Yue Fei returns to his own room the next night, but physical contact still becomes a focus. While watching shows, Yue Fei sits close enough for their shoulders to touch, or pulls Wei Qing’s legs over his and allows them to stay there. In the mornings, he uses the back of his hand instead of a thermometer to check Wei Qing’s temperature and ensure his health. Each day, he checks Wei Qing’s shoulders for lint and straightens his collars and nods his approval at the end result. Makes sure Wei Qing can see and feel his presence. It’s coddling, but Yue Fei doesn’t treat it as such, so Wei Qing is not burdened by embarrassment. Instead, he’s just warm. Warm and calm.
Calm enough to plan.
Wei Qing feels bad enough about his lapse into listlessness that he commits to making up his days by having a five-day work week for the first time since he was a bright-eyed kid. Not forever, of course. Just to show his dedication to his team. A week, two at the most. After all, he’s not crazy.
The rich, they live so differently. Even their heartfelt dedication is capricious.
Or maybe Wei Qing just isn’t properly motivated yet. After all, apologizing at work and overseeing the early stages of a project are not the kind of things people write epics about. Robots can be cute, but at this stage, it’s all long lines of code and sightline projections and random bits and bobbles stuck together like mismatched erector sets. Wei Qing’s internal life might be depressingly boring for someone reborn, but he takes it as a good thing that he hasn’t fallen to the point where working 9-to-5 is his hill to die on.
It’s fine if you have to do it, noble even, but– he’d rather sleep in. Sleep in and play games and enjoy the finer trappings and comforts of his station.
Wei Qing nervously says as much to Yue Fei over an uncomfortably early Monday morning breakfast.
He wants to show his best side to the person he likes, but since that’s already been well and truly thrown out the window… might as well be honest. Hidden feelings aren’t some good thing; especially not in his hands. Wei Qing’s too self-defeating, he’s too easy to wind up and send off the edge. This little interlude and the longer, messier descent before (not to mention his ignoble death) had proven time and time again that if he’s the only one aware of his inner life, Bad Things Happen.
Because he can’t self-regulate for shit.
Yue Fei has promised to stick by him, and has already seen most of the worst parts. When it comes to someone to be weak in front of, there is no other choice. Only Yue Fei has earnt the right to see his underbelly. Although Wei Qing cannot understand why he’s willing to stick around, he’s grateful and cautiously optimistic. So he shares, even when it’s things like this laziness that he thinks he should probably feel shame about.
Why not? After all, as long as he doesn’t abandon himself, Yue Fei won’t abandon him.
He promised.
Yue Fei doesn’t disappoint, adding extra pepper to his noodles and nodding along like having only small bursts of industry is totally reasonable. All this from a man that seems immune to the concept of a vacation or sick day on his own behalf.
“It is Master Wei’s prerogative, no choice will be incorrect.” Indeed, many young masters hold managerial titles while only cashing a check and showing up to gladhand events. Wei Qing had hardly been revolutionary when he did it. To come back without being forced by family or circumstance was already praiseworthy. Yue Fei points out as much. “But it is good that you care to worry about it when you don’t have to.”
Wei Qing smiles bright enough to light up the entire kitchen. No, the entire open-concept room.
“Yue Fei, I’m really glad.” It’s weird to talk about non-negative feelings, but Rome (and a healthy relationship) wasn’t built in a day, right? Wei Qing preens and relaxes and eats his cantaloupe before getting dressed for the day.
—
If a week of moping was the sludge from years of bad feelings finally clogging the drain, those tears and Yue Fei’s warm chest were the dam being opened to allow it to clear. In this new, tender clarity, Wei Qing decides to try to continue to be honest. Where appropriate.
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.
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Dying naked in a carpark can have that effect.
When it comes to spoiled young masters, Wei Qing is surely one of the most willing to bow to subordinates. As long as it isn’t Yue Fei or Wei Qiwan disdaining him, his face can basically be completely thrown away, especially when he knows perfectly well that he’s in the wrong. As someone who has tasted the bitterness of disappointed expectations, how could he be at ease over letting his poor team be battered by his sudden disappearing act? Right after an important meeting with the big boss? Really, really unpleasant.
If any of them are half as prone to catastrophizing as he himself is, they must have been having a dreadful time. Li Daiyu and the rest of them probably hadn’t had a peaceful sleep since he sent the perfunctory email, where every ‘it’s fine, everything’s good’ was soulless and no doubt conveyed the exact opposite. He directs his eyes and his regrets towards the floor. Hard work should be rewarded, mistakes should be clearly stated, this motley crew had earned his humility.
“Everyone, thank you for your hard work. Last week, I fought with my brother and was in a bad mood.” Wei Qing is interrupted by a chorus of softly voiced rejections and statements of vague concern. What else is there when a boss shares something so private? It’s definitely not covered in the employee handbook! His lips twitch and he continues on, still admiring the floor. “The fight was not about the project, but my ability to manage it well. You’ve all been excellent.”
He’s not Wei Qiwan; he won’t place his sense of prideful majesty above the well-being of his subordinates.
He straightens his back and looks up at his slack-jawed employees. Eh, sometimes, he wonders what these six have gone through, to freeze like deer in headlights, acting like such acceptance of culpability is a dangerous trap and not part of the basic social contract. Don’t they live in a harmonious society? Wasn’t the revolution a success (-ish)? Why are they treating his remorse like they can’t afford it? He looks at Yue Fei, uncertain. Yue Fei’s lips twitch, but he doesn’t fill him in.
As a member of the born-to-riches, there are some things simply beyond Wei Qing’s ability to understand. The idea that little people who know big secrets don’t live long– eh, in his life, it’s really never come up. Even his death was based on his trusting of the wrong person, not some unknown breach of status or etiquette. The idea that his subordinates have been trained to be deaf dumb and blind to things like family drama of the rich (especially rich bosses!) never crosses his mind.
He shrugs and stands awkwardly, debating if he should just treat their stares like air and enter his private office?
Li Daiyu, that angel with purple hair, is the one who steps forward and breaks the stalemate.
She’s as red as a tomato, her powerful blush making Wei Qing feel like a dirty ageist, for all the surprise it elicits. She returns the bow and claps her hands in a gesture of goodwill and teamsmanship for the boss that finally let her build robot minions. “Boss Wei, there is no need to stand apart– we are your team, and we believe in your management! And vision!”
Receptionist Xiao calls out, “Jiayou!” and even waves the cone-hatted cactus in his direction. The cheer is picked up by the rest of them, though Zhou Zitan looks ready to keel over from this level of impromptu social interaction. Probably, he will need to take a sick day tomorrow to recover from it.
There is a group hug attempted.
Wei Qing runs to his office to hide after all. Trust is so much worse than disdain! So embarrassing, ah~
“Yue Fei, Yue Fei, why are they so nice?” Positive reinforcement, why is it suddenly falling in waves around him?! Sure it’s what he wants, but this much all at once makes his teeth ache. It feels foreign and precious, feels like he’s taking that which doesn’t belong to him. There’s an answering chuckle as the office blinds are adjusted.
“Probably because Master Wei is very easy to be nice to.” Yue Fei makes coffee while Wei Qing hides his head. Yue Fei thinks his boss is sometimes very, very cute.
—
He’s not the only one.
The peach on the highest branch is often the sweetest, the dirtiest pearl can still be polished back to perfection, a thousand other sayings to explain why absence makes the heart grow fonder. Or at least hornier? This Wei Qing is harder to reach, and for some psychologically-distressing reason, his newfound untouchableness makes more than one old pursuer (and new flame) want to touch him. Probably, their parents had never properly taught them about consent.
Ease of access had made him miss it in his last life, but now Wei Qing experiences the full force of people that can’t take a hint.
Sure, some of his newfound admirers are the quiet, sane type: average people that would sigh from afar, maybe even just looking at the face, and never set forward a single toe on the path towards wanting more. A good number of Wei Securities’ junior hires are like this. Even if it’s only three times a week, a handsome and rich young man showing up and walking by you is enough to accumulate a bit of daydreaming. The boldest amongst is the schoolgirl that helped her parents sell snacks sometimes– she held out her autograph book and refused to believe that Wei Qing wouldn’t eventually be a celebrity, then ran like the wind once he gave in and signed it. Since the harmless encounter allowed Wei Qing to pretend he might one day be a famous game streamer, he was even rather fond of the baffling little event.
But some of them- yeesh.
Five months of avoiding the clubs and cleaning out his phone, and the number of ‘new’ contacts sending texts that range from demure flirtations to videos of cumshots is enough to make Wei Qing want to give up on telecommunications completely– even his whale-sized gacha accounts aren’t enough to keep him attached to the terrifying bit of technology that seems determined to rebel against him. Can he play in airplane mode? He wants to play in airplane mode.
He has no way of knowing which messages are from old ‘friends’ and which are from new climbers, but he plays dead regardless. No thank you, this young master is closed for business, purely vegetarian from now on, no need to request any toppings from him (or offer the same).
After a particularly special-effects enhanced dick montage manages to crash his phone, he ends up unboxing the previously-ignored blackberry from work and having Yue Fei send his number only to those who needed it; the six-person R&D team, the security supervisors of all three shifts, his parents, and his brother. (It goes without saying that Wei Qing programs and stars Yue Fei’s information before the rest of them are programmed in).
Still, he grimaces a little when he sees Wei Qiwan’s name on his anemic contacts list.
His emergency contact is very naturally set to Yue Fei. His parents are uselessly far away and Wei Qiwan is a cavern where familial affection goes to die. Yue Fei is the only person he trusts to handle his medical matters or his corpse. He says as much; Yue Fei has to throw away the spatula he is holding when it snaps.
Wei Qing misses it thanks to a well-timed bolt from a sniper in his video game.
Dead again, go figure.
—
Still, the cursed phone doesn’t always stay in his nightstand. Mostly because he’s still chatting with TYY about once a month, but he’s unwilling to add that particular app to a work phone. (And also, part of him is hoping that he’ll soon be able to let go of this crutch). After all, he doesn’t want Yue Fei to find out that he’s still so weak-willed.
Yue Fei would like to express that he knows already. But it’s better not to expose everything, in the interest of a harmonious home. Still, out of all Wei Qing’s misadventures, phone sex that lately seems to be pure talk therapy, with a professional man half a country away, is positively banal. Not to mention– he owes it to that particular crutch that he even knew to offer Wei Qing physical touch. TYY is totally fine in his book. After all, the only reason for him not to be okay with such a safe and consensual practice would be if he had a personal interest in Wei Qing’s celibacy.
And of course, he doesn’t.
He’s not- He’s a professional, he cares about him– naturally, if Wei Qing is having his romantic needs met by someone sane and with clear boundaries– he has no ground on which to object.
After all, if that ended, would he be the one who needed to back Wei Qing up against walls and whisper in his ears and command him on how to touch himself, and when to let go? Would he be the one that had to tell Wei Qing how pretty he looked when he lost his mind, who had to laughingly pamper him as he came down and cleaned up? If Wei Qing really needed such things, he couldn’t possibly interfere unless he was willing to be the person holding the reins and watching Wei Qing shatter when he-
Yue Fei manages to break three spatulas while not contemplating such things.
Crummy, falling manufacturing standards. Really, they should get a refund, absolutely unacceptable. Just because Master Wei has so much money doesn’t mean it is right to throw it away on inferior products.
—
While Wei Qing is using someone else as a comforting sounding board and Yue Fei is doing a stellar job at denying his increasingly inescapable feelings, two pieces of trash are circling. One old bit of trash, responsible for Wei Qing’s estrangement from his brother, and one future piece of trash, responsible for his original death.
No publicity is bad publicity? A fucking lie, you heard it here first.
In the original trajectory of his life, Wei Qing met Yang Wushe nearly a year in the future, thanks to getting incredibly high on a friend’s super-yacht and angrily dismissing his planned bedmate because the boy had said something flattering about his brother. He’d grabbed a bottle of Dom and splayed out on the highest sun deck, eyes wet and waist exposed by his own annoyed attempts to get comfortable. Yang Wushe had ‘accidentally’ come across him, and seeing the ghost of his actual crush in the needy young master with the false bravado, he’d easily ingratiated himself and treated the boy like he was a teasing senior who could show him the world and (pleasantly) order him around.
Essentially, Yang Wushe offered exactly what Wei Qing wanted. Packaged himself as safe but exciting, sensual but deeply romantic. The kind of person you could trust, the kind of person you could give yourself to, the kind of person that would protect you from the rest of the world, so things like family rejection wouldn’t hurt so much. Chance meetings had turned into planned dates and nights spent wrapped around one another. Lies upon lies, Wei Qing treasuring their connection and believing in a love that was always false. Twisting himself into knots and even lying to Yue Fei, Yue Fei who was willing to reach out even after their estrangement, because Yang Wushe did such a good job of pretending he mattered.
Things had devolved from there until he hit an all-to-literal rock bottom. But logically, now that he’s sworn off yachts, those friends, and Yang Wushe– the man should be less likely to notice him, not more. He shouldn’t appear at all, certainly not ahead of schedule.
But Wei Qing has never been a winner, for all that he had the background of one.
Even when doing everything right, his changes to destiny don’t always help. For example, with Yang Wushe. Wei Qing knows him as trash that toyed with him when he was desperate, someone that destroyed him for pleasure and for the bonus of spitting in the face of Wei Qiwan. He’s not clear on much, but Yang Wushe’s sardonic words that last night had told him enough to know that he was a substitute and that beyond that, he was a fun way to embarrass his brother. That Yang Wushe had pictures that he was looking forward to sending along. That he’d always seen him as low and pathetic and already ruined. Never loved him, not even for a minute.
What Wei Qing doesn’t know is that his current temperament is actually far more in line with Yang Wushe’s true preferences.
Since Yang Wushe is a businessman in his own right, it is actually easier for a straight-and-narrow Wei Qing to enter into his awareness. And a reformed sinner– especially with a face that was at least 50% similar to his own white moonlight? It is not an exaggeration to say that Yang Wushe finds the prospect of dragging him back down far more appealing than his original continued debasement had been.
As for first love Gao Zhong? The original trash?
…Let’s not talk about him until we absolutely have to.
First defeat the enemy you know; only then can you see that your cinnabar mole is actually blood red and holds a dagger to your back. Even a first love can be a poisonous, soul-crushing thing; it’s better to work backwards until you build up a tolerance for pain. Or an alibi for murder.
Author’s Corner:
Yeah, Yue Fei, you never think about any of that at all. Clearly. Your mind is a clear stream. 
Next up is the introduction of our first Big Bad.
Yue Fei tho xD
Oh no I was worried Yang Wushe might show up soon 😭😭 but I’m also so curious to see what he’s like 👀 that ending is so ominous… I’m so afraid of this secret plot that Wei Qing remains unaware of!!
I wish i could transmigrate and go kill these bastards before they try to hurt my cuties again… 😌🔪
You know, Yue Fei, actually planning murder can be a very good distraction for impure thoughts /cough cough I’m saying this I’m saying nothing 👀
I’m with Zhou Zitan, hiding in a cubicle and Wei Qing ditching his old phone 😅. It’s best if they can’t just impose their socializing on you whenever they feel like it!
Let’s kill the first Big Bad quickly ….🤣🤣🔪🔫⛏🗡