AADWFL Chapter 12

“Haven’t you been staring at it for ages? Don’t you want to eat it?” Yu Xiuming asked again when An Ning just sat there frozen, not moving his chopsticks. His voice carried a trace of teasing — restrained, but unmistakable. “You barely ate anything at all. Not hungry?”

Hungry — of course he was.

An Ning cursed inwardly, picked up a rib, and placed it in his bowl. Then, belatedly flustered, he stammered, “You… I… I really was looking at it for that long?”

He did vaguely recall glancing that way several times — it was his favorite dish, after all. Sitting right there in front of him, so close and yet just out of reach, how could he not look?

He’d thought he’d hidden it well.

But if Yu Xiuming had noticed… did that mean Xu Jianan and Yu Linshan had seen it too?

That thought alone made his scalp prickle.

Completely unguarded now, An Ning’s thoughts were plain on his face. Yu Xiuming watched him and found it oddly amusing. “Relax,” he said calmly. “Only I noticed. Everyone else was too busy with their own thoughts to care about you.”

Those words finally put him at ease.

An Ning smiled sincerely, lowered his head, and began eating — grateful that this table full of fine dishes had, by a twist of fate, ended up in his stomach instead of being wasted.

After briefly joking with him, Yu Xiuming returned to his earlier, wordless state. Other than telling An Ning not to be so restrained and to move around as he pleased if he wanted to eat something else, he said nothing more.

At that moment, the faint air of gloom surrounding Yu Xiuming — compared to Xu Jianan’s suffocating warmth — was actually easier for An Ning to handle.

So he stayed quiet and indulged himself in the feast before him.

Tao Kang, having eaten more than An Ning earlier, finished first. Seeing that Yu Xiuming’s glass of red wine was once again nearly empty, he smiled and asked, “Would you like some more wine?”

Then he tilted his head and gave An Ning a look.

An Ning, quick to catch on, stood up and picked up the bottle, waiting only for Yu Xiuming’s response.

“No need. I’m full — I’ll go upstairs to rest for a while.” Yu Xiuming declined politely, then put down his chopsticks and stood.

As both pairs of eyes followed him, Yu Xiuming slowly ascended the staircase to the second floor.

His bedroom was up there. Each time he came back here for a meal, he would usually stay for the day, often taking a nap in the Jialin Garden at noon. Because of that, his bedroom had always been kept in its original condition — ready for his return at any time.

But no one had expected the situation to turn out like this today.

An Ning wasn’t quite full yet, and since Yu Xiuming had told him to eat at ease, he looked toward Tao Kang, who didn’t show any intention of asking him to follow upstairs. So An Ning gave up the idea of going after Yu Xiuming right away.

Still, watching that familiar, upright figure walk away, An Ning suddenly felt a pang of loneliness — a deep, heavy solitude.

—

After the meal, the servants came to clear the table. Tao Kang took An Ning upstairs for a quick tour before telling him to go rest as well.

“When you two used to come back before, you shared a suite — though I know you weren’t actually resting, just working overtime together.” Tao Kang gave An Ning a long, knowing look, then pushed open the door to a room next to Yu Xiuming’s. “No one’s stayed here. Make do with this room for now. He’s probably tired today. Let him unwind a bit — don’t think about work for now.”

An Ning thanked him. Seeing the weariness on Tao Kang’s face, he realized the man had also been stressed over the family luncheon these past few days. He expressed his appreciation and obediently entered the room.

After eating well, one naturally gets sleepy — not just animals, but people too.

Yawning, An Ning was convinced that no one in the world could be one hundred percent immune to sleep after a good meal. He certainly wasn’t.

The room’s layout was almost identical to Yu Xiuming’s — all amenities in place. When An Ning opened the closet, he even found neatly folded pajamas and well-fitted suits ready to wear.

He thought for a moment, then changed into a smoky-gray loungewear set, sprawled across the bed, turned his phone’s ringer to max, set an alarm, and closed his eyes to nap a little.

For someone as busy as him, a midday nap was a luxury. At work, though his office suite had a rest room and a bed, he could count on one hand the times he’d actually used them. Unless he had to stay overnight, they were practically just decoration.

So, even as drowsiness washed over him in waves, his biological clock refused to yield — he couldn’t fall asleep.

He lay there with his eyes closed until his thirty-minute alarm rang. With a sigh, An Ning shut it off and slowly sat up.

Flipping through his phone, he found no work messages requiring attention. Bored, he lingered another hour before changing clothes and stepping out, thinking he might check whether Tao Kang was awake and if there was anything he could help with.

But the moment he opened the door, he noticed — the lights downstairs were on.

The soundproofing in the bedroom suites was excellent — top tier, really.
An Ning had been awake in his room for quite some time, yet he hadn’t realized that at some point, Yu Xiuming had come out of his bedroom and was now downstairs, talking on the phone.

An Ning quickly went downstairs. The familiar, low and somber voice slipped into his ears before he could stop it, and no matter how he tried, he couldn’t avoid hearing every word.

“Just this once. There won’t be a next time.”

The voice was cold — but if one listened closely, there was a trace of helplessness too, and a tightly restrained anger beneath it.

Standing halfway down the stairs, An Ning hesitated.
He had the uneasy feeling that he’d just overheard something he definitely wasn’t supposed to.

He waited a bit longer. It seemed that was the end of the conversation, because after that, Yu Xiuming hung up.

Standing frozen on the staircase forever clearly wasn’t an option. After some thought, An Ning decided to go down.

In the living room downstairs, Yu Xiuming stood in front of a grand piano, his back to the staircase.

His figure, lonely and composed, made An Ning’s chest ache faintly.

Hearing movement from the stairs, the man slowly turned around. His expression, however, was far calmer than An Ning had imagined — like the sea after a storm, perfectly still. He even gave An Ning a faint smile.

“Awake?”

Yu Xiuming was, without question, a strikingly handsome man. An Ning had realized that on his very first day in this world.

And after meeting Yu Linshan and Xu Jianan earlier that day, he had to admit — their son had inherited the best of both. Xu Jianan was a beautiful woman; Yu Linshan, a man of refinement and poise.

But still, An Ning couldn’t help but think — Yu Xiuming’s face was the Creator’s proudest masterpiece born of that union.

When expressionless, he was as sharp and cold as a mountain peak; when he smiled, he was like a soft spring breeze brushing one’s skin.

An Ning’s heart gave a sudden tremor.

It was as if, in that brief moment of eye contact, a seed quietly took root inside him.

“Still half-asleep?” Yu Xiuming’s voice came out a little hoarse, and after clearing his throat, it softened again. “Or do you want to keep sleeping?”

He glanced at his watch. “It’s still early. We don’t have anything pressing today. If you’re tired, go lie down again — it’s fine.”

“N-no, I’m good.”
An Ning’s ears tingled at that rare, faint rasp in Yu Xiuming’s voice — warm, gentle, almost teasing — and he hurried to confess, “President Yu, I hope I didn’t interrupt your call?”

“It’s fine.” Yu Xiuming smiled faintly. Weariness flickered between his brows — not directed at An Ning, but at something else entirely. “It’s done. There’s a reception next week at the Baishating Club. You’ll come with me.”

In an instant, he’d switched back into work mode. The atmosphere snapped back to its familiar, professional rhythm.

An Ning nodded. “Yes, sir. Will you be staying here for dinner tonight?”

According to the original plan, that awkward “family reunion” was supposed to cover both lunch and dinner — but with how things had turned out, no one could predict what would happen next. An Ning felt obliged to ask.

“I’ll have dinner with Uncle Kang before heading out,” Yu Xiuming replied, as if the earlier tension had never happened. Then, smoothly, he moved to the next topic: “The agenda from yesterday’s meeting — most of those items are under your supervision. Don’t forget.”

“Understood.”

When Yu Xiuming discussed business, he was composed, severe, and utterly focused.
If An Ning hadn’t just heard that tired, hoarse note in his voice, he might have believed this man truly never grew weary.

Yet for some reason, An Ning’s chest tightened.

This was Jialin Garden — Yu Xiuming’s home in name, at least.
But over lunch, both parents had left midway, abandoning even the pretense of civility in front of an outsider like An Ning — let alone considering their son’s feelings.

Family affection, it seemed, was the first casualty in wealthy households, where material luxury only made emotional coldness more striking.

An Ning couldn’t explain it, but his heart felt heavy.

—

It wasn’t until two days later that An Ning learned the truth:
the phone call he had overheard that day had been from Xu Jianan.

And that reception Yu Xiuming was invited to — it wasn’t quite the same as the business banquets he usually attended.

Before they even arrived, An Ning knew it was being held under the name of a charity gala — drawing in a crowd of celebrities, investors, and editors from major fashion magazines.

Such events were common in entertainment circles, and Yu Xiuming had received many similar invitations in the past — though he almost never accepted them.

The Yusheng Group’s business empire was vast, and while it did have some dealings in the entertainment industry, it wasn’t a primary focus. As chairman, Yu Xiuming rarely spent much time on that sector. Normally, invitations of this kind were politely declined.
But this time, inexplicably, he agreed to attend.

“President Yu, is there something important about this reception?”

The event started at eight in the evening — perfectly convenient for his schedule. For someone like Yu Xiuming, this was routine, and An Ning was used to it.

Still, he couldn’t help wondering about the reason behind attending such a meaningless party.
In all the business banquets he’d gone to with Yu Xiuming before, not once had it ever been “just for fun.”

“Nothing important,” Yu Xiuming said — and his next words left An Ning stunned.
“A blind date.”

Those two syllables fell from Yu Xiuming’s lips so calmly it was almost surreal.
An Ning froze for two seconds, then a wave of pure shock crashed over him.

A blind date?
Yu Xiuming — on a blind date?

Realizing his reaction was far too obvious, An Ning scrambled to rein in his thoughts, forcing himself to stay composed. “President Yu, you—?”

“Xu Jianan arranged it,” Yu Xiuming said flatly. “She said if I don’t show up this time, she’ll call me every day to nag about it.”

“I see…”

“Her friend’s daughter — Yi Mingwei. She entered the entertainment industry last year as an actress. She’ll be at the reception tonight.”

Short, precise — and An Ning immediately understood.

Yu Xiuming wasn’t actually interested in dating anyone.
He was just tired of Xu Jianan’s persistence, so he’d decided to attend once to get her off his back.

“There’ll be a lot of people at an event like that — it could get messy if something happens,” An Ning said cautiously, after thinking it over.

There are far too many people in the entertainment industry who make a living off spreading rumors.

Even if someone simply caught a photo of Yu Xiuming clinking glasses and chatting happily with a female celebrity, countless gossip articles would pop up, convincing netizens that it was a “confirmed relationship.”

Of course, Yu Xiuming could easily buy out the photos and control the public opinion if he wanted to — but even so, extra caution was still necessary.

“I understand,” Yu Xiuming nodded.

An Ning waited, expecting Yu Xiuming to share his plan of action. After several seconds of awkward silence, he realized that Yu Xiuming had already finished speaking.

He couldn’t very well ask for more, so he could only assume his boss knew what he was doing.

But the next day, when Yu Xiuming told him to gather information on Yi Mingwei — her works, her agency, her manager, her current projects, and her resource status — An Ning was genuinely surprised.

The seriousness in Yu Xiuming’s tone and gaze made it clear that the man wasn’t just casually giving an order.

Yet Yu Xiuming gave him no chance to ask what his real intentions were.

And honestly, An Ning didn’t have the right to ask anyway.

So even when they arrived at the Baishating Club, his head was still buzzing, thoughts crashing into each other.