After Running Away With a Cub, I Became Everyone’s Favourite

7:30 p.m. Lantong restaurant

At one of the most expensive restaurants in the city, Xia Qing Shu is guided by the waiter to the designated private room. Chen Zhiyu had already arrived early and was sitting on the sofa, working with his computer, when he saw him enter, he beckoned him to wash his hands.

“Mr. Chen, why are you inviting me to dinner?” Xia Qingshu’s voice was sullen. It had been a tiring day, he had met with too many people, he had been spinning like a spinning wheel all day, and he was planning to rest early in the evening when he received an invitation to dinner from Chen Zhiyu.

He hadn’t planned to come, but Secretary Li had said something very serious on the phone, so he had to make the trip.

Xia Qing Shu washed his hands and squeezed the towel to wipe the water. The long, white fingers were wet, like white jade dipped in cold water.

Chen Zhiyu closed the computer, and did not answer the question, his eyes flicked around Qinshu’s fingers and asked, “Did you met my mother?”

Xia Qingshu yawned, not in the best of spirits, “Yes.”

He had probably just taken a shower and changed his clothes, and the freshness of his body could be smelled from a distance, still smelling familiarly of lemon milk.

Chen Zhiyu lowered his eyes, “My mother gave you a card, why don’t you want it?”

Xia Qingshu gave him a look and sighed, “I’d like to.” But your mother’s request was outrageous, not only did she ask him to leave Chen Zhiyu, she also asked him to use He Chen as a stand-in to make up a pair with He Chen.

Did she ask He Chen? Was he willing to do so? He had not read many novels and had never seen such a dogged and magical plot, so he was stuck and missed the best time to bargain. The chance to achieve financial freedom flew away just like that. What a shame.

He Chen, who was such a stinky fart and had always treated him like a licking dog, threw a glass on the spot when he heard that he had suddenly become a stand-in for a licking dog. He had just also sent him a message asking to talk to him alone. He was sure it would not be a nice talk.

This day and night, so many people are looking for him to talk to, he has cancer, and they still won’t leave him alone. Originally, he thought that crossing over into book was easy, just dealing with a few paper people, but he didn’t expect that life in a book wasn’t that so simple.

Thinking about how uncomplicated life is and how hard the world is, Xia Qing Shu frowned and sighed once again with a full fledged sigh, the small white face crumbling tightly.

Damn, it’s too hard on me!

“Take it if you want it, why did you give up?” Chen Zhiyu raised his eyes to look over and saw that Xia Qing Shu’s face looked torn and helpless in the choice between love and money. His white face was wrinkled into a ball, sighing and heavy-hearted.

Only a nineteen-year-old boy could be so determined about love. A man like him, who has passed through the floundering of society, has long since given up the pursuit of love. This deep love was destined to go unanswered.

“I can’t do what Auntie is asking.” Xia Qing Shu propped his head up with one head, his eyes empty, missing the departed black card. As he worried, he couldn’t help but yawn.

Chen Zhiyu looked at his sleepless face and was somewhat amused. When he first took over the company, the elders in his family had warned him that “the business world is like a battlefield”, and he had seen too many people with a heart of gold, and some had more hearts than a honeycomb coal. Never had he seen Xia Qing Shu like this, expressing his desires in an outspoken manner.

He said directly that he liked him, and frankly admitted he wanted the money. He’s very real.

Chen Zhiyu sat opposite him and stared at his fingers, “Pass me a cigarette.”

Xia Qing Shu picked up the cigarette and looked at it, hesitantly saying, “Smoking is not good for your health.”

Recently, he didn’t know what was going on, but he felt sick when he smelled smoke. He didn’t have this problem before, but after he got sick, had he become more delicate?

Chen Zhiyu: “Trying to control me?” Xia Qingshu lifted his eyes and looked at him, not saying anything.

Why did this sound so strange? There seemed to be something wrong with the whole family surnamed Chen. Xia Qingshu lowered his eyelids, but still handed over the cigarette case and explained in a small voice, “I’m a bit unwell, and I feel bad when I smell smoke.”

Chen Zhiyu took a cigarette out of the box and played with it in his hand, deliberating back and forth, but finally did not light it. He put the cigarette on the table and pressed his voice to say, “Squeamish.”

His voice was already low, deliberately pressed and slurred as he spat it out, his tone seemed to have a hook hidden in it, and between one breath and the other, it made the surrounding air a little strange and ambiguous.

Xia Qingshu took a sharp breath: mama, it’s too weird, goose bumps are rising. He took a peek at Chen Zhiyu  and found that the other man looked serious and normal.

At that moment, the waiter came in with the menu and Xia Qing Shu hurriedly withdrew his gaze. Chen Zhiyu pretended to be unaware of the other party’s prying eyes and skillfully quoted a few favourite dishes, and asked the waiter to give the menu to Xia Qing Shu, so that he could order what he liked.

Xia Qingshu finished his order and held a bowl of iced sugar white fungus in both hands, his eyes staring out of the window as he took small sips. Outside the private room there was a small river with a few flower lanterns by the river.The air conditioning is on adequately, but his cheeks are flushed, as if with rouge. His lips were stained with soup, shiny, and when it was about to run down his lips, he stuck out his tongue and licked it quickly, like a pretty, cunning little cat.

Chen Zhiyu handed over a tissue, “What are you looking at?”

“This restaurant is not doing well.” Xia Qingshu remembered the prices of the dishes he had just seen and pointed to the empty table outside the window, “It’s sold at such a high price, it must not taste good for there to be no customers.”

From the moment he entered, he noticed that there was only their table in the large restaurant.

“It tastes good, I come often.

“Then how come there are no customers?”

Chen Zhiyu returned carelessly, “I’ve booked the entire place.”

Xia Qingshu: “……”

Thinking about the courtyard, the gold mine, the pictures of antiques, and the pair of gold armour suspected to have been stripped from the Terracotta warriors that he saw today. Chen Zhiyu’s way of showing off his wealth was much more subtle than his mother.

“Oh, thanks then.”

Chen Zhiyu looked out the window, “After eating, you can go to the river for a stroll, there are small boats along the river, and you can also release flower lanterns.”

Xia Qingshu had been transmigrated for so long and had to deal with different relationships every day, having just taken care of his extreme relatives and bullying classmates, and seeing that he could lie like a salty fish for a while, he found himself in spirits again. His eyes lit up and his head hooked to look out. The sad face he had just now disappeared in an instant.

The pair of beautiful peach blossom eyes were very lively.

Chen Zhiyu secretly said, “Children are too easily satisfied.”

Because there was only one table of customers, the food was served very quickly, and in less than five minutes after placing the order, a cold earth chicken was served up. The dish sold very well at he restaurant, an azure stone medium plate with two small decorative white flowers on the side, the chicken was placed in the centre of the plate in a regular manner, drizzled with hot oil and sprinkled with spring onions and sesame seeds, one could smell the fragrance of pepper and chicken from a long distance.

Xia Qing Shu, who had recently developed a good appetite, pinched his chopsticks and swallowed several times, his eyes almost falling into the chicken.

“Mr. Chen, do you want rice?” Xia Qingshu saw Chen Zhiyu nodded and asked the waiter to order two bowls of rice.

“Eat up.” Chen Zhiyu felt that if he didn’t open his mouth, Xia Qingshu’s mouth would be drooling onto the table. Xia Qing Shu used to come from a good family, he was not someone who hadn’t seen anything, and his family was good now, Xia Lao Er was the cook, so he could just say what he wanted to eat. He didn’t know what was going on, but lately he just gets hungry fast and sleep a lot, and when he see food that suits his fancy, he greedily eats it up.

Xia Qing Shu took a chopstick of chicken covered with red oil and sesame seeds and put it into his mouth …… The meat was strong, spicy and not too harsh, with icing sugar and a light sweetness. It was served with pearl white rice, delicious.

A short while later, various dishes were served one after another, and Xia Qing Shu focused on the food and dried rice. Although the meal was considered a reward for Xia Qingshu, the other party’s practice of just eating without seizing the opportunity to get close to him gave Chen Zhiyu the illusion of being left out.

The little friend is silly and honest.

Chen Zhiyu simply ate two chopsticks of food and took the initiative to speak, “I’ve heard about your birth story.”

Xia Qingshu chucked a piece of pan-fried veal steak and stuffed it into his mouth, glanced at him, shut up and chewed without answering.

“Uncle Xia came to see me today and said you didn’t want to go home?” Chen Zhiyu pushed the pan-fried veal steak in front of Xia Qing Shu.

Xia Qingshu swallowed a mouthful of rice and continued to chuck the dish.

Chen Zhiyu asked again, “What are your plans?”

Chen Zhiyu had asked three times already, so Xia Qingshu had to reply. He seemed to remember that Chen Zhiyu’s character was of an iceberg that didn’t like to talk, so why was he talking so much today.

Can we finish eating before we say anything.

He chewed quickly for about ten times and swallowed his food, “I see that they are quite good to their adopted son, I am afraid that they will be biased and will recognize me back but then treat me badly. The adopted son’s name is Xia Yubin, you know him too, right?”

After Xia Qing Shu finished speaking, he put down her chopsticks and stared at Chen Zhiyu seriously.

Xia Yubin? Xia Shan’s younger brother, whom he had met him a few times. Chen Zhiyu did not answer immediately.

Xia Qing Shu hurriedly described, “The day you came to give a speech, I was supposed to be a volunteer, but then something came up and I didn’t go, so that boy took my place as a volunteer, you guys have met before, right?”

Xia Qing Shu lowered his eyes and pretended not to care much, but in reality, he wanted to rushed to the front line of eating melons and enjoying the show. He hadn’t forgotten that “Exclusive Favourite” was a novel with a complicated unsplitting male to male relationship, and he wondered how many men Xia Yubin had captured now? Thinking of the unnameable descriptions in the text, Xia Qing Shu’s small face flushed and he hurriedly poured a large mouthful of water.

Chen Zhiyu skimmed over the other party’s red cheeks and returned indifferently, “I know.”

Xia Qingshu clenched hid fist for a moment, sure enough.

“You guys …… How’s the relationship?”

How far is it going now? Exclusive Favorites is a serialized text, it was not yet finished when he read it, Xia Qing Shu was very curious about the ending, wondering how it would be a HE with so many attackers. As of the part he had seen, there were eight attackers, one a day, not enough for a week’s worth of turns.

Chen Zhiyu saw the tension in his fake strong expression, and after a pause, said, “Not familiar.”

Tsk, the way the little kid was jealous, it was quite cute.

Xia Qing Shu was puzzled up, how could he not be familiar, according to the timeline, Xia Yubin had already piqued Chen Zhiyu’s interest, and by the day he died, Chen Zhiyu would confess his love himself. Could it be that he wouldn’t die now, so the plot had deviated as well?

Xia Qing Shu was a bit more serious: “Really not familiar?”

Chen Zhiyu held back a smile, “Really.” He briefly described the fact that he had met Xia Yubin a total of two times, once at the hospital, where he was splashed with coffee and had his clothes soiled by the other party. The second time was a speech at school, and Xia Yubin paid for the soiled clothes. There were no more encounters after that.

“Oh.” Xia Qing Shu was a little disappointed after hearing this.

That was it, it was too unexciting.

Only after he finished speaking did Chen Zhiyu suddenly wake up to why he had to explain so clearly to Xia Qing Shu. And whydid Xia Qingshu react in such a calm manner after hearing it? Chen Zhiyu raised his head and stared firmly at Xia Qingshu, not letting go of every subtle expression on his face.

At this moment, the child is 100% secretly happy. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to eat so well.

The two of them continued to eat their meal, each with his own thoughts. Suddenly, Chen Zhiyu opened his mouth and asked, “What do you want to do in the future?”

Chen Zhiyu did not explicitly explain the purpose of the dinner invitation tonight, but the topic always, if anything, revolved around his biological family, and Xia Qing Shu guessed that, based on Chen Zhiyu’s relationship with the Xia family, nine times out of ten he had been asked by Xia Jing to be a lobbyist.

Xia Qingshu rubbed his nose, did he and Chen Zhiyu look that close to outsiders?

“I want to be a salted fish with money.”

Lying around with no worry about clothes or food, no need to go to various study courses or acting training classes, no need to practice the piano, no more lack of sleep. Just lie around and do nothing.

Oh, and to eat melons, lying down and eating melons.

Hearing the reply, Chen Zhiyu smiled, the child is really natural in front of him, saying everything without any scruples. He picked up a towel to wipe his hands, “Have you eaten yet, salted fish, go out for a walk.”

Xia Qingshu: “Wait, I’ll eat another bowl.”

~

LanTong and the wetland park were separated by a small river, and standing by the river, one could see the dappled shadows of the park’s trees. The moon was bright tonight and there are only a few low ground lights on the riverside path, perfect for a couple’s walk. The river boat can be taken around Lantong Garden and the restaurant provides river lanterns which will be collected after release.

After Xia Qing Shu stepped onto the river boat, he found the atmosphere a little unusual. The expensive restaurant, the quiet river, the bright moon hanging overhead, the soft breeze from the forest blowing Xia Qing Shu’s bangs, brought a slight coolness. If there were two more violinists, Xia Qing Shu would have thought it was a marriage proposal.

But the other person was Chen Zhiyu, the scholarship winner of the male virtue class, and Xia Qing Shu did not think of him in terms of love at all, only that the other person was a tool that Xia Jing had invited to make him recognize his relatives.

As the river boat wandered quietly through the water, Chen Zhiyu saw him reach up to fix his bangs and stood in the shadows and hooked his mouth.

Finding time to time to fix your hair. This kid, paying special attention to your image in front of your sweetheart.

The river boat had sailed fifty metres and Xia Qingshu was standing at the bow, holding a pink lantern, the warm light reflecting on his face, pink and puffy.

Suddenly, an abrupt “click” interrupted the quietness of the night as the old and dilapidated power pole slowly tilted from the other side of the river bank. The sound was heard and Xia Qing Shu looked up, holding a lamp, his whole body already shrouded in the shadow of the pole.

“……”

Is it too late to run? Just in this thousandth of a second, countless thoughts rushed through his mind.

As cannon fodder, could he not avoid certain death no matter what?

Would he be able to return after death?

I hope being smashed doesn’t hurt too much. Finally, he closed his eyes and frowned tightly as the pounding wind blew the broken hair from his forehead.

Just then, he felt a gust of wind hit him. He was pounced upon. All that could be heard was a “crunch” and a muffled grunt from the person who had pounced on him.

Xia Qing Shu opened his eyes and found himself lying on the boat, with Chen Zhi Yu holding him and the back of his hand behind his back. Closer to him, Xia Qingshu noticed that Chen Zhiyu’s forehead and the tip of his nose were covered in fine sweat, his shirt with its folds was also scuffed with a large gash, and his legs were not only pressed against an electric pole, but also wrapped with several wires, and his calf bones appeared visibly deformed.

“Frightened?” Chen Zhiyu crouched over Xia Qing Shu, at first able to support his body with his arms, then it all pressed against Xia Qing Shu, pressing them tightly against each other.

Only then did Xia Qingshu react and shouted to the staff, “Call an ambulance, Mr. Chen, how are you? Did it smash into you?”

He struggled to get up, but as soon as he moved, he heard Chen Zhiyu let out a “hiss”.

“Mr. Chen, how are you? Are you hurt badly?” When Xia Qingshu saw the condition of Chen Zhiyu’s leg, his heart clenched and his teeth shook hard. If Chen Zhiyu didn’t save him and the electric pole fell down and hit him directly on the head, he would have died, right?

How painful it would be to be crushed by such a heavy pole! He had just lost his mind, why hadn’t he dodged in time!

The restaurant attendants all came out, called an ambulance and the staff came up to remove the pole. Not daring to move the injured man at will because they didn’t know where he was hurt, the two remained in an embracing position.

“I’m sorry, it’s all my …… fault.”

If he had reacted faster to dodge, Chen Zhiyu would not have been injured to save him. Suddenly, he smelt a smell of blood and felt wetness next to the other man’s legs and feet. It was bleeding, and there was quite a lot of blood. Xia Qing Shu couldn’t help it, his voice trembled a little, “Mr. Chen, I’m sorry ……”

“How do I blame you?” Chen Zhiyu was lying on top of him, it was so painful that his soul was almost out of his body, but he was calm, “The culprit is this concrete stake, wait until I get up and knock it down.”

Xia Qing Shu nodded sparingly, “Mmmm, knock it to pieces.”

The strong smell of milk was close at hand, and Chen Zhiyu felt as if he was pressing on top of a melting milk candy, fragrant and sweet. Taking a deep breath, the tearing pain seemed much lighter.

He frowned and asked in a hoarse voice, “Can you light a cigarette for me?”