Now that they’re actually preparing orders, the R&D floor is bustling. In just a few months, the transformation is nothing short of amazing.
Never-before-used cubicles have been dusted off and personalized by a half-dozen small interns and contract workers who are split into marketing and sales subgroups, while the production warehouse across town has become Li Daiyu’s kingdom, filled with parts and troubleshooters and a few brave souls who dare think to tinker with her code. Most of these people aren’t full employees, but meritorious service can promote them to such, and the benefits are enticing.
Between the possibility of permanent placement and Wei Qing’s much-improved hiring sense (aided by Old Man Wang), the entire place is filled with hungry talents eager to prove themselves.
Going past their limits and trying to be noticed, on tasks big and small.
It does wonders for the efficiency of the department. And if there are one or two people with unclean eyes, they quickly get dug out. Or better at hiding themselves. Probably a mix, if we’re being honest.
Project Lagan expands past the seventeenth floor, and Wei Qing’s light starts to shine, just a little more, if you know where to look. After all, the name of the VP of Research has never changed. Even when he was being poured from one club to another, his name was never pulled from the directory, his official face never pulled down. When Wei Securities’ R&D department stops playing dead, it doesn’t take long for associates and competitors to verify that Wei Qing has seemingly overcome his lustfulness.
Old friends of the family are relieved, cantankerous old bastards say it’s good that young people have learned to play less, cynics are curious to know what has changed and how long it can last, and opportunists…? Are opportunists. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to avoid certain unpleasant things buzzing around to brush up their sense of existence.
On a certain Tuesday after the first pilot orders are sent out, Wei Qing is stuffed with not one, but two arrangements of flowers by the doorman of his building. White and purple. Again. He grabs the cards and rolls his eyes. Sure enough- He turns to Yue Fei and happily complains.
“Why? What are the odds? And why do they both think I like this sort of thing?”
Yep. Gao Zhong and Yang Wushe have managed to synchronize their gift-giving. Blargh.
Gao Zhong at least has a leg to stand on.
Easily embarrassed university student Wei Qing really couldn’t handle passionate gifts and preferred gentler palettes. Walking around with a bouquet of red roses, he’d feel almost pornographic in his implied lustfulness. But that was a long time ago, and now that Yang Wushe is sending the same type of ethereal bouquets, Wei Qing is developing a visceral reaction to the very concept of pastels.
He’s not a little white rabbit, yeah?
After ordering the gifts and cards burned, Yue Fei asserts his sovereignty by brushing non-existent lint from Wei Qing’s shoulders and even daring to trace a finger lighting-quick against his neck before responding.
“Insincere people are always full of reflections and repetitions.” He sounds very righteous and knowledgeable. Wei Qing nods, even as his mouth twitches for the poor, about-to-be-martyred flowers.
—
Yue Fei still isn’t sure how to address the problems with Gao Zhong, but in the interim, he’s more than happy to kill two birds with one stone by grouping him with the ‘already gave a negative impression’ Yang Wushe, that madman that hit people and then tried to court them shamelessly. Guilt by association has a long and bloody history, it should redeem itself by shambling along long enough to shoot down Gao Zhong.
Wei Qing smiles at some secret joke, and Yue Fei presses his advantage. He loses a bit of righteousness but makes up for it in fire:
“Clearly, that surnamed Gao has learned the same messy tricks as that Yang degenerate, so it’s best to not touch their things. Or them.”
Wei Qing is really left with no choice but to drag him to the elevator, just to steal a taste of his lips. Tuts and sighs like he’s being indulgent, but his hands and eyes are more honest than the words coming out of his laughing lips.
“En, I’ll listen. Even if you didn’t say, who can I want to touch except my boyfriend?”
Boyfriend is still a rather magical word between them.
They end up staying in the elevator long enough that the desk manager uses his override to send them back up to their apartment. After all, he has to turn in this footage! Even if he’s silently relieved that his most famous resident has finally settled on a single person, instead of a parade, he doesn’t want to return to the days of having to send people to clean up fluids! That’s biohazard pay! He’s responsible for balancing those overages!
—
Yue Fei is being wrongly accused.
No matter how much it still thrills (and worries) him to have Wei Qing be so compliant, the phantom of Wei Qiwan’s elevator peeping is enough to keep him chaste! It’s just that his A’Qing is a very talented kisser. Talented enough to make even the sweetest and most coaxing of kisses feel like the kind of thing you should call in sick to indulge in.
Yue Fei dimly thinks that there’s an idiom about iron trees that might apply here, but-
Not as important as kissing. Not nearly as important.
So when he feels the elevator ascend on its own and hears Wei Qing’s husky laughter against his ears, he gives in, one-handedly texting Receptionist Xiao that Boss Wei will be coming in late, and to forward anything urgent to his direct account. It’s the first time in his career that he manages to include three typos in a message, but he’s in no position to notice.
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.
Nothing gets forwarded, and in the interest of restraining themselves, Yue Fei limits his well-behaved boyfriend to one ‘reward’, which turns into two, because Wei Qing has the communist spirit! At least when it comes to “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs” (in bed).
In the end, Wei Qing gets to further lewd their breakfast bar while being swallowed down by someone with devastating eye contact, and Yue Fei gets to experience the joy of his boyfriend’s thighs, accompanied by a completely inappropriate use of olive oil. Probably, the tile on the floor beneath them will be a slipping hazard for weeks after.
Jifjceq lr j yla gertfv, joafg jii.
Pa’r bcis lc atf mbwfvbkc atja rbwfatlcu lc Tef Mfl ygfjxr, gfv fjgr jcv fwyjggjrrfv fsfr ijralcu jii atf kjs ecali atflg akb-tbeg ijaf fcags lcab atf boolmf. Mbg jii atf qgbugfrr atfs’nf wjvf, j mfgajlc rbwfbcf ralii vbfr meaf atlcur ilxf ufa fwyjggjrrfv bnfg ufaalcu boo lc atf iluta bo wbgclcu, bg tjnlcu ab kjix tlr ybsoglfcv qjra j ogbca vfrx mgfk ktlif tbqlcu atfs vbc’a cbalmf atja Qfl Hlcu’r agberfgr tjnf yffc mtjcufv.
Wei Qing finds it hilarious and disarming.
Yue Fei finds it-
Ah, at least Wei Qing isn’t thinking about those damn flowers anymore. As long as he’s happy, Yue Fei can overcome his chagrin over having such a shameful lack of self-control. As long as they don’t turn such games into a morning ritual, he can probably salvage his dignity.
And if not, that’s also okay. As long as he’s accompanying Wei Qing.
—
While Yue Fei’s self-described degeneracy is charming, there are others who are much less charming. To say nothing of original.
In addition to this laziest version of expressing goodwill and interest, Gao Zhong and Yang Wushe have also both recently developed the habit of getting reports on how their gifts are received. Yang Wushe because it is easier to manipulate with more information, and Gao Zhong because he’d been annoyed by the lack of response to his first overture.
After having his number blocked and being thrown out of that banquet by Wei Qiwan, Gao Zhong realized he might actually need to put forth some effort to reconnect with his A’Qing. Even if this new burst of industry turns out to just be renewed brotherly boot-licking, even if he’s still an iffy marriage partner, Wei Qing is nice to roll around with, and Gao Zhong could use a few rounds of nostalgic venting.
Gao Zhong has been out of the country for almost four years, and his options for bedmates are… rather slim. Blame his conceit, but even when fishing for a marriage, he’s unwilling to become vegetarian, or avail himself of substandard goods. Even outside of diseases, he really doesn’t like to waste his time eating junk food. Initially, he placed Wei Qing in this category. After all, someone that played around so casually couldn’t be worth much. But then, Gao Zhong reconnected with some old friends and heard enough to calm down. And try to run Wei Qing to ground again.
Wei Qing as a top, how precious. Still dirty, but… less. Gao Zhong can compromise. As long as he’s still the only one allowed to bully Wei Qing, Gao Zhong can tolerate his broken-hearted sluttiness. Barely. Up to a point, patheticness is actually flattering. Proof that he completely owns Wei Qing, heart and body and soul, even after leaving and going silently so suddenly.
But not if he keeps ignoring him.
So, just like Yang Wushe, twenty minutes after the delivery, he gets a text message from a well-tipped and lingering courier, about how Wei Qing had barely touched the card before the expensive flowers had been tossed away by some man at his side. About how Wei Qing and that man had gone into the elevator for so long, how the desk attendant had coughed before sending it up.
Gao Zhong can put two and two together.
He finds his little ex’s sluttiness more pathetic now.
Being controlled by the help. Sure enough, he was right to cut him loose. No titan of business, even before their metamorphosis, would stoop so low. What wasted potential, and just when he was thinking of letting Wei Qing fight for him after all.
But… He still has a lot of time left in China, and he’s got no one better to do.
So he borrows a little assistant from his family and pretends to be making connections, which fills his mother with excitement.
Gao Zhong feels just enough filial guilt to agree to a few matchmaking dates, between eating up his ex. He subtly pokes and prods and learns about all sorts of things, like Wei Qing and Wei Qiwan eating together, and Wei Qing holding his assistant’s hand as he walked through some third-rate museum. Pathetic. Childish. But such naivety and an easy-to-please nature… while it would never make him the kind of spouse Gao Zhong was willing to accept, it did make him a good bedwarmer.
Eager to please, easy to coax, shameless, and all that.
“Try to figure out where he’s going to be from now on.”
“Um…” This assistant, who isn’t really an assistant at all, isn’t sure where to start but is still dismissed. How to find the schedule of a stranger? Is it… okay to just call and ask? This Wei Qing person is a public figure, so… it should be alright? Even if Young Master Gao’s interest seems private… Yes, he should probably just call and ask!
The upcoming awkwardness can’t be blamed on the boy. Although the Gao family has longer roots than the Wei, ever since the patriarch died, more money had flowed out than in, and political alliances had weakened. If not for the investments of previous generations, it’s likely that even this untested assistant couldn’t be dug up. Such paper nobility is precisely why Gao Zhong is so clear on his demands for a marriage partner– he’d grown up exposed to high society, but trapped by the fact that his family was a furnace rapidly running out of fuel.
His mother had only accepted his coming out when he turned in a report on thirteen high-class marriage partners, who were more likely to accept him based on his gender. People and families that they’d never grab the daughter of, not with their debts and limitations. The benefits of fishing with specialized bait, and all that. If not for that list, he’d probably have spent another two months ‘indisposed’ and watching those nonstop movies locked in the basement. He’d long been trained to survive by fishing for benefits, and could no longer think of his one-time ‘top prospect’ as anything but a ledger of potential vs. pleasure, propriety vs. possessiveness.
—
When many things change all at once, it can be hard to pick out the truly odd from the typical growing pains of new experiences.
After all, what had once been a dead floor has become a bustling project space, what had once been a sullen and self-destructive young casanova had turned into a proper spare who was only wild in private, and an immovable assistant had turned into a more three-dimensional character.
There was a lot going on. Lots of moving pieces.
Enough that even Yue Fei, with all his fears of ravening wolves, has a hard time distinguishing between the interest that Wei Qing will always arouse, and the machinations of others. He knows to bite and block and protect when Gao Zhong or Yang Wushe appear, but he’s less equipped to deal with the small grasses and flowers that start appearing in Wei Qing’s orbit, begging to be fondled.
Yue Fei knows his boyfriend is very impressive.
It’s right and just, that the little high school girl at the coffee shop blushes so much every time he smiles. It’s normal, that at least a few of the temporary workers can’t help but sneak an extra peek or two into the office when Wei Qing is working, especially when he smiles. As long as everyone keeps their distance, Yue Fei even half-heartedly supports it.
After all, he wants Wei Qing to develop proper self-esteem.
And sure, Lu-laoshi says such things are internal, but Yue Fei doesn’t think it can hurt, for Wei Qing to feel the appreciation of people that want nothing from him, but are just… impressed. Enchanted. Willing to assume the best of him, instead of the worst.
There are still lines, of course.
To know Wei Qing is handsome is to have eyes; to make plans for that handsomeness, as if it’s something you can casually possess, is to have a mental disorder. Yue Fei isn’t interested in being a possessive tyrant, but he still has a bottom line. As an assistant, as a boyfriend, as a person.
So on Thursday night, when a temporary worker with an excellent resume and a tragic lack of common sense ‘gets drunk accidentally’ and ‘happens to fall into Vice President Wei’s’ private booth, instead of the drunken beauty play, he gets rather rudely sent to the hospital to have his stomach pumped and returns to work a day later, only to find his access revoked.
The story will be a good lesson to others, once it spreads.
Originally, it would have just been the stomach pumping and a transfer to the basement filing area, but that’s before Yue Fei shoves him into a taxi and discovers a sheet of dots stuffed in the man’s pocket. Sure enough, opening his mouth and pulling out his dishonest tongue, he finds the faint impression of an inky strawberry. Yue Fei, who is more acquainted than he wishes to be with the role of certain drugs in heightening sexual connections, promptly decides to fire such a bad influence. Wei Qing rubber-stamps the decision.
For all the boy’s lures, Wei Qing doesn’t care about this at all, not even the outrage of the attempt. Much the Yue Fei’s exasperation, he even waves away the drug bit. No, Wei Qing very single-mindedly wants to get back to his date night with Yue Fei. Really wants to try that bit in all the stories, where the lovers sip wine from one another’s mouths.
He’s wearing a white, easy-to-stain shirt and everything! Who cares about irrelevant people when he’s got such plans?
—
Wei Qing gets his wish, eventually.
While the person whose name he never actually gets around to learning undergoes the joyful experience of stomach pumping while tripping, Wei Qing eats his meal literally in his boyfriend’s lap. Yue Fei’s skills as an assistant are also on full display, as it falls to him to moderate their pace and listen to the sounds beyond the private stall door, so that every time someone comes to refill their drinks or bring a new course or secretly peep, Yue Fei is able to efficiently arrange his boyfriend off to the side, close but not outrageous.
This level of situational awareness, which Wei Qing now knows stays online even when Yue Fei is hard– ah, no matter how long, Wei Qing has no hope of attaining such skill. And since Yue Fei is the one making sure that they can leave this romantic restaurant without it looking like they fucked around in the booth, he’s also the one that controls their momentum.
For example, Wei Qing’s stated goal of sending wine into his boyfriend’s mouth, only to have it spill out and tyrannically stain his shirt like in those stories of his? That, Yue Fei firmly rejects. He doesn’t even let Wei Qing order red wine, because he knows enough to know when Wei Qing is determined. If there’s even a rosé on the table, Wei Qing will definitely end up finding a way to spill it between them.
White only, even if it doesn’t go with beef, thank you very much.
…
That said, once they get home?
Yue Fei very sincerely apologizes.
He pulls out a red dessert wine from the chiller hidden behind a false cabinet and diligently plays along. Buttons are lost, bodies are pressed together, and he shivers as Wei Qing looks up at him, eyes full of false defiance. Wei Qing snorts and licks his lips and pries Yue Fei’s mouth open like a tyrant, only to pass a mouthful of wine to him.
It takes Yue Fei longer than it probably should, to realize that Wei Qing is merely demonstrating, and would now like return service. He groans and bites and shifts their position so that he can mimic the moves, though his eyes are so overflowing with devotion that the tyrant part of the play is completely lost.
But pampering has a nice flavor too.
In the end, the whole shirt is ruined. Wine spreads out in stains from the collar to nearly Wei Qing’s belly button (they’d sacrificed a second bottle), turning to petal pink in the water of the shower they end up in. Yue Fei’s, since it’s closer and Wei Qing likes seizing territory that already belongs to him. Anyway, might as well try out all the fun fantasies that come along with clothing that can turn semi-transparent.
“Fuck, A’Fei, no matter-” Too good, have to stop, gasping.
“Mmm?” Not stopping.
“No matter what you do, milk isn’t going to come from them!” Biting and sucking nipples through a white shirt– Wei Qing had brought up the fantasy, but Yue Fei had certainly turned into the main proponent!
One arm shoved between Wei Qing’s sopping-wet thighs to keep him steady while the other flexes against the wall, Yue Fei attacks adoringly while Wei Qing arches and pretends he isn”t grinding on Yue Fei’s forearm like it’s a thigh. Acts like those aren’t his moans.
“This subordinate is just checking the royal body.”
The shower is just big enough for a round, as Yue Fei leans and licks and praises, all while refusing to remove the ruined white shirt from Wei Qing’s overheated body. All while telling him how devastating he is, how handsome, how perfectly everything.
Wei Qing is left to bite through a loofah while trying to maintain his dignity. Yue Fei with the eye contact, Yue Fei with the praise, even while (especially) while thrusting… Wei Qing gets overwhelmed every time, and it’s bite things or end up exposing that he’s so moved that he can’t speak!
…
It’s a nice problem to have, honestly.
…
Bad for their water bill though.
…
Still a win.
…
By the end of the night, Yue Fei completes the very important task of ordering all manner of cosplay robes online. In multiple sizes. For reasons. Supervised by the practically-purring Wei Qing in his arms (who has stolen his bed and is currently wrapped around him like the world’s cutest ‘C’).
Shadowguard and prince play is better with some props, after all. And it’s not like they lack money.
Wei Qing might have been the one to start it, but Yue Fei’s the one who keeps calling him wangye. And if red wine and water is so alluring on an Oxford, imagine it on white inner robes, peeled away layer by layer…
Yue Fei is not immune. After all, for all his teasing about Wei Qing being overly invested in palace dramas, he’s the one that keeps calling Wei Qing a prince while thrusting into him and cleaning his body. He’s the one that old-fashionedly says ‘this subordinate’ while showing off his skills in sword-swallowing.
He’s plenty interested, especially if, by taking over this rather tasty bedroom game, he can move Wei Qing’s default ‘role’ from a concubine beneath to a prince over everything. As it should be.
Maybe it’s imprinting, from the first time that Wei Qing kissed him drunkenly as an ancient general flashed across the screen.
Either way, the special hobby is now very well ingrained. Yue Fei thinks he’d make a very diligent if disrespectful shadow guard. As he gets wrapped up in ideas, his cart ends up filling up with more robes than he initially intended.
He blames Wei Qing for encouraging him.
Author’s Corner:
Say it with me now, “Trauma is not a carte blanche to traumatize others~~”
Yue Fei: Of course my boyfriend is amazing. You can admire, but you should know the limits of respect and common sense.
Cannonfodder: I think he’s saying I can go for it. I’m gonna go for it.
Stomach Pump-kun: My fated love has appeared. Come darling, open up~
Wei Qing: All I care about right now is this wine and this shirt and that man. No exceptions.
I love these two and their palace drama plays 😊
Simple yet refined tastes. 🤣
We’ll need an ancient au later now…
Yes, that!
So the R&D team sits down to play D&D and lands on an ancient palace setting somehow. Zhou Zhitan is (lovebombed) bullied into dming. Homebrew Taoist story maybe.
Anyway, Wei Qing is acting his heart out as the book smart street-dumb Prince (untested warrior? Aspirational monk?) and even wears a costume to the table. Yue Fei, the shadow guard (confused paladin?) has to excuse himself for reasons. Poor Assistant Mu (priest, rip) and Receptionist Xiao (barbarian beserker for a twist) end up having to fight off the nest of demons mostly on their lonesome while alchemist (poison rogue?) Li Daiyu throws era-questionable Molotov and insists that the next campaign be steampunk.
So chaotic, i love it 👍
The little theater !!! I’m dying of laughter for Stomach Pump-kun ahahah Love how Weiwei has a very laser mind and how those scums will have a hard time even getting close Humph !
Thank you for the chapter 💐
You know how some authors do extras on the most random tertiary characters and everyone in the comments is ??? after?
It’s a shame I didn’t start this earlier, a good April fools could have been doing a whole arc of forbidden stomach pump love. Stomach pump-kun transmigrates, falling more and more in love with #nevergotaname. A scuba rebreather, an oxygen mask, a gastric sleeve— there’s no limits to the unsexy mouth-adjacent items the star crossed lovers experience
That. I could read that and be entertained I think ahahah (the gastric sleeve idea eew me as much as I’m intrigued)(probs why curiosity killed the cat) (´,,•ω•,,)♡
Yue Fei is unconsciously encouraging Wei Qing to secretly send himself purple and white bouquets!
Purple and white for when you want to play out spicy chicken love~
Yue Fri, trying to do it to humor Wei Qing but ending up buying red roses every time because he’s hopelessly soft when it comes to being romantic in an old-school manner.