Chapter 74: The Way of Fishing

Zhao Yicheng left.

No, he didn’t die.

He literally left.

After taking a phone call, to Xu Yinsheng’s horror, he told her to wait a moment, put down the hammer in his hand, and turned to leave, seemingly for something urgent.

Xu Yinsheng felt incredibly lucky.

Finally, heaven was looking out for her.

She wouldn’t have to get her leg broken, at least not now…

Wuwuwu…

She really didn’t know how Zhao Yicheng’s brain was wired, to actually mix up dreams and reality!

TMD, Zhao Yicheng!!

I curse your entire family!!

Gazing at the golden ankle chain on her ankle, which she had struggled with for a long time but remained completely unscathed, Xu Yinsheng was so furious she almost threw the pliers onto the ground.

“Damn it, what the hell is this material? Even pliers can’t cut through it!”

Then she covered her face with her hands, crying disconsolately, wailing, “Wuwuwu, I won’t really get my leg broken, will I?”

“God of Vines, I was truly wrong. I’ll never talk trash again.”

“Worst case scenario, I accept gender reassignment, I accept becoming female, but can you please give me a normal boyfriend?”

“I don’t ask for a soulmate as meticulous as those in transmigration romance novels, but he shouldn’t be such a demon either!”

“Zhao Yicheng is a pure pervert!”

“If the male lead in a captivity novel was written like him, he would definitely be shot down. Shouldn’t this kind of person stay on Blue-P or the moderator forums?”

***

While Xu Yinsheng was wailing and complaining, Zhao Yicheng, after receiving the call, drove towards his destination.

Zhao Yicheng’s family situation was a bit peculiar.

His father was a workaholic with a family business, passionate about his career.

The duplicity and unscrupulousness of a businessman, doing whatever it takes to achieve his goals, had long been ingrained in his bones and deeply inherited by him.

His mother, before her marriage to his father, came from a fallen aristocratic family that had nothing left but its reputation.

If one were to trace back hundreds of years, to the Yuan Empire, the predecessor of the Huayuan Federation, her mother’s family in the vast grasslands believed in an ancient faith called Tengri and had the bloodline of a certain great figure, holding a noble title…

The Golden Family.

As the saying goes, “the sword of the previous dynasty cannot slay the officials of the current dynasty.”

However, the relationship between the Huayuan Federation and the Yuan Empire was indeed quite complex, one could say it was tangled and hard to untangle.

The Huayuan Federation recognized and inherited the existence and territories of the Yuan Empire and the Four Khanates.

The first Speaker, who advocated the “Three Principles” of “human rights, human dignity, and human nature,” also originated from a collateral branch of the Yuan Imperial family.

This also led to certain special historical legacies.

Getting out of the car, ahead was a fishing lake.

Zhao Yicheng changed to walking, passing over neatly laid bluestone slabs, with mottled moss in the stone seams and somewhat uneven shrubs on both sides.

Zhao Tianfu, Zhao Yicheng’s biological father, and the one whose union with his mother symbolized the emotional connection between the two families, only then leading to Zhao Yicheng’s birth.

If Xu Yinsheng’s parents loved each other so much that Xu Yinsheng received not a shred of love, then Zhao Yicheng’s parents simply didn’t love each other.

Their union was merely an exchange of interests, “I need your reputation; you desire my wealth.”

Zhao Tianfu advocated Social Darwinism and instilled a kind of “wolf-like” education in Zhao Yicheng from a young age.

Thinking of this, Zhao Yicheng’s mouth curled into a barely perceptible sneer, a self-righteous “wolf-like education.”

After walking a few dozen more steps, the view suddenly opened up.

A middle-aged man in high-end attire appeared in view.

He looked to be only in his early forties, but was actually in his fifties.

His skin was yellowish-wheat, and his face, similar in appearance to Zhao Yicheng’s, was marked by the passage of time.

He wore gold-rimmed glasses, his hair was meticulously combed back, and his expression was serious.

Several burly bodyguards waited nearby.

Only one assistant stood beside Zhao Tianfu, holding a fish bucket and smiling obsequiously, while Zhao Tianfu sat by the bank, fishing.

Seeing that the hook hadn’t moved for a long time, the sycophantic-looking assistant jumped into the water, swam a circle, and with both hands, grabbed a large grass carp, attaching it to the hook.

“Chairman, the fish is here!” the assistant called out excitedly from the water.

“Oh?”

Zhao Tianfu extended his right hand, picked up the fishing rod, and gently poked the ground a few times.

With a splash, the grass carp was reeled in.

The assistant immediately ran over from the water to catch the grass carp and put it into the fish bucket, fawning, “Chairman, your way of fishing is truly divine! I see this fish weighs a full seven jin, a rare and excellent specimen.”

Zhao Tianfu chuckled and shook his head.

He released the grass carp from the bucket, then tossed down the fishing rod, sighing, “I’m old now, I don’t have the energy of my youth. Fishing is tiring; I’m really not as good as you young fellows.”

“Chairman, you jest,” the assistant said, picking up the fishing rod and the line that had no hook.

“No hook, no bait, yet the fish still bites the line. This is truly ‘those who wish to be caught, are caught’.”

“Jiang Taigong, at eighty, was still able to assist Duke Wen of Zhou in sweeping across the land and unifying the rivers and mountains. I see the Chairman as an old warhorse, still aspiring to gallop a thousand miles.”

These words were indeed a perfect flattery, and Zhao Tianfu chuckled a few times, giving him a meaningful look.

“Xiao Li, how many years have you been with me?”

“Replying, Chairman, it’s been three years.”

“Which university did you graduate from?”

“Siberian Solafy Finance University.”

“I didn’t expect someone who studied finance to apply for an assistant position.”

He took off his glasses and wiped some splashes off the lenses.

Li Yuan straightened his chest then, “Good horses are common, but discerning patrons are rare. These three years have made me realize that the Chairman is my discerning patron.”

“Good, good, good,” Zhao Tianfu stroked his chin.

“It seems you’ve learned quite a lot following me these past three years.”

“It’s all thanks to the Chairman’s excellent guidance,” Li Yuan quickly bowed in return.

Zhao Yicheng stood quietly to the side, watching with cold eyes.

***

Zhao Tianfu advocated Social Darwinism, believing that the law of the jungle was the true rule of survival in the human forest that is society.

The only way to become a superior person, he thought, was to trample others underfoot, just as the struggle between kings can only end in death.

Zhao Tianfu no longer looked at Li Yuan; he noticed Zhao Yicheng behind him.

“You’ve arrived?”

“Yes.”

“How’s work?”

“Very good.”

“Studies?”

“Met your standards.”

Their exchange was not like a warm conversation between father and son, but rather more like a report between a superior and a subordinate.

Zhao Yicheng didn’t particularly like or dislike his biological father. Similarly, Zhao Tianfu had only his self-proclaimed “elite education” for his biological son.

“I will be going abroad for a while. I’m entrusting a newly established company in Tianlin City to you,” Zhao Tianfu said, also motioning to Li Yuan.

“Xiao Li will accompany you. If you don’t understand anything, ask him.”

“As the Chairman commands,” Li Yuan nodded obsequiously, then looked at Zhao Yicheng and flattered him, “Young Master is truly handsome and distinguished! Hearing about you is nothing compared to seeing you. Your subordinate has admired you for a long time.”