Luo Feng had received Luo Xiao’s marriage certificate photo and Ju Yaxin’s messages while he was in a meeting.
After the meeting, back in his office, a dark line twitched at his temple. Legs slightly apart, hands in his trouser pockets, he stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows, staring outside in silence.
How was it that every year was the same—and yet this year he was the only clown?
Marriage…
Getting a spouse…
Luo Feng clenched his fist inwardly. He would have it too—sooner or later!
With Luo Xiao and Wen Ran gone, and Luo Zhengting still in the air with poor signal, Ju Yaxin spent almost the entire day messaging him:
【The Tan Palace house is kind of old. Pingping and I talked about it—we think buying a new one would be better. What do you think?】
【You’re the eldest, after all. Share your thoughts—I’ll take them into account】
【Should we hold the wedding soon too?】
【But we don’t live in C City, and most relatives are overseas. If we hold it here, we’ll need time to make the guest list and arrange lodging and flights】
【Oh right, go give the trust a heads-up. When the time comes, add Ranran’s name】
Luo Feng was busy with work all day, but his mind kept drifting.
It wasn’t because Ju Yaxin kept messaging him and he couldn’t focus.
It was because he finally realized that work wasn’t the only thing he loved.
Luo Xiao had rushed into marriage. What about him?
He was already thirty-one.
Luo Feng lifted his head and looked at his desk, his computer, his files—at the office, the sofa, the filing cabinets—and couldn’t help thinking: Is this really going to be most of my life from now on?
He’d always thought he was just career-driven, that he loved his work. Now he was starting to reflect on whether he’d neglected his own emotional needs too much.
With that thought, he picked up his phone, opened it—and then hesitated. He suddenly realized there was no one he could talk to about how he felt.
Who would he tell?
His parents?
He’d stopped treating Luo Zhengting and Ju Yaxin as people to confide in long ago.
He wasn’t a kid anymore.
Luo Xiao?
The brothers were close enough, but in recent years they hadn’t talked much.
Friends?
He wasn’t short on friends, but he’d never talked to them about things like this.
In his friends’ minds, he was just a pure workaholic.
Business partners? Colleagues?
Even less possible.
He dismissed all of that in an instant—then another person came to mind.
Someone who was closest to him in both work and daily life.
Someone he considered a friend, someone he usually talked things over with.
His special assistant, Qiao Yunjing.
Luo Feng messaged him:
【Do you think I spend too much time working?】
After a pause, he sent another:
【Luo Xiao’s getting married—shotgun wedding】
【I’m actually kind of envious】
【He found a painter】
【No idea what my other half will be like in the future】
Qiao Yunjing usually replied quickly, but today there was no response for a long time.
Luo Feng didn’t think much of it, assuming he was busy.
He went back to work.
Forty minutes later, Qiao Yunjing finally replied:
【I imagine they must be an exceptional person as well】
That afternoon, close to dinner time, Luo Zhengting’s plane landed in C City.
“Honey~~”
Ju Yaxin hugged Luo Zhengting as he came off the plane.
She’d brought Wen Pingping along too. Wen Pingping saw the Luo family’s private jet and met the tycoon himself.
Luo Zhengting extended his hand. Wen Pingping shook it with a smile. “Welcome. You’ve come such a long way—must’ve been tiring.”
They exchanged a few polite words.
After that, the three of them went to Wen Pingping’s home.
Wen Pingping hosted them warmly, her actions and words full of hospitality. Ju Yaxin also seemed quite close with her by now—once inside, she even went straight to the kitchen cabinets herself, took out cups, and made tea for Luo Zhengting.
The three elders chatted leisurely about everything under the sun, the conversation smooth and harmonious.
Wen Pingping even showed Luo Zhengting and Ju Yaxin photos of Wen Ran from when he was little. The three of them huddled together, and it honestly looked just like a family.
…
At the villa, Wen Ran and Luo Xiao went completely wild. The entire house was filled with the scent of their lovemaking—thick and unmistakable.
After going at it all day, by evening Wen Ran was finally exhausted and sleepy. He ate a little, then collapsed face-down on the pillow and fell asleep almost immediately.
Luo Xiao wrapped his arms around Wen Ran and didn’t bother with anything else, drifting off with him.
Curled up together, Wen Ran felt incredibly warm. Luo Xiao was like a large, four-legged plush beast with a naturally higher body temperature. Sleeping in his arms, breathing in his scent and feeling his steady, solid heartbeat, Wen Ran felt warm and deeply at ease.
After not sleeping for two days and one night, then spending an entire day like that, the two of them slept straight through until one in the afternoon the next day.
When they woke up, they ignored everything else and first had another thoroughly satisfying round. Afterward, they showered and finally went downstairs to eat.
Even while eating, Wen Ran insisted on clinging to Luo Xiao, kissing him and pecking at his face.
Luo Xiao had never been this indulgent before, but he liked Wen Ran far too much. When Wen Ran kissed him, he simply couldn’t resist.
He kissed Wen Ran back, sharing the same piece of fruit with him, letting the fruity sweetness mingle with their shared breath on their lips.
After eating, they shamelessly tangled together again.
Wen Ran had always liked Luo Xiao’s build, and Luo Xiao loved touching Wen Ran too—his skin felt especially smooth, and he smelled amazing.
They both wanted each other.
After that round, the two lay on the bed in the second-floor guest room and chatted.
Wen Ran said he really wanted to paint right now. Inspiration and the urge to draw were bursting out of him like a fountain.
Lying in Luo Xiao’s arms, he told him, “Actually, before this, I hadn’t painted for a long time.”
“It felt like I lost something—I can’t even really describe it.”
“I just couldn’t paint.”
“I forced myself to pick up a brush, but it didn’t help.”
Luo Xiao listened quietly without saying much.
He could tell Wen Ran was venting, and that he didn’t really need commentary.
Wen Ran soon changed the subject. “Your dad should’ve arrived already, right?”
“We’ve already registered the marriage—do we still need to do anything else?”
“Anything you want to do?” Luo Xiao asked. “Paint?”
“I do want to paint,” Wen Ran said. “But I want to be with you more.”
“Painting isn’t urgent. I’ve got the feeling now—I can paint anytime.”
“I think we should first take care of your parents, see what needs to be prepared for the wedding.”
Luo Xiao suddenly remembered something. “Oh, right—Zhang Zuming’s wedding is the day after tomorrow.”
“He invited a lot of hiking buddies.”
“Tomorrow everyone’s getting together at the hotel first.”
“Let’s go together.”
“Your friend?” Wen Ran asked.
“Yeah,” Luo Xiao said. “Met him while hiking the same route with a few others. Gave him a hand once.”
“Is hiking risky?” Wen Ran didn’t really know.
“Depends on where you go,” Luo Xiao explained. “Some routes are well developed, with guides and lots of people—no need to worry much.”
“Some places are basically no-man’s-land…”
They talked for a long time.
Remembering that Luo Xiao wanted to go to Xinjiang again in the fall, Wen Ran excitedly suggested, “Once the families finish talking about the wedding and everything settles down, why don’t we go travel?”
“You take me, I’ll bring my sketchbook and pens, and we’ll go wherever we want!”
…
Luo Zhengting had arrived, and Luo Feng made time so he wasn’t stuck at the office all day.
In a hotel suite, the three of them sat on the living room sofa. Luo Zhengting and Ju Yaxin were discussing Luo Xiao and Wen Ran’s wedding, while Luo Feng sat there lost in thought.
He wasn’t thinking of anything specific—just wondering whether he really should carve out more time from work for himself, to look for a partner, someone to love.
What bothered him most was that Luo Xiao had met Wen Ran, slept with him, and gotten married—all within just a few days.
He kept wondering why something like that never happened to him.
Then he heard Ju Yaxin and Luo Zhengting suddenly bring him up.
Both parents turned to look at him. Luo Zhengting said, “You’re not young anymore. It’s time you started thinking about your personal life too. Luo Xiao’s already married.”
Ju Yaxin spoke gently, “Boys or girls are both fine.”
“I know you’re busy. Do you want Mom to help arrange something?”
“There are plenty of age-appropriate boys and girls in our circle.”
“There’s nothing wrong with blind dates—it’s perfectly normal.”
Blind dates?
Luo Feng looked at Ju Yaxin, then at Luo Zhengting.
The concern on his parents’ faces softened his heart.
Maybe it was because he had parents and a family like this that both he and Luo Xiao had been able to live so freely, doing whatever they wanted, never forcing the issue of relationships and letting things drag on until now.
“Sure,” Luo Feng said.
He wasn’t opposed.
The way you meet someone didn’t really matter. At the very least, there had to be someone to start with.
He messaged Qiao Yunjing: 【Getting ready for blind dates】
Once again, Qiao Yunjing took a long time to reply.
When he did, it was just two words: 【Alright】
On the third day after registering their marriage, Wen Ran and Luo Xiao finally went out. They’d originally planned to meet both families to talk about the wedding, but things didn’t quite work out—Wen Pingping saw how busy they were and simply booked a local high-end tour instead, dragging the guide along with her, Luo Zhengting, and Ju Yaxin to go have fun. None of them were around.
“You two just enjoy yourselves,” she said.
So Wen Ran and Luo Xiao ended up back in their own little world.
That evening, they were going to have dinner with Luo Xiao’s hiking friends. In the afternoon, Wen Ran took Luo Xiao to see Shang Ge—and things immediately got weird again.
Shang Ge, Lu Wenwen, and a few others were at Shang Ge’s place doing piecework by hand.
On the way there, Wen Ran had already told Luo Xiao, “It’s really fun.”
Once they arrived, Luo Xiao saw that the “money-making” handcraft was… dipping a pen into powder and dotting blush onto palm-sized dolls.
A group of young men and women were crowded around the coffee table in Shang Ge’s living room, enthusiastically dotting blush onto dolls. Big bags of dolls were piled around them—some waiting to be dotted, others already finished.
The work was incredibly simple: use a special pen, dip it into blush-like powder, pick up a doll, stamp one dot on each cheek, then toss it into the finished bag.
Luo Xiao: “…?”
“It’s super fun!” Wen Ran said excitedly.
Luo Xiao almost laughed himself to death.
Other people’s city lives were usually just work and home, maybe hanging out on weekends—steady, dull, nothing special.
But Wen Ran and his group of friends somehow always found the weirdest, most entertaining things to do.
Luo Xiao took the doll and pen Wen Ran handed him and tried dotting two red spots.
He thought it’d be easy. It looked easy.
But when he did it, the dots were crooked, or the powder went on unevenly.
Huh?
Wen Ran took the pen, grabbed another doll, and demonstrated. “Like this. Then this. Your hand has to be steady—and fast.”
Before long, a photo of a palm-sized doll with rosy cheeks appeared in their family group chat.
Luo Feng: 【？】
【What is this】
Luo Xiao: 【Dotting blush on dolls, one cent each】
【Photo】
【All the dolls in these bags were done by me and Wen Ran】
Luo Feng: 【……】
In the back seat of a Maybach, Luo Feng held up his phone, frowning at the photo of a one-cent doll with two pink dots on its face.
After catching people in the act, now this? What kind of new activity was this supposed to be?
One cent per doll?
With assets worth at least tens of billions, President Luo truly could not comprehend how one cent was supposed to be earned.
For a moment, he forgot this was a group chat and sent: 【Once you’re married and have a spouse, even eating shit tastes good, huh】
Luo Xiao replied with a video—Wen Ran sitting there with his head down, dotting blush onto a doll. After finishing, he looked up, held the doll up to the camera, and shook it. “Look, isn’t mine pretty decent?”
Then Luo Xiao tagged Luo Zhengting: 【Dad, big bro says you eat shit】
Only then did Luo Feng realize he’d sent it to the group. It was too late to retract.
Ju Yaxin followed up with a video of her and Luo Zhengting sitting side by side on the open top of a double-decker bus, faces pressed close, Ju Yaxin turning to kiss Luo Zhengting on the cheek.
Luo Feng: “……”
Your eldest son has left the chat.
But in reality, Luo Feng just switched back to the image of the blushed doll that Luo Xiao had sent.
He stared at the round little face with two pink dots for a long while, feeling sour inside.
Ah… so once you have a spouse, even a one-cent doll can make you this happy.
He kind of wanted to dot blush too.
He saved the photo of the doll and sent it to Qiao Yunjing.
Then he went back to WeChat and messaged Luo Xiao: 【Where are you? Send location】
Forty minutes later, in Shang Ge’s living room, the two sons of Asia’s richest man sat side by side at a black coffee table, dotting blush onto dolls.
Luo Feng used the same hand he used to sign off on S-level projects to dot blush onto a doll.
After finishing, he sent it to his assistant and asked: 【Isn’t it pretty good?】
Qiao Yunjing replied with six lines of ellipses.
Luo Feng added: 【One cent per doll. I’ve already earned twenty cents】
【Photo】
The photo showed a bag full of dolls.
Qiao Yunjing: 【………】
【President Luo, do you really have to earn those twenty cents】