In this small reception room, rumors about Yu Zi circulated among the crowd. People would casually glance back at him, seemingly uninterested.

Once a prominent young master from a well-known family in the city, now reduced to selling his labor for money.

No matter how you listened, it sounded like a juicy gossip story.

Yu Zi detested these scrutinizing glances. He had thought of many ways to leave in a huff, but in the end, his feet remained unmoved.

The chandelier in the reception room swayed slightly, casting warm light on the walls. Yu Zi stared at the light, somewhat self-deprecatingly thinking that he was gradually becoming the kind of person he used to despise the most.

With his back to the crowd, he picked up the sparkling wine on the table again, drank a glass, and poured himself another.

As the gathering came to an end, people gradually dispersed, and the room became emptier. Yu Zi looked up and saw Mr. Sun standing at the entrance, preparing to leave.

Yu Zi clenched his fist, took a deep breath, and stepped forward to greet him, “Mr. Sun, would you mind stepping aside for a chat?”

Xie Dongcheng followed closely behind him, silent like a wall.

Seeing him take the initiative to talk, Mr. Sun’s eyes flashed with disbelief. Then quickly, the two of them went to the courtyard outside.

Xie Dongcheng leaned against the courtyard wall and waited. He couldn’t hear what they were talking about, but Yu Zi’s expression seemed much more relaxed, and he was talking non-stop about something.

At first, Mr. Sun listened silently, then nodded a few times.

Then he saw Mr. Sun take out a hard card from his pocket, like a business card, and handed it to Yu Zi.

Yu Zi neatly put the business card into his pocket and nodded at Mr. Sun. Then he stepped aside, letting Mr. Sun leave first.

Throughout the whole process, he appeared friendly and amiable, without any grudges.

Xie Dongcheng walked to the courtyard gate, following behind Yu Zi. Until Mr. Sun’s figure disappeared at the end of the path, Yu Zi finally let out a sigh.

It was a very light sigh, but Xie Dongcheng heard it.

This was the first time Xie Dongcheng had seen Yu Zi like this. Before, he had always been sharp and alert. But now, his whole body seemed to have lost its strength, and his soul seemed to have been sucked dry by a vacuum cleaner, like an empty shell that would crumble at a touch.

Xie Dongcheng raised his hand a few times, but in the end, he gently placed it on Yu Zi’s shoulder.

Yu Zi looked up at him.

“I feel like you’re not feeling well,” he explained.

Yu Zi smiled. This person could rarely understand others’ emotions. He patted his face in the cold wind. “I’m fine.”

“What did you just talk about?” Xie Dongcheng withdrew his hand.

“I said we could offer them a discount of five points. As long as they allow us to insert our flyers in the advertising columns at the entrance.”

“Did he agree?”

“No one would actually refuse money,” Yu Zi clapped his hands as if dusting off something.

There was a delicate empty wine bottle at the gate of the courtyard, forgotten by someone.

Yu Zi bent down and picked up the bottle, holding it in his hand. Xie Dongcheng didn’t understand why he wanted to pick up that bottle.

It wasn’t until the two of them walked all the way outside the residential area that Yu Zi found a secluded corner, then suddenly smashed the bottle onto the concrete ground.

Crash!

The transparent, beautiful bottle exploded, shattering into many pieces.

Xie Dongcheng was startled by the loud crash. He was about to ask what was wrong when he saw Yu Zi lower his head again, bending down to pick up the glass fragments piece by piece and slowly throwing them into the trash can.

“Don’t pick it up,” Xie Dongcheng pulled him up, “Be careful not to cut your hand.”

Yu Zi didn’t respond, just continued picking up stubbornly like a robot.

A few seconds later, Xie Dongcheng bent down and squatted on the ground with him to pick up the glass shards.

Occasionally, passersby glanced at the two of them, but neither of them flinched.

Xie Dongcheng suddenly felt like he was back on New Year’s Eve, circling the ring road with Yu Zi.

Five minutes later, the two of them finally finished cleaning up the glass fragments.

On the way back, Xie Dongcheng rode several hundred meters ahead, but Yu Zi was somewhat silent. Usually, when they finished work, regardless of his mood, Yu Zi would calculate how much money they had earned today and exchange a few words with Xie Dongcheng.

But today, he didn’t say anything.

Xie Dongcheng tried several topics, but Yu Zi only responded with a word and didn’t continue the conversation. It wasn’t until Xie Dongcheng’s voice was drowned out by the increasingly loud wind.

Yu Zi sat in the back seat, clutching the business card in his hand. The wind made his fingers a little stiff, and finally, he took out his phone and carefully saved the string of numbers into his phone.

The wind on the road became louder and louder, and the small scooter became more and more difficult to accelerate.

The traffic light at the intersection ahead turned red, and Xie Dongcheng braked and slowed down.

Just as the scooter stopped, Yu Zi felt a drop of water fall on his face.

“It’s raining,” he said, speaking for the first time.

Raindrops pattered on the ground, at first just a few sporadic drops, but after half a minute, it began to get denser.

The green light flickered and lit up, and the scooter started again.

In the deserted streets of the late night, only the sound of rain and wind collided and echoed.

The light rain turned into a heavy downpour. They didn’t have an umbrella or raincoat. The two of them, in the scooter, drove through the pouring rain.

The wind was strong, and the rain was heavy. The small scooter seemed like a paper boat that could be overturned at any moment.

“Hold on to me, I’m going to speed,” Xie Dongcheng shouted against the wind.

Upon hearing this, Yu Zi immediately hugged Xie Dongcheng tightly around the waist, burying his face into his back.

The rain poured down from the sky, making Yu Zi’s back ache.

Xie Dongcheng’s broad back was like the only floating wood he grabbed in this torrential rain.

They sped against the wind, and finally arrived at a shelter after twenty minutes, where Xie Dongcheng drove the scooter directly under the awning.

After parking the scooter, the two of them ran quickly into the building in the rain, their pants covered in mud, soaked from head to toe.

The lights in the corridor were not yet fixed, and the small space was dark.

After running all the way, they were a bit exhausted. Yu Zi bent over, hands on knees, panting heavily. Raindrops slid off his body and fell onto the cement floor of the corridor, leaving a few dark circular water stains.

A few seconds later, he straightened up, just as Xie Dongcheng had caught his breath. They almost stood up at the same time, raising their heads to find that they were facing each other, only about twenty to thirty centimeters apart.

In less than two square meters of corridor, the sound of each other’s breath was clearly audible.

Rainwater flowed down Xie Dongcheng’s forehead, and the white band-aid was nowhere to be seen, revealing the scar that had already scabbed over.

After being drenched by the rain, Xie Dongcheng’s lips looked a bit moist, and Yu Zi stared at his lips for several seconds.

Coincidentally, Xie Dongcheng’s gaze also lingered on his lips.

Their eyes met, and no one spoke. Their breaths gradually became heavier, seemingly mixed with some emotions waiting to be vented.

In the dark night, it seemed like a resilient thread had appeared, pulling the two of them closer and closer.

Soon, there was only a distance of less than ten centimeters between them.

Yu Zi saw Xie Dongcheng’s Adam’s apple move slightly. This tiny movement was like a switch that opened a floodgate of emotions in his heart.

He felt a strong instinctive impulse deep inside him, ready to break free from its cage and be completely unleashed.

Yu Zi’s eyelashes fluttered, and he slowly closed his eyes. In the darkness, he subconsciously licked his lower lip.

The raindrops were dense, beating against the glass window on the side of the corridor. Large water droplets exploded on the windowsill, splashing into several small beads.

Through his eyelids, Yu Zi felt the approach of a dark shadow, and the warm body temperature was close at hand.

Bang!

Suddenly, a loud door closing sound came from above the corridor. Then came the footsteps and shouts of two children chasing each other.

“Don’t run!”

“I’m coming to get you!”

The lights in the corridor on the second floor were suddenly turned on, penetrating into the space of the first floor.

The space between the two of them suddenly became extremely bright.

Xie Dongcheng took a step back suddenly, his heavy breathing paused.