“What are you two doing?”
Yi Yan’s cold and slightly angry voice echoed through the room.
Damn it, he just stepped out to smoke a cigarette, and his seat had been taken by a vixen!
There was a trace of intimidation in Yi Yan’s voice.
Everyone around turned to look in the direction of Yi Yan’s gaze.
Lin Ze and the girl had been chatting happily, but were startled for a moment by Yi Yan’s roar.
Lin Ze put down the cup in his hand and stood up. “Yi Yan, you are back.”
“Who is she? Why is she sitting here?” Yi Yan cast a cold glance at the girl.
“My name is Hang Hang, the second daughter of the Hang family.”
The girl’s dainty voice made Yi Yan glare at her impatiently.
“Who asked you?”
Startled by this cold look, Hang Hang shrank her neck slightly, the smile on her face almost crumbling.
Although their Hang family was doing quite well in the business world, most of their cooperative resources still had to rely on the Yi family.
The Yi family was an influential and formidable family in City A.
The words Hang Hang heard most from her father were that they needed to heavily depend on the Yi family, and he urged her to get in touch with Yi Yan often on usual days.
Yet no matter how hard she tried, she could not get close to Yi Yan.
Surrounded by beauties, he had extremely sharp and demanding tastes.
Every time Hang Hang put in a huge amount of effort just to strike up a conversation with him, she would feel complacent, thinking she had left an impression on Yi Yan.
Who would have thought that the next day, he could forget her completely!
Tonight, she had seen the person Yi Yan brought along, this brother of his?
He dressed quite poorly, at least in her view. None of the clothes he wore were recognizable designer brands.
However, she had not expected that Yi Yan would actually get along so well with such a guy who had no status or background.
Since that was the case, she would reluctantly lower her pride to approach this poor kid.
Unaware of the girl’s complicated thoughts, Lin Ze still regarded her as the pure girl he had first seen.
Seeing such a cute girl treated with such a fierce demeanor by Yi Yan, he could not help but speak up for Hang Hang.
“Yi Yan, what is wrong with you? Do not be so fierce to a girl.”
In the circle of brothers who hung out with Lin Ze, none of them were so rude to girls.
To be fierce to a girl for no reason, watching this behavior made Lin Ze feel embarrassed for him.
Yi Yan looked unhappy and nudged his back teeth with his tongue.
Ha, a girl?
Seeing Lin Ze silently protecting the girl behind him, Yi Yan could not help but find it amusing in his heart.
“What? Worried I am going to eat her?”
Yi Yan’s expression changed drastically and quickly. His lighthearted words now left everyone unsure of what he was truly thinking inside.
Lin Ze paused, looking at him steadily.
“Haha, I was just joking with you guys earlier to liven up the atmosphere,” Yi Yan said with a smile.
The corners of Lin Ze’s mouth twitched slightly, unable to hold back his intense internal complaints. Actually, there was really no need for that.
“Hang Hang, go play over there for a bit. I need to catch up with my brother alone,” Yi Yan looked at her with a half-smile.
Hang Hang’s eyes lit up, and she cheered with excitement in her heart.
Did Yi Yan actually remember her name?!
Happily, she flashed the radiant smile she had practiced in front of the mirror for a long time before daring to use.
However, Yi Yan strode over and sat down in his own seat, completely missing Hang Hang’s flirtatious glances.
To outsiders, this action was like heavily slapping her across the face, making her feel humiliated.
She, the dignified eldest daughter of the Hang family, was always being toyed with so casually by Yi Yan!
Lin Ze did not notice the undercurrents swirling around them, but he felt as though a thin layer of ice had condensed in the air, making everyone’s expressions somewhat strange.
“Well then Lin Ze, bye-bye.” She managed to force a smile at Lin Ze.
“Yeah, bye.”
Lin Ze smiled back at her.
Just as he turned around, he found Yi Yan behind him gently swirling a glass of red wine, his brown eyes staring straight at him.
Lin Ze felt goosebumps on his back from being stared at.
He walked closer to Yi Yan and sat down on the sofa.
He poked a piece of watermelon, put it in his mouth, chewed, and after swallowing the juice, turned his head only to find Yi Yan was still staring at him.
Yi Yan’s obscure and unfathomable eyes seemed to reflect Lin Ze’s outline, the corners of his mouth curving into an imperceptible, faint smile.
“Like her?”
Hearing this, Lin Ze raised an eyebrow and asked Yi Yan, “What is wrong?”
He did not know why the atmosphere had turned so weird after Yi Yan went to the restroom and came back.
“Do you not like her?” Lin Ze did not answer directly, instead asking back with puzzlement.
“Tacky.”
Yi Yan shook his head, narrowing his eyes inscrutably, and muttered this evaluation.
Lin Ze was also stunned. It was the first time he had seen someone call a girl unappealing so bluntly.
“Your standards are just too high,” Lin Ze retorted dismissively.
Yi Yan watched him for a good while, then suddenly burst out laughing, bending over.
“Indeed, the pretty girls I have seen are definitely more than a naive guy like you who has not seen much of the world.”
Lin Ze: “Tch.”
“Hey, do you want big brother to introduce a few pretty ones for you to broaden your horizons later?”
“You had better have them,” Lin Ze replied indifferently.
“Tsk tsk. You used to hang out with Li Yu a lot. I thought you were like him and a gay guy too,” Yi Yan said leisurely with his hands placed behind his neck.
“I like girls, alright!” Lin Ze stood up defensively to argue his case.
He inexplicably felt that Yi Yan’s words carried a hint of contempt.
Thinking Yi Yan looked down on love between men, he began to defend his good friend.
“Besides, so what if Li Yu likes men? This is a progressive society, and people will understand. Although I like girls, I do not exclude other people pursuing the love in their hearts.”
Yi Yan felt like Lin Ze was that kind of friend whose tail got stepped on.
Even when the friend himself had not said anything, Lin Ze was the one jumping up to punch someone else in the face.
Yi Yan rubbed his nose and muttered, “I did not say anything about him either. Do not get so excited first.”
“However, their relationship does not seem to be going very well. Come to think of it, was it your friend Zhou Lu who bullied Li Yu? Otherwise, why would Li Yu, who used to be so full of joy with Zhou Lu in his eyes, suddenly break up with him?!”
Lin Ze crossed his arms, standing up for his good friend.
“What?!” Yi Yan raised an eyebrow, putting down the legs he had been leisurely crossed.
“No? How would I understand their relationship? Besides, I only met Zhou Lu at a family gathering, and our bond has not reached the point of calling each other brothers. To put it bluntly, Zhou Lu is not even worthy of being my brother!”
Lin Ze had to admit, that arrogant tone was something only Yi Yan could pull off in the entire private room.
Whenever Yi Yan talked about Zhou Lu, this self-righteous hypocrite, he filled with disdain!
Thinking they got along well before, he had even invited him out for drinks.
At the gathering, Yi Yan acted just like his usual self, but Zhou Lu publicly accused him of playing around too wildly.
Wasn’t this slapping him in the face right in front of everyone?
Anyway, after saying that, Yi Yan no longer smiled playfully at him, putting on a stony face and leaving on the spot.
Later, Yi Yan found out that after breaking up with Li Yu, he did not feel empty at all. In fact, he managed to get more action in a single day than he usually did!
He watched Lin Ze gulp down his drink, his two thin lips touching the rim of the glass as his tongue rolled in large gulps of liquid. His sexy Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he chugged the alcohol down his throat.
After a cup, he was slightly tipsy, but a faint flush had already appeared on his face.
Turning his head with a deep gaze, Yi Yan stared at him and softly called out, “Xiao Zeze.”
“Hmm?”
“Then tell me, would you ever like a man?”
Lin Ze froze, the hand holding the cup stopping as he looked at Yi Yan in astonishment. “Are you alright? Or is your memory in your head like a fish, lasting only a few short seconds? Did I not just tell you, I like girls.”
“I know, but people are not set in stone. Maybe one day the thoughts in your head will undergo a transformation?”
Lin Ze pursed his lips, looking at him with a dark expression.
He would not change his mind, and even if he did, it would not change that fast!
“Brother, if I had not spent a long time with you and known your character, based on your persistent and manipulative steering today, I would think you had a secret crush on me!” Lin Ze unconsciously began to tease Yi Yan.
At Night Monarch, Lin Ze had seen plenty of scenes where Yi Yan brought female companions over to support him, whispering in each other’s shoulders and the like, so he was 100 percent certain that Yi Yan was straight.
“Ha.” Yi Yan rested his hand on his forehead and chuckled softly. “I had no idea Xiao Zeze was so narcissistic.” A secret crush? No way, wanting to have you is the real truth.
Unable to peek into people’s inner thoughts, Lin Ze could only curl his lip and ask incomprehensibly, “What are you laughing at?”
Back at school, Lin Ze learned that there was going to be a pop quiz recently, but when he swiped his phone screen, there was not a single message in the class group chat.
He sighed helplessly. The class commissary must have forgotten to notify them again.
However, even for a pop quiz, he was not panicked. After all, what needed to be learned was already in his head, and now it was just a matter of spending some time flipping through the book to review.
Thinking that he had not spoken on the phone with his mother for a long time, he took out his phone and dialed her number while walking along the campus path.
“Hey, Mom. Have you eaten?”
“I have eaten too.”
“I am calling to tell you that my job is stable now, and I really do not need to spend family money anymore. You guys do not need to treat me like a child anymore, worrying about how I am getting by. I am doing very well.”
“Where is Dad? He is by your side, right? I want to chat with him for a couple of sentences too,” Lin Ze said with curved eyebrows.
His dad had previously said that if he did not want to do it anymore, he could just call home. The family would provide. The family was not short of that little bit of money, and he did not need to push himself so hard.
Lin Ze always felt that his dad’s words were underestimating him!
He had not asked the family for money in a long time. Food, clothing, and expenses were all small costs, and over these past months, he had managed to save a little pocket money through work.
Wasn’t this giving him a chance to show off a bit in front of his dad?
“Mom, why have you been silent for so long? Where is Dad? Let him come to the phone.”
Hearing silence on the other end of the line for a long time, Lin Ze was finally told, “Your dad is still resting in the hospital.”
“What?” Lin Ze shouted excitedly.
Afraid that her son would overthink things, Xiao Qingyao added, “It is nothing, Zeze. It is not a big problem. The doctor said he will rest in the hospital for a day or two and be fine.”