Lai Jiangtian was stuffing fragrant fish into his mouth when those words made him pause. He looked up at the gentle man across from him.
Compared with his high school days, the man had grown even more refined, with an air of elegance untouched by the mundane. His entire presence was understated, as though he never competed or fought for anything.
He had delicate features, a smile that posed no threat, and a pair of gold-rimmed glasses.
But who could have imagined that someone who looked so easygoing and good-tempered could be cruelest to himself? The scars densely covering his wrists were the record of his deeds.
Lai Jiangtian was momentarily at a loss for words. He knew perfectly well that Yan couldn't possibly have anyone. The man was utterly devoid of worldly desires, immovable as a rock.
Apart from the man across from him, who had once been briefly entangled with him, no one had ever stood by Yan's side.
But he didn't know how to tell him that. What if things turned out the way they had in high school again?
Yin Xian also looked up at the question. He had already heard that Wen Yuzhi had returned for Yan again this time, so the question didn't surprise him.
He wasn't the one being asked, anyway. Yin Xian lowered his head and kept eating. He was only here for a free meal and wasn't getting involved in anything else.
"Hmm? Jiang Tian, what's going on?" Without an answer, Wen Yuzhi grew a little anxious, but not overly so. Deep down, he knew it was difficult for anyone to get close to someone like Yan Zhiyi.
Except him. He alone was the other man's salvation.
He had confidence when it came to Yan Zhiyi.
Thinking of what he had seen in the bamboo grove earlier, he decided it didn't matter. He didn't care if Yan Zhiyi relieved some stress elsewhere. Men were men. But now that he was back, that little temptress had to get lost!
If Lai Jiangtian didn't know that person existed, it meant Yan Zhiyi really was just playing around.
Wen Yuzhi set down his teacup and gave a gentle, helpless smile. "Don't tell me he really has someone now? Has the impossible finally happened? Why can't you tell me?"
On the surface, he acted as though he didn't care, but if he actually heard that answer, there was no guarantee he wouldn't go berserk.
Lai Jiangtian shot Yin Xian a pleading look, only to find him eating like a starving ghost reincarnated. Even his peripheral vision was fixed on the dishes on the table.
He turned back. "Oh, come on! How could he have anyone? You know what he's like! After all these years, he's still the same old bachelor."
Then Lai Jiangtian sighed. "Honestly, if you hadn't acted that way back then, you two might really have ended up together!"
From Lai Jiangtian's perspective, it wasn't impossible. After all, Yan Zhiyi, who had been like a robot back then, had actually allowed Wen Yuzhi to keep hanging around him despite knowing that Wen Yuzhi liked him.
To Lai Jiangtian, that was already unbelievable. Perhaps that had been all the tenderness Yan Zhiyi had to offer.
In truth, Wen Yuzhi hadn't simply fallen in with their group naturally back then.
It was a complicated story, but to make a long story short...
Lai Jiangtian and Yin Xian had grown up together and were as close as could be. Unfortunately, they hadn't been assigned to the same class in high school and had been separated.
In his new class, Lai Jiangtian had taken to Yan Zhiyi at first sight. Besides, he had already seen the guy at a Yan Family banquet. He was the Yan Family's young master.
For some reason, though, hardly anyone knew about it. Perhaps it had been deliberately concealed.
So, armed with that little-known secret, Lai Jiangtian had started pestering him endlessly. He called him "bro" every day and never felt awkward, even when he received no response.
That was how they had met. Once they became familiar with each other, Lai Jiangtian naturally hadn't forgotten his own best friend and had introduced Yin Xian to Yan Zhiyi.
Later, they had met Song Jing'an. That guy had loved getting into fights in high school, yet he had somehow ended up becoming a police chief.
It was precisely because of fighting and private family matters that he had been suspended for a semester.
On the day Song Jing'an returned, Lai Jiangtian finally learned that this was Young Master Yan's real best friend. Like him and Yin Xian, they had grown up together.
He also learned that there was one more person, but he was abroad on a year-long exchange and wouldn't be back until the following year. That was Lu Mingwen.
The day they met Wen Yuzhi happened to be the day Lu Mingwen returned. Lai Jiangtian remembered it particularly clearly. A light rain had been falling, and the air was damp.
Everything was wet and clammy, horribly uncomfortable.
Yan seemed to have had some unpleasantness with his family and had worn a dark expression the whole time.
Around a corner, Wen Yuzhi, frail back in high school, was being surrounded by people demanding money. His thin, small frame huddled in the corner as he sobbed so hard he could barely breathe.
Before Lai Jiangtian could react, Lu Mingwen had charged forward from beside him, creating a classic scene of a hero rescuing a damsel in distress.
It was strange, really. Lu Mingwen had been the one to save him, yet Wen Yuzhi had fallen hopelessly in love with Yan Zhiyi instead.
After that, Wen Yuzhi had come to see Yan Zhiyi almost every day.
Just as Lai Jiangtian had once pestered Yan Zhiyi, Wen Yuzhi had pestered him too. He brought breakfast, hot water, letters, and more... all for the chance to exchange a few words with Yan Zhiyi.
At first, Yan Zhiyi had shooed Wen Yuzhi away like a fly. That cold-faced fellow could be pretty frightening when he got fierce, but Wen Yuzhi hadn't been afraid.
Later, for some reason, he had simply started acting as though he couldn't see him.
Although he no longer rejected him, he hadn't accepted him either. He looked at Wen Yuzhi as though he were air, as though he were invisible.
Gradually, as they spent more time together, everyone had come to regard Wen Yuzhi as a friend.
Who could have known that the good times wouldn't last? Just when everyone thought he was an obedient, easygoing boy, he suddenly...
He had suddenly become like a different person. He began hurting himself, wailing, and going berserk. Whenever Yan Zhiyi showed even the slightest resistance toward him, he would suddenly start screaming.
He would frequently hold a knife against his own hand and confess his love in a frenzied state.
Their relationship, which hadn't been particularly good to begin with, had promptly hit rock bottom.
So many emergency rescues, so many threats, so many bouts of relentless harassment.
There had been far too many to count. Even now, bringing it up cast a shadow over Lai Jiangtian. He didn't know how Yan Zhiyi, the person at the center of it all, felt about it.
Wen Yuzhi would always lie in a hospital bed with pale lips, weakly crying as he asked, "Why don't you like me?"
"Is it so hard to be with me?"
"Do you find me that repulsive?"
"Can't you look at me?"
In the end, he would conclude with, "In a world without you, there's no point in me being alive."
Wen Yuzhi had spent almost all of those final few months in the hospital, while everyone else had graduated without incident.
After graduation, Yan Zhiyi had gone abroad as though he had vanished from the face of the earth.
No one knew which country he had gone to, when he would return, or what he had gone there to do.
Dragging his weakened body along, Wen Yuzhi had searched all over the world but couldn't find him anywhere. In the end, he had settled in Little Han and hadn't returned to Jingjiang for ten years.
Two years. Yan Zhiyi had returned to the country after two years and taken over the Yan Corporation. Dubbed a tyrant of the business world, he had become renowned far and wide.
At that point, no one knew where Wen Yuzhi was or whether he had heard the news. They had almost forgotten him altogether.
Looking at him now, he certainly seemed much more mature than before. Perhaps he had matured in his approach to love as well?
The man across from him looked peaceful, his emotions steady and his demeanor serene and unassuming. It was almost impossible to reconcile him with the frenzied person he had been at the end of high school.
"Heh heh heh~" Wen Yuzhi laughed.