Meng Yang was busy not only studying, but also practicing for the overseas competition. He also had to finish his final aromatherapy licensing examination. Sometimes his brain was really worn out, so he rode his horse around Longling Mountain to relax his mind.
At the invitation of Luo Xiu’s younger brother, Luo Qi, Bradley got off the car outside the gate of the mansion. He saw a noble and elegant light gold horse run by, and when he recognized the person on the horse, he was immediately stunned. It was as if he was seeing an illusion; in the bright sunlight, the exquisite and beautiful elven prince was astride a horse, and was riding towards him. How he hoped that the enchanting prince would leap down from the horse and dive into his arms.
Meng Yang was thinking about other things and didn’t see Bradley as he rode away. Bradley followed Meng Yang with his eyes and didn’t come back to his senses until Meng Yang receded from view.
“Mr. Bradley, please come in.” Luo Qi saw that he wasn’t paying attention to him, and raised his voice to call, “Mr. Bradley?”
Bradley snapped out of it and turned to look at Luo Qi.
“Come in, please.” Luo Qi gestured with a hand.
“Mr. Luo, that was…” As he walked inside, he tentatively inquired. He pretended not to know Meng Yang so he could inquire about things he wanted to know.
“That’s my elder brother’s husband. They just recently got married,” Luo Qi replied.
“Is that so? He looks very young.”
“He really is very young, the same age as my elder brother’s son.”
“Oh?” Bradley asked, feigning surprise. “How did they meet and come to get married?”
“I don’t know. My eldest brother just suddenly said he was getting married, and not only that, it was to his son’s ex-lover.”
“His son’s ex-lover, how could that be?” Bradley truly was surprised this time.
“Come, come, come, we’ll go inside and talk.”
The day to depart for the competition abroad soon arrived. Luo Xiu had promised Meng Yang that he’d go abroad with him, but even if he tried his best to spare some time, he couldn’t go until two days after Meng Yang would leave. However, Meng Yang and his team wouldn’t immediately compete after going overseas, so it was fine for Luo Xiu to be two days late.
“You have to come to me as soon as you finish your work. You can’t miss me competing, okay?” Meng Yang looked up at Luo Xiu and hugged him around the waist.
“Don’t worry, I won’t miss you competing,” Luo Xiu replied.
Once Meng Yang and the others went abroad, there was still four or five days before the competition, so Luo Xiu had time.
Meng Yang wrapped an arm around Luo Xiu’s neck as he stood on tiptoe to kiss his lips. Luo Xiu put an arm around his waist and held his chin to kiss him back.
Luo Xiu sent Meng Yang to the airport. Meng Yang reluctantly said bye to him and went to meet his senior brothers.
They went abroad to compete, representing both themselves as individuals and their school, and were accompanied by several masters. Another advantage to being a master was that even if you didn’t qualify to participate in an international competition, you could still be funded by the school to go along with the students and teach as well as learn.
They arrived a few days before the competition because they wanted to visit different perfume gardens and plantations to buy some ingredients.
Once they got off the plane, no one thought that Bradley would be the one to receive them.
“Welcome, everyone.” Bradley shook hands with the masters and said with a smile, “I’m in charge of reception this time. These elderly gentlemen, please come this way.”
The students were all quite surprised. No matter what, a person of Bradley’s status shouldn’t be required to do reception work.
After watching the masters board the bus and leave, Bradley turned to the students and said, “Everyone, please get on the cars.”
With the masters gone, the students couldn’t suppress the excitement in their hearts. They were delighted to see the perfume icon and asked to take a picture with him.
“In the next few days, we’ll meet everyday and have many opportunities for group photos. We shouldn’t worry about it for now. Let’s go to the hotel and rest first,” Bradley said gently.
Most of the students were captivated by Bradley’s gentle and polite demeanor, and in this world where same-sex marriage was okay, both males and females were fascinated by this person’s charm.
Over a dozen black cars were waiting. Just as the students were about to board the cars one after another, Bradley approached Meng Yang and asked, “Would you like to take my car?”
Meng Yang looked at him and said, “No need, I’ll stay with my senior brothers.”
Everyone looked over at them and wondered why Bradley only invited Meng Yang.
Bradley smiled at Meng Yang and nodded, and turned to get into his car.
When the students arrived at the hotel, all the students were two to a room, and Bradley’s assistant handed out the room cards to everyone.
Since the number of people was odd, Meng Yang was alone in a room. Meng Yang wasn’t used to sharing a room with others, so he felt that he was lucky to have a room to himself.
When they arrived at the floor of their rooms, Meng Yang opened the door with his room card and was stunned when he entered. He looked down in thought for a moment, and turned to leave his room and went to Wu Feng and Qin Hong’s room.
Meng Yang looked around Wu Feng and Qin Hong’s room and said to Wu Feng, “Senior brother, I don’t want to sleep in a room alone. Can I share a room with you?”
“Okay.” Wu Feng didn’t ask why and immediately agreed, and then said to Qin Hong, “You go to Meng Yang’s room to sleep.”
Because Wu Feng didn’t hesitate to drive him away, Qin Hong looked at Wu Feng with a wronged look.
“What are you doing? Go on,” Wu Feng urged Qin Hong, and to Meng Yang, he said, “Meng Yang, give him the room card.”
“Sorry, senior brother Qin,” Meng Yang apologized as he gave the room card to Qin Hong.
“It’s fine.” Qin Hong then left with the room key.
After putting his things away, Meng Yang said to Wu Feng, “Senior brother, I’m going to make a phone call.”
“Okay.” Wu Feng nodded.
Meng Yang took his cellphone into the bathroom to call Luo Xiu. Once he got through to him, Meng Yang told him that he’d arrived at the hotel and that he’d rather Luo Xiu come later than have him stay up too late, and so on. They were really like a couple in love now. Even when talking about unimportant things, they could talk for a long time and were reluctant to hang up the phone. As long as they could hear each other’s voice, they’d feel happy.
Though Meng Yang didn’t want to hang up, he agreed to contact Luo Xiu in the evening and hung up to avoid disrupting Luo Xiu’s work.
“Calling your husband?” Wu Feng asked Meng Yang as he came out of the bathroom.
“En.” Meng Yang smiled and nodded as he sat down on the sofa.
“It seems that you really like President Luo,” Wu Feng said as he looked at Meng Yang’s face. “It’s just a phone call and you have such a happy and sweet expression.”
Meng Yang just smiled and didn’t respond. He and Mr. Luo could be said to really be in love now. Though Mr. Luo hadn’t outwardly loved him, Meng Yang was able to feel the affection in his responses recently.
Qin Hong came in and said, “It’s time to eat.”
Meng Yang and Wu Feng both got up. When they were about to leave, Qin Hong glanced at Meng Yang and said, “Just now, Bradley knocked on the door and announced that it was time to go down for dinner. He was obviously very surprised to see that the one who opened the door was me. Moreover, the room you got was a luxury suite.”
“What’s going on?” Wu Feng looked doubtfully at Meng Yang.
“Do you need help?” Qin Hong asked and also looked at Meng Yang.
Meng Yang thought for a moment and said, “I don’t know what his purpose is. I’m guessing he wants me to help him guess prices and bid for ingredients. I don’t want to accept his special treatment, so I randomly gave the room to senior brother Qin.”
“Why do I feel like that’s not the case? He’s not interested in you, is he?” Wu Feng said.
Meng Yang was shocked for a moment, then said, “It’s not clear what his purpose is, but I’ll find a chance to ask him. Before I know what he wants, if he does anything inappropriate, senior brothers can help me block it according to the situation.”
“I understand. Let’s go then, we still have to eat,” Wu Feng said.
They headed down to the hotel’s restaurant to have dinner, and Bradley ended up not coming because of an unexpected incident.
On the morning of the second day, the masters went to participate in the international conference. According to the original plan, the students were to go to a plantation to see the growth process of various plants used to make perfume. Bradley came to pick them up and told them he’d take them to his private island to visit his perfume garden.
After hearing this, all the students felt this was an unexpected blessing, and were excited and full of anticipation.
Meng Yang bowed his head in thought. He didn’t want to be dramatic and say that Bradley did these things because he liked him, but it was certain that Bradley would never do these things without a reason. No matter his purpose, he had to be on guard in order to not fall into Bradley’s trap.
They set out to the port from the hotel, and then boarded the ship to head over to Bradley’s private island. While on the ship, Meng Yang was with Wu Feng and Qin Hong. He’d seen Bradley glancing at him several times, and even when he’d been caught, he had continued to look directly at Meng Yang rather than avoiding his sight.
After arriving at Bradley’s private island, the students excitedly got off the ship as they couldn’t wait to explore the island.
“Please, don’t worry students. I’ll have someone take you to rest and eat something, and then I’ll take you around for a tour,” Bradley smiled. “In fact, the main reason for inviting you all here today was because I wanted to ask Meng Yang for some help. If I invited him to come here alone, he certainly wouldn’t want to come, so I changed the original itinerary. I hope you all don’t mind.”
All the students looked at Meng Yang and thought that it was Meng Yang’s good fortune that brought them to Bradley’s private island. Even so, they were very happy.
Wen Yuan’s face immediately changed. If he had known that it was because of Meng Yang that they could visit Bradley’s island, he wouldn’t have come here. Yu Junchen slightly lowered his head, with no expression on his face, and no one knew what he was thinking.
“I’d like to briefly introduce this island to you. This island is called Siris .
Translated, this means lover, as this island is very charming and fascinating. Once you’ve explored it, you’ll understand what I mean.” Bradley looked at Meng Yang and said, “I’ve been studying your Eastern aromatherapy for the past two years. Meng Yang, I hope you can help me confirm the quality of several ingredients with your sensitive sense of smell. As a thank you, I can take you to see my private studio and collection room.”
Most of the students looked at Meng Yang enviously.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Bradley. I’m still a student and can’t help people judge the quality of ingredients well. It’s better for Mr. Bradley to ask a more professional person to assess them.” Meng Yang had already seen that the reason Bradley gave was just an excuse.
“You’re too modest. I believe your strength has reached a professional level,” Bradley said while looking deeply at Meng Yang.
If Meng Yang didn’t understand the meaning in his eyes, then he really was stupid. Even Yu Junchen could see that Bradley liked Meng Yang.
Bradley didn’t say anything else. He asked the students to get into the cars that would take them to the old castle in the middle of the island.
Bradley personally opened the door of Meng Yang’s car and waited for him to board. Meng Yang was about to get in, then looked at his actions and stopped.
“Thank you, Mr. Bradley.” Wu Feng went ahead of Meng Yang and got in the car.
“Thank you.” Qin Hong also nodded to Bradley and got in.
Meng Yang got in the car last.
Facing this situation, Bradley just smiled and helped them close the door.
The students looked out the windows to admire the beautiful scenery that looked like an oil painting. They could help but appreciate it as they chatted and talked about Meng Yang.
“I didn’t expect that we were able to come here because of Meng Yang.”
“It’s not that surprising, is it? Before we came here, the teacher said that Meng Yang should be able to place very well this time. Isn’t it normal that a genius like Meng Yang would be valued by other international masters?”
“Yes, there are many benefits to his talent. We admire him too.”
“Among Master Xu and Master Lin’s students, I thought Yu Junchen would be the one that attracted the most attention. Meng Yang suddenly emerged though, and now even Yu Junchen is no match for him.”
“It’s obvious now that Meng Yang is better than Yu Junchen, but no one can say for sure about what will happen later on. Maybe Yu Junchen will break through and surpass Meng Yang again.”
Wen Yuan sat in the car and said coldly, “If we’d known that Bradley was only inviting us to come here for Meng Yang, we shouldn’t have come. It seems like we’re receiving benefits from his light. Who cares about his light?”
“Everyone else wanted to come, so it would be useless for us to oppose it. We can’t act alone,” Zhao Zhi said.
Wen Yuan was very happy when they were on the ship. He thought they were lucky to be invited to visit Bradley’s private island, but now that he knew the reason behind this good fortune, he wasn’t happy.
Yu Junchen was looking out of the window while lost in thought, recalling the look in Bradley’s eyes as he looked at Meng Yang. He was sure that Bradley liked Meng Yang. However, with the lesson from last time, he didn’t dare act rashly this time. He felt that he’d really made a mistake. If he hadn’t rashly told Luo Sheng that someone had entered Meng Yang’s room as opposed to thinking of a way to use the information so that it could be used against him, maybe things would be totally different now.
After eating and drinking in the castle and resting for a while, they began to tour the island. As Bradley said, the island had great charm. The more they saw of the island, the more fascinated they became.
Though Meng Yang refused to help Bradley check the quality of his ingredients, Bradley still invited Meng Yang to visit his studio alone, and Meng Yang refused again.
That evening, Bradley went to Meng Yang’s room and said he wanted to talk to him. After thinking it over for a while, Meng Yang thought that it would be better to talk to him. He asked Wu Feng to go to Qin Hong’s room for a while and come back in ten minutes.
“What do you want to say?” Meng Yang asked Bradley.
“You should understand my feelings for you, so you’ve been avoiding me, right?” Bradley said very frankly.
“I want to remind you, Mr. Bradley, that I’m married,” Meng Yang said seriously and solemnly. “Keeping a proper distance from me is respectful to both me and to yourself.”
“You really don’t need to be so guarded against me. I won’t do anything to you until you get divorced. For now, I just want to be friends with you, but I hope you can give me the chance to pursue you after you divorce your present husband.”
“What makes you think I’m going to divorce my husband?” Meng Yang said unhappily.
“After you broke up with your ex-boyfriend, you very quickly married his father. Before that, you and your husband didn’t know each other, so you couldn’t have married for love. Though I’ve never been able to figure out what benefits getting married to him brings you, I can guess that it’s very likely just a transaction; a marriage only in name.”
“I’m not obligated to respond to your guesses, as what you think is your business, not mine. All you need to know is that I love my husband and we’ll be together forever. There’s absolutely no chance of divorce, so even if you want a chance, it’s impossible,” Meng Yang said firmly.
“You love your husband, but he doesn’t necessarily love you. You haven’t even joined together as a married couple. How long can your marriage last just with your wishful thinking?” Bradley asked.
“Mr. Bradley!” Meng Yang said sharply. “Your words have crossed the line, what qualifications do you have to comment on and judge my marriage with my husband?! I don’t think I have anything else to say to you, so please leave!”
Bradley suddenly laughed and said happily, “If you don’t deny it right away, then it proves that my guess is right. You and your husband really haven’t consummated your marriage yet.”
Meng Yang was really angry now. He took out his mobile phone and dialed Luo Xiu’s number, wanting to ask Luo Xiu to send someone to pick him up.
“Hello, Mr. Luo, I’m on the island Siris right now, can you have someone…” Meng Yang’s words weren’t yet finished when his mobile phone was taken away by Bradley.
“Give it back to me!” Meng Yang demanded angrily.
“Meng Yang?” Luo Xiu’s voice could be heard from the phone.
Bradley held Meng Yang’s cellphone and looked at him seriously, saying, “Since you and your husband are married in name only, is it not better to divorce as soon as possible?”
Meng Yang suddenly stood up and grabbed for his cellphone.