TL: Hua
After a kiss, Qi Xiaoyu carefully opened his eyes.
Xun Qian was looking at him with his dark eyes.
The two of them were nose to nose, eyelashes touching eyelashes, eyes reflecting each other’s shadows.
Qi Xiaoyu didn’t dare to blink.
Then, while he was motionless and tense, Xun Qian kissed his lips again.
This time Xun Qian’s kiss was much more aggressive.
He held the back of Qi Xiaoyu’s head, bit his lips, toying with his lips and tongue, and robbed him of his breath.
Under this fierce kiss, Qi Xiaoyu’s brain went blank, as if he had lost all thought. His whole body seemed to be burned by fire, falling into a dreamlike state. All his attention was on the place where they touched, swallowing each other’s breath.
It was all because the early summer evening was too beautiful. It made people eager to move, like dry wood meeting a raging fire.
With this kiss, Qi Xiaoyu was about to soften in Xun Qian’s arms.
He buried his head, quietly raised his hand, wiped the water stains from the corners of his lips, and then quickly sat back in the chair.
He didn’t dare to look at Xun Qian, although all his attention was now on Xun Qian, and his whole body was surrounded by Xun Qian’s breath.
His fingers on his knees twisted together into a knot.
Xun Qian was afraid that he would hurt his fingers, so he covered one of his hands with his palm.
Time seemed to pause in an instant, as if it had been glued together by honey.
Xun Qian held onto his fingers one by one and asked, “Are we considered lovers after this?”
Xun Qian asked again, “After a period of time, can I ask my father to arrange our marriage with your master?”
Qi Xiaoyu looked at him, turned away, and nodded.
Then he immediately shook his head again, “Don’t be so anxious; wait a little longer.”
Qi Xiaoyu lowered his eyes and said softly, “I’ll talk to my master first.”
Xun Qian couldn’t stop himself from smiling when he heard Qi Xiaoyu’s words.
The early summer dusk is quiet like a delicate crystal ball.
Qi Xiaoyu pulled out his hand and stood up from the bedside. “I’m going back to the Laurel Stage.”
Xun Qian looked up at him. “Are you still singing tonight?”
“No, but I didn’t go back last night, so my master and senior sister must have been worried.”
“I have something to do these two days, so I can’t go to the Laurel Stage to see you. If you need anything, just come find me, alright?”
Xun Qian moved his eyes to the side while speaking and saw the food box on the bedside.
“Yeah,” Qi Xiaoyu responded sincerely this time, not perfunctorily like before. When he spoke, he also followed Xun Qian’s gaze to the side.
Xun Qian smiled and asked, “Did you make this?”
“What is it?”
“Millet porridge.”
Xun Qian hadn’t eaten something Qi Xiaoyu made for a long time, so his eyes lit up, “Accompany me to finish the porridge before leaving.”
Qi Xiaoyu pursed his lips and stared at him for a while, then, as if compromising or admitting defeat, he said okay.
He sat back, picked up the millet porridge, tested the temperature first, then scooped a spoonful and handed it to Xun Qian’s mouth.
Xun Qian lowered his eyelashes and couldn’t help smiling. He originally thought that he would do it himself, and Qi Xiaoyu would just sit beside him to accompany him. He didn’t expect Qi Xiaoyu to be so well-behaved and sensible that he would think of taking the initiative to feed him porridge.
They went back and forth, very tacitly, and soon a big bowl of porridge was emptied.
Now Xun Qian had no excuse to keep Qi Xiaoyu around.
He could only watch Qi Xiaoyu stand up, put the empty bowl back, and pack up the food box. Just as he was about to see Qi Xiaoyu out, Qi Xiaoyu suddenly asked him, “Will there be any danger?”
Xun Qian looked at Qi Xiaoyu’s hand that fell on the side of the food box. The dusk cast a layer of golden light on his hand. “Don’t worry, I will protect you and Shanghai.”
Just as they finished talking, there was a knock on the door.
Butler Cheng said that the Minister of Customs and several deputy ministers wanted to see Xun Qian.
Qi Xiaoyu turned and left.
As he approached the door, Xun Qian seemed to remember something and said, “I’ll pick you up on Friday night.”
“It’s my sister’s classmate’s party.” Xun Qian reminded him with a smile, “You can’t let me be without a companion this time.”
Qi Xiaoyu agreed before taking his leave.
When he went downstairs, he saw several officials in white navy uniforms standing in the living room.
Those people also saw him coming down and cast him a curious glance.
Qi Xiaoyu thought about it and nodded to them as a courtesy.
Qi Xiaoyu went back that night and, under the cover of Qi Wanrou and Gu Zizhen, got away from Qi Fengjian’s eyes.
In the next few days, he performed on stage as usual.
More and more people came to watch his performance. In addition to the amateur opera fans in Shanghai, some foreigners from the concession also bought tickets to his show, and once they even sent him flowers.
Everything was developing in a better direction. The only thing that troubled Qi Xiaoyu was how to tell his master about his relationship with Xun Qian in advance.
Xun Qian arranged to meet him on Friday. Last time, he said he wanted to invite him to meet his master. He had witnessed Xun Qian’s decisiveness before—once he said something, he was likely to follow through. He figured he’d better give Qi Fengjian a heads-up about this first. Otherwise, if Xun Qian suddenly dropped a bombshell like last time—saying he was getting married—Qi Fengjian would be scared out of his wits all over again.
But he had never found an opportunity, and he was really a little afraid to tell Qi Fengjian about this directly.
Unexpectedly, a small episode happened a few days later, which exposed his lies a few days ago.
After the performance that night, around nine o’clock, everyone was removing their makeup and changing clothes backstage, discussing the interesting things that happened on and off stage tonight in a lively manner, occasionally laughing together.
While they were laughing and joking, the manager of the theater called Qi Xiaoyu while pushing a large flower basket, “Boss Qi, come and see, this is the flower basket sent by the Minister of Country A in Shanghai.”
The theater manager said while complimenting, “In this entire Shanghai, no one has received a flower basket sent by the minister. Boss Qi, you are the first. If word of this gets out, your reputation will be even more impressive. Who knows, maybe you’ll get to perform overseas one day. I’ve heard that foreigners are all into that opera stuff—well, let’s give them a taste of our Peking Opera and give them a good scare!”
Qi Xiaoyu took a closer look at the note on the flower basket. It was written in a language he didn’t understand. He only recognized the last three words, “Qi Xiaoyu.” He was very happy to be recognized by people from other countries. He smiled and said to the theater manager, “It’s also thanks to the Laurel Stage for attracting so many distinguished guests.”
When Qi Xiaoyu was talking, he suddenly saw a drunk young man wearing a pilot jacket, dressed very fashionably, rushing towards them.
Qi Xiaoyu subconsciously dodged to the side.
But the other party had already seen him and stopped in front of him with a shake of his head and a weak step. He leaned on the wall behind him and shouted hysterically, “Tell me, why don’t you want to marry me!”
Qi Xiaoyu looked over with confusion and saw a head full of messy curly hair, a drunk face with small eyes, and a pair of shiny leather boots.
Qi Xiaoyu was quite sure that he didn’t know this person.
He said coldly, “Sir, you recognized the wrong person.”
But the other party was obviously very drunk and might not be able to tell who he was talking to or where he was.
Qi Xiaoyu looked at the theater manager.
The other party was also trying to pull this inexplicably drunk man away. Halfway through, he saw his face clearly and paused, “Oh, isn’t this Young Master Jiang, the son of Customs Minister Jiang Feibai?”
Qi Xiaoyu, “Do you know him?”
The theater manager said, “No, but I have seen him several times. This Young Master Jiang usually likes to go to the Paramount on the opposite street. Why did he get drunk at the wrong door and run to our place today?”
After the theater manager finished speaking, Young Master Jiang, Jiang Sicheng, started to make a fuss again, hiccuping, hugging Qi Xiaoyu’s arm, and crying wildly at him, “Speak, speak! Why don’t you want to marry me? Am I not good to you?”
Qi Xiaoyu was cornered and eager to kick this person.
The theater manager couldn’t pull Jiang Sicheng away.
He called two staff members to help but was afraid of being too rough and hurting Jiang Sicheng, so he could only say to Qi Xiaoyu with embarrassment, “Boss Qi, why don’t you calm him down first? I’ll call his family and ask someone to pick him up.”
Qi Xiaoyu understood the theater manager’s difficulties. He was afraid of offending the big shot, and although Jiang Sicheng was drunk, he had no actual killing power except for his ghost howling. “Okay, then hurry up; I’ll wait here.”
The theater manager turned around to make a call.
Jiang Sicheng continued to cry, “Don’t I like you enough? What do you want me to do? Do you want me to take my heart out for you to see so that you can believe my feelings for you?”
Qi Xiaoyu turned his face away speechlessly.
After a while, the theater manager didn’t come back, but the other apprentices of the Red Moon Troupe came out first after hearing the sound.
Jiang Sicheng was crying with all his heart, “Tomorrow, tomorrow I’m going to get a marriage certificate with you! I won’t leave until we’re legally married! I will come to see you every day!”
Qi Fengjian thought someone was causing trouble again, wanting to marry his young disciple, so he gave Jiang Sicheng a hard knock on the head with his cigarette pipe.
“What’s going on here?”
Qi Xiaoyu struggled but couldn’t break free from Jiang Sicheng’s grip. Maintaining this awkward position, he explained the whole situation to Qi Fengjian.
After hearing it, Qi Fengjian’s face turned dark, but he could only swallow his anger.
Gu Zizhen and Xi Yun came up to help pull them apart, but no matter how hard they pulled, Jiang Sicheng clung to Qi Xiaoyu’s arm like he was glued to it.
Luckily, it wasn’t long before Qi Xiaoyu heard the sound of a car.
Then he saw the theater manager running over with a few uniformed men.
Qi Xiaoyu recognized the middle-aged man leading the group because he had seen him at the Commander’s Mansion a few days ago.
The man originally stormed over, eyes locked on the young man crying miserably while clinging to Qi Xiaoyu. But when he saw Qi Xiaoyu’s face, he froze for a second. His anger either vanished entirely—or intensified.
Because Qi Xiaoyu heard a loud smack as the man struck the young man holding onto him, making him cry out in pain.
After knocking his son into a daze and handing him off to his subordinates to drag back to the car, Customs Minister Jiang Feibai nodded politely at Qi Xiaoyu.
“So it was Mr. Qi I saw at the Commander’s Mansion the other day.”
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