The midsummer sun was vicious. Zhou Ruo An stood before the grave, carrying a plastic bag. The plastic bag held takeout boxes, and not far away, a wild dog planning to snatch some food kept twitching the tip of its nose.
“Soup-filled yellow croaker. Over eight thousand for one dish. Try it, though when I ate it, it was only so-so.” Opening the takeout box, he set it before the grave. Zhou Ruo An took out a pack of cigarettes, tapped one into his palm, lit it, and sat down on the ground.
Blue smoke rose straight up in the scorching air, and his expression was as calm as a pool of dead water.
“This scenery,” he exhaled a mouthful of smoke and looked toward the distant waves of wheat, “makes it so I can’t even cry for you even if I wanted to.”
“You came to me in a dream yesterday and said your head hurt.” His fingers reached into the pocket of his shirt and took out a small medicine bottle. “Painkillers. Headache, foot pain, stomachache—take one and it works.”
Unscrewing the cap, he poured the tablets out before the grave. “Three years.” He set down the medicine bottle and said to the young man in the photo, “I’ve already stayed in the Zhou family for three years.”
Zhang Jin in the photo was forever frozen at twenty-two, his eyes without light, still wearing that indifferent, barely-caring expression he had before he died.
“Taking someone’s money means helping them avert disaster. I’ve come to give you a work report.” Zhou Ruo An flicked the ash from his cigarette. “You once said that scum like me could succeed no matter what tiger’s den or wolf’s lair I went into. Thanks to your lucky words, I really can now ride on the shoulders of your Third Branch and throw my weight around.”
“Your eldest brother Zhou Bin is amorous, so I catered to his preferences and indulged him. Now he’s only in his thirties, but his body has already been hollowed out. Not long ago, that man went for a physical examination in a secretive, evasive way. I asked around privately and found out that he had actually been diagnosed with AIDS.”
“Your second brother Zhou Zhe is ruthless enough. For the sake of rising to power, he was even willing to pit his own father. I gave things a little push along the way, and now the old man has been angered into a stroke. He can’t even speak clearly, yet he still curses Zhou Zhe as an unfilial son every day.”
“As for Zhou Zhe…” Zhou Ruo An held the cigarette between his lips and smiled. “He’s doing very well. He’s serving as the company’s vice president, with limitless glory. His courage is also growing greater and greater; whether something should be touched or not, he wants to try it all. Then I could only follow his wishes and place the red line he must not touch right before him.”
Tilting his head up to look at the horizon, Zhou Ruo An said in a low voice, “Soon. A greedy person won’t refuse to bite the hook.”
Standing up and patting the dust from his trousers, he took one last look at the photo. “Once Zhou Zhe puts on silver bracelets, our account will be settled. For your fifteen yuan, I’ve worked for three years. This deal… wasn’t worth it.”
He walked onto the cemetery path and waved behind him without turning back. “I’m leaving. If there’s any news, I’ll come report to you again.”
……
After walking out of the cemetery, a black sedan was parked quietly by the roadside.
When Zhou Ruo An pulled open the car door, the person in the driver’s seat raised a hand, motioning for him to be quiet.
The air-conditioning inside the car was very strong, and Zhou Ruo An, carrying the heat of summer all over him, shivered. The person in the driver’s seat was on the phone. The French was awkward and difficult, winding through the carriage and making people drowsy.
When Ren Yu ended the transoceanic meeting, Zhou Ruo An was still pretending to nap. He started the engine, and the car body trembled slightly before that person finally opened one slit of an eye and muttered, “So busy, Assistant Ren.”
Ren Yu glanced sideways at Zhou Ruo An. “If my boss actually put his mind on work, I wouldn’t be this busy.”
Zhou Ruo An choked and, for once, had nothing to say.
In view of Ren Yu’s insubordination, the petty-minded leader decided to take revenge. He took out his phone and called the human resources director. “Director Xu, let that Fu Chun Shen onboard. Yes, have him report tomorrow.”
The car that had just started abruptly braked to a stop, and Ren Yu’s expression truly did not look good. “You’re hiring Fu Chun Shen?”
“Yes. He’s already submitted his résumé three times.”
“Didn’t Shengkai blacklist him forever?”
“What ancient history is that?” Zhou Ruo An’s words carried a trace of guilt. “Fu Chun Shen’s abilities are obvious to all. Our company naturally appoints people according to merit.”
Ren Yu frowned tightly. “What position?”
Zhou Ruo An leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes. “You’ve been working too hard lately. You’re short one secretary.”
……
Zhou Ruo An rarely got carsick, but when he got out of Ren Yu’s car today, he was a little dizzy and disoriented.
He looked at the car driving away in anger and imagined in his mind what Ren Yu would look like stepping his foot straight into the fuel tank.
Turning around, he dialed a number. “I’ve repaid the favor I owed you. From now on, it depends on your own ability.” The elevator button lit up beneath his finger. “But if you let Ren Yu know that I used this position in exchange for your help, Fu Chun Shen, you can forget about ever getting close to my assistant again in this lifetime.”
A calm voice came from the phone. “If he finds out about this, I’m afraid you also won’t have another chance to get close to him in this lifetime.”
“Fuck.” Zhou Ruo An hung up expressionlessly and walked into the elevator with the takeout bag.
……
The elevator stopped on the seventeenth floor, where the Feiyu Group logo was huge and eye-catching. Someone was guarding the entrance to the president’s office, and the female secretary politely stopped Zhou Ruo An.
“Mr. Zhou, our boss isn’t here.”
Zhou Ruo An sighed, went around her, and directly pushed open the tightly shut door behind her.
The man inside the office looked up at the sound. Beneath his buzz cut, his brows and eyes were sharp.
The instant Zhou Ruo An entered his vision, he frowned. “Why are you here again?”
Ignoring the man’s terrible attitude, Zhou Ruo An placed the bag in his hand on the desk and spoke on his own. “I just went to the cemetery to see Zhang Jin. I ordered two portions of soup-filled yellow croaker from the best restaurant, one for him and one for you. Both of you are ancestors I can’t afford to offend, so I have to indulge you.”
The man pushed the takeout box aside. “I’ve already eaten. If there’s nothing else, go back. I still have work to do.”
Zhou Ruo An clicked his tongue lightly, pulled over a chair, and sat down across from the desk. Propping himself against the table, he supported his head with one arm and looked at the documents on the desk. “You didn’t even graduate from junior high school. President Lin, can you even recognize all those words? Do you still remember squatting by the street a few years ago and asking me how to read the word ‘filth’?”
Hearing this, the man’s face cooled, and his already unfriendly features appeared even somewhat fierce and hostile. “Mr. Zhou, I have already told you many times. Ever since I was injured, I no longer remember you as a person, and I have also forgotten everything that happened between us. Furthermore, I have not the slightest interest in those past events you speak of. I even find them somewhat repulsive.”
“Lin Yi.” The light in Zhou Ruo An’s eyes slowly receded. “You remember Bai Ban, you remember Zhang Jin, you even remember the name of the owner of that barbecue place we always went to, but you just happened to forget me?”
Lin Yi picked up his pen again and gave an answer without much sincerity. “Maybe that means you simply weren’t that important to me.”
“Not important?” Zhou Ruo An abruptly grabbed the man’s hand and pressed it against the back of his own head. “Then how did this scar come about? When Zhou Ran Ming smashed that stone down, who risked his life to protect me?”
The scar beneath his fingers twisted and wound like a sleeping centipede. Lin Yi slowly lowered his hand and looked at the faint redness at the corner of the young man’s eyes. “Maybe the situation forced me to. Or maybe… you dragged me into it.”
The room abruptly fell quiet, filled with a suffocating silence.
Zhou Ruo An’s thumb rubbed hard twice against the coin in his pocket. He said slowly, “How many times have I told you…” He stood, went around the desk, and forcibly turned Lin Yi’s chair around, then straddled him face to face. “You like me. You like me to the point of madness.”
His knees pressed against the man’s firm thighs, and he grabbed Lin Yi’s tie, pulling him closer. “For me, you were willing to suffer any crime and swallow any loss.” His fingertip poked the other man’s chest. “Lin Yi, your heart and eyes are completely full of me.”
“Is that so?” Lin Yi loosened his tie and leaned back into the chair, opening a little distance between them. “That humble? Good thing I forgot.”
Zhou Ruo An froze, and the red at the corners of his eyes deepened. He abruptly pressed forward and forcefully pried open Lin Yi’s teeth with his index finger. “You drank my blood, and I drank yours. You talked to me about making a blood oath, and in the end, you turned around and refused to acknowledge it!”
Lin Yi’s tongue pressed against Zhou Ruo An’s fingertip, slowly pushing his finger out. He drew a tissue and unhurriedly wiped the corner of his lips, his voice cold. “Mr. Zhou, the distance between us seems to have already exceeded the bounds of normal social interaction.”
Zhou Ruo An gave a scoffing laugh. Not only did he not retreat, both hands climbed onto Lin Yi’s shoulders instead, and his whole body nearly pressed into his arms. Tilting his head, his lips brushed seemingly intentionally and unintentionally past the man’s cheek, his warm breath sweeping over the shell of his ear. “Distance? Do you know what kind of distance there has been between us?”
His fingers slid downward and pressed against Lin Yi’s chest. Zhou Ruo An’s voice was both soft and ruthless. “We have faced each other naked, chest pressed against chest, without the slightest distance. We were even…”
“Negative.”
After a long silence, Zhou Ruo An finally felt the change in Lin Yi.
The heartbeat beneath his palm grew more and more violent, and the muscles pressed against him gradually tightened. Zhou Ruo An’s kiss landed lightly at the corner of Lin Yi’s lips.
His voice was muffled. “Do you need me to help President Lin recall it?”
With his shirt hem loosened and the clasp undone, Zhou Ruo An slowly slid down and knelt on the long-pile carpet…
His throat hurt badly, and the corner of his lips seemed to have split. Zhou Ruo An worked hard to make himself filthy, coughing low at the final moment.
There was none of the usual soothing, not even a sip of water brought to him. Lin Yi soon calmed his breathing and lowered his eyes to ask, “Mr. Zhou, what exactly do you want?”
Zhou Ruo An lifted his head and looked at the man whose expression remained cold and hard, his tone so light it was almost a plea. “Call me An An once.”
Before the words had even finished, his neck was seized hard. Lin Yi bent down, stared into Zhou Ruo An’s eyes, and asked, “You really want me to call you that?”
“Mm.”
“For how long?”
Their eyes met. Zhou Ruo An straightened his back slightly beneath the pressure on his neck and kissed Lin Yi. “As long as you want.”
Abruptly, he was suddenly pulled up and thrown over someone’s shoulder.
The door to the lounge connected to the office area was forcefully pushed open, and Lin Yi threw Zhou Ruo An onto the bed.
The wooden door slowly swung back, letting out a click. The curtains in the lounge were drawn, and the room was dark.
The bedside lamp was suddenly turned on, and in the spreading light, Zhou Ruo An leaned against the headboard and put a cigarette into his mouth.
“Every time, you can’t endure it once we reach this point.” He lifted his eyelids. “Lin Yi, look at how little self-control you have.”
Lin Yi grabbed his ankle and pulled, dragging him closer. He took away his cigarette and kissed him hard, sending the words into his wet mouth. “This time, your acting was a little lacking. Last time, didn’t you cut your finger with a paper knife before shoving it into my mouth?”
Zhou Ruo An turned his head and laughed softly. “Back then, I thought you really had amnesia and had forgotten me completely. Now I’m just playing a game with a pervert like you. There’s no need to stab myself again.”
He pushed the man and turned over to pin him down, tugging at Lin Yi’s collar. “You never had amnesia at all, but you made me coax you for two or three months. Every fucking day, I humbled myself and acted small, endured your cold face, and even had to take the initiative to strip myself naked and deliver myself into your hands before you were willing to take one bite.”
He bit the cigarette back into his mouth and messed up another button of the man’s collar. “At night you acted like a beast, and by day you still put on that face for me, calling me Mr. Zhou every time, keeping me at a respectful distance. But as soon as the sun set and the lights went out, you threw me onto the bed again. By day, I had to coax the cold-faced you, and by night, I had to coax the beastly you. And I fucking spent every day worrying about gains and losses, afraid that you…”
Lin Yi pulled him down and wrapped him in his arms. “Afraid I what?”
Zhou Ruo An rolled down from him and leaned against the headboard to light his cigarette. He sank into the dim lamplight and smoke, silent for a very long time before slowly saying, “Afraid you really had forgotten me.”
“If I forgot you, wouldn’t you be free?” Lin Yi leaned beside him and shared the cigarette with him. “That was something you once wanted more than anything. Why would you be afraid?”
“…” Zhou Ruo An’s words stalled. A moment later, he smiled and said, “If you forgot me, where would I find someone so useful to exploit in the future?”
With the cigarette between his lips, Lin Yi gave an “mm.” “It was because you were afraid you’d have no one to exploit that you cried and kissed me again and again while I was injured and unconscious?”
“I didn’t.” Zhou Ruo An denied it in shock, then asked softly, “At that time… you were conscious?”
“Occasionally. I knew you were guarding by my side. Most of the time, my awareness was muddled. I think I even vaguely saw the God of Death.”
Zhou Ruo An gripped Lin Yi’s wrist tightly. The next moment, the man held his hand in return. “Do you know what I heard you say that made me struggle to wake up?”
“…That if you died, I wouldn’t mourn you for three years?”
Lin Yi smiled and held him tighter. “What you said at the time wasn’t that polite. You were roaring in my ear that if I died, you’d turn around and climb into someone else’s bed. One wouldn’t be enough, you’d climb into ten or eight of them…”
Zhou Ruo An covered Lin Yi’s mouth, his face somewhat flushed with embarrassment. “So that woke you up?”
Lin Yi shook his head. “Although I was angry, I still couldn’t break free from the black fog before my eyes. Until you said…”
“Said what?”
“Until I heard you say… Lin Yi, if you die, then in this world, there really won’t be anyone who loves Zhou Ruo An anymore.”
“At the time, I thought in my heart, Zhou Ruo An has no father or mother, and no real friends. Everyone thinks he’s a piece of scum. If I died, then truly no one would know…” Lin Yi gently kissed the young man’s lashes. “That he is someone who can risk his life for a little cat.”
Beneath the solitary lamp, Zhou Ruo An tremblingly put the cigarette into his mouth. “So you fought desperately to survive?”
The cigarette was extinguished. He lifted his lashes and once again pushed Lin Yi down, straddling him from above and looking down as he asked, “You survived just so you could pretend to have amnesia and trick me? I was fucking fooled by you for three whole months.”
Lin Yi let Zhou Ruo An do as he wished and smiled as he asked, “How did you know I was pretending?”
“I…” Zhou Ruo An looked away in embarrassment and anger. “When you used the electric clamps, you actually knew what level I could endure.”
Lin Yi laughed lowly. “That was my oversight.”
Slowly, he reined in his smile. He raised his hand and touched Zhou Ruo An’s cheek, his expression cooling. “Mr. Zhou, weren’t you going to let me recall the distance we once had between us? Start now.”
Zhou Ruo An sneered. “President Lin, back then, I was on top and you were below. Now I’ll let you experience it.”
Snap. The light went out. Lin Yi’s voice came from the darkness. “Fine. Then I’ll experience it.”
Before long, Zhou Ruo An began begging for mercy as usual. “Lin Yi, Brother Lin… don’t. I was wrong…”
……
The fifteenth day of the eighth month, family banquet.
Around the round table, the Zhou family members all wore different expressions. The First Branch was unwilling, the Second Branch watched the show, and Zhou Bin of the Third Branch had grown so thin he no longer looked like himself, a sickly gloom shrouding his brows. Only Zhou Zhe, dressed all in plain white, poured tea unhurriedly, carrying an air of low-key satisfaction.
The main seat was empty.
That had once been Zhou Ran Ming’s seat. Now he had long since been thrown into prison, and it seemed no one in this family had mentioned his name in a very long time.
At six fifteen, the old clock in the old residence struck heavily.
Zhou Ruo An stepped into the dining room to the sound of the bell. Everyone rose to welcome him, and whether willing or not, smiles were piled on their faces.
Zhou Ruo An returned a faint smile and walked straight to the main seat before slowly sitting down. Before anyone could come flatter him, he first said to Uncle Zhong standing to the side, “Add a chair.”
Everyone looked around. No one was absent, and for a moment, no one knew who this chair was being left for.
Once the chair was added, the sound of a car engine being turned off came from the courtyard. Before long, the doors of the old residence were pushed open, and a tall figure stepped in.
The man had broad shoulders and long legs, with sharp brows and eyes. When his gaze swept over everyone, it carried a malicious sense of pressure.
He slowly walked closer, until he reached Zhou Ruo An’s side.
“Sit.” Zhou Ruo An patted the chair beside him.
After the man sat down, Zhou Ruo An raised his glass, his smile faint and shallow. “On the Mid-Autumn Festival, what we seek is reunion. I see that aside from those who are single, everyone has brought their family members. Very good. Harmonious, lively, and warm.” He rested his hand on the seat beside him, his voice neither light nor heavy. “Let me introduce him. Lin Yi, president of Feiyu Group, and also… mine.”
The moment his words fell, the entire table was shocked.
There was no need to think deeply about what Zhou Ruo An meant by those words. Anyone could understand.
Mid-Autumn. The seat beside him. Mine.
Zhou Ruo An had already placed the relationship between the two of them openly on the table.
Lin Yi was his family.
Before everyone could recover from their shock, Lin Yi had already raised his wineglass. He looked around at everyone and said flatly, “From now on, please take care of me.”
At the moment of the full moon, the two neighboring wineglasses lightly touched together.
Beneath the table, the red velvet tablecloth swayed gently, and two hands clasped tightly together.
……
“Zhou Ruo An, do you love me?”
“I don’t know. But I… don’t want to lose you.”
“And you? Do you love me?”
“I do. As long as you stand beside me, my love is the confidence that lets you act without fear.”
“What if I want to leave?”
“Die first.”
“…Fine.”
Main Story Complete
Elio’s Notes: Finaaaaally! Hopefully, we can get a chance to translate the missing chapters in the future. Stay tuned for a few special chapters before we end this.
Futile Devices Scans 
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