Was he crazy?
Is it totally over now?
During the few minutes while the server went to fetch the Cola, there was no sound whatsoever inside the private room. Shan Yu’s mind was chanting in various tones back and forth:
It’s over—
It’s completely over—
Done for—
Finished—
Chen Jian hadn’t made a single movement either. After delivering that slap, he had entered a state of being completely frozen solid.
Shan Yu could tell he was waiting. The initial shock and fury had already passed; right now, he was simply waiting for that bottle of Cola to be placed on the table, waiting for the opportunity to speak once the server left.
“Your Cola.” The server placed the Cola in front of Shan Yu.
“Thank you.” Shan Yu picked up the Cola and unscrewed the cap.
The moment the server closed the door, he beat Chen Jian to the punch and spoke first: “I’m sorry.”
Chen Jian shot him a glance, seemingly thrown off rhythm by his interruption, and thus stayed silent.
“I’m sorry,” Shan Yu cleared his throat, pressing the ice-cold Cola against his cheek. “I swear before that moment just now, I didn’t have any premeditation or groundwork. It was purely…”
Audacious lust.
A sudden surge of desire.
Blinded by lust.
“An impulse,” Shan Yu said. “It’s just… I hope you don’t, because of this matter…”
He wanted to say he hoped Chen Jian wouldn’t assume, because of this, that everything he had done before was for this sole purpose.
But halfway through, he suddenly stopped and decided to give up.
There was no way to explain it.
The kindness he had shown Chen Jian truly exceeded the boundaries of what a boss offered an employee in his own understanding. Even though there were many reasons behind it—including that mindset of helping out where he could—it undeniably included the fact that he had felt a good impression toward Chen Jian from the very first glance.
And right now, he couldn’t explain it, nor could he make Chen Jian understand under such emotions that this good impression and that peck didn’t have a necessary connection.
What a mess he had made of this.
“I’m sorry.” Shan Yu let out a sigh, tilted his head back, and downed two gulps of Cola; the ice-cold and frizzy sensation made him involuntarily knit his brows.
Chen Jian looked at him, and only after another moment did he stand up: “I’m going out for a bit.”
“Mm.” Shan Yu responded.
He didn’t know what Chen Jian was going to do, but it felt like nothing would be surprising at this point—the fact that Chen Jian hadn’t stood up, grabbed a dish, and slammed it over his head was only because Chen Jian hated wasting food.
When the server brought the beef hotpot inside, Chen Jian still hadn’t returned.
Shan Yu turned the flame down to its lowest setting, leaned against his chair, and tapped his fingers rhythmically on the table, one stroke at a time.
Three minutes and twelve seconds later, the door was pushed open, and Chen Jian walked inside.
His face and hair were both wet.
Shan Yu let out a breath of relief; at least he hadn’t walked out directly.
“Boss Shan,” Chen Jian finally spoke up.
“Mm,” Shan Yu responded, straightening his posture.
“I just want to say,” Chen Jian looked at him, “let’s leave this apology aside for now. I also… don’t need too much of an explanation. I believe you didn’t have any… but this matter, it…”
Was harassment, yeah.
Chen Jian spoke with a bit of difficulty, and Shan Yu listened quietly.
“I hope in the future… it won’t happen again,” Chen Jian said.
“It won’t,” Shan Yu said.
“I need this job, and I need this income, so I hope we remain boss and employee—just that relationship,” Chen Jian said. “Without mixing in anything else.”
Shan Yu lowered his head, letting out a long, deep sigh.
This sentence, which Chen Jian had struggled so hard to voice, made him feel an acute wave of bitterness in his heart.
“Okay,” Shan Yu said.
Chen Jian fell silent for a moment, reached out to turn up the flame under the beef hotpot, and silently stared at the meat in the pot.
Shan Yu had originally prepared himself for Chen Jian to curse at him, beat him up, or engage in any other extreme reaction. Yet in the end, Chen Jian only offered these three simple sentences.
It was far more lethal than taking a full-force swing at him.
It felt like stepping into thin air and throwing out one’s waist.
The beef hotpot tasted pretty good; the beef was very fresh, and the broth was rich and fragrant.
Though Chen Jian ate somewhat mindlessly, he could still taste it.
Shan Yu retained his habit of not talking while eating, burying his head to eat attentively.
Chen Jian could see the finger marks on his face—from light red to a deeper shade of red, to now an entire patch of red swelling.
He hadn’t expected that a casual slap from him could produce such an effect.
Shan Yu had indeed startled him. The amount of information he needed to sort through behind that single action was far too complex and shocking; he had stood in the restroom staring at the mirror over the sink for nearly ten minutes before snapping out of it.
He was willing to believe what Shan Yu said.
Yet he still felt uncomfortable. Even if Shan Yu said there was no premeditation or groundwork, he would still recall the underlying meaning in his dad’s words.
Why do you get to be the manager?
The beef hotpot was delicious. On any ordinary day, Chen Jian could have eaten half the pot, but today he couldn’t take another bite after just a few mouthfuls—not because he had no appetite, but because he felt completely full, almost stuffed.
He set down his chopsticks and glanced at Shan Yu.
Shan Yu was still eating, very focused.
Only after finishing the last piece of meat in his bowl did he say: “Pack it up.”
“Mm.” Chen Jian responded, stood up, walked out of the private room, and asked the server outside to bring in a few takeout containers.
After everything was packed, Chen Jian carried the bag, following behind Shan Yu as they walked out of the restaurant and headed toward the parking lot across the street.
Even though he knew his dad must have left by now, he still stole several glances toward the hospital entrance.
In this matter, he was truly grateful to Shan Yu.
And not just in this matter—in many things, he was deeply grateful to Shan Yu. Just as Hu Pan had said, Shan Yu was a very good boss. Whenever any problem arose in the shop, while Shan Yu carried an uncontrollable air of reckless ease, he was also everyone’s pillar of reassurance. All of this made Chen Jian work hard in hopes that Daxin could smoothly get onto the right track.
Precisely because of this, facing the scene earlier left him so shocked and chaotic.
After placing all the items in the car, Chen Jian hesitated for a moment and asked, “Are we going to the arcade?”
He hoped to maintain the status quo. The boss had wanted to go to the arcade to bother some kids earlier, so they should try to stick to the original plan as much as possible—go bother some kids.
“Going,” Shan Yu answered very simply, pulling open the car door and getting in.
Chen Jian closed the trunk door, walked around to the passenger side, and got into the car.
The road back to the shopping mall was still quite congested at this hour, but Shan Yu drove very by-the-book—or perhaps he was zoning out. Even when the green light came on, he didn’t move, prompting the car behind to blast its horn and flash its lights repeatedly in urge.
“It’s a green light,” Chen Jian reminded him.
Only then did Shan Yu drive the car forward.
“When driving, still…” Chen Jian glanced at the rearview mirror, “…pay a bit more attention.”
Shan Yu clicked his tongue.
Then he let out an “mm.”
There weren’t many people in the arcade, nor were there many kids around to be bothered.
“Are you playing?” Shan Yu asked.
“No,” Chen Jian said. “I don’t know how to play these.”
“If there’s anything you want to play, I’ll teach you,” Shan Yu exchanged some tokens and rolled his wheelchair around between various arcade machines. “There was a long period when I soaked in arcades every single day.”
I thought you fought on the streets every single day.
Chen Jian didn’t utter a sound, unsure of what to say to sound “normal” and avoid appearing as if he were deliberately maintaining a “boss and employee relationship.”
“Let’s play the most boring one first,” Shan Yu stopped in front of a claw machine.
“Is this one boring?” Chen Jian said. “I’ve never caught anything even once.”
“If you’ve never caught anything once, isn’t that boring?” Shan Yu dropped in a token. “Is there anything you want?”
“I…” Chen Jian suddenly felt a bit dazed; he couldn’t even answer this question with ease anymore.
“Xiao Dou’er should like these trinkets,” Shan Yu phrased it differently. “Pick one for her.”
“That…” Chen Jian quickly scanned the inside of the machine. Xiao Dou’er liked everything bright yellow. He pointed to a yellow plush pouch tucked deepest inside: “That small yellow pouch.”
The hand Shan Yu held on the joystick paused slightly, and he turned his head to glance at him: “How about I climb inside and grab it for you?”
“…Can’t reach it?” Chen Jian asked.
“Let’s try,” Shan Yu said, still maneuvering the claw over toward that direction.
Sure enough, it was a position hard to reach; he could only try hooking it with the claw.
However, Shan Yu didn’t try it that way. He directly gave the claw a shake, hooking a small pouch on the upper layer edge instead. The small pouch slipped off, but as it fell, it bumped into that yellow plush pouch.
“That’ll do,” Shan Yu said, dropping in another token. He controlled the claw, grabbed the small pouch, and lifted it toward the chute.
But before it could drop, the small pouch unhooked itself and fell onto the edge of the chute, standing there in a hesitant posture as if preparing to jump off a cliff.
Shan Yu clicked his tongue, reaching out to grab tokens from the small basket to insert again.
A bit of a loss, huh.
Chen Jian wanted to say forget it, but before he could speak, a chubby kid who had come over at some point and was leaning against the glass watching Shan Yu catch the pouch suddenly stepped back, then leaned his weight back against the machine again.
The machine shook ever so slightly, and the precarious pouch fell into the chute.
Chen Jian couldn’t help glancing at the chubby kid.
“Nice technique,” Shan Yu gave a faint smile and casually grabbed a few tokens from his basket to hand over.
The chubby kid accepted the tokens happily, turned around, and ran off toward the machine he wanted to play.
Shan Yu pulled the yellow pouch out from the chute and examined it; it was a zippered small pouch with a shoulder strap, capable of fitting several packs of the spicy strips and jelly that Xiao Dou’er loved.
“Let’s catch a few more other things,” Shan Yu placed the small pouch into the wheelchair pouch, slowly moving between two long rows of claw machines before stopping in front of a snack claw machine. “Catch some of these to put on the bar counter for guests.”
“Mm,” Chen Jian responded.
Shan Yu dropped in tokens and yielded the spot: “Go ahead and catch.”
Chen Jian paused, walked over to stand in front of the machine, randomly aimed at the one that felt easiest to catch, and dropped the claw. He didn’t even know what the heck it was; only after it was hooked up did he realize it was very heavy, slipping and dropping right back down almost as soon as it rose.
“Catch that cotton candy,” Shan Yu said while inserting tokens.
Chen Jian hadn’t played claw machines many times. He rarely participated in this kind of entertainment where you pure-and-simply threw money away if you failed, or paid a high markup for a low-cost item if you won. At most, he would help others drop the claw a couple of times to test their luck, so he was extremely unskilled right now.
After several failed attempts:
“You do it,” Chen Jian said. “If I keep trying, even if I catch this bag of cotton candy, I’ll have to enshrine it at home and forbid anyone from eating it.”
“Just one step away,” Shan Yu smiled, walked over, and took hold of the joystick, his target still that bag of cotton candy.
The bag of cotton candy had been flipped over several times by Chen Jian, its packaging sticking out awkwardly in all directions now. The moment the claw descended, it gripped it firmly.
Then, the cotton candy was carried over to the chute.
And then, because of a sticker sticking up on top, it got snagged on the edge of the chute.
What kind of luck is this?!
“I really…” Shan Yu looked at this bag of cotton candy. After waiting a few seconds, he turned his head to look at Chen Jian.
“Hmm?” Chen Jian didn’t understand.
“Go bump it,” Shan Yu said.
An adult male, bumping a claw machine in an arcade, all for a ten-yuan bag of cotton candy.
“The wheelchair has more power,” Chen Jian said.
“Makes sense.” Shan Yu controlled the wheelchair to turn around, shifted forward a short distance, and looked back over his shoulder.
For real?
Chen Jian was startled, quickly rushing over to step down on the wheel brakes.
Shan Yu clicked his tongue.
“It’ll drop down in a moment.” Chen Jian looked at the bag of cotton candy again. “That sticker will peel off in a bit, and the bag can fall.”
“Fine then.” Shan Yu turned back around.
Two people and one wheelchair stood planted in front of the claw machine just like that, waiting for that piece of sticker to separate from the bag.
It was visible that the sticker and the bag were slowly separating, but because the cotton candy’s weight was limited, this process was slightly drawn out.
Neither of them spoke.
Chen Jian felt that Shan Yu wasn’t really waiting, merely staring at the bag in a daze.
Of course, he was much the same. The moment he quieted down, his mind became a tangled mess—there were images, there were sounds, yet when he tried to grasp a single focus, he realized he wasn’t thinking about anything at all, just pure confusion.
The chubby kid had stood beside the two of them again at some unknown point.
Looking at that bag of cotton candy along with them.
“Catch another one! It didn’t drop, so it’s a super-strong grip now,” the chubby kid said. “Guaranteed hit.”
“Is that so?” Chen Jian snapped out of his thoughts.
Shan Yu handed the small basket containing tokens over to the chubby kid: “You catch it. Whatever’s left after you catch it is yours.”
“Really?” The chubby kid was pleasantly surprised. “All of it?”
“All of it,” Shan Yu said.
The chubby kid didn’t hesitate, quickly dropping in tokens and aiming at the largest bag of popcorn: “Watch me!”
“Why aren’t you at school?” Shan Yu asked.
“I have diarrhea,” the chubby kid stared at the claw without forgetting to answer. “My mom requested leave for me… Watch me!”
Claw dropped, and sure enough, it grabbed it.
The popcorn was smoothly dumped into the hole, bringing that bag of cotton candy along with it.
“Is it all mine?” The chubby kid confirmed once more.
Shan Yu didn’t speak, simply waving his hand.
The chubby kid ran off clutching the basket.
“Not playing anymore?” Chen Jian asked.
“Not playing,” Shan Yu leaned back against the backrest. “Let’s go back. Call Zhao Fangfang and tell her to make dinner for the two of us as well.”
“Mm.” Chen Jian responded, pulled out his phone, and dialed Zhao Fangfang’s number.
“Didn’t you say you’d be back very late?” Zhao Fangfang asked.
“Finished our business early,” Chen Jian said.
“Alright, then I’ll cook a bit more,” Zhao Fangfang said.
After hanging up, the two remained silent all the way to the parking lot.
Shan Yu let out a yawn after getting into the car.
“Want to sleep for a bit?” Chen Jian asked.
“Not sleepy,” Shan Yu started the car as he spoke. “Stuffy.”
It was indeed quite stuffy.
Not just because the underground parking lot was somewhat stuffy, but because it had been quite stuffy all along.
But who’s to blame, Boss?
Perhaps because it was too stuffy and lacked oxygen, Chen Jian even began to feel sleepy before the car had driven out of the parking lot.
And he had just asked someone else if they wanted to sleep for a bit.
Chen Jian tried hard to open his eyes wide, even cracking the car window open a sliver.
Yet in the very next second, he fell asleep just like that without a single moment of hesitation.
He didn’t wake up the entire way.
Yet it also felt like he was wide awake.
Because he felt like he was guarding against Shan Yu suddenly honking the horn or slapping his face the entire way.
Neither happened.
“Chen Jian!” Shan Yu was shouting. “Chen—Jian—Manager—Chen!—”
“Ah!” Chen Jian sat up abruptly, the objects before his eyes swaying for a long time before successfully coming into focus.
He had been asleep, and had slept for a very long time.
Ahead was already the road leading into the small town.
To be sleepy to this extent…
“Tell Sanbing,” Shan Yu said, “bring some people to the intersection to move that crate.”
“Mm?” Chen Jian paused. “Can’t we just drive straight in? It’s only five meters to the courtyard.”
“If we drive in, other people won’t see it,” Shan Yu said. “Carry it in. The small path is paved with gravel, too bumpy. What if the stuff inside breaks from the shaking?”
Isn’t this worn-out road into the small town way bumpier than the gravel path at the entrance?
“Mm.” Chen Jian pulled out his phone. Though he didn’t quite understand, he still followed instructions and dialed Sanbing’s number.
“Tell them to make a bit of a fuss,” Shan Yu said.
“What’s inside the crate?” Chen Jian couldn’t hold back from asking.
“Don’t know yet,” Shan Yu said. “Might be a bottle, a jar, or something, or some other porcelain or earthenware piece.”
…Such a huge object, and something that required an ID card to collect.
It was actually a blind box?
Sanbing truly lived up to being Chen Erhu’s right-hand man. Although he similarly didn’t know why, adhering to the principle that the boss must have his reasons for doing so, he brought Lao Wu and Hu Pan over to stand at the intersection ahead of time.
The group carried an air of eager anticipation; Sanbing even shaded his eyebrows with his hand, looking over in this direction.
The traces of acting in this performance were a bit too heavy.
When the car pulled up in front of the group, Chen Jian glanced at Shan Yu, abruptly noticing that the red swelling on his face hadn’t subsided yet.
“Your face…” He reminded Shan Yu with some embarrassment.
“Doesn’t matter,” Shan Yu said. “Who would ask me to my face?”
The car stopped, and Sanbing immediately leaned against the car window: “Boss, you’re back! Having us guard here is… what happened to your face?”
Sanbing would ask you to your face.
“Wheelchair flipped and crashed into the door,” Shan Yu said. “Unload the car, carry that crate inside, don’t bump it.”
“Alright.” Sanbing immediately waved his hand: “Come on, come on, carry the crate, be careful, don’t bump it…”
Chen Jian got out of the car as well, walked around to the back, and opened the trunk.
That wooden crate wasn’t particularly heavy; Chen Jian could move it by himself, but since all these people were here, they might as well carry it together.
Sanbing and Lao Wu, plus Chen Jian—the three of them held onto the crate and lifted upward with force together.
BANG.
The crate slammed directly into the roof of the car.
“What the fuck,” Lao Wu froze. “Does it take this many people to carry this?”
“Just carry it,” Sanbing said.
The crate was carried into the courtyard by the three of them, with Hu Pan directing from behind: “Careful on this side, hey, steady on that side, alright, go in!”
After the crate was carried into the building, Shan Yu directly drove his wheelchair into the elevator to go up to the fourth floor, without saying how to handle the crate. The group had no choice but to shift the crate into the storeroom first.
“Chen Jian,” Sanbing called out to Chen Jian after everyone else had left. “Hey, let me ask you.”
Don’t ask.
“Was Boss Shan beaten up by someone?” Sanbing asked.
Chen Jian didn’t know how to answer, so he could only stay silent.
“What kind of person is so awesome,” Sanbing kept his voice down, “to be able to land one right on his face?”
Chen Jian The Awesome 😂