CH 9

Gu Zhongyi seized the opportunity and stopped Lin Yuxing’s actions.

But he spoke with a heavy breath, not clearly getting the words out.

Lin Yuxing touched his chest and said, “Senior, can you finish your sentence in one breath?”

Gu Zhongyi explained in detail, “Due to my carelessness, news about our relationship has spread. If we really want to handle it, posting online is indeed the simplest and most effective way. However, in terms of our respective interests at the moment, this approach is not the best for either of us.”

“Why?” Lin Yuxing didn’t understand what he meant.

For Gu Zhongyi, the consequence was at most a few negative comments behind his back. And those people didn’t dare to say it to Gu Zhongyi’s face.

Gu Zhongyi’s life was actually not affected at all.

That’s why he could openly talk about interest at that moment.

For his own sake, Lin Yuxing could only be straightforward, “Senior, don’t worry about my interest and what I could gain. To be honest, I’m really poor. I need money to survive. I even have to take out loans for my tuition, and I have to earn my own living expenses. I also have to give my family subsidies every month. Now, because of this, I’ve lost all my previous delivery customers. If we continue to ignore it, by the time the hype dies down, I will have starved to death.”

He and Gu Zhongyi were different in every aspect.

Gu Zhongyi said, “Listen to me first–“

Interrupting Gu Zhongyi’s calm attitude, Lin Yuxing, who had been busy and tired all day, couldn’t help but say angrily, “You don’t have any losses, so why talk about your interests? In the end, it’s only me who’s unlucky.”

Gu Zhongyi didn’t expect Lin Yuxing to be so angry with him.

Aside from anything else, Gu Zhongyi was very surprised. He saw the furrowed brow on Lin Yuxing’s face and felt a long-lost feeling in his heart. He leaned against the seat, silently curling his lips.

Unfortunately, Lin Yuxing caught that scene.

Lin Yuxing was astonished and felt a surge of anger, “Are you… enjoying this?”

“Sorry.” Gu Zhongyi quickly apologized and returned to the topic. “Pretending to be in a relationship is currently the best compromise I can think of. Would you like to hear the specifics of how it could benefit the both of us?”

“I…”

“Hmm?”

“Just tell me quickly!”

Lin Yuxing lowered his eyes, showing an expression of “What other option do I have? I might as well just listen first.”

Gu Zhongyi had witnessed Lin Yuxing’s temper and felt pleasantly surprised. He no longer wasted time and said, “I heard that you have been pursued by Xu Xiangchi from the School of Arts. As far as I know, he likes to make bets with people, so pursuing you may not necessarily mean he likes you. The more you reject him, the more he will rise to the challenge and be difficult to shake off.”

Lin Yuxing murmured in his heart that the gossip in that school spread too quickly.

Seeing that Lin Yuxing agreed tacitly, Gu Zhongyi continued, “I have also faced many similar troubles. However, since this misunderstanding started, these troubles have lessened.”

Lin Yuxing bent down to pick up the fallen milk tea and understood, “You want me to be your shield?”

“It’s a mutual shield.”

Gu Zhongyi told Lin Yuxing not to rush to reject him, “During the pretend relationship, I won’t have excessive physical contact with you or take up too much of your time to disrupt your life. You can continue to deliver orders as usual or find a part-time job, and I won’t interfere with that.”

Gu Zhongyi said, “I need a nominal romantic partner to deal with the constant pursuers and the blind dates arranged by my father.”

Those words sounded like a fairy tale, but since they were happening to Gu Zhongyi, there was nothing unrealistic about them.

Gu Zhongyi tactfully dangled the bait, “If you’re still worried, you can tell me all your concerns, and I will abide by all your rules.”

Lin Yuxing didn’t seem very interested.

He had full confidence in dealing with Xu Xiangchi himself. It would just take some time. Besides, he wasn’t Gu Zhongyi, so he didn’t have so many romantic entanglements to deal with.

Gu Zhongyi knew that well, so he brought out his trump card, “I will pay you a monthly salary, just like when you sell your time for deliveries. I’ll buy your time.”

Gu Zhongyi leaned in closer, “The kind that can be prepaid.”

Upon hearing the words “monthly salary” and “prepaid,” Lin Yuxing’s dark eyes instantly lit up. Without hesitation, he honestly asked, “How much money?!”

However, after receiving the answer, Lin Yuxing turned and left without looking back.

The next morning, Lin Yuxing woke up from a nightmare.

He got out of bed looking worn-out, splashed cold water on his face, his throat felt as dry as if it were on fire, and his head felt heavy.

Lin Yuxing remembered that he had agreed with Zhou Jie to meet at 8 o’clock that morning for some preparations. Checking the time, it was only half-past five.

He slowly heated a kettle of water, mixed in some leftover cold water from the previous night, and drank it all in one gulp.

When his throat felt better, he picked up a bag of baking scraps from the table, accompanied by half a cup of water, and swallowed it down.

After having some food in his stomach, Lin Yuxing went through a drawer and found a packet of cold remedy, slowly drinking it down.

“Achoo!”

Lin Yuxing sneezed, regretting that he had spent so long blowing the cold wind on the balcony the previous night.

But it was all because of Gu Zhongyi. If it weren’t for his enticing offer that made Lin Yuxing’s heart burn with desire, he wouldn’t have been standing on the balcony, enduring the cold wind in the dead of winter, just to stay awake.

Last night, Gu Zhongyi almost took his life with a single word.

When Lin Yuxing was in dire need of money, Gu Zhongyi threw out a stunning figure: “Three thousand.”

Three thousand yuan, not as a one-time payment, but as a monthly salary paid on time.

To others, three thousand yuan might not be much, but for the impoverished Lin Yuxing, it was undoubtedly a huge sum.

Lin Yuxing’s eyes widened, and his jaw almost dropped. Stuttering, he asked, “A-Are you sure?” Just a few hundred yuan a month would have felt like a windfall to Lin Yuxing, as per Gu Zhongyi’s request.

Unexpectedly, Gu Zhongyi generously said, “If you think it’s too little, I can increase it.”

Gu Zhongyi wasn’t just saying it for politeness; he genuinely felt it was too little. But he was afraid that giving too much would backfire and scare away Lin Yuxing. After all, with the constant promotion of anti-fraud content nowadays, Gu Zhongyi didn’t want to cause any unnecessary misunderstandings.

Lin Yuxing’s mind was spinning like a spinning top. “N-No, that’s not what I meant… I-I think, according to your request, isn’t it a bit too much?”

“Being in a ‘relationship’ with me is not easy. You’ll have to endure the scrutiny of many people and hear some unpleasant words. Although I’ll shield you from most of it, this price is justified. It’s not a burden for me, so you don’t have to feel pressured.”

“Ding Dong…”

Lin Yuxing’s phone timely received an anti-fraud text message.

Lin Yuxing was in a state of confusion, torn between reason and desire. Faced with the close proximity of Gu Zhongyi and the faint scent of bitter orange in the car, all Lin Yuxing could think was: should I accept it or not?

Then he had another thought: Wait a minute, things don’t come that easily.

Could it be that Gu Zhongyi’s mind had gone haywire?

Lin Yuxing frowned, and as he pondered, he suddenly came up with an unattractive but plausible reason—Gu Zhongyi liked him.

Suddenly, Lin Yuxing was lost in confusion.

Could it be that Gu Zhongyi overheard his conversation with Lin Xiufeng on the phone, learned about his frustration with not receiving any delivery orders, and deliberately set up that scenario?

Although that hypothesis seemed far-fetched even to Lin Yuxing himself, what if it was true… then he would be the bad person who deceived someone who genuinely cared for him, while being fully aware of their intentions.

Lin Yuxing was extremely conflicted in his heart, obsessing over the figure of three thousand yuan. Three thousand! Just by pretending to be in a relationship, he could effortlessly earn three thousand a month!

Unfortunately, rich second-generation individuals weren’t fools, and Gu Zhongyi was no fool.

At that moment, Lin Yuxing wished he were a fool.

Slowly, as Lin Yuxing thought more and more, it became increasingly clear and insightful.

If he agreed to pretend to be in a relationship with Gu Zhongyi just for the money, Gu Zhongyi would be pitiable. Lin Yuxing knew very well that his attraction to Gu Zhongyi was mostly from a distance, an admiration that didn’t suddenly turn into love.

Once the delivery orders were gone, they were gone. After the storm had passed, he could slowly start anew.

But romantic entanglements were something he couldn’t afford.

Especially with someone like Gu Zhongyi, a wealthy young master—he couldn’t afford to mess with him.

Lin Yuxing was convinced that this mistake couldn’t continue, and he needed to make a decisive move.

So, in front of Gu Zhongyi, he fiercely slapped himself, waking himself up from the greed for three thousand yuan.

Gu Zhongyi was startled by his sudden action and grabbed his wrist, raising his voice, “Lin Yuxing!”

Lin Yuxing decisively pulled his hand away, hardened his heart, and endured the pain as he firmly refused, “I don’t want to.”

Gu Zhongyi spoke up.

Lin Yuxing interrupted him, “Let’s try not to have any further contact in the future. I hope you can clarify the online situation. Nobody believes me when I say it, but if you explain it, it will be more convincing. Thank you!”

After speaking, he immediately got off the car, not giving Gu Zhongyi a chance to persuade him.

With that in mind, Lin Yuxing rubbed his temples with a headache. His throat felt much better after taking the medicine, which made him feel drowsy again, so he lay down on the bed and fell asleep.

Perhaps due to the unusually exhausting recent days, Lin Yuxing, who rarely dreamed, had a brief nightmare.

In his hazy consciousness, it was a cold winter morning.

Lin Yuxing remembered the sky being gray and layers of dark gravel falling in the dream.

His mouth seemed filled with cotton, preventing him from speaking. He looked up but couldn’t see his father’s face clearly. In fact, he no longer remembered what his father looked like.

All he remembered was that they had traveled for two days, taking a train, squeezing onto a bus, and enduring a bumpy ride on a tricycle just to reach a certain remote place.

Five-year-old Lin Yuxing cowered in fear, thin as a chicken.

The liveliness had faded from his father’s eyes, replaced by numbness as he stared ahead. He slowly grabbed Lin Yuxing’s arm, causing him pain, and said, “You’ll say that both Mom and Dad are gone and that you can’t remember your way home, okay?”

The cotton in Lin Yuxing’s mouth began to absorb water and settle, dissolving into powder. He tightly held onto his father’s hand, refusing to let go.

His father shook him off and said something. Tears streamed down Lin Yuxing’s face, but he made no sound, as if he were mute.

After a hurried scolding, his father walked away with heavy steps, without looking back, not even leaving them a decent warm coat.

Lin Yuxing silently shed tears.

Beside him, another child tightly held his hand, not shedding a single tear. “Why is he crying? He doesn’t want us, so we don’t want him either!”

With teary eyes, Lin Yuxing looked at him, and in this way, the two of them waited at the entrance of the welfare institution until daybreak, trembling from the cold. Lin Yuxing held onto the other person tightly, afraid that his only family would also leave him.

But in the dream, the other person still pushed him away and ran into the endless white snow, completely disappearing.

Lin Yuxing struggled in a voiceless world.

The scene shifted, and he was now ten years old.

Lin Yuxing stared fixedly at the woman in front of him, claiming to be his aunt, her expression devoid of emotions.

The staff brought him to Lin Xiufeng and completed the necessary procedures. “The two children came together originally. One was adopted two years ago, and only he was left. This one has some issues with his back, and medical resources here are limited, but we did our best.” Then, she smiled at Lin Yuxing. “Here, little star, this is your real aunt. She has come to take you home.”

“You have a family.”

In the dream, Lin Yuxing finally spoke his first audible words, “Family?”