I Asked You to Be a Tool-Man Supporting Male Lead, Not a Heartthrob Chapter 81

Chapter 81: He Said My Abs Are Nice

Fu Yue didn’t turn his head, nor did he speak.

He merely pursed his lips.

A silent gesture of tacit consent.

Pei Luomian straightened up. “Xiao Lin, I can handle things from here. Go and organize those two pathology reports from yesterday.”

The nurse complied and left.

The clinic door was gently pulled shut once more. Immediately after, Fu Yue heard the unhurried sound of Pei Luomian’s footsteps approaching the door.

Then came a soft click—the door had been locked from the inside.

The sound wasn’t loud, but it acted like a switch.

Fu Yue used to tense up at sounds like that. But now, having the door locked actually made the atmosphere feel much more relaxed.

A moment later, warm metal pressed against his back.

It was a stethoscope.

The touch wasn’t the bone-chilling cold he had anticipated. Clearly, Pei Luomian had thoughtfully warmed it up with his hands.

This consideration made Fu Yue’s heartbeat inexplicably quicken.

“Relax,” Pei Luomian’s voice came from very close by. “Take a deep breath.”

Fu Yue slowly inhaled and exhaled as instructed.

However, the heart inside his chest stubbornly pounded like a drum.

The stethoscope moved slowly across his back.

Pei Luomian’s voice drifted clearly into his ears. “Your heart rate is a bit fast. Have you been under a lot of stress lately?”

With half of his face buried in the pillow, Fu Yue’s voice was muffled.

“Busy with work.”

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“Is that so.” The stethoscope slid down his spine. “I thought it was because you ran too fast during yesterday’s fire drill and haven’t recovered yet.”

Fu Yue: “…”

He knew it!

He just knew it!

Embarrassing stories like that spread faster than anything else. To think it had even reached Mary Hospital, two blocks away.

“The hospital almost sent out an ambulance yesterday,” Pei Luomian teased. “If we had made a wasted trip, we probably would have billed you for it.”

The embarrassment diluted his nervousness.

A simple joke like that helped Fu Yue relax.

“Lie on your back.”

Fu Yue rolled over as instructed, lying flat on the examination bed.

Pei Luomian’s fingers rested on his abdomen.

“Inhale, push your stomach out.”

His fingertips were warm and dry, bearing a thin layer of calluses, pressing down with professional force.

“Your abs are nice. Looks like you’ve been keeping up with your workouts.”

“Mmh,” Fu Yue murmured vaguely, his gaze unconsciously drifting toward the ceiling.

Pei Luomian’s fingers paused.

There were a few healed scars on Fu Yue’s flank.

They were left over from the cliff fall on Menglan Island.

“Haven’t you gone to plastic surgery to have these scars treated?”

“It’s fine.”

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Pei Luomian’s gaze rested on his face. “You used to… care about these things a lot. I had to be incredibly careful when suturing you up.”

Fu Yue looked at Pei Luomian.

“I’m focusing on work now, so I feel these things aren’t that important anymore,” he found an excuse to bluff his way through.

Pei Luomian didn’t press the issue further.

During the remainder of the examination, their eyes would occasionally meet by accident in mid-air.

Pei Luomian’s gaze was focused and serious, completely immersed in his professional mode.

Fu Yue’s gaze, however, was a bit evasive. He would look away the moment he met the other man’s eyes, only to find himself irresistibly stealing glances out of the corner of his eye a second later.

Finally, the examination items came to an end.

“All done.” Pei Luomian helped him smooth out the wrinkles in his hem.

Fu Yue put his non-prescription glasses back on, feeling as though a protective shell had returned to his body.

“Let’s go. I’ll accompany you to get your blood drawn.”

Pei Luomian escorted Fu Yue out of the office and headed toward the laboratory department.

When the young nurse drawing blood saw the Director personally present, her hand trembled as she tore open the disposable needle.

It made Fu Yue’s heart tremble right along with it.

Thankfully, the young nurse steadied herself the moment she took off the needle cap.

She found the vein on the first try.

The Ji Group’s physical examinations, from regular employees to management, were universally premium packages. The testing items were extensive.

After the nurse pulled out the needle, Pei Luomian naturally took the cotton swab and pressed it against the puncture site for him.

“Next up is the imaging department…”

Before he could finish his sentence, the phone in his pocket began to vibrate urgently.

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When Pei Luomian answered, his expression grew tense. “…What’s the situation? Understood, I’ll be right there.”

Hanging up the phone, he looked at Fu Yue. “There’s an emergency consultation in the ER; I have to head over. Once you finish the fasting tests, remember to eat breakfast.”

Pei Luomian’s back disappeared through the doors of the emergency department. Fu Yue pressed the cotton swab against his arm.

“System, have Chen Bai and Ji Linye left yet?”

[Host: Target characters Ji Linye and Chen Bai are still inside the psychological counseling room. Specific content is blocked, emotional progress is steadily rising.]

Fu Yue gave a “Mmh” and didn’t ask anything else.

For some reason, in that brief moment just now, a fleeting urge to find someone to chat with had sprouted within him.

But since Chen Bai hadn’t come out yet, he let it go.

Fu Yue threw the used cotton swab into the trash, adjusted his collar, and headed straight back to the company.

After lunch, Fu Yue arrived at Ji Hanmo’s office.

When Fu Yue pushed the door open, Ji Hanmo was sitting behind his desk, processing documents.

He raised his head, his gaze landing on Fu Yue, but his first sentence wasn’t about work.

“How was the physical exam?” he asked, seemingly casually.

Being asked this, the image of Pei Luomian suddenly flashed back into Fu Yue’s mind.

Him leaning down to whisper in his ear, his fingertips tracing over those healed wounds.

And the faint squeaking sound the medical latex gloves made during the examinations.

The tips of Fu Yue’s ears grew hot.

“It was fine, everything is normal.” Instinctively averting his gaze, Fu Yue masked that trace of unnaturalness.

But that fleeting flush of pink didn’t escape Ji Hanmo’s eyes.

Ji Hanmo didn’t press the issue.

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A brief silence fell over the office, the atmosphere turning somewhat subtle.

Fu Yue walked closer and sat in the guest chair opposite him.

He was here to discuss serious business.

A USB drive was placed in front of Ji Hanmo.

“As agreed, here’s an update on the investigation,” Fu Yue began.

He then gave a brief overview of the USB drive’s origins and the files it contained. “It seems the mastermind behind this is targeting the Ji Group at the same time.”

Ji Hanmo picked up the USB drive, his expression somber.

“That’s not all,” Fu Yue pulled out an envelope. “Earlier, in the equipment room, I saw a strange woman humming a song.”

Mentioning the equipment room, Fu Yue rubbed his nose a bit sheepishly.

“Afterward, I picked this up off the floor.”

Ji Hanmo opened the envelope and flipped through the photos inside one by one. However, an emotion that Fu Yue couldn’t decipher flashed through his eyes—his expression was both exasperated and bizarre.

“I understand.” Ji Hanmo put the stack of photos away. “I’ll have someone conduct a deep investigation into that employee who crashed the Fu family’s core system last time to see if we can find any suspicious leads.”

“I’ll also hand the USB drive over to technical experts for analysis.”

Having agreed on the investigation details, the two casually chatted about a few more business matters.

Once everything was arranged, Fu Yue took his leave.

As the end of the year approached, the entire Ji Group was plunged into busyness. Footsteps hurried down the hallways, and internal phones rang incessantly.

Year-end debriefings and annual financial settlements were the two major priorities at the moment.

However, Fu Yue actually found himself with free time because of this.

Those tedious year-end reports and meetings had nothing to do with a “parachuted” executive like him.

The framework for the South City project had already been finalized; it wouldn’t be until construction officially started after the new year that it would be his turn to be busy again.

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Fu Yue mentally calculated.

Ji Hanmo was helping with the investigation.

The progress of the Ji Linye and Chen Bai CP was currently going very smoothly.

And so, amidst the chaos and panic around him, his small office on the 98th floor had become the most leisurely corner in the entire company.

He looked at the digital calendar on his desk, his gaze resting on a date three days away—Christmas Eve. Ji Hanmo had invited him to dinner, functioning as a formal “truce banquet” for their cold war.

Perhaps, it could tentatively be considered a date?

A few days after that would be the Ji Group’s annual gala.

To him, that was just a relaxing party where he could casually eat, drink, and maybe win a raffle prize.

And then, it would be the New Year.

Once the New Year’s bell tolled, the wealthy heirs and socialites he hung out with had already planned to charter a flight to the neighboring resort paradise “Coconut Breeze Bay” to enjoy the sun, sand, and waves.

One by one, item by item, they were all delightful things.

Fu Yue couldn’t help but feel a sense of anticipation.

Right at that moment, the phone on his desk vibrated.

The screen lit up, displaying an unfamiliar number from an unknown region.

Translator’s Note:

One prick sees blood (一針見血): A Chinese idiom that literally means “one needle draws blood,” used here as a pun for a nurse successfully finding a vein on the first try, but figuratively meaning to hit the nail on the head.

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