Rebirth and Conquest

The next day, Chen Yan received a call from Yan Minghui, who said he wanted to come over to his place.

When Yan Minghui arrived, Chen Yan and the others were having lunch. This wasn't Yan Minghui's first time here. He used to come here often to see Chen Haoran when Chen Yan was in college, so he knew the way well and drove into the house.

Chen Yan's maternal grandparents treated Yan Minghui like a grandson. When they saw Yan Minghui arrive, they greeted him with smiles and invited him into the house: "Minghui is here, come in quickly."

Yan Minghui walked in carrying two large gift boxes, smiling and saying, "Hello, Grandma, hello, Grandpa."

"Why are you here at this hour? Have you eaten yet?" Grandma asked him with a smile.

"I haven't eaten yet, I just wanted to come here and get a free meal."

"That's perfect, Grandma just started eating here too." Grandma said with a smile, adding a bowl and chopsticks for Yan Minghui and letting him sit down at the table.

Yan Minghui's parents had been sent on a world tour by him and didn't have time to come back for the New Year. So when Yan Minghui returned home, he was all alone. At the dinner table, after hearing Yan Minghui say this, Chen Haoran immediately smiled and said, "It's okay, Brother Minghui. If you don't want to live alone, you can come and stay at our house. It'll be more lively with more people."

"Okay," Yan Minghui replied with a smile. "Oh, right, I also bought you a gift."

"What gift?" Upon hearing this, Chen Haoran immediately put down his chopsticks. Yan Minghui would always bring something whenever he came to visit, which was one of the things Chen Haoran liked most about Yan Minghui.

"I'll keep it a secret for now. We'll show you after dinner, and I'm sure you'll be satisfied."

"Sure, anyway, Minghui's gifts have never disappointed me."

After a lively meal, it was already three or four in the afternoon. Chen Haoran excitedly said he wanted to see the gifts, so Yan Minghui led him to the car, opened the trunk, and took out a large electric simulation game console. As soon as Chen Haoran saw this, he cheered excitedly and quickly carried the thing up to his room on the second floor.

This was the first time Chen Haoran had seen this kind of toy, and he didn't quite know how to play with it, so he pulled Wen Mu over and played with him.

Chen Yan and Yan Minghui went up to Chen Yan's study on the third floor. Once there, Chen Yan had a chance to ask Yan Minghui, "Why did you come here by yourself? Where is Sun Xiuqi?"

Yan Minghui's cheerful smile vanished, and after a sigh, he said, "He's at his house."

Seeing Yan Minghui looking dejected, Chen Yan couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong? Didn't you go to their house?"

“I went there, but his dad kicked me out.” Yan Minghui said with a wry smile. “Ayan, come out for a drink with me.”

"In the countryside, where would you find a place to drink?"

“I’ll drive you to the county town,” Yan Minghui said to Chen Yan. “You’re feeling really uncomfortable.”

"Okay." Chen Yan nodded. "I'll go tell Wen Mu."

"kindness"

Chen Yan went down to the second floor and entered Chen Haoran's room. At this moment, Chen Haoran and Wen Mu were having a great time playing games. Both of them were holding remote controls, and Chen Haoran was also wearing an earphone.

"Is it fun?" Chen Yan asked with a smile.

Seeing Chen Yan ask, Chen Haoran took off his headphones, but didn't put down the remote control in his hand, and excitedly replied, "It's so much fun, bro, do you want to join me?"

"No, you guys stay here and have fun, I need to go out for a bit."

"Are you going out?" Wen Mu put down the remote control. "Is there something you need?"

"It's nothing, I'm just going out for a walk with Minghui, I'll be right back."

"Oh, then come back early."

"kindness"

After saying goodbye to her grandmother and the others, Chen Yan got into Yan Minghui's car and left. The two then went directly to the county town.

By the time they arrived in the county town, it was already getting dark. Yan Minghui had intended to find a tavern, but when the car drove to a night market food street, he changed his mind and turned to Chen Yan, asking, "How about we stay here? It's been so many years since I've had street food like this."

Chen Yan had no objection and nodded in agreement.

So after finding a place to park, the two got out of the car and sat down in front of a barbecue stall.

"Boss, a pitcher of beer, and a few skewers, please—" Yan Minghui called out as soon as he sat down and started ordering.

The owner, who was busy grilling skewers, looked up at them. It was quite rare to see someone drive here to eat skewers. However, the owner didn't say much. After responding to Yan Minghui, he served the two of them beer.

As soon as the wine was served, Yan Minghui opened a can and gulped down several mouthfuls.

Chen Yan watched him finish his drink and calmly said, "Why are you so downcast?"

"Hehe." Yan Minghui wiped his mouth. "Ayan, you don't know, I was kicked out of the house."

As soon as Yan Minghui returned from B City, he went to Sun Xiuqi's house. Before going, Yan Minghui was worried that Sun Xiuqi's parents would not agree, but he did not expect that Sun Xiuqi's parents would not only disagree, but also react very strongly, almost beating him out.

“Ah Yan, I really didn’t expect his parents to be so opposed.” Yan Minghui shook his head. “He is an only child, and his parents probably will never agree to it no matter what.”

“Your parents also only have you as their son,” Chen Yan said.

"Uh, I also have an older sister, but that's not the point," Yan Minghui wailed. "The key is that his family doesn't agree at all and kicked me out. Now, in their eyes, I'm like an ingrate."

"Sigh, I really regret it. I shouldn't have called his dad 'Big Brother' back then." Yan Minghui said, taking another swig of his drink. "Now I look like a weird uncle who's kidnapping innocent young men. The thing is, I'm not that much older than him."

After receiving help from Sun Xiuqi's father, Yan Minghui and Sun Xiuqi have maintained intermittent contact over the years. In the past, Yan Minghui always addressed Sun Xiuqi's father as "Big Brother" in an attempt to get closer to him, but now it has become a handle for people to criticize him.

"Ayan, I really admire you. Your mom is such a strong-willed person, and Wen Mu's dad is such a stubborn person, yet neither of them dares to oppose your plans." Yan Minghui said, clicking his tongue. "If I were you, I wouldn't have any of these worries."

"Really?" Chen Yan smiled silently, but said, "Yesterday Haoran told me he wanted to see Xi Yichen and asked me how his older brother Xi was doing."

"Huh?" Yan Minghui was taken aback: "How did Haoran get involved with Xi Yichen?"

“The two of them ran into each other when he came to B City last time.” Chen Yan said, finding it somewhat laughable herself. “I didn’t know he would remember Xi Yichen for so long. I thought he had long forgotten him.”

"So what are you going to do? Are you going to tell him that you wiped out the Xi family?"

“He doesn’t need to know these things.” Chen Yan’s smile faded, her face turning cold. “Next year I’ll send him even further away. In time, he’ll naturally forget everything.”

“Okay.” Yan Minghui nodded. “Actually, Haoran is just a child at heart. To him, whoever gives him candy is a good person.”

After saying this, the two fell silent for a moment. After a while, Yan Minghui suddenly said, "But, Ayan, I have something to say, please don't take offense, but I think you shouldn't always treat your brother like a child. It's not good to keep him from knowing anything. He will have to experience things in the future, and you can't always protect him."

"Well, I know."

"Forget it, let's not talk about this anymore." Yan Minghui waved his hand. "Let's have a relaxing year, but next year the battle will begin. Ah Yan, do you think we really have to fight the Yan family to the death?"

"Huh? You don't want to?"

"No, I was just asking. If it really comes to a full-scale war, it'll probably be a fight to the death." Yan Minghui laughed and then picked up the wine jar and raised it to Chen Yan. "Come on, let's have a drink to cheer each other on for next year's battle."

"Okay." Chen Yan smiled and raised the wine jug as well.

At that moment, no one could have imagined that a decisive battle in City B would be decided at this humble street stall.

After the New Year, Chen Yan returned to B City with Wen Mu. Chen Lirong didn't plan to leave and wanted to stay there for a while longer. When Chen Yan left, Yan Minghui also left with her, while Sun Xiuqi was kept at home by his parents.

Chen Yan asked Yan Minghui if they should go to Sun Xiuqi's house again to try and persuade him. Yan Minghui just smiled bitterly and said: "His parents will only be angrier if they see me now. Let's wait and see."

Chen Yan didn't say anything more after hearing this. There were four people when they came, but only three when they left.

After the start of the new year, a storm swept through the B City shopping mall as the struggle between the Yan family and Hao Ran fully unfolded. If the two families had only been fighting each other before, it had now turned into a life-or-death duel.

Hao Ran would inevitably get involved in any business the Yan family was involved in, and the Yan family would inevitably try to sabotage any project Hao Ran was involved in.

In fact, at the beginning, the Yan family still left some room for maneuver, but Haoran pressed them step by step, forcing them to fight back in anger. Later, it even developed into a situation where enemies were extremely hostile to each other, completely disregarding gains and losses, and only wanting to harm their rivals.

The Yan family might not have expected things to develop to this point, but Chen Yan was already mentally prepared. Chen Yan's goal was to defeat the other side at all costs. In fact, this method was not particularly clever, but it was definitely the most direct.

Later, a saying circulated in the business world: if you see Yan's family opening a steamed bun shop, there will definitely be Haoran's dumpling restaurant across the street; if you see Haoran's family setting up a beverage stall, there will definitely be Yan's family opening a tea house next to it. The competition between the two families was everywhere. It was a hard-fought battle of financial resources and a tug-of-war between capital and strength.

At every bidding conference and trade show, you can inevitably see two companies vying for dominance, employing a variety of tactics and formats.

The smoke of battle caused the smaller companies to retreat and voluntarily give up their space so that the two sides could fight to their hearts' content, in order to avoid getting hurt themselves.

...