I Became a Heartthrob After Marrying in My Sister's Place - Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Inside the house, the rich aroma of roasted sweet potatoes filled the air. Ming Huaizhi stood by the intercom, preparing to welcome Sang Yu in.

When Sang Yu stepped out of the elevator, his pace was urgent. However, he paused before the turn and deliberately slowed his steps.

The rhythmic da-da of leather shoes echoed on the third floor.

Ming Huaizhi tilted his head slightly and soon saw Sang Yu’s tall, upright figure.

Sensing a touch of chill clinging to Sang Yu, Ming Huaizhi asked after they entered: “Do you need me to brew a cup of coffee for you?”

Sang Yu: “No need, it’s too late.”

“Alright then, drink it when we get back.”

The building was spacious and the indoor temperature wasn’t particularly high, so Ming Huaizhi had put on a thick white coat, looking very warm. Having carefully packed the roasted sweet potatoes, he stuffed one in his pocket and handed the other to Sang Yu to warm his hands.

Ming Yantang’s studio was very large; right next door was the Chengqi headquarters. Originally, to ensure stronger privacy, Chengqi had specifically rented this entire building and converted it into Ming Yantang’s exclusive studio.

Sang Yu looked around the surroundings, finally stopping his gaze on the windowsill where Ming Huaizhi had been leaning.

The windowsill was made of marble and looked icy cold. He frowned slightly, his thin lips moving as if to speak, yet he held back.

Before heading downstairs, Ming Huaizhi pushed out two oversized suitcases. Sang Yu took them: “I’ll do it.”

Ming Huaizhi was very fair: “One for each of us.”

Sang Yu said with a hint of casualness: “With your thin arms and legs, you’d better give them to me.”

Inside the elevator, Ming Huaizhi politely said thank you.

Staring at the advertisement screen in front of them, Sang Yu asked: “I sent you a WeChat voice call, did you receive it?”

Ming Huaizhi replied subconsciously: “No.”

Sang Yu looked at him slowly: “Did you block me?”

Ming Huaizhi’s eyes flickered: “No, I changed my WeChat account, you haven’t added the new one.”

Only after personally watching Ming Huaizhi pull up the new WeChat account did Sang Yu reluctantly believe him.

The black Maybach drove through the blocks. At this moment, the night view of Bianjiang City was dazzling, and many people were still waiting for tables at the roadside restaurants.

This hour was exactly the time for late-night snacks.

Ming Huaizhi clung to the car window, looking with great interest at the shops labeled with “crawfish” and “lamb spine hotpot.”

In all his years of growing up, he had never eaten these things.

The scent of the sweet potato in his pocket stimulated Ming Huaizhi’s taste buds; he was getting hungrier and hungrier, but since the smell in a closed car cabin doesn’t dissipate easily, he had to endure it for now.

“You haven’t eaten, right?” Sang Yu tossed his phone to Ming Huaizhi. “Order with the butler; have him arrange for someone to cook now.”

Ming Huaizhi glanced at the time on the clock: “Isn’t it a bit late now? Have the chefs gone to sleep?”

Sang Yu: “They live in my house.”

Ming Huaizhi looked out the car window longingly again: “Sang Yu, can we eat late-night snacks outside?”

Sang Yu slowed the car down and looked up at the open-air food stalls by the river: “Unsanitary.”

“Okay.” Ming Huaizhi didn’t say anything more.

After a while, Sang Yu glanced at the person beside him. He noticed Ming Huaizhi’s eyelashes trembling imperceptibly, like a sodden little kitten, looking pitiful.

Sang Yu found it strange; it was just an ordinary late-night snack, yet the other party seemed to care deeply.

Perhaps because he was in the wrong earlier tonight, Sang Yu was unexpectedly easy to talk to today: “Does it have to be a food stall? Or is there another restaurant you fancy? I can take you.”

Ming Huaizhi’s face suddenly lit up with a shimmering smile.

“I want to eat crawfish. It doesn’t matter which restaurant we eat at.”

Sang Yu teased: “Look at you, it’s like you’ve never eaten it before.”

Ming Huaizhi didn’t dare respond, only looking at Sang Yu with satisfaction. At this moment, even the sweet potato in his pocket wasn’t as enticing.

Soon, Sang Yu brought him to a Black Pearl restaurant. This place specialized in creative fusion cuisine and had always maintained high popularity; many celebrities liked to come here.

Here, Sang Yu didn’t need to book in advance; a private room would be automatically reserved for him.

However, when Ming Huaizhi walked past the seats by the river, he liked them very much, so they sat down there instead.

At this hour, the restaurant was still busy with many guests, but the privacy of each table was good and the environment was dim, making it very suitable for a date.

Continuous days of work had left Sang Yu somewhat fatigued. Rolling up his sleeves, he leaned back in the chair, his arm resting on the side armrest, his long fingertips tapping on the rosewood as he asked the band to play a piece of soothing light music for them.

Opposite him, Ming Huaizhi was ordering food.

The other party seemed to be in a very good mood, with the corners of his pale pink lips curled up and a charming vivacity in his amber eyes.

Hearing the music, Ming Huaizhi looked up; every smile and expression carried a rare liveliness.

“Sang Yu.”

“Does requesting a song cost money?”

Sang Yu raised an eyebrow slightly: “No charge.”

Ming Huaizhi closed the menu, showing a trace of bashfulness: “I want to request one too.”

In fact, this kind of band performance exists in any high-end restaurant, but the other party’s reaction made Sang Yu feel a bit strange.

“The tablet on your table you can use it to order.”

Ming Huaizhi did as told and soon requested a romantic piece of Turkish music.

The food was served quickly, accompanied by a beautiful ice cream cake. The restaurant manager said with a smile: “A new product from the restaurant, please have a taste.”

Sang Yu nodded slightly: “Thank you.”

While eating, Ming Huaizhi noticed that Sang Yu only ordered a portion of soup and wasn’t as talkative as usual. He asked softly: “Have you been working overtime a lot lately?”

Sang Yu: “Mm.”

Ming Huaizhi suddenly felt a sense of guilt. If they could have gone home to eat, Sang Yu should have been able to rest a bit more.

“Then I’ll eat quickly.” Ming Huaizhi swallowed a mouthful of noodles haphazardly, held the bowl, and whispered: “Thank you for treating me to dinner. To show my gratitude, I can provide a service for you after we get home.”

Sang Yu’s narrowed eyes lifted with a layer of surprise: “Service?”

Ming Huaizhi said slowly: “Shoulder massage.”

Sang Yu laughed and said nonchalantly: “Sure. If you don’t massage me until I’m comfortable today, you’re not allowed to sleep.”

Ming Huaizhi looked a bit troubled, his delicate eyebrows furrowing slightly as if struggling for a long time: “I’ll try my best.”

Sang Yu tasted the soup, sat up straight, crossed his legs, and watched Ming Huaizhi. He always felt that the Ming Yantang before his eyes had a personality that wasn’t quite the same as the Ming Yantang he had known in the past.

At that moment, a waiter walked over: “Gentlemen, this is a Black Truffle Chocolate Soufflé sent to you by the gentleman next door. He said this is Mr. Ming’s favorite.”

Ming Huaizhi looked over curiously and found that the person next door was a man wearing gold-rimmed glasses.

Sang Yu sensed a slight “off” flavor.

“Ex-boyfriend?”

These three words were very light, but the tone was markedly different from before.

Ming Huaizhi didn’t know who the person opposite was either; what he feared more right now was exposing his identity in front of these two people.

At this time, that man walked gracefully toward him.

“Yantang, long time no see.”

Several people dining with the man looked over at them; everyone seemed to know the person Ming Yantang, and their eyes held a few hints of ambiguous expectation.

Ming Huaizhi glanced at Sang Yu secretly, stood up, and said to this man: “Long time no see.”

The man adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses, his gaze inadvertently sweeping past Sang Yu and landing on Ming Huaizhi’s eyes.

“We still have some fate after all. I ordered the dessert you love most for you and this gentleman. Tonight’s dinner is on me. Enjoy your meal.”

Just as Ming Huaizhi was about to speak, Sang Yu opposite them suddenly placed his spoon on the porcelain plate, drawing the attention of both men.

Sang Yu looked at the man coldly: “And this is?”

The man handed a business card to Sang Yu: “Chen Xu, engaged in foreign trade business abroad.”

Ming Huaizhi had no impression of this person, Chen Xu, and he wasn’t a WeChat friend, so he couldn’t be sure of the relationship between this man and his brother.

Sang Yu didn’t take Chen Xu’s business card but instead looked down to straighten his cuffs: “Boss Chen is very generous.”

The man smiled faintly: “To be able to meet Yantang again, I already have no regrets. He loved this cake most when he was in France, so I wanted to buy it for him.”

When the other party finished this sentence, Sang Yu let out a laugh. Just as he was about to stand up, Ming Huaizhi interrupted him.

Picking up the two portions of cake, Ming Huaizhi walked to Chen Xu’s table, placed them down gently, and then turned back.

“Thank you for the cake, but tonight I want to have a quiet dinner with my fiancé. Although you didn’t mean it, you indeed disturbed us.”

“Fiancé?” Chen Xu’s eyes were full of astonishment. “You… you want to get married?”

Ming Huaizhi’s eyes were serious: “I want to marry him.”

Chen Xu’s gaze suddenly became tinged with a bit of dejection: “Then I wish you happiness…”

From beginning to end, Sang Yu had been observing Ming Huaizhi. Only after Chen Xu left did he slowly retract his gaze.

“Sang Yu, let’s continue eating.”

Sang Yu pulled back his inquisitive look: “Mm.”

After Chen Xu’s interruption, Ming Huaizhi’s mood soured a bit, but the fresh fragrance of the crawfish soon made him forget the unpleasantness, and his appetite gradually improved.

Before going home, he even asked the waiter to pack a dessert. Seeing that Sang Yu didn’t say anything, he asked for two.

From the moment Chen Xu returned to his seat, his eyes followed Sang Yu and Ming Huaizhi until they were about to leave, at which point he withdrew his gaze forlornly.

Holding his trench coat in his left hand, Sang Yu followed Ming Huaizhi and said in a low voice to the restaurant owner as they passed: “I’m paying for the whole restaurant tonight.”

The owner smiled and nodded: “Alright.”

After the two had completely left, the owner announced this news to all the guests, finally walking specifically to Chen Xu’s side: “Mr. Chen, this is a dessert specifically ordered for you by Mr. Sang. I wish you a pleasant meal tonight.”

Chen Xu stared at the matcha-flavored dessert in front of him, his expression awkward: “Mm.”

…

In the car, Ming Huaizhi was holding his phone, reading the script for a new variety show. Regarding the encounter with Chen Xu at the restaurant, the two tacitly did not mention it again.

The recording location for Ming Huaizhi’s new variety show was the Sangli Group; he didn’t know if there was a possibility of running into Sang Yu. However, Sang Yu should be at the headquarters, so the probability wasn’t high.

Belatedly, he suddenly remembered something.

He looked at Sang Yu: “Since we went out to eat today, won’t we be photographed?”

“Are you still afraid of that?” Sang Yu mocked him intentionally. “In the past, those scandal photos of yours were practically high-definition posters. You should be quite cooperative with the gossip media.”

Ming Huaizhi paused: “I’m afraid my manager will find out I’m eating with you and ask about our relationship. I can’t just brush her off.”

Sang Yu said casually: “Just say I’m your relative.”

Ming Huaizhi argued in a small voice: “My manager basically knows my family situation.”

After a moment of silence, Sang Yu gave a rogue smile: “Don’t you have a younger brother? Just say I’m your younger brother’s husband.”

The tips of Ming Huaizhi’s ears turned slightly red, and he began to cough violently.

Tsk, why are you so certain it’s “husband” and not “wife”?