Xian Sui placed the teacup down on the tabletop, then sat down on the sofa right beside Gu Fanzhou. The latter leaned in close to his back, attempting to fasten a diamond necklace around Xian Sui’s neck. “Don’t move.”
“I don’t mean anything by this,” Xian Sui had no choice but to pause his resistance, “it’s just that this is too precious. I really can’t accept it.”
“I have already said that to me, this is just a gift given to an ordinary friend. It has no special value, so there’s no need to feel it’s too precious.” Gu Fanzhou had no intention of entertaining any of Xian Sui’s protests, forcefully fastening the necklace onto the other man. The diamond pendant rested right near his collarbone hollow. “It suits you very well.”
“Thank you, Gu-ge.” Realizing it was out of the question to take the necklace off now, Xian Sui quickly handed one of the freshly brewed cups of tea to Gu Fanzhou, as if offering a return gift. “Have you eaten anything? I can go make something for you.”
It was around dinner time now. Because Gu Fanzhou had arrived so abruptly, Xian Sui hadn’t prepared many ingredients, having only some simple vegetables he usually ate and a small portion of frozen pork ribs. He racked his brain over the ingredients for a good while before finally making a pork rib soup, a plate of stir-fried cauliflower, and heating up a canned fish, serving them all in front of Gu Fanzhou.
He watched as Gu Fanzhou picked up his chopsticks, put a piece of pork rib from the soup into his mouth, and asked reflexively how it tasted. “A bit strange. What did you put in it?”
“Really? You said it didn’t taste good last time, so I specifically learned from videos online,” Xian Sui picked up a piece himself and put it in his mouth, unable to taste anything abnormal. “I think it’s pretty good.”
“Is your tongue just for decoration?” Despite complaining verbally, Gu Fanzhou still ate the dishes on the table with an expressionless face, even clearing an entire bowl of rice. Xian Sui couldn’t finish the food on the table himself, so Gu Fanzhou ended up cleaning up the very last bites.
“Didn’t you say it didn’t taste good?” Xian Sui asked, looking at the empty plates on the table.
“I was hungry,” Gu Fanzhou clearly didn’t want to entertain his question. “It has nothing to do with the food.”
“You means you’ll eat whatever I put in front of you?”
“What, trying to poison me?”
“Ah,” Xian Sui hurriedly waved his hands. “It’s not that serious.”
Gu Fanzhou had only been spouting nonsense casually, and Xian Sui hadn’t taken it to heart. The latter cleared the bowls and dishes into the kitchen, thinking that after leaving Gu Fanzhou alone for so long, the man would have already left, but in reality, the other person was still sitting on the sofa waiting for him.
“Is this your way of treating a guest?” Gu Fanzhou rudely turned on the TV in Xian Sui’s home, switching directly to the movie channel, which happened to be broadcasting a classic comedy.
“I’m sorry, Gu-ge,” Xian Sui used the remote control to turn up the volume. “I thought you were going to leave.”
“You want me to leave that badly?”
“I didn’t mean that.” Before Xian Sui could finish explaining, Gu Fanzhou used his gaze to urge him to sit down and watch the movie. Xian Sui had watched this film before entering college; he had watched quite a few films during his student days, which could be considered one of the catalysts for him entering the acting industry.
Xian Sui couldn’t help bursting into laughter several times while watching, but Gu Fanzhou, sitting right beside him, showed no reaction whatsoever from beginning to end. Unable to stop himself from glancing sideways, Xian Sui discovered that Gu Fanzhou’s complexion was abnormally pale, and even his lips lacked color. He hurriedly grabbed Gu Fanzhou’s shoulders. “Gu-ge? What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing.” Gu Fanzhou’s voice was much weaker than before. Xian Sui immediately frowned. “You look this terrible and you say it’s nothing? Let me take you to the hospital.”
“No need, just a stomachache.” Seeing Xian Sui pull out his phone to call a ride, Gu Fanzhou quickly raised a hand to stop him.
Xian Sui was about to lose his temper. A grown man like this, yet he needed to be coaxed into seeing a doctor. “Gu-ge, have you always had a stomach condition? It’s a good opportunity to get it checked out.”
“My stomach isn’t good, but there’s no disease. It hasn’t acted up in a long time.”
Xian Sui didn’t ask any further. He supported Gu Fanzhou to rest on the bed in his own room, tucked the quilt around him, and then went to rummage through the medicine box, finally managing to unearth a bottle of stomach medicine.
He went to the kitchen to pour hot water, and his peripheral vision accidentally swept over the bottle of oyster sauce he had just finished using on the table. He picked up the empty bottle, intending to casually toss it into the trash can, but accidentally noticed the expiration date printed on the bottle: it had expired two months ago.
Xian Sui immediately checked the other seasonings. Not only the oyster sauce, but even the light soy sauce had been expired for a while. What was just a joke earlier turned out to be true in a sense: he had genuinely treated Gu Fanzhou to a poisonous meal.
Not only had he failed to taste it, but he hadn’t had a single issue himself. It seemed his constitution was quite resilient.
Returning to the room to feed Gu Fanzhou his medicine, Xian Sui’s lips parted slightly, and finally, with a heavy sense of embarrassment, he spoke up: “Gu-ge, it seems I’m the one who caused this. I’m sorry.”
He told Gu Fanzhou about the expired seasonings, but the latter showed no sign of blame, leaning against the headboard and meeting Xian Sui’s gaze. “You didn’t mean to.”
“Does it still hurt?” Worry was unhidden in Xian Sui’s eyes. “Is it feeling any better?”
“It’ll be fine after resting a bit, don’t worry about me.” Gu Fanzhou couldn’t help raising a hand to stroke Xian Sui’s hair. The latter didn’t think to pull away, simply looking at Gu Fanzhou’s pale face, practically with the word guilt carved across his own forehead.
“Call me whenever you need anything, I’ll be right here.” Xian Sui pulled a stool over and sat down beside the bed.
“You don’t need to stay with me.”
“But I want to. It’s all my fault.”
Unable to persuade him otherwise, Gu Fanzhou let Xian Sui keep watch by the bedside. He was originally browsing his phone when he noticed a steady rhythm of breathing beside him, realizing that Xian Sui had fallen asleep slumped over the edge of the bed at some point.
“How can someone be this foolish? It’s not even a severe illness.” Gu Fanzhou touched Xian Sui’s cheek with the back of his hand, the warmth of his skin transferring to his palm. The stomach medicine Xian Sui had given him had been very effective, and after a few hours, there was almost no discomfort left.
Gu Fanzhou picked Xian Sui up from the stool and placed him on the empty half of the bed he had just cleared, pulling the blanket over him. His movements were very gentle, and Xian Sui showed no sign of being disturbed at all, looking like a small animal, harmless and peaceful.
The bed in Xian Sui’s room was very narrow, so for Gu Fanzhou to lie down, he had to crowd close against the other person. He could practically kiss Xian Sui just by lowering his head, feeling the other’s breath brush against his cheek.
“Sleeping more soundly than a pig,” Gu Fanzhou bit Xian Sui’s lip lightly. “If I were a bad person, heaven knows what I might have done to you.”
When Xian Sui woke up, he couldn’t remember how he had ended up squeezed into the same bed as Gu Fanzhou at all. He immediately scrambled out in a panic, inadvertently waking up Gu Fanzhou himself. “Gu-ge, I’m sorry, I don’t know how I crawled into your bed.”
“This is your bed, I was just resting here temporarily.” Gu Fanzhou followed him out of bed and gently patted Xian Sui’s shoulder. The latter quickly asked how Gu Fanzhou’s health was, and the other replied that he had fully recovered and could return to the film set today.
Xian Sui had a scene opposite Gu Fanzhou later, so naturally, he had to return to the set as well. “Gu-ge, since your body just recovered, I’ll cook something light for you to eat.”
“I’ll do it.” Watching Gu Fanzhou head toward the kitchen, Xian Sui couldn’t resist his curiosity and followed behind him. “Gu-ge, do you know how to cook?”
“After starting to act, I stopped living in the family villa,” Gu Fanzhou expertly handled the ingredients, then set up the pan and heated the oil. “My stomach isn’t good, and I couldn’t get used to food from outside, so I learned to cook myself, and only hired a suitable chef later on.”
Xian Sui knew that the dietary habits around Lingzhu City leaned heavily toward spicy food, and finding someone skilled in light cuisine was indeed not easy.
Gu Fanzhou then reignited the stove and simply made two bowls of savory congee. Xian Sui eagerly took a taste; it had the fresh flavor of the ingredients, and the taste was no worse than what he bought outside.
Though reluctant, Xian Sui couldn’t help muttering, “No wonder you always complained that my cooking tasted bad.”
“It’s not too late to take me as your master now. I don’t mind taking on a student.”
“Really?”
“Fake.”
Xian Sui pouted in dissatisfaction, and Gu Fanzhou took the opportunity to tease him again. If not for the fact that accepting someone’s hospitality leaves one feeling soft-spoken, he would have thrown a tantrum long ago.
“What else do you want to eat?” Gu Fanzhou stopped what he was doing. “I’ll make it now.”
“No need, Gu-ge, I’m full,” Xian Sui finished the last bite of congee. “Actually, I can just go downstairs and buy something, you don’t need to go through the trouble.”
“You don’t appreciate my kindness?”
“It’s not that.”
“There might not be a chance next time.” When Gu Fanzhou said this, his gaze fell on his left hand resting casually on the table.
“Of course there will, you can come here anytime.” Xian Sui didn’t take Gu Fanzhou’s previous gesture to heart, so naturally, he didn’t notice the sudden grayness that washed over the other’s expression.
Xian Sui shared a car with Gu Fanzhou again as they arrived at the film set. Gu Fanzhou’s assistant asked why he couldn’t be reached last night, but Gu Fanzhou didn’t answer directly, simply telling him to focus on his own work.
The assistant boldly approached Xian Sui to ask a question. Figuring it wasn’t a major breach of privacy, Xian Sui truthfully revealed the situation regarding Gu Fanzhou’s stomachache.
“You let Gu-ge eat expired seasonings?” The assistant nearly dropped his jaw in shock. “He didn’t lose his temper?”
“Gu-ge is a very nice person, very generous.”
The assistant’s look of suspicion deepened. A while ago, when Gu Fanzhou’s private chef cooked a meal that was accidentally a little too heavy on the seasoning, Gu Fanzhou had verbally chewed him out for half an hour, yet Xian Sui managed to walk away completely unscathed?
He sized up Xian Sui’s retreating figure for a moment. Earlier, Gu Fanzhou had even asked him to buy flowers for Xian Sui. It seemed his deduction was correct: Gu Fanzhou, who always appeared completely uninterested in anyone, was actually a fan of Xian Sui.
This scene picked up the plot right after the ending of the previous bed scene. Jian Shuyu lay unclad in Fu Minglou’s embrace, his fingertips continuously tracing circles across the other’s chest. “Minglou, I am yours now.”
Fu Minglou wrapped his arms around Jian Shuyu’s waist, lowering his head to kiss his spine. “Does it hurt?”
“It’s nothing. Didn’t you apply medicinal plaster for Shuyu? That spot feels much better now.”
The tender moment didn’t last long before Jian Shuyu rose from Fu Minglou’s arms and draped his clothes over his shoulders. “It’s dawn now. If Master Fu sees that you haven’t returned all night, he will undoubtedly interrogate you further.”
“Don’t worry, I have a way to handle it. He knows I’ve been busy with business lately.”
“Master Fu came to warn me,” Jian Shuyu fastened the frog buttons of his qipao and turned back to kiss Fu Minglou’s face, “not to see you too frequently.”
“We’ll still meet here next time.” Fu Minglou stroked Jian Shuyu’s waist with an implication.
Jian Shuyu let out a soft chuckle and escorted Fu Minglou out the door. The latter started his car and drove away from the alley toward the Fu residence. As soon as he stepped out of the vehicle and crossed into the foyer, both Master Fu and Madam Fu were already there.
To Fu Minglou’s surprise, the one to strike first this time wasn’t Master Fu; instead, Madam Fu smashed a teacup right in front of him. “Minglou, how could you?”
Before she could finish her sentence, Madam Fu fell into a fit of urgent coughing. Fu Minglou hurriedly stepped forward to support her, telling the servants to fetch her medicine. “It is my unfilial self-failing to take good care of you.”
“You know you are unfilial,” Madam Fu gripped Fu Minglou’s lapels tightly. “How could you, how could you be with a man?”