“Happy birthday, Director Shen.”

“Have another glass, Director.”

“Cheers, sir.”

…

Shen Qingzhou always appeared to be cold and indifferent, but that didn’t mean he was an antisocial person. Although his cool hadn’t changed with everyone celebrating his birthday out of goodwill, a few shy actors took this opportunity to offer him toasts.

Meanwhile, Yu Wan sat beside Xiang Zeran and ate barbecue silently. In front of her was the massive cake that some of the crew had just rolled in. 

“Bottoms up, Weiwan.” Xiang Zeran turned and gestured to Weiwan after toasting a glass with a few others.

Yu Wan’s tolerance wasn’t anything special, but it wouldn’t hurt to have a little. She picked up her wine glass, clinking it with Xiang Zeran’s. “Cheers.” 

“Me too, me too.” Li Mengmeng hurried forwards. “Nobody’s going home until they’re hammered, yeah?”

“Sure.” Xiang Zeran poured red wine for the two and some more for himself.

“Xiang Zeran, you better not skimp on your glass.” Li Mengmeng warned.

“Same to you. Weiwan, you too…”

“Gulp, gulp…”

Xiang Zeran and Li Mengmeng glanced at each other. 

Li Mengmeng, “You’ve got some spunk, Weiwan. You chugged that down without even saying anything.”

“Shut up, both of you. Stop with the chit-chat if you’re going to drink.” Yu Wan slammed her glass on the table impatiently. “Full-send it!”

Xiang Zeran raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Hell yeah, sister!”

Across, Shen Qingzhou kept toasting, one after another. His gaze drifted to Yu Wan, who kept drinking merrily with Li Mengmeng and Xiang Zeran. At that moment, Xiang Zeran said something to her. Yu Wan’s smile almost reached her ears.

Shen QIngzhou’s brow twitched. The sight felt uncomfortable, no matter how he looked at it. Strangely, he wondered: Did he make a mistake when casting Xiang Zeran as the protagonist?

“Qingzhou, don’t drink more than you can handle. Have some cake to fill your stomach.” Lin Yeyu brought a plate of cake over. “I had it custom-made. The pastry chef’s really famous, you should really try it.”

“Apologies, but I don’t enjoy desserts.” Shen Qingzhou replied icily.

Lin Yeyu stiffened. “T-Then, you should at least eat something. It’s not good to only drink alcohol.”

Shen Qingzhou didin’t say anything. On the other side, Xiang Zeran and Yu Wan toasted again. His eyes narrowed, and another glass of red wine went down his throat.

Yu Wan felt a little dizzy after a few glasses. Her pace slowed and pulled Li Mengmeng close. “Hey, what kind of relationship do Lin Yeyu and the director have?”

Li Mengmeng was reeling from the booze. She turned her head by Yu Wan’s ear impishly, “I’ll tell you, but you can’t tell anyone else, okay?”

“Oh.” 

“I was pretty good friends with Miss Yeyu back then. She told me that she knew Director Shen from a long time ago, mm… Like, before he was famous. I can tell that Yeyu really likes the director.”

“Then, what about Director Shen?”

Li Mengmeng took a moment to think. “You know how the director is, he’s cold to everyone. However, Yeyu hasn’t given up, even after all this time. I know that I definitely wouldn’t have lasted very long. You can’t tell anyone about this, though. After all, they’re both behemoths in the industry, it’s difficult to talk about these things…”

Yu Wan nodded, and she silently exhaled in relief. After all, her deepest fear was for Shen Qingzhou to be interested in Lin Yeyu. 

Her head felt dizzy, and she no longer felt like drinking. Yu Wan secretly ditched the party after saying goodbye to Li Mengmeng. With the amount of people at Shen Qingzhou’s party, her absence won’t hurt.

Yu Wan returned to the hotel, changed out of her clothes that smelled of wine, and took a shower. She still felt dizzy as she lay on her bed, but she was a lot more awake than at the mansion.

Yu Wan remembered Lin Yeyu and felt annoyed. Since when was she such a sour grape?

Sigh… There wasn’t anything she could do, though. Lin Yeyu had brought in that huge cake and countless gifts, all despite her insane schedule. Yu Wan didn’t even know that it was his birthday… It’s a travesty!
Cake… The cake!

Yu Wan suddenly remembered the small cake she had left on Shen Qingzhou’s coffee table. Crap, it’ll be really embarrassing if he saw that. Yu Wan leaped from her bed and took Shen Qingzhou’s room card from her purse.

It had only been an hour since she had arrived at the hotel. There was no way Shen Qingzhou wasn’t at the mansion. If she sneaked to his room and took back the cake, he won’t ever know about it. 

Yu Wan celebrated silently that she had remembered it. She sprinted to Shen Qingzhou’s room, card in hand and slippers clopping against the soft carpet. 

“Beep.” The door opened.

Yu Wan quickly slipped in and shut the door immediately.

She walked to the living room and lifted the box’s cover. The cake was inside, untouched. Yu Wan breathed a sigh in relief, “Good, good. You weren’t discovered. Now I can take you back to my room.” 

“A cake? For me?” A clear, vibrant voice sounded behind her. Yu Wan jumped, almost flipping the cake over. 

She steadied herself and slowly turned around. 

Shen Qingzhou was leaning a bit shakily on the corner of a wall. He seemed to be a little drunk, and his collar buttons were messily splayed open. His icy pupils narrowed as he stared in her direction, albeit a bit… Enticing.

Yu Wan swallowed. “Why… are you back?”

Shen Qingzhou furrowed his brows and rubbed his eyes. Then, he stepped forward and stopped in front of her, bending over to look at the cake she was holding. He stared at her. “Did you make this?”

Yu Wan took two steps back and bumped into a shelf. “Y-yeah, I made it.”

Shen Qingzhou tried to straighten himself, but his footing wasn’t very stable. He reached to rest his hand on the shelf behind Yu Wan, and his posture looked like he was holding her around his waist. 

Yu Wan’s breath stopped. His smell was all around her, and the rich aroma of red wine overwhelmed her senses.

“If you made it for me, why did you say that you were going to take it back?” Shen Qingzhou was confused.

Yu Wan pressed her lips together. “Well, there was that giant cake back at the mansion. You’ve definitely had enough of your fill.” 

Shen Qingzhou fell silent. Then, he suddenly lowered to bite off a corner of the cake. After a few seconds, he spoke. “Not bad.” 

Yu Wan widened her eyes, and she couldn’t think of how to respond. “I-It’s good?”

“Try it yourself.”

She dropped her head and munched an opposing corner. “It’s a little sweet.”

Shen Qingzhou’s smile lifted into a beautiful arc. “A little, but it’s acceptable.”

Yu Wan watched as a single thought floated around her mind. Shen Qingzhou is acting a bit unusual today. No, no. Not just a little. Extremely unusual.

“Oh, if you’re back so soon, is the party over?” Yu Wan felt like choking under the pressure, so she decided to open a topic and try to disperse it.

Shen Qingzhou’s eyes met hers. “I don’t know. I just left.”

“Oh, so Mengmeng, Xiang Zeran, and… Lin Yeyu, they’re all still there?” She had used the other two names to bring up Lin Yeyu. Otherwise, it would seem strange if she only asked about her. However, Shen Qingzhou strangely only heard Xiang Zeran’s.

His gaze darkened a little, and he leaned even closer. “Why are you asking about Xiang Zeran?”

“Huh?”

“Yu Wan, are you close to him?”

“W-we’re alright.” Yu Wan blinked. She was blushing from his breath all over her face, and her mind was too scrambled to ask about the reason behind his question.

Shen Qingzhou’s eyes narrowed again. “Why?”

“What do you mean, why?” Yu Wan met his gaze. “Director Shen, I think you’re a bit drunk today… No, you really are drunk. Why don’t you take the night off?”

But Shen Qingzhou showed no sign of moving away. He kept staring at him with eyes shimmering of intoxication. Yu Wan closed her eyes. She felt like she was at her limit. There was nothing she wanted more than to shout from the highest mountain peak in the world, that everything about the coldest, most insensitive, apathetic, seamless Director Shen, was, all, wrong!

Yu Wan started to get antsy. Her imagination never stretched to this part of Shen Qingzhou.

“S-So, you don’t want to rest. What about the cake?” Yu Wan raised the cake to him. “Ahem, do you want some? No? Then I’ll eat it.” 

Yu Wan’s ears flared red as she escaped his stare by tilting her head down and eating a few chunks of cake. The crust broke, and the overwhelming aroma of vanilla filled her senses.

“Next time, don’t eat with him, don’t get close with him, and don’t cook for him, either. Don’t forget… I’m the one who hired you.” The vibration of Shen Qingzhou’s rich voice rained from above.

Yu Wan paused, then looked up. “… Okay.” 

Shen Qingzhou smiled in satisfaction upon her word.

It was dark in the living room, but the light from the bedroom glazed the two’s faces. Time seemed to stand still as Shen Qingzhou’s gaze veered from her eyes and finally stopped at her icing-covered lips. His eyes creased…

“I want to eat cake.” 

 Yu Wan responded hastily, “Oh, here.”

Upon her last word, the face in front of her grew larger and larger. Shen Qingzhou completely leaned forward, and his lips touched upon the edge of hers. He moved, and the tip of his tongue licked off some of the cream.

As the soft, moist feeling glided over her lips, Yu Wan’s face exploded in red. She couldn’t react properly to what was happening, and her mind went completely brain-dead.

Shen Qingzhou tasted sweetness. He licked again. Soft, too. He wasn’t satisfied, so he kept siphoning away at the syrupy spot. Because the cake put a little distance between them, he felt annoyed and reached to push it away entirely. Shen Qingzhou pulled in the person in front of him in delight and kept his invasion fuzzily.

Yu Wan’s eyes were saucers. The texture of his lips and his breath was making her limbs weak. She had never thought that Shen Qingzhou could be so… reckless.

Her breath quickened with the growing numb feeling in her heart, combined with the brashness of the situation. Yu Wan’s hand laid on his arm.

Suddenly, his lips stopped. Yu Wan felt a weight on her body, and Shen Qingzhou crashed upon her. His head fell on her shoulder and stopped moving.