A Higher Branch

Zou Yan grinned with unabashed swagger. "Then could you ask Yibai when he has time to come out and talk?"

Chapter 10: A Higher Branch

Xie Yibai got the exact time for a detailed discussion with his boss from his assistant. Back then, Hao Jun had personally chosen and signed him. Over the years, the company had done him more good than harm, so he went to the meeting prepared to sit down and talk things through. He dressed fairly formally and made sure his hair and face looked impeccable, feeling he had shown his boss plenty of respect.

Usually, Hao Jun arranged business meetings at the company, but today he had uncharacteristically chosen a private club. Xie Yibai had to put on a mask before a receptionist escorted him up to the top floor.

The weather was just right for a breeze, though the wind on the fifty-second floor was a little too fierce. Flowers in every shade were arranged across the terrace to create a sea of blooms. Their delicate petals couldn't withstand the surging wind, drifting loose and scattering over the ground.

Xie Yibai turned to ask which table it was, only to find the receptionist gone. He had no choice but to take off his mask and look for him himself.

He followed a path crowded with flowers to the end, where he finally found a table inside an enormous glass enclosure filled with green trees. The fresh leaves looked like miniature potted plants kept in a vessel, and a delicate bouquet of lilies of the valley sat on the table in a slender, snow-white vase.

The setting didn't look like it was meant for a meeting with him. It looked more like a place for a date. Xie Yibai racked his brain. Could it be his boss's wedding anniversary? Was he planning a surprise for his wife?

He wasn't sure what to do, but he couldn't very well stand around waiting, so he sat down under a tree.

The place was enormous, yet there wasn't even a server assigned to it. He couldn't find anyone to ask for a glass of water.

Xie Yibai was getting annoyed. If his boss didn't have time, they could have arranged another day. It wasn't as though he had to talk today. This made him feel like an afterthought, when he had specifically cleared his schedule!

He was stewing when someone arrived. He didn't look up, and the person sat down across from him. The cologne didn't smell like anything his boss would wear. When he raised his eyes, he saw Zou Yan.

What was this? Was the place so popular that everyone had arranged to meet here?

Xie Yibai's expression changed in an instant. He blinked and said, "Oh, what a coincidence!"

"It is," Zou Yan said. "Waiting for someone?"

"Yeah, you too?" He looked around and asked, "Did anyone follow you up? How do you order here? I didn't see a call button or a QR code."

"Everything's ordered in advance. You just have to wait for them to bring it up."

"Oh." Xie Yibai didn't want the conversation to stall, but he didn't know Zou Yan well, so he struggled to make small talk. "There are so many flowers up here. It's pretty romantic. Are you here on a date?"

Zou Yan looked visibly nervous and hesitated. "I... guess so."

Seeing that it was awkward for him to say, Xie Yibai didn't press him. He changed the subject. "I'm meeting my boss, President Hao. You know him, right?"

"I do. We're pretty close," Zou Yan said. "But I don't think he'll be coming today."

"Huh?" Xie Yibai was stunned. "And here I came all this way and got here early to wait for him... He didn't tell me something had come up."

Seeing him about to make a call, Zou Yan immediately dropped the act and came clean. "Actually, I asked President Hao to arrange this meeting with you."

The wind had picked up downstairs, and it was even stronger on the fifty-second floor. Waves of real flowers swept through the sky garden, while only the glass birdcage surrounded by flowers and trees remained undisturbed.

Xie Yibai heard him clearly, but couldn't make sense of the connection. "Why?"

"Because when I asked you out, you wouldn't come."

"No, that's not it. I was just busy around that time."

"I understand. I'm rushed off my feet myself, let alone you." Zou Yan let it go. "I hear you want a new manager?"

Xie Yibai sensed something unusual in that. He didn't hide it and answered frankly, "Yeah, I can't get along with my current manager anymore."

"Do you have anyone in mind?"

"No."

"How about I introduce you to a reliable manager?"

"That would probably have to be approved by President Hao first," Xie Yibai said. "It's not up to me."

"He's already agreed. It's up to you." Zou Yan looked at him. "Are you interested?"

However slow on the uptake Xie Yibai might have been, he finally understood. A WeChat message from three months ago popped into his head: If Zou Yan asks you out again, please make sure you're interested in him before you agree.

Wow...

So it hadn't come out of nowhere. There had been signs. Zou Yan was here for him.

Zou Yan likes me?

Huh? There really are a lot of sexual minorities in the entertainment industry.

Xie Yibai took another look at the flowers blooming all over the rooftop, then brought his gaze back to Zou Yan's carefully styled hair, the slightly earnest look beneath his groomed, thick eyebrows, and the deep, masculine scent drifting around him. He had actually asked such a stupid question. Was he the date?

It really was sudden.

Fortunately, Xie Yibai had been confessed to since childhood and had dealt with even more unexpected situations. "May I ask, does this come with conditions, or...?"

That stumped Zou Yan. He was thick-skinned and rough around the edges, rarely expressed affection for others, and had hardly ever loved anyone. He liked Xie Yibai the way he might like a lovely little flower or a bird with splendid plumage in a garden, wanting to transplant it into his bedroom and keep it by his bedside.

He wanted to possess him, to have him all to himself.

The thought wasn't closely tied to sex. If lust were compared to eating, he wasn't short of that particular meal.

Xie Yibai had a pure, innocent face, with a touch of allure beneath that obedient look. If he were a dish, he would be the most mouthwatering main course. You couldn't be impatient if you wanted a good meal, so Zou Yan said, "No conditions. I just want to pursue you."

A server finally arrived with the food: an elaborate afternoon tea spread that filled the table with a dazzling assortment. Xie Yibai watched the steaming black tea being poured into a cup and said to the server, "A glass of ice water for me, please."

Zou Yan smiled. "I have a friend who really loves drinking hot water."

"Drinking hot water is good for you." Xie Yibai waited until the server had left before asking, "We've known each other for months. Why didn't you pursue me before?"

Zou Yan said sheepishly, "Well, I didn't want to fight a battle I wasn't sure I could win."

Xie Yibai said, "You didn't lose a bet with someone, did you?"

"No! I really do like you!" Zou Yan said unhappily. "Besides, who still makes such corny, boring bets these days...?"

"But I don't understand. We've barely met. What do you like about me?"

"You're cute."

"Hmm... I suppose that counts as a reason." Still uneasy, Xie Yibai said, "But you know there are a lot of people sleeping around these days. I don't know you well, and I don't even know if you're single..."

Zou Yan had never expected that to be his concern. He declared emphatically, "I've been single for a long time, and I never sleep around. If you don't believe me, ask anyone. Or I can call Sheng Ke over. He can vouch for me. We're together every day."

Xie Yibai found his reaction a little amusing and deliberately said, "Oh my god, you're together every day..."

"What are you thinking? He's my childhood friend! We're closer than brothers, and we work together too. It can't be helped."

The more Xie Yibai thought about it, the clearer it became. So the person who had sent him that out-of-the-blue WeChat message and then recalled it was Sheng Ke?

Wow, what a touching brotherhood...

Wait, could it be an unrequited crush? Otherwise, why would Sheng Ke have been so unfriendly to me?

He understood... He understood everything!

He had been rejected at the audition simply because the director had a secret crush on the producer, and the producer liked him!

The childhood friend couldn't beat the newcomer. Perfectly normal. That was how it always went in novels.

Xie Yibai didn't consider himself a person who held grudges. It was just that his life had gone so smoothly that if he did have a grudge, he couldn't help remembering it, and the longer he remembered, the deeper it went. He probed, "You're together every day, so did you tell him you like me?"

Zou Yan couldn't figure out why their conversation had veered toward Sheng Ke, but Xie Yibai's eager, questioning gaze moved him. "He's known from the start. I told him right away. Are you still thinking about that audition? Haha, don't take it personally. He's the kind of person who acknowledges no one and thinks he's above everyone else. Even I can't change his mind. But in all fairness, that role really wasn't particularly suited to you, so not getting it wasn't necessarily a bad thing. You said last time that you still wanted to act in a web series. As it happens, I have a new long-form series in the works. The script is still being polished, and we haven't found a male lead yet. Would you like to give it a try?"

To Xie Yibai, that explanation was undoubtedly a case of protesting too much.

Heh, sure, why not try? This might be the heaven-sent opportunity I've been waiting for all this time.

"Your ice water." The server had a bottle of purified water, a glass, and a small bucket of ice on the tray.

Xie Yibai quenched his thirst as he had wished, his lips reddened by the cold. "You're being so good to me, Brother Yan. Director Ke won't get angry, will he?"

"What would he have to be angry about?" Zou Yan remembered that his best friend did indeed have an odd temper and added, "Don't mind him. I doubt he'd dare ruin this for me."

Xie Yibai nodded. "Then when will you take me to meet the new manager?"

Hearing that he had a chance, Zou Yan eagerly said, "I'll arrange it with her right now."

Xie Yibai picked a pale green macaron from the dessert display and enjoyed it with his black tea. It was crisp, sweet, and richly layered in texture, better than anything sold in dessert shops outside.

He reflected that for Zou Yan to arrange a manager for him without going through Hao Jun, the two had most likely reached some sort of agreement behind the scenes. In other words, his boss had sold him off, or at the very least left him to his own devices. Zou Yan's family controlled half the entertainment industry's resources and connections. Whoever else one might offend, it was best not to offend him. Xie Yibai completely understood Hao Jun's actions.

He couldn't say whether this counted as climbing to a higher branch or jumping into a fire pit, but the fact was that he couldn't afford to offend Zou Yan either.

A wise man adapts to the times. Xie Yibai encouraged himself inwardly: At worst, I'll just go all in. If a fine bird chose its tree carefully, then a golden branch was surely better than a bare one.

Zou Yan might not have been exceptionally handsome, but he had youth, height, and good proportions on his side. Xie Yibai couldn't tell what his body was like without seeing him undressed, but he was slim, at least. A few years ago, Xie Yibai had cared about looks too, or he wouldn't have been taken in by Xing Zhanyun's face. Only after experiencing it had he understood that a handsome man who was all looks and no substance held no sexual attraction for him whatsoever.