Chapter 15: Taste My Flavor

Chapter 15: Taste My Flavor

"President Zhao, is President Huo truly involved with someone?"

Everyone's ears perked up, their hands fumbling with two or three pages of documents, tidying them over and over again, as if they could never finish. They had been discussing it in the group chat earlier, but now someone was directly asking Zhao Qi—how brave! Their curiosity was palpable, their hearts fluttering like kitten paws, unable to settle.

"I'm not sure. Everyone just focus on your own work. President Huo’s private life is not up for discussion."

Zhao Qi gathered his belongings and headed out, still catching faint snippets of conversation as he left.

Not just them—even Zhao Qi was dying of curiosity. Who was it? Just who could make Huo Yanchi smile so openly in public, without even trying to hide it?

Huo Yanchi was indeed in a good mood. He stored the candy Xiao Yezi gave him in the finest box he could find. Holding the velvet box, he suddenly thought of a big problem: Would the spiritual-energy candy expire? If it expired, it might just vanish—what a waste of Xiao Yezi’s thoughtful gesture.

Huo Yanchi became agitated. To outsiders, the box appeared empty, but he kept opening and closing it repeatedly, afraid the spiritual energy would dissipate in the blink of an eye.

"Huo Yanchi, you’re still not eating it."

Shen Junlan complained, then suddenly remembered—Huo Yanchi couldn’t see it, so how could he eat it?

"Oh, can you not see it? I forgot. Wait, last time I gave it to you, it seemed like you could see it. Huo Yanchi, what do you think?"

Huo Yanchi kept a straight face. He wasn’t sure whether he should be able to see it or not.

To see or not to see...

Maybe... "or" it is.

"Hmm."

"What does 'hmm' mean? Does that mean you can see me?" Shen Junlan muttered, "Forget it, forget it. Let’s just say you can’t see it. It’s fine if you can’t eat it—it’s just my flavor. Snuggling with me is just as good."

The tip of Huo Yanchi’s finger, touching the candy, suddenly felt scalding hot. What kind of outrageous talk was this from Xiao Yezi? *His* flavor?

He wasn’t exactly… well, he *was* curious about Xiao Yezi’s flavor, but hearing it put that way, Huo Yanchi couldn’t bring himself to eat it.

Snuggling with Xiao Yezi, though—that sounded like a great idea. He tugged at his tie, undid the top two buttons of his shirt, exposing his neck, waiting for Xiao Yezi to snuggle up.

He waited and waited, but only got a puzzled question from Xiao Yezi:

"Huo Yanchi, is it hot in the office? Why did you undo your buttons?"

Hot? He was burning up.

Shen Junlan poked Huo Yanchi’s neck—it was unusually hot, tinged with a faint, feverish flush. He must be really warm.

Looking around, Shen Junlan pulled an empty folder from the cabinet and started fanning Huo Yanchi’s neck vigorously.

The gust of wind made Huo Yanchi’s heart turn cold. Pressing his lips thinly together, he gritted his teeth, fighting back the restlessness as he buttoned his shirt back up, one by one, as if nothing had happened.

"Eh, not hot anymore?"

Dare not be hot, really dare not.

Huo Yanchi ran a hand through his hair; a few strands had been fanned loose by Shen Junlan, falling over the corner of his eye, blocking his vision.

Shen Junlan put down the folder and stubbornly brushed those strands back down. Huo Yanchi looked unexpectedly stern like this, with a touch of disheveled charm—Shen Junlan quite liked it.

"Huo Yanchi, you look really handsome like this."

He was used to seeing Huo Yanchi’s proper appearance, but the messy strands standing up randomly, paired with Huo Yanchi’s intensely structured face, looked incredibly attractive no matter how you saw it.

Huo Yanchi picked up his phone casually. On the black screen, he saw Shen Junlan leaning playfully against his shoulder, even striking a pose.

His eyes were only on Xiao Yezi. What his hair looked like didn’t matter—if Xiao Yezi said it looked good, then it looked good.

"Knock, knock, knock."

Huo Yanchi hummed in response, quickly smoothing his hair back and returning to his aloof, stern demeanor.

"President Huo, this is the project list compiled by the marketing manager—projects highly likely to be snatched by the Huo Group. Two of the companies have chairmen who are old friends of Old Huo. So, what should we do next?"

"He won’t snatch any more. This was just a warning."

Huo Qu was extremely arrogant. Once he was sure something was in the bag, he wouldn’t push further.

In Huo Qu’s eyes, losing tens of millions was already a big lesson. As long as Huo Yanchi admitted his mistake, he’d come crying and begging, calling him.

Hah. What did tens of millions—or even hundreds of millions—matter? The company didn’t need those projects anyway.

"Those two haven’t been friends with him for a long time. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have chosen to work with me."

Huo Qu really thought he was the sun, that the whole world revolved around him. Without mutual trust, their so-called friendship was just a tangled mess of calculated interests. They hadn’t been in touch for years.

"Zhao Qi, you may go."

"Okay, President Huo."

Shen Junlan stared at Huo Yanchi for a long time. He leaned against Huo Yanchi’s shoulder, tidying the stray strands of hair, then let his fingers drift down, coming to rest between Huo Yanchi’s eyebrows.

His light tea-colored eyes met Huo Yanchi’s gaze. In that fleeting moment, Huo Yanchi’s focus wavered, his slightly unfocused pupils fixing on Shen Junlan’s pert nose. Lowering his gaze, he heard his own rapid breathing.

His heart thumped like a boulder plunging into a still lake.

"Huo Yanchi, why do you frown whenever they’re mentioned?"

Eight years without a word—Shen Junlan hadn’t even known Huo Yanchi had parents or relatives. How dare they show up now and try to guilt-trip him?

Shen Junlan puffed up angrily, muttering, "They’re so awful, always bullying you. Next time that old man comes, I’ll curse him again."

Warmth spread through Huo Yanchi’s chest. Softly, he called out, "Xiao Yezi."

"I’m here, Huo Yanchi."

Huo Yanchi took out a sheet of A4 paper and, with minimal strokes, sketched Xiao Yezi’s likeness. After all, he’d raised him for eight years—Xiao Yezi’s roots had grown so robust they’d outgrown two pots, his leaves sprawling across the bedroom balcony like a giant.

He put the final stroke in place, then wrote a few characters in the bottom right corner: *Huo Yanchi’s Xiao Yezi*.

"Is this for me?"

Huo Yanchi nudged it toward Shen Junlan. He’d drawn it just to amuse Xiao Yezi, who seemed bored.

"It’s really beautiful." Shen Junlan held it up, admiring it repeatedly, then added, "Mainly because I’m beautiful."

As Shen Junlan bragged over the drawing, Huo Yanchi finally had a moment to focus on work. But Xiao Yezi’s breath was so close, stealing all his attention—how could he possibly concentrate on work?

***

In a first, Huo Yanchi packed up and left work at 5 p.m.

His Xiao Yezi had been nagging him for a while, upset about not being able to cook dinner for him. He even pinched Huo Yanchi’s earlobes twice, making a point to torment the red mole on them. Huo Yanchi thought to himself that he'd ended up with a little tyrant on his hands.

A cool breeze rustled as Shen Junlan leaned against the car, humming, eyes half-closed, occasionally tapping to the rhythm.

Huo Yanchi listened carefully—it was his phone ringtone. Xiao Yezi had only learned the first half of the tune, since Huo Yanchi rarely missed a call.

"Mr. Huo, we’ve arrived."

Shen Junlan scrambled onto Huo Yanchi’s back in one swift motion, nuzzling his nose damply against the nape of Huo Yanchi’s neck, wrapping around his neck like he had no bones.

"Huo Yanchi, let’s check out the neighborhood, okay? I’ve never explored it before."

Everything he knew about the world came from Huo Yanchi, who kept to himself too much. It wouldn’t hurt to get in touch with nature.

"Mr. Huo, do you need to go anywhere else? Should I drive you?"

"Xiao Zhang, you can head back. I’ll take a casual walk."

The villa complex looked pretty much the same everywhere. After wandering around for a while, Shen Junlan couldn’t even tell which direction home was.

"You’re taking up all the space! No need to show off just 'cause you're pretty! You’re smelly and ugly!"

Shen Junlan looked toward the voice and saw a pink-white rose being picked on. It grew alone in the grass, likely planted there by mistake.

"I’m a flower, and all flowers are like this. We’re different from you grasses. Flowers bloom—you can just secretly envy us."

Shen Junlan turned his face away, let out a quiet snort, and muttered under his breath, "No one said flowers have to bloom."

He shot a quick glance at Huo Yanchi. Luckily, Huo Yanchi couldn’t hear him. The flower he’d raised for eight years hadn't bloomed either—big deal.

Huo Yanchi didn’t hear what Shen Junlan said but noticed him staring intently at the rose with an indescribable expression. Could it be that he liked roses?

Huo Yanchi made a mental note and didn’t rush him. Instead, he curiously gave the rose another look. It wasn’t particularly special—not even as pretty as his Xiao Yezi.

"Hmph!"

Shen Junlan let out a loud huff, his legs moving swiftly as he stormed off, angrily scolding Huo Yanchi.

He'd promised to only like Shen Junlan, yet he couldn’t take his eyes off another flower.

"Xiao Yezi."

Shen Junlan pretended not to hear, turning at the next fork in the path and hiding behind a tree, waiting for Huo Yanchi to pass so he could give him a good scare.

"Woof, woof, woof!"

Hearing the dog bark, Shen Junlan jumped like he'd been shocked. Panting heavily, he dove into Huo Yanchi’s arms, tightly wrapping his arms around his waist and trembling uncontrollably.

"There’s a dog, Huo Yanchi! There’s a dog ahead!"

He’d been bitten by a wild dog in the mountains once. Its gaping maw had torn off several of his leaves, and the pain lasted for days. Ever since, the sound of barking terrified him.

Huo Yanchi paused, then tentatively patted Shen Junlan’s back, pulling his hand back right away.

Xiao Yezi was afraid of dogs, whimpering in his arms as he recounted how that mean dog had bullied him in the mountains.

"Mr. Huo, it’s you!"

"Yes, Miss Su, haven't seen you in ages."

Shen Junlan’s ears perked up, and his grip on Huo Yanchi’s collar loosened slightly.

Haven't seen you in ages… So this was someone Huo Yanchi knew.

He slowly pulled himself away from Huo Yanchi’s embrace, glared warily at the big white dog, then ducked behind Huo Yanchi, baring his teeth in a snarl at the tail-wagging canine.

"I-I'm not afraid of you! I’m fierce too!"

"Ow-ow-ow! See? I’m amazing—I can howl like a wolf! Bet you’re scared now!"

Huo Yanchi bit back a laugh, his heart warmed at Xiao Yezi’s wolf-like howls. He subtly hooked his fingers into Xiao Yezi’s clothes, silently bolstering his courage.

"See, this is my owner. He’ll protect me." Shen Junlan pouted, then let out another "ow!" at the big white dog, hands on his hips.

Whether it was a dog or even a wolf, Huo Yanchi would steadfastly shield him.