Chapter 17

The situation between the two reversed in an instant.

The room’s lights had already gone out, and the moonlight from the window was the only brightness in the darkness. The bed frame sank and rebounded under the shift in gravity, emitting creak creak sounds. Shen Yu’s back muscles tensed as he was forced to lie supine on the bed, his hands pinned to the soft white pillow by strong grips. He widened his eyes and stared at the person on top of him, instantly understanding everything.

One could only say it was worthy of Young Master Zhou Da. This feint east and strike west, advance by retreating tactic clearly belonged to an expert at manipulating hearts.

“No way, Zhou Jinsheng, playing so dirty? Let go of my hands.”

Shen Yu struggled to pull his hands upward, but he couldn’t break free.

Zhou Jinsheng’s martial prowess was maxed out. At the start, Shen Yu had seized the initiative for a fighting chance, but now he no longer believed he had any opportunity. Once he figured it out, he relaxed his body and stopped struggling.

Hearing this, Zhou Jinsheng chuckled lightly and released Shen Yu’s wrists, though his elbow remained vigilant, pressing down on the man’s upper body to prevent him from burning the bridge after crossing the river.

Shen Yu glanced over and sneered, “You’re even guarding against this?”

Hearing Shen Yu’s dissatisfied complaint, Zhou Jinsheng relaxed his brows, exuding the satisfaction of a victor. He drawled lazily with a smile, “All’s fair in war. Learned it from you.”

Shen Yu immediately climbed the pole. “Then shouldn’t Young Master Zhou Da pay the apprenticeship fee? Planning to welch?”

Zhou Jinsheng ignored his nonsense. His strong knuckles pinched Shen Yu’s chin and lifted it forcefully. In Shen Yu’s eyes, that expression was as smugly villainous as it could get.

Zhou Jinsheng leaned down, a smile on his lips, his tone arrogant. “Mm, Shen Yu. Concede?”

Scorching breath fell on the side of his face, somewhat uncomfortable.

Shen Yu subconsciously wanted to push Zhou Jinsheng away, but his hand touched solid abdominal muscles, distinctly blocky. His palm pressed right at the junction of the obliques and abs, the explosive muscles rising and falling, the skin steaming with post-exercise heat, magnetically drawing his touch.

Shen Yu’s hand stiffened.

Zhou Jinsheng’s movements paused.

The two finally realized how improper their current position was.

In the midst of their scuffle, both men’s bathrobes had nearly fallen completely open. Under the cold, dim moonlight, Zhou Jinsheng’s honey-colored muscle contours undulated like mountain ranges in the night, the veins on his waist and abdomen flowing like surface streams under Shen Yu’s covering palm.

Zhou Jinsheng’s breath hitched as his gaze darkened on Shen Yu.

Too close.

Close enough to feel each other’s muscles breathing, overlapping with the gushing hot air.

Breaths fled with flushed faces in the infinitely shrinking finite air.

This position was too ambiguous to even call it flirtatious.

“I concede, I concede. Truly defeated by you.” Shen Yu naturally pulled his hand free from Zhou Jinsheng’s, then pushed him away with hands and feet, abruptly sitting up on the bed. He restrained his breathing and hurriedly straightened his disheveled bathrobe.

Zhou Jinsheng was shoved hard onto the bed. He silently turned over, staring at Shen Yu’s profile, lips pressed tight, saying nothing.

The old-fashioned air conditioner struggled to send cool air into the suddenly heated room.

Borrowing the flowing moonlight like water, Shen Yu groped around and yanked the blanket piled at the foot of the bed back over them.

Ignoring the nearby gaze that had practically solidified, Shen Yu burrowed back into the covers and yawned tiredly.

After a long moment, Zhou Jinsheng’s voice suddenly rang out again. “Since you concede, what about the answer?”

Shen Yu perked up his ears warily. “What answer?”

Zhou Jinsheng’s tone sank. “Someone’s ideal type.”

Oh, so there was still a pit waiting for him here.

Shen Yu turned sideways, giving Zhou Jinsheng his back. His gaze fell on the pitch-black wall in front of him, his tone as usual, no different from normal. “Didn’t you already know?”

Zhou Jinsheng: “Hm?”

Shen Yu said, “Someone like you—”

Through the hazy night, Zhou Jinsheng’s dark gaze lingered long on Shen Yu’s back.

“—a girl.”

The air abruptly stilled, like the oppressive calm before a storm.

Shen Yu heard a very faint scoff from behind him—or maybe not.

Zhou Jinsheng rolled over heavily, also turning his back to Shen Yu, and said no more.

Shen Yu closed his eyes and finally said, “Going to sleep.”

Silence lingered behind him for a long time. After a while, Zhou Jinsheng rolled back, followed by the sound of fabric rubbing. Scorchingly hot breath approached Shen Yu like thick, dangerous storm clouds.

It paused just before contact.

The temperature was astonishing.

Shen Yu’s eyelids twitched. He didn’t dare sleep at all.

It wasn’t clear how much time passed before steady breathing finally sounded in the quiet space.

Cathead Island still maintained its pristine island ecology, with few tourists. Aside from the group of Jingyang students there for research and study, they were mostly photographers who came to capture the scenery.

Once, Shen Yu and Zhou Jinsheng sat side by side on the rocks watching the sunrise. The sun was obscured by morning mist, revealing only a faint outline. It ignited the sky bit by bit, first a hazy blue, then overwhelming red, scattering light across the entire beach.

In the distance, classmates planning to whale-watch boarded speedboats and headed out to sea. Nearby, fishermen bustled about catching the tide.

A middle-aged man with a telephoto camera around his neck suddenly appeared from behind and showed Shen Yu photos on his phone. “Handsome, mind if I use you two as accents for the sunrise?”

Shen Yu glanced over.

On the phone, he and Zhou Jinsheng sat amid the mountains and sea in the sunrise, swallowed by light that was neither fully red nor golden.

With the red sun high in the distance, the composition looked pretty good. Hearing the photographer, Shen Yu didn’t mind much—he wasn’t a big shot, so being in a photo was no issue. He glanced at Zhou Jinsheng for approval with his eyes.

He figured this was a long shot. Not deleting the photos from the phone was already lucky—now he wanted to use the camera too?

Shen Yu thought this way, but unexpectedly, Zhou Jinsheng lifted his eyelids and nodded, surprisingly agreeing. “Sure.”

So the middle-aged man dragged his telephoto camera behind them and snapped away contentedly.

Shen Yu didn’t know how many shots the man took or how they turned out, but recalling the initial composition he’d shown, he figured they couldn’t be too bad.

In the end, this photographer didn’t even show them the final shots. He thanked them and wandered off to shoot other scenes.

The red sun finally climbed into the sky, bringing a not-too-long, not-too-short sunrise to a close.

Shen Yu had been dragged out of bed by Zhou Jinsheng at four-thirty, riding an electric scooter for half an hour to this beach, all to chase what was said to be a prime sunrise spot.

Now that the sunrise was over, he was not far from collapsing from exhaustion.

He’d originally planned to ride his rented cute pink electric scooter back, when he spotted a cool, flashy army-green off-road vehicle domineeringly parked by the roadside, making all the little electrics look pathetic.

“Awesome—”

His drowsiness instantly dissipated a bit. Shen Yu couldn’t hold back and whistled lightly at the off-roader.

Just after whistling, Zhou Jinsheng, who had vanished not long ago, poked his head out from the off-road vehicle. His arm rested on the body, wind tousling his hair, brows slanting into his temples—truly dashing and extraordinary.

Shen Yu was stunned. “Where’d this come from?”

“Got someone to ship it over.”

Zhou Jinsheng wore an expression of “isn’t that obvious?” and jerked his chin at him. “Hop in.”

“Coming.” Shen Yu decisively abandoned his pink little scooter and happily climbed in.

Zhou Jinsheng rested one hand on the window frame and drove with the other.

Shen Yu lounged lazily in the passenger seat. Once the initial excitement faded, drowsiness returned.

Shen Yu closed his eyes and chatted idly with Zhou Jinsheng, one thing leading to another until they touched on Cathead Island’s development.

Shen Yu asked if that was the reason he was here.

Zhou Jinsheng neither confirmed nor denied.

But Shen Yu knew full well that while the higher-ups valued the Cathead Island project, they hadn’t allocated more attention to it. It seemed likely to be handed off to someone else.

Zhou Jinsheng thought differently. He had ideas, ambition, ability, and connections. Rather than leave it to others, he planned to take it on himself and personally develop this untapped treasure.

With Old Master Zhou pressuring from above, and all sorts of demons and ghouls in the way, years later in an interview, Zhou Jinsheng spoke of the project’s twists and turns—even getting caught in an arms conflict midway.

But in the end, he had made the right choice.

Though Cathead Island was an island, rainfall was scarce, with mostly sunny days beloved by sunlight and flowers.

Years later, Cathead Island would sail toward the four directions, a maritime paradise.

Having come back once, how could Shen Yu not understand Zhou Jinsheng’s ambitions and aspirations?

But he remembered that in the previous life, progress hadn’t been this fast.

Shen Yu rested his head on the seatback with eyes closed, indicating he stood on the same front as Zhou Jinsheng. “I think this place is great. If you like it, go for it boldly.”

“Like it?”

Zhou Jinsheng frowned playfully at those two words. He fell silent for a moment, then chuckled lowly. “Nah, forget it.”

Shen Yu went quiet. Forget it?

No way? Could his mouth really sway Zhou Jinsheng to change his mind?

Zhou Jinsheng suddenly spoke. “Shen Yu, if I said—”

Dazzling headlights suddenly pierced from afar, interrupting Zhou Jinsheng’s next words.

The sky was dimly brightening. Stung by the lights, Shen Yu opened his eyes and saw a large truck barreling straight toward them.

Shen Yu’s heart jolted, blood rushing backward. Without time to think, he lunged to grab Zhou Jinsheng’s steering wheel and yank it right, blocking in front of Zhou Jinsheng with his body.

In the flash of lightning, Zhou Jinsheng seized the wheel and yanked it left, then lunged onto Shen Yu. The vehicle slammed, shaking violently.

Then came a “bang.”

His brain exploded in dizziness, a buzzing filling his consciousness.

The smell of scorched fireworks hit his nose. Shen Yu felt something warm like blood drip onto his face. Zhou Jinsheng’s entire body shielded him, shuddering violently with the impact.

Zhou Jinsheng’s profile, dyed in blood, looked even more profound and handsome. His expression shifted from the blank realization of what he’d done to something complex yet relieved.

Zhou Jinsheng’s arms clamped Shen Yu like iron vices.

He hugged him tightly and lowered his head.

“Don’t be afraid.”

Then, the world boomed and exploded into blankness.

“Don’t be afraid.”