…those eyes.
“Hello?” A hand waves in front of Pu Li Ming’s face.
Pu Li Ming blinks and focuses back on the person in front of him.
Familiar dark fierce eyebrows paired with onyx phoenix eyes. And now that it’s closer, a small mole a few ways above his left eyebrow.
Zhou Fi Hai.
“Yes, that’s me.” An amused voice answers.
“Oh, I said that out loud? Sorry.” Pu Li Ming says, doing a small bow in apology.
“What are you even sorry for?” Zhou Fi Hai says, a small smile in the corner of his mouth.
Pu Li Ming blinks, “I don’t know.”
Zhou Fi Hai’s smile widens, “Alright, anyways we should go inside.”
“Inside?” He asks in confusion.
“My car.” Zhou Fi Hai tilts his head in the direction of the car parked right behind his own. “Come on, I’ll drive you home.”
Pu Li Ming’s eyebrows furrowed, “What about my own car?”
“I run a garage. I can call someone to get it towed there.” Zhou Fi Hai offers.
“…Mother says not to get into cars with strangers.” Pu Li Ming says.
“Well, you clearly know me and my name. So I’m not a stranger.” Zhou Fi Hai points out.
Pu Li Ming glares a little, “Why do you have a rebuttal to everything I say.”
Zhou Fi Hai doesn’t answer the question that sounded more like a question, only exhales in a way that sounds close to a laugh.
After a few minutes of standing in the rain, Pu Li Ming finally sighs.”…you’re sure you’ll take care of my car?”
“I will.”
Pu Li Ming sighs, “Alright. I’ll grab my things from my car first.”
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.
Itbe Ml Ljl tegglfvis obiibkr Ue Ol Zlcu klat tlr ewygfiij ktfc atf sbecufg wjc rajgar kjixlcu jgbecv tlr mjg jcv ugjyr tlr atlcur joafg bqfclcu atf mjg vbbg.
“Gbcf.” Ue Ol Zlcu vfmijgfr joafg ibmxlcu atf mjg jcv rtbeivfglcu tlr rilcu yju.
“Xbbv. Rbk ifa’r ufa bea bo atf gjlc.” Qlat j tjcv qgfrrfv jujlcra Ol Zlcu’r yjmx, Itbe Ml Ljl ifjvr tlw ab tlr mjg.
At Li Ming’s stiff back, Zhou Fi Hai pulls his hand back slightly and asks, “Is this okay?”
Pu Li Ming pauses before nodding.
“Can you answer with words?” Zhou Fi Hai asks.
Pu Li Ming blinks and nods again, “Yes, it’s okay.”
“Alright. Make sure to tell me if you’re not okay with something.” He answered.
Zhou Fi Hai stared as something seemed to flash in Pu Li Ming’s eyes. Instead of prying, he decides not to mention it and continues leading Pu Li Ming to his car.
When they get there, he opens the passenger side, covers Pu Li Ming with the umbrella, and lets him climb in before running to the driver’s side and climbing in himself.
The warmer (and dryer) space in the car makes him sigh in relief. He grabs a towel he threw on the top of the dashboard and offers it to Pu Li Ming.
Pu Li Ming hesitates before accepting it and starts trying to dry himself off. It doesn’t do much but it helps a little.
He offers it back to Zhou Fi Hai who takes it back and quickly dries himself off.
Once finished, he puts it on top of Pu Li Ming’s wet hair, covering the younger man’s face.
“Hey!” He protests, raising the tail end up to look Zhou Fi Hai in the eyes.
He’s met with another amused look, “Dry off your hair more. It’s practically dripping. You were under the rain for a bit.”
Holding Zhou Fi Hai’s gaze, Pu Li Ming slowly reaches up to dry his own hair by rubbing the towel against it slowly.
Zhou Fi Hai gave a look of approval before starting to back the car up, setting his arm behind the passenger seat and looking both behind and in the mirror. Once he’s good, he drives onwards.
“Which way’s your house?”
–
After driving for a while, the heavy rain had eased up just a little (although still drizzling), fortunately making it easier for Pu Li Ming to point out where they should go.
“Ahh, this is the last corner.” Pu Li Ming pointed out the right street, face pressed to the passenger side’s window.
The house comes into view and Pu Li Ming relaxes minutely.
Zhou Fi Hai slows down, staring at the house then pulling up by the house’s curb.
“Thank you so much for taking me home, Zhou Fi Hai!” Pu Li Ming says, giving a small bow with his hands pressed together.
“It was no problem.” Zhou Fi Hai says, waving a hand dismissively.
“Would you like to come in for a little bit? Maybe wait for the rain to lighten up before you go? Plus I could get you something hot as a thank you. It’s only polite anyways.” Pu Li Ming offers.
After thinking about it for a few, the dark-haired man agrees.
Turning off the engine, he then grabs the umbrella and gets out of the car while opening it. Then he runs to the passenger side to make sure that Pu Li Ming is under the umbrella when he gets out.
Now that both of them are out, Zhou Fi Hai locks the car and they start making their way to Pu Li Ming’s house under the umbrella.
“I’m home!” Pu Li Ming shouted once he was through the front door, toeing off his shoes and walking right in.
With a look at the young man’s back, Zhou Fi Hai crouches down to set Pu Li Ming’s shoes aside as well as take off his own shoes and put them beside them. (A/N: Pu Li Ming’s shoes.)
Zhou Fi Hai eventually catches up to the other as the younger man stops by the fridge, leaning down to look at a sticky note.
He straightens back up and tells Zhou Fi Hai, “My mother’s still buying groceries, but she’ll be back soon.”
The other nods though as soon as Pu Li Ming goes into the other section of the room to heat up a kettle of water, he still risks a look at the note.
Dear heart,
May be late after work.
Going to buy some
groceries for dinner.
We’ll be eating good later!
Love, Mom
Sweet, Zhou Fi Hai thinks.
Zhou Fi Hai was led to the dining room and sat at the table. The kettle whistles soon enough and Pu Li Ming makes a cup of coffee for the guest and sets it right in front of him.
Pu Li Ming himself has nothing but an unopened bottle of mineral water that he grabbed from the fridge.
“You go to Nom Si University right?” Zhou Fi Hai asks.
Pu Li Ming froze after taking a sip of water, how did he know? Did he notice him from the conference?
As if almost hearing his thoughts Zhou Fi Hai says, “Your uniform jacket. It has the University’s name and logo.”
Pu Li Ming’s face almost burned with red, “Oh, right. Yes, I do go to Nom Si University. Just like you did if I heard right.”
Zhou Fi Hai smiles, it’s somewhat neutral, “I guess you have heard of me from the Uni. Can never escape from that place’s attention, it seems.”
Hearing the off-tone, Pu Li Ming quiets down a little and grows awkward.
After a while, Zhou Fi Hai sighs with a small laugh, “Don’t worry. I’m really just not one for all the attention.” He explains and takes a sip from his coffee, “I’m the type who prefers to just stay under the radar. But alas, I can’t control it if people latch on to me.” His eyes flash a little something in his last sentence.
Pu Li Ming’s finger follows a trail of condensation running down the bottle, “From what I heard, their attention is warranted.”
The dark-haired man’s eyes snapped towards him, and with a curious hum, he asked what the younger exactly meant.
“You’re smart. Like really smart. Graduated as top of the class! You did really well in school and the teachers love you. You’re talented and won lots of awards. And they always say you look—” As soon as Pu Li Ming realized what he was about to say, he froze and his face grew embarrassed.
Zhou Fi Hai laughed, “Of course, they would say that. But I’d hope at least you would know me more than those surface things.”
While Pu Li Ming blinks at him in confusion, Zhou Fi Hai takes the opportunity to stand up.
“Thank you so much for the coffee, Pu Li Ming.” He says, “But I’ll be going now.”
“Oh, right yeah.” Pu Li Ming said, standing up to follow him to the door.
Zhou Fi Hai crouches down again to put on his shoes while Pu Li Ming shuffles in his sock-covered feet, not really knowing what to say.
When he straightens up, he turns to face Pu Li Ming with a soft smile, “I’m off. I’ll see you another time.” And with that, he gives a small casual salute-like wave before opening the door.
“Y-Yeah. Bye!” Pu Li Ming says as Zhou Fi Hai opens his umbrella and leaves.
After standing there for almost a minute, the door opens again, startling him.
“I’m home.” The voice of his mother greets him.
“Oh, hi Mom. Welcome home.” He says back.
“Who was that leaving? I saw a car I didn’t recognize pull away.” She said, after taking off her shoes.
“Just an acquaintance who helped me, that’s all.”
This Zhou Fi Hai looks like he knows our MC?
Also, he’s very attentive?