Chapter 2

While queuing at the immigration checkpoint at Singapore’s Changi Airport, Lin Yushu raised his left hand countless times to check the time.

Although his emotions did not show on his face, his actions did not escape the eyes of Shao Guangjie.

“Today is already fast enough,” Shao Guangjie thought Lin Yushu was complaining about the slow-moving queue. “Once, I queued for nearly two hours.”

“Is that so?” Lin Yushu replied nonchalantly. “They should really open a VIP lane here.”

There’s no such thing as a VIP lane for immigration, and Lin Yushu was just speaking casually because he couldn’t tell Shao Guangjie that he was feeling irritable purely because Shao Guangjie had arranged their flight to arrive in the afternoon.

The Singapore Grand Prix was a street circuit race, with all races taking place in the evening, with the qualifying race on Saturday at 8 pm and the main race on Sunday at 8 pm.

As the immigration officer stamped Lin Yushu’s work visa, he checked the time again – 9 pm. Great, the qualifying race was already halfway over.

If only Shao Guangjie had arranged their flight a few hours earlier, they wouldn’t have missed the qualifying race so perfectly.

This only confirmed Lin Yushu’s suspicion that Shao Guangjie brought him to Singapore not to watch the race.

The city area of Singapore is very small, and it takes only half an hour to travel from Changi Airport to Marina Bay Sands Hotel.

At this moment, the whole city was filled with the deafening sound of engines as Formula One cars sped along the well-lit track.

The atmosphere of the street circuit race was extremely strong, but Lin Yushu could only listen to the sound of the engines in the hotel shuttle bus because by the time he arrived at the hotel, the qualifying race was almost over.

The check-in had already been done by the secretary, and Shao Guangjie took the room card from the front desk and went straight to the elevator with Lin Yushu. But when they finally arrived at a luxury twin room, Lin Yushu couldn’t help but furrow his brow.

“Mr. Shao,” he stood at the door with his small business suitcase and didn’t move. “Wouldn’t it be disturbing for you to share a room?”

“How could it be?” Shao Guangjie leisurely opened the mini fridge and took out a can of soda. “During the race, rooms are in short supply, and Xiao Wang could only book this room.”

The CEO of Yong Xing Group, with his status and position, could only book a twin bed room. Who would believe such a thing?

However, Shao Guangjie had said it, and Lin Yushu didn’t want to expose him, so he could only enter the room with his luggage.

Lin Yushu had an important reason for not wanting to travel alone with Shao Guangjie: he knew that Shao Guangjie was bisexual.

To be fair, Shao Guangjie was not bad-looking, with sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes, and he was usually very gentlemanly to his subordinates, with a large number of female fans in the company.

Lin Yushu was polite to this boss, after all, Shao Guangjie was the heir of Yong Xing Group. But one thing he didn’t like was that Shao Guangjie seemed to intentionally or unintentionally probe his sexuality.

Just like now.

Two grown men sharing a room was normal, but Lin Yushu knew that Shao Guangjie was interested in men, so it was delicate.

Shao Guangjie liked handsome men, and although Lin Yushu was not as dazzling as a celebrity, he had a pair of attractive peach blossom eyes.

Although he usually wore suits to work, his rational and restrained image could weaken the presence of peach blossom eyes, but his sharp and capable temperament was something that those who were superficially pleasing couldn’t match.

Lin Yushu didn’t know when he started to notice that Shao Guangjie would occasionally touch his shoulder or waist, these actions were natural and not over the line, so Lin Yushu couldn’t be sure if Shao Guangjie was doing it on purpose or not.

“My friend is already at the casino downstairs,” Shao Guangjie said, drinking soda and looking at his phone. “Come with me, we’ll tidy up later.”

As usual, his tone was as if it was natural for Lin Yushu to accompany him to the casino for entertainment.

“Mr. Shao,” this time Lin Yushu didn’t follow Shao Guangjie’s lead and pointed to the large floor-to-ceiling window behind him, “I want to go down and watch the performance.”

Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows was a breathtaking view of Marina Bay, and across Marina Bay was the F1 race track.

“Performance?” Shao Guangjie’s drinking motion paused.

“Yes,” Lin Yushu said, “there’s a band I like.”

During the two-day event, the organizers would invite many performance guests to fill the gaps outside of the competition.

From 10 pm to 12 am on Saturday night, the time slot for the most prominent guest performer, usually a top international superstar.

Originally, Shao Guangjie invited Lin Yushu to Singapore under the pretext of using the F1 as a cover. If he missed the qualifying race, he wouldn’t even be allowed to watch the performance, which wouldn’t be justified.

“Okay,” Shao Guangjie said without insisting, indifferent. “Come back early tonight.”

At the end of September, Singapore was still hot and humid, even approaching 10 pm, the heat wave still came in waves.

Lin Yushu himself was not interested in the band, he just wanted an excuse to get away from Shao Guangjie.

But he had nowhere else to go this late at night, so he came to the F1 circuit, bought a $20 beer at the entrance, and leisurely made his way to the Padang stage.

By now, a large number of music fans had gathered on the lawn, and Lin Yushu had arrived early enough to find a spot not too far from the stage. But before long, a crowd of people had crowded behind him.

Various languages from different countries began to fill the air, but Lin Yushu let his mind wander and didn’t care where these strangers were from.

But soon, a hint of a faint fragrance caught his attention, and his “people-watching radar” immediately kicked in, detecting the scent of agarwood incense.

This woody men’s fragrance has whiskey in the top notes and tobacco in the base notes, with a hint of oriental agarwood, which is a scent Lin Yushu likes.

He couldn’t help but follow the scent with his gaze to the left and saw a man in a white polo shirt standing next to him.

Lin Yushu is 1.78 meters tall, not short among Asians, but the man next to him is still half a head taller, probably over 1.85 meters.

“…Really going back?…”

“Yeah, just going back to take a look.”

There was another person standing to the left of the man, and the two were chatting aimlessly in Chinese.

Lin Yushu had no intention of eavesdropping on other people’s small talk, but when he wanted to shift his focus elsewhere, the conversation between the two men suddenly caught his interest.

“Do you have a psychological price for this acquisition?”

“Depends on their sincerity.”

When it came to professional matters, Lin Yushu became interested.

He casually glanced to the left again and saw that the man was chatting with his hands crossed in front of his chest, which happened to allow Lin Yushu to observe his watch–

It was a limited edition Richard Mille and McLaren collaboration, priced at 1.4 million RMB, with only 500 available worldwide, and without connections, one wouldn’t be able to buy it.

Lin Yushu has always been willing to go the extra mile to expand his network, because the finance industry is even more dependent on resources and background than the entertainment industry.

However, just as Lin Yushu was thinking of finding a pretext to talk to those two people, a burst of intense bass suddenly erupted from the stage, igniting the passion of the entire audience in an instant.

The live performance had begun.

The loosely packed crowd pressed towards the edge of the stage, and people who were originally standing behind Lin Yushu bumped into him and pushed him forward. Inevitably, he began to tilt to the left.

As his center of gravity became unbalanced, the beer in his hand was bound to spill.

At this moment, Lin Yushu’s only thought was to not spill the beer on someone’s watch.

Thinking quickly, he instinctively turned his body to the right and leaned back to the left, spilling the beer on his own shoulder and avoiding a disaster.

At the same time, his back collided with a sturdy chest, and someone firmly grabbed his waist from behind. A man’s voice sounded in his ear: “Are you okay?”

Just now, he didn’t hear it very clearly, but now that they were closer, Lin Yushu realized that the man’s voice was very deep, as if the sound was coming from deep within his throat, unlike the way a normal Chinese person speaks.

“I’m sorry,” Lin Yushu said.

Standing up straight, he turned around and saw that the beer had still splashed onto the other person’s chest.

Quickly, he took out a handkerchief from his pocket. This was a habit he had developed from attending an international school since he was young, always carrying a handkerchief for emergencies. He pressed it against the other person’s chest, trying to help clean up the spilled beer.

The man in front of him must have been exercising regularly, as his chest muscles were quite defined.

Out of politeness, Lin Yushu had refrained from scrutinizing the man’s appearance before. But now, face to face, there was no offense in taking a closer look. As he apologized and raised his head, he suddenly became stunned.

He stared at the person in front of him, taking a full second to confirm that he wasn’t mistaken.

Could it be…?

The person in front of him was none other than Song Qiming.

Due to work needs, Lin Yushu often followed the news on Song Qiming. He had seen countless photos of Song Qiming online and had imagined how he would negotiate with him. But he never thought he would meet Song Qiming in person at this explosive rock concert in Singapore.

He knew that Song Qiming was a fan of F1 and that he was returning to China next week. But why didn’t he think that Song Qiming would stop by Singapore to watch the race and then go back?

Song Qiming was even more handsome in person than in photos. His deep eyes exuded a kind of English charm that could not be captured in pictures, and his facial features appeared even more three-dimensional under the stage lights. Looking at him up close was enough to give someone a shock.

Lin Yushu couldn’t help but think that it was no wonder that Song Qiming’s Chinese sounded so deep and low. It was probably because he was used to speaking German.

But that wasn’t the point. Perhaps Lin Yushu should retrieve his hand from resting on Song Qiming’s chest now.