“I didn’t hear anything about a banquet.” Luo Cheng’an looked away from Xi Yu and lowered his head to stare at the weeds on the ground. “Why are you dressed up like a peacock?”
Xi Yu blinked and slowly uttered two words. “Seduction.”
After what had happened last night, the little brat was even more afraid of him now. But that was fine. Everyone had a weakness.
He had noticed a few days ago that although Lu Zhixing didn’t remember him, he was quite taken with his face. Several times, Lu Zhixing had even lost himself staring at him.
Xi Yu had also used this very face to coax Lu Zhixing into being less afraid of him. But after last night’s misunderstanding, all his efforts had gone to waste.
Now he could only start all over again.
Xi Yu walked toward Lu Zhixing, who was bending over with his butt sticking up in the air as he watched ants carrying things away. He sighed inwardly. What a pity he couldn’t use Lanxing’s face. The results would undoubtedly have been even better.
Lu Zhixing was holding a lollipop, his head lowered as he watched a large group of ants carrying a fragment of a lollipop. His eyes sparkled with fascination.
When a shadow fell over his head, Lu Zhixing frowned. “You’re blocking…”
His complaint abruptly died on his lips. Lu Zhixing’s eyes widened slightly.
Xi Yu was standing, while Lu Zhixing was squatting.
Actually, from this angle, Lu Zhixing should have been seeing Xi Yu from an extremely unflattering perspective.
But when someone was beautiful enough, they simply had no bad angles.
The afternoon sunlight was just right. Xi Yu stood with the light behind him, the smile on his lips warm and bright.
Plop.
The lollipop fell from Lu Zhixing’s hand. He stared blankly at Xi Yu and murmured, “Immortal… Immortal Brother.”
Xi Yu raised an eyebrow and crouched down. As if performing a magic trick, he produced a piece of candy, pinched it between his fingertips, and brought it to Lu Zhixing’s lips.
“Have this instead.”
Lu Zhixing instinctively opened his mouth. The sweet fragrance of lychee immediately spread across his tongue. He blinked once, then again, as though only now realizing who the person in front of him was.
His gaze grew somewhat wary, but he couldn’t help reaching out, wanting to touch the necklace around Xi Yu’s neck.
………………………..
As expected, he couldn’t resist shiny things, Xi Yu thought.
Lu Zhixing tilted his head. His movements were slow, as though he was hesitating.
Xi Yu’s gaze was encouraging. He even leaned forward slightly to meet him halfway. As he moved, a gap appeared in his collar, revealing a glimpse of the snow-white skin beneath his clothes. It was dazzling to look at.
But that movement made Lu Zhixing freeze completely. As though he had been frightened, he suddenly stood up and took several steps backward.
With the candy still in his mouth, he spoke somewhat indistinctly. “Don’t even think about eating me!”
Luo Cheng’an burst out laughing, the mockery in his laughter unmistakable.
Xi Yu took a deep breath. “I’m not trying to eat you. I’m kissing you because I like you.”
Although Lu Zhixing’s mind was no longer functioning properly, he still understood what liking someone meant. However, his current understanding of affection was probably just that if someone liked you, they would give you candy.
With a sweet piece of candy still in his mouth, Lu Zhixing felt conflicted.
“But you hit me. It hurt so much.”
He really liked Pretty Brother. But Pretty Brother had been sleeping all the time, and Lu Zhixing had thought that once he woke up, they would finally be able to play together.
But being hit had hurt so much. Even though Pretty Brother’s hand smelled nice, it had still hurt.
Lu Zhixing looked at Xi Yu with a wounded expression. He felt that Pretty Brother must hate him terribly.
“I’m sorry,” Xi Yu said. “It was wrong of me to hit you. But it was also because you wouldn’t listen, no matter what I said. I was worried about you. You kept doing things that hurt yourself, and it broke my heart too. So, can you forgive me?”
Lu Zhixing froze. “I didn’t listen?”
Xi Yu shamelessly declared, “That’s right. You’ve just forgotten everything now, but you’re actually a very bad person.”
Lu Zhixing hesitantly pointed at himself. “I’m… bad?”
“That’s right.” Xi Yu affirmed it with complete sincerity. “We’re married. You’re my wife, but you never listen to me. You always want to leave me. The last time, you tied me up, threw me on the ground, and left by yourself. You have no idea how frightened I was.”
Xi Yu bit his lip, his eyes reddening as though he were the most devoted lover in the world who had been betrayed.
“You’ve forgotten everything now because you got hurt when you abandoned me. You only remember that I slapped you once, but you don’t remember how much you hurt me.”
Lu Zhixing’s brain completely stalled. With his current mental state, he had difficulty processing what Xi Yu was saying. But looking at the sadness on that beautiful face, he felt a painful ache in his chest, as though he could somehow understand that deep sorrow. He stood there, dumbfounded.
Xi Yu looked at Lu Zhixing and delivered the final blow.
“You’re the very, very worst person in the entire world!”
Looking heartbroken, Xi Yu ran off. As he passed Luo Cheng’an, he blinked at him.
Luo Cheng’an was still wondering what was going on when he heard Lu Zhixing call out, “Pretty Brother! Pretty Brother…”
After being subjected to that barrage of accusations, Lu Zhixing had fallen into deep self-doubt. How could he possibly remember the slap Xi Yu had given him? Instead, he trotted after Xi Yu like a little puppy.
When Luo Cheng’an was finally left alone in the garden, he exclaimed in amazement and couldn’t help clapping his hands.
“So that works too?”
*
Inside the bedroom, Xi Yu was crying so pitifully that he looked like a flower drenched in rain. Lu Zhixing frantically pulled out a pile of snacks to comfort him, while repenting for his supposed “crimes.”
At the moment, Lu Zhixing’s mind had no concept of deception.
If Xi Yu said something was true, he believed it without question.
As a result, he completely forgot about the slap Xi Yu had given him. Instead, he felt that, considering the terrible crime he had supposedly committed, being slapped only once had been far too lenient.
Lu Zhixing wrapped his arms around Xi Yu. His mind was muddled, and his snake instincts began to emerge. He rubbed his cheek against Xi Yu, winding his arms and legs around him as he whispered an apology.
“I’ve already become good. Please stop crying, okay?”
Xi Yu wiped the moisture from the corners of his eyes, taking the opportunity to steal a kiss by planting one on the corner of Lu Zhixing’s mouth.
“Even if you’re the very, very worst person in the world, I still like you very much.”
Lu Zhixing felt sorry for Xi Yu’s tears. But being loved so openly made him a little embarrassed. He leaned close to Xi Yu’s ear and whispered, “I like you too.”
He had liked Pretty Brother from the very first moment he saw him.
It was genuinely difficult to understand why his former self would ever have abandoned such a beautiful person.
Xi Yu hooked an arm around Lu Zhixing’s waist, practically floating with happiness at those words.
Now that was more like it.
“Then, do you want to sleep with me tonight?” Xi Yu asked, looking every bit like a playboy trying to seduce an innocent young man.
Lu Zhixing nodded. After a moment, as though he had suddenly remembered something, he asked, “What does being married mean? You said I’m your wife. What does that mean?”
Xi Yu played with Lu Zhixing’s fingers and patiently spun a tale.
“Being married means having the closest relationship in the world. I’m your husband. You have to love me, kiss me, cling to me, sleep with me, and always put me first. Of course, I’ll treat you the same way. Do you understand now?”
“I understand!” Lu Zhixing nodded in sudden realization. “I’ll treat you well, Pretty Brother.”
“I’m not called Pretty Brother. You should call me…”
Xi Yu paused. What should he call him? Calling him Lanxing would be inappropriate, while calling him Master felt rather improper in a different way. Calling him Xi Yu, on the other hand, sounded a little too distant.
Then inspiration struck.
Xi Yu patted Lu Zhixing on the shoulder. “Call me hubby.”
“Hubby?” Lu Zhixing tentatively repeated.
Xi Yu’s heart melted. He cupped Lu Zhixing’s face and planted a loud kiss on him.
“That’s right~!”
Although the title sounded a little strange, Xi Yu clearly liked it very much. Lu Zhixing was happy too, and he began calling out repeatedly, “Hubby, hubby, hubby~”
Xi Yu showered Lu Zhixing with several more kisses.
*
The two of them had finally made up completely. Xi Yu felt that life now wasn’t much different from when he had first brought Zhixi to Lanxing Hall.
Wasn’t this just taking care of a child?
The difference was that when he had looked after Zhixi in the past, he had practically let him roam free. But now, looking after Lu Zhixing was more like keeping him in captivity. Xi Yu was practically one step away from tying Lu Zhixing to his waistband.
“Hubby.” Lu Zhixing sat on the floor between Xi Yu’s legs and handed him a pink hair clip. “I like this one. It has diamonds. It’s shiny.”
Xi Yu had a hair tie clenched between his lips and was concentrating intently on tying Lu Zhixing’s hair.
Lu Zhixing’s hair had grown a little longer, but it was nowhere near as long as it had been in the heavens. He could only manage a few little tufts.
Xi Yu didn’t know how to style hair. He simply gathered it into four or five little tufts with hair ties. Because the hair was too short to hang down, the tufts all stuck up on top of Lu Zhixing’s head. Fortunately, Lu Zhixing was handsome enough to pull it off. Otherwise, he would have looked both ridiculous and comical.
When Luo Cheng’an entered the room, Xi Yu was using pink hair clips to pin back the stray hairs on Lu Zhixing’s forehead.
The corner of Luo Cheng’an’s mouth twitched.
“You’re still playing around? His parents have returned from abroad. They’re downstairs crying right now because they can’t get in touch with their son.”
Xi Yu’s hand shook, and the hair clip fell to the floor.
Lu Zhixing picked it up and put it back into Xi Yu’s hand, his glossy eyes soft and sparkling.
“Hubby, whose parents?”
……………..
Lu Zhixing clearly wasn’t very interested in whose parents they were. He simply placed the hair clip back in Xi Yu’s hand and stared at him with those dark, glossy eyes, silently urging him to continue styling his hair.
The hair clip in Xi Yu’s hand suddenly felt rather hot.
He had completely forgotten that Lu Zhixing had parents in this life.
It really wasn’t entirely his fault. The little brat had originally belonged to him alone. After entering the mortal world and going through so many twists and turns, he truly hadn’t remembered that this was still an issue.
Lu Zhixing remained oblivious to Xi Yu’s complicated inner thoughts and urged him repeatedly.
“Hubby, the hair clip.”
Luo Cheng’an could hardly bear to watch. He gloated, “You’ve turned someone else’s son into this. I’d love to see how you explain yourself.”
Even if there was no way to explain it, Xi Yu still had to face the situation. Jiang Shuhe and Lu Zheng were, after all, Lu Zhixing’s parents in name. They knew nothing about what had really happened. All they knew was that they hadn’t been able to contact their son for a long time. Even though they were usually rather carefree, they were understandably worried.
Lu Zhixing had taken on their son’s identity, and with that identity came responsibilities he had to fulfill in this lifetime.
“Let’s stop doing your hair for now.” Xi Yu quickly removed the hair ties from Lu Zhixing’s head and smoothed down his sticking-up hair. “I’m taking you to see your parents.”