Wonderful news!

Yin Sufang was stunned to see Pei Yang actually considering it. He had only wanted to lighten the tense atmosphere, so why was this guy seriously thinking it over? He shouted, "Pei Yang! Are you out of your mind?! Even tens of millions in plastic surgery couldn't give someone your face, and you're really going to ruin it over a man who won't leave you alone?!"

"Of course I'm not that stupid," Pei Yang said.

Permanent disfigurement was out of the question, but temporary disfigurement would work.

Yin Sufang and Pei Yang had been bickering for two years. Neither had ever imagined that one day, Yin Sufang would stay at Pei Yang's place chatting until ten. As he left, he still looked worried. "Don't do anything stupid. I really was joking. If you ruin your face, you'll regret it for the rest of your life."

Pei Yang smiled at him. "Don't worry."

After seeing Yin Sufang into a taxi, Pei Yang turned and bought a few mangoes from the fruit shop downstairs from his apartment.

He had been allergic to mangoes since childhood. Even a lick would give him a red rash around his mouth. Since he was going to ruin his face, he might as well eat a few...

He refused to believe Feng Wanting could keep pestering him when his face was covered in an allergic rash.

Once home, Pei Yang cut the mangoes into small pieces and popped them into his mouth one after another. Sweet juice filled his mouth.

Five minutes later, his cheeks began to itch and turn red. Unable to resist, Pei Yang frowned and scratched them a few times.

Feng Wanting undid a few buttons on his shirt. In the minutes after Pei Yang left, a fine layer of condensation formed on the aluminum can on the desk. Feng Wanting simply stared at it, watching the droplets slide down its curved surface onto the desk, spreading into an ever-widening ring of moisture.

He wasn't still entangled with his ex-boyfriends? Then who had I seen getting into his ex-boyfriend's car that day? Who was the person in those photos getting all touchy with his ex-boyfriend, practically hugging him?

Feng Wanting didn't understand. Pei Yang wouldn't even give him a chance to ask. His throat tightened, and he had just let out a sigh when Lu Yu pushed the door open and entered. She froze at his dejected expression, then called tentatively, "Director Feng?"

"Who let you in? Get out." Feng Wanting sounded calm, but Lu Yu knew this was a warning sign that he was about to lose his temper.

"I-I knocked!" Lu Yu had already made two fruitless trips this week without catching the chairman. Now that she had finally found him, there was no way she was leaving just like that. Her voice softened. "Director Feng, I have to record your progress once a week. You promised your father. If you don't cooperate, I'm the one who gets scolded..."

Feng Wanting relented and closed his eyes. "Ask."

Lu Yu cautiously sat down across from Feng Wanting. She had only just taken the report form out of her bag when he spoke. "Forget it. Don't bother asking. I'll tell you myself."

It was always the same few questions. Even if Lu Yu wasn't sick of asking them, he was sick of hearing them.

He said flatly and to the point, "I had sex with Pei Yang again."

The fountain pen in Lu Yu's hand fell to the floor yet again. She paused for three seconds before bending down to retrieve it, then exclaimed excitedly, "This is wonderful news, Director Feng! The first time was an accident, but surely the second couldn't have been?! Your-your condition must be cured!"

Yes! I can finally report some results! Lu Yu thought gleefully.

"I know my own body." Feng Wanting rubbed his temples, barely managing to pull his mind away from Pei Yang. "I can't sleep with anyone other than Pei Yang. I know you suspect I'm gay. I've wondered the same thing, but I've tested it. Other than him, I feel nothing for any man. Do you understand?"

"..." Lu Yu's smile froze on her face. She opened her mouth, then tucked a strand of hair that had fallen over her forehead behind her ear. "Director Feng, that's why I keep saying I need to speak to this Mr. Pei Yang. He really is the key to treating your condition. Could you give me his contact infor..."

"No," Feng Wanting interrupted her. "Stop trying to bother him."

"I..." Lu Yu was actually left speechless.

Feng Wanting gave perfunctory answers to the rest of the routine questions, then shooed Lu Yu out.

Lu Yu was so frustrated she wanted to die. She genuinely couldn't understand whether Feng Wanting wanted to cure his condition. If he didn't, there probably weren't many men in the world willing to be labeled "impotent." But if he did, he wasn't cooperating with his treatment at all.

Looking utterly miserable, Lu Yu sighed several times. On her way to the elevators, she happened to run into Wu Rui, who had just returned from seeing Pei Yang off.

Seeing her dejected expression, Wu Rui gloated. "Get chewed out?"

"Don't even mention it. I've studied medicine for over ten years, and I've never met anyone so difficult to deal with." Lu Yu let out her tenth sigh of the day and glanced behind Wu Rui. "By the way, who was that handsome guy standing next to you earlier?"

"Oh, Pei Yang."

Lu Yu stared blankly. "Huh?"

"He must be Director Feng's honored guest," Wu Rui said. "You'd never guess how important he is. Director Feng actually had me leave several important developers behind to make a special trip downstairs with him."

"Tell me who he is again!!" Lu Yu suddenly shouted as though she had gone mad.

"P-Pei Yang..." Wu Rui looked bewildered. "What's wrong with you?"

"Pei Yang?!" Lu Yu grabbed Wu Rui by the collar. "You! You! Why the fuck didn't you tell me sooner?!"

"Tell you what sooner?! You never asked!"

Lu Yu was so furious she nearly fainted. She had been so, so, so close to Pei Yang!

"Where is he? Where did he go?"

"I took him down to the first floor." Wu Rui frowned. "Miss Lu, what's wrong with you? Is this a case of a doctor being unable to heal herself?"

In her sky-high heels, Lu Yu dashed to the elevators in a few strides and stepped inside as soon as one arrived.

Wu Rui stared. "Huh?"

Lu Yu had never felt an elevator ride take so long. She chased him all the way to the company entrance, but saw no one. Turning, she asked the receptionist, "Did you see a man, tall and thin, really handsome?"

The receptionist thought for a moment. "Oh! Yes. He just left. Drove away."

Lu Yu's heart died.

The thin morning mist condensed into frost on the withered grass. The orange sun hung high in the sky, casting dappled light and shadows beside the window.

Pei Yang got up to wash and was startled by his own face when he reached the bathroom.

Although he had prepared himself mentally, the sight still shocked him.

He endured the pain as he washed his face, then went to work looking just like that.

That morning, the company's elevator lobby was packed with people waiting, the crowd surging like a tide. Pei Yang was used to being stared at in crowded places. He had thought fewer people would look at him with his face like this, but he turned even more heads than usual. This time, though, their gazes held surprise rather than admiration.

When he reached his department, every coworker who passed him widened their eyes. Gu Xin, an intern whose desk was very close to Pei Yang's, watched incredulously as he walked from the doorway to his desk. "P-Pei Yang, your face... what happened?"

"An allergic reaction," Pei Yang said casually.

"Whoa...? You really don't care about your image at all? You just came to work like this?" Gu Xin blinked. "If I were you... I'd definitely cover myself up completely."

"It looks the same whether I cover it or not." Pei Yang switched on his computer. Work came first, and he soon threw himself into it.

Actually, he wasn't all that focused. As he typed, he thought, I didn't run into Feng Wanting by the elevators this morning. I'll have to try my luck in the cafeteria at lunch, or I'll have 'disfigured' myself for nothing.

"You really can do whatever you want when you're good-looking. You're handsome even like this," Gu Xin marveled. "I can't even imagine how disastrous that would look on an ordinary person's face..."

Pei Yang didn't hear a word. At lunch, he took his rash-covered face to places where he might run into Feng Wanting and tried his luck. He went to the cafeteria. No sign of him. But that was only natural. Why would Director Feng eat in the cafeteria? He turned around and headed to the first-floor elevator lobby. Still no sign of him, and his suspicious behavior even earned him a grilling from an older security guard.

Fuck. When I want to see him, he's nowhere to be found. When I don't, fate keeps shoving Feng Wanting in my face.

His face would stay like this for three days at most. If he couldn't see Feng Wanting, wouldn't all his effort go to waste?

Pei Yang was distracted all day. As the end of the workday approached, he thought today was a lost cause, but fate was still on his side. Feng Wanting actually came looking for him.

When almost everyone in the office had left, Wu Rui pushed the door open and headed straight for Pei Yang's desk. "Mr. Pei Yang."