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Qi Xing returned home at seven-thirty. His parents hadn't had dinner yet and were waiting for him.
It had been a long time since the three of them sat at the same table for a meal. Qi Xing felt a bit guilty and coupled with his bad mood, he ate in silence without saying a word.
Wang Cuilan exchanged glances with Qi Ronghua, who seemed a bit awkward and kept shoveling rice into his mouth, clearly not wanting to talk.
Wang Cuilan had no choice but to speak up and asked Qi Xing, "You've been coming home late every day and you keep saying you're staying at friends' houses or your grandpa's. Tell us the truth, do you have a partner outside?"
In fact, if they wanted to investigate, the couple had plenty of ways to find out which wild man Qi Xing was seeing outside. But previously, Mr. Chen had advised them not to let their relationship with their son become more strained, so they decided to give Qi Xing some space and not treat him like a child. They managed to hold back and didn't seriously investigate.
Qi Xing chuckled awkwardly, "How could that be? If I had a partner, I would definitely tell you."
"Then if we introduce someone to you, would you be interested?" Wang Cuilan asked cautiously.
Qi Xing frowned, "Mom, are you really going to set me up? I’ve told you I don’t like girls..."
"A boy," Wang Cuilan quickly corrected, "a boy."
Qi Xing: "…?"
So his mom insisted he come home for dinner just to introduce him to a man?
Qi Ronghua's face darkened and he was even less inclined to speak, but he didn’t interrupt Wang Cuilan. Wang Cuilan smiled and explained, "It's the son of our old neighbor, Uncle Li. Do you remember? When we first moved to Huaicheng, there was a boy next door who was a few years older than you? You used to play with him a lot when you were little."
Qi Xing opened his mouth; that was ages ago! He could vaguely remember but...
"Weren't they all immigrants to America years ago?"
"Yes but your dad has kept in touch with them. Uncle Li and his wife plan to return here next year and their son will come back with them. He graduated from a prestigious school in the U.S. and works in an investment bank there. I heard he’s quite capable and also very handsome. Uncle Li said he likes boys just like you but he has high standards and hasn’t found a suitable partner yet. Would you be interested in getting to know him? If you’re willing, I can give you his WeChat ID, and you, young people can chat on your own."
Qi Xing was dumbfounded and it took him a while to swallow the rice in his mouth and find his voice, "Mom, didn’t you oppose me dating men?"
Wang Cuilan smiled at Qi Ronghua, "When did I ever oppose it? It’s your dad who can’t get over it. You two have been at odds for so long, making a big deal. Whether you like men or women, it’s all the same. Anyway, our family has plenty of money; we don’t care about that."
Qi Ronghua still had a grim expression while glaring at Qi Xing but finally spoke up, "What’s your opinion? If a young talent like him is interested in you, you should be grateful. Isn’t that better than the wild men you find outside?"
Qi Xing felt unhappy inside, "How do you know what kind of character he has? He’s been an immigrant for over ten years; who knows if he’s a good person or a bad one? Aren’t you afraid I’ll get scammed?"
Qi Ronghua retorted, "Isn’t it better to know a neighbor than some shady person outside? If you don’t have a partner outside, why can’t you get to know him?"
Wang Cuilan, worried they would start arguing again, quickly tried to mediate, "Son, why don’t you look at his photo first? I think he looks pretty good. If you don’t like him, then forget it. Adding him on WeChat isn’t a big deal."
As she spoke, she quickly pulled out her phone and showed Qi Xing the saved photos. Qi Xing glanced at it and found that the guy did look decent, though not his type, he still looked somewhat pleasing to the eye.
He squinted then recalled the frown on Ye Xingzhou's face when he asked that last question earlier. He huffed and raised his chin, "Mom, go ahead and introduce him to me."
After dinner, Qi Xing was still not very happy. He casually sent a message to Yang Kaiming and asked on where they were having fun.
Yang Kaiming replied instantly, "Qi, you actually managed to crawl out of your sugar daddy's warm embrace?"
Qi Xing: "Cut the crap and just send me the location."
Ignoring his mom's nagging and his dad's scolding, Qi Xing seized the opportunity to slip away and drove to the nightclub where Yang Kaiming and the others were having fun.
He arrived around nine, just as the place was bustling.
When Qi Xing walked in, the rich kids erupted in cheers. Although they didn’t know who Qi Xing's sugar daddy was, they had seen him disappear for a while to "cultivate" himself for his sugar daddy and now that he suddenly appeared, they had to tease him.
"Young Master Qi has been living a good life lately. Looking all plump and pretty."
"Why didn’t you bring your sugar daddy along? We’d love to meet him!"
"Yeah, hiding him away, what’s this, a golden house to hide a beauty?"
They bantered back and forth and by the end, someone even asked about his and his sugar daddy's positions. Qi Xing,annoyed, snapped, "Shut up, what’s it to you?"
He took a half glass of wine and downed it, then set it down and leaned back into the sofa, "You guys play your own games and stop using me for entertainment."
Perhaps sensing his bad mood, the rich kids finally got the hint and changed the subject. After everyone’s attention shifted, Yang Kaiming leaned over curiously and nudged his arm, "Did you have a fight with that guy?"
Qi Xing: "Don’t ask."
Fine, no questions then.
Yang Kaiming kept him company while shaking his head and lamenting, "I always thought that Young Master Qi must be bewitched by him. You clearly like pure, unpretentious and devoted white lotus types. What does your sugar daddy have that fits that? He didn’t put a spell on you, did he?"
Qi Xing held back the urge to curse and muttered, "Is he really pretentious? He’s richer than I am, so how could he be after my money?"
Well, Ye Xingzhou certainly didn’t love him unconditionally.
Qi Xing felt gloomy when he thought that he was just playing around with Ye Xingzhou, so that made it even between them.
That said, he felt even more uncomfortable inside. A lump in his throat that wouldn’t go down, making everything seem unsatisfactory and nothing felt right.
Unknowingly, he had downed several glasses of wine. Yang Kaiming, worried he would get drunk, reminded him, "Qi, do you want to play dice?"
Qi Xing: "No."
Yang Kaiming: "How about cards?"
Qi Xing: "No."
Yang Kaiming: "Want to go upstairs to play billiards?"
Qi Xing: "No."
He couldn’t muster any interest in anything. He leaned back on the sofa while absentmindedly scrolling through his phone. His mom had just sent over the WeChat contact of the guy she wanted to introduce him to.
Qi Xing clicked to add him casually. Once the other side accepted, he typed a "Hello," but then found it meaningless and deleted it then exited.
The other party didn’t message back; perhaps they just added him to appease their parents.
Qi Xing leaned sideways with his face against the back of the sofa and feeling even more depressed.
Until Ye Xingzhou's WeChat message came in: "Where are you?"
Staring at those three words for a moment. He forcefully poked the screen twice but didn’t reply.
Seeing him like this, Yang Kaiming suggested, "Qi, do you want to order someone to come drink with you to lighten the mood?"
Qi Xing seemed not to understand but glanced at him sideways. Yang Kaiming explained cheekily, "Just order someone to drink with you, it can be a guy or a girl. Just purely drinking, singing, chatting and nothing else. I promise it’s not illegal. If it cheers you up then just give a little extra tip."
Qi Xing sighed, "Is that so?"
Five minutes later, he was holding a tablet while flipping through photos one by one. Nitpicking and scrutinizing and finding fault with everyone.
Finally, he randomly selected one then tossed the tablet to Yang Kaiming, "This one."
Yang Kaiming took a look and thought, well, this one isn’t Qi Xing’s usual type but he looked like Ye Xingzhou’s type—tall, strong, and cool-looking, probably a favorite among wealthy women here.
But since Qi Xing liked him, then that was it.
A few minutes later, the person entered the private room and sat down on the armrest of the single sofa in front of Qi Xing. He tilted his head and smiled at him, "Young Master Qi, hello, I’m Theo."
Qi Xing remained slouched on the sofa while slowly lifting his eyelids to scrutinize the person.
He looked okay but far inferior to Ye Xingzhou. The way he smiled was quite annoying. Qi Xing closed his eyes as he was feeling a bit uncomfortable from the alcohol, "Stop smiling, it’s creepy. Also, we’re all Chinese; what’s with the foreign name? Don’t you have a Chinese name? What is it?"
The smile on the other person’s face froze for a moment before awkwardly saying, "Wang Dabin."
Qi Xing burst out laughing. Genuinely amused this time.
When Ye Xingzhou's call came in, Qi Xing was listening to Wang Dabin tell a joke. This guy was slick-tongued and the jokes he told were crass but they made Qi Xing laugh and his mood seemed to improve a lot.
The phone rang for a full half-minute before he slowly tapped to answer, "Hello, who is it?"
"Where are you?" Ye Xingzhou asked in a deep voice. He clearly heard the loud background noise.
"What's it to you?" Qi Xing was probably drunk as his words slurred and lacked strength but what he said was still unpleasant, "Don’t worry about me. Who do you think you are? I want to sever our father-son1 relationship."
Footnote:
Father-son relationship because he called Ye Xingzhou ‘daddy’ and was generous to Qi Xing like a dad.
Ye Xingzhou: "How much have you drunk?"
Qi Xing: "I said it’s none of your business. Why are you annoying? I don’t want to talk to you, bye."
He hung up directly and gestured to Wang Dabin, "You keep talking."
Yang Kaiming was playing cards with someone when an unfamiliar number came in. He answered casually and before he could speak, the person on the other end said, "I’m Ye Xingzhou. Is Qi Xing with you? Give me your address."
Yang Kaiming nearly choked then glanced back at Qi Xing, who was getting more and more into the conversation with Wang Dabin with sweat on his forehead, "He’s with me..."
"Give me the address." Ye Xingzhou's tone was particularly commanding.
Yang Kaiming felt like crying. What did it have to do with him if those two were fighting?
But facing Ye Xingzhou, he felt particularly intimidated and ultimately gave him the address.
After hanging up, Yang Kaiming rushed over to Qi Xing, pushing him, "Qi, let this guy go and stop chatting with him."
Qi Xing refused, "Why? This guy is quite interesting. I ordered him and I’m paying."
Yang Kaiming lowered his voice with hands clasped in a pleading gesture, "Qi, your sugar daddy is coming over soon. Please spare me; if he sees I got you to order someone, he’ll kill me."
"If he comes then he comes," Qi Xing waved his hand, "Don’t worry about him; it’s none of your business. Go have fun."
Yang Kaiming: "… Just don’t say I encouraged you to order someone."
Qi Xing shot him a glare and continued drinking.
When Ye Xingzhou pushed the door open, a rich kid was belting out "Die for Love" at the top of his lungs and when he turned to see Ye Xingzhou's fierce face, he dropped the microphone in shock and made a loud clatter. The room full of rich kids, whether drinking, chatting, singing, or playing cards, froze for a moment as all eyes turned to Ye Xingzhou as he walked in. The few closest to him instinctively backed away and cleared a path.
Qi Xing was still slouched in the corner of the sofa while holding a wine glass with hazy-eyed and listening to the chatter.
The background music was deafening and Wang Dabin was sitting facing Qi Xing. His attention was entirely on Qi Xing, the easy-going and wealthy patron and completely oblivious to the unusual atmosphere. He even saw Qi Xing in a drunken state and mustered the courage to lean forward and slowly reach out to touch his face while lowering his voice seductively, "Young Master Qi, should we go somewhere else to drink?"
But the next second, another hand reached out from behind and grabbed his wrist.
"Ah—!"
Wang Dabin didn’t react in time and a sharp pain shot through his wrist which was twisted out of joint. He howled in agony as Ye Xingzhou dragged him off the sofa and threw him to the ground. He landed on his back as his vision filled with the towering figure of the man looking down at him as if he were dead.
The surrounding people panicked and scattered while fearing that they would be caught in the crossfire. Qi Xing was indeed drunk and only started to react to the commotion. He blinked up at the dimly lit room and caught sight of Ye Xingzhou who's frowning unconsciously, "What are you doing here…"
Ye Xingzhou stepped forward then bent down. His tall figure almost overshadowed Qi Xing. He stared into his eyes and asked in a deep voice, "Can you still walk?"
Qi Xing closed his eyes and mumbled, "I don’t want to go with you."
Ye Xingzhou didn’t say another word.
He took the wine glass from Qi Xing’s hand and set it down then wrapped one arm around his shoulder and the other under his legs, lifting him up horizontally before Qi Xing could react.
Gasps filled the room as Ye Xingzhou ignored everyone and carried the drunkard away.
Once in the passenger seat, Ye Xingzhou fastened the seatbelt for Qi Xing, who seemed to finally come to his senses and opened his eyes and grabbed Ye Xingzhou's suit collar then pulled him closer.
"Asshole." His eyes were a bit red with his face flushed and his teeth were almost broken because of how much he was gritting his teeth.
Ye Xingzhou gently touched his face to soothe him, "Let’s go home."
"Ugh—"
A wave of nausea hit Qi Xing.
And he couldn’t control himself and finally threw up all over this bastard.
Ye Xingzhou's face darkened.