Jiang Xu sometimes didn't know what he was doing. He was used to acting on a whim and rarely thought about the series of consequences a simple action could trigger. When Gu Qingzhou arrived this morning, the female colleagues in the office all noticed the mark on his lower lip. Unfortunately, before they could get a closer look, Gu Qingzhou had already closed the door behind him, completely blocking out their prying gazes.

Fang Qia said gossipingly to Li Si'ao, "Hey, hey, did you see that?"

Li Si'ao was a bit clueless. Men usually don't notice these details. "See what?"

Fang Qia pointed to her own mouth, her tone gossipy and suggestive, "Manager Gu has a mark here. It looks like a bite. Could he have a girlfriend? He's never mentioned it before."

Li Si'ao thought nothing of it. "Maybe he bit it himself. I accidentally bumped my mouth a few days ago."

Hearing this, Fang Qia stomped her foot in frustration. She didn't know how to explain it to him, so she turned away and said, "Forget it, I can't be bothered with you."

Li Si'ao clearly didn't know how he had angered her again and was quite baffled. He subconsciously looked to Jiang Xu for help, only to see the latter seemingly holding back a laugh. He nudged him. "What are you laughing at?"

Jiang Xu coughed softly twice. "I'm not laughing at you, anyway."

Perhaps because he was easily embarrassed, Gu Qingzhou didn't leave his office much today. Jiang Xu listened to the female colleagues beside him chattering away, raising an eyebrow with a subtle expression, but he didn't join the conversation at all.

After all, Gu Qingzhou's public image was that of a golden bachelor, and his usual rigorous and aloof style didn't seem like that of someone who messed around. The sudden appearance of a mark suspected to be from a passionate kiss, whether real or not, provided some fodder for gossip to liven up the employees' dull office life.

Jiang Xu kept an eye on the clock. As soon as the lunch break started and everyone had left, he got up and went into Gu Qingzhou's office. Pushing the door open, he saw the other man calculating project quotes, a dense stack of files piled beside him—all work that had accumulated during his days off.

Gu Qingzhou hadn't realized it was lunchtime yet. Seeing Jiang Xu come in, he subconsciously asked, "What's wrong?"

Jiang Xu locked the door behind him and deliberately teased him, "Nothing, just came in to sit for a bit."

Gu Qingzhou had also been busy all morning. Hearing that, he put down his pen and tiredly pinched the bridge of his nose. His lips were pale, and this morning's mark had almost faded. But if one looked closely, some traces were still visible.

Jiang Xu didn't sit in a chair, instead casually half-leaning against the desk. Then he deliberately asked Gu Qingzhou, "Do you know what they were all talking about today?"

Gu Qingzhou faintly raised an eyebrow, resting his chin on his hand. "What were they saying?"

Jiang Xu didn't tell him, just letting out a low laugh. "Guess for yourself."

Gu Qingzhou was used to being a loner and didn't care about others' opinions. When Jiang Xu reached out to him, he simply took the opportunity to get up and lean into his embrace. He buried his face in the crook of Jiang Xu's neck, rubbing it gently. His long, slender fingers rested lightly on the back of Jiang Xu's neck, then slowly tightened their grip.

Jiang Xu silently patted his back, thinking, 'I wonder if those female colleagues outside, who are always swooning over this ascetic iceberg Gu Qingzhou, know that the Manager Gu they worship as a god is actually a clingy person?'

It was Gu Qingzhou who started kissing Jiang Xu. The first kiss landed on his Adam's apple, then moved sequentially upward, landing lightly on his chin, and finally on his lips. He ground his lips against Jiang Xu's twice, then stopped.

Gu Qingzhou wanted Jiang Xu to take the initiative, but he didn't want to say it out loud. So most of the time, he would just watch him quietly with his dark, lustrous eyes.

Luckily, Jiang Xu understood his hidden meaning. Their positions reversed as he spun around, pinning Gu Qingzhou against the edge of the desk. He silently swept away the messy files, had him sit on it, and wrapped his arms tightly around the other's lean, strong waist hidden beneath the shirt, initiating a deep kiss.

The corners of Gu Qingzhou's lips gradually turned red, and his cold, clear eyes were veiled with an unidentifiable emotion. He powerlessly clung to Jiang Xu's back, powerlessly tilted his head back, and was powerlessly pressed against the desk. He was powerless in everything he did, except for his fingertips, which were still tightly clutching the corner of the other man's shirt.

While kissing him, Jiang Xu opened his eyes. A trace of confusion flashed through his shrewd, worldly, fox-like eyes. He pressed his nose against Gu Qingzhou's and said, as if to himself, "Sometimes I don't even know what I'm doing..."

If they were to break up, shouldn't it be a clean break? Why were they still so entangled?

Jiang Xu habitually avoided thinking about complicated problems. He slowly pulled away from Gu Qingzhou's lips, finally deciding not to overthink it. No matter how much he thought, he couldn't find an answer. It was just like a damn math problem—no matter what he guessed, it would be wrong.

Jiang Xu asked, "Want to have lunch with me?"

Hearing this, Gu Qingzhou subconsciously glanced at his watch and only then realized it was already the lunch break. While calming his breathing, he asked, "Where are we eating?"

There were quite a few restaurants nearby.

Jiang Xu said, "I'll order two takeout meals, one for you and one for me."

Gu Qingzhou: "..."

Jiang Xu was rather unreliable, and it wasn't the first day Gu Qingzhou knew this. Fortunately, he didn't have high expectations for Jiang Xu. The two ended up eating takeout in the office, making do for lunch.

When they got off work in the evening, Jiang Xu drove Gu Qingzhou home as usual. They had been living together these past few days purely so he could accompany Gu Qingzhou while he recuperated. Now that the injury was healed, Jiang Xu planned to go back to his own place.

Gu Qingzhou was faintly displeased but didn't show it. He just gazed silently at the deep night outside the car window. After a moment, he said, "Jiang Xu, is living with me that unbearable for you?"

'This isn't about who I'm living with,' Jiang Xu thought. To put it bluntly, their current relationship was one of keeping and being kept. It would end one day. He still felt that he and Gu Qingzhou wouldn't last long. Living together was fine, but it was impossible for it to last a lifetime, so moving back and forth was really unnecessary.

The air in the car stagnated for a moment. Gu Qingzhou seemed to want to say something, but in the end, he said nothing, only uttering in an emotionless tone, "Whatever you want."

Just as he finished speaking and was about to open the door to get out, Jiang Xu grabbed his wrist and pulled him back.

"Angry?"

Jiang Xu eyed him quietly, his voice low and laced with a smile, sounding not very serious. Gu Qingzhou was about to pull his hand back when his fingertips were suddenly covered by warmth.

Jiang Xu held his hand, tilted his head, and placed a kiss on his slender wrist bone. "I'll stay with you for one more day."

Gu Qingzhou was actually very easy to placate because he never asked for much. When Jiang Xu softened his stance, he found himself at a loss for words.

As the two took the elevator upstairs, the atmosphere was still somewhat affected by what had just happened. Neither of them spoke. Jiang Xu wasn't as sensitive as Gu Qingzhou, nor did he have as many complex inner workings. He didn't want to see the other man looking sullen. After entering the apartment, he took the initiative to hug him from behind. "How old are you? You still need me to accompany you when you live alone? Hmm?"

Gu Qingzhou was changing his shoes and was caught off guard when he fell into the man's embrace. His movements paused. He looked up at Jiang Xu but could only see his well-defined jawline. After a long silence, he said, "It's too empty living alone."

Jiang Xu was amused. "How about we switch? You can try living in my shabby little place. I guarantee you'll feel cramped every day."

Gu Qingzhou calmly turned around, wrapped his arms around his neck, and rested his chin on his shoulder, starting to get a little clingy again. "I'm fine with anything."

He was telling the truth, but he didn't know if Jiang Xu would believe him.

Jiang Xu grinned. "That's unlikely. I live in a single room; there's not enough space to sleep."

Unlike the past few days off, he had to continue working after coming back at night. However, there was no computer in the guest room. Jiang Xu came out of the bathroom after a shower, his hair still dripping wet. He wiped it carelessly a couple of times, then asked Gu Qingzhou, "Hey, can I borrow your laptop?"

Gu Qingzhou took a change of clothes from the wardrobe and was about to take a shower. Hearing this, he paused what he was doing, found the laptop in a drawer, and opened it to check. "Looks like it's out of battery. Just use the desktop."

It was common for Jiang Xu to stay up until the early hours working, the keyboard clattering loudly in the dead of night. If they were in the same room and he didn't sleep, Gu Qingzhou could forget about sleeping too.

Jiang Xu asked, "Where's your charging cable?"

Gu Qingzhou had already entered the bathroom. Through the rushing sound of water, his voice came out a bit indistinctly, "I think it's in the drawer. It's black. Have a look."

Gu Qingzhou's room was quite simple, without many personal items. It was mostly files. Jiang Xu pulled open a drawer, and the first thing that caught his eye was a pack of cigarettes resting quietly in a corner. He casually picked it up, glanced at it, and smiled. Seeing it was more than half empty, he pursed his lips and put it back.

The drawer was too full, causing half of the charging cable's head to fall into the compartment of the drawer below. Jiang Xu fished around for a long time before finally pulling it out. As he pulled his hand back, he accidentally knocked over a small box. It clattered from the side of the drawer, tumbled to the floor, and a silver, unidentified metal object rolled out.

Jiang Xu thought it was some valuable item, but it turned out to be just a dusty little trinket. He picked it up and looked at it closely, discovering it was a cross earring. The edges were faded and blackened; it couldn't have been uglier.

Jiang Xu found it inexplicably familiar. He belatedly remembered that he seemed to have given Gu Qingzhou an identical one before and couldn't help but pause.

It was something he had bought casually from a street stall. Jiang Xu himself hadn't thought much of it and had given it away right after. Eroded by time, it had long since become dull and blackened. He was surprised that Gu Qingzhou had kept this thing, yet at the same time, he felt it was to be expected.

Hearing a sound from the bathroom, Jiang Xu snapped back to his senses. He put the item back where it was, pretending he hadn't seen anything, and just tried to sort out the tangled charging cable. However, he had little patience. Not only did he fail to untangle it, but he made it even messier.

When Gu Qingzhou walked to the door, he saw him sitting on the edge of the bed, struggling with the charging cable as if it were his mortal enemy. He walked over, took the cable from his hands, and said, "If you keep pulling, it's going to break."

He was clearly much more methodical than Jiang Xu. In just a few moves, he found the end of the cable and patiently worked through the tangles. It was untangled in no time. Gu Qingzhou placed the laptop on the bedside table to charge, then looked at Jiang Xu. "Are you going back to your room to work?"

He had a high-bridged nose, and his features were actually very beautiful under the light. It was just that his usual aura was too cold and stern, and he always wore a faint, expressionless look, which made people overlook the fact that Gu Qingzhou was actually quite handsome.

Jiang Xu stared at him for a long, long time, finally coming to a conclusion: this was a sentimental person.

Jiang Xu said, "I'm fine with whatever."

Gu Qingzhou glanced at the time. Seeing it wasn't too late, he leaned his body, still damp from the shower, into Jiang Xu's embrace and said, "Then work in here. Stay with me for a while."

Jiang Xu raised a hand to touch his half-dry hair and agreed. He placed the computer on his lap and leaned against the headboard to handle work matters. Seeing Gu Qingzhou seemingly playing on his phone, he couldn't help but ask, "You're the manager, why do you seem more idle than me?"

Gu Qingzhou wanted to say it was because he was lazy and always slacking off at work. More than once, when he went out to copy documents, he had seen Jiang Xu secretly playing games. He simply put down his phone, leaned against him, and asked in a low voice, "I finished all my work during the day. What were you doing?"

Jiang Xu thought to himself that he really hadn't done much during the day. He had just been dawdling and procrastinating to pass the time. He touched the tip of his nose and said nothing.

Jiang Xu's work efficiency was higher at home than at the company. He picked up the pace, and the blueprints were mostly finished, with only a few areas needing minor adjustments. His speed unconsciously slowed as he meticulously worked on the details.

Seeing him staring intently at the computer screen, Gu Qingzhou covered Jiang Xu's eyes with a slender hand and said in a slightly displeased low voice, "Your work efficiency is too low."

Jiang Xu pulled his hand down and tapped intermittently on the keyboard. "Manager Gu, I'm already fast enough. Good employees like me are hard to find. Please cherish me."

Gu Qingzhou had a faint feeling he was being teased. He forcibly placed the computer on the bedside table, covered Jiang Xu's eyes again, and kissed him. His voice was a muffled whisper as he retorted, "You don't cherish me, so why should I cherish you?"

As the former school tyrant who had ruled Hai Cheng High School, Jiang Xu naturally couldn't be the one pinned down and kissed. He flipped their positions, pressing Gu Qingzhou underneath him. He had inexplicably detected some dark, heavy emotions in that last sentence, but they were well-hidden and unnoticeable unless one listened carefully.

He slowly pulled down Gu Qingzhou's hands, eyeing his eyes that overlapped with the light, and suddenly asked, "Do you hate me a lot?"

Gu Qingzhou frowned. "What?"

Jiang Xu asked him, "Do you hate me a lot?"

He had asked this question once when Gu Qingzhou first joined the company. The answer he got then was no, but using his brain, he knew it was definitely a perfunctory lie.