Chapter One-Hundred and Forty-Six: The World Really Is Small
When the appointed time rolled around, Xiao Yu anxiously waited for the doorbell ring.
Xiao Yu had repeatedly checked his phone so many times in the last minute but still didn’t receive any notifications. As always, the impatient Xiao Yu adeptly vented all his worries and responsibilities onto Yan Jin, who was leisurely perusing the newspaper, “Hurry up, hurry up. Go check outside.”
“Why?” Yan Jin was puzzled.
“Nannan definitely has arrived. Maybe he got stopped by the gate guard just like me last time.”
“Ah?” Yan Jin still didn’t get it.
It was fine when he didn’t mention it, but now that he did, Xiao Yu’s anger began to rise again as a victim. “I came to try to find you here in March but was denied entry by the gate guard. I waited outside in the corner until it was dark and you still hadn’t come out.”
Yan Jin exhaled coldly; he hadn’t heard anything about this.
However, just as he started to move towards the cranky Xiao Yu, Xiao Yu firmly pushed him away.
“So I’m saying, hurry up and go check,” Xiao Yu seriously said.
Not discouraged in the least, Yan Jin started again towards Xiao Yu. Just as Xiao Yu reached out to push him away again, Yan Jin reached out an arm and trapped Xiao Yu in his embrace.
Placing his chin on Xiao Yu’s head, Yan Jin spoke with his tepid breath on Xiao Yu’s ear.
“Don’t worry, he can get in.”
“Even if you’ve already notified the gate guard, there’s still a chance something went wrong.”
Xiao Yu uncomfortably moved his head. Thanks to his fortune of becoming a hamster, even though the hamster ears weren’t showing, the spots they normally were at were still sensitive.
Yan Jin pitied Xiao Yu for having to wait in the cold wind until dark and felt even worse for Xiao Yu’s current worries. Without considering it any further, he prepared to reveal Nannan’s ident.i.ty.
“The gate guard knows him…”
Ding dong.
The doorbell rang.
Xiao Yu immediately hopped out from Yan Jin’s embrace. As he went to the door, he forcefully ran a hand through his hair as if we wanted to straighten his curls.
From the sofa, Yan Jin saw Xiao Yu’s efforts and for the first time in a while was filled with jealousy.
Xiao Yu took a deep breath in front of the door and swung open the door.
“Hey, Cousin—”
Nan Wei had fully expected Yan Jin to open the door and ended up saying the wrong name.
Although in the next second he added “Master,” Xiao Yu had already heard the strange greeting.
Xiao Yu felt stunned. Before he could realize that the youth in front him was rather familiar, he heard Yan Jin’s soft reply behind him.
“Hey.” Yan Jin calmly got up and moved from the sofa to the dining room. Sitting down, he casually opened up his newspaper just like a old man. “You guys go chat. Don’t worry about me.”
In this day and age, people rarely read the newspaper anymore. Yan Jin had actually dropped the habit long ago too. He’d revived it just for today partly to tease Xiao Yu but mainly so he could hide behind the large newspaper and honorably eavesdrop on Xiao Yu and Nan Wei. This way, he wouldn’t need to go back to the room either.
Nan Jin indicated his a.s.sent and grabbed himself some slippers with experienced movements. “Master, I’ll introduce myself first since it’s the first time we’re face-to-face. My online tag is Nannan. My full name is Nan Wei. Since you probably already know, I won’t hide anything. It’s the very same Nan as the Nan Family from NN. My father is Nan Kaitian. But that’s not related to me; no matter what the Nan Family does, I’ll always be the normal Nannan. This part will never change.”
Xiao Yu nodded along and said, “Mhmm.” On the surface he acted as if this was all very normal, but internally he was already on the edge of collapsing.
He didn’t even need to bring up NN. Everyone in S city knew the Nan Family.
But the more important issue was: how could Nannan possibly be from the Nan Family? Wasn’t it well known that Nannan lived off of some cheap jewelry online store? Didn’t he have the talent but lacked the means for a traditional education? Didn’t he want to become a designer but lacked sufficient funds to do so?
And not only that; Nannan, or more accurately Nan Wei, addressed Yan Jin as cousin…
Xiao Yu turned to look at Yan Jin, but all he saw was the newspaper completely s.h.i.+elding him from view. “Hmph!”
As Nan Wei spoke, he familiarly walked over to the sofa and even beckoned Xiao Yu over. “Master, come sit.”
Feeling like their roles as host and guest had been switched, Xiao Yu sat down with a complicated expression.
“Also, Yan Jin is my cousin. At first when you contacted me I really was surprised. I thought you were setting a trap for Cousin.” Nan Wei helped himself with the tea on the table, “Cousin did mentioned all these to you, right?”
Xiao Yu forced himself to smile. “Of course, he already told me long ago.”
It might have been his imagination, but Xiao Yu thought he heard a chuckle from behind the newspaper.
It was really soft, so soft that Nan Wei didn’t notice. But Xiao Yu was almost certain he heard it.
He ground his teeth secretly.
Yan Jin, you’re a dead man walking.
“Right, let’s talk about the important stuff first. Because I couldn’t contact you before, I gave my drafts directly to Cousin. But since then, I wanted to make a few minor modifications. Could you take a look?”
“Of course.”
Finally, Xiao Yu realized why Nan Wei seemed familiar. Thinking back, he had seen the young man back at the Four Season Manor.
Speaking of that time…
“You should have realized there was something wrong with my ident.i.ty long ago right?” Xiao Yu asked a question that had been bugging him and took the design draft. “Then why did you still help me out?”
“Something’s wrong with your ident.i.ty?” Nan Wei looked confused. He thought about it and suddenly realized, “Don’t worry! I grew up in a very progressive place overseas. I don’t mind having another male sister-in-law.”
Xiao Yu choked. He had meant Nan Wei should have discovered he wasn’t SI’s chief designer “FISH”, but instead Nan Wei misunderstood him as this.
Although Nan Wei misunderstood, he really knew too much.
“Yan Jin, is there anything you want to explain?”
Xiao Yu directly asked him. His furious stare bore holes in the newspaper.
“Hey hey hey, don’t get so emotional, Master. I know that you two can’t announce your relations.h.i.+p. I won’t tell anyone. Actually, Cousin wasn’t the one who told me.”
Nan Wei normally was quite loose-lipped. With Yan Jin around, he was even more emboldened to reveal the heaven-defying secrets of the upper cla.s.s, “My blood-related brother told me. His name is Nan–, erm, wait that’s not right. He now goes by Chu Ge. Master should have seen him before.”
Xiao Yu: ……
Originally, Xiao Yu had planned for today to be a happy meeting between teacher and student. After quickly getting familiar with one another, they’d formalize their master-disciple relations.h.i.+p. Regardless of whether Nannan wanted to leave his x.x.xbao shop, he’d continue to be his teacher.
But unexpectedly, he’d instead been listening to the secrets of the upper cla.s.s for the last five minutes.
Xiao Yu glanced again at the newspaper not far away.
Not a peep was heard from the newspaper, but upon closer observation the newspaper moved back one centimeter.
Long before, back when Xiao Yu was still a hamster in Yan Jin’s eyes, Xiao Yu had his suspicions regarding Chu Ge’s ident.i.ty.
Whether Chu Ge was Yan Jin’s or the Yan Family’s private doctor, Chu Ge’s relations.h.i.+p with Yan Jin was far beyond that of a normal employee and employer. It looked more like the relations.h.i.+p between close friends or brothers of many years.
Before, Xiao Yu had guessed that Chu Ge was from a family of low-profile officials or from a very well-off family that he didn’t want to rely on.
He definitely would never have guessed that Chu Ge was actually from the Nan Family.
In S City, the Nan Family far surpa.s.sed the Yan Family, so didn’t that mean Chu Ge should be of higher status than Yan Jin?
Xiao Yu thought back to when Yan Jin was swamped with too much work and resorted to calling Chu Ge over to help.
That time, Xiao Yu wondered how a doctor like Chu Ge could handle company matters. But now, things were slowly starting to become clear.
“Aside from the design drafts, I don’t have anything else that needs to be done here. Master, any other issues?” Nan Wei sat obediently on the sofa like a disciple ready to receive instruction.
“I’ll look at these later and message you online with any feedback.” Xiao Yu put away the design drafts. Inhaling deeply, he broached his main topic, “In a few days I’ll be joining YL. I wanted to ask you if you wanted to join as well. You’d start as an a.s.sistant designer…”
Xiao Yu couldn’t continue after halfway. He’d prepared so many arguments to help convince Nan Wei such as coming to terms with his talent, not wasting his prime in selling pirated copies and replicas, developing himself in the professional world, the increased potential along this path, that it would only be for a short while of decreased income, that realizing his dreams would stay with him for a lifetime, and that Xiao Yu was willing to help him as much as possible to secure a good position.
He’d originally planned it like this.
But now…
Would the successor of NN worth tens of billions care an x.x.xbao store’s income? Would Nan Wei, who was from such a powerful and influential family, never have been exposed to the path of a professional? If the cousin of YL’s chairman had come for a position in YL, would he even need to worry if the position was good or bad?
Frankly, Xiao Yu wouldn’t be needed at all. If Nan Wei wanted to do it, he would have done so long ago.
Xiao Yu felt even worse because everything he had enthusiastically been planning all of this was all for naught. On one hand, he blamed Yan Jin for not telling him sooner, and on the other, he was still wondering how Yan Jin could have been so thoughtless.
That scoundrel had probably been laughing…
But then unexpectedly, Nan Wei appeared very happy and responded, “Of course I’d be willing. Master, you’re really too nice.”
“What?”
“If not for Master, I definitely wouldn’t be able to become a proper designer. I’m really really thankful.”
Xiao Yu felt embarra.s.sed from the praise. He hurriedly waved his hands and said, “No, no. You’re already really awesome. I didn’t think you would have wanted to start from such a low position.”
“*Sigh*, Master, like I already said, the Nan Family is the Nan Family. I am me. There’s no relations.h.i.+p at all between us.” Nan Wei seemed to be entirely unaffected. “Being the second son of the Nan Family isn’t a reason to get things from free. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have needed to open my x.x.xbao shop.”
“I’m sorry…”
“Nono, I’m not blaming you. It’s just an example.”
“I’m joining YL next week. Will you be free at that time?”
Nan Wei thought for a while before awkwardly responding, “I probably can’t. It would take me at least to the middle or end of next month. I’m very sorry that you already arranged everything…”
“No problem. I know that you need to clean up your internet store,” Xiao Yu responded.
“Erm, it’s actually not because of that. I stopped running the store long ago.” Nan Wei scratched the back of his head before smiling naively.
“It’s actually because next month, I’m going to get married. So I’ll be busy for a while.”