Wei Qing makes it as far as the elevator bank three times while waiting for Yue Fei.
Each pass, his bones itch and his brain rings with the fear that Yue Fei might be swept away from those promises of his. Especially the promise to return to him. Still his assistant. Still loyal to him. Not seduced to the side of that other, unworthy person. It’s unbearable, to have so many of his fears thrust upon him so unexpectedly. To have the world that he is just starting to feel his place in crash down because of a single call, because of a single person who he knows is capable of stealing Yue Fei away from him. He’s done it before.
Wei Qing is no better at waiting than he is at delayed gratification. He goes back and forth and twice, he even pushes the call button, but he always sends himself back to his office.
Be good.
Yue Fei wants him to be good and to trust him. To wait. So he can’t actually go up, that would be the bad thing to do. He can’t expect Yue Fei to be loyal to him if he can’t even be loyal to these modest expectations that have been set for him. Be good.
His employees probably think he has mental problems. Or was just gifted a fitbit. Or both.
He paces and panics and tells himself, over and over, that even when he was a trash-tier waste, it was years from now before Yue Fei finally gave up on him. Probably… probably, Wei Qiwan is just pissy that he’s in the office, infecting it with his hedonism, or something. But Wei Qing has been good this life! So far! Chaos theory is chaos theory, but he shouldn’t be so unlucky as to have everything unravel already. Not when he’s been so diligent. As long as he’s good, Yue Fei won’t leave him. Right?
Right! He does his best to hypnotize himself.
He alphabetizes the books on his shelves. Just as he’s debating reversing the whole process and organizing by color instead, the door swings open and Yue Fei is back. Back and so handsome, in his heathered suit and warm leather shoes, soft eyes honing in on his nervous actions. Soft eyes that Wei Qing knows are praising him for being good. For staying here and not breaking the espresso machine or storming the top floor or whatever a badly-behaved person would do. Wei Qing bites the inside of his cheek and tries for nonchalance before promptly giving up.
Would it have been better to stay seated at the desk? Ah, too late for regrets regardless.
(Yes, he probably has mental problems).
He stares at Yue Fei, knowing that there’s no point in trying to hide the relief on his face. Dimly, he knows he should be embarrassed. That it’s not manly, or impressive, or anything else seen as good, to rely on another so heavily. Especially not one you pay. But…
It’s Yue Fei. How can he not? He takes a step forward, still not able to tear his eyes away.
“Can we go home then?” He refuses to acknowledge the relieved warble in his voice. The self-hypnotism returns: I am not a child, I am not a child, it is totally reasonable to leave an hour early. I was already planning this, and not at all because I’m afraid of my big, bad brother swooping in and taking you away. I am an adult with adult scheduling concerns and this request is valid!
….Please believe me, even if everything I’m thinking is fake.
Yue Fei does not let him down.
“Yes. Is hotpot acceptable?” Yue Fei gathers their things, logs out his laptop, and tidies the desk on Wei Qing’s behalf. Same as always, this new routine that they’ve carved in these weeks of productivity and possibility. He hums at the newly-organized shelves and feeds an ice cube to the orchid on the coffee table, adjusting it slightly so the light more evenly hits it’s waxy leaves and soon-to-blossom petals.
“Homemade hotpot?” After years of undeath, which is tragically food-free, Wei Qing is only interested in delicious things. Preferably made by Yue Fei’s own two hands. If that makes him a baby, so be it.
“Of course.” Yue Fei is in the mood to baby him, despite all the reasons he shouldn’t.
“Then yes!”
They leave, and Wei Qing’s mood rises with every floor they descend and every block they place between themselves and his brother. He is practically vibrating with excitement as Yue Fei orders the ingredients through courier delivery. Ah, the benefits of being rich. Couriers, private cars, exclusive express elevators… They’re all totally indispensable when it comes to freeing up more moments to spend in companionship with Yue Fei.
Sure enough, Wei Qing starts peeling out of his suit as soon as they enter the private elevator, jacket and vest swiped away by Yue Fei, who does his best impression of a coat rack as Wei Qing unbuttons his collar and messes up his carefully tousled hair, turning it into a more honest version of himself. A good boy, with devil-may-care hair and the kind of please little exhalations that can (and in the past did) herald all manner of trouble. He rolls his newly freed neck and lightly knocks the back of his head against the walls of the elevator.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Blame it on his past profligeration, but even after a month of being good and weeks of working in an office, he finds the feel of fabric tight against his throat uncomfortable, bordering on unpleasant. It’s already a great concession, that he waits this long before taking back the breathing room of loose collars and popped buttons.
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Every workday, he just tutted and refolded the stupidly-expensive pieces before Wei Qing could throw them on the floor. Every workday, he just smiled and watched the numbers climb, as Wei Qing sighed and joked and complained about the discomfort of his tailor-made, luxuriously produced bespoke suit pieces. Sometimes, he even teasingly helped him roll his sleeves, and today, he helps him subdue a rebellious cufflink. Wei Qing considers this great progress. So is the hotpot! Yue Fei definitely knows how much he likes it, and definitely is bribing him and rewarding him at the same time, all for being good.
By the time Wei Qing and Yue Fei are both showered (tragically separate), groceries have arrived and been left in the foyer courtesy of the building attendant. Yue Fei thin slices pork belly and washes sprouts and individually de-veins shrimp while Wei Qing reads a book about crystal healing (as a cover for stealing glances).
Yue Fei misinterprets.
“It will not ready itself any faster, no matter how often you look.” Despite his words, Yue Fei adds the first two slices of pork belly to a skillet and flash-cooks them, rolling them into small snacks for the peeping Wei Qing.
After all, good behavior should be rewarded. And it’s not really spoiling dinner if you’re just eating a component of it earlier than the rest
(Yue Fei: No, I’m still committed to not spoiling him, why do you ask?)
All the ingredients prepared, Yue Fei pulls out their portable hotpot and fills it with the soup base that he’d pre-frozen for just such an occasion. Fortune favors the well-prepared, and Yue Fei prepares the way zealots practice religion. As all the components come together, he uses fresh herbs and splashes of seasoning to spice it up and refresh the taste according to Wei Qing’s preferences rather than his own. It’s a habit so ingrained, he doesn’t even notice.
—
Two hours after that first spike of stress when Wei Qiwan had called Yue Fei up, Wei Qing is eagerly building his meal and trying to share with Yue Fei, even though there’s something very silly, about sharing something with the person that made it and who is already sitting next to you and partaking. He still carefully selects the best morsels to add to Yue Fei’s bowl, saving the meat he cooks to long and mushrooms he dunks too early for his own meal.
Don’t blame him, his brain has had a very taxing day.
And perhaps because of that, even though he wants so very badly to be good and non-confrontational, when Yue Fei is halfway finished with his milder take on the dish, Wei Qing can no longer resist asking.
“Yue Fei? What did my brother want?” He can hear his own weak-willed anxiousness, but if he doesn’t ask, he’ll have nightmares about it.
And ever since his rebirth… His nightmares have been very, very ugly.
Yue Fei sets down his bowl and pats his lips.
“He heard about the yacht and wanted to know if you were okay.”
Wei Qing doesn’t believe it for a second. After all, he’d gotten into enough scrapes in his last life to know that his brother held no concern and even less love for him. Other than thinking he’d seen the man’s shadow at the edge of hospital rooms when he got his stomach pumped and in the haze when he’d come out of an appendicitis surgery, he’d never even been able to hallucinate Wei Qiwan showing up. Hell, he’d be lucky if he’d sent someone to collect his body in the end, rather than just disinheriting him directly.
The subject matter makes his skin itch, and he rubs his neck to force the sensation away.
“Tch. Doesn’t the fact that I was at the office prove that I’m fine? I’m sure he’d care if I died on his boat and risked the resale value, but other-”
He is harshly cut off, and the warmth of their meal blows away like wind over a grave.
“Wei Qing. He’d care no matter what.” There’s a streak of protectiveness in Yue Fei’s voice, not directed at Wei Qing. No, he’s… defending Wei Qiwan. Dammit! Now Wei Qing is panicking. It can’t have already started! He has to make Yue Fei understand. He grips Yue Fei’s hands, pleading with him to understand that no matter what he might have once wanted, Wei Qiwan really, truly, is done with him. Yue Fei can’t bridge this gap, he shouldn’t try, he shouldn’t even look at that person that could so easily steal him away again!
“No! But he won’t, that’s the thing! Trust me, that person does not consider me his brother at all, doesn’t care at all if I live or die! No, hey, let me finish!” He shouldn’t raise his voice like this, but he can’t let Yue Fei be tricked! “He’s trying to steal you! It’s all an act, you can’t fall for it, okay?! He doesn’t care! And if you go, you won’t care anymore either, so you… you have to stay!”
His hands grow hotter and more desperate and he comes perilously close to knocking over the hotpot and turning them both into a scalded mess. He knows that this must look insane, to be this riled up, but Yue Fei doesn’t understand. He’s not jumping at shadows! He knows! He lived it!
“Wei Qing. It was a short conversation. A dressing down about my failure to protect you. That’s all. It’s not a job offer.” Wei Qing is still gripping him. Yue Fei sighs and, even though it is a bad idea, ruffles his hair and pats his head, even bringing him into something that might be called a hug, if you were very, very generous. “And even if it was, I would not take it. Master Wei is the only Wei for me. So Master Wei should relax and finish his dinner.”
…
They end up having to go through breathing exercises, Wei Qing’s palms on Yue Fei’s chest, feeling the pattern of inhales and exhales that he is meant to be mimicking. At least some of the self-help books are useful, it seems.
The explanation and the physical reassurance buys fifteen minutes of peace, but Wei Qing is still fidgety. Dinner is packed up, a movie is put on, but Wei Qing is dreadfully distracted. After all, as much as it twists him up inside, once he’s started asking questions, he finds he can’t bottle himself back up. And he really needs to know:
What could make someone as stalwart as Yue Fei eventually leave him? He can be good, will be good, forever, but he still wants a definitive explanation. Just in case it’s something unbelievably stupid, like salary or living accommodations. Otherwise, he’s afraid that he will spend whatever is left of his life feeling like he is balancing on the edge of a cliff, waiting for the misstep that once more takes everything from him.
He tugs on the blanket and asks.
“Yue Fei?”
“Mmm?”
“What… what would it take for you to leave? Just… for my own edification?”
Yue Fei stays silent and turns to watch him, long enough that Wei Qing starts to fear the inappropriateness of the question. After all, they’re technically in a master-servant relationship. To ask Yue Fei honestly for his limits, especially while they are doing something as harmonious as watching a movie and sharing a blanket, is really… forcing the issue, isn’t it? Counterintuitively, he’s calling attention to the very lines that he is trying to erase, by discussing Yue Fei’s employment.
Wei Qing is ready to nervously apologize when Yue Fei softly answers him.
“Probably… If I knew that I truly could not stop you from doing things that would only lead to bad ends.” Then, I’d go to your elder brother, hopelessly trying and failing to stop it. Will you make me do that, again? Will you make me walk away completely, just like I originally planned? Or will you finally be good to yourself? Treasure your own heart and existence? Can you keep being the you that you have always deserved?
Yue Fei does his best to give Wei Qing a hint. After all, for all his cleverness… On some things, he’s truly thick-headed.
“As long as Master Wei takes care of himself and his image, I will stay by his side and assist him.”
How about that? A promise with no expiration.
—
Wei Qing closes his eyes, feelings complex. Sure enough, it was his own destructiveness that did it. That’s good then. Soul-wrenchingly depressing, but good nonetheless. After all, nothing is more controllable than his own actions. If he can’t control himself, is he even a man? He visibly relaxes, only to decide that this is actually a very good time for one of those pretty heavenly vows that keep finding their way into the palace dramas that he’s been watching.
“Then I will… make sure that never happens. That I’m always someone you can stand beside. So… don’t think about going to others, alright?” He scrambles over the full couch cushion between them (distance, appropriateness, even when sharing a blanket in a dark room) and grasps Yue Fei’s hands again. He probably looks too eager and serious here, like a young knight making some foolish vow, but Yue Fei looks at him-
And smiles, bright and full and open.
“It’s a deal then.”
For all the money in the world, neither Yue Fei nor Wei Qing could tell you how the movie ends.
—
In the next few weeks, Wei Qing releases his death grip on goodness, and Yue Fei becomes a slightly more well-rounded prison warden. It’s amazing what even a little bit of communication can accomplish.
Secure in the knowledge that Yue Fei only ran because of his self-destructive bad behavior, Wei Qing lets out more of his playful side, occasionally even sliding into light brattiness. On non-work days, he sleeps in until he is pulled out of bed by his ankles, instead of forcing himself to be awake and presentable at the unholy hour of seven. At work, he sometimes spoils his dinner with snacks pilfered from Receptionist Xiao, who sneaks him candy and chips when Yue Fei takes bathroom breaks. (Ha, take that, male god! You’re still human!)
He continues to disdain his brother but escalates it into surrealist performance art by sending truly, truly hideous yet saccharine gifts up to the top floor every Friday. It is a very dumb game, but one that he finds endlessly amusing, especially as Wei Qiwan can’t fight back, or refuse him. (He thinks). Yue Fei looks disappointed every time he badmouths Wei Qiwan, so it’s much better to put on an angelic face and endlessly prank him instead! A flawless plan! And a good compromise for not being able to bring his videogames into the office.
First, there was a signed copy of the Minions movie with a request to ‘watch it together sometime, da-ge!’ and an entire pallet of yellow Tic Tacs. Then, a recording of 43 of China’s top 50 Douyu streamers thanking ‘Great God of Money Wei Qiwan’ for the tips and creating special emoji packs to forever honor him, along with copies of every game they stream, with a request to ‘play them all and please carry me, da-ge!’
This week, it is an expensive artisanal durian with a festive felt hat and googly eyes glued on, along with a card about even smelly people being sweet on the inside and prized in some cultures, with a request to ‘walk the streets and drink durian smoothies, da-ge!’. Yue Fei sighs as he looks down at it, but sends it up anyway, with his master’s (evil) well-wishes.
Wei Qing is drawing a line in the sand that no one but he understands.
Wei Qiwan can have anything he wants, other than Yue Fei.
And hey, sex and partying being replaced with the occasional phone sex (and tragically, nothing else) leaves Wei Qing with a lot of free time. He even finally figured out how to kill dragons! So now, he has to make his own fun, and Wei Qiwan is really the only possible choice for malicious prankage. Especially because if he retaliates or blows up like Wei Qing is expecting, he’ll definately be the one that ends up looking bad! His demeanor will collapse, and Yue Fei will totally avoid him!
For his part, Yue Fei lets it stand.
Even if sometimes, he has to turn around and organize shelves, to avoid pinching Wei Qing’s cheeks or threatening to spank him over this adorable level of innocent puckishness. In his last life, Wei Qing wouldn’t even say his brother’s name, and his idea of a prank was to leave Wei Qiwan’s contact information at the scene of accidents and sign him up for illegal gambling books. In comparison, this remedial arts and crafts is positively angelic. An offer of an (admittedly bizarre) way forward, even if Wei Qing himself can not recognize the overtures hidden under the satire of these ‘presents.’
Not to mention, Yue Fei knows Wei Qiwan. He’s willing to bet his entire year’s salary that that false iceberg has every single sarcastic card and non-perishable gift carefully preserved somewhere in his penthouse. His proof? Other than spending a decade helping him avenge the didi he very much loved, for all his idiocy in expressing it?
Two days ago, they ran into one another in the elevator and Wei Qiwan offered him a yellow tic-tac. From a half-finished packet. Yue Fei, who was being infected by Wei Qing’s bad taste, had accepted. Even escalated afterward, stone-faced and seemingly earnest. “Good taste. Would President Wei be willing to give me the whole pack? He has more, I imagine?”
There were 288 packs in a pallet, as Yue Fei had found out when making the order. It should be nothing to hand over a single half-finished one, no? Expected, even. Natural generosity towards a subordinate!
But Wei Qiwan had made the ridiculous choice to hide the 99 cent candy in his Armani suit pockets.
Probably, he was keeping the empty containers piled up somewhere like a deranged raccoon. What a pair of hopeless weirdo brothers he’d ended up entangled with. Maybe Wei Qiwan could make a recycled gingerbread house with them, closer to Christmas? He’d suggest red and green ones for a future gift, to give the artist a greater color palette to work with.
….Psha.
Yue Fei had ended up getting off six floors early and taking the stairs. Otherwise, he would have ended up laughing in Wei Qiwan’s face and inviting him to a playdate, and that was Not Appropriate Assistantship. Especially not since the elevators were electronically monitored and it would be bad if his boss’s boss started beating him.
Still, it had been a good sign. Of the ice thawing between them, even if Wei Qing didn’t realize he was the one supplying the heat. That teasing was a form of intimacy, for all the sneers and snickers he wore while engaging in it. Not that Yue Fei will let him in on it. After all, at the end of the day, it is Wei Qing’s trauma, and only he can choose how to process it. If he wishes to hate his brother forever, that is his right. Even for all that Yue Fei understands Wei Qiwan, if it came down to it, he would stand with Wei Qing. Evne against reason. But from where he’s standing…
He thinks that somewhere, buried not quite as far down as Wei Qing likes to imagine, he’s still very much that little kid, chasing after his da-ge, eager to be spun around and acknowledged by him. Maybe the little kid wants to throw rocks and set a few closets on fire first, but if Wei Qiwan is capable of repenting… ah, he should probably just let him do it and then get on with the pampering.
Author’s Corner:
Wei Qing has learnt how to be a little shit without drawing any aggro from Yue Fei (even corrupting him a bit!), my boy is growing up.
Meanwhile, Wei Qiwan continues to be a tree stump.
First ten chapters are now up! After a week+ of once a day, currently going to the posted schedule of 2x a week, though I might pick up once the novel is officially announced in discord to add more meat to the dish.
man i can’t wait to see wei qing find all the sarcastic cards on display on the fridge 😂
Mooooore 👀
Think that Yue Fei will note down every crack in Wei Quiwan behavior and then tease him mercilessly in the future fufufufufu 😈
Thanks for the chapter !
A tree stump with a pallet of yellow tic-tacs! Was there a subtle acknowledgement in offering one to Yue Fei 🤔
Ok let me say this:
Ahem English is not my first language. It took me many English novel reading to get where I am today. And your writing is making me doubt my existence. Do I even know English???? Was everything I knew a lie??!
I ..mean ..What the fuck does bespoke, scuffed, mezzanine, satire etc even mean. I literally have to search the meaning of a word every sentence.
My dear Author please have mercy. Forgive me. Let me live in the fantasy that I am a great English speaker.
Thank you ….
You could take it as a vocabulary exercise! Learn all sorts of new words to shock and wow people. Win internet arguments. Or, if it’s truly not for you… maybe in a few years, you’ll come back and have learned all sorts of new things!I am a native English speaker, but not a native English reader (yay bilingualism), so I get that vocabulary can seem like an endless mountain. But I think that richness of language can add to a work– and add to our own sense of expression, so I stand behind it.
Whether this ends up being too tiring to continue to read or not, thank you for giving it a try!
Of course I’ll continue to read.
It’ll be a little troublesome for my little brain but I’ll get over it.
Don’t think I’ll learn much though my brain only has so much space…
¯_(ツ)_/¯
Aw, then I’m glad!
I believe in you and your brain’s space! Jiayou!
ᕙ(＠°▽°＠)ᕗ
Suddenly I am feeling so much more hopeful regarding my brain.
🥰
💖
Im enjoying this a lot author! But im wondering what happened with the Wei Qiwan from the first life? If I didn’t read wrong, he stayed behind and didn’t take the path to reincarnation to grant Yue Fei and Wei Qing a second chance with their memories, but then, is the Wei Qiwan we see now a different one than the first life? Im a bit confused, but maybe this is addressed in next chapters? Thank you 🙂
Ah, thank you for reading, and I’m glad you’re enjoying it!
The Wei Qiwan you see now is the same as the one from the first life– You can think of it as Yue Fei and Wei Qing being given a chance to ‘re do’ this lifetime and rewind it. To pay for that, Wei Qiwan gave up his chance to rewind, and also gave up all his future lives. So the him that you see here is the him from the first world, a him with no memory of the deal he struck and no idea that this is his last life. ….But that’s not as depressing as it sounds, I promise!
I quite like the tree 🌳 stump. Something wrong with me???
I was crying, I laughed so hard at the pranks 😂😂 and Yue Fei too, he is getting corrupted 😂
Wei Qing is so cute; being all bratty in the office 🤭 I am also sure that Wei Qiwan won’t have anything against Yue Fei getting together with his didi… if he really “secretly” loves his brother, he must appreciate Yue Fei’s loyalty to Wei Qing a lot.