Chapter 24
The car was cold and silent.
The designated driver rarely took orders for such luxury cars, so he drove with extreme caution, yet he couldn’t help but peek at the back through the rearview mirror. He thought to himself that when the employer came to pick up the person just now, he looked quite nervous and anxious. How did the atmosphere become so stiff after they came out?
No one spoke a word on the way.
Lin Zhiyan sat behind the driver’s seat, looking sideways at the rapidly passing scenery outside the window. His hand rested on his lap, cold.
His mind was in a mess at the moment, but he didn’t know what to think. He could only look at Lu Ze on the other side of the car through the reflection of the glass.
After getting into the car, Lu Ze had silently sat on the right side of the car, close to the door, his eyes half-lowered, without saying a word.
He hadn’t even glanced at him.
There was even enough space between them for two more adults.
Lin Zhiyan’s hand, resting on his lap, twitched slightly. Only then did he realize that his fingers were a little stiff from the cold.
He blinked gently and looked at his slightly bluish fingers, but the scene of Lu Ze applying hand cream for him unconsciously flashed through his mind.
Lu Ze had said that his hands were beautiful, with long and slender fingers and well-defined knuckles. Especially when he was gripping something, because he couldn’t exert much force, the bulging veins looked even more beautiful.
He had also said that Lin Zhiyan’s hands were for experiments and couldn’t be frozen, so he always cherished them more than his own. But Lin Zhiyan had a cold constitution, and his fingers would easily get cold in winter. As long as Lu Ze was by his side, he would always hold his hands tightly to warm them up.
But now, his fingers were a little stiff and swollen from the cold, and Lu Ze had the car window open. The cool wind was rustling in, and it was a bit cold.
The words he had heard in front of the private room door were still replaying in his mind. Lin Zhiyan couldn’t help but blink his sore eyes.
He could pretend to be calm in front of others and solve the situation calmly, pretending that nothing had happened and taking Lu Ze away. But now, in the dead of night, with both of them silent, Lin Zhiyan didn’t know how to face it.
He had thought a lot. Maybe Lu Ze had some difficulties, or maybe he had other ideas. Today’s was such an obvious setup, he didn’t believe Lu Ze couldn’t see it. He was willing to give him a chance to explain. As long as it was reasonable, he would believe it.
He would convince himself to believe it.
But from the moment he got into the car until now, for such a long time, Lu Ze had only kept his distance from him, as if he didn’t even want to touch him.
What did that mean?
He wanted to tell himself to believe in Lu Ze, in their relationship, in everything they had experienced. Lin Zhiyan didn’t believe that it was all fake.
But Lu Ze’s strange and distant attitude made his reason suddenly collapse, and when he opened his mouth, his voice was hoarse and unspeakable.
He was thinking, if that bet was real, what would he do? If it was fake, what would he do…
Lin Zhiyan stared at the car window in a daze, looking at Lu Ze, and also at himself.
The neon lights outside the window were long-lasting. Lin Zhiyan looked at them and only felt dazed.
The designated driver’s skills were good, and the car was driving smoothly and steadily, but Lin Zhiyan was restless. He didn’t expect the car to suddenly brake sharply. Lin Zhiyan was not paying attention, and his whole body was thrown forward uncontrollably.
Just as his forehead was about to hit the back of the driver’s seat, a warm, large palm suddenly covered his forehead, followed by a man’s muffled grunt.
Lin Zhiyan was stunned for a moment. Before he could react, he heard the driver’s anxious apology, “Sorry, sorry, a cat suddenly ran out just now. It was too dark, and I almost didn’t notice it. That’s why I braked. Are you guys okay?”
Lu Ze looked ahead, his voice hoarse from the alcohol. “Be careful.”
Lin Zhiyan was stunned for a long time before he shook his head. “I’m fine. Let’s go. Be careful and slow down.”
The designated driver quickly agreed, and the speed of the car obviously slowed down.
Lin Zhiyan looked to the side. Lu Ze had already withdrawn his hand and was silently sitting on the far right of the car again.
Lin Zhiyan touched his forehead. The warm touch from just now seemed to still be there.
The car window was open a crack, and the cold wind was whistling in.
Lin Zhiyan pursed his lips and looked at Lu Ze, who was leaning against the window. “Lu Ze, I’m cold.”
Lu Ze was stunned for a moment, then quickly closed the window and reached over to hold his hand. His brows immediately furrowed. “So cold.”
He held his hand tightly in his palm, his voice a little heartbroken. “Why didn’t you say so earlier?”
Lin Zhiyan’s eyelashes lowered slightly, his voice a little hoarse. “Then why were you sitting so far away from me?”
Lu Ze was silent for a moment, then said softly, “Doesn’t Senior dislike me drinking?”
Lin Zhiyan’s brows furrowed slightly. He wanted to ask him when he had said that, but his heart suddenly paused.
He remembered.
Lu Ze had said that if he didn’t like it, he wouldn’t drink anymore in the future.
That was their second meeting.
Just like today, Lu Ze had been drinking, and the designated driver was also driving in the front, while they were sitting in the back.
But their state of mind was completely different.
Lu Ze said in a low voice, “I couldn’t help it today. I’ll try to avoid this situation in the future, Gege.”
Lin Zhiyan opened his mouth, but his throat was choked up. He was thinking, what did Lu Ze mean by this, and what was he trying to do? But his lips opened and closed, but he couldn’t speak.
Another silence.
They soon arrived at home. The designated driver parked the car in the underground parking lot and left first.
The two people in the car sat in silence. No one wanted to get out of the car first, and no one took the initiative to go home.
Or perhaps, after this incident, Lin Zhiyan was not sure if that could really still be his home in the future.
The lights in the underground parking lot were dim, and only the lights in the car were relatively bright.
Lu Ze had been holding his hand, and his originally cold fingers had slowly warmed up.
He looked down at Lin Zhiyan’s fingers, which were smooth and slender without any flaws. In the past, they were always entangled with his, but now they were just letting him hold them.
He sighed and said, “Is there nothing you want to ask me, Senior?”
His voice was clear, without a trace of drunkenness.
Lin Zhiyan’s heart was squeezed tightly again.
“What do you want me to ask?” He lowered his eyelids, his voice light. “Ask you… if that bet is real?”
Lu Ze’s hand paused. After a long silence, he slowly nodded. “Yes.”
Lin Zhiyan’s breath hitched. All the speculations in his heart could not compare to Lu Ze’s light words. All the explanations, all the trust, collapsed in an instant, in a mess.
His Adam’s apple bobbed. After a long time, he slowly curled his lips, his voice strained. “So?”
He slowly pulled his hand back, looked up at him, and forced himself to remain calm so as not to lose his composure. He asked softly, “So, Young Master Lu, you went to all this trouble to set up such a… a trap that even I could easily see through… what were you trying to do?”
He said quietly, “Do you think you’ve played with me enough and don’t want to play anymore? Or are you tired of me… and want to end this relationship?”
“Senior!” Lu Ze anxiously grabbed his hand. Lin Zhiyan did not refuse, but instead let out a light laugh. “If that’s the case, Young Master Lu, you don’t have to go to such great lengths. I’m not the type to cling on. I won’t hold on.”
“Zhiyan, Gege…” Lu Ze held his hand tightly, wanting to hug him but not daring to. He could only say in a hoarse voice, “I didn’t think that. I’m not playing with you.”
Lin Zhiyan looked at him quietly and said, “Tell me.”
Lu Ze took a deep breath and rested his head lightly on his shoulder, saying softly, “Gege, the first time I saw you in university, I had a good impression of you…”
Lin Zhiyan paused.
Lu Ze seemed a little embarrassed and said, “It’s definitely not love at first sight. Maybe it was lust at first sight, or maybe I just liked the feeling you gave me.”
Lin Zhiyan’s eyes lowered slightly.
“I originally wanted to get to know you before pursuing you, but Qi Kuo found out about you from somewhere and made a move before me.”
“He’s always been indiscriminate with men and women. Although each relationship doesn’t last long, he has to get the person he’s set his sights on.”
Lin Zhiyan was stunned.
“With you, it should be his first failure.” Lu Ze smiled bitterly. “He pursued you for more than half a month, but he was never successful. During that time, everyone in our circle was laughing at him. Even at parties, they were talking about it.”
“I’ve dealt with him quite a few times, so I know what kind of person he is. If he fails this time, I don’t know what kind of tricks he’ll pull in the future. So when he proposed a bet to win you over within three months, I agreed.”
Lu Ze’s head rested a little heavier on his shoulder, and he continued, “Although he doesn’t like me, he can’t openly go against me. I thought that no matter what, I should first bring you under my name, so he would be a little more wary of you.”
Lin Zhiyan opened his mouth, but asked, “Why doesn’t he like you?”
Lu Ze paused, then said, “Besides him, the Qi family also has an eldest young master who is better than him in every way and is highly valued by Chairman Qi. But he, on the other hand, desperately wants to join the company, but he can’t even touch any core business. Maybe it’s because he sees that I’m also the second son in my family, but I’m doted on by my parents and my brother also indulges me. I’m clearly a good-for-nothing second-generation heir, yet I can easily get everything he can’t get even with all his efforts, so he looks down on me a little and is always sarcastic.”
Hearing this, Lin Zhiyan was silent for a moment, then suddenly looked up at him and asked, “This bet, you won, and the stake was a car. What if you had lost?”
Lu Ze didn’t expect him to be so sharp and didn’t speak for a moment.
Lin Zhiyan didn’t rush him.
Lu Ze knew that he had to explain everything clearly today. After a long silence, he said, “If I had lost, the stake was 20% of the shares of a small company under my name.”
Lin Zhiyan’s pupils constricted slightly.
“That small company was given to me by my father for practice. I own 50% of the shares myself. It’s not a big deal to my father and the others. Whether it’s managed well or not, someone will cover for it. But for Qi Kuo, it’s a very good resource.”
Lin Zhiyan’s eyelids lowered slightly. “His initial target was your company.” And he was just a cover.
Lu Ze nodded hesitantly.
Lin Zhiyan suddenly let out a laugh, its meaning unclear. “So you were so confident that you could win me over and win this bet?”
Lu Ze shook his head. “I wasn’t confident.”
Lin Zhiyan lifted his eyelashes and looked at him calmly.
Lu Ze said, “My initial thought was just to protect you under my name, so that Qi Kuo wouldn’t dare to make a move. As for the bet, it would be best if I could win. Even if I lost, I was confident that I could make Qi Kuo spit out what he had eaten.”
Lin Zhiyan was speechless for a moment.
Lu Ze said softly, “Gege, apart from using some tricks when I first met you, I haven’t lied to you about anything else.”
Lin Zhiyan asked, “What tricks did you use?”
Lu Ze was silent for a moment. “The first time we met outside the laboratory building, I wasn’t just passing by. I had heard that you usually stayed there until very late, and it happened to be a day when the weather changed suddenly, so I thought you might not have an umbrella and deliberately went to wait for you.”
Lin Zhiyan’s lowered eyelashes trembled.
“The second time I saw you on the sports field, it was because I heard you were also there, so I deliberately went to run into you.”
Lin Zhiyan asked, “Anything else?”
“Nothing else,” Lu Ze said.
Lin Zhiyan pursed his lips. “That time I came back from my part-time job…”
“That time was a real coincidence,” Lu Ze said. “They asked me to go out that day, and I happened to run into Senior on the way back.”
He paused, then added, “If it were really deliberate, I wouldn’t have drunk beforehand.”
Lin Zhiyan lowered his head and didn’t speak.
Lu Ze said softly, “I’ve wanted to tell you about these things for a long time, but I didn’t know how to start.”
How to say it? To tell his lover that he was with him just because of a bet with someone else?
“But then I felt that you should have the right to know about this matter. I can’t keep it from you forever.”
Lin Zhiyan’s hand, resting on his lap, tightened.
“It just so happened that the three months were almost up, and they were all asking. Qi Kuo was also getting impatient, so I just went along with their plan and agreed to their invitation.”
“I knew that Qi Kuo couldn’t just let this bet lose, and I also knew that he would definitely do something.”
So, pretending to be drunk, letting others use his phone to call Lin Zhiyan, and even letting Qi Kuo say those things…
“No matter what I say, it’s not as good as you hearing it yourself.” Lu Ze looked at him. “Gege, I’m giving you the right to know.”
Lin Zhiyan’s heart skipped a beat. No wonder, no wonder he had felt from the very beginning that this was an obvious setup, a trap, yet Lu Ze could still be plotted against by them.
It was all his deliberate indulgence.
Lin Zhiyan only felt his heart was blocked, both sour and with an indescribable feeling.
Actually, as Lu Ze had said, he didn’t have to say this. As long as he didn’t say it, he wouldn’t know. He believed that he could handle Qi Kuo and the others, and he could also make them not leak a single word.
But he didn’t. He chose to lay the matter out in front of him, to let him hear it with his own ears and see it with his own eyes.
Lin Zhiyan raised his hand and slowly covered his face.
He looked up. The light from the car’s ceiling shone into his eyes through the cracks, and his eyes were a little sore. He couldn’t help but want to cry.
“Lu Ze,” he blinked silently and said in a small voice, “don’t lie to me…”
His voice was a little helpless and panicked. “Don’t lie to me…”
“If you just want to play with me, to have a casual relationship, I don’t blame you.”
“When you get tired of me, you can leave at any time. I don’t blame you either.”
“Don’t play with me, Lu Ze…”
He took a deep breath, his voice full of vulnerability. “I can’t take it…”
Lu Ze’s voice was hoarse. “I won’t.”
He leaned over, reached out and opened the armrest box next to the driver’s seat, and took out a small and exquisite jewelry box from inside.
He opened the lid, and inside were two rings that were identical except for their size.
Lin Zhiyan’s heart trembled.
Lu Ze took out the larger one and placed it between Lin Zhiyan’s two fingers, then controlled Lin Zhiyan’s hand to slowly put the ring on his left middle finger.
It reached the base, tightly secured.
Lin Zhiyan looked at him in a daze.
Lu Ze placed the other ring in his palm, slowly closed it, and looked up at him seriously:
“Gege, it’s not me who’s playing with you, it’s you who’s in control of me.”
