A strand of blinding sunlight streamed in through the gap in the curtains.
Having laid down for too long, Mu Ran felt his neck grow somewhat stiff, and after the effects of the local anesthetic wore off, his forehead hurt like hell. He raised a hand to touch his forehead and laboriously propped his upper body up.
His assistant handed over a cup of warm water at the very first moment and asked cautiously, “President Mu, you’re finally awake! You’ve been unconscious for two days.”
“What… happened to me?” Mu Ran took a deep breath, his throat so dry that he couldn’t actually squeeze out any more words.
“Didn’t you say you wanted to go set up the confession venue yourself? As soon as I got home, I received a call from the police saying you’d gotten into a car accident. It scared the life out of me!” Lin Yi vividly described the scene.
A confession…
He remembered it now. On the final night of his memory, he had already picked out a venue and planned to stay up late to set up a romantic scene so he could confess to Lu Chengfeng the next day.
Lu Chengfeng was his childhood friend. Their two families were family friends, and since they were also born on the exact same day, their mothers had become close confidantes, making it only natural for them to become inseparable companions.
Almost every day since college, after each took over their respective family industries, they had seen each other constantly. Lu Chengfeng took extremely good care of him as well he would remember Mu Ran’s preferences, take care of him when he was drunk, and even ensure that Mu Ran was brought in on any business collaborations where the Mu family could squeeze in a share.
Over time, Mu Ran suddenly realized one day that he seemed to have fallen for Lu Chengfeng.
Yet what grieved him the most was that Lu Chengfeng was a completely straight man.
He had once tried to get closer to Lu Chengfeng, but each time Lu Chengfeng acted as though he didn’t care at all, repeatedly making him feel that there was no hope.
Just when he had finally managed to gather the courage to confess to Lu Chengfeng this time around, a car accident still managed to happen on his way to set up the venue.
Moreover, ever since he had passed out, he began having a dream. In the dream, he was the ultimate villain of a book, while the male lead was a hardcore straight man. To win over the male lead, not only would he drug the female lead, but he would also kidnap her, and even use the male lead’s family to threaten them. In the end, because he exposed his own feelings, he died a bitter death.
He didn’t think it was merely a dream, because the scenes in the dream—including everything from his childhood to adulthood, down to the moments from their school days—matched reality down to the slightest detail, and he really did have an unrequited crush on the male lead.
His childhood friend, Lu Chengfeng.
The difference was that in the dream, he hadn’t gotten into a car accident; instead, he had confessed to Lu Chengfeng according to his original plan.
He couldn’t quite remember the expression on Lu Chengfeng’s face in the dream.
Perhaps it was disdain, perhaps it was contempt, or perhaps it was disgust.
From then on, Lu Chengfeng began to gradually distance himself from him, yet he still shamelessly clung on, ultimately pushing Lu Chengfeng further and further away. That was the beginning of his cannon fodder destiny.
Until the female lead appeared, upon which Lu Chengfeng acted as if he had gone mad, running through all sorts of melodramatic tropes drugging, imprisonment, accidental encounters, misunderstandings running through them all before realizing with bone-deep clarity just how deeply he loved the other person.
As for someone like him, his ending had been doomed from the very start. Such an absurd yet logical progression hit the mark just right, turning him into the sole sacrificial pawn in the story.
“Director Jia, yes, yes, we really do have an emergency situation on our end, could you please wait just a little longer?” Lin Yi’s voice on the call pulled Mu Ran’s thoughts back.
“What’s wrong?” Mu Ran vaguely sensed it sounded like a work-related matter.
“President Mu, logically speaking you should be resting properly, but…” The assistant hesitated nervously by the side, not knowing how to open his mouth.
Mu Ran raised his gaze: “What is it?”
The assistant handed him a file. “I haven’t had time to tell Chairman Mu about your car accident yet, but the project over in Nancheng is about to launch, and this still needs your final sign-off. I didn’t expect…” The assistant’s voice paused, “…Chairman Mu values this project a great deal. Should we tell Chairman Mu after all?”
There had been temporary overtime at the company that night, and he hadn’t walked out until the middle of the night. He shouldn’t have let President Mu go off on his own, otherwise he wouldn’t have run into a drunk driver.
Fortunately, though, only his forehead had taken a hit, and the doctor said proper rest would suffice it was just that if Chairman Mu found out, another scolding was inevitable.
“It’s fine.” Mu Ran was well aware of his own physical condition; aside from his forehead, there were no particularly uncomfortable areas. “Let’s not tell my dad about this just yet.”
“But your health…” Lin Yi remained somewhat worried.
Mu Ran coughed lightly twice, smiled at Lin Yi to signal that he was alright, and reached out to take the file, reading through it intently.
Time slipped away, and the door to the VIP ward was suddenly pushed open.
Mu Ran was too engrossed in reading; it wasn’t until the footsteps approached the bedside and blocked out the light that Mu Ran raised his head and locked eyes with the person standing beside the bed.
Lu Chengfeng seemed to have arrived in a rush, wearing only the suit jacket meant for meetings without even throwing on an overcoat. The chilly scent of early spring seemed to still linger around him.
For a moment, Mu Ran couldn’t quite react. Last night’s dream made him feel like a startled bird, and the moment he saw Lu Chengfeng, he felt a shred of fear.
“Did you ask him to come?” Mu Ran turned his head to look at the assistant.
Lin Yi didn’t understand why Mu Ran would ask such a question.
All along, whenever Mu Ran caused trouble or ran into any difficulties, he never dared tell Chairman Mu, always turning to Lu Chengfeng as his very first port of call, and Lu Chengfeng somehow always managed to find a way to clean up his messes.
Over time, he too had grown accustomed to looking for President Lu first no matter what happened.
How come this time, it was different?
Lu Chengfeng frowned unhappily, seemingly entirely perplexed by Mu Ran’s reaction: “What kind of remark is that? Which of your problems hasn’t been brought to my attention first?”
Mu Ran stared blankly at Lu Chengfeng, feeling a slight sense of unreality.
Lu Chengfeng was extremely handsome, with deep facial features carrying a hint of sharpness and dark eyes glinting with luster. At this moment, Lu Chengfeng rolled up his sleeves, revealing a section of his wrist as he poured him a glass of water. Following the smooth lines of his muscles downward was a pair of large, distinct-jointed hands with faint blue veins pulsing underneath, making one’s imagination run wild.
It was precisely this pair of hands, along with this face, that had driven Mu Ran to imagine their touch across countless agonizing nights.
Yet now, he knew with absolute clarity that this was wrong.
“Something came up last night, so I didn’t manage to get over here. How are you feeling right now?” Lu Chengfeng reached out, intending to check whether Mu Ran’s forehead was running a fever, only to have Mu Ran tilt his head and dodge out of the way.
“From now on, I won’t,” Mu Ran whispered.
“What did you say?” Lu Chengfeng pulled his hand back, sensing that something felt off about Mu Ran.
“It’s nothing.” Mu Ran gave a bitter smile, shifting himself a bit further away without a trace, before lifting his face to resume his usual casual and breezy facade. “Don’t you go wishing for me to kick the bucket so you can inherit my business empire, you hear? What kind of trouble could a grown man like me possibly have?”
Lu Chengfeng couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh, gently tucking the blanket around him before lowering his gaze to look at the watch on his wrist. He then spoke up, “It’s almost noon, I’ll go buy you something to eat. Aunt Tang is taking the day off today, and I’ll head over to your company this afternoon.”
He had always known that Mu Ran liked to play around, so whenever Mu Ran stubbornly stayed in bed and refused to go to the office, he would carve out time to drop by and handle some matters for him.
“No need, I’m truly fine. I’ll have Lin Yi bring things over so I can handle them right here,” Mu Ran flatly refused.
Clearly, Lu Chengfeng hadn’t expected Mu Ran to utter such words, causing him to suspect whether the guy had banged his brains loose.
This was no longer the kind of result one could get from crashing into a tree; just as Mu Ran usually ran his mouth, he might as well have crashed into a pig.
Completely ignoring whatever else Mu Ran said, Lu Chengfeng walked straight out of the ward.
Inside the consultation room:
The doctor placed one hand on his hip while scratching his head with the other, wishing he could burn a hole through the CT scan in front of him.
“Mr. Lu, Mr. Mu did indeed hit his head, and the diagnosis is a mild concussion along with some superficial scrapes. We truly didn’t find anything else. If you genuinely believe Mr. Mu has developed some sort of issue, you could go consult psychiatry or psychology.”
Though some individuals did exhibit abnormal behaviors when experiencing severe head trauma, Mr. Lu was making an excessive fuss over nothing, wasn’t he? What sort of abnormality could one possibly sense from just a few words?
Shortly after, doctors from two other departments also took seats inside the consultation room.
One of them repeatedly examined the scans for a long while before slowly speaking up, “While we can’t completely rule out the possibility of someone experiencing issues like memory loss, currently Mr. Mu doesn’t seem to exhibit these symptoms. Of course, it could also be an area we haven’t covered yet, but our recommendation is to observe for a period of time first.”
It wasn’t until after Lu Chengfeng left that Mu Ran pulled back his gaze and signed his name at the bottom of the document.
“From now on, no matter what happens to me, don’t look for him anymore. If it’s something truly unresolvable, like this situation today, call my mom instead—no matter what she says, she can’t beat me to death,” Mu Ran closed his eyes with a hint of exhaustion.
For all these years, he had grown far too close to Lu Chengfeng, close enough to make him feel somewhat dazed and foster illusions.
Back in school, Lu Chengfeng had always dragged him along to tutor him, and no matter how reluctant he was, he was ultimately shoved into a top-tier university.
Starting in their sophomore year when they began touching upon company affairs, Lu Chengfeng proved far more talented than him, and his father always urged him to learn more from Lu Chengfeng. Lu Chengfeng also seemed to take this very much to heart. Walking all the way through the years like this, Mu Ran only discovered that he had actually fallen for Lu Chengfeng long ago.
Did this kind of emotion only arise because they spent so much time together?
What if they simply parted ways?
Mu Ran admitted that he was a coward; he didn’t dare confess to Lu Chengfeng, nor did he want to lose Lu Chengfeng as a “friend.” Therefore, the absolute best method nowadays was to maintain a distance as much as possible.
Especially recently, rumors concerning the two of them had circulated within the company some time ago.
Mu Ran had wanted to pretend he didn’t hear them, but Lu Chengfeng didn’t seem to like such rumors at all.
Back then, he had been standing right outside the door and heard Lu Chengfeng say to his assistant: “I don’t like such rumors cropping up.”
Although Lu Chengfeng treated him as usual, this matter still drove itself like a sharp thorn fiercely into his heart.
Only now did he understand that Lu Chengfeng could never, not even by the tiniest fraction, like him.
Everything Lu Chengfeng had done for him until now was merely because their families were on good terms, maintaining this current state out of consideration for Uncle Lu’s face.
Lu Chengfeng’s feelings toward him were those of friendship and responsibility.
Now, he wanted to work hard because he would also have to shoulder the company in the future; he couldn’t rely on Lu Chengfeng for everything, and someday, they would inevitably go their separate ways.
Lin Yi genuinely couldn’t fathom what wire President Mu had crossed in his head, but he obediently nodded nonetheless, and typed a paragraph into the massive notes app on his phone screen: In the future, if President Lu gets into trouble, do not look for President Lu (truth to be verified).
“Was my phone smashed to pieces?” Seeing that it was nearing noon, there was no telling what business his father might have wanted him for last night. He shouldn’t let him worry further and needed to report that he was safe.
Lin Yi pulled a phone with a corner smashed off out of his bag and handed it to Mu Ran. “A chunk broke off, but the screen lights up, so it shouldn’t be broken. If you don’t want to use it anymore, I haven’t picked up a new one yet, but we can do a data transfer.”
“It’s fine, let me take a look first.” Mu Ran had always felt that Lin Yi handled things very thoroughly; it seemed he would have to give him a raise in the future.
The message interface was very clean, containing only two messages, both sent by his dad.
One had been sent around midnight: “Where have you gotten to?”
The other had been sent this morning: “You little brat, I thought you went off drinking again, daring to stand up your old man like that. If Chengfeng hadn’t called me this morning to say you two were working overtime, you’d better be waiting to get beaten, you rascal.”
Mu Ran couldn’t help laughing out loud. His mother had previously remarked that his personality was simply identical to his dad’s neither of them possessed the slightest hint of gravity in their speech even at their age.
After pondering for a moment, Mu Ran edited a message and sent it back: Sorry about that, Dad. I was stuck in a meeting so late last night that I just slept at the company. I’ll definitely head back once this project wraps up in a bit.
The other party replied almost instantly: Hmph, without two bottles of good wine, your old man won’t forgive you.
Mu Ran followed up with a reply: Alright, alright, every penny I earn will go toward buying you wine, how about that?
Just as Mu Ran put down his phone and prepared to roll over, another message popped up. Assuming it was a reply from his dad, Mu Ran clicked straight into it.
It was an entertainment news article.
The photo in the center featured two people, the taller male gentlemanly draping his coat over the other. The dim street lamps cast a glow upon the pair, creating a hazy sense of aesthetics, and Mu Ran felt that this outfit on the man looked somewhat familiar.
Scrolling down, a massive headline appeared before his eyes:
《Shocking! Workaholic Lu Corporation CEO Abruptly Reverses Norms to Publicly Appear with a Civilian, Is the Seat of the Lu Family Young Madam Settled?》
Only then did Mu Ran understand why it looked familiar.
The clothes Lu Chengfeng wore this morning were precisely this outfit from the picture.