Chapter 29: Transmigrated as a Cheapskate Phoenix Man (29)
“Hubby, are you free this weekend?” Yu Xinyu sorted out his mood and slowly sat down next to Cen Yu.
Cen Yu couldn’t quite gauge Yu Xinyu’s intentions. “Say what you have to say.”
“Qiang Yuanqing invited us to his hot spring villa this weekend.” He deliberately used Qiang Yuanqing’s full name, though whether it was to avoid suspicion or specifically for Cen Yu to hear was hard to tell.
“Qiang Yuanqing?” Cen Yu took the bait right away, snapping like a hungry fish.
“That childhood friend of yours?”
He glared at Yu Xinyu with extreme displeasure. “He invited you to a hot spring villa? Doesn’t he know you have a partner?”
“I bet he has some shady motives,” he muttered to himself. “Heh, I knew it! He has feelings for you!”
Ugh! Cen Yu almost wanted to throw up after saying that himself.
The grease was just too thick!
He used his peripheral vision to observe Yu Xinyu’s expression, seeing the man’s cheeks turn bright red as if flushed with anger…
Did I take it too far?
Cen Yu felt unsure. What if Yu Xinyu burst into tears! He always knew this system was unreliable; it even made him improvise lines on the spot.
Just as he was hesitating over whether to open his mouth to salvage the situation, he watched Yu Xinyu raise his head and smile at him. His cheeks were still somewhat flushed, but no tears welled up in his eyes at all.
“…Hubby, you’re overthinking it.”
Yu Xinyu spoke to Cen Yu gently, “How could he like me?”
“He just treats me as a brother.”
Heh, he treats you as a brother right now, but once the two of us get to the villa, he might not think that way anymore!
Having mastered the script, Cen Yu felt like he had already seen through the entire truth.
Realizing he was about to welcome Male Lead Candidate 2 of this novel, he immediately rallied his fighting spirit—
“Fine, stop explaining. I have time this week.”
He mumbled a bit more, then shot Yu Xinyu a suspicious look. “Let me tell you, stay away from that friend of yours.”
The smile on Yu Xinyu’s face remained unchanged, and even the flush on his cheeks stayed just as before. He looked at Cen Yu, who was still grumbling away. “Okay, Hubby… I’ll keep that in mind.”
The moment Yu Xinyu returned to his room,
he couldn’t help replaying the tone Cen Yu had used earlier—
Baby is so cute.
He thought to himself: He actually suspected I would be with another man, and he even got jealous… At this thought, Yu Xinyu paced back and forth in his room with a touch of restlessness. He uncovered the painting he had hidden.
He gazed intently at the portrait of Cen Yu he had painted.
Then, like an animal exhibiting compulsive behavior, he walked in circles around the room. After doing six or seven laps, he still couldn’t suppress the surging emotions in his heart.
He pulled out his phone to harass someone he knew—
“Hello.” Yu Xinyu’s voice at this moment lacked any of its former gentle, endearing sweetness. He spoke coldly to the other end of the line, “We’re coming this weekend.”
Qiang Yuanqing’s side was somewhat noisy, sounding as if he were at a party.
“You two together?” Qiang Yuanqing asked.
“Yes,” Yu Xinyu said.
Then, practically unable to hold back his urge to show off, he began telling Qiang Yuanqing about Cen Yu’s behavior earlier—
“He’s so cute,” Yu Xinyu said obsessively. “He actually suspected you might like me… and he even got jealous.” Saying this, he repeated the words Cen Yu had just said, relishing the memory of Cen Yu’s expression in his mind.
Then he added toward the phone, “Luckily, I recorded it all…”
He said, “I can watch it over and over.”
“…” Qiang Yuanqing remained silent on the other end.
“Hello?”
“Hanging up.” After hanging up the phone, Qiang Yuanqing genuinely had to suppress the urge to rub the goosebumps off his arms.
He suspected Yu Xinyu was genuinely out of his mind?!
Anyone hearing those words earlier could tell that a scumbag was manipulating him, right?! Yu Xinyu actually thought the guy was being jealous.
Gripping his champagne glass, Qiang Yuanqing stood on the balcony in a corner of the banquet and couldn’t help taking a sip of wine.
In the very next second, he caught sight of someone walking onto the balcony as well out of the corner of his eye—
“When did you get back?” Qiang Yuanqing looked at Lou Baichuan with a touch of surprise. He hadn’t expected the man to attend this banquet as well.
Lou Baichuan loosened the bowtie around his neck. Leaning against the balcony, he let out a breath before saying to Qiang Yuanqing, “A while ago.”
“How come I didn’t hear any news about it?”
“I don’t plan on going back for now,” Lou Baichuan stated plainly.
Qiang Yuanqing actually knew a few things about the Lou family. They had originally built their fortune in real industry, expanding larger and larger, which was naturally followed by those familiar, trashy family dramas. Lou Baichuan’s relationship with his family wasn’t particularly good.
Besides him, the old man Lou had three other sons and four daughters—a rather colorful personal life.
Lou Baichuan had a bad relationship with his father, subtly signaling an intention to break away from the family and strike out on his own… Qiang Yuanqing had heard rumors earlier, but hadn’t expected to run into Lou Baichuan right now.
He didn’t pry further, but Lou Baichuan was clearly a capable man, far more worth befriending than the rest of the useless Lou family slacker crowd.
So he opened his mouth to invite him to his hot spring villa, which hadn’t officially opened for business yet, for a getaway.
“It’s not open yet?” Lou Baichuan was surprised.
“Yeah, no one else except a few friends,” Qiang Yuanqing smiled. “Private hot spring pools, you won’t run into anyone else.”
“Aside from my childhood friend and his partner, there’s nobody else.”
Hearing this, Lou Baichuan felt somewhat tempted as well, making an agreement with Qiang Yuanqing right then and there on the date to head to the hot spring estate… The balcony where the two stood was tucked in a secluded spot. Perhaps because no one expected two people to be hiding here, the voices outside didn’t bother holding back—
“Sang Qianshan actually likes men?!”
“…Ah, Old Man Sang is gonna be driven to a heart attack.”
“Looks to me like Sang Qianshan is really getting kicked out of the Sang family this time.”
The conversation held a touch of gloating. Qiang Yuanqing had zero interest in these discussions and was just about to cough to remind the gossiping folks outside that others were present,
when he heard that voice continue—
“Sang Qianshan even specially went to the building where that guy works to pick him up after work.”
“Tianhe Tower? What kind of companies are in that place?”
Lou Baichuan hadn’t cared at first, but upon hearing the familiar name of Tianhe Tower, his brows furrowed deeply—
Isn’t that the exact building where I work?
