Chapter 6: The CEO's Caged Canary, Part Six

Gu Huaizhi looked down. The contact's saved name was unmistakably a man's, and the message asked what Yan Yu had been up to last night.

Judging by the draft being typed out below, the little guy was busy lying.

The moment Yan Yu saw him scrolling one-handed, his brow twitched and he hurriedly leaned over. The unsent draft had become last night's truth—Gu Huaizhi's version of it:

Yan Yu had crawled into his bed and stolen from him, and was now being detained by the wronged party.

The man pinned his reaching hand with one palm, thumb hovering over the send key. Gu Huaizhi gave him a sidelong look, the corner of his mouth curling. "Don't want me to send it?"

Yan Yu struggled and glared. "That's a distortion of the facts!"

"My phone. I'll do whatever I like with it. If you want it back, that can be arranged." Gu Huaizhi's lips moved, spelling out a few terms.

"...How long? How much time do I get with it each day?"

Yan Yu's pupils trembled.

[Yan Yu: Good heavens, you city people and your games. A hopeless internet addict like me needs that thing glued to my hand twenty-four seven just to get my fix!]

[System: Boss, are you two seriously not going to die in that bed? Am I ever getting unlocked?]

[Yan Yu: You're just scared.]

Gu Huaizhi was very pleased with Yan Yu's reaction. He pocketed the phone, cupped the boy's chin, and kneaded the soft flesh of his cheeks, looking delighted.

"A temp worker under suspicion of theft, or a VIP client who spends millions a year—which one do you think Lanyu would choose?"

"A thief never admits to being a thief. Your word counts for nothing."

"You don't want to know how a case like this ends, Song Baiyu."

Yan Yu went deathly pale.

"Still want to call the police?" Gu Huaizhi released him and set the phone in his hand.

[Yan Yu: Bah! Screw you, you dog of a man!]

[System: Screw you in which sense, exactly? (Locked out again.)]

"Who were you talking to?"

Gu Huaizhi brushed the hair back from Yan Yu's forehead.

He liked this angle of Yan Yu—whether the trembling lashes, pitiably downcast, or those beguiling wet eyes forced up to meet his. Either one set his blood racing.

Yan Yu said nothing. If Gu Huaizhi wouldn't move, he wouldn't either—his own little protest.

In Gu Huaizhi's eyes, it was laughable.

He stepped back, putting distance between them, and looked down coolly at the boy kneeling on the bed.

"Song Baiyu. My patience has limits."

"...Then give me the phone if we're not doing anything." Yan Yu held out an upturned palm.

Gu Huaizhi had confiscated it right before they started.

If the setting hadn't been so wrong, he'd have looked exactly like a rebellious teen demanding his phone back.

Gu Huaizhi ran his tongue along his back teeth. For no good reason his palm itched—with the urge to flip the boy over and spank him.

"I didn't even... That one doesn't count."

"You—!" Yan Yu had never met anyone so shameless.

Under that dangerous stare, he admitted it, reluctant: "Peng. A friend."

The man, silhouetted against the light, didn't react. The weight of his gaze stayed icy.

Yan Yu was only eighteen. From last night to now—coerced, wronged, threatened—his mind had long been pushed to the edge of breaking.

He had thought that if he behaved, Gu Huaizhi would be satisfied and let him go. But the man was plainly toying with him—and now he meant to strip away his last prop, too.

Tears spilled over in an instant.

Yan Yu dropped his head and scrubbed hard at his traitorous eyes, sobbing. "What do you actually want from me?"

"Say I crawled into your bed. Say I stole. Fine, I'll take the blame. Tell me how much I owe and I'll sign an IOU—just let me go, okay..."

His hitching sobs set Gu Huaizhi's teeth on edge.

"Pay me back? You host drinks—and guests—at Lanyu. You earn plenty."

Yan Yu shook his head, hiccuping through the words. "I n-never slept with anyone! It was cl-clean money, all of it—every cent went to medicine and doctor's bills. There's hardly anything left."

"B-but I did well in school. Once I graduate—no, let me go, and I can st-start earning and pay you back right now!"

Gu Huaizhi raised an eyebrow, stepped close, and pinched his chin. Crying so pitifully, the boy had found some soft spot in him.

He had been crying from last night straight through to now. No shortage of tears.

His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed.

"When did I ever say I wanted the money back?"

His hand slid over the slick skin beneath his palm, his voice a low lure. "Take the initiative once, and I'll cover those medical bills you mentioned. The phone comes back too—no time limit. Deal?"

Yan Yu froze.

"The moment the doctors clear you for discharge, I'll let you leave." Gu Huaizhi kept sweetening the pot.

"Leave the hospital?" Yan Yu went wary.

"Let you go. Wherever you want. I won't interfere, and I won't follow."

Just a plaything. Interesting, sure—but a few days in the hospital would be enough to bore of it.

And if he didn't? Gu Huaizhi wasn't concerned. This was a Gu family hospital; whether Yan Yu got discharged was a matter of one word from him.

Fresh out of school and still blind to how cruel the world could be, Yan Yu believed him. Eyes red-rimmed and wet, he gazed up at the smiling man, and with trembling fingers began undoing his buttons, straightening up on his knees.

Eyes shut, he pressed a kiss of his own accord to Gu Huaizhi's cheek—then, burning with shame, tugged the man down and pulled himself onto his lap.

In eighteen years of life, the most rebellious thing Yan Yu had ever done was hide a banned novel for a boarding classmate in high school—a book that tumbled out in front of a dozen pairs of eyes, young and old, when he was at the orphanage collecting homework, and got him endlessly teased by Peng and the brothers about how he'd "grown up."

If not for last night, he didn't think he'd ever have done anything like this with another person in his life.

Let alone taking the lead. His every movement was clumsy and unpracticed.

Gu Huaizhi held on through it, eyes rimmed red, unwilling to cut short the boy's rare initiative. But the moment it ended, he tipped the boy off his lap and leaned over him, pressing him down into the sheets.

The night deepened. The nurses making their rounds tacitly skipped this private room.

By the time thirst woke Yan Yu the next day, that oppressive presence was long gone from the room.

He pushed himself up, and his hand found something cool beside the pillow.

A brand-new phone sat there.

Delight flashed through Yan Yu's eyes. Forgetting the water entirely, he cradled the phone and opened WeChat.

Several more messages had come in that morning.

He opened Zhou Peng's chat first. Gu Huaizhi hadn't sent that doctored message last night—instead he'd covered for him, explaining that Lanyu was busy hosting banquets these days and, to save the commute, all the staff were staying at the club.

Zhou Peng had called a little after eight; Yan Yu hadn't been awake yet, so Peng had followed up with a dozen voice messages.

He played them one by one. This morning, a charitable benefactor had donated money and supplies to the orphanage, arranged a full medical workup for Grandma Director, and set up her hospital admission and surgery.

The man was called Nan Yi, saying his boss was a friend of Yan Yu's. Peng asked whether Yan Yu knew him, and told him to hop on a video call when he had a moment so everyone could stop worrying.

The first three messages dealt with the actual news; the remaining dozen or so were all gushing about the benefactor and telling Yan Yu to relax—and underneath, faintly, he could hear Grandma Director's kind laughter.

Yan Yu's lips curved despite himself. No one had donated to the orphanage in over a decade.

As for this big-shot friend—since when did he know any big shots? And at this particular moment...