Chapter 32

032.

Bai Yu pushed open the door to the study and walked down the stairs to the dining room.

The entire villa was eerily quiet. The figure that usually bustled around and was always seated at the dining table right on time for meals was nowhere to be seen, and the lavish lunch spread across the large table seemed rather ordinary.

The old butler, Uncle Wei, stepped forward and glanced at Bai Yu's expressionless face, letting out a silent sigh.

Though he was getting on in years, his eyesight was still sharp enough to clearly tell that his master was in a bad mood. As for the reason, he knew it all too well. His gaze swept over the laundry basket that had been moved back after Lu Yuan ran off, and the old butler asked, "Sir, these clothes—"

Bai Yu glanced at them and said, "Put them back in the bedroom."

It wasn't as if they were actually all ruined.

Given how little and weak the good boy was, there was no way it could have opened the wardrobe doors in the bedroom by itself.

After following Bai Yu's instructions to have the clothes carried back to the bedroom, the old butler offhandedly remarked, "With Young Master Lu away, you've been eating lunch much later than usual, sir. Even when you're busy with work, you still need to take care of yourself."

Bai Yu paused slightly, chopsticks in hand. He didn't argue, but his gaze fell on the phone screen that had been dark for a while.

Ever since he realized that beating around the bush wasn't getting him anywhere—that Lu Yuan could think about Nihong, who'd passed away years ago, but never about him—he knew he'd never reach his goal without being more direct.

But once he was direct, the other person started playing possum.

Almost twenty minutes had passed since that conversation, and Lu Yuan still hadn't replied.

Was it really that hard to reply?

Bai Yu's face darkened even more. The old butler silently glanced up at the ceiling. Something was off—why did the mood get even colder when Young Master Lu was brought up? Had they gotten into a fight? His master, who to put it nicely was steady and to put it bluntly couldn't squeeze out a single loud fart in half a day, could actually argue with someone?

The old butler let out a sigh of mixed emotions while Bai Yu ate in silence, until the front door buzzed and one of the parties in question walked in, looking resentful but completely at ease, holding the cat in his arms.

Stinky Treasure was wearing the little dinosaur pajamas and clutching a small dinosaur plushie. The moment it spotted Bai Yu, it started meowing nonstop. Judging by Lu Yuan's fluency in cat-speak, it was probably showing off its new clothes and toy to its biological dad.

Plop.

Lu Yuan sat down on the chair at the dining table without a word, but he shot Bai Yu a resentful look.

Bai Yu, catching that look: "..."

What was he so upset about? Was making him clothes really that humiliating or hard?

His fingers tightened around the dark brown chopsticks, and his lips pressed into a thin line as his expression darkened. Meanwhile, Lu Yuan, completely immersed in his sorrow and oblivious to it all, let out a long, mournful sigh and asked slowly, "As Stinky Treasure's parent, are you responsible for the trouble it causes?"

Bai Yu's mood reined itself in, and he paused. "What trouble did it cause?"

Lu Yuan whipped his phone out of his pajama pocket and slapped it on the dining table, recounting the scene with great anguish: "Who knew it was kicking the little dinosaur just fine when it suddenly went nuts, darting up and down and sprinting around my bedroom, then kicked over my water cup. And when I saw the cup fall, I had to grab it, didn't I?"

Bai Yu: "And then?"

Lu Yuan: "Then I didn't catch the cup, and the phone flew out of my hand too, and wouldn't you know it, it got drenched by the water. It's probably broken."

His phone was from high school, with basically zero waterproofing. After getting wet, the screen went black immediately—there wasn't even time to toss it in a bag of rice.

Bai Yu: "..."

A familiar sense of speechlessness washed over him again, and Bai Yu suddenly found his earlier inexplicable mood rather amusing.

The faint chill that had been hanging around him vanished in that instant. Bai Yu dropped his gaze to glance at the culprit and explained, "The good boy—"

Before he could finish, Lu Yuan cut him off, correcting him with a serious look: "It's been renamed. It's Stinky Treasure now."

Bai Yu nodded in acknowledgment, thinking the name did suit the cat's personality better than "good boy": "Stinky Treasure suddenly sprinting around like that might be because it's in a good mood and burning off energy."

However.

His gaze landed on the phone, and he pointed at the cat, saying, "But if it caused trouble, then it caused trouble. That's one week of canned food gone."

A whole week? That long?

Lu Yuan looked at Stinky Treasure with sympathy, but on second thought, a week of canned food compared to a phone—he was still the one getting the short end of the stick.

"Are there any important files or photos on the phone?" Bai Yu asked him. "I'll have someone send a new one over."

"Everything's backed up except for the recent videos and photos of Stinky Treasure." Especially the photos of Grandma and the group pictures—he had triple backups. Besides local backups, he also uploaded them to a social media account set to "only me."

Even if the backups were lost, he could just recover the account on the social app later.

"No need for a new phone—I already bought one. Someone's bringing it over in a bit."

"Alright." Bai Yu nodded.

Just one word, "alright"? That's all?

Lu Yuan tried his luck again: "At least it was your son who caused the trouble—can that count as waiving one paper?"

Bai Yu was ruthless: "Return the phone, and I'll buy you one."

Lu Yuan: "..."

What an impossibly stubborn guy!

He grumbled to himself for a long while before finally dragging out his words: "Fine, no waiver then. But what you said on WeChat—was that for real?"

"What did I say on WeChat?"

Lu Yuan: "?"

What did he mean, trying to back out? Just because his phone was broken didn't mean he hadn't seen the latest reply!

Lu Yuan was shocked by Bai Yu's shamelessness, just as he had been shocked by Bai Yu's proposed deal earlier. Pointing at the phone, he said, "Sure, it got water in it, but the repair guy hasn't given it a death sentence yet. It's not destined for the trash just like that. I suggest you be honest!"

Otherwise, if the chat history was put right in front of him, it wouldn't look pretty!

Unfortunately, Bai Yu didn't take it seriously at all. His brow arched slightly as he calmly watched Lu Yuan. Lu Yuan, who had only managed to act tough for three seconds, immediately pressed his palms together and pleaded with a pained face: "Please, please, let's just go with what I said on WeChat. I'll make you clothes, and you waive three of my papers, okay?"

"What are you planning to make for me?"

"...A bathrobe?"

Bai Yu gave a half-smile, and the guilty Lu Yuan quickly added: "Plus a suit."

Bai Yu: "Deal."

Around three in the afternoon, Lu Yuan got the new phone delivered by Chen Chi.

*

After inserting the card and logging into all the commonly used apps, it turned out the video of Stinky Treasure kicking the little dinosaur, which had been uploaded to the short video app not long ago, had blown up again. In just a few hours, it had racked up over a hundred thousand likes. Opening the comments, it was a dizzying array of replies.

[Whoa! Super cute!!!]

[The kitten is cute, the clothes are cute, and the little dinosaur pajamas are cute too!]

[Auntie's heart is melting! Kisses, baby!]

[Is it normal for this cat to keep kicking like that? Send it over here and I'll check it out]

[Is there a link for the clothes? I want to buy a set for my cat too]

[Begging for the toy link! Such a cute little dino! It matches the baby's clothes!]

Lu Yuan read through them carefully. The comment asking for the link had racked up over twenty thousand likes. It seemed everyone really liked his handiwork.

He propped his face in his hands and replied cheerfully: The clothes and the little dinosaur were sewn by me, so there's no link, sorry!

[?]

[The blogger's got skills?]

[I know this one—either the blogger puts it in the shopping cart or opens a shop and makes two more, and I'll place an order]

[Since the blogger can sew one little dino, they can sew two, right?]

[I bet ten or a hundred would be no problem either]

Lu Yuan: "..."

Sorry, but the blogger's hands are currently at the service of a certain big boss, so there probably won't be time to sew little dinos.

Lu Yuan took his sweet time with his phone and, pretending to be casual, sidled back into Chairman Bai's study. The other man raised an eyebrow slightly, and under his gaze, Lu Yuan pointed at the exaggerated comments under the video and said, "See that? Everyone's begging me to make little dinos. I think my price just went up. How about four papers?"

Bai Yu: "..."

Young Master Lu really knew how to jack up the price on the spot.

Whether it was three papers or four didn't matter much to Bai Yu at this point, since his goal had already been achieved.

Lu Yuan was very satisfied with Bai Yu's nod of approval and added, "I'm having dinner with a friend tonight. After we eat, I probably won't come back here. You can put Stinky Treasure in the spare room before you go to sleep if you want."

Bai Yu's thoughts came to a brief halt. He looked up at him and asked, "Friend?"

Lu Yuan nodded. Although there didn't seem to be a need to explain, he added, "You might not believe it, but we met on a job-search app. I encouraged him to quit and give his boss a piece of his mind, and he actually did. To thank me, he's treating me to dinner tonight."

Lu Yuan's voice got quieter and quieter as he spoke.

Mainly because he suddenly remembered that the person sitting right in front of him was a boss himself.

Bai Yu didn't say much, just mentioned, "Send me your location once you get to the restaurant."

Huh?

Lu Yuan wanted to say more, but Bai Yu said, "Lu Ke handed you over to me, so I need to make sure you're safe."

Fine then.

Lu Yuan obediently nodded.

That evening.

Lu Yuan and Ke Yuanfei, meeting for the first time in person, sat in a barbecue joint near the university town in the capital. Ke Yuanfei enthusiastically kept pushing skewers toward Lu Yuan and occasionally glanced at his face, exclaiming sincerely, "Dude, I really didn't expect you to be this good-looking. Seriously, with a face like yours, you should try being a print model for a couple of days—you'd make more money."

Probably because of the bond formed from venting like kindred spirits on the job-search app late that night, Ke Yuanfei acted like they were old friends right off the bat.

"Hey, dig in, don't be shy with me. Let me tell you, I got a pretty good severance package, and it's all thanks to you." Ke Yuanfei chattered on. "This place has some really good barbecue, you gotta try it."

"Thanks." Lu Yuan didn't stand on ceremony, took the skewer he offered, took a bite, and asked, "So now that you've quit, what's your plan?"

"I'll see if there's a decent job out there. If not, I'll head back to my hometown." Ke Yuanfei said bluntly. "Honestly, I think going back is more likely. To be honest, I'm self-taught in fashion design, and I don't have a resume worth bragging about. Getting into a big company or one with a real brand name isn't realistic."

"But you've got a real gift for design." Lu Yuan praised sincerely.

This time, Ke Yuanfei wasn't modest and said with a grin, "Of course. Otherwise, you think that crappy company could've lasted this long? It would've gone belly-up ages ago. By the way, I saw you have a cat? I've got a few too—they're all adorable."

He pulled out his phone and showed Lu Yuan photos of his cats at home.

There were three kittens in total: a big orange tabby, a tabby, and a Ragdoll. Notably, the Ragdoll was wearing a tiny dress and looked like a sweet little princess in front of the camera.

Lu Yuan's eyes lit up. "That dress is really pretty!"

Ke Yuanfei immediately puffed out his chest, very proud. "Of course! I made it!"

Hearing that, Lu Yuan's eyes brightened even more. "I've made clothes for my cat too—let me show you."

The last bit of awkwardness melted away thanks to their shared hobby. The two heads huddled together, each letting out exaggerated "wows" as they showered each other with praise, both feeling pretty pleased with themselves.

After eating and drinking their fill, Ke Yuanfei slung an arm around Lu Yuan's shoulder and headed toward the curb like old brothers. Just as he was about to speak, a black Rolls-Royce Cullinan slowly rolled to a stop in front of them. The passenger window rolled down, and there was Bai Yu's face.

And his gaze happened to land right on Ke Yuanfei's hand.