Chapter 50: Tried It for the Brothers, It Really Works
Chapter 50: Chapter 50: Tried It for the Brothers, It Really Works
[Mission: Return to Health. Progress increased by -1%.]
[Current Mission Progress: 74%.]
Early morning. A deluxe king room in the Sheraton Hotel, Meng City.
Zhang Yan sat in the lounge chair by the window, lazily watching the first light of dawn. His eyes were unfocused, as if he were pondering the mysteries of the universe.
"Too tight," Zhang Yan muttered, loosening the belt of the hotel-provided bathrobe.
Every girl possessed a unique charm of her own, but if he had to pick the single most captivating moment they all shared, it would undoubtedly be *that* moment. His junior softly whispering his name, tears glistening at the corners of her eyes, her brows slightly knitted... that image was forever etched into Zhang Yan’s memory.
Gentle as water, yet as passionate as fire.
Yesterday, when they could no longer suppress their mutual longing and hurriedly left the aquarium, it had only been a little past three in the afternoon. At 4:04 PM, it was a moment his junior was destined to remember for the rest of her life.
By 7:30 PM, the two of them, having gone at it on and off, only reluctantly pulled themselves apart for a moment because their stomachs were rumbling with hunger. They laid themselves completely bare in the room, getting to know everything about each other—childhood anecdotes, hobbies, and past experiences—all while enjoying the hotel’s lavish room service to replenish their heavily depleted stamina.
At 9:40 PM, the two embraced and finally concluded this extraordinarily exhausting day, putting a perfect end to their first shared experience.
Unsurprisingly, Zhang Yan’s "first-time" experience was reset daily.
The reason they came to this five-star hotel instead of heading to Zhang Yan’s apartment, as his junior had requested, wasn’t because she wasn’t worthy of going or because Zhang Yan was unwilling. It was simply because his current apartment was truly unfit to host her. It would severely damage the billionaire persona he had meticulously built.
Thanks to the main questline, he would soon be rewarded with a real estate property. Therefore, he hadn’t spent extra money to buy a new house and was still living in the rental apartment he got right after graduation.
However, Zhang Yan had a nagging feeling that his junior might have misunderstood his intentions. She might have thought that by not bringing her home, it meant something else entirely—like he hadn’t fully accepted her. Couple that with the questions she had timidly asked while curled up in his arms, right as they were basking in the afterglow and about to go to sleep yesterday:
"Senior, do you like me?"
"Of course I do. I like you a lot."
"Then... will you marry me, Senior?"
At the time, Zhang Yan had responded with silence. Saying "I love you" was fine, but saying "I will marry you" was out of the question.
Zhang Yan had already decided that he wouldn’t get married until he was at least thirty. The future Brother Tongzi had revealed to him had left him with a deep distrust—even disgust—toward the institution of marriage, something he had once considered incredibly sacred.
But combining these two factors, his junior had clearly misunderstood something. After that, she grew somewhat quiet, and her body visibly stiffened. Zhang Yan could sense that she had originally wanted to say something. Perhaps it was the secret she had been hiding and was reluctant to confess to him.
In the end, though, she hadn’t spoken up. It was highly likely that a combination of Zhang Yan’s actions had caused her to misinterpret things, stripping her of the courage to come clean. By the time Zhang Yan figured all this out and wanted to explain himself, he could already hear the long, rhythmic breathing coming from the girl in his arms. He could only plan to clear things up first thing in the morning.
After all, they had all the time in the world.
But when he opened his eyes this morning, he found his arms empty. All of his junior’s clothes had vanished from the room. The only trace left behind were a few messages he received on WeChat:
[Senior, I’m sorry. I have an emergency and must return to my hometown today. I bought the ticket beforehand. I’ll make it up to you when I get back~]
[Kitten loves you.gif]
Recalling this, Zhang Yan checked the time. "It’s about time I get moving. What’s the use of her going to the station so early? The first high-speed train doesn’t even leave until 6:06 AM. Silly girl."
Despite his grumbling, Zhang Yan knew that she had likely rushed off before he woke up because she didn’t want to explain her reasons face-to-face and couldn’t bear to face him. All of this was caused by the inadvertent mistakes he had made.
Zhang Yan stood up, stepping over a set of soiled bedding tossed on the floor, and picked up his clothes from the sofa to get dressed. Standing by the door, he took one last look at this highly memorable, utterly messy room. Ultimately, he couldn’t resist snapping a picture to commemorate the occasion.
"I can send this to her later to tease her," he thought.
Check out. Call a cab. Set off.
On the way, Zhang Yan reminisced about when he first got together with Cheng Lu. Back then, neither the intensity nor the duration could compare to this time. Yet, when he woke up the next day back then, he clearly felt the need to... take a break for a little while. But this morning, he felt bursting with energy. His stamina had practically fully recovered; going for another round would be absolutely no problem.
So, to sum it up in one sentence: "I’ve tested it for you bros—daily morning jogs and Kegel exercises really do work!"
Chi Xinyue was rushing back to finally confirm her father’s medical condition.
Clinging to the slim hope of a misdiagnosis, her father had been visiting several larger local hospitals for checkups recently. But not long ago, her uncle suddenly called, urging her to come back. He said her father had abruptly refused to continue with the examinations, stubbornly shouting things like, "It’s definitely a misdiagnosis, there’s no need to check anymore." Her uncle wanted her to hurry home and talk some sense into him.
Chi Xinyue actually understood her father’s state of denial. After all, given their family’s financial situation, there was no way they could afford the treatment for this illness. It would completely ruin the life Chi Xinyue was just about to begin. Between his own survival and his daughter’s future, her father had simply chosen the latter.
Chi Xinyue pursed her lips. If her father’s illness was ultimately confirmed beyond a doubt, there would be a few major expenses.
First, the pre-operative localized TACE treatment could cost nearly a hundred thousand yuan. This was an expense that couldn’t be skipped. He had to be in a stable condition to even undergo potential surgery.
Next would be the surgery itself and securing a liver donor. As for the surgery, depending on the complexity of the procedure and the hospital’s tier, it could range anywhere from one or two hundred thousand to four or five hundred thousand yuan. This was directly linked to the success rate but fell under the category of optional choices. Regarding the liver donor, her father’s only living immediate relatives were herself and her uncle. However, her uncle’s liver wasn’t healthy either, so a transplant from him was completely out of the question. To save money on this front, she could only see if she was a suitable match.
Finally, even if all of this went smoothly, the post-operative anti-rejection medications and various checkups could cost another hundred thousand yuan every year.
Even if they opted for medical insurance-covered items for all the aforementioned expenses whenever possible, the final figure under the most optimistic circumstances would still weigh down on Chi Xinyue like an insurmountable mountain, leaving her breathless.
She thought, "My last resort is to borrow money from Senior.
"I’ve already given him everything I could possibly give. I don’t know if it’s enough to repay all the emotional and material support he has provided me, let alone borrowing even more money..."
As the train began to move, the two of them—separated by just a few train cars—embarked together on the journey toward Chi Xinyue’s hometown.