After leaving Catherine’s house, Ye Shanshan didn’t go to the office. Instead, he instructed the driver to take him directly to the hospital, planning to have lunch with Gong Yue before getting to work.
He closed the ward door, loosened his dark tie with his right hand, and finally felt his breathing become much smoother. He sat on the edge of the bed, leaned forward to kiss Gong Yue’s slightly dry lips, and waited until they were moist before pulling back contentedly.
He then pressed his ear against Gong Yue’s chest, listening to the slow and rhythmic heartbeat. Feeling a sense of security, Ye Shanshan began speaking, his voice a bit troubled:
“Ge, I went to see Aunt Liu earlier, and I met Gong Ji as well.”
He intertwined his fingers with Gong Yue’s, his tone showing some distress:
“It feels like we’re in hard mode, like a puzzle-solving or detective case level. Didn’t we suspect them a while ago? We suspected Aunt Liu might be connected to the ‘God-Making Plan,’ and so was Gong Ji. But after I went there, I felt the possibility isn’t that high. Of course, it could also be that Aunt Liu’s acting is just too good, but I still believe she’s not involved with the God-Making Plan. As for Gong Ji…”
Ye Shanshan opened his palm and frowned:
“When his mom was turning away to wipe her tears, he held my hand. Very quickly, he clearly wrote four letters in my palm—’Leto.’ His eyes…”
Ye Shanshan wasn’t entirely sure either, “It seemed like he was asking for help? He probably wanted to tell me something, but this word could either be a name, a place, a brand, or even an island. I spent the whole way back checking for information related to this word, but I couldn’t find anything logically consistent. What do you think he was trying to tell me?”
He rubbed Gong Yue’s palm, trying to think from Gong Ji’s perspective. If he were Gong Ji, and had the rare chance to send out a distress signal, he would choose a simple word that could still summarize the situation, but the clue would not be too obvious, to avoid any risk of exposure.
From this behavior, it was clear that Gong Ji was concerned about something, which was why he used such a covert method.
“Music, Leto, hand,” Ye Shanshan listed the potentially useful clues and thought for a moment. He took out his phone, opened Teacher Hess’s chat, and sent a message:
“Teacher, do you know ‘Leto’?”
He didn’t want to limit the options too much, worried that narrowing the scope would cause him to miss out on important information. But the relevant information that Teacher Hess had previously sent had already been ruled out.
Rubbing his temples, Ye Shanshan reached out to hug Gong Yue. “I’ll stay with you for ten minutes. I still have to face those troublesome people this afternoon…”
※※※
The black computer in Gong Yue’s office had the best configuration, usually used for handling large amounts of data and computations. Ye Shanshan opened two more laptops, placed all three computers in front of him, and stretched his fingers.
When the clock’s hands pointed to two o’clock, Ye Shanshan glanced at his phone, which displayed a picture of Gong Yue sleeping. He gently tapped it with the tip of his finger. “Ge, I’ll help you get back at them.”
After saying this, Ye Shanshan turned his attention to the computer screen.
After capturing Carter earlier in the morning, they had kept the news under wraps. Carter continued to interact with the Brian family, mixing false and true information. The final agreement was for them to act at 2 PM.
Sure enough, as the clock struck two, a force began aggressively buying up Gong’s shares. Soon, Gong’s stock prices skyrocketed, with an extraordinary premium. Anyone with a keen eye could see this was a premeditated attack on Gong’s company, and they began to watch the situation closely.
It was like a group of vultures, waiting for both sides to suffer or for one side to be completely defeated, so they could pick up the pieces.
Ye Shanshan stared at the screen for over an hour, his mind constantly calculating the data, his fingers flying across the keyboard. Countless streams of data flowed through him, and after analysis, he sent out various instructions.
Checking the time, Ye Shanshan rubbed his eyes. “Assistant Qin, send them the information.”
As expected, after sending the news about holding over 50% of Gong’s shares to the Brian family, they quickly realized that with such a massive holding, Ye Shanshan’s absolute control was unshakeable.
Twenty minutes later, the buying momentum started to reverse, and Gong’s stock price began to plummet rapidly.
Ye Shanshan took a sip of water, patiently waiting another half hour, watching the continuously refreshing numbers on the screen. He muttered to himself, “It’s almost at the bottom.”
Then, Ye Shanshan started to aggressively lower the price of the shares he held, selling off large quantities to create the illusion of an endless decline. Facing such a sharp drop, retail investors holding Gong’s shares began to sell off their holdings in a panic, scrambling to cut their losses, and among them was the previously confident Brian family.
Seeing the other side fall into his trap, Ye Shanshan continued to drive the market down while buying back the shares, gradually raising his stake. In the process of selling and buying, his ownership in the company increased by two percentage points.
A terrifying increase.
This invisible battle had been deadly, and in this financial storm, the Brian family and their allies suffered significant losses, ultimately failing. Those who had made the wrong bets during this confrontation would inevitably face the consequences, potentially losing everything.
The board members who had been watching this “war” had to admit that handing over the Gong family to Ye Shanshan was indeed a very wise decision. His performance had far exceeded everyone’s expectations.
Unconcerned with others’ opinions, Ye Shanshan looked out at the darkening sky, tidied up his desk, and felt a rare sense of satisfaction.
— The two percent increase in stock ownership would make a perfect gift for Gong Yue when he woke up, and Ye Shanshan was sure he’d receive a long kiss in return.
“Tomorrow, the news will probably come out that someone has gone bankrupt because of this, including the Brian family,” Ye Shanshan smiled, “There should no longer be a Brian family after this. Let the PR department keep the narrative going, don’t let the ants think they can just step in whenever they want.”
Seeing that Assistant Qin understood, Ye Shanshan grabbed his coat. “Everyone worked hard this afternoon, so the bonus should be a bit higher.”
After receiving confirmation, Qin Xuan bowed slightly in respect. It was only at this moment that he truly understood why Gong Yue had entrusted everything to Ye Shanshan and wasn’t worried whether Ye Shanshan could handle it.
He even felt that, in some ways, Ye Shanshan was more farsighted than Gong Yue, completely and accurately anticipating the measures the Brian family would take and responding swiftly without missing a step.
— This had been a satisfying battle, with the outcome already decided.
Once inside the Range Rover, Ye Shanshan felt a bit tired, but to maintain his domineering CEO image, he hesitated for a moment before quietly raising the partition. He pulled out his gold Pikachu blanket from the storage compartment and wrapped himself up tightly before reclining against the back seat.
Just as he was drifting off to sleep due to mental fatigue, Teacher Hess called.
“Teacher?”
“Ye, this is really something incredible! I know who the Leto you mentioned is!” Teacher Hess’s voice was excited.
Upon hearing this, Ye Shanshan’s heart tightened.
He adjusted the blanket around him. “Who is it?”
“After I retired, a long-established publisher in Vienna wanted to help me publish a book, so I’ve been sorting through materials from the past few decades. Just now, my assistant found an old set of scores in a box. I looked at them—they were written by me over ten years ago, but for various reasons, they were never released. I only performed them once in a small music hall, and since the audience was small, I forgot about it until now.
And in the background story of this score, the male protagonist’s name is Leto. This name is entirely fictional; it has no real-world inspiration. I remember I was drinking a certain beverage at the time, so I chose ‘Leto’ for the protagonist’s name. I’ll send you the handwritten manuscript later. It’s a wonderful story!”
After explaining, Teacher Hess was curious. “So how did you know about Leto?”
Ye Shanshan gripped the blanket and replied calmly, “A friend mentioned it. He must be a loyal fan of yours.”
Teacher Hess was pleased but tried to maintain composure in front of his student, chuckling. “You can tell your friend that it’s my honor.”
After hanging up, Ye Shanshan looked out at the passing scenery, his mind certain that Gong Ji had wanted to tell him something, but had been under surveillance, which was why he used such a covert method. To avoid creating too many complications or leaking information, he had chosen the clue “Leto”—a reference to Teacher Hess’s work, which was obscure and safe.
— Ye Shanshan was certain that Gong Ji had intended to give him this information without drawing attention.
When Ye Shanshan arrived at the hospital, he checked the message from Teacher Hess, which contained over twenty images. Each image showed patterned paper with handwritten text, the paper yellowing with age.
He tightened his grip on his phone and, only when sitting in the ward, opened the images.
He read each word carefully, and the story didn’t have any particularly unusual elements—it had the characteristics of a European folktale.
It was about a prince named Leto from a small country who fell asleep while riding in the mountains and dreamed of falling in love with a fairy from the wilds. As a result, he refused the arranged marriage his king father had planned for him.
When the king learned the reason, he locked Leto in a high tower and fed him a drug to turn him into a puppet, intending to use him to attract the fairy and capture her, gaining immense power.
Eventually, the prince escaped the palace and found the fairy, and the story ended there. Correspondingly, the score was divided into several parts.
Ye Shanshan read it twice. If he were to apply this story to Gong Ji, he would be the prince Leto, with the king representing his father, Gong Ze.
So, Gong Ji was trying to express that his current illness was caused by his father’s actions?
As Ye Shanshan pondered Gong Ji’s intention in showing him this story, the temperature monitoring device at the foot of the bed suddenly lit up red and emitted a sharp “beep” sound.
Ye Shanshan’s heart skipped a beat. He reached out to touch Gong Yue’s skin and realized that his temperature had dropped again.
With trembling hands, Ye Shanshan checked Gong Yue’s breathing and leaned in to listen to his heartbeat. When he confirmed that both were still there, he let out a long sigh of relief. In fact, the tension had caused his muscles to ache as they relaxed.
Looking at Gong Yue’s pale face, countless scenes flashed through Ye Shanshan’s mind. Suddenly, he recalled a memory from when they were on Misius Island. Gong Youli had once read him a story about animals hibernating.
“小一, special individuals, under certain extreme conditions, can also enter hibernation. But during this process, it cannot be interrupted, because it means that the person in ‘hibernation’ is lowering the internal temperature of their body to the minimum to achieve repair. It’s a form of bodily regulation.”
As an experimental subject, Ye Shanshan had been restricted from learning about genetic research while on the island. The researchers working on the “God-making” project were worried that if Ye Shanshan could conduct research on his own, he would quickly escape their control.
So, the knowledge Ye Shanshan had learned was limited to the most basic concepts, taught to him verbally by Gong Youli.
In that moment, Ye Shanshan was certain that what Gong Youli had described was exactly what Gong Yue was experiencing these past few days.
Turning off the machine that had been blinking red, Ye Shanshan removed his clothes, lifted the covers, and lay down beside Gong Yue. The moment their skin touched, he shivered from the cold. He took a moment to adjust and then turned on his side to hold Gong Yue, gently patting him. “Ge, you won’t be cold like this. I’m holding you.”
He didn’t know how much time passed before he suddenly heard a faint sound from Gong Yue. Ye Shanshan’s eyes flew open, and he saw Gong Yue’s lips slightly moving.
Turning to face him, Ye Shanshan cautiously spoke, “Ge?”
His throat was dry, so he softened his breath and called again, “Ge, are you awake?”
There was no response.
That’s alright.
Just as Ye Shanshan was about to feel disappointed again, he suddenly noticed Gong Yue’s eyelashes fluttering slightly. He couldn’t help but hold his breath. After about ten seconds, he saw Gong Yue’s eyes, which had been tightly shut for a long time, slowly open.
“Ge?” Ye Shanshan felt his heart racing, his thoughts almost stuck. He even wondered if this was just a hallucination caused by his intense longing.
With a bit of nervousness, he raised his hand to touch Gong Yue’s face. Before he could say anything, he felt Gong Yue’s hand on his back, gently stroking him, just like before.
Only then did Ye Shanshan realize that, from earlier, his entire body had been tensed up due to his overwhelming emotions.
Then he heard Gong Yue’s hoarse voice, slow because he hadn’t spoken in a while, but still very gentle. “Shanshan, don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid.”
In that instant, all the high walls and defenses he had built up inside collapsed into dust. Ye Shanshan tightly gripped Gong Yue’s clothes and buried his face in his chest.
[mfn]You can support me if you like my translations by leaving a comment below, or by sending me a Ko-fi. Thank you and Enjoy reading! ❤️ -TL: Ysiad [/mfn]
