“Guangji…?!”
The young man’s tone was filled with shock and uncertainty. Even though he had face blindness, he clearly noticed the guests addressing the Alpha in front of him as Young Master Pei.
In the core zone, what other Pei family could there be?
Pei Guangji was completely unaware that the atmosphere at the scene had taken a subtle turn.
His eyes and mind were completely occupied by the black-haired Beta.
When he heard the young man call his name, Pei Guangji’s jaw tightened slightly, and a trace of joy appeared in his usually calm and reserved eyes. He asked a little anxiously, “You know me?”
The guests looked at each other, then all turned their gazes toward the three people in front of them.
At this moment, everyone could see that the heir of the Xi family was holding a velvet gift box in his hands, containing a pair of rings.
What did Young Master Pei mean by this?
Did he really go over to flirt with his childhood friend’s partner during a proposal?
You rich people are really good at having fun.
Xin Hexue, who was the center of attention, still found it hard to believe this development which was not in the script.
The long eyelashes trembled slightly, casting a light shadow beneath his eyes that swayed with the moonlight.
Xin Hexue probes cautiously, “You don’t remember…?”
His voice was so low and soft that it sounded as if the night breeze could blow it away.
When Pei Guangji asked for his name, he didn’t answer again.
Pei Guangji caught the disappointment in the young man’s eyes. Just in that brief moment of eye contact, for some reason, his heart swelled with an unbearable ache, and an indescribable lump got stuck in his throat.
“Can you tell me your name?” Pei Guangji pressed further. “We must have met before.”
Xi Zhengqing had been watching Xin Hexue’s expression the whole time.
The young man looked conflicted and his lips were slightly pursed. Faced with Pei Guangji’s persistent questions, his gaze began to dart around evasively, mixed with sadness, disappointment, and all kinds of complicated emotions.
Xi Zhengqing feared that if Pei Guangji kept asking, Xin Hexue might soften and reveal the truth.
He immediately stepped in and extended an arm between the two. “Pei Guangji, your pickup line is a bit too cliché.”
Xi Zhengqing’s words were cold and carried a subtle declaration of possession. “Didn’t you see me and my boyfriend were on a date just now?”
Pei Guangji was stunned and stared at the two people for a long time.
There was an inexplicable voice in his heart, subconsciously rejecting Xi Zhengqing’s statement.
‘Boyfriend?’
Pei Guangji turned his gaze to Xin Hexue.
He subconsciously hoped the young man would deny that relationship.
But the scene in front of him seemed to speak for itself.
The pair of rings in the blue velvet box scorched Pei Guangji’s eyes, and his heart seemed to plunge into the depths of an abyss in an instant.
Xi Zhengqing wrapped an arm around Xin Hexue, supporting the young man’s body. He spoke gently, “There are too many people on the top floor. Are you okay? Are you feeling unwell or tired? I’ll take you back to your room to rest.”
The young man seemed emotionally overwhelmed.
Xi Zhengqing seized the moment to lead him away from the top floor.
Their backs faced Pei Guangji, the distance between them growing further and further with each step. Just as they were about to leave this place of trouble, it felt as though the young man would disappear from his sight forever.
At that moment, Pei Guangji didn’t think of anything at all and chased after them with large, urgent steps.
Xin Hexue heard the footsteps behind him, and his last step felt heavy and slow.
“I had an accident before and ended up in the hospital.” Pei Guangji paused, his Adam’s apple rolling up and down. “After I woke up, I seemed to have forgotten some important things. If you knew me before, could you tell me?”
The young man’s steps only paused for a second, then Xi Zhengqing took him away.
The guests who remained on the top floor cast strange glances, but Pei Guangji didn’t feel it. He stared at the backs of the two, and for some reason, his heart sank into a hollow emptiness.
[Pei Guangji heartbreak value +5]
………
“I only found out two days ago that Pei Guangji had woken up.” The instigator of this whole event, Qiu Yuan, shrugged and spread his hands without a care. “We grew up together as childhood friends. It’s my birthday party…how could I invite you, Xi Zhengqing, and not invite Pei Guangji? What would he think? What if he felt we were isolating him?”
“Besides, a scholar who has been away for three days must be looked at with new eyes. Today’s Pei Guangji is not the same Young Master Pei as before.”
Qiu Yuan smiled.
“The moment he woke up, he dragged down Old Master Pei and the brothers and uncles who’d been stirring up trouble during this time. The power of the Pei family is now completely in his hands. He’s no longer Young Master Pei, but should be called President Pei.”
This showed that Pei Guangji had already planted the seeds, and Old Master Pei’s position in the Pei family had already been hollowed out by the eldest son, but he himself hadn’t even realized it.
The timing of his awakening from the hospital and overthrowing the old man’s authority was just right.
Qiu Yuan didn’t know whether to sigh over Pei Guangji’s good fortune.
The braking system didn’t take his life during the accident, and even his vegetative state ended in just a few months.
But then…
Qiu Yuan gave Xin Hexue a meaningful glance.
When Xi Zhengqing wasn’t paying attention, Qiu Yuan shook his communicator at Xin Hexue, signaling to contact him later.
He said goodbye to the two people in the room, left some space for them, and went to find Zuo Yongyan for a drink.
Xin Hexue seemed distracted and opened his communicator mindlessly.
[Qiu Yuan: I said I wouldn’t hurt you.]
[Qiu Yuan: Can you try to trust me a bit more?]
[Qiu Yuan: I’ll help you.]
[Xin Hexue: …]
[Xin Hexue: How many times did I step on you while we were dancing?]
[Qiu Yuan: Three times?]
[Xin Hexue: Wrong.]
[Qiu Yuan: You missed once.]
[Xin Hexue: It was twenty-four times.]
Qiu Yuan was sipping his drink when he suddenly laughed aloud, as if he had encountered something extremely amusing. He laughed so hard he choked on his wine, startling Zuo Yongyan.
Qiu Yuan wiped the corner of his eyes behind his sunglasses with his finger, brushing away the tears of laughter.
‘Was Xin Hexue mocking him for being like an octopus?’
‘Or threatening him not to meddle?’
After all, his secrets were indeed in Xin Hexue’s hands.
Either way, it was too interesting.
[Qiu Yuan love value +5]
Xin Hexue put away his communicator.
Xi Zhengqing came out of the bathroom, his sleeves rolled up to the elbows, showing off the well-defined and powerful arm muscles. He sat down next to Xin Hexue. “I’ve filled the bathtub for you. The temperature is just right. You look tired. Take a shower and get some sleep, okay?”
Xin Hexue lowered his gaze and stared at the floor for a long time.
Xi Zhengqing heard his soft murmur.
“How could he… forget me?”
“He still remembers you. He remembers Qiu Yuan…”
Xi Zhengqing’s Adam’s apple rolled for a moment.
Once you tell a lie, you must tell a hundred lies to cover it up.
He suddenly understood this saying.
He couldn’t let Xin Hexue know that he had once used Pei Guangji’s identity to get close to him.
Xin Hexue hated deception. If he knew that everything between them began with a lie…
He didn’t dare to think further.
Xi Zhengqing was extremely glad that he had abandoned Pei Guangji’s false identity not long ago.
“I was afraid you’d be sad, so I didn’t tell you before.” Xi Zhengqing put on a troubled expression. “Actually, at Pei Ying’s coming-of-age banquet, a mutant species sneaked in and attempted to assassinate one of the guests. Pei Guangji was injured and fell into a coma, staying in the hospital for a while. After he woke up, he seemed to have lost the memories related to you.”
“Is that so…” The young man looked lost and disappointed.
Xin Hexue withdrew the smile in his eyes.
He didn’t need to panic at all.
After all, he would find a way to patch things up on his own.
“Do you still like him?” Xi Zhengqing had to ask more directly to probe Xin Hexue’s heart. “He’s not worthy of your true feelings. Now that Pei Guangji has lost his memories of you, isn’t this the best chance to escape from his side?”
The young man seemed to fall into the painful memories of being imprisoned in the villa and shrank back instinctively.
Xi Zhengqing didn’t know the inside story. He thought Xin Hexue was simply resisting the topic.
He didn’t press further. Instead, he retreated in order to advance, leaving the gift box with the ring on Xin Hexue’s bedside.
“Take a shower and get a good sleep.” Before leaving the room, Xi Zhengqing said from the doorway, “No matter what happens next, give me a chance to face it with you.”
………
Pei Guangji felt he must have forgotten something.
Something more important than anything else, a priority above heavy workloads and even the title of patriarch of the Pei family.
But he had forgotten it.
The doctor who had done a full check-up on him was also helpless. “Mr. Pei, for now we can only determine that during the aircraft accident, a component from above fell and compressed a nerve in your brain, possibly damaging the temporal lobe on the side of your brain. That may have caused a small portion of your memory loss.”
“Please allow us to first discuss a treatment plan based on the scans. We will do our best to provide follow-up medical care.”
Pei Guangji had no interest in making things difficult for medical staff.
After everyone had left, he looked out at the distant sky. His hand slowly clenched into a fist, and he lightly bumped his forehead with regret.
He believed that the memories he had lost were related to the young man he saw that night on the cruise ship.
It had already been a week.
He constantly thought of the disappointed look in the young man’s eyes under the moonlight.
What exactly was their connection?
It was impossible that he didn’t know him. Otherwise, the young man wouldn’t have treated him that way.
He instinctively felt panicked, like he was about to lose something…something he would never be able to get back.
Pei Guangji’s current state was no different from someone drowning, desperately trying to grasp onto something, yet unable to find any hold.
The new assistant knocked on the office door.
Pei Guangji hadn’t had water in a long time, and his voice was low and hoarse. “Come in.”
The new assistant came in and reported truthfully, “President Pei, we still haven’t been able to contact former assistant Jiang Jing. We sent someone to his old home in District Three, but his neighbors said he went on vacation with his wife and child, so he probably hasn’t checked his calls or messages.”
Pei Guangji closed his eyes for a moment, and the faint dark circles under his eyes were signs of his fatigue.
His personal communicator had been damaged in the aircraft accident.
This wouldn’t be a big deal normally, since he had another communicator for work. All important information and contacts were stored there, so the damage to the personal one didn’t affect his daily life.
He had a social circle that was clean to the point of being spotless. He hardly had any friends in private, and his network of contacts was extremely quiet.
But Pei Guangji thought that perhaps the clues to his lost memories could be found in the personal communicator.
Before this, all content in the personal communicator had been routinely backed up by his assistant.
He had never paid attention to such trivial matters.
So after Jiang Jing left his position, he had no way of retrieving the backup server’s access key.
He had to get in touch with Jiang Jing as soon as possible.
Pei Guangji pressed his forehead. “Prepare the car. We’ll return to the Dawei Ke Hotel first.”
He usually didn’t like staying at the chaotic Pei manor. Although he owned multiple apartments and properties in high-end communities in the core zone, he was used to long-term stays at the presidential suite of the Dawei Ke Hotel.
It was nearby, convenient for both life and work. Dawei Ke provided a private butler team, so he didn’t have to worry about maintenance.
The 200-square-meter suite was divided into a living room, dining area, kitchen, bedroom, study, and private pool. That was more than enough for his needs.
Pei Guangji sat in the back seat.
The driver, who had recently returned from family leave, asked, “Mr. Pei… oh, President Pei, are we going to the mountainside villa in Nancheng of District One this time?”
Pei Guangji carefully recalled and remembered that this was a property he had once lent to Pei Ying.
He had never stayed there himself.
Why did the driver ask that?
The driver didn’t hear an answer and gave an awkward smile. “It seems like you haven’t gone there for a long time.”
Pei Guangji’s heart stirred.
“Let’s go back, then.”
He subconsciously used the word “back”.
The scenery outside the car window shifted in reverse, and for some reason, a feeling of anticipation quietly rose in Pei Guangji’s heart.
………
Pei Guangji closed the car door behind him with a dull “thud”.
He frowned, staring at the aircraft parked in front of the villa’s garden. It had the Xi family emblem.
Xi Zhengqing was helping the young man move his luggage.
Pei Guangji strode forward. “What are you doing?”
Xi Zhengqing acted like he had just noticed him and smiled. “You’re here? I haven’t had a chance to thank you properly.”
“It’s like this. Because of my family’s opposition before, I had no choice but to let Hexue temporarily stay in one of your properties, just to put on a show.” Xi Zhengqing wrapped his arm around Xin Hexue, who kept his head lowered and said nothing, and explained leisurely, “You know my family situation. They’re very traditional, and with my eldest sister’s lesson as a precedent… But now none of that matters. I’ll take care of everything, so we won’t trouble you anymore. I came today to pick up my boyfriend.”
Xin Hexue pursed his lips.
[This is completely reversing yin and yang.]
Xin Hexue could only rant to K to keep himself from laughing out loud.
Pei Guangji seemed unable to digest the information Xi Zhengqing had just shared. His reaction was slow and after a long time, he finally turned to Xin Hexue.
The young man lowered his head slightly. His black hair hung neatly at the side of his neck, and he never said a word.
Holding the mechanical cat in his arms, he left.
