Chapter 7

Ji Heyi opened the door to his house with Chi Yan’s fingerprint, carried him into the bedroom, and saw that the bedroom was as empty as new, without even a bed or quilt. So, he turned on the air conditioner and set a temperature suitable for sleep.

As he was leaving, a person in his sleep unconsciously grabbed the corner of his clothes. But a sleeping person wouldn’t have much strength in their hands. Ji Heyi didn’t need to pull back, and when he left the bedside, the hand hanging on the corner of his clothes naturally fell off.

Passing by the living room, he unexpectedly saw a familiar golden plush toy on the sofa.

It was custom-made to resemble Mao Mao, the golden retriever from the Ji residence, preserving its appearance from ten years ago when it was still a puppy. Ji Heyi had always kept it in his car.

Perhaps it was because of the few times Chi Yan had come to the Ji residence with Chi Cong, his habit of teasing cats and dogs had left a deep childhood shadow on Mao Mao. So even when it grew up, the gentle golden retriever always ignored him. Chi Yan couldn’t pet the real thing, so he often bullied this toy when he had nothing to do.

Originally, it would have been fine if Chi Cong had taken it away, but it ended up with Chi Yan. Ji Heyi was afraid that the toy’s fur would be ruined within a week, so after looking at its soft fur for a while, he decided to pick it up and take it away.

When he drove away, he glanced at the time, it was three o’clock in the morning.

He rubbed his temples and sighed silently, “A friend’s younger brother.”

Just as the breakup of an office romance often comes with awkwardness at work, in a marriage between families with long-standing relationships, the entanglement between the two large families is deeper than the relationship between the couple. When two people with overlapping social relationships break up, there are always extra concerns about maintaining planned distance and contact.

He thinks that his next romance will certainly take this as a warning.

So, when Ms. He suddenly sent him information about a suitable woman one morning after making coffee, Ji Heyi’s first thought was not a question, but “Ah, a name I haven’t seen in the social circle.”

Ms. He didn’t say much, only mentioning: “She’s two grades younger than you, an alumna of Fuzhong. I quite like her personality.”

Ji Heyi took a closer look at her rare tactful words. If it weren’t for that awkward dinner, the content she sent might have been “It’s arranged, at XX restaurant at XX time, meet for a bit.”

Since the end of that meal with Chi Cong, Ms. He has probed a few times every now and then. After having a calculated understanding of Ji Heyi’s situation, she further sent information about a blind date.

Ji Heyi is not averse to blind dates, which are often only popular among the older generation. After thinking about it, he feels that he doesn’t seem to have a reason to refuse right now.

After agreeing, he didn’t forget to give Ms. He a heads-up: “Take it easy, Ms. He, it’s best not to have too high expectations for the outcome.” Since it’s a blind date, he has to be honest with the other party about having had a male lover in the past. Most women probably can’t accept a blind date with such an unusual romantic history.

Ms. He directly called: “I’d be grateful if you’re willing to go.” Her voice was unusually warm.

After a moment of silence, she said: “There’s one more thing.”

Ji Heyi heard the sound of a chair being dragged on her end of the line, she might have left the office and gone out to the corridor: “This weekend, the elders of the Chi family are coming back. Your father had previously arranged a meal with them. When the time comes, you need to find a suitable reason for this meal.”

Ji Heyi put down the pen he was signing with: “My father… when did this happen?”

Ms. He coughed: “It was before that meal with Chi Cong.”

Before Ji Heyi could say anything, she took the initiative to raise her voice: “Isn’t it because you first said you wanted to bring someone home, and spoke so ambiguously that you can’t blame people for misunderstanding! Regardless of whether we get married or not, once it’s settled, both families have to meet. How long do I have to wait for you to speak up?” She snorted, “Chi Cong was misunderstood, but don’t think I don’t know what you’ve been hiding these two years. I’m not so old and dim-sighted that I would misunderstand all your intentions. Even without Chi Cong, there are others. I won’t hold these two years against you, nor will I probe into that person of yours. Now that you’ve settled down, get back on track for me.”

Ji Heyi was silent for a while, then pushed his chair away and walked to the window. The series of content on the phone made him frown, but Ms. He needed to be agreed with: “Alright, starting with cooperating on the blind date.” He then spoke more gently, “But about the elders of the Chi family—that’s been over a month now. Even if you guys made a decision without me, you should have told me earlier.”

“Did you want me to tell you so you could have a few more drinks at my expense? The day Chi Cong left, the laughter in your eyes upstairs was all malicious!”

Ji Heyi was silent for three seconds in the face of this baseless accusation, then admitted: “My mistake.” He then indicated that he would handle the upcoming meal, “I’ll ask Chi Cong first, he hasn’t mentioned this to me.”

He didn’t contact Chi Cong by phone, but met him directly the next day.

The art film that Chi Cong had been working on for five years finally passed the major hurdle of approval. They said that as long as they scheduled more screenings for him, but since Ji Heyi had agreed, he went ahead and did everything else that could be done. The film went smoothly and arrived at the premiere earlier than expected.

After arriving at the venue, Ji Heyi didn’t join the hustle and bustle of the press conference at the front desk, but sat in the VIP room for an hour, waiting for the noise outside the door to subside.

Seeing Chi Cong push the door and come in, he looked him up and down, and pushed a glass of champagne towards him: “Back in business after a month, the spirit of Film Emperor Chi is not bad.”

Having poured his heart and soul into a film that had finally come to fruition after many hardships, Chi Cong also felt that this was the best day he had had in a long time: “I haven’t seen the complete film yet, I don’t know how it turned out.” He looked at his watch, “Now it feels like I’m about to give birth after carrying a baby for five years, damn, I’m so nervous.”

Ji Heyi chuckled: “Hold on, take a deep breath.” After all, he had read the script before and was familiar enough to remember a few lines. He had some confidence in this film, “The foundation of the script is there, it can’t be too bad.”

“Hard to say, five years of review, after all those cuts, who knows what it has been turned into in the end.” He said, pouring a glass of champagne, looking at his watch again, and leading him out, “There’s half an hour left, let’s go sit in the front row and wait for the screening.”

Because it was a small crew that was unknown five years ago, the premiere was not grand, and there were no tickets sold to the public. Apart from the crew members, there were only media sponsors and investors from various parties.

Ji Heyi didn’t expect to see Chi Yan here.

He hadn’t originally paid attention to the people around him, but the gaze he felt as soon as he opened the door was hard to ignore.

Not far away, Chi Yan was casual, scanning the long table in the gallery like browsing his own wine cabinet, picking up a glass of red wine and raising it to them.

Ji Heyi looked at Chi Cong, who withdrew his gaze from his brother and looked back: “I had my assistant send him a ticket.”

Thinking of Chi Cong’s angry shout on the phone the day before yesterday, Ji Heyi didn’t know what they had been arguing about. But he had spent a lot of time during his junior and senior high school years listening to the chaotic daily life of the Chi family’s disrespectful brothers, and had self-taught a skill “to see the progress of their quarrels from how many times Chi Cong dropped his books today”. Now seeing Chi Cong’s expression, he laughed and said: “So you’ve made up?”

“Him coming to see my movie counts as making up!? Wow, he’s really something.” Chi Cong rolled his eyes, “Ignore him, let’s go.”

Chi Cong turned his head and walked away, following the seating arrangement, but he frowned for a while with his arms crossed: “Didn’t you see his face just now?” He clicked his tongue, “He’s making trouble out of nothing, soaking in alcohol, making both of us, who were genuinely dumped, seem heartless. When my parents arrive home and see him like this, the chicken leg that should have been comforted by me might fall into his bowl again, and they might even ask me if I’m abusing him.”

Ji Heyi didn’t pay attention to Chi Yan’s face, but just laughed at Chi Cong’s behavior of always being at a disadvantage as the eldest son. Hearing Chi Cong mention his parents, he intended to ask a question that Ms. He had mentioned, but saw that the venue was gradually filling up with people, and the media’s cameras were sweeping towards Chi Cong’s position.

He patted his shoulder: “I’ll sit back, and come find you after it’s over.”

There were only a few people in the back rows.

It was only when Ji Heyi felt that substantial gaze again that he realized that Chi Yan was just three seats away in the same row.

His gaze fell on him.

The person who seemed to be falling asleep and was staring at him in a daze regained his senses, his gaze wandered elsewhere for a moment, but then immediately turned back: “What, can’t even look?” He rested his head on the back of the chair, yawned, and stared at him without avoiding, “Relax—it’s in public, I don’t have the conditions to sexually harass you again.”

Ji Heyi withdrew his gaze and ignored him. Just with those two eyes, he already felt that he was being sexually harassed.