After Lu Qiao finished speaking with Ye Lan, he walked back toward Yan Qiu, taking three steps and looking back once, acting all hesitant and coy. Yet he did not even dare look at Yan Qiu.
Yan Qiu stared at him and suddenly said, “Ye Lan is already forty-two years old.”
Lu Qiao was stunned. He looked up at him. “Huh? I thought he was about the same age as you!”
“……” Yan Qiu calmly emphasized, “He is forty-two years old.”
Lu Qiao: “……” That Ye Lan really knew how to take care of himself.
Yan Qiu added, “He already has a wife.”
“……I know!” Lu Qiao did not understand why Yan Qiu had suddenly brought this up and looked at him strangely.
Seeing that he was still distracted, Yan Qiu frowned and reached out to lift his chin, asking inquisitively, “Why are you blushing?”
Lu Qiao froze. This time, he understood what Yan Qiu was trying to say.
This guy……actually thought he was blushing because of Ye Lan?
Lu Qiao was both amused and exasperated. He turned his head away from Yan Qiu’s hand and said quietly, “No, it’s not like that. It has nothing to do with him. He told me something……something related to you.”
Yan Qiu’s expression relaxed somewhat. He calmly nodded toward Ye Lan, who was smiling brightly in the distance, then turned around and led Lu Qiao onto the aircraft. He asked, “What is it?”
“……” Lu Qiao’s eyes darted from side to side. “I’m not telling you.”
Even if you killed him, he would never tell Yan Qiu.
“Spiritual communion” and all that…… It was so perverted, so erotic!
Yan Qiu studied him for a while longer before lowering his head and fiddling with his terminal.
Lu Qiao immediately turned around and warned him, “You’re not allowed to message him and ask!”
With a completely calm expression, Yan Qiu closed the terminal’s message window.
At least he was obedient.
A strange sense of satisfaction welled up inside Lu Qiao, and the heat that had risen to his face because of Ye Lan’s words finally faded.
After thinking for a moment, he asked, “Oh, right. About Cheng Yi…… How is your search going?”
At the mention of this matter, Yan Qiu’s tone also became subdued. “We’re still tracking his whereabouts. Why did you bring him up?”
“I was just thinking,” Lu Qiao said with his brows tightly furrowed, “why is Cheng Yi’s situation so special? And why is my situation so special too? Is it a coincidence? Or is there some common point between me and him?”
Yan Qiu frowned as he listened, looking at him.
Lu Qiao lowered his head and recalled, “The second day after your father’s accident, you received the news, right?”
“To be precise, my father’s accident happened around midnight, Universal Time, and I didn’t receive the news until that evening,” Yan Qiu said.
Midnight.
At midnight on that day, Cheng Yi had an argument with Old Marshal Yan over his own father. His genes went berserk, he broke through his realm, and shattered Old Marshal Yan’s consciousness.
And what was he doing at midnight that day?
Lu Qiao’s thoughts became somewhat hazy.
He was a little surprised, because he could actually remember clearly that at midnight that day, he had a dream—a very distant dream.
Yan Qiu looked at the person beside him for a moment, then raised his hand and rubbed his head.
Lu Qiao came back to his senses and looked up.
Yan Qiu said, “Lu Qiao, you have nothing in common with him.”
Lu Qiao pressed his lips together.
The man said softly, “You are sunny, cheerful, hardworking, and resilient. You would never betray someone who trusts you, and your consciousness will never attack someone else. You and him are two completely opposite kinds of people.”
“If you really want to know why you and he became the only two special cases,” Yan Qiu said word by word, “then it can only be because, at that instant, you and he stood at two extremes that were completely opposed to each other.”
Lu Qiao’s eyes widened.
“Don’t start doubting or fearing yourself just because you possess power that is too strong,” Yan Qiu said in a low voice as he pulled him into his arms. “Your power is in your hands. It will only be driven by your own will. It has nothing to do with anyone else.”
Lu Qiao closed his eyes.
Yes. That was what he had told Ye Lan and the others as well.
But at one particular moment, he had still begun to question his own special nature a little.
Why had he gained such powerful strength? What did he and Cheng Yi have in common? This kind of power in his hands—did he truly understand it completely?
Yet in the end, it was still Yan Qiu who had awakened him to the answer.
Lu Qiao calmed his heart.
Power was controlled by people. He believed in himself.
The aircraft merged into the aerial traffic lane. While Lu Qiao and Yan Qiu were talking, someone knocked on the window on Yan Qiu’s side.
The two of them looked over. It was a flower seller riding a flying motorcycle. The man probably did not recognize the military insignia on the aircraft at all, and certainly had never imagined that the person sitting inside was the Empire’s First Marshal. After all, from outside, he could not see who was inside the aircraft.
Lu Qiao did not pay much attention and was about to continue talking with Yan Qiu, but Yan Qiu suddenly lowered the window a crack and passed over an Alliance coin.
Lu Qiao stared blankly.
The flower seller repeatedly thanked him and handed a flower inside.
It was a very vivid red rose, delicate and dripping with beauty, with droplets of water still clinging to its petals.
The next second, Yan Qiu handed the flower to Lu Qiao. Lu Qiao paused before reaching out to take it.
Holding the flower, he pressed his lips together in a smile and asked, “……Is this your first time giving someone flowers?”
Yan Qiu’s voice was deep. “Everything about my feelings for you, everything I have done for you, and everything I have said to you—all of it is a first for me.”
Lu Qiao’s heart gave a hard thump.
He did not know why. It was only such a simple thing, such a simple sentence, yet his eyes suddenly began to sting.
“This is also my first time receiving flowers from someone,” Lu Qiao said hoarsely. He looked at the flower seriously again, and affection rose in his heart.
It was the same. Yan Qiu was the same to him.
His feelings, his attachment to Yan Qiu, all the effort he had made to catch up with Yan Qiu and walk alongside him—all of these were the firsts of his life. They should also be the only ones he would ever have.
The degree of Lu Qiao’s happiness after receiving the flower slightly exceeded Yan Qiu’s expectations.
As soon as they returned to the Yan residence, Lu Qiao happily went to find the housekeeper and asked whether there was a vase.
The moment the housekeeper saw the red rose, he immediately understood what was going on. He gave his young master a gratified look and solemnly said, “Don’t worry, I’ll immediately find the most beautiful vase!”
“Ah, something plain is fine……” Lu Qiao said awkwardly to the housekeeper’s retreating back as he dashed away.
A few steps away, Yan Qiu quietly looked at him, then at the flower in his hands, deep in thought.
The housekeeper brought over a pure white vase. It looked very plain, but it was indeed beautiful, with an especially delicate design.
Lu Qiao poured a little water into the vase, placed the rose inside, then set it on the balcony of Yan Qiu’s bedroom so that it could receive the nourishment of sunlight every day.
He squatted beside the vase and gazed at it fondly for a long time. He even took pictures of it with his terminal and adjusted the vase’s position several times.
“You like it that much?” Yan Qiu asked from the side.
Lu Qiao looked at him shyly, then turned back and nodded with a flushed face. “Mm.”
He did not often receive gifts. When he was little, his family had been poor, and every year, only on his birthday, would his father or grandmother give him new clothes or toys. Every time he received one, he was extremely happy.
After growing up, although he occasionally received gifts from girls, it was ultimately different……
Only now, after receiving a gift from Yan Qiu, even though it was merely such a simple rose, did Lu Qiao find that same feeling he had experienced as a child when receiving gifts from his family. He was especially happy.
A smile spread across Yan Qiu’s brows and eyes. He ruffled Lu Qiao’s hair, then turned and walked out of the room.
The housekeeper was standing outside. When he saw Yan Qiu come out, he desperately hinted, “Young Master, a single rose won’t last very many days……”
“Mm.” Yan Qiu thought for a moment, leaned close to the housekeeper’s ear, and quietly instructed him on something.
The housekeeper’s face immediately lit up with an excited smile. He said eagerly, “Yes, I’ll take care of it immediately!”
With nothing to do before evening, Lu Qiao would occasionally fly a few laps over the estate. He could use his wings now, and he always felt that his wings were itching. Whenever he was bored, he liked to fly around aimlessly.
Whenever he flew back and landed beside the balcony, he would squat in front of the vase again, admiring it endlessly with a delighted expression.
The servants in the estate all saw this and secretly laughed, while the fool happily hugging his rose did not notice anything at all.
Before going to sleep that night, Yan Qiu asked him, “You only like flowers?”
Lu Qiao said shyly, “Not really. It’s just that my grandmother used to really like growing flowers, but after she passed away, I moved into the school dormitory. I never grew any myself.”
Actually, another reason he could not bear to part with this rose was that it had been given to him by Yan Qiu. Its meaning was different.
Probably, no matter what Yan Qiu gave him, he would have been this happy.
Yan Qiu smiled and said nothing more. He only said, “All right. Go to sleep. Good night.”
Lu Qiao did not think much of it. He nodded and obediently said, “Good night.”
He had a dreamless night.
The next morning, after six o’clock, Lu Qiao woke up without the alarm having gone off.
He stretched and yawned. Seeing that Yan Qiu was still asleep, he quietly got out of bed, changed his clothes, and ran to the balcony.
The sun was very bright today. The rose he had placed on the balcony was quietly enjoying its bath of sunlight as well. Everything was peaceful and beautiful.
Lu Qiao took a deep breath and suddenly caught the scent of flowers.
He moved his nose slightly, somewhat puzzled, and followed the fragrance two more steps outside. When he stood before the railing and inadvertently looked down, he froze.
Below the balcony of Yan Qiu’s bedroom had always been a lawn. The entire Yan family favored an extremely minimalist style. The holographic pod with lace trim that Yan Qiu’s parents used together was probably the only exception. Thus, the entire estate also followed their family’s minimalist aesthetic, consisting mainly of greenery.
Yet at this moment, the lawn below the balcony had disappeared.
In its place was a sea of roses.
Red, pink, white, and yellow roses were interspersed together, spreading into an entire sea of flowers. They swayed in the breeze and glittered beneath the sunlight, so beautiful that Lu Qiao was speechless for a moment.
He stared blankly for a while, then spread his wings and flew down, landing in the middle of the sea of flowers.
Rose after rose bloomed beside his feet. The fragrance filled the air. They were both beautiful and adorable.
W-What was this……? How had everything changed overnight?
Was he dreaming??
Lu Qiao looked utterly bewildered, yet at the same time, he felt that the softest part of his heart had been struck. His heart began beating faster.
An instinct rose from deep within his chest. Following that instinct, he raised his head.
The man who had been sleeping soundly just moments ago was now wearing a robe and leaning against the balcony, resting his chin on one hand as he looked at him, his eyes carrying a lingering, gentle smile.
The man moved his lips. Lu Qiao could not hear his voice clearly, but he recognized the shape of his mouth.
Yan Qiu looked at him with smiling eyes and asked him:
“Do you like it?”
“Thump.”
Lu Qiao heard the sound coming from the deepest part of his heart, and his eyes widened.
……Was it for him?
Was this entire sea of roses all for him?
Just because Yan Qiu had seen how much he loved that one rose, had he prepared a gift for him today?
His Adam’s apple bobbed, and warmth instantly surged through his chest, scorching hot.
How many people could hold someone in their heart like this?
Yan Qiu’s love for him was completely unreserved—deep, weighty, and burning hot.
Lu Qiao looked up at the man and murmured hoarsely, “……I like it.”
He liked this sea of roses.
He liked Yan Qiu.
This man was simply too capable of making someone’s heart race.
Ah, he could not take it anymore.
At this moment, Lu Qiao’s heart became completely certain.
He made a decision.