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

He's really capable of doing it.

He could even do that to himself, let alone his half-brother who was always against him.

Pei Shuli's behavior these past few days has been far too abnormal.

He used to be too lazy to bother with Pei Shuli because he looked down on Pei Shuli's methods. But now it's different. He has a pure and lovely little darling at home. If she is bewitched by Pei Shuli's appearance, then he will never let Pei Shuli go.

Why wouldn't he be on guard when his precious child's first choice was Pei Shuli?

He could accept the two being enemies, but he would never watch their relationship improve or even go further, otherwise his position would be in jeopardy.

"My patience is limited, you'd better hurry."

Pei Shuli didn't look into Shen Jicheng's eyes, but stared intently at the black snake in Jiang Jin's hand. His lips moved, and finally, he uttered that name.

"It's Shi Jiaming..."

The air in the hall froze instantly.

Pei Lin's gaze slowly fell on the face of the person beside him.

He looked at that slightly flustered face, a cryptic smile playing on his lips. "Honey, is there anything else for you?"

Shen Jicheng sat stiffly in his lap, a wave of despair washing over him.

It's over. It's over.

"Shi Jiaming... gave me this idea," Pei Shuli said awkwardly, his voice trailing off.

"I was broke, so I asked him to help me figure something out. And then... your darling told me to seduce someone..."

Pei Lin paused, his hand holding the teacup still, and his gaze lifted from the rim of the cup to land on Shen Jicheng's face. Shen Jicheng silently buried his face in his hands.

Pei Shuli forced an awkward smile and continued, "I...I went..."

Pei Lin narrowed his eyes, his voice tinged with amusement.

"Oh? So who are you planning to seduce?"

Shen Jicheng's body tensed up imperceptibly for a moment.

Pei Shuli gripped the wheelchair armrests so tightly his nails almost dug into the leather. He stiffened his neck, raising his voice slightly, as if trying to bolster his courage.

"Who else could it be? It's someone from the Qi family, of course!"

In order to protect himself, Pei Shuli finally chose to confess part of the truth. He admitted that Shen Jicheng had instigated him, but he did not mention Shen Mingxiao at all.

He thought that this would allow him to extricate himself from the center of the vortex.

Shen Jicheng's biggest fear was that Pei Shuli would reveal everything, and now that the other party had given him this answer, it was the best possible response.

However, Pei Lin was not so easily fooled. He put down his teacup.

"Jiang Jin, bring Pei Shuli's phone over here."

The two voices exploded almost simultaneously.

"No!"

"don't want!"

Shen Jicheng and Pei Shuli spoke in unison, then both paused, exchanging a glance. Pei Lin's gaze swept between them, finally settling on Shen Jicheng with a probing look.

"Um?"

Shen Jicheng blinked rapidly twice, his tone sincere as he spoke.

"What I mean is... what you're doing isn't right. He's your brother, after all; what you're doing is disrespectful to his privacy."

Pei Lin chuckled softly upon hearing this.

"If I didn't respect privacy, I would have thoroughly searched you from head to toe, including your phone, the day you first stepped through this door." He paused, narrowing his eyes as he looked at the person in front of him.

"Instead of this situation, where the two of you are still hiding things from me."

Shen Jicheng was speechless after being silenced by his words.

He really couldn't refute it.

Pei Lin never touched his things. Even when he got a new phone, Pei Lin simply took it without looking through it. This was also why he dared to give the amulet to Pei Shuli; Pei Lin had never seen that thing before and couldn't trace it back to him.

"Or perhaps..." Pei Lin's voice suddenly turned cold, his gaze fixed on Shen Jicheng.

"You didn't keep your promise to me, and you still want to contact the Shen family?"

Shen Jicheng's heart tightened suddenly, and he hurriedly waved his hand.

"How is that possible!"

"You know how well-behaved I've been at home these past few days! I haven't gone anywhere!" he said, a hint of hurt in his voice as he stared reproachfully at Pei Lin. "How could you misunderstand me like that..."

However, this time Pei Lin did not soften his heart as usual.

He ignored Shen Jicheng and nodded directly to Jiang Jin. Jiang Jin stepped forward and took the phone from Pei Shuli's pocket. Pei Shuli, in his wheelchair, had no chance to struggle. Watching the phone being handed to Pei Lin, all he felt was despair.

He hadn't had time to see if the other party had replied. If they had... he didn't dare to think any further.

"password."

Pei Shuli looked at the black snake in Jiang Jin's hand that was flicking its tongue at him, closed his eyes in despair, and muttered, "666666."

Pei Lin raised an eyebrow. "Provoking me?"

He glanced at Jiang Jin sideways.

The snake in Jiang Jin's hand immediately tilted slightly towards Pei Shuli. Pei Shuli recoiled, screaming shrilly.

"666666! I said 666!"

The black snake left another row of teeth marks on his calf. Pei Shuli grimaced in pain, his voice filled with despair and rage.

"The password is six sixes! How many times do I have to say it!"

Pei Lin: "..."

Shen Jicheng: "..."

Pei Lin slowly unlocked the door, casually tossing out a sentence, "Next time, say it more completely, and you'll suffer less."

Pei Shuli glared at him, wishing she could leap out of her wheelchair and bite him. My fault?!

When the phone screen lit up, the interface remained on the chat window. At the top was a system notification that a friend had been successfully added, and below that was a message sent by Pei Shuli: "Brother~ Guess who I am?"

Shen Jicheng craned his neck to look and saw that the contact name at the top was "Xianyun Yehe" (meaning "a recluse"), not Shen Mingxiao. His heart settled back down.

But when his gaze fell upon the message Pei Shuli had sent, he nearly fainted. Even though he had asked Pei Shuli to imitate him, there was no need for him to have copied him so thoroughly!

Pei Lin opened the other party's profile card, seemingly intending to see who this "free spirit" really was.

However, the other party's Moments were only visible for the last three months. After scrolling down and taking a look, there wasn't much valuable information.

Pei Lin looked at it for a few seconds, seemingly uninterested, then locked the screen and tossed it back into Pei Shuli's arms.

Taking the opportunity, Shen Jicheng stood up from the sofa, his voice filled with the grievance of being wronged.

"See! I told you I have no connection with the Shen family, now you should believe me!" He said as he walked towards the stairwell, turning back halfway down and tossing out a curt remark.

"Pei Lin, I won't forgive you this time!" After saying that, he rushed upstairs.

Pei Lin sat on the sofa, watching Shen Jicheng's figure disappear around the corner of the stairs. Without much expression, he withdrew his gaze and fixed it on Pei Shuli.

"You can actually bring yourself to eat a fifty-year-old man?"

Pei Shuli clenched his fists, his face turning red with anger, but he couldn't utter a single word in rebuttal.

Pei Lin stood up, brushed off the unseen dust from his suit, and tossed out a final remark as he walked past him.

"I think you're really hungry."

Pei Shuli: "!"