Gu Zhan lived in an older residential neighborhood inside the Second Ring Road. It was nothing like the grand villa Fu Yan had imagined for a successful CEO.

Given Gu Zhan’s wealth, he ought to have been living in a luxury villa district or an upscale loft. Why would he live in such an ordinary-looking apartment?

Still, the location was excellent and very close to Slungshot. Perhaps convenience was the reason.

The three-bedroom apartment wasn’t large, but it was cozy. The fluffy irregular-shaped rug stood by the entrance, the coral-colored key hooks in the foyer, the beige curtains—many details reflected a decorating style typically favored by women.

Although Gu Zhan was gay and might have different tastes from most men, Fu Yan didn’t think this was the sort of style he would personally choose.

Moreover, Fu Yan remembered that when he had accompanied Gu Zhan to the hospital, Gu Zhan had mentioned that his relatives weren’t local. So why would the home of a decisive, hard-driving CEO be decorated like this?

Gu Zhan had drunk far too much that night, mixing both liquor and beer. The moment he entered the apartment, he rushed to the bathroom and threw up.

After emptying a good portion of his stomach, he felt much better and considerably more clear-headed and sober. When he came back out and saw Fu Yan still standing in the living room looking around, he immediately guessed what the other man was thinking.

Collapsing onto the sofa, he muttered tiredly,

“My ex-girlfriend decorated it. After she left, I couldn’t be bothered to redo everything.”

Hearing that, Fu Yan looked at him with even greater curiosity.

“No, I’m not bi. I only like men. I just didn’t know it back then...” Gu Zhan rambled on. When he drank too much, he became noticeably more talkative.

Seeing him repeatedly smack his lips in discomfort, Fu Yan poured a glass of water and handed it over.

Supporting himself on Fu Yan’s arm, Gu Zhan slowly sat up and gulped down two large mouthfuls before lowering his eyes and sighing.

“Do you think someone like me... no matter how much money I make, no matter how successful I become… would truly ever find love, or someone who I like?”

The question caught Fu Yan off guard.

He had never thought about such things. Ever since adolescence, he had naturally accepted his sexuality and enjoyed his romantic relationships without issue.

Being gay had never truly troubled him. Whether he would marry someone someday was uncertain, but one thing was certain: he would never marry a woman.

At that moment, he realized he didn’t really understand Gu Zhan. And he also realized that the domineering, forceful CEO might not be as effortlessly capable as he appeared.

Before they could talk much more, Gu Zhan started vomiting again.

This time his reactions were too slow, and he didn’t make it to the bathroom. He threw up directly onto the living-room rug.

“President Fu, thanks for bringing me home tonight. I’m in no condition to entertain guests. I’ll treat you to dinner another time.”

Embarrassed by how disheveled he looked, Gu Zhan clearly didn’t want anyone witnessing his drunken state any longer. He was effectively shoving Fu Yan towards the door.

Fu Yan ignored him.

Instead, he went into the kitchen and rummaged around until he found some ingredients, then cooked a hangover remedy.

Gu Zhan sprawled on the sofa, half-asleep. He vaguely felt someone moving him. He was leaning against a solid chest, and by the time he became aware again, he was already lying on his bed.

Under the warm yellow light, Fu Yan cleaned the mess from his face and then supported his head while feeding him the hangover soup.

“Huh? Why haven’t you left yet?”

Gu Zhan’s eyelids opened halfway.

“I’ll leave after you fall asleep,” Fu Yan replied, tucking in his blanket.

“If you leave, I’ll sleep,” Gu Zhan mumbled.

“You sleep first.”

“You leave first.”

For some inexplicable reason, they reached a stalemate over this trivial matter.

“What does it have to do with you whether I sleep or not?” Gu Zhan frowned impatiently.

Before he could finish speaking, a large hand covered his eyes without warning.

Perhaps he was truly exhausted.

Fu Yan felt soft eyelashes brush stubbornly against his palm twice. The sensation tickled.

Then their owner quietly fell asleep.

━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━

When Gu Zhan woke up the next morning, he was alone in the apartment.

He had drunk a lot yesterday, but not enough to black out completely. He remembered Fu Yan bringing him home and taking care of him. As for when Fu Yan had left, he couldn’t remember.

There was porridge waiting in a thermal cooker in the kitchen.

The vomit had been cleaned up.

The rug had even been sent out for dry cleaning.

Gu Zhan couldn’t help muttering to himself. He hadn’t expected Fu Yan to be such a considerate guy. Not only had he refrained from demanding repayment for their unresolved issue, he had practically acted as a housekeeper in Gu Zhan’s home.

Quite a sacrifice for the pampered young heir.

However, over the following days, as Fu Yan repeatedly appeared around him radiating warm, considerate energy, Gu Zhan stopped appreciating it so much.

Recently, whenever he came home late at night, he would often find things left outside his door every few days—sometimes health supplements, sometimes fresh organic fruits and vegetables.

None of it was particularly expensive, but all of it was thoughtful.

If he returned the gifts, they were only small food items that Fu Yan clearly didn’t care about. Refusing them would only make Gu Zhan seem petty.

But if he accepted them, then accepting favors meant owing favors, and that made him increasingly uneasy.

If he was being honest to himself, he would rather Fu Yan treated him badly—argued with him, insulted him, even hired someone to beat him up. At least then he would know how to respond.

But this gentle persistence, this sugar-coated approach, left him completely defenseless.

He was baffled.

What exactly was Fu Yan planning?

Could it be that Fu Yan really had become interested in him? Had he truly decided he wanted to “even the score”?

What was he supposed to do with such a troublesome man?

━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━

One day, Fu Yan called again to invite him to dinner.

Lately, Gu Zhan had been deliberately ignoring his calls. Unexpectedly, Fu Yan simply called the office line instead.

After a lengthy exchange of polite excuses, Gu Zhan finally lost patience.

“I’ve sent so many young, attractive guys your way. Why are you still fixated on me?”

“The debtor should pay the debt,” Fu Yan teased. “President Gu thinks he can brush me off with a few hired boys?”

Unable to endure the constant pressure, Gu Zhan had already contacted acquaintances and arranged every type of attractive young man he could find. He had been hoping Fu Yan would at least like one or two of them and finally let the matter go.

Instead, Fu Yan ignored every single one and remained stubbornly focused on him.

Rubbing his temples, Gu Zhan sighed.

“Fu Yan, be honest. That night, weren’t you the one who started flirting first? The way you keep hounding me now is really not very manly.”

“If President Gu wants to reopen the accounts from that night, then let’s calculate everything properly—”

“Not today. I’m busy. Dinner can wait.”

Gu Zhan slammed the phone down.

He didn’t dare revisit that night’s events.

After all, he had been the one enthusiastically preparing the “surprise.” He had been the one who ordered the wine. The entire fiasco had begun with him.

There was no denying responsibility.

Meanwhile, in his bright, spotless office, Fu Yan sat staring blankly at a stack of files.

The page before him contained a photograph taken more than twenty years earlier.

In the picture, a young woman not yet thirty years old stood outside an orphanage, holding a six year old boy in her arms.

The little boy had a bowl haircut and chubby cheeks.

He should have looked innocent and adorable.

Yet his bright, intelligent eyes stared directly into the camera with remarkable determination and sincerity, revealing a calmness beyond his years.

Fu Yan had first seen the photograph the night he brought the drunken Gu Zhan home. It had been sitting on the bedside table.

The child in the photo was six-year-old Gu Zhan.

Fu Yan had immediately suspected something.

The very next day, he had someone gather information on the CEO of Slungshot.

As a relatively well-known figure in the e-commerce industry, Gu Zhan had given magazine interviews discussing his difficult entrepreneurial journey, Slungshot’s development, and his business ambitions.

But when it came to his private life, he remained extremely reserved.

Only occasionally had he mentioned being adopted and being grateful to his adoptive mother.

Unlike businessmen who enjoyed sharing their difficult pasts and marketing themselves as inspirational success stories to win public affection and attention, Gu Zhan had never overly promoted himself.

Even though doing so could have benefited him considerably.

He was remarkably low-key.

So low-key that if Fu Yan hadn’t specifically sent people to investigate his hometown, he never would have learned that beneath the polished image of President Gu lay such a modest—and even impoverished—background.

At first, Fu Yan’s investigation had been motivated by a simple principle:

Know your enemy and know yourself.

He wanted to teach Gu Zhan a lesson.

The man had incredible nerve.

No one had ever dared treat him the way Gu Zhan had.

Yet as he turned page after page through the story of Gu Zhan’s thirty years of life, he found himself filled with complicated emotions.

The world seemed to slow down.

Fu Yan had grown up surrounded by wealthy and powerful people. Everyone was glamorous, and their glamour seemed entirely natural.

Of course, he had interacted with ordinary people before—housekeepers, employees, even some former boyfriends who struggled to make a living.

But none of them were like Gu Zhan.

A man who strode into his life with confidence and authority, while hiding layer after layer of fascinating history beneath that polished exterior.

He had never met anyone so vivid or so complex.

Suddenly, he became deeply curious.

What kind of person was Gu Zhan really?

Domineering?

Calculating?

Shrewd?

Sophisticated?

None of those descriptions felt complete.

Because he had also seen the vulnerable side of Gu Zhan—the exhausted man who drank himself senseless for business obligations, then returned to an empty home and wondered what all his striving was really for.

Perhaps Gu Zhan wasn’t especially unique.

Perhaps when you genuinely want to understand someone, that person has already become unique to you.

━━━━⊱⋆⊰━━━━

After several failed attempts to arrange dinner, Fu Yan finished work early one day and simply went to Slungshot to wait for him.

The moment Gu Zhan finished a meeting, he found Fu Yan sitting in the reception room.

Having just survived a fierce conference-room battle, he had absolutely no energy to deal with the young heir.

Seeing Fu Yan leisurely sipping coffee and smiling contentedly only made him more irritated.

“What brings you here, President Fu?”

“You haven’t forgotten, have you?” Fu Yan smiled. “The night I took you home, you said you’d treat me to dinner.”

Gu Zhan had been drunk and barely conscious. It had been nothing more than a polite remark.

“And a single meal is worth a personal visit from President Fu?”

“Of course. I’ve been looking forward to that meal for quite a while.”

The smile on Fu Yan’s lips was dangerously charming.

“I think it’s not the meal you’re interested in—it’s the person.”

Gu Zhan had finally reached the end of his patience.

“Fu. Is this really worth pestering me every day?”

Then he stood abruptly.

“Come with me.”

Marching back into his office, he made up his mind.

Whether he advanced or retreated, the blade would still fall.

He was exhausted from dealing with Fu Yan.

If there was some simple, direct way to end this endless tug-of-war, he was willing to stop being stubborn.

That way he could focus on work instead of constantly being distracted by Fu Yan.

Puzzled, Fu Yan followed him into the office.

“Lock the door,” Gu Zhan said, throwing a stack of documents onto his desk and turning around.

Fu Yan’s heart skipped a beat.

Lock the door?

Was Gu Zhan finally so angry that he wanted to hit him?

Even though Gu Zhan wasn’t shorter than him, Fu Yan had formal training. Gu Zhan wouldn’t be a match for him.

How much strength should he use if things got physical?

He definitely couldn’t injure him again.

Gu Zhan glared at him furiously.

“Right here.”

“Let’s settle it once and for all.”

“Hurry up.”

“I’ve got an important business engagement tonight.”