Chapter 44

Li Ten ignored him. Shen Yujun spoke again, "I'm leaving tomorrow with the Li family's Fourth Master. Even if you don't believe me, you should believe Fourth Master Li."

Li Ten's body stiffened slightly. He saw that Shen Yujun had already called Li Bingru. After exchanging a few words over the phone, Shen Yujun passed it to Li Ten. Only after hearing Li Bingru's instructions did Li Ten carefully place Li Rongxiu on the yacht. Then he went down to fetch two blankets and two pillows, helped Li Rongxiu settle down to sleep, and finally left.

Shen Yujun sat on the yacht's deck and opened another can of chilled beer. Drinking alone, he muttered complaints toward the sleeping Li Rongxiu. "Honestly, I wanted to talk to someone I knew before leaving, but you went and fell asleep... If I'd known, I wouldn't have let you drink."

The moonlight was silver. Shen Yujun sat cross-legged beside Li Rongxiu, and the cold moonlight made Li Rongxiu's features look even more exquisite. Shen Yujun sighed deeply, reached out to tug Li Rongxiu's blanket into place, then simply crawled beneath it himself.

He felt that spending his final day in the Empire sleeping beside someone was not such a bad memory.

Li Rongxiu woke up at home early the next morning. The moment he regained consciousness, he was a little confused. He remembered being on a yacht in South Bay last night, talking with Shen Yujun before their parting. How had he ended up in his own bed this morning? Where was Shen Yujun?

Li Rongxiu stared blankly at the ceiling for a while, but he still could not remember anything from after he got drunk. He picked up the phone on his bedside table and checked the time. It was already half past nine in the morning. Fortunately, he had nothing important to do today, or everything would have been delayed by now.

Li Rongxiu clicked his tongue to himself. After burying his head beneath the covers to enjoy their lingering warmth for a moment, he got up to wash.

Downstairs, all the Li family men had already gone to work. Zhuang Meiru was not home either. Only Grandma Li, Mo Wanrou, was in the garden reading the newspaper. Seeing Li Rongxiu stumbling about sleepily, she smiled and asked, "You're up. Have you eaten breakfast?"

Li Rongxiu shook his head. Mo Wanrou simply instructed the maid to bring breakfast out to the garden and ate with him. Seeing how idle he looked, she suggested, "How are you planning to spend this summer vacation?"

Li Rongxiu was absentmindedly flipping through that morning's paper. Hearing Mo Wanrou's question, he shook his head carelessly and said, "I haven't thought about it. Maybe I'll go to Hawaii with Allen and the others, or maybe I'll go to Los Angeles with my second cousin. I haven't decided yet."

Mo Wanrou shook her head with a smile. "You spend every winter vacation like that. Don't you ever get tired of it? Haven't you considered trying a different kind of vacation?"

Li Rongxiu looked up at Mo Wanrou and raised an eyebrow in confusion.

Mo Wanrou smiled. "How about going to the company and helping your father and older brother?"

Li Rongxiu immediately curled his lip in distaste and waved his hands repeatedly. "No way."

"Why not? Don't you like Meihua?" Mo Wanrou asked.

"The company has Dad and my brother. I don't understand anything, so what would I go there and mess up?" Li Rongxiu really did not want to continue discussing the subject. Pointing to a gossip item in the paper, he said, "So Chi Junrui and Shen Manyao are getting married. They never mentioned it at yesterday's reception."

Mo Wanrou ignored Li Rongxiu's clumsy attempt to change the subject and continued persuading him. "That's exactly why you should go intern there. You're already sixteen. Once school starts, you'll be in your second year of high school. You're not a child anymore. When your brother was your age, he was already a department manager."

"How many people in this world are like my brother? Having one genius in the Li family is already enough to make people jealous. We don't need another one. Besides, I'm not interested in corporate management." As he spoke, Li Rongxiu stood up. "Oh, right, I just remembered I have plans with Allen and the others. I'll be going now."

"Hey, Xiu Xiu." Mo Wanrou watched Li Rongxiu flee in panic with amused eyes, then shook her head helplessly.

Li Rongxiu had arranged to meet his spoiled rich-kid friends at a newly opened private club owned by Zhao Qijun's family. Yet when he arrived, only Zhao Qijun was waiting in the private room. And Zhao Qijun was not merely waiting around. He sat on a European-style leather sofa, with stacks of folders spread across the coffee table before him, looking extremely busy. When he saw Li Rongxiu push open the door and enter, Zhao Qijun quickly stood to greet him and instructed the waiter to bring over the cold dishes and desserts that had been prepared earlier.

Li Rongxiu raised an eyebrow in surprise and pointed at the folders on the coffee table. "What are all these? Is the foundation matter still not finished?"

Zhao Qijun shook his head. He poured Li Rongxiu a glass of chilled rose cordial and handed it over. "No, these are some materials for the club. My dad wants me to intern here this summer."

"Then you're not going to Hawaii or Hollywood with us?" Li Rongxiu lowered his head and took a sip of the rose cordial. Its fresh fragrance immediately spread through him, making him feel refreshed.

Zhao Qijun looked at Li Rongxiu awkwardly. After hesitating for a long while, he said uneasily, "Actually... maybe none of us will have time to travel abroad this summer."

Hearing that, Li Rongxiu made an even more surprised sound. Before Zhao Qijun had time to explain, the private room door was pushed open again. This time, Allen Yaksa, Wu Zhiheng, and Xin Mengmeng entered. Before everyone could sit down, Xin Mengmeng said, "Zhou Ruixin is in a meeting with his dad. He just called me and said he'll be here later."

After a pause, she turned to Li Rongxiu. "What happened to your phone? Zhou Ruixin said he called you, but you didn't answer."

"Really?" Li Rongxiu pulled out his phone and checked. It had been set to silent.

How strange. When had it been muted?

As Li Rongxiu pondered that, Xin Mengmeng kept chattering away. "After last night's reception, my mom praised me like crazy. She said that after all these years, I'd finally learned to make something of myself. After nagging at me for ages, she even agreed to let me intern at a beauty club this summer. Sigh, this girl has a job now too!"

Hearing Xin Mengmeng, Allen Yaksa and Wu Zhiheng also chimed in. Then they proudly described how glorious their evening at home had been, how they had made their families see them in a new light, and how they had finally won their families' approval to intern at the family companies.

Wu Zhiheng smiled excitedly. "This is the first time my family has valued me so highly. Looks like Diwan High School's 'top qualification' really is something special. I'm an elite now too!"

Li Rongxiu sat on the sofa, silently watching his friends buzz with excitement as though they had been injected with stimulants. He had to admit that perhaps he would be left all alone this summer. Thinking that, Li Rongxiu suddenly lost all interest in the gathering. He curled his lip and put his phone back in his pocket. Xin Mengmeng noticed his mood at once, hurriedly got up, pressed a hand to his shoulder, and fired off words at machine-gun speed. "Hey, we took leave from the company and rushed here with great difficulty. You're not going to be so willful that you abandon us, are you? Zhou Ruixin hasn't even arrived yet!"

Li Rongxiu let out a long, gloomy breath. "I feel like we have nothing in common anymore. Come on, we're the Spendthrift Alliance, not some Elite Alliance. Do we really have to make ourselves this busy?"

"But we've been spendthrifts for more than ten years, and we're tired of it too. Even if it's just role-playing, wanting a change of pace and pretending to be corporate white-collar workers for two months... that isn't strange, right?" Alan said as he patted Li Rongxiu's shoulder, signaling for him to calm down.

Li Rongxiu could only widen his eyes and maintain his sulky expression, shooting everyone sidelong looks from the corners of his eyes. He felt betrayed.

Everyone burst into laughter. Just as they were about to speak, Zhou Ruixin, who had been run off his feet all morning, finally pushed open the door and entered. "Sorry I'm late. But did you order anything? Does anyone have food? I've been so busy since this morning that I haven't even had a sip of water."

Zhao Qijun, who was closest to him, poured him a glass of rose cordial and pushed the small desserts on the coffee table toward him. Everyone watched as Zhou Ruixin downed three glasses of rose cordial one after another like a thirsty ox, then wolfed down an entire plate of hibiscus cakes. Finally, he let out a satisfied "Ah," collapsed onto the sofa, and rubbed his stomach.

Li Rongxiu stared blankly at Zhou Ruixin's series of actions and asked in shock, "Did your company send you to a refugee camp in Africa?"

Everyone roared with laughter. Zhou Ruixin could only spread his hands helplessly and say with a smile, "Can't be helped. I never expected company life to be so intense. It's like going to war."

"Fine, you all have jobs. I'm the only idle human with nothing to do. I'm going home!" Li Rongxiu had barely begun to stand when Xin Mengmeng grabbed him. Smiling at him affectionately, she said, "Hey, don't be like that. You should know that we only got where we are today because of you. No matter what, we won't abandon you."

As she spoke, ignoring Li Rongxiu's fierce objections and struggles, Xin Mengmeng puckered her lips and gave him a seductive kiss—leaving the print of her flaming red lips on Li Rongxiu's fair, smooth cheek.

After kissing him, Xin Mengmeng reluctantly stroked his cheek and sighed. "I really don't understand why a man needs such nice skin. It would be better if you gave it to me. Then I wouldn't have to spend two hours on makeup and another three hours on skincare every day."

Li Rongxiu rolled his eyes helplessly, broke free from Xin Mengmeng's embrace, leaned over to pull out a tissue, and viciously wiped his cheek. Still feeling uncomfortable, he got up and went to the washroom to wash his face before returning.

Xin Mengmeng looked at Li Rongxiu's finicky behavior, as though he could not avoid her fast enough, and laughed wickedly. In truth, Li Rongxiu had a cleanliness obsession and could not stand the sticky sensation of women's perfume and lipstick against his skin. This little habit was no secret. Xin Mengmeng had often teased Li Rongxiu this way before, since he would not get angry anyway.

After laughing around for a while, everyone sat down to eat and chat. During that time, everyone except Li Rongxiu had their phones ringing constantly, all calls from their companies giving them instructions. Watching everyone bustle about, Li Rongxiu suddenly felt that having nothing to do was rather boring.

He thought of his conversation with Mo Wanrou that morning and began to feel tempted as well.

Chapter 44

After leaving Zhao Qijun's family club, Li Rongxiu drove his red sports car around the coast for a while before heading home. He wanted to think some things through amid the rush of speed. It was a habit from both his past and present lives.

Yet even after Zhuang Meiru called to ask when he would be home, he still had not come up with a clear answer. Instead, under Zhuang Meiru's urging, he realized he was hungry again. Looking at the sky, now completely dark, Li Rongxiu finally decided to set his choice aside for the moment and go home for dinner.

The Li family's dinner was still light, easily digestible fare—aside from the boiled fish specially prepared for Li Rongxiu. Yet as Li Rongxiu ate his favorite spicy boiled fish, it somehow tasted bland. His older brother, Li Rongyu, watched Li Rongxiu struggle as though he wanted to count every grain of rice and asked, "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing." Li Rongxiu paused, but he still expressed the feeling of all my friends have gone to work, leaving only me alone and bored and lonely and wanting to throw a tantrum. Then he asked everyone for advice in distress. "What am I supposed to do this summer? No one will go out and have fun with me anymore."

The Li family exchanged looks. After a while, Grandpa Li asked tentatively, "Then why don't you want to intern at the company? If you went into the company too, wouldn't you be like your friends? You'd have things in common to talk about when you met up later."