When He Haochu saw him glaring at him, he assumed it was because he’d questioned Pei Qingjian, and that Lin Xingchen harbored hostility toward him.
He instantly felt both jealous and resentful—jealous of Lin Xingchen’s loyalty to Pei Qingjian, and resentful that even with such loyalty, Pei Qingjian still chose to flirt with other men.
“You have no idea what he’s doing behind your back!” He Haochu said bitterly, staring at Lin Xingchen.
Lin Xingchen: “Doing what?”
“Flirting with other men, of course! This car was probably a gift from one of his flings!”
Pei Qingjian: ???
Lian Xingchen, who had inexplicably become the “flirtation partner”: …
“Stop talking nonsense!” Pei Qingjian snapped. “When have you ever seen me flirting with anyone else?!”
He Haochu snorted derisively. “This past Tuesday afternoon, on Jinhuan Road—you dare say you weren’t flirting with two men and almost went on a public date with them!”
Pei Qingjian: ???
Lin Xingchen: !!!
Lin Xingchen turned to look at Pei Qingjian. Impressive—flirting and nearly going on a public date.
“No, I…” Pei Qingjian was about to retort when he suddenly paused, remembering something. Tuesday afternoon on Jinhuan Road—wasn’t that the day he’d been cornered by Xu Ya and Tang Wenzhen?
So, the two men he was talking about were Xu Ya and Tang Wenzhen?
Then what’s the deal with this public date?
Seeing that he wasn’t responding, He Haochu assumed he’d been caught off guard and was too guilty to answer.
He chuckled and looked at Lin Xingchen. “He doesn’t have you in his heart at all.”
Lin Xingchen: …
Pei Qingjian: ???
Wait, why is he looking at his sugar daddy again? Wasn’t he just taking a dig at him a moment ago?
Pei Qingjian was completely baffled.
Suddenly, it dawned on Pei Qingjian.
Oh my god! Oh my god!
He’d been wondering why He Haochu suddenly started talking about him getting involved with other people—turns out it was all for Lin Xingchen’s sake!
He’s actually set his sights on his sugar daddy too!
Why “also”?
Because there’s already Xu Jianian in the picture, of course!
Tsk, tsk. No wonder he’s the kind of guy the main male lead has his eye on—he’s just a magnet for romantic entanglements.
Pei Qingjian let out a cold laugh. “If I don’t have him on my mind, then who does? You?”
“True enough. You’ve been rambling on like this—it’s all just for him, isn’t it?”
“You really do have nothing but him on your mind.”
He Haochu: …
He Haochu, caught off guard by his words hitting the nail on the head, retorted stubbornly, “Stop talking nonsense. I just can’t stand someone like you who’s playing the field!”
“So you want to steal one of my ‘boats’?”
“I just hope they all see your true colors.”
“And then leave me to go to you,” Pei Qingjian added for him.
He Haochu: …
“Anyway, I have nothing to feel guilty about.”
After saying that, he sneakily lifted his gaze and glanced at Lin Xingchen.
Lin Xingchen: ???
Why is he looking at me again?!!
He was just here to pick up a car with Pei Qingjian!
How did things escalate to this point?!!
“I’m not interested in you,” Lin Xingchen said without hesitation.
He Haochu froze for a moment, feeling a pang of discomfort. “That’s not what I meant. I…”
Lin Xingchen couldn’t be bothered with him and walked past him.
Seeing this, Pei Qingjian leaned in close to He Haochu. “What a shame. Even though you’re completely obsessed with him, it seems like he doesn’t have a single thought for you.”
“You!” He Haochu snapped, glaring at Pei Qingjian with clenched teeth.
Pei Qingjian smiled. “Well, I’m off then. Bye-bye~”
He Haochu saw him turn to head toward the car and grabbed him by the arm. “Dad said this car is mine! If you dare drive it away, Dad will never forgive you!”
“Then let him not forgive me~” Pei Qingjian pried his hand loose.
He Haochu reached out anxiously to grab him again, but Lin Xingchen grabbed his hand and, in the next second, flung him aside.
He Haochu looked at him in disbelief. “He treated you like that, and you’re still defending him!”
Lin Xingchen: …
“I told you, jobs are hard to come by these days. Don’t interfere with my work.”
“Then you could give me a job too,” He Haochu said, looking at him. “Whatever he pays you, I’ll pay you double.”
“I refuse,” Lin Xingchen replied without hesitation. “I don’t like ugly people.”
He Haochu: …
“What’s so ugly about me!” he shouted in disbelief.
Lin Xingchen said nothing; he turned, opened the car door, and got in.
As soon as he saw him get in, Pei Qingjian stepped on the gas and drove off.
When they reached the gate, he stopped the car again and told Lin Xingchen to get out and drive his own car.
Zhao Xinfan watched him drive away in that twenty-million-yuan car and muttered, “So it really is his car.”
But where did Pei Qingjian get the money?
Zhao Xinfan clutched her cup and furrowed her brow.
The two drove back to Lin Xingchen’s house without a hitch.
Pei Qingjian parked his car next to Lin Xingchen’s, pulled his suitcase, and prepared to enter the elevator.
Lin Xingchen walked beside him, his tone steady. “Before we go inside, don’t you think you owe me an explanation?”
“What?” Pei Qingjian looked at him.
Lin Xingchen: ???
“How dare you even ask?”
Pei Qingjian thought for a moment, then remembered. “Oh, I told you about this before. Think back—Tuesday afternoon, Jinhuan Road. That was the first day I brought you lunch. It was Xu Ya and Tang Wenzhen.”
It was indeed two men, and there was definitely some pushing and shoving.
“What about that public date? I wouldn’t have guessed you were so open about it.”
Pei Qingjian frowned. “How should I know? I didn’t say anything.”
He looked at Lin Xingchen. “I just told them to find our common denominator and simplify it, so the two of them could have coffee together.”
After saying that, a thought suddenly struck Pei Qingjian. “Holy crap! He must have just heard the words ‘common’ and ‘denominator’ and made up his own story! “That’s way too much of a stretch!”
Lian Xingchen: …
Lian Xingchen never would have guessed that was the case; he burst out laughing.
“A public date? What was he thinking?”
Pei Qingjian was curious too—how had he come up with that?
The two of them got into the elevator together and headed home.
Pei Qingjian went through the luxury items in his suitcase, setting aside some he didn’t care for, intending to sell them.
He was taking photos with his phone when suddenly, WeChat buzzed—someone had sent a friend request.
Pei Qingjian tapped it open. The contact’s name tag read: Tang Wenzhen.
Pei Qingjian: !!!
Damn it! Why won’t he just leave me alone!
Wait a minute. Pei Qingjian looked at the “Added via phone number search” in the source field. How did Tang Wenzhen get his phone number?
He thought for a moment, then walked out and went to Lin Xingchen’s study, knocking on the door.
“I need to talk to you,” Pei Qingjian said, poking his head inside.
“What?” Lin Xingchen asked.
Pei Qingjian stepped inside and showed him the friend request screen. “Why is he suddenly adding me? And through my phone number? Where did he get it?”
Lin Xingchen: …
Lin Xingchen furrowed his brow. What was Tang Wenzhen up to?
What was Tang Wenzhen up to?
Of course, he wanted to get to know Pei Qingjian.
He looked at his phone and waited, but Pei Qingjian still hadn’t accepted his friend request.
“Are you sure this is his number?” he asked Li Xin, who was sitting beside him.
Li Xin, rarely getting a chance to interact with him, nodded eagerly. “Yes, we used to hang out together. He hardly ever changes his number—it’s definitely this one.”
Tang Wenzhen looked at him. “Then why did he block you?”
Li Xin looked a bit awkward. That day at the bar, Pei Qingjian had thoroughly humiliated him, leaving him unable to hold his head up among his friends for quite some time. That was why, the moment he saw Tang Wenzhen here, he had rushed over, eager to get to know him.
However, Tang Wenzhen had no intention of engaging with him. Li Xin had no choice but to leave, feeling dejected.
But no sooner had he left than Tang Wenzhen sent someone to call him back.
At first, Li Xin didn’t understand why; he just thought it was a stroke of luck.
It wasn’t until they entered the private room and Tang Wenzhen asked him, “Do you know Pei Qingjian?” that it finally clicked—when he’d left earlier, he’d been in a bad mood and had muttered a few curses under his breath about Pei Qingjian. It seemed Tang Wenzhen had overheard him, though he hadn’t caught everything clearly; he’d probably only picked up the name, which was why he’d called him back.
He hurriedly replied, “That’s right, we’re friends.”
Tang Wenzhen said, “Is that so? Then have him come over right now.”
There was no way Li Xin could do that. Feeling guilty, he could only say, “We had a fight.”
Upon hearing this, Tang Wenzhen gave him a cold stare. “Then send me his WeChat ID.”
Li Xin: …
Seeing him standing there motionless, Tang Wenzhen decided he was probably of no use and said, “Get out.”
Hearing him tell him to get lost, Li Xin quickly offered, “I know his phone number. You can search for it and add him.”
And that’s how Pei Qingjian ended up receiving a friend request.
Now, Li Xin sat beside Tang Wenzhen, staring at his motionless phone, wishing he were Pei Qingjian so he could accept the request immediately.
She didn’t dare admit she’d stolen Pei Qingjian’s boyfriend, afraid Tang Wenzhen would come to despise her for it, so she explained, “He’s been dating a rich guy lately. The guy looks down on us and won’t let him hang out with us, so he deleted a bunch of us from his WeChat.”
Tang Wenzhen pulled out a photo of Lin Xingchen from his phone. “Him?”
Li Xin hadn’t expected them to know each other. She thought to herself that Pei Qingjian had really managed to latch onto a powerful connection.
He nodded. “Yeah, that’s him.”
“Are they close?”
“Very!” Li Xin replied without hesitation. “He treats Qingjian exceptionally well. Not only does he not let anyone bully him, but he also gives him money to spend. Qingjian is completely smitten with him—otherwise, why would he have deleted us?”
After he finished speaking, he couldn’t help but ask out of curiosity, “Who is this person?”
“You don’t need to know,” Tang Wenzhen replied dismissively.
He stared at his silent phone and wondered to himself: Is this because of Lin Xingchen—does she dare not accept his call?
Or does she simply not want to?
Does she really like Lin Xingchen that much?
He put his phone down, but suddenly heard WeChat ping again.
Tang Wenzhen quickly picked it up and opened it, only to find it wasn’t Pei Qingjian, but Xu Jianian.
Xu Jianian asked him if he wanted to go see a movie together on Monday afternoon.
Tang Wenzhen thought for a moment and declined: [Let’s do it tomorrow. I have something to do on Monday.]
Xu Jianian: [What’s going on?]
Of course, it’s something I can’t let you know about, Tang Wenzhen thought to himself.
He’d spent too much time with Xu Jianian and had indeed developed some interest in him.
But who would have thought that Lin Xingchen didn’t actually like Xu Jianian.
Back then, Xu Jianian had cried so bitterly, listing all the kindnesses Lin Xingchen had shown him. Listening to him, Tang Wenzhen thought that, given Lin Xingchen’s personality, he wouldn’t have gone to such lengths if he didn’t like the other person.
Not to mention that Xu Jianian said he had liked Lin Xingchen for four years—four years, over a thousand days and nights. He thought Lin Xingchen might have grown accustomed to Xu Jianian being by his side, looking up to him, and admiring him. And so, when Xu Jianian left and Lin Xingchen found himself unable to locate him, it was highly likely that he would realize he actually liked Xu Jianian.
Tang Wenzhen had been locked in a mental battle with Lin Xingchen for half his life, loathing and hating him.
If it weren’t for Lin Xingchen, his mother wouldn’t have forced him to do this and that, wouldn’t have scolded him, or ignored him.
He wanted to beat Lin Xingchen at anything and everything.
As a teenager, in his quest to outdo Lin Xingchen, he once tried to steal Lin Xingchen’s friends. He sought out Xu Ya, befriended him, and tried to make him his own friend.
But Xu Ya refused.
He only wanted to stay by Lin Xingchen’s side, play with him, and even take him back to his own home after school.
Back then, Tang Wenzhen thought their friendship was unbreakable, but when he was walking Xu Jianian home that night, he saw Xu Ya standing outside Xu Jianian’s dorm room—someone who shouldn’t have been there.
Of course he shouldn’t have been there. He hadn’t heard that Xu Ya planned to go abroad, and besides, his best friend was starting a business back home. Instead of supporting his best friend, he was here—in a foreign land, on a cold winter night—waiting for someone else.
At that moment, Tang Wenzhen smiled. So it wasn’t indestructible after all.
That night, he made a decision: he would make Xu Jianian fall in love with him.
He would snatch away the love that Lin Xingchen would later regret losing and try to win back. Once he succeeded—once Xu Jianian was deeply in love with him—he would tell Xu Ya: If Lin Xingchen hadn’t been so ungrateful and rejected Xu Jianian, Xu Jianian wouldn’t be with him now. So if anyone was to blame, it was Lin Xingchen.
He intended not only to steal Lin Xingchen’s love but also to destroy his friendships.
In this way, he would soothe the pain of the past twenty years.
However, to his surprise, Lin Xingchen didn’t seem to miss Xu Jianian after she left, nor did he try to win her back.
Not only that, but he actually started a real relationship—only it wasn’t with Xu Jianian, as he’d assumed, but with Pei Qingjian.
That Pei Qingjian who had once confessed his feelings to him, only to claim he’d already forgotten him.
How ridiculous. He actually claimed it was just a “Truth or Dare” challenge.
What right did he have to treat him like a dare?
Why was Lin Xingchen the one he truly liked, while he was just a dare?!
What Tang Wenzhen hated most was when people compared him to Lin Xingchen—and what he hated even more was when they placed him below Lin Xingchen.
Doesn’t he like Lin Xingchen?
Fine, then he’ll see just how much he likes him.
Don’t be like Xu Jianian—claiming to have loved him for four years, as if he really did care, but after I chased him for a while, the look in his eyes toward me was clearly one of longing.
Tang Wenzhen picked up his glass and took a sip. He was going to see just how long this Pei Qingjian could hold out.
Pei Qingjian had no idea Tang Wenzhen actually harbored such thoughts about him. He was simply busy with his own affairs and chose to ignore the friend request Tang Wenzhen had sent him.
Fortunately, Tang Wenzhen didn’t keep sending them; otherwise, Pei Qingjian would have blocked him.
He Liangyu came back after finishing his work and heard that Pei Qingjian had gone home and driven off in that car. Sure enough, he was furious.
Zhao Xinfan goaded him, “He clearly doesn’t take you seriously.”
He Liangyu agreed. The car had been sitting at home for quite some time, and He Haochu had been wanting it. He Liangyu had promised to give it to him once his internship was over, but now Pei Qingjian had driven it away.
He picked up his phone and called Pei Qingjian, but the line kept showing that the other party was busy.
He Liangyu dialed several times before it finally dawned on him: Pei Qingjian had actually blocked him!
He was so furious he nearly threw his phone across the room. “He actually blocked me! Blocked me! That ungrateful bastard—I knew he’d never be trustworthy. Ever since he changed his last name to his mother’s, I knew he couldn’t be relied on! And now he dares to block me? What kind of son blocks his own father?!”
Zhao Xinfan nodded. “You’re absolutely right.”
He Liangyu tried calling from his family members’ phones, only to discover that both He Haochu and Zhao Xinfan had been blocked.
Even the housekeeper’s phone had been blocked.
In the end, he finally got through using the landline.
He Liangyu was so furious his head ached. He blurted out, “Do you even respect me as your father?!”
Pei Qingjian: …
Pei Qingjian hung up immediately and quickly blocked the number, making it clear through his actions that he truly didn’t.