The dim bedroom was heavy with an ambiguous, lingering intimacy.
“Shen Li, who am I?” The man asked in a low, husky voice.
“Ji Zhouye.” Shen Li’s voice was slightly fragmented. “Do not touch there.”
The corners of Ji Zhouye’s eyes were flushed, his gaze filled with raw desire. “Will you die if I touch it?”
“No.”
“Then shut up.” Ji Zhouye’s voice carried a chilling edge.
At 3:00 AM, looking at the person on the bed who was exhausted to the point of collapse, Ji Zhouye hooked his sharply defined fingers under Shen Li’s jaw. His thumb brushed across thin lips as he let out a dissatisfied, light snort, declaring, “So fragile.”
Ji Zhouye got up and went into the bathroom, showing not a single trace of warmth, his eyes completely cold and detached.
Sunlight streamed through the gap in the curtains into the room.
When Shen Li woke up, it was 9:00 AM.
He woke up lying on his side, and he could vividly feel the lingering warmth pressed tightly against his back, as well as the arm around his waist.
Recalling the battle from last night, Shen Li’s heart trembled.
Ji Zhouye hated him.
Shen Li closed his eyes and buried his face in the pillow, craving the familiar warmth behind him.
After a minute, he cleared his head slightly, carefully moved the arm away from his waist, and got up to head into the bathroom.
He had wanted to escape; he had once hurt Ji Zhouye without leaving any room for retreat, and now he had even less face to face him.
Yet he could not leave. Ji Zhouye still had not signed the contract.
Shen Li stood in front of the bathroom mirror, his fingertips lightly touching the bite mark on his collarbone.
He had drunk quite a bit the night before, and now both his head and lower back ached.
“Ji Zhouye, you bastard.”
Triggered by certain memories, Shen Li cursed out of reflex. A few seconds later, he belatedly realized that the Ji Zhouye of today was no longer the Ji Zhouye who used to love him.
Shen Li changed into a suit and walked out of the bathroom. He raised his eyes, his movements freezing as his heart suffered a sudden, unexpected tightening.
The man before him had well-defined contours, deep brow bones, and an air that was both noble and effortlessly casual.
Ji Zhouye buttoned his suit jacket, looked over, his eyes completely icy, and the corners of his lips curved into a sneer. “Do you also act like you did last night when you negotiate other business deals?”
Shen Li’s heart tightened uncontrollably, his fingertips twitching slightly.
Last night was their first meeting in four years since they parted ways.
After a few seconds, Shen Li slowly spoke up, “No.”
“You think I will still believe a word you say?” Ji Zhouye let out a cold laugh.
“Whether I did it or not is my business; whether you believe it or not is yours.” Shen Li kept his expression blank, though deep down, his heart had already started spinning out of control since last night.
Ji Zhouye pulled out a document and tossed it at Shen Li’s feet, his eyes filled with lingering anger and a trace of a barely perceptible red flush. “Take your things and get lost.”
Shen Li’s eyes stung with sourness. He stood there unmoving, staring at Ji Zhouye’s cold face, which was devoid of any readable emotion.
Ji Zhouye stared back at him, feeling an inexplicable irritation in his chest. The Shen Li in his memories should not be like this.
Four years ago, he had been uninhibited and brilliant.
He should still be that way now.
Instead of lowering himself and begging people for the sake of some contract, willing to trade his own body just to secure a business opportunity.
Ji Zhouye turned around, standing tall and sharp before the floor-to-ceiling window.
His tone was impatient, “Get lost, now.”
Shen Li’s eyes grew acidic. He gave that tall, slender figure one last deep look, then bent down to pick up the contract and left.
Returning to Jiangqing Tower, Shen Li immediately set to work processing the piles of pending tasks.
The Jiangqing Corporation was in the middle of an economic crisis. The old major shareholders had run off with the money, and now everything required his personal attention, leaving zero room for even the slightest error.
A single mistake, and Jiangqing Corporation could vanish from this world completely.
At 11:00 PM, Shen Li returned home carrying a wave of exhaustion, his brow etched with weariness.
The living room lights were on, and sitting on the sofa was a well-maintained woman whose facial features bore a slight resemblance to his own.
Shen Li cast a detached glance at her, walked over to the refrigerator to grab a bottle of water, and took a few sips.
“How is the company doing?” The woman asked.
Shen Li’s tone was icy, “You do not need to worry about the company’s affairs.”
“I am your mother; how can I not worry?” The woman said. “Mom advises you to just close it down. With the company in its current state, trying to bring it back to life is going to be too difficult.”
Shen Li’s gaze darkened. “Jiangqing was my dad’s lifeblood; it cannot be closed.”
“Mom has an idea.”
She did not want the company to close either, as she was still counting on it to provide her with money. “The Ji family holds all the cards in Jiangqing right now. Did you not use to date the Ji family’s son back then? Go beg him; see if he can help you out for the sake of old times. Who knows…”
“Zhou Lifen!” Shen Li suppressed his anger and called her directly by her full name, cutting off whatever she was about to say next.
Zhou Lifen was startled by his sudden outburst. “You brat, what is wrong with you? I am trying to help you out, what are you yelling for?”
“Zhou Lifen, anyone else in the world could tell me to go beg him, but you are the absolute last person who has the right to do so.” Shen Li said, his eyes completely bloodshot. “Have you forgotten what you did? Do you need me to remind you how you threatened me back then?”
Zhou Lifen stood up, refusing to back down. “If your sexual orientation were not abnormal, if you had not gone and liked a man, would I have had to do that? Who do you think I did it for? It was for you, for our old Shen family.”
Shen Li closed his eyes, not wanting to argue with her. “Get out. Get out of here.”
Gritting her teeth, Zhou Lifen swung her hand and slapped Shen Li across the face. “Unfilial son, talking to your mother like that just for a man.”
Shen Li stared straight at her, then suddenly burst out laughing, a bitter, mocking laugh.
The smile on his face vanished as quickly as it appeared, replaced by a sharp, fierce edge that made him look completely unhinged. “I should not talk to you like this? The things you have done only entitle you to be spoken to this way by me.”
He had held a thorn in his heart regarding that past incident, and their relationship had grown distant, but it had not reached the point of hatred. What he truly hated was that on the very day his own father died in a car accident, his biological mother was opening a hotel room with another man.
Shen Li’s eyes grew hot with tears. “The day my dad was in a car accident, fighting for his life in the emergency room, what were you doing, Zhou Lifen?”
“You were opening a hotel room with another man. You did not even get to see my dad for the last time.”
Zhou Lifen stammered, “How long ago was that? Is there any point in holding onto it and refusing to let go?”
“Get lost.” Shen Li did not want to waste another word with her. “Do not ever show up in front of me again.”
Zhou Lifen started, “You…”
Meeting the terrifying, piercing look in Shen Li’s eyes, a chill crept up her spine, and without saying anything more, she left.
She had seen Shen Li lose control before. When he went crazy, she knew he was capable of anything.
After Zhou Lifen left, Shen Li changed the door passcode.
Tree leaves cast dappled shadows, and the sultry wind of summer blew against the skin, driving restlessness deep into the bones.
Shen Li stood on the balcony, the glowing red tip of the cigarette between his fingers flickering in the dark.
The summer of that year had been just like this one, abnormally muggy and stifling.
Shen Li had just transitioned from high school to his freshman year of college. He and Ji Zhouye met during military training, and just like Shen Li, Ji Zhouye was majoring in finance.
True to his personality, Ji Zhouye was aloof, cold, and sparing with his words.
When the drill instructor took attendance, Shen Li memorized Ji Zhouye’s name.
Later on, he heard other classmates chatting idly and learned that Ji Zhouye was a direct admission student, a top-tier academic powerhouse through and through.
After one training session, the students gathered around, asking anyone with talents to show them off.
Shen Li found it boring, and cast his gaze aside to find Ji Zhouye sitting alone by himself, looking completely isolated. At least, that was how it appeared to him.
Driven by some unnamable impulse, he went over to buy two bottles of water, sat down next to Ji Zhouye, and handed one of them to him.
Ji Zhouye looked at him for a few seconds before taking it. “Thanks.”
After exchanging a few casual words of small talk, Shen Li learned that Ji Zhouye was also from Jiangcheng. With a grin, Shen Li said, “Let us head back together next time.”
Ji Zhouye did not say much, merely letting out a very faint affirmative sound.
And it was right from that moment onward that things began to spiral completely out of his control.
Thinking back on it all, Shen Li let out a bitter self-deprecation, brought the cigarette to his lips, took a deep drag, and watched the exhaled smoke scatter into the wind.
Two months into the semester, he and Ji Zhouye had grown quite close.
While they were eating lunch together in the cafeteria, a shy girl walked up to him holding her phone. “Classmate Shen Li, I like you. Can I have your WeChat?”
Shen Li was long used to this sort of thing, but he happened to notice out of the corner of his eye that Ji Zhouye’s expression looked utterly foul.
Without thinking too much into it, Shen Li looked at the confessing girl and, for reasons unknown even to himself, said, “Sorry, I like guys.”
The girl looked slightly disappointed, but was mostly stunned. Muttering a quick “Sorry to bother you,” she turned and left.
As soon as she walked away, Ji Zhouye slowly spoke up. “What kind of guys do you like?”
Shen Li remained silent.
His playful mischief suddenly piqued, Shen Li flashed a roguish, bad-boy grin. “Guys like you, older brother Ji.”
Ji Zhouye was a year older than him, so whenever Shen Li wanted to act cheeky, he would call him older brother Ji.
The speaker meant nothing by it, but the listener took it to heart, and Ji Zhouye took it completely seriously.
Shen Li possessed striking good looks and had always been chased by plenty of girls, so stating that he liked guys eventually became his go-to excuse for turning down female pursuers.
Simple and brutally effective.
In that era of thriving internet culture, people loved adding contacts when chasing someone, yet he had even received a love letter, though to this day, he still had no idea who had written it.
The cigarette between his fingers burned down to the filter. Shen Li’s thoughts were pulled back to reality, and he turned around to walk back into his bedroom.