Dragon Palace Homes #10.
The last time the four brothers hung out together was when Jin Liwei took Iris to the farm villa for their first date. Each of them had their own different careers. It was not easy for them to match their schedules, especially for Jin Liwei who was the head of the number one company in the country and Wang Yingjie who was a surgeon from a busy hospital. Compared to the two of them, Lin Yehan and Yu Mo had more regular schedules.
Today, the four brothers gathered at Jin Liwei’s enormous residence. They were at the indoor tennis courts.
They alternated opponents until they all played against each other a few times. Finally, they decided to stop when they felt too tired to continue. They were all panting and drenched in sweat.
Servants instantly appeared to give them water bottles and towels before withdrawing to give the brothers privacy.
Wang Yingjie was very observant. He turned to Jin Liwei. “Third Brother, is it just me or are your servants more eager to serve than usual? There’s also something that I noticed. I’ve seen no signs of your presence in your house. Perhaps you were just too busy working that you haven’t stayed here for a while?”
“En. I haven’t been staying here. Xiulan and I have been living together at her place.”
“What?!” Yu Mo exclaimed. “Third Bro, is that true?! Since when?! Why haven’t you told us?! And I’m so sad! I go to Xiao Xiu’s place every week but she never told me. I had no idea.”
“I moved in with Xiulan after I returned from my Canadian business trip.”
Yu Mo: “So long ago and you never told us! Are we still your brothers?”
“Seems like you’re quite serious about your relationship with her,” Lin Yehan commented with his usual gentle voice.
“En. I plan to marry her,” Jin Liwei said with a nod.
All three brothers stared at him with wide eyes. Yu Mo’s expression was the most comical. His mouth opened and closed like a gasping fish out of water. His eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their sockets.
Yu Mo: “Y-you…what…”
Lin Yehan had a thoughtful expression.
Wang Yingjie just nodded, as if he already expected it. His eyes were on Jin Liwei’s left wrist. He immediately knew what LX on his brother’s bangle stood for even without asking.
The four brothers headed to the showers. Yu Mo pestered Jin Liwei on the way, asking him all sorts of questions about his relationship with Iris. Jin Liwei answered some of them, but mostly just ignored his Fourth Brother’s nonsense. After showering, they entered the adjoining sauna buck naked with only a single towel each.
“It would have been better if Fifth Brother is with us,” Lin Yehan sighed. “Third Brother, you met with Fifth Brother while you were in Toronto, right? How is he?”
Jin Liwei nodded. “He’s doing well. He looked healthy when I saw him. He also recovered his mobility.”
Wang Yingjie: “That’s a great relief. Paralysis can be a tricky condition to recover from.”
Yu Mo: “I wonder when Fourth Bro will come back.”
The brothers became quiet, thinking about their youngest brother. They thought that they were going to lose him when they first heard about the accident. Thank the heavens that he managed to hold on to his life. All of them were looking forward to the day that all five of them could gather together again.
Lin Yehan cleared his throat. He wanted to dissolve the suddenly somber atmosphere, so he changed the subject. “By the way, Third Brother. Is your company alright? There are a lot of companies all around the world that have been struck by the recent hacking which exposed shocking scandals to the public. I heard that Europe and North America are the ones affected the most.”
Yu Mo: “Oh yeah, I heard about that! It’s all over the news. The scandals sparked public outrage with millions of clients suing the companies. Company chief officers are either resigning or are being fired. Almost all of them are facing police investigations.”
“My company is not affected at all,” Jin Liwei replied. Then he paused, realizing something. “Now that I think about it, the companies that are related to Jin Corporation aren’t affected either. Perhaps that’s why only very few have been hit in the country compared to abroad.”
Lin Yehan: “That’s great to hear.”
Wang Yingjie: “It’s not only businesses. Research facilities and even universities have been hit. The worst are the ones involving politicians. New reports are popping up every day. Nobody has noticed any patterns yet based on the ones affected so far. It seems that the hacker is hitting randomly. I wonder what his goal is.”
Yu Mo: “Isn’t it obvious? He wants justice! I, for one, approve of this hacker! Those who have been exposed need to pay for the crimes they committed! What’s the name of the hacker again? I forgot.”
“Drakon,” Jin Liwei answered.
Lin Yehan sighed and shook his head. “Fourth Brother, don’t idolize that hacker. He’s now a wanted criminal. Many authorities from all over the world are now hunting for him. He should’ve contacted the police and shared his findings with them instead of carelessly dumping everything to the public. The chaos he caused all around the world is no joke. Stock prices crashing, riots everywhere. There have even been unverified reports that people are being assassinated because of the exposed scandals.”
Wang Yinjie turned to Jin Liwei. “What do you think about it, Third Brother?”
“I agree with the analyst who said that the hacker doesn’t care about justice,” Jin Liwei replied while wiping the sweat off his body with a towel. “That hacker is just looking for attention. It seems that he only surfaced about a year ago. He’s doing all of these to make a name for himself. That’s all.”
Lin Yehan: “Whatever his reason for hacking and causing all this chaos, I’m glad that he didn’t touch Jin Corporation.”
Jin Liwei: “En.”
Wang Yingjie nodded.
Yu Mo muttered, “I still think that Drakon is cool.”
