Under the hazy riverside night scenery, Chu Ci took off the ring He Yuxuan had just complimented, grabbed his hand, and placed it into his palm.
“You like it, so I’ll give it to you,” the Young Master said with extreme generosity.
Perhaps no matter what type of person, giving something the other likes is humanity’s most straightforward way of expressing one’s feelings.
He Yuxuan, who had merely made a passing comment, hadn’t expected the Young Master to still remember it.
He opened his palm and only then looked at it seriously. He had just randomly mentioned it to change the subject and hadn’t actually seen it clearly. Now he could see it properly.
He Yuxuan, who could rattle off every fashion item like a catalog, recognized it at a glance. It was a Bvlgari B.ZERO1 men’s ring, black ceramic series. The rose gold and black ceramic complemented each other perfectly, the spiral element fusing Roman style together.
It was a classic design, indeed. He thought it looked quite good.
But there was no particular reason for this gift. He knew the Young Master was generous, but he couldn’t keep accepting gifts for no reason. There were plenty of things he liked—did he have to want all of them?
He Yuxuan gently shook his head. “Chu Ci, I just said it casually.” The Young Master didn’t need to be so swift in his execution. Besides, it was quite valuable.
He Yuxuan was no longer that male celebrity who didn’t know the cost of everyday living.
“You don’t consider me a friend?” Chu Ci frowned.
The refusal made his mood rather unpleasant. Chu Ci of the past could never have imagined a day would come when he’d be the one unhappy because he couldn’t give a gift away.
“Ah… no, it’s not that. You’re my first friend,” He Yuxuan had never made friends. Apart from his closest Agent and family, everyone else in the industry could only be considered acquaintances.
“Alright then.” He Yuxuan figured, if they were friends, this should be normal.
Putting himself in the other’s shoes, he wouldn’t be stingy about giving something to Chu Ci either, if he still had money. So He Yuxuan didn’t fuss about it.
He Yuxuan put the ring away. “When I get back, I’ll find a string and wear it around my neck.”
Wearing a ring on his finger would be inconvenient for playing the instrument.
“As you wish,” Chu Ci’s gaze glanced at the other’s collarbone, his tone indifferent.
Anyway, the other using his things sounded like a wonderful thing to him.
Chu Ci also disdained making friends, but now it seemed quite useful. As for his feelings towards his roommate, he couldn’t quite articulate them inwardly, so he’d just leave it be. For now, friends it was. Words like “first” sounded very nice to hear.
The two walked along the riverside for a very long time. Both were deeply content inside, and the terrible mood Chu Ci had during the day was instantly smoothed over. His sharp face seemed to soften in the evening breeze.
“Why didn’t you have friends before?” Chu Ci asked him.
He Yuxuan thought for a moment and said, “Because I wasn’t very popular in high school…” No, it was because he was too popular.
Chu Ci envisioned a scene again: a boy attending classes and leaving school all alone in a small county town. No wonder he was so amiable to everyone.
He never considered that He Yuxuan had simply, for the first time, found himself in contact with this simple campus world, able to express his feelings without being hurt. So he felt everyone was quite nice.
“It’s fine. Having just me is enough,” Chu Ci was still very confident. Making other friends wouldn’t be as useful as him.
People from merchant families inevitably viewed matters with a bit of a mercantile air. And he even darkly felt that his roommate could only have him as a friend. Having other people around wouldn’t be very pleasant.
He Yuxuan had no idea Chu Ci thought this way and was amused by the Young Master’s comfort. “Yeah.”
Life after transmigrating into the book was getting better and better. He had his first friend, someone considerably younger than him.
Once back, He Yuxuan found a red string, threaded the ring onto it, and wore it around his neck. The length sat just below his collarbone, a length that looked more proportionate on a guy.
The bright red string circling his fair neck looked striking yet proper, carrying a touch of Buddhist serenity, making the originally unadorned He Yuxuan look much more vivid.
He genuinely liked the gift from the kid Chu Ci. So, he deleted the Celine necklace he’d been eyeing from his shopping list.
If it was a gift from a friend, he had to wear it always.
And after some thought, He Yuxuan considered his blank Moments feed. He took a selfie, focusing on the ring on his neck, and posted a Moment.
Favorite gift ever! (Peace sign.jpg) + image
Anyway, he was a private citizen now. He could post whatever he wanted. Who was he afraid of?
In his past life, He Yuxuan’s main Weibo account only had official, business-related content. But he secretly opened a small account to share slices of his life.
Concerts he’d attended, tasty low-fat snacks, sleepless nights… he’d share it all on his small account. Otherwise, his urge to share had nowhere to go.
Now, he didn’t need a small account anymore.
The main purpose of this post was to express gratitude, just like any ordinary person would.
Chu Ci saw it and liked it, then saved the picture.
He felt a little jealous, but it was suppressed by his good mood. There was nothing more pleasing than the recipient genuinely loving a gift you gave.
Chu Ci was even a bit too excited to sleep. Late at night, with his lips pressed tightly together, he called his Big Sister.
“Little Ci, you’re still awake at this hour?” Chu Yan was an Associate Professor at the neighboring Hua University, still burning the midnight oil reading papers.
Aside from when she was being unserious, she was quite serious the rest of the time.
“Sis, that ring you bought me last time, where did you get it? I want to buy another one,” Chu Ci hadn’t done much research in these areas, and hadn’t felt much about it after wearing it for a while.
“Wait, I’ll send you the link,” Chu Yan knew Chu Ci probably wouldn’t know where to find it in a mall, so she looked for the shopping link.
“What’s up, Little Ci? Did you lose the ring?” But Chu Yan thought, her brother wasn’t the type who, if he lost her ring, would need to buy it back. A more likely scenario was that he’d just let it be lost.
“I gave it away. He liked it. Your taste is decent,” Chu Ci didn’t explain much, but spared a compliment for his sister.
“!! Gave it to who? Is there something going on?” Chu Yan was shocked. She took off her glasses, her eyes completely off the computer, fully focused on gossiping about her little brother.
After all, this was the first time she’d heard her brother mention another person since learning about his sexual orientation.
Before, she was utterly unconvinced that Chu Ci hadn’t had a relationship in all of high school, but she’d asked countless times with no result. This time, he brought it up on his own!
“Heh heh, nothing much,” Chu Ci was busy with his own task. After buying the same model, he also got a black cord, planning to wear it around his neck just like He Yuxuan.
Black was a foolproof color for him, and black and red matched well, in the Young Master’s aesthetic opinion.
It would look just like… friends.
Having revealed only this much information, Chu Ci hung up and went to sleep.
This already represented extreme trust in his sister. Otherwise, if he didn’t want to say something, his lips were tighter than anyone’s.
And Chu Yan guessed that the person Chu Ci was keeping in mind couldn’t be just anyone. Little Ci really had someone he fancied. She was even wondering if it was Tang Yi, the name she’d heard before.
She’d find time to visit Chu Ci’s dorm to check it out.
Chu Ci had been staying outside for several days. In fact, he’d taken about a week off from school, not attending classes, let alone returning to the dorm.
That is to say, he and his new friend hadn’t seen each other for just as many days.
It wasn’t the Young Master’s subjective wish; it was out of necessity.
Chu Ci was being dispatched to a hotel for an internship, and this would be the state for all four years of university. This was serious business, so naturally, Chu Ci’s attitude was much more earnest.
The Chenjun Hotel Group was founded single-handedly by Chu Ci’s great-grandfather, Chu Chenjun.
Chu Chenjun was an overseas Chinese. In his teens, he went to Southeast Asia, working odd jobs for others. Later, he opened a small inn in Kuala Lumpur. After that came the Chenjun Hotel Group, which, after going public and undergoing multiple acquisitions and expansions, became today’s internationally renowned luxury hotel brand.
Among them, the Chenchen Hotel in China was the brand for the Chinese region. The very first one opened in Jinghai City, and later, ones were opened in various popular cities. It was one of the high-luxury hotel brands.
The place where Chu Ci was interning now was, naturally, one of them in Jinghai City.
During the day, he was busy learning hotel management affairs. At night, he stayed right in the hotel. Lying in bed, although exhausted, Chu Ci still suffered from insomnia. He was naturally more energetic than most people, let alone when he had things on his mind.
He would occasionally recall that night he slept in the same room with him. He wondered inwardly how he could have been so innocent back then, thinking nothing of it.
But now, Chu Ci couldn’t control those images flooding his mind. The other’s sleeping posture, his bare chest, and those hazy, sleepy eyes… He was even more unable to sleep. Setting the air conditioner to 22 degrees didn’t help.
Inexplicably, Chu Ci wanted to call, but a glance at the time showed it was past midnight. The other was definitely asleep, no doubt. So he didn’t insist on calling.
By the next day, that impulse had naturally faded. But no matter what he was doing, there was always a faint shadow in Chu Ci’s heart.
“These 50 rooms need to be renovated. The proposal is here, Young Master, please have a look,” the manager handed the project document to Chu Ci.
Although Chu Ci was here as an intern, he was essentially the decision-maker. It was just that at this stage, he needed to absorb knowledge from all aspects.
“Can you explain this part?” Chu Ci, who was touring the hotel, pulled himself from his distraction, swept the messy thoughts from his mind, browsed through it once, and asked.
