Qin Yuan and Li Yan were eating skewers when he suddenly thought of someone else. Since he still had a bit of interest in the guy at the time, and even though he had just been ruthlessly dumped by someone else, Qin Yuan never cared about such things.
“Shall I call someone else over?”
Qin Yuan asked Li Yan before placing the call.
A few of his friends had just called him earlier, and now Qin Yuan was saying he wanted to call someone instead of a friend. Being the sharp person she was, Li Yan quickly guessed a thing or two.
“A guy or a girl?”
“To me, a pretty boy.”
Qin Yuan added a specific modifier.
“Sure, the more the merrier.”
“Anyway, our relationship is different from the others.”
Li Yan purposely shook her right hand, on which a ring was already gleaming.
Qin Yuan smiled and first dialed Fang Chen’s number.
“Go pick someone up for me.”
“Who?”
“One of your little lovers?”
“Not quite. Just a poor little guy who recently got his heart broken. Today is Valentine’s Day, and he must be all alone and miserable. Go pick him up.”
“Alright, consider it done. I’ll handle it right away.”
Fang Chen and Wang Xiao along with a few other friends were actually driving out of town when he suddenly received Qin Yuan’s call, causing him to take a sudden detour at an intersection.
Wang Xiao, who was driving ahead, noticed Fang Chen taking the wrong turn in the rearview mirror and immediately called him.
“You drank too much last night and still haven’t sobered up? Why are you driving all over the place?”
“Qin Yuan asked me to pick up one of his treasures.”
Fang Chen casually rephrased it according to his own understanding.
“He really knows how to boss people around, making you go pick him up? Sounds like a real treasure indeed.”
“Let’s head over first, take your time picking him up.”
Wang Xiao hung up the phone, easily recalling that Qin Yuan had brought a woman back to his house the previous night. He guessed that what Qin Yuan had mentioned earlier about going out to play with a lover must have been with that woman.
Now there was an extra treasure in the mix. Qin Yuan certainly knew how to enjoy the company of multiple beauties far better than any of them.
Wang Xiao sighed inwardly. Given Qin Yuan’s face, out of all the people who hung out around him, there were practically none who looked better than him. It didn’t look like he was toying with other people at all; rather, it looked like other people were toying with him. The key was that he still handed over money and affection, even if it was all fake.
Anyway, being his lover meant nobody ever suffered any losses.
Their cars sped toward the hot springs resort area.
Meanwhile, Fang Chen received an address and drove straight there. When he arrived, a clean-cut young man was already standing by the roadside, looking very innocent and quite likable.
Yet in Fang Chen’s memory, Qin Yuan didn’t seem to have been into this type of person in the past.
Had he changed his tastes a bit lately?
Thinking of the alluring woman from the previous night, she was probably just a temporary change. At his core, Qin Yuan still preferred people with a sharp edge.
The sports car pulled up by the roadside. The young man had just received a call from Qin Yuan, who gave him a license plate number and told him to wait outside.
Seeing a white sports car pull up, the face inside was unfamiliar to the young man, but the license plate matched instantly. Qin Yuan had said on the phone that his friend would come pick him up.
When the young man raised his eyes to look at the friend sitting in the car, he noticed there were indeed some similarities to Qin Yuan, his brows and eyes were bold and unrestrained, as if he would never be weighed down by worries.
Birds of a feather truly flock together.
The car door opened, and the young man got in.
“What should I call you?”
Before driving off, Fang Chen asked amicably.
The young man looked a bit constrained, not entirely at ease.
“Ou Ming.”
“Ou Ming?”
“I’m Fang Chen, Qin Yuan’s childhood friend.”
“He went off to play at the hot springs and only called me at the last minute to come pick you up.”
“By the time we get over there, it’ll probably be pitch black.”
“Have you eaten yet?”
“Just ate.”
In truth, the young man had only eaten a random bite of something.
Having had his heart broken recently, his appetite wasn’t great, and he didn’t feel like eating at all.
Sometimes he just wanted to lie in bed and not move an inch.
If Qin Yuan hadn’t called him today, he would have spent Valentine’s Day in bed staring at his phone.
“You can eat a bit more later. The barbecue over there is said to be quite good.”
“Mhm.”
Ou Ming nodded, looking as though he didn’t really feel like talking.
Fang Chen glanced sideways to appraise him for a moment.
The sports car’s engine roared to life, and the vehicle sped rapidly toward the hot spring resort.
At a roadside barbecue stall, Qin Yuan and Li Yan had ordered a spread of skewers and were eating away. They had just randomly picked a place by the street.
It wasn’t a luxurious establishment by any means and looked quite ordinary, but the food tasted exceptionally good, especially the grilled pork intestines and grilled garlic. Qin Yuan hadn’t cared much for this kind of street food before, but this shop’s culinary skills were so stellar that Qin Yuan ended up eating quite a lot, even ordering extra rounds midway through.
While they were eating barbecue, not too far away on the upper floor of an adjacent commercial building, Xie Fengbei and his group were eating hotpot.
Choosing a window seat, Xie Fengbei could look down and clearly see Qin Yuan and his lover sitting outside at the street corner.
At that moment, the woman picked up a skewer of barbecue and fed it to Qin Yuan, who lowered his head and took a bite of the meat.
Even across a distance, Xie Fengbei felt as though he could see the deep, beaming smile dancing in the corners of Qin Yuan’s eyes and brows with absolute clarity.
The two had just met yesterday, and by today they were already this intimate.
It seemed that as far as Qin Yuan was concerned, he harbored zero resistance toward the advances of others. Anyone would do, and anyone was fine.
To put it another way, he was exceptionally casual.
The woman was undeniably pretty, but that kind of prettiness fell a bit short when placed next to Qin Yuan.
A man who looked more dazzling than a woman made it hard to tell who was playing whom.
At least from Xie Fengbei’s perspective, it gave off the strange sensation that Qin Yuan was essentially letting himself be taken advantage of for free.
The kicker was that Qin Yuan was even paying money for the privilege of letting others take advantage of him.
Xie Fengbei seemed to have been staring a bit too absorbedly until Yang Yan called his name twice, causing him to snap out of it and turn his head back.
“What are you looking at so intently?”
Yang Yan craned his neck to look outside. He hadn’t paid much attention to Qin Yuan’s group over there; it was a street corner with heavy pedestrian traffic, and a large crowd happened to be walking past.
Once the crowd dispersed, Yang Yan’s attention drifted away as well.
Xie Fengbei offered no explanation. The hotpot was served, and everyone began scalding beef slices to eat.
Someone in the group had been to this restaurant before and knew the food was good, so coming back meant choosing a familiar place for a proper meal.
At other restaurants, some places looked fancy, but the food genuinely tasted mediocre.
While they were eating hotpot here, Qin Yuan and Li Yan were practically finished with their barbecue.
Qin Yuan walked over to pay the bill as the sky gradually grew dark.
After walking around a bit to digest their food, they could go soak in the hot springs.
Neither of them had brought clothes, so after finishing the barbecue, they headed to a local shop.
The shops around here were mostly ordinary stores with nothing particularly high-end.
Since this trip was a spontaneous whim, they just bought clothes casually.
Inside the shop, Li Yan insisted on paying.
Qin Yuan didn’t bother arguing with her; knowing she owned a jewelry store, he could tell from her attire and style that she wasn’t exactly short on cash.
Even if he handed her that million, Li Yan wouldn’t necessarily spend it.
Some people loved money, but loved the money they earned themselves even more.
In Qin Yuan’s view, Li Yan seemed to be that exact type.
Yet even if Li Yan truly loved money, he could afford to give her however much she wanted, as long as they had a good time playing together.
Li Yan picked out her own swimsuit and then selected one for Qin Yuan as well.
Although she hadn’t directly seen Qin Yuan naked, Li Yan had an exceptionally sharp eye and instantly gauged Qin Yuan’s general measurements.
She picked out a pair of blue swim trunks for him.
The color coincidentally matched Qin Yuan’s sports car rather well.
Qin Yuan stared at the swim trunks in Li Yan’s hand. He wasn’t usually fond of this color for swimwear, but since Li Yan bought it, he would definitely wear it.
After buying their swimsuits, the two headed back to their hotel room.
Inside the room, the glass windows were transparent, though they were one-way mirrors so outsiders couldn’t see in.
Li Yan suddenly pressed Qin Yuan against the glass and kissed him.
Qin Yuan had been doting on Li Yan the entire time, until she started unbuttoning his shirt, at which point he caught her hands and pinned them down.
Li Yan raised her alluring eyes. “If you reject me like this, I’ll start thinking I have zero appeal.”
“Then that’s my fault.” Qin Yuan laughed.
The next moment, he scooped Li Yan up in his arms and laid her down on the bed.
“If anyone’s taking the initiative, it’s going to be me.”
With that, Qin Yuan lowered his head and kissed Li Yan.
While the room inside was bright with spring-like warmth, pitch darkness had already settled outside.
Several cars pulled up, and Qin Yuan’s phone started ringing, but he didn’t answer it.
Wang Xiao called several times, and nobody picked up.
Realizing what must be happening, he let out a chuckle, knowing which hotel Qin Yuan was staying at, so he parked the cars there first.
The hotel still had vacant rooms since the rates weren’t cheap, costing several thousand per night, meaning fewer people booked them.
They made temporary reservations upon arrival, and after getting their rooms settled, Wang Xiao tried contacting Qin Yuan again, but still received no answer.
Nobody was genuinely worried that something bad had happened to him. Come to think of it, Qin Yuan actually knew a thing or two about fighting, having learned some basic sanshou techniques back in the day.
Even if all of his friends teamed up against him at once, they wouldn’t be able to beat him.
“He’s probably playing lovey-dovey with his lover, so we shouldn’t disturb him.”
“Let’s go grab dinner first.”
None of them had eaten yet.
They searched for a restaurant.
And as luck would have it, in the middle of this search, they ran into Xie Fengbei and his group.
The two groups usually didn’t have much intersection, or at least Wang Xiao didn’t have any dealings with them.
However, a certain friend of the other group had recently started getting involved in some business dealings with someone on Wang Xiao’s side.
Neither group was large, just enough to fill a single table. Since the table over there looked decent, Wang Xiao didn’t say much else and walked over so everyone could eat together.
“Order a few more dishes.”
Yang Yan raised a hand to flag down the waiter, ordering a few meat dishes first before telling Wang Xiao and his friends to add whatever else they liked.
“That’s enough for now, let’s eat first and see.”
Wang Xiao waved his hand at the waiter.
The waiter took the menu and left.
“You guys came here looking for Qin Yuan?”
“Yeah, he’s not answering his phone.”
“Of course he’s not answering.”
Wang Xiao somehow caught a different nuance in that statement.
“You guys didn’t happen to see him, did you?”
“This place is so small, running into people is easy.”
“Speaking of which, a certain scene happened just a moment ago. I think you might want to see it too.”
With that, Yang Yan took out his phone and handed it to Wang Xiao.
Wang Xiao tilted his head to look at it, and his jaw practically dropped on the spot.
“This?”
Qin Yuan was actually being held in a woman’s arms.
They had seen that woman last night, so Qin Yuan was definitely with her.
Still, a woman actually picking Qin Yuan up and carrying him was something else.
“Her strength seems pretty impressive.”
“Yeah, she even carried him for a stretch of the road.”
“You guys all saw it?”
Wang Xiao’s gaze shifted, landing on Xie Fengbei’s silent face for a few moments.
Xie Fengbei happened to lift his eyes, and Wang Xiao immediately mustered up a polite smile.
“Not only did we see it, we even took pictures.”
Yang Yan chuckled. “I really couldn’t tell in the past.”
“He’s just like that. Sometimes we friends often receive some surprises.”
Wang Xiao put extra emphasis on the word surprises.
“Like that time recently when Qin Yuan randomly gave someone tens of millions. That counts as a kind of surprise too.”
Yang Yan brought up the boxing club incident again.
“Standard behavior. Whenever he’s in a good mood, he just casually gifts houses or companies to his lovers. Tens of millions isn’t even that big of a number to him.”
“He sure is generous.” Xie Fengbei chimed in unexpectedly.
Wang Xiao immediately looked over at him.
“Yeah, having a friend like him means we folks have reaped plenty of perks too.”
“Hearing you say that gives the rest of us some ideas.” Yang Yan said with a cunning, smiling-tiger expression.
“Don’t you guys already have a god of wealth?”
“Why would you need to target Qin Yuan?”
Wang Xiao propped his chin in his hand, purposely glancing toward a certain person across the table.
As soon as he said that, the entire table fell slightly silent.
They hung out with Xie Fengbei and interacted frequently, but Xie Fengbei’s personal code of conduct was extremely strict. Even as friends, sometimes interacting with him gave people a suffocating sense of pressure.
By comparison, someone like Qin Yuan, who always wore a spring breeze smile, was naturally much more inviting.
Of course, they wouldn’t actually put that into practice. After all, following Xie Fengbei, everyone got more than enough benefits. Very few people would actually have the guts to turn around and cozy up to someone else’s side.
The newly ordered dishes were brought to the table.
“The beef at this place is exceptionally good.”
Yang Yan was more outgoing and introduced the dish to everyone.
Wang Xiao nodded, then picked up some beef to scald in the pot for a moment before eating it. If it stayed in too long, it would get tough.
The topic of Qin Yuan dropped just like that. As everyone ate their hotpot, Xie Fengbei was eating too, but his mood was inexplicably strange. Based on Wang Xiao’s description, he could easily imagine what Qin Yuan was up to at that moment, most likely entangled with that woman, which was a totally ordinary occurrence.
Yet every time Xie Fengbei recalled the image of that woman picking Qin Yuan up, he unexpectedly found himself wondering what Qin Yuan would look like in someone else’s arms.
Xie Fengbei promptly checked that train of thought. He shouldn’t be caring this much about Qin Yuan.