Before Luo Jialin even stepped through the door, he heard his grandfather's furious roar echoing from the courtyard:
"Is that foolish boy back yet? Hurry up and get him! Look at how you raised your son—he can't even tell right from wrong!"
What followed was his father's meek and apologetic voice.
Luo Jialin had never heard his father sound so weak and submissive before.
From childhood, he had always excelled—top of his class, talented and capable. He had been his father's pride. In this household, when had his father ever needed to bow his head to anyone?
Especially after he was chosen by Grandfather himself to be the heir shortly after graduating elementary school. Ever since then, his father's status had risen in tandem. Whether in the family or in the company, people had praised and relied on him.
But now…
Luo Jialin felt a cold weight sink into his chest. He took a deep breath and slowly pushed open the living room door.
"Grandfather, I…"
"You what? Get over here right now!" Elder Luo roared, his voice filled with disappointment. This grandson he once cherished had utterly let him down.
"Tell me—who are your business partners? What's the structure of your company's product development? Is there even any guarantee of safety?"
Luo Jialin kept his head low and answered carefully, "Grandfather, please rest assured. The products are absolutely safe and reliable. I can stake my reputation on that. I'll personally oversee every detail. I promise, there will be no mistakes."
"No mistakes?" The old man scoffed in fury. He slammed a stack of documents straight into Luo Jialin's face.
"You personally oversaw these contracts too, didn't you? Look where that got us!"
Luo Jialin picked up the documents from the floor—contracts he had signed on behalf of the Luo Group with the National Hospital.
Wasn't this all settled already?
Especially now that Xiao Anning had left the National Hospital—surely these contracts were voided. Why was Grandfather dragging this matter back up?
"I admit, when I signed those contracts, I was a little careless. I trusted Han Weicheng too blindly. I believed in the success of his research and wanted to catch Mu Side off guard."
"But even if there were breaches later, it doesn't affect our other pharmaceutical deliveries. Even with Long Xingyue pressuring Xiang Hua, it shouldn't stop our partnership."
He bent down to gather the rest of the scattered pages.
"Grandfather, I know I've disappointed you, but these contracts still brought in a sizeable order for Luo Pharmaceuticals, didn't they?"
"A sizeable order? And you have the gall to boast about that?" Elder Luo's temper exploded as he kicked Luo Jialin to the ground.
"Idiot! The Luo family has never produced anyone as stupid as you!"
Turning to his son, he snapped,
"He's your son. You explain it to him. And let me be clear: if he keeps working with Xiao Anning, I won't lift a finger when things go wrong. If that brat gets himself into trouble, Luo Group won't bail him out."
With that, Elder Luo stormed off in disgust.
Luo's father sighed and helped his son up. "How could you be so careless? Do you even realize you've been completely duped by Xiao Anning?"
"These contracts—this entire scheme—was a trap set up by your uncles. And you walked right into it, head first, without leaving yourself a shred of room to escape."
"When the National Hospital audited everything, we lost all credibility. We've become an industry-wide joke. Who knows how many future orders we've already lost."
Luo Jialin's mind reeled.
"Dad, what are you talking about? What trap? What did my uncles do? Are you saying they were in on it? Who's trying to sabotage me?"
Luo's father handed him a copy of the contract.
"See for yourself. Look at this delivery list. Not a single drug listed here was independently developed or produced by Luo Pharmaceuticals."
"Worse still, none of the drugs are named specifically—they're all listed under broad categories. It's too vague, too easy to exploit."
"The National Hospital has demanded certificates for every product mentioned in this list, as well as licenses proving our ability to manufacture them. We don't have them all—not even close."
"No… that can't be. I checked these lists against the company's catalog. I even compared them with past orders. There shouldn't be anything wrong here!" Luo Jialin was visibly shaken.
"Dad, someone must've tampered with this. Who was it? A traitor in the company? Did one of my uncles plant them?"
His eyes turned bloodshot with rage.
"You poor, naive child," his father said with a heavy heart.
"It wasn't the list that was swapped. The data you were working with from the start was already falsified. Your grandfather assigned you a personal assistant, but you insisted on choosing your own."
"That person resigned before the scandal broke, didn't they? All the information he handed you had already been edited. He took kickbacks from Xiao Anning."
"Xiao Anning pocketed a large sum, and even though he knew the contract was flawed, he said nothing. And you—you signed it with the National Hospital like a fool."
There was deep disappointment in his father's eyes.
"You've worked beside your grandfather for years, and you've been in the company long enough. How could you be so clueless about our own products?"
"I honestly don't know what you've been doing all these years. Luo Jialin, this is my fault—I trusted you too much and didn't scrutinize that contract myself."
"Now it's too late. The National Hospital has terminated the partnership. Fortunately, their own staff had issues too, so we didn't have to pay much in penalties. But our reputation? It's destroyed."
"That's something no amount of money can buy back. The standing we built over decades in this industry—completely gone."
Luo's father collapsed onto the sofa, staring at his son with deep disappointment and anger.
"No… no, that's not possible. Why would my uncles do something that could ruin the entire company? Aren't they afraid of being held accountable by Grandfather?" Luo Jialin couldn't wrap his head around it.
"Maybe this is all a misunderstanding. Maybe the wrong list was submitted. We can explain it—we can talk to the National Hospital!"
His father sneered coldly:
"You're still this naive, even now? Xiao Anning was Xiang Hua's assistant—his authority at the National Hospital was second only to one. And he had Xiang Hua's tacit approval for everything."
"In other words, they never intended for this contract to blow up inside the hospital. Your uncles clearly bribed him to set you up."
"The contract flaw was supposed to stay hidden within our own company. Once your uncles removed you, they would've quietly swapped in a corrected list for the National Hospital."
"But they didn't expect Han Weicheng to mess up. They didn't expect Luo Pharmaceuticals to lose rights to the new drug. And they definitely didn't expect Long Xingyue—who usually avoids hospital politics—to step in."
With a long, weary sigh, he concluded:
"This is the price of our own sins. The internal power struggles within Luo Group have finally destroyed it. But ultimately, it all started with your mistake."
"If you'd paid the slightest attention to our products, if you'd double-checked that list even once, our reputation wouldn't have been ruined so completely."
"The entire industry is talking now. Word is out that Luo Pharmaceuticals bribed buyers and used a fake, unqualified product list to deceive major hospitals—pocketing the price gap between the contract and the real goods."
"Now, no pharmacy or hospital purchasing officer dares approach us. Even if there's no actual bribery, they won't risk being associated with us."
"And all because of this, every hospital is now auditing its procurement department. Xiao Anning has already been fired from the National Hospital because of it!"