An arm as pale as jade rested against the edge of the bed, slender fingers holding a cigarette.
The smoke curling upward twisted into disorder with the force of the movement, and after a muffled groan, the ash gathered at the cigarette tip scattered onto the floor.
A light-brown palm slowly slid down the well-proportioned arm until it reached the fingertips and tried to take the cigarette away.
The fingers pressed down and dodged. A slightly breathless voice mingled with the dense night. “Smoke again and don’t fucking get into my bed.”
The large hand instead closed around that pale wrist, and Yan Ye’s low, hoarse voice sounded beside his ear. “Master Xue doesn’t like it?”
“Cigarettes aren’t suitable for minors or idiots.”
Laughter slipped into Yan Ye’s gentle voice. He reversed their positions and looked up at Xue Bao Tian from below, watching him wrapped in moonlight, radiant from head to toe.
“My cigarette craving kicked in, and my mouth keeps wanting something to chew on.” Yan Ye held his index and middle fingers together as though gripping a cigarette. “If Master Xue wants me to quit smoking, you have to give my mouth something else, right?”
Xue Bao Tian’s chest rose slightly. “You fucking…”
Yan Ye did not have many ways of handling Xue Bao Tian, but the few he had were effective. The white cigarette smoke suddenly trembled into chaos as Yan Ye calmly ordered, “Bring it here yourself.”
The corners of Xue Bao Tian’s lips flattened. Rarely, he looked almost aggrieved, yet he had no choice but to slowly bend down while stubbornly maintaining his arrogance. “I’ll fucking bite you to death.”
Yan Ye got what he wanted, his satisfied voice muffled. “Baobao, so good.”
The medicine-food homology project had already been implemented. Its economic returns were accumulating slowly, but its social impact had far exceeded expectations. The health philosophy behind medicine-food homology, along with its future direction and economic model, sparked widespread discussion throughout the pharmaceutical industry. As a pioneer exploring the field, Xue Bao Tian was invited to numerous forums and exchange events. Both this young leader and Ruixiang Pharmaceuticals behind him became widely known because of the project.
In the brilliantly lit auditorium, Xue Bao Tian stood at the main podium in a crisp silver-gray suit, straight and proud as a dawn redwood. His features were cool and faintly severe, elegant yet relaxed as he spoke with confidence.
There was little rise and fall in his tone, nor much overt passion. His voice, cold and clear as jade, carried throughout the auditorium. That restraint instead made him sound intellectual, rigorous, and remarkably convincing. No one could possibly tell that outside his professional field, the man onstage was a genuine, certified illiterate.
His unhurried speech suddenly paused. Xue Bao Tian’s gaze settled on a corner at the very back of the auditorium. Sunlight from the window cast a rectangular patch of brightness across the wall, and a tall man stood within it, smiling as he met Xue Bao Tian’s eyes.
After a brief pause, Xue Bao Tian lowered his head to glance at the script in his hand. His voice returned to normal, but the corners of his lips had curved upward, betraying a faint smile.
The seminar was a great success. Xue Bao Tian shook countless hands, exchanged business cards, and discussed possible partnerships, yet he remained slightly distracted. Once he finally managed to escape the crowd, he found Yan Ye beneath a jacaranda tree outside the auditorium.
In the Brocade City, even the wind smelled sweet.
Elio’s Notes: “Brocade City” is a historical nickname for Chengdu, long associated with the city’s famous brocade industry.
The drifting petals and fluttering hems tugged Xue Bao Tian’s heart until it felt sore and soft. In nearly thirty years of life, he had been like ordinary wild grass, growing rough and unremarkable. No one had ever treated him with solemn devotion, nor had anyone ever waited for him this earnestly. No matter how late, no matter how long, beneath the swaying tree shadows there was always that call wrapped in the fragrance of flowers: “Two Hundred.”
Xue Bao Tian lifted a smiling face, though there was wickedness in it. “Why are you here? It’s good that you remember your status as a grandson, but there’s no need to be so thorough with the etiquette. Come pay your respects every few days. Would Master Xue really blame you?”
Yan Ye adored Xue Bao Tian’s sharp mouth. Smiling, he pulled him beneath the shade and buried his face in the hollow of Xue Bao Tian’s neck to breathe him in.
Xue Bao Tian looked around and pushed him away. “In your next life, reincarnate as a dog. Master Xue will raise you and put a collar on you openly.”
The hand around his waist tightened, and the man’s breathing grew deep and uneven. Xue Bao Tian, who had only been running his mouth for fun, suddenly regretted it. This dog lost his head regardless of time or place and never cared whether people were still passing in the distance, or whether the drooping flowers and branches concealed only their upper bodies.
Just as Xue Bao Tian was about to coax Yan Ye not to lose control, the dog straightened up and voluntarily created some distance between them.
“Two Hundred.”
“Mm?”
“You’re amazing.”
Xue Bao Tian raised his eyes and saw naked admiration and affection in Yan Ye’s gaze.
“Just now, when you were standing onstage, you were shining.” Yan Ye gently stroked Xue Bao Tian’s cheek. “I’ve always known you were amazing. Now everyone else knows too. Xue Bao Tian is capable and impressive. No one will ever dismiss your opinions again or throw your hard work into a trash can or paper shredder.”
He bent slightly and brushed aside the flowering branch in front of Xue Bao Tian, as though speaking the most tender words in his heart. “My Two Hundred is the best.”
The sunlight that day was no different from any other, shining across Yan Ye’s white shirt, yet Xue Bao Tian seemed to see something beautiful.
At that moment, he seemed to lose the ability to speak. His tongue, normally so quick and sharp, did not know how to respond. He almost did not dare breathe. The scent of the flowers was too rich, and somehow he already felt drunk.
His increasingly rapid heartbeat became the only sound in the world. The people moving in the distance and the surrounding noise vanished in the stillness of that moment. Xue Bao Tian, who had never been properly loved, only learned that day that love smelled like jacaranda blossoms.
“Come here. Master Xue will stamp you with his seal.” Xue Bao Tian hooked an arm around the back of Yan Ye’s neck and offered his lips.
A breeze occasionally shook loose blue petals, scattering them over their shoulders and hair. Kissing beneath that rain of flowers, Xue Bao Tian came to another realization: so this was romance.
Just as he was losing himself in it, Yan Ye suddenly drew back and pressed a hand to the back of Xue Bao Tian’s neck, pushing his face into his broad shoulder.
Then Xue Bao Tian heard Yan Ye’s cold, hard voice. “Who’s there?”
“Sorry. Tying my shoelace. You two continue.”
A man’s voice came from the distance, slightly muffled yet strangely familiar, especially the lilting ending to his words. His Mandarin pronunciation was not standard.
Xue Bao Tian twisted around in Yan Ye’s arms and looked back, immediately confirming his suspicion. “Fan Xiao.”
The man who had been pretending to tie his shoelaces straightened up, pushed aside the dense flowering branches, and walked over with a smile. “It really is Young Master Xue. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me.”
Anyone could see the word “gossip” written all over Fan Xiao’s face, yet he spoke with perfect seriousness, deliberately wandering around the subject. “Has Young Master Xue forgotten? Part of my business now involves pharmaceuticals too, so the forum organizers sent me an invitation. Your talk inside just now was excellent. Ruixiang kept you suppressed for so many years. What a waste of talent.”
Fan Xiao was excellent at putting on airs. At the moment, he looked every inch the polished elite, but while speaking, his gaze passed over Xue Bao Tian to study the man standing behind him, openly inspecting Yan Ye as though watching a show.
Yan Ye met his gaze without avoidance. His expression was gentle, but his eyes carried weight. Fan Xiao’s shrewdness was carved into his bones; one glance told him that the man protecting Xue Bao Tian was not someone easy to provoke. He gave a small nod, offering a greeting before any formal introduction had taken place.
Xue Bao Tian might have been rotten, but his rottenness was out in the open. When he dealt with someone, he usually caused a little trouble, vented his anger, and moved on. Fan Xiao was rotten somewhere much deeper. He rarely made a move, but whenever he truly put thought into dealing with someone, that person usually ended badly.
Back when Xue Bao Tian had no real power, he had planned to rely on Fan Xiao to open up the international pharmaceutical market and had thoroughly played the lackey for him. Knowing exactly what Fan Xiao was like, and remembering how cowardly he himself had acted in those days, Xue Bao Tian naturally had no pleasant expression to offer now.
He took out a cigarette, put it between his lips, cupped a hand against the wind, and lit it.
The smell of tobacco mingled with the fragrance of flowers. Xue Bao Tian smiled. “Every industry gets a rat dropping or two mixed in. Seeing President Fan here isn’t especially surprising.”
Even after being insulted, Fan Xiao’s smile did not fade. “Young Master Xue used to be much more polite.”
Xue Bao Tian exhaled smoke into the mottled tree shadows. “You said it yourself. That was before. Now you can just endure it.” He clicked his tongue regretfully. “Director You is good in every possible way. His eyesight is just a little poor. He keeps picking up all kinds of trash and bringing it home.”
“What trash did I pick up?” A low, warm voice approached from a distance. Following the sound, they saw a man part the flowers and brush aside the branches as he walked toward them, tall and upright, broad-shouldered and narrow-waisted, making even the most ordinary shirt and trousers look effortlessly elegant.
Xue Bao Tian rarely smiled sincerely, but genuine warmth now appeared in his sharp eyes. “Long time no see, Director You.”
You Shu Lang was exactly the kind of person his name suggested, clear and bright as moonlight after rain. When Xue Bao Tian’s father had been defrauded and Xue Bao Tian himself had fallen from the clouds into the mud, You Shu Lang had been the first person to lend a hand, offering him an old house when he had nowhere to live.
Strictly speaking, You Shu Lang and Xue Bao Tian were not especially close friends. Xue Bao Tian had simply benefited from the man’s habit of helping whenever he was able.
You Shu Lang always made others feel as though they had stepped into a spring breeze. After greeting Xue Bao Tian, he naturally did not neglect the unfamiliar face standing behind him.
“And this is?”
Fan Xiao’s gaze had been fixed on You Shu Lang from the moment he approached. Only now did he chime in. “I’d like to know too.”
Xue Bao Tian looked past Fan Xiao and introduced Yan Ye to You Shu Lang. “General Manager of Yanyue Security, Yan Ye.”
Then he reversed the introduction. “This is You Shu Lang, the person in charge of Changling Pharmaceuticals. Yan Ye, just follow me and call him Director You.” Afterward he glanced at Fan Xiao and brushed him aside with a single sentence. “This is Fan Xiao, Thai.”
“Chinese. Raised in Thailand.” Fan Xiao immediately returned to his respectable act, politely shaking Yan Ye’s hand before adding, “Shu Lang and I are lovers.”
Yan Ye showed no surprise. Although he had never stepped into the room Xue Bao Tian had borrowed, he had once stood outside its doorway for a long time. With his professional habits, everything within his field of vision had been carefully observed. In the group photograph on the shelf, the two people leaning together were the same two standing before him now. But even without that picture, the way their temperaments fit together and the way they looked at each other made their intimacy impossible to hide.
Yan Ye suddenly felt a little envious of a closeness that could be openly acknowledged beneath the sunlight.
When men met, a certain amount of social courtesy was inevitable. Outside combat, Yan Ye was usually mild and easygoing, but because he so rarely revealed his true nature, others found him difficult to read. Fan Xiao was equally skilled at acting respectable, courteous, restrained, and impeccably measured. The two exchanged pleasantries with polished ease, each thoroughly familiar with the social games of grown men.
Xue Bao Tian, however, was not mature at all. He pulled You Shu Lang aside and whispered insults about Fan Xiao, warning Director You to keep a close eye on his man and never allow that scumbag to rise from the dead.
Fan Xiao overheard enough to interrupt. “Young Master Xue, may I borrow you for a moment? Let’s discuss cooperation. My elder brother has some standing in Thailand’s pharmaceutical industry. If Ruixiang wants to expand into imported health products, I have a few channels.”
Xue Bao Tian bit down on his cigarette and considered it. His smile instantly became flattering. “President Fan is a man of great ability. Little Brother relied on you back then, and it seems I still need to rely on you now.” He took out a cigarette and handed it over. “Come on. Let’s talk.”
The two of them immediately became intimate, almost ready to throw their arms around each other’s shoulders. After moving to another patch of shade, Fan Xiao accepted the cigarette, bent his head to light it, and asked his first question. “So Young Master Xue has gone bent?”
Xue Bao Tian clicked his tongue. “Something like that.”
“The last time I saw you, you were still spending a fortune on some woman from a nightclub.”
Xue Bao Tian glanced at him. “Where’s the actual business?”
Fan Xiao ignored the question. “The kid looks pretty young. Not even a wrinkle on his face. Where did you trick him from?” He quickly reconsidered. “Then again, Young Master Xue is pretty straightforward, while that kid doesn’t look simple. Hard to say who tricked whom.”
Xue Bao Tian’s eyes sharpened. “Stop fucking calling him a kid. Trying to take advantage of me? If we’re talking about tricking people, who could beat you, President Fan? Director You is kindhearted and has a remarkable talent for collecting trash. Otherwise, with three garbage bins in front of you, you’d have had to pick one.”
No matter how he behaved in private, Fan Xiao was usually flattered and praised to his face. After being insulted so thoroughly, he finally began grinding his teeth. “Young Master Xue, the pot really is calling the kettle black. If some of the things you did in the past came out, the kid might run.”
Xue Bao Tian smiled contemptuously and blew a smoke ring into the air. “Even if I fucking killed someone, he’d help me bury the body.” His patience ran out. “Do you have actual business or not? If not, I’m not fucking standing here shooting the breeze with you.”
“I do.” The amusement in Fan Xiao’s eyes faded into a cold gray haze. “Do you know Tongjiang Pharmaceuticals? It isn’t large, fewer than fifty stores in Xingcheng. They’ve delayed paying me for medicine for almost ten months. I haven’t even lost my temper yet, and the owner is already trying to swallow my money and force me to take the loss.”
Fan Xiao flicked away his cigarette butt, lowered his brows, and smiled. “If nobody messes with me, I don’t mess with them. Since he doesn’t know what’s good for him and decided to come after my money, I’ll teach him a lesson he’ll never recover from.”
He looked at Xue Bao Tian. “Set a trap and swallow the company. Young Master Xue, interested?”
Xue Bao Tian raised a brow and thought for a moment. “What do I get?”
“The fifty stores become yours and help you open the southern market. I supply the pharmacies, and profits are split normally.” Fan Xiao glanced toward You Shu Lang nearby and lowered his voice further. “Also, from now on, whenever Ruixiang opens a store in the south, I get first priority as supplier. Young Master Xue, what do you think?”
Xue Bao Tian considered it and was just about to answer when a low, decisive voice cut in. “No.”
He turned and found Yan Ye standing there.
All gentleness had vanished from the man’s expression. Cold pressure radiated from his entire body. “President Fan, don’t involve Ruixiang in this kind of risky scheme again.”
Fan Xiao laughed softly. “Fortune has always been found amid danger.” He glanced sideways at Xue Bao Tian. “Young Master Xue, you’re letting a kid make decisions for you?”
Yan Ye’s tone was not sharp, but Xue Bao Tian knew he was already angry. Yan Ye was most dangerous when his anger remained hidden. Wanting to soothe him, Xue Bao Tian pretended to scold Fan Xiao. “What fucking kid? He’s my ancestor.”
Waving his hand, Xue Bao Tian walked toward Yan Ye and continued shamelessly currying favor. “My family’s ancestor has spoken. From now on, don’t involve Ruixiang in any more wicked, smoke-belching business.”
Even as he spoke, he secretly made an OK sign behind his back.
Fan Xiao curled his lips and played along. “Young Master Xue, even if a deal doesn’t work out, friendship remains. We’ve met an old acquaintance far from home, so how about we attend a concert together tomorrow night?”
A concert? Xue Bao Tian stopped in his tracks. The two illiterates looked at each other and simultaneously fell silent. “…”
Just as Xue Bao Tian was searching for an excuse to refuse, You Shu Lang approached holding two tickets. “Fan Xiao and I both bought tickets, so we happen to have two extras. If President Xue and General Manager Yan are free, we can all go together.”
Xue Bao Tian looked at Yan Ye. Yan Ye, fellow illiterate, avoided his gaze.
Faced with a friend who had helped him during his worst period, Xue Bao Tian swallowed. “…All right.”
Five minutes later, the two stood beside a busy street waiting for a car. Yan Ye stared straight ahead and suddenly said in a low voice, “Aren’t you curious how I heard your conversation with Fan Xiao?”
He turned toward Xue Bao Tian, whose expression had become suspicious. “Xue Bao Tian, if I want to, I can know everything you do in private. So that thing where you openly repair the plank road while secretly crossing… whatever place it is, best not try anything like that.”
Elio’s Notes: Yan Ye is mangling the idiom “openly repair the plank road while secretly crossing at Chencang,” which means to make a show of one plan while secretly carrying out another. The joke is that neither of these two scholars of the century can remember it properly.