Is This The Right Way To Repay A Favor? Chapter 64
byJiang Zhou pursed his lips, offering no reply.
Shen Zhiyu pressed closer, unrelenting, his gaze sweeping back and forth over Jiang Zhou as if suddenly realizing something.
“Speaking of which, CEO Jiang’s outfit reminds me of someone I used to know.”
Someone he used to know?
Did he figure it out?
Jiang Zhou’s breath hitched slightly.
He had left in a hurry, and the clothes he was wearing were the inner layers from the outfit he wore when he secretly visited Shen Zhiyu during his return to the country for the Yalan brand event.
“It seems—”
“He was called ‘Little Jiang’ student.”
“I heard he was Assistant Wei’s relative.”
“Does CEO Jiang know him?”
Jiang Zhou quickly shook his head. “Completely unfamiliar.”
Shen Zhiyu drew out the last syllable meaningfully but didn’t expose him. “Then he and CEO Jiang must just have a similar dressing style. It seems it’s merely a coincidence.”
Jiang Zhou immediately jumped in. “It’s a common style. Similarities are inevitable.”
Shen Zhiyu followed his words and once again scrutinized Jiang Zhou’s attire for the day.
His clothing was youthful: a pair of washed-blue overalls paired with a long-sleeved gray shirt. The cuffs were casually rolled up to his elbows, revealing a slender, pale forearm.
Further down were his clearly defined knuckles. He had just washed his hands, and water droplets still clung to his palms, shining brightly under the light.
The scene from Saturday afternoon echoed in his mind.
He felt as though he could still recall the soft, cool touch of those delicate, pale fingertips.
His throat inexplicably felt dry, and his gaze lingered on those slender fingers for a long time.
Jiang Zhou felt uneasy under his scrutiny. He instinctively tried to pull his hand back, but the other man gently grasped it. The next second, the cap he had been holding was smoothly placed back onto his head by Shen Zhiyu.
A faint sound of tissue being pulled out followed. Before Jiang Zhou could react, a soft piece of tissue was pressed against his damp palm.
He tried to withdraw his hand, but Shen Zhiyu stopped him with a look. “Don’t move.”
Shen Zhiyu lowered his head, meticulously wiping the water from his palm and the back of his hand, his movements as gentle as if he were handling a fragile, precious piece of porcelain.
Jiang Zhou had never been cared for so attentively. He felt a little flustered. The areas he wiped quickly spread a warmth that even made his earlobes quietly flush.
After drying his hand, Shen Zhiyu didn’t immediately let go. Instead, he intermittently squeezed Jiang Zhou’s fingertips, as if playing with them or perhaps testing him.
From this subtle, lingering touch, Jiang Zhou sensed an unusual implication. He quietly glanced up at Shen Zhiyu, whose lips held a faint smile, suggesting he was in a very good mood.
“Are you really just here to inspect the work?” Shen Zhiyu asked again, stopping his playful movements and gently circling Jiang Zhou’s wrist with his fingers.
He lifted his eyes slightly, his gaze shimmering with fragmented light, carrying a hint of understanding and a barely noticeable smugness. “Or was it for me?”
The warm fingertips pressed directly against the pulse point on his wrist. Jiang Zhou’s words seemed to be ironed into a tremor by the heat. “N-no, it’s not. It’s for work.”
Shen Zhiyu deliberately misinterpreted his answer.
“Since CEO Jiang is so concerned about me, why not stay? You can accompany me tomorrow.”
—
Jiang Zhou ultimately stayed.
The morning light was cool and crisp, and the racetrack was deserted, broken only by the low, rumbling sound of engines warming up. The professional team confirmed everything and quickly retreated to the side of the track.
Shen Zhiyu straddled a pitch-black motorcycle, lined up alongside the other guests.
To avoid appearing special, the production team assigned a safety officer to each guest. Jiang Zhou was arranged to sit on Shen Zhiyu’s pillion seat, ostensibly to prevent accidents like the one that happened yesterday.
A whistle blew. “Safety officers in position!”
Jiang Zhou took a deep breath and stiffly climbed onto the back of Shen Zhiyu’s bike. Unsure where to place his hands, he rested them on the leather pads on either side.
“The rule is simple,” Shen Zhiyu’s voice came through the helmet, slightly muffled but exceptionally clear. “Hold onto my waist tightly. You are not allowed to let go at any time.”
Jiang Zhou glanced at his lean waistline. He didn’t move immediately, instead cautiously looking around. Only after seeing that the other safety officers had already embraced the person in front of them did he hesitantly reach out and wrap his arms around him.
The material of the protective suit blocked most of the body heat, but Jiang Zhou could still feel the outline of the taut muscles beneath.
The flag dropped.
“Let’s go.” The instant the words fell, Shen Zhiyu twisted the throttle.
The exhaust pipe erupted in a violent roar. The powerful acceleration slammed Jiang Zhou backward. He instinctively tightened his arms, pressing his entire body against the back in front of him.
The motorcycle’s takeoff speed was faster than he could have imagined. The wind noise suddenly became sharp, as if it were tearing everything apart.
Jiang Zhou instinctively closed his eyes, pressing his entire chest tightly against Shen Zhiyu’s broad back, trying to find a sense of stability.
“Open your eyes, Jiang Zhou.” Shen Zhiyu’s voice rang out, not loud, but cutting through the howling wind noise, carrying an undeniable command. “If you’re scared, you lose.”
Jiang Zhou forced himself to open his eyes. His vision distorted rapidly. The guardrails, billboards, and the distant mountains and trees on either side of the track were retreating at an astonishing speed, blurring into a flowing, dynamic mass of color blocks.
The first sharp corner approached rapidly. Jiang Zhou felt Shen Zhiyu’s body lean inward first. The motorcycle followed, pressing its heavy weight down, leaning into the apex of the curve in a manner that almost defied physics. The tires screamed a sharp, thrilling protest against the asphalt.
“Ah!” The extreme sense of weightlessness and the feeling of being on the verge of losing control—the illusion that they were about to scrape the ground the next second—made Jiang Zhou gasp uncontrollably. His arms clamped around Shen Zhiyu’s waist like a drowning man, his entire body practically embedding itself into his spine.
Just when he thought his knees were about to graze the ground in that perilous moment, the motorcycle cleanly carved a perfect, thrilling arc, carrying a powerful centrifugal force, and steadily shot out of the curve.
The moment they exited the bend, Shen Zhiyu’s left hand, which was resting on the back of Jiang Zhou’s hand, pressed down briefly and firmly.
Leaning, straightening, accelerating. Throughout the entire process, Shen Zhiyu’s body was rock-steady, precisely controlling every subtle angle.
After conquering several high-difficulty corners in succession, the initial fear and tension were gradually replaced by the rush of adrenaline-fueled excitement.
Jiang Zhou began to adapt to the extreme speed and the precisely controlled tilt. He could even keep his eyes open, slowly watching the winding sections of the track being conquered through Shen Zhiyu’s tightly muscled shoulders.
Shen Zhiyu seemed to notice his adaptation. In the next high-speed corner, he leaned lower, harder, the bike body nearly scraping the ground.
Jiang Zhou’s chest was fully pressed against his back, and the edges of their helmets knocked together with a slight thud.
This time, Jiang Zhou didn’t cry out. In the midst of the extreme lean, he unconsciously rested his chin on Shen Zhiyu’s shoulder blade.
A posture of complete reliance.
Shen Zhiyu’s body paused almost imperceptibly, then shot out of the curve with even greater intensity.
Entering a long straightaway, the speed soared to a new height, the wind roaring like thunder.
Shen Zhiyu straightened up slightly, reducing wind resistance, which also slightly loosened their tight embrace. He turned his head, his voice carrying a slight pant after the high-speed exertion. “Jiang Zhou, can you still handle it?”
Jiang Zhou didn’t answer. He simply moved the hands that were wrapped around Shen Zhiyu’s waist up a few inches, gripping the fabric of the protective suit across his chest even tighter.
Following that, Jiang Zhou felt a vibration in Shen Zhiyu’s chest, which seemed to be a low chuckle, instantly swallowed by the engine noise.
Shen Zhiyu slammed the throttle again, and the motorcycle charged forward like an unbridled wild horse.
A steep corner appeared ahead. At the extreme moment of leaning into the curve, Shen Zhiyu not only didn’t avoid a slight bump on the road surface but deliberately used a subtle shift in his center of gravity to make the bike bounce slightly.
The sudden weightless jolt unbalanced Jiang Zhou, and he uncontrollably slammed harder and heavier into Shen Zhiyu’s back.
Shen Zhiyu seemed to have anticipated this. His core abdominal muscles instantly tightened, steadily receiving the full weight of the impact. Moreover, the instant Jiang Zhou collided with him, he bent his arm back and firmly hooked the outside of Jiang Zhou’s thigh, securing him even more firmly behind him.
The strength of that palm, even through the protective suit, carried a scorching heat, full of possessiveness and control.
Jiang Zhou’s body stiffened but he didn’t struggle. This forceful restraint, in the current high-speed environment, strangely transformed into a reliable sense of security.
The motorcycle finally crossed the finish line. The speed slowly dropped, the roar diminished, the wind subsided, bodily sensations returned, and the world became clear again.
Jiang Zhou felt a brief moment of disorientation and a distinct reluctance to stop.
Faint cheers and footsteps from the staff could be heard nearby, and the reflection of cameras glinted in the distance.
Jiang Zhou was about to loosen his slightly stiff arms and remove his helmet.
Just then, Shen Zhiyu moved first.
He dismounted the bike cleanly, urgently removing his own helmet. Then, he quickly flipped open the buckle of Jiang Zhou’s helmet and lifted the heavy headgear from his head.
Fresh air rushed in. Jiang Zhou gasped slightly and looked up, intending to say something, but was caught off guard by Shen Zhiyu’s burning gaze.
His hair was damp with sweat, his eyes shining intensely, carrying an untamed wildness and a deeper emotion that hadn’t been fully expressed.
Against the backdrop of the surrounding noise and the lingering engine sound, and just a second before the cameras might have focused on them, Shen Zhiyu used the action of leaning down to place his helmet as a cover, quickly closing the distance to Jiang Zhou.
Warm lips, carrying the scent of sweat and wind, pressed precisely onto Jiang Zhou’s mouth.
It was a kiss that lasted only a touch, yet it carried an undeniable heat and possessiveness.
Having successfully stolen a kiss, Shen Zhiyu quickly straightened up, creating a perfect distance.
A roguish, triumphant curve played on his lips. The mischief and pride in his eyes were almost overflowing as he asked in a low, husky voice audible only to the two of them.
“Now, surely you can relax, CEO Jiang?”
Jiang Zhou froze in place. The fleeting sensation on his lips was as clear as a brand, and all the surrounding noise seemed to instantly recede.
He stared at Shen Zhiyu, momentarily forgetting how to breathe.