After receiving a full score rating, Ming Qi was in a very good mood. The subtle joy rising in his heart quickly suppressed the discomfort brought by the dirty events of the day. He even ate half a bowl more at dinner. Cen Jing saw this and said with a smile, “Mr. Ming should indeed eat more.”
Ming Qi drank his mango sago dessert and curved his eyes: “Being thinner looks better on camera.”
But he felt he probably wasn’t that thin. His bones and flesh were all fairly well proportioned, and he didn’t easily gain weight. According to Meng She, he was born to be in front of a camera acting.
Yu Qinzou took a sip of wine, his gaze falling on the young man’s waist, and let out an ambiguous laugh.
Ming Qi, noticing his gaze, felt as if the skin on his waist had been burned. He shifted back slightly uncomfortably and quickly changed the topic: “Butler Cen, how is Meng-ge doing over there?”
Cen Jing recalled the next villa and adjusted his glasses: “Mr. Meng is very—”
“Help!” A heart-wrenching shout cut off Cen Jing’s answer.
Everyone in the dining room turned to look. Meng She was dragging one leg and sprinting toward the living room, then slammed the door shut.
He leaned against the door, covered in cold sweat, meeting the eyes of Ming Qi and the others.
Ming Qi stared at his pale face for a few seconds, then hesitantly looked at Cen Jing.
Cen Jing: “……”
No joke, in all the years he had been Yu Qinzou’s butler, this was the first time something had gone wrong this fast.
Kind of fresh.
Cen Jing gave Ming Qi an apologetic smile, then walked forward with long strides to support Meng She, who was drenched in sweat, and asked, “Mr. Meng, what happened?”
Meng She: “Holy crap, where did that big white goose in the next yard come from? It pecks people on sight, clamped onto my calf in one snap and started twisting it like crazy!”
He bent down with difficulty and rolled up his pant leg. Sure enough, there was a red mark above it.
Ming Qi let out an “ah”: “Oh right, Xiao Yi and the others are still over there.”
Feeling guilty, Ming Qi quickly pushed the chair back and helped Meng She to the sofa to sit down, looking awkward: “Brother Meng, those are mine.”
Meng She: “……I’ve seen people raise cats and dogs, but this is the first time I’ve seen someone raise a big white goose as a pet. Ming Qi, you really are something.”
Even Yu Qinzou actually allows it!
The words “West Scenic Bay” and a big white goose clearly do not match at all, okay?
Seriously, he really is too much in love with him.
“But bro, you used to get chased by dogs, and now you’re getting chased by geese. Your experiences are really special.”
Meng She: “Ming Qi, are you asking to be hit after three days of peace?”
Ming Qi placed his hand by his lips and made a zipper motion, obediently going silent.
…
Meng She escaped to Ming Qi’s place to mooch a bowl of mango sago, and under Cen Jing’s escort he successfully returned to his residence. The central building, after dismissing the servants, also became especially quiet.
Now that the weather was warming up, Ming Qi’s fluffy pajamas had been put away and replaced with silk pajamas in the same style as Yu Qinzou’s.
When Yu Qinzou came out of the bathroom wiping his wet hair, Ming Qi hurriedly got up from the bed and enthusiastically took the towel from his hand on his own initiative.
“I’ll do it.”
Usually this kind of thing was done by Yu Qinzou for him. Ming Qi was not skilled at it and was a little worried he might pull his hair or hurt his scalp, so he was extra careful.
Yu Qinzou found it amusing. With one hand he grabbed Ming Qi’s wrist and pulled him directly into his arms, making him sit down.
Caught off guard, Ming Qi stiffened: “W-what’s wrong?”
“I’ll do it myself.”
“You dislike me?” Ming Qi narrowed his eyes suspiciously.
“…You misunderstood.”
“Then I’ll do it.”
He tried to get up and move behind him, but Yu Qinzou’s hand locked around his waist and firmly pulled him back.
Ming Qi’s movement paused, and he looked down at the man’s slightly raised face. Water droplets from his hair fell onto Yu Qinzou’s dark eyelashes, glistening under the light with a seductive allure.
Ming Qi tightened his grip on the towel, not yet speaking, when Yu Qinzou said first, “Dry it like this.”
Ming Qi: “!”
How is he supposed to dry it like this?!
He looked at their current posture. It was no longer something that could be described as simply “ambiguous.”
His legs were pulled back by Yu Qinzou and placed on either side of the man’s waist. He was sitting half-kneeling on Yu Qinzou’s lap. With even the slightest movement, his soft clothes brushed against the other’s face, carrying a faint sea-salt lemon scent.
Ming Qi felt his heartbeat speeding up a little, but they were too close—if Yu Qinzou leaned forward even slightly, he would probably hear everything clearly.
He swallowed, forcing himself to stay calm, then subtly tried to increase the distance between them—though “increase” only meant going from ten centimeters to twelve.
Taking a deep breath, Ming Qi kept telling himself to stay calm, stiffening his expression as he quickly dried Yu Qinzou’s hair.
But as he dried, something felt wrong.
The man who was supposedly being held suddenly rested his forehead against Ming Qi’s shoulder.
Hot breaths landed on his exposed collarbone, the ticklish sensation making it feel like ten thousand ants were crawling over his skin.
“Yu… Yu Qinzou.” Ming Qi stammered.
“Mm?”
“What are you—”
“My head hurts a little.”
The question was swallowed back. Ming Qi responded blankly with an “oh,” and said softly, “Then I’ll dry faster. You should rest early.”
When his hair was mostly half-dry, Ming Qi reached to the side for the hair dryer. After a few casual blows, Yu Qinzou’s hair was almost completely dry.
Ming Qi smoothed it down, very satisfied with the result.
Not bad. Not bad.
He placed his hands on Yu Qinzou’s shoulders and pressed him down onto the bed: “Alright, you can sleep now.”
As soon as he finished speaking, Ming Qi himself was also pulled down along with him. Yu Qinzou without warning hooked his waist and pressed him down with force. Ming Qi only managed to throw the towel and hair dryer aside before his face hit the man’s chest.
“Sleep together?”
“I’ll put these things away first.”
A few minutes later, Ming Qi lifted the blanket beside Yu Qinzou and lay down. They said goodnight to each other.
The night in West Scenic Bay was especially quiet, with only Xiao Ba occasionally letting out soft meows outside the door.
Ming Qi closed his eyes, afraid of disturbing Yu Qinzou, quietly turned over, then turned back again. Just as he was about to reach for his phone under the pillow, a man’s low voice sounded beside him.
“Can’t sleep?”
Ming Qi’s fingers touched the cold screen, then slowly withdrew.
He turned over again, facing Yu Qinzou directly: “Why aren’t you asleep either? Didn’t your head hurt?”
“Your shoulder is comfortable to lean on. It doesn’t hurt anymore.”
Ming Qi thought to himself that it seemed he really wasn’t in pain anymore, otherwise he wouldn’t be talking nonsense again.
He touched his nose and shifted slightly, then looked at the ceiling and softly asked, “Today you made Jiang Haoze bark like a dog. He’s not a good person. I think he might hold a grudge and try to mess with Yu Corporation.”
In truth, the whole Jiang family was not good people either.
“When I was sent to the Jiang family by my father and them, their business was at its peak. Mr. Jiang and Mrs. Jiang were busy every day with work and didn’t have much time to care about Jiang Jianian… mm, their son. When I arrived, they were very happy and said Jianian finally had company. I was also happy, and since Jianian was younger than me, I treated him like my younger brother and took care of him.”
“One time when I came back from school, I found Jianian covered in dirt, even his hair full of mud. I asked him for a long time but he didn’t say anything. So later I secretly followed him out.”
“But the cause of this matter was only that Jianian raised a dog. Jiang Haoze wanted to borrow the dog from him, and he didn’t agree.”
Borrowing things is originally a matter of mutual willingness, but in Jiang Haoze’s eyes it clearly was not like that. A small matter alone was enough to reveal his vicious, vengeful, completely rotten personality.
“If he can really deal with the Yu Corporation, I’d even consider him somewhat capable and think a little higher of him.”
Hearing this, Ming Qi couldn’t help but turn his head to look at him. The bedroom wasn’t lit; only one or two points of starlight squeezed in through the gap in the curtains and landed on Yu Qinzhou’s face, outlining his exquisitely structured features.
When he said something like this, he looked a bit handsome.
Ming Qi’s mind wandered randomly, but then Yu Qinzhou also shifted his body slightly. Their eyes met in the darkness. He heard Yu Qinzhou ask: “Do you mind talking about your matters?”
Ming Qi froze for a moment, somewhat surprised.
If it were before, Yu Qinzhou probably would have been sent away disappointed, but now, Ming Qi only squeezed his palm and nodded.
“Do you still remember the manuscript you bought at the auction last time and gave to me?”
“Lu Fengjing’s manuscript?”
“Mm. Lu Fengjing is my adoptive father.” When Ming Qi mentioned their names, his eyes were filled with faint, broken smiles. “My other adoptive father is Ming Yun.”
Lu Fengjing was a top-tier actor who was extremely popular, and Ming Yun was known as a genius director. They were compatible collaborators, and also intimate lovers and partners.
“I was abandoned by my birth parents not long after I was born, next to a trash can outside the orphanage. Luckily, that orphanage was funded by the Jiang family. Uncle Jiang and Aunt Jiang would often come when they had time to visit the children there. They quickly found me hiding in a corner, and after learning that my two fathers had intentions to adopt a child, they brought them to find me. That’s how I was taken home.”
He was often bullied in the orphanage because the director of the orphanage discovered him and, on the way back while bringing him there, was hit by a passing car, resulting in a fractured leg and long-term wheelchair use.
So the children in the orphanage called him a “broom star.”
It was the Jiang couple and Ming Yun’s couple who pulled him out of that nightmare. They were very good to him, cared about him, took care of him. When their work wasn’t too busy, they even took him to film sets, and besides that, they often went out traveling as a family of three.
But good times did not last long. When Ming Qi was fourteen, Ming Yun’s couple died completely in a plane crash and left him forever. Not long after that, the Jiang couple took him in to care for him, but within only two years, Jiang Ci also passed away.
“The reason Uncle Jiang got into the car accident was because I had a fever that day and was sent to the hospital by the school teacher. Uncle Jiang wanted to come see me.”
Then Aunt Jiang could not accept this kind of blow and suffered a mental breakdown until now.
Jiang Haoze’s mother often said in front of Aunt Jiang that he was a broom star, and many times he also asked himself the same thing: are you a broom star? Otherwise why do every person who treats you well end up having something happen.
Ming Qi placed his arm across his eyes. His eyelids felt hot, and his voice gradually turned hoarse. “They shouldn’t have ended up like this.”
“You are not.”
Ming Qi froze slightly. “What?”
“I said, you are not a broom star.” Yu Qinzhou pulled him into his arms, letting his tear-soaked eyelashes press against the chest of his sleepwear, his voice gentle. “Life is full of uncertainty. If you take all these accidents as your own fault and bear them on yourself, that is cruel to you, and also cruel to those who loved you.”
“Ming Qi, if you really must bear something, then whether it’s them or me, we would all hope you bear what they wished for you—health and happiness—and then live out this life.”
The bedroom fell into a long silence. Ming Qi pressed his face hard into Yu Qinzhou’s chest, and after a long while finally said: “You really are a perfect scorer at comforting people, much better than me.”