Chapter 18: Oat Milk

Gao Rong left again.

“Mr. Gao asked me to take you to eat.” Gao Rong’s secretary said with a smile, “He says you always forget to eat when you’re emotionally worked up. Before coming to the presentation today, you must have forgotten lunch again.”

“…I have no appetite.” Chi Lanyi said wearily and listlessly, “I’m very tired.”

“Oh. Mr. Gao also said that if you don’t want to eat, then I should just put the thermos lunch boxes on your apartment’s dining table. When you feel like eating later, you can just open the lids and eat.”

Chi Lanyi didn’t even have the energy to move his eyelids.

“By the way. Mr. Gao had me email the ANI project director just now. The director will handle the previous incident for you—and those few mentors are all people who can recognize mistakes and correct them. They will apologize to you.” The secretary said, “You can rest assured now.”

Only upon hearing this did Chi Lanyi finally fail to maintain his calm.

His eyelashes trembled. Only after a long while did he say softly: “Thank you.”

“It’s all what I should do. Mr. Gao also asked me to ask you, do you plan to email those mentors yourself later, or would you like him to send it for you? He’ll give you a draft if you need it.”

“…I’ll do it myself.” After a long time, Chi Lanyi said dully, “Would he think…”

“What?”

Chi Lanyi choked, swallowing the words back into his heart.

—Would he think I’m very troublesome, emotionally unstable, very useless?

Chi Lanyi returned to his apartment in a daze, feeling a numbness like a TV screen’s white noise in his brain. He didn’t know what Gao Rong had said to the dormitory manager in advance, but the secretary managed to follow him inside.

He sat on the sofa, watching the secretary place those thermos lunch boxes on the table. The secretary said: “These lunch boxes can keep food warm for over ten hours.”

“…I understand.”

“And this.” Like magic, the secretary took two more bags out of her purse, “Mr. Gao said you might not eat, but drinks, you will definitely drink.”

“And sweets. He said you like dark chocolate with a sea salt flavor.”

The secretary left.

It was a long time before Chi Lanyi slowly crawled to the table.

On the table sat two cups of oat milk latte. Perhaps considering one might not be enough, Gao Rong had ordered two, both poured into thermos bottles.

Beside them was dark chocolate with sea salt, sprinkled with a bit of roasted cocoa nibs. The cool flavor had a slight saltiness, and also a faint burnt aroma like tobacco.

Gao Rong had left behind so many things. Gao Rong himself, however, had left.

Chi Lanyi sat by the table. He didn’t know if he had scared Gao Rong away.

In the restroom, did that count as Gao Rong seeing him in a wretched state? Chi Lanyi thought for a while, his head throbbing with pain, unable to quite figure it out.

It wasn’t until late at night that Chi Lanyi began to eat that piece of chocolate.

The chocolate’s taste was somewhat bitter. Holding that dry, minimalist flavor in his mouth, he wondered why Gao Rong knew he liked this flavor of chocolate, and also wondered why Gao Rong knew he wouldn’t eat during emotional upheavals.

After finishing the chocolate, he started drinking the latte.

The moment the latte entered his mouth, he paused again.

Chi Lanyi’s body was very sensitive to caffeine. He could feel his nervous system entering a brief state of excitement after absorbing a microdose of caffeine.

Thus, he loved mixing coffee with oat milk; oat milk, unlike cow’s milk, didn’t inhibit caffeine absorption. The caffeine would act more directly on his brain.

Yet neither of these two cups of oat milk latte contained any caffeine.

It was as if Gao Rong knew in advance that Chi Lanyi wouldn’t crawl over to drink the latte until deep into the night.

Now, the mysteries Gao Rong posed to him had increased by one—why did Gao Rong know beforehand that he would only have the energy to start eating the things Gao Rong left for him late at night?

That was a riddle no surveillance could solve.

Unless Gao Rong understood him very, very well. And was watching him even more deeply than he had imagined.

Chi Lanyi’s eyes grew moist. For the first time, he didn’t want to shower or wash his hands, because the scent of Gao Rong’s wet wipe still lingered on his palm.

Chi Lanyi closed his eyes. He smelled the scent on his palm, tears falling.

Only when he was alone did he dare to fantasize.

Like fantasizing that Gao Rong was right there beside him at this very moment.

…

The car stopped in front of the villa, but Gao Rong didn’t get out for a long time.

Will Chi Lanyi cry tonight? He silently thought to himself.

He probably will. But Chi Lanyi refuses to shed tears in front of unfamiliar people. Now that he’s gone, Chi Lanyi can finally have a good cry, right?

Gao Rong had always considered himself shrewd, but at this moment, he only found himself ridiculous. Especially when he couldn’t stop himself from thinking about Chi Lanyi.

Clearly, in his last life, Gao Rong had suffered such a huge fall because of Chi Lanyi—abandoned by everyone, fortune scattered, and in the end, he even lost his own life to Chi Lanyi.

Yet now, he still wanted to possess Chi Lanyi so badly—still wanted to repeat the same mistakes.

After returning to the villa, Gao Rong sent people to handle the aftermath of today’s events. He had someone inform the mentors, and also had people find a few suitable projects for Chi Lanyi in addition to the incubator project, so that Chi Lanyi would have a path upward, forged single-handedly by him.

It could prevent Chi Lanyi from having to compete with classmates again, and also make Chi Lanyi’s career stable and controllable—living only under Gao Rong’s wing.

Thus, Chi Lanyi would be unable to sprout wings and fly away from him. Gazing at the night outside his mansion’s window, Gao Rong thought self-deprecatingly that this was the only rational decision he had made today.

What Gao Rong found even more ironic was this very mansion he was staying in. After his rebirth, when Gao Rong earned his first pot of gold, he bought it on some strange impulse. Later, Gao Rong always felt vaguely that it was unlucky and sold it to a friend.

His friend, after acquiring it, hadn’t changed the interior decoration. A few days ago, when his friend heard he wanted to rent this place, he even joked, asking when Gao Rong would buy it back.

Back then, Gao Rong said in his heart that he wouldn’t buy it back. An investment full of risk was repeating past mistakes.

But now, Gao Rong had bought it back—Chi Lanyi still had a year and a half before graduation. Gao Rong estimated he would be residing in Paris for the next few years; he needed to build a sturdy nest.

This was another huge investment. Gao Rong wanted to convince himself this investment was worth it.

In his last life, Chi Lanyi used his talent, aloofness, and sensitivity to destroy Gao Rong. He was like shards of glass reflecting intense sunlight, impossible to look at directly. With one glance at him, Gao Rong was burned.

And in this life, Gao Rong would instead shape Chi Lanyi. He would make Chi Lanyi fragile and naive in his arms, make Chi Lanyi have nowhere to go without him; he would make Chi Lanyi successful in his career, but known throughout the industry as his, Gao Rong’s, exclusive artwork, his, Gao Rong’s, possession.

Gao Rong thought, he didn’t know if such returns could be considered worth it.

His phone vibrated just then. His assistant reported more information about Chi Lanyi.

“…Chi Lanyi went out. He wore a dark red shirt, looking a bit dazed, and went downtown to attend a cultural salon.”

This didn’t seem like something Chi Lanyi would usually do. Gao Rong said: “Who else is at that cultural salon?”

“That cultural salon is hosted weekly by Chi Lanyi’s teacher. He recommended Chi Lanyi participate in the May competition, and Chi Lanyi is very grateful for that. Originally, Chi Lanyi had never attended these events. But today, he suddenly went.”

Red shirt, networking salon.

Gao Rong was slightly uncertain. He frowned, recalling that last night, the secretary had told him Chi Lanyi wanted to email those mentors himself.

He had clearly told Chi Lanyi he would handle this matter—Gao Rong felt a vague displeasure at this, but said nothing.

He knew he had only superficially given Chi Lanyi a choice. In reality, Gao Rong still wanted to do these external communication tasks for Chi Lanyi and maintain control over him.

So Chi Lanyi going to the cultural salon meant he had taken those four mentors’ words to heart. On the surface, Chi Lanyi was cold and even resistant, but privately, he started forcing himself to socialize.

How pitiful. Gao Rong thought indifferently, Chi Lanyi wasn’t good at these things at all—Chi Lanyi clearly didn’t need to do these things. As long as he opened his mouth to Gao Rong, whatever he wanted, Gao Rong could give it to him.

The assistant added: “But there is… a rather unwelcome guest at this salon.”

“Who?”

“Renault… Even though Renault was expelled from school, he’s still a friend of that teacher.”

Gao Rong froze.

The assistant continued, as if cautiously gauging Gao Rong’s expression: “Should we pull some strings to prevent Renault from attending that salon?”

Gao Rong’s expression grew increasingly grim. It seemed like he went through a great internal struggle, his fingers tapping rhythmically on the armrest.

This was a perfect opportunity to exploit.

Chi Lanyi would definitely be provoked.

He had no reason not to use this chance.

And besides, Chi Lanyi had betrayed him—he owed Chi Lanyi nothing.

After a long while, Gao Rong shook his head. But making this motion was more difficult than Gao Rong had imagined.

Reason told Gao Rong he absolutely had to do this.

Yet his heart felt vaguely uncomfortable. That feeling was like he owed Chi Lanyi something—a sense of guilt pressing on his heart.

So for a fleeting moment, Gao Rong felt that perhaps, more than he had imagined, he didn’t want to see Chi Lanyi hurt.