Why was Fu Hui so fixated on Wen Lan? Could he really be that petty?
Those thoughts merely flashed through Wen Ming’s mind.
From the moment the idea of taking Wen Lan and running away was born, it immediately overwhelmed everything else.
All the things that had tormented him over the past two days were pushed aside in an instant.
None of that mattered anymore.
The most dangerous person in front of them now was Fu Hui.
There was no need for him to keep thinking about all that other nonsense. He only needed to deal with the most important problem first.
That gave Wen Ming room to breathe. He even felt a faint sense of relief.
He grabbed Lan Xi by the wrist and strode toward the front courtyard. Only after they had walked a great distance did he feel the gaze following them from behind finally disappear completely.
A gust of wind swept over him. Only then did Wen Ming realize that he was trembling slightly from extreme tension and excitement, and his entire back had been soaked in sweat.
He turned to look at the person beside him.
Lan Xi looked completely relaxed.
Wen Ming closed his eyes. Forget it. He doesn’t know shit about danger.
Wasn’t he always that arrogant anyway?
“Nothing happened, did it?” Wen Zixiong spotted them from afar and hurried over.
Wen Yue answered irritably, “Nothing.”
After saying that, he still couldn’t help blaming Wen Zixiong. “You shouldn’t have brought him here in the first place.”
Being lectured by his own son made Wen Zixiong lose face. He could only turn around and scold Lan Xi instead. “Look at you. Why are you running around everywhere without considering where you are?”
Wen Yue and Wen Ming were both suppressing worries of their own, and Wen Zixiong’s attitude immediately stirred up some of their anger.
Before Lan Xi could say anything, Wen Yue snapped first, “If the old man didn’t know to keep an eye on the kid, what’s the use of scolding him now?”
Wen Zixiong hadn’t expected the blame to circle right back around to him. His face darkened.
He muttered, “Never saw the two of you protecting him this much before.”
That only made both brothers angrier.
Wen Ming sneered. “Oh, and whose fault is that? Spend too much time with you and he starts hating us.”
Wen Zixiong could see them dragging up old grievances, and the further they went, the more inappropriate it became. They were still standing in the Song family’s courtyard.
He immediately spread his hands. “Fine, fine, fine. It’s all my fault as a father.”
Then he shamelessly sidled over to Lan Xi. “You weren’t frightened, were you?”
Lan Xi tilted his head and looked at them without so much as an extra flicker of expression. “No.”
There weren’t many guests at the Song family’s banquet, and everything inside and outside was relatively quiet. They couldn’t very well raise their voices, so they simply moved into an inconspicuous corner.
Before long, the guest of honor appeared.
It was Cheng Yiran.
The elders of the Song family pulled him along and introduced him to the other guests.
At some point, Chairman Qiu had wandered over to them with a wineglass. Lowering his voice as though sharing gossip, he said, “He doesn’t look like a child of the Song family. He’s too reserved.”
Wen Ming glanced at him and replied, “He’s from the Fu family.”
“Ah, not exactly from the Fu family either. I heard he might be some illegitimate child…”
The Wen brothers immediately realized this wasn’t something they should be discussing. They grabbed Lan Xi and edged farther away.
Only Wen Zixiong remained standing there, listening with great interest.
Cheng Yiran really did look extremely ill at ease. His gaze wandered around aimlessly until it landed on Lan Xi.
He stared fixedly at him.
The look was far too obvious, and Wen Ming’s alert level instantly shot to its highest point.
Even Wen Zixiong became nervous. “That young master isn’t still holding a grudge against Wen Lan, is he?”
Lan Xi spoke. “He isn’t.”
Wen Zixiong turned around. “How do you know?”
Lan Xi said, “He… apologized just now.”
“What? What?” Wen Zixiong hadn’t understood.
Lan Xi found it annoying, but still gave him a concise explanation. “He apologized just now. Said they got it wrong.”
Wen Zixiong let out a long breath, delight returning to his face. “So that’s who you went to see just now!”
Even Chairman Qiu looked at Lan Xi with newfound respect after hearing that.
Only Wen Yue and Wen Ming couldn’t feel happy about it. They exchanged a glance, both sensing that there was still some crucial part of the situation they hadn’t understood.
“Look at you. Why didn’t you say so earlier?” Wen Zixiong put on a show of reproach.
Lan Xi rolled his eyes. “You talk too much.”
Wen Zixiong choked. Did he mean they had talked so much that Lan Xi couldn’t get a word in and simply couldn’t be bothered anymore?
Cheng Yiran was still looking at Lan Xi.
It was the first time he had examined Lan Xi this carefully. The longer he looked, the more he felt that his brother was right: this person really was very different from Wen Lan. Everyone had simply gone in with a preconceived assumption and never thought to doubt it…
He stared so intently that he even forgot to feel awkward.
Wen Ming, however, could no longer tolerate it. Cheng Yiran seemed far too strange. He simply stepped sideways in front of Lan Xi.
And blocked Cheng Yiran’s gaze in the process.
Wen Ming asked, “Has he contacted you privately?”
Lan Xi shook his head.
Wen Ming immediately sank into bewildered thought.
The birthday banquet hosted by the Song family was extremely simple. Once the cake had been cut and distributed among the guests, everyone began leaving one after another because they were busy.
The Wen family, meanwhile, had been pushed even farther to the margins.
Even as they were leaving the Song residence, Wen Zixiong was still muttering, “Aren’t the two of you normally pretty sharp? Why did you spend all day standing there like idiots? Sigh, you didn’t even manage to expand your network…”
Wen Yue said nothing.
He and Wen Ming exchanged a glance. Both of them were now certain that their invitations had been deliberate… deliberate in the sense that the wine had never been the drunkard’s true concern.
Then both of their gazes landed on Lan Xi at the same time.
＊
Lan Xi’s meeting with Fu Hui had been very short.
It almost seemed as though Fu Hui had specially invited him over just to eat sweet soup. Lan Xi had certainly enjoyed that, but it wasn’t enough… nowhere near enough.
Fu Hui hadn’t even mentioned the photographs.
Next time, should I just ask him directly whether he’s blind?
Lan Xi smacked his lips. His phone suddenly buzzed with an incoming message.
The sound instantly broke the stagnant atmosphere inside the car.
Lan Xi lowered his head to look at his phone.
It was from Fu Hui.
[Home yet?]
Lan Xi still wasn’t very good at typing. He raised the phone and sent a voice message: [No.]
Wen Yue and Wen Ming both turned their heads sharply.
Wen Yue launched a surprise attack. “Phone inspection.”
Lan Xi thought about it. There was nothing on there that couldn’t be seen, so he handed it over.
Wen Yue took the phone and immediately saw the most recent contact: [Malatang Seller].
Lan Xi had long since deleted every trace of the photographs he had sent. The chat window contained only that last message—[Home yet?]—and Lan Xi’s simple response.
There was really nothing to see.
“A malatang seller cares whether you’ve gotten home?” Wen Yue immediately sensed something was wrong.
Lan Xi looked completely innocent.
Wen Yue backed out of the chat and scrolled down the contact list. It was an entire row of people selling various things.
He randomly opened a few.
Most of the messages were things like: [Our store’s latest promotion…]
And Lan Xi never replied.
Compared with them, [Malatang Seller] stood out enormously. He never sent any store promotions at all!
Wasn’t the whole point of adding a shop’s contact information so they could send advertisements and coupons?
And strangest of all—
Almost every other contact sent promotional messages every day.
Yet why was there absolutely nothing earlier in the chat with [Malatang Seller]? That meant—the messages had been deleted!
Wen Yue’s expression darkened. He began a more meticulous inspection and eventually found [Flatbread Seller] and [Book Seller], whose chat windows were just as clean.
But when Wen Yue casually opened [Flatbread Seller]’s Moments, he immediately fell speechless…
Luo Jin’s selfie was practically plastered against Wen Yue’s face.
[Book Seller]’s Moments, on the other hand, contained only a link to a school anniversary event.
Which meant he was one of Wen Lan’s classmates.
Only [Malatang Seller] had a Moments page completely devoid of information.
Wen Yue sneered inwardly.
So he’d gotten smarter? Learned to delete chat histories and change contact names?
Wen Yue didn’t expose him immediately. He exited WeChat and checked his call history and text messages as well.
The text-message history was clean too.
But… what a coincidence. [Malatang Seller] appeared in the call history as well.
Several times!
“Big Brother?” Wen Ming called from beside him when he noticed his expression.
Wen Yue said, “It’s nothing.”
He reached out to return the phone.
Then Wen Yue suddenly remembered something, snatched his hand back, and checked the browser history too.
Still nothing.
A mistaken swipe brought up the recent-apps screen.
Wen Yue quickly saw the apps Lan Xi had opened recently… Contacts, Messages, WeChat, Camera, Photos… At first glance, it was unbelievably boring. He didn’t even watch short videos.
But the thumbnail for the photo gallery suddenly flashed across Wen Yue’s vision.
Wen Yue opened it and scrolled down.
The screen was packed wall to wall with—
Women’s clothes.
Every single photo was women’s clothing!
There was occasionally a photograph of cake mixed among them. Wen Yue didn’t even dare inspect them closely. After one rough swipe, he already felt faint.
Wen Yue’s face turned greener than green.
“Wen. Lan…”
Lan Xi continued looking at him innocently.
Wen Ming thought his brother’s reaction was far too extreme and immediately reached for the phone. “What is it?”
But Wen Yue held on to the phone with a death grip and refused to let go no matter what. Even more importantly, he didn’t want Wen Ming seeing what was on it.
“Big Brother!” Wen Ming shouted.
Wen Yue dodged him, his brain working faster than it ever had before.
Why had he taken so many photographs? Who had he sent them to? Fang Nianqing, or someone else?
Wen Yue randomly opened one photograph and selected the option to send it to a WeChat contact.
The first person on the suggested-recipient list was [Malatang Seller].
If he sent the photograph over, he could immediately test whether Wen Lan had been sending these pictures to that person.
But after hesitating for a moment, Wen Yue decided against sending the photograph.
He returned to the WeChat chat window and instead sent a message: [What time are you coming to see me tomorrow?]
“Big Brother!” Wen Ming was still shouting angrily.
Wen Yue ignored him completely and simply waited for the other side to react.
A moment later, a reply arrived.
[Give him back his phone.]
Wen Yue’s eyelid twitched.
His eyes shifted upward. Right—Wen Lan had replied using a voice message… The person on the other end had instantly recognized that the one typing now wasn’t the owner of the phone.
Which also meant that person knew Wen Lan very well.
Wen Yue was tempted to simply demand to know who the person was, but after a moment’s hesitation, he restrained himself.
The other person certainly wouldn’t tell him. Worse, he would alert them.
Wen Yue deleted the message he had sent, forcibly suppressed his anger, and returned the phone to Lan Xi.
At the same time, he made sure to memorize [Malatang Seller]’s phone number.
Once he caught that person—
Wen Yue cast Lan Xi a cold sidelong glance.
Then he would lay everything out with him.
Wen Ming frowned. “Big Brother, what exactly did you see?”
Wen Yue barely managed to steady himself. “Nothing.”
Of course Wen Ming didn’t believe him, but Wen Yue was clearly unwilling to tell him anything more.
Wen Ming lowered his head and simply stopped asking.
Then he wouldn’t tell Wen Yue about his plan to take Wen Lan and run away either.
For a moment, both brothers harbored thoughts of their own.
Only Lan Xi tucked his phone back into his pocket, still looking perfectly relaxed.
The car first returned to Wen Zixiong’s residence. Just as Lan Xi was getting out, his phone rang again.
Lan Xi took it out and looked.
It was an advertisement notification.
Wen Yue, however, reacted as though facing a formidable enemy and stared intently at Lan Xi’s phone.
Lan Xi blinked and was pulled away by Wen Zixiong. “Come, come. Tell Dad exactly what Cheng Yiran said to you today.”
Soon, only the Wen brothers remained inside the car.
Wen Ming couldn’t help asking, “What exactly was on the phone…?”
Wen Yue cut him off. “I think Wen Lan is secretly dating someone.”
Wen Ming: “…What?”
Wen Yue summarized it briefly. “Wen Lan deleted his messages, but he didn’t clean everything up properly. He’s also been sending that person photographs of himself. A lot of them…”
Wen Ming immediately made the obvious association. “Intimate photos?”
He became so furious that he was about to get out of the car and charge inside.
“Wait and see whether that person comes looking for Wen Lan over the next few days.”
Hearing that, Wen Ming had no choice but to postpone his escape plan by another two days.
＊
The next day, the first person to arrive at Wen Zixiong’s door was the private tutor Wen Zixiong had paid to hire for Lan Xi.
Lan Xi had stayed up late watching television again. He floated downstairs in his pajamas.
Someone was already standing below. He had youthful features, red lips and white teeth, yet wore an extremely cold expression.
The golden aura around him perked Lan Xi up a little.
But once Lan Xi looked properly—
“Fang Nianqing.”
Oh. An old acquaintance.
Nothing new at all.
Lan Xi was disappointed.
Hearing Lan Xi’s voice, Fang Nianqing’s body gave a faint tremor. But when he turned around, he came face-to-face with Lan Xi’s unmistakable disappointment.
Fang Nianqing suppressed his emotions. “I’m here as your private tutor.”
Lan Xi hadn’t expected them to circle around and meet again like this.
“I’m eating first.” After saying that, he floated toward the dining room.
Fang Nianqing couldn’t hold back and followed. “You haven’t been coming to school lately?”
Lan Xi said, “Wen Yue won’t let me.”
Wen Yue? Fang Nianqing considered it. That should be his older brother.
The one he had seen at school before?
Thinking back to the man’s attitude at the time—saying that Wen Lan was his to discipline—he hadn’t exactly seemed like a responsible older brother.
Wen Yue, whose reputation was being unfairly destroyed, had sent an assistant to stake out the villa at that very moment.
He himself was too busy and simply couldn’t be in two places at once.
It actually wasn’t early anymore. By the time Lan Xi leisurely finished breakfast, it was exactly three in the afternoon.
One of Wen Zixiong’s lovers helped bring down the teaching materials and spread them out.
Fang Nianqing couldn’t help asking, “Why are you studying this?”
He remembered what Lan Xi had looked like during English class before. “Wouldn’t it be better to work on your English first?”
“English?” Lan Xi stared blankly at Fang Nianqing.
Fang Nianqing pulled something up on his phone and showed him.
Lan Xi’s face quickly scrunched up.
Heaven’s language had this many branches?
Just then, a servant came in.
Naturally, the staff didn’t regard Wen Zixiong’s two lovers as masters of the house, so the servant looked directly at Lan Xi. “Young Master, I think a guest has arrived.”
“Mm?”
Lan Xi’s phone vibrated immediately afterward.
He took it out and looked. Fu Hui had sent him a message.
[Local specialties. Want some?]
Lan Xi stood up. The housekeeper was already leading Fu Hui inside. He didn’t recognize Fu Hui, but judging from his clothes and bearing, there was naturally no chance he would stop him outside.
The housekeeper was just about to ask whether the young master knew him when Lan Xi spoke first. “Local specialties. What are they?”
Fu Hui had put thought into what he should bring when visiting.
The Wen family wasn’t short of money, and naturally Lan Xi wasn’t lacking food. He should already have eaten plenty of Chinese and Western cuisine, and Luo Jin had even taken him to a buffet. Oh, and according to Luo Jin, he didn’t like Japanese food either.
So local snacks were the most suitable choice.
Lan Xi probably hadn’t eaten them before.
Judging by his reaction, he hadn’t merely never eaten them—he had never even heard of them.
Fu Hui had the bodyguard behind him place all the packaged food in front of Lan Xi.
Lan Xi opened them one by one.
Pea cake, three-delicacy doupi, salted duck, qingbuliang dessert soup, double-skin milk pudding… specialties from several different regions.
“Our chef made them,” Fu Hui said.
Lan Xi had always thought the chef at Fu Hui’s place was exceptionally skilled. His eyes immediately lit up, and for a while he couldn’t tear his gaze away from the food.
Fu Hui’s gaze fell on Fang Nianqing, though only for a moment.
Then he looked at the study materials spread across the coffee table.
“Studying?”
Fu Hui knew perfectly well that he was being overbearing.
There was clearly nothing between them, yet he still disliked seeing other people do the same things with Lan Xi that he himself did.
Fu Hui didn’t show it. He simply followed Lan Xi into the dining room.
As he watched Lan Xi eat, he chatted with him. “How is it living here?”
Lan Xi spared enough attention to answer, “Free.”
“Then do you still need me to say that thing?”
What thing?
Lan Xi thought about it a beat too late.
Oh. Saying that he wasn’t Wen Lan.
And after he said it?
Lan Xi narrowed his eyes and studied Fu Hui.
Fu Hui stared back without avoiding his gaze.
Neither of them was the sort of person who would retreat.
Fu Hui had thought that whenever he went long enough without seeing Lan Xi, the impression he left would quickly fade.
Instead, everything had gotten completely messed up—
Now, not only did he clearly remember Lan Xi’s habits and preferences, he remembered exactly what expression Lan Xi made when he ate something he liked. He remembered how, whenever Lan Xi became irritated because he couldn’t write a character properly, he unconsciously drew circles on the paper…
He even remembered the shape of Lan Xi’s collarbones, the expression on his face when he looked straight into the camera, the curve of his waist bending slightly beneath a tightened ribbon, the way he pursed his lips, the way he pouted…
It was practically a form of cognitive contamination.
There was nowhere to avoid it.
He knew Lan Xi had deliberately sent those photographs.
He also knew that, in the end, he had tacitly allowed Lan Xi to keep doing it.
Then don’t avoid it.
“Do you want to come with me?”
Fang Nianqing, who had already been vaguely repelled by Fu Hui, couldn’t help frowning when he heard that.
That sounded suspiciously like an abduction.
Lan Xi: O-o
He looked at Fu Hui warily and didn’t rush to answer.
“Sir…” Fang Nianqing spoke up.
Fu Hui turned his eyes and gave him a bland glance. “This has nothing to do with you.”
Lan Xi lowered his head and took a bite of qingbuliang. When he looked up again, he couldn’t conceal a strange excitement.
He asked, “You saw the photos?”
Fu Hui said, “I did.”
Lan Xi asked, “You liked them?”
Fu Hui’s Adam’s apple moved, but he said nothing.
Lan Xi was very dissatisfied with how conservative seraphs were. He leaned forward and pressed him. “You didn’t like them?”
Fu Hui met his excited gaze.
Once again, he was absolutely certain that Lan Xi had never been some obedient little mute.
“Talk,” Lan Xi demanded unhappily.
For a moment, Fang Nianqing had the bizarre illusion that Lan Xi was interrogating the man.
Lan Xi smiled smugly. “I told you that day… lots of people like me… I don’t necessarily have to… go with you.”
Fu Hui lifted his eyelids slightly, concealing the trace of darkness in his gaze.
Suddenly, he said, “I do.” After a pause, he slowly asked Lan Xi in return, “Want me to tell you which one I like best?”
Demons didn’t possess much sense of shame in the first place.
Lan Xi nodded. “Okay!”
Fu Hui’s Adam’s apple moved again. He took out his phone and actually pulled up one of the photographs for Lan Xi to see.
Listening to their conversation, Fang Nianqing instinctively lowered his gaze as well. But the way the man held the phone blocked the screen completely.
He couldn’t see a thing.
Fang Nianqing shifted his gaze slightly and met Fu Hui’s indifferent eyes instead. A sudden sense of pressure descended over him.
“Ah,” Lan Xi breathed softly.
This one.
Now Lan Xi believed he really should be able to successfully sleep with him.
Lan Xi was very satisfied.
But demons always held grudges.
He said with exaggerated insincerity, “But I’m not mute.”
Fu Hui: “…”
Lan Xi continued with the same exaggerated insincerity, “And I’m not a girl.”
Then he asked just as insincerely, “What do we do?”
Fu Hui: “…………”
Lan Xi still found time to bite into a piece of three-delicacy doupi after saying that.
Oh. Spicy.
He sucked in a breath, then immediately lowered his head and ate some double-skin milk pudding.
Fu Hui: “………………”
Lan Xi savored the lingering milky flavor on his tongue and asked, “Why aren’t you talking?”
Fu Hui’s expression twisted slightly, but a smile appeared almost immediately. He said softly, “What can we do? Someone devious and full of tricks is much more interesting than a mute girl.”
Devious and full of tricks!
What a wonderful compliment!
The succubus was delighted.
His body temperature had clearly risen.
Yet he hadn’t actually flown into an embarrassed rage.
Lan Xi felt a tiny bit disappointed, but in the end, he was still smug.
He said, “Tomorrow.”
Then he issued his order. “Come pick me up tomorrow.”
He still needed to properly wrap things up with the two Wen brothers.
Although he had already conquered the most troublesome one, he couldn’t discard the other two. They were already only one final step from the finish line.
He could sleep with this one and then sleep with that one. He couldn’t pick up the watermelon only to throw away the sesame seeds.
Elio’s Notes: Lan Xi is reversing the familiar Chinese saying “pick up the sesame seeds and lose the watermelon,” which warns against sacrificing something important for something trivial. His version effectively means that even after securing the “watermelon,” he refuses to abandon the “sesame seeds.”
Lan Xi paused after thinking that and felt extremely proud of himself for applying one of Heaven’s fables so flexibly.
Fu Hui looked deeply at Lan Xi before answering, “All right.”
Outside the villa, Wen Ming—who had chosen to keep watch personally—looked absolutely terrible.
First, he had watched Fang Nianqing enter the villa. Before he could even recover from that, he watched Fu Hui go inside too.
When Fu Hui still hadn’t come back out after a long time, Wen Ming’s face had already turned iron-gray, and even his heart had begun pounding wildly.
Just as Wen Ming was preparing to charge straight inside, Fu Hui finally emerged.
Don’t be impulsive.
Wen Ming repeated those four words silently to himself.
Only after Fu Hui’s car had driven away did Wen Ming stride through the door. He went straight past Fang Nianqing and seized Lan Xi by the wrist. “Come with me.”
The spoon in Lan Xi’s hand fell with a clatter.
Lan Xi: ?
Why did these two brothers keep grabbing him and dragging him away at the slightest provocation?
Leave a Reply