“Ha.” Lan Xi raised his chin. “Finally realized you were wrong?”
Wen Yue met that face and said nothing.
In the past, hearing him speak in that tone would inevitably have stirred up his anger again.
But now, his feelings were far more complicated.
Lan Xi accused him, “I told you I wasn’t Wen Lan. You didn’t believe me.”
Wen Zixiong was astonished. “You said that?”
Wen Yue was speechless too. “Wen Lan used to cause trouble constantly… He’d pretend to have amnesia at the drop of a hat, pretend to be possessed…”
Lan Xi’s tone was cool. “Not my problem.”
Wen Yue had nothing to say to that. “Yes. We still shouldn’t have mistaken you for him.”
He paused and held the card out again. “So take it.”
Lan Xi reached out to accept it.
The bodyguard spoke. “Sir told you not to accept things from other people.”
That immediately caught Wen Yue’s attention, and he couldn’t help looking the bodyguard over again.
Lan Xi was dissatisfied. “Why? I want it.”
The bodyguard coaxed him gently. “There’s everything you need at home.”
Lan Xi: “Then give me a card?”
“Yes.”
All right.
Lan Xi extended one finger, pressed it against Wen Yue’s hand, and pushed the card back against Wen Yue’s chest. Pouting, he said, “Spend it yourself.”
The corner of Wen Zixiong’s mouth twitched. He felt as though they had forgotten something and couldn’t help reminding them, “That’s the card I gave him…”
Lan Xi: “Right. He gave it. You spend it.”
Lan Xi glanced at Wen Zixiong. “You hate him anyway. If you don’t spend it, it’ll go to waste.”
Wen Zixiong: “…”
Something stirred in Wen Yue’s chest. He tightly gripped the thin card and barely managed to recover his voice. “What did you come here to get?”
Lan Xi: “My notebook.”
Wen Zixiong cut in. “Which thing in this house wasn’t bought by Wen Yue and the others? How does any of it count as yours?”
Wen Yue directly ignored his biological father and said to Lan Xi, “Go upstairs and look. Nothing in your room has been moved.”
Lan Xi gave an acknowledging hum and still moved around as freely as though this were his own home. He went straight upstairs, found his diary, hugged it against his chest, and carried it back down.
Downstairs, Wen Yue asked the bodyguard, “Were you the one who brought him back from Hai City?”
The bodyguard’s expression was stern now, without any of the coaxing softness he used on Lan Xi. “No.”
Wen Yue couldn’t help wondering who was behind this bodyguard.
Could it be someone Lan Xi had met before, when he had gone around waiting for someone to pick him up?
“Your boss…” Wen Yue asked directly.
The bodyguard ignored him and turned his gaze toward Lan Xi. “Did you finish packing everything you wanted?”
“Mm.”
Lan Xi didn’t care about anything else.
Televisions and food existed everywhere. He didn’t care about clothes either. If Heaven allowed it, he could even run around naked at Fu Hui’s house.
Only then did Wen Zixiong and Wen Yue look carefully and realize Lan Xi had taken just one notebook.
Not a laptop.
The notebook wasn’t thick, and its binding was simple. It looked like something bought from a roadside shop for only a few yuan.
Even Wen Zixiong couldn’t find anything to criticize.
Wen Yue was even more shaken.
Seen from another angle, the boy in front of him really was extraordinarily simple…
“Then let’s go.” The bodyguard walked ahead to clear the way for Lan Xi.
Wen Yue felt as though he still had things he wanted to say, but he didn’t know what he wanted to say or what he even could say.
He instinctively followed them for several steps, accompanying Lan Xi all the way to the front gate.
Several black sedans were parked outside. One glance was enough for Wen Yue to keenly notice that all of them had bulletproof glass.
Wen Yue immediately thought of the photographs Lan Xi had sent.
Those were obviously the kind of photos someone had seduced him into sending.
Lan Xi looked this innocent, this naive… Thinking back now, when he first arrived at the Wen family home, he hadn’t been pretending to be stupid at all. He probably really hadn’t understood anything…
Whoever had received those photographs had practically subjected him to one-sided bullying through that kind of seduction.
Wen Yue frowned and took out his phone, finding the number he had secretly memorized.
Just then, the sedan door opened.
Wen Yue could vaguely make out the silhouette of the person sitting inside.
Sharp trouser creases, long legs bent… It was a man.
Without hesitating any longer, Wen Yue dialed the number.
A vibration buzzed.
It came from that man.
The man answered the phone.
At the same time, Wen Yue strode forward and, to everyone’s surprise, caught hold of the car door.
“What are you doing?” Lan Xi looked at him strangely.
Wen Yue didn’t look at him. He only met the gaze of the person inside the car.
…It was Fu Hui.
Wen Yue’s heart gave a violent jolt. For a moment, he found it genuinely difficult to connect the person who had received those photographs with Fu Hui…
Lan Xi was still puzzled. “Do you want to come with us too?”
Wen Yue moved his lips, his expression somewhat unpleasant. “I didn’t expect it to be Mr. Fu.”
“I did know that you were the one who took Lan Xi’s WeChat and sent me that message that day.” Fu Hui’s expression was calm as still water.
Of course he didn’t care that Wen Yue had discovered him.
At the Song family gathering that day, he had deliberately allowed Wen Ming to see him too.
The only reason he hadn’t accompanied Lan Xi inside today was that he didn’t feel like listening to Wen Zixiong’s chatter.
Wen Yue’s expression darkened further. “Those photographs…”
It wasn’t as though Fu Hui’s reputation was being ruined for the first time anyway.
What concerned him more was something else. “Young Master Wen saw those photographs?”
Wen Yue’s face stiffened, and he didn’t answer.
Lan Xi cut in. “What photographs?”
Fu Hui answered him. “The ones you sent me.”
Lan Xi was confused. “But I deleted the chat history.”
Fu Hui raised an eyebrow. So his conversations with Fu Hui had really been conducted in secret.
“Did you delete them from the photo gallery?”
Lan Xi reacted. “Oh. He looked through my gallery!”
Fu Hui gave Wen Yue a sidelong look. “Young Master Wen certainly likes to interfere.”
Wen Yue’s entire face tightened. He had no way to refute it.
“Get in,” Fu Hui said to Lan Xi.
Lan Xi went around Wen Yue and climbed into the car.
But Wen Yue still held firmly onto the car door, showing no intention of letting go.
One of the bodyguards beside them shifted his feet, preparing to step forward and remove him, but Fu Hui stopped him with a gesture.
“Does Young Master Wen feel unwilling to let go because he spent some money on Lan Xi?”
Wen Yue’s face stung with embarrassment, but he still insisted on asking, “I don’t care about money. I only want to know whether that small house in the mountains belongs to Mr. Fu.”
Fu Hui didn’t answer.
But the answer was obvious enough to Wen Yue. The person Lan Xi had gone back into the mountains to find that time had also been him!
Wen Yue tightened his grip on the car door. “I have one last question… What kind of relationship do Lan Xi and Mr. Fu have?”
“That doesn’t seem like something you need to concern yourself with.”
As soon as Fu Hui finished speaking, the bodyguard stepped forward to remove Wen Yue.
Lan Xi clung to the car window and looked back. Wen Yue grew farther and farther away, and his expression seemed to grow darker too.
Finally, Fu Hui reached out and turned Lan Xi’s head back around. “Is he that nice to look at?”
Lan Xi didn’t understand veiled sarcasm. He seriously evaluated the question. “He’s okay.”
Fu Hui: “…”
Fu Hui lowered his head and looked at what Lan Xi had placed on his lap. “Just one notebook?”
Lan Xi: “Mm.”
Fu Hui reached out to take it. “Is it important?”
Lan Xi pressed down on the back of his hand. “You certainly like to interfere.”
Fu Hui: “…”
That sounded very familiar.
Had he just learned it?
Back at the villa, Wen Zixiong finally came running outside. “Why were you hanging onto someone else’s car door?”
Wen Zixiong had never seen Wen Yue behave like this. He found it rather novel and couldn’t help asking a few more questions. “Who was the person who came to pick him up? This Lan Xi—is that his name? What exactly is his background? You brothers inexplicably brought him home, and he really stayed with us for so long…”
“The person who picked him up was Fu Hui.”
“Who?!”
Wen Zixiong’s expression froze.
Wen Yue glanced at him mockingly. “Don’t tell me you’re suddenly wishing he really were Wen Lan now.”
Wen Zixiong smiled awkwardly. “Of course not.” Then he said, “I just think it’s strange. Aren’t you curious? The last time I took him over to apologize, that should’ve been his first time meeting Mr. Fu. Mr. Fu was angry then too. So how did things suddenly become like this?”
Wen Zixiong wasn’t stupid either. He immediately realized, “That Song family gathering—Mr. Fu arranged it because he wanted to see him, didn’t he?”
Wen Yue found the conversation increasingly irritating. Without saying anything, he got into his car and left.
Wen Zixiong called after him. “Hey, hey, hey! Why are you just leaving?”
The villa returned to silence.
Wen Zixiong shook his shoulders uncomfortably. Fortunately, his lovers were still living in the villa. He turned around and quickly found a way to relieve that little bit of loneliness.
Only after Wen Yue returned home did he truly feel how empty the place had become.
He went upstairs and saw a servant cleaning the room Lan Xi had lived in.
Several scattered textbooks had been gathered together. The servant was preparing to throw them away.
“Wait.” Wen Yue stopped them. “Put them in my study.”
The servant nodded in confusion.
Wen Yue walked inside and saw the television remote still on the bedside table. He could practically picture Lan Xi reluctantly leaning against the headboard, completely absorbed in watching television…
Wen Yue forcibly suppressed the image and turned toward his own bedroom.
But after only a few steps, he saw the shopping bags piled on the floor.
The clothes he had confiscated from Lan Xi before had been forgotten instead of thrown away.
Those photographs flashed uncontrollably through Wen Yue’s mind again.
He let out a long breath and walked tiredly to the bed, sitting down… Great. Now he was remembering Lan Xi insisting that he read him a bedtime story, then stepping on his leg when he wasn’t satisfied.
Before, Wen Yue had thought Wen Ming had gone insane.
Now Wen Yue thought there might be something wrong with him too.
＊
After Fu Hui brought Lan Xi back to the villa, Lan Xi immediately became Fu Hui’s little tail.
Wherever Fu Hui went, he followed.
If Fu Hui went to the garden, he followed.
Fu Hui could understand that.
If Fu Hui went to the study, he followed.
Fu Hui could understand that too.
If Fu Hui went to the bathroom…
Fu Hui could not understand that.
Fu Hui grabbed Lan Xi by the back of the neck. “Why don’t you just turn into a scarf and hang around my neck?”
Lan Xi seriously considered it. “Can’t.”
That would be difficult for a demon.
Fu Hui: “…”
He pushed Lan Xi outside. “Stop following me.”
Lan Xi pouted and took one step back, guarding the door instead.
His silhouette curved across the glass door.
He really did look like a cat.
Fu Hui dried the water from his hands and came out. “Are you planning to follow me all the time?”
Lan Xi argued confidently, “Mm. Otherwise, how will I know whether you’re properly preparing?”
Preparing what… Preparing to go to bed with him?
Fu Hui: “…”
Fu Hui said, “Come here.”
He brought Lan Xi into the study and had a bodyguard bring up a laptop.
Fu Hui had originally found the idea disgusting, but if he watched it together with Lan Xi, maybe it wouldn’t be quite so nauseating?
He said, “Let’s watch together.”
Lan Xi was curious. “Watch what?”
Fu Hui pressed him onto the sofa, bent down, turned on the laptop, found an instructional resource, and pressed play.
Lan Xi thought they were watching television.
He thought Fu Hui was being surprisingly nice today, even watching TV with him.
Lan Xi stared fixedly at the screen.
Then he saw two naked asses.
Fu Hui didn’t last even half a minute before snapping the laptop shut again, a strong wave of nausea rising through him.
Lan Xi commented from beside him, “They look like two plucked chickens.”
Fu Hui: “…” He asked Lan Xi, “Is it nice to watch?”
Lan Xi shook his head so hard it looked like a rattle. “Why are we watching this?”
Fu Hui: “To learn.”
“Learn what?”
Fu Hui pinched the bridge of his nose. “Learn how to prepare.”
Lan Xi understood and immediately accused him angrily, “Then why aren’t you studying properly?”
Fu Hui: “…”
Lan Xi forcefully reopened the laptop. “Watch!”
Fu Hui took one glance, his face turning green.
Lan Xi didn’t care. He raised both arms and held Fu Hui’s head in place, refusing to let him move.
Fu Hui lifted his eyelids. Then he simply wrapped an arm around Lan Xi’s waist, pulled him over his lap, and the nausea abruptly subsided.
Or rather, his attention had been redirected.
Fu Hui lowered his gaze. His eyes swept across the pale, luminous skin at Lan Xi’s neck. Unconsciously, his palm pressed over it and rubbed several times, quickly turning the skin red.
“Why aren’t you studying properly?” Lan Xi had barely finished his indignant accusation—
when Fu Hui pressed him down against the sofa.
Some desires seemed to rise naturally.
They needed no outside force to push them along.
Nor did they require a textbook as an example.
And so kissing became instinct. Pressing skin against skin became instinct.
Fu Hui bent down and kissed the side of his neck.
Lan Xi paused, then happily asked, “You learned that fast?”
Fu Hui didn’t answer. He lightly pinched Lan Xi’s cheek, then finally truly tried biting down on those endlessly chattering lips.
All of Lan Xi’s remaining words were immediately blocked.
He cooperatively parted his lips, making it easier for Fu Hui to kiss him deeper.
These really were extraordinarily kissable lips.
Lan Xi panted softly as his lips and tongue tangled passionately with Fu Hui’s.
It was difficult to feel even the slightest disgust. Instead, it created the illusion of being intensely loved by the other person.
Fu Hui naturally kissed him even harder, stirring up faint wet sounds along with it.
Lan Xi’s scalp tingled with excitement again, his toes curling involuntarily.
He wrapped both arms and legs around Fu Hui, their noses rubbing intimately together.
But that seemed to provoke a trace of the seraph’s ferocity. Lan Xi gradually began to feel slightly breathless, and his mouth hurt a little too.
He made a muffled sound.
At the same time, the laptop was still making noise.
Compared with the sounds coming from Lan Xi’s mouth, Fu Hui found the laptop’s audio unbearably grating. He swept the computer off onto the floor, stepped on it, and snapped the lid shut, cutting off the rest of those irritating noises.
At some point, wind had picked up outside. It blew in through the window that hadn’t been completely closed, rattling loudly.
Fu Hui released Lan Xi.
Lan Xi looked at him blankly. “Finished?”
Fu Hui stared at Lan Xi’s lips for a moment.
Lan Xi’s lips really seemed unable to endure much kissing. They already looked like crushed strawberries, glossy and decadent, as though they couldn’t take any more force.
Fu Hui shifted his burning gaze away and said lightly, “We’re still missing something.”
“What?” Lan Xi frowned.
Fu Hui very slowly wiped the moisture from his lips. “Didn’t you make plans to eat with Luo Jin?”
Lan Xi said, “Not today.”
“Make it today. He can take you to buy new clothes while he’s at it.”
“I don’t have to wear clothes.”
“…”
Lan Xi kicked Fu Hui’s thigh with his foot. “Why aren’t you saying anything?”
The muscles in Fu Hui’s thigh tightened. He caught Lan Xi by the ankle. “Enough. Luo Jin will be here soon.”
Lan Xi was unhappy.
Fu Hui stood and walked to one side, pulled open a drawer, took out a piece of candy, removed the wrapper, and stuffed it into Lan Xi’s mouth.
Lan Xi instinctively sucked on it twice.
Fu Hui tightly curled his fingers. “Good?”
“Mm, mm.” Lan Xi licked the candy.
“Have you ever had filled candy?”
Lan Xi shook his head.
“The shell is crisp. When you bite down, the soft, sticky filling spills throughout your mouth. I’m going to buy you some candy now.”
Lan Xi looked at him as though to say don’t try to fool me. “You have so many people. Send them.”
Fu Hui couldn’t help laughing. “You really are smart.” He lowered his voice. “But I also need to buy something else. Something I can’t have another person buy for me.”
Lan Xi was puzzled. “What?”
Fu Hui answered casually, “The thing we’re still missing for preparation.”
Lan Xi immediately urged him, “Go, go.”
Fu Hui narrowed his eyes and stared at him for two seconds. Then he couldn’t resist reaching out and pinching his face once more before finally leaving.
Sure enough, Luo Jin arrived two hours later.
The bodyguards didn’t let him inside. They only brought Lan Xi downstairs, then sent him out with Luo Jin to shop at the mall.
Luo Jin clicked his tongue in wonder inside the car. “I never thought there’d be a day when I could come here…” He turned his head halfway through the sentence. “What happened to your mouth?”
Lan Xi answered openly, “Kissing.”
It had actually been fairly comfortable. Quite exciting too.
Fu Hui really was an amazing seraph. Lan Xi smacked his lips, still savoring it.
Luo Jin was startled. “Aren’t you afraid your brothers will see when you go back?”
Lan Xi immediately brightened. “They’re not my brothers anymore!”
Now nobody could control him! Hahaha!
Luo Jin clicked his tongue. Things had progressed all the way to severing family ties that quickly?
“Then you don’t want the Wen family inheritance anymore?”
Lan Xi couldn’t be bothered explaining. “None of my fucking business.”
Luo Jin thought that made sense.
Whatever Lan Xi wanted, couldn’t he just ask Mr. Fu for it?
Now Luo Jin was the only one still loyal to his original mission, continuing his stubborn battle against his own elder brother.
Luo Jin immediately perked up and decided to serve Lan Xi especially well, hoping Lan Xi would put in a good word for him in bed.
“Come on, come on. I’m telling you, I found a new shop recently. You’ll definitely… no…” Luo Jin lowered his voice for the last part. “Mr. Fu will definitely like it.”
＊
Fu Hui completely gave up on instructional videos.
He brought back two books instead.
Written words allowed more room for imagination and weren’t tied to specific faces. They probably wouldn’t be as easy to find disgusting.
When Lan Xi returned to the villa, Fu Hui was reading one of them.
Lan Xi dropped the shopping bags and immediately hung himself all over Fu Hui.
Fu Hui didn’t push him away, which made Lan Xi extremely smug.
Lan Xi squeezed under Fu Hui’s arm and forced himself directly into his embrace, sticking his head out to look at the book too.
Fu Hui’s expression didn’t change. He simply held Lan Xi around the waist and adjusted the position of his butt.
This really was easier to tolerate than the instructional video.
Fu Hui could even flip through the pages while idly playing with Lan Xi’s hand.
At that point, Lan Xi had a question.
He pointed at a character. “How do you read this?”
Fu Hui: “…” That particular character really wasn’t very dignified to say aloud.
But Lan Xi was anxious about encountering a character he didn’t know. He patted Fu Hui’s forearm and urged him, “How do you read it?”
Fu Hui had genuinely never done anything this undignified before.
Lan Xi twisted his butt in dissatisfaction. “Teach me!”
Fu Hui was set on fire by his movements. He could only lean close to Lan Xi’s ear and lower his voice until it was almost a whisper. “This character… is pronounced cào.”
Lan Xi: “Oh, oh.”
Elio’s Notes: Cào (操) is a vulgar Chinese verb roughly equivalent to “fuck.” The raw avoids printing the character directly and gives only its pronunciation.
But this book still contained far too many words Lan Xi had never seen before.
Very soon, Lan Xi pointed at another phrase. “What does this mean?”
Fu Hui: “…”
Lan Xi: “Tell me.”
Fu Hui was reaching his limit.
He absolutely could not read this thing together with Lan Xi. Half a page was enough to start two fires.
He casually tossed the book aside and turned his gaze toward the shopping bags nearby. “What clothes did you buy? Let me see.”
Lan Xi, who loved learning, was displeased at being interrupted.
But he was very satisfied with the clothes he had bought and couldn’t wait to show them to Fu Hui.
So he slid down from Fu Hui’s arms, too lazy to even walk another two steps. He hooked the shopping bag closer with his foot, bent down, and pulled something out—
A dress?
Fu Hui’s eyelid twitched.
“Luo Jin took you to buy that?”
Fu Hui’s original intention had been for Lan Xi to buy clothes suitable for going outside.
Lan Xi said, “Mm-hm. Luo Jin said you’d definitely like it.”
Fu Hui: “…”
He turned and picked up the phone, telling his secretary to arrange for several brands to bring their new-season clothes directly to the house.
It seemed more reliable to let Lan Xi choose at home.
Lan Xi, however, was very curious. He held the dress up against himself. “Do you like it?”
Fu Hui met his eyes and clearly saw the excitement and ill intent inside them.
When Fu Hui didn’t speak—
Lan Xi grew even more enthusiastic. “You obviously liked the photographs.”
After a long silence, Fu Hui suddenly smiled. “All right. Wear it tomorrow.”
Lan Xi: “Oh.”
Now that Fu Hui had actually gone along with him, Lan Xi somehow found it less satisfying. He studied Fu Hui’s expression. Fu Hui’s eyes were dark and bottomless, carrying something inexplicably frightening.
＊
Wen Ming hired two local guides. After an entire day of trekking, everyone was exhausted.
Sitting in the mountain forest, he spoke with Wen Yue on the phone. “Didn’t find him. Not even a body…”
“You need to be realistic. You can’t keep wasting time there forever. What about your company?”
Wen Ming had calmed down considerably. “I know.”
After hesitating for a moment, he still asked, “Lan Xi… Have you contacted him?”
“He went back to Dad’s place once.”
Wen Ming immediately perked up. “He went back?”
“He only took one notebook and left.”
Wen Ming froze.
Wen Yue added, “Dad gave him a card before. He returned that too. Aside from his phone and that notebook, he didn’t take anything with him.”
Heat instantly rushed across Wen Ming’s face, his heartbeat becoming painfully fast. “I…” He let out a heavy sigh. “What I said was too harsh.”
Wen Yue didn’t follow that line of conversation. Instead he asked, “Do you remember those photographs on Lan Xi’s phone?”
Wen Ming tightened his grip around his cup. “What about them?”
“Those photographs… were sent to Fu Hui.”
A buzzing filled Wen Ming’s head. He suddenly realized that when Fu Hui had slowly stood in that two-story house, it hadn’t been an act of intimidation at all.
“Why…”
“When we sent him into the mountains, it was because we wanted to keep him away from Fu Hui…” Wen Yue’s voice was suppressed. “But none of us expected that we would send him straight into Fu Hui’s path.”
“So the doctor who called to complain back then, saying there was someone he went out to see every day… that person was Fu Hui.” Wen Ming swallowed, his throat unbearably dry.
For some reason, his heart clenched hard.
There was a distinct pain of having brought everything upon themselves.
The brothers were a little sleepless again that night.
Lan Xi, meanwhile, slept wonderfully.
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