Fu Juncheng: “Period.”
Fu Juncheng paused for a fleeting second, shooting a swift glance at the visibly suspicious Xie Chen, his mind instantly recalling the parting instructions Wu Jin had given him earlier:
“Remember to apologize to Xie Chen later.”
“The Xie family and the Xu family have a pretty good relationship. Don’t let Xu Yaozhou find out that the person I brought bullied Xie Chen and make him unhappy.”
Was this Wu Jin intentionally trying to make things miserable for him just because he found the original owner an eyesore?
Judging by Xu Yaozhou’s reaction, he didn’t seem particularly close with Xie Chen at all; instead, his every gesture and movement oozed detachment.
Xie Chen, on the other hand, was overly eager, practically dying to glue his gaze onto Xu Yaozhou every single second.
Comprehension dawned on Fu Juncheng. No wonder Wu Jin was hopelessly trapped in the mire of unrequited love; he hadn’t even done his homework properly and understood zero about his target.
This scumbag CEO clearly lacked the dedication himself, yet he still had the nerve to turn dark later on?
Bah! Why wasn’t he the one heading to the crematorium instead!
Still, having those words blurted out so directly by Xu Yaozhou left Fu Juncheng feeling somewhat awkward—it was absolute social death.
Nodding felt wrong, and shaking his head felt wrong too.
Scratching the bridge of his nose, Fu Juncheng prepared to casually brush it off when his phone began to buzz insistently.
Distracted, Fu Juncheng hurriedly shifted his attention and, failing to check the caller ID, answered it right away.
It was Wu Jin.
Wu Jin’s voice was perpetually deep, like it was wrapped in a layer of perennial, unmelting frost. The moment the call connected, his tone sounded even heavier than usual: “Why didn’t you answer my call just now?”
Duh.
Fu Juncheng thought to himself: If I didn’t want to answer, I didn’t answer, obviously.
Yet Wu Jin possessed zero patience to wait for an explanation.
Before Fu Juncheng could reply, the man demanded: “Where are you?”
Fu Juncheng raised his eyes, colliding straight with Xu Yaozhou’s pitch-black, clear pupils, which were watching him quietly.
Period.
He looked entirely too pitiful.
The kind of sight that stirred an intense protective instinct!
He absolutely could not let Wu Jin know that Xu Yaozhou was right here!
Judging by Wu Jin’s earlier behavior, he clearly hadn’t caught wind of Xu Yaozhou returning to the country, and right before heading out to the banquet, Wu Jin had even been on the phone with him.
Though he had no idea why Xu Yaozhou was keeping things from Wu Jin…
Fu Juncheng didn’t plan to pry; Xu Yaozhou had his own reasons for doing so.
However, if Wu Jin were to find out about this, there was a strong chance he would start bouncing wildly on the edge of utter insanity.
Wonder how Wu Jin would react if he knew he was placing a call to his cannon fodder substitute right under the watchful eyes of his own white moonlight?
He’d probably regret it so hard his intestines turned green.
Hah, talking about unrequited love.
The real problem lay in his own messed-up mindset!
With a perfunctory attitude, Fu Juncheng tossed out a lukewarm response: “Changing clothes. Didn’t you hear?”
Wu Jin fell silent for a full second.
“One minute.”
The underlying message dripping from those words:
I am giving you one more minute.
Or else do not blame me for being ruthless.
It was extremely CEO-like.
The aggressively cringe kind.
One minute.
You could barely change a pair of trousers in one minute!
A short while later, Fu Juncheng slowly changed into the clothes handed over by Xu Yaozhou.
To his surprise, whether it was the inner T-shirt or the plain outer shirt, everything fit impeccably, and even the trousers felt as though they had been custom-tailored for him.
Stepping out of the walk-in closet, he found Xu Yaozhou engaged in conversation with Xie Chen.
With his back turned to the door, Xu Yaozhou heard the commotion and spun around instantly.
Xie Chen followed Xu Yaozhou’s gaze, staring at him in a daze.
The surrounding atmosphere fell strangely quiet for a moment.
Fu Juncheng: “Question mark.”
Meeting two pairs of contrasting eyes, Fu Juncheng frowned in bewilderment, instinctively shifting his gaze toward Xu Yaozhou.
As their eyes met, Xu Yaozhou swept a swift, head-to-toe appraisal over Fu Juncheng before the corners of his lips curved upward in delight, a trace of hidden surprise lacing his tone: “It fits very well.”
Fu Juncheng glanced down briefly along the path of Xu Yaozhou’s gaze and gave a faint, breezy “Mhm.”
Xu Yaozhou asked: “Would you like to rest a bit longer?”
“No need.”
Lacking any energy, Fu Juncheng shook his head.
He still had to go deal with Wu Jin, that scumbag.
After all, that guy wasn’t as easy to fool as Xie Chen.
With words hanging on the tip of his tongue, Fu Juncheng cast a lingering look at Xie Chen.
Xie Chen’s scum-like traits primarily manifested in the later stages when he drifted further and further away from the white moonlight. It wasn’t until he caught sight of the white moonlight acting intimately with a certain cannon fodder character that his jealousy spiked out of control. Coinciding with the massive chaos hitting the Xu family, he allowed himself to be utilized by Wu Jin, blindly kicking Xu Yaozhou while he was down under the delusion that it would break Xu Yaozhou’s psychological fortitude—only to end up being tortured even more miserably by Wu Jin. Talk about sheer stupidity.
Before leaving, Fu Juncheng even went out of his way to ask Xie Chen if he wanted to tag along, dropping repeated hints that Xu Yaozhou needed to rest.
Yet that stubborn punk refused to budge, insisting he wanted to chat with Xu Yaozhou a little longer.
Fu Juncheng hesitated for a few seconds.
Well…
Fine then.
Xie Chen shouldn’t be able to stir up any real trouble right now anyway.
Besides, this was the Xu family estate; Xie Chen wouldn’t dare pull anything drastic.
Still, harboring the heart of an old father, Fu Juncheng remained uneasy, looking back every three steps as if walking a single block took a century.
Not until the door clicked shut behind him did Xu Yaozhou slowly retract his gaze.
Xie Chen, however, remained spaced out for a long while.
Noticing Xie Chen still staring blankly at the doorway, Xu Yaozhou frowned slightly and spoke in a flat tone: “Is there anything else?”
Snapping back to reality, Xie Chen froze for half a second as if suddenly jolted awake, choking back a stammer for a long moment before replying: “It has just been a really long time. I missed you a lot.”
Xu Yaozhou displayed no particular reaction, seemingly unable to quite place the person standing before him.
Xie Chen hurried to explain: “We used to catch crickets together when we were kids, remember?”
Xu Yaozhou watched him in silence. Pausing briefly, Xie Chen continued: “Since it has been so long, I accidentally saw your photo on the Times Square LED screen…”
Looking very dashing.
Xie Chen suddenly felt like an immature, wet-behind-the-ears kid, acting all timid and awkward to an embarrassing degree.
Truth be told, within their social circle, the pool wasn’t small, but it wasn’t large either.
Xie Chen always heard people talking about the Xu family’s younger son.
Smart since childhood and strikingly handsome, everyone agreed that compared to the Xu family’s eldest son who spent his days wallowing in wine and women, Xu Yaozhou much better fit the mold of a true family heir.
Whenever he heard such remarks, Xie Chen felt an immense surge of pride.
After all, the “neighbor’s kid” referenced in those comments was the sworn brother he used to be thick as thieves with during childhood.
Even though the days they actually spent hanging out amounted to nothing more than a single summer vacation.
That was precisely why the subsequent appearance of Fu Juncheng had drawn his absolute scorn.
A nobody like him dared to hype himself up as a duplicate of Xu Yaozhou?
Who did he think he was?
Xie Chen scratched the back of his head. He had arrived with a chest full of things to pour out to Xu Yaozhou, yet right at this moment, he suddenly didn’t know what to say.
Fumbling out a few sentences, he was abruptly cut off mid-sentence by Xu Yaozhou.
Without a trace of haste, Xu Yaozhou intercepted his words: “So the scar on his face, was that your doing?”
Xie Chen startled, stammering: “Wh-what?”
Xu Yaozhou: “You said earlier that your relationship isn’t very good.”
Xie Chen failed to find his voice for a moment.
Gazing at him coolly, Xu Yaozhou asked: “What? Do you even need someone else to teach you how to apologize?”
Xie Chen: “I…”
Xu Yaozhou: “Besides…”
“How could a mere apology ever be enough?”
Wu Jin was already waiting inside the car.
Fu Juncheng pulled open the door and heard a cold voice without any surprise: “So you remember how to come back?”
At that, Fu Juncheng didn’t even lift an eyelid: “What else?”
That retort made Wu Jin’s already drawn-out face freeze into an even colder expression.
The air conditioning blew a chilly breeze, carrying what felt like tiny ice shards across every pore of the skin, sending shivers down the spine.
Unbothered, Fu Juncheng sat straight in the back seat, staring straight ahead.
Wu Jin’s gaze quietly swept up and down over Fu Juncheng a few times, finally landing on that face.
In truth, the more he looked at it now, the less it resembled the other person.
Yet this very face, which increasingly looked nothing like Xu Yaozhou, still managed to strike him as pleasing to the eye.
This realization sparked a faint glimmer of displeasure deep within Wu Jin’s heart.
Aside from Xu Yaozhou, how could anyone else possibly catch his eye?
Furthermore, Fu Juncheng had repeatedly challenged his bottom line. Was he acting out of frustration because he felt wronged by Xie Chen, or was he still mad about what happened a few days ago?
He had only mentioned to a friend in passing that, in his eyes, Fu Juncheng was merely a substitute, and Fu Juncheng had happened to overhear it.
Or perhaps Fu Juncheng had dug up some past history between him and Xu Yaozhou, and was still acting jealous, putting on a show for him on purpose?
His patience had limits, and he didn’t have all that time and energy to coddle people.
Narrowing his eyes in silence for a moment, Wu Jin let out a scoff from the back of his throat: “What, hasn’t your little act run its course yet?”
Fu Juncheng glanced at him sideways.
Wu Jin said disdainfully: “Even if you don’t care about yourself, shouldn’t you at least think about your old man?”
No sooner had those words dropped than Wu Jin clearly saw Fu Juncheng’s nonchalant expression finally crack into a hint of hesitation, accompanied by a subtle twitch of his handsome brow ridges.
This recognition finally bled a fraction of the anger out of Wu Jin’s system.
Leisurely, he pulled his gaze away from Fu Juncheng, though he could still feel the other person’s lingering stare fixed upon him.
“That role in Director Zhang’s new production, I’ve already secured it for you,” Wu Jin loosened his shirt collar deliberately. “The money you asked for will also be wired to your account on schedule.”
“…”
“Are you happy?”
Keeping mum, Fu Juncheng froze just as his hand accidentally brushed against his trouser pocket.
He hadn’t felt it earlier, but sitting down now, he realized there was something tucked inside his pocket, poking uncomfortably.
Putting Wu Jin out of his mind for a moment, Fu Juncheng felt around inside his pocket without arousing suspicion.
It was glaringly obvious:
A card.
Belatedly, Fu Juncheng noticed Wu Jin casting another suspicious glance in his direction, prompting him to respond a beat too late: “No need, I can go audition on my own.”
He recalled that in the original novel, the supporting role Wu Jin helped him secure was far from likable, and later on, he was cursed up the trending search topics by netizens for injecting investor funds and demanding excessive scene additions.
All in all, Fu Juncheng had zero interest in this role.
However, Director Zhang was undeniably a man of true talent.
After all, he was the director who would eventually lead Xu Yaozhou to sweep major awards and single-handedly snatch the record for the highest domestic box office earnings.
If possible, he’d love to witness it firsthand.