“I’ll help your family.” Yi Yan said with the corners of his mouth curving up.
“What?”
Lin Ze turned his head back. “You’re willing to help our family?”
He was asking, earnestly confirming this answer from Yi Yan.
The Yi Corporation was a major enterprise. As long as Yi Yan lifted a finger and backed them with the Yi Corporation’s support, the Lin family would have hope.
He was nervous. The moment he asked this question, his heart rate spiked. He hoped that what Yi Yan had just said wasn’t teasing him and wasn’t a joke.
Yi Yan’s voice was even lower than usual. His amber eyes locked firmly onto Lin Ze’s face, observing quietly like a leopard eyeing its prey.
“Yeah, I do want to help your family.” Seeing the starlight gleaming in Lin Ze’s eyes, Yi Yan added, “But with that attitude you just had.”
Yi Yan suddenly drew out the end of his sentence, leaving Lin Ze feeling entirely anxious and uneasy.
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I was in the wrong just now. Brother Yan, Brother Yan, please help out.” Lin Ze grabbed Yi Yan’s hand as if grasping a straw to save his life, refusing to let go no matter what.
Watching this stubborn pride lower its arrogant head before him, a nameless sense of pleasure rose in Yi Yan’s heart.
“Alright, come with me.” Yi Yan curved his mouth in amusement and said to Lin Ze.
Lin Ze swallowed hard in excitement and obediently followed Yi Yan.
A contract lay placed on the tabletop, looking as though it had been prepared long in advance, resting quietly there.
With the manners of a gentleman, Yi Yan pulled out a chair, motioned for Lin Ze to sit down, and then sat right next to him.
Yi Yan picked up the contract on the table and placed it in front of Lin Ze.
“Take a look?”
Seeing Yi Yan staring straight at him, a creeping chill rose from the bottom of Lin Ze’s heart.
Those two words uttered so lightly only made a sense of unease surge even more into Lin Ze’s mind.
Lin Ze opened it up and began to read.
After a long while, he stiffened his body and used his hand to silently push the contract back.
“Is Little Zeze’s action here showing a rejection?” Yi Yan raised a single eyebrow playfully.
Lin Ze supported his head with both hands, his complexion looking miserable enough to devour someone.
“Little Zeze, you need to understand some things. Even if we are friends, friends must be mutually beneficial, right? I helped you and took what I wanted, which is entirely reasonable.
“Besides, it’s just having you act as my boyfriend before you pay off the debt. Once it’s paid off, the two of us will have a peaceful breakup, and you can do whatever you want without me interfering. Isn’t that great?”
Lin Ze frowned without speaking.
Yi Yan lured him in step by step.
“I know this kind of thing must feel very repulsive to you, but just think about it. You only sacrifice this little bit, and in return you can revive the Lin family. This is a win-win deal that only I am giving you. You need to seize the moment.”
Yi Yan pushed the contract back with profound meaning and picked up a pen, stuffing it into Lin Ze’s hand.
“Sign.”
A scorching and heavy word pressed down ruthlessly upon Lin Ze. After hesitating for three seconds, he decisively signed the contract.
Yes, this was a win-win deal. Lin Ze, what on earth are you still hesitating for? Only Yi Yan could help him now, and he couldn’t let go of this chance.
He flipped page after page and unwaveringly signed his own name.
Yi Yan narrowed his eyes.
That’s right. Little Zeze, just like that, sign it.
Seeing that Lin Ze had finished signing, Yi Yan finally hooked the corner of his mouth in satisfaction and gently planted a kiss on Lin Ze’s side profile.
“Zeze is such a good boy.”
Goosebumps instantly broke out all over Lin Ze. His scalp tingled as he sat stiffly in the chair. After Yi Yan walked away, he grabbed a tissue and rubbed heavily at the spot on his face where Yi Yan had touched him.
He still couldn’t accept it. He was a man.
Why was his first kiss stolen by a man, and his first love stolen by a man too?
Leisurely holding the contract, Yi Yan got into the car. He planted a kiss on the cover of the contract, an excited light gleaming in the depths of his eyes.
Since it wasn’t easy to get his hands on this, he would have to savor it properly.
A rooftop open-air high-end candlelight dinner featured dishes that were extravagantly expensive, surrounded by clusters of flowers that looked mesmerizing under the swaying candlelight.
Yi Yan had been sitting at the table waiting for him for a long time. Lin Ze was shocked by the scene right as he arrived, but he quickly lowered his eyelids and sneered inwardly.
What was this supposed to be from Yi Yan? Was he really treating him like a woman?
A trace of dissatisfaction stirred in his heart, but it was suppressed away in just a single second.
From the moment Lin Ze appeared until now, Yi Yan’s gaze had been locked tightly onto him.
That sharp gaze had already scrutinized Lin Ze all over, so how could that tiny micro-expression possibly escape Yi Yan’s eyes?
Yi Yan chuckled, ignoring Lin Ze’s minor emotional fluctuations. He walked over to his side and wrapped his arm around his waist.
This action undoubtedly made Lin Ze’s body tense up, not knowing what to do.
“Don’t do this.” Lin Ze’s resistance was extremely obvious and bone-deep.
This also made Yi Yan quite displeased.
Yet, being naturally insidious and cunning, he would never let his true feelings show directly on his face.
Nor did Lin Ze have any idea what Yi Yan was thinking at that moment.
Ignoring his words, Yi Yan kept one arm around his waist and walked over to the chairs to sit down, the two of them sitting closely together, almost touching.
Looking at the candlelight dinner filled with dishes he had never seen before, Lin Ze felt a complex internal turmoil.
He had no appetite, and he was even curious why he had no appetite. Clearly, he was never a picky eater ordinarily, and when his appetite was good, he could even down two or three bowls of rice in a single meal.
Yet now, facing the delicacies of land and sea spread out before him, he couldn’t muster up the slightest bit of interest.
Holding Lin Ze’s hand, Yi Yan looked at him with deep affection. “Little Zeze, let’s have a kiss before the candlelight dinner, shall we?”
Although his tone was consultative, his actions left Lin Ze with not a shred of right to refuse.
Just as he lowered his head and was about to touch Lin Ze’s lips, he was pushed away by Lin Ze.
He noticed Yi Yan’s complexion turning increasingly gloomy.
In a panic, Lin Ze explained, “Let’s, let’s just eat first.”
“Zeze.” The chilling voice pierced through his eardrums, breaking straight into his ear canals and pouring into his brain.
Even though Yi Yan was smiling, the hand holding him grew increasingly forceful. “It has been two weeks. How many more excuses are you going to use to reject me? We can’t even kiss? Is this a normal problem that should happen between a couple?”
“But I don’t like this,” Lin Ze said.
Yi Yan’s dangerous eyes narrowed. “You don’t like this and you don’t like that. What do you like, then?”
In his eyes, Lin Ze simply didn’t like him.
Yet so what even if you dislike him more?
Weren’t you still unable to escape from the palm of his hand right now?
However, Yi Yan did not voice those thoughts aloud; he didn’t want to provoke Lin Ze.
Nor did he want the surprise he had painstakingly prepared for tonight to be ruined by Lin Ze like this.
“I find it awkward,” Lin Ze answered very seriously.
Crossing his legs, Yi Yan let out a contemptuous laugh.
Awkward?
Hilarious, simply too hilarious.
“Zeze, I assume you’ve already read what’s in the contract, haven’t you? The things couples are supposed to do, you understand all those frames and rules without me having to say much, right?
“If you refuse to do this and refuse to do that, are you really trying to turn a couple’s dynamic into a bro dynamic?”
Yi Yan’s expression remained calm, even carrying a superior posture meant to crush Lin Ze.
Lin Ze deflated. This, indeed, was him breaking the rules.
At the time, he was truly like an ant on a piece of driftwood in the ocean, holding the mindset of grabbing onto any shred of opportunity he saw.
Yet he had managed to grasp the opportunity, only to find himself lacking the ability to handle what came next.
He fell silent for a long time, and then, as if burning the boats behind him, he blurted out, “Fine! I’ll cooperate with you, but can you allow me to make a condition?”
“Speak.” Yi Yan looked at him with growing interest.
Facing impending doom and still daring to make demands of his sugar daddy, this was a first for Yi Yan to encounter.