After watching it, Ying Qiuman frowned slightly. It felt completely different in genre from the previous one.
The first installment was set on an eighteenth-century ocean liner, a place of “devouring” entertainment, while this one made the setting impossible to guess. The first trailer hadn’t revealed the time period, and the interior décor leaned toward a retro style. The second, with its cosmic and sundial elements, pulled the whole tone toward science fiction.
Ling Yi had told him that for now there was only a script and no filming yet, so after watching, Ying Qiuman set it aside to avoid dwelling on it. Otherwise his thoughts might wander too far, diverging greatly from the actual film, which would only lower his expectations.
He never kept high expectations for things anyway, and could always quickly find something else to shift his attention to.
Right now, for example, Ying Kangcheng’s friend request had arrived.
【I am your grandfather.】
The profile picture was blue sea and sky, a typical elder’s style. Ying Qiuman’s first instinct was to ignore it, but after thinking it over, his earlier words had carried a sense of anticipation, so he ought to appear sensitive and eager toward Ying Kangcheng’s message.
He accepted the request and obediently sent the first message: 【Hello, Grandpa.】
【Still not resting this late?】
Ying Kangcheng replied quickly too. At nearly seventy, was he really staying up this late every day, or had he simply been busy lately?
Huahai Entertainment… it sounded somewhat familiar.
【I was busy with something with a friend. Grandpa, you’re not resting yet either?】
【I’ve been busy with investment promotion for a new film lately. I heard from Mr. Ling Yi that you really like “Circle”?】
Ying Qiuman had never paid attention to anything beyond the films themselves, so he hadn’t noticed that “Circle” was Ying Kangcheng’s breakthrough work.
In the art book Ling Yi had given him earlier, there was a director’s signature at the end. Because there was no photo and the stylized handwriting was hard to read, Ying Qiuman hadn’t noticed it.
The second installment of “Circle” was also being personally supervised by Ying Kangcheng, and tonight happened to be the investment promotion event for the sequel.
As Ying Qiuman looked at the message, before he could think of how to reply, his mind drifted. Xu Shuyuan had also attended some kind of investment banquet today. Because he’d had his makeup and styling done, he had even specially taken photos to show Ying Qiuman.
At the thought, his mind swayed slightly before he came back to his senses. He kept replying to his grandfather’s messages while trying to probe for something.
【Mm, Grandpa knows Father Ling?】 He pretended not to know, feigning surprise.
The other side cooperated and played along: 【My fault, my fault. These years I’ve been so busy that I’ve neglected you.】
Ying Qiuman didn’t quite know how to respond to such words. After a moment of silence, he chose not to reply. Ying Kangcheng didn’t let the conversation drop and continued: 【Over the New Year this year I’ll have some time off. Will you come home with your mother to visit?】
【Okay.】
Ying Qiuman couldn’t think of anything more to say, and felt that replying too much wasn’t appropriate, so he ended it simply like that.
The original body probably longed for this kind of concern, but Ying Qiuman only felt as if they were communicating through a barrier of water, everything hazy, unable to clearly see each other’s truth, and unable to express his own.
It was exhausting.
But there was no guarantee the man had no ulterior motive perhaps pushing him toward the original plot’s ending so Ying Qiuman had to stay cautious.
That night’s sleep was uneasy. Because of Ying Kangcheng’s sudden concern, he dreamed of the scene when his grandmother was on her deathbed.
He couldn’t clearly describe what his relationship with his grandmother had been like. Based on what he had seen and experienced, it probably hadn’t been very good. Yet when she lay on the hospital bed, weak and powerless, looking at him, he suddenly felt sorrow.
“You should sell the house if it needs to be sold. No one lives there anymore anyway.” Ying Qiongying didn’t speak with much emotion. Her instructions, dragged out slowly because of her illness, carried a faint trace of gentleness.
Hearing this, Ying Qiuman’s hands paused briefly, then he went on opening the food containers and setting them on the tray table, pushing them in front of Ying Qiongying.
Ying Qiongying’s cheeks had sunk in, and she could barely eat much each day. Looking again at the meal her grandson had brought, she sighed for a while and murmured, “I can’t eat anymore… just these few days left.”
Just these few days left.
The person who, when he was little, could knock Ying Qiuman to the ground with a single slap was now leaning against a hospital bed, saying she only had a few days left.
Ying Qiuman’s eyes stung slightly, but he said nothing. Only after a long while did he respond to her earlier words: “The old house isn’t easy to sell. Besides, it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to sell it.”
“How is it not appropriate?” Ying Qiongying’s gaze regained a bit of clarity. “You’re my grandson. What’s inappropriate about it?”
“You still have a daughter.”
After Ying Qiuman said this, the two of them fell silent at the same time. This was something that could never be brought up between them.
He couldn’t have just come out of a crack in a rock he had to have a mother. Even though she had never appeared, aside from the disappointment and disgust in his grandmother’s words, Ying Qiuman knew almost nothing about her.
With a clatter, Ying Qiongying put down her chopsticks, leaned back against the pillow, and looked out the window, her expression stern. “I can’t eat anymore. Take it away.”
Ying Qiuman hadn’t meant to provoke his grandmother. He just felt that no matter how deep the resentment between mother and daughter ran, at the end of a life they shouldn’t refuse to even meet one last time.
The wind that day stung his face, maybe because he was riding his bicycle too fast. He still had to return to the lab to rush out a report, then go tutor someone in the evening.
But in the end, he didn’t make it to either. He only made it back to school in time to eat a bowl of plain noodles.
That bowl of noodles didn’t taste good there was hardly any flavor to it.
Ying Qiongying had been wrong. She didn’t even have a few days left.
Maybe he shouldn’t have mentioned his mother that day, Ying Qiuman thought.
From that day on, a heavy burden of medical expenses was lifted from him, but his heart didn’t feel much lighter.
Just past six o’clock, Ying Qiuman jolted awake. He opened his eyes and steadied himself for a moment, but his stomach cramped again, forcing him to get up at once and rush to the bathroom.
In the end, of course, he couldn’t throw anything up. Ying Qiuman took out the bread he had stocked up a few days earlier, heated it, and treated it as a simple breakfast before finally suppressing the sour, aching sensation.
But because of Ying Kangcheng’s insincere concern and the dream of Ying Qiongying’s final moments, Ying Qiuman’s skin-hunger condition inevitably flared up.
He hurriedly found his medicine and took it, then hid in the bedroom, curling himself up tightly. His teeth bit into his wrist until it almost bled, and his neck and wrists were rubbed red.
Only after the medicine took effect did he finally suppress the anxiety and unease in his heart. He covered the wounds with his clothes and went out like a normal person.
After sending a message to Ye Li, Ying Qiuman went to work. Although on the surface he seemed calm, this morning was in fact the hardest stretch he had endured since coming to this world.
Only at noon did he see Ying Yelin again.
But for some reason, simply sitting together and eating was no longer enough to ease his anxiety.
Perhaps it was because seeing Li Tian act spoiled toward Ying Yelin had stirred a new kind of longing in him.
But he couldn’t bring himself to say it. He wasn’t an alpha, so he had no reason to lean on Ying Yelin like that.
He hesitated for a long time, even sweating in the middle of winter from the anxiety.
“Grandpa contacted me,” Ying Qiuman finally said. “He asked us to go back for the New Year.”
After speaking, he glanced at Ying Yelin. She paused slightly, then smiled. “Alright.”
In fact, never mind going to Ying Kangcheng’s place for the New Year in previous years Ying Qiuman hadn’t even gone to the Li family’s.
He had no standing there, and no need to.
His emotions were faint on the surface, but Ying Yelin still noticed them. She shifted the topic instead. “How is that cleaner from yesterday?”
Ying Qiuman raised his eyes, tidied his emotions, and buried them deep before answering, “He’s doing well. The doctor said a few days of observation and rest should be enough.”
“Oh, then why are your dark circles so heavy?” She knew his evasiveness wasn’t because of that. No matter how well he hid it, the dark circles under his eyes and his exhausted expression couldn’t escape a careful mother.
Ying Qiuman raised his hand to rub under his eyes and gave a casual smile. Before he could make up an excuse, Ying Yelin spoke first. “If there’s anything, you can tell Mom… You didn’t sleep well?”
“Mm,” Ying Qiuman admitted unconsciously, then quickly added, “I ate something late at night with my roommate, and my stomach felt uncomfortable, so I didn’t sleep well.”
His reason sounded solid, and he thought it had no flaws. Ying Yelin didn’t see through it, only gently patted the top of his head and asked softly, “Then during the lunch break, why don’t you lean on Mom and sleep for a while?”
Hearing this, Ying Qiuman’s breathing stalled. He stood there stunned for a long moment.
He got it that easily?
After tidying everything up, he leaned slightly against Ying Yelin. In fact, he couldn’t fall asleep like this at all. Noticing his caution, Ying Yelin took the initiative to support his head, helping him find a comfortable position to rest.
Ying Qiuman let her arrange him, and gradually caught a faint, comforting sense of safety. It wasn’t the smell of perfume, and he couldn’t detect any pheromones either, but this light, clean fragrance lingered at the tip of his nose, letting him take an especially comfortable midday nap.
This small, unintentional form of comfort instantly dispersed his longing and anxiety. Even the image of a mother he had been building up in his heart became more concrete.
A relationship he had longed for for twenty-seven years had, in fact, always been something so simple to obtain.
Ying Yelin had already noticed yesterday that when Li Tian leaned against her, Xiao Man had envy in his eyes. She couldn’t make up for the regret of the past twenty-two years. In the past she had been powerless, but now that there was a chance, she wanted to try her best to make up for at least part of it.
If her son-in-law hadn’t suddenly called, seeing Ying Qiuman sleeping so peacefully against her, she might even have wanted him to skip work that afternoon.
“Hello?” Ying Qiuman’s voice after waking from a nap sounded soft and slightly lazy. “What is it?”
“Taking a nap?”
He heard Xu Shuyuan’s low laugh through the phone, switched the phone to his other ear, and sat up from Ying Yelin’s side. He walked to the window before answering softly, “Mm.”
Xu Shuyuan’s call wasn’t actually urgenthe only asked what color Ying Qiuman liked, something that hardly seemed worth a phone call.
“It’s urgent, hurry up and choose. I still have to go back to a meeting later.”
Even while saying this, Xu Shuyuan’s tone carried a faint, barely noticeable note of joy.
Ying Qiuman didn’t know what he was doing, and simply replied, “I don’t really have a favorite color. What are you doing?”
Hearing him ask, Xu Shuyuan’s tone on the other end somehow grew even more lighthearted, mixed with a teasing, flirtatious undertone.
“Tomorrow’s my birthday. I’m picking out a gift for myself.”
Picking out a gift, and asking him what color he liked?
“Then why ask me?” And he still hadn’t said what the item was.
There was no immediate reply from the other side. It sounded like he had walked a few steps, then lowered his voice slightly and said, “Because you’re the one who’ll be using it, so I wanted your opinion.”
Why was his birthday gift something Ying Qiuman would use?
A faint sense of unease rose up, making Ying Qiuman’s ears flush red.
“…………” Ying Qiuman’s fingertips holding the phone began to sweat. He neither hung up nor could bring himself to speak.
After the silence dragged on for a long while, Xu Shuyuan finally broke it. “Manman, don’t go quiet on me.”
Ying Qiuman still didn’t respond, hoping this would make Xu Shuyuan give up on the idea. But the other man refused to back down, and even asked him, “Do you want to refuse?”
“Mm.” Ying Qiuman answered immediately.
But Xu Shuyuan was not someone who let things go easily. Hearing his reply, he pressed on at once, “Mm, what?”