Chapter 118
Chapter 118
After eating and drinking his fill, Qiao Yu kept feeling like he had forgotten something.
He stood outside the restaurant, staring at the sun as it was about to sink below the horizon, a little lost in thought.
Shang Yan reached out and poked his cheek. “What are you thinking about?”
Qiao Yu turned his head away and pointed at the big tree covered in withered yellow leaves, then started spouting nonsense. “Faced with such a scene, I feel moved to recite a poem.”
You? Recite poetry?
Shang Yan burst out laughing. “All right. Let’s hear it.”
“Ah! Withered vines, old trees, crows at dusk. A little bridge…”
A little bridge what again?
Damn it, what is wrong with my brain? Why did I say I was going to recite poetry? I could’ve just said I was going to sing a song!
He instinctively looked toward the person beside him, who was watching the show, only for the other man to hook a long arm around him and lead him forward.
“Withered vines, old trees, crows at dusk. Little Qiao comes home with me.”
Qiao Yu: ??
Impossible. That was absolutely not how the poem went!
Shang Yan curled his slender fingers and lightly scratched his shoulder, leaning close to his ear with a soft laugh. “Come on, Little Qiao. Come home with me.”
Fuck. Who wants to go home with you?
The two of them shoved and tugged at each other the whole way.
One was shameless, and the other refused to take the hint.
With neither of them afraid of embarrassing themselves, Qiao Yu’s little arms and legs really were no match for Beauty Shang.
In the end, Shang Yan still dragged him back to the luxury flat where he had once lived.
The moment they entered, Shang Yan registered a new fingerprint for him on the electronic lock. His expression, oddly enough, showed a rare hint of irritation. “Because you didn’t have an heir, this place was confiscated before. I only just asked someone to buy it back recently. Luckily, it hadn’t been sold yet. But if you don’t like it, I can buy you a new one.”
Qiao Yu let out an instinctive “oh.” Then he stood by the door, staring unblinkingly at Shang Yan, who was sitting on the sofa. The man’s posture could hardly be called proper. He looked boneless, lazily sprawled at an angle, revealing half of his exquisitely handsome profile.
“All right, then. When we have time, I’ll take you to transfer the title.”
Shang Yan was probably a little tired. His eyelids were half-lowered, and he didn’t notice Qiao Yu’s gaze. After speaking, he yawned, then fell completely asleep.
That made sense. He had just cleared an Instance, then come looking for him while injured.
It was only natural that he was exhausted…
The lights inside the apartment were off. The faint glow fell across Shang Yan’s body, and beneath his cool, pale neck, two faint blue veins lay quietly in wait. For some reason, an itch rose in Qiao Yu’s throat.
It was like a lingering side effect from being transformed into a zombie.
Qiao Yu quickly raised a hand and slapped himself hard on the forehead. “No, no, no. I can’t let myself be corrupted by Shang Xiaoyan’s sugar-coated bullets.”
Only after saying that did he seem to realize something. He muttered to himself, “Wait, that’s not right. Didn’t I start out holding the script of a modern revenge male lead? How the hell did this turn back into a domineering CEO keeping me as his lover? Why?!”
Night arrived suddenly. When the last trace of afterglow sank below the horizon, Qiao Yu finally got his wish and slept in his own big apartment again.
The bed had been replaced, but it was the same style as the one before. The blanket also seemed to have been dried and aired out. It was very warm and smelled wonderful.
He stretched comfortably and drifted off to sleep?
No. Not at all.
Sleep failed, because today’s Shang Yan had been a little too handsome.
The apartment!
His twenty-million-yuan luxury flat was back!
If this happened to you, could you still fall asleep?
In any case, Qiao Yu couldn’t.
Blissfully, he blinked and stared at the ceiling, then let out a little snicker.
That excitement lasted until the latter half of the night before it finally subsided.
Perhaps because someone had been so sensible today, Qiao Yu unexpectedly thought of the past again. Memories from before instantly surged in like a tide.
The afternoon sky was steeped in the haze of evening. The fierce light of the morning sun thinned and died away, and the bleak, desolate sunset gradually bled into night.
It happened on the second Monday after he saved Shang Yan. The dismissal bell hadn’t even rung yet when Qiao Yu slung his backpack over one shoulder and swaggered out through the school gates.
The old man at the gate kept one eye on his newspaper and the other on the gaggle of punks outside with their hair dyed every color under the sun, watching them laugh and joke with the boy who had just come out.
At one point, someone even slipped the boy a cigarette. The way he held it between his fingers was practiced and familiar. When he lifted his head again, white smoke drifted away on the breeze, revealing his fair, handsome face.
The old man clicked his tongue, looked away, and stopped paying attention to the little group making a ruckus over there.
“Brother Qiao, you come dead last every single exam. What’s even the point of going to school?”
Qiao Yu exhaled a mouthful of smoke and snorted. “At every age, you do what people that age are supposed to do. If I don’t go to school, what, am I supposed to go around with you guys collecting protection money from every school?”
The red-haired boy burst out laughing. “Forget it. If you did that, it wouldn’t be collecting protection money. It’d be hosting a fan meet-and-greet.”
“True. With Brother Qiao’s face, he could crush the school heartthrobs from half the schools around here. As long as he doesn’t open his mouth, he’s a real beauty who could sink fish and make wild geese fall, graceful in every-ow! Brother Qiao, why are you so strong? Are you trying to beat me to death?”
“Then why aren’t you dead yet?” Qiao Yu stubbed out the cigarette in his hand and flicked it with a bent finger. The butt arced neatly into the trash can. “You uncultured idiot. ‘Sink fish and make wild geese fall,’ ‘graceful in every way’-aren’t those all used to describe girls? I’m called devastatingly handsome and exceptionally heroic.”
“Pfft, hahahaha…”
Just then, a sudden laugh sounded behind him.
Qiao Yu looked back on instinct, only to find that the once-empty campus had somehow become packed with people.
Class was over now, and students were hurrying home. Directly behind him, the owner of that mocking laugh was wearing a face pretty enough to bring ruin to a kingdom, laughing with brazen, dazzling delight.
Oh, great. Forgotten the life-saving favor already, had he?
He really ought to teach him a lesson.
Qiao Yu immediately strode over and held out his palm to the red-lipped, white-toothed boy. “Classmate, hand over your protection money.”
Shang Yan glanced at the punks gathered behind him, then took out his wallet and asked softly, “How much is the protection money?”
He was so calm that Qiao Yu didn’t feel the slightest thrill of revenge. For a moment, he even lost interest. “…Fifteen yuan.”
Shang Yan rummaged through his wallet for a long time before pulling out a twenty and handing it to him.
Qiao Yu thought of the thick stack of bright red bills in that wallet, then looked down at the crisp twenty in his hand. In the end, he dug a crumpled five-yuan bill out of his pocket and handed it back. “Here. Your change.”
Shang Yan froze, then muttered to himself, “This is the first time I’ve ever seen someone collecting protection money give change. You really are a breath of fresh air in the thug world.”
At that, Qiao Yu let out a dry laugh and forced the money into his hand. “I’m not a thug. I’m what you’d call a village knight-errant.”
The words had barely left his mouth before they drew another round of Shang Yan’s unrestrained laughter…
Just then, one of his companions who actually collected protection money suddenly called out, “Brother Qiao, you coming for barbecue?”
Qiao Yu raised a brow and was just about to answer when the boy beside him grabbed the sleeve of his school uniform.
“Qiao Yu, walk me home.”
Qiao Yu: ??
“I saw Baldy just now. I’m afraid he’ll come after me.”
Qiao Yu gave a cold laugh. “What are you, an elementary school kid? Why should I walk you home? Can’t you see I’ve got things to do?”
His mockery did nothing to make the other boy back off. Shang Yan still clutched his sleeve in a death grip, looking perfectly justified. “You just took my protection money, so you have to protect me.”
Qiao Yu: “…”