Chapter 109 [End of Main Text] The note read: ...

The note read: "Zhu Yanhe, I've thought about this for a very long time, and I still don't want to be with you. Although I like the times we're together, I'm so tired now. Don't come looking for me. I don't want to like you anymore. We can both move on with our lives. Just forget about me. Don't come looking for me! I'll hate you for the rest of my life."

These black lines kept stinging his eyes. Zhu Yanhe scoffed, straightened the piece of paper, and slowly tucked it into the book. Ning Buyi wanted to forget him? No way.

On his second day in J City, Ning received a call from an unknown number. He thought about it for a moment and then answered. The voice on the other end was all too familiar to him.

He didn't speak, but the other person broke the silence first: "Ning Buyi, do you remember the thing you promised me before?"

The boy gripped his phone tightly. He remembered that he had broken the computer at the company before, and that he had said he would agree to anything Zhu Yanhe wanted, but he hadn't said a word.

"I've got it now."

Ning Buyi pursed her lips, already contemplating how to cruelly reject Zhu Yanhe's words.

Zhu Yanhe's voice was very soft: "Ning Buyi, take good care of yourself."

But it weighed heavily on Ning Buyi's heart. He had thought that Zhu Yanhe would want him to go back, but Zhu Yanhe only wanted him to take care of himself, and that their relationship should end there.

Both sides fell silent. Ning Buyi sniffed and said, "Oh..."

The sound of the phone being hung up came through. He stood there quietly. Zhu Yanhe probably didn't like him anymore either; he was always disobedient.

The weather in J City is quite strange; one day it's sunny and bright, and the next day it's bitterly cold. Ning Buyi, wrapped in a thick cotton coat and a scarf around his neck, carrying steamed buns, stepped onto the dusty staircase. He took out his key from his pocket, the sound of the key turning filled the air, and the door opened from the outside.

The room was warm and cozy, with warm yellow light. The old objects inside were polished to a shine. Ning Buyi changed into slippers at the door and went inside. He took off his scarf and gloves, his cheeks were red from the cold, and the boy rubbed his hands with his breath.

The house is quite old; in the summer, it was covered in green leaves, but now that it's winter, only withered vines remain. Ning Buyi has been living here for several days now, but he didn't buy it; he rented it.

After contacting the buyer, it turned out that the other side didn't need the house either and refused to sell it to him. Ning Buyi had to beg for a long time before the other side finally agreed to rent the house to him.

Ning Buyi hadn't done anything these past few days, and today was the first time he'd gone out. He'd only been back a short while when his phone rang. Ning Buyi was holding a steamed bun in one hand and picked up his phone with the other. He didn't even know who it was; he remembered blocking them all.

As I answered the phone, the voice on the other end was crystal clear: "My benefactor, my benefactor!"

Ning Buyi stared blankly at his phone screen. He remembered that he hadn't saved Wang Qu's number. Wang Qu had only called him once, and after adding each other's contact information, he hadn't bothered with it.

"My benefactor! What's wrong with you?!"

The boy responded with two "ohs" and said, "I'm fine."

Wang Qu chuckled twice and asked, "My benefactor! Why didn't you tell me earlier that this is what you do?"

Ning Buyi didn't understand, so Wang Qu explained to him that Zhu Yanhe had come to his door yesterday afternoon for a cooperation. He didn't want to sell, so he was about to leave to turn away the customer. But when he took a look, he found out that it was actually his benefactor's boyfriend. What else could he say?

Wang Qu spoke vividly and rambled on for a while, and the result was that the cooperation went very smoothly. Zhu Yanhe also realized that the case he had previously sent a lawyer to help with was Wang Qu and that General Manager Wang.

The boy listened quietly until he finished speaking before Ning Buyi asked, "Is he alright now?"

After thinking for a moment, Wang Qu recounted his conversation with Zhu Yan and his assistant from the previous day:

“I didn’t say anything to your boyfriend, my benefactor, but his assistant told me a lot. He said that their CEO has completely cut off contact with his family and the cash flow is about to dry up. He asked me to put some money into the business!”

Wang Qu couldn't understand the man's teasing tone at all. He rummaged through his pockets and said, "He also gave me a business card, but why isn't it my benefactor's boyfriend's name? This name is Xie Yuchen."

Ning Buyi paused, remaining silent for a long time. Why did Zhu Yanhe cut off contact with Old Man Zhu? How could he be so foolish!

Ning Buyi asked a few more questions and then hung up the phone. He sat on the edge of the bed, opened his phone to check his balance, and finally got Zhu Yanhe's company's bank account information from Wang Qu.

He had saved up the money for a long time, and it would be a lie to say he was willing to part with it. Ning Buyi looked at the account and the balance. He felt terrible at the thought of losing it all, but he also felt terrible thinking about Zhu Yan and him.

oops!

Finally, with a steamed bun in his mouth, the boy closed his eyes and handed over all the money he had on him, leaving not a single penny.

Ning Buyi tossed his phone onto the bed and buried himself in the covers. The wooden bed beneath him creaked, and he regretted not leaving a single thing behind!

"Mr. Zhu, there's a sudden increase in money in our company account today." The assistant stood in front of the desk holding a folder.

A tall, upright man sat across the desk, signing documents with his head down. Hearing the question, he didn't even look up: "Who called?"

"Uh, after checking, it's not a contract payment. It was a call from an individual. We only found the IP address is in J City," the assistant replied, flipping through the documents in his hand.

The office was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The hum of the computers filled the background noise. Zhu Yan paused slightly, his pen twitching, and he glanced out the window, seemingly lost in thought.

Zhu Yanhe chose to locate his new company near their home, initially so that he could spend more time with Ning Buyi. He turned his head and asked, "How much did you pay?"

The assistant scratched his head; this string of numbers was just too hard to pronounce!

"805,3931".

The number, with both whole and odd numbers, was undoubtedly from Ning Buyi calling him. Wasn't he heartlessly leaving?

Zhu Yanhe rested his chin on his hand, the tip of his pen lightly tapping the table, his voice calm: "Hang up the loan."

It wouldn't be difficult for Ning Buyi to find out about his company's account; he could find out through Wang Qu, who was in the middle. His company now possessed core technology, and the next step would be to reach the top. In a while, that would be enough.

In the blink of an eye, Ning Buyi has spent countless sunrises and sunsets in that small house. He now earns money by live streaming while attending school, and his original senior high school homeroom teacher has processed his application to repeat a year.

It was the time when senior high school students were having extra classes at school. When the bell rang, the warm classroom instantly became noisy. Ning Buyi was resting on his desk. He had adapted very well to returning to senior high school life, as if he had never left the campus.

"Hey, you academic genius, did you see yesterday's news?" Someone grinned and nudged Ning Buyi's elbow; it was his deskmate.

He didn't look up, burying his head in his arms and shaking it; he was very sleepy because he had woken up too early in the morning.

The classmate behind him became interested and patted his deskmate on the back: "I saw it, I saw it. Are you thinking of that awesome person?"

"Hey, you saw that?! Wow, Zhu Yanhe is amazing! People used to say he relied on his ancestors, but he started his own business. Now he's a tech tycoon!" My deskmate slammed his hand on the table, getting more and more excited as he talked, as if he were the one who had achieved great success and was beaming with pride.

The boy next to him suddenly stirred, all his drowsiness vanishing as he quietly pricked up his ears to listen to their conversation.

"How can someone be so ambitious and rich? I hate it!" The student behind him pounded his chest, seemingly hating that it wasn't him.

My deskmate said, "That's not the most exciting part! Zhu Yanhe is gay! In yesterday's interview, he thanked many people, and finally thanked his boyfriend separately."

The boy's eyelashes fluttered slightly. Boyfriend? Zhu Yanhe has a new boyfriend? Okay!

The two were engrossed in their conversation when the sound of tapping on the blackboard rang out from the podium. The homeroom teacher's face was lined with wrinkles, but his voice was loud and clear: "I have something to tell you. Today is the eve of the Lunar New Year. There are two classes this afternoon. After this class, pack up and go home. Tomorrow will be the same as usual, no morning reading."

The students below the podium cheered. In the midst of their intense studies, even a moment of leisure was a luxury. The afternoon classes flew by with anticipation, and Ning Buyi decided to go to a hot pot restaurant for a meal!

As soon as the bell rang, several students grabbed their backpacks and rushed out of the classroom, knowing that every minute and second that followed was precious.

Ning Buyi had finished packing his schoolbag and was about to walk out of the classroom when he bumped into his homeroom teacher, who was rushing over. The teacher waved to him and said, "Xiao Yi, come here! We were just looking for you. Want to go to my house for the New Year?"

Knowing Ning Buyi's situation, she always took extra care of him, treating him like her own son.

Ning Buyi thought for a moment and shook his head. He really wanted to eat hot pot today!

He grinned and said, "Thank you, teacher, but no need."

The homeroom teacher tried to persuade him to stay several times, but Ning Buyi politely declined each time. The teacher persisted so much that he finally revealed that he actually wanted to go eat hot pot. As a result, the homeroom teacher tapped his forehead and scolded him. In the end, he left with two hundred yuan from the homeroom teacher's mother in his pocket.

Winter had fully arrived in the city. Ning Buyi walked home alone with his schoolbag on his back. The cold wind blew across his face, so he put on his hat and wrapped his scarf tighter to gather the warmth that had been blown away.

Ning Buyi goes to and from school like this every day, as he did when he was very young and as he does now. He walks forward, clutching his schoolbag, with withered leaves scattered on the brick road beneath his feet.

The commotion spread into the residential area, where various flyers and phone numbers were painted in red on the old walls. Ning Buyi entered the building as usual.

A voice suddenly sounded behind me.

"I would rather not move."

The boy paused slightly. That voice used to always be in his ears, and now hearing it again, he felt a sense of disorientation. He realized that he had been separated from Zhu Yan for so long.

"Didn't Zhu Yan and I tell you not to come looking for me?"

He turned his head, and there stood that figure not far away. Zhu Yanhe had styled her hair, choosing the most suitable coat and leather shoes, and even deliberately made her tie a matching color with Ning Buyi.

"Did you listen when I told you not to leave?"

The boy choked, then retorted with a stiff neck, "So you have a boyfriend too! Why are you looking for me, you jerk!"

Zhu Yanhe didn't speak. He took a few steps closer, opened the video on his phone, and turned the volume up to the maximum: "Thank you to my boyfriend, who was willing to leave himself completely naked..."

This seems to be talking about him, this is definitely talking about him!

"So, did I get a perfect score?"

Ning Buyi looked up at him, their eyes met, and their eyes reflected the image of each other that they had been longing for day and night. The young man turned and ran two steps, facing the wind, straight towards the one he loved.

—End of text—

-----------------------

Author's note: Hooray! The rest is going to be super sweet. I hope Dad is still a bit wronged!