Chapter 18

Qin You's hand stopped on his shirt buttons again, and he glanced at him.

Yan Tingshen said coolly, "The medicine."

Qin You coughed. "There's no need. Your hand is injured too. I can do it myself."

Yan Tingshen said, "I can still lift a tube of ointment."

Seeing him standing in front of him, apparently determined to see it through, Qin You had no choice but to hand him the ointment.

Yan Tingshen added, "Your shirt."

Qin You looked at him, took off his shirt again as instructed, and sat down with him on the sofa.

Yan Tingshen opened the medical kit and paused for a second when he saw the finger cots inside.

Qin You could see his hesitation. "Maybe we should forget it."

Yan Tingshen turned to look at him, then continued.

Qin You watched him take his time putting finger cots on his middle and index fingers, then squeeze out a line of ointment—

The cool ointment landed on his arm and was gently rubbed in with clumsy movements, gradually stirring the warmth of skin that clung slightly to skin.

Qin You raised his arm onto the armrest. Without looking up, he could see the face right in front of him.

It was no different from usual, still wearing its cool expression.

Only the eyes and hands that had once focused on his work were now focused on tending to Qin You's bruises.

Yan Tingshen glanced at him, his right hand tightening slightly around the ointment, then lowered his eyes again. "If you have something to say, say it."

Qin You smiled. "Something to say? You're helping me apply medicine. I haven't even had time to feel touched. How could I have any time left to talk?"

Yan Tingshen glanced at him again and pressed down firmly with his fingers before saying, "You were hurt saving me, and you also helped me with my rehabilitation. Applying medicine for you is the least I can do."

Qin You smiled.

With a favorability rating as high as thirty-three percent, even if the target wanted to keep his distance, he still couldn't turn a blind eye to his injuries.

Judging by the target's unpracticed movements, this was probably his first time applying medicine for someone else.

Unfortunately, this

heartwarming

moment of deepening friendship wasn't something he could just let take its course.

If the favorability rose again and a new mission unlocked, it would be another disaster.

Seeing that the ointment was almost fully applied, Qin You brought up the subject again. "See? You don't dislike me."

Sure enough, the target's hand stopped.

Qin You showed no reaction.

Yan Tingshen looked at him, his tone revealing nothing of what he felt. "Qin You, if you let go of what happened when you were four, perhaps you could see clearly that what you feel for me is definitely not that kind of feeling."

Qin You said, "I can't let it go."

Yan Tingshen was silent for a moment. He finished applying the ointment to the last area, removed the finger cots, and stood up. "Then you should understand that, in the meantime, I don't want to see you again."

Qin You said, "That won't do either."

Another silence fell over the hospital room.

Yan Tingshen turned, then looked back at him, about to speak.

Qin You smiled. "Leaving everything else aside, at the very least, I'll see you every afternoon at two thirty. Don't be late."

"..." Yan Tingshen didn't say another word. He turned away completely and left.

Mindful of the supporting character's example, the system immediately came out to praise him: [Host, you're amazing! You drove the target away in anger, and the favorability really didn't rise at all!]

It hadn't risen.

Nor had it fallen.

Qin You checked the unchanged number on the panel, then turned toward Yan Tingshen's retreating figure.

This was where the target's outwardly cold but inwardly warm personality fell short.

Once his favorability rose, there was no room for it to fall.

The target placed too much importance on feelings, which was bad for his plan.

As Qin You thought about it, he looked back at the injuries that had been carefully treated.

The bruises were completely covered, and only the warmth of the fingertips that had moved clumsily over them seemed to linger.

The system asked, [Host, are you going to wait here until three this afternoon?]

Qin You said, [Mm.]

With that, he got up, picked up his shirt again, and put it on.

He was about to sit back down when he thought better of it.

He'd be sitting around wherever he went. If he sat next door, he could also recreate the original host's methods of pestering the target, killing two birds with one stone.

After all, anyone would find it annoying to be disturbed while working.

Qin You took his tablet from the inner pocket of his trench coat and walked straight to the door of the next hospital room.

He knocked twice and pushed the door open without waiting.

Yan Tingshen was sitting behind a desk. Hearing him, he looked up and asked, "What is it?"

Qin You saw the open computer on the desk, then the earbud in his right ear, and smiled. "In a meeting?"

Yan Tingshen said, "Mm."

He had expected Qin You to leave him alone after that, but instead Qin You walked closer, found a comfortable position on the sofa beside him, and half reclined facing him.

Yan Tingshen looked at him.

Qin You smiled. "I'll keep you company."

That was all he said, with no further explanation.

Yan Tingshen frowned slightly, then relaxed his brow and said, "Stay quiet."

Qin You said, "No problem."

Yan Tingshen joined the meeting.

Qin You had given him the Qin Group confidential documents several times before, so he didn't think he had come over to eavesdrop.

Besides, it was already time for the meeting, and he had no intention of delaying things over such an inconsequential matter.

The video connected shortly afterward.

On the other end, a number of executives sat upright and reported their views to Yan Tingshen in turn.

Gradually, though, everyone sensed that something was off.

How strange. Was there something wrong with President Yan's earbud? Why did game sound effects keep drifting out?

But even faced with Yan Tingshen over video, everyone kept their mouths shut and looked repeatedly at Zhang Ming instead. Assistant Zhang, however, stared straight ahead, as if he were deaf and couldn't hear the sound effects.

Then they saw Yan Tingshen suddenly turn his head and speak to someone offscreen.

"Qin You."

Everyone immediately perked up and strained their ears. They heard a man answer from offscreen.

"Ah... sorry, I'll turn the volume down."

Yan Tingshen looked away.

Everyone waited and waited.

The meeting resumed as normal, but nothing more came of it.

Huh...?

That wasn't right!

Everyone looked at one another in disbelief.

What was wrong with President Yan today...?

Someone was playing a game during a meeting!

And that was it??

Chapter 18

On the other end of the video.

In another hospital room.

Sitting behind a similar desk, Pei Sheng listened to the reports coming through his earphones, no different from before, but for once his mind wandered during a meeting.

He too had heard the game sound effects before Yan Tingshen spoke.

Zhang Ming had even messaged him in a small chat window, asking whether he should request President Yan's permission to restart the connection, since there might be a problem with the meeting page.

Probably only he knew there was no problem at all, and he had also guessed where the sound effects came from.

But after Yan Tingshen spoke, hearing that name with his own ears, then hearing that person's voice picked up softly by the microphone, an indescribable feeling still gradually welled up in him.

He sat in the same position as Yan Tingshen and turned his head. He could almost see that person's outline on the sofa beside him.

Qin You.

This man was not only slowly making his way into Tingshen's heart, but also becoming part of Tingshen's life, step by step.

And it was different from what he had imagined before.

He had thought that confession that night would make Tingshen keep his distance from Qin You.

The last time they met, he didn't know how much of it was because Qin You had been on a date with Miss Liu, but Tingshen's attitude toward Qin You had indeed been very cold.

But this meeting easily shattered that impression.

Tingshen hadn't kept his distance from Qin You. Instead, he had made another unprecedented exception.

If someone had told Pei Sheng in the past that Yan Tingshen would allow a completely uninvolved person to stay by his side while he worked, even during a meeting, he would have thought it was a fantasy.

Even he was rarely allowed to disturb him once their business was finished. The few times he was, it was also about other matters; they had hardly ever simply spent time alone together in the same room.

He had never thought anything was wrong with that before.

Ever since they were children, everyone had received much the same treatment from Yan Tingshen, and he had been the one given the most consideration.

Now, listening through his earphones to the game sound effects that could still be heard intermittently after Qin You said he would turn down the volume, Pei Sheng looked at Yan Tingshen, who didn't seem to mind at all on the video—

Behind all their countless business dealings, had he and Tingshen ever been even a tenth as comfortable together as this?

He knew the answer all too well.

Pei Sheng pressed his lips together.

In over twenty years of friendship, he hadn't achieved even a tenth of what Qin You, a man he had never met in all those years, had accomplished so easily.

He knew that sometimes relationships between people weren't measured by how long they had known each other.

He also understood very well that, given the kind of person Qin You was, it was hard not to want to associate with him. In the same position, he certainly wouldn't have been able to turn down such a friend either. Apart from the prejudice caused by a slight misunderstanding of him, he couldn't think of anything about Qin You worth criticizing.

After all was said and done, he shouldn't criticize his own savior, nor was he qualified to.

Fate was a mysterious thing, full of chance.

It just so happened that it didn't belong to him.

Pei Sheng took a deep breath.

He quickly cleared away his jumbled thoughts, focused, and returned his attention to the meeting.

[Host, it dropped! It dropped!]

The system excitedly reported the good news. [Oh my god, host, your method really works better! It dropped by a whole two percent!]

The favorability value was clearly displayed on the panel.

33% → 31%

Qin You's finger paused on the screen.

He looked at Yan Tingshen, who was still in the meeting behind the desk. His expression was cool and unchanged.

Half an hour had passed. The target hadn't said much, spending most of the time listening. The occasional words he did say weren't instructions, but only concerned some data.

It probably wasn't an important meeting.

But in the original story, the target had always taken his work very seriously and striven to get ahead. When he first met the original host, before his patience had been exhausted, he would never let any personal matter affect his work. He could be called a workaholic. That was also one of the main reasons the target had quickly established himself in the company.