Chapter 1

I'd heard my sworn enemy had been in a car crash. His mind had supposedly regressed to that of a three-year-old.

When my assistant sent me the schedule for visiting him, I admit it—I laughed out loud.

I immediately ordered the biggest, flashiest fruit basket available and headed for the hospital. I had to see his miserable state for myself.

He was quietly building Lego in his hospital room. The moment he saw me, his eyes lit up.

“Gege, pick me up.”

I pushed his face away in disgust.

A second later, his warm breath brushed my ear. In a voice only the two of us could hear, he murmured:

“Stop moving. Keep that up and you're going to turn me on.”

I froze.

My ear burned, the heat spreading down my neck.

I shoved him away and stumbled back two steps, hitting the foot of the bed.

Lu Ciyan staggered and landed on the carpet.

He looked up. Tears quickly filled those beautiful eyes, and his lower lip jutted out as though he were about to cry.

“Gege… you're mean.”

He gazed at me, wounded and pitiful, like a bullied child.

If not for what he'd just said, I might actually have believed him.

Gripping the footboard, I tried to collect myself.

I must have misheard.

That had to be it.

The crash had scrambled the bastard's brains. How could he possibly say something like that?

His assistant, Xiao Chen, called from outside the room.

He poked his head in, looking anxious.

“Mr. Lin, is Mr. Lu… giving you any trouble?”

I forced a stiff smile.

“No. He's being very good.”

Xiao Chen let out a breath, then grimaced again.

“You don't understand, Mr. Lin. He doesn't recognize anyone now. You're the only person he remembers. The doctor says familiar people could help his recovery…”

Right.

They wanted a free babysitter.

Before I could refuse, Lu Ciyan crawled over on all fours.

He clung to my calf and tilted his face up, his eyes wet.

“Gege, don't go.”

“Gege, play with Yanyan.”

His voice was soft and sugary, catching on a little sob. Nothing like the Lu Ciyan I knew, who could find something cutting to say about absolutely anyone.

I looked down at him.

Even with his brains gone, the man still had a face that could bring a nation to its knees.

What a waste.

In the end, I gave in.

Mostly because Lu Ciyan's parents all but dropped to their knees in front of me.

The two of them were in tears. They said he no longer recognized anyone—only me, his “good friend.”

My eyelid wouldn't stop twitching.

Good friend?

Lu Ciyan and I had competed since childhood, over everything from toys to business projects. Our business partners called us sworn enemies, born to clash.

And now we were good friends?

But looking at their gray hair and red-rimmed eyes, I couldn't bring myself to say no.

Three days later, Lu Ciyan was discharged.

And delivered straight to my house, practically gift-wrapped.

Supposedly, this would make looking after him easier.

I surveyed the toys he'd piled all over my living room and felt my head threaten to split.

The culprit was sitting on the rug, absorbed in assembling an enormous Lego spaceship.

The recommended age on the box was perfectly clear: 18+.

Someone with the mind of a three-year-old could build that?

I went over and asked, as casually as I could, “Isn't that difficult, Yanyan?”

He didn't look up. His hands darted among the pieces.

“No. Only an idiot would find it difficult.”

“…”

There it was. That familiar sneer.

I crouched beside him, pinched his cheek, and gave him a bright, false smile.

“Who are you calling an idiot?”

His hands stopped. At last, he looked up.

He blinked, his lip began to wobble, and the tears came on command.

“Waaah… Gege's being mean… you're bad…”

He rubbed his eyes with the backs of his hands as he cried.

Which smeared the paint on his hands all over his face, leaving him blotchy as a tabby cat.

I stared at him, the words caught somewhere in my chest.

Forget it.

What was the point of arguing with someone who didn't know any better?

Bringing Lu Ciyan home turned my life upside down.

Before, it had been work, business dinners, and the occasional night at a bar.

Now it was feeding him, bathing him, and reading bedtime stories.

I, the president of Lin Group, had become a full-time dad.

That evening, I finally managed to settle His Little Majesty down to sleep.

I'd barely returned to my room when my childhood friend Zhu Zihang called.

On the other end, he was laughing so hard he sounded close to suffocating.

“Hahahaha! Mo, I hear you've taken Lu Ciyan home!”

“What's this new kink? Enemies to lovers?”

“Get lost. I didn't have a choice.”

He kept laughing.

“All right, all right, I'll stop. Seriously, though—Lu Group seems to be making a move on that west-side project.”

I frowned.

The west-side development was my main priority at the moment. Lu Ciyan had been very interested in it too. He'd been my strongest competitor.

“What kind of move?”

“I hear their vice president's been meeting our potential partners an awful lot. Looks like he's trying to snatch the project.”

I gave a cold laugh.

“He can dream.”

After hanging up, I opened my computer and began going over the project documents and possible partnership proposals.

Lu Ciyan might be out of action, but Lu Group was still standing.

And that vice president was no pushover.

I needed to be ready.

I lost track of time. Eventually, my neck began to ache.

I rubbed it, got up to fetch some water, and turned straight into a pair of dark eyes.

At some point, Lu Ciyan had woken up. He was standing barefoot in my doorway.

He wore only a loose pajama top, its open neckline exposing the clean lines of his collarbones.

“Gege…”

His voice was low and rough with sleep.

“Why are you up? Bad dream?” I walked toward him.

He shook his head and held out both arms.

“Want Gege to hold me while I sleep.”

“…”

A grown man over 1.8 meters tall, and he wanted me to cuddle him to sleep?

Naturally, I refused.

And heartlessly sent him back to his own room.

Please. I didn't share a bed with men. Especially not Lu Ciyan.

The next morning, a strange sound woke me.

I opened my eyes blearily and discovered someone else in my bed.

Lu Ciyan had wrapped himself around me like an octopus. His head rested on my chest, and he was fast asleep.

The noise was him snoring.

“…”

Deep breath. Another deep breath.

I repeated three times: He doesn't know any better. I'm not getting angry.

Then I kicked him out of bed.

“Ah!”

He hit the carpet with a yelp.

Rubbing his backside, he sat up and looked at me, his eyes already turning watery.

“Gege… my bottom hurts…”

I kept my face cold.

“Who told you to climb into my bed?”

His lip stuck out.

“Yanyan's scared to sleep alone.”

“There are ghosts.”

I curled my lip.

“Ghosts don't exist.”

“Yes, they do!” he insisted. “There was one behind you last night. It kept watching you.”

He sounded so serious that my heart gave a jolt.

Last night?

I turned toward the study.

Could it be…?

I rushed in and opened my computer.

I hadn't shut it down. The documents I'd been reading were still on the screen.

I checked quickly. The last modification time was from before I'd gone to bed.

Nothing seemed to have been touched.

I let out a breath.

Apparently, I was overthinking it.