Shi Anzhi’s birthday is on the 26th of the ninth month in the lunar calendar. At first, Li Jiu didn’t know, and in fact, he didn’t really understand the concept of a “birthday.” However, after spending enough time together, Li Jiu noticed that every year, on this day, Shi Anzhi would spend the day eating only vegetarian food.

Last year, one day in the ninth lunar month, as they were eating, the thought suddenly struck Li Jiu, and he asked Shi Anzhi why. Shi Anzhi hesitated for a moment before telling him it was “Mother’s Day.”

“We won’t have children, so… the least I can do is honor my mother.”

Li Jiu picked up a piece of bitter melon with his chopsticks and chewed thoughtfully before nodding. “Your mother must have been really special.”

Shi Anzhi smiled faintly. “Gentle and kind, beautiful, and soft-hearted.”

Li Jiu looked at him seriously. “I can tell.”

Shi Anzhi suddenly felt his face heat up and quickly shifted the topic to cover his embarrassment.

“When’s your birthday?”

Li Jiu reached for a piece of greens with his chopsticks, but paused as the question hung in the air. He thought for a moment, then shook his head.

Shi Anzhi’s gaze slowly turned to one of guilt. He had asked Li Jiu about his childhood before, but Li Jiu was unwilling to say much. He only mentioned that his parents had passed away and that all his family was gone. After all these years together, there had only been one time when Li Jiu, sick and injured, had mumbled “Mom” in a daze, but he never mentioned it again.

Li Jiu looked up and noticed the expression on Shi Anzhi’s face. He froze for a moment, then burst out laughing.

“I remembered! It’s September 22—today.”

Shi Anzhi shot him an unhappy glare.

Li Jiu winked at him. “That’s it, then. From now on, I’ll celebrate my birthday on this day.”

Shi Anzhi was still glaring at him when Li Jiu flashed a mischievous grin. “So, tonight, I’m going to ask for a birthday gift.”

This time, Shi Anzhi really blushed.

And so, for the next few days, the two of them tangled up in a long series of “birthday gifts.” Being men, they didn’t really care much about the formality. However, as the new year turned, Li Jiu had been preparing well in advance. He had acquired a large piece of land in the west district of Z City, in a prime location with the mountains behind and the sea in front, a place with great feng shui. He hired an internationally awarded Chinese designer, spending a lot of money to make it happen. He named the mansion “Xuyuan” and planned to surprise Shi Anzhi on his birthday, presenting him with a home that he had built with his own hands for them both.

During that time, Li Jiu was fully focused on the house. The furniture was in place, and over a dozen century-old phoenix trees had been successfully transplanted. He had entrusted a Hong Kong auction house to acquire a batch of antiques from the Ming and Qing dynasties, many of which had been lost during the Republic era. Among them were two vases by Shi Dabin, and Li Jiu thought Xiao Shi would appreciate these items. He planned to find time to inspect them personally and, in a few days, present them to Shi Anzhi in hopes of getting a smile from him.

Actually, Li Jiu didn’t understand much about these antiques, but there were plenty of people who did. Standing in the completely decorated flower hall of Xuyuan, with a palm-sized purple clay teapot in hand, he casually listened to the expert he had invited to report on the appraisal. The professional descriptions of shape, color, and so on went in one ear and out the other, but the delicate texture of the teapot under his fingers made him think of Shi Anzhi’s skin, causing him to smile. He thought, This thing might only be good for feeling nice in the hand, but fine, it’s worth over two million just for that.

The expert thought he had found someone who shared his appreciation and was about to continue talking at length when suddenly, hurried footsteps echoed from outside the door. A burly man crashed in, his voice rising in urgency as he called out, “Master Jiu! Something’s happened to Shi ge!”

Li Jiu’s smile instantly froze on his face. The expert standing next to him shivered, feeling an inexplicable drop in the room’s temperature. Li Jiu turned around, his tone surprisingly calm as he told the burly man to continue.

The burly man explained that Shi Anzhi had been abducted from a foreign bookstore. The two bodyguards Li Jiu had assigned to him had let their guard down due to the peaceful atmosphere of the bookstore. However, when they noticed that Shi Anzhi had been in the bookstore washroom longer than usual, they rushed in to check, only to find just one shoe left behind.

After the burly man finished speaking, Li Jiu almost instantly rattled off a series of names. He ordered the man to contact those people, spreading the word through both the underworld and the legitimate world that, no matter what, not a single hair on Shi Anzhi’s body was to be harmed.

The burly man hurriedly left, while the expert’s back was soaked in sweat, unsure of what to do next. Li Jiu, however, calmly told him to continue speaking.

The expert hesitated, about to open his mouth, when suddenly a sharp crack broke the silence of the room.

The teapot in Li Jiu’s hand had shattered into dozens of pieces.

He glanced down at the fragments in his hand and slowly said, “Please, find another one like this. I want him to see it when he comes back.”

Shi Anzhi was found twenty hours after he went missing.

He had been knocked out with ether, unaware of anything before collapsing. When he woke up, he found himself locked in an empty room. He knocked on the door for a while, but there was no response. He knew Li Jiu must be frantic by now, so he tried everything he could think of to find a way out. However, the room was completely bare, with only a small square window high up, through which a few iron bars crossed, cutting off the light. He could only judge that it was getting late from the dim light filtering through. As the room, devoid of any other light source, gradually sank into darkness, he fought to stay awake, but eventually, in his overwhelming exhaustion and thirst, he fell asleep.

When he woke up, the sky was just beginning to lighten. His body ached from sleeping on the cold, hard floor, but he had to pull himself together to escape.

Shi Anzhi spent some time studying the seemingly indestructible door lock, but eventually, his focus turned to the small, ventilated window. He tore his cotton shirt into strips to make a long rope, then unbuckled his metal belt to use as a counterweight. After tossing it up repeatedly for over a dozen tries, he finally heard a clink as it caught on one of the iron bars. He pulled on it, silently praying that his expensive shirt, worth over ten thousand, would live up to its price, then braced himself, tightening the rope and preparing to climb up by stepping on the wall.

But before he could even begin, a loud bang echoed as the iron door behind him was suddenly kicked open. He was startled and turned around, but before he could react, a coat was draped over his exposed shoulder, and a familiar scent instantly enveloped him. It was only then that a sudden rush of fear hit him, and he began to tremble. Li Jiu fiercely pulled him into his embrace, and a voice, gritted through clenched teeth, trembled as it pressed against Shi Anzhi’s ear.

“I’m here, don’t be afraid.”

Li Jiu’s revenge came swiftly. Before Huo Louhu could even react to the failure of the kidnapping, one of his favorite mistresses was shot dead in a chaotic street shooting that very afternoon. The woman had just hung up the phone with him, her sweet, flirtatious voice still lingering in his ears as she promised to make soup and asked him to come home early for dinner.

Huo Louhu snapped out of his daze and frantically ordered his men to increase security around his grandchildren. But another piece of bad news came—his youngest grandson was kidnapped from his prestigious kindergarten.

Huo Louhu was furious, but when he picked up the phone, he had to force himself to stay calm. On the other end, a child, his location unknown, giggled innocently, repeatedly calling him “Grandpa.” His hand gripping the receiver trembled, veins bulging, and his lips quivered so violently he couldn’t make a sound. After the child called out a dozen times, he finally lost control and screamed into the phone, “To hell with you, you motherfucker! What the hell do you want??!!”

The other side didn’t respond, simply hanging up the phone.

The next day, Huo Louhu received a strand of a child’s fine hair. He clenched the delicate silk pouch in his hand, and the bright red that leaked through his fingers seemed almost like coagulated blood.

In the end, he gave up entirely.

Shi Anzhi moved into the new house, but the unease never left him. He hadn’t suffered during the kidnapping, but Li Jiu’s state deeply worried him. What should have been a happy moment, settling into a new home, felt all wrong. He tried to stay upbeat, to act happy, but Li Jiu never let him out of his sight. The constant attention, the unspoken tension, made everything feel off. Something was terribly wrong.

That night, after the family banquet for his birthday had ended and the close brothers who had risked their lives for Li Jiu had all left, Shi Anzhi pulled Li Jiu straight to the bedroom.

On the massive and exquisitely crafted hardwood canopy bed, Shi Anzhi pushed Li Jiu down and without a word, stripped him of every piece of clothing.

Fully dressed, Shi Anzhi straddled Li Jiu’s lower abdomen. Grasping Li Jiu’s hand firmly, he pressed it against his chest and called his name softly yet clearly.

“Xiao Jiu.”

Li Jiu’s gaze slowly moved from his hand to meet Shi Anzhi’s eyes.

Shi Anzhi’s eyes held a quiet depth, like a still pond. The surface was calm, but within lay a whole world of warmth and stability.

He said, “I’ll never leave. I’ll always stay by your side.”

Li Jiu’s fingertips gradually turned pale, and his breathing, once steady, became ragged.

Shi Anzhi called his name again, his voice gentle and low. “Xiao Jiu… please… please want me like this. Just like this.”

It turns out that no matter how expensive the clothes are, they can’t withstand the force of a human’s strength.

Shi Anzhi eventually collapsed on Li Jiu’s chest, trembling from a mix of sweetness and pain. Torn fabric clung loosely to his body, exposing fair skin beneath. Li Jiu pulled him close, melding their bodies together. After the first release, he quickly came back for a second round. Shi Anzhi bit into his shoulder, sobbing as he begged for mercy. “Slow down,” he pleaded. Li Jiu had gone so deep that it felt as if his insides were being torn apart. The mattress beneath them was soaked through.

Li Jiu wrapped an arm around his spine, every muscle taut with strength. He left a trail of red marks on Shi Anzhi’s neck with his teeth, his breath heavy and rough. With a hint of nasal tone, he said, “There will never be a next time.”

Shi Anzhi nodded desperately, stretching out his arms to hold him tightly. In that moment of ultimate closeness, he clung to his Xiao Jiu with all his strength.

Li Jiu didn’t always stay at Xuyuan. He owned several apartments in the city and would crash at any of them when busy. Of course, he never stayed alone. Over time, these once empty homes became filled with different people, some women, each with their own charm, and men, all refined and gentle.

Rumors spread that he sought people who looked like someone he had liked years ago. And indeed, the person who had once been at the center of a kidnapping storm was now approaching middle age. No matter how delicate or alluring they had been in their youth, time had long since faded their freshness.

Of course, none of these roadside gossipers’ words ever reached Xuyuan.

Shi Anzhi’s father had once specialized in history and philosophy. While Xiao Shi hadn’t inherited his father’s academic talents, he was working hard to get closer. Over the years, while Li Jiu had been navigating the filthiest corners of the world, Shi Anzhi had been trying to translate the most profound and enduring wisdom into Chinese, or refine the vast richness of Chinese into French.

He would recite poetry and dreams of distant lands to Li Jiu, only for Li Jiu to focus entirely on playing with a stray lock of hair stubbornly sticking out from the side of his head. When Shi Anzhi got annoyed, Li Jiu would flash him a roguish grin, seal his lips with a kiss, and leave him breathless and weak in his arms.

The scoundrel would say, “What do I care about stars or roses? As long as you’re happy, I’ll make sure the whole world is happy too.”

Shi Anzhi, fuming with anger, kicked him out of the study. Master Jiu left with a sly grin, but as soon as he stepped out, his face turned cold. The sudden shift in his attitude sent a wave of tension through the entire household. The servants, nervous and on edge, watched cautiously as their master got into his car and drove off.

Feeling quite pleased with his prank, Li Jiu headed to an underworld gathering at a private dining club. The meeting was lively, with food, drinks, and negotiations flowing seamlessly, leaving everyone satisfied. After the meal, a lineup of beautiful and enticing figures was presented as dessert, and the host offered Li Jiu the first pick.

With a slight buzz from the alcohol, Li Jiu lazily lifted a finger, initially pointing at a short-haired, wide-eyed girl with an innocent charm. However, a long-haired woman had been staring at him ever since she entered.

It wasn’t unusual for hostesses to throw flirtatious glances, but something about her gaze caught his attention.

Li Jiu ended up taking her to his car. As the vehicle began moving, fatigue washed over him. Stretching out comfortably, he asked casually, “What’s your name?”

“My name is Mei Xiaoran,” the woman replied.