Shi Tian had just gotten into Ji Yuanlin's car when he received a call from Assistant Chen.
The ringing of the cell phone echoed in the narrow car. Shi Tian fastened his seat belt with one hand and answered the phone with the other: "Xiao Chen?"
The person on the other end of the phone didn't speak for a long time. Shi Tian was about to speak when he suddenly heard Assistant Chen's trembling voice: "Mr. Shi, how are you?"
"...I'm fine. What's wrong?" Shi Tian was amused by Assistant Chen's question and blurted out, "How are you?"
“I, I, I, I…”
After hesitating for a while, Shi Tian heard Assistant Chen ask cautiously, "So, is President Ji with you now?"
Shi Tian turned his head and glanced at the man sitting in the driver's seat next to him.
The owner of the Maserati rolled up his sleeves to his elbows, resting his arms lazily on the steering wheel, listening to business news on the car radio. The famous watch on his wrist and a couple of rings on his fingers reflected the dim light under the street lights.
Realizing that Shi Tian was staring at him, Ji Yuanlin slowly sat up from the driver's seat, and looked back at Shi Tian seriously, with a smile in his eyes.
From the passenger seat where Shi Tian was sitting, he could see the man's well-proportioned and slender figure, forming a straight line from his neck to his back, and his waist under the suit was tight and perfect.
Ji Yuanlin loves fitness and has hired a personal trainer at home just to maintain his impressive body.
It has to be said that his future fiancé knows how to use his appearance and personal charm to please others, even himself.
"No," Shi Tian retracted his gaze, "You go."
Seeing that Shi Tian had ignored him for a long time, Ji Yuanlin stepped on the accelerator: "Xiao Chen is looking for you? Is there something urgent?"
Assistant Chen on the other end of the phone gasped when he vaguely heard Ji Yuanlin's voice coming from the receiver.
"No, nothing," Assistant Chen said in a panic, "Boss Shi, Boss Ji, you guys go ahead and do your work. I'm going to hang up first—"
Before Shi Tian could react, the call was hung up by Assistant Chen on the other end.
"Why are you smiling at me?" Putting down the phone, Shi Tian narrowed his eyes and stared at his future fiancé suspiciously, "What are you so happy about?"
"Our Tiantian will soon officially become a member of my family. How can I not be happy?" Ji Yuanlin tapped the steering wheel lightly. "Let's go to Lumières for dinner tonight. I have a reservation."
Lumières is a Michelin-starred French restaurant on the top floor of LP11 and one of Shi Tian's favorite restaurants. It adopts a member-only reservation system and accepts facial recognition instead of credit cards. The two of them are regular customers of Lumières and spend hundreds of thousands of dollars here every year.
The vehicle slowly drove into the flow of traffic going off work, and Ji Yuanlin switched the car radio to the soothing light music channel.
"You must be tired after a long day of meetings today," he said. "Take a nap in the car. I'll call you when we're almost there."
Hearing Ji Yuanlin say this, Shi Tian yawned and felt a little sleepy.
Before closing his eyes, he looked through the rearview mirror and saw a bottle of his favorite Margaux red wine on the back seat of the Maserati. The bottle was tied with a beautiful knot of dark blue silk, which happened to be the same color as his tie today.
In the traditional sense, Ji Yuanlin is a good candidate in every aspect.
Good-looking, well-educated, highly intelligent, hardworking, self-disciplined, and considerate to his partner. He is the type of person whose lights will be turned off when he is a guest on a dating show.
Romance is an indispensable spice in a long-term relationship. During their eight years together, no matter how busy he was at work, Ji Yuanlin was always able to notice some small details that were easily overlooked.
For example, since the two started dating, Ji Yuanlin would carefully prepare some small surprises every time they went out on a date, and this time was no exception.
Shi Tian was leaning back in his chair, half asleep when he noticed that Ji Yuanlin had stopped the car at some point. Under the dim headlights, Ji Yuanlin slowly leaned down, and in a calm voice, he whispered his nickname in his ear.
"Tiantian, I miss you." Ji Yuanlin said, "Give me a kiss."
"Kiss your head," Shi Tian pushed the man away from him, "The window is still open."
Ji Yuanlin completely ignored his words and took advantage of the fact that he had just woken up and was not on guard, and first touched his forehead lightly with his lips. Seeing that he did not resist much, he moved down along the side of his neck and gave him a series of skillful kisses.
Shi Tian used his eyes to warn Ji Yuanlin not to mess around. He persisted for a while, but in the end, he closed his eyes and followed Ji Yuanlin.
If you don't agree, you won't be able to sleep well tonight.
The guy named Ji is usually quite normal, but today he went crazy for some reason and pounced on me as soon as he saw me.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
--
Because of the delay on the road, the two arrived at LP11 five minutes later than expected.
Just as Ji Yuanlin handed the car keys to the doorman, Shi Tian had already straightened his collar, pushed open the car door, and got out.
After buttoning his shirt to the top to firmly cover the kiss mark on Adam's apple, he took off his suit jacket as usual and handed it to the restaurant manager who was waiting at the door: "Rex, sorry for the wait."
"It is our honor that Mr. Shi and Mr. Ji can take the time to come and dine with us." The restaurant manager is a Frenchman, and his service attitude towards VIP customers is first-class. "Our dinner recommendation today is the seasonal Nicoise pan-fried yellowfin tuna and snow crab. You two must try it."
Shi Tian nodded politely to the manager: "Sure."
Ji Yuanlin followed closely behind, striding forward, greeting the manager while considerately smoothing the wrinkles on Shi Tian's collar from behind: "Hi, Rex, long time no see."
No matter what happened in private, as long as they were back in public, he and Ji Yuanlin could immediately return to normal and face others with the most perfect attitude. There was nothing wrong with their every move from head to toe, even their hair was kept neat.
This is the tacit understanding they have developed over the years, and it is also the way of dealing with things that businessmen should possess.
The manager took the two of them into the elevator and to the top floor of the LP11 Hotel.
Ji Yuanlin reserved the same seat as before, a semi-transparent terrace box overlooking the entire city. Because Shi Tian loved their dishes the most, the restaurant specially reserved a customized menu for the two of them, all of which were Shi Tian's favorite flavors.
Under the fountain in the restaurant, a cellist is playing Paganini gracefully. In the distance, commercial buildings are scattered and towering in the night sky. The night breeze blows past your face, and the swaying candlelight and fine wine are the most pleasant moments of the day.
After pouring red wine and clinking glasses gently in mid-air, Shi Tian heard Ji Yuanlin say, "Brother Shi, let's get married."
Shi Tian was not drunk at first, but he was stunned for a moment after hearing Ji Yuanlin's words.
He was silent for a moment, then turned his head slightly, with a slightly tipsy look on his face: "What did you call me?"
Ji Yuanlin did not answer him directly, but just lowered his voice: "Brother, you know, I have been waiting for this day for eight years."
The employees in the company call him Mr. Shi, while the elders and Ji Yuanlin usually call him Tiantian or Xiaotian. After he became an adult, few people call him that anymore.
This was what Ji Yuanlin called him when they were in high school.
Ji Yuanlin was one grade lower than him when he was in school. He would be shy whenever he saw him at school. His face flushed, and he didn't dare to call him by his full name. After a long while, he stammered, "Brother Shi".
Later, all the classmates in the class knew that Mr. Shi had a little follower in a lower grade, who followed him every day and called him "Brother Shi" and "Brother Shi" all the time.
He still remembered that Zhou Sifu was very upset with Ji Yuanlin's flattering behavior, so one day he gathered a few friends to block him in the alley and beat him up. As a result, he was given a serious warning by the school and had to write a 3,000-word self-criticism on the blackboard at the back of the classroom.
The familiar yet unfamiliar name flashed through his mind, and Shi Tian realized that his thoughts had drifted too far, and he seemed to be under the influence of alcohol.
Blown violently by the wind on the terrace, Shi Tian gradually regained consciousness.
He lowered his eyes, as if thinking for a moment, then raised his head and said to Ji Yuanlin slowly: "Alin, I want Fengyu to go public."
As if he didn't know why Shi Tian suddenly brought up this, Ji Yuanlin paused for a moment while holding the wine glass. Soon, he seemed to remember something and a fleeting
melancholy appeared between his
eyebrows.
“Why go public?”
After a while, Shi Tian heard Ji Yuanlin speak, his deep voice blending into the night behind him, "Feng Yu is financially stable now, and there is no shortage of financing. If we wait for capital to enter the market, our risk will only be higher than it is now."
Shi Tian was born in the financial industry and worked in the IPO business department of a well-known investment bank before quitting his job and starting his own business with his boyfriend. With the support of a professional background and connections, choosing the path of listing has more advantages than disadvantages for them.
But he could understand Ji Yuanlin's concerns. Ji Yuanlin was a technical person and was in charge of Fengyu's products and R&D. At the critical stage when the entire R&D department was overcoming technical difficulties, the rush to go public often led to the company's management making wrong operational decisions, which ultimately led to losses.
Thinking of this, Shi Tian smiled and did not continue the topic. He slowly raised his eyelids and met the gaze of the man in front of him, his eyes becoming brighter and brighter.
Shi Tian: "Then, when are we going to get the certificate?"
When Ji Yuanlin heard Shi Tian ask this, his breathing became disordered for a moment, and he couldn't believe his ears: "...Tiantian?"
"As long as the company's profits double in the first half of the year, we will get married." Shi Tian said, "Alin, I promised you."
After drinking the red wine in the glass, Shi Tian's slightly wrinkled brows slowly relaxed.
Just now, he suddenly felt a sense of relief and peace in his heart.
After eight years, three thousand days, and nights, he seemed to have finally chosen to reconcile with his past self.
--
After agreeing to Ji Yuanlin's proposal, Shi Tian thought he would get drunk, but in the end, he just drank a few more glasses than usual.
When he left the box halfway and went to the bathroom, he stopped and couldn't help but move his nose.
There was a faint fragrance in the air, which made people feel inexplicably familiar for some reason.
I was distracted for just a second, and a small figure rushed in from the revolving door of the restaurant, holding a delicious skewer in his hand.
He finally knew the source of the fragrance.
The delicious and fragrant grilled pork tendons used to cost only 50 cents each at the barbecue stall in front of the school. I could eat so much of them in my pocket that I couldn’t finish them during an evening study session.
The little kid who rushed in from the revolving door lost his balance and tripped over the low steps covered with red carpet at the entrance, and was about to fall to the ground.
Shi Tian still remembers similar scenes vividly. He also fell like this when he was a child, knocking out half of his front teeth on the stairs, and was ridiculed by his classmates for several months.
He took a quick step forward, ready to open his arms to catch the child, but he didn't expect that the child would not forget to hold on to the skewers in his hands while falling into his arms.
The little boy and the barbecued meat fell into Shi Tian's arms together, and the spicy oil splashed on his entire collar.
The little boy slammed on the brakes on the spot and found that the uncle's suit was covered with stains left by chili oil.
With a hissing sound, he took several steps back.
"No, sorry—"
Seeing the little boy standing there with his face flushed and ears red, looking like he was about to cry, Shi Tian originally wanted to say it was okay, but when he saw the boy's appearance, he also froze there.
The boy's cheeks were white and tender, and when he blushed, they looked like a ripe peach. He looked very much like someone he knew when he was a child, almost like they were carved from the same mold.
At this moment, the revolving door on the other side opened, and the French manager came in with a man and a woman and earnestly introduced the restaurant's dishes to them.
Seeing someone coming not far away, the little boy seemed to have found reinforcements.
Raising his hand to wipe his nose, he stood there and cried loudly: "Master Zhou - I'm in trouble again!"