Translated by Eve

Edited by Kara

At nine in the morning, Song Xuanhe came down the stairs on time as usual. He hadn't expected to see Xiao Yuanmu in the living room.

Now that it was summer, it was precisely at this time when the sun would s.h.i.+ne the brightest and most beautiful. The omnipresent suns.h.i.+ne came streaming in through the window facing the courtyard, illuminating the s.p.a.cious living room. It also seemed to melt the frost that enshrouded the young man sitting on the sofa. He looked up from his book and glanced at the time. The suns.h.i.+ne reflecting off his profile enhanced the look of his eyes, making it many times more resplendent. His eyes were so beautiful that they made one quiet one's breath involuntarily.

Xiao Yuanmu gazed up at Song Xuanhe, who had paused on the steps. He saw that the other was staring at him dumbly. The finger that Xiao Yuanmu had pressed against the pages of his book shook slightly. Soon after, he looked away, restraining the cold glint in his eyes.

Because of his looks, he had seen many expressions like the one on Song Xuanhe's face. He knew what it meant. It was infatuation, an expression of having one's breath taken away, or even nauseating l.u.s.t.

Moreover, as an orphan, he was easy to manipulate. All of those who had given him this kind of gaze, practically all of them had had no misgivings doing something against him. Xiao Yuanmu's eyes became ice-cold. It was just that those people would end up paying an extremely painful cost in the end.

He didn't know if Song Xuanhe would act the same as the others. And perhaps if he did, Xiao Yuanmu could use this as an opportunity to gather evidence to attack the Song Group with.

As he thought of this, Xiao Yuanmu's index finger lightly rubbed against the page. He glanced at the middle paragraph and stopped at the word, "destroy," for two seconds before closing the book.

Song Xuanhe licked his lips. He watched as Xiao Yuanmu closed the book and then looked back over at him. His hand on the railing discretely tightened a bit. He then tried to make conversation, "Why are you still here?"

Xiao Yuanmu looked at him calmly. His gaze fell on the other's face that obviously looked guilty and avoidant but was still stained with desire. He was a bit surprised, but his tone remained normal, "You told me to wait for you to go to work together."

Song Xuanhe was startled. Only then did he remember that it seemed like he had said that. At that time, they had just come out of the supermarket in the villa district and coincidentally met with the patrolling security guard. The security guards here usually remembered everyone who lived here. Even if they didn't, they all had sharp eyes. Just by looking at their clothes, they could tell if they were visitors or strangers.

At the time, Song Xuanhe was on a call, so he had had Xiao Yuanmu go up first. To his surprise, when he went up, he saw Xiao Yuanmu being stopped and questioned by the security guards. He went up and gave an explanation. When he thought that Xiao Yuanmu might be questioned again in the morning when he left, he said, "Tomorrow, I'll send you to work."

He hadn't expected that Xiao Yuanmu would really wait for him.

"Then, let's go, ba."

When Song Xuanhe pa.s.sed the security booth with Xiao Yuanmu, he purposely lowered the car window so that the security guard could see Xiao Yuanmu's face and said, "This is my roommate. Just letting you guys see his face."

The security guard who had stopped Xiao Yuanmu yesterday was there. When he heard this, he promptly apologized. He then sent them off deferentially.

At the company entrance, Song Xuanhe and Xiao Yuanmu walked in together under the gazes of many.

One in front and one in the back, they walked towards the two adjacent elevators with their gazes focused on in front of them. One of them stopped by the left side's executive elevator while the other one stood on the right by the ordinary employee's elevator. They were clearly separated—right until the elevators arrived, they did not interact at all.

Song Xuanhe had just stepped into the empty elevator when a sweet and charming girl followed in right after. To his surprise, he also saw the hostile look between the beautiful girl and Xiao Yuanmu.

Or rather, it was the girl, whose every movement emitted a lovely air, who was provoking Xiao Yuanmu one-sidedly. Xiao Yuanmu didn't even bother giving her a single glance. He followed the crowd into his own elevator, minding his own business.

"Xuanhe gege!" The pretty girl pouted, hugging his arm with a wronged expression on her face, "Your little lover actually dared to ignore me! You have to get justice for me!"

The pretty girl switched gears three times in just one utterance. She raised her voice at the end of her sentences in a lovable tone, causing Song Xuanhe's arms to tremble. If she put on a few more hairpins, she would seem even more like a concubine fighting for favour in the palace harem in ancient times.

"Jiani." Song Xuanhe pulled his arm out of her hold and restrained the corner of his mouth from twitching. He forced out a smile, "Why are you here?"

Just now, Song Xuanhe found the memories relevant to this Song Jiani. Although she was also surnamed Song, Song Jiani and Song Xuanhe did not have any blood relation. She was the daughter of Song Xuanhe's mother's best friend.

Song Xuanhe and Song Jiani were childhood friends. Their familial backgrounds were similar. Because she had liked Song Xuanhe since she had been a child, Song Jiani had decided not to work at her own family's company after graduation. Instead, she had entered the Song Group with him, because she wanted to keep a firm eye on the person she loved and also wanted to stay in an advantageous position to win him over. What she hadn't expected was that on their first day at the company, Song Xuanhe would actually take a fancy to Xiao Yuanmu.

Song Jiani was jealous and unresigned. Therefore, she had spread rumours about Xiao Yuanmu all around. She had thought of so many different ways to find trouble for Xiao Yuanmu. Song Jiani's contributions could not go unnoticed when examining why Xiao Yuanmu's life at the company was so miserable.

Of course, Song Jiani would not get a good ending, either.

Although both of them had really tragic endings, Song Xuanhe did not feel empathetic towards Song Jiani. Rather, he actually wanted to have some distance from her, because this sweet little lady would be the one to castrate Song Xuanhe in the future when her love turned to hate. Just looking at her made Song Xuanhe's b.a.l.l.s hurt.

However, Song Xuanhe's indifference made Song Jiani misunderstand. Her eyes turned red as she sobbed, "Xuanhe gege, you've been treating me so indifferently as of late. It couldn't be that you really like that male vixen?"

Song Xuanhe was speechless for a moment. He looked up at the elevator's floor number that was steadily increasing. He didn't dare to offend Xiao Yuanmu, but he had no misgivings about offending Song Jiani. He directly said, "Even if there wasn't Xiao Yuanmu, I wouldn't like you. If I may offer a bit of advice: don't go making trouble for him. Otherwise, you'll have to face the consequences."

After giving her this reminder, he hopped out as soon as the elevator doors opened, leaving behind Song Jiani, who watched the elevator doors close with a sunken expression.

As a rich and powerful young master who had dropped into the marketing department out of nowhere, Song Xuanhe's daily life at work was extremely simple. Usually, aside from making decisions about all sorts of marketing proposals, there was little else he had to personally do.

He finished everything he had to do in the morning. When he started the work for the afternoon, an hour hadn't even pa.s.sed before Song Xuanhe felt bored. He walked over to the sofa on the side of his office and sat down. He suddenly recalled the conversation he had with Xiao Yuanmu in the car just now.

At that time, the car was filled with silence. Xiao Yuanmu had abruptly spoken up with a really dull voice, "Why do you like me?"

Song Xuanhe had felt like he was facing off against a formidable enemy, because he didn't know why the original host took a fancy to Xiao Yuanmu. If there had to be a reason, it was probably because Xiao Yuanmu was extraordinarily good-looking. But, could he say that out loud?

Therefore, he racked his brains and found a reason that would prevent the other from asking too much. "Love at first sight."

After saying that, he glanced at Xiao Yuanmu's expression carefully with his peripheral vision.

There were no fluctuations in Xiao Yuanmu's expression. He looked calmly at the traffic before them. A long time later, he chuckled, but there was no smile on his face. He said coldly, "Because of my face?"

Song Xuanhe looked away at once. He didn't answer, feeling a great sense of danger.

Xiao Yuanmu cast his gaze downwards. His expression was indiscernible. "If I told you that if you stop pestering me from today on, I'll pretend none of that stuff happened, but if you don't stop, you'll have to face the consequences, what would you do?"

Song Xuanhe gulped. He really wanted to agree to Xiao Yuanmu's suggestion. He even wanted to say, Forget today, let's walk our separate paths starting right now.

However, he couldn't.

Moreover, he didn't know if he was imagining it or not, but he felt that Xiao Yuanmu's att.i.tude towards him was not as loathing as it had been to the original host. However, he didn't know if this event had not occurred in the original plot or if it actually had occurred but just hadn't been described in the book.

Only, regardless of whether it was the latter or the former, he could only get one answer. He was destined to offend this future big shot.

Song Xuanhe felt rather disheartened. He didn't dare to look at Xiao Yuanmu. He continued to look straight ahead and said, "I don't agree?"

Xiao Yuanmu looked at him pensively. There was no anger or hate in his eyes. His icy eyes were very clear, but his tone was indiscernible, "Since it's like this, no matter what happens in the future, you don't have any room for regret."

When he recalled Xiao Yuanmu's expression from the morning, the pen that had been spinning between Song Xuanhe's fingers suddenly stopped. He felt rather agitated and directly threw the pen onto another sofa. He picked up his phone that had been placed on the side and played with it, now lying on his back. He scrolled up to look at the news on his phone while crossing his legs, placing one ankle to the opposite knee, discontent.

The original host had many scoundrels as his friends. It had only been ten days since he transmigrated here, but he had received at least more than ten invites on his phone. Some were for normal banquets; some were for parties, and there was even an invite to fly to Ao City to gamble together. From the other party's tone, it was clear that this wasn't the first time. It seemed that the original host did not exercise much restraint when playing around.

Actually, Song Xuanhe did not have much misgivings when it came to having fun. Moreover, having to act in front of Xiao Yuanmu, who would think of ways to kill him in the future, made him feel unbearably stifled. It was just that this wasn't his world. He didn't know what kinds of people these folk were. Moreover, one reason the original host's ending had been so miserable was partly due to his scoundrel-like friends who kicked him when he was down. There was no disadvantage to avoiding them a little sooner.

Song Xuanhe scrolled through his phone absent-mindedly. Suddenly, a message popped up. His eyes lit up. Although it was very quickly replaced by another message, he was still able to very quickly find it again.

******: I've already sent  to your email the information about the person you wanted me to look into. That woman has someone protecting her. I had to exert a lot of effort to find the things that you wanted. Remember to increase my reward.

Song Xuanhe raised an eyebrow and quickly typed a response.

Laozi is the most handsome man under the skies: So quickly?

******: If the pay is good, of course I'll be fast. I gave you my account. Send me a screenshot of the transfer.

After Song Xuanhe opened up his email and saw that it was indeed the information that he wanted, he very happily sent the money over. He then sent a screenshot.

******: Thank you for your patronage. Hope that you come again.

Exiting Wechat, Song Xuanhe opened up his email and saw a picture of a pure and beautiful woman, whose age could not be told from her appearance. He smiled.

When has Song daye, as free and unrestrained as he was (read: a troublemaker who stirs up trouble for no reason), had to live his days so sullenly? To keep his life, he had no choice but to endure when facing Xiao Yuanmu. But for everyone else, he had no qualms about venting his anger on them.