Chapter 25: First Kiss… Lost?! “Having such control over my clothes…”
Coming back to his senses, Lu Xunye hurriedly turned his head back. “Does President Su have a bad memory? Have you already forgotten what happened last night?”
Su Zhuo sat back, leaning his head against the sofa. He swept a lazy glance up and down the two of them, then suddenly smiled. “Then Mr. Lu should take him and go.”
Lu Xunye had expected him to say something sarcastic or tough, so hearing him be this agreeable made him pause in surprise.
This doesn’t fit the laws of the plot.
“Sometimes, don’t be like a robot, only capable of rigidly thinking and acting according to code. It makes you look brainless. Besides, those people just now were here to catch Mr. Lu, weren’t they?”
The sound of young people laughing and playing drinking games in the distance seemed worlds away from this oppressive, silent space.
Su Zhuo toyed with his wine glass, the countless cut facets of the glass reflecting fragmented light. “Let’s not talk about them. Like I said earlier, aren’t you afraid that since you’ve offended me, I might deal with you first?”
As he spoke, he lifted his hand slightly. The rim of the glass was gripped in his well-defined palm, exuding an aura of absolute control.
Su Zhuo suddenly let go. The wine glass slipped from his hand and smashed onto the floor. As if mirroring his words, the glass instantly shattered into pieces, scattering across the ground.
Lu Xunye pondered for a moment, pulling his thoughts back from the mess on the floor. “What exactly are you trying to say?”
Shen Yunqian silently watched the languid Su Zhuo. After a fleeting moment of eye contact, the hand hanging by his side tightened imperceptibly.
Su Zhuo sighed lightly. He stood up and walked over to Lu Xunye, looking completely puzzled—a stark contrast to his previous attitude. He chuckled softly and patted Lu Xunye on the shoulder.
“I just wanted to ask if Mr. Lu needed help. After all, you’re a friend I’d still like to make. What were you thinking?”
Lu Xunye’s wariness quietly relaxed. He let out a long breath. “Thanks. I didn’t expect you to be such a good person.”
“I am a pretty good person.” Su Zhuo accepted the compliment without a hint of modesty. “I can be even more thorough with my good deeds. For example…”
He paused, his gaze landing on Shen Yunqian’s tense face.
Shen Yunqian’s expression was grave. He could almost guess what Su Zhuo was going to say. When Su Zhuo looked over, he shook his head slightly, signaling him to stop, but was completely ignored. “…”
“For example, if Mr. Lu needs it, I can have someone,” Su Zhuo turned his profile to hook his lips at Shen Yunqian, then looked back at Lu Xunye to finish, “tell you where the bar’s back door is.”
Hearing this, Shen Yunqian breathed a sigh of relief. His business wasn’t finished yet; he couldn’t clash with the Lu family right now.
The empty, unmanned alley behind the bar was lit only by the streetlamps on the distant main road, shining in the cold, dark night.
Compared to the noisy food street in front of the bar, the back alley seemed desolate. Two people strolled side by side, trying to cross the alley to reach the main road and hail a taxi.
“You shouldn’t have come out with me.”
Lu Xunye’s low voice sounded in the bleak wind.
Shen Yunqian, who felt like his nose was running from the cold wind, sniffled after holding it in for a long time upon hearing this. He asked in return, “Then who should I have come out with?”
His voice was muffled and nasal. Lu Xunye thought of the youth with misty eyes inside the private box earlier and instantly fell silent.
He waited for the youth to ask why he was here, but unexpectedly, the youth never brought it up, so both fell into silence.
Shen Yunqian kept both hands hidden inside the clothes he was holding to keep warm. He didn’t break the silence immediately, waiting a while before speaking.
“Why would the Lu family target you? No matter what, you are related by blood.”
Lu Xunye rubbed his chin. “Probably… stumbling upon an illicit affair and being silenced?”
“It was your grandmother…” Shen Yunqian immediately realized what the “whispered words” Lu Xunye had said to Old Madam Lu at the banquet last night were about.
Lu Xunye nodded solemnly, then heard an abrupt question out of nowhere: “Are you cold?”
“Not cold.” Lu Xunye was baffled but answered anyway.
Shen Yunqian suddenly stopped, scrutinizing Lu Xunye from top to bottom until Lu Xunye felt creeped out. Only then did he speak directly: “Take off your clothes.”
“?!” Lu Xunye crossed his arms over his chest, eyes wide, looking like a virtuous man protecting his chastity. “What do you want?”
“…” Shen Yunqian frowned. “Are you that confident no one will recognize your outfit?”
Right. The pickup point for the ride-share and the internet cafe’s main entrance faced the same road, and there would inevitably be people watching there.
“Also, are you planning to sew a patch on it and keep wearing it?” Shen Yunqian pointed.
Lu Xunye followed his finger and looked down. The pocket area of his goose-yellow jacket had been scraped into strips of cloth—damage from climbing over the windowsill.
“There are ripped jeans, so maybe this is the future trend!” He said this, but still took off the jacket.
A ripped windbreaker is definitely a first. Shen Yunqian couldn’t understand his brain circuitry.
Before one sleeve was even off, Lu Xunye had a piece of clothing thrown over his head.
His vision went black, and a faint scent of pine lingered in his nose.
Lu Xunye scrambled to pull the heavy garment down. Looking down, he saw it was a black cashmere coat.
He didn’t recall the youth holding anything in his hands. He asked suspiciously, “Where did you get this?”
Shen Yunqian certainly wasn’t going to tell him he had swiped it from the coat rack behind the door when leaving the box. He feigned calmness: “President Su is a good person; he gave it to you.”
“Really?” Lu Xunye put on the coat skeptically. It wasn’t exactly a perfect fit, but it was wearable. He just didn’t like the smell of the cologne.
Shen Yunqian avoided his gaze. “Anyway, don’t get too close to Su Zhuo in the future. He isn’t as gentle as you imagine. He is actually… a difficult person to talk to.”
Insidious, cunning, camouflaged, dramatic old fox… These words flashed through his mind. Shen Yunqian picked through his vocabulary for a long time before selecting a term that related to Su Zhuo but wasn’t too harsh.
Based on what Shen Yunqian saw last night and just now, he had assumed Lu Xunye would be misled by Su Zhuo’s few words of good temper like everyone else, believing Su Zhuo to be a good-natured person.
Su Zhuo had indeed maintained the image of a “nice guy” since meeting Lu Xunye last night, even being accommodating to a fault. When normal people encountered such a person during a crisis, it was hard not to develop a favorable impression.
But hearing him badmouth Su Zhuo behind his back without any evidence, Lu Xunye didn’t show the surprise Shen Yunqian expected.
A thought flashed through his mind. Shen Yunqian looked at Lu Xunye in astonishment. “You provoked him on purpose just now. Why?”
“Su Zhuo was right about one thing. I’m indeed not the type with a quick, flexible mind.”
Lu Xunye’s expression calmed. “If I were a wealthy noble, I would have thoroughly investigated someone who caused trouble in my hotel and used the Lu family’s reputation to threaten me last night.”
“I certainly wouldn’t have let him break through the window into my territory, act arrogantly, play the hero saving the beauty, and not throw him out immediately knowing there were people chasing him outside.”
Shen Yunqian ignored the “hero saving the beauty” comment. “So what are you thinking?”
“I caused such a big scene last night, scaring so many rich people half to death and making Su Zhuo spend money to appease them. Yet Su Zhuo isn’t angry. There are only two possibilities.”
“One, Su Zhuo also looks down on the Lu family and wants to use me to cause trouble for them. We have the same goal, so he doesn’t hold it against me.”
Shen Yunqian listened seriously as he broke down his logic. Although it didn’t match reality, it still made some sense, so he didn’t debunk it.
Just as he was ready to hear more, Lu Xunye suddenly burst with informality and overflowing confidence.
“Two, it’s because I’m too handsome, and he fell in love with me at first sight! In that case, I have even less reason to fear him.”
Shen Yunqian choked. “Cough.”
No one knew that Lu Xunye was secretly pinching his own palm while saying this to prevent himself from jumping up in embarrassment.
Of course, he wouldn’t tell Shen Yunqian that the original owner had lived cautiously and invisibly for the first twenty-some years of his life. Even his recognition by the Lu family and subsequent expulsion were unknown to outsiders.
But last night, forced by the mission, he had not only taken off his mask but also made too much of a splash.
The young people in the bar today who associated with Su Zhuo were certainly not from ordinary families; there might be people present who were there last night.
He had to act a bit reckless—in short, brainless—so others wouldn’t think he was someone hiding deep thoughts and biding his time.
Although the System didn’t explicitly forbid breaking character, change should still happen gradually.
The waters of the wealthy families were too deep; he didn’t plan on getting involved just yet.
Lu Xunye observed Shen Yunqian’s expression. Seeing no suspicion, he relaxed slightly.
He lost his grip on the clothes he had just swapped out, and they fell. He watched the person in front of him slowly bend down to pick them up, initially having no reaction.
It wasn’t until his gaze swept down to the dusty concrete floor and saw a flash of bright pink different from the color of his windbreaker that he froze. He felt his pocket, suddenly realizing he had changed clothes.
At that moment, Shen Yunqian picked up the clothes. As he was about to stand up, he saw something half-stuck to the outer slanted pocket.
The handwriting was extremely familiar. Wasn’t this the note he had left?
Shen Yunqian didn’t think much of it. Under Lu Xunye’s gaze, he crumpled the tattered goose-yellow windbreaker and the piece of paper into a ball and tossed it casually. It drew a bright arc through the dark air.
With a clang, it landed steadily in a waist-high green dumpster in the corner.
Wardrobe -1.
That was at least 80 yuan. Lu Xunye clicked his tongue. Does he… have that much control over my clothes?!
They walked a bit further.
Lu Xunye remembered something. He stuck his hand in his pocket, realized something was wrong, and sprinted back. “F*ck! My phone!”
Five minutes later, Lu Xunye pinched his nose and fished his phone out, then threw the clothes back into the dumpster with disgust.
When his gaze touched the cracks on the screen, his eyes lingered for half a second. Then he opened the ride-hailing app, only to see that the driver had canceled the order because he couldn’t pick up the passenger.
Lu Xunye: “…”
Shen Yunqian rubbed his nose beside him, full of apology. “Sorry. I’ll buy you a new phone.”
Lu Xunye gave him a look with deep meaning. Why isn’t the rich one me?! Does painting make that much money?
He was calculating the feasibility of resuming the original owner’s old trade in his mind, so he didn’t hear the footsteps approaching them.
“Still haven’t found him? F*ck!”
“We’ve searched the bar and watched the entrance. Could he really have grown wings and flown away?”
“Let’s go check over there.”
The irritable voices, clearly audible from their conversation, drifted over from the intersection with the cold wind.
The footsteps got closer and closer, echoing in the alley. Lu Xunye clenched his fists.
Then let’s fight!
“Are there two people over there?”
As that haunting voice settled, Lu Xunye was just about to turn around when his collar was yanked downward by a force, bending his waist.
In Lu Xunye’s shock-dilated pupils, Shen Yunqian cupped his cheek with one cold hand. His other hand, retracted into his sleeve, pressed against Lu’s tense neck through the cotton fabric. He tilted his head up and pressed his lips against his.
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