When Fu Zheng brought Tao Zhi to the private room, Fu Si Heng was not there yet, and there were other people inside.
Fu Zheng was not very familiar with Fu Si Heng’s friends. Their social circles hardly overlapped at all, except for Wei Yu, who had a somewhat distant familial connection.
For example, the daughter of his aunt’s sister’s aunt was the wife of the Fu family’s second uncle, and since their new house was relatively close, Wei Yu often came over to play, which was how he got acquainted with Fu Zheng.
As for the rest—Fu Si Heng’s business partners, classmates, friends, and so on—Fu Zheng had never even met them.
However, once he said he was Fu Si Heng’s younger brother, naturally someone came over to chat.
Not long after, Fu Zheng was called away by someone. Tao Zhi stood uneasily near the bar by himself, his eyes darting around.
The air conditioning in here was set really low. He had no idea where the vents were, but his exposed thighs felt chilly. Tao Zhi could only clutch at his skirt as tightly as possible, trying to block the draft with that pitiful scrap of fabric.
It did not block anything and instead attracted unwanted attention. Fortunately, Fu Zheng was not far away. When he saw it, he came over and dismissed the guy with a few curt words.
Seeing Fu Zheng’s protective stance, the man understood the message and did not press further.
Tao Zhi let out a sigh of relief.
When he had agreed to Fu Zheng’s request earlier, he had been blinded by the money. Now that he was in this unfamiliar place, he started to back out, thinking that maybe he did not have to earn this cash after all.
One should not be too greedy.
Right?
“Your brother isn’t here. How about we head out first?” After hesitating for a moment, Tao Zhi naively tried to persuade Fu Zheng. With a mix of caution and mischief, he whispered, “We can think of other ways to get back at your brother…”
“…”
Fu Zheng did not hear a word of it because he was staring at Tao Zhi’s thighs.
Snowy white and smooth thighs. When Tao Zhi adjusted his skirt, Fu Zheng’s 5.0 vision clearly caught sight of a small black mole on the inner side of his thigh.
So clear.
He had no idea his eyesight was that good… He could even see this.
Wait.
If he could see it, then others could too, right?
Damn.
Why did Rong Huai dress him in such a short skirt? Hadn’t they said it should give off a pure vibe?
Fu Zheng now blamed it all on Rong Huai.
He instinctively wanted to find something to cover Tao Zhi with, but after looking around, he found nothing. He was wearing short sleeves himself…
Fu Zheng muttered a low curse.
“？！”
Cursing at him again?!
Tao Zhi thought Fu Zheng was upset about his attempt to back out and immediately shrank back, too intimidated to speak.
“?”
Why did he suddenly look so startled?
Fu Zheng looked up, originally intending to ask what was wrong. Just then, he heard the sound of a door closing and instinctively glanced toward the source.
Fu Si Heng had arrived.
Fu Zheng watched him walk in, dressed in a suit like some slick poser. Even though their eyes met, Fu Si Heng acted as if he had not seen him, averting his gaze and heading straight to the other side of the room.
What a pretentious ass.
Fu Zheng took a deep breath and grabbed a freshly mixed mojito from the bar.
He downed the entire glass in one go, suppressing the throbbing vein at his temple. Then, in a cold voice, he told Tao Zhi, “Let’s go.”
Tao Zhi: “…” (He let out a breath.)
Tao Zhi took a deep breath in and out.
He was under a lot of pressure right now.
…
Fu Zheng’s goal was crystal clear. He directly led Tao Zhi to sit right next to Fu Si Heng. Fu Si Heng glanced up briefly.
“Bro.”
It was a rare honorific, but Fu Si Heng remained completely unmoved. Tao Zhi, on the other hand, felt his fingers tremble inexplicably—it was the first time he had heard Fu Zheng speak so calmly.
That iced drink had clearly cooled Fu Zheng off quite a bit.
“Get to the point.” Fu Si Heng’s voice was indifferent. While Fu Zheng spoke, he did not even glance at him, just kept his eyes down as he poured himself a drink.
Fu Zheng clenched his fist tightly.
Probably because Fu Si Heng refused to give him any face, when he spoke again, his voice grew stiffer. Tao Zhi’s pre-written apology lines? He could not be bothered to recite them and condensed it all into one sentence.
“I know I was wrong about what happened a while back. I shouldn’t have gone to the high school to bully people.”
Tao Zhi: “…”
“Heh.” It was such a laughable statement that Fu Si Heng actually chuckled.
Full of mockery.
Tao Zhi scratched his cheek.
He had a younger sister, and they got along great, so he could not quite understand why these two brothers interacted this way.
Fu Zheng had a bad temper and got riled up easily.
With Fu Si Heng’s attitude like this… yeah, Fu Zheng got riled up.
But a vengeful man did not sweat the small stuff.
Fu Zheng reined himself in and continued, “It won’t happen again, bro. I’m sincerely reflecting on it.”
“Alright, got it.” Fu Si Heng took a sip of his whiskey and set the glass back on the coffee table.
The clink of glass against wood was neither too loud nor too soft—just enough to drown out Fu Zheng’s promise that it would not happen again.
He seemed utterly indifferent to the apology. Instead of lecturing his brother on life lessons or anything like that, he leaned back against the sofa.
His long, straight legs crossed casually, and Fu Si Heng’s hand rested on his knee. The Patek Philippe watch on his wrist glinted in Fu Zheng’s eyes.
