Due to Su Baiye’s actions, both the Tan and Su families were affected to varying degrees. However, the Su family had prepared in advance to minimize losses, with Pei Zhaohe secretly assisting them. The entire family united and worked together, so the impact wasn’t too severe in the end. But the Tan family was a different story.
The Tan family members were already scheming against each other. Now that Tan Shengjun was implicated, they were all too busy kicking him while he was down—who had the time to lend a helping hand? Each of them was preoccupied with sabotaging Tan Shengjun.
If not for Old Master Tan retaining some rationality and realizing that causing trouble now would ultimately harm the Tan family, he stepped in to suppress the infighting. Otherwise, it was hard to say what state the Tan family would have ended up in. Still, this incident caused Tan Shengjun’s standing in Old Master Tan’s eyes to plummet.
After all, if a man can’t even see through the person lying beside him, how can he be expected to have sharp judgment when dealing with subordinates or handling work matters?
Fortunately, Tan Shengjun was still Old Master Tan’s grandson, painstakingly cultivated over the years, so he wasn’t completely discarded in one fell swoop. Though his status was affected, he still had a chance to recover.
However, Tan Shengjun might recall that Yi Lingfan wasn’t likely to give him that opportunity.
Yi Lingfan despised Su Baiye and Wei Zhen, and he had no fondness for Tan Shengjun, that hypocritical scoundrel. After all, in their past life, Tan Shengjun had colluded with Su Baiye and Wei Zhen to harm Su Jun, Kong Qintong, and Su Baixiao in order to seize the Su family’s assets—a debt Yi Lingfan remembered all too well.
Moreover, after Tan Shengjun took control of the Su family, he handed over the foundation Su Jun had established to accumulate blessings for his lost son—a charity that donated to orphanages—as a gift to the previous generation of the Tan family’s leaders. Unfortunately, that leader was a greedy and lecherous man who used the foundation not for good deeds but to line his own pockets and exploit vulnerable girls in orphanages.
Tan Shengjun was fully aware of this, yet he turned a blind eye for the sake of his own power and status. Yi Lingfan intended to collect every last bit of this debt.
Since Su Baiye and Wei Zhen had been dealt with by Pei Zhaohe and the Su family, Yi Lingfan decided to personally take care of Tan Shengjun.
Thus, Yi Lingfan secretly contacted Du Shi. Du Shi didn’t know who was reaching out to her, but she didn’t particularly care. Just as she had endured the disgust of dealing with Tan Shengjun to bring down the Du family and make her father and his mistress pay, she didn’t mind who her ally was—as long as they could make those people suffer.
Du Shi didn’t believe she had anything of value to offer, and after struggling in the Du family for so many years, she was willing to sacrifice everything to achieve her goal, as long as no innocent people were harmed.
Yi Lingfan, however, didn’t want anything from Du Shi—he merely intended to use her and the Du family’s hands to bring down the Tan family and Tan Shengjun.
As a ghost from the past, Yi Lingfan knew that soon, the Tan and Du families would embark on a massive joint project. However, due to an unforeseen disaster, the project would collapse, draining both families’ resources and causing severe financial strain.
Du Shi would naturally be delighted to see the Du family’s finances in shambles, but she never expected Tan Shengjun to exploit Su Baiye and siphon off vast sums from the Su family to cover the Tan family’s losses. In the end, the Tan family survived, but the Su family faced a crisis.
If not for this crisis, Su Jun and Su Baixiao wouldn’t have been so overworked and exhausted that they eventually fell into the “accident” meticulously prepared by Tan Shengjun and Su Baiye, costing them their lives.
Meanwhile, the Du family, desperate to survive the crisis, sought the Tan family’s help. But Tan Shengjun, prioritizing another project of his own, conspired with Du Shi’s parents to drug her and deliver her to a married, lecherous old man who kept multiple young mistresses.
They underestimated Du Shi’s resilience—the dose was too light, and she woke up early. Unwilling to endure humiliation and unable to escape, she chose to end her life.
Tragically, neither her parents nor Tan Shengjun sought justice for her. Instead, they exploited her death for their own gain.
Thinking of this, Yi Lingfan couldn’t help but sigh. Du Shi had been an exceptional woman—capable, principled, and morally grounded. But she had been dragged down by too many incompetent allies. That’s why Yi Lingfan wanted to help her if he could.
Just as Tan Shengjun and Su Baiye had colluded to ruin the Su family, Yi Lingfan now conspired with Du Shi to bring down the Du family—and through them, drag the Tan family into the abyss.
After remotely arranging the necessary plans and discussing research projects with his lab colleagues, Yi Lingfan stretched, rubbed his stomach, and decided to find Pei Zhaohe for food. At the kitchen door, he saw Pei Zhaohe cooking in an apron, exuding such a warm, domestic vibe that Yi Lingfan’s heart melted.
Sneaking up behind Pei Zhaohe, Yi Lingfan wrapped his arms around his waist, hoping to startle him. But Pei Zhaohe had already heard his footsteps and remained unfazed, continuing his cooking as he asked, “So, did you wrap up your work matters?”
“Yep, all settled. Zhaohe, listen to this—” Yi Lingfan’s eyes sparkled as he excitedly briefed Pei Zhaohe on the new research project. Though bound by confidentiality, he could still share its promising prospects.
As he listened, Pei Zhaohe couldn’t hide his astonishment. “Who knew my Fanfan would change the world?” If Yi Lingfan succeeded, his research could propel the nation’s technological advancement by leaps and bounds, potentially ushering in a new era of space exploration.
Yi Lingfan lifted his chin proudly, grinning. “Of course! Just wait and see—tech geeks change the world. You’ll witness the day I reshape everything!”
Having lived multiple lives in interstellar worlds and excelled in various fields, these “challenges” were child’s play to him. But under Pei Zhaohe’s admiring gaze, even the usually indifferent Yi Lingfan couldn’t resist showing off a little.
Pei Zhaohe adored this lively side of Yi Lingfan, responding with tender indulgence—a far cry from his formidable public persona.
With Su Baiye and Wei Zhen no longer stirring trouble, Yi Lingfan’s life settled into peaceful routine: work, experiments, evenings with Pei Zhaohe or family, making up for lost time. As the beloved treasure of both families, he now lived a life of utter luxury—meals served, clothes handed to him.
The aftermath of Su Baiye and Wei Zhen’s schemes required no effort on his part. The orphanage where he grew up thrived under grateful patronage, and his lab colleagues, moved by the story of Yi Lingfan and the Su family, marveled:
“We’d heard the Su family never gave up searching for their lost son, even after adopting another child. We thought it was just rumors—after all, after so many years, who could hold onto hope? But to think… familial love truly is a marvel.”
With life running smoothly, Yi Lingfan’s work breakthroughs piled up, solving multiple challenges in quick succession, earning him top-tier protection as a prized asset.
Meanwhile, the plan against the Du and Tan families progressed silently.
Due to Du Shi’s relationship with Tan Shengjun, both families sought to use her as a spy—unaware that the “docile, brainless” Du Shi was far more cunning than they imagined.
With Yi Lingfan’s remote assistance and her own skills, Du Shi quietly gained control over both families’ movements in the massive project. Neither she nor Yi Lingfan intended to sabotage it—they simply waited for the inevitable disaster.
Until then, they encouraged the Tan and Du families to invest more and more into the project. When it collapsed, the fallout would devastate them.
Currently, both families saw the project as a golden opportunity, pouring resources into it without hesitation, dreaming of the profits. Their generosity now would turn to regret later.
Yi Lingfan & Du Shi: *Ah, just thinking about it brings such joy~*
The project was so colossal that even Pei Zhaohe, Su Jun, and Su Baixiao caught wind of it and wanted in. Had the Du and Tan families not concealed information and used underhanded tactics, many more would have been vying for a share—starting with the Pei and Su families.
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