After leaving the coffee shop, Pei Xi didn’t go to the company, but went directly home.

The door lock needed to be replaced.

He contacted professionals to come over and took advantage of the time to casually settle down for dinner. When the lock changer left, Pei Xi sent the password to He Chuzhou via text message.

Of course, in order to prevent “Pei-calico” from causing trouble due to suspicion and curiosity, he deleted the record after the password was successfully sent.

The next step was to consider the allocation of waking time and subsequent work arrangements.

He struggled to balance his work and physical condition, but fortune suddenly smiled upon him and he thought of a possibility.

If every time he fell asleep and woke up was like flipping a switch in his brain, was it possible to control his confused state reliably?

For example, after falling asleep in his right mind, waking up early in the morning and falling asleep again during a confused state, he could still be in his right mind when he woke up in the morning.

In this case, it was entirely possible to compress his confused time to the the midnight hours where it wouldn’t affect his work or cause He Chuzhou too much trouble.

At most, he only needed to hug someone in the middle of the night to comfort himself and not run around, and all of his problems would be solved.

Why hadn’t he thought of such a simple method before?

Plans needed to be put into practice to produce results.

It was now 9 o’clock in the evening. With great expectations, he set an alarm for himself for 12 o’clock, then showered as quickly as possible, drank a glass of milk, and went to bed.

The overload of work during the day caused him to quickly fall into a deep sleep as his mind and body simultaneously relaxed.

Time passed silently while he was in a state of deep sleep.

Three hours passed by in a flash. The cell phone placed next to his pillow vibrated in a timely manner, and the screen lit up at twelve.

Pei Xi reached for his phone and turned off the alarm. He opened his eyes and stared blankly at the ceiling.

In the next second, it was like he was waking up from a dream.

He sat up and calmed himself down for a moment, then checked the time again. Finally, he realized there was a discrepancy between reality and what he had imagined, and he was not confused at all.

Why was this?

Had he not slept enough?

No, that couldn’t be it.

The time he got drunk with Xie Ling at the party and became brain-addled, he had obviously slept for a shorter time.

It wasn’t a matter of time or personal reasons, but external factors.

Could it be…..

He remembered.

It was the same last time.

That time in He Chuzhou’s office, when he woke up in the lounge, he hadn’t recovered from his brain-addled state.

He woke up that time because of He Chuzhou knocking down his cell phone. This time, it was because of the alarm clock.

The only two times he awakened sober were because of external influences.

So was the answer that he must fall asleep naturally and wake up naturally?

Did this mean that from now on, as long as he prevented himself from waking up naturally, he wouldn’t enter a brain-addled state again?

But if this was true, did this mean it had been disrupting his brain’s natural repair process and would result in more serious consequences than now?

What’s more, there were too many uncontrolled factors such as hypoglycemia and fainting that last time, and the doctor had told him to get enough rest during his recovery period……

The clues he thought of became complicated and unsolvable again after some thought.

Forget it.

He closed his eyes in exhaustion and lowered his head, pressing the heel of his palm between his eyebrows as he finally gave up the struggle.

So be it. Let nature take its course.

In any case, hadn’t He Chuzhou agreed to help him?

As for the work, it was only two days of work packed into one day.

The last day off could be considered a holiday for himself.

His interrupted sleepiness didn’t return for a while.

He opened his phone and was just clicking around on WeChat aimlessly, but found an additional friend request.

The name was a string of star symbols, and the avatar was a photo of He Xingxing leaning close to the camera. He could tell who it was without looking at the message.

He moved his finger and clicked through.

Then he returned to the list and clicked on the chat box. The system reminded him that he had added a friend and encouraged him to start chatting.

He subconsciously stared at the large blank space and waited solemnly for a while.

He couldn’t wait for the other party’s avatar to appear. It took him a moment to realize that he hadn’t seen the message, because the other party would definitely send a reply at once.

There was no time displayed on the friend request. Perhaps it had already been sent a long time ago and the other party had gone to bed.

He completely ignored the feeling of disappointed expectations and logged out of WeChat, opening his mailbox. There were several insignificant work documents inside.

However, his fingertips paused midair.

After a moment’s hesitation, he swiped right and returned to WeChat, clicked on He Chuzhou’s avatar, and entered his friend circle.

The first thing he saw was He Xingxing.

There were three, five, and nine-square grids, interspersed with live videos of the playful puppy. 

Some were at home, some were in the community garden, and some were in the car or a pet clinic.

Eating, sleeping, bathing, holding a frisbee in his mouth, being made to stand still……

He scrolled down slowly, clicking on pictures from time to time to examine them closely.

There was no time limit for viewing He Chuzhou’s moments. If he wanted, he could browse everything up until the day the account was created.

Not only was there the puppy, but also stray cats he met by chance and sumptuous dinners when he returned to his parents’ house on weekends or holidays. There were shots of unfamiliar plants growing in his father’s garden, as well as a young girl rolling her book into a tube and beating him. 

The writing was very concise, and when read together with the photos, it appeared particularly relaxed and amusing.

However, there was one outlier. The description was extremely long, with an entire six lines criticizing “Pei Xi” for being crafty, stingy, and loving to complain. 

The accompanying photo was also the only one in which he appeared.

The location in the photo didn’t look like the villa he lived in now. It was decorated entirely in a Chinese style, with a circle of green plants on the balcony.

He was crouching there in a white sleeveless shirt and shorts, holding a giant pair of scissors in his hand. It appeared that he was seriously considering which branch of the potted tree to prune.

Instead of looking like an uncle, he wore it with the laid-back vigor of a university student. Sunlight seemed to leap across every leaf around him, jostling together but too shy to get close.

Pei Xi stared at the photo for a long time before clicking to exit. 

This post was obviously written by He Aiyue, but He Chuzhou actually kept it without deleting it.

In the stillness of the night, it was easy for a person to become absorbed. Unknowingly, he turned back the timeline to the beginning of last year, not even noticing when the corners of his mouth curled up a bit.

But when he looked up from the coziness of the screen, he saw the dark, empty room, and the cold lights outside the window, that small arc vanished.

As the light of the cell phone dimmed, his mind gradually went blank. 

So what should he do tomorrow?

He thought, if Pei-calico woke up alone tomorrow, what kind of story would he make up to trouble He Chuzhou?

Was there anything he could do to prevent this trouble?

After all of this pondering, he still didn’t come to a conclusion. When drowsiness closed in, he pulled up the quilt and once again wrapped himself in that soft, thin shell.

He couldn’t, wouldn’t think about it. 

That person would find a way.

In any case, he was the best at coaxing him.

*

*

Because the curtains weren’t closed, the first ray of morning sunlight spread boldly from the window to the foot of the bed.

The person on the bed couldn’t sleep peacefully in the bright environment. He rolled over in the quilt, then opened his eyes hazily and sat up in bed.

He looked at the empty space next to him, then sized up the empty room. Before he had time to think, he heard the sound of the door opening in the living room.

He got out of bed and opened the door to see a neatly-dressed He Chuzhou leisurely placing food in packaging bags on the table.

Pei Xi: “……?”

Pei Xi was uncertain: “Chuzhou, you went out to buy breakfast so early?”

“Yes, ah.” He Chuzhou said with a smile, “Go wash your face and change clothes, then come and eat.”

Pei Xi felt like something was wrong, but couldn’t think of what it could be. He drowsily went back to the bedroom, brushed his teeth, and changed his clothes. When he came out, he saw a table full of food.

He was once again dumbfounded.

“Why…..did you buy so much?”

Standing at the dining table in astonishment, he subconsciously opened his mouth when He Chuzhou fed a bite of fragrant shrimp to him: “Can we finish eating it?”

His confused expression made He Chuzhou’s hands itch, and he couldn’t help but pinch his face: “Not entirely, it’s just a sense of ritual that is finally justified. We’ll eat as much as we can. If we can’t finish it, I’ll bring it to the company and my assistant will take care of it.”

Pei Xi sat on the stool he pulled out, at a loss: “Justified? What do you mean?”

“You’ll understand later.”

He Chuzhou smiled and didn’t say much. After having breakfast together, he took him directly to the company. Pei Xi didn’t expect this, and was anxious: “I’m always going to your company. Will it affect your work?”

“You haven’t recovered yet. Leaving you alone would affect my work.”

He Chuzhou drove the car into the underground parking deck. He turned off the engine and got out, then walked around to the passenger seat and opened the door: “Or do you mean that you don’t want to come and would rather stay home and rest?”

He didn’t have a problem with this, but he would have to install surveillance cameras at home or find a nanny to help care for him.

However, Pei-calico was unable to separate from him. Instead of having others take care of him, it was better to take him along for peace of mind.

Pei Xi immediately shook his head upon hearing this, and when he got out of the car, he hugged him quickly before letting go. He said honestly: “I want to be with you.”

The warmth that had rushed into his arms vanished in an instant, but the sensation was still there.

It felt like a pampered little animal had pounced on his heart with no claws outstretched, only touching it with soft pads.

He Chuzhou’s lips unconsciously curled up. He rubbed Pei Xi and held his hand naturally, turning toward the elevator: “Okay, President He will take you wherever he goes.”

First time new, second time skilled. The route up here away from the public eye was already well-trodden.

But it was difficult to avoid the masses, and some people were still hard to guard against.

When Yun Ji entered the office with files in his arms, the sight of his cousin working like a spinning top behind the computer while his nemesis reclined on the sofa with a blanket across his knees, leisurely fishing for electronic sharks. His entire being went numb.

After reporting on his work in a daze, he immediately rushed forward when Pei Xi returned to the lounge: “What in the world is going on? Did you actually reel him in?”

He Chuzhou: “ ? ”

He Chuzhou stopped typing: “Reel who in? What are you making up in your head?”

Yun Ji pointed at the lounge. Afraid of being overheard, he lowered his voice: “How else can this be explained?”

He Chuzhou said casually: “The weather is nice, can’t he come over for a visit?”

Yun Ji’s mouth twitched: “You’ve been poisoned. Do you two have such a relationship where you can visit each other?”

He Chuzhou continued to type on the keyboard: “Why not? Doesn’t this work well?

Yun Ji took in his expression suspiciously, squinting his eyes in thought: “Sure enough, there is no such thing as groundless rumors.”

He Chuzhou: “What rumors?”

“Of course it’s about you and…..”

Yun Ji pointed to the lounge: “Rumors have already spread a lot about that guy in there.”

When he heard this, He Chuzhou finally reacted. He raised his head with a frown: “Tell me more.”

Yun Ji: “Didn’t you buy a bracelet at a sky-high price and give it to Pei Xi? It seems that everyone has been spreading the word since then, saying you’re pursuing Pei Xi in an ostentatious manner. And you have shit luck pursuing him, so you can’t wait to snatch him up…..”

Yun Ji: “No, what’s with your expression of enjoyment? Brother, I’m not narrating a story for you!”

He Chuzhou: “It’s more interesting than a story.”

Yun Ji: “You’re still happy? I can’t think of what kind of storyline to lay out for you.”

Lay out a storyline……

That was fine.

As long as he didn’t lay one out for Pei Xi.

“Do whatever, just don’t make too much trouble.”

He didn’t take to heart. But out of the blue, he thought of something and specifically told Yun Ji: “Just take it as a joke. Don’t talk nonsense in front of your parents and aunt.”

“Why, are you afraid Auntie will rejoice too soon?”

Yun Ji grinned: “If you can really do it, my auntie will die of joy when her son is finally successful. Not only does he know how to abduct a cabbage, he also abducted such a good one…..”

He Chuzhou: “I’ll increase your salary.”

Yun Ji: “Okay! This didi will keep his mouth shut!”

He Chuzhou finished the day’s work in the morning. After a meeting at noon to divide up tasks, he openly skipped work with Pei Xi in tow.

It could make up for the big meal that didn’t happen last time.

It was still early when they left the restaurant. He Chuzhou asked Pei Xi if he wanted to watch a movie, but Pei Xi shook his head without hesitation: “There are too many people at a movie theater.”

He Chuzhou: “Are you afraid of the noise?”

“No.” Pei Xi looked at him: “I don’t want to watch one with so many people, just you.”

“…..”

He Chuzhou sucked in a breath and silently covered his heart at the door of the restaurant.

Then he began to consider if it was too late to go to the rooftop cinema and tell the staff to book the entire venue.

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Chapter 25 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 27