Chapter 27#

If Fu Jinchi really wanted to force Yan Zishu to come out, he had his ways.

For instance, he reciprocated by throwing an address at Yan Zishu and threatening with all seriousness that if he didn’t come, he would tell Fu Weishan about their relationship. Yan Zishu smiled and replied with two words: “Childish.”

Closing the app, these chat records vanished without a trace.

However, Yan Zishu still went out.

Not for any other reason, but mainly because they were waiting for feedback from a partner that day, so overtime could be postponed for a while.

When he was busy, he wouldn’t specifically think about Fu Jinchi, but when he could spare the time, he didn’t mind meeting him.

Speaking of which, Fu Jinchi timed things so precisely; who knew which spies planted in the company he used this time.

Fu Jinchi didn’t hide it from him anymore. Occasionally, he would even tell him directly: “Someone from Li Chang’an’s side checked your bank records.” News like that—Yan Zishu was privately digging for evidence of Zhang Yan accepting bribes, so naturally, others would want to dig into him too.

If Yan Zishu were to pretend to be noble and say “no need,” it would be a lie; these pieces of information were indeed quite useful to him.

After all, knowing oneself and the enemy is the only way to be undefeated in a hundred battles.

So he mentally labeled the other party as having “utilitarian value” and decided to keep him around for now.

Actually, in Yan Zishu’s view, being the villain BOSS, if he wanted to steal company secrets, it would only take minutes.

Later in the plot, it seemed there really was such a scene.

Yan Zishu himself didn’t really care whether this BOSS stole secrets or seized the company. What was meant to happen would happen; the plot had its destiny. Besides, he wasn’t in charge of the security system, so he couldn’t possibly plug all the holes in Yinghan by himself.

The point was, Fu Jinchi could not break through from his side alone.

As for the reason… nonsense, leaking company secrets is a crime, and whoever commits it bears the responsibility.

According to the law, disclosing, using, or allowing others to use trade secrets obtained by the aforementioned means, causing significant losses to the owner of the trade secrets, is punishable by fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention, and/or a fine.

Earlier, Yan Zishu had used evidence of occupational crimes to threaten Zhang Yan; he couldn’t let the hawk be pecked by the hawk.

In other words, Fu Jinchi could commit crimes with whomever he pleased, but Yan Zishu would not let himself leave any leverage.

So he always maintained a strictly guarded attitude toward Fu Jinchi in his work.

Compared to “facts” and “results,” this “attitude” was the key.

It would be the main basis for the procuratorate and the court to judge evidence, if that day ever came.

Fortunately, Yan Zishu was going to meet the illegitimate brother whom the boss disliked, which was still a personal freedom allowed by law.

The coordinates Fu Jinchi sent him were for a relatively popular “Masquerade Bar” on Tianxin Road bar street.

It was a gay bar that didn’t explicitly state it but was tacitly understood by everyone. Perhaps because everyone who entered could pick up a carnival mask at the door to cover their real face, real desires were more easily released—and often many gays released too much, leading to the current situation.

While Yan Zishu was asking the bartender for the restroom, a burly man followed him in.

The man impatiently unzipped his fly: “I don’t believe it. If you’re not interested in me, why did you look at me like that just now?”

“…”

Yan Zishu gave him a kick and an insulting comment regarding size, but he had lost the mood to stay any longer.

The man was howling in the stall. Yan Zishu left him there and walked out quickly.

He recorded a video as evidence of self-defense, but keeping this thing on his phone was simply bad luck, so he thought it best to leave. He practically suspected that Fu Jinchi chose this hellhole to retaliate against him for rejecting him so often recently.

The DJ shook his head frantically, and many masked people in the dance floor jumped around maniacally, their extended limbs looking like twitching water weeds.

However, before he reached the door, a waiter squeezed through the crowd to stop him, struggling to pass a message over the deafening music: “Are you… Mr. Yan? …In… the private room on the second floor… number…”

Yan Zishu’s thinking ability was slowed by the chaotic environment, and he went upstairs as if fleeing a disaster.

But there was no one in that private room.

Here, separated by glass, one could see downstairs. The light was dim and ambiguous, but fortunately, most of the noisy noise was blocked out.

If not for this, Yan Zishu might have really been annoyed enough to explode.

Not being a regular at nightclubs, he really couldn’t stand such mental pollution.

Yan Zishu sat for a while before Fu Jinchi pushed the door open and came in: “Sorry, I just went to deal with a small matter.”

He had been called by the waiter to deal with the burly man who was howling about his leg being broken.

The guy had a prior record and didn’t dare call the police. After making a scene for a while, he had already scrambled home.

Only then did Yan Zishu realize that this masquerade bar was also this guy’s territory.

“Surprised?” Fu Jinchi stated frankly, crossing his legs. “Don’t look at how vulgar this place is; it actually makes quite a bit of money.”

Yan Zishu got up and leaned against the glass, silently looking down at the demons dancing wildly below.

He admitted that he was full of disdain when he entered, but speaking of making money, it looked like a completely different feeling.

He believed the second half of Fu Jinchi’s sentence. Although it wasn’t his main business, in his previous life, he had seen the financial report of a chain bar company. Without showing off, the annual profit started at one billion, so saying they were making a fortune in silence wasn’t an exaggeration.

Yan Zishu even thought, if Fu Jinchi had this ability to make money, why be a villain? Why not just live a good life?

Fu Jinchi saw that look in his eyes and knew he was calculating something again—probably secretly estimating his net worth—but he wouldn’t be happy if he tried to poach him with a high salary. Fu Jinchi found it a bit amusing.

A waiter brought in a fruit platter and a few glasses of wine.

As the two chatted, Yan Zishu naturally kept his mouth shut about official business, preferring to talk only about romance. Fu Jinchi, on the other hand, took the initiative to talk about a lot of miscellaneous messed-up things about the Fu family. These things weren’t exactly secrets; Yan Zishu knew some of them, after all, he was familiar with the Fu family’s situation.

As for the drinks, they were cocktails, but at least they weren’t the high-concentration “date rape drinks” that made people lose their vigilance like the time with Zeng Zhanpeng.

Finally, Fu Jinchi said, “I’ll take you home.”

Yan Zishu thought about it and didn’t object.

Since they had both been drinking, naturally, they called a designated driver. With such a third wheel present, the two sat side by side in the back but remained silent, as they had already exhausted their few common topics throughout the night. This silence lasted until they reached downstairs at Yan Zishu’s home.

“Sir, is this okay? Do you want to go down to the garage?” the driver asked.

“Wait a moment, you need to take me somewhere else.” Fu Jinchi said unexpectedly. Then he politely saw Yan Zishu off the car: “Go up and rest early.” No date rape drink, and no date rape.

Fu Jinchi’s attitude of self-restraint and lack of desire made Yan Zishu look at him suspiciously, wondering what tricks he was playing now. Yan Zishu got out of the car and closed the door behind him.

It was hard to define the relationship between the two now, but there was nothing to define. Both were men; “love” and “lust” could be separated, and they wouldn’t have to be responsible for each other. It didn’t mean they had to go to bed every time they met, but just chatting idly seemed strange.

Fu Jinchi specifically asked him out, discussing neither love nor lust. Did he want to develop a friendship and become good friends?

Or perhaps, casting a long line to catch a big fish.

If he treated the other as a fish, and the other treated him as a fish, it wouldn’t be unfair.

Before leaving, Fu Jinchi said, “I think it’s not good for you to work so hard all day. Balance work and rest, balance work and rest. People aren’t livestock sold to the company; work is to live your own life well. You should go out and have fun more in your spare time.”

Whether today’s way of playing was relaxing or not seemed open to debate.

The driver was still waiting there, so Yan Zishu didn’t waste time arguing with him.

After saying goodbye, he shut Fu Jinchi out of the access control and took the elevator upstairs alone.

In the empty apartment, there was still only one person making the sounds of living, no different from every previous night.

But before going to bed that night, Yan Zishu did reflect on the proposition that people are not livestock, and thought about Zhang Yan’s request for leave.

Actually, it wasn’t his subjective will to always appear so unfeeling. Although Zhang Yan was a detestable person, he was a father to his son. The adult world is complex and ugly, but the child didn’t do anything wrong. Forget it.

The next day, Yan Zishu said to Zhang Yan, “Find a day to take compensatory leave. Just arrange your work yourself.”

Zhang Yan was happy for a moment, then secretly suspected what new trick this was to set him up, like tricking him into being absent from work.

So he still used a day of annual leave. This time the approval was passed, and he took his wife and son for a family day.

*

During this period, an interlude occurred. Ji Chen came to find Yan Zishu, saying he wanted to return the money from before.

Last time, Yan Zishu took cash from Fu Weishan’s car to help him send off the tattooed debt collectors who came to his home.

Ji Chen now had a stable internship salary and had saved a small sum over the past two months. Whether for next semester’s tuition or living expenses, he had it covered. With money in hand, he was anxious to return the money he had used from Fu Weishan.

Although Fu Weishan was currently affectionate with him, precisely because of this, Ji Chen believed that pure feelings should not involve money.

Also for this reason, he chose to give the money to Yan Zishu; otherwise, giving money directly to Fu Weishan felt a bit weird.

In the milk tea shop downstairs, Ji Chen secretly stuffed the envelope containing money to Yan Zishu like an underground party contact, and bought him a cup of milk tea as thanks. Yan Zishu shook his head: “If you have spare money, save it yourself. There’s no need to buy this kind of thing.”

But Ji Chen insisted on buying it.

Because of Fu Weishan, Yan Zishu always tolerated him and took care of him, so he seemed to want to please Yan Zishu a little.

But these were the only methods young people knew. After all, he really had nothing else he could do for the other party.

However, Yan Zishu truly felt that this kind of drink, which dared to be priced at dozens of yuan casually, was simply incomprehensible.

He even wanted to suggest that instead of pursuing this kind of trendy consumption, it would be better to save some money to enhance risk resistance.

But he immediately realized that this was his wishful kindness again. After all, Ji Chen was the protagonist “shou” with a halo.

Just this sentence could outweigh everything.

Wasn’t Fu Weishan Ji Chen’s risk resistance?

Why think so much? It would be better to worry more about himself.

Yan Zishu just put away the envelope, waiting to give it to Fu Weishan later.

Just looking at the milk tea in his hand, with toppings as thick as porridge and overly sweet, he once again felt another significant generation gap between himself and young people. Finally, in order not to waste it, Yan Zishu placed it on Zhang Yan’s desk: “How was taking your son out to play?”

Zhang Yan was baffled: “It was good. W-what’s wrong?”

Yan Zishu pushed the milk tea over as if nothing had happened: “That’s good. regarding the previous matters, I also had my faults. Since you’ve celebrated your child’s birthday properly, you should be able to work with peace of mind now, right?”

Zhang Yan thought he had bought it specifically to reconcile with him, so he had to insert the straw and take a sip.

…How to say it, although it was baffling, it actually gave rise to a strange sense of being moved.

Workplace PUA is indeed something that makes people lose themselves.

*

Apart from work, fortunately, Yan Zishu had not forgotten that paying attention to the protagonist’s feelings and cooperating with the plot progression was his main responsibility.

He helped Ji Chen return the money, and later also helped Fu Weishan order flowers and gifts. Sometimes Ji Chen would stay in the CEO’s office for a whole afternoon. Outside, people couldn’t see what they were doing, and could only judge from the cleaning lady’s testimony that it hadn’t developed into a rated-R plot yet.

Even so, the ability of these employees to pretend to be blind had now been trained to be first-class.

The plot was probably entering a transition period. Amidst the tenderness and petty squabbles, days passed one by one.

Overall, Yan Zishu was quite adept at dealing with Fu Weishan. Bosses, whether handsome and tall or pot-bellied, were actually no different to serve; just do whatever they say. Compared to this kind who looked like a domineering CEO template, the middle-aged successful men in their forties and fifties with a “daddy” vibe were even harder to deal with. Compared to them, Fu Weishan was considered easy to talk to.

Fu Weishan was wealthy and held a high position; the troubles he deserved were those of the rich.

This belonged to the Easy mode of life.

On the contrary, Ji Chen, a pure white flower from a humble background and too fragile, was prone to mishaps from time to time and required more attention.

Yan Zishu was not a knight; he was at most a gardener, helping the master manage things, watering and removing pests, without personal feelings.

The storm that should come would still come.

Not long after, Ji Chen got into an unpleasant disturbance at school again.

Even though Yan Zishu knew things would happen, he wasn’t detailed enough to foresee that Ji Chen would call him in the middle of the night on a certain day.

Just like a reader reading a novel, the main storyline exists, but most of the time it isn’t precise to the month, day, hour, and minute.

At that time, he had just gone to bed. Seeing the number was Ji Chen’s, but the person speaking was someone else, a young man: “Sorry to disturb you, are you a relative or friend of Xiao Chen? Do you know where he is now?”

“Calm down first.” Yan Zishu heard his incoherent speech, “Take your time to say what you have to say.”

“Sorry, I… I don’t know how to say it. Anyway, he’s missing, and we need to find him first.”

Yan Zishu paused: “Then send me your location, I’ll come to find you now.”

It was approaching 1 AM. He sat up in bed and glanced out the window.

Although it was pitch black, he could still feel the sky was heavily overcast. The weather forecast said there would probably be rain in the latter half of the night.

Yan Zishu changed his clothes and rushed over, taking an umbrella before leaving.

“Black-rimmed glasses” was standing near a side gate of Nanhua University. In this season, the “autumn tiger” was still fierce during the day, but on such a cloudy night, there was a bit of chill. It was he who had just used Ji Chen’s phone to call Yan Zishu.

The autumn semester had started for a while, so Ji Chen had been living in the school dormitory recently with his roommates.

Yan Zishu remembered seeing “Black-rimmed glasses” before; obviously, this boy was faithfully playing the role of the protagonist “shou’s” best friend.

Seeing Yan Zishu again, “Black-rimmed glasses’” eyes also lit up.

First, this was an instinctive reaction when people saw handsome men or beautiful women on the street. Second, Yan Zishu was an adult who looked very capable. “Black-rimmed glasses” was just a college student after all; stranded on the street in the middle of the night, he needed someone with ideas like him right now.

“I came out too much in a hurry and didn’t bring my ID card. I can’t stay in a hotel, and the dormitory is locked.” “Black-rimmed glasses” explained, “I don’t know where Ji Chen ran off to. It’s the middle of the night, so I had to call the recent contacts on his phone one by one to ask.”

At this moment, rain really began to drift down, quickly becoming dense, and there was even thunder rumbling in the sky.

Yan Zishu properly opened the umbrella, covering both of their heads.

He didn’t rush to ask what happened: “It’s so late and raining; we can’t do anything. Let’s find a place for you to settle down first.”

Without waiting for a rebuttal, Yan Zishu took “Black-rimmed glasses” to find a guest house tucked away in a corner near the school.

Regular hotels and inns must verify the guests’ ID cards, but the management of this kind of small guest house was not that strict. He bought two packs of Chunghwa cigarettes from the convenience store at the door and bribed the front desk staff, in exchange for them turning a blind eye.

“Oh my, if it weren’t so late, I really couldn’t let you in. No next time.”

The guy at the front desk muttered as he took Yan Zishu’s ID card for registration.

Ordinary travelers and business people wouldn’t care for such a guest house. Those who stayed here were mostly college students coming out to open a room and taste the forbidden fruit. Therefore, seeing the ID owner bringing a young boy, he inevitably showed an expression of “so it’s that.”

“Black-rimmed glasses” was simply embarrassed and uncomfortable, wanting to go up and grab his collar to emphasize: “I’m straight!”

Yan Zishu was much more calm, letting him look. He admitted he was gay; being gossiped about wouldn’t cause any loss.

As for “Black-rimmed glasses,” it was hard to say if he was saying one thing but meaning another. Yan Zishu watched his worried expression of “Oh my God, Ji Chen didn’t bring his phone and who knows where he is getting rained on,” feeling that this classmate still had a vague unrequited love for the white flower.

In the end, the two got the room card and successfully went upstairs.

There were two beds in the room. As soon as “Black-rimmed glasses” went in, he collapsed onto one of them in exhaustion, letting out a wail.

Actually, there was no need for him to be stranded on the street today; he had really done his utmost as a friend.

Immediately, “Black-rimmed glasses” propped himself up and explained the entire timeline of what happened tonight to Yan Zishu.

Yan Zishu sat cross-legged on the other bed, observing and appreciating the screenshots on “Black-rimmed glasses’” phone without surprise.

Nanhua University internal campus forum.

At six o’clock in the evening, someone posted an anonymous thread: [Does anyone still not know that a certain class hunk from the Business Department is being kept by a sugar daddy?]

The OP pointed out that this so-called class hunk, apart from a face blindly praised by girls, was mediocre in all other aspects. But it was this face that blessed him to hook up with a good sugar daddy. When he entered college as a freshman, he was a poor student living frugally. Now he had transformed, being picked up and dropped off by luxury cars, wearing watches worth tens of thousands, and look at the Yeezys on his feet, which might not be bought even after queuing all night.

The OP also attached photos with a lot of noise, the kind taken with phone zoom:

Ji Chen getting off an Aston Martin, waving vigorously to say goodbye to the person in the car; Ji Chen and Fu Weishan standing downstairs at the dormitory, Ji Chen standing on tiptoes to adjust his tie, Fu Weishan lowering his head, the two looking like they were stuck together… and so on.

Some were taken from a distance through the crowd, some from upstairs looking down. After zooming in, the faces were blurred into a blob, and one could only make out the feel of the features and the general body shape.

No names were directly mentioned, but someone in the comments decoded it and asked if the person’s initials were J.

This time period was right around dinner, the beginning of the peak time for students to look down at their phones. The activity level of other topics on the forum varied, but for such a sensational clickbait title, many people were interested in clicking in for gossip.

At 6:15 PM, the initial replies felt that the OP was just jealous. In this day and age, men being with men wasn’t new. What if it was true love? Saying things without proof and exposing people wasn’t good.

But the OP and one or two other sock puppet accounts then insinuated that this class hunk had average abilities but had overcome all obstacles last semester to harvest a hot internship position at a large group company, squeezing out several obviously more excellent girls. As for the class hunk’s sugar daddy, it was exactly someone he hooked up with while interning at this company.

Regarding squeezing out girls, well, there was indeed such a thing. In fact, it was the HR department of Yinghan Group being sly and engaging in recruitment discrimination. It was originally an assessment form of written test plus interview. Honestly following the ranking from front to back would have been fine. But for the last position, the recruitment head said there were too many girls in the front, so let’s pick a male, anyway, it’s just an intern.

Plus, Ji Chen had the protagonist “shou” halo, so the person in charge picked such a good-looking one from the pile of boys.

College students nowadays aren’t confused. If it only involved relationships, they could watch from the sidelines. But when it came to personal interests—unfair competition, gender discrimination, and appearance discrimination—these were already very sensitive pain points. This was the scent of a big scandal.

At this time, a girl who had been rejected appeared in the thread, recalling her ranking in the interview at that time, which matched what the OP said. She and her classmates had never suspected anything before, until today when they realized there was a double standard.

Good heavens. The replies in the thread instantly became indignant, causing this post to be tagged “Hot” within a few minutes.

The Yinghan Group, which was also decoded, was immediately attacked by female students and blacklisted for life. As for Ji Chen, regardless of the sugar daddy matter, there was no doubt he was a male beneficiary. Once this news broke, his situation instantly became subtle.

Even if it wasn’t entirely his fault… most girls expressed that the utmost politeness they could achieve was to remain silent.

Otherwise what?

But that OP took advantage of the chaos to fabricate more new dirt, regarding the details of how Ji Chen hooked up with the sugar daddy, including coming back drunk in the middle of the night after accompanying drinks, disheveled clothes, hickeys on the neck, etc. Of course, this part was mainly fabricated. It could be inferred that the poster could only access the part of Ji Chen’s life on campus and brainstormed other content from the clues he showed.

Compared to the previous style, some boys were even more outspoken, making blind dirty jokes, boringly playing with memes and creating memes…

Towards the end, this thread gradually turned into a kaleidoscope, with people saying all kinds of things.

“Did he really hook up after getting the internship? Is there a possibility that it was actually a ‘specifically designated’ position?”

“Trash Yinghan, so many tricks just to recruit an intern. People who don’t know would think they are establishing a crown prince or selecting a concubine, yuck.”

“Laughing to death, a company that makes trouble deserves to go bankrupt. Everyone remember to avoid this landmine during autumn recruitment; we are not worthy of working for noble capitalists.”

“No, could he really not notice at all that he was let in through the back door? Self-righteous? Do you believe it?”

“Sorry to go off-topic, but are those shoes J is wearing in the photo really the collab YEEZYs? I’m actually a bit jealous…”

At 7:30 PM, Ji Chen finished class and saw the message from “Black-rimmed glasses,” informing him that he had been exposed on the forum.