Wang Cheng: ...
He must have lost his mind to actually believe he has someone in his heart.
"Sigh..."
Lin Qiong glanced at him, "Why sigh at such a young age?"
"... "
Wang Cheng was momentarily speechless, then he looked at Lin Qiong, planning to find another breakthrough, "Lin Qiong, an individual's life has great value. As long as you're willing to work hard, there will be rewards someday. There's no need to rely on others for your own life."
Lin Qiong replied, "Well, I know."
Wang Cheng widened his eyes, "Do you really know?"
Lin Qiong nodded.
Wang Cheng: "Then why did you get married?"
Lin Qiong blushed and lowered his head, "I don't want to work hard anymore."
"... "
Lin Qiong looked at him, blinked a couple of times, and said meaningfully, "Effort doesn't always lead to success, but giving up is definitely easier."
Wang Cheng looked at him with a pained expression, "That's because you never really made an effort! Do you know how many aspiring actors like you work hard? Do you know how much time they spend off the stage for every minute on stage?"
Lin Qiong passionately answered the question, "Sixty seconds?"
"..."
Wang Cheng: ...What a slave to money.
Finally, Wang Cheng watched with a bitter gaze as Lin Qiong entered the villa area. The sun was setting, and Lin Qiong walked towards home, facing the orange-colored sunlight.
Upon entering the house, he purposefully shifted the paper bag in his hand behind his back. The gift still required a sense of ceremony.
Lin Qiong first looked around with his furry little head to make sure that Fu Xingyun was not on the ground floor. Then, with the paper bag in hand, he swaggered his way inside. He went to his room first to change his clothes before heading to the study where Fu Xingyun was.
Knock, knock—two sounds.
A young voice came from outside the door, bright and cheerful like an ever-burning sun. "Xingyun, I'm back!"
Fu Xingyun was in the study, looking at the information about Lin Qiong that had been re-investigated. Upon hearing the voice outside the door, he quickly put the papers in his hand into the drawer.
When he opened the door, he was met with Lin Qiong's radiant smile, as bright as a sunflower. Fu Xingyun glanced at him and then went straight to the point, "What's the matter?"
Lin Qiong's eyes sparkled, "I brought a gift for you." As he spoke, he handed the paper bag to Fu Xingyun.
"You take a look and see if you like it. I'll go downstairs and start dinner." Without waiting for a reply, Lin Qiong turned around and went downstairs.
Fu Xingyun lowered his gaze and looked at the paper bag in his hand. He then opened it to reveal a dark red knitted handmade blanket lying inside. His hand holding the bag froze for a moment, and then he glanced at his own legs. The study was filled with silent silence. The man then reached out and threw the handmade blanket onto the sofa in the study without giving it another look.
Lin Qiong had noticed that there were no takeout packages in the trash cans in the dining room and kitchen, indicating that Fu Xingyun hadn't eaten the lunch meal. So he had deliberately prepared a bit more for dinner.
When Fu Xingyun arrived in the dining room, he saw a bowl of rice stacked slightly higher than yesterday's meal. If yesterday's was a hill, then today's was a mountain.
Fu Xingyun: "..."
After the two of them sat down, they began to eat. Except for Lin Qiong asking about the taste at the beginning, he didn't speak again.
He focused on devouring his meal, perhaps due to the lingering effects of hunger from his past life, where he often went through periods of feast and famine. He always ate with great seriousness.
After finishing his meal, Lin Qiong patted his satisfied belly and slouched in the chair like a salted fish. He looked up and saw that the other person was still eating.
Lin Qiong stared unwaveringly as Fu Xingyun ate. Fu Xingyun's appetite was larger than he had imagined, and he was a true carnivore. While he would eat some vegetables, it was very minimal. One could say he only ate what pleased his eyes.
When Fu Xingyun put down his chopsticks, Lin Qiong finally spoke, "Did you like the gift?"
Fu Xingyun raised his eyes and met the expectant gaze, then replied in a perfunctory tone, "I liked it."
Sensing that the other person had no emotional response, Lin Qiong said, "I think you're lying to me."
Fu Xingyun replied, "A well-intentioned lie."
Lin Qiong pursed his lips and tentatively asked, "You don't like it?"
Fu Xingyun fell silent, looking at the expectant gaze that awaited his response. He couldn't bring himself to take back the words he was about to say, so he dryly replied, "I don't dislike it."
When he first opened the paper bag and saw what was inside, he was indeed surprised, but after experiencing so much, he tended to think of things in the worst possible way.
Was there something on the handmade blanket? Was it a provocation from the other person?
However, looking at the innocent and expectant gaze of the young man at this moment, Fu Xingyun knew he was overthinking.
"I don't dislike it" = "I like it."
With his remarkable understanding, Lin Qiong lowered his head and smiled shyly. He suddenly felt his chest broaden.
Glancing at the time, it was only five o'clock in the afternoon. Perhaps it was because one of them had been working outside, and the other had skipped lunch, that they felt so ravenous at this time.
Lin Qiong decided happily to have a late-night snack around nine o'clock.
After returning to his room, Fu Xingyun glanced at the handmade blanket lying peacefully on the sofa, and in his mind flashed the image of Lin Qiong's expectant gaze at the dining table.
He wanted to reach out and pick it up, but a voice suddenly appeared in his mind.
What if he's pretending?
Here it comes again. Fu Xingyun took a deep breath. This kind of thinking started after that big fire. It was his vigilance and lack of trust in everything outside. But it's better than being deceived by others. He reached out his hand and then pulled it back. In the end, he didn't pick up the handmade blanket from the sofa.
At half past nine in the evening, Lin Qiong arrived as scheduled and knocked on the door. Fu Xingyun put the documents away in the drawer.
"What's the matter?" he asked.
The voice of the other person came from outside the door, "Let's go out for a late-night snack!"
Fu Xingyun looked at the time, and his brows furrowed instantly. "No, thanks."
"Come on," Lin Qiong persisted outside the door, "You won't sleep well if you don't eat at this hour."
Fu Xingyun's face showed a hint of confusion. Then the study door was pushed open from the outside, and Lin Qiong's fluffy head poked in. "If you have a late-night snack, you won't have hunger dreams at night."
Fu Xingyun: ...
Fu Xingyun had never eaten at this time in his life and looked down on Lin Qiong's eating habits during this time period.
In the end, Lin Qiong went to eat alone. After eating most of the food at the restaurant, Lin Qiong realized that he was genuinely happy. In the evening, Lin Qiong washed up, changed into pajamas, and walked to Fu Xingyun's room. He bid him goodnight before finally ending the busy day and collapsing onto the bed.
He thought that he would fall into a deep sleep due to today's exhaustion, but he found himself staring blankly at the ceiling instead.
It seemed that he couldn't sleep at all.
The busyness of today was nothing compared to the two-kilometer run a few days ago. Lin Qiong rolled and tossed on the bed. Eventually, he got up, walked to the window, and looked outside.
The moonlight was beautiful tonight, and the wind was gentle.
They seemed to be able to speak. The evening breeze mixed with the moonlight whispered in his ears as if saying, "If you don't go to sleep soon, you'll die suddenly." Lin Qiong shuddered at the thought and hurriedly flew back into bed.
Since finishing the modeling shoot, Lin Qiong hadn't worked for a week. It wasn't that he didn't want to work, but rather that no one was looking for him.
One afternoon, Lin Qiong lay on the sun lounger outside the floor-to-ceiling windows in the living room, basking in the warm sunlight. The gentle rays made him feel comfortable, and he lazily squinted his eyes, looking as though he should be swaying his big tail like a leisurely Persian cat under the sun.
After some time, a man's voice came from above, "There's a banquet tomorrow night, and I need you to accompany me."
Lin Qiong lazily opened his eyes and saw an upside-down Fu Xingyun.
The man's appearance was impeccable, but seeing him upside down looked somewhat strange, which made Lin Qiong burst into laughter uncontrollably.
The young man's beautiful face smiled brightly in the sunlight, shining even brighter than the scorching light. "Alright," Lin Qiong replied.
The next evening, someone delivered the clothes for the banquet. Lin Qiong couldn't tell the difference between a men's suit and a tuxedo, so he randomly picked a set and put it on.
Once they were in the car, Lin Qiong couldn't resist his curiosity and asked, "Whose banquet are we attending?"
Fu Xingyun closed his eyes to rest and casually replied, "It's Mr. Sun's 80th birthday celebration." Lin Qiong's mouth formed an "O" shape in surprise.
Soon, they arrived at the venue, a luxurious mansion. Lin Qiong pushed Fu Xingyun inside and noticed that there were quite a few people in attendance, including some wealthy second-generation individuals he had seen at a wedding before.
They approached the main area and saw a group of people surrounding an elderly man. It was clear that he was the star of tonight's celebration.
"Mr. Sun doesn't show his age at all; he looks more like someone in his forties or fifties."
"Mr. Sun is as suave as ever!"
"Mr. Sun's nephews and nieces have brought the finest Lingzhi for him today."
(A/N: In Chinese, the name lingzhi represents a combination of spiritual potency and the essence of immortality, and is regarded as the "herb of spiritual potency," symbolizing success, well-being, divine power, and longevity.)
"Mr. Sun is blessed with good fortune."
Lin Qiong pushed Fu Xingyun to a spot not far away and listened to the idle chatter of the crowd with their eyes closed. Such scenes were commonplace at banquets, but Lin Qiong couldn't help but find the titles and honorifics a bit awkward.
It seemed that Fu Xingyun didn't particularly enjoy this kind of occasion either. His visit today was just a formality.
"Wait here for a while."
Lin Qiong naturally understood, and when he saw people starting to disperse before he pushed Fu Xingyan forward slowly. However, before they could make their way over, they noticed a middle-aged woman arguing with Mr. Sun.
"Dad, when I invested in my older brother, you didn't say it like this. You said that helping my brother fill the vacancy wouldn't cause me any loss. But now?" The tension in the air was palpable.
Mr. Sun glanced at his youngest daughter and replied, "We're all family. What loss or no loss is there? When you helped your brother, did you not expect any returns? You don't understand the mutual support between siblings. If I'm gone in the future, what will become of your relationship as siblings?"
The woman's face turned bitter, and she said, "Dad, what are you talking about?"
Lin Qiong could see clearly now that Mr. Sun favored his son over his daughter and had taken advantage of her while she was helping her brother.
However, since it was their family matter, it wouldn't be appropriate for outsiders to intervene.
"Alright, let's leave it at that. Don't ruin this happy day for me," Mr. Sun waved his hand, signaling someone to escort the woman away. "Suffering a loss can be a blessing. I hope you understand this."
After the woman left, Lin Qiong pushed Fu Xingyun forward. At that moment, he couldn't find the right words to say, so after much deliberation, he managed to come up with a simple wish, "May you be as blessed as the Eastern Sea."