The Ceo Of The Company Next Door Seems To Have A Crush On Me Chapter 35

Mutual Exchange and Love at First Sight

The sun climbed to mid-sky, and the sugar-cube-like white main building was slowly melting, a pearly white sheen appearing on the walls. The pink petals of the mountain apricot blossoms trembled in the spring breeze, yet clung stubbornly to the branches.

Ming Qiuchi: …

Yan Zhu: …

Lu Zhijian rubbed his thumb along the rim of his glass. A spring breeze blew by, carrying a swarm of fluffy white willow catkins, one of which landed in his wine glass.

Lu Zhijian lowered his eyes, watching the catkin gradually take on a golden hue, and suddenly spoke, “Don’t you two have anything you want to ask?”

The frozen time finally began to flow.

Ming Qiuchi had received too much information today, and his brain was slightly overloaded. He scratched his chestnut-colored short hair, “Wait, you actually have someone you like?”

That word “you” was like a roller coaster, taking countless turns.

Don’t misunderstand, his sentence was meant to look down on him. Lu Zhijian, this quiet stick-in-the-mud, he knew him well. The people around him were always the same few, so who could he possibly like?

Moreover, it wasn’t him talking nonsense; he had once logically concluded that Lu Zhijian was asexual. This wasn’t to say he was incapable, but he could sense that Lu Zhijian was the type of person who highly emphasized the unity of the spiritual world, which meant it was very difficult for Lu Zhijian to fall for someone.

His requirements were already abstract, and coincidentally, he was also socially anxious, usually staying home when he had nothing to do, making it even harder to meet a suitable partner.

So, “Where did you find this person you like?”

Yan Zhu’s thought process could become quite peculiar at strange times. He looked at Lu Zhijian with a strange expression, “You didn’t fall for Jiang Mingyi, did you?”

Lu Zhijian quickly shook his head, afraid his rejection was a second too late.

“Phew—that’s fine then.” Yan Zhu breathed a sigh of relief.

Although he and Jiang Mingyi were divorced, theoretically Jiang Mingyi was single and anyone could like her, but if that person was his best friend, he really couldn’t accept it. He waved for a waiter to bring Lu Zhijian a fresh glass of wine, and said leisurely, “So who exactly do you like, how did you meet them, and do we know them?”

Lu Zhijian looked at him with an expression Yan Zhu couldn’t describe, and slowly said, “You know them.”

That look gave Yan Zhu a very bad feeling. An infinite chill rose on his back. The April sun shone on him, but he only felt cold. He didn’t know when he had put down his crossed leg. As if divinely inspired, a name suddenly appeared in his mind, “No, it couldn’t be…”

He couldn’t say the rest of the words. Lu Zhijian kindly finished the sentence for him, “It’s Yan Xucheng.”

After saying that, he smiled apologetically at Yan Zhu, then lowered his eyes to focus on the golden wine.

There it was again. He always liked to casually say terrifying things.

Yan Zhu broke out in a cold sweat from his smile.

In that moment, he thought of many things, but because he thought too much, his body was in a state of non-response.

Finally, he seemed to have made a choice in a question like, “If your mother and I fell into the water, who would you save?” Lu Zhijian didn’t know how he had answered that question back then; perhaps only Jiang Mingyi knew. He could only see Yan Zhu’s expression of heroic sacrifice. He patted Lu Zhijian’s shoulder with great solemnity and made a certain resolution: “Go for it, I support you!”

His own happiness had ended miserably, so how could he let his misery stop his good brother from pursuing happiness?

He remembered when they were in junior high. Lu Zhijian had just arrived in Jingji. At that time, his father was still alive and well, and their family lived next door to Lu Zhijian’s. He often saw Lu Zhijian wandering alone outside like a little ghost with his schoolbag.

After several times of this, he finally couldn’t help but proactively walk Lu Zhijian to his doorstep.

Now he was finally going to have someone who cared for him. Yan Zhu felt an urge to shed tears of emotion.

Yan Zhu was filled with emotion.

Lu Zhijian looked confusedly at Yan Zhu, who had fallen into his own world of self-pity and emotion ever since he said that sentence. He turned his gaze to Ming Qiuchi, “You have experience.”

Ming Qiuchi had the most experience among the three of them. Yan Zhu’s first love was Jiang Mingyi, and he had just divorced and hadn’t recovered yet. As for Lu Zhijian, he had vaguely agreed to Ye Lian’s pursuit before, and without even exchanging many words, he was vaguely given a green hat. That experience was completely useless for reference.

So, the only person they could rely on was Ming Qiuchi.

Unfortunately, Ming Qiuchi ignored him, lost in thought.

After a long time, Ming Qiuchi suddenly slapped the table, stood up, leaned forward, and said seriously, “I’ve discovered a major flaw in us.”

The chair scraped against the floor, startling a grey spotted dove drinking at the fountain.

“What flaw?” Yan Zhu looked at him strangely.

“Hmm?” Lu Zhijian also looked at him.

Seeing that he had successfully captured their attention, Ming Qiuchi lowered his voice, “Do you know why the Red Team in Detective O Nan has been fighting for twenty years and still hasn’t won?”

Yan Zhu: “Uh… because the production team wants to make money for a few more years?”

Ming Qiuchi scolded, “Philistine!”

Yan Zhu felt wronged, “I’m just a businessman.”

Of course, a businessman thinks about problems from the perspective of profit.

Ming Qiuchi ignored him and turned to look at Lu Zhijian with hopeful eyes.

Lu Zhijian pondered for a moment, “Because the Black Organization’s influence runs deep in the high levels of various countries?”

“Wrong!” Ming Qiuchi slapped his hands together forcefully, hating that they weren’t better, looking heartbroken, which reminded Lu Zhijian of their bald math teacher in high school who always shouted, “This is a free point question!”

He wanted to look at Ming Qiuchi with the same purely bewildered expression he used to look at the math teacher.

Ming Qiuchi’s gaze shifted between these two hopeless wooden heads, and finally announced the correct answer: “Because they don’t like to share information!”

“Oh—”

“Oh!!!”

“If only they had shared information, how could a mere water plant have gotten away with it?” Ming Qiuchi, unlike the math teacher, started talking like the eloquent Chinese teacher, “I’ve found that we are currently in the same state. Each of us only knows a little bit, but not the whole picture. Now, everyone should share all the information they know about these two people so we can analyze everything comprehensively.”

The identities of these two people were self-evident: one was Yan Zhu’s unforgettable ex-wife, Jiang Mingyi, and the other was Lu Zhijian’s dream lover, Yan Xucheng.

“I think that makes a lot of sense,” Yan Zhu surprisingly supported him, perhaps because he had long wanted to thoroughly badmouth Yan Xucheng. He started from the time he and Jiang Mingyi were in the ambiguous stage, “At that time, Yan Xucheng was still okay, he even created opportunities for us…”

It was only after he and Jiang Mingyi got together that Yan Xucheng started finding fault with him.

After rattling off a bunch of incidents where Yan Xucheng glared and nitpicked at him, Yan Zhu defined the Yan Xucheng in his impression: “I think Yan Xucheng is just a troublemaker who can’t stand to see me happy. His eyesight is incredibly sharp. If you have even the slightest flaw, he can pick it out and magnify it tenfold, twentyfold, as if the sky is falling!”

Ming Qiuchi popped a wine-soaked cherry into his mouth, “Wow, he’s so mean—”

Could it be that Lu Zhijian liked this kind of person who was very… detail-oriented?

Lu Zhijian defended Yan Xucheng, “No, he’s actually very good.”

He didn’t deny that Yan Xucheng might be a bit harsh on Yan Zhu, but he was fundamentally a good person.

Ming Qiuchi took a sprig of rosemary from the ice bucket and spread his hand toward Lu Zhijian, “Please tell us your story.”

So Lu Zhijian started talking about the trip to Country F.

Yan Zhu interrupted him again, “So why did you run off to Country F, and stay for so long?”

Lu Zhijian explained, “Because I was heartbroken after being given a green hat.”

After saying that, he was about to continue talking about meeting Yan Xucheng in Country F.

But Yan Zhu was incredulous, “You broke up? Wait, when did you even date? Hold on, why aren’t you surprised at all?”

He noticed that Ming Qiuchi, who was usually so loud, was exceptionally calm right now.

Ming Qiuchi spread his hands, “Because I knew.”

“Yeah, he knew,” Lu Zhijian said something astonishing with a nonchalant expression.

Yan Zhu’s eyes widened, “Then why didn’t I know?”

Lu Zhijian: “Because at that time, your mother and Ms. Jiang were engaged in a Mother-in-law battle.”

“Fine.”

Yan Zhu quieted down, and Lu Zhijian continued his story. As the story progressed, the two of them listened with increasing astonishment.

When he finished, the experienced Ming Qiuchi asserted, “You must have liked him for a long time, right?”

Yan Zhu was equally certain, “Love at first sight.”

Lu Zhijian didn’t think so, “I only—that night at the hospital—”

Yan Zhu interrupted him, “Given your personality, if you truly didn’t have any special feelings for him at the beginning, would you have lunch with a stranger?”

Ming Qiuchi: “And even wanted to exchange contact information with him.”

Yan Zhu: “And you even waited there for him for three days.”

In an instant, Lu Zhijian was enlightened.