On New Year’s Eve in North City, office workers and tourists had all returned home, leaving the city unusually deserted. The deep blue convertible sped through the winter night of North City, the sound of the wind mixing with the roar of the engine, creating a reverberating echo.

“Feel the wind at 100 kilometers per hour,” Yu Zi shouted from the passenger seat.

Xie Dongcheng stepped on the accelerator deeply, and the needle on the dashboard swung to the right, quickly accelerating from 80 to 100 kilometers per hour.

“120 kilometers per hour!” Yu Zi continued to shout with laughter.

Xie Dongcheng kept pressing on the accelerator, and on the empty suburban expressway, the car seemed to fly towards the full moon in the distance.

“Hahaha—” Yu Zi laughed until he couldn’t see.

It had been a long time since he had experienced this feeling. The brisk yet liberating wind blowing on him made him feel exhilarated.

They circled the ring road on the expressway again and again until they returned to Fangjiayuan close to midnight.

The deep blue Bentley parked in the old parking garage looked out of place. Xie Dongcheng shook the car keys, looked at Yu Zi in the passenger seat, and finally asked the question for the first time: “Why did you suddenly buy such an expensive car?”

Yu Zi had been frugal with money over the years and had long lost his extravagant habits. Even though they were much wealthier now, Yu Zi hadn’t moved out of Fangjiayuan. Yet now, he suddenly spent over three million to buy this car.

“I told you, it’s a gift for you,” he said, inserting his hands into his coat pockets and then turning to walk into the dimly lit corridor.

Xie Dongcheng could only look at the car keys, then at his back, and hurriedly followed.

When they reached the door of their home, Yu Zi suddenly stopped.

He looked at the screen of his phone and counted softly, “Three, two, one…”

Xie Dongcheng didn’t understand what he was doing.

Then, the next second, Yu Zi said, “Happy New Year.”

Xie Dongcheng smiled, hugged him by the neck, and replied softly, “Happy New Year.”

Early the next morning, Xie Dongcheng went to the southern suburbs to retrieve their old Toyota.

“What about this car?” Xie Dongcheng called Yu Zi, asking him to come downstairs.

Yu Zi’s eyes lit up. “Give it to Xiao Liu.”

Xie Dongcheng thought it was a good idea. Although Xiao Liu was now managing the restaurant, he was reluctant to spend money and had always commuted by bus, especially in the winter when he had to endure the wind and snow every day.

Coincidentally, just as Xie Dongcheng was about to contact Xiao Liu, he took the initiative to call Yu Zi, saying he wanted to meet him and had something important to discuss.

Yu Zi was surprised, as they hadn’t been in close contact for a long time, but he didn’t ask why and agreed directly.

They agreed to meet on the fifth day of the New Year, at the same restaurant as before. When Yu Zi pushed open the door and entered, Xiao Liu was hanging couplets in the front hall. Seeing Yu Zi come in, he hurried over to pull out a chair for him.

“Boss Yu, I missed you so much,” Xiao Liu came up to give him a hug, but Xie Dongcheng quickly pulled him away.

On the fifth day of the lunar New Year, chef Zhao and the others had not yet started work, so Xiao Liu baked some cookies himself  and brought two cups of coffee to the table.

“Alright, what’s the matter?” Yu Zi saw him like this, he should have something important to announce.

Xiao Liu finally sat down opposite him. He took out an envelope from the counter and pushed it in front of Yu Zi along the table.

Yu Zi was puzzled. “What’s this?”

Xiao Liu whispered, “There’s half a million in this card.”

“Why are you giving me so much money?!” Yu Zi pushed the card back to him along the table.

“No, boss, I might be leaving…” Xiao Liu said in a hushed tone. “This money is what I’ve saved over the past two years. I think I owe you too much, so it’s better to give the money back to you. I’ve kept some for living expenses, so you don’t need to worry.”

Yu Zi ignored what he said and directly stuffed the card back into his pocket. “You’re leaving? Where are you going?”

Xiao Liu took a deep breath and said, “To the south.”

At this point, even Xie Dongcheng began to be puzzled. “Why do you suddenly want to go to the south?”

Xiao Liu hesitated and couldn’t come up with a reason.

But Yu Zi spoke up for him, “Is it because Yang Ke is going there?”

Xiao Liu was immediately scared and lowered his head. “How did you know?”

“I guessed,” Yu Zi laughed, then asked, “Do you two have a result?”

Naturally, Xie Dongcheng didn’t know about this, and he was shocked.

“No,” Xiao Liu shook his head.

“Huh?” Now it was Yu Zi’s turn to be confused. “You haven’t talked to him about it?”

Xiao Liu continued to shake his head, “No. He doesn’t know anything. He told me last month that he’s going to a university in the south to pursue a master’s degree…”

Yu Zi couldn’t get a word out of his throat for a while. Xiao Liu was preparing to walk a tightrope for love.

The three of them fell into a brief silence. After half a minute, Yu Zi said softly, “Take the money, it’s your reward. I’ll find a way to get a new manager for the shop. You don’t have to worry.”

He paused for a few seconds halfway through, then continued, “The climate in the south is humid. If you can’t get used to it, you can come back anytime.”

Xiao Liu looked up at him, his lips opening and closing, before finally saying, “Thank you, boss. I’ll take care of myself.”

As the two of them walked out of the restaurant, Xiao Liu insisted on giving each of them a red envelope. Yu Zi repeated a thousand times that they were peers and there was no need to give red envelopes. But Xiao Liu was persistent, saying it was a rare occasion, so they should take it as a blessing.

They could only take the somewhat humorous red envelopes and get into the car.

Xie Dongcheng started the car and drove onto the main road. The weather was cold, so he closed the convertible top. Yu Zi sat in the passenger seat, silent for a while.

As they passed a red light, Xie Dongcheng hit the brakes.

“When we were kids in the welfare home, he was always the bravest,” Xie Dongcheng started, “He’s always been small in stature, but not afraid of anything. Even if he was beaten by older kids, he wasn’t afraid of pain. The next day, he would get up and fight back.”

Yu Zi knew what he wanted to say and asked after a while, “What about you?”

Xie Dongcheng smiled and glanced at Yu Zi’s eyes through the rearview mirror. “I’m timid. I need someone to protect me.”

Yu Zi chuckled at his teasing, glanced at him, and then looked out the window.

The clear winter day suddenly turned into a continuous drizzle.

Fifteen minutes later, they arrived. Xie Dongcheng got out of the car first, then opened a large black umbrella and offered his hand to Yu Zi.

On the eighth day of the lunar New Year, the company resumed work. As soon as Xie Dongcheng arrived at the company, he received a call from a rental agent. Fangjiayuan was inconvenient for transportation, and the area was too small. He had been looking for a suitable larger house before the New Year.

Xie Dongcheng’s idea was to mortgage a flat first, so that Yu Zi could live more comfortably. But Yu Zi refused, saying it would be better to wait until they had enough money to buy a detached villa in one go.

Xie Dongcheng thought what he said made sense. But the quality of life needed to be improved urgently, so he let the rental agent help find a suitable luxury apartment.

He had looked at several before, either in a bad location or not big enough. This time, however, he finally found one that was satisfactory in all aspects.

With an area of over 180 square meters, the living room had wide French windows, the master bedroom was nearly 40 square meters, with a large 2.2-meter bed. The master bedroom also had a very large ensuite bathroom, spacious and bright. Moreover, the house was only 800 meters away from the office building of the company, and there were plenty of parking spaces in the underground parking garage. Xie Dongcheng followed the agent to see it once and paid a year’s rent.

After a week, he packed up and moved in. The fish tank that used to be in the small living room was also properly placed next to the washstand in the master bedroom bathroom.

However, just a few days after moving into the new house, Xie Dongcheng’s mailbox received an invitation to a salon in Lingang. Wang Jing had brought back many clients at the beginning of the New Year, and Yu Zi had to stay in North City to sign contracts with several major clients. The timing just happened to coincide.

Xie Dongcheng needed to go on a week-long business trip alone. These occasions were quite common for him in the past two years, so he didn’t think much of it. It’s just that he and Yu Zi had never been apart for such a long time.

The day before departure, he packed his suitcase. Yu Zi leaned against the door of the cloakroom, watching him silently for a long time.

Xie Dongcheng locked the suitcase, picked it up, and turned around, only to bump into Yu Zi, startling him.

“What’s wrong?”

“Going away for a week,” Yu Zi asked unnecessarily.

“Yeah,” Xie Dongcheng nodded and then moved the suitcase to the side of the entrance.

Yu Zi held a glass of water, took several sips, and looked at his back in silence.

After a long time, he finally said, “Don’t forget your phone.”

Xie Dongcheng looked up at him and smiled, “Don’t worry, I’ll call you every day.”

“You said every day,” Yu Zi didn’t look him in the eyes again.

“Every day,” Xie Dongcheng felt that Yu Zi was becoming more clingy as he lived on, his temper hadn’t changed much, but his words and actions were becoming more immature.

This time, the industry salon not only had liquor merchants from North China participating, but also many commercial representatives from Northwest and South China. As soon as Xie Dongcheng arrived in Lingang, he was plunged into a frenzy of busyness.

Dozens of business cards could be given out every day. According to the agreement, he would call Yu Zi every day when he returned to the hotel. Most of the time, they just chatted about the people they met and what they did that day, which was unproductive conversation, but they could chat for two or three hours with the window open.

This went on until the sixth day of the salon, with only one night left before the business trip ended. The next morning, Xie Dongcheng could head back home after attending a closing ceremony.

On this evening, it was time for their usual phone call, but when Xie Dongcheng’s calling software popped up, there was a meeting invitation.

He opened it and saw that it was an online meeting initiated by a friend from the Northwest Chamber of Commerce he had met a few days ago.

They had discussed some ideas about the Bai Cheng project, and their opinions were consistent. At that time, they had agreed that if there was an opportunity, they could bring in other potential partners to discuss further. Xie Dongcheng didn’t expect the other party to be so proactive, organizing a meeting before the salon was over.

He couldn’t refuse, so he quickly joined the meeting.

Just one or two minutes after he joined the meeting, Yu Zi’s video call came in. Xie Dongcheng took a deep breath and could only answer his video call as well.

He was glad it was just a voice conference on his end. Otherwise, everyone in the meeting would see him video calling his boyfriend…

On the small computer screen, two call windows were lit up. Xie Dongcheng quickly muted the microphone to avoid audio interference between the call and the meeting.

“What are you busy with?” Yu Zi noticed his lack of focus.

Xie Dongcheng was busy typing and didn’t notice Yu Zi’s question.

Yu Zi asked again, his expression turning displeased. Xie Dongcheng finally heard the question.

“Ah, I’m in a voice meeting,” Xie Dongcheng explained.

Xie Dongcheng multitasked, listening to Yu Zi while also addressing the issues in the meeting.

However, Yu Zi’s speaking frequency decreased. When Xie Dongcheng realized, Yu Zi was already looking at the camera with a cold expression.

They stared at each other for several seconds. Yu Zi suddenly whispered, “You’re not sharing your screen, are you?”

“No,” Xie Dongcheng answered.

Then he saw the screen on the other end shake slightly as Yu Zi’s camera angle changed, now much lower.

Yu Zi’s face was no longer visible, only his legs in the frame. Yu Zi seemed to have dimmed the bedroom lights. Then, the next second, Xie Dongcheng saw something on the screen that made him gasp.

On the screen were Yu Zi’s smooth thighs, but that was all visible, nothing above.

Xie Dongcheng wore wireless earphones, initially filled with the noisy discussion of the meeting, but suddenly, he heard a rustling sound.

Then he saw Yu Zi’s hands appear on the camera. His slender fingers picked up a pink rectangular box, gently opened it, and took out a pink object.

The object flashed by, and Xie Dongcheng didn’t see what it was.

Half a minute later, a blush-inducing moan suddenly came through the earphones.

Xie Dongcheng suddenly realized what Yu Zi was doing. The shaking on the other end intensified, Yu Zi’s legs swaying lightly, disrupting Xie Dongcheng’s heartbeat over the network.

However, this video call lasted only a little over a minute before Yu Zi saw the call end. His phone screen went dark.

Yu Zi lay on the sheets, picked up his phone, and glanced at it. The screen only showed a brief white reminder: Call Ended.

He muttered, “So impatient. Boring.”

At one thirty in the morning, Yu Zi had already finished washing up and gone to bed. In his sleep, he suddenly felt the bedroom door being pushed open.

He struggled to open his eyelids and turned his head to see a figure walking towards him. The next moment, the bed sank suddenly.

Two strong arms hugged his waist tightly, followed by a hot chest pressing against his back.

Yu Zi recognized the scent and furrowed his brows, “Didn’t I tell you not to drive alone late at night?”

Xie Dongcheng’s body temperature was high, enveloping Yu Zi’s body tightly. “It’s because you called me back.”

“When did I call you back? Don’t wrong the good guy.” Yu Zi pretended not to understand.

“When did you buy that?” Xie Dongcheng asked.

“What?” Yu Zi decided to play dumb to the end.

Xie Dongcheng suddenly let go and abruptly opened the bedside drawer, pulling out the dildo. He stared into Yu Zi’s eyes, waiting for his answer.

Yu Zi chuckled under the covers, “Why are you so harsh on your helper?”

Hearing this term, Xie Dongcheng’s breath quickened. He pulled Yu Zi out from under the covers, embracing him tightly again.

“I’m back. Don’t make it work so hard in the future,” he whispered into Yu Zi’s neck.