Ying Qiuman frowned in confusion and replied, “I have clothes.”
He did own plenty of decent, valuable outfits. Even going to the Xu family for dinner, they would be more than enough to carry the occasion. It was just that he had always been frugal, so the clothes he wore day to day weren’t expensive and comfortable was enough.
But every susceptibility period, he ended up writing off a set of clothes. The wardrobe at home had gradually been replaced by Uncle Liu, so what he wore daily now could be considered branded.
“They don’t match mine.”
When Ying Qiuman saw Xu Shuyuan’s second message, he found it even more baffling. Theirs was an arranged-marriage relationship to begin withdid they really need to play the loving couple in front of family?
“I’ll pick you up from school next week.”
It wasn’t a negotiating tone at all, but a flat notification. Ying Qiuman was already used to it, so he simply replied “Mm.” and ended the conversation.
Eventually, with the nanny’s coaxing, Ying Yelin mixed a new batch of filling and went back to making dumplings. Ying Qiuman hadn’t stayed long at Li Cong’s place. When he came back, his expression was relaxed. Seeing this, Ying Yelin let out a breath of relief and visibly cheered up.
“What did he say?” she asked.
Ying Qiuman sat down beside her to help. “He told me to invite Xu Shuyuan over for a meal when I have time.”
Ying Yelin nodded and went back to working silently, exchanging a few words with the nanny now and then.
Ying Qiuman had asked about Ying Yelin’s condition before, but Li Tian only said she had no psychological problemsshe was simply very timid and rarely went out.
Someone who’d had the courage to run away and give birth to a child… Ying Qiuman didn’t think she could really be that timid.
When he was very young, his parents had divorced and he’d lived with his grandmother. He had no impression of his mother at allnot even the concept of having one to begin with.
So suddenly having a mother here left him feeling at a loss.
Ying Qiuman deliberately kept his distance from the plot and from this family, and Ying Yelin never took the initiative to question him either. Even calling him back for dinner had been Li Cong’s idea, passed along through Li Tian.
Ying Qiuman’s deepest memory of this mother was from when he first arrived in this world: coming out of the operating room, opening his eyes, and seeing her weeping in extreme grief.
After that, he had lived with the Li family for a while. During his last year of high school, he repeated a grade and chose to board at school, and their relationship had stayed distant ever since.
“Do you like beef-filled dumplings?” Ying Yelin asked. Although her emotional swings were small, they were still quite noticeable when she let them show.
Just as Li Tian’s gloomy expression earlier had frightened Ying Yelin into dropping the bowl, this time his relaxed look had made her visibly happy enough that she even asked what Ying Qiuman liked to eat.
“Whatever I like to eat.” Ying Qiuman wasn’t picky, but to keep Ying Yelin in a good mood, he gave an affirmative answer.
The meal passed fairly smoothly, thanks to Ying Qiuman’s playing dumb and steering around the touchy subjects. At the very least, Li Cong didn’t drop any more hints at the table. As they were leaving, Ying Yelin even came out to see Ying Qiuman off, jotting into her memo app the dishes she should prepare next time he came home.
It was just that when she asked what Xu Shuyuan liked to eat, Ying Qiuman paused for a moment and gave an evasive answer: “Probably nothing too oily or sweet.”
With a body in that good a shape, he should probably avoid those things.
That was what Ying Qiuman assumed but what he didn’t know was that a certain someone, while going through his wardrobe, had “accidentally” discovered the snacks he’d stashed under the bed, and was now sitting in his bedroom happily eating them.
On Friday, when Xu Shuyuan returned to the company, his older brother Xu Chengyun came to talk to him about Lanxi.
“Has Xiao Ying come to you?” Xu Chengyun was nearly forty. His way of speaking was almost identical to their alpha father, Xu Kaiji.
Xu Shuyuan sometimes felt as though he wasn’t biologically related, since his father and brother seemed like carbon copies of each other. Apart from resembling his omega father, he didn’t take after the family in any other way.
These people had walked into his office without a sound. Startled twice in a single morning, Xu Shuyuan’s mood turned a little irritable. “Why would he come to me?”
He’d been about to say, “We’re together every day during my susceptibility period, what’s there to come looking for?” But seeing his brother’s serious expression, he held it back.
“Lanxi’s capital chain has run into some trouble, and some investors have filed for arbitration. I thought the Li family would have Xiao Ying come to you,” Xu Chengyun said. Then he noticed some marks on Xu Shuyuan’s hand and narrowed his eyes, leaning in slightly for a closer look.
Xu Shuyuan’s expression turned colder. “No idea. Probably hasn’t come yet.”
He fiddled with the ornaments on his desk while Xu Chengyun stood beside him. His brother only gave an “oh,” then reminded him, “Dad’s point is, it’s not that we can’t help we’re just afraid it’ll turn into a mess. You should weigh it for yourself.”
“Mm.” Xu Shuyuan was a bit distracted. In the dream he’d had, Ying Qiuman had come to beg him about this very matter, using vulgar and clumsy methods. In that dream, he hadn’t torn up the agreement and thrown the man out instead, oddly enough, he had put up with it.
Xu Shuyuan didn’t understand why he found the dream version of Ying Qiuman so repulsive, yet was so patient with the real one the one who never took the initiative and carried himself like a cold, porcelain figure.
After hearing this news, he even felt a flicker of anticipation, wondering how Ying Qiuman would come to ask him in reality, and what methods he might use.
Xu Chengyun didn’t leave after he’d said his piece. After watching for a long while and hesitating several times, he finally asked, “What happened to your hand?”
That morning, Xu Shuyuan had tried to play pitifully and failed. Afterward, finding it a bother, he’d taken off the bandage. The wound had nearly healed over the past couple of days, and it would be hard to notice unless you looked closely.
“Xiao Ying bit it,” Xu Shuyuan said in a suggestive tone.
The moment Xu Chengyun heard that, he got angry. What he hated most was Xu Shuyuan’s careless, unruly attitude, and hearing this, he immediately kicked him.
“What are you doing?!” Xu Shuyuan didn’t get it. He’d just been showing concern over his own injury he was clearly the victim, so why was he the one getting kicked?
Xu Chengyun straightened his clothes, folded his arms, and looked down at him. “That Xiao Ying kid is gentle and well-behaved. What did you do to him?”
Gentle and obedient, low-maintenance with a good temper, tall but not too eye-catching yet still the kind people would call good-looking at first glance and, most importantly, he had to be a beta.
The whole family had searched by this standard for a year, only to discover in the end that Li Cong had quietly been hiding a stepson.
If the kid hadn’t only just come from Ning City to study at university here, Xu Chengyun would seriously have suspected his younger brother had been planning to marry into the Li family all along.
Xu Shuyuan couldn’t make sense of it. Where on earth had his father dug up such a beta for him, and now the whole family was taking the kid’s side.
He was annoyed, but on reflection, the injury really was self-inflicted, so he answered carelessly, as if it were nothing: “Probably just went too hard during my susceptibility period.”
And so President Xu got kicked again.
Xu Shuyuan wasn’t actually angry about it. He’d let himself be bitten but hadn’t gotten the result he expected, so he felt a little let down. When Xu Chengyun told him to bring the person home for the New Year, another idea took shape in his mind.
Once again he crossed a line first, stepping into Ying Qiuman’s bedroom. To him, it was a place he had never set foot in before, and it felt like discovering a new continent.
Since this was his home, and since Ying Qiuman hadn’t locked the door, just taking a look inside shouldn’t make him angryright?
And even if it did, that would be fine too. In fact, that would be best.
Ying Qiuman had no idea what Xu Shuyuan was scheming in front of his wardrobe. He had gone back to school to keep accompanying Ye Li as he prepared for the graduate exams.
“I had corn and fresh-meat dumplings today. What did you eat?” When he picked Ye Li up from the exam venue, everyone around them looked gloomy only he was bursting with energy, happily sharing what he’d eaten.
“Fresh meat too,” Ying Qiuman replied.
Just then, Li Tian appeared beside them and handed Ye Li a bouquet of flowers.
White roses were paired with pine branches, and the card read, in stylized calligraphy: “Relax and stay calm.”
Ye Li’s smile stiffened slightly. He shot Ying Qiuman a look for help, then finally said to Li Tian, “Thank you.”
In the original novel, the two had met because Ying Qiuman was being forced into an arranged marriage. He’d had low blood sugar from not being able to eat at school, and the kind-hearted Ye Li happened to pass by and took him to the infirmary. When Li Tian was called over, he fell in love at first sight.
In the present, however, their meeting was coincidental in a different way. In their second year, they had taken part together in a debate competition, where Ye Li single-handedly demolished the four speakers on the opposing team.
Although it was only a friendly match, the debate was so impressive that it got uploaded to the school’s official short-video account and went viral for a while.
At the time, because the Li and Xu families were arranging a marriage alliance, Li Tian had been keeping an eye on Ying Qiuman. In the video, he fell in love at first sight with Ye Li. Later, after learning that the two were roommates, he kept inventing excuses to come to the school to look for Ying Qiuman, and after several tries finally managed to get to know Ye Li.
This time too, Li Tian had insisted on tagging along. He had ordered the flowers in advance as well. But as he handed them over, seeing that Ye Li was a little awkward, he tried to cover for himself: “Xiao Man picked them out. Wishing you smooth sailing on your exams!”
Ying Qiuman glanced at him but didn’t call him out.
“I’ll head off first, then.” Li Tian waved and left. Ying Qiuman let out a faint laugh, only to be elbowed by Ye Li. “It wasn’t you, was it?”
Ying Qiuman gave a soft “mm,” inwardly still marveling at how strong Ye Li’s arm was.
After they ate, the two headed back to the dorm. On the way, Ye Li invited Ying Qiuman to go out together on Christmas. Ying Qiuman didn’t think much of it and agreed. Who would have guessed that Xu Shuyuan would show up on Christmas Eve to pick him up and take him clothes shopping.
When Xu Shuyuan called, they were at a street corner buying snacks, getting ready to head to the riverfront to watch the fireworks.
“You did say so in advance, but I’m not obligated to clear my whole week just to wait for you.” Xu Shuyuan’s no-refusals-allowed tone had gotten under Ying Qiuman’s skin, and his words carried real feeling.
Who would have thought he’d specifically pick Christmas Eve? The streets would be at their most crowded today completely unsuitable for someone like him to go shopping for clothes.
“Where are you now?” Xu Shuyuan’s tone softened slightly. “I’ll come pick you up.”
Ying Qiuman didn’t know what Xu Shuyuan was plotting this time, so after giving his location, he asked, “Can’t we change it to another day?”
Christmas wasn’t even a holiday, and today was a workday. He genuinely didn’t understand why he had to cram his schedule like this.
“Today’s the only time I have.” Xu Shuyuan spoke calmly, neither rushed nor angry, yet step by step backing Ying Qiuman into a corner. “Bring your friend along too. I’ll send him home afterward.”
At this moment Ying Qiuman hadn’t had any alcohol, and Xu Shuyuan wasn’t nearby, so naturally he couldn’t do anything like biting or scratching.
He wanted to hang up, but felt he had no standing to be angry, so all he could do was awkwardly explain to Ye Li.
“Um… he’s coming to pick us up. I don’t know why he’s so set on today.”
His explanation wasn’t very clear, but Ye Li understood who he meant.
Ye Li didn’t know much about Xu Shuyuan only that Ying Qiuman often took leave because of him. The novel hadn’t described him much either, so Ye Li had actually grown a little curious.
“It’s fine, you go ahead. I’ll go find those guys from the band I used to play in.”
“No…” Ying Qiuman grabbed Ye Li just as he was about to leave. “He said to bring you along too.”
“Huh?” Ye Li was taken aback. Why was he being dragged into this on such a lovely Christmas night?
There was a traffic jam near the riverfront, so Xu Shuyuan parked the car far away and walked in to find Ying Qiuman.
Ying Qiuman was sulking and not paying much attention as he waited, deliberately keeping on wandering around inside with Ye Li to drag out the time.
When they finally met, Xu Shuyuan brought him a bouquet of flowers and called him out outright: “I can tell you don’t really want to see me. I’ll apologize.”