When Zhao Lifei woke up the next day, she was disappointed to see the other side of her bed was empty and cold. He didn’t stay the night, but she understood he had his reasons. He had rushed from his work last night just to see her, and that was more than she could’ve ever asked of him.

She tilted her head and was about to climb out of the bed to freshen up when she saw a small bottle sitting on the nightstand. She picked up the note next to it and raised a brow. "For the scars." -YF

She unscrewed the top and saw it was an ointment. She examined the minimalistic and small porcelain bottle. There was a light watercolor painting on the bottle, to which she faintly made out the characters of the old language, which was harder to read. She didn’t think much of it and settled the bottle back down, not knowing it was something that money could not buy.

Doctor Song came over again to check her current status and when she showed the bottle to him out of curiosity, he was disinterested at first but kept his face neutral. "There is plenty of anti-scarring ointment on the market." He commented, unscrewing the top. When he took a waft of it, his eyes widened. He looked at the bottle again, his lips parting in shock upon seeing the painting. He placed his glasses on and sure enough, there was a tiny signature painted beside a tree.

"This...! How did you get your hands on it, young lady?" His voice was filled with astonishment. Wasn’t this the sacred ointment rumored to have been passed down from the Imperial family?! The formula should’ve been lost long ago, burnt in a mysterious fire! So how was it, that this bottle had the same aroma and signature as the legendary herbalist who was able to miraculously heal an entire village riddled with an incurable illness?!

He thought this smooth, translucent cerulean brush marks looked familiar, but he didn’t think it was the same kind he saw in textbooks! The rich truly was something else.

"It was a gift." Zhao Lifei didn’t understand his bewildered expression. It was just an ointment, why was he overreacting?

"A gift? Young lady, whoever your friendships must be, I would advise you to thank them heavily. This is not an average cream." Doctor Song placed the jar back onto the nightstand. When he saw she was still confused, he explained the backstory of it. After his explanation, he took his leave.

Zhao Lifei was surprised to hear about the value of the bottle before she let out an exasperated sigh. He was winning by a milestone in their gift war, how could she ever get back at him for it? She spent the rest of her day worrying about what to give him and in the end, she still couldn’t come up with a good idea.

- - - - -

After Yang Feng finished his business, he hurriedly rushed back to Shenbei, not wasting a single minute. The touring and meeting had taken longer than expected, going deep into the night, but he was still persistent on leaving the city. When his entire team wanted to stay the night and rest, before going back early in the morning, Yang Feng was the first to leave. And seeing their Boss leave, the people were more inclined to follow him and do the same.

On the way back, Yang Feng had questioned Chen Gaonan on their progress with Feili Investment Firm, but to no avail, the poor secretary couldn’t show significant or successful results.

"Sir, the company has continued to remain tight-lipped about who their CEO is." When it came to executing orders from his boss, Chen Gaonan was more persistent than Yang Ruqin. For the past few days, he had contacted Feili nonstop. And on one occasion, he nearly made the poor representative cry when he diligently pursued the company, never once relenting.

"Continue to pester them." Yang Feng frowned. The longest time a company could withstand against the Yang force was less than three days. Everyone would eventually crack from the pressure and give in to Yang Enterprise’s request. The people were too fearful of offending the deeply-rooted old-money family who could easily bankrupt a business overnight.

"Yes, Sir." Chen Gaonan firmly nodded, already coming up with different plans of contacting the company. If they continue to ignore his advances through phone, he would personally visit the place. Their headquarters was also coincidentally in Shenbei, not far from Zhao Corporation. It would be a quick and easy trip to get there.

"The reports in regards to Silver Crown?"

"So far, most of the men have woken up. We’ve managed to capture Ren Xiong, who claimed to be the leader of the clan, but there was, in fact, someone else in the higher position." Chen Gaonan tried to not cringe when he saw the pictures that the men had sent in.

The Imperial Team, within the short span of three minutes, had completely annihilated those people. Their body was disfigured in many places, their limbs bent to odd angles, and there was a lot of internal bleeding as most of the team practiced a very advanced level of martial arts that not only did external damage but also internal. Their skills were truly frightening.

"The identity of the person remains unknown, however, our men are working on it." Chen Gaonan concluded, scrolling on his tablet. "So far, they have given us information on the appearance of the man who commissioned them. A name was not mentioned or given, for the person did not provide one. Because the payment was paid in half cash and half credit, our team tried to track down the latter but came to a dead end. It was a fake bank account created under a false alias and identity."

Yang Feng slowly raised a brow. A dead end? It must’ve been someone experienced in this line of work. To create a false alias and identity, one must have access to the government’s database or connections to banking corporates.

"Investigate further. There should be no stones unturned." Yang Feng muttered, just as the private jet landed in Shenbei.

"Yes, Boss." Chen Gaonan nodded, typing in the orders. He watched his Boss exit the jet and onto the walkway. From the corner of his eyes, he could see Su Meixiu’s awestruck expression. Though she was trying her best to hide it, Chen Gaonan’s skillful eyes caught onto it.

Su Meixiu couldn’t help but feel her throat run dry when she saw her Boss with the plane light shining upon his back. His tall and slender body walked without a care in the world, his long black scarf blowing in the wind. The trench coat highlighted his biceps, and one could tell just from looking at his back, he was a very dangerous man. The light flashing upon his back added an ethereal glow to him, making him look immortal and a being higher than the rest of them.

Her heart skipped a beat when Yang Feng looked back, his eyes slightly squinting because of the light. Her heart rapidly thumped against her chest when his eyes briefly connected with hers before looking away and settling on Chen Gaonan.

"Drive home. I won’t need guards accompanying me home tonight." Yang Feng walked off into the distance, completely ignoring Su Meixiu’s stares, not that he ever cared for it in the first place. He was already used to the gawking stares from people that marveled his perfect features.

Su Meixiu felt her brows tug together in confusion at his words. He would not need guards for tonight? Did that mean he wasn’t going home? If so, where would he go? It certainly wasn’t the Main Mansion, for she knew the overly protective Yang parents would be disappointed if they saw Yang Feng walk in without any guards, so where else would he go?

She tilted her head curiously, her brain wandering to something else. Was he visiting a mistress? But it’s been so long since his one-night stand tendencies. She wanted to turn around and ask Chen Gaonan about it but didn’t dare to, in fear of ruining her image. The only thing she could do was bite down on her tongue and scornfully overthink everything.