The next day was the project launch meeting. Because Tang Yi was deeply tormented by Shen Fan’s “love”, he got up with the dark shadows under his eyes the next day.

He didn’t know that the puppy would pee and poop at three or four o’clock in the morning. When he woke up from his sleep to the stench and saw the mess in the bedroom, he was furious and immediately gave this little monster a name — Fanfan.

Xiao Fanfan was running all over the room after peeing, and the shirt Tang Yi accidentally dropped on the floor was bitten and dragged around. Fanfan was twisting his head and shaking the shirt as if hating it deeply. In the end, when Tang Yi, sleepy and with the curses on his tongue, picked up the quite expensive shirt, he couldn’t bear it anymore and stuffed Xiao Fanfan into the dog cage. Tang Yi didn’t want to wear the shirt stained with dog pee, and he couldn’t bear to throw it away, so he hastily soaked it in disinfectant for a while and then threw it into the washing machine.

ER in the enterprise management system could only be considered a second-tier company. The previous projects were mostly about 100,000 yuan OA systems, and the later implementation and maintenance were also simple. Later, the company was interested in long-term development, so it established a large customer department and hired a lot of new technical staff. However, not long after this reform, the senior management of the board of directors changed again, and Shen Fan took office and transferred the company’s main business to Tang Yi’s subsidiary. The rest of the energy was spent on capital mergers and acquisitions.

Tang Yi had been with ER since the beginning and managed to stay here through all kinds of changes, so there were quite a lot of emotional factors in play. He regarded the subsidiary as his own child, and when he met a customer who was good to his child, he would give this customer a 120% smile. What’s more, with Huayuan Group’s project, if it hadn’t been introduced by an acquaintance as a bit of a favour, they wouldn’t have had much chance.

Tang Yi previously offended Mr. Chen during the banquet. Now that the other party was able to sign the contract happily and immediately participated in the project launch meeting, he was surprised enough. When he waited for the project launch meeting, he saw that Huayuan Group had two deputy directors present except for Mr. Chen and Gu Yanting. Then the surprise suddenly turned into confusion.

The signing of the project was too fast this time, and ER mobilised almost all its elites to prepare for it. After Tang Yi returned, he had some doubts in his mind, but he only had time for Assistant Xiao Yang to contact Shen Fan and report the situation. He faintly felt a little uneasy, but the person in charge of the other party came to say hello, and he had to brace himself to deal with it.

After Tang Yi appeared, Gu Yanting hadn’t looked away from him. Tang Yi was dressed very formally today, and he looked handsome and upright when he shook hands and smiled. But Gu Yanting took a closer look and found that Tang Yi kept touching his temples inadvertently.

That was a gesture he only made when he was tired, and it shouldn’t have appeared this early in the morning, or on such a formal occasion. The two deputy directors of Huayuan were both very talkative, and Tang Yi quietly ended the topic a few times and was pulled into the conversation by the other side again to talk about something else.

However, he could not show his impatience at this time and could only listen with a smile on his face. When he was annoyed, he suddenly saw the two people opposite him glance somewhere behind him, and then the familiar smell of shower gel coming from behind surrounded him.

Gu Yanting put one hand on Tang Yi’s shoulder and patted him twice as if to comfort him, then smiled and greeted the two deputy directors, “Mr. Lei, Mr. He.”

The four of them stood together and exchanged pleasantries again, but this time the two deputy directors quickly walked away. After they were gone, Gu Yanting conscientiously let go of Tang Yi, then raised his hand and slowly picked a dog hair from Tang Yi’s collar.

Tang Yi furrowed his eyebrows unconsciously after seeing the men walk away and it took a while before he remembered that Gu Yanting was still by his side.

Just now, Gu Yanting’s attitude towards the two bosses was polite and respectful, yet the two of them still looked frightened. This made Tang Yi very curious about Gu Yanting’s current position, but on second thought, they were strangers now, so there was no need to say more. He pinched his brow and nodded politely at Gu Yanting, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. “Gu Yanting seemed to expect him to say that, and added after a pause, “If you are tired, you can go back and rest first. Leave it to me here.”

Tang Yi’s footsteps paused for a moment, and then he walked away in big strides.

The morning meeting went smoothly. Ning Zeyu personally brought two of ER’s most senior project implementation managers to make a presentation. The two deputy directors of Huayuan also said that they would fully cooperate with the system after it went live. When the two sides took a group photo after the meeting, the mobile phone in Tang Yi’s pocket finally rang.

When Xiao Yang called, his tone sounded very relaxed. He said that Director Shen had said that the preliminary work of this project was done by the old employees of the headquarters who were very meticulous, and the leader of the team was Lao Lian from the original project department.

Tang Yi breathed a sigh of relief, and then heard Xiao Yang ask hesitantly: “Mr. Tang, do you remember that Deputy Manager Lin?”

Lin Rui hadn’t been in T City for a long time. Xiao Yang had a deep impression of him because Lin Rui had oppressed him for a while, sending him off to do this and that like a servant.

When Tang Yi heard him ask this question, he already had a guess in his heart. After a while, he said faintly, “What’s the matter, just say it.”

“He also participated in this project.” Xiao Yang said, “I asked around and it seems that he only participated in the demand research.”

The sky outside gradually became overcast, and Tang Yi held the phone for a while before letting out an “en “and and saying “I see”.

As the rain fell, the wind rose outside, throwing the cold like a knife at one’s face. The people on the Huayuan side didn’t drive, the project launch was set at the software park of the provincial university, and it was not convenient to take a taxi.

Tang Yi looked at the representatives around him and suddenly felt a little tired. Ning Zeyu had the good sense to have someone call for a car. Even so, there was some impatience on the faces of Mr. Chen and the other two deputy directors. Tang Yi gave Ning Zeyu his keys and asked him to send them back to the hotel first. Afterwards, seeing that the others had been arranged properly, he simply asked for an umbrella and walked out.

The branch of the provincial university was much smaller than the main campus, but the planning was very beautiful. Both sides of the long bluestone road were full of ginkgo trees, and there were occasionally one or two red autumn leaves on them.

Tang Yi couldn’t say why he was tired; maybe it was because he didn’t sleep well last night; maybe it was because Gu Yanting appeared again; or maybe it was because he heard Lin Rui’s name again.

Even though reason told him it was most likely just a coincidence, it couldn’t stop his thoughts from going to extremes. Did Gu Yanting contact Lin Rui first? Did Lin Rui contact Gu Yanting first? Who helped to make the connection? It wasn’t easy to secure such a large order, was it? Otherwise, how could Huayuan have signed the contract so quickly?

Ah, you thought you had made progress with ER, but you didn’t know that it was the person surnamed Lin who had made the difference.

The rain suddenly intensified. The wind was a bit strong. The couple on the campus who were holding an umbrella together also ran quickly, giggling and hugging. Soon there was almost no one on the road. Tang Yi was wearing a well-ironed suit, but it was out of place in the atmosphere here, attracting curious glances from the students. He didn’t seem to be aware of it, just lowering his head and walking forward on his own.

He remembered that there was also a small grove on the main campus. There were many varieties of trees in it. In addition to ginkgo trees, there were also hawthorn trees. It was a pity that naughty students had little patience to wait for the hawthorn to grow up. Early on, someone picked all the fruit bald. When he and Gu Yanting were together, they didn’t do such unethical things. Later on, when the two moved out, the first place they rented was opposite the university. So the daily routine was to go to the lectures and then after lunch to burrow into the grove to get intimate.

At first Tang Yi didn’t take Lin Rui to heart. After Gu Yanting took the initiative to confess everything, he labelled Gu Yanting as simple and started his true sweet life.

The days when he didn’t think much about it were the happiest. What Tang Yi had always hoped for was a simple and uncomplicated love. If the first time he had seen Gu Yanting the latter would have been dressed in glamorous clothes, Tang Yi would not have been instantly moved. In the end, it was a case of low self-esteem. He positioned himself as a poor boy, so he also thought about finding a poor boy for himself to match.

Over the years, his savings increased day by day, and his vision became more discerning as his status was rising, but this was the only thing that remained unchanged. Otherwise he would not have been so wary of Zhou Hao. Tang Yi also soberly analysed his own heart and felt that this psychological factor of being too humble was responsible for most of his difficulties in starting a new relationship.

Of course, it was inevitable that there was something unforgettable about the old relationship, but more importantly, the failure of this relationship made him completely lose confidence in such an arcane, mysterious thing as love. In turn, it made him resist more and more when he saw someone better than Gu Yanting.

He knew that he was demanding, and he regarded it as a kind of emotional cleanliness. When he was alone, he many times had the idea of finding someone to make do with. But there was no way to find a “casual” person; Zhou Hao’s desire for exclusivity was too strong. Even when Tang Yi hadn’t given his consent in the past two years, Zhou Hao had kept all those who were interested or uninterested away from him for five miles, leaving himself waiting there in an overbearing manner.

Zhou Hao was good, so Tang Yi felt that it was more difficult to catch up to him, and at most he could get along unhurriedly. Tang Yi had second thoughts soon after saying yes to Zhou Hao that day, so when he went to Zhou’s house, he used a pretext to ask Zhou Hao: if I regret it, will it affect you?

Zhou Hao’s answer was simple and straightforward: no.

Regardless of whether Tang Yi agreed or not, Zhou Hao would continue to do what he was happy to do, whether it was to show kindness or something else. This attitude of not knowing how to stop until you achieved your goal was the same as when Tang Yi chased Gu Yanting in the first place. Tang Yi was silent for a while when he realised that this feeling of being strongly oppressed was not a very comfortable one.

Tang Yi wandered aimlessly through the park, walking until there was no more road ahead, before realising that his thoughts had drifted too far away. The raindrops blown by the wind were flying everywhere and his clothes were already wet. It made almost no difference whether he used the umbrella or not. After walking for a while and getting a little chilly, Tang Yi suddenly was struck by a thought and remembered that at home was his dog son who could act like a demon. This thought almost instantly pushed all his depression aside; he smiled bitterly and shook his head, then turned around to walk back.

However, as soon as he turned around, he was startled by a dark figure in front of him.

Gu Yanting held an umbrella in one hand and kept the other in his trouser pocket. The straight and slender trouser legs were already splashed with mud, and the double-breasted black trench coat was unbuttoned, revealing the snow-white shirt inside.

He stood still with his black umbrella, his eyebrows and eyes cold, and the icy expression on his face could almost be called solid. Tang Yi looked around. On both sides were woodlands turned into mud dens by the rain, and behind him was the tall outer wall of the school. Gu Yanting blocked the only stone road for him to go back.

But he didn’t want to talk to Gu Yanting. So he hesitated for a while and simply stepped towards the muddy path to his right.

Gu Yanting almost gritted his teeth and yelled, “Tang Yi, don’t you fucking dare to go away!”

The two had been together for years, and Gu Yanting had never been so loud. Tang Yi was taken aback. He stopped for a moment in his tracks. After reacting, he couldn’t help but sneer. He simply dropped the umbrella that was getting scraped by the branches and walked aside in great strides.

Gu Yanting rushed over almost viciously. The dirt road was muddy and difficult to walk, and the soil of the woodland was so soft that half of his leather shoes were stuck in it. It was not easy for Tang Yi to walk either, and when Gu Yanting caught up with him in a few steps and grabbed his shoulder, Tang Yi almost fell because his foot twisted.

The anger that had been accumulated for a long time seemed to have finally found a vent. Tang Yi turned around and gave Gu Yanting a vicious punch. The two of them slipped. When Tang Yi threw his fist, his body tilted and a lot of strength was lost. However, even so, Gu Yanting grunted in pain.

He didn’t dodge. When Tang Yi swung his fist, one of his hands was holding Tang Yi’s shoulder, and the other hand was holding an umbrella over Tang Yi’s head. His head snapped with the punch and he staggered.

Tang Yi was taken aback for a moment, and Gu Yanting pushed him to the wall behind him.

“Gu Yanting!” Tang Yi’s ears were burning, and when he tried to kick the man away, he realised that Gu Yanting had already stretched his leg to block him, so he couldn’t do anything.

After Gu Yanting saw that he didn’t make another move, he took a few deep breaths and stared deep into Tang Yi’s eyes, gritting his teeth as he asked, “Why did you come out on your own during the rainstorm? Hmm? Does the campus look good? Or does it feel good to have a cold?”

Tang Yi usually rarely caught a cold, but once he did, it dragged on for a month or two  and didn’t get better. In the past, Gu Yanting had become accustomed to worrying about this, so when he saw a familiar figure walking out with an umbrella, he chased after him without even thinking about it.

Tang Yi’s umbrella was a very small folding one that would turn into a mushroom as soon as the wind blew. Gu Yanting’s original idea was to give him a sturdy umbrella, and only when he didn’t find Tang Yi in front of him did he get anxious.

Tang Yi walked very casually. He turned around here and there. There was no rule at all. Gu Yanting was nervous, afraid that he would look away and miss him. Along the way, he almost ran from the first fork in the road to the next one, and every time he turned, he had to go back to the main road and look around again to see if Tang Yi had gone back.

It was only when he had almost reached the end of the road without hope that he spotted the back of Tang Yi who stood at the end of the path.

The rain curtain was falling mercilessly, and Tang Yi’s clothes were already wet. But he was still standing blankly in front of the wall as if he hadn’t noticed it. At that moment Gu Yanting almost rushed over to scold him, asking him what was wrong with him. But before he could take a step, he realised that they had broken up.

Tang Yi should have had a new boyfriend.

It was also possible that he was like this today precisely because something had happened between him and his new boyfriend.

This kind of speculation made the sourness and pain in Gu Yanting’s heart grow like crazy. Tang Yi’s back revealed a strong sense of loneliness, and his slender body also had some sorrowful aura in the rain.

Gu Yanting was silent for a while, and stood there in a dilemma, distressed and scared. In the past two years, he had imagined countless scenes of Tang Yi’s new love. Every time he thought about it, he felt difficult to breathe, as if he could suffocate at any moment. He thought it was the ultimate pain.

It was only when they met again and the living person stood in front of him that he realised that a single name Tang Yi called was enough to make his life worse than death.

The two of them looked at each other in a daze. Gu Yanting’s tone was too similar to when the two of them were sweet before. He held an umbrella to block the rain and at the same time blocked Tang Yi’s sight. There were only their bodies pressed together, a constant stream of warmth coming through the fabric.

Tang Yi was in a trance for a moment; his body felt cold and hot, quite uncomfortable. But the way Gu Yanting’s deep eyes gazed at him quietly, the bottoms of his eyes almost melting into water with tenderness, made him lose his concentration again.

Tang Yi opened his mouth slightly, and as soon as he wanted to say something, he saw Gu Yanting’s deep, dark gaze shift down. Then Gu Yanting lowered his head slightly and kissed him.

–

By the time the two returned to the apartment, it was past lunch, and Gu Yanting’s face was black the entire time they were riding in a taxi. Tang Yi was originally angry, but when he saw Gu Yanting like that, he couldn’t help but want to laugh inexplicably, so he went home with a blank expression and saying nothing.

After all, it was not his fault for sneezing when the atmosphere was just right. Even sneezing three times in a row and spraying Gu Yanting’s face, he didn’t mean it. What’s more, if Gu Yanting really succeeded with his intent to kiss him, Tang Yi would not be able to forgive him when he came back to his senses. If you think about it, you can say that Gu Yanting was lucky.

When the two of them entered the house soaking wet, they were both grim and ignoring each other. When they turned around and saw the living room, the tacit agreement was finally broken. Tang Yi pointed his finger at the living room and grabbed Gu Yanting, who was also dazed, shouting, “Fuck! Call the police!”

Gu Yanting also opened his eyes wide, and looked at him in disbelief for a moment. Only when he fished out the phone did he blink and glance at the living room again.

The things on the coffee table in the living room were scattered all over the place, the doors of the TV cabinet were opened, and several cards were thrown on the floor. The most eye-catching thing was the small leather sofa in the living room. A long strip was gnawed off in the bottom part and the stuffing inside was neatly removed. Then there was the toilet paper that had been rolled all over the room…

It took Tang Yi a while to react, and then he realised who the culprit was. Gu Yanting obviously realised it too and gave him a look, unable to resist touching his nose and lighting a candle for the little guy who was about to get beaten.

Fanfan was playing in the bedroom with a roll of toilet paper he had picked up from the bathroom. He poked his head out curiously when he heard the door slam. Who knew that a giant would suddenly rush over and pinch the back of his neck. 

Tang Yi was so angry that his hands almost shook. He pushed the dog to the ground, ready to beat him. Gu Yanting saw that his posture was not good and rushed to persuade him. Who knew that when Tang Yi’s slap was about to fall on Fanfan’s butt, the puppy would yelp “Ow!”

Gu Yanting: “Tang Yi! What are you doing scaring such a small dog! Isn’t he just a little young and ignorant? You can’t beat him up without even educating him!”

When Tang Yi was really about to start, he did feel softened by the sight of such a small thing. But the yelp just now was so weird. He looked at his hand. Obviously it hadn’t fallen yet, right?

When Gu Yanting saw that the dog was miserable and about to faint, he thought that Tang Yi had really hit it. He couldn’t care less about his black face, rushed over and scooped the dog up into his arms.

Tang Yi finally reacted and was furious: “My God, are you stupid?!”

Gu Yanting was dumbfounded: “Why am I stupid?!”

“I haven’t beaten him yet! You put him down for me!” Tang Yi couldn’t get angrier. He had grown up with the knowledge that dogs were man’s most loyal friends. What the hell that “Ow!” was, it was obviously acting!

Gu Yanting touched the little thing in his arms and felt very good, and he couldn’t bear to let it go and let Tang Yi beat it. So he dodged and said, “It’s so miserable. Haven’t you already beat it? I think you’re too hard on it, aren’t you? What should you do if you break it, it’s so small? This is a living thing anyway.”

Tang Yi: “……”

He went over and tried to grab the dog Gu Yanting protected. The dog was also a traitor, whining like he was scared to death. Tang Yi was almost angry enough to explode, tumbling all over the room looking for his mobile phone to call Shen Fan. When he found the phone in his pocket, his hand was trembling as he dialled the number.

Shen Fan picked it up very quickly, and his voice was quite low and official, “En, Mr. Tang?”

“Tang your ass! Shen Fan, hurry up and take away the demon dog you chose! I can’t raise it anymore!”

Shen Fan was quiet for a while, and then Tang Yi listened to Shen Fan’s female secretary reply softly, “Mr. Tang, Mr. Shen is in a meeting. Can you call back later?”

Tang Yi: “……” Later, later, it would be too late, no point… Tang Yi gritted his teeth and hung up the phone. When he turned around, he saw that Gu Yanting had almost cleaned up the living room. With one hand, he put the documents scattered on the floor in the drawer, and the other hand was still firmly protecting the culprit. After packing up the things on the floor, he went to the bathroom and took a mop to mop the floor. Tang Yi propped up his forehead when he saw that Gu Yanting still didn’t plan to put the dog down, and sighed speechlessly for a long time.

Now that his anger had passed, he couldn’t bear to beat Fanfan. Seeing that Gu Yanting’s posture of mopping the floor with one hand was quite awkward, he paused, walked over and stretched out his hand.

Gu Yanting took a step back cautiously, “What do you want?”

“Give me the dog. Mop properly.”

“Then I’ll hold it and mop… what if you beat it?”

“Tsk, do you mean you will hold it in the shower later, too?” Tang Yi simply smiled angrily, giving him a squinty-eyed look.

Gu Yanting stroked the puppy that shivered at the sight of Tang Yi, coughed and replied firmly, “Yes.”

“Okay,“ Tang Yi circled around his small leather sofa, “Then you hold him now, and I’ll beat him to death when you’re gone.”

Gu Yanting: “……”

Fanfan still fell into the hands of the very violent Tang Yi, and as soon as he landed, he flopped down on the floor in a very abject manner, his little body shaking like a sieve. Gu Yanting couldn’t bear it again, and finally was kicked into the bathroom by Tang Yi to take a shower anxiously.

Tang Yi took the troublesome little guy to the places where he was naughty, counting them one by one, and after counting, put Fanfan in the small cage for confinement. He had previously felt that the air carrier from the seller was too small and he was afraid that the puppy would be suffocated, so he thought about buying a bigger one on the weekend. Now it seemed that he couldn’t wait for that long.

Tang Yi checked the nearby pet supply shops and searched the internet to find out what kind of better ones were available, and when he was almost finished he heard Gu Yanting shout.

“Are there any clothes I can borrow?”

“……” Tang Yi was silent for a while, took the shirt that had just dried and handed it over, “Here, Fanfan specially prepared it.”

Gu Yanting was confused, “Who is Fanfan?”

Tang Yi looked at a certain dog who was pretending to be a wimp in the cage and said indifferently, “Shen Fan, ah! He likes this one the most.”

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