Chapter One Hundred and Eighty-Four: Cancelling the Engagement and Coming Out of the Closet
“Tell me clearly!” Xiao Yu pushed Yan Jin, who had been trying to cuddle and kiss to avoid the issue, aside.
“Talking about that doesn’t fit the mood…” Yan Jin looped Xiao Yu into his embrace extremely unreasonably. While rubbing Xiao Yu’s head, he said, “It’s been so long. How about we get some wine to celebrate?”
“Hey!” Xiao Yu yelled at him resentfully. “Answer my questions first!”
Yan Jin’s face fell. His gaze lingered on the top of Xiao Yu’s head. Even before he took out a small pocket-sized bottle, his intentions could already be clearly seen by anyone.
“What’s this?” Xiao Yu took the proffered bottle.
There were complex designs engraved on the palm-sized clear crystal bottle. The cap was shaped like a droplet and the body of the bottle was shaped like a diamond. Xiao Yu shook the bottle lightly, and the light pink transparent liquid sloshed around inside.
It looked like a video game consumable.
Yan Jin laughed softly. “A witch’s secret potion.”
“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” Xiao Yu prodded Yan Jin’s waist threateningly.
“…It’s a special wine.”
“No way. You didn’t need to do this.”
Xiao Yu didn’t need any further explanation from Yan Jin. He was shocked.
Before Yan Jin had left, he had indicated that Xiao Yu’s bodily changes were too unstable. With different wines, different alcohol concentrations, and different metabolic speeds, it would be much better if he could develop a more stable medicine which would cause Xiao Yu’s body to change. At the time, Xiao Yu hadn’t paid too much thought to it. He had thought that Yan Jin was just making small talk or joking. He had never would have expected that Yan Jin would take it so seriously.
Xiao Yu remembered that he had once thoughtlessly commented that FX’s latest tablet didn’t look nice enough, and that if he was the designer he could definitely do better. Seemingly in response, Yan Jin had had a lawyer send over an FX shareholder contract.
Thinking of this, Xiao Yu felt his grip unconsciously growing tighter. Yan Jin was forced to beg for forgiveness.
“It can’t be that you traveled out of the country just for this, can it?” Xiao Yu suddenly felt clear-headed and asked a crucial question.
“How can that be? I needed to attend an inheritance ceremony along the way,” Yan Jin said in deadly earnest.
“……”
Depressed, Xiao Yu fiddled around with the bottle in silence for a while. Then, he asked, “What does this do?”
“Precisely triggers a half-animal transformation.” Yan Jin proudly added, “It’s entirely safe and has no side effects. It only lasts for a short while and won’t harm you. It’s just like how drinking red wine occasionally can improve your appearance and have other benefits.”
Well, the answer was exactly as expected. Perhaps it was even embarra.s.singly obvious.
Improve your appearance, huh…
Xiao Yu wasn’t sure, but he felt that Yan Jin’s bottom line since coming back had lowered drastically.
Xiao Yu shook the small bottle again. He heard a sharp intake of air from next to him.
Well…
Yan Jin looked at him with expectant eyes. Xiao Yu opened the bottle and drained its contents in a single gulp.
It certainly was worthy of being called a secret potion. Yan Jin’s pharmaceutical company’s tireless research and manufacturing efforts hadn’t been in vain. Almost five minutes after drinking the potion, Xiao Yu felt the top of his head beginning to burn hot.
A pair of sensitive ears popped out.
Yan Jin’s gaze had changed entirely. His hands had involuntarily begun to move forward to the little ears he hadn’t seen in so long.
“I’ve sacrificed so much now. Where’s my reward?” Acting spoiled, Xiao Yu tugged at Yan Jin’s arm. “Mr. Gabriel?”
Yan Jin received a shock. In an unimaginably tender voice, he said, “You smarta.s.s, I’ll be teaching you a lesson when we get home.”
……
It’s said that secrets between lovers cannot be hidden in bed.
Xiao Yu had taken the opportunity to get all the answers he wanted. Satisfied, he rolled on the bed with the blankets. Before he could complete one full rotation, the person behind him firmly grabbed the blankets.
“I’ve told you so many times to not roll around on the bed with the blankets. How many times have you fallen off the bed now?”
“Hmph.” Xiao Yu rolled back into Yan Jin’s embrace. He jabbed Yan Jin’s chest and said, “Only you have so many issues. The emperor’s lack of worry makes his eunuch worry for him, Mr. Gabriel.”
For a while, Yan Jin couldn’t decide on which insult to hurl back.
On his phone, Xiao Yu searched for the Gabriel Family on Baidu. Perhaps not knowing would have been better. The more he knew, the more it scared him.
“Hmm… the world’s treasury… Oh, a conservative estimate of their net worth has one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten—oh forget it, I can’t count all the digits. Tsk tsk, they control eighty percent of Country M’s pharmaceutical industry. You used to be in this industry?” Xiao Yu looked up at Yan Jin.
“That’s what we publicly claim. Our most profitable ventures are in legally gray areas.” Such an explosive secret was tossed out so casually by Yan Jin.
Xiao Yu’s feelings were a little complicated. He kept feeling that something would happen to him now that he knew too much.
“Then, doesn’t hopping into the design industry not fit you well?”
“Maybe a little at the start, but it’s fine now.” Yan Jin rubbed Xiao Yu’s head. “Commercial business affairs don’t vary too widely.”
“Only you would feel that way.” Xiao Yu pointed at his phone’s screen. “Look, it says here: a genius and the youngest successor in history. A founder with unlimited glory. Wow, so awesome!”
Yan Jin shook his head. “A real genius would have run off from the family without any consequences. Obediently inheriting the family business can only be considered one level down.”
“You want to say you’re the second type?” Xiao Yu laughed.
“Of course not.” Who was Yan Jin? Modesty wasn’t a part of his vocabulary. “I previously made a promise with someone else. I only stayed to fulfill that promise.”
“What promise?”
“Secret. If you want to know, you have to work harder.” Yan Jin rubbed Xiao Yu’s bare back. The implication was obvious.
Xiao Yu didn’t reply.
“Why aren’t you saying anything?” Yan Jin asked.
“I’ve been subdued by your shamelessness. There’s nothing to say.” Xiao Yu sincerely said while blinking.
……
The next day’s news was all about Yan Jin coming out of the closet.
Compared to the Gabriel Family successor’s powerful return that all the outsiders were talking about, the gossip about Yan Jin’s s.e.xual orientation attracted much more attention.
After all, the Gabriel Family kept a very low and mysterious profile in Country M. Domestically, they were even more unknown. Industry insiders could see some traces, but the Gabriel Family was too remote for the ma.s.ses to be emotionally invested in them. Even without the Gabriel Family, Yan Jin’s social status was already scary. Now, it grew by another level, or perhaps ten. To idle viewers, it made no difference at all. They wouldn’t be able to reach that level anyways.
In comparison, the discussion about how YL’s successor had denied the NN Family’s engagement announcement and come out of the closet for THE design super-genius Mr. Mystery a.k.a. Xiao Yu wasn’t just any newsworthy topic.
It had gone completely viral.
As a result, in the report about the super-serious press conference that had derailed off the ends of the earth, Yan Jin saw only three instances of “Gabriel” out of a thousand words. His feelings were exceedingly complicated.
Previously, whenever the Gabriel Family had transitioned to a new head, it would disrupt everything. In the more severe cases, it could send Country M or even the world into an economic crisis. The last few transitions had been intensely reported on both domestically and internationally. But this time…
Was too tragic.
Yan Jin casually tossed the newspaper aside.
He didn’t want to read it anymore. The more he read, the more annoyed he became.
Xiao Yu happened to be walking by. He picked up the newspaper and gave it a scan.
“That’s too much!” Xiao Yu shrieked. “Why’d they choose such an ugly picture of me?! My eyes are even closed in this one, and… Why do you look so handsome!”
“Thanks for your exaggeration.”
Yan Jin opened his arms for a hug, but received only a newspaper hurled at him.
“Who’s praising you? I’m talking about this picture! Why do you never blink in pictures?! Have you practiced before?! Tell me now!” Xiao Yu stormed over unreasonably and ended up getting caught in Yan Jin’s embrace.
“Nope.” Yan Jin earnestly said, “It’s because those reporters were invited by me and were funded by me. So, they have to use the best photoshopping software.”
“…Why do I feel like your style has entirely changed after coming back from overseas?”
“Has it?” Yan Jin narrowed his eyes. He grabbed Xiao Yu’s wrist with one hand and started to undo his belt with the other. “Do you want to personally check if it’s changed?”
Without waiting for a response, Yan Jin already planted a kiss on him.
After another session of PLAY in the office, Xiao Yu gloomily picked up his clothes and grumpily said, “I’ve already told you so many times that we aren’t doing this anymore at the office.”
“When did we decide that?”
“On the day you left. I texted you the news. Right, I still haven’t settled the FX issue with you—”
“—My phone has been broken since July. I haven’t found the time to go get a new one yet,” Yan Jin interrupted his next words.
Xiao Yu burst into laughter at Yan Jin’s utter nonsense.
After a while, his gaze landed on the newspaper, and his cheeriness began to fade.
“Hey, are you really planning on getting married?” Xiao Yu asked.
Yan Jin looked at him strangely. “I thought that the person receiving the marriage proposal usually can’t stop thinking about it.”
“Huh? I don’t care too much about it. Let’s just wait a while then—”
“—Sorry, but I’m one of the rare marriage proposers that can’t stop thinking about it,” Yan Jin interrupted.
Xiao Yu: “……”
Yan Jin calmly stared back at him.
“Well, you’ve already known for a long time, right?” Xiao Yu prodded Yan Jin in the head. “You thoroughly investigated me a long time ago and figured out my special ident.i.ty. Oh, speaking of this, I haven’t gotten back to you yet for the matter of the GPS.”
Yan Jin maintained a neutral expression and earnestly replied, “Huh? What are you referring to?”
“You’re still pretending even after being exposed?” Xiao Yu rolled his eyes. “Fine, I’m not interested right now in the matter of the GPS. What I want to say is, I’m not ready yet for marriage.”
Because Yan Jin had always obediently granted all of his requests previously, Xiao Yu had thought that Yan Jin would back down after he said this. He didn’t expect that on this issue, Yan Jin would be so insistent.