FSGOR Ch35part1

Jiang Tian had no idea how he even walked out of the cinema.

He followed Chu Xuyu into the elevator. Around them, it was full of anime-loving teens and young adults, but the two of them seemed to exist in a bubble—separate, wrapped in a quiet, ambiguous atmosphere.

Down in the dimly lit parking garage, the sports car flashed its lights. In that moment, the reflections briefly illuminated Jiang Tian’s dazed expression.

Chu Xuyu didn’t say anything. He got into the driver’s seat, clearly meaning to drive.

Still looking a little lost, Jiang Tian got into the passenger side without hesitation, unaware that his boss intended to drive him home.

He blinked and asked blankly, “Can you just drop me off at the intersection ahead?”

Chu Xuyu’s hand was on the steering wheel. “You want to take a cab home?”

“Mhm.” Jiang Tian kept his tone calm, eyes fixed forward. “If I call one near Jingting Lake, I’ll get home a little later, but it’s fine.”

Chu Xuyu didn’t respond, just hit the gas and sped off onto the elevated road. The window hadn’t been rolled up properly, and the wind blew in fast—it almost felt like they were in a scene out of Fast & Furious.

Jiang Tian finally came to, realizing they were heading toward the old town area.

That’s when it dawned on him: after kissing him, Chu Xuyu was now… doing aftercare.

“……”

They actually kissed.

Even if it was just on the cheek, it still counted. For someone like Jiang Tian—who’d never experienced anything like this—it hit like a full-on first kiss. No exaggeration.

And what confused him even more…

He didn’t hate it.

He kept replaying that scene in his head—the mood, the closeness—it was out of his control. And the more he thought about it, the more he kept thinking about it.

By the time the sports car reached his apartment complex, Xingfu Harbor, and pulled up to the front of his building, silence had stretched all the way. The ambiguous tension between them hung heavily in the air.

Chu Xuyu tapped his fingers on the steering wheel.

 “If you don’t want to work tomorrow, just tell Simon in advance.”

“Huh?” Jiang Tian looked up, caught off guard.

He wasn’t planning to skip work, but… after that kiss, the weird tension between them was undeniably real.
Trying to act like nothing happened didn’t feel doable.

“I’ll still go in,” he said, unbuckling his seatbelt. “Thanks for the ride. You should rest early too.”

No “ge”, no formalities. But Chu Xuyu didn’t let him get away that easily.

He stopped him with a quiet, “Jiang Tian.”

That… that might have been the first time Chu Xuyu had ever properly said his name like that.

“Yeah?” Jiang Tian sat back in his seat. “What is it?”

Chu Xuyu looked over at him, his breathing slightly uneven.

“Are you… planning to pretend nothing happened?”

“……”

Jiang Tian quickly turned his head to the window, gulped hard to hide his panic.

“That’s not what I meant.”

Chu Xuyu took a deep breath. “Do you… hate it?”

Jiang Tian’s heart thundered in his chest. He paused, then admitted quietly, “…No.”

Chu Xuyu froze.

But before anything else could be said, Jiang Tian had already pushed the door open and left, walking toward the building’s entrance.

Honestly, he might as well have run for his life.

Chu Xuyu stayed in the car, hands slightly damp with sweat.

His chest felt warm—too warm. He’d never been this nervous before.

He realized then… maybe he was really falling.

He didn’t drive off right away. Instead, he sat there for a while, watching the entrance of the building before finally pulling away.

Meanwhile, Jiang Tian had already returned to his apartment. He stood behind the curtain of the floor-to-ceiling window, watching the car leave the complex… only then did he finally relax.

That night…

Chu Xuyu—surprisingly—didn’t send him a single message.

After showering, it was actually his friends in the group chat who reached out, wondering what this half-straight-half-bent disaster had been up to on his first day at work.

KIRA: All good.

KIRA: Got work again tomorrow.

KIRA: Sleeping now.

In reality…

He was not all good.

Usually, Jiang Tian slept like a rock. But that night, he was up until 2 or 3 a.m., tossing and turning.

When he got up the next morning for work, the light circles under his eyes showed it—but thankfully, he was good-looking enough that even with a tired face, he still looked fresh and sharp in a suit.

He rode to work with his sister and silently promised himself one thing:

Never let Chu Xuyu drive him home again.

Next time, he might get kissed somewhere else.

***

Ding.

The elevator doors opened to the secretarial floor.

As Jiang Tian stepped out, his phone vibrated—almost like it was waiting for the perfect moment.

Afternoon Tea: Didn’t buy breakfast?

Afternoon Tea: Want to come upstairs and eat with me?

Was he being monitored?

That timing was too spot on to be a coincidence.

And yet… Jiang Tian didn’t feel bothered. In fact, he accepted the concern rather willingly.

KIRA: I already ate at home.

KIRA: You go ahead, ge.

He put his phone away, ears quietly heating up. There was no way to describe what he was feeling.

After that cheek kiss, it was impossible to think of their relationship as strictly “boss and subordinate.”

But it also wasn’t… quite anything else either.

Work. He’d focus on work to distract himself.

Compared to his first day, today Jiang Tian finally had more to do. He stayed with Simon, working on tasks from a Cambridge-grad senior and typing away on a sleek work laptop.

During all this, Chu Xuyu hadn’t messaged him again.

But Jiang Tian kept overhearing his name—apparently, there was a weekend business trip planned to Beijing.

Simon grinned and kept nudging hints his way.

“Back in the day, Judy-jie used to accompany the boss on all the business trips.”

Jiang Tian looked up. “Huh?”

“This time, it’ll definitely be you going with him,” Simon winked. “Better start packing mentally.”

“…Okay.”

The usually calm Jiang Tian looked a little lost.

He wasn’t sure he had anything to contribute… unless being a dinner companion counted as a job.

What he didn’t realize was—

He wanted to go.