Do you have a boyfriend?

"If you say it's a coincidence, Director Feng, then it is." Pei Yang stood calmly where he was, showing not a trace of panic or fear even with the arrow aimed at his heart. He tilted his head. "Are you planning to use me as a target?"

Feng Wanting smiled, lowered the bow, and put it back where it belonged. "How could I bear to?"

Pei Yang blinked slowly.

Feng Wanting added, "After all, you're my son's 'mom.'"

"..."

Only then did Pei Yang notice that Feng Wanting hadn't brought Feng Chuxun with him. He asked casually, "Where's Xile?"

"Playing group games with the teacher," Feng Wanting said. "You care a lot about him."

Pei Yang belatedly realized he had asked too much. Feng Chuxun was Feng Wanting's son, not his. What did it have to do with him? He gave a bland "Oh," then said, "I was just asking. I work at this exhibition. If you lose your child here, I'll be held responsible."

Feng Wanting neither agreed nor disagreed. "Xile told me you agreed to let him call you 'Mom'?"

"..." How was he supposed to explain this? Pei Yang paused, still unsure what to say. Before he could speak, Feng Wanting said, "Xile is a very sensitive child. You may have let him call you that out of sympathy, or without really thinking about it, but forgive me for being blunt: if you can't keep a promise you make to him, you shouldn't make it."

Pei Yang protested, "...I didn't promise him anything."

"Xile has never seen his mother since the day he was born. That's why he longs so much for a mother's love. You agreed to be his mom, and now he's caught up in the joy of 'having a mom,'" Feng Wanting said. "What happens after that?"

"I..."

"I know what you were thinking. When a child calls you Mom with such sincere joy, of course you can't bring yourself to reject him and tell him not to call you that." Feng Wanting approached Pei Yang step by step, his words coming faster and faster, as though he were pressing him for an answer. "You thought it was just a name, so there was no harm in agreeing. You wouldn't see the child again anyway."

Pei Yang lowered his eyes guiltily. Every time Feng Wanting took a step toward him, he took a step back.

"When you agreed, did it never occur to you that Xile would miss you?"

Pei Yang startled, his lashes trembling as an unfamiliar feeling welled up in his heart.

"If tomorrow, or the day after, or after a long time without seeing you, Xile asks me, 'Where's Mom?'" Feng Wanting's voice was low and rough. "Pei Yang, how am I supposed to answer?"

"..."

Pei Yang was kind and cruel at the same time-to Feng Chuxun, and to Feng Wanting too.

When emotion swept him up, he could impulsively say all those suggestive things to Feng Wanting. But once he regained his composure and pulled away, he turned cold, giving no thought at all to what the man he had stirred up was supposed to do. All he cared about was climbing out of the hole he had dug for himself.

Pei Yang's Adam's apple bobbed. He barely dared to look Feng Wanting in the eye. Pressing his lips together, he asked a question he had always wondered about. "Xile's mother...?"

"She died." The corners of Feng Wanting's eyes reddened. Who knew what he had endured to be able to say those words so calmly now? "A difficult delivery, and a severe emotional shock. She died the day after Feng Chuxun was born."

Pei Yang's expression fell at once, a barely perceptible flicker of heartache crossing his eyes.

His lips moved, as though he had finally made up his mind. "If Xile still remembers me or mentions me in the future, I'll take responsibility... for what I promised him today, to the very end."

Feng Wanting's brows gave the faintest twitch. His usually muted, ink-dark eyes widened slightly, and a sudden light flashed deep within them, too fleeting to be easily noticed.

Feng Wanting desperately wanted to ask, Then when will you take responsibility for me?

He didn't know what held him back, but in the end, he never said it.

"Pei Yang?!" Footsteps and an angry shout arrived together. Both men turned toward the sound to see Yin Sufang storming over. "Are you here to work or flirt on company time? How dare you get all touchy-feely with someone right under my nose at a public exhibition-Director Feng?!"

Once he saw who was standing opposite Pei Yang, Yin Sufang instantly became meek. He stiffly pulled up the corners of his mouth. "What brings you here?"

Feng Wanting stared at Yin Sufang for two seconds, then suddenly remembered the call Wei Ziyun had made ten minutes earlier:

"Feng Wanting, where are you right now?"

"At an exhibition? Well, aren't you enjoying a leisurely life? Let me ask you something. Is that man in the photo you posted on your Moments still there?"

"What man? You took the photo yourself, and you don't know what man? Don't give me that 'just a random snapshot' nonsense. The one in the middle. The more I looked at him, the more familiar he seemed. I just remembered-I saw him at your group's big meeting that day!"

"I still remember every detail! I'd just gotten a sample of the high-quality ink our company had developed. It was him! He suddenly came running and crashed into me, knocking over the bottle and splashing ink all over me! By the time I realized what had happened, the fucker had already run off!"

"I'm telling you, thank god it didn't all spill. Otherwise, months of our company's research would've gone down the drain!"

"What am I going to do? What do you think? Find him and get my revenge, obviously!"

"I'm ordering you, Feng Wanting. Go find him right now and use that handsome face of yours to get his WeChat! Then send me his contact card!"

"..."

Knowing Wei Ziyun, with his easygoing personality and the way he never took anything to heart, there was no way he was holding a grudge. Most likely, he just thought the man was good-looking and wanted to sleep with him. As his friend, Feng Wanting could at least help with something as simple as an introduction.

His recollection over, Feng Wanting asked Yin Sufang, "You recognize me?"

"Of course I do!" Yin Sufang said excitedly. "I work at an FK subsidiary! At the group's big meeting... I was sitting in the audience."

"I see." Feng Wanting maintained the imposing air of a superior, making him seem unapproachable.

Yin Sufang instinctively became more deferential and asked awkwardly, "You and Curator Pei... know each other?"

"We do more than know each other." Feng Wanting suddenly looked at Pei Yang and drawled, "He and I..."

"Director Feng!" Pei Yang panicked, glaring at Feng Wanting with a smile that never reached his eyes. He slowly forced the words through his teeth. "Yin Ce and I are colleagues. Choose something appropriate to tell him."

Feng Wanting smiled and nodded.

"Then you two chat... I'll get back to work." Afraid the conversation would turn to him again, Pei Yang unobtrusively edged sideways, moving out of Feng Wanting and Yin Sufang's line of sight.

Given a chance to speak privately with FK's chairman, Yin Sufang was beside himself with excitement. He was nervous, delighted, and terrified all at once. "Director Feng, please, please tell me honestly. Did you come to this exhibition because... because Headquarters sent you to assess me? That's right, I planned this exhibition single-handedly. Of course, this is my first time planning one entirely on my own, so a few shortcomings are perfectly normal. But it's all valuable experience... Rest assured, if I ever get the chance to work at Headquarters... %￥...￥...￥%￥￥#%"

Why did this man talk so much? Listening was giving Feng Wanting a headache. He interrupted, "This exhibition is actually the work of an FK subsidiary? I only just found out."

Yin Sufang fell silent.

"..."

Okay. I got ahead of myself.

Yin Sufang stiffly rubbed his neck and laughed. "So it was a misunderstanding. That's what I thought. Even if Headquarters sent someone to assess me, the chairman wouldn't come personally. Then you're here to...?"

"Keep my child company," Feng Wanting said succinctly.

"You already have a child?"

"Is that surprising?"

Yin Sufang turned on the flattery. "You look so young, like a college student who's just graduated. I never imagined you were already a father..."

Feng Wanting obligingly smiled.

Pei Yang made a show of wiping down the neatly arranged bows and arrows of various kinds, occasionally glancing at the two men talking nearby.

He had assumed that, with Feng Wanting's personality, he would kill the conversation outright and leave. Instead, he was laughing and chatting with Yin Sufang, apparently having a wonderful time.

Pei Yang couldn't help wondering whether Yin Sufang's appearance in the photo Feng Wanting had posted on his Moments really was a coincidence...

His wiping slowed a fraction. He indifferently withdrew his gaze, and as he lowered his eyes, his lashes cast a bleak shadow beneath them, concealing the darkness that briefly flashed in his eyes.

He was too far away to hear clearly. Carrying the bow, Pei Yang quietly moved closer, just in time to hear Feng Wanting ask Yin Sufang, "Do you have a boyfriend?"