Xie Qingcheng didn’t respond. The private room was filled with too many onlookers, and He Yu’s status as a mentally ill patient was a secret that few were privy to. He fell silent for a moment before he raised his peach-blossom eyes and asked, “Can you send these people out?”
“Why?”
“There are some things that I’d like to say to you in private.”
He Yu smiled. “I don’t think that’s necessary. I think we can skip the lecture, Doctor Xie. You have so many students waiting for you to expound on universal truths to them—there’s no need to waste your energy on me. It’s not like I’m anything special to you, and the same can be said for what you are to me. This is fine. I’d rather not complicate our relationship any further. If that’s all, then you can go.”
Given Xie Qingcheng’s temper, in the past, he definitely would have given He Yu an earful and then forced him to obey his commands. But standing before He Yu now, knowing he was the one at fault, Xie Qingcheng only said, “What can I do to make you go home? Your parents wouldn’t want to see you like this.”
It would have been better if he hadn’t mentioned He Jiwei and Lü Zhishu, because the moment he brought them up, He Yu’s mood immediately darkened. He stared at Xie Qingcheng. After everything they’d said, they’d still ended up looping back to his parents.
He thought back to the messages Xie Qingcheng had sent to He Jiwei. Those had been much more genuine than anything he said to He Yu. Perhaps in Xie Qingcheng’s mind, only He Jiwei was a person who could stand on equal footing with him.
The day Xie Qingcheng quit his job, He Yu had abandoned his dignity and pathetically tried to use his allowance to keep this man from leaving. It was because he’d believed that if Xie Qingcheng left, Xie Xue would disappear too, and he would once again fall into that inescapably terrifying loneliness.
Back then, he had said to Xie Qingcheng, I have a lot of allowance. I can…
But Xie Qingcheng had interrupted him, launched into a slew of bombastic, pretentious-sounding rhetoric, and told him that first and foremost, his employer was He Jiwei. He said that He Yu couldn’t possibly afford to hire him, and that he might as well save his insignificant pocket money and spend it on cakes to make himself happy.
He Yu should have known right then and there that to Xie Qingcheng, he was only ever He Jiwei’s son. If not for his father, Xie Qingcheng might not pay him any attention.
He Yu’s already grim mood crept even closer to madness at this thought, but his expression remained apathetic.
He carefully examined Xie Qingcheng as he slowly finished the wine in his glass, thinking of He Jiwei, thinking of the broadcasting tower, thinking of Xie Xue, thinking of the sincerity that he had never once received… He hated Xie Qingcheng so much. He wanted to tear him to shreds.
As He Yu poured himself another glass of wine, he realized that the cup in front of Xie Qingcheng was untouched. He grew even angrier, sneering, “Doctor Xie really has no sense of etiquette. What kind of person comes to apologize by bringing up someone’s parents to subdue them, and without even deigning to share a drink with them? Are you planning on saving the wine in your glass to raise fish with?”
He grabbed another empty cup, picked an open bottle at random, and filled the glass to the brim.
“Take a seat. Since you’re here, you might as well sit down and drink with me for a while. We can talk afterward. Doctor Xie, you don’t smoke. Could it be that you also don’t drink?”
Xie Qingcheng knew he wouldn’t be regaining the dominant position in their relationship today. So he did as He Yu said, wasted no more words, and sat down on the sofa across from him.
“If I drink, will you leave?”
“Is Doctor Xie willing to risk his life to accompany a degenerate like me?”
The private room was deathly silent. As if affected by the tension between the two men, everyone else barely dared to breathe. Amidst this nerve-racking silence, Xie Qingcheng reached over and into that invisible bloody maelstrom. He picked up the wine glass from the low marble table and plunked it down in front of him. Through the swirling liquid, beneath the hazy lights, Xie Qingcheng’s features looked as cold and hard as sedimentary rock at the base of an icy pool.
He raised the glass of dry red wine and drained it in a single gulp. Then, he picked up the other glass of liquor that He Yu had poured for him and likewise tossed it back without blinking.
The strong alcohol burned a path down his throat.
He Yu finally smiled. “Excellent. Xie-ge can really hold his drink.”
He tilted his head, eyes still fixed on Xie Qingcheng, and said to the young woman beside him, “Pour him another glass.”
The lead hostess was silent, but her face blanched. She gathered her courage and leaned down to whisper a few words into He Yu’s ear.
He Yu started in surprise, his gaze sweeping over to the bottle of liquor that he had just poured for Xie Qingcheng.
Plum Fragrance 59…?
H-he had accidentally given Xie Qingcheng a glass of aphrodisiac liquor!
He Yu had been planning on using this liquor to help himself let loose, since he was in a bad mood today. But he had accidentally made Xie Qingcheng drink it instead. His eyes shot up to Xie Qingcheng’s face, only to meet the man’s cold, stern gaze. The liquor’s effect had yet to kick in. Xie Qingcheng still had no idea that he had been drugged.
But He Yu knew that Xie Qingcheng wouldn’t remain sober for long.
“You might think that it smells very sophisticated at first, but…it’s also very cheap and depraved…” The words that He Yu’s half-drunk friend had said into his ear resurfaced in his mind.
How could he have made such a stupid mistake? Why hadn’t he taken a good look at the bottle when he poured the drink?!