PTBLSI chapter 63

 

Qi Xi’s neck was tickled. He first shrank back instinctively, then stretched his neck out again to make it easier for Fu Yanchuan. He wrapped his arm around Fu Yanchuan’s neck and asked, “Are you unhappy again? Do you want me to call you Gege?”

Fu Yanchuan didn’t answer. Instead, his teeth lightly scraped Qi Xi’s neck. Then, he suddenly lifted Qi Xi’s chin and leaned in to kiss him.

“Qi Xi, old—”

Hearing a voice suddenly from behind them, Qi Xi abruptly pressed a hand to Fu Yanchuan’s face. He pushed hard—so hard that Fu Yanchuan’s head hit the car door—and didn’t care at all. He turned around, pretending nothing had happened, and smiled at Huang Shilin, who was looking over.

“Sister Huang, you’re off work too?”

Huang Shilin’s gaze swept over to Fu Yanchuan, who was staring at her. Not daring to get close, she answered from several meters away, “I’m going to catch the subway. I’ll head off first. You guys continue!”

“Bye-bye, Sister Huang.”

“Bye.”

After watching Huang Shilin leave, Qi Xi quickly turned back to Fu Yanchuan and asked, “Did I hit your head?”

For a moment, Fu Yanchuan didn’t know what expression to make. Looking at Qi Xi’s worried face, he unconsciously pulled him into his arms again.

“Don’t hug me!”

Qi Xi hurriedly turned his head, afraid that other coworkers might see. He opened the car door and pushed Fu Yanchuan inside. “We can hug later when we get home.”

Fu Yanchuan fell into the seat. Without thinking, Qi Xi squeezed in, his hand pressing on Fu Yanchuan’s thigh as he leaned in.

He hooked his lips and said, “This is the passenger seat.”

Only then did Qi Xi realize his mistake. He told Fu Yanchuan, “Climb over from the middle.”

Fu Yanchuan stared at him without moving. Qi Xi knew how particular Fu Yanchuan was, so he knew he wasn’t willing to crawl over. He could only retreat backward.

“I’ll get down.”

But Fu Yanchuan wouldn’t let him back out. He locked one hand around Qi Xi’s waist and pressed the other down on the back of his neck. He made up for the interrupted kiss, then released him. With his long legs, he stepped over into the driver’s seat.

Only then did Qi Xi realize that switching seats like this didn’t require him to crawl around like a dog. He glanced outside the car, afraid someone might have seen Fu Yanchuan kiss him just now. After making sure no one was paying attention, he sat down properly, closed the door, and said, “Brother Yan, let’s go.”

After they got back, Fu Yanchuan still didn’t say why he was unhappy, but Qi Xi could tell he was tired. After dinner, Qi Xi stayed with him, talking about how many people had praised him that day and telling jokes. Then he asked if he could give Fu Yanchuan a massage.

But while he was massaging him, Fu Yanchuan pulled him into his arms. Fu Yanchuan would stare at him for a long time and then suddenly hold and kiss him gently.

Just like that, a month passed, and the weather started to get hot.

Qi Xi had already gotten used to his job. His days were full and satisfying. Fu Yanchuan knew Qi Xi would draw for long periods of time in one position, so he asked the assistant to set alarms to remind Qi Xi to get up and move every hour. At first, Qi Xi wasn’t used to it, but it gradually became a habit.

Fu Yanchuan’s month-long struggle with Fu Zhenrong left him exhausted every day. The only thing that relaxed him was being with Qi Xi. Sometimes, he would even fall asleep first while holding Qi Xi.

Today, Qi Xi noticed that Fu Yanchuan had fallen asleep before him again. It was the first time he had seen Fu Yanchuan fall asleep before him. He realized that he had never really seen what Fu Yanchuan looked like while sleeping because Fu Yanchuan always slept and woke up earlier than him.

Qi Xi couldn’t help but lie beside him and quietly watch Fu Yanchuan sleep. No matter how many times he looked, he thought Fu Yanchuan was handsome. Even asleep, everything about him looked good—his eyes, nose, and mouth. Even his Adam’s apple looked good.

As he watched, he couldn’t resist leaning over to kiss him. Just as he lightly bit Fu Yanchuan’s lip, Fu Yanchuan woke up.

“What are you doing?”

Fu Yanchuan opened his eyes and looked at him without moving. Qi Xi smiled and said, “The more I look at you, the better you look. I couldn’t help but want to kiss you.”

“Still want to kiss?”

Fu Yanchuan asked seriously. Qi Xi nodded. Suddenly, Fu Yanchuan flipped over and pinned him down, locking his hands. They looked at each other for a long moment before he finally kissed him.

Qi Xi wrapped his arms around Fu Yanchuan’s head and responded actively. Fu Yanchuan’s kiss moved from his lips to his chin and caught his Adam’s apple. Like before, Qi Xi thought it would stop at his chest. He reached up to grab Fu Yanchuan’s hair, breathing lightly.

But Fu Yanchuan continued moving downward. When his lips touched Qi Xi’s stomach, Qi Xi shivered instantly. He looked down nervously and saw that Fu Yanchuan had moved even lower.

“Brother Yan, you—”

Fu Yanchuan raised a hand, pressing it against Qi Xi’s lips. He lifted his eyes to look at Qi Xi. “Don’t be afraid, Qixi.”

“But you, you—”

Qi Xi couldn’t get the words out. Fu Yanchuan deliberately kissed there and asked, “No feeling at all?”

Qi Xi’s face flushed red as he tried to think of an answer. Fu Yanchuan came back up and gently pressed his lips against Qi Xi’s, coaxing him. “If you’re nervous, close your eyes. I won’t hurt you, okay?”

“Mm.”

Qi Xi nodded and closed his eyes. He felt Fu Yanchuan move downward again. His whole body curled up involuntarily, and his legs hooked around Fu Yanchuan’s neck. He wanted to look, but he was too nervous. Yet, images of what Fu Yanchuan was doing surfaced in his mind and seemed even more stimulating than seeing it.

Finally, he felt Fu Yanchuan move back up to his face, and he opened his eyes.

“Qixi, do you want to taste what you’re like?”

He didn’t understand what Fu Yanchuan meant amidst what had just happened. He only stared blankly at Fu Yanchuan as if sinking into his appearance.

Fu Yanchuan slightly opened his mouth and pushed out something that didn’t belong in his mouth with his tongue. Qi Xi didn’t know what had hit his heart, but his heartbeat immediately became chaotic. Unconsciously, he reached out and put his finger in Fu Yanchuan’s mouth. “Brother Yan, you look so, so—”

He searched for the right adjective for a long time but couldn’t find it. All he knew was that he felt something boiling inside his body. Suddenly, Fu Yanchuan lowered his head and deeply kissed him. Qi Xi tasted something unpleasant, yet it felt as if something inside him had been stimulated. He responded to Fu Yanchuan even more actively.

In the end, Qi Xi was so tired that he fell asleep. However, Fu Yanchuan was not at all sleepy. He wrung out a hot towel to clean Qi Xi, then took a shower himself. When he returned, he sat at the foot of the bed and quietly watched Qi Xi in the faint light from outside the window until dawn.

When Qi Xi woke up, he reached over but didn’t touch Fu Yanchuan. He immediately bounced up from the bed. After a moment of stunned silence, he remembered what had happened the night before. He flopped back down, and buried his face in the blanket.

“Awake?”

When Fu Yanchuan entered the room and saw Qi Xi curled up in the blanket, he went over and pulled him out. Seeing Qi Xi’s reddened face, Fu Yanchuan guessed what he’d remembered. He asked deliberately, “What’s wrong?”

Qi Xi lifted the blanket and covered Fu Yanchuan’s face. Refusing to face it, he said, “How could you eat that? How can that be eaten?!”

Fu Yanchuan pulled the blanket off his face and leaned close to Qi Xi. “I really like it.”

“You’re so perverted! Th-that thing, what is there to like about it?”

“Because it’s yours.”

Fu Yanchuan bit Qi Xi’s lip. Seeing that Qi Xi was staring at him, refusing to close his eyes, as if afraid that Fu Yanchuan might eat him again, he let go and said, “Hurry up and change your clothes. Come out and eat.”

Qi Xi wriggled out of his arms and rushed into the walk-in closet. He had been living in Fu Yanchuan’s room during this time, and his clothes had gotten mixed into Fu Yanchuan’s closet.

After breakfast, they went downstairs. The driver, whom they hadn’t seen in a while, was there again. Seeing him, Qi Xi asked Fu Yanchuan, “Brother Yan, can’t you take me today?”

“I have plans today. I’ll pick you up tonight.”

“Oh.”

Qi Xi leaned over and hugged Fu Yanchuan, rubbing against his chest. The driver was already accustomed to this scene and, with great professional restraint, stood to the side and looked straight ahead.

When he arrived at the studio, Qi Xi finally saw the news that had been circulating for several months: the internal war within the Rongchuan Group, its shares falling to an all-time low, and the company almost on the verge of bankruptcy.

However, the news was exaggerated and lacked real insider information. Qi Xi didn’t understand this stuff to begin with, so the article made even less sense to him. He only knew that Fu Yanchuan had looked tired lately and was probably having a hard time.

However, Fu Yanchuan didn’t tell him anything, and he didn’t know how he could help. He went to ask Xie Hui, only to be scolded instead.

“You’re worrying for nothing. Who knows how many people he’s cut down in the business world? Does he need you to worry? None of the information online is reliable. I don’t really know him, but just one look, and you can tell he’s the kind of person who would never let go of what belongs to him. Either he wants to go bankrupt with his dad, or he has a backup plan. Besides, even if he goes bankrupt, he’ll still have assets. You won’t have to raise him!”

Qi Xi listened to Xie Hui ramble on for a long time, but he didn’t take in a single word. He sighed and replied, “But he looks so tired. My heart aches for him.”

“Your heart aches for nothing! If you’re going to ache, ache for me instead! I’m about to die of exhaustion too, being an intern like a dog every day—damn capitalists! Your brother Yan is also a capitalist. Don’t mention him to me. I equally hate every single capitalist right now.”

“You chose to start as an intern now. If you need money, tell me. I still have a lot saved. Don’t work so hard.”

Xie Hui calmed down and sighed. “It has nothing to do with that. If you want to climb up, this is the only way. Otherwise, why would my parents have worked so hard to send me here? I might as well have stayed in the country.”

Qi Xi only knew that Xie Hui was studying something finance-related, but he didn’t understand exactly what. Since he couldn’t help, he could only say, “I’ll send you a red packet. I have nowhere to spend my salary anyway. Take it and buy something nice to eat.”

“So nice! The kid has grown up and can earn money to spend on me!”

“Xie Hui, who are you calling your kid? I’m angry. If you don’t coax me for ten days, I won’t talk to you again.”

After sending the voice message to Xie Hui, Qi Xi immediately went to complain to Fu Yanchuan.

“Brother Yan, Xie Hui told me to call him ‘Dad.’”

It took Fu Yanchuan a long time to see Qi Xi’s message. After hearing it, he laughed, startling the vice president sitting across from him.

He didn’t reply. After putting down his phone, he felt his irritation calm down. Just as he was about to pick up Qi Xi, he received a call from the sanatorium saying that his mother’s condition had worsened.

“Chairman Fu came suddenly and mentioned you. Madam was stimulated by him. She’s had an injection and has calmed down for now. We’ll have to wait until she wakes up to see how she really is.”

Fu Yanchuan put down his phone and sat motionless in the car for a long time. Finally, he called the driver and told him to pick up Qi Xi. He turned the car around and drove back to the “home” he hadn’t returned to in a long time.

He stormed in and was stopped by Uncle Quan. “Sir, why are you back?”

“Is he back?”

Uncle Quan didn’t know what had happened, but Fu Yanchuan’s anger was so obvious that it felt almost tangible. He advised, “Calm down a bit.”

Fu Yanchuan didn’t reply. He brushed past Uncle Quan and went straight to Fu Zhenrong’s study upstairs.

Sure enough, Fu Zhenrong was inside, smoking a cigar as usual. He seemed unconcerned, as if he hadn’t done anything wrong—or rather, as if he had done it deliberately. He didn’t care at all about Lin Xianjing’s illness.

Fu Yanchuan restrained himself, pushed the door open, and walked in. Fu Zhenrong lifted his eyes slightly to glance at him. “You’re finally willing to come home?”

“Why did you do this?”

Fu Zhenrong asked knowingly. “Do what? Go see your mom? We’re not divorced. What’s wrong with me visiting her?”

Fu Yanchuan clenched his teeth to suppress the urge to punch him and said patiently, “Do you think I’ll stop because of this?”

Fu Zhenrong pressed out his cigar and stood up to walk in front of Fu Yanchuan. “Fu Yanchuan, what do you want? After all this, how much will end up in your hands? I made you the heir. How did I shortchange you? I left you with enormous wealth that you could access without lifting a finger. What are you dissatisfied with?”

“I never said I wanted to be this heir.”

Unable to understand, Fu Zhenrong questioned him, “Is it because of Qi Xi? Just because you can’t marry him, are you willing to destroy the entire Fu family?”

Fu Yanchuan laughed. His voice suddenly became calm as he said, “Dad, you’re pathetic. Since I was twelve, I’ve been thinking about how to destroy everything you’ve built, including myself. When I left with Qiao Ye back then, I just wanted to destroy the life you had arranged for me. I only came back in the end because my mom was still here. But how did you treat her? You let her die a second time!”

Fu Zhenrong had never heard Fu Yanchuan say these things before. He even suspected that he had heard wrong. To keep his son from experiencing what he had, he did everything possible to make Fu Yanchuan an all-powerful ruler. Could that really be wrong?

What did Lin Xianjing becoming like this have to do with him? Compared to men with multiple lovers and illegitimate children, he hadn’t wronged Lin Xianjing at all. In fact, Lin Xianjing had always prevented him from training his son and had constantly brought up divorce, yet he never held it against her.

He looked at Fu Yanchuan in disbelief and said, “I admit I didn’t take good care of her. Are you now counting her going crazy onto my head as well?”

In that instant, Fu Yanchuan didn’t want to say anything more. He turned around and left the study. The sound of things being smashed came immediately from behind him.

Uncle Quan had overheard the conversation between the father and son downstairs. Although he knew all the inside details and had always stood on Fu Yanchuan’s side, he was still an outsider and couldn’t say anything.

When he saw Fu Yanchuan come downstairs, he wanted to offer a few words of comfort. However, he didn’t know what to say, so he just watched him leave.

Fu Yanchuan went to the sanatorium after leaving, but Lin Xianjing kept sleeping after the injection. He sat by her bedside until midnight, then suddenly drove back.

Qi Xi was sleeping hazily when he suddenly felt someone hug him. Then, he felt hot breath spray against the back of his neck. With his eyes closed, he turned over and pressed into the familiar embrace, murmuring, “Brother.”

Fu Yanchuan pulled him tightly into his arms. In fact, what Fu Zhenrong said wasn’t wrong—he was doing all of this for Qi Xi. Before meeting Qi Xi, he had no expectations for his life; it was as cold and dark as the deep sea.

He leaned close to Qi Xi’s ear and said gently, “It’s okay. Sleep.”

 

---

You can read the full completed story here with instant full access. ✨