Li Second Branch's Residence
The moment Li Feng and Li Xue stepped back into the Second Branch residence, the air changed.
Unlike the oppressive weight of the main estate, this house felt lived-in. Warm lights. The faint smell of herbal tea. A place built for comfort, not power.
Li Guohua was already waiting in the living room.
He stood the instant he saw them—
not out of formality,
but out of fatherly worry.
"Feng? Xue'er?" His voice carried no distance, no calculation. Just concern. "Are you alright? Did your grandfather say anything harsh?"
Li Xue shook her head a little too quickly to hide her nerves.
Li Feng simply said, "We're fine."
But their father stepped closer, studying their faces carefully—as though expecting wounds the siblings were too proud to mention.
Only when he found none did he exhale.
"Good," he murmured, and there was real relief in it. "That's good."
Li Xue relaxed a fraction.
Li Feng didn't show it, but the tension along his shoulders eased.
Guohua's gaze softened.
"Come, sit. You must be tired."
He led them to the sofa—almost fussing, the way a father who'd raised his children alone for years might fuss without realizing it. He placed tea in front of them, adding a small spoon of honey to Xue's cup because she liked it that way.
Only after they were settled did he speak again.
"I heard…" His voice lowered, warm with quiet pride. "I heard your project shook the entire Expo."
Li Xue flushed scarlet.
Li Feng remained unmoved, but the smallest warmth flickered in his eyes.
Guohua continued, gently but firmly:
"Silent Hands is yours."
He tapped lightly on the table as if punctuating each word.
"Your idea. Your work. Your success. No one else's"
Not ours.
Yours.
He refused to claim even a sliver of credit.
Li Xue lowered her gaze, suddenly overwhelmed.
"…Dad…"
"No matter what the family tries to say," Guohua continued. "they had no hand in raising it, no hand in supporting it. Everything about it came from the two of you."
Li Feng nodded slightly.
Xue bit her lip to keep from tearing up.
Her father shifted his stance—still gentle, but something firmer surfaced beneath the warmth. A rare backbone, usually hidden beneath years of enduring the family's pressure.
"You should both be proud," he said. "And if anyone tries to take Silent Hands from you…"
His eyes sharpened with a quiet steel rarely shown.
"…they will have to go through me first."
Li Xue stared at him—surprised, moved.
Li Feng's expression remained calm, but his respect for the man who stood in front of him grew sharper, deeper.
"At the main estate," Guohua added, more softly now, "your grandfather… did not belittle you, did he?"
"No," Li Feng answered. "He tested us."
A faint grimace crossed their father's face.
"That old man… always testing others. Testing the children he never raised."
He sighed, rubbing his forehead. "I should have gone with you."
Li Feng shook his head.
"It was unnecessary."
Guohua gave a wry smile.
"Perhaps. But as your father, it still feels like I should have."
Silence settled over them—a warm one, not heavy.
Finally, Guohua placed a hand on both their shoulders.
"Rest," he said gently. "Eat. Breathe. Today may have been difficult… but you did wonderfully."
Li Xue's voice came out soft.
"…Thank you, Dad."
Li Feng didn't speak, but his quiet nod carried the weight of acknowledgment.
Guohua straightened, his expression turning firm again—even protective.
"Whatever the other branches say… whatever they plan…"
His gaze softened only when it fell on his children.
"You two are what matter to me. Not their politics."
He walked toward the kitchen to prepare dinner—because he always cooked on days he worried.
And the siblings sat there, side by side, wrapped in a warmth that no part of the Li family estate could ever mimic.
The warmth of home.
The warmth of their father.
The only person in the entire Li family who still cared more about their hearts than their value.
---
Li family's main conference chamber...
The doors to the Main Conference Chamber shut with a heavy, padded thud—blocking out the rest of the estate and sealing in a tension thick enough to taste.
A long mahogany table stretched across the center of the room.
High-backed chairs.
Dimmed overhead lights.
A wall of glass screens displaying nothing yet.
Currently, seated where those with standing in the Li Group:
At the head
— Li Zhonghai — Patriarch of the Li family
First Branch
— Li Guowei — Executive Vice President
— Li Yichen — Director of Strategic Planning
— Li Xinya — Assistant Public Relations Consultant
Third Branch
— Li Guotao — Head of Li Pharmaceuticals
— Li Cheng — Assistant Manager, Clinical Testing Division
— Li Han — Present only as an Expo witness; no authority, no right to speak.
Fourth Branch
— Li Guifen — Chairwoman, Li Media
— Han Zhiyuan — CEO of Han-Li Entertainment (subsidiary)
— Han Rui — Public Relations Officer
Everyone knew why they were here:
Silent Hands.
The Patriarch's low voice rolled across the room, steady and cold.
"Begin."
Li Guowei was the first to present, posture rigid, tone firm.
"Father, Silent Hands cannot remain in the hands of two high-school students. With today's visibility, other corporations will make approaches—some already have. If that happens, we risk losing not only the project, but control over its creators."
His implication was clear:
The Li Group must claim Silent Hands before anyone else can.
Li Yichen pushed a file forward.
"Their current accuracy rate, ninety-seven percent, is unsustainable under amateur development. It will require institutional resources regardless. We should position Silent Hands under the Group Research Division and absorb its intellectual property."
A clean, corporate takeover.
Li Zhonghai gave a barely perceptible nod.
First Branch knew how to speak to him.
Li Guotao folded his hands, expression calculating.
"Assistive communication devices fall naturally under medical rehabilitation. If Silent Hands is classified as a medical-assistive product, it must pass clinical trials. That process runs exclusively through Li Pharmaceuticals."
Subtle, but ruthless.
"If we move quickly, the registration alone will place legal ownership under my division."
Li Cheng added quietly:
"With rehab partners, we can integrate it into therapy programs. Hospitals will treat Silent Hands as a medical device produced by us."
The meaning beneath the words:
Legally and commercially, the siblings disappear from the picture.
Li Pharmaceuticals becomes the official creator.
Third Branch played to law and industry structure.
They always did.
Li Guifen smoothed her blouse and set down her teacup.
"All of you are discussing control. But before control, we need perception."
Her tone was calm, polished, and edged with media instinct.
"Right now, every report coming out of the Expo names Silent Hands as the work of the Second Branch siblings. That cannot remain."
Han Zhiyuan continued without missing a beat:
"We can broadcast a formal statement by evening."
He tapped a note on his tablet.
"'Silent Hands — a Li Group youth innovation project developed with guidance from the family's internal R&D resources.'"
Not a lie.
Not the truth.
Just enough ambiguity to bury the siblings' credit under corporate shadow.
Han Rui added lightly:
"We'll push a narrative emphasizing the Li Family's support. The siblings become the face, not the authors. Public memory will shift. Parents and students won't care who coded it—just that the Li Group built it."
A perfectly polished erasure.
---
At the end of the table, Li Han sat stiff, jaw clenched, nails digging into his palm beneath the table.
He had no right to speak here.
But he burned anyway.
Why is everything about them?
Li Feng… again?
Li Xue… again?
He wanted to spit something,
to tear the project down,
to scream that they were nobodies—
But even he wasn't stupid enough to lose control in this room.
He stayed silent.
Unable to breathe easily.
Unable to bear the praise he heard echoing between lines.
Even the smallest recognition of the Second Branch felt like poison.
---
Finally, Li Zhonghai leaned back, his gaze turning ice-sharp.
"You've all presented your positions."
He summarized without emotion:
"First Branch wants the project integrated into Group R&D."
"Third Branch seeks to claim it under medical classification."
"Fourth Branch wants to reshape the public narrative to remove the Second Branch's credit."
Every word was precise. Surgical.
He tapped the table once.
"All three approaches are workable."
A quiet chill wrapped around the room.
Then the Patriarch's voice dropped lower.
"But make no mistake."
His gaze hardened.
"We will not permit Silent Hands to remain under the Second Branch, nor allow Li Feng to gain leverage from it."
The branches absorbed the sentence with unified understanding.
This was not a question.
Not a debate.
It was mandate.
Li Zhonghai stood, cloak-like authority filling the room.
"You each have one week to produce a complete proposal.
I will determine the direction we take."
He turned away.
"Meeting adjourned."
Chairs scraped. Papers shuffled. No one dared linger.
One by one, they left the hall—heads bowed, minds racing.
Only Li Han looked back—
His glare sharp with poisonous envy.
---
Li Feng's room
The lights in Li Feng's bedroom were dim, the curtains half-drawn, leaving streaks of late evening light across the floor. The house outside was calm, silent, almost deceptively so.
He could be seen seating at his desk, his terminal in front of him, headset on.
On his terminal, six small windows could be seen across the screen.
Six devices. Six live audio feeds.
"You each have one week to produce a complete proposal. I will determine the direction we take... Meeting adjourned."
He had heard it all
It wasn't so hard for him with his Level 2 cyber security skill. He had exploited all the devices that had been brought into the meeting and turned them all into is personal remote controlled mics.
Through layered micro-boosting scripts and a tight audio-enhancement kernel, he reconstructed sound from the far ends of the room—cleaning, isolating, and stabilizing voices that would've otherwise been a murmur.
Every whisper in that meeting flowed straight into his headphones like he was sitting beside them.
Now, he sat in his chair, fingers tapping calmly against the polished wood as the meeting he had listened to—the one he wasn't supposed to know existed—played back in his mind.
Every word.
Every plan.
Every intention to strip Silent Hands from Xue.
To erase them.
To bury the Second Branch back under the heel of the family.
Li Feng exhaled slowly.
Not angry.
Not surprised.
Just… taking note.
Li Feng leaned back, letting the chair creak softly beneath him.
First Branch wanted ownership.
Third Branch wanted legal control.
Fourth Branch wanted narrative control.
And the Patriarch?
He simply wanted results that weren't tied to the Second Branch.
It wasn't personal.
It was structural.
If the Li family gave the Second Branch even a sliver of real merit—real influence—they risked creating a future enemy too dangerous to put down.
Li Feng rested his chin lightly on his hand.
So they've started making their moves.
His eyes sharpened, calm but precise.
Then I should get started too.
The quiet hum of Accelerated Parallel Cognition whispered beneath the surface of his thoughts—steady, powerful, limitless.
Part of his mind replayed the meeting.
Another part drafted counter-strategies.
Another evaluated leverage points.
Another tracked every nuance in the Patriarch's tone.
All without strain.
Four thought streams at once.
Calm as breathing.
LI Feng's lips curved faintly.
Level 2 really is something.
---
Reviewing the entire meeting, dissecting every intention and every angle, Li Feng reached a clean, inevitable conclusion:
His first priority now should be to secure Li Xue's rights to Silent Hands— legally, airtight— and to do so without provoking the Li family prematurely.
A delicate balance. A razor's edge.
As he pieced together strategy after strategy, another thought surfaced.
His father.
In the original novel, Li Guohua had quietly built a tech company from nothing.
A hidden ace.
A silent empire the main branches never recognized until it was too late.
If there was anyone he could trust—
anyone whose interests aligned perfectly with Xue's—
it was him.
But…
He didn't know the company's name.
Li Feng tapped his fingers against his desk.
'…Should I just hack him and pull the information?'
The thought was logical.
Cold. Effective. Efficient.
But for the first time since arriving in this world, he hesitated.
Hacking enemies was easy.
Hacking the Li family was routine.
But hacking his father…
It felt... wrong.
'…No.'
His fingers lowered from the keyboard.
'I'll just talk to him tomorrow.'
Decision made, Li Feng exhaled once and turned fully toward his terminal.
And then the calm vanished.
His hands flew across the keyboard in a blur—
shortcuts, scripts, silent windows opening and collapsing like ripples on water.
Lines of code streamed past his screen, merging into structured architecture.
Phase 2 of the Li Web.
His underground network. His unseen influence. His future power.
Each keystroke pushed it closer to completion—
nodes stabilizing, relays strengthening, infiltration modules snapping into place.
Hours bled together.
He didn't sleep.
He didn't pause.
He worked through the night, the only sound in his room the relentless, precise clicking of keys—
the sound of a future being forged.
---
Hello, Author here,
Thanks for reading — Leave a comment to tell me what you think about this chapter, and drop a Power Stone if you're enjoying Li Feng's story so far! Let's grow this story together.