Chapter 13: Qi Yu Meets Jiang Mian

Just after getting off the plane, Qi Yu turned on his phone and found several messages waiting for him.

He was familiar with all the others.

But Lu Fu?

Why had he suddenly contacted him?

Their relationship didn’t seem to be that close, did it?

Lu Fu: [I heard you came back today. We haven’t seen each other in so many years. Want to have dinner together tonight?]

Qi Yu thought about it.

After all, Lu Fu was a member of the Lu family, so he decided to give him some face.

Qi Yu: [What time?]

Lu Fu seemed to have been waiting for his reply.

The response came almost immediately.

Lu Fu: [Eight tonight.]

Qi Yu hadn’t wanted his family to go through the trouble of arranging some kind of family gathering.

Lu Fu’s invitation conveniently solved his dinner plans.

So he replied quickly.

Qi Yu: [Okay. Send me the location.]

Lu Fu had chosen a private restaurant with elegant and distinctive décor.

The atmosphere was quiet, and the surroundings looked quite pleasant.

Lu Fu arrived dozens of minutes early.

He stood by the window, irritably running a hand through his hair.

He hadn’t slept well the previous night.

After getting up, he had spent the entire afternoon cursing and playing games.

If Xu Sheng hadn’t reminded him, he might have completely forgotten that Qi Yu was returning to the country today.

He rested his forehead against the glass and couldn’t help letting his thoughts run wild.

Damn it.

It was all Jiang Mian’s fault!

He had given him nightmares all night.

Who would understand the feeling of screaming himself hoarse in a dream, only to be completely helpless as he watched that idiot get tricked into going to Myanmar?

That stupid kid had left without saying a single word.

Where the hell had he run off to?

He couldn’t actually have been sold, could he?

Should he have someone look into it?

But what kind of relationship did they even have?

What right did he have to chase after Jiang Mian like an abandoned dog?

He wasn’t some kind of lapdog.

Before Lu Fu could think any further, Qi Yu arrived.

Hearing the door open, Lu Fu quickly tidied his hair.

When he turned around, he happened to meet Qi Yu’s eyes.

“Long time no see.”

Qi Yu walked toward him and naturally gave him a smile.

His smile looked warm and gentle, yet there was an indistinct hint of faint distance beneath it.

Lu Fu stared at the man before him, both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.

His tone was somewhat stiff.

“You’ve changed a lot.”

If Jiang Mian had been here, no one would have thought the two of them looked alike anymore.

One was innocent and adorably guileless.

The other was gentle and refined.

They were completely different people.

How had he ever thought they looked similar?

“Have I?”

The corners of Qi Yu’s lips remained curved in that friendly smile, as though every inch of it had been measured with a ruler.

“People grow up.”

He had shed the youthful innocence and awkwardness of his younger years.

Now, he looked more mature and refined, and increasingly difficult to read.

After seeing the person he had been thinking about for all these years, Lu Fu didn’t know why, but his heart was strangely calm.

“You look like you’ve been doing pretty well all these years. Why did you suddenly decide to come back?”

Lu Fu had already shaken off the stiffness from earlier.

Looking at Qi Yu, who was about the same height as him, he pulled out a chair and sat down, teasing him.

Qi Yu sat opposite him.

His gaze briefly fell on the dark circles beneath Lu Fu’s eyes before he looked away and turned toward the window with a smile.

“I got tired of staying over there. Then I realized it’s more comfortable staying here.”

The two of them chatted sporadically over dinner.

Afterward, they went home separately.

After that, Lu Fu didn’t contact Qi Yu again.

It was as though he had completely forgotten that Qi Yu even existed.

Even his friends found it strange.

Meanwhile, Jiang Mian was acting unusually as well.

For the next several days, he didn’t accompany Lu Jianglian to the company at all.

Instead, he went to that old residential complex every day.

Jiang Mian never managed to meet Lu Jianglian’s second uncle.

But he frequently ran into Lu Huaijin.

The system had suggested that he start with Lu Huaijin, so Jiang Mian stopped going to the residential complex.

Instead, he followed Lu Huaijin to the milk tea shop where he worked part-time.

And so, Jiang Mian naturally became a regular there.

There was one noteworthy thing about it.

From the very first day he went to the shop, Jiang Mian hadn’t spent a single cent.

He simply sat in the milk tea shop doing absolutely nothing.

With that pretty, adorably vacant face of his, he was fed by the staff every day.

He even seemed to have gotten a little rounder than before.

Lu Jianglian assumed it was because he had been taking such good care of Jiang Mian.

He never suspected that Jiang Mian sneaked out to eat whenever he left.

However, this time, Jiang Mian was delayed when he was leaving the residential complex.

As he passed a pavilion, a little dog that had been lying there sunbathing raised its head and glanced at him.

Then it sat up and began wagging its tail furiously at him, whining excitedly.

Jiang Mian couldn’t move another step.

In his original world, apart from Grandpa Turtle, most small animals were afraid of him and had never been willing to play with him.

This was the first time another little animal had shown him such obvious affection.

He couldn’t tear his eyes away.

“Want to pet him? Xiaobai is very gentle. He doesn’t bite.”

Qi Yu, who was sitting on the stone bench inside the pavilion, had noticed the interaction between Jiang Mian and Xiaobai.

He smiled and invited him over.

At those words, Jiang Mian looked at Qi Yu, then at the dog named Xiaobai.

He immediately nodded eagerly.

The moment he approached, Xiaobai stood up and nudged Jiang Mian’s leg with his fluffy head.

Then, with his tongue hanging out, he happily circled around Jiang Mian again and again.

Qi Yu looked at the dog he had only bought recently.

Usually, Xiaobai treated him with nothing more than mild indifference.

Yet now, he was fawning over a complete stranger like this.

The curve of Qi Yu’s lips seemed to lower slightly.

The change in his emotions was extremely subtle.

And with Jiang Mian’s naturally slow-witted nature, it was even less likely that he would notice.

Jiang Mian thanked the dog’s owner before crouching down.

Before touching the dog, he seriously whispered to it,

“I’m not mean. Don’t run away. My hands are clean too. I haven’t touched anything dirty.”

Only after saying this did he cautiously stroke the dog’s head.

Qi Yu couldn’t help laughing.

“So well-behaved and polite. Are you still in school?”

Jiang Mian looked up blankly.

“School?”

The young man in front of him had delicate, handsome features and smooth, healthy fair skin.

Because of his posture, the flesh of his thigh pressed slightly against his calf beneath his shorts, forming a soft curve.

His snow-white face was tinged with pink.

His eyelashes were long and thick.

There was a tiny cupid’s-bow-like bead on his upper lip, and every time he spoke, a faint fragrance seemed to drift from between his lips.

As though a single kiss would make sweet nectar spill out.

Qi Yu’s gaze subtly appraised him.

The expression on his face remained exceptionally gentle.

He was even better at putting on an act than Lu Jianglian.

Hearing Jiang Mian’s confusion, Qi Yu didn’t think much of it.

“Have you already graduated? You look so young, almost like a high school student.”

His face was small.

His nose was small.

Even his mouth was small.

Everything about him seemed tiny.

Jiang Mian didn’t really understand what he was saying.

He asked the system,

[111, what is he talking about?]

[Ding. Your system is currently busy. If you have an issue, please leave a message.]

The system was currently going crazy in another world.

Its host had been perfectly fine before, but had suddenly decided not to do the mission anymore.

Now he was even carrying a gun and planning to kill the mission target!

How brutal!

Jiang Mian didn’t get an explanation from the system.

So he could only answer whatever came to mind.

“Mm-hmm. I’m still young.”

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