Mr. Pei! Don't force yourself into circles you can't fit into.

Shen Jicheng gave Pei Shuli a wicked smile. Whenever he showed that smile, it usually meant someone was about to be in trouble.

"Of course... it's time to show off your charm!"

Pei Shuli looked at him blankly: "?"

Shen Jicheng leaned closer and whispered a few words in his ear. Pei Shuli's brows furrowed more and more as he spoke, finally asking suspiciously, "Are you sure?"

Shen Jicheng raised an eyebrow, looking confident of victory. "Of course."

Pei Shuli pondered for a moment, then finally nodded, "Okay, I'll trust you this time!"

After saying that, he turned and strode away. Shen Jicheng watched his figure disappear outside the courtyard gate, his smile slowly deepening. He had already planned every step of the way.

As long as Pei Shuli actually tries to seduce his older brother, what does it matter if he can't get out himself? At least he can pass messages to his older brother through Pei Shuli. And even if they're discovered, it probably won't trace back to him. After all, Pei Shuli's seduction of Shen Mingxiao is clearly just his own lustful folly; what does it have to do with Shen Jicheng?

As for whether this is a good thing for the eldest brother...

Well, let's not discuss that for now.

On the fourth day, when Pei Shuli reappeared at Beishan Villa, Shen Jicheng was sitting idly by the fishpond, teasing the plump ornamental fish with a fishing hook. Upon seeing Pei Shuli, his eyes lit up instantly, and he dropped his fishing rod and ran over, eagerly asking questions.

"How is it? How is it?!"

Pei Shuli's expression was not good. There was a bruise on the corner of his mouth, as if he had just been beaten. Shen Jicheng was shocked when he saw it.

"Holy crap, Shen Mingxiao beat you up like this?!"

Good heavens, is his older brother really that ruthless? He actually beat Pei Shuli so badly that he's covered in bruises.

Pei Shuli lifted his shirt to show him the large bruise on his back, looking as annoyed as if he had swallowed a fly. "It wasn't Shen Mingxiao who hit me."

Shen Jicheng was taken aback: "?"

"After I finished following Shen Mingxiao, I was about to leave when someone suddenly appeared out of nowhere and covered me with a sack." Pei Shuli clenched his fists, his tone filled with barely suppressed rage. "Then I was cornered in an alley and beaten up."

From childhood to adulthood, aside from being unable to defeat Pei Lin, Pei Shuli had never been bullied like this before. He vowed to find the person who beat him up and make them pay a hundredfold!

Shen Jicheng was also stunned. "You still haven't seen who beat you up?"

"Nonsense!" Pei Shuli said irritably, "I was being protected when I was attacked, how could I possibly see it!"

As he spoke, he angrily yanked at the fishing rod dangling by the pond. By sheer coincidence, the rod tip jerked, hooking a plump ornamental fish and pulling it ashore. The fish thrashed about on the ground, mouth agape, before lying helplessly at their feet.

Pei Shuli: "..."

Shen Jicheng gave him a long, quiet look.

"You dragged this into this, didn't you?" Pei Shuli released his grip and pushed the fish towards Shen Jicheng, as if to shirk responsibility. "It has nothing to do with me."

Shen Jicheng: "..."

"My back was already injured, and I couldn't take it anymore, so my second brother threw me into a snake pit."

Shen Jicheng paused for two seconds, then bent down to pick up the still-throwing fish and casually tossed it to the puppy that Aunt Chen was raising. The puppy happily carried the fish away, leaving a puddle of water on the ground.

Pei Shuli watched his smooth and efficient operation of disposing of the body, and his eyes showed a hint of sincere admiration.

Shen Jicheng ignored his gaze and cut straight to the point, "How can you be sure it wasn't Shen Mingxiao who beat him up?"

Pei Shuli frowned and recalled, "The height doesn't match. The person who beat me up wasn't that tall."

He had just finished following Shen Mingxiao and was about to leave when he was caught in a sack in an empty alley. Although he was stunned by the beating, he managed to fight back after regaining his senses and struggled with his attacker for quite a while based on instinct.

He was certain that the person who beat him up wasn't as tall as Shen Mingxiao; he was probably around the same height as him, about 1.8 meters, or maybe even shorter, around 1.78 meters.

Shen Jicheng was also somewhat confused. "Not Shen Mingxiao? Then who did you offend outside?"

Pei Shuli snorted coldly, raising his chin. "With my status, there are only people outside who fawn over me; who would dare offend me?"

He glanced sideways at Shen Jicheng, his tone brimming with undisguised superiority, "To outsiders, I'm the refined and polite Third Young Master Pei, quite different from a country bumpkin like you. How could I possibly offend anyone?"

Shen Jicheng's smile froze for a moment. "Your last sentence was quite offensive."

To be honest, he didn't quite believe Pei Shuli's claim that he "wouldn't offend anyone." A rich young master with such a volatile temper, questionable intelligence, and an inflated ego was a rare sight these days.

He even felt that Song Yiyang was smarter than Pei Shuli.

"So what do you plan to do?" Shen Jicheng asked him. "If there's surveillance footage, we can check it. If not, then you'll just have to accept your bad luck."

Pei Shuli gave him a cold glance. "Just accept your bad luck? No way! You hit me and you're not getting away unscathed! I'll make him pay!"

Shen Jicheng silently sighed in his heart: No wonder they're brothers, they both hold grudges.

"There really aren't any security cameras on that stretch of road," Pei Shuli said, changing the subject. "But during the fight, I found this on the ground." He took a black bead out of his pocket and handed it to Shen Jicheng.

"Look."

Shen Jicheng took it, and was about to say something when he suddenly remembered that in Pei Shuli's eyes, he was a clueless "good-for-nothing." He paused, then adopted a curious tone.

"This black bead is quite unique."

Pei Shuli scoffed, took the bead back, and held it up to Shen Jicheng's eyes. "What black bead? This is obsidian." He pointed to the subtle glints inside the bead.

"See that? Bright golden bands shining through the black background—that's golden obsidian. It originates from Mexico, but is also quite common in Indonesia. It symbolizes peace and health. While this quality of golden obsidian isn't the most expensive, it's still quite rare."

Shen Jicheng listened quietly without interrupting him. In fact, he knew all these things, even more than Pei Shuli, because his older brother Shen Mingxiao always wore a string of obsidian beads, which belonged to the same category as gold obsidian. When he was a child, he often pestered his older brother with questions.

He stared at the bead for a few moments, then suddenly frowned.

"only……"

"But what?" Pei Shuli asked, seeing that he seemed hesitant to speak.

Shen Jicheng pointed to the small hole on the obsidian.

"Normally, these beads are worn in strings, and it's rare for someone to buy a single one. Since there's a hole, it means it was originally strung on a bracelet. But if it broke during a fight, you should have found several beads, so how come you only found this one?"