45

Jiang Yuanye chuckled lightly, as if not hearing an answer from Zhou Chaosheng was something he had expected. And his own reluctance to give a clear response seemed to also be within the other’s expectations.

He spun the playing card, its afterimage intertwining at his fingertips. When he lifted his gaze again, the smile in his eyes had suddenly become lazy and hazy. “Too bad there’s no what if in this world.”

Zhou Chaosheng’s brows lowered slightly. He thought, Jiang Yuanye was right.

Fate had already decided everyone’s course in the moments when no one was paying attention. Some people were destined to be in sync, some were meant to clash, and some would remain strangers…

And they, perhaps from the very first day they met, were destined to be at odds.

Zhou Chaosheng hesitated for a moment before speaking. “Zhao Xiaohui is looking for me, I’ll head over first?”

“Mm.” Jiang Yuanye responded indifferently.

Before leaving, Zhou Chaosheng glanced again at Jiang Yuanye, who was half-hidden in the shadows.

One hand rested in front of his stomach, while the other bent slightly behind him, propped against the bar counter.

That posture...

Before he could think further, Zhao Xiaohui’s large hand had already slapped onto his shoulder. “What are you staring at so intently? I called you several times, and you didn’t even respond.”

Following Zhou Chaosheng’s gaze, Zhao Xiaohui looked over. Before he could comment, he clicked his tongue. “You’re still hanging around him? How long has it been? Chaosheng, be honest what exactly do you think about all this?”

“Not much,” Zhou Chaosheng withdrew his gaze and found it somewhat amusing. He glanced at Zhao Xiaohui. “Do you know what you look like right now?”

Zhao Xiaohui, clueless as ever, asked, “What?”

Zhou Chaosheng: “Like a kindergarten kid who sees his friend playing with someone else and gets so anxious he’s jumping up and down, scratching his head.”

Zhao Xiaohui: “...”

Zhou Chaosheng: “I think it’s a pretty accurate description. Don’t you?”

Zhao Xiaohui, flustered and annoyed, shot back, “Accurate, my ass! I’m nothing like that.”

“Aren’t you?” Zhou Chaosheng mused. “I remember last month, Gu Qingqiu made a new friend, and just because he ignored you for a few days, you came to complain to me about how terrible that person was. Zhao Xiaohui, you’ve got a whole bunch of friends yourself, but you don’t want us to make any? You expect us to only play with you? You’re pretty double-standard, huh.”

Zhao Xiaohui was left speechless.

It was true, he did have a possessive streak when it came to his childhood friends. But he still thought he wasn’t wrong. Gu Qingqiu’s so-called friend was bad news anyway. The fact that he hadn’t dragged the guy into an alley and beaten him up was already him showing restraint.

“Well, that’s one thing,” Zhao Xiaohui admitted, “but Jiang Yuanye is different.”

“How is he different?”

“Think about it. If someone we both dislike suddenly got close to me, wouldn’t that seem weird to you?”

Zhou Chaosheng considered it and realized Zhao Xiaohui had a point.

“It would be a little weird.”

Encouraged by the agreement, Zhao Xiaohui quickly continued, “Exactly! Now imagine what if, after all this fake dating, you two somehow actually became a couple?”

Zhou Chaosheng was so startled by the idea that he blurted, “Are you insane?”

“Slip of the tongue,” Zhao Xiaohui immediately backtracked. His brain hadn’t caught up to his mouth, and he hadn’t meant to say that word. “Wrong, wrong, I meant friends, friends!”

“Watch what you say next time,” Zhou Chaosheng said irritably. “Messing around with him is one thing, but my orientation is perfectly normal.”

Zhao Xiaohui also found the idea outrageous and nodded in strong agreement. “Of course, of course. I was just talking nonsense. That’s definitely impossible...”

He paused, then suddenly crossed his arms and rubbed his hands against his sleeves, as if trying to get rid of the goosebumps that had just popped up.

Zhou Chaosheng could see that Zhao Xiaohui was genuinely unsettled by his own words.

That expression, he had worn the same look when he first heard Jiang Yuanye call him “baby.”

Just as he was about to say something, a sudden commotion erupted behind him.

“Yuanye, are you okay?”

“Yuanye…!”

Zhou Chaosheng’s heart clenched. The unease he had felt earlier surged violently. Like everyone else, he turned around only to see Jiang Yuanye clutching his stomach, kneeling on the ground, blood dripping from his lips.

In that instant, something in his mind snapped.

Without thinking, he took a step forward, then another. By the third step, he had broken into a run.

“Chaosheng! Where are you going?”

“Call an ambulance for me.” He barely managed to toss back the reply before dashing toward Jiang Yuanye without hesitation.

“Chaosheng, you-”

Zhao Xiaohui’s voice, the murmurs of the crowd, the sound of footsteps, and even the dull clinks of glassware on tables, all of it blurred into the background.

Without pausing to think, Zhou Chaosheng pushed his way through the gathering crowd, quickly reaching Jiang Yuanye.

“Stomach acting up again?”

Jiang Yuanye’s head was foggy from the pain. For a moment, he thought he was hallucinating, how could he hear his voice among so many others?

“…Zhou Chaosheng?”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

The other responded quickly, his voice calm and reassuring.

Didn’t Zhou Chaosheng look down on him?

Why would he be worried about him?

Cold sweat seeped from Jiang Yuanye’s forehead. His stomach felt like it was being pierced by thousands of needles, rendering him unable to stand. He could only crouch down, the pain spreading from his body to his very core, dragging him lower and lower until he collapsed completely onto the ground.

And then, through the haze of pain, he suddenly remembered.

Oh, right. Zhou Chaosheng had lost his memory.

And he had gullibly believed his nonsense, mistaking him for someone he wasn’t.

How stupid, Jiang Yuanye thought.

Enduring the agony, he slowly lifted his head. Even such a simple action was excruciating.

“…I’m fine.”

“It’ll pass in a bit.”

Zhou Chaosheng frowned.

This was the second time. The second time Jiang Yuanye had shown such vulnerability in front of him.

Standing above him, Zhou Chaosheng watched as Jiang Yuanye gripped his clothes tightly, the veins on his hands bulging. He watched as his sweat-dampened eyelashes clumped together, fluttering like butterfly wings. He watched as his shoulders trembled slightly, unable to resist the pain.

He watched, and then suddenly he crouched down. Without asking, he pulled Jiang Yuanye’s arm over his own shoulder. Then, he called out to someone nearby, helping to lift the man up before he could protest.

“The floor is cold. Let’s find somewhere to sit first.”

After that, he turned to the crowd. “Can someone get a cup of warm water?”

“Here, Zhou-ge, got it!” Someone had already prepared one and quickly squeezed through to hand it over.

“Thanks.” Zhou Chaosheng took the glass and passed it to Jiang Yuanye. “Do you have the strength to hold it?”

His tone was neutral, but when the words fell on Jiang Yuanye’s ears, they somehow carried another meaning like if he so much as said no, Zhou Chaosheng would personally feed him the water himself.

“…Yeah.”

Awkwardly, Jiang Yuanye took the glass and sipped.

Warm liquid trickled past his lips, over his tongue, down his throat, and into his stomach.

Did it help? Not really.

At best, it was slightly more bearable.

“…Thanks,” he muttered.

Zhou Chaosheng glanced at his tightly furrowed brows and knew the warm water wasn’t doing much. Checking his watch, he saw it was 8:32 PM. Now that rush hour had passed, an ambulance would likely arrive at the hotel in about ten minutes.

He changed his mind.

“Bring me my coat,” he told someone.

Once he got it, he draped it over Jiang Yuanye’s shoulders, then helped him toward the elevator.

“Zhou-ge, are you taking Yuanye to the hospital?” Zhuo Wenyu, who was supporting Jiang Yuanye’s left arm, asked.

“Yeah,” Zhou Chaosheng replied.

Zhuo Wenyu exchanged glances with the other two friends of Jiang Yuanye, then said, “Zhou-ge, why don’t we take him instead? It’d be too much trouble for you.”

Zhou Chaosheng glanced at Jiang Yuanye’s pale, bitten lips and replied concisely, “No need. I’ll take him.”

The words landed like a bomb, leaving everyone stunned.

It was already shocking enough that Zhou Chaosheng had come over to help in the first place. But now, he was personally accompanying him to the hospital?

This was nothing short of a miracle.

Zhuo Wenyu wanted to protest further, but before he could, Jiang Yuanye’s weak voice broke through.

“…Not the hospital. I’ll be fine in a bit.”

Zhou Chaosheng had expected his resistance. He leaned in, lowering his voice by Jiang Yuanye’s ear.

“You don’t want our relationship going public, do you?”

Jiang Yuanye froze.

Even with his mind foggy from pain, he could still catch the underlying threat in those words.

No, he didn’t want that.

But he also didn’t want to go to the hospital. The smell of disinfectant there reminded him of things he’d rather not recall.

“…Do I really have to?”

“Mm, let the doctor check your stomach.”

“…Alright.”

Seeing that the other was no longer refusing, Zhou Chaosheng, along with the bodyguards, helped him through the crowd, heading toward the stairway to press the button.

Jiang Yuanye's face was deathly pale from the pain. Weak and unsteady, his hot and disordered breaths landed against Zhou Chaosheng’s neck, carrying with them the faint, almost imperceptible scent of milk from his body, drifting into Zhou Chaosheng’s nose.

Ding.

The elevator doors slid open, and Zhou Chaosheng wrapped an arm around Jiang Yuanye’s waist, leading him inside.

At some point, he had stopped resisting physical contact with Jiang Yuanye. If he had to pinpoint the reason, perhaps it was because he had been disgusted by the other so many times that he had unconsciously gotten used to it.

Zhou Chaosheng stared at the changing floor numbers above the elevator door, his emotions growing complicated.

Weren’t he and Jiang Yuanye supposed to be sworn enemies? Then why did seeing the other in pain, unable to stand, make him feel worried?

Zhou Chaosheng couldn’t figure it out. Had he, like Jiang Yuanye, also gotten too deep into the act? People always said actors could develop real emotions through their roles. Was it possible that while acting, he had unknowingly started feeling something different for Jiang Yuanye?

The mere thought made Zhou Chaosheng’s whole body instinctively reject the idea.

Impossible. He didn’t like men…

Especially not this man, his sworn enemy!

But if that wasn’t the case, then why did he worry about Jiang Yuanye? That momentary panic and frustration felt so real that he couldn’t believe he would ever experience such emotions.

He couldn’t help but think, could a man truly develop feelings of heartache for another man without any reason?

Even if Zhao Xiaohui or Gu Qingqiu were to collapse in front of him, he might feel worried, anxious, or even afraid…

But he would never feel heartache.

So why?

Why was he feeling heartache for Jiang Yuanye?

“Young Master, we’ve arrived.”

The bodyguard’s voice came from behind, interrupting Zhou Chaosheng’s thoughts. He snapped out of it, helping Jiang Yuanye out of the elevator.

The cool night air brushed against his face, and at that moment, he suddenly understood why.

It must be because he was softhearted.

So softhearted that he couldn’t bear to see his sworn enemy looking so fragile in front of him.

Even if he despised Jiang Yuanye to his core, his instincts still made him extend a helping hand.

At the end of the day…

He was just too softhearted.

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