34: Welfare

As soon as the call connected, Shen Lian asked with a smile, "Miss me?"

"You moved in?" Chu Yilan spoke almost at the same time.

Moved? Shen Lian reacted quickly; Chu Yilan was referring to whether he had moved into Zheng Ge's room. It seemed Sun Binghe had already finished snitching.

But Shen Lian still needed to play dumb for the sake of Master Chu's pride; otherwise, how could he explain how he found out so quickly?

"Moved? Moved where?"

Chu Yilan paused on the other end. "I had some free time just now, so I asked the person in charge of Star Opening about your performance. I heard from your Agent that Zheng Ge made things difficult for you on set?"

[If this isn't making things difficult, what is?]

Sun Binghe's complaining was in full swing.

[With so many empty rooms, Zheng Ge just had to have Mr. Shen switch with him. He even had that innocent 'don't fight over me' look on his face. Boss, you should have seen his true colors.]

Chu Yilan knew that the special assistants around him didn't like Zheng Ge much. He hadn't felt it before, but seeing that line about the "innocent 'don't fight over me' look," Chu Yilan actually couldn't refute it.

It seemed... back when he had a conflict with Zhou Tangsi, Zheng Ge had used the same rhetoric: "You guys calm down, don't ruin the harmony over me."

Thinking about it carefully now, the two companies were competitors; most of the time, it had nothing to do with him.

Master Chu was also left speechless for a moment.

"It wasn't Zheng Ge who brought it up, it was another lead actor." Shen Lian lay on the bed. "I didn't agree. My new assistant... is incredibly badass! He stood his ground against ten people and didn't even give me a chance to speak."

With one hand, Chu Yilan typed a reply to Sun Binghe on his computer: [Year-end bonus doubled.]

Under the light of his phone, Sun Binghe's eyes instantly lit up.

Shen Lian wasn't merciful either. "But it looks like Zheng Ge really wanted to switch with me."

This sentence really wasn't a false accusation against him.

"Don't switch," Chu Yilan said in a deep voice.

"Don't worry, I didn't." Shen Lian felt that Chu Yilan's duplicitous act of clearly caring while feigning indifference was truly cute. "So what did the Agent say? Did he praise me?"

Chu Yilan: "He said you should guard against arrogance and rashness and keep working hard."

"Got it!"

Shen Lian didn't want to hang up, and Chu Yilan didn't seem to have that intention either. They went back and forth with trivial chatter, like whether the lilies at home were about to die, if the small purple chrysanthemums had survived, and if the roses recently sent to the company were fresh.

Chu Yilan spoke about the things he remembered and said he didn't know about the ones he didn't.

The sound of rain grew louder, pitter-pattering against the glass with a muffled thud, gradually steaming up the dampness in the air known as "ambiguity."

Shen Lian had tucked himself under the covers at some point.

Chu Yilan's voice came through the phone, magnetic and low, easily allowing Shen Lian to outline his silhouette in his mind.

Shen Lian was a normal man.

And he liked Chu Yilan so much.

Shen Lian lay on his side, pressing the phone to his ear. Within just half a minute, his affectionate eyes were filled with a moist spring color, and a new sprout called "arousal" emerged.

Hearing Shen Lian's breathing gradually grow heavier, as if he had buried his head under the covers, Chu Yilan's hand on the desk suddenly tightened. He finally realized something.

After a brief silence, Chu Yilan asked, "Shen Lian, what are you doing?"

Shen Lian's voice was a bit high-pitched yet soft as he said, "Just talk to me, anything."

Chu Yilan felt as if he had been struck by a blunt object, and then he closed his eyes tightly.

Out of all the times Shen Lian said "I like you," only the sound of his arousal at this moment was the most convincing.

If he didn't like him, how could there be such a reaction?

"Shen Lian." Chu Yilan lit a cigarette, both annoyed and amused. He exhaled slowly, dazed by this absurd scene. Shen Lian's suppressed voice sounded good.

Lethally good.

"You've got a lot of nerve," Chu Yilan said.

Isn't it because you gave me the confidence? Shen Lian thought.

Even Sun Binghe had been arranged to protect him; it wasn't too much to be a little proud, was it?

Since Chu Yilan wasn't by his side, Shen Lian could only think but not touch, whimpering to express his dissatisfaction.

"What's wrong?" Chu Yilan asked.

Shen Lian: "I want to kiss you."

The man replied, "I'll kiss you when you come back from filming."

Shen Lian immediately stopped whimpering. "Are you serious?"

Chu Yilan didn't respond.

He could only say such explicit words once for now.

But Shen Lian remembered it. He chuckled and chatted with Chu Yilan for a while longer to the accompaniment of the rain.

The call ended. If the world were a giant storyboard, one could see Shen Lian and Chu Yilan getting up at the same time and heading for the bathroom.

Shen Lian changed his underwear and took a comfortable hot shower. Poor Master Chu could only take a cold one.

Sun Binghe received a double year-end bonus and began to understand Shen Lian's weight in the Boss's heart, so he became even more attentive to him.

These days, "money is hard to earn and crap is hard to eat," but Sun Binghe was earning this money quite easily.

Out of the hundred people on set, not a single one could put up a fight. He maintained a warm and proper smile, but in reality, anyone who crossed him was finished.

Shen Lian enjoyed a rare moment of peace. Whenever it was break time, he would chat with Sun Binghe, digging up whatever small hobbies of Chu Yilan's he could. The two surprisingly got along well.

"With the amount of exercise I've been getting lately, my abs have become even more defined," Shen Lian lamented.

As he spoke, his eyes shifted, and he said to Sun Binghe, "Get me a white shirt."

Sun Binghe had a knowing look. "Sending benefits to fans? That won't do, right? It's considered borderline suggestive."

Shen Lian had a "what are you thinking" expression: "I never show these to fans. It's for Master Chu's benefits."

Sun Binghe was choked up, thinking, You kid, you really dare to say anything.

But after a bit of consideration, Sun Binghe took some time in the afternoon to buy one. For no other reason than he was a bit curious if the Boss would like it.

It was a traditional style white shirt. After Shen Lian finished filming and took a shower, just as he was about to change into it, the door was knocked.

Opening it, he saw a staff member.

"Teacher Shen, CEO Zhou sent snacks to the crew again. Teacher Zheng is calling for you to join them."

Like a weasel paying a New Year visit to a chicken. Shen Lian immediately refused: "No thanks, I'm not hungry. You guys eat."

"Are you... really not going to take a look?"

Shen Lian caught the excitement of wanting to see a scene in the other person's eyes and laughed. "I'm really not going. I'm tired. Thank you."

Closing the door, Shen Lian didn't care about Zheng Ge or CEO Zhou at all.

At the same moment, in the conference room on the nineteenth floor of the Hengtai Group, Chu Yilan was leaning back in his chair, listening to over a dozen managers cross verbal swords and shift blame over a misjudgment in a new collaboration case. It wasn't actually that serious, but they all knew CEO Chu's style; if anyone was slow to escape tonight, they might lose a layer of skin.

Yang Bin didn't even dare to make a sound, acting as a proper statue behind Chu Yilan.

Chu Yilan listened for a while and made a decision. He suddenly gave a cold snort, and the noisy conference room instantly fell silent.

Just then, his phone vibrated twice.

Chu Yilan clicked on it casually.