C7

    The two of them were very close to each other, and in the interval when Duan Changke was looking at the pen, Fang Lin smelled a little bit of the other’s scent.

    He didn’t know why he wanted to do this of his own accord. He was nervous, but he wanted to do something like this to show how light-hearted and unconcerned he was.

    This relationship was supposed to be like that.

    When Duan Changke didn’t answer right away, Fang Lin was a little embarrassed, he bit his lip and took a step back.

    He stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window to finish his cigarette, and then walked up to Fang Lin.

    Duan Changke calmly asked, “When will your contract with the company end?”

    Fang Lin froze, not expecting him to change the topic, but he still replied truthfully, “There’s almost a month left.”

    “If you want to come directly, tomorrow I’ll have the company draw up an artist contract with the terms I’ve just mentioned.”

    “No…… you don’t have to.” Fang Lin felt a little apprehensive, “I’ll just wait until the company and I get to the time to terminate the contract naturally. There is no need to spend more ……”

    “In addition to the role you just got, do you have work next?” Duan Changke suddenly asked.

    Originally, there was, that was, the company had tried to give him some jobs, but it had been rejected by him.

    Fang Lin shook his head honestly.

    “So there’s no need to pay the breach of contract, it’s just a few weeks.” Duan Changke said with certainty, “You can deal with the company in the next few days and say that you have no desire to renew your contract, the steps are not complicated.”

    Fang Lin looked up at him, a little puzzled.

He wasn’t a person from the company. How could he be so clear about its operations?

    But this was no longer something he should worry about, he didn’t ask more questions, “Okay.”

    “Fang Lin.” Duan Changke suddenly called him by name, “You’re so obedient.”

    It was already a little late, and Duan Changke’s apartment had a large terrace where the setting sun shone in, wrapping all the greenery outside in a gentle orange fluff.

    The location and height were good enough that when he looked through the floor-to-ceiling windows, he could see half of the city that looked so small from here.

    Fang Lin felt that he had little sense of belonging to any city.

    The pace of this city was so fast that he could only keep running all the time, yet he always had to worry about being left behind.

    He looked at Duan Changke after hearing these words, and also looked behind him as the sunset slowed down little by little, bustling with the lights of thousands of families.

    “Ah.” He froze for a moment before responding with a single syllable that made little sense.

    Being interrupted by Duan Changke like this, Fang Lin’s initial question was overshadowed.

    “Alright, go back.” Duan Changke propped one hand in front of the window and turned to Fang Lin, “I’ll ask the driver to take you.”

    He immediately shook his head, “No need.”

    “What, are you afraid of being seen?” Duan Changke asked carelessly, “It’s okay, whatever you want.”

    “I’ll call you over in a few days when you sign the artist contract.”

    Duan Changke walked out of the city’s bright and smoky atmosphere and turned on the lights.

    Fang Lin actually had a lot of things he wanted to ask.

    How come he suddenly wanted him to leave, they weren’t ……

    “Okay.”

    He saw Duan Changke untie his tie with one hand, he casually rested on the sofa and tugged on the collar.

    Without the tie’s restraint, he had a more unrestrained aura, revealing his throat knot and a small patch of healthy skin.

    It seemed that whether he signed this agreement or not, it wouldn’t  have any effect on him.

  That was Fang Lin’s hope.

    There was still some time before filming started, the script reading hadn’t yet started, and because Fang Lin was the third male lead, the crew was divided into two groups according to the script, Fang Lin was basically with the B group, he didn’t have many scenes, so he had more free time than the others.

    He rested at home for three days, he didn’t see anyone or talk to anyone.

    He just had an inexplicable desire to escape for a few days.

    Fang Lin has a good memory and recalled the events that happened recently.

    He still remembered how he had the accident.

    As the saying goes, if you have bad luck, you will be unlucky. That day he came out of the hospital in a daze, he was only distracted for a second and the accident happened.

    There were thousands of accidents in the world, and he just happened to run into it.

 But from the day he finished his audition and pushed open the hotel door, everything that he had originally experienced had completely changed.

    This didn’t seem to be a problem, at least it was all good.

    Meeting Duan Changke was an accident.

    When he came out of the house on the fourth day, he went straight to the office.

  First, he contacted Xia Qii and told him that he had no desire to renew his contract. The other commended him for finally figuring things out, and then said that he had handed in his resignation, he had just been waiting for him.

   The company building was still as magnificent as before, but he no longer felt oppressed.

    After learning that he didn’t want to renew his contract, the company really didn’t give him a hard time, probably thinking that he didn’t have much value anymore, so it was better to just part ways openly and peacefully, so that neither side would look bad.

    The procedure was done quickly, basically no one gave him a hard time, and no one cared where he would go afterwards.

    They probably didn’t think he had any better prospects.

    After all, people outside of the industry always looked at how bright and shiny it was, but they didn’t know exactly how many people were trapped in the mire.

    In addition, Tao Le was the happiest.

    He took the initiative to help Fang Lin pack up his things, while urging: “Quickly, quickly, let’s quickly find the next home, ah ah ah my Ah Lin is going to be famous! I’m so excited!”

    Fang Lin squinted at him, some words couldn’t be said for the moment, but he still selectively mentioned it: “There’s no need to look.”

    “Huh?”

    “I’m going to Hailin.”

    “???”

    Tao Le’s eyes instantly widened.

    “You talked straight to Boss Duan in the lounge that day?! He didn’t give you a hard time, right!”

    “……” Fang Lin felt a bit helpless, “Not really.”

    “What a dream.”

    “How is it a dream?” Fang Lin said, “I took the initiative to mention this matter, so ……”

    “That can’t be right,” Tao Le shook his head and began to seriously analyse the situation, “Duan Changke just took over the banner of Hailin and it’s still very sensational, all kinds of magazines are still writing about it.”

    “I looked through a lot of articles, he doesn’t have a single scandal, let alone a preference for men ……” Tao Le excitedly stared at Fang Lin. “Xiao Lin, although I think you look particularly good, I especially hope you become famous.”

    Fang Lin raised his eyebrows, waiting for his next words.

“But, because of you, Mr. Duan suddenly changed his orientation, and suddenly became an Emperor that was captured by someone’s beauty, from that time forth, forsook his early…”

  “?” He didn’t wait for Tao Le to finish, he quickly interrupted his monologue, “Did you pass the college entrance exam language?”

    “Ah, I passed, I also got a hundred and four in mathematics,” Tao Le didn’t feel the slightest bit where there was something wrong, he quickly finished, “…… ambition.”

He obviously didn’t know what was going on.

Duan Changke’s attitude was unpredictable. Sometimes Fang Lin felt that he was really like a Living Bodhisattva, he always assisted him, but when he gritted his teeth and told himself “it’s no big deal” and signed the contract that looked very serious, the other lightly pulled away again, and there was no next step.

     Fang Lin couldn’t figure it out, but he was the beneficiary, and finally he could only glance at Tao Le, “Maybe he likes to help the poor.”

    “He’s worthy of being an outstanding and awe-inspiring entrepreneur.”

    “……”

   …… He was actually not entirely wrong.

    He finished the formalities and received a call from Duan Changke on the next day.

    The other didn’t ask him to come to his apartment this time, probably because he was busy with work, instead he directly told him to come to Hailin’s building.

    Fang Lin thought he would meet a lot of peers in the Hailin building, but when he arrived downstairs, Duan Changke asked his secretary to bring him up, and he didn’t go through the general staff entrance, so he didn’t meet anyone familiar.

    Duan Changke’s secretary was called He Cong, and when he saw Fang Lin, he enthusiastically called him “Mr. Fang” and respectfully invited him to the 33rd floor.

    He Cong seemed to be a very smart and clever person, and definitely didn’t ask more questions than he should have, he closed the door after taking him into the office.

    Fang Lin didn’t know how many people around Duan Changke actually knew the relationship between them …… that wasn’t right, he didn’t even know what their relationship was.

    Duan Changke hadn’t told him yet.    

Duan Changke’s office was very large, Fang Lin went in when he was signing documents, as he looked up and saw him, he put down the pen and placed another contract in front of him.

    Everything was a bit similar to the time in his apartment.

    Fang Lin didn’t really look at the contract very carefully – he had sold himself anyway, and such things as artist contracts were not too important when it came to such a juncture.

    He quickly browsed through it and wrote his name on all the places where he needed to sign: “Mr. Duan, it’s all done.”

    “Mm.” Duan Changke answered.

    He stood up and lit a cigarette, “Come here.”

    Fang Lin walked over and heard Duan Changke say something similar to that day.

    “So obedient.”

    The weather was still hot, he didn’t drink water when he came, so his throat was a little dry: “…… hmm.”

    “Boss Duan.” He opened his mouth, his voice a little quiet.

    “I asked you last time, what exactly is the relationship between us.” Fang Lin looked at him, “I still want to know.”

   Duan Changke seemed amused, but he didn’t smile.

    “Want to know so badly?” He flicked the cigarette ash off, Duan Changke always seemed to be good at answering questions in four different ways, or asking rhetorically, “What kind of relationship do you want us to have?”

    Duan Changke was dressed simply today, he wore a black shirt that outlined his figure well.

    He was the naturally superior person everyone envied, standing at the top of the pyramid from the moment he was born.

    He had the best education and the best possessions.

    And now he was standing leisurely in front of him, asking him what relationship he wanted.

    Fang Lin took a deep breath, it was seemingly a choice, but he knew he was actually on mediocre terms and he didn’t even have the leverage to negotiate with Duan Changke.

    His eyes were bright and his voice wasn’t loud but it was clear: “I thought that we would have …… that kind of relationship.”

    “Is that so?” Duan Changke dropped his fingers, and Fang Lin smelled the faint smell of smoke on him. He meaningfully repeated, “That kind of relationship.”

    “Fang Lin,” a moment later, Duan Changke asked, “Have you ever been kissed?”

    Fang Lin didn’t answer, but only looked down at Duan Changke’s hand.

    He always felt that many of Duan Changke’s questions were not like questions, but a compulsion, or a test.

    He didn’t know what the other wanted from him, and he didn’t know what kind of relationship would best suit the situation they were both in at the moment.

    But it couldn’t be any worse.

  He didn’t want to be impulsive, he just wanted to really confirm this relationship in general, Fang Lin –

    The next second, he fiercely, regardless of the approach, without saying a word, grabbed Duan Changke’s half smoked cigarette.

    He took a puff, and tried to sophisticatedly spit out the smoke ring.

    “…… now I have.”

    Fang Lin didn’t look up as he spoke.

    Duan Changke lowered his eyes to look at him.

    Fang Lin lifted his finger again and took a second puff, and only then did he fix his eyes on him.

    The meaning  of his action was self-evident.

    “So that’s how it is.”

    Duan Changke slightly leaned down, the two were closer to each other.

    His fingers cupped Fang Lin’s neck.

    “Like this?”

    Fang Lin felt like his bl00d was freezing, and his muscles subconsciously tensed, but there was no hint of flinching or regretting.

    It was one thing to think about it, and it was another to feel the burning temperature of the other’s fingers.

    He still had the cigarette in his fingertips, and a little wet touch on his lips, still with a mouthful of smoke that he wasn’t able to exhale.

    He wasn’t very good at smoking, so he suddenly panicked a little and subconsciously swallowed.

    Fortunately, the taste of Duan Changke’s smoke wasn’t harsh, so Fang Lin didn’t cough.

    “You want to know our relationship, you also grabbed my cigarette.” Fang Lin heard Duan Changke speak, his voice wasn’t as cold as when they first met.

    He was nervous, but tried to cover up that nervousness.

       All his attention was on how to hide himself, so he didn’t notice the lightness or the sigh of laughter in Duan Changke’s voice.

    Duan Changke’s hand was very hot, it rested on Fang Lin’s clean, soft hair, and he lightly ruffled it.

“You asked me so many questions …” Duan Changke’s palm was big, but his movement wasn’t heavy. “But you won’t touch me?”