KC | Chapter 97

Shakespeare said, to be or not to be, that was the question!

To live or to die, to sign the deal or not to sign it, that was the question.

The moral model student hesitated for 2 seconds, then chose to collude with his dog boyfriend.

Chen Xi called Wang Xin. Good brother not only told him that their boss was at OLAY today, but also spilled out Li Ying’s parking space number, license plate number, home address, and every other detail.

“How do you know so much?”

“That old woman posts her car, bags, watches, and house on WeChat Moments every day. She’s so flashy, it’s hard not to notice. With that smug, showing-off look, she’s going in sooner or later.” Wang Xin had always been careless, and his mouth was never under control.

As the saying went: the gun hit the first bird to stick its head out, and getting hit for loving to stand out was only a matter of time.

Lanhai did not care about the future, only the bid in front of them. The dog men and dog men, perfect together, went ahead and did it.

Maybe because the two of them had been sticking together all these days, Lin Yiran unconsciously followed Chen Xi toward the parking lot. Only when they were about to get in the car did he react: “Hey, you’re going to mess with the bid. I won’t follow you.”

Chen Xi opened the passenger door, forcefully pushed Lin Yiran in, then gentlemanly fastened his seat belt for him and kissed his face, saying, “Be good, don’t move around.”

“…”

Lin Yiran’s face was full of black lines, and he thought: Who did he learn this nauseating, greasy, wild CEO style from? Looks like he really had watched too many CEO novels.

Earlier he had only handled the strategy, while the actual work had all been done by Chen Xi himself. This time the job was a bit dirty, and Lin Yiran thought Chen Xi could not bring himself to do it, so he comforted him, “Baby, don’t be afraid, Li Ying has never seen you, so there definitely won’t be any slip-up. You only need to act according to the script, and once this job is done, you can rise to the top.”

Chen Xi: …

Why did that sound like he was urging me to rob a bank?

Chen Xi fastened his seat belt and started the engine, ready to drive. Seeing that things were turning bad, Lin Yiran tried to reason with him with emotion: “Baby, it’s not that I don’t want to go with you. It’s just that I still have a meeting this afternoon.”

So he wanted me to do the dirty work for him? He could just think about it.

Chen Xi said, “Brother Lin, even though Li Ying has never seen me, the OLAY marketing director has seen me. If I run into her, there’s a risk I’ll be exposed.”

Lin Yiran was just about to speak when Chen Xi said again, “If we win the bid, then when it comes to execution later, I’ll definitely be the one to do it.”

“…”

“Brother Lin has no risk of being exposed, and he also doesn’t need to do the follow-up execution, so…”

Lin Yiran pressed a hand to his forehead. Since reasoning didn’t work, he started playing the emotional card. “Baby, can you save me some face?”

Chen Xi sneered, using his own method against him: “When you were thinking up the strategy, how come you didn’t think about saving your own face?”

“…”

Although I can think up this shameless way of messing with the bid, I really don’t have the courage to actually do it.

If even a whisper got out, my 13 years in advertising would be completely ruined.

Can’t go, even if I die I can’t go!

Lin Yiran kept urging him again: “Baby, signing with Gulin doesn’t count for much. Once you finish this job, that’s when you’ll really make a name for yourself in the ad circle!”

“I got into sales just to make money. Reputation is all empty to me. Why don’t you just give this chance to Brother Lin?” Seeing that Lin Yiran refused to cooperate, Chen Xi lowered his left hand and pressed the car lock, just in case.

As expected, soft and hard tactics didn’t work, so this old dog started playing dirty again.

Lin Yiran unbuckled his seat belt and prepared to slip away, but with a few clicking sounds, the passenger door only made opening noises, yet the door had been locked from the inside and could not be opened.

“…”

Lin Yiran had always prided himself on staying calm in danger, but this was the first time he had felt panic and unease, panic toward what was about to happen, and unease toward the familiar yet unfamiliar coworker in front of him.

He thought of the scene from two months ago when Chen Xi came into his office at night, and instantly felt it in his bones.

Heaven had its cycle, and who had heaven ever spared.

Chen Xi smiled lightly. “If you fall in the same place twice, then you’re an idiot. I let you run away last time at the fish restaurant, but this time you won’t get away.”

“…”

That tone sounded a little familiar. I told you to play the lewd, sleazy man messing with the bid, so why are you getting more and more like a CEO?

Lin Yiran racked his brain and came up with another idea. “We really do have a meeting this afternoon. I truly can’t leave now that Zhang Guangming has come to Lanhai. Could someone else go with you? Zhang Yuanji, Li Hua, and Ma Longfei are all at the company. Boss Chen, whoever you want, I’ll call him down for you.”

Chen Xi said, “This job seems most suitable for you to do.”

Lin Yiran: ?

After two days of practicing driving, Chen Xi started off without the slightest delay. At noon there were few people around, and the Cadillac instantly drove out of the Lihua parking lot.

At this moment, Lin Yiran could neither call on heaven nor earth for help. Chen Xi’s tone was playful. “Because in KA, no one is more shameless than you.”

“…”

I taught you so you could properly learn negotiation tactics, and not only did you learn my tactics, you even copied my way of speaking, my movements, my expressions. Then after learning it all, you used that set on me. You really are… too shameless!

“You asked me to help you, and not only did you not thank me, you even cursed me?”

“Chen Xi, stop the car, open the door, let me out! Did you hear me!”

“I’m angry. Even if you drive to OLAY, I still can’t do this job!”

Lin Yiran was so angry he could explode, but once the bow was drawn, there was no taking back the arrow. It was easy to get on the thief’s car, but hard to get off.

When waiting for the light, Chen Xi undid two shirt buttons. On his snow-white neck, red marks were mottled and scattered, and his sexy collarbone rose and fell with his movements. Lin Yiran thought of how he had trembled in the car yesterday, also like this, bound by the seat belt.

A fair hand gripped the steering wheel, its nails neatly trimmed and rounded. His youthful face looked as if it knew nothing of the world, but his lively eyes were flashing with deliberate mischief.

The noise and clutter were cut off outside the car. In the closed space came a line full of implication: “Brother Lin, I still haven’t properly looked down from the floor-to-ceiling windows on the 20th floor.”

That little bastard had gone bad. He wanted to seduce your brother?

A lustful word had a knife at its head, this job absolutely could not be done.

The old beast seldom played the decent gentleman, and did not eat what was delivered right to his mouth. “If you want to look, then after we mess with the bid, go back to the company and look all you want. No one will stop you.”

Chen Xi undid another shirt button and murmured, “It’s clearly already autumn, so why is it still so hot? So hot that I even want to take everything off.”

“…”

“I tested my MBTI a few days ago. I’m INTP, so I’m pretty emotional.” The light turned green, Chen Xi drove off, his tone somewhat melancholy. “I heard Zhang Yuanji say before that Brother Lin is ISTJ, and you’re better at weighing pros and cons based on facts.”

That topic jumped a little too far. Was he trying to dig a hole for me?

Last month at the senior management meeting, even the MBTI results had been found out by Zhang Yuanji. That showed there was no such thing as a wall that was airtight.

If I went to OLAY to mess with the bid, then the “relying on my face to make a living” that I had carefully maintained for 13 years would turn into “relying on my skin” to make a living!

“I really like Brother Lin, and I’m willing to do anything for Brother Lin, but Brother Lin doesn’t seem to think so.” Chen Xi sighed, as if he could cry the next second, “Maybe it’s because the age gap between us is too big, our social experience is different, and the MBTI also…”

The veins on Lin Yiran’s forehead jumped up. “Fine if you mention age and experience, but why are you even dragging MBTI into it?”

Chen Xi rubbed his eyes and pretended to wipe tears away, his voice muffled. “OLAY’s double-festival joint marketing budget doubled this time. Last week I practically spent a whole week writing the bid proposal, just to win this client. You told me to put my heart back in my stomach, and I believed you, but then… you won’t even help me. Do you not like me?”

“…”

That little bastard, you can’t learn the proper things I teach you, and yet you learn all this crooked stuff.

Lin Yiran closed his eyelids, as if doing mental preparation. He took a deep breath and then let it out, repeating this dozens of times. By the time Chen Xi was almost unable to wait any longer, he finally spoke: “I’ll go mess with the bid.”

After parking the car, Chen Xi gave him a business card. The black words on white paper carried a very cheap feel. The light, flimsy thing seemed to weigh a thousand catties, and Lin Yiran tossed it in his hand again and again.

“Today’s outfit is too formal. How about I go home first and change into a cheaper suit?”

Chen Xi quickly took off his shirt and gave it to him. “Wear mine.”

“…”

“I know it’s pretty popular now to wear your boyfriend’s clothes, but baby, this shirt of yours…” Lin Yiran had originally wanted to say it didn’t fit, but he hadn’t expected that once he put it on, it fit just right.

?

Chen Xi said, “Pinduoduo shirts for 19.9 let you choose the size, while for 9.9 you can only buy one-size-fits-all.”

“…”

“And those shoes…”

Chen Xi pulled a pair of slippers out from the passenger-side drawer. They were the ones he had worn for him last time when Lin Yiran went to Huiling Mountain.

“You don’t need to change the pants either. At first glance, no one can tell they’re branded. Besides, with your slippers and a sheer shirt, even if someone sees the label on the pants, they’ll just think it’s fake.”

“…”

Because they did not know when Li Ying would leave, there was no time now to do mental preparation for the old man. Chen Xi held Lin Yiran’s head and gave it a good rough grab, turning the hairstyle he had spent 10 extra minutes on in the morning, washing and blow-drying it all, into a bird’s nest.

A perfectionist who cared extremely about his looks could not stand even a hint of sloppiness. Lin Yiran caught Chen Xi’s hand and said through gritted teeth, “That’s enough. Isn’t it just going to mess with a bid, why are you being so serious.”

Chen Xi pursed his lips and secretly laughed, thinking: Looks like compared with face, your looks are still more important to you.

Lin Yiran pushed the door open and got out of the car. After walking a few steps, he came back, opened the car door, found a second-hand mask in the drawer, and covered Chen Xi’s body with the shirt he had taken off, like some large dog that had been bullied to the extreme and could not even cry.

“Alright, alright, stop dawdling. If you keep this up, Li Ying will run off.” Chen Xi kissed his forehead, his bright little rabbit eyes flickering, and comforted him, “Go for it, Brother Lin, love you.”

Lin Yiran nodded, like a prisoner about to go to the gallows, making his final farewell to his family: “I love you too.”

After saying that, he put on the mask and left without looking back.

After Lin Yiran had gone far away, Chen Xi hugged the shirt and laughed out loud.

He would be moved by the Lin Yiran who was working, but if Lin Yiran stopped working, he thought, he would still be moved.

Chen Xi really liked discovering and accepting different versions of Lin Yiran. The childish Lin Yiran who bought little flower-dog and little rabbit towels, slippers, and a little table board; the stubborn Lin Yiran who insisted on not washing dishes, on avoiding suspicion, and on being a straight man; the cute Lin Yiran who puffed himself up like a blowfish and then got angry out of embarrassment; the rogue Lin Yiran who was good at exploiting loopholes in the rules and never played by convention… he liked all of these.

Like was the delight of the first meeting, while love was the inability to tire of long companionship. (1)

He thought that he had fallen in love with Lin Yiran.

Author’s note:

(1) Adapted from Chen Jiru’s “Xiaochuang Youji”: “What gives people the joy of a first acquaintance is not as good as what keeps people from growing tired of long companionship.”