RES Chapter 93

T/N: Today is double update again. If you haven’t read the previous chapter, please do so

The next morning, Chi Qiu woke up at seven o’clock.

He had an unread message on his phone, a voice message sent to him by Chi Lanyan. Chi Qiu clicked on it and after listening to it, he patiently replied to Chi Lanyan with his voice, saying that everything was fine with him.

Afterwards, Chi Qiu stretched and prepared to get up and wash up. He had just lifted the covers when he felt a chill that made him sneeze. He turned on his side and found that it was because he didn’t close the window when he went to bed last night.

The wind blowing in from outside was slightly cool because the temperature had plummeted due to the rain yesterday.

After washing up, Chi Qiu felt a bit cold so he took out a long-sleeved jacket from the closet and put it on. In the trash can at his feet, there was still a letter lying, wet from the rain.

Just yesterday, after Auntie Su went to give Lu Ming the umbrella, Chi Qiu walked to the floor-to-ceiling window in the living room and saw the letter that was left alone on the table in the front yard. Auntie Su probably forgot about it when she cleaned up the table. At that moment, it was constantly being beaten by rain drops, and the thick, smooth envelope paper was gradually being permeated, making dark waves faintly visible.

After staring at it for about half a minute, Chi Qiu rushed into the rain and took the letter back to his room.

Perhaps because he was afraid of being discovered that he was inconsistent, Chi Qiu clenched the envelope tightly and slightly panted, his heartbeat reaching his throat. Raindrops fell from the hair on his forehead as he held the letter in his hand, not knowing what he was doing.

He was confused, the letter in his hand was like a hot potato.

Chi Qiu rescued it from the rain and ruthlessly threw it into the trash can in the room.

Don’t look at it.

A night passed but the envelope was still damp. The contents inside might have been blurred out by the cold rain.

Chi Qiu stared at it, his shoulder sank as he sat silently on the edge of the bed.

Time passed minute by minute. At half past eight, Auntie Su came to call Chi Qiu for breakfast.

A simple bowl of clear soup noodles, accompanied by a poached egg, steamed away the cold in autumn. Chi Qiu drank the soup one spoon after another, without taking a few bites of noodles, while listening to Auntie Su talking about Chi Xia.

“I received a call from Young Miss this morning, asking me to sort out the old books in her room. She will come to pick them up in a few days.” Auntie Su peeled a grapefruit in her hand, removing the thin skin inside and carefully putting the flesh into the preservation box before she handed it to Chi Qiu. “I don’t know if Young Miss is used to the food outside and is living alone well. Mrs. Chi is always worried about her and asks me to make some stewed meat and send it to her. It is good that she will be coming home. I will give it to her directly when she comes over. Save me a trip and I won’t bother her.”

Chi Qiu stuffed a small piece of grapefruit into his mouth and asked: “When will she come around?”

“Next week, ba? She said she’ll come on Saturday morning.”

Chi Qiu nodded his head, planning to not come out in the room then; lest they meet, both of them would be unhappy. In fact, he himself didn’t care about it. It was Chi Xia who always didn’t say anything when she saw him, making the atmosphere awkward.

Chi Qiu put down his chopsticks, and when he wanted to go back to his room, he asked more: “Auntie Su, today…”

“En?”

“Is he still here today?”

Auntie Su waved her hand while wondering in her heart: “No, when I went out to buy food this morning, the guard said he hadn’t seen him today. Don’t worry, Young Master. I did convey your words to him yesterday. Young Master Lu is not a person who can’t understand it, maybe he has figured it out, ba?”

He was turned down time and again. What kind of person would have such a good temper?

Chi Qiu’s eyelashes twitched and the word ‘as expected’ came to his mind. It would be a lie to say he was not disappointed, but the relief in his heart was also true: “I see.”

He went back to his room and closed the door. It was the trash can with only one envelope that burst into his eyes. Chi Qiu walked over it because he was upset. He stared at it again for a while, then he bent down and tore open a notebook beside the bed page after page. Squeezing them into a ball, he threw all of it into the trash can together, covering the envelope.

After doing this, Chi Qiu squeezed his hands, sat down at his desk and opened a novel document in his laptop.

The dense text was arranged in front of Chi Qiu’s eyes, and soon, he got into the mood and concentrated on writing.

At the same time, in his computer, there were some work materials that he asked Ji Feining to get. In recent days, he had been taking time to read and study.

And these materials were the things that would help Chi Qiu to work in his own company in the future. Chi Qiu’s learning ability was actually very strong. Even after so many years of delay, he could still try his best to chew and digest these boring contents.As Ji Feining said, the papers were only the first step after all. To really learn something, he still had to go to the company to learn firsthand.

But Chi Qiu’s situation was special. At present, only by concentrating on the first step could he take his second step.

Originally, Chi Qiu planned that even if he regained his sight, he would not fight for something with Chi Xia.

But since he heard Lin Yuming’s words that day, he was very worried that Chi Xia’s heart would drift further and further away from Chi Lanyan and later completely stand on Lin Yuming’s side.

Chi Qiu knew that he might be overthinking, but no matter what, it was better to be prepared than to be caught off guard when the time came. At least, he had to stand on Chi Lanyan’s side.

Chi Qiu stared at the screen and concentrated on the content.

It was Auntie Su’s knock on the door that interrupted his thoughts: “Young master, the guard said there’s a parcel that you need to sign for, it’s from Mr. Lu Fengshen.”

Chi Qiu didn’t want to have any more involvement with the Lu family that he even dismissed his curiosity and said directly, “Reject it for me.”

“Okay.”

But immediately, Chi Qiu thought about Lu Fengshen’s finding an ophthalmologist for him and his heart softened. He stepped forward to open the door and instead said: “Wait, what did he send me?”

“It’s a painting.”

“Painting?”

Chi Qiu was very puzzled; he did not remember having any interaction with Lu Fengshen in this regard. He asked Auntie Su to inform the guard to let the delivery man move the painting in.

Chi Qiu stood at the door, ‘looking’ at the huge parcel with a serious expression. Auntie Su greeted the two delivery men who moved the painting into the house and helped unpack the parcel.

She got closer to take a look, but when she saw one of the delivery men, she exclaimed, “Young Master Lu?!”

Chi Qiu looked over, only to see Lu Ming wearing a dark blue overalls with a baseball cap. He seemed to be a little embarrassed and helpless. More than that, the fire that ignited in his heart when he saw Chi Qiu again burned his expression alive.

Lu Ming’s eyes had changed, no longer cold, and his gaze was hot, as if he would run to Chi Qiu in the next second. But after all, he was not seventeen-year-old, and Chi Qiu was no longer as innocent as his fifteen-year-old self. From their separation to the meeting at this moment, time had stretched the distance between the two people.

Lu Ming didn’t say anything. Under Chi Qiu’s puzzled eyes, he removed the outer packaging of the painting.

Covered by a curtain, the painting was slightly shorter than Lu Ming. Lu Ming gently tore off a rope, and the curtain fell in an instant. In the tranquility of autumn, ‘Re-engraved Spring Day’ sketched the spring sun in one world, shining brightly.

Chi Qiu’s feet seemed to be glued, he stood motionless in front of him.

Auntie Su couldn’t help but go over and hold Chi Qiu’s hand, explaining to him the awkward scene in front of him: “Young Master, it’s Young Master Lu. He wore the delivery man’s overalls…and brought the painting in.”

Chi Qiu lowered his eyes, his eyes were out of focus. Auntie Su thought it was because his eyes couldn’t see, but only Chi Qiu knew in his own heart that he was afraid to look at Lu Ming anymore.

Lu Ming’s thin body made him uncomfortable, Lu Ming’s haggard face made him upset, and Lu Ming’s pitiful frown made him angry. He couldn’t stand Lu Ming’s appearance of pretending to be weak.

Chi Qiu closed his eyes, and after a long time, his voice was clear and cold, without too much surprise: “Aren’t you ashamed?”

Lu Ming, who didn’t expect that Chi Qiu would take the initiative to speak to him, was very happy to face Chi Qiu’s sarcastic remark.

“As long as I can see you, I’m not ashamed.” Lu Ming’s tone was gentle, a voice that Chi Qiu had never heard in this year. It was so nice. It ran through the clouds into Chi Qiu’s ear and kissed him.

It had been a long time since they had spoken face to face like this, even if Chi Qiu had his head lowered down.

Again, Chi Qiu didn’t look at the painting with his right eyes: “Take the painting back, I don’t want it.”

“This is uncle’s heart. It has nothing to do with me. Can you accept it? Last time you went to the exhibition, Ji Yanchen always wanted to buy this painting. After uncle knew he wanted to buy it for you, he asked me to bring the painting here.”

Lu Ming started talking nonsense, and repeatedly cleared his relationship with the painting. He insisted on leaving the painting here. Along with that, he shamelessly wanted to leave himself too.

He looked at Chi Qiu with sincere eyes, he knew that Chi Qiu could see it, and he hoped that Chi Qiu would look at him.

He said in distress: “Chi Qiu, you’ve lost weight.”

“What’s it to you?” Chi Qiu’s attitude was indifferent towards Lu Ming’s concern. He didn’t want to listen to Lu Ming’s boring words and sidled away, not wanting Lu Ming to continue standing in front of him for a second. “Since the painting is Uncle Lu’s¹he used the words 叔 here. It also means uncle, but you use this uncle for acquaintances or your parents’ friend. Something like that. It is also used as a term of address for men (unrelated to you) who are roughly your father’s age. good intention, you can put it here. Auntie Su, send him out.”

Chi Qiu didn’t even call him ‘Uncle’.²it’s 舅舅. This is what Chi Qiu had been calling Lu Fengshen this whole time. Basically you call your mother’s male siblings 舅舅. Similarly, you don’t use this to call acquaintances / your parents’ friend. So in short, CQ is already drawing the line here.

“Chi Qiu, I…”

“Do you have anything else to do?” Chi Qiu interrupted him, his tone full of feigned impatience.

Lu Ming hesitated and took off his baseball cap. He took out an umbrella from the work bag at his waist. It seemed like a good reason, but also seemed so deliberate: “I’m here to return the umbrella.”

His eyes were slightly red and the iceberg had long since disappeared. Now, there was only a face that was utterly shameless.

Chi Qiu gritted his teeth, really regretting that he had asked Auntie Su to give Lu Ming an umbrella yesterday. He also thought it was funny; the umbrella? Such a crude reason could actually be used by Lu Ming.

“I don’t want the umbrella.” Chi Qiu didn’t want anything related to Lu Ming.

Lu Ming didn’t give up, no matter how Auntie Su persuaded him, he didn’t move a step. He had a hard time getting in, so he didn’t want to leave so soon. “Chi Qiu, this painting is very heavy, can you let me stay and have a cup of tea before leaving?” Today, he wouldn’t ask for anything else, he just needed a cup of tea. He missed Chi Qiu too much.

“You are not welcome to have tea in our house.”

“Then don’t drink anything, I want to talk to you. If you don’t want to talk or listen to me, let me look at you for a while. It won’t be long, because I’ll find a way to come to you every day.”

Lu Ming spoke very bluntly that it made Chi Qiu slightly angry: “Lu Ming, don’t you understand my words?”

“Chi Qiu, I miss you a lot. I went abroad a while ago and I have all my memories back. The answer you want, if it is still valid now, I am very willing to say it.” He repeatedly stressed that if Chi Qiu was willing to listen, he would be willing to speak.

A thousand times, ten thousand times, as long as Chi Qiu was willing to give him this opportunity to speak.

He saved ten years of thoughts, and every word was a change after suffering and struggle, as if today’s him was the one who had truly reunited with Chi Qiu after ten years.

But his behavior made Chi Qiu very annoyed.

Chi Qiu reasonably suspected that there was something wrong with Lu Ming’s brain. Every word he heard today didn’t seem like it could come out of Lu Ming’s mouth, including Lu Ming’s behavior, Lu Ming’s tone of voice, and Lu Ming’s expression.

He pinched the corner of his coat tightly. After thinking about it for a moment, he suddenly smiled sarcastically: “I didn’t even know that people suffering from apathy could actually act.”

The expression was rich, the tone was rich, even the eyes were full of incredible emotions.

Chi Qiu lifted his head and finally looked at Lu Ming, but his eyes were uncontrollably wet: “Why didn’t you act before? Is it because it’s too much effort to act for a blind man?” He twitched the corners of his mouth, “Lu Ming, now you are so fake that it makes me sick.”

Affection for the sake of pretending was cheaper than grass.

• 1
  he used the words 叔 here. It also means uncle, but you use this uncle for acquaintances or your parents’ friend. Something like that. It is also used as a term of address for men (unrelated to you) who are roughly your father’s age.
• 2
  it’s 舅舅. This is what Chi Qiu had been calling Lu Fengshen this whole time. Basically you call your mother’s male siblings 舅舅. Similarly, you don’t use this to call acquaintances / your parents’ friend. So in short, CQ is already drawing the line here.