So the current situation was that he didn’t need to worry about medical bills, but he had to work hard to earn money to support the family.
Yan Xun didn’t feel it was troublesome at all; instead, terms like “pocket money” and “handing over salary” gave him a sense of belonging to a family he had no memory of.
The only problem was—
“I resigned two months ago, and I don’t have a job yet.”
Yan Xun had previously checked his tax payment records. There were no records for the first half-year after graduation; he guessed he might not have found a suitable job back then. The records appeared in the second half-year, paid by a tech company named Zhouheng.
The tax records continued up until two months before the car crash, with no severance records for terminating an employment contract, so he must have resigned of his own accord.
“It’s fine.”
President Chu was extremely considerate of “Xun’s” feelings, indicating that—
“You can live off me.”
Yan Xun: “……I’ll find a job as soon as possible!”
Following that, the other party sent a cute cat-head sticker with flowers on top.
Snowy Mountain: “You can do it~”
Yan Xun had originally just typed a simple “Mhm,” but after looking at Chu Tingyun’s cat sticker and the wavy line, he felt that a single-character reply might seem a bit cold, so he added another one.
Thus, the new message Chu Tingyun saw on his end was—
Little Husband: “Mhm mhm~”
“……”
Tsk, a bit cute.
Sitting in his office, President Chu held back for a few seconds before finally letting out a low chuckle.
Right at that moment, a female voice came from the doorway—
“Who are you chatting with, Chu Tingyun? Smiling so seductively? Don’t tell me you just found yourself a little sugar baby right after getting a divorce?”
“……”
President Chu turned around expressionlessly: “Su Yao, what did you just say?”
“Just joking.” After all, Yan Xun wouldn’t give him a pleasant expression; every time, just a sentence or two would piss President Chu off.
Vice President Su Yao pushed the door open and entered.
She was a very unique woman with honey-colored skin, an elf-like cropped haircut, and a men’s suit that looked somewhat unconventional.
As soon as Su Yao entered, she casually sat down on the sofa in Chu Tingyun’s office, slouching with her legs splayed without an ounce of composure.
“I thought you’d be depressed for a good long while after your divorce.”
Chu Tingyun raised an eyebrow: “Divorce?”
“Tsk—”
Su Yao let out a soft snort from her nose.
“Stop pretending. Yan Xun was dead set on divorcing you; he mailed the divorce agreement to the company eight times over. Not to mention, he even deleted me.”
Speaking of this, Su Yao looked extremely heartbroken.
“If it weren’t to cut ties with you completely, with Yan Xun’s good temper, how could he delete me without saying a single word? I was already annoyed by all the ugly men in my contacts list, and now the youngest, sweetest, and most pleasing little hunk is gone too. Sigh!”
While complaining, she squatted down and dug snacks out of the coffee table drawer.
Chu Tingyun looked disgusted by her behavior:
“If you want to eat, go buy your own. Don’t come raiding my place like a bandit every time you visit.”
Su Yao shuddered, turning her head in disbelief:
“You… you actually used the most malicious words in the world to scold me!”
Chu Tingyun: “……”
Su Yao continued digging with her head down: “Anyway, you don’t like snacks, and since Yan Xun has divorced you and flown away to happiness, naturally he won’t be coming back to eat them either. I’m just showing great mercy by helping you dispose of them.”
Chu Tingyun crossed his arms and sneered: “Who said he divorced me?”
“Stop acting. On the fourteenth of last month, you stood up the board of directors and two partners, skipping work for an entire day. Wasn’t it to go see Yan Xun and handle the divorce procedures?”
Su Yao happened to run into Chu Tingyun getting into his car when she went to the parking garage that day, and she even heard him tell the driver to go to the Civil Affairs Bureau. So she spoke with absolute confidence.
Chu Tingyun smiled faintly: “You sure are well-informed. I did go see him that day.”
Su Yao wore an “I told you so” expression, but the next second she heard Chu Tingyun say,
“However, we didn’t go to get a divorce.”
Su Yao scoffed: “Not getting a divorce? Then why did Yan Xun see you?”
“Hmm…”
Chu Tingyun thought for a moment and said,
“—On a date.”
Su Yao: “…….”
She fell silent for a few seconds, then suddenly stood up with a swish, raised her hand, and reached out to touch Chu Tingyun’s face.
The latter quickly stepped back to dodge.
President Chu looked very alert: “What are you doing?”
Su Yao looked at him with profound pity: “Checking if your brain got fried from excessive sorrow after the divorce.”
Chu Tingyun: “……”
He sneered and tapped on his phone to play a voice recording. The next second, Yan Xun’s voice rang out from it.
“Chu Tingyun, can we not get a divorce for now?”
“Chu Tingyun, can we not get a divorce for now?”
“Chu Tingyun, can we not get a divorce for now?”
…
After repeating the short sentence several times, Su Yao finally reacted. She stared at Chu Tingyun in disbelief.
“It’s not like you’d fake a voice message to comfort yourself, right?”
“……”
President Chu closed his eyes and pointed at the door: “You can get lost now.”
Su Yao stared at him suspiciously.
Could they really have not gotten a divorce?
A few seconds later, she coughed lightly: “Alright, I’m here on official business.”
Su Yao sat back down on the sofa and assumed a serious expression: “The Chen family used some tricks to temporarily suppress the matter, and they even borrowed money from a trust company. Their funding crisis has eased for now, and the banks are showing signs of softening.”
She hesitated for a few seconds before continuing:
“After all, your family and the Chen family have generations of friendship, and you’ve collaborated on quite a few projects over the past decade or so. If we pull the rug out from under them now, halting all cooperation and withdrawing all capital, once they truly go under, it would be equivalent to cutting off one of our own arms, if not worse. Furthermore, the Old Master’s attitude is somewhat…”
“Should we… let it go?”
As the company’s vice president, Su Yao did not support a move that would bring heavy losses to the company.
Yet Chu Tingyun rejected her proposal once again.
“There’s no need to discuss this matter further.”
“Fine, you’re the boss, you call the shots.”
Su Yao sighed.
“I’m just afraid your stepmother… oh wait, and the entire Chen family, will end up hating your guts.”
“Whatever.”
Of course Chu Tingyun didn’t care about such things.
“Hey!”
Mentioning this, Su Yao suddenly remembered:
“Even if you and Yan Xun didn’t get divorced, you probably won’t take him to Jingshu’s wedding in a few days…”
“Why not?”
President Chu leisurely took a sip of coffee.
“As my marriage partner, of course he will attend with me. Besides… they used to be so close; now that Jingshu is getting married, Yan Xun naturally ought to go send her his blessings.”
“Hiss…”
Knowing full well that Yan Xun and Jiang Jingshu were deeply in love back then, this jerk Chu Tingyun had forcibly wedged himself in and snatched the person away. And now, he was actually going to drag Yan Xun to attend the wedding of the unattainable ex-girlfriend.
Su Yao couldn’t help rubbing her own arms. She looked Chu Tingyun up and down, shaking her head as she sighed:
“Chu Tingyun, you really are a devil.”
The man cast a sidelong glance at her and casually tossed the documents from his desk over.
“You handle these. I have matters to attend to.”
“Holy shit! Making me work overtime again?!!”
Su Yao stood up wanting to bolt, but Chu Tingyun had long legs and walked out of the office faster than her.
“I’ve given you all the snacks. Tomorrow morning, I want to report.”
“Ahahaha… Chu the blood-sucker, sooner or later Yan Xun’s gonna give you a 360-degree Thomas spiral kick right off this earth!!!”
Chu Tingyun paused his steps, thinking that even if that were the case, he would use any means necessary to drag the person back.
Buzz, buzz—
His phone vibrated.
His secretary sent a message: “President Chu, the plane ticket back to the capital has been booked.”
·
On the other side, Yan Xun had no idea that someone was frantically wishing for him to kick Chu Tingyun away right now. At that moment, he had just finished cleaning up his rental apartment.
Having not returned for over a month, a lot of dust had accumulated in the rooms.
The apartment Yan Xun rented was in an old residential complex, and its layout was very similar to his home in South City. The only difference was that it was a two-bedroom, but living alone made it feel very spacious.
One room served as his bedroom, and the other as his study.
Even the living room belonged entirely to him.
It was much larger than that tiny room back home.
Yan Xun meticulously cleaned the house. He had originally thought he would be living alone, but during the cleaning, he unexpectedly found quite a few surprising items.
For instance, a photo of him and Chu Tingyun, with the background set on their university campus. It was nicely framed and placed on the bedside table.
There were also many photos of the little cat stuck to the living room wall.
Underneath the living room sofa were fuzzy ball toys and teething sticks.
On the study bookshelf were some business-related books, with Chu Tingyun’s handwriting left in them. In the old kitchen sat an exceptionally exquisite and elegant coffee machine.
Traces of them were everywhere in the house—traces marking a blissful and happy family.
Discovering these things one after another, Yan Xun momentarily felt like a child picking up pretty shells on a beach.
It seemed some indescribable emotion had transformed into the softest silk in the world, quietly wrapping around his chest.
However, this emotion was quickly cut short when Yan Xun discovered three large boxes of items looking like chewing gum in the top drawer of the bedside table.
One of the large boxes was already opened. Yan Xun picked up one of the small boxes inside and saw “Extra Large, Extra Ultra-Thin” written on it.
The very next second he realized what on earth those items were—
Bang!
The drawer was slammed shut. Yan Xun stared at the drawer with lingering fear, as if some terrifying monster were sealed inside.
Squatting on the floor for a full minute, the “conscious virgin” Yan Xun finally calmed down.
It’s fine, they’ve been married for three years, having these kinds of things at home is completely normal…
Very normal…
But why buy so many?
The entire bedside table drawer was stuffed full; could they ever use them all up?
Realizing his thoughts were heading deeper and deeper, Yan Xun immediately stopped his brain, stood up instead, and pulled two clean changes of clothes from the wardrobe.
Nearly an hour of deep cleaning had worked up a sweat. He needed to take a shower and calm himself down at the same time.
Pitter-patter…
Steaming water vapor gradually filled the bathroom.
Then, the sound of water paused.
Shampoo whipped up snowy-white, voluminous bubbles.
Yan Xun’s phone rang right at that moment, an incoming voice call from someone unknown. Not having had time to rinse the foam off his head, he fumbled around, reaching out to answer it.
“Hello?”
“…”
There was no sound on the other end.
“Hello?”
Yan Xun called out again. Before his voice faded, he heard a “beep” as the call hung up.
“?”
The next second, his phone rang again.
Yan Xun didn’t look at the screen; his eyes were blurred with soap bubbles. At this point, he assumed the caller had accidentally hung up just now and was calling back, so he answered it a second time without overthinking.
However, the next second, an image appeared on the phone screen.
—Chu Tingyun was making a video call.
Oh my gosh, that horny devil, I’m dying laughing ꉂ(˵˃ ᗜ ˂˵)