"I raised you, and you deserve it?"

Shen Ke drove out of the toll booth on the national highway, got off the township road, and drove for some time until the hardened concrete road around him was completely invisible, with potholes and potholes as far as the eye could see, and then he really arrived at the edge of the city.

The noonday July sun is hot and harsh, and the golden sunlight pours unobstructed onto the dilapidated walls of the surrounding houses, the mottled masonry, the narrow alleyways, the broken debris and pockets of garbage piled up on both sides of the rows and rows of houses, and the smell of dampness and decay permeates the hot air, which is more and more pungent and hot to the eyes.

At this time of the day, most of the rented tenants in the neighborhood were at work in the factories, so the surrounding area was unusually quiet.

Shen Ke rounds two rows of bungalows and stops in front of a rusty iron gate deep at the end of the alley.

The door was ajar, and Shen Ke raised his hand without hesitation and pushed it open.

Unlike the bungalows we just passed, the wall of this courtyard is much higher than the one next to it, and when the door is pushed open, Shen Ke looks up and realizes that there is a wide empty courtyard, with a few scrapped and rusted wire drawing machines placed under the wall, and at the end of the courtyard, there is an abandoned and empty factory building.

It looks like it used to be a small private workshop-style plucking factory.

Shen Ke raised his foot over the threshold and walked in, surrounded by silence, and when he walked to the center of the empty yard, the iron door of the opposite factory suddenly "creaked", emitting a loud and toothsome sound, and immediately after that, it was pushed open vigorously from the inside.

Shen Ke stopped in his tracks, reflecting the harsh sunlight and narrowed his eyes slightly as he watched the white man in low-slung jeans and a tight athletic tank top emerge from the iron gates.

Ansel, the second stepson of Lin Jian's birth mother, was ...... or rather five years ago, also an architect.

But at this moment, the man in front of him is down and out, his hair is messy, his brown eyes can no longer see the slightest bit of elegance and demeanor belonging to a designer in the industry, and his whole body exudes a violent and vicious atmosphere.

The long stick Ansel carries in his hand makes a long drag at his feet, and behind him are four other men, all foreigners, who also have guys in their hands.

I don't know if these guys only started working together after Ansel arrived in the country, or if they followed him from the UK after he got out of prison in the first place, but one thing is for sure, it looks like these scum have been hiding out in this crumbling compound for a while.

The silent confrontation was actually very brief, Ansel looked Shen Ke over from top to bottom with a vicious look in his eyes, his gaze resembling a viper's fine mail, before his voice hoarsely asked in not-so-fluent Chinese, "Who are you and how did you find this place?"

Even now is in such an outnumbered and outmatched situation, Shen Ke's expression is still calm and calm, without showing the slightest panic, he is in black pants and black shirt, standing under the tyrannical sunlight like a lone poplar, looking at the person in front of him, said in a faint voice: "You don't need to know about this, I came to ask only one thing, you are looking for Lin Jian to do! What?"

Ansel's sticky eyes fell on Shen Ke as if he were a hock, and it was a long time before his voice asked in a slow and odd tone, "Why don't you start by telling me what you are to him?"

Shen Ke answered very succinctly, "Family."

"Family ......" Ansel put these two words on his lips and teeth see chewing and smacking for a while, then suddenly showed an odd and ambiguous smile, "Such a coincidence... ...I'm also his family, nominally, he should also call me ...... brother."

The last two words of the man's tone is frivolous, as if behind these two words hides some secret entanglements that are difficult to tell.

But Shen Ke knows that there is nothing, that it's all just an illusion.

"You don't look surprised?" Ansel saw that Shen Ke remained calm and collected, and shrugged his shoulders as if he was sorry, "Then, you must have guessed what exactly I wanted with Lin Jian, right?"

He deliberately spoke out of sarcasm, intending to provoke the calm man in front of him, but Shen Ke did not show the slightest sign of anger at his words, and even curved the corners of his mouth very lightly and said in a flat voice, "No matter what you want to do, you won't be able to see him."

"...... So, you are here to pay his debt for him." After these words, Ansel suddenly picked up the wooden stick in his hand and pointed one end straight at Shen Ke, "Do you know what that man owes me to pay back?"

And as Ansel moved with a single command, the men behind him, likewise gripped the knives and weapons in their hands.

Shen Ke looked at such a scene for a moment, but shook his head and let out a very soft laugh, and then he slowly unbuttoned the cufflinks of his shirt, bent the cuffs upward twice, and whispered as if to himself, "I can't imagine that at my age, I'd actually have the chance to get my hands dirty with someone in a group fight."

Pulling up the cuffs of his shirt, Shen Ke stood up slightly straighter and unbuttoned the top button of his shirt collar with one hand, still calmly informing the other man, "But you're wrong about one thing."

"...... what?"

"I'm not here to repay a debt, on the contrary--" Shen Ke looked at the man who suddenly rushed towards him, the corner of his eyes abruptly sharpened, and the moment he raised his hand to catch the wooden stick that swung at him head on, he said in a deep voice, "I'm here to collect a debt for someone."

Then the slender five fingers that clutched the wooden stick suddenly exerted force, and together with the person holding the wooden stick, they flung it downward fiercely!

Ansel was a typical European man, his muscles were developed, but at this moment, it was as if he couldn't withstand the force of a thousand pounds, and his whole body flung forward with the inertia, and then his chest was violently disliked by Shen Ke's knee that was raised abruptly!

Shen Ke's action was too fast, in a flash of lightning, Ansel only felt that this blow had already shattered all his internal organs!

Shen Ke let go of him, backhanded the stick he couldn't hold, and rammed it into the side of his face like a knife!

Ansel's mind went blank for a moment, his eyes briefly blinded, and a surge of acid in his abdomen and stomach followed by an uncontrollable gush from his mouth under the sharp pain!

The eardrums buzzed, and the mouth full of teeth hurt like pins and needles as if they were shattered, as if a warm liquid flowed out of the cochlea and down the side of the face that had swollen up in a flash, dripping onto the dusty, smoky ground.

In a trance, there was a low, muffled voice that sounded like it was coming from a distant sky, and Ansel shook his head hard before realizing what the man had just said in a faint voice.

"This one is for the two kittens who died in vain."

Ansel suddenly hissed, staggered around, and pounced at Shen Ke!

At this time, the four helpers who were stunned in place by the series of instantaneous changes just now also finally reacted, holding up the equipment in their hands and surging up towards Shen Ke!

An endless tussle this is where it really begins.

......

By the time Assistant Xu arrived with the public security department, the scene was already in a state of disarray.

On the coarse, hard ground lay four people who had fallen into a coma of unconsciousness, blurring their consciousness in severe pain, with only the occasional spasmodic twitching of their limbs for a few moments.

Ansel was drenched in blood, his facial features were long gone, his white tight undershirt was completely drenched in blood, it was hard to tell the original color, he was also lying on the ground, looking at Shen Ke, who was approaching him step by step, but it was hard for him to move his limbs, and the bottom of his eyes was finally filled with boundless fear and despair.

Shen Ke threw away the stick in his hand, which was dripping blood, and directly tore off a section of his shirt lapel, scribbling and wrapping it around his left arm, which was also gushing blood wildly - it was cut by one of his accomplices with a machete in the back in the chaos just now.

He walked over to Ansel and crouched down beside him, holding out his hand to him--the

In that moment, Ansel's lips trembled, and the fear in his eyes was like substance.

But Shen Ke just gave him a calm look, as if he wasn't hung up on either his fear or his bloody man-like misery at the moment, and then his long, blood-stained fingers went straight to the edge of the pocket of Ansel's jeans and clipped a crumpled pack of cigarettes out of it.

Shen Ke didn't use his other hand to hold the cigarettes, but put the carton directly to his mouth and took one out through his incisors, lighting it and inhaling it very heavily, taking the breath of nicotine and tar to briefly calm the nerves that were paralyzing the pain.

"You ......" Ansel's voice could barely make a sound, he stared at the man in front of him dead in the face, a sentence, as if he had used up his last strength before it popped out of his mouth sporadically and stumblingly, "What in the world are you ...... why, why ......"

Shen Ke held a cigarette in his mouth and slightly narrowed his eyes in the thin white smoke, and only after a few seconds did he say in a low voice, "Back then, you plagiarized Lin Jian's design manuscript to compete in the competition, and after Lin Jian reported it to the public, you lost the honor that you had earned and were forced to quit your profession, and in your extreme madness, you violently injured someone, and were eventually sentenced to four and a half years of effective imprisonment by the county court, but the infringement claim Lin Jian submitted to UKPO was eventually rejected. Lin Jian's claim of infringement of the design work submitted to UKPO was ultimately rejected."

Ansel's chest rose and fell violently, his horrified eyes laced with great disbelief, "...... you, how did you ......"

"How do you know?" Shen Ke also had a not-so-long gash at the corner of his forehead, and this posture of hanging his head caused that very thin blood to snake down his brow bone, adding a bloodthirsty, sharp, and stern feeling to his originally sedate and calm face.

"Still, you don't need to know." Shen Ke informed the other in a slow, but word-for-word voice, "But there is one thing that I don't have to keep from you."

"It once took you four and a half years to repay an injury, but right now, I'm afraid it will take half a lifetime to make up for coveting someone else's treasure."

"No, no way!" Ansel gasped, blood frothing in his throat as the sharp, fierce breaths continued to gush out of the corners of his mouth as he stared viciously at Shen Ke, a rare second of sanity returning from the beating he'd taken, "That incident has long since passed its grievance period, and he has no proof that he ...... "

"I have."

Shen Ke voice cold down, never mild and fixed eyes like a sharp arrow, straight in the ground full of blood stains on the man's brow: "And here, there will be no more your biological father and stepmother sheltered you, to the arbitrator that the design is you and Lin Jian 'co-creation' bullshit. ' bullshit, instead, I have the formal means and ways to make you reflect on the first half of your failed life in prison."

"I've heard that you once grew up with Lin Jian's birth mother when you were young, so you've compared yourself to him several times?" Shen Ke stood up, heard the sirens coming from far away outside the courtyard gate, looked down on the man whose face was as bad as ashes, and said in a soft voice---

"I raised you, and you deserve it?"

*

The city park project progresses very smoothly, since the last multi-departmental joint assessment meeting, whether it is the contractor or Teng Sheng side, ulterior motives have subsided for a long period of time, at least on the surface, no longer anyone dares to blatantly and loudly hit the idea of the project funds, but also because Shen Ke is very "coincidental" in the assessment meeting, it seems to leave a "big boss is very interested in the project and very concerned" illusion in the hearts of the people, so in the quality of the project, moreover, no one dares to fish in troubled waters. Evaluation meeting, it seems that in the hearts of the people left a kind of "big boss is very interested in this project is also very concerned about" the illusion, so in the quality of the project, moreover, no one dares to fish in troubled waters, clever use of mind.

And about the design institute's technology to become a partner in this matter ...... Lin Jian after careful consideration, but also analyzed and compared the advantages and disadvantages of the current owner and the mainland several well-known design firms, and found that if the shares in the current work of the Hong Kong City Design Institute, is really not an optimal choice.

Although in terms of salary and equity, can get the maximum benefit optimization, but if the horizontal comparison of technology research, patent period use of renewal and each company in the professional and technical research and development of the strength of the investment and importance of the words, the mainland a just three years of the industry's newcomers, is firmly in this track in the fast sequence.

And for Lin Jian, the design firm has a unique advantage - the fact that it's a design firm that's not just about the design, but also about the design of the products.

The company's location is just an hour's drive from South City, which is comparable to a normal commute for working people.

But all the plans and visions are still at the initial stage. Lin Jian has a very clear career plan, but he has only had a brief contact and understanding with the company he wants to work for. At the same time, he also has a sense of professional responsibility that cannot be ignored, and the most important thing right now is to devote himself to the city park project and make sure that the project will be completed successfully in a year and a half.

Lin Jian spent half the morning at the project site before returning to the campus at noon in his dusty pants and T-shirt. During the summer season, there is a lunch break, and Lin Jian was ready to take advantage of it to go back to his apartment to take a shower and rest.

Lin Jian was perfectly fine with the smoke and dust on the construction site, but as soon as he left that particular environment, he immediately began to be a clean freak, unable to tolerate even the slightest speck of dirt on his body.

Inside the house, Lin Jian took the first step into the bathroom and took a refreshingly warm shower before changing into her silk housecoat and walking to the kitchen to start thinking about what to have for lunch.

The refrigerator is full of ingredients, meat, eggs, fruits and vegetables, many or Shen Ke in the land of the week or so, two people every now and then from the supermarket to move back, and now he is left alone, I am afraid to slowly eat until the end of days.

Thinking of this, Lin Jian put the tomatoes in his hand on the kitchen counter, took out his cell phone from his pocket, and made another call to Shen Ke.

The result is still less than three rings, the other party pressed off, and soon after Shen Ke's message popped up.

[In a meeting, get back to you later.]

Lin Jian looked down at the words on the screen and unconsciously furrowed his brows.

It's been four days since Shen Ke left, and in those four days they've only spoken on the phone once, late the night before, when Shen Ke called back.

I don't know if it was Lin Jian's illusion, but he always felt that Shen Ke's voice on the phone was a little bit fluttery, and seemed to be wrapped in a trace of illness, and when he asked if the other party was sick or not feeling well, Shen Ke admitted it with a smile and a straight face.

I said that I had a business dinner last night, and I had two toasts that I couldn't put off, and I ended up sweating, and I walked to the parking lot on the way out, and I was blown around a little bit by the night wind, so I just had a little bit of a sore throat.

Lin Jian did hear a touch of hoarseness in the other party's low and gentle voice, and only after determining that there was no major harm did he let him take care of his rest and explicitly forbid him to come back to this side of the park again this week, saying that he would go back to the southern city to see him on the weekends when he wasn't working overtime.

Shen Ke agreed with a smile.

Other than that, their contact in the past few days was just a few messages - both of them were not mushy and pretentious people, although the previous contact was not considered frequent and intensive, but ...... Lin Jian still, in the brief message greetings these days, there was a hint of inexplicable oddity mixed in. A hint of inexplicable oddity.

Maybe it's a matter of caring.

Lin Jian sighed and replied to Shen Ke with an "Okay", then put down his cell phone and went to the sink to wash the tomatoes.

Instead of spending the afternoon staring at the construction site, Lin Jian took a lunch break and walked into the campus office building to finalize the design for a small natural oxygen bar.

When drawing, Designer Lin is most undistracted.

An hour had passed and the final version of the design on the computer screen was about to be completed when Lin Jian's cell phone, which was placed next to the keyboard, vibrated like crazy.

It was another strange number from outside the country, and Lin Jian knew who it was without connecting to it. After all, after he had cut off all contact with Wen Ning over the years, the other party had always tried to contact him again from time to time by changing his number.

Lin Jian has never picked up the phone, and every time the other party calls once, he pulls the black once, and then the next time the other party changes the number and calls, and so on and so forth.

After that incident, Wen Ning had cried and said sorry to him countless times, saying that her stepson had already been punished for his impulsiveness, so she asked Lin Jian not to pursue the plagiarism and theft of the design manuscripts, and if the sentence was further aggravated, she was afraid that her husband would find it difficult to accept it, and would really have to break down, and in that case, the family, would be finished.

--Their home only.

The gears of fate rolled slowly, finally biting into the one node that closed the loop perfectly with the pain that had been there.

As a mother, she once again gave him up for someone else.

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, no matter how many heartbreaking hopelessness there are, Lin Jian will never look at her again.

The vibrating cell phone automatically hangs up, Lin Jian slowly sighed, will squeeze in the lung cavity of the strand of the zhaji raw pain of the cold out, and then picked up the cell phone, just want to pull this do not know how many numbers into the blacklist, a number of the same number to send over the message, it is very sudden into the line of sight.

Lin Jian frowned slightly at the text, looking as if he hadn't understood it the first time.

What do you mean by "Ansel has been detained by the police, but his injuries are serious and he is on medical parole, and Shen Ke has filed a lawsuit against him for design patent infringement, can you please contact Shen Ke, Ansel's father and I would like to ask for his forgiveness face to face"?

And then there's the line, "This is a premeditated attempt to hurt Shen Ke. Jane, you can defend yourself, but can you let Ansel off the hook this time? Mommy's begging you." What does that mean?

Lin Jian's eyes were glued to those lines of words, and even his palms gradually dipped out of thin sweat did not notice, a long time, he got up violently, grabbed the car keys, holding the cell phone and flew out of the office building door.

On the drive back to South City, the phone call that hadn't had time to be blacked out called again, Lin Jian steadied his mind and scanned the screen before choosing to connect this time.

Wen Ning's voice was already very unfamiliar to him, especially with such a panicked tone. At the other end of the phone, Wen Ning told him in tears that she and her husband had been notified that they would be leaving for their home country soon, and that her husband was pleading with Lin Jian to make arrangements for them to meet Shen Ke.

Wen Ning said, "I regret so much Xiao Jian, I regret that I owe you and feel guilty, I also regret that I called last time and confessed to Shen Ke about the incident that happened in the past, my intention was that I was afraid that Ansel would go to you for revenge after he got out of jail, so I reminded you to pay attention and be careful, but I didn't expect that... ...would bring Ansel back to jail because of that phone call ......"

"You're all my children ......" Wen Ning sobbed, "There's no way mommy can watch anything happen to any of you, so, please, okay... ..."

Lin Jian's eyes stared straight and sharp through the front glass at the monotonous, closed highway in front of him, his incisors almost biting through the inside of his lower lip until a faint taste of blood roiled in his mouth and sharp pain stimulated the numb nerves before he blinked, his voice muffled out of control, and asked, "When did you, uh, call? "

"Years ago." Wen Ning didn't expect him to ask this out of the blue, and on second thought, asked incredulously, "You didn't know, didn't Shen Ke ever tell you?!"

The taste of blood in her mouth grew stronger and stronger, and under the force of ignorance, the backs of Lin Jian's hands gripping the steering wheel strained with lavender veins, Lin Jian's knots rolled up and down fiercely, and instead of answering her obvious question, he just remained silent for a few seconds before saying in a mute voice, "Don't call me or look for me again, and that's it for me and you, as well. "

He said taking off his Bluetooth headset and flinging it hard against the passenger seat.

Did Shen Ke tell him?

It's a question that doesn't even need to be thought about.

And by linking Wen Ning's incoherent message to the phone call, Lin Jian easily came to all the puzzling conclusions--

Shen Ke knows everything.

Even a long time ago.

Knowing about the scandals that had taken place back then, about his fallen and decadent life, about the compromises he had been powerless to make.

Similarly, during the time when Ansel was released from prison and came to China to look for him, Shen Ke used all sorts of ways to prevent him from contacting him, and even last week, Shen Ke stayed in his small apartment for more than a week for no reason, which must be a sign of something.

He's been protective.

And one is ignorant of it.

Wen Ning said Ansel is now seriously injured and hospitalized, what about ...... Shen Ke?

Lin Jian closed his eyes hard for a moment and dialed Shen Ke's number over and over again, like a machine with a repeat button pressed, as he drove toward South City.

But not even a refusal to answer, this time, only the cold mechanical female voice prompted him again and again, the phone you have dialed is offline.

The blood in Lin Jian's eyes was so red that it was almost like a fog of blood had risen underneath them, and after the call that had been prompted to shut off had automatically hung up again, Lin Jian thought without mockery--

See, not only do you not know what all he's done, but now you can't even find him.

Lin Jian sped all the way down the highway and went straight to Shen Ke's residence in the southern city, the car recklessly poked straight into the courtyard, Lin Jian did not have time to turn off the engine, opened the door and got off, but only saw a few aunts at home.

"Where's Shen Ke?" Lin Jian asked his aunt, his voice muffled as if he had rubbed a handful of sand.

Auntie was surprised at how anxious and flustered Lin Jian looked at this moment, but told him, "Mr. hasn't been home for a long time."

Lin Jian was completely stunned, every nerve was like a burning pain like fire, after a moment, he ran back into the car, turned a corner, turned around violently and drove out of the courtyard gate.

It was only a half-hour drive from Shen Ke's lakeside villa to the Shen Group building in the center of the city, but Lin Jian felt that it had taken as long as a century.

When he ran into Shen's building, the receptionist asked for the purpose of his visit, but answered him as politely as his aunt at home, "I'm sorry sir, Chairman Shen Shen is not in the company right now, you can make a check-in appointment and wait-"

"Where is Xu Lang?" Lin Jian asked in a deep voice as he interrupted the front desk lady.

The pretty and capable receptionist girl froze, "You said Assistant Xu ah, he ......"

Before he finished, Lin Jian had already taken out his cell phone and dialed Assistant Xu's number.

Assistant Xu answered the phone rather quickly, but it was hard to hide his surprise: "...... Mr. Lin?"

Lin Jian pressed the already boiling hot breath in his chest and asked bluntly, "Where is Shen Ke?"

"呃......" Assistant Xu obviously froze for a moment, his tone hesitant actually have a few cover up, "Shen, Chairman Shen recently is quite busy, today he ......"

Lin Jian impatiently interrupted in a cold voice, "He's not at the company, is he injured?"

"......" Assistant Xu's side was quiet for a moment, then Lin Jian clearly heard the sound of panicked footsteps, "You've arrived at the company, right?" Assistant Xu muzzle anxious, "Wait a moment I immediately downstairs!"

"No need." Lin Jian took the phone and walked towards the special elevator in the first floor lobby, "You swipe the card, I'll go up."

Assistant Xu: "......"

The shiny elevator door reflected Lin Jian's pale face, and when he looked closely, there seemed to be a little bit of dried blood at the corner of his lips. Lin Jian glanced at the elevator floors that were not adjusting to the rise, and finally licked the corners of his mouth with the tip of his tongue and wiped away the sporadic dark redness a second before the elevator door opened.

Assistant Xu is waiting at the elevator door.

Lin Jian stepped out of the elevator, looked at him, and then said nothing as he strided toward Shen Ke's office.

Assistant Xu chased after him with tears in his eyes, and said earnestly: "Chairman Shen is really not in the company, there is no one in the office."

Lin Jian, with "You're all liars" written all over his face, didn't even look at him and pushed open the heavy glass door of Shen Ke's office.

It's empty.

Lin Jian's heartbeat is disordered, but the breath is going to disappear, he is in such a contradictory and tangled collision of emotions, openly turned to look at Assistant Xu, one word asked: "Where the hell is the person?!"

Assistant Xu suddenly met Lin Jian's eyes, and a cold sweat broke out on his back.

He had never seen a person's eyes like Lin Jian's at this moment, crazy and cold, as if there was a layer of fine ice floating on the bottom of his eyes, but his eyes were clustered with cold flames.

Like pulling repeatedly and desperately on the edge of emotional loss of control.

"I really don't know." Assistant Xu sighed heavily, but could only do nothing but inform, "Mr. Lin, I know what you're looking for Chairman Shen for, but where he is, I really don't know."

"Although I'm his personal assistant, in reality, I don't have all the information about Chairman Shen's personal whereabouts, especially ...... " Assistant Xu said after a pause, helplessly and regretfully. "Especially when Chairman Shen doesn't want anyone to know, none of us can find him."

A single word froze the temperature in Lin Jian's limbs, the blood flowing through his heart, and he inevitably felt icy cold, his lips wenghe, but it was difficult to produce a single syllable.

"Oh yes." As if suddenly remembering something, Assistant Xu walked into Shen Ke's office, took out a few documents from the drawer of his large desk, and folded them back in front of Lin Jian.

"Although I'm not sure where Chairman Shen is, these documents can be handed over to you."

Lin Jian's fingertips trembled as he lowered his eyes to look at them, and then his pupils suddenly tightened!

One is the manuscript of the design he drew by hand after enrolling in Cambridge, and the other is the architectural design patent Shen Ke applied for in the name of Party A for this design.

The last stack of papers was a personalized offer letter that Shen Ke had prepared for Lin Jian.

--Exclusive designer for the "Lok Chun Yuen" remodeling project.

Lin Jian looked at these words for a long, long time, and a thin layer of water vapor slowly gathered under his eyes, which was then hidden by a blink.

Suddenly, a thought flashed swiftly through his mind, and he murmured like a blessed soul.

"I know where he is."