When everyone went to the company, they happened to run into the person in charge of signing the contract. Seeing Li Sheng, both of them were momentarily startled, and the man smiled and greeted Li Sheng, “Turns out it’s the company you acquired. You aren’t working there anymore?”
Li Sheng nodded. “Mn, I resigned. I’d had the thought of going solo for a long time. This company is yours?”
The man nodded. “The debts my brother paid off for me are enough already, I have to earn some on my own.”
There was no way for Li Sheng to continue that conversation, so the two finally just smiled and said goodbye, appearing rather awkward. Yuan Ye walked over and asked, “You know him?”
“Talk about a coincidence, and now we’ve become rivals. This person is our former boss’s younger brother. His mother paid off a lot of debts, and our boss hasn’t dared to expand the scale all these years precisely because of a shortage of capital—he paid off a huge amount of money for his younger brother. Now, not only did Yang Shu and I leave just like that, but we’ve also acquired his younger brother’s company. I bet he’s definitely figuring out how to deal with us.”
Yuan Ye smiled and pulled Li Sheng into his embrace. “I’m very glad when you say ‘us’. You don’t need to worry about how he’ll deal with us, he has no way of dealing with us.”
Looking still very worried, Li Sheng nodded slightly and said, “Let’s try our best not to provoke them. They’ve had it pretty tough, and besides, a cornered dog will jump over a wall too.”
Seeing that Li Sheng was about to leave, Yuan Ye pulled his hand over and kissed Li Sheng’s lips. “What do you want to eat tonight?”
“I have a friend to have dinner with tonight, I’ll have to go back a bit later.”
“I’ll come pick you up.”
Li Sheng originally wanted to refuse, but after thinking about it, he said, “Okay, I’ll text you the location.”
Yuan Ye’s arms tightened a bit, then loosened after a moment. Watching Li Sheng walk away, he lit a cigarette and stood by the window looking out. For some reason, he felt that he was sinking a bit too deep.
When Li Sheng called Cheng Xiao, Cheng Xiao was in the middle of arguing with a client. Hearing that they were going to drink, without a second word he dumped the client alone at the company and rushed over to find Li Sheng in a fluster. Li Sheng hadn’t expected Cheng Xiao to arrive so quickly; just as he came out of the company with Yuan Ye and the others, he saw him smoking a cigarette with an anxious expression standing by the roadside. The moment he saw Li Sheng step out, Cheng Xiao took two or three steps in one stride, grabbed Li Sheng, and pulled him away.
Sensing that Yuan Ye was unhappy, Yang Shu walked over to his side and said, “Rest assured, that kid isn’t your love rival—he used to be Li Sheng’s love rival.”
Yuan Ye glanced sideways at Yang Shu, who smiled and said, “Given the relationship between the two of you, I could tell at a glance. Don’t worry, don’t worry, they’re good buddies now, there’s no love rival anymore.”
Unwilling to pay attention to Yang Shu, Yuan Ye hurried back to the company. On the other side, just as Cheng Xiao dragged Li Sheng into the car, he started complaining endlessly. “You say those two idiots—they can’t get a single thing right, not a single task assigned to them was completed properly. They messed up the materials so they aren’t even complete, the design patterns aren’t high-definition, and clients keep coming to make trouble. It’s driving me absolutely furious.”
Li Sheng said with a smile, “Looks like my calling you came at just the right time?”
“Let’s go, let’s go drink. I’m pissed off to death.”
The nights in the bar were a scene of debauchery and drunken dreams. In the neon-lit air, cigarette smoke and the thick, ambiguous scent of alcohol lingered. Cheng Xiao handed Li Sheng a cigarette, and Li Sheng took it, holding it between his lips. “Your temper is a lot better than before.”
Cheng Xiao smiled helplessly. “It’s all polished out of me. If I were still acting out with you like before, I’d have lived all these years in vain.”
“Mn, pretty good.”
“Haven’t quit smoking yet?”
“I did, but picked it up again recently. Not all that often though, just the occasional one.”
“Smoke less. With that constitution of yours, you’re not even as good as me at thirty-four.”
“You’re only four years older than me, making it sound like you’re about to be put in the ground.”
Cheng Xiao poured a glass of wine. “Anything goes however you toss and turn in the past, but not anymore. You can’t afford to toss and turn now; even going back to my hometown means having to look at other people’s faces. I’m no longer the old me.”
Li Sheng shook his head. “Actually, regarding that matter back then, Wei Heng wasn’t targeting me at all. He was simply trying to safeguard my brother’s reputation. You’ve suffered, not coming back all these years. But knowing your temper, I don’t think you were afraid of him, you were just disheartened.”
Cheng Xiao let out a cold snort. “I stopped loving him a long time ago. Ever since that incident, I stopped loving him. Someone who doesn’t care about me at all isn’t worth it. But Li Sheng, I think he doesn’t love your brother—the one he loves should be you.”
Li Sheng downed a glass of wine straight, the pungent taste rushing all the way into his windpipe. “Loves me? You must be joking. Didn’t you see his expression when he heard about my brother getting married? So painful I wanted to cry a round on his behalf. Now that things have happened at home, a person who should have vanished went off to Myanmar—a place where it’s practically a one-way trip with no return—and you actually think he loves me?”
Cheng Xiao stopped talking, and the two of them drank a lot, cup after cup. When Yuan Ye came to pick Li Sheng up, Li Sheng was squatting outside the door vomiting. Yuan Ye frowned slightly, regretting that he hadn’t followed along. After Li Sheng finished vomiting thoroughly, his mouth was full of the smell of alcohol, making him miserably uncomfortable. Groping in his pockets, Yuan Ye only managed to find a single White Rabbit creamy candy, which he peeled and gave to Li Sheng to eat. But Cheng Xiao, standing off to the side, laughed and said, “Hey, that candy isn’t something you get to give out. Just a bed partner, don’t take yourself too seriously.”
Yuan Ye’s hand froze mid-air. It wasn’t because of Cheng Xiao’s words, but because Li Sheng grabbed his arm and said, “Wei Heng, carry me on your back.”