What was originally a casual exchange turned into a sudden inspection of work reports when Yan Chen appeared.

Yan Chen sat expressionless at the end of the long table, his eyelashes drooping, but his gaze was fixed on the handsome and quiet profile of the person next to him.

An Yi silently turned his chair, turning his back to him.

Yan Chen just stared at the nape of his neck that was exposed.

His gaze was direct and eager, almost tangible, making it hard for An Yi to ignore. He raised his arm to cover his neck, leaning against the table with his back to block Yan Chen’s scrutiny.

But the tip of his other ear turned red quietly.

Yan Chen chuckled softly.

His voice was not loud, but it gave a chill down the spine of Zhang Ming, the project leader. “Mr. Yan?”

Yan Chen raised his eyebrows, covering half of his face with his hand to cough discreetly, gesturing with his finger, “Very good, continue.”

“…” Zhang Ming, who had already finished reporting, had no choice but to continue, “The company has booked a private room at Ju Taoyuan to congratulate everyone on their awards. Tonight, several teachers from the ceramics and fine arts associations will also be present. The cars to pick everyone up will be waiting downstairs later.”

An Yi was stunned, he hadn’t expected there would be a celebration like this.

As others got up and whispered to leave the conference room, An Yi hesitated whether to find an excuse to decline. But a fellow awardee sitting next to him kindly invited him along, and with Yan Chen’s gaze burning too intensely, An Yi could only temporarily follow the crowd downstairs.

Waiting at the door was a 23-seat Coaster. With 20 awardees, plus the driver and Zhang Ming, the car was filled. However, just before the door closed, Yan Chen stepped in with long strides and sat next to Zhang Ming.

Zhang Ming: “…”

Zhang Ming immediately sat up straight, hesitated for a moment, and then tentatively said in a low voice, “Mr. Yan, your arm is still injured, should I go and change the menu at the restaurant? I’m not sure about your taste…”

“No need,” Yan Chen said, “I’m just joining the fun, don’t mind me.”

Zhang Ming nodded, but upon arriving at the restaurant, he still went to communicate with the chef first and made some changes to the menu.

The dinner that night was held in a large private room with two tables, each seating around 16 people. When the group arrived, Qi Wenxing and several teachers from the industry association were already seated at one table, chatting animatedly.

Zhang Ming asked the top two from each group to sit at the table with the teachers, while he led the remaining awardees to the other table.

Yan Chen, dressed in a sports hoodie and pants, walked at the back. When Qi Wenxing saw him, he laughed oddly, “Hey! Who’s this college student? Did you come to the wrong place?”

Yan Chen glanced at him, nodded to a few members of the association, “Sorry, my hand is inconvenient, I’m a bit unkempt today.”

After that, his gaze fell on An Yi sitting behind the round table.

An Yi lowered his head, sent a message to Xie Nancang about the dinner, but Xie Nancang hadn’t replied yet, probably because the company meeting hadn’t ended.

His eyes were almost glued to the screen, but the chair next to him was pulled away, An Yi turned his head and suddenly met Yan Chen’s gaze.

An Yi’s face turned cold, he straightened his head quietly.

Dishes were served one after another, and the atmosphere in the private room gradually warmed up.

Although An Yi was sitting next to Yan Chen, the two did not speak. To be precise, it was An Yi who avoided conversation and eye contact.

But the corner of his eye caught every move of the person next to him.

Yan Chen didn’t eat much, mostly just leaned back in his chair with his arm hanging, listening quietly to Qi Wenxing and the association members. Occasionally, he would chuckle softly, but the meaning behind his smile was different from what An Yi had heard many times before. It was more of a demeanor of someone in authority, no longer the young master who used cold arrogance to ridicule and disdain everything.

An Yi bit his chopsticks, absent-mindedly chatting with another person from the Chinese painting group next to him.

Midway through the meal, people from the other table started toasting one by one. Yan Chen couldn’t drink due to his injury, so he just raised a teacup as a gesture.

When the other table finished, it was this table’s turn. An Yi began to feel a bit uncomfortable.

This kind of social scene made him a little unaccustomed, and he began to think about what to say.

He was the last one, holding up his wine glass and saying a few clichéd words. Just as he was about to finish it in one go, Qi Wenxing suddenly interrupted, “I still don’t know. Our Teacher An’s debut work at last year’s ceramic touring exhibition sold for a high price of 500,000. This time, the vase he submitted for evaluation was also bought at a high price and collected. I wonder, with such impressive achievements, is he qualified to join our Ceramic Art Association!?”

“I’ve heard of it,” one of the elderly men in his sixties pushed his glasses, “I heard he’s a closed-door student of Master Xie, not simple, young and promising.”

An Yi awkwardly held his wine glass, “I’m just relatively lucky, there’s still a lot I need to learn from all the teachers.”

“Teacher An is modest,” Qi Wenxing said with a smile, “Actually, our Director Yan also appreciates your talent. The vase you entered for the competition, he hesitated for a few days before making his move.”

As soon as this was said, everyone’s gaze converged on An Yi and Yan Chen.

An Yi stiffened, not knowing how to face Yan Chen, or what to say to him.

He deeply regretted not finding an excuse to decline this dinner today.

At this moment, a knobby hand reached over and took the wine glass from his hand.

An Yi looked over in astonishment, only to see Yan Chen tilting his head back and downing the glass of wine that should have been his.

The glass was put down lightly on the table, Yan Chen leaned back in his chair, glanced calmly at Qi Wenxing, and said, “Let’s eat.”

Qi Wenxing, who had drunk quite a bit tonight, made a clicking sound, “Yan Chen, what’s the meaning of this? Are you only helping Teacher An drink?”

The atmosphere subtly became tense. Zhang Ming hurriedly brought his wine glass over to toast Qi Wenxing and the others, extinguishing the spark of conflict that had emerged in the air.

An Yi sat back in his seat with complicated emotions, casting a sidelong glance at his surroundings. Yan Chen was bowing his head, using his intact right hand to scroll through his phone, the fluorescent light reflecting on his handsome face, revealing a hint of indifference.

As people came over to chat with An Yi, he saw Yan Chen stand up and leave the private room. He was momentarily distracted, and only after being called twice by someone did he regain his focus.

About fifteen minutes passed, and Yan Chen still didn’t return.

An Yi thought he had left.

He breathed a sigh of relief to himself.

After three rounds of drinks, people in the private room began to move around casually, gathering in groups of two or three to chat and drink. An Yi drank a lot and felt dizzy and stifled in his chest, so he went to the bathroom to wash his face.

Xie Nancang had just finished the meeting and sent him a voice message on WeChat, asking how the dinner was and if he could come to pick him up.

An Yi wiped his hands clean, about to reply to the message, when the innermost compartment suddenly opened. Yan Chen extended his finger and knocked on the door, causing An Yi to turn his head.

An Yi was stunned.

“Ge, can you help me?” Yan Chen showed his suspended left arm.

An Yi didn’t want to go over. He stood up straight and said, “I’ll go call Qi Wenxing.”

Yan Chen said, “I’m about to burst.”

An Yi: “…”

An Yi looked at his plastered arm, but eventually moved his feet and walked over.

Yan Chen retreated into the compartment, using his long legs to kick the door shut.

He lifted the hem of his hoodie, holding it between his teeth. With his intact right hand, he lifted the knotted drawstring of his sweatpants and showed it to An Yi, saying vaguely, “I’m not lying to you, I really can’t untie it with one hand.”

“…” An Yi tried his best not to let his gaze fall on his well-defined abdominal muscles, but the alcohol warmth swept over his whole body. He lowered his head and said in a less-than-pleasant tone, “If I didn’t come, would you have peed yourself?”

Yan Chen looked at the whorls of hair on his head and softly murmured, “Mm.”

An Yi: “…”

An Yi’s eyelids felt like they were burning.

“Stay still,” his voice was cold and hard, “step back a bit.”

Yan Chen responded with another “mm-hmm” and obediently took a small step back.

An Yi bent down slightly, hoping to quickly untie the knot. His hair lightly brushed against Yan Chen’s chest, grazing his injured left hand.

Yan Chen endured the pain and awkwardly moved his fingers, wrapping a strand of An Yi’s hair around his fingertip.

The more anxious An Yi felt, the less progress he made untying the knot.

He couldn’t help but blame Yan Chen, his voice cold as he said, “Are you deliberately making these knots? One after another.”

Yan Chen looked down at him, this time choosing not to speak.

An Yi lifted his eyelids, meeting Yan Chen’s gaze again. After a brief moment of eye contact, both subtly and tacitly looked away.

An Yi clenched his lips and continued to untie the knot, while Yan Chen silently focused on the nape of his fair neck.

Although the gray sweatpants were loose and the lighting in the compartment was dim, some changes were still quite obvious, especially to An Yi, who knew best the remarkable power of Yan Chen’s physique.

Unable to contain himself any longer, An Yi handed the partially untied knot to Yan Chen in frustration.

“Get the manager to give you scissors,” he said as he opened the door and left.

Yan Chen leaned against the partition for a long while before stepping out of the compartment. Instead of returning to the private room, he went straight to the entrance of the restaurant.

Not long after, the dinner in the private room ended. Several teachers from the association were properly arranged by Qi Wenxing, and those willing to continue socializing followed him. Others said their farewells at the door and made their own arrangements.

Yan Chen stopped An Yi, who was about to hail a taxi on the roadside, saying, “Ge, my stomach hurts.”

An Yi lowered his head and focused on the taxi app on his phone. “If your stomach hurts, go see a doctor.”

“I can’t wait for the emergency room,” Yan Chen said, “I live nearby. Can you take me back?” He added, “I drank too fast earlier and now I feel dizzy.”

An Yi glanced at him faintly.

Yan Chen’s eyes looked particularly deep in the night. “It won’t take up too much of your time.”

After a while, the taxi An Yi called arrived. An Yi opened the back door and got in first, then nodded at Yan Chen standing outside the car. “Where to, I’ll take you.”

Yan Chen didn’t expect him to agree. There was a hint of uncontrollable joy on his face. He quickly got into the car, told the driver his address, and then reached out to hold An Yi’s hand. But An Yi slapped his hand hard.

“If you move again, your other arm will be in a cast tomorrow too.”

Yan Chen stopped moving.

The single-person apartment where Yan Chen now lived was slightly smaller than the one he had in Tianxing Bridge before.

An Yi was a bit surprised.

In the past, the delicate and spoiled young master Yan would definitely sarcastically say that such a place was not as big as his dog’s kennel.

“After you moved out in the winter that year, I waited for two months, knowing you wouldn’t come back, so I canceled the lease at Tianxing Bridge and moved here,” Yan Chen said. “For these past two years, I’ve been living alone.”

An Yi’s heart felt a pang of bitterness, and he said in a low voice, “Why are you telling me this? I don’t care.”

“But I want you to know,” Yan Chen said, looking at him intently.

“…I told you, it’s none of my business,” An Yi said, standing with his hands in his pockets at the entrance, unwilling to step further into the room. “Now that you’re here, I’m leaving.”

Yan Chen said he felt sick and wanted to vomit, and An Yi could tell he wasn’t faking it this time, so he helped him to the bathroom to throw up.

Yan Chen leaned over the sink and dry heaved a few times, his face turning red from the strain. An Yi stood silently beside him, and by the time Yan Chen recovered, the person behind him was gone.

Yan Chen’s heart skipped a beat.

He rushed into the living room and saw that the room was empty, the light in his eyes struggling to fade.