[Ding dong]
[Protagonist Gong Qin Chuan’s affection +10, current affection: 60]
???
Gong Ze sat in the back seat of a black sedan, resting with his eyes closed. He opened them in surprise upon hearing the system notification.
So you can just sit in the car and affection falls from the sky?
[How strange, why did Protagonist Gong Qin Chuan’s affection suddenly increase?] The system, Ni Hao Da, fluttered over on its wings. [You haven’t even seen him recently, Great One.]
Gong Ze’s eyes flickered. “I wonder why,” he said, his long, narrow eyes narrowing teasingly. “I don’t know either.”
System: (｀′)
That expression of yours is totally lying to the system!
The car stopped in front of the Sang family home. “Mr. Gong, mind your step,” the driver said attentively as he opened the car door.
“Mm.” After a long day at the company, Gong Ze got out of the car unhurriedly and walked toward the house. As if sensing something, he paused and looked up.
Inside a lit window on the fifth floor, someone turned around in a panic and hurried away, sharply pulling the curtains shut.
[It’s Sang You.]
System Ni Hao Da flew over triumphantly, chittering in Gong Ze’s ear.
[It’s been days now — he’s been secretly watching you!]
Hearing this, Gong Ze’s lips curled slightly into a pleased smile. He withdrew his gaze and continued walking inside, pretending not to know.
A month had passed. During that month, not only had Gong Ze brought the Sang family’s pharmaceutical company to heel and tamed the group of old foxes on the board of directors, but he had also hired a professional search-and-rescue team to look for the “missing” Mr. and Mrs. Sang.
[Great One, didn’t the two of them get —] The system’s chicken wing made a slicing motion across its throat. [Why are we still looking for them?]
Those two cannon fodder had already been fed to the fish. And what kind of killer hires detectives to investigate themselves?
The system didn’t understand.
“You don’t need to understand.” Its dangerous yet charming villainous host patted its smooth little head affectionately, his voice incredibly gentle. “Be good. Go buy yourself some sunflower seeds.”
[…Oh.]
The system scratched its head. It had been completely confused, but the moment it heard there were sunflower seeds, it happily started grinning goofily again.
Gong Ze’s gaze toward it grew even more affectionate.
…
After that, Gong Ze left the contract with the search-and-rescue team in a drawer of the Sang family study, paying it no further attention, as if he didn’t really care.
A week later, just after the system had forgotten all about it, a sudden [Ding——] rang out.
[Congratulations, Host. Sang You’s affection +20. Current affection: -70. Forgiveness Value: +10. Current Forgiveness Value: 10]
System: !!
Wha— What went up??
Forgiveness Value!!
The system’s eyes went wide in disbelief at how suddenly the good news had come.
[Great One!!] It flew straight to Gong Ze, who hadn’t even looked up from processing documents, and howled excitedly. [Great One, stop writing! Sang You’s affection and Forgiveness Value both went up! Did you see it? They went up, they went up! Boo-hoo, they went up!]
The system, which had thought this mission was definitely doomed to fail, burst into loud sobs.
But after celebrating, the system couldn’t figure out why Sang You’s Forgiveness Value and affection had increased at all.
[You’re at the company right now, Great One, and Sang You is at the Sang house. You didn’t even see each other. This affection came out of nowhere…]
Lately, Gong Ze hadn’t even tried to get close to or butter up Sang You. He woke up earlier than the roosters and went to bed later than the dogs.
All his focus was on the Sang family company. When he returned to the Sang house, he crashed immediately, not even asking about Sang You — as if he’d completely forgotten the young man even existed.
The last time the auntie tried to curry favor with Gong Ze during breakfast, she’d tactlessly brought up whether he wanted to invite the young master Sang You to eat with him.
Gong Ze had replied coldly: “You think he can stomach eating with me? Afraid he’d rather drown me in his tears.”
His icy, harsh tone had scared the auntie into never bringing it up again.
In the following days, Gong Ze continued working from dawn to dusk at the company, coming home without a single word to Sang You, going straight to his own room to sleep — as if the affection increase two days earlier had all been a dream.
The system, which had reignited its fighting spirit and excitement, was doused with a bucket of ice water. The tiny flame of its hope sputtered out completely. Day after day, it could only sigh over the Forgiveness Value of ten that hadn’t budged since.
Until one day, when Gong Ze came home, an auntie — her eyes darting away and her speech hesitant — told him that Sang You was sick again.
“Then treat him.”
The cold, expressionless man showed no emotion.
The auntie shut her mouth and didn’t dare say more, only feeling sympathy for young master Sang in her heart. Later, after dinner ended, she couldn’t help but hide in a corner with the other aunties to slack off and gossip.
“I think now that Mr. and Mrs. Sang have disappeared, the young master Sang’s status has become worthless.”
“You have no idea. Ever since Mr. Gong took charge, he’s gotten colder and colder toward the young master. It’s been nearly a month, right? He doesn’t even ask about him. Last time I mentioned the young master, the expression on Mr. Gong’s face was so cold — tsk tsk.”
“Maybe Mr. Gong doesn’t even like the young master. Sure, the young master is good-looking, but he’s still a man. How could he compare to a woman? And on top of that, he’s always sickly.”
“Exactly…”
When it was time to clock out, the two cleaning aunties left with sighs.
In an unnoticed corridor corner, the young man in white pajamas tightened his grip on the water glass in his hand.
Late that night.
Even the night-owl servants in the Sang residence had fallen asleep.
But the lock on the young man’s door clicked open in the dead silence.
With the faint sound of the door pushing open, someone walked in.
He tiptoed lightly to the young man’s bedside, like a black shadow. He lowered his head and quietly gazed at Sang You, who was nestled in the blankets like a beautiful gem resting on velvet.
After a moment of silence, a sigh echoed through the dark room.
The moonlight was cool as water.
But the visitor sat on the edge of the bed by the moonlight, hesitantly reaching a hand toward the sleeping young master. He stopped midair, and only after a long while did he gently, barely, brush that flushed, feverish face.
“Why are you sick again…”
A hoarse murmur, helpless and resigned.
Patiently, he pinched away the strands of hair sticking to the young man’s forehead from sweat.
With practiced ease, he felt the boy’s palm, then his neck.
Rustling sounds followed. The man stood up and, taking advantage of the quiet night, changed the fever patch for the sick young master, wiped away the sweat on his neck and forehead. Noticing the empty water glass on the boy’s nightstand, he left to refill it before returning.
After finishing all this, he sat back down on the edge of the bed, staring blankly at the boy sleeping peacefully.
The room fell silent again.
No one knew how long passed.
Then he said, “…You said you can’t sleep with me watching.”
Now that I’m not here, have you been resting a little better?
His hoarse voice paused for a few seconds, as if afraid that the fingers roughened from manual labor in his younger, more awkward years might be too coarse. His dry, warm hand, using only the back of it, slowly rubbed against the boy’s soft, flushed cheek.
“I know you’re afraid of me.”
But I could never learn to make the kind of expression that would please you like he does.
“…Actually, I know very well that your heart was never with me…”
Even though I’ve surpassed him, even though I’m your fiancé — the man who makes you shy and fills you with joy is not me.
“Sang You… why does it have to be him…”
Why couldn’t it be me?
The shadow in the dark grew lost and self-mocking.
“You’re such a fool.”
Do you know that your Brother Qin has actually been back from abroad for a while? That he simply doesn’t want to come rescue you?
Do you know he has countless lovers outside?
Do you know that beneath his gentle, approachable facade lies something selfish and sordid?
But as he spoke these hateful, jealous words, his voice trailed off into something low and hoarse.
“I’m a fool too…”
You are, after all, the son of my enemy.
And you don’t love me at all.
“How did I ever come to like you…”
The darkness was the perfect cover.
The man’s sinister, obsessive mask fell away. Dejectedly, carefully, he curled his larger frame forward, closed his eyes, and rested his head softly against the young man’s chest.
Like a stray animal outside, stubbornly talking to a doll that would never respond.
Having lost his parents and his noble status as young master, all that remained of Sang You was his overly stubborn pride.
The man, raised in a cutthroat orphanage, took a deep breath, suppressing the turmoil churning in his heart and the redness in his eyes.
“Sang You, I would rather have you hate me for a lifetime than watch you be happy with him!”
He gritted out fiercely, his Adam’s apple bobbing continuously to hold back the sob and bitterness rising in his throat.
He panted heavily for a long time before finally calming down.
Rustling sounds followed. The person leaning against the boy straightened up. This time, he changed the topic.
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