May we both be well

Pei Yang couldn't sleep. He tossed and turned in the hotel bed until three in the morning, still not feeling the least bit sleepy.

He gave up on sleep altogether, dug a set of workout clothes out of his suitcase, changed, and stayed in the hotel gym until seven.

Drenched in sweat, he took a shower and felt much better physically. The marks on his body, though... still hadn't faded.

Pei Yang tried his best to ignore them. After breakfast, he went down to the phone shop below the hotel just as it opened and bought a new phone. By the time he had inserted his SIM card and transferred his data, it was almost time for work.

Having gone a whole night without sleep, Pei Yang wearily hailed a taxi. He had barely settled into the back seat when his new phone started chiming, its screen filled with WeChat messages.

Song Yixiao: [Yangyang, where are you?]

Song Yixiao: [I'm begging you, where are you? Can we please talk things through?]

Song Yixiao: [I've already ended things with her. You can check my phone.]

Song Yixiao: [Please come back, Yangyang.]

Song Yixiao: [I love you. Can we please not break up?]

Pei Yang skimmed them, quickly turned his phone facedown on his thigh, and let out a soft sigh.

Although he had been the one to end things, he wasn't some saint who could instantly shake off the emotions of a breakup. After avoiding it for a few minutes, Pei Yang steeled himself and sent: [Let's go our separate ways and be well, Song Yixiao.]

The connection lagged for a few seconds. Once he confirmed that the message had gone through, Pei Yang blocked Song Yixiao on both WeChat and his phone. Six years together, and all their memories, vanished with a few taps.

He clocked in right on time. On his way to the office, Pei Yang could clearly sense that his coworkers were looking at him differently than usual. Apparently, word of Song Yixiao ostentatiously coming to pick him up after work had already spread throughout the department.

Work was annoying enough as it was. Pei Yang raked a hand through his hair, hating himself for not escaping through the emergency stairwell sooner yesterday.

When he reached his desk, he found his normally tidy workspace piled high with coffee, milk tea, and breakfast food. That only made things worse, and his expression darkened.

Coworkers he had barely ever spoken to swarmed over, eagerly surrounding him. "Morning, Curator Pei! I picked up some extra breakfast when I bought mine. I didn't know what you liked, so I got one of each flavor. Go on, try some."

"Mine too! It's from that new milk tea shop downstairs. You're always so busy, Curator Pei, you probably haven't had time to try it, right? I stood in line forever..."

"That coffee's from me..."

"Try the bread too, Curator Pei!"

"The coffee your boyfriend treated us to yesterday wasn't cheap. Think of this as our way of thanking him."

Yin Sufang's desk was closest to Pei Yang's, so those who couldn't fit naturally crowded behind him. They squeezed him against the edge of his desk until he could barely breathe. Furious, he cursed, "A bunch of opportunistic bastards."

Pei Yang had never dealt with a scene like this and didn't know what to do. Just as he was about to say something, a coworker beside him picked up a coffee from the desk and held it to his lips. "Don't just stand there, Curator Pei. Try it. It won't taste good once it gets cold."

"I don't..." Pei Yang didn't take it. He had barely begun to refuse when the crowd followed suit, scrambling to hold out their own offerings. His workspace instantly descended into chaos. Someone's coffee lid hadn't been secured, and amid all the jostling, it spilled onto the document Pei Yang had left on his desk.

That finally silenced them. Pei Yang hurriedly grabbed a few tissues to salvage it, but it was too late. A large brown stain covered the document's front page, giving off a faint, bitter scent.

"Get out of my way." Pei Yang had reached the end of his patience. "Take your things with you. Sucking up to me won't get any of you anywhere."

No single person was responsible for the spilled coffee, and everyone feared being blamed. They hurriedly grabbed their things and fled.

Even as they left, they couldn't resist complaining. "...What's he yelling for? Acting like we owe him something."

"Seriously. His boyfriend's the rich one, not him."

"Did his boyfriend spoil him into having that awful temper? His boyfriend was so submissive around him yesterday... looked like he'd been abused."

"Does his boyfriend have some kind of kink? Is he a masochist? Hahahaha..."

They deliberately kept their insults low and mumbled, so Pei Yang couldn't make them out clearly. He had no attention to spare for anything else anyway. He had to hand this document to Boss Lan before ten.

Just as he was at his wits' end, a hand appeared in front of him.

He looked up. Yin Sufang was holding a document, his tone far from friendly. "It's last month's proposal for the mall, right? Take mine and hand it in first."

Pei Yang paused. Anything this unusual had to have a catch, and he couldn't resist a jab. "That's a novel way of sucking up."

"Are you out of your mind?" Yin Sufang immediately bristled. "Why would I need to suck up to you? What have you got that's worth sucking up for? A boyfriend who drives a Porsche? Like I've never dated one of those. As far as I'm concerned, driving a Porsche doesn't even qualify someone as rich. Even if your boyfriend were the head of FK Group, I still wouldn't stoop to sucking up to you!"

Pei Yang's lips curved slightly.

"Wh-what are you smiling at?" Yin Sufang inexplicably stumbled over his words and impatiently shook the document in his hand. "Do you want it or not?"

"Thanks." Pei Yang took it and headed toward Boss Lan's office.

"..." Yin Sufang glared at his retreating back and muttered, "Finally, something decent out of his mouth."

That afternoon, Pei Yang finished lunch alone as usual. Passing a coffee shop, he picked up a coffee and handed it to Yin Sufang when he returned from his lunch break.

He had meant to thank Yin Sufang for lending him the document, but the other man didn't appreciate the gesture and didn't even reach for it. "You expect me to drink some cheap coffee? I only drink hand-ground coffee."

Pei Yang didn't indulge him. He opened a small gap in the lid and drank it himself.

"Hey, Pei Yang, is that how you treat your benefactor?" Yin Sufang demanded.

"You're the one who said you didn't want it."

"Then couldn't you beg me to drink it..." Before Yin Sufang could finish, a coworker from Group B handed over one of the company's shared phones. A short-video app was open on its lit screen. "Um, Curator Yin, Curator Pei, it's your turn to film this week's promotional video."

"Already?" Yin Sufang took it.

Although FK Group was well known, the Exhibition Company where Pei Yang worked was a tiny subsidiary under the group. Not only was it in an out-of-the-way location, but its curators also had to help bring in business-for instance, by filming short videos to attract visitors and raise its profile.

To put it bluntly, they sold their looks to drive traffic to the exhibitions.

Yin Sufang already loved filming those lowbrow, suggestive dance clips, so this sort of assignment was practically second nature to him. On top of that, he danced well and looked good, so his videos always received the most likes.

They worked in pairs, and Pei Yang had been lucky enough to be partnered with Yin Sufang. Yin Sufang took full charge, so Pei Yang had never filmed anything himself. Riding on Yin Sufang's views, their pair ranked highest in traffic at every end-of-month assessment, and Pei Yang even got to pocket the two-hundred-yuan bonus for the top-performing pair without lifting a finger.

This time, however, who knew what had gotten into Yin Sufang. He reached out and handed the phone to Pei Yang. "Curator Pei, you can film this promotional video."