Chapter 26

Chapter 26

The next day.

After another late-night grind until dawn, Shen Gali forced himself out of bed with the resolve of a man on the brink of death—or rather, he was dragged up by Uncle Li.

The weather was gloomy, moisture-laden clouds pressing low from the sky as if it would pour at any moment.

Shen Gali sat at the dining table, listlessly poking his fried egg. His lowered lashes cast shadows over his eyes, which were coated with a glossy sheen by the overhead light.

Across from him, Nan Liujing sipped his coffee with a calm, unreadable expression, looking up from over the rim of his cup.

He was starting to get the feeling: after all this time living here, Shen Gali might never have truly seen his face.

They had never made eye contact; the man always looked totally miserable, his head hanging low as if the world were ending.

But whatever—they'd be parting ways soon anyway, so whether he had ever seen his real face no longer mattered.

"Shen Gali, look up." Yet, stubbornly, he still spoke.

Shen Gali ducked his head even lower. "No. My appetite is already bad enough."

Nan Liujing sneered—so he thought seeing his face would ruin his appetite.

Since they couldn't stand the sight of each other, parting ways early was the wise decision.

"What are your plans today?" Nan Liujing asked, sipping his coffee while casually flipping through a magazine beside him.

"Stay in bed." Shen Gali was brief.

He figured Nan Liujing had cooked up some new way to mess with him, but Nan Liujing simply said, "Alright, stay in bed then."

With that, he called for Uncle Li to help him out.

Shen Gali lay in bed for half the day, feeling more and more relaxed. As the time to meet Mu Yan approached, he lazily thought:

Maybe he wouldn't go. It was about to rain, and he'd have to hold an umbrella—too much trouble.

So he fumbled for his phone to tell Mu Yan he was flaking on him.

But then, his nearly rusted brain slowly started working, and he dimly remembered the original story.

Around this time, the villain found the original owner flirting online in a game and even arranging a secret meeting. After catching him in the act, the villain proposed annulling the engagement.

As a result, the Shen family was more than happy to wash their hands of the troublesome original owner. Even after the annulment, they refused to take him back, leaving him destitute and forcing him to beg the villain for shelter.

By then, the villain had gone completely psycho. Yet, he went along with it, took the original owner home, locked him in a dark room, and said that since he couldn't bear loneliness, they’d have some fun.

The original text described it this way: bloodstained toys scattered around a naked, half-dead body, waiting to be put to further use.

Shen Gali's mood perked up.

A dark room? Was it the one on the third floor?

He wanted to go—preferably to be locked away forever.

So, Shen Gali, who had been too lazy to meet Mu Yan, changed his mind and put on his clothes.

When Uncle Li saw him dressed to go out, he asked, "Where are you heading, Mr. Shen?"

"Something to do." Shen Gali didn't specify, knowing that if Uncle Li, with his big heart, found out he was going to meet another man, he'd probably beg him on his knees not to go.

Leaving the villa, he ambled along the tree-lined path. A light drizzle hit his face, soaking his hair and clothes, making them cling uncomfortably.

Only then did he realize he had forgotten his umbrella.

He stopped for half a minute and finally decided to just roll with it—the wind in Jinhai was so insane that even with an umbrella, he'd get soaked.

On the crowded main road, looking down, the umbrellas were like a colorful sea of flowers, bright and flashy.

But among the umbrellas, a young man in thin clothes strolled slowly along the curb, hugging the wall. Rain dampened his clothes, faintly showing the pale skin underneath.

Not far behind him, a black, low-key Lexus LS crept through the traffic, moving slowly but without anyone daring to honk.

A car worth millions—clearly the owner was someone you didn't want to mess with.

Inside, a pair of ice-cold eyes stared intently through the car window at the slender figure on the sidewalk.

The driver in the front seat cracked a joke: "So this is why you picked the cheapest car in the garage, boss—so you can tail your wife without drawing attention."

The word "wife" made Nan Liujing shoot a death glare at the driver.

The driver, catching the murderous look in his eyes from the rearview mirror, immediately shut his mouth.

The rain picked up, pounding against the glass with a loud thrum.

Now soaking wet, Shen Gali could wring a bucket of water out of his clothes, but he didn't seem to notice, still shuffling along without a care.

In the cold rain, Shen Gali couldn't help sneezing.

"Driver Yang," Nan Liujing suddenly said. "There's an umbrella in the trunk—go give it to him."

Following the order, Driver Yang pulled over, found the umbrella, and hurried up to Shen Gali with a friendly grin: "Sir, the rain's getting heavier. Take the umbrella, you'll catch a cold."

Shen Gali found the man vaguely familiar but was too lazy to place him.

He shook his head: "No need, thanks."

"Why? The rain's so heavy you can barely keep your eyes open."

Shen Gali kept walking, his eyes fixed ahead: "Holding an umbrella is too much work—I'd have to keep it up the whole time."

Driver Yang: ...

In his thirty-plus years of life, this was his first time running into such a weird way of thinking.

Driver Yang returned to the car dejectedly, told Nan Liujing what Shen Gali had said, and then asked:

"Should I go buy Mr. Shen a raincoat?"

Nan Liujing replied coldly: "No need. If he wants to get soaked, let him. If he catches a cold, nobody's gonna give a damn."

Yet, as he spoke, his gaze unconsciously drifted out the window to the figure in the heavy rain—so fragile it seemed as if he might collapse at any moment.

Nan Liujing took a deep breath, looked away, and lightly drummed his fingers on the seat.

After walking for over half an hour, Shen Gali, barely hanging on, finally made it to the meeting spot.

The black car behind also stopped.

Inside the car, Nan Liujing silently picked up the binoculars beside him and looked toward the floor-to-ceiling window.

Shen Gali didn't rush to go in. Instead, he stood under the eaves outside the door, wringing the water out of his clothes. Only after no more water dripped did he push the door open and walk in.

Then he stood on the carpet inside, shifting his feet slowly until he stopped leaving watermarks, and finally found a booth and stood there.

Driver Yang watched silently and couldn't help saying, "Mr. Shen is really a well-mannered person."

Nan Liujing gave a cold snort.

"Manners? Would a person of manners sneak out to meet an online friend?"

It was still half an hour before the agreed time. Mu Yan had not arrived yet and sent Shen Gali a message saying he'd need a little more time, telling him to order something to drink first and he would pay when he got there.

The waiter thoughtfully handed a towel to Shen Gali to dry himself. Shen Gali wiped a couple of times, his hands got tired, then draped the towel over his body to avoid dirtying the sofa, and sat down slowly, like a noblewoman wrapped in an expensive shawl.

"Pfft—" Driver Yang burst out laughing.

But catching Nan Liujing's unfriendly glare in the rearview mirror, he immediately wiped the smile off his face and sat up straight.

Nan Liujing stared unblinkingly at the guests coming and going at the coffee shop entrance, speculating to himself:

"What kind of person is Mu Yan? Going by his in-game level, he must be a wealthy, handsome man who grinds and spends big."

"Handsome? Hitting on a dark, rugged character in the game—could he really be good-looking?"

"Hard to say. Some people might have that kind of taste."

Suddenly, an uncle holding a black umbrella appeared at the door. He was wearing a wrinkled shirt, shabby black sandals, with a stubbly beard and messy hair that looked like it hadn't been combed in ages, tangled up like a bird's nest.

Nan Liujing immediately raised his binoculars and carefully examined the uncle's face.

The uncle shook the water off his umbrella and pushed the door open to enter.

Thump!

Nan Liujing's heart gave a dull, inexplicable thud.

"Shen Gali, is it for this kind of man that you forced yourself out of bed just to meet him?"

He clenched his fists, his jaw clearly jutting out.

The uncle walked to the counter, fumbled around for a while, then picked up a cup of coffee and left.

Nan Liujing let out a small sigh of relief.

"Wrong guess."

But before his mood could relax for long, a tall, fair-skinned young man pushed the door open and walked in.

He was exquisitely dressed, handsome like a young idol from a talent show, with a noble aura in his every move. From his outfit alone, it was clearly expensive.

Nan Liujing slowly straightened up, then suddenly glanced at the rearview mirror, studying his own face, and felt relieved.

But he couldn't be at ease. The other person looked very young. If he really was Mu Yan and also knew how to make people happy, he was already half beaten on that point.

The young man walked straight to the counter and briskly ordered coffee, then looked around the room, and headed directly toward Shen Gali.

As he was about to approach Shen Gali, Nan Liujing gripped the binoculars tightly, a voice repeating in his mind:

"He's not looking for him, he's looking for the girl sitting behind him."

Suddenly, the young man stopped in front of Shen Gali. Then, he lowered his head and smiled at Shen Gali, said something, and calmly sat down across from him, pulled out his phone and handed it over.

It was Mu Yan.

This man was Mu Yan—a young, rich, and gentle man.

"Driver Yang, go in and listen to what they're talking about." Nan Liujing's words were almost forced through his clenched teeth.

Driver Yang quickly got out of the car and jogged inside, and sat down at a booth next to them.

Nan Liujing slowly closed his eyes, gently rubbing his temples.

"If it's Shen Gali, it's hard not to be attracted to such a young, healthy handsome man, right?"

"Next, as long as he uses his phone to capture this scene, the divorce plan will be a sure thing."

Nan Liujing irritably shoved his hand into his pocket. The moment he touched his phone, his fingers seemed to freeze, unable to move for a long time.

"No, the evidence is not conclusive enough. Let me wait and see."

He put the phone back, opened his eyes, and raised the binoculars—

But the next second, the handsome man stood up, smiling awkwardly, and Driver Yang, nearby, also stood up.

As Driver Yang returned, Nan Liujing was about to open his mouth to ask, but then felt it would make him seem too concerned about Shen Gali, so he quietly waited for Driver Yang to report on his own.

Driver Yang: "It was a misunderstanding."

"What do you mean?"

"I have to say, Mr. Shen is really charming. Even soaked like that, someone still came up to hit on him. That young handsome guy told him he found him cute and asked for his number."

Nan Liujing looked up: "And then, what did Shen Gali say?"

Driver Yang scratched his cheek, barely holding back a laugh: "Mr. Shen said he doesn't have a phone. If the young handsome guy wanted, they could be 'drift bottle friends.'"

Nan Liujing: "What is a drift bottle friend?"

Driver Yang: "It's a friend-making mode in QQ Mail called 'drift bottle.' You write a message and toss it into the sea; it randomly floats to someone's mailbox, and that's who it reaches."

Nan Liujing: ...

A faintly smug smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, but it was fleeting; the next second he went back to his icy expression.

He raised his wrist to check his watch.

Three o'clock on the dot.

"I'm afraid the most likely person to appear next is Mu Yan."

Inexplicably, a wave of anxiety surged in his heart, a feeling that also made him agitated.

All anxiety came from the unknown. This unpredictability, outside of his plan, was something he detested.

Nan Liujing stared intently at the door. Seeing a young girl enter—impossible;

No way a fifty-year-old uncle goes in.

No way a seven- or eight-year-old kid goes in.

Impossible.

It was 3:15, yet the man suspected to be Mu Yan had still not appeared.

Had Shen Gali been stood up?

He slowly looked in Shen Gali's direction. The next second, his gaze suddenly sharpened, and his fingers gradually stiffened. Turns out Mu Yan had already arrived at some point.