Compared to what Ning Sui had said in front of the old master, what truly broke Ji Zhilin was that he’d been blocked on WeChat.
They’d known each other for three years. Granted, during the first year his heart had still been with Ning Yuanming, so most of the chat history consisted of Ning Sui talking to himself.
Ji Zhilin, drenched to the skin, returned to the dorm like a kicked stray dog.
At the same time, Ning Yuanming and Xu Tianxing came back from outside, carrying the phone they’d gotten unlocked by a technician.
“What kind of engineer sets up a password like this?” Xu Tianxing grumbled, toweling off his hair. “That code was a mess, it cost enough to buy three of his crappy phones.”
Ning Yuanming wasn’t listening. Sitting at the desk, he said flatly, “Close the door.”
There were only the two of them in the dorm. Xu Tianxing obediently shut the door and came over, curiosity bright in his eyes.
To be honest, he didn’t really care about Ning Sui, he was just nosy.
Cao Nuo hadn’t set any secondary passwords, so as soon as they opened his phone, WeChat was right there.
Ning Yuanming first opened their dorm group chat. It was full of messages about hotpot and camping, nothing suspicious.
Then he tapped into Ning Sui’s Moments. As expected, Ning Sui hadn’t blocked this guy.
Almost immediately, Ning Yuanming saw the recent posts.
Three days ago, Ning Sui had uploaded a photo, just a shadow of a man sitting in a wheelchair. The caption read: “So handsome 😻”
Xu Tianxing blinked,“…This isn’t the kind of moment I expected from him. I thought a poor relative like him being sponsored by the Ning family would be more cautious. Usually people like that either don’t post at all, or they post fake high-class stuff to look impressive.”
“Who’s that shadow?”
Ning Yuanming gave him a look.
It hit Xu Tianxing a moment later. “…The eldest young master Ji?”
As someone on the edge of their social circle, he hadn’t seen Ji Yucheng many times, so of course he hadn’t recognized him.
“It’s Ji Yucheng,” Ning Yuanming said tightly. A pulse jumped at his temple.
He kept scrolling.
More posts on small, everyday things. One photo showed a potted plant by the window with a Sleeping Beauty storybook beside it. The caption read, “Taking care of delicate flowers is my duty.”
The only possible explanation was clear as day, marrying in Ji Yucheng’s place had suited him just fine.
“He likes Ji Yucheng,” Ning Yuanming said grimly, “He wanted to marry Ji Yucheng.”
Rain pattered outside. The dorm light flickered faintly. Half of Ning Yuanming’s face was hidden in shadow, his expression growing uglier by the second.
The thought sounded ridiculous even though he couldn’t believe it. But if it wasn’t true, how else could they explain Ning Sui’s behavior lately?
And if it was true…
Didn’t that mean everything he’d done, every move to push Ning Sui toward that marriage had only helped him get exactly what he wanted?
One of the early messages was from a night they’d had hotpot, Ning Sui had sent a photo of three clean plates and said, “A perfect victory!”
Scrolling through his Moments, filled with waves of tilde marks and dozens of “hahahahaha” replies to their mutual friends, it was obvious he’d been living quite happily all along.
Ning Yuanming’s fingers tightened as he kept scrolling down. He stopped at the post from early November, the day of the wedding.
Just four words: “May all wishes come true ✌️”
Ning Sui’s Moments were set to display only last month, so everything earlier had already disappeared. But there was no need to go further, Ning Yuanming had already seen enough.
He set the phone down, face dark.
Xu Tianxing picked it up curiously and started scrolling. The more he looked, the more baffled he became.
“Married to a vegetative man, and forced into it but he doesn’t look miserable at all? He actually seems happy? That post was from the same day Ji Zhilin broke up with him…”
Before he could finish, a new message popped up on his screen. It was from Yang Yanhui, “Did something happen to Ji Zhilin? Someone said they saw him running laps in the rain half an hour ago. Not sure if it was really him though.”
Ning Yuanming glanced at the message, his frown deepening, “Wasn’t Ji Zhilin supposed to be at the Ji family’s old estate today…”
Xu Tianxing started to respond, but Ning Yuanming cut him off, “Tell me, is it possible that Ning Sui liked Ji Yucheng from the very beginning?”
“…”
Xu Tianxing froze for a full second before stammering, “Huh?”
“Think about it,” Ning Yuanming said, voice low.
“Back when he was with Ji Zhilin, he always acted so attentive. But now that I think about it, he never once got jealous because of Ji Zhilin. When I was around Ji Zhilin, did he ever lose his temper?”
Now that he mentioned it… Xu Tianxing’s mind flashed back.
Come to think of it, no. Never.
Once, Ning Sui had caught a cold, but Ji Zhilin had gone to celebrate Ning Yuanming’s birthday instead.
Everyone expected a storm the next day, but Ning Sui had shown up as calm as ever, leaving them all feeling like they’d punched a pillow, no sense of victory at all.
“And now? He marries a vegetative man, and instead of despairing, he’s practically glowing with joy… He even threw out all of Ji Zhilin’s stuff from his dorm the very next day.”
“Not to mention that girl, Qu Jiahan, she was apparently so terrified of Ning Sui that she didn’t dare leave her house for days. Why would he get jealous only when it comes to Ji Yucheng?”
The suspicion that had been quietly haunting Ning Yuanming finally solidified.
“But by the second and third year,” he muttered, “Ning Sui and him already had so many memories together… all those chats, those WeChat logs…”
And now Ning Sui has deleted all of it. Just like that.
Did he really not feel a single ounce of attachment?
Downstairs, Ning Sui was having dinner. The old master was present, and because Ning Sui seemed so genuinely fond of Ji Yucheng, the old man’s attitude toward him had softened even further.
He even picked a dish and placed it in Ning Sui’s bowl.
Overwhelmed by the rare affection, Ning Sui decided he’d better behave well after dinner, so he went straight to the nearby bookstore and bought several new fairy tale books.
After all, when someone feeds you and funds you, the least you can do is be extra sweet to your walking gold mine of a husband, right?
Carrying the books upstairs, Ning Sui went into the bathroom to shower.
Before he went in, he glanced at the bed. Had the butler come by? Why did the blanket over Ji Yucheng’s left arm look slightly puffed up, not quite like it had been that afternoon?
He didn’t think too hard about it. Picking up his phone, he tucked the blanket gently around Ji Yucheng.
The man lay still, his pale, beautiful face calm as ever, sharp features, commanding even in stillness, yet that touch of frailty made him seem almost too easy to bully.
“Just sleeping together at night isn’t enough,” Ning Sui murmured.
He looked at his wallet, sighed dramatically, and muttered to his “vegetative” husband, “Twenty-four hours in a day, and we’re only together for eight of them. If I could take you with me to school, to meals, to showers, I’d be making triple the money by now.”
Regretfully, he rubbed Ji Yucheng’s earlobe, then went into the bathroom.
009: “…”
009 said solemnly, “Your little spouse’s devotion continues to amaze me. I can’t help but think of four words… ”
Ji Yucheng, already scowling, cut him off coldly, “Don’t. I don’t want to hear it.”
009 sighed dramatically anyway. “Something precious in the palm of your hand.”
Ji Yucheng: “…”
Despite having grown a decent tolerance to his little spouse’s peculiar behavior, thanks to 009’s endless commentary, there were still moments when the young man’s obsessive affection made Ji Yucheng… speechless, and honestly, a bit flushed.
If only he could wake up sooner, maybe his little spouse wouldn’t get more and more unhinged by the day.
Thinking that, Ji Yucheng glanced at the battery level in the top-right corner.
As expected, a useless system. Even after his little spouse had touched him just now, the charge hadn’t moved an inch.
Ji Yucheng muttered coldly, “Trash.”
009: “…”
Ning Sui, meanwhile, had a habit of scrolling his phone even while showering. He opened WeChat to reply to a few messages from Cao Nuo about their class schedule, then began swiping away the barrage of official account pop-ups.
Soon, something felt off.
Ji Zhilin had sent him a message earlier in the afternoon, it should still be pinned near the top but… it was gone.
Ning Sui frowned, opened his contacts, and searched under “J.” Nothing. The person wasn’t there either.
Had he… accidentally deleted or blocked him?
But he clearly remembered putting his phone down and heading straight to dinner.
“…A’Tong,” Ning Sui asked, troubled, “Do you think my memory’s going already? Am I losing it at this age?”
001 sounded guilty. “A’Sui, maybe it’s my fault… I was a bit weak earlier. I might’ve affected you.”
Well, whatever. Deleted or not, it didn’t matter. He hadn’t planned to keep Ji Zhilin around to annoy him anyway.
Maybe his hands had just moved faster than his brain.
After his shower, Ning Sui dried off, changed into pajamas, and came back out. He still had some coursework to finish, so he opened his laptop and climbed straight into Ji Yucheng’s bed.
Ji Yucheng, of course, had long since learned his little spouse’s habits. He knew that as soon as the boy finished bathing, he’d rush to his side. The clinginess, though a bit much, was oddly satisfying.
Ning Sui worked for about two hours, then finally turned off the lights to sleep.
As always, he pressed close arms looped around Ji Yucheng’s chest, one hand sliding under the man’s sleepwear to rest against his abs, one leg draped over him.
Their skin touched, warm, intimate.
Ning Sui relaxed completely. Even Ji Yucheng, silent and motionless, felt his own body ease.
When his little spouse had first started doing this, Ji Yucheng had found it unbearable.
Now, he was completely used to the strange habit, the way Ning Sui loved to stroke his abs every night. Too bad those abs weren’t quite as “magnificent” as before the accident.
Since he couldn’t sleep anyway, Ji Yucheng began mentally counting the minutes, timing how long it would take for that miserable little battery icon to move even a sliver.
From ten p.m. to two in the morning, four hours.
Finally, the charge bar crept forward… just a little.
Not even a full 1%.
One percent took four hours?
009 could feel the fury radiating from its host and dared not make a sound. It simply played dead.
But Ning Sui wasn’t exactly a peaceful sleeper.
Around three in the morning, feeling a bit hot, he scratched his chin, then rolled over, away from Ji Yucheng’s arms.
The bed was large. One roll, and there was no longer a single point of contact between them.
The battery that had finally started filling, instantly plummeted.
Ji Yucheng: “…”
This was, without a doubt, the most despairing moment of Ji Yucheng’s life, more despairing than watching twenty billion of Ji Corporation’s market value evaporate overnight.
If his guess was correct, to increase one bar of charge required at least five uninterrupted hours of physical contact.
009 hesitated, then offered meekly, “It looks like… maybe each bar unlocks one part of your body. Master, if you focus your attention on your toes, maybe you can move them? Your toes are close to your little spouse’s foot, just a little further, and they might touch.”
Ji Yucheng silently cursed the useless system up and down, but for the sake of waking up sooner, he had no choice but to obey.
And so, in the dead of night, on a vast bed. A completely paralyzed man, sheer willpower blazing, strained to stretch one toe toward his sleeping spouse’s foot.
The scene would’ve been considered ambiguous, provocative, and utterly deranged by any witness.
Finally, his toe brushed against Ning Sui’s foot.
Ji Yucheng exhaled quietly, face expressionless. He just needed to stay like this for half an hour. That should bring it up to 2%.
But..
*Crack*
009: “…”
Ji Yucheng: “…”
…
The next morning, Ning Sui woke up and thought something looked off.
Was it his imagination, or did the handsome vegetable’s face look even paler than usual?
Startled, he quickly got dressed and called the butler and the family doctor.
The doctor hurried in, ran a full-body check, and said, puzzled, “Hm… the toe bone’s fractured.”
“What?!” Ning Sui was horrified. Had he rolled over and crushed him in his sleep?
The butler turned pale. “Is it serious?”
The doctor shook his head. “Not really. Long-term bedridden patients lose bone density. He just needs better nutrition and a stabilizing brace for a month.”
On the bed, Ji Yucheng: “…”
Ji Yucheng’s ears burned scarlet.
He had never in his entire life had been this humiliated.
Especially not in front of his little spouse.
Forget it. The great Ji Yucheng… didn’t want to wake up anymore.
✦ ✧ ✦
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
This is your completely normal and non-suspicious request to buy coffee.
☕ BUY THEM A COFFEE →
✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
✦ thank you for reading ✦
← PreviousNext →
ChaptersChapter 1 · The WeddingChapter 2 · New Target!Chapter 3 · Moved OnChapter 4 · Personal Information of Ji YuchengChapter 5 · Liked Ji Yucheng for 3 Years?!Chapter 6 · Love Rival?!Chapter 7 · Domineering PossessivenessChapter 8 · Obviously Very CuteChapter 9 Part 1 · Can’t be SeperatedChapter 9 Part 2 · Can’t be SeperatedChapter 10 · A blonde Guy…Chapter 11 · Dangerously Close to love?Chapter 12 · Confrontation with Ji ZhilinChapter 13 · Accidental DiscoveryChapter 14 · System 009 upgradedChapter 15 · Battery charging!Chapter 16 · Young Master was MiserableChapter 17 · Did Ning Sui treat you like this before?Chapter 18 · Was this what happened last night before you went to bed?Chapter 19 · He really got to the bottom of thisChapter 20 Part 1 · Don’t look at him, he was shocked too!Chapter 20 Part 2 · Don’t look at him, he was shocked too!Chapter 21 · Because I like it so muchChapter 22 Part 1 · Pull up your pantsChapter 22 Part 2 · Pull up your pantsChapter 23 · Why does it sound like he’s jealousChapter 24 Part 1 · I will protect himChapter 24 Part 2 · I will protect himChapter 25 · He’s quite gentleChapter 26 · Young Master Ji suddenly started to stutterChapter 27 · Ning Sui’s timeChapter 28 Part 1 · They ran away as soon as they were scaredChapter 28 Part 2 · They ran away as soon as they were scaredChapter 29 Part 1 · Are you looking for death?Chapter 29 Part 2 · Are you looking for death?Chapter 30 · Hurry up and say your last wordsChapter 31 · Ji Yucheng collapsed into his armsChapter 32 · Mr. Ji, I never expected you to be such a good person.Chapter 33 · He’s so well-behaved when He sleeps…Chapter 34 · His expression was incredibly varied in an instantChapter 35 · How could it be Ning Sui?Chapter 36 · Does the young wife only like people in a vegetative state?Chapter 37 · State-based controlChapter 38 · The young master was so happy he dropped his phoneChapter 39 · You were 37 minutes lateChapter 40 · I don’t plan to get a divorce.Chapter 41 · Otherwise, would it be your turn?Chapter 42 · Both perverted and cuteChapter 43 · If they sneak away again, I’ll hold them even tighterChapter 44 · I sprained my ankle tooChapter 45 · A cat jumping on a lion’s head to play with fire.Chapter 46 · Your young master has fainted!Chapter 47 · Sui Sui, come downChapter 48 · Are you going to lock me in there?Chapter 49 Part 1 · I love you, Ning SuiChapter 49 Part 2 · I love you, Ning SuiChapter 50 · Give the snowman a heartChapter 51 · Miss you.Chapter 52 · To hold in one’s mouthChapter 53 · You are in the cloudsChapter 54 · Ning Sui hugged him for the first timeChapter 55 · Can you sit on my lap?Chapter 56 · It’s either you or it’s not.Chapter 57 · From this moment on, I am your vegetableChapter 58 · Young Ji YuchengChapter 59 · They kiss tirelessly.Chapter 60 · RipplingChapter 61 · You want to compare this?!Chapter 62 · It’s 001!Chapter 63 · I like everything about it.Chapter 64 · It seems to have been filled up a little more.Chapter 65 · Wedding rings should be exchanged between the couple.Chapter 66 · Love-struckChapter 67 · Why can’t we even be apart for a day?Chapter 68 · PerfectChapter 69 · A lifelong contract was madeChapter 70 · Extra 1Chapter 71 · Extra 2Chapter 72 · Extra 3Chapter 73 · Extra 4Chapter 74 · Extra 5Chapter 75 · Extra 6Chapter 76 · Extra 7Chapter 77 · Extra 8Chapter 78 · Extra 9Chapter 79 · Extra 10Chapter 80 · Extra 11Chapter 81 · Extra 12Chapter 82 · Extra 13Chapter 83 · Extra 14