PTBLSI chapter 14

 

The car finally pulled into the garage. Fu Yanchuan went to wake up Qi Xi. His voice was so gentle that the driver thought he was hallucinating and wasn’t sure if he really wanted to wake Qi Xi up.

Qi Xi hummed twice in discomfort but didn’t wake up. In the end, Fu Yanchuan carried him all the way back to the room in a princess carry, which he had been hoping for.

Like a baby who wakes up the moment they touch the bed, Qi Xi opened his eyes as soon as he was put down.

Fu Yanchuan thought he had been pretending to sleep, but Qi Xi’s eyes were clear and free of the calculation and ingratiation he was used to seeing. He smiled at Fu Yanchuan for no reason.

Letting go of Qi Xi’s hands, Fu Yanchuan remained bent over and asked, “Can you shower and change clothes by yourself?”

Qi Xi nodded, then suddenly lifted his arms and wrapped them around Fu Yanchuan’s neck. Fu Yanchuan froze in place. Qi Xi hung on his neck, leaned close, and asked, “Brother Yan, yesterday I forgot—do we need to go to bed together today?”

“Let go!”

Fu Yanchuan blurted out but didn’t move. After a long while, Qi Xi still didn’t let go, so Fu Yanchuan reached up and removed his hands from his neck.

Qi Xi immediately grabbed his collar and refused to let go. Scrutinizing him, Qi Xi asked, “Are you shy?”

Seeing Qi Xi like this, Fu Yanchuan guessed that he wasn’t fully awake yet. Not wanting to argue, he said, “Didn’t you eat anything tonight? Go take a shower. I’ll make you something to eat.”

This time, after saying that, he pried Qi Xi’s hands away. Qi Xi suddenly became angry and asked him, “Do you think I’m not enough like him? That I’m not charming enough? Is that why you dislike me?”

“Qi Xi.”

Unconsciously, his voice turned serious. He sat down on the bed and looked at Qi Xi earnestly. “You don’t need to do these things, and I don’t need them either.”

“But you found me to be a stand-in!”

Looking into Qi Xi’s sincere eyes, Fu Yanchuan felt as if the dirtiest corner of his heart had been exposed. For a moment, he didn’t dare admit to himself why he had done this.

After a moment of silence, he told Qi Xi, “Hiring you as a stand-in was just because you look alike. I only wanted to look at you. I didn’t want to sleep with you. From now on, you can treat me as your boss.”

“Boss?”

Qi Xi seemed to have learned a new word. Fu Yanchuan’s gaze was like the hardest exam question: something he couldn’t understand at all. He asked in confusion, “You’re so strange. Don’t you love him? Then why did you find me as a stand-in but don’t want to sleep with me?”

Fu Yanchuan’s eyes became even harder to read. After staring at Qi Xi for a long time, he said, “It’s precisely because I love him that I won’t sleep with you. Don’t bring this up again.”

Qi Xi’s mind was a little more agile now. He thought seriously about Fu Yanchuan’s words and suddenly understood. “I get it! Because you love him so much, you can’t sleep with anyone but him. But you miss him, so you found me as a stand-in just to look at my face!”

Fu Yanchuan sighed softly. “Just take it that way. Go shower.”

Qi Xi didn’t go. Instead, he held onto Fu Yanchuan and said, “You’re the one who doesn’t want to do that with me. You can’t say I took advantage of you. You also can’t use this as a reason to stop wanting me as a stand-in and kick me out. We signed a contract. You still have to honor it. You have to take care of my cat until he dies.”

Fu Yanchuan stood there in silence. Feeling slightly guilty, Qi Xi took a step back and said, “If you really don’t like me as a stand-in, then you can kick me out when I have a place to live, okay?”

Fu Yanchuan still didn’t speak. Qi Xi immediately hugged him and rubbed his face against Fu Yanchuan’s chest, saying, “Brother Yan, I’m really pitiful. Nobody wants me. I have nowhere to go; I have no home. Other than Dasheng, I have nothing. You’re so good. Can you be good to me a little longer?”

“I never said I would kick you out.”

Fu Yanchuan pushed Qi Xi away and repeated, “I won’t kick you out.”

Qi Xi finally smiled in satisfaction. Like a cannonball, Qi Xi lunged at Fu Yanchuan again, almost knocking him off the bed. He wrapped his arms tightly around Fu Yanchuan’s neck. The impact was so strong that Fu Yanchuan leaned back slightly, leaving Qi Xi almost sitting on his lap. Yet, Qi Xi was completely unaware as he said, “Brother Yan, I’m starting to like you more and more.”

“Go take a shower.”

This time, Fu Yanchuan pushed Qi Xi away, got up, and left the room.

He went to the kitchen and called Uncle Quan to ask how to make hangover soup. Uncle Quan taught him step by step. After making the soup, he also cooked a bowl of noodles.

During his two years abroad, he had learned many things from Qiao Ye, including how to cook. Before that, he didn’t even know the names of kitchen utensils.

Once it was ready, he went to Qi Xi’s room to wake him up, but found him already asleep, still in his clothes and probably unshowered. An orange cat lay by Qi Xi’s pillow. When the cat saw him, it lifted its head and meowed once.

He walked to the bedside. Qi Xi looked very obedient while sleeping, clutching a lump of blanket by his face. His lips were pressed together slightly, as if he were uncomfortable.

He bent down and asked softly, “What’s wrong?”

Qi Xi squinted his eyes and stared at him for a long while. Then, he suddenly called out, “Mom.”

Fu Yanchuan didn’t move or speak. Qi Xi rubbed the lump of a blanket next to him and called out again.

“Mom—”

Fu Yanchuan remembered Qi Xi saying that his mother was no longer alive. He reached out and brushed the hair off of Qi Xi’s forehead.

Qi Xi grabbed his hand and said, “I’m thirsty. I want to drink water.”

Fu Yanchuan suddenly thought of Qiao Ye again. Since his birth, Fu Zhenrong had customized every aspect of his life—what he had to learn, what he had to do, and what he could not do or learn. Fu Zhenrong decided everything.

Everyone said he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. They envied him, were jealous of him, flattered him, feared him, and relied on him. Qiao Ye was the first person to ever tell him, “Go buy me a Coke.”

Back then, Qiao Ye was 18. He would go racing despite his parents’ strong opposition. He gave up a physics competition he could have won just because his parents said, “You need to bring honor to us.” When his parents arranged for him to study abroad, he applied to domestic universities instead. However, when his parents told him to take the postgraduate entrance exam, he went abroad as an exchange student.

So, when Qiao Ye first said to him, “Brother Yan, come with me,” he made a decision on his own, without Fu Zhenrong’s consent.

“Brother Yan, I want to drink water!”

Qi Xi didn’t get any water and got angry. He bit down on Fu Yanchuan’s hand. It didn’t hurt, nor could it really be called a bite. It was more like an ambiguous action.

Fu Yanchuan’s hand froze in Qi Xi’s mouth. After a moment, he said, “If you don’t let go, how am I supposed to get it?”

Qi Xi understood. He loosened his grip, but then pinched Fu Yanchuan’s fingertip. Looking at him with grievance, he said, “Hurry up.”

Fu Yanchuan went out and poured a cup of warm water. After testing the temperature, he brought it back to Qi Xi’s room. However, the person who had been sleeping was no longer on the bed. He looked around and found Qi Xi in the bathroom. He subconsciously put the cup down and went in. Qi Xi was using the toilet.

Fu Yanchuan’s gaze suddenly shifted downward. Qi Xi held himself like that and stared back at him. He asked in return, “Brother Yan, do you need something?”

Fu Yanchuan felt that nothing about Qi Xi ever went according to his expectations. He retreated from the bathroom and said, “The water is on the table. Drink it and go to sleep early.”

Without waiting for an answer, he left the room, closing the door behind him.

The next day, when Qi Xi woke up, it was almost ten. The orange cat jumped in front of him and meowed twice, as if explaining something to him.

He sat up and rubbed his messy hair. His head still hurt badly, as if someone were constantly hammering at it from inside his brain.

“Meow!”

The orange cat meowed again. Qi Xi finally reacted, hurrying to look for his phone. When he picked it up and saw the time, he panicked. He rushed to wash up, change clothes, and pack his backpack. Then, he ran out. As he passed through the living room, he saw that Fu Yanchuan was sitting there.

He stopped and asked, “Brother Yan, why didn’t you go to work?”

Fu Yanchuan didn’t answer. Instead, he said, “No need to rush. I used your phone and asked for leave for you.”

Qi Xi hurriedly took out his phone and saw the message that Fu Yanchuan had sent to ask for leave for him. Fu Yanchuan had even turned off his alarm. No wonder he hadn’t been woken up.

Since there was no need to rush to class, Qi Xi relaxed. He carried his backpack to the living room and collapsed beside Fu Yanchuan.

Fu Yanchuan was holding a tablet and dealing with something. He glanced at Qi Xi and said, “There’s food warming in the kitchen. Go eat something first.”

Qi Xi hadn’t been hungry at first, but once it was mentioned, he immediately felt an urge to eat. He threw down his backpack and ran to the kitchen. On the stove were warm millet porridge and other dishes.

After he finished eating, he returned to the living room where Fu Yanchuan finally asked him what had happened the previous day.

“My classmate said there was a class activity yesterday, but he lied to me and took me to a bar. Someone insisted on making me drink and even grabbed my phone. Then I hit him—”

Qi Xi suddenly remembered that he had hit someone. He hurriedly asked Fu Yanchuan, “What about that person? Is he dead? Am I going to jail?”

“You don’t remember what happened after that?”

Qi Xi tried hard to recall. He vaguely remembered being taken to the police station and Fu Yanchuan picking him up and bringing him back.

However, he didn’t remember Fu Yanchuan carrying him or what Fu Yanchuan said last night. But he did remember that Fu Yanchuan loved his white moonlight very much.

Fu Yanchuan could tell from his expression that he didn’t remember much. He put down the tablet and said, “That person is fine and has already been punished. Your classmate also admitted his mistake. But how it ends doesn’t matter. Do you think this is enough?”

Qi Xi asked in confusion, “Enough for what?”

“Punishment. They can receive whatever kind of punishment you want, as long as you want.”

“But didn’t you say they’ve already been punished? Why punish them again?”

Fu Yanchuan examined Qi Xi and asked, “Aren’t you angry?”

“I am angry! That’s why I’ll never talk to Zhou Yuxuan again. I won’t believe a word he says anymore.”

“That’s it?”

Qi Xi nodded. Fu Yanchuan suddenly realized that, in Qi Xi’s world, there was no such thing as revenge at all costs—the concept he was familiar with.

He didn’t continue speaking. Qi Xi suddenly stared straight at him as if he were looking at something. After a long while, he asked, “Do you really love your white moonlight that much? What does he do? Where is he? You’re such a good person. Why isn’t he with you? Does he have no taste?”

When he heard the latter part, Fu Yanchuan laughed. Qi Xi continued, “I’m serious. You’re so great; how could he not like you? If it were me, I’d definitely love you to death.”

Fu Yanchuan replied, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Qi Xi smiled smugly, lay on the sofa, and leaned closer to Fu Yanchuan. Looking him in the eye, he asked, “Brother Yan, how about I help him like you?”

 

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