Li Guangtao said to the group of people behind him, “You brothers have worked hard today. The hour is getting late, so everyone should head back where they belong, and we can get in touch again tomorrow.”
Indeed, it was very late, and the crowd nodded in agreement as they temporarily parted ways.
“Then we’ll head off first, Brother Yan, Brother Tao.”
“See you, Brother Yan.”
Liang Yan waved his hand. In the end, besides Li Guangtao and An Chutang’s group of three, three others remained behind with no intention of leaving.
These few likely hung around together frequently.
An Chutang followed the group into a small alleyway. The streetlights were dim and there was nobody around, with only the occasional sound of a child crying coming from the houses on either side of the road.
This unfamiliar environment and these unfamiliar people should have made An Chutang feel vigilant and cautious.
Perhaps because nobody knew him here, or perhaps because his lifeline target happened to match his aesthetic tastes so perfectly, he didn’t feel nervous at all right now; instead, he looked at the storefront signs on both sides of the street with a bit of novelty.
Fortunately, his grandfather had told him plenty of stories about this era. Although this was a parallel universe, he had just asked the system in his heart, and the timeline here was almost indistinguishable from the world he came from.
Supply and marketing cooperatives, state-run restaurants, state-run barbershops.
If he wasn’t remembering incorrectly, starting this year, the reform and opening-up policy should have begun; otherwise, having money here wouldn’t make it easy to spend.
An Chutang turned his head, realizing he was about to fall behind Liang Yan’s pace. There was no helping it; that man’s long legs were truly defying the heavens.
Rolling his eyes with a plan, refusing to let slip any opportunity, he quickened his pace to run up and once again precisely grabbed hold of the other man’s wide palm.
“Um, wait, you’re walking too fast, I can’t quite keep up.”
Liang Yan’s footsteps paused. This time, instead of immediately shaking his hand away, he stared at An Chutang with a half-smile.
It wasn’t until the familiar prompt tone of the system rang out in his mind that An Chutang sheepishly withdrew his hand. Acting as though he hadn’t noticed the other’s suspicious gaze, he put on an air of haughty grievance: “Why is it so far? And there isn’t even a car.”
“A car?” Li Guangtao strode up boisterously. “We were afraid of damaging the cars if a fight broke out today, so none of us rode them over.”
An Chutang’s lips twitched, offering a perfunctory, “Heh.”
Li Guangtao was thick-skinned and didn’t overthink things. Walking along, he asked, “Hey, I still haven’t asked what your name is. You don’t look very old, are you really an overseas Chinese compatriot? Did you come back to invest domestically? Can you call the shots?”
Just moments ago, he had watched this person latch onto his Brother Yan’s hand; no matter how he looked at it, it seemed like a little kid acting spoiled.
An Chutang had no chance to hold hands anymore, feeling somewhat deflated as he answered casually, “My name is An Chutang, twenty years old, and I am indeed planning to return, invest, and settle down.”
“That’s fantastic then. My name is Li Guangtao, two years older than you.”
Saying this, he pointed behind him to introduce the other three in turn: “This is Wang Qiang, Zhang Baoguo, and Li Jianshe. They’re the same age as me.”
The three nodded with honest smiles, and An Chutang returned a polite smile before looking over at Liang Yan.
Li Guangtao enthusiastically introduced him with plenty of social tact: “This is Brother Yan, Liang Yan! He’s older than all of us, twenty-six this year. My Brother Yan is an impressive figure.”
“Alright,” Liang Yan cut him off. The group made a turn and came to a stop beneath a three-story residential apartment building.
“An Chutang?” Liang Yan looked at him.
An Chutang met his gaze. In the dark night, the man’s deep eyes radiated danger and mystery.
Hearing the other person call his name for the first time, his heart skipped a beat completely off guard, trembling slightly.
“Hmm?”
“Are you certain you want to follow us inside?” Liang Yan’s lips curved slightly. “So defenseless, aren’t you afraid we’re tricking you over here to rob you?”
An Chutang froze. Having grown up in such a family, he naturally wouldn’t easily trust anyone around him.
But now, with the system’s personal verification, the person speaking to him was the sole target capable of renewing his life. Forget about being robbed, even under much graver circumstances, he would still have to come.
Before he could speak, Li Guangtao jumped in first. “What are you saying, Brother Yan? Don’t be scared, Xiao Tang. You won’t find better people than us in all of Beijing. Let’s go! This is Brother Yan’s work unit dormitory, and also our gathering spot. Let’s have a good chat about your investment business.”
This time, he had suffered heavy losses thanks to Fan Jianguo, and he never expected to encounter such a miraculous opportunity tonight.
Putting aside whether it was true or false, this person named An Chutang looked precisely like a young master from a capitalist family; he couldn’t afford to miss this.
Seeing that Liang Yan didn’t say much else, An Chutang silently followed the group upstairs.
Right now, his greater concern was how to latch onto Liang Yan later.
Relying merely on a few hand-holding instances would probably make it difficult to sustain his normal survival here.
Once the two of them parted ways, he wouldn’t even have a way to contact him, and walking this dark path, finding his way back here again would prove difficult.
The rooms here were all arranged in rows, with shared public areas in the outer corridors. Every few steps, cooking apparatuses were placed about, suggesting the interiors lacked independent kitchens.
The group stopped at the very last room on the second floor. As Liang Yan pulled out his key, unlocked the front door, and switched on the indoor lights, An Chutang curiously began looking around.
To his surprise, the room was exceptionally tidy.
Upon entering was a small living room, featuring a rather long mahogany sofa with a glass coffee table in front of it.
Further inside was a study desk and a row of bookshelves with old-fashioned glass cabinets.
He glanced nonchalantly toward the rooms on the other side; there were three doors.
“Does Mr. Liang live alone?”
The moment those words dropped, the room fell silent for a brief second.
“Yeah,” Liang Yan answered impassively.
“Ha!” Li Guangtao smacked his own head. “That Mr. Liang almost threw me off. Brother Liang paid extra to secure this two-bedroom apartment during the work unit housing allocation. How about that? Awesome, right? And when it was being renovated, he specifically arranged for a toilet to be built inside. Probably the only place in this entire building with a private toilet. Take a seat first, I’m going to grab the liquor. He’s got several bottles of good booze here.”
With that, he walked over toward the cabinet inside.
Liang Yan tossed his keys onto the table. “Everyone sit down first, I’m going inside for a moment.” Having said that, he walked straight into one of the bedrooms.
An Chutang seized this exact moment to quickly question the system.
“Seventy-Eight, hurry up and tell me, what is Liang Yan’s background?”
The crisp voice in his head turned gloomy once more. “I! AM! CALLED! SEVEN! EIGHT!”
“Alright, alright, Seventy-Eight, Seventy-Eight. If I don’t survive past tonight, I suppose you’ll take a hit too, right?”
The system’s voice turned mechanical. “Liang Yan, twenty-six years old. Grandfather Liang Donghai, former Deputy Minister of the Ministry of National Defense, now retired.”
An Chutang took a light breath. Goodness.
“His parents are high-end national scientific research talents who mysteriously went missing two years ago. Two versions of rumors circulate: one, they may have been murdered; two, they defected abroad.”
An Chutang frowned slightly. “And the reality?”
“Clever!” It seemed to have forgotten its previous displeasure, its voice turning crisp again. “The reality is that they were invited away by the state to secretly research nuclear weapons, though aside from the highest leadership, only Liang Donghai knows this.”
Hearing this, An Chutang felt a surge of deep respect. Situations like this, which he had only understood through books and television, always commanded his utmost reverence.
“He also has a younger sister, Liang Qing, twenty years old, who works at a cultural center. Liang Yan’s work unit is the Tax Bureau, and he was about to be promoted to section chief, but he resigned yesterday, planning to dive into business, and is currently at odds with Liang Donghai over it.”
An Chutang wanted to ask more, but Li Guangtao had already walked over carrying two bottles of liquor and a bag of peanuts. “Come, come, come, just so happens there’s even a bottle of foreign liquor left.”
Putting his thoughts away and turning toward Liang Yan, who was also walking back out, An Chutang’s eyes widened abruptly, and he unconsciously swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
He saw that Liang Yan had already stripped off the black jacket he’d been wearing, leaving his upper body clad in only a black tank top.
The man looked quite lean, yet upon shedding his outer jacket, those fluid muscle lines possessed such tension.
Framed by broad shoulders, his waist appeared narrow and powerful.
Dressed casually and unfazed by the cold, his lower body remained clad in those dark cargo pants.
Accustomed to well-dressed elite white-collar workers drenched in expensive perfume, this aura radiating pure wild hormones made An Chutang understand something.
It turned out his standards weren’t high before; he just hadn’t met someone capable of genuinely moving his heart.
He lowered his head and gave a soft cough. Right, he wasn’t being lustful; he was simply doing this to survive, and by hook or by crook, he had to claim this man as his own!
After all, he still had to rely on skin-to-skin contact, holding hands, kissing, and doing whatever else to renew his life.
(Life Countdown: 2 hours and 20 minutes)