The Overbearing CEO Boss is my Childhood Sweetheart - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

At midnight, neon lights illuminate the second face of the bustling Jing City.

The most popular spot among young people, Hua’an Street, is brilliantly lit. Half the street consists of steaming “Internet-famous” eateries with crowds coming and going; the other half features a “sharp-faced, big-eyed beauty” every five steps and a “long-legged, high-nosed handsome guy” every ten. It is truly pleasing to the eye, but if you look for too long, you become “face-blind.”

These standard-looking handsome men and beautiful women, who usually disperse among various bars and clubs, are currently all huddled and squeezing into the entrance of a club called “Night Color.”

Driven by curiosity, a bewildered passerby stops to peer inside, asking: “What’s going on in there? Is there something worth seeing?”

“The new MC [Note] at ‘Night Color.’ Tsk tsk, simply a peerless beauty—only, you can’t see him.”

“If you can’t see him, how do you know he’s a ‘peerless beauty’?” The passerby chuckles.

“I have a buddy inside who sent a video.” The speaker shakes the phone in his hand, which is currently playing a video.

The person filming clearly had shaky hands; the footage keeps wobbling and is hard to see clearly. One can only discern a man in a white shirt dancing.

“A man?” Different from what was imagined, the passerby thought “peerless beauty” would describe a great female beauty.

“Hey, it’s exactly because it’s a man that so many people are watching.”

As if to prove his words, the person pauses the video to enlarge the frame and shoves the phone screen into the passerby’s face: “I’ve been around the nightlife scene too, and I’ve rarely seen one like this.”

The man in the frame happens to stop on an upward-tilting head movement.

One of his hands covers his forehead with the back of the hand, while the other—with long, slender fingers—tightly grips a microphone, positioned right against his slightly parted lips.

A black lace eye mask covers half of his face, leaving the exposed jawline refined and fair. The undulating lines of his silhouette pass from the protruding Adam’s apple across the thin neck, trailing that slightly reflective, sticky trace of sweat as it slides into the hollow of the collarbone…

With just a few lines sketching the outline, it makes one harbor a chain of fantasies about the face beneath the mask.

“Night Color” is a very famous nightclub on this street, characterized by professional singing and dancing performances. At this hour, it is already filled to capacity. The small T-stage is surrounded by raised mobile phones, all aimed at the single person on stage.

The focus himself on stage finishes the last note in rhythm, touches his lips with two fingers joined together, and raises his hand to give the unsatisfied audience a flying kiss, immediately triggering another wave of frenzied screaming.

A card is thrown from below, landing at his feet. A coarse and frivolous laugh comes from the crowd: “Twist for me one more time, and all the money in the card is yours.”

He聞奇 (He Wenqi) turns a blind eye and steps off the stage without any hesitation.

“Brother Qi, Brother Qi, why did you come down? Isn’t it not over yet?” In the backstage dressing room, a fair and handsome young man on crutches followed him from behind with an excited face.

He Wenqi tears off the lace eye mask and tosses it casually onto the makeup table, leaning back onto the sofa: “I can’t do it anymore; my waist is about to snap from twisting. Yuan-er, when will your leg be better? I can’t keep filling in for this job; you’d better find someone else quickly.”

“Don’t do that, Brother Qi, you promised me.” 喬源 (Qiao Yuan) sits down by leaning against the sofa and leans in toward He Wenqi to massage his shoulders. “Just dance like you usually do when we’re playing around. Besides, if I could find someone, would I still need to trouble you? Just cover for me for two more days—just two days—at least help me get through next weekend, okay, Brother Qi?”

That last “okay” was dragged out with a long wavy tone. He Wenqi was swayed until he felt dizzy: “Speak properly, don’t use tildes.”

Qiao Yuan is one of the few friends He Wenqi has in Jing City. The two of them co-rent a small duplex apartment and are temporarily living together.

A few days ago, Qiao Yuan fell down the stairs at home, twitching in pain. At the time, thinking his leg was broken, he clutched He Wenqi’s clothes all the way to the hospital, saying his face hurt and he was disfigured, his leg was crippled, and he was going to lose his job.

Seeing him with a bruised face and crying a river, He Wenqi’s heart softened for a moment, and he agreed to stand in for a few shows. Who knew that being an atmosphere host at “Night Color” would be so taxing on the waist.

“Brother Qi, I’ve noted down your great kindness; as long as you are willing, I will repay you with my body at any time.” Qiao Yuan rested his head on He Wenqi’s shoulder.

He Wenqi reached out and ruffled Qiao Yuan’s thick hair: “Enough of that! What on earth is inside that head of yours every day?”

“Life’s big events!” Qiao Yuan counted on his fingers. “The two great dreams of life: open a bar and be the boss, and find a good man.”

He Wenqi sneered: “Give it a rest. It would be a miracle if you could find a reliable man in a place like this.”

Qiao Yuan smoothed his hair: “If I can’t find a man, finding money is fine too. Hey, Brother Qi, are you really not considering coming to work with us? With your conditions—just by you covering for me yesterday, the customers tripled. Today it was full house again; Manager Fan is absolutely delighted. This brings in money way faster than that miserable job of yours, and don’t you need money too? Oh right, someone just threw a card down earlier—why didn’t you take it?”

He Wenqi slanted a glance at him: “You take it?”

“I’ll take it! It’s just dancing a bit; I’m not losing anything. It’s earning money decently—no stealing, no snatching, no breaking the law. If someone threw money at me, I’d be happy to dance.” After saying this, Qiao Yuan stared at He Wenqi’s face, appearing both envious and discouraged. “I just don’t encounter such generous people.”

He Wenqi turned his head to look at him.

Qiao Yuan had delicate features and red lips with white teeth; his whole body was a size smaller than He Wenqi’s, looking friendly and cute. While He Wenqi was also very lean, he was long-limbed with sharp features. When he smiled, he was bright and moving; when he didn’t smile and kept a stiff face, it gave people the feeling that he was very hard to approach.

He Wenqi patted Qiao Yuan’s hand away and stood up: “Fantasizing all day long—don’t go getting confused again. Alright, I’m going back; I still have design drafts to revise. Are you coming?”

“Leaving now?” Qiao Yuan looked at the clock on the wall; it was 1:00 AM, the time when the night scene is in its peak flow and at its hottest. “Isn’t tomorrow Sunday? Why such a rush?”

“Design dogs have no weekends. Tell Boss Fan for me; I won’t go say goodbye.” As He Wenqi took his black down jacket off the hanger, he prepared to pull the door.

Before he could touch the handle, the door was suddenly pushed open from the outside. Four large men poured in, and the already small dressing room was filled to capacity in an instant.

“Wha—what’s going on? Outsiders can’t just enter the dressing room.” Qiao Yuan leaned on his crutches trying to stand up from the sofa, but after two attempts, he fell back down.

“Who are you looking for?” He Wenqi glanced at them, unconcerned, and shook out his coat, preparing to put it on.

The clothes were snatched away.

That person was very thin, with a square chin sporting a square patch of stubble. A bright blue tight-fitting Western suit set stretched tightly over his limbs.

“Little brother, how about going out to play with big brother for a while?” The man in the suit smiled with ill intent. “Don’t worry, it won’t be for nothing. That card I gave you just now—you didn’t even look at it. Just name your price for the reward, how about it?”

So it was the “sucker” who threw the card earlier.

He Wenqi had striking looks and had encountered men and women interested in him while frequenting nightclubs, but this was the first time he had met someone so blatantly naming a price.

He didn’t want to get entangled with the person and refused directly: “Sorry, not interested. Please give me back my clothes.”

“The clothes—” The man in the suit tossed the down jacket into the air, where it was immediately caught by a man in black. “You look even better without them.”

Frivolous and mocking laughter rang out in the room.

He Wenqi lowered his head and softly exhaled, then looked up with a smile: “Does this big brother mean he wants to keep (sponsor) me? Then you’ve found the wrong person and the wrong door. First, I am not an employee here; second, this place is a decent performance club and doesn’t do that kind of business. If big brother wants to find someone, turn right out the door and go two blocks; you can take your pick there.”

The man in the suit spat, stepped forward, and his gaze traveled back and forth over He Wenqi’s body: “Stop pretending, don’t be ungrateful. Name a price?”

He was half a head shorter than He Wenqi. He reached out to hover his hand near He Wenqi’s shoulder, tracing his figure downward, his words slippery: “Tsk tsk tsk, this body, this little waist, quite spicy…”

A pungent smell of perfume mixed with a strange odor wafted over, making He Wenqi frown.

He glanced at the three men in black standing aside with their hands behind their backs like subordinates. He raised his hand to block the “salty pig hand” (groping hand) reaching for his waist. He leaned in slightly toward the ear of the man in the suit, and at an angle the others couldn’t see, he gave Qiao Yuan a look. Qiao Yuan quietly made an “OK” gesture to him.

Only then did He Wenqi smile slightly again, continuing: “Since this big brother thinks highly of me, fine, I’ll name a price. But I’m afraid my price is something big brother can’t pay—”

He straightened up and looked down at the stick-like man in the suit: “My price has a threshold. First, one must have abs, chest muscles, and long legs, and must be young with good stamina. Then we can talk about the price.” He shook his head and intentionally made a sighing sound with his mouth. “Big brother looks quite physically deficient; you’d be better off keeping the money to nourish yourself first.”

The man in the suit didn’t get angry but laughed instead: “Your mouth is quite sharp; I knew you weren’t the obedient type. But it’s fine; I like the sense of achievement in taming someone.”

He tilted his head. Two men in black understood, stepped forward, and each grabbed one of He Wenqi’s arms, sandwiching and hoisting him up.

He Wenqi was not of a submissive temperament. Being hoisted, his long legs kicked off the ground, aiming a kick straight at the other’s lower body.

The man in the suit reacted quickly, jumping back to avoid it: “F***, that’s a ruthless kick; trying to break my root? In a moment, I’ll let you taste how I feel.” He roared, “Pin him down for me!”

His hands were twisted behind his back, and he took two kicks to the back of his knees. He Wenqi’s legs went weak, and he knelt on the ground.

“What are you doing?” Seeing the other side starting to use force, Qiao Yuan finally stood up supported by his crutches. This “disabled and weak” person was not taken seriously at all; with a light push, he fell back onto the sofa again.

With his hands locked behind him, He Wenqi struggled hard but to no avail. A trace of panic finally rose in his heart. He shouted to Qiao Yuan: “Qiao Yuan, where are the people you called? Why haven’t they arrived? Is the security at Night Color useless?”

“I… I don’t know, I’ll call again…” Qiao Yuan tremblingly took out his phone, which was then knocked away with a slap by a man in black.

“You—you guys better not mess around. I’ve already called the police. The police officer is my cousin-in-law; he’s just dropping my sister off and will be back immediately…” Qiao Yuan babbled nonsensically.

“We are civilized people; how could we mess around?” The man in the suit smilingly picked up a bottle of mineral water, unscrewed the cap, and dropped a small white pill inside. The round white granule sank to the bottom of the bottle with a string of bubbles.

He shook the bottle, the pill dissolving and mixing into the water: “Godly Water—have you ever drank it?” He held the bottle opening to He Wenqi’s mouth. “Drink it obediently, and I won’t settle the score for that kick just now. I’ll even let you enjoy a godly feeling.”

He Wenqi twisted his head, and as he jerked his chin up, it happened to hit the bottom of the bottle. The bottle flipped back, splashing the water all over the suit-man’s face.

“Pff—Damn it, so difficult to handle. You, come here, pin his head down for me.” The man in the suit wiped the water droplets off his face.

“You can’t do this; this is illegal. Ow—” Qiao Yuan tried to rush over dragging his injured leg, but was kicked in the stomach by a man in black, groaning as he curled into a ball on the sofa.

The man in black turned back, grabbed He Wenqi’s long, messy hair and pulled back forcefully, while his other hand clamped onto his jaw to straighten his face.

He Wenqi was in pain and forced to tilt his head up.

The man in the suit approached again with a smirk, pinching He Wenqi’s cheeks to force his mouth open, and shoved the bottle opening into He Wenqi’s mouth: “If you aren’t obedient, you have to suffer.”

Pressed down by three large men, He Wenqi could hardly move anymore and was forced a mouthful of cold water. Naturally, he was unwilling to swallow, but the water from the bottle was continuously and forcefully poured down his throat. During his struggle for breath, he swallowed two gulps and immediately began coughing uncontrollably.

The man in the suit clearly did not want to give him a moment’s respite, continuing to squeeze the plastic bottle into his mouth, baring his teeth with a distorted expression.

With a loud “Bang,” the dressing room door was violently kicked open. A black object flew over, hitting the man in the suit squarely on the bridge of his nose.

“F***, who is it? Who the hell is blind?” The man in the suit let go of He Wenqi, clutching his face and backing away two steps.

Having gained a chance to breathe, He Wenqi gasped for air. He then heard a man’s deep voice coming from behind him, suppressing rage:

“Get out!”