He Xiaoyuan had a deep-seated obsession with owning his own home.
When he was very young, he lived at his maternal grandparents’ place for many years.
To this day, He Xiaoyuan remembered that house vividly. It was barely over ten square meters in total. Downstairs was a single room that doubled as living room, dining room, and kitchen. Upstairs was a narrow loft. He and his mother lived on one side, separated by a curtain, while his grandparents lived on the other. There was no bathroom in the house; the toilet was outside, shared with the neighbors.
Later, when he got a bit older, his mother saved up some money and they moved out of his grandparents’ home into a small two-bedroom apartment.
That little apartment held many happy childhood memories for He Xiaoyuan.
But not long after, his mother fell ill and needed money. The apartment was sold at a price lower than the market value at the time to his mother’s older sister—He Xiaoyuan’s aunt.
It was sold that way because his mother worried that the still-young He Xiaoyuan couldn’t be left without a place to live. She discussed it with her elder sister, selling the apartment cheaply on the condition that his aunt would leave He Xiaoyuan a room.
And so, for many years after his mother passed away, He Xiaoyuan lived with his aunt’s family.
But he knew very clearly that it wasn’t his home, and it wasn’t his house.
When He Xiaoyuan had just joined Sipu, because the company promised a packaged salary of five hundred thousand for management trainees, he had once thought about saving for a few years to put a down payment on a two-bedroom apartment in a more remote area.
Now, seeing his income rise and anticipating that he might receive over a million in bonuses, his desire to buy a home naturally resurfaced.
With money comes confidence, and his thinking had shifted a little. He felt that if one project alone could bring in so much bonus money, then first, he wouldn’t need to save for as long for a down payment, and second, the amount of money he could consider now was definitely higher than before.
When he got back and opened his laptop to look at listings, his heart went “wild.” He jumped straight from places priced a little over two million to ones over five million; he even looked at places in the six-to-seven-million range. The areas he considered weren’t as remote as before, either.
He even searched for relatively new residential complexes within about a twenty-minute drive from the company. Fine—every single one was over ten million.
But then He Xiaoyuan quietly did the math. If his annual income could reach two million, then in a bit over two years he could scrape together a four-million down payment. With a commercial loan interest rate of 4.9 percent, borrowing six million over thirty years would mean monthly payments of a little over thirty thousand.
!
He could afford it!
But He Xiaoyuan quickly cooled down. He reminded himself that this time, it was because he had followed Chang Bei’s project. The project had gone relatively smoothly, the game launched quickly, and Chang Bei had given him forty percent of the project share—that was why he could get such a large bonus.
If the next project he worked on dragged on for half a year without much progress, with no contract-signing bonus and no project commission, how much income would he really have?
Could he afford a monthly expense of over thirty thousand just for the mortgage?
He Xiaoyuan hurriedly shook his head, tossing all those ten-million-plus apartments and unrealistic expectations out of his mind.
He shifted his thoughts to something more practical in the present—
Right now, he was living in the company dormitory: a single room, cheap, convenient, fully equipped. The only downside was that it was a bit far.
If traffic wasn’t bad, it took forty minutes; if it was congested, the commute could take over an hour.
After working for a while now, maybe because his debts were paid off and he no longer had financial pressure—and even had money left over—He Xiaoyuan found that his perspective on housing and commuting had changed.
He no longer put “as cheap as possible” as his top priority. Instead, he felt that living closer to the company would reduce time costs as much as possible. Commuting would be easier, and if something suddenly came up on a day off and he needed to go to the office, he wouldn’t have to spend so long traveling.
Thinking about it that way, He Xiaoyuan felt that instead of unrealistically browsing homes he wouldn’t be able to buy for years to come, he might as well see whether there was a suitable place to rent near the company.
It was at this moment that he received Lu Chen’s call and told him he was looking at houses.
Lu Chen already knew that the project had wrapped up and the game had launched, and that He Xiaoyuan would soon be receiving project bonuses.
Hearing that he was looking at houses, Lu Chen asked, “Planning to buy?”
He Xiaoyuan scrolled through webpages, his phone on speaker by his hand. “No way. Buying is still a long way off. I’m just seeing if there’s a suitable place closer to the company to rent for now.”
On the other end of the call, Lu Chen’s tone was gentle. “What’s wrong with the employee dorm? When we talked about it before, didn’t you say it was pretty good?”
He Xiaoyuan stared at the computer screen, the blue light reflecting in his focused eyes. “It is pretty good—single room, decent size, everything’s there. It’s just far.”
He explained, “I want to live closer to the company so I don’t spend so much time commuting every day.”
Lu Chen hummed in agreement. “Time costs really are high.”
“Right? That’s what I think too.”
Lu Chen then asked, “How’s the search going?”
He Xiaoyuan replied while looking at the screen, “There are places, and they’re all close to the company, but they’re so expensive.”
He exclaimed, “Wow—this one is actually over fifty thousand!”
Just for rent!
He Xiaoyuan thought that if he were buying a place, fifty thousand would already cover a monthly mortgage payment.
Lu Chen said, “Places near the company—if the complex is newer and the apartment has good renovations—they really won’t be cheap.”
“Yeah.”
He Xiaoyuan continued scrolling with his mouse wheel, slowly moving down the rental listings page.
This wasn’t the first time He Xiaoyuan had considered renting a place. Back when he was about to start work, he’d already had one round of experience and knew very well that browsing listings online was one thing, while the actual available units were another.
He Xiaoyuan was decisive and action-oriented. Once he had an idea, he was ready to put it into practice. He said, “I’ll ask some agents this weekend.”
Lu Chen didn’t say much, only asked, “Want me to go with you to look?”
He Xiaoyuan replied casually, without any sense of distance between them: “No need. Running around to look at apartments is pretty troublesome. I’ll go by myself first.”
However, by Saturday, after visiting several real estate agencies in a row, every one of them told him the same thing: based on his requirements, there were currently no suitable apartments available.
Anything within his budget basically had no turnover at this time. The area was full of white-collar workers, and whole-unit rentals in the range of seven or eight thousand to twenty thousand were the easiest to rent out.
One of the agents suggested, “Why don’t you rent something in the thirty- to fifty-thousand range? There are still plenty of those. Lots of units, great renovations and furnishings, all name-brand appliances.”
He Xiaoyuan: Way over budget. He couldn’t afford that.
Just like that, his plan to rent a place closer to the company more or less fell through.
He Xiaoyuan felt a little dejected. He was usually pretty restrained with spending, and it was rare for him to want to splurge a bit on housing.
Before going to the agencies, he’d even done some mental preparation, telling himself that the money would be spent to reduce time costs, and that it would be worth it.
And now—great. He wanted to spend the money, but couldn’t, because there were simply no apartments available for him.
Sigh…
Sitting alone on the sofa, petting the big cat, He Xiaoyuan let out a breath just thinking about it.
He supported the big cat under its front legs with the web of his thumb and lifted it up in front of him. Forehead to forehead, he muttered, “If I lived closer, I could come pet you every day.”
Foreheads touching again. “No chance.”
Another touch. “No apartments.”
The big cat: “Meow~”
Lu Chen came out of the kitchen with a plate of sliced fruit. He walked over to the sofa, set the fruit plate on the coffee table in front of He Xiaoyuan, then sat down beside him, turning his body to face him. “Didn’t find a place?”
He Xiaoyuan set the cat down on his legs and continued petting it. Lu Chen straightened up, reached over to pick up the fruit plate, and handed it to He Xiaoyuan. He Xiaoyuan speared a piece of apple with a fork, brought it to his lips, and said while eating, “It’s not that I didn’t find one. It’s that there are no apartments at all.”
Lu Chen placed the fruit plate between them on the sofa, then reached out and took the big cat from He Xiaoyuan, holding it in his arms and stroking it. “What do you mean, no apartments?”
He Xiaoyuan shrugged and briefly explained the lack of listings.
Lu Chen stroked the cat, his tone calm and businesslike. “So what are you planning to do now? Not moving for the time being?”
He Xiaoyuan ate some fruit, thought for a moment, and said, “I’m still considering moving. I told a few agents to contact me if anything comes up. Or I’ll see—if someone nearby is looking for a roommate, I’m fine with a shared place too.”
Lu Chen continued petting the cat, quietly thoughtful.
A few days later, while He Xiaoyuan was at work, he suddenly received a call from an agent saying that a suitable listing had just appeared in the system. It was an apartment very close to the central business district, and because of special circumstances, the rent was cheap. The agent asked when He Xiaoyuan was free to come take a look.
When He Xiaoyuan heard that the place was only six thousand five hundred, he immediately said, “I’ll come right now.”
He rushed out of the office, went straight to the apartment building the agent mentioned, and met the agent downstairs. As they walked into the building together, the agent explained the situation.
The owner of the apartment was overseas. Because they felt that leaving the place empty would be bad for feng shui, they decided to rent it out so someone could live there and keep some human presence.
The owner didn’t need the money. They just wanted someone to live in the apartment, add a bit of liveliness, and look after it. That was why the price was cheaper than anything nearby—but they had very high standards when it came to the tenant’s personal quality.
The previous tenant had been a single, high-earning professional. That tenant had moved out, and the apartment had just become available in the past couple of days.
Everything was already inside, the place was very new, and it was ready for move-in.
While talking, the agent and He Xiaoyuan stepped out of the elevator and walked down the apartment corridor to the unit the agent had mentioned. The agent entered the code on the electronic lock and opened the door.
As soon as he walked in, He Xiaoyuan was immediately drawn to the south-facing floor-to-ceiling windows. The apartment was a loft with two levels. The first floor was only partially divided; the side near the window went straight up to the ceiling, with windows over six meters high, making the not-so-large apartment feel spacious and bright.
Aside from the bathroom, the first floor was completely open-plan: kitchen counter, dining table and chairs, sofa and coffee table, television, cabinets—everything was there.
Not just the furniture and appliances—even the flooring was brand new.
He walked further in, then went up the stairs by the window to the second floor. The entire second floor was a bedroom with a large bed. There were cabinets against the wall, and a door inside that led to a second-floor bathroom.
It wasn’t big. The agent explained that the first floor was just over forty square meters. It definitely couldn’t compare to Lu Chen’s luxury home, but in terms of price, interior layout, exterior greenery, and property management, it far surpassed all the other nearby apartments He Xiaoyuan had looked at.
Most importantly, it was cheap—much cheaper. The value for money was incredible.
Only six thousand five hundred.
He Xiaoyuan finished looking upstairs and downstairs in just a few minutes. Without hesitation, he told the agent, “Okay, I’ll rent it.”
The agent pulled out his phone and asked how many years he wanted to sign for.
He Xiaoyuan said, “Let’s sign for two years first.”
Then he asked, “How do we pay? Three months’ rent with one month’s deposit, or quarterly, semiannual, annual? And how are utilities calculated?”
He Xiaoyuan knew that for new apartments in new complexes, deposits were often high, and utilities weren’t always paid directly but charged at a per-unit rate.
The agent opened the app on his phone to prepare the electronic contract and said, “However you want to pay is fine.”
He Xiaoyuan: ?
The agent made an “oh” sound, as if just realizing something, and hurriedly added, “Three months’ rent with one month’s deposit, three plus one. I’ll send you the utility and internet account numbers later; you can pay them yourself.”
There was nothing else that needed to be discussed. Efficient and decisive, He Xiaoyuan signed the electronic contract with the agent, paid the rent and deposit through the app, and just like that, rented the apartment and received the electronic lock code.
After the agent left, He Xiaoyuan wandered around the apartment by himself, looking it over from every angle. The more he looked, the more satisfied he felt. Setting aside the fact that he had clenched his teeth and steeled his heart to pay several thousand yuan a month in rent, the place was incredibly cost-effective. Everything about it was good—far more spacious than the company dormitory, much more comfortable to live in, and close to the office.
He Xiaoyuan was in a great mood, feeling that this apartment hunt had gone exceptionally smoothly.
He took another couple of laps around the place, then thought of something. Standing on the first floor and facing the living room, he snapped a photo and sent it to Lu Chen.
He Xiaoyuan: 【Photo】
He Xiaoyuan: 【Brother, I found a place and signed the lease.】
He Xiaoyuan: 【Little dinosaur hopping around.jpg】
On Lu Chen’s side, when he saw He Xiaoyuan’s messages twenty minutes later, his phone was also holding messages from his personal housekeeper, Chen Jun.
He opened He Xiaoyuan’s first. When he saw the little dinosaur bouncing around, the corners of his lips curved slightly. He knew that a certain young man had successfully settled the apartment issue and was in a good mood.
Then he opened Chen Jun’s messages—two of them.
The earlier one said: 【President Lu, everything with the apartment and the agent has been taken care of.】
The later one said: 【President Lu, the lease has been signed. It went very smoothly.】
Lu Chen read them calmly, replied to Chen Jun with a simple “Mm,” then switched back to his chat with He Xiaoyuan. He pressed the voice message button, raised the phone to his lips, and said in an even tone, “That fast? Where’s the apartment?”
When He Xiaoyuan received the message, he had already returned to the Sipru Building and was walking down the long corridor back to his office.
He raised his phone and replied with a voice message as well, his tone light and clearly happy. “Yeah. A place that just came on the market. The agent contacted me, I went to take a look, thought it was really great, so I signed right away.”
“This time I got pretty lucky. It’s an apartment where the owner is overseas. It’s really new, everything’s included inside, and the price isn’t high either.”
After sending those two messages, he kept walking and sent a third. “Are you at the office this afternoon? If you are, after we get off work tonight, we can go take a look together. It’s really close—right next to the company. We can walk there in just a bit.”
That evening, a little after seven, He Xiaoyuan arrived at the apartment by himself first. As soon as he got there, he tested the kitchen and bathroom water, the shower, and everything else again. Then he went upstairs, opened the wardrobe to take a look, and started thinking about how to organize things once he moved in.
The doorbell rang. He Xiaoyuan hurried down the stairs, thumping along quickly, headed for the entryway, and opened the door. Lu Chen was standing outside.
“Brother,” He Xiaoyuan greeted him.
Lu Chen walked in and looked around. “So this is the place you rented this time.”
He Xiaoyuan had already turned and walked into the living room. He glanced back and said, “Yeah. What do you think? Not bad, right?”
His tone was obviously relaxed and cheerful, making it clear how happy he was about successfully renting a place he liked.
Lu Chen laughed silently to himself, thinking how easily satisfied he was. At the same time, he knew how hard He Xiaoyuan had worked to get where he was, and a trace of tenderness rose unconsciously in his heart.
Lu Chen said, “Mm. It’s good. Pretty nice.”
He Xiaoyuan smiled. “It definitely can’t compare to your luxury place, but it’s way bigger than the company dorm. The key is that it’s close to work and not especially expensive.”
Lu Chen rolled that phrase “not especially expensive” around in his mind and knew that the young man was still careful with money and reluctant to spend it.
He could understand. After all, being comfortable spending money was also a kind of ability. He thought to himself to take things slowly—everything had its process. This step was already very good.
Then another thought followed: Chen Jun had still set the rent too high. Since they were already using the excuse of pricing it far below market value, whether it was six thousand five hundred, five thousand five hundred, or four thousand five hundred made no real difference. Even three thousand would have been fine.
As Lu Chen surveyed the interior, thinking to himself, he looked at He Xiaoyuan and saw the young man holding a cloth, wiping down the straight marble countertop of the open kitchen. He had already started cleaning and busying himself.
Way too diligent.
Lu Chen walked closer. “When are you planning to move?”
He Xiaoyuan wiped the counter and thought for a moment. “This weekend, probably.”
There was no time during workdays, and evenings weren’t convenient either—they could easily disturb the neighbors.
Lu Chen gave a low “Mm” and said, “I’ll drive over then.”
He Xiaoyuan looked up at Lu Chen and said frankly, “Sure. I’ll borrow your big car for it.”
Then he added, “Actually, there’s not much to move. I don’t have that many things.”
Lu Chen acknowledged it again. “If you’re missing anything, just buy it.”
As he spoke, he lifted his gaze and scanned the place again, silently observing what might still be lacking.
After all, his own place—the top-floor duplex at Yanlan Bay—was something he hadn’t really bothered with when he bought it. Once it was ready, he moved straight in.
In his private life, many of the tedious or detail-oriented matters were always handled thoughtfully by his housekeeper, Chen Jun.
Yet now, when the young man he liked was moving into an apartment, he was paying close attention. It went to show that for men, there was no such thing as big or small matters—it only depended on whether he cared and whether the person involved mattered to him.
Early Saturday morning, Lu Chen drove his X7 to the apartment complex.
He went upstairs, stepped out of the elevator, and, for his first time up there, lifted his eyes to scan the door numbers. He found 1701 and walked over. The door was ajar, not fully closed.
Lu Chen knocked. “Xiaoyuan?”
As he pushed the door, He Xiaoyuan’s voice came from inside. “Hey! Brother, you’re so early?”
But the door only opened halfway, blocked by something behind it.
Lu Chen pushed lightly. When it didn’t open, he didn’t force it. He turned sideways and stepped inside. He Xiaoyuan happened to take a big step over, about to help him open the door fully.
Now that Lu Chen was inside, he lowered his head and glanced behind the door, seeing several cardboard boxes stacked together.
He Xiaoyuan bent down and moved the boxes to the side so they wouldn’t block the door, explaining, “Some small appliances—ones you helped me apply for before.”
The new apartment didn’t have them, so he planned to bring them all over, saving himself from having to spend money buying them again. Besides, they were all still new and hadn’t been used for long.
This wasn’t Lu Chen’s first time coming to the dormitory building, but it was his first time going upstairs and entering He Xiaoyuan’s room. He lifted his head and looked inside, seeing that the small space was extremely neat and clean. Near the entrance, various kitchen appliances and utensils were arranged neatly on the counter. Inside, the bed was next to the bookshelf and desk. The desk was tidy. Aside from one corner of the bed being flipped open from sleeping the night before and not yet made, everything else was smooth and orderly. Looking toward the balcony, clothes were hung on the drying rack in order from small to large. Near the washing machine on the balcony, several pairs of shoes sat lined up, wiped spotless.
From the small details, one could see the bigger picture: He Xiaoyuan knew how to live, loved cleanliness, and was fully capable of managing his daily life. He was hands-on and diligent.
And in this not-so-large room, He Xiaoyuan’s presence was everywhere.
The moment Lu Chen stepped in, he felt as though he had crossed into a young man’s private space, breaking the usual distance between them.
He Xiaoyuan had clearly just woken up and hadn’t started tidying yet. He was pulling a suitcase out from under the bed.
Lu Chen swept his gaze around and asked with concern, “You’ve been living okay here?”
He Xiaoyuan opened the suitcase. “Yeah, it’s been great.”
Lu Chen looked around again. “It’s a bit small.”
There was barely any space at the foot of the bed—even placing things there wasn’t possible. It only allowed room to walk through.
He Xiaoyuan turned his head to look at Lu Chen and said, “It’s not small. It’s bigger than all the single rooms I looked at before when I was planning to rent outside.” And everything was included.
Lu Chen didn’t continue talking about the dorm room. He tugged at his sleeves and asked if there was anything that needed organizing, offering to help.
He Xiaoyuan stood up from beside the suitcase, about to go organize the clothes in the wardrobe. “No need. Brother, you sit down and scroll on your phone for a bit. I’ll do it myself—it’ll be done in no time.”
Lu Chen started rolling up his sleeves and looked up. “Is it because I’m expensive to use? Or because someone’s starting to be distant again?”
He Xiaoyuan was taking a few hanging clothes off their hangers. When he heard that, he laughed. “President Lu, you’re a precious person. Hurry and find a place to sit. How would I dare trouble you?”
Lu Chen shot him a sideways glance, ignored that remark, and walked over to the desk.
There was no need to ask—everything on the desk was obviously going with them. Before starting, Lu Chen glanced over it, and what he saw surprised him.
A sticky note was stuck to the lamp pole of the desk lamp. Written on it in black pen were the words: Sleepy? If you’re sleepy, think about Brother Lu.
The moment Lu Chen saw it, he guessed that this was how a certain young man motivated himself.
So this was the method?
Lu Chen pressed his lips together slightly.
Just then, He Xiaoyuan, who had been organizing the wardrobe, turned his head.
Seeing Lu Chen staring at the desk lamp, he instantly realized what Lu Chen had seen. He spun around and lunged over. “Don’t look!”
He reached out to tear off the sticky note.
Lu Chen laughed. “Too late. I already saw it.”
He Xiaoyuan swiftly ripped the note off and crumpled it in his hand.
Lu Chen found it amusing. He Xiaoyuan, on the other hand, felt utterly embarrassed. He returned to the suitcase, squatted down, and silently stuffed the crumpled note into a corner of the suitcase.
Lu Chen laughed and said generously, “What are you hiding it for? It’s fine. Nothing embarrassing about it.”
He Xiaoyuan continued stuffing clothes into the suitcase, feeling a bit mortified—having Brother Lu himself see something like that was way too awkward. He had written it back during his rotation period and had kept it stuck there ever since.
Lu Chen looked around at that moment and deliberately teased him. “Anything else? You didn’t secretly hang up my photo at home too, did you?”
“…?”
He Xiaoyuan hurriedly said, “Of course not!”
Lu Chen continued teasing, adopting a tone of mock disbelief. “Really?”
He Xiaoyuan swore to the heavens. “Absolutely not!”
Lu Chen laughed.
The two of them packed things together in this light, easy atmosphere. The suitcases were filled, and once the boxes were full, there were also big bags.
The big bag was made of nonwoven fabric, white in color, with a cartoon cow printed on it—very cute. He Xiaoyuan had bought it during his senior year of college to carry his belongings when moving out of the dorms. He had used it once and then kept it instead of throwing it away, saving it until now.
When He Xiaoyuan took the bag out and opened it, he didn’t think much of it. But when Lu Chen saw it, his gaze locked onto the little cow, and he laughed immediately. Laughing, he glanced at He Xiaoyuan and asked, “That cute?”
He Xiaoyuan knew Lu Chen was teasing him again. Holding the bag, he lowered his arms and said helplessly, “Brother, it’s just a bag.”
Lu Chen reached out, lifted one corner of the bag, looked it over, and said, “So you like cows?”
Men past the age of ten generally didn’t like being described as cute.
Left with no choice, He Xiaoyuan explained, “When I bought it, all of them had patterns. I just picked one randomly. This one didn’t have any other designs.”
Lu Chen kept pressing. “You like cows?”
“……”
He Xiaoyuan said, “NO!”
Not long after, however, it was Lu Chen carrying the cow-printed bag, already stuffed full. He wasn’t even holding it by the handles—he had slung the strap over his shoulder, freeing up his hands to carry other things as he walked out.
He Xiaoyuan looked up and saw it: the tall, broad-shouldered Lu Chen with a bag printed with an adorable cow head slung over his shoulder. The image was oddly cute and playful. He burst out laughing, pulled out his phone, and captured the scene.
Loaded down with bags and already out the door, Lu Chen seemed to sense something. He turned his head back, just in time to see He Xiaoyuan laughing and holding up his phone, aiming it at him.
Lu Chen calmly looked back, stopped where he was, and waited. He didn’t rush him even after He Xiaoyuan finished taking the photo, his expression patient.
Done?
His look seemed to say.
“Coming, coming.”
He Xiaoyuan put away his phone and came out, pushing the suitcase along.
“What did you take a picture of?”
Lu Chen asked evenly.
He Xiaoyuan said with a grin, “You carrying the cow bag. Super cute.”
Lu Chen looked at He Xiaoyuan, chuckled softly, and said nothing, indulgence evident in his expression.
Once everything had been loaded into the X7, He Xiaoyuan went upstairs one last time. He checked the room thoroughly to make sure nothing was left behind, then walked out of the dorm room.
Before closing the door, his hand on the handle, he took one final look inside, a sense of emotion rising in his heart.
Just over half a year. He had lived here for just over half a year.
This small room had been his shelter after graduation, allowing him not to worry about rent and to focus on working and living.
He wouldn’t be living here anymore.
Other colleagues who needed it would move in.
Goodbye.
He Xiaoyuan smiled faintly, said his farewell in silence, and closed the door.