“Cousin,” Yuan Luo lowered his voice on the other end of the phone, sounding as though he were about to reveal some earth-shattering secret.
“Did you know Ge might be in love?”
Sang Suiyu, who was just about to step out the door, froze in his tracks.
Yuan Luo was his cousin, younger by just two years, yet he had grown up tagging along behind them and still did. Because he was sweet-talking and thick-skinned, he enjoyed special favor with the elders and was pampered like a little kid wherever he went.
As for the “Ge” he mentioned, it was Tan Chen, Sang Suiyu’s childhood friend.
Their families had done business together early on and coincidentally lived next door, making Sang Suiyu and Tan Chen’s relationship exceptionally close. As time passed, they became inseparable, not even separating when they went to university.
After graduation, they chose different paths: Sang Suiyu had a gift for his field and went on to graduate school, while Tan Chen took over the family business as heir. Even so, their dense text-and-call history never broke. Sometimes, if Sang Suiyu didn’t reply for a few minutes, Tan Chen’s call would go straight to his senior labmate’s phone.
Except for the past few days. Tan Chen had flown abroad for a crucial collaboration, likely grinding day and night to push the schedule, which drastically dropped their communication frequency.
Back when they were students, even during the most intense project schedules, this kind of drop had never happened, leaving Sang Suiyu—who usually slept soundly—slightly insomniac these past few days.
Fortunately, Tan Chen finally came back last night. Sang Suiyu had already fallen asleep and missed his message, seeing it only upon waking up this morning.
Accompanied by a snowflake-like storm of frantic messages from friends.
The topic was the same as what Yuan Luo said: rumors that Tan Chen might be in love, seemingly happening over just these past few days.
“Hard not to know,” Sang Suiyu rubbed his temples, headache looming. “Everyone who knows me is texting to ask what on earth is going on.”
Yuan Luo was bewildered. His own call was actually to ask what was happening. Since Sang Suiyu was the person closest to Tan Chen, if even Sang Suiyu didn’t know the details, nobody else possibly could.
“No way! Cousin, how can you not know?!” Yuan Luo panicked. “Aren’t you guys so close you practically know the color of each other’s underwear? How do you miss something as big as him dating?!”
Sang Suiyu: “……”
They say crude words hold a kernel of truth, yea, well—that was too crude.
“I’m heading over to find him right now,” Sang Suiyu didn’t show too much emotion on the line. “What’s actually going on, I’ll ask him face-to-face.”
To say Sang Suiyu wasn’t anxious at all would be a lie.
He was already mildly anxious from missing Tan Chen these past few days, and now a bombshell like this popped out of nowhere with zero prelude.
There were plenty of suspicious points worth probing here; a little thought could trigger endless doubts, saved only by his deep-seated trust in Tan Chen keeping him from wild speculation.
So after hanging up, he grabbed his car keys, walked straight out the door, and drove toward Tan Chen’s place.
At this exact moment, Tan Chen had just woken up from catching up on sleep.
During the business trip, he had practically burned the midnight oil day and night to rush progress. The moment the contract was signed, he flew back without stopping, grabbing a brief sleep only upon getting home last night.
Little did he know, a massive storm had brewed during those few hours. Many circle acquaintances, a bit fearful of his temperament and not daring to bombard him the way they bombarded Sang Suiyu, still sent a few probing texts.
Turns out, the circle was gossiping that he might be in love.
Tan Chen twitched the corner of his lips, guessing roughly where it started, yet still calling the accompanying assistant from the trip.
Sure enough, it was a misunderstanding from the trip. The business partner had a terrible tolerance for alcohol; whenever drunk, their favorite hobby was random matchmaking, and this time, high on excitement, they’d matched Tan Chen.
To know the words “being in love” had practically zero overlap with Tan Chen—tying them together was explosive enough to sweep the entire circle in half a night.
“The partner has apologized after sobering up and is ready to issue a public clarification,” the assistant answered cautiously. “Specific operations still await your reply.”
“Issue the public clarification,” Tan Chen replied coldly.
The business trip had been annoying enough; inverted day-night cycles and high pressure forced him to cut down time with Sang Suiyu, even doing fewer video calls than usual.
Every single second abroad, he wanted nothing more than to wrap up work and fly back. If not for arriving too late last night and fearing disturbing Sang Suiyu’s sleep, he should have been in Sang Suiyu’s bed right now.
As he spoke, he cleared all the messy probing messages, leaving only the pinned chat with Sang Suiyu.
Almost compulsively, he scrolled back and forth through the chat history.
Further up was yesterday’s message saying he was coming back, midnight texts saying he’d go home to sleep first and see him next day, and then Sang Suiyu’s messages from a few minutes ago.
Thinking it blew up this big, Sang Suiyu would surely ask what was going on. Yet he only said he was coming over now, mentioning nothing else.
Ever since graduation put them on different paths, even though their daily lives remained glued together, Tan Chen couldn’t control a rising anxiety, always worried they’d drift apart at the next fork due to uncontrollable forces.
Adult impulses and desires pulled at him constantly, turning into something close to hatred.
Hating how close they were yet hating that their closeness wasn’t legitimate enough.
Even encountering this minor dissonance, Tan Chen’s heart felt heavy, radiating dense hostility.
To make matters worse, the assistant had more bad news to report, sounding even more cautious: “Xiao Tan-zong.”
“After the partner clarifies things, you might still need to talk to Lao Tan-zong and Madam directly.”
Euphemistic phrasing, yet Tan Chen understood instantly.
Tan Chen’s relationship with his family was deeply complex. They once shared intense, tight familial affection, which gradually fractured in a tug-of-war for control versus freedom.
Tan Chen’s parents both came from wealthy backgrounds, overcoming hardships to build what they had. Tan Chen was the crystallization of their love, which paradoxically bred extreme controlling tendencies.
Refusing confinement, Tan Chen grew up full of rebellion, frequently clashing with family over big and small issues, with views on romance being an old, recurring battleground.
Tan Chen’s parents didn’t allow him to date mysterious backgrounds; if marriage was the goal, it had to meet harsh, picky standards.
So when last night’s news hit, friends were shocked he was dating, while Tan Chen’s parents were shocked he’d date someone so substandard.
Because Tan Chen ignored phone calls while sleeping off exhaustion, otherwise his parents—furious and in disbelief—would have interrogated him eight hundred times over.
Thinking of this, Tan Chen smiled again.
His handsome features carried a sharp brow bone; every time he wore this expression, aggressive danger leaked out, looking somewhat terrifying.
Having argued with family so many times, he could smoothly deploy cold violence against the elders. Something destined for quick clearance wasn’t worth explaining.
More importantly, right now, it wasn’t the elders’ attitude that mattered—it was Sang Suiyu’s.
Tan Chen got up, pulled back the curtains, wanting to see where Sang Suiyu had reached.
Coincidentally, Sang Suiyu’s car drove into the villa courtyard. Through the glass, a familiar figure was already visible.
Even though it was just a few days apart, Tan Chen’s heart seemed to restart, beating violently and deafeningly, drowning out the rest of the world.
He stared unblinkingly at Sang Suiyu’s trajectory, watching him park in the usual spot and step out, suddenly turning his head toward Tan Chen’s window as if sensing something. Gaze locked.
Sang Suiyu’s features were striking, skin pale and translucent, thick eyelashes sweeping soft shadows like little brushes across his cheeks.
He was usually calm and gentle, contrasting sharply with Tan Chen’s sharpness and ruthlessness, seemingly capable of handling anything calmly—except right now, rushing over with fine sweat clinging to stray temples.
The moment he caught Tan Chen’s gaze, that rare trace of minor agitation melted away, replaced by accelerated footsteps walking straight toward the villa main entrance.
For some reason, Tan Chen’s heartbeat surged harder.
The uncontrollable anxiety faded, while the obsession hidden in his blood began to churn. It was hard to describe the feeling—a bizarre illusion of recovering something lost.
During the trip, he always thought un-nominally bound connections were fragile; despite maximum intimacy as best friends, short separations still triggered overwhelming panic.
Without this separation, he might have dragged it out silently until Sang Suiyu genuinely realized deeper, more unique and intense feelings could exist between them.
Yet suppressed desires suddenly lost control, colliding like a storm in his pupils, letting him realize this wasn’t just a stray accident—it was a golden opportunity he could seize.
“I’ll go arrange it then,” the assistant concluded.
“Wait,” Tan Chen said abruptly.
He strode out to meet Sang Suiyu, attitude shifting radically compared to a moment ago: “Tell the partner not to clarify yet. I’ll talk to them later about how to handle it.”
He hung up, walking out with light, buoyant steps, walking straight up to Sang Suiyu and pulling him tightly into his arms, catching him off guard by softly biting his ear.
“Yuyu.” Hot breath spilled into Sang Suiyu’s neck as Tan Chen buried his head in. “I missed you so much.”