Every afternoon at three, during the break when the Japanese restaurant temporarily closed, Fu Chun Shen would push open the door to the café next door.
“Americano. No sugar.” In the past, he had drunk pour-over Geisha coffee that cost three hundred yuan a pot. Now, even instant coffee costing a little over ten yuan had to be carefully rationed, and he always refilled it with hot water three times before considering it finished.
When he returned from the restroom, a bone china cup had already been placed at his usual seat by the window. He unfolded the financial newspaper and sipped his coffee while reading, only for his ears to inadvertently catch the murmured conversation from the booth behind him.
Two voices. One of them was extremely familiar. A few days ago, that same voice had been sitting cross-legged on the tatami, smiling as it said to him, “Another day, I’ll talk to Ren Yu. When it comes to his husband’s bill, he should still help pay it.”
Zhou Ruo An? Fu Chun Shen instinctively frowned. The coffee in his mouth suddenly tasted even worse.
Zhou Ruo An’s voice was neither deep nor hoarse. Even when saying cruel things, the ends of his words always carried a lazy trace of amusement. Now, however, it sounded cold and sharp as he asked quietly, “How is it?”
The café bar was decorated with fragments of dark amber mirror. Every jagged edge cut Zhou Ruo An’s reflection into distorted pieces. Among those fragments, Fu Chun Shen saw another young face seated opposite Zhou Ruo An, wearing a patterned jacket as he slapped a medical report onto the table.
“You’re fine. You didn’t catch anything.” The man’s voice was low, some of his sentence endings sinking so far they nearly disappeared, difficult to catch. “I dealt with those two guys from the park for you. That part of them has been rubbed raw. They probably won’t think about doing anything like that again for the rest of their lives.”
Even through the murky amber reflections, Fu Chun Shen saw Zhou Ruo An’s expression abruptly change. He seemed to clench his teeth, suppressing some kind of discomfort.
“You came to me because you want revenge on that math teacher?” the deep voice asked again.
“Even Zhou Ran Ming didn’t touch that teacher. How could I possibly afford to go after him?”
“Then what are you trying to do?”
Zhou Ruo An pushed his untouched pastry toward the man. “He cares about Fang Fei that much, right? Then let his heart hurt one more time.”
The man looked at the pastry but didn’t touch it. He flipped the medical report to the next page, pushed it back toward Zhou Ruo An, and asked slowly, “Aren’t you afraid he’ll retaliate against you again?”
Zhou Ruo An lowered his eyes to the paper. A sentence had been abruptly scrawled across the medical report: “I’ll handle Zhang Xu Yao. I’ll take the fall for it. You leave the country. Otherwise, find someone else to act this out with you.”
The handwriting was messy, the pen pressed down so hard it had almost pierced the paper. It was unmistakably Lin Yi’s ugly handwriting.
Zhou Ruo An’s expression instantly froze, as though some sudden emotion had struck him hard. He steadied himself, reached into his pocket for a cigarette, and slowly lit it. The flame flickered on and off. After a long while, he finally moved his dry lips. “Me? I’m about to go to America to discuss a project. I don’t know when I’ll be back, and the ticket’s already booked. I’ll finish this job before I leave. If he wants revenge afterward, he’ll have to find me first.”
“You’re leaving?” The man showed a trace of surprise before quickly returning to calm mockery. “Makes sense. You’re not the Zhou Ruo An who used to follow behind me, surviving on scams and petty cons anymore. Sitting in front of me now is the dazzling young master of the Zhou family’s third branch, acknowledged and welcomed back into the clan.”
“If you want me to take revenge on Zhang Xu Yao for you, fine.” The man pushed aside the untouched pastry and looked at Zhou Ruo An. “But if you’re offering an incentive, make it something practical. The money you gave me last time is already gone.”
Holding his cigarette, Zhou Ruo An laughed self-mockingly. “You know my situation better than anyone. On the surface, things look decent enough, but Zhou Ran Ming controls all the company accounts. The money and resources I can actually move are extremely limited.”
Hearing this, the man stood, braced one hand against the table, and leaned closer to Zhou Ruo An. “I do know your background better than anyone. You’re just a civet cat, after all.”
He gave a soft scoff. “No wonder Young Master Zhou still needs an old friend like me to lend a hand. Turns out nobody else is willing to help you.” The beautifully presented macaron cake was crushed beneath his fork. “No money? Then there’s nothing to discuss.”
He tossed down the fork, turned, and pushed open the café door.
＊
After Lin Yi left, Zhou Ruo An sat there alone, motionless, his gaze fixed on the second page of the medical report.
His long fingers unconsciously rubbed the edge of the paper. His eyes were dark and deep, lingering on those crooked, ugly words for a very long time…
The coffee beside his hand had already gone cold when Zhou Ruo An finally came back to himself. He put away the report and was just about to stand when the chair across from him was suddenly pulled out. Fu Chun Shen sat down and tapped the tabletop with his index finger. “Give me back my phone.”
He still wore that cold, corpse-like expression, his tone calm and unquestionable.
Zhou Ruo An froze briefly before smiling without giving anything away. “What a coincidence. Secretary Fu is here too.”
“My phone.”
Zhou Ruo An feigned surprise. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Fu Chun Shen’s gaze stabbed straight toward him without the slightest detour, cleanly tearing away Zhou Ruo An’s façade. “You staged this entire performance to test me? You deliberately exposed your identity, but you were afraid I’d secretly make an audio or video recording as evidence, so you had my phone stolen beforehand?” His gaze swept toward the corridor leading to the restroom. “Fifteen minutes ago, someone in a hoodie bumped into me in there. I assume that’s when my phone was stolen.”
Zhou Ruo An clicked his tongue and laughed. “As expected, nothing can be hidden from Secretary Fu.”
He picked up his own phone and dialed a number. A few minutes later, Lin Yi pushed open the café door and wandered back in along the same route he had left, a silver phone resting in his black-gloved palm.
Zhou Ruo An pushed the phone toward Fu Chun Shen. “Since Secretary Fu chose to sit across from me now, that’s enough to prove you had no intention of secretly informing anyone. You and Zhou Zhe are no longer connected. So why not come work for me? Give Ren Yu a hand. He’s so busy these days he’s being run ragged.”
The frivolous-looking man leaned forward slightly and lowered his voice teasingly. “That way the two of you can see each other every day. Work while dating. Wouldn’t that be nice?”
Fu Chun Shen’s brow twitched faintly. Instead of answering, he summoned a waiter. “One Blue Mountain.” Then he pointed at Zhou Ruo An. “He’s paying.”
Only then did he ruthlessly refuse. “No. Your odds of winning are too low. No matter how well you do or how high you climb, the moment your identity is exposed, it’s game over. Between Ren Yu and me, one of us is already caught up in this mess. There’s no need for both of us to be buried alongside you.”
Zhou Ruo An nodded in acknowledgment. “That’s fair.” Then he smoothly changed direction. “But Secretary Fu has always claimed to conduct himself openly and aboveboard, yet you haven’t exactly lived up to that yourself. How about I tell Ren Yu your real identity?”
He slowly leaned back into his chair, leaving the rest to Lin Yi.
Lin Yi dragged over the pastry he had just mangled with the fork and, with little concern for manners, speared a piece and stuffed it into his mouth. His unhurried voice slipped out amid the sweetness. “Fu Chun Shen is the Second Young Master of Dingsheng Group. The Fu family is rooted in Guangdong and Guangxi. They’re involved in the medical and healthcare industry and have invested in numerous medical institutions, consistently ranking at the top of the industry.”
Just as he finished speaking, Fu Chun Shen’s coffee arrived. Zhou Ruo An smiled. “Young Master Fu doesn’t need to pretend to be poor in front of me. Fooling Ren Yu is enough.” Fu Chun Shen took a sip of coffee, and the slight irritation and embarrassment of having his cover stripped away dissolved into the rich flavor on his tongue. Setting down the cup, he said, “Right now, the balance in my account is only 42,372.6 yuan. The consequence of refusing to take over the family business is having to pay tens of thousands of yuan in monthly support to parents worth over a hundred million. That was nearly my entire monthly salary before. Now I’m unemployed, blacklisted across the industry, unwilling to leave this city, and my savings won’t last much longer.”
Zhou Ruo An laughed in exasperation. “So if you can’t afford the support payments, you have to crawl back home and inherit the family fortune?”
Fu Chun Shen didn’t answer. He merely took another silent sip of coffee, which counted as confirmation.
Zhou Ruo An muttered, “Fuck,” then grinned at Lin Yi. “Feel like beating him up?”
Lin Yi crushed the last macaron beneath his fork and said only one word. “Yes.”
“Then how about this?” Zhou Ruo An returned to the main topic. “I’ll lend you money and keep your secret for you. You don’t even have to help me with anything.”
Fu Chun Shen shook his head slightly. “I can’t accept something for nothing.”
Zhou Ruo An continued, “If one day I really fall from grace and end up in prison for fraud, all I ask is that you say a few good words for me in front of Ren Yu. Since he worked for me once, I don’t want him thinking I was nothing more than a worthless fraud.”
Fu Chun Shen paused. After considering it, he slowly replied, “Okay.” Then he added, “In that case, you’ll have to lend me a little more money.”