There was less than half a month left before the start of school. Ye Kai had a feeling that Qu Jia would come to urge him, and sure enough, he received a call from her on the way back to the city from the cemetery. He couldn't make excuses this time, otherwise Qu Jia would fly to Canada to arrest him. He lied to the sky, saying that he would take a flight tonight and arrive in Ning City tomorrow. Qu Jia didn't doubt him and finally hung up the phone with satisfaction.

"In that case, you'll go home tomorrow?" Chen Youhan glanced at him with a smile in his eyes.

"Why, you don't want to?"

"I'm reluctant, of course I'm reluctant." Chen Youhan freed his right hand to shake his hand. "Why don't we let GC set up a branch in Beijing? On the first day of my employment, I will announce that for the sake of the company's business development, Mr. Chen Youhan will be based in Beijing for the next two years..."

Ye Kai burst out laughing: "Shouldn't we expand our business to the United States in two years?"

Chen Youhan sighed, "It's a bit troublesome overseas, but it's not impossible."

Ye Kai pursed his lips and acted cute: "... a tyrant."

Although it was a joke, both of them knew that this was impossible. Chen Youhan had endless official duties, and he also had his own studies. Competitions, projects, practices, TOEFL, GPA, high school life seemed to have just moved to a different place, and was moved to Tsinghua University without any change of location. He had worked hard before, and now he had to work hard again. Although Qu Jia had been forbearing, Ye Kai knew that she had always had complaints about Chen Youhan. In the eyes of a mother, if it weren't for him, Ye Kai would have been in a world-class university on the other side of the ocean, instead of having to work hard again like now.

"Brother Youhan," Ye Kai said calmly and calmly without joking, "Let's put off the matter of making it public with our family."

Chen Youhan's fingers, pale from lack of rest, gripped the steering wheel tightly. His silence was short and fleeting, perhaps only a few tenths of a second. Before Ye Kai noticed, he smiled and said, "Okay."

"Won't you ask me why?" Ye Kai turned to look at him, but only saw Chen Youhan's profile with a faint smile.

“No need to ask.”

"Aren't you afraid... that I won't tell you?"

"So what?"

On the highway, the fields and villages on both sides kept receding from sight. A few kilometers away from the toll gate, the traffic was getting denser. Chen Youhan was concentrating on driving and never looked back to respond to Ye Kai's gaze.

Ye Kai's half body finally relaxed back into the seat. After a while, he asked gloomily, "Aren't you afraid that I will lie to you for many years and then kick you out? Or that I will have an affair with you while finding someone to marry."

Chen Youhan couldn't help laughing: "Why should you be afraid? If you dare to do this, I have plenty of ways to make sure you can't get out of bed."

Ye Kai was choked and asked coldly: "If I keep dragging you and not making it public, won't you feel wronged?"

Chen Youhan finally understood his repeated questions and stopped trying to act like a generous and secure lover. She said in a domineering and dandy way, "I feel wronged. Of course I feel wronged. I just told my mom that you want me to marry you. I agree. So when are you going to take action? Don't think about stalling for years. I can't wait. The day to announce it to my parents must be put on the agenda. You can't push it back without any bottom line. I don't feel safe. I can't even sleep well at night if you do this."

The traffic was stuck at the toll gate, and the red light stretched for nearly a kilometer. Chen Youhan slowed down and put the car in P gear. He held the steering wheel with one hand and looked back, asking with a half-smile, "Are you satisfied? Are you happy?"

Ye Kai unscrewed the bottle of mineral water and handed it to him, then said, "We'll make it public once the offer comes in."

Chen Youhan unbuckled his seatbelt, leaned over and stroked his cheek. The two were very close, their breaths mingled. The traffic showed no sign of moving, and he couldn't help but kiss Ye Kai, whispering, "When you lied to me about dating Lucas, there was one thing I always remember: you said, I can be very brave, but you don't want to."

Ye Kai's eyes were a little cold, with a hint of teasing, "You still don't want it now."

"Yes, why not? Xiao Kai, I have always known how brave you are, so when you said that just now, I had no worries or hesitations at all. Rather than being brave, you are smart first."

Ye Kai was quiet for a moment, and finally confessed: "I don't want to make the same mistake again."

Chen Youhan stared at him closely and asked, "Are you afraid that your parents will object?"

Ye Kai finally smiled and said half-seriously, "Our Qu Jia is sick of you."

“Moving out grandparents isn’t enough?”

"Distant water cannot quench a nearby fire."

"Then..." Chen Youhan thought for a moment and raised the corner of his mouth, "Is grandpa's support enough?"

Ye Kai's eyes suddenly widened, and he sat up straight with his hands on the seat. "What did you say--" The tail tone was hastily drowned out by the series of horns behind him. Chen Youhan kissed him on the corner of his mouth and fastened his seat belt again. The car started slowly and caught up with the orderly flow of traffic.

An uncontrollable anxiety rose up from deep within his body. He desperately needed an answer, and even raised his voice unconsciously: "Grandpa knows that I'm with you?"

Chen Youhan glanced at him with a half smile and said "hush", "Let's talk about it when we get home."

The matte dark grey Urus quietly passed through the ETC toll booth and entered the expressway in downtown Ningshi. On both sides were the same urban villages, with buildings of different heights and jagged edges, mosaic or red brick walls, and square dark green windows. The streetscape quickly receded, and the forked auxiliary road appeared in front of us. The SUV slid down, and a few minutes later, the sea level and the magnificent all-glass building appeared in front of us.

Ye Kai subconsciously grasped Chen Youhan's arm and said, "Go to Guili."

Chen Youhan was stunned for a moment, but didn't ask any more questions. The right taillight flashed, and the car turned right, bypassing the fountain roundabout of the Rosewood Hotel and driving into the underground garage.

Ye Kai unbuckled his seat belt before the car stopped completely.

"How did Grandpa know? You..." He swallowed, his anxious eyes broken, "What did you tell him at the time?"

Chen Youhan threw him a cigarette: "Calm down."

Ye Kai picked up the white cigarette pipe that fell in his arms, looked at Chen Youhan, and after two seconds, he finally took a sip of it and moved closer to the lighter in his hand. His chest, sunken in the seat, rose and fell deeply, and he took a deep breath, exhaling white mist. The posture of crossing his arms was very aggressive, but the palm holding the cigarette was against his forehead, revealing a trace of obvious fatigue and fragility.

After a while, he really calmed down and smiled bitterly: "...You are hiding it from me again."

Chen Youhan gently and unquestionably pulled his arm and asked him to look up at her: "I didn't mean to do that."

"When we were in Yunnan, you said you helped me come out to my grandfather."

"I did only say half of the sentence." Chen Youhan paused, and gently rubbed Ye Kai's cheek with his fingertips: "The complete sentence is, Grandpa already knows that we were together."

Ye Kai's gaze remained still after hearing these words. He then inserted his five fingers into his hair and lowered his head deeply: "...You are crazy."

Ye Tong was different from Lan Man and Qu Zhongli. He was a person who came from a traditional Chinese wealthy family. It was crazy enough for him to accept that his heir was gay, not to mention that he had such an unethical relationship with Chen Youhan. He really couldn't imagine the scene at that time, and it was even more difficult to imagine if something unexpected had happened at that time... Neither he nor Chen Youhan could afford it.

"I'm not crazy. It took me a year and a half to complete this." Chen Youhan twisted his shoulders. "Are you scared?"

Ye Kai shook his head.

It shouldn't be like this. Although Chen Youhan is older, more mature and stronger than him, it doesn't mean that he has to deal with everything and take all the risks and stigma. Just because he is younger, he seems to have no responsibility for this love and can naturally stand behind Chen Youhan and enjoy his protection. If one day the dream is shattered and the love is broken, people may still flock to celebrate for him.

"Why?" Ye Kai sighed, "We had already broken up at that time. If I'm not mistaken, you should have been prepared to break up with me, so why bother?"

"When you begged me outside the door, you said something to me. You said I could be less trustworthy. Does that still count now?"

Ye Kai's mind was in a mess. He thought about it for a while but couldn't remember anything. He nodded hastily: "I remember, probably - what do you want to say?" The cigarette burned to the end, and he put it out in the ashtray in the car, "Let's get a room."

Chen Youhan was obviously stunned: "Now?"

"I'm angry," Ye Kai looked at him emotionlessly with his dark pupils, "Don't ask me why I'm angry. Anyway, it's for your own good. Let's get a room and talk." After a pause, he hugged Chen Youhan's neck and kissed him.

A quiet kiss.

When their lips parted, he looked into Chen Youhan's eyes and said lightly and indifferently, "If we really quarrel, you'd better comfort me."

A threat as beautifully stated as a poppy and as deadly as that.

Chen Youhan's eyes darkened: "You are forcing me to make you angry by saying this."

We checked in temporarily, and luckily there was a vacant luxury suite. The elevator went up to the 26th floor. Even though this magnificent hotel was a popular online celebrity hotel in recent years, and the hallway and lobby were full of modern art, neither of them took a second look. After swiping the card to open the door, the Mediterranean-style living room was bright, with the sea and the beach not far away, and a half-dozen bottles of Perrier on the coffee table. Ye Kai took a sip, "Tell me, what else are you hiding from me."

Chen Youhan leaned against the fireplace and looked him up and down, then curled the corners of his lips: "I used to think that Ye Jin was more suitable to inherit Ning Tong than you, but now it seems that it is not necessarily the case."