[Reborn Gloomy Gong x CEO Sponsor Shou (Modern Melodrama)]

[I have received too little love in my life, and far too much hate. I thought money could fill the void, but it was like termites, slowly hollowing out my shell.]

It was the coldest time of the year. The snow from last night hadn't even had a chance to melt. The icy river water surged onto the bank again and again, soaking the body until even the joints of the bones ached from the cold.

Chen Shu was forcefully held down on the ground by a group of bodyguards, the side of his cheek mangled and bloody from being scraped against the gravel. Below was a gentle slope. With a strong push from behind, he would immediately fall into the bottomless river.

"Well? Are you going to talk or not?"

An icy, impatient voice sounded from the side, with a faint hint of killing intent detectable if one listened closely. Zhuang Yifan's patience with Chen Shu had reached its limit. He wished he could drown this ungrateful bastard in the very next second.

"My brother has provided for you all these years. Without him, you'd still be a host in some club, drinking with clients! How has he wronged you that you dare to collude with others and sell the company's chip technology to a competitor?! If you don't tell me who your contact was, believe me, I'll cripple you and dump you in the river today!"

The man pinned to the ground was at death's door, yet he showed no panic. He even let out a low chuckle. His handsome face, stained with blood and dirt, made his complexion seem even paler. Messy bangs covered his eyes, which were as serene and deep as a cold pond, hiding an indescribable demonic charm and provocation.

"Why didn't Zhuang Yihan come to settle the score with me himself?"

To be so brazen after doing something so evil, one could only say he was born bad.

Zhuang Yifan crouched down, patted Chen Shu's face hard, and said through gritted teeth in a low voice, "Don't expect my brother to come and save you today. He hates traitors the most. Believe it or not, even if you died today, he wouldn't even bother to ask."

After speaking, he stood up and coldly commanded, "Throw him in!"

Of course, they wouldn't really drown him. But to be bound with ropes, thrown in and pulled out over and over, struggling repeatedly between suffocation and drowning, was no different from torture.

Chen Shu had already forgotten how many times he had choked on water. His ears were ringing constantly, and even his vision began to blur. The events of the first half of his life flashed through his mind like a revolving lantern, unreal as a dream.

Chen Shu's life, up until last night, was something unattainable for many people. You could call it a sparrow turning into a phoenix, or you could say he stepped in dog shit luck. In short, it could be described as turning the tables against the odds.

He was born into a poor family in a remote mountain village. His mother died early, his father had a heart condition and couldn't do heavy labor, and he had two younger siblings who were still minors. On the internet, it would probably be what people often joked about as a disastrous starting hand.

In an environment where even the English teachers had accents, Chen Shu, relying on his own efforts, managed to get into a university in City A. The school wasn't particularly good, nor was it particularly bad, but it was the closest ladder he could reach with all his might.

After enrolling, Chen Shu's once-proud grades became unremarkable in the big city with its superior educational resources. He wasn't bad, but he was never the best one. Scholarships eluded him, and student loans seemed insufficient to fill the void created by the shock of that city of debauchery.

On the recommendation of a roommate as poor as him, Chen Shu went to work as a male model in a club. It was from this moment that one of his feet seemed to have stepped into a gray area. Yet, it was precisely there that he met Zhuang Yihan—

a person who would change his entire destiny, someone known in the eyes of the public as "upper class."

If following a normal life trajectory, Chen Shu might never have crossed paths with the other's world. Zhuang Yihan returned from studying abroad and, at a young age, was already managing the family business in an orderly fashion. He was famous in the business world for his ruthless methods. A person like him shouldn't have been lacking anything, yet he too had a "white moonlight" he couldn't obtain.

The first day Chen Shu started working, it happened to be when Zhuang Yihan was in a bad mood after being rejected. He was drunk and not thinking clearly. His sycophantic friends, with "good intentions," ordered a male model for him. A casual point of the finger landed precisely on Chen Shu, who was standing at the back of the crowd.

The naive Chen Shu back then couldn't understand the twists and turns of the situation. He just followed the rules and took the man back to the hotel for the night. Later, even after many years, he could still recall the look in Zhuang Yihan's eyes when he woke up in bed—it was terrifyingly cold.

Zhuang Yihan was too arrogant, aloof, and looked down on everyone. Spending a night with a nightclub model was undoubtedly a stain on his life. Chen Shu had no doubt that if Zhuang Yihan hadn't been emotionally frustrated at the time and kept him out of some sense of emptiness and loneliness, he would have been dealt with mercilessly.

This arrangement lasted for a full nine years.

Just as Zhuang Yifan said, the man not only covered all of Chen Shu's living expenses but also arranged for his father to go abroad for surgery. Later, he even sent him to study business administration and brought him into the core of the company, giving a poor country boy the capital to establish himself in the big city—

What more could Chen Shu be dissatisfied with?

Zhuang Yihan was so good to him, giving him wealth and status that others could never touch in a lifetime. Chen Shu should have been grateful.

But Chen Shu wasn't just grateful to Zhuang Yihan. During those bleak days of having nothing, he had unknowingly fallen in love with him. This love ate away at his heart like ants; the more unattainable it was, the more painful it became.

If you were to ask Chen Shu how deep this love was, he couldn't answer. He only knew that if this love wasn't reciprocated, he would rather destroy it than let anyone else have it.

Unfortunately, Zhuang Yihan did not love Chen Shu.

He had someone hidden in his heart, and Chen Shu had spent nine whole years trying and failing to enter it.

In Zhuang Yihan's heart, Chen Shu was still that same poor, shabby boy from the countryside who despicably used a drunken night to have relations and then stole a few years of glory.

The river wind was biting cold, whistling past his ears. Chen Shu, who had been lying on the bank on the verge of death, suddenly coughed violently twice, then began to laugh lowly. He laughed so hard his shoulders shook, and tears spilled from the corners of his eyes, making one wonder if he had gone mad. He asked in a hoarse voice:

"Where is Zhuang Yihan? Why isn't he coming over?"

Zhuang Yifan looked down at him, frowning deeply. "After betraying him like this, you still have the nerve to see my brother?"

He had always looked down on Chen Shu, a country bumpkin from the backwoods. Even after he started dressing in suits and became one of the elites, he couldn't change what was in his bones. Cunning and calculating were written all over his face, and his eyes saw nothing but money. He really couldn't understand why his brother would keep such a person; it was demeaning.

Zhuang Yifan had been standing by the river for too long, and his patience finally ran out. He glanced at his watch and saw that it was almost dawn. He said coldly, "I'll give you one last chance. Talk or not? If you don't talk this time, you'll never have to speak again!"

After he spoke, he walked over to Chen Shu, about to kick him in. But just then, a solid black Maybach, followed by two Porsches of the same color, drove onto the overpass above the river.

The pure black Maybach pulled over and honked twice. The sound, neither loud nor soft, was jarring in the silent night and made Zhuang Yifan subconsciously freeze. He recognized the car, his expression filled with unconcealed surprise. "Brother?!"

Chen Shu was already suffering from hypothermia, but upon hearing those words, he suddenly lifted his head. His face was pale, but with some unknown strength, he forced himself to stand up shakily. The driver's door opened, and a man in a dark overcoat stepped out. His features were similar to Zhuang Yifan's, but colder and more handsome. His gaze swept carelessly over the crowd below, carrying a natural sense of pressure.

It was Zhuang Yihan.

Chen Shu's heart pounded violently for a moment, then sank into a deeper silence, as if someone had carved a hole in his chest, leaving only a hollow chill when the wind blew through.

He knew Zhuang Yihan's methods very well. For him to come here for no reason could only mean he was here to settle accounts. Zhuang Yifan looked fierce, but compared to the man before him, it was just child's play, all bark and no bite.

Having anticipated the worst possible outcome, he felt a sense of calm.

Chen Shu stared motionlessly at Zhuang Yihan, watching him walk down from the overpass. His immaculate black leather shoes became stained with snow and mud. He finally stopped slowly in front of him. The man's tall, slender figure was half-swallowed by shadow. His face was the same as when they first met, only with an added, restrained sharpness. His voice was like the perpetual snow on a mountain peak:

"Why?"

There was none of the expected anger or disgust, only a low, indifferent calm. It had been like this for nine years, as if he were an insignificant passerby.

"Why?"

Chen Shu tilted his head slightly, thinking, 'What is Zhuang Yihan asking? Is he asking why I sold the company's newly developed chip technology to a competitor? What reason could there be? The answer couldn't be simpler.'

Chen Shu raised a hand to wipe the blood from the corner of his mouth, a sardonic curve forming on his lips. In the darkness, it was eerily beautiful and unsettling. His voice was hoarse, each word dripping with the utmost malice:

"Zhuang Yihan, I just wanted to see you suffer. If you suffer, I'm happy."

The man raised an eyebrow faintly. "Was I not good to you?"

"..."

After a dead silence, Chen Shu suddenly laughed. His ashen face gained a captivating allure, so stunning that one couldn't look away. He slowly shook his head. "No... you were very good to me."

But doesn't that make it even more hateful? You gave me immense help when I was at my lowest. My food, clothing, shelter, and transportation all came from you. My career came from you. All the glamour and brilliance came from you.

You helped me so much, you were so good to me, yet you just didn't love me. Tell me, how is someone as naturally dark and despicable as me supposed to be magnanimous and let it go?

This one thing alone was the greatest original sin, outweighing thousands upon thousands of trivial transgressions.

"Fuck you! Still talking tough when you're about to die!"

Zhuang Yifan, at the side, finally couldn't take it anymore. He rushed forward in anger to hit Chen Shu, but was stopped by Zhuang Yihan's raised hand. No matter how impulsive and hot-tempered he was, he had to swallow his anger in front of his older brother, glaring viciously at Chen Shu.

Zhuang Yihan strode in front of Chen Shu, the hem of his coat flapping in the river wind. Every move exuded a natural aristocratic air. His voice was deep and cool, yet showed no trace of anger:

"Chen Shu, you've been with me for nine years and still don't understand one thing. It's always me who seeks out trouble for myself. No one else has ever dared to cause trouble for me, Zhuang Yihan."

In other words, he didn't care about these "petty squabbles" of Chen Shu's.

"Next time you do something with a guilty conscience, remember to clean up after yourself. After all, others might not be so soft on you."

After saying this, Zhuang Yihan's gaze fell on the side of Chen Shu's face, bloodied and scraped by gravel. It was unclear what he was thinking. He finally averted his eyes and gave a quiet warning to the still-fuming Zhuang Yifan:

"Have your men pack up and get out of here immediately. If I find you taking matters into your own hands again, I'll break one of your legs. Feel free to try me if you don't believe it."

Zhuang Yifan was dumbfounded. He pointed at Chen Shu and said, "Wait... Brother, you're just letting him go like this?!"

Zhuang Yihan turned and walked away, his actions providing the answer. Seeing this, the bodyguards didn't dare to continue fooling around with Zhuang Yifan. They quickly packed up the ropes, sacks, and other items, and half-carried, half-dragged him away from the riverside.

Chen Shu hadn't expected this outcome. He stared at Zhuang Yihan's retreating back, his body swaying uncontrollably. He felt a bone-deep chill in his limbs. At that moment, a nameless rage surged in Chen Shu's heart, burning his organs with pain. His eyes turned scarlet as he roared hysterically:

"Zhuang Yihan! Who the fuck are you pretending to be, a saint?! I sold the company's core technology! I collaborated with your competitor! Why are you forgiving me?! Fucking hate me! Come and get your revenge!!!"

Why must you always stand on high and look down on him like a stainless god?! Why forgive all his transgressions so easily, without even a hint of anger at this point?! Are you using your magnanimity to condemn him to a lifetime of resentment?! Or is he not even worthy of your hatred?!

He didn't need anyone's forgiveness! He didn't need anyone's pardon! He was born deserving of death! Why didn't Zhuang Yihan kill him?!

However, Chen Shu's hysterical outburst received no reply. He watched as Zhuang Yihan got into the Maybach without a backward glance. Zhuang Yifan was also shoved inside by the bodyguards. The black car departed from the overpass like a ghost, a distance he could never close in his lifetime. It signified not just a separation, but also an abandonment.

In that instant, Chen Shu felt as if all his strength had been drained away. Suddenly, all hope was lost.

"Whoosh—"

A biting river wind blew past. The current by the bank grew more turbulent, like a dark beast greedily opening its maw, ready to devour a person at any moment.

"Brother, why did you let that ungrateful traitor go! Do you know how much damage the leak of the company's core secrets will cause?!"

Zhuang Yifan sat in the back seat, still grumbling incessantly. But the similar face beside him was completely calm. His fingertips pulled a sealed bag from his overcoat pocket, containing a black USB drive.

"I know. That's why I intercepted it right after it got into the competitor's hands."

Zhuang Yihan had navigated the business world for many years; how could he be so easily plotted against? As he spoke, he had already opened the laptop beside him, scanning the information on the USB drive, his gaze deep, possessing a shrewdness and composure beyond his years.

Zhuang Yifan exclaimed in surprise, "When did you intercept the USB drive?!"

Zhuang Yihan: "Three hours ago."

Zhuang Yifan: "Then why didn't you look at it on the spot? What were you doing at the river? It's not like I was really going to drown that little ungrateful bastard..."

Zhuang Yihan suddenly spoke: "The content is fake."

Zhuang Yifan didn't understand. "What? What's fake?"

Zhuang Yihan frowned slowly, his stern face looking complicated in the glow of the computer screen. He enunciated each word, "The content on the USB drive is fake."

Could it be that Chen Shu didn't hand over the real thing?

Zhuang Yifan was stunned. Just then, the car suddenly jolted violently, causing the driver to slam on the brakes. Both his and Zhuang Yihan's bodies lurched forward from the inertia, and even the laptop fell to the floor.

Zhuang Yifan angrily kicked the back of the driver's seat. "Can you fucking drive?! You can't even drive straight on a flat road!"

The driver apologized nervously, quickly correcting the steering. "Sorry, sorry, Young Master Zhuang. I don't know why, but the car suddenly braked and wouldn't move at all. Maybe we ran over something."

Zhuang Yifan cursed a couple more times but didn't say anything further. After all, there had been too many frustrating things tonight. However, after he fell silent, he suddenly realized the car was abnormally quiet. He turned his head to look at Zhuang Yihan and saw him sitting there in a daze, seemingly lost in thought for some reason. "Brother, what's wrong?"

"..."

Zhuang Yihan slowly came back to his senses, leaning back into the seat. "Nothing."

He closed his eyes, his brows slightly furrowed. The lights from outside slid across the car's roof one by one, accentuating the silence of the night. However, it couldn't soothe the intense palpitation he had felt just a moment ago. He couldn't help but speak in a low voice:

"Yifan."

"Hmm?"

"Did you hear something fall into the water just now?"

"How could that be? The car windows are double-paned for soundproofing. Besides, the river is so far below, you wouldn't hear it even if something did fall in."

They didn't think of any other possibility.

Everyone knew Chen Shu was a coward who feared death more than anything.

"Oh..."

The sun rose slowly from the horizon. A cold corpse bobbed in the river water.

Gods and Buddhas often lament that sentient beings refuse to turn back, thus they miss their chances and live with regret for a lifetime.

Chen Shu had jumped himself.

The icy river water pushed him toward the shore again and again, making it almost impossible to move. He finally, drenched in cold water, walked onto the overpass and stared down at the dark water for a long time. The moonlight shone on the river, shattering into a thousand pieces with every wave, as if foretelling something.

It was his life of turning the tables,

It was his life of shattered pieces,

And it was his life of taking the wrong path...

Chen Shu tilted his head with a blank expression, then leaped into the vast river, somber and resolute.

Such a life was too much of a complete failure. He would rather destroy it than cling to a wretched existence.

"Splash—!"

Compared to the bottomless river, a human was like an insignificant pebble. Chen Shu's entry was silent, but the icy water rushed in from all directions, churning and devouring his fragile soul, eventually making a faint, shattering sound, like a gluttonous beast slowly chewing on bones, savoring all sorts of flavors.

Pain, jealousy, hatred, regret...

These negative emotions became the devil's best nourishment.

In a daze, someone let out a low chuckle, but it was blurred by the river wind:

[It's alright, I'll help you rewrite your destiny...]

The price is,

[Help me find enough pain...]