Chapter 24

The night before, He Qingmo had an impromptu video conference with clients from overseas, and he was so busy that he slept very late.

So, he slept deeply, and when he woke up, it was almost noon.

He groggily reached out on the bed but didn’t touch anything. That’s when he remembered that his child had gone to school.

It seemed like Qingda’s military training would last for twenty days, and it was very strict. They started running at 6 in the morning and even had emergency assemblies late at night. Thinking about that experience, He Qingmo himself felt a headache. He didn’t know if his child’s small frame could handle it.

Lost in these random thoughts, he didn’t feel like going back to sleep. He got up, took a shower, went downstairs, and prepared to make some coffee to wake up. Then he remembered the earnest advice from his child yesterday, so he had a rare thought of going to the kitchen, opened the refrigerator, and took out a food container with “Shumai” written crookedly on it.

It should be something he could steam and eat easily. Quite simple, so he went with that.

But which pot should he use? Should he steam it together with cold water, or should he bring the water to a boil first and then steam it?

A man with almost zero cooking skills wisely called Fan Xing’s phone.

At this moment, Fan Xing had successfully completed the procedures and was being led to the dormitory by a pretty senior.

Seeing He Qingmo’s call coming in, he interrupted the senior’s enthusiastic explanation with a hint of apology, “I’m sorry, I need to take a call.” Then, he answered the call and smiled, asking, “Brother, are you up?”

“Yeah. How’s it going over there? Is everything going smoothly?” He Qingmo inquired.

“It’s going quite smoothly. I’ve completed the procedures, and I’m on my way to the dormitory now. Do you need something?” Fan Xing asked.

“Why? Can’t I call if I don’t have anything to do?” It seemed like the man had forgotten the purpose of his call.

“No! It’s just that the senior who’s taking me to the dormitory is waiting. I don’t want to keep her waiting. If you don’t have anything urgent, can we hang up, and I’ll call you later?” Fan Xing suggested in a hushed voice.

Little did he know that the man on the other end of the phone suddenly seemed interested again, “Senior? Is she pretty?”

Fan Xing didn’t know why he was interested in such things, but he answered honestly, “Yes, she’s pretty.”

“How pretty is she?”

“Uh? Well…”

This question was a bit difficult for Fan Xing. His Chinese language skills only allowed him to say “pretty,” “very pretty,” “good-looking,” “very good-looking,” and he didn’t know any other adjectives.

He thought for a while but ultimately gave up on describing her, “If you really want to know, I can ask her if she’d let me take a picture to send to you later?”

“No need.” The voice of He Qingmo on the other end of the phone suddenly seemed uninterested again. “Which pot should I use to steam shumai?”

“If you haven’t eaten yet? Well, if you want something convenient, just use an electric rice cooker to steam it. If you don’t mind the hassle…”

“I mind the hassle, so it’s the electric rice cooker, the black one in the corner, right?” He Qingmo clearly had no interest in the more complicated method.

Fan Xing couldn’t help but chuckle softly, “Yes, steam it for about ten minutes, not too long, or the texture will be off.”

He knew that He Qingmo couldn’t cook and hardly ever set foot in the kitchen, so this task was probably quite challenging for him.

Imagining the sight of a nearly two-meter-tall man wandering around the kitchen for a while, not knowing where to start, Fan Xing couldn’t help but smile.

Fortunately, the man seemed to be seriously competing with the electric rice cooker and didn’t hear his laughter, nor did he seem to care.

Fan Xing hung up the phone after making sure that the shumai were finally steaming, and then he saw the senior smiling ambiguously at him and asking, “Is he your boyfriend?”

Huh?

Fan Xing hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and said, “No, he’s… my brother.”

At this moment, Fan Xing realized how convenient the title he had chosen without much thought was. After all, he called He Qingmo “brother,” whether he was a blood relative or not was another matter.

The senior seemed surprised and a bit disappointed, “Brother? From the way you acted earlier, I thought he was your boyfriend, deeply in love and all.”

Fan Xing smiled but didn’t say anything. He couldn’t help but wonder why he was suddenly labeled as a boyfriend just because he had answered a phone call. What had he said to give that impression? And they even thought he was deeply in love!

Once the senior knew he was talking about his brother, the gossip seemed to die down, and she continued to introduce him to the school’s situation and escorted him to the new student dormitory in the medical school.

Fan Xing was the last to arrive at the dormitory since he had reported on the last day.

The other three roommates were easygoing and quickly helped Fan Xing arrange his bed and clean his desk.

The senior was also diligent and only left after Fan Xing got to know his dormmates. She bid farewell and left.

Fan Xing was grateful and walked her to the elevator before returning.

As soon as he entered the room, one of his new roommates, Qin Xiuming, grabbed him by the neck and approached him with a gossipy look, “Hey, Xiao Xing, this is incredible! You just entered school today and already got close to such a beauty. She even personally took you upstairs and told us to take good care of you. Is she afraid we’ll eat you up or something?”

Before Fan Xing could explain, another roommate, Yu Cheng, who was playing games on his computer, chimed in, “Qin Xiuming, are you blind? Which eye did you use to see her as a beauty? She’s just like you, with a guitar, and she might even be bigger than you!”

“Damn!” Qin Xiuming, still holding Fan Xing by the neck, approached him, “Are you kidding me? A guy?”

Someone named Lu Zirui, who had been messing around on his bed and didn’t know what was going on, suddenly chimed in, “Don’t you guys know about Lu Chi, the cross-dressing genius from the Computer Science department? He used to be with that playboy from Ancient Future Technology. Haven’t you seen their videos online?”

Qin Xiuming frowned and pondered, “He Qingmo’s boyfriend? I don’t remember him. But I do remember that guy who was shopping at the wholesale market a while back. Have you seen him? I remember the guy in the video looked pretty good.”

Full of gossip, Qin Xiuming seemed to completely ignore how stiff Fan Xing was when he heard this, and he continued, “But the video focused on He Qingmo’s face, and the guy’s face wasn’t clear. Besides, the video was deleted overnight, and you can’t find it now. But I think he’s better looking than that cross-dressing genius. What do you guys think?”

“Does it really matter if he’s good-looking or not? He’ll probably change soon anyway. Rich playboys are all like that,” Yu Cheng, still gaming and multitasking, interjected.

Qin Xiuming sighed, “True, we don’t need to worry about it. But I am a bit curious, what’s He Qingmo’s taste? Does he also like the cross-dressing genius? What do you think, Xiao Xing?”

It seemed like Qin Xiuming was worried that Fan Xing might feel left out, so he pulled Fan Xing into the conversation.

After hearing the conversation behind him, Fan Xing relaxed and chuckled, “I’m sorry, I just returned from abroad, so I don’t really know about these things.”

Qin Xiuming was understanding and nodded repeatedly, “Right, right, I forgot. You just mentioned that you came back from abroad when you entered. You probably don’t know about this gossip. But it’s okay, we’ll explain everything to you in detail later, so you won’t feel left out. But for now, let’s go to the cafeteria. It’s past dinner time, aren’t you all hungry?”

They all realized their stomachs were growling, so the four of them went to the cafeteria together.

On the way, Fan Xing sent a WeChat message to He Qingmo, worried that he hadn’t eaten the shumai yet. He received an instant reply with a picture of the steamed shumai, looking quite good.

Following that, he received another message, “Isn’t hubby amazing?”

Fan Xing chuckled, feeling like the person who sent this message, He Qingmo, was like a preschooler asking for a gold star. Nevertheless, he replied, “Yes, you’re amazing!”

After sending the message, he thought for a moment and sent another one, “By the way, the senior who escorted me to the dormitory earlier is actually a senior brother named Lu Chi.”

He received a question mark in response.

Fan Xing wasn’t sure why He Qingmo was questioning this, perhaps he was wondering why Fan Xing was sharing this information or why the senior suddenly became a senior brother. However, it was clear that He Qingmo probably had no recollection of the name Lu Chi.

It wasn’t surprising, considering that Mr. He changed boyfriends as frequently as he changed clothes. Most of the previous boyfriends had only appeared once, so not remembering was understandable.

In fact, Fan Xing didn’t share this to probe or test He Qingmo; he just wanted to let him know about it. And truth be told, Fan Xing was surprised to learn that He Qingmo had been with Lu Chi before because Fan Xing felt that he and Lu Chi were completely different types. How could someone who liked Lu Chi’s type be interested in him?

But according to online descriptions of He Qingmo, he liked all good-looking boys. That probably explained it.

What Fan Xing didn’t expect was that his encounter with Lu Chi was just the beginning. In the following days, he met Lu Chi several times, always in cross-dressing attire and always being exceptionally friendly and warm. Seeing Fan Xing standing at attention with sweat pouring down, Lu Chi even sneaked drinks to him. This led the roommates to start suspecting that Lu Chi had changed his taste after being dumped by He Qingmo, going from liking dominant CEOs to liking sweet little puppies.

 

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