The two of them stood a hundred meters apart with pedestrians passing in between, yet Lu Jiayan felt as though Pei Zhiwen’s gaze was fixed on him like a chilling venomous snake, ready to snap his neck without a moment’s hesitation the second he defied an order.
A sudden chill crept up from the soles of his feet, sending an icy shiver down his spine.
Having hidden from Pei Zhiwen for two weeks, the man had also vanished for two weeks.
Just as he lowered his guard, Pei Zhiwen happened to reappear right when he and Chen Ke were out together.
Chen Ke was still standing in line buying dessert.
Well-acquainted with Pei Zhiwen’s temperament, Lu Jiayan sent a message to the team leader on his phone to ask for leave, followed by a message to Chen Ke explaining that he felt unwell and was heading home first, before setting off toward the parked motorcycle by the roadside.
Passing a trash can, he tossed his coffee away without a second thought.
A madman with extreme control and possessiveness would go wildly jealous and displeased upon seeing something another man had given him, tracing everything back to its source, leaving Lu Jiayan himself to suffer the consequences.
Just as Lu Jiayan reached the curbside, he heard Pei Zhiwen say casually.
“Lu Jiayan.”
“You’re overdue.”
Wearing a cool black and red motorcycle helmet, Pei Zhiwen revealed only his sharp eyebrows and fierce eyes, with a scar slicing across the tail of his left eyebrow that did nothing to detract from his good looks.
His narrow, hooded eyelids, long eyelashes, and pitch-black pupils exuded a wild energy that was cool yet biting and aloof.
At a glance, he possessed a striking, abrupt handsome quality completely disconnected from the bustling world.
Lu Jiayan glanced at the scar on Pei Zhiwen’s eyebrow before calmly shifting his gaze to the other man’s phone screen.
It displayed a running timer reading 01:01.33.
“I asked the team leader for leave and threw away some trash along the way.”
Pei Zhiwen’s tone rose slightly. “Was the coffee good?”
Those five short words instantly dragged Lu Jiayan back to their university days, when a friend had casually bought him a cup of coffee. Pei Zhiwen had chased him all the way to the dorm room, pouring the coffee over his collarbone, his chest, and even more intimate, scandalous places.
He licked it all away with his tongue, leaving marks that couldn’t be seen in public for days.
“I didn’t drink it.” Lu Jiayan lowered his gaze.
Pei Zhiwen gave a slight nod. “Then it wasn’t good.”
Lu Jiayan couldn’t fathom the other man’s thoughts.
Because he couldn’t guess them.
It was exhausting.
“You’ve been keeping your head down ever since we met last time. Why?” Pei Zhiwen asked as if he already held the answer. “Unhappy to see I’m still alive? Or perhaps feeling guilty and suffering from a condemned moral sense when you look at the scar on my brow?”
Lu Jiayan pressed his lips together, raised his head to meet Pei Zhiwen’s unblinking gaze, and dropped a single sentence.
“Why ask when you already know?”
No matter which reason it was, he wanted no physical or relational entanglements with Pei Zhiwen whatsoever.
The tip of Pei Zhiwen’s tongue pressed against his teeth, his pitch-black eyes cloaked in a layer of chill as a strange chuckle muffled in his throat.
“Lu Jiayan.”
“You really never learn to be obedient.”
Lu Jiayan didn’t understand what being obedient was good for.
He had long since stopped wanting to play the obedient canary by Pei Zhiwen’s side.
Pei Zhiwen was the heir of the Pei family; sooner or later, under the education and nagging of his elders, he would step-by-step follow convention, get married, and father children to ensure the continuation of the family enterprise.
So, what was the outcome of learning to be obedient?
Becoming a kept mistress?
“Hold this.” Pei Zhiwen handed the other helmet to Lu Jiayan.
“If you don’t want your colleague to notice, I suggest you put it on within three seconds.”
Only then did Lu Jiayan notice that Chen Ke had finished waiting in line for the dessert and was currently looking around as if searching for someone.
He hurriedly took the helmet from Pei Zhiwen, put it on, and skillfully swung his leg over the back seat of the motorcycle.
Even though Lu Jiayan was being excessively cooperative, Pei Zhiwen was annoyed enough to want to kick him off.
“Vroom.” The motorcycle roared to life.
Unsteady on his feet, Lu Jiayan instinctively reached out and wrapped his arms around Pei Zhiwen’s waist. After all these years, this physical contact stirred completely different emotions in them both.
“Where are you taking me?”
Looking straight ahead, Pei Zhiwen started the motorcycle and dropped two words.
“Eloping.”
Living a stable, peaceful life for several years, Lu Jiayan hadn’t sat on the back of Pei Zhiwen’s motorcycle in a long time, feeling the city breeze gently caress his face piece by piece, the air carrying the refreshing coolness of late autumn.
Cutting through the streets, the scenery retreated backward.
The two of them arrived at a club in the center of Jiangling City.
He Yao stood on the steps biting down on a cigarette. Hearing the roar of the motorcycle, he glanced over, saw it was Pei Zhiwen, and let his gaze fall on the person on the back seat, lifting his brow slightly in apparent surprise.
“Ah Wen, where did you go?”
Seeing the person on the back seat take off their helmet to reveal a familiar face, he choked hard on his smoke.
“Cough, cough, cough.”
After catching his breath, he blurted out: “Lu Jiayan?!”
Lu Jiayan knew He Yao, though not very well; in the past, they rarely appeared in the same circles.
Hearing the other call his name, he gave a polite nod.
He Yao extinguished his cigarette.
No wonder Pei Zhiwen spent two weeks exiling himself from Beijing to Jiangling; it turned out the person he was looking for was right here.
“Why are you lingering at the entrance?” Pei Zhiwen slanted a glance at He Yao.
He Yao snapped out of his shock. “Came out for a smoke, getting some fresh air.”
Seeming to think of something, he cast a sideways glance at Lu Jiayan standing behind Pei Zhiwen. Knowing full well the history between the two, a thought stirred within him, and he proactively brought up his friend’s fiancée. “Just now, Zhou Ruo…”
Before he could finish, Pei Zhiwen cut him off. “Has nothing to do with me.”
He Yao stole a look at Lu Jiayan’s reaction, then immediately pressed further. “Then who has anything to do with you?”
Pei Zhiwen strode into the club on long legs. “Has nothing to do with you.”
Two sentences, ten words, like a knife piercing He Yao’s fatherly heart.
With zero emotion on his face, Lu Jiayan followed Pei Zhiwen into the club.
The man’s fiancée had even less to do with him.
Left standing in place, He Yao felt a surge of irritation at their attitude. Pulling a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from his pocket, he decided to smoke another one to soothe the stuffiness in his chest.