Lu Qiao perked up.
That was right. Although he had missed his chance, the opportunity had now appeared before him again. What had happened in the past could no longer be pursued, so all he could do was firmly seize the present.
Besides, his wings had already shown obvious improvement over the past two days!
Thinking this, Lu Qiao steadied his emotions, stood up straight, and tried moving his wings.
“There is a response,” Lu Qiao said, looking somewhat strained, “but it seems I still can’t fly.”
Yan Qiu said, “Take it one step at a time. There’s no rush.”
Lu Qiao suddenly thought of something and said, feeling rather clever, “Touch my wings some more! Last time, you touched them for an entire night, and they made such a huge improvement this time. If you touch them for another two days, maybe I’ll be able to fly!”
As he spoke, he even turned around and brought his wings in front of Yan Qiu.
Yan Qiu: “……”
He raised an eyebrow. “What’s the principle behind this?”
“I don’t know either.” Lu Qiao thought for a moment, looking up at the sky, then said, “Last time at the hospital, a nurse said that your mood has a huge impact on your body, and she even asked me if anything good had happened to me recently.”
Lu Qiao paused, feeling rather embarrassed.
“Maybe… maybe seeing you makes me pretty happy.”
Yan Qiu’s eyes darkened.
Just like that night, he firmly stroked Lu Qiao’s wings from beginning to end. Watching Lu Qiao’s back stiffen and tremble, he leaned over and whispered into his ear, “Touch them like this?”
Lu Qiao’s eyes were already closed. Breathing unevenly, he whispered, “Yes, just—just touch them like that. Hurry, touch them a few more times.”
Yan Qiu continued asking in a low voice, “Lu Qiao, what exactly are you trembling for?”
Lu Qiao trembled as he said, “There’s electricity. Your hands are electrified, right?!”
It was practically electrocuting him to death!
Yan Qiu: “……”
In the end, Lu Qiao had no idea what he had said or what exactly the two of them had been doing.
Anyway, he ended up sitting cross-legged on the floor while Yan Qiu sat behind him and stroked his wings for a long time, until his wings finally retracted.
Only then was it considered done.
Afterward, Lu Qiao turned around, grabbed Yan Qiu’s large hand, and carefully inspected it from beginning to end.
Yan Qiu glanced at him. “What did you find?”
Lu Qiao shook his head, lightly patted Yan Qiu’s palm, and solemnly declared, “A hand of magic. You’re a lightning-element mage, aren’t you?”
After saying that, he found it funny himself and laughed several times.
Unexpectedly, Yan Qiu suddenly pressed his palm against the left side of his chest.
“Thump!”
Lu Qiao’s heart was jolted by electricity, as though it had nearly jumped right out of his throat. Looking utterly dumbfounded, he braced himself against the floor and stared at Yan Qiu.
He had only been joking. Was Yan Qiu really going to electrocute anywhere he touched?!
Yan Qiu was also stunned for a moment.
“You…”
The two stared at each other in silence, and the atmosphere became rather delicate.
It was not until the terminal Yan Qiu had set aside began vibrating that the two came back to their senses. They subtly averted their gazes and stood up separately.
Yan Qiu went to answer the call while Lu Qiao rubbed his chest.
That had nearly electrocuted him to death. It made no sense at all. Could Yan Qiu have awakened a secondary gene? But he had never heard of any species whose special ability was generating electricity.
After Yan Qiu finished the call, the two changed clothes, tidied up, and prepared to go home.
Only then did Lu Qiao discover that along with his wings recovering their function, they had also started shedding feathers. Two or three had fallen onto the floor.
Following the principles of a civilized person, he picked up every feather that had fallen onto the ground.
Each feather was about as long as his palm and an exceptionally pure white. Just looking at them, they were actually quite beautiful.
Yan Qiu walked over and handed Lu Qiao some water, then naturally took the feathers from Lu Qiao’s hands.
Lu Qiao thought Yan Qiu was going to throw them away. Unexpectedly, Yan Qiu looked at them, then tucked all three feathers into his pocket.
Lu Qiao unscrewed the cap and brought the water to his mouth, saying casually, “They’ve already fallen on the floor. Why put them in your pocket? Just throw them away later.”
Yan Qiu calmly replied, “No need. We can take them home and make dip pens.”
Lu Qiao nearly choked on his water.
Was the Yan family really that short of pens??
It was already almost one in the afternoon, and the two of them still had not eaten lunch.
The pilot was waiting outside. After Lu Qiao and Yan Qiu got in, the aircraft took off.
Yan Qiu asked, “Do you want to see what the military headquarters looks like as a whole?”
Lu Qiao nodded repeatedly, excitedly saying, “Sure, sure!”
Thus, carrying the two of them, the aircraft began flying around the military headquarters. Its speed was not fast, allowing Lu Qiao to see everything clearly.
Lu Qiao lay against the window, staring without blinking, taking in all the scenery below.
One imposing military headquarters building after another, training grounds distributed on both sides, and not far away, entire formations of mecha soldiers were conducting drills.
As he looked, Lu Qiao suddenly shouted, “Ah! It’s Marshal Seir and Marshal Lunen!”
The two were just walking out of a building.
Perhaps noticing the shadow of the aircraft passing over the ground, the two raised their heads. Recognizing it as Yan Qiu’s aircraft, Lunen grinned and waved at them.
Yan Qiu glanced at his terminal and remembered a message Ji Zhuyun had sent later.
After a brief moment of thought, he said, “Lu Qiao, there are some people you don’t need to associate with.”
Lu Qiao turned to look at him. “You mean… that blond guy?”
Yan Qiu said, “Him. Seir as well.”
Lu Qiao froze for a moment.
He leaned back against the seat and thought before asking, “You two don’t have a good relationship? Ji Zhuyun said you grew up together.”
Yan Qiu frowned slightly.
“It’s true that I’ve known him since childhood, but we can’t be considered close. He spent more time with my father than he did with me.”
“I see…”
Lu Qiao remembered that when he had first met Yan Qiu and the others, he really had not seen Yan Qiu talk much with Seir.
Most of the time, Seir would trail behind everyone else. Even when Yan Qiu was talking to Lu Qiao, Seir would merely watch them from several steps away.
When Ji Zhuyun had told him about Seir’s relationship with Yan Qiu, Lu Qiao had been somewhat surprised because it really was difficult to tell.
However, he had assumed it was because Yan Qiu was cold by nature while Seir was too introverted.
Seeing Seir again today, Lu Qiao felt that the other man had changed somewhat. He seemed a little more confident than before and also somewhat better at speaking.
Although he appeared overly respectful toward Yan Qiu—after all, unlike the other soldiers, while he was Yan Qiu’s subordinate, he had nevertheless known Yan Qiu since childhood. Not even Ji Zhuyun and the others, or even Song Yue, were as deferential and proper toward Yan Qiu as he was—when he wanted to speak, he no longer hesitated repeatedly like before.
And at the same time as noticing these changes, Lu Qiao also keenly sensed something.
Seir seemed to have some hostility toward him.
Had this hostility only appeared today, or had it existed before? Lu Qiao had no idea.
But perhaps Yan Qiu was reminding him because of this?
Lu Qiao asked, “Speaking of which, does Seir know that I’m the adjutant candidate you favor?”
Yan Qiu glanced at him. “He should know.”
Lu Qiao was startled and said softly, “He didn’t tell me…”
Thinking back to the way Seir had looked at him at the time, Lu Qiao frowned.
“Was he declaring war on me?”
“Perhaps.” Yan Qiu propped his face up with one hand and looked at him.
Lu Qiao felt somewhat uncomfortable.
He admitted that when he had learned Yan Qiu already had someone he favored, he too had developed hostility toward that imagined rival. So if Seir was hostile toward him because of this, Lu Qiao did not think it was anything unusual. It was probably just a man’s competitive spirit.
But if it were him, when he wanted to declare war on someone, he would definitely say it clearly.
He would tell the other person: Although Yan Qiu has his eye on you, I still intend to give everything I have and compete with you.
However—
Perhaps Seir was simply unwilling to accept it.
Lu Qiao could not be bothered to think about it anymore. All he could say was that everyone had a different personality.
Thinking back to how the blond guy had said that awful thing later while Seir had still laughed and tried to smooth things over, Lu Qiao felt even more that he and Seir were incompatible.
Yan Qiu watched him for a long time before finally saying, “Even if someone really is my friend, if you don’t like them, you don’t have to force yourself to associate with them.”
Lu Qiao looked at him and smiled to himself.
Yan Qiu smiled too. “What are you grinning foolishly about again?”
“Nothing. I was just thinking that the two of us really are quite compatible.”
Lu Qiao was very happy about that.
The two returned to the Yan family home and had a late lunch. They spent the afternoon resting at the estate.
It had been a very long time since Lu Qiao had felt this relaxed.
Usually, there were many students at the training center, but most of them had training to do. The headmaster and vice headmaster were also constantly beside the students, so they did not have much time to spend with Lu Qiao.
Lu Qiao often did special training alone in a separate room. Occasionally, when he stopped, there would be no one to talk to. With his mind completely empty, it was easy for him to start thinking about all sorts of things, and once his thoughts went too far, he would often become depressed.
To keep himself from sinking into that kind of mood, Lu Qiao would simply keep training, training, and training until nightfall, then shower, lie in bed, and go to sleep.
Being able to bask in the sun, stroll through the garden, chat, and drink tea like he did today seemed to have been something from a very, very long time ago.
Yan Qiu took him around the entire Yan family estate. The two then returned to the house and went to Yan Qiu’s study, each finding a book.
Lu Qiao sat down on the sofa by the window, while Yan Qiu sat beside him.
The atmosphere was peaceful. Lu Qiao stared at the words in his book, eventually growing sleepy and leaning against the sofa to doze for a while.
When he woke up, the black-haired man was still sitting quietly beside him, as though he had never left.
Seeing that Lu Qiao had awakened, he reached out and opened the curtains that had been pulled shut at some point. The light of the setting sun streamed inside.
Every one of his movements was so natural.
Leaning against the sofa, Lu Qiao looked motionlessly at Yan Qiu while listening to the birds chirping outside the window.
He thought that most people probably could not imagine that this man was actually so good at taking care of others.
The next morning, Lu Qiao set out from the Yan family estate. Yan Qiu had arranged for a driver to take him to the training center.
The journey took five hours. By the time he arrived, it was already noon.
He hurriedly went to change his clothes. Just as he stepped out of the room, two figures charged toward him menacingly.
Lu Qiao saw that it was Ellie and Chris, but he could not understand why the two of them were glaring at him like that.
The next second, Ellie trembled as she asked,
“You—you really got locked in with Marshal Yan?”
Lu Qiao: “Cough cough cough cough!”
He had completely forgotten about that.
Chris also stared at him. “You… where did you just come back from?”
Lu Qiao said vaguely, “Just… the Yan family…”
They all knew already, so what was the point of hiding it?
Ellie immediately let out a scream, clutched her head, and dropped to her knees.
Lu Qiao stared in shock. Was it really that exaggerated?
Ellie screamed, “Impossible! Why is it you?! Weren’t you only supposed to meet during competitions back then?! What could you possibly do with such little time together?!”
Lu Qiao really wanted to argue back, but after thinking about it, he could only awkwardly say, “…I don’t know either.”
Ellie and Chris looked like they were about to cough up blood from anger.
Although Lu Qiao really hoped the two of them would not misunderstand anything, when he thought back on it himself, he actually found it strange too.
He really had not spent much time with Yan Qiu back then. At most, they had only been together for a little over a month each year. How exactly had their relationship lasted from when he was fourteen all the way until now—ten years?
Even the deepest love could possibly fall apart after that long, right? Yet he and Yan Qiu—
Lu Qiao felt that his train of thought was becoming somewhat strange at this point and hurriedly stopped himself.
Chris gasped, “So everything the headmaster said is true!”
Lu Qiao knew it was the headmaster who had told them. He had probably been pestered until he had no choice, so Lu Qiao could only nod.
Ellie looked devastated. “You spend every night with Marshal Yan now…”
Lu Qiao continued nodding.
Chris slammed his fist against the table. “So all those high-end training machines in our training center were bought by Marshal Yan for you!”
Lu Qiao almost nodded again, but then came back to his senses and froze.
Ellie covered her face and wailed, “So that huge birthday cake you got wasn’t ordered by the headmaster and vice headmaster at all! It was ordered by Marshal Yan for you!”
Lu Qiao was dumbfounded.
The veins on Chris’s forehead were bulging. “And that holographic helmet of yours wasn’t a gift from the headmaster and the others either. It was a gift from Marshal Yan!”
Lu Qiao said, “Wait…”
Ellie said, “And those massage devices you use after training! I was wondering where the headmaster got the money to buy them. Turns out Marshal Yan got those for you too!”
Lu Qiao: “……”
Lu Qiao wore a shocked expression. “Wait, what are you talking about?!”
Throughout the training center, batches of students were carrying out their respective exercises on each training field, while the headmaster and vice headmaster supervised them from the side.
Suddenly, the sound of hurried footsteps came from the corridor.
The two turned around and saw Lu Qiao appear at the doorway, panting heavily. His eyes immediately locked onto the headmaster. He then strode over, grabbed the headmaster, and dragged him outside.
“Hey, wait! Lu Qiao, what are you doing?” the headmaster called out.
Lu Qiao dragged him to the corner of the stairs and stared at him.
“What Ellie and the others said—is it true?”
The headmaster scratched his hair, puzzled. “What? About you and Yan Qiu? Ah, they pestered me for ages, so I had no choice but to tell them. But I didn’t tell the other students!”
Lu Qiao said, “I’m asking if everything they said is true?!”
The headmaster froze.
“What? Didn’t I tell you about those things that day?”
Lu Qiao exploded.
“You only told me that Yan Qiu asked you to take care of me! You never said anything about the training equipment, the massage machines, the cake, or—or the holographic helmet and all that!!”
The headmaster’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Yan Qiu hasn’t told you?”
“No!!” Lu Qiao practically jumped, becoming anxious.
When he had heard Ellie and Chris talking just now, he had been completely stunned.
What were all those things? He had never heard of any of them! Exactly how much had Yan Qiu done for him???
The headmaster was stunned too. After a moment, he rubbed his chin and said, “How can he be this tsundere?”
“……”
Lu Qiao confirmed once again, “It’s all true? Those things were really bought by Yan Qiu?”
“Of course. Yan Qiu bought all of them for you.” The headmaster wore an expression that said this was obvious. “Think about it carefully. Do I, your uncle, look like I have enough money to buy such expensive equipment? If I were really that rich, would I still be living on pickled vegetables?!”
Lu Qiao: “……”
His expression became completely disordered.
He really had thought about this before. The headmaster did not charge much for training, and he usually dressed in a sloppy manner. No matter how he looked at it, he did not seem like a rich man. So where had the funding for all those machines come from?
But Lu Qiao had not wanted to pry into someone else’s finances, so he had kept the question buried in his heart. He had even guessed that perhaps the headmaster had used connections with his former military comrades and gone through various… anyway, channels Lu Qiao could not imagine to purchase them at low prices.
So had he just overcomplicated things?
There had been no complicated means at all.
Those machines had simply been gifts from Yan Qiu!
The headmaster patted his chest and muttered, “This really opened my eyes. I was even thinking about leaving him some opportunities to show off himself.”
That guy’s mouth was sealed way too tightly.
Lu Qiao could not even describe what he was feeling right now. He stared intently at the headmaster and pressed him.
“Then, then what else is there that I don’t know about?”
The headmaster scratched his cheek. “Nothing else.”
Lu Qiao was suspicious. “Really nothing else?”
The headmaster shook his head. “Nothing, nothing.”
Actually, there was one more thing—
Yan Qiu had originally almost directly paid for him to move the training center somewhere else.
Because the place was too small to have a cafeteria, Yan Qiu had wanted him to move somewhere else so that he could arrange for a cafeteria and cover all three of Lu Qiao’s meals every day.
But the headmaster felt that this would not do. After talking with Yan Qiu, the latter finally stopped.
The headmaster had not known Lu Qiao for very long before figuring out his personality. He knew that Lu Qiao was still a fairly independent kid and would not like being taken care of in every possible detail.
To be honest, what Yan Qiu was doing really was a little excessive.
Later, whenever Yan Qiu asked how Lu Qiao had been doing recently, as long as nothing major had happened to Lu Qiao, the headmaster would always answer, “He’s doing pretty well.”
—This was what a normal person’s life should be like.
There would be difficult times, painful times, and times when the pressure became overwhelming.
But as long as he could eat, drink, train every day, and still have plenty of energy, that was enough.
As for only drinking nutritional supplements for all three meals a day—the headmaster had advised Lu Qiao about that too. But Lu Qiao insisted on living this way, and the headmaster did not say anything more. After all, nutritional supplements did provide sufficient nutrition. Under the current circumstances, Lu Qiao had chosen this way of life, so the headmaster did not interfere. He certainly did not think Yan Qiu needed to take care of Lu Qiao to this extent.
Back then, he had told Yan Qiu, “You don’t want me to tell Lu Qiao about the things you’ve done. That’s because you know in your heart that you’ve gone overboard, right?”
The man on the other end of the phone fell silent for a moment.
At first, Yan Qiu had only asked him to take care of Lu Qiao. The headmaster had not thought there was anything wrong with that. When Yan Qiu told him not to say anything, he had simply assumed Yan Qiu was shy.
But later, one thing after another began arriving from Yan Qiu, and the headmaster had been left speechless.
He had said at the time, “You know that once Lu Qiao finds out about what you’ve done, he might notice something. But you don’t know how he feels about you. If you show your intentions now, you have no idea how his attitude toward you will change. But if you keep going overboard, your uncle here won’t be able to hide it anymore.”
Yan Qiu had been rendered speechless by his words.
The headmaster found it amusing, but did not tease him further. He merely said, “Anyway, I’m keeping an eye on Lu Qiao. You don’t need to worry so much anymore. You’ve already done more than enough for him. Let him live at his own pace.”
Now, because Lu Qiao had asked about it, the headmaster could only respond this way on the surface, but inwardly, he was also thinking.
Originally, he had thought that since the two of them were now locked together, perhaps it would be easier for them to talk about certain things openly. But judging from the current situation, they still were not quite there yet.
Lu Qiao’s attitude was not clear enough, and Yan Qiu probably did not dare to spell things out. After all, if Lu Qiao did not feel the same way and was frightened once that thin layer of paper was pierced, things would become troublesome.
As it turned out, Lu Qiao really was oblivious enough. Perhaps he had never seriously considered romance in his life.
Just like now. Even after learning about all the things Yan Qiu had done for him, he did not seem to immediately misunderstand the situation.
The headmaster did not know what to say.
After Lu Qiao had been locked together with Yan Qiu, he had made some suggestive jokes. But jokes were jokes. He would never actually ruin Yan Qiu’s romance.
Therefore, seeing Lu Qiao’s bewildered appearance now, he instead breathed a sigh of relief, glad that his mistake on this side had not caused the two of them to veer completely off course.
Of course, he also felt a little sorry for Yan Qiu.
Forget it. They had only been locked together for a few days. There was no need to rush.
Speaking of which, Yan Qiu really was something. Although the training center matter had initially been something he had… accidentally let slip, if he could not reveal everything, he should at least have coordinated with him again.
Could it be that having the person he liked right beside him had made him lose all thought of these things?
The headmaster secretly shifted the blame onto him.
Blame-shifting aside, he still spoke up for Yan Qiu.
“On one hand, he was providing me with financial support. On the other hand, he really was doing it for you.”
Lu Qiao stared blankly at the headmaster and blinked.
The headmaster blinked too.
“He really cares about you, Lu Qiao. He doesn’t treat just anyone this way.”
“…Yeah.” Lu Qiao murmured.
A glint flashed through the headmaster’s eyes. He was just about to say something when he heard Lu Qiao continue murmuring.
“My dad… wasn’t even this good to me…”
The headmaster: “Uh, well—”
Lu Qiao said, “My dad, my grandmother… neither of them took care of me to this extent. Yan Qiu, Yan Qiu, he—”
The more Lu Qiao thought about it, the more excited he became. But he did not know how to express what he was feeling, and in the end, he blurted out,
“Yan Qiu will definitely be a good father in the future!”
The headmaster: Wait, this line of thought is going in a slightly wrong direction, Little Qiao Qiao!
Lu Qiao turned around and was about to leave.
The headmaster, looking utterly bewildered, grabbed him.
“Where are you going?!”
Lu Qiao said, “I—I’m going back to my room to call him!”
The headmaster: “……”
He had no idea what to say. He could not exactly stop Lu Qiao from calling Yan Qiu either, so he could only let Lu Qiao run off.
After standing there dazed for two seconds, he quickly sent Yan Qiu a message:
“I accidentally let Lu Qiao find out about all the things you bought for him. He seems to want to acknowledge you as his dad now. Prepare yourself!!”
A few seconds later, Yan Qiu replied:
“…………”
After returning to his room, Lu Qiao actually sat there in a daze for a while.
He carefully thought back over everything Ellie and Chris had said, counting how many things Yan Qiu had added or purchased.
The more he thought about it, the more moved he became.
How could this be?
Why had Yan Qiu never told him anything?
Lu Qiao thought about it for a long time before suddenly realizing…
Was it just like how he did not want Yan Qiu to know that he had been called a brainless fan online for defending him?
Although he had told himself that he did not want to say it because he did not want Yan Qiu to become proud, he actually knew that he was simply embarrassed to admit it.
After all, who would have the nerve to admit to the other person what they had done for them?
Yan Qiu was probably the same, right?
But he had never expected that Yan Qiu could have feelings like that too.
Lu Qiao foolishly chuckled twice before finally remembering what he actually needed to do and dialing Yan Qiu.
The call was answered very quickly. However, after a one-second pause, the man’s cool voice finally came through.
“Lu Qiao?”
Lu Qiao pursed his lips and said softly, “The headmaster told me some more things.”
The man fell silent for a moment.
“Lu Qiao—”
Lu Qiao quickly said, “Thank you!”
He felt that there should be so many things he wanted to say, yet he did not know what to say.
In the end, he merely glanced at the holographic clock on the wall and murmured,
“There are still six hours…”
The man seemed to pause.
“What?”
Lu Qiao came back to his senses and shifted his gaze away. For some reason, he suddenly felt a little embarrassed and stammered,
“Th-there are still six hours. It’ll be seven o’clock tonight…”
Ah.
Would saying something like this to a friend make him seem too clingy?
Lu Qiao actually was not trying to cling to Yan Qiu that much. He just really wanted to see him right now.
Sitting cross-legged on the bed, somewhat nervous and flustered, he was wondering what he could say to salvage this delicate atmosphere when he heard the man chuckle softly.
His voice came through the phone and into Lu Qiao’s ear.
“Mm. Six more hours.”
“I’ll be waiting for you.”