Jiang Tongyan could finally hold his head high. Only God knew how many years of grievance he had swallowed since meeting Shen Huiming.
But now, the curse was broken. Jiang Tongyan had his sweetheart in his arms, and he could finally show off in front of Shen Huiming with pride.
Shen Huiming listened to the voice on the other end of the line and glanced at his phone, double-checking that it really was Jiang Tongyan calling.
“An absolute darling?” No matter how he heard it, the phrase felt a bit much.
Had Jiang Tongyan been possessed?
“What? You free tonight?” Jiang Tongyan said smugly. “Don’t tell me, you’re scared?”
Shen Huiming laughed. “Me? Scared of you?”
He returned to his office and checked the calendar. “I’ll book the restaurant. I’ll message you.”
“No problem,” Jiang Tongyan added purposefully, “Book somewhere nice. Don’t you dare shortchange my boyfriend.”
Leaning back in his chair, Shen Huiming chuckled and cursed him affectionately before they hung up.
Cheng Sen gave him a look of disgust. “You really are the picture of a petty man finally getting his moment.”
“This is me being restrained. You wouldn’t understand.” He really wouldn’t. Cheng Sen had no idea what Jiang Tongyan had been through. All these years… Every time he liked someone, it ended in failure. And each of them ended up with Shen Huiming. His love life had been one long string of defeat. No wonder he had trauma.
But now? Now he was finally basking under the sun of liberation, so how could he not show off a little?
Jiang Tongyan downed the tea that Qian Xiaoke had brewed. After all, it wasn’t just any tea—this was tea made by his boyfriend. Every drop of water, every tea leaf, was soaked with affection. Not a drop should be wasted!
After draining his cup, Jiang Tongyan stood up to leave.
“I’m going upstairs to have a look.” The upstairs office was already under renovation. Since Cheng Sen had agreed to assign Qian Xiaoke as his receptionist, he had to pay close attention to the setup.
His personal motives were overflowing.
“I’ll go too,” Cheng Sen said. The two of them walked out together, just in time to see Qian Xiaoke signing for a delivery.
Jiang Tongyan walked past without interrupting, but in his heart, he sighed: A man focused on work is so adorable!
Cheng Sen said, “How did I never realise you were such a hopeless romantic?”
“Because I was never in relationship before!” Jiang Tongyan was surprisingly self-aware.
Cheng Sen laughed. “Can’t you be a little more composed? You’re acting like you’ve lost your mind over a relationship.”
“I’m in the honeymoon phase! You expect me to be calm? That wouldn’t be love!” Jiang Tongyan side-eyed him. “And don’t say anything about me. Who was it, huh? You fell for a flight attendant and started flying around the world every other week. You of all people have the nerve to say that I’m a love-brained person?”
Cheng Sen gave up talking, he couldn’t argue.
They reached the upstairs floor and walked around to inspect the renovation progress. Jiang Tongyan even took out his phone to carefully photograph the front desk from every angle so he could show them to Qian Xiaoke later and ask for feedback. If there was anything he didn’t like, Jiang Tongyan would have someone fix it right away.
Once they were done, they left for a meeting. Though the office space wasn’t ready, the new project had already begun.
And while Jiang Tongyan was very much love-drunk, he wasn’t slacking at work either. His boyfriend Qian Xiaoke was a career-focused man and he couldn’t afford to drag him down.
The meeting of the new project team lasted for several hours. When it was finally over, Jiang Tongyan checked his phone and saw that Shen Huiming had messaged him long ago.
Restaurant booked. Dinner at eight. Don’t be late.
He glanced at the time. It was 5:10 PM. It wasn’t long before Qian Xiaoke would get off work.
So he headed back with Cheng Sen and sat in Chairman Cheng’s office, sipping tea while waiting for his boyfriend to clock out.
Cheng Sen sighed, “I really should ban office romances.”
“Too late,” Jiang Tongyan grinned. “I’m a partner now. Once you reassign him to my department, you don’t get a say.”
Cheng Sen snorted. He grabbed his keys, and headed out.
“You wait, then. When you leave, have Qian Xiaoke lock up for you.”
“Go ahead, go ahead,” Jiang Tongyan waved him off. “Let me wait quietly for my love.”
Cheng Sen looked at him like he had lost his mind, chuckled a few times, and walked away.
Meanwhile, Qian Xiaoke had gotten unexpectedly busy near the end of the day. A batch of outgoing deliveries had to be sorted for the evening pickup. By the time he finished, it was exactly 6 PM.
He looked up and there was Jiang Tongyan, leaning against Cheng Sen’s office door and smiling at him.
His eyes practically had pink hearts in them.
Qian Xiaoke felt a little embarrassed being stared at like that, but couldn’t help smiling sweetly as he sneaked a glance at Jiang Tongyan. Before he could say anything, coworkers from other departments began leaving for the day and habitually said goodbye to Qian Xiaoke on their way out.
Qian Xiaoke was well-liked. He chatted with anyone who passed by and was practically the company’s mascot.
By the time he finished seeing off his enthusiastic coworkers, Jiang Tongyan had already walked up beside him.
He was holding Qian Xiaoke’s puffer jacket in his arms, and opened it up, “Put this on.”
Qian Xiaoke’s cheeks turned rosy pink. As he slipped one arm into the sleeve, he mumbled shyly, “Come on, don’t do that here… What if someone sees? So embarrassing!”
Jiang Tongyan helped him into the coat and even pulled his bunny-ear knit hat over his head. “So what if they see? It’s not like we’re doing anything shady.”
He wanted the whole world to know he and Qian Xiaoke were dating.
“No way!” Qian Xiaoke raised a hand to adjust the hat and gave his little ‘bunny ears’ a quick pat.
That tiny motion tugged hard at Jiang Tongyan’s heartstrings. It was like a little paw patting directly on his soul and it stirred his already smitten heart even more.
Completely unaware of his boyfriend’s inner turmoil, Qian Xiaoke zipped up his coat and said earnestly, “This is a workplace, we should act professional.”
Jiang Tongyan grinned. “Okay, we’ll be professional.”
Then, taking full advantage of the fact that no one was around, he suddenly leaned in and kissed Qian Xiaoke on the cheek.
It was warm and soft.
He was obsessed.
Right after that, someone came out of the office.
A gossip-loving coworker didn’t catch the kiss but definitely saw the handsome man standing next to Qian Xiaoke, clearly waiting just for him. Their eyes practically lit up.
Everyone recognised this guy—he was the Chairman Jiang they often collaborated with. What they didn’t know yet was that this same Chairman Jiang would eventually be one of their future bosses.
When they looked at Qian Xiaoke, their eyes were full of speculation and stories. Qian Xiaoke knew what that meant—tomorrow, he was definitely in for some ‘heart-to-hearts’.
Whatever.
Qian Xiaoke wasn’t stingy about this kind of thing. Why enjoy happiness alone when you could share it with everyone?
He was generous.
Mostly, he wanted to show off a little.
By the time the two of them walked out of the building together, night had fully fallen.
It had snowed a few days ago, so the roads were slippery and the air was icy.
Jiang Tongyan said, “Almost forgot, we’ve got a date tonight.”
“Just the two of us?” Qian Xiaoke suddenly realised they hadn’t actually had a proper, traditional date since getting together.
What kind of date would Jiang Tongyan like?
If it were a real date, maybe hot pot or spicy snail noodles wouldn’t be right. After all, they hadn’t really celebrated being together either. Maybe he should order a cake?
While he was still lost in thought, Jiang Tongyan had already hailed a cab.
“Shen Huiming’s treating us to dinner,” Jiang Tongyan said. “He insisted on celebrating for us.”
“Shen Huiming?” Qian Xiaoke blinked, then the memory clicked. “Oh! I remember!”
“You don’t need to remember him,” Jiang Tongyan said. “Just remember him for tonight, then forget all about him after dinner.”
Qian Xiaoke tilted his face up and grinned, “Jiang Tongyan, you sound so jealous.”
Jiang Tongyan gave him a sideways glance. “Do you know who his partner is?”
“Who?” Qian Xiaoke blinked. “Someone I know?”
“The person I was supposed to be matched with on a blind date.”
Be jealous, dammit!
Jiang Tongyan screamed internally: Qian Xiaoke! You’d better be jealous right now!
But not only did Qian Xiaoke not get jealous—he actually looked kind of excited.
“Will we get to see him tonight too? That really handsome guy?” Qian Xiaoke remembered that man. He was super good-looking, quiet, and rarely smiled.
At Zhou Mo’s birthday party, Qian Xiaoke had secretly stared at him for ages. But since that guy had two people practically glued to him the whole time, Qian Xiaoke hadn’t dared go over and get a closer look.
Looking back on it now, the two people who had been clinging to that handsome guy… Weren’t they Shen Huiming and Jiang Tongyan themselves?!
Qian Xiaoke genuinely liked Jiang Tongyan. He had no intention of cheating and he wasn’t that kind of person. It just wouldn’t be right.
But it should be totally okay to look at handsome guys, right?
Especially since he clearly remembered Jiang Tongyan had once said that guy was his ideal type.
Zhou Mo had been the one to tell him that. But at the time, Zhou Mo had made it very clear that Jiang Tongyan liked him, and had only brought it up to tease him.
Qian Xiaoke didn’t get upset about it. After all, an ‘ideal type’ was just ideal. Real life was something else entirely. His ideal type wasn’t Jiang Tongyan either, and yet here they were happily dating.
Qian Xiaoke was very clear-headed about all this.
Still… he did want to see that handsome guy. It was a pleasing thing to the eyes and happy!
“…Qian Xiaoke, could you not be so obvious?” Jiang Tongyan frowned, suddenly sensing something fishy.
Something was off. Qian Xiaoke hadn’t reacted much at all to Shen Huiming, but hearing that they might meet Shen Huiming’s boyfriend had him all excited?
What was he up to?
“I’m always very reserved,” Qian Xiaoke replied sweetly, tugging on Jiang Tongyan’s sleeve and pulling him into the cab waiting by the curb.
“I just want to see what your former blind date looks like.”
Which wasn’t true. Qian Xiaoke just wanted to look at a handsome guy. That was all. His motives was very pure.
If there must be a selfish motive under the surface of the simple purpose, maybe it was that he wanted to personally observe what kind of special qualities the other guy had—qualities that he didn’t have.
Maybe he could learn a thing or two. Help fulfill Jiang Tongyan’s ideal-type fantasy a little.
Thinking that way, Qian Xiaoke actually moved himself.
The award for the most touching Chinese boyfriend must be given to him.
“Don’t look,” Jiang Tongyan said flatly. “Forget about him.”
“Why?” Qian Xiaoke snuggled up beside him in the backseat. “You afraid I’ll get jealous?”
Jiang Tongyan screamed internally: I WISH you’d get jealous!
But jealousy could wait. Today, his main goal in bringing Qian Xiaoke wasn’t to make him jealous, it was to flex his relationship in front of Shen Huiming.
He had very specifically told Shen Huiming not to bring his boyfriend.
Eye for an eye. Back in New York, those two had shown off so much, it was his turn for revenge tonight.
But of course, if Shen Huiming actually listened to him, he wouldn’t be Shen Huiming.
By the time Qian Xiaoke, red-cheeked and looking like a timid little bunny, followed Jiang Tongyan into that upscale restaurant, Shen Huiming and Suo Yang were already waiting for them.
T/N:
Hello, sorry again for the barely there updates… I’ve been busy because I will be moving and also my laptop is kinda broken and it limited me to use it until it gets fixed (•̀⤙•́ )
But I hope when all things are done and fixed, I can translate again a lot!
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