WMSR — QT Chapter 62

Chapter 62

Yet the moment Xu Jiangzhe heard those words, a flash of coldness imperceptibly flickered across his eyes. Because that emotion vanished almost instantly and was cleanly masked by the habitual gesture of adjusting his glasses, no one noticed anything amiss. He maintained his usual smiling expression and replied smoothly, "My home probably won't do. There will likely be too many guests coming that day, and the space at home might not be enough. Besides, it certainly wouldn't be as well-served and catered as a hotel; if anyone ended up inadequately hosted, I'd bear an unforgivable sin."

Hearing Xu Jiangzhe's response, a fleeting look of disappointment crossed the faces of the few girls present. However, figuring that Xu Jiangzhe's family were business folks—unlike Liang Weiwei, whose family needed to maintain a low profile—it made sense that a massive crowd might be too difficult to accommodate at a private residence, so no one pressed the matter further.

The group chatted amongst themselves for a little longer until the bell rang and class resumed, dispersing them back to their respective desks. Back at his seat, however, Xu Jiangzhe's gaze instantly turned ice-cold. Go to his house, so they could set eyes on his Ziqian? Hah, don't even dream about it!

Xu Jiangzhe's birthday arrived on schedule. Xu Weihai and his wife meticulously orchestrated a grand, lavish birthday banquet for him, shifting the entire celebration out to a luxury hotel and leaving the villa unusually quiet and deserted. For Bai Yichen, however, being unable to lay eyes on that toxic trio of family members offered a rare, precious moment of peace.

At the hotel, guests arrived in an endless stream to celebrate Xu Jiangzhe's milestone, and the Xu couple beamed with radiant pride and glowing spirits. Over the recent years, with Xu Jiangzhe wielding unchecked authority in the corporate sphere backed by favorable economic tides, the enterprise had flourished with unstoppable momentum, leaving the couple riding high on a wave of unbridled triumph.

This was vividly reflected in the sheer scale of the celebration: whether it was Xu Jiangzhe's elite, high-status schoolmates or Xu Weihai's heavy-hitting business associates, attendance was practically 100 percent, and the gifts piled up into a small, glittering mountain in no time.

While everyone was bustling about lively to celebrate Xu Jiangzhe's special day, not a single soul outside remembered that back in the Xu family villa, another youth's birthday fell merely a few days apart from Xu Jiangzhe's. Once upon a time, that youth's birthday celebrations had been infinitely more vibrant and crowded than Xu Jiangzhe's ever were.

Yet, even when everyone else had completely forgotten that birthday, one person held it etched unforgettably in his heart—and that person was none other than the central protagonist of tonight's banquet, Xu Jiangzhe.

Once the birthday festivities finally concluded, Xu Jiangzhe was dragged away by his classmates for an after-party, meaning it was already deep into the night by the time he finally returned home. Having consumed a fair amount of champagne and red wine, he carried a light, buzzed haze of intoxication.

Brushing away a servant who hurried forward to steady him with a dismissive gesture to indicate he was fine, Xu Jiangzhe knew the Xu couple were long asleep, so he headed straight upstairs and familiarly pushed open the door to the bedroom directly adjacent to his own.

At that hour, Bai Yichen was sinking deep into a profound slumber when a sudden, unexpected weight slammed down onto his body, violently shocking him awake.

As consciousness snapped back, a faint scent of alcohol drifted into his senses alongside the soft, repetitive murmurs echoing right against his ear: "Ziqian, Ziqian..."

Bai Yichen's face darkened instantly. He attempted to struggle and push the intruder off, but the dead weight of a fully grown young man resting squarely on top of him was far beyond what his frail strength could shift. Left with no other choice, he snapped out, "Xu Jiangzhe, get off me!"

"I won't!" Hearing Bai Yichen's command, Xu Jiangzhe only tightened his grip, wrapping his arms even more fiercely around the figure in his embrace.

Silence hung heavy across the dark room for a brief moment. Sensing that the person in his arms was growing genuinely angry, Xu Jiangzhe eventually loosened his hold by a fraction, softening his tone into an intimate coaxing whisper: "Ziqian, your birthday is coming up in a few days. What do you want?"

"Will you give me whatever I wish for?" Pinned beneath his weight with zero room to move, Bai Yichen let out a silent, chilling sneer in the pitch-black room.

"Mn."

"I want to spend a whole day wandering around a shopping mall, I want to go outside and see the world—can you do that?"

Xu Jiangzhe abruptly fell dead silent.

Anticipating this exact reaction, Bai Yichen spoke with an icy, mocking edge: "No? Then lend me your smartphone for just one day, can you do that?"

That question evidently proved equally impossible to answer. Bai Yichen waited through a long, agonizing stretch of silence, receiving no reply whatsoever. Just as he tried to shove Xu Jiangzhe away once more, he noticed that the drunkard had begun emitting slow, steady breathing sounds, as though he had drifted completely off to sleep.

Whether he was genuinely asleep or merely feigning unconsciousness was a secret known only to Xu Jiangzhe himself.

A few days later, on Bai Yichen's actual birthday, Xu Jiangzhe prepared a birthday cake for him and presented a meticulously wrapped, exquisite gift. It was a stunning diamond-encrusted wristwatch; the brilliant prisms of light refracting off the diamond bezel glittered dazzlingly across the watch face, breathtaking enough to steal a person's breath away. For a teenager of Xu Jiangzhe's age, this was indubitably the most precious luxury item he could possibly procure. Yet to Bai Yichen—trapped endlessly within the confines of this locked house, barred from stepping out the front door or interacting with a single unfamiliar soul—the watch couldn't even serve its most basic decorative purpose.

Xu Jiangzhe fastened the watch around Bai Yichen's wrist, entirely indifferent to whether Bai Yichen welcomed the gesture. Once secured, he cupped the slender wrist in his hands, admiring the sight for a moment before lifting it to his lips to press a soft, lingering kiss against the skin, his gaze deep and overflowing with profound affection behind his lenses: "Ziqian, happy birthday."

Far away in a realm entirely unknown to the two of them, amid a bustling commercial street lined with towering corporate office blocks, an executive at a high-end firm was anxiously pushing a teenage boy out through the glass doors of an office suite. "Why on earth are you back again? Didn't I tell you clearly? Ours is a unilateral legal retainer; we are strictly contracted to fulfill the tasks assigned by our client. Unless the client explicitly requests further action, we are bound by professional ethics not to go around harassing or contacting them."

The speaker was a man approaching thirty, clad in a sharp, tailored business suit with the pristine, polished air of a corporate elite. Pinned to his lapel was a staff badge reading Qinglin Law Firm.

The boy pushed out alongside him was in his early teens, possessing the slender, fragile physique typical of his age. Though dressed in modest, plain clothing, it failed to conceal his clean, striking facial features. A pair of large, ink-dark eyes sparkled with a spiritual, almost speaking vivacity. Despite being unceremoniously shoved out into the corridor and drawing curious, lingering stares from passing pedestrians, the boy stubbornly refused to leave. Standing his ground, he insisted: "I just want to see that big brother again. I know him—he was the one who rescued me back then and kept funding my education all these years. I just want to thank him in person."

The middle-aged man pinched the bridge of his nose with a grimace. What the kid said was true in theory, but the client had to actually be willing to grant an audience! He genuinely never expected that a routine, run-of-the-mill financial assistance commission accepted a few years back would saddle him with such an impossible, clingy tail he couldn't shake off.