Chapter 57

Xu Yichen was drunk out of his mind and refused to leave, nearly throwing himself onto Qi Xu’s bed. The moment he stepped into the room, Xie Huai grabbed him by the collar and tossed him out.

Old Gao and Chen Wei each supported one of their inebriated friends. Fang Qian, whose alcohol tolerance was better than both of theirs, was mocking them as she walked.

Xu Yichen wriggled free from Old Gao and staggered toward Fang Qian, claiming he was going to support her instead.

Then he promptly walked straight into a wall because he couldn’t turn properly. Luckily, Fang Qian reacted quickly and yanked him back before he did more damage.

Qi Xu, standing at the doorway, watched this unfold and called out, “Old Gao, keep a close eye on him. Make sure he doesn’t lose a limb or something.”

After the four of them finally shuffled into the elevator, Qi Xu turned and headed back inside—only to nearly bump into Xie Huai, who was standing silently behind him. He stopped just in time; otherwise, he might’ve ended up concussed like Xu Yichen.

“You walk like a damn ghost,” he muttered.

“I was starting to think you were going with them,” Xie Huai said.

Qi Xu gave him a look. “This is my place. Where would I go?”

Xie Huai’s tone had a bite to it. “Who knows? Jiang Zimu looked like he was about to toss you in a duffel bag and smuggle you out.”

Qi Xu rolled his eyes. “You think I’m cargo? That was just me messing with him. You really bought it?”

He paused, then couldn’t resist teasing, voice low and suggestive: “But seriously, Huai-ge, when are you gonna show me those abs? Rent’s still due, but how about I make breakfast for you tomorrow?”

He didn’t think the wine had gotten to him much, just gave him a bit more boldness to flirt with this 18-year-old version of Xie Huai. And if he did get to see those abs? Worth it.

He even mimicked the way Xie Huai used to size him up in their past life—though this Xie Huai didn’t have the same mature build yet. Still, youth had its own charm.

Was this what they called robbing the cradle?

But Xie Huai didn’t go further into the house. Instead, he closed the distance, backing Qi Xu up against the entryway wall. He didn’t like the way Qi Xu had been looking at him—like he was seeing someone else through him.

He reached out, fingers gently tilting Qi Xu’s chin up. “Who were you thinking about just now?”

Qi Xu, with his back pressed to the door, suddenly felt like a schoolboy cornered after class. He chuckled. “You, of course.”

Thinking about how your 28-year-old self probably won’t be such a cold bastard next time around.

Xie Huai rubbed his thumb lightly along Qi Xu’s jaw. “Qi Xu, can you just be honest with me for once?”

Qi Xu blinked, sincerity all over his face. “I am being honest. I swear I was thinking about you—how your body at 28 was definitely more impressive than now.”

Xie Huai: “……”

So that look was about… his older self? That stung in a way he hadn’t expected. Right now, he didn’t want anyone else occupying a space in Qi Xu’s heart—not even a future version of himself.

“How do you know my 28-year-old self had a better body? Maybe I’ll go soft.”

He was willing to insult his future self if it meant Qi Xu would focus on him now.

Qi Xu tilted his head, bemused. “Go soft? Seriously?”

Qi Xu couldn’t help but mentally deny it—no way. With Xie Huai’s broad shoulders and tapered waist, he was built like a natural-born clothes hanger. The way his jacket draped casually over one arm, the way those toned thighs moved when he walked…

Qi Xu was so lost in thought he didn’t notice when Xie Huai frowned and gently guided his hand up to his shoulder.

“Huh?” Qi Xu blinked, a bit confused as he came back to himself.

His amber-colored eyes were glassy, shimmering in the warm light—bright, but clearly not all there.

Xie Huai’s fingers traced Qi Xu’s wrist as he began what could only be described as a hands-on anatomy lesson.

“This is the deltoid.”

The heating in the apartment was strong, and Xie Huai was only wearing a thin dress shirt. His body heat seeped into Qi Xu’s palm.

Xie Huai slowly guided his hand further down. “And this is the pectoralis major.”

Qi Xu felt the distinct swell of muscle beneath his fingers and thought to himself—yeah, he definitely wasn’t bluffing.

Seeing was one thing, but touching? Way more satisfying. Qi Xu’s mood only improved.

Their pace slowed as Xie Huai moved Qi Xu’s hand again, this time pulling it to his waist in a way that made it look like Qi Xu was hugging him.

“This is the external oblique.”

Qi Xu blinked, his eyes finally starting to focus. For a moment, he looked exactly like a diligent student paying attention to a lecture—breathing shallowly, like he didn’t want to disturb the teacher.

But deep down, he wasn’t drunk anymore. His experience from a past life kicked in, forcing his mind to sober up quickly. Things were getting out of hand.

As Xie Huai’s hand continued to move downward with his, Qi Xu tried to pull away and end the so-called “lesson,” but Xie Huai tightened his grip.

“What are you shaking for?”

Qi Xu gave a warning, voice low: “That’s enough, Xie Huai.”

But Xie Huai ignored it, laughing softly. “Enough? Didn’t you say you wanted to see my abs?”

Qi Xu knew he’d walked right into this. He never should’ve teased him. Now he was the one on the back foot—and it was too late.

“I was joking,” he said, voice quieter now.

Xie Huai didn’t let up. He lifted the hem of his shirt and brought Qi Xu’s hand directly to his bare skin.

“This is the abs.”

The fabric no longer shielded them. Xie Huai’s body radiated heat, burning against Qi Xu’s palm like it could melt him into flesh and blood. It was startling, almost intimate in a way Qi Xu hadn’t expected.

Qi Xu’s hand jerked instinctively, fingers curling inward. But his pinky caught on Xie Huai’s waistband, like it didn’t want to stop exploring.

He froze, afraid Xie Huai might guide his hand even lower.

They locked eyes, and Qi Xu exhaled silently. Something in him sparked—defiance? Boldness?

So what if it went further? It’s not like he would be the one at a disadvantage.

Qi Xu stared Xie Huai down with a challenging glint in his eyes. “Go on, why’d you stop?”

What, like he couldn’t handle a kid like Xie Huai?

With that, he slipped his pinky inside the waistband, brushing the smooth skin underneath.

Xie Huai’s restraint snapped like a taut string. His gaze darkened, molars grinding together as he looked at Qi Xu with a storm of tangled emotions—frustration, disbelief, longing.

“Qi Xu… do you even have a heart?”

Qi Xu stared back, deadpan. “Still beating, thanks for asking. What’s your problem—are you drunk?”

Boiling a frog in warm water—too bad this frog was clueless and heartless, still swimming around in the pot like it was a spa, even splashing water at him from the edge for fun.

All the patience Xie Huai had left was spent on Qi Xu. Yet the guy was emotionally dense—he could clearly see how Xu Yichen felt about Fang Qian, but remained utterly blind when it came to himself.

Xie Huai stepped closer, pulled the hand from Qi Xu’s abdomen and placed it firmly over his own chest. He enunciated each word clearly:
“Being into you is a damn problem of mine.”

Qi Xu froze, dumbfounded, thinking he must’ve drunk too much and started hallucinating. Xie Huai was just as drunk, right?

Their scents tangled in the air—Qi Xu’s sandalwood bracelet and Xie Huai’s faint trace of alcohol—messy and invasive, hijacking his senses. His brain raised its defenses, but his heart issued a totally different command.

He was spiraling into a full-blown panic.

Qi Xu braced one hand against the cold door, trying to squeeze some clarity from its chill. He steadied himself and tried to calm the drunk in front of him:
“You’re drunk. I’ll go get you some honey water.”

But Xie Huai’s gaze was sharp and clear. He hadn’t touched the Chardonnay all night—just one glass of liquor, nursing it till now.

Then he buried his cool cheek into Qi Xu’s neck, refusing to admit he was drunk.

His body burned hot, but the tip of his nose was icy. The chill made Qi Xu shiver. The clarity came rushing back. He couldn’t let himself sink any deeper. He was just about to push Xie Huai away—

When his earlobe was suddenly wrapped in warm, damp heat.

Xie Huai didn’t even pretend to have any self-control left. From the moment he realized he liked Qi Xu, he had stopped holding back—and he didn’t think he was wrong for it.

That earlobe was now being sucked, nibbled, teased—turning redder, hotter, becoming nothing more than Xie Huai’s plaything.

With a small tug, Qi Xu hissed—not in pain, but in sheer frustration.
Because unfortunately, his earlobes were a weak spot.

He couldn’t take it anymore. He grabbed Xie Huai’s hair and gritted through clenched teeth:
“Have you had enough? Keep acting like a drunk and I’ll throw you out myself.”

Xie Huai, hearing that, had the urge to bite down and make Qi Xu feel just a fraction of his own turmoil.

But he couldn’t bear to pull away. He kept pushing, testing Qi Xu’s limits—because even now, Qi Xu hadn’t shoved him off.

“I really do like you.”

Hearing that again, Qi Xu was still stunned.

Like what, exactly?

Qi Xu felt like his brain had officially run out of memory—overloaded, overheating, completely maxed out.

Weren’t they supposed to be just friends? That was the basis of their relationship, right? So how had they derailed this far without so much as a heads-up?

He had no idea how to respond. Completely thrown, he muttered, “Weren’t we not supposed to date this early? How about we focus on our studies and strive for self-improvement instead?”

The moment he said it, he regretted it. They were adults now—what early dating? And come on, Xie Huai’s grades were stellar. It wasn’t like he had any right to preach.

Xie Huai chuckled but didn’t say anything. He just liked watching Qi Xu panic like this.

Qi Xu fumbled, trying again:
“Maybe we got too close, and it messed with your sense of orientation? Should I just… back off?”

That made Xie Huai let out a soft snort of laughter, this time from a mix of amusement and exasperation.
“Back off to where, exactly? We’re in the same class, same dorm. What, you planning to start a cold war?”

Qi Xu, who could normally talk circles around anyone, was left speechless. He moved his lips but only managed to squeeze out:
“I didn’t say that.”

Xie Huai didn’t press him. Instead, he suddenly stepped back, and Qi Xu could finally breathe again.

“Go open your housewarming gift,” Xie Huai said.

“…Huh?”

“What do you mean, ‘huh’? Aren’t you gonna put that Macallan away?”

Just like that, all the tension from earlier vanished. They were back to being landlord and tenant again.

Qi Xu brushed past him, trying to pretend like none of that just happened. He was sober now. Too sober. And clearly, Xie Huai had already picked up on something.

But just as he stepped forward, Xie Huai grabbed his wrist from behind and gently pulled him back.

Qi Xu was pressed against the door again. When Xie Huai leaned in, he instinctively turned his head away to avoid getting ambushed again.

Only this time, Xie Huai wasn’t aiming for his ear—he went for the side of his neck, lips brushing against bare skin, testing boundaries. When Qi Xu still didn’t react, he bit down.

Qi Xu jolted and cursed,
“Are you a goddamn dog?”

Xie Huai pulled back with a smirk, admiring his handiwork—a faint red mark.
“So don’t even think about forgetting what happened tonight.”

A warning, seriously? Qi Xu was overwhelmed. And as Xie Huai walked away, Qi Xu suddenly felt like he was the jerk—even though he was the one getting taken advantage of.

Later, Qi Xu opened the housewarming gifts. He saw the Macallan from Xu Yichen and felt nothing. A bottle worth tens of thousands of dollars—completely overshadowed by a certain someone wandering around cleaning up the restaurant mess.

For someone obsessed with money, that realization was terrifying.

What the hell, he thought, am I actually valuing a bite mark over fifty grand’s worth of scotch?

What kind of virus does Xie Huai carry? He makes people forget how to love money?

Clutching the Macallan like it could anchor him to reality, Qi Xu opened his investment app to reignite his capitalist soul. Thankfully, the soaring stock chart still made his heart flutter.

Then he paused, frowning.

Would Xie Huai have done something like that in the past life?
He realized—he hadn’t known Xie Huai at all back then.

Their entire connection had been limited to boardroom negotiations and what the Shen family said behind his back. He didn’t know his habits, his preferences—nothing.

After college, they hadn’t seen each other for nearly five years. By the time they did, they were practically strangers.

As for rumors of Xie Huai dating Shen Zeyu? That was probably just gossip. Aside from seeing them together once at a celebration banquet, everything else had come secondhand—from company talk and the Shen family’s loose lips.

Shen Zeyu’s startup had the Xie family’s full support, and Xie Huai supposedly attended the launch. But Qi Xu had seen Xie Huai at an economic summit that same day.

Sure, he’d assumed Xie Huai must’ve taken a red-eye back to the capital.

But it had been a blizzard. Flights were grounded. Unless Xie Huai was Superman—he couldn’t have been in two places at once.

In truth, Qi Xu knew nothing—not even whether Xie Huai liked men or women.

But now, when Xie Huai told him I like you, his first reaction wasn’t to push away. It was to think.

What exactly does he like about me?

Qi Xu didn’t think he’d changed at all over the years. He had no hidden depths. He wasn’t ambitious about anything except his own business. He didn’t care about the Shen family’s power games.

He was lazy. Loved to sleep. Obsessed with money. If he could, he’d probably sleep hugging a money-printing machine.

So really…
What’s there to like?

What exactly was it about him that had attracted someone like Xie Huai, the golden boy born with everything?

Qi Xu wanted to blame it all on the alcohol. He hadn’t rejected him, but he hadn’t agreed either—because deep down, he still wanted to keep things the way they were between them.

But Xie Huai hadn’t demanded an answer or forced him to make a decision. So Qi Xu chose to take some quiet time to think it through on his own.

When he went back to his room, Xie Huai didn’t say anything to stop him—it was late anyway, time to sleep.

But Qi Xu couldn’t fall asleep. In the middle of the night, he quietly slipped out of bed, threw on a jacket, and went out to the balcony to light incense ahead of schedule.

It was two in the morning—technically the next day already. Might as well have breakfast early.

This time, he seriously recited the Heart-Cleansing Mantra, trying to clear every last thought out of his head. After standing in the chilly night wind for a while, he finally went back to bed and managed to fall asleep.

Whether it was the incense or the mantra that worked, he didn’t know. But after rolling around a few times on the big bed, he was out cold.

Not long after, the door of the neighboring room creaked open. Xie Huai walked out onto the same balcony where Qi Xu had just stood. Inhaling the lingering scent of sandalwood, he lit a cigarette.

The glowing tip of the cigarette flared and dimmed, gradually overtaking the scent of the incense. The balcony was soon filled only with the smell of tobacco.

A breeze swept by. The ash scattered. Nothing remained.

They were under the same roof—there was no real way to avoid each other. Not that Qi Xu planned on hiding anyway. He was collecting rent, after all.

After a good night’s sleep, Qi Xu felt like he’d reverted back to his usual self—the kind of guy who valued cash over people. As usual, he sat down for breakfast with Xie Huai.

That’s when he noticed the cigarette box on the table. He picked it up and asked, “You smoked last night?”

Xie Huai didn’t even look up. “Xu Yichen left that.”

Qi Xu opened it and checked. Only one was missing. But Xu Yichen didn’t smoke.

Fine, whatever. Heartbreak, inner turmoil—go ahead and smoke.

He tossed the cigarette pack toward Xie Huai. “Keep it. Just don’t wave it in front of me. If I break my no-smoking streak, I’m blaming you.”

Xie Huai smoothly accepted the pack. Then Qi Xu bent over and pulled a cigarette from Xie Huai’s pocket with a smirk.

“Well, well,” he sneered. “Didn’t you say you quit? Carrying one around, huh?”

Xie Huai surrendered completely, even handing over his lighter. “Do with me as you will.”

What a line—do with me as you will. He was putting all the power in Qi Xu’s hands, whether to accept or reject, love or leave. No complaints either way.

Qi Xu lowered his gaze, deep in thought. Two seconds later, he returned the cigarette pack and lighter to the table, pushing them back toward Xie Huai.

He didn’t say a word. But it was obvious: He had no right to interfere.

Xie Huai didn’t seem surprised. He even raised an eyebrow. “So… you don’t like me?”

That was just how he was—Xie Huai never danced around anything. He always asked directly, always wanted a clear answer.

Qi Xu didn’t even know whether he liked him or not. Now that the alcohol had worn off, all that was left was clarity. He was thinking about all of this with a 28-year-old’s logic.

“This isn’t about liking or not liking. I just think—wasn’t it good the way things were before? I don’t get it. What made you suddenly feel this way? Did I do something that gave you the wrong idea?”

“You want to keep things the way they were—are you trying to string me along?” Xie Huai replied slowly, answering every question. “And no, you didn’t give me the wrong idea. Even if all you could do was breathe, I’d still fall for you.”

Qi Xu: “…”

Now that the alcohol was out of his system, he had no excuse—and yet his face started heating up again. In two lifetimes, no one had ever confessed to him so seriously before.

Even with all his life experience… his old face wasn’t ready for this.

He’d never thought about settling down with someone—not in either lifetime. Like he’d told himself before, he figured he’d just grow old with a cat.

Qi Xu sat back down across from Xie Huai, resuming the negotiation—just like in their past life.

“You want to date me?”

Xie Huai was a little more talkative than before, but what came out of his mouth wasn’t exactly pleasant—aggressive, even.

“Whether I want to date or not isn’t the point. The real question is: do you want to? Don’t give me that ‘let’s just stay how we were’ crap. Can you still look me in the eye and call me ‘Huai-ge’ like before?”

Qi Xu wished he’d just shut up. He knocked on the table, a little annoyed. “Are you trying to force me into making a choice?”

Xie Huai went for the counter: “No. I’m giving you a third option.”

Qi Xu asked, “What option?”

Xie Huai said, “Let me chase you.”

Qi Xu: “…”

Well. That did it. The talk was officially off the rails.

He gave up completely and threw in the towel. “Fine. Go ahead and chase me. If you manage to catch me, that’s on you.”

He figured as long as he stuck to his boundaries and didn’t budge, he still had the upper hand in this negotiation.