Having grown to this age, He Chuzhou had been praised by many people, using various words.

From lively and positive energy as a child, to an outstanding and cheerful temperament as a teenager, to a young, promising, and handsome adult.

Sometimes his parents would even praise him, saying that only when the top beam is straight will the lower beam not go aslant.

It was just that among these words that encapsulated basically all of the smooth-sailing growth of a successful person, none of them had any relation to cuteness, let alone called him cute outright.

But today, someone did.

Someone held a squeaking little pig and said with a voice full of favoritism that a man with a height of 1.886 meters and ab muscles was cute.

And it was ‘very cute.”

Very cute?

What did this mean?

In He Chuzhou’s eyes, only furry animals less than a meter tall such as kittens, puppies, and birds could be called cute. The only two exceptions were Pei-calico and He Xingxing.

Could this be applied to He Chuzhou?

It could not.

But it was Pei-calico who praised him for being cute.

Pei-calico praised him for being cute.

Pei-calico praised his good looks and even said he was cute.

“Chuzhou?”

“En?”

“Is this document difficult? You’ve been reading it for a long time.”

“…….”

He Chuzhou returned to his senses and coughed uncomfortably: “It’s fine. This is a special project, so it must be considered carefully.”

Pei Xi gave an understanding nod, and soon discovered something. His gaze was locked on the other’s ears, and just as he was about to speak, He Chuzhou deftly cut off his words: “Do you want to rest first?”

Pei Xi raised his eyelids: “Rest?”

Seeing that his attention had been successfully averted, He Chuzhou breathed a sigh of relief: “Yes, it’s still early now. You can take a nap first. I’ll wake you after my work is done.”

Pei Xi said nothing, and appeared to be thinking about it.

But after some thought, he brought up another thing: “Chuzhou, who called you just now?”

“Who else could it be? It was He Aiyue.”

After answering, He Chuzhou remembered that Pei Xi may not know He Aiyue, and added: “My meimei.”

Pei Xi, pensively: “How old is Meimei?”

He Chuzhou: “Seventeen. What’s wrong?”

Pei Xi: “She just said she wants to swallow a monkey in the ocean?”

He Chuzhou: “Swallow what—”

He Chuzhou: “……”

He Chuzhou: “……..”

“What is going on in the heads of you two?”

He Chuzhou was speechless: “It’s ‘give birth,’ not ‘swallow.’ What monkey can be swallowed, and why should it be swallowed in the ocean?”

Pei Xi: “Give birth to a monkey?”

He Chuzhou: “It means having a baby.”

Pei Xi: “In the ocean—”

He Chuzhou: “Not in the ocean! On land! Giving birth to your…..not…..tsk, forget it. She was just talking nonsense, don’t pay attention to her.”

Pei Xi gave an oh and asked softly: “Do you like children?”

The jump in topics was large, but fortunately, He Chuzhou could still keep pace: “In general.”

Pei Xi was not satisfied with this answer: “Don’t split the difference. Like or don’t like, you can only choose one.”

If he had to give a definite answer, He Chuzhou really couldn’t, so he simply asked: “Why are you suddenly asking this?”

“Because I don’t like them,” Pei Xi said.

He Chuzhou: “Why not?”

Pei Xi was quiet for a couple of seconds, and then his voice went lower: “No reason, I just don’t like them.”

His mood had conspicuously changed. He Chuzhou didn’t understand why, but didn’t delay stroking his hair: “I don’t like them either. Children make an unnecessary racket. They’re disobedient, and it’s hard to teach them.”

Pei Xi looked at him: “Really?”

He Chuzhou: “Really. Why would I lie to you?”

Pei Xi: “You just said ‘in general.’”

He Chuzhou: “My ‘in general’ is…..very average, not very good. I don’t like them.”

Pei Xi looked at him for a moment, then lowered his head and squeezed the rubber pig with fixed interest, not saying anything.

He Chuzhou could do nothing about him, so he looked around the table to find something that could coax him. Suddenly, he remembered something and took the bracelet out of the drawer.

“Play with this, don’t you like it a lot?”

Pei Xi looked at the bracelet on his wrist and wondered: “What is it doing here?”

What could He Chuzhou say? He could only say: “It’s not the same bracelet as the one at home.”

Pei Xi: “Why buy two of the same thing?”

He Chuzhou: “Because the second one was half price.”

Pei Xi fell silent.

After saying this, He Chuzhou felt that the excuse was ridiculous and wasn’t sure if he would believe it or not. He was thinking about whether to change the excuse when the top of his head felt warm.

It was Pei Xi, who had learned his techniques and followed suit to rub his head.

“I know you’re coaxing me.”

Pei Xi’s voice was filled with a clear smile again. His mood had improved, and the ending tone of his words rose slightly: “But thank you, Chuzhou.”

There was one less person next to him, and one more person in the lounge.

Pei Xi had gone to the lounge to rest, while He Chuzhou sat alone behind his desk and stared at the document page over and over again before finally breaking out into laughter.

With no rules or regulations, he still learned pretty quickly.

*

*

The weather in the afternoon was not good. The sun was gone and the clouds were getting thicker and thicker. It looked like it was going to rain.

Pei Xi didn’t like this sort of weather.

He tightly pulled shut the curtains of the bed in the lounge to cover the large area of gray sky, then turned to go to sleep.

But this sleep was still restless.

Not long after falling into a deep sleep, dreams came one after another.

He went back to his freshman year in high school, when Pei Zhen’s illness was becoming increasingly serious, and he would go crazy whenever he saw him.

Pei Yansong made a choice between his two sons with hardly any hesitation.

The day after Pei Zhen threw half of the porcelain in the living room, he transferred Pei Xi, the son of his ex-wife, to another school in a completely unfamiliar city.

He left home, living alone far away from any family and friends, in a strange environment with nobody he knew around.

All of these unknowns were enough to terrify Pei Xi, who was still underage at the time.

That was the first time his mask of indifference showed signs of cracking, facing the father who had turned his heart in a different direction after remarrying.

It was also the first time he bowed his head to Pei Yansong, and even knelt down, begging him not to send him away. He would avoid Pei Zhen and try not to appear in front of him.

But throughout the night, Pei Yansong’s attitude did not soften at all.

He had done nothing. He had done nothing wrong, and was even trying to be the best at everything. But Pei Zhen just went crazy and easily determined the trajectory of his future life.

Why?

For what reason?

Kneeling on the ground, Pei Xi thought for a very long time.

At last, he figured it out. It was probably because there was no one in the family who loved him anymore.

He couldn’t remember exactly how he walked out of the house that day. He only remembered that the weather was very terrible.

Cold wind blew and clouds gathered. Soon, it began to rain with a steady patter, and the coldness soaked into his bones.

The car parked at the door was wet and shiny from the rain, reflecting the thin, pale Pei Xi beneath his umbrella. And behind Pei Xi was a distorted figure, running out into the rain while holding a celadon incense burner.

The driver got out of the car in a panic, but it was too late. Pei Zhen ran swiftly toward Pei Xi, teeth gritted, and threw the incense burner at him—

Bam.

There was a muffled sound, and he suddenly opened his eyes.

In the office.

He Chuzhou clicked his tongue and bent down to pick up the cellphone he had accidentally knocked down with his elbow.

The contents of several documents were so similar that they made him dizzy, and he removed his glasses to rub the bridge of his nose. Suddenly, he heard the sound of disordered footsteps in the lounge.

Before he could raise his eyes to see anything clearly, a figure rushed straight into his arms, hugging him tightly.

“Ai, please be a little gentler. You’re going to strangle me to death.”

He Chuzhou held onto the careless Pei Xi.

Pei Xi said nothing, and didn’t loosen his grip at all.

Only then did He Chuzhou realize that his breathing was a bit rapid and unsteady, and the body against him was even trembling slightly.

“Did you have a nightmare?”

He simply lifted the person into his lap with all of his strength, placing a palm on his back: “What did you dream about that was so frightening? A volcano, tsunami, or zombie siege?”

“It’s only a dream, it’s not real. It’s just a small problem, and everything is fine when you wake up.”

“Were you scared to tears?”

“Ai, it’s okay. Be good, be good. You won’t remember the things from your dreams for long. They will be forgotten soon.”

“Were you really scared to tears?”

“Come, look up and let me see.”

He leaned back slightly and turned his head to look, but Pei Xi was buried so tightly that he could see nothing except for the back of his head and his ears.

He Chuzhou sighed helplessly, then thought for a while before saying abruptly: “You know, He Aiyue has also been scared to tears in a dream. She said that in her dream, two hundred geese chased her and pecked her butt, and she couldn’t get away.”

“And after she told me, she made me sign a confidentiality agreement stating that I was not allowed to tell anyone else about it. But she was still somewhat illiterate at that time and spelled ‘confidential’ as ‘honey,’^[1] and she hasn’t discovered it even now.”

Slowly, the person in his arms seemed to be shaking less.

He Chuzhou stroked his back and continued calmly: “She cried much harder than you do. It was like an atomic bomb had exploded in a fish pond, and the entire sky collapsed.”

“I wanted to stay out of it at first, but my mom was upset by her howling and threw us both out, saying that I wouldn’t eat that night if I didn’t coax my sister well.”

“Fortunately, we were at our grandfather’s farm at that time and there were quite a few geese, so I took her over and had her pick out the one she disliked the most and come up with her own revenge.”

“…..How did she take revenge?”

Pei Xi had lifted his head at some point.

He wasn’t crying, and his eyes were not red, but his face was pale and bloodless as he slowly peeled himself away from the bad dreams of the past.

He Chuzhou raised an eyebrow: “Didn’t the big geese in the dream peck her butt? She just pecked it back.”

Pei Xi was stunned: “She pecked it back?”

He Chuzhou: “Yes, ah.”

Pei Xi: “Then what happened next?”

He Chuzhou: “She took a bite of goose feathers and was pecked on the head by the angry goose. Then she cried even more miserably.”

Pei Xi: “……”

Pei Xi: “Didn’t you help her?”

“Of course I helped.”

He Chuzhou said matter-of-factly: “I had to help her hold the goose, ah, how could she bite it otherwise?”

Pei Xi: “………”

Pei Xi: “Did you get to eat that night?”

“I ate.” He Chuzhou said: “I ate a beating, then the dried sweet potatoes my grandfather gave me in the middle of the night.”

Pei Xi was speechless, but the corners of his pursed lips curved.

He Chuzhou tilted his head to look at him: “You’re not afraid anymore?”

Pei Xi nodded.

He Chuzhou: “How about you sleep some more? I’ll probably take another hour to finish up.”

Pei Xi nodded his head, then shook it.

He Chuzhou: “What does that mean?”

Pei Xi: “I don’t want to go to sleep in there.”

He didn’t want to go in there and sleep, but it wasn’t that he didn’t want to sleep.

He Chuzhou understood. He put his left arm around the other’s waist and pulled him closer into his arms, freeing up his right hand to work: “Okay, if you don’t want to go in there, then don’t go in. Just sleep here.”

Pei Xi obediently leaned back into his shoulder, not closing his eyes right away.

He Chuzhou: “Can’t sleep?”

Pei Xi shook his head softly: “Chuzhou, you’re so good.”

He Chuzhou was amused: “Good at what, catching geese?”

“Good everywhere.”

Pei Xi closed his eyes and pressed his forehead against the side of He Chuzhou’s neck, breathing out: “If it were me, I would have definitely let you eat.”

“If I was there, I would have stewed that goose and secretly cooked you a feast.”

As Pei Xi’s words came to an end, the office became quiet once more.

The cold wind outside was blocked by the glass, but it seemed as if some of it had slipped inside, causing one’s heart to ripple. 

Feast or no feast, He Chuzhou didn’t know. He only knew that he didn’t dare to move now.

Pei Xi’s attitude conveyed a strong sense of intimacy and dependence. He couldn’t ignore it, and felt a slight numbness and stiffness subtly spread from the side of his neck to his entire body.

The hand holding the pen froze mid-air, unable to move up or down, and for a moment, he forgot where to sign next.

It turned out that having a person in his arms could affect work efficiency, which He Chuzhou had not considered.

But it was still fine. He just couldn’t move too much for fear of waking this person up, and looked down from time to time when he was distracted. Once he got used to it, it wouldn’t be a big problem.

Ten minutes before the end of work, he found the contact information of a restaurant in order to make a reservation. He didn’t call, and just sent a message.

Afterward, he set his phone down softly. Just as he was about to process the remaining things quickly, he suddenly felt a gaze fall on him.

Turning his head, he found that the person who was supposed to be asleep was already awake and looking at him expressionlessly.

His eyes were clear and without waves.

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[1] ‘Confidential’ is Bǎomì (保密), while ‘honey’ is Fēngmì (蜂蜜). ⮐

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Chapter 13 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 15