There were a few marks on Ying Qiuman’s body, very faint, even lighter than the ones left before.
Hot water poured over him from head to toe, wrapping his whole body. In the past he would have found relief from his skin-craving symptoms in a shower like this, but now it had no effect at all.
He scrubbed his body hard with a towel, as if venting his anger on himself. His throat felt a little tight, and when he came out after washing, the first thing he did was look for water to drink.
Liu Huaxin leaned over to him. “Your boyfriend is so fierce!”
Ying Qiuman shot him a glance. Xu Shuyuan could indeed be very strict at times, and his looks were rather sharp and intimidating too. The first time he’d seen him, his initial reaction was that the man was handsome, but afterward he’d felt that the aura around him made it hard to breathe under the pressure.
But by now, this person had become highly skilled at making him feel troubled and angry, and that oppressive aura had gradually faded, leaving only an irritating impression.
“He’s not usually like that.” Usually he’s just more annoying.
But Liu Huaxin missed the implication and thought he was defending the man. He clicked his tongue a few times, then got down to his real purpose.
He buttered him up by squeezing Ying Qiuman’s shoulder, but that spot was a little sensitive from where Xu Shuyuan had bitten it. After only a couple of presses, Ying Qiuman’s scalp went numb and he shot to his feet in shock.
“Ah!” Liu Huaxin didn’t expect such a big reaction and laughed awkwardly. “You’re actually ticklish?”
“What is it?” Ying Qiuman knew Liu Huaxin always had a favor to ask whenever he turned friendly. Seen through, Liu Huaxin didn’t bother hiding it and pulled a chair over to sit in front of him.
“So, I wanted to ask, have you already lined up an internship for graduation?”
Ying Qiuman’s graduate project with Professor Wei Boju was affiliated with a research institute and could count as a graduation internship. Over the past six months he’d even used the project to apply for a guaranteed graduate spot, so when it came up out of nowhere, he was a bit confused.
“I’m interning with Teacher Wei’s project group.” Wei Boju had been short on manpower before, but the three of them had been busy prepping for exams, so they hadn’t joined.
Liu Huaxin’s eyes went wide. “That works too?”
Done for.
“I was planning to latch onto the young master’s thigh and get an internship at his family’s company, even talk him into taking me along. I didn’t expect…”
Liu Huaxin pretended to tear up and slumped weakly against Ying Qiuman’s shoulder.
Because of Ying Tieming’s frequent visits, Ying Qiuman’s connection to the Ying family was no longer a secret. But his own career plans had nothing to do with Lanxi, so naturally he wouldn’t consider interning there.
He didn’t dare hand Ying Kangcheng any leverage.
Just as Liu Huaxin finished speaking, a message came in on Ying Qiuman’s phone, it was from Ying Tieming.
“Set a time, set a time, set a time!”
Looks like the company side has been talked around.
A relaxed smile surfaced on Ying Qiuman’s face, and even his tone lifted a little as he answered Liu Huaxin: “I’ll ask Teacher Wei about it for you.”
After he left, Liu Huaxin pawed at Ye Li, who was fiddling with who-knew-what. “Honey, what do you make of Xiao Man’s boyfriend? I just saw him smile while he was texting!”
Ye Li lifted his head from a heap of clutter, raised one index finger and waved it back and forth, pouting. “Two-faced green tea!”
Going off the fake flowers from last night and the man’s evasive way of talking, and given that he already had a poor opinion of alphas as a group, he naturally had nothing good to say about Xu Shuyuan.
“But I just overheard Xiao Man talking, and he sounded pretty gentle to me?” Liu Huaxin didn’t get it, and Jiang Ke shoved him aside. “Who does he ever talk to that isn’t gentle?”
Fair enough.
……
Ying Qiuman went to Professor Wei Boju’s office, the man happened to be resting with no classes.
“Teacher.” Ying Qiuman walked over. He’d asked before whether the patent from that award-winning project could be sold. “About that competition-winning project from before… could you consider Lanxi?”
Professor Wei Boju was easygoing, and Ying Qiuman didn’t like beating around the bush, so he just asked outright. The whole discussion took less than two minutes.
That was mostly because Wei Boju hadn’t sold it yet only because he’d been too busy to get around to it.
“All right, I’ll confirm it with my brother.” With that, Ying Qiuman was about to leave, but Wei Boju stopped him. “Xiao Man, when are you bringing your partner over to teacher’s place for a meal?”
Wei Boju’s eyes lit up. He knew Ying Qiuman’s family situation was unusual, and while he valued the boy, he also treated him a bit like a son.
Ying Qiuman’s expression froze. He didn’t know how to explain it to his teacher, and his first instinct was to refuse.
“I can help you and your teacher’s wife vet him!”
Unable to hold out against Wei Boju’s enthusiasm, Ying Qiuman pushed the matter onto the unwitting Xu Shuyuan: “I’ll ask him.”
Having finally escaped everyone’s attention, Ying Qiuman sat down at his workstation and messaged Ying Tieming. The other man replied quickly, and they successfully added Professor Wei Boju as a contact.
Ying Qiuman had assumed that settled the matter, but once the two of them finished talking, they both, in agreement, suggested he go over to Lanxi to take part in support work.
For one thing, he was familiar with the project, for another, it would sharpen his practical skills.
This matter didn’t involve Ying Kangcheng, and Ying Tieming even pulled Ying Yelin in to lobby him. Ying Qiuman had been meaning to keep his distance from Xu Shuyuan anyway, and this happened to be a chance to, so he agreed.
He needed time, time to build the inner city wall even higher and stronger.
That week, you could say he turned night into day at Lanxi. Although he was only there in a support capacity to help move the project forward, with the main coordination handled by Professor Wei Boju’s team and Lanxi, he still couldn’t just stand by idly.
When Ying Yelin learned he was helping out at Lanxi, she actually came out of the house and brought lunch to the company.
“Mother made you carrot-and-beef dumpling filling. It’s good for your eyes.” Ying Yelin looked at him with fond expectation and smiled, leaving Ying Qiuman a little uncomfortable.
One glance was enough to tell that Ying Qiuman’s eyes were different from most, and Ying Yelin bringing him meals like this carried a note of making up for it.
Ying Yelin had come in as Ying Qiuman’s mother. The company had no strong impression of this rarely seen lady, and since half of Ying Qiuman’s project group were newcomers and the other half were from Professor Wei Boju’s side, no one noticed that Ying Yelin had also brought food for Ying Tieming.
Then one day the food she made turned out to be truly too bland. Ying Qiuman, used to the heavy oil and salt of school food, could still manage it, but Ying Tieming found it hard to get down and came over from his office with his lunchbox.
“Mom!” he called the instant he walked in, startling several people in the group, who thought he’d come to push them on progress and chew them out.
To their surprise, he really had just come to find his mother.
“It’s got no taste at all!” Ying Qiuman had watched him come in with his nose wrinkled, and was stunned to see him eating so happily. “You don’t think so?”
Ying Qiuman shook his head and handed him the leftover tomato sauce from last night’s late-night snack. “Do you want this?”
Ying Tieming looked at the tomato sauce and took it with a gloomy face, dragging a chair over to sit with them.
Then they heard Ying Yelin’s unhurried voice: “Because Xiao Man has a mild palate, I forgot about you. I’ll make yours separately tomorrow.”
Ying Tieming was quiet for a moment, then let out a small sigh and, pretending to dab at the corner of his eye, said with mock bitterness: “It’s okay, Mom, I can just bring my own sauce.”
He’d been four when Ying Yelin remarried, and he’d gotten along quite well with this gentle, timid stepmother.
Although Ying Yelin was this body’s biological mother to Ying Qiuman, in fact, Ying Tieming and Ying Yelin felt more like an ordinary mother and son.
“Don’t make it too much trouble, a stronger flavor is fine too.” Ying Qiuman wasn’t picky, he could take both mild and strong flavors. At school he ate heavy-tasting food with Ye Li, and at home he ate light food with Xu Shuyuan, he actually handled both quite well.
Ying Yelin smiled at him, but her brows drew together slightly when she touched his head. Ying Tieming caught it at once and smoothed the mood over. “Hey, hey, mild is good, mild is healthy. Mom, don’t go to any trouble, this is fine!”
Over these past few days, with more chances to interact, Ying Qiuman’s impression of Ying Tieming had changed a great deal. The arrogant, domineering version from the original story rarely showed up, instead, his playful, slightly chuunibyou [1] Japanese slang, “middle-school second-year syndrome”: adolescent grandiose delusions, acting as if one has secret powers or a special destiny jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2564683_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2564683_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); side came out far more often.
If Ying Tieming’s assistant hadn’t grown familiar with Ying Qiuman and confirmed that Ying Tieming had always been like this, Ying Qiuman would really have thought there was hardly anything left of the original character from the book.
Ying Qiuman smiled to himself. So the gravity and solemnity Ying Tieming put on in front of Ye Li were all just an act.
At lunch in the tea room, the laughter and noise of the three of them (mostly Ying Tieming’s) brought the company to life. The old employees were glad to see the madam visiting, and the new ones were glad to see that the boss put on no airs.
Without anyone quite noticing, a few outside rumors were even dispelled—Lanxi’s internal work environment was actually very pleasant.
In this “healed without treatment” shift in public opinion, Ying Qiuman got lumped in as being on the employer’s side. He’d thought about clarifying, but he knew he wouldn’t be staying long anyway, so an explanation would be pointless. So he didn’t deliberately get in the way of it.
In fact, in this atmosphere he felt a sense of “home.” He didn’t quite know how to fold himself into it, but just soaking in it like this was good enough.
On top of that, Ying Yelin often took his arm and stroked his head, so after leaving Xu Shuyuan, his skin-craving symptoms didn’t worsen, instead, to his surprise, they eased, and even his degradation anxiety was letting up.
It struck him then to wonder whether he’d been wrong from the very start. Xu Shuyuan’s intensity couldn’t heal him, it only dragged him into a deeper, darker ocean. Ying Yelin’s gentle, nourishing presence, like wind and rain to a seedling, might be what could truly treat his condition.
What was more, he didn’t even depend on Ying Yelin all that heavily. As long as she stood there, Ying Qiuman felt at ease, and all his symptoms could be relieved.
His body and mind were healed by this warmth, but another thought slowly spread through him. Had the original host craved family affection in this same way? And were Ying Tieming’s moments of seeking him out, of wanting his approval, just a wish to be simply wrapped in the love of kin?
Ying Qiuman gave a soft sigh. The so-called parental love and family love in books, he had never experienced any of it, and neither had the original host. His understanding in this area was a blank slate.
So for now, he still couldn’t properly ask for it, nor properly give his own love.
Ying Qiuman rented a place near Lanxi to stay in, in an old residential district where there were also plenty of stray animals. Once, by chance, he rescued one, and some pent-up emotion in his heart was released, leaving him with a sense of joy.
So he redirected the feelings he found so hard to express onto those little animals instead.
That week, Xu Shuyuan had messaged him a few times, but Ying Qiuman deliberately avoided answering, either replying only late at night, or making excuses about being busy, doing his best to get across that he was occupied.
After being brushed off like this a few times, Xu Shuyuan went quiet for two days without sending anything.
Ying Qiuman felt a flicker of unease in his heart, but then he reasoned that maybe this was actually the normal distance the two of them ought to keep.
On the last day of December, Lanxi had its usual day off. As he was leaving to go home, a black car at the roadside gave him a honk. He instinctively went on guard, but to his surprise, the person who stepped out of the black car was Xu Shuyuan.
His expression was stern, though his clothes were less formal than usual: loose wide-leg casual pants, and while the shirt underneath was still paired with a tie, the outer coat was gray, cut in a somewhat workwear style.
“Get in the car.” Xu Shuyuan called out from a distance, looking at him coldly. His tone was as harsh as the depths of winter, sending a faint shiver through Ying Qiuman’s heart.
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