Chapter 37 - 1#
“……”
Baby?
Who was he calling?
Jing Shun’s mind went blank.
Once he came to his senses, he quickly shook off Gou Bao’s paw, rolled up the blanket, and buried himself inside. “I—I’m going to sleep.”
Chi Gui chuckled quietly. “Alright, rest early.”
The door closed, and everything fell silent.
Gou Bao lay back down in its dog bed, guarding its giant treat as it drifted off to sleep. But Jing Shun, thanks to that ambiguous “goodnight” about a vague “significant other,” unexpectedly found himself unable to sleep.
His heart felt as if it were floating among the clouds, or bobbing on the sea, drifting with the current. Whenever he closed his eyes, scenes of his recent time with Chi Gui would flicker through his mind.
Frame by frame, scene by scene, like a random movie reel playing in his head.
So much so that Jing Shun gradually became aware of an undeniable fact—
Chi Gui’s weight in his heart seemed a little too heavy?
It wasn’t until the light outside the curtains began to pale that Jing Shun finally felt a hazy drowsiness.
When he woke up, Gou Bao was sitting by the bed, staring at him eagerly with the giant chew stick in its mouth.
“Woo~ Woo~”
“……”
Jing Shun lifted his wrist to check the time. It was already past ten.
Gou Bao whimpered again to assert its presence. “Woo woo.”
Jing Shun patted its little head. “I know, I’ll take you out this afternoon, okay?”
“Woo!”
Gou Bao wagged its tail.
Jing Shun struggled to get out of bed, transferred into his wheelchair, and went into the bathroom. When he looked in the mirror, he was surprised to find he had dark circles too.
“……”
Resignedly accepting the fact, he sped up his morning routine and went downstairs with Gou Bao.
He had assumed that Chi Gui would have already left at this hour, but to his surprise, the man was sitting at the dining table on the first floor.
Their eyes met.
Chi Gui spoke first. “Awake? Did you sleep well last night?”
“……”
How dare he ask?
If it weren’t for that comment he made before leaving last night, Jing Shun wouldn’t have been up until dawn.
Thinking of his newly acquired dark circles and the culprit sitting right in front of him, Jing Shun took a deep breath. “It was fine. You don’t have to go out today?”
“I do.”
Chi Gui glanced at the time. “I’ll be leaving soon.”
Just then, Wei Di walked over with a tablet.
“Sir, the banquet invitations have been rushed through and will be sent out today. Also, the details for the hotel banquet have been confirmed.”
Jing Shun caught the key word and asked, “Banquet?”
Chi Gui paused over the tablet for a moment before answering. “The Chi family dominates in Haishi, but not here. If we want to officially enter the Aogang market through the 0202 dock project, we have to take care of the local relationships.”
From government departments to various local factions.
Zhang Aode wanted to use those connections to pressure them, so Chi Gui needed to win those connections over in return.
In big project deals, the first priority is profit, the second is popularity, and only then comes the heavy-handed pressure.
Jing Shun understood immediately. “Is it tomorrow night?”
Wei Di interjected, “Yes, tomorrow at 6:30 PM, at the top floor of the Royal Libao Hotel.”
“Oh.”
A flicker of uncertainty passed through Jing Shun’s eyes before Chi Gui spoke. “Jing Shun, it’s your call. If you’re interested, come tomorrow night. If not, don’t worry about it.”
“After all, you have a public identity now. It’s a banquet under the Chi name, so you have the right to come and go freely.”
It was a simple, straightforward statement, but it carried significant weight.
After all, many people would kill for an invitation to a Chi Corporation banquet. Even in Aogang, the invited guests wouldn’t be of low status.
What Chi Gui meant was that Jing Shun wasn’t a guest; he was a host.
Jing Shun responded, “Okay.”
Wei Di reminded, “Sir, it’s time to go.”
Chi Gui stood up but didn’t forget to remind Jing Shun, who hadn’t eaten yet. “Eat well. Take a longer nap at lunch. It looks like you didn’t rest very well last night.”
The last half of his sentence seemed tinged with a hint of amusement.
Jing Shun refused to admit it. “I slept very well.”
“I’m off.”
“Mm.”
…
Afternoon, the sun was just right.
Jing Shun slowly woke up from the lounger, feeling that his body, forced to stay up the previous night, had finally regained its fullness.
Gou Bao was lying on the floor, still relentlessly battling the giant chew stick.
Suddenly, a loud, crisp bark came from outside the window.
Gou Bao instantly raised its head, pricked up its ears, and after two or three seconds of confirmation, it impatiently stood up. “Woof! Woof!”
Big Brother!
It’s Big Brother!
Jing Shun also realized. “Eone came to play with you?”
Gou Bao’s paws scraped against the floor, eager to go downstairs but also waiting for Jing Shun.
Jing Shun gestured. “Baby, go on down first. I’ll follow in a moment.”
Gou Bao licked the back of Jing Shun’s hand and immediately dashed out of the room.
Jing Shun took his time getting into his wheelchair and then went downstairs.
In the front yard of the villa, Yu Zhen was standing outside the fence with Eone, wearing a pale yellow thin sweater that stood out brightly.
Probably because of the little incident yesterday, Eone was obediently wearing its leash today, but it was still tall and majestic.
Gou Bao, who had arrived first, was circling it, its eyes full of admiration for this new big brother.
Yu Zhen smiled in greeting. “Jing Shun! Good afternoon. I almost thought I had the wrong house, but then Gou Bao ran out.”
Jing Shun approached. “I was actually planning to take Gou Bao to find you guys later.”
Yu Zhen invited, “Perfect timing. Want to take a walk together?”
“Sure.”
The two circled the green path twice before arriving at the villa where Yu Zhen lived.
Once is a stranger, twice is a friend. This time, Jing Shun didn’t refuse Yu Zhen’s invitation.
“I didn’t know what you liked to eat, so I just prepared a little bit of everything.” To accommodate Jing Shun’s wheelchair height, Yu Zhen had specifically placed the food on the coffee table in the living room. “Try it?”
“Thanks. The cake yesterday was already delicious.”
Jing Shun looked around the first floor’s layout and complimented with a smile, “Such a cozy house. You can tell you really love life.”
From the backyard came the sounds of the two dogs playing.
Eone had its own little villa in the backyard and had taken Gou Bao, the clingy little brother, on a tour as soon as they entered.
Hearing his compliment, Yu Zhen laughed and took a sip of fruit tea. “Jing Shun, I feel like we get along pretty well. We’re probably about the same age, so I won’t hide this from you——”
“My mom passed away when I was very young. My dad started another family. I was raised by my grandma. We were pretty poor when I was a kid; we even lived in a dangerous old building.”
“……”
“I’ve always craved a ‘home’. So after I settled here, I went all out decorating. I always feel that the cozier and fuller I make it, the more at ease I feel inside.”
Jing Shun could understand Yu Zhen’s mindset. “That’s nice. But, do you live here alone with Eone?”
As he spoke, his gaze secretly fell on the display cabinet in the corner of the living room. There were many pottery pieces on it, but he didn’t see the abstract little pottery horse. He must have mis-seen it in that split second yesterday.
“No.”
When it came to this topic, Yu Zhen smiled a bit shyly. “I live with my partner.”
He lowered his voice, adding a hint of joking complaint as if ready to argue with the rich. “You should know how expensive these houses are, right? There’s no way I could afford this on my own.”
Jing Shun laughed. “Yeah.”
Yu Zhen suddenly remembered something. “Oh, by the way, do you mind same-sex relationships? My partner is a man. He’s been busy lately and left this morning.”
If Jing Shun minded, they’d have to avoid meeting in the future.
“Same-sex marriage is already legal. Why would I mind?”
As he said this, Chi Gui’s figure suddenly surfaced in Jing Shun’s mind. His thoughts paused, and he responded with a private intention he hadn’t even realized himself.
“I… my other half is also a man.”
“Ah?”
Yu Zhen was surprised. “Then next time there’s a chance, the four of us can have a meal together! I’ve been feeling like I have no friends around here!”
Hearing the invitation from the person in front of him, Jing Shun belatedly realized he had overstepped.
He and Chi Gui were only in a contractual relationship. They were never truly lovers.
Everything he had done at the banquets before was to silence the gossip in the wealthy circles. It was he who needed to cooperate with Chi Gui’s acting, not the other way around. How could he confuse what was primary and what was secondary?
A meal together?
Chi Gui wouldn’t agree.
Jing Shun suppressed the faint sense of loss in his heart and changed his answer. “He… it’s not convenient for him.”
Hearing this gentle refusal, Yu Zhen tactfully dropped the subject. “That’s fine. I’m friends with you. We can hang out when we’re free!”
“Sure.”
…
The next evening.
Jing Shun still attended the banquet held under the Chi name. Chi Gui had specially arranged a private box on a high floor for him—quiet, yet with a panoramic view of the whole event.
The banquet hadn’t officially started yet, and many invited guests had already arrived.
To Jing Shun, aside from Ji Tianheng, whom he had met on the cruise a few days before, everyone else were unfamiliar faces.
Looking at Chi Gui sitting on the sofa across from him, Jing Shun asked in confusion, “Aren’t you going down yet?”
“No rush.”
Chi Gui held a wine glass but didn’t drink. “The higher you stand, the farther you see. While we have this moment, it’s a good time to see which guests are close to each other.”
Jing Shun followed his gaze downward and indeed saw two or three clusters of guests gathered together.
One cluster centered around Ji Tianheng.
With his title as the second-in-command of the Ji family, he was naturally the focus of flattery and networking. As for the central figure of the other group—
Jing Shun squinted. He couldn’t see clearly, only vaguely making out a middle-aged man.
He looked at Chi Gui and Wei Di and asked quietly, “Who is the person surrounded in the center near the champagne tower? He seems quite impressive.”
Wei Di identified him. “That’s Mo Jun, from the Aogang Financial Department.”
His official position was considerable. Many projects in Aogang couldn’t proceed without his approval, so it was no wonder many guests wanted to ingratiate themselves with him.