PTBLSI chapter 32

 

Qi Xi finally felt relieved after arranging his beloved Qi Tian Dasheng’s funeral. However, his joy caused him to cough again.

Fu Yanchuan went over to hold him and pat his back. However, the more he coughed, the worse it got, as if he were about to cough up his lungs. After coughing until he was exhausted, Fu Yanchuan helped him back to bed, but he immediately got up again to vomit.

After this round of torment, Qi Xi’s face, which already had little color, turned even paler. He fell back onto the pillow, half his body sinking down. He looked pitiful, as if he were about to cry again.

Fu Yanchuan helped him sit up to drink water and rinse his mouth. Then, he put Qi Xi back on the bed, tucked the blanket around him, and stood beside the bed staring at him.

He had never taken care of anyone like this before. Even when Lin Xianjing was sick, she always had considerate caregivers by her side.

Not long after, Qi Xi started coughing again. Unable to help much, Fu Yanchuan could only stay by his side. They continued like this until midnight when Qi Xi finally fell asleep.

Fu Yanchuan stood by the bed, staring at Qi Xi for a long time. The caregiver knocked and came in, asking if he wanted to switch shifts and rest.

He took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. Suddenly, the person on the hospital bed coughed and sat up. He told the caregiver, “You can go.”

The caregiver watched as Fu Yanchuan put his glasses back on, sat down, and held Qi Xi with an almost excessive gentleness.

Most of his patients were either wealthy or noble. Among those wealthy bosses, there were some who genuinely cared about their patients. However, he had never seen anyone like Fu Yanchuan, who did everything personally. Especially since, when Fu Yanchuan looked at others, it felt like a single glance could kill someone—yet, at this moment, he seemed like a completely different person.

Shocked and too afraid to ask questions, he quietly left the ward and closed the door.

Qi Xi fell asleep again. This time, he didn’t wake up quickly. Fu Yanchuan sat on the sofa beside the bed, quietly watching him.

The room was so quiet that not a single sound could be heard. No one knew how much time had passed when Qi Xi suddenly started mumbling. Fu Yanchuan couldn’t hear him clearly, so he went to the bedside and discovered that Qi Xi was talking in his sleep. Only when he leaned close to his lips could he make out a sentence or two.

“Help—”

“Don’t kill me!”

No one knew what he was dreaming about. After muttering like that, he suddenly started crying softly. Tears seeped from the corners of his eyes and pooled at the edge, as if he were extremely sad.

“Qi Xi?”

Fu Yanchuan softly called out. He wanted to wipe away the tears, but the person sleeping seemed to grab onto a lifeline and wouldn’t let go of his hand. He murmured, “Mom.”

“It’s okay. Sleep.”

Qi Xi seemed to hear him, and his words turned into, “Brother Yan, don’t leave me. Be good to me for the rest of my life, okay?”

Only a dim nightlight was left on in the room, making Qi Xi’s face look hazy and indistinct.

Fu Yanchuan stiffened in his bent posture. In his entire life, there had never been anyone like Qi Xi by his side—someone he didn’t need to guard against, guess, or doubt—who simply and purely gave him absolute trust and reliance.

He pulled his hand out of Qi Xi’s grasp. Aggrieved, Qi Xi immediately groped around to find it and started sleep-talking again.

“Brother Yan, you don’t want me anymore!”

“I’m not leaving.”

Fu Yanchuan took off his coat, squeezed onto the not-so-small hospital bed, and pulled Qi Xi into his arms. Qi Xi immediately sought out his body heat, pressing close and tightly hugging his arm as if it had long been destined for him.

“Why are you so stupid? I’m right here. Don’t you know to hug me?”

Qi Xi didn’t know. In fact, he took a bite out of Fu Yanchuan’s hand as if to confirm whether it was real.

Fu Yanchuan didn’t know either. After biting him, Qi Xi seemed satisfied. He kissed the back of Fu Yanchuan’s hand and continued sleeping, smiling.

Early the next morning, the doctor came for rounds. After knocking and receiving no response, he pushed the door open. The moment the door opened, the doctor saw Fu Yanchuan sleeping in the same hospital bed as Qi Xi.

The hospital bed was slightly bigger than those in public hospitals, but not by much. With two grown men on it, they could only cling tightly to each other.

He didn’t dare to imagine what might be under the blanket. Hurriedly, he acted as if he hadn’t seen anything, withdrew from the ward, and waited outside.

Two minutes later, Fu Yanchuan opened the door. He was neatly dressed and wearing his glasses. He was still the calm, restrained, imposing President Fu, with no sign of anything unusual.

Even so, the doctor didn’t dare look him in the eye. He lowered his head and went in to examine Qi Xi. When he needed to lift the blanket, he was extremely careful, afraid of seeing any marks he shouldn’t have seen.

After finishing the examination, he reported to Fu Yanchuan, “He’s improved a lot since yesterday. Just rest well. Be sure not to catch a cold.”

That last sentence was his strongest reminder yet. Fu Yanchuan showed no expression. He glanced at the doctor to show he’d heard him, and the doctor lowered his head and left without saying more.

After the doctor left, Qi Xi woke up with his eyes open, looking around the ward.

Fu Yanchuan had finally managed to get Qi Xi to eat a little last night, but he threw it all up before falling asleep. Fu Yanchuan walked over and asked, “Do you want to eat something?”

Qi Xi shook his head and weakly called out, “Brother Yan.”

Fu Yanchuan stood by the bed. Qi Xi immediately sat up and buried himself in his arms. He held him tightly without moving or speaking.

Fu Yanchuan pulled the blanket up to cover him and said, “Even your cat isn’t as clingy as you.”

Qi Xi answered with a righteous “meow.” Fu Yanchuan lowered his head helplessly. The person who was clingier than a cat smiled weakly at him.

He let himself be held like that without moving until Uncle Quan arrived.

When Uncle Quan came in and saw the scene, he smiled. “Sir, I cooked millet porridge this morning. Mr. Qi’s has a cold stomatch; he should drink some.”

Still clinging to Fu Yanchuan, Qi Xi shifted one eye to look at Uncle Quan and refused, “I don’t want to eat.”

Uncle Quan coaxed him: “Sir hasn’t eaten since last night either. You two should eat a little together.”

Qi Xi immediately lifted his head and scolded Fu Yanchuan, “Brother Yan, if you don’t eat, you’ll get sick like me. Go eat now!”

“How dare you talk to me like that?”

Fu Yanchuan pinched his face. “If you don’t let go, how am I supposed to eat?”

Qi Xi finally let go. First, Fu Yanchuan took his coat and put it on for him. Then, he went to get the porridge Uncle Quan had made, sat by the bed, and fed it to him.

Qi Xi naturally enjoyed being taken care of by Fu Yanchuan. He opened his mouth and took a bite. When Fu Yanchuan fed him again, Qi Xi said, “Aren’t we eating together?”

Fu Yanchuan had never acted improperly before. Qi Xi stared straight at him as if to say that if he didn’t eat, neither would he. In the end, Fu Yanchuan fed himself a spoonful.

Qi Xi praised him: “That’s more like it. Good boy.”

Uncle Quan was so shocked that his eyes widened. The corners of his mouth lifted into a smile, and he quietly left the ward.

He had watched Fu Yanchuan grow up. Strictly speaking, Fu Yanchuan was the heir to the enormous Fu family from the moment he was born. In reality, however, he never had a childhood like an ordinary child. Often, Fu Zhenrong’s way of educating him didn’t seem like he was treating his own son. Rather, it seemed like he was treating Fu Yanchuan as a machine called an heir.

What truly made him feel that Fu Yanchuan was pitiful was that, under Fu Zhenrong’s tutelage, he also seemed to accept that he was nothing more than a machine meant to be an heir. He discarded many of the emotions and feelings a normal person should have.

He had never seen Fu Yanchuan look more like a real person than he did now. He had also never seen anyone dare to drag Fu Yanchuan down from his lofty seat of power like Qi Xi did.

Half an hour later, Fu Yanchuan finally came out of the ward and told Uncle Quan, “I’m going out for a bit. Watch him.”

“Yes.”

Uncle Quan watched Fu Yanchuan leave and had a general idea of where he was going. Fu Yanchuan had kept vigil at the hospital since yesterday, and everyone who needed to know already knew what had happened.

When Qin Hui died, Fu Yanchuan almost sent Fu Yuejiang away. The Fu family elders and Fu Zhenrong had stopped him. Over the past few years, Fu Yuejiang had not held back, deliberately going against Fu Yanchuan at every turn. Fu Yanchuan had already endured it for many years.

First, he went back to shower and change clothes, then he went to Fu Yuejiang’s house.

Fu Yuejiang’s father, Fu Cong, was his ninth uncle. In the Fu family, where the age gap between siblings could be as much as thirty years, Fu Cong was only four years younger than Fu Zhenrong. He had followed Fu Zhenrong since childhood and had also stood on his side during the struggle for power.

Compared to the other uncles and aunts, therefore, Fu Yanchuan was closer to Fu Cong. Fu Yuejiang could be said to have grown up with him. This is precisely why Fu Yuejiang had the chance to get close to Qin Hui.

It was almost noon. Fu Yanchuan got out of the car and walked straight into Fu Yuejiang’s house. His assistant followed behind, not daring to lift his head.

He was Fu Yanchuan’s personal assistant, helping him with miscellaneous tasks outside of work. He wouldn’t say he understood Fu Yanchuan well, but he rarely showed his temper openly. Today, however, the tone of his call was clearly angry.

When he entered, the first person he saw was Fu Cong’s lover.

Father and son, Fu Cong and Fu Yuejiang were exactly alike. Fu Yuejiang played around outside, while Fu Cong brought one lover after another home. He had three children, yet none of them ever truly settled him down.

“Fu—President Fu!”

When the lover saw Fu Yanchuan, he was so frightened that he stiffened like a cat with its tail standing on end. Fu Yanchuan didn’t even look at him as he walked inside.

Fu Cong looked like he had just woken up. He was lying on the sofa, lifting his eyes to glance at the lover. “Yanchuan, did that kid Yuejiang provoke you again?”

Fu Yanchuan sat down opposite Fu Cong. The assistant hurried forward and placed a plane ticket on the coffee table between them.

Fu Cong glanced at the ticket, then looked at Fu Yanchuan and asked, “What does this mean?”

“Fu Yuejiang is idle all day. There happens to be a project that needs someone to inspect it. Tonight’s flight.”

The destination on the ticket was a small, poor country that was in a state of war year-round. Not to mention, the standard of living there was low, and even safety couldn’t be guaranteed.

Fu Cong laughed. “Sending him to a place like that is no different from sending him to die! After all these years, have you still not let go of the matter of Qin Hui?”

Fu Yanchuan didn’t speak, his eyes drifting toward Fu Cong. Not just the other two—even Fu Cong felt a chill down his back under that gaze.

Fu Cong sat up straight and said with emotion, “After all, Yuejiang is still my son and your brother. Sending him to that kind of place is like killing him outright. If he dies, I won’t even be able to collect his body.”

“Ninth Uncle, if you really cared about him, you should have stopped him when Qin Hui was alive. I already gave him five years. He’s the one who doesn’t want to live.”

Fu Cong silently examined Fu Yanchuan, then asked inconfused, “Is this because of what happened yesterday? For the sake of your little lover?”

“Don’t lump me together with people like you!”

Fu Yanchuan suddenly stood up and looked down at Fu Cong. “No matter who speaks about this, it’s useless—unless you call Fu Yuejiang to be buried with Qin Hui.”

Fu Cong was speechless for a moment. He was curious about the kind of person who could make Fu Yanchuan protect him so much that he didn’t care about family ties.

Suddenly, the sound of a car could be heard outside. A moment later, Fu Yuejiang came in, so drunk that he could barely walk straight. Seeing Fu Yanchuan, he walked up to him without a care.

“President Fu, did you come to settle accounts with me?”

Fu Yanchuan didn’t want to waste words on Fu Yuejiang. He stepped past him to leave, but Fu Yuejiang grabbed him in one motion.

“Fu Yanchuan, won’t you avenge Qin Hui? If you’ve got the guts, kill me. Otherwise, next time I see your precious stand-in, I’ll mess with him anyway!”

As he spoke, Fu Yuejiang grew more and more unrestrained. “Why don’t you let him be like Qin Hui back then and follow me? He looks easier to bully than Qin Hui did. I wonder, after I—”

Fu Yanchuan threw a punch at Fu Yuejiang, who stumbled several steps before crashing to the ground.

The next moment, Yuejiang scrambled to his feet and charged at Yanchuan like a madman.

“Yuejiang!”

Fu Cong rushed forward, but he couldn’t grab him. Fu Yuejiang was too drunk. His punch was caught by Fu Yanchuan, who used the momentum to slam him back onto the ground.

Fu Yanchuan crouched down and pressed his knee against Fu Yuejiang’s chest while clamping one hand around his throat.

Everyone else in the room was frightened by him. The look in his eyes made it clear that he truly wanted to kill Fu Yuejiang.

“Fu Yuejiang.”

Fu Yanchuan spoke coldly. “Your death won’t bring Qin Hui back. You owe him a life for the rest of your life.”

Fu Yuejiang seemed afraid that he wasn’t dying fast enough. He bared his teeth in a vicious grin and roared, “It was obviously you! Even in his dreams, Qin Hui called your name. He was so humble and afraid that you’d find out about his feelings for you, he was willing to do anything! Do you know? While you were busy planning to leave with Qiao Ye, he was right outside your room, on his knees like a dog, being fucked by me!”

Fu Yanchuan suddenly laughed and looked at Fu Yuejiang as if he were a worm struggling on the verge of death.

After Qin Hui died, everyone in the Fu family could see that Fu Yuejiang regretted it—everyone except Fu Yuejiang himself, who was deceiving himself.

Fu Yanchuan suddenly let go of him and stood up. Looking down at Fu Yuejiang lying on the floor, Fu Yanchuan words pierced straight into his heart as he said, “Qin Hui never had even the slightest bit of feeling for you. He hated you until the moment he died. If you really want redemption, then don’t ever come back to pollute the land where he is in this lifetime.”

Fu Yuejiang suddenly went still, lying there like a corpse.

Fu Yanchuan stepped over him and walked out. Only when he reached the door did he finally hear Fu Yuejiang’s sobs filled with despair.

Fu Cong dragged Fu Yuejiang up from the ground, but the moment he let go, he collapsed again, as if an empty shell had been left behind.

After a long while, Fu Yuejiang finally looked at Fu Cong and cried in despair, “Dad, I saw Qin Hui. He said he doesn’t want to see me and told me not to look for him!”

Fu Cong had messed around for half his life. Looking at Fu Yuejiang like this, he finally felt a trace of regret.

Just as Fu Yanchuan said, if he had been a proper father back then and hadn’t brushed off what Fu Yuejiang did, would he and Qin Hui really have ended up like this?

On the way back to the hospital, Fu Yanchuan received several calls from family members of the Fu family. He knew without thinking that they were calling to plead for Fu Yuejiang. He hung up on all of them.

By the time he returned to the hospital, Uncle Quan had already left. He went into the ward and saw Qi Xi sitting on the bed, drawing in a sketchbook. He looked much more energetic.

He was so focused that he didn’t notice anyone come in until Fu Yanchuan sat across from him and asked, “What are you drawing?”

“Brother Yan, you’re back!”

The moment he saw Fu Yanchuan, Qi Xi’s eyes curved into a smile. He turned the drawing toward him and said, “I’m drawing a comic. It’s about a little potato that got lost. It meets a T-Rex. The T-Rex looks fierce, but when he sees that the little potato can’t find his way home, he befriends him. Then, they go on adventures together in the forest.”

As Fu Yanchuan listened to this fairy-tale-like story, he flipped through Qi Xi’s sketchbook. Even though the illustrations were just simple line drawings, they still felt lively and cute, especially the round little potato, which looked a bit like the way Qi Xi curled up.

He was flipping through the pages, he didn’t notice that the comic had ended. When he turned one more page, he saw Qi Xi’s sketches of the human figure. There were over a dozen pages of them, showing all kinds of poses and angles. Though no faces were drawn, it was clearly him—every neck had the same mole as his.

“Qi Xi.”

Fu Yanchuan looked straight at him and asked, “Who did you draw?”

Qi Xi hurriedly snatched the sketchbook back, admitting it only after closing it. “You.”

Fu Yanchuan suddenly leaned closer to Qi Xi. “Didn’t we say before that this wasn’t settled yet?”

“What?”

“I’m your model. How are you going to thank me?”

Qi Xi refused to admit it. “That doesn’t count! I drew it from memory.”

Fu Yanchuan moved the sketchbook away from Qi Xi. Leaning close enough that his breath brushed against Qi Xi’s lips, he asked,

“Do you still want it?”

At such close proximity, Qi Xi instinctively tucked his chin back, wanting to distance himself from Fu Yanchuan slightly, but he couldn’t bear to pull away completely. He lowered his head awkwardly and asked, “How do you want me to thank you? Should I give you flowers again?”

Fu Yanchuan leaned down and bit his lip, his teeth lightly grazing twice before letting go. Gently brushing the spot he had just bitten, he said, “I need to think about this carefully. Let me owe you for now. Wait until I figure it out, okay?”

“Oh, then when I’m better and go back, I’ll draw more. Is that okay?”

Fu Yanchuan curved his lips slightly but didn’t answer. He held Qi Xi by the neck, sliding his thumb upward over the Adam’s apple to lift Qi Xi’s chin. It was as if Qi Xi were taking the initiative to raise his face. Suddenly, Fu Yanchuan kissed him.

Qi Xi parted his lips slightly and breathed out softly. Fu Yanchuan took the opportunity to deepen the kiss, capturing Qi Xi’s tongue. Overwhelmed by the assault on his senses, Qi Xi wrapped his arms around Fu Yanchuan and responded to the kiss.

Fu Yanchuan paused for a moment in surprise, then pushed deeper, pressing Qi Xi down onto the soft pillow behind him.

Qi Xi had clearly improved. He was starting to get used to kissing him, and yesterday’s actions even seemed acceptable now. He didn’t hyperventilate from nervousness.

One of Fu Yanchuan’s hands lightly rested on Qi Xi’s waist. Qi Xi was wearing a loose hospital gown and offered no resistance as Fu Yanchuan’s hand slipped inside it. He only froze slightly before letting out a mischievous laugh and mumbling, “It tickles.”

Suddenly, he blocked Qi Xi’s voice, moving his hand tentatively lower. He wasn’t sure whether he was overly tense because of what happened in the water yesterday or because Qi Xi’s sense of insecurity had been distracted.

While kissing Qi Xi gently, he carefully moved his hand. The moment he barely touched him, Qi Xi’s face flushed red and his arms stiffened as he clutched him tightly.

He quickly withdrew his hand and pulled back slightly from Qi Xi’s lips. Qi Xi looked at him with raised eyebrows as if he didn’t understand his intentions.

“Don’t be afraid. I won’t do anything.”

After a moment, Qi Xi suddenly grabbed his hand and pulled it back. Looking at him with pure, clear eyes, he said, “I’m not fully recovered yet. Be careful.”

 

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