Confrontation

Wei Zelin saw the family of three into their car and immediately headed back. He was afraid Shi Yuan would explode if he delayed any longer. To his surprise, the atmosphere between Shi Yuan and Wei Ming was perfectly calm when he returned.

Wei Zelin's expression changed. Calm meant there was no conflict between them-or that the conflict had already been resolved.

"Uncle Wei, I'll head back now." It was impossible to tell whether Shi Yuan was in a good mood or a bad one. With that, he turned and left.

Wei Zelin followed him, keeping a little distance.

When they reached the little villa where they lived, Wei Zelin quickened his pace to catch up and took Shi Yuan's hand. "What did Wei Ming say to you?"

Shi Yuan shook his hand off and tossed the ID card and marriage certificate in his other hand onto the coffee table. "You should know perfectly well what he would say, shouldn't you? The day after tomorrow is Monday. We're going to the Civil Affairs Bureau together that morning to get the paperwork."

Neither of them had switched on the lights when they came in. Wei Zelin stood in the shadows while moonlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows onto Shi Yuan in front of him. Staring at that moonlit figure, Wei Zelin spoke in a voice that betrayed neither joy nor anger. "You care about me, don't you?"

Shi Yuan found that laughable. "What difference does it make whether I care? Would you leave the Wei Family with me?"

"No," Wei Zelin said heavily.

Just as expected. Wei Zelin had endured humiliation for so many years, and everything the Wei Family possessed was almost within his grasp. He could not possibly give it up for him.

"I have to secure this project. I'm not dating that woman, and she won't marry me either. You'll understand in a few days."

Shi Yuan believed Wei Zelin would not really date Sun Yixuan. He was using Wei Ming's influence to further his own plans.

In Thorn, he had been exactly that sort of person, someone who would use any means necessary to achieve his goals. Anyone could become one of his pawns.

Shi Yuan suddenly thought of Wei Zexuan's imprisonment, Ren Zheng's position, and his only son, Xiao Rong...

A chill swept through him. He demanded coldly, "Did you have a hand in Xiao Rong and me being kidnapped?"

Wei Zelin stepped out of the shadows and approached Shi Yuan little by little. Even the brightest moonlight seemed dim and murky when it fell on him.

"Yes... ngh..."

Wei Zelin let out a muffled grunt. His eyes red, Shi Yuan clenched the fist he had just swung.

"Do you know Xiao Rong is only eleven? Are you a fucking animal?"

Unable to contain his anger, Shi Yuan punched him again.

Wei Zelin made no further sound, letting Shi Yuan vent.

Shi Yuan stopped, suddenly finding it all pointless.

"You really are an expert at manipulating people. You started stringing me along ages ago, didn't you? It's my own fault for being stupid."

Wei Zelin's tall, straight frame trembled slightly. He actually had countless ways to make Shi Yuan believe him, bury the truth about the past, and keep Shi Yuan beside him as an innocent, oblivious little canary. But he knew that could only be an illusion. First, Shi Yuan was no caged canary. Second, he could no longer bear to lie to him.

"Yuanyuan, do you know why Wei Ming abandoned my mother and me back then?"

Shi Yuan remained cold. "Because he wanted to climb his way to the top."

Shi Yuan did not believe a single word of that bullshit about Wei Wanwan threatening him.

"That's right. He wanted to climb his way to the top, so he deliberately seduced Wei Wanwan. When Wei Wanwan came to our door to demand that my mother divorce Wei Ming, she was so young and arrogant." Wei Zelin sank into his memories.

"But she wasn't as beautiful as my mother. Wei Ming had pursued my mother all the way from high school through university."

Wei Zelin paused. "Lin Qingxue looks about sixty percent like her. Even the way she dresses is similar."

Shi Yuan's eyes widened. What did that mean?

"Wei Ming came back to find my mother afterward. He got down on his knees and begged her to become his secret mistress. He said every sweet thing he could think of, told her she was the only woman he would ever love, and that he couldn't live without her."

"My mother agreed."

Wei Zelin smiled bitterly.

"My maternal grandparents were both teachers. They held themselves to strict standards their whole lives. How could they possibly let their daughter become the mistress of the ex-husband who had abandoned her?"

It was not just Wei Ming. His grandparents saw even him as something left behind by a traitor, as though one more glance at him would dirty their eyes.

"They locked her up and told everyone she was ill. In fact, she really was ill.

"She was like a parasitic vine clinging to Wei Ming. Without his love, she couldn't live. And in the end, she really didn't."

Wei Zelin took off his glasses, his gaze unfocused. When that woman had an episode, she would stare at his face and hit him, curse him, and devise every possible way to torment him. Once she regained her senses, she would regret it and hold him as she begged forgiveness.

So...

"At her funeral, Wei Ming was stopped outside the hall and cried his heart out. But I, her own son, didn't shed a single tear. My grandparents called me an ungrateful wretch and threw me out of the Qi Family. Wei Ming took me away."

A father who lusted after power and abandoned his wife and child. A fragile, unstable mother who saw nothing but love.

Shi Yuan fell silent. What Wei Zelin described was different from the experiences portrayed through the protagonist's perspective in the original novel. A child like him, who had grown up surrounded by love, could not imagine a life that sounded suffocating just to hear about.

Wei Zelin lowered his head and asked, "Will you trust me one last time? I swear I'll never turn into Wei Ming."

Shi Yuan met his eyes for a second. Faced with that handsome, miserable face, he simply could not ignore the trembling of his heart. He looked away as though fleeing and said, "I already promised Wei Ming I would divorce you."

"I will never divorce you as long as I live." Wei Zelin's tone was firm and obsessive.

"Yuanyuan, let me take you somewhere."

Perhaps Wei Zelin's painful past had softened him again. Shi Yuan felt as though he had fallen under a spell.

They headed straight for the villa complex's underground parking garage. Shi Yuan instinctively opened the front passenger door, only for the image of Sun Yixuan sitting there while Wei Zelin drove that evening to flash through his mind. His softened heart instantly hardened. With a cold expression, he slammed the door with a bang and headed for the back seat.

Wei Zelin's grip tightened on the steering wheel-he'd been rejected.

Luckily, all she had done was sit in the front passenger seat. If he had really dared to get involved with anyone, Shi Yuan would probably never speak to him again.

The car drove into the city, passed through Jiaoting District, where Wei Corporation was located, and entered Lake Bay District, where Oak Bay stood. It stopped in a little alley on the other side of Clearheart Lake, facing Oak Bay in the distance. The night market Shi Yuan had visited last time and Oak Bay were both at the far end of Clearheart Lake. Now he was following Wei Zelin into an old residential complex on this side.

Looking up, he saw almost no high-rises, only low six-story buildings. Unlike West District, known as Capital City's slums, this area might have been old, but the buildings' exteriors had all been renovated. It was clean and tidy too, without the garbage and noisy crowds found everywhere in West District.

Wei Zelin led him into a complex called Bookish Garden. Shi Yuan noticed that none of the complexes here had many buildings. Oak Bay had sixteen, and this one, Bookish Garden, had only eighteen. They entered stairwell one of building eight. The stairwell had been swept spotless.

"This complex used to be staff housing for Clearheart Lake Elementary School," Wei Zelin said. "These days, it's mostly elderly residents and teachers from the school. It's a lovely place."

Something stirred in Shi Yuan's heart. Xiao Rong attended Clearheart Lake Elementary School, not far from here.

They climbed all the way to apartment 501 on the fifth floor. The front door was new, and a protective film still covered its keypad lock. Wei Zelin took Shi Yuan's hand and registered his fingerprint on the lock.

Shi Yuan had already begun to understand. He kept his head tilted up, watching him.

With a click, the lock opened, and Wei Zelin pulled Shi Yuan inside.

"Yuanyuan..."

Their figures, one tall and one shorter, stood in the entryway on a soft rug. Wei Zelin suddenly wrapped his arms around him. "Will you live here with me?"

He pressed the switch on the wall, and warm yellow light filled the apartment.

To the left of the entryway stood a waist-high shoe cabinet; to the right was a neat, cozy living room. A light brown three-seater sofa sat against the wall, looking soft and comfortable. Beside it was a small round coffee table holding two matching mugs.

Shi Yuan covered his eyes and said in a slightly trembling voice, "My legs... my legs are sore."

Wei Zelin led Shi Yuan across the natural wood-colored floor and had him sit on the sofa. Then he knelt on one knee in front of him. "Then let me massage them for you, all right?"

His cautious manner made Shi Yuan's heart ache again. Wasn't he the most calculating final boss of all? Why did he have to look so pitiful in front of him?

"Why are you acting like this? Get up."

Wei Zelin rose with Shi Yuan's pull, then smoothly braced himself over him. At 1.9 meters tall, he had an imposing presence, his broad chest completely covering Shi Yuan.

Shi Yuan realized how intimate their position was. There was no way he could miss what Wei Zelin wanted to do. Pushing him away, he said, "I haven't said yes yet... mmph..."

Unlike their first kiss, which had happened so naturally, Wei Zelin urgently captured Shi Yuan's lower lip and plunged deeper, as though venting all the unease of the past few days and-

The kiss was so searing that tears nearly sprang from Shi Yuan's eyes. His chest rose and fell rapidly as Wei Zelin drew him deeper into it.

Wei Zelin knelt over Shi Yuan and kissed him. He was so tall that the position gradually became uncomfortable, so his burning palms stroked downward. Gripping Shi Yuan's supple, slender waist with both hands, he lifted him firmly, and they tumbled onto the sofa together.

"Ah... don't!"

Seeing Wei Zelin's hand slip beneath the hem of his shirt, Shi Yuan refused, his eyes misty. "Don't."

Wei Zelin's hand stopped. He had not intended to do this, nor had he expected to lose control so badly. Relaxing his hold, he drew his lips away, buried his face against Shi Yuan's neck, and sucked hard.

"Ah... don't do it so hard!" Shi Yuan protested angrily.

"Mm." Wei Zelin held him a little longer as he calmed himself, and only then did they sit up.

Shi Yuan was annoyed with himself, disgusted that he was thinking with his lower half. He was too softhearted, too, giving in the moment Wei Zelin played on his sympathy. If they really got together, wouldn't Wei Zelin become even more brazen?

He deliberately hardened his tone. "Whatever plans you have from now on, you're not allowed to use my friends again."

Wei Zelin pecked his bright red lips once more and promised, "I won't."

Shi Yuan deflated again. Was this what being in love felt like? Being unable to get angry at someone you liked? He'd never dated before. Surely he wasn't one of those hopeless lovebirds people talked about?

"Want to look around?" Wei Zelin asked.

"Mm."

They rose from the sofa. The apartment was not large; they could see all of it in just a few steps. It was worlds apart from the Wei Family's home, but this was their own little home. Just thinking about it filled Shi Yuan with an indescribable feeling, as though he were gradually becoming part of this world.