Uninteresting Wine

Cheng Yue reached out to point to the side. "Disobedient little kids will get caught and eaten by that uncle, you know."

Zhao Li, who happened to be walking past: "?"

His permanently expressionless face looked somewhat sharp amid the interlacing light and shadow, the corners of his lips pressed into a cold and hard arc, not to mention the scar that ran right across his brow and eyes.

The big kid stared in terror at that uncle, instinctively closing his open mouth, holding back two tears and not daring to cry anymore.

Cheng Yue was extremely satisfied with this effect. An auntie hurried over from not far away, so he gave the candy back, patted the big kid's chubby butt, and said, "Go find Grandma."

Finally able to escape the clutches of the demon, the big kid screamed and ran away without even looking back.

Cheng Yue hissed, raised a hand to dig in his ear, and muttered a small complaint, "This kid must be a tenor, right?"

Although scaring kids really wasn't very good, compared to accidentally choking on food, this sort of method could still be considered a well-intentioned reminder.

"So, that's why you're ruining my reputation?"

Zhao Li questioned in a cold voice. The words were impolite, but there was no tone of blame in his voice.

Cheng Yue got up and stretched, turning his head to flash a smile at him. "Can't help it, it's all for the motherland's flower buds."

Zhao Li gave him a side-long glance and let out a low huff.

Since he had used the other man's name after all, Cheng Yue still felt a bit guilty inside. To make up for it, he proactively took out his phone and ordered a cup of coffee.

By the time they finished their patrol and returned, the takeout had arrived just in time.

Just as they were hiding in a corner enjoying this rare moment of leisure, the walkie-talkie on their bodies suddenly rang.

"Cheng Yue, someone is looking for you at the east gate."

Cheng Yue was still battling his milk tea. Hearing this, he froze, stubbornly sucking that tapioca pearl into his mouth before lifting his feet to walk out of the duty room.

Along the way, he was still wondering who would come to look for him at this time of day. A certain figure flashed across his mind, only for him to shake his head and deny it.

Putting aside the fact that that person didn't even know where he was right now, even if he were looking for him, the other party wouldn't suddenly act so rashly.

Besides, his phone wasn't suspended for unpaid bills, and he had just checked it-there were no missed calls or messages whatsoever.

The person who came probably didn't have his contact information.

The distance wasn't considered far. Before Cheng Yue even walked close, he saw the person standing under the ginkgo tree, and the guess in his heart was finally confirmed.

"Why are you here?"

Cheng Yuxuan stood in place with a gentle smile, only speaking when Cheng Yue walked up in front of him. "I got a bottle of good wine today, and figuring you'd like it, I brought it over for you to taste."

Cheng Yue lowered his gaze to look at the wooden wine box being handed over, his heart filled with helplessness.

If this were some irrelevant person, he could directly put on a cold face and walk away, but Cheng Yuxuan was not only Qi Su's leader's son, he also had the favor of helping him get home.

By virtue of these two conditions, Cheng Yue couldn't speak too mercilessly.

"With my little alcohol tolerance, I'd just ruin good stuff. I still have to thank Young Master Cheng for the kind intention."

With a double entendre, Cheng Yue used the excuse of politely declining the wine while simultaneously expressing his refusal obscurely.

Whether Cheng Yuxuan understood or not, he still wore that smiling expression on the surface. "It seems this wine didn't reach your heart."

"No, no, no." Cheng Yue hurriedly waved his hands. "The wine is very good; it's my personal reason."

"You haven't drunk it, so how do you know it's good?"

Cheng Yuxuan's gaze was piercing, the smile at the edge of his mouth faded, his expression carrying a trace of seriousness. "Cheng Yue, some wines need to be savored slowly to sip out the flavor within."

Just like him and himself: whether good or bad cannot be judged merely by the surface. Only through solid, genuine understanding could one tell whether they truly liked it or not.

The atmosphere suddenly fell silent.

Cheng Yue naturally knew what he was hinting at. What he said wasn't without reason, but some things were just laid out right in the open, making it impossible for people to ignore.

Take this bottle of red wine, for instance; it wouldn't appear in a roadside supermarket, nor would it exist in his world. Perhaps he had the capability to afford it.

Yet when he was tasting it, there would be a lot of distracting thoughts, and the taste he finally tasted would definitely not be pure enough.

Or perhaps, some wine, even if placed right there, wouldn't make him raise any interest-how could there even be talk of going to understand it?

In the midsummer heat, it was rarely overcast. The sunlight fell in scattered patches, and a breeze blew past, taking away the sultry heat.

A hand suddenly raised up, breaking the peace of this moment. Cheng Yue instinctively leaned backward. "What is it?"

Cheng Yuxuan pinched a leaf he had taken from Cheng Yue's head, smiling without a word.

Cheng Yue took two steps back to regain a safe distance, lifted his gaze with a serious expression, and just as he was about to speak, his gaze unexpectedly collided with a pair of ink-like lacquer eyes.

Inside the black Mercedes-Benz, Ji Huaijin looked as though he had merely swept a casual glance over. After calmly and coolly withdrawing his gaze, he turned the steering wheel and steadily drove the car into the residential compound.

After the car entered the compound's main gate, it disappeared without a trace. Cheng Yue blinked dazedly, his clear and logical brain turning completely blank.

"Cheng Yue?"

"Huh?"

Cheng Yuxuan followed his line of sight to look, but only saw the empty road surface, and asked with confusion, "What is it? Did you see an acquaintance?"

Cheng Yue pulled back his thoughts and twitched the corner of his mouth. "It's nothing."

Cheng Yuxuan still wanted to say something, but was interrupted when Cheng Yue took the lead. "Sorry, I'm still working. I can't be out for too long. I'm heading back first."

Without waiting for the other party to respond, Cheng Yue turned around and hurried back with hasty steps.

Cheng Yuxuan looked at his retreating figure with utter helplessness, and after pondering for a moment, he strode toward the security booth.

Cheng Yue was on the early shift, and not long after he returned from the east gate, it was time to get off work.

He was changing his clothes absent-mindedly, preparing to go home, when a colleague called out to him, reminding him that tonight was once again the once-a-month team-building day.

Cheng Yue didn't want to go, but this was an activity for the entire property management office, and the company had regulations: barring force majeure and those on duty, everyone else had to be present unless strictly unnecessary.

Actually, the so-called team building was just finding a restaurant to eat and drink, by the way accepting the baptism of corporate culture.

Usually, situations like this involved the leaders holding a drink, speaking grandly and drawing big blueprints, while they ate enthusiastically down below and occasionally clapped in coordination.

All evening, Cheng Yue checked his phone every few minutes. The moment his eyes moved away for even a short while, he had to light up the screen to see if he had missed anything.

His unusual behavior also made the people at his table sense that something was wrong, especially Zhao Li, who was sitting next to him.

Intercepting him once again just as he was clamping raw meat to go toward the food, Zhao Li asked in a deep voice, "Waiting for important information?"

Cheng Yue reacted exceptionally strongly. "No! I'm not waiting!"

Astonished gazes from the people at the table turned toward him.

Cheng Yue put down his chopsticks and smiled sheepishly. "Haha, I was binge-watching a show and was afraid of delaying the time."

"Tsh, I thought something happened, you scared all of us so much we didn't dare to speak!"

The atmosphere returned to normal, and everyone chatted, laughed, and ate the banquet against the backdrop of the leader's passionate speech.

Cheng Yue lowered his head to glare resentfully at his phone, then turned it face-down on the table with a flip of his hand.

Zhao Li glanced at it, pondered for a few seconds, paused, and pushed the plate filled with grilled meat by his side over.

"I clamped too much, take it."

Cheng Yue was somewhat surprised. Not thinking too much into it, he thanked him gratefully and stuffed the meat into his mouth all at once.