The next day was Saturday. Gu Yuanting didn’t work overtime. As usual, he went to the shop with Su Yiran.

Su Yiran went out with him to take the elevator to the underground parking lot to get the car.

In the elevator, Su Yiran secretly looked at Ting-ge in the elevator wall mirror. He didn’t know why, but he felt that since last night, Ting-ge had been especially gentle with him.

His gaze, actions, tone… and so on…

He was secretly thinking about this when he suddenly met Ting-ge’s gaze in the mirror, caught red-handed.

Gu Yuanting gently stroked his small face: “What’s wrong?”

“N-nothing.” The moment Su Yiran met Ting-ge’s gaze, his face felt hot and his heart raced. Just then, the elevator reached the basement level. The elevator door “dinged” open, and he walked out, moving his limbs awkwardly.

Su Yiran: “…”

Oh no, Ting-ge has charmed me so much I can’t even walk straight…

They arrived at parking space C. As they approached their car, Gu Yuanting suddenly saw the car door, his pupils slightly constricted. He grabbed Su Yiran’s hand.

Su Yiran looked at him in confusion. Gu Yuanting didn’t speak. He put his arm around Su Yiran’s shoulder, protectively half-embracing him, and subtly scanned their surroundings: “I forgot something. Come with me to get it.”

Su Yiran didn’t suspect anything: “Okay, let’s go back. What did you forget?”

Gu Yuanting said: “A document.” He protectively half-embraced Su Yiran and returned the way they came, his body tense, ready to react at any moment.

They took the elevator back home. Gu Yuanting locked the door, told Su Yiran to sit and wait, and went to the study to look for the document.

Su Yiran obediently sat on the sofa waiting for him, playing on his phone.

Gu Yuanting entered the study, made a few phone calls, and waited for a while longer.

Su Yiran was outside, Browse Weibo and Moments. He unknowingly got engrossed. By the time he finished, he saw that almost half an hour had passed.

Why wasn’t Ting-ge out yet? They were almost late for the shop’s opening hours.

Su Yiran entered the study and asked him: “Why is it taking so long to find it? Let me help you. What kind of document is it?”

Gu Yuanting glanced at his phone, rummaging through the file cabinet, and vaguely said: “White paper with black text.”

Su Yiran: “…”

Was it that he asked a silly question, or Ting-ge gave a silly answer…?

At that moment, Gu Yuanting’s phone vibrated, an SMS message arrived. He picked up his phone, looked at it, then rummaged through the file cabinet again, found a document, and with a calm, unruffled expression, said to Su Yiran: “Found it. Let’s go.”

Before leaving, Gu Yuanting said to Su Yiran again: “I just got a notification that something suddenly came up at the company. They sent Xiao Zhu to pick me up. You can ride in the company car with me; it’s on the way to the shop.”

“Huh? You have to work overtime again?” Su Yiran was a bit disappointed but nodded understandingly. “Okay then.”

Gu Yuanting half-embraced Su Yiran all the way to the community gate and waited a few minutes. Xiao Zhu drove over.

This wasn’t the first time Su Yiran had seen the company car and driver Xiao Zhu assigned to Ting-ge. He had asked at the time why the company had given him such an expensive car. Ting-ge said it was because he needed to meet many important clients for the company.

Su Yiran understood. Clothes make the man, right? Packaging Ting-ge well for business talks with clients would give him confidence.

Gu Yuanting had Xiao Zhu drive Su Yiran to the shop. After seeing Su Yiran enter the shop, the car slowly drove away but didn’t leave. It stopped at a corner where “Yiting Dessert Shop” was visible. He made two more phone calls, looking in the direction of the shop, waiting silently.

Half an hour later, the three people he was waiting for arrived. They followed his instructions to secretly protect Su Yiran.

Gu Yuanting looked towards Su Yiran’s direction from inside the car again. After an unknown amount of time, he slowly averted his gaze and leaned back in his seat. He slowly closed his eyes: “Let’s go.”

The car slowly drove away from there.

---

Su Yiran didn’t know what had happened. He entered the shop and immediately started getting busy. Saturdays were always bustling with customers.

It wasn’t until past 2 PM that the shop became less crowded. He remembered his thought yesterday about needing to hire staff for the shop, so he asked his part-time employees Xiaowen and Xiao Chen if they would be willing to work more hours when they had no classes.

Xiao Chen hesitated for a moment and politely declined: “I’m preparing for the CET-6 exam recently, so I might not have time.”

Xiaowen, however, quickly agreed. She usually took on other part-time jobs anyway, none of which were stable; she’d have to find new ones every two or three days after finishing one.

Su Yiran was very happy that Xiaowen agreed: “Okay, send me your class schedule, and I’ll arrange your shifts according to your free time.”

Xiaowen sent her class schedule to Su Yiran on WeChat. Su Yiran looked at it; she had free time on Tuesday mornings and Wednesday/Thursday afternoons.

He thought for a moment and then asked Xiaowen and Xiao Chen: “By the way, do either of you have classmates who are also looking for part-time jobs? Could you recommend two reliable people like yourselves? The shop is short-staffed these days.”

For now, two or three part-time employees on weekdays would probably be enough, and he could arrange shifts, ensuring there was always one part-timer to help out.

In a few more days, he should also be able to recruit full-time employees.

Both of them agreed. Xiaowen even said that her friend was looking for a part-time job and could give her friend a try.

With the part-time staff essentially sorted, Su Yiran planned to hire two full-time employees: one to exclusively manage the front desk with Xiaowen and the other part-timers, and another to work with the existing staff member Zhang Xiaohong in the back, making desserts.

Zhang Xiaohong had made great progress during this time and could now make many desserts independently.

Zhang Xiaohong also noticed that the shop’s business was getting better and better, with strong momentum, and that the boss seemed intent on giving her more responsibilities, which made her even more motivated.

Su Yiran’s shop quickly became busy again.

---

Meanwhile, Gu Yuanting held the documents in his hand, a shadow falling over his eyes.

Su Yiran’s car had indeed been tampered with. If he hadn’t noticed and had driven off directly, the consequence would have been brake failure and a fatal car accident on the road.

Thinking of the accident that could have befallen Su Yiran, his heart trembled and constricted, filled with a burning hatred for the people behind it.

Su Yiran was already his.

Anyone who touched him would die.

In the few days since he arrived here, he had found out that the Gu family, for some reason, was relentlessly pursuing him, determined not to stop until they found him.

One group was his “grandfather,” the current head of the Gu family, who wanted to find him and bring him back. The other group was his “elder brother,” who wanted to find him and kill him.

Now, it was clear that one of the groups had found him.

The real-world crisis instantly made Gu Yuanting sober up.

The peaceful and warm life with Su Yiran during this period had lowered his guard and even made him excessively indulged.

In truth, all his arrangements had been mostly completed these past few days; he could have left at any time. It was his excessive yearning for warmth that caused him to delay again and again.

Just last night, he even thought about not going back and simply staying here.

The tree desires stillness, but the wind will not cease.

Gu Yuanting knew he had to go back.

---

On the two weekend days, with the launch of the specialty desserts and “Yiting Desserts” already having a good reputation, Su Yiran’s shop business was even better than the previous weekend.

Su Yiran sat cross-legged on the sofa at home, holding a small planner, checking off completed plans with a ballpoint pen, writing “ing” for half-completed plans, and adding a few newly thought-of plans.

For three consecutive days, he had been too busy to live stream, and his Weibo followers were already clamoring for him. Su Yiran felt it would be rude to delay any longer.

He prepared a secret weapon, planning to live stream tomorrow afternoon and simultaneously make a grand launch of the remaining two specialty desserts. This, combined with marketing promotions, would aim to successfully create their first trending dessert.

The sound of the door opening echoed: “Ding dong.” As soon as Su Yiran heard it, he jumped off the sofa and ran over. Sure enough, it was Gu Yuanting returning: “Ting-ge.” Gu Yuanting had been working overtime for the past two weekend days.

As soon as Gu Yuanting saw Su Yiran, his heart softened.

But at the same time, his hatred for the person who tampered with the car two days ago intensified.

He took two steps forward, hugged Su Yiran, stroked his small face, and lowered his head to kiss his forehead: “Ranran.”

Su Yiran asked him: “Are you hungry? Do you want a late-night snack?”

Gu Yuanting replied: “Hungry. Will you make it for me?”

Su Yiran, hearing he was hungry, went into the kitchen: “I’ll make it for you. What do you want to eat?”

Gu Yuanting followed him in: “Anything is fine.”

“I’ll make you some noodles, tomato and egg noodles,” Su Yiran said, opening the refrigerator to get ingredients.

While preparing the ingredients, Gu Yuanting didn’t do anything but silently watch him.

When Su Yiran poured water into the pot to boil the noodles, Gu Yuanting suddenly leaned close, wrapped his arms around his waist from behind, and rested his chin on his shoulder hollow. Afraid of hurting him with his chin, he just gently leaned against him.

Su Yiran turned his head to look at him, smiled, and continued cooking the noodles.

The noodles were dropped into the pot and gradually came to a boil, with small bubbles gurgling in the water.

After Su Yiran finished cooking the noodles, he scooped them out and set them aside, then started stir-frying tomatoes and eggs.

Throughout the process, Gu Yuanting held him and refused to let go. Su Yiran couldn’t do anything about it. He didn’t know why, but Ting-ge had become particularly clingy these past two days.

Whenever he saw him, he constantly wanted to be close to him.

Finally, the noodles were done. Su Yiran served them and brought them out. Only then did Gu Yuanting release him and sit down at the dining table to eat.

Su Yiran leaned on the table opposite him, watching him. Gu Yuanting ate a whole bowl of noodles until it was completely clean. Su Yiran asked: “Do you want more?”

Gu Yuanting said: “Yes.”

So Su Yiran took his bowl. There was still enough for more than half a bowl left in the pot.

Gu Yuanting also ate the remaining half bowl of noodles until it was completely clean.

Su Yiran asked: “Are you full?”

Gu Yuanting knew there were no more noodles made by Su Yiran: “Full.”

All night, Gu Yuanting didn’t say much. He just silently clung to him and hugged him.

Su Yiran thought Ting-ge was too tired today and didn’t think much of it.

Until it was getting late, he felt drowsiness creeping in. He turned off the TV, just about to say it was time to sleep, when he suddenly heard Gu Yuanting say: “Tomorrow, I’m being assigned to an overseas posting.”

Su Yiran, who had been feeling a bit drowsy, instantly lost all sleepiness: “Overseas posting? Where to?”

Gu Yuanting said: “Country D.”

Su Yiran still hadn’t fully processed it: “Overseas? So sudden?”

Gu Yuanting nodded: “The company decided it on short notice.”

Su Yiran was silent for a moment, understanding that he should be understanding: “How long will you be gone?”

Gu Yuanting said: “Perhaps, three months.”

“That long?” Su Yiran felt very reluctant. He slumped despondently into Gu Yuanting’s arms and remained silent for a long time.

Gu Yuanting gently stroked his hair and back, unable to resist leaning down to kiss the top of his head. His heart softened, and he conceded: “I can come back once in the middle.”

Su Yiran thought for a moment and shook his head: “That’s too much hassle. You’re already working hard enough.”

Gu Yuanting’s heart softened even more when he heard his obedient words. He added: “It’s also to handle some handover with the company; work requires me to come back.”

Only then did Su Yiran feel relieved: “Are you leaving tomorrow? What time?”

Gu Yuanting was silent for a moment before saying: “Tomorrow morning’s flight.”

All the arrangements had actually been completed a few days ago. It was his excessive attachment and repeated delays that had posed a threat to Su Yiran’s safety.

He had secretly installed surveillance cameras on Su Yiran, in their home, and in the shop, to constantly monitor his situation and protect him. The car had been checked two days ago, all hidden dangers removed, and a dedicated person assigned to oversee it. Additionally, he had arranged for people to protect Su Yiran at all times.

Once things were settled there and everything was stable, he would bring Su Yiran over and keep him by his side forever.

Su Yiran didn’t speak. He reached out and hugged Ting-ge, burying his face silently into his embrace, rubbing against him reluctantly.

The two embraced, and even before the farewell arrived, longing and reluctance were already intertwined and growing.

---

The next morning at 9 AM, the flight from City A to Country D departed on schedule.

Gu Yuanting sat in the first class cabin, watching the cloud map of City A slowly recede outside the window, his expression gradually turning indifferent.

All the reluctance, tenderness, and softness from last night seemed to dissipate with today’s departure.

The further he was from Su Yiran, the harder his heart became.

Finally, he returned to his “normal” self.

Gu Yuanting still didn’t know how much of the original owner’s influence affected his feelings for Su Yiran.

The only thing he could be sure of was that, no matter what, Su Yiran was his possession.

Even if he left Su Yiran, he would break free from the original owner’s influence on him.

He would no longer harbor any superfluous emotions for Su Yiran.