How Could Bo Lin Be the One Having a Sweet Romance with Hua Jian?

"Old Master Bo, I'm Xie from Minghua Group. This is my wife. We've brought the children to wish you a happy birthday!"

"May your blessings be as boundless as the Eastern Sea, and your life as enduring as South Mountain!"

After bowing with his hands clasped, Hua Jian raised his face and looked ahead, only to have the most dazzling man in the room steal a little of his attention.

Bo Lin stood off to one side with a cold expression. His gaze swept lightly over Hua Jian without settling on him.

Hua Jian's smile faltered.

That same irritation he had felt on the terrace abruptly surfaced again.

Xie Zhiwei failed to notice the tension between them.

"President Bo, let me introduce my three younger brothers: Zhitan, Zhiyan, and Hua Jian."

Three younger brothers?

Bo Lin slowly raised his head.

Lu Zexi had said that Xie Zhiwei had only two younger brothers.

He looked at the members of the Xie Family before him, suspicion and surprise in his eyes.

His mind, a tangled mess all evening, finally started working again.

Xie Zhiwei's biological mother died when he was little. His father was an irresponsible man who married a woman with a kid in tow when Xie Zhiwei was still very young...

Lu Zexi's words cut through the dark, starry sky like a sharp sword.

The kid she brought along. Hua Jian...

Looking closely, the incomparably handsome Hua Jian did indeed bear some resemblance to Madam Xie, who stood beside him in an extravagant gown!

Bo Lin could not put his feelings into words.

It was like holding a spoiled orange in his mouth, sourness and bitter sweetness assaulting his throat at once.

His Adam's apple bobbed as he turned to look at Hua Jian.

But Hua Jian's eyes were half lowered, a perfunctory smile on his face.

He was not looking at Bo Lin at all.

Bo Lin's lips instantly flattened.

Xie Father noticed his displeasure, exchanged a few more words with Old Master Bo, then led the children away.

Having finally completed his mission, Xie Zhiyan immediately reached to tear off his bow tie once they were clear of the crowd.

"Stop." Xie Zhitan stopped him, finally able to release the anger he had held back all day and night. "Come with me."

Xie Zhiyan immediately sensed something was wrong and reflexively looked at Hua Jian.

But Hua Jian was distractedly staring at the floor, and the inner voice Xie Zhiyan had expected to hear never came.

"Second Brother! Go easy! Hear me out! Second Brother!"

With a cold expression, Xie Zhitan grabbed him and dragged him out of the hall.

A long corridor led from the hall to the backyard. Xie Zhiyan's yelps drew several people's attention in the otherwise empty space.

Jiang Yueming was one of them.

He tugged impatiently at his tie. "Tch, someone's actually behaving like that at the Bo Family's birthday banquet? And my mom just had to make me wear this damn getup. It's practically choking me."

Qin Ci said mildly, "Bo Lin might have inherited the Bo Family, but he's only a few years older than us. Our old men are all determined not to embarrass themselves when they come here."

"Ha! Bo Lin's a money-making machine, the perfect kid everyone else's parents wish they had. They're comparing me to him?"

Jiang Yueming finally pulled off his tie. He let out a long breath and swore again. "This is more fucking exhausting than sleeping with a woman."

Qin Ci frowned. "Get lost."

Jiang Yueming leaned over with a shameless grin. "Heh, give me a cigarette."

Despite the way he acted, the Jiang Family's business had been dirty ever since Jiang Yueming's great-grandfather's generation.

Although his grandfather and father had worked hard to make it legitimate, Jiang Yueming still had an ineradicable vicious streak in his bones.

Qin Ci asked, "Have you caught whoever tampered with my car?"

Jiang Yueming shook his head in frustration. "There's a guy on the racing team called Zhao Kai. It's fucking weird. Just when I dug something up on him, the bastard disappeared."

Qin Ci glanced at him. "Forget it. My old man's in the middle of a leadership transition. It's just as well you can't find him. Saves you from going too far and giving someone leverage over us."

Jiang Yueming's grandfather had once benefited from the patronage of the Qin Family's elders, making the Jiang Family something of a dependent of theirs.

Even with Qin Ci saying that, Jiang Yueming still felt humiliated.

He took a vicious drag on his cigarette. "If I catch whoever's pulling strings behind our backs, I'll fucking kill him!"

"This ends here."

They smoked a cigarette while the toasts and mingling continued in the banquet hall.

Something occurred to Jiang Yueming, and he suddenly spoke. "You weren't in the hall earlier. I think I saw that middle school classmate of yours. What was his name again?"

Qin Ci's hand paused, but he said nothing.

"Right, Xie Zhitan. The one your school called an academic god. He seems just like he was as a kid, always smiling, looks really easygoing... Hey, where are you going?"

Xie Zhitan, easygoing?

Qin Ci sneered. The man had blocked him on WeChat over a Class Attendance Pass that would have cost him next to no effort.

He certainly had a big temper.

As that thought crossed his mind, he caught sight of two tall, slender figures on the terrace.

His steps slowed. One of those figures looked familiar.

He rounded a tree and took two more steps forward. Sure enough, Hua Jian's exquisitely beautiful profile came into view.

Tch, how did a bartender get into the Bo Family's banquet?

Did the man beside him bring him in?

Just then, the man raised a hand and brushed Hua Jian's shoulder.

Oh, playing at sweet romance, are they? Qin Ci smirked.

On the terrace.

"Sorry. Some ash drifted onto you."

Sensing Hua Jian stiffen for a moment, Bo Lin curled his fingers slightly and withdrew his hand from Hua Jian's shoulder.

Hua Jian lowered his head, catching only the light touch of Bo Lin's hand against his shoulder.

Then it quickly disappeared from his sight.

At that inopportune moment, he remembered that time at UP.

He had once watched Bo Lin crush a cigarette between his fingers, the tobacco scattering over him.

The thought came so abruptly that Hua Jian's eyelid twitched.

He naturally raised his hand and brushed the spot where the ash had fallen.

As though he wanted to brush away the strange feeling Bo Lin had left on him, too.

"It's fine. Thanks."

Fuck, why did Hua Jian feel so awkward?

He pressed his tongue against the roots of his teeth and tipped his chin toward the hall. "Finished with everything?"

"Mm." There was something unusual in Bo Lin's tone. "So you're Xie Zhiwei's younger brother."

But Hua Jian was feeling awkward himself and did not notice at all.

He shrugged and said self-mockingly, "People used to call me the extra baggage."

Bo Lin stared at him with ink-black eyes. "So you're this short on money because Xie Zhiwei deliberately withholds your allowance?"

Hua Jian was at a loss for words. "Well, there's actually been a bit of a misunderstanding..."

[This whole thing really is a soap opera. Madam Hua cut off Hua Jian's allowance after he came out.]

[Fuck, talking about this as a straight guy is doing my head in.]

[Forget it. I don't like men anyway. Saying too much will only make me look guilty.]

His inner voice sounded just as contradictory as it had that morning at the Haiping Hotel.

Whether he was straight or had already come out seemed utterly unimportant to Bo Lin now.

He said softly, "As long as it was a misunderstanding."

As long as Hua Jian being Xie Zhiwei's lover was a misunderstanding.

Their eyes met for a moment, then they suddenly smiled at the same time.

The fleeting irritation Hua Jian had felt on this terrace drifted far away on the hot summer breeze.

"Well, well, Hua Jian's meeting his lover out here?"

There was always someone who could not read the room. The terrace's sliding door was yanked open.

The decadent music from the hall poured out like a muddy current, dispersing the faint intimacy lingering on the terrace.

Displeasure stirred in Bo Lin, and he abruptly turned.

Qin Ci's mocking grin froze before it could fully form.

Fuck! How could Bo Lin be the one having a sweet romance with Hua Jian?