The next day.

It was another brilliantly sunny day.

Lin Zhu held Yan Ruojun and slept until a little past eleven in the morning.

He said he wasn’t tired, but he had spent the last two months studying with all his strength, and now that the college entrance exam was over, it counted as finally taking one burden off his shoulders.

Not to mention that Lin Zhu had also gone through a round of physical exertion the night before.

The body in his arms was warm and soft. Breathing in that sea-breeze scent tinged with mint candy, even his stubborn body clock finally surrendered and allowed its owner to sleep all the way until late morning.

The blackout curtains worked very well, and the bedroom was extremely dim.

When Lin Zhu opened his eyes, the man in his arms had obviously been awake for quite a while already. He had his back turned, fiddling with his phone. The screen brightness was turned very low, but Lin Zhu still clearly saw—

Yan Ruojun was looking at rings.

Lin Zhu half-squinted, and the arm draped across the man’s waist suddenly tightened, pulling him closer. At the same time, his palm settled over the man’s abdomen, which had gone flat again, his hand warm.

He asked, “Did you see one you like?”

Yan Ruojun seemed startled by his sudden voice. He immediately pressed the side button with his thumb, locking the screen, then closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep, even tucking his chin a little farther into the blanket.

The whole thing took only one second.

Lin Zhu: “…”

What was he supposed to do with a wife who loved pretending to be asleep?

He didn’t think about it for long. Silently, he took the phone from Yan Ruojun’s loosely held hand, quickly tapped a string of digits into the lock screen—

Then came a click.

He had unlocked it in one try.

The page was still on the online store of a well-known jewelry brand. At the top, the search bar clearly read: [men’s wedding rings].

Below was a long list of product previews and their prices.

Every single one of them was very beautifully expensive.

Luckily, Lin Zhu had already prepared himself mentally, so he wasn’t frightened. He pushed the screen right in front of the man’s face and asked again:

“Ge, which pair do you like the most?”

The room went quiet for a few seconds.

Yan Ruojun opened his eyes, first giving a light cough, then asking instead of answering, “Lin puppy, when did you secretly look at my lock-screen password?”

“I didn’t secretly look,” Lin Zhu said slowly. “I guessed. Didn’t expect to get it right on the first try.”

The password was the date they first met.

After saying that, Lin Zhu squeezed himself a little closer and used his index finger to lightly scratch the man’s somewhat delicate navel, urging,

“Ge, tell me.”

Yan Ruojun laughed while trying to dodge, but no matter how much he moved, he couldn’t escape the restraint of the person behind him. In the end, he had no choice but to take back his phone and prepare to show Lin Zhu.

He hadn’t chosen a top luxury brand. Instead, he had picked a domestic wedding ring brand with a very good reputation, and had his eye on a men’s pair priced at a little over eighty thousand.

But Lin Zhu had said he wanted to use money he earned himself to buy him a ring, so Yan Ruojun had hesitated for a long time, his mood swinging between [pick the favorite one] and [I can’t wait anymore].

In the end, he scrolled upward and selected another pair that still looked pretty nice.

A little over ten thousand.

How could Lin Zhu not understand this kind of compromise from him?

Inside, he let out a long sigh and said in a somewhat complicated tone,

“Okay. I know.”

As he said that, he had already memorized the pair Yan Ruojun had been staring at for a long time, and was beginning to think about how he could make that money, and what sort of work he could do.

“…”

By the time the two of them went downstairs, they discovered that the rest of the family was already in the dining room eating lunch.

When Yan Zihong heard the footsteps, he glanced over and said in an indifferent tone,

“We didn’t prepare bowls for you two. Get them yourselves.”

At that, Lin Zhu’s face heated up. He greeted the elders, then let the man beside him sit down first before turning toward the kitchen.

Yan Ruojun responded with an “Mm” and sat gracefully at the table. There was not the slightest trace of embarrassment in his expression. If anything, he looked radiant and full of color, as if he were in exceptionally good spirits.

To be honest, right now he really wished someone would ask him, “Why did you sleep so late?” Then he could casually answer, “Hm? How did you know Lin Zhu wants to buy me a diamond ring?”

Unfortunately, Lin Zhu came back too quickly.

The moment he sat down, Old Master Pei Yifeng went straight to the point.

“Xiao Lin, I happen to have a student who is now a professor in the computer science department at A University. One of his graduate students, who’s about to finish, has started a studio with a few classmates doing an AI startup.”

“These kids are all very talented and have even won national-level awards…” the old man said slowly. “Anyway, since you’ve got the next three months off, would you be interested in going to that studio as an auditing intern?”

“The other side is asking for remote online work, so you won’t need to sit in an office. But you’d still be an intern, there’s basically no pay, and it may be quite tiring…”

The old man phrased it gently and tactfully.

But Lin Zhu knew very well that he was only a high school graduate whose exam scores hadn’t even come out yet. How could an entrepreneur who had won national awards possibly take interest in a little intern like him?

The old man must have greeted them personally and probably spent some social capital too, all to pave a road for a younger family member.

Still…

Lin Zhu held his chopsticks and didn’t answer immediately.

Perhaps seeing the hesitation in the young man, the old master lifted his wrinkled eyelids. His eyes were bright and sharp as he reminded him,

“You’re still young. If a boy is going to suffer, he should do it early.”

Then he added an example:

“You should know that when Junjun was your age, he had already started getting involved in the Yan family business.”

Lin Zhu had no choice but to think seriously.

Just then, Yan Ruojun, with a bite of vegetables between his chopsticks, suddenly spoke up:

“Go. It’s such a rare opportunity. Grandpa definitely put in a lot of effort for you.”

Lin Zhu instinctively turned to look at him.

Yan Ruojun was also looking at him from the side. There wasn’t even half a trace of disappointment on his face. Instead, he looked full of encouragement. Under the table, one of his hands reached over and nudged Lin Zhu’s knee twice, urging him:

“Hurry up and thank Grandpa.”

Lin Zhu simply stared at that dark gray-green hidden deep in the man’s eyes and thought to himself,

…Is there really not even a little disappointment?

—

After thinking it over for a long time, Lin Zhu still accepted the studio’s contact information from the old master. After a round of communication on the phone, he was added to the studio’s group chat.

There weren’t many people in the group. Including the main creators, there were only a little over ten, all energetic and driven college students.

They weren’t much older than Lin Zhu. When they learned he had only just finished the college entrance exam, they didn’t have the heart to drag him into work immediately. Instead, they sent him a pile of materials, telling him to get familiar with them before starting.

Lin Zhu calculated it—there would be about half a month in between.

And as for Yan Ruojun…

After that lunch, the man never again mentioned wanting Lin Zhu to buy him a ring. Instead, he told him to seize the opportunity to improve himself and do something genuinely meaningful.

Lin Zhu fell silent.

Sometimes, he wished that when facing him, Yan Ruojun wouldn’t be so understanding. Wouldn’t be so mature and sensible. Wouldn’t place Lin Zhu’s needs above his own.

At the very least, he wished he wouldn’t pretend not to care at all.

They stayed at the Huanshan estate for only two more days before driving back to their little home in the city.

Even though Lin Zhu was on summer break and school was still far away, Yan Ruojun still had work to do.

Having taken two days off to accompany the exam, the man’s workload had piled up again.

Even so, on the first night after returning home, Yan Ruojun still pulled Lin Zhu into a thorough round of intimacy.

When he saw Lin Zhu was afraid he wouldn’t be able to stand properly the next day, he kept calling him things like “good husband” and other pet names, all while clinging to him and complaining softly:

“When we were at Huanshan, you were holding back so much. I didn’t get enough. Really, not enough…”

As he spoke, he directly pulled Lin Zhu’s hand over to feel for himself.

Lin Zhu: “…”

Apparently, it really hadn’t been enough.

At first, Lin Zhu was fairly cooperative. He dealt with Yan Ruojun until he was completely pliant and soft, so wet that he seemed almost soaked through.

But then Lin Zhu realized the man was already in no shape to keep going, yet still refused to let go, wrapping himself around Lin Zhu’s shoulder like a limp snake, begging again and again…

At that point, Lin Zhu truly couldn’t scold him, couldn’t even say much to him, so in the end he had no choice but to lightly slap the place where he had already put medicine, and said helplessly:

“Ge, you still have to work tomorrow. At the level you’re at now, it’s just right. If you rest one night, you’ll recover seven or eight tenths…”

He paused, then added,

“But if we keep going, are you planning to stand at work all day tomorrow?”

Being lightly smacked by a husband ten years younger than himself, Yan Ruojun’s body didn’t really hurt, but his expression froze for quite a while.

He looked as if his mind had short-circuited and disconnected.

Staring at his face, Lin Zhu thought that in his moment of urgency, he might have accidentally hurt the man’s pride, and instantly felt a wave of regret and remorse.

Just as he was about to apologize, Yan Ruojun’s peach blossom eyes slowly widened.

Then he hugged Lin Zhu’s pillow, adjusted his posture, and spoke in a somewhat muffled voice into the pillow:

“…One more time.”

For an instant, Lin Zhu doubted his own hearing.

Much as he hated to admit it, he had to admit it—

The sight in front of him made several tons of improper thoughts explode through his mind on their own. Words, images, scenes—every one of them starring his own face and Yan Ruojun’s.

Those shameful thoughts seemed to grow legs, lined themselves up, and consciously began marching in formation through the teenager’s brain, practically shouting slogans.

Fortunately, Lin Zhu’s moral bottom line had not yet fallen quite that far.

With some relief, he thought:

…Thank God, I haven’t turned into a completely awful adult yet.

That night, he didn’t simply follow Yan Ruojun’s wishes and recklessly create trouble for his work the next day. Instead, he used more flexible fingers to resolve the marital imbalance of supply and demand.

Before sleep, Yan Ruojun pulled Lin Zhu’s left hand in front of him to inspect it carefully.

By the dim bedside light, he stared at the shadowy outline and came to a conclusion he had already experienced deeply long ago.

“Lin puppy, your fingers are really so long, like snakes, they just slid right into my—mmph, mmph mmph!”

Before he could finish speaking, the boy covered the lower half of his face with one hand, perfectly demonstrating what “manual silencing” looked like—and also what “wife, please stop talking” looked like.

Lin Zhu changed to a new pillow.

In the darkness, his face burning hot, he said helplessly,

“Sleep. Go to sleep already.”

“And if I don’t sleep, what are you going to do?” Yan Ruojun asked.

Lin Zhu turned over, pinned him down, and coldly, ruthlessly covered his mouth again.

“Like this.”

“…Mmph mmph, mmph mmph.”

The next day.

Yan Ruojun had indeed regained his normal mobility. While sighing, he took off his robe and changed into a custom suit.

“What’s the use of a husband being this handsome if in the end he still…”

Lin Zhu was already awake, leaning against the wardrobe door and handing him a dark red tie.

“Ge, go to work properly today. I’ll stay home and read the materials.”

Before leaving, Yan Ruojun stared at him for a while, suspiciously, then suddenly said,

“Lin puppy, why do I feel like you especially want me to go out today?”

Lin Zhu replied, “N-no, not at all.”

Yan Ruojun crossed his arms. “Look me in the eyes.”

Lin Zhu shut his eyes and gave him a hot, forceful kiss. Then, after sending the man downstairs and out of the residential complex in a dazed state, he ran straight to the security office and leaned against the window.

“Uncle, I’m here to pick up a package.”

“Thanks for holding it for me.”

Ten minutes later.

Lin Zhu carried an extra-large delivery box back home.

He moved it into the study, first tidied up his desk, then set up a camera aimed at the tabletop, and arranged all the tools and materials from the box within easy reach…

Once he finished preparing everything, Lin Zhu turned on the computer and, with a clear purpose, downloaded the most popular livestreaming platform of the moment. Then he registered a streamer account.

The approval came through very quickly.

After that, he moved the mouse, looked at how the most-viewed streams titled themselves for reference, placed both hands on the keyboard, and with a very serious face slowly typed one line into the title field of his upcoming stream—

“[Heart] My wife isn’t home today [Heart], click here to watch an Alpha make…”