He wasn’t someone who paid much attention to accessories. Ever since becoming a boss, he had a regular stylist who came every week to coordinate his outfits and accessories. The only reason Fang Li recognized the watch at a glance was because not long ago, he’d worn a lacquered bracelet from a brand collaboration that had accidentally scratched the watch strap, leaving a faint mark of blue lacquer. You wouldn’t notice it unless you looked closely. Fang Li had meant to send it out for cleaning overseas, but after taking a call, he completely forgot. He just tossed the watch back in the drawer, and Qin Weidong must not have noticed either—he just took it out and wore it again.
And on the strap in the photo—right at that familiar spot—was that same faint blue smudge.
Just then, another text came through on the phone.
[Brother Weidong, you were really drunk last night… I didn’t expect things to turn out like that…]
Fang Li’s fingers tightened around the phone. Another message followed almost immediately, this one even more outrageous, the tone drenched in pathetic affection.
[Brother Weidong? Did you mean what you said last night? Or were those just drunken words… My head hurts, I feel awful. Can you come see me?]
Fang Li was hit by the barrage of these ambiguous messages like a brain freeze. Who the hell was this? Who was sending these? A man or a woman?
He instantly grabbed his own phone and dialed Qin Weidong—but no one answered. His breathing quickened. He refused to believe that Qin Weidong would ever betray him—but that hotel room in the photo, that unmistakable watch, and those blatantly suggestive texts—Brother Weidong? He didn’t know anyone who would call him that so intimately.
Fang Li immediately called Secretary Li. As soon as the line connected, he asked, “Where’s Qin Weidong?”
Secretary Li had never heard Fang Li sound this anxious before. Fang Li had always seemed like a good-looking, easy-going guy—if anything, a bit aloof. Secretary Li answered, “President Qin is currently meeting with a business partner from Jianjing.”
“Where?”
There was a brief pause—just a second—and then Secretary Li gave him the name of a hotel. Fang Li heard “Liqiong Hotel” and immediately opened the photo again, zooming in. Sure enough, on the notepad by the bed in the picture, the hotel’s name was clearly printed: Liqiong Grand Hotel.
He blinked. He had rushed three hours home this morning and hadn’t even called Yang Xiaoliu. Grabbing his sunglasses, he dashed out and hailed a cab straight to the hotel.
It was a café on the twentieth floor. Secretary Li seemed to have anticipated Fang Li’s arrival and was already waiting by the entrance.
As soon as Fang Li stepped out of the elevator, Secretary Li said, “Mr. Fang, President Qin is in a meeting with a guest.”
Fang Li didn’t even acknowledge it. He went straight to the point. “Which room is he in?”
Fang Li rarely showed such an aggressive side. After all these years of being sheltered by Qin Weidong, as Qin Weidong himself had once put it, those sharp teeth he used to bare had long since dulled and disappeared.
But that didn’t mean Fang Li was easy to push around. Truth be told, when had anything in his life ever not gone the way he wanted? The things he didn’t bother arguing about were mostly things he deemed unimportant. But if he really set his mind to something—what had he ever failed to get? Even Qin Weidong had no choice but to back down when Fang Li got serious.
Secretary Li had no choice. From his two years working closely with President Qin, he’d learned one thing: mishandling Fang Li was even worse than messing up Qin Weidong’s own affairs.
After getting the room number from Secretary Li, Fang Li headed straight up.
Last night, Jiang Bofeng, the boss of Zhongmao, had arrived from Jianjing. His project to develop a hot springs resort in Jinyang had been stalled due to complications with mining land rights. A massive project like that burned through real money with every delay. Jiang Bofeng couldn’t afford to wait anymore, so he came to Jinyang himself and asked a mutual acquaintance to connect him with Qin Weidong. They had dinner together last night.
After drinking, they ended up playing billiards and stayed over instead of going home. This morning, they were back at the hotel café discussing the project. Some of the younger heirs were even talking about heading out for golf later—the weather was nice, after all. Business wasn’t always about official channels. When that failed, you had to find other ways.
Right now, Jiang Bofeng’s secretary was sitting across from Qin Weidong, explaining the development and profitability plans of the hot springs resort. Qin Weidong’s phone had died earlier, and a staff member had just returned it to him—he hadn’t even turned it on yet when the door to the private room burst open.
It was Fang Li. He narrowed his eyes and immediately spotted the woman sitting across from Qin Weidong. Then he glanced at Qin Weidong himself—and the look in his eyes could’ve devoured him whole.
“Qin Weidong, where were you last night?”
Qin Weidong looked genuinely surprised to see Fang Li. But with Jiang Bofeng’s secretary sitting right there, he didn’t plan to reveal their relationship. He stood up and said, “Didn’t Yang Xiaoliu say you two wouldn’t be back until this afternoon? Let’s talk outside.”
His suggestion to step out made it sound even more like he didn’t want to speak in front of this woman. That only made Fang Li angrier. He stepped closer.
“Why can’t we talk here? Did you do something behind my back?”
His voice trembled as he said the words “behind my back”—though he’d come here ready to interrogate, there was a hint of a choke in his voice. When people are hit with something completely unexpected, their minds tend to spiral. Fang Li was no exception. The entire ride here, his thoughts had been in total chaos.
Qin Weidong could tell something was wrong, but he didn’t know what. He reached out and gently touched Fang Li’s cheek. “What happened?”
Fang Li glanced at the confused secretary across from them and asked, “Were you with her last night?”
Qin Weidong’s brows drew together in confusion. The secretary had been there at dinner, yes—but she’d left early when they started drinking. He frowned. “She was there at dinner. But what does that have to do with anything?”
Jiang Bofeng bringing his secretary to dinner—what did that have to do with him?
The secretary, demonstrating exemplary professional poise, remained composed even though she had no idea what was going on. Assuming Fang Li was a friend of President Qin’s, she politely stood up and greeted him.
Fang Li didn’t respond. At that moment, the server entered with the coffee—just in time to witness Fang Li pushing away Qin Weidong’s hand.
“Ah…!”
With a startled cry from the server, the tray of hot coffee was knocked high into the air by Fang Li’s sudden gesture. Instinctively, he reached out to catch it, worried the coffee would spill on Qin Weidong. But Qin Weidong was even more afraid Fang Li would get burned. In the resulting confusion, Fang Li managed to catch the scalding cup with a swift grab. Yet, the coffee inside landed perfectly—drenching Qin Weidong’s tilted head and soaking him completely.
So, when Jiang Bofeng walked in after finishing a call outside, he was greeted by the rich aroma of coffee—and the sight of a striking young man glaring as he held up a coffee cup, with steaming liquid dripping from Qin Weidong’s soaked hair and collar.
The room fell into stunned silence.
Jiang Bofeng raised his brows slightly. He instantly recognized the young man as the one Qin Weidong had gone out of his way to pick up the other day. “My apologies, President Qin. I’ll let you talk.” With a look, he signaled his secretary. Though experienced and capable, even she had never encountered a scene like this. She promptly followed her boss out.
The private room was now quiet—just Qin Weidong and Fang Li left.
Qin Weidong ignored the coffee on his face. He grabbed Fang Li’s hand. “Did you get burned? Why were you in such a rush?”
The coffee had been hot, and the splash left Fang Li’s fingertips reddened. He pulled his hand back, picked up a napkin from the table, and made as if to toss it to Qin Weidong to wipe himself off. But when he saw the red marks spreading over Qin Weidong’s neck as well, he moved closer and helped wipe them instead.
“See for yourself.” Fang Li really didn’t want to repeat the whole thing. He simply pulled out his phone, opened it to the messages, and handed it to Qin Weidong. To make it easier, he had already scrolled to the top.
Qin Weidong began reading them one by one. As he reached the photos of the watch in the hotel room and those ambiguous messages, his brows furrowed deeper and deeper.
Fang Li glanced sideways. As expected, Qin Weidong’s wrist was bare—he wasn’t the kind of person to leave things lying around. On the contrary, he kept his belongings meticulously organized.
That one glance made Fang Li’s temper flare again.
“Where’s your watch?!”
Qin Weidong looked at the text messages and said, “It was gone when I woke up this morning. I probably took it off and left it on the table last night. I called the manager, but he hasn’t found it yet. He’s probably checking the surveillance footage now.”
“Then why is it in that person’s possession? And who even is that?”
Fang Li wasn’t a child—he was at least twenty-five or twenty-six. He asked, “If you didn’t know that person, would they be texting you? Why didn’t they send the message to someone else? Just look at what they said—‘We got drunk last night!’”
To be honest, it was just a phone number. Qin Weidong couldn’t remember who it belonged to at first. But the number looked familiar. After searching through his contacts, he said, “It’s Lin Huiru’s.”
“Lin Huiru?”
Qin Weidong thought for a moment. “The number is hers. And she and Tong Na were both there last night.”
“They were there too?”
Qin Weidong explained, “You Yue was there. He’s dating Tong Na now.”
If Tong Na had been there, then it made sense that Lin Huiru was as well. After all, back in the U.S., Lin Huiru followed Tong Na everywhere.
Qin Weidong wiped his face and collar with a napkin. Fang Li, now a little calmer, thought about Lin Huiru—she’d already caused enough trouble between them.
Fang Li leaned in. Even though Qin Weidong had showered, he could still smell faint traces of alcohol from the night before—he must have drunk a lot.
Fang Li cleared his throat. “So you drank that much. Did you black out? And with Lin Huiru sending you messages like that, are you sure you didn’t… do anything… under the influence?”
Qin Weidong looked up at him, his eyes cold and sharp. “I was drunk, not dead.” Unless he’d gone insane, he would never confuse someone else for Fang Li.
“…” Fang Li felt a little embarrassed.
On second thought, Qin Weidong was right. How could he not recognize him? Fang Li drank too, and all that talk about “drunk and lost control” was just an excuse for fools. When you’ve lived with someone for so many years, if you claim you couldn’t tell them apart just because you drank a little too much—then maybe you wanted to be confused in the first place.
Especially someone like Qin Weidong. He didn’t even need anyone else making trouble; he could already find dozens of things and people around Fang Li he disliked. He wanted Fang Li’s eyes to see no one but him. The idea that he would mess things up on purpose? Impossible—unless he’d lost his mind.
But still… Fang Li asked, “Then why did she text only you? And why was she holding your watch?”
Qin Weidong thought for a second. He’d woken up alone this morning—so there weren’t many explanations left. He said, “There were a lot of people there last night. Maybe someone picked up my watch by mistake.”
Everyone who had been there was from the inner circle of Jin Yang’s elite second generation. Plenty of them could afford a watch like his. If someone grabbed the wrong one while drunk, it wasn’t out of the question.
Fang Li considered that. What could have happened?
Then suddenly, a terrifying thought hit him, and he bit his tongue in shock.
“If she took the wrong watch… then…?”
Then had Lin Huiru “mistaken” the person too?
Qin Weidong had considered that possibility as well. But Lin Huiru was an adult, and both Tong Na and You Yue had been there last night—how could anyone expect him to play guardian?
Fang Li stared at Qin Weidong in shock, his mouth slightly open.
Qin Weidong asked, “Why are you looking at me like that?”
Fang Li couldn’t believe the coincidence. But if there had truly been a mistaken identity… “Then who was Lin Huiru with last night?”
There had been seven or eight people there, including a few friends of Jiang Bofeng’s—how would Qin Weidong know? He narrowed his eyes at Fang Li. “Is that my responsibility?”
He had just had too much to drink the night before. Someone had taken his watch. He’d slept in his room until morning, only to get doused with coffee by Fang Li—and now he was being questioned about every bit of nonsense?
He asked, “You’re mad at me over this?” He tossed the coffee-stained napkin aside. “Same thing happened in the office last time. Am I really that unworthy of your trust?”
Hearing that, Fang Li knew Qin Weidong was genuinely upset. And to be fair, he had overreacted a bit. But who’s born knowing how to deal with something like this? Even though they’d been together for a long time, weren’t they still each other’s first love?
Fang Li said, “I’ve never dealt with anything like this before. Would you really expect me to see that message and feel nothing?”
Qin Weidong thought Fang Li’s sharp tongue had only gotten worse since he stepped into the entertainment industry. He took a breath and said calmly, “I just don’t want us to fight over things like this.”
Qin Weidong hated arguing with Fang Li. Anytime Fang Li wanted to argue, he always backed down when he could. And if it really wasn’t something he could compromise on—like Fang Li’s love for music—hadn’t he been trying, little by little?
“I don’t want to fight either…” Fang Li paused. “It’s not that I don’t trust you, it’s just… I’ve been feeling frustrated lately.”
“About what?”
Fang Li thought for a moment. “Have you ever considered that… maybe we’re not the same, in this?”
“How are we different?”
Fang Li wasn’t sure what the problem was exactly. But since things had come to this point, he could only trust his gut and speak up.
“Ye Yunshan wants you to marry a woman, and she’ll keep trying to make it happen. That’s how it’s always been. And now there are more and more women trying to marry you. But I’m not like that. My fans—they like me, maybe even admire me—but there’s always a distance between us: the stage and the audience…”
Fang Li sighed. “I can’t explain it well. But I’m angry because I feel like, for a long time to come… I’ll be the only one who keeps getting angry. Do you understand? I know that after this, whether it’s the Qin family or someone else… they’re all going to keep pressuring you.”
Fang Li no longer had any family. In other words, no one cared whether he got married or had children. No one would watch over him, pressure him, or nag him. But Qin Weidong was different, wasn’t he? And this wasn’t just about Lin Huiru.
Axolotl Translations 
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