Chapter 042: Work as my Double
Qi Yu called out, “Mom”. Qi Feng didn’t explain why they were quarreling. He angrily grabbed the T-shirt from his chest and wiped the sweat off his jaw. He then led Xue Niu to the indoor glass room and tied the lead.
The central air-conditioning was turned on day and night in the villa. Summers were hot and northern dogs like Samoyeds also had to stay in an air-conditioned room to be comfortable.
Jiang Ying looked at Qi Yu and said, “Have you not been eating and sleeping well these past few days? Look at you, your face looks all worried.”
Qi Yu changed out of shoes and said, “How could you tell?”
Just now he had exchanged a few words with Qi Feng, and Qi Yu thought he looked quite happy.
Jiang Ying: “Take Xiao Feng and compare yourselves in the mirror.”
Qi Feng had just finished washing his hands. He walked around the half the dining table and snatched a piece of steaming sweet and sour pork ribs and stuffed it into his mouth. Voice muffled, he called to Ling Ke, “Ling Ke, the food today’s delicious. Come and eat!”
He had obviously just been pissed at his brother but now his usual carefree look was back on his face, as if nothing in this world could annoy Qi Feng for more than three minutes.
Qi Yu tilted his mouth. In his heart, he wondered how he could possibly compare with a single-celled organism like Qi Feng…
“Did something happen at your dad’s company?” Jiang Ying also knew that Qi Yu’s sudden call to her definitely wasn’t just to come home for a meal.
Qi Yu gave an “en” and pulled out a dining chair. He said, “Let’s talk after dinner.”
At the dinner table, Qi Yu talked with his mother and younger brother about the happenings at home. He felt that he hadn’t experienced this sort of relaxed atmosphere for a long time — there was no need to lie to others, no need to play any mental tricks, and from time to time, in the process of bullying Qi Feng, he’d even feel some sense of superiority that was hard to come by when interacting with Fu Yansheng.
Qi Yu didn’t hate work. Under Qi Yuancheng’s influence, he didn’t dislike the money game of fighting in the business world. He would even feel excited when he comes across a well-matched opponent like Fu Yansheng.
But being in that sort of competitive environment for a long time, he would also feel tired and occasionally, he would go home to decompress.
After the meal, Qi Yu and Jiang Ying went to the study. No longer concealing his purpose, he said bluntly, “Mom, do you know any professional and reliable investigators, like private detectives?”
Jiang Ying has worked in the TV station for many years and her position was quite high. She had a very wide network of contacts. It wasn’t unreasonable for Qi Yu to approach her regarding this matter.
However, she was a little surprised to hear this from Qi Yu. “What are you looking for a private detective for?”
Qi Yu told Jiang Ying what he had been up to in the company this past month after returning to China. Finally, he said, “I suspect that someone in the company might be monitoring me.”
“Monitoring you?” Jiang Ying was shocked.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Mom, no need to be nervous. I just suspect that they’re monitoring my office, though I don’t have any evidence for the time being. After all, I checked the company’s business problems myself before, and found nothing after checking for half a month. Whether it was a scheduled visit or a surprise one, everyone cooperated very well.”
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Moreover, carefully thinking back on it today. His decision to go to Ning Cheng, including finding an investigation company, were things he’d never mentioned inside the company’s office. The decision to go to Ning Cheng was a spur of the moment thought that Qi Yu had when having lunch with Wu Shuang last Thursday. The change in schedule was also something he had notified Wu Shuang of using his mobile phone in the hotel.
This was also one of the reasons why Qi Yu reasonably suspected that he was being monitored in the office.
But Qi Yu didn’t intend to search his office. Wei Tianrui showed him those things and they could be things that could be installed anywhere, and it would be extremely difficult to find them. Once Qi Yu made any moves that looked as though he was searching for them, it would easily expose the fact the he was aware of being monitored. And so, he’ll keep pretending not to know.
Jiang Ying’s expression was solemn. “I understand what you mean, but what do you want me to find a private detective for you for? You want to catch those who are monitoring you?”
“No,” Qi Yu shook his head, “I don’t want to beat the bush and scare the snake. I’ll maintain my current work schedule and practices at Mei Wei. I want the private detectives, mainly because I want them to help me look into some of Mei Wei’s senior management.”
This was also inspired by Fu Yansheng. — Since Fu Yansheng could recommend investigators to him, why couldn’t he find some by himself?
It was not that he didn’t trust the investigator of Zhuo Shi, but that he didn’t want to put all his hopes on Zhuo Shi’s people. After all, what if Wei Tianrui and the others were exposed?
Besides, he couldn’t always ask Fu Yansheng for help.
He didn’t even tell Wu Shuang about this. Although Wu Shuang was someone he himself had recruited, if he himself was being monitored, Wu Shuang wouldn’t be spared.
Moreover, by looking for a private detective through another channel, Qi Yu could in turn examine whether the people he was in contact with and the environment in which he was currently in could be trusted.
After listening, Jiang Ying paced for a bit in the study. Worried, she asked, “I can help you find people, but are you sure you’re safe now? Why didn’t Qi Yuancheng send someone else to investigate this matter? This is too dangerous for you……”
Seeing his mother’s furrowed brows, Qi Yu couldn’t help but say, “Mom, this has nothing to do with dad’s arrangement. I can’t always be Qi Yuancheng’s son. I’m also the future heir of the Si Yuan Group. Everything that Dad has now will be mine in the future. In that case, I will also have to take responsibility for these companies.”
Jiang Ying stared dazed at Qi Yu, as if she couldn’t believe that her 20-year-old son could say this.
“Okay…” Her eyebrows smoothened out. After a couple of steps, she made a call in the study.
Qi Yu listened as his mother calmly dealt with someone else. He was inexplicably reminded of Fu Yansheng calling Jiang Xiao that day. Teacher Fu had also helped him find a professional in the same way, amidst light-hearted conversation.
Qi Yu suddenly realized the importance of establishing his own network.
“Sure.” Jiang Ying hung up the phone, went to the desk and tore off a note. She wrote the name and phone number of the contact person on it and handed it to Qi Yu, “Sometime tomorrow morning, find time to call this Reporter Yang.”
Qi Yu took the note and wondered, “Reporter?”
Jiang Ying laughed. “Don’t underestimate reporters. Those who work in the newspaper industry—especially reporters—are also investigators to some extent. Some reporters are even more professional than investigators. This Reporter Yang that I helped you find is a well-known investigator in the circle. His nickname is the “Red Hound”. He has unearthed many scandals by political figures. He’s semi-retired now. So long as your request can move him, this request of yours is mere child’s play for him.”
Qi Yu was immediately filled with respect.
Jiang Ying was silent for a moment, and then said, “If you need, you can also ask Qi Feng for help.”
Qi Yu was taken aback. He did think of asking Qi Feng to help cover for him, so that he could go out when he needed to act alone — but considering that doing so might involve getting his younger brother in danger, Qi Yu immediately dispelled this idea.
“He might not be willing to help me…,” Qi Yu said evasively.
Jiang Ying said softly, “He’s your brother and he wouldn’t want you to be facing this danger alone. If you explain it to him well, he’ll help you.”
Qi Yu: “……”
Jiang Ying rubbed her brows, and said, “And I think that kid has been too idle recently. You can find something for him to do.”
After talking with his mother, Qi Yu hesitated for a moment and then went to knock on Qi Feng’s door.
“The door’s unlocked, come in!” Qi Feng had gone to watch a movie with Ling Ke in his room after dinner. Seeing that it was Qi Yu, he was puzzled, “Ge, you haven’t left yet?”
“Come out for a bit, I have something to discuss with you,” Qi Yu said.
“What’s the matter?” Seeing Qi Yu’s demeanor, Qi Feng said to Ling Ke “Just go ahead and watch.” He then followed Qi Yu out of the room.
When they arrived at Qi Yu’s room next door, Qi Feng asked, “What’s wrong? Why are you being all mysterious?”
“I need you to help me out for the next few days,” Qi Yu said.
“What is it?”
“During the next month, I may need you to pretend to be me and go to Mei Wei’s Haicheng branch to work for a few days.”
……Huh? Qi Feng immediately refused, “Are you trying to skip out on work and make me a coolie? I won’t go!”
Qi Yu narrowed his eyes. “Skip out on work? Do you think I’m you? I’m so busy lately, I wish I could split myself into two.”
Qi Feng frowned and said, “You can complain to dad if you’ve got too much workload. I’ve always thought he’s pushing you too much…”
Qi Yu really didn’t want to repeat the words he’d just told his mother to Qi Feng. Also, he really had no right to use his own responsibilities to kidnap Qi Feng.
He thought for a while, and decided to lure the other party into submission. “Xiao Feng, do you know that you still have shares in dad’s company even after the divorce? Those shares are being held by mom’s assistant for you. And the pocket money dad gives you every year comes from the company’s profits. Now the company has a problem, and management is hiding it from us. This is what I’ve been investigating recently. If we don’t get to the bottom of it, you might not be receiving anymore pocket money from dad in the future…”
Qi Feng interrupted him with a messy look on his face, “Is dad going bankrupt?”
Qi Yu: “……???”
Qi Feng said anxiously, “Uh, if you guys don’t have any money, you could actually come back. Mom still has some money. She’s soft-hearted and might take both of you in…”
Qi Yu was getting a headache. He simply gave up communicating and directly threatened, “Are you going to help me or not!?”
Qi Feng saw the ugly expression on his brother’s face and bitterly raised his hands in surrender, “Fine, fine. What are you getting so angry for? I’ll help you so give me a break… What do you want me to do?”
Qi Yu took a deep breath, calmed down and told him briefly about his current situation. He then said, “When I need to go out myself to do investigations, you’ll stay in the company instead of me to confuse those people’s attention.”
Qi Feng nervously said, “But I don’t understand what you do…”
“You don’t need to do anything. You just sit in the office, pretend to look at documents and surf the net.” Qi Yu told Qi Feng some of the specific details and his own plan to dispel Qi Feng’s anxiety.
If it’s only to the level his brother said, Qi Feng thought it shouldn’t be that difficult. But he still had some concerns, “We don’t seem to be the exactly same anymore. Are you sure that I won’t be seen through if I pretend to be you?”
Qi Yu was taken aback, “In what aspects are we not the same?”
“Hair style, hair color, figure.” Qi Feng pointed to his left ear and said, “And I have a pierced ear and you don’t.”
Qi Yu circled Qi Feng, taking a look at him. His hairstyle and hair color could easily be resolved. As for their figure, because the two brothers were both quite evenly proportioned, it didn’t seem that there would be too much of a problem.
The key was the pierced ear. Qi Yu looked at the cross stud on his brother’s left ear and was momentarily at a loss for words.
He remembered that it was Qi Feng who specially had it done in order to make it easier for Ling Ke to distinguish them. Ling Ke also had one on his ear.
————
【Little Theater】
Fu: Investigating by yourself? How are you going to find out anything like that? Go find a professional!
7 fish (eyes shining): This method of yours is pretty good. I’ll be making that my own.
A double? I have a bad feeling… not that something will go wrong, but that there’ll be a lot of secondhand embarrassment…
Anyway, thank you for the chapter!
kegh i-i feel the same way.. :’)
rip QYs rep
…mentally preparing myself now!! tt
qi feng, you dummy
Thanks for the chapter~ (^^)
thanks for the chapter!
Mama Qi suggest QY to get help from QF also cuz she’s lowkey annoyed by how idle he is bah.. She took her diligent daughter-in-law to do internship at the station while her own son came fighting for his lover’s time and attention with her everyday lol