I don't like Chen Yannan anymore

After those two remarks, the room instantly fell silent.

Brother Yannan. Pei Song'an.

In Hong Kong City, very few people openly addressed the crown prince by his full name. Chen Yannan and Pei Song'an were not particularly close, but even when they greeted each other, they politely used only given names, without surnames.

Only the handful of friends in Pei Song'an's own inner circle called him by his full name in private, and even they paid attention to the mood and knew their limits.

But no matter what, it was certainly not anyone from the Li family's place to address the crown prince so casually by his full name.

Everyone felt it was inappropriate, yet as they watched Li Shu obediently let Pei Song'an hold him, that strange sense of incongruity slowly faded.

Chen Yannan was a little worried. "Song'an, Little Shu's had too much to drink. He didn't mean to offend you."

Pei Song'an seemed to accept that explanation. "It's fine."

His casual, slouchy clothes did not make Pei Song'an any more approachable. Even though he looked a little disheveled, his tall, unrestrained bearing, sharp black eyes, and the unconsciously taut line of his lips all conveyed a cold, aggressive air.

He said those words lightly, but after hearing them, everyone present looked at Li Shu with something more searching in their eyes.

Although Li Shu had never explicitly told Chen Yannan he liked him, anyone with eyes could see his feelings. Yet now, someone extraordinary had stepped into the picture.

Watching Pei Song'an and Li Shu walk away, the pretty young man beside Chen Yannan instinctively caught his sleeve, stopping him from following.

"Brother Yannan, if you leave, there'll be no one to take me home."

Feeling Chen Yannan's steps falter slightly, the pretty young man added with a smiling expression, "Li Shu has the crown prince himself escorting him. Nothing will happen to him."

Chen Yannan looked in the direction Li Shu had left without speaking.

Although he stopped walking, he also politely brushed away the pretty young man's hand from his arm.

It was Li Shu's first time being carried bridal-style by a man. Huddled in Pei Song'an's arms, his mind went numb. Feeling the hormones of a sexy, mature man with eight-pack abs, he leaned toward Pei Song'an's ear and told him in a muffled voice that someone in the room had brought a gun.

Then he shrank back again, leaving a pair of bright eyes exposed, his gaze lingering on the hand at the cuff of Chen Yannan's suit.

The original owner's memories surged up again.

He had only just started his first year of university, and it was currently winter break. Chen Yannan and Pei Song'an were the same age, both a year older than Li Shu.

Since Chen Yannan's family was in business, he naturally studied finance at university.

Li Shu, meanwhile, had been full of energy since childhood, with a frightening ability to put plans into action.

He climbed high mountains at night just to see a sunrise, skydived from thirteen thousand feet to enjoy the weightlessness of the moment he leaped from the plane, and tried everything from skiing to shooting to surfing. His family naturally assumed he would choose the sports he loved, or at least a relatively free, less rigid major.

But in the end, he was admitted to A University's finance department.

Li Shu had a bitter falling-out with his family over this. His eldest brother was not angry because Li Shu had changed his major without consulting them, but disappointed that Li Shu had so easily changed his choice for his future because of a man.

Chen Yannan was very handsome. In particular, the gentleness and rationality that radiated from his very bones drew the attention of many men and women. These people came and went in Chen Yannan's life. Everyone knew Chen Yannan had a little brother, and that this little brother held a special place in his heart.

As it happened, Li Shu thought so too.

So he took it for granted that Chen Yannan was only fooling around with those people, and that he would be the one at the end.

But one weekend during the semester, Chen Yannan told him a day in advance that he would take him to dinner at a newly opened restaurant by the river. After carefully dressing up, Li Shu knocked on the door of Chen Yannan's off-campus apartment, only for a boy in a loose shirt, his two pale thighs exposed, to open it.

The hem fell below his buttocks, and a closer look revealed suggestive red marks on his inner thighs.

Li Shu had never seen this boy before. He was a new lover.

"Looking for your brother?" The boy gave him an easy smile and stepped aside. "He's still in the shower. Come in and wait."

Hearing about something and seeing it with your own eyes were two different things.

At that moment, Li Shu felt that the feelings hidden in his heart made him look like a hideous clown. Although his expression remained calm, the sight had already shattered him inside.

Li Shu awkwardly shook his head. After leaving, he messaged Chen Yannan to say that an evening class had been added at short notice, so he could not go to dinner with him.

Yet even so, when he received a message from Chen Yannan that evening asking which classroom he was in because he had brought him dinner,

Li Shu still pathetically thought-

See? So what if they slept together? I'm still the one Brother Yannan cares about most.

Brother Yannan didn't want me to see. I was the one who accidentally...

The original owner's memories came to an abrupt halt.

The warm air from the car's heater did nothing to stop the chill continually seeping out from deep in Li Shu's bones.

These clearly were not his memories. Perhaps because the original owner shared such remarkably similar interests and hobbies with him, Li Shu felt those humble, heart-wrenching emotions with terrifying intensity at that moment.

"Why are you crying again?"

A thumb repeatedly wiped the smooth skin at the corner of Li Shu's eye until the delicate skin turned red and the man's hand was a mess of tears.

"Your plot to assassinate me was exposed, and now you're all out of ideas?"

Watching the little drunk stream tears after drinking too much, Pei Song'an sighed helplessly and began reflecting on whether he had inadvertently picked up a problem.

But Zheng Linchuan had indeed found firearms among the group who had burst into the room. The person they named was Pei Song'an's younger half-brother, Shen Muwen.

Shen Muwen took his mother's surname. Only the Pei family's heir was entitled to bear the surname Pei.

It was essentially confirmed that this had nothing to do with Li Shu, but Pei Song'an truly did not understand how Li Shu had known Shen Muwen would send someone to kill him tonight.

Li Shu haphazardly wiped his tears away with his sleeve, then accepted the tissues Zheng Linchuan handed him from the front passenger seat with easy familiarity and blew his nose hard twice.

"I don't like Chen Yannan anymore."

Pei Song'an: "?"

"You don't believe me?" Li Shu pouted in disappointment. "Don't you think people are really strange? When I said I liked Chen Yannan, everyone believed it so easily. Now that I say I don't, they all think I'm joking instead."

"People really do only believe what they want to hear."

In the front passenger seat, Zheng Linchuan broke into a cold sweat on Li Shu's behalf.

Although the Pei family's young head was young, to have reached this position at his age, his methods and thoughts were already beyond what ordinary people could fathom. Seeing the young head bring Li Shu back had been surprising enough, yet now the Li family's young master actually dared to spout nonsense in front of him.

Unfortunately, Li Shu had only just transmigrated and had not yet had the chance to experience how treacherous people could be. He reached forward for Zheng Linchuan's shoulder as though they were good buddies.

"He's ignoring me."

"You tell me!"

Zheng Linchuan: "..."

He would not dare.

Pei Song'an watched Li Shu brazenly ignore him with his coat draped over his shoulders, a broad expanse of pale skin on his chest showing through his soaked shirt. He no longer looked the least bit like the pitiful creature from earlier.

The man raised his hand, his scorching palm suddenly closing around Li Shu's slender nape.

"Ah!" Startled, Li Shu shrank his neck in fright.

Pei Song'an's expression was indifferent. "What? Am I interrupting your socializing?"

Like a pitiful puppy caught by its vulnerable spot, Li Shu swallowed nervously and played dumb. "I don't understand. I don't understand."

Pei Song'an did not fall for it. He moved his wrist, shaking Li Shu's little head, and lowered his voice.

"When exactly are you planning to give me an explanation for tonight?"