My father's inheritance is my mortal enemy.

Zhou Yanshao replied almost instantly.

【? 】

[Li Bo, I asked you to comfort me, not to break up with me.]

Is breaking up your solution to all this?

[No way, don't even think about it.]

Li Bo, if there's a problem, solve it properly. Don't just think about breaking up all the time!

I asked you to solve the problem, not to solve me!

……

Li Bo's phone rang the whole time, but he didn't check it.

Uncle Liu, listening to the constant text message notifications, reminded him, "Mr. Bo, there's a text message, it seems quite urgent..."

Li Bo hummed in agreement, "It's nothing."

When the car arrived at Zhihuai's garage, Li Bo finally opened his eyes, which had been closed. Despite having rested the whole way, his eyes were bloodshot. He went upstairs for a meeting, and Uncle Zeng brought him a cup of Americano, reminding him to take care of his health.

The meeting ended, and Shu Lang arrived.

When Shu Lang arrived, he brought a leave slip.

Shu Lang was wearing a turtleneck sweater; he wasn't at work today and was dressed casually. He handed the leave slip to Li Bo: "I'm sorry, Mr. Bo."

"This is……?"

"I have some troublesome personal matters lately and need to take a long leave."

Li Bo glanced at the time displayed: three months.

"Xiao Shu, it's not that I don't want you to leave, but you know the company is preparing to go public next year, and this is the busiest time. You're practically a veteran in the company. I can approve your leave request, even paid leave, but we have to wait until Platinum Rui finds a reliable secretary who can take over before we can let you go."

Shu Lang understood: "I understand, Mr. Bo."

"Then go back and inform HR." Li Bo signed the leave slip.

"Okay, thank you for understanding, Mr. Bo." When Shu Lang stood up to take the leave slip, a patch of skin on his neck was exposed, covered with countless hickeys, indicating that he had a girlfriend.

Li Bo asked, "Have you started dating recently?"

Shu Lang instinctively touched his neck, realizing that his action had given him away. He didn't hide it anymore, nodding and then shaking his head: "No, I ran into my ex."

The ex, the hickeys—it's clear they've rekindled their old flame.

Li Bo didn't ask further; he didn't pry into his subordinates' private lives. He changed the subject: "Master Fei, is he your friend?"

"..." Shu Lang smiled: "Yes."

Li Bo didn't ask any further questions, but simply said, "It's rare for Master Fei to come to the capital, so please take good care of him for me."

Shu Lang nodded: "Okay."

"After you've finished the handover, take a good rest. Platinum will welcome you back anytime." After Li Bo finished his pleasantries, Shu Lang left.

Li Bo slumped in his office, staring at the documents in front of him, his head throbbing. The phone on his desk rang; it was Zhou Yanshao calling.

Li Bo took a deep breath and answered the call.

The other end of the phone also emitted heavy breathing, and neither of them spoke.

Li Bo spoke first: "I've been quite busy lately."

Zhou Yanshao snorted: "Yes, you're busy trying to dump me."

He doesn't try to appease her when he's angry, he's slow to reply to messages, he doesn't answer the phone, and he never shares anything about himself. This has been Li Bo's attitude since he returned from Northern Europe. All of Li Bo's actions seem to indicate that he wants to dump Zhou Yanshao.

Li Bo lowered his head and clasped his hands. The moment he heard Zhou Yanshao's voice, tears welled up in his eyes uncontrollably: "I've been a little tired lately... and I'm not feeling well."

Even though Zhou Yanshao was still angry, his anger subsided considerably when he heard Li Bo say he wasn't feeling well. He asked anxiously, "What's wrong?"

I had a slight fever this morning.

Tears welled up in Li Bo's eyes and fell: "I said we should break up because I've thought it through carefully. Long-distance relationships are tough, we're both busy, and my life can't always revolve around you. I don't want you to spend all your free time on me either. Maybe breaking up is the best choice right now... What do you think?"

Zhou Yanshao remained silent for a long time on the phone. He said, "I know... I said I would go back to Beijing next year. There are still two months left, at most two months..."

Li Bo looked up: "Zhou Yanshao, but I don't think I can last another two months."

Zhou Yanshao fell silent again. Each silence was a sign of self-blame and guilt. Li Bo was the person who needed him most in the world, but Zhou Yanshao could never be there for Li Bo in time.

He was perfectly fine when he was in the capital.

Zhou Yanshao's voice was hoarse: "You just want to dump me."

"no."

"Li Bo, I don't need you to coax me. I was just throwing a tantrum. If you're tired, you don't have to..." Zhou Yanshao wanted to say that he wouldn't throw tantrums so often in the future.

"Zhou Yanshao, if I can't even comfort you, then this relationship is one-sided."

Li Bo meant that not coaxing meant he didn't like it.

During this period, Li Bo did not try to appease Zhou Yanshao.

"Oh." Zhou Yanshao neither said whether they would separate or not, but simply said in a low voice, "...I understand."

Zhou Yanshao knew that Li Bo didn't like him anymore.

Zhou Yanshao was the one who hung up the phone in the end.

The end of an adult's life is actually very simple and dignified.

Li Bo's words were to be left unsaid, and Zhou Yanshao remained silent as a matter of course.

That evening, Zhou Yanshao sent Li Bo a text message: "You're not allowed to be with anyone else."

Li Bo replied: 【Okay.】

At nine o'clock in the evening, Li Bo drove to find Ruan Ge, bought her a plane ticket to Northern Europe, and sent her abroad.

Over the next few days, Li Bo had no interest in work. He would often be lost in thought during meetings, and after the meetings he would keep flipping through the meeting minutes. He would also often space out while eating.

Within three days, he saw a photo of them together on Ruan Ge's WeChat Moments: [Follow-up fan success.]

In the picture, Ruan Ge stands next to Zhou Yanshao, smiling and making a "yeah" sign. The two of them look very well-matched, a perfect couple.

Li Bo looked at the photo, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep for a long time.

From that day on, Li Bo never received another text message from Zhou Yanshao.

Even though everything was proceeding according to Li Bo's plan, Li Bo was not happy.

He was not happy at all and would often stay up all night scrolling through their chat history, listing all the things he had done to wrong Zhou Yanshao.

As the levels in the match-3 game got higher and higher, Li Bo's will to live dwindled.

……

Li Yao treated Li Bo as usual, as if nothing had happened. Li Bo knew that Li Yao was acting, and every time he went to the Li family for a meal, he would try to vomit.

Wan Tongzhi died of poisoning. Although there is no direct evidence pointing to Li Yao, given the long-standing conflict of interests between the two families, it can only be Li Yao.

No matter how careful Li Bo was, or how much he tried to vomit it out, it was all in vain.

At the end of January, Li Bo had just recovered from a fever. When the nanny was cooking for him, she forgot to throw away the leftovers from the previous night and put them all on the table, which Li Bo ate.

The nanny was startled when she saw it: "Mr. Bo, this dish has gone bad! I'm so sorry, I...it was my oversight! I just said I was going to throw it away, I was wiping the stove, and then I forgot about it."

"broken?"

"Yes." The nanny picked up the plate and smelled it; the smell was quite strong.

Li Bo simply smiled slightly: "I didn't pay much attention."

It wasn't that he didn't pay much attention, it's that he couldn't taste it anymore...