“Who’s that?!”

Yan Chen sensed something was off and immediately started yelling.

An Yi’s hand trembled, and without thinking too much, he hung up the video call.

Qin Muye hurriedly walked a few steps to catch up with him and handed him a pair of gloves. “I found these on the cabinet. Luckily, you hadn’t gone too far.”

The gloves were made of inferior synthetic leather and had worn thin at the palms due to long-term friction.

An Yi awkwardly put them in his coat pocket and thanked him softly.

At that moment, Yan Chen’s video call came in again. An Yi directly turned off his phone, his heart pounding fiercely.

Qin Muye withdrew his gaze without showing any signs of concern and said, “It’s late, it’s not safe for you. Let me drive you home.”

“No need, I’ll send you the sample sketches for the pieces first, and you can tell me if you have any requests or ideas anytime,” An Yi replied.

He bid farewell to Qin Muye and quickly disappeared into the thick night.

Outside, An Yi dared to turn his phone back on.

Two messages from Yan Chen popped up successively.

One was a voice message, with Yan Chen angrily growling, “How dare you hang up on my call?!”

The other was a text message, consisting of just two words: “You’re finished.”

With about a three-minute interval between the two messages, An Yi’s eyelids jumped as he read them. He spent the whole night imagining how Yan Chen would have sounded when he said those two words.

Feeling guilty and unable to drive steadily, An Yi was scolded by a drunken passenger who vomited in his car. Despite numerous apologies, he had to waive the fare to avoid receiving a negative review.

After dealing with that, An Yi lost interest in taking any more orders and headed straight home.

Throughout the night, there was no message from Yan Chen, leaving him anxious. He nervously dialed Yan Chen’s number.

This time, he wasn’t going to be “tactful.” He persistently listened to the phone ring, with each beep feeling like a hammer striking his heart.

The first call went unanswered and was automatically disconnected. An Yi continued with the second call and then the third.

Just as he was about to despair, Yan Chen’s voice suddenly came through, sounding irritated: “Are you trying to annoy me?”

An Yi froze, then heard him impatiently scold again, “Not you, why are you stopping? Keep going.”

An Yi’s heart skipped a beat. “Is there someone with you?”

Yan Chen couldn’t be bothered to respond and let out a lazy sigh.

An Yi knew all too well what that sound meant. Many nights in the past, Yan Chen would lean close to his ear and make such arousing breaths.

But he persisted and asked again, “Did you… call someone else?”

“You’re starting to meddle in my affairs?” Yan Chen pushed away the person beneath him in annoyance, coldly saying, “Get lost,” then continued his reprimands, “You dare to hang up on my call for no reason. An Yi, you’re really making progress.”

“I… my phone ran out of battery and shut down.” An Yi explained in a low voice.

Yan Chen didn’t buy it. “Do you think I’m stupid? The one calling you ‘Yi ge,’ you’d better not let me find out who that is.”

“I… I’ve been working as a designated driver recently, that was a customer.” An Yi nervously held his breath.

“You’ve only driven a few times, and now you’re doing designated driving? If you’re that short of money, why don’t you use the card I gave you?!” Yan Chen’s temper flared up as he continued to berate, “Wait until I get back to deal with you.” Then he hung up the phone.

As the screen of his phone went dark, An Yi’s eyes dimmed as well.

For the next few days, he didn’t go out to drive anymore. He spent his days accompanying An Ya at the hospital.

He carefully considered Qin Muye’s suggestion and bought a second-hand clay extruder online to place at home. If he couldn’t sleep at night, he would put on his clothes and work on pottery in his room.

Especially on the night before An Ya’s admission, An Yi couldn’t sleep at all. Even an increased dose of oxazepam couldn’t help him find rest.

He spent the entire night making samples, using up all the bags of clay he had bought. By daybreak, various unfinished clay bodies lay at his feet, mostly flawed products. Only a few sporadic pieces had been further refined to meet his expectations.

He photographed each one and sent them to Qin Muye, then showered, changed clothes, and set off to the hospital to complete the formalities.

Lin Yuming was scheduled to perform surgery early that morning. He hurriedly came to the ward, exchanged a few words with An Yi, and then left.

Alone, An Yi went up and down to handle the procedures like a wound-up machine, feeling no fatigue whatsoever.

While waiting in line to collect medicine, he lowered his head to read through the procedures and precautions on the admission notice. Suddenly, his shoulder was gently tapped twice. An Yi turned around in a daze, only to see Qin Muye.

“I thought I recognized your back from afar just now. Turns out it really was you,” Qin Muye furrowed his brows slightly. “Why so pale?”

“Your eye circles are so heavy?”

“I’m okay,” An Yi perked up and asked him, “Why are you here?”

“Oh, just dropping off a friend at work,” Qin Muye glanced at the file bag and coat in his hands, as well as the checklist he had to hand over to the pharmacy later. “You go and rest for a while nearby, I’ll help you carry these.”

An Yi quickly waved his hand. “I can manage on my own. You should go if you’re busy.”

“I’m pretty free today, but you don’t look good,” Qin Muye took the medication list from him and gently pushed An Yi out of the line. “Go sit for a while. If you faint later, the nurses will have to come and rescue you.”

Unable to refuse, An Yi reluctantly went to sit on a nearby chair and rest.

Not long after, Qin Muye returned with two large bags of medication. An Yi hurriedly got up to meet him, but Qin Muye dodged to the side, holding the items. “Let me help you. You can’t handle this much on your own.”

Feeling embarrassed to trouble him, An Yi couldn’t refuse, especially since there was a phone call to the transplant ward and he had to handle it. So, he went upstairs with Qin Muye.

Qin Muye helped transfer the medications to the nurse for registration and took care of many other procedures, which relieved An Yi of a lot of burden.

An Yi was very grateful for this.

“You don’t need to say such things. I consider you as a friend,” Qin Muye said, his eyes softening, appearing sincere. “It’s because you have talent. I’m helping you because I don’t want to see you working too hard, and I don’t want to see your talents wasted.”

An Yi saw some ambiguous feelings in his eyes, and in his mind, he couldn’t help but recall the angry face of Yan Chen. He involuntarily stepped back.

Qin Muye stopped at that, naturally shifting the topic. “You probably have a lot of financial needs right now. If your works can catch the eye of those porcelain-loving friends of mine, it should ease some of your economic pressure. So—keep it up.”

An Yi wanted to thank him again, but was stopped by Qin Muye’s gaze. After a thousand words, he finally smiled. “I’ll do my best.”

“In that case, we’re friends from now on,” Qin Muye said. “Can I ask one more question? Who’s the one who’s sick?”

“…My sister,” An Yi said softly. “She’s my only family.”

Qin Muye encouraged him, patting his shoulder. “Don’t worry, she’ll get better.”

Qin Muye suggested going to see An Ya in the ward. An Yi couldn’t find a reason to refuse, especially after he had helped him so much today. So, the two of them went to the 12th floor together.

An Ya was waiting in the ward for her final checkup before entering the transplant ward. At the door, you could hear the young girl muttering to herself nervously.

To avoid transmitting his anxiety to his sister, as soon as he entered the room, An Yi seemed to have changed completely, shaking off all his fatigue and anxiety, moving lightly, and looking calm.

Qin Muye watched his gentle and calm smile, feeling a bit itchy in his heart.

He could tell that An Yi was completely different from those glamorous but superficial entanglements around Yan Chen. He was obedient yet resilient. If he had genuine feelings, he wouldn’t easily waver.

It was precisely because of this that it was more challenging and interesting.

If he could witness An Yi’s infatuation with Yan Chen crumbling, that would be even better.

“That’s Xiao Ya, and I’ve brought a friend to see you.”

An Yi brought Qin Muye to the bedside, and An Ya’s gaze fell on the handsome man in front of her, showing a hint of subtle embarrassment and scrutiny.

An Yi whispered to her.

An Ya glanced at him and then abruptly a dangerous voice echoed in the ward: “Let me see who this friend is.”

Everyone in the ward turned their gaze to An Ya’s phone on her lap.

“Uh…” An Ya picked up the phone and slowly turned the screen towards An Yi, while the front camera also clearly captured Qin Muye’s face.

On the screen, Yan Chen’s handsome face looked terribly gloomy.

On the contrary, Qin Muye was very calm, and his expression could even be described as cheerful.

He waved at the camera and greeted, “Cousin, what a coincidence.”

An Yi was slightly stunned.

He had just found out that these two were actually cousins.

Obviously, Yan Chen didn’t consider Qin Muye as his cousin. His eyes were filled with disgust and rejection, as if he had encountered a mortal enemy.

Ignoring Qin Muye’s provocation, Yan Chen asked An Yi for an explanation.

An Yi’s heart was pounding fiercely, and he couldn’t say a word.

“Cousin, you’re busy with important matters. Since you can’t come, don’t bother asking anything,” Qin Muye said softly. “I’ll take care of Yi Ge, you don’t need to worry.”

An Yi’s face turned pale.

Yan Chen laughed angrily and said three times in a row, “Good.” He wished he could stare at An Yi through the screen and said through gritted teeth, “Yi Ge, you’re really something.”

^[1]Author’s Note:

Yan Chen is going crazy, activating 10% of his power.