Chapter 13

Cheng Yu's critical gaze swept back and forth around the laboratory several times. His expression was so obvious that Pei Yan could not ignore it even if he wanted to. He could only awkwardly rub his nose and take two beakers from the lab bench.

"Wait a moment. I need to boil some water first." As Pei Yan explained to Cheng Yu, he picked up the electric kettle to fill it and boil water.

Once it came to a boil, he poured one hundred milliliters of hot water into each beaker, then added a spoonful of potassium iodide to one of them.

Cheng Yu raised his brows, almost immediately realizing what experiment Pei Yan intended to perform.

Sure enough, Pei Yan then tossed a spoonful of lead acetate into the other beaker, followed by two spoonfuls of glacial acetic acid to inhibit hydrolysis.

Expressionless, Cheng Yu picked up a large beaker from the table and held it out to Pei Yan. Pei Yan glanced at Cheng Yu in surprise, then poured the solutions from the two beakers into the large one. The originally colorless, transparent liquid instantly turned a cloudy golden yellow, swaying like freshly squeezed orange juice.

As he heated the large beaker over an alcohol lamp to dissolve the mixture, Pei Yan said with a smile, "I really didn't expect you to have done this experiment when you're only in your first year of high school."

"I haven't." Cheng Yu shook his head without expression. "I wouldn't do something this boring."

As though he had been stabbed in the chest, Pei Yan smiled helplessly and shook his head. He filtered the heated liquid into an iodine flask and waited for it to cool and crystallize.

Cheng Yu stared unblinkingly at the iodine flask. Within a few breaths, the once relatively clear liquid suddenly became brilliant gold. Tiny points of light danced through the golden solution, endlessly spinning with the slightest movement, as though a shower of glittering gold had fallen inside. It was unbelievably beautiful.

Pei Yan casually dripped two drops of glycerin into the iodine flask, sealed it, and handed it to Cheng Yu with a faint smile. "This is for you."

"This thing is toxic, isn't it?" Cheng Yu said as he reached out to take the iodine flask, gently shaking it.

The glittering golden rain spun rapidly inside the bottle. In that instant, it seemed as though the entire world had brightened. Even knowing that this bottle of chemical liquid was crude and toxic, Cheng Yu still could not put it down.

Come to think of it, this was the first time in his life that someone had gone to the trouble of making such a cheap little thing to cheer him up.

Watching Cheng Yu stare at it without blinking, Pei Yan said with a smile, "I just think you're a lot like it."

"Hm?" Cheng Yu looked up, raising a brow. "Toxic?"

"Brilliant and dazzling, as though the whole world lights up," Pei Yan corrected. He pointed at the iodine flask in Cheng Yu's hand. "At least, that's what you're like to me."

"Very beautiful. Very precious." Worth being held in someone's palm and admired.

Chapter 13

"Where are you planning to go tonight?"

After leaving the laboratory, Pei Yan turned his head to study Cheng Yu, who was standing beneath the sun and playing with the iodine flask, then asked casually.

"Haven't decided." Cheng Yu held the iodine flask up to the sunlight, lightly shaking it with his right hand. Squinting as he admired the golden storm constantly whirling inside, he answered absentmindedly.

Pei Yan paused before asking, "Do you know about supercar clubs?"

Cheng Yu raised a brow. When he had studied abroad in F Country, he had joined more than one supercar club. His hobby of collecting sports cars had begun back then. However, he had not paid much attention to domestic clubs. Mainly because after returning home, he had been busy fighting Cheng Shao for the family fortune, taking revenge on Pei Zhennan, Feng Guangxu, and the others, and running C&C Jewelry. Those youthful, reckless indulgences had to be set aside.

At that thought, Cheng Yu inexplicably felt a little guilty as he glanced at Pei Yan. Come to think of it, the lives of Pei father and son, along with the Pei Family's entire foundation, could practically be said to have been ruined by his own hands. Back when their families had been bitter enemies locked in conflict, Cheng Yu had felt nothing. But now, he had had a strange dream that he did not know when he would wake from, and in that dream, he and Pei Yan had actually gotten along fairly well...

Cheng Yu rubbed his nose and looked at the glittering iodine flask in his hand, suddenly feeling the urge to make amends.

"Does your family deal in land?"

"Huh?" Pei Yan had not expected Cheng Yu's train of thought to change so quickly, and for a moment, he could not keep up. After freezing briefly, he answered, "When real estate was booming before, my dad did invest in two plots of land. But policies have been adjusted this year, and the industry outlook isn't very good. My dad is still waiting to see."

Cheng Yu nodded. "I happen to know of a plot with good development prospects. Ask your dad later whether he's interested."

Given Cheng Yu's habit of never letting a grievance go, leaving aside what Zhao Jinchui had done to betray the Cheng Family, Chen Lingyun and her husband had scolded him twice for Zhao Jinchui's sake alone. Cheng Yu had more than enough reason to retaliate against Zhao Jinchui, and it would not be taking his anger out on the wrong person.

Looking at Cheng Yu, Pei Yan suddenly realized that although Cheng Yu was a bit young, whenever he put on a stern face and spoke seriously, he somehow gave off a mature, powerful presence that made people instinctively want to obey him.

Pei Yan chuckled, realizing once again that he still knew far too little about Cheng Yu.

"What are you laughing at?" Cheng Yu was baffled by Pei Yan's laughter. "I really do have something to discuss with your dad. I'm not joking."

After all, Cheng Yu had even drafted the proposal. Since Chen Lingyun refused to appreciate it and Cheng Yu did not want to waste it, he might as well do Pei Zhennan a favor. First, it would weaken Zhao Jinchui's strength; second, it could count as compensation for Pei Yan. When Feng Guangxu truly challenged Chen Lingyun at the shareholders' meeting, if Pei Zhennan, as C&C Jewelry's largest raw-material supplier, was willing to put in a good word for Chen Lingyun, perhaps her situation would not be as difficult as it had been before.

Thinking of Chen Lingyun, Cheng Yu pursed his lips unhappily again. He could only pat his chest and take deep breaths while telling himself not to argue with a deceased relative.

Pei Yan clearly had no idea that the little chemistry experiment he had casually thrown together to make someone happy could inadvertently lead to this. But he genuinely did not want to anger Cheng Yu, so he hurriedly explained, "I wasn't laughing at you. I just thought that when you were talking just now, you looked especially like my dad."