The study room was quiet, with only the sound of two men’s breathing.
Lu Boyuan opened the drawer of his desk, took out a bottle of wine, emptied the strong tea in his cup, and then filled it with wine.
“Do you want some?” He lifted the bottle slightly.
Fang Yongnian looked at that bottle of wine, finally finished the now ice-cold tea in his own cup, and placed the empty cup in front of Lu Boyuan.
“Yixin said you can’t drink.” Lu Boyuan smiled faintly and filled Fang Yongnian’s empty cup.
“Mm.” Fang Yongnian didn’t deny it. He accepted the cup of wine and downed it in one go.
He really couldn’t drink. As soon as the wine entered his stomach, half his face turned red.
Lu Boyuan also emptied his cup, frowning. “Before I took on that project, I never had a major one in hand. Most of the time I was just filling in gaps wherever they needed people. That project should’ve been the first main project I got in my whole life.”
The first one he had started from the very beginning.
“So if you’re asking whether I thought there was something wrong with that project’s approval back then…” Lu Boyuan poured himself another cup and drank it again in one gulp.
“Yes!” He said firmly, though his face was filled with a bitter smile. “But I chose to turn a blind eye.”
Fang Yongnian smiled.
It was the first genuine smile he had shown in front of Lu Boyuan in so many years, even if it carried ridicule.
He poured himself another cup of wine and clinked it against Lu Boyuan’s.
“Why did you trust me?” After three cups of strong liquor, Lu Boyuan’s eyes were starting to turn red.
“I didn’t.” Fang Yongnian set down his cup, denying it.
He didn’t trust him. It was just that, other than Lu Boyuan, there was no one else he could talk to about these things.
Even Zheng Fei, who had been so close to him these past few years that they were “wearing the same pair of pants,” wouldn’t do.
People were complicated. Even if he had uncovered the disgrace hidden under the project’s fig leaf, he didn’t want to hear someone who had never even been part of it talking nonsense about them.
Some words he had held back for four years. If he said them to outsiders, they would only tell him that given the urgent situation at the time, it was impossible for him to have seen the driver turn the steering wheel in the backseat, or seen the driver’s eyes open.
But if he said them to Lu Boyuan, he would empty his cup of wine and admit that he once chose to turn a blind eye.
“Thinking about it now…” The alcohol had taken hold of Lu Boyuan, making him talkative. “The reason I believed you were the one who leaked the project documents was also because I chose to turn a blind eye.”
Because someone had handed him a ladder, and he simply went along with it.
Fang Yongnian quietly poured himself more wine, without replying.
“You didn’t do it, did you?” Lu Boyuan looked at Fang Yongnian, his smile so bitter it ached in his chest.
“Actually, even if Yixin hadn’t told me these things, I had already started to doubt it.”
“Such a big project—lost just because a young man leaked something—and for four years, no one even thought to sue you.”
Lu Boyuan laughed.
“Everyone said you were punished too. Everyone said you were a rare talent in pharmaceuticals, and that it was a pity you got locked up.”
“And I just believed it…”
His voice faded into a murmur by the end.
The teacup was not small, yet he poured one cup after another down his throat without pause. Before long, the bottle of wine was nearly empty.
Lu Boyuan took out another bottle from the drawer. When he opened it, he exchanged a smile with Fang Yongnian, whose face was already completely red.
Neither of them wanted to say anything more. This drink, they were already four years late for it.
୨୧ ⏔⏔⏔⏔♡⏔⏔⏔⏔ ୨୧
Outside, Lu Yixin was on edge.
In her imagination, the best outcome between her father and Fang Yongnian would be that they smiled at each other and shook hands in reconciliation.
In the end, the two highly intelligent men would join hands to investigate and catch the real culprit.
She pictured many scenes. She even wondered if her father or Fang Yongnian might cry—whether their misunderstandings would be cleared, and if there would be a moment when even men couldn’t hold back their tears.
But she never imagined that when she pushed open the study door, she would be met with a room full of the smell of smoke and alcohol, and two red-faced men sitting there like living statues of Guan Gong, turning to look at her with identically dazed expressions.
She was an eighteen-year-old girl, and her father had actually gotten her beloved drunk!
Then how was she supposed to restrain her own wolfish instincts?!
“Lu Yixin.” Her beloved’s voice came out sounding like a walking wine jar. “Your dad is drunk.”
Her dad: “Heh heh heh, heh heh heh heh.”
Lu Yixin: “……”
“Help me find a wheelchair. I don’t think I can stand.” That was Fang Yongnian’s second sentence.
Once he drank, his tone was no longer slow and deliberate. His speed and inflection both resembled that of a normal person rich in emotions.
Ordinary families didn’t just have wheelchairs lying around…
Lu Yixin scratched her head, blank-faced.
“I need to use the bathroom.” After waiting a while and not getting what he asked for, Fang Yongnian looked toward her again, frowning, his face full of reproach—and a hint of grievance.
Lu Boyuan: “Heh heh heh, heh heh heh heh.”
Lu Yixin: “…I’ll help you over.”
She no longer had any wolfish impulses; they’d all been “heh’d” away by her dad.
Fang Yongnian kept his head tilted up, looking at her. His face was flushed, the area around his beautifully shaped peach-blossom eyes also tinged red, his lids half-lowered.
Lu Yixin stepped forward, trying to take hold of his arm.
Fang Yongnian shifted back behind the chair with a hiss.
“It’s acting up again?” Lu Yixin was startled.
“Lu Yixin!” He called her name seriously. Because they were close, that voice sounded as if it was right beside her ear.
Goosebumps prickled all over Lu Yixin’s skin. She reminded herself over and over again—taking advantage of someone’s vulnerability was not the act of a gentleman.
She might not be a gentleman, but Fang Yongnian was.
If she took advantage of him now, Fang Yongnian would never speak to her again for the rest of their lives.
“Why is your promise so worthless?” The man’s face was flushed red, his eyes narrowed as he looked at the girl in front of him, his tone filled with the frustration of hating iron for not becoming steel.
“You need to avoid suspicion!” His palm pressed against Lu Yixin’s face, pushing her away.
Lu Yixin’s nose brushed against Fang Yongnian’s dry palm, and in that instant, her face turned red. As if she had drunk all the wine on the floor along with them.
Fang Yongnian swayed as he stood up, his brows furrowed tightly.
Even in his drunken state, he still remembered to keep his back straight.
When he walked out, he didn’t rely on his prosthetic leg at all. He used his good leg to drag his stumbling body forward, limping and staggering.
Lu Yixin bit her lip.
She had seen that kind of back before.
At that time, she had truly thought the sky was falling.
“Daughter.” Her father, who had been chuckling “heh heh heh” all this time, suddenly spoke up. “Go with him to the bathroom.”
Lu Yixin: “?”
Are you sober or not right now?
“He just pushed you, so you go push him back!” Lu Boyuan said it very seriously, very solemnly.
Lu Yixin: “……”
୨୧ ⏔⏔⏔⏔♡⏔⏔⏔⏔ ୨୧
That night was chaotic, in every sense of the word.
After using the bathroom, Fang Yongnian just sat there. He was completely drunk—so drunk he could barely recognize people—but for some reason, he clung desperately to the idea of avoiding suspicion.
Whenever Lu Yixin got close, he would righteously push her away.
And her father… began telling stories.
From Grimm’s Fairy Tales to Andersen’s Fairy Tales, he told them all in the style of dark fairy tales, his tone full of dramatic highs and lows.
The most unbelievable part was that the usually quiet, drunken Fang Yongnian would help with the sound effects.
When Lu Boyuan said the Little Mermaid jumped into the sea and turned into foam, Fang Yongnian went pfft.
When Lu Boyuan said Snow White ate the poisoned apple, Fang Yongnian made a crunch.
Lu Yixin was on the verge of breaking down. Whoever said people acted out of lust when drunk was lying—faced with this completely wasted man, she really couldn’t bring herself to make a move.
She was just an innocent, romantic young girl. What did she do to deserve this?!
“Can you at least get up first?” Poor Lu Yixin, reduced to the role of Cinderella, could only go step by step, squatting in the bathroom while keeping a full meter of distance from him. After being pushed several times, she had finally learned to “avoid suspicion.”
Fang Yongnian half-sat there, meeting her gaze.
Those eyes of his still made her forget to breathe. When he was silent, her heart still twisted with pain.
“The floor is cold.” Her voice softened even more.
Fang Yongnian coughed twice, looking uncomfortable. Then he reached out and unfastened two buttons of his properly buttoned shirt collar.
Lu Yixin swallowed hard—utterly spineless.
Has it started? Losing oneself after drinking!
Finally a legend that isn’t a lie?!
Fang Yongnian didn’t get much sun, his skin very pale. He unbuttoned and revealed a bit of his chest, on which was a scar that had long since healed——left from that car accident.
Lu Yixin looked at that ugly scar and sniffed.
At that moment Fang Yongnian suddenly leaned forward, his face almost touching Lu Yixin’s.
Lu Yixin：“……”
Should she close her eyes now or not!
Drunk Fang Yongnian, trying to see Lu Yixin clearly, squinted with effort. Once he saw clearly, he gave Lu Yixin an evil, charming smile.
Lu Yixin’s heart turned into disco.
Fang Yongnian slowly raised his hand, slowly reached to the back of Lu Yixin’s head.
Then, he grabbed and pushed, all in one motion.
“Brat!” Fang Yongnian muttered, collapsing back into his place in the bathroom, half-closing his eyes, preparing to sleep.
Lu Yixin：“???”
Damn it!
She was furious, grabbed Fang Yongnian’s right arm, and yanked up hard.
He might have been hurt, and he tried to struggle in annoyance.
“Fang Yongnian.” Lu Yixin said grimly, “If you move and let me eat your tofu, you’ll have to take responsibility.”
In his completely drunk state, Fang Yongnian slowly processed that sentence.
His half-closed eyes opened a little.
Staggering, he shifted over with his intact left leg, swearing to keep a fist’s distance from Lu Yixin.
“Good boy.” Lu Yixin praised him darkly, taking advantage of his fuzzy mind to act without restraint.
He really did not want to have a romantic relationship with her.
Drunk like this, the only thing he remembered was to avoid suspicion.
Fine, avoid suspicion then!
Lu Yixin threw Fang Yongnian onto his parents’ bed and, in the chaos, unbuttoned one more button of his shirt.
The scar became even more obvious.
Lu Yixin’s fingers moved, then, in a venting motion, both her hands reached out and buried Fang Yongnian’s face under her claws.
Rubbing hard!
“I will grow up!” Lu Yixin vowed like she was swearing.
“When I grow up, you’ll be doomed.” She declared, proclaiming her claim.
“What do you mean, ‘he’ll be doomed’?” Her father leaned against the doorway, watching his daughter in a posture like she was trying to smother Fang Yongnian by force. He looked genuinely puzzled. “What are you doing?”
Lu Yixin froze in place, still holding her position.
“If you push him while he’s on the bed, he won’t fall off, you know.”
“What’s wrong with your intelligence, really?” Lu Boyuan looked as if he might cry.
Lu Yixin: “……”
She was absolutely going to tell on him to her mom. Absolutely. She had to make both of these men quit drinking!
