Most of the people at the celebration banquet were from Zhouquan, so from Moxi there were just the three designers.

The protagonist tonight was Zhou Lan, and everyone was surrounding him with toasts, congratulating him on a good start for Lanqiao.

Zhou Lan was obviously in a good mood, and he would not refuse any toasts.

Although most of the drinks were light, there was a crowd of people. After a while, he had drunk a lot and was quite tipsy.

Shen Yun looked at him from a distance but didn’t step forward. Everyone could do the icing on the cake, and he was not needed.

He exchanged a few pleasantries with everyone, then chose a corner to sit down, quietly smoking.

Originally he didn’t want to come, but the invitation had already arrived, and, in his heart, he was somewhat stung by Zhou Lan’s fickleness.

People say that women are fickle. He smiled and flicked off the ash. He felt that Zhou Lan was more fickle.

And his fickleness often manifested itself in some sort of aggression.

Shen Yun didn’t drink much.

The loss he suffered last time he had drunk still haunted him to this day.

Alcohol was a good thing, but it could also be a bad thing.

Fortunately, there were cigarettes. He turned his head and exhaled a wisp of blue smoke from the corner of his mouth, thinking that he would leave early after a while.

Li Huan brought a glass of fruit wine over, handed it to him and said, “This is not intoxicating, you can taste it.”

Shen Yun smiled and stubbed out his cigarette: “Thank you, Senior, you go do your things, I’ll sit for a while and go home.”

Li Huan nodded. The look in Shen Yun’s eyes was a bit different from before. Shen Yun smiled: “What’s the matter?”

Li Huan couldn’t describe the feeling, so he said, “I always feel that you are not quite the same.”

Shen Yun nodded, looked sideways for a while, smiled and said, “A serious illness is like waking up from a dream, it’s different.”

Li Huan looked at Shen Yun’s thin and slightly pale face and frowned: “Shen Yun, smoke less. If there is any difficulty, don’t carry it alone.”

Shen Yun’s eyes were a little hot; he blinked, and said sincerely: “I know, thank you, Senior.”

Seeing that he didn’t plan to say more, Li Huan changed the subject: “As soon as the Lanqiao project is over, your cooperation with Moxi also comes to an end, right?”

Shen Yun nodded: “Yes.”

“Do you have any plans?”

Shen Yun smiled and tapped his fingers lightly on the table: “There are a few orders in my hand that are being discussed. As for Moxi…”

He was silent for a while, “Xu Moran wants me to stay.”

Li Huan nodded: “Staying there is also a good choice, after all, it is much better than fighting alone.”

Shen Yun was silent. Moxi was indeed a good place to rely on.

As soon as the Lanqiao project came out, the internal doubts about Shen Yun disappeared as if they had never existed before.

Those who used to give him contemptuous looks were now slowly silenced, their expressions changing from disdain to jealousy.

There were also people who genuinely respected him, and began to call him Teacher Xiao Shen.

Shen Yun always smiled. Whether others stepped on him or held him up, he didn’t seem to care about it at all.

But people are animals that tend to seek profit and avoid harm, and he was no exception.

And it would be easier to do some things if he stayed in Moxi.

It was just that he didn’t want to exist as a Moxi employee.

So, still a cooperative way, he thought.

But he hadn’t figured out exactly how to cooperate, so he couldn’t tell Li Huan now.

Xu Moran and Zhao Chun were already in a discussion with the people of Zhouquan.

Moxi had excelled in the Lanqiao project, so they were thinking of taking the Lanshan project in one fell swoop.

Xu Moran had drunk a little too much, and his cheeks were slightly red.

In the past, Gao Xi would feel distressed when he drank like this, but Shen Yun just smiled coldly and looked away.

Feelings really can’t withstand wear and tear, he thought to himself, how could he have been so stupid as to believe in a lifelong relationship in the past?

He shook his head, picked up the fruit wine at hand, and walked towards Zhou Lan, who stood right opposite Xu Moran.

Xu Moran stopped Shen Yun, his voice tipsy and gentle: “I’ll take you home later.”

Shen Yun smiled and rejected him: “Thank you, Teacher Xu, but I have other arrangements for today.”

His eyes were gentle and pure, and his gaze wandered around Xu Moran’s face for a while. Then he stretched out his slender fingers to button the button at Xu Moran’s neck, and his fingertips inadvertently traced over Xu Moran’s bare skin, leaving a string of shivers.

Xu Moran stared at him in a daze, but Shen Yun smiled innocently, blinked and patted his chest: “Teacher Xu, pay attention to the image, otherwise how can girls like you?”

Then he walked away with the corners of his lips curved up. He tilted his head slightly and could see Xu Moran’s still stiff back and Zhao Chun’s gaze from a distance.

He couldn’t see clearly, but he could feel a burning sensation in the place where that gaze landed on him.

Shen Yun’s smile finally became a bit more sincere.

Zhou Lan looked at Shen Yun from afar, watching him and Xu Moran talk head to head.

There were many people between him and them, and those people walked around, blocking his gaze.

But finally, Shen Yun was walking towards him.

At this moment, something suddenly couldn’t be controlled anymore, breaking through the confinement, and came surging. Zhou Lan had to admit that he missed this person very much.

Although he couldn’t figure out whether he wanted this person or this body.

But he really couldn’t control his desire, and he couldn’t wait to get this person into his arms from the moment he appeared.

Ravage him or make love to him, as long as it was in his arms, it was good.

Zhou Lan narrowed his eyes and watched Shen Yun approach step by step, his back straight and the smile on his face confident and calm.

Completely different from the way he was in bed, and this wonderful contrast made Zhou Lan’s heart go wild.

He hadn’t been looking for Shen Yun, and naturally Shen Yun hadn’t been looking for him, and it had been a little over half a year since the last time they had slept together.

During this period, they had even missed out on some of the encounters they should have had, intentionally or unintentionally.

Needless to say, Shen Yun didn’t expect anything from feelings for a long time, just like a walking dead, drifting with the current in the sea of suffering.

And Zhou Lan, every time he thought of the vicious words he said to Shen Yun, it was always like hundreds of ants biting his heart, itchy and painful.

He was even a little afraid of himself like that.

He knew that the root cause of him becoming like that was Shen Yun.

He tried to distance himself from Shen Yun; if he couldn’t see him, maybe he would really forget him slowly.

He scheduled his work to the fullest, and he kept Lin Jianyang by his side, night after night.

He thought, isn’t it just one Shen Yun? Who can’t be replaced?

He did rarely think of Shen Yun, he even secretly rejoiced, but the moment he saw Shen Yun, everything was shattered.

Those pent-up emotions rebounded with a vengeance, hitting his heart to the point of numbness, impossible to control.

Without him realising it, the way he looked at Shen Yun was a little cold and inexplicably resentful.

Shen Yun, however, walked towards him as if he didn’t know anything, his face calm.

He was wearing a white shirt, and the buttons of the shirt reflected the light, like a row of tiny shells.

Zhou Lan’s hooked fingers wanted to reach over, undo the shells, and see the clam meat inside.

Shen Yun gently touched the wine glass in Zhou Lan’s hand with the wine glass in his hand, and there was a crisp sound.

He met Zhou Lan’s gaze and hooked the corner of his lips: “President Zhou.”

Zhou Lan looked at him with a vague little smile, but didn’t speak.

Shen Yun blinked: “Thank you for your care in the past, I will leave early today.”

The end of Lanqiao made him feel that his cooperation with Zhouquan should be regarded as coming to an end too.

Perhaps, the same was true of Zhou Lan.

After he finished speaking, he raised his head and drank the fruit wine in the glass. His bright red lips were stained with the liquor, and his eyes closed slightly.

Zhou Lan stared at his slender neck and his rolling Adam’s apple when he swallowed the liquor, somewhat in a daze.

He was silent, and the wine in the glass didn’t touch his lips. Shen Yun waited for a moment, and seeing that the other party was as immovable as a mountain, he turned and put down the glass, ready to leave.

He stayed up all night yesterday and was quite tired.

He thought Zhou Lan was probably disgusted with him.

It was also good that this day had finally come, and the piece of his heart that had been weighing down so heavily could finally be relieved.

Just before he had time to feel happy, a hand was placed on his shoulder from behind.

Shen Yun stopped but didn’t turn around.

Zhou Lan approached him, pressed close to his back, bit his ear and said, “Take me home tonight.”

Shen Yun didn’t look back, but turned his head slightly to avoid the other party’s scorching breath.

He hooked his lips: “With so many people here, it’s not my turn to send President Zhou home.”

Zhou Lan’s voice was like a shadow: “Among so many people, you are the only one who has climbed into my bed. Do you think it’s not your turn to send me home?”

Shen Yun pursed his lips in silence as he turned his head and looked at Zhou Lan suspiciously: “What? Isn’t President Zhou tired yet? Don’t you mind getting dirty?”

Zhou Lan also lowered his head and sneered in his ear: “Who said I want to fuck you? So self-centred? So horny?”

Shen Yun lowered his eyes, bit his lip in silence, and then raised his eyes after a while: “Deference is no substitute for obedience (it’s better to obey orders than to be polite). Then I’ll wait for you.”

Then he turned and left, burying himself into an inconspicuous corner once again.

In the eyes of outsiders, the two of them just talked a few words head to head, but no one knew the stormy waters between those few words.

Shen Yun knocked out a cigarette, looked out the window, squinted slightly, and the light the streetlamp cast into his eyes was like two small clusters of flames.

***

Shen Yun sat next to Zhou Lan and habitually looked out the window.

One hand was tightly grasped by Zhou Lan, and there was sticky sweat in this hand. He wanted to pull it out, but the other’s hand held even tighter.

So tightly that his palm hurt.

Shen Yun hooked the corners of his lips helplessly, and looked at Zhou Lan mockingly.

Zhou Lan’s face was a bit pale, and there were fine beads of sweat on his forehead. With the light and shadow in the car, his sweat was flickering like small pearls.

Shen Yun narrowed his eyes: “Do you… feel unwell?”

Zhou Lan closed his eyes and leaned into the back of his seat: “My stomach hurts, I probably drank too much without eating.”

There was a chain pharmacy at the entrance of the community. Shen Yun asked Zhou Lan to wait in the car and went to buy medicine.

There were some simple daily necessities in the pharmacy. Shen Yun hesitated, then bought a bag of noodles and a few eggs, and went to pay for everything together.

He came out from the inside and saw that the car had already driven away, and Zhou Lan was leaning against the lamppost waiting for him.

He bent over slightly in pain. Shen Yun took a few steps forward to support him, and the two slowly walked towards the community.

Zhou Lan half-hugged Shen Yun who was walking slightly in front of him, and the weight of his body pressed on Shen Yun’s back.

The street lamps stretched the shadows of the two of them.

The two shadows were squeezed tightly together, looking like the closest people embracing sweetly.

However, Shen Yun’s forehead was sweating from the strain.

He couldn’t help but sneer: “President Zhou just has a stomach ache, not a lame leg. Can you stand a little straighter?”

Zhou Lan ignored him, looking sideways at a cute swirl on the top of Shen Yun’s soft jet-black hair, and couldn’t help but lightly press his lips to it.

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