The moment Fang Jinshi stepped out of the ballroom, a wave of warm air hit him square in the face.
It was already June, and the temperature was steadily climbing. Wearing that heavy formal suit had been manageable indoors, but stepping outside, he was immediately greeted by a suffocating, muggy heat. Fortunately, the air outside was crisp and fresh, bringing a much-needed sense of relief.
Slipping off his suit jacket, he draped it casually over his arm and slowly made his way into the rose garden.
To accommodate the grand banquet, the entire courtyard was brightly illuminated. Columns of cool white light pierced through every corner of the garden, casting a stark, frigid filter over the delicate climbing roses. For some reason, it lent the vibrant pink blossoms a somewhat cold, detached quality.
As Fang Jinshi waded through the lush, tangled rose vines, a sharp thorn caught on his shirt. He was just lowering his head to disentangle himself when a voice cut through the air: “Jinshi.”
Fang Jinshi’s brow twitched violently, and that same intense wave of revulsion surged right back up in his chest. He lost all interest in carefully freeing his clothes from the branches; his sole focus now was to walk away immediately and get as far away from this man as humanly possible.
Yet, Li Jin remained utterly oblivious to how thoroughly repulsive he was. Seeing Fang Jinshi step away, he instinctively quickened his pace, rushing forward a few steps. “What kind of reaction is this?” He demanded, his voice laced with sudden urgency. “Are you really so resentful that you can’t even spare me a single glance?”
He had clearly walked out here intending to offer an apology, yet the moment he opened his mouth, it sounded like an interrogation.
Fang Jinshi ground to a halt. He still refused to turn around, offering only a frigid reply: “If you possessed an ounce of self-awareness, you would never have shown your face in front of me to begin with.”
Having known Fang Jinshi for so many years, Li Jin prided himself on understanding the youth inside and out. He had never expected the young man’s words to cut so deeply and leave him so utterly choked.
Taking a sharp breath, he tried to steady his tone. “Jinshi, stop acting so childish. Haicheng is only so big. Do you honestly plan on hiding from me for the rest of your life?”
When he spoke, his voice carried a natural, effortless intimacy. It was the unshakeable chemistry born of a ten-year history—something Lin Nuo could never hope to breach or alter in this lifetime.
Lin Nuo’s heart skipped a heavy beat. Driven by sheer survival instinct, he immediately injected himself into the conversation, piping up to support his partner: “He’s right, Mr. Fang. As the old saying goes, ‘it is better to dissolve an enmity than to keep it knotting.’ Hubby—I mean, Brother Jin—merely wants to clear the air and untie the knots between you two.”
“Nuonuo!” Li Jin barked softly, cutting him off.
While he knew Lin Nuo was only trying to speak on his behalf, and recognized that maintaining such grace and consideration under these circumstances wasn’t easy for the boy, Li Jin knew all too well that Lin Nuo’s clumsy attempt at playing peacemaker would only pour fuel on the fire.
Sure enough, Fang Jinshi let out a sharp, mocking laugh. Turning around at last, he locked eyes with them. “The two of you really put on a beautiful performance, covering every base. Pray tell, what is left for me to say?”
Just as Li Jin opened his mouth to defend himself, Fang Jinshi cut him off ruthlessly: “This ‘enmity’ is something you two chose to create whenever you pleased, and now you expect to dissolve it just as easily? How remarkably convenient for you. Too bad it’s not your call to make! As for hiding—the two of you are the ones with a guilty conscience, and since you aren’t hiding away in shame, I certainly have nothing to flee from. It’s simply that looking at cockroaches and vermin makes me physically nauseous, so I’d rather not waste my breath giving you the time of day!”
The words were brutally harsh, completely stripping Li Jin of his dignity. His thick brows knit tightly together as he fiercely tried to justify himself: “Jinshi, why must you view people with such profound malice? I came out here to apologize to you, and I brought absolute sincerity!”
Fang Jinshi looked at him, practically laughing from sheer, unadulterated rage. “Li Jin, CEO Li—you actually have the audacity to call your disgraceful antics tonight an apology? You truly open my eyes to new depths of absurdity!”
Seeing the literal fire raging in the young man’s eyes, a sudden stroke of realization hit Li Jin. He hurriedly blurted out an explanation: “I brought Nuonuo along with absolutely no intention of provoking you! It’s simply that he cannot bear to be left alone right now—”
Fang Jinshi severed the rest of his sentence with absolute finality: “Then shove him into your pocket and get the hell out of my sight!”
Not far away, near the grand fountain.
A tall, imposing man who had intended to take a detour back to the ballroom froze mid-step upon hearing those words.
He truly had no idea that when Fang Jinshi lost his temper, he could be quite this ferocious. For all the years he had observed him from afar, the boy had always been the quintessential well-mannered child from a reputable family.
To borrow Fang Jinshi’s own phrase, this display truly “opened his eyes.”
As the ultimate target of everyone’s flattery at the banquet, the moment Gu Tuo sat down, a relentless stream of people would descend upon him just to strike up a conversation. Even though his formidable aura screamed a thousand rejections, there were always those utterly devoid of social cues who possessed the reckless audacity to try anyway.
Wishing to escape the tedious disruptions, he had stepped out into the courtyard for some peace. Who could have guessed that after barely ten minutes of quiet, he would stumble right into another scene of his troublesome nephew causing distress to others?
While he found Li Jin’s behavior thoroughly disgraceful, as an elder of the family, it was highly inappropriate for him to intervene in their drama directly at this moment. He could only recuse himself for now and discipline his nephew behind closed doors later.
Yet, just as he lifted his foot to walk away, he caught Fang Jinshi unleashing a torrent of vitriol—an act that instantly completely rewrote the fragile, delicate impression the youth had previously left in his mind.
On the other side of the lawn, Li Jin’s own temper had finally been ignited by Fang Jinshi’s relentless hostility. His tone hardened significantly. “Jinshi, calm yourself. You are an adult now; can you not show a shred of rationality? Are you truly going to cut all ties with me until the day we die over a trivial relationship issue?”
Fang Jinshi’s expression remained ice-cold, his eyes tracking the man like twin blades. “Li Jin, you are an adult too. Are you seriously telling me you don’t understand that this is exactly how the adult world works? I find you utterly repulsive and I have absolutely no desire to tolerate you—what on earth is strange about that? Have you lived this long genuinely expecting the entire world to coddle you the way your mother did?”
Fang Jinshi managed to deliver the strike without uttering a single curse word, yet it was incredibly piercing.
Stunned into silence by the retort, and hearing the sudden mention of his late mother, Li Jin was so choked with rage that he let out a series of frustrated coughs. “Jinshi, why do you insist on speaking to me in this manner?” He muttered bitterly.
He felt he had lowered his posture as far as humanly possible, yet this was the only result he received. The last vestiges of his meager patience finally evaporated, and his tone shifted once more: “You need to understand that your every word and action doesn’t just represent yourself—it represents the Fang family. And behind me stands the Li family. Are you absolutely certain you want to cause a severe degradation in the relationship between our two households?”
A deeply amused, subtle expression crossed Fang Jinshi’s face. “Oh? Pray tell, what magical partnerships exist between the Fangs and the Lis? Our family deals in luxury jewelry. Are you suggesting that if we don’t latch ourselves onto your Eastern Emperor Entertainment, our diamonds and gems will suddenly become unsellable?”
Li Jin hadn’t expected that even after pulling out the heavy weight of their respective families, Fang Jinshi would remain completely unmoved. Before he could scramble to find a new argument, Fang Jinshi spoke again: “Though, you actually did remind me of something—our families share zero corporate ventures, which naturally means we aren’t close at all. Do me a favor and show some basic professional courtesy, CEO Li. Address me as ‘Mr. Fang.'”
That single phrase—”we aren’t close at all”—struck Li Jin’s chest like a jagged blade. The knife twisted repeatedly, violently gouging out their ten years of history piece by piece, leaving nothing but raw ruin.
Li Jin finally looked reality in the face. The bridge between him and Fang Jinshi had been burned to ashes; there was no turning back.
“Splendid, Mr. Fang,” Li Jin’s voice trembled slightly, dropping into a low, heavy cadence that sounded like a swallow’s wings drenched in a torrential downpour. “You have truly allowed me to see a completely different side of you today.
It seems I should never have come here tonight.”
Fang Jinshi offered no response, merely tracking him with a look of profound, mocking disdain.
Left with absolutely nowhere to hide under that piercing gaze, Li Jin could only close his eyes tightly. “Nuonuo,” he muttered under his breath, “let’s go.”
With that, he turned on his heel and walked away, refusing to linger a second longer.
Fang Jinshi didn’t even bother to watch them leave. Yet, listening to those footsteps gradually fade into the distance, and recalling the utterly incomprehensible nonsense the man had spouted, the rage bubbling in his chest only burned hotter and fiercer. Overwhelmed by a sudden surge of irritation, he violently hurled his suit jacket to the ground, hissing a low curse under his breath: “Fuck!”
The gesture was fueled by pure, unadulterated wrath. He hadn’t expected that making such a wild, sweeping motion would cause his arm to brush right against the rose thorns again. The delicate skin where the thorn snagged quickly began to bloom into a dark bruise.
Fang Jinshi let out a sharp hiss of pain. Thoroughly defeated by the garden, he angrily retrieved his jacket from the dirt, spun around, and marched straight back toward the estate.
It was only after Fang Jinshi had completely vanished from sight that Gu Tuo finally stepped out from the shadows of the grand fountain.
The cascading pool water sprayed gently, leaving a crisp, cool mist hanging in the surrounding air. Lowering his head, he calmly adjusted his cuffs before resuming his stride back toward the bustling ballroom.
That reckless, arrogant brat of a nephew truly required a thorough, unyielding hand of discipline.
After taking barely two steps, Gu Tuo suddenly halted, his eyes dropping to the grass. A small, smoky amber gemstone lay resting on the ground, dusted with a faint layer of earth.
Bending down to retrieve it, he found it to be a meticulously polished brooch shaped like a winter plum blossom.
It was Fang Jinshi’s property.
Gu Tuo pressed his lips together into a thin line. Clutching the elegant brooch tightly in his palm, he stepped back into the warm, resounding chatter of high society.