By this point, countless tiny clues had slowly crawled out of files and case records, exposing their furtive insect-like shadows. Their direction was becoming unmistakable. They converged on Gu Yaoting, and on the vast, unfathomable silhouette of the giant ship hidden behind him.
The matter was enormous, involving people whose backgrounds were either immensely wealthy or immensely powerful. The case files therefore moved awkwardly among leaders of the joint task force, while departments maneuvered around one another through a web of competing interests. For anyone who touched it, this case was a burning coal.
Even Bureau Chief Bao and Captain Xue could only collect witness statements and leads, assemble them into complicated files, and send them upward. Neither had authority to decide what action came next. They were, after all, only an out-of-province bureau chief and a criminal-investigation captain. Their authority reached only the small patch of ground in front of their own doors. The moment they stepped across the boundary, restraints and obstruction appeared everywhere. Businessmen such as Liang Tong and Guo Zhaobin were, at minimum, Yandu People’s Congress deputies. Moving against men like them required tacit approval from high levels of the city government. Without a nod from above, nobody could touch anyone.
Early that morning, in a CBD office tower in Linwan New District.
Yan Xiaodao wore a neat, handsome shirt and suit. His face calm, he strode out of the elevator and through the company’s front doors.
Receptionist A carefully studied Mr. Yan’s expression while greeting him, then immediately turned to gossip with the woman beside her. “The boss actually cut his hair. Cool!”
Receptionist B said, “Cutting his hair to declare his resolve? I’m worried.”
Receptionist A: “His face looks bad. There goes the second-quarter bonus.”
Receptionist B: “Are we even getting paid this month…?”
Mr. Yan had returned from a brief sick leave with his hair cut even shorter than before, only half an inch of black stubble remaining, the temples shaved close enough to show cool blue-gray scalp. His cheeks had visibly hollowed, making the women under him feel a little sorry for him.
Yan Xiaodao nodded and greeted everyone in the company, maintaining a calm, composed smile. Only the damp patches spreading across the back of his shirt betrayed his recent scrambling from one crisis to another. He had forced his fever down with medicine and, to prevent panic from shaking the group, had spent every day from dawn until late night at the company, reassuring senior directors and partners, then calming one department after another. He was like an enormous patch of leather plaster slapped wherever a hole appeared. Every time one breach opened, he rushed over to plug it. Inevitably he was being pulled in every direction, and he was genuinely exhausted.
Mr. Yan was now Baoding Group’s de facto highest person in charge.
The police still had not publicly disclosed Qi Baoshan’s involvement. Until the entire case was exposed, those facts remained investigative secrets wedged between the pages of confidential files. Outside, there were only fragments of rumor pieced together within the business circle: Master Qi, boss of Baoding Group, had not appeared in public for a long time. Perhaps he had committed a crime and fled the country. Perhaps police had secretly detained him. Perhaps he was gravely ill. Or perhaps, like some melodramatic television dynasty feud, his godson had seized power and taken the throne.
Everyone had predicted this years ago. Qi Baoshan had never married and had no biological son. Sooner or later, the business would pass to his godson Yan Xiaodao.
Back then plenty of people had gossiped behind his back, claiming Yan Xiaodao had bowed himself beneath Qi Baoshan and called the man father for wealth and luxury. Yan had always laughed it off with a clear conscience. Money had never mattered to him in that way. But if he asked himself honestly, neither did he want half a lifetime of his godfather’s work to collapse into nothing or the family business to fail in his hands. The entire burden had dropped directly onto his shoulders. He had no choice but to face the mess.
Last night, Yan Xiaodao had extended one leg under the blanket to initiate affection and had actually been rejected by Mr. Ling.
Ling He said, “No. You’re tired. I’m going to learn from your mother how to make Ten-Complete Tonic Soup and ginseng-and-angelica soup. Her precious son needs his blood replenished.”
Ling He lay on his side, tracing the haggard line of Yan’s face with one finger. He too could see how badly Mr. Yan was being worn down.
……
Secretary Yao whispered at her desk with a colleague. “Several mid-level managers at the Linwan Port subsidiary got poached and just jumped ship. Nobody’s doing any work over there. It’s chaos, and performance has been awful lately!”
The office door suddenly flew open. Mr. Yan, face cold and openly unfriendly, escorted a visitor out and strode toward the elevators, eager to get rid of the vulture who had followed the smell of blood and come to loot the fire. President Liu from a rival company refused to give up and kept advising him in a low voice. “Mr. Yan, think it over. We can still negotiate the share price.”
Yan Xiaodao gave him no room to continue. “I have no plans to sell. President Liu, you’re in too much of a hurry.”
President Liu laughed. “Hesitate too long and the situation may change in an instant.”
Yan Xiaodao replied, “You’re worrying too much. Please go. I’m busy here.”
President Liu lifted one brow and leaned toward him. “I heard several of your subsidiaries were recently frozen and sealed by police. Economic-crime investigators and auditors are coming in and out constantly. Is that true?… Master Qi didn’t really get himself into trouble, did he?”
Yan Xiaodao sneered. “Do you think that’s possible?!”
The elevator doors slowly opened in front of them. A sudden blaze of brightness split across Yan Xiaodao’s vision.
The elevator seemed to open onto a completely different world. Yan Xiaodao kept his hard, feverish face composed, but in that instant he caught sight of someone he had never expected to see. The man stepping out wore formal clothes over a tall, elegant frame. His long hair had been tied neatly and immaculately, and his presence was overwhelming.
President Liu already had both feet inside the elevator. He tried to block the closing doors with one hand while still prattling at Yan. “Mr. Yan, business is about reading the situation and knowing when to adapt. You never worked this side of the operation before. Running a company isn’t the same as taking a gang out to chop people up…”
The insult was blatant. He was openly looking down on Yan Xiaodao and deliberately trying to provoke him.
The man leaving the elevator brushed past President Liu, his naturally barbed gaze scraping coldly across the other man’s face. He cut in, “Master Qi has gone traveling to enjoy his retirement. He handed all operations to Mr. Yan. Are you still negotiating or not? If you aren’t, stop wasting time. I’m here to discuss a cooperation project with Mr. Yan.”
Ling He flicked President Liu’s hand away from the door with effortless precision and let the heavy elevator doors close the pest inside.
Yan Xiaodao’s gaze roamed up and down Ling He in astonishment: What are you doing here?
You combed your hair this neatly. Did you come to walk a runway?
Ling He had not come to joke with Yan Xiaodao and certainly had not dressed up to parade like a model. He went straight to reception and greeted the employee who received him with perfect courtesy and a nod. He was tall enough that the source of warmth seemed to sit higher than everyone else, and the gentle aura in his smile quickly spread across the office.
Facing such an elegant and captivating sight, the receptionist’s voice unconsciously became brighter and softer. “You’re Mr. Ling, right? Please sit over here. Fill out this written questionnaire first. We’ll arrange for a manager to speak with you, and then our boss will interview you.”
Yan Xiaodao had not expected this at all.
Naturally, he did not personally screen the first round of résumés. Human Resources handled the preliminary filtering.
Ling He followed the formal procedure to the letter. He accepted a thick stack of written tests, sat at the little table, and began answering them.
Receptionist A whispered behind him, “He’s ridiculously handsome… mixed-race too!”
Male employee B: “Is he interviewing for middle management in Marketing?”
Receptionist A: “His résumé lists management experience at two companies.”
Male employee B: “Overseas returnee? Those schools are blinding.”
Receptionist A: “American citizen. That’s a little troublesome… Hiring a foreign employee needs a whole different set of documents and procedures, right? Do you think Mr. Yan will take him?”
“I’m looking at his résumé first!” Yan Xiaodao had hidden behind the divider around his desk and watched for a long time. Without changing expression, though inwardly frantic, he snatched Ling He’s résumé away. Yan himself had never seen Mr. Ling’s real work history.
Ling He continued through everything properly and finished the written test with care. Before the interviewing manager could even appear, Yan Xiaodao yanked his office door open again with an expression so deep it looked ready for murder. “You over there, no need for the next interview. The candidate, come in here!”
A trail of barely audible whispers hovered behind Ling He as he walked into the boss’s office beneath everyone’s burning gaze.
Yan Xiaodao had shown foresight by lowering every venetian blind in advance.
The instant the interviewee entered, Yan seized the pretentious striped tie around his neck. Hot lips landed without order across brows, nose tip, and earlobe. Half angry and half laughing, Yan Xiaodao demanded, “What are you doing here? Did you come to watch me make a fool of myself?”
Ling He eased his mouth out of Xiaodao’s attack and answered seriously, “No. I came to help you clean up the mess.”
Yan Xiaodao frowned. “And how exactly do you plan to do that?”
Ling He considered the answer obvious. “Aren’t you hiring managers? Hire me. What position can’t I do?”
Yan Xiaodao snapped open the two-page résumé in his hand with a sharp crack. “Hire you? Why don’t I just change the opening and recruit a fucking president instead?”
They leaned against the desk with arms around each other’s waists, hands lightly stroking backs. Yan Xiaodao was still stuck on parts of the résumé, feeling his dignified old face had been slapped clean off, while an invisible little hand kept teasing at his heart. “Cambridge business. Wharton. You went to the same school as American presidents?… Fluent English and French, and then you tell me you know some Italian and Spanish too. Why don’t you just fly into heaven?! Mr. Ling, interviewing at my place is beneath your talents. My little pond can’t hold you.”
“My talent has gone unrecognized. I’ve wandered long enough and finally want to settle down. I plan to make full use of myself at Mr. Yan’s company.” Ling He smiled beautifully, then the edge in his words turned. “At home, I can be the ‘boss.’ Outside, I’ll give Mr. Yan the face and let you be the boss. From now on you handle outside affairs, I handle inside.”
The words carried another meaning entirely. Yan Xiaodao rejected them immediately. “No chance. I don’t mind switching roles. From now on I’ll handle inside.”
They dug into their positions and refused to yield, gnawing hard at each other’s freshly shaved chins until they had to stop before leaving obvious suction marks. Finally, Yan Xiaodao swallowed his pride, clasped his fists, and bowed. “I really am short-handed. Headquarters is still missing a finance director.”
Ling He recommended himself without any concern for nepotism. “Xiaodao, your group’s financial accounts, investment projects, and foreign-business negotiations. If you trust me, I can help with all of them. At the very least, I won’t let you lose money over small matters.”
Yan Xiaodao wrapped his arms around him. Exhausted in body and mind, he dropped his head into Ling He’s shoulder as though all strength had drained away. “Baby… you’re really this considerate?”
Ling He looked through the window toward the port, where the horizon joined sea and sky. “Xiaodao, your godfather once told me that when I approached you and seduced you, I had ulterior motives. He said that after he was gone, every asset in his name would belong to the two of us. Master Qi really could calculate like a god. Since he said it himself, I absolutely can’t disappoint the old man’s expectations.”
Yan Xiaodao: “…My godfather isn’t even here and you’re still competing with him?”
“I’m not competing with him.” Ling He kissed Xiaodao’s forehead. “I don’t covet your family fortune, but I don’t want you turning into a pauper either. Give me any position you like. As long as I can help you work.”
The business Qi Baoshan and his godson had built across the port over more than a decade was, Ling He knew, the foundation Yan Xiaodao had worked for all these years. It was a family enterprise earned through a man’s long labor, and a fat piece of meat outsiders coveted. In a business world ruled by the law of the jungle, the slightest disturbance brought packs of wolves waiting to eat flesh and drink blood. Ling He hated seeing someone he cared about struck by disaster, a fallen tiger mocked by strangers, attacked from front and rear, manipulated and robbed while the house burned.
Not a chance.
Xiaodao was his person. Ling He wanted to protect him.
That same day, Yan Xiaodao immediately notified the manager handling interviews: stop recruiting. Both the finance and marketing director positions had been filled.
Mr. Ling officially began coming to work every day. He arrived at nine and left at five without lateness or early departure, except that for the next half month he worked overtime until deep into the night every single evening. Documents piled across the director’s desk, along with chaotic investment and operating accounts from several subsidiaries that could not possibly be untangled in a short time. Long after everyone else left, he kept the office lights burning alone.
Some mornings, the two of them left the same home for work, usually with Ling He driving while Mr. Yan relaxed in the passenger seat.
Even if someone happened to see them, it could simply be explained as an employee conveniently driving his boss to work.
Yan Xiaodao would get out somewhere discreet near the office, split from Ling He to hide their relationship, then stride across two blocks and buy two cups of milk tea downstairs.
The old coffee shop had indeed closed and moved away quickly during Yan’s absence from Linwan. Its storefront and staff had been replaced entirely, and the place now sold bubble tea.
Yan Xiaodao tested the waters once. “Hey, server. What are you planning to recommend to me today?”
The chubby worker behind the milk-tea counter let two soft rolls of cheek hang beside a dead-fish stare. Without a smile, speaking as though she had a hot wonton in her mouth, she said, “Sir, what exactly do you want to order?”
“…Oh. Two mango milk teas.” Yan Xiaodao felt vaguely disappointed and began missing the sharp, capable young owner who had run the old coffee shop, even if that young man had been a major spy.
Mr. Yan carried two identical cups into the elevator. Just as the doors closed, the plump milk-tea worker turned away. Intelligence flashed back into her dead-fish eyes and she made a call. “Mr. Ling, Mr. Yan doesn’t seem to suspect me. What flavor should I recommend tomorrow? Your instructions?”
……
A crowd of good men and women worked together every day in the company’s open office and soon acquired a fresh target for gossip. The former “Flower of Linwan,” Mr. Yan, was quickly neglected and mercilessly discarded by the public’s increasingly picky eyes.
Secretary Yao mocked Receptionist A without mercy. “Weren’t you going to jump ship and climb a higher branch? Go on, jump already!”
Receptionist A grinned. “Changed my mind. I’ll observe the scenery for a few more days.”
Secretary Yao snorted. “Stop observing. You’re already twenty-six. Why don’t you just ask Director Ling directly whether he’s single, dating, engaged, married with children, divorced, or widowed? Which option is it?”
Receptionist A said, “Based on my observation and guesses, our director is hovering somewhere between ‘has a partner’ and ‘engaged.’”
Secretary Yao widened her eyes. “How did you people get that intelligence?”
Receptionist A leaned close with several men and women beside her. “He never asks female subordinates out for tea or meals. He never flirts with girls. Whenever he talks with anyone in his office, all four doors are wide open. The only time he closes one is when he and our boss discuss business secrets. Anyone who’s that careful about appearances has to be taken already. But he doesn’t wear a ring, and he works late every night, so he doesn’t look like some married uncle with kids.”
Secretary Yao: “So you still have a chance, skinny waist?”
Receptionist A: “You definitely don’t, little temptress!”
Secretary Yao slapped the desk and lamented marrying too early. What a catastrophic loss. Every night she went home and had to face a rustic husband who was neither mixed-race nor equipped with pale green eyes.
Director Ling handled work carefully, methodically, and with startling speed. He also clearly showed mild obsessive tendencies. He sorted every person around Mr. Yan into categories, investigated them, then began directing and assigning each to the proper task. Nobody was allowed to sit idle. Anyone idle offended the director’s eyes. Every person was fitted tightly into his or her level and position. Seen as a whole, the group’s organizational skeleton suddenly looked neat, ordered, and color-coordinated.
Subordinates began lamenting that quarterly performance bonuses would be much harder to earn from now on because the standards had abruptly been raised. As for overtime pay, not a cent. Director Ling himself did not ask the boss for overtime pay. Who else had the face to speak up? Life had become impossible.
Every day, the men and women suffering beneath the boss and director’s double skinning and plucking sighed that if those two gate gods were not handsome enough to keep looking at, they would have risen in rebellion already.
Secretary Yao lightly kicked the leg of Male Employee C’s desk with her high heel. “Hey? Those two are fighting again.”
Through the gaps in the blinds, shadows moved inside Mr. Yan’s office and white-backed papers flew everywhere in a dizzying blur. Business disputes usually ended with the director controlling the entire field and winning completely. Ling He walked out holding a document bearing Mr. Yan’s own signature, radiant with victory, then shut the boss’s office door with a bang using his heel. Only Director Ling dared kick his boss’s door.
At noon, they ate the company lunch downstairs.
At first, the group of younger employees remained in awe of the new foreign executive. Later they discovered that whether in speech, behavior, clothes, or even the way he ate, the man was more approachable than Mr. Yan. People who had originally sat at scattered small tables gradually crowded around one long table and chatted happily.
Ling He bought almost nothing but meat: a large plate loaded with fragrant ribs and fried chicken wings. He picked up a rib with his hands and started gnawing.
In front of Yan Xiaodao sat a bowl of green salad decorated with several elegant little cherry tomatoes.
The way these two ate was completely at odds with their outward temperaments, creating a strange contrast. Put their meals together, however, and there were vegetables and meat, perfectly balanced.
Receptionist A asked delicately, “Director, you love meat this much. How do you stay in shape? Any secret?”
Ling He answered the pretty woman seriously. “Exercise more after work. Burn calories.”
Male Employee C pressed, “Director, what exercise do you usually do? Our company has a power-walking group and a mixed beach-volleyball team. We play right on the beach after work. Come with us!”
Ling He stripped a pork rib clean and tossed the bone back onto the plate. “I have a workout partner. We mostly go running at night.”
Yan Xiaodao almost inhaled one perfect cherry tomato. Night running, my ass.
Ling He at least had enough mercy not to say night riding. He was giving Yan face.
Secretary Yao rudely stirred through her boss’s green salad with a fork. “Tch, Mr. Yan. You’ve been grazing every day lately?”
Yan Xiaodao sat across the table from Ling He with two people between them, deliberately keeping his distance. If they sat too close, both would instinctively reach forks into the other’s plate and eat whatever the other did not like.
Yan Xiaodao nodded solemnly. “Yes. Dieting.”
Secretary Yao cried, “You’re this handsome and you still need to diet?”
Male Employee C protested, “All the handsome ones get to be bosses. The rest of us are fat and ugly.”
“My abs are almost gone. I have no choice.” Yan Xiaodao’s voice carried a trace of smugness. “Dinner at home is too good. Every night I get French, Russian, or Italian food. So lunch can just be grass.”
A pile of jealous imaginary bricks flew toward Mr. Yan’s head and smashed him bloody. He ended up paying for everyone’s lunch.
During evening overtime, the harbor outside the office windows glittered beneath city lights. Several gossip commandos lingered in Director Ling’s office and refused to leave. “Director, did you ever get married overseas? Do you have a partner? Is she a blonde?”
“I like black-haired beauties.” A faint curve touched Ling He’s lips. He disliked wearing suits to work because they were troublesome. Most days he wore a pure-linen henley and casual trousers, often wearing the same color for an entire week, making strangers think he never bathed or changed clothes.
Male Employee C said, “You never join our singles’ walking club, so you definitely have someone!”
Ling He smiled and silently admitted it. He had someone.
Everyone knowingly glanced at his left hand. His fingers were completely bare, not one valuable glittering decoration in sight.
With a few sentences he finally dismissed the pack of paparazzi. The office tower was quiet at night. Ling He prepared to leave.
His phone vibrated softly. A message arrived from a certain person: 【Going home?】
Ling He switched off several ceiling lights as he walked down the corridor, then stopped outside Mr. Yan’s office and knocked with the knuckle of his middle finger.
A lazy voice drifted through the door. “Food delivery?”
Ling He sneered and sent his reply through the wood. “I’m here to order delivery.”
Fuck. Yan Xiaodao had been hungry and waiting for him to come home and cook for ages. Mr. Ling, if you don’t deliver dinner soon, you can jump into the food bowl yourself.
The instant Ling He pushed open the door, Yan Xiaodao caught his chin. They smiled into each other’s eyes and studied each other’s faces with affection. The last beam of corridor light narrowed rapidly inside the closing door until everything fell dark.
Stars scattered thickly over the mortal world, igniting a river of lights along the harbor docks and coastline.
Yan Xiaodao held Ling He for a long time, then kissed him with solemn gratitude. “This is good. Thank you.”
Ling He accepted the thanks without false modesty. “What’s yours is mine. You’re mine too. I’m not going to lose out.”
Yan Xiaodao had never imagined he could enjoy this kind of self-produced, self-consumed arrangement in which two spouses earned money together and then pooled it to spend. He was extremely satisfied with their little husband-and-husband partnership.
Ling He’s linen shirt was thin. Yan Xiaodao slid a hand beneath it to steal some skin and flesh, only to make himself restless.
He stared at Ling He’s chest. “This work shirt’s a little transparent, baby.”
He pushed Ling He half a step away and lowered his head to suck at the faintly visible sensitive place on his chest. Ling He hissed. “Your saliva… of course it’s transparent now.”
It became even more transparent. Ling He was clearly clothed and somehow looked unclothed, attractive muscle faint beneath the fabric. Where the shirt had been soaked with saliva, a pale pink peak and a darker flush showed through, intensely sensual.
Ling He shoved Xiaodao back against the large desk without courtesy. His pupils rapidly deepened toward dangerous dark green, carrying their own seductive shine.
Yan Xiaodao’s voice went rough in protest. “Can we have some fucking workplace rules?”
Ling He smiled with the teasing expression of a creditor collecting debt. “Boss, I’ve been working overtime every day. How are you thanking me?”
Director Ling sat boldly in the boss’s swivel chair behind the desk, relaxed and elegant, gaze and posture those of a beautiful, cunning big cat. His hot, sharp eyes traced every line of Yan Xiaodao’s body.
Fuck, Yan Xiaodao thought. You sit there and block the back door completely. What, am I supposed to fuck the chair?
Ling He rolled up his sleeves and patted his thigh: Xiaodao, sit here.
Yan Xiaodao tilted his head and looked at him. Their gazes pulled against each other like a tug-of-war, striking colorful sparks of desire that reflected the deep affection hidden in both men’s eyes. Yan Xiaodao strode forward and sat astride Ling He’s lap. “Just this once.”
What Yan meant was: only once in the office. This absolutely could not become a habit.
Ling He kissed the soft place at the center of his collarbone. “I can make you addicted. You really think you can stop at once?”
They already knew every hidden stronghold of each other’s bodies. Capturing the vital places was effortless, and each knew exactly how to arouse the other. Ling He’s habitual confidence and vanity in bed made Yan Xiaodao want to grind his teeth, yet he had to admit the truth. He really was addicted. In bed, he could not stay away from Ling He.
Only someone with experience could distinguish the subtle but profound difference. The physical satisfaction a woman could give him and that a man could give him were not the same. Pleasure traveled from two different openings along the nerves into the central nervous system. They were two entirely different things.
Silently they opened each other’s trousers, removing only enough clothing for what they wanted, the partial concealment making self-control even harder. Ling He kissed Xiaodao’s throat and collarbone with heat, searching beneath the open collar with lips and tongue for warm skin. Holding such a powerfully masculine body in his arms gave him a sense of possession and peace unlike anything else in his life.
Ling He caught the two buttons on Xiaodao’s chest between his teeth and worked the shirt open. The moment his tongue touched the sensitive red point beneath, Xiaodao drew a sharp breath.
Yan Xiaodao could no longer suppress his arousal. His erection slipped free and pressed hard against Ling He’s lower abdomen. Ling He kept sucking the sensitive places, leaving countless marks as his tongue moved, until Xiaodao panted roughly and ordered, “Hurry up.”
Their hips pressed together, chests and lower bodies grinding with force while pleasure slowly deepened and invaded both sides. Their struggle for advantage became more like a mutually coordinated, sweet game, both men willingly surrendering themselves to the enormous whirlpool.
Ling He gripped Xiaodao’s flexible, powerful waist while Xiaodao locked an arm around his neck. Yan watched Ling He flush nearly breathless in his arms, yet still thrust upward recklessly against him. The instant Yan loosened his arm, Ling He surged hard. Yan Xiaodao swore under his breath and hooked his thighs around the chair, wanting to bind them even tighter, as though this level of closeness still were not enough.
Only then did Ling He take Yan Xiaodao in hand, stroking him with unmistakable indulgence and playing shamelessly as he demanded, “Kiss me once and I’ll move once. Then you’ll feel good.”
Yan obeyed and kissed those beautiful eyelids.
Then the bridge of his nose, his earlobe.
Then the pulse in his neck, then his collarbone. Ling He leaned back against the chair in enjoyment. At that exact moment Yan Xiaodao suddenly hit the mechanism and dropped the boss chair fully flat.
Taken completely by surprise, Ling He ended up lying on his back beneath Xiaodao. Yan pinned him with both palms before he could fight back, while the hard body between them pressed into Xiaodao’s abdomen, trapping them together on the chair.
Yan Xiaodao gave a low grunt. “Fine. I’ll kiss you.”
He cradled Ling He’s head, bent down, sealed their mouths together, and swept his tongue possessively through the other man’s mouth.
Ling He’s linen shirt was nearly kneaded into a rag. A perfectly good new shirt would be fit only for Yan’s mother to use as a kitchen hand towel after tonight. All three buttons at the henley collar had vanished, shot somewhere into a corner. The new director’s shirt was pushed up to his collarbones, his trousers opened, exposing a beautiful stretch of skin from chest to upper thighs and giving him the irresistible look of someone pinned and unable to move.
Ling He’s body was covered in suction marks and traces left by Xiaodao’s mouth. His beautiful face and body were beyond description.
The office tower was silent and deserted. Beyond the windows the night lay soft as water and the lights glittered like illusion. The extreme quiet only made the secret heat in one corner of the room more wanton. If anyone accidentally entered the forbidden ground now and walked into Mr. Yan’s office, what they would see was the boss pinning the new director to the office chair and driving against him. The scene would look shamelessly wild.
Yan Xiaodao’s back was broad and powerful. His shirt had ridden up, exposing the hard muscles of his buttocks as his hips moved.
Ling He’s Adam’s apple trembled repeatedly. For a while his eyes lost focus as he stared at the night beyond the window, almost surrendering himself to Xiaodao’s hands while Yan kept moving his hips. It looked as though Yan were conquering Ling He’s body by force, taking the young handsome man’s chastity.
Mr. Yan had clearly imposed an unspoken workplace rule on the new director. That had to be what this was.
Yan Xiaodao could feel Ling He’s sudden surge of arousal, the hardness inside him swelling until it stretched him with a mix of ache and consuming pleasure. Ling He drove upward into the most sensitive place. Neither man could remain still.
Ling He struggled to reverse them and failed several times because Xiaodao held both wrists down. Yan Xiaodao could not stop himself from moving his waist deliberately, the posture carrying a strange mix of wildness and invitation as he pressed himself hard against Ling He. He was showing Ling exactly what he was willing to give. He knew Xiao He had done all this for him.
Both men lost themselves completely. Sweat ran down the sharp lines of Yan’s lower abdomen and onto Ling He.
It felt too good.
Desire became a flood released through opened gates. At the moment it broke through, they clung tightly together and let the current wash away thought. What little reason remained rushed downstream until it seemed to empty into a broad, warm lake where neither wanted to climb back onto the dry land of reality.
Yan Xiaodao could no longer endure the stimulation. His body arched hard and his climax spilled hot across Ling He’s chest.
Taking advantage of the moment Mr. Yan went loose and dazed from pleasure, Director Ling counterattacked. Their half-dressed bodies rolled together onto the carpet.
In the tiny hidden space behind the enormous desk, Ling He lifted Xiaodao’s legs and drove into him again and again, enjoying the sight of his boss with both legs braced over his shoulders. From the direction of the doorway, all anyone would have seen were Yan Xiaodao’s feet raised behind the desk and shaking repeatedly while Ling He took him twice, the room making the nature of their abandoned pleasure unmistakable.
Ling He came inside the man he loved, then caught Xiaodao’s nose tip between his lips and kissed him deeply, utterly lost in this black-haired beauty.
The two held each other on the carpet for a long time, breathing until deep into the night before slowly getting up and dressing again.
Yan Xiaodao sat on the edge of his desk, fastening his belt and shirt buttons. His body still floated in the intimate heat that had overwhelmed him, his expression exhausted and languid.
Ling He noticed an elegantly bound formal invitation on the desk and asked casually, “What meeting is this?”
Yan Xiaodao said, “Nothing important. Not really a meeting. Chairman Jian organizes a charity gala every summer. Everyone gets together, auctions things for donations, and calls it doing a good deed.”
Ling He opened the invitation and skimmed the few lines of enthusiastic, empty public-relations language: “ignite the light of love,” “guard the road of hope,” “stars illuminate the harbor,” “care for left-behind children,” and so on.
“Chairman Jian runs this charity gala?” Even Ling He found that hard to believe. He laughed coldly. “Interesting man.”
Yan Xiaodao raised a brow. “What, you have a problem with Chairman Jian too?”
“What the hell is he?” Ling He’s mood turned cold in an instant, contempt in his eyes. “Chairman Jian Mingxun is basically the Yue Buqun of your Linwan business world, the self-proclaimed righteous gentleman of the rich circle. Hypocrisy from head to toe.”
Elio’s Notes: Yue Buqun is a character from Jin Yong’s The Smiling, Proud Wanderer, famous for cultivating the image of an upright gentleman while hiding profound hypocrisy.
Yan Xiaodao thought that when Jianyue Group had suffered its huge market-value collapse, Mr. Ling seemed to have taken advantage of the fire and swallowed some benefit himself. Jian’s younger brother had already suffered a spectacular scandal. That family had been humiliated enough.
“Xiaodao, you and I will attend Chairman Jian’s charity gala together.” Ling He thought briefly. “We can’t walk into an auction empty-handed. What should we donate?”