Zong Chi didn’t go looking for Lin Jiaoyu as promised.
Instead, it was Lin Jiaoyu who showed up, carrying some liquor to meet him.
When Lin Jiaoyu arrived, Zong Chi was discussing the next day’s schedule with his secretary.
His secretary’s surname was Huang, but Lin Jiaoyu only knew her English name, Mabel.
Zong Chi was wearing a robe, clearly already washed up for the night.
The secretary was confirming a detail with him, sent him a reminder, and said she’d call him half an hour early the next day as well.
She told Zong Chi to remember to keep his phone on.
Lin Jiaoyu listened as the two of them handled their business, occasionally butting in, “Miss Huang, where are you off to?”
Huang Secretary ignored him.
Once she finished her report, she was ready to return to her room.
Before leaving, she dutifully reminded her boss, “Madam Zong knows you’ve had a bit of a cold these days. She told me to remind you to drink less. Also, you should hold off on your medicine for now.”
Zong Chi didn’t respond to any of it, just dismissed his secretary.
“Happy holidays.”
Huang Secretary knew her words were wasted and left without another word.
Lin Jiaoyu cast a sidelong glance at the arrogant Huang Secretary and mocked his old friend, “Everyone you hire is like a rooster—no real skills, but always the first to crow.”
Zong Chi smelled the smoke and alcohol on him, got up immediately to open the window, and warned Lin Jiaoyu as he looked back, “Don’t mess with her. She doesn’t buy your act.”
Lin Jiaoyu was annoyed by Zong Chi’s attitude and was about to complain—how even his secretary was protected, what was Zong Chi pretending to be, everyone knew he was a big bad wolf.
The next second, Zong Chi casually revealed his secretary’s vacation plans to cut off his friend’s thoughts.
“She went to Hong Kong to see her girlfriend.”
Lin Jiaoyu’s jaw almost dropped.
He took a moment to recover, regretted it for a second, but quickly moved on.
He went to find a glass for round two with Zong Chi.
Zong Chi ignored him, saying he didn’t want to drink, that he had a headache, and even a toothache.
Lin Jiaoyu, hearing such fussiness, lost most of his enthusiasm for opening the liquor.
He yelled, “You’re so delicate, I don’t even like hanging out with you. Just tell me honestly—what are you doing back in Jiangnan?”
Zong Chi found the smell on Lin Jiaoyu too much—a mix of alcohol, tobacco, and several different perfumes.
He nudged Lin Jiaoyu, telling him to go wash his face, or else he’d kick him out in three minutes.
The last time they’d met was in Hong Kong, at Lin Jiaoyu’s cousin’s wedding.
Their table alone finished off eleven bottles of strong liquor.
Lin Jiaoyu was completely out of it, handing out celebratory cigarettes to everyone, even the retired nanny from the groom’s family who lived in the Retirement Home ended up with several of his cigarettes.
Zong Chi had to lie down until noon the next day, only recovering after three meals of plain porridge.
Lin Jiaoyu spent that night at his girlfriend’s place.
The next day, they broke up.
The reason was that he vomited all over her place in the middle of the night; she couldn’t stand him, and Lin Jiaoyu felt he was getting old—after one argument, they split for good.
He was the one who couldn’t handle his liquor, yet was childish enough to crave someone’s unconditional love at his worst, even if just for a second.
He always thought he was “diligent” in every relationship, but in the end, they all fizzled out or ended in name only.
Zong Chi never remembered the names or faces of the women around Lin Jiaoyu.
In any case, it was always someone new next time.
He once teased his friend, saying the only thing he liked was the face of love, never the actual person.
Lin Jiaoyu admitted this without shame.
While he was washing his face in the other room, he came out with his face still wet, holding a pearl earring in his hand—obviously a woman’s.
Lin Jiaoyu never poked into Zong Chi’s private life.
After all, the old dog at his parents’ house, even after being neutered, still went out to chase other dogs—so Zong Chi wouldn’t behave any differently!
This guy was pure pervert, Lin Jiaoyu always trashed Zong Chi behind his back, “Young Master Zong is a woman-hater, at least he’s annoyed by them, except for one. And she dumped him—so Young Master Zong went crazy.”
“Don’t tell me this thing was left by your secretary?”
Lin Jiaoyu weighed the pearl in his palm.
Zong Chi was sitting alone on the couch, buying medicine on his phone, the blue light casting his face even paler.
He didn’t look at Lin Jiaoyu, just told him to put it back where he found it.
Lin Jiaoyu pressed, “Whose is it?”
“Put it back!”
The two had been friends since they were seven or eight.
Back in private school, Lin Jiaoyu would do whatever Zong Chi egged him on to do.
Later, Zong Chi’s father transferred him to Yizhong, and Lin Jiaoyu thought about going too.
But Yizhong was full of nerds—he was afraid he’d catch it.
“Two questions: whose is this, and why are you back this time?”
Lin Jiaoyu mischievously tossed the pearl at him like a basketball back in school.
To his surprise, Zong Chi didn’t even try to catch it, letting the little pearl fall onto the carpet.
The living room went silent for a moment, and the instigator finally realized Zong Chi was in a bad mood tonight.
The thing rolled under the long sofa.
Lin Jiaoyu sensibly went over to help retrieve it.
Zong Chi coldly told him to move aside, pretending he’d do it himself, but instead of kneeling down to reach for it, he looked like he was about to move the whole sofa.
He seemed to be fighting with himself, so Lin Jiaoyu had no choice but to help.
One at each end, they moved the sofa.
Zong Chi knelt down, searched carefully in the long-pile carpet, and finally found it.
During this, Lin Jiaoyu suddenly realized, “It’s He Dongli’s, isn’t it?”
Zong Chi refused to admit it.
“It’s no one’s.”
“You came back to Jiangnan for her, didn’t you?”
“Sorry, I’m here for the Purchase Case.”
“That’s your official reason. I want to hear the real one.”
“My real reason is I don’t want you here. Get out and take a cab downstairs!”
Lin Jiaoyu didn’t buy it.
Back in school, their bickering matches always ended in stalemates—neither would give in.
“Why should I leave? If I go, who’ll remember how low you can crawl when you’re in one of your dark moods?”
Zong Chi lost all patience and cursed Lin Jiaoyu’s whole family, telling him to get lost!
Lin Jiaoyu, shameless as ever and enjoying the scolding, flopped onto the sofa.
“How did you even meet her again? I heard she’s in surgery at Affiliated Hospital No. 1 now? Honestly, her personality is perfect for a doctor. But, this A Li,”—back in school, Lin Jiaoyu always teased He Dongli by calling her A Li, which made Zong Chi jealous—“is really boring. Even if I see her again, unless she says a hundred words to me first, I won’t even acknowledge her before she gets to word one hundred and one.”
The reason was that after He Dongli and Zong Chi broke up, she immediately cut all mutual friends from her circle.
Lin Jiaoyu only realized he’d been blocked when he tried to message her during a festival that year.
Thinking back, he said, “Oh, it was Qingming Festival.”
Zong Chi, hearing this, turned mean instantly.
“What were you messaging her for? And during Qingming? What did you say—‘Happy Qingming, I’ll go to your dad’s grave with you,’ huh?”
Lin Jiaoyu laughed awkwardly, not doubting for a second that if Zong Chi were still the ‘official boyfriend,’ they’d be fighting for real.
Lin Jiaoyu poured himself a drink, one hand bringing the glass to his mouth, the other propping up his head.
Even if he was caught acting suspicious, he brazened it out.
Not that he had any such thoughts, but even if he did, even if He Dongli made a move on him, Lin Jiaoyu wouldn’t dare.
Because Zong Chi would never let him off.
No doubt, if a woman made a mistake, it was always the man who led her astray.
If someone had to be punished, he’d kill the other man ten thousand times before he’d lay a finger on her.
That was just how muddleheaded Zong Chi was.
“Say what you will, you two might have broken up, but you’re still cut from the same cloth.”
Lin Jiaoyu knew how to mollify Zong Chi.
“You want to possess her, and He Dongli, even if she’s dissatisfied with you, when she left, she cut off everyone connected to you. Aren’t you two the same? Oh, I leave Zong Chi, and I’m not even an independent member of society anymore. This A Li really is boring.”
Zong Chi snorted for no reason.
“Because in her eyes, anyone associated with me is the same kind. She’s the outlier. Isn’t it normal for her to cut ties?”
Lin Jiaoyu held a mouthful of liquor, heard Zong Chi’s words, and smiled oddly.
The fiery liquor slid down his throat, and he almost pointed at his friend’s nose: What can I say about you?
With this attitude, your ex-girlfriend could fool you a hundred times, and you’d still fall for it as if it was something new.
But in all fairness, Lin Jiaoyu thought the reason Zong Chi couldn’t let go of He Dongli was simply because Zong Chi was picky—he didn’t believe in substitutes.
And his personality wasn’t something most women could really figure out.
Few women dared to go against him, and those who did, wouldn’t easily bow their heads.
He Dongli was the exception.
Lin Jiaoyu had seen it with his own eyes: back then, the undisputed School Belle and top student of Yizhong, so cold and distant, but once drunk, her voice would go all soft, and in her heart and eyes, there was only one name: “Zong Chi, I feel so awful.”
She was a year younger than Zong Chi, but in daily life, you’d never guess He Dongli was the younger one.
Only when her rationality was briefly taken over, when she leaned on Zong Chi’s shoulder with her eyes half-closed, as if no one else was there, reaching out to stroke Zong Chi’s face down to his Adam’s apple—only to be caught and told to stop.
He Dongli would obediently stop, burying her head as deep as she could.
When Zong Chi spoke, the vibration would reach her, and she’d lift her head, hair all messy, asking him to speak softer.
Zong Chi really would lower his voice to her ear.
He Dongli would complain he was dumb, that wasn’t what she meant.
In the end, the two of them would mess around together.
Lin Jiaoyu felt jealous at the time, but didn’t really understand it.
Later, after seeing so many similar faces, he realized that what made He Dongli so rare and charming was her clarity in both sobriety and surrender—her pure devotion.
That night, the old friends’ solitary drinking ended when the hotel butler brought up medicine for Zong Chi.
Lin Jiaoyu watched Zong Chi pop the medicine out, about to swallow it, and snatched it away.
“If you want to die, wait until I’m gone. Drinking and taking antibiotics—aren’t you lucky to have an ex-girlfriend who studied medicine?”
Zong Chi was furious and cursed, “Are you sick? Why do you keep bringing her up? If you like her, go chase her!”
Lin Jiaoyu loved this kind of drama.
“If I chase her, would you agree? Huh?”
“I’d agree! Just give me back the medicine, and it’s all over. I’d agree, right?”
Lin Jiaoyu laughed so hard he almost choked.
“Damn, I’m calling that woman right now—let her know how much you’ve been provoked, trying to kill yourself. The Zong family line is about to end…”
Zong Chi was annoyed by Lin Jiaoyu’s rambling, his anger boiling with nowhere to vent.
He crumpled the medicine packet noisily and tossed it aside.
Whatever.
He didn’t need to keep up appearances in front of Lin Jiaoyu.
Yeah, he admitted it—he was just here to make people unhappy.
He couldn’t understand: if she really liked that guy, why would she agree to go on a blind date at the Liang Family?
What kind of pathetic man would willingly accompany her to a blind date?
Zong Chi told Lin Jiaoyu about the Liang Family, but Lin Jiaoyu got distracted, scolding Zong Chi for becoming a real businessman over the years, always hanging out with that Chen Xiangyang guy.
“Why didn’t you call me? Am I not even as good as Chen Xiangyang now? Hmph, that smiling fox, climbing up with women’s help!”
Zong Chi shot Lin Jiaoyu a contemptuous look, but Lin Jiaoyu didn’t back down.
“I said he climbed up with women’s help, I didn’t say it was A Li, why are you so jumpy? Isn’t it true? If he didn’t want to help A Li, would you have invested in him? And that guy is shrewd—when he first saw A Li, maybe he thought she was your dad’s mistress or something!”
Zong Chi still didn’t say anything, but his cold glare was more intimidating than words.
Lin Jiaoyu swallowed his anger, stomped off as if to leave, knowing Zong Chi was never one to give people an out.
He came back after a few steps, teasing and fishing for conversation, “So you made such a big fuss coming back here to get back together with A Li?”
At the work desk by the floor-to-ceiling window, a notification popped up on Zong Chi’s laptop.
He got up to check it.
After reviewing it, he picked up his phone to call his secretary, speaking with certainty, “Remove the frontal photo. As for the press release, you decide on the main text.”
After that, he hung up, set the phone aside.
Zong Chi looked exhausted, slumping over the desk with one hand propping him up, the other scrolling the mouse.
He looked so unapproachable, just like when he’d argue with his father—only Zong’s Father could tease him.
The old man once scolded his own son perfectly: “A three-kilo duck with a two-kilo mouth!”
At least you can sell a duck after plucking it, but some people, until their last breath, only know how to run their mouths.
“Aren’t you leaving?”
He tried to chase Lin Jiaoyu out.
“I’m asking you something!”
“What?”
Lin Jiaoyu refused to let him play dead.
“You came back to beg her to get back together, didn’t you?”
“No, I came back because I can’t stand seeing others happy. If I can’t have it, no one else can.”
Lin Jiaoyu hated stubborn people but couldn’t bear to see A Li suffer from him again.
He pointed at the medicine on the floor, “Fine, just take your medicine.”
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