Professional Lover
Professional Lover chapter 8

Yan Chen would never lower his head.

In their arguments, it was always An Yi who softened and apologized.

“…I did have a bad attitude just now. Please don’t take it to heart,” An Yi reached out and hooked one of Yan Chen’s fingers, his tone returning to its previous softness.

“I’ll keep my distance from him, but I also hope you won’t make things difficult for Lin Yuming. He’s a good doctor, and I don’t want to affect Xiao Ya’s treatment.”

Seeing Yan Chen’s expression darken further, An Yi quickly added, “Most importantly, it’s about Xiao Ya’s illness. He’s really responsible, and I don’t want to interfere with her treatment.”

Yan Chen grunted noncommittally.

An Yi moved his fingers a few times, coaxing him, “It’s been a while since we last met. I don’t want to upset you. Can we not talk about others?”

Finally, Yan Chen’s expression softened. He sat down at the edge of the bed, and An Yi immediately moved closer to help dry his hair.

The pressure of his fingers was just right, and Yan Chen felt relieved. But he still felt the need to issue a verbal warning, “If I find out you’re chatting with him in private again, he won’t be the only one in trouble.”

An Yi’s eyes dimmed, and he softly murmured, “Mm.”

But Yan Chen felt it wasn’t enough. He had to leave many conspicuous marks on An Yi’s chest and collarbone to be satisfied.

An Yi found it amusing. Yan Chen’s behavior was no different from a dog marking its territory by urinating.

He was just a piece of Yan Chen’s territory. Yan Chen would occasionally come to inspect it, not allowing others to occupy it, but he wouldn’t linger for long because of it.

“No laughing allowed.”

Yan Chen sternly covered An Yi’s mouth, and An Yi hooked his neck, fully responding to the kiss.

In the gap between kisses, Yan Chen, with unstable breath, said, “Accompany me to the exhibition tomorrow.”

He pinched An Yi’s cheeks, not giving him a chance to refuse.

“Cancel everything else and focus on me.”

The next morning, An Yi had to find a colleague to swap shifts early, and also coordinate with the students he had appointments with, so busy that he barely ate breakfast.

Yan Chen, on the side, leisurely sipped his milk, teasing, “So busy. If someone didn’t know, they’d think you were doing multimillion-dollar business every second.”

An Yi, fearing his anger, quickly finished sending messages and put away his phone.

The exhibition Yan Chen wanted to take him to was at the Xiachuan Art Museum, with two exhibition halls, one for jewelry and the other for porcelain.

That day was the offline preview before the auction, for collectors to examine and exchange views on the exhibits, choose the ones they liked, and then schedule the auction after the preview.

Yan Chen hugged An Yi and went to the porcelain hall first.

The display cabinets showcased various antique treasures, with a wide range of categories, from large fish tanks to small teapots, all kinds of items were displayed, dazzlingly.

An Yi couldn’t help but widen his eyes.

“Can you tell the age of these items? Pick the oldest one, and I’ll give it to my old man.” Yan Chen’s father liked to tinker with these antiques. There was even a house in their home specifically for him to collect these treasures he had collected from all over the place.

An Yi shook his head nervously. “I don’t understand these things.”

“Tsk,” Yan Chen hugged him and walked in, “Just take a look around and help me pick one.”

An Yi’s grandfather had some achievements in pottery. An Yi had been influenced by his grandfather since childhood and knew a little about antiques, but this was the first time he had seen so many antique porcelain pieces offline, so he didn’t dare to speak casually.

He couldn’t determine the specific age of the items.

However, after walking around the exhibition hall, he could tell that most of the items here were modern porcelain, with the oldest dating back to the Ming and Qing dynasties.

An Yi picked a famille rose beast ear vase, carefully examining the foot and glaze. “This one doesn’t have a maker’s mark, but it should be from the late Qing dynasty. I can’t pinpoint the exact year, but it’s considered a fine specimen with no major flaws.”

Yan Chen nodded towards Jiang Hai behind him, “That one.”

Jiang Hai noted down the number and made a mark in the auction catalog. An Yi then turned to him and said, “The price should be between 30,000 to 50,000. Anything higher would be a loss.”

Jiang Hai paused for a moment, then looked at Yan Chen.

An Yi saw Yan Chen smiling and realized that his reminder was unnecessary.

The bidding deposit for this auction was 300,000 yuan. How could Yan Chen care whether a piece of porcelain cost him 30,000 or 50,000? Yan Chen’s wallet was not something he needed to worry about.

An Yi felt embarrassed for a moment, stopped talking, and silently looked at the exhibits.

When they reached a nondescript corner, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

It was a famille rose hexagonal hat stand with a crescent-shaped chip at the mouth. An Yi looked at the maker’s mark, and the four characters “Feibai Zhenpin” (Feibai Fine Art) caught his eye, and his eyes reddened instantly.

—This was a work from his grandfather’s early years.

The hat stand was originally a pair, but An Yi accidentally broke one of them. Although the other one had an intact body, there was still a small chip at the mouth of the cylinder. Later, this hat stand had been placed on the top shelf of the cabinet at home for many years.

During every festival reunion and family dinner, his grandfather would always take it out, reminisce about how mischievous An Yi was when he was a child, and his parents would join in with laughter and talk about it for a long time.

It seemed like this topic would never get old.

Until something happened at home, and his mother had to sell everything she could, including this hat stand.

He never expected to see it again here after so many years.

In an instant, countless memories flooded his mind.

Back then, his family was still intact, everyone was healthy and safe, and he was happy and carefree every day. The biggest worry was probably having to argue with his mother about not wanting to go to extracurricular classes.

But now, he only had An Ya left as a family member.

Times had changed.

“There’s nothing good over here. I’ll take you to visit the antique porcelain auction another day.” Yan Chen grew tired of browsing and pulled An Yi to the nearby jewelry hall.

Compared to the simple and elegant porcelain, he was obviously more interested in jewelry.

But An Yi’s interest was not high. Since seeing that hat stand, he had been absent-minded all the time, which led to Yan Chen pinching his cheeks before he sluggishly lifted his head.

“What’s wrong?”

“Do you like this?” Yan Chen looked at the display in front of him.

On it was a necklace with stars set with diamonds, with a blue diamond as the main stone in the middle. Although it was not large in carat weight, it excelled in clarity, color, and cut, low-key yet high-quality.

However, the style was a bit too feminine for a man and didn’t quite match his aesthetics.

Yan Chen had Jiang Hai jot down the catalog number, then reached out to pinch An Yi’s neck, “Measure your neck size later, and we’ll have them modify the style.”

“Ah?” An Yi quickly shook his head, “No, no, this is too valuable.”

“It’s not even two carats. Just keep it if it’s given to you.”

Yan Chen didn’t want to waste words with him. After finishing the exhibition and having lunch, he took An Yi back to his Lan Shan villa, then headed back to the company for a meeting, planning to continue their private time together in the evening.

For several days in a row, An Yi couldn’t persuade Yan Chen to let him go back to his apartment. Unable to take on any part-time jobs, besides going to work, he spent all his remaining time with Yan Chen, the sweetness of it feeling somewhat unreal. He even feared he might become too engrossed in it.

On a weekend evening a week later, Jiang Hai brought a sturdy box, saying it contained items from the auction.

“The necklace has been handed over to the designer for modification, which will take some time,” Jiang Hai said. “I instructed them to do it as soon as possible.”

“Okay, put the things down, and you can leave work.”

Yan Chen, dressed in loose and comfortable home clothes, sat on the first-floor sofa flipping through project proposals without even looking up, waving his hand to gesture An Yi to open the box.

An Yi fetched an art knife and carefully opened the box, expecting to find the beast ear vase he had chosen for Yan Chen. However, upon opening the foam, what caught his eye was his grandfather’s landscape hexagonal hat.

Surprised, he looked at Yan Chen.

Yan Chen calmly said, “Since you’ve been staring at it for so long, I’m giving it to you.”

“Thank you!” An Yi tightly held the hat in his hands, looking at it with choked emotion.

Yan Chen’s gaze shifted from the project proposal to An Yi’s face, slightly furrowing his brows. “Why are you crying?”

An Yi shook his head. “I’m not.”

He carefully put the hat away and hugged Yan Chen tightly, burying his face in his neck, solemnly thanking him again.

Yan Chen felt the person in his arms trembling and couldn’t help but frown, gently patting An Yi’s back.

An Yi then held him even tighter.

The feeling of regaining something lost was not something An Yi expected Yan Chen to fully understand, but Yan Chen’s attentive capture of his subtle feelings at the exhibition was a great comfort to him.

The villa’s heating was on full blast, and the two of them, wearing only thin clothes, embraced each other. Their warm body temperatures quickly stirred up primitive desires within them.

Yan Chen pushed the project proposal aside, pinched An Yi’s waist, lifted him onto his lap, lifted his lower hem, and plunged in, kissing and caressing his chest.

An Yi, stroking Yan Chen’s back of his head through the thin fabric, struggled to endure the sensation, rolling his throat up and down helplessly. Just as the atmosphere was heating up, the phone suddenly rang.

The caller ID showed “Blood Center,” catching An Yi’s scattered gaze.

Ignoring Yan Chen’s dissatisfaction, An Yi struggled to answer the call.

“It’s Lin Yuming. Why couldn’t I reach you on your phone?”

An Yi covered the receiver, thinking of going upstairs to talk, but Yan Chen held onto his waist and wouldn’t let go, even taking the phone and directly turning on the speaker.

A pair of dark, interested eyes stared at him.

An Yi cleared his throat and hastily asked Lin Yuming, “Why are you calling so late? Is there something wrong with Xiao Ya?”

“Seeing that you haven’t shown up all week, is something wrong?” Lin Yuming paused, his tone becoming more subtle. “Or was my message too sudden that day?”

An Yi subconsciously looked at Yan Chen.

Yan Chen suddenly reached out and covered his lips, then, in a provocative smile, moved closer to the phone, asking with a hint of teasing, “Which message are you referring to? “Wanted to see you’ or ‘Goodnight’?”

There was silence on the other end of the phone.

An Yi hurriedly struggled free from Yan Chen’s grasp, took the phone, and apologized, “I’m sorry, I have something to deal with now. I’ll call you back later…”

“Come to the hospital tomorrow morning. There’s something I need to talk to you about in person,” Lin Yuming said quickly before hanging up the phone.

Yan Chen leaned back against the sofa, laughing both handsome and roguish. “If Lin called ten minutes later, I think he would have been so angry he’d spit blood.”

An Yi was a bit speechless and a bit worried.

He wanted to call An Ya, but he was afraid of disturbing her rest.

“Just now, that surnamed Lin just wanted to chat with you privately for personal reasons. Why are you worried?” Yan Chen tossed the phone aside, hugged An Yi, and resumed what they were doing earlier.

Because An Yi murmured something about not blocking Lin Yuming, Yan Chen sternly reprimanded him and had to reluctantly say a lot of shameful and blush-inducing nonsense before he showed some mercy and didn’t push him to the point of trembling legs.

The next day, An Yi forced himself to get up early and quietly went to the adjacent room to freshen up.

He should be able to make it out now and arrive at the hospital before eight o’clock.

Little did he know, after he finished packing and went downstairs, he saw Yan Chen waiting for him at the gate, already in the car.

Sunglasses, leather jacket, platinum earrings, he looked like he was going to a fashion show.

“What are you standing there for?” Yan Chen revved the engine impatiently, the engine buzzing, “Get in the car.”

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