Chapter 54 Unspoken Understanding (Part 1) This seems...ambiguous. ...
The clock in the Love House ticked away: it was 12:30.
Yan Quan and Yan Ceyan looked at each other, and simultaneously pulled themselves out of their memories from seven years ago.
Yan Quan's voice rolled slowly across the silent ceiling, like an old record player, repeating itself over and over in Yan Ceyan's ears.
“Yan Ceyan, this time is different from seven years ago.”
Seven years ago, Yan Quan was not in control of his own destiny.
But things are different now.
"This time, I came to find you on my own initiative."
Yan Quan's eyes were firm, and his tone left no room for doubt: "I guarantee that the Yan family can also benefit from this cooperation."
“I know…” Yan Ceyan responded softly, pursed his lips, and opened the seal. His fingers pressed against the unfolded letter, and Yan Ceyan blinked slightly in surprise.
Yan Quan's calligraphy is an elegant and neat running-regular script, consisting of only a short sentence. It sits squarely in the center of the horizontal line, immediately noticeable at first glance—
"All those things I said about hating you in the past were actually false. I'm truly grateful that you became my eighteenth year."
A certain area in Yan Ceyan's brain seemed to be activated by this simple sentence. His thoughts flashed back to a certain scene:
In the dark, cramped room, the beautiful fox's eyes were filled with clear, moist water, and its long, curled eyelashes fluttered as tears streamed down its face...
Her slender wrist was pinned down by another broad hand, leaving red marks. Not only her wrist, but also her neck, collarbone, and further down... those more hidden corners were covered with hickeys.
Yan Ceyan subconsciously felt that there should be another sentence after "thank you".
A forgotten, but... very important sentence.
So Yan Ceyan, as if possessed, folded the letter back a page and turned it over... it was blank.
The fragmented, flashback-like memories abruptly ended here, as if they had been forcibly locked away.
“And then…” Yan Ceyan looked up at Yan Quan, and subconsciously murmured, “Yan Quan, there’s more to come…”
Yan Quan paused upon hearing this, her eyelashes fluttering as she avoided Yan Ceyan's gaze: "That's all. Just this one sentence."
“Is that so…” Yan Ceyan pursed his lips.
"I don't believe it," Yan Ceyan thought to himself.
After a brief pause, Yan Ceyan pulled a pen from his suit jacket and continued writing in Yan Quan's handwriting:
"I was eighteen a long time ago."
Yan Ceyan paused for a moment, then started writing on a new line.
"But I'm not twenty-five yet."
Yan Quan watched as Yan Ceyan carefully finished writing the line, then looked up and stared quietly into Yan Ceyan's eyes.
Their gazes met like a silent river, still and unspoken... or like the pattering rain outside the window, gradually becoming damp and warm.
The camera's red indicator light flashed and ticked... It's one o'clock now.
"It's late...you should get some rest." Yan Ceyan was the first to look away from their gaze, folded the envelope, handed it back to Yan Quan, and turned to go back to his room.
"After discussions among the company's shareholders, the Yan family will draft the relevant terms and conditions of the investment agreement."
The clock ticked away, and Yan Quan watched helplessly as Yan Ceyan's figure was about to be swallowed up by the dark shadow at the end of the corridor...
*
Murong Yuan's company mobilized funds to resolve its urgent short-term bank debts, and the Yan family intended to inject capital to lead the central government's market rescue efforts, thus revitalizing the broken funding chains of construction projects...
The "teetering" Yan's Real Estate has finally found a glimmer of hope.
However, as online public opinion intensified, it became increasingly one-sided, with calls for resistance against Yan Quan growing louder.
Can individuals with tainted reputations withdraw from the show?
[I'm speechless, how come Yan Quan still has the nerve to appear on TV shows?]
[They're both morally and legally minded; aren't Yan and Fu Duannian the same kind of people? Why aren't they leaving?]
[Uh, the production team is really desperate to make Yan Quan famous by being controversial.]
To make matters worse, this "resistance" gradually spread beyond public opinion, and even inside the small house, "undercurrents began to surge."
"Rustling..." Just as Yan Quan reached into the cupboard to take a glass, Lin Mo, who was passing by, suddenly bumped into Yan Quan's shoulder.
"Bang—" The glass slipped from his hand and shattered on the ground. The shards pierced Yan Quan's calf, causing bright red blood to seep out, which was particularly jarring in contrast to his fair skin.
"Ouch..." Yan Quan frowned, enduring the pain, and slowly looked up at Lin Mo: "Aren't you going to explain?"
"No, no... there's nothing to explain." Staring at Yan Quan's bleeding wound, she said, "You... you didn't hold it properly."
Yan Quan keenly caught the slightly sarcastic, gloating tone in Lin Mo's voice when he said those words.
"Is that so?" Yan Quan chuckled lightly, then grabbed another glass, about to throw it at Lin Mo's feet.
Lin Mo kicked her foot in a panic to dodge, but found that the cup did not fall as expected. She raised her eyebrows and looked at Yan Quan with anger and annoyance, "What are you doing?"
"It's just getting a new cup."
"What do you think I want to do?" Yan Quan deftly twirled the cup by the handle with his knuckles, holding it steadily in his palm.
"Oh, like you?"
"All they do is play these petty tricks..." Lin Mo's face turned pale and then red. "The Yan family has harmed so many people, yet they can still stand here so calmly. They're really good at pretending..."
Just as Lin Mo finished speaking and turned to leave, a loud crash of shattering glass suddenly erupted behind him.
"Bang—" Lin Mo was caught off guard and trembled in shock for a while before turning around to glare at Yan Quan.
"Heh." Yan Quan's lips curved into a cold smile as he lightly flicked his knuckles: "My hands are unsteady."
The tension between the two is getting a bit intense.
[Yan Quan seems a bit aggressive... bullying our honest Lin Mo.]
[It was clearly Lin Mo who deliberately bumped into Yan Quan first, and Yan Quan was even injured by the glass shards.]
[Who would intentionally bump into someone? Is it wrong to just brush against someone while passing by? These fans of Yan Quan are really shameless.]
"Besides, is Lin Mo wrong? The Yan family has so many blood debts to repay; Yan Quan shouldn't have continued recording this program in the first place."
"To be honest, Lin Mo was giving Yan Quan too much face. If it were me, I would have already punched him..."
Dragging her heavy steps up the stairs, her calves still aching from the pulling sensation, Yan Quan thought there were probably shards of glass embedded in her wounds.
...Let's go to the room and take care of it.
As Yan Quan was thinking this, he turned the corner and went up to the second floor, where he ran into Shan Haotian.
"Are you alright?" Shan Haotian frowned as soon as he saw the blood seeping from Yan Quan's wound.
"Hmm..." Yan Quan thought for a moment and looked up, "Do you have medical disinfectant alcohol and hemostatic bandages?"
"I—" Shan Haotian was about to speak when he suddenly stopped, as if something had occurred to him.
Yan Quan immediately understood Shan Haotian's hesitation.
Shan Haotian's current attitude is one of "neither advancing nor retreating"—rationally he wants to "avoid suspicion," but emotionally he can't help but care.
Yan Quan didn't like forcing others like this, so she lowered her eyelashes and blinked lightly: "It's okay, I actually have one myself."
"That's good..." Shan Haotian continued somewhat dryly, quickening his pace as he went downstairs.
Disinfecting alcohol and bandages... well, actually, no.
Yan Quan returned to his room, rinsed his wound briefly, gritted his teeth and picked out some obvious shards of glass before starting to sort out the current debt details with the company's senior accountant.
The online meeting lasted a long time, from daytime until sunset. When the communication ended, Yan Quan felt a little dizzy.
Yan Quan thought it was probably due to jet lag and her biological clock, so she went to sleep in a daze. She was eventually woken up by the loudspeaker in the cabin—
"There are 2 hours left before the mailbox closes tonight. Everyone in the little house, please write your love letters and send them to the appropriate recipient's email address. Those who don't send a letter will be punished by being locked in the 'little black room'!"
It's letter writing again... I can't escape this every day.
Yan Quan rubbed his eyes sleepily as he stood up, feeling a burning sensation in his throat...
After gulping down several large glasses of water, Yan Quan slowly walked downstairs to write a letter. She bumped into Yan Ceyan, who was just walking in from outside, as soon as she reached the living room.
Yan Ceyan held his black suit jacket in one hand and a pen and several folded blank sheets of paper in the other—he looked like he had just come back from work and was now preparing to write a letter.
“Hi…” Yan Quan raised her hand slightly, wanting to greet Yan Ceyan, but when she opened her mouth, she found that the burning sensation in her throat was even more pronounced.
Yan Ceyan, however, frowned nervously as soon as he saw Yan Quan. He hastily threw his coat and pen and paper onto the sofa and hurriedly walked towards Yan Quan.
How did that song go again? Like a tornado...
Yan Quan felt Yan Ceyan appear in front of him almost instantly. His tall figure cast a dark shadow over them.
"Come with me."
Yan Quan's wrist was grabbed without explanation, and he was dragged step by step into Yan Ceyan's room in the blink of an eye.
This guy still has an obsessive-compulsive disorder; everything is arranged in a simple straight line, and the surroundings are spotless.
Yan Ceyan released Yan Quan's hand, and Yan Quan naturally sat down on Yan Ceyan's bed as a result.
His calves touched the hanging bed sheet, and the white silk fabric was instantly stained with dark red bloodstains.
It was probably because the wound was being rubbed by the fabric that Yan Quan belatedly realized that it was hurting quite a bit.
"The wound is infected and festering, don't you feel any pain?" Yan Ceyan frowned and lifted Yan Quan's calf to look at it, his tone a little harsh.
"I feel a little pain..." Yan Quan pressed her lips to her lips, her voice growing softer and softer, "But it's alright, I can bear it. I didn't even notice..."
“You…” Yan Ceyan gritted his teeth and gasped, his tone a mixture of anger and heartache:
"You'll need to have the wound cleaned and disinfected afterwards, and it'll hurt a lot."
Then Yan Quan watched as Yan Ceyan expertly pulled out rows of tweezers, scalpels, and a whole bunch of bottles and jars with chemical names printed on them from a double-layered medicine box pulled from the bedside table.
This display made Yan Quan a little scared, and for a moment she forgot to complain about why this guy brought such a big bunch of stuff from the last dating reality show.
"Keep your legs straight." Yan Ceyan stretched out his long arm and pulled over a chair, then lifted Yan Quan's calf up.
The sudden warmth from the palm made Yan Quan's calves tremble slightly involuntarily.
Seeing this, Yan Ceyan looked up at Yan Quan, sighed softly, and quietly placed his hand on Yan Quan's knee for several seconds, awkwardly trying to comfort and make amends:
"I was just kidding you, it doesn't actually hurt."
"Ha..." Yan Quan was amused by this "quick change of address". She leaned forward and got closer to Yan Ceyan, her warm breath lingering in Yan Ceyan's ear: "I know you did it for my own good."
"Do whatever you want, I can really tolerate pain, really."
A sharp knife pierced her glands, she was choked and nearly suffocated, and she underwent a permanent mark removal surgery... Yan Quan had experienced such traumas that her pain tolerance was extraordinary.
After draining the pus, using tweezers to open the wound, carefully searching and probing, and gently removing the glass shards from the wound, the wound was then cleaned with hydrogen peroxide...
Throughout the entire process, Yan Quan kept her back bent, buried her head in her arms, and obediently remained silent.
How can you be so patient...?
After the wound was cleaned and disinfected, it was covered with sterile gauze. Yan Ceyan stared blankly at the vulnerable back of Yan Quan's neck, which was exposed when he buried his head.
In the military, those Alphas who considered themselves tough guys would scream in pain during wound cleaning and disinfection...
That's just how it is.
The more Yan Quan endured, the more heartbroken Yan Ceyan felt: what kind of knife wounds must he have suffered to raise his pain threshold to such a high level...?
It would be better if Yan Ceyan felt the pain and cried like others did. That way, Yan Ceyan would feel better, which would prove that Yan Quan had been doing well for the past seven years.
Yan Ceyan lowered his eyelids, sighed deeply, and placed his palm flat on the back of Yan Quan's neck, his fingertips gently resting on the pheromone blocking patch.
Yan Ceyan knew that there was a shocking scar underneath.
"Will the surgery hurt?"
"Ah..." Yan Quan buried her face in her arms, her neck moving slightly. Realizing that Yan Ceyan was referring to the permanent mark removal surgery, Yan Quan's words were a little hesitant: "...It's okay, it doesn't hurt."
"Liar." Yan Ceyan sighed inwardly. His heart clenched tightly, a mix of heartache and burning jealousy and hatred coursing through him.
"That person... did they treat you like this?"
“He…” Yan Quan bit her lower lip, “He was actually very good to me.”
He treated you so well, yet he still treated you so badly, making you remove the marks?
Yan Ceyan gritted his teeth, but couldn't vent his anger. He could only turn around and silently put away his equipment.
"..." Yan Quan didn't know how to avoid this topic, so he could only continue to bury his head in silence.
"You can choose between under your tongue or under your armpit."
After a short while, Yan Ceyan turned around again. He pressed the switch on the electronic thermometer and stared straight at Yan Quan.
Yan Quan's mind was blank before she realized that Yan Ceyan wanted to take her temperature.
Having sweated a bit, Yan Quan felt that having the thermometer under her armpit might be a little embarrassing… Yan Quan was very concerned about her image. This was especially true in front of Yan Ceyan.
So Yan Quan faced Yan Ceyan and silently opened his lips.
After opening his lips, Yan Quan realized—this was a particularly erotic hint.
Seven years ago, when Yan Quan and Yan Ceyan were dating, making this gesture meant they wanted to kiss.
Generally speaking, Yan Ceyan would pounce on Yan Quan like a hungry wolf, grabbing his neck and kissing and biting him fiercely.
But it's not seven years ago anymore; it's 2025 now. So Yan Ceyan, who was 24 and almost 25, just stared silently at Yan Quan's lips for a while.
After the electronic thermometer beeped and the display showed the temperature, Yan Ceyan reached out and precisely placed the thermometer probe under Yan Quan's tongue.
"Keep your mouth closed and hold it for 5 minutes."
Yan Quan still felt dizzy and obediently closed her lips again.
This time, Yan Quan noticed that Yan Ceyan's Adam's apple bobbed up and down involuntarily.
The clock ticked away... Yan Quan felt for the first time in a long time that time was passing very slowly—every second felt incredibly slow.
Yan Quan and Yan Ceyan looked at each other, finally having the chance to carefully examine Yan Ceyan's appearance.
This sounds kind of funny; the show has been filming for almost half a month. Either they were deliberately avoiding Yan Ceyan, or there was an unexpected emergency, or the lighting in the scene was bad…
Yan Quan was finally able to look properly at Yan Ceyan's face, the face of 24-year-old Yan Ceyan.
His wild, sword-like eyebrows were thick and arched, then slanted downwards at the ends. He had single eyelids with shallow creases, and his eyes were dark and deep-set, always appearing fierce when he stared at someone. His face was angular, and his thin lips were like those of a knife.
Perhaps it was the wind and sun exposure from military operations, but the scar under Yan Ceyan's eye became more noticeable.
Yan Quan had asked Yan Ceyan about the origin of the scar before, and Yan Ceyan had only given a vague answer, saying that he had accidentally injured himself while playing with a knife when he was a child.
However, as Yan Quan's professional research in Federation A deepened, he roughly guessed the real reason—it was mania. A small number of patients exhibit self-harm behavior in childhood, showing an unwillingness to impulsively harm others.
Thinking of this, Yan Quan subconsciously touched his pheromone barrier patch to make sure it was stuck on perfectly.
Actually, Yan Quan really wanted to ask Yan Ceyan: how much pheromone could he smell when he was with her? Was it uncomfortable with the Alph pheromones clashing in his body? After all, this was a 99.9% match.
Yan Quan's thoughts were a jumbled mess, and Yan Ceyan finally slowly opened his mouth: "The time has come."
After taking the thermometer, Yan Ceyan glanced at it and his eyebrows furrowed again: "Sure enough, 38.7℃."
"It's probably a fever caused by inflammation of the wound." Yan Ceyan sighed helplessly again, "Why do I keep getting fevers..."
Yan Quan detected a hint of resentment in his words. It was probably the only New Year they had ever spent together that they had to stay in a hotel because Yan Quan had a fever.
As he spoke, Yan Ceyan took out ibuprofen capsules from the medicine box, turned around and poured Yan Quan a glass of warm water: "Take your medicine."
Watching Yan Quan swallow the capsule, Yan Ceyan's brows relaxed slightly: "Come see me again tomorrow morning to have your temperature checked. If your fever hasn't subsided..."
Yan Quan was already very familiar with this procedure. He immediately predicted, "I'm not going to the hospital."
"We must go to the hospital," Yan Ceyan said almost simultaneously.
"..." Yan Quan knew he couldn't go against Yan Ceyan's wishes, so he could only obediently reply, "Okay... then."
After the conversation ended, the two fell into a brief silence—after completing the "applying medicine" task, there seemed to be nothing else to do.
This somewhat awkward situation has been happening frequently lately—between familiarity and unfamiliarity...
It's not that they can't find topics to talk about; in fact, if they were to chat, they could talk about anything and everything all day long. It's just that they both tacitly understand that every conversation will eventually come back to the same thing... Neither of them is willing to back down first, and neither of them wants to be the first to speak.
This seems ambiguous.
Fortunately, the program's announcement came through just in time to save the day: "There's still half an hour until the mailboxes close. Those of you who haven't yet written your heartfelt letters, hurry up!"
"Members who fail to deliver their mail will be punished by being locked in a 'little black room' (a private room for punishment)~"
"I'm going to write a letter." Yan Quan patted off non-existent dust from his sides and started to walk out.
"Together." Yan Ceyan stood up with Yan Quan and followed him out of the room into the living room.
Okay, time's up. You two have been alone in the room for almost an hour and a half.
What exactly is it that we can't see...? My ex-husband even blocked the cameras in the room.
Seeing the bandage on Yan Quan's leg, was his wound being treated in the room?
[Upon seeing the wound on Yan Quan's leg, someone immediately frowned, heartbroken. "You're absolutely smitten, aren't you?"]
"Waaaaah, my ex-husband is so sweet! The wound on my baby's leg looks so painful..."
[Can anyone understand the sense of redemption in the ex-husband's resolute act of pulling Quanbao into the room?]
[When Yan Quan was popular, her ex-husband was extremely cold towards her; now that everyone avoids her, he openly shows concern for her.]
To be fair, their relationship improved significantly after Fu Duannian was arrested.
We still don't know what happened on the day recording was interrupted... Damn, I'm so curious.
Please support our rivalry team! Rivals are destined to become wives!
[Ha... Are you feeling sorry for your master again, fanboy? Are you a spiritual shareholder of the Yan family?]
The Yan family isn't exactly clean either... I think this is just a case of mutual respect between the sons of two capitalists.
[Daily Question: Why hasn't Yan Quan, the son of a defaulter, left the show yet?]
Birds of a feather flock together. I've now blacklisted both of them with the surname Yan.
Regardless of the "chaotic" online arguments, Yan Quan and Yan Ceyan both have "serious business" to attend to now—sitting face to face next to the coffee table, writing their own love letters.
Yan Quan could guess that Yan Ceyan would most likely (99%) write it to him. But he couldn't resist his curiosity. He had just picked up his pen and written the first stroke when he glanced up at Yan Ceyan.
This guy is open and honest, and doesn't bother to hide anything. Moreover, he writes incredibly fast; he's already written the recipient's name at the beginning—and sure enough, it's Yan Quan.
As expected, a slight ripple of emotion still stirred in Yan Quan's heart.
Yan Ceyan, who had taken in Yan Quan's little actions, twitched his lips and simply pushed his arm forward, allowing Yan Quan to read the contents of the letter thoroughly.
Then, under Yan Quan's watchful gaze, he picked up his pen and continued writing—
To Yan Quan:
"You said before that you had no other choice but to get to where you are today."
Yan Ceyan paused for a moment, his pen gleaming in the darkness like a twinkling evening star.
"But actually, Yan Quan, you do. You know what that choice is."
"..." At this late hour, the living room on the first floor was deathly silent. The two people's breathing mingled, clearly audible.
"Did you see it clearly?" Yan Ceyan's deep voice was a little hoarse.
Yan Quan stared at those two lines for a long time, mentally reviewing Yan Ceyan's last words several times, before finally nodding blankly a few times.
"That's good." Yan Ceyan folded the letter and placed it flat in the envelope. He turned around, opened the front door, and went to the mailbox at the open-air campsite to drop the letter.
"After seeing it clearly, you must remember it."
"Ha..." It wasn't until Yan Ceyan had left for a while that Yan Quan finally rubbed the corner of his lips with his fingertip and let out a very soft laugh. He continued to write on the letter paper with a soft rustling sound.
*
The next morning, Yan Quan received two letters in his mailbox.
Besides the expected letter from Yan Ceyan, there was another unexpected letter.
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