The Beijing Circle Young Master's Public Lackey Ch19 - Hyacinth in Bloom

Xiao Kesong’s vitality level was very high.

He had been busy at the birthday party from morning till night, socializing and taking photos the whole time. Even after the party ended, he still had the energy to keep playing.

He truly was a twenty-year-old boy.

Chen Zemian, on the other hand, had the soul of a 27-year-old office worker trapped in a 19-year-old body. After meeting so many people at the banquet, his passive skill — exhausted physically and mentally after team building and just wanting to sleep — was automatically triggered. He fell asleep in the car before they even reached Fanlou.

When he woke up, the car was pitch black.

As his vision faded, his sense of smell became extraordinarily sensitive.

Chen Zemian detected a faint scent of sandalwood mixed with lilies.

There was also cedar and white musk.

It was as cold as the first snow in late winter — dry and fresh. A very familiar woody, neutral fragrance.

“Is this the road to the underworld?” Chen Zemian rubbed his eyes sleepily. “What was the point of this nap?”

A cold, low male voice came from beside him, “Fanlou parking lot.”

Chen Zemian recognized the voice, sat up suddenly, and his sleepiness vanished instantly. “Lu Zhuonian?”

Lu Zhuonian replied indifferently, “Yeah.”

Chen Zemian was a little confused. “Where is Mr. Xiao? Didn’t I sit in the same car with him? Why are you here?”

Lu Zhuonian answered briefly, “You fell asleep, and he was afraid you’d suffocate.”

Chen Zemian wondered why they left both a driver and Lu Zhuonian to watch over him.

“Then let’s go up too,” said Chen Zemian.

Lu Zhuonian responded.

It was dark outside the car. Because Chen Zemian had been sleeping, the driver had parked in a spot with no light. It was pitch black inside the car. Chen Zemian couldn’t see anything, so he raised his hand to press the reading light on the roof.

As soon as he stretched out his arm, before touching the lamp, he touched another hand.

There was a soft “pop” sound, and static electricity exploded into light blue sparks in the darkness.

The autumn in Beijing was too dry; everything you touched generated static electricity.

The electric charge penetrated the skin, stimulating the nerves. It felt like a small rodent had bitten them. Both paused at the same time, feeling a little numb where they were shocked.

The next second, the roof reading light cast a gentle glow. Chen Zemian turned his head and saw a high nose bridge and a pair of deep black eyes.

After the slight sting, the touch became exceptionally clear.

The skin was warm, and the fingertips were slightly cool.

It was Lu Zhuonian’s hand.

Chen Zemian reacted quickly, jumping back in the opposite direction. Not only did he retract his hand, but he also slid to the edge of the seat with his back pressed against the car door.

But the cabin was still too narrow. Even if one party tried to keep as much distance as possible, the two were still very close.

A soft laugh sounded, so close it seemed right next to Chen Zemian’s ear.

Lu Zhuonian’s voice sounded very different from usual, with an inexplicable joy and mischief, “The voltage of static electricity is indeed very high, but it’s not enough to electrocute people.”

Chen Zemian twisted his still slightly numb fingers and muttered, “Aren’t you a mysophobe?”

Lu Zhuonian’s eyebrows twitched slightly. “How did you know?”

Chen Zemian opened his mouth and lied. “Young Master Xiao told me.”

Lu Zhuonian didn’t say whether he believed it or not. He took out an alcohol wipe from the storage box and slowly wiped his entire right hand three times.

The first thing he did after entering the car was wash his hands.

Xiao Kesong wasn’t surprised by Lu Zhuonian’s cleanliness but was a little curious.

Lu Zhuonian lived a life of luxury. He basically didn’t have to touch anything when he went out. He cleared the area in advance when visiting public places and used special passages. The driver opened the car door, and his assistants fetched his things. When he really had to touch something, bodyguards came with gloves.

Xiao Kesong couldn’t figure it out, so he simply asked Chen Zemian. “What did he touch?”

Chen Zemian couldn’t answer “me,” so he looked at the pile of gift boxes in the corner of the car and asked knowingly, “Are these all your gifts?”

Xiao Kesong’s attention was easily diverted. He looked in the direction of the voice and said, “Yes, I asked someone to send them here specially. I’ll open them and see… What did you give me?”

Chen Zemian found a palm-sized gift box from the pile of gifts. “I don’t know what you need, so I just bought a small thing.”

Xiao Kesong shook the box. “I’ll open it and see.”

Chen Zemian smiled and nodded. “Open it.”

Xiao Kesong tore open the package in a few seconds, looked at the logo on the gift box, and exclaimed, “Wow, you actually bought me… Prada.”

Chen Zemian coughed lightly. “Young Master Xiao, you don’t have to exaggerate on purpose.”

Xiao Kesong was genuinely surprised. “You actually gave me a luxury item, and you don’t even use it yourself. Doesn’t this show you care about me a lot? It’s much better than Ye Chen’s grandson. He just bought me a pair of headphones — and they’re wired! Who wears wired headphones now? They’re so unfashionable.”

Ye Chen had a reason. “Don’t you always lose the wireless ones?”

Xiao Kesong ignored Ye Chen, raised the gift box to show Lu Zhuonian, who was sitting nearby, and showed off, “Chen Zhe gave me Prada.”

Lu Zhuonian glanced over sideways. “What is it?”

The three top rich young masters surrounded him so solemnly that he felt a little embarrassed.

Chen Zemian whispered, “It’s not a valuable thing. It’s a collar.”

Collar?

Ye Chen and Lu Zhuonian looked at Chen Zemian simultaneously.

Xiao Kesong stopped lifting the lid of the box, thinking he was hallucinating. “What?”

“A collar, a pet collar. Don’t you have a Maine Coon…?”

Chen Zemian didn’t understand at first. Seeing Xiao Kesong’s unusual expression, he explained a few more sentences. As he spoke, he saw Xiao Kesong’s eyes gradually regain composure from astonishment. Chen Zemian suddenly realized and reacted, “Damn, what are you thinking? You have such dirty minds!”

Ye Chen coughed lightly, picked up his water cup, and took a sip.

Lu Zhuonian looked away as if nothing had happened.

Xiao Kesong laughed heartlessly and said, “So it’s for the cat. We were thinking too much, hahaha.”

Chen Zemian frowned, “A serious person wouldn’t think that way.”

Xiao Kesong hooked the collar and shook it lightly. “The main reason is that we just watched an art performance a few days ago, and this thing appeared quite frequently.”

Chen Zemian said speechlessly, “Why do you watch everything?”

Xiao Kesong’s face showed an indescribable expression. “It’s not good to look at at all. Maybe Ye Chen and I don’t have this tendency.”

Hearing this, Chen Zemian was shocked.

Xiao Kesong and Ye Chen don’t have this tendency, so the one who does must be…

Chen Zemian glanced at Lu Zhuonian in a self-proclaimed covert manner.

The original book says the male protagonist likes niche extreme sports. Is it referring to this kind of niche and extreme?

It’s too niche and too extreme.

Even someone with mysophobia still plays such a fancy game. The biggest source of pain for the player is probably the alcohol disinfection. What a novel way to play.

Chen Zemian’s expression changed several times, and what he was thinking was almost written on his face.

Sometimes he frowned in confusion, sometimes he suddenly realized something, and finally it settled into a hint of admiration.

Seeing him like this, although I couldn’t know exactly what he was thinking, I could roughly guess.

Lu Zhuonian was a little helpless. “I didn’t go.”

It turned out he didn’t go.

For some reason, Chen Zemian actually felt relieved.

Lu Zhuonian added, “I’m not.”

Chen Zemian came back to his senses and subconsciously said, “Me neither.”

Xiao Kesong followed closely, “Great, I’m not either.”

Ye Chen didn’t know what Xiao Kesong was trying to do. “Did anyone ask you?”

Xiao Kesong had his own thoughts. “Neither Zhuonian nor Chen Zhe are. If I were, wouldn’t it be very unsociable?”

Ye Chen said lightly, “No one cares.”

Xiao Kesong was so angry he wanted to kick Ye Chen, but he didn’t dare. He turned around and advised Chen Zemian, “That thing is not interesting. You must not go there out of curiosity. Look, you’ll feel sick for several days after watching it, and you’ll lose your worldly desires.”

Speaking of this, Xiao Kesong seemed to remember something and suddenly looked at Lu Zhuonian, “You can give it a try.”

Lu Zhuonian said, “…”

Ye Chen couldn’t help but hold his forehead. “Xiao Kesong, can you stop talking?”

Xiao Kesong immediately got angry and said, “Why don’t you let me speak?”

Ye Chen replied, “Because no one wants to listen.”

Xiao Kesong was instantly furious and quarreled with Ye Chen, mostly one-sided. Ye Chen didn’t talk much, occasionally saying one or two words, which made Xiao Kesong even angrier.

Chen Zemian used the excuse of going out to buy some wine and quickly left.

Lu Zhuonian probably also felt it was noisy, so he walked out of the box with Chen Zemian.

The corridor was covered with thick cashmere carpets, dense and soft underfoot, and extremely quiet.

The two of them spoke nothing along the way as they took the elevator down to the basement level, where there was a small winery with luxurious and exquisite decoration.

The customers coming in and out of Fanlou were either rich or noble. The clerk had a sharp eye and could tell at a glance that Lu Zhuonian was dressed luxuriously, with a high-end watch on his wrist worth at least seven figures.

The clerk walked over quickly with a smile. He was very good at observing expressions. Lu Zhuonian just glanced at Chen Zemian, and the clerk understood who he was serving. He bowed and introduced himself to Chen Zemian.

Chen Zemian felt that today’s salesperson was particularly enthusiastic. Not only was his attitude friendly and polite, but he was also very generous, frequently pouring samples for him to taste.

He originally just wanted to take a symbolic sip, buy quickly, and leave, but he couldn’t resist the other party’s quick eyes and hands. The clerk was always able to accurately predict his movements, and at the right time, he would hold the wine glass in front of him with both hands, looking sincerely at him, as if the wine had to be tasted by him to have any meaning.

“It’s delicious.” Chen Zemian had a limited vocabulary and didn’t know much about wine, so he pointed to the bottle he thought tasted best and said, “How about this one?”

The clerk applauded and exclaimed, “You have a good eye! This is our best-selling one.”

Chen Zemian wasn’t overwhelmed by the clerk’s flattery. He turned to look at Lu Zhuonian and asked for his opinion.

Lu Zhuonian nodded slightly, dignified and elegant. “Okay.”

Chen Zemian then said, “Then pack these two bottles and send them to box K866.”

The clerk responded with a smile, took the bank card handed over by Chen Zemian, swiped the POS machine, and asked Chen Zemian to sign.

Chen Zemian signed his name with a flourish of his pen.

The POS buzzed and spit out a string of receipts.

The clerk tore off the customer receipt and handed it back. “Here is the receipt, please keep it.”

Chen Zemian was about to reach out to take the receipt, but another hand got there first.

Lu Zhuonian held the receipt, his eyes paused on the thin piece of paper for two seconds, and called his name,

“Chen Zhe.”

Chen Zemian raised his head and responded with a little doubt, “Hmm?”