“Double the Annoyance”
“Fiancé?” Zhao Fei stood up subconsciously, saying in bewilderment.
Jiang Zhi’s face was expressionless. Suddenly, he wanted to act like a little ostrich and quietly slip away unnoticed.
“It seems Zhizhi hasn’t told everyone yet.” Fu Yunting raised his hand and drew Jiang Zhi to his chest. The two of them were in an intimate posture and possessed outstanding temperaments; at this moment, anyone would see them as a well-matched pair. “However, Captain Zhao, I remember we seemed to have met once before. Do you really not know, or do you have other intentions?”
At this time, two girls from the volunteer team returned from the dance floor. As soon as they looked up, they saw the three of them standing opposite each other, and they were somewhat puzzled. “Why is everyone standing?”
Only then did Zhao Fei find his voice. “You must be joking. Jiang Zhi indeed hasn’t spoken about his situation to everyone. We all thought he was single, right, Jiajia?”
Jiajia’s eyes swept across their faces one by one, and then her eyes lit up. “…Could this gentleman be Jiang Zhi’s boyfriend?”
Jiang Zhi smiled without saying a word. Fu Yunting nodded politely to the two girls. “Hello, I am Jiang Zhi’s fiancé, Fu Yunting.”
Jiajia and the girl beside her gasped at the same time. They thought he was a boyfriend, but they hadn’t expected it to already be an engaged relationship.
The two of them gave Jiang Zhi a big thumbs-up in surprise. “Marrying early in your golden years—as expected of you!”
“But have we met before?” Wang Ge tapped her chin, feeling that Fu Yunting looked a bit familiar. “The one who came to pick up Jiang Zhi after the concert last time, that was you, right?”
“It was me. I’m sorry, I left in a hurry back then and didn’t have time to say hello to everyone,” Fu Yunting said, a proper smile always hanging on his face.
“Oh, it’s not too late to say hello now.” Jiajia had a teasing look on her face. “You and Jiang Zhi look so compatible.”
The man chuckled softly. “Thank you.”
After greeting them, everyone didn’t sit for too long before going off to play on their own.
After all, they weren’t very close friends with Jiang Zhi, and Fu Yunting’s temperament was extraordinary, making them feel a bit uncomfortable.
As for Zhao Fei… as soon as Fu Yunting’s self-introduction came out, he found a random excuse and vanished. Jiang Zhi was very speechless. “Did you install a surveillance camera on me?”
“A surveillance camera is out of the question, but there is an informant.” Fu Yunting noticed the two flushes of red on Jiang Zhi’s face, and then looked at the man behind the bar. “What did you give him to drink?”
“Finally, someone has noticed me.” The bartender deftly mixed a cocktail identical to the one before and pushed it in front of Fu Yunting. “Here, it’s this one.”
Fu Yunting rubbed the space between his eyebrows. “Who told you to serve him this…”
“This is your informant?” The corners of Jiang Zhi’s lips twitched, and he couldn’t help but glare at the man, looking quite fierce and willful.
“Don’t listen to your family’s overbearing CEO’s nonsense. I didn’t even expect you to come to my place, let alone any informant.” Zhuang Xuan raised his hands in surrender. “Meeting for the first time, I ask my sister-in-law to forgive me.”
“Don’t call me that blindly, we aren’t married yet.” Originally, Jiang Zhi came to demand accountability, but he didn’t expect to end up with a thoroughly red face instead.
“It’s a matter of time anyway,” Zhuang Xuan teased.
Seeing this, Fu Yunting casually introduced him to Jiang Zhi. “This is Zhuang Xuan, a not-very-important person.”
Jiang Zhi nodded toward the other person, estimating that these two must have a good personal relationship.
But it was also hard to imagine that a person like Fu Yunting would actually associate with a bartender. He was restrained and self-disciplined, and disliked alcohol; he didn’t even touch the wine glass that Zhuang Xuan placed by his hand.
“Tsk, President Fu, how can you speak like that?”
Fu Yunting pulled a card from his wallet and gave it to Zhuang Xuan. “Please settle the bill for us.”
“What about that table?” Zhuang Xuan lifted his chin, looking toward the volunteer team’s table nearby.
“Together,” Fu Yunting said concisely.
“President Fu is generous!” Zhuang Xuan handed the card to the staff member beside him. “It’s rare for President Fu to come over. Today, all in-store staff members get an extra 500-yuan bonus, all deducted from here.”
Jiang Zhi: “…”
Fu Yunting: “…”
…
Coming out of the bar, the alcohol was gradually rushing up for Jiang Zhi, making him a bit excited.
Sitting in the car, his eyes were wide open, staring intently and brightly at Fu Yunting. “Just now, you completely scared Zhao Fei away.”
“I didn’t scare anyone, he had a guilty conscience himself.” Fu Yunting glanced at the rearview mirror, his car speed slow, unhurried and steady.
“Clearly it was you who was too fierce, okay?” Jiang Zhi was defiant.
“Fierce? Someone is harassing my fiancé, and I can’t even speak?” Fu Yunting said.
Jiang Zhi’s face was pinkish, and his expression, due to the alcohol, looked much more relaxed than usual. “You… looking gentle, but your possessiveness is quite strong.”
“Possessiveness is a trait that all men have,” Fu Yunting stated calmly.
Jiang Zhi’s persona in front of Fu Yunting was a troublemaking diva; at this moment, although he agreed in his heart, he still subconsciously countered.
“I am a man too, and I don’t have it.”
Hearing this, Fu Yunting was silent for a moment, and slowly stepped on the brake to stop at the intersection. “This emotion is usually an exception for people you don’t love, and things you don’t care about.”
Jiang Zhi was startled, and it took him a long time to find his voice, feeling mysteriously guilty. “…So aren’t we cultivating feelings right now?”
“Yeah,” Fu Yunting smiled. Waiting for the yellow light to pass, he slowly continued to drive forward.
Jiang Zhi knitted his brows. Was Fu Yunting implying that he didn’t love him and had no feelings, or pointing out that he was not interested in this marriage and didn’t care at all?
The man’s tone was very calm, without any dissatisfaction. But Jiang Zhi’s chest felt stifled. Clearly, to the current him, this was not a bad thing.
He only needed to infinitely magnify emotions like this, and slowly, Fu Yunting’s patience with him would gradually turn into resentment.
Regrettably, right now, he didn’t want to do anything at all.
…
After sending Jiang Zhi home, Fu Yunting returned to the bar. The glass of wine from earlier was still quietly placed in its original position.
Zhuang Xuan raised an eyebrow. “I knew you still had to come back.”
At this time, Fu Yunting’s coat was no longer on him, and his tie hung loosely around his neck, looking lazy and casual, a stark contrast to his appearance just now.
He lowered his head and took a sip of the wine. With just a gentle swirl, the two colors that had been clearly demarcated blended together.
“Are you happy here?”
Hearing this, the smile on Zhuang Xuan’s face faded a bit. “What about you? Are you happy now?”
The man didn’t speak.
“Aside from anything else, your little artist is quite cute.” Zhuang Xuan had no intention of speaking further about those unhappy matters.
“You know that too?” What Jiang Zhi was like, no one knew better than Fu Yunting.
“Yeah! I kept my eyes on him here for the whole night. Originally, I thought his personality was quite silent, but I didn’t expect that it was just that the people around him weren’t right. As soon as you came, didn’t his little temper just flare up?”
Fu Yunting listened in silence. This was generally a reaction one would only have toward close people, but he knew that he wasn’t that to Jiang Zhi.
“Hey, you don’t have anything to tell me? Getting engaged so hastily without even a ceremony. If I hadn’t heard Grandpa say last time that you requested it yourself, I would have thought you were kidnapped.” Seeing his wine glass empty, Zhuang Xuan casually poured him a glass of juice. “Did you call a chauffeur? This wine’s aftereffect is not small.”
“Not small and you still gave it to him to drink,” Fu Yunting showed displeasure.
Zhuang Xuan burst out laughing; he had never seen Fu Yunting look like this before. “That little cutie of yours, one look and you can tell his alcohol tolerance is not shallow. You’d better worry about yourself.”
Hearing this, Fu Yunting recalled some past events, and a trace of a smile surfaced in his eyes.
“Yo, basking in the spring breeze, are we?” Zhuang Xuan put down the work at hand, looking at this man with great interest. “In order to personally send someone home, you even have to come back to drink your wine. Brother, you’ve put your heart into it!”
However, Fu Yunting didn’t buy his act. Jiang Zhi’s alcohol tolerance was indeed good, but after drinking, he would turn into a little chatterbox. He wondered if the Jiang family was currently having a headache.
Today was Saturday, and the bar’s liveliness continued until late into the night. The man hadn’t sat for long before all kinds of people started drawing near to him. He looked at Zhuang Xuan with some impatience.
“When do you plan to go back?”
Zhuang Xuan seemed to have anticipated he would ask and didn’t even lift his head.
“Is it not good for me to be like this now?” Zhuang Xuan asked back instead of answering.
“Is it good?” Fu Yunting swept a glance at the red hair on his head. “Who is the one crying bitterly at our family’s doorstep at midnight every day after getting dead drunk?”
Zhuang Xuan stiffened. “Hey? I’m telling you, Fu Yunting, don’t you slander people. I conscientiously work until dawn every day before going home. Who went to your house?”
“I’m slandering you, so what are you nervous about?” Fu Yunting knitted his brows. “Making a scene is enough, come back quickly, or else come to my place to help out. What’s the point of messing around here?”
“How am I messing around? If I weren’t here, your wife would have been snatched away and you wouldn’t even know it.”
Fu Yunting was about to scold him when the phone in his pocket suddenly vibrated. At this time, it was already past midnight, and almost no one would call his private number at this hour.
He took it out and took a look; it was Jiang Zhi.
Since returning from Country D, the two of them hadn’t met for a week. Today was completely accidental, and adding the silence on the road earlier, Fu Yunting felt that with Jiang Zhi’s character, he might have to toss and turn for a few days.
Seeing that his expression was not right, Zhuang Xuan explained something to the person beside him.
“Alright, alright, I know you don’t like liveliness. The designated driver is waiting at the door, go ahead.”
Fu Yunting answered the phone as soon as he stepped out the door.
“Jiang Zhi?”
For a long time on the other end, no one spoke, only the sound of splashing water. Fu Yunting knitted his brows and spoke again.
“Why aren’t you asleep yet? What are you doing?” He knew Jiang Zhi’s alcohol tolerance; this amount was not enough to make him unconscious.
As his words landed, the sound of water on the other end suddenly stopped.
“Jiang Zhi?”
“…Where are you? Why did it take you so long to answer the phone.” Jiang Zhi’s voice came through the electrical current, his tone lazy, his timbre softer than usual, and also carrying some mysterious little temper.
“It was too noisy just now, I was worried I wouldn’t hear. Now it’s fine.” Fu Yunting walked to his car, threw the key to the designated driver who was already standing in front of him, and got into the back seat.
“Too noisy? Where are you?” His string of questions was just like a little wife waiting for her husband to come home.
“Went back to the bar for a bit, now I’m on my way back.” Fu Yunting answered whatever the other side asked, full of patience, vastly better than how he faced those who hit on him earlier.
The designated driver sat down in the driver’s seat, quietly glanced at the inner rearview mirror, and asked in a low voice, “Sir, where are we going now?”
“Yuyuan,” Fu Yunting said.
“Alright.”
Even so, the driver’s voice was captured by Jiang Zhi. He was unhappy now, and he didn’t want to let Fu Yunting be happy either, so he transformed into a little nitpicker that he would usually hate himself.
“Whose voice?” He patted the surface of the water with his palm, saying unhappily, “Why did you go back to the bar again? What is the relationship between that red-haired man and you? You clearly came out, why did you still have to go back? You are dishonest.”
Listening to his little mouth going nonstop, Fu Yunting couldn’t help but curve his lips. This was clearly the alcohol taking effect.
“The driver’s voice. Didn’t I introduce the red-haired one to you just now? His name is Zhuang Xuan, he is my good friend.” Fu Yunting automatically filtered out the important questions, explaining to him word by word.
“Good friend? Does a good friend require a special trip back?” Jiang Zhi was unyielding. “You must be lying to me.”
“I’m not lying to you. When there’s a chance later, I will formally introduce him to you,” Fu Yunting said. “Why aren’t you asleep at this hour, what are you doing?”
Having drunk alcohol, Jiang Zhi’s brain turned a bit slower than usual, but his spirit was highly excited, as if he had endless things to say, determined to make Fu Yunting collapse.
“Taking a bath, my body smells bad.”
Fu Yunting frowned. “You can’t take a bath after drinking alcohol. Don’t soak anymore, dry your body and go to bed to sleep.”
“Why can’t I take a bath? Taking a bath is so comfortable, I like taking a bath.” The things he had no mood to do earlier, Jiang Zhi now had plenty of energy for; he wanted to be double the annoyance.
“Taking a bath after drinking alcohol can easily cause sudden diseases. Be good, come out of the water.” Fu Yunting tried to coax him out.
“No way, I take a bath every time after I finish drinking.” In any case, no matter what the other party said, Jiang Zhi was going to do the opposite.
“Jiang Zhi.” Fu Yunting knew he wasn’t completely drunk. “If you don’t listen, I might have to call Uncle and Auntie. It’s the middle of the night right now, do you want them to knock on your room door in the middle of the night?”
Jiang Zhi curled his lips. A person like Fu Yunting would absolutely not allow himself to do such an impolite thing. “I don’t believe it. Go ahead and call. You just want to complain to my parents. Isn’t it just having some drinks with friends, you are really stingy.”
The man rubbed his temples and didn’t speak for a moment.
Hearing that there was no sound from the opposite side for a long time, Jiang Zhi thought he was angry, so he sat in the bathtub and continued to babble on. Tonight, he was the Jiang-style annoyance itself.
“We aren’t married yet and you are already controlling me like this. If we get married, will I not even be able to step out the door? Ah?”
Fu Yunting quietly listened to him making trouble out of nothing here, covering the microphone to signal the driver to turn around. “Go to Jinlan Shuan.”
At this time, it was the middle of the night, and there were very few people on the street. The driver drove to the outside of the Jiang family home in twenty minutes, while on the other end of the phone, Jiang Zhi’s little mouth hadn’t stopped for a moment.
“I’m telling you, I won’t compromise. I love drinking alcohol the most, you can’t force me to do things I don’t like, otherwise…”
“Otherwise…”
“Otherwise what?” Fu Yunting looked up toward the upper floor; only one room in the Jiang family home was still lit up at this time.
“Otherwise I will divorce you!” Jiang Zhi said fiercely.
Fu Yunting found it funny. “Then we have to get married first before we can divorce, dummy. Do you want to marry me that much?”
The opposite side choked. Today, he spoke completely without passing through his brain, saying whatever came to mind, and accidentally dug a pit for himself with a slip of the tongue.
Seeing that the person had finally quieted down, the man opened his mouth to urge him, “It’s been almost half an hour, come out of the water immediately.”
“I won’t, I haven’t soaked enough yet.” At this time, Jiang Zhi’s mouth was dry from talking, and the water in the bathtub was also getting a bit cold.
“You really won’t come out?” Fu Yunting asked him.
“No!”
The man curled his lips and got down from the car. “I am downstairs at your house right now. You have one minute to dry your body and come out, otherwise I will ring the doorbell right now.”
Jiang Zhi: “???”