SFBF CH26

Shen Qing said: “Ahem, ahem. Regarding the pink-bottled shower gel and the strawberry body scent — I would like to make a brief statement in my defense.”

“Oh?”

Gu Huaiyù hadn’t expected him to mount a defense, and looked up at him, something faintly amused in his eyes: “Go on then.”

Shen Qing: “Because the pink bottle contains strawberry-scented shower gel!”

He met Gu Huaiyù’s gaze directly: “The bottle I took was the pink one — naturally, washing with it would only produce a strawberry scent! So these are technically the same piece of evidence, and cannot be used as two separate data points to support your argument!”

He had felt embarrassed the moment the big boss had caught him sneaking the children’s shower gel. But nobody had brought it up since, and Duoduo and Aozai didn’t seem to have noticed anything — Shen Qing had assumed the whole incident had blown over.

He hadn’t expected the big boss to be waiting for this moment!

Feeling suddenly and somewhat unfairly exposed, Shen Qing bristled — and also felt rather wronged —

One bottle of shower gel had been split into two separate pieces of evidence to argue that he liked pink.

If he’d known, he would have grabbed a different color. Why on earth had he gone for the pink one!

Hmph. Once he finished this bottle, next time he’d try the blueberry flavor. Let’s see if the big boss could detect that.

However, Shen Qing’s defense did not gain any traction.

Gu Huaiyù: “You didn’t spray perfume?”

Shen Qing: “?”

“?”

“So you thought I was wearing strawberry-scented perfume???”

…Because if that were true, it really would suggest he had a very strong fondness for strawberries and pink and all things sweet.

And yet.

Shen Qing: “I don’t wear perfume.”

Met with Gu Huaiyù’s skeptical look, Shen Qing, somewhat flustered, shoved his sleeve up and extended his arm right in front of the big boss’s face: “I genuinely don’t wear any — if you don’t believe me, smell it yourself!”

“…”

A pale, bare forearm presented practically against his nose, without warning — Gu Huaiyù went very still.

The young man’s arm was slender and very white. Not the white of illness, like his own — but smooth, luminous white, like fine jade catching the light.

It looked almost exactly like a piece of warm jade.

Perhaps because it was so completely unexpected, Gu Huaiyù didn’t manage to pull back in time. That faint strawberry scent swept straight into his nose — and in that single instant, a thread of clean sweetness seemed to surface on his tongue as well.

…

Gu Huaiyù slowly raised his eyes.

Shen Qing: “This is just my natural body scent after bathing. Can you smell it now — does it smell like perfume to you?”

Gu Huaiyù looked at him steadily, then raised one hand and lightly closed two fingers around the proffered wrist.

Then he looked back at the arm — the pale, slender, unadorned arm — and genuinely, carefully, took a breath.

There didn’t appear to be the kind of uneven application or concentrated intensity that perfume left behind.

The scent from the young man was faint — sniffed carefully, it didn’t resolve into something specifically strawberry at all. There was only that thread of clean sweetness. The strawberry impression had come from that initial moment of nearness, when Shen Qing had first stepped close.

Gu Huaiyù looked up again, and found the young man — barely a hand’s span from him — gazing back without blinking. In those eyes: a stubborn refusal to concede, and something guileless that said, see, I told you, it’s not what you think.

Shen Qing was still complaining: “You didn’t actually think I was wearing strawberry perfume, did you? Really? What kind of man wears strawberry perfume?!”

Gu Huaiyù gave a small, acknowledging nod at that. He seemed to concede the point.

He tilted his head slightly upward to look at the young man, and offered this summary: “So what you’re saying is — you are a walking strawberry, who produces a strawberry scent naturally?”

Shen Qing: “…”

Shen Qing was completely speechless.

So speechless, in fact, that he stopped paying attention to the tone he was using with his employer.

Shen Qing: “Next I’ll be a strawberry-scented ABO character!”

Gu Huaiyù: “?”

Then Shen Qing attempted to pull his arm back.

He’d been holding it out for quite a while — he was tired!

Gu Huaiyù cooperated with the young man’s movement, releasing the two fingers he’d held loosely around the wrist.

…The arm hadn’t just looked like soft jade. To the touch, it had been exactly that — warm and smooth.

Even with only two fingers making contact, the texture of the young man’s skin had been unmistakably soft.

His gaze shifting, Gu Huaiyù offered an objective assessment: “That shower gel appears to be of quite good quality.”

Shen Qing wasn’t sure how he’d arrived at that conclusion, but nodded along anyway: “It really is quite good, actually. It is a children’s product, so the ingredients are more natural. Would you like me to bring you a bottle too?”

“…” Gu Huaiyù kept looking at him and said nothing.

Shen Qing: “Don’t be shy! What flavor would you like?”

Gu Huaiyù: “…”

What Shen Qing was privately thinking was: if the children’s little uncle also used their shower gel, it would become a sort of household ritual, and then Duoduo and Aozai would have absolutely no grounds to laugh at him.

That’s right — he was trying to drag the big boss into the same boat.

But Gu Huaiyù’s conspicuous silence and unbroken stare gave Shen Qing the distinct impression that his scheme was so transparent the beads from his abacus were practically bouncing off the big boss’s face.

He dropped it. Wisely.

After all, today had been about enrolling Duoduo in his class, and Shen Qing was dressed for the occasion — a V-neck white sweater over a collared shirt, an overall appearance that was clean and refined, quietly well-put-together.

He now pulled his sleeve back down, did up the buttons at his shirt cuff, and smoothed the sweater over it.

He might look a touch casual, but Shen Qing did have a certain approach and aesthetic sensibility when it came to his own presentation.

The young man in his white sweater, with his luminously pale complexion, stood in the warm-toned vintage study and tidied his clothing in a calm, unhurried way.

His skin was white as jade, and his build appeared leaner and more slender than most men of the same height.

Perhaps because his posture was good, and his features refined, there was something quietly elegant about every small movement he made — neat, fresh, effortlessly precise.

Gu Huaiyù watched him for a long moment, then said: “If you don’t like pink, there is also a blue option.”

“Hm? Blue what?… A blue diamond??”

“Yes.”

Gu Huaiyù said: “There should be information about it inside the bag.”

He was referring to the gift bag.

The bag itself was actually quite beautifully made — Shen Qing hadn’t paid much attention to it earlier, but now that the big boss mentioned it, he naturally took a look, giving it its due.

Mostly because he desperately wanted to see, in the accompanying materials, exactly how much this pink diamond cost.

He found that the bag contained not only a catalogue, but also a full profile of the pink diamond — its provenance, its history, and a series of authentication certificates including a diamond grading certificate, all neatly enclosed.

All in English. Shen Qing skimmed through with a broad sweep.

Beneath all of that was the catalogue itself.

He opened it and found that it was both a product catalogue and an invitation.

The kind of thing that happened with once-in-a-lifetime, truly priceless pieces — brands would send preview catalogues to ultra-wealthy clients in advance of a private viewing, as a form of pre-sale outreach.

Shen Qing had encountered this concept before.

In a novel.

This appeared to be an international-level luxury jewelry house — exclusive enough that Shen Qing couldn’t even name it.

But he worked through the catalogue, and found the price listed for his pink diamond brooch.

“Tw— twenty… million. Dollars?”

…Oh. Oh.

He’d tried to hold it in, and failed. A sound escaped before he could stop it.

Immediately after, Shen Qing set the small jewelry box on the big boss’s desk — carefully, deliberately — because he absolutely could not keep holding it casually anymore.

It wasn’t that Shen Qing had no experience of the world… all right, he genuinely didn’t. But that was beside the point now.

Anyone would have trembling hands holding something this valuable!

In Shen Qing’s general sense of the world, tens of millions or even a hundred million yuan for a property was perfectly normal — given that good areas could run ten or twenty thousand per square meter, premium housing just cost that much. Living in such a place wouldn’t particularly faze him.

But the moment someone told him that this thing — smaller than his palm — was in the same price range…

He’d have to admit that the world of the very wealthy was one he had not yet fully adjusted to.

He set down the jewelry box and turned his attention back to the catalogue, and realized that the entire collection featured fewer than ten pieces — and that the two crown-jewel pieces at the end were at a tier all their own.

One was this pink diamond brooch.

The other was a ring set with a blue diamond.

The blue diamond’s price: twenty-four million dollars.

Shen Qing: !

He took a deep breath. Set the catalogue down alongside everything else. Then smiled at the big boss: “I think the pink diamond one is perfectly lovely.”

“Oh?” Gu Huaiyù raised an eyebrow. “What about it is lovely?”

Shen Qing very much wanted to say: it’s cheaper.

Because — jokes aside — even if his skin were several times thicker, he couldn’t in good conscience ask the big boss for a twenty-four-million-dollar gift. Even if it was only four million more than what he’d already received.

Four million. Still just four million extra. In dollars.

Still more than he could have earned working himself to death in his previous life.

And besides — all he’d given Gu Huaiyù was a single Peppa Pig figurine.

Wait.

So what was actually happening here was: he’d given the big boss a piggy bank worth a few dozen yuan, and the big boss had given him a piece of jewelry approaching a hundred million?

That return on investment… in the tens of millions of percent…

Shen Qing: “…So you really like Peppa Pig that much?”

Gu Huaiyù: “?”

Shen Qing was already wearing the expression of someone thinking: if I’d known you liked it so much, I would have given you more.

Gu Huaiyù read it immediately, and hurried to say: “I don’t like it.”

Shen Qing: “…Oh.”

So it really was just a return gift. Pure and simple.

Though it stung a little to hear — even knowing he hadn’t put much thought into the original present — that the recipient hadn’t liked it.

And that sting was entirely a consequence of not having put more thought into the gift in the first place.

…If he’d known Gu Huaiyù would give something in return, he would have chosen more carefully.

Now it felt a bit like he’d tossed out a small joke, and accidentally caused the big boss a great deal of inconvenience as a result…

He’d genuinely not anticipated this when he gave him the Peppa Pig! …And now, unexpectedly, his mood dipped a little.

He looked down without meaning to.

Gu Huaiyù: “…It’s not a matter of liking or not liking.”

Seeing the young man lower his head with what looked very much like a wounded expression, Gu Huaiyù glanced away, his own expression growing slightly unnatural.

He searched for words — an unusual thing for him to do: “I simply dislike owing anything to anyone.”

“?”

Shen Qing: “What debt is there to speak of? The money I used to buy that gift was yours to begin with.”

Gu Huaiyù: “…”

The fingers that had unconsciously curled inward a moment ago uncurled — and now closed into a fist.

He took a breath and explained again, his tone leveling back out into its usual measured flatness: “I simply came across the catalogue, thought of how you like pink, and purchased it.”

Shen Qing: “…Hm?”

He paused, caught off guard — and before he could even address the question of whether or not he actually liked pink, there was the more pressing fact that the big boss had remembered he liked pink.

The big boss had thought of him when he saw this.

Just how deeply had the impression of him liking pink lodged itself in the big boss’s memory?!

This misunderstanding had gotten quite far out of hand.

He wasn’t even sure whether his defense earlier had registered.

So what was he supposed to do now…

He kind of loved this misunderstanding, actually.

He really, really loved it.

Even if the big boss bought him every pink diamond in the world, he would have absolutely no complaints!!!

Gu Huaiyù watched the young man’s eyes light up like stars, looked back on what he’d just said, and felt that something in it might have come across wrong.

Saying it that way — didn’t it give the impression that the young man had been on his mind constantly?

His gaze dropped to the wheelchair beneath his legs.

Gu Huaiyù felt that this was not acceptable.

He tried once more to clarify: “It’s simply that in this particular custom collection, only the pink and the blue were worth considering. I happened to think of you—”

“Darling, you’re honestly too good to me!”

Before Gu Huaiyù could finish, Shen Qing had already walked around the desk with startling directness, appeared right in front of him, and crouched down to pat his legs in thanks.

With Gu Huaiyù still seated in the wheelchair, Shen Qing had to drop into a squat to reach — putting himself a full half-head shorter, forced to tilt his face up.

From Gu Huaiyù’s perspective, all he had to do was look down to find himself looking directly into the young man’s eyes.

…

Those eyes were bright, and the clarity in them was bottomless. Gu Huaiyù found his own reflection looking back at him from within.

…It turned out some people’s eyes genuinely could be like a clear spring — crystalline, still, and radiant.

Gu Huaiyù went still.

The hand that had been about to steer the wheelchair away paused, and stayed.

Shen Qing had already begun his enthusiastic leg-patting, tilting his beaming face up at the big boss: “Whatever the reason — thank you.”

…His husband had just given him another hundred million or so!

Crouched there as he was, Shen Qing honestly felt less like patting the big boss’s legs and more like flinging his arms around them.

He declared his position immediately: “Don’t worry — I’ll definitely take good care of Duoduo and Aozai. I’ll be good, and I won’t cause you any trouble!”

The piggy bank had started as a joke. Even though the big boss had taken it seriously and chosen such an expensive return gift in response —

That was the big boss’s business.

Because honestly… a normal person wouldn’t give a return gift like this!

All right, perhaps in the world of the wealthy, he was the one who didn’t fit the norm.

But that was just a difference in values.

Shen Qing’s personal principle was: don’t harm others, but absolutely do not gaslight yourself either.

He’d already thought it through and was no longer feeling low — regardless of whether Gu Huaiyù had taken things seriously or not, as long as he didn’t take it too seriously, he was fine. And he wouldn’t turn a small lighthearted gesture into an excuse to berate himself or spiral into guilt.

He’d simply treat this brooch as a bonus from his boss!

A delighted worker receiving an unexpected bonus, pledging loyalty on the spot.

Gu Huaiyù: “…”

Looking at the young man’s face — so thoroughly and cheerfully ingratiating — Gu Huaiyù knew he had been overthinking things.

This Shen Qing — there was no misunderstanding here. He probably hadn’t even spared it a single extra thought. He was simply… not that kind of person.

…

Gu Huaiyù: “Cough, cough, cough!”

Shen Qing: “Are you alright?”

The big boss had suddenly started coughing. He also pushed at Shen Qing a little, as if trying to push him back.

Probably in pain. Probably didn’t want to be seen like this.

Alarmed, Shen Qing scrambled up and started patting his back.

Honestly speaking — Gu Huaiyù was far too thin. Not just slender, but the kind of thinness that came from illness, the kind with no flesh to speak of, which was far more alarming than even Shen Qing’s own frame, which had been kept lean through years of habitual near-dieting.

It made Shen Qing afraid to pat too hard.

But what could he do? Director Gu really had been extraordinarily good to him. Or rather — Director Gu had been extraordinarily good to his own wife.

Even if tens of millions or a hundred million was pocket change to someone like Director Gu — the way an ordinary person might spot a cut of pork at the market and pick it up on a whim — the fact remained that even while casually buying pork, he’d thought to buy some for his wife in a contractual marriage.

For that kind of generosity alone, Shen Qing found himself genuinely wanting the man to live a few more years.

…Compared to all this, what was a hundred million in inheritance anyway?

So in this moment, Shen Qing’s desire to take good care of the big boss was entirely sincere. He genuinely hoped the man’s health would improve.

He patted the big boss’s back and said, earnestly: “I don’t know what illness you have exactly, but you still need to rest properly. And when nothing’s going on, don’t stay shut up inside — go out and get some sunlight. Look at this room of yours, the curtains aren’t even drawn.”

As he said it, he stopped patting and went to the nearest window.

He was quite thoughtful about such things. He didn’t dare pull the curtains open fully — partly because even curtains could deflect a little draft, and he didn’t want cold air finding its way to the big boss. And partly because he wasn’t sure how strongly Gu Huaiyù might object to sunlight.

Over the past few days, revisiting the novel’s plot in his mind, he’d begun to suspect that Gu Huaiyù’s peculiarities went deeper than a difficult temperament — that there might be something affecting him psychologically, perhaps something like autism.

He’d heard that people with certain conditions of that kind often disliked sunlight and bright environments.

Not knowing how strong Gu Huaiyù’s aversion might be, Shen Qing didn’t want to make him uncomfortable without cause. He’d take it slowly, feel things out.

In the northern winter, dusk came unseasonably early.

It was right at that edge of evening — and the moment Shen Qing drew the curtain open, even the thin gap he’d made was enough to send a beam of gold light lancing directly across his face. He instinctively narrowed his eyes against it, raising a hand to shield himself from the glare.

Caught in that angle, the young man’s eyelashes showed long and slightly curled — fluttering like butterfly wings against the light.

Gu Huaiyù: …

How does someone manage to dazzle their own eyes just pulling back a curtain.

Though…

His gaze moved to the hand the young man had raised to block the sun.

He thought, quietly, that the blue diamond ring would suit him very well too.

“There.”

Having eased the curtain open just a crack, Shen Qing turned back around.

That shaft of light had landed on the big boss’s profile, but Gu Huaiyù was looking down at his desk.

…Though Shen Qing had the distinct sense that in the very instant he’d turned, he’d caught Gu Huaiyù looking at him.

Shen Qing leaned sideways and bent slightly to study Gu Huaiyù’s expression, and decided that he didn’t seem particularly opposed — so he leaned in a little more and asked: “What do you think? Pretty nice sunset, isn’t it?”

The clean scent of strawberry drifted close again. Gu Huaiyù sat with his back straight and his gaze fixed forward, letting that thread of light rest on his face without turning to look at Shen Qing.

He neither agreed nor disagreed.

But seeing that the young man genuinely seemed to be waiting for an answer, he eventually gave a single nod, and said only: “It’s just — the sun setting in the west.”

Shen Qing: “…”

The line itself — there was nothing wrong with it as a line of poetry.

Except for the small problem that the big boss was himself someone whose sun was genuinely setting…

This particular poetic resonance was not a good one.

…His wealthy young husband, in his twenties, approaching an early death.

It felt, suddenly, rather heartbreaking.

Shen Qing thought about it, and said: “What if tomorrow I take you to watch the sunrise?”

“You take me?…”

Gu Huaiyù finally turned to look at him, with genuine curiosity: “Where would we watch it?”

Shen Qing: “Our rooftop.”

Gu Huaiyù: “…”

The young man in the afternoon light seemed somehow brighter than usual. Shen Qing smiled under the big boss’s silence and steady gaze — an unmistakably ingratiating smile, his voice going almost saccharine: “Well, I’m afraid of you going out and catching cold in the wind, aren’t I? So I don’t dare take you anywhere too far.”

The fingers resting on the wheelchair’s armrest shifted slightly. Gu Huaiyù turned to look at Shen Qing fully — that same unhurried, direct, unwavering gaze.

A long moment passed.

Then Gu Huaiyù said, slowly: “I heard from the housekeeper — you wanted to go to ‘The Great World’?”

“The Great World” was a massive themed entertainment park on the outskirts of Hua City. It had five large indoor venues, each reportedly with its own distinct theme, on an enormous scale and with extraordinarily high entertainment value.

Shen Qing had indeed wanted to go there — because he wanted to take the children to an amusement park.

He had promised to enroll Gu Duo in his class. In return, Gu Duo had promised to “accompany” him to an amusement park.

But he’d had the nagging sense that Gu Duo wasn’t particularly enthused about it.

If they were going to travel somewhere far and make a whole event of it, he wasn’t sure the young master would be willing — it would take a fair amount of planning to take the children anywhere distant. In the short term, Shen Qing thought staying within Hua City was fine.

But it was deep winter, freezing outside, and Hua City didn’t have many exciting options.

So when he’d been turning it over in his head, he’d remembered the indoor park. Not cold. Shen Qing had mentioned it in a passing conversation with the housekeeper, asking casually whether The Great World was any good, worth visiting.

He hadn’t expected Gu Huaiyù to have been informed of even this small detail…

Shen Qing had no choice but to come clean: “Yes — it’s just that it’s cold outside…”

Gu Huaiyù: “You’re going to evaluate it?”

Their voices landed at almost exactly the same moment.

Shen Qing: “??”

Gu Huaiyù, in a very serious tone: “For something like this, you can come to me directly.”

Shen Qing: “I’m sorry — evaluate what? I’m not following?”

Gu Huaiyù looked at him steadily: “The Great World is one of our family’s projects.”

Shen Qing: “…”

Shen Qing was aware that The Great World was one of the most ambitious projects Hua City had ever seen. Five venues were already open, with more still under construction — and when fully completed, it was said it would become the largest theme park in the world.

Even with just those five venues, it attracted hundreds of millions of visitors each year.

In fact, the novel he’d transmigrated into — New World — took much of its name and setting from this very park. The broad strokes of the plot involved Gu Huaiyù spearheading the creation of The Great World, and after the big boss’s death, the still-unfinished park becoming an enormously contested prize: it touched so many industries, involved such complex financing, development rights, and strategic considerations, that the ownerless park drew every major power around it, and the commercial warfare that resulted formed the backbone of the story.

…Well, when he put it that way — yes, it really was their family’s…

…

No. That was the big boss’s. Not his.

The fact that Gu Huaiyù had asked him whether he was there to evaluate it, and had used the words “our family” — that was just the big boss’s inherent good breeding and his respect for his partner.

He couldn’t just accept that phrasing at face value.

Shen Qing had very clear self-awareness about this.

And besides — because of that project, several families including the Shens and the Gus had been at war with each other across two full volumes of the novel, spanning over twenty years in-universe…

He would have to be out of his mind to want any part of it.

Shen Qing touched the side of his nose and kept his answer simple: “Evaluate? No, nothing like that. It’s just that Duozai and Aozai wanted to go to an amusement park, and as their auntie I could hardly refuse. There’s not much else around, so I asked the housekeeper about it — I just wanted to take them to play.”

“Oh?”

Gu Huaiyù tilted his head slightly, with a look of mild skepticism: “Is that so?”

Shen Qing nodded firmly: “It is!”

He really, truly had no intention of touching that project!!

But Gu Huaiyù continued, still thoroughly serious, in a tone of careful deliberation: “So it’s genuinely them wanting to go. And not you wanting them to go with you…?”

Shen Qing: “…Oh — ahem, ahem, ahem!”

A fit of very vigorous coughing cut the big boss’s sentence off.

Oh — oh. So that’s what the big boss was getting at.

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