He pulled back.

Liuxian looked at him with that quiet, settled expression, the pen still in his hand as though he had simply paused a document review for a moment and was now prepared to resume.

"Well?" Guiying said.

Liuxian smiled.

He picked up his fountain pen and went back to his documents.

Guiying stared at him.

"You said you would tell me," he said.

"I said kiss me and I will tell you," Liuxian said, turning a page. "I did not specify when."

The silence that followed lasted exactly three seconds.

Then Guiying realized.

His expression cycled through confusion, understanding, and arrived at outrage with remarkable speed.

He had kissed this man, had sat here and kissed him properly, in exchange for absolutely nothing, and Liuxian was sitting there with that expression on his face and his fountain pen in his hand as though he had done absolutely nothing wrong.

"You," Guiying said.

"Mm?"

He grabbed the nearest thing, which happened to be a small decorative cushion from the arm of the chair beside the desk, and hit Liuxian with it.

Liuxian absorbed the hit with the composure of a man who had expected exactly this outcome and found it acceptable.

Guiying hit him again.

Then again.

"You tricked me!" he said. "You completely tricked me and I cannot believe—"

The office door opened.

Zhang Wei walked in carrying two bags of food in one hand and a tablet in the other, took one look at the scene in front of him, and stopped walking.

Guiying froze, cushion raised mid swing.

Liuxian looked at his assistant with complete serenity.

Zhang Wei looked at his boss, then at the cushion, then back at his boss.

"I did not know," he said slowly, "that you were into getting hit, sir."

Liuxian said nothing.

"I feel like I have learned something important about you today," Zhang Wei continued, setting the food bags down on the side table with the unhurried ease of someone who intended to finish his thought regardless of the atmosphere in the room.

"I will add it to my notes."

"Put the food down and leave," Liuxian said.

"Already done." Zhang Wei set the tablet beside the food, looked once more at the cushion in Guiying’s hand, and nodded thoughtfully. "Enjoy your lunch."

He walked out and closed the door behind him.

The office was quiet.

Guiying slowly lowered the cushion.

He set it down with what remained of his dignity and reached for the food bag without looking at Liuxian.

Liuxian handed him a pair of chopsticks with the peaceful expression of a man who was entirely satisfied with how his lunch hour had gone so far.

He never did say what the language was, let alone what the words meant.

Guiying opened his food and ate. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

He did not look at Liuxian. He did not speak to Liuxian. When Liuxian shifted slightly to reach for his own food bag, Guiying took the opportunity to try to slide off his lap and onto the couch beside the desk. Liuxian’s arm tightened around his waist before he got anywhere, pulling him back without even looking up from the food bag.

Guiying sat back where he had been, picked up his chopsticks, and ate more angrily than before.

The chopsticks were doing nothing wrong and were being treated accordingly.

Liuxian ate beside him with the serene composure of a man sharing a perfectly pleasant lunch with his husband and saw nothing unusual about the current atmosphere. After a moment he reached over and placed a piece of braised pork into Guiying’s bowl without a word.

Guiying looked at the pork.

He ate it. He was still angry. The pork was not the point.

Liuxian placed another piece in his bowl.

"Do not think that food is going to fix this," Guiying said, to his bowl.

"I know," Liuxian said.

He placed another piece in the bowl anyway.

Guiying’s jaw tightened. He ate it. He was still angry. He was going to remain angry. He was also going to finish this food because it was good and being tricked into kissing someone did not mean you stopped eating.

Liuxian’s thumb moved once at his waist.

"I am sorry," he said.

Guiying said nothing.

"Somewhat sorry," Liuxian amended.

Guiying looked at him for the first time since the cushion incident. The look he gave communicated several things simultaneously, none of them particularly warm. Liuxian met it with the expression of a man who was genuinely, if only partially, sorry. Something in his eyes, however, suggested he was not entirely sorry.

"What can I do to make it up to you," he said.

Guiying looked at him.

He thought about the ¥500,000 sitting in his future as an outstanding payment to 404. He thought about the investments he needed to fund, the network he needed to build, the moves he needed to make, all of which required capital he did not currently have. He had come here planning to ask for five million.

He was angry.

"Ten million," he said.

Liuxian looked at him.

"Yuan," Guiying added, in case there was any ambiguity.

The office was quiet for a moment.

"That is a significant apology," Liuxian said.

"You did a significant thing," Guiying said.

Liuxian studied him for a long moment. Guiying held his gaze without flinching, his expression carrying the calm certainty of someone who had named a number and had no intention of negotiating it downward.

"What do you need ten million yuan for?" Liuxian asked.

"Does it matter?"

"It does not," Liuxian said. "I am simply curious."

"Investments," Guiying said. Which was true, in the broad sense of the word.

Liuxian looked at him for another moment. Then he held his phone out toward Guiying.

"Tap," he said.

Guiying picked up his phone and tapped it against Liuxian’s. A notification appeared on his screen almost immediately. He looked at it, then put his phone down without a word.

"Thank you," he said, after a moment.

"Mm." Liuxian placed another piece of braised pork in his bowl. "Are you still angry?"

Guiying picked up the pork with his chopsticks.

"Yes," he said.

Liuxian nodded, as though this was a completely reasonable and acceptable state of affairs, and returned to his own food.