Cheng Yue had still been very young in his freshman year. Newly arrived in this dazzling, enchanting metropolis, he had been curious about everything, especially the bars his classmates described as heaven on earth.
He remembered going for the first time to celebrate a classmate's birthday: brightly colored drinks, kaleidoscopic lights, and rounds of toasts that left everyone pleasantly drunk.
For Cheng Yue, who had seen little of the world, it had been an eye-opener.
He was an utterly ordinary person, and as he first ventured into society, he inevitably became enamored with that glittering, decadent lifestyle.
At his wildest, he had spent almost an entire month haunting bars, dragging his roommates out every night to lose themselves in drunken revelry.
But over time, his wallet could no longer take the strain. His frequent visits brought him into contact with Sun Chong, who was still working as a promoter back then. During a casual chat, Sun Chong suddenly said, "You're so good-looking, and you've got a way with words. Why not work part-time at the bar?"
Those words snapped him awake.
Cheng Yue's eyes lit up at once. Right! I could earn money and get paid to have fun. The best of both worlds!
It took only half an hour to put the suggestion into action. The next day, after his daytime classes, Cheng Yue changed clothes and arrived for work with his head held high.
He kept that part-time job for a long time before the novelty finally wore off. He did more than just have fun, too; while working there, he found time to learn DJing from the others.
Once he put his mind to it, he picked it up quite well, even without formal lessons. He even played a few sets, and on those nights, the screams nearly blew the bar apart.
When he eventually quit, the bar manager tried hard to persuade him to stay, offering to pay for lessons out of his own pocket if Cheng Yue would remain as a part-time DJ.
Cheng Yue had naturally refused. By then, he was in the second semester of his junior year. Although he had no plans to apply to graduate school, he still needed to put serious work into his graduation thesis.
The gentle ballad gave way to a deafening beat, and the dance floor swarmed with people. Sun Chong leaned close to his ear and shouted, "What do you say? Want to get up there and have some fun?"
Cheng Yue had no intention of doing so, but Qi Su spared no effort egging him on. "Go on, go on! You look so handsome tonight. It'd be a waste not to show off a little."
Back then, Qi Su had also been lucky enough to witness Cheng Yue in all his youthful splendor. Cheng Yue had carried that spirited, effortless charm to perfection, neither too much nor too little, making it seem as though this was exactly how he was meant to be.
On a spring outing, apricot blossoms drifted over his head.
Whose young man was that upon the country path, so full of grace and charm?
In the dim, amber-lit study, the blue glow of the computer screen reflected off a pair of rimless lenses.
Ji Huaijin ended the video conference, removed his Bluetooth earpiece, and rubbed his faintly aching temples.
Although he had returned to the country by invitation to take up a professorship at Kyoto University, he also owned an investment company abroad. The time difference between the two countries often meant working late into the night.
The hour hand slowly settled at midnight, and the phone lying on his desk suddenly lit up.
Notification after notification flashed across the screen. As far as he remembered, no one except Lin Shuyang liked bombarding him with messages like this.
Ji Huaijin looked away, saved his document, then got up and headed into the bathroom.
The phone he left alone on the desk continued piling up messages. Had he been a little more patient, he would have realized that messages arriving at such a frantic rate could not possibly have come from just one person.
[Video.jp]
[All I can say is, skipping dorm curfew tonight was absolutely the right call. Let the dorm supervisor check all they want. Sometimes you have to give something up for a little happiness.]
[Look at you, being impulsive agai... holy shit!]
[What else is there to say? My savior, send the address!]
[Don't get fucking dressed so fast! Wait for me!]
[Aaaaaah! Squealing piggy.jpd]
[Seriously, I've been to every bar in Capital City. How have I never seen a DJ this handsome?]
The blue-haired young man onstage wore a wild, exuberant smile. The college girl hurriedly sent her location to the group chat, then let out a scream at the top of her lungs the instant she tossed her phone aside.
That single message sent several girls' dorm rooms into a midnight frenzy.
The bar was packed and roaring tonight. The crowd's enthusiastic response had the MC fired up, too, and during a break in the music, he suddenly held the microphone to Cheng Yue's lips.
Cheng Yue raised an eyebrow and responded so quickly that the crowd's momentum never faltered.
"I know asking you to love me is an absurd demand."
"Aaaaaah!"
In an instant, the screams nearly blew the roof off. Even the security guard, long accustomed to this noisy environment, raised his hands to cover his ears.
At a booth nearby, Qi Su, who always went wild in a crowd, was standing on the sofa and cheering his buddy on with fervor.
Beside him, Sun Chong watched the sales figures steadily climbing on the backend and smiled calmly. Only human nature.
The evening meeting had been long and tedious, and dinner time had long since passed. His hair still damp from the shower, Ji Huaijin walked into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator.
While heating some milk, he remembered the phone he had deliberately forgotten in the study.
Its black casing blended into the dark background. The barrage of messages had stopped, and it lay quietly on the desk, seemingly cut off from the clamor of the world.
Ji Huaijin used to relish that sense of peace and quiet. In those moments, his mind, weighed down by complicated work, found an unparalleled release.
He liked standing by the window with a glass of wine or warm water, gazing into the dark night sky and lazily letting his tired mind go blank, enjoying time that belonged to him alone.
Yet at some point, a beautiful fish had leaped from the sea of his once-placid inner world, stirring ripples that unsettled his heart.
The milk began to bubble. For no apparent reason, the corners of Ji Huaijin's mouth suddenly lifted, and his stern features softened a little.
He came from a distinguished background, and most of the people who passed through his life flattered and deferred to him because of his status. How many of those smiling faces held any genuine sincerity?
Much like those stories of domineering CEOs falling for ordinary girls, Ji Huaijin had inevitably found his gaze drawn to that genuine, vibrant presence.
The difference was that he knew clearly this was no fleeting fascination with something new. Perhaps it had begun with an attraction to a handsome face, but their continued contact had only made him more certain.
He wanted this man. He wanted to draw that lively fish into his net, to love and cherish him.
The phone screen lit up again. Ji Huaijin instinctively lowered his gaze, only then discovering that the barrage of messages had not come from Lin Shuyang as he had assumed, but from the university's main class group chat.
Ji Huaijin frowned, unable to understand what could have the students so restless at one in the morning.
A light tap of his finger happened to open the latest message.
Or rather, a video.
The face that flashed across the screen made Ji Huaijin's brow twitch.
The milk came to a boil, steam slowly rising and dispersing as its rich scent filled the air.
The few short videos took no more than a moment to watch, yet Ji Huaijin's gaze remained fixed on his phone screen, unable to look away for a long time.
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