Pinching the campus card, Xie Yu cursed the original owner ten thousand times in his heart.

When he transmigrated over, the original owner and Shen Ci had already signed the contract. Xie Yu naturally assumed that the money was in place. He didn't expect that the original owner only resolved the hospital quota and didn't give any money at all!

Shen Ci, the agreement partner of Jiang City's top rich second-generation heir, was dressed in luxury haute couture, with stud earrings worth hundreds of thousands, but the balance on his campus card was no more than a hundred yuan, and he was gnawing on steamed buns with green vegetables in the cafeteria?

Xie Yu brought his two fingers together, easily pulling the campus card out of Shen Ci's hand, and pressed him down onto the chair. "Don't move, I'll do it."

He walked to the manual service desk diagonally across from the cafeteria and handed the card over. "Hello, may I ask what the maximum amount I can top up on the campus card is?"

The auntie looked up at him. "Ten thousand."

Xie Yu pushed his credit card over. "Then top up ten thousand."

All of his net worth, including the cars and luxury goods the original owner didn't need, had been sold for cash, which he had Xu Qingshan transfer to an overseas account. Now, all his expenses were paid by swiping his credit card.

According to the plot design, it wouldn't be long before Xie Yuanshan discovered his son's investment in the psychiatric hospital and furiously froze all his cards. If he didn't swipe it now, it'd be a waste.

The cafeteria auntie had obviously never seen anyone top up so much at once and was slightly stunned. "Are you sure you want to top up ten thousand?"

Xie Yu nodded. "I'm sure."

The card was tapped on the POS machine, and Xie Yu entered the password. Based on the freshly baked balance in the meal card, even if Shen Ci ate grilled fish for every meal, it would take a hundred meals to finish it.

He returned to the grilled fish window, ordered the food, and sat opposite Shen Ci. Shen Ci held the card somewhat cautiously. "How much did you top up?"

Xie Yu didn't stop his chopsticks. "Not much, quite little."

Shen Ci sighed slightly in relief. "Thank you."

Actually, according to the agreement, Xie Yu only needed to secure that medical quota; everything else was not within the scope of the agreement. The Shen Ci in the original text had never asked for money either. He had a strange insistence in this regard; whether it was called strength of character or pedantry, he was unwilling to owe too many favors.

But now it was different from the original text. He harbored a secret thought: as if this way, the differences between him and Xie Yu wouldn't be so great, the distance wouldn't be so far, and they could get closer, just a little closer.

The grilled fish was spicy and fragrant. Shen Ci preferred a bland palate and didn't eat much, but Xie Yu ate quite happily.

It had been a very, very long time since he had sat in a campus cafeteria to eat.

After they finished their meal, Xie Yu looked around near the glass curtain wall. Outside the curtain wall were large swathes of ginkgo leaves. "Teaching Assistant Shen, take me for a stroll around A University?"

His high school grades were not good, but he had a filter for good students, and also a filter for good schools. A University was the premier top-tier university in Jiang City and had won the title of the most beautiful campus in the country for several consecutive years. Xie Yu was a bit interested.

Shen Ci naturally replied, "Okay."

They went downstairs together, walked side by side through Ginkgo Avenue, passed the flower beds planted with clivia and wintersweet, passed the school's artificial lake and Lover's Slope, and through the dense shade of trees, saw couples kissing on the bridge.

At the back of the campus was a commercial street running north to south. The restaurant bosses all had their stoves fired up, and the places were bustling and packed with people.

Xie Yu and Shen Ci walked along the commercial street. Many young couples walked towards them; some, like them, wore couple scarves, some walked arm in arm, and some shared the same cup of milk tea with two straws.

Shen Ci's gaze fell on the milk tea. Han Yunyun often drank this stuff. It wasn't cheap; a cup cost a dozen or so yuan and would be placed on the office desk. Shen Ci had never had the interest to taste it.

Firstly, he didn't have a sweet tooth. Secondly, it was unnecessary. Wasting his meager spending money on momentary oral enjoyment was something only people with material abundance would do.

Shen Ci was like this when he was a child too. The only nearby canteen was in a town over a dozen kilometers away. He had never eaten candy, had never bought toys, and was even ashamed to mention them. For his family, wanting these "excess" things that exceeded basic needs was a sin of not being considerate to his parents.

Over the years, Shen Ci's material desires became extremely thin. He didn't look, didn't care, and didn't want them. He didn't even have the desire to examine them. But now, as these couples passed by with milk tea, with Shen Ci and Xie Yu standing side by side, he suddenly wanted to know what it tasted like.

This thought came inexplicably, but once it arose, it was difficult to contain, growing wildly in his mind like weeds. When they had almost strolled to the end of the commercial street and were about to step out after two more paces, Shen Ci suddenly grabbed Xie Yu.

Xie Yu turned his head and looked over with a hint of confusion. The hand Shen Ci used to tug his sleeve was trembling uncontrollably. He was like a bad child whose secret had been exposed, spreading out something unspeakable piece by piece, only lowering his eyes, stubborn yet hesitant. "Xie Yu, I... I want to drink milk tea."

For couples in love, this might just be a normal request, but Shen Ci and Xie Yu were not a couple. There was a fragmented emotion in his heart. On one end was immense shame, making an unreasonable plea as an agreement partner, yet on the other side, he had a bit of secret expectation.

Like a faint candlelight, easily extinguished at a touch, yet secretly growing, refusing to give up.

Would Xie Yu... be willing to buy it?

Xie Yu was naturally willing to buy it. He was just a little surprised. The beautiful young man in front of him seemed a bit different from the original text. With the original Shen Ci's cold and isolated personality, it would be impossible for him to make such a request.

But with the plot developing to this point, it had already collapsed by more than just a little bit. Xie Yu accepted it well. Anyway, he only needed 50 points; if the extra parts collapsed, so be it.

Xie Yu took out his phone to scan the QR code. "It just so happens I want to drink some too. What do you want to drink?"

Shen Ci was slightly stunned. "...Anything is fine."

He was the one who made the request, but Xie Yu satisfied it without even thinking, and he was also the one left stunned.

Xie Yu: "Then I'll order according to my taste."

He skillfully ordered two cups of hot drinks and handed one to Shen Ci. "Try it."

Shen Ci raised his hand and held the cup. The dense hot steam rose, blurring his features.

The System popped up silently. "Host, don't forget you still have two lines left."

Xie Yu made a sound of acknowledgement. Suddenly, he pulled Shen Ci closer, brushed aside his stray hairs, slid his fingers into the scarf, and caressed the nape of his neck.

This was a posture full of threat. The cold fingers pressed against his skin, raising large swathes of goosebumps. Xie Yu toyed with the neck of the person under his palm like a collector playing with porcelain.

"Shen Ci." He leaned down, ambiguously reciting his line. "Tonight, come to the hotel."

Shen Ci's fingertips trembled, and he said softly, "Okay."

In the original text, Xie Yu purely treated Shen Ci as a tool to vent his frustrations, a punching bag or a condom, summoning him over to mess around whenever he had nothing to do. These were scattered minor plot points, but accumulated together, there were a dozen or twenty of them. Xie Yu had to run through them all before going abroad.

These minor plot points were monotonous and lackluster. Aside from large areas of censorship mosaics, there weren't any lines or highlights. They were similar to the first or second free-point questions in an exam. They didn't take much time, but they had to be done. According to the System's meaning, just half-assing it was fine.

The two finished strolling, and all the lines were spoken. The System set off fireworks in Xie Yu's mind: "Done and dusted!"

Assisting a host like Xie Yu every day, it was also exhausted enough.

Xie Yu drove back, and Shen Ci also returned to the laboratory. Han Yunyun was placing a stack of documents on his desk. "Senior Brother Shen, this is a new project the professor took on. He specifically named you to lead it. Take a look."

Shen Ci hummed in response and browsed through them carefully. Han Yunyun added, "This project seems quite important. The supervisor is just one step away from becoming a promotion. Who knows if he can be selected this year? If he can, we should be changing offices."

Besides the basic laboratory building, A University also had a newer one. Inside, bigshots gathered, all prominent figures from various departments.

Shen Ci, however, said, "Let's focus on our experiments first. It has little to do with us."

Han Yunyun nodded in agreement. She was well-behaved for two seconds before she couldn't help but lean closer. "Senior Brother, your boyfriend, what is his background exactly?"

She had already tacitly assumed Xie Yu was Shen Ci's boyfriend.

Shen Ci sighed slightly. "He's not my boyfriend."

Han Yunyun didn't believe it. "You two are already so intimate, how can he not be?"

Shen Ci: "He really isn't."

He and Xie Yu wore couple scarves, his earbone had Xie Yu's name embedded on it, and they had walked through A University's commercial street and Lover's Lake together, but they were also, truly and certainly, not in a romantic relationship.

Xie Yu's public status had always been single. He had never publicly declared himself to be in a relationship. When He Zhiyuan introduced Lin Yin, he even said she was his girlfriend. But when Xie Yu introduced him, he always used his full name, only saying, "This is Teaching Assistant Shen from A University, named Shen Ci."

Han Yunyun raised an eyebrow, only thinking her senior brother was trying to cover it up. "Then what is your relationship?"

Shen Ci paused slightly, tasting a bit of astringent bitterness on the tip of his tongue. He unnaturally tugged at the corners of his mouth. "Just treat what the forum says as true."

The forum said it was a kept relationship, and it indeed was a kept relationship.

The power to interpret the contract was in Xie Yu's hands; a kept relationship that could be terminated at any time.

Han Yunyun clicked her tongue and lowered her head to fiddle with the experimental reagents in her hands. "I don't believe it. Just now, when he pulled you away from me, I felt like he was going to beat me up."

Shen Ci only shook his head and didn't speak.

As night fell, he once again got into the Bentley and knocked open the door of the top-floor suite.

Xie Yu was the same as always, lazily nestled on the sofa playing games. Seeing Shen Ci come in, he teased him a couple of times neither lightly nor heavily, and then the two washed up separately and lay down fully clothed.

They were clearly resting on the same bed, separated by no more than an arm's length, yet Xie Yu went straight to resting with his eyes closed. His palm only loosely draped over Shen Ci's shoulder, like the most rigid and strict gentleman, unwilling to easily cross the line by a single step.

He seemed to have no interest at all.

Even if Shen Ci had never been in a relationship, he knew that facing someone you liked, or even a favored plaything, one shouldn't act like this.

In their circle, Young Master Xie's preferences were no secret, and Shen Ci had also heard of them. He favored bright, delicate, and soft young men, especially liking those who loved to laugh, cry, and act coquettishly. This was, if not worlds apart from Shen Ci's personality, then completely opposite. Compared to the streamers and celebrities Xie Yu had previously liked, Shen Ci considered his own looks plain and uninteresting, and his personality lackluster. If he didn't lack a handy punching bag, he probably wouldn't have caught Young Master Xie's eye.

But if he didn't like him, then why protect him in every way, accommodate him time and again, give him gift after gift, and frequently make misleading actions?

In the darkness, Shen Ci reached out his fingers, his fingertips tentatively touching Xie Yu's shoulder blade. "Xie Yu..."

Xie Yu, half-asleep, caught his fingers in his palm. "What's wrong?"

Shen Ci looked at him calmly and asked very lightly, "What is our relationship?"

Xie Yu was so sleepy he couldn't open his eyes. He merely held onto his fingertips. It took him a good while to process what was asked before he answered like sleep-talking, "...An agreement relationship."

He thought groggily that in another month, Xie Yuanshan would discover the investment issue, and Xie Yu would leave for another country. Within five years, he would not set foot in China again. Their agreement would subsequently be voided, and Shen Ci would lose a shackle and become completely free.

By then, the sea would be vast enough for fish to leap, and the sky high enough for birds to fly. The protagonist would successfully endure the darkest time of his life, and from then on, his path would be brilliantly lit and wide open.

And he, this villain, should also take a bow and exit the stage.