He really did it!

With such a… colourful scene painted, Wen Junjie realised the seriousness of the situation. After all, you can excuse a punch or two as roughhousing, but from what his younger brother said, there was no other way but to call this blatant bullying. Honestly, if this wasn't his stupid son, he might even consider it abuse and maybe even sexual harassment if the other party was a woman!

Either way, he had to appease Wen Fei immediately. Wen Junjie wasn't stupid enough to think he could calm his brother in one phone call, but he needed to at least show his stance and slowly build up from there.

It can be said even if Wen Junjie was a hateful villain-type cannon fodder in the story, he was not the brainless idiot type. Especially when the female lead hadn't entered the plot yet, most villains will still have retained their best mental states. As a man partially taking care of a large industry, it was logically impossible for him to be stupid.

Unfortunately, this method would really only have the chance to work if Wen Fei cared about their brotherly familial bonds.

"A Fei, I can't believe that he could do such a… disrespectful thing; I will do my best to punish him as best as I can! But you, my son is, still just a child; I've taught him poorly, I admit, what with neglecting him for company matters, but-"

"A child?" When Fei sneers, "Isn't my baby also a child? Besides, I think you taught Wen Huang very well! Do you know, not only did he do all those things, but when I confronted him, he dared to pour the entire contents of the unfinished alcohol onto himself and threaten to call you and say that I bullied him?! He fucking had the audacity to tell me that he would cry, informing you how I walked up to him, scolded everyone and then personally went up to pour that disgusting mix of cocktails on his head! As if!"

Wen Junjie: '….'

At that moment, Wen Junjie got an incoming call from his son. Looking at it, he felt a sense of foreboding and anger.

Wen Fei, who was notified by his system TangTang about the call, enthusiastically added a few more verbally abusive insults before powerfully hanging up the call with a wide and refreshing smile.

Wen Muchen who had watched the whole thing had long changed his expression from shock, confusion, comprehension before finally settling on pride and admiration. Seeing his father even hang up on First Uncle, the stars in the teenager's eyes were practically bursting with sparkles.

Daddy, you're so fucking cool!

In contrast to Wen Muchen, Wen Huang, who was crying on the phone, was about to be very disappointed.

"Dad, you won't believe what Uncle Fei did to me! Wuwu, I, hiccup, I've never been so humiliated! He actually scolded all my friends and poured alcohol on me!"

Wen Junjie: …This story feels familiar.

Wen Junjie, who had picked up his son's call, fell into silence. As his younger brother foretold, it was really, making him feel both ashamed and furious the more he thought about it.

Don't look at how he doted on his son; unlike his wife, he was much more sober and knew exactly what type of person this brat was like; he just let it go since the kid at least knew who he could and could not touch, not doing anything too excessive. But even if Wen Junjie didn't find it excessive, that didn't mean he didn't understand that his son liked to do a lot of things to get his way and avoid punishment. Lying was, of course, one of them. Compared to his brother, who was both an adult and someone who was quite loyal to him, helping him with various social matters when needed, of course, his son was far less trustworthy.

Wen Huang, who was expecting to be comforted anytime, now felt more and more wronged as time went on, crying louder and louder.

Such a loud noise irritated Wen Junjie even more, and he quickly couldn't take it. "Shut up!" He shouts into the phone, "You little bastard! I can hold a blind eye to a lot of things, but slandering your uncle like that?"

Wen Huang: ????

"Going to Jade Star with your friends, underage drinking, bullying your cousin, and then on top of everything framing and threatening your uncle while lying to me-" Continues Wen Junjie, unaware of his son's growing tumultuous emotions. "If you weren't my flesh and blood, I would honestly think you're a fake child who was planted by one of our competitors in order to ruin the Wen family's reputation and provoke civil strife!"

"Dad!" Wen Huang cried, "I was wrong! I won't do it again! But it was my friends who pressured me, and, and, Wen Muchen talked back to me, and Uncle Fei really was mean to me, you have to do something about it!"

Seeing his son still refusing to tell the truth, Wen Junjie was really disappointed and angry at his cheap son. "Ignoring the fact you insist on continuing to lie to me, your father. Your uncle loves you so much, yet you dare continue with this nonsense?? Do you have any concept of filial piety?!"

"No, Dad.. he really did it, I swear!"

"Oh, you swear," Wen Junjie sneers inwardly, he spits in his heart. "Does your uncle not treat you well? Is your cousin not obedient to you? Even dogs take care of their own kin!"

Hearing the familiar last line and being reminded again of his uncle's scolding that was now overlapped with his father's words, Wen Huang burst into tears again.

Wuwuwu! But he really did it!

…

With one young man in tears by his father, and another young man whose tears had been dried up thanks to his father, in the Jade Star, there was also someone who wanted to shed tears for entirely unrelated issues about his father.

After the older man hurriedly left once he took a good look at the ambiguous items he had dropped on the floor, the handsome, pretty boy could only stare at the ground for a good minute and a half, waiting for a higher power to answer his prayers and let the ground swallow him whole. Seeing that no deity was willing to save him from his own embarrassment, the handsome young man picked up his things and went to one of the private rooms.

In the room already sat two other men, both more good-looking than the other. The first one was more a delicate noble beauty, with a haughty and arrogant gaze and dressed in a simple white shirt that was buttoned up to the top and black suit pants, looking quite stern and conservative. Contrary to his uptight appearance, though, he was skilfully moving his hands, shaking a cocktail shaker, and even tossing it up in the air flamboyantly before catching it again.

The second man was older and wore gold-rimmed glasses, but his expression was far more youthful and relaxed than the first man. He came with a more mature and bookish air; however, the short sleeves of his bright lime green shirt highlighted his broad shoulders, tanned skin and the faint curves of his upper body muscles, indicating he wasn't the type of scholarly person who would always sit indoors.

"You're late." The first man sneers as he decants the shaker, pouring the milky and shimmery contents into three already half-filled glass cups of dark blue liquid. The white milky liquid formed a layer on top, looking almost like a glittery cloud sitting on a serene night ocean. "Here, this is 'Ataraxy*'. Try it."

*state of serenity or calm

"As usual your naming sense is so pretentious, Su You." The second man sighs as he leans over to reach for one of the glasses, "If it were me, I would call it 'Starry Sky' or like, uh, 'Cloudy Night Sea' or something."

Just as he's about to grab one of the drinks, the first man, Su You, slaps his hand away, "If you have something against my naming Qi Bingwen, then go make a 'Starry Sky' and enjoy that."

Qi Bingwen immediately claps his hands together and exaggeratedly half bows a few times while fake crying, "I'm sorry, great scholar You! Please forgive my uncultured ways and spare me a sip of your masterpiece!"

Su You gives the older man a disdainful and contemptuous expression, but the helpless indulgence in his eyes and dishonest hands already pushing the drink toward the other betrays him. "Really stupid."

"Tsk," Qi Bingwen smiles as he greedily takes the drink, "How can you call me stupid, I'm so smart, isn't that right Ye Lan?"

The handsome man, Ye Lan, swipes one of the cups and sits next to Su You elegantly, "I mean, you say this but you're the only one unemployed right now."

"Fuck! You dare bring that up, are you even my friend?!" Qi Bingwen scowls at the reminder, "That has nothing to do with my intelligence and everything to do with that perverted bastard who screwed me over!"

"Yes, yes," Ye Lan sips his drink, it was sweet, cool and a little milky. "He's a bastard, he's a dumb, blind bastard, who would rather think with his dick and pick a pretty busty lady to replace you whose been practically managing the company for eight years. But it's been five months now, and there's not much we can do ah."

"Unfortunately I must agree with Ye Lan," Su You sighs, "We all have connections, but your ex-boss really drove you to a dead end." Not only blacklisting Qi Bingwen but spreading unsightly rumours about him, claiming he used his power to abuse others, would often be clubbing and so on.

In the end, even if Qi Bingwen was admired by many for his work ethic and ability, he was just a man from a poor background. Compared to his ex-boss who was from a big family, many people still prefer to not to take the risk and reach out to him.

Fortunately, the other was not a very luxurious person so he had saved a lot of money over the years, meaning living comfortably for a few years more without working was not an issue. However, Qi Bingwen was a bit of a workaholic, and it was quite difficult for him to adjust. At the same time, though, he had his pride and didn't want to work somewhere that was too much of a downgrade either. It felt too much like a loss, and he would rather be richly idle than work poorly.

Therefore, while both Ye Lan and Su You have offered him some job opportunities, they couldn't satisfy the ambitious Qi Bingwen who had once controlled the winds and waves of a big company.

But that didn't stop Ye Lan and Su You from worrying about it.

"My beauty salon and spa…" Ye Lan hesitates as he brings it up again.

"Stop," Qi Bingwen raises his hand and shakes his head with a serious face, making him look solemn and attractively mature, "Thank you for the offer again but there's really no need. I'm not interested in the beauty industry, and I know you've never been interested in turning your small businesses into chains. And don't mention your family either, I can be unemployed for ten years and that would be my choice. Going back to the Ye family just to help me would only burden my heart."

Taking a large gulp of the cocktail he then turns his gaze to Su You who was staring back at him with a cool gaze and pursed lips. "You too. I know my mother asked you about getting me to start my own business or something, but I simply don't want to do it. Starting a business from scratch is difficult and long and has a high chance of failure in this increasingly saturated market. I'm not very idealistic, don't have any good product ideas and I'm fucking impatient."

"And you dare call me negative." Su You mutters into his drink.

Ye Lan pulls his hair back with his fingers before rubbing his forehead with slight exasperation. "You don't want to get help from your friends, you won't accept your parents' advice to start, is there anyone who can coax you at this point?"

Qi Bingwen leans back and shrugs, "I don't know, a wife?"

Su You sneers and mutters something into his drink again.

"At the very least, don't waste away, you can help with my main job." Ye Lan lifts his chin, also showing a domineering gaze similar to how he was like at the spa, "I need you to be my agent temporarily again as the last one left."

"Whose fault is that though?" Su You rolls his eyes.

"It's.."

"It's yours, let's not lie to ourselves here." Qi Bingwen grins at Ye Lan, adjusting his glasses as he did so before drinking his delicate cocktail in large gulps, the epitome of uncultured swine toward cocktail lovers.

As he finishes his drink Qi Bingwen passed it to the younger, stern man next to him. "Seconds?" He taps two fingers on the table and winks at the other, "The Ala Carte drink was good but I wouldn't mind something spicier."

"It's 'Ataraxy'." Su You scowls, before his eyes glance down at the table of cocktail ingredients and alcohols he had ordered beforehand, "What about a Habanero Martini?"

"You're the best!" The older man cheers childishly, before playfully nuzzling against Su You's thin shoulder. Su You immediately pushes the larger man away disgustedly but Ye Lan raises his eyebrow, noticing the tips of the other's ear had turned red.

Ye Lan coughs lightly, "Well, who told me to be so beautiful?" He asks, bringing them back to the previous topic of conversation as he strikes a narcissistic pose that highlighted the gorgeous contours and aspects of his face, "It's not my fault they really thought I was a woman when I crossdress, and fell in love with me."

His two friends immediately boo at him.

"Scum man." Su You sneers.

"Poisonous beauty." Qi Bingwen jeers.

Ye Lan smirks smugly, "Thank you." Suddenly he twists his body and brings out a slightly battered bag, "That reminds me, I got you guys something from my spa." He passes the bag to his friends cheerfully.

Both men peer into the bag curiously. While neither were that interested in beauty as much as Ye Lan, they at least acknowledged that the other's products were usually effective and high quality goods. However when they pulled out the contents their faces turned black*.

*like the mood turned bad/expression got darker, think anime where the shadow covers top half of face to convey like some sort of brooding emotion/depression/disgust/about to be mad etc

Seeing their dark expressions, Ye Lan's smile widens and his peach blossom eyes curve up, twinkling with mirth. His previous embarrassment from before was now half-washed away seeing his friends' reactions. "Essential oils and candles, the first is good for promoting sleep and relaxation, while the second is a bright refreshing scent." He professional explains. "I felt you guys were truly suitable for these products given it's important to supply things that the customer needs. While I can't give you guys living people, maybe having this spring night and some sex on the beach will give you guys some satisfaction in your sexless lives."

Ye Lan's kind sincerity was met with a bunch of blueberries and pretzels to the face.

With a smile the handsome man touches the crumbs that have stuck onto his cheek and forehead, before immediately grabbing some nearby candy from a bowl and throwing it back at the pair. "You fuckers I have face cream on!!"

The three men, powerful and cool in their own right, were now screaming like chickens as they hurled different food stuffs at each other.

With three grown men food fighting, and a group of crying teenagers with sloshed alcohol all over one of the couches… It could be said the most pitiful people that night were the cleaning staff of Jade Star.