The air was compressed until it was as thin as a cicada's wing.
Fei Chaichai could almost feel Li Yuyuan's pulse beating.
Her lips were about to touch his skin.
At that critical moment, the first thought that popped into her head was—
Li Yuyuan was so calculating that he'd even hold a grudge over a single word like "trash" for this long. If she actually kissed him right now, she'd probably end up bankrupt paying him back!
This terrifying consequence scared Fei Chaichai into becoming a perfect gentleman in an instant.
She no longer dared to harbor any romantic thoughts. With unprecedented speed, she pressed her lips tightly together and turned her head away as fast as she could, desperately avoiding the neck that was mere inches away.
The good news was that she dodged it just in time.
The bad news was that she might have used a little too much force.
Bang.
The raised arm in front of her was knocked hard against the cold, unyielding elevator wall by her head.
Just from the sound alone, Fei Chaichai could feel the pain.
But Li Yuyuan didn't seem to mind at all—he neither glanced at it nor urged Fei Chaichai to get up.
Her head was like a nail, pinning his arm firmly against the elevator. He simply leaned into the force, resting against the elevator wall, his head tilting back as he looked down at her with leisurely composure.
Her entire face was buried in the crook of his arm.
Her loose strands of hair were soft, but the tips were like pine needles, lightly pricking the skin of his arm, sending up a faint, thread-like sting.
Before it could spread, it was soothed away by her gentle breathing.
But as time passed, the force of her breathing grew noticeably weaker with each exhale.
Li Yuyuan let out a low chuckle.
Before the girl could suffocate herself, he spoke first, breaking the still air with considerate reassurance: "It's just an elevator. No need to get so angry."
Fei Chaichai: "?"
Since when was she angry?
The impact from the collision had left Fei Chaichai feeling dizzy and disoriented.
It took her a moment to understand what he meant.
Li Yuyuan wasn't being considerate at all—he clearly thought she had a bad temper, and because she couldn't get the elevator button to light up, she'd flown into a rage and rammed into him like a bull.
She certainly wasn't going to accept such an unfounded accusation. She quickly covered her aching forehead and lifted her head.
But just as she was about to retort, her peripheral vision accidentally caught sight of Li Yuyuan's arm, and she couldn't help but recall the loud thud from earlier.
Fei Chaichai instantly lost her confidence and swallowed back her words. Instead, she leaned in, examining his arm with her eyes from every angle, and asked with concern, "Is your arm okay?"
"It's fine."
With the weight against his arm gone, Li Yuyuan withdrew his hand, not giving the bump a second thought. But the girl's expression was so worried that he symbolically moved his arm around a few times, giving her a definitive conclusion: "It's not broken yet."
"…"
Regardless, at least no one was hurt.
Besides, Li Yuyuan clearly had no idea that she'd almost kissed him just now—otherwise, he would have already been tallying up the debt.
Having narrowly escaped disaster, Fei Chaichai let out a huge sigh of relief. Matching his style of speech, she casually followed up with a dark joke: "Well, if it does break later, remember to let me know—"
She didn't finish her sentence. Her voice came to an abrupt halt.
Suddenly thinking of something, Fei Chaichai's eyes flew wide open, staring blankly at Li Yuyuan's arm. She slapped her own forehead with a smack, then stumbled back a few steps until she hit the elevator doors. Clapping her hand over her mouth, she sucked in a sharp breath.
"What is it."
Seeing her trail off mid-sentence, Li Yuyuan followed her gaze, scanning around before landing on the hand covering her mouth. He offered a reasonable explanation for her exaggerated behavior: "Broke your tongue?"
"…"
Normally, Fei Chaichai would have fired back with a retort or two.
But right now, her mind was entirely occupied with one thought—
Had she… had she just accidentally touched Li Yuyuan's arm?!
Fei Chaichai realized belatedly what an enormous, unexpected blessing she had just received. The expression on her face shifted from "dazed" to "ecstatic" in a mere 0.01 seconds.
So this was what it felt like to "find something by sheer luck after searching high and low."
She quickly reached out and pressed the door-open button, letting out an "Oh no!" as she said with a face full of regret, "Terrible—I just remembered I left beef stew simmering at home and forgot to turn off the stove. Looks like I can't keep you company today. Another time—let's meet again another time when we get the chance!"
Her tone sounded quite regretful, but her actions told a completely different story.
The moment the elevator doors opened, she turned and jumped out, scurrying away with a clatter of footsteps. Her light, brisk figure showed not a trace of reluctance or hesitation, completely forgetting who had been pulling out all the stops to push the whole "sleeping together" plan just moments before.
Leaving behind only a flimsy excuse and Li Yuyuan, standing there alone.
His posture remained unchanged, still leaning lazily against the elevator with no intention of chasing after her. He merely tilted his head slightly, patiently watching the young woman run off, a faint, elusive amusement flickering in his eyes.
"Let's meet again sometime."
A casual pleasantry seen everywhere in daily life—yet coming from her lips, it sounded more like a final farewell.
She was probably certain that after today, she could be completely rid of him.
When that colorful figure disappeared around the corner, Li Yuyuan glanced at the clock on the wall.
Six fifty-seven.
The twenty-eight minutes that had passed were neither long nor short—enough time to carry away the gentle touch her palm had left on the tip of his nose, and enough time for her body to have made any kind of reaction.
Li Yuyuan lazily withdrew his gaze and pressed the button for the ninth floor.
The elevator doors began to close slowly.
In the final second, Qin Ling sprinted in at full speed, crashing into the elevator wall before coming to a stop.
He had been hiding behind the potted plants earlier. Though he couldn't make out what the two had said to each other privately afterward, he had seen their every move clearly.
Especially that bastard Li Yuyuan—he actually dared to deliberately lure the young woman in, standing so close he nearly kissed her!
He was going to get to the bottom of this.
"You—"
Qin Ling turned around, intending to interrogate him properly.
But the moment he spoke a single word, he keenly noticed something off about Li Yuyuan, and the words on the tip of his tongue changed course, turning into concern first: "Why is your neck all red?"
Before the man in question could answer, Qin Ling pieced together the fragments of Fei Chaichai's scolding from earlier, conjured up an entire dramatic scenario in his head, and concluded on his own: "Is it because that mouth of yours got too clever for its own good again, said something you shouldn't have, and made Chaichai so angry she grabbed you by the neck?!"
The elevator, having opened and closed three times, finally shut properly and began ascending.
The smooth metal doors merged into one, like a mirror reflecting the scene inside—except the clarity was too low, the images so blurred that even the outlines of figures were hard to make out, let alone such minute details.
Yet Li Yuyuan stared at it without blinking.
The breath that had brushed past moments ago had lingered on his skin for less than half an instant, but the warmth it brought had awakened a bone-deep restlessness, like a fire set loose, burning into his bloodstream.
The point of ignition was that patch of red on his neck.
Qin Ling waited a long time for a response, and when Li Yuyuan remained silent, he took it as an admission of guilt, his anger flaring: "Look at you, day in and day out—threatening here, intimidating there. Aren't you afraid of scaring her off? If you don't know how to deal with a young woman, you should come and ask me for advice more often!"
He alternated between cursing and reasoning, going back and forth, a relentless stream of nagging that filled the air.
In the end, his scattergun approach worked.
One of his sentences finally landed in Li Yuyuan's ears, earning a nonchalant reply: "She won't run."
"…"
Qin Ling shot Li Yuyuan a speechless glare: "Oh? What, you've got some dirt on Chaichai—like she's committed murder or arson?"
Won't run, huh.
Where did that confidence even come from?
Qin Ling couldn't be bothered to keep scolding, so he threw cold water directly on the situation: "You're only riding on Yan Ci's coattails right now. If you weren't Yan Ci's younger brother, do you think Chaichai would keep hanging around you? Once Yan Ci comes back to the country, just watch—see if she still gives a damn about you, the middleman!"
As those words fell, Li Yuyuan turned his gaze and looked at Qin Ling.
He said nothing.
But the air around them suddenly grew heavy.
"…"
Qin Ling admitted that the reason he was so tirelessly defending Fei Chaichai was that he harbored a bit of selfish motive.
After all, as of now, she was the only person who could "handle" Li Yuyuan, so of course he had to treat her like a treasure.
So this time, Qin Ling stood his ground.
He didn't back down for a second, his attitude remaining firm: "Don't you dare threaten me with that look. I know my words are a bit harsh, but honest advice grates on the ears. You'd better weigh things carefully yourself, so you don't end up regretting it with no one to cry to."
Yet Li Yuyuan's expression was calm, not a trace of disturbance. At the remark, he let out a soft scoff and countered: "Which of your words is worth threatening over?"
"…"
Not a threat?
Who was he trying to fool?
Qin Ling let out a cold laugh: "Do you take me for blind or stupid? If that look isn't a threat, what, is it gratitude?"
It wasn't like they'd known each other for just a day—how could he not tell the difference?
Qin Ling didn't believe a single word.
But to his surprise, he heard Li Yuyuan hum in acknowledgment: "It is gratitude."
Qin Ling: "??"
What the hell.
A man who couldn't even speak a single decent sentence on a normal day—how could he possibly be thanking him at a moment like this, when things were about to ignite?
Qin Ling couldn't believe his ears. Half of him suspected Li Yuyuan was trying to gaslight him, while the other half couldn't help but develop a blind confidence in his own abilities, thinking that maybe Li Yuyuan had actually been moved by his words.
So he decided to test it: "Thank me for what?"
The elevator doors opened.
Li Yuyuan turned his gaze back and stepped out, his voice fading into a low, unreadable tone: "Thank you for reminding me that someone still owes this middleman a considerable sum in commission—and I shouldn't forget to collect it."
"…………"
Qin Ling's worldview was violently overturned.
Was that what he had meant with all that talk just now?!
Afraid that he might have accidentally pushed Fei Chaichai into a fire pit, Qin Ling hurried after her to clarify: "How exactly do you plan to get it back… pfft, you're actually shameless enough to go demand it?"
He nearly got led astray by Li Yuyuan's twisted logic but caught himself in time: "Every wrong has its source, every debt has its debtor. I said those words. If you've got a problem, take it up with me. Picking on a little girl—what kind of man does that?"
The statement was dripping with a sense of justice, of defending the weak against the strong.
If the little girl had been present, she probably would have been moved to tears and devoted herself to Qin Ling forever after.
Unfortunately, Li Yuyuan had no interest in upholding justice, nor did he possess such an abundance of emotions. After listening, he remained utterly unmoved, glancing sidelong at Qin Ling and stating in a lazy tone: "Being a man isn't nearly as fun as picking on a little girl."
"…Aw, for fuck's sake." Qin Ling was so infuriated by Li Yuyuan's impenetrability that he abandoned all pretense of civility.
It took him a while to talk himself down.
Forget it.
If he could change Li Yuyuan's mind with a few words, he wouldn't have needed to scheme about bribing the little girl in the first place.
Having reasoned this through, Qin Ling stopped tormenting himself. The priority now was to warn Fei Chaichai, so she wouldn't fall into Li Yuyuan's trap again.
But just as he pulled out his phone, a group of brats who refused to go home after work surrounded him, chattering away: "President Qin, President Qin, everyone in the group chat is saying some girl just yelled at the boss in the lobby for being a pervert—is that true?"
"Since when did our boss become so human that he's even capable of being a pervert?"
"He didn't come to the company for a while—could he have been out carousing every night?"
Qin Ling had just swallowed a bellyful of frustration and wasn't about to carry Li Yuyuan's burdens again anytime soon. Irritated, he snapped: "If you want to know so badly, go ask your boss yourselves! I'm not a tapeworm in his gut!"
"…?"
At that, the whole place went silent.
Everyone exchanged glances, having never seen the usually good-tempered Qin Ling so angry.
After a round of silent eye contact, Zhuang Yan once again stepped forward as the representative, carefully voicing everyone's guess: "President Qin… the girl the boss slept with—she wouldn't happen to be your girlfriend, would she?"
Qin Ling: "…"
After sprinting out of N.Found's doors at top speed, Fei Chaichai ran all the way to the café across the street in one breath and grabbed a random empty seat in the outdoor garden.
The moment she sat down, her phone buzzed in her pocket.
She fished it out and saw a WeChat message from Qin Ling: [Chaichai, Li Yuyuan didn't bully you just now, did he?]
Fei Chaichai wasn't surprised in the least. She figured Qin Ling must have caught wind of something and was checking in on her out of concern.
So she typed back, touched: [Nope!]
Then, unable to resist, she added a little share of her joy: [But I bullied him hehehe 罒ω罒]
Qin Ling: [?]
Qin Ling: [Tell me more.]
Hmm…
Time to put her language skills to the test.
Fei Chaichai picked and chose, filtering out what she could say, piecing it together, polishing it up, and finally settling on: [It's nothing much, really. Just that even though I started at a disadvantage, I stayed calm in the face of danger, turned the tide, and used my brain to forcibly twist his unreasonable demand into terms favorable to me, ultimately achieving a stage victory.]
She patted her forehead, which had rendered great service.
Using her head to headbutt Li Yuyuan also counted as using her brain, right? That shouldn't count as lying.
Qin Ling believed her and sent back congratulations: [[Thumbs up][Thumbs up][Thumbs up]]
Then he got to the point, warning her: [But seriously, Li Yuyuan has a strong vindictive streak. He'll definitely find a chance to get back at you. You need to be extra, extra careful these next few days.]
Fei Chaichai: [Got it!]
She didn't find his warning strange or out of nowhere, so she didn't think much of it.
After finishing the chat, she put down her phone, freed her hands, pressed them together in front of the streetlamp, and once again became the most devout follower of Aladdin's Divine Lamp.
An hour ago, Qiao Xiaoyu's earnest advice was still fresh in her ears.
Fei Chaichai hadn't forgotten, and she'd prepared herself for the worst-case scenario that she might not actually be allergic to Li Yuyuan.
But theory was theory.
When the hypothetical situation actually happened, and she needed to choose between "being allergic to Li Yuyuan" and "not being allergic to Li Yuyuan," she still couldn't shake her deeply ingrained habitual thinking, unable to resist clinging to a sliver of wishful hope.
As long as the rice wasn't cooked yet, there was still a chance for a turnaround.
So please, please, please bless her with an allergy to Li Yuyuan!
Fei Chaichai prayed silently in her heart.
Only when her heart, pounding violently from the run, gradually calmed down did she open her eyes and let out a breath. Then, like revealing the winning lottery numbers, she nervously and anxiously rolled up her jacket sleeve bit by bit.
In the remaining light of dusk that hadn't yet fully faded, Fei Chaichai saw at a glance—at the halfway point of her forearm, a red dot had appeared.
Though smaller than a grain of rice, it burst open in her brain like a firework.
Fei Chaichai quickly covered her mouth with her other hand.
The scream that was about to burst from her throat was suppressed, but her eyes, curved like crescent moons, caught sight of a mosquito in the next second, landing right beside that red dot, helping itself to a free feast.
…
…
…
What the heck.
It was just a mosquito bite!
Fei Chaichai's excitement was for nothing, and her face immediately darkened a shade.
Expressionless, she slapped the damned mosquito dead with one palm, then stubbornly pulled out a mirror to check her face.
Other than looking pitiful, she found nothing.
The comeback attempt failed.
With a "thump," Fei Chaichai slammed her head onto the table, lying there listlessly.
After being a deflated balloon for a while, she bumped her head against the table edge a few more times, then wrapped her arms around herself, patted her own back, and burst into loud laughter.
It's fine, it's fine.
Anyway, as the saying goes, things don't happen more than three times.
If she really couldn't accept this result, then she'd just give herself one last chance.
Even if all three attempts turned out the same, it didn't matter. At worst, she could do what Xiaoyu had urged her to do—treat Li Yuyuan as a tool, use him to study the allergic mechanism while also chasing after Number 108, spending the summer vacation fully and satisfactorily, and welcoming college life with a brand-new outlook.
Three birds with one stone—why not?
In just a few words, Fei Chaichai had already talked herself into feeling better. Clenching both fists, she pounded them on the table and perked back up.
But the moment she looked up, she found herself locking eyes with the waiter standing diagonally in front of her.
He had arrived at some point, holding a tray, standing frozen on the steps. The look in his eyes as he watched her was a mix of shock and awkwardness, like someone who had accidentally witnessed a lunatic having an episode and didn't know whether to interrupt.
"S-sorry, sorry, I'll leave right away." Fei Chaichai quickly reined in her craziness, afraid she might disturb the business. She apologized and took the initiative to leave.
But the waiter stepped forward to stop her: "No need, no need. You sit."
He snapped back to his senses, picked up his professional demeanor, walked over, and set down a slice of fig chiffon cake and a pistachio latte on her table, introducing: "Another guest ordered these for you. Enjoy your meal."
"Huh?"
Hearing this, Fei Chaichai instinctively glanced around the café.
The brightly lit interior didn't have many customers, and she quickly scanned through them all—every face was unfamiliar. So she asked, "Who's the other guest?"
"I'm not too sure about that either." The waiter couldn't provide the person's identity, only what he knew: "But he did leave a message for you."
"Hm?" Fei Chaichai turned her gaze back to the waiter, holding her breath in anticipation. "What message?"
"—'Eat your fill of sweets first, so you'll have the strength for the bitterness that comes after.'"
"…???"
That sounded an awful lot like something Li Yuyuan would say.
He couldn't be nearby, could he, having discovered that she'd lied earlier!
Fei Chaichai naturally connected this to Qin Ling's warning, and alarm bells immediately went off in her head.
She ducked under the table, crouching low, carefully observing her surroundings. But she found no suspicious figure—only the waiter's suspicious gaze fixed on her.
"…Ahem, ahem."
Fei Chaichai cleared her throat, crawled out from under the table, and pushed the mysterious cake and coffee toward the waiter: "Um, if you don't mind, please have these."
The waiter didn't say whether he minded or not, instead asking her: "Why?"
"Uh…"
She couldn't exactly say she suspected this was a "Hongmen banquet" Li Yuyuan had set up for her—she had no proof.
Fei Chaichai's eyes darted around, and she found a perfectly reasonable excuse: "It's too late now. If I drink coffee, I'm afraid I won't be able to sleep, and if I eat cake, I'm afraid I'll gain weight. So… do whatever you want with them. I'm heading off."
With that, she grabbed her things and hurriedly left this dangerous place where she could be exposed at any moment.
But in the sweep of her gaze just now, the one place she had missed was that silver building.
Behind the glass curtain wall where the setting sun scattered across the clouds in layered hues, a man stood still before the floor-to-ceiling window, the shadow cast by his brow ridge darkening his eyes as he watched her—like a bright, colorful glass marble—roll out of the old alleyway shrouded in the haze of cooking smoke.
On the office desk behind him sat a phone.
From the speakerphone came the voice of the "waiter": "See how good I am to you? I just got back from a business trip and I'm already running errands for you."
Once she was gone, Yu Yi dropped the act, stripped off the troublesome work uniform, pulled out his phone from his pocket, and sat down on a chair: "I delivered the stuff and the message for you, but the girl didn't accept them. That's not my problem anymore."
After absolving himself of responsibility, he chatted on: "But since when did you become so kind-hearted? She's already declared she's going to devour you whole, and instead of stopping her, you're walking right into the trap. Back in the day, the people who liked you never even got a chance to confess."
Downstairs, the young girl quickly disappeared from sight.
Li Yuyuan turned and walked toward the desk, lazily sinking into the leather chair. His tone was as casual as his posture, and he said vaguely, "She's different."
"?!"
This was the first time Yu Yi had ever heard Li Yuyuan say something like this. His curiosity about the suddenly appearing young girl instantly doubled, and he pressed further: "Different how?"
Li Yuyuan's voice was calm and flat: "She's just using me."
Yu Yi: "??"
Wasn't that an even bigger problem!
There were quite a few people in this world who wanted to use him, but not many of them were still alive and well.
Yu Yi was stunned for a full three seconds before he managed to close his nearly dropped jaw and find his voice: "And then? You're just going to wait around and let her use you?"
The word "wait" was emphasized with heavy stress.
Li Yuyuan leaned back against the chair, his gaze vaguely resting on the phone screen, pondering: "I might consider offering home delivery service in the future."
"…………"
Was that what he meant?
Earlier in the afternoon, when the young girl was chatting with her friend, Yu Yi had only overheard that bold declaration about devouring Li Yuyuan whole, without knowing exactly what had happened. He changed his approach: "So what is she using you for?"
The phone, which had long lost its signal, had already gone dark.
That small pot of golden chaste tree cast a slanted, sparse shadow across the black screen.
Among the sparse sprouts and new leaves hid half a withered leaf, its edges curled and dry, hanging half-attached to a branch, swaying precariously, unable to bear even the weight of a single glance.
But Li Yuyuan wasn't in a hurry to clean it up. His brows and eyes, shrouded in the twilight, were extremely patient as he replied slowly: "Using my body."
The moment the words fell, a dull vibration spread along the table.
The withered leaf fell at the sound.
The phone lit up.
A text message popped onto the screen, expertly feigning innocence: 【Sorry ah, I misremembered earlier. Turns out the stove at home was turned off after all. Are you still at the office? I'm coming back to find you right now~ (～￣▽￣)～】