Chapter 3: A-Yao, Come Here
The bar manager brought his people and hurried over respectfully. “Eldest Young Master…….. I didn’t know you were coming, so I didn’t go out to welcome you. It’s truly……..”
Chi Yuheng’s gaze swept across the bar in a circle. Ye Ran immediately lowered his head like a student afraid of being called on by a teacher in class, silently reciting in his heart continuously.
You can’t see me, you can’t see me, you can’t see me……..
The man withdrew his gaze and carelessly curled the corners of his lips. “I have free time today, so I just came over to play for a bit.”
Ye Ran kept his head lowered, his eyes occasionally peeking toward Chi Yuheng’s direction. Seeing that he was talking to the manager and hadn’t noticed this side, he slightly sighed in relief.
Thank goodness, thank goodness, he hadn’t been discovered.
Ye Ran naturally knew this bar was opened by Chi Yuheng. When he ran away, he played a little trick, hiding right under Chi Yuheng’s nose. He refused to believe Chi Yuheng would guess he’d be at the Chi family’s bar.
His only miscalculation was that he never expected Chi Yuheng would actually come to the bar to play!
At this moment, Ye Ran’s expression was quite rich. “Fuck! You don’t let me come, but you come to play yourself. Usually pretending to be all serious and proper, your daddy will sooner or later expose your hypocritical true colors!”
But obviously not right now.
The bar manager wanted to take Chi Yuheng to the VIP private room. The boss was here, who wouldn’t be tense?
He thought in panic, could it be that there was a problem with the bar’s management that caused the boss to inspect in person? After all, since the bar opened until now, it was only Chi Yuheng’s assistant Xin Yu who occasionally came to check on things. This was only his second time seeing the boss.
The last time he saw him was when the bar first opened.
A faint, barely-there smile lingered on Chi Yuheng’s lips, yet his eyes were cold. “No need to go to the private room, let’s go to the bar counter and have a couple of drinks.”
How could the manager dare say no? He spoke while leading Chi Yuheng towards the direction of the bar counter. “Okay, okay. It just so happens the bar has a new bartender, and the most customers seek him out to mix drinks……..”
Ye Ran had just brought out a large block of ice. The drink he was about to mix required a nice-looking ice sphere in the glass. The excess ice around the block had already been chipped away by him, leaving just the final step of shaping.
He found a small ice pick and lowered his head, chipping away at it.
At this time, a colleague leaned over. “Eh? Isn’t that our boss? Coming to the bar to play but not going to the private room, why is he heading towards the bar counter?”
Ye Ran abruptly lifted his head. Seeing that familiar figure getting closer and closer, the heart he had just set down instantly jumped to his throat.
Another bartender also leaned over to discuss the gossip. “I heard he completely reshuffled the group’s board of directors. None of those old foxes in the Chi family aren’t afraid of him. His methods are extremely ruthless, it’s said that anyone who offends him ends up miserably……..”
Hearing this, the other person shuddered. “He normally never comes to the bar, why did he come today?”
“I don’t know, could it be because he resolved the group’s matters and came to the bar to relax and celebrate? What do you think, A-Yao……..”
“A-Yao? Where’d he go?”
Where was there any shadow of Ye Ran at the bar counter? All that was left was an almost fully chipped ice sphere spinning on the table.
They were just chatting fine a moment ago, even though Ye Ran hadn’t spoken the entire time.
They were only chatting about their boss; albeit discussing his ruthless methods.
But it wasn’t that terrifying of a topic. Why had the person suddenly vanished?
The two spun around the bar counter looking for him, and finally, in front of the inconspicuous wine rack over there, they found an even more inconspicuous Ye Ran.
That outfit of Ye Ran’s noticeably clashed with the wine rack; if you didn’t look closely, you couldn’t tell there was a person there at all.
It was just that……..
His face was towards the wine rack and his back was to the bar counter. At first glance, he looked like a quail, forming a stark contrast with the domineering and handsome Ye Ran who had taught the pervert a lesson just now.
Was this the same person?
The contrast was too huge!
“A-Yao, what are you doing there?”
Ye Ran took a bottle of wine down from the rack and made an excuse. “Wiping the wine rack. It hasn’t been wiped in a long time and has gathered dust.”
“……..”
The manager led Chi Yuheng to the bar counter, raised his hand, and pointed at the air. “Eldest Young Master, this is the bar’s new bartender……..”
“Hm? Where is he?”
The two bartenders knew the manager was asking about Ye Ran, and their gazes uniformly looked towards the wine rack. “A-Yao is over there.”
Hearing this, Chi Yuheng narrowed his eyes. “What’s his name?”
The manager opened his mouth. “A……..”
When people get nervous, they easily become forgetful. What’s more, he normally wasn’t very good at remembering people’s names anyway. He had to quietly ask one of the bartenders, “A-what was his name again?”
The bartender repeated, “A-Yao.”
After hearing it clearly, the manager hurriedly answered his boss. “He’s called A-Yao.”
“A-Yao……..” Chi Yuheng chewed on this name in his mouth, looking meaningfully at the back facing him with its butt.
Among the dyed red hair on his head, a single lock stuck up slightly, looking rather cute.
The coldness in Chi Yuheng’s eyes gradually dissipated, and he softly opened his mouth. “A-Yao, come here.”
Ye Ran’s spine stiffened. He hadn’t expected Chi Yuheng would call him over by name. Although the bar’s lights were dazzling, Chi Yuheng wasn’t blind. If he went over, he would definitely be seen through.
Ye Ran’s eyes darted left and right. Was there still time to run now?
The answer was very obvious: it was too late.
With no way of retreat, Ye Ran’s heart sank, and he could only bite the bullet and turn around. His head was lowered as far as it could go, and he slowly shuffled over.
His only prayer in his heart was that Chi Yuheng would preferably be blind for a moment and not recognize him.
The manager had finally managed to coax the boss by having Ye Ran mix a good drink, to prove that he managed the bar very well and had absolutely no problem selecting personnel.
As a result, Ye Ran kept his head down the entire time since coming over. This unpresentable appearance was no different from slapping his face.
He couldn’t help but say, “Why do you keep keeping your head down, raise your head.”
Ye Ran fobbed him off, “I didn’t sleep well last night, I got a stiff neck.”
“Of all times to get a stiff neck, you chose……..” Before the manager could finish his sentence, he was cut off by a look from Chi Yuheng, and could only swallow the rest of his words back down.
Chi Yuheng narrowed his eyes, examining the person with his head down. “Mix me a drink.”
“What do you want to drink?” Ye Ran tried his best to ask with a steady voice.
Chi Yuheng lightly raised an eyebrow. “Whatever.”
Chi Yuheng had controlled him since he was young. No matter how much Ye Ran feared him, he had grown a body full of rebellious bones and could always act contrary to him.
Hearing these two words, out of complete instinct, the dead brat retorted, “Are you picking a fight? What kind of drink is called ‘whatever’!”
His head naturally raised, valiant and spirited, like an undefeated rooster.
It wasn’t until he met Chi Yuheng’s profound, dark eyes that held a semblance of a smile that his heart trembled.
Finished!
Chi Yuheng knew him too well, he was clearly doing this on purpose. He must have seen him early on, and two words were enough to make him expose himself.
Ye Ran couldn’t run, but he also couldn’t not run. They were ‘brothers’ who had slept in the same bed just a few days ago, and now he could only stand there awkwardly.
Chi Yuheng looked at him, his eyes covered with a layer of laughter. “Is your stiff neck better?”
Chi Yuheng laughed, but Ye Ran’s lips were in a straight line, unable to laugh.
He dared to swear with three fingers pointing at the bar’s lights: this smile was dangerous.
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