At this moment, the car door opened and Jiang Yan poked his head out. “Mr. Shen, what's wrong?”

Shen Ji gazed at the empty, old alley nearby, his expression inscrutable. “I saw a little dog.”

Logically, he should have forgotten about that little dog a long time ago and shouldn’t have been able remember it. However, in reality, he recognized it in one glance. And this was despite the rather dim lighting.

Jiang Yan’s impeccably made-up face twitched slightly. He knew very well what “little dog” represented when it came from an executive’s mouth. He extended his foot and tapped the very hard part of the man’s leg with just the right amount of force. “Isn’t there one in the car?”

Shen Ji grabbed the troublesome foot, dragged the person off the leather chair onto the floor, and then bent down to enter the back seat.

However, Shen Ji was a little distracted. The little dog no longer had anything to do with the so-called astrological charts. It had moved out of Qinxin Estate and broken free of the Shen family’s shackles. If Shen Ji wanted, he could have his assistant go negotiate conditions. In respect to his private life, it had always been based on mutual consent. But... the little dog's appearance didn't match his preferences at all—it was foolish, weak, and utterly dull[1].

As Shen Ji thought this, a pair of starkly contrasting black and white, childlike eyes, with a calm and cold gaze, appeared before him. His throat tightened slightly.

At that moment, Shen Ji’s thoughts were interrupted by a warm touch. He looked down at the young man who was devoutly kissing the back of his hand. “Xiao Jiang, when you speak, your voice sounds like you’re singing. Could it be that the person who replaced you is a lark?"

“Who’s to say otherwise?” Jiang Yan replied with a flirtatious wink. “That person is a top student from the Academy of Fine Arts.”

Shen Ji's leather shoe stepped on the hem of his skirt. "What? Do you want to return to your former master?”

“No, I’m quite happy following you, Mr. Shen,” Jiang Yan’s red lips curled into an unrestrained, laid-back and natural smile, like an alluring demon spirit who had accidentally wandered into the human world.

Shen Ji's expression, however, remained indifferent, completely unaffected by Jiang Yan’s allure. He touched his left eyebrow, running his fingertip over the scar left by the car accident.

It’s been a while since I last saw that little dog. I don’t know why it appeared near Fuyuan Restaurant but it seemed to be wearing... a school uniform?

Attending school, huh? Then I’ll have to see what it’s learned and if it’s made any progress.

.

Jiao Bai kicked stones flying. Jiang Yan had gone to Shen Ji's side. This meant that the fine arts student had officially taken over and replaced him as Qi Yilao’s man. Jiao Bai couldn’t remember who came after the fine arts student but it seemed to be a little ezs guy.

How could those two old men be his friends? He really didn’t etbjhmf want to nurture their activity levels.

Jiao Bai muttered a few complaints into the air, rubbing his nose, which had turned red from the wind, as he walked a few steps. Suddenly, he caught sight of a dark figure and almost chdc of fright.

“Shen Er’an!” Jiao Bai shouted.

The figure didn't respond and walked forward with his back to him. The sound of his steps was so faint he was like a ghostly apparition.

“I'm calling you.” Jiao Bai caught up to him. “What are you doing here?” He wondered if Shen Er’an had seen him sprinting away from old dog Shen at full speed.

Shen Er’an’s steps didn’t stop and his figure was very silent.

 However…

“Gurgle.”

His stomach was growling.

Jiao Bai couldn’t hold it back and burst out laughing.

Shen Er’an turned around. His voice was low, carrying a hint of humiliated anger. “What are you laughing at?”

“My tmcdqozmsr got stuck in my atss. I'm laughing at myself.” Jiao Bai said matter-of-factly.

Shen Er’an: “...”

He continued walking and stopped talking again.

Jiao Bai walked behind Shen Er’an with his hands clasped behind his back, swaying like a little old man. How pitiful. This young master, despite having food, was as miserable as he was and still hungry.

“Young Master Shen, let’s go have some wontons.” Jiao Bai caught a whiff of the delicious aroma.

Shen Er’an stopped in his steps. “I have a name.”

Jiao Bai smiled and readily obeyed, “Well then, Shen Er’an, let’s go have some wontons.”

.

In small restaurants, around eight to nine o'clock was a time when it was neither too empty nor too crowded.

As soon as Shen Er'an walked in, he became the center of attention. He didn’t show any signs of aversion or repulsion, nor did he give off a grim, irritated aura with a cold face. From beginning to end, he simply followed Jiao Bai, who was looking for a place to sit.

The table was clean, but the QR code on the corner of the table was coated with a layer of grease. Jiao Bai took out his phone to scan it, taking a moment to glance at Shen Er'an across from him. Shen Er'an sat quietly, showing no signs of distaste.

“I ordered two large bowls of wontons. Is there anything you can’t eat?” Jiao Bai asked.

Shen Er’an looked at him.

For some inexplicable reason, Jiao Bai felt as if he had bullied a child. “Don't look at me like that. Although we’ve been living together for a while, this is our first time eating together at the same table so it’s normal that I don’t know your preferences."

Shen Er'an said calmly, “Spring onions, no.”

“Nothing else? Got it.” Jiao Bai put his phone aside and propped his chin on his hand, watching the passersby and streetlights. He was protagonist-devotee. He read the entire comic from Li Jue’s perspective. Whatever Li Jue focused on, he focused on too.

For example, Li Jue worried obsessively about Shen Er’an’s eating habits.

To be precise, it was Shen Er’an in his early twenties. At that time, he didn't like the taste of string onions, ginger, and garlic, and didn't eat spicy food, seafood, eggs, butter, noodles...

High maintenance.

However, the current Shen Er’an wasn’t an adult yet. He was seventeen years old, so young and inexperienced.

The author of Broken Wings never illustrated the tea-picking girl of Mt. Cheng, but anyone who had read the comic could imagine that she must have been a gorgeous woman. Otherwise, Shen Er’an wouldn’t have such a flawless and divinely beautiful face.

Of course, his old man was just like a dog.

Jiao Bai's gaze subtly wandered from Shen Er'an's left shoulder to his collarbone and then back to the left shoulder. That place, which originally had a burn, now had a small tattoo.

The tattoo was of a dragonfly. This dragonfly tattoo appeared a few times in the comic. Once, Li Jue was cleaning while sick and fell to the ground. He injured his head and couldn’t get up but Shen Er'an turned a blind eye, walked around him and went to the company. At that time, so many people criticized and cursed at Shen Er'an that it even trended on social media.

This was the first time the comic trended on social media.

Jiao Bai still remembered that the trending hashtag was #DragonflyQuicklyRun#.

The fans were frightened and trembling with fear, afraid that their treasured Broken Wings would be banned.

Jiao Bai thought about the paper dragonflies in Shen Er’an's room. His mother probably taught him how to fold them.


[1] In the sentences that are in Shen Ji’s POV, he doesn’t use any pronoun for Jiao Bai (because it isn’t needed in Chinese). As the pronouns are needed for the sentence to make sense in English, I have decided to use ‘it’ rather than ‘he’ because Shen Ji keeps calling Jiao Bai “little dog” and doesn’t think of him as human.