AM Chapter 24

24 All Sorts of Misfortunes

Liang Jingren felt that everything had been going wrong for him lately. Chen Mo, who was constantly wandering in front of him or around his ears every day, was naturally one of the main factors. However, a certain disabled person with a newly removed cast had also jumped into the mix, stirring up the factors related to Chen Mo that were already making him uneasy, making them even more chaotic.

Yesterday afternoon, he took the disabled person to the hospital for a rehabilitation checkup. After the checkup, the person said they wanted to rest quietly today, so Liang Jingren drove them straight back to their apartment complex.

It seemed like he still didn’t know how to use the crutches he bought even after two months. From the moment he got out of the car until he entered the elevator, the person leaned on him the entire time. When he tried to adjust the angle of his arm to free up his hand for a moment, the other person clung to him tightly, raising their smiling lips and saying with a smile, “Don’t be so stingy, just lend me some support.”

“Tsk, I should have just called Little Zhuang to pick you up from the hospital.”

“Haha, I already sent Little Zhuang a message. He’ll be back with groceries later, why don’t you stay and have dinner with us tonight.”

Liang Jingren hesitated for a while before agreeing.

He had originally intended to cover up the annoyance brought on by Chen Mo with another kind of annoyance, but not only did that person chatter on at the dinner table, giving him a headache, but after dinner, they kept pestering him, asking:

“Little Ren must be troubled by something lately, right? Otherwise, why would you come to my shop so often? You don’t even drink~”

“Have you encountered some trouble? Do you need my help?”

Liang Jingren, who was sitting on the sofa, closing his eyes to rest, clicked his tongue and frowned, “Don’t call me that.”

The two words “Little Ren” sounded no different from “petty person,” because some idiots would say those two words with a strange tone. Liang Jingren had resorted to violence quite a few times because of it. Before officially entering society, he certainly wasn’t a good student or a good kid.

“But Little Ren is Little Ren~” The guy limped over, suddenly taking out an ice-cold cola and pressing it against his head, smiling, “What’s wrong with me calling you ‘Little Ren’? Anyway, only I can call you that.”

Liang Jingren snatched the cola away and glared at him fiercely, “You can’t call me that either.”

The sofa suddenly sank under another weight. “Little Ren, Little Ren, Little Ren, Little Ren~” After sitting down next to him, that guy even kept calling him that, really thinking that he wouldn’t hit him.

Liang Jingren bit his teeth, clenching his fists hatefully—he really couldn’t hit the disabled person next to him.

“What exactly is it that’s making you frown all the time? I’m really curious and interested~” The disabled person said to himself, “Is it still about Chen Daxiang’s adopted son? Aren’t you two already over? Or… did you encounter other emotional problems?”

“Like love… or something?”

“Oh my, I really want to hear about it! What kind of girl is making you so troubled!”

Liang Jingren was simply having a huge headache.

After gulping down a mouthful of fully carbonated cola, he burped, and that burp was like a sigh he let out. After letting out that breath, Liang Jingren seemed to compromise and said, “Recently… someone is pursuing me.”

The disabled person “whooshed” and sat up straight, lifting the leg that had been freed from the cast and stacking it up, striking a pose with his legs crossed, ready to hear gossip.

Under the other person’s watchful gaze, Liang Jingren turned his head and continued, “That person said, he said he… likes my body.”

“…Are you bothered by this?”

“…”

“I see~” The crossed legs next to him swayed up and down, “Hahahaha, our Little Ren is really innocent~”

Liang Jingren held the ice-cold cola can, water dripping from its outer wall, tightly, pursing his lips. He still couldn’t say the whole truth.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” The disabled person began to cast spells on him with words, “—Only likes your body! How great is that!”

“What’s so great about it?”

“Look, you’re now the largest shareholder of the Daxing Group, rich and powerful, with cars and houses, looking glamorous from head to toe, and you’re single! And you don’t have kids! Do you know how many people dream of being with you? And now the times are different, it’s not just girls who want to get into your bed, guys want to get in too. Haven’t you been coming to my shop a lot lately? I’ve met two guys who came to inquire about your identity when you weren’t around.”

“Did you tell them?”

“Of course not, let them guess for themselves! Although one of them was quite good-looking with fair skin, I didn’t know if you liked guys… By the way, you never slept with Chen Daxiang, did you?”

The corners of Liang Jingren’s mouth turned down, and he quickly shook his head.

The person next to him patted his chest as if taking a deep breath, and smiled.

Then he continued, “So, someone who only wants your body and doesn’t want your money is so rare!”

“If she’s telling the truth, and really, truly doesn’t care about your status and wealth, then I have to praise her—what a pure motive! What a noble spirit!”

“If she looks good, why don’t you just go along with her?”

Liang Jingren frowned in surprise and said, “What?”

“She doesn’t even want your heart, you don’t need to give her anything! Since she says she likes your body, then you just sleep with her! That way both parties can be satisfied, it’s simply a win-win!”

Liang Jingren suddenly stood up from the sofa, looking at the person who was still sitting with his legs crossed and talking nonsense as if he were looking at some kind of monster.

“Or… you don’t like her at all?” The smiling lips pursed, still smiling.

“You… stop talking…”

“Oh… I see…”

After that, when he turned off the TV to go back to his room to sleep, he received a call from Chen Mo, and that monstrous guy who came out for a drink keenly caught the word “first love” in his words, and then approached him silently.

Perhaps he really wanted to help, but the moment the phone was snatched away, Liang Jingren was really angry, and he almost threw the other person over his shoulder. Just at the critical moment, the words “lover” and “little fool” that came out of the person’s mouth stunned him.

Before he could come back to his senses, that person hung up the phone without permission, turned around, turned off his phone, threw it back to him, and turned his back with a smile:

“Oh dear~ This phone just ran out of battery~”

Liang Jingren sat dazedly on the sofa with the “dead” phone in his hand, his whole mind in a mess.

It was impossible for him to call Chen Mo back to explain what had just happened, who that person who snatched his phone was. He had no obligation to do so, nor was there any need to do so.

But… just the thought of having to face Chen Mo in the cafeteria again tomorrow evening gave him a bit of a headache.

Liang Jingren thought: Should I just not go to the company tomorrow?

No, although there were no important matters tomorrow, if he didn’t go to the company and couldn’t give a legitimate reason—Shen Qing would scold him to death.

Shen Qing would stare at him with cold, disdainful eyes through his reflective glasses, and fiercely satirize him: You said you wanted to work hard with us and advance together, but now that you’ve become the CEO, you want to enjoy it all by yourself first? Have you read the logs? Have you read the financial reports? Have you read the shareholder meeting’s feedback? Have you read the consumer feedback? Has the employee benefits improvement plan been approved?! You’re just feeling good after reading a few articles by reporters who are sucking up to you? When will Daxing Group reach the Fortune 500 if you’re so lazy and negligent?! Are you worthy of me, worthy of the shareholders, worthy of the deceased Chen Daxiang?!

In order not to be sprayed to death by Shen Qing, who was dominated by the resentment of a corporate slave, Liang Jingren decided to put down his phone and go to bed early and wake up early. The next morning, he would first go to the company to show his face, process the documents that Shen Qing had placed on his desk, and then sneak away at noon or in the afternoon.

However, he didn’t sleep well last night because of some strange noises. In the morning, Chen Mo, who looked like he hadn’t slept all night, appeared like a ghost in the company’s underground garage and even occupied his parking space.

Liang Jingren was really defeated.

Everything was going wrong.

Now, the guy sitting across from him was deliberately disgusting him again—deliberately calling him “Dad.”

Chen Daxiang hadn’t even been called that a few times, right? Liang Jingren thought.

What would Chen Daxiang think if he knew that Chen Mo would one day call him “Dad”? Liang Jingren’s thoughts started to wander.

Seeing that he was in a daze, Chen Mo stopped the spoon he had raised halfway, “Why aren’t you eating, Dad? Is the food not to your liking, Dad?”

Here we go again. Liang Jingren’s mouth twitched, and he simply put down his chopsticks and crossed his arms, “I have no appetite.”

Seeing this, Chen Mo tilted his head and thought for a moment, then suddenly had a flash of inspiration. He picked up Liang Jingren’s discarded chopsticks, picked up a piece of braised pork from his own plate, and handed it directly to the other person, smiling and saying, “How can you eat without your hands? Do you need me to feed you? Then please open your mouth, ah—”

Liang Jingren pursed his lips, holding his arms still, “Chen Mo, this is your workplace,” he reminded.

“I know,” Chen Mo said, “Anyway, people will only think that we are a loving father and son with a good relationship~”

Hearing this, Liang Jingren pursed his lips once again.

Then, immediately after, he made a move that Chen Mo didn’t expect at all—

Liang Jingren stared at the person holding the chopsticks, and at the same time opened his mouth and ate the piece of braised pork with the right amount of fat and lean meat on the tip of the chopsticks.

Liang Jingren thought, he couldn’t be outdone by Chen Mo.

Chen Mo was serious, Liang Jingren was competitive.

In any case, Chen Mo was very happy. He lightly held the separated chopsticks, smiled foolishly, and said, “It seems like I have to pay the company’s outsourced cafeteria extra today…”

Liang Jingren seemed to realize something, silently looked away, picked up the paper towel in the corner of the plate, and began to wipe his mouth.

“I have to buy this pair of chopsticks and treasure them~”

Sure enough, when it came to thick skin, Chen Mo was number one.

If he went along with Chen Mo like someone said, Liang Jingren didn’t dare to imagine what shocking things Chen Mo would do.

Of course, he might not do anything at all.

Liang Jingren knew Chen Mo very well: Chen Mo was the kind of person who had a lot of ulterior motives in his heart, but as for actions, apart from the commendable point of being strong in execution, he was mostly a petty thief, selfish, and sneaky, which was annoying.

“I’m not eating anymore, I’m going back to the company. Your brother Shen Qing just sent me a message a while ago,” Liang Jingren said, throwing down the paper towel and getting up to leave.

Chen Mo wasn’t a president or senior executive after all, so he couldn’t blatantly drop two plates and wait for someone to clean them up. He had to carry the two unfinished meals himself to throw them away, and then run to the parking lot to find Liang Jingren, clutching the chopsticks he had taken from the cafeteria without paying.

“You came in my car!” Chen Mo shouted as soon as he saw Liang Jingren’s back.

Liang Jingren didn’t turn his head, still pressing something on his phone, probably calling a taxi.

After a while, Chen Mo finally ran to his side. “I’ll, wheeze, take you back to the company!” Chen Mo said, panting.

Liang Jingren looked at the taxi page and “tsk”ed, turning off the screen.

Just as Chen Mo was wondering, he turned around and grabbed Chen Mo’s shoulder, almost dragging Chen Mo to find the new car worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, “Let’s go, just drop me off near there, and then you turn around immediately, you hear? Don’t be late again in the afternoon!”

Chen Mo had to protect the chopsticks in his hand and was being dragged by Liang Jingren in an awkward position, so he stumbled as he walked, and therefore subconsciously responded repeatedly.

When they got into the car, Chen Mo remembered to ask, seeing Liang Jingren consciously sitting in the back seat, “Tonight we…”

“I’m not eating with you,” Liang Jingren blocked his eyes with his wide palm, looking like he was preparing to take a nap in the car on the way. But before completely stopping talking, Liang Jingren still responded to him properly: “I ate enough at noon today, let’s make it another day.”

“Another day.” Chen Mo was satisfied with these words.

He glanced at the chopsticks that were safely placed on the passenger seat, and smiled as he started the car.

Chen Mo thought: This is really great, Liang Jingren took him to work in the morning, and now it’s his turn to take Liang Jingren to work. This is not a father and son relationship at all, but a loving couple in the honeymoon phase!

Liang Jingren, who was resting in the back seat with his eyes closed, felt a chill for no reason. He was still wondering if it was because he didn’t eat breakfast in the morning and only ate two bites at noon, which led to a weak spleen and stomach. He thought he had to go to Old Zhao’s coffee shop to get something to eat to fill his stomach.

Oh right, he also had to get a cup of coffee for Shen Qing.

Why not just buy one for everyone? All employees? That would be a considerable amount of money…

But could Old Zhao handle it?

If he couldn’t, he could pull Xu Yilin from the flower shop to help, haha.

When waiting for the red light at the intersection, Chen Mo raised his head slightly. He noticed that the lower half of the face revealed in the rearview mirror had unconsciously added a faint smile.

Is it because of me? Chen Mo couldn’t help but think. Or is it because of something else? Someone else?

Alas… why can’t everything in this world go smoothly…