Lian Wuchang was almost scared out of his wits by these two living ancestors, and the cigarette he had smoked outside was nowhere near enough to calm his nerves.
Feigning composure, he took the initiative to remind Chu Kai, “Mr. Chu, Chi-ge resolved a big trouble for you. Aren’t you going to show some appreciation?”
Chu Kai knew that Lian Wuchang was referring to the incident with Zhang Zijun, but his hands were tightly wringing the yellowing hem of his clothes, and his lips were pressed so firmly together that not a single sound could escape his teeth.
His restless gaze inadvertently caught sight of Lian Wuchang opening a rectangular file bag on the coffee table beside him.
The file bag seemed to contain a writ of judgment, kicking up the dust of lingering anxiety in his heart.
Exhaling a cloud of smoke, Dong Ruifan was determined to play the role of a plot-driving minor character, arching an eyebrow as he said, “Yo, Yan Chi, playing the good guy doing good deeds again?”
With that, he raised his hand to take a drag from his cigarette, the muscles in his thick arms bulging as he leveraged his elbow to bump Chu Kai. “Then you’d better thank my brother properly.”
Chu Kai’s legs were already weak from tension, and when bumped, he staggered noticeably.
Stabilizing his footing slightly, he lowered his head even further, buzzing like a mosquito, “Thank you.”
Lian Wuchang’s hand movements paused for a split second as he glanced at Yan Chi’s expression.
Yan Chi’s expression remained as cold as an ice cellar, giving away no instructions whatsoever.
On the contrary, the two people in his embrace wore complex expressions, as if they were stubbornly holding something up while being forced to maintain a soft, sweet smile.
After a few seconds of silence, the woman in Yan Chi’s arms stood up, plucked a cherry from the fruit tray with her teeth, and slumped back softly into Yan Chi’s arms. Holding the stem in her mouth, she tilted her head back to push the fruit upward. “Yan-ge, I want you to help me too, help me taste if it’s sweet.”
The woman’s coquettish and flattering voice seemed amplified by a microphone, ringing through the entire private room and hammering word by word against Chu Kai’s trembling eyelashes, as if trying to force out a certain emotion he was desperately trying to hold back.
The Beta’s perpetually bent waist and lowered head inexplicably ignited a fire in Yan Chi’s chest.
With a cold face, he turned his head, took the fruit into his mouth, and seamlessly turned the chill stuck in his throat into gentleness. “Sweet, but not as sweet as you.”
The man beside him refused to be outdone. Eager to vie for favor, he quickly grabbed a strawberry, his face plastered with a smile even more alluring than the woman’s as he deliberately dragged out his tone, “Yan-ge, I want you to feed me with your mouth too.”
“Alright.”
Yan Chi’s deep response made Chu Kai’s heart turn cold.
Dong Ruifan, standing behind him, felt stifled and muttered inwardly.
It was thanks to someone having a special fetish that he could temporarily track down these two soft and compliant Alphas.
With Omegas available, he deliberately had Alphas come over to act. He truly had no idea what game Yan Chi was playing.
He cast a sideways glance at the Beta in front of him.
This Beta protagonist didn’t seem willing to take the cue.
Thus, the supporting character stepped into action once more.
Bypassing Chu Kai and Lian Wuchang, he stubbed out his cigarette butt in the ashtray and said with a smile, “You two, didn’t you see there are guests here?”
With those words, the other two grew even more unbridled, throwing themselves at Yan Chi with all their might as they complained to him that Dong Ruifan was too fierce.
Chu Kai’s expression under the warm lighting remained unchanged. He quietly felt for his phone in the pocket of his sweatpants, checked the time, and then looked up at Lian Wuchang, pleading for an exit, “Mr. Lian, it’s getting late. If you are busy, let’s schedule another time.”
With that, he made to turn and leave.
A deep, magnetic voice suddenly slashed down from behind, “Did I tell you that you could leave?”
Chu Kai’s body stiffened abruptly. He slowly turned around, fixing a sharp gaze on Yan Chi, and spoke in a moderate yet resolute tone, “I did not leak any secrets, my contract has no issues, and I have already resigned.”
Hearing this, Yan Chi let out a scoff, using his index finger to hook the chin of the man who had been feeding him strawberries. His modulated tone carried a bone-chilling majesty: “You say there are no issues, so there are no issues? Then what are courts and lawyers for?”
His icy gaze reflected straight into the man’s pupils, startling him into an instinctive shudder as his body involuntarily listed inward.
From the doorway, the man appeared almost completely swallowed into Yan Chi’s chest, his slightly uptilted head overlapping with Yan Chi’s handsome face in an intensely ambiguous picture.
Lian Wuchang and Dong Ruifan’s pupils dilated uncontrollably.
Although Yan Chi’s scandalous rumors had filled the skies over the years, they had truly never seen a single genuine kissing photo in the media.
If the private room hadn’t been enclosed without any obvious sounds, the two of them really would have thought the two Alphas in the inner seat were kissing indiscriminately regardless of the occasion.
Lian Wuchang snapped back to his senses in time, quickly retracting his slightly startled expression as he handed the documents in his hand to Chu Kai.
Chu Kai appeared overly calm among the three of them. Seeing the scene before him, there wasn’t the slightest ripple in his eyes, maintaining an upright demeanor.
In truth, Lian Wuchang knew very little about that past romance between Yan Chi and Chu Kai, which could be called a taboo of the Yan family, even less than Dong Ruifan knew.
Because his name contained the characters Wuchang, he had been chosen by Yan Chi as a manager, cautiously serving this King of Hell.
Having taken over managing Yan Chi for two months, it was only when Yan Chi suddenly fell ill that he first learned of Chu Kai’s existence.
As time passed, Yan Chi rarely had flare-ups anymore. Occasionally symptoms would arise, but none as severe as before. Taking some medication and resting for a few days would set him right.
Consequently, he never heard Chu Kai’s name from Yan Chi’s lips again, nor did he hear the piano melodies drifting from the master bedroom of that villa on Xiuchi Road.
Lian Wuchang pointed his finger at the crucial contents within the documents to help Chu Kai read quickly.
While Chu Kai read the documents with both hands, Lian Wuchang swept a fleeting glance over him.
Disheveled hair, worn clothing, he clearly looked like an ordinary commoner, nothing like the evil ghost the Yan family spoke of with dread, instead inadvertently evoking a sense of pity and affection.
Initially, Chu Kai’s appearance was something he had intended to report to Yan Zuo, but Yan Zuo was away on business, leaving domestic affairs in the hands of Qiu Yuanming.
Thus, instead of making an extra call to bother Yan Zuo, he directly reported what the variety show director had said about Yan Chi hitting someone because of a person named Zhu Kai straight to Qiu Yuanming.
After all, Qiu Yuanming, who had been in a relationship with Yan Zuo for many years, enjoyed Yan Zuo’s deep favor and was practically Yan Chi’s undisputed brother-in-law.
With the brother-in-law giving orders, coupled with Yan Chi’s warnings upon returning from recording the show, he naturally chose to look after the company president’s brother-in-law and the Yan Chi who handed out generous bonuses from time to time.
“I did not do it! I never did any of this!”
Chu Kai’s suddenly raised voice startled Lian Wuchang out of his thoughts.
“I did not leak secrets, I did not infringe upon your company artist’s portrait rights, nor did I damage anyone’s reputation.” Chu Kai clutched the stack of papers until they wrinkled, staring wide-eyed in rebuttal because he could not tolerate the groundless accusations cast upon him in the documents. “And I certainly engaged in no stalker behavior.”
Yet his rebuttal hit a wall of cotton, with no one caring.
Lian Wuchang merely turned slightly, looked at Yan Chi who had already resumed his state of embracing beauties on both sides, and asked, “Chi-ge, should we hand this over to the lawyers?”
Before Yan Chi could reply, Dong Ruifan moved with lightning speed, snatching the documents from Chu Kai’s hands and zeroing in on the main point to read aloud indifferently: “One million five hundred thousand.”
Then he burst into loud laughter, “Yan Chi, your portrait rights and reputation rights are only worth this much?”
Chu Kai, who had not noticed the one million five hundred thousand texts at the very bottom, froze, hurriedly snatched the file back, and stared wide-eyed to read it through once more.
“Mr. Chu,” Lian Wuchang spoke slowly in an attempt to persuade him, “do not be too emotional. If you make a mistake, you must admit it. Chi-ge is not an unreasonable person. Coming to find you today is precisely to resolve this privately.”
Unhurriedly, he produced another contract, directly placing it over the documents in Chu Kai’s hands. “Chi-ge is short a personal assistant and has been fretting over not finding anyone. One year, if you work for a full year, the debt of one million five hundred thousand will be cleared. You can also choose not to sign this contract, and we will see each other in court then.”
Chu Kai’s trembling fingers slowly pulled away from the bottom of the contract. Countless indescribable, complex emotions intertwined in the depths of his eyes, churning up a vortex that masked his initial panic.
He raised his gaze to look at Yan Chi, the ocean in his eyes drowning both himself and the Alpha who remained unchanged through the years within his pupils.
Was a relationship of a little over a month worth remembering?
Why bother wasting a whole year?