I'll make you an A-lister

Grandpa Pei and Yao An had not come along for this visit.

At the dinner table, Wu Qi and Pei Fu chatted freely, mostly about business.

Bored, Wu Jiangyuan poked at the rice in his bowl. Hadn't they said there was something important to announce? How much longer did he have to wait? He really didn't want to sit there anymore.

Pei Jinghe had been seated beside him. Glancing at the rice that had been poked into a sorry state, he asked quietly, "The rice hasn't done anything to you, has it?"

Wu Jiangyuan paused, then jabbed it hard a few more times. "I'm pretending it's you."

The two sat far enough away from the elders that their private conversation would go unnoticed.

Pei Jinghe raised an eyebrow. "You hate me that much? Weren't you just saying you loved me?"

Wu Jiangyuan shot him a sidelong look, then looked away with a snort. "That was just to stop my mom from meddling in our business."

"First custom-made suits, now custom-made rings. What a pain."

At the mention of rings, Pei Jinghe asked thoughtfully, "What kind of ring do you want?"

Wu Jiangyuan's gaze turned strange. "Does it matter?"

Pei Jinghe tilted his head slightly. "Doesn't it?"

Wu Jiangyuan said, "Not to us."

"True." Pei Jinghe narrowed his eyes slightly. "But it matters a lot to our parents."

Wu Jiangyuan waved a hand. "Just buy any ring. Getting one custom-made is too much trouble."

Pei Jinghe said nothing.

"Jiangyuan."

Wu Qi suddenly spoke.

Wu Jiangyuan looked up. "What is it, Father?"

Wu Qi said, "Your Uncle Pei and I have already discussed it. Once you and Jinghe register your marriage, you'll intern at your brother's company first, so you can be a proper help to Jinghe in the future."

Wu Jiangyuan watched him in silence at first, then suddenly smiled. "Sorry, Father, but I have my own job."

Wu Qi's expression darkened. "I thought your brother made things perfectly clear to you last time. Stop playing house."

With guests present, he still refrained from scolding Wu Jiangyuan outright, merely giving him a verbal reminder.

Wu Jiangyuan sneered.

In his father's eyes, celebrities were beneath contempt, worth nothing.

"I also thought I'd made myself perfectly clear. I'm not playing house."

The atmosphere at the table turned cold and silent.

Jia Xin'an immediately picked up on the undercurrents between father and son and offered a mild reminder. "Enough. Don't discuss this over dinner. We still have guests."

With that, she shot Wu Qi a warning look.

Wu Qi looked away, his face dark, and said nothing more.

But Wu Jiangyuan was unbearably irritated. He put down his chopsticks and stood.

"I'm full."

With that, he walked off.

Jia Xin'an was about to get up when Pei Jinghe stopped her.

"Auntie, I'll go check on him."

Jia Xin'an gave a helpless smile. "Sorry for the trouble. This is really embarrassing, letting you see all this."

Pei Fu tactfully smoothed things over. "What is Jiangyuan doing these days?"

Wu Qi said, "It's embarrassing to even say it. Of all the things he could do, he had to run off to the entertainment industry and make a spectacle of himself."

"Don't belittle my son," Jia Xin'an said unhappily. "What's wrong with Yuanyuan wanting to be a celebrity?"

Pei Fu said, "A celebrity? That's great. Wu, it's a good thing for a child to have something he wants to do. As parents, we should support him."

"Support him?" Wu Qi gave a cold laugh. "That's because you've never experienced what it's like to see your own son torn to shreds online."

Pei Fu laughed heartily. "Then my old man would've been the first to die of anger."

Wu Qi had a headache. "I'm doing this for his own good. Is inheriting the Wu family's business really so shameful? Why insist on becoming a joke in the entertainment industry?"

Pei Fu shook his head with a smile. "That's not quite fair. Have you forgotten all those times you fell apart when you were the heir? I never laughed at you."

"You've experienced the hardships of the business world yourself. There's no need to impose them on your child."

"If Jiangyuan can stick with something he loves to the very end, at least he'll be spared plenty of worries."

Wu Qi's mouth twitched hard. "Easy for you to say. When Jinghe runs into the same thing, you'll be the one crying."

Pei Fu rolled his eyes at him. "Why compare yourself to me? Jinghe is my only son. Besides Jiangyuan, you still have Cheng Nan."

"Cheng Nan is naturally bright. He has a talent for business, but that doesn't mean Jiangyuan does too."

"You greedy old bastard. You've already got one outstanding talent, and you want a second?"

Wu Qi was left speechless.

Jia Xin'an clapped her hands. "Well said. You get a thumbs-up from me. Pei Fu, that mouth of yours has finally come in handy."

Wu Jiangyuan sat smoking in the garden.

Footsteps sounded behind him. He didn't need to guess who it was.

With his arm resting along the bench and a cigarette between his fingers, he drawled, "Here to laugh at me?"

Pei Jinghe stopped beside him without speaking, merely lowering his eyes to watch him.

Thin smoke wreathed Wu Jiangyuan, his languid expression obscured in the darkness, his loose posture carrying a hint of decadent languor.

When Pei Jinghe said nothing, Wu Jiangyuan rested his head back against the bench and tipped his face up to look at him, taking a drag and slowly exhaling.

"Laugh if you want."

Before he could flick the ash off his cigarette, a hand reached over and slipped it from between his fingers.

Pei Jinghe examined the half-smoked cigarette. Wu Jiangyuan frowned unhappily. "Pei Jinghe, do you just have to take my things?"

He had barely finished when he saw Pei Jinghe raise the cigarette and take a drag.

He had already smoked that one.

"..."

Wu Jiangyuan's first reaction was, "Are you crazy? If someone sees you, they'll think I corrupted you."

Pei Jinghe lowered his eyelids halfway and exhaled calmly. "It doesn't matter if they see."

He held the cigarette with casual familiarity, his expression unchanged amid the curling smoke. Nothing about him looked like a first-time smoker.

Wu Jiangyuan said, "You look even more practiced than me."

Pei Jinghe's lips curved in a brief smile, and he offered a simple explanation. "I only quit after coming back to the country."

Wu Jiangyuan understood what he meant. In their school days, he had never seen Pei Jinghe touch cigarettes or alcohol. Presumably, he had picked those things up abroad.

He teased with a laugh, "Who would've thought, Pei Jinghe? A few years abroad, and you've learned some bad habits."

Pei Jinghe didn't answer, and silence settled between them.

Wu Jiangyuan certainly didn't believe this guy had come out specifically to comfort him.

But since Pei Jinghe wasn't speaking, he couldn't be bothered to ask again.

Just as he couldn't be bothered to light another cigarette now that his had been taken.

Wu Jiangyuan kept glancing at Pei Jinghe, and an untimely thought popped into his head.

Pei Jinghe looked... pretty sexy when he smoked.

The thought flashed through his mind, and Wu Jiangyuan abruptly came to his senses, inwardly berating himself.

Fuck, what am I thinking? I actually think Pei Jinghe is sexy?

"Wu Jiangyuan."

Pei Jinghe suddenly spoke, placing a hand on the bench beside him as he bent down.

Whether deliberately or not, he breathed a little lingering smoke onto Wu Jiangyuan's face.

"I'll make you an A-lister."

Wu Jiangyuan said, "..."