Before even entering the house, Yu Yan heard Jiang Mo’s voice.

“Xia Chen, have you and Xi Yuan decided where to buy the wedding house?”

“We haven’t decided yet. She just returned to the country in the past few days, so we’ll talk about it later.”

“As long as you two make the decision.”

“Mom, Dad, Big Brother, I’m home!” Yu Yan collapsed onto the sofa as soon as he entered, not wanting to move.

Yu Lin handed him a glass of water. “Xiao Yan, you’re just in time. Mom and Dad are discussing buying Big Brother’s wedding house. Do you like any of the options? We can buy you one too.”

“Yes, darling, whatever your brother has, you should have too,” Jiang Mo chimed in.

“I’m not moving.” Yu Yan shook his head.

“It’s not that Mom wants to kick you out. We’ll buy the house first. If you don’t want to live there, it can stay empty.”

“Forget it, we’ll talk about it later.” Yu Yan yawned. “By the way, when is Big Brother’s wedding date?”

“Next year, during the National Day holiday. Xi Yuan set the date,” Jiang Mo’s smile deepened, teasing, “Do you have a girl you like? I heard a few of Xi Yuan’s friends want to meet you.”

Yu Yan and Yu Chen are the same age, born almost one after the other, and both are 24 now.

But Yu Yan had heard that Yu Chen did really well in school, skipping two grades in elementary school and becoming classmates with Shen Yuchen.

Shen Yuchen is already 26. Is his family urging him to find a girlfriend and get married too?

From the phone call last time, it seemed his mother didn’t really care about him, even forgetting his birthday. She probably wouldn’t rush him. But would his dad be pushing him to get married?

Yu Yan had never heard Shen Yuchen talk about his father.

Maybe his dad would push him too; what parent wants to see their child live alone forever?

“Xiao Yan, what are you thinking about?”

Yu Yan snapped out of it, cleared his throat to ease the awkwardness. “Mom, I’m not planning on dating or getting married for now, just focusing on work. Brother Yuchen has helped me a lot, I can’t let his money go to waste. I also promised to knit him a scarf.”

“What? Shen Yuchen asked you to knit him a scarf?” Yu Chen’s alertness spiked, his expression darkening.

Yu Yan nodded, “Huh?”

“Did he pressure you into it?”

“No, I offered it myself.”

“Why are you knitting him a scarf?” Yu Chen’s brows furrowed.

“Well… it’s a birthday gift. Besides, I owe Brother Yuchen. If I knit him a scarf, it’s fair. He did something for me, so I’ll do something for him in return,” Yu Yan said calmly.

Yu Chen’s eyes flashed briefly, almost grinding his teeth, and spoke with a hint of anger, “You don’t need to be polite with him. He should help you.”

After all, Shen Yuchen took a commission of two percentage points for the Chaoxing New Project, which amounted to an eight-digit sum in RMB. Compared to that, this small favor was nothing.

Yu Chen was truly impressed by Shen Yuchen’s deep strategy — not only did he take so much money from their family, but he also made his younger brother do the hard work.

Thinking about this, Yu Chen’s expression darkened further.

Yu Yan chuckled, “Brother, I know you’re close with Brother Yuchen, but everything should be about reciprocity. I can’t keep taking advantage of him.”

“You’re right!”

Jiang Mo and Yu Lin never got involved in these matters, just reminding Yu Yan not to overwork himself.

It was getting late, and an informal family discussion came to an end.

A while ago, Yu Lin had a check-up because he wasn’t feeling well, and the doctor advised him to stop consuming sugar.

For the past few days, the whole family had been helping him manage his sugar intake. Even Jiang Mo, who usually brought home snacks for the family, replaced them with nuts instead of cakes or milk tea.

Yu Yan bit into a slice of bread as he walked upstairs, opening the bag that contained the scarf.

He looked over the scarves he’d worked on in the past few days. He had finished knitting scarves for Jiang Mo and Yu Lin, and Yu Chen’s scarf was almost done except for the finishing touches. But Shen Yuchen’s scarf hadn’t even been started yet.

After thinking for a while, Yu Yan decided to take a break tonight.

Tomorrow, he’d go to the company and knit the scarf for Shen Yuchen in front of him, so that Shen Yuchen would remember the effort and could later bring up the issue of a role for He Zhiyu.

Yu Yan rested comfortably in bed.

At 8:30 in the morning, Yu Yan appeared at Shen Yuchen’s office on time.

Zhao Chi placed an iced Americano on Shen Yuchen’s desk, and a cup of milk tea on the small table next to Yu Yan.

“Three-tenth sugar hot milk tea.”

Yu Yan gave an “OK” gesture. “Thank you.”

After sipping the hot milk tea, Yu Yan continued working.

An hour later, Yu Chen’s scarf was finished, and Yu Yan rubbed his stiff arms and neck. When he looked up, he happened to make eye contact with Shen Yuchen.

Shen Yuchen’s face was like a calm, ancient well, making it impossible to read his emotions. His narrow eyes slightly narrowed, like an anchor, hooking Yu Yan firmly.

Their gazes lingered. Yu Yan felt a bit uncomfortable. “Brother Yuchen, what’s wrong?”

Remembering Yu Chen’s reminder, Shen Yuchen took a sealed bottle of eye drops from his drawer and applied it to his eyes, saying, “Take a break and put some eye drops in.”

“Thank you, Brother.”

Yu Yan had no experience with eye drops. He tilted his head back and squeezed the bottle for a long time but still couldn’t get the drops into his eye.

The eye drops slid down his cheek, across his nose bridge, and into his mouth. He quickly spat a few times, “Puh, puh, puh!”

Shen Yuming reminded him, “Lying down might be easier.”

“Brother, can you help me?”

Yu Yan handed over the bottle of eye drops and lay down on the sofa.

The eye drop bottle still had a bit of warmth left. Shen Yuming rubbed the bottle for a moment, then, after a brief pause, moved over.

Yu Yan lay on the sofa, resembling an elder, blinking his eyes in discomfort. He reached to rub them, but Shen Yuming immediately grabbed his hand.

“Don’t rub.”

“Okay, brother.”

Shen Yuming gently opened Yu Yan’s eyelid with his thumb and index finger. Yu Yan’s dark, round pupils suddenly began to shift restlessly—up and down, and even cross-eyed at one point!

Shen Yuming stopped his motion.

“Be still.”

Yu Yan’s eyes returned to normal. “Brother, was this eye drop just opened?”

“I bought it yesterday.”

“What if it has 520 inside?”

“What?”

“Oh, I meant 502 glue.”

“No one would do something so stupid.”

“Well, you can never be sure. Doesn’t the legal channel show these kinds of things sometimes? Putting 502 glue in someone else’s eye drops?”

Shen Yuming didn’t want to entertain the thought and immediately opened Yu Yan’s eyelid again, putting the drops in. “See if you can feel any 502.”

His eye socket suddenly felt moist, and Yu Yan moved his eyeballs around, feeling relief from the fatigue.

“Hehe, no.”

Who would be able to bypass layers of security at Minghua, dodge cameras, just to pour 502 glue into Shen Yuchan’s eye drops?

He just saw that Shen Yuchan had been busy all morning and drank two cups of coffee. It seemed like he had encountered some difficult issue and wanted to lighten the mood.

After putting the eye drops in, Shen Yuming didn’t rush to leave. Instead, he looked at the scarf Yu Yan had just knitted.

“This is my brother’s. Yours should be a bit longer than his,” Yu Yan pulled out the cashmere yarn he had prepared for Shen Yuming.

Shen Yuming was almost 10 cm taller than Yu Chan, so the scarf naturally had to be longer.

Looking at the dark blue cashmere yarn, Shen Yuming’s furrowed brow slowly relaxed. He moved aside and placed Yu Chen’s scarf on the coffee table. “Is there only one way to knit the scarf?”

“Of course not. I know five or six knitting techniques. But the basic stitch is the most convenient and fastest. The temperature’s dropping lately. It’s probably going to snow in a few days, so I wanted you guys to wear scarves sooner, so I chose the easiest technique.”

Yu Yan opened up a picture and moved closer to show him. “There’s also double treasure, double rib, floral grid, heart-to-heart. There are many techniques, and you can use different yarn colors to create different patterns.”

The techniques didn’t seem much different, but they at least required more effort than the basic stitch. Shen Yuming looked for a while. “The heart-to-heart one looks pretty good.”

“Brother, do you like this one? If you’re not in a rush to wear it, I can knit it in this technique for you.” Yu Yan immediately offered.

“I’m not in a hurry.” Shen Yuming glanced at him sideways. “Isn’t it a bit of a hassle?”

“No, it’s just something I do easily. It’s not troublesome at all,” Yu Yan said nonchalantly.

Originally, he wanted to use the basic stitch to make sure they wore scarves before the temperature dropped, but since Shen Yuming wasn’t in a rush, he decided to make it according to his preferences.

He thought Shen Yuming, like Yu Chen, would prefer simple and elegant styles, but unexpectedly, he chose heart-to-heart.

Yu Yan began casting on, and since the technique was slightly different, his speed noticeably slowed down.

“You don’t have to make special accommodations for me. You can use the regular stitch.”

Yu Yan suddenly looked up and, with his thumb and index finger crossing, made a heart shape. “Let me spoil you once.”

Shen Yuming paused for a moment, then returned to his seat and the office area, without looking at him.

“Do you need something from me?” Shen Yuming raised an eyebrow, speaking directly.

Yu Yan awkwardly smiled. “Nothing escapes your sharp eyes.”

Shen Yuming paused for a moment. “Speak directly.”

“Didn’t Xinghai recently invest in a xianxia drama? Could you let He Zhiyu join the cast? Either male second or third is fine.”

He had asked President Li yesterday, but President Li’s response was vague—something about He Zhiyu not having enough status yet, and that allowing him into the cast would cause problems with the company’s other artists. In the end, he added that if it were President Shen giving the order, no one would dare to say anything.

The answer was almost written on Yu Yan’s face!

Shen Yuming’s gaze lingered on the cashmere yarn in his hands for a moment. “I understand.”

“Thank you, brother.” Yu Yan was in a good mood, humming a little tune as his knitting speed increased.

“Ding——”

The notification sound rang in succession. He finished one stitch and glanced at the screen.

The facial unlock opened, but the message content was only partially visible.

【Shen Mu Yang: Shen Yuming, he…】

What did Shen Yuming do now?