I Want to Give Them a Home

"When do you plan to settle down?"

Pei Dongcheng didn't lose his temper, but that was exactly what made one's scalp tingle. This was a man who had been ruthless in the business world for thirty years, using restraint to give Chen Zhi one last chance.

Settle down.

Translated, these words meant: cut off all those other women out there and keep only my daughter.

Chen Zhi put down his chopsticks.

The entire private room was so quiet that one could hear the ticking of the second hand on the wall clock.

Chen Zhi looked up.

He first glanced at Pei Ningxue.

Then, he looked at Pei Dongcheng.

"President Pei, to tell you the truth, you might not like what you hear."

Pei Dongcheng's hand, holding the teacup, paused in mid-air.

"Speak."

Chen Zhi picked up the glass of Maotai in front of him, tilted his head back, and downed half of it.

"They are all good girls. I cannot give up any of them."

The teacup in Pei Dongcheng's hand stopped at his lips, his movements freezing for a few seconds.

He slowly put down the teacup and raised his eyelids.

"Say that again?"

"I said, I want to give each of them a home. Including Ningxue."

Pei Dongcheng's expression finally changed.

It was a look somewhere between absurd and unbelievable. He had been in business for thirty years, going from nothing to sitting on tens of billions in assets. He had seen all kinds of ruthless people, lunatics, and swindlers.

But a nineteen-year-old kid, right to his face, just after he had thrown down photos of his daughter being cheated on, righteously declaring, "I want to give them all a home."

In his forty-eight years of life, Pei Dongcheng had truly never encountered such a thing.

Pei Ningxue, sitting next to him, snapped her head around.

She glared at Chen Zhi, the expression on her face even more spectacular than her father's.

What did they say before coming here?

What happened to the agreed-upon "insist that you will only marry me"?

What happened to "it's just acting on the spot"?

Is there water in your brain?! Showing your cards right to Pei Dongcheng's face, do you really think your life is too long!

Pei Dongcheng pulled the stack of photos back out of the kraft paper envelope and slammed them heavily onto the table with a loud smack.

"Chen Zhi, do you think I'm joking with you?"

"President Pei, I am not joking." Chen Zhi sat bolt upright, meeting Pei Dongcheng's gaze.

Pei Dongcheng pointed at the photos. "You want to marry my daughter?"

"Yes."

"And at the same time, you have two other girlfriends?"

"Yes."

"And now you're telling me you want to give them a home?"

"Correct."

Pei Dongcheng stared at him dead on, as if observing a rare species he had never seen before.

After a long while, he squeezed a cold sneer out of his nose.

"Young man, are you arrogant or just stupid?"

"President Pei, I admit I am a scumbag."

Seeing such a shameless person, Pei Ningxue also laughed out of sheer anger.

"But I won't lie to you," Chen Zhi continued. "You asked me when I plan to settle down, so I'll just lay it all out: I can't."

Pei Dongcheng's finger tapped heavily on the table.

"You can't?"

"Lin Wanwan and I grew up together; we are childhood sweethearts. Her family lives right next door to mine, and I cannot give her up."

"Li Zhiyi's parents passed away early, and she grew up with her grandparents. She has an introverted personality. I am the only person she recognizes, and she works incredibly hard every day just so she can help me in the future. I can't let her go either."

He turned to look at Pei Ningxue, then turned back to look at Pei Dongcheng.

"Ningxue is my partner and the person I trust the most. She helped me push Deep Space Technology from zero to where it is today. Without her, I wouldn't be where I am."

Pei Dongcheng's expression remained completely unchanged from beginning to end.

Chen Zhi continued speaking.

"I know you want me to choose one, but President Pei, I can't choose. If I choose any one of them, what happens to the rest? I can't bring myself to tell a girl, 'Sorry, you're not important enough.'"

"So your solution is to have them all?"

Pei Dongcheng's tone rose a notch; it was hard to tell if it was sarcasm or pure shock.

"My solution is to be worthy of every single one of them," Chen Zhi didn't back down an inch. "They know about each other's existence, and I respect their choices. If one day any of them is unwilling and wants to leave, I absolutely will not stop her, and I will give her ample compensation. But as long as they are willing to stay, I will not let them suffer any grievances."

Pei Ningxue lowered her head, her long hair falling down to obscure her profile. She actually really wanted to grab the teacup on the table and throw it right in Chen Zhi's face. What did he mean he wouldn't stop them? This bastard actually dared to say such things right in front of her dad!

Pei Dongcheng reached out, picked up the bottle of Maotai, and poured himself another glass.

He didn't pour any for Chen Zhi.

He drank this glass of liquor very slowly, sip by sip, as if he were suppressing something.

After finishing the drink, Pei Dongcheng placed the glass on the table and rubbed his thumb along the rim. His eyelids drooped, and it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.

After quite a while, he spoke.

"Your dad is a civil servant."

Chen Zhi paused, not understanding how the topic had suddenly jumped to this.

"Yes."

"Your mom is a bank teller."

"Correct."

"In your family education growing up, did anyone ever teach you that a man could have three women at the same time?"

"No."

"Then does your dad keep a mistress on the outside?"

"Absolutely not. He wouldn't dare even if you lent him ten times the courage. My mom is very strict."

"Then how did you grow up to be like this?"

Chen Zhi scratched his head and replied very sincerely, "Maybe I'm just exceptionally gifted."

Pei Dongcheng was so furious that he laughed.

"Good, good, good."

"Do you really think I'm too old to lift a knife?"

"Do you really think that I, Pei Dongcheng, have just been some small fry these past thirty years?"

Chen Zhi sat in his chair, looking up at this business tycoon.

He suddenly smiled. There was no fear; instead, it revealed a sense of unbridled audacity.

"President Pei, times have changed."

"You are a ship from the old era, and I am the wind of the new era."

"Deep Space Technology is developing much faster than you imagine. Currently, our pre-Series A valuation has already surpassed fifteen billion US dollars, and it's multiplying at a terrifying rate every single day. Moss's underlying algorithm is the only one of its kind in the world, and a technical barrier has already been formed. You indeed have a lot of capital and a vast network, but you can't strangle me to death right now."

Chen Zhi pulled out a tissue to wipe his mouth, incredibly arrogant.

"As long as I let the word out, Sequoia, Hillhouse, and even Zhang Yiming from ByteDance—plenty of capital will be lining up to hand me money. You are my senior, and I respect you, but if we really have to cross swords, you won't be able to sink the aircraft carrier that is Deep Space Technology."

Pei Dongcheng looked at the extremely arrogant kid in front of him. The muscles on his face twitched twice, revealing a cruel smile.

"If you hadn't reminded me, I would have forgotten." Pei Dongcheng nodded. "I need to quickly figure out a way to sink you into the Huangpu River to feed the fishes. Otherwise, once your wings are fully grown and hardened, I really won't be able to do anything about you."

Chen Zhi choked on his words.

Fuck, I was too hasty.

Was I being too cocky? This father-in-law doesn't play by the rules. If he can't kill me commercially, is he planning to just take the route of physical elimination?

Chen Zhi quickly tried to smooth things over: "President Pei, resorting to violence will only hurt our relationship. I gave Ningxue fifteen percent of the shares, making her the second-largest shareholder of Deep Space Technology. When Deep Space Technology goes public in the future, this fifteen percent will be worth hundreds of billions, maybe even trillions."

He turned to look at Pei Ningxue.

"This is the proof of my feelings for her, Uncle. We truly love each other."

Pei Dongcheng ignored Chen Zhi and instead turned to look at Pei Ningxue, who had remained silent the entire time.

"Xiaoxue." Pei Dongcheng's voice was frighteningly deep. "Do you still love this animal?"

Pei Ningxue finally looked up.

She glanced at the man who made her feel both love and hate, and reached out to hold Chen Zhi's arm.

"Dad."

"I won't marry anyone but him."

Pei Dongcheng looked at the two of them standing so closely together, his chest heaving violently.

"Good, very good."

"You two have really opened my eyes."

He reached out, picked up the stack of photos on the table, and tapped them against his hand.

"Chen Zhi, didn't you want to marry three girls? Didn't you say you would do right by every single one of them?"

Pei Dongcheng took out his phone and lit up the screen.

"I just had my secretary bundle these photos into two files."

Chen Zhi's heart suddenly sank as an ominous premonition washed over him.

"One copy was sent to Lin Wanwan's manager, Su Man." Pei Dongcheng stared at Chen Zhi. "The other was sent to Li Zhiyi's counselor at the Renmin University Law School."

Chen Zhi stood up abruptly.

"President Pei, you—"

"Didn't you say they all knew about each other's existence?" Pei Dongcheng interrupted him. "I'm helping you bring the truth completely out into the open. I really want to see how those other two girls will react when they see these photos."

"I suppose they still don't know just how much of a womanizer you are out there, Boss Chen."