CH 11

“He said he had put you in the hospital after he broke up with you, really?” Now, that was all Ou Shaowen could think about.

“It didn’t have much to do with him, it was me who happened to be unwell at that time.” Ou Renjin said casually and asked again, “What else did he tell you?”

“That if it was me, I might be able to help you make a few hundred million, and that… I should not unpack my bags, and that I would probably move out of the villa within six months.”

Ou Renjin laughed angrily, “He’s still so funny, he can never remember a lesson. You don’t have to take his words to heart.”

Ou Shaowen stared at him for a moment, then suddenly said, “Can we not mention him?”

Ou Renjin raised an eyebrow in surprise, “Yes, we can, but why not mention him? Are you jealous?”

Ou Shaowen encountered another unfamiliar word, “What is jealous?”

Ou Renjin smiled, “It’s when you get angry and upset when you see me with someone else and want my eyes and attention to always be on you.”

“Then I’m not jealous.” Ou Shaowen replied firmly, “But I don’t like him very much.”

“Then why don’t you like him?” Ou Renjin was unrelenting.

“He said he put you in the hospital!” Since he was a child, Ou Shaowen had never been sick, but he knew that being sick must be a very painful thing, perhaps more painful than surgery, to make people endure the pain of surgery in order to be cured.

Ou Renjin’s heart twitched slightly. Ou Shaowen’s tone was too natural, and he put himself squarely into his camp, as if he would be happy with his joy, sad with his sorrow, and would always be on his side.

“Okay, then we won’t mention him.” He smiled a rare, somewhat genuine smile and leaned close to Ou Shaowen to whisper, “Let’s talk about something else.”

This evening, Ou Renjin didn’t leave his seat to chat with anyone else. After all, the little cutie was so well-behaved, and there should always be some rewards.

In the end, when the group photo was taken, he deliberately held Ou Shaowen’s hand with their fingers interlaced, sitting in the middle of the first row closely, as if distancing them from the people to their left and right. 

After the charity dinner, the discussion on Weibo and forums never stopped. First, the red carpet photos were judged to be all about pk (“player kill”, showdown between players) rather than about beauty. Then the list of donations was studied, the public mocking some celebrities for donating just to rub off the heat. When the group photo came out, the focus of everyone’s discussion changed again.

“How come Ou Renjin is showing off his love endlessly today? He’s been flirting since the red carpet, and he wants to become a Siamese twin in the group photo.”

“I dig this pair, I do very much!”

“That said, it’s a bit hard to decide who’s the gong, who’s the shou between them. This little gao leng (aloof and indifferent) brother is so A tonight that I can’t help but wonder if President Ou will be counterattacked.”

“I finally put together five group photos! Haha, President Ou’s fifth boyfriend, who is better than him?”

Apparently trying to rub off some buzz, the magazine very promptly released the first set of pictures of the flower-holding young man, with Ou Shaowen dressed in white but holding a black bouquet, looking at the camera with bottomless eyes, as if waiting to be saved, and as if longing to be destroyed.

“Oh my god, so Ou Shaowen was born as a model? He’s too expressive.”

“Damn, this set of pictures is the level that can raise him to the next circle.”

“No wonder Ou Renjin is willing to sign him up with 50/50. No matter what people say, he is a businessman, he separates public and private.”

“I’m going to become a brain-dead fan, ah ah ah, decided to start practising in a catfight from today. There will be definitely a big battle to fight when Ou Renjin breaks up with him.”

“The protagonists of countless novels in my head now have a face.”

At that time, Ou Renjin was also looking at the set of pictures. He looked at them silently for a long time, and then called the head of the modelling department.

So, early the next morning, Ou Shaowen received another invitation to shoot an advertisement. This time, he was getting more and more comfortable with it, and the photographer was not as indifferent as Mu Yi was last time. He yelled exaggeratedly all afternoon, praising Ou Shaowen as a supreme genius. Qi Yue, the newly hired junior assistant, was holding his mobile phone, taking pictures even more intently than the photographer.

After finishing the photo shoot, Ou Shaowen was in a good mood. Sitting in the car on his way home, he couldn’t help but ask his young assistant, whom he had just met today, “If I want to buy Ou Renjin a gift, do you know what I should buy? I gave him cufflinks last time, but he didn’t seem to like them very much.”

Qi Yue almost choked on a mouthful of mineral water, “You, do you give President Ou gifts?”

“Yes.”

“He actually accepted your gift?” Qi Yue was really shocked, his gossipy heart stirring.

“Why shouldn’t he accept my gift? Everyone likes to receive gifts.”

“Fine, fine.” Qi Yue giggled twice, “So what did President Ou give you?”

“A small bamboo made of jade and a box of chocolates.” When talking about these, Ou Shaowen’s tone was full of smiles.

“Is that all? No way, he is so rich and he just gets off with these things? And now, you actually think of giving him another gift. Didn’t you just start working?”

“That’s right.” Speaking of this, Ou Shaowen was a little melancholy, “I don’t know how much I will be paid for this photo shoot. I’m worried that the money will not be enough.”

There was silence; when Qi Yue didn’t answer for a long time, Ou Shaowen turned his head to look at him in confusion, and saw his complicated expression of hating the iron for not being steel. Finally, Qi Yue sighed with regret, “Xiao Wen, although it is not good for me to say this, but this is what I think. With people, you can’t pin all your hopes on others, you have to think about yourself more, you have to leave yourself a way out, okay?”

As they got out of the car, Ou Shaowen stood in front of the villa, a bit tempted to correct Qi Yue on what his name was, but after thinking about it, he just listened quietly and patiently to what Qi Yue had to say.

“Leave a way out?” He didn’t quite understand.

“Have you ever thought about what will happen after you break up with President Ou?” In theory, Qi Yue had only met Ou Shaowen for the first time today, but he was someone who quickly got acquainted with people, and Ou Shaowen, no matter what they talked about, would always respond seriously, so it was only logical that they got familiar in one afternoon.

Hearing this, Ou Shaowen understood what Qi Yue meant. Like Qin Yining yesterday, he was reminding him that he would only live in the villa for no more than six months.

In fact, he hadn’t really considered what would happen if he left Ou Renjin and didn’t have to go back to the lab for a while yet. He was aware that he had a bit of a dependency and an attachment of the duckling to Ou Renjin, which made him subconsciously unwilling to think about what would happen after he left Ou Renjin, “Rent an apartment and continue working?”

“Yeah!” Qi Yue clapped his hands, “You have taken all the money you make now to buy gifts for President Ou. What should you do if you don’t even have the money to rent an apartment in the future?”

“I won’t have the money to rent an apartment.” Ou Shaowen replied seriously. He had been dutifully watching TV and reading magazines recently, “Even very poor and destitute people have a place to live in. I’m not picky, a bed is enough.”

Qi Yue was completely defeated. He shook his head exaggeratedly, “Alright, I get it. Have a good rest, I’ll come to the villa to pick you up when there’s a job.”

Ou Shaowen nodded, and when he saw the car leave, he turned around, ready to enter the house. Then he saw Ou Renjin leaning on the door jamb, looking at him with a smile that didn’t look like a smile.