Ji Yang was placed on the long table by the window that he had seen the previous evening. The table was high enough that his legs dangled freely.
Fortunately, his trousers were loose.
When he saw Nie Xu walk away, Ji Yang immediately rolled up his trouser leg and lowered his head to examine the injury, hesitating over how to handle it.
Nie Xu returned quickly and brushed Ji Yang’s hand aside.
The force of it made Ji Yang brace himself with his hands behind him. He looked up at Nie Xu in confusion.
“You haven’t washed your hands. Don’t touch it,” Nie Xu said, standing in front of the table.
Only then did Ji Yang realize that Nie Xu had gone to wash his hands.
“Oh,” he said. “I was just going to take off the prosthesis.”
The next second, Ji Yang felt a broad hand settle against the inside of his right leg. Because Nie Xu had just been handling cold water, his hand was so chilly that Ji Yang shivered.
Nie Xu lifted his leg half an inch and deftly undid the fastening clips securing the prosthesis.
The moment the prosthesis was slowly removed, Ji Yang saw Nie Xu’s brows furrow sharply.
“Is it serious?” Ji Yang asked, lowering his head to look.
“The area of skin damage is quite large.” After saying this, Nie Xu looked up at him again. “You’ve rubbed it raw like this. Didn’t you feel any pain?”
“Of course it hurt,” Ji Yang said. “I just didn’t notice it as much when I was busy. So many people were waiting. I couldn’t exactly sit in the field and livestream from there, could I? It was only after I slept in the car that I realized I couldn’t stand it anymore.”
The residual limb was somewhat swollen now, especially in the areas that had rubbed against the prosthetic socket. Large patches of skin had turned purplish-red, dotted all over with tiny spots of blood.
Ji Yang couldn’t understand it. The original owner hadn’t worn the prosthesis twenty-four hours a day, so in theory, the injury shouldn’t have been this bad.
Ji Yang muttered under his breath, “It wasn’t like this before.”
Nie Xu glanced at him. “Before, you were driven everywhere. You didn’t go to places with uneven terrain, like fields.”
Ji Yang shut his mouth.
By the time You Li came rushing down the stairs with a first-aid kit, Nie Xu was using the saline solution kept on the first floor to rinse the abraded areas.
You Li came to an abrupt stop at the bottom of the stairs.
Within the limited scope of his understanding, his brother might be highly capable, but he was still just a bodyguard working for a wealthy family like the Ji family. Even if he was among the best in the profession, that only meant he was more skilled at dealing with dangerous and covert situations than ordinary people.
As for Ji Yang, there was no need to mention him. He was a domineering young master from a wealthy family who beat and berated servants. Even You Li’s brother had been whipped by him before.
Although You Li’s impression of Ji Yang had changed later, he had never forgotten that this young master was the one who went around telling everyone he liked his brother.
He had assumed Ji Yang was simply accustomed to doing whatever he pleased because of his privileged status.
But the scene before him was genuinely shocking.
From where he stood, all he could see was his brother’s back.
Ji Yang was mostly hidden behind him, with one leg resting beside his brother. He was leaning backward, trying to retreat toward the window behind him.
As he dodged, he kept saying, “Is that enough? It’s fine now. That’s enough.”
Nie Xu’s voice was stern and steady. “Don’t move. Saline solution is already the least irritating option.”
Ji Yang looked incredulous. “Are you lying? It feels like you’re rubbing salt into my wound.”
“I wish I were,” You Li heard his brother say mockingly. “With your pain tolerance, if it really were salt, you’d probably use all your energy screaming.”
“That’s impossible,” Ji Yang said. “It would ruin my image too much.”
You Li: “…”
The young master didn’t act like a young master at all.
As for his brother, You Li had always thought that when he reprimanded people, he would usually make them do extra training or simply get physical with them. Yet, for some reason, this scene—which was perfectly ordinary—made You Li feel strangely awkward about approaching them.
While You Li was still hesitating, Nie Xu turned around and frowned at him.
“Bring it over. Why are you still standing there like an idiot?”
“Oh, right!” You Li finally snapped out of it and hurried over with the first-aid kit.
Once he stood beside them, that strange feeling disappeared completely. He hadn’t expected Ji Yang’s leg to look so badly injured.
Thinking about what Ji Yang had been doing all this for, You Li felt ashamed of his past prejudice for the first time.
“Why are you always getting hurt?” You Li asked, standing nearby.
Ji Yang sighed. “Things that are both incomplete and beautiful have always been fragile.”
You Li: “…”
I give up.
The next second, Ji Yang hissed in pain again.
You Li instinctively looked over. Nie Xu was wrapping gauze around Ji Yang’s leg, and between the rolled-up trouser leg and the bandage, the exposed skin was almost translucently pale.
Ji Yang was still asking him, “What are you staring at? Have you never seen anything like this before? Are you scared?”
“Your leg isn’t scary at all,” You Li muttered.
He hadn’t even had the nerve to say it out loud.
Forget being scary. He actually thought Ji Yang’s boast about his own beauty wasn’t much of an exaggeration.
But seeing how completely helpless Ji Yang was in his brother’s hands, You Li couldn’t help worrying.
Could Ji Yang have been serious when he said he liked my brother back then?
His brother didn’t look like someone who would fall for a young master like that.
Ji Yang had no idea what You Li was awkwardly thinking about. So when Nie Xu finished treating the wound and stepped away from the table, Ji Yang was utterly stunned to hear You Li suddenly say, “Why don’t you find someone else to like instead?”
Ji Yang was left speechless for a moment, questioning his entire existence.
“What on earth made you suddenly say something so completely out of the blue?”
You Li replied, “I’m only giving you a friendly warning because you genuinely helped the people of Zhouleng. Otherwise, you’ll end up crying, making a scene, and throwing tantrums. Wouldn’t that be embarrassing?”
Ji Yang glanced in the direction Nie Xu had gone, suddenly remembering the original reason he had entered into a partnership with Nie Xu.
Then he looked back at You Li and smiled.
“Oh, you mean that.” Ji Yang leaned back a little. “But I’m a very devoted person. I only like him.”
You Li: “…The difference in your social status is enormous.”
“I don’t mind,” Ji Yang said. “I’d be willing to spend my whole life eating coarse food and living in poverty with him.”
You Li’s eyes widened slightly.
“What if my brother doesn’t want that?”
Ji Yang replied, “That’s fine. I’ve already come to terms with it. What you can’t have is always the most desirable.”
You Li sucked in two sharp breaths.
Ji Yang leaned against the window frame, laughing so hard he nearly toppled over.
Only then did You Li realize he had been played. He glared at Ji Yang.
Nie Xu walked back over.
“What are you talking about?”
“Nothing,” Ji Yang said, waving a hand. “You Li loves me too much.”
You Li was so startled that he hurriedly protested to his brother, “I don’t! He’s making things up!”
Nie Xu glanced at him.
“Why aren’t you leaving yet?”
“I’m leaving!”
You Li turned and rushed out. Only after he was outside did he remember to wonder: Wasn’t Ji Yang leaving too?
Ji Yang couldn’t leave.
He wouldn’t be able to wear his prosthesis again for a while, and Nie Xu hadn’t suggested sending him back. So he ended up staying in the wooden house that night.
The fact that he was staying overnight in the wooden house even drew the attention of You Li’s grandmother.
The elderly woman made a special visit late that evening.
At the time, Ji Yang was sitting on the bed in the upstairs room. The second floor was more like an attic, with a sloping roof pressing down over the space and giving the entire room a private, enclosed feeling.
One half of the ceiling was made of transparent glass, and there was a floor-to-ceiling bookshelf and a wardrobe. There wasn’t much in the room. Unlike the dormitory in Building Four, it felt less orderly and rigid.
Nie Xu didn’t have much of a presence in his living space, but his personal traces were more obvious here.
A large bed stood in the corner on the left. The dark-colored bedding was slightly rumpled, as though someone had slept there the previous night.
It hadn’t even been made.
The elderly woman seemed to be following some old custom and did not enter the room. She simply stood at the doorway, looked inside, then lowered her voice and said something to Nie Xu, who was standing opposite her.
After that, she left.
When Nie Xu came back in, Ji Yang noticed that even someone as tall as him had to lower his head beneath the low ceiling.
“Did You Li’s grandmother come over because she thinks I’m bothering you?” Ji Yang asked tentatively.
Nie Xu glanced at him. “No. She never interferes in things like this.”
Ji Yang touched his face, still suspicious.
“Really? But I thought the way she looked at me just now was kind of strange.”
Nie Xu picked out a book from the shelf, then went over to sit in a beanbag chair by the ceiling window.
“Don’t worry about it. She’s getting old and likes to fuss over things.”
“Fuss over things?” Ji Yang asked, puzzled.
Nie Xu closed the book he had just opened and looked at him.
“Do you really have to ask?”
“I’m curious!”
Nie Xu reopened the book and replied casually, “She thinks there’s something going on between us. She told me to be careful about sexual safety while you’re staying here with me. You Li went back and told her your leg was pretty badly injured. Happy now?”
Ji Yang: “…………”
Satisfied now…
Ji Yang let out two dry, awkward laughs. “The old lady is pretty progressive.”
Nie Xu glanced up at him.
“Go to sleep early.”
Ji Yang nodded. Peng Jiaying had already sent him word that Mr. Huang had finalized the cooperation contract as soon as the publicity started gaining traction. All that remained was for both parties to sign it.
The project proposal could be dealt with later. He couldn’t realistically keep selling products from Zhouleng himself, but he had already spoken to his colleagues and asked them to contact several livestream shopping hosts who specialized in promoting products. They would help Zhouleng’s fruit farmers sell their produce, as well as fresh fish and other seafood.
With the publicity at its peak, securing the cooperation shouldn’t be too difficult.
His mission this time could be considered complete.
Mr. Huang’s side was pressing him to hurry, so he had already arranged with Peng Jiaying to return the next day.
Lying in bed, Ji Yang suddenly remembered something he wanted to ask.
“Will you really be okay after fighting Zhu Guangsheng today?”
Nie Xu replied, “The old master wants him to get into trouble. It’s just that the Zhu family has been making who knows how much money from shipping all these years. They won’t give it up easily.”
Thinking of Zhu Guangsheng’s enormous belly, Ji Yang couldn’t help mocking him. “He’s not afraid of eating himself to death?”
Ji Yang’s thoughts began to drift.
He felt as though he were about to fall asleep.
After all, he was occupying someone else’s bed, and there was only one bedroom in the entire wooden house. His conscience stirred, and he casually asked, as though making conversation, “Is this where you lived when you were a child?”
He received no answer. Ji Yang didn’t mind and thought he was about to drift off again.
Just as he closed his eyes, he heard Nie Xu say, “No.”
“Hmm?” Ji Yang murmured absentmindedly through his nose.
Nie Xu’s voice was calm and ordinary, without the slightest fluctuation.
“The You family recreated the attic I used to live in. Over the years, I’ve occasionally come here to stay for a couple of days when I’m on leave.”
Ji Yang had genuinely relaxed by then. Without the slightest guard, he blurted out, “Aren’t you afraid the Ji family will cause trouble for the You family?”
The moment he finished speaking, he realized what he had said and jolted.
That’s not something I should be saying!
He only had a vague understanding of the novel’s background. The more he said, the more likely he was to get something wrong.
Ji Yang pulled the quilt around himself and looked over. Nie Xu showed no particular reaction to his question. Instead, he answered, “The You family has been rooted in Zhouleng for generations. My only connection to them came from the year their family was attacked. I happened to be passing through Zhouleng on a mission and rescued their people. That’s all.”
Ji Yang felt that this explanation was even worse than being questioned about it.
He hurriedly tried to make up for his earlier remark.
“Haha, I mean, if people like Zhu Guangsheng found out you were close to the You family, they might use that connection against you.”
After Ji Yang finished speaking, he heard Nie Xu get up.
Nie Xu returned the book to the shelf and said, “In their eyes, the You family isn’t valuable enough to be worth using as leverage.”
“Huh?”
Nie Xu turned around and stood beside the bed, looking at him.
“Are you going to sleep or not?”
“I’m sleeping.” Ji Yang pulled the quilt up to his chin. “Going to sleep right now.”
Nie Xu leaned over and switched off the bedside light. The attic immediately sank into darkness.
Only the countless stars and the moon cast a scattering of fragmented light and shadows through the skylight.
Ji Yang cleared his mind, and this time, he genuinely fell asleep very quickly.
The next morning, when Ji Yang woke up, he was alone in the room.
He was back in a wheelchair.
The wheelchair had been placed on the first floor that morning. There was no need to guess who had arranged for it to be brought over: Nie Xu.
His colleagues still had to stay behind to wrap things up, so Ji Yang had booked his return trip for the afternoon.
However, just after the You family and his colleagues had escorted him and You Li out of the gate, Ji Yang found himself surrounded.
A large crowd of people stood outside, carrying all sorts of fruit baskets and homemade food.
“Little Boss Yang, we heard you’re leaving today! Why the rush?”
“Exactly! We didn’t even have time to prepare anything properly.”
“These are all grown in our own gardens. Don’t turn your nose up at them.”
“You Li, come and help carry these! Make sure Little Boss Yang takes everything!”
You Li had originally planned to return with Ji Yang.
When a mountain of things was stuffed into his arms, he was left completely bewildered.
“Aunts and uncles,” You Li said, trying desperately to refuse their gifts. “Ji Yang is just going home, not going away for good. What can’t he get in Fanzhou? He really doesn’t need all this.”
His words made everyone hesitate for a moment.
They might not understand much about wealthy families, but they knew that this handsome young man came from a very different background. Even if he was kindhearted, that didn’t necessarily mean he would appreciate ordinary things like these.
But their hesitation lasted less than two seconds.
The young master smiled, his eyes curving pleasantly, and said, “Of course I want them! These are all natural, pollution-free, green products. Thank you, aunts and uncles. I’d never look down on them.”
Everyone became even more enthusiastic.
Their enthusiasm was mixed with concern and sympathetic questions. After all, Ji Yang had been perfectly fine the previous day, yet today he was already sitting in a wheelchair.
Only You Li, who had been reduced to a manual laborer, shouted, “Can you even eat all this?”
“Why can’t I just eat it slowly?” Ji Yang replied.
The commotion outside the You family’s gate attracted quite a crowd, including a few tourists who happened to be passing by.
Someone asked whether they would be taking a boat or a car back.
“By car,” Ji Yang replied. “I’ve contacted a driver.”
Less than two minutes after he said that, several understated black cars of the same make pulled up outside the You family’s gate.
Ji Yang: That’s not the driver I called, is it?
Then the car doors opened in unison.
Ji Chengyi was sitting in the back seat of the car in the middle. Jiang Lei and the others had all resumed their bodyguard attire and were standing by the doors, waiting.
Only one person took off his sunglasses, walked around the car, and greeted the You family.
The residents were stunned and began whispering among themselves.
“Isn’t that Third Young Master of the Ji family sitting in the car? He was just in the news yesterday.”
“Are they here to pick up Little Boss Yang?”
Ji Yang was sitting beside Nie Xu. He tilted his head up and asked quietly, “Didn’t Jiao-jie say you’d have to stay in Zhouleng for another ten days or half a month?”
Nie Xu replied, “Zhu Guangsheng went to Fanzhou overnight. He’s already in front of the old master, claiming you fabricated facts and spread false information. He’s demanding justice for the Zhu family.”
Ji Yang clicked his tongue. “He sure is quick to turn the tables.”
He didn’t think Ji Yansong would side with the Second Branch this time.
Ji Yang looked over at Ji Chengyi.
Ji Chengyi was looking at him too. He glanced at the pile of things You Li was carrying behind him and frowned.
“You’ve been staying here for the past two days?” Ji Chengyi asked. “Come on. Grandpa is urging us to return.”
You Li leaned over and whispered into Ji Yang’s ear, “Look at Third Young Master, then look at yourself. You’ve collected a whole pile of local specialties. You don’t look like a young master at all.”
“That’s true,” Ji Yang agreed.
His third older brother had apparently joined the Ji family halfway through his life, but the polished, refined demeanor of a wealthy gentleman was already ingrained in his bones.
Ji Yang got into the car.
The people still gathered outside the You family’s gate all moved forward.
Uncle You made a point of speaking to him.
“Come again next time.” Then, glancing discreetly to one side, he added, “If Ah Xu isn’t available, bring You Li along. Treat this place like your own home.”
Ji Yang leaned slightly out of the car window and smiled. “I will.”
Without realizing it, he glanced toward the wooden house. He remembered that when he woke up that morning, one corner of the quilt seemed to have fallen onto the floor.
Would You Li’s grandmother come and tidy up?
Ji Yang pulled his thoughts back to the present. “Zhouleng will definitely be my first choice for my next vacation.”
You Li had finally managed to cram all the gifts into the back seat. As he walked back, he mocked Ji Yang, “Young master, you’re practically more local than I am, and I actually grew up here. And now you’re talking about vacations!”
“Uncle You welcomes me. What’s it to you?”
The moment he finished speaking, a hand landed on top of his head.
Nie Xu pressed him back into the car and put his sunglasses on again.
Then he looked at You Li’s father. “Uncle You, we’re leaving.”
Uncle You responded with a few quick acknowledgments and nodded. “Take care on the road.”
The voices gradually faded into the wind behind them.
“Old You, isn’t that Ah Xu, the one who visited your house before and said he was a distant relative?”
“He hardly comes back once every few years. I saw how everyone listened to him. It was just like something out of a gangster drama. What kind of work does he do? He’s really made something of himself!”
You Li’s father smiled with his usual simple, honest expression.
“He just works for rich people.”
Ji Yang: “…”
Not bad.
He worked for rich people, then turned around and beat them up.