“I only have you now.”
Zong Xian swept a completely emotionless glance over Gui Wen, noncommittal.
[Target’s disgust value has dropped to 65%.]
The system chime sounded so unexpectedly that it caught Gui Wen off guard, nearly causing him to choke to death on the mouthful of water he had just swallowed. Just a moment ago, Zong Xian had witnessed him trying to get a classmate to set him up with a wealthy man, yet the very next second, this vain, nominal younger brother of his was confessing to him. Logically speaking, Zong Xian should find it utterly disgusting.
However, what Gui Wen failed to recall was that if not for an unexpected situation, Zong Xian would never have specifically gotten out of the car to pick up Yan Guanbai at the school gates. There were parking spaces right across from the school entrance; Zong Xian basically always had the driver park there, and Yan Guanbai naturally knew to cross the street and get into the car by himself.
Yan Guanbai had been at school the entire time, so it was impossible for him to anticipate that evening traffic would become so severe that cars couldn’t drive in at all. As Yan Guanbai stood there looking inexplicably confused, Zong Xian studied his profile. That previous rescue of a cat in the pouring rain didn’t look like an act, so could this time also be a genuine rejection of a meal ticket delivered right to his doorstep?
Yet Yan Guanbai’s flirting skills were still clumsy enough to annoy him.
Or perhaps it wasn’t entirely annoyance.
Zong Xian’s gaze lingered on the jacket that Yan Guanbai was still wearing, which was his own jacket. He began to wonder what on earth this nominal younger brother actually wanted to do.
Gui Wen didn’t notice his gaze, being too busy observing the scenery outside the window, and didn’t get out of the car until they reached the front of the villa.
Yan Guanbai had a dedicated art studio inside the villa, where the original owner usually practiced. Gui Wen had zero interest in painting, and coming here was purely to catch up on coursework, as the deadline for the collective exhibition was fast approaching.
Gui Wen completely cast the matter of his roommate to the back of his mind. Mulling it over, the person who was going to take a beating wasn’t him anyway, and having too much conscience would only bring unnecessary trouble.
Under the influence of the system buff, he organized his art supplies, mixed the paints, rolled out the canvas, and began creating. The studio door was left unclosed, and just as Gui Wen finished sketching the basic outlines, he sensed footsteps behind him. He instinctively paused his brush and turned around, discovering that the person who had walked in was Zong Xian.
“Brother Zong Xian, why are you here?”
Zong Xian didn’t directly answer his question. Instead, he fixed his gaze on the canvas Gui Wen was working on, while his peripheral vision easily caught another easel covered with a red cloth right beside it.
Gui Wen followed his line of sight. Although he possessed all the memories of the original host, they weren’t his own firsthand experiences after all, so it was inevitable that some details would be unclear. For instance, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t remember what kind of artwork was hidden behind that red cloth.
Unceremoniously, Zong Xian reached out and yanked the red cloth away, the motion loud enough to startle Gui Wen. “What are you doing?”
“What? Did you ask for my permission when you had a fever and wanted to undo my belt, or when you wore my jacket to school?” Zong Xian clearly had no interest in being polite with this obnoxious, nominal younger brother in front of him. With the red cloth removed, a half-finished portrait was revealed, and the facial features were unmistakably identical to Zong Xian’s.
Even though it wasn’t drawn by his own hand, Gui Wen still inexplicably felt the awkwardness of a love letter written to a classmate being read aloud on the spot. Panicking, he hurried to pick up the red cloth and cover it back up.
Zong Xian effortlessly blocked his movement. His gaze lingered on the portrait for only a few seconds, as he didn’t seem interested in the content of the painting at all, but rather found Yan Guanbai’s reaction much more worth studying.
Based on his understanding of Yan Guanbai, making such an obvious portrait was simply a clumsy trick meant to get him to notice and try to win his favor. Yet, at this very moment, Yan Guanbai’s face was flushed pink, and his desperate attempt to cover up the painting made Zong Xian lose focus for a brief second. Was he still playing innocent even now, and could even blushing be faked?
That familiar intuition surfaced once more, leading Zong Xian to believe, for no apparent reason, that this was no act.
There was also a very important reason why Gui Wen felt awkward, which was that the original owner’s piece was truly not well-drawn, though it luckily captured a certain likeness, making Gui Wen want to laugh in spite of himself. It seemed Yan Guanbai’s poor academic and artistic performance was painfully authentic.
“Stop looking. Do you like it? Should I paint a new one for you?” Gui Wen quickly shook off his previous state, stood up from his seat, and lightly brushed a finger stained with vermilion paint across Zong Xian’s neck.
To prevent himself from taking a slap from Zong Xian, Gui Wen specially activated the system’s pain-suppression buff. Yet the other person calmly found a seat right in front of him and said, “Come on.”
Gui Wen hadn’t expected him to just go along with it, but since matters had reached this point, he couldn’t back out now. He hurriedly laid out a fresh canvas. “Brother Zong Xian, don’t move around. Tell me if you get tired, and we can take a break.”
Zong Xian gave a faint nod, and Gui Wen began to paint.
With the blessing of the system buff, Gui Wen hardly needed to think, and his painting time was much shorter than an ordinary person’s. Zong Xian’s slightly left-tilted profile appeared on the paper as if printed there, and Gui Wen beckoned to him. “I’m done. Come take a look.”
Zong Xian stood before Gui Wen’s artwork, showing neither liking nor aversion. “You’ve improved a lot.”
Hearing a compliment suddenly spill from Zong Xian’s mouth, Gui Wen was momentarily stunned and didn’t know how to react. The next second, Zong Xian directly lifted the canvas off the easel and walked out of the studio.
Gui Wen looked at the empty easel. Logically speaking, if he didn’t want it, he could have just thrown it right there. Did Zong Xian want the ritual satisfaction of tossing it into the trash can himself?
Gui Wen casually handed Zong Xian’s jacket over to the housekeeper for washing, put on his own regular clothes, and got into the car.
Zong Xian glanced at him and told the driver to move.
“My painting,” Gui Wen intentionally leaned closer to the person beside him. “Did Brother Zong Xian keep it?”
Zong Xian remained noncommittal.
Refusing to give up, Gui Wen continued to press his hot face against a cold surface, arbitrarily placing his palm over the back of Zong Xian’s hand. “Brother Zong Xian, I painted that with a lot of care.”
Zong Xian pulled his hand back without a word.
The system didn’t give any numerical value change prompts either. Finding himself asking for boredom, Gui Wen simply turned to browsing his phone.
When there weren’t many people around, cars were allowed to drive into the school, and Gui Wen didn’t get out until they reached the front of the dormitory building.
Before stepping through the dorm door, Gui Wen deliberately peeked through the gap to see if the roommate who had set him up earlier was around.
Confirming that he wouldn’t run into that person for the time being, Gui Wen walked over to his bed. Before he could even warm his chair, his roommate appeared before him without any warning, holding a cup of iced honey lemon tea.
Bizarre. Where on earth was he hiding just now?
“Older Brother Guanbai,” the roommate said, beaming all over his face, which was a far cry from the guy who previously tried to throw punches at Gui Wen. “Let me tell you something.”
The iced honey lemon tea was pushed toward Gui Wen. As the saying goes, those who offer courtesies for no reason harbor a stolen heart, so no matter how thirsty Gui Wen was, he didn’t dare touch that iced drink. Noticing Gui Wen’s reaction, the roommate hurriedly explained in a flattering tone, “Young Master Jiang has already contacted me, so we don’t need to find someone else like we discussed before. You just need to go apologize to Young Master Jiang face-to-face, and this matter will be settled.”
Gui Wen’s movements froze, and he instinctively locked eyes with his roommate. The other person put on an act even more pitiful than a stray dog on the street. If the guy hadn’t looked like he would grab Gui Wen’s thighs and throw a tantrum if he refused, Gui Wen wouldn’t have intended to nod so easily.
The roommate immediately looked overwhelmingly grateful as he jammed a straw into the beverage cup for him, even holding it up and offering it to Gui Wen’s lips, explaining that a sincere bow and an apology would make it very simple. To top it all off, he asked if Gui Wen needed him to bring back a meal.
Gui Wen felt like he was sitting on pins and needles, hurriedly pushing away all of the roommate’s services in one breath.
Gui Wen sat in Zong Xian’s car, still biting down on a piece of toast smeared with jam. Pinching the crust of the bread, the more he pondered, the more wrong it felt. Judging from what his roommate said, this so-called Young Master Jiang didn’t have a very good temper, so could he really let it go just by receiving an apology?
Before he could puzzle out any answers, Zong Xian tossed a pack of tissues into his lap. “We’re here. Get out of the car.”
“Ah, oh.” Gui Wen finally snapped back to reality, lowering his head to look casually and discovering that some jam had dripped onto his pants. He hurriedly pulled out a tissue to wipe it clean before getting out of the car.
His roommate had sent him the meeting location via WeChat, right at a cafe inside the campus. The location was relatively remote, and usually required an upperclassman to lead the way to find it. The teaching building where Gui Wen had class was very close by, and since his roommate had specifically notified him that the person had already arrived, he hoisted his heavy textbooks and headed over right after class.
With about halfway left to go before reaching the cafe, Gui Wen’s path was abruptly blocked by someone.
“Yan Guanbai, right?” A trendy-looking stranger stood in front of him, smiling with malicious intent. “I’ve seen your photos.”
Clearly, this person was the Young Master Jiang his roommate had mentioned. Gui Wen instinctively took a step back and bowed to apologize. “Hello, Young Master Jiang. It was my fault for going back on my word, and I sincerely apologize to you.”
“No need to be scared.” Without asking, Young Master Jiang grabbed the palm of Gui Wen’s hand, his gaze shifting toward the direction of the cafe. “Let’s go grab a drink first.”
Gui Wen immediately tried to pull his hand back, but Young Master Jiang relied on his superior strength to grip it even tighter, even tugging at his arm in an attempt to drag him away by force.
“Wait.” Gui Wen had no choice but to resist the man with all his might.
“Wait for what?” Young Master Jiang’s gaze felt sharp enough to pierce right through him. “Did you really think I just came here to listen to your apology?”
Knowing this matter couldn’t be resolved peacefully, Gui Wen simply picked up the bag containing his textbooks and smashed it right at Young Master Jiang.
Probably not expecting Gui Wen to pull such a move, Young Master Jiang was stunned for a good while before anger gradually crept up his face. He pulled out his phone and sent out a message, most likely contacting his underlings for help.
Gui Wen turned around and bolted in the opposite direction, but suddenly a few people jumped out from both sides. They were dressed quite ordinarily, as if deliberately trying to blend into the background, yet their objective was crystal clear, which was to cut him off.
Why was this a whole gang? Did rich people really love abusing human labor this much?
Gui Wen had almost no time to think. Seeing an intersection, he immediately ducked into it, terrified that any one of his pursuers would intercept him the next second.
He had barely run a short distance when he crashed head-on into a figure without any warning.
Thinking the other person had still managed to cut ahead of him, Gui Wen took a deep breath and prepared to resort to the same trick by smashing his book bag at them, but the person pressed a palm firmly onto his shoulder.
“Yan Guanbai.”
Zong Xian’s voice rang right beside his ear.
Gui Wen found it hard to believe that Zong Xian had appeared here. Quickly snapping back to reality, he grabbed firmly onto the newcomer’s wrist, as if clutching his final straw of hope.
“Brother Zong Xian, help me. I only have you now.”