Xu Shuyuan fell silent after hearing this. Of course he’d seen them but who still watches DVDs these days?
“They have collector’s value. I bought the DVD of Circle for only twenty thousand back then. Now it’s already climbed to a hundred thousand on the market,” Ying Qiuman said. Seeing Xu Shuyuan’s slightly furrowed brows and dubious expression, he knew there was no point in discussing it any further with him.
“So you’re using them to make money?” Xu Shuyuan asked, puzzled, as if it were stock trading.
Ying Qiuman didn’t know how to respond and let out a small sigh, explaining, “Price is just one way of measuring value.”
He felt it was impossible to explain this to Xu Shuyuan. The man’s thinking was entirely that of a businessman.
The joy that had filled his eyes from chatting with Ling Yi gradually faded under Xu Shuyuan’s uncomprehending frown, and he pouted slightly and looked away.
But just as he turned his gaze aside, his chin was caught and forced back. Xu Shuyuan’s kiss came down.
It was direct and aggressive, biting the instant it landed. Ying Qiuman tried to dodge once the pain hit, but was gripped by the neck and pulled back to keep enduring it.
Getting angry over something like this?
“Wow!”
Ying Qiuman suddenly heard a childish exclamation. Xu Shuyuan was startled too, so Ying Qiuman easily pushed him away.
He ducked his head in a panic, trying to avoid eye contact. Xu Shuyuan looked toward the source of the sound and saw a girl in bright, colorful clothes standing at the foot of the stairs. She had her fingers over her eyes, but they didn’t actually block her view at all.
“So this is little uncle, right?” the girl said, still in that pose, then came around from the staircase and sat on another sofa closer to Ying Qiuman.
Ying Qiuman felt awkward under the child’s eager gaze and looked to Xu Shuyuan for help.
“Did you finish your homework?” Xu Shuyuan asked bluntly.
The girl leaned back into the sofa, striking a superior pose. “Of course. I stayed up all night to finish it.”
“Staying up late will stunt your growth,” Xu Shuyuan reminded her.
Ying Qiuman looked at the little girl and guessed she was in her rebellious phase, the chuunibyou air about her was very obvious.
The girl gave a “tsk,” but the moment she noticed Ying Qiuman looking at her, she instantly switched to a well-behaved expression. She fished a few lollipops out of her pocket and shoved them into Ying Qiuman’s hand, even reminding him not to give any to Xu Shuyuan.
But before she could say anything more to Ying Qiuman, a clear male voice came from upstairs: “Xu Jun!”
Another boy came down the stairs. He looked a bit older than the girl, and their features were somewhat alike.
The boy promptly grabbed her ear and hauled her up from the sofa. “Didn’t I tell you you’re only allowed one candy today? Do you still want your teeth?”
“I was wrong, Brother! I didn’t eat them, I gave them to little uncle!” Xu Jun wailed, on the verge of tears, looking at Ying Qiuman with watery eyes. Ying Qiuman held the candies and was about to help explain, but Xu Shuyuan covered his mouth and pulled him into his arms.
Seeing this, Xu Jun howled, “Heavens!”
“Xiao Jun, think about it what alpha walks around with a mouth full of cavities?” Xu Shuyuan tried to reason with her, then took the candies from Ying Qiuman’s hand and stuffed them into his own pocket. Ying Qiuman thought he was being unbelievably childish.
The hairstyle he’d carefully fixed before going out had been ruined by Xu Shuyuan. Strands of hair came loose, and when he lifted his head out of Xu Shuyuan’s arms, he looked like a sheep startled out of a nap, glaring at the man in anger.
Xu Shuyuan let him go and smoothed his messy hair back into place. Once free, Ying Qiuman shifted aside a little in protest.
“Hello, little uncle. I’m Xu Wei, and this is my sister, Xu Jun,” the boy introduced himself. Xu Jun, still half-squatting on the sofa, greeted him too.
“Hello.”
After the introductions, Xu Wei simply dragged Xu Jun away and didn’t say much more to them, perhaps because he felt there was a generation gap, or perhaps because of something else…
Ying Qiuman felt his cheeks grow warm. Guilt and embarrassment rose together, but Xu Shuyuan beside him seemed completely unfazed. He leaned in and pressed his forehead to Ying Qiuman’s, feigning puzzlement.
“You don’t have a fever.”
“……”
Ying Qiuman shot him a faintly exasperated glare, saying nothing, but everything he was thinking was written plainly on his face.
Xu Shuyuan laughed, then pulled him up off the sofa. “Want to see my room?”
He’d originally planned that once they’d met the family, he would take Ying Qiuman up to his bedroom to “settle accounts.” He hadn’t wanted to drag things out too late, but he didn’t expect Ying Qiuman to hit it off so well with his father.
Compared to staying in the living room and constantly having to deal with Xu Shuyuan’s family, Ying Qiuman figured going up to the bedroom alone with Xu Shuyuan would actually be more relaxing.
But things didn’t go as he’d imagined. He had no idea how he’d offended Xu Shuyuan, but the man said nothing, only kept insistently biting and kissing him.
Finally, once Xu Shuyuan’s intense mood had passed, before Ying Qiuman could even ask why, the housekeeper came to call them down for dinner again.
They had clearly come up to see the bedroom, yet after all that dawdling, Ying Qiuman had seen nothing but a sofa.
“You—”
“We’ll talk tonight.”
Ying Qiuman tried to stop Xu Shuyuan to ask, but was cut off. Still, from that answer, it sounded like there really was something going on.
He didn’t understand. He truly didn’t understand. Why was Xu Shuyuan never able to say things plainly, every single time?
Unable to get a timely explanation out of Xu Shuyuan, Ying Qiuman secretly went to ask Ling Yi.
He left out the details and stated only the result: “When Xu Shuyuan is angry, does he just not say it out loud? How am I supposed to ask?”
Ling Yi looked slightly surprised. He blinked at Ying Qiuman twice, then glanced over at Xu Shuyuan in the distance, talking with the eldest brother, and led Ying Qiuman toward the garden.
“He’s got a big temper, but he doesn’t usually bottle things up and say nothing. Maybe he just doesn’t know how to put it into words right now. You can wait a little longer. If that doesn’t work, you can get angry toohe’s the best at coaxing people.”
Ying Qiuman wasn’t convinced and had his doubts.
But he still nodded. The other had said they’d talk it over at night anyway, so he might as well wait for now.
Ling Yi patted Ying Qiuman’s head and led him through a door beside the greenhouse. The moment they stepped inside, Ying Qiuman’s eyes went wide.
It was an entire room filled with discs and books, along with an old-fashioned film projector.
He stared in shock. Compared to his own box of scattered collectibles, this place was like another world entirely a difference of heaven and earth.
Ling Yi took a black box from a nearby shelf and, with a mysterious air, showed it to Ying Qiuman: inside was a deliberately aged copper badge, like a token disc. When turned, one could faintly make out a ship and the word “Reboot.”
Circle opens with a story set aboard a ship. The protagonist deciphers a coded message, which turns out to be the name of that night’s victim. From this clue, a revenge case is unraveled.
Before Ying Qiuman could take a closer look, Ling Yi took the badge, stuck it to the back of Ying Qiuman’s phone, and a video popped up.
In the video, a person in a black cloak held up a ferry ticket. The voice had been altered: “Do you still remember that ferry ride thirty years ago?”
After he finished speaking, the image flickered between black and white twice, then cut to another scene. It was a dim room, seemingly filmed from under a bed.
A child’s drawing lay crumpled on the floor. A doll suddenly poked its head out from the bottom-right corner. Blood slowly seeped upward from below, and faint laughter echoed. In the end, the entire screen turned deep red.
The video ended. The information inside was basically tied to the case in Circle, but the doll was something newly introduced.
“Is this… the second installment?” Ying Qiuman asked.
Ling Yi snapped his fingers. “Bingo!”
Ying Qiuman had not yet recovered from his shock when he heard Ling Yi click his tongue again. “You don’t even go online? We dropped the official announcement video at midnight, and it hit the trending list within two hours!”
He really didn’t pay much attention to these things not to mention he’d been tossed around by Xu Shuyuan until so late that he hadn’t had the time or energy to look at anything at all.
“So it’s finished, ready to be released?” His eyes lit up with an excitement typical of someone his age, unlike his usual calm, indifferent demeanor.
Ling Yi shook his head. “Not yet. Filming starts in March.”
After speaking, he put the badge away and handed Ying Qiuman an art book from nearby. “That video just now is a puzzle. I’m looking forward to your answer. This is something I got from them at the script-reading session, with signatures, consider it a first-meeting gift from your dad!”
Ling Yi had originally prepared a perfectly ordinary gift, but felt it lacked a bit of novelty. Just then he’d discovered that Ying Qiuman liked Circle, so the art book came in handy.
Ying Qiuman himself wasn’t especially into autographed photos, but the poster Ling Yi had chosen, though laminated, was clearly not new. It looked as though it had been kept for many years, signed, and then re-laminated.
To him, it felt extraordinarily precious.
“Thank you, Dad.”
No one had ever given him the chance to use that title, but Ling Yi naturally filled in that gap for him.
Ying Qiuman carefully set the art book in Xu Shuyuan’s bedroom. When he came back, the corners of his mouth still couldn’t hide his smile, he looked especially happy.
“What’s got you so happy?” Xu Shuyuan asked when he noticed. Ying Qiuman smiled at him. “Dad gave me an art book.”
Xu Shuyuan was taken aback at hearing that form of address. “Dad” was a missing piece of Ying Qiuman’s life. Perhaps Li Cong could fill that gap, but as far as he could remember, Ying Qiuman had always called him “uncle.”
He glanced at Ling Yi, and the other gave them a wink.
“Something with value, like those discs?” Xu Shuyuan asked again. Ying Qiuman was surprised that he actually understood the meaning of such things and nodded firmly. “Mm!”
He saw Xu Shuyuan smile. The inexplicable tension that had hung between his brows all day seemed to vanish. But in the next second, he leaned down toward him.
Ying Qiuman flinched and blocked him on instinct, leaning back and giving a small shake of his head.
Most of the family had already gathered here. If Xu Shuyuan tried to kiss him in a setting like this, Ying Qiuman would really want to dig a hole and crawl into it.
Xu Shuyuan only looked at him, smiled again, and then straightened up.
A New Year’s dinner together really was just dinner. Ying Qiuman had originally assumed Xu Shuyuan’s alpha father would be a stern man, and might even harbor some prejudice against him as an unwanted marriage partner.
But in reality, the whole family simply sat around the table and ate together. They didn’t bring up the matter at allnot even a single word about work.
After the meal, Xu Shuyuan had no intention of staying. He took Ying Qiuman and headed home.
On the way back, Xu Shuyuan was still mulling over how to untangle the knot in his heart, but Ying Qiuman just gazed at the art book and smiled. Xu Shuyuan’s mood kept shifting, one wave of jealousy hadn’t even settled before another rose, and his expression grew increasingly sour.
It was only when Ying Qiuman noticed that he realized this wasn’t the road home at all.
“Where are we going?”
Xu Shuyuan smiled gently. “A surprise.”
Ying Qiuman didn’t dare get his hopes up for any of Xu Shuyuan’s surprises. Most of the time, they turned out to be nothing good for him.
“Did you… get influenced by something again?”
He’d originally meant to ask whether pheromones were behind Xu Shuyuan’s odd behavior, but Xu Shuyuan seemed to have misunderstood.
“Yes.”
He was getting jealous over something he couldn’t even pin down, while Ying Qiuman completely failed to grasp it. Affected by all this, his mood sank badly.