To Treat Each Other Like Brothers - Chapter 25

Before Xie Shiyao could say anything, Lin Zhuyi tapped his finger and hung up the phone directly.

He put on a completely innocent expression, leaned his face closer, and said, “I am sorry, I could not hold myself back. If you are angry, you can hit me.”

Xie Shiyao was stunned at first, and then he laughed helplessly. He was truly rendered speechless to the point of laughter.

Holding his phone, he tapped his own head with a sigh and said, “If I am hacked to death with a wild knife on the street one day, you will definitely not be able to escape the responsibility.”

Xie Shiyao tossed his phone onto the sofa, walked toward the kitchen, and added, “Remember to collect my corpse for me in the future.”

Lin Zhuyi blinked his eyes in confusion.

He wondered why Xie Shiyao was not angry, how he could not be angry, and how it was possible for him not to be angry.

He chased after him and asked, “Brother, are you not angry?”

Xie Shiyao was already looking for a pot in the kitchen, preparing to boil the dumplings. He replied, “Just keep pushing your luck.”

Unwilling to back down, Lin Zhuyi took out the pot ahead of him and began boiling the dumplings, occasionally observing Xie Shiyao from the corner of his eye.

Adding water and turning on the stove, the plump white dumplings bubbled and boiled in the pot. Lin Zhuyi scooped them out and brought them steaming hot to the table in front of Xie Shiyao.

Xie Shiyao picked one up with his chopsticks, chewing slowly to taste it. The flavor was indeed very good.

“It tastes terrible,” Xie Shiyao said.

Lin Zhuyi leaned on the table, not even moving his own chopsticks. He just stared with his large eyes at Xie Shiyao eating and said, “Brother, you look like a kitten when you eat. Every bite you take is chewed into tiny pieces.”

Xie Shiyao tapped Lin Zhuyi on the head with the back of his chopsticks and asked, “How can you speak to your superior like that?”

Lin Zhuyi remained leaning on the table as before and said calmly, “Boss, I have overstepped my bounds.”

Xie Shiyao let out a cold laugh and said, “Since you know I am the boss, I must make things clear to you in advance. There are two principles you must follow.”

“First, I do not want anyone in the company to know about my sexual orientation.”

“Second, I do not want anyone to know that you are my brother.”

Lin Zhuyi said, “Speaking like that makes it seem as though you are deliberately digging a hole and waiting for me to jump in. You are truly cunning, Chairman Xie.”

Xie Shiyao picked up another dumpling and said, “I am not digging a hole. I am attempting to have a normal communication and exchange with an adult.”

“Yesterday, you asked me how we would define who wins and who loses in this game of playing brothers. The two principles I just mentioned are my stakes.”

“If you destroy the things I care about, I will consider myself the loser and will not play along with you anymore. Oh, that is right, I have left a sum of money for you. When the time comes, I will use my own methods to send you to the United States. We will never need to see each other again for the rest of our lives.”

Lin Zhuyi’s expression grew serious.

Seeing the expression he wanted, Xie Shiyao said with satisfaction, “You can destroy me at any time, and I can also discard you at any time. If you want to play with me, you must play by my rules.”

After saying that, he picked up a dumpling, held it to Lin Zhuyi’s lips, and said, “Ah, open your mouth.”

“You must eat the dumplings you wrapped yourself, my younger brother.”

Lin Zhuyi stared at Xie Shiyao with a complex gaze and swallowed this dumpling that felt comparable to a final meal on death row. He asked, “Do you care that much about your sexual orientation?”

Xie Shiyao put down his chopsticks and said with great interest, “I care about your loyalty.”

The dumplings were delicious. Lin Zhuyi remained very silent. After Xie Shiyao finished eating, he wiped the corners of his mouth, walked over to the lounge chair in front of the floor to ceiling window, lay down to bathe in the sunlight, and closed his eyes to rest his mind.

The sound of water from Lin Zhuyi washing dishes came from the kitchen.

Listening to that sound, Xie Shiyao felt a sense of peace that came from residing next to a wolf.

He questioned how he could not care about his sexual orientation.

He still clearly remembered the man his mother used to bring home frequently when he was a child.

He remembered even more clearly the agreement he made with his father back then, the agreement about bringing his mother home together.

His father had said that they needed to please that man so that they could catch him in a blunder and bring his mother back to the home that belonged only to the three of them.

The face of that man had become a nightmare that returned in his midnight dreams. He could not forget the expression on his mother’s face, a mixture of shock and disgust, when that man was about to lay his hands all over him.

He simply could not forget it.

His mother had said he was filthy.

Feeling the warm sunlight, Xie Shiyao thought with a trace of sadness that he had experienced so much just for a home, yet his father, who had secretly conspired with him, still exiled him because of a few casual words from Lin Zhuyi.

This time.

He wondered, Lin Zhuyi, will you betray me too.

Xie Shiyao stayed at home until the third day of the Lunar New Year.

That night, he had a dinner commitment, so he left Lin Zhuyi at home.

Before leaving, he threw a stack of documents to Lin Zhuyi, which contained general introductions regarding the key projects, resorts, and shopping malls under Yaoshi.

When he returned home, Xie Shiyao brought back a new laptop computer for Lin Zhuyi, telling him to use this computer to process data when he started working in the future.

“Brother, you have been giving me gifts constantly lately. How should I repay you?” Lin Zhuyi opened the computer, looked at it, and was clearly in a good mood.

Xie Shiyao took off his overcoat and said, “If you behave yourself, that will be better than anything.”

It was unclear whether Lin Zhuyi actually took those words to heart or not.

Regardless, on the first working day after the holiday, when Xie Shiyao had finished washing up and eating breakfast.

Lin Zhuyi had already changed into a tailored suit, stepped into his leather shoes, and sat in the driver’s seat of the Maybach, waiting for Xie Shiyao to get into the car.

That face, which was already very much to his liking, was set off by the sharp suit, causing Xie Shiyao to steal a few extra glances.

Xie Shiyao cleared his throat and sat in the back seat. As the car door closed, he asked in a deliberately casual tone, “Is the voice recorder turned on?”

Lin Zhuyi fished the voice recorder out of his pocket, tossed it backward, and landed it squarely in Xie Shiyao’s hand.

On the screen of the voice recorder, the words recording in progress were lit up. Lin Zhuyi asked, “Is Chairman Xie satisfied?”

The voice recorder in his hand was quite warm, as though it still retained the residual body temperature of that person.

Xie Shiyao weighed the voice recorder, leaned forward slightly, inserted the device gently into Lin Zhuyi’s pocket, and said, “You are very good.”

Lin Zhuyi turned his hand and gripped Xie Shiyao’s wrist, saying, “It is early in the morning, and brother has already made me aroused. How am I supposed to work in a little while?”

Xie Shiyao tilted his head, hiding his smile where Lin Zhuyi could not see it, and said, “In your eyes, I suppose even my breathing is a form of teasing you.”

“It is not just in my eyes.” Lin Zhuyi rubbed his thumb across the back of Xie Shiyao’s hand and added, “It is in everyone’s eyes. You had better restrain that seductive aura of yours when you are outside. I will be unhappy.”

Xie Shiyao could not help but laugh and said, “Have you not never liked me? Do not act as though the two of us are in a relationship. You have no right to be unhappy.”

Lin Zhuyi stepped steadily on the accelerator, steering the wheel with his left hand as he asked, “Tell me, if we were to date, would it be considered incest?”

Xie Shiyao replied, “We share no blood relation, so how could it count?”

“What a pity,” Lin Zhuyi said, uttering something rather ambiguous before adding, “I really wish we were real brothers who shared the same last name, looked almost identical, were registered under the same household account, and had the same blood flowing through our bodies.”

Xie Shiyao frowned and asked, “Why?”

As the car drove out of the old family estate, Lin Zhuyi’s profile was bathed in the morning light as he said, “Then I would not have to work this hard.”

Xie Shiyao pondered for a moment, then simply extended his arm, wrapping it around Lin Zhuyi’s neck from behind. Resting his head next to the headrest of the driver’s seat, he spoke lazily against Lin Zhuyi’s hearing aid, asking, “Is it very tiring?”

Lin Zhuyi did not speak.

Xie Shiyao rubbed his knuckle against Lin Zhuyi’s face, then patted his cheek, saying, “You brought this upon yourself. Just bear with the fatigue.”

Only then did he sit back, crossing his legs with a bright smile as he said, “Since you love to play so much, let us play together until we are completely exhausted, Assistant Lin.”

Lin Zhuyi glanced through the rearview mirror at the exquisite man who seemed to radiate light under the sun, and two thoughts popped into his mind.

He is unbearably seductive.

He needs to be put in his place.

The moment they entered the Yaoshi building, Xie Shiyao left Lin Zhuyi with the human resources department to register and complete his work badge.

Lin Zhuyi asked, “When can I enter your office?”

Xie Shiyao smiled without replying.

He thought to himself, you want to enter my office, just you wait.

While Lin Zhuyi was filling out his information, Xie Shiyao spoke with the human resources manager, instructing him to keep Lin Zhuyi there to help out for the time being, and to bring him along to take meeting minutes when it was time for the conference.

Upon returning to his office, Xie Shiyao opened his phone and played the synchronized audio recording from Lin Zhuyi’s end.

He was quite surprised.

Lin Zhuyi acted remarkably human. Anyone who did not know better would truly think he was a polite, efficient, and handsome young man.

Xie Shiyao felt a brief sense of gratification that Lin Zhuyi had managed to assume a civilized form.

However, when he heard several female employees speaking to Lin Zhuyi under the pretext of showing him around the environment, he instantly felt displeased.

Xie Shiyao locked his phone sullenly, not wanting to listen to the sound of Lin Zhuyi conversing with female staff members.

Nevertheless, today was the first working day after the holiday, and there were many matters awaiting his approval and signature. Xie Shiyao quickly forgot that slight unpleasantness and immersed himself in his work. Before long, it was time for the scheduled meeting.

The conference room was not far from his office, and right next door was a rather large pantry.

Sometimes after a meeting concluded, he would go to the adjacent pantry to drink tea while instructing others on matters that had not been fully detailed during the conference.

Following his usual habit, Xie Shiyao entered the conference room ten minutes ahead of everyone else.

Normally, there would be no one inside, but he did not expect to see Lin Zhuyi sitting right next to the entrance of the pantry the moment he opened the door.

He was dressed impeccably in his suit, his hearing aid and earring glinting under the sunlight.

Lin Zhuyi had his laptop on his lap and was typing. Seeing Xie Shiyao enter, he raised his head.

His lips parted, and he was just about to speak.

Xie Shiyao, however, cast a glance at him and pressed his long index finger against his own lips, signaling for silence.

In the center of the massive conference table that was almost as large as the entire room, Xie Shiyao pulled out a chair unhurriedly, sat down, and leaned lazily against the backrest.

“I like employees who have a sense of time. Well done, Assistant Lin,” Xie Shiyao said mockingly.

Lin Zhuyi replied, “I am your personal assistant. What is the meaning of throwing me to the human resources department?”

Xie Shiyao smiled and said, “You lack discipline and training. Does the Chairman really need to handle such things personally?”

Lin Zhuyi’s gaze darkened as he asked, “Have I received too little of your training?”

Xie Shiyao wanted to suppress the urge to purse his lips and smile secretly, so he spoke in a serious, unhurried tone, saying, “I am sorry, I do not understand what you are talking about. However, did no one tell you that you need to pour tea in front of every seat before a meeting?”

He raised his arm, revealing the wristwatch on his hand, and added, “Well, you still have nine minutes left. On your first day of work, I will allow you to make mistakes. This is a one time exception.”

The conference table could accommodate approximately twenty people.

By the time Lin Zhuyi finished preparing the tea, the meeting had already commenced, and the room was filled to capacity.

Lin Zhuyi sat back in his designated position, listening to everyone’s conversation while recording all the content onto his computer.

From time to time, he could perceive Xie Shiyao’s subtle, lingering gaze drifting over to him.

Yet when Lin Zhuyi raised his eyes to confirm whether this gaze was real, Xie Shiyao showed absolutely no trace of looking at him, instead discussing various matters with everyone with perfect ease.

It was exactly as though they truly did not know each other.

It was as if he were genuinely just a newly hired assistant, sharing a perfectly ordinary relationship between a superior and a subordinate.

It was as though they had never kissed openly on the street in the middle of a bustling plaza.

The meeting lasted for nearly two hours. The moment it ended, Xie Shiyao departed.

Since the person in charge of the Beicheng resort happened to be present, Xie Shiyao entered the office with him to have lunch together. After finishing, they drank tea for a long time, discussing several plans for after the holiday.

By the time they wrapped up, it was already time to clock out of work, and the manager suggested treating Xie Shiyao to a meal.

Normally, Xie Shiyao would have accepted, but today he lacked the inclination.

After exchanging a few more polite remarks with the manager, Xie Shiyao watched him leave the office.

He checked his watch and briefly organized the documents on his desk.

Right at that moment, a sound came from the door behind him.

The door opened and then closed.

Someone approached with rapid strides.

Before Xie Shiyao could even turn around, his wrists were swiftly twisted behind his back. The world tilted, and someone pressed against his back seamlessly, forcing him heavily against the wall.

With his head forced against the wall, Lin Zhuyi’s breath felt burning hot. That breath ground against Xie Shiyao’s ear, feeling both dangerous and causing an itch of desire to stir in his heart.

Lin Zhuyi said, “Chairman Xie, you have ignored me for an entire day.”

“Do you not intend to personally inspect the results of my work?”