I do not know when it started, but the sound of falling rain gradually began to tap against the windowpane outside.
The room had not remained quiet for long before Zhou Mengxing spoke up. “Is there anything else you want to ask?”
Xu Qiduo took a moment to process the question. “What? Ask what?”
Seeing Zhou Mengxing stand up from the sofa and stride toward him, Xu Qiduo quickly raised a hand to block his approach. “Hey, hold on, don’t come any closer!”
Tilting his head in apparent confusion, Zhou Mengxing halted his steps and stopped closing the distance, simply asking, “Why?”
“You’re taller than me, and there’s this heavy sense of pressure when you get close. Just stand right there and talk, I can hear you fine,” Xu Qiduo explained honestly.
The people he had encountered today were already bizarre enough.
Zhou Mengxing was a character who hadn’t even appeared in the novel’s original plot; Xu Qiduo had no desire to keep putting on an act with an extra who didn’t even have a single line of screen time.
If they could just get along naturally and harmoniously, who wanted to spend every waking moment trapped inside a character persona?
Standing in place, Zhou Mengxing studied him for a moment before conceding with a soft sigh, returning to sit on the sofa. “I meant, do you have any other questions about me?”
Hearing this, Xu Qiduo’s interest was instantly piqued. “Oh? Tell me, tell me!”
He walked over to Zhou Mengxing and simply sat down right beside him, asking, “Does asking all these questions mean you’re going to recruit me into your inner circle once I’ve figured you out?”
People blessed with such natural advantages always carried an aura that compelled submission. In Zhou Mengxing’s case, he didn’t even need to do anything; he merely had to flash that face of his to attract swarms of people willing to flatter and pander to him.
Naturally, Xu Qiduo figured he was probably right in the middle of that crowd.
Turning his head slightly, Zhou Mengxing cast a sidelong glance at him and let out a sudden, light chuckle. “That’s right.”
“Oh! Then, then, I want to ask…” Xu Qiduo actually had a whole list of gossipy questions he wanted to throw at Zhou Mengxing.
Yet now that the other party was actually inviting him to ask, his mind went completely blank.
He preferred the spontaneous approach of asking whatever popped into his head in the moment.
“I suddenly can’t remember. Can I save my questions for next time?” It wasn’t that he lacked questions; his brain was genuinely drawing a blank right now.
Fortunately, Zhou Mengxing looked like he genuinely wanted to hang out with him, actually nodding in agreement.
On second thought, it made sense. Zhou Mengxing had come all the way from Nancheng to N City completely alone, with neither family nor backing to rely on, only to face coordinated hostility from the wives in this grand estate.
He definitely needed someone to have his back.
With that thought, Xu Qiduo suddenly reached out to pat Zhou Mengxing’s shoulder, assuming an air of seasoned maturity as he declared, “Don’t worry, once you’re under my wing, I’ll definitely look out for you. Wait, no…”
Why did that phrasing sound so strange?
“No, what I mean is, since we’re hanging out together now, I’ll definitely watch your back. My combat power is seriously impressive, you saw how stepmother didn’t dare mess with me, right? I left her completely speechless.”
“Mm, I noticed,” Zhou Mengxing replied with a faint, gentle smile.
Acting like a sudden, docile little white rabbit, the vibe he gave off completely overwhelmed Xu Qiduo’s senses.
He couldn’t help stealing a couple more glances at Zhou Mengxing.
The youth tilted his head slightly, letting him inspect him as much as he liked, the cold indifference in his eyes entirely gone.
After getting his fill of looking, Xu Qiduo blinked, pulled back his gaze, and didn’t dare stare at Zhou Mengxing any longer. The destructive power of the guy’s good looks was genuinely too formidable.
Friendships between guys formed in the blink of an eye. Xu Qiduo stopped overthinking it; as far as he was concerned, hanging out with Zhou Mengxing meant he was the one reaping all the benefits and advantages anyway.
Putting everything else aside, just based on that face alone, he, Xu Qiduo, was already cashing in on a massive win.
The rain outside grew heavier, pattering noisily against the glass.
Xu Qiduo craned his neck to glance out the window.
“It’s raining,” Zhou Mengxing observed.
“Yeah, looks like it. And it’s coming down pretty hard. Are you heading back?”
“Do you have an umbrella?”
“An umbrella?” Xu Qiduo couldn’t recall ever seeing an umbrella in this room.
He hadn’t encountered a single rainy day since transmigrating here; this was the first time.
Standing up, he searched around the room, confirming there was none. He stepped out to call out for one of the estate housekeepers, only to remember midway through shouting that it was still dinner time. Everyone was currently eating over in the main hall.
“The housekeeper isn’t back yet, and I have no idea where the umbrellas are kept. Or you could just wait here until the rain stops. Tomorrow is Saturday anyway, so you don’t have any plans, right?”
To Xu Qiduo’s absolute surprise, Zhou Mengxing managed to completely redefine his impression of him yet again.
Zhou Mengxing asked quite plainly, “Can I sleep in your room tonight?”
“Huh? Sleep here?” Xu Qiduo stared in shock.
This friendship was progressing at a terrifyingly fast pace!
“Is it inconvenient?”
Framing the question in a way that placed himself in the vulnerable position.
When someone used that kind of tone, refusal became nearly impossible.
And naturally, an ordinary guy like Xu Qiduo had no way to refuse either.
To Xu Qiduo, Zhou Mengxing was the kind of existence where all it took was a single proactive word from the other person for him to accept them completely.
Because of this, he couldn’t help starting to wonder if he genuinely possessed a deep-rooted simp gene in his bones.
Clearly, Zhou Mengxing hadn’t even bothered to speak to him in the car on the ride back tonight, yet the moment the guy showed a tiny bit of initiative, he immediately started brainwashing himself into compromising.
While mentally cursing his inner simp tendencies, Xu Qiduo was already on his feet, rummaging through drawers to find a pair of pajamas for Zhou Mengxing.
Since it was still early, the two of them ended up sitting down to play mobile games together for a while.
During those two hours of gaming, Zhou Mengxing completely and utterly conquered Xu Qiduo’s respect.
Over the course of the gaming session, the nicknames Xu Qiduo used for Zhou Mengxing underwent a dramatic evolution: from buddy, to bro, to good bro, and eventually, in moments of peak excitement, to baby, darling, my good baby.
The terms of endearment escalated with every single match.
And right as he was clinging to Zhou Mengxing’s arm, acting cute and begging him to carry him through one more winning round…
The bedroom door was pushed open by Xu Duoduo.
Xu Duoduo stood frozen in the doorway, staring at them in absolute disbelief before casting a nervous glance over her own shoulder. She slammed the door shut behind her, marched straight up to Xu Qiduo with an expression of burning righteousness, and hissed, “Xu Qiduo! Second uncle told you to bring him along to hang out, not for you to play around with him!”
Xu Qiduo: ?
“Both of you, let go right now! What do you think you’re doing?”
“No, what on earth are you talking about?” The young girl’s cryptic declaration nearly fried Xu Qiduo’s brain cells.
Xu Duoduo was clearly panicking. Seeing that Xu Qiduo hadn’t let go yet, she played her ultimate trump card: “If you don’t let go right now, Eldest Brother is back!”
Subconsciously, Xu Qiduo yanked his arm away from Zhou Mengxing’s, though a second later he realized something was wrong.
“We were just playing a game…” Xu Qiduo tried to explain that they had simply been playing a mobile game moments ago.
Yet Xu Duoduo adopted the solemn expression of a miniature adult, having clearly jumped to the wildest conclusion: “I know perfectly well you were playing a game, you’re always playing those kinds of games!”
Xu Duoduo jabbed an accusing finger right at the tip of Xu Qiduo’s nose, leaving him utterly dumbfounded.