Chapter 107: Jiang’s Fresh Produce

It started raining on the way back. Since Jiang Shi and Cheng Ye hadn’t resumed work yet, they cozied up at home to eat hot pot on the rainy day.

They used the clues given by Li Xuelan to contact the police. The police staked out the location for several days and finally cornered Huo Ji at a clubhouse.

The rain outside the window hadn’t stopped. A police officer called Jiang Shi.

“Huo Ji escaped.”

His brow slowly furrowed.

Cheng Ye was still showering in the bathroom. Jiang Shi stood up and opened a crack in the window. The wind, carrying the rain, gusted in, making him squint.

The rain was too heavy today; many areas had issued flood warnings. In such heavy rain, a person’s tracks would be erased in an instant.

He stood there in a daze for a moment. Suddenly, a hand reached out from his side and closed the window. “What are you spacing out for? The rain is getting in.”

Cheng Ye, enveloped in warmth from his shower, raised a hand to wipe away the raindrops from the tips of Jiang Shi’s hair.

Jiang Shi said, “Huo Ji escaped.”

Cheng Ye’s brow also furrowed, but it quickly smoothed out. “It’s fine. The monk can run, but the temple can’t. They’ll catch him.”

He walked to the bedside, opened the nightstand drawer, and took out a box. He patted the space on the bed next to him. “Stop thinking about unimportant people. Come here, let me show you something.”

Jiang Shi walked over curiously and sat down next to Cheng Ye.

Cheng Ye held the box and knelt on one knee before Jiang Shi. He bent down and lifted the young man’s pant leg.

Unlike him, Jiang Shi didn’t have much body hair. His legs were straight and well-proportioned, impervious to tanning, and glowed with the lustrous sheen of a pearl.

A long time ago, an anklet had adorned this ankle, but once, when he moved too abruptly, the thread snapped. It had remained bare for several years.

Cheng Ye opened the box, revealing its contents.

Jiang Shi looked down. It was a brand-new anklet. A magnolia flower still hung from the end, warm and translucent. The petals were half-open, holding a pure gold bell inside. The red thread was strung with several sparkling gold beads.

Cheng Ye held Jiang Shi’s foot and lowered his head to put the anklet on for him.

“When I first met you, I was so poor I had nothing. I even took you to the streets to sell things at a stall. I thought back then, you’re so beautiful, you should be dressed in gold and silver. Luckily, I’ve fulfilled that promise. You really do look good in gold and silver.”

Jiang Shi pouted. “So flashy, it’s tacky.”

He said that, but the foot resting on Cheng Ye didn’t move an inch.

Cheng Ye reached out and flicked the magnolia. A crisp bell sound rang out in the bedroom. He looked up at Jiang Shi with narrowed, dark eyes, a bewitching glint within them.

“So much has happened recently, it’s been too busy. I haven’t shaved in a while, the hair down there has grown out. Does Young Master want to give it a try?”

Jiang Shi abruptly pulled his foot back. “Wh-what are you talking about?”

Cheng Ye was only wrapped in a bathrobe, a large part of his chest exposed. He reached out and tugged at the belt tied at his waist, and the robe’s collar opened even wider.

As if bewitched, Jiang Shi’s eyes drifted to his body.

The open chest, the sturdy pectoral muscles, the brown… and the hair that trailed down from his heart, shaved clean but now grown back out, carrying a vigorous heat. The hormones that even a white bathrobe couldn’t hide assaulted Jiang Shi’s face without warning.

City people were all civilized, but Cheng Ye was different. Cheng Ye had a wildness about him. Those dark eyes stared straight at Jiang Shi. He hadn’t done anything, and there was still some distance between them, yet Jiang Shi felt as if he had been licked by fire, his whole body hot and tight.

He lifted his foot, wanting to shrink back onto the bed, but Cheng Ye grabbed it. The bell jingled as the kneeling man climbed onto the bed. He maintained his kneeling posture, legs apart, bathrobe belt hanging loosely, lapels open, completely exposed.

“Young Master… want to touch it?”

His mouth was asking, but his hand was already grabbing Jiang Shi’s and placing it on his body.

It was neither long nor short, prickly, and hot, pressed against the man’s lower abdomen. His palm rose and fell with each breath.

Cheng Ye said, “I’ve washed it. It’s not dirty or smelly.” He bent down, close to Jiang Shi. “Want to try? It’ll feel really good.”

He spoke as if his words had hooks, pulling Jiang Shi step by step into a pit.

It really was good, and it really was tingly.

His butt was numb from the prickling, and his face was numb from the prickling.

His body overused, Jiang Shi wrapped himself in a blanket and slept in bed for a full day. In the evening, Liu Heping called him.

“My dear ancestor, what are you doing?”

The ancestor looked at the time. It was already four in the afternoon. “Sleeping.”

Liu Heping was exasperated. “Sleep, sleep, sleep! How can you be sleeping at your age?”

Jiang Shi said, “You have a wife and kids to support, a mortgage and car loan to pay. Of course you can’t sleep.”

Liu Heping: “…”

Now that the storm had subsided, he dared to come and demand an explanation. “Don’t you have anything to explain to me?”

The company couldn’t be without its master for a day. At dawn, Cheng Ye had been dragged away by Chen Lang for meetings. Jiang Shi was home alone. Before it was even mealtime, Cheng Ye was already sending him a stream of messages, urging him to go eat.

Jiang Shi glanced at the messages on his phone, turned on the speaker, and replied to Liu Heping, “What do I have to explain to you?”

Liu Heping said sinisterly, “Heh, nothing? Then who is that famous CEO Cheng from the news? And whose company do we work for?”

Jiang Shi sent Cheng Ye a “.” and continued to lie in his nest of blankets. “Huh? You didn’t know?”

Liu Heping’s mood was currently not peaceful at all. “Should I have known? Did you ever tell me?”

Jiang Shi thought for a moment. “I probably forgot. What he does isn’t important anyway.”

How is that not important!

Liu Heping was about to go crazy. “That’s Hengyuan! Hengyuan! Do you know how many billions his company is worth? Do you know how many people line up every day just to meet him?”

He was truly speechless. For so many years, all these years, he was only just finding out that Cheng Ye was the president of Hengyuan!

In truth, he couldn’t be blamed for being slow. Cheng Ye himself was extremely low-key. He never attended unnecessary parties, never accepted unimportant invitations. The occasional news feature only showed a few blurry silhouettes. Getting a meeting with him was harder than ascending to heaven.

Liu Heping never paid attention to financial news. Every time he went to Jiang Shi’s house, he would see a man in an old man’s tank top farming in the yard. Cheng Ye mopped the floors, Cheng Ye cooked the meals, and when things broke, Cheng Ye fixed them. He wasn’t a butler, but he was better than one.

He had naturally assumed Cheng Ye was kept by Jiang Shi in the villa. Since he was being kept by Jiang Shi, what was wrong with doing a little work?

Who could have imagined the world was this magical?

The president, so mysterious in outside rumors, was cosplaying a country bumpkin every day in Jiang Shi’s little villa.

He asked Jiang Shi again, “Then did you know that our company was actually bought by him?”

“I knew.”

Liu Heping: “…”

So the one next to him was the real resource king.

“No…” Liu Heping couldn’t understand. “The company is his. Doesn’t that mean he can give you whatever resources he wants? For all these years, how come the only scripts that have landed in my hands were for supporting roles?”

The rumors outside were all about Jiang Shi, the “Male Support Jiang,” who had been in the industry for years and returned without a single leading role.

Jiang Shi walked downstairs in his slippers.

“That’s because I don’t like being the lead. Too many scenes, the filming schedule is too long, it’s so tiring.”

Being a supporting actor was great. He earned money, he acted, and it wasn’t that tiring.

Liu Heping again: “…”

Jiang Shi said, “Did you call me just to talk about this?”

Liu Heping was mentally exhausted. “My dear ancestor, have you looked at how many days you’ve been out of work? The previous production fell through. Although you lost some fans after the last official announcement, the country is planning to introduce a same-sex marriage law in the next few years. You, although you’re on the cusp of the storm, it’s not that serious. It’s not to the point where you have to leave the industry.”

“I have a few commercials and variety shows on hand. Take a look, want to pick one? At least show your face.”

Having been idle for many days, Jiang Shi was also bored. “Whatever’s fine. Bring them over for me to see.”

Liu Heping drove towards Jiang Shi’s house. As soon as he arrived, he was greeted by a forest of corn. This was the season for tender corn, hanging heavily on the stalks.

Ever since he got an assistant, Liu Heping rarely came to Jiang Shi’s house. Seeing this scene so suddenly, he felt a bit dazed.

When he went inside, Jiang Shi was eating in the dining room. Seeing him, he had the aunt add a set of bowls and chopsticks.

Liu Heping held his bowl. “This place of yours wasn’t discovered by reporters, was it?”

“Nope.” Jiang Shi lowered his head, his eyes still misty from just waking up. “That corn is taller than a person. You can’t see anything from the outside.”

That was true. With this mix of urban and rural aesthetics, no one would imagine a star and a CEO lived inside.

Liu Heping glanced around. “Where’s CEO… CEO Cheng?”

“Cheng Ye? He went to work.”

Just as he finished speaking, the sound of a car parking came from the entrance. A few minutes later, Cheng Ye, dressed in a suit, pushed the door open.

The gemstone on his cufflink flashed in Liu Heping’s eyes, finally matching the photo from the financial reports.

Cheng Ye changed his shoes at the door, saw Liu Heping, and greeted him. “Brother Liu.”

If it were the past, Liu Heping could have accepted this address without any guilt, but now…

Just as his weathered old face squeezed out a smile, Cheng Ye had already turned and gone to the kitchen to scoop himself a massive bowl of rice. The rice was piled high. He grabbed a chopstick-full of food, and in a few quick mouthfuls, a fifth of it was gone.

Liu Heping watched, dumbfounded.

Wait… this wasn’t like what they showed on TV.

Jiang Shi hadn’t eaten lunch. Cheng Ye didn’t let him wait, so by the time Liu Heping arrived, he was already halfway done. He couldn’t finish the last third of his bowl and habitually pushed it towards Cheng Ye.

Cheng Ye scraped the leftover rice from his bowl into his own, and holding the large bowl, snatched the only piece of braised pork from in front of Liu Heping.

Jiang Shi asked him, “Why are you back so early today?”

Cheng Ye replied, “There was supposed to be a banquet. Chen Lang said the entry requirement was to spend at least two hundred thousand. A bottle of wine that’s neither sour nor sweet sells for eighty thousand. Only an idiot would buy it. I didn’t go.”

He pulled a box out of his suit pocket. “I bought you a brooch. Wear it for the next red carpet. It’ll look good.”

Jiang Shi wasn’t in a hurry to see what the brooch in the box looked like. Instead, he asked Cheng Ye, “Will it have any impact if you don’t go?”

“What impact could it have?” While Liu Heping was in a daze, the pork ribs on the table also disappeared. “They were the ones begging me to go in the first place, but they had to pick a place where you have to spend money. If I don’t have money and can’t go, is that my problem?”

Liu Heping came back to his senses. The shrimp were gone too.

Jiang Shi opened the box. He glanced at it. He recognized that brooch. It was a limited edition, worth seven or eight hundred thousand.

Over there, Jiang Shi held up the brooch and looked at it. “It’s pretty. How much?”

“Not expensive. If you like it, I’ll buy you a couple more to play with later.”

Liu Heping: “…”

Cheng Ye wiped his mouth. “Brother Liu, I’m done eating. Take your time.”

Liu Heping held his chopsticks and stared blankly at the only remaining plate of bok choy on the table.

He gave up.

For so many years, he had failed to realize that Cheng Ye was an overbearing CEO. It really wasn’t his fault.

What kind of overbearing CEO acts like this?

Jiang Shi ultimately chose an endorsement for a beverage, with the shoot scheduled for the day after tomorrow.

Liu Heping, full from a bowl of green vegetables, said goodbye to Jiang Shi with a wooden face. “After all, it’s your first event after the controversy. I’ll go with you. Remember to get up at six in the morning the day after tomorrow.”

Cheng Ye changed his clothes and stood in the yard with a hose, watering the bok choy. Seeing Liu Heping was about to leave, he took the initiative. “Brother Liu, want some corn?”

Liu Heping turned his head to look at the corn beside him. It was green, plump, and round, and homegrown. It would be a lie to say he wasn’t tempted.

“CEO Cheng… this is too much…”

“It’s nothing.” Cheng Ye said, “I grew it myself, no pesticides, absolutely natural and healthy. Even someone as picky as Jiang Shi eats one every morning.”

The more he spoke, the more tempted Liu Heping became.

Cheng Ye broke one off, peeled back the leaves to show Liu Heping the plump kernels inside. “Want some?”

Liu Heping was still wringing his hands. “This isn’t very good…”

Cheng Ye said, “Seeing as we’re acquaintances, I won’t rip you off. Ten yuan for three jin.”

The smile on Liu Heping’s face froze. “Wh… what?”

Cheng Ye found a yellow plastic bag from somewhere and quickly broke off several ears of corn and put them in the bag. He weighed it in his hand. “Looks like about six jin. I’ll just charge you for six jin.”

Liu Heping looked at the bag of corn, silent.

He took the bag with an indescribable feeling, reached for his phone, and then found it was off. He fumbled in his pocket and pulled out a fifty. He placed the fifty-yuan bill into the hand that could create millions in revenue by signing a single document.

“Keep the change.”

Cheng Ye snatched the money in a flash.

“Brother Liu, I’ll walk you to your car.”

After a thought, he broke off two more ears of corn and placed them on Liu Heping’s back seat.

Seeing Liu Heping get in the car, Cheng Ye said, “I hear you live over by Ronghu Road?”

Liu Heping grunted in affirmation and gave the name of his residential complex.

“What a coincidence,” Cheng Ye said. “I know a vegetable seller right in the next complex. It’s only a few minutes’ walk for you. Her vegetables are quite fresh, and the prices are very fair. If your wife needs to buy groceries in the future, you can consider it.”

As he spoke, he handed a business card to Liu Heping.

Liu Heping took it and looked.

Whoa!

Jiang’s Fresh Produce.

What a massive enterprise.