“Your… classmate?” Mu Ran was just about to put this matter out of his mind when He Yuncheng’s words pulled him right back to that morning.
That news article.
That figure.
So, the female protagonist had actually already appeared, hadn’t she?
“Yeah, but we’re not very close,” He Yuncheng said vaguely.
“What are you two chatting about, standing so close?” He Jing’an shoved his cousin aside and sat down next to Mu Ran himself. “You’d better be careful. This younger brother of mine loves nothing more than to wreck beauties.”
“Knowing he’s a wrecking ball, you still dumped him on me,” Mu Ran followed his lead, putting on a professional fake smile. “You could just straight-up say you hate seeing me do well.”
He Jing’an raised an eyebrow. “Of course… I hate seeing you do well, which is why I dumped my brother on you. How painful would it be for me to watch if you were doing well?”
Joking around amongst friends set a relaxed atmosphere, and the meal was filled with joy.
Mu Ran’s mood also loosened up comfortably for the first time in a long while.
After finishing the meal, He Jing’an had to head back to the hospital, and He Yuncheng smoothly attached himself to Mu Ran’s side.
“I need to head back to the company, you should go home too.” Mu Ran draped a jacket over his arm and walked toward the garage at a leisurely pace.
He Yuncheng took a giant step to keep up with Mu Ran, acting spoiled. “Ran-ge, I’ll go with you to take a look, my brother already told me to follow your lead and learn.”
Mu Ran was in a rare good mood, so he didn’t plan on turning down this kid: “Then let’s go.”
Mu’s Corporation.
A strong sense of excitement was evident in He Yuncheng’s eyes as he looked around Mu Ran’s office, seeming to find novelty in every single thing.
Mu Ran poured him a cup of tea and leaned halfway against the desk. “Alright, I’ll organize the materials you’ll need for the meeting so you can take them back and look over them.”
“Why do I need to take them back to look at them?” He Yuncheng picked up his cup and took a sip, his gaze constantly shifting over Mu Ran’s body. “I don’t have a place to stay since I came back yet, can I live at your place?”
“No way!” Mu Ran pouted. “Don’t push your luck just because Jing’an foisted you onto me. I only want to be friends with you.”
“I know, I know.” He Yuncheng still wore a smiling expression. “I just want to see Ran-ge often.”
Being able to see a beauty every day was such a happy thing.
Mu Ran was long past the age of having a three-minute attention span, and figured this kid wouldn’t keep it up for very long either.
“Here you go.” Mu Ran finished organizing the materials and tossed them to He Yuncheng.
He Yuncheng set the documents and teacup aside, stood up, and approached Mu Ran. Before Mu Ran could react, he was already standing right in front of him. Planting both arms on the desk, He Yuncheng trapped Mu Ran between them, his gaze falling upon the bouquet of flowers on the desk as he started making conversation. “Ran-ge, do you really like flowers?”
As soon as these words were spoken, Mu Ran’s gaze also involuntarily shifted toward that bouquet of flowers.
Back then, he had once mentioned to Lu Chengfeng that he really liked flowers, and if he were surrounded by fresh flowers every day, he might actually be able to work properly.
He never expected Lu Chengfeng to take those words to heart, arranging for different flowers to be delivered every single day not even stopping while he was hospitalized.
Thinking of this, Mu Ran couldn’t help but smile.
“Yeah, I like it.”
The atmosphere in the office was harmonious, but right at the doorway, a figure stood rigidly, the hand that had already reached for the door slowly dropping to its side.
It wasn’t until nightfall that Mu Ran finally returned home with his documents.
In the afternoon, Lin Yi had sent over a document about a rival company trying to poach the plot of land he was currently negotiating for. If he didn’t rush to put together a proposal, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t lose this partnership.
Having not studied properly in the past, trying to independently hand in a satisfactory answer sheet now was genuinely somewhat difficult.
This gave him a bit of a headache.
Opening the front door, the inside was pitch black.
Everyone else had left, and he should have gotten used to living by himself now.
The house was dead silent, and Mu Ran leaned against the entryway to catch his breath before groping around to switch on the lights.
“Ah!”
Mu Ran hadn’t expected someone to be sitting inside the room, and he was so startled that a cry slipped out of him involuntarily.
Lu Chengfeng was sitting right in the middle of the sofa. The cuffs of his black shirt were rolled up slightly to reveal sturdy forearms with bulging veins, and his collar was also slightly unbuttoned. His chest rose and fell continuously, and his well-defined, perfectly sculpted abdominal muscles were faintly visible.
At this moment, Lu Chengfeng’s expression was gloomy, and a storm of extreme danger was brewing within his ink-black eyes.
“Why are you… at my house?” Mu Ran couldn’t help asking out loud.
“What? Not welcome?” Lu Chengfeng tapped his fingertips lightly against his arm, the gloomy aura enveloping his entire body making Mu Ran somewhat uncomfortable.
“I didn’t mean that.” Mu Ran shuffled slowly to the furthest corner of the sofa and sat down, placing his hands flat on his knees like a child who had done something wrong.
Lu Chengfeng leaned in close, blocking Mu Ran in the corner of the sofa as if he wanted to see right through him.
After a long while, he finally spoke: “Mu Ran, tell me, what kind of person do you actually like?”
Mu Ran’s face flushed slightly, his heart pounding uncontrollably.
It was still different; he didn’t feel this nervous when facing He Yuncheng.
Mu Ran pressed his lips together, pondered for a long time, and finally spoke: “I like someone sunny and cheerful, preferably with a good figure, who loves fitness, shares common topics with me, knows how to be romantic, knows how to coax people, and would also depend on me.”
He intentionally skewed most of his description in the opposite direction so Lu Chengfeng wouldn’t figure it out, right?
These traits basically had nothing to do with Lu Chengfeng at all.
Because Lu Chengfeng was a man of few words, and ever since growing up, apart from tutoring him, he never had “all-night heart-to-hearts” with him. Lu Chengfeng was even less of a romantic; it was always Mu Ran begging Lu Chengfeng to do things, and Lu Chengfeng would just do them mechanically. Knowing how to coax people and depending on him…
Fine, based on these few points, Lu Chengfeng probably wouldn’t be able to manage them even in his next life.
So please, a million times over, don’t let him get found out!
“Heh” Lu Chengfeng let out a skeptical laugh. “Depend on you? You’re always the one depending on me normally.”
With a very serious expression, Mu Ran met Lu Chengfeng’s gaze, mustered his courage, and said, “Lu Chengfeng, I know I’ve truly depended on you a lot since I was little. I loved to play and fool around, and I never really stepped up to be a proper older brother, but I think it’s not too late to be independent now. I can manage to protect others.”
Even if he couldn’t right now, as long as he was willing to change, there would come a day when he could.
Even if he didn’t have the chance to be with Lu Chengfeng in this lifetime, he still had his mom and dad, and other friends.
And it wasn’t like he was a hopeless piece of trash, right? Even though a lot of the time he intentionally wanted Lu Chengfeng to stay with him a little longer.
It was rare to see Mu Ran wear such a serious expression, every word straight from the bottom of his heart. Mu Ran possessed a unique charm when he was serious, like a fierce little beast striving for self-improvement, with nothing but light in his eyes.
However… was it because of that person?
Lu Chengfeng’s gaze darkened. He sat back in his original position, took a few deep breaths, and then said, “I know. Then, if there’s a suitable match, when are you planning to get married?”
“I’m not planning to get married.” Mu Ran’s mouth moved faster than his brain.
The fact that he liked men was something that could never be spoken aloud, and perhaps it wasn’t even that he liked men in general he only liked Lu Chengfeng.
Furthermore, he had no intention of ruining some other woman’s life either, so he was destined to be alone for the rest of his life. The idea of getting married was something he hadn’t considered ever since he discovered he liked Lu Chengfeng.
“Then you plan to just date forever?” Lu Chengfeng pressed on.
Mu Ran shook his head. “I don’t know. We’ll talk about it later, I haven’t thought it through yet.”
“Chairman An, whom I’ve cooperated with before, has a daughter who fits your criteria quite well. I’ll take you to meet her another day.” Lu Chengfeng pinched the bridge of his nose, and Mu Ran couldn’t read his expression.
“No need.” Mu Ran flatly refused. “I don’t want to meet her, there’s no need. Anyone you’ve seen, I’ve seen too, and I don’t like them.”
Lu Chengfeng put his hand down, seemingly deep in thought.
So, Mu Ran liked someone he had never seen before.
This feeling made him extremely uncomfortable. From the estrangement starting at the hospital to this person whose name and face were completely unknown to him even now, Mu Ran was stepping away from his life, step by step.
“Right, the police station called this afternoon. They want you to go down tomorrow to make a statement, you can leave the rest to me.” Lu Chengfeng didn’t bring up the previous topic again.
“Ah, okay,” Mu Ran responded. “I’ll go tomorrow.”
Early the next morning, Mu Ran went to the police station to make his statement. It wasn’t too troublesome; they mainly just asked him for details—car model, license plate number, color, time.
Well, aside from the approximate time, Mu Ran knew absolutely nothing else.
This couldn’t entirely be blamed on him. It was already very late, and Mu Ran didn’t quite dare to drive once night fell because it was easy for him to lose sight of the road. The oncoming headlights had also been modified, blindingly bright to the point where he couldn’t keep his eyes open, so Mu Ran had no choice but to brake as much as possible to slow down, hoping to wait for the vehicle to pass.
However, the glare was simply too intense. By the time Mu Ran could vaguely make out the car, he realized to his horror that it was driving the wrong way in his lane!
Back then, it was just a single-lane road anyway, and Mu Ran didn’t even have time to turn the steering wheel before he was knocked unconscious.
That intersection didn’t have any surveillance cameras either, and since Mu Ran had only just picked up that car not long ago, he was too lazy to install a dashcam. The front of the car was now battered nearly to the point of being a total write-off, and the police could only rely on pulling surveillance footage from other intersections to track the culprit down, which was extremely troublesome.
Mu Ran wasn’t in a rush either; his body didn’t have any major issues, and he had even “foreseen the future.” He could finally consider this a blessing in disguise.
After coming out, Mu Ran had Lin Yi bring over the wine he had pre-ordered, preparing to go visit his dad.
If he didn’t go soon, there was a real chance he’d be nagged to death.
Mu Ran unfolded the mirror to inspect his face, making sure the scar on his forehead was hidden before getting out of the car.
As soon as he stepped through the front door, however, he saw… Lu Chengfeng sitting on the sofa.
Save me!
In the past, he used to rack his brain trying to find ways to see Lu Chengfeng, always feeling like they didn’t get to meet often enough. Now, how come the more he wanted to stay away, the more frequently he kept running into him!
Clearly, Lu Chengfeng hadn’t expected Mu Ran to come home at this hour. His very first reaction upon seeing him was sheer astonishment, but he quickly recovered that cold, aloof demeanor of his. “Uncle Mu and my dad were in high spirits today and wanted to play a game of chess, so they’re in the study right now. Did you finish your statement?”
“Done. The hit-and-run driver is going to take time to track down,” Mu Ran said as he changed into his house slippers and familiarly opened the refrigerator to pop open a can of cola.
“Drink less cold stuff.” Lu Chengfeng didn’t even lift his eyelids, yet he still habitually corrected Mu Ran’s bad habits.
“Aigoo, I already told you I can take care of myself.” Mu Ran answered casually, turned around, and headed upstairs.
At the entrance of the study, Mu Ran was holding the wine and getting ready to knock when a conversation between two people drifted out from inside.
“I heard you’ve already picked out a marriage partner for Chengfeng?”
Mu Ran’s hand instantly froze mid-air.