves.”

The last shard of glass flew and landed by Xiang Zhufeng’s foot. Before the secretary could sweep it up, Xiang Zhufeng bent down on his own initiative, picked it up, and threw it into the trash can.

“These past two days, I went to look into all the artists Lin Sheng has made popular. They all have one common trait, before they became famous, they were all nameless extras with no background and no company attached, and even after they became famous, Lin Sheng did not force them to keep staying by her side.”

Xin Jianye’s mood gradually calmed down, and he looked at Xiang Zhufeng with an appreciative and surprised gaze.

At first, he had taken a liking to Xiang Zhufeng only because he thought his background was clean, and on top of that, his professional ability was very strong, so he wanted to keep him by his side and cultivate him slowly. He had never expected this person to be so perceptive. Although he had never asked Xiang Zhufeng to follow up on Lin Sheng’s matter, Xiang Zhufeng had still taken the initiative to investigate.

“I heard that not long ago, Lin Sheng even fell out with her old agency in order to protect the artists’ interests, and was preparing to take the artists and establish her own company. Up to now, the lawsuit still has not been settled.”

“So I think that now that Lin Sheng has reached her current position, what she cares about is not only the conditions, but the artists’ own potential and qualities,” Xiang Zhufeng paused, “I’m confident I can help Lin Sheng deal with the lawsuit on her body, and you can also find a suitable opportunity to let Lin Sheng personally meet Xin Yuan. Maybe that will change her mind.”

Treating it as a trial, Xin Jianye handed over the matter of revising the invitation contract entirely to Xiang Zhufeng.

He had not expected that after Lin Sheng read Xiang Zhufeng’s newly drafted contract, she actually really loosened up, and proactively proposed to meet Xin Yuan.

On the day she met Xin Yuan, Lin Sheng officially agreed to the invitation.

Xin Jianye was overjoyed, and immediately gave Xiang Zhufeng the right to live in a downtown apartment, and appointed him as a special legal consultant for the legal department.

It was just that Xin Jianye could never have imagined that all this was not because Xiang Zhufeng was so capable, but because Lin Sheng had joined hands with Xiang Zhufeng and set up a trap for him step by step.

“You helped Xin Jianye with such a big favor. Next, he will definitely let you continue participating in drafting Xin Yuan’s financial contract.”

Inside the private club, Lin Sheng sat across from Xiang Zhufeng and pushed the document in front of her toward him.

“Xin Jianye made such a big fuss. What he cares about is not Xin Yuan’s future, but how to hold Xin Yuan in the palm of his hand and make him obediently be his money tree for life.”

Xiang Zhufeng took it, silently looked through a few pages, and his gaze grew colder and colder.

Every clause in the contract was exquisitely designed, completely treating Xin Yuan as a commodity, blatantly squeezing out every drop of value from him.

“Are you sure there would be a father in this world who would use such methods on his own son?” Xiang Zhufeng’s gaze turned dark.

“Son?” Lin Sheng sneered. “Back then, in order to achieve a business gamble, Xin Jianye could even use his own biological daughter, let alone a foster son like Xin Yuan.”

“Foster son?” Xiang Zhufeng frowned.

Realizing that this topic should not have been brought up at this stage, Lin Sheng immediately changed the subject:

“What does it matter whether he is biological or not? What matters is that because of Xin Yuan, your poor grandmother and younger sister died with their eyes wide open, unable to rest in peace.”

Xiang Zhufeng clenched his fist under the table, for a moment unable to tell whether it was more disgusting that he was being used by Lin Sheng, or that Xin Jianye’s methods were more disgusting.

“So you went to such lengths to arrange all this just to make Xin Jianye appreciate me, reuse me, and then use me to help you do more things, is that right?”

“I just like smart people like you,” Lin Sheng said with a smile of praise, then asked back, “But looking at your reaction now, could it be that you feel sorry for this future big star and can’t bear to let him sign this slave contract?”

In this setup, Lin Sheng knew each person’s weakness and need clearly. The only variable was, in Xiang Zhufeng’s heart, what exactly was Xin Yuan’s position.

Xin Yuan was the most crucial piece in this plan. No matter how much Xiang Zhufeng wanted revenge, once he had even a trace of softness because of Xin Yuan, things would no longer be able to proceed according to her expectations.

Lin Sheng stared closely at Xiang Zhufeng’s face, unwilling to miss even the slightest expression.

“You don’t need to keep probing me back and forth here,” Xiang Zhufeng also looked at Lin Sheng. “I will not let any of the people who killed them go.”