Chapter 16#

The Self-Deceiving Liar#

Lin Xiamian didn’t know how long he had been standing there waiting.

His lips were white from the cold, but paler than his lips were his bloodless cheeks as he watched Lin Xiaodong and Gu Xi standing side-by-side.

Seeing that they had finally noticed him, Lin Xiamian slowly stepped out from the shadows of the corner.

“You’re finally back.”

His voice was hoarse. “I waited for you all night.”

The youth stared at Lin Xiaodong with those dark eyes, his tone gloomy and suppressed.

Lin Xiaodong was silent for a moment, then sighed: “It’s the New Year, Xiamian. I don’t want to be angry with you. Let’s talk inside.”

“No!” Lin Xiamian said stubbornly. “Today things must be made clear in front of him. Brother, you promised Mom before that no matter how old you grow, even if you marry and have children, you will always treat me as the most important person. But now, for a man, you’d actually rather climb down from the sixth floor in flip-flops just to spend New Year’s Eve with him?”

Gu Xi frowned deeply. He finally understood why Lin Xiaodong had run out wearing only flip-flops.

“You locked your brother in his room?” he asked in a deep voice.

Lin Xiamian shot him a venomous look: “Shut up! I’m talking to my brother, what business is it of yours?”

“Your brother’s business is my business,” Gu Xi said coldly. “As for you, you’re an adult yet you’re still clinging to Lin Xiaodong. Are you a child who hasn’t been weaned yet?”

Lin Xiaodong looked at him with surprise.

Incredible—the big boss actually dissed the white moonlight for his sake!?

The system said irritably: “I think you’re more blind than me in some aspects. Haven’t you realized that the plot has completely changed? The one Gu Xi likes now is you!”

Lin Xiaodong was instantly shocked: “What!?”

He said despondently: “Although I know I’m indeed lovable and infinitely charming, I’m just a passerby after all. Why crave this one flower when there are plenty of others in the world?”

The system couldn’t take it: “Have some shame.”

However, the system’s words also reminded Lin Xiaodong that he still hadn’t collected two Good Person Card fragments from Lin Xiamian.

“You aren’t planning to use the same method as before, are you?” the system asked in disbelief.

“Yes,” Lin Xiaodong said with a smile. “I’m a good brother; of course I have to spoil him.”

He took a step forward, acting as if he didn’t see Lin Xiamian’s gloomy expression, and reached out to grab his wrist, placing a small, cold, hard object in his palm.

“Happy New Year, Xiamian.” He gave a faint smile to his stunned cheap brother. “Don’t be angry anymore. This is the most beautiful seashell I found at the beach. It’s for you.”

Lin Xiamian pursed his lips.

“Don’t think I’ll forgive you just like this…” he whispered unwillingly.

But in the next second, his defenses broke.

Because Lin Xiaodong opened his arms and hugged him tightly.

Lin Xiamian had waited downstairs all night, his limbs stiff from the cold. Watching the lights of ten thousand homes in the neighborhood and hearing the bustling sounds of families sitting together for a reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve, the fiery heart in his chest had slowly cooled over time.

But when the person he had been yearning for truly appeared before his eyes and took him into his arms, his nose couldn’t help but sting: “Brother, I…”

He raised his hand, wanting to hug Lin Xiaodong back, but the youth had already taken a step back. As if nothing had happened, he took the other man’s hand in front of him: “Alright, now that everyone has calmed down, President Gu, how about coming upstairs to sit for a while?”

Lin Xiamian: “…………”

Gu Xi, who had maintained an indifferent expression since Lin Xiaodong hugged Lin Xiamian, slowly curled the corners of his mouth into a tiny arc upon hearing this: “Alright.”

But in Lin Xiamian’s eyes, no matter how he looked at it, it was an eyesore.

He endured and endured, but finally, for Lin Xiaodong’s sake, he held back, only shooting a fierce glare at Gu Xi and heading upstairs by himself first.

“Adolescent rebellion, nothing can be done. You’ll have to bear with him a bit,” Lin Xiaodong whispered to Gu Xi. “After all, President Gu, you are the ‘parent’ figure.”

Gu Xi, who was about to ask back why he should bear with Lin Xiamian, silently swallowed the question that was already at his lips upon hearing the latter half of the sentence.

“Fine,” he said indifferently, with a look of “since you said so, I’ll reluctantly endure it.”

“See,” Lin Xiaodong said to the system as he went upstairs, “Men are simply the easiest creatures in the world to coax.”

System: As if you’re any different.

Inside the house, it was finally not as cold as outside. Lin Xiaodong squinted in enjoyment, casually unraveled the scarf from his neck to hang it behind the door, and walked to the living room only to find that the food on the table had already gone cold.

Lin Xiamian sat silently on the sofa, clutching the seashell in his hand, his eyes fixed on the Spring Festival Gala sketch on TV where the audience was laughing heartily, his face full of bitter resentment.

Lin Xiaodong didn’t call him, either. He carried the dishes to the kitchen to reheat them. When the food started steaming again, he turned around just as he was about to ask Gu Xi to help carry the plates, only to find that the two people who were in the living room just now had both arrived in the kitchen at some unknown time. Without him needing to call, they “vied with each other” to carry the dishes over.

Looking at the scene where they both had cold faces and ignored each other, yet worked very briskly, Lin Xiaodong smiled and said to the system: “Am I not amazing? Without needing to say a word, I’ve got two men fighting over me.”

System: “…………”

Master of marketing.

Before starting the meal, Lin Xiaodong also opened a bottle of beer for each of them. Looking at the New Year’s Eve with light snow falling outside the window, he raised his glass in a good mood: “Happy New Year, everyone!”

Gu Xi and Lin Xiamian weren’t happy at all.

But looking at the bright smile on the youth’s face, both of their gazes unconsciously softened a bit.

“Happy New Year.” “Brother, Happy New Year.”

Along with the blessings, the flat notification sound of the system rang out:

“Ding! Good Person Card fragment +1.”

“Whose is it this time?” Lin Xiaodong asked.

“Lin Xiamian,” the system said. “It seems he’s not without guilt for locking you in the bedroom. Your soothing actions tonight were very successful, making him feel from the bottom of his heart that you are a kind and soft-hearted good brother. It also gave him the illusion that no matter what he does to you, you will absolutely not be angry.”

“It’s not an illusion.”

System: “What?”

“I said, it’s not an illusion,” Lin Xiaodong smilingly accepted the braised prawns fed to him by Gu Xi, making Lin Xiamian beside them turn red-eyed. Soon, the peeled prawns in his bowl were piled as high as a mountain. “I really won’t be angry.”

System: “Pardon the interruption. Goodbye.”

It seemed it had still underestimated Lin Xiaodong’s lower limit.

But the system suddenly thought, if Lin Xiaodong continued to spoil Lin Xiamian like this—like boiling a frog in lukewarm water—spoiling him until he couldn’t leave him and his heart and eyes were only filled with him, what if Lin Xiaodong left in the future…?

At that time, Lin Xiamian’s whole world would probably collapse.

On the first day of the Lunar New Year, Lin Xiaodong packed his things and returned to the Gu house.

To everyone’s surprise, Lin Xiamian actually didn’t say anything about this.

He even proactively helped him move his luggage into the trunk, waving goodbye with a smile: “Brother, remember to come back and visit often when you have time.”

“There’s something fishy,” Lin Xiaodong said. “Just watch. This cheap younger brother of mine is quite something. When things are quiet on this side, something’s bound to happen.”

System: “I know.”

When a host and a system were bound to do tasks, it was usually the host who needed psychological counseling and memory archiving after leaving a small world. But Zero Seven felt it was soon to be the first system that needed psychological counseling—or rather, code counseling.

Lin Xiaodong didn’t know the system’s complicated mood. After returning to the Gu mansion, he resumed the life of commuting to and from work with Gu Xi every day.

During the period when he was back home before, the two were in a state of semi-cold war. After all, the president’s office and the manager’s office weren’t on the same floor. The Gu Group was so large that not seeing each other for ten days or half a month was normal.

But Gu Xi soon discovered that it wasn’t a matter of the company being too big to meet.

He “unintentionally” passed by the floor where Lin Xiaodong was several times, and as luck would have it, every time the person wasn’t there. At first, Gu Xi thought it was a coincidence, but after it happened many times, what didn’t he understand?

Hilarious. What chance encounters, what coincidences?

He simply couldn’t meet him at all!

Regarding this, there were many discussions within the Gu Group. Some guessed that Gu Xi and Lin Xiaodong had broken up, while others guessed one of them had a change of heart, and the one who had abandoned the other, needless to say, was naturally Gu Xi, the president, who was the prime suspect.

No choice. Lin Xiaodong had a face that naturally attracted people’s favor; no one believed he would cheat.

To this, Gu Xi said: All sheer nonsense.

Now that the person was finally back by his side, he naturally wanted to prove his innocence. However, he didn’t even need to say it himself. The sharp-eyed colleagues within the company soon discovered that Manager Lin had once again begun to appear in pairs with President Gu, commuting to and from work together.

And lately, Manager Lin’s mood seemed exceptionally good. He would often treat them to milk tea at his own expense during the afternoon break. After it happened many times, someone couldn’t help but ask out of curiosity: “Manager Lin, has anything good happened lately?”

“Hmm? Not really,” Lin Xiaodong replied with a smile. “I’m just happy, that’s all.”

Definitely something going on!

The colleagues didn’t believe his explanation at all. Soon, news that Gu Xi was preparing to go abroad to register his marriage with Lin Xiaodong spread like wildfire within the company. For a mature multinational company, the internal control system was of course also very sharp. Not long after the rumor started, someone reported it to Gu Xi.

But what was very intriguing was that, supposedly, Gu Xi, being the party involved, just gave a faint “Mm” after hearing about this and said “Understood” to the person, neither agreeing nor disagreeing the whole time.

This was basically equivalent to confirming the truth of the rumor.

As a result, in the eyes of all the employees across the company, Lin Xiaodong was now just one step away from the position of the president’s spouse.

However—

“President’s spouse?” Lin Xiaodong clicked his tongue. “What kind of title is that? I don’t want it.”

If it weren’t because he hadn’t collected one last Good Person Card from Gu Xi’s side, he would have run away long ago. After spending so much time together, it wasn’t that there were no feelings, but it’s better to have a sharp pain for a short time than a dull ache for a long time. He couldn’t just keep wasting people’s prime years forever.

He immediately sent a business trip application to the higher-ups, preparing to let both parties cool down for a while.

But Lin Xiaodong forgot that the boss of his direct boss was Gu Xi.

So, when he sat in the company-issued official car and turned his head to find that the car doors were locked and the driver was the group’s president…

Lin Xiaodong admitted he was dumbfounded.

“I’m on a business trip, what are you doing here?” he asked, staring at the man in wonder.

Gu Xi looked at this little liar’s rare dazed state and couldn’t help but curl the corners of his mouth.

“I’m also on a business trip,” he said.

“You… you’re a big boss after all, why are you going on a business trip in this kind of car?” Lin Xiaodong scanned the shabby configuration of this second-hand Volkswagen. If it hadn’t been because its appearance was too deceptive, he wouldn’t have been caught like a turtle in a jar—wait, a person in a car.

“As long as it runs,” Gu Xi said casually. He didn’t have much of a requirement for cars. As long as the performance was up to par, a Wuling Hongguang could be driven like a Porsche. “Fasten your seatbelt, we’re ready to go.”

Lin Xiaodong opened his mouth, wanting to say something more, but finally closed it obediently.

Only after the car got onto the highway did he ask, half-complainingly and half-amusedly: “You did it on purpose, didn’t you?”

Gu Xi didn’t answer this question.

The man held the steering wheel with one hand, leaned back in the driver’s seat, and shot him a half-smiling glance: “There’s a book under the seat. If you’re bored on the road, you can take a look. But it’s best not to look at things in a car; it’s bad for the eyes.”

The service was quite thorough.

Lin Xiaodong muttered in his heart and reached under his butt—

The Runaway Little Bride of the Overbearing President.

Lin Xiaodong: Fuck.

Confirmed. Definitely on purpose!