CH 22

Guan Qijun’s face became increasingly unpleasant to look at.

He was silent for a moment, then stepped forward and knocked on the door of the office.

“Wait a moment.” Ou Renjin’s voice came from the room, neither high nor low, and then, about half a minute later, Xiao Yao opened the door and walked out. He smiled slightly at the two people at the door, his expression somewhat happy.

Guan Qijun nodded to him with a wooden face, and walked in with the documents.

Ou Renjin glanced at him, “You rarely knock on the door and disturb me when I have something to talk about with someone else.”

“Sorry.” Guan Qijun pursed his lips, “Because the annual plan for next year urgently needs your signature.”

“Bring it on.” Ou Renjin didn’t ask much.

But Guan Qijun couldn’t help but speak up, “You… are you going to break up with Ou Shaowen?”

In his mind, he actually hoped that President Ou would be more attached to Ou Shaowen, that they would be together for a longer period of time, so long that the young man, who seemed to be simple and kind, would be willing to give his heart and soul to President Ou, or, so long that everyone in the whole world would rightfully assume that the young man would give his heart and soul to President Ou.

He didn’t dare to mention this idea in front of President Ou again, but he never stopped thinking about it.

“So what if I am? What does it have to do with you? You can’t bear it?”

As soon as he heard President Ou’s tone that seemed to be joking but was not, Guan Qijun was a bit nervous. His fingers trembled slightly and he shook his head, “I just think…”

“You don’t have to think about my personal affairs.” Ou Renjin turned over two pages of the plan, raised his eyes and hooked the corners of his mouth, “It is the same way as whoever you want to be with in the future, whether it’s a man or a woman, whether it’s young or old, I won’t care.”

Guan Qijun closed his mouth tightly. He didn’t know whether President Ou simply warned him not to always try to interfere in his private affairs, or if he saw the little thoughts that he still carried, the cruel and ruthless thoughts that involved a crime.

Ou Renjin took a rough look at the document from start to finish. The contents of the document were discussed in the meeting. It was perfect enough to be impeccable. He signed his name on it gracefully, closed it and handed it to Guan Qijun, “You can go now. I have to leave first today, so you can also get off work early. You don’t look well, get more rest.”

“Okay, President Ou.”

After sending away the subordinate, who was good everywhere but always unconsciously interfered in his private affairs, with an attitude of a tolerance for underlings, Ou Renjin drove back to his other residence, which was only less than ten minutes away from the office, in high spirits and even with some impatience.

He called Aunt Zhou and told her that Xiao Yao would come to the villa to get a few books and asked her to treat him well.

Aunt Zhou’s surprised tone when she heard this was also very interesting.

Then, he turned on his laptop and called up all the surveillance cameras in the villa.

Xiao Yao didn’t make him wait for too long. He quickly showed up at the villa and greeted Aunt Zhou in a more relaxed and natural manner than usual, as if he was very familiar with everything here. He smiled and rejected Aunt Zhou’s intention to pour him tea, “Don’t bother, I know where those books are. I didn’t plan to trouble President Ou, but I looked everywhere for a long time before I found out that these books were out of print, so I could only cheekily ask President Ou for them.

“You can rest, I’ll just go up and get them by myself.” As he spoke, he already walked straight to the entrance of the stairs.

Aunt Zhou opened her mouth, not knowing if she should stop him or not.

Xiao Yao went up at the right time. Ou Renjin had determined that Ou Shaowen would come downstairs every day at that time to help Aunt Zhou cook. So when Xiao Yao had reached the door of Ou Shaowen’s room, Ou Shaowen happened to push the door open.

Ou Shaowen’s eyes were a little surprised. He had never seen an outsider in this villa, but when he thought about it carefully, this person didn’t seem to be an outsider either. Ou Renjin posted his photos on Weibo, so he could recognise this man’s face. But what was he doing here now? Ou Shaowen felt strange, but he bypassed Xiao Yao blankly, preparing to go downstairs as planned.

“Wait.” Xiao Yao stopped him.

Ou Renjin in front of the screen silently turned up the volume and zoomed in on the picture.

“Hello, I’m Xiao Yao. I’ve only come to the villa today because I had an arrangement with President Ou that he would send me some books. He has been busy recently, so I’ve come to get them myself. Don’t think too much about it.” Xiao Yao’s face was apologetic as he explained.

This explanation, for the average current boyfriend, was actually extremely lethal. The inherent territory had been invaded, and his own boyfriend still maintained an ambiguous connection with his first love. This statement was not so much an explanation as an extremely hypocritical provocation.

But Ou Shaowen just nodded coldly, thought for a while, and reminded: “I arranged the books on the bookshelves according to the colour and size. You can just look, they should be easy to find.”

The expression on Xiao Yao’s face stiffened slightly, but after all, he had been acting for many years, and he quickly went back to the script, “I watched that episode of ‘Desperate Escape’, you were very good.”

“Thank you.” Ou Shaowen was a little perfunctory. He wanted to go downstairs quickly. Aunt Zhou was always precise when cooking. If he went down later, she would have finished her work.

“You have signed a contract with Qimeng such a long time ago, did President Ou only arrange this resource for you? I think you can try acting, idol dramas and the like. You can make money quickly, earn a lot, and it’s easy to hype and explode. Based on your appearance, it is very suitable.” After saying that, Xiao Yao seemed to feel something was wrong, and pursed his lips, “Sorry, I was watching the show and I felt that you seemed to be a little short of money, so I couldn’t help but advise you. The early training for the idol path is very hard. Even if you get to the stage, the money you earn and the status you have are not as good as those of the actors. I don’t understand why President Ou arranged for you to go this way. Qimeng also has no experience or resources in this area.”

To be honest, meeting someone who had been with Ou Renjin in the corridor on the second floor of the villa, although Ou Shaowen wasn’t exactly jealous and angry, sad and upset, it certainly wasn’t much of a pleasure, and he hated all that pointless socialising with strangers. Plus the man brought up Ou Renjin in front of him in a tone that resembled disapproval, as if he had an opinion on him.

“You don’t have to come over here and advise me if you don’t think it’s appropriate. Go and advise Ou Renjin. If he changes his decision, I’ll do it.” Ou Shaowen walked straight downstairs but as soon as he had taken two steps, Xiao Yao’s voice sounded behind him.

“For such important things as your future and your life, it’s better to rely on yourself to decide. If you always rely on others, when you can’t rely on them, you won’t be able to live.” This sentence was not within the scope of Ou Renjin’s request, but looking at Ou Shaowen like this, watching him hold back all his emotions and behave calmly as usual, talking as if his whole life was controlled by Ou Renjin, like a puppet who took the initiative to deliver its strings to the puppet master, Xiao Yao suddenly couldn’t help but say these things.

Some inexplicable irritation rose up in Ou Shaowen. Once again, he didn’t understand why these people always had to come over to warn him, so high and mighty, like warning a man struggling in the water to quickly throw away the driftwood in his hands. They said: you can’t rely on this driftwood for too long, the driftwood will soon leave you, you have to think about the future, you have to be prepared.

Why always think about the future! In his life, the future represented the dull pain day by day, the helplessness of not being able to move, the emptiness of his thoughts drifting away, the colourless, soundless, vacuum-like research room. What was there to prepare for in such a future?

Wasn’t it good to be happy now, just cherish and enjoy the present?

So he turned his head and said in a truly puzzled tone: “When you can’t rely on something, there are naturally ways to live without relying on it. Don’t worry, those who can live won’t die. For now, it’s enough for me to know that I am happy and enjoy every day I am with Ou Renjin. You, as someone who has already moved out of the villa, don’t need to come over and say these things to me. We don’t know each other well, do we?”

Xiao Yao was taken aback for a moment, and Ou Renjin on the other end of the computer slowly sat up straight. He leaned back gently, pulling himself as far away from the screen as possible.

During these days in the outside world, Ou Shaowen was actually changing every day. For example, at this moment, his reaction towards Xiao Yao was completely different from when he was talking to Qin Yining.

In the camera, Ou Shaowen’s expression was cold and blank, very different from the usual one when he looked at Ou Renjin with shining eyes. Ou Renjin’s heart suddenly felt a little uncomfortable. He reached out and pressed his hand to his chest, lowering his eyes to hide his expression.