If the heavens would give Joe a chance to start anew, he'd choose to saw off his mouth.
Sadly, this universe didn't come with a rewind button.
Young Master Joe's brain was completely blank during the split second that he was chucked off. He didn't even realise what had happened to him, only vaguely sensing that his knee hurt a bit and his palms were stinging a little...
By the time he finally regained his wits, he was already reflexively covering his face with one hand and tugging at the waist of his pants with his other.
His elbows were being propped up. Joe could tell that it was Gu Yan and Yan Suizhi, who had rushed over to support him.
"Did you hurt your face?" Yan Suizhi asked. "Hey, don't cover it."
Gu Yan attempted to pull his hand away, trying to see what was wrong with his face.
Come hell or high water, Young Master Joe refused to move his hand away. He shook his head, saying in a muffled voice, "I'm fine—I'm fine, seriously—stop pulling me. I need a moment."
"Let us check if you're bleeding first," Yan Suizhi said. "There's a first-aid kit in the room. Before anything, we at least have to take care of any injury. You can't just sit around like this."
Joe still refused to lift his head. "I didn't hit my face. I'm sure; my hand's over it."
"Then what are you covering your face for?"
"..." Young Master Joe kept his face behind his hand, his expression crumbling for a while before affecting calmness. "Conditioned reflex."
Gu Yan, as Joe's best friend, understood at once.
Yan Suizhi asked doubtfully, "What conditioned reflex is that?"
Gu Yan, "...Covering his face out of embarrassment."
This was Young Master Joe's life creed.
For as long as Joe could remember, his sister, Eunice, had given him this advice—when embarrassed, either cover someone's face or cover your own.
It was probably meant as a joke, but Young Master Joe at the tender age of three was a Little Fool through and through. After having been told so many times, it had become an action as natural as habit.
It wasn't Gu Yan's first time witnessing this.
Young Master Joe held his free hand up, giving Gu Yan a silent thumbs-up to indicate that he had hit the nail on its head.
Yan Suizhi, "..."
To Young Master Joe in the present, lifting his head to see the person in question was much more terrifying than getting injured or bleeding.
Why don't they do him a favour and let him off, yeah?
"Are you really not injured?" Yan Suizhi confirmed again. "What about your knees?"
Joe shook his head.
The esteemed Professor Yan regarded this little fool with resignation for a moment, hen his mind abruptly recalled the scene just now.
It'd even replayed several times like a smash hit.
Eventually he couldn't resist it anymore. After patting Joe in consolation, he draped himself on Gu Yan's shoulder, bursting into soundless laughter like a righteous bastard.
Gu Yan, "..."
Under the sunlight in another corner of the living room, Ke Jin's fingers suddenly twitched. He stared at Joe for a long moment, as though he couldn't understand what had happened to him, but also like a desperately drowsy person struggling to break out the haze obscuring his awareness.
He was bewildered for a moment, seemingly giving it his all to wrap his mind around what was going on, yet was not able to do anything. His eyelashes fluttered a few times, and his gaze became visibly agitated.
It took a good while longer before he perceived that he could stand up and walk over.
Yet even this simple action was botched by him. When he got up, his fingers unwittingly knocked into the glass of water set next to him.
—Crash.
Glass shards scattered across the floor.
Joe was initially slumped in the state of covering his face until the end of time, but the shatter of falling glass made him fling his embarrassment aside, practically raising his head the very moment he heard the sound, straightening up.
He saw Ke Jin standing a way's off, his irises pale in the sunlight, looking lost.
Ke Jin tended to fare better when it was quiet; comfortable and warm environments did wonders for him, while conversely, sudden situations, sharp sounds, or broken things tended to trigger his emotional spirals.
Seeing that he was looking increasingly lost, Joe spread his arms open, showing him that he wasn't injured. Then, somewhat nonchalantly and sheepishly, he laughed. "My legs might be a bit clumsy today. I accidentally fell on my face."
As soon as he spoke, Ke Jin's attention was diverted again. The lost look slowly receded.
Without batting an eyelid, Joe caught hold of Yan Suizhi and Gu Yan, who had been making to gather the broken glass, using them to pull himself up.
"Hss—" Joe rubbed his own knees, jabbering to Ke Jin and acting all pitiful, pretending that he couldn't move, kneeling there pathetically.
Ke Jin listened to him and took a moment to slowly react, lifting his foot to step this way. Once steering him away from the broken glass and ascertaining that he wouldn't look at the mess again, Joe called for room service.
What should have been a peaceful afternoon was tossed into chaos by these sudden circumstances, sweeping people off their feet.
The housekeeper swiftly arranged for a cleaning crew to clear the mess, leaving no glass shards, then carefully laid a new carpet.
As a result of the world-shaking fall just now, Ke Jin's attention stayed on Joe for the longest time yet, and he'd even offered the latter a knee rub, somewhat bemused.
Young Master Joe was overjoyed, as though he had achieved an epic accomplishment, for a time even forgetting the reason for which he was chucked off the treadmill.
Ten minutes later, the two cleaning staff kept the packaging from the new carpet and left the room, considerately closing the passcode-locked door behind them.
Ke Jin cradled a fresh glass of warm water in his hands, seemingly having forgotten for now that he'd just broken a glass, taking small sips from it.
The room quietened down for a moment. Compared to the chaos from before, this atmosphere seemed pretty good...
As if.
After bringing out a blanket from his room and settling down on the sofa, Young Master Joe came face to face with Yan Suizhi.
"..."
A soundly alive person reminded him of a series of equally sound facts—
The intern was the dean.
Not too long ago, he'd just described the other as a 'smiling devil'.
To his face.
And even before that, he'd said that all the students who'd attended law school were masochists...
Also to his face.
He'd also seemed to have mentioned that Gu Yan wasn't easy to anger, and there was only one person who'd ever managed to draw his fire...
Oh, right. That one wasn't to his face. It was through text. The kind that left incriminating evidence, easily pulled up to jog the memory. Bloody hell, wasn't that even worse than saying it to his face?
What else had he said???
Young Master Joe felt that he shouldn't examine the past too closely, or it'd hurt him to even breathe.
He had forgotten which champ said this, but no matter how much one achieved in life, one would still chicken out at the sight of his teacher.
Whether or not that held true for anyone else was irrelevant to him. In this living room, all that mattered was that he was seriously shitting bricks right now.
Even if he couldn't put a finger on the reason that he was so terrified.
Really. Shouldn't the one whose identity was exposed be more nervous???
But he might be blind.
He didn't know what others thought, but in any case, he couldn't see the least bit of tension on the dean at all.
At the same time, this reaction also further reinforced the point, after all...
Who else could remain this calm but the dean?!
Normal people would, well, at least put up more of a fight, no?
But looking at it from another angle, there wasn't much use in trying to recover ground in such a situation. Given the dean's personality, he'd possibly discarded the fight completely.
Young Master Joe scrubbed his face. Not quite daring to look straight at Yan Suizhi, he could only glare at Gu Yan.
He complained, crumbling, "Why didn't you tell me? It's okay if it isn't convenient to speak the truth, but you could've still told me to zip it at appropriate times!"
Gu Yan, "I did actually tell you."
"When? Where? How did you say it?" Joe racked his brain trying to remember.
Gu Yan, "At the beginning of the month. Wine City. The Emperor's New Clothes."
If he'd said anything else, Joe might not have been able to remember it. But he did actually remember 'The Emperor's New Clothes', as well as the emperor having burned his leg, and suchlike.
However...
Without any context, how was this fucking comprehensible to humans?
"The Emperor's New Clothes?" Yan Suizhi arched an eyebrow at this, looking towards Gu Yan.
"..."
Lawyer Gu felt that if he continued to let the Little Fool Joe go on with his reckless questions, it'd end up biting him in the ass as well.
"I'll take it up with you later," Yan Suizhi said, giving him an almost smile.
Joe collapsed into the sofa. He stared at the ceiling for a long time while rubbing his stomach in an attempt to help himself digest the information. There were so many questions he wanted to ask that he didn't know where to start for a while.
Just as he sat back up, about to say something—his smart device, which had been set aside on the marble table as he exercised, suddenly vibrated.
He tapped on it and glanced at the screen. An expletive immediately fell from his lips.
"What is it?" Gu Yan asked.
Joe looked like he had seen the most unholy sight. Without any scruples, he showed them his screen.
There wasn't a name indicated on the screen, but a photo of a stern-faced, middle-aged man.
Joe said, "Old Fox's actually calling me."