Chapter 19 (Triple Update)

Chapter 19 (Triple-Update Chapter)

The system had been acting weird ever since it said it went to that meeting, and now it was obviously just playing along with him. Xia Yinxi was even more sure it was hiding something.

He wanted to see what would happen if he finished this random "task."

"President Ji?" Xia Yinxi dried his hair as he headed to the living room to find him. "Ah Zhuo?"

"Where is he?"

The suite was empty, so Xia Yinxi just called to ask where he was, and got the reply: Outside.

Xia Yinxi got it. He was out there flaunting himself.

No wonder he'd dressed up and done his hair today. Who was he trying to impress?

Not waiting for his one true love anymore?

Jerk!

"System, this task of yours isn't gonna be like holding hands today, kissing tomorrow, is it?" Xia Yinxi asked. "He's got a one true love. Isn't this kinda wrong for me?"

System: Great idea.

But it didn't have the guts to say that. "No way, Host."

"You'd better be."

Since the guy wasn't around and the task couldn't be done, Xia Yinxi curled back up in bed.

Once you lie down, it's hard to get up again.

He stayed there until after five, when he heard the electronic lock click from outside. Ji Yunzhuo was back.

And with him came the smell of crawfish.

Xia Yinxi scrambled right up.

Ji Yunzhuo opened the takeout box, and the smell got even stronger, filling the whole room. "Wanna try some?"

"Is this from that place that always has a long line?" Xia Yinxi's heart suddenly started pounding. "You stood in line for it?"

"Mm."

Xia Yinxi peeled a crawfish and held it up to Ji Yunzhuo's lips first. "How long did you wait in line?"

Ji Yunzhuo paused, looking down at the pale, slender fingers in front of him. He lowered his head and carefully took the meat off. "Not that long."

"I gave the first guy in line five hundred bucks, and he gave me his spot."

Xia Yinxi was pretty much immune to rich people's crap by now. He peeled one for himself too. The meat was plump and springy, with a strong garlic and beer flavor. It really lived up to the hype.

"You go ahead and eat. I'm gonna take a shower." Ji Yunzhuo had been walking around the food street, so his clothes smelled like crawfish and other street food. Xia Yinxi had noticed it before.

This rich young master had personally gone to buy him street food.

Xia Yinxi chewed, his mind racing. Finally, when Ji Yunzhuo came out of the shower, he just came out and asked, "President Ji, why'd you personally go buy me crawfish?"

Ji Yunzhuo didn't stop drying his hair. "Because I'm head over heels for you."

"…………"

What a freak.

"Me too." Xia Yinxi wasn't about to lose this back-and-forth, and even one-upped him. "Sit here. Let me feed you."

"…No need."

Xia Yinxi held another crawfish up to his lips. "Don't be a stranger."

Ji Yunzhuo didn't take it. Instead, he just said, "I don't think the life assistant position is a good fit for you."

"?" Xia Yinxi pulled the crawfish back.

"What do you mean? You firing me?"

Ji Yunzhuo shook his head. "That was my bad. When Ji Changming was at the company, he used the life assistant gig as a front for shady stuff. Even though the old man found out quick and put a stop to it, some rumors still got around."

"Some people in the company got the wrong idea about you because of it. I…"

"That's not my problem." Xia Yinxi lowered his head to peel the crawfish, interrupting in a flat tone. "They're the ones spreading rumors about me. Why are they the ones getting fired, and not me?"

He had always known his face was a bit too pretty. Ever since school, he had been the target of rumors. As long as the whispers didn't get in his face, Xia Yinxi would turn a blind eye. But if someone was loud enough, he wasn't so easygoing.

Cornering someone in the bathroom and dismantling the water pipe to wash their mouth out—Xia Yinxi was very skilled at that.

Although Ji Yunzhuo had been good to him lately, Xia Yinxi couldn't help but glance at the bathroom at that moment.

He wondered if the water pipes in this high-end hotel could be dismantled.

"I've already fired them." Ji Yunzhuo picked up where he had left off. "But the existence of this position will always invite gossip. I didn't consider that before."

Xia Yinxi choked up for a moment, then slowly raised his head to look at the person in front of him.

After a long pause, he finally let out an "Oh." "When they were gossiping about me, did anyone speak up?"

"Qiao Yan cursed them out, and a few girls from HR 'inadvertently' reported it to me."

Xia Yinxi let out a small laugh. "I'll find a chance to thank them later. But changing positions isn't necessary."

After all, the original body didn't have much education. Jumping straight into a management role would be even harder to justify.

After a long silence, Ji Yunzhuo suddenly asked sharply, "Why did you look at the bathroom just now?"

System went on alert: "Host! He's your husband!"

Xia Yinxi averted his gaze. "Just looking around."

He definitely wasn't thinking about dismantling a water pipe to spray his husband.

The aroma of crawfish filled the room. One person peeled the shrimp in silence, the other looked at his phone to handle work. After a long quiet moment, Xia Yinxi suddenly asked, "So, this crawfish… is it an apology gift for me?"

Ji Yunzhuo paused in his movements. "Mm."

"Thanks, but I don't really mind." Xia Yinxi took off his disposable gloves, got up to wash his hands, and as he passed Ji Yunzhuo, he nudged his shoulder with his elbow. "It's really good. You should try some."

Only then did Ji Yunzhuo notice a small pile of peeled shrimp on the lid of the takeout container, with the sauce thoughtfully poured over them.

"Are you waiting for me to feed you?" Xia Yinxi, seeing him not moving in the restroom, said teasingly, "Then wait a bit while I find another glove!"

Ji Yunzhuo chuckled, picked up the lid, and ate with chopsticks.

Xia Yinxi shook his head in admiration. No wonder he's the male lead—raised in a prestigious family, everything he did was ridiculously elegant. Even eating crawfish out of a plastic container looked like he was savoring some rare delicacy.

Such a sight for sore eyes.

As long as he didn't speak.

After feasting his eyes for a bit, Xia Yinxi remembered the task he'd completely forgotten about and asked, "I'm gonna take a walk. Are you coming?"

Ji Yunzhuo nodded, and the two went downstairs together.

Across from the hotel was a small park. Right as they got to the entrance, Xia Yinxi realized he'd left his phone charging on the bed and forgotten to bring it.

"I'll go back and get it." Ji Yunzhuo handed him his own phone. "Don't go anywhere."

Xia Yinxi took it, reluctant. "I'm not a kid."

He sat on a bench at the entrance waiting for him to return. The summer night air was sweltering, the park was overgrown and crawling with mosquitoes. The cicadas in the trees sounded like they were losing it from the heat, chirping nonstop.

Xia Yinxi was a mosquito magnet. Within five minutes, he had a bunch of bites on his neck. His super pale skin turned red the second he scratched it.

"Good thing I wore long sleeves, or my arms would be bitten too," Xia Yinxi mumbled to himself, stood up, stomped his feet, spun around, and flapped his arms to shoo the mosquitoes.

When Ji Yunzhuo returned, he saw Xia Yinxi in the pavilion swatting at bugs like a cat. His heart inexplicably softened, and he watched for a long while before approaching.

Xia Yinxi, swarmed by mosquitoes and cursing under his breath, didn't notice anyone nearby. Ji Yunzhuo stood behind him and asked, "Enjoying yourself?"

"?"

"You could have someone catch a few and keep them at home."

"...?"

Xia Yinxi stared at him, dumbfounded. "Do you..."

The word "sick" almost slipped out, but he forcefully changed course: "Have a hobby like that?"

Ji Yunzhuo: "..."

He felt like he'd just been insulted.

After a moment of silence, Xia Yinxi decided to be cool with this weird hobby. As long as he didn't actually raise them, it was just a mental thing—totally forgivable.

Thinking about it from his perspective, back when he was stressed at work, he'd also think about getting some plants, cats, or dogs.

"It's fine, if you want a pet, get one." Xia Yinxi stressed the word "pet." "How about swapping mosquitoes for a cat?"

"... ..."

Ji Yunzhuo shot him a look and didn't answer.

"Congrats, host, on finishing the task. Two hundred yuan has been deposited into your account~"

Xia Yinxi: "............"

Only two hundred?

"OvO"

Xia Yinxi smiled. "I've probably been hanging around rich people like Ji Yunzhuo too much. I'm starting to look down on your measly two hundred."

System: ".."

It was using its own money to pay the host—of course it would skimp as much as it could.

What a miserable working sys.

"What are you smiling about?" Ji Yunzhuo suddenly turned his head. "Secretly cursing me out in your head?"

Xia Yinxi's face went deadpan instantly. "Don't go falsely accusing people."

They were both quiet for a bit. The cicadas around them were chirping nonstop, giving them a headache. After they walked a bit more, Xia Yinxi bent down, picked up a pebble, flicked his wrist, and with a "thwack," nailed a leaf. The noise around them suddenly stopped.

Ji Yunzhuo paused, then looked up with a hint of respect.

Xia Yinxi scratched the back of his neck a few times, grumbling, "I hate summer."

His snow-white neck was dotted with several mosquito bites, each red spot glaringly conspicuous. Ji Yunzhuo stood behind him, lowering his eyes slightly. "Want to keep walking? Let's go back and apply some medicine."

"No more walking." Since the task was already done, he'd sacrificed too much for those two hundred!

Xia Yinxi returned at a pace several times faster than they had come. Ji Yunzhuo followed with long strides, belatedly realizing that the person had been flailing around earlier to shoo mosquitoes.

...So he really had been insulted earlier.

Back at the hotel, the front desk had already sent up ointment. Ji Yunzhuo looked at the alarming red dots on Xia Yinxi's neck, frowning deeply. "Are you sure it's just mosquito bites and not an allergy?"

Xia Yinxi emphasized, "I'm not allergic to river food!"

But as soon as the words left his mouth, he suddenly realized—he wasn't allergic, but maybe the original body was? This was his first time eating river food since crossing over.

"Sys, I'm not allergic, am I?" Xia Yinxi suddenly felt a bit uneasy.

"No fluctuations detected in the host's vital signs," the system's voice rang out. "Host, you're not allergic!"

The cool ointment soothed the itching and pain. Xia Yinxi lowered his head, his bangs falling to cover his eyes. "I ate so much and didn't have trouble breathing. It's really just mosquito bites."

"Let's go to the hospital."

"I'm not going." Xia Yinxi refused quickly. "I have a phobia of hospitals."

Ji Yunzhuo had already called Gao Qian: "Go get the car. Hospital, dermatology department."

After hanging up, he said to Xia Yinxi, "What are you afraid of?"

Xia Yinxi rolled his eyes at him. "You've already called Assistant Gao out of bed. What's the point of asking me now?"

"Just asking. Maybe I can use it to scare you during a future argument."

"..."

"Sys, is he crazy?"

System: "...QvQ."

It was already past nine in the evening when they arrived at the hospital. After the examination confirmed that the red spots on Xia Yinxi were just mosquito bites, Ji Yunzhuo still dragged him to get an allergen test.

The doctor was an elderly chief physician, peering through his reading glasses for a long time. "You're allergic to tropomyosin. You can't eat anything with shells, like shrimp or crab. An allergic reaction could be fatal, so you must be careful."

Xia Yinxi tried to argue his way out of it. "But I ate crawfish and hairy crabs without any allergic symptoms."

The doctor glanced at the report again. "Then you might have been lucky, but it's better to be safe than sorry. Allergies can kill."

Returning from the hospital, Xia Yinxi was under a dark cloud. It was already July, and September was the season for hairy crabs—he couldn't miss out!

Ji Yunzhuo seemed to read his mind, reaching out to press a button. The partition in the car slowly rose.

Xia Yinxi whipped around warily. "What are you doing?"

"The house is already renovated. You don't need to go back to your in-laws' place."

Xia Yinxi, who was just thinking about sneaking back to eat, blinked in confusion. "?"

"What layout changes did you make to the house?" Xia Yinxi suddenly changed the subject.

But honestly, he was a bit curious too. He'd lived there for years, so why suddenly change the layout now that he was here?

Was he planning to build a barrier to separate the master bedroom from the guest room?

"Since you like big beds, I had the two guest rooms on the second floor knocked together," Ji Yunzhuo said, already drowsy. He leaned back against the car seat, closing his eyes, his tone lazy. "The furniture's been replaced with new stuff, just like your old bedroom."

Xia Yinxi froze, his heart racing inexplicably. At the same time, he grew intensely curious about the conversation between Meng Shuxue and Ji Yunzhuo that day.

Dietary habits, not liking to socialize, allergies, liking big beds—all of that must have been passed on by Meng Shuxue. These habits matched Xia Yinxi's own perfectly, one hundred percent.

His original self looked exactly like him, even had the same personality, habits, and allergies. Was it just because the system had screened for a host?

Could two people in the world be this similar?

The system had been playing dead lately, refusing to answer anything. Xia Yinxi was too curious to hold back, so he directly asked Ji Yunzhuo, "What else did my mom tell you?"

Ji Yunzhuo lifted his eyelids to glance at him, then quickly closed them again. "She said you've never liked anyone before, and I'm your first. Since you were willing to marry me, you must love me to death, and she told me to treat you well."

"..."

Xia Yinxi felt like he had a fishbone stuck in his throat. He knew Ji Yunzhuo was talking nonsense. A retort of "Are you crazy?" died on his lips, but in the end, he swallowed it down for the sake of the inheritance and changed the subject. "Is this partition really soundproof?"

Don't treat the assistant like he's invisible.

Ji Yunzhuo let out a laugh. "You can try calling him and see."

Xia Yinxi finally got it. All those rumors about Ji Yunzhuo being cold and aloof were just an act he put on in the business world. This guy was totally unhinged.

Nothing but nonsense comes out of his mouth. No wonder he couldn't get his dream girl. Hmph.

Out of the corner of his eye, Ji Yunzhuo watched Xia Yinxi puff out his cheeks, as if swallowing a few curse words. Then he leaned against the car window, pretending to sleep. A few seconds later, apparently unable to let it go, he pulled out his phone and typed furiously, probably venting about him to someone.

All puffed up like a kitten, Ji Yunzhuo couldn't help smirking before closing his eyes again to fake sleep.

Seeing a different expression on Xia Yinxi's pretty face was really interesting.

The next morning, Xia Yinxi was still half-asleep when Ji Yunzhuo yanked him by the back of his pajama collar. Groggily, he pushed away the big hand behind him, holding onto his morning grumpiness. "What the hell is wrong with you now?"

A soft laugh sounded in his ear, and the mattress beside him dipped as the bedroom fell silent.

"Weirdo..." Xia Yinxi pulled the blanket over his head and went back to catching some Z's.

He slept until after ten. Ji Yunzhuo was gone somewhere, so Xia Yinxi ordered room service and had a late breakfast.

It wasn't until the afternoon that Ji Yunzhuo sent a message: "Seven o'clock flight, get ready."

Xia Yinxi found it odd and replied, "Why'd you book such a late flight?"

Baby: "You need rest for the allergy."

Xiao Xiliu ya Xiao Xiliu: "...I'm not allergic."

Baby: "I know now."

Xia Yinxi stared at the chat window, reaching up to touch the spot where the mosquito had bitten him yesterday.

So that's why Ji Yunzhuo pulled his collar this morning—to see if he was healed?

His slender fingers tapped on the screen, changing the nickname to his full name.

Lately, Ji Yunzhuo had been messaging more often. That nickname he'd set on a whim to be annoying now felt really weird.

They got home late that night, back to the villa from their first meeting. Xia Yinxi grabbed his bag and went upstairs. When he opened the door, he was genuinely blown away by the newly renovated room.

This guest room was already pretty big, but now it was combined with the small study next door, making it about sixty square meters—almost as big as a classroom.

The standard double bed had been replaced with a king-sized one, and the sheets and quilt cover were custom-made, laid out flat and covering the whole bed.

Xia Yinxi stood at the door, stood there in shock for a solid two minutes, then turned to look at the person leaning against the master bedroom doorframe. "First of all, I'm not trying to be ungrateful."

Ji Yunzhuo: "?"

"My bed might be big, but the blanket is normal-sized." Xia Yinxi pointed at the quilt, which was big enough to serve as a tarp for a pigpen. "Won't this blanket let the cold in?"

Summers in Ducheng are brutally hot, and Xia Yinxi liked to blast the AC and then pile on a thick quilt. But this blanket was not only drafty, it was also heavy.

Ji Yunzhuo was silent for a moment, then pulled out his phone and made a call. Within an hour, someone delivered a new blanket.

That tarp blanket was folded and shoved into the bottom cabinet of the closet, packed to the brim. The furniture store workers kept glancing back as they left, like they couldn't really believe that thing was a blanket.

Xia Yinxi found it oddly amusing. Hugging a pillow, he looked at Ji Yunzhuo. "Thanks, Boss Ji."

Ji Yunzhuo snorted with amusement.

And now it's "Boss Ji" again.

He glanced into the room. The two-meter blanket looked tiny in the middle of that huge bed. This bed... you couldn't even make up after a fight in it.

Xia Yinxi had only slept in the original's bed for a few days, but this one looked even bigger than that.

The sheets had clearly been washed and dried; they felt soft to the touch and had a faint, light floral scent, the same scent Ji Yunzhuo had. Probably the same laundry detergent.

Xia Yinxi was quiet for a long time before calling out to the system again. "Is he... into me?"

The system jumped in: "Love at first sight!"

"Or just attracted to my looks?"

"..."

"............"

The system slowly glitched out: "Aren’t these two idioms the same, Host?"

Xia Yinxi: "Never mind."

No point arguing with an artificial idiot.

He didn’t want to assume Ji Yunzhuo was a scumbag with a lost love who still treated him nicely, but he really couldn’t figure out why the guy would bother arranging every little detail.

It couldn’t just be because he’s naturally warm-hearted, could it?

This place was far from the busy city center, and the huge villa was empty except for just the two of them, so quiet you could hear a watch ticking.

Xia Yinxi rolled around on the bed a few times, stopping near the side by the wardrobe, staring at the watch winder for a bit.

This watch was a gift from Xia Yucheng to the original owner. The gem in the dial shimmered pearly under the faint moonlight, obviously expensive, but he wasn’t used to wearing anything on his wrist, so he hardly ever wore it.

Thinking that, Xia Yinxi glanced down at his wrist—pale and bare, not like someone who wore a watch often.

The system in his head hadn’t made a peep on its own in a long time. Only when he called it out would this artificial idiot chime in with a straight-man response.

That so-called "fall in love with Ji Yunzhuo" mission had gone quiet ever since their walk.

Every now and then, the sound of birds flapping their wings drifted in from outside. Then, in the dead of night, it suddenly started pouring.

Summer rain came down fast, with rolling thunder and lightning that nearly lit up the sky. Xia Yinxi liked sleeping with the window open, but he was soon jolted awake by a thunderclap.

The rain pounded loudly against the trees in the yard. Xia Yinxi got up and closed the window, and the noise instantly stopped. He froze, staring up at the window.

The windows in the Xia house were custom-made, with soundproofing like a science lab. When he first got there, he’d joked that the silence inside felt like a haunted house, only to learn from the servants that it was because the original owner was scared of thunder.

He wasn’t scared of thunder himself, but he’d get startled by it sometimes. So every rainy season, he’d bury himself under a thick blanket for manual soundproofing.

Had this window always been like this when he first got here?

Or was it new when they changed the room layout?

Another flash of lightning lit up the yard. A few seconds later, a faint rumble came through—the deafening summer thunder was blocked by the special window, bringing a weird sense of security.

His phone buzzed with a text from Meng Shuxue: "Xiaoxi, you asleep?"

"Mom": "Thunder’s loud outside. Is Xiao Zhuo’s place soundproof?"

Xia Yinxi stared at the screen, a warm feeling washing over him, but after a moment, he decided not to reply.

To avoid making her think the thunder woke him up, he’d just text back in the morning.

"Knock, knock, knock."

"?"

"Knock, knock, knock." The sound came twice before Xia Yinxi realized someone was knocking. He got up and opened the door.

The person outside seemed surprised to see him, then glanced up at the window. "Not soundproof enough? Tomorrow I’ll send someone to your place—"

"No..." Xia Yinxi’s throat tightened as he said slowly, "It’s very soundproof. I just forgot to close the window."

Ji Yunzhuo relaxed. "Good. Go back to sleep. I’ll go check outside."

"In this heavy rain? Where are you going?"

"I think I heard a cat meowing."

Xia Yinxi grabbed a jacket and followed him. "Didn’t you change the windows in your room?"

That didn’t make sense—how could only his bedroom’s window be this soundproof?

"I did." Ji Yunzhuo opened an umbrella, shielding Xia Yinxi as he let him go out first. "I left my window open."

He couldn’t sleep in the middle of the night and was listening to the thunder when he faintly heard some cat meows.

"Boom—"

Thunder and lightning came in quick succession. Xia Yinxi jumped, and Ji Yunzhuo wrapped an arm around his shoulder. At the same time, by the flash of lightning, he spotted a stray cat on the tree, equally startled.

It was really... exactly the same.

The cat was tiny, huddled in a fork of the tree, its fur plastered into wet clumps by the rain. Xia Yinxi immediately wanted to climb up to save it, but Ji Yunzhuo quickly grabbed him by the waist and pulled him back under the umbrella.

"Don’t be reckless." Ji Yunzhuo stepped back a few paces with him, frowning disapprovingly. "Not afraid of getting struck by lightning?"

Xia Yinxi: "Only scumbags get struck by lightning."

"..."

"I didn’t mean you’re a scumbag."

Ji Yunzhuo let out an exasperated laugh. "Am I here to do a comedy routine with you?"

Xia Yinxi, used to bantering, felt a bit guilty. "So what do we do about it? Calling the fire department in this rain doesn’t seem right, does it?"

"Go get a blanket. Let it jump down on its own."

"I can climb up. I’ll find a gap right after a lightning strike—I’m fast."

"No."

Xia Yinxi was completely pinned in Ji Yunzhuo’s arms, the arm around his waist holding him tight, as if afraid he’d suddenly dart off to climb the tree.

So he had to go back and grab a blanket. Standing under the tree, Xia Yinxi compared their heights and had to admit Ji Yunzhuo, being taller, was better suited for this. He handed the blanket over and took the umbrella.

"Meow, meow—" Xia Yinxi held the umbrella to shield Ji Yunzhuo from the rain while shouting loudly at the cat, "Come down, come down, meow!"

The thunder and rain showed no sign of letting up. Every time it thundered, Xia Yinxi would flinch. Ji Yunzhuo, unable to hold him with the blanket in hand, just shifted his body slightly to let Xia Yinxi lean into him.

The cat was too small, its eyes squeezed shut by the heavy rain. No matter how much Xia Yinxi called, it just shivered there.

The wind grew stronger, and the blanket was half-soaked. Another flash of lightning, followed by a booming thunderclap. Xia Yinxi shoved the umbrella into Ji Yunzhuo’s hand, dashed into the rain, and leaped, planting one foot halfway up the tree trunk.

"Xia Yinxi!!"

Xia Yinxi pretended not to hear, hooking his arm around a branch and pulling himself up like a chin-up, then scooped up the kitten and jumped.

"Boom—"

Ji Yunzhuo immediately pulled him under the umbrella. "Reckless!"

"I told you I’m fast." Xia Yinxi took the blanket and wrapped the kitten up, only to be forcibly pulled into Ji Yunzhuo’s arms and practically dragged back inside.

Ji Yunzhuo was furious with him. Xia Yinxi didn’t dare say a word, grabbing two towels—one for the cat, one for himself. They sat in silence, the only sound the rustling of fabric.

"CEO Ji?" Xia Yinxi ventured a cautious call. Ji Yunzhuo was already angry, and seeing that Xia Yinxi had grabbed a towel for the cat but not for himself made him even angrier. His tone turned cold: "Do you even know what danger means? Did you think about what would happen if a bolt of lightning struck? Do you want me to bury you and the cat together?"

Xia Yinxi muttered under his breath, "I'm pretty lucky." After all, he had the system's luck buff working for him.

Ji Yunzhuo was so furious he couldn't speak. He sat off to the side, fuming silently, his hair still dripping. Soon, a wet patch spread on the sofa.

The clock on the living room wall pointed to "3." Xia Yinxi, with a towel draped over his head, spoke softly, "CEO Ji, aren't you going to take a shower?"

Ji Yunzhuo: "..."

Why was he still "CEO Ji"?

"Fine, I admit I was impulsive. I won't do it again, don't be mad." Xia Yinxi picked up the kitten. "Let's go take a shower first."

Ji Yunzhuo's heart jumped, and he turned to look at Xia Yinxi.

He was holding the kitten by the scruff of its neck, with two towels in hand, heading upstairs.

"..."

So he was talking to the cat.

So the "we" in "let's" meant him and the cat.

That scared him for a second. 🙂

"CEO Ji, is there any goat milk in the house?"

When Ji Yunzhuo came out of the bathroom, Xia Yinxi had already been waiting by his bedroom door for a while. He was holding a little gray creature wrapped in a blanket, and both he and the cat stared at him with wet eyes.

Maybe because he had just showered, Xia Yinxi's face was faintly flushed, and the corners of his eyes were slightly red. That pitiful look made Ji Yunzhuo's heart race.

He forced himself to focus on the cat, but only saw the reddened collarbone peeking out from under the cat's fur, rubbed raw by the kitten's coat.

"..."

This was killing him.

"There might be some in the kitchen, I'll check. You go to sleep."

It was almost four in the morning; if he didn't sleep soon, he'd keel over.

Xia Yinxi followed him with the cat in his arms. "I can't sleep. Can I take tomorrow off?"

"Sure."

"Are you gonna dock my pay?"

"...No."

Ji Yunzhuo took the cat and shooed the other little money-grubber into his room.

In the kitchen, there was some goat milk powder the housekeeper had bought last time. Ji Yunzhuo checked the expiry date, then held the cat with one hand and pulled out his phone to look up how to take care of a cat.

"Water at 45 degrees... tch." Ji Yunzhuo adjusted the water dispenser's temperature. While waiting for the water to heat up, he lifted the kitten's back leg to check—it was a male.

The cat turned and bit his finger, but it didn't really hurt. Ji Yunzhuo wiped his finger on the cat's belly, mixed the formula, and set the cat on the table.

"..."

The man and the cat stared at each other in silence. Ji Yunzhuo nudged the cat's bowl. "Drink."

Cat: "..."

Xia Yinxi, who couldn't sleep and came down to check on the cat: "..."

"CEO Ji, did you drink milk from a bowl by yourself when you were one month old?" Xia Yinxi asked, half exasperated, half amused. "It's too little; you have to feed it."

Ji Yunzhuo reluctantly grabbed a spoon, scooped up some goat milk, and brought it to the kitten's mouth, watching it clumsily bite and lap at it.

"Why aren't you asleep yet?"

Xia Yinxi looked at the kitten. "Worried about it."

"We'll take it to the vet in the morning."

"Don't you have, like, a personal vet?"

Don't CEOs in TV dramas just make one call and get a team of private doctors?

Ji Yunzhuo slowly turned his head, looking incredulous. "Am I supposed to have one?"

Did Xia Yinxi think he needed a vet?

"...Haha."

The kitten let out a soft meow, looking a lot more energetic. Xia Yinxi stepped forward and held out a finger, which was immediately grabbed by two little paws.

"Poor little guy, what kind of cat are you? A silver shaded?" Xia Yinxi gently poked its tummy, and the cat went "mew." Xia Yinxi poked it again and mimicked it with a "mew."

Ji Yunzhuo stood to the side, watching the man and the cat "mew" at each other, a small smile playing at his lips.

The Ji family's old mansion was enormous, and it was full of people, but he had grown up without parents. Grandpa Ji was always busy with work, and the servants and housekeepers came and went. No one ever stopped for him when he was a child.

After leaving the old mansion, he'd lived alone here. He didn't like people invading his personal space. The servants would finish their work and leave before he got home, leaving the empty house always quiet.

So this was what it felt like to have someone in the house.

It wasn't so bad.

If it were someone else here...

Ji Yunzhuo had been watching Xia Yinxi for a long time. The person before him had just been standing at the table teasing the cat with his finger. Now, whether tired or not, he had his upper body leaning on the table, face to face with the kitten. His long eyelashes and the cat's whiskers moved in sync, fluttering up and down.

A slender waist curved into a beautiful arch, faintly visible through the thin pajamas.

Ji Yunzhuo looked away, hearing a voice in his heart answer him. No.

Someone else, no.

"Should we give it a name?" Ji Yunzhuo asked softly.

Xia Yinxi straightened up and blinked. "Are you going to keep it?"

Ji Yunzhuo raised an eyebrow. "I keep it?"

Xia Yinxi: "Last time you said you wanted to raise mosquitoes, so this cat can be a substitute."

"..." Ji Yunzhuo was left speechless, momentarily unsure how to explain that he didn't actually have a hobby of raising mosquitoes.

"But you're so busy—won't it be too much for Aunt Yang to cook, clean, and feed the cat?"

"I'll have someone come over to feed it."

Xia Yinxi remembered the Ragdoll cat that had cussed him out after getting lost and starving, and hesitated: "Are they trustworthy?"

Ji Yunzhuo chuckled: "I'll have Li Yili and the others come feed it—there's always someone free."

Xia Yinxi nodded reassuringly: "Then what should we name it? Mimi? Isn't that too common?"

If you yell 'Mimi' on the street, a hundred cats would turn around at once.

Ji Yunzhuo: "Little Silver."

Xia Yinxi: "?"

Ji Yunzhuo: "Little Gradient."

"..."

Xia Yinxi hugged the cat tight: "Let's call it Little Orange then."

Ji Yunzhuo nodded: "Sure."

Little Orange was fine—same as Little Stream, part of the 'Little' family.

Even though the cat didn't have a single orange spot on it.

Xia Yinxi: "..."

Where's the 'too' coming from?

Xia Yinxi looked down at Little Orange, whose eyes were still barely open: "It's too weak—I didn't even dare give it a bath... I'm not gonna sleep anyway, it's almost dawn."

As he spoke, he let out a small yawn, and the corners of his eyes got red right away. Ji Yunzhuo sighed: "Go to sleep. I'll keep an eye on it."

"But you..."

"I used to pull all-nighters when I was busy—no big deal."

Ji Yunzhuo reached out to take the cat, but Little Orange, who had been asleep, suddenly started meowing loudly. Xia Yinxi quickly took it back, and it quieted down.

"?" Ji Yunzhuo frowned. It had only been a few hours since they picked it up, and it already knew who its person was—why didn't it do that when he was feeding it formula earlier?

"Head to your room."

"Huh?"

Xia Yinxi was pushed into the bedroom with the cat in his arms. Ji Yunzhuo told him to put the cat by the headboard: "You sleep."

With their heads resting side by side on the bed, Ji Yunzhuo sat on the edge. Though he'd seen Xia Yinxi's old bedroom before, the sheer size of the bed still caught him off guard.

Xia Yinxi didn't even bother with polite excuses—he curled up under the covers and fell asleep quickly, his trust in Ji Yunzhuo obvious. Ji Yunzhuo gritted his teeth in frustration.

The big one didn't see him as a real man, and the little one was just as ungrateful.

Outside, the rain slowly stopped, and by a little before six, the sky was already bright. Ji Yunzhuo replied to a few work messages and rubbed his eyes.

The bedroom went quiet. Xia Yinxi slept peacefully, not even rolling over once, taking up less than thirty percent of the bed.

So when he said he rolled around in his sleep, it was just an excuse to not share a bed with him.

At eight o'clock, Little Orange's front leg twitched and kicked Xia Yinxi in the head. Xia Yinxi turned his head to the side and burrowed deeper under the covers.

At five past eight, Little Orange, dreaming of eating something, bit and chewed on Xia Yinxi's face. Luckily, the kitten's teeth hadn't grown in yet, leaving just drool marks.

At ten past eight, Little Orange got swatted away, rolling to the side. Ji Yunzhuo picked it up by the scruff of its neck and put it back on the blanket.

At sixteen past eight, Xia Yinxi turned over, and the blanket covered Little Orange's head. The kitten struggled for a bit before crawling out.

Ji Yunzhuo had just raised a hand to help lift the blanket, but paused instead and tucked the blanket around Xia Yinxi.

At twenty past eight, Little Orange woke up and crawled onto Xia Yinxi's head, found a comfy spot and fell back asleep.

At twenty-three past eight, Xia Yinxi, feeling itchy, reached up and swatted. Little Orange got knocked off the bed, but Ji Yunzhuo bent down and barely caught it.

Grabbed by a strange big hand, Little Orange meowed loudly, waking Xia Yinxi up.

"...What are you doing?" Xia Yinxi, groggy and still half-asleep, looked at Ji Yunzhuo holding the cat suspiciously. "What did you do to my kid?"

Ji Yunzhuo was silent for a moment: "Lucky you can't have kids."

"What?"

Are you crazy?

After breakfast, endured the silent curses from both the man and the cat, Ji Yunzhuo called the driver and went with them to the pet hospital.

He really didn't trust Xia Yinxi to handle the kid alone.

Luckily, Little Orange was fine—just malnutrition and being caught in the rain. The vet gave it a shot and a bath, and the once-dusty kitten perked up right away.

Little Orange seemed to really know who its people were. During the bath, it only calmed down if it could see Xia Yinxi, and afterward, it only let Xia Yinxi hold it. When Ji Yunzhuo tried to pet it, it bit his hand.

The kitten's teeth were no threat, so Ji Yunzhuo casually wiped the drool off onto its fur.

Xia Yinxi laughed: "Be nice. You're eating his food and staying at his place now."

The vet bills were all paid by him, and they'd be staying at his place when they got home.

The opportunistic kitten seemed to get it and immediately quieted down.

Ji Yunzhuo looked at Xia Yinxi and let out an ambiguous laugh.

Leaving the pet hospital, the ever-busy CEO Ji headed straight to the company, while Xia Yinxi, sticking to his principle of taking a full day off if he could, went home.

His first task at home was to order cat food, a cat bed, and a cat tree. Then he went upstairs to inspect and picked a guest room on the second floor for Little Orange's playroom.

Little Orange knew this person had saved it and clung to him, rubbing against Xia Yinxi's pant legs for affection. Remembering how the cat treated Ji Yunzhuo, Xia Yinxi bent down and picked it up: "If only you were this good to your sugar daddy."

The kitten didn't understand and just meowed in his arms. Xia Yinxi petted it for a while before suddenly saying: "Or don't be good—it's fine to give him a punch now and then."

Having a bad relationship with Ji Yunzhuo would help him win custody of the kid after the divorce.

That afternoon, while Xia Yinxi was directing workers to install the cat tree, he got a message from Ji Yunzhuo reminding him to take Little Orange for neutering in a week.

「Xiao Xiliu ya Xiao Xiliu」: You take it—I have to work

He'd heard cats held grudges, and he wasn't about to be the bad guy.

Letting Little Orange hold a grudge against Ji Yunzhuo would give him an extra edge in the custody battle. 🙂

One evening a week later, Xia Yinxi had just stepped through the door after a long day at work when Little Orange wobbled over to greet him, an Elizabethan collar encircling his tiny head. His pitiful, teary look made it seem like he'd suffered a huge injustice.

Xia Yinxi’s heart completely melted. He scooped up Little Orange, soothing him while slipping in a dig: “What’s wrong, little treasure? Don’t be upset—did some bad guy bully you? We’re never talking to him again!”

The “bad guy” watching his act from behind chimed in: “So this is how you raise a child.”

At the sound of his voice, Little Orange jerked his head up in Xia Yinxi’s arms and let out a string of angry meows, cursing him out good.

Xia Yinxi quickly clamped a hand over the cat’s mouth.

Okay, that’s enough—quit while you’re ahead. After all, they’d be depending on Ji Yunzhuo to support them for a good while.

Ji Yunzhuo gave them a knowing smirk. “Cursing me out? You teach him that?”

“Don’t you go slandering me.” Xia Yinxi pressed Little Orange’s head down and headed toward the kitchen, casually switching the subject. “What’s for dinner?”

“Hotpot. Li Yili’s stopping by to see the cat and bringing ingredients.”

At the mention of Li Yili, Xia Yinxi suddenly remembered the livestream he’d totally forgotten about since it wasn’t bringing in any cash. He quickly set the cat down and messaged his streaming assistant: Sorry, I’ve been swamped with work lately. Can I go live this Saturday?

The reply came back in a flash: Whatever works for you, man.

「Xiao Xiliu ya Xiao Xiliu」: Huh?

That casual about it?

「Streaming Assistant」: The boss said you don’t gotta stick to the contracted streaming hours. Just do whatever makes you happy.

「Streaming Assistant」: Tough luck.jpg

[Message recalled]

Xia Yinxi slowly typed a question mark, then asked Li Yili, who sent back an identical tough luck emoji: Bro-in-law, if you’re out there showing off, I’m scared my brother’ll come after me!

「Xiao Xiliu ya Xiao Xiliu」: ?

He looked up, a strange expression on his face as he glanced at Ji Yunzhuo.

This guy not only had the same old-man hobbies as his dad, but he was also this old-fashioned.

Xia Yinxi silently resolved to divorce and run away as soon as possible, sparing a moment of sympathy for the mysterious white moonlight (his crush) whose name and whereabouts he didn’t even know.

Ji Yunzhuo watched the person curled up on the sofa playing with his phone. He had been quietly absorbed in it, then suddenly looked up at him, his handsome brows furrowing almost imperceptibly before he looked down and typed a few quick words. A question mark slowly formed in Ji Yunzhuo’s mind too.

What was that look? What’d he do to piss him off now?