"Click."
The sound of the security door's bolt springing open rang out especially crisp in the quiet stairwell.
Su Yu pushed the door open, and a wave of warm air carrying a faint whiff of pizza cheese rushed at his face.
The TV in the living room was on, playing some boring variety show, canned laughter rising and falling in waves.
On the sofa, a ball of white, unidentified creature was curled up.
Kiana was hugging that enormous pink Houmei plushie, her chin resting on the top of the doll's head.
Those heterochromatic pupils, usually so full of spirit, now looked rather glazed over, staring blankly straight at the TV screen, not even focused on it.
Clearly, she was spacing out.
The little cat named Chongchong was sprawled by her feet, licking its paws in utter boredom.
Seeing Su Yu come back, it merely raised its eyelids lazily, let out a "meow," as if to say: "You're done for, litter-scooper, someone's been waiting a long time for you."
No idea what Kiana was thinking about — probably something like what to eat tomorrow?
Su Yu changed his shoes, tossed that priceless kraft-paper bag onto the entryway cabinet, and walked over.
"I'm home."
He greeted her with a smile, his tone as relaxed as if nothing at all had happened.
"What's wrong? You look like your soul's gone wandering. Have you had dinner? Has the pizza gone cold?"
"Ah!… Ah? You— you're back!"
Kiana sprang up from the sofa abruptly, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
The remote in her hand went "clack" as it dropped onto the carpet; she scrambled to pick it up, only to kick the leg of the coffee table, grimacing in pain.
This whole combo flowed seamlessly, perfectly demonstrating what it means to have "a guilty conscience."
Just watching it made one ache in sympathy.
Su Yu raised an eyebrow, walked to the center of the living room, and looked at Kiana whose eyeballs kept rolling around, thinking: what's gotten into this girl today? Could it be that today's pizza wasn't tasty?
"What's the matter? You look all out of sorts — did watching TV turn your brain to mush?"
He teased with a smile, casually reaching out to ruffle that head of messy white hair.
But just as his hand was about to touch the top of Kiana's head—
Kiana's nose suddenly twitched.
"Sniff——"
Like an alert detective dog, she abruptly leaned in close to Su Yu's chest and took a hard sniff.
The air froze for half a second.
Kiana jerked back a step, those heterochromatic pupils instantly going round as saucers, filled with disbelief.
"Su— Su Yu..."
Her voice was trembling, her finger shakily pointing at Su Yu's collar.
"On you... what is this smell?!"
Su Yu blinked, instinctively lowering his head to sniff himself.
Besides a bit of sweat, there was also...
Oh, that was the high-end red-wine fragrance left behind by Eden's enthusiastic hug, mixed with that cold, sharp corporate-elite perfume of Fuxi's, and... it seemed there was also that blend of tangerine and whisky unique to Cioara's bar?
"Uh, this, well..."
Su Yu was just about to explain that it was the smell of work socializing.
"And it's not just one kind!"
Kiana's accusation landed with weight, her eyes instantly going red around the rims.
"There's that really expensive red-wine smell… and that cold, icy smell… and even a sweet, cloying candy smell!"
"Su Yu! What on earth did you go do today?! Didn't you say you were going to handle the music stuff? Don't tell me music has to be… has to be handled this way?!"
In her mind, those tiger-and-wolf words she'd heard over the phone earlier instantly surfaced—
"Too tight..."
"A little faster..."
"Let me see your limit..."
Add to that the "powder-and-rouge air" all over him now.
Kiana felt as though her sky was about to collapse.
Could it be that… that Su Yu really went to… to that kind of improper place?
Or was it that, in order to support himself, he'd had no choice but to go sell his looks, becoming some rich madam's… some kind of "kept man"?
Watching Kiana wear an expression that looked about to brain-storm an eighty-episode family melodrama, Su Yu sighed helplessly.
He walked to the fridge and took out a can of ice-cold Happy Water.
Turning back, he walked up to Kiana.
While she was still dazed, he gently pressed the icy can against her burning cheek.
"Yah——!"
Kiana cried out from the cold, jumping up like a startled rabbit.
"Su Yu, what are you doing! It's freezing!"
She clutched her face, glaring at Su Yu in a huff, but the layer of mist at the bottom of her eyes had been jolted away quite a bit by the shock.
"Cooling you down, so that little brain of yours that's about to overheat can sober up a bit."
Su Yu smiled and popped the tab, handing it to her.
"Stop imagining nonsense, you dummy."
"The smell on me... is because I really did meet a lot of people today."
He sat down beside Kiana and looked at her openly.
"Didn't I tell you? I went to handle the music stuff today. So… I went to see Sister Eden."
"E— Eden?!"
Kiana's inner CPU instantly overloaded.
Of course she knew that name.
These past few days, whenever she scrolled through her phone, whether it was Weibo, Twitter, or the billboards by the roadside, that wine-red woman's figure was everywhere.
The master of the Golden Courtyard, a diva, a present-day superstar.
It was said her appearance fee was calculated by the "second"; it was said her fans linked together could circle the Earth three times; it was said a single autographed photo of hers could be traded for an apartment in Arc City...
In Kiana's mind, the plots of those melodramatic short dramas she'd secretly watched these past few days instantly surfaced:
"The Domineering Female Star's Down-and-Out Little Darling Husband"
"Shocking! Top Diva's Late-Night Secret Rendezvous with a Mysterious Man!"
"To Climb the Ladder, He Actually..."
"You… you went to see Eden?"
Kiana's voice began to stammer, the suspicion in her eyes deepening.
"That… that big star? How could you possibly know her? And… and be so intimate too?"
Su Yu shrugged, his tone relaxed.
"Sister Eden is an old acquaintance of mine, and also an expert in this area. I went to talk to her about the soundtrack, and along the way..."
He paused, a flicker of cunning crossing his eyes.
"Along the way, I pulled in a round of investment."
As he spoke, Su Yu stood up and brought over that kraft-paper bag from the entryway cabinet.
He untied the binding cord, drew out that hefty contract, and held it out before Kiana.
"Take a look at this."
"Our studio before was always a slapdash makeshift outfit — either in my living room, or mooching off Ah Hua's dojo. Even though nobody minded, it wasn't a long-term plan after all."
Su Yu's tone took on a trace of pride.
"But now it's different. We can be considered to officially have a nest of our own."
He leaned in close to Kiana and gave a deliberately mysterious wink.
"And besides… seeing as you're our core employee and mascot girl, I plan to have you serve as the... CEO of our new studio. How about it? Surprised? Caught off guard?"
"C... CEO?"
Kiana was knocked dizzy by this sudden title.
She took the document; it felt hefty in her hands.
She flipped open the first page.
The dense clauses she couldn't understand, but that address she recognized.
[Top Floor, Tower A, Arc City Central Building]
"City— city center?!"
Kiana's voice cracked.
Even though she was just a Paramecium, she still knew how outrageous Arc City's property prices were.
Not to mention a place like the city center where every inch of land is worth its weight in gold — and the top floor at that!
With trembling hands she pulled out her phone, opened a real-estate app, and typed in that address.
Search.
The number that popped up made her think she'd miscounted the zeros.
Ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten-thousands, hundred-thousands, millions… ten-millions… hundred-millions?!
"Clack."
The phone dropped onto the carpet once again.
Kiana felt her soul leave her body.
"This… this much money?!"
She raised her head, looking at Su Yu, her eyeballs nearly popping out.
"This, this, this... this price... even if you sold me... no, even if you sliced me up and sold me by the gram… it wouldn't even cover a fraction of it!"
Watching her look so unworldly, Su Yu felt secretly smug inside.
So this was the joy of a rich madam like Eden?
Sure enough, the feeling of throwing money at people really was fantastic.
"It's real, all the paperwork's done, it's already ours." Su Yu put on a calm face and flexed, "So, from now on you're a CEO worth over a hundred million, Kiana."
However.
The way things developed did not follow the script Su Yu had imagined.
Kiana did not cheer with joy, nor did she pounce over shouting "Long live Su Yu."
On the contrary.
After a brief shock, her face quickly went pale, then turned into a kind of… deep, indescribable desolation.
Her brain began to spin at high speed, stringing together all the clues like beads:
Clue one: Su Yu went to see Eden (a super-rich madam) today.
Clue two: Su Yu was panting heavily on the phone, saying "too tight," "I can't take it anymore" (apparently being tormented).
Clue three: Su Yu came back carrying Eden's fragrance, along with other women's scents (possibly a rich madam's weird gathering?).
Clue four: Su Yu brought back a priceless property contract (payment for prostitution? a breakup fee? a keeping fee?).
And there was five.
Kiana's gaze slowly drifted downward.
It landed on the rolled-up cuff of Su Yu's shirt.
There, there was an obvious bruise.
That was the mark left earlier on the rooftop when he'd traded blows with Bronie and gotten grazed by a rubber bullet.
But in Kiana's eyes right now, what was that?
That wasn't an injury.
That was… that was a rich madam's pleasure ball, or some even more perverted toy that had left a… mark of love!
"Su Yu..."
Kiana's voice took on a sobbing note.
She raised her head, looking at this man before her who was still smiling at her.
That smile, in her eyes, was so forced, so heartbreaking.
A huge sense of guilt and heartache flooded over her like a tsunami.
Su Yu had done it all for her!
It was to support her, this dummy, it was to make games for her, that he'd had no choice but to endure that… that inhuman torment!
Those days of being slapped in the face with a rich madam's money, of being forced to sell his looks, of being humiliated with all kinds of toys—
He must be in so much pain, right?
He must really want to cry, right?
"Why are you… so foolish..."
Kiana's tears came pouring down in an instant.
"Kiana? What's wrong with you?"
Su Yu looked at the suddenly teary-eyed Kiana, utterly bewildered.
This reaction isn't right?
Could it be she got scared into crying by that string of zeros?
She suddenly lunged forward and grabbed Su Yu's head with both arms.
She pressed his face fiercely into her not-exactly-ample, but definitely warm, bosom.
"Mmph?! Kiana?!"
Su Yu was stunned by this sudden facial-cleanser attack, his voice muffled into her clothes and unable to get out.
"It's okay... it's okay, Su..."
Crying as she went, Kiana gently stroked the back of Su Yu's head with her hand, the gesture full of tenderness, as though an old mother comforting her son who'd been wronged out in the world.
"I understand it all... I know everything..."
"That woman… that woman called Eden… did she hit you? Did she… did she whip you with one of those barbed whips? Or make you kneel on a washboard?"
Su Yu: "???"
He struggled wildly in Kiana's embrace, trying to explain.
"No! What are you talking about! What whip?!"
But Kiana simply couldn't hear a word of it.
She was deeply immersed in her own tragic script, unable to extricate herself.
"Su Yu!"
Kiana suddenly seized Su Yu's shoulders, her gaze as resolute as if she were about to go fight a Honkai Beast the next moment.
At this instant, she seemed to radiate a kind of glow named "Virgin Mary."
"Don't you worry! From now on I'll absolutely never spend money recklessly again!"
"I'll work hard! I'll go catch more wanted criminals! I'll go haul bricks! Deliver takeout! Do street performances of Chest Crushing Boulder!"
"I'll definitely earn lots and lots of money!"
"And then... we'll give this whole building back to her! Throw the money in her face!"
"I'll never again let you suffer this kind of grievance! Never again let you become a rich madam's plaything!"
As she spoke, she pulled Su Yu back into her embrace with teary eyes, and patted the back of his head.
"It's okay now, it's okay now... from now on with me here, no one can bully you..."
Pressed into Kiana's warm embrace, Su Yu listened to the heartbeat pounding violently from within her chest, thumping from excitement.
The tip of his nose was wreathed in that pleasant scent on her, a mix of body wash and pizza.
Recalling those tiger-and-wolf words Kiana had just said.
A rich madam's plaything?
Being wronged?
Giving it back?
Su Yu rolled his eyes and ranted madly inside his head:
Kiana Kaslana.
You little Paramecium... just what kind of not-suitable-for-children stuff have you been brain-storming?!
And besides...
If Sister Eden knew she'd become this kind of image in your head, she'd probably cry and hand over the whole building to you as compensation for emotional damage, wouldn't she?
Numb. Utterly numb.
Su Yu recalled everything that had happened today.
From having a gun pointed at his head by Bronie, to being mistaken for a kidnapper by Cioara, to being forced by Fuxi into signing a body-selling contract.
And finally, having to face his own Paramecium's brain-storming that was off-the-charts absurd.
Su Yu gave up struggling.
He slumped onto the sofa, letting Kiana hold his head and weep bitterly.
Only one sentence kept spamming across his mind:
This damned, sweet, and yet maddening misunderstanding!
And over to the side.
The little cat Chongchong sprawled on the back of the sofa, watched this scene, and yawned.
It stretched out a paw and patted that property deed worth over a hundred million.
"Meow."
Foolish humans.
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