Lan Xi was terribly busy.
【Are you really Lan Xi himself? Has your account been hacked?】
【You’ve never said a word on any social-media platform before, and now you’ve suddenly appeared to speak up. Is this real or fake?】
【How can you prove you’re Lan Xi?】
How could he prove it?
Lan Xi raised his phone, snapped a selfie, and posted it without a second’s hesitation.
【Oh my God, it really is Lan Xi!】
【Baby, kisses, kisses, kisses!】
【How can anyone be this beautiful?!】
Beside him, Fu Hui: “…”
Lan Xi had moved so quickly that Fu Hui hadn’t even had time to stop him.
They were tricking a child, weren’t they? All just to get a photograph out of him.
Lan Xi was still earnestly replying to comments. To the fan asking for kisses, he wrote: 【No kissing.】
He also liked the comment praising his beauty.
The netizens were beside themselves with excitement. They tried every trick they could think of to coax Lan Xi into replying.
【Wait, this photo’s a little blurry. I don’t think it completely proves you’re the real Lan Xi.】
【How about a video showing yourself from every angle, a full 360 degrees?】
【Isn’t that a bit too obvious?】 That comment went up and was almost immediately deleted.
Fu Hui glanced at it and knew Lan Xi probably wouldn’t care in the slightest.
When it came to showing off his own beauty, Lan Xi was extraordinarily generous.
Sure enough, Lan Xi raised an eyebrow slightly and was already holding up his phone to record a 360-degree video.
This time, Fu Hui stopped him. “No. You’ll show the furnishings inside our home. If you accidentally film what’s outside the windows, people could work out where we live. That would be too dangerous.”
“Okay, okay.” Lan Xi obediently lowered the phone, but then filled the entire screen with his face, just as he used to do when sending Fu Hui selfies as a child.
He quickly recorded a few seconds of video and said, “It’s really me.”
Then he posted it.
Fu Hui pressed his temples helplessly.
But faced with a Lan Xi like this, how could anyone not be delighted?
Sure enough, the fans in the comments section were grinning from ear to ear, calling him “beautiful baby” and “baby, how are you this cute?”
Even netizens who had come running to see what all the fuss was about joined in, showering him with compliments.
Lan Xi scrolled through them with relish. “So this is what makes it so fun!”
Fu Hui asked, “Are we still going to bed?”
Lan Xi replied, “Mm… no rush, no rush.”
Fu Hui looked up at the time, then hoisted Lan Xi over his shoulder and carried him away without taking no for an answer.
But Lan Xi was thoroughly hooked. He wanted to look at his phone while taking a bath. Even after Fu Hui tucked him into bed, a faint glow would light up beneath the covers before long. He was still looking at his phone.
Lan Xi chatted eagerly with his fans in the comments for three whole hours.
A fan asked: Lan Xi, you really love your big brother, don’t you?
Lan Xi said: Yes.
Another fan said: Lan Xi, you look so beautiful in the drama. There’s not a single bad angle.
Lan Xi replied: Of course.
A fan confessed: I really, really like you. I’ve liked you ever since you first debuted in magazine shoots…
Lan Xi thought back to something from his new health education class and replied: Pedophiles should be electrocuted.
Other fans kept posting: Look at me! Look at me…
Lan Xi: I see you. You’re making my eyes go deaf from all the noise.
Another fan confessed: Lan Xi, I love you!
Lan Xi was rather cool about it: Thank you, but I can’t love you.
The fan wasn’t upset and curiously asked: Why not?
Lan Xi replied smugly: I only love one person, you know.
The fans had pretty much guessed who it was, but played along anyway: Who is it?
Lan Xi typed out Fu Hui’s name, then deleted it. In the end, he simply replied: Big Brother.
Everyone who saw that thought, He really does have a brother complex!
Another fan asked: Lan Xi, could you act in lots more dramas?
Lan Xi said: No. Too many lines.
…
He was so excited about chatting that no one could pull him away, until his manager finally couldn’t stand it anymore and called. “How about we talk a little less?”
The manager was terrified that the more Lan Xi talked, the more likely he was to say something he shouldn’t.
After all, celebrities replying to fans was perfectly normal. Replying to them nonstop for three hours was not!
“No,” Lan Xi said with a pout.
When the manager saw there was no persuading him, he had no choice but to log into Lan Xi’s account himself and kick him off it.
Lan Xi’s lips turned down. He rolled over beneath the covers to face Fu Hui again. “Why can’t I log in anymore?”
Fu Hui put on a convincing act. “Maybe the internet’s broken?”
“Then what do we do?”
“We’ll have someone come and fix it in the morning.”
“…All right.”
Fu Hui took the opportunity to remove Lan Xi’s phone, tuck the covers snugly around him, and hold Lan Xi firmly against his chest so he wouldn’t sneak onto his phone in the middle of the night again.
Lan Xi made a couple of grumbling noises but stopped struggling. Clutching Fu Hui’s pajama collar, he shut his eyes and happily drifted off to sleep.
＊
Lan Xi became a massive star.
It wasn’t just because he’d starred in his first television drama, which might well be the only one in his life with so many lines.
Nor was it only because of how quickly his acting improved and how stunned everyone had been by his standout scene.
It was also because he was one of those rare celebrities in recent years who felt genuinely real and alive.
Chatting enthusiastically with fans for three hours straight? Unprecedented!
He was so adorable, so easily baited into responding, and so quick to post photos and videos whenever anyone asked. How could people possibly resist liking him?
By the time he truly became famous beyond his existing circle, the netizens who came looking for him in the comments section were out of luck. Lan Xi was no longer there.
That only made those three hours seem more precious. For a long time afterward, the netizens who had been there for the whole thing still felt shaken whenever they thought back on it.
Because Lan Xi had become so famous, his manager repeatedly warned him to be careful when going out.
There was really no need to worry. Lan Xi stayed home and watched the rest of his drama over summer vacation, then seized the last days of the break to travel abroad with Fu Hui and fly to his heart’s content.
By the time they returned, the excitement had died down a little.
It was time for Fu Hui to register at university.
As everyone expected, Fu Hui had gotten into one of the country’s top universities.
With his abilities, getting into a world-class university abroad wouldn’t have been difficult either. But the Fu family would never have felt comfortable letting him study overseas. They were afraid certain forces overseas might take an interest in him.
Fu Hui would attend university in China, and no one was happier about that than Lan Xi.
“Mm, Dad’s very busy and Mom’s very busy. From now on, I’ll be in charge of taking Fu Hui to school!” Lan Xi declared with a great sense of responsibility.
Third Older Cousin couldn’t help interjecting, “Fu Hui’s an adult now. He doesn’t need someone taking him to school…”
Lan Xi glared at him. “What’s being an adult got to do with it?”
Third Older Cousin slid his chair backward, still sitting in it. “Well, once you’re grown up, shouldn’t you do things for yourself…?”
Lan Xi gave a cold laugh. “So once you’re grown up, you don’t need to eat anymore? You don’t need to sleep?”
Third Older Cousin wanted to say that wasn’t the same thing, but he knew better than to argue with Lan Xi that way.
Lan Xi stood up, walked past Third Older Cousin, and stepped on his foot for good measure. “I bet nobody’s ever taken you to school in your life!”
Third Older Cousin: “…”
Well, of course. Who hadn’t been driven to school by the family’s driver and bodyguards since childhood?
Fine! Fu Hui was different. He and Lan Xi were practically inseparable!
Third Older Cousin admitted to himself that he was a little jealous.
He pulled out a small notebook and caught up with Lan Xi again. “Wait, wait. Could you give me your autograph? My buddy really likes you…”
Halfway through, he caught sight of Fu Hui coming out of the study and abruptly changed course. “…The character you played, I mean. He said you did an amazing job playing that brother-obsessed guy.”
Lan Xi had rolled his eyes at Third Older Cousin countless times, but they’d grown up together, so he was willing to humor him at least a little.
He took the notebook. An idea occurred to him, and he patted Fu Hui on the back. “We don’t have a table. What do we do?”
Fu Hui: “…”
He obligingly bent over.
Lan Xi promptly pressed the notebook against his back.
Third Older Cousin wasn’t remotely used to seeing Fu Hui so willing to ‘bow and scrape.’
He was speechless. These two really were each other’s undoing.
Lan Xi quickly signed his name and handed the notebook back to Third Older Cousin.
Third Older Cousin opened it and exclaimed, “Whoa, your handwriting really is beautiful. But why does it look so much like Fu Hui’s?”
Fu Hui said evenly, “We had the same teacher.”
Third Older Cousin had gotten what he wanted and was about to leave, but he still couldn’t resist adding, “Seriously, Lan Xi, you’re not suited to taking Fu Hui to school. You’re far too famous now, and that purple hair of yours is especially recognizable. People could easily mob you on the way.”
That gave Lan Xi pause.
Third Older Cousin took one look at his expression and fled before Fu Hui could get angry.
“Don’t listen to him.” Fu Hui pulled Lan Xi back to the sofa and sat him down, then had a bodyguard bring Lan Xi dessert. “We’ll be discreet. No one will find out.”
Lan Xi slurped a mouthful of mango pomelo sago and gradually settled down. Then he started ordering Fu Hui around again. “Feed me, feed me.”
＊
On the day they went to register Fu Hui at university, Fu Hui tied up all of Lan Xi’s hair, put a hat on his head, and made sure he wore a face mask.
Fu Hui did the same himself.
They entered the university gates as inconspicuously as possible, with the bodyguards following at a discreet distance. Nothing unexpected happened along the way.
Fu Hui applied for permission to live off campus. In the end, though, it was still Fu Hui who took Lan Xi to school every morning before heading to university himself.
After all, Fu Hui didn’t have early classes every day, but Lan Xi had morning self-study.
Lan Xi wasn’t happy about that. “I want to go to university too!”
“Soon.”
To prevent anyone from discovering that Fu Hui’s “little brother” was the famous star Lan Xi, Fu Hui made sure none of his university classmates met Lan Xi.
Lan Xi was very unhappy about that too.
Lan Xi counted on his fingers, his little face drawn, and said, “I don’t want to be famous anymore.”
His manager nearly had a heart attack.
All to avoid becoming even more famous.
Lan Xi made good on his words: he never took on a second television drama.
People watched and rewatched his one and only drama until it was practically worn smooth. It became a cherished, unforgettable favorite in everyone’s hearts.
His manager naturally had no way to persuade him otherwise.
Lan Xi didn’t lack money or power. What could anyone possibly offer him?
All the manager could do was announce that the young star would be starting high school soon, so his studies would be demanding and he’d be making fewer public appearances…
Whenever the public thought back to those three hours that night, it all felt like a dream.
In Fu Hui’s first year at university, Lan Xi was terribly distressed when Fu Hui finished his military training.
Fu Hui’s sunburned skin had started peeling, with large patches turned red.
Fu Lin was distressed too, but still thought boys needed toughening up. “If I weren’t afraid Little Lan Xi would hang me outside my front gate, I’d have sent you to a military academy for some proper training.”
That earned him an eye roll from Lan Xi.
By now, Fu Hui no longer needed to bring Lan Xi along to strengthen the little succubus’s relationship with Fu Lin.
Fu Lin merely rubbed his nose at the eye roll and said from the other end of the call, “I have another meeting. Bye-bye.”
Meanwhile, Lan Xi ordered Fu Hui, “Take your clothes off!”
He wouldn’t let anyone else help. Instead, he slowly and carefully applied medicine to Fu Hui’s sunburned skin himself.
Fu Hui lay face down on the sofa, listening to the soft rustling as Lan Xi busied himself tending to his body.
An hour passed in the blink of an eye.
Lan Xi was painstakingly thorough, but the way he applied the ointment made Fu Hui itch, as though ants were crawling over his skin.
Such patience was unusual for the little fellow.
Fu Hui couldn’t bear to interrupt him, so he asked gently, by way of showing concern, “Have you worked up a sweat?”
Lan Xi grabbed Fu Hui’s hand and pressed it against his own neck. “Feel. No sweat!”
He proudly added, “I hardly sweat at all anymore. I just smell sweet.”
Fu Hui paused. “Why?”
“Because that’s what happens when succubi grow up. We just get sweeter-smelling and prettier!”
Now that Fu Hui had grown up, he knew that “succubus” did not mean “little-sister demon.”
He knitted his brows.
This demon seems rather improper… No, I’d better keep an even closer eye on Lan Xi!