I really do like him, and I really want to be together with him.

Chen Zhi attempted to tug of war with the roaring waves, but unfortunately, matters and wishes were like oil and water. 

The second day was when Ren Xingliu’s performance truly made everyone taste the dust.

In fact, it was a coincidence that this team building was jointly organized by several business departments. In order to reflect professionalism, the planning team specially hired an outsourcing team to design the event.

As it happened, this team building event’s program was outsourced by an external party. The planning team wanted to show professionalism, especially when this event was especially held for several divisions.

Unlike traditional games merely for entertaining, there were pure competitions today, such as rock climbing, zip line, and trail riding. 

To be honest, it wasn’t that difficult, but achieving results was another story. Strength alone wasn’t going to be cut out for it, one must have skills and teamwork.

For Ren Xingliu, who had been marching and fighting in wars, this was like daily home cooking.

He was both tactful and strategic and wouldn’t put on airs at all. He could explain the division of labor to his team in an easy-to-understand manner, while also taking care of the lagging members.

As one came and two went, no members in the group went against him and were willing to hear him out. Naturally, they united as one. Thus, efficiency also peaked.

The end result was that after a few competitions, the other teams not only failed to narrow the gap with Team One, but their motivation and willpower were in shambles.

There was nothing they could do. Team One’s performance was like something that went against heaven. The key was that the Crown Prince came in like a wrecking ball.

There was an archery competition between everything, where Ren Xingliu hit the bullseye in nearly all of his arrows, pulling the weight of his whole team.

In short, the whole thing was outrageous. 

At first, Chen Zhi insisted on his final struggle, but gradually, he became dispirited. After seeing Ren Xingliu rapidly fire ten arrows in a row at one go, his fighting spirit died completely.

Before the competition ended, he used the excuse of not feeling well and listlessly left in a vehicle.

As soon as he left, the people in his division breathed a sigh of relief. The past two days have been suffocating for them.

Actually, their team wasn’t doing that bad. Because their leader had personally supervised them, they have always maintained the second spot. 

But the mental pressure was too great, and the second-place reward was simply not enough to make up for the trauma they had suffered!

Fortunately, the competition proved to be too much for Chen Zhi, so he got out first!

While they breathed a sigh of relief, some people couldn’t help but feel weird: “Mr. Chen’s judgment is a bit off. I’d better wait until the game is over before leaving.”

While taking a breath of relief, there was someone who couldn’t resist making a passive-aggressive comment, “Mr. Chen’s tolerance sure is poor. He could at least wait until the competition is over before leaving.” 

Wasn’t it a joke for the head leader to leave first and abandon the division.

“No, he doesn’t seem to be feeling well.” Another person whispered, “When I went to the bathroom a moment ago, I happened to hear his assistant talking to the doctor on the phone, making an appointment for Mr. Chen to have a heart checkup.”

“…For real?”

… Voaxuf

In the end, Team One undoubtedly took the victory with their insane lead…as well as the prize of two million.

Although the other teams were envious and jealous, they didn’t object to this, after all, Team One had the score to prove it.

But of course, it was inevitable to get some salty people, and the most common comment was—

“If only the Crown Prince was in our team, we could do it as well.” 

“Team One is so lucky to have the Crown Prince airdropped into their team.”

“…”

Then in the blink of an eye, Ren Xingliu was already a hand-burning celebrity, and they reaped the benefits.

While they were sweating from this, they also had to curse from the bottom of their hearts: Rumors are harmful!

…

It was already evening, and the sun was setting in the west. The orange red glow passed through the bus window, dividing the interior of the vehicle into two different halves, shadow and light.

However, no one appreciated this natural phenomenon. After two days of activity, everyone was exhausted as they were all paralyzed in their seats while yawning.

Ren Xingliu also committed the crime of sleeping, so just like before on their way there, he rested his head on Bai Juanqiu’s shoulder.

Bai Juanqiu allowed him to be leaned on. Feeling the head bounced with the bus, he reached out and propped the head slightly, not wanting for the youth to feel discomfort. B0W6P5

Then, the head snuggled against the back of his head.

“Xiao Bai.” Ren Xingliu called out in a low voice, probably feeling disoriented based on the muffled tone.

Bai Juanqiu also lowered his voice and asked, “Yes?”

Ren Xingliu said, “Cold.” 

He was really lying with his eyes open this time.

Their driver was very experienced and knew that passengers would definitely doze off on this ride, so he deliberately turned on the heating to the fullest.

The inside was so toasty that some people, who get hot easily, had taken off their jackets.

However, Bai Juanqiu just smiled. “Okay.” 

As he spoke, he turned his body to his side, wrapping his long arms around the youth and taking the other person fully into his embrace.

Ren Xingliu allowed himself to be hugged and buried his head directly into the warm chest.

After a while, he murmured again, “Xiao Bai, you do know that I’m lying to you, right?”

“Yes, I do.” 

–

The day after the team building activity, Ren Xingliu was called to Ren Zhu’s office as soon as he arrived at the company.

“You performed very well in this team building. I heard that you even won the MVP of the game?” Ren Zhu used the question, but his eyes were smiling, full of recognition for him.

“I heard you performed very well in the team building event this time, and ever got MVP for the entirety of the event?” Ren Zhu used a questioning tone, but her eyes were brimming with joy. She was fully confident in him. 

She usually wouldn’t pay much attention to the team building between ordinary employees, but this time, she specifically asked the planning team for video clips.

Although she had long known that Ren Xingliu was different from before, she felt a heartfelt pride after seeing his performance.

Ren Xingliu didn’t feel much, if being truthful, there was a slight pang in his heart.

This was the result of a decade of hard work! But he gave a vague answer, “I was just lucky. I played these before.” 

He was telling the truth, but when Ren Zhu heard it, the joy in her eyes deepened.

Not bad, he was acting humbler; it was no wonder he was loved by so many colleagues.

Ren Zhu’s biggest concern was that her son wouldn’t get along with his coworkers after entering the company.

The shareholders already have a strong opinion of him, and if he wasn’t even welcome by the employees below, it would be very difficult for him to advance. 

She didn’t expect that after just a single activity, Ren Xingliu had easily eliminated everyone’s prejudices against him.

Even He Lang had lamented to her several times, saying that people in their department now recognized Ren Xingliu very much. After returning from this team building, the cohesion of the entire department has become significantly stronger.

Even He Lang had sighed about it with her several times, saying that the people in his division greatly approve of Ren Xingliu. After the team building event, his entire division was also significantly more united.

If this was a few months before, Ren Zhu wouldn’t even dream of this. 

Now she was completely relieved. She came to a decision and said, “I have unfrozen your credit card and left your car keys in the house. You can go back and pick them up anytime.”

Initially, the full supervision of Ren Xingliu was only to get him to calm down and pave the way for him to enter the company.

However, that wasn’t necessary any longer.

Ren Xingliu was in a moment of trance… If Ren Zhu didn’t mention it, he would have forgotten that he was still being subjected to economic sanctions. 

After all, it had been over a decade since he lived a good life, so it was fine being imposed by sanctions!

Of course, lifting those sanctions was also a good thing. In the future, he may be able to do things more freely, such as…

Having a certain date in mind, Ren Xingliu scoffed softly and nodded. “Okay, I got it.”

Ren Zhu was even more relieved by this response.

Her son was indeed more mature now. He wasn’t as irritable as before, with his emotions written on his sleeves.

In addition to feeling moved, Ren Zhu had to ponder more.

In the beginning, she forced Ren Xingliu to go on blind dates to teach him a lesson. What resulted from these unforeseen circumstances was this unexpected joy.

It was thanks to the fact that the person Ren Xingliu ended up choosing was Bai Juanqiu, who was a really good kid. 

It was just…Ren Zhu’s mood instantly soured when she thought of the latest news she had received.

As Ren Xingliu was about to get up and leave, he suddenly heard Ren Zhu call out to him, “Wait.”

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Ren Xingliu asked, “Is there something else?”

After a moment of hesitation, Ren Zhu ultimately began, “There’s something I think I need to tell you…about young Juanqiu.” 

Ren Xingliu froze and said, “What?”

Ren Zhu took out a document from her desk and handed it to him, saying with a solemn expression, “Take a look.”

After her last conversation with Ren Xingliu, she got a subordinate to investigate the Bai Family and Bai Juanqiu’s history.

The Bai family was very cautious on this matter and left not much information. That is to say, Ren has such a huge resource channel that he can peel off the cocoons and finally dig out some truth. 

The Bai Family was very cautious in this matter and didn’t leave much footprint. It was only with the Ren Empire’s huge networking that strings were pulled, and truth was dug out.

However, one spot was enough for her to see the leopard.

The thin sheet of paper contained all the wounds that had been inflicted on a half-grown child.

Ren Xingliu had long speculated about the feud between Bai Juanqiu and the Bai Family, but to see the evidence, he still felt an indescribable anger. 

“I didn’t think the Bai Family would treat young Juanqiu like this, letting him suffer…” Ren Zhu said, sounding like she was blaming herself.

If she was more attentive at the beginning, she would definitely have been able to find these spider’s threads and horse tracks.

It was just that she didn’t pay that in mind and also didn’t take the time to delve deeper.

If the Bai Family dared to do this, they obviously took this into consideration. 

They expected for the Ren Family to not take Bai Juanqiu seriously, more so on taking the time to find out the truth about his situation.

At the same time, they also firmly believe that there would be no follow-up on this blind date.

Which was why Bai Guanghai having the guts to send his nephew over as a ‘gift’ in order to establish a business connection with the Ren Family.

And in this process, Bai Juanqiu was merely a tool that could be discarded after use. 

Bai Guanghai almost succeeded.

Ren Zhu felt guilty because she knew very well that if things hadn’t happened midway and Ren Xingliu had actually fallen in love with Bai Juanqiu, then this blind date would have hurt Bai Juanqiu.

Ren Zhu felt remorseful because she knew very well that if it weren’t for the variables that arose in the middle, such as Ren Xingliu actually falling for Bai Juanqiu, the blind date would have hurt Bai Juanqiu.

Even after learning the truth, she began to doubt whether Bai Juanqiu and Ren Xingliu were together voluntarily or not. 

Ren Xingliu saw the worry on Ren Zhu’s face and probably guessed her concerns, so he muttered: “Mom, you don’t have to worry… I have never made Xiaobai suffer.”

Ren Xingliu saw the worried expression on Ren Zhu’s face and probably guessed her concerns. He murmured, “Mother, don’t worry… I have never let Xiao Bai suffer any injustice.”

Even in this agreement that started as a show, he had unknowingly invested in this relationship.

It wasn’t just about not wanting the other person to suffer any injustice. 

Ren Xingliu looked at Ren Zhu with a rare moment of seriousness. “I really do like him, and I really want to be together with him.”

“That’s good.” Ren Zhu’s heart settled slightly, but there were still some concerns as she asked, “Then does Juanqiu…”

“He treats me very well.” Ren Xingliu said. Then as if he thought of something, he smiled. “If you don’t feel at ease in all of this, I’ll find a chance to ask him if he really wants to be with me or not.”

Ren Zhu: “…” 

There was no need!

After joking around, Ren Xingliu said solemnly, “Mother, let me handle this matter. Since this is Xiao Bai’s business, I don’t think he wants too many people to interfere.”

When Ren Zhu first learned the truth, she hesitated and also considered whether to handle the matter privately or not.

After all, ever since very early on, she had always solved the troubles that were too heavy for Ren Xingliu to handle. 

At this moment, seeing Ren Xingliu’s calm and composed demeanor, she felt that he was truly capable of standing on his own.

Ren Zhu nodded. “Alright, I trust you.”