Chapter 83

Old Master Shen and Old Master Xie went out for tea early the next morning. Old Master Shen had heard that Qi Xu had visited Xie the night before—but didn’t know what he said that had convinced that stubborn old man to finally give in.

These two kids hadn’t had it easy. So Old Master Shen brought along a treasured tea cake as a peace offering for his longtime friend.

Before he left, he didn’t forget to tell someone to wake Qi Xu up for his physical exam.

So on the very first day of break, Qi Xu was rudely awakened—he wasn’t even allowed breakfast because of a blood test, and his morning grumpiness reached an all-time high.

Xie Huai had anticipated this and called him early. Ever since they got together, the number of rings it took for Qi Xu to answer had dropped from five to three.

On the third call, Qi Xu finally picked up.

“Your physical’s today—are you up yet?” Xie Huai asked.

Qi Xu was still in bed, while Uncle Li outside the door finally stopped knocking.

“I’m up.”

Xie Huai said, “Then turn on your camera.”

Half-asleep, Qi Xu mumbled, “What’s the point of a video call? Why didn’t you just come wake me up yourself?”

Xie Huai replied, “I was going to come in ten min—”

Qi Xu rolled over and cut him off. “Don’t come. I was just joking. Get on with your work.”

Xie Huai had been up early too. Or more accurately, he hadn’t been able to fall back asleep after waking up in the middle of the night. If Qi Xu had been there, he definitely would’ve smelled the cigarette smoke on him.

“What did you talk to Grandpa about last night?”

Qi Xu was used to being woken up like this—with casual conversation—so he gradually became more awake. “I don’t think I pissed him off too badly, right?”

Xie Huai emptied his overflowing ashtray into the trash and chuckled. “The butler said he popped a heart pill during dinner. Could’ve been worse.”

“Oh,” Qi Xu said, then admitted, “It wasn’t while I was still there. Maybe afterward, he got mad that he couldn’t win an argument against a junior like me, so he had to take something to calm down.”

Xie Huai wasn’t too worried about things escalating between Qi Xu and the old man. Qi Xu was naturally lazy—he wasn’t the type to argue with people. More importantly, he respected his elders and had a surprising amount of patience with both the elderly and kids.

“Alright, get up. I’ll come pick you up this afternoon.”

Qi Xu stretched lazily. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve got to drop by the company. I’ll come find you after work.”

They chatted for a little longer and hung up once Qi Xu got out of bed to wash up.

Half an hour later, Uncle Li took Qi Xu to the hospital for his check-up.

Sitting in the backseat, Qi Xu asked, “Uncle Li, are you getting a check-up too?”

A whole convoy of bodyguards followed behind them—it was a bit over the top.

Uncle Li chuckled. “Not me. Originally, the old master was supposed to go with you, but you made plans for him this morning, so he couldn’t make it. The hospital says a family member has to be there, so I’m acting as your stand-in family for now.”

Qi Xu smiled. “You and Grandpa are both my family.”

Uncle Li replied, “When we get home, you can make up breakfast and lunch all in one go. I had the kitchen prepare a special medicinal stew just for you.”

Qi Xu had been smiling, but it vanished in an instant. He turned to stare out the window at the passing streets.

This check-up was even more comprehensive than the one he got when he first returned to the Shen family. The hospital was one of the top private medical centers in the capital, and it was obvious someone had arranged everything in advance. A nurse personally accompanied him to each department.

The full set of tests took nearly two hours. Qi Xu even took a few work calls in the middle of it. Uncle Li gave him a few long-suffering looks from the side.

While waiting in the lounge, Qi Xu happened to run into Xie Huai’s mother, Qin Huansi. Accompanying her was a woman Qi Xu didn’t recognize—elegantly dressed, clearly someone with a refined background.

Qi Xu stood up and politely greeted her, “Aunt Qin.”

Qin Huansi looked surprised to see him there and asked with concern, “Are you not feeling well?”

Qi Xu replied, “Just here for a physical.”

Qin Huansi gently patted the woman beside her and introduced him, “Sister-in-law, this is Qi Xu.”

Mrs. Qin subtly studied the young man in front of her. The name Qi Xu had spread like wildfire through the Qin family—within a single day, everyone knew who he was. The three elders had even taken the main seats while both families argued heatedly in the study over him.

It was only then that she found out her husband, Qin Jing, seemed to have already known about Qi Xu—apparently, she was the only one left in the dark.

Later, when she asked him how long he’d known, her husband gave a vague answer and claimed it was “a while ago.”

To her shock, “a while ago” turned out to be six months.

Qi Xu himself didn’t know much about the Qin family. They were heavily intertwined with both the political and business elite, with the elders having retired and Qin Jing now running things at the top. His wife rarely made public appearances. In his previous life, Qi Xu had never come into contact with the Qins.

He gave a respectful nod and said, “Mrs. Qin.”

Her first impression of him was positive. He was polite, composed—not too deferential, not too bold. And now she understood why her husband had remained neutral throughout.

She returned his greeting with a warm smile. “Hello.”

Just then, a nurse came over with a clipboard. “Mr. Qi, Mr. Xie booked you an appointment with the psychiatry department. It’s your final check-up for the day.”

Qi Xu froze for a second—so this entire physical had been arranged by Xie Huai. No wonder he’d been dragged out of bed on his first day off.

He didn’t react in front of Aunt Qin, but he silently cursed that bastard multiple times in his head. So that’s why he’d gotten that wake-up call.

“Auntie, I’ll head over for my next check.”

Qin Huansi said, “Go ahead. It’s your break—drop by the house sometime, okay?”

Qi Xu nodded and followed the nurse toward the psych department.

Mrs. Qin teased Qin Huansi, “You seem to really like this kid.”

Qin Huansi eased into a seat. “My son likes him, so I like him. Ah Huai made candied fruit by hand just so that kid could take his Chinese medicine more easily. When he was grounded, he even cooked and delivered meals himself. Have you ever seen my son like that? For once, he actually seems like someone with real feelings.”

Mrs. Qin replied, “The elders know how much Ah Huai’s changed. But honestly, even heterosexual couples get divorced—what more with two boys, and they’re so young. Who knows what’ll happen in the future?”

Strangely enough, Qin Huansi wasn’t too worried about that. If they weren’t living under the rule of law, she’d actually be more concerned about her son locking the kid up somewhere.

She sighed. “Both of them are working hard for their future. As parents, we shouldn’t be the ones holding them back.”

Meanwhile, Qi Xu tried calling Xie Huai before his psych consult, but the call didn’t go through.

He left a quick voice message, silenced his phone, and stepped into the consultation room.

“Mr. Xie, your dosage has doubled lately,” the psychiatrist said, unscrewing the pill bottle and noticing how close it was to empty. There was concern in his eyes. “Have you still been having that dream?”

It had been a week since Xie Huai had sought out treatment. Ironically, patients who are aware of their own mental illness and take the initiative to seek help are often the hardest to treat—they listen to advice, but only halfway.

Xie Huai lowered his gaze, hiding whatever emotion might’ve been in his eyes. “Yeah. Every night.”

The doctor poured him a glass of warm water and gently asked, “Did you manage to see who it was this time?”

Xie Huai looked up at him. “No.”

The doctor sighed internally, and with the patient’s consent, proceeded with a hypnosis session.

With the medication kicking in, Xie Huai was fully relaxed. The things buried deep inside him were about to surface.

“My hands were covered in blood. Stairs. A lot of people.”

The doctor’s pen paused. That was new. He asked softly, “What kind of people?”

“Scum who deserved to die.”

It was the first time the doctor heard such intense malice in his words. Clinically, this was a textbook sign of antisocial tendencies.

Xie Huai continued speaking.

“Very light… very thin…”

“The heart stopped beating.”

“Prayer beads.”

After a long silence, he frowned deeply before finally managing to say, “Tombstone.”

Since the last hypnosis session, a few new words had surfaced. Though fragmented, it was becoming increasingly clear that the patient knew who the person in the dream was. As for why he refused to talk about it during normal sessions—it was likely because he didn’t want to face it. The dream probably depicted the unexpected death of someone important to him, something the patient simply could not accept.

Thirty minutes later, the session ended. The doctor stood up and turned on the lights, flooding the room with brightness. Xie Huai opened his eyes, as though light had pierced through the darkness inside him.

“Mr. Xie, the dream you told me about—has there been more to it lately?”

Xie Huai couldn’t deny it, nor could he explain why the dream had continued. The person lying in the hospital bed had now become a cold, unmarked tombstone. He still held the same string of prayer beads in his hand.

Someone was standing next to him, rambling on about something—but he couldn’t hear a single word.

“He disappeared from that world… and left me alone.”

Sensing a shift, the doctor gently asked, “Was he someone very important to you?”

Xie Huai was silent for two seconds before saying, “I don’t know if he was in the dream. But in this world—he’s the person I love.”

The doctor’s pen paused mid-stroke. That was the keyword he’d been waiting for.

“Do you think the person in your dream is different from who he is now?”

Xie Huai couldn’t bring himself to deny it—because he honestly didn’t know. The prayer beads were the same, but he had never once seen a clear face in the dream—not even his own.

“I’m fairly sure it’s just a dream—probably triggered by my own obsession. But it’s made me wonder… if locking him up is the only way to stop all of this.”

“But he’s free. I shouldn’t hurt him just to satisfy my own selfish need.”

A patient diagnosing himself while also revealing the depths of his inner thoughts—that set off warning bells for the doctor.

“Mr. Xie… if possible, I’d like to meet—”

Xie Huai suddenly looked up and locked eyes with him. His gaze was deep and unreadable, and it shut the doctor up instantly.

In that moment, the doctor clearly understood: the person Xie Huai called his lover was not someone who could be casually involved or disturbed.

Before the session ended, the doctor suggested he take some time off. He could see Xie Huai’s mental state was on edge and had hoped a break would give them more insight into his condition.

But the idea was quickly declined. Xie Huai didn’t have the luxury of time. His next four years were already fully scheduled, and he couldn’t afford to waste a single second elsewhere.

All the doctor could do was write another prescription and sternly warn him not to increase the dosage again.

By the time Xie Huai left the hospital, it was already noon. He hadn’t been in any shape to drive that morning, so Lao Gao had brought him.

Lao Gao wasn’t a talkative man, but his eyes kept drifting toward the bottle of pills in Xie Huai’s hand. He seemed like he wanted to say something but held back.

Xie Huai simply said, “Don’t tell anyone.”

That included everyone—the Qin family, the Xie family, and Qi Xu.

Xie Huai pulled out his phone and saw that Qi Xu had called. He also had a voice message waiting.

Qi Xu’s tone was sharp and irritated, clearly laced with post-wakeup grumpiness. But somehow, he’d held it in—probably saving it to let loose face-to-face.

Xie Huai called him back. The call was just about to go to voicemail when Qi Xu finally picked up, his tone slow and casual.

“Starting tomorrow, you’re drinking the medicinal soup with me. Or we fight. Doesn’t matter who wins—you’re still drinking it.”

Apparently, the fight might not even be necessary. Leaning back against the seat, Xie Huai finally cracked a smile—the first all day.

“Okay. I’ll drink it with you. Every day. If we do fight, though… the only place I accept is on the bed.”

Xie Huai had no idea what kind of cursing tirade Qi Xu was launching on the other end of the call, but his own smile only deepened.

The gloomy, tightly wound Xie Huai who had walked out of the hospital just hours ago had completely vanished. The one here now was just a man trying to soothe his temperamental, sharp-tongued boyfriend.