Chapter 40

Chapter 40

The moment Yu Li read those words, a blinding flash of recognition streaked through his mind.

Long-buried memories surged forth, draining the color from his face and instantly darkening his eyes.

"Liao..."

Yu Li’s eyes half-closed. His gaze drifted absently toward Gu Yubai, who was engrossed in the auction, before he quickly shut his eyes in the dimly lit private booth.

His mind instantly transported him back to that stormy, thunderous night when he was twelve.

An ostensibly honest and hardworking gardener named Liao, who had served the Su family for years, seized his chance. While Old Master Su was in his study signing a contract and most of the household was asleep, Liao stealthily entered Madame Su’s room to steal.

As fate would have it, Madame Su, whose health had been failing and who doctors had given only a few months to live, sensed someone enter.

Thinking it was Old Master Su, she called out softly. But instead of the lights coming on, she heard the sound of the gardener tripping over the medical equipment by her bed in the darkness.

Madame Su realized something was terribly wrong.

Already frail, she was too weak to rise from bed before the oxygen mask aiding her breathing was ripped away. In her panic and shock, Madame Su, who should have had months left, couldn't even get out of bed. To silence her, the gardener pressed a pillow firmly over her nose and mouth.

Within seconds, Madame Su breathed her last.

The gardener, seeing no alternative, decided to go all the way. To buy himself time to escape, he went downstairs and completely cut off the power to the entire mansion.

To ensure a smooth getaway, he kidnapped four-year-old Su Shengli, who had woken up late at night for a drink and happened to be in the old mansion.

It was Yu Li, also staying at the Su residence, who sensed trouble. Seeing the gardener fleeing with young Su Shengli, he quickly found the tranquilizer gun given to him by a collateral uncle from the Yu family and gave chase.

The bodyguards and servants, roused by the commotion, immediately joined the pursuit.

Old Master Su, discovering the power outage, emerged from his study and rushed to Madame Su’s room—only to find her lifeless. Grief-stricken, he collapsed on the spot, completely unconscious.

Yu Li, armed with the tranquilizer gun, pursued the gardener and spotted him fleeing with Su Shengli along a path behind the mansion.

Su Shengli was just a child then. Tears welled in his eyes, unable to comprehend why the gardener, who had always been kind to him, was treating him this way. He sobbed uncontrollably on the gardener’s shoulder.

-----

At that time, Yu Li’s parents had recently died in an accident. As the last direct descendant of the overseas Yu family, he wouldn’t have been able to smoothly stabilize the internal affairs of the Yu clan without the intervention of that collateral uncle, who had remained unmarried for decades.

Before learning of Madame Su’s impending death, Yu Li had been undergoing rigorous and uncompromising training.

He shouldn’t have returned to China during such a sensitive period of succession between two generations of Yu Family Patriarchs.

Yet, he had come back.

For safety reasons, under his unmarried uncle’s arrangements, Yu Li was given an alternate public identity—a distant relative who had grown up alongside the sole direct heir of the Yu family. Naturally, this allowed him to maintain ties with the Su family.

From then on, whenever Yu Li appeared, he used this collateral identity.

To outsiders, the Yu Family Patriarch had become a mystery after his parents' plane crash—so mysterious that no information about him could be found.

To Yu Li, Madame Su was a cherished non-blood relative.

She was the aunt who flew overseas every year since his birth to spend months with him, one of the few elders he trusted after his parents' death, the "sister" who had held him as a child when his parents playfully stole his favorite dessert, comforting him with soft words until he stopped crying.

Yu Li knew that, being young and frail, if he kept chasing, there was a ninety percent chance he would only watch helplessly as the gardener abducted Su Shengli.

Seizing his chance, he fired the tranquilizer gun.

The gardener stumbled, and both he and Su Shengli tumbled down the hillside.

In the darkness, the gardener struggled to his feet, limping. He intended to retaliate against Yu Li, but the sound of approaching bodyguards forced him to abandon both Yu Li and the unconscious Su Shengli before fleeing.

Strangely, despite the Su family’s tight security, the gardener vanished without a trace.

By the time Yu Li and Su Shengli were brought back to the main house by the bodyguards, power had been restored.

Old Master Su remained unconscious. Someone had already called Su Wanlin and Song Manman, who lived elsewhere, and they returned immediately with Su Wanlin, who had been on his way to tutoring. What awaited them was Madame Su’s corpse, pallid and bloodless, covered by a white sheet.

Even though the coroner later confirmed that Madame Su had already stopped breathing before the gardener smothered her with the pillow—that she had not suffered—Old Master Su never forgave himself for leaving her side to review contracts in his study.

He agonized over questions: Why hadn't he been by his wife's side at that moment? Why had he gone to his study to read documents? Why, knowing his wife had so little time left, had he still been unable to let go of company matters?

Later, Old Master Su formally stepped down from the Su Group, handing over the company and all its assets to his only son, Su Wanlin.

His health declined, and he often lapsed into depression, missing his beloved wife.

Perhaps out of misguided resentment, or for other reasons, from that point on, Old Master Su refused to let Su Shengli live with him in the old mansion.

He seemed to hold some resentment toward Su Shengli, aware it was his own lingering grief, and thus avoided seeing Su Wanlin’s family for years. He either lived alone in the old mansion, convalesced at a retreat, or traveled overseas to stay with Yu Li.

The gardener surnamed Liao, who had broken into Madame Su’s room, tripped over medical equipment in the dark, and left her to suffocate in panic, had never been found.

It was as if he had vanished completely from the face of the earth. Despite the Yu and Su families’ discreet but exhaustive searches, there had been no trace of him.

But now, this gardener named Liao... might have resurfaced.

Yu Li immediately gripped his phone, gritting his teeth, feeling his eyes prick with warmth in the darkness.

-----

The charity auction had reached its final item.

Emerging from his thoughts, Yu Li noticed Gu Yubai fiercely bidding against someone for an antique ink painting.

By now, Gu Yubai had flawlessly accomplished Yu Li's task of spending money.

Mostly, the bidders below were tactful. Aware that the overseas Yu family had recently become active in China, and that this charity gala—though ostensibly the Su family's attempt to flaunt their connections and restore their reputation—was also the Yu family's first official appearance in the country, many withdrew after a couple of rounds of bidding against the Yu family's private booth.

After all, everyone was here to make friends, not enemies. It was obvious to all that the Yu family's main goal in attending this charity event was to dominate tomorrow's headlines across national media, including those in Mingcheng.

It wasn't a difficult mission. Sure enough, after two rounds of bidding against Gu Yubai, the bidder in the main hall politely retracted their number plate.

Before sitting down, they even stood and offered a courteous smile in Yu Li's direction—a transparently calculated gesture, as if their withdrawal was a favor to the Yu family, a flimsy pretense at forging a tenuous connection.

Gu Yubai unapologetically raised the bid again, securing the painting.

He was long accustomed to the unspoken rules of such social occasions. Ultimately, it all came down to the Yu family's towering status.

Only when one's status was high enough would others refrain from challenging them. They would instead seek every opportunity to curry favor, accumulating invisible debts the Yu family might not even notice—debts they could later leverage as bargaining chips for collaboration.

In most situations, people yielded to the Yu family. Yu Li was well aware of this dynamic.

The charity auction gala—where neither charity nor auction was the main focus, but rather the party itself.

As expected, the auction lasted two hours. Just as it ended, before Yu Li and Gu Yubai could exit through the hidden passage, the stairwell was already crowded with company representatives eager to collaborate with the Yu Group.

These people appeared calm and composed, chatting casually with those around them, yet their feet remained firmly planted, determined to block the staircase Yu Li would inevitably descend.

Gu Yubai had just finished signing all the follow-up paperwork with the event organizers, deducting the evening’s expenditures from the Yu Group’s account. Before he could even put away his phone, he followed Yu Li and, upon seeing the scene, let out an involuntary laugh.

"President Yu, we’re quite the popular guys today."

Yu Li wore the polite corporate smile reserved for business occasions, acknowledging with a nod some middle-aged man in the crowd he didn’t even recognize. Hearing Gu Yubai’s remark, he shot him a sideways glance.

"You’ll have a long night ahead, popular guy's sidekick. Do you remember the man in the dark blue suit with perfectly groomed hair by the east floor-to-ceiling window, staring at us? Any idea who he is?"

Gu Yubai looked over, and a smile instantly broke across his face.

What a coincidence.

While Yu Li, having just returned to the country, wasn’t yet familiar with domestic—especially Mingcheng’s—business elites, Gu Yubai, who had once ruled the city in his past life, recognized him immediately.

The rest of the evening was a whirlwind.

Wherever Yu Li went, a crowd clustered around him, engaging in animated small talk. With Gu Yubai’s quiet prompts, Yu Li worked the room with ease.

By the time they left the auction hall and entered the banquet prepared by the Su family, the atmosphere hit fever pitch.

Handsome men and beautiful women clustered around them like stars around the moon.

As an assistant, Gu Yubai maintained a constant smile. He handled himself like a pro—his comebacks smooth, his industry lingo and know-how flowing effortlessly.

Though Yu Li had known Gu Yubai would excel in this role, seeing him now, so articulate and composed, he couldn’t help but show a hint of astonishment in his eyes.

Gu Yubai’s demeanor and eloquence bore no resemblance to a recent high school grad. Instead, he carried himself like an old hand in the business world.

Those around couldn’t help but gravitate toward Gu Yubai, their attitudes toward him warming up.

The corner of Yu Li’s mouth twitched slightly. As he mingled, his peripheral vision caught Su Wanlin in the distance, also engaged in conversation but staring intently at Gu Yubai with a mix of shock and confusion before frowning deeply.

Su Wanlin’s gaze was inscrutable.

Most of the guests at the banquet were hard-nosed businesspeople here to network and make deals. Gu Yubai worked the crowd between them and Yu Li, talking himself hoarse.

He glanced around, searching for a drink other than the red wine on the servers’ trays. Just as his gaze shifted toward the distance, Yu Li suddenly grabbed his arm.

Yu Li raised his wine glass with a smile, his tone unhurried, his eyes carrying a faint apology.

"Excuse me, everyone."

He gave Gu Yubai a nod, and Gu Yubai immediately understood, following him out.

Sure enough, Yu Li hadn’t gone far.

In the open-air lounge near the banquet, Gu Yubai inhaled the fragrant aroma of the nearby buffet and directly flagged down a waiter to bring two glasses of water.

Yu Li watched him with amusement, pulling out a napkin to wipe his mouth.

Gu Yubai flopped down lazily on the sofa. "I’m catching my breath."

Neither felt like talking. Gu Yubai lay on the sofa with his eyes open, resting, while Yu Li casually loaded up a plate of food from the buffet.

He sat across from Gu Yubai, eating slowly.

Too busy talking earlier, Gu Yubai hadn’t realized how hungry he was. Now, watching Yu Li eat, he instinctively felt his stomach growl.

Still unwilling to sit up, Gu Yubai turned his head on the sofa and flashed Yu Li a wink.

"Hey, handsome over there, care to spare some pity for your poor assistant?"

Yu Li’s plate started shaking in his hand. He couldn’t suppress the laughter bubbling up, his shoulders shaking as he quickly turned his back to Gu Yubai.

Muffled chuckles escaped Yu Li’s throat. Even without seeing his face, it was clear he was fighting to keep a straight face.

Gu Yubai gave an exaggerated eye roll. "Seriously? I didn’t even crack a joke. Fine, forget it. I’ll get my own food."

No sooner had he spoken than two people rushed toward them.

One of them, the moment she spotted Gu Yubai, glared with fury, raising her hand to slap him across the face.

"It’s you! You’re the one who kicked my son into the pond!"

"You nobody! How dare you? How dare you!"