A beam of early morning sunlight filtered through the curtains, and the alarm clock on the nightstand had been ringing intermittently for a while.
His sleep disturbed, the boy blindly fumbled around for the clock to shut it off. Li Yu rubbed his sleepy, half-open eyes, threw back the quilt, and got out of bed to wash up.
At the dining table, a man dressed in a white shirt, who was handsome, aloof, and uninhibited, with a deep gaze that carried a sharp glint, was eating breakfast with an elegant yet casual demeanor.
Hearing the boy coming downstairs, the man gently raised his head, his gaze pausing on Li Yu.
As their eyes met, Li Yu greeted him naturally, “Brother Yan, morning!”
Hearing this, Li Yan unconsciously curved his lips, his gaze softening. “Xiao Yu, sit down and have breakfast.”
Having stayed at Li Yan’s place for so long, Li Yu had long shed the restraint he felt when he first moved in, and his behavior had grown increasingly relaxed.
Li Yu grabbed a piece of bread from the table, took a bite, and said in a hurry, “Brother Yan, I am almost late for school. I will just eat my breakfast on the way.”
In his rush while changing his shoes, he stumbled a bit, waving the bread in his hand as he did so.
Amused by this cute sight, Li Yan chuckled. “Didn’t I tell you to get up earlier? You kept oversleeping. Let us see if you still dare to do that next time.”
I will get to see Brother Lu again in a bit.
At the thought, the corners of Li Yu’s mouth curled into an involuntary smile. But hearing Li Yan’s reproach, he could not help pouting slightly to show his discontent.
Just before pulling the door shut on his way out, he retorted, “Humph, of course I will still dare to next time!”
Hearing this, Li Yan showed none of his usual unapproachable, cold demeanor, nor did he show any anger toward Li Yu’s disobedience. Instead, his eyes were filled with warmth for Li Yu’s every word and action.
He rested his chin on his clasped hands, looking toward the door with a gentle smile.
He stared at the door that had been shut for quite a while.
The emotion-filled eyes instantly shifted into something dark and chilling. Every word that left his lips seemed coated in frost:
“I told you to observe him in secret and report anything strange to me. How have you been doing your job? What is this thing about? Did you ever report this to me?”
As he spoke, he tossed out a badge he had found on the desk when he brought milk to Li Yu the previous night. On the back of the badge were two small engraved letters: “zl”.
A strange man, who was nowhere to be seen just moments ago, now appeared beside Li Yan. Lowering his head, he trembled under Li Yan’s reprimand, not daring to utter a sound.
Li Yan glared at the man before him with a gaze as venomous as a viper’s. “You do not need to oversee that project anymore. Report directly to Country Y tomorrow for work. Since you cannot even handle something this simple, I do not expect you to do anything else right either!”
(Country Y suffered from extreme economic hardship and severe shortages of resources. Its people lacked the capacity to develop or change their situation, leaving it practically a wasteland.)
If it were not for the fact that Li Yu’s desk was usually bare, making the delicate box placed conspicuously in the center of the clean surface stand out so jarringly, Li Yan would not have even wanted to discover it!
It was obvious that Li Yu truly treasured this badge. Heh!
Li Yan’s bloodshot eyes darkened, and his hands clenched into fists involuntarily. A faint smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth, but it vanished almost instantly.
Then, gritting his teeth, he squeezed out the words, “You cannot be like this,” while a manic, feverish flush gradually crept across his face.