The private room at the club was dimly lit, the music suggestive.
Seeing that Su Yuan only smiled without answering, Lu Sili grew more determined and rested his chin on Su Yuan’s shoulder.
“Come on. Okay?”
Su Yuan had never faced anything like this. His bones practically melted on the spot, and his body’s reaction was obvious. The way he tried to hide it only made Lu Sili notice even faster.
“How did I never realize you were like this before?” Lu Sili’s face burned with embarrassment. Fortunately, the lighting was too dim to make it obvious.
He scooted over, leaving an empty seat between himself and Su Yuan.
Su Yuan lowered his head slightly and, looking deeply apologetic, pressed his legs together. Only after taking quite a while to calm down did he dare turn toward Lu Sili. “Sorry. I…”
Lu Sili slid a finger around the laptop touchpad, pretending to be busy.
Once Su Yuan had gotten his body back under control, he moved a little closer. “It won’t happen again.”
Lu Sili turned his head. “Huh?”
“…” Su Yuan was mortified and hurried to explain. “I mean I won’t let something like that embarrass you in public again.”
Lu Sili lifted his chin slightly. His gaze swept over Su Yuan’s face before returning to the laptop, and he said with affected composure, “It was fine. It wasn’t that embarrassing.”
Su Yuan looked ready to cry. “I was embarrassed…”
Their eyes met, and neither could stop himself from laughing.
“You still haven’t answered me. Is my proposal okay?” Lu Sili brought the conversation back to business.
Su Yuan nodded. “Okay. I’ve decided. I’ll go to the United States for the advanced training.”
The weight on Lu Sili’s chest finally lifted. Relieved, he picked up his glass and clinked it against Su Yuan’s. “Cheers.”
Su Yuan smiled. “Cheers.”
Lu Sili had never been especially fond of alcohol, but drinking was unavoidable everywhere in both work and life, and he had also learned to appreciate the pleasant feeling it could bring. Now, being able to sit with Su Yuan, chat, and take a few sips felt relaxed and easy.
It really was one of those rare moments in a busy life when a person could finally breathe.
They had both been drinking, so they called a designated driver and sat together in the back seat.
Since beginning his health regimen, Lu Sili rarely drank. Perhaps that was why even a little alcohol now left him faintly tipsy.
Lu Sili and Su Yuan were long past their early twenties. They were not young kids who would drink a little and then dare cling to each other and make out in front of someone else. They sat separately, one at each side of the back seat.
They looked polite and restrained, yet every second of their attention was on the other.
Cold early-spring air slipped in through the crack in the car window. Lu Sili leaned slightly against the glass and breathed in the fresh air. When the breeze lifted his soft hair away from his forehead, Su Yuan stared, entranced.
The image of the boy from his school days appeared again in Su Yuan’s mind. He remembered the opening ceremony for their first year of high school, when Lu Sili had been chosen to give a speech as the representative of the new students.
The young boy had worn a suit that did not match his age and combed his hair into an adult style as he waited beside the stage. Su Yuan, a thin, dull four-eyed kid with hunched shoulders, had just come back from the restroom when a teacher suddenly stopped him and said Lu Sili had forgotten his speech notes, asking Su Yuan to deliver them.
Su Yuan had lightly tapped Lu Sili on the shoulder, startling him, then handed over the papers. To his surprise, Lu Sili was so nervous that he grabbed Su Yuan’s arm and wailed about how nervous he was.
Su Yuan remembered Lu Sili asking, “Does my hair look weird like this?”
But before Su Yuan could answer, the host called Lu Sili onto the stage. Lu Sili thanked this classmate he did not know and flashed him a bright smile. That was the first time Lu Sili touched Su Yuan.
As for how many times he had touched him by tonight, Su Yuan had long since lost count.
Once they returned to their familiar home, there was no need to care what anyone else thought. Their heated bodies and wet kisses answered each other.
“I’m going to inject the pheromones,” Su Yuan said softly.
Lu Sili reached for Su Yuan’s hand and gently placed it against himself below. “No need. I’m not in heat.”
The words were not flirtatious at all, yet they excited Su Yuan more than any sweet talk could have.
Even without pheromones, we still love each other.
This was the instinct of two people in love.
Perhaps it was simply what he naturally liked, or perhaps Su Yuan’s repeated hints had influenced him. Without quite realizing it, Lu Sili pushed Su Yuan down and took the position above him.
Before losing himself completely, Lu Sili suddenly remembered something. He lightly caught Su Yuan’s hands and pinned them to either side. “If I hadn’t come to talk to you about the training today, would your decision have changed?”
The corners of Su Yuan’s lips lifted. He said nothing, only stared at Lu Sili.
“Tell me.” Lu Sili grew embarrassed, took off Su Yuan’s glasses, placed them aside, and leaned closer. “Tell me!”
Su Yuan said, “That’s a secret.”
Lu Sili laughed. “I always feel like you have a lot of secrets.”
Su Yuan lifted his head slightly and kissed Lu Sili’s chin.
“Do you want to know?”
Lu Sili nodded.
Su Yuan said, “Trade me one of your secrets for it.”
Lu Sili smiled and did not answer.
The night was intoxicating and desire difficult to restrain. One kiss was enough to end every conversation.
Two people who did not dare play Truth or Dare were nevertheless very honest in love.
The temperature gradually rose. After the New Year, production began on film crews everywhere. The Distribution Division had dozens of films in hand, and the upcoming release calendar needed to be filled slot by slot. Lu Sili became very busy again. Often, he and Su Yuan barely exchanged a few words all day. For two consecutive weeks, Lu Sili could not even make it back to Grandma’s for a meal, so Su Yuan went on his own.
Lu Sili missed Su Yuan too, but work and life were difficult to balance.
At the end of March, Lu Sili had to travel to headquarters for work. The trip happened to overlap with his heat. Without Su Yuan beside him, he could only use suppressants.
For safety, Lu Sili paired the injection with oral medication.
High doses of suppressant medication caused significant side effects. Although things were already much better than when he had needed three injections, the difference between this and being soothed by Su Yuan was still enormous.
A busy workload had always been Lu Sili’s normal life.
On the night before returning to China, Lu Sili had dinner with Parker.
Parker, who had always appeared energetic and humorous in front of everyone, silently drank two glasses of whiskey.
“Is something not going smoothly?” Lu Sili asked.
Parker gave a smile that did not reach his eyes. “Is it that obvious?”
Lu Sili nodded, then lit up his phone to reply to a message from Su Yuan. Two days earlier, the property staff had finally caught the calico cat for them. Su Yuan had already brought her home, but Lu Sili had been so busy that he still had not had a chance to make even one video call to see the cat.
They had agreed to video chat tonight.
Lu Sili looked back up at Parker. “Very obvious. What happened? You can tell me.”
“I’m guessing you all knew a while ago that I was going to be transferred. I’ve been preparing for it for a long time too, but things aren’t going very smoothly now,” Parker said.
Lu Sili had thought it was already settled. “How could that be?”
Parker said, “Bob still hasn’t approved my application.”
“Why?”
Parker sighed. “I know the reason, really. It’s nothing more than the fact that I came up through marketing. My professional expertise has some gaps. I’m not well-rounded enough.”
Lu Sili frowned, something stirring inside him because he had increasingly begun to feel the gaps in his own professional knowledge of film as well.
“But I can give you one piece of good news early.” Parker raised his glass in a celebratory gesture. “The Asia regional office will be established in China. Bob went back and forth between Otsu and you for a long time. Last year’s year-end gala was a big success, and in the end he still chose you. The formal announcement will come next month. Congratulations.”
Lu Sili raised his glass and clinked it against Parker’s, but a faint sense of disappointment remained inside him.
The two chatted for a long time, mostly about work. On the way back to the hotel afterward, Lu Sili’s mind kept returning to something Parker had said: “Otsu is an excellent film professional, the kind of employee who fits F&A’s positioning better.” Even though the second half had been, “But he isn’t someone with the potential to be a leader.”
Lu Sili could feel Parker’s predicament too.
By the time he returned to the hotel, it was nearly midnight. His body and mind were exhausted. He took a quick shower and lay down before suddenly remembering his promise to Su Yuan.
There were no messages urging him to call because Lu Sili had told Su Yuan he was with Parker and would call after they finished.
Su Yuan normally kept a very healthy schedule and rarely stayed up late.
Lu Sili quickly sent him a message: [Sorry I got back so late. Are you asleep?]
Su Yuan’s video call came through immediately.
On the small phone screen was Su Yuan’s slightly tired face. “Finished? It’s so late. You’ve worked hard.”
Lu Sili felt terrible. “I’m sorry.”
Su Yuan really had been waiting for him. Seeing Lu Sili with wet hair, a tired complexion, and little energy made his heart ache.
“It’s okay. Want me to show you the cat?”
“Mm.” As soon as Lu Sili answered, he could not suppress a yawn.
The biggest success of the past two months of recuperation was that his insomnia had stopped. At night, he now grew sleepy naturally.
Su Yuan stood from the sofa. The camera moved with him toward the window, then flipped around. A little calico cat curled into a ball asleep in her bed appeared on Lu Sili’s screen.
Lu Sili was not a fanatical cat or dog person, but even he found the scene warm and comforting.
“So cute.” Lu Sili lay down on his side. “Is she getting used to it?”
“A little slowly, but she isn’t too stressed.” Perhaps afraid of disturbing the cat, Su Yuan soon moved away. Before he flipped the camera back around, Lu Sili caught sight of two gift boxes on the coffee table.
Lu Sili asked what they were.
Su Yuan turned the camera back toward himself. “Gifts.”
With a touch of smugness, Lu Sili asked, “For me?”
Su Yuan laughed. “For Zhan Kaijun. Birthday presents. One from you and one from me.”
Lu Sili knew he had been too busy lately. Su Yuan had been handling both families and their own household almost entirely by himself.
He felt guilty.
“Thank you.” After saying it, Lu Sili followed the topic and asked, “When is your birthday?”
“You’re going to celebrate my birthday?” Su Yuan asked.
Lu Sili smiled and nodded.
The face on the video was handsome and adorable. Su Yuan could not look away.
He smiled as he answered, “Then I really lost out. March seventeenth. It just passed.”
“What?” Lu Sili felt as though he had been struck by lightning. “Why didn’t you tell me!”
Su Yuan had never had the habit of celebrating his birthday. In the whole family, only his younger sister Zhan Kaijun really celebrated hers. Su Yuan himself barely remembered his own.
“Don’t worry about it. If you hadn’t asked, I wouldn’t even have remembered. I never celebrate my birthday.”
Lu Sili had loved birthdays when he was little. After his parents divorced and he went abroad to study, he stopped caring much about them too.
But that was because his family and friends had not been around him.
Already feeling guilty toward Su Yuan, Lu Sili said, “How about I make it up to you? What do you want?”
“Really?”
“Mm!”
Su Yuan thought for a moment. “I want to take a short trip somewhere nearby with you. Stay in a hotel or guesthouse, wander around, eat some good food.”
Even Su Yuan’s birthday wish was impossibly domestic.
“Okay. Tell me when you’re off work and I’ll arrange it,” Lu Sili said. Then he could not stop himself from yawning again.
Su Yuan lightly tapped Lu Sili’s face on the phone screen with his index finger. “Okay. Sleepy? Go to bed.”
Lu Sili checked the time. It had only been nine minutes.
Su Yuan knew what he was thinking and yawned too. “I’m sleepy.”
Lu Sili finally relaxed a little. “Then good night. Oh, right. What gift do you want?”
“Anything?” Su Yuan smiled.
“Of course,” Lu Sili said.
What could there possibly be that I, Lu Sili, can’t afford?
Lu Sili was overflowing with confidence, but the moment he heard Su Yuan’s answer, he cried out to stop him. “Ah! Don’t say it!”
Su Yuan laughed so hard he doubled over.
“You’re joking, right? Pervert!” Lu Sili puffed up in indignation.
Su Yuan, however, looked perfectly serious. “I’m not joking.”
Lu Sili grew embarrassed under his gaze and tilted the camera away.
“Please? I haven’t made a birthday wish in a very long time,” Su Yuan said.
Lu Sili already felt that he owed Su Yuan and could not simply refuse, but he also could not accept it immediately. All he could say was, “Then I’ll think about it.”
Su Yuan pushed his luck. “Please. Just once.”