You mean, Ji Subai and Pei Che are together?
After a brief silence, Fu Zhen’s brows slowly knit together, unable to quite make sense of the situation.
Old acquaintances, Min Zhuozhou uttered two words calmly. Taking advantage of Fu Zhen’s contemplation, he picked up a piece of sausage with his fork and placed it into his mouth, chewing slowly and swallowing to finally suppress the slight discomfort in his stomach.
Then you and Ji Subai sure are fated.
Fu Zhen didn’t even realize that his sausage platter had been raided. He recalled the heated controversies debating online and asked, So you met him? Do your eyes look alike?
Min Zhuozhou recalled for a moment: At first glance, they do look very similar, but upon closer inspection, it’s alright.
I thought as much, Fu Zhen pursued further, So did he offer you an explanation?
Min Zhuozhou replied indifferently, He did.
Resting his chin on one hand, Fu Zhen was somewhat curious about what Ji Subai had said.
The corners of Min Zhuozhou’s lips curled up slightly with a faint smirk: He said it was the production team’s arrangement, and they are already removing the trending searches.
Fu Zhen snorted softly, obviously finding such an explanation completely devoid of sincerity.
Still… is Ji Subai even qualified to know Pei Che, to the point of being able to invite him over to keep him company for a welcome reception?
Fu Zhen let out a thoughtful Hmm: Could he also be a young master from some wealthy family in Ningcheng? But I’ve never heard of any prominent enterprise with the surname ‘Ji’.
Unclear, Min Zhuozhou shook his head. At least among the families I’ve interacted with, there isn’t one. Perhaps he belongs to a collateral branch with a different maternal surname.
Then you should definitely have a good talk with Pei Che when you get home.
Fu Zhen was a researcher with a relatively tight social circle. Throughout his life, he spent far more time dealing with data than interacting with people. Having never witnessed such overwhelming public controversy while abroad, he was clearly still brooding over the malicious comments he had just seen on the hot search:
Tell him to warn Ji Subai not to bully people too much. Even if he is a powerful young master, he shouldn’t just point his gun at others just to generate clout for himself.
Min Zhuozhou raised an eyebrow noncommittally: What do I have to say to Pei Che?
Don’t they know each other? You should ask Pei Che to give him a warning; Fu Zhen felt this was only natural. What’s done is done, but shouldn’t you warn Ji Subai so he won’t dare to walk all over you in the future?
A nameless trace of amusement flashed through Min Zhuozhou’s eyes. He picked up the glass on the table and took a sip of liquor to moisten his throat, neither agreeing nor disagreeing. The elegant lighting of the bistro fell across his forehead and brow bone, casting a hazy and ambiguous shadow over his deep-set eye sockets.
Seeing his utterly indifferent demeanor, Fu Zhen knew he hadn’t listened to a word. He nudged Min Zhuozhou’s calf with his foot: Did you hear what I said?
Min Zhuozhou replied in a casual tone: I heard you, Housekeeper Fu.
Fu Zhen scoffed: I’m doing this out of concern for you, how can you have the nerve to slander me like that?
Alright, it’s my fault, Min Zhuozhou apologized smoothly. You aren’t a housekeeper, you are the great, glorious, and righteous Comrade Researcher Fu. Can you forgive this humble servant’s slip of the tongue?
Fu Zhen tilted his chin up and glanced at the barely touched alcohol on the table, giving a clear hint: That depends on your performance. We haven’t settled the score for making me wait so long earlier.
Min Zhuozhou obediently raised a glass and drank it down in one gulp, but then let out a light sigh and said softly, But I really can’t bring these things up to Pei Che.
Why can’t you? Fu Zhen couldn’t understand. You’ve been married for five years.
He deliberately placed heavy emphasis on the word married.
It’s just a contractual marriage, and this year is already the final year.
Min Zhuozhou did not feel that being married meant he had a giant tree to lean against for shelter. At any point over the past five years, he had always kept his work strictly separated from Pei Che.
If it weren’t for his injury this time, Pei Che wouldn’t even know he was acting—after all, for people at that social stratum, accepting a man who made public appearances in the entertainment industry as a marital partner was already the result of intense negotiations among multiple factions. Whether Pei Che could distinguish whether he was a singer or an actor was probably understandable.
Unaware of the complexities involved, Fu Zhen was still running the math loudly in his head: Even if it’s a transactional relationship without real feelings where each gets what they need, you should at least get some benefits out of it. Otherwise, what’s the point of the ‘contract’?
Correction, Min Zhuozhou leaned lazily against the back of the sofa chair, raising his eyes to meet Fu Zhen’s gaze. The so-called ‘contract’ was signed jointly by the Pei family and the Min family. It has nothing to do with me.
Fu Zhen’s brows knitted slightly tighter.
Though it’s not entirely without benefits, Min Zhuozhou shifted the topic, curving the corners of his eyes very elegantly, a trace of eager anticipation laced within his calm tone. Back when the Min family wanted me to sign this agreement, they promised me freedom.
This… Fu Zhen opened his mouth, but found himself at a loss for words.
Min Zhuozhou pursed his lips. The tip of his tongue still held the spicy yet crisp liquor, leaving an aftertaste of fruity and floral aromas wrapped in a touch of smokiness. It was indeed a rich and sophisticated cocktail, easily slipping one into a hazy, pleasantly tipsy atmosphere enveloped in fragrance.
He raised his head slightly and happened to see a vintage carved brass clock hanging on the wall nearby. Its ornate patterns resembled a collector’s item from a classical era, exuding an expensive aura that was quite convincing…
Yet Min Zhuozhou knew this thing wasn’t actually expensive, because there was a similar one in the Min family mansion, bought purely to put up a front.
Wealthy families had many grudges, and even more so when those families were on the brink of collapse within their high walls.
The Min family originally started in the medical clinic business. Decades ago, they handed over their ancestral secret prescription to the government department, receiving commendations from the state. Back then, Min Zhuozhou’s great-grandfather possessed extraordinary vision and capitalized on the momentum to establish the pharmaceutical brand, Min Shu. The Min family had once experienced a glorious era of soaring prestige.
Unfortunately, no one is perfect. While Great-Grandfather Min was adept at running a business, he lacked the proper method for raising children. The family produced spendthrifts for two consecutive generations, squandering most of the accumulated family fortune in no time. Today, Min Shu was nothing more than an empty name, and the Min family’s status in Ningcheng had plummeted drastically. Being able to latch onto a powerful branch like the Pei family back then had taken a great deal of effort.
Min Zhuozhou’s status within the Min family was even more peculiar; he was an illegitimate child, one who had been completely ignored by his biological father prior to turning fifteen.
Back then, the entertainment industry was not as standardized as it is today. Many entertainment venues would invariably harbor some businesses of that nature. Min Zhuozhou’s mother, Xiao Chunru, was a dancer at a nightclub, possessing virtually nothing aside from an exquisitely gorgeous face.
Naturally, Min Zhuozhou’s biological father, Min Hang, looked down on a woman of such background. From the moment he learned Xiao Chunru was pregnant, he abandoned her, turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to mother and son throughout sixteen long years.
It wasn’t until Min Zhuozhou reached the age of fifteen that Min Hang, during a fight with his lawful wife, suddenly remembered he had a biological son living a precarious life in some forgotten corner. He brought him back to the Min mansion, originally intending to discomfit and disgust his wife—
Father and son only met that one time before Min Zhuozhou was officially recognized back into the Min family.
Because Min Hang discovered with pleasant surprise that this son of his had perfectly inherited his mother’s looks, showing a trend of the pupil outshining the master at a young age.
Having an extra beautiful figurehead wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for a crumbling family. As long as he was carefully trained, a rose climbing upward might be cultivated when the time was right.
Subsequent events proved that although Min Hang was mediocre and incompetent on the proper path of running an enterprise, he possessed a sharp eye for reading people.
At twenty, Min Zhuozhou lived up to expectations by making a name for himself in Ningcheng’s high society. A casual glance from him could make countlessly many hearts flutter, leaving people obsessing over the fact that this beauty was visible yet untouchable.
Min Hang was exceptionally strict with Min Zhuozhou regarding his social interactions. He permitted and even encouraged his son to flirt with those prominent figures who frequented social events, but strictly forbade him from playing around recklessly with anyone.
Having spent half his life indulging in love affairs himself, this father of Min Zhuozhou firmly believed in the principle that what is unobtainable remains in perpetual motion. In his eyes, no matter how beautiful a man or woman was, once consumed, they would instantly depreciate into a speck of white rice or a drop of mosquito blood.
And so, Min Zhuozhou grew up into the top rose of a wealthy family. In the vast city of Ningcheng, countless people loved him, regarding him as an unattainable sweetheart.
When Min Zhuozhou was twenty-four, Min Hang finally seized an opportunity to arrange a marriage for him with the Pei family.
Raising troops for a thousand days serves its purpose for a single moment; whether he was willing to enter this marriage or not, Min Hang was going to force him to sign the contract.
Yet Min Hang could not be said to have used pure coercion.
Min Zhuozhou took the opportunity to propose his own condition to his cold-blooded father: demanding that upon the expiration of the five-year contract, his rightful freedom be returned to him.
The so-called rose was nothing more than a playful term of endearment and banter used by those young masters toward a plaything. In their hearts, there could be one rose, or tens of thousands of roses; they could like only roses, or they could like lilies and moth orchids… At the end of the day, it was merely an immensely arrogant downward gaze from their social class.
Min Zhuozhou had been forcibly confined to grow inside an exquisitely beautiful garden for five years. Whenever he raised his eyes to meet the gazes of those onlookers, he appeared so deeply affectionate, his smile forever faint and elegant like a blooming flower, striking and bewitching
Yet all of it made him feel utterly sickened.
He was a human being, not an object. Unfortunately, Min Hang didn’t think so, nor did anyone else.
Consenting to the marriage contract with Pei Che meant no longer needing to be paraded around various social occasions like a flawless beauty lamp; it meant those open or hidden harassments would no longer occur; it meant that all those strangers harboring malicious intentions toward him would exercise restraint under the pressure of the Pei family; and it also meant total, liberating freedom five years later.
Therefore, this marriage contract was by no means a loss for Min Zhuozhou.
What’s more… Pei Che had a noble and reserved character, fundamentally different from those romantic, playboy second-generation scions in the circle. This was already far better than what he had originally anticipated.
Zhuozhou… Zhuozhou? Stop drinking. Alright, I’m not angry anymore, okay? Gulping down so much all by yourself!
Fu Zhen’s voice came from beside his ear. At first, it sounded muffled and hoarse as if wrapped in a wave of river water, only becoming clearer afterward as it pierced through the haze, suddenly pulling him back from his sinking memories.
Min Zhuozhou’s lips parted slightly, his eyes blinking somewhat dazed. When his vision refocused, he happened to see the ticking and rotating brass clock hands pointing precisely to eleven o’clock.
My goodness, how long has it been since you last drank? Are you really that starved for it?
It took Fu Zhen several calls to bring Min Zhuozhou out of his absent-minded state. Seeing his ink-dark eyes turn slightly, Fu Zhen finally let out a sigh of relief, placing his hand in front of his eyes to wave it with lingering fear:
I just went to the restroom, and when I came back, almost the whole table was finished off by you. Is it really that fun to drown yourself in alcohol?
You finally got transferred back to Ningcheng; I’m just a bit happy.
Min Zhuozhou smiled sweetly and returned to his usual self, though his pale skin carried a hint of tipsy flush, and his eyes looked even more affectionate than usual. This was quite a trial for Fu Zhen. Although he harbored no improper thoughts toward this childhood friend he grew up with until fifteen, everyone appreciates beauty. He was still made to feel a tingling sensation across his scalp by such direct, breathtaking attractiveness.
Fu Zhen turned his eyes away somewhat uncomfortably, muttering, Come off it, I don’t need you missing me. Just take care of yourself.
Min Zhuozhou leaned weakly against the sofa, looking at Fu Zhen gently: I’m doing fine, and I’ll probably be even better in the future.
You’re definitely drunk, Fu Zhen knew that Min Zhuozhou would never say such words while fully sober. He frowned helplessly, You’re usually not this candid. I asked you to perform, and you go and drink like this? How am I supposed to get you back… Oh, I’ll call a designated driver…
No need.
Min Zhuozhou wanted to say that Pei Che had agreed to pick him up, but on second thought, he guessed Pei Che was probably catching up with Ji Subai. He smiled lightly and didn’t continue.
What do you mean no need? I’m certainly not carrying you home on my back.
As Fu Zhen spoke, he reached out to pull the phone from Min Zhuozhou’s pocket. Extremely familiar with Min Zhuozhou’s password, he unlocked it with a few taps. Just as he was thinking about opening a driving service app, the phone in his hand was unceremoniously snatched away.
Hey, I say you—
Fu Zhen raised his head, but his voice came to a sudden halt.
A tall and straight man appeared in his line of sight, possessing a resolute contour and cold, sharp features. The shirt he wore was exquisite and neat, looking remarkably matching with the suit jacket draped over Min Zhuozhou.
Are you… Pei Che?
Fu Zhen’s alcohol-laden brain worked sluggishly, taking a long while before he asked tentatively.