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Yan Tingshen said, "Sorry for the trouble."

Qin You waved a hand and turned toward the door, then looked back at him. "I'm right next door. The call button for the caregiver is by your bed. If you need anything, come find me anytime."

Yan Tingshen said, "All right."

He watched Qin You disappear through the doorway and the door close behind him. Then he glanced around, his eyes narrowing slightly.

Before inviting him, Qin You had specifically mentioned a partnership, yet he had said nothing about it since leaving the hospital. Did he have something else in mind, or had he made other arrangements?

As Yan Tingshen pondered this, his gaze fell on the coffee table in front of the sofa beside him.

A folder lay casually on the edge of the table.

Yan Tingshen walked over slowly and picked it up. He opened it to the first page, then paused.

Confidential information from the Qin Group?

He was about to close it when Qin You's face suddenly flashed through his mind.

Yan Tingshen sat down on the sofa.

How could a confidential document have been left lying around like this? And what a coincidence that it had appeared in the guest room prepared for him.

Qin You could not be foolish enough to fail to recognize a confidential document.

Cui Ling, who had access to this document, would not have done such a thing.

That left only one possibility.

This was the "partnership" Qin You had mentioned.

Yan Tingshen looked at the document in his hands, his gaze dark.

Qin Hengzhong wanted nothing more than a proposal. Given Qin You's hidden nature, why would he need to ask Yan Tingshen to ghostwrite it?

Was he incapable of doing it?

Or was this a test?

Or perhaps both.

Yan Tingshen rested his left arm on the armrest, tapping a finger lightly.

After a long while, he put down the document.

Qin You had gone so far as to offend Yan Lihui for his sake today. If he wanted to test his attitude, that was understandable.

The unfamiliar, upright figure suddenly appeared in his mind—

Yan Tingshen closed his eyes.

It wouldn't hurt to help him once.

The next day.

Early morning.

Qin You got up, washed up, and prepared to go downstairs to have breakfast with Yan Tingshen.

On his way to the dining room, he was still trying to recall whether he had forgotten something.

The thought had occasionally popped up since last night, but he still hadn't remembered what it was.

For now, though, nothing mattered except the target's favorability.

It wasn't until he approached the table, greeted the target, and saw the document neatly placed on the table that Qin You raised an eyebrow, finally remembering.

He didn't pay it much attention at first. After sitting down, he accepted the porridge a servant handed him and looked at Yan Tingshen. "Is the food to your liking? From now on, I can have the kitchen prepare meals to suit your taste."

Yan Tingshen glanced at him. "No need."

Qin You didn't insist. He pushed the document in front of him aside and picked up his chopsticks.

Yan Tingshen watched him, his gaze settling on his face, but he still couldn't tell what he was thinking.

The only thing he could tell from Qin You's calm reaction to seeing the document was that he wasn't the least bit worried about its safety.

Qin You noticed his gaze. "Something wrong?"

Yan Tingshen asked him directly, "Aren't you worried it'll fall into the hands of someone with ulterior motives?"

Qin You smiled. "It's safer with you than with me."

Yan Tingshen's gaze sharpened.

Just as he thought.

His guess had been right.

Qin You said, "Don't overthink it. Let's eat."

Yan Tingshen looked at him and unlocked his phone. "Your contact information."

The system was both surprised and delighted. [Host, the target actually took the initiative to add you as a friend!]

Qin You was surprised as well.

He took out his phone and exchanged contacts with the target. The moment he received the confirmation, another message popped up.

It was a document.

Qin You opened it casually and was even more taken aback.

"A proposal?" He looked at Yan Tingshen. "Did you make this last night?"

He had forgotten the document in the guest room yesterday afternoon. When he saw it just now, he had thought the target was already being very gracious by not revealing the information to Yan Tingshen. He had never expected the other man to make a proposal for him.

Yan Tingshen said, "Mm."

Qin You skimmed through it, then looked at Yan Tingshen again. A moment later, a smile appeared in his eyes behind his glasses, reaching their depths. "I really didn't expect this."

He hadn't expected it?

Yan Tingshen said mildly, "How long do you think a proposal takes?"

Qin You chuckled. "However long it took, thank you."

Yan Tingshen looked up and met his gaze, pausing slightly despite himself.

For some reason, the smile in those eyes seemed especially deep at that moment.

Qin You had already looked away.

He read through the document carefully again.

Unlike Qin You's own approach, the target left very little room to maneuver, and his thinking was more extreme and ruthless. But there was no doubt that the proposal was of exceptionally high quality. From a purely commercial standpoint, it was even better than what Qin You would have produced himself. It was by no means something thrown together to fool him.

Given the target's abilities as the protagonist, he could indeed have made this proposal with ease.

But.

Qin You turned toward Yan Tingshen.

Since he was injured, the target had never truly settled down to recuperate.

A single day of rest after a spinal cord injury was nowhere near enough to support an ordinary daily routine, let alone long periods of concentration.

He had brought the target home without really taking his injury to heart either. He had only intended to use their proximity to do something to raise his favorability. Yet unexpectedly, the other man had been the first to make an effort for him, putting who knew how much thought into this proposal.

The system was deeply moved. [Host, I told you, an initial favorability of ten percent is hard to come by. Look, the target actually took the initiative to help you. He must be grateful for what you did for him!]

Favorability.

Qin You put down his phone.

Had he underestimated what the favorability value meant?

Ten percent was already enough for the target to go this far. In that case, the one point he had gained for helping him yesterday didn't seem so little.

But if that was the case, there was probably no hope of raising it again in the short term.

If he couldn't unlock a favorability mission—

Qin You picked up his bowl and chopsticks again and thought no further.

After the meal, he had intended to accompany the target to rehabilitation training as a small gesture of thanks, but the target flatly refused, citing work.

Qin You had thought it was just an excuse, but the target really did stay in his room all day, even eating his meals there. The servants went in cautiously and came out just as cautiously.

As night fell once more, the system was frantic. [Host, two days have passed! There's only one day left before the mission deadline. Aren't you going to kiss the target yet?!]

Qin You said, [Don't rush.]

The system said, [...]

It was so anxious its circuits were almost smoking!

Qin You moved the blocks around on his screen.

Compared to the target, he had a much easier day.

He had finished the task Qin Hengzhong assigned him ahead of schedule.

Attending a few meetings online as an observer was the sum of the Qin Group general manager's work for the day.

Speaking of Qin Hengzhong's task.

Qin You glanced at the folder on the bedside table.

The target had made time to help him with the proposal despite being so busy. Qin You had to admit he had misjudged him all along. His target was cold on the outside but warm on the inside.

[Even if you don't kiss him, host, have you forgotten about raising his favorability too?] The system tried to encourage its host to make progress. [You can do that too!]

Qin You said, [If I interrupt his work, are you sure that'll raise his favorability instead of lowering it?]

[...] The system fell silent for a long time, then said, [Then how about a kiss after all?]

That was even more out of the question, of course.

Qin You thought for a moment, closed the game, and opened his messaging app.

He had already cleared out the jumble of messages in the account. Only one chat remained on the entire list. It had the system's default profile picture, and the nickname was just a period.

He opened it. The chat history ended with the document sent that morning.

Qin You thought for a moment, then sent a message.

Qin: Still busy?

A reply came quickly, simple and direct.

.: Something wrong?

Qin: Remember to balance work and rest. It's time you took a break.

This time, his message received no response.

The system said, [So the target really is busy...]

Qin You glanced at the time.

It was 8:40. He had been working for almost the entire day.

It seemed that after Qin You brought the target home to recover, the target had turned the place into an office.

The first precaution the doctor had clearly specified at discharge was to rest quietly. Given how much effort and concentration the target was expending, there was no guarantee his injury wouldn't get worse instead of better.

Before, Qin You could have turned a blind eye to this.

It was the target's own body, and whether he stayed healthy was entirely up to him. If the target didn't care, why should Qin You bother?

But now the target had taken the initiative to help him. Although the proposal was actually dispensable to him, it would be a great help to "Qin You" in achieving results at the Qin Group.

In any case, he appreciated the goodwill behind the target's action.

Having accepted that kindness, he couldn't simply stand by and watch.

He would help the target recover from his injury to repay the favor.

Qin You got up from the sofa, went out to the door next door, and raised a hand to knock lightly.

"President Yan, Li Jianhang still refuses to confess. His story hasn't changed. He's taken all the blame himself, saying it was a personal grudge..."

As he listened to the report, Yan Tingshen looked at the chat window on his screen.

No one would bother him with such pointless nonsense, yet this person had reminded him more than once of the fact that he was injured and vulnerable.

Yan Tingshen moved the cursor to close the chat, but just as he clicked, his fingertip suddenly trembled.

He paused, his gaze growing darker as his fingers slowly curled into a fist.

The occasional numbness and pain in his nerves, like Qin You, appeared at inopportune times.

News of what had happened to him had not yet circulated within the company or the Yan Family, and he still had not found the source of the car accident.

Before the accident, dealing with these simple matters would not have taken much mental effort, but now they were clearly making him feel tired.

Yan Tingshen closed his eyes.

He had to admit that each of Qin You's reminders had been made with genuine concern for him.

"..."