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nChapter One Hundred and Sixty-Five: Improvement

nAt the same time elsewhere, Yan Jin received his second ever notification that his secondary card had been used. He was extremely moved.

nGoodness gracious, had his little Fishy finally swallowed his pride and learned to rely on him?

nYan Jin excitedly checked what the money was spent on. Huh??

nThe amount wasn’t the issue. Why was the money transferred to a personal account?

nIt couldn’t possibly be for company matters, right?

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nJust as quickly as he’d thought of this, he immediately ruled it out.

nToday is Saturday, so that’s not possible. Xiao Yu should be waiting for me to return home and make dinner.

nThen what had happened?

nYan Jin never wasted time making conjectures without sufficient information, so he dialed his little hacker.

nThere wasn’t an immediate response. Yan Jin hurriedly finished buying the rest of the groceries he needed for the night’s dinner. Just as he returned to the car, he received a return call.

n“Aside from the recipient being an overseas personal account, there’s nothing special about it. It’s probably for a relative. Stop micromanaging him so much… Well, now that you’re here, let me tell you to stop looking to me for every small thing. I’m a busy person too.”

n“I’ve already settled the most important event of your life for you. What else are you unhappy about?” While holding onto his phone with his left hand, Yan Jin skillfully turned the steering wheel with his right and reversed his car out.

n“…Your rare good intentions leave me more uneasy than anything else.” The other party’s tone was clearly scathing.

n“Haha.” Yan Jin chuckled simply.

n“I’m hanging up. I still need to handle some stuff. When you’re done—”

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n“We can talk about it then,” Yan Jin interrupted and concluded the call. “Okay, see you soon.”

n……

nXiao Yu looked at his phone. He was extremely confused.

nActually, all things considered, it shouldn’t have been too surprising. The amount of money Yan Jin had was still an unsolved mystery in the industry. However, Xiao Yu couldn’t believe that so much money could be transferred in a single breath. He wasn’t sure how he’d developed that belief either. Perhaps it was because all his purchases needed to go through Yan Jin when he was a hamster. But Xiao Yu still couldn’t understand how such an enormous sum could be moved without so much as a confirmation check.

nThen again, the reasoning could be worked out if he thought carefully. The only reason Yan Jin gave Fishy a maximum daily spending amount was because Yan Jin had bought his story of being a hamster spirit. What if the little demon spent millions on something he shouldn’t have bought in a single purchase? If it were something illegal, it might have revealed to the world that Yan Jin’s hamster was a sentient demon. Yan Jin didn’t really care about the wasted money itself.

nBut the current Xiao Yu was a regular human being that wouldn’t do anything not permitted by society. Naturally, Yan Jin had removed the maximum daily spending amount.

nXiao Yu hadn’t completely thought everything through when Yan Jin arrived home.

n“What do you say about having simmer-fried carp for dinner tonight? I was too late to get the Crucian carp,” Yan Jin asked Xiao Yu in a very ordinary tone while placing the grocery bag onto the table.

nXiao Yu hesitated for a moment and then decided to clarify things sooner rather than later. “It’s raining outside…”

n“I was in the car for most of the time, so I didn’t really get wet.” Yan Jin was under the impression that Xiao Yu was concerned for him. He quickly added with renewed vigor, “Well, it’s a little cold from the wind today. Maybe we can take a bath together before dinner.”

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n“…Today’s lowest temperature is 15 or 16° C. Furthermore, you’re wearing a thick wool coat.” Xiao Yu didn’t believe him at all. “On a more serious note, I didn’t want to go out today to transfer money because it was raining. That’s why I used your card. I’ll return the money in a few days.”

nYan Jin was already disappointed that he didn’t get to bathe with Xiao Yu. Now that Xiao Yu announced his intention of returning the money, Yan Jin’s spirits sank to rock-bottom. “I think you’re lacking in a few areas.”

n“Hmm? Is there something wrong with the designs?” Xiao Yu was clearly on a different wavelength.

nYan Jin reached his arm out and looped Xiao Yu into his embrace before giving him a ferocious kiss. “You’re lacking a lot of the qualities as a chairman’s significant other.”

nXiao Yu laughed. “Which qualities? Hitting the maximum spend limit on your card?”

nXiao Yu clearly was joking, but when he raised his head, Yan Jin’s expectant eyes made him feel quite helpless.

nYan Jin was so childish about these issues that Xiao Yu really felt speechless.

n“I still haven’t asked you yet. I remember that you said that there was a daily limit of two hundred thousand on the card. How come no warning popped up when I moved so much money at once?”

n“The daily spend limit is in the past. To make it a little harder for you to max out the card, I cancelled the spending limit. This isn’t a credit card either, so feel free to swipe as you please.”

nXiao Yu didn’t know if it was his own misperception, but he felt that Yan Jin acted completely like a nouveau riche person.

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nWhat had happened to his refined nobility? Where was his icy arrogance and elite persona?

nJust from Yan Jin’s current manner, calling him a despotic chairman would still be praising him. Where did this rich upstart come from?

nXiao Yu wriggled free of Yan Jin’s hug in discomfort. He turned and seriously addressed Yan Jin, “I don’t want to be seen as a completely dependent lover living off of you. I want to proudly stand next to you with my own strength, so—”

n“My dear little Fishy, have some confidence in yourself.” Yan Jin rubbed the curls of Xiao Yu’s hair. “Your annual salary is over ten million. You’re the once-in-a-century genius designer. You’ve rescued YL out of the frying pan so many times. You don’t need to prove yourself to anyone because you’ve completely earned everything yourself.”

n“…Then if I have so much money, I need your card even less,” Xiao Yu stubbornly said.

n“I’ve already addressed this issue. The card is just a substantiation of our relationship.” Yan Jin innocently added, “It’s just like a couple exchanging gifts. It indicates to others that each of the couple is already spoken for.”

n“Then according to that reasoning, I should also give you a card as well. Only then can it be called an equal relationship,” Xiao Yu concluded logically.

n“Well… this—” Yan Jin dragged out his words like he was considering some puzzle. Again, he looped Xiao Yu into an embrace, but this time his intentions weren’t so pure. His misbehaving hands dexterously entered Xiao Yu’s clothes.

nXiao Yu wasn’t able to escape. With a muffled thump, he was pushed down onto the sofa. His shirt was cruelly undone and his pants’ defense was almost overcome.

nActually, Xiao Yu wasn’t super opposed to bedtime activities. Sometimes when he was in the mood, he actually took the lead to provoke Yan Jin. Normally, when Yan Jin was coming, he’d just lie flat on the bed without resistance. But this time, especially considering their previous conversation, he somehow felt like it was his loss if he allowed Yan Jin to have his way.

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nThus, he began to struggle fiercely—

nHowever, under Yan Jin’s skilled teasing, he quickly surrendered and ceased his struggling.

n“Okay okay okay, stop messing around. If you want to do it, hurry up,” Xiao Yu panted. His entire face was red.

n“This is why I have no choice but to take control of our relationship,” Yan Jin continued their previous topic as he pressed his body onto Xiao Yu’s.

n“Fuck, don’t treat me like a woman…”

nXiao Yu unhappily raised his leg to kick him, but he wasn’t successful. Instead his knee was captured and pressed sideways so that his legs were spread apart.

n“Your ability to understand things is just as cute as you.”

n“Ha…. ha…. If you want to say something, explain it more clearly…”

n“You don’t need to prove yourself in this relationship. Even the most dim-witted person would be able to see that every cell in my body is captivated by you.”

n“But you, you uncaring scoundrel, want nothing more than to hide our relationship until the end of time.” Yan Jin swept aside Xiao Yu’s bangs and said in a low voice, “Therefore, I’m using another way to materialize our bond. My hope was that you’d realize this sooner.”

n“You, you, stop spouting rubbish.” Xiao Yu’s words lacked any conviction because of his guilty conscience. To cover his embarrassment, he raised his voice and said, “If you continue saying this and ruin the atmosphere, I–I won’t be participating any longer then.”

n“That’s not your call anymore,” Yan Jin replied haughtily.

n……

nAfter they had their fill of fun.

n“Hey, the thing is… there’s something I’m requesting your help with.” Xiao Yu prodded Yan Jin’s hip.

n“Hmm? You’ve ascertained that I won’t reject you right now?” Yan Jin said.

n“Y-you! What’s that supposed to mean? Forget it, go away.”

nXiao Yu felt that he was being mocked. He angrily turned his head away.

nYan Jin could only wrap his lover into an embrace and coax, “Okay, okay. Don’t be angry. You know I didn’t mean things that way.”

n“Then what did you mean?” Xiao Yu crankily asked.

nSigh. Yan Jin reached a hand out and vigorously messed up Xiao Yu’s hair.

n“What are you doing!?” Xiao Yu cradled his head.

n“Punishing you,” Yan Jin said.

n“What? I didn’t even scold you. You dare–”

n“I’m punishing you for not telling me the first time,” Yan Jin cut across Xiao Yu. “Have some faith in the position you occupy in my heart, okay?”

nXiao Yu pouted unhappily. “When did I ever not trust you?”

n“Then why are you only bringing this up now?” Yan Jin looked at Xiao Yu’s heated expression. The resolve he had laboriously gathered to directly address the issue wavered. He could only sigh and fall back to honeyed coaxing. “You never need to ‘request’ anything from me. I’ll never refuse any of your demands, no matter the time.”

n“You’re exaggerating too much.” Xiao Yu was amused. “Friendship between gentleman is as clear as water, but you’re exactly like the model reprobate.” TLN: Referring to a work by Zhuangzi that contrasts long-lasting successful close friendships between high-class gentleman versus weak short-term friendships between unprincipled people.

n“You’re spending too much time with He Xinjia. You’ve been infected by her idiosyncrasies.”

n“Hmph. What do you mean ‘infected’? I’ve always been a very cultured person. I’ve never had trouble incorporating famous quotes into my language.”

n“Oh, great scholar! How can I serve you?” Yan Jin was very practiced with playing along to his lover’s tune.

nXiao Yu hesitated. In the end, he avoided the important details about the matter with Madam Fang and only talked about the lesser points.

n“…No matter how you look at it, Little Hao is still my little brother. I’ve cared a lot about his situation for the past two years. He didn’t even come home for the New Year. I’m really worried. I heard Jiajia say that you have overseas friends. If it’s okay, can you have one of them check in on him?”

n“It’s not hard to get someone to check in on his situation, but the problem is what to do after. You probably already have a few guesses in your heart about what’s going on.”

nCompared to Xiao Yu’s sparse overseas study experience, Yan Jin had a much greater understanding of foreign countries. Just from Xiao Yu’s short explanation and that huge sum of money, he could already draw some conclusions about what that supposedly double-majoring student who was also studying for graduate admission examinations was up to.

n“I’m not sure…” Xiao Yu was at a loss. In terms of family matters, he was always very passive and indecisive. For him, taking the first step to seek Yan Jin’s help could already be considered an extraordinary improvement.

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