It is a little unconventional for a young man and his assistant to sit down to lunch on a yacht. Especially this young man. Normally, it is only in their grandfather’s generation that old farts and their retainers toss away the restrictions of status and position and do things like tour vineyards and play chess and take out stupidly-expensive family properties on chaste whims. There also tends to be gardening and tai chi involved, though no one but the elderly understands it.
But hey, times are a’changing.
And this crew is discreet enough to host orgies, nevermind keep their opinions to themselves over something strange but innocent. After all, they’re well-trained, and better paid. It’s basically a requirement when you staff a corporate-owned yacht. Especially for a family corporation helmed by two single sons (one very, very single). At least this should involve less cleanup.
So Wei Qing and Yue Fei are able to eat prettily-sliced pineapple and fresh-caught bass curry without any discordant notes. Even Wei Qing’s mostly fruitless attempt to steal grapes feels natural– and hey, he snags enough to discover that the seedless green morsels are frozen. And really delicious like that! His eyes crinkle into delighted crescents, making the young master look positively cat-like.
Was this Yue Fei’s version of a sweet tooth? Very on-brand. He approves.
He files the preference in the ever-increasing filing cabinet of Yue Fei’s quirks rapidly filling out his mind. He’d like to start returning the pampering, not just to try to equalize them, but also because… it’s nice? To do things for the person you admire? It’s an easy enough treat, they can certainly keep a whole bushel full at home. They could watch movies and he could pop them into Yue Fei’s mouth and then bite them back away, like the world’s smallest (and healthiest) Slurpee.
He shivers, and it has nothing to do with the grape he’s just snagged.
Back to his curry before things get out of hand (he’s still in fucking swim trunks, after all).
—
Naturally, as soon as Wei Qing calms down, it’s time for more sunscreen. And even though it’s a spray, the chill of the mist against his overheated skin is enough to take him back to the weird kink for grapes that he seemed to be developing (thanks, brain!) Despite all of his efforts, his body responds, all his latent touch-starved tendencies from years of spectral regret suddenly making even sun protection erotic. Oh no. He knows himself well enough to know how this will end.
The only escape is to immediately dive into the water and escape the swelter of the hormones and heat.
Fifteen-minute wait be damned! This is about dignity, and he’d rather drown than expose something that might send Yue Fei away again. For once, he gets his wish. He really, really gets his wish.
Athleisure, why do you always target me?
The water is colder than he imagined and the shock against his warm core is more sudden than he expected. For a good swimmer, momentary shock is nothing too serious, but Wei Qing-
Well, it’s been awhile. The last time he was in the water without a float under his ass or a jetski between his thighs was probably… college? But even then, he’d preferred to swim in heated indoor pools, for stress relief more than anything else. It wasn’t exactly the ocean. Wei Qing sinks, body falling almost like he’s back on that balcony. He wants to surge up, but every bit of him is just frozen, lungs burning as he descends.
Well, at least this time my dick is covered-
—
Wei Qing does not arrive back in the underworld. It is not like last time, when he stepped out of odd, glowing waters, and found himself on a blue-black path towards reincarnation, confused but with all the pain blissfully leached from his body six breaths after impact.
This time, it hurts- Hurts and why is everything so bright and why does his throat burn and-
Wei Qing’s sternum aches, his head throbs, he feels something rough and insistent against his mouth, as water battles air, air wins, and the seawater comes back up.
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.
“-Good boy, breathe, A’Qing-”
The sound on this episode cuts in and out, “-be good now-” as Wei Qing is rolled onto his side, back thumped hard enough to bruise, head cushioned and lungs taking in great lungfuls of sea breeze that scrapes like sandpaper.
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Yue Fei is disheveled, and so very, very handsome like this.
His normally slicked-back hair is wild and dripping seawater, as is his suddenly semi-transparent white shirt. He is panting, and it only draws attention to his mouth-
Pieces fall into place. Yue Fei’s mouth… The mouth that was just on his, bringing him back, fighting the ocean for his soul, and winning. How could he ever do anything less than completely trust him? And…
Could rescue count as a kiss? Wei Qing’s brain goes offline again.
While he’s lost in a near-death daydream, Yue Fei picks him up, sends the staff scuttling for soup and medicine and privacy, and carries him in. Across the stateroom, past the gym, into the master suite bathroom. Sets him down, but doesn’t let go, keeps holding him as he turns on the shower, blocks the cold with his back until it heats up. Spins him, braces himself under and over his armpits, holding him in something too gentle to be a grapple. Stands there, head thrown back against the tile as he lets streams of warmth rain down on Wei Qing.
Taps something in morse code against his neck, breathes through the steam.
Wei Qing slowly comes back around to find himself heating up, back plastered against Yue Fei from knee to neck. This shared shower… is a little different than he expected. As far as he ever expected such things. Still, no reason not to-
His knees buckle, and he discovers the brilliance of Yue Fei’s strange hold. He crumples just a bit, and Yue Fei’s head is off the wall and his arms are bringing him back up.
“Your body is adrenaline-sick. Your muscles are starved. You must learn to-” If he didn’t know it was self-delusion, Wei Qing would almost swear he feels a kiss like a swear, pressed into his hair. “Don’t worry about it. Don’t rush yourself– I can hold you up.”
Wei Qing weakly nods and lets his head rest in the cradle between Yue Fei’s shoulder and neck. Closes his eyes, and trusts Yue Fei. Completely, bonelessly relaxes. Sure enough, Yue Fei holds him steady. Keep his body in the arc of soothing water, keeps his face out of the spray.
“I’m sorry.” It’s soft and raspy and hurts his throat, but Wei Qing gets out the words anyway. For whatever reason, Yue Fei cares about his safety, more than he does. So he’s sorry for never cherishing himself. Sorry for it in this life, and the last. Just in case he cared back then as well.
Yue Fei just sighs, soft against his temple, and flicks a finger against his neck.
“Just tell me when it’s too much. Can’t have you overheating right after.”
—
It’s too much fifteen minutes later, when Wei Qing is rosy-cheeked and nauseous from the heat or the delayed fear response, who can tell? Yue Fei doesn’t even bother turning the taps– he walks them out, soaking wet, and leans Wei Qing against the counter while he finds the largest possible bathrobe. Wraps him up, tightens the belt, towels his hair with strangely gruff tenderness before reaching under the robe and yanking down his trunks.
Wei Qing stays silent (what is there even to say?) through this oddly unsexual undressing.
He’s tired and sick and a small, long-lost part of him doesn’t want to pollute this by thinking things he shouldn’t. It’s just so nice… to have someone care like this. So he’s milkishly docile as he’s bear-walked to bed and tucked in like someone about to experience a Siberian winter, instead of a man on a private yacht with the heater unseasonably activated. (Being the boss, or in this case, the boss’s assistant, has privileges when it comes to unreasonable thermostatic demands).
He is tucked in and the lights are dimmed; he hears the wet slide of waterlogged fabric as Yue Fei disappears.
No, please come ba-
—
It only takes Yue Fei a few minutes to peel off his own ocean-and-shower-soaked clothes and switch to his own pajamas. It’s criminally early, but somehow, he thinks the day is over. They’ve exceeded their quote of excitement, especially in this new world where the biggest danger Wei Qing had faced was trying to slay dragons while not knowing how to time his skill cooldowns.
Yet, despite the speed of his stripping down, drying off, and re-dressing, in those few minutes, Wei Qing still manages to find a nightmare. The sounds of it draw Yue Fei back, the worry he’d attempted to hide blossoming out at Wei Qing’s attempts to toss and turn. Yue Fei smooths the lines furrowing between his brows and fishes Wei Qing’s hands off of their death-grip on the sheets and into his own, where he rubs against the acupuncture points that are supposed to relax the subconscious.
As far as he knows, Wei Qing has never been a good sleeper. He used to wonder at how the man found so many bedmates, given how restless he was. Sure enough… the massage seems to relax Wei Qing just enough for his half-waking dreams to spill out:
“Don’t go, don’t leave, stay and I’ll do any- dage, why don’t-”
Yue Fei crumbles. Just how long had Wei Qing been feeling abandoned?
He knew that Wei Qing had once idolized Wei Qiwan, but maybe… even that closeness when he first met them was already the start of an estrangement? Had Wei Qing been fearful even then? Had he first overachieved, then underachieved, in a desperate bid to have his dage returned to him?
Too pitiful!
Yue Fei presses too hard, Wei Qing awakens. And bursts into exhausted tears. Maybe not awake after all? Wei Qing clumsily drags Yue Fei on top of him, whimpering as his overworked brain and muscles fail to solve the puzzle that is sheets and blankets tangled around him.
Yue Fei takes pity, and even though it is questionable and against his new policy about giving in… He sighs and helps him out, obediently moving under the blankets. Though, in an act of belated self-preservation, tucks the excess of one between the two of them.
This instinct proves correct, as Wei Qing promptly becomes a koala and clings to him like he is still drowning, and Yue Fei is his driftwood. At least, with the protection of the blankets as chaperones, he can sigh and finger comb his hair and turn him around, command him to sleep, spoon him in a way that is all about comfort, and nothing more.
Just…
Just assistant things. With a dash of regret sprinkled in.
That’s all this is.
—
Wei Qing wakes up pressed into the mattress, wedged between a warm, hard body and memory foam that threatens to swallow him. It’s dark out, night made deeper by clouds over the moon. So… so he still has time to fix this! He wiggles and struggles, horrified that despite all his best efforts, he’s fucked up and fallen dick first into someone again, and if Yue Fei finds out, he’ll definitely-
“Be good-”
A warning bitten lightly against his shoulder, accompanied by a voice that he recognizes despite the note of huskiness that he’s sure he’s never heard before. Yue Fei– Yue Fei is the person pressing against him so tightly. Yue Fei is in bed with him–
He goes compliantly limp at the realization and is gathered back up, lovelily caged in those familiar arms. Rewarded for being good. The impossibility of everything that happens, and the oddness of waking up in a terrycloth robe, washes the sleep from his bones and allows him to remember why, exactly, Yue Fei might be with him.
Because he was an idiot that did things like jump into the ocean and drown when he was afraid of getting hard.
Sure enough. He truly makes excellent life choices.
And Wei Qing can’t even be thrilled at the contact (not fully, anyway) because he knows that Yue Fei would only give in like this if he’d really, truly scared him. By being an (accidental) death-seeking fool. Although he’d love to spend every morning waking up in this kind of blissful security, it’s not worth it if the price is making the person he most wants to please miserable with worry.
Not to mention… What if Yue Fei got fed up and left?! Wei Qing’s been focusing on cleaning up his messy social life, but– But in the shower, he could feel how taut Yue Fei was stretched, could hear the cold fury in his tone, and the exhausted worry behind those words, -you must learn-
Even if Yue Fei had given up on chiding him, he’d been just as disappointed as when he found Wei Qing in bed with that… whoever it was, when he first came back. Foolishness might be just as dangerous as his social calendar had been, when it comes to chasing away Yue Fei.
He must do better. Do as he’s told.
Be good.
He nuzzles against Yue Fei’s bicep, closes his eyes, and slows his breathing. Stretches this out as he organizes his thoughts, carefully catalogs his future plans for goodness. He’ll definitely think before doing anything with a mortality rate higher than falling out of bed, like crossing the street or swimming in the ocean or-
He falls asleep again. Part of being good is appreciating what one has.
Author’s Corner:
Yue Fei, I see you slipping. Calling people pet names when they are mostly unconscious. 
Thanks for the chapter~
Okay, but I am near tears every chapter. Like I love this story, and I’m excited about the next chapters, but I think my brain has short-circuited. XD Anyways, thanks for the chapter! 🙂
Damn his brother ! Don’t care about his reason angry angry angry
And yeah please stop (accidentally) seeking death uwu
Also… Pet name ! Fufufufufu
I guess Yue Fei wouldn’t know to speculate that maybe the nightmare could be about Wei Qiwan stealing him away from Wei Qing.
This reminds me of my relationship. It reminds you that you’re loved. My bf def cares more about my health than I do and I really should care since I almost died due to a stroke 3.5 yrs ago. I care more and more but it’s just annoying knowing I couldn’t do any about it happening in the first place.
Thanks to the author for another delight~
But(!) Aren’t rose-colored glasses too much? Or the first aid for drowning is artificial respiration?
As far as whether Wei Qing should have been taken to a hospital– ai, you’re probably onto something. To tell the truth, I have some bad associations with hospitals recently and avoid writing scenes in them because it affects my mood.
Thank you very much for the answer~
He also called A Qing’s pet name when he found out abt his death. He must’ve also been devastated the .
I LOVE. Absolutely LOVE. How this book is written.
Ugh i love this sm
Just to hide his reaction, he ends up getting a ‘kiss’, shower together and sleeps in same bed… way to go!!! 🤣🤣
I love them so much omg aaaaaaa
Just assistant things…yeaaaah, sure! You tell yourself that 🤭