Lu Qi sat in the reception room, shivering and wrapped in a random blanket. The plush, camel-colored blanket was piled up in several layers under his neck, covering a little less than half his face. His frightened face was so pale that it made people feel slightly distressed.

He seemed like a different person from the young hero who whacked the hoodlum with the Holy Sword of Physics just now.

He was obviously scared, but at that time in the dark corridor, this well-behaved kid still rushed over and shielded him.

Although Mu Nanqiao no longer needed someone to stand in front of him, the feeling of being protected was so unfamiliar that he couldn’t help but think about it over and over again, wanting to break it into pieces and taste it carefully.

He stood up, took a glass of water, and handed it to Lu Qi.

“Drink some warm water.” Mu Nanqiao’s voice was very low and slow. After handing him the water, he did not sit back down across from him. Instead, he sat in a chair on the same side as Lu Qi. Their shoulders were very close, touching lightly.

The temperature slowly spread from his fingertips. Lu Qi moved his stiff wrist and whispered: “Thank you.”

“It’s my turn to thank you.” Mu Nanqiao took the hood off his head, revealing his handsome face. He casually grabbed the slightly curly black hair a couple of times. “This person may have attacked with a purpose, and the target should be……”

“It’s me.” Lu Qi lowered his head dejectedly. “It might be…..my anti-fan…..”

Mu Nanqiao was speechless with astonishment.

He looked at Lu Qi again and asked uncertainly: “Are you a celebrity? I just returned to China not long ago, and I don’t pay much attention to the entertainment industry.”

“No, I’m a painter.” Lu Qi explained in a low voice, “You…..have you seen the news about it? A painter harassed Party A when asking about the requirements…..”

He paused. The paper cup was slightly deformed. “This is a rumor. It’s not true.”

He cautiously looked at the man from the corner of his eye, a little afraid that his expression would suddenly change to show disgust.

But the man didn’t. He just shook his head and said: “I haven’t seen the news. You said it was an anti-fan, so I thought you were a celebrity. After all, you look very likable.”

This was one of the few positive comments Lu Qi had received recently. His eyes curved slightly, and his tense body relaxed.

“So actually, it’s me who should apologize.” Lu Qi lowered his eyelashes and whispered: “You may have been implicated by me.”

Mu Nanqiao smiled. He wanted to reach out and rub his head.

Why did he love to take the blame for his own mistakes?

Such a good boy with a high sense of morality. Why did some people think he was a pervert?

“The ambulance took away that person just now. Didn’t you notice what was going on with him?” Mu Nanqiao fiddled with the empty paper cup in his hand. “He was twitching, sweating all over, and crying with tears and snot. Do you think you could make him cry snotty tears with just a rod?”

“I thought I hit him in the head.” Lu Qi turned around and looked at Mu Nanqiao with wide eyes. “Didn’t I?”

The bright yellow paper cup was torn open by Mu Nanqiao. Those slender fingers seemed to be playing with handicrafts, first tearing it into strips, then into short petals, and finally, the paper cup turned into a blooming sunflower.

He patiently flattened the bottom of the cup little by little, and pushed the sunflower in front of Lu Qi like a child. “He’s a drug addict.”

Lu Qi: ……

Among those “sages” who hid behind the screen to blindly uphold justice, were there really such desperate criminals?

“Understand?” Mu Nanqiao raised his finger and casually pointed at himself. “He ran at me.”

There was even a smile at the corners of his eyes when he said this, his handsome face full of the casualness of telling a joke.

Lu Qi: …..

That was to say, prostitution, gambling, and drugs were all indistinguishable, and you really shouldn’t do anything illegal.

The air conditioner was turned on too low, and he couldn’t help but shiver when he was hit by the cold air.

Mu Nanqiao reached up and helped him pull down the blanket piled behind his neck.

He conjured up a tie clip out of nowhere, and together with the paper cup, stuck it to the corner of the blanket to hold it in place. It hung on his shoulders like a small cloak, so that Lu Qi didn’t have to keep raising his arms and grabbing the blanket.

Just as Mu Nanqiao was about to say something, the door of the reception room was pushed open.

The female police officer who had brought them in reappeared, this time with a serious expression, and was followed by two male police officers.

She asked: “Are you feeling better? If you’ve recovered, make a statement.”

Lu Qi nodded, and Mu Nanqiao also stood up. He patted Lu Qi’s shoulder comfortingly. “If you feel uncomfortable, I’ll go first and you can rest for a while.”

“Okay.” Lu Qi whispered: “Will your profession cause you trouble, ah…..”

Mu Nanqiao: ……

Still thinking of him as a duck.

Lu Qi saw him raise his eyebrows and reveal that half-smiling expression.

The policewoman waiting to the side first checked the identities of the two people, asking coldly and simply: “Names.”

Only then did Lu Qi recall that he still didn’t know the name of this lighting store owner, Russian music lover, next door neighbor and top-rate duck.

Then he heard the man sitting next to him say:

“Mu Nanqiao.”

. . . . . . . .

The hoodlum they had clashed with tested positive for drugs, so Mu Nanqiao and Lu Qi also took drug tests. When no problems were found, they finally left the police station.

It was close to early morning, so it wasn’t easy to get a car. And it was not far from the community where Lu Qi lived, so he planned to walk back. He tugged the small blanket and touched a cold, hard metal bar, then remembered that Mu Nanqiao’s tie clip was still with him.

He turned his head and saw the young man walking slowly down the long steps of the city police bureau, one hand in the pocket of his black hoodie. His steps were loose and indolent, but even so, those simple concrete steps were like a catwalk for him at a fashion show for a sports fashion brand.

Lu Qi simply walked backward two steps and stood under the stairs, looking up at him.

Wu. It was no wonder Lin Yuan couldn’t forget him if he looked like this. But in the end, the Mu Nanqiao before him was not the same as the white moonlight everyone mentioned. Where was that weak little white flower he had been promised?

Wasn’t it said that they were very similar?

Lu Qi thought frustratedly that those people were all lying. 

He was clearly not so masculine.

Mu Nanqiao lowered his head and sent a text to his assistant. When he raised his head, he met the beautiful deer-like eyes of the little painter who couldn’t hide his emotions. He stood at the foot of the steps and stared at him with his head raised, as if he was observing an endangered animal.

He just noticed that the way Lu Qi looked at him had suddenly become strange.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Like an energetic high school boy, he jumped down the last three steps and took two steps toward Lu Qi, tilting his head to look at him. “Is it because I said I had just returned to China and haven’t had time to find a job yet, so I’m still a ‘freelancer?’”

Lu Qi thought to himself, your profession is quite free. Too free.

But of course it wasn’t because of that.

He hesitated for a moment, then asked directly: “Do you know Lin Yuan?”

It was difficult to clearly describe Mu Nanqiao’s expression at that moment. It seemed gloomy, with a hint of ridicule. In the end, all these emotions were concentrated deep in his eyes. He narrowed those beautiful fox eyes and said: “I know him as a classmate. He was very caring, and took care of me.”

He seemed to chew those words hard before saying them with a half-smile, but Lu Qi didn’t notice this detail. He stared at Mu Nanqiao’s features in surprise and whispered: “Not alike at all.”

Mu Nanqiao: ……

What alike? He couldn’t be talking about him resembling that dumbass Lin Yuan, right?

Mu Nanqiao shuddered, disgusted by the idea. He wanted to ask, but found that his little neighbor had turned around and walked away very quickly, without any intention of waiting for him.

The other party intended to put the word “alienation” on his forehead, and Mu Nanqiao didn’t catch up. He had long legs, and followed slowly from a distance. After all, he didn’t know if he would encounter any “accidents” tonight, so it would be better to keep a distance from this little neighbor who had been in trouble recently.

But the little neighbor actually knew Lin Yuan?

Mu Nanqiao kicked away a pebble in his path.

What was their relationship?

If Lu Qi told Lin Yuan about his return to China, would Lin Yuan realize that the recent troubles he was encountering in Hengjin Group were related to him?

Although the dumbass shouldn’t guess it considering his IQ, he hadn’t thought of this flaw.

With this thought in mind, the two of them entered the unit door one after another.

Lu Qi’s footsteps as he walked to the upper floor stopped for a moment, and the light that leaked down the gap in the stairway fell on Mu Nanqiao’s head.

The words “Check someone out for me” had been sent on the screen of his mobile phone, and his whole body was enveloped in a wash of light. The short five words in the typing box looked extremely dark under the cold white light.

When he looked up, Lu Qi was leaning on the handrail of the stairs, looking down at him. His eyes were evasive, and he asked in an unnatural tone: “Are…..are you afraid of the dark?”

Mu Nanqiao: ……

It seemed like feathers were falling down, gentle but itchy.

He turned his phone off and caught up with him in two steps. The corridor was very narrow, and it was obviously a bit crowded with two young men with wide shoulders and long legs side by side. Mu Nanqiao’s shoulder rubbed against the small blanket hanging on Lu Qi’s shoulders, and the cool temperature of the “sunflower” tie clip fell on his skin, reminding him of his mood when he tore up the paper cup just now.

There was no calculation, no violent emotions, just a simple desire to comfort the beautiful young man standing in front of him.

He suddenly no longer wanted to privately investigate Lu Qi. Those dark methods seemed to pollute his moment of peace.

If he wanted to know, perhaps he should just ask.

It seemed that in front of this little deer, sincerity was better than so many twists and turns.

“I’m afraid of the dark, ah.” He stretched out his fingers to hook a corner of the blanket and asked in puzzlement: “Did I make you angry just now?”

Lu Qi: ……

He didn’t have to turn his head to sense the caution in the other person’s eyes.

“I’m not angry.” Lu Qi explained weakly, “I just feel……awkward when I see you.”

Mu Nanqiao was innocent, but when he thought of how his current situation was caused by that beast Lin Yuan, and Lin Yuan liked Mu Nanqiao, he wondered whether the two of them would be together in the future…..

Lu Qi felt uncomfortable when he thought about this, not to mention that he had also served as Mu Nanqiao’s substitute.

Mu Nanqiao raised his eyebrows and guessed: “You know Lin Yuan? He mentioned me to you? He said something bad about me?”

“He praised you and said you are very good.” Lu Qi snorted.

They were already at the fifth floor. Lu Qi opened the door of 501 and looked at Mu Nanqiao, who was standing behind him with a confused expression. He couldn’t help but speak again with emotion: “He’s a scoundrel, you should stay away from him in the future. He…..he doesn’t respect you!”

Mu Nanqiao: ……

He almost laughed at this soft “scoundrel.” Compared to so many vicious curses he had heard, this sentence was really cute. That garbage Lin Yuan was not worthy of such a soft “scoundrel.”

He didn’t know what this meant, but he was keenly aware of Lu Qi’s disdain for Lin Yuan, so he took a step forward and grasped the crack of the door before Lu Qi could close it.

“Ah…..” Lu Qi quickly let go of the door handle. “Be careful of your hands…..”

Mu Nanqiao ignored his fingers and said bluntly: “I don’t know what you’ve heard, but when I was in school, I didn’t have a good relationship with him. My classmates would lock me in an empty classroom, pour milk tea into my school bag, and pour ice water on me in winter…..”

Lu Qi looked at him blankly. He had heard this from Lin Yuan’s aunt, but when a sentence about school bullying turned into specific incidents, it still made him feel upset.

However, what Mu Nanqiao said next surprised him even more.

“These were all done by Lin Yuan,” Mu Nanqiao said, “to make me isolated and helpless, so that I could only be friends with him.”

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Chapter Six << Table of Contents >> Chapter Eight