28: Hengtang

Once the team members on stage finished their routine post-match press conference and returned to the lounge, Yan Zhuohua went back to the base with them.

The crawfish had indeed arrived. Since they won the match today, the review was scheduled for later, so they could chat while eating crawfish together.

It had been a long time, and everyone gathered around Yan Zhuohua affectionately. The new team member, Jiang Weijia, also looked at him with a face full of anticipation.

Wang Yi was the first to speak: "You have no idea, our new member is a die-hard fan of yours. He said he grew up watching your matches."

Jiang Weijia immediately retorted, "Brother Wang, don't talk nonsense! My idol isn't old at all! He just started competing early!"

Everyone burst into laughter instantly. Jiang Weijia shyly covered his face.

Fortunately, the new member had the protection of the Official Weibo Account Manager; under his threat, everyone sensibly shut their mouths.

Han Wenhao followed up by asking, "How's your married life? Why did you get married so suddenly? When we received your invitation, we thought it was a prank from some fan."

"I felt it was the right fit, so I got married. It's going very well; we even spent our honeymoon on an island."

Hearing this, everyone finally felt relieved.

Liu Qi also chimed in with a question: "Is your partner really a guy? Do you have any photos? Hurry up and show us some photos to see what kind of person managed to snag our God Yan."

Yan Zhuohua really didn't have many photos of Yan Qinghe on his phone. Fortunately, he did have the wedding photos.

Everyone crowded around a single phone, scrutinizing the wedding photos inside, occasionally commenting, "He's definitely good-looking," and "He looks like the top."

After saying that, they even took a sneaky, supposedly hidden glance at Yan Zhuohua.

Yan Zhuohua was speechless at the direction this conversation was taking. He snatched his phone back. "Are you going to eat or not? If not, I'm eating it all!"

The temptation of food was stronger after all, and everyone swarmed the crawfish again.

After finishing the meal amidst the rowdy atmosphere with his teammates, Yan Zhuohua prepared to head back. The team still had to do their review, so it wasn't appropriate for him to stay long. The car arranged by Yan Qinghe was already waiting at the entrance, and the manager took the initiative to see Yan Zhuohua out.

"So? Does the club's atmosphere still feel familiar?" the manager said relaxedly as they walked. "Do you have the urge to come back and keep playing?"

"No, if I came back now, no one would want me, right?" Yan Zhuohua joked along.

"That's not necessarily true." The manager looked mysterious. "Before you retired, that DU Team from A City was secretly contacting me to buy you. Do you know how tempting the price they offered was? If you hadn't insisted on retiring, I would have packed you up and sent you over long ago."

Yan Zhuohua was somewhat surprised. "How come I didn't know about this?"

"We mentioned it, did you forget? It was when you told us you were retiring. Didn't I say a team was offering a huge sum for you? You wouldn't even listen and just told me you were going home and quitting."

Yan Zhuohua rubbed his nose and said nothing.

The manager knew his personality well. "Alright, I know you don't care to pay attention to these things. Get going now, and remember to come back and visit often in the future."

At ten o'clock in the evening, Yan Zhuohua returned to the hotel.

He was covered in the smell of spicy crawfish. It was blissful while eating, but unpleasant to smell now. By the time he had showered, changed clothes, and lay down on the bed, an hour had already passed. Remembering that Yan Qinghe said at noon he would wait for his call, Yan Zhuohua hesitated for a moment before making a video call.

It was picked up immediately again.

Yan Qinghe had also finished getting ready and was lying in bed; he hadn't slept yet because he was waiting for Yan Zhuohua's call.

"How was your chat with your teammates today?"

Yan Zhuohua lay in the covers holding his phone. "Very good, very happy. Let me tell you, the kid who replaced me in the team is actually a fan of mine."

Yan Zhuohua's slightly proud expression made Yan Qinghe laugh. He watched the person in the video gently, as if he were right beside him.

"Do you have any plans for tomorrow?"

"Oh, I have an appointment with my advisor. I'm going to see him tomorrow to discuss my graduation thesis."

"Then should I arrange your breakfast and dinner?"

"Okay, I want to eat mushrooms and greens..."

The two of them chatted about daily topics line by line until Yan Zhuohua let out a yawn. He had woken up too early this morning, and the aftereffects from the night before last hadn't fully worn off. After being busy all day, he was indeed tired.

Seeing that Yan Zhuohua was so sleepy he could barely keep his eyes open, Yan Qinghe gently persuaded him to put down his phone and go to sleep.

It was fine when the video hung up, but Yan Zhuohua tossed and turned in bed, feeling as if something were missing. This was the first time since they got married over a month ago that he wasn't sleeping in Yan Qinghe's arms, and he was already quite unaccustomed to it. Yan Zhuohua felt a bit irritable and sad, but eventually, he couldn't resist the drowsiness and fell asleep.

When he woke up the next day, Yan Zhuohua still felt somewhat fatigued. He hadn't slept well last night; in his dreams, he was constantly searching for something and walked for a long time. It could be described as both mental and physical torture.

It was only the second day, and he already wanted to go home.

The chat with his advisor today went very smoothly. At noon, he even stopped by his advisor's house to enjoy his wife's cooking, which made Yan Zhuohua quite happy. By the end of the day, Yan Zhuohua had basically finished discussing the topic selection with his teacher. He agreed to pick up the relevant materials on Friday before leaving.

Before leaving the school, he received a phone call from Wen Hengtang.

"Brother Zhuohua? I heard from the counselor that you came to B City, so I thought I'd give you a call."

"What a coincidence, I was just about to contact you as well. It's been a long time. You couldn't make it to my wedding, so I wanted to treat you to a meal."

Wen Hengtang accepted the invitation very readily. "Sure! How about tomorrow night? I happen to be free!"

"That works. Send me the address, and I'll come find you then. Pick a place that's convenient for you."

After chatting for a few more minutes, Yan Zhuohua hung up. However, he didn't put his phone away immediately; instead, he made another call.

Back at the hotel, Yan Zhuohua ate the meal he had ordered last night, while also having a video call with Yan Qinghe to supervise him to get off work and go home to rest.

"Any plans for tomorrow?" Yan Qinghe asked while eating the food delivered from Restaurant Name, performing his routine check-in.

"I'm going out tomorrow as well, and I'll have lunch outside. I have a dinner appointment with a friend in the evening, so you only need to arrange breakfast."

"A friend? Who?" Yan Qinghe's expression changed slightly. "How many of you are there? Where are you going?"

Yan Zhuohua almost laughed out loud. "Why are you so nervous? It's just a friend I made last year. We're very close; he's a classmate of mine named Wen Hengtang."

Unexpectedly, after hearing this name, Yan Qinghe became even more tense.

"Are you... going out alone?"

"Yes, I'm just treating him to dinner. He didn't come to our wedding, so consider it treating him to a wedding feast." Although he didn't know why Yan Qinghe looked like he was facing a great enemy, Yan Zhuohua still answered him.

The reason of treating someone to a wedding feast made it hard for Yan Qinghe to refuse. He hesitated for a long while before saying rather reluctantly, "Then after you finish dinner with him tomorrow, I'll arrange for a driver to pick you up and take you back to the hotel."

Yan Zhuohua was very cooperative. "Okay, I'll send you a message."

Today was Thursday, and Yan Zhuohua headed out as planned. However, he didn't go to the school to see his advisor, but instead went to a studio.

Yan Zhuohua had always completed his studies very well, balancing competitions and school without falling behind. Thus, his advisor was very at ease with him. The discussion about his graduation thesis was just to set a direction and establish a general plan and contact schedule so the teacher could keep track of his progress at any time. It didn't take long and was all completed yesterday, leaving only the materials to be picked up tomorrow.

Therefore, he could have originally returned to A City tomorrow, but he had one more thing to do during this trip to B City. He also didn't plan to let Yan Qinghe know for the time being, so he used the graduation thesis as an excuse to extend his stay.

At the studio, Yan Zhuohua was busy for an entire day before coming out. If he hadn't arranged and prepared the materials in advance, he probably wouldn't have been able to finish it in a single day.

After leaving the studio, it was nearly time for his appointment with Wen Hengtang, so Yan Zhuohua directly hailed a taxi to go there.

They had agreed to meet at a hotpot restaurant.

The environment of the hotpot restaurant was a bit noisy, but Wen Hengtang had strongly recommended it, saying the taste was unparalleled. As soon as he entered, he saw Wen Hengtang sitting in a relatively quiet corner.

"Quick, come order. This place was recommended by my colleague; you definitely haven't been here."

Since he was the one who let Wen Hengtang choose the location, and this corner was indeed relatively quiet, Yan Zhuohua had no objections. He took the menu, checked off a few dishes he usually ate, and handed it to the waiter.

"What have you been busy with lately? Every time I contact you, you say you have things to do," Yan Zhuohua pretended to complain.

Wen Hengtang still had dark circles under his eyes and looked like he indeed hadn't rested well. "It's the place where I'm interning. They practically treat intern college students as volunteers, working twenty-four hours without rest. I was able to come out today only because I just finished a case. Damned capitalists!"

College students need an internship certificate, so it's generally hard to refuse a superior's requests. Moreover, since it's under the name of an internship, the pay is very low, so many places use interns as cheap labor. It seemed Wen Hengtang had run into such a company.

Yan Zhuohua didn't know how to comfort him, nor could he join him in cursing the capitalist bosses, because strictly speaking, Yan Zhuohua himself was also a "damned capitalist."

I certainly can't curse myself.

"How about you switch companies? Anyway, the semester has just started, so you'll still have time to handle the paperwork." Yan Zhuohua suggested he embrace the spirit of the new era worker and fire his boss!

In fact, it would be very easy for him to just help Wen Hengtang find a place to get his certificate stamped, but Student Wen liked to be self-reliant and also wanted to work hard to learn something.

"I'll consider it. Anyway, the work at hand has reached a stopping point. I'll talk to my supervisor; if it doesn't work out, I'll switch." Wen Hengtang also seemed very much like he wanted to fire his boss. "Enough about me, let's talk about you. How did you suddenly get married? And to a man?"

Yan Zhuohua's response was still the same old line: "Because it was a good fit."

Wen Hengtang was silent for a moment. "I looked up the hotel on your invitation and gathered some information. I can tell that your wedding cost a fortune; it's not something an ordinary person could pull off."

Yan Zhuohua signaled for him to continue.

"So, are you a stand-in for some 'White Moonlight'? Or is it some CEO who entered a contract marriage with you just to get an inheritance that requires being married? I'm leaning toward the latter. Since you're two guys, you can't register for a certificate. He held a wedding with you to get the inheritance, but strictly speaking, there's no legal marriage, so he can still count it as his first marriage!" Wen Hengtang argued convincingly.

Yan Zhuohua felt that he should introduce Wen Hengtang to his second brother sometime; after all, their imaginations were equally bizarre.

"No, it's not a fake marriage," Yan Zhuohua explained mechanically.

"What? Then you're going with the stand-in trope? Will you have some organs harvested? Become a mobile blood bank for the 'White Moonlight'? A pitiful little cannon fodder who gets abandoned and ends up miserably?" Wen Hengtang propped both hands on the table, straightened his back, leaned forward, and his eyes with their dark circles sparkled with an intense light. "Or else..."

Yan Zhuohua had a rather bad premonition.

"You can have children! Yes! The 'White Moonlight' can't conceive, but you can. Once you give birth, we'll have a 'discarding the mother'... bah, 'discarding the father and keeping the child' scenario. Then your child will recognize the villain as his father and become the child of the CEO and the 'White Moonlight'!" Wen Hengtang had fallen into a frenzy. "Twenty years later, when the child grows up and discovers this secret, he'll endure humiliation to seek revenge for you and take back everything that belongs to you! On his quest for revenge, he meets a cheerful and lively boy, is gradually moved by him, opens his heart, and the two of them live happily together..."

I shouldn't have planned to introduce my second brother to you; he's not worthy of you.

Is the company you work for some web novel website?

Stop considering and just change jobs. I'm afraid you'll develop schizophrenia if you keep this up.

Go to the hospital for a check-up; my cousin knows some psychiatric experts.

Remember to claim compensation from your company for occupational injury.

You're not on drugs, are you?

...

Countless roasts and insults scrambled to rush out of Yan Zhuohua's mouth, but unfortunately, they all got jammed up.

He opened his mouth and closed it again, stuck for a full minute before spitting out a single word: "Scram!"

I thought my life was dramatic enough, and you still want to add more dog-blood melodrama for me.

The waiter brought all the dishes, but the pot hadn't boiled yet. Yan Zhuohua felt the temperature might not be enough; he suggested Wen Hengtang use his overheating CPU to heat it up, as the soup would surely reach a hundred degrees Celsius in an instant.