TL: Hua
Ye Rongxu hung up the phone and looked at Qin Chaoyan, who was sitting in front of him. The other party looked away at some point; his gaze fell on the blank wall not far away, his thoughts unknown.
His profile was sharp, and his black hair fell on his eyebrows. When he didn’t speak, he looked very cold.
Perhaps he noticed that Ye Rongxu had finished the call, so he quickly turned his gaze back and looked at the pale and beautiful face of the boy in the wheelchair, frowned slightly, and asked, “Well?”
“What?” Ye Rongxu was stunned for a moment and didn’t react for a while.
When he realized what he was saying, he hesitated, raised his delicate chin slightly, and said, “Okay, I promise you, you can start.”
Then he controlled the mechanical leg support and raised his calves, looking like he was waiting to be served.
This was the protagonist’s own request, he thought.
Qin Chaoyan’s dark eyes looked deeply at him, as if to confirm the authenticity of his words.
After a moment, he grabbed the young master’s thin calf and placed it on his knees, and his slender fingers easily circled the other’s white and thin ankle.
Ye Rongxu pinched his fingertips reflexively, and his body was slightly tense, but he soon realized that this was not a dream, and Qin Chaoyan would not dare to do anything to him now.
So he gradually relaxed again, like a boneless cat, lazily nestling in the wheelchair.
Qin Chaoyan lowered his gaze and said nothing. He pressed his slightly calloused fingertips on the white instep, wandering along the dark blue blood vessels, and finally landing on the round toes.
The bones were slender and fragile, just like the young master who was nestling in the wheelchair.
His knuckles pressed against the acupuncture points of his sole, but he didn’t dare to use too much force, always feeling that if he used a little more force, he could break the other’s delicate bones.
Ye Rongxu didn’t feel anything, plus Qin Chaoyan’s gaze was calm and indifferent, unlike the bodyguard who had offended him just now, so he didn’t feel much discomfort.
Besides, he had been in a wheelchair for a long time and had long been accustomed to having his legs and feet massaged in order to prevent severe muscle atrophy.
If the bodyguard’s eyes had not been too explicit just now, reminding him of some bad experiences, he would not have reacted so strongly.
Seeing Qin Chaoyan holding his feet and remaining motionless with lowered eyes, Ye Rongxu found the acupuncture point map in his mobile phone, handed it to him, and reminded: “Press according to the picture; don’t press too hard.”
Qin Chaoyan looked up at him; his dark eyes didn’t show any emotions, and his fingertips with thin calluses began to caress his thin white feet.
Just after pressing twice, the phone suddenly rang again.
Qin Chaoyan looked up, and he saw that it was Qin Jingxu.
He pursed his lips, and his face darkened.
Ye Rongxu frowned when he saw that the person calling was his nominal fiancé.
The book in his dream stated that he liked Qin Jingxu and was dealing with Qin Chaoyan for Qin Jingxu, yet the latter was just using him. When he thought of this, he suddenly had a stomachache and didn’t want to hear the other party’s voice at this moment.
He directly pressed the reject button, but soon, Qin Jingxu called again.
Ye Rongxu frowned and waited for the phone to stop ringing. However, not long after the ringing stopped, the other party called again persistently.
Qin Chaoyan looked at him strangely.
Ye Rongxu was annoyed for a while, but finally answered the call.
Although he had a complicated impression of Qin Jingxu because of the dream, in reality, at least for now, his relationship with the other party was actually okay.
“Xiao Xu, are you feeling better?” Qin Jingxu’s voice soon came from the phone, warm and friendly—the same feeling he gave when they met face-to-face.
Qin Chaoyan lowered his head slightly, and a hint of irony flashed across his eyes.
Ye Rongxu held the mobile phone that was almost half the size of his face with his slender white fingers and curled up in the wheelchair, saying in a sullen voice, “I’m fine.”
Qin Jingxu seemed to chuckle and asked, “Are you angry because I didn’t make it to your birthday party? Why are you still so temperamental, like when you were a child? Okay, okay, I apologize to you. There was a traffic jam last night; that’s why I couldn’t make it. The gift has been delivered to your house today. Don’t be angry, you stingy guy. No one will like you if you are always angry.”
He made it sound like he was pampering him. Ye Rongxu didn’t have many friends, and because he was often hospitalized, he didn’t have many opportunities to interact with his peers and never felt that something was wrong.
Until he had that dream.
Combined with some situations in the dream, he suddenly found that when Qin Jingxu talked to him alone, he often inadvertently mentioned some of his shortcomings.
For example, he always says “your health is not good,” “why are you sick again?” “bad temper,” “arrogant nature,” and then it is followed by a tolerant tone: “I really can’t do anything about you, but it’s okay; I don’t hate it.”
Often, when he said this, Ye Rongxu would subconsciously think, I am indeed in poor health, have a bad temper, get angry easily, and like to act childish.
Then he would feel embarrassed to get angry again or sad about his poor health…
Something is wrong. Whether he is in good health or has a bad temper, does Qin Jingxu need to say whether he hated or liked it? His father and grandparents never say anything.
Ye Rongxu suddenly realized: He is gaslighting me!
On the phone, Qin Jingxu’s voice continued to come out, this time with some apology: “By the way, I heard that Chaoyan pushed you into the swimming pool at the birthday party and caused you to be hospitalized? I’m really sorry. I apologize to you on his behalf…”
Qin Chaoyan suddenly looked up, and a sharp light flashed in his black eyes.
Ye Rongxu already didn’t want to continue the call after realizing that Qin Jingxu might be deceiving him, but when he heard this, he couldn’t help but frown and interrupt, “Why are you apologizing for him?”
In the past, every time Qin Jingxu mentioned Qin Chaoyan in front of him, he was always apologizing to him on behalf of Qin Chaoyan, saying that the other party didn’t like him and hated him.
In addition, he did have some grievances with Qin Chaoyan, and over time, he got used to such rhetoric.
But this time he knew very well that Qin Chaoyan didn’t deliberately push him into the water. In fact, the other party came to apologize to him at first, and because of his words, he stood outside for most of the day and got soaked in the rain.
“Because of his background, my brother didn’t have a good life before. His mother was a mistress, and he has a somewhat grim and paranoid nature. Perhaps because you and I were engaged, he always targeted you…”
Qin Jingxu’s voice continued.
Qin Zhaoyan’s expression was slightly cold, and the action of pressing the acupoints unconsciously became heavier.
The more Ye Rongxu listened, the weirder his expression became.
He remembered that Qin Jingxu in his dream was a two-faced person and that the other party didn’t miss his birthday party because he was stuck in a traffic jam.
He actually returned to China the night before, but he was with his lover all the time. He did plan to go to the birthday party last night, but he was stopped by his lover, who was pretending to be sick.
Ye Rongxu didn’t think he really loved Qin Jingxu like the book described him.
In fact, he spent most of his time in the hospital from birth to the age of eighteen. He had very few friends, and Qin Jingxu was one of them. In addition, the two families were old acquaintances, so their relationship was naturally good.
His greatest goodwill towards Qin Jingxu came from the fact that the other party had saved him when he was a child and nearly crippled his leg for him.
But that was not love.
He had only just reached adulthood and had spent most of his short eighteen years of life afflicted by illness. He hadn’t really cared to think about whether it was affection, nor did he have any concept of it.
What’s more, Qin Jingxu left the country two years ago and rarely came back during that time. They hardly saw each other in those two years.
Two years ago, Ye Rongxu was only sixteen years old, and he didn’t know anything about love. The engagement never really crossed his mind most of the time. Occasionally, when he was mentioned by Qin family members in a joking manner, he did think of breaking off the engagement with Qin Jingxu.
He once told Qin Jingxu that he only regarded him as a brother and hoped that the engagement would be canceled.
But Qin Jingxu just smiled and said, “Xiao Xu, you are still young. This is a matter between the adults of the two families. Wait until you grow up and understand what love is, then we’ll talk about it.”
Then he waited until now.
Ye Rongxu originally felt that those were just dreams; there was no evidence, and he couldn’t ask.
But now, listening to the gentle but hypocritical voice coming from the other end of the phone, he finally couldn’t help interrupting: “Qin Jingxu, were you really stuck in traffic last night?”
Qin Jingxu paused and finally realized that something was wrong.
Because the two families were old acquaintances, Ye Rongxu used to call him “Brother Jingxu” and never called him by his full name.
He felt vaguely uneasy in his heart but still maintained a smile: “Xiao Xu, what do you mean by this?”
Ye Rongxu frowned. “Weren’t you with someone named Shu Ming last night? At the Clear Water Bay Villa.”
Shu Ming was the lover of Qin Jingxu in the dream, and it seemed that they had just gotten together.
Qin Chaoyan heard the words and raised his head slightly to look at him, seeming a little surprised.
Qin Jingxu’s breathing also paused. Perhaps because he was only nineteen years old right now, not as scheming as in the dream, or it might be that he was used to how easy it is to deceive Ye Rongxu, he couldn’t adapt to the other party’s sudden questioning for a while.
He instantly lowered his voice and blurted out, “You sent someone to follow me?”
Ye Rongxu: “…” It was really true.
After Qin Jingxu said that, he quickly reacted and said in an anxious voice: “Xiao Xu, you misunderstood. He and I are just friends…”
Ye Rongxu suddenly felt that this was quite tedious.
In fact, if Qin Jingxu really likes someone else, just tell him, and he will cancel the engagement. In any case, he doesn’t like him romantically.
He even mentioned this matter before, but Qin Jingxu himself didn’t agree.
Not only did he not agree, but he always joked that when they grew up, they would get married and that he didn’t mind him being a little sickly boy.
Ye Rongxu: pua, cpu, ktv, ufo, icu!1A bunch of Chinese Internet slang and curses 1, PUA = mind control, aka gaslighting. 2, CPU = brainwashing you 3, KTV = Sell you behind your back 4, UFO = an outsider 5, ICU = Someone who makes you feel sick.
I’m so angry!
He didn’t care who Qin Jingxu liked, but he was disgusted that the other party had a lover but still wanted to keep the engagement with him and treated him like a fool.
“Qin Jingxu, let’s cancel the engagement; I’ll tell my dad.” After saying that, he didn’t listen to the other party’s explanation and hung up the phone directly.
Qin Jingxu paused for a second and soon called again, but Ye Rongxu blocked him directly this time.
After dealing with the phone, Ye Rongxu raised his head and saw Qin Chaoyan looking at him strangely.
Ye Rongxu: “…”
Although he didn’t like Qin Jingxu, the young master was still a little embarrassed when the big devil, who would torture him in the future, saw him being cheated on.
He forgot to cultivate his character again, frowned, and glared angrily at the other person. “What are you looking at?”
Qin Chaoyan didn’t say anything, slowly retracted his gaze, and pressed his knuckles hard against the delicate skin on the bottom of his feet.
“Wu,” Ye Rongxu’s eyes instantly seeped with tears as he felt pain.
He was not completely numb below the knees and could feel some pain. He just didn’t know whether it was hot or cold.
Perhaps Qin Chaoyan used too much stregth. He couldn’t help but glare at the other person and ask, “Why are you pressing so hard?”
Qin Chaoyan’s face was expressionless. “It’s only effective when you use more force.”
Ye Rongxu: “…” Revenge! This petty guy is probably taking revenge.
The other party was like this in the dream. He can hate him for four or five years with just a little grudge.
“Okay, you don’t have to press anymore.” Ye Rongxu bent down and hugged his calf, trying to pull it back, saying, “You go back; I will tell Uncle Qin that I have forgiven you.”
Qin Chaoyan raised his eyes slightly, his slender five fingers still holding his thin ankle bone.
Before he could let go, the door of the ward was suddenly pushed open.
Ye Boxuan hurried over, his tone unstable: “Xu Xu, are you okay…”
Before he finished speaking, he saw the situation in the ward and was stunned for a moment.
