Li Daiyu’s project revitalizes the entire office.
Wang Peihong finally has something to lead, Zhou Zitan something new to code, Zhao Zongrong has long-silent contacts to reach out to and poll and shmooze and chat about grandchildren and daughters and koi fish. Xiao Meiling calls old clients and surveys them about their needs, Wu Fenju cross-references everything while Li Daiyu descends into full mad-scientist mode.
It’s almost like they’re a real research and development team.
Three days a week, they even have a boss!
Wednesday through Friday, Wei Qing hovers on the edge of their little tasks, asking questions and developing his own knowledge and greasing the wheels for whatever they might need to be more successful and feel more supported.
Probably, he is over-compensating for his brother’s indifference towards his own projects. But whatever the psychology behind it, Wei Qing’s odd mix of hands-on, hands-off management is enough to endear him to the cautious team that he’d spent so long playing dead in front of. After just over a month of this, he has transformed this team of professionals into kindergartners eager to show dad what they did at school, all vying for him to stick their work on the refrigerator.
Given that Wei Qing literally takes a picture of Li Daiyu’s first run of misfit robots and hangs it in the breakroom with a heart-shaped magnet, the comparison is a fair one. Competition is stiff for top door spots, with some people (Wang Peihong, you know who you are) actually bringing in pictures of their cats to sell meng and increase their chances of breakroom-bound fame and fortune.
Minor electrical fires and arguments over customizable faceplates aside, things proceed smoothly. Smoothly enough that it’s suspicious. Or maybe Wei Qing is just incapable of keeping his face out of this gift horses’ mouth. Not trusting his own judgment, he asks Yue Fei.
“You think it’s a trap?”
“Not exactly. Not like Ms. Li is a plant or anything. More that… I’m not sure I believe the universe is capable of allowing something I care about to go well, even if I’m only tangentially related to it.”
Wei Qing sighs and moves to investigate the beginnings of breakfast.
Yue Fei allows him to steal blackberries as he prepares waffles. Ever since Wei Qing started doing the dishes, Yue Fei has been finding more and more recipes that create messes. Not just because he thinks Wei Qing is cute brandishing a scrub brush and getting impossibly wet every time he forgets that he left the spray nozzle on. It’s also for routine or a sense of accomplishment or something. Definitely that. Ahem-
“The project is only happening because of the environment you’ve created, and the talent you curated. You saw the potential in Ms. Li years ago.” Just because you abandoned her for a three-year shame spiral doesnt’ discount the good choices you made before. “You’re not tangential; their success is yours.”
If Wei Qing was a cat, he’d be purring. As a human, he is sadly restricted to ducking his head and eating through his blush. Yue Fei flips the waffle press and continues:
“Master Wei shouldn’t catastrophize. School, dates– you’ve done very well at almost everything, or at least… accomplished your goals.” He tuts, probably thinking about the goals that had been accomplished on certain rooftops and private jets and once, in a helicopter with no doors. “Your elder brother rejecting one project should not be the default that you measure yourself against.”
You have always been more than that moment, more than that one hurt. Hopefully, you see that now. And then, to keep breakfast from becoming too serious, Yue Fei inserts some light ribbing into their impromptu psychological counseling.
“Unless Master Wei attempts to become a video game streamer, I believe he will experience success.”
Wei Qing easily picks up the thread and scoffs with mock indignation.
“I- The game is glitched!”
“It is not. You are uncoordinated.” Deeply, impressively so.
Perhaps it’s because Master Wei’s academic pursuits kept him from engaging in sports as a kid.
“Not everyone has your abilities! You can’t judge us mortals by your standards!” Wei Qing points at the perfect waffles that are being deposited on his plate as if they were shaped by hand and not the result of a very expensive, very unnecessary piece of automatic kitchen machinery.
Yue Fei whisks the cream until it is properly whipped and smirks.
Indeed, Wei Qing’s coordination is a one in a million occurrence; he could probably be somehow taken down by even the single flip required of their waffle maker. He chuckles and deposits dollops on Wei Qing’s plate. Really, really hopeless. That’s why it’s good that he’s here to take care of such things. Otherwise, his master might very well starve.
—
Eventually, the R&D department’s momentum reaches a point where senior management can no longer be avoided. Which, if you ask him, Wei Qing finds to be the height of bullshit. Even if the title is mostly empty, he’s a fucking Vice President. His name is on the side of the building! It’s a name he shares with a certain asshole, but still! He should be able to greenlight an entire fucking production run without Wei Qiwan emailing him about it.
After all, it’s not like he’s trying to launch Skynet.
Yet the email still comes. From Wei Qiwan’s receptionist to Wei Qing’s, a request for a proposal and update, the meeting already scheduled for two weeks hence, with no option for refusal given. Meddling prick. Wei Qing expresses his displeasure via his weekly brotherly gift:
This time, it’s a rush-printed standing wooden calendar positively brimming with pictures of their childhood, printed onto metal plates that will probably outlive them all. (Wei Qing hopes to make it as inconvenient as possible for his brother to throw away even these 2D versions of him). January is that first picture of a twelve-year-old Wei Qiwan with a freshly-wrapped dumpling that was newborn Wei Qing, December is Wei Qing’s college graduation, smiling and hugging a Wei Qiwan who had still pretended to be proud of him.
Naturally, there is nothing from the last three years.
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.
He sends it up the service elevator with a saccharine (scathing) note filled with double-speak about how nice it was that President Wei was taking an interest, and since he was so very sweetly proactive in scheduling things, it was clear that he would get plenty of use out of the three-foot tall calendar/conversation piece. Wei Qing even places little crystal-studded party hats around those birthdays they never celebrate together anymore, and the parental anniversary that they painfully pretend through every year.
Aera oec ojwlis atlcur.
Elmt qfbqif gfjiis xcbk tbk ab qijs, jt.
Qfl Hlkjc klii qgbyjyis pera tjnf rbwfbcf ogbw wjlcafcjcmf abrr la lc atf ujgyjuf, yea jrrfwyilcu atf atlcu tfiqfv Qfl Hlcu mjiw vbkc jcv vfji klat atf ibbwlcu wffalcu, rb… kbgat la. Qbgat la ja vbeyif atf qglmf, lo tf kjr yflcu tbcfra. Lf jvvr j ybk jcv mjiir la vbcf.
Yue Fei sends it up, knowing perfectly well that Wei Qiwan will treasure this latest ‘attack.’
Probably, it will become one of his most cherished possessions. A reminder of the good times that he longed for, even as he did everything in his power to prevent them from coming again. Honestly, this pair of brothers… It’s hard to imagine that a single relationship, filled with good intentions, can contain so many hurts. Or that any two people in the world can be so very talented at screwing their gold-plated lives up.
Wei Qing and Yue Fei’s attention turns back to the meeting, and all that needs to be prepared for it. Reports, projections and budgets, statements of intent and ideas for future expansions. Cleaned up prototypes and proprietary code. Yue Fei supposes they will find out together if Wei Qiwan took his warning seriously. If he’ll find a way to keep Wei Qing safe without pushing him over the edge. He hopes so.
Yue Fei refuses to see him fall again.
—
Anticipation is a relativistic force.
Time is a crawl when waiting for something good, a gallop when approaching something you dread. At least, that’s Wei Qing’s experience, and it explains why he blinks and finds himself out of his love-nest and into an elevator, fiddling with his cuffs and heading up to be destroyed by his brother. At least this time, Yue Fei is at his back. If his emotional devastation is all it takes to set Yue Fei against his brother, Wei Qing is happy to be humiliated. Well, maybe not happy, but certainly willing.
And it is with this self-sacrificing mentality that he enters the dragon’s den.
Fucking Wei Qiwan, scheduling this ambush in his office, instead of somewhere nice and neutral. Someplace that Wei Qing hadn’t excitedly helped decorate as a twelve year old, running around and suggesting Star Wars posters where diplomas and awards should go. It hadn’t been embarrassing at the time, but it was now that he was stepping back into the wood-paneled office that he’d grown up playing in. Sitting across from the desk that he’d treated as a fort as he scurried between his father’s legs and played with desk ornaments.
Side-eyeing the sofa that he’d fall asleep on as he revised for exams under his brother’s gentle supervision, tracing the steps to the ensuite where he’d sometimes wake up, when he fell asleep but Wei Qiwan still had important people to meet with. His wobbly little seal is probably still inked into the underside of the sink, from where he’d naughtily practiced it when he was still small enough to fit in the cabinet.
It is a new type of violation, for Wei Qiwan to hurt him in a place as nostalgic as this.
Like he’s not content in ruining their future but wishes to pollute their past as well, invading those memories and salting the earth around them. At least last time– with the prospectus, the betrayal had taken place in a soulless conference room, easy enough to never enter again.
But this-
This would hurt in a way Wei Qing had not expected, and could not fully prepare himself for. He digs his fingers against the cognac-colored leather of his chair and finally makes eye contact with the man across from him. Jerk looked too well-rested, for all his evil machinations.
Looks at him with something that does not quite rise to the level of a smile, as he offers him coffee and biscuits, like they’re friends and not brothers with two lifetimes of enmity between them. Wie Qing finds it offensive, but- Just as he’s about to sarcastically refuse, he sees Yue Fei organizing their notes in the seat next to his.
Right. The high road is key. To prove he’s the better option, he can’t refuse even a false and perfunctory peace offering.
Wei Qing clears his throat and smiles, almost lifelike. Sure, he’s smiling at a mote of dust hovering at the corner of Wei Qiwan’s shoulder, but Yue Fei won’t be able to tell from where he’s sitting. He can avoid and gladhand with the best of them. Probably.
“Coffee would be great, thanks.”
He’s prepared to suffer through something as bitter as his feelings, but Wei Qiwan makes the confounding choice to make it himself– And stranger still, remembers exactly the way Wei Qing takes it. No cream, no sugar, but enough honey to drain an entire beehive. Wei Qing is left flat-footed by the intimacy of his ge remembering his unique preferences. When he takes the cup and automatically says ‘Thanks,’ it’s more genuine and unstudied than anything in their last dozen conversations.
Something in his heart thumps back to life, and against all his better judgements, a sliver of pathetic hope breaks out of the box that he’d very carefully locked it in. Wei Qing sits and sips, well-behaved again. Patterns are really hard to-
Wei Qing’s reverie is broken by Yue Fei laying a plastic-covered folio in his lap, the talking points highlighted and all the quick-facts ready and cross-referenced. A thinner version of the same packet is placed in the center of the desk, facing Wei Qiwan.
“President Wei, as you are aware, the Research and Development Division has been working on an expansion of Wei Securities’ services. Please look over the presentation, Vice President Wei is ready to answer any questions you have about the implementation of the project.”
Yue Fei smoothly moves the impetus. It is not down to Wei Qing to present, it is the responsibility of Wei Qiwan to read and ask thoughtful questions– within a framework that assumes the project will continue on, rather than leaving them in the position of being accepted or rejected.
Wei Qing really loves him.
Loves him for noticing everything, for anticipating everything, for caring enough to try to protect him in even this strange minefield of past hurts and subordinate relationships and things that will remain unsaid, probably until they are all long dead.
No one, not even he himself, has ever cared for him like this.
How could he ever do anything but fall under such conditions?
—
Wei Qiwan is a fast reader. There are a few notes scribbled on the side and a highlighter even joins the fray at one point, but by the time Wei Qing is just about ready to have his coffee refreshed, Wei Qiwan is wrapping up the last few pages, reading about next steps and potential pitfalls.
Yue Fei brushes against his fingers as he takes his mug and refills it, Wei Qing risks his heart and his sanity by looking up and trying to read Wei Qiwan’s face. Well… He looks like he’s actually thinking, and he’s not disgusted? Which means this is already going far better than their last project-based meeting had.
Where’s the scorn that he’d tried so very hard to steel himself against?
When Wei Qing had given the R&D team his parameters for project proposals, he had tried to ensure whatever resulted would be greenlit, unassailable even. But it’s still strange, to see that it might be working. For the worst-case scenario of Wei Qiwan lighting it on fire in front of his face not actually materializing. Maybe laughing and kicking him down some non-existent steps while calling him trash?
(Okay, yes, maybe he’s been watching too many palace dramas).
Turns out, absent an actual attack, his fight or flight response is heavily weighted towards freezing. So he sits and drinks a second cup of coffee and wonders why he’s getting less tense, rather than more, the more caffeine he takes in. It can’t be that he’s growing comfortable in his brother’s domain; that’s impossible.
There isn’t a place for him here, not anymore.
Drugs maybe?
He’s going to go with the coffee being drugged. But Yue Fei is still next to him, and the lack of depressed terror is nice, so he goes with it. Anyway, it would be pretty hypocritical to cause a fuss, given how many substances he’s willingly ingested in the past. Worst comes to worst, it’s not like getting your stomach pumped is all that bad.
—
While Wei Qing crafts an entirely ridiculous narrative in his head, Wei Qiwan re-reads the plan and organizes his notes. All the while, Yue Fei impassively watches them both. At least, his face is impassive. Internally, he’s calling on his experience from his last life, to judge Wei Qiwan’s likely response, and his experience from both lives to set up contingency plans for if Wei Qiwan disappoints him and dares disdain his Wei Qing again.
Er. His master, Wei Qing. Not his Wei Qing.
Wei Qing doesn’t belong to him.
Anyway, there’s always a trip to someplace nice and sunny, or at the very least, all his favorite dishes. Yue Fei wonders how much it would cost to get invited on the set of one of those stories of his and have the actors share a meal and sign scripts for him?
Yes, if Wei Qiwan makes the wrong choice, Yue Fei will take Wei Qing home and fill him up with pork belly and good wine, then make the travel arrangements while he sleeps (hopefully well-behaved) in his own bed, or even his lap– he can be flexible, when he needs to be.
No matter how melancholic he wakes up, if there’s an itinerary of pampering and excitement laid out before him, Wei Qing will be distracted! Probably? At least, he won’t run off and drug himself silly before offering his body to anyone slimy enough to take advantage of someone out of their mind and in no condition to consent.
Maybe a massage, although- Ah, of course, he’ll need to vet the person first. Can hardly do it himself, with Wei Qing’s confused jumble of feelings, but allowing someone with unclean motives to touch his body is even more impossible, especially when he’s vulnerable and looking for-
“It has potential.”
Wei Qiwan leans back and interrupts two very disparate, very excessive trains of thought.
“What?” Wei Qing is so cute when he’s confused like this. It’s like he just woke up.
Wei Qiwan motions to the neatly-collated papers. “Your department’s idea. It seems deployable and realistic.”
Yue Fei lets out the breath he is holding and sends a subtly grateful look Wei Qiwan’s way. He chose correctly. His warning mattered then. Thank god he doesn’t need to spend his night conducting background checks on masseuses.
—
Wei Qiwan repeats himself, but the words make less sense.
His brother? Calling something that came from him ‘realistic?’ Since the fuck when? Was this really down to the shield of Li Daiyu’s name on it, or had his attempts at being non-threatening really been successful? Wei Qing shakes himself awake, but the dream continues, so even though he should perhaps know better-
He’s ready to be hurt again!
He leans forward and finds a coaster for the mostly-empty coffee that he’s been cradling, ready to answer any questions at all. To redeem himself, even as he pretends he doesn’t care about his brother’s good opinion. Yes, this absolutely isn’t about his need to be praised or cared for, or acknowledged. It’s just a boss doing their best for their employees out of altruistic benevolence. Nothing to do at all with him!
He hopes he does a good job, he wishes that he’d prepared even harder, had even more hour-long conversations with Li Diayu and Zhou Zitan about the ins and outs of development and future horizons. He wants to be able to use whatever talents he has to bring back a shiny seal of approval for everyone who was dumb enough to believe in him.
“Great! Anything you have questions about, I can answer! And if not, it’s only an elevator ride to reach the rest of them, Ms. Li in particular could spend a whole week explaining the entire project.”
“A real week, or your week?” Wei Qiwan walks back the automatic sarcasm as soon as he spouts it. His hands even fly up in a ‘don’t shoot’ gesture. “Don’t be pissed. It’s fine, clearly your department is functioning well regardless.” President Wei visibly relaxes, when Wei Qing doesn’t grab the mug and chuck it at his head.
“That said, I do have questions. From a security perspective, what’s to stop whoever stops the initial systems from running a jammer that turns all this into cubicle flotsam?”
Wei Qing knows the answer to this question! Still, to be safe, he flips to page thirty-two of his own, larger packet.
“Two ways– Ms. Li does rely on RFID, but there’s a dead man’s switch attached– if the frequency is jammed or blocked, a tertiary system activates and all the non-mobile components will switch into sentry mode. You lose range of motion and the system can’t talk to itself, but unless the intruder finds and physically disables or destroys the components, the record will remain. And, of course, the alert goes out as a priority ping showing loss of connectivity for security mobilization.”
After? Wei Qing goes into full nerd mode.
It’s something Yue Fei hasn’t seen since they first prepped that government prospectus together and Wei Qing explained it all to him– Yue Fei had almost forgotten. He’s really, really hard to resist when he’s passionate and confident like this. Yue Fei is suddenly grateful that most things can’t bring this level of brightness out of Weiu Qing– otherwise, he’d probably give in and fall in love after all, even knowing Wei Qing wasn’t actually in love with him. And that wasn’t good for any of them.
Wei Qing’s still speaking, eyes bright, leaning forward like he’s not repulsed by his brother, for once.
“As far as the actual code, Mr. Zhou– I don’t know if you’ve met him, but he’s one of those people that took the Matrix too seriously– anyway, brilliant guy, weird hair choices– he’s building the code from scratch in what’s essentially an insane hodge-podge language with keyed encryption? It would require a dedicated crack, and the chance that an infiltrator knows that a client has this system, and has time to crack that, is really– Well, if they’ve got that much time and that many resources, the client in question is probably a big enough target that they should have invested in more intense security services.”
“So this is for soft and medium targets?”
“Yes.” Wei Qing leans back, remembering, voice dropping once more into bitterness- “After all, didn’t my boss tell me to stay away from government-level contracts?”
“He did. It’s good that you’ve learnt how to listen.”
Nevermind, forget the prior good atmosphere. Wei Qing is going to throw this mug in that fuck-
Yue Fei lightly pushes him back into the seat cushion. It’s a non-verbal ‘be good’ and it’s nearly as effective as the real thing. Wei Qiwan cocks an eyebrow at the contact, but doesn’t comment, and doesn’t goad his brother into a further show of petulance. Thank goodness.
“Government contracts involve a level of risk, both legal and gray, that I am not interested in any of us being exposed to.” Wei Qiwan falls short of a real explanation, but even this is a concession. “I would not approve anyone pushing us in that direction. This though- this is good. It makes sense.”
He scribbles something on a post-it.
“But your budget is high by about ten percent. We don’t need hype or rapid deployment. Slow it down, don’t bother hiring on new talent until you have a full prototype to demonstrate. Does four months work for that?”
Wei Qing dumbly nods, caught between his unvented anger and the foreignness of Wei Qiwan’s approval. Even if it’s just for a project. The mix of emotions actually makes him feel a little adrenaline sick. Bottled up but not, itching for a fight but also wanting to roll over and play dead before Wei Qiwan can change his mind on him.
Wei Qiwan writes more notes to himself.
“Fine then. Four months and we’ll meet again for a live demonstration and updated figures.”
Wei Qiwan leans back and looks at his brother as if he’s debating something that might start (another) fight between them. Looks almost imperceptibly at Yue Fei, before going for it anyway. That’s the thing about tyrannical presidents: they keep their own counsel, and more often than not, there’s no dissuading them.
“And while this is going on, are you going to be properly managing it? Or back to meeting new friends?” Wei Qing bristles. Oh, so you fucking noticed? Couldn’t tell with how little of a shit you gave while I was drowning in bad decisions.
“I don’t do that anymore.” But he can keep a lid on it. Maybe. As long as Wei Qiwan shuts up.
“Oh? Since when?” There is something infuriating, about how casual Wei Qiwan is being while interrogating him about choices that he’d never cared about, never tried to stop, not now and not years in the future, if his fucking death was any indication.
All Wei Qing’s bright feelings burn away. He wants to hurt him for this false concern, hurt himself for being so disgraceful, for being someone that Yue Fei will probably never love, because who wants someone like what he’s been? As always, he chooses to hit the enemy for 800 points while damaging himself a thousand. He adopts the lazy, hedonistic sneer that marred his face for so long, an armor that endlessly poisons him.
“Yeah, what can I say? My goal was to fuck 300 people. My lucky number, you know? So once I hit that, pun intended, figured I might as well roll back around to being a useless shit over here instead. That was what you recommended, right? I mean, other than the part about coming back.”
Shit, you were probably relieved when you found out I was dead.
Well, there goes the veneer of civility. Before Wei Qiwan can respond and they can hurt one another any further, Yue Fei stands, bows, and pulls Wei Qing up by his forearm– a move that looks presumptuous, but is softened by the circles he rubs into the man’s wrist. Yue Fei’s words are perfunctory and cold, jaws of winter behind clenched teeth threaded with anxiousness.
“Well, since the meeting part of this meeting appears to be over, we’ll take our leave. President Wei, Master Wei will see you in four months.”
Wei Qing snorts but allows himself to be pulled out of the office, into the elevator, and away from the danger his own mouth constructs for him.
Author’s Note:
Wei Qiwan, you were doing well for like… two scenes. Why are you like this? Where did I go wrong in raising you? How is a CEO this ass at interpersonal relationships?
I don’t know why there are so many disagreements between these two brothers
You were so close Wei Qiwan!!! So close!!! I so badly want to know exactly what it is he’s trying to protect Wei Qing from. (Also, Yue Fei, you idiot… you’ve already fallen, even if you don’t want to admit it to yourself)
It is oh so very hard not to hate his brother… Considering he’s one of the major reasons for Wei Qing’s donward spiral. Ofc Wei Qing holds responsibility for his actions but… holy hell, if I grew up loving this brother and believing that he loved me too and it turned into this- damn dude. I don’t even care if his reason for doing this is good, doesn’t change the fact that he hurt Wei Qing to a horrible degree. In the end Wei Qing committed suicide and I’m not sure how to feel
Aaaah i know he doesn’t have bad intentions but i want to slap some of wei qing thoughts into wei qiwan so bad… look how much you hurt him…
He just had to bring up his sore spot that wq had clearly been working on.
I can’t figure fnthe life of me understand how Qiwan thinks he’s protecting his brother by destroying him mentally. Like. How large is your brain hole ?!
But so much sweetness coming from Yue Fei so worth it !
Big brother Qiwan needs his own Yue Fei to help him learn when to shut up and give him waffles when he does it right.
So painful…
Was not explained clearly in previous chapters why the older brother turns cold, mentally abusive and abandons his younger brother other than a vague ‘it’s for his own good’. Hope this is not a plot hole.