lust upon seeing beauty

Fang Yiyue hurriedly finished washing up and having breakfast before heading to work. He entered the building and immediately ran into Tang Jie. Both of them hesitated, seemingly wanting to say something.

"Good morning, Mr. Tang. Um… I'm very sorry, but I wanted to ask if you know where Shen Zong is? I just got back from a business trip and couldn't reach him."

"Ah, you want to ask about the flower shop, right? Rui Rui told me she was so scared she cried that day… The person who smashed the shop, I think it was Xiao Shen's father."

"Then, what was the reason?"

Tang Jie shook his head. "I don't know. It's their family matter, and I shouldn't pry. Anyway, he closed the flower shop after that, and I haven't heard from him since."

"I understand, thank you."

Fang Yiyue was about to leave when Tang Jie called him back.

"Yiyue," he said in a tone of earnest advice, "Xiao Shen is a good kid. If you two really like each other, don't miss out."

Fang Yiyue didn't know how to answer for a moment, so he simply thanked him again and left.

Maybe so. He might really have fallen for Shen Zong, a fact he had previously refused to admit.

He found an empty tea room, took out his phone, and dialed a familiar number.

"Detective, I need to find someone, the one you investigated last time."

"What, is he harassing you again? Let me tell you, in this situation, you can just call the police..."

"Find out where he is, and I'll pay you when I find him."

"Uh, you really aren't going to call the police?"

"If you keep arguing, I'll go somewhere else."

Hanging up the phone, Fang Yiyue still felt an unsettling unease and anxiety. He wanted to smoke, but he resisted, because Shen Zong's image—constantly nagging about the dangers of smoking—was still in his mind, along with that gentle, almost seduce-like voice.

He felt as if his heart was adrift, a sense of disorientation, a need for something to anchor him.

Fang Yiyue stared blankly for a while, then dialed the number.

"Mom, are you home? I'd like to have dim sum with you and Dad tomorrow."

The last time Fang Yiyue had leisurely dim sum with his parents was when he had just returned from the United States. Almost two years had passed in the blink of an eye. During that time, he had been busy, either working or spending time with his girlfriend. Plus, his parents were good at entertaining themselves, so he rarely came home.

This time, his initiative to suggest dim sum made the couple beam with joy.

"Yiyue, what brings you to come with us? Don't you have to work today?" Fang's mother asked, cracking sunflower seeds.

"It's the weekend," Fang Yiyue replied listlessly, picking at a dumpling wrapper with his chopsticks.

"Your company requires weekend overtime too, that's how capitalism is, exploiting workers' labor!" Mr. Fang said indignantly. "Look at you, how long has it been since you had morning tea with us?"

"Honey, can you calm down?" Mrs. Fang nudged Mr. Fang. "Yiyue finally has time to spend with us... Oh, by the way, Yiyue, why didn't you bring Xiaozong?"

"Yeah," Mr. Fang was easily swayed by the change of topic. "That boy named Xiaozong is quite nice. Son, you didn't break up with him again, did you?"

Fang Yiyue was silent for a long time before saying, "...He's gone."

"Gone? How could that be?" Mrs. Fang looked incredulous, then started rummaging through her bag. "Oh, right, Yiyue, I almost forgot to tell you... I thought Xiao Zong looked familiar last time, and then last weekend when I was sorting through your childhood photos, I found this! Look! He used to live next door to us! The place we lived before we moved. I recognized him immediately with those big eyes, do you remember?"

Fang Yiyue took the photo in shock. It was a blurry old photo taken at the place before he moved. He looked about four or five years old in the photo, with his parents, two unfamiliar uncles and aunts, and a six or seven-year-old boy with bright eyes and a shy smile.

That was Shen Zong, whom he would recognize even if he were ashes.

"Ah, right, he's Old Shen's son from next door back then. His wife was quite elegant," Mr. Fang recalled. "After we moved away, we gradually lost contact."

"You rascal, what do you mean by always saying other people's wives are elegant?" Mrs. Fang said disapprovingly.

"Oh, honey, that's not what I meant..."

Fang Yiyue was too preoccupied with the old married couple's bickering to listen to anything else. His mind was completely absorbed by the photo and the information.

He had moved when he was around five years old, and his memories before that were hazy; he couldn't recall any neighbors.

Shen Zong, two years older than him, did he remember him? Did he know him all along?

"Yiyue, you were probably too young to remember," Fang's mother said, recalling their son with relish after their argument. "Seeing this photo brought it all back to me. Little Zong loved coming to our house to play with you, but you ignored him, just building blocks by yourself. Little Zong would quietly watch, it was so much fun!"

He was indeed like that as a child, and even now he often gave off a distant vibe. If his mother was right, Shen Zong had indeed known him back then.

But why had he never heard Shen Zong mention it? He tried hard to recall Shen Zong's words, hoping to find some clues.

“Oh, I remember now,” Fang’s father said. “Before we moved, that kid came over and asked me where I was moving to, and which school Yiyue was going to go to.”

“You told him?” Fang Yiyue asked.

“Yes, I told him you were going to No. 1 Elementary School.”

Fang Yiyue felt overwhelmed by the information. He thought for a moment, feeling dizzy, and had to use the food in front of him to alleviate his extreme discomfort and confusion.

[Yiyue…I love you, very, very much, I love you, I’ve always loved you…and for a very, very long time…hiccup, for a very long time…]

The ramblings the other person uttered when he was drunk flooded his memory, and now every word seemed so reasonable.

Although Fang Yiyue was narcissistic, he felt that what Shen Zong said was true. The other person might have liked him from a very early time, and it had been like this ever since.

He had just returned home and took out his phone to find several incoming calls from detectives.

"Hey sir, the person you're looking for is back. I just saw him come inside!"

Fang Yiyue hung up the phone and quickly drove to Shen Zong's place. When he got out of the car, he saw that the previously closed window was now open, so it seemed that Shen Zong had indeed returned. He hurried upstairs.

He rang the doorbell, but no one answered. It seemed that the other person had gone out temporarily, or hadn't heard him? Fang Yiyue paced impatiently at the door, clutching his phone and trying to call Shen Zong, but the phone was still off.

Just as he was pacing back and forth like a donkey, he suddenly heard footsteps downstairs. Peeking out, he saw Shen Zong coming upstairs carrying a large plastic bag from a convenience store.

"Why didn't you turn on your phone, Shen?"

Shen Zong was startled, dropping all the bags he was carrying and hurriedly bending down to pick them up. Fang Yiyue came down to help him pick them up, while also looking at Shen Zong, whom he hadn't seen for over a week.

The other man was a bit thinner, his complexion wasn't good, and his eyes were bloodshot. Fang Yiyue realized once again that he was truly involved both physically and emotionally. He hadn't felt anything when he didn't see Shen Zong for half a month before, but now it was different.

"...Thank you, Yiyue," Shen Zong said, bowing his head as he put the things into the bag.

"Look how scared you are."

Shen Zong paused, then whispered, "Yi Yue, you came to see me... is there something you need?"

"Can't I come to see you if I don't need anything?" Fang Yi Yue was both puzzled and annoyed by his reaction. "Where have you been all this time?

You've vanished into thin air." "I... went back to my hometown," Shen Zong said. "By the way, Yi Yue, let's... not see each other for a while, okay?"

"What?" Fang Yi Yue thought he had misheard for a moment.

"I'm not feeling well right now, I'm afraid it will affect you..." Shen Zong lowered his head, as if he wanted to disappear into the floor.

Fang Yi Yue silently looked at that slender neck that seemed like it could snap at the slightest touch. He could feel Shen Zong's breathing trembling uneasily, as if he was trying his best to suppress some kind of overwhelming emotion within him.

"What happened? Let's talk inside."

Shen Zong paused, then said, "It's nothing serious, Yi Yue, you don't need to know... Really, it's all my own stuff, and talking about it doesn't make me happy at all..."

"Let's go in."

Shen Zong hesitated for a moment, took out his keys from his pocket, and turned to face the door, but stopped before inserting the key, his knuckles turning white.

"What's wrong?"

"Yi Yue... could you... could you let me stay in the house alone for a while? I... I don't know how to tell you right now..."

He leaned against the door, his voice unsteady, his hand holding the bag hanging limply, the keychain making a lonely clinking sound.

Fang Yi Yue walked straight up, grabbed his hand, inserted the key into the lock, forcefully opened the door, and dragged Shen Zong into the house.

"You don't know how to tell me now? Do you think you'll know how to tell me after a while?" He looked at the helpless Shen Zong, then realized his tone was a bit aggressive, and fell silent.

Shen Zong finally looked up at him, his bloodshot eyes moist, his lips moving slightly as if he wanted to say something.

Fang Yiyue quietly watched him, patiently waiting for Shen Zong to speak.

"...Yiyue, I'm not planning to rent this place anymore."

"Why?"

"My dad knows I live here, and I don't want him to disturb my life."

"Is he the one who smashed up your flower shop?"

Shen Zong paused, a smile appearing on his ashen face. "Yiyue, so you went to the flower shop to look for me..."

"You've been with your dad lately?"

"Yes, my grandfather passed away recently, and he came to Shanghai to find me, asking me to go back for the funeral."

"He used smashing up the shop to find his son?"

Shen Zong's smile stiffened. "My relationship with him has never been good. I rarely went home after starting university, and after starting work, I basically never saw him... He came to borrow money from me. He was very angry when he saw I had a flower shop, thinking it was like my mother used to be, always doing these useless things."

"What does he need the money for?" "

He needs money for his and my stepmother's child to attend an international school."

"That's none of your business."

“I didn’t want to lend it, because the flower shop needs to operate, my salary isn’t particularly high, and I felt it was definitely a case of borrowing and never paying it back… So we had a huge fight, and during the argument he smashed my phone, which was a brand new phone I’d only bought less than a month ago…”

“Why did he smash your phone? Does your dad have bipolar disorder?”

“He’s always like this. The zoo called in the middle of the night, and I had to answer, which angered him…” Shen Zong smirked, “After the funeral, he wouldn’t let me leave, saying either the money or the person had to stay. Later, I sneaked out in the middle of the night when he wasn’t looking.”

“Is your dad, surnamed Shen, a pervert? Isn’t this illegal detention?!”

Shen Zong gave a sarcastic smile, an expression he rarely showed, which Fang Yiyue found somewhat unfamiliar: “He just wants money too much… Actually, I send him a portion of my salary every month, but now he suddenly needs hundreds of thousands, and I really can’t help it… Now he even knows where I work, I’m too afraid to go to work, he’s like a madman.”

…You can be quite mad sometimes, Fang Yiyue thought, so that’s what kind of father I have.

"So what do you plan to do?"

Shen Zong lowered his head, seemingly lost in thought, as if trapped in a dead end.

"...I plan to move out first. The flower shop definitely can't stay there anymore, and I can't go to the zoo for the time being either... If all else fails, I'll find a new job."

"Is it really necessary?" Fang Yiyue frowned. "You're willing to give up your job and close the flower shop just to avoid your dad? Where did your dream of facing the sea and enjoying spring blossoms go?"

"That was just... a dream." Shen Zong covered his face with his hands, his voice trembling.

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