Liang Chen’s shoulders slumped. An outsider it was, then; otherwise, he wouldn’t even be able to hustle a breakfast out of this place later.
It was golden pumpkin porridge made by Jiang Mohai. After dishing it out, he sprinkled a little bit of sesame on top of the bowl, and it looked delicious just by the sight of it.
He carried Rong Ning’s portion into the bedroom, urged Liang Chen to eat at the dining table outside, and then propped up Rong Ning’s small, frail frame, feeding him spoonful by spoonful.
Though unwilling to open his eyes, Rong Ning cooperated very well by opening his mouth.
Half an hour later, Rong Ning woke up. Still half-asleep, he licked the corner of his mouth, his voice tired and soft. “So sweet…”
“You drank porridge just now. It’s sweet.” Jiang Mohai helped him sit up.
“Did you feed it to me?”
Jiang Mohai was at a loss for words, burying his head very deep.
Rong Ning buried his head even lower, his eyes blinking and flashing as he stared straight at him, pressing for an answer. “Was it you?”
“It was him.” Liang Chen, who had just walked in carrying medicine and a glass of water, bluntly exposed the truth.
Liang Chen held a grudge; just now he had been called an outsider, so now he saw no reason to save face for a certain someone.
Rong Ning giggled stupidly, hugging Jiang Mohai’s arm and acting spoiled. “Uncle is so good to me.” The pale little face looked even more haggard when he smiled.
“Yeah, who else are you if not the Rong family’s precious darling?” Liang Chen teased, a bit light-heartedly.
Hearing those words, Rong Ning’s gaze instantly dimmed, and the hand clutching Jiang Mohai’s arm loosened slightly.
What he feared most was hearing people say that Jiang Mohai cared about him because of the Rong family’s halo. Yet in the eyes of others, the facts seemed to be just that.
All Rong Ning wanted was equality and purity.
The atmosphere felt a little off. Liang Chen’s gaze shifted between the two of them before he suddenly let out an awkward laugh. “Just kidding, hahaha, don’t mind it.”
Jiang Mohai took the water glass and the medicine, shot Liang Chen a look, and hurriedly patched things up. “Ah-Ning is my family.”
“Come on.” Jiang Mohai placed the medicine right by his lips. “After eating something sweet, it’s time for something bitter.”
Rong Ning obediently took his medicine, raised his eyes, and cursed under his breath, “Doctor Liang, you really are a dog with your words!” Then he dropped his head right back down to continue sleeping.
Liang Chen wasn’t annoyed either. He leaned over and pinched Rong Ning’s nose. “This little mouth of yours never suffers a single loss.”
Past noon, Rong Ning’s body temperature never bounced back. Liang Chen left a few doses of cold medicine and headed back.
Jiang Mohai sat by the bedside, his head bowed as he handled work on his phone. Seeing his back, Rong Ning recalled the scenes from last night. But he didn’t remember them clearly; it felt like a dream, with only a few blurry fragments left.
“Uncle…” He lay flat on the bed, tilting his head to look at Jiang Mohai, calling out in a muffled voice.
“Hmm?” Jiang Mohai turned his head, his stern, upright face relaxing.
“Did I talk in my sleep yesterday?”
Jiang Mohai paused for a fraction of a second, the corners of his mouth curving up slightly. “No, you slept very well.”
“How come I remember saying…” The teenager’s expression shifted fluidly, his brows and eyes clear, sparkling with shattered starlight. “And… you promised I could call you Older Brother.”
“Did I? Did you remember it wrong?” Jiang Mohai’s eyebrow twitched upward, feigning ignorance.
“But, I want to call you Older Brother…” Rong Ning blinked, his little gaze pitiful.
Jiang Mohai avoided Rong Ning’s gaze. Pausing for a moment, he helplessly ruffled his soft hair. “You little tormentor, call me whatever you want if you want to call me that.”
Calling him uncle when he was little was fine, but now that Rong Ning was nineteen, continuing to call him that really was quite strange.
Stars filled the bottom of Rong Ning’s eyes, joy washing over his brow as he suddenly sat straight up.
“Ow…” Rong Ning frowned, a sudden wave of dizziness forcing a muffled groan out of his throat.
His fever had broken, but he was still a bit dazed. Moving too fast when getting up made his forehead suddenly spin and ache uncomfortably.
“What’s wrong?” Jiang Mohai tossed his phone aside, turning to support him, only to be pinned down by a body.
“Older Brother, I’m so dizzy…” He clutched his head, collapsing straight onto Jiang Mohai’s back with his arms hooked over his shoulders. Just like his drunken state from last night, he looked weak and completely helpless.
Jiang Mohai turned around, supporting him into a sitting position. “Lie back down quickly.”
Rong Ning pressed his lips together, leaning against Jiang Mohai without moving. “I need Older Brother to support me…”
“Hmm?” Jiang Mohai narrowed his eyes, staring at him with a half-smile, a warning glinting in his gaze. “Is your body not working anymore?”
“Then let’s go to the hospital and check.” As he spoke, Jiang Mohai stood up, looking as though he really intended to ship him off to the hospital.
“No, no!” Rong Ning quickly scooted backward, smoothly diving straight back under the covers with crisp and decisive movements.
He gripped the edge of the blanket, half of his face vaguely buried inside as his eyes shifted fluidly. “I’m lying down, I’m not going to the hospital.”
Jiang Mohai couldn’t help but laugh, a trace of amusement floating to the corners of his eyes. He raised a hand to help him tuck in the blanket, picked up his phone, and went back to handling his work.
A moment later, Rong Ning puckered his little lips. “Older Brother is staying home to keep me company, is everything alright at the company?”
“It’s not alright. Hurry up and get better so you can come to work with me.”
Rong Ning’s lips puckered even higher.
Tsk, why wasn’t this old man playing by the rules?
Shouldn’t he be comforting him by saying it’s fine, rest up well, or something along those lines?
Jiang Mohai pinched his fair cheek. “You stay here by yourself for a bit this afternoon. I’m heading to the company, and I’ll bring you something good to eat when I get back.”
“Oh…” Rong Ning’s earlobes turned instantly red. He shrank further back into the blankets and gave a muffled agreement.
He was just like this: when he was serious, he was ultra-proper, but when he lacked boundaries, he had zero boundaries at all. He didn’t shy away from intimate actions, yet at the crucial moment, he would drop the ball and pretend to be innocent.
Claiming he wasn’t a scumbag? Where on earth did he get that confidence!
Yet what could he do? Rong Ning just happened to like him like this.
Jiang Mohai went to the company to follow up on the R&D status of the new technology, pushing the progress so they could launch it before the New Year.
If everything went smoothly, Lingyue would take a qualitative leap, whether in profit margin or company status.
Everyone in the company was taking it quite seriously.
After Jiang Mohai left, Rong Ning lay in bed for a bit, felt bored, and wanted to summon a few people to play video games.
When he patted the bedside, he remembered his phone was still in his own apartment.
Just as he pushed open the door to Jiang Mohai’s apartment, he saw Qin Shu stealthily plastered against the door.
“Hey! Are you sick, eavesdropping at someone’s crack!”
Qin Shu started violently, slowly turning his head. Upon seeing his own young master, he instantly let out a sigh of relief. “Young Master, your older brother here has a weak heart, don’t scare me like that, alright?”
“Yo, and here I thought it was someone else!” Rong Ning smiled, crossing his arms over his chest and strolling over with a lazy pace. “What’s up?”
“Forgot? There’s a competition this afternoon.”
Rong Ning’s expression changed abruptly, sucking in a sharp breath. “Crap, I really forgot!”
“What should we do? Are we still going?”
“What time is it?”
Qin Shu checked his wristwatch. “3:00.”
“It’s too late…” Rong Ning grabbed his hair in frustration. “Why didn’t you come find me earlier?”
Qin Shu explained frantically, “I—I called you, but nobody answered, so that’s why I came upstairs to knock on the door.”
“Nobody answered for ages, so I thought you’d already gone over.”
“My own fault.” Rong Ning drooped his head in frustration, murmuring.
Normally, Rong Ning wouldn’t care much about this kind of event, but the finals happened to be scheduled for his 20th birthday, giving it a completely different significance.
He was still quite looking forward to it.
Winning a championship could count as a birthday gift to himself, how great would that be.
What a pity…
Just as he was still immersed in his own little world, Qin Shu suddenly asked, “Why are you wearing a dress?”
Then, looking curiously at Jiang Mohai’s place, his eyebrows twitched upward. “And coming out of President Jiang’s place, too?”
Rong Ning lowered his head, noticing that the white T-shirt he had on happened to cover his boxer shorts, leaving his pale white legs exposed in broad daylight.
Only he and Jiang Mohai lived on this floor; he hadn’t expected to run into anyone else.
Rong Ning hurriedly pulled down the hem of his shirt, dodging and backing away. “Are you blind? It’s a T-shirt, okay!”
After sweating out a fever, when he woke up in the morning, Jiang Mohai had handed him this shirt to change into. To have Qin Shu mistake it for a dress, his eyesight really wasn’t that great.
Qin Shu’s expression was inquisitive, his lips curling into an ambiguous smile. “President Jiang’s? Did you… conquer him?”
“What are you talking about!” Rong Ning’s eyelashes fluttered, a thin layer of pink flush blooming across his cheeks. “I felt sick yesterday, so I just crashed here for the night.”
“No way, Young Master, you actually know how to blush? I’ve never seen you turn red when you’re talking big on ordinary days!”
“Get lost!” Rong Ning tugged at his clothes while swiftly unlocking the door. “Stop staring at me.”
Qin Shu held back his laughter, raising a hand to lightly cover his eyes. “I’m not looking. Go inside and change your clothes, you’ll need to explain things to the organizers later.”
Three minutes later, Rong Ning returned to the living room and contacted the motorcycle challenge organizers.
He had assumed that missing the event today and failing to draw lots meant he definitely couldn’t participate in the subsequent races, but the organizers said someone had drawn lots on behalf of Nan Xing.
Rong Ning looked blank; he hadn’t sent anyone over. “Do you know who it was?”
“That person wore the same mask as you. At first I thought it was the real deal, but then he said he was your assistant,” the other party said.
Qin Shu and Rong Ning exchanged glances.
The only assistant who combined work and life into one was Qin Shu. Where on earth had another assistant popped out from?
“Alright, got it.” Actually, Rong Ning still had no idea who it was.
“Then Nan Xing God, don’t forget the subsequent races, oh.”
Rong Ning forced a dry laugh. “Hahaha… I won’t forget again.”
The two of them wrung their brains dry and still couldn’t guess who was secretly helping Rong Ning behind the scenes.
There were only two people in total who knew he rode motorcycles: one was Qin Shu, and the other was his female best friend.
It definitely wasn’t Qin Shu, and it was even less likely to be his female best friend, who was trapped mining in some barren wasteland out in the middle of nowhere.
“Stop guessing, whatever, as long as we can race.” Qin Shu stood up. “President Rong, what time are you planning to head to the company today?”
“Not going.” Rong Ning crossed his hands behind his head, closing his eyes as he leaned lazily against the sofa. “Aiya, my head is spinning, I’m waiting for Jiang Mohai.”
Uh…
Qin Shu sniffed the air; there seemed to be a hint of green tea in the atmosphere.