After Reuniting, My Beautiful Ex-Lover Fishes for Me Every Day - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Promotion

The bedroom was sufficiently quiet. The morning light traced a warm illusion over the room’s cold and monotonous decor. Wei Changli lay staring blankly for a while, attempting to roll over and sit up.

However, the slightest movement made his head swim and his eyes blur. Immediately following that, several sections of his bones seemed to voice their protest; not only did his back and waist ache, but his calves showed signs of cramping. Having practiced martial arts since childhood, Wei Changli immediately abandoned the idea of fighting his body to sit up. Instead, he let himself sink self-abandonedly into the soft quilt, allowing the morning sun to spill over him.

Yan Xu…

Wei Changli silently recited the name once more, letting his thoughts drift freely through the fragments of the past. The morning glow blurred his surroundings into a soft background; the only thing clearly reflected deep in his pupils was still that man—

Yan Xu.

Wei Changli was only sixteen when he first met him. At that time, the young master of the Wei family was the very definition of a spirited youth on a fast horse. Given how much he was pampered in the Wei family, it was highly probable that in a few years, he would have grown into a playboy wandering through a thicket of flowers. To speak of “love at first sight” was a cliché and something that usually couldn’t be taken seriously.

Yet, perhaps fate is a truly mysterious existence. Wei Changli—a young master of a wealthy house who held his head high and never took the initiative to get close to others—fell for Yan Xu at first sight.

Even though Wei Changli would later always attribute this feeling to a momentary attraction to beauty, he could fool others but not himself. From the moment he saw Yan Xu, he could never forget that heart-pounding feeling of “a glance lasting ten thousand years,” and for a long time afterward, he was hopelessly lost and self-indulgent.

During that time, everything related to Yan Xu was like a jigsaw puzzle, and Wei Changli was the player racking his brains to piece together the fragments. He had tried to find various reasons to create flawed “chance encounters,” or clumsily test the waters under the guise of “friendship” while saying things he didn’t mean, like a brilliant firework abruptly exploding into Yan Xu’s life—

Perhaps Yan Xu saw through these tactics—which were neither subtle as a crush nor thorough as an open pursuit—from the very first glance. His initial stillness dissolved into the warmth of the young master Wei, eventually leading to a few sparks of affection, the sincerity of which remained unknown.

The day they got together happened to be Wei Changli’s coming-of-age ceremony. From then on, the young master Wei had a perfect lover: Yan Xu was peaceful and gentle, considerate and respectful toward his partner, and he came with a face that made people lose their senses and tempted them into making mistakes. Wei Changli found it hard to describe those days; it was like being wrapped in gaudy honey, a sweetness so intense it felt unreal.

Because it was unreal, he was constantly plagued by a sense of impending loss.

During that period, Wei Changli often dreamed, repeatedly surfacing and sinking within the nightmares of an abyss. He dreamed countless times of reaching out to a blurred silhouette to make them stay, yet he was never able to grasp the person who was determined to leave. This kind of abandonment felt as though it had already played out before, repeating tens of millions of times in his subconscious.

Three years ago, Wei Changli was only twenty, yet he proposed marriage to Yan Xu.

Even with the background of the same-sex marriage act having passed, for the most pampered youngest master of the Wei family to take this step could be called crazy.

The daily loss of security became the catalyst for the relationship. Wei Changli desperately wanted a result, like a prisoner waiting for the guillotine to fall. When he was rejected by Yan Xu, he even felt a sense of relief in his heart, mocking his own unrealistic fantasies while still harboring hope for the relationship.

The reason Yan Xu gave him was a “hidden physical ailment.” But any adult understands that such an artificial excuse is merely a more decent-sounding way of speaking. Perhaps this man had never thought about a result or a future from the very beginning. It was just that at the right time, Wei Changli appeared boisterously, so he went with the flow and walked a path with him for a while, gathering and parting as his heart pleased.

Later they separated, and for the three whole years following that, there was no word from Yan Xu. Wei Changli only occasionally heard from his older brother that Yan Xu had gone abroad, his career flourishing and rising step by step. After returning to the country, he rose even higher in his primary field of genetic engineering. At only twenty-nine, he had already become the Director of the Ning City Research Institute—an unprecedented feat that drew a vast, unbridgeable chasm between him and ordinary people whose IQs didn’t reach 180.

What did that driver call him last night…?

Director Yan?

It seems he’s been promoted again.

The shifting sunlight fell into his eyes, producing a subtle irritation to his pupils. Wei Changli slowly closed his eyes. He raised his hand to block his eyelids, shielding them from the increasingly brilliant light.

In the past, the four great families—”Yun, Yan, Xiao, and Wei”—stood as rivals in the Ning City region. The prominent fields of the Yan and Wei families were different, but their family backgrounds were matched enough to go back and forth. But now, the commercial skyscraper of the Wei family had collapsed, and every family avoided the “Wei” name like a venomous snake. His situation and Yan Xu’s were as far apart as heaven and earth…

Under these circumstances, for Yan Xu to personally brave the rain to go out and find him—unless Yan Xu had undergone a sudden genetic mutation based on some lingering affection and grown the radiant heart of a saint determined to save all living souls—the matter itself was illogical.

The educational philosophy Wei Changli had received since childhood was: “Every action must have a purpose.” Examining himself now, he felt that the only thing he currently possessed that could be “purposed” was likely just this body.

A set of intentionally lightened footsteps came from outside the door. Wei Changli’s frame stiffened; he then silently pulled up the quilt to cover most of his face, closing his eyes to feign sleep.

Yan Xu opened the door and walked in. He was dressed in a shirt and trousers; the sunlight traced his silhouette, making him look exceptionally tall and handsome, as if the loss of control from last night had never existed.

A corner of the smooth bed suddenly dipped. A hand descended quietly. Wei Changli felt the visitor sit down beside him, brushing the hair messed up by sleep away from his forehead to reveal the medical patch on his wound. The hand then moved all the way down, gently stroking the young master’s eyelids, pulling back the suffocating corner of the quilt, and skimming across his lips as lightly as a dragonfly touching water.

These restrained and lingering small gestures stopped exactly where they should. Yan Xu didn’t bother to investigate whether Wei Changli was truly asleep or faking. He spoke:

“One of the kittens was already gone when we returned yesterday. Of the remaining two, one is not in a very good condition. After all, the facilities at home are limited, so I had someone take them to a nearby pet hospital for observation and treatment. The veterinarian will do their best… but they are too small; the chance of survival is not high.”

Wei Changli remained motionless upon hearing this, but his fingers hidden under the quilt curled up silently.

“The injection I gave you last night was a reagent to suppress the drug effects. Don’t worry, there are almost no side effects; you just need to let your body metabolize it. However, it may cause drowsiness. Get some rest.”

Yan Xu finished explaining the situation simply. Without waiting for a response from Wei Changli, he seemed truly busy and rose to leave.

Clack. The man’s movement to depart suddenly stalled.

At this moment, even Wei Changli didn’t actually know what he wanted to clarify or what answer he wanted to get. Yet, he still followed his heart, impulsively opening his eyes and reaching out to grab Yan Xu’s wrist.

“What does this mean?”

Wei Changli stared at Yan Xu’s back, which was bathed in light: “All these things you’re doing… what exactly do they mean?”