Chapter 63
Jing City.
After many years, the Shen family villa, once glorious beyond compare, was once again filled with a roomful of people, packed so tightly that the living room was nearly overflowing.
“What’s going on? I got a call from the bank saying all the assets under my name have been frozen?” said a man who looked to be in his sixties, his face full of panic.
“I even received a court summons. It says my residences are all illegal gains? What’s going on? Two of them were only bought last year. I bought them with dividend money. How could they be illegal?” A young man with colorful hair and flamboyant brows looked indignant.
“I feel like the shareholders at the company have been reacting strangely when they see me these past few days?” The few people who worked at Shen Group frowned, clearly puzzled.
The noblewomen sitting on the sofa also began complaining one after another. “Exactly. A few days ago, I made plans with Mrs. Qian to go for beauty treatments. We agreed that I would treat her, but when I swiped my card, they actually told me it wouldn’t go through. I was so embarrassed.”
“Me too. I went shopping with my best friends, and after swiping several cards, none of them worked.” She did not mention that in the end, she had used a separate private stash card before successfully paying.
Everyone spoke over one another. The room was filled with confused complaints, rising and falling one after another.
It made people irritated and restless.
Only the middle-aged man sitting in the main seat had a gloomy face and said nothing.
But the veins on his forehead throbbed again and again. Clearly, his patience was almost at its limit.
After everyone complained for a while—
Once they exchanged information, they were shocked to discover that nearly everyone gathered here had encountered financial problems of varying degrees over the past few days.
Aside from a few younger members of the family who had been sleeping at home recently and had not had time to go out and spend money yet.
Once they realized this, an ominous feeling rose in everyone’s hearts.
Finally, someone’s teeth chattered, and he asked the middle-aged man sitting in the main seat uncertainly.
“Jiadong, did something happen to the group recently? You gathered all of us here today. Does it have something to do with the abnormal things we just mentioned?”
Yes.
Everyone gathered here—
Was precisely the same group of relatives from both sides of Shen Jinfeng’s parents’ families who had joined forces many years ago to fight over the inheritance of this villa’s former owners, Shen Jinfeng’s parents.
Aside from a few elders who had passed away from illness over the years, and those who were overseas and could not return for the time being—
Everyone else was here.
Actually, they rarely gathered in this villa.
After Shen Jinfeng’s parents died in an accident, after a round of entanglements and disputes that year, Shen Jiadong, the biological younger brother of Shen Jinfeng’s father, came out on top and obtained the new identity of Shen Jinfeng’s guardian.
Then he moved in here openly and justifiably.
Later, after Shen Jinfeng went missing, Shen Jiadong was “heartbroken.” On one hand, he forced himself to shoulder the heavy responsibility of Shen Group; on the other, he spent money like water and consumed a large amount of manpower and resources searching for his nephew.
As time passed, he naturally continued living there.
Then naturally took control of power and became the current head of the Shen family.
But the others thought they were shameless enough, yet still not as shameless as Shen Jiadong.
They had taken enough advantage and felt embarrassed to come to this villa often.
They even rarely gathered in full.
Until today, when Shen Jiadong gathered all of them together.
He said he had something very serious to announce.
It was also because they linked it to the recent strangeness and difficulties with using money that everyone had come in such rare completeness.
At this moment, seeing Shen Jiadong’s expression as dark as water, and seeing that he still did not answer after the first person asked—
Everyone instantly panicked.
“Shen Jiadong, say something! Didn’t you call all of us here because you had something to announce? What are you doing by staying silent?”
“Don’t tell me you did some dirty business, got investigated, and dragged us down with you? What did you do? Don’t tell me you laundered money? Or touched something you shouldn’t have?”
“Why have all of us had problems with our funds these past few days? Is the Shen family going bankrupt? Shen Jiadong, how can you be so useless? Back when your brother was around, he was a hundred times better than you.”
Hearing this sentence, the middle-aged man sitting in the main seat finally reacted.
After so many years, hearing words like these still made Shen Jiadong lose control.
He flung the teacup in his hand to the ground. “Yes, the Shen family is going bankrupt. We’ll all go sleep under a bridge!”
“Third Uncle, since you like my brother so much, why didn’t you follow my brother down there?”
Everyone was startled by his sudden movement.
But they were not afraid of him.
Instead, they were shocked by the news that they really were going bankrupt.
“Jiadong, you can’t joke about things like this. Why haven’t I heard a single rumor about the Shen family going bankrupt?”
“Your brother built such a huge foundation. Didn’t they say it would be enough for all of us to eat and drink well for several lifetimes? How did it fall to this point after being in your hands for only ten or twenty years? Declining step by step. Sigh…” Someone sighed, as if full of regret.
The veins on Shen Jiadong’s forehead kept throbbing.
But the people who had been frightened by his news did not have time to pay attention to him. They were all verifying the truth through various channels.
“If it’s true, before the news gets out, I have to sell all the stocks I have.”
“If we’re going bankrupt, then we’d better not stay in the country anymore, right? Luckily, I saved some money in an overseas bank. I’ll take my wife and kids to the Lighthouse…”
Everyone spoke at once.
Shen Jiadong’s son, Shen Qianxi, had also left the hospital early.
Hearing everyone’s discussion, he could not help sneering. “Enough. One sentence from my dad scared you all out of your wits. You really are useless.”
A girl from a collateral branch immediately retorted rudely, “No matter how useless we are, we’re still better than you, who got so scared by a dog that you broke your leg and shattered your front teeth.”
Shen Qianxi trembled with anger. “What do you know? Next time, I’ll put a Tibetan mastiff in front of you and let you try. I’d like to see how brave you are…”
“Enough.” Shen Jiadong spoke, cutting off all the panicked arguing in the room. “Didn’t you want to know why your money has been frozen?”
Everyone took two seconds to react. Only then did they all quiet down.
Their gazes turned toward him.
Shen Jiadong’s expression was complicated. His lips moved, and he slowly said, “Does anyone still remember where your money came from?”
As soon as he said this, the room became as quiet as chickens.
“A few uncles and elders here can’t get through three sentences without mentioning my brother. Then I’m sure you still remember that everyone here only has today’s wealth and luxury because of the inheritance my brother left behind.”
“Including Shen Group. That was also something he left behind.”
Everyone looked at one another. In each other’s eyes, they could see the guilt hidden deep within.
But when something guilty was openly laid out by a group of people, it seemed to become perfectly justified.
“Yes, Jiaxu really was a good child. Unfortunately, he died young. He left such a huge mess behind, so we elders could only help take care of it,” said one old man shamelessly.
Someone immediately echoed, “Exactly. Recently, I even heard that Shen Jinfeng, that child, has been performing very well on some livestream variety show. Many people like him. If Jiaxu saw it, who knows how happy he would be.”
“Pfft.” Shen Qianxi had kept a gloomy face all along. At this moment, he could not help laughing.
There was just not much joy in that laugh.
“Third Great-Uncle, do you know that all the inheritance you received should belong to Shen Jinfeng? Since you like him so much, why don’t you return all your money to him first?”
The man addressed as Third Great-Uncle stiffened and stopped speaking.
Shen Jiadong took a deep breath. “That’s right. Logically speaking, all the inheritance my eldest brother left behind should belong to Jinfeng.”
“I received a public lawsuit from the court, demanding that we return everything my brother left behind.”
“Asset liquidators, lawyers, accountants, bank staff, and people from relevant departments have all come to calculate the assets under my brother’s name at the time of his death, and they also estimated the market value of Shen Group back then.”
At this point, he lowered his eyes. His gaze was full of hatred and panic.
“Even if every one of us returns all our current assets to Shen Jinfeng, we would still owe nearly ten billion.”
That was why everyone had found it strange.
Why had the funds in their cards suddenly become unusable these past few days?
No doubt in a few days, people would come to their doors asking them to repay money and confiscating their houses and cars.
After Shen Jiadong slowly enunciated this shocking number, he raised his eyes and looked around the room.
As expected, everyone was stunned like wooden chickens. Immediately afterward, an uproar exploded.
“What kind of joke is this? On what basis do we have to return it? Back then, Shen Jinfeng himself was missing and his life or death was unknown. Were we supposed to leave that money untouched? Was Shen Group supposed to stop operating and directly go bankrupt and liquidate?”
“We are Shen Jiaxu’s closest relatives. How could we not divide the inheritance?”
“Exactly. Shen Jinfeng should even thank us now. We helped him preserve the family property. Otherwise, after ten-plus years, he might not even have a home to come back to.”
Some timid people who had not gone too far were also full of resentment. “When Jiaxu was alive, he would also help us from time to time. If he were still here, he definitely would have agreed to give us some of the family property so our lives could be a little better.”
“Wait, why did the relevant departments suddenly come knocking? It’s not like this is Shen Jinfeng’s first day back. He didn’t have the brains to ask for the inheritance.”
A well-informed and quick-witted young person suddenly screamed, “It’s all Shen Qianxi’s fault!”
“It’s all because that pig-brained Shen Qianxi got Shen Jinfeng onto that variety show. On the show, Shen Jinfeng directly built relationships with Qin Ye and He Erwang. The Qin family and He family must be helping him!”
Shen Qianxi looked away.
He admitted that this had indeed been an error in judgment on his part.
For a time, everyone’s anger seemed to find a target, and they all began cursing Shen Qianxi.
“Pig brain. If you don’t know how to handle things, then don’t handle them.”
“Shen Qianxi, I remember Shen Jinfeng listened to you very well. He did whatever you told him to do. Now that you caused this mess, you have to solve it. We don’t have money to repay anything.”
“You got such a huge advantage and still couldn’t even pretend to be obedient. You people are still living in Jinfeng’s house right now. How shameless.”
Perhaps because they believed they had figured out the cause and effect, and because everyone had done something not exactly glorious together—
This group of wealthy and noble people, usually so high above others, now looked like fishwives cursing in the streets, with no image or wisdom to speak of.
Actually, they could not really be blamed.
In this entire room, one could barely gather a few people with real ability.
When they were young, they had lived under the shelter of the family.
When Shen Jiaxu was still alive, he single-handedly pushed the Shen family to its peak. His methods were extraordinary.
He was willing to support some clan members, but he absolutely did not indulge them. He was famous for his cold face and difficult temperament.
As long as they obediently listened, they would have plenty of food and clothing, receive some dividends every year, and live safe and stable lives.
But those who were restless all ended miserably.
Unfortunately, Shen Jiaxu probably never imagined that he would die unexpectedly in the prime of his life.
Only after they confirmed that Shen Jiaxu was dead, and even Shen Jinfeng had disappeared, did they dare to have thoughts of taking a share.
In the end, the one who benefited most was still Shen Jiadong.
“Enough. You gathered us here today, so what exactly do you want to do? If you have a plan, just say it. Don’t put on airs. People who don’t know better might think you actually have some clever strategy.”
Shen Jiadong shook his head with a dark expression.
“The national departments have stepped in. What plan could I have?”
In his heart, he gritted his teeth. He did not know whether it was the Qin family or the He family who had found connections, but they had been ruthless.
They had directly used the relevant departments to deal him a blow.
As for transferring assets, they had not had any chance to prepare.
He had no time to react at all. In his office—even during a meeting—he had been invited for “tea.”
Fortunately, the people handling it were still relatively polite. They had only come to his office to drink tea.
He called over the group’s elite lawyers, but in the end, they were frightened out of their wits. The moment they saw the work badges of the staff on the other side, they did not dare say anything.
They even privately told him, “Forget it, President Shen. Whatever the other party asks, try your best to comply.”
“If you’ve done something wrong, don’t hold on to any hope of luck.”
He was furious. But he also immediately understood that he had no power to resist.
Shen Jiadong had been sleepless the entire night before and could not think of a solution.
Moreover, the most urgent issue was not only returning the inheritance.
The problem was that they had spent too much over the years and could not repay it even if they returned everything.
His eyes flickered as he looked at the few gray-haired elders in the crowd. Among the middle-aged people, many still had children in kindergarten or primary school.
Although he was only mediocre in business, he had lived to middle age and believed he still understood people.
Shen Jinfeng—he had long seen through him.
He was a little smart. But from a young age, he had been trained by lower-level education to be kind and full of sympathy. Because of his childhood experiences, he was somewhat inferior and had an incomparable desire for family affection.
Fortunately, he had never truly torn off his mask in front of Shen Jinfeng before. He had always appeared kind and benevolent.
The bad person had always been Shen Qianxi.
He silently glanced at Shen Qianxi, who was sitting in a wheelchair to the side, looking irritable, with his teeth still unfixed and his words leaking air.
A trace of annoyance flashed through his eyes.
At worst, sacrifice one person to save the rest of them.
Only when everyone had fallen into despair did Shen Jiadong slowly voice his thoughts. “At this point, how could we elders have the nerve to covet a junior’s property?”
“When the elders are loving, the descendants will be filial. I understand that child Jinfeng best. He is the most filial, sensible, and considerate.”
Someone instantly understood his meaning.
“The more filial and sensible a child is, the more useful it is to move him with emotion.”
For example, have the elderly cry and complain with tears streaming down their faces. Have the children beg pitifully with tearful eyes.
Shen Jiadong said, “If Jinfeng gives up the entertainment industry he likes and wants to work at the group, we also have to help him.”
The implied meaning was that Shen Jinfeng was completely unfamiliar with the group’s affairs and did not understand them.
He would be unable to do without these uncles, elders, and seniors. It would be best if they continued helping manage things for him. Wasn’t it better for a child to pursue his dreams happily and take money without worries?
Of course, his gaze swept coldly over everyone.
“Once Jinfeng finishes recording this program and comes out, anyone who previously disrespected him should go apologize to him. Don’t force me to call your names one by one.”
Everyone roughly understood his strategy.
“Will this work?”
A trace of madness and confidence in victory flashed in Shen Jiadong’s eyes.
He smiled. “I know you. You saved some money in an overseas bank, right? You can go back today and see whether your money can still be used.”
The person he named was startled, and a chill suddenly rose in his heart.
For a time, no one spoke again.
After a long while, the person addressed as Third Uncle looked meaningfully at Shen Jiadong and smiled. “Then we’ll have to ask the family head to lead us in putting on a good show.”
This group of people, who had been shocked out of their wits simply because the relevant departments had come to demand the return of the inheritance, still did not know—
This was only the beginning.
On the deserted island, after the group finished their heart-to-heart talk and discussed their wishes, they passed the most idle and carefree few days.
Shen Jinfeng no longer tried to explore the forest.
Whether it was meat, seafood, green wild vegetables, or fruit, because of their previous outings, they still had more than enough to eat.
If one really had to say they had done something meaningful these past few days—
It was probably raising pigeons.
That day, after the thrilling confrontation with the wolves, they had hurried back.
Halfway back, Qi Xiu remembered to check the pigeons they had “worked so hard” to catch earlier.
Luckily, the pigeons had all had their feet tied and had been buried in the leaf basket. Not a single one was lost.
They only opened the large, adorable eyes that looked especially big on their small faces. After the leaves above their heads were lifted, they blinked blankly, as if completely unaware of what had just happened.
They had not confronted wolves and had not been frightened at all.
They were much happier than the two-legged beasts who had captured them.
After the pigeons were brought back to the seaside wooden hut, they seemed to see scenery they had never seen before and looked quite cheerful.
After four days of everyone’s companionship and training—accurately speaking, Shen Jinfeng did the training, while everyone else mainly provided companionship—
A few days passed, and the results were remarkable.
Among the nine pigeons, the cleverest one was already able to fly one kilometer away and then voluntarily fly back.
One had to know that in training pigeons, the hardest part was the early stage, when the pigeon had to develop a sense of homing.
In just a few short days, for a pigeon to reach this degree was enough to make people suspect whether it was about to become a spirit.
“Boss, can we tie a little paper strip to the pigeon’s leg now? That’s how it’s done on TV,” He Erwang suggested enthusiastically.
Shen Jinfeng nodded. “You tie it.”
He stroked the white pigeon’s head. The white pigeon lowered its head affectionately and stretched out its beak, pecking at Shen Jinfeng’s other palm.
It was another round of training. Today, this smartest white pigeon flew out one and a half kilometers, then circled back and obediently stopped in front of Shen Jinfeng, revealing the paper strip on its ankle.
It even raised one foot and proudly let out a “gu gu-gu gu” cry, as if signaling Shen Jinfeng to quickly take it.
Shen Jinfeng shook his head and pointed at Qin Ye nearby.
Before setting off, the instruction he had given the little pigeon had been to deliver the letter back to Qin Ye.
These pigeons were all being trained. Flying out and back was the first step.
Flying out and then flying back to the person he specified was the second step.
Clearly, this round had half failed.
Qin Ye was about ten meters away from him. He pursed his lips nervously and waved at the pigeon.
The pigeon rose into the air and circled, even turning in place midair, seemingly unable to figure out what was going on and still hesitating over which direction to fly.
It lowered its head and peered at Shen Jinfeng’s expression. It saw no feedback.
But clearly, after spending several days with Shen Jinfeng, it understood very well that this was the “feedback” that it had made a mistake.
The pigeon’s head swayed laboriously in midair as it tried hard to recall the smell it had smelled earlier and the training route.
Finally, after circling in the air for nearly a minute, it hesitantly rushed toward Qin Ye.
Qin Ye’s brows and eyes relaxed slightly.
Just as the pigeon was about to land in front of him—
He recalled the way Shen Jinfeng had trained the pigeon earlier. His brain short-circuited, and he imitated clumsily.
He also stretched out his hands, clapped his palms together lightly, and, as if possessed, easily let out two imitated pigeon calls from his throat.
“Gu gu-gu gu—”
Unexpectedly, if he had not called out, it would have been fine.
The moment he did, the white pigeon only inches away from him seemed startled. It suddenly flapped its wings wildly in midair and steadied the body that had been about to descend.
With a whoosh, it flew high into the sky again.
It let out louder, uncertain “gu gu-gu gu” cries.
It called several times in midair, then turned without hesitation and flew back toward Shen Jinfeng.
Qin Ye: “???”
His expression went blank for an instant.
Shen Jinfeng: “…”
Amazing.
The pigeon flew back rapidly and landed in his palm again. This time, it refused to leave no matter what.
His eyesight was very good. With one glance, he saw Qin Ye, ten meters away, quickly avoiding his gaze as if he had done something wrong.
Shen Jinfeng could not help laughing.
The others at the scene laughed even more unrestrainedly.
“Hahahahaha, I’m dying of laughter, Brother Ye! You scared the pigeon away!”
The bullet comments were also filled with hahahaha.
[Hahahahahaha, I never dreamed that Ye God would suddenly “gu gu” twice. Were you infected by little purple-hair? Hahaha!]
[Laughed to death. The pigeon was scared away. The pigeon thought: Who’s this pigeon? I’ve never seen him before either.]
[Cough cough, isn’t he just trying to learn from his wife? Qin Ye thought: My wife usually gu-gus so cutely, I have to learn too!]
[As a fan, I have a premonition that the scene just now will definitely be made into a gif and become a scene Ye God can never erase from his life. Smile.]
[But it really is strange! Why does it feel like when the pigeon hears Big Boss Shen gu-gu, it really understands? But when other people gu-gu, they’re just gu-gu-ing in vain every time!]
[Honestly, I’ve wanted to say this for ages! Does Big Boss Shen really not know beast language? If the white pigeon can’t understand him and can still be this amazing, I don’t believe it.]
[So… did Big Boss Shen get nominated for Outstanding Youth because he can speak beast language? Dog head.]
[What Outstanding Youth?]
Many people in the bullet comments had not yet realized what was going on.
[Damn, hurry and look at the current number-one trending topic. It exploded!]
Suddenly, the bullet comments swept past in fragments, with no one even coming to explain.
The netizens still in the livestream room froze for a moment, then immediately realized that something major must have happened again!
They all exited the livestream into a small window and rushed to the front line of gossip at once.
The first explosive trending topic was:
#Shen Jinfeng Outstanding Youth#
!
If the bullet comments mentioning it earlier had only been speculation—
Then once it was placed on the trending list, almost everyone immediately connected the dots.
Everyone clicked into the topic and held their breath.
Sure enough, they saw an almost unbelievable piece of news.
It was the list of this year’s Outstanding Youth candidates released by an official government affairs account of the relevant department.
The name “Shen Jinfeng” was impressively listed.
Most importantly, because this name had recently become known to almost every passerby—
And yet, it was precisely because of that that it was difficult, or rather impossible, to associate him with such a national award.
A fan cautiously asked below: [Is this Shen Jinfeng the guest currently participating in the third season of What Kind of Person Are You? Or is it someone with the same name?]
After about four hours, the official account actually replied:
[Yes]
!!!
Then, the heat was completely ignited.
This “ordinary” list of candidates, which originally should not have drawn much attention—or rather, even though the official account announced this list, it did not include the corresponding achievements or deeds—
Based on past precedent, it would already have been very good if it received a thousand likes and a hundred comments.
But now, this post had already reached more than three million likes.
The comments had broken one million.
And less than an hour had passed since the official account replied.
The top-liked internal comment was obviously also full of bewilderment.
Even marketing accounts that relied on account weight to seize the front row did not know how to comment.
[No, what exactly happened? I’d like to ask, just what level of big boss has Big Boss Shen reached?]
[Good grief. Participating in a variety show in a virtual world, and he can still win Outstanding Youth?]
[I’m itching with curiosity. In some corner we don’t know about, what else happened??? Ahhhhhhh, I’m turning into a screaming chicken. Big Boss Shen is way too outstanding and all-rounded!]
