Su Yiran washed his dishes, dried his hands, and left the kitchen to go into the bedroom and grab his jacket before heading out.

Gu Yuanting followed him: “Change that shirt.”

Su Yiran was bewildered: “What shirt?”

Gu Yuanting stared at the knitted top he was wearing, his words seemingly squeezed through clenched teeth: “This… knitted top.”

Su Yiran felt inexplicable: “Why change it?” He glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table; it was past seven. He quickly picked up his jacket, ready to put it on, refusing to change the knitted top. “I have to go. I’m meeting someone at 8:30.”

The wicked fire in Gu Yuanting’s heart suddenly blazed. He abruptly grabbed Su Yiran’s wrist, tossed the jacket from his hand, and pressed him by the shoulder, pushing him onto the bed.

“Hey… you,” Su Yiran was caught off guard and fell onto the bed. He tried to push Ting-ge, who was pressing down on him, “Don’t mess around; I have to go.”

Gu Yuanting’s eyes seemed to be on fire. He pressed down on Su Yiran, stripped off his undershirt, revealing his fair and beautiful body underneath.

The early morning air made Su Yiran feel a little cold. He recoiled, wanting to push Gu Yuanting away and put his clothes back on: “Seriously, don’t mess around. I have something to do this morning.”

Gu Yuanting easily held him down, his large hands caressing him, his eyes burning with a dark fire, his throat parched.

This spot—he had touched it last time.

And kissed it.

This belonged to him.

He could not tolerate the original owner’s things touching his skin.

He had to wipe away all traces left by the original owner.

Gu Yuanting suppressed the protesting Su Yiran, meticulously stroking every inch of his skin.

“Hey! Ah… mm…”

Su Yiran was still protesting at first, but soon he was so pliant in Gu Yuanting’s hands that his body went soft, his face flushed, and he couldn’t think of anything.

When Gu Yuanting felt satisfied, he lowered his head to continue. Su Yiran, with the last shred of clear consciousness, realized that if this continued, they really wouldn’t be able to stop.

He had an appointment! He immediately struggled to regain his senses, his mind clearing, and pushed Gu Yuanting with force: “Stop messing around, Ting-ge, hey, we’re going to be late!”

Gu Yuanting looked up at him, his eyes dark with unfulfilled desire, clearly wanting to continue.

Su Yiran slapped him on the forehead: “Stop messing around, get up.”

Gu Yuanting: “…”

Gu Yuanting let go of him, stood up, and looked down at himself.

Su Yiran was both ashamed and annoyed by him. Seeing the time, he realized he was almost late and hurriedly got up to get dressed.

He had just picked up the knitted top Gu Yuanting had thrown on the floor when a large hand reached out beside him. Gu Yuanting snatched the worn-out knitted top, crumpled it up, and tossed it casually into a corner.

Su Yiran didn’t have time to bother with his inexplicable actions. He quickly grabbed another random shirt, threw it on, and then put on his jacket, rushing out the door: “Are you ready? Or should I go first?”

Gu Yuanting looked down at himself again, unable to do anything about his situation for now. But he needed to take Su Yiran, so he put on a long trench coat to conceal himself and followed him out.

Throughout the car ride, Su Yiran kept checking the time. Seeing that they really wouldn’t make it and were indeed late, he couldn’t help but glare at Gu Yuanting: “It’s all your fault.”

Thinking about how messy he had been made him feel this morning, his face couldn’t help but flush, his earlobes turned red, and finally even his neck had a reddish tint.

Gu Yuanting, receiving such a glare, felt his throat parch and his lower abdomen tighten. What had just calmed down now stirred again.

Su Yiran happened to see it: “…”

---

They arrived at the coffee shop where Su Yiran was meeting the marketing company planner. Su Yiran got out of the car: “You go straight to work. I’ll take a taxi back to the shop after my meeting.”

He saw the area between Gu Yuanting’s thighs, blushed, and turned his head away: “…You calm down.”

Gu Yuanting: “…”

“I’m going into the coffee shop. See… see you.” Su Yiran turned and entered the coffee shop. He calmed himself down before heading to the second floor. The planner had messaged him earlier, saying they had already arrived and were on the second floor.

Today, he mainly wanted to discuss the details of the marketing campaign with the planner: the timing, scope, platforms, key focus, product features, crisis plan, and other various aspects.

Over two hours later, Su Yiran and the planner finally finished discussing all these issues. The plan was finalized item by item, with subsequent adjustments to be made based on specific circumstances.

After this discussion, Su Yiran paid the deposit and scheduled a time with the planner to sign the official contract.

The marketing matters were largely settled, and Su Yiran felt a weight lift off his mind. He took a taxi back to the shop and continued with the day’s business.

The shop’s three specialty desserts continued to be offered, and just like yesterday, they sold very well, quickly selling out one after another.

These past two days were weekdays, but the shop’s business was almost as good as on weekends. Today, Su Yiran didn’t even have time to live stream.

Logically, although the shop had introduced specialty desserts and received many positive reviews, they had only just been launched, and their reputation hadn’t fully spread yet. Su Yiran, amidst his busyness, was a bit puzzled: why was weekday business so good?

---

After the shop closed for the night, he had some free time. While waiting for Ting-ge to arrive, he logged onto the local forum’s food section to take a look.

Unexpectedly, yet predictably, in the food section, the post from last time, where a veteran user recommended his shop, which had gone unnoticed for the past two days and been pushed down by new posts, was now back on the homepage. The replies after it had reached over twenty pages.

Su Yiran clicked into the post and saw that, indeed, guests were discussing his shop’s newly launched specialty desserts in the comments, praising them unanimously. Some guests had also taken photos in the shop and posted pictures of the desserts in the thread, making passersby drool and curious.

Several passersby couldn’t help but ask the guests where the shop was located, and helpful guests replied with the shop’s address.

One could say it was very much like a “water army” (internet trolls/paid commenters)…

Like last time, some people suspected it was a self-promotion by a “water army,” and this time they were even more convinced. Both sides argued over whether it was a “water army,” replying back and forth and pushing the post up, accidentally making it popular again.

Su Yiran scrolled down and refreshed the post, pulling directly to the end. The latest reply’s timestamp was just moments ago:

[ILoveClaypotRice] I’ve been proven wrong again QAQ I thought last time was a marketing trick and I fell for it. Today I eagerly went to seek revenge, but seriously! It’s super delicious! If it’s a “water army” trick, I accept it…

Su Yiran vaguely remembered “ILoveClaypotRice.” He seemed to have questioned whether the original poster was a “water army” last time, and after trying the food at the shop, found he was proven wrong and even left feedback.

He put down his phone and didn’t continue Browse the posts.

He hadn’t even started real marketing yet, and there was already organic word-of-mouth. Su Yiran was quite satisfied with the small-scale effect created by the specialty desserts.

The shop’s business would definitely get better and better in the future. These past two days, he and the staff member Zhang Xiaohong were already almost too busy to handle it. He felt the shop should hire more people.

Su Yiran reposted the job information on the recruitment website. He had posted it when the shop first opened, and now he just needed to log into the backend and update it.

He thought for a moment. It wouldn’t be easy to recruit full-time employees in a short time. If things got too busy, he would ask Xiaowen and the others if they were willing to work part-time when they didn’t have classes.

Just as he was thinking about Xiaowen, suddenly, in the shop’s WeChat group, Xiaowen sent a message @him: “Boss! You’re trending!” Below, she sent a screenshot.

Trending?

Su Yiran was confused. He opened the screenshot and saw the 42nd trending topic circled in red: [The Fate of Million-Dollar Purple Oily pearwood].

Su Yiran was puzzled. Million-dollar purple oily pearwood? Purple Oily pearwood had something to do with him. He had only found out yesterday that the small piece in his shop cost sixty or seventy thousand yuan, and he had lectured Ting-ge about it for a long time.

But what did “million-dollar purple Oily pearwood” have to do with him?

Xiaowen had already sent another WeChat message: “Boss! Is our shop’s mascot really a purple oily pearwood worth over ten million?!”

Su Yiran replied: “No [scratch head] [question mark]”

Yesterday, after knowing how valuable the wood carving in the shop was, he bought a small glass display cabinet, locked the wood carving inside, and placed it inside the glass counter.

Completely baffled, he opened Weibo, clicked on the trending topic, and saw that [The Fate of Million-Dollar Purple Oily pearwood] had already risen to 36th place.

The top trending post was from a popular Weibo user with millions of followers who usually posted humorous and funny content:

[#TheFateOfMillionDollarPurplePearWood# Today’s nonsense: Why did the purple oily pearwood auctioned for an exorbitant price of thirteen million turn out like this?] Accompanied by two images.

The first image was a striking comparison. The top part was a news screenshot: “Viller Art Collection” auctioned purple oily pearwood for an exorbitant price of thirteen million!

The image in the middle of the news was a hefty piece of wood being auctioned, its bark still unpeeled, and its cross-section a rich purplish-red, looking very imposing and grand.

An explanation was provided next to it, stating that this wood was from the Wanli period, and factors such as its age, history, quality, uniqueness, rarity, etc., all contributed to its exorbitant auction price.

Below it was a thick, long arrow pointing to the enlarged high-definition image below.

That enlarged high-definition image below was the “One Listen” wood carving from his shop, so ugly it was unrecognizable.

The second image was a long text explanation. Su Yiran roughly scanned it. The gist was that the small ornament in his shop was unearthed by netizens as top-grade purple oily pearwood. Because top-grade purple oily pearwood had become increasingly rare in recent years, some netizens quickly recalled the auction news from half a month ago.

Some curious netizens meticulously compared the cross-sections of the two pieces of wood circulating online, frame by frame, and found that the patterns, grain direction, color layers, and all other aspects were identical.

Since wood grain patterns are generally unique, after some technical analysis, netizens concluded that the small ornament in the streamer’s shop came from that millions-worth of purple oily pearwood.

Su Yiran felt that netizens nowadays were too imaginative; they could connect these two things. He clicked on the comments under this trending Weibo post. Many netizens were sober and disbelieving, but many also believed it:

[Today’s nonsense made me feel sour (jealous).]

[My heart aches for this purple oily pearwood. When it was sold for an exorbitant price, it surely didn’t expect what fate awaited it, laughing unkindly.]

[…Truly, two pictures to start, content all made up.]

[Heartbreaking, such a top-grade wood was used to make such a thing.]

[Are you serious…? You believe this kind of news?]

[Who is this streamer? So rich, I want to visit.]

[Purple oily pearwood is so hard to find now. Its market price is already more than 40,000-50,000, and it’s still going up to 60,000-70,000, but it’s priceless because there’s no market for it.]

The rest were similar comments. Su Yiran didn’t pay much attention.

He scrolled through a bit more and found that after the live stream ended yesterday, many viewers had posted this incident as a funny anecdote on Weibo. There wasn’t much activity yesterday, but today, a big influencer with millions of followers noticed it, reposted it as an anecdote, and unexpectedly, its popularity grew, leading to multiple influencers reposting it. The trending hashtag was also quite catchy, which is how it ended up trending.

Su Yiran returned to his own Weibo and found that he had gained hundreds of thousands of new followers. His follower count was now over a million. It seemed this was due to the trending incident.

Just as he was thinking, the shop door chimed, and Gu Yuanting walked in.

Seeing Gu Yuanting, Su Yiran immediately recalled the morning’s events, his face burning red, and he no longer cared about trending topics.

When Gu Yuanting saw Su Yiran’s flushed face, he couldn’t help but step forward and hug him, kissing his cheek. He explained: “Work delayed me a bit, so I came late.”

“Not late,” Su Yiran’s earlobes also turned red from his kisses, and then Ting-ge kissed his earlobes again.

His ears were very sensitive, and the kisses sent a shiver through him. He quickly flusteredly dodged away, grabbed his keys, and said: “Let’s… let’s go home.”

Gu Yuanting chuckled softly, his deep, magnetic voice causing a tingling sensation in Su Yiran’s heart, making his face flush and his heart race.

---

On the way back in the car, Su Yiran calmed down and brought up the interesting story of trending today, finally sighing: “Netizens are so imaginative.”

Gu Yuanting: “…”

He thought the wood matter was over.

Su Yiran didn’t hear Gu Yuanting’s response, hesitated, and slowly looked at Gu Yuanting suspiciously: “…No way?”

Gu Yuanting stiffened imperceptibly: “…How could that be? The internet is just talking nonsense.”

Su Yiran also thought the internet was talking nonsense. How could their family afford ten million? Besides, the 13 million was for an entire ton of wood, and the mascot in the shop was only a little over four catties, just a baby.

Gu Yuanting breathed a sigh of relief.

The remaining excess had been left in the lumberyard warehouse.

The two returned home. Su Yiran and Gu Yuanting cooked, ate, cleaned the table, and washed dishes together as usual, chatting about everyday things.

After dinner, Su Yiran felt a bit full, so he went downstairs with Gu Yuanting. They held hands and strolled along the community’s green belt, slowly walking for over half an hour.

After their daily routine, they returned from their walk. Su Yiran took a shower and habitually handed the hairdryer to Gu Yuanting.

Gu Yuanting knew this meant he wanted him to dry his hair. He took the hairdryer, stood behind Su Yiran, and gently lifted his hair, slowly drying it.

His distinct fingers gently ran through Su Yiran’s hair, finding his strands particularly soft.

Gu Yuanting’s heart also softened.

Living a simple life like this might not be bad.

Perhaps, he didn’t need to return to the Gu family.

Gu Yuanting finished drying his hair, put the hairdryer aside, and picked up Su Yiran from the sofa, placing him on his lap. He held him close, gazed at him steadily for a while, then lowered his head to gently kiss his forehead, eyes, nose, cheeks, corners of his lips, chin…

Su Yiran had grown accustomed to such tenderness, obediently letting him hold and kiss him.

Tiny, scattered kisses lovingly landed on Su Yiran’s small face.

Gu Yuanting’s heart also filled with warmth.

Perhaps, he should stay.