During dinner, Mother Shen wore a gentle expression as she asked Ye Nanqi about his likes and dislikes.
It was rather embarrassing to say, but considering how much misfortune Ye Nanqi had endured, one would have expected him to be someone who could get by with very little fuss. In reality, he was incredibly difficult to feed. His biggest problem was how picky he was about food.
He was embarrassed to show this side of himself in front of his elders. He had been hoping to maintain the image of a perfect child, the sort parents liked to hold up as an example to the neighbors. He was just about to brush the question aside when his own mother cheerfully sold him out.
“Nan Nan is terribly picky! He doesn’t eat spicy or sour food. He won’t eat garlic, scallions, cilantro, fish, or lamb. When it comes to cabbage, he’ll only eat the leaves. No wonder he’s two years older than A-Du but still shorter than him.”
Ye Nanqi smiled silently: “…”
Shen Du glanced at Ye Nanqi. His eyes clearly conveyed four words:
What a pain to feed.
Unexpectedly, his mother shot him a glare. Ever since Ye Nanqi had returned, Mother Shen’s heart seemed to have shifted all the way to the Southern Hemisphere. With a half-smile, she pointed at Shen Du.
“Have you remembered all that?”
Even Father Shen cast him a stern glance.
Shen Du fell silent for a moment before looking at Ye Nanqi and replying gently, “Of course I’ve remembered.”
From now on, he’d make sure the household served sour and spicy dishes, with extra garlic, scallions, and cilantro. Fish and lamb at every meal, and nothing but the stalks of leafy vegetables.
After dinner, the two of them were sent upstairs and told to stay in Shen Du’s old bedroom.
Ye Nanqi stared at Shen Du, and Shen Du stared back. Sitting around doing nothing was unbearably awkward, so Ye Nanqi took out his phone, only to discover that the battery was dead. He hurriedly rummaged around for his charger and plugged it in.
Shen Du folded his arms and watched him leisurely. Out of nowhere, he asked, “Was that Ye Wan?”
Ye Nanqi froze for a moment. Remembering the phone call before dinner, he suddenly understood.
“President Shen is such a busy man, yet you actually remember Wanwan.”
Shen Du thought to himself that he was magnanimous and said, “If you need help, you can come to me.”
With his back to Shen Du, Ye Nanqi showed no trace of a smile. His eyes were wary and guarded, though his tone remained casual.
“No need. Thank you.”
He had earned quite a lot of money over the years. He had practically consulted every hospital and specialist available in the country, yet Ye Wan’s condition had shown no improvement whatsoever. In another little while, he was planning to send both his mother and younger sister abroad.
Back then, Shen Du’s temper had been atrocious. He practically walked around with his nose in the air. Moreover, he and Ye Nanqi had always been at odds. He hadn’t had much contact with the other members of the Ye family either, so he didn’t say anything further.
After a while, he spoke again. “Your older sister…”
Having stepped on two land mines in a row, Ye Nanqi’s eyelid twitched. He sprang to his feet and walked straight into the bathroom without acknowledging him.
He quickly took a shower and composed himself before coming out. Ignoring Shen Du, he turned on his phone.
As soon as it powered up, several text messages appeared. Ye Nanqi opened them and saw a reply from Jiang Yuanyu.
As expected, Jiang Yuanyu had found his message bizarre. He had even offered an explanation on behalf of his manager before promptly blocking Ye Nanqi’s number.
Clearly, he had mistaken Ye Nanqi for someone with ulterior motives who was trying to drive a wedge between him and his manager.
The reply had arrived two hours earlier.
Ye Nanqi let out a quiet breath. His heart felt heavy. It was already eleven at night. Calling Jiang Yuanyu at this hour seemed rather intrusive…
That is, if nothing had happened to Jiang Yuanyu.
He toyed with his phone. Once Shen Du went into the bathroom, he dialed the number.
The long ringing tone made his hands and feet grow cold. He couldn’t help letting his imagination run wild. Jiang Yuanyu’s temperament and personality were very similar to those of his older sister, Ye Mei. He really didn’t want to see Jiang Yuanyu follow in Ye Mei’s footsteps.
Fortunately, ten seconds later, Jiang Yuanyu’s clear, bright voice came through.
“Hello? Senior Brother Ye?”
Ye Nanqi’s heart finally settled. Pretending to sound surprised, he said, “Oh, it’s Xiao Jiang! Sorry, I dialed the wrong number. I’m really sorry for bothering you so late.”
Jiang Yuanyu chuckled. “It’s okay. I’m still awake. I just got out of a drinking party, and I’m a little sleepy sitting in the car… Ha, I didn’t even notice my phone ringing.”
Ye Nanqi followed his lead and casually asked a few indirect questions about tonight’s drinking party. Only after confirming that Jiang Yuanyu was genuinely safe did he hang up.
Shen Du had already come out of the bathroom. He stood to one side without interrupting Ye Nanqi. After watching him hang up, he noticed that Ye Nanqi’s expression seemed somewhat gloomy.
“Were you talking to Yuanyu?”
Ye Nanqi smiled faintly. “I was just chatting with my junior. Does President Shen have a problem with that?”
That’s right. Now that Jiang Yuanyu was married, Ye Nanqi was still his friend and senior. Shen Du, on the other hand, was nothing to him.
When Shen Du had pursued Jiang Yuanyu, the latter had found the whole thing rather baffling. He had smiled and given Shen Du the classic nice-guy rejection.
“President Shen is a very good person. I’m glad to have gained another friend like you.”
That scene had practically become legendary. Even now, whenever Ye Nanqi thought about it, he wanted to pound the floor laughing.
Remembering his first love, Shen Du’s expression darkened.
“He’s already married. Don’t bother him.”
Ye Nanqi toyed with his phone, leaning against the headboard with an amused expression.
“Xiao Jiang doesn’t think I’m bothering him. Actually, President Shen, I’ve always wondered how Xiao Jiang managed to be unlucky enough to catch your eye in the first place.”
Shen Du had no desire to discuss his romantic history with a love rival. Furrowing his brows slightly, he said, “Didn’t you fail in your pursuit of him too? What gives you the right to act so superior?”
Ye Nanqi wasn’t annoyed. He simply smiled, feeling as though he were radiating the light of Buddha himself.
“His happiness is my greatest happiness.”
Shen Du: “…”
Ye Nanqi’s deliberately wooden delivery left Shen Du speechless for a moment. Somehow, the conversation circled back to the earlier topic.
“Are you really not interested in resources?”
“No. I’ll stay far away from any production you invest in.” Ye Nanqi’s smile disappeared, and he spoke with utmost sincerity. “If President Shen is willing to go downstairs and tell your mother that we want a divorce, I’ll gladly disappear from your sight immediately.”
Just like Ye Nanqi, Shen Du didn’t want to be the one to play the villain. Hearing this, he replied with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
“If the great celebrity Ye can do that, then I can too.”
The last time they’d slept on the floor, Ye Nanqi had ended up with a fever. This time, he wasn’t going to be stubborn and make himself uncomfortable again. He lay down at one end of the bed while Shen Du took the other, continuing to fiddle with his phone.
Shen Du endured it for a while before finally saying, “Put down your phone and go to sleep.”
Ye Nanqi didn’t even spare him a glance. Keeping his eyes fixed on the screen, he replied in surprise, “Are you my mother?”
Shen Du had been raised strictly and maintained a regular schedule. He should have been asleep by this hour. However, any noise kept him awake, and Ye Nanqi was doing who-knows-what beside him. The constant notification sounds from his phone were giving Shen Du a headache.
Frowning, Shen Du simply reached out to snatch the phone.
Ye Nanqi dodged nimbly, but forgot that he was already lying at the edge of the bed. With a loud thud, he fell straight onto the floor. The impact was considerable. He grimaced in pain, gritting his teeth and stubbornly refusing to cry out in front of his love rival.
Shen Du hadn’t expected such a strong reaction. He was just about to say something when someone knocked on the door.
Mother Shen’s loud, commanding voice rang out.
“Open the door! What’s all that noise? You little brat, are you bullying Nanqi?”
Ye Nanqi had fallen hard. Getting back up with any dignity was going to be difficult. Shen Du glanced at him and said, “We were just fooling around. It’s fine. Go to bed.”
“How can it be fine? Open the door!”
Shen Du paused, his tone turning somewhat strange.
“Mom, we’re… You might not want to come in.”
“…” Mother Shen’s imagination apparently went somewhere it shouldn’t have. She coughed awkwardly. “Don’t stay up too late fooling around. Nanqi still has work tomorrow. Get some sleep.”
Ye Nanqi sat on the floor and waited until the footsteps gradually faded away. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.
He was about to get up when, unexpectedly, Shen Du extended a hand as if to help him.
Ye Nanqi gave him a complicated look, got up on his own, then thought for a moment before asking, “President Shen, have you ever heard of soul transmigration?”
“I’ve also heard of body snatching,” Shen Du replied.
Ye Nanqi spoke with complete sincerity. “You can just act normal. Seriously. We’re both adults. All we did was sleep together. You could say we simply helped each other satisfy a physical need. There’s no reason for you to behave so strangely.”
Ever since the two of them had slept together and gotten married, Shen Du’s attitude had been rather peculiar.
—The underlying reason was that Shen Du had received a rather conservative upbringing. And the person he’d slept with happened to be Ye Nanqi, which had twisted his sense of responsibility into something rather strange.
Thinking about it carefully, Ye Nanqi had been in the entertainment industry for several years. Who knew how many people he’d slept with?
When Shen Du thought of this, his expression cooled. He lowered his eyes and considered it for a moment before saying, “You’re right.”
Ye Nanqi lowered his head and continued looking at his phone. He had just been contacting a private investigator he knew, intending to have the investigator follow Jiang Yuanyu for a while. The investigator didn’t know his identity, so it would be perfectly safe.
After seeing the other party’s reply of “OK,” Ye Nanqi deleted their chat history. Only then did he lie down and settle in for the night.
Perhaps because he’d had two glasses of wine with Father Shen during dinner, Ye Nanqi slept unusually soundly that night. He didn’t have any of the nightmares that had tormented him for years. When he woke up, he was still groggy and actually felt like staying in bed, wanting to lie under the warm covers a little longer.
But after closing his eyes for only a moment, Ye Nanqi realized something was wrong.
He was actually being held in Shen Du’s arms.
His face was pressed against Shen Du’s chest, and one of Shen Du’s hands was resting around his waist.
Shen Du’s body was warm. Surrounded from every direction by the distinctly masculine scent of his hormones, Ye Nanqi’s face turned livid. He shifted his body, only to discover that he couldn’t break free.
His movements woke Shen Du as well.
The two stared at each other.
A murderous chill flickered in Ye Nanqi’s eyes as he bared his teeth in a smile.
“Well, President Shen, is my waist slim?”
Now fully awake, Shen Du not only didn’t let go but actually tightened his grip around Ye Nanqi’s waist.
“Yes, it is.”
Ye Nanqi: “…”
Only then did Shen Du add, “How did you end up crawling over here?”
Ye Nanqi froze.
He was a restless sleeper. And because he was always cold, he tended to burrow toward warm places while sleeping…
It was entirely possible that he’d been the one to crawl over.
Ye Nanqi’s face immediately grew hot with embarrassment. He felt utterly humiliated. After being rendered speechless for quite some time, he finally managed to respond, with neither justification nor shame.
“The bed is so big. Where I crawl is none of your business.”
The corner of Shen Du’s lips lifted into a mocking smile.
“That’s true. A celebrity like you must be very experienced at throwing yourself into people’s arms.”
Ye Nanqi replied solemnly, “There’s something President Shen doesn’t understand. It all depends on who the person is.”
The two of them had barely woken up before they’d managed to disgust each other. By the time they went downstairs, both wore thoroughly sour expressions.
Mother Shen and Mother Ye were chatting happily about some television drama. Ye Nanqi leaned closer to listen and discovered that the two mothers were discussing the very drama he’d recently appeared in.
After talking for a while, Mother Shen took the lead, and the two women unanimously agreed that the most handsome and talented person in the entire drama was their darling Ye Nanqi. He had single-handedly saved a television series whose script wasn’t particularly good.
Ye Nanqi couldn’t help laughing helplessly.
After breakfast, Mother Shen looked at him kindly.
“Nanqi, are you heading back to the company?”
Ye Nanqi nodded. “The company has a dedicated practice room where I won’t be disturbed. The audition is the day after tomorrow, so I still need to discuss things with my manager.”
Mother Shen said, “Good boy. You’ve worked hard. Shen Du will drive you there after breakfast.”
Ye Nanqi smiled and replied, “Mom, there’s no need. His company isn’t on the way to mine. It wouldn’t look good if A-Du arrived late and had to face his employees.”
The way Ye Nanqi called him “A-Du” nearly made Shen Du lose his appetite.
Mother Shen said, “The other day, he saw a little girl crying by the roadside. He stopped to ask what was wrong and found out that the cat her grandmother had raised had run away. She’d been looking for it all night, so he helped the little girl search for the cat and ended up arriving late. Your wife is more important than a cat, isn’t she?”
Ye Nanqi almost burst out laughing when he heard that. He would never believe Shen Du was capable of doing something so textbook-perfectly virtuous, like a good deed straight out of an elementary school textbook.
Unfortunately, he failed to notice the brief flash of awkwardness that crossed Shen Du’s face.