Raindrops pattered down onto him. The early autumn rain wasn’t terribly cold, but after soaking in it for a while, it still felt chilly.
Luo Huai guessed that he was sufficiently drenched, turned around, sat back down on the front steps, and tilted his face slightly to one side.
He struck a pitiful pose that screamed, “I’m not waiting for you, I just had nowhere else to go so I sat here for a while and accidentally got caught in the rain.”
The sound of an engine grew closer.
A black Porsche turned the corner, its headlights cutting two bright beams through the curtain of rain. Instead of pulling into the garage, the car parked directly at the front gate.
The door opened. First, a black umbrella popped open, and then a pair of leather shoes stepped into the rain, shattering puddles reflecting warm yellow light.
Today, Pei Jiheng was wearing a dark trench coat, its hem swaying slightly in the rain. Holding the umbrella, he rounded the front of the car and walked along the pavement. His figure looked somewhat blurry in the rainy mist, but that ethereal silhouette was one Luo Huai could never mistake.
Clearly, he had seen Luo Huai as well.
The fabric on the shoulders of the youth sitting on the steps was completely soaked, dyed a dark color by the rain, and his hair was no longer fluffy, plastered wetly against his face. Curled into a ball, he really did look rather pitiful.
“Uncle!”
Luo Huai stood up and waved at him, his voice intentionally tinged with a hint of cheerfulness, though a close listener could still detect a trace of grievance.
A smile hung on his face, but the tip of his nose was slightly red from the cold. He looked like an abandoned puppy caught in the rain, having waited at the door for a long time just for its master to return.
Pei Jiheng walked over at a leisurely pace.
The scenario Luo Huai had imagined was this: the other person would quicken his pace, rush over to hold the umbrella over him, frown, and say, “Why did you get so soaked?”, and then pull him protectively into his arms.
But reality was quite different. He merely strolled to a spot two meters away from Luo Huai and stopped.
Pei Jiheng held the umbrella, raised his head expressionlessly, and looked at his own house eaves.
Ah, over a meter long.
Then he lowered his gaze to look at where Luo Huai was standing.
Ah, right on the very edge.
Right in that tiny patch that the eaves couldn’t cover.
Pei Jiheng looked at Luo Huai’s watery eyes once more.
Heh, if you don’t get soaked, who will?
Luo Huai felt a guilty pang under that sharp gaze of his. The smile on his face froze for a fraction of a second, but he still tried his best to maintain that innocent expression of, “Uncle, I’m so fragile, I accidentally got caught in the rain.”
Pei Jiheng couldn’t be bothered to call him out.
He walked up the steps, closed his umbrella, and while leisurely shaking the droplets off it, asked in a deep voice, “What are you doing here?”
The fantasy of the other person falling for the trick and showering him with care was thoroughly shattered, leaving Luo Huai no choice but to shuffle awkwardly to his side and honestly confess, “Uncle, the card you gave me earlier, you didn’t tell me the PIN.”
Pei Jiheng let out a breath of exasperated laughter, looking utterly helpless. “Can’t such a small matter be said over WeChat?”
Luo Huai choked. It wasn’t that he didn’t know how to sophistically argue back; it was mainly because he noticed a wisp of fatigue on Pei Jiheng’s face.
Returning this late, he must have gone off to handle some important business.
To his own surprise, Luo Huai felt a tiny pang of guilt, wondering if he really was too headstrong.
Just as he was debating whether to just memorize the PIN and leave, Pei Jiheng spoke up first: “Come in.” His voice sounded somewhat muffled against the faint patter of the rain.
The main gate was already open.
Pei Jiheng stepped inside, and Luo Huai hurried to follow.
The two of them entered the house.
Pei Jiheng changed his shoes, took a pair of light gray guest slippers from the shoe cabinet, and placed them at Luo Huai’s feet, the exact same pair he had used last night.
Luo Huai bent down to change into them, stepping onto the soft slippers. Only then did he feel a trace of warmth finally return to the soles of his feet. He had indeed been a bit cold just now, but he had ignored it.
Without looking at him, Pei Jiheng walked straight ahead. He hadn’t taken off his trench coat yet, and his shoulders were dotted with tiny, fine droplets of rain.
“I’ll go get a towel. Make yourself at home,” he said, his tone flat.
Standing in the entryway, soaking wet, Luo Huai watched Pei Jiheng’s back disappear around the hallway corner. He lowered his gaze to look at the brand-new outfit he had worn for barely a day, the one Pei Jiheng had bought him.
Having gotten it soaked through by himself once again so quickly, Luo Huai suddenly felt a bit embarrassed.
Though that feeling only lasted for a tiny moment.
Because when Pei Jiheng walked back holding a towel, raised an eyebrow at him, the first words out of his mouth were utterly harsh: “Drenching yourself to wait for my return, what is the hidden agenda? Did your husband go keep someone else company again, and you felt lonely and cold?”
Luo Huai: …
Thanks, if you don’t know how to chat, you really don’t have to force it.
He let out a huff, snatched the towel to dry his hair, and refusing to swallow this grievance, retorted: “What about Uncle then? Being this busy day in and day out, did you go keep a lover company or go wining and dining?”
Hearing this, Pei Jiheng was once again laughed into exasperation. He walked over to the sofa and sat down by himself, ignoring Luo Huai’s words while immediately using his hands to pour him a cup of hot tea.
Drying his hair, Luo Huai walked over, picked up the cup without any politeness to take a small sip, and then stuck out his tongue as if he had been scalded.
Pei Jiheng coldly watched his series of exaggerated antics. After a long moment, he pulled a pen from his pocket, casually tore off a slip of paper to jot down a string of numbers, and pushed it across to Luo Huai.
“The PIN. Take it and go back. Go back by yourself, don’t count on me driving you.”
Luo Huai took the slip of paper and inwardly grumbled: He really has two faces a day. This morning he was all smiles and affectionate uncle-nephew bonding, so why has he turned so fierce now? Could it be menopause, ah pfft! Is his Rutting Period acting up?
Thinking this, Luo Huai twitched his nose, trying to sniff out if Pei Jiheng’s pheromones were leaking, but just like every time before, absolutely nothing could be smelled.
He tucked the slip of paper away, inexplicably reluctant to leave.
So Luo Huai decided to keep using his acting skills, even raising his favorability rating a bit would do.
Luo Huai blinked frantically: “Uncle, it’s still raining outside. Can you really bear to let me brave the rain to go back?”
Pei Jiheng didn’t speak, shooting him an icy glare.
Luo Huai puckered his lips: “Then how about this? I’ll wait until the rain stops before leaving, okay?”
The other person offered neither confirmation nor denial, which Luo Huai took as tacit consent.
So he stood up, casually pacing around the living room, looking at this and touching that, before unleashing a massive sneeze right in front of an antique vase under Pei Jiheng’s fixed gaze.
“Achoo!”
Luo Huai sniffed, offering a silly, sheepish smile of apology.
Pei Jiheng furrowed his brows slightly, lowered his head to massage the bridge of his nose, his voice sounding rather drained: “Go upstairs and take a hot shower yourself. Throw your clothes into the dryer; they’ll be just right to wear when you’re done.”
“Oh.” Luo Huai gave a weak response and obediently headed upstairs.
Sitting alone on the sofa, Pei Jiheng took off his glasses and tossed them onto the table, instantly looking far more irritable than just moments before.
An hour ago, he had gone to Guanguan to meet the newly recruited management team, after which he stayed in the office for a while and received a call from Elder Pei.
The old man started right off the bat with a lecture, claiming that his eldest brother had officially landed a project with Columbia University in the US over the past couple of days and was continuously expanding into new markets. Through a series of comparisons, the old man rattled off every single one of Pei Jiheng’s shortcomings.
Accustomed to locking horns with the old man, Pei Jiheng had deliberately adopted a dissolute tone in his replies until he finally managed to piss the old man off enough to hang up directly.
Heh, what Pei Yanjun was up to had what to do with him?
Pei Jiheng pushed the inside of his cheek with the tip of his tongue, trying hard to press down the flare of anger in his chest.