“Zhu Xing, don’t speak so harshly,” Lin Yu said in a soft voice.
Slightly surprised by Lin Yu’s sudden interjection, Zhu Xing completely ignored him and instead turned to mock Ying Chi.
“Get your facts straight. I haven’t even gone there yet, and you are already warning me? Have you forgotten what you did at my birthday banquet? Shameless.” At Zhu Xing’s parting shot of “shameless,” Qu Qingyu couldn’t help bursting out with a laugh.
Ying Chi’s face darkened, but finding no logical argument to counter with, he stammered for a long time before finally managing, “Anyway, just don’t start any trouble.”
“I am going to start trouble, and I will make a massive scene at that. What are you going to do about it? Don’t forget, it was your grandfather who invited me over. When I get there, I expect you’ll have to apologize to me right in front of them all.” Zhu Xing felt that abandoning the plot and playing the villain suited him remarkably well.
Upon hearing that Ying Chi would be forced to apologize, Lin Yu grew somewhat anxious. “Achi left my side at your birthday banquet because of me. If you’re angry, take it out on me instead.”
Zhu Xing cast an attitude of utter disdain toward Lin Yu, perfectly embodying a petty villain.
“Who do you think you are that I’d need to personally take my anger out on you?” His tone carried a distinct trace of sarcasm.
Lin Yu’s face instantly paled, tears welling up in the rims of his eyes, hovering on the verge of falling.
Ying Chi stepped closer to Zhu Xing. “Don’t push it too far. The Zhu family isn’t the absolute ruler of A City either.”
Qu Qingyu shoved Ying Chi aside with one hand. “Can you back up a bit? You stink to high heaven. The Zhu family can’t call all the shots, but what if you add the Qu family to the mix?” His tone remained entirely flat and unruffled.
Ying Chi was too stunned to speak. He looked from Zhu Xing to the supremely arrogant Qu Qingyu.
These two.
Among A City’s top three elite families, none could afford to overpower the other two. But if any two of them were to form an alliance, it would deal a devastating blow to the remaining third.
Pushing down the surging undercurrents in his heart, Ying Chi forced his voice to steady.
“I can apologize in front of both families, yes, but my grandfather always treated you well in the past. Don’t make the old man sad.”
With that, he pulled Lin Yu away with him.
Watching the two figures recede into the distance, Zhu Xing couldn’t help internally marveling at how completely broken the protagonist’s character arc had become.
“How much longer are you going to stare? I’m about to burst from holding it in,” Qu Qingyu remarked with characteristic shock-value timing.
Zhu Xing instinctively glanced downward before looking back up at Qu Qingyu’s teasing gaze.
“Are you satisfied? Oof!” Zhu Xing used both hands to cover that mouth of his that spoke whatever crossed its mind.
“To the restroom!” Qu Qingyu blinked to signal his agreement.
“Xingxing, come back and change your clothes so we can head over together.” Seeing the message from his older brother, Zhu Xing looked over at Qu Qingyu with a hint of worry.
“Now what, my little young master?” Qu Qingyu tilted his head to look at Zhu Xing.
“You aren’t going to change your clothes and just run off, are you?” Suspecting that Qu Qingyu was entirely capable of pulling such a stunt, Zhu Xing grabbed him by the arm and dragged him straight into his family’s car.
The driver started the engine and headed toward the Zhu estate.
“Why can’t you bear to be apart from me for even a single moment?”
“It’s because I don’t trust you.”
He was determined to drag Qu Qingyu along to complete the mandatory plot point no matter what.
Zhu Xing hauled Qu Qingyu directly back into the main Zhu mansion, giving zero consideration to how conspicuous his actions might be.
After Zhu Xing went upstairs to change, Zhu Yao walked over.
“Second Young Master Qu, you are…” Zhu Yao trailed off, his words caught halfway.
He wanted to ask something but worried he might say the wrong thing, though he wasn’t even sure if his suspicions were correct in the first place.
“Eldest Young Master Zhu,” Qu Qingyu said, sitting unusually upright with a rare display of good manners.
“Um… well…” Zhu Yao and Qu Qingyu exchanged a silent, awkward stare before looking away with a trace of embarrassment.
“Is Eldest Young Master asking about things between me and Xingxing?” Qu Qingyu directly voiced what was on Zhu Yao’s mind.
“Yes. You must know about what happened between Xingxing and Ying Chi before, so as his older brother, I don’t want to see him get hurt again,” Zhu Yao said with grim seriousness.
“I am not that idiot. Xingxing is Xingxing, and no one can replace him.” While Zhu Yao silently agreed with Qu Qingyu’s labeling of Ying Chi as an idiot, hearing it stated so bluntly still felt a bit too direct.
Yet Zhu Yao knew that the second young master of the Qu family had always possessed this exact temperament. After all, there was that previous incident where Old Master Qu arranged for Qu Qingyu to meet and chat with a young lady from another elite family, only for Qu Qingyu to announce that he preferred older divorcees with children.
It had frightened Old Master Qu so badly that no one ever dared ask him to meet any elite young ladies again, and naturally, no elite young masters either.
Ever since returning to the Qu family, Qu Qingyu had never been known to speak kindly to anyone.
It really made one wonder how on earth he managed to get along with Xingxing.
“Big Brother, what were you and Qu Qingyu talking about?” Zhu Xing reappeared wearing a tailored black formal suit that clung neatly to his slender frame.
The cut of the suit accentuated his waistline, while the slim trousers wrapped around his long legs. The decorative beads on the jacket caught the light and shimmered. Qu Qingyu thought to himself that he really did shine just like his name, a star.
“Done changing? Xingxing, aren’t you riding with us to the Ying family’s place?” The older brother looked at his younger sibling, who resembled a little prince, swelling with pride.
“Nope, I’m going with Qu Qingyu. He hasn’t changed yet either, so I’ll just head out with him.” With that, Zhu Xing grabbed Qu Qingyu and pulled him away all over again.
All Zhu Yao saw was Zhu Xing dragging the guy through the door, shoving him down onto the sofa to sit, and then dragging him off somewhere else moments later.
Strangely enough, Qu Qingyu went along with it quite obediently throughout the entire process, which was a true rarity.
On the other side, when Qu Qingyu first stepped through the gates of the Zhu estate, the elder Zhu brother, terrified that this stray cabbage was about to run off with his family’s prized possession, hadn’t spoken to Qu Qingyu with much warmth.
Yet here on the Zhu family grounds, walking in with Zhu Xing felt almost like walking down a red carpet; every single servant in the Qu household greeted Zhu Xing with utmost politeness.
“Good evening, Second Young Master Zhu.”
Listening to them, Zhu Xing always felt like they were reciting a wedding blessing directly to Qu Qingyu.
The moment he sat down indoors, a spread of delicious treats was served on the table. Unfortunately, his suit was far too form-fitting, and Zhu Xing worried that overeating would make him uncomfortable later.
Upstairs changing his clothes, Qu Qingyu had already put on his formal wear, though he hadn’t bothered changing out of his sneakers. Furthermore, because the indoor heating in the mansion was rather warm, Qu Qingyu rolled up the newly delivered suit jacket and clenched it in his hand like a crumpled vegetable, perfectly embodying an attitude of absolute indifference.
Zhu Xing didn’t bother nagging him about it; as long as the man showed up and they got through the plot point, that was all that mattered.
At the seventieth birthday banquet for Old Master Ying, Zhu Xing surveyed the familiar banquet hall with a sigh.
A City was so vast, yet in the span of three months, this was already his third time attending a banquet. All of them were birthday parties, and every single one ended up generating drama. This third one seemed destined to have some trouble as well.
Wait, had it only been three months? He spent his days in class with Qu Qingyu, and they went out to play together during breaks.
Aside from sleeping, they were practically inseparable, to the point where it felt as familiar as if they had known each other for years.