Fahrenheit 451
In November in Lido, a winter rain came with the chill, the sky was gray and gloomy, and the passing birds looked like a silent film on cassette.
Pedestrians clutched their coats tightly. Two men in suits, unfazed by the cold, walked against the crowd, their thin coats rustling against their bodies. Though in a bad state, their expressions were not distressed. One of them, clutching a cup of coffee, entered an unmarked lobby on the street.
The room is very quiet. In the pure black decoration of the hall, black and white paintings are hung on the wall, illuminated by lights.
There was only a piano piece flowing slowly, and at the top of the gallery, the only scrolling display was used to luxuriously display the name of the piece: Lido is Burning.
There is no sign or feature that would allow anyone to identify the exhibitor's name.
There were not many visitors, and it seemed that even the owner had forgotten this place. The paintings were scattered and gathered into another river.
Two men in suits carrying coffee walked deeper into the hall, passing by paintings that were either abstract or unrestrained, and slowed down when they saw a figure from behind.
At the deepest part of the exhibition hall, dozens of large and small human body paintings form a "crowd". At a glance, you can see eyes, irregular faces, hands, and some content that is not suitable to be displayed in front of the door for people to view.
The only man standing in front of the painting was wearing a Kensington trench coat, raindrops still hanging on the windshield.
"Mr. Jin, coffee."
The assistant bowed her head and handed the coffee cup to him respectfully. The man took it with one hand and took a sip.
"Did they change the syrup?"
"Logistics from the original production site was disrupted for two months, and we couldn't replenish the goods."
The man smiled softly.
He was not blaming anything, but confirming that he had won the game of "playing the rich man" again.
Only by getting used to this extremely low marginal benefit and extremely expensive drink can one taste the slight difference in what is called "flavor." Spendthrifts take pride in this, including him in the past.
Maybe even now.
"Boss Jin, is it not to your taste?"
"No, not really." He said, "I'll take these paintings to Yunting tonight and give them to Mr. Xu."
The assistant's expression was bitter for a moment, but he didn't notice it and quickly followed the instructions.
Jinnan was the only one left in the exhibition hall.
He stared at the largest painting of a human back on the wall. A lipstick-like red mark had outlined a large heart. The back in the painting was thin and frail, yet the texture of the muscles was clearly defined. At the waist, where red lines intersected, a mole, even redder than the heart, was visible. This was his back.
Xu Zhiyuan didn't come.
It doesn't matter.
*
After nearly a quarter of turmoil in the top management, Jin Nan, the famous playboy in the second-generation circle, finally showed his true colors and returned to the jungle where he belongs.
Li Hongfang, who was organizing the party today, saw the dark silver Urus that was inconspicuous among a group of supercars by the window, and asked people to prepare some wine.
The car owner arrived late.
Shaking off the cold and fishy air from the rain, Jin Nan walked through the crowd, chatting and laughing with many people whose names he could not remember. When he came in front of Li Hongfang, he smelled of alcohol even though he hadn't drunk any.
"I recruited you from LA as the bartender. Are you willing to be late?" Li Hongfang pushed a prepared cocktail in front of him.
Jinnan took a sip and tasted a hint of the sourness of Calamansi.
Behind the bar, the silver-haired man who was still wiping glasses waved at him.
"Why, is your passport back?" Jin Nan asked with a smile.
Li Hongfang was a well-known alcoholic among the young men of Lido. The security door to his wine cellar cost twice as much as the most expensive watch in the South. In the summer of that year, this gentleman flew alone to South America to buy wine, and finally returned on the evacuation flight.
His passport and ID card were confiscated, so Li Shao can only take the highway to leave Lido.
"I want it, and there are ways to do it."
Li Hongfang refilled his glass of wine and took in Jinnan's attire. His hair was a bit messy from the wind, and he didn't smell of perfume.
His daddy's pretty secretaries are all perfume jars.
Li Hongfang's expression changed slightly. "You haven't driven him out yet? If not, at least replace him. Are you comfortable with an outsider in such a high position?"
"It's the same if we hire someone else." Jin Nan finished the wine in one gulp. The ice chips rolled down his throat, making him so cold that he closed his eyes.
"Besides, compared to him, I'm more of an outsider, right?"
They were talking about Xu Zhiyuan.
Jin Nan's father, Jin Licheng, was an unrepentant playboy, having been a playboy for many women and still unmarried at the age of forty. Childless, he adopted an orphaned child as his heir.
Before Jin Nan, the biological son, came home, Xu Zhiyuan had lived in the Jin family as an adopted son for seven years.
Jin Nan returned to the Jin family at the age of fifteen. When the two met for the first time, Xu Zhiyuan was neatly dressed with bright features. He looked a hundred times more like a young master than Jin Nan, who was wearing a tattered school uniform and covered in wounds.
Until now, several industries under the Jin family have recognized Xu Zhiyuan as their boss and only obey Jin Nan's orders.
Li Hongfang was worried about him. But Jinnan didn't care. He just drank and chatted with the bartender, his drunken tone sounding like a spoiled child, and also like a flirt.
Having inherited his father's good looks, Jin Nan had always been the one who attracted the most attention. He might not have meant anything ambiguous, but the others' fluctuating hearts finished his words first.
He had a backer after returning to the Jin family. If not, he might still be spending his days in pleasure quarters.
Only, it's upside down.
"Then what do you want to do?" Li Hongfang asked.
"Put some chain on him and tie him up." Jin Nan held up the Margarita glass, and another glass of crushed ice was in his hand.
The gradually colder weather prevented the ice from melting, and a faint red color reached his fingertips, and a little bit of a sly smile, as if it was there and not there, fell into everyone's eyes.
When leaving, the silver-haired bartender tried to keep him in broken Chinese, but Jin Nan only left him a business card, as if the interesting conversation just now was just an illusion.
"Don't mind it, he's just like that," said Li Hongfang.
Walk through a field of flowers without getting a single leaf on you.
*
Jinnan returned home around ten o'clock.
The empty large flat was illuminated only by the city night scene outside the window, which was as desolate as a sky full of stars reflected in the water.
After taking off his shoes and changing his clothes, Jin Nan soaked in the bathtub, waiting for the drowsiness from the alcohol to dissipate on its own, and opened the tablet with one hand.
On the other side of the picture, a man in pajamas is sitting at the head of the bed, reading with only a night light on.
The painting that Jinnan had asked for during the day was placed in the corner of the room and covered with a cloth.
The man's fingers were slender, and the sound of his fingertips twisting the pages of the book was very light. The light from the bedside lamp fell on half of his face. His expression was calm and noble.
He seemed unaware that someone was watching him. He read quietly, and the world's troubles had nothing to do with him.
Jinnan glanced at the cover of the book, "Fahrenheit 451".
He sent a message to his assistant: Put that book on my desk tomorrow.
The assistant replied quickly.
Before this message, there was a full day's itinerary report about the person in the camera.
He got up at seven in the morning to have breakfast, met two partners after the morning meeting, and went out for a meeting in the afternoon. Dinner was Hunan cuisine arranged by Jinnan, but Mr. Xu didn't like it and rarely picked up his chopsticks.
Jinnan didn't reply a single word, but the assistant had to report everything one by one.
These boring traffic flow news are worth a bonus of 20,000 yuan a month.
Jinnan suddenly remembered something and asked: Did he drink the cup of coffee in the afternoon?
Assistant: No, Mr. Xu said he doesn’t want to drink ice.
The game of "playing the role of a rich man" was still lost. It turns out that real rich people don't drink if they want to.
Eighteen thousand yuan for a cup of coffee, and it ends up in the trash can.
Assistant: But Mr. Xu took it home.
Jinnan:?
He asked the bodyguard who stayed in the old house to look for the cup. After searching for a long time, he finally found it in the corner of the kitchen.
The cup was half full, and the ice had melted long ago. Because Xu Zhiyuan had placed it there, no one in the family dared to move it.
Jin Nan asked him to put the cup away and pour out the 1799 inside, buying the box and returning the pearl.
When I looked back, Xu Zhiyuan had already turned off the lights and gone to bed. It was not yet eleven o'clock.
Jinnan slid into the bathtub and blew out a string of bubbles.
What is he doing?
have no idea.
Jin Nanben had no intention of doing this.
Xu Zhiyuan manages most of the Jin family's businesses. He started to learn the various business dealings and social skills when he was a teenager. Not to mention these, Xu Zhiyuan is even more familiar with the dining seats in the Jin family's old house than Jin Nan.
During the time when Jin Licheng was seriously ill and hospitalized, Xu Zhiyuan took on the responsibility alone. The idle Jin Nan stayed in the hospital with his father all day long. Jin Licheng, who had a tracheotomy, left him with only a disappointed look.
If it had been those seven years, Jinnan would never have been able to catch up with Xu Zhiyuan.
Xu Zhiyuan never expressed his opinion on this and never said a single extra word to him.
He was probably a little jealous of Xu Zhiyuan.
People's hearts are on his side, wealth and good luck favor him, and even Jinnan himself recognizes him.
He had to use the power left by Jin Licheng to suppress Xu Zhiyuan, and he didn't dare to go too far.
Once Xu Zhiyuan turns against us, Jinnan will be the first to be doomed.
He wanted to keep an eye on Xu Zhiyuan so that he wouldn't dare to act rashly.
There are many more reasons why Jinnan did this.
When Jin Nan turned on the camera in Xu Zhiyuan's bathroom for the first time, he cursed himself to hell.
But he couldn't argue with it.
He hated Xu Zhiyuan, he was jealous of Xu Zhiyuan, and his entire life since he was fifteen had been chasing after Xu Zhiyuan. The person he saw in his first forbidden dream during his adolescence was also Xu Zhiyuan.
He kept his eyes on Xu Zhiyuan. But Xu Zhiyuan was like the wind, unconcerned with Jinnan's thoughts and desires, leaving no trace behind.
He hated Xu Zhiyuan's freedom, and hated Xu Zhiyuan's ignorance and indifference.
Why did he keep staring at Xu Zhiyuan's back?
He was stuck in a quagmire and couldn't get out no matter what. He could only do this, in the name of "supervision", to keep Xu Zhiyuan under his control.
"Let's choose something sweet tomorrow."
"Even if he doesn't want to eat it, I will force him to finish it."
After the call ended, the shower water had already grown cold. Jin Nan wiped himself out and burrowed into the large bed where he slept alone.
His hair was still wet, and the lights had barely been on since he returned home, so his eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness.
I was looking for something in the dark and found a pen.
Two months had passed since Jin Licheng's funeral. When signing the cremation papers, Xu Zhiyuan lent him this pen.
After that day, they never met again.
For two whole months, Xu Zhiyuan spent two months safely under the high-intensity surveillance and management in Jinan.
On the other side, in the darkness, Xu Zhiyuan, in his sleep before falling asleep, acquiesced to others' invasion of his territory.
He only read half of the new book tonight.
Before Jinnan discovered it, he had read another identical book countless times in its entirety.
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