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As Qi Xing entered, he saw a chair still stacked against the wall in the yard and a wave of discomfort washed over him. It had barely been twenty-four hours since he had climbed over the wall to leave and now he was back again.
He had gone through a lot and even ended up in the hospital; it was clear he had overindulged.
"Why didn't you move the chair inside?" he mumbled quietly but Ye Xingzhou ignored him and went into the house first.
Qi Xing pouted and followed him in. Ye Xingzhou took off his coat and suit jacket then turned to look at him. Qi Xing felt inexplicably uneasy, so he averted his gaze to survey the surroundings.
When he had come last night, he had been too busy to notice and this morning he had rushed to leave. Now that he looked around, he found the place quite nice. Though small, it was well-equipped and the interior decoration was exquisite yet tasteful. Ye Xingzhou, who usually kept to himself, really knew how to enjoy life.
"Do you want to take a shower?" Ye Xingzhou suddenly asked.
Qi Xing immediately reacted, raising his hand to tug at the zipper of his down jacket, as if afraid Ye Xingzhou would come over and strip him. He warned, "You said you wouldn't touch me tonight..."
"Shower and sleep," Ye Xingzhou interrupted him.
"Oh," Qi Xing replied.
Fine, he had misunderstood.
If he was going to shower then so be it. Because after a trip to the hospital, not showering would feel uncomfortable.
He went to take a shower first and by the time Ye Xingzhou finished his shower and came out, Qi Xing had already claimed the entire bed and quilt while wrapping himself up like a silkworm and was nearly asleep.
Ye Xingzhou sat down at the edge of the bed and reached out to ruffle Qi Xing's messy hair. Qi Xing opened one eye to glance at him and asked, "You’re not going to sleep here too, are you?"
"There’s only this one bedroom," Ye Xingzhou replied.
Upon hearing this, Qi Xing immediately closed his eyes again and pretended to be dead.
They had slept together before but it was usually because he was too exhausted to move afterward, like last night.
Just sleeping under the same quilt without doing anything? That would be so awkward. If he had known it would be like this, he might as well have gone back to his cousin's house.
"Is your stomach still uncomfortable?" Ye Xingzhou asked him.
Qi Xing frowned with his eyes closed and mumbled, "You're making my ears uncomfortable, you jerk."
Then he heard Ye Xingzhou's soft laughter. His warm breath brushed against Qi Xing's ear, making it itch and stirring something inexplicable in his heart.
Qi Xing shrank his head down and almost burrowing into the quilt.
The bed sank beside him, forcing him to shift over and make room. The quilt wrapped around him was pulled away halfway and Ye Xingzhou's strong presence closed in, enveloping him.
Qi Xing couldn't help but complain, "This bed is so big, so why can't you stay a little farther away? Two big men being so clingy, isn't that disgusting..."
More of Ye Xingzhou's scent and aura pressed down, silencing his incessant chatter.
"Mm—"
Qi Xing snapped back to reality and pushed against Ye Xingzhou's shoulder but he couldn't budge him. This jerk was as strong as an ox, even his tongue recklessly stirred in Qi Xing's mouth and kissed him fiercely.
Qi Xing was so angry he wanted to hit someone. Ye Xingzhou held both of his hands and only stopped when they were both nearly out of breath before pausing for a moment then pulled back but their lips were still closed as both were breathing heavily.
"You bastard, your words really are like farting," Qi Xing cursed, biting him hard.
He glared at Ye Xingzhou, who was staring down at him and trying to see his eyes but Ye Xingzhou reached out to turn off the bedside lamp and released his hands then rolled back to the side.
The room was suddenly plunged into darkness and for a moment, Qi Xing felt a bit uncomfortable. He kicked his feet under the quilt towards Ye Xingzhou, who pressed down and pinched his calf which caused him to retract his leg and shift further away from the jerk.
Ye Xingzhou, this beast, wouldn’t admit to having a crush on him, yet he would kiss him for no reason and get jealous out of the blue.
Let’s see how long you can keep pretending.
Qi Xing turned over then rubbed his still uncomfortable stomach and gut. He then pressed down on his slightly racing heart but soon fell into a carefree sleep.
Ye Xingzhou rested one hand behind his head and silently stared into the darkness. He listened to the gradually steadying breaths beside him, feeling an unprecedented calm and slowly closed his eyes.
…………..
Qi Xing's illness came quickly and went just as fast. After a comfortable sleep and taking his medicine, he was full of energy the next morning.
His stomach growled with hunger as he sat at the dining table. The food Ye Xingzhou had sent over was all bland and unappetizing but Ye Xingzhou planned that it was what he should eat.
"Your stomach needs to be nurtured, so you can only eat this kind of food for the next couple of days."
Qi Xing poked at the bowl of plain rice porridge with his chopsticks while feeling displeased, "I'm already fine. I want to go back to Huaicheng."
Ye Xingzhou replied, "Rest for another day or two."
"I'm not injured or crippled; is it really necessary? Does Young Master Ye have nothing to do? Even after finishing your work schedule, you won't go back?"
"I still have things to do," Ye Xingzhou said lightly. "I have a business meeting with some friends. It was originally scheduled to be at their place but now it's changed to here. They'll be coming over soon."
Qi Xing said, "Then go ahead and meet them; I want to go back."
Ye Xingzhou insisted, "You should stay and listen."
What does that have to do with me?
Qi Xing replied impatiently, "If I'm not going back, I want to go shopping, visit tourist spots and eat good food."
"You still want to eat your way back to the hospital?" Ye Xingzhou coldly reminded him, "Do you want to go through IV drips again?"
Qi Xing was left speechless and just kept opening his mouth but taking a long time to squeeze out a sentence: "Knowing I'm a patient but you can't even comfort me? Can't you say something nice?"
With Ye Xingzhou being so unthoughtful and domineering, even if he really had a crush on him, Qi Xing wouldn't be interested.
He sulkily drank his porridge but Ye Xingzhou suddenly asked, "What do you want to hear?"
Qi Xing nearly choked on a mouthful of porridge and looking up in surprise, only to see Ye Xingzhou frowning, "You can choke on porridge too?"
Qi Xing looked at him with a resentful gaze.
Ye Xingzhou paused then changed his tone: "Just eat this for today then rest and don’t go out. If you don’t have a relapse tomorrow, I’ll take you out for a walk."
Qi Xing huffed a couple of times as that was more like it.
As he drank his porridge, he noticed his luggage that Ye Xingzhou's driver had brought in early that morning and remembered something else: "Why did you arrive less than ten minutes after I called you last night? Were you nearby?"
Ye Xingzhou replied, "Your grandpa said you were at your cousin's house."
Qi Xing didn't believe it: "He couldn't have given you my cousin's address."
"Coincidentally, a friend of a friend knows your cousin and found out," Ye Xingzhou explained calmly.
Well, that was quite impressive; he could find him like that.
Qi Xing felt a bit uneasy; Ye Xingzhou's clinginess was more intense than he had thought... Luckily, this person only wanted to pursue him and not to trap him.
Ye Xingzhou's gaze shifted to the yard outside and reminded Qi Xing, "It's snowing."
Qi Xing followed his gaze and immediately brightened up. He hadn't noticed before but it was indeed snowing heavily outside. A rare sight in a southern city like Huaicheng.
He quickly finished his porridge then pushed the bowl away and was about to get up when Ye Xingzhou grabbed him and made him sit back down. "You want to play in the snow? What if you catch a cold and your gastroenteritis flares up again?"
Qi Xing shrugged it off, "I'm not that fragile; is it really necessary?"
Ye Xingzhou countered, "You're not fragile?"
"Who do you look down on?" Qi Xing kicked him and insisted on getting up to go outside.
Ye Xingzhou followed him out. The kid grabbed a handful of snow then haphazardly formed it into a ball and threw it at Ye Xingzhou, who was standing under the eaves by the door. It hit him and Qi Xing burst into laughter but seeing Ye Xingzhou remain unfazed and just staring at him. He innocently said, "Oh, sorry, my hand slipped."
Ye Xingzhou didn't bother to argue and just leaned against the door and lit a cigarette then put it in his mouth.
Not getting to see Ye Xingzhou's expression change as he had hoped, Qi Xing felt bored and ignored him. He kept playing by himself and built a snowman in the middle of the yard.
Ye Xingzhou casually smoked as his gaze followed Qi Xing, who was enthusiastically gathering snow. He was piling it up bit by bit while occasionally running in and out to find suitable decorations.
He was happily entertaining himself.
The snow blurred his features but his smile was brighter than the morning sun at the start of the year.
The naive Young Master, pampered and spoiled by family and friends, had grown up like this.
So different from the vile individuals who struggled in dark swamps.
Like a tiger sniffing a rose and wanting to break and destroy it, yet also wanting it to bloom even more beautifully, all for himself.
As he finished his cigarette, Qi Xing ran back to Ye Xingzhou's side while eyeing his tie.
"There’s no one else here, so why are you wearing a tie? I've never seen anyone more pretentious than you. Let me borrow it."
Saying this, he reached out to tug at it. And having done the same thing before, he was quite skilled at it.
Ye Xingzhou's gaze lingered on his face and Qi Xing lifted his eyelids: "Even if I'm as beautiful as a flower, you don't need to stare at me like that, do you?"
Ye Xingzhou's eyes narrowed: "Can't I look?"
Qi Xing hooked his finger around Ye Xingzhou's tie then pulled his neck forward with force and brought their faces close together. As their breaths mingled, Qi Xing lowered his voice to curse, "If you keep looking, I'll poke your eyes out."
Just as their lips were almost touching, he blinked then pulled Ye Xingzhou's tie into his hand and smiled as he stepped back, "Thanks."
Ye Xingzhou raised an eyebrow and Qi Xing, feeling triumphant, returned to continue building his snowman. He tied the tie around the snowman's plump chest.
Half an hour later, when Qi Xing's masterpiece was complete, the guests Ye Xingzhou had invited arrived.
They were two young men who looked to be about the same age as him. Qi Xing was initially uninterested but when he saw one of them, his eyes lit up as he whistled in his heart; he was a real beauty.
He had the same warm and handsome appearance as Lin Zhinian but was even more attractive.
Qi Xing smiled broadly, suddenly not minding to stay to listen to Ye Xingzhou discuss business with them. Ye Xingzhou cast a faint glance at him and introduced them.
The one Qi Xing had his eye on also had the character "Zhi" in his name, called Ning Zhiyuan while the other one who came with him was called Cen Zhisen, a classmate of Ye Xingzhou from his time studying in the UK.
In fact, it seemed that Cen Zhisen had brought Ning Zhiyuan to meet his old classmate Ye Xingzhou and they were also discussing a business deal.
According to the two of them (the guests), they considered each other as brothers. Qi Xing was a bit surprised and kept glancing between the two.
Brothers? They didn’t look much alike at all.
The other one looked like the same type of pretentious person as Ye Xingzhou, so how could he possibly be related to the beauty that Qi Xing liked? What kind of world was this?
Ye Xingzhou invited them in and Qi Xing lagged a step behind then seizing the opportunity to quietly ask Ye Xingzhou, "Are they really brothers? They don’t look alike at all and they don’t even share a surname?"
Ye Xingzhou replied, "They’re not."
As for why they weren’t but still were, he didn’t explain.
Qi Xing's mind raced and he quickly understood: "So they’re like good brothers? Just like us?"
Ye Xingzhou asked, "Us?"
Qi Xing pointed at him then at himself: "You, me and my grandpa."
Ye Xingzhou: "..."
He suppressed his anger but said nothing and pushed the little rascal inside.