Inside the office, a human and a kitten were snuggled together, sleeping soundly. Zuo Yan tried his best to soften his movements, working right amid that warm and quiet atmosphere.
Time ticked by second by second, and seeing that the off-work hour was fast approaching, Zuo Yan stood up, intending to wake Mo Yunyu, when the office door was knocked on.
Zuo Yan glanced at those slightly flushed cheeks in deep slumber, his footsteps pausing for a split second. Deciding to let the other sleep a little longer, he went to open the door first.
The moment he pulled it open, Zuo Yan signaled for the person outside to lower her voice.
The tall and thoroughly work-weary senior assistant caught on instantly and lowered her volume. “A visitor from the subsidiary has arrived, saying they wish to see Mr. Mo.”
“Anyone without a prior appointment will not be seen.” Zuo Yan had always detested such sudden, unannounced visits.
“But the visitor is Zhou Xingyu.” The assistant swallowed the gossip bubbling up inside her, though her professional instincts already compelled her to analyze the three-way dynamic.
One was her supreme boss, one was a contestant who had withdrawn from the show and supposedly shared an ambiguous relationship with the boss, and the other was a wildly popular member of a newly debuted boy group.
Connecting it all to the rumors flying across the internet, one could only imagine a tense, thrilling love triangle.
Hearing that the visitor was him, Zuo Yan mulled it over for a brief moment and decided to meet this sudden visitor in Mo Yunyu’s stead.
“Then bring him to the reception room first.”
Before heading out, Zuo Yan inspected himself carefully in the full-length mirror.
His hairstyle was immaculate, and his clothes were ironed to crisp perfection.
Finally, he smoothed down his cuffs, strapped the wristwatch sitting on his desk onto his wrist, and satisfied that every single detail was proper, he set off to meet his rival.
Inside the reception room, Zhou Xingyu wasn’t sitting down. Instead, he stared nervously at the door before him, secretly praying that the person stepping through it would be the one dwelling in his heart.
Gradually, footsteps drew near, and Zhou Xingyu uncontrollably took a few steps forward to greet them before coming to a sudden halt.
He could tell that the owner of these footsteps wasn’t the person he was longing for.
After a polite double-knock, the door swung open. The two men locked eyes, and an undercurrent of tension rippled through the air.
“The person I want to see is him, not you.” Zhou Xingyu took the initiative.
Zuo Yan pulled the door shut behind him with his backhand, his tone flat. “He is too tired and fell asleep. Besides, seeing me is no different from seeing him.”
Zhou Xingyu caught the blatant, sparkling boast woven into every single word of the other’s. Suppressing his anger, he retorted, “Then I will wait until he wakes up.”
Watching this rising big star refuse to leave and stubbornly camping out in his reception room, Zuo Yan let out a cold laugh. “Then I would advise you not to humiliate yourself.”
“Do you really think that usurping his boyfriend’s seat means you’ve secured everything with absolute safety?” Zhou Xingyu finally lost his composure. “Don’t forget all the things you did behind his back!”
“What have I done?” Zuo Yan looked at Zhou Xingyu with leisurely amusement, fully expecting him to spit out some tangible evidence.
Seeing that Zhou Xingyu remained silent, Zuo Yan pressed on: “You must know that if your mother hadn’t saved my life back then, you wouldn’t have the status you enjoy today, let alone any opportunity to meet him. Who gave you the gall to run up to me and throw a tantrum?”
Zhou Xingyu fell mute; he could not refute it. Aside from his own talent and hard work, everything he had achieved up to this day was largely due to the other’s patronage.
After a long silence, he finally spoke: “I believe your life was worth far more than the help you gave me.”
Just as the atmosphere between them grew increasingly hostile, the door was gently pushed open.
Both men whipped their heads around in unison to see Mo Yunyu and the kitten in his arms poking their heads inside with matching looks of curious wonder.
Unprepared for being discovered so quickly, Mo Yunyu instinctively took a step back before marching forward with a guilty cover-up. Rubbing his nose awkwardly, he offered a stiff greeting.
“You are both here, haha.”
“Why did you wake up? It is so cold outside, you should have put on a jacket before coming out.” Zuo Yan strode over immediately.
“The AC is running, do you want me to get heatstroke in autumn?” Mo Yunyu unhappily hoisted Mo Mimi up right in front of Zuo Yan’s face. “Your good eldest son was tap-dancing on my chest and stepped me awake.”
Yielding gracefully, Zuo Yan scooped the cat into his arms. “Then I will punish it for you.”
At this point reduced entirely to a background prop, Zhou Xingyu looked at the pair before him with a heart full of agonizing bitterness.
That intimate posture, that effortless familiarity in their tone, everything, absolutely everything, was something he had once begged for in vain.
Once he finished disciplining Mo Mimi, Mo Yunyu shifted his gaze toward Zhou Xingyu, speaking with the exact same haughtiness he had had during the talent show: “Big star, it has truly been a long time.”
With just that single sentence, Zhou Xingyu’s mood soared straight to the clouds.
He didn’t need intimacy; his young master merely needed to lift his chin and toss him a single sentence from on high, and he would willingly surrender his entire soul and sincerity.
“It has been a long time.” Zhou Xingyu heard himself reply.
Fearing that the jealous person beside him might spontaneously combust on the spot, Mo Yunyu stood right there and exchanged a few casual words with Zhou Xingyu about their recent updates.
With a gaze bordering on greed, Zhou Xingyu traced the contours of Mo Yunyu’s face, his heart churning violently until he blurted out the words he longed to say the most.
“I know you were there at the finale, but I still wanted to tell you in person.”
Before he could finish, Zuo Yan cut him off: “Yunyu, Mimi seems hungry.”
Mo Yunyu’s attention was successfully hijacked.
Clenching his fists tightly, Zhou Xingyu wished he could land a punch straight across Zuo Yan’s sanctimonious face.
Clutching Mo Mimi back into his arms, Mo Yunyu remained completely oblivious to the undercurrents of hostility between the two, turning around to hurry outside.
Just as he reached the threshold, however, he looked back over his shoulder. A pair of gorgeous eyes locked onto Zhou Xingyu, the corners of his lips curling upward.
“The stage at the finale was gorgeous. From now on, work hard and carry my share along with you all the way forward.”
“Until next time.”
Did he really know what he was saying?
Zhou Xingyu offered a bitter smile as he watched Mo Yunyu’s departing back, his voice whispering so softly it was practically inaudible: “Until next time.”
Watching Mo Yunyu leave, Zuo Yan felt a massive wave of relief, thoroughly convinced that the other man had been permanently sidelined. On the surface, however, he merely offered a light laugh. “Then I will not see you out. Excuse me.”
With that, he hurried off to catch up to Mo Yunyu’s footsteps.
Zhou Xingyu remained standing in silence. He didn’t leave immediately, instead walking over to the floor-to-ceiling window to gaze down from the heights.
The towering altitude induced a physiological dizziness, yet this was the very height countless people spent their entire lives struggling to reach.
He knew he ought to exit Mo Yunyu’s life stage right here and now, from this point onward, let Mo Yunyu remain the delicately pampered young master while he walked the glittering path of stardom.
Yet he refused to resign himself to it.
To back out now, he truly, utterly refused.
Stepping out of the Zuo Corporation building, Zhou Xingyu pulled out his phone and dialed a familiar number.
“It is me. I am willing to cooperate with you.”
Time flew by, plunging into winter in the blink of an eye. Yunyu had already spent roughly half a year in this world.
From midsummer to the dead of winter, the passage of time was fast enough to leave him feeling dazed.
Gazing at the drifting snowflakes outside the window, Yunyu poked 609, which was currently hibernating in standby mode.
We are running out of time, let’s speed up the progress a bit.
Though it didn’t quite understand why its host wanted to do this, 609 followed Yunyu’s instructions anyway and leaked a critical trail of clues.
The following day, a man carrying a file folder appeared inside Mo Yunniao’s office.
“What is this?” Mo Yunniao didn’t hastily open the folder resting before her, opting instead to cast a probing gaze at the dazzlingly handsome man seated across from her.
Seated right opposite Mo Yunniao was none other than Shi Jingchi.
“Some things about Mo Yunyu that you absolutely need to know.”
Mo Yunniao reached out and pushed the folder away. “I do not interfere in my younger brother’s personal life, so there is no need for me to know.”
Shi Jingchi’s eyes burned with desperate tenacity. “I am sure you wouldn’t want him to be played for a fool by Zuo Yan. The evidence is right inside here.”
Hearing those words, though still half-skeptical, Mo Yunniao opened the file folder.
Inside lay a dozen sheets of paper, detailing in clear, black-and-white text every single thing Zuo Yan had done.
The more she read, the fiercer the fury burning in Mo Yunniao’s chest grew.
Yet she quickly reined herself in. As a qualified corporate leader, the cardinal sin was listening to only one side of a story.
“Thank you for telling me this, but I need to investigate and verify it first.” Mo Yunniao pulled a check from a side drawer, stamped her official seal on it, and handed it to Shi Jingchi. “You can fill in any amount you like.”
Having never expected Mo Yunniao’s temperament to contrast so drastically with Mo Yunyu’s, Shi Jingchi stared blankly at the check for a long while before snapping back to reality. “No need. Just treat it as me wanting to do a good deed.”
Shi Jingchi came in a rush and left in a hurry.
Watching him depart, Mo Yunniao immediately dialed her subordinates. “Go investigate.”
Under Mo Yunniao’s iron-fisted pressure, it took a mere half a day to dig up the entire truth from start to finish.
Browsing through the summary document with an expressionless face, Mo Yunniao stood up, halted all her pending work, mobilized every single bodyguard under her command, and roared down the road straight toward Zuo Yan’s residence.
Today, Mo Yunyu hadn’t accompanied Zuo Yan to the company, choosing instead to snooze comfortably at home alongside Mo Mimi.
When the doorbell rang, he assumed it was just the hourly cleaning service. But the moment the door swung open, what met his eyes was his older sister’s face.
“Sis, why are you here!” Mo Yunyu smiled with his eyes curved into crescents. The moment he keenly sensed that her mood was off, however, he instantly wiped away his smile. Glancing at the sheer, uncountable number of bodyguards standing behind her, he asked in a tiny voice, “Did something happen?”
Watching her younger brother who would practically help count the money for the person who sold him, Mo Yunniao ultimately couldn’t bear to scold him. Letting out a heartfelt sigh, she said, “Pack your things, Sis is taking you home.”
Mo Yunyu was completely bewildered, but Mo Yunniao’s stern expression rendered him too intimidated to speak, forcing him to obediently follow her lead.
Thus, when Zuo Yan returned home from work later that evening, what greeted him was a house swept as clean as if a burglar had stripped it bare.
Even Mo Mimi’s cat supplies had vanished without a trace.
Zuo Yan immediately dialed Mo Yunyu’s phone, only to find that the person answering was Mo Yunniao. Before he even had a chance to inquire about Mo Yunyu’s whereabouts, she cut him off completely with a single sentence:
“Zuo Yan, I expect a reasonable explanation from you.”