Home/ The Selfish Gene/ Chapter 58
“Thank you for taking in my friend,” I said to Ji Chenfeng’s back as I leaned out of the door.
Ji Chenfeng had only taken a few steps and turned back slightly upon hearing the words. Unlike the gentle and polite attitude when facing Zheng Jieyuan, he became much colder when facing me.
“Don’t let it happen again.”
Watching him disappear at the end of the corridor, I sighed and turned back to the house.
Zheng Jieyuan stuffed bread in his mouth and kept scrolling through his phone. Suddenly, I didn’t know what he saw, and his whole body froze. The food was bulging on his cheeks, and he even forgot to chew it.
I glanced at it from above, it seemed to be a text message— Shi Hao’s text message.
I coughed lightly and sat down opposite Zheng Jieyuan, where Ji Chenfeng had sat before: “Shi Hao called you yesterday, and I answered it.”
Zheng Jieyuan looked up from his phone and stared at me, letting out an “Ah” blankly.
“He asked you to attend his birthday party on Saturday and said he was looking forward to your gift. When did you get so close to him?”
Growing up, it would be an understatement to say that they are incompatible with each other. After all, if water and fire do not invade each other, they can still live in the same space. Shi Hao and Zheng Jieyuan are like the positive poles of two magnets, naturally repelling each other. The closer they are to each other, the more strongly they resist.
“I don’t want to either, but the Shi family may be the only one who can help our family now. Shi Hao said that if I am always on call and make him happy, he will help me say a few words in front of his father…” Zheng Jieyuan put down the bread and shrugged his shoulders, feeling a little downcast.
What does “making him happy” mean? What is the standard of happiness? Moreover, with billions in debt, whether it is to help the Zheng family with debt restructuring or directly injecting the capital, for a family as big as the Shi family, it is impossible for Shi Hao’s father to make the decision alone.
Businessmen don’t care about friendship, but only interests. This big cake painted by Shi Hao is a bit too big.
“I’ll go with you on Saturday.” I said, “The grudge between Shi Hao and I should be settled.”
Zheng Jieyuan was shocked: “No way, it will be all his people on Saturday, and there are only two of us. It’s a big disadvantage.”
“This is between me and him, it has nothing to do with you. You can just watch from the side, and he won’t kill me.”
Although Sang Zhengbai has severed the father-son relationship with me, in the eyes of outsiders, we are still blood relatives with our bones and our tendons connected. Even if Shi Hao wants to cause trouble for me, he still has to worry about the Sang family.
“What are you talking about?” Zheng Jieyuan threw the bread on the table, as if he was greatly humiliated, “How could I not help you until death? If he dares to take action against you, I will be the first to refuse!”
It’s a little touching and a little funny. Although he is stupid, he is really good to his friends. The contempt and alienation I had been worried about after he found out that I liked men didn’t appear. He is still as sincere to me as before.
Thinking about it this way, I am actually very lucky. In more than twenty years of my life, I have relatives, friends, and my best lover.
Why on earth did I turn a blind eye to these things in the past?
After breakfast, Zheng Jieyuan still didn’t want to leave. Frankly speaking, although this place is small and shabby, it is quite comfortable to live in. It feels like returning to the dormitory life when you were young.
This place is just right for two people, but it’s too crowded for three people. It was already a mistake to bring him back, but he still wants to relive his dormitory life?
The warmth I had just felt towards him disappeared without a trace. Without saying a word, I grabbed his collar and walked out the door: “Get out of here.”
“Sang Nian? Oh, don’t be like this…”
Zheng Jieyuan kept trying to break free and get back into the house, but it all ended in failure.
“Don’t interrupt my love life.” I threw his shoes out together and then closed the door mercilessly.
Zheng Jieyuan patted the iron door twice, but seeing that I really didn’t let him in, he could only leave.
“See you on Saturday then!”
On Saturday, when Ji Chenfeng was about to go out in the morning, I specifically asked for leave.
“I have an appointment with someone else tonight, so I can’t go to class. Teacher Ji, come back and give me extra lessons.”
Ji Chenfeng put on his shoes and turned around to face me: “When will you be back?”
When I can come back depends mainly on what Shi Hao wants to play. If everything goes smoothly, you can leave quickly. If it doesn’t go smoothly… it’s hard to say.
“I will try to get home before you come back.”
Ji Chenfeng made an estimate and said: “Then it will be around half past ten.” He turned around and held the doorknob, then pushed the door halfway before stopping.
With his back to me, he added, “Don’t exceed the time limit this time.”
Wasn’t it just three minutes late last time? If you don’t want to wait for me, just give me a key.
I felt a bit funny. Before the door closed, I rushed to the door and said loudly: “I understand!”
The place where Shi Hao held his birthday party was his own villa. It was far away from the city, and the location was a bit remote. I had agreed in advance that Zheng Jieyuan would pick me up, and I was waiting on the roadside at seven o’clock on time. After a while, I saw a black convertible slowly approaching that was incompatible with Fly City.
It’s true that Zheng Jieyuan was sitting in the driver’s seat, but there was someone in the back seat who shouldn’t be in the car.
The convertible stopped in front of me, and I just stared at Ji Chenfeng in the back seat. I was so stunned that I forgot to get in the car for a moment.
“What are you waiting for?” Zheng Jieyuan honked the horn, “Get in the car.”
I opened the passenger door, and my gaze was fixed on Ji Chenfeng from beginning to end.
“Why are you here?”
Ji Chenfeng held a gift box the size of a shoe box in his arms. Hearing this, he was about to say something, but Zheng Jieyuan beat him to it: “I invited Chenfeng to come with me. I happened to go to their hospital to pick up the gift, so I asked him casually. I asked him if he was free in the evening and wanted to go together? I didn’t expect him to agree. You know it’s just the two of us, so I’m still a little uneasy. If there are multiple people and we don’t come out for a long time, the third person can help us call the police in time, right?”
What is this? I tried my best to keep Ji Chenfeng away from Shi Hao, but Zheng Jieyuan, this idiot, actually wants to send people directly to him?
“No, stop the car. He will get out.” I ordered Zheng Jieyuan to stop the car.
Zheng Jieyuan didn’t know what was going on and asked stupidly: “What’s wrong?”
“I’m not going there to play. Can you get out of the car and wait for me at home?” I was already feeling restless in my heart, but I still tried my best to soften my tone and persuade Ji Chenfeng.
Ji Chenfeng lowered his head and glanced at the gift box on his knee. Unlike my tone of discussion, he didn’t mean to listen to me: “I won’t go in, I’ll just wait for you in the car.”
He won’t get off.
If it weren’t for Ji Chenfeng in the car, I could have thrown myself into the driver’s seat and died together with Zheng Jieyuan.
The smile at the corner of my mouth couldn’t be maintained, and I took a deep breath. Seeing that the situation couldn’t be changed, I could only reluctantly accept it.
The scorching summer breeze makes people feel hotter and even more restless. I turned around and raised the hood, turned on the air conditioning to the maximum.
“Don’t you have a class today?” I asked Ji Chenfeng.
The car hood was completely spread open above the head, blocking out the noise on the road. The interior of the car suddenly became quiet except for the sound of the running air conditioner.
“The activity center has a circuit failure and is temporarily closed.” Ji Chenfeng said after a while.
Was there really a circuit failure? I can ask Meng Xueyan clearly next time I see her. He doesn’t need to tell such an easily exposed lie. So when Zheng Jieyuan invited him, he was really free.
Damn it, how could there be such a coincidence?
“It’s okay…Shi Hao doesn’t know Chenfeng, so he shouldn’t do anything to him…” At this time, Zheng Jieyuan also felt my low pressure and began to speak cautiously.
I glanced at him, and my hands felt a little itchy.
“Shut up.”
After spitting out these two cold words, Zheng Jieyuan immediately fell silent and didn’t dare to speak again.
Along the way, I would occasionally look back at Ji Chenfeng in the back row. He didn’t feel my anxiety at all, holding the gift box and quietly looking out the window. It looks so… so well behaved, as if he had been abducted.
Whenever I look away, I will also give Zheng Jieyuan a “death stare”.
At first, he would look at me secretly, giggling foolishly at me, but later he didn’t dare to look anymore, just swallowing in fear.
After driving for more than an hour along the mountain road, we finally reached our destination.
The entrance was filled with luxury cars, and before we entered, we could clearly hear the sound of music echoing through the air.
“Lock the car door, no one should open the door except for the two of us.” I gave the key to Ji Chenfeng and reminded him repeatedly, wishing to build a brick wall around him.
“It’s 8:30 now,” He said after glancing at the time, “I’ll wait for you until 9:30. If you don’t come out, I’ll call the police.”
No matter how worried I was, I had to leave him alone and forced myself to get out of the car. Holding a gift box, I walked with Zheng Jieyuan towards the villa gate.
After being interrogated and frisked by the security guards at the door, we were released smoothly.
The villa was full of people and bustling with excitement. Singing, dancing, and playing video games, if it weren’t for a bodyguard leading us all the way to find Shi Hao, it might have taken a long time just to find people.
“What gift did you prepare for Shi Hao? Why did you go to Ji Chenfeng’s hospital to pick it up?” Before, my mind was all on Ji Chenfeng, so I didn’t pay much attention to Zheng Jieyuan’s words. Now that I remembered, the more I thought about it, the more wrong it felt.
“He will get all kinds of expensive gifts, so I want to give something different….” Zheng Jieyuan said mysteriously. “I want to surprise him. He keeps a doberman named Barcelona, which is so handsome. I made a platinum dog tag with Shi Hao’s name and contact information written on it and went to the pet hospital to get a collar with rivets. This gift is so heartwarming, and it will definitely impress him!”
No wonder the gift box is so light…
No, on Shi Hao’s birthday, Zheng Jieyuan brought a dog collar as a gift with Shi Hao’s name on it?
Will that lunatic Shi Hao really feel that Zheng Jieyuan wants to impress him and be deeply moved by this “gift”, instead of getting furious and thinking that Zheng Jieyuan is calling him a dog?
“Mr. Shi is waiting for you upstairs.” The bodyguard held down the elevator door and gestured for us to enter.
Walking into the elevator, I threw the gift box to Zheng Jieyuan and didn’t want to think about Shi Hao’s reaction when he opened the box.
Zheng Jieyuan hurriedly caught the box and looked at me anxiously: “What’s wrong? Is this a bad gift?”
I smiled at him: “No, it’s quite suitable.” It matched Shi Hao very well.
The elevator quickly reached the top floor. As soon as the door opened, the first thing that came into view were two tall bodyguards at the door.
“Please.” The bodyguard gestured for us to move forward.
Passing through a piece of tropical vegetation, the scenery suddenly became clear. There are fewer people on the rooftop than below. The huge swimming pool was rendered into a dreamy pink-purple color by the lights. Young men and women were divided into two teams, played volleyball in the swimming pool.
There were people barbecuing and drinking on the shore, and King Shi Hao was lying on a wooden beach chair, enjoying the massage from the person next to him. He was naked from his upper body, wearing only a pair of swimming trunks with undulating muscles on his back, and his skin color was two shades darker than the hands massaging him.
“Is it too heavy?”
At first, the person had his head lowered and was too far away, unable to see the appearance clearly. When we got closer and heard his voice, Zheng Jieyuan and I stopped at the same time.
“It’s just right.” While speaking, Shi Hao opened his eyes lazily and saw us not far away.
He laughed and slowly stood up from the chair: “You are finally here.”
The person massaging him also stopped and looked at us. When he saw clearly who Shi Hao was waiting for, his handsome and sunny face turned blue in an instant.
“Why are you everywhere?” Zheng Jieyuan threw the gift box aside and stepped forward aggressively, “Didn’t I say that I’ll beat you every time I see you? Forget about seducing my mother, but you’re still giving it to a man here. Don’t you hate it? Did you sell yourself to him?”
Lu Sui was so frightened that he hid behind Shi Hao: “Mr. Shi, please help me!”
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