Applying ointment

Shi Yuan took a bus to the foot of the hill outside the old estate, then walked up.

You Gui had told him she wanted to work in S City, though it was only an idea for now. She would send out some résumés first and see whether anyone replied. Shi Yuan did not know what to say, so he could only express his support. In the novel, You Gui had never planned to go to S City-or perhaps she had, but had never managed it.

He was increasingly realizing that a few hundred thousand words could not encompass a protagonist's entire life. Everyone could write their own story, standing at crossroads and making choices at any moment.

Perhaps he had unwittingly inspired You Gui somehow, leading her to choose a different path, one without Shen Duo. Whether that was good or bad, he did not know, and the thought worried him.

He felt as though he had done nothing, yet he had broken up the canonical couple. Privately, though, he thought You Gui could not have made a better choice. Between Shen Duo and You Gui, he was naturally more partial to her.

Caught between those conflicting feelings, he ambled along. The streetlights halfway up the hill shone brightly, and now and then he passed someone out for a stroll after dinner. Naturally, they were all either wealthy or powerful.

Shi Yuan liked lively surroundings. They gave him a sense of security.

As he approached the Wei Family's gates, he spotted a tall, slender figure in the distance, standing straight as though waiting for someone.

"You're finally back," Wei Zelin said.

"Brother Lin, were you waiting for me?" Shi Yuan was a little touched. He had not expected Wei Zelin to have a conscience after all. His efforts to get on his good side lately had not been wasted.

"Yes. Let's go back."

They entered the estate one behind the other, while Shi Yuan silently prayed they would not run into Wei Zexuan.

Wei Zelin found the way he kept glancing around adorable. His lips curved. "Don't worry. He seems to have been busy lately. He hasn't come back in a long time."

Shi Yuan breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. I can't afford to cross him, but I can at least avoid him."

Wei Zelin looked at him as though he wanted to ask something, then hesitated. Even after they went upstairs and returned to their rooms, he still had not said it, leaving Shi Yuan positively itching to know.

"Brother Lin, what is it?"

Wei Zelin sighed. "Why don't we move out?"

"We? Move out?"

Shi Yuan froze.

Leaving aside why Wei Zelin would take him along if he moved out, wasn't the villain enduring humiliation and remaining at the Wei Family's old estate precisely so he could bring them down? Shi Yuan knew nothing about finance and could not grasp the intricacies, but Wei Zelin did. There had to be an important reason for him to stay. {He had impulsively brought it up once before, leading to a cold war with Wei Zelin. Only afterward had he realized there might be a connection.}

Now Wei Zelin was actually offering to take him away. He really could not make sense of it.

"You don't want to?" Wei Zelin took off his glasses and casually set them on Shi Yuan's little table.

"I wasn't expecting... No, I just don't think this is a good time."

That was right. Whatever Wei Zelin's intentions were, he could not get involved.

The Wei Family would not fall for another two years. Here, he did not have to worry about food or shelter. He could move out after passing his certification exam and finding a job. Leaving now would only draw Wei Zexuan's attention.

"All right. We'll talk about it later," Wei Zelin said calmly, as though his suggestion had merely been an offhand remark.

After washing up, Shi Yuan dug two tubes of ointment out of his drawer. He had bought them the last time Wei Zelin was injured, but unfortunately, they had been giving each other the cold shoulder then. The tubes were still unopened.

Shi Yuan rubbed out the purplish-red ointment and slowly spread it over his arm. The smell of Chinese herbal medicine filled the air, and he stuck out his tongue.

"Ugh..."

Disgusting. It really smelled awful.

Wei Zelin showered quickly. After drying his hair, he sat on Shi Yuan's bed and frowned at the bruises covering his arm.

"Are you badly hurt?"

"No."

Shi Yuan shifted to the side. His bed was so small that even two adults sitting on it felt cramped.

"They're just superficial injuries. They look bad, but they don't really hurt."

"Lift your shirt."

"Huh?" Shi Yuan stared.

Wei Zelin explained, "Let me see whether you have any injuries on your body."

"Oh, okay." Shi Yuan obediently lifted his shirt.

"There aren't any in front. Blondie said all the organs were in the front of the chest, and a kick could even cause internal bleeding if you weren't careful with the force. There should be some on my back."

That slippery bastard could even smile and greet people while tormenting someone. Shi Yuan had never been beaten like this in his life, and the hatred made him grit his teeth.

If Wei Zexuan was the person he hated most, Huang Shiren came in a close second!

Sure enough, two red marks marred Shi Yuan's fair back. Judging by their size, they had probably come from kicks.

Copying Shi Yuan, Wei Zelin spread the ointment across his palm.

Shi Yuan asked, "Are you going to put it on for me?"

"Yes. You can't reach your back."

Shi Yuan had been wondering what to do about that himself, so Wei Zelin's offer suited him perfectly. Worried that the position might be uncomfortable for Wei Zelin, he even helpfully sprawled halfway across the bed.

Wei Zelin's face remained calm, as though he were looking at a warm slab of pork, yet the rising heat in his palm melted the ointment into oil.

"Brother Lin?"

Wei Zelin's voice was steady. "Yes. Coming."

At first, Shi Yuan had felt nothing unusual, but Wei Zelin's palm was simply too hot. The scorching warmth seeped through his thin skin and roamed across his back.

Shi Yuan had never been straight. Spending every day with such a gorgeous man, exactly his type, made it impossible not to have thoughts. Lately, even physical contact with him made Shi Yuan blush.

But he knew exactly where he stood. They belonged to two different worlds, and not just literally.

Their backgrounds, their capacity for scheming, and so much more...

Shi Yuan tried to picture it, but he could not imagine a future in which he and Wei Zelin were together.

He was not like You Gui, insecure, starved of love, and in need of someone to save her.

Shi Yuan's family had been full of happiness. His parents had been elementary school classmates, childhood sweethearts who loved each other deeply. If not for that accident, he believed they would have grown old together.

He had grown up steeped in love and believed in loving one person for life. Getting entangled with someone he was destined never to be with would waste both his time and his feelings. Wouldn't that be terribly unfair when he eventually met his true love?

Love should be pure and open, without anything to hide.

Before falling in love, he should consider the consequences. Could he bear them? Could it lead anywhere?

Chairman Mao had said, "Dating without marriage as the goal is just playing the scoundrel!"

The great man's words struck like thunder, instantly snapping Shi Yuan out of his trance over Wei Zelin's good looks.

"...Brother Lin, isn't that enough?"

His voice was naturally soft and slightly husky. Now, with his mouth and throat dry, that distinctive voice gave his words a seductive edge.

Wei Zelin seemed not to hear him. He remained seated for several more minutes, only standing when Shi Yuan called him a second time.

"Done."

His reaction to being touched was obvious. Shy, but not repulsed. He probably liked men.

Wei Zelin casually picked up the glasses on the table, forgetting that his hands were covered in medicinal oil.

His fingers felt sticky. Purplish-red ointment smeared the glasses, leaving them greasy and looking rather difficult to clean.

Wei Zelin lowered his gaze to the glasses he had worn for three years. His dark brown eyes held unfathomable depths that no one else could glimpse.

Guests at the Imperial Dynasty had called its name tacky more than once, but Huang Shiren had no intention of changing it. He liked the name. Within that enormous building, he was its master, its local emperor, the commanding big brother his men looked up to...

Yet at that moment, standing behind Wei Zelin in Private Room 301, he was none of those things.

His eyes were bloodshot, his exhaustion impossible to hide. Dark stains covered his burgundy jacket. Not a single button was fastened, revealing a crumpled shirt underneath that looked as though someone had grabbed it.

"Has Hou Yuting been causing trouble for you again?"

Wei Zelin narrowed his eyes as he surveyed Huang Shiren's disheveled appearance.

"Huang Shijie will be back in the country soon. She's in a hurry to pave the way for her son."

Huang Shiren sighed. Sometimes he even admired his father's mistress for her endless little schemes. When she caused trouble at his Clubhouse, she never did it herself. A few provocative words were enough to send some blind fool over to court death.

He was not afraid, merely annoyed. Somehow, every incident reached his father's ears, too. There was no guarding against her constant attempts to poison his father against him.

His father was in his prime and so conceited that making a will had never even occurred to him. He was shrewd, too. Apart from a house and some flashy but impractical jewelry, the mistress had managed to get nothing else out of him. His father and mother were still married. If anything happened to his father, all his shares and real estate would go to Huang Shiren and his mother. Of course the mistress was anxious.

Wei Zelin offered a measured reminder. "You value loyalty and affection, but sometimes indecision only hurts you."

Huang Shiren collapsed onto the office sofa and covered his face with one hand. His voice was muffled. "If he really doesn't care about us, I won't go soft when the time comes."

Wei Zelin knew Huang Shiren had been making his own way in the world since childhood. It was not as though he necessarily failed to understand these things.

He offered no further advice. Taking a box of ointment from the desk drawer, he tapped its lid with his left hand.

"Is Wei Zexuan still planning to cause trouble for Shi Yuan?"

Huang Shiren sounded gleeful. "No, actually. Wei Zexuan probably doesn't have time to bother him now. I heard that little love rival of his resigned, and HR approved it the same day. Wei Zexuan flew into a rage when he found out, but she'd already run off to S City."

"Even the Wei Family's reach doesn't extend to S City. That You Gui has some brains after all."

Wei Zelin grasped it immediately. "If HR dared approve her resignation that day, Shen Duo must have pulled some strings. I didn't expect him to be willing to let her go."

Huang Shiren understood, though. "Brother Lin, you don't get it. There's a kind of love called letting go. Now that's true love from President Shen. If it were my dad, he'd have found a way to sleep with her first."

Wei Zelin disagreed. Hah. Let go? Instead of keeping a close watch on what he wanted, he let her slip beyond his control. If it were me...

He tapped his phone screen, and the young man sleeping so peacefully appeared in his palm. He remembered applying ointment the night before, and the cruel beauty of the injuries on that back.

When he had actually seen all those bruises, his heart had ached after all. More than he had expected.

"I told you to put on a show. Why did you kick him that badly?"

Wei Zelin's tone was so mild that it hardly sounded like a rebuke.

But Huang Shiren had followed him for years and immediately recognized the protectiveness in his words.

He sat up straight, his expression turning serious. "You mean Shi Yuan? Ah, that was Haozi. He doesn't know his own strength, and I didn't explain things properly. He landed two solid kicks. A Biao was filming for Wei Zexuan beside us, so I couldn't stop him. Brother Lin, I'm sorry. I mishandled it."

In fact, Wei Zelin had given him no instructions at the time. He had merely known that Shi Yuan had been getting along fairly well with Wei Zelin lately, so he had gone easy on him. Otherwise, Shi Yuan would have ended up with at least a broken arm or leg.

But since Wei Zelin had put it that way, and given his attitude just now, Huang Shiren wondered whether Shi Yuan might also be one of Wei Zelin's men.

He wisely refrained from asking.