After Fu Yan left, Gu Zhan rolled down the car window and reached into the glove compartment, pulling out a pack of cigarettes.

The orange flame of the lighter suddenly flared, illuminating his pale forehead and tightly furrowed brows.

He watched that tall figure in the fluttering trench coat slowly walk into the residential complex until he disappeared from sight.

For some reason, Gu Zhan always felt that Fu Yan's back looked cold.

Perhaps the sight of Fu Yan walking away always reminded him of that snowy, windswept night.

Once you've seen someone at their coldest, how can you ever believe they can give you warmth again?

Someone who once hurt you so deeply had now come back and claimed to love you?

Gu Zhan couldn't accept it.

He could casually fool around with Fu Yan without getting emotionally involved, then calmly accept the fact that Fu Yan might leave him again one day.

What he couldn't accept was the possibility that Fu Yan might truly, genuinely love him.

Once upon a time, he had held out his sincere heart to Fu Yan, but Fu Yan hadn't wanted it. Gu Zhan couldn't make himself offer it up a second time.

All he could do was protect his heart tightly.

Over the next few days, Fu Yan continued to pick him up for work every morning, but he could never catch him in the evenings. Gu Zhan always seemed to have one social engagement or another.

It was the end of the year, after all, so there really were plenty of business dinners. Fu Yan was busy himself.

After making several wasted trips to Slungshot, he got smart and bribed Xiao Chen, asking her every day whether Gu Zhan was at the office and whether he would be leaving work normally.

The answer was almost always:

“President Gu is having dinner with a client again today.”

However, Xiao Chen was a secretary with principles. No matter how much Fu Yan tried to persuade or pressure her, she refused to tell him exactly where Gu Zhan was having dinner.

Meeting clients involved company confidentiality, so it was perfectly reasonable for Xiao Chen not to say. Of course, the main reason was that Gu Zhan had already instructed her: she could say he wasn't there, but she couldn't reveal where he had gone.

Fu Yan could more or less guess that this was Gu Zhan's intention.

Recently, he had been picking Gu Zhan up for work every day. Although Gu Zhan wasn't exactly resistant, he wasn't enthusiastic either. Fu Yan would deliberately find things to talk about, while Gu Zhan merely responded perfunctorily—not rude enough to be offensive, but cold nonetheless.

Fu Yan wasn't discouraged.

Perhaps he really had been pursuing Gu Zhan too aggressively. Maybe he should give Gu Zhan some breathing room and learn to balance advance and retreat.

He believed that as long as he didn't give up, one day he could warm up the aloof President Gu again and turn him back into that vibrant Gu Zhan who would laugh and cry in front of him.

That day, Gu Zhan went out to entertain another client and didn't get home until almost eleven.

The moment he entered his warmly heated apartment, Gu Zhan involuntarily shivered.

Today's client was a golf fanatic, and Gu Zhan had accompanied him for an entire evening of night golf. He'd worked up a sweat while playing, and once they stopped, the northern wind had made him genuinely cold.

Gu Zhan rolled his tired neck and mechanically changed his shoes in the entryway.

His stomach growled twice.

The night golf session had been scheduled for six in the evening. There had been too much work at the office, so Gu Zhan had grabbed a quick meal in the cafeteria for convenience. Once he arrived at the course, he had been busy chatting with the client and discussing the project and hadn't had a chance to eat anything.

Now he was genuinely hungry.

He thought about going to the kitchen to boil some dumplings.

But as soon as he walked over, the pendant light above the dining table was already on. Beneath the warm yellow glow sat a thermal food container and a clean, empty bowl with a spoon.

A sticky note was attached to the container:

Winter melon and pork rib soup—made by the one you like.

The elegant yet vigorous handwriting was unmistakably Fu Yan's.

Gu Zhan held the note in his hand, momentarily lost in thought.

On a cold night, after he’s worked all day and returned to an empty home, only to discover that someone had left a light on for him and warmed a bowl of soup for him. There was no doubt about it: this was exactly what Gu Zhan had always longed for deep down.

A major reason he'd developed such deep feelings for Fu Yan a year ago was because Fu Yan had given him that gentle, considerate companionship.

He simply couldn't resist this kind of warmth that reached straight into the deepest part of his heart.

He wanted it too badly.

But the more appealing something was, the more dangerous it often became.

Once you became addicted to it and couldn't live without it, that was when your tragedy began.

Gu Zhan crumpled the sticky note into a ball, threw it into the trash, and turned toward the balcony.

The howling night wind on the balcony was bitterly cold. It blew away the warmth rising in his heart and cooled his overheated mind.

He rested his hands on the windowsill and lit a cigarette.

He had quit smoking a long time ago. He didn't even know when he'd picked it up again, but now he seemed to have developed a habit.

Although Gu Zhan didn't want to admit it, the truth was that ever since he'd met Fu Yan, every cigarette he'd smoked had been for Fu Yan.

Bzz-bzz-bzz—

His phone rang. It was the owner of the bar he often visited.

“Hello, President Gu. Are you asleep?”

Gu Zhan joked with him.

“Not yet. Isn't your nightlife only just beginning?”

“Exactly. President Gu hasn't been coming to the bar to help boost my business lately. Have you found someone new and forgotten your old friend?”

The owner was clearly implying something.

Gu Zhan smiled bitterly.

“What new person? I'm all alone.”

“Perfect timing, then. Didn't you ask me last time to keep an eye out for someone? I actually found a pretty good candidate for you.”

“He works at a research institute, nine to five. He's thirty this year, two years younger than you, and looks quite young. He's also got a PhD. I figure you'd probably have plenty to talk about.”

“If you're interested, why don't you find some time to meet him?”

Gu Zhan thought for a moment.

“Sure. But the company is pretty busy at the end of the year. Could we put it off for a while?”

“Of course. No rush.”

“There's just one other thing I wanted to... ask you about.”

“Go ahead.”

“Well... it's just...” The bar owner became hesitant. “There have been some rumors about you going around our circle recently. I assume they're not true, but I'm pretty serious about doing my best when introducing people. I don't want to accidentally do something harmful while trying to help.”

“My friend also heard some of the rumors and asked me about them. So, just to be cautious, I wanted to confirm with you first. Those rumors aren't true, right?”

Gu Zhan was confused.

“What rumors?”

━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━

Meanwhile, Fu Yan was lying in bed with a book, trying to work himself into a sleepy state with some bedtime reading.

His phone vibrated several times.

When he looked at it, he discovered that a new WeChat group had appeared at some point.

Its name was:

𓉘 Why Does This Group Exist?!𓉝

The members were Wang Yanqiao, Hua Jiu, and Fu Chuyin.

Fu Yan took one look at the lineup and knew immediately that they had probably created it to gossip about him.

𓉘 Hua Jiu: Expressing the exact same question as the group name: [Why Does This Group Exist] 𓉝

𓉘 Wang Yanqiao: Ah, of course it's to help Brother Fu find a boyfriend! 𓉝

𓉘 Wang Yanqiao: We're determined to win back President Gu and for them to be a happy couple and for you to not be a scumbag top! 𓉝

Actually, Wang Yanqiao had thought of creating the group because Fu Yan had gone to his house yesterday to formally apologize, while Wang Yanqiao himself had been out being lovey-dovey with his younger boyfriend.

According to the housekeeper, Wang Yanqiao's father had kept a dark expression on his face and hadn't even been willing to give Fu Yan a cup of tea. It wasn't until Fu Yan had talked him around and, on top of that, lost three consecutive games of chess to him—that was three games he'd never previously lost to Fu Yan—that his father's expression finally softened.

Wang Yanqiao felt extremely guilty.

After all, he'd been the one who originally suggested pretending to be a couple. He'd wanted to go to Shanghai to study acting, while the Fu family happened to need some help, so he'd dragged Fu Yan into the arrangement.

Now Wang Yanqiao had a sweet little boyfriend of his own, while Fu Yan was still struggling desperately for love.

On top of that, Wang Yanqiao had watched—and shamelessly shipped—Fu Yan and Gu Zhan's relationship from the very beginning.

He felt responsible for helping Fu Yan.

𓉘 Wang Yanqiao: @Fu Yan Brother Fu, hurry up and report the latest developments! 𓉝

𓉘 Fu Yan: First, please correct your terminology. Specifically, the “scumbag” part of “scumbag top.” 𓉝

𓉘 Hua Jiu: Hahaha, Yan-ge finally remembered to defend his dignity. 𓉝

𓉘 Wang Yanqiao: Aiya, don't worry about the details. 𓉝

𓉘 Wang Yanqiao: So, have you been the top recently? Been the top? Been the top? 𓉝

𓉘 Fu Yan: ……I won’t tell you 𓉝

𓉘 Fu Chuyin: ? 𓉝

𓉘 Hua Jiu: Hahaha, let's not talk about that. Feels like we're corrupting the innocent child. 𓉝

𓉘 Wang Yanqiao: Brother Fu, come on, tell us! How far have you two gotten? 𓉝

Fu Yan thought for a moment before replying:

𓉘 Fu Yan: Last week, I started taking him to and from work. 𓉝

𓉘 Hua Jiu: ！！！ 𓉝

𓉘 Wang Yanqiao: Aaaaaah! You two did it again! Again! Again! 𓉝

𓉘 Fu Chuyin: ? 𓉝

Fu Yan deleted a message.

𓉘 Wang Yanqiao: Brother Fu, why did you delete that? So President Gu is slowly starting to accept you? 𓉝

𓉘 Hua Jiu: Have you gone on any one-on-one dates recently? 𓉝

𓉘 Fu Yan: Not yet. Let's take it slowly. 𓉝

𓉘 Wang Yanqiao: Holy shit, Brother Fu, there's a problem! 𓉝

𓉘 Hua Jiu: What happened? 𓉝

𓉘 Wang Yanqiao: There are a bunch of groups going around saying that you're... impotent. 𓉝

𓉘 Hua Jiu: What kind of groups? 𓉝

𓉘 Wang Yanqiao: Some hookup groups I joined before. But they're not all hookup groups—some are just for normal socializing. And for the record, I absolutely, definitely have never hooked up with anyone. 𓉝

𓉘 Hua Jiu: Who cares whether you've hooked up with anyone? What's going on with Yan-ge? 𓉝

𓉘 Wang Yanqiao: Apparently President Gu told someone. He supposedly personally said that Brother Fu... has that problem. Lots of people in our circle know you two, and they know you dated. Now the rumor has gotten more and more ridiculous, and people are saying you two broke up a year ago because neither of you could perform. 𓉝

𓉘 Hua Jiu: Wait, what does “neither of you” mean? Neither of you can perform? 𓉝

𓉘 Wang Yanqiao: President Gu's... problem might... be because of me? 𓉝

𓉘 Hua Jiu: What did you do? 𓉝

𓉘 Wang Yanqiao: Wasn't it that method I mentioned at Brother Fu's house last time? To keep the flies in our circle from buzzing around President Gu, we had no choice but to sacrifice President Gu's reputation a little. 𓉝

𓉘 Hua Jiu: That's pretty damn shameless. But President Gu has always been popular, hasn't he? How could people believe whatever you say about him? 𓉝

𓉘 Wang Yanqiao: Of course they would. When you're spreading rumors, the trick is to make them half true and half false. Once the false part sounds real enough, people naturally believe the rest. 𓉝

𓉘 Hua Jiu: What exactly did you say? 𓉝

𓉘 Wang Yanqiao: I only said three things. 𓉝

Fu Yan, who had been silently lurking, suddenly had a very bad feeling.

𓉘 Wang Yanqiao: It's pretty long. 𓉝

𓉘 Wang Yanqiao: It's pretty thick. 𓉝

𓉘 Wang Yanqiao: And he's pretty damn fast, too. 𓉝

𓉘 Fu Chuyin: … 𓉝

━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━

Meanwhile, in the cold night wind...

Gu Zhan let out a huge sneeze.

“What the hell?”

The bar owner sounded embarrassed.

“I don't know why everyone is saying that either. But they really are saying it. They're saying... they're saying you suffer from premature ejaculation.”

“I figure there's a good chance President Fu is the one who spread the rumor. Who else would dare mess with you, President Gu?”

“After he got into that argument with Du Zhe at the bar last time, he probably wanted to make things unpleasant for you.”

“Most importantly, if people are supposed to believe the rumor, President Fu... well, he does have some credibility on the subject.”

“……”

Gu Zhan's face flushed with fury.

“Fuck him! He's the one who's impotent!”

He hung up, stormed into the kitchen, and angrily dumped all the pork rib soup from the thermal container down the drain.

He leaned against the kitchen cabinet and took several deep breaths.

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became.

Still feeling unsatisfied, he stormed to the entrance, yanked open the door, and rapidly punched several buttons.

He changed the door lock password...