“What is this? Why are you here?” Xu Yanghe said with a long face. “The heir of the group trespassing into a booked room in one of his own hotels—be careful, or I’ll sue you.”
“Go ahead, I’m practically begging you to. This young master came here specifically to cause trouble,” Yu Dashan replied indifferently. “That last PR war probably tipped off Yu Tianhe. He’s been riding me hard these past few days; I came here to replenish my health bar.”
“He wouldn’t actually try to kill you, would he?” Xu Yanghe frowned as he listened.
“What are you thinking?” Yu Dashan roared with laughter.
Xu Yanghe relaxed, though he was still fretting over Xie Chun’s whereabouts. He pulled out his phone, preparing to call him. “I have no idea where that guy ran off to.”
“Aren’t you even a little curious who gave me the room card?” Yu Dashan draped an arm over Xu Yanghe’s shoulder.
Xu Yanghe ignored him, so he continued playing riddles. “You brought the guy out, but it turns out he’s just here to work for me. I’m truly speechless.”
“What?” Xu Yanghe didn’t understand.
Down in the lobby of the Tianyun Chain Hotel, Xie Chun stood behind the counter. “Ma’am, here is your room card. Your room is on the seventh floor. Would you like our staff to help with your luggage? Okay… alright… understood. Have a pleasant vacation!”
The descending elevator reached the first floor and slid open. Xu Yanghe closed his eyes and massaged his forehead. “That money-grubber…”
Xu Yanghe walked over, with Yu Dashan following behind to watch the show.
Seeing Xu Yanghe, Xie Chun immediately beamed. “Are you finished with your business?”
Xu Yanghe tapped his room card on the counter. “Keep your card safe. Don’t just give it to anyone.”
Behind him, Yu Dashan let out a loud, mocking “Heh!”
Xie Chun took the card, looked at it, and asked, “Is there a problem? Weren’t you two supposed to meet?”
No one could follow Xie Chun’s logic; in short, he didn’t think he had done anything wrong. “Didn’t you have that plot of land in South Youshan…”
Xu Yanghe’s face flushed red, and he instantly covered Xie Chun’s mouth. “Don’t!”
He didn’t want to remember a single detail of what had happened in that private booth.
Behind them, Yu Dashan was slapping his thigh, laughing so hard he could barely breathe.
Xu Yanghe quickly withdrew his hand. Even though he had only held it there lightly, Xie Chun obediently fell silent.
Yu Dashan saw it all clearly.
He sauntered forward with his hands in his pockets and nodded at Xie Chun. “There’s a bar on the B1 level. My treat tonight. Xie Chun, you come too.”
Xu Yanghe had a gut feeling that Yu Dashan was up to no good and pulled him aside.
Just then, Lili came over to pay Xie Chun, the part-timer, his wages.
“What are you plotting?” Xu Yanghe whispered, tilting his head toward Yu Dashan.
“A brother’s just giving you a hand,” Yu Dashan curled his lips into a smirk.
“How could you possibly help…” He quickly recalled the method Yu Dashan had mentioned before: cooking the raw rice into a meal (creating a fait accompli).
“No way,” Xu Yanghe rejected immediately.
Yu Dashan clicked his tongue in frustration at his lack of initiative.
“You can’t treat him like that.” Xie Chun was already pitiful enough. Ever since that New Year’s Eve spent with him, Xu Yanghe had viewed him through a protective filter. This was a person who was resilient and strong, yet so simple he was almost foolish. Life had already piled enough hardships on him, not to mention the fraudster and the psychotic Zhou Lan. He was like a small white flower pushing through layers of rock and grime just to catch a sliver of light; even though he was trying his best to take root and grow, he could still be crushed by the wind and rain at any moment.
Meanwhile, behind the counter:
Lili: “Actually, I have a slightly intrusive question.”
Xie Chun: “I’m gay.”
…
“0.5.”
…
“Never been in a relationship.”
…
“Do you want a link?” Xie Chun whispered, pulling out his phone.
…
Yu Dashan scratched his ear, completely baffled by Xu Yanghe’s sentimentality.
He sighed and advised, “We’re not ‘cooking the rice,’ we’re just ‘brewing some porridge!'”
“What are you doing?” Xu Yanghe jerked his head away from Yu Dashan. “Don’t spray your spit on me.”
“Have you forgotten Xie Chun has a ‘condition’? I’m actually really curious about it.” He suddenly turned and shouted toward Xie Chun: “Xie Chun!”
Xie Chun looked up, eyes widening, reflexively hiding his phone.
Yu Dashan shouted, “Would you believe me if I said I’m Ultraman?”
“…” Xie Chun blinked slowly. “I believe you.”
“Whoa!” Yu Dashan gave a small cheer of excitement and whispered to Xu Yanghe, “He really does have a problem.”
“I think you’re the one with a problem!” Xu Yanghe pushed Yu Dashan away in disgust. Who knew how Xie Chun interpreted things? Dialects, aliases, roleplay… he could always find a convoluted explanation to accept the world, yet he never suspected the other person was lying.
“I know you can’t handle too much deep contact with living people,” Yu Dashan winked. “But sharing a bed to this extent should be bearable, right? Tonight, I’ll work with you to get him drunk, then you two sleep in the same bed for the night…”
Xu Yanghe looked ready to punch him.
“Just sleeping! Purely sleeping! Sleeping in a straight line!” Yu Dashan quickly covered his head. “Doesn’t he believe whatever people say? You just tell him the next morning that you two did it and he needs to take responsibility. Boom, you’ve got him.”
Xu Yanghe paused.
There was a shred of feasibility to it.
He deeply examined his own heart.
Could he accept sleeping in close proximity to Xie Chun for one night?
It seemed he could. He had noticed the bed in the master bedroom of the suite; it was still very clean after Xie Chun slept there last night.
Going a bit further, fabricating some marks on their bodies for the sake of the next morning’s lie… he seemed able to accept that level of contact as well.
Most importantly, they were heading back to Haicheng tomorrow. The spinning mill’s group housing was slated for demolition, and Xie Chun would be kicked out. Although Zhou Lan was around, Xie Chun likely wouldn’t end up on the streets.
But Zhou Lan’s place was a tiger’s den in its own right.
Xu Yanghe recalled the past—one after another after another. He knew all about Zhou Lan’s partners, male and female alike. Not one of them had a good ending!
Xie Chun’s life was difficult enough.
From the very beginning, his goal had been to dismantle the possibility of Xie Chun and Zhou Lan being together.
Though his stance had shifted after many twists and turns, his ultimate wish remained: he couldn’t let Xie Chun and Zhou Lan be together.
Thinking further ahead, could he accept bringing Xie Chun back to his own home?
It seemed he could. It’s not like his place didn’t have two bedrooms; Xie Chun could stay in the guest room Xu Yanghe always kept empty.
Besides, Xie Chun seemed very clean; surely he wouldn’t interfere with Xu Yanghe’s grand mission of hygiene. He was also very quiet—sometimes slipping into a daze where Xu Yanghe could act as if there was no one else in the house. Xu Yanghe considered his own cooking skills to be decent if not excellent, and since Xie Chun’s kitchen was filled with nothing but dried noodles, tomatoes, and potatoes, he likely wouldn’t be a picky eater. Finally, regarding himself: what could living with Xie Chun bring him?
Xu Yanghe wasn’t going to have a peaceful next six months. The Xiao Youshan matter wasn’t resolved, his frozen bank cards weren’t restored, and he still had to attend that godforsaken K-University. Without a doubt, this would be the most difficult period of his life. If, during such a time, he also had to worry about Xie Chun possibly being bullied by Zhou Lan, wouldn’t he just be looking for trouble?
Just thinking about it annoyed him. Indeed, he should keep Xie Chun right under his nose.
Plus, Xie Chun had high energy—he could handle so many part-time jobs alone—and he was cute. If, every time he came home exhausted from company business, he had someone to talk to, it seemed like a nice thing.
…
“What are you thinking about?” Yu Dashan frowned.
Xu Yanghe said solemnly, “Let’s do exactly what you said.”
Yu Dashan: “…”
Xie Chun came over to find Xu Yanghe after getting paid. Since it was still the Lunar New Year holiday and Xie Chun was a student part-timer, Tianyun had given him his wages in a red envelope.
“Wow, 188,” Xie Chun counted the money as he opened it. “The hourly rate in Liangling is so high.”
Yu Dashan shot Xu Yanghe a look. “I’ll go prepare first. You two, remember to come down.”
Xu Yanghe nodded.
Xie Chun stood beside him, looking up with a blank expression.
Xu Yanghe felt a twinge of guilt. “Are… are we going?”
Xie Chun thought for a moment. “Is there food? I’m hungry.”
“Of course there is.” Just drinking would be too forced anyway.
Xie Chun’s expression brightened as he said loudly, “Okay.”
The bar on the B1 level of Tianyun only served hotel guests. Unlike Blue Sea, this place wasn’t large, nor did it have a noisy band; its style was quiet and intimate.
As they reached the bar entrance, a smirking Yu Dashan was leaning against the wall waiting for them.
Seeing a waiter standing by the door, Xu Yanghe gestured for Xie Chun to follow Yu Dashan inside. He stayed behind to give the waiter a few instructions, asking him to run an errand and buy some things.
When Xu Yanghe entered the private booth, he saw that Yu Dashan had already ordered a table full of alcohol, his intentions crystal clear. Xie Chun, meanwhile, was sitting in the corner eating a fruit platter.
Xu Yanghe called a server over. “I heard you guys serve steak rice here?”
The server said they did.
Yu Dashan rolled his eyes in the background. “Hey, do you remember what we’re here for?”
Xie Chun looked back and forth between the two of them.
“You can skip it if you’re not hungry.” Xu Yanghe insisted on placing the order.
Usually, people don’t come to a bar for steak rice, so it was likely just a token menu item with questionable quality.
However, when the three servings of steak rice arrived, they were surprisingly fragrant and inviting. Perhaps because none of them had eaten for most of the day, even Yu Dashan couldn’t resist.
As Xie Chun ate, Yu Dashan quietly opened a bottle and filled the glass in front of Xie Chun. “Drink some, don’t choke.”
Xie Chun picked up the glass. The clear, amber liquid looked significant under the dim, hazy lights.
He seemed to think of something.
The Blue Sea drink menu, the ten-thousand-yuan transfer, the highway under the blizzard…
He turned to Xu Yanghe and asked, “Is this my job?”
Xu Yanghe didn’t understand yet. Xie Chun maintained a serious posture and added, “Escorting?”
Yu Dashan froze momentarily.
The fact that Xie Chun could say such a thing meant he was aware of these matters. It was actually difficult for Xu Yanghe to speak. “You… you’ve done this kind of work before?”
Xie Chun said, “Wasn’t that what it was at the Blue Sea?”
The strangeness of that night at Blue Sea was something neither Yu Dashan nor Xu Yanghe wanted to revisit.
Yu Dashan gave a couple of hollow laughs. “What escort? Today is just a gathering between friends, right, Xu the Second?”
Xu Yanghe didn’t bite; his brow was furrowed.
Even though asking Xie Chun directly might just lead to another ineffective exchange—he often made human language obscure—Xu Yanghe once again wished he could understand.
“What exactly was the nature of your job at Blue Sea?”
Xie Chun looked at him steadily, searching his memory.
“Part-time bar server, under 25, neat and upright appearance.”
Xu Yanghe massaged his forehead. Why are you reciting the job advertisement!
“Base salary plus team bonus plus commission model, flexible and negotiable shifts, paid on the 15th of every month, with holiday benefits…”