Aren't we friends? Why are you rushing at me?

Lin Shi didn't believe Xia Ye's nonsense. Although he focused most of his attention on driving, it didn't mean he didn't remember what others were saying.

His brows furrowed slightly, his gaze fixed intently on Xia Ye: "You called me Lin Shi?"

Seeing this, Natsuno knew he had to answer, so he took off his helmet. A faint scent of shampoo suddenly wafted into the car.

With a fawning expression on his face and his tongue sticking out slightly, he intended to continue his shameless behavior.

"Really? Aren't you called Lu Han? Why are you calling yourself Lin Shi?"

Her tone was somewhat affected, and she tilted her head to one side to match, which, combined with her baby face, made her look exceptionally cute.

Seeing this, Lin Shi smiled, nodded, took the helmet from Xia Ye's hand, and put it back on her head.

"I must have remembered it wrong~"

He gripped the steering wheel again and pressed the accelerator hard. The race car shot forward once more.

Seeing the distance widen again, the ambulance behind had no choice but to step on the gas and catch up.

The immense force pushed him back again, and Natsuno hurriedly straightened his helmet and gripped the roll cage tightly with both hands.

A deafening scream erupted in Lin Shi's ears: "Ah!!!"

[Natsuno's favorability towards you has increased by 5 points, currently at 25 points. Please continue your efforts, host.]

Lin Shi was extremely surprised when he heard the system's announcement.

No way, what a terrible personality you have, why are you trying to increase my favorability with this?

A surge of competitive spirit welled up within me, and I began to accelerate faster and faster, taking increasingly sharp and extreme cornering lines.

The screams continued until, after a near-insane high-speed bend, she finally cried out for mercy:

"Lin Shi, Lin Shi, I was wrong, please slow down."

[Natsuno's favorability towards you has increased by 10 points, currently at 35 points. Please continue your efforts, host.]

[Get 1 chance to win a prize]

Lin Shi listened to the system announcement again, then laughed out of anger. He slowly reduced the car's speed and looked at Xia Ye with a complicated expression.

Although there's no law against teasing a fool, fools are still people, and they were raised by parents too.

Xia Ye slumped in his seat, struggling to remove his helmet with both hands. His face was flushed, and his hair was sticking to his face from sweat.

Taking deep breaths of fresh air, looking at Lin Shi with admiration, he paused for a moment before finally perking up:

"Lin Shi, you're amazing, I like you so much."

Lin Shi stared wide-eyed at Xia Ye, who was just driving a normal car and was spouting such vulgar and offensive language.

Xia Ye didn't realize that what he had just said was somewhat inappropriate, and gave an awkward smile.

Lin Shi took off his helmet and looked at her:

"Explain yourself. You knew who I was from the beginning. What are you trying to do?"

Natsuno chuckled:

"I saw you having dinner with Sister Ningshuang when I was shopping with my friend last time. Then I saw you again at Liu Ruyan's welcome party today. I'm just curious about your relationship with them."

Lin Shi continued to look at Xia Ye, still very puzzled.

Based on his past experience, the increase in favorability today is a bit unreasonable, even a bit outrageous.

Could this child have some kind of mental disorder? Why has he grown so big?

Looking at Natsuno's still awkwardly smiling face and curious eyes, he sighed.

In any case, the favorability rating has increased, so at least it won't harm me.

Thinking of the slow increase in favorability between Su Ningshuang and Liu Ruyan, he explained dejectedly:

"Don't be curious. I just helped them with a few small favors. We're just ordinary friends."

Natsuno frowned slightly, then quickly retorted:

"How could that be? Sister Ningshuang is..."

As she spoke, seeing Lin Shi's extremely sincere yet somewhat regretful expression, she suddenly stopped talking.

"Aww~~~"

She seemed to suddenly realize something, a mischievous smile appearing on her face, and gently patted Lin Shi's shoulder to comfort him:

"It's alright, it's alright, feelings take time to develop."

Lin Shi brushed the hand off his shoulder, restarted the vehicle, and slowly drove forward:

"I don't have such big dreams. I can't be the male lead, and the villain will be eliminated in the end anyway. I'll just stick to being a minor supporting character. Making friends with you guys and letting loose a little bit of skin is enough to feed me for the rest of my life."

Xia Ye didn't look down on him because of his "unambitious" words. He continued to scan Lin Shi's face, which looked exceptionally handsome against the backdrop of his focused driving and racing suit, and said in a flippant tone:

"Would you like me to introduce you to a few friends?"

Lin Shi turned his head and glanced at Xia Ye, looking at her nonchalant face:

"Okay, then I'll have to trouble you."

Natsuno chuckled and extended his slender white little finger:

"It's okay, it's okay. Remember to tell me more about you and your friends, I'm very curious! Pinky promise."

Lin Shi freed his right hand and hooked it around her fingers:

"Pinky promise."

He didn't accelerate further, but continued driving at a steady speed.

Xia Ye recounted interesting stories that had happened to him unexpectedly, as if he wanted to tell Lin Shi about his recent life.

Lin Shi watched as Xia Ye spoke, laughing heartily when she talked about happy things and speaking in a low voice when she talked about sad things. Her expression constantly changed between the two.

He chuckled and joked, "You're always talking about your own things, why don't you ask how I've been lately?"

Xia Ye lightly patted Lin Shi's head, tilted his head to the side, and offered his smooth chin to Lin Shi, speaking in a domineering tone:

"You can talk about it later. I'll tell you about my life. Listen carefully."

Then, continuing from where we left off:

"How to lead 60 people to have a heart-to-heart talk with a scumbag after your best friend has been cheated on by him."

Lin Shi listened, nodding occasionally in agreement, but his second brother felt a pang of pain when he heard about the scumbag's fate.

The two leisurely drove the rest of the mountain road, but in the end, Lin Shi didn't have a chance to say how he had been doing lately.

The two returned to the foot of the mountain. Lin Shi planned to go home, while Xia Ye was going to find someone. They were about to part ways.

Lin Shi suddenly spoke up, voicing a question that had been lingering from the beginning:

"Natsuno, you can't ride a motorcycle, where did you get the car?"

Natsuno rolled down the passenger window and muttered to himself, speechless:

"It's my sister's. I'm so tall that I can't even touch the ground when I ride on it. If someone tries to ride on it like that, they're just stupid."

As he spoke, he suddenly leaned forward, waved at Lin Shi, and shouted:

"There's a bar next to the hotel, it belongs to my sister. I'll take you there sometime. Bye-bye."

Lin Shi watched as Xia Ye's car slowly drove away and said goodbye to her.

Back in the car, ready to drive away, his phone suddenly rang. The screen displayed "Shen Zhixiao," currently Lin Shi's friend with the highest favorability rating.

He quickly answered the phone, but before he could even speak, a cold voice, carrying an undeniable sense of control, came through:

"Lin Shi, you're not home?"

The tone was questioning, yet it was spoken with absolute certainty. However, Lin Shi was already used to her unique speaking style and quickly recalled what had happened with Shen Zhixiao.

It's still the same old cliché novel formula: orphaned, embroiled in family infighting, utterly alone with no one to rely on, and only owning a huge corporation.

Lin Shi thought about the usual tropes in his novels: next, he would lose in the internal strife, develop a mental illness, happen to meet a psychologist, and finally the two of them would team up to defeat his uncle or something, creating a legendary tale.

As a friend, I should help her out from time to time. I can't help her with anything else, but I can at least find a therapist in advance or speed up the plot.

Thinking back to how he had only given Liu Ruyan some space, his favorability towards her increased by one.

If this succeeds, won't you live a comfortable life of wealth and luxury? But then you'll be left with nothing but a string of cold, hard numbers on your bank account. And then you'll be enjoying that life alone in the world.

Then he said to everyone, "What I want isn't money, it's love!"

Lin Shi laughed when he thought of this.

The voice on the other end of the phone came again, tinged with anger because Lin Shi hadn't responded for a long time:

"Lin Shi? Where are you now!"

Lin Shi snapped back to reality and briefly explained what had happened. He assured her he would be home within an hour. As for Xia Ye's offer to introduce him to a friend, he subconsciously omitted it.

It feels strange to say it out loud, as if he befriended these people purely for personal gain. But Lin Shi was also a man of principle; he was capable of going to great lengths for his friends.

From the other end of the phone, only a soft sound came:

"Um."

Shen Zhixiao sat behind his large desk, with a monitor screen in front of him displaying live footage of the villa's living room.

He took out a bottle of medicine from deep inside the drawer, unscrewed it, and swallowed two pills with the warm water beside him, his eyes fixed on the photo of Lin Shi that was clearly taken secretly on the table.

He muttered to himself, "It's not the right time yet."

The scene of my first meeting with the psychologist replayed in my mind:

In a somewhat cozy office, the psychologist first poured her a glass of warm water, sat down beside her, and said somewhat haltingly:

"Ms. Shen, based on our assessment, your situation is somewhat complicated."

"Your current mental state is a combination of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), attachment disorder, and paranoid personality traits, along with your initial attraction to Mr. Lin."

"Therefore, it is perfectly normal to have an excessive focus on and possessiveness towards Mr. Lin. But that does not mean that the situation itself is normal."

"Our advice is that you should stay away from Mr. Lin and maintain some privacy for both of you. This isn't just for your own good. More importantly, in this situation, you could potentially harm Mr. Lin, and if the situation worsens, we cannot guarantee his safety."

Shen Zhixiao leaned back on the sofa, her powerful aura making her seem like the doctor treating the patient. She looked at the worried eyes opposite her, and a hint of fear in them.

That was the fear that arose from knowing the deepest secrets of an emperor who ruled a business empire.

Shen Zhixiao slowly closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. He used the extreme self-control that had accompanied him for more than 20 years to constantly adjust himself.

"I... understand. I'll send him elsewhere first."