Edited by Yummers
Fang Shiqing was staying home on Sunday as well. He slept in until noon. As he scrolled through his phone in bed, he saw the news and quickly called to check in on Zheng Qiuyang and Yuan Rui.
Zheng Qiuyang said, “It’s nothing big. His agent wants him to stay at home for the time being and make no posts on social media.”
Fang Shiqing said, “Yeah, that’s the best way to go about it for now. I’ll call some close friends who work in the media later and ask about the situation. I’ll also have Wang Qi ask around. Don’t worry too much, you two.”
“I’ll thank you guys in advance then.” Zheng Qiuyang then poured out his greviences to Fang Shiqing., “Yuan Xiao Rui’s not worried at all. He’s super open-minded about this. It’s been half a day and he still seems completely fine. I’m the only one who’s worried to death.”
Fang Shiqing laughed, “He’s never been the type to be bothered by gossip. This is good though, he won’t have as much to think about. What is he doing right now? Why are you using his phone?”
Zheng Qiuyang didn’t bother to hide anything as he said, “He’s in the shower.”
Showering in the middle of the day was a clear hint that Fang Shiqing would not miss. He spoke sourly, “Hey, could you two be a bit more concerned?! Did you close the curtains this time?”
As the two bickered back and forth, Yuan Rui came out of the shower. He noticed that the phone Zheng Qiuyang was holding by his ear was his because of the Conan phone case, he asked, “Who called me?”
Zheng Qiuyang said into the phone, “He’s out of the shower, you can talk to him.” Then he passed the phone to Yuan Rui, “That nosy gossiper.”
Fang Shiqing yelled from the other side, “Bastard! Tainting my good name again!”
Yuan Rui and Fang Shiqing started talking about the leaked video. Zheng Qiuyang said from the side, “There’s frozen dumplings in the freezer, I’ll go cook them.”
Yuan Rui nodded, his gaze following Zheng Qiuyang’s steps into the kitchen. When he went out of sight, Yuan Rui whispered to Fang Shiqing, “I have to tell you something. Do you remember the godmother I got recently?”
Fang Shiqing thought the sudden change in topic was weird, he replied, “Yeah. Isn’t it Yang Lu? Oh right, did you not ask her for help? I remember articles talking about her coming from an influential family, she can definitely take care of this.”
“She’s that incredible?!” Yuan Rui was shocked, but he quickly got back on topic, “Gosh, I wasn’t trying to talk about her dad! I’m trying to talk about her son, she’s Meng Lai’s mom!”
Fang Shiqing, “…”
Afraid that Zheng Qiuyang might hear, Yuan Rui lowered his voice again, “I only found out recently too, I almost peed myself.”
Fang Shiqing was suddenly excited. “Did both of them team up to court you?”
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.
“No, no. Auntie had no idea that Meng Lai and I were high school classmates. She’s never mentioned Meng Lai to me either. Meng Lai also had no idea that his mom took me in as her godson.”
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Now Yuan Rui was not as confident with his thoughts anymore. He hesitated for a moment before saying, “Let’s forget about the two of them for now, I just know that I’m not guilty of anything so it’s not a huge deal. I was afraid that it’d upset Zheng Qiuyang, so I didn’t tell him about it. But I accidentally spilled it earlier, so he got mad. He was so mad that he even wanted to beat me.”
Fang Shiqing was shocked, saying, “He dares to beat you? Does he think you’ve got no one at home to back you up?”
Yuan Rui didn’t see anything wrong with Fang Shiqing’s words, he was even touched by them. “He didn’t actually beat me, he only said it.”
“That’s good then. What happened after?”
Yuan Rui described everything in detail, “He watched a soccer game to ignore me. I didn’t want to disturb him either. Then Auntie Yang called me, he asked me who was calling, I told him and he didn’t let me pick up so I didn’t. He looked so mad that I was a little scared he might really hit me, so a lightbulb lit up in me. I told him about the plot of Don’t Respond To Strangers, alerting him that domestic abuse is an absolute no.”
Fang Shiqing, “…”
Yuan Rui continued, “He was still quite calm. As I explained everything to him, he seemed less mad, then we just did that.”
“I was gonna say, what are you taking a shower in the middle of the day for.” Fang Shiqing tsked twice from his end, and said, “Isn’t it going well then? You just have to coax him.”
Yuan Rui said concernedly, “I have him coaxed temporarily, but he still won’t let me call Auntie Yang. He must still be mad. What should I do?”
Fang Shiqing was starting to understand. Yuan Rui wasn’t here to have a little chat with him, he needed to talk about this situation. Fang Shiqing asked, “What are you thinking?”
“Auntie Yang actually told me in the past that she doesn’t like Qiuyang. Since then, I felt the need to keep a distance from her. We haven’t been in contact recently either. Now that Qiuyang also dislikes her, it gives me even more reason to distance myself. But she’s already done so much for me. Will me doing this make her mad and make her think I’m ungrateful?”
Fang Shiqing also said, “With her status and influence, getting on her bad side honestly has no benefit.”
Yuan Rui said troubledly, “I don’t want to get on her bad side, nor do I want Qiuyang to be upset. Just now when we were doing it, he kept making me call him Gege. He must mind the fact that Meng Lai somehow became my godbrother through the connections.”
Fang Shiqing, “…”
Fang Shiqing couldn’t help but burst out, “Are you trying to have a conversation with me or did you call me just to tell me sex jokes?!”
Yuan Rui was taken aback, then he replied by deflecting the blame, “You’re so dirty-minded, what were you thinking? I’m being very serious right now.”
Fang Shiqing scolded, “Serious my ass! Are you dumb? Why would your man mind that you got another relative? He’s conscious about the fact that you’re calling someone else Gege! Think about it, if a girl were to call your man Gege in front of you right now, would you be mad?”
Yuan Rui thought about it, then his eyes widened as he realized. “Ah.”
Fang Shiqing kept going, “If I dared to call anyone else Gege, Wang Qi would’ve tied me up and fucked me dead, okay? Your man is too soft on you! And you called your first love Gege right in front of his face too, you’re so dumb!”
Yuan Rui imagined a girl with fair skin and nice boobs by Zheng Qiuyang’s side as calling him Gege. It suddenly saddened him. Now he finally realized why his boyfriend was so mad. His chrysanthemum that just closed not long ago tightened again with his nerves. He stuttered a bit in his speech, “Then—then I’ll have a talk with Auntie Yang, I won’t be her godson anymore.”
Fang Shiqing, “…”
Zheng Qiuyang came out with two plates of cooked dumplings, saying, “Are you guys still not done talking?”
“We’re done, we’re done.” Yuan Rui quickly said to Fang Shiqing, “That’s it for now, we’re going to eat.”
After hanging up, Fang Shiqing, who was still curled up in bed lazily, thought about the conversation he just had very seriously. Once he was done reviewing everything that Yuan Rui had told him, he couldn’t help but doubt his own standards for picking friends. Looks like aside from personality and looks, next time he would have to seriously consider intelligence as a factor too.
On the other side, Zheng Qiuyang and Yuan Rui sat around the table as they ate their dumplings. One plate was mushroom and pork filling and the other was a mixed veggies filling.
Yuan Rui mixed vinegar and chili pepper sauce together for dipping while Zheng Qiuyang went with only vinegar. There was also a little dish of pickled radish on the table. It paired well with meat dumplings.
They didn’t get to eat breakfast that day as they left in a hurry, then when they got home they immediately did some intense exercise. Thus, Zheng Qiuyang had been starving. Without saying anything, he dug into the dumplings quietly.
Yuan Rui was alright though. As he ate, he calculated in his head. Yang Lu had gifted him a Burberry coat before; the price listed online was twenty-one thousand. She’s treated him out to eat twice as well, that could add up to be a thousand. Those were the only instances he could remember for now, so it wasn’t actually too much. Returning proper gifts would be enough. But Yang Lu also got him the leading role of Sand Between Your Fingers. Before tax, his pay would be three hundred thousand per episode. Adding up all twenty four episodes together, the total would be seven million and two hundred thousand. However, his company was in charge of that money as of now; they have to draw out the taxes and the company percentage. When the money finally transfers to him, he will end up with three million.
After Zheng Qiuyang satisfied his hunger by devouring half a plate of dumplings, he finally said, “What did you and Fang Shiqing talk about that took so long?”
Yuan Rui was still calculating how he should repay Yang Lu’s favors. He reacted a bit slowly as he said, “Nothing much, we just talked about the leaked video.”
Yuan Rui always had an unnatural expression when lying, so it was easy for Zheng Qiuyang to see through him. Zheng Qiuyang asked suspiciously, “Did you two talk about me behind my back?”
“Of course not! He even said you’re too soft on me.”
What did they chat about in order for Fang Shiqing to come to that conclusion? Zheng Qiuyang wondered, “Did you tell him about the details of that?”
Yuan Rui quickly shook his head, saying, “No, I’d be afraid of him telling it to Wang Qi. That’d be so embarrassing.”
Right as he finished saying that, he realized something—Wang Qi must’ve seen the video of him and Zheng Qiuyang making out by the window.
Zheng Qiuyang had always been very annoyed by how concerned Yuan Rui was with Wang Qi. Zheng Qiuyang let out a hmph and said, “I told you already, don’t always tell Fang Shiqing every little thing, he’s very unreliable.”
Yuan Rui nodded his head without processing his words. In his mind, he started to think that other than Wang Qi, Bai Tu had probably seen the video too…all the acts he put up in front of his male god to seem like a reserved individual have now all gone to waste!
Zheng Qiuyang put down his chopsticks once he was full. Seeing Yuan Rui’s unusually red face, he quickly asked, “Was it too cold on the sofa earlier? Do you not feel good?”
Yuan Rui’s mind wasn’t paying full attention to the conversation, all he heard was “on the sofa” and “not feel good”. Instantly, his face reddened even more as he said, “No, it felt pretty good.”
Since Yuan Rui didn’t seem to be sick, Zheng Qiuyang mistook his expressions. He jokingly said, “That’s what you get for spilling all the details to Fang Shiqing. Is your chest itching again?”
Yuan Rui was flustered, “It is not!”
Zheng Qiuyang was no longer angry now. As he sat across from Yuan Rui, he had a smile on his face. “Yuan Xiao Rui, while cooking the dumplings earlier, I thought of something.”
“What is it?”
Zheng Qiuyang suggested, “While you’re off work for the time being, we should go traveling.”
“…At this time?”
“If we don’t take advantage of this time, we won’t have any chance to later on”
But Yuan Rui said, “Who knows, maybe I’ll be gone from this line of work in a few days. By then, I’ll have all the time in the world.”
Zheng Qiuyang said with a little heavy tone, “Can’t you think more positively of your own future? Why are you so dejected?”
Yuan Rui looked at him for a moment, then suddenly said, “Qiuyang, you’re a lot more dejected than me. You’re afraid that I won’t be able to overcome this incident and it worries you a lot. You also think that I was burdened by you, and you feel very apologetic towards me, right?”
Zheng Qiuyang was taken aback.
Yuan Rui put down his chopsticks, his expression was a little awkward. “I know what you’re thinking, and I’ve also had those thoughts before. You were a completely straight, handsome, and talented guy before. You had a lot of girls who chased after you. If it weren’t for me sticking to you all day, you would probably be living a very carefree life right now, doing whatever you please. You would be able to do whatever you want; and when you’ve fooled around enough, you could settle down, marry a nice girl, and have kids. You would’ve for sure had a comfortable life.
“But unfortunately, you just had to meet me. Not only did you have to give up your carefree life, you even had to go through the painstaking process of giving up smoking. You also can’t go to bars anymore and nor can you sleep with your favorite big-chested girls. And because of me, your mom ended up in the hospital. I often think that I’ve really burdened you a lot in this life, but I don’t have the guts to say it out loud. I’m scared that once I say it, you’ll realize how annoying I am. I’m scared that once you think it through, you’ll realize how bad it was being together with me. I’m scared that you’ll regret everything and you’ll break up with me.”
As Zheng Qiuyang heard all of Yuan Rui’s insecurities, he couldn’t help but feel sorrowful but bittersweet at the same time. Zheng Qiuyang said, “Then why are you telling me it now?”
“Well, everyone knows I have a boyfriend now. And I’m about to quit this line of job because of you. If you break up with me, you’ll forever be titled as the scum.”
Zheng Qiuyang, “…”
Yuan Rui smirked a bit mischievously, he said, “So, it’s too late for you to regret it now. Accept me as your burden willfully.”
Aww these 2 haha ❤
Aahhhh I miss this silly couple!!! 😆😆
Thank you for the chapter ❤️
All my pain was nowhere to be found when yuan xiao rui tell qiuyang the reason.. no one can beat himಥ‿ಥ
Thanks for the chapter💜
Yuan Rui is not dull.. It’s just that his intelligence is used at a very different place.. 😂
This is the first time i actually agree with what comes out of Yuan Rui`s mouth lol Good job sir!
sigh Yan rui amaze me sometimes it’s as if he’s actually very intelligent only with some screw loose in his head… Any way that last part was sweet
Thanks for the chapter ♥️♥️
Haha I love this couple … thank you for the chapter.
😂 😂 😂 no words…
thanks for the chapter <3
thanks for the chapter!