ALCSRB Chapter 29

The office door was half open, and the two people inside had no idea anyone was standing outside.

Du Zhihe had absolutely no clue that he had mistaken the person in front of him. His handsome face was flushed red, but his eyes shone with sincerity as he looked at the boy before him, whose delicate features seemed to check every box of his preferences.

In his 25 years of life, he had never felt this way about anyone. He thought he was destined to spend the rest of his life with video games, until today—when he suddenly fell head over heels at first sight.

Yes, it was love at first sight.

He never believed in such silly things before, but now that it had happened to him, he believed in it with all his heart.

Those long lashes, fluttering ever so gently, felt like they were brushing against his heart. His chest was pounding so hard it felt like it might burst.

And those clear, bright eyes—so beautiful and mesmerizing. Being looked at by them, Du Zhihe felt like the happiest person in the world.

Then there were those small, pale pink lips—so tender and inviting, they made him want to take a bite.

No, you have to control yourself. You must restrain yourself.

You can’t give someone the impression that you’re a pervert the first time you meet them.

Du Zhihe forced himself to tear his gaze away from those lips and quietly swallowed.

How can someone look this good?

“I mean it sincerely.” Du Zhihe lowered his eyes again, this time letting them rest on Jiang Mingyi’s delicate-looking collarbones.

Ah—why didn’t he button his shirt properly?

Oh—it must be because he knew I was coming and did it on purpose.

Du Zhihe’s Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. His rationality was quickly being swept away by the flood of emotions, and he hurriedly shifted his gaze again.

Thankfully, the shirt was tucked into the suit pants, so he could only see that slim waist.

So narrow.

Crap, his fingers are starting to itch.

He quickly hid his hands behind his back and squeezed his fingertips hard.

“This morning, when I heard that you criticized my game for having bugs and wanted to renegotiate the partnership, I was really mad. That’s why I barged into your office—I didn’t mean to slam the door.”

Du Zhihe kept his head down. Now, he only dared to look at the other person’s leather shoes. But even then, his imagination ran wild—he couldn’t help but wonder if the feet inside those shoes were just as delicate and pretty. He had this uncontrollable urge to touch and play with them.

Jiang Mingyi had absolutely no idea what this guy was talking about. The whole thing felt absurd.

Especially since that face kept shifting expressions like a Peking Opera mask—he was amazed by the performance.

Jiang Mingyi thought for a moment. “You better leave now, or else my—”

He hadn’t even finished saying the word “brother” when the man across from him suddenly grabbed both of his hands.

He tried to pull away, but couldn’t.

“……”

“Are you worried about me? Afraid people will find out about our relationship?” Du Zhihe looked utterly touched, completely missing the expression on the other man’s face that screamed ‘Are you insane?’ He continued on as if he hadn’t noticed, “Don’t worry, I’ll talk to my brother in a bit. Our Du and Shen families can have a marriage alliance. That way, our families can cooperate even better, and there’s no need to care who makes more profit. After all, what’s yours is mine, and what’s mine is yours.”

Outside the door, Chairman Du forced an awkward smile at Shen Xingyan as he heard those words. “President Shen, my younger brother plays too many video games. Sometimes his mind gets a little… imaginative.”

“Chairman Du’s brother has a thought process that’s truly unmatched.” Shen Xingyan’s voice darkened, a distinct chill creeping in.

Chairman Du could only respond with a restrained smile. He couldn’t exactly say that his brother sometimes talks like a lunatic.

Thinking about how he always had to clean up his brother’s messes, he really felt like raising this younger brother was no different from raising a son.

Well, given that there was a twenty-year age gap between them, it really was like raising a son.

Ignoring Chairman Du’s expressive face, Shen Xingyan directly pushed open the office door and walked in.

“Young Master Du, if you have so much free time, maybe go back and fix your bugs.”

Shen Xingyan swept a blank gaze over the dazed youth who had frozen upon his appearance. When he saw the two still holding hands so intimately, his pupils darkened sharply.

Jiang Mingyi followed his gaze to their clasped hands. Realizing how misleading the gesture was, he immediately withdrew his hand and slipped past Du Zhihe to stand beside Shen Xingyan.

“Ge.” He called softly, looking adorably obedient.

Shen Xingyan glanced at the hand clutching his shirt and his expression softened slightly.

Watching the person he loved disappear from in front of him and hide behind another man, Du Zhihe felt a pang of jealousy. Just as he was about to show off his charm, he heard that term of address and immediately changed his tune.

“Ge? So you’re Xingyan’s older brother?”

He plastered on a smile and tried to approach with a friendly tone, but froze when met with the man’s cold and indifferent gaze.

Oh dear, this older brother doesn’t seem easy to deal with.

Would he stand in the way of his marriage alliance with Shen Xingyan?

Shen Xingyan and Jiang Mingyi had no idea what was going on in this guy’s head, so they naturally didn’t know how far off the deep end he’d gone with his delusions.

But Chairman Du, who knew his younger brother all too well, could instantly tell what kind of nonsense was running through his mind.

Not wanting decades of partnership between Tiancheng Group and the Shen Corporation to be destroyed by this, Chairman Du quickly grabbed his brother’s hand and pulled him aside.

At the same time, he made introductions. “Zhihe, this is President Shen, Shen Xingyan.”

“I know, this is Shen Xingyan.” Since Jiang Mingyi and Shen Xingyan were standing so close together, Chairman Du’s introduction felt a bit redundant to Du Zhihe.

“And the other one must be Shen Xingyan’s older brother, so that would be Chairman Shen.” He even thoughtfully assigned the man a title.

Jiang Mingyi had been on guard against this guy, but now he was simply in awe of how wild this young man’s imagination was.

Does he even know what he’s saying?

Did he seriously mistake me for Shen Xingyan?

No wonder his brother has a whole storm cloud hanging over him—his handsome face alone looks downright scary.

Jiang Mingyi snuck another glance at Shen Xingyan. The moment he looked up, he met a pair of pitch-black, intense eyes.

That feeling of being caught red-handed… far too familiar.

Jiang Mingyi tried to say something to ease the awkward atmosphere in the office, when—smack! A loud sound rang out.

Turns out Chairman Du had smacked the younger man on the head.

It was quite the smack—sounded like slapping a watermelon.

Chairman Du looked utterly exasperated as he explained to his little brother, “You idiot, Director Shen is Shen Xingyan’s father.” When did this guy get so “talented” at misidentifying people?

“Huh?” Du Zhihe blinked after the smack, his brain clearly buffering. He stared dazedly at the two men in front of him.

One of them was ridiculously handsome, the other stunningly pretty—how on earth were they father and son?

When did the world get this magical?

Or maybe it was his brother whose brain wasn’t functioning today?

Du Zhihe gave his brother a skeptical look and furrowed his brow.

“Bro, you’re not mistaken, are you?” He pointed at the tall, striking man. “This guy looks way too young and hot to be Xingyan’s dad.”

Didn’t Xingyan just call him “brother” earlier?

Chairman Du: “……”

Shen Xingyan: “……”

Jiang Mingyi: “… Pfft—hahaha!”

Jiang Mingyi finally realized just how wild this guy’s thought process was. Not only did he mix people up, but he also randomly assigned them identities.

If his actual dad knew he’d magically been aged down by twenty years, he’d probably die of happiness.

Holding his stomach, Jiang Mingyi couldn’t hold back his laughter, which echoed through the office.

Shen Xingyan’s temple twitched a few times. With an icy expression, he grabbed the hand Jiang Mingyi had been using to support himself against him.

Leaning against Shen Xingyan, Jiang Mingyi finally managed to stop laughing.

Du Zhihe hesitated. “Uhh…” Should he be calling him Dad now? Or Big Brother-in-law?

Eh, whatever.

Grinning, Du Zhihe turned excitedly to his brother and said, “Bro, I want to date Shen Xingyan. That means we’ll be one big family!”

It was like he dropped a bomb—Chairman Du was completely dumbfounded.

He looked at Shen Xingyan’s darkened face, then at his love-struck little brother, and covered his face with a hand.

What the hell was going on?

Jiang Mingyi was being publicly pursued—wrong identity or not, it was still hilarious.

Biting his lower lip, he struggled to keep a straight face and gently rejected him: “But Shen Xingyan doesn’t want to date you.” Then, with a sly smile, he threw him a subtle eye-dagger.

Shen Xingyan’s sharp gaze shifted from Du Zhihe to Jiang Mingyi.

Jiang Mingyi shrank his neck under the intensity of that look.

Meanwhile, Du Zhihe remained completely unaware of the weird tension in the air. Staring at Jiang Mingyi with deep affection, he declared, “Don’t reject me. I sincerely, genuinely like you.”

At this point, Chairman Du finally realized that his unreliable little brother had mistaken the person.

Shen Xingyan, trying to suppress the growing anger inside him, spoke with a cold tone, “Chairman Du, I think you’d better teach him how to recognize people before letting him out.”

“My apologies, President Shen.” Chairman Du yanked his clueless little brother over. “This is President Shen, and that is his younger brother.”
You idiot, stop embarrassing your brother already.

“Ugh!”

Du Zhihe’s eyes widened as he looked back and forth between the cold, stern man and the smiling object of his affection.

With an indignant pout, he said, “Bro, this is all your fault. You could’ve introduced them properly. Now I’ve left a bad impression on my future brother-in-law. How awkward!”

“Brother-in-law, let me reintroduce myself—I’m Du Zhihe, and I—”

“Qin Hao, see them out.” A cold voice abruptly cut off his self-introduction. Shen Xingyan didn’t show a shred of mercy as he issued the eviction order.

Qin Hao: “Chairman Du, this way please.”

Chairman Du knew today’s situation was getting way too embarrassing.

“President Shen, let’s discuss the partnership another time. We’ll take our leave for now.”

“Don’t! I haven’t even exchanged contact info with my beloved yet! Bro, you’re my own brother—just because you’ve got yourself a wife doesn’t mean you can ruin my chance at love—!”

Du Zhihe’s protest faded into the distance.

“That guy is hilarious. How could he possibly mistake me for you? And then he said he wanted to date Shen Xingyan! Hahaha…”

Jiang Mingyi was still chuckling to himself when he was suddenly yanked over by someone.

His elbow hit the office desk as he tilted his head up slightly—only to come face to face with Shen Xingyan’s dark and stormy expression.

“Is it that funny?” The man’s voice was low, laced with suppressed fury. His usually calm, dark eyes brimmed with unreadable emotion.

Jiang Mingyi’s laughter came to an abrupt stop. “Not funny at all. Not one bit. How could anyone be that dumb?”

“Are you angry, ge?” he asked cautiously, trying to read the man’s expression. “Honestly, he just mistook me for someone else. It’s not worth getting mad over something so small.”

“Small? He said he wanted to date you. You think that’s a small matter?”

“Uh…” Jiang Mingyi faltered for a second. “He was just talking nonsense. Who confesses to a stranger the first time they meet? Maybe it’s a new business tactic from Tiancheng Group—they probably want to gain favor with our Shen Group.”

“Tiancheng Group is really shady. They must’ve realized we found a bug in their game, so they’re trying to distract us. Classic diversion tactic.”

Jiang Mingyi mentally gave himself a pat on the back.

What a brilliant business mind I have.

“Right, ge? I’m not wrong, am I?”

The fire in Shen Xingyan’s chest couldn’t hold up against Jiang Mingyi’s wild, rambling analysis—especially when the boy blinked at him with an eager, “please praise me” look on his face.

His anger suddenly felt… out of place.

He composed his expression, withdrew the arms that had pinned the boy in place, and straightened up.

“If you ever run into someone that shady again, just ignore him.”

“Huh? Why?”

Jiang Mingyi saw him walking toward his office chair and asked in confusion.

Shen Xingyan picked up a document and started signing it, his voice devoid of emotion. “I’m afraid your already not-so-bright brain will catch his stupidity and get even dumber.”

Jiang Mingyi: “…”

—

Because of the incident that morning, the scheduled cooperation meeting in the afternoon had to be rescheduled.

With nothing to do, Jiang Mingyi propped his chin in one hand, halfheartedly chatting with Pei Shiqing on WeChat. Suddenly, a friend request popped up.

“Baby, it’s me, Du Zhihe.”

Jiang Mingyi frowned slightly, his eyes pausing on the name Du Zhihe. He glanced secretly at Shen Xingyan, who was fully immersed in his work.

He tapped “accept” with a light press of his index finger.

Almost immediately, Du Zhihe sent a message.

[Du Zhihe]: Baby, I miss you so much. Do you miss me?

The corner of Jiang Mingyi’s mouth twitched. This guy is way too shameless.

[Jiang Mingyi]: Who are you?

[Du Zhihe]: Baby, we just parted ways this morning, and now you don’t remember me? Sob sob sob—I’m heartbroken.

[Jiang Mingyi]: Oh, so it’s you.

[Jiang Mingyi]: My brother says Tiancheng Group people are up to no good and told me not to have any contact with you.

[Du Zhihe]: How could Brother-in-law see me that way? [Sad emoji.jpg]

Jiang Mingyi actually found him kind of funny.

[Jiang Mingyi]: You’re not allowed to call him Brother-in-law.

[Du Zhihe]: Then I’ll call him Big Bro.

[Du Zhihe]: Baby, can you put in a good word for me in front of Big Bro? [Begging emoji.jpg]

[Jiang Mingyi]: He’s my brother, not yours. You can’t just go calling him that.

…

Jiang Mingyi was so absorbed in the chat that he didn’t notice when someone else appeared beside him.

It wasn’t until a hand picked up the phone he had left on the desk that he realized.

After a brief glance at the chat history, Shen Xingyan sneered coldly. “You’ve really mastered the meaning of ‘paying lip service while defying in secret.’”

“Why not try smuggling in through a hidden passage next time?”

“…”

Facing Shen Xingyan’s smile, which was anything but kind, Jiang Mingyi’s brain short-circuited. “Ge, the phone typed those messages by itself.”