Chapter 15

015.

The person who opened the door was the butler of Villa No. 1.

Unlike the young and handsome Chen Chi, Bai Yu's butler was an elderly man in his sixties, with graying temples and deep wrinkles on his face. Yet he had an extremely kind face, and his eyes carried a gentle smile.

Seeing Lu Yuan standing obediently at the door, his smile deepened, and the crow's feet at the corners of his eyes multiplied: "This must be Young Master Lu. You look just like your mother—a beautiful child."

This was the second time Lu Yuan had heard someone say he looked like his mother.

After Lu Ke added him on WeChat, he sent Lu Yuan a family photo. In it, he was still a tiny baby lying in his mother's arms, while beside her sat a younger Lu Jingshan, grinning like he'd just won the lottery. The other three Lu boys stood or crouched nearby, huddled close to their parents.

Lu Yuan's biological mother was Xia Wan—a very gentle woman. When she smiled at the camera, Lu Yuan felt like he was seeing a hillside of white camellias in full bloom.

He hadn't expected Bai Yu's butler to have known his mother too.

Lu Yuan's eyes curved into a smile. "Hello."

"Ah, hello there, Young Master." The butler replied warmly, then stepped aside to clear the path to the living room, smiling. "The master's in the dining room."

Lu Yuan instinctively glanced at his phone to check the time.

It was six-thirty, and Bai Yu was still eating.

"Should I come back later?"

"No need. The master said if you came, I should bring you to see him."

Lu Yuan rubbed the tip of his nose and said nothing.

The living room was just a few steps from the dining room. In just a couple of glances, Lu Yuan took in the style of Villa No. 1—no different from Villa No. 2. It was clearly the work of the same renovation company, from the sofas and tables to the painted walls, with every corner practically screaming "cold and indifferent."

It fit Lu Yuan's impression of Bai Yu perfectly.

"Tap."

The soft sound of footsteps reached Bai Yu's ears. As he turned to look, the butler had already retreated on his own. The spacious dining room instantly replayed the scene from the private room that day, leaving Lu Yuan alone under the gaze of those narrow, cold phoenix eyes, the familiar pressure washing over him again.

Lu Yuan struggled to keep a flawless smile on his face. "Mr. Bai, good evening."

Bai Yu gave a slight nod and asked calmly, "Have you eaten?"

"Yes." Though he hadn't eaten much, it barely counted as filling his stomach—which was fine, it could pass as dieting.

Speaking of dieting, he'd been living too comfortably at Songlan Manor lately. He felt like his weight would keep creeping up... Should he start watching what he ate? Would that decorative treadmill Lu Yan had gotten him actually have to serve its real purpose?

His thoughts wandered, and Lu Yuan's gaze grew distant, until a faint rustling sound snapped him back to reality. He looked up to see Bai Yu push back his chair and walk toward him.

The man's towering height was intimidating, and Lu Yuan instinctively stepped back. Seeing this, Bai Yu simply said, "Let's go."

"Huh?"

"Spot check."

Lu Yuan: "..."

Taking advantage of Bai Yu walking ahead, Lu Yuan quickly glanced at the dining table.

Good grief—he'd skipped his meal just to quiz him? It was just memorizing a paper, wasn't it? That was way too dedicated.

No wonder he'd single-handedly brought the once-declining Bai Corporation to where it was now.

Lu Yuan withdrew his gaze and cast a look of respect, admiration, and awe at the back of Bai Yu's head—

But he never expected Bai Yu to sense something. His long, elegant fingers resting on the stair railing, he turned, and his face—a masterpiece from the Creator himself—suddenly met Lu Yuan's look of utter admiration.

"!"

Lu Yuan's face froze mid-expression, his lips slightly parted.

In just two seconds, a wave of crimson rose from his pale neck and spread to his ears.

The little figure in his heart nearly shot straight up into the sky.

Why did he turn around? Why did he turn around right when he was staring at the back of his head with such an obvious, crazy expression!

Does he have eyes on the back of his head?

Is he going to think I'm a pervert?

"I..." A single word clawed its way out of his throat. Lu Yuan wanted to explain himself, but after racking his brain for a long while, he ultimately chose between being mistaken for a pervert and telling the truth—and settled on the latter. "I think you're very dedicated."

"You?"

"Mm?"

"I'm the same age as your brother. No need to be so formal or distant." Bai Yu withdrew his gaze and asked casually, "Did Lu Yan really go to that show?"

At the mention of Lu Yan, Lu Yuan immediately thought of the way the other had bolted off like a rabbit, and said gloomily, "Yeah. He said he'd be back tomorrow for you—for you to check his recitation—but just now he told me the director thought his performance was so good that they decided to keep him for another day of filming."

Catching the tattletale tone in his words, Bai Yu raised an eyebrow. "Noted."

That's it?

No other reaction?

How come when Lu Yan said he had work and asked him to do the spot check, Bai Yu had messaged him?

Lu Yuan, whose first attempt at tattling had clearly failed, sulked and swung his fist at the air behind Bai Yu's back.

The ill-fitting slippers he'd changed into after entering the house slapped loudly against the steps, as if venting his frustration.

The sound wasn't particularly grating, but it did catch the man's attention.

Bai Yu paused mid-step and turned around. At that exact moment, Lu Yuan—still stomping upward, lost in his own world of beating someone up—crashed headfirst into the man's chest.

The unexpected impact threw him backward, and with his center of gravity completely off, Lu Yuan couldn't steady himself. Ignoring his aching forehead, his cat-like eyes flew wide open, and he nearly tumbled down the stairs in panic.

"!"

If he fell, his skull would be cracked in pieces!

In his flailing panic, Lu Yuan's hands thrashed wildly, trying to grab the stair railing beside him. It was then that a scorching hand seized his wrist first. Bai Yu frowned, his arm jerking with force, yanking the boy back from his fall. Lu Yuan slammed into the man's chest once more, accompanied by a very soft click.

But this time, the other was prepared. His left hand reached around, firmly catching Lu Yuan's waist.

Lu Yuan didn't fall again.

He clung to Bai Yu's sweater like a drowning man grasping at a lifeline, both hands yanking hard on the fabric. As he lifted his face, his complexion was as pale as the snow outside, and his heart pounded violently against his throat with each beat, the suffocating, nauseating tension making him feel like he might throw up.

"Th-thank you." Lu Yuan swallowed hard, his voice strained.

"It was my fault." The man's brows were furrowed tightly, his jaw clenching as he recalled the dangerous moment just now. His gaze, gloomier than the night, swept down from above, scrutinizing every inch of Lu Yuan meticulously before he asked in a low voice, "You okay?"

"I'm fine." He just hadn't fully calmed down yet—his legs felt a bit like jelly, and his waist also had a sharp, pulling pain.

The thought that he'd barely had two good days since being reborn before nearly meeting God again made Lu Yuan's legs even weaker.

He instinctively moved his fingers that were still clutching Bai Yu's clothes. The panic made a cold sweat break out on his back in an instant, and his palms were sticky and clammy, which felt awful.

Sensing how hard Lu Yuan was gripping, Bai Yu looked at his jet-black short hair and patted his shoulder gently. "You're safe now."

It took a while before Lu Yuan's heartbeat returned to normal. He slowly straightened his back, and Bai Yu took a step back at the same time.

But the instant his arm loosened, Lu Yuan, as if all his strength had left him, his knees gave out and he started to crumple again.

Without a second thought, his freed arm immediately wrapped back around the young man's waist. Under Lu Yuan's stunned and bewildered gaze, Bai Yu bent down, scooped him up, and headed for the second floor.

Lu Yuan: "..."

He leaned dazedly against Bai Yu's chest, glancing at the man's cold, sharply defined profile, then craning his neck to watch the slipper dangling precariously on his toes before it finally fell off with a soft thud. His brain completely checked out.

Wait, no—he'd just wanted to sit on the steps for a bit to catch his breath. Why was he suddenly being scooped up?!

And not just carried—it was a full-on princess carry!

"You... I..." Lu Yuan was flustered and at a loss, not knowing where to put his hands, his body stiff as a fish that had been sun-dried for three days.

Too close.

It was the first time he'd been this close to a man in such an intimate position.

That faint, elusive woody scent invaded his nostrils again, and within moments, the air around them was aggressively taken over by it. Lu Yuan opened his mouth, about to ask to be put down, but Bai Yu, tall and long-legged, seemed to carry him without any effort, reaching the study door in a couple of strides and kicking it open.

Lu Yuan: "..."

In silence, Bai Yu bent down and set him on the sofa.

His face was extremely close to Lu Yuan's, his striking features and those narrow, aloof phoenix eyes bearing down, their eyelashes nearly brushing against each other. Lu Yuan held his breath, then, unable to stand it, let himself take small, shallow breaths. After less than a second's pause, their scorching breaths tangled and twisted together wildly, so tangled they couldn't tell whose was whose, their chests rising and falling in sync, the air around them growing hotter and hotter.

Sweat soaked through his back.

Suddenly, Lu Yuan's entire body went rigid.

The hand that had been around his back during the princess carry had somehow slipped deep into his down jacket, finding the sensitive spot at his lower back. Through the thin layer of the sweater, the scorching palm pressed fully against it, rubbing firmly twice before asking, "Did you twist your waist?"

Lu Yuan: "!"

He had twisted it, sure, but right now he wanted nothing more than to spring away from under Bai Yu's hand.

"No, no, no." Lu Yuan gritted his teeth and shook his head in denial. "I'm really fine. I'm perfectly fine now!"

Bai Yu didn't comment, but he didn't press further either.

He simply took a step back, turned to pick up the fuzzy slipper that had fallen in the hallway, and bent down to place it in front of Lu Yuan.

"I'll have the housekeeper prepare a pair of slippers that fit you properly."

Lu Yuan had just struggled to shove his foot into the oversized slipper when he heard this, freezing for a moment before looking up with a bewildered "Huh?"

"There's no need to go through all that trouble, right?"

The accident just now was purely because Bai Yu had suddenly stopped, and he hadn't been paying attention to the stairs.

Besides—

"I'll take the elevator next time." That way, he wouldn't fall down the stairs again.

Bai Yu automatically filtered out the elevator comment, walking over to sit on the sofa across from him, his long, straight legs wrapped in suit pants. He lowered his eyes. "It's only right. You'll probably be coming here often from now on."

Lu Yuan: "..."

What did he mean, planning to quiz him every day? Was he really going to let a slacker who'd sworn off ambition live?!