My father's inheritance is my mortal enemy.

Li Bo paused for a few seconds, then said, "Okay, I'll find a place..."

Zhou Yanshao interrupted: "If you're too lazy to go out, come to Xizi Bay to do it."

"...Okay." Li Bo asked, "How many people?"

"two."

"Okay, I'll buy some groceries after get off work and come over." Li Bo finished his cigarette and asked, "Where did you buy this cigarette?"

Zhou Yanshao said lazily, "I don't know."

"..." Li Bo glanced at the English on the cigarette filter, threw away the cigarette butt, and returned to the conference room.

Zhou Yanshao smoked another cigarette before returning.

The meeting continued, and Zhou Yanshao's gaze lingered on the hot Americano on Li Bo's left. He reached out and took the hot Americano, and Li Bo noticed this action and pressed down on the hot Americano.

Li Bo reminded him, "The competition is coming up soon, right? Maybe we shouldn't drink coffee from outside."

"Americano has no sugar, that's okay."

Li Bo released his grip. Zhou Yanshao took a sip, frowned slightly. As an athlete, he rarely drank coffee. This hot, sugar-free Americano was very bitter, so he put the coffee back in its place.

After that, Li Bo habitually wanted to drink coffee several times, but he stopped when he brought the coffee to his lips and put it back.

A perfectly good hot Americano has turned into a hand warmer.

After the meeting, Li Bo took a sip of his coffee, which was the same coffee that Zhou Yanshao had drunk.

The meeting lasted a long time, and it was already lunchtime. Today's meeting was held at Wanshi. The president of Wanshi came over and invited everyone to have lunch together. The restaurant was near Wanshi, within walking distance.

With the competition imminent, Zhou Yanshao was strictly forbidden from eating out, so he was summoned back to the Wan Mansion by Wan Gong.

After lunch, Li Bo went back to the hotel to rest. In the afternoon, he went to Dafeng and held a meeting with the planning team to inform them of the important meeting content from the morning.

After the meeting, Li Bo had nothing else to do.

Li Bo left work early and went to an old shop to buy fresh ingredients. The ingredients here were all-natural and additive-free, and were expensive, supplied exclusively to the powerful and wealthy in the capital.

Zhou Yanshao can't eat meat bought from outside, so Li Bo always buys his cooking from this place. After buying the groceries, they had the driver take them to Xizi Bay. When they arrived at the entrance, the license plate wasn't registered, so they couldn't get in.

Li Bo borrowed a phone from the driver.

The driver gave his phone to Li Bo, but he was a little puzzled. Li Bo had his own phone, so why did he need to borrow his?

Li Bo got out of the car and went to the security office to register. Xizi Bay has strict visitor access control; vehicles and visitors not registered in the system need to be confirmed by the owner and registered before they can enter.

When Li Bo went to register at the security office, the security guard, who was drinking tea, choked on his tea, stood up, and coughed violently as if he had seen a ghost. It took him a while to recover.

The security guard was from Beijing. The fire at the Li family's house five years ago was on the news for several days, and almost everyone knew about it. Even those who had never met Li Bo knew about the fire at the Li family's house.

Didn't Li Bo die in that fire?

The security guard looked at Li Bo with some surprise, stammering, "Mr. Bo, you..."

Li Bo smiled and said, "I'll take care of the visitor record."

The security guard was stunned for a while. Although the news said that Li Bo died in the fire, the police had not released information about each of the deceased, only a number.

Perhaps Li Bo never died, he just never reappeared.

The security guard, regaining his composure, asked, "A visitor?"

The security guard sat down, checked the computer, and said, "Mr. Park is a resident of Xizi Bay and doesn't need to go through visitor procedures."

Li Bo was stunned.

The security guard glanced towards the entrance. "Is it because you bought a new car but it hasn't been registered yet and you can't get in?"

Seeing that Li Bo seemed lost in thought, the security guard found a data entry file for him and said, "Mr. Bo, please fill in the license plate number, and I'll register it for you in a bit."

"No, no need." Li Bo snapped out of his reverie: "It's the company car."

"Okay, please get in the car. I'll open the door for you." The security guard escorted the person out of the guard booth and waited at the entrance.

Li Bo got into the car, returned the phone to the driver, and was still somewhat dazed.

The driver took the phone and glanced at it, but didn't see any call history.

The security guards let us through.

Following Li Bo's instructions, the driver stopped in front of a detached villa. Li Bo got out of the car carrying the groceries and let the driver go first.

Xizi Bay has both fingerprint locks and password locks. Li Bo tried the password, but it was still the same old password.

Li Bo entered the villa. There was no one on the first floor, and the lights were off. He guessed that Zhou Yanshao hadn't returned yet. He washed the fruit and put it in the refrigerator, put on an apron, and began to prepare the ingredients for cooking.

Li Bo hasn't cooked since the fire five years ago.

He gets a little scared when he sees fire. A small flame like a lighter is fine, but if he looks at gas or coal gas for too long, he is prone to stress, his breathing becomes rapid, and he may even have difficulty breathing.

Li Bo hadn't cooked in five years, but now he had the rare opportunity to cook a meal for Zhou Yanshao.

Even though Li Bo was afraid of fire, he still agreed.

After preparing the ingredients, Li Bo washed the pot, turned on the gas, poured oil into the pot, and started stir-frying. Before long, a layer of cold sweat appeared on Li Bo's forehead, but his hands continued to move.

Half an hour later, Li Bo's body began to react.

His body was trembling slightly.

Li Bo turned off the gas and walked outside, wanting to get some fresh air.

I walked from the kitchen to the back garden and was surprised to find that the spot where the night-blooming cereus used to be planted was empty once again.

Li Bo liked the epiphyllum.

The ephemeral beauty of the night-blooming cereus is stunning enough to leave a lasting impression.

In the past thirty years, Li Bo's happiest periods were undoubtedly two: the first was before his mother fell ill, and the second was after Zhou Yanshao appeared.

Both were short-lived phenomena.

Li Bo was something I couldn't grasp, but it was beautiful and made me very happy.

Li Bo looked at the empty space in front of him, having already anticipated this, but a white fog still formed behind his glasses, and his nose felt extremely sore.

Li Bo smiled and turned to go back to the kitchen.

Turning his head, Li Bo saw Zhou Yanshao looking at him. His feet froze, and a tear slid down his cheek, lingering on his chin for a long time.

Li Bo didn't know when Zhou Yanshao had arrived. He raised his hand and wiped it as if nothing had happened.

Zhou Yanshao looked at Li Bo's hand, his brows furrowed. He knew better than anyone what Li Bo had seen.

Li Bo took advantage of him and toyed with his feelings, so he didn't do anything wrong by not planting epiphyllum flowers for Li Bo.

Zhou Yanshao thought so, but when he saw Li Bo cry, his heart ached terribly.

Zhou Yanshao's gaze shifted from Li Bo's slightly damp hands to Li Bo's reddened eyes, and he asked, "Why are you crying?"

"I didn't cry," Li Bo said. "I was just chopping onions, and the fumes stung my eyes a little."

Li Bo changed the subject: "Did you just get back? I just started cooking, it won't be ready to eat yet. You can go upstairs and take a shower first."

Zhou Yanshao did not reply to him.

As Li Bo walked past Zhou Yanshao toward the kitchen, he hadn't taken two steps when a strong hand gripped his wrist tightly.

The next second, Zhou Yanshao pulled him into his arms and hugged him tightly.

Zhou Yanshao released Li Bo's wrist, put one arm around Li Bo's waist, and placed the other hand on the back of Li Bo's head, pressing Li Bo's head against his chest.

A strong smell of tobacco filled Li Bo's nostrils, making his nose sting even more.