Licking his fingers to catch that last bit of cupcake chocolate, Sun Fang sighed deeply and leaned back against the armchair’s backrest. He slumped against it, his whole body feeling both extremely heavy and light at the same time. His eyes half-mast, he stared out at the rest of the café and relaxed. The sound of music drifted lazily through the air and made him involuntarily sleepy.

His hands crossed over his stomach, he almost felt like he was on the verge of drifting off. The other people in the café seemed just like him; though some were speaking, they were doing so in low voices. It was like… time in here was slowed down. Not in the sense that things happened slower, but that there was simply no urge to rush. And when you weren’t rushing, you suddenly found that you had a lot more time on your hands.

Even his phone ringing couldn’t bring him out of the laidback atmosphere he’d internalized somehow. ”Yallo,” he mumbled into the phone and waited for the other person to speak—he hadn’t checked who was calling.

”Brother…” came in a pitiful voice from the other end.

Sun Fang rose a relaxed eyebrow and suppressed a yawn, ”Little brother, how’d you get this number?”

”I asked cousin Xi,” Sun Yi answered in a petulant tone. There was no way that Deng Xi would have given Sun Yi his number, Sun Yi must have stolen it. Sun Fang wondered how their father would react if he found out that his precious, perfect omega son had stolen something—surely, he’d be absolutely distraught.

Sun Fang hummed, the song from the speakers changing, ”Did you need something?”

”I…” He heard Sun Yi take a deep stuttering breath, ”Brother, you must know I didn’t have anything to do with this!”

”With what?”

”You know, the— the incident,” Sun Yi whispered.

Sun Fang felt a laugh bubble passed his lips, ”You talk around it as if it’s something bad; so I got disinherited, so what? I’m doing well, you don’t have to feel guilty. Truly, this is a good thing.”

”Brother…”

”It’s alright,” Sun Fang interrupted. ”I’m not mad at you.”

Sun Yi’s harsh breath stopped for nearly a full minute (not that Sun Fang was counting) before he trembled out a weak, ”Really?”

”Really, really.”

Sun Fang waited for a bit, but it didn’t seem like his younger brother was going to say anything else, and so he simply hung up the phone. Letting it drop to his lap, he closed his eyes to focus on the soothing music flowing through him, his foot tapping the floor in beat with the rhythm.

He wasn’t mad at Sun Yi, and wasn’t that the strangest thing? Sure, he had planned this out for literally a decade and he had paved the road, but Sun Yi had still chosen to betray him. Sun Yi had chosen to take everything Sun Fang had and play the victim while doing it. Sun Yi had chosen to throw him aside in the name of ambition and that should hurt. Sun Fang should be furious. He should be screaming and swearing revenge and making elaborate plots to reclaim his place.

Sun Fang was doing none of those things. Instead, he was quietly soaking in the atmosphere of the calmest café he’d ever been at, and allowing the small bits of himself that felt hurt to soothe itself. It was doubtlessly cruel of his brother to call him now, when everything had already played out. But Sun Fang wasn’t mad.

He exhaled softly and slowly opened his eyes, the café’s pale color scheme uplifting his somewhat somber mood almost instantly. Smiling slightly to himself, he busied himself with putting all the cutlery back on the wooden tray and cleaning up after himself. This was not usually something he did, but something about the atmosphere in here filled him with energy.

Picking up the tray, he carried it over to the tray rack that was imbedded in one of the walls and carefully slid it in. He dusted off his hands and returned to his seat, grabbing his phone from the armchair. He absentmindedly slid it into his backpocket and hummed a little to himself in time with the music. Then he picked up his purse and set off.

He waved cheerfully to the employee behind the counter—Mo Cheng, was it?—as he left, his hips swinging with his movements. He was feeling inordinately pleased.

Whether his brother was regretting what he’d done now or not, soon, he’d be full of it. There was a reason that Sun Fang had gone so far to get out and he couldn’t wait for Sun Yi to found out; it would surely destroy all his little fantasies.

Suppressing a grin, Sun Fang walked back out into the sweltering sunlight. He fished his sunglasses from his bag and perched them delicately on his nose, glancing quickly behind him at the café as he left with a bounce in his step.

He spent nearly four hours walking around the shopping district. The only things he brought were little things; some sheets he liked, a couple of fancy towels, a handful of earrings that struck his fancy. He whistled quietly to himself as he walked along the familiar roads, letting himself get re-familiarized with the area. He hade’t been here for a while, after all; he’d had to stay away for a bit so his nosy relatives would’t get wind of it.

But it was just like he remembered it. He took the same old paths, and reached the same old shops. His feet hit the pavement with the force of a person who knew exactly where they were going, and he strode across the ground with vigor.

Then, when he’d gotten his fill, he contacted his butler and drawled, ”You’ll come pick me up, right, pretty please,” his good mood evident in the way he spoke. His butler, ever so faithful to the whims of his master, simply made an affirmative noise and hung up. Sun Fang laughed at that, his mirth filling him to the brim.