The “old costar” immediately broke into a smile as bright as a flower, looking at Ye Nanqi with unmistakable smugness.
Anyone could guess what was going on. This man had probably hooked up with someone from the Xue family and wanted to show off in front of Ye Nanqi—not only had he landed himself a powerful patron, but the man was also quite handsome.
After all, Ye Nanqi had become famous thanks to that television drama, while he was still just a third-rate celebrity. He had always felt that Ye Nanqi had stepped on him to climb to the top.
If his sugar daddy had been someone else, even Shen Du, Ye Nanqi wouldn’t have bothered with him. He would have offered a couple of insincere congratulations and walked away. But right now, he couldn’t bring himself to leave.
He quickly recalled what little information he had about the Xue family member standing before him. There was pitifully little. Aside from knowing that his name was Xue Xiangyu and that he was a playboy, there was nothing else useful.
Could it be him?
Ye Nanqi imagined himself suddenly going berserk and pulling down a man’s pants in the middle of a crowded room. He immediately dismissed the idea. Without showing the slightest embarrassment, he smiled and extended his hand to Xue Xiangyu.
“I’m just a nobody, so it’s perfectly normal that Young Master Xue hasn’t heard of me. I’ve heard a great deal about you, Young Master Xue. I’m Ye Nanqi.”
Xue Xiangyu stared at him with what seemed to be a somewhat peculiar smile. He casually reached out and shook Ye Nanqi’s hand.
He really was a shameless flirt. His fingers slid across the back of Ye Nanqi’s hand, then lightly scratched his palm before he finally withdrew, apparently reluctant to let go.
The young celebrity’s eyebrows twitched almost imperceptibly.
Ye Nanqi had been able to “step on him” and become famous partly because of his acting skills, but his looks were also far superior. This playboy clearly wasn’t someone who was emotionally invested in his relationships. Having spotted a more dazzling flower, he might already be thinking of throwing away the one he was holding.
The young celebrity’s alarm bells immediately went off. He hurriedly linked his arm through Xue Xiangyu’s and said, “There’s someone I know over there too. Young Master Xue, why don’t we go over?”
Ye Nanqi had no grounds to stop them. He could only watch helplessly as they walked away. His eyes narrowed. For the first time, he wanted to pin that sarcastic, self-important fellow in the entertainment industry to the ground and rub his face into it.
But now that they had met, there was no need to worry about not finding another chance to get close.
The atmosphere at the venue was lively. Even the air seemed hot. Ye Nanqi gathered his thoughts, politely declined several invitations with a smile, then asked a waiter where the restroom was. He went over and washed his face with cold water.
Not far away, the venue was bustling with guests clinking glasses and chatting noisily. The restroom, however, was completely empty except for him. It was quiet and peaceful, almost as if it belonged to another world, with the glamorous dream of the party unfolding just beyond it.
His somewhat restless mood gradually settled. Ye Nanqi lowered his head and carefully dried his hands. Then he noticed another person appearing in the mirror.
He paused slightly and looked up.
To his surprise, he saw his husband in name only.
“…”
Ye Nanqi turned around, his expression difficult to describe.
“What are you doing here?”
Shen Du leaned against the side wall with his arms crossed, his long legs casually crossed at the ankles. Hearing the question, he lightly tapped his foot against the floor and smiled.
“Don’t you think that’s a pointless question?”
Only then did Ye Nanqi remember that this cocktail party was for members of the “upper echelons of society.”
Upper class? More like the lower depths of society.
Seeing that Ye Nanqi had fallen silent, Shen Du rubbed his chin.
He had already seen Ye Nanqi wandering around the venue earlier. Dressed so conspicuously, he was still daring to move around this kind of place without the slightest guard. He might not even realize he’d been thoroughly taken advantage of until it was too late.
The two stared at each other silently for a while. Then Shen Du suddenly said, “If you don’t want to get mixed up in something inexplicable, stay away from the Xue family. The people in that family…”
He paused, as if remembering something, and didn’t continue.
Ye Nanqi’s brows twitched. His voice involuntarily grew heavier.
“What about the people in that family…?”
Before he could finish, a sudden flurry of hurried footsteps sounded outside, followed by a man’s voice, tinged with a roguish smile.
“Couldn’t wait any longer, could you?”
Ye Nanqi was extremely sensitive to voices. He immediately recognized who it was. Before his brain could complete a reasonable and logical thought, his body had already moved.
He grabbed Shen Du and pulled him into a restroom stall.
Shen Du looked utterly bewildered. He was about to ask what was going on when Ye Nanqi clapped a hand over his mouth. He had no choice but to give up and ask with his eyes why they were hiding like two people having an affair.
The people outside had already entered. They locked the restroom door and exchanged a few flirtatious remarks. Before long, a very inappropriate sound began to echo through the room.
Ye Nanqi: “…”
Shen Du: “…”
Ye Nanqi felt that even sleeping with Shen Du would have been less embarrassing than hiding with him in a restroom stall and listening to someone else having sex.
To make matters worse, the restroom echoed. The two people outside weren’t far away, and if not for the door separating them, it would have felt as though they were having sex right in front of them.
Two grown men squeezed into a tiny stall, their bodies inevitably pressed against each other. Both of them were somewhat stiff. Afraid of startling the people outside and ruining their “mood,” neither dared move, terrified that even the slightest contact might produce a sound.
The air itself seemed saturated with an erotic atmosphere. The mood had become far too ambiguous. Uncomfortably, Ye Nanqi turned his gaze away and cursed those two pigs who apparently had nothing but sex on their minds.
He had thought he might overhear some kind of secret. Who would have guessed that the other party would be so uninhibited, going at it right there in a restroom where someone could walk in at any moment?
The strange and awkward atmosphere reached its peak when Ye Nanqi’s old costar let out a long, soft moan that ended in a tearful-sounding “Ah!”
“…” Shen Du leaned close to Ye Nanqi’s ear and whispered, “Did you drag me in here just to listen to this?”
Ye Nanqi’s face was a little red. Through gritted teeth, he replied, “Do I look like I have a problem?”
All he wanted now was for Xue Xiangyu to wrap things up quickly. Hopefully, he wouldn’t get more and more enthusiastic as things went on.
Fortunately, the two people outside still had some awareness that they were in a public place. They didn’t keep going indefinitely. Just when Ye Nanqi’s legs were nearly numb, he finally heard the rustling sound of clothes being put back on.
Ye Nanqi and Shen Du both breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, perhaps unintentionally, someone lightly knocked on the door of the stall next to theirs.
Ye Nanqi’s heart immediately began pounding like a drum. He unconsciously leaned backward and heard Xue Xiangyu ask jokingly,
“What do you think? What if there’s someone else in the restroom?”
The young celebrity, who had just finished putting on his pants, immediately turned deathly pale. His lips even began to tremble.
Xue Xiangyu laughed and patted his head.
“There’s no one. I checked. Don’t be afraid, baby.”
After their footsteps had faded into the distance, Shen Du finally spoke.
“Listen—”
Ye Nanqi turned to look at him.
“If you’ve got something to say, spit it out.”
Shen Du slowly pressed down on his head.
“First, move away from me.”
Only then did Ye Nanqi realize that he was practically leaning against Shen Du’s chest. He hurriedly opened the stall door and walked out.
The moment he remembered what someone had just done in there, everything suddenly felt wrong. He was about to leave immediately when he noticed a business card lying on the washbasin.
His heart gave a jolt. While Shen Du wasn’t paying attention, he picked up the card and slipped it into his pocket.
Shen Du glanced at him.
“Stop strutting around like a peacock. There are plenty of people at this party who really can eat you alive.”
Hearing that, Ye Nanqi smiled.
“President Shen, are you actually worried about my personal safety?”
Shen Du watched Ye Nanqi. He recalled the file on Ye Nanqi that had been delivered to his desk at noon. He wanted to say something, but considering the relationship between them, he felt there was nothing appropriate to say.
He frowned and reached out to tap Ye Nanqi on the forehead.
“Anyway, put that peacock tail away. The farther you stay from the Xue family, the better.”
He paused, then added somewhat awkwardly,
“Contact me when the party’s over. We’ll go home together.”
Ye Nanqi: “…”
Unable to resist, Ye Nanqi grabbed Shen Du’s tie and pulled him down toward himself. Tilting his head up, he sniffed him suspiciously.
“Are you drunk?”
The posture was actually quite intimate.
Ye Nanqi’s beauty wasn’t the kind that felt aggressive or overpowering. But at such close range, he was still devastatingly attractive. Shen Du could almost see his own reflection in Ye Nanqi’s eyes. All he had to do was lower his head, and their lips would meet.
He bit the tip of his tongue. He felt that he might have gone a little crazy from the sudden change in his romantic rival’s attitude. Ignoring the strange feeling in his heart, he pressed a hand against Ye Nanqi’s forehead and pushed him away.
“It’s my duty.”
After saying it, even he didn’t believe the excuse, so he added, “My mother knows you’re attending this cocktail party tonight too.”
Bringing up Shen’s mother was indeed effective. Ye Nanqi immediately understood. He released Shen Du’s tie, then turned around and leisurely straightened his appearance in the mirror.
He was wearing a GIVENCHY suit that evening. The cut was impeccable, elegant and relaxed. The well-fitted suit perfectly accentuated his figure. From behind, his waist was almost criminally attractive, making anyone want to reach out and pull him into their arms.
Shen Du had, in fact, held him like that before. He had to admit that the experience had been rather pleasant—pleasant enough to make him want to do it again.
Realizing what he was thinking, Shen Du’s expression darkened. He shifted his gaze away and blamed these inexplicable thoughts on having just listened to someone else’s sex session. Without another word, he turned and left.
Ye Nanqi watched him leave through the mirror. Only after quite some time did he take out the business card.
As expected, it belonged to Xue Xiangyu.
Had he dropped it by accident? No. How could it have fallen so “accidentally” in such an obvious place?
Why had Xue Xiangyu deliberately left his business card there? Was he afraid that whoever was in the stall wouldn’t know it was him? Or perhaps… he knew that someone—more specifically, Ye Nanqi—was in the stall and had left it there on purpose.
…Then why leave a business card for him?
Ye Nanqi stared at the card for a while before slipping it back into his pocket.
Regardless of whether Xue Xiangyu had developed a “sexual interest” in him, since the other party had voluntarily left his contact information, Ye Nanqi would be happy to accept it.
After being away from the venue for a while, Ye Nanqi found it somewhat difficult to get back into the atmosphere when he returned.
He had achieved part of his objective, so he stopped wandering around the room. Instead, he found a spot near the corner, quietly ate some of his favorite pastries, and planned to wait a little longer before taking his leave.
Unfortunately, trouble came looking for him.
He had barely sat peacefully for a while when the light in front of him suddenly dimmed. Ye Nanqi looked up.
Two people were standing before him. He didn’t recognize the broad, heavyset man on the left, but the one on the right looked somewhat familiar—a director he’d worked with back when he was still a third-rate celebrity.
Sensing that something wasn’t quite right, Ye Nanqi put down the half-eaten little cake and smiled with his lips pressed together.
“Director Chen, long time no see.”
Director Chen rubbed his hands together and gave a couple of awkward chuckles. His eyes darted around for a moment.
“Xiao Ye, long time no see… Ah, let me introduce you. This is President Sun from Weijie Company.”
Ye Nanqi nodded with a smile.
“Hello, President Sun.”
“President Sun really likes your work. He’s thinking about investing in a movie recently and thinks you’re the perfect fit. He’s been wanting to talk with you for a while. What a coincidence that we ran into each other today.”
Ye Nanqi pretended to look surprised and delighted, quickly coming up with an excuse to turn them down. With a regretful expression, he said, “I’m honored that President Sun and Director Chen think so highly of me. It’s just that my schedule is full recently, and another production is about to start filming soon…”
Before he could finish, President Sun interrupted him.
“That’s fine. A movie can wait for its actor. If Nanqi doesn’t mind, why don’t we find somewhere to talk after the party?”
Director Chen chimed in, “This kind of opportunity doesn’t come around often.”
Indeed, opportunities like this didn’t come often. Turning them down would mean not knowing how to appreciate a favor.
But there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world.
Ye Nanqi thought to himself that if he really went somewhere with these two, he’d be walking straight into a trap. He could only keep exchanging pleasantries with them while trying to figure out how to shake them off without offending either man.
Before he could come up with a solution, a pair of arms suddenly slipped around his shoulders. He was so startled that he almost instinctively threw an elbow.
Shen Du had appeared out of nowhere. He held Ye Nanqi with complete composure. He was tall and long-legged, towering over the two men before him. Looking down at them, he gave off an almost condescending air. Although he wore a smile, his eyes were ice-cold.
“Gentlemen,” he said with a smile, his voice carrying an unmistakable threat. “I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed. He already has plans with me.”