Chapter 41

The living room was especially quiet after lunch. Though the two of them sat on the sofa, neither spoke; they were both playing on their phones. The housekeeper couldn't help marveling at how young people interacted these days. They gathered together without talking, all staring down at their phones.

Then again, perhaps it was because Su Yu couldn't speak, so everything he wanted to say had to go through her.

[Su Yu: Uncle, you still haven't told me why you sent gifts in my livestream last night. What do you want?]

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: Didn't I tell you last night?]

[Su Yu: What did you tell me?]

If things went as expected, he would get another string of ellipses.

Ellipses were fine. At least this uncle was more particular than Lu Chengfei. They didn't bother Su Yu's sense of order nearly as much. The man clearly paid attention to details.

Sure enough, the other party sent six dots.

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: Don't stream after nine thirty. You're disturbing me.]

[Su Yu: Then don't click on my stream.]

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: That's my only request.]

Su Yu glanced at Gu Lin beside him and found that he was playing on his phone too. He couldn't help thinking that this uncle sounded rather like Gu Lin. He wasn't discussing anything with Su Yu; he was telling him what to do.

Could Su Yu put up with that?

Absolutely not.

Even if the man was older, Su Yu wasn't putting up with it.

[Su Yu: Don't think I won't talk back just because you're older. I'll stream whenever I want. It's none of your business.]

Gu Lin turned his eyes toward him. The omega had never been good at hiding his feelings, and his face was indignant now.

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: Are you short on money?]

Gu Lin even began to wonder whether the money he gave Su Yu each month wasn't enough, and whether that was why he streamed so often.

[Su Yu: I'm not short on money. I just like streaming. Watch if you want.]

Su Yu finished by sending a sweating yellow-face emoji.

His attitude was impressively defiant. Those twelve characters were enough to make Gu Lin abandon any thought of increasing his allowance.

Aaa Building Materials Wholesale ended the conversation with an ellipsis, and Su Yu couldn't be bothered to reply. He closed the chat. They both put away their phones and prepared to return to their rooms, only to stand up at the same time. Their movements were so synchronized that Su Yu hesitated instead of walking on. Gu Lin glanced at him, his gaze calm, as though he were looking at an idiot.

Su Yu watched him go upstairs in confusion, his brows drawing together. He hadn't done anything. He'd only chatted on his phone. Why had Gu Lin looked at him like that?

[What's his problem?]

Gu Lin: "..." Su Yu spent all day bad-mouthing him in his head. What had possessed Gu Lin to consider raising this omega's allowance?

He'd be the one with a problem if he did.

Yun Shang's gathering ended without incident. On the way back, Lu Chengfei told Su Yu that he'd gotten Yun Shang's mother's contact information and signed Yun Shang up for a QQ account.

"That kid Yun Shang could've told me sooner his family was so loaded. I thought he was some poor unlucky bastard."

Su Yu, an actual poor unlucky bastard, peeled a grape as he replied, "Could you use your brain? What poor unlucky bastard goes to a private school that costs tens of thousands a semester? You're no good at studying, no good at fighting. You're hopeless."

Lu Chengfei shot back, "Can you fucking stop making it personal?"

"Seriously. You can't win an argument, so you swear every time you open your mouth. What impressive manners. Even a dog would shake its head."

"Yun Shang's dad gave me this scary look, like he had something against me. He kept staring, especially when I talked to Yun Shang. Is he always like that?"

Su Yu thought back to what Young Uncle was usually like. He was tall and handsome, with a friendly face and an easygoing personality. There was nothing frightening about him. Young Aunt was the same: delicate, gentle features and a ready smile that made her seem easy to get along with.

"Don't assume the worst about him."

"I'm serious. He looked at me like he wanted to throw me out."

Su Yu tried to picture Young Uncle looking stern, but he'd never seen it. For one thing, they'd only met twice. For another, Young Uncle had a witty way of speaking. Su Yu popped the grape into his mouth and said indistinctly, "Then you deserved it. You picked on his son."

There was a rustle from the receiver, but Lu Chengfei went silent. A moment later, Su Yu heard him stammer, "C-Cousin." He wasn't talking to Su Yu.

Cousin?

Had Lu Heyun come to pick him up?

He heard Lu Heyun give a cool "Mm." His voice was nothing like the gentle one he used with Su Yu.

Then Su Yu heard a car door close. Lu Chengfei must have gotten in, but the idiot had forgotten to end the voice call.

Su Yu had no habit of eavesdropping, so he said, "Lu Chengfei, I'm hanging up."

Lu Chengfei said okay, and Su Yu ended the call. On Lu Chengfei's end, though, the tension was unbearable. Just sitting beside Lu Heyun made him uncomfortable all over.

"When did you two... get so close?"

They'd met only a handful of times, yet they were already familiar enough to call each other.

Lu Chengfei didn't think he and Su Yu were that close. They were both naturally outgoing; put them together, and as long as they weren't enemies, they could keep a conversation going. But what was his cousin getting at? Was he jealous?

"No, we're not close."

Lu Chengfei hurried to distance himself from Su Yu. He told Lu Heyun how he'd run into Yun Shang's parents on Friday and been invited to eat with them. He added that Su Yu only chatted with him to keep an eye on him and stop him from causing trouble.

That was the truth.

Su Yu only talked to him to keep him out of trouble. Otherwise, he never reached out.

Lu Heyun lowered his eyes thoughtfully. Su Yu still hadn't replied to the message he'd sent before Lu Chengfei got into the car.

The car pulled away. Lu Chengfei glanced at Lu Heyun and asked, "Aren't you busy lately, Cousin?"

How did he have time to pick him up? He'd even come to act as his guardian last time.

"Your mother asked me to take you to dinner. She's back."

Lu Chengfei muttered inwardly, Why didn't she come herself? Being stuck with Lu Heyun was agony.

He felt like he was sitting on pins and needles.

Lu Chengfei's mother barely had time for him. Whenever something came up, she left it to someone else. His father was just as busy. Lu Heyun's mother and Lu Chengfei's mother had been close friends, and after Lu Heyun's mother died, Lu Chengfei's mother had always looked out for him. So whenever she needed help, Lu Heyun never refused.

He'd acted as Lu Chengfei's guardian that day only because Lu Chengfei's mother happened to be unavailable. He simply hadn't expected to run into Su Yu.

The car had been driving for a while before Su Yu replied, saying he hadn't seen the message earlier.

Lu Heyun said it was fine. They exchanged a couple more messages before the conversation ran out of steam, and they left it there for the time being.

Su Yu was still streaming after nine thirty. Gu Lin couldn't understand why the omega's mind was so active at this hour. He could hum a song in his head while replying to comments on the screen.

The humming itself wasn't the problem. The problem was that he sounded awful.

No, worse than awful.

Gu Lin had never heard anyone hum so badly. Every note wandered off-key. It might have been a form of mental torture.

In his study, desperate for peace and quiet, Gu Lin set down his pen and picked up his phone to message Su Yu.

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: End the stream. You're too loud.]

Su Yu didn't reply, perhaps because he was busy playing a game. His sporadic humming was terribly distracting.

Gu Lin entered his livestream. The moment he arrived, comments announcing "The top donor's here" flooded the screen. They were hard to miss. This time, though, he didn't send a gift. He told Su Yu in the public chat to end the stream.

[The top donor actually spoke.]

[He can talk!]

[This guy's been sending gifts for days without saying a word, and the first thing he says is to tell the streamer to stop.]

Gu Lin's message was soon buried. He heard Su Yu say, "What did he say? I didn't see it."

Gu Lin told him to check WeChat.

A moment later, Su Yu said, "Oh. You want me to end the stream? I won't. I'm streaming until eleven tonight."

That wasn't very likely. If he was still streaming at eleven, Gu Lin would go over and turn off his computer.

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: I'll send you gifts. End the stream.]

Money wasn't so important to Su Yu right now.

[Su Yu: I told you, I don't need your money.]

Gu Lin stared at the screen expressionlessly, lost in thought. Before long, Su Yu started humming again.

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: I'll bring you in on a business deal. Stop streaming at night. You're too loud.]

[Su Yu: How do I know you're not trying to scam me? I barely own anything.]

Gu Lin: "..." He'd provided most of what Su Yu owned.

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: I'm not interested in your possessions.]

[Su Yu: Not interested.]

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: A restaurant.]

Su Yu immediately sent three heart-eyes emojis and asked: Uncle, Uncle, Uncle, if I invest, do I get to eat there for free? You don't seem short on money. How about I take the profits and you cover the losses?

For a moment, Gu Lin couldn't tell whether he was joking. If anyone else had proposed those terms, he would have coldly told them to get lost. What businessman would agree to a deal where he took all the risk?

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: Sure.]

He agreed?

Just how rich was he?

Su Yu was stunned when he saw those two words. He'd only said it offhand.

The man then asked when he was free to meet and sign a contract. This uncle was so agreeable that Su Yu suspected he was a scammer with ulterior motives.

Su Yu asked sincerely: You're not going to steal my kidney when we meet, are you?

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: ...]

[Su Yu: I know good things don't just fall from the sky, and even if they did, they wouldn't land on me. Uncle, if you've got nothing to do, go dance in the square with the old folks in your neighborhood. Stop promising strangers the moon online.]

[Su Yu: Oh, right. Uncle, are you married? Want me to introduce you to someone? One of my bosses runs a matchmaking agency. I know him pretty well. I could put you in touch.]

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: ...You pick the time and place. I'll cover your travel and meals.]

Su Yu readily agreed.

[Su Yu: Come on, Uncle, you should've said so earlier. Even if the deal doesn't work out, we can still be friends.]

Exactly.

Even if the deal fell through, he could still go out for a meal.

The food at home was delicious, but Su Yu thought food tasted better when someone paid for it. Most importantly, that someone wouldn't be him.

[Aaa Building Materials Wholesale: End the stream.]

[Su Yu: You got it.]

In high spirits, Su Yu said goodbye to his viewers. "I'm ending the stream. That's it for work today."