Chapter 3: Overly Familiar

Early the next morning, the groggy human body once again turned into a damp sack, as if it had been soaked overnight in a lake in deep winter.

Lin Jiangye’s vision kept going black. He stepped into empty air and collapsed onto the soft carpet, lying there for a long time without getting up.

His wrists trembled when he tried to exert strength. Weak dizziness surrounded him like a whirlpool. Even his eyelids felt tired and sore.

After evaluation, his meager physical strength could not support him getting up. After thinking it over, Lin Jiangye decided not to make an effort anymore and simply continued resting.

He adjusted himself into a comfortable position and took advantage of the situation to sleep a little more.

When he opened his eyes again, the sky was bright.

Lin Jiangye discovered that he was actually already leaning against the sofa. His mouth tasted sweet, and there was a nearly melted filled hard candy inside.

What a very convenient and effortless way of living.

On the small tea table, there was freshly brewed milk tea and several pieces of marshmallow chocolate. Lin Jiangye tore open the wrappers with trembling hands and unceremoniously ate more than half of them.

Yu Wangxiao had gotten up early to exercise and had only just returned.

He had carried Lin Jiangye, who had “fainted” because of low blood sugar, to the sofa in the master bedroom. Without giving him any further attention, he turned and walked into the bathroom to shower.

The sound of rushing water spread out along with the steam. Lin Jiangye listened for a while and realized that his hearing had also declined severely.

He could not tell at all what Yu Wangxiao was doing in the bathroom. He was like a quiet corpse…

Yu Wangxiao preferred quiet. The servants and housekeepers usually avoided the times when he was home, so the vast space on the top floor was also deathly silent, without even the slightest sound of footsteps.

Lin Jiangye was truly a little bored. Holding the milk tea, he picked up the phone that was nearly out of battery.

Countless message notifications rushed to pop up.

Vulgar insults from unknown numbers, complaints and blame from his biological mother, questions from his biological older brother Lin Yu…

Lin Jiangye calmly swept past them all. His gaze stopped on Yu Lin’s messages.

There were three in total. The sending times were separated by several hours, and the tone became gentler each time.

[Don’t go to the Lin family to cause trouble. Xiao Yao won’t want to see you right now. You can swipe my card however you want. Behave yourself, and stop dreaming about things that don’t belong to you.]

[Where did you go? I lost control tonight. I’ll drive you back.]

[Baby, I’m at the hospital. My arm is fractured. It hurts so much.]

Lin Jiangye was silent for a long time. He still could not understand Yu Lin’s thought process.

This protagonist top’s way of doing things seemed even stranger than Yu Wangxiao’s. He probably could not truly ignore him directly, lest endless trouble remain.

Thinking of the contract couple agreement he signed last night, as well as the sudden jealousy scene in the romance movie, Lin Jiangye quickly summarized some necessary action guidelines.

He should cut off all lingering relationships and take care of his current boyfriend’s feelings. On that basis, he should anger to death everyone who had wronged him.

Thus, Lin Jiangye slowly began typing. It took him quite a while to figure out the nine-key pinyin input method before he barely found the way.

[I remember that we already broke up.]

A bright red exclamation mark popped out.

Lin Jiangye froze, then carefully read the small explanation beneath the exclamation mark.

So that was how it was. This troublesome person had already solved himself.

“Wangxiao, Yu Lin blocked me. Does that mean he and I have officially broken up?”

Lin Jiangye stood in front of the bathroom door. His body quickly leaned close to the mist-covered frosted glass. He widened his eyes and tried hard to look inside as he sincerely asked.

The blurry figure in his line of sight suddenly stiffened.

“…When did you come over?”

Yu Wangxiao’s slightly low voice came through the door, carrying a little hoarseness. The soft rustling sound of clothing also immediately spread outward.

Lin Jiangye curiously leaned closer. His gaze finally stopped on the pink screen glowing through the wall.

The overly eye-catching conquest progress bar seemed to have inexplicably risen a little.

“I’ve been here the whole time,” Lin Jiangye said, not realizing his subtle discomfort. He emphasized seriously, “Wangxiao, don’t stand around spacing out in the bathroom anymore. It’s easy to catch a cold that way.”

“…Alright.”

Choosing a more intimate form of address had actually been Yu Wangxiao’s suggestion.

Last night, he had specially instructed Lin Jiangye that in order to avoid flaws in their disguise as a fake couple, they also needed to standardize how they addressed each other verbally and develop an intimate habit with no weaknesses.

Lin Jiangye deeply agreed and quickly adapted to this setting with ease.

And Yu Wangxiao also seemed to have no intention of stopping his “overly familiar” behavior.

Soon, the door opened.

The man, naked from the waist up, stood before Lin Jiangye with a bath towel wrapped around his waist, his body covered in water vapor, unscrupulously revealing his excellent proportions.

Broad shoulders, narrow waist, beautiful and smooth lines. His firm chest and abdominal muscles were just right, clearly defined yet not lacking softness.

Translucent water droplets slowly rolled down the side of his fair neck. Sunlight poured in through the floor-length window, giving his damp skin an inexplicably ambiguous sheen.

A very straightforward display and test.

Yu Wangxiao was twenty-eight this year, exactly at the good age where youth had completely turned into maturity.

He knew very clearly that he possessed abundant capital.

At the same time, he was also very aware that in his previous life, Lin Jiangye had been an utterly strange love-brained person.

Even after suffering hardship, betrayal, and harm, Lin Jiangye had still been so fascinated by the “matured” domineering CEO Yu Lin that he lost all direction, choosing to walk toward the perfect fairy-tale ending.

So Yu Wangxiao naturally had to test him.

To test whether Lin Jiangye truly liked men, or whether… he only had feelings for Yu Lin. His reaction would affect the course of action in the future.

Of course, Lin Jiangye did not think in terms of scheming at all.

He picked up his phone, switched the camera to front-facing mode, turned around, and pressed himself against Yu Wangxiao’s warm upper body. Lifting his head and curving his lips, he took ten photos in a row.

The ten almost identical selfies were packaged and sent by Lin Jiangye to Yu Lin’s email address, along with another emphasized breakup notice.

In the photos, his smile was bright. The tips of his messy black hair, pressed upward, brushed against the side of Yu Wangxiao’s face. Their posture was casual and intimate.

He had none of last night’s sorrow from being abandoned. After eating his fill, his originally pale and beautiful face finally showed some color. Looking much better, he leaned against the “handsome man fresh from the bath,” even pressing closer and closer.

Yu Wangxiao, however, was somewhat stiff. He raised his hand and somewhat rigidly held the young man’s waist, his thin lips slightly pursed.

Half of his sharply defined face was hidden in shadow. His muscle lines were beautiful and clear, making him look especially difficult to provoke.

Lin Jiangye was very satisfied with the effect shown in the photos. The atmosphere was even more on point than the scenes in the movie.

He struggled for a while with the lagging phone app, then turned to look at Yu Wangxiao. “Is there a way to block users in email? I want to block him immediately, then anger him to death.”

“…”

Having lived two lifetimes, this was the first time Yu Wangxiao had such a subtle feeling.

This delicate and frail little canary was still pressed close against his side, utterly lacking any sense of personal space.

He truly wanted to say something, such as “Please have some sense of distance.” But when he looked into Lin Jiangye’s clean and clear black eyes, he suddenly found himself speechless.

Yu Wangxiao was fairly accurate at reading people. He had discovered that Lin Jiangye had no love for his useless nephew, nor even the slightest hatred. He was like an outsider with indifferent emotions.

He did not want to take revenge on his ex-boyfriend. He was merely earnestly carrying out the contents of their couple contract and satisfying the “employer’s” mission requirements.

Even the trick of sending selfies and then blocking the other person had been freshly learned from last night’s movie.

The protagonist bottom who should have been drowning in love and hatred seemed not to be love-brained at all, and was not as hopeless as in the previous life.

Of course, even though he had awakened from his hellish predetermined life, he was still very easy to trick away casually with candy.

“Give me the phone. I’ll teach you.”

Thinking this, Yu Wangxiao’s heart moved slightly, but he requested it warmly as if nothing had happened.

“Okay.” Lin Jiangye had almost no guard up at all. He handed over the phone readily and did not even hide the lock-screen password.

Opening the outdated electronic device, malicious harassment messages kept popping up. Yu Wangxiao slightly lowered his eyes, his gaze stopping for a moment on the name Lin Yu.

The eldest young master of the Lin family?

A worthless idiot.

This person would later roll into bed with Lin Jingyao, his reputation falling to the bottom. He would be very easy to deal with. And the malice from an idiot was equally worthless.

Yu Wangxiao directly turned on Do Not Disturb mode, allowing both their eyes to regain peace.

After blocking all of Yu Lin’s main and alternate accounts, he smoothly added his own and his assistant’s contact information to the whitelist of all apps.

“May I ask… who is He Chen?”

After taking back his phone and staring at the unfamiliar name in his contacts, Lin Jiangye’s originally relaxed state tightened slightly.

This person’s name had never appeared in the original book.

“My assistant. You met him last night.” Yu Wangxiao smiled and placed several pieces of chocolate into his slightly cool hand. “If you’re bullied in the future and I’m not around, contact him and you’ll be able to find me.”

Was it that young man with gold-rimmed glasses?

On Mid-Autumn night, he had been brought home by Yu Wangxiao to work overtime and could easily enter the study in the old residence. That was enough to prove He Chen was a trusted subordinate, and his work ability must be outstanding.

But in the original book, after Yu Lin hastily inherited the Yu family business, even though the company went through turmoil and instability, he did not keep old employees like He Chen. Instead, he turned around and cooperated with the Lin family.

This so-called cooperation, aside from providing manpower and mutually beneficial resources, naturally also included a marriage alliance.

And the marriage candidate…

could naturally only be Lin Jingyao.

At that point, the original owner felt extreme disappointment for the first time. He broke up with Yu Lin, only to be driven out of the house by the Lin family for “not knowing how to behave.” With no one to rely on, he could only live at the café where he worked.

Not long after, Yu Lin would catch him back and dig out his kidney.

This was a section of intense and torturous plot. Both the protagonist top and bottom had their own hardships and pain, but beneath the love-hate relationship drama, there were still quite a few hidden details worth investigating.

Lin Jiangye put the beautifully wrapped chocolates into his pocket. Sitting on the soft sofa, he looked at Yu Wangxiao’s side profile as he slowly dried his hair and could not help falling into deep thought again.

Yu Wangxiao was very capable, but to support the stable operation of such a massive enterprise, precise decision-making and efficient teamwork were needed. Just like their Grim Reapers, they also had their own complete hierarchy and rules of conduct.

Logically speaking, the current top-level teams working at Yu Corporation should be able to help Yu Lin in the future and get through the unstable period of being attacked from all sides.

Everyone knew Yu Wangxiao was unmarried and childless, so Yu Lin was the rightful heir of Yu Corporation.

He had long been cultivated as the successor. The proportion of shares in his hands gave him an absolute advantage. No matter how unruly the team under him was, it would still be difficult for them to stir up a major storm.

But when Lin Jiangye carefully recalled the details of the original book, he discovered that the CEOs of various companies who could be found on official websites right now all disappeared in the future of the story.

Yu Lin probably carried out a major purge in Yu Corporation.

He would disregard all potential risks and completely replace the network and legacy left behind by his uncle.

Was that really necessary?

“Uncle, did you never intend to let Yu Lin inherit the company?”

Lin Jiangye really could not understand, so he simply asked the reliable adult in front of him first.

The noise of the hair dryer suddenly stopped.

Yu Wangxiao turned his head and met his gaze. The previously gentle eyes became tinged with some darkness, then quickly transformed into helplessness like soft water.

He sighed softly, his long lashes lowering, making him look somewhat aggrieved. “I never thought that way. It was Yu Lin who believed I stole his things.

“There’s no helping it. He hasn’t liked me much since he was little.”

Lin Jiangye froze and said nothing. He observed Yu Wangxiao’s “downcast” expression, and a subtle sense of familiarity grew in his heart.

He quickly understood what was subtle about it.

This kind of line should have been said by a vicious male supporting character, just like how Lin Jingyao habitually pretended to be pitiful.

Of course, Yu Wangxiao and Lin Jingyao had different identities. He did not need to deliberately consolidate his position, so…

he definitely was not doing it on purpose. He was truly aggrieved.

And this head of the Yu family, who did not need to please anyone, looked increasingly helpless as he turned his phone screen toward Lin Jiangye’s line of sight.

The notification bar was stuffed full of messages from Yu Lin.

It seemed he had already seen the “intimate” photos in the email and was also very aware that the little toy he despised had actually spent the night in his uncle’s bedroom.

Yu Lin was still in the hospital receiving treatment for his fractured injury and could not get away, but the questions he sent Yu Wangxiao had already accumulated to over a dozen. His wording was growing more and more intense.

[Lin Jiangye doesn’t know anything. Are you sick? This is illegal detention!]

[Is stealing something I used really that satisfying to you?]

[I’m seriously speechless. What’s the point of stealing him? He’s just some thing I kept outside. Do you think the Lin family cares about him?]