Translator: Twin.Fishes

Editor: Rei

Quality Check: -

First Published on Chaleuria

Chapter 86: Nannan's Whispers (III)

The childhood sweetheart let out a sigh: "I'm not in any position to talk. I'm even more wretched than you."

This time, even his vacation got canceled and his original plan to buy a bunch of stuff was a bust. In the end, he was only able to buy a couple of manga and a few figurines. He even had to gift one of the figurines away, sigh.

Nan Wei said alarmed: "So you came back this time because of Cousin?"

"Who else? Besides him, what kind of matter could make me come back in the middle of my trip?"

"You decided to help Cousin? Tsk tsk, as an outsider, it's not good for you to join in on this kind of family feud."

"And who am I doing this for?"

"Oh, really? I'm so touched. What if I say that I want to take down Cousin, would you dare?"

"……Why don't you say it again so I can record you?"

Nan Wei kept silent.

Even though Nan Wei knew that he was just joking, Nan Wei didn't want to continue on that vein.

Mainly because there was no point.

Ever since they were young, the two of them were able to tell what the other was thinking about with just a glance.

Even if Yan Jin decided right now to disregard past relations.h.i.+ps and immediately knock down the Nan family, it wouldn't have anything to do with them. Whether or not Yan Jin would even choose to notify them ahead of time would depend on their friends.h.i.+p. In the end, Cousin was only his cousin. Nan Wei should be siding with his own family, but Nan Wei really didn't dare to oppose Cousin. It was not as if he was even a match for his cousin. Even adding his childhood sweetheart's ability, the gap between their power and Yan Jin's was too big.

And the guy who had the power to be an opponent for Yan Jin…… was on Yan Jin's side.

The childhood sweetheart quietly watched him.

After a while, a low-spirited sigh was released into the air: "If we truly get to that point, I can only pretend to go missing. I can't deal with either of those two sides."

"Actually, you don't have to worry so much, since you're not of much use anyway." The childhood sweetheart turned his head, his eyes glinting: "Even if they fight, it won't affect you. In this generation, other than your brother, the others would only be cannon fodders if they try to wage war with Yan Jin on the open market. If they can't get your brother to go back, they can only surrender immediately."

Nan Wei rolled his eyes at him.

Even if he was truly incapable, there was no need to say it so directly.

"The truth hurts." The childhood sweetheart said innocently: "Which side do you think your brother will help?"

"Oh him. I think there's an eighty percent chance for him to side with Cousin." Nan Wei actually lowered his initial estimate. Inwardly, he would bet that the odds of his brother helping his cousin was ninety-nine percent.

Sigh, he was afraid his parents would be heartbroken to death if they knew.

The successor they had cultivated over decades was taken away with just a crook of the other person's finger.

Furthermore, he was also the type to offer himself as tribute and count the money as he was being sold, but was still unable to gain favor.

From his childhood until now, he had never seen his brother gain an upper hand over his cousin. Even Nan Wei, the brother who was five years younger, could not bear to watch. That's why ever since he was young, he set his cousin as his life's goal.

Conversely, his brother clearly served as a negative example.

There were two brothers in the Nan family. But right from the start, the family only ever had the elder brother in their eyes. Although many in their family had exceptional genes for business, occasionally someone who did not inherit a bit of their business mind like Nan Wei would appear.

Even as a child, the Nan family did not pin any hopes on Nan Wei. But as someone from the main branch, even if he was not talented, they refused to allow him to pursue his own desire. Since he was born into the Nan family, then he must bear the family's expectations. In their mind, Nan Wei might not become the pillar of the family, but he could be a convenient brick, filling in where ever he was needed.

That was the kind of life Nan Wei lived for ten years. Once, when he was younger, he had believed that this was how his life would continue, without any waves. That was, until the eldest son of the Nan family ran away. Not only did this upend his own life, it also completely upended Nan Wei's world views.

The childhood sweetheart heaved a sigh: "So when are you going to lay your cards out for Yan Jin?"

"Lay what card?"

"That you're closing your shop to board the pirate s.h.i.+p."

"Oh, t-there's no hurry……" Nan Wei's cheeks flushed red: "Guru hasn't said that I'm ready yet. Also, it's not like YL is the only choice."

"If not YL, then do you think you can enter SI?"

"How can you say that? What's wrong with SI? Guru is the chief designer at SI. It is a well established brand with twenty to thirty years of history." Nan Wei loudly refuted in his idol's defense: "Not to mention, whether Cousin's YL will continue to operate is another question. The Yan family was not originally in the jewelry business. YL was just an accident."

This sentence that Nan Wei casually spoke accidentally hit the nail on the head and the two looked at each other in shock.

"Indeed, from the start, Yan Jin invested a lot of money into YL in order to prevent YL from closing prematurely." The childhood sweetheart said.

"Dammit, there's still this factor. How could I not be aware of it?"

"And what can you do even if you knew?"

"Now you're just asking for a beating!"

"Quit squabbling, we're talking about a serious matter." The childhood sweetheart pushed the pouncing Nannan back into his chair, then muttered what he was thinking out loud: "Since Yan Jin invested so much into YL, can it be that Yan Jin is not simply using YL to block the sight of the Yan family? Is he really preparing to seriously enter the jewelry business? It doesn't make sense. It's not like there's any need for him to do so……"

"What are you talking about? Can you be clearer on what you're angry about?" Nan Wei was not happy with his childhood sweetheart's nagging.

"You won't understand even if I told you."

"How do you know that I won't understand if you don't say it? Now speak!" Nan Wei kicked over his chair and got physical as he climbed on top of his childhood sweetheart.

The childhood sweetheart couldn't dodge in time and was bowled over. He cried for Nan Wei to stop messing around to no avail. Finally, he could only change the topic: "There's a new message from Fish and Hamster - You Can't Have Both."

"I won't fall for the same trick twice!"

"He just sent it. I saw that it wasn't anything urgent, so I teased you a bit……"

Nan Wei immediately froze. Then he pushed his childhood sweetheart off to the side before rus.h.i.+ng over to the sofa to look at his phone——

"Dafuq, why didn't you tell me earlier? Guru is already offline now!!"

Ever since his ident.i.ty had been exposed, the time he spent on his Fish and Hamster - You Can't Have Both account had increased. It wasn't like before when he could only log onto his iPad from Monday to Friday, morning to afternoon and had no way of logging on during the weekend.

However, even though he could log in for a longer period of time, Xiao Yu did not have many contacts on QQ. Thus, he would usually log on at a set time to take care of business. If no one contacted him, he would log off.

There once was a time when the troublesome Yan Jin would send him a ton of messages. Now, it seemed like the other had learned some self-control, but Xiao Yu was still unable to relax.

The reason was—— after Yan Jin stopped hara.s.sing Fish and Hamster - You Can't Have Both, he started firing messages at Fishy.

In the past, during Yan Jin's lunch break, Xiao Yu and Yan Jin would usually discuss things related to design. As for now, Xiao Yu had to log in early to wait for Yan Jin to spotcheck on him.

For Example——

[Grey-White SS]: Fishy, are you there?

[Grey-White SS]: How many times have I told you not to play games continuously?

[Fishy]: I'm here.

[Fishy]: It's because you send messages too quickly!

[Grey-White SS]: Be good.

[Grey-White SS]: I just saw an x.x.xbao store selling winter clothing for hamsters. I'll send you the link. Buy whatever you like.

That kind of stuff.

As a result, Xiao Yu did not dare to stay on his Fish and Hamster - You Can't Have Both account for too long. If he was not careful and ended up neglecting Chairman Yan's messages, sigh, he'd be hounded to death by Yan Jin once the chairman got home.

Today, Xiao Yu had planned to speak to Nannan about the problems he found in the design drawing Nannan sent him earlier, but to his surprise, he was unable to get a hold of Nannan. All month long, Nannan had practically been at his beck and call. He was on QQ all the time, so Xiao Yu had gotten into the habit of randomly logging in to speak to Nannan about his design drawing. This was the first time Xiao Yu was unable to get a hold of him, which messed up his original plan.

Xiao Yu scrolled down his spa.r.s.e contact list, examining each one. Nannan, unable to contact. Chu Ge, nothing to say to him at the moment. As for Grey-White SS……

He had already sent him the design drawing and said good morning. There was nothing else he wanted to say to him. Later, he would log onto his Fishy account to ask him when he was going to come home tonight.

Then he came to…… Lil' Ye-Zhou.

Xiao Yu bit open a walnut, then clicked on Lin Zhou's avatar with mixed emotions. He thought for a long time, but could not think of what he should say.

The design drawing for Heart Lock would be released today. Considering the time, it shouldn't be long now.

He couldn't imagine how Lin Zhou would feel when he saw the release of the design he was modifying.

If something like that didn't happen, Lin Zhou would probably try to contact him today.

Xiao Yu cracked open another walnut.

Suppose—— this was only a hypothesis, but if he had not released the design drawing for Heart Lock ahead of time, what would happen?

Would Lin Zhou s.n.a.t.c.h this chance to release the design drawing before the human Xiao Yu? If he did that, then he would officially make the human Xiao Yu his enemy.

The other times, Lin Zhou had always used an incomplete draft as the foundation of his design. Lin Zhou's design style was different from his, so naturally the end product would not look suspicious. But this time, he was using the final draft of Heart Lock. Xiao Yu felt that if Lin Zhou really brought out the design drawing for Heart Lock, the human Xiao Yu would have to be stupid not to notice it then.

It could be said that in his past life, the reason Lin Zhou was able to pretend to be by his side for so long was partially his own fault.

Instead of saying that the mysterious designer stole his creations, it would be more accurate to say that the mysterious designer diverted his attention away from the real thief, allowing the real thief to get away with it for so long.

He wondered, if he allowed Lin Zhou's plot to succeed this once, would the human Xiao Yu realize that there was a problem with Lin Zhou?

……Nevermind. He really shouldn't try something with such a high difficulty.

There was nothing more to say to Lin Zhou.

After reading through the contact list, he couldn't think of any messages he wanted to send out. Xiao Yu exited QQ and started up Toxic to entertain himself.

As he waited for the game to load, Xiao Yu reached out a paw to grab a walnut like usual, only to be stunned to find——

He had eaten all of them!

Xiao Yu became absentminded. First he counted the days, but he found that no matter how he calculated, the numbers just would not add up. He lowered his head to look at his obviously protruding little belly.

So round.

He poked at it.

It seemed to be a bit hard.

What should he do? It didn't feel like he had eaten his fill, but…… was this the portion for this week?