Chapter 69

Back home, Qi Xu changed clothes and stepped out of the bedroom to hear Xie Huai on the phone in the living room.

“Keep following him. He’s likely meeting with them tonight. You know how to record everything—don’t spook them.”

Xie Huai turned at the sound of footsteps, saw Qi Xu settle onto the sofa, then continued his call.

Qi Xu already knew Xie Huai had people tailing Qi Guohui. Xie Huai always acted faster than him.

Just like when he got Qi Guohui locked up… or when he scrubbed all those reports from M City to keep the media out of Qi Xu’s private life.

Qi Xu checked his phone—several messages from Fang Peining. He sent back an apology and ordered him another meal to make up for bailing last minute.

Xie Huai walked over with the medical kit, glanced at the food delivery screen, and said, “Someone’s coming over to cook.”

Qi Xu rolled onto his stomach, making it easier for Xie Huai to treat him. “That delivery was for Fang Peining. Probably scared him earlier. I stood him up, so I bought him dinner.”

Xie Huai took out the spray and lifted Qi Xu’s shirt. “I was scared too. Where’s my compensation?”

The cold burst of spray on his waist made Qi Xu jolt. His core tensed up and he shrank back into the sofa, whipping his head around. “Damn, you scared me! Where’s my compensation?”

He even imitated Xie Huai’s tone, righteously aggrieved like he was the one shortchanged.

Xie Huai put the spray back in the kit and turned to wash his hands, but Qi Xu grabbed his arm. “You really mad?”

Xie Huai stared at him and asked, “Why would I be mad?”

Qi Xu sat up from the sofa and knelt on the cushion, teasing, “Because I didn’t compensate you? Should I order you delivery too?”

Before the words finished, Xie Huai grabbed the back of his neck and leaned down to kiss him.

Qi Xu tilted backward from the force of it, going from kneeling to sitting, and finally slumping into the sofa.

Now Xie Huai was the one kneeling—between Qi Xu’s legs on the couch. He pried open his lips with a steady rhythm, savoring him like a delicate dessert.

Slow. Gentle. Thorough.

Qi Xu’s tongue started to go numb, and he pushed at Xie Huai, only to have his hand caught and pinned down onto the sofa.

Xie Huai shielded his waist with one hand, giving him a brief moment to breathe. At some point, a pillow had been shoved under Qi Xu’s head. He frowned. “Smells like medicine.”

Xie Huai chuckled. “I didn’t mind it, but you’re out here complaining?”

Qi Xu kicked at him. “You better not mind!”

Xie Huai caught his ankle and pushed it down. Qi Xu instantly realized how compromising the position was and twitched.

Luckily, Xie Huai didn’t take it further—he just slipped his hand inside the leg of Qi Xu’s sweatpants, his palm warm against his calf.

Qi Xu flinched and tried to pull his leg back, but Xie Huai caught him again.

“No long johns today,” Xie Huai noted, his hand sliding up to cup Qi Xu’s knee.

Qi Xu turned his head. “You never wear them either. Why do you care what I wear?”

Qi Xu had never worn long johns in his life. Sure, he got cold, but he took pride in his dignity—cool guys don’t wear thermal underwear. That was his principle.

But in this lifetime, the “cool guy” had fallen into Xie Huai’s hands. Xie Huai knew he was sensitive to cold but didn’t want him waddling around bundled up like a rice dumpling either, so he took it upon himself to personally “inspect” whether Qi Xu was wearing long johns every day.

Xie Huai lifted his hair, a spark burning in his eyes. “You’re gonna end up with arthritis when you’re old. Who’s gonna take care of you then?”

Qi Xu wrapped his arms around Xie Huai’s neck and nuzzled his jaw, soft and sticky. “You will.”

The young body never stood a chance once things got going. Xie Huai tossed the topic of thermal wear out the window and focused on kissing him again.

Xie Huai had never hidden his possessiveness toward Qi Xu. But tonight, maybe because Qi Xu had taken the initiative for once, he was clearly losing control.

They might’ve kept going—if not for the chef arriving to cook and interrupting them.

After Qi Xu left, Qi Guohui immediately made a phone call.

“It’s done. I’ve raised that little bastard for so many years—don’t think I don’t know exactly what kind of tricks he’s up to. Whether he’s taking a dump or pissing, I can smell revenge from a mile away. He’s definitely going to hit back at the Shen family.” Qi Guohui clutched his outdated flip phone, eyes darting restlessly. “Hard to explain over the phone. Let’s meet up—grab a bite, and I’ll fill you in.”

Whatever the person on the other end said made Qi Guohui laugh obsequiously. Once the call ended, he spat on the floor and cursed, “Bunch of damn punks, thinking they can get me to work for free? Keep dreaming. Let them fight—chaos is good. The more of a mess it is, the more money I make.”

Qi Xu had guts—he glanced down at Xie Huai’s lower body, still grinning. “Looks like something needs urgent attention.”

Xie Huai was brushing soft kisses along his neck, voice low and hoarse. “We can take care of it together.”

The doorbell kept ringing, but Xie Huai didn’t seem to care at all. His entire focus was on the man in front of him.

Qi Xu was the first to relent. “I’m hungry.”

So, Xie Huai went to the bedroom alone, and Qi Xu went to open the door. He perked up instantly when he saw the ingredients for dinner.

Qi Guohui had been under surveillance by Xie Huai’s people this whole time. In the past few days, Qi Xu was told that the man had, in fact, gone after the Shen family—but didn’t find the Shen Corporation. Instead, he’d disguised himself as part of a cleaning crew and broke into the Shen residence.

Xie Huai was the first to learn of what happened, but he neither stopped Qi Guohui’s actions nor informed Qi Xu right away. He waited until everything had already gone down.

At the time, only Zeng Yun and Shen Zeyu were at the Shen household. Qi Guohui’s sudden intrusion was nothing short of chaos—Zeng Yun was so frightened she ended up in the hospital, and Qi Guohui got into a full-blown fight with Shen Zeyu. The whole house descended into chaos.

In the end, Qi Guohui didn’t even end up at the police station. On the contrary, the Shen family gave him a sum of money—under the pretense that he had helped raise Qi Xu all these years.

Qi Xu wasn’t surprised. This was typical of the Shen family. In their world, money solved everything. The only difference this time was that the one making the moves was Shen Zeyu.

Qi Xu didn’t care to dig into the fight’s reasons, assuming it was just another staged performance for Zeng Yun.

Xie Huai told him that the person Qi Guohui had previously met wasn’t Shen Zeyu, but rather a foreigner—someone close to Song Ruoming, who had been sent overseas to study by the Song family.

After Zeng Yun was hospitalized, Shen Fengkai only briefly mentioned it. Unlike last time, he didn’t try to force Qi Xu to visit. Qi Xu didn’t go to the hospital in person, instead just sent some nutritional supplements.

To him, the Shen family no longer meant anything. Shen Zhuohai and Zeng Yun were his parents in name only.

As Qi Xu had once bluntly said—he had more affection for the village’s old yellow dog than for them.

He kept a low profile, buried under the stress of group assignments for a general education course. He and Xie Huai had temporarily gone separate ways—this time, he’d been grouped with two guys from the dorm next door and three from another class.

After failing to gather everyone for the second scheduled meeting, the guys from next door vented their frustration in room 314. Qi Xu had enough. He messaged the group chat directly:

Idle Eater:
If you no-show next time, you’re out. We’re not dragging freeloaders to a high grade.

The boys from the other class were banking on the group being too small to split, and boldly offered excuses for skipping.

Idle Eater:
If we get penalized, so be it. I can make it up elsewhere. Can’t say the same for you passing.

Qi Xu’s midterm results had already made waves in the finance department—along with the insane group project scores from earlier. He was officially a study god. Just looking at him, people knew he had what it took to rank first.

Some predicted he’d top the GPA rankings for the semester—though based on the department’s composite score system, the real number one might be Xie Huai.

Xie Huai had participation points from student council and club activities. Qi Xu had done nothing school-related so far.

But Xie Huai wouldn’t let him just coast to graduation. He signed Qi Xu up for a few low-effort events, which annoyed him. Piling that on top of a group project with unreliable teammates finally pushed Qi Xu over the edge.

Now those slackers took his warning seriously and promised they’d be on time for the next meeting.

The discussion got pushed back, and Qi Xu had to head off to yet another school activity.

In his past life, no one held him accountable. He ranked first in GPA every year, but his composite score barely scraped the top ten. Never participated in a single event, just floated through college on competition results.

This life was different. Xie Huai watched over him like a tiger parent, even signing him up for “enrichment programs.”

Thankfully, most of the events were easy—like lectures, volunteer hours, and safety knowledge competitions.

Next semester, once Qi Xu could publish an SCI paper and enter competitions, he wouldn’t need to worry about activity points.

On Friday evening, Qi Xu had just finished a volunteer event. After getting his attendance stamped and signed, he received a call from Shen Zhuohong.

“Xiao Xu, sorry to call you this late and interrupt your studies. I’m taking Ziyang to a Shen Group banquet tonight, and he ran into Fengkai. The moment he heard the word ‘gege,’ he started crying to see you. It’s getting a little out of hand—could you talk to him on the phone?”

Qi Xu could already hear Shen Ziyang crying in the background. He was familiar with just how ear-piercing that little boy’s wails could be.

“No problem. I’ll talk to him.”

As soon as the phone was passed over, he heard sobbing. “Gege?”

Qi Xu responded gently. “Why are you crying?”

Ziyang suddenly remembered he’d promised Qi Xu just a few days ago to be a “big husband.” He didn’t quite know what it meant, but figured it had something to do with crying less.

He tried to hold it in and sniffled softly. “Gege, I miss you.”

They hadn’t seen each other for a week, though they’d video-called a few times. Still, hearing the boy’s words made Qi Xu’s heart soften.

He checked the time. “I’ll come get you later, okay? You can stay with us for the weekend.”

Ziyang cheered excitedly. Watching his son’s mood do a 180, Shen Zhuohong sighed—only Qi Xu could tame this little tyrant.

He took the phone back and heard Qi Xu ask for the address, confirming he would pick Ziyang up for the weekend.

“You sure it won’t be too much trouble for you?”

Qi Xu said, “It’s no trouble—just two days.”

Shen Zhuohai gave him the address—it was a hotel specifically used for hosting banquets.

By the time Qi Xu arrived at the hotel entrance, half an hour had passed. He texted Shen Zhuohong, who replied that the young master was resting and having dinner. If Qi Xu was available, he was welcome to come in and join them.

At that point, Qi Xu realized what kind of banquet this was—it had to be the official Shen Group dinner where Shen Zhuohong was making his first public appearance and formally announcing his succession of Shen Zhuohai’s position.

Shen Zhuohong was probably tied up with socializing, so that reply was most likely sent by his assistant.

Qi Xu entered the hotel and made his way to the lounge to pick up the kid. Inside, Shen Ziyang was having dinner quietly under the nanny’s supervision, waiting patiently for his older brother to arrive.

The second Qi Xu walked in, Shen Ziyang dropped his fork and dashed over to him on his short little legs. “Gege! Let’s go!”

Qi Xu could still see the traces of tears on the boy’s face—clearly, he’d been crying earlier. Glancing at the half-eaten dinner on the table, Qi Xu took his hand and led him back to the sofa.

“No rush. Let’s finish dinner first.”

Shen Ziyang obediently sat back down and resumed eating. During the meal, a server brought out more dishes, making it clear they were expected to stay for dinner.

Qi Xu figured, “Might as well eat if it’s already here.” He ate until he was about 70% full and saw Shen Ziyang still enjoying his cake. Then he got up to use the restroom.

While he was gone, his phone rang. The nanny wasn’t fast enough to stop it—Shen Ziyang, precocious as ever, picked it up and hit “Answer.”

“I got you a strawberry cake. When are you coming home?”

Shen Ziyang responded seriously, “Gege already ate my mango cake. He’s full.”

Xie Huai glanced at the contact name, immediately recognizing Shen Ziyang’s voice. He raised an eyebrow. “Where’s your brother?”

Shen Ziyang, with his less-than-perfect Chinese, replied, “Gege went to take a bath. Who are you?”

Xie Huai opened the location tracker app, confirmed Qi Xu’s location, then answered calmly, “I’m your brother’s boyfriend.”

Just then, Shen Zhuohong walked in with Shen Fengkai. The nanny rushed over to report that the little young master had answered Qi Xu’s phone.

Shen Zhuohong frowned. “Ziyang, why are you answering your brother’s calls without asking?”

Shen Ziyang said matter-of-factly, “Don’t interrupt, Daddy—I’m talking to my brother’s boyfriend.”