Chapter 24
Author: Mr. Big Horn
Su Jinxin’s heart was in turmoil as he raised his trembling eyelashes and glanced at Yan Zhen again. Their tightly clasped hands were pale from the pressure. “Well… our contract was originally for three years, and it expired a while ago. We didn’t renew it… Now that Ah Lei is back, there’s no need for the payment, so I…”
Yan Zhen finally understood.
His smile froze on his face, darkening with every word he heard.
How ridiculous.
While he was nervously planning his confession, someone else was meticulously planning their farewell.
Su Jinxin, as usual, glanced at Yan Zhen secretly while speaking, noticing his increasingly dark expression. His voice grew more shaky and quieter… until he couldn’t finish his sentence.
Yan Zhen’s face looked like the sky before a summer storm, dark clouds pressing down, and a frown forming between his brows.
Su Jinxin suddenly recalled something from a drama or book—how the pride of wealthy young masters meant they could dump others but never tolerate being dumped. He realized Yan Zhen should probably be the one to initiate such a conversation… However, this was his only moment of resolve.
Midnight calls. Familiar tones. Questions like “apartment or villa.” Three whole hours. Returning with a strong, unfamiliar fragrance and scratches. Those scratches… Even if something did happen, it shouldn’t be so obvious. It seemed like a silent demonstration, and Yan Zhen had no objection, letting it be. Su Jinxin dared not think about what other marks might be on Yan Zhen’s body.
For all these years, Su Jinxin never dared to leave any marks on Yan Zhen…
He knew this was the countdown he had long feared.
Serving someone with beauty, love fades as beauty fades.
It has always been this way, throughout history and across the world.
He just didn’t expect the end to come so abruptly—Yan Zhen, such a gentle person, would refuse to even share a meal with him.
Was it decisiveness… or cruelty…
… or perhaps in the world of the wealthy, this is how the old gives way to the new.
Over the years, he had seen it happen often enough. He knew his turn would come. He thought he had prepared himself well enough. Yet, when the moment arrived, his mind went blank, unable to even feel pain.
He only hurried to be harsher on himself.
He feared Yan Zhen would find him clingy.
He dreaded hearing cruel words from Yan Zhen’s familiar voice.
Being by Yan Zhen’s side, Su Jinxin had witnessed many partings—prolonged, sorrowful, heartbreaking—heard Yan Zhen and his friends talk about them with weary, resigned tones. He didn’t want to be like that, a bothersome topic of conversation like gum stuck to a shoe.
If he was destined to leave today, he chose to leave cleanly and with dignity. If possible, he wanted to make a graceful exit.
… In that case, maybe years later, when Yan Zhen thought of him, he wouldn’t scowl in disgust but perhaps smile faintly, fondly remembering his name…
But maintaining composure and dignity was challenging.
Trapped in Yan Zhen’s shadow, with the stove behind him, he had no space to retreat, truly cornered. He could only stand silently, feeling his soul slowly die from the deepest part.
He heard Yan Zhen ask, “Are you serious?”
— This was the final judgment.
Su Jinxin hurriedly nodded.
After a moment, he heard Yan Zhen say coolly, “Alright then.”
Yan Zhen stepped aside, making way for him.
Su Jinxin, without a second thought, lowered his head and rushed out. He feared that if he stayed any longer, he would start crying. When he could run no more, he stopped at the nearest bus stop, feeling a headache, nasal congestion, warmth in his eyes, and panic in his heart, yet no tears came. He realized, not being around Yan Zhen, it was hard to cry.
Almost immediately after Su Jinxin closed the door, Yan Zhen’s legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the cold kitchen floor.
A rare moment of vulnerability for the usually dominant CEO.
The maid heard the commotion and hurried over, but he waved her away. Leaning his head against the cabinet door, he pressed his chest, gasping for air—the world spinning, blurring, and fading away. He heard his own chaotic heartbeat, the rush of blood in his veins, the eerie laughter of bloodthirsty urges rising from the darkest corners of his heart—vicious malice exploding before his eyes, noisy and sharp, fraying his nerves. Everything he wanted to do now was written in the criminal code. It took all his strength to restrain himself, to stay put, not to chase after Su Jinxin and do something inhumanly cruel.
Time passed before the world returned to him.
Yan Zhen grasped the cabinet handle, slowly pulling himself up—numb, stiff, cold, every slight movement accompanied by the painful cries of his muscles, bones, and fascia. Just the act of standing felt like it drained all his energy.
He stood there, motionless.
It took him a long time to think about moving his eyes.
Then he saw the food Su Jinxin had made for him still steaming on the stove: century egg and lean meat porridge, handmade flower rolls, crystal shrimp dumplings…
All the breakfast items he had once said he loved the most.
Su Jinxin didn’t remember how he got back to his dormitory.
Fortunately, it was summer break, and his roommates had either graduated or gone home, so he didn’t have to explain his disheveled state—he was staying on for his graduate studies and could laze around the dorm for the rest of the summer.
However, this dorm…
…he looked up and saw the sketch of Yan Zhen’s body taped to the wall above his desk.
It was a small piece of his artistry as an art student.
A way to keep the one he liked in plain sight, visible to all.
In the center was a close-up of Yan Zhen’s back, with its graceful, stretched spine.
Su Jinxin reached up to touch it, recalling the nervous breath-holding as he secretly took the photo for the drawing…
In fact, to draw Yan Zhen, he had secretly taken many photos of Yan Zhen from various angles, locked in an encrypted folder on his computer, never daring to let anyone know, only daring to look at them in private—so much so that when his computer had problems, he didn’t dare take it for repairs and learned to fix it himself…
Not just computer repairs.