“…” Ye Nanqi smiled on the outside, but inwardly thought, Who the hell made plans with you?
Still, Shen Du had gone out of his way to show up and get him out of trouble. Ye Nanqi wasn’t about to pick a fight with him at a time like this. He deliberately leaned a little closer into Shen Du’s arms and said apologetically, “President Sun, Director Chen, I’m really sorry. I was just about to say…”
“…” If you were about to say that, why did you waste so much time making excuses and beating around the bush?
Director Chen secretly grumbled to himself. There were too many prominent figures at this cocktail party. Although he didn’t recognize Shen Du, the man’s imposing presence was enough to intimidate him into silence. He turned toward President Sun for help, only to discover that President Sun’s expression didn’t look too good.
The Shen family not only possessed enormous wealth but also had military connections. Even if one couldn’t win them over, offending them was absolutely out of the question. Shen Du had begun taking over the Shen family’s businesses one by one right after graduating. Although he was low-key and rarely appeared in public, President Sun wasn’t so ignorant that he wouldn’t recognize him.
Realizing that he had kicked an iron plate, President Sun hurriedly waved his hands with a hearty smile.
“So it’s President Shen… Haha, no problem at all. Nanqi, you’re too polite.”
Shen Du took advantage of the situation, sliding his hand lower until he was holding the waist of Ye Nanqi, whom he’d been eyeing for a long time.
It was like a little child who had spent ages secretly staring at a jar of honey but hadn’t dared touch it. Now he’d finally sneaked a taste, and his heart was filled with a wonderful sense of satisfaction.
Ye Nanqi stiffened slightly, but Shen Du acted as though no one else was there and pressed him a little closer against his chest.
“Nanqi won’t have any free time for the foreseeable future. I’m afraid President Sun’s kind offer will go to waste.”
President Sun laughed awkwardly again, watching helplessly as Shen Du led Ye Nanqi away with his arm around him. The moment they were gone, the kindly smile disappeared from his face.
Director Chen was sweating profusely.
“So he’d managed to climb into the Shen family’s good graces. No wonder he looks down on everyone. That’s how people are once they become famous… Um, President Sun, about the investment in that movie…”
President Sun gave him a half-smile and cut him off.
“We’ll talk about it later.”
People came and went throughout the venue. Everyone appeared carefree, but in reality, they were constantly keeping an eye on what was happening around them.
Ye Nanqi couldn’t very well push Shen Du away in a setting like this, so he simply draped an arm over Shen Du’s shoulder in return, putting on an act as though the two of them were a couple.
Shen Du was in a rather good mood. His gaze swept over the buffet table, and he picked up a piece of cake and held it out to Ye Nanqi.
Ye Nanqi glanced at it and realized it was the cherry cake he’d been eating earlier, the one he’d had to abandon halfway through when he was interrupted. He didn’t mind Shen Du’s paw resting on his shoulder anymore. He politely thanked him, took the cake, and bit into it. His cheeks puffed out slightly, making him look like a little hamster.
He likes sweets?
Shen Du watched him silently, really wanting to poke his cheek.
Before he could put that thought into action, a familiar voice suddenly came from behind them.
“Senior Brother and… President Shen?”
Ye Nanqi nearly choked.
“…”
Shen Du immediately snatched his hand back.
“…”
The two hurriedly turned around, both experiencing a strange sense of guilt. Ye Nanqi struggled to swallow the food in his mouth. It was really stuck in his throat. Shen Du immediately picked up a glass of wine and handed it to him. Ye Nanqi took it and drank, finally feeling as though he’d escaped death.
When he looked up and saw the complicated expression on Jiang Yuanyu’s face, Ye Nanqi felt that even if he kicked Shen Du into the Yellow River, he still wouldn’t be able to wash away the misunderstanding.
Jiang Yuanyu hesitated for a moment, but remained quite composed.
“…Good evening.”
Ye Nanqi forced out a smile.
“Good evening, Junior Brother. I didn’t see you earlier. Did you just arrive?”
Jiang Yuanyu replied tactfully, “Um… I arrived just now, when you two were talking to Director Chen.”
Shen Du: “…”
The three of them fell into a peculiar silence.
No one knew how much Jiang Yuanyu had imagined after witnessing Ye Nanqi and Shen Du’s series of actions. He stepped forward, took Ye Nanqi’s hand, gave his shoulder an encouraging pat, and smiled at Shen Du.
“My Senior Brother always says one thing but means another. Don’t believe everything he says… President Shen, you really must treat him well.”
Ye Nanqi felt as though he’d returned to the day Shen’s mother had caught them in a compromising situation. His face turned green.
“No! Junior Brother, you’ve misunderstood!”
“Are you still embarrassed in front of me, Senior Brother?” Jiang Yuanyu asked with a beaming smile.
When he smiled, he looked so much like Ye Mei had back then. Ye Nanqi simply couldn’t bring himself to reject that kind of smile. So he turned his head and left the problem for Shen Du to handle.
Shen Du offered a weak, unconvincing explanation.
“Yuanyu, you’ve really misunderstood.”
“Let’s just say I’ve misunderstood, then… Ah, Brother Fang is looking for me. We’ll meet again another day. I should get going.”
Jiang Yuanyu’s phone vibrated. He lowered his head to glance at it, then smiled and waved at them before leaving with light, brisk steps.
Shen Du’s mood grew rather heavy.
Ye Nanqi’s instinct to protect Jiang Yuanyu had always been stronger than any romantic affection he felt for him. He’d already let go of those feelings on the day Jiang Yuanyu got married. After being misunderstood by Jiang Yuanyu like this, he couldn’t help looking at Shen Du sympathetically.
It took Shen Du quite a while to recover from the complicated expression on his face, which seemed to say, What am I supposed to do? He’s misunderstood me. Should I jump into the Yellow River and swim around?
Finally, he slowly spoke.
“…Is it good?”
Ye Nanqi gave him a strange look. After thinking about it, he nodded.
Shen Du fell silent for a moment, then picked up another piece of cake and handed it to Ye Nanqi.
“…Want some more?”
Ye Nanqi usually hardly ever had the chance to eat more than a few desserts. After a moment’s struggle, he gave up resisting, took the cake, and stuffed it into his mouth.
The two men, who should have been the center of attention, were hiding in a corner, eating pastries to fill their stomachs.
Shen Du pointed at the half-eaten dessert in Ye Nanqi’s hand.
“This one is terribly made. I could make it myself.”
Ye Nanqi looked astonished.
“Was your ancestor actually a royal chef?”
Shen Du was still immersed in the grief of having been misunderstood by his first love. He didn’t even register the question.
“The decorative carving is terrible.”
Ye Nanqi figured he’d probably taken too hard a hit, so he played along.
“You can do decorative carving too?”
“This could be carved into a little rabbit.”
Ye Nanqi became interested and smiled.
“What else?”
“Little cats, little dogs, little fish, little birds. All of them.”
“Another day…” Ye Nanqi had originally wanted to say, Show me what you can do sometime. But then he suddenly remembered that the two of them had always been at each other’s throats. He nearly bit his tongue and hurriedly stopped himself.
Shen Du turned his head to look at him. His gaze was so complicated that Ye Nanqi couldn’t make sense of it. Shen Du seemed to know what he’d swallowed back and simply said,
“Okay.”
Ye Nanqi was slightly taken aback.
…Has he really taken that hard a hit?
After filling their stomachs, the two sneaked out of the venue like a pair of thieves.
The chilly breeze of a late-autumn night swept past them. Once the wind blew against their faces, they both felt much more refreshed.
They walked quietly for a while, one behind the other. Suddenly, Shen Du stopped.
Ye Nanqi, who had been completely absorbed in fiddling with his phone, walked straight into his back and instinctively let out an “Ah!”
Shen Du turned around, both exasperated and amused.
“Is your phone really that interesting?”
“I’m notifying the driver…” As Ye Nanqi spoke, he raised his head.
Beneath the pitch-black night sky, a soft light spilled over from the side. Shen Du was leaning against the car door, arms crossed, looking at him casually. His gaze was calm and still.
His features were handsome, but there was a sharpness and a hint of ferocity to his appearance. Now, with the light illuminating half his face, he looked much gentler than usual, and his expression was no longer so arrogant.
Perhaps because Jiang Yuanyu’s words had influenced him, Ye Nanqi’s heart inexplicably skipped a beat. His fingers unconsciously tightened around his phone. He felt some unfamiliar sensation creeping beneath the defenses he’d built around his heart. Not only did it fail to make him feel threatened, but it even stirred a nervous sense of anticipation.
After a long moment, Ye Nanqi finally came back to himself. Somewhat uncomfortably, he turned his head away.
“I forgot to say this earlier. Thanks for helping me just now.”
Shen Du replied, “If I’d known Yuanyu was watching, I wouldn’t have bothered getting involved.”
After saying that, he actually took the initiative to open the car door for Ye Nanqi.
Ye Nanqi didn’t take his words to heart. He asked cautiously, “You’re really not drunk?”
Shen Du rested one hand on the steering wheel, loosened his tie with the other, and held a cigarette between his lips. He smiled with a slightly roguish air.
“You can find out for yourself.”
Ye Nanqi got into the car with a doubtful expression.
Shen Du had been about to light his cigarette, but suddenly seemed to remember something. He turned and asked, “Do you mind the smell of smoke?”
Ye Nanqi answered honestly, “I do.”
“…”
Shen Du paused, but put the cigarette away anyway. As he drove, he began thinking about how he should face Ye Nanqi.
Previously, he’d been annoyed with him and had never considered looking into anything in detail. He’d felt that every time he saw even a little more of Ye Nanqi, he lost a few years off his life.
Last night, Ye’s mother had deliberately sent Ye Nanqi away and told Shen Du many things. In the end, this mother, whose life had been full of hardship, held his hand. Tears glimmered faintly in her eyes as she spoke softly.
“I’m just afraid… afraid that this child might do something foolish. I’ve been afraid of that for years. Shen Du, I’m a selfish mother. You’re a good young man. Even if you don’t like Nan Nan, please help him when he needs it in the future…”
Her expression hadn’t been an act. Something stirred in his heart, and only then had he asked someone to conduct a more thorough investigation.
After reading through the thin file delivered to his office at noon, Shen Du finally realized that he had never understood this romantic rival of his.
The information might not all be true. And those few details weren’t enough to reveal what Ye Nanqi was really like. But the person described in the file was practically a completely different person from the one Shen Du thought he knew.
—In high school, he had worked part-time to help support his family while studying diligently. He could easily have gotten into A University, but in the end, he had made a last-minute decision to pursue acting instead.
Over the past several years, Ye Nanqi had worked his way up step by step. All those rumors about his romantic affairs circulating in the entertainment industry, whether true or false, were actually false.
What was even more unbelievable was that Ye Nanqi himself had spread most of those ridiculous rumors about his own love life.
There seemed to be something suspicious about Ye Mei’s death, but Shen Du couldn’t uncover anything in such a short time. After reading the file, he had sat motionless in his office for the entire afternoon, his mind filled with Ye Nanqi.
He thought about Ye Nanqi’s deliberate provocations, as well as all the things he’d said to him in the past.
It seemed he’d made a terrible mistake. Yet Ye Nanqi, who had been misunderstood, hadn’t tried to explain himself. Instead, he’d accepted those judgmental looks with a smiling face and treated them as a weapon to protect himself.
What kind of person was Ye Nanqi, really? What had Ye’s mother meant by those words? Had Ye Nanqi chosen to live this way because of Ye Mei?
Shen Du wanted to ask him about some of it, but his intuition told him that Ye Nanqi wouldn’t appreciate him investigating his past, much less want to discuss his personal affairs.
Ye Nanqi had always been vigilant about maintaining a clear boundary between them, showing him both the side he deliberately put on and the side he didn’t bother to disguise.
Now that the person he’d thought he knew had suddenly turned out to be someone completely different, Shen Du genuinely had no idea how he should treat Ye Nanqi.
Ye Nanqi had no idea what was going on in Shen Du’s conflicted mind. He simply assumed Shen Du had been shaken up by something. After being stared at, intentionally or otherwise, throughout the drive, he felt a chill run down his back. Afraid Shen Du might suddenly fly into a rage and hurt someone, the first thing he did after getting home was turn on the television and switch to a legal education program.
As it happened, the topic being broadcast was domestic violence.
Shen Du: “…What are you doing?”
Ye Nanqi replied with a perfectly composed expression,
“Learning about the law.”