Silent Reading 默读 [BL Novel by Priest]

Chapter 1-10

Chapter 1 [Prologue]

The truth, the bitter truth.—The Red and the Black

The zone around Yan City's North Nanping Road in the Flower Market District was like a demon with half a face of makeup.

The broad, straight two-way road split the whole of the Flower Market District in two. The East District was one of the city's busiest commercial centers, while the West District was a forgotten old slum, gathering place of the city's poor.

Following several years of properties in the East District successively being auctioned off at sky-high prices by real estate tycoons, the old neighborhood, badly in need of transformation, had caught some reflected glory. The cost of paying off and relocating the residents had risen with the tide, frightening off a clutch of developers and erecting a capital barrier among the cramped and impoverished alleys.

Neighbors living in dilapidated houses dreamed all day of using their dozen-square-meter run-down rooms to get rich overnight. Already they were feeling the sense of superiority from the idea that "my home is worth millions torn down."

Of course, these slum millionaires still had to put on their slippers and line up to empty their chamber pots every day.

There was still a chill in the air on this early summer night. The summer heat that had accumulated during the day was quickly overwhelmed. The barbecue carts illegally occupying the streets packed up and left one after another; the inhabitants enjoying the cool air went home early, too; occasionally an old streetlamp flickered unsteadily, most likely because the nearby illegally crowded rentals were siphoning electricity off the power line.

Meanwhile, one street away in the commercial center, the night life was just getting started—

As evening approached, in a street-fronting coffee shop in the East District, a barista who had just finished dealing with a mass of customers finally seized a chance to take a deep breath. But before she could smooth her smile-stiffened features back into their original shape, the little bell hanging over the glass door rang yet again.

The barista had to once again put on her regulation smile. "Welcome."

"A decaf vanilla latte, please."

The customer was a tall and slender young man with hair almost down to his shoulders. He was dressed in sedate and solemn business attire, wearing glasses with metal frames. The thin frames sat on the high, straight bridge of his nose. He looked down to get out his wallet, his hair swinging forward over his chin and covering nearly half of his face. In the light his nose bridge and lips seemed to have been daubed with a layer of pale glaze. He looked cold and unapproachable.

Everyone appreciates beauty. The barista couldn't help glancing at him a few times. She made conversation, trying to guess the customer's preferences. "Would you like sugar-free vanilla in that?"

"No. Extra syrup, please." The customer handed over some change and looked up. The barista's eyes met his.

It must have been out of politeness that the customer was smiling at her. Behind the lenses, his eyes curved slightly, a warm and somewhat suggestive expression at once breaking through his earlier display of solemn propriety.

The barista now found that while this customer was good-looking, it wasn't a regular and dignified sort of good-looking. There was a hint of peach blossom flirtation in his eyes. Her face inexplicably heated up and she quickly avoided the customer's gaze, looking down to input his order.

Luckily, the coffee shop's delivery guy came along then. The barista hurriedly gave herself something to do. She loudly called the delivery guy over behind the counter to verify the shipping manifest.