Some people might leave, but their echoes remained behind.
Inside the tiny reception room, it felt as though ten thousand mosquitoes were buzzing beside Jiang Ji’s ears, all of them Lu Xingyan circling around him: I like you, I like you, I like you…
Was that really true?
Jiang Ji did not believe it.
It was not as though Jiang Ji had never wondered why Lu Xingyan had spent all these years clinging to him.
At first, perhaps it really had been hatred and deliberate provocation. Later, however, that clearly stopped being the whole reason. Someone who genuinely hated another person wanted them to disappear, not constantly invented excuses to stick close to them every few days.
Jiang Ji believed Lu Xingyan admired him a little. It was the kind of admiration a younger brother might hold for an older brother, accompanied by a desire to improve their relationship.
But from the moment they met, the two of them had behaved like natural enemies, locked into a pattern of arguing every time they saw each other. Lu Xingyan was too embarrassed to lower his head, so he went around in circles and caused trouble for no reason.
Before now, those “troubles” could at least be interpreted as pranks, a childish younger brother using clumsy methods to attract his attention.
Turning a confession into a prank, however, crossed the line.
Jiang Ji could not be bothered with him.
Remaining unchanged in the face of every change was the best method for handling Lu Xingyan.
That afternoon, Jiang Ji continued working as usual.
He was currently busy with an important project. He had been running the startup for more than three years. Although the company was developing quickly, it was still relatively young, and Jiang Ji personally handled almost everything, frequently working overtime.
At around five o’clock, he received a WeChat message.
Li Ling: “What time are you getting off? Dinner’s on me tonight.”
Jiang Ji paused before rejecting him with practiced ease. “At least another two hours. Go eat. We’ll meet another day.”
He had barely replied when Li Ling sent a voice message and sighed dramatically. “Jiang Ji, you always say ‘another day.’ Exactly which day are you planning to postpone me until?”
“…”
The tone was intimate and openly ambiguous. Jiang Ji frowned and thought that compared with an old hand like Li Ling, who supposedly knew how to maintain boundaries, Lu Xingyan’s complete lack of boundaries was almost adorable.
Jiang Ji had met Li Ling early the previous year.
There had been nothing particularly remarkable about it. Li Ling was one of his investors—or, more accurately, the son of one of his investors.
Back then, Jiang Ji was still at the stage where he needed to seek investment. He socialized frequently and attended plenty of business dinners. Occasionally, someone would hint across the table that with a face like his, he could always take a shortcut.
He had heard explicit invitations like “Contact me if you’re willing” more times than he could count, coming from people of different ages and both genders. The endless propositions left Jiang Ji exhausted.
Li Ling’s father, Li Hongde, was one of the more respectable investors. He had no interest in those crooked arrangements and cared only about whether Jiang Ji was capable and could generate returns.
Jiang Ji had spent considerable effort earning the man’s trust and ultimately received a large investment. Their cooperation had been pleasant.
Then one day, while Jiang Ji was having dinner with President Li Sr., he met the man’s only son, Li Ling.
Li Ling was twenty-nine this year, a rich playboy packaged to resemble an elite professional.
To put it bluntly, he was an incompetent fool who dressed the part. He went to work seriously every day but actually managed very little. Anything important was decided by his father. Li Ling’s main responsibilities were spending money recklessly and sleeping with men.
The first time he met Jiang Ji, he immediately wanted to sleep with him.
But Li Ling was an experienced adult who had spent years navigating romantic relationships. He was nothing like Lu Xingyan, who charged forward recklessly.
He had known Jiang Ji for nearly a year and a half without committing a single obvious transgression, let alone rashly declaring that he “liked” him. Li Ling intended to proceed slowly, caring for Jiang Ji in quiet, unobtrusive ways, gradually boiling the frog in warm water until the right moment arrived for a confession without damaging their relationship.
Unfortunately, Jiang Ji was not a frog and was not afraid of boiling.
Jiang Ji had long since realized Li Ling liked him and had kindly taken it upon himself to control the “water temperature,” making Li Ling alternately feel warm and cold. His heart remained constantly unsettled, and the less he understood Jiang Ji’s intentions, the more cautious he became and the less willing he was to make a move.
If not for consideration toward Li Ling’s father, Jiang Ji would have told him to get lost ages ago.
As for guilt, Jiang Ji had none.
Li Ling played the devoted romantic on the surface while continuing to frequent nightclubs in private. Only a ghost would believe he was remaining pure and faithful for Jiang Ji.
Once, after drinking a little and struggling to suppress his desire, Li Ling had finally asked Jiang Ji, “What type do you actually like? I can’t figure you out at all.”
Jiang Ji smiled. “I like obedient ones.”
“What counts as obedient? Younger guys?” Li Ling had worried, wondering whether he and Jiang Ji might prefer the same position.
But he thought Jiang Ji simply did not know himself well enough.
Jiang Ji had never even dated anyone. How could he know what he genuinely preferred?
In truth, Jiang Ji had no particular standards for a partner.
He did, however, know very clearly what he disliked. He disliked anyone slick, calculating, worldly, and so mature that it bordered on hypocrisy. He encountered too many men and women like that through work and had almost reached the point of disliking people in general.
Unless necessary, Jiang Ji did not enjoy socializing. Nor did being liked or confessed to produce any special feeling in him.
He had experienced it too often to find pleasure in it.
Liking someone was actually a very private emotion. The joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness one person experienced because of him belonged entirely to that person. Jiang Ji himself felt none of it.
Whether one person liked him or a hundred people liked him, Jiang Ji still had to live Jiang Ji’s life. Nobody could shoulder his exhaustion or suffering for him.
So what meaning did people like Li Ling have to him? They provided neither emotional value nor meaningful help in his career. Of course, Jiang Ji kept his personal and professional matters separate. He understood that accepting favors created obligations, so even if Li Ling wanted to help him, Jiang Ji had no desire to accept that debt.
Recently, Jiang Ji had even grown tired of controlling the “water temperature.” After listening to Li Ling’s suggestive voice message, he did not reply.
He asked Jeanne to order dinner for him, continued working overtime, and did not leave the office until nine that night.
On his way home, Jiang Ji bought a bouquet.
Jiang Wanyi liked flowers.
Back when Jiang Ji was still young and his parents had not divorced, Jiang Wanyi had been a housewife. She kept their home of less than fifty square meters neat and spotless, always placing a small glass bottle on the table with several beautiful plants inside—sometimes green branches, sometimes blooming flowers.
At the time, Jiang Ji’s surname had been Lin, following his biological father, Lin Kaiyang.
Lin Kaiyang had a violent temper, especially whenever work went badly. Unable to vent outside, he returned home to his gentle and compliant wife and threw his weight around. Even though she managed the household frugally, never bought anything for herself, and spent all their money on her husband and son, he could always find something to criticize.
One afternoon, Jiang Ji came home from school just in time to see Lin Kaiyang snatch the vase from the table and smash it violently. The bottle shattered, scattering flower branches and water across the floor.
Lin Kaiyang cursed, “Flowers again! Always fooling around with your stupid flowers! Does this family have money for you to play at being bourgeois?”
Jiang Wanyi hurriedly explained that she had not bought the flowers. She had picked them from a park and had not spent any money.
Lin Kaiyang did not listen. Once he had finished shouting, he sat heavily at the dining table and slammed it. “Where’s the food? Why isn’t dinner ready yet?!”
After eating, he behaved as though he could not bear to remain at home, slammed the door, and went off somewhere to entertain himself.
That evening, Jiang Ji sat at his little desk doing homework. Through the door, which had not been fully closed, he secretly listened to his mother talking with a neighbor.
Jiang Wanyi cried quietly. She said she had wanted a divorce for a long time but Jiang Ji was still young and she was afraid of affecting him. If only she had never gotten pregnant in the first place, she would not have fallen for Lin Kaiyang’s lies, had a child, lost her job, and ended up not knowing what to do…
Jiang Ji felt completely helpless. He lay over his little desk and cried too.
After crying for a while, he wiped his tears away and finally pushed open the door. “Mom, divorce him.”
Just don’t abandon me.
I’ll grow up quickly. I’ll earn money and take care of you. I’ll buy you so many flowers…
Many years later, twenty-five-year-old Jiang Ji shook his head with a smile, picked up the bouquet from the passenger seat, and got out of the car.
It was nearly ten when he arrived home, and Jiang Wanyi had already gone to bed. He arranged the fresh flowers in the living-room vase, added some water, then went upstairs to wash up.
Jiang Ji had spent his entire life going from schoolwork directly into career work. He had few hobbies. Once he came home at night, he generally showered, reviewed the day’s work, answered a few emails, confirmed his schedule for tomorrow, and went to sleep.
The simple life of a workaholic.
As usual, Jiang Ji removed his suit jacket, draped it over his arm, and headed upstairs.
His room was beside Lu Xingyan’s. Although he had no intention of responding to Lu Xingyan, the loudly declared “I’m going to pursue you” from that afternoon still echoed in Jiang Ji’s ears. He became slightly curious about exactly how the drama king intended to pursue him.
Jiang Ji glanced at the neighboring room. The door was tightly shut, and no light showed beneath it.
Would Lu Xingyan really sleep this early? Impossible.
A strange sense of foreboding swept over Jiang Ji. His eyelid twitched, and he opened his own bedroom door.
The curtains were closed and the room dim. In the middle of the bed, beneath the blanket, lay a human-shaped lump.
Jiang Ji: “…”
“Lu. Xing. Yan.” Jiang Ji was so speechless he nearly laughed. He threw his jacket onto the bed and smacked the shape through the blanket. “Who gave you permission to get into my bed?”
He turned on the light. A head emerged from beneath the beige summer blanket. Lu Xingyan blinked and deliberately acted adorable. “Bro, you’re back.”
“I asked you a question.”
“You never said I couldn’t,” Lu Xingyan replied. “Didn’t I tell you already? I said I’d wait for you at home. You didn’t object, so that counted as permission.”
“?”
Jiang Ji had no interest in debating logic with the king of twisted reasoning. He immediately yanked the blanket away, intending to throw the nuisance out.
It would have been better if he had not.
The blanket came away without warning, fully exposing Lu Xingyan, who was wearing nothing but underwear. Apparently he had just showered. His hair had been dried, though faint dampness still clung to his skin.
The first strategy in this man’s pursuit turned out to be seduction. He had deliberately chosen tight, low-rise underwear, guiding Jiang Ji’s gaze exactly where he wanted it to go, from his clearly defined abdominal muscles to the full lines disappearing along his hips.
Jiang Ji: “…”
It had only been one afternoon. Jiang Ji could not imagine what kind of disreputable internet dating knowledge Lu Xingyan had desperately crammed in those few hours. Perhaps it was actually “How to Torture the Person You Hate Most.”
Jiang Ji remained speechless for an entire minute as he stared at Lu Xingyan, his blood pressure climbing.
Seeing that Jiang Ji genuinely looked ready to hit him this time, one hand already raised, Lu Xingyan hurriedly grabbed his wrist. “Bro, bro, bro—calm down!”
“…”
Jiang Ji’s skin was cool, with the smooth texture of jade. The instant Lu Xingyan wrapped his hand around the wrist, his mind began drifting.
Today’s terrible idea really had come from the internet.
He had posted a request for help titled, “How do I pursue my crush when he’s a cold, aloof male god?” and described Jiang Ji’s circumstances and personality with a mixture of truth and lies.
The enthusiastic netizens agreed with Lu Xingyan that Jiang Ji’s behavior in the car that night had been suspicious.
Someone told him he was too innocent:
“OP, do you understand what tension and push-pull between adults means? He was sending you a signal. You just didn’t pick it up.”
“Men like that are carnivores. If you’ve got the guts, just go for it. Maybe you won’t get a relationship, but at least you might get him into bed.”
“You won’t lose anything if you sleep with him.”
Lu Xingyan had gotten carried away by their encouragement. After showering, he lay on Jiang Ji’s bed, breathing in the faint trace of Jiang Ji’s scent and becoming even more light-headed. Half of him was anxious and regretted coming; the other half thought, I’m already here. How can I give up halfway?
Besides, Lu Xingyan was genuinely curious. Was he really that unattractive?
He did not care what Jiang Ji thought of him, but he was practically naked and Jiang Ji still showed no reaction whatsoever. Wasn’t that slightly insulting?
“Go ahead and hit me,” Lu Xingyan said miserably, grabbing Jiang Ji’s hand and patting it against his own cheek. “Hit me a few times. I deserve it.”
Jiang Ji: “…”
Did he not deserve it?
Lu Xingyan somehow became absorbed in smacking himself, treating it like horseplay. Seeing Jiang Ji merely standing there as though none of this concerned him, staring coldly, Lu Xingyan felt both humiliated and feverishly flushed, as though being cut apart by that gaze were somehow part of an intensely stimulating game. His breathing quickened. Unable to stop himself, he grabbed Jiang Ji’s tie and leaned forward for a kiss.
He did not get one.
Jiang Ji caught him by the chin, pushed him away coldly, and pointed at the door. “Get out.”
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