Once his drowsiness faded, endless embarrassment came flooding in.
Whenever Li Shu thought about how he had lambasted Chen Yannan for being selfish, he couldn't help curling his toes in embarrassment. The other man had clearly been in the wrong, but after his earlier outburst, Li Shu felt they were already on the verge of falling out completely.
Meeting again under these circumstances, Li Shu found it hard to have a normal conversation with Chen Yannan.
"Brother Yannan."
Sigh.
But there was no helping it.
Li Shu's mother had taught him from childhood that he had to greet people he knew when he ran into them. It was basic courtesy.
Besides, leaving everything else aside, the concern on Chen Yannan's face was genuine. Li Shu didn't really want to put a malicious spin on someone else's kind gesture. If their relationship remained that of an older boy next door looking after his younger neighbor, there was nothing wrong with that.
Chen Yannan walked up to Li Shu, glanced at the pale gray blanket around him, then greeted Tan Xu, still shaken:
"As long as you're not hurt. You must have been scared. I'll take you home first."
Chen Yannan's shadow stretched across the floor. His broad figure seemed about to envelop Li Shu's small frame entirely, and Tan Xu instinctively stood up.
Suddenly, the door opened once more.
"Woof, woof, woof!"
The puppy's sharp barking jolted Li Shu's brain awake, followed almost immediately by Cheng Zhen's flustered voice:
"Hey, slow down while you're walking me! I don't even sweat this much in team fights!"
Li Shu looked toward the doorway in delight. The moment he raised his eyes, he met the slightly upturned, phoenix-shaped eyes of a man in a black sweater. The fabric outlined his straight shoulders and powerful waist, and even the creases of his double eyelids looked like something Nuwa had painstakingly sculpted. He was breathtakingly handsome.
Holy shit!
Pei Song'an!
Amazing! How did he know I was here?!
Li Shu's eyes lit up at Pei Song'an's sudden appearance. After all, while fleeing in a complete panic earlier, he had muttered Pei Song'an's name who knew how many times. The only other time he'd experienced this feeling of a wish coming true was when he blew out his birthday candles as a child.
Pei Song'an had long since assigned people to secretly guard Li Shu and eliminate any danger the moment they spotted it.
Pei Song'an received word once his subordinates caught those men. Unfortunately, he hadn't been near the university at the time. After hurrying over, he hadn't forgotten to bring Li Shu's friend and Zhaocai along, which had delayed him a little.
After confirming there were no injuries on Li Shu's little face and that his expression and condition were perfectly normal, a glimmer rippled through the man's pitch-black eyes.
But when Pei Song'an noticed the distinctly personal blanket around Li Shu and Chen Yannan's presence, his eyelids lowered, and a cold frost instantly settled over his previously calm expression.
"Pei Song'an, did someone conjure you up with a magic trick?"
"This is amazing!"
Completely oblivious to the change in his expression, Li Shu draped the blanket over the back of the chair, then darted over to Pei Song'an, sniffing on one side and looking him over on the other. He was even excited enough to want to reach out and touch him.
"You even brought my dog! You're so thoughtful. Is there anything you haven't thought of?"
"There is." Pei Song'an looked at the slightly damp strands of hair over Li Shu's forehead. "I never thought you'd call Chen Yannan to pick you up."
"If I'd known you were having him pick you up, I wouldn't have come."
Li Shu: "..."
Cheng Zhen, who had just reached the doorway with Zhaocai and happened to hear everything: "..."
Wait, was this right?
Sensing trouble, Cheng Zhen cautiously stayed out of the room. In the process, he tugged on the leash and made Zhaocai stumble, earning himself a set of tooth marks on his ankle.
"Hey! It wasn't me... I didn't..."
Li Shu wanted to say he hadn't called Chen Yannan at all, but saying that felt like it would hurt Chen Yannan's good intentions. Yet if he didn't say it, with Pei Song'an bringing the whole household to pick him up, he would seem a little ungrateful.
So annoying.
I wish I were a dog.
Fortunately, Tan Xu figured out the misunderstanding and spoke up to help Li Xiaoshu. "I answered the phone. Li Shu thought the caller was that friend of his who's being walked by the dog. We didn't expect it to cause a misunderstanding."
"Exactly. That's what happened." Li Shu chimed in, then poked Pei Song'an's shoulder. "You. Apologize to me."
"I'm sorry. I misunderstood." Pei Song'an sounded sincere, but then he still wouldn't let Li Shu off the hook. "But a phone is a very private possession. You shouldn't let just anyone touch it."
*???*
Young master, are you ever going to stop???
"Song'an, Shu must have encountered danger to end up at the police station. Yet the moment you arrive, you insist on throwing your weight around as the rightful partner. Don't you care at all whether Li Shu is hurt?"
"You say you want to be a considerate older brother, but I really can't tell what you're up to now."
Chen Yannan understood that his presence here was the result of a misunderstanding, but after carefully considering things since last time, he had concluded that he and Li Shu hadn't reached the point of a complete break. He would speed up his takeover of the Chen Family. Once he had absolute control, there would surely still be time.
Xue Chen was right. He liked Li Shu.
As a man himself, he had also realized that Pei Song'an's feelings weren't innocent. Fortunately, Li Shu hadn't caught on yet. No matter how he looked at it, he still had a chance.
All his restraint was for the end result.
Pei Song'an slowly lifted his eyes, his assessing gaze sweeping over Chen Yannan's face, which no longer looked as weary as before. He gave a mocking smile.
"Yannan, you keep saying Li Shu encountered danger, but do you know what danger he encountered, how many people were chasing him, or what those people do? They didn't catch him this time, but will the danger be waiting next time?"
"You don't know any of that."
Every word Pei Song'an spoke sounded coated in frost. He refused to yield an inch.
Chen Yannan had been prepared for Pei Song'an to use Xue Chen as an opening. He had indeed handled that matter badly, and he had called Li Shu to apologize and make his stance from now on clear.
But Pei Song'an's words left him rooted to the spot.
It sounded as though Li Shu and Pei Song'an shared countless secrets no one else knew, as though a single glance was a signal only the two of them understood.
At some point, his initial head start had been overtaken, and the gap seemed to be widening further.
A sense of losing control rose within him.
Chen Yannan steadied his breathing and responded calmly. "From the sound of it, you know? Song'an, always saying things that are only half true will only bring Li Shu trouble. Don't you think?"
"Half true... is that how you understand it?" A trace of amusement flashed through Pei Song'an's dark, inscrutable gaze. "After spending all that time hiding in your shell, the first thing you do now that you've figured things out is still to try to drive away the goodwill around Li Shu."
"When Li Shu encountered danger while camping, he could easily have found somewhere crowded to escape it. Instead, he risked leading them to the police station. Do you know why?"
"Because those people's target was me. Li Shu disregarded his own safety so I could pinpoint them."
At that, before Chen Yannan's expression could change, Pei Song'an stabbed him in the heart again. "Try to understand, Yannan. Anyone who heard about this would be angry at Li Shu for not taking his own life and safety seriously."
With that, Pei Song'an walked over to Li Shu and draped the coat over his arm around Li Shu's shoulders, as though trying to cover any lingering trace of the blanket.
"I came here angry and spoke a little harshly. Let me apologize, all right?"
"I'm sorry, Shu."
This little chain of moves had left Li Shu so flustered he was practically moving his arm and leg on the same side together.
Terrifying.
Pei Song'an was something else. This man really knew what he was doing!
Before you continue