Chapter 145: Coercion and Enticement

Yurong just received a read receipt, knowing that Li Yan had already seen it. Although she was a bit worried about him, she thought that his driving skills were excellent, he frequently traveled this route, and they weren’t yet on busy streets, so she wasn’t overly concerned. But since he was still driving, if he wanted to reply, it should be after he got home, right? Yet, unexpectedly, he replied quickly.

Well, it’s not a big deal. Can’t one just park their car to respond if it’s important to them? Of course, he would reply immediately if he cared.

What she wanted was simply that Li Yan wouldn’t leave home again tonight because of any misunderstanding between her and Liu Yuyang. It hasn’t even been a full day, and if he leaves again, it won’t be that easy to return. So, as long as he saw the message, she felt a bit relieved, at least he should give some time for an explanation, right?

So she wasn’t too concerned about the reply, estimating phrases like "received", "got it", "understood", but... what is this? n55!W!

Could it be a garbled message? Display error?

Mobile phones don’t have as many formats as computers, there’s no such difference as binary, hexadecimal, plain text, ASCII, ANSI, Unicode, etc., so she immediately tried switching to traditional characters from Yun Country, but it was still the same! n55!W! No Yun Country character appeared.

What exactly does this mean?

Was it a garbled character sent by Li Yan, or did he just randomly press a few keys to send it? Or... do these letters and numbers have any special meaning?

She pondered for a while, still not understanding what it meant, n55!W!, two numbers, two letters, three exclamation marks, neither in Yun Country phonetic, international abbreviations, nor the character shape, spelled any meaning.

Thinking that Li Yan should have finished sending the message and continued on the road, she didn’t want to disturb his driving, planning to call and ask him after he got home, and meanwhile, considering consulting Jiang Xueyin, maybe it’s some latest trend, young girls should know.

...

Meanwhile, Liu Yuyang was driving, chasing after Li Yan, noticing that he was getting a bit closer, not realizing Li Yan had slowed down a little. He thought that he was finally about to catch up, preparing to overtake from the side, when suddenly a spark shot swiftly across, appearing right on the windshield, then splattering some sparks and ash, which were quickly blown away by the wind.

Although it was only for a moment, he realized it was a cigarette butt thrown by Li Yan. But when the sparkle flew over, it really felt a bit like gunfire, giving him a slight shock. Luckily, there wasn’t any gunshot sound, otherwise, it would indeed give him a scare.

This briefly interrupted his sight, though very short-lived, Liu Yuyang was sure it was intentional by Li Yan, snickering secretly, he sped up to catch up. When he caught up with Li Yan’s car, looking over from the side, he saw him not smoking anymore but texting while driving, making Liu Yuyang very furious, isn’t that underestimating him too much?

He couldn’t care less about safety now, fiercely accelerating his car, swiftly overtaking Li Yan’s car, then driving tens of meters ahead, slamming the brakes and skidding the car sideways, blocking the road.

Li Yan, having already read and replied to the text, saw Liu Yuyang’s car sideways on the roadside, by this time he had driven a distance away from the villa area, he quickly pondered, then parked on the roadside.

"Mr. Liu, what do you want? Want to race or want me to crash into you?"

Li Yan, who had barely smoked that much, lit another cigarette after getting out, teasingly looking at Liu Yuyang ahead.

Liu Yuyang just wanted to stop Li Yan, a bit apprehensive about crashing earlier, it wasn’t worth it. Seeing him stop now, even getting out to smoke, he felt assured, afraid of another truck passing by, hurriedly turning around, parking back by the roadside.

"We’re all men here, no need for pretenses, let’s just talk directly!" Liu Yuyang walked over. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

Li Yan looked at him, with a half-smile on his face, said: "Talk about what? Affairs of the heart?"

Liu Yuyang snorted coldly, "Is this smooth-talking how you seduced Yurong?"

"Is this smooth-talking how you plan to seduce me?" Li Yan asked with a smile, blowing a puff of smoke at him.

Liu Yuyang furrowed his brows. If it wasn’t for just seeing Li Yan as a normal man at the Zhang Family earlier.

"Is this car newly bought? How much did it cost?"

Seeing him change the topic, Li Yan smiled and replied, "I don’t know either, Yurong bought it for me."

Hearing this, Liu Yuyang was very disdainful. Isn’t this just being a kept man? And he’s not ashamed but rather proud of it!

Yet, despite the disdain, since Li Yan admitted it himself, there was nothing for him to mock. Given that he’s not ashamed but proud, if you kept taunting, he might even take it as a compliment.

With his words being blocked, Liu Yuyang had to jump to the next question. "Did you see my car? Do you know how much it costs?"

Li Yan wasn’t a car enthusiast, unfamiliar with all cars; nor was he a flashy rich kid, so his knowledge of luxury cars was limited to the more well-known ones; his driving skills were excellent, but he didn’t rely on the car’s performance to show that. He practiced driving, not to gamble on cars, show off, or pretend, but to easily leave any environment. So, even the worst car must perform to its fullest potential; in practice, he wouldn’t just use good cars, mostly ordinary ones. Because assassins don’t use flashy luxury cars for their tasks, even if they were to steal a car, it would be an ordinary, inconspicuous one.

So, when returning to the Zhang Family, seeing Liu Yuyang’s car, he could only tell it was a costly luxury car but didn’t notice the specific make or model. Now, hearing Liu Yuyang’s words, he immediately understood his intent. He casually said, "I don’t recognize it, don’t know."

"My car is worth about ten times yours!" Liu Yuyang pointed to his chest with his finger, "I bought it with the money I earned myself!"

He specifically emphasized not only the price of the car but also that he bought it with his own money, not relying on his family, which was, of course, a jab at Li Yan for relying on a woman to buy his car.

Li Yan nodded, clamped a cigarette in his mouth, and clapped his hands, "Very impressive. But you don’t have to show off to me, nor egg me on to have Yurong buy me one. The one Yurong bought me should be ten times more expensive than the one I had before, right? Haha, I’m quite content."

Egg you on to have Yurong buy you one? Liu Yuyang was feeling annoyed. Is this guy brainless or shameless? But he didn’t seem like a brainless person, nor a shameless one, which only left one explanation—he’s deliberately messing with him!

Showing off has to have an effect to be enjoyable. If showing off is countered, it might internally injure one instead.

Liu Yuyang was initially an exceptional person, able to maintain a graceful and cultured side in front of others, but now on a dark roadside, without much traffic passing by, with just the two of them, it was more likely to expose a side usually hidden. If Li Yan had agreed with him, suggesting to find a place to drink and chat leisurely, he would have chosen more genteel words for Li Yan.

But now Li Yan not only didn’t give him face but also maintained a calm and poised attitude. Even repeatedly mentioning Yurong buying him a car without feeling ashamed, instead making Liu Yuyang feel like he was showing off their relationship. This made him very frustrated; since when did Zhang Yurong buy things for men? Even if she did, it should’ve been for me!

"Since you’re not avoiding it, I’ll be straightforward. You probably don’t have a high education or strong abilities, just sweet-talked your way to Yurong, right? Although Zhang Tianyi and his wife are easygoing, do you really think you can become their son-in-law? A woman as outstanding as Yurong, are you worthy of her?" Liu Yuyang tried to keep calm, beginning to sound harsh.

Li Yan shrugged, "It’s obvious, having dinner together tonight, we match well. In the afternoon, we went out to see a movie, and others said we are like a perfect couple."

"A poor guy who even needs Yurong to buy him a car talks about being well-matched? How much can you earn a month? Three thousand? Five thousand? Enough to buy an outfit, or enough for a meal?" Liu Yuyang sneered, "Do you hope to hook up with the Zhang family, and eventually Paradise Group will be yours? Zhang Yurong is the president of Paradise Group now, do you think she might marry you? Even if she agrees, would other directors and major shareholders agree? Gaining Zhang family shares would certainly impact Paradise Group. By then, either you sign a prenuptial agreement ensuring you won’t get any shares from Zhang Yurong, or she hands over her position! What could you gain? Some pocket money from Yurong every month?"

Li Yan exclaimed, "Really? Oh dear! I’m just an ignorant low-level poor guy, how could it be like this? If my wife and in-laws want to give me the shares, isn’t it okay? Can’t I take over? I thought I could become a vice-president, director, or something."

Liu Yuyang sneered, "If you truly had the ability to earn the trust of the board and major shareholders, you wouldn’t be relying on others. At the end of the day, perhaps you can live in luxury, without worrying about food and clothing, but you’ll just be like a kept woman, pleasing women and living on a bit of pocket money. No, you’ll be worse than a kept woman! A kept woman only needs to please one person, while you have to please the entire Zhang family. With the Zhang family having no son, you will be marrying into a wealthy family; your children will bear the Zhang surname! For that bit of benefit, how would you face your parents?"

Damn, this guy spits out words smoothly. Li Yan continued watching his performance, took a deep drag on his cigarette, and with a moved expression asked, "Brother Yuyang, do you have any good suggestions?"

Seeing Li Yan like this, although Liu Yuyang was suspicious of his change, he continued to speak; both intimidation and persuasion needed to be combined for effectiveness.

(Thanks to the brothers who tipped on the 19th: Guo Polun, Book Friend 100505081224547, zjun971210, dongmin8061, Cp Pampas, Li Fanshow\) (To be continued, to find out what happens next, please visit www.qidian.com for more Chapters, support the author, support legitimate reading!)