Lu Ming did not go back to the master bedroom.
Looking at how drunk Chi Qiu was, he probably couldn’t get up until ninety o’clock. So, Lu Ming went out for a run, ate breakfast, took a shower and shaved in another guest room.
When he came out of the spare guest room, he saw Auntie Zhang come over with a cup of hot tea and put it on the table: “Second Young Master Ji just went back, someone from his family came to pick him up.”
Lu Ming nodded slightly, indicating that he understood.
Auntie Zhang pointed to some gift boxes placed in the living room and said confusedly: “This is the Cordyceps and ginseng sent by the Second Young Master Ji. He said…it is for your health, Mr. Lu. He asked you to take them every day, so do you need me to prepare a little every day?”
Lu Ming didn’t think much about it. Thinking it was the courtesy for the occasion, he asked Auntie Zhang to clean up: “No, put it away, ba.” He thought about it and added, “You can give it to Chi Qiu to eat, put it in the stew, he has lost weight again recently.”
Auntie Zhang nodded and went to do her own work. In the meantime, from the kitchen to the living room, she poked her head back and forth several times.
Lu Ming knew that she was looking to see whether Chi Qiu got up, so he said directly, “I’m resting at home today, I’ll tell you when Chi Qiu wakes up.”
Then, Lu Ming took a sip of tea after the tablet in his hand was slowly placed to his side. He asked Aunt Zhang: “Usually when Chi Qiu is home alone, what does he do?”
“Ah?” Auntie Zhang didn’t expect Lu Ming to ask such a question, because Lu Ming had never specifically cared about Chi Qiu’s habits when he was alone. She was instantly dumbfounded that only after a minute of sluggishness did she finally respond, “He usually likes to sit on the sofa and listen to novels, his favorite should be suspense-type plots. Sometimes he plays it through the speaker, I will also listen to some. En…or he is sitting in the front yard drinking tea and chatting with me. Occasionally, he will also be alone in the bedroom all afternoon.”
Lu Ming raised his eyes: “An afternoon?”
“Sometimes he locks the door when he enters his bedroom, probably because he is afraid of being disturbed while resting. But don’t worry, Mr. Lu, every two hours, I will go and knock on the room door to make sure he doesn’t need my help before going away.”
Chi Qiu was different from an ordinary master. His eyes were not good so Auntie Zhang had always been more concerned.
Lu Ming understood. He said indifferently: “You don’t know what he is doing in the bedroom.” This sentence was not a question, but more like Lu Ming’s self-questioning and self-answering.
“Yes.” Aunt Zhang was puzzled, but she couldn’t ask more questions.
Lu Ming, regardless of Aunt Zhang’s confusion, continued to ask: “In Ji Yanchen’s pocket, was there a ticket for an art exhibition?”
This question was like a mountain road with eighteen turns, one turn went to another road, making Aunt Zhang puzzled. She answered twice: “Yes, I sent it to Second Young Master Ji last night. Mr. Lu, you ask these…”
“Nothing, just asking.” Lu Ming picked up the tea cup, took a sip and put it down: “Auntie Zhang, you don’t need to tell Chi Qiu what I asked you. There’s nothing else to do. Thanks.”
He picked up the tablet again and put his mind back to work.
At about ten o’clock, Chi Qiu woke up.
He rubbed his eyes with one hand and went to touch his side with the other, and found that Lu Ming had long been up. Chi Qiu looked around, making sure Lu Ming was not there before picking up his phone to look at the time.
“I actually slept for so long…” Chi Qiu said to himself in disbelief.
Now, Chi Qiu’s throat was hoarse and desperately wanted a glass of water to quench his thirst. He subconsciously reached for the glass of water on the bedside table, only to find that the glass was not in its usual fixed position, it had been placed on the table opposite the bed.
He didn’t have to think about it to know that it must have been placed there after Lu Ming took care of him last night.
Chi Qiu got out of bed and walked to the table. Seeing that there was not much water in the glass, a shallow layer, he tilted his head to drink the remaining water in one go. The little liquid disappeared as soon as he sipped into the mouth, completely failing to achieve the purpose of quenching his thirst.
He wiped his face, but his head was still dizzy. It was only slightly better after he washed up.
Chi Qiu looked in the mirror and really couldn’t remember his gaffe last night.
He only remembered that he seemed to be hugging Lu Ming and said a lot of things, but when he tried to remember, he actually couldn’t remember what he said.
For a while, his brain was confused, so he started washing his face with cold water over and over again.
It was only when he saw the clothes and pants in the dirty clothes basket that he instantly remembered that his tickets were still in his pants pocket. Luckily, Auntie Zhang hadn’t had time to pack the clothes in the dirty clothes basket yet, otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to hide the fact that he went to the art exhibition!
Chi Qiu hurriedly went to look for it, and the tickets were indeed still in his trouser pocket. Lu Ming had not found it yet.
He breathed a sigh of relief and hid the tickets in the drawer where he kept his computer, pushed into the innermost position.
At this time, the bedroom door opened.
The person who came in was Lu Ming. When he saw Chi Qiu standing in front of the drawer, his face was still calm as usual: “Awake?”
“Lu Ming.” Chi Qiu spoke habitually.
Instead of approaching, Lu Ming stood in the doorway and said to him, “It’s already ten o’clock, do you want to have breakfast, or just have lunch later.”
“Lun, lunch, ba.”
Lu Ming’s gaze inadvertently went to the water cup on the table without looking too intently. He quickly averted his gaze and turned around, “Okay, I’ll talk to Auntie Zhang.”
“Lu Ming!” Chi Qiu restlessly stopped in place and called out to him, stammering, “Did I…say anything strange last night?”
Lu Ming answered truthfully, “No.”
Chi Qiu carefully reconfirmed, “Really no?”
“You only asked me who ‘Zhiyan’ was.”
Chi Qiu’s heart skipped a beat. Before he could organize his answer, he heard Lu Ming continue: “He is my classmate when I was studying abroad, and we’re not on good terms.” He repeated what Chi Qiu didn’t hear last night, and instructed again: “If he comes to you, you must tell me. I’ll handle it, you don’t have to pay attention to him.”
Looking at Lu Ming’s completely unsurprising attitude, Chi Qiu was so tangled that he didn’t even know what to answer.
“I…”
“This morning Auntie Zhang told me that there was a ticket for my uncle’s art exhibition in Ji Yanchen’s pants pocket.” Lu Ming said calmly.
Chi Qiu took a breath of cold air and stopped in place, not daring to move.
Lu Ming said, “So, you met Xia Zhiyan at the art exhibition?”
“Xia Zhiyan…Yes, but I didn’t know his last name was Xia, I heard Uncle called him Zhiyan.” One of Chi Qiu’s hands unconsciously clasped together, showing that he was very nervous at the moment: “Lu Ming, I…I didn’t mean to hide it from you.”
Lu Ming took the lead to pave the steps for him: “I went to ask Ji Yanchen, he said he forced you to go there.”
Chi Qiu nodded hurriedly: “Yes! Yanchen said he really wanted to go, so he took me there. I didn’t tell you because you said you didn’t want to go to Uncle’s art exhibition. I was afraid that I would make you think that I was causing trouble. After all, after all, I can’t see it, I’m indeed creating trouble going there…”
It was probably because the alcohol was too strong, Chi Qiu’s words were a little out of tune: “Don’t worry, I didn’t cause trouble for Uncle, I didn’t meet Uncle, either. He didn’t know I was there.”
Hearing Chi Qiu’s confusing explanation, Lu Ming frowned slightly, “I don’t mean that.”
Chi Qiu pinched his fingers and hesitantly apologized, “I’m sorry, I didn’t tell you in advance.”
Lu Ming always kept a distance from him.
It didn’t take long for Lu Ming to plan to end the conversation about the exhibition. He said, “Your voice sounds hoarse.”
“Is it unpleasant to hear? I just got up and haven’t had a drop of water, so my throat is a little dry.” Chi Qiu cleared his throat and coughed twice.
Lu Ming walked up and asked Chi Qiu to take his arm, ready to take him out of the bedroom to get something to eat: “Auntie Zhang has prepared honey water, go drink some.”
This time, he came closer and clearly saw the water glass on the table, and the water in it was gone.
This was a detail that Lu Ming had never noticed before. Perhaps, it had happened countless times before, but only today did Lu Ming truly realize that Chi Qiu, like himself, was maintaining a lie.
His lie was the marriage, Chi Qiu’s lie… if he guessed correctly, it should be his eyes.
