Meeting

Shi Yuan woke up late that morning. The room was still dim when he opened his eyes, and when he drew back the curtains, sure enough, a fine drizzle was falling outside.

"Good thing I closed the window last night."

Shi Yuan felt relieved, but then something else occurred to him. Sitting on the bed, he fished out his phone and sent a WeChat message.

S City saw frequent rain and was damper than dry Capital City. The clothes Shi Yuan had washed yesterday were still clammy. He shook them out and put them on, shivering when the damp fabric touched his skin. Growing irritated, he finally realized he hadn't brought enough clothes.

There were communal umbrellas in the hotel's ground-floor lobby, but few were in good condition, and borrowing one required a deposit and registration. Shi Yuan decided to buy a new one from the little supermarket across the street.

A cold mist hung in the air. Shi Yuan pulled his collar tighter, but the chilly wind still seeped through.

"One, two, three!" After psyching himself up, Shi Yuan ducked his head and ran across the street. The wind blew icy rain against his face, making him lower his head even further, until he ran into a wall of flesh that stopped him in his tracks.

"Sorry, I..."

An umbrella overhead shielded him from the rain. The man gave a low chuckle. "Like a little firecracker."

Shi Yuan looked up in surprise. "Why are you here so early?" He hadn't expected the man who had said last night that his arrival time was uncertain to show up at the hotel entrance at eight in the morning.

Wei Zelin slipped an arm around him and felt the damp clothes beneath his hand. Under the pretext of straightening his collar, he rubbed the inner layer between his fingers. The dampness came from underneath. He remembered the suitcase Shi Yuan had packed for the trip...

Wei Zelin took off his trench coat and wrapped it around Shi Yuan. "Let's get in the car first."

As the nation's economic center, S City was full of luxury cars, with the occasional globally limited-edition model making an appearance. The Mercedes-Benz parked at the curb hardly stood out.

Although Shi Yuan knew little about cars, he still recognized the long-established luxury brands.

"Did your company provide it?" That was his first reaction.

Wei Zelin turned on the heater. "No, I bought it?"

Shi Yuan: "???"

Confusion was written all over his face.

Wei Zelin didn't answer. He drove a short distance and stopped by a quiet stretch of road. Only then did Shi Yuan belatedly feel shy. They had been apart for just one day and two nights, yet a sudden sense of unfamiliarity crept over him. He didn't even dare look at the man beside him, whose presence was impossible to ignore. He had barely turned his face toward the window when a hand caught his chin and pulled him back. Warmth pressed against his lips, and a nimble tongue pried them open. The heater gradually warmed the car, while faint wet sounds escaped between the lips and tongues of the two entwined men.

The kiss was lingering and tender. Wei Zelin stroked one side of Shi Yuan's face and guided him onto his shoulder.

Shi Yuan covered his eyes as he leaned against him, beginning to breathe in small gasps.

Wei Zelin took his hand and placed a card in it.

Shi Yuan opened his eyes, their corners still flushed red, and looked down in confusion at the black bank card in his hand.

"Wei Ming gave it to me. I got a raise."

Wei Zelin rubbed Shi Yuan's bright red earlobe. "There's eight million in it."

Shi Yuan was stunned. "That much!"

Eight million was hardly anything to Wei Ming. What was unusual was that he had dared to give Wei Zelin real authority, freeing up the Technology Department manager's position for him. This was different from the empty title he had held before.

Just as Wei Zelin had said earlier, Wei Ming no longer had the time to worry about whether he and Shi Yuan would divorce. That meant Wei Ming had received some news unfavorable to himself. Seeing that the marriage alliance wouldn't help in the short term, he could only hastily give Wei Zelin actual power and bind him firmly to his camp.

But Shi Yuan knew none of this. He only felt as though the bank card burned his hand and hurriedly tossed it into Wei Zelin's lap. "Then put it away."

Wei Zelin sighed helplessly. He had more or less guessed that Shi Yuan wouldn't accept it. After all, they had only just gotten together. He had simply been unable to help himself.

"It's fine if you don't want it. But we have money now, so surely I can take you shopping for clothes?"

It wasn't that Shi Yuan insisted on keeping their finances so separate. Eight million was simply far too much for him.

Buying clothes was another matter. Shi Yuan nodded and admitted, "I didn't bring enough changes of clothes."

Shi Yuan had thought Wei Zelin would find a shopping mall somewhere outside, but instead, he drove straight to Times Square at the easternmost side of the event grounds.

The black Mercedes-Benz caused a stir when it drove through the entrance without stopping.

"Didn't they say private cars weren't allowed inside? How did that car just drive right in?"

"What is Magic Cube playing at?"

"If I'd known we could drive in, we would've brought our car too."

"It wasn't just that one. My roommate got here before me, and he said another car drove in this morning."

Meng Zhenzhen and Lu Hao were standing farther back in the queue. Li Da and Huang Zhenru weren't with them this time.

"Lu Hao, how come that Mercedes-Benz can drive straight in? Can't your Ferrari do that? We still have to take a shuttle cart once we're inside. It's such a hassle!"

Standing behind him, Lu Hao said, "Zhenzhen, having a nice car doesn't get you in. Magic Cube is hosting its business partners tonight, including several well-known overseas companies."

"Then wasn't your father invited? Couldn't we just ride in his car?"

Lu Hao stiffened. If anyone else had asked him that, he would have lost his temper already. With Meng Zhenzhen, he suppressed his irritation and explained, "Our family works in the entertainment industry. Magic Cube has its own entertainment company, so we're competitors. We don't have much business with each other, which is why we weren't invited."

They operated on entirely different scales. In truth, the Lu family couldn't begin to measure up, and Lu Hao was only forcing an explanation to save face.

Unfortunately, Meng Zhenzhen failed to pick up on that and kept complaining along the way. Although Lu Hao did have some genuine feelings for him, his pride and competitive streak eventually drove him to argue with Meng Zhenzhen. Meng Zhenzhen ran off in a huff. Lu Hao gave two cold laughs, turned around, and called his friends to go drinking at the Clubhouse.

Times Square lay just beyond the eastern entrance. Wei Zelin found a parking space with practiced ease, parked the car, and led Shi Yuan into a shopping mall. It wasn't the largest mall nearby, nor was it particularly busy.

"Welcome!"

Two graceful hostesses in qipao opened the doors and welcomed them inside.

Shi Yuan whispered into Wei Zelin's ear, "It looks more like a restaurant than a mall."

Wei Zelin couldn't help laughing.

The mall was heated, and Shi Yuan wanted to take off the trench coat, but Wei Zelin pressed a hand to his shoulder. "Wait until we're in a fitting room, or you'll catch a cold."

They went straight up to the third floor, which was devoted entirely to menswear. The array of refined and elegant shops left Shi Yuan dazzled. Their decor alone told him that the clothes here certainly wouldn't be cheap.

Meng Zhenzhen's words suddenly surfaced in his mind. Shi Yuan hadn't cared about such things before, but now, standing beside Wei Zelin, he saw that the man's ordinary shirt had been replaced by a tailored three-piece suit. His trousers didn't have a single crease out of place, and his black leather shoes gleamed beneath the mall's glass lights. The outfit lent an even more distinguished air to his already handsome, refined face. A faint sense of inferiority suddenly came over Shi Yuan.

Wei Zelin's gray trench coat reached all the way to his knees, and his white sneakers were stained with mud. The more Shi Yuan looked at himself, the less he liked what he saw.

The man beside him stopped and crouched in front of him. Calmly drawing the decorative handkerchief from his suit pocket, he carefully wiped away the little black spots.

Shi Yuan's face instantly turned red. His head felt as though it were steaming, and he stammered, "D-don't do that."

Wei Zelin didn't stop. He patiently wiped the shoes until they were spotless. "I used to think I wanted to make a lot of money. Enough to reach a point where no one could control me, and to show Wei Ming that the things he abandoned his wife and child for meant nothing to me."

As he spoke, he stood up and threw away the dirty white handkerchief, then took Shi Yuan's hand again. "But not anymore. I have something more important to do now."

"Huh?" Shi Yuan stared up at him blankly. What could be more important than Wei Zelin's revenge? That plotline ran through eighty percent of the original novel.

Wei Zelin smiled gently and kissed Shi Yuan on the forehead, right there in public.

"Earn money for my wife to spend."

Shi Yuan stood frozen in place as countless thoughts churned through his mind. With his face tilted slightly upward, tears slowly gathered in his eyes. He hadn't meant to embarrass himself like this, but he truly couldn't help it.

Wei Zelin hadn't expected to make him cry outright. Unfortunately, he had already thrown away his handkerchief, and once Shi Yuan's floodgates opened, the tears wouldn't stop.

A sales assistant who had been quietly watching took a packet of tissues from the counter and brought it over. Wei Zelin simply led Shi Yuan into that shop and coaxed him into sitting on the sofa, wiping his tears while murmuring soothing words into his ear.

After a little while, the tears stopped. But Shi Yuan felt embarrassed and followed the sales assistant to the restroom, refusing to let Wei Zelin accompany him.

Wei Zelin began browsing the shop on his own. The sales assistants in the mall all had sharp eyes. One look at his distinguished clothes and bearing, and they had already turned countless possibilities over in their minds.

Seeing that Wei Zelin was looking at younger, more casual styles, they immediately guessed that he was shopping for his young boyfriend.

By the time Shi Yuan returned from the restroom, the sales assistant was holding not only a coordinated outfit but a matching pair of shoes as well.

Wei Zelin handed Shi Yuan the bag he was carrying.

Shi Yuan opened it and found a thermal undershirt.

Wei Zelin said, "Change everything, inside and out, or you'll get sick."

"All right." Shi Yuan took the clothes into the fitting room.

The thermal undershirt was just the right thickness, and putting the sweater over it didn't feel awkward at all. It was genuinely comfortable. The trousers had a thin fleece lining and were warm too.

When he came out, he first looked at himself in the mirror. The beige sweater hung loosely on him, exposing his collarbones. The finely made, light-colored straight-leg trousers, paired with light brown ankle boots, made his long legs look even straighter.

The sales assistant came over first to compliment him. "Warm colors really suit you. If you wore this around the university district, you'd definitely turn heads."

With someone else confirming that he looked good, Shi Yuan ran over to Wei Zelin, spread his arms, and turned in a circle.

Wei Zelin made no attempt to hide his affection, but he still wasn't happy with the overly wide neckline. He laid his warm palm against the exposed skin, finding it dry and warm to the touch. "The neckline seems a little wide. Why don't you try a few other things?"

Shi Yuan said, "It's fine, isn't it? I don't want to try anything else."

His voice lifted at the end, sounding a little coaxing. How could Wei Zelin refuse him?

"Then let's add a coat."