Chapter 91 Food and Sex: Human Nature
The breakfast shop was noisy, and the smell of cooking oil mixed with the aroma of steamed buns filled the air.
Shang Qiyue habitually lowered his head as he walked through the crowded throng. His sharp suit looked out of place in this environment; his shoulders were slightly wrinkled from being squeezed and dusty. Perhaps it was just his imagination, but he looked rather drab.
Although his looks and height are still outstanding, Shang Qiyue blends into the commuter crowd at this moment, just like an ordinary office worker commuting to buy breakfast.
This was the breakfast shop that Mu Yan brought him to on the second morning after their relationship began.
Shang Qiyue remembered that it was here that Mu Yan wiped the slightly oily table and dirty chair for him, ordered a plate of pan-fried buns and a basket of steamed dumplings for himself, and even inserted a straw for the soy milk and handed it to him.
The way he looked at me was gentle and grateful, like a fluffy little lamb.
The soy milk was just the right amount of sweet that time, the xiaolongbao (soup dumplings) were very juicy, and the pan-fried buns had a crispy bottom. They were all piping hot and delicious.
"Young man, you can take the soy milk yourself. You can leave after you get it. There are so many people here, don't block the way." An old man gave him a somewhat displeased look, pushed a cup of soy milk toward him, and urged him to leave quickly.
Shang Qiyue was stunned for a moment, then nodded somewhat awkwardly and accepted the soy milk.
He hurriedly headed to the hospital with the packed steamed buns and soy milk in his arms.
The caregiver was already waiting for him at the ward door. She took the breakfast from his hand and told him that Mu Juanhua had not yet woken up.
I recently tried a new drug that had a noticeable side effect of drowsiness.
The ward door was locked, and the lights were off. Shang Qiyue spoke quietly to the caregiver, casually picking up the visitation log and flipping through it.
"You eat first. The other portion is for you. We can talk while you eat."
Mu Juanhua's social relationships are very simple. Apart from a few coworkers she met while working and fellow patients she met while hospitalized, the only people who would visit her are Mu Yan and Lin Yi.
In the month since Mu Yan left, Lin Yi has come three times, Xiang Zhuo has come twice, their daughter Jiajia has come once, and a former coworker has come once.
For an elderly person who is sick, this frequency is just right. When no one comes, she can sunbathe every day, chat with other patients, and watch TV. It won't take up too much energy, and she won't feel lonely or bored.
"Have there been any overseas parcels sent to Ms. Mu recently?"
The caregiver nodded and said, "There were three times. Once it was a letter and some photos, once it was local specialties, and once it was cordyceps and ginseng that were air-freighted in. We can't find the sender for any of them."
“The photos are all landscape photos of country A,” the caregiver said cautiously, looking at his expression. “Ms. Mu looked at them for a long time without hiding them from me, so I saw them. There also seem to be one or two photos of Mr. Mu Yan alone.”
Shang Qiyue flipped through the postal slip without sender information, his fingers pausing for a moment.
Of course, the sender cannot be found.
Country A's real-name registration system is not very comprehensive, making it extremely difficult to trace. Customs checks are strict, but these are not prohibited items. Lu Chong also has connections, so how could he possibly find the sender?
Lu Chong... He thought of the Maybach that drove up to the entrance of the residential area and brazenly picked people up, his eyes dark and unreadable.
These days, his company has been constantly tripped up by Lu Chong, and troubles are endless. The investigation team summons him every few days, as if they are deliberately trying to strangle him with endless trivial matters.
Shang Hongsheng had been in power at Mingkang for decades, and it was inevitable that some of his crimes would be implicated. Although his imprisonment was unrelated to Mingkang, the Audit Association would certainly have to make a show of it.
Originally, it was just a formality, but Lu Chong kept making a fuss, which, although insignificant, made it impossible for him to extricate himself. He either anonymously reported problems with the accounts or gave the investigation team some irrelevant clues.
Like a buzzing mosquito in a room at night, it may not be fatal, but it's enough to exhaust you.
Bringing him down wasn't the goal; neither Lu Chong nor his family had the ability to do so. However, Lu Chong was indeed clever and possessed some skills in this area, managing to confine himself to the country for so long.
Even so, Shang Qiyue did not give up on sending people to Country A to find Mu Yan. However, his influence could not extend overseas. Even if he had some connections with the local powerful figures, he could not order people to do things for him and find people without being present himself.
This search method is... a drop in the ocean.
"Would you like to talk to Ms. Mu after she wakes up?" the caregiver asked him. "She's been in good spirits these past few days."
"..." Shang Qiyue paused silently for a moment, then said, "Let's not go."
The sixth floor is where the high-end private wards are located. The corridor is empty. Shang Qiyue pressed the elevator button to go to the first floor and inevitably passed through the lobby.
The lobby of the private hospital was nearly empty; there were no queues, and no children crying. The disinfectant smell was also very faint and not unpleasant.
But Shang Qiyue still disliked this place for no apparent reason.
His relationship with Mu Yan also began at the hospital. When he found Mu Yan, Mu Yan's eyes were red from crying, like a little rabbit. This proud man begged him to do anything to pay for his mother's treatment.
How desperate and scared Mu Yan must have been at that time, afraid that he would make a request that Mu Yan could not accept, and afraid that he would not help him.
What was Shang Qiyue thinking at that time?
Shang Qiyue remembered that he must have thought that Mu Yan was actually quite cute when she cried, and not annoying at all.
He closed his eyes and clenched his fists.
In fact, he liked Mu Yan from the very first time he met him.
Falling in love at first sight sounds outrageous, like something only a passionate lover would do.
Shang Qiyue was unwilling to admit that he was really at this age and still believed in love at first sight. He always thought that the man suited his taste, and that it was human nature to be attracted to beautiful women.
But so what if he was attracted to her beauty? There are so many beautiful women in the world, yet he only liked Mu Yan.
He had never liked anyone before, so he didn't know that what he was talking about was actually liking someone. He approached the person he should have cherished with the utmost care, but instead used the most humiliating methods.
Of all the methods available, he chose the worst one.
If he had treated Mu Yan well from the beginning, would Mu Yan have run off to a completely unfamiliar foreign country now?
Mu Yan was twenty-four years old when he first went to a place outside of City A, but now he has to go alone to a country where he doesn't speak the language and everything is unfamiliar. How helpless he must feel.
He really regrets it now.
He desperately wanted to tell Mu Yan right now, "Come back! Stop hiding from me! If you hate me, I'll never appear in front of you again."
He didn't mean to upset Mu Yan. He didn't stop Mu Yan from making friends or visiting his family. He didn't even ask a question about Shen Jiayu, who always bought coffee and milk tea for Mu Yan.
He hadn't considered... sending Mu Yan to such a far place alone.
Will Mu Yan be able to eat it? He's such a picky eater. The local food in Country A is even worse than French food. Mu Yan is already very thin. He can't afford to not eat properly anymore.
Shang Qiyue lowered his head, his fingers clenched tightly, the tips of his fingers turning slightly white from the force.
He messaged his subordinates and asked about the progress again.
The subordinates got nothing.
Just as he was putting his phone away, it rang again. Shang Qiyue assumed it was a subordinate in another city who had news of Mu Yan, so he hurriedly and frantically answered the phone.
Shang Qiyue glanced at the contact's name on the screen, and his eyes immediately darkened.
“I’ve set up a meeting for you, and people from the Audit Association are also there,” Fu Jiayan said casually. Such matters were just a matter of lending a hand between them. “There weren’t any other interested parties involved to begin with, so this should be able to resolve the issue completely.”
"If you really care about me," Shang Qiyue said, his tone becoming harsher due to his bad mood, "you should advise your brother-in-law to stop causing me trouble."
“Qi Yue,” Fu Jiayan smiled helplessly, “Why are you taking your anger out on me? You know Lu Chong’s situation. Now Lu Zhi and my father-in-law can’t control him, so what can I do?”
For a time, Shang Qiyue even suspected Fu Jiayan. Fu Jiayan said something unbelievable at the dinner table that he would never normally say, and then the next morning, Mu Yan was taken away by Lu Chong.
It wasn't that Shang Qiyue doubted his long-standing relationship with Fu Jiayan. Aside from Ren Chengzhou and his cronies, Fu Jiayan and Meng Simiao were genuinely his closest friends.
But whenever he had free time, he would repeatedly recall every detail of those days, what everyone had said to him, every action and word Mu Yan had made, and every expression he might have missed.
Shang Qiyue knew that he was probably preoccupied with something on his mind, which made him increasingly suspicious, but he just couldn't stop himself from overthinking.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I..."
"Alright, alright," Fu Jiayan said understandingly, "We've known each other for so many years, I know you don't usually lose your temper easily. Have you had breakfast? How about we go to Black Swan for dim sum? You always skip breakfast, that won't do."
“Okay,” Shang Qiyue did not refuse. These days he had been either waiting for news from Mu Yan or dealing with messes. He would go crazy if he stayed alone like this any longer. “I’ll be there in a bit.”
"Where are you? I just clocked in at the company. I can come pick you up with the driver so you don't have to drive yourself."
“...The First Municipal Hospital.” Shang Qiyue answered after a moment of silence.
There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone; Fu Jiayan seemed unsure what to say.
After a while, he sighed and said, "You went to see Mu Yan's mother again... Is her condition any better now?"
"That's fine. What else can kidney failure be treated? As long as it doesn't get worse, that's good. Hopefully, we can find a suitable kidney donor soon. Besides, I didn't see her," Shang Qiyue rubbed his temples. "I didn't go in; I just chatted with the caregiver outside for a bit."
"Why are you doing this?" Fu Jiayan was speechless. Sometimes he really couldn't understand what Shang Qiyue was thinking. "It would be good to go in and chat with her for a bit. She doesn't dislike you."
“I’m afraid she’ll tell Mu Yan… I’m afraid Mu Yan will find me annoying.”
“He’s unhappy with you, and you’re unhappy with him,” Fu Jiayan advised. “Isn’t it good that you’ve broken up now? Why torture each other like this?”
[Author's Note]
The bond between us is unbreakable.
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