Lying on top of Gong Yue, Ye Shanshan panted for breath. His palm rested on Gong Yue’s sweat-dampened skin, which was somewhat hot, as if his muscles and blood vessels were about to catch fire. Gong Yue’s hand was placed at the base of his spine, gently massaging, sending a tingling sensation up his spine that made Ye Shanshan so comfortable his eyes nearly closed.
Tilting his head, Ye Shanshan bit Gong Yue’s Adam’s apple and tasted a bit of salt in his mouth. He smacked his lips, “Ge, are you tired?”
Although Ye Shanshan had taken on most of the physical effort, he was still worried the other person might be exhausted.
Thinking about it this way, he felt like he was bullying a fragile beauty, which gave him a slight sense of guilt, though he also found it quite thrilling!
Instantly, he imagined a scene of a battle-hardened general returning from the battlefield and the frail prime minister, concocting a whole story in his head. Ye Shanshan was secretly satisfied with this narrative.
However, just as his daydream began, Ye Shanshan felt Gong Yue’s fingers trailing down his spine, slipping into the still damp and sticky space between his legs, even massaging his still soft and moist area.
Oh no! That tingling sensation of soreness and itchiness returned, making Ye Shanshan squirm. He mentally chanted that Gong Yue was currently a patient, repeating it over and over, just barely suppressing the impulse.
Noticing Ye Shanshan looking pitifully at him, Gong Yue finally withdrew his fingers slowly, placing his hand back where it was and answering the earlier question, “Of course I’m not tired.”
After being teased by Gong Yue like that, it took Ye Shanshan a while to recover. He pressed his face against Gong Yue’s shoulder and whispered near his ear, “Ge, does this count as taking advantage of your illness?”
—The more he thought about it, the guiltier he felt!
“Mm,” Gong Yue replied weakly, his voice lacking its usual strength due to his illness, and his speech slower than usual, “I allowed you to.”
As expected, Ye Shanshan, who had misunderstood the meaning of the word “take advantage,” was instantly comforted.
The next day, Ye Shanshan woke up on time at 6 AM. Out of habit, he reached out to touch Gong Yue’s forehead and, feeling that his temperature had returned to normal, finally relaxed.
After Gong Yue had fallen asleep last night, Ye Shanshan followed suit, but he woke up every hour to check Gong Yue’s temperature. Only when he confirmed that Gong Yue’s fever hadn’t returned did he fall back asleep, though he kept dreaming that Gong Yue was on fire, making it impossible for him to sleep soundly.
After wrapping his arms and legs around Gong Yue to hug him, Ye Shanshan, feeling reassured, adjusted his position and fell asleep within minutes. He didn’t notice that after he fell asleep, Gong Yue opened his eyes and quietly watched him for a long time before closing his eyes again.
※※※
When Ye Shanshan realized that the person beside him was gone, he patted the bed twice but only hit the empty mattress, which startled him. He quickly flipped over and sat up with a start. Instantly wide awake, he saw Gong Yue not far away, fully dressed and fastening his cufflinks—the pair Ye Shanshan had bought for him last time. It was already 8:30 AM.
Boyfriend looks so handsome!
Switching modes instantly, Ye Shanshan stared in a daze for a while before snapping back to reality, “Ge, are you going to work?”
“Mm, I have an important meeting,” Gong Yue replied as he finished adjusting his sleeves. He walked over to the bed and, just like every other time he left while Ye Shanshan was still asleep, leaned down to kiss him on the forehead.
Seeing the red veins in Gong Yue’s eyes, Ye Shanshan immediately felt a pang of sympathy. He quickly threw off the blanket and jumped out of bed, his hair a mess, moving like the wind.
“Wait for me, Ge! I’ll go with you!” he said, rushing off to wash up while still wrapped in his bathrobe.
As he was getting dressed, Gong Yue walked in. Ye Shanshan looked at the reflection of the man standing behind him in the mirror, then suddenly turned around and covered Gong Yue’s face with both hands.
“What’s wrong?”
Ye Shanshan sighed in frustration, “You’re too good-looking, I can’t bear for others to see you.”
In that moment, he finally understood why emperors would build luxurious palaces to hide their captivating consorts.
Because when someone is too beautiful and too beloved, you don’t want anyone else to see them.
Gong Yue buttoned up Ye Shanshan’s shirt—he had only fastened two buttons—and responded to Ye Shanshan’s possessiveness, “I’m only yours.”
Overwhelmed by his love for Gong Yue’s beauty, the indulgent “Emperor Ye” was easily placated, grinning from ear to ear.
After having breakfast, Ye Shanshan followed along to the Gong Corporation building, bringing his family with him. In his backpack, he carried some sparkling items, and in his hand, he held a small basket filled with fresh fruits. Uncle Huo said they were all picked from Gong’s private orchard and tasted great.
However, feeling a bit uneasy despite bringing the sparkling items, Ye Shanshan sat down beside Gong Yue and, after washing the dates clean, took a bite himself to taste them first. Once he found them delicious, he fed the remaining ones into Gong Yue’s mouth.
Gong Yue, who was always particular about cleanliness, didn’t mind at all. He opened his mouth wide and swallowed the food without even looking at what was being fed to him.
While feeding his boyfriend, Ye Shanshan casually noticed the data displayed on the screen—it looked familiar. Swallowing the soft fruit flesh, he asked, “Is this from Aunt Liu’s family account?”
“Yeah,” Gong Yue replied, gently biting on the date held between Ye Shanshan’s thumb and index finger, his teeth brushing against the delicate fingertips. “Did you look it up?”
“Yeah, when I was checking the Gong family history, I casually checked Aunt Liu’s side as well. When she got married, she held a significant amount of stocks from her family. Not counting the assets that the Gong family provided for their daughter-in-law, the total value of these assets has increased dramatically over the years. The numbers are astonishing.”
After feeding Gong Yue another piece of fruit, Ye Shanshan playfully rubbed his fingers against Gong Yue’s lips as he left, his expression very serious.
“Then I found that over the years, besides a few large pharmaceutical companies, Aunt Liu has invested in several laboratories. It should all be for Gong Ji’s medical condition. However, the confidentiality measures for Gong Ji’s condition are very tight. Besides the preliminary judgment of a genetic defect, nothing else can be found. It’s possible that he hasn’t appeared in public at all, and there isn’t even a single image. What’s more bizarre is that there are no records from the surveillance equipment anywhere.”
Gong Yue nodded. “Gong Ji indeed rarely appears in front of people. As for Aunt Liu, when she married into the Gong family, it was considered a strategic alliance, so the Vaughan family compensated her with a large sum of property.”
Looking at the funds invested in various laboratories on the documents, Gong Yue’s expression became somber.
“Ge, do you think she might be related to the ‘God-making Project’? Or perhaps to those wanting to revive it?”
Ye Shanshan recalled the private jet he saw at the airport that day, still feeling uneasy and fidgeting with his fingers.
Gong Yue held Ye Shanshan’s moist fingers, which were sticky with juice, and carefully wiped them clean with a wet tissue. “There is a certain possibility.”
Professor Durant, Gong Youli’s mentor, still hadn’t been found, and it was unclear whether he was even alive. It wouldn’t be long before they could uncover who was behind this, especially since the other party had been taking action continuously, likely due to some urgent reason.
After going to wash a bunch of grapes, the sparkling items lay on the carpet by Ye Shanshan’s feet, and he comfortably reclined on Gong Yue’s thigh.
He ate one grape himself and fed one to Gong Yue, planning to finish this bunch and then play by himself without disturbing Gong Yue’s work. However, as he skillfully brought another grape to Gong Yue’s mouth, the other man gently caught his fingertip with his teeth, and a slightly rough tongue brushed over his fingertip.
Ye Shanshan jolted; it was a feeling he had never experienced before—it was like being electrified, completely captivating him.
He looked at Gong Yue with anticipation, feeling they could push open the door to a new world together, but Gong Yue didn’t continue to satisfy him. Instead, he leaned down and sealed his lips against Ye Shanshan’s. Shortly after, a cool grape fell into Ye Shanshan’s mouth.
Their tongues intertwined as the grape rolled back and forth between their mouths, being stirred by their tongues. Eventually, it was unclear whose teeth touched first, but juice burst forth from the encasing skin, flooding their mouths with the sweet fruit flavor.
Ye Shanshan felt dizzy from the grape-flavored kiss, and when Gong Yue finally released him, he took a moment to remember that he was supposed to finish this bunch of grapes and then retreat to the side.
The facts once again confirmed that lust can cloud one’s judgment!
—
After snuggling with the sparkling items on a nearby sofa, Ye Shanshan opened his phone. The first message he saw was from Zheng Dong, reminding him to remember that on the 19th, he had to go record a variety show called “Starlight Assembly” with Yan Ke, suggesting that if he had time, he could check out past episodes to understand the situation better.
Placing the sparkling items on his stomach, Ye Shanshan replied and switched screens, noticing in the “Mahjong and Barbecue” discussion group that Xu Luoyang had tagged him multiple times, urging him to retweet the promotional material for “The Examiner.”
Ye Shanshan replied, “I’ll do it right away, but how many skewers of barbecue did Director Zhang bribe you with to help pass the message?”
Xu Luoyang responded, “Two skewers of potatoes! Such a loss! Go, go, go! You’re the last one we need! Director Zhang asked me to remind you to say a few auspicious words when you retweet; don’t go off-script!”
So, Ye Shanshan obediently went to Weibo, found the official Weibo account for “The Examiner,” and located the top post to retweet.
When he needed to input text, he thought carefully, and then inspired by the scenes in his memory, he typed away:
“God’s judgment—no fee if you don’t agree! The movie’s box office will definitely soar!”
“—Finally waiting for my Shanshan! Just missing Hu Yan among the ten characters; a perfect example of compulsive perfectionism! Ps: The box office will soar!”
“—A second with three thousand comments, fighting for the spotlight against my Ye, truly harder than sleeping with him, crying! Ps: The box office will soar!”
“—I was thinking, what’s the meaning of life without seeing my Shanshan? Then, the meaning of life instantly appeared! Ps: The box office will soar!”
“—Seeing so many praises for Shanshan’s beauty made me furious; my Shanshan can raise pigs, grow vegetables, cook, and even fly, yet you all only praise his looks! Where’s your vision? At least compliment how particularly handsome he is! Ps: The box office will soar!”
“—When praising my Shanshan, everyone should use less trickery and more sincerity. For example, I’ve always been ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah, so on point! Also, I haven’t seen my sparkling items for a long time; I really miss them! It feels like I’ve started a daily routine of online cat-raising. Ps: The box office will soar!”
Director Xu hadn’t exited Weibo yet. When he noticed Ye Shanshan’s appearance, he retweeted his update and kindly asked,
“God’s judgment, then how much do you think the box office will earn? I’ll spare you the decimals; if you’re wrong, I won’t pay your acting fee.”
Ye Shanshan focused on the last sentence, frowning—his acting fee was absolutely non-negotiable. He had already prepared to hand it all over to his majesty, so he could buy whatever he wanted.
So Ye Shanshan quickly integrated various data in his mind and finally estimated a number, “God’s judgment—if I’m wrong, don’t pay my acting fee; if I’m right, double the fee—1.1 billion.”
After hitting send, Ye Shanshan seriously made a heart gesture toward Gong Yue and quietly mouthed, “Darling, once I earn big money, I’ll clear your shopping cart!”
—
Author’s Note:
Shanshan: Ge, what do you have in your shopping cart? Buy, buy, buy!! [A show of extravagance]
Gong Yue: Are you sure?
Shanshan: Of course! [A show of confidence]
Gong Yue:Oil fields, mines, land, banks, islands, and more.
Shanshan: (⊙o⊙)
1You can support me if you like my translations by leaving a comment below, or by sending me a Ko-fi. Thank you and Enjoy reading! ❤️” -TL: Ysiad
