translator: Eve

editor: xiin

Song Xuanhe pulled out the sketchbook. As expected, there was a small ‘s’ on the lower right corner of the leather cover.

He pulled out Xiao Yuanmu’s chair and sat down, flipping through the sketchbook, raising his brow as the familiar sketches appeared before his eyes. They were all his previous designs. One of them was the original design of the suit jacket from “He & Feng’s” debut show.

Song Xuanhe still remembered what he’d drawn in this sketchbook very clearly. He casually flipped through the sketchbook before closing it. It looked like Xiao Yuanmu had purposely brought this sketchbook with him to America. The biggest reason for that was probably because his sketches of Xiao Yuanmu were even better-looking than the model.

As he thought this, Song Xuanhe suddenly felt like looking at the sketches of Xiao Yuanmu.

In contrast to his colouring skills, sketches were his weak point. When it came to his sketches of Xiao Yuanmu, however, he was actually proud for once.

Song Xuanhe flipped open the sketchbook once more, finding the sketches by memory. Contrary to his expectations, they weren’t there. He frowned. He had used this sketchbook for a very long time. Even with his eyes closed, he would be able to find the page he was looking for them by touch. At most, he’d be off by three pages. However, the four or five pages in front and behind the page were all blank.

Had Xiao Yuanmu torn his sketches out?

Song Xuanhe flipped a few pages towards the end of the sketchbook. As expected, he didn’t find the sketches of Xiao Yuanmu. In the end, he closed the sketchbook and placed it back into the drawer. At his feet, Xiao Huang had already finished eating the beef jerky and was currently twisting his butt and wagging his tail. He would occasionally glance at the drawer with yearning eyes and whimper quietly. He was good at acting spoiled.

“Don’t eat anymore.” Song Xuanhe rubbed Xiao Huang’s head, his tone sincere. “You’re already so fat. You should be thinking about losing weight.”

Xiao Huang looked at him with a guileless look in his eyes.

Song Xuanhe frowned and quietly said, “You’re the opposite of your owner.”

Xiao Huang scratched at the cabinet and barked at Song Xuanhe.

Song Xuanhe pretended not to understand. “Let’s go. Time to lose weight.”

“Wuwuwu….”

Xiao Huang leaned against the cabinet and looked at Song Xuanhe, begging with his eyes.

The little chubby dog with short legs whimpered quietly but Song Xuanhe remained unmoved as he headed towards the door. He didn’t forget to say: “You really can’t eat anymore. If you eat any more, you’ll….”

Halfway through his sentence, Song Xuanhe came to an abrupt stop. He stared at the pictures hanging on the wall in front of him—there were his sketches of Xiao Yuanmu, as well as sketches of himself, done by some unknown artist. There were eight pairs in total. For every portrait of Xiao Yuanmu, there was a corresponding one of himself. They hung on the walls in frames.

In one of his sketches, Xiao Yuanmu stood by a window, peering outside. In the corresponding sketch of himself, he was depicted having afternoon tea in a garden.

He had drawn this particular sketch of Xiao Yuanmu after a flash of inspiration had hit him when he had seen Xiao Yuanmu looking out a window once. He had used the French window in his apartment as reference and then changed it to be a window that could be pushed open. The surrounding furniture was also based on his apartment, but they had all been altered. The only things left untouched were Xiao Yuanmu’s expression and action.

Meanwhile, Song Xuanhe was certain he had never been to a garden like the one in the corresponding sketch of himself, but the table in the garden was vaguely familiar. Nevertheless, he couldn’t quite put his finger on it at the moment. But in any case, that wasn’t important. What was important was that he was looking towards a window in that sketch. It seemed like it was the same window as in the sketch of Xiao Yuanmu,

It was obvious. Even if the two sketches weren’t side by side, even if they were hung in different places, Song Xuanhe believed that most people would be able to tell that the protagonists of these two sketches were looking at each other.

The other six pairs were the same. Every drawing had its twin. Every scene contained elements of the scene in the corresponding picture. But it was also obvious that the artists were different people.

As for who the other artist was, Song Xuanhe had a faint conjecture.

【These were drawn by Xiao Yuanmu.】The System said：【I can tell from the strokes and style.】

“I know.”

Song Xuanhe took a few steps forward so that he could see the pictures more clearly. His gaze swept over each and every picture, and he smiled. “He’s a good learner. If my teacher were to see these, he’d definitely call him gifted.”

“Woof woof woof!”

Xiao Huang had probably realized that Song Xuanhe wouldn’t give in. Therefore, he settled for second best. Xiao Huang raced to the living room and brought back his leash, wanting Song Xuanhe to take him for a walk.

Song Xuanhe was pulled out from his thoughts by the dog’s barks. He glanced at the paintings on the wall one last time before squatting down to do up the dog’s leash. He then headed out the door with Xiao Huang.

Xiao Huang really must not have gone out for quite some time. He grew excited as soon as they reached the garden, and his tail swished happily as he ran around. Song Xuanhe had no choice but to quicken his steps to keep up.

Less than half an hour later, Song Xuanhe felt more tired than he did after a regular gym session.

By the time Xiao Yuanmu called again, Song Xuanhe and Xiao Huang were already on their way back to the apartment.

To be precise, Song Xuanhe was dragging the little chubby dog, who was lying on the ground, refusing to move, back to the apartment.

“What are you doing right now?”

When Song Xuanhe heard Xiao Yuanmu’s voice, he was in the middle of pulling Xiao Huang up the stairs. He had already dragged the dog up a few floors. It felt like he was weight training. The only difference was that his ‘weight’ was twisting around, making noise and trying to escape.

“Trying to take your dog back home.” Song Xuanhe was in a foul mood. “How do you usually take him home? While I was dragging him back, several people stopped to reproach me. They thought I was abusing him.”

Xiao Yuanmu chuckled. “Just tell him that we’re going back to eat beef jerky. He’ll follow you. The beef jerky is in the first drawer on the left in the cabinet of my study. You’ll see it as soon as you open it.

Song Xuanhe paused. He pulled Xiao Huang up the last step and said, “He already went to your study and ate some before we headed out.”

Xiao Yuanmu’s lips pursed nervously when he heard that. He was about to speak when he heard Song Xuanhe ask, “When did you take my sketchbook?”

“I accidentally took it while packing,” Xiao Yuanmu said.

“Is that so?” Song Xuanhe then changed the subject, “What were you calling for?”

“I wanted to ask if you had eaten yet.” Xiao Yuanmu said, “If you don’t want to go out, I can have Yang Jie bring you lunch. If you want to go out, you can come to the area around my company. There are a lot of good restaurants nearby.”

“All of those restaurants require reservations,” Song Xuanhe replied.

Xiao Yuanmu: “You won’t need one.”

Song Xuanhe gave him the name of a restaurant that typically needed to be booked three months in advance.

“I’ll have Yang Jie take care of it.” Xiao Yuanmu didn’t hesitate to ask, “When are you coming over? Do you want me to pick you up?”

It was only ten minutes by foot, while driving would take even longer due to traffic. Song Xuanhe thus asked, “What, are you going to walk over to pick me up?”

“If that’s what you want.”

“It’s okay. I’ll come over after bringing your dog home.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

Song Xuanhe brought Xiao Huang back, then filled his bowl the way Xiao Yuanmu had yesterday. He then changed his clothes and headed out the door.

Xiao Yuanmu’s company was very close to his apartment. Song Xuanhe walked at a leisurely pace for six to seven minutes, thinking that he would arrive early, but Xiao Yuanmu was unexpectedly already waiting for him downstairs.

Song Xuanhe said, “I thought that you would be the type to not waste a single minute in your work.”

“Waiting for you isn’t a waste of time.” Xiao Yuanmu walked over to him, pushing a strand of hair away from Song Xuanhe’s face. “Let’s go.”

Song Xuanhe stood in place for two seconds. He then went over to walk side-by-side with Xiao Yuanmu. “You’ve changed a lot in the last ten months.”

“Have I?” Xiao Yuanmu seemed intrigued. “In what way?”

“You talk more now.” Song Xuanhe mentioned the most obvious part and then mentioned what had been on his mind all this time. “You’ve become a lot more….”

He racked his brain for the right adjective, but he couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud under Xiao Yuanmu’s curious gaze.

Therefore, he just said, “In any case, you’re different now.”

Xiao Yuanmu: “Just because I talk more now?”

“That’s not everything.” Song Xuanhe said, “For example, you would never say something like ‘waiting for you isn’t a waste of time’ in the past.”

Xiao Yuanmu furrowed his brows slightly. “You don’t like it?”

“Am I supposed to?” Song Xuanhe asked back.

Xiao Yuanmu paused for a second, earnestly examining Song Xuanhe’s expression for a moment. He then came to this conclusion: “You do like it.”

Song Xuanhe: ….

“What makes you think I like it?” As he said this, an idea popped into Song Xuanhe’s head. “Someone taught you this, right?”

Xiao Yuanmu turned around and resumed his previous gait. He said, “Why do you think someone taught me that line? Maybe I just felt like saying it.”

“What you’re saying right now makes it obvious that you were taught this.” Song Xuanhe gazed at Song Xuanhe’s composed profile and raised a brow. “It’s Louis, isn’t it?”

Xiao Yuanmu asked, “Why do you think it’s him?”

“Who else would it be?” Song Xuanhe said, “It’s not like it would be Yang Jie.”

Xiao Yuanmu: “It’s Louis.”

Faced with Xiao Yuanmu, who sold out Louis so quickly, Song Xuanhe suddenly felt a bit sympathetic towards Louis.

He asked, “Is Louis your friend?”

Xiao Yuanmu: “He’s just my business partner.”

Once again, Song Xuanhe felt sympathy towards Louis for one second.

“I’ve always thought that he was your friend.” Although the words he was saying were words of sympathy, there was an undertone of schadenfreude in his voice. “I think he feels the same. Sounds like one party’s more invested than the other. He’ll probably be hurt if he were to hear you say this.”

Xiao Yuanmu said flatly, “He has the same view as I do.”

“Then who do you consider a friend?” Song Xuanhe was suddenly curious. “Yang Jie?”

Xiao Yuanmu: “No.”

Song Xuanhe: “Then who is Yang Jie to you?”

Xiao Yuanmu: “A business partner.”

Song Xuanhe chuckled. “Seems like everyone’s a business partner to you.”

Xiao Yuanmu looked at him. “Not you.”

Song Xuanhe was taken aback. He then pursed his lips and fell silent.

“When it comes to our relationship, one of us cares more than the other, too,” Xiao Yuanmu said, “But that won’t negatively affect how we interact or our future together.”

Eve: ‘Smooth’ XYM makes me want to cover my face in second-hand mortification. But the fact that he actually takes Louis’ advice I—

xiin: XYM – everyone is a business partner except for SXH