Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Before Xu Yan could answer, Lin Xingxian pushed the door open from outside.

First, he noticed Wen Sinian’s sudden presence in the room and exclaimed in surprise, "When did you get back?"

Then, his eyes landed on Xu Yan, who was obediently wearing the dress, and he said in awe, "My god, junior!"

Lin Xingxian slipped past Wen Sinian and walked straight to Xu Yan’s side, helping him remove his jacket. He looked Xu Yan up and down, completely blown away—he had never seen anyone more suited for a painting than Xu Yan.

His face, his figure—everything was perfect.

Quickly, Lin Xingxian found some reference poses on his phone and showed them to Xu Yan. "Stand like this for me, let me see."

Xu Yan didn’t fuss, copying the pose as shown in the pictures. But while he didn’t mind Lin Xingxian’s gaze, the fact that Wen Sinian was also watching him from not too far away made him feel a little...

Lin Xingxian noticed too and turned to Wen Sinian. "President Wen, would you mind stepping out for a bit? My painting is a work in progress—no peeking, thanks."

Fortunately, Wen Sinian didn’t argue, even though the entire villa belonged to him.

He simply gave the two of them a brief glance and said, "Focus on your work."

Then he closed the door and left.

Once Wen Sinian was gone, Xu Yan relaxed both physically and mentally. He cooperated with Lin Xingxian for a while to help him find inspiration, then got changed.

"Do you need me to do anything else?" Xu Yan asked.

Lin Xingxian sat in front of the canvas, lost in thought, and waved at Xu Yan. "Don’t you have homework? You can go downstairs and work on it for now. I’ll call you if I need anything—I need to think for a bit."

Xu Yan didn’t disturb him further. He nodded, grabbed his backpack, and headed downstairs.

On the first floor, everyone was busy at their computers, each absorbed in their own tasks. Wen Sinian hadn’t returned to his office upstairs either; he was discussing something with someone in front of a computer.

Not wanting to bother them, Xu Yan quietly sat down on the sofa, took out his laptop, and started working on his homework.

Of course, just as he had edited half of his video—without even saving it—his aging laptop suddenly crashed and wouldn’t reboot.

Xu Yan’s heart sank. His laptop had crashed before, but forcing a shutdown and restart had always worked. Today, however, no matter what he did, pressing the power button did nothing.

He closed the laptop and cupped his cheeks in his hands, miserably silent.

He couldn’t bear to replace the laptop just yet, and getting it repaired would definitely cost money. More importantly, what about his homework? It was due tomorrow, and he had planned to finish it today.

Now he was screwed.

Zheng Yao, whose workstation was closest to the sofa, walked over and dropped down beside Xu Yan.

"What’s wrong, junior?"

They were all computer science majors—maybe he knew something about fixing laptops.

Xu Yan said, "My laptop seems broken. It won’t turn on no matter what."

Zheng Yao grinned. "Lucky for you, I know my way around these. Let me take a look. I haven’t studied laptop repair, but I assembled most of the computers in our studio."

Xu Yan said, impressed, "That’s amazing."

Though he often edited videos and retouched photos, he knew nothing about computer hardware.

After examining it for a while, Zheng Yao looked surprised. "How many years have you had this laptop? The model’s so old, finding replacement parts might be tough now."

Xu Yan replied, "It’s really old—I’ve had it for many, many years. Can it still be fixed, senior?"

Zheng Yao inspected it further but couldn’t pinpoint the issue. He told Xu Yan honestly, "I really can’t fix this one."

Xu Yan’s hopeful expression immediately crumbled. "Oh… well, thanks anyway."

Just as he was about to take his laptop back, Zheng Yao suddenly stood up with it. "Let’s ask Wen. He might have a solution."

Before Xu Yan could protest, Zheng Yao carried Xu Yan’s laptop over to Wen Sinian, and Xu Yan quickly followed.

"Wen, take a look at this laptop," Zheng Yao said. "It suddenly blacked out. I couldn’t figure out what’s wrong—can it still be fixed?"

The person standing nearby stepped aside, and Zheng Yao placed Xu Yan’s bulky laptop on the table.

Wen Sinian leaned lazily against the back of his chair, tilting his head slightly to glance at Xu Yan, who was hiding behind Zheng Yao.

So small—if he hid any further, he’d practically disappear.

Without even looking at the laptop, Wen Sinian picked it up with one hand.

"It’s too old. Not worth fixing," he said casually, making as if to toss it in the trash can beside him. "Throw it away."

The moment the words left his mouth, a pair of slender, pale hands shot out, clutching both the laptop and Wen Sinian’s large hand tightly against his chest.

"No," Xu Yan said nervously, panicked that Wen Sinian would toss his only laptop away. "Don’t throw it."

Wen Sinian didn’t pull his hand back. Through Xu Yan’s thin shirt, the back of his hand brushed against the warmth of Xu Yan’s chest.

He studied the flustered little rabbit before him and pretended to consider. "Your laptop?"

Xu Yan nodded hurriedly, his eyes pleading. "It’s mine. Please don’t throw it. It can still be fixed and used."

True to his word, Wen Sinian didn’t mention throwing it away again. Instead, he pulled the laptop out of Xu Yan’s arms.

"Need it urgently?"

Xu Yan thought for a moment, then nodded. "A little."

Wen Sinian tinkered with the laptop somehow, and the screen lit up with a blue screen. Then, he grabbed an external drive, quickly copied all the files from Xu Yan’s laptop, and finished in just a few minutes.

Xu Yan stood by, waiting, when Wen Sinian suddenly stood up, holding the hard drive, and headed upstairs.

After just two steps, Wen Sinian glanced back at the confused Xu Yan and said, "Follow me."

Xu Yan obediently followed him upstairs, watching as Wen Sinian pushed open the door to an office. He followed inside.

To his surprise, the office was spacious, with a simple black-and-gray layout. The most striking feature was the massive desk, half of which was occupied by four huge screens.

Wen Sinian walked to the desk and, seeing Xu Yan still hesitating, said again, "Over here."

The room was dead silent, with just the two of them inside. Xu Yan couldn’t shake the oppressive aura emanating from the man before him.

He edged closer, watching as Wen Sinian pulled a thin, high-end laptop from a drawer under the desk, placed it on the table, and turned it on.

"The password’s 0914," Wen Sinian said, handing him the hard drive. "Use this for your homework first."

Xu Yan quickly nodded. "Thank you."

Wen Sinian pulled out a black office chair: "Sit here."

Xu Yan walked over and sat down. A hand behind him pushed the chair forward slightly, adjusting it to a comfortable position. Then Wen Sinian left the office.

When he returned downstairs, the clunky old laptop sat untouched on the table—none of the others had dared to move it.

Wen Sinian picked it up and tossed it to Zheng Yao—not too hard, not too soft.

Zheng Yao blinked in confusion: "?"

Wait, didn't I just say I couldn't fix this?

Wen Sinian: "Swap out the internals with the new model we bought. Keep the shell original."

Zheng Yao was even more confused: "??"

They hadn't even touched those premium parts yet, and now they were installing them for the junior?

Wen Sinian added: "Don’t tell him."

Zheng Yao stopped being confused: "."

Oh. Suddenly it all clicked.

Just earlier, he’d been so eager to tease the kid, even threatening to throw his laptop away in front of him. Now he was secretly outfitting it with the latest components worth over twenty grand, all without letting him know.

Doing good deeds without taking credit—what a damn saint.

Downstairs, Zheng Yao got to work swapping the guts in Xu Yan’s laptop. Upstairs, Xu Yan sat at the desk, plugging away at his homework.

But Wen Sinian’s laptop was buttery smooth—zero lag whatsoever. It almost felt unfamiliar.

After editing a video for a while, Xu Yan must've hit some weird key combo, and the screen suddenly flashed with lines of gibberish code.

He didn’t understand it and was too scared to poke around. He quickly searched online for the meaning of the code but still couldn’t make sense of it.

Hesitantly, he hauled the laptop with him out of the office and peered over the upstairs railing, looking down. He happened to see Wen Sinian by the fridge in the kitchen area, holding a tumbler of water, tilting his head back as he drank.

Xu Yan knew that fridge all too well.

But after just a couple of seconds of staring, those hawk-like eyes snapped to him, cutting across the open space to meet his gaze directly.

Xu Yan flinched and looked away, lowering his head as he carried the laptop downstairs. Dragging his feet but still, he made his way toward Wen Sinian.

"Hey, Senpai, I don’t know what popped up on your laptop—I can’t close it," Xu Yan said, placing the laptop on the counter by the fridge and pointing at the screen. "It’s this."

Wen Sinian leaned in to look, stepping half a pace closer. His expensive cologne—all sandalwood and spice—suddenly enveloped Xu Yan.

He was effectively trapped between Wen Sinian’s arms, the older man’s hands resting lightly on the counter on either side of him. If he leaned in just slightly, he could catch the sweet shampoo scent from Xu Yan’s hair.

Xu Yan’s whole body tensed to bolt, but then Wen Sinian spoke: "You accidentally pressed a shortcut. Click here."

He followed the instruction, watching as Wen Sinian tapped a few places on the touchpad. The blue screen disappeared, returning to his video-editing interface.

Before he could react, the space between them opened up again.

Wen Sinian opened the fridge again, took out a bottle of water, and loosened the cap before handing it over.

Xu Yan took it and said again, "Thank you."

He didn’t go back upstairs. Instead, he grabbed a barstool and sat by the counter to continue editing.

Wen Sinian stood nearby, watching him for a while. After finishing his bottle of ice water, he didn't say a word before heading back up.

But he'd left his phone behind on the counter.

Xu Yan finished editing the video soon after, uploaded it to the cloud, and powered down the laptop. He considered returning it but hesitated, worrying he might disturb him if he was working, so he decided to wait.

He checked his phone and saw that "year" had sent him a few messages he hadn’t read yet.

First were some delivery notifications—more dresses year had bought him.

"year": Baby, you’ve been eating properly lately, right?

"year": Your thighs look softer.

"year": Would your stockings leave marks?

Xu Yan surreptitiously squeezed his own thigh. He hadn’t noticed any extra weight.

Was he actually putting on weight from "year" keeping feeding him and watching over his meals?

"Yan Yan": Stop micromanaging my meals from now on.

"Yan Yan": I refuse to get chubby.

"Yan Yan": And no more surprise treats.

After sending the messages, he glanced up and saw Wen Sinian’s phone light up nearby—a new notification. Unfortunately, the message preview was hidden, so he couldn’t see the content or the sender.

Xu Yan’s pulse did a funny little jump. He noticed Wen Sinian’s previously broken phone had been repaired. Not that he was snooping.

It was just… what are the odds.

He lowered his head and sent another message.

"Yan Yan": [kitten throwing paws]

When he looked up again, Wen Sinian’s phone screen lit up once more.

He gawked.

No way… that's too weird.

Another text—another notification.

Third try—third blink.

Xu Yan: O.O