“Yufei-ge, you’re right! Pei Yan is really together with Qi Feng.”
Ning Yufei’s assistant rushed back to the room in a fluster, not even bothering to wipe the sweat off his face. Excitedly, he said, “If this gets reported, it’ll be a bombshell of scandal!”
Ning Yufei hurriedly took his assistant’s phone and saw the photo he had taken.
In the photo, Qi Feng stood at the door of the hotel room, wearing the same outfit he had on before the afternoon shoot.
The door of the room was open from the inside, revealing half of Pei Yan’s body as he held onto Qi Feng’s wrist. The photo was taken from a distance, so the image was a bit shaky. But it was clear that the people in the photo were Qi Feng and Pei Yan.
Plus, he had done a live broadcast when Qi Feng was wearing these clothes, and the assistant had also taken evidence of Pei Yan’s car entering the hotel. It was enough to prove the authenticity of these two people meeting at the hotel.
He was so excited that his nose was sweating, and asked cautiously, “When you took this photo, were you discovered by them or anyone else?”
“No.”
The assistant thought for a moment, and shook his head confidently, “There was no one in the corridor, and Qi Feng didn’t see me either.”
“Very good.”
Ning Yu Fei’s eyes narrowed, his tone turning cold, “Send this photo anonymously to the entertainment tabloid reporters. Remember, never reveal your identity!”
The assistant became a bit flustered, wiping the cold sweat off his forehead as he asked, “Are we really going to leak this? What if Pei Yan finds out it was us…”
Ning Yu Fei’s eyes gleamed with malice, “If you don’t say anything, no one will know, right?”
The assistant’s face turned pale, gritting his teeth he replied, “….Okay.”
—
Qi Feng only had a gut feeling that someone was following him, he didn’t see it with his own eyes. Mentioning it to Pei Yan was just expressing his doubts.
But Pei Yan took it seriously.
The resort hotel was owned by the Song family. After he led Qi Feng into the room, he immediately called Song Zhe and asked him to check the surveillance.
Qi Feng was a bit unsure: “What if it’s just my imagination…”
“You’re an artist, it’s not uncommon to have these kinds of things. It’s better to be cautious and find out for sure.” Pei Yan pulled him to the table near the window and said, “Let’s eat first. Song Zhe will find out soon.”
Pei Yan had ordered room service for him earlier. The hotel’s clean and tidy table was set with two servings of western food: salad, pasta, pizza, steak, corn soup… They were fragrant and still hot.
The table was also decorated in a Western style, with a white tablecloth, tall candles, and a vase in the center filled with blue roses and baby’s breath, creating a romantic atmosphere.
Qi Feng picked up the knife and fork and asked, “Did you arrange all of this?”
Pei Yan made a sound of affirmation and looked at him expectantly, “Do you… like it?”
Qi Feng was taken aback and lowered his gaze, suppressing a smile. The image of the impulsive young general in his memories, trying to please him, was not annoying.
Pei Yan was actually nervous. He wasn’t sure if the boy would like this sense of ceremony. He quietly observed Qi Feng’s relaxed expression. His grip on the knife and fork relaxed slightly.
He said, “I have to go back early tomorrow morning. This room won’t be checked out, you can use this room however you like. Let me know when you’re done shooting.”
Qi Feng: “You rushed here just to sleep for a few hours, aren’t you tired?”
Pei Yan leaned closer, “In a little while, I’ll show you if I’m tired or not.”
Qi Feng sensed the ambiguity in his voice, cut a piece of steak with force, and coldly said, “I… I have to get up early tomorrow.”
“I’m just kidding.” Pei Yan lowered his head and kissed Qi Feng’s hand holding the knife, and said with a bit of seriousness, “It’s just that seeing you, I feel more at ease.”
As he said that, he patted his chest.
He was telling the truth: without Qi Feng around, he would feel restless.
He always felt that something uncontrollable would happen. Just like when Qi Feng said he felt someone following him earlier, even though there was no one in the corridor, he still had to investigate and make sure.
Qi Feng looked at Pei Yan’s chest, pursed his lips, and lowered his head to continue eating.
Soon, Song Zhe called in a hurry, “Ge, damn it, you really were followed by someone. They started taking pictures of you with their phone from the moment you entered the parking lot, and then they’ve been hiding on the same floor as your hotel room.”
“They also took pictures of Qi Feng when he came to see you. Is someone trying to harm you? Do you want me to send you some bodyguards?”
Pei Yan furrowed his brow, but then regained his composure and calmly said, “I understand, I’ll call you later.”
He turned to Qi Feng, who was about to go to the bathroom to take a shower, and said, “I suddenly have something to deal with and have to go out for a bit. You go to sleep first, don’t wait for me.”
Qi Feng was puzzled, “What’s the matter? Why are you in such a hurry?”
Pei Yan bent down and cupped the boy’s face, kissed his forehead, and whispered, “It’s nothing serious, I’ll be back soon.”
—
Ning Yufei’s assistant was called Zhang Peng.
Over the past two years, as Ning Yufei’s popularity as an artist grew, his income as an assistant also increased.
As a result, he has become more devoted to doing things for Ning Yufei, including how to gradually ruin Qi Feng’s reputation.
These things absolutely could not be known by anyone, otherwise he and Ning Yufei would both have a bad end.
He sent a few photos he took to a gossip entertainment reporter, and even after a while, his hands were still trembling and his heart was pounding with intense nervousness.
An eighteenth-tier male artist, going in and out of the same hotel with the prince of a financial group, once such a relationship was exposed, Qi Feng’s reputation in the entertainment industry would be completely ruined, and Pei Yan would also abandon Qi Feng to protect his own reputation.
In this way, Qi Feng, who was always regarded as a rival by Ning Yufei, would disappear from the entertainment industry.
…That’s good.
Zhang Peng trembled in fear and thought: If Qi Feng was gone, he wouldn’t have to do those harmful things anymore.
The phone in the room suddenly rang ‘ring ring ring’, Zhang Peng’s tense nerves were startled by the crisp ringtone, and the phone in his hand fell with a ‘bang’.
Ning Yufei was already resting, he couldn’t let the phone ring for too long.
Zhang Peng hurriedly ran over to answer the phone, his voice trembling, “Hello.”
It was the hotel front desk calling, saying that there was a signature missing on Ning Yufei’s check-in procedure, and asked him to go and sign it.
Zhang Peng felt a little strange, but still hung up the phone and went over.
The hotel lobby was empty with very few people, only a few staff members waiting at the front desk for him.
When they saw him come out, the staff immediately came forward politely and said, “I’m sorry, Mr. Zhang, for disturbing you so late.”
“It’s okay.”
Zhang Peng didn’t suspect anything and asked, “What do I need to sign?”
The staff led him to a VIP room on the side and said, “Please come this way.”
Zhang Peng followed.
The staff opened the door for him, and as soon as he stepped into the room, two men wearing hotel security uniforms appeared and forcefully grabbed his collar, throwing him heavily onto the floor of the room.
He didn’t have time to scream, and the door behind him closed with a ‘bang’.
“What are you doing?!”
Zhang Peng struggled to get up, angrily cursing at the men wearing hotel security uniforms, but saw that there was another man sitting on the sofa in the room.
His face was cold, and his gaze was dark and intimidating.
He widened his eyes in horror, his legs went soft, and he fell to the ground again: “Pei…President Pei.”
—
Pei Yan didn’t exert much effort and easily extracted the whereabouts of the photo from Zhang Peng’s mouth.
But this kind of thing was like a race against time. Even though he handled it very quickly, the gossip entertainment reporter would publish the photos as soon as they got the news, in order to get the most traffic first.
When Pei Yan called the reporter, the news titled [A certain male star enters and exits the hotel room of a young president of the financial industry, rumored to be flower pillow Qi] and the photo had been published for five minutes.
Fortunately, there hadn’t been any traffic push yet, so not many people had seen it.
Pei Yan found the boss of this news agency and with just a few simple sentences, had him withdraw the news.
He also spent a large sum of money to buy out all the related keywords on the entire internet and have them completely deleted. Ensuring that no one could find this news, Pei Yan looked at Zhang Peng, who was limp on the ground, with a gloomy face.
Zhang Peng had no injuries on his face, but he was in so much pain that he couldn’t stand up.
His face turned pale as he begged for mercy, “President Pei, I was wrong. I was just following Ning Yufei’s orders, I could only do what he told me to do. Please spare me, I will tell you everything Ning Yufei has done. And…”
He thought of a lifeline and said, “Rest assured, I won’t say a word about your relationship with Qi Feng, or what happened tonight!”
“I will make my relationship with Qi Feng public, but not now, and not in this way.”
Pei Yan sneered. “Are you trying to threaten me with this?”
“No, no…”
Zhang Peng finally understood Qi Feng’s position in Pei Yan’s heart and realized that he could only betray Ning Yufei to get through this.
He pleaded anxiously once again, eagerly confessing Ning Yufei’s plan to sabotage Qi Feng on the food program and the incident of putting drugs in Qi Feng’s water bottle.
The people present recorded his words as evidence. Once this recording was exposed, not only would Ning Yufei be finished, but Qi Feng’s reputation would also be strongly reversed, and he would also gain a lot of sympathy.
But Pei Yan wanted to ensure that there was no room for error and that they had ironclad evidence.
He threw another recorder to Zhang Peng, “I want Ning Yufei to say these words himself. Do you understand?”
Zhang Peng grabbed the recorder pen, clinging to it on the ground as if he had found hope, and promised, “Yes, I understand, I understand. Thank you, President Pei…”
—
When Pei Yan returned to the room, it was already two o’clock in the morning. However, Qi Feng was still awake, half leaning on the bed, flipping through the magazine that the original owner had once shot for Yipin Men’s Wear.
The room was dimly lit by a bedside lamp on the low cabinet in front of the bed. The gentle yellow light cast a soft and hazy glow on the boy in his pajamas and the pristine white bedsheets.
Pei Yan’s heart also softened. He walked over, sat next to the boy and teased him in a low voice, “Why haven’t you slept yet? Are you waiting for me?”
Qi Feng ignored his teasing and raised his gaze to ask him, “The person who was following me, was it Ning Yufei? Has it been taken care of?”
Pei Yan: …
“…How did you know?”
Qi Feng: “If the target being followed was me, I could only think of Ning Yufei.”
“It was indeed him, but he’s done for now.”
Pei Yan handed Qi Feng the voice recorder that contained Zhang Peng’s confession and smiled, saying, “You’re so clever, why did you let him harm you until now?”
Qi Feng: “I trusted him too much before, but I won’t anymore.”
“The night you first came to me, it was also his doing. But…”
Pei Yan sneered, “I have to thank him for that.”
Qi Feng raised his gaze to look at him.
Pei Yan gently caressed the boy’s chin, his fingertips touching the alluring mole, and spoke in a low, slow voice, “That night… If he hadn’t harmed you, would you have taken the initiative to come to me for help? Would you be with me now as you are?”
Qi Feng wondered, if he had been able to get rid of Li Junzhuo that night, would he still have sought out Pei Yan? Would they be together like they are now?
Qi Feng also had no answer in his heart.
—
The photo of Pei Yan and Qi Feng only existed on that entertainment website for five minutes, but some people still saw it.
In a certain country.
In a street café, a brightly dressed man looked at his phone and laughed. “Su Qiao, look, Pei Yan actually went to a hotel with a little star. This is really big news.”
Across from him sat a handsome and elegant man—Su Qiao.
Su Qiao held a delicate coffee cup, his handsome eyebrows wrinkled with displeasure, “You still pay so much attention to him? You always go online to search for his news. If I didn’t know better, I would think you have feelings for him?”
“Are you jealous?”
The man looked at him meaningfully and said, “Seeing a man who used to pursue you now with someone else, it’s only natural to feel unhappy.”
Su Qiao averted his gaze. “…It’s been so many years, what’s the point of bringing this up?”
“But Pei Yan still has you in his heart.”
The man showed him the photo on his phone and said, “Look, he found someone who looks a lot like you. Even the beauty mark below the lip is exactly the same.”
Su Qiao was taken aback and looked at the man’s phone.
The image was blurry, but he recognized Pei Yan at a glance. As for the person next to Pei Yan…
Su Qiao looked carefully for a long time and disdainfully snorted, “A child who hasn’t grown up, how is he similar to me?”
While saying this, he noticed the name of the boy in the headline: Male star, Qi someone.
The man looked at Su Qiao admiringly and said, “Indeed, he’s not as good-looking as you. So, he didn’t do what he did back then, when he saw you, he confessed to Uncle Pei that he liked men, and told everyone that he liked you.”
“He’s secretly keeping this little star, just to find traces of you from him.”
Before he finished speaking, the man saw that the news on the page suddenly showed that it didn’t exist.
The man chuckled, “He’s really fast. Is he trying to protect this little star? Or does he not want Uncle Pei to know that he found another man?”
Su Qiao furrowed his brows, his handsome face filled with a mix of regret and unwillingness.
“If you still have feelings for him, why don’t you go back and see him?”
The man stirred his coffee, casually persuading, “It’s been so many years, Uncle Pei should have come to terms with it. Compared to the little star, your identity as an internationally renowned designer is more likely to be accepted by Uncle Pei, isn’t it?”
Su Qiao pursed his lips and after a long while, he asked, “Can you find out what that little star’s name is?”
“He’s called…”
The man searched for Qi Feng’s photo, his fingertips brushing against his own lip as if he was answering and reciting the name, “…Qi Feng.”
“Qi Feng?”
Su Qiao awkwardly repeated the name. “Do you have Pei Yan’s personal phone number? I want… to give him a call.”
The man smiled, opened Pei Yan’s name on his phone’s contact list, and handed it to Su Qiao, “He doesn’t answer calls from unknown numbers, so use my phone to call him.”
—
The light in the room was off, and the room was dark at night. Pei Yan was lying on the soft bed, restraining his breath and smelling the clean scent of the boy beside the pillow, kissing his cool hair scattered on the pillow. This was what Qi Feng said: pillow fragrance1“Fragrance on the pillow” (枕上香) is an idiomatic expression used in Chinese literature to describe the lingering scent left behind by a lover on a pillow. It conveys a sense of intimacy and longing.. It made him obsessed and wanted to indulge, but he had to restrain himself.
On the small table beside the bed, Pei Yan’s phone suddenly lit up, buzzing loudly in the quiet room. The bright white screen displayed the caller’s name—-Cheng Yu.
Pei Yan quickly picked up the phone and glanced at it before immediately turning it off. But soon enough, the phone rang again.
Pei Yan was afraid of waking Qi Feng, so he quietly got up and walked into another room to answer the call, lowering his voice to suppress his irritation as he said, “Cheng Yu, don’t you fucking pay attention to time difference? Do you even know what time it is now?!”
“…Pei Yan, it’s me.”
Su Qiao hesitated a bit when he called this name, and then smiled, “I’m Su Qiao, long time no see.”
I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. If you want to show your support, you can buy me a coffee. It would make my day! For every five coffees I get, I will release a bonus chapter.
