The next day, 1:30 PM.
In front of a cafe next to the Civil Affairs Bureau, a black Maybach pulled up to the entrance.
The driver specifically got out to open the back door for the passenger.
The few customers inside the cafe seemed to notice something, suddenly turning their heads one after another as if by coincidence, all looking toward the door.
Ding-a-ling~
The bell tied to the door let out a melodious chime.
—A new customer had entered.
The man was wearing a light-colored, thin trench coat. It had no brand logo, but the tailoring was superb, looking as though it were custom-made.
Many people kept secretly sizing him up, unable to withdraw their gazes even after the man walked over to a corner seat and sat down.
Because he was truly an excessively handsome man.
His features were deep-set and exquisitely defined, surpassing even many currently popular male idols. Even his nonchalant posture as he walked in made it hard for people to tear their eyes away.
The man took off his trench coat and casually draped it to the side, revealing a simple white shirt underneath.
His expression was mild, and a pair of thin black-rimmed glasses rested on the bridge of his tall nose, stripping away any sense of frivolity from his overly perfect features. Instead, it gave off a feeling of gentility, noble elegance, and impeccable upbringing.
It was as if this wasn’t an internet-famous street cafe, but rather some high-end private business club.
“Hello, sir.”
A young waitress quickly arrived at his side. Her cheeks were slightly flushed as she asked softly, “What would you like to drink?”
“A black coffee, thank you.”
The coffee arrived quickly, but the man didn’t touch it.
From the moment he sat down, he had been looking out the window, his gaze carelessly sweeping over every passing person and every car, seemingly waiting for someone.
The sunlight filtered through the leaves and branches of the trees on the street outside, casting mottled, fragmented shadows across the man’s face, lending an unusual sense of mystery to his handsome visage.
Unfortunately, the person he was waiting for was taking far too long to appear.
Who could have the heart to stand up such a person?
A pretty young lady had been observing him for a long time. Finally unable to hold back, she tidied her hair and makeup, mustered her courage, and went over to strike up a conversation.
“Excuse me, sir…”
Many people were secretly watching, wondering if this would be the start of another beautiful romantic encounter.
However, they only saw the man smile and shake his head, pointing out the wedding ring on his left ring finger to her.
—So he was married young.
What a pity.
Such a thought surfaced in the minds of many onlookers.
Tick, tock…
The clock hanging on the wall behind the counter turned round and round, and the bell at the door chimed again and again.
People came in, people left.
The sun slid toward the western hills, and the cascading sunlight changed its angle along with it.
The light turned tangerine-red and no longer favored the side of the man’s neck in the corner, ruthlessly passing him by to race toward others, eventually disappearing altogether into the dark clouds.
—The sky darkened.
Pitter-patter.
Without anyone noticing when, the first drop of rain fell outside.
The rain wasn’t heavy, just a continuous drizzle that wet the cafe’s glass windows, blurring the rushing pedestrians outside even further.
Chu Tingyun was still waiting quietly. He didn’t play on his phone to pass the time, nor did his face show the slightest hint of anxiety or impatience. He only occasionally stirred the coffee in his cup.
It was as if he were savoring the bitterness of the coffee, meticulously savoring this long period of waiting.
Buzz, buzz…
The phone resting on the table began its fifth vibration. After ringing continuously for a long time, it was finally picked up by its owner.
“Hello?”
“President Chu, where are you? The board of directors…”
“I’m busy right now.”
Chu Tingyun didn’t wait for his secretary to finish. He lowered his eyes, his long eyelashes concealing the various emotions hidden in their depths.
The secretary’s tone remained respectful as he suppressed the anxiety in his voice. “Understood, President Chu. But it’s already 6 PM, and you still have a meeting at 9 PM…”
“Cancel everything.”
Chu Tingyun was entirely obscured by the shadows in the corner, gently stirring the coffee in his cup.
He hadn’t taken a single sip, and the ice inside had melted long ago.
The person on the other end said something else, but Chu Tingyun had no patience to listen to the end. His voice was slightly cold. “I said, I am waiting for a very important person. I cannot make it back.”
Just as his voice fell, the bell at the cafe entrance suddenly let out a loud noise.
Ding-a-ling-ling—!
It sounded as if the door had been violently shoved open by someone in a rush.
It was hard to describe the feeling at that exact moment, but in short, Chu Tingyun’s heart gave a heavy leap.
He subconsciously looked up, and a familiar figure burst into his line of sight—
The black-haired young man was wearing a blue-and-white vertically striped hospital gown. At this moment, he was holding a crutch in one hand while protecting a stack of documents in his arms with the other.
He glanced around the room, and the instant he spotted the man in the corner, he couldn’t even wait to take a few proper steps with his crutch. He simply hopped forward on one foot, bypassing the bystanders in a few bounds, and rushed right up to Chu Tingyun.
Because of the momentum, combined with the fact that his left leg was still in a cast, Yan Xun overshot a little, nearly crashing straight into him.
Fortunately, he was agile. In the end, he dropped the crutch and braced his hand against the wall behind the other man, narrowly preventing the awkward collision from happening.
Now, with one hand propped on the wall behind Chu Tingyun, the young man leaned in close, bowing slightly as he tried to explain.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be late.”
He didn’t realize that their current posture was still incredibly awkward. Because from a third-person perspective, it looked exactly as if he had deliberately and forcefully trapped Chu Tingyun in the corner.
But having been late for so long, Yan Xun had no time to notice such things.
Originally, he had prepared himself for the possibility that the other party had long since left in anger. He never expected this person to have genuinely waited for him for over four hours.
So, in his desperation, Yan Xun shoved all the medical examination results directly into Chu Tingyun’s arms. Maintaining his current posture, he immediately explained:
“I am truly sorry… I went to get some tests done. There were quite a few items, so even though I rushed it, I still had to wait a long time.”
He spoke incredibly fast, taking slight, damp, hot breaths whenever he paused for air.
“As soon as the results were out, I took a cab over, but unfortunately, I hit the evening rush hour… so I had to get out early, but when I tried to pay with cash, the driver couldn’t make change…”
Yan Xun usually wasn’t a talkative person, nor was he this reckless.
It was just that at this very moment, he desperately needed to explain himself quickly and thoroughly so Chu Tingyun would believe he hadn’t intentionally stood him up for four hours.
Chu Tingyun didn’t speak. This excessively intimate, non-social distance didn’t make him uncomfortable. He merely kept his head tilted up, staring fixedly at Yan Xun.
The other man must have run the entire way here, or rather, hopped over using that comical one-legged stance.
Because no car had just stopped outside, and Yan Xun looked as though he had caught quite a bit of rain.
The young man’s short black hair curled in wet clumps, sticking damply to his forehead and ears. Perhaps from running through the wind and rain all the way here, his eyes were a little red, which ironically made the droplets clinging to his eyelashes look like more than just water.
He looked… exactly like a drowning little puppy abandoned by its owner.
President Chu leaned back against his chair, his gaze silently wandering over the young man’s face.
In truth, Yan Xun’s appearance didn’t seem to have changed much from before, but the look in his eyes had changed drastically.
So much.
Bright, clean, naive, sincere—a wave of student-like innocence hitting you right in the face.
It wasn’t just his eyes that had changed; his attitude when speaking, his tone, his phrasing, and even his subconscious body language when facing him were completely different.
Just as the doctor had said… it seemed he really didn’t remember the past.
He didn’t remember their past grievances and tears, the bitterness and the pain.
He didn’t remember all the filthy discord buried beneath their seemingly perfect marriage.
And he certainly didn’t remember how hard he had tried, exhausting every conceivable method, to escape the very man sitting in front of him.
Yan Xun’s memory was frozen in his eighteenth year, frozen at a time when he didn’t even know Chu Tingyun yet.
This was truly… the best possible news.
The corners of Chu Tingyun’s lips slowly, almost imperceptibly, curled upward into a minuscule arc.
Lost in thought, the man’s gaze casually swept over every detail of Yan Xun’s face—
Over the young man’s pitch-black, clear eyes and his damp, trembling eyelashes. Over the lips that kept opening and closing as he explained, the nervous swallow of his Adam’s apple, and the open collar of his shirt as he leaned over…
If a person’s gaze could take physical form, then at this moment, Yan Xun would surely feel something thick, damp, and sticky crawling up his collarbone.
It would crawl from his open collar onto his chest, probing down toward his lower abdomen, winding its way across every inch of skin and leaving a sticky, wet trail behind—just like a wild beast claiming its territory by stamping its mark and drenching it in its own scent.
But alas, Chu Tingyun’s gaze could not take physical form.
He just watched unhurriedly, his mind leisurely following along with the thought:
The coma during this period has indeed made this little husband of mine slim down a bit. Even his chest muscles are a little thinner, though the lines of his abs are just as beautiful as before.
Yan Xun completely failed to notice that in just a single face-to-face encounter, he had practically been stripped bare by those eyes. He was still earnestly explaining to Chu Tingyun.
“But after getting out of the car, I hurried over as fast as I could… Of course, I’m not saying this to make excuses. I just want to apologize…”
“I’m sorry I was this late, and I’m sorry for making you wait so long.”
The young man’s explanation, tone, and attitude were all incredibly sincere.
To the point that Chu Tingyun felt the other’s sincerity was almost a little cute.
At this exact moment, the excessively young Yan Xun had no idea that the person he was trying so hard to apologize to wasn’t actually anywhere near as angry as he imagined.
Or rather, quite the opposite—
President Chu, who hated waiting for people more than anything else in his life, found himself in an absolutely spectacular mood after a grueling four-hour wait.
If he wasn’t afraid of scaring away the soaking-wet little puppy in front of him, President Chu even had the urge to pin the man to the chair right then and there…
And give him a good, deep kiss.
🥹🥹🥹
Thanks for the chapter!