Before Lin Shen took over the head office, Lu Chengxuan had never actually been here. With his status, it wasn’t really appropriate for him to show up, and ever since that one time he popped into the meeting room, he hadn’t been seen again.
Today was a special case—late at night, quiet, almost no one around, so that was why he had come.
Of course, he had no way of knowing when exactly the projector had been installed. And honestly, his personality wouldn’t allow him to just ask either.
Lin Shen knew exactly that Lu Chengxuan wouldn’t pry into this kind of thing. So after pinning the blame on Lin Wangye, he felt extra self-righteous, standing there with the kind of stern, justice-on-my-side look that almost screamed, ‘How dare you doubt me!’
The two of them stared at each other, the hallway light spilling in from outside giving them a strange, tense spotlight.
After a moment, Lin Shen realized this weird standoff needed to end. He quickly spun around, groping in the dark, and finally found the remote for the projector by the bedside. He turned and said:
“Flip the breaker.”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Lu Chengxuan silently turned, raised his hand, and pushed the breaker up.
The room’s lights blazed on, and at the exact moment the projector flickered to life, Lin Shen pressed the red button on the remote. The projector, which had just been restarted not long ago only to get cut off again, was forced to shut down once more, lights dying instantly.
The seamless, fluid coordination made sure that the red-faced, embarrassing scene never even lasted a single second.
Lu Chengxuan didn’t even bother questioning why Lin Wangye, with nothing better to do, would be watching that kind of adult movie in Lin Shen’s office lounge. He walked into the room, closed the door behind him, and calmly sat on the sofa by the floor-to-ceiling window.
“What are you doing?” Lin Shen asked.
“If you’re tired, sleep. Can’t sleep? Watch some TV, whatever,” Lu Chengxuan said lightly as he opened the laptop on the low table. “I’ll wait for the doctor to come tomorrow for your check-up before I leave.”
“You… are you okay?”
At some point, Lin Shen had started feeling uneasy whenever he was alone in a room with this guy, though he couldn’t exactly say why.
He sat on the bed, hesitating for a long moment, and finally muttered.
“I already said I’m fine. Lin Wangye wouldn’t tell you I was dying with just a breath left, would he? Look at me, I’m full of energy, better than a dog. If you hadn’t interrupted, I’d have already… you know…”
Lu Chengxuan lifted his eyes, calm and steady, and said:
“Whether you’re okay is for the doctor to decide. I’ll leave at dawn. You just do your thing, pretend I don’t exist.”
‘Do my thing…’
Lin Shen froze for a moment, thinking about what he was supposed to be busy with, before connecting it to the previous ‘doing it’ remark. He almost choked on his own spit, barely catching his breath, his face burning red.
Fuming, he pointed to the office desk along the wall not far from him.
“If you’ve got nothing better to do, go help me get some work done!”
The words were meant as a sarcastic jab.
But no sooner had he spoken than Lu Chengxuan closed the work laptop, stood up from the sofa, walked to the desk where Lin Shen was pointing, pulled out the chair, sat down, and opened the computer.
“I really… can’t even,” Lin Shen muttered.
Lin Shen sat there, utterly speechless, and swung the blanket off before climbing out of bed.
They had grown up together, and even after college, they occasionally discussed work. Over time, this subtly shaped them, and now their ways of handling things were remarkably similar.
They both liked to sort tasks by priority, tossing them into folders and then dealing with them one by one.
The computer had Lin Shen’s work USB plugged in, and Lu Chengxuan wasn’t unfamiliar with the seemingly chaotic folders. He gave a quick glance at the file names and labels, then clicked into the folder Lin Shen had closed before falling ill.
When Lin Shen walked over, as expected, he saw that the files Lu Chengxuan was browsing were perfectly aligned with his own work progress.
As a top executive, his main focus was decision-making and supervision. Once tasks were assigned, he would review reports from each department and give instructions.
Running a commercial trade city wasn’t hard—it was just busy and messy.
The Lu family had entered this field earlier than the Lin family, and Lin Shen knew that for Lu Chengxuan, managing these things was almost like child’s play.
But since Lin Shen was the leader and had only recently taken over company affairs, he needed to have a sense of the big and small matters. If he let Lu Chengxuan handle everything, he wouldn’t even know what his subordinates were doing on a daily basis.
So even though he didn’t doubt Lu Chengxuan’s ability, he still felt uneasy and wanted to keep an eye on things.
The USB didn’t contain anything related to public tenders.
Noticing Lin Shen approaching, Lu Chengxuan casually asked, “How’s the tender preparation going?”
“All kinds of ideas are ready. The project team has most of it done. Now it’s mainly a money problem,” Lin Shen replied, finally remembering the serious matter. Facing him, he asked, “When Mr. Wang from Shanhe Tobacco hung up on me tonight, he seemed pretty angry. He didn’t give Xiao Lin a hard time, right?”
“Nope. He even promised to schedule another meeting next time.”
“Yes!”
Hearing this, Lin Shen practically hugged the god of wealth in his excitement, pumping his fist: “This guy’s loaded! With him on board, even if we can’t get Shengtian back on the table, I still have a much better shot! This kid’s amazing—he even got him back after standing him up. I knew that innocent, naive face of his could charm a lot of people!”
Lu Chengxuan, ever practical, said simply, “He learned to smoke.”
The sudden shift in just a few seconds left Lin Shen dumbfounded. His eyes went wide, shock written all over his face: “Wait, he couldn’t smoke before!”
“I saw him when I came in. He’s pretty skilled now.”
“Unbelievable! A second I don’t watch him and he goes bad!”
Lin Shen immediately spun around, grabbed his phone by the bed, and started calling Lin Wangye. A moment later, he stormed back and slammed the phone down on the desk.
“Can’t get through. He’s probably on the phone with Xu Suinian again. Now that they’ve got money in their hands, they really don’t care about the international call charges! It’s not even anything good. I finally quit, I can’t let him start! You said he didn’t…”
“Nope,” Lu Chengxuan shook his head. “Lin Wangye wouldn’t pick up smoking for no reason. Given that Mr. Wang agreed to meet next time even after being stood up, it probably means Lin Wangye used some negotiation trick to calm him down. I suggest you don’t mention it either, or he might feel bad.”
After being reminded, Lin Shen suddenly realized and wished he could slap himself across the face. He groaned: “Damn it… I promised Xu Suinian I’d take care of Xiao Lin. I even joked that he’d get into smoking and drinking on the side… and now I’ve actually become a historical sinner! Makes me look like a total piece of trash!”
“Don’t take it too hard. It’s not your fault,” Lu Chengxuan said calmly, reassuring him: “He doesn’t want Shi Yuan to know about this either. He probably won’t get addicted. At least, he should quit before Shi Yuan comes back to the country.”
“All right, fair enough. Karma’s a circle,” Lin Shen laughed angrily on the spot. “Before, he drove me crazy trying to make me quit smoking, crying every single day until my scalp hurt. Now it’s my turn to watch him, huh? Fine, fine, fine—let’s see how I keep an eye on him!”
“He probably won’t need you to watch him,” Lu Chengxuan said.
Lin Shen stayed silent for a few seconds, then raised his hand as if to slap him: “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Lu Chengxuan stayed seated, not moving away, and a corner of his mouth twitched into a small smile.
Lin Shen froze. Lu Chengxuan rarely showed his emotions so directly. He watched the smile fade, and then suddenly raised his hand again: “And you still laugh at me? Ridiculous!”
Lu Chengxuan shook his head and turned his gaze to the computer screen, starting to deal with the work Lin Shen hadn’t finished.
Usually, Lin Shen handled these tasks with Lin Wangye, hand-holding him through the work, so there were two chairs here.
Lin Shen had just moved the other chair over to sit beside him when he suddenly heard Lu Chengxuan speak.
“Go rest. I’ll write a summary for you.”
Lin Shen had planned to take a proper day off and didn’t want to be forced into overtime.
Standing there for a moment, he realized that Lu Chengxuan was cleverly giving him more work in the form of a summary, which actually reduced his overall workload.
Once he understood, he immediately went back to bed without hesitation.
“Sir, your generosity is boundless.”
It was already past two in the morning. The desk was positioned at the foot of the bed, slightly to the left, ninety degrees, directly facing him. Lying in bed, Lin Shen turned to the left and could just see Lu Chengxuan’s side profile, half hidden behind the monitor.
The office was silent late at night. Only the sounds of the mouse wheel and keyboard tapping filled the room. The faint white noise effortlessly coaxed Lin Shen’s sleepiness.
He half-closed his eyes, quietly watching Lu Chengxuan’s focused side profile.
After knowing him for so long, he realized he had never really looked at Lu Chengxuan from this angle before.
With age, that almost too-perfect face had slowly shed its youthful innocence. When expressionless, the cold distance in his eyes and brows seemed even more unapproachable.
Lin Shen couldn’t help but think about the state of mind he had been in when he first decided to be friends with Lu Chengxuan.
It seemed to be simply because he didn’t pay attention to people. He was a challenge.
Perhaps that was the youthful fire and reckless courage that only comes with being young. Over time, through repeated frustrations with Lu Chengxuan, he had gradually turned into a bored adult.
The challenges he once loved had become impatience.
An iceberg is always an iceberg; it can’t melt. Is it really his fault that it feels cold?
“Lu Chengxuan,” Lin Shen suddenly called out.
The clicking of the keyboard abruptly stopped. Lu Chengxuan turned his head, the soft white light of the monitor falling across his face, tracing the sharp lines of his nose and jaw with striking clarity.
He didn’t speak, simply meeting Lin Shen’s gaze, listening intently in the silence.
“You’re… pretty good-looking,” Lin Shen said.
“…”
Lu Chengxuan didn’t respond. In daily life, he had long since learned to habitually ignore comments like this. Out in the world, he never replied to such words.
But Lin Shen was never someone he ignored. His words demanded a response.
How to respond, however, fell into Lu Chengxuan’s blind spot.
Luckily, Lin Shen hadn’t finished speaking. The second half of his sentence resolved the communication dilemma.
“Good thing you don’t talk to people much, otherwise with a face like this and an outgoing, social personality, how many people would be completely head over heels for you? But honestly, a face this perfect is kind of wasted if you’re this reserved.”
Lu Chengxuan listened carefully but still didn’t quite get it. He frowned slightly, asking, “What exactly are you trying to say?”
Lin Shen propped himself up, his gaze locked on Lu Chengxuan’s face. He knew just how audacious his next words were, but he said them anyway, without restraint.
“I can’t even imagine how amazing it would be to… you know, with a face like that.”
Hello, everyone ヾ(＾∇＾). I hope you enjoyed the story! If you’re feeling generous, please buy me a coffee, share/comment on my translated works! Check out the link below for early chapters. (๑>ᴗ<๑)
Thank you for updating daily . These two will be death of me .when will they get together