As the two of them passed by the kitchen from the restaurant, Mr. Yan unintentionally glanced at the menu for that evening. The kitchen followed the menu to prepare dishes every day. Mr. Yan paused for a moment, picked up a pen, and added a few words on the blackboard.

Zhong Qi's expression held deep meaning as he said, "There's no way you could actually want to eat this dish."

After some contemplation, Mr. Yan opted to strike out another dish, the Tofu Octopus Roll, which happened to be Zhong Qi's favorite.

Zhong Qitou got frustrated: "Hey hey, seeking personal revenge in the name of justice? What kind of hero does that make you?"

Mr. Yan sincerely and selflessly pleaded, "Please, give Brother Octopus a way out."

"......"

Zhong Qi shifted his gaze to the blackboard and glanced sideways, saying, "Then why didn't you give Pei Qi a way out?"

If it weren't for the sake of maintaining their image in front of their subordinates, these two thirty-year-old lads would have almost ended up in the children's channel, saving all living beings.

After the bosses left, the head chef walked to the bottom of the blackboard, his expression subtle. "Why don't you two give me a way out?" he said.

In order to avoid standing out, Gu Qinglan only ate until seventy percent full. Before five o'clock in the afternoon, his stomach started rumbling loudly, and he remembered the piece of char siu from the morning.

At six o'clock, the employees gradually went to the cafeteria to eat. Gu Qinglan walked up to the food counter and stared for a moment. It's char siu, right?

How lucky he is! Should I go buy a lottery ticket tonight?

Zhong Qi grabbed a simple work lunch and sat next to him, saying, "How is it? The barbecued pork is pretty good, right?"

Gu Qinglan used chopsticks to stuff the rice at the corner of her mouth back into it, nodding her head with cheeks puffed up.

He didn't expect Mr. Zhong to suddenly sit next to him. Out of courtesy, he could only forcefully swallow the food in his mouth and painfully swallow it down.

Zhong Qi watched as he gulped down the information without fully processing it, as if swallowing a stone. He hesitated for a moment and said, "There's no need to be in such a rush."

Gu Qinglan took a sip of water and asked, "Mr. Zhong, do you have any instructions?"

"Nothing."

Gu Qinglan felt embarrassed: "Did I eat too much?"

"There's no such thing." Zhong Qi smiled nonchalantly. "With a company as big as that, are they afraid of being bankrupted by you?"

"Mr. Zhong, you are really good."

"Is Mr. Yan not feeling well?"

"That's not exactly it..." Gu Qinglan furrowed his brows, unsure of how to put it into words. He always felt a sense of urgency when he was near Mr. Yan, as if there was a suppressed tension deep down. This often left him at a loss, but he didn't dislike Mr. Yan.

Zhong Qi glanced at the char siu on his plate and smiled, saying, "Mr. Yan, you just haven't experienced its excellence yet."

After finishing the meal, Mr. Yan was indeed working in his office.

Outside the door, Gu Qinglan looked at the sequence of phone numbers. The more she looked, the dizzier she felt, so she decided to lie down. In her dreams, the chicken legs and hamburgers were particularly fragrant.

When he woke up, he didn't know how long it had been, Mr. Yan was standing in front of him and said, "Wipe off the drool, let's go."

Gu Qinglan wiped the corner of her mouth and shamelessly boasted, "Just a little bit..."

Mr. Yan fell silent for a moment, then raised his hand and wiped the corner of his other mouth. Some transparent liquid fell onto his thumb, which he then pressed against his cuff and rubbed twice.

Gu Qinglan froze on the spot, embarrassed to the point where she almost wanted to bash her head against something.

On the way back, Gu Qinglan gradually felt a tightness in her bones without realizing it. It seemed that under Mr. Yan's presence, she often felt uneasy.

Where does this sense of oppression come from?

On that night, Gu Qinglan had a strange dream. A pair of hands slowly stripped away his clothes in the darkness, gliding over his collarbone and shoulders. The palms were covered in fine calluses, not rough yet capable of stirring the deepest emotions within the heart.

Gu Qinglan wanted to open his eyes, but he constantly felt a lack of strength throughout his body. His body felt as heavy as a thousand kilograms. His eyes restless, he tried to see clearly the man controlling his body, yet he could not tell whether it was the darkness of his original world or if he simply could not open his eyes. He found it difficult to make out the owner of the hand.

Those hands glided over his waist and near his navel at a gentle and soothing pace, reaching into sensitive areas. Gu Qinglan's heart raced, feeling someone's kiss on their lips, their legs held at the knees, a solid body pressing against them, forcefully taking control. Gu Qinglan could never break free from his grasp, or perhaps he too was enjoying this process, unable to resist. As time went on, they couldn't help but respond, but in reality, they still couldn't move. The air was filled with ambiguity, the sound of their heartbeat clear. Finally, under "his" control, Gu Qinglan completely let go.

The morning sunlight pierced through the sky as Gu Qinglan crouched in the bathroom, washing her underwear with a gloomy expression on her face.

"This is just a normal physiological need for a healthy male," he comforted himself, but that man..."

He recalled the Alpha he had encountered in the wine cellar, the only man he had ever had a relationship with. Perhaps it was "him" who controlled his own dreams, and the man in his dreams, in a certain sense, was "him."

The man was likely either a staff member of the liquor store or one of the cargo unloaders from that day.

No, I can't do it. The more I think about it, the more embarrassed I feel. It's so frustrating.

These days, he has been avoiding passing by that liquor store, afraid of running into "him." Perhaps they had already passed each other by, but neither of them knew.

Fortunately, the wine cellar was dark, and nobody could see each other in there. Face to face, they wouldn't recognize each other either. Thinking this way, Gu Qinglan felt more at ease.