Releasing Tension (2/2)
Because of all his dawdling, they arrived at the lab about thirty minutes later than planned.
As soon as they stepped onto the 10th floor, a group of people rushed over to find Gu Yilan.
The man’s stern expression was intimidating—so much so that even in urgent situations, people around him only dared to softly and cautiously report their matters, one by one.
Su Zesui didn’t dare stand in the middle of the crowd, so he kept a few meters away, quietly waiting for Mr. Gu.
“Su Zesui, right?” Ji Yuxing wasn’t fond of crowds either. He stood beside him and smiled gently. “Gong Chuang told me about you.”
He liked younger kids, and since he was bored waiting, he decided to chat with the shy boy.
When Su Zesui realized it was the same “big brother” who had given him candy yesterday, he let out a small breath of relief—but still shuffled back a little, putting some distance between them.
Remembering that Mr. Gu had told him to be polite, he forced out a soft and obedient: “Hello.”
Ji Yuxing chuckled. “Hello. Looks like Gu Yilan’s still going to be a while. Why don’t you go wait in his office?”
Su Zesui shook his head.
Ji Yuxing glanced at him for a moment, then decided he’d be standing here at least another twenty minutes, so he turned to head back to his own office. Before leaving, he gave Su Zesui a few more candies.
But in reality, Gu Yilan didn’t stay long with the others. Within three minutes, the crowd was dismissed.
As soon as everyone left, Su Zesui ran over and held out the candies in his palm to Gu Yilan.
The candies were brightly colored, each a different flavor, looking like sparkling gems in the pale hand of an angel.
“Where did you get the candy?” Gu Yilan asked.
Su Zesui didn’t know the man’s name, so he simply pointed in the direction Ji Yuxing had gone and answered, “That big brother.”
After saying that, he looked up at Gu Yilan and, after a pause, asked curiously, “Are you… unhappy?”
Even someone as slow to notice things as Su Zesui could tell—Gu Yilan’s brows were tightly furrowed, his face clouded and dark. He looked very unhappy.
Gu Yilan bit the inside of his cheek, his eyes faintly bloodshot, but his voice stayed calm: “No.”
When he saw Su Zesui happily holding those candies and turning back to call someone else “big brother,” the darkness in his heart surged back with a vengeance. He wanted to lock the boy away, keep him caged, under his control—utterly his. Even if it meant destroying everything, he wanted to take it all down with him.
The thoughts came from nowhere, giving him no warning, sweeping through him in a single, uncontrollable moment.
And in that moment, Gu Yilan knew—his condition had relapsed.
He shut his eyes, hiding the roiling emotions inside. When he opened them again, he wore that same cold, detached mask.
Gu Yilan said, “Don’t accept things from strangers. It’s dangerous.”
Su Zesui nodded solemnly, then shoved the candies into his hand. “Then… they’re for you.”
Gu Yilan: …
A bit helpless, Gu Yilan unwrapped one and handed it back to him. “No need to rush. If you want to practice your social skills, there’ll be plenty of people to talk to at the wedding the day after tomorrow.”
Su Zesui shook his head quickly.
He didn’t want social interaction. What he was most curious about now was whether, in that “learning video,” he was supposed to be the bad guy… or the one who ended up crying under pressure.
Even back in the office after Gu Yilan had left, Su Zesui was still stuck thinking about it.
But he only had that one video from yesterday to go off of—not enough to draw any conclusions. No solid data for statistical analysis.
Still, he didn’t want to watch another one. It had made him uncomfortable. The video was cruel—the one being bullied cried in a way that felt all too real. He was thin too, his flat stomach fully visible. Su Zesui could practically feel his pain through the screen.
He didn’t even understand why, at the end, the one crying suddenly smiled and kissed the two “bad guys”—who had suddenly turned gentle—and whispered hoarsely, “Thanks.”
But still! Based on the limited clues he had, Su Zesui deduced he must belong to the bad-guy camp.
Because that morning, Mr. Gu had done that thing to him. And in the video, the bullied person had done something similar for the bad guy—except worse. Not just with his hands, but even with…
Su Zesui slapped a hand over his face. He couldn’t think about it anymore.
Even his teeth were starting to ache a little. If he kept thinking about it, he’d end up breathless and blushing all the way down to his neck.
So, he decided to just ask directly—
[(o^^o): Brother Gong Chuang, I watched the video.]
But before he could even finish the message, Gong Chuang—whose heart rate instantly spiked to 180—bombarded him with texts:
[Brother Gong Chuang: Huh?? What?! You watched it?! I thought I deleted the tutorial—how did you even see it?!]
[Brother Gong Chuang: Please, I’m begging you, little ancestor—whether you watched it or not, just forget it ever existed, okay? When this all blows up, please, please don’t say it was me who sent it to you!]
After getting home last night, Gong Chuang had laid in bed, growing increasingly mortified the more he thought about it.
——Damn it, making such a huge blunder and even flaunting it in front of Gu Yilan, only to be exposed right away. In over twenty years, he had never been this humiliated!
It was all Gu Yilan’s fault—acting like some untouchable, aloof flower on a cliff. Just hearing anything remotely spicy involving him was enough to send Gong Chuang’s imagination spiraling.
Now that he had calmed down, he tried to salvage the situation—
[Brother Gong Chuang: You know, life is fleeting—like a white horse flashing past a crack in the door. Time waits for no one. There’s no room for slacking. All that pointless entertainment is just fleeting pleasure, a passing illusion. What’s left in the end is only emptiness and regret.]
[Brother Gong Chuang: Only knowledge endures. Every formula contains boundless wisdom and power. They are the foundation of your future success—the key to a better life.]
[Brother Gong Chuang: So study hard, boy. Every small effort you make will someday become a shining light that illuminates your future.]
After sending that wall of motivational quotes, Su Zesui didn’t reply for a long time—probably stunned into silence.
Gong Chuang proudly read his own messages twice, clearly satisfied. As Gu Yilan walked through the door, he turned his phone screen toward him and said, as if claiming credit, “Your little brother is my little brother too. I’ll wholeheartedly help nurture the flowers of our motherland. What do you think of my work?”
Gu Yilan skimmed through it with a blank expression and replied dryly, “A masterpiece of the historians—the Li Sao without rhyme.”
Gong Chuang’s mouth twitched. He clicked his tongue and was just about to snatch the phone back from this man who clearly lacked appreciation when it suddenly vibrated in his hand.
Gu Yilan had sharp eyesight and instantly caught a glimpse of the newly received message. It was too late for Gong Chuang to hide the phone now.
Uneasy, he cast a nervous glance at Gu Yilan, whose expression had darkened as if he were about to punch someone. With a sinking heart, Gong Chuang looked at the screen—
[(o^^o): Thank you, Brother Gong Chuang! I’ll study your video carefully!]
Under the death glare that felt like it could cut him down, Brother Gong Chuang felt like he was about to shatter into pieces.
Poor Gong Chuang😭