Booming!
The furious wind and torrential rain were still rampaging throughout the entirety of Rong Port.
Tang Songzhi leaned his back against the wall, sliding down to his knees in near collapse. The warning Yan Chong had left behind before departing still echoed in his ears. “Don’t try to play tricks with me anymore. Understood? There is only one month left before the wedding banquet begins. Behave yourself, otherwise…”
Yan Chong hadn’t continued further.
Tang Songzhi closed his eyes. To his surprise, extreme fear had actually kindled a sudden surge of fighting spirit within him. No, he absolutely could not marry Yan Chong! He would die! He would be tormented to death by that man! Tang Songzhi roared in his heart.
He had to… he had to come up with a countermeasure anew!
Su Xingyan had risen early, sitting in the study wearing home clothes. Gathering his elegant, delicate brows, he was also currently researching countermeasures. The plot of land that Wei Zhenning had taken over was in the suburbs, which used to be called “Pig Cage Lane,” a cluster of low rent housing far removed from the city fringes.
Having bid for it from the government, Wei Zhenning intended to redevelop it into a villa district, while the surrounding area would be built into entertainment venues like golf courses, serving as a peaceful paradise away from the world. As for the original residents, Su Xingyan had also arranged for veterans of the company to handle it, giving relocation subsidies that were double the market rate. However, the current difficulty was still…
“Working so hard? You started busying yourself with work so early in the morning?”
Su Xingyan raised his head, closing the planning proposal almost as a subconscious reflex. He saw his younger sister, Wei Mingran, carrying a food tray at this moment, walking over from outside the study with a beaming smile, “Why don’t you have breakfast first?”
“Thank you.” Su Xingyan gave a warm and gentle smile. Yet upon seeing the breakfast Wei Mingran served up, he was suddenly taken aback. The Wei family followed Wei Zhenning’s habits and had always eaten Chinese style breakfast, while few people knew that Su Xingyan actually did not like Chinese style breakfasts.
He liked strong coffee, breakfast buns, all foods high in calories.
“Can you tell, Sister-in-law? Big Brother woke up early in the morning to make all of these for you! He was even afraid they would get cold, so he kept them in the warming box to heat!” Wei Mingran pushed the food tray in front of Su Xingyan with an air of currying favor, and then laughingly said good words on her brother’s behalf, “Sister-in-law, you have no idea. That man was so terrified you wouldn’t get to eat it that he dragged me out of bed early in the morning, saying something about waiting for you to wake up…”
Everything was warm. In fact, it was even hot.
The moment Su Xingyan reached out, he pulled his hand back from the heat. Listening to Wei Mingran’s rambling chatter, his mind inadvertently flashed back to the actions Wei Chengran had taken to please him since childhood.
“Yanyan, Yanyan! My good Yanyan! Just help me out, school starts tomorrow, but I… but I still have so much homework left unwritten, and there’s a test when school starts. What am I going to do like this?”
“Yanyan, this time only you can help me! My dad said if I’m still dead last in the midterm exams, he’ll whip my buttocks raw! Yanyan, help me, look, this is breakfast I made with my own hands. How about I make breakfast for you every day from now on?”
This person was always like this, incredibly attentive and diligent whenever he did something wrong.
Su Xingyan grew inexplicably absent minded, while also recalling the situation at the restaurant that day. Who was that person beside him? Could it really be…
“Sister-in-law, why aren’t you paying attention to me?”
Seeing Su Xingyan staring blankly out of it for a long while, Wei Mingran couldn’t help but pout, a little displeased.
Su Xingyan snapped back to reality, giving a somewhat apologetic smile, “Sorry, Mingran, I’ve been a bit too busy lately. Busy to the point of being dizzy. It’s not that I wasn’t listening to you speak.”
“Even if you’re busy, you must remember to eat things!” Wei Mingran took the opportunity to push the food tray over once more, “Before my big brother left, he even said that you are being turned into a workaholic day after day by my dad. You only have work in your eyes, you’ve grown thin from being so busy!”
Su Xingyan burst out laughing helplessly. He picked up a breakfast bun and took a cautious bite, it actually didn’t taste much different from the ones Wei Chengran had made for him back then. But it could also be because too much time had passed, and Su Xingyan himself couldn’t remember what the original flavor was supposed to be.
The weather in Rong Port was continuously overcast and rainy, as if the sky had never truly brightened. Although it wasn’t raining much the next day, perhaps because he hadn’t slept well last night and had woken up early to rush through progress with high intensity, sitting inside the sealed car cabin made Su Xingyan somewhat carsick. Yet he was unwilling to say it, merely knitting his elegant brows as he leaned against the car window to doze.
Beside him, Yan Chong seemed to sense it. With a half-smile, he swept a glance over him, his thin lips moving as he spoke to Tang Chao, who was driving. “Open the windows a bit.” Knowing he wasn’t asleep, he asked him with amusement. “Do you want me to get off the car and buy you some carsickness medicine, President Su?”
Su Xingyan finally opened his eyes, sweeping a bland glance over him. Inhaling softly, he gave a superficial smile to thank him. “Then I shall trouble President Yan.”
Discovering this appearance of his, insisting on saving face while suffering the consequences, was somewhat cute, Yan Chong nodded slightly. “To serve President Su is truly a great pleasure.” As he spoke, he raised his hand, seemingly about to signal Tang Chao to park.
“Oh, I almost forgot.”
Yan Chong retracted his hand, turning back around to look at Su Xingyan. For a moment, his smile was immensely punchable: “I have it right here in my car.”
Su Xingyan suddenly felt that the public security of Rong Port was indeed very good. Good enough to allow a person like Yan Chong to live safely and smoothly until now.
“Just teasing you, don’t be so serious, President Su.”
Looking at Su Xingyan’s expression that wished nothing more than to skin him alive, Yan Chong burst out laughing. It wasn’t too bad, he still had the strength to glare at people. After reaching into the back seat to find a motion sickness patch and handing it to Su Xingyan, his handsome brows arched slightly, finally uttering a human sentence, “We still have to do a field inspection in a bit, our President Su cannot drop the ball. Put on the motion sickness patch. If you’re sleepy, then sleep well for a while. I’ll have Tang Chao drive slower, alright?”
Yan Chong was remarkably gentle voiced for once, as if he truly saw that his state was not quite right. Su Xingyan naturally knew that he couldn’t drop the ball today, so he no longer flaunted any verbal prowess. Taking a soft breath, he still accepted the motion sickness patch handed over by Yan Chong. It still carried a hint of Yan Chong’s warmth. Su Xingyan lifted his eyes, giving Yan Chong a deeply meaningful look.
With a half-smile, Su Xingyan remarked, “President Yan looks quite like a gentleman right now.”
“Oh?” Yan Chong furrowed his brows in confusion, staring into Su Xingyan’s eyes as he feigned ignorance. “Why don’t you tell me, President Su, when have I ever not been a gentleman?”
Su Xingyan met his gaze directly. Tang Chao had long since lowered the car windows, and a cool breeze carrying a hint of soil and green grass blew into the car. Even though it was such a refreshing moment, Su Xingyan inexplicably recalled the situation when he first encountered Yan Chong at the Buddhist temple that day.
A torrential rainy day, yet stiflingly hot and humid.
Certain people, watching intently like tigers eyeing their prey.
Su Xingyan’s eyes swept past him. When wasn’t he a gentleman? That was far too many times.
Su Xingyan was too lazy to pay him any mind, needing to preserve his energy for the field inspection progress. After retracting his gaze, Su Xingyan closed his eyes and leaned lightly against the car window to doze. Tang Chao drove slowly, and the cool breeze outside the window didn’t come violently, but rather in threads and strands that made one feel at ease. Yan Chong turned his head to look at him, only to see Su Xingyan’s profile as pale as jade, his light colored brows slightly furrowed, and his lip line pursed straight, lacking color.
His complexion looked rather poor.
Too thin.
Yan Chong watched him in silence for a moment, then without a word, took a blanket and covered him with it. Su Xingyan slept lightly, the moment Yan Chong held the blanket and stepped forward, Su Xingyan’s body subconsciously stiffened. It wasn’t until the blanket was securely and properly covered over him that he relaxed, continuing to sleep.
Like a cat. Yan Chong burst out laughing helplessly.
Tang Chao drove for a good long while before finally parking the business vehicle at Pig Cage Lane. Although this place hadn’t been demolished yet, the surrounding merchants had long since mostly left. It was desolate on all four sides, leaving only a few solitary, old style residential buildings swaying in the wind.
Frowning, Yan Chong lowered the car window. Facing the wind blowing from outside that carried a hint of a sour stench, he sized up the current situation. He didn’t see any residents, not knowing if they had gone out to work or had already moved away, “Who was entrusted to handle the demolition matter?”
Yan Chong questioned abruptly. Although he didn’t specify by name, these words were obviously asking Su Xingyan. Su Xingyan had indeed already awakened, he was a person with high vigilance and fastidious habits, even suffering from bed validation issues when staying outside, so he hadn’t truly been asleep. Hearing Yan Chong’s question, Su Xingyan lifted his eyelids and replied in a cool voice. “Zheng Zhibei. A veteran of the company.” He paused, “You should know him.”
Yan Chong smiled without speaking. Indeed, before coming here, he had first thoroughly grasped the situation of the Wei family. However, “Knowing is one thing, but how the work is handled is quite another matter.”
After Tang Chao brought the car to a steady stop, he also busied himself coming over to open the car door for Yan Chong. After Yan Chong stepped out from the side door, he strolled leisurely over to Su Xingyan’s side, opening the car door for him.
Su Xingyan had originally intended to open it himself. Unexpectedly, just as his hand reached out, the door opened on its own, leaving his lone hand suspended in mid-air.
Su Xingyan raised his eyes, colliding directly with Yan Chong’s smiling phoenix eyes, “So… up to which step has it progressed?”
Avoiding the hand he extended to support him down from the car, Su Xingyan stepped down elegantly, “Director Zheng’s reply to me last time was that they have currently reached an agreement with the original residents.”
“President Yan can rest fully assured, we at Hongye are not that kind of stingy people. It wouldn’t go so far as to make us tight fisted even with the relocation allowance. The price we gave is…”
Yan Chong arched his brows, quietly waiting for Su Xingyan to continue.
Yet Su Xingyan’s pupils contracted. He stared fixedly behind Yan Chong at a middle aged man who was holding a paint bucket high in the air. That man, wearing worn-out blue work clothes, had a pair of eyes open wide and perfectly round, his face filled with a fierce light. He held that rusted paint bucket high, about to splash it toward them.
“Damned capitalists! Demolishing our houses, driving us into a dead end with nowhere to go, homeless! Now you still have the nerve to appear here! I will kill you all today!!!”
“Yan Chong!!!”
In what was almost a flash of lightning and spark of flint, Su Xingyan’s bodily reaction was clearly faster than his brain. By the time he reacted, he had already pushed Yan Chong to the side, and in the next instant, viscous paint submerged him from head to toe.
Su Xingyan felt as if all his senses were sealed off. He only faintly heard Yan Chong engaging in hand to hand combat with that person, but it seemed that with no more than a few punches and kicks, that person was beaten to the ground by Yan Chong, unable to move anymore.
“Seeking death!”
It was Yan Chong speaking.
Su Xingyan suddenly remembered that Yan Chong seemed to have learned combat sports.
“…Are you an idiot?”
Yan Chong held him with a single arm. Carrying a bit of breathlessness and suppressed fury, he took a deep breath before saying: “To the hospital!”