Chapter 12

The document on the desk said ‘severance package’. Lin JunYi gazed at it for a few seconds before opening it and skimming through the contents.

Closing it, he smiled deeply. “President, isn’t this a bit too much?”

Xie Xian gazed at him impassively. The tall and handsome man was framed by the gold and orange colors of the setting sun outside the floor length windows. He pressed his fingers together and gazed at the beautiful young man sitting across from him. Lin JunYi was wearing a navy, pinstripe suit. His legs were crossed and his gold-rimmed glasses were perched delicately on his nose. 

“After all, I’ve only been here for a few months…”

Xie Xian said quietly, “If you want to, you can also take it as a break up fee.”

Lin JunYi laughed. The sound was like bells tinkling and scratching at Xie Xian’s heart. He could only turn his head and look out the window. 

“Then, it’ll be my honor to receive it,” Lin JunYi didn’t bother to demur further. “Since it means that at some point, the President and I were in a relationship right? President, so does that mean I can call you my ex-boyfriend?”

“If you like.”

Lin JunYi twirled the pen around his slender fingers and then looked up suddenly. “President, is everything going well between you and Mr Chen? He’s moved back to the villa right?”

“Yes. Everything is going well... thanks to you.”

“You won’t forget what I told you before, right? You can’t be too clingy? You have to give him space and let him breathe? If he goes into one of his musical funks, just to leave him alone until he comes to seek you out himself? But occasionally now and again do a few romantic things to surprise him when he least expects it?”

“Yes, I know.”

“That’s good…” Lin JunYi smiled deeply. “You know, if President wants, I don’t mind being your underground lover now and again. I can provide good sex and good advice, double service!”

Xie Xian closed his eyes. “That’s not what I want.”

"Haha, I was just kidding." Lin JunYi really was only just teasing him.  He was someone that didn't have many morals but he really didn't have the habit of disturbing people in happy relationships. After all he had so many options already; why pursue the one which would bring so much drama and trouble? If it wasn't for the sake of the mission, then he probably wouldn't even go near people in unhappy relationships either... 

Anyway, he was doing this to help them and now it seems everything was back on the right track.

“All right then.” Uncapping the pen, Lin JunYi signed on the dotted line with a flourish. He then pushed the document back across the table towards Xie Xian. “Well President, I suppose this is goodbye. It was nice working with you.”

He stretched his hand across the table. Sensing it, Xie Xian’s eyes popped open.

Almost as if he were reluctant, his eyes slid back across the table and once again looked into those gorgeous eyes that looked as though they could hook your soul and drag it straight out from your body.

He extended his own hand slowly and touched Lin JunYi’s. The young man’s hand was cool and soft, the touch of the skin scratched as his heart, recalling to mind countless untold pleasures…

Xie Xian clenched his teeth, shook Lin JunYi’s hand decisively and then forced himself to look away. “Take care.”

“Take care.” Lin JunYi stood up and left the office without a backwards look. After closing Xie Xian’s door, his hand fell down beside his body.

A faint heat from that man still lingered there…

Lin JunYi lifted his feet and slowly walked out of the building, into a world lit up by the gorgeous colors of sunset.

He looked up and the wind brushed through his hair, tousling his bangs and caressing his face.

***

When he got back to his apartment, he was met with an expected but at the same time still very unwelcome visitor.

When he saw Sun YuZhu, Lin JunYi paused and asked in his head, “By the way, 729, is it too late to renege on rejecting that golden finger?”

“Huh? What golden finger?”

“Mmmm… like super hacking skills or super strength.”

729 twiddled its thumbs and said regretfully, “Sorry host, I don’t have any functions like that available right now.”

“Ah well,” Lin JunYi guessed as much. “Well I'm always hoping to play life on hard mode so I suppose this is karma.”

He then walked towards the apartment. When Sun YuZhu saw him, he immediately threw away the cigarette he was smoking. Walking up to Lin JunYi, he snatched him around the arm and began to drag him away. “Come with me.”

Lin JunYi obediently allowed himself to be dragged. As he did he saw several other men whom he vaguely recognized as bodyguards from the original host’s memories appear in and follow them. Sun YuZhu eventually dragged him to the underground parking lot of the apartment building. 

After that he shoved Lin JunYi to the ground. One of his men fished through Lin JunYi’s pocket, found his phone and smashed it to the ground. He then stepped back and withdrew to a respectable distance.

“Zhou Yi!” Su YuZhu barked. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

Lin JunYi rubbed his hip after being thrown violently down. “Third Young Master, what do you mean? I followed all your instructions. Or are you angry that I got fired by Xie Xian? Well that was kinda beyond my control…”

“You got fired by Xie Xian?!” Sun YuZhu looked at him disbelievingly. “Why? Even though you climbed into his bed?”

Lin JunYi sat cross-legged on the ground. He said thoughtfully, “Well it’s probably because he got back together with Chen Heng. Wives really can’t tolerate mistresses, you know.”

“You- you really slept with him!?”

Lin JunYi smiled. He realized that until he said this Sun YuZhu really hadn’t believed it. The words he said before were just to test him. After thinking about it, Lin JunYi thought it made sense. After all, the original host’s ‘setting’ was a loyal and faithful dog to the Sun family. He was so obsessed with Sun YuZhu that he was willing to commit arson and murder for him. So the fact that he could casually sleep around with Sun YuZhu’s love rival was probably something beyond the male lead’s comprehension.

So Lin JunYi lowered his eyes and said, “Yes.”

The next second Sun YuZhu slapped him. He slapped him so hard that Lin JunYi saw stars. Then Sun YuZhu grabbed his collar, dragged him up and then slapped him again from the other side. He was yelling, “You fucking slut! Are you so desperate to have a cock between your legs that any man will do?! You actually dared to sleep with Xie Xian?! How dare you do something like that without my say so!”

Lin JunYi gritted his teeth. He really wanted to kick the male lead in the balls right now but looking at the three bodyguards he had with him, he could only restrain himself. Instead he gasped, spat out blood from his mouth and muttered in a low voice, “The reason I did something like that… isn’t it for you?”

“What?!” Sun YuZhu raged. “When did I ever tell you to do something like that?!”

“Didn’t you ask me to plant the material about the pyramid company into Xie Xian’s financial records? I’m his personal secretary! Do you think the company’s financial records are available to anybody? It’s so easy just to get access to it?! You don’t think I had to do a few things, exchange a few favors?!”

Actually the original host hadn’t done anything like that, which was also something that didn’t really make much sense to Lin JunYi. A huge conglomerate like Tianya Pharmaceutical hiring a personal secretary of dubious background for the President and even entrusting him with such top level access to information - did that make sense? Although Sun YuZhu had done a few things to manipulate Zhou Yi’s education and work experience, it didn’t make sense that Tianya didn’t have a comprehensive and thorough way to vet candidate’s backgrounds. So Lin JunYi could only once again chalk this up to the world’s ‘setting’ helping to move along the storyline between the protagonists.

But now that he said this, it also seemed to strike Sun YuZhu as well. He gritted his teeth and repeated, “Then you should have asked me for permission! Something like this is not the kind of decision a dog like you has the qualifications to make!” When he said this, he stepped hard on Lin JunYi’s splayed fingers on the ground, making him hiss in pain.

Lin JunYi began to laugh and cry suddenly. The sound was extremely maniacal. This was actually in line with the original Zhou Yi’s personality. He was an extremely repressed man who while crazily obsessing over the Third Young Master beneath the surface, acted humble and obedient outwardly. Of course a couple of times his perverse interest had been accidentally exposed to Sun YuZhu. Over the last few years, Sun YuZhu had even occasionally encouraged his obsession by giving him a few “treats” here and again, like how you’d give a bone to a dog, to keep him dangling on the hook. He was Sun YuZhu’s most loyal follower but at the same time, he was somewhat mentally unstable and it wasn’t beyond belief that he’d fly off the hook.

“What are you laughing at?!” Sun YuZhu demanded.

With his face pressed against the dirty concrete floor, Lin JunYi muttered, “The reason that Third Young Master gave me this mission… was it because you wanted to obtain Mr Chen Heng?”

Sun YuZhu froze. His eyes moved quickly as the cogs in his brain turned. When he’d given Zhou Yi the mission to sabotage Xie Xian’s company, he hadn’t said anything about Chen Heng. Although this man looked unruffled on the surface, Sun YuZhu was well aware that he had tendencies towards being unstable. He didn’t want him to target Chen Heng if he found out about his interest in the other person. “So what if it is?! Is that any of your business?”

Lin JunYi said, “Since that’s the case, isn’t it better that I seduce Xie Xian? That way, Third Young Master will be able to chase Chen Heng successfully.”

“You really want me to believe that you did this for me?”

“Other than for you… what other reason do I have?”

Sun YuZhu paused. It was true. Zhou Yi was an orphan who was taken in by the Sun family. Other than serving them, he shouldn’t have any other desires… there was no real reason for him to act in such a way. Not unless he actually… towards Xie Xian… 

Sun YuZhu grimaced and pushed away the thoughts. No, that was impossible. He couldn’t, or wasn’t willing to, consider that.

Breathing slightly slower, he raised his foot and lifted it off Lin JunYi’s body. He laughed coldly. “Well, it seemed like you weren’t very successful. Xie Xian threw you out like a used shoe after he was done with you, didn’t he? You fucking disgust me.”

Lin JunYi didn’t reply.

Sun YuZhu lit up another cigarette. “At least you managed to plant the materials and weren’t totally useless. But as for making decisions on your own and not answering my phone calls, you really need to be punished so you know who you belong to.” He squatted down and lifted up Lin JunYi’s face. Then he pressed the lit up cigarette tip against Lin JunYi’s collar, burning the tender flesh there. “Zhou Yi… now that I look at you like this… you really do look like a slut.”

He stood up again and commanded, “Suck me off.”

A flash went through Lin JunYi’s eyes. Actually Zhou Yi had indeed performed his service for Sun YuZhu before, although they hadn’t taken it any further than that. Lin JunYi himself also didn’t have any problem with oral sex.

It was only that… this kind of situation… with a man who treated him like this… he really didn’t want to.

It really just wasn’t his style.

729 said worriedly in his mind, “Ho-host, what are you going to do?”

Lin JunYi said quietly. “Third Young Master, hasn’t the Big Boss already told you that I’m withdrawing from the family?”

Sun YuZhu’s eyes flashed. He had indeed heard it from his father but he hadn’t wanted to believe it. “Who gave you permission to do something like that!”

In actual fact the Sun family’s side branch had long been trying to get rid of their criminal background and go down a more legitimate pathway. Of course every time their businesses ran into any problems, they didn’t mind dipping back into their old bag of tricks to solve them but overall they were no longer a criminal organization. So when Lin JunYi had contacted the family head and offered him money to retire, he’d agreed easily. After all, Zhou Yi had been assigned to serve Sun YuZhu since he was a child and so didn’t know much inside information about the family’s dealings.

“You want to leave me?!” Sun YuZhu looked at him with dangerous eyes. “Zhou Yi, what gives you the guts?!”

“April 3rd, 20XX.”

This date, from three years ago, made Sun YuZhu freeze. 

“That day you went to a hotel and you met your uncle’s daughter right? She was 16, the same age as you at the time.” Lin JunYi spoke quite softly, so only he and Sun YuZhu could hear.

“Zhou Yi…” Sun YuZhu spoke in a strangled tone. He looked sideways at his bodyguards who were standing a little bit of a distance away.

“You’d met up a few times before that too. You even wrote a song dedicated to her, but of course you didn’t dare reveal it straightforwardly and used her pet name instead. After all, if the family head found out you’d been fooling around with his precious daughter and even got her, your first cousin, pregnant, it’s unknown how he’d react. Not only against you but even against your father.”

“Zhou Yi you fucking bastard! If you dare tell anyone- I’ll kill you. I can kill you right now!” Sun YuZhu hissed but he didn’t dare raise his voice.

“I’ve uploaded the photos from that day and even the medical records for her abortion procedure is in my computer already. Right now, if I don’t check my email once a day to cancel it, it will automatically send the next day.”

Zhou Yi had indeed collected his information before. It was all part of his stalking campaign against Sun YuZhu. 

“Are you threatening me?! Zhou Yi, you really fucking dare?!”

Lin JunYi narrowed his eyes as he stared at Sun YuZhu who was so infuriated his entire face was red. “Third Young Master, since you’ve found someone you like and don’t intend to return my feelings, can’t you let me go?”

Sun YuZhu stared at him, chest heaving.

“Right now, considering all the things I’ve done for you, I’ve repaid my debt to the Sun family. Your father and older brother also agree. As long as you leave me alone, I won’t ever do anything that will harm the Third Young Master or the Sun family. Begging the Third Young Master to let me go!”

This was the most OOC statement that Lin JunYi had made thus far to Sun YuZhu. According to the original Zhou Yi’s character, he would never voluntarily leave Sun YuZhu. Thankfully Lin JunYi wasn’t at all compelled to follow the original’s terrible decisions. As for Sun YuZhu, right now he was just a 19 year old kid. Lin JunYi was still more than capable of handling someone like that.

Sun YuZhu stared at him disbelievingly. Finally he hissed in a terrible voice, “Zhou Yi, this isn’t the end! Don’t think you can just get off like this!”

Throwing down these words, he turned his heel and left. 

After that there was the screeching of car tyres as his black Mercedes Benz peeled out of the parking lot. Lin JunYi stared at him dispassionately. Rather than waste time trussing me about, shouldn’t you be chasing your true love back?

He laughed a little to himself. Then he went upstairs to wash up.

***

A/N: Again sorry for the lateness in uploading! Please don't give up on the story, all your comments are so encouraging~!