Busy with heartbreak
Huang Fuda was delirious with fever, and neither medication nor IV fluids helped. He stayed home for two days.
The truck driver's parents disappeared shortly after Xiao Zhang left, and the case of the accident was quickly closed during the two days Huang Fuda fell ill. By the time Huang Fuda finally got out of bed, the matter was already settled.
Fang Chuan hasn't been idle lately either. He goes to bars every night with different people, including elites in suits and ties, and cool guys in leather jackets and Doc Martens. He partyes until the early hours of the morning, getting completely drunk, as if he's trying to make up for all the stress of the past month.
But he could never quite manage to take that final step; he always fell short of everyone's expectations. They all put on a convincing act, but when they actually knelt before him, their lewd and obscene demeanor disgusted Fang Chuan, making him utterly bored.
Seeing that he had been spending his days in bars, Fang's mother couldn't stand it anymore. On the third night, she caught Fang Chuan drunk and, in a fit of anger, slapped him awake and took him home.
As luck would have it, the band had a performance the next day. Fang Chuan, the guitarist and lead singer, had stopped drinking and returned to his usual routine. Seeing that Xiang Yang was free that night, he invited him to watch his band's performance as well.
Under the dim stage lights, Fang Chuan wore only a loose orange hooded jacket, the wide brim covering his head. The jacket zipper was only half-zipped up, revealing his muscular physique with little excess fat, partially hidden behind the guitar. His long legs, clad in white athletic shorts, bounced to the rhythm of the music, exuding youthful energy and coolness. The stage lights focused on him, eliciting screams from the audience.
It's no big deal, just Huang Fuda. There are plenty of people who go crazy for him.
On the way back, Yu Xiangyang asked him, "Have you finally gotten over your heartbreak?"
"...Who's heartbroken?"
"You've been acting really strange these past few days."
Fang Chuan stopped driving and looked at Yu Xiangyang with some curiosity, asking, "So you think I'm like this because I'm heartbroken?"
Yu Xiangyang looked at Fang Chuan curiously and said, "So it wasn't a breakup? It was a fight?"
"We didn't talk about it."
"Oh... so it's unrequited love." Yu Xiangyang looked at him teasingly.
As the car passed a cloud island, Fang Chuan kept his eyes straight ahead, but Yu Xiangyang glanced at it more than once.
Fang Chuan didn't explain the unrequited love, but only asked him how his work was going lately.
The finance department is full of complicated and messy tasks, and it can be quite frustrating after a while, especially for Yu Xiangyang, who is a new assistant. Watching Fang Chuan's performance today was a way for her to relax. But ultimately, the job was arranged by Fang Chuan, so Yu Xiangyang couldn't complain in front of him and simply said it was alright.
Yu Xiangyang then asked Fang Chuan, "You used to go to the company all the time a while ago, why haven't you been going lately?"
Fang Chuan turned around and looked at him with a smile: "You've been busy with your breakup lately, so you haven't had time to work."
Fang Chuan had been going to the company very frequently recently, learning this and that, which made his father very pleased. But Fang Chuan knew that he was just trying to spend more time with Huang Fuda. Now that they were completely separated, Fang Chuan didn't intend to give up on the company. After getting involved in the company's business, Fang Chuan found it quite interesting, so he planned to continue working there. However, he had been a bit out of sorts for the past few days.
The next day, when Fang Chuan returned to the company, he didn't deliberately avoid the Cloud Island project. Since he joined the company, this was the project he had been in contact with the most and was the one he was most familiar with. He decided to follow it through to the end.
When Fang Chuan occasionally went to Yun Island to handle business, he was always very open and aboveboard. Huang Fuda usually wouldn't get involved in such trivial matters, and the two of them had never run into each other before. However, once when Fang Chuan was passing by Huang Fuda's office, he heard the sound of a water glass hitting the door.
Huang Fuda was furious.
In the past few days, after Lao Liu was discharged from the hospital, he resigned from his job. The neighboring city has been pressuring him even more, demanding this certificate and that certificate one minute, and threatening fines and confiscation the next, giving Huang Fuda a huge headache.
I've exhausted all my connections and said all the sweet nothings, but it's all to no avail.
Having no other choice, he remembered Gui Han, whom he had offended before, and decided to ask Gui Han to plead for him again. The other end answered very quickly, as if they already knew why he was calling.
"Hey, Mr. Huang, how have you been lately?"
"To be honest, it's not good. Mr. Gui, you know about the investigation of Yun Island, right? Can you help me out?"
It sounded noisy on Gui Han's side. He chatted and laughed with the people around him for a while before remembering Huang Fuda: "Hey, about this matter. Speaking of which, how's that kid from last time? Haven't seen him in a long time, I miss him. Why don't you have him come over, I'd like to have a private chat with him."
The sound of Fang Chuan talking to his subordinates could be heard from the corridor. Huang Fuda stared in the direction of the sound. The office was surrounded by semi-transparent frosted glass, so only a figure could be vaguely seen, but Fang Chuan was easy to recognize. He was tall, with a well-proportioned and upright figure, and was particularly eye-catching.
Huang Fuda looked away, paused for a moment, and then said, "I fired that person the next day, and he's not with me now. If you like, I'll find a few more and send them to you."
The person on the other end laughed after hearing this: "Why don't you come in person, Mr. Huang?"
"Please send me an address." Huang Fuda didn't hesitate at all.
This time it was Gui Han's turn to be silent, then the other side burst into laughter, laughing so hard they couldn't breathe: "Hahahahahahahahaha, I'm really not interested. You can find a few strong men to show me what's what."
After hearing this, Huang Fuda hung up the phone immediately and slammed the cup on the table against the door. The quiet conversations that had been taking place outside the office suddenly fell silent.
With so many things piling up, Huang Fuda found it increasingly difficult to control his emotions. He stared at the figures at the door, watching them quietly leave, including Fang Chuan.
The longer the tug-of-war dragged on, the more impatient Huang Fuda became. The renovation of Yunquanhui in Xianye required a large sum of money, and the neighboring hotels had lost revenue for half a month, making his cash flow situation difficult. With Yun Ge pressing him, no one would dare lend him money.
Just when he was driven to the brink of desperation, the regional manager of Anguo Chain Hotels contacted him, saying that he wanted to acquire several Yundao hotels in the area and asked for Huang Fuda's opinion.
Huang Fuda agreed. The place was now a mess in his hands, and the acquisition price was far below market value, but what did it matter? He couldn't afford the hefty fines; if he paid, Yunquanhui would have to completely halt construction, but if he didn't, it would face confiscation or demolition. Fortunately, its performance was already mediocre, so selling it was the best option at the moment.
The bidding process for the Xianye building has also been suspended, supposedly because something happened. That building belongs to Bao Rongxiang, who has been keeping a low profile lately, not attending any banquets and quietly staying in his own territory.
With the pressure of bidding reduced, Huang Fuda could focus all his attention on the construction of Yunquanhui. He would go to the site from time to time, and he felt more at ease with every little bit of progress the project made.
Yundao in the neighboring city has completely changed its name and is operating normally. Huang Fuda doesn't care how Anguo did it, because he can't do it anyway. He just can't let go of the contract that Lao Liu lost. Who has it? Is it Anguo, or someone else?
It's been raining a lot in Xianye lately, and the time it takes to fall asleep in bed feels long. The sound of rain keeps ringing in his ears, which annoys him. Huang Fuda tosses and turns in bed with his eyes wide open, and finally sits up and drives out the door.
The car sped through the night and stopped in front of a bar he frequented. A poster on the wall said there would be a live band playing that night, and the sound could be heard even through the door. Huang Fuda didn't like loud environments and had wanted to go somewhere else, but it was raining, so he didn't bother. Huang Fuda handed the key to the doorman and was led inside by a waiter.
As soon as he entered, he was startled by a burst of screams, which made him frown. Huang Fuda realized that he couldn't stand it and turned to leave, but out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the person on the stage.
The man was unbuttoning his shirt on stage, and with each button he unbuttoned, the shouts from the crowd below grew louder.
Fang Chuan's shirt was completely open; it was a red and black plaid shirt that made him look very wild. His black work pants hung loosely on his hips, and his V-line was faintly visible.
Huang Fuda turned back halfway around, sat down in a secluded corner, ordered a bunch of drinks, and silently drank them in a dark place.
Before me were all sorts of men and women, sitting together, laughing and joking loudly. The bar lights added a dreamlike quality to the whole world.
And that person on stage, dazzling and energetic. Even when the two were apart, Huang Fuda didn't deny liking Fang Chuan's face and body; every muscle in Fang Chuan seemed to have grown to his liking, and he couldn't take his eyes off him.
Huang Fuda recalled that when Fang Chuan first came to his house and showed him a video of him playing the guitar, he had said that he would play and sing for him in person in the future. This could be considered as keeping his promise.
People in the audience bought him bouquets of flowers and shouted for Fang Chuan to take off his shirt.
Fang Chuan smiled, squinting his eyes, tilted his head, and said, "It'll be cold~"
"I'll keep warm if I hold you!!!" a man in front of Huang Fuda shouted.
Fang Chuan looked in the direction of the sound and immediately saw Huang Fuda under the dim light.
Huang Fuda and Fang Chuan locked eyes, feeling inexplicably awkward. But getting up and leaving now would only make things more awkward, so they could only pretend nothing was wrong and continue sitting there.
Seeing that Fang Chuan had actually taken off his shirt and tied it around his lean waist, he pointed in his direction and said, "You have to keep your word."
The man in front was pushed onto the stage, and amidst the cheers of the crowd, he blushed and loosely wrapped his arms around Fang Chuan's waist from behind.
Fang Chuan looked down at the hands that dared not touch him, and teased him, "Are you sure you can handle it?"
"Absolutely!"
The man immediately wrapped his arms tightly around Fang Chuan, and rubbed his hands haphazardly on Fang Chuan's upper body a few times. Finally, he placed one hand on the lower edge of Fang Chuan's chest and the other on his hip bone.
Huang Fuda looked at the hand and found it an eyesore. He drank heavily, seemingly angry with someone.
The little incident involving the man earlier had drawn the attention of many people to Huang Fuda. He sat alone in the booth, seemingly out of place. Some people were eager to approach and strike up a conversation, but upon seeing Huang Fuda's expression halfway over, they all turned away timidly.
Fang Chuan held the microphone and sang while gently swaying his waist. He did it on purpose; he didn't want to be so childish, but he just couldn't help it.
The crowd below shouted for a kiss again. Fang Chuan subconsciously looked towards Huang Fuda, but saw that Huang Fuda didn't react at all.
Yes, how should he react? Who is he to him? Why should Mr. Huang have a reaction?
Fang Chuan turned around and faced the man. Amidst the gasps of the crowd, the two embraced and kissed.
After the kiss ended, Fang Chuan looked down at the audience and Huang Fuda was nowhere to be seen.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
