Chapter 79#

A group of reckless teenagers rode skateboards through the crowd, causing a flurry of exclamations and scolding.

Fu Jinchi glanced at them and made Yan Zishu walk on the inner side of the sidewalk: “This way.”

As a result, they still couldn’t avoid it. A little boy carrying a football in a net bag ran very fast. With blond hair and blue eyes, straight calves, and the name of an international school printed on his sportswear, he rushed over and bumped into Yan Zishu with a bang.

The child exaggeratedly shouted “Sorry”. A brown-skinned Filipino maid chased after him from behind, but didn’t say a word. Her expression was cautious and stiff, looking at the two men in front of her warily, as if afraid they were difficult to deal with.

The boy was up to Yan Zishu’s waist. Fu Jinchi frowned, worried that he had hit the spot of his old injury, and immediately reached out to support him.

Actually, it wasn’t that serious; Yan Zishu himself didn’t care. The child blinked, nimbly drilled out from beside the Filipino maid, took out two foil-wrapped chocolates from his pocket, and stuffed them into Yan Zishu’s hand as an apology. He giggled and ran away in a flash.

The Filipino maid hurriedly continued to chase the child. Yan Zishu also smiled and showed it to Fu Jinchi: “Want one? He even counted one for you.”

Fu Jinchi really wasn’t like him, understanding children’s logic so quickly, and only reacted then. Yan Zishu stuffed the chocolate into Fu Jinchi’s pocket: “You make me think of a cartoon I watched when I was a child, where a city was inhabited by glass people.”

Fu Jinchi said “Yo”: “Are you mocking me?”

“How would I dare?” Yan Zishu smiled teasingly, “I mean if there is such a city, I would be the first to recommend you as the mayor.”

It had been a long time since they had been in bed, and admittedly there was a bit of discomfort, but Fu Jinchi was making a mountain out of a molehill. Yan Zishu didn’t need him to be like this.

If he was really uncomfortable, he wouldn’t have come out today. He was a grown man, not really made of blown glass.

Arriving at the parking lot, they didn’t actually need to take a taxi. The driver was already waiting there with a black Lincoln.

After getting in the car, Yan Zishu said again: “Actually, children are sometimes very fun. The things they think about are different from ours.”

“Really want one?” Fu Jinchi looked at him, “Then what to do, will you give birth to one for me?”

“Raising one myself is out of the question.” Yan Zishu smiled and looked out the window, “Besides, isn’t having William enough? Aren’t you afraid he’ll get jealous?”

At this time, the Christmas atmosphere on the street was becoming more and more festive. The car drove for half an hour and parked under the shopping mall.

Yan Zishu originally thought they would just stroll around the mall casually. With just the two of them, they could rest when tired and leave when they had enough. But it turned out not to be the case—Fu Jinchi had planned everything perfectly, from which mall to go to after departing from the pier, and even specifically which shops to visit.

The driver was a local middle-aged man who didn’t talk much but was very steady. He was responsible for driving when they were in the car, and after getting out, he followed them running back and forth.

It made Yan Zishu say thank you repeatedly. This scene was familiar before, except that he used to be the one providing the service.

Probably this is the difference between ordinary people and rich people. When roles are switched, it always seems that this ostentation is too exaggerated. But Yan Zishu himself didn’t seem qualified to complain about this. After all, it was to take care of his poor physical strength now. Just trying on clothes consumed a lot of energy.

If he did it himself as he thought, he was afraid that today’s progress bar wouldn’t last until walking back to the island.

The shops Fu Jinchi took him to were all exquisite. They came up all the way from the garage. Yan Zishu wasn’t familiar with the way and didn’t even see the mall’s name clearly, so he simply followed Fu Jinchi blindly, not afraid of being sold. However, come to think of it, even if he was sold, he couldn’t afford much here. There weren’t many customers strolling around, and no fast fashion stores were seen along the way. Looking around, there were rows of luxury brands.

Saying to add two thick clothes, Fu Jinchi acted arbitrarily and decided all his dressing styles without authorization.

“I think it’s too exaggerated.” Yan Zishu walked out of the fitting room. This time the sales lady gave him a dress shirt with accordion pleats on the chest and French double cuffs. He looked at one of them: “I don’t have any occasion to wear this kind of clothes for the time being.”

Even if the Mandarin of all people in Hong Kong is not fluent, the shopping guides in the mall will definitely not be. More than one person served them. One of the sales ladies tried to prove to Yan Zishu that he looked absolutely perfect in this dress, especially making his waist look slender.

The other one cleverly looked directly at Fu Jinchi: “What do you think?”

Fu Jinchi narrowed his eyes, as if sizing up a work of art: “Take that double-breasted suit just now and match it for him.”

The sales lady had long seen through who the payer was, relying on Fu Jinchi’s words and completely ignoring Yan Zishu’s opinion.

During the interval of changing clothes, Fu Jinchi personally took a bow tie and put it on him. Yan Zishu sighed and held his hand: “I thought that a shop like this, which claims to have a particularly high style, wouldn’t blatantly judge people by their appearance. It seems there still are.”

“Probably there are all kinds of birds in a big forest.” Fu Jinchi said, “If you don’t like this one, let’s change to another one.”

When Yan Zishu entered the store, the clothes on his body were obviously cheap goods, or even off-brand ones bought from a hypermarket—this was fine, but there was also a brilliant Fu Jinchi beside him. The clerks in this store somewhat didn’t take him seriously.

But correspondingly, they obviously took Fu Jinchi very seriously.

With two customers having such a distinct difference in status, Yan Zishu didn’t know what kind of relationship they could imagine, sugar daddy and a lost youth who just hooked up with a rich man? Fu Jinchi didn’t look like a lecherous rich man either.

“Tried for so long, let’s just leave it like this for now.” Yan Zishu sneered lightly, “Take the previous ones, and won’t try the rest.”

Fu Jinchi agreed.

Just as the sales ladies were about to pack the clothes he had just tried on, Yan Zishu stopped them and reported his previous size.

He was much thinner now than before he was injured, a full size difference, so Yan Zishu insisted on asking them to take a size larger.

“I am in the recovery period.” He tried to explain patiently, “The small size won’t fit after wearing it for a while.”

However, the sales lady also insisted, persuading him that the effect of what he just tried was the best, but her eyes still looked at Fu Jinchi.

This meaning was probably a bit obscure, but Yan Zishu vaguely sensed it. Seeing that Fu Jinchi had the final say on what clothes to try, they decided that this patron was fastidious. Before the two could have a disagreement, they directly “thoughtfully” asked the person whose words counted.

The opinion of the person trying on clothes seemed insignificant instead.

Yan Zishu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so he simply didn’t waste more words and changed back into his own clothes: “Let’s go, to the next one.”

When he went back to the fitting room to put on clothes, the sales lady still came over to ask Fu Jinchi how to take the clothes.

“Then we don’t want any of them.” Fu Jinchi hooked his thumb in his trouser pocket, leaning against the counter not very seriously. He glanced lightly at the clerk, his tone teasing, but his words had some sincerity, “But, being able to provoke him, you are quite impressive.”

“Please improve the service quality next time.”

The clerk’s face was a bit embarrassed.

Naturally, what Yan Zishu was willing to tolerate was only Fu Jinchi deciding what clothes he should wear without authorization—a prerequisite was indispensable—placed between the two, it belonged to the fun of a relationship, one willing to hit and one willing to be hit, with no room for outsiders to interfere.

Fortunately, not all shops were so awkward. The attitudes of the several stores they went to later were friendly, and the shopping experience was smooth all the way.

With the help of the shopping guides, trying on set after set, the high-spirited elite feeling from before immediately returned to him.

Deciding on the last set of clothes to buy, the clerk in that store helped Yan Zishu remove the tag so he could wear it directly out the door.

At this time, when Fu Jinchi looked at him again, from head to toe were traces of his own carving. Although good-looking people look good even in a sack, wearing the right clothes was amazing. Dressed in a light brown tweed safari jacket and brogue suede shoes, with a rich retro British style, it was a style Yan Zishu rarely had before, yet it didn’t completely depart from his temperament, making Fu Jinchi want to pull him back to the room and strip him naked immediately.

Yan Zishu had no obsession with luxury goods and didn’t want the outfit from head to toe to add up to wearing a sea-view room on his body. What relieved him was that Fu Jinchi seemed to understand his thoughts and didn’t act like a sucker who only bought expensive things, but his taste was indeed reliable.

When the driver sent the big and small bags back to the car, it was still early.

Compared to going home early to bed, since they rarely came out, both were willing to wander aimlessly for a while longer, like a date.

But that’s the thing about shopping. Even if a plan is set, it seems that new targets for purchase can always be discovered at any time.

Just like buying shoes requires matching pants, buying a suit requires matching accessories. With Yan Zishu standing in front of him with a brand new look, Fu Jinchi felt that he was missing a wristwatch—so he led him straight into the Patek Philippe store.

Although Yan Zishu had become numb to Fu Jinchi’s card-swiping action this day, when the other party asked the clerk to transfer that anniversary limited edition Grandmaster Chime watch for him to try on, even if the clerk didn’t inform him of the number of zeros at the end of the price, just hearing the word “limited” was enough for him to be very moved and resolutely refuse.

It’s just, sure enough, one can’t think a man is reliable too early.

After discussion, in the end, Yan Zishu only had an extra moon phase watch on his hand, dignified and quiet, unassuming, fitting him very well.

In the watch shop, the price was already considered very friendly, at a level he wouldn’t buy casually before but could afford with his salary.

To prevent Fu Jinchi from coming up with anything fancy again, Yan Zishu intentionally looked for something to distract him. Passing by the Rolex counter next door and seeing the display window, Yan Zishu felt playful and pulled Fu Jinchi in: “Come and try this one.”

There is a saying: Not all men wearing a Green Submariner in a nightclub are scumbags, at most ninety-nine percent. ①

The sparkling green on the dial could be called flashy. Yan Zishu almost burst out laughing: “Have you heard that someone summarized that if you meet a man wearing this kind of watch in a nightclub, when he reports his family background, you can divide it by ten directly, and when he reports the number of girlfriends, you can multiply it by ten directly?”

With the cold watch chain on his wrist, Fu Jinchi didn’t mind Yan Zishu teasing him. He leaned close and asked softly: “What about the number of boyfriends?”

“Don’t you have to ask yourself this?” Yan Zishu gave him a serious glare.

“Then it seems this watch doesn’t suit me.” Fu Jinchi said, “How could I dare to go to a nightclub behind your back.”

In fact, Fu Jinchi could actually suppress its aura very well, even giving people a feeling of harmony and naturalness. Yan Zishu used to describe Fu Jinchi as a peacock, and now felt more and more that he seemed really suitable for these colorful and shining things.

For a time, Yan Zishu also found interest and tried various colorful diamond watches on Fu Jinchi’s wrist.

However, his attempt was only joke-like, and he didn’t really want to force Fu Jinchi to buy a watch that looked like amusement park lights. At the same time, someone was really considering choosing this kind of diamond watch as a gift for her fiancé.

Trying and trying, the two groups of people converged. Yan Zishu and Fu Jinchi looked up and bumped into Lisa, whom they had just met yesterday.

Her fiancé was following her.

Ding Hongbo was obviously not as adaptable to this colorful style as Fu Jinchi, nor did he have the patience to deal with his girlfriend’s exaggerated aesthetics. He just accompanied her like undertaking a task, letting her buckle the watch on his wrist with great interest, frowning slightly, his depression palpable.

He was originally dressed in business attire, and looked solemn. It was nondescript to match with a gradient color diamond.

Seeing Yan Zishu and the other, Ding Hongbo also showed a look of surprise.

But his first reaction besides surprise was a subconscious backward avoidance movement. It seemed that because he had boasted in front of Yan Zishu that he looked down on superficial women, but now he was engaged to the girlfriend he had tried every means to get rid of, making him feel quite embarrassed.

It might also be because the relationship between the two people in front of him was obviously unusual.

If Ding Hongbo himself were to speak, he might not be able to explain clearly what kind of thought was at work for a while.

His attitude in this regard was indeed somewhat influenced by Mr. Ding’s conservatism, after all, he grew up with his grandfather. Of course, due to work reasons, he wouldn’t make a fuss, but having seen more and more, he felt that this circle was particularly chaotic, and keeping a respectful distance was enough.

Ding Hongbo’s impression of Yan Zishu was “incompatible aura”, but objectively speaking, the person was indeed not bad.

Therefore, seeing him standing with a strange man, there was always a feeling of annoyance like a pearl covered in dust.

In short, it was an eyesore.

Actually, it hadn’t been long since they last met, but Yan Zishu was completely different from the tone he encountered every time before. As the saying goes, clothes make the man. At least at first glance today, people couldn’t take their eyes off him. His hair was combed back diagonally, the rim of his glasses reflected a dim light, and the retro casual attire all over his body melted this sharpness. Standing there casually and lazily, he was like a piece of gentle antique jewelry to the touch.

Facing him, Ding Hongbo didn’t know what to say for a moment.

Yan Zishu didn’t care about the reason, smiled politely, greeted them, and Fu Jinchi also nodded.

But Fu Jinchi’s self-introduction was extremely brief, only saying an English name that Yan Zishu didn’t hear clearly either.

Only then did Ding Hongbo shift his gaze to him, frowning subconsciously, seemingly with a trace of doubt, but quickly concealed it, then assumed a business-like attitude to shake hands with him, and tentatively asked: “Have we met somewhere?”

Fu Jinchi revealed a frivolous smile: “Maybe we really have met, or maybe your way of striking up a conversation is too old-fashioned?”

For a straight man like Ding Hongbo, at least considering himself straight, his face instantly looked as ugly as if his butt had been touched on the subway.

Lisa was not so good at listening to Mandarin, but she still held a grudge against Fu Jinchi, thinking that whatever he said must be malicious. Hearing this, she was naturally not very happy either. She pouted her rosy mouth, wanting to flare up, but suppressed it. She shrank towards Ding Hongbo like a little bird relying on a person, tugged at him, and whispered something in his ear, not knowing if she was complaining.

Like this person’s mouth is not pleasant?

Yan Zishu naturally knew Fu Jinchi’s virtue, always glib-tongued, so he chatted a few words to change the subject.

Fu Jinchi reached out and put his arm around his shoulder, meaning to leave, so he smiled calmly and bid farewell to the other party.

But maybe enemies are bound to meet. Who knew that the ill fate of this day was not over yet.

The two wandered until evening and went to have dinner. Fu Jinchi booked a scenic seat with the best view in the top-floor restaurant. But before the chairs were warm, the restaurant manager came over wiping sweat, saying that other guests had also booked this place.

This was a major mistake in their restaurant’s work, mixing up the guests’ reservation times. Usually, this kind of thing really never happened.

Therefore, the manager’s attitude was extremely respectful, willing to change the time and place and make it free, but the other group of guests just didn’t want to change seats, and insisted on today, saying it was an anniversary of how many days of being in love, which was significant, and wanted to negotiate with Fu Jinchi and them to switch.

As they spoke, two figures came up. As it turned out, who else could it be but Ding Hongbo and the other.

To be precise, it was Lisa dragging Ding Hongbo, muttering and arguing with the manager on just grounds, not retreating a step. Ding Hongbo seemed to feel ashamed and kept trying to persuade her to leave. Especially when Yan Zishu looked over from a distance, for some reason, it actually made him feel like he had thorns on his back.

Fu Jinchi watched the show for a long time and suddenly spoke: “Since everyone knows each other, no need for trouble, just share a table.”

In such a high-end restaurant, he said the word “share a table” extremely calmly, and the restaurant manager was also stunned.

However, Fu Jinchi looked at Lisa and raised his eyebrows: “Dare not?”