Chapter 13: Still Waters Run Deep
The inside of the car was very dim.
The only light source was the garage light, slanting in through the windshield and illuminating the lower half of Zhu Zhixi’s face. Even so, his eyes were still very bright.
He did not answer the question directly. He only smiled, his expression carrying a slyness.
After a while, with a click, Zhu Zhixi unfastened his seat belt and said to Fu Rangyi in a near-breathing voice, “I don’t know.”
I don’t know.
Fu Rangyi actually felt a little impressed by him. Was this the experience he had accumulated over many years of playing dumb in front of admirers? Or was it an innate talent?
For such a clever, slippery fellow, why exactly would he say something like a countdown? It was far too contradictory. There was simply no way to analyze it with normal logic.
For a certain instant, Fu Rangyi even truly began to question science and materialism, trying to think “what if.” What if what he said was true?
But it was only for an instant.
Fu Rangyi touched his bracelet, felt a headache coming on, and was too lazy to think about it further. Without saying anything more, he silently took the elevator with Zhu Zhixi up to the first-floor reception room, where there were even more headache-inducing things waiting for him.
Unlike him, Zhu Zhixi was simply like a fish in water in this kind of situation. Although it was clearly his first time here, he had already blended in, able to chat with anyone for a few sentences.
By contrast, whenever Fu Rangyi came home, most of the time, he returned to his room and spent time alone. But now, with his partner chatting enthusiastically with his parents in the reception room, he instead became the one who felt uncomfortable.
Forget it. Better not bother with him. Since he loved chatting so much, he could chat by himself.
After finally finishing his mental preparation, Fu Rangyi had just stood up and was about to leave the sofa when a hand grabbed him.
Zhu Zhixi seemed to have grown an eye on the back of his head. He noticed immediately that Fu Rangyi was about to leave. He turned his face, caught Fu Rangyi’s wrist, and asked softly, “Where are you going?”
That sticky tone again.
Fu Rangyi glanced at his hand, then looked at him. “To pour you some water.”
“Oh, for such a small thing, let the auntie do it.” Fu’s mother raised her hand, intending to call the housekeeper, but Fu Rangyi spoke first.
“Forget it. He doesn’t like plain water.” He still stood up. “I’ll do it.”
“There’s tea. Very good tea. Your Uncle Zhang just brought it back from…”
Zhu Zhixi smiled. Just as he opened his mouth, his words collided with Fu Rangyi’s, who had already walked away.
“I don’t…” / “He doesn’t drink tea either.”
He froze for a second, lifted his hand, touched the tip of his nose, then scratched his hair. Finally, he smiled at Fu’s mother, the tips of his ears quickly flushing with a small patch of red.
Fu’s mother’s eyes were full of surprise. “This is the first time I’ve seen this child like this. Marriage really does make a difference. He knows how to take care of someone now.”
Is that so?
Zhu Zhixi was a little doubtful. It should be said that his questionnaire method had worked.
But when Fu Rangyi came over and handed him a cup of hot chocolate sprinkled with powdered sugar and cinnamon, Zhu Zhixi was truly stunned.
This had not been in the questionnaire. How did he know?
He looked up at Fu Rangyi.
Their gazes met, and Fu Rangyi raised an eyebrow at him, as if asking, “You don’t like it?”
No. The truly terrifying thing was that he had guessed correctly.
“Thank you.” Zhu Zhixi took a sip. His eyes even widened a little.
There was cream inside too!
Fu’s father glanced at it and said with a smile, “A special blend too? The auntie really couldn’t make that.”
Seeing that Zhu Zhixi no longer looked as composed as before and had suddenly become nervous, Fu Rangyi found it very interesting. He leaned against the sofa and watched him, no longer thinking of returning to his room.
Only when the elevator doors opened again and Fu Liaoxing returned did the family dinner officially begin.
Compared to the previous dinner between the two families, this time the home field had shifted, and Fu’s father and mother were clearly much more at ease. They kept urging Zhu Zhixi to eat. Inevitably, Fu’s father once again brought up the wedding.
Zhu Zhixi knew Fu Rangyi did not want to hold one. A marriage destined to end in divorce really had nothing worth celebrating. But clearly, in Fu’s father’s eyes, this wedding was not a celebration ceremony for the children, but a rather important social banquet.
Thinking of this, Zhu Zhixi was unwilling too. On this point, he stood on the same side as Fu Rangyi, so he kept playing tai chi, saying that he had been busy with work recently and had no time to prepare.
“Work? Then let’s talk about your work.” Fu’s father looked rather interested.
So Zhu Zhixi casually talked about it. During this, he kept observing Fu Rangyi and discovered that he remained silent the whole time.
Throughout the meal, the two elders of the Fu family were more interested in his work than in their own son’s. Was it because Fu Rangyi’s work was too stable? Or because archaeological research was too distant from business and finance?
“You’re a curator?” Fu Liaoxing suddenly asked from the side. “I love going to exhibitions. Maybe I’ve even seen one of yours.”
“Really?” Zhu Zhixi smiled and shared a few of the art exhibitions he had worked on. “But none of them were in China, so the chance that you’ve seen them is pretty small.”
“But I keep feeling like you look familiar, as if I’ve seen you somewhere.”
Fu Liaoxing gently stirred the steaming soup in his bowl with a spoon, his eyes looking at Zhu Zhixi. His eyes were very different from Fu Rangyi’s. They were downturned and looked very approachable.
Zhu Zhixi thought for a moment, then smiled. “Maybe you came across me online.”
Fu Liaoxing’s hand paused. At the same time, Fu Rangyi’s eating motion also paused briefly. For the first time, the two brothers showed a tacit understanding.
“Ah.” Fu Liaoxing looked enlightened. “Didn’t you post vlogs online about traveling around the world? Wait, no, there were also videos of you volunteering. I knew I must have seen you somewhere. The episode in the Amazon rainforest was especially interesting. I even shared it with my friends.”
Zhu Zhixi smiled and nodded, propping his face up with one hand. “Yes, that was me. I used to wander around everywhere, and I thought I might as well record it, so I posted it online.”
“What a coincidence!” Fu Liaoxing put down his spoon and leaned forward quite a bit, also propping his chin with his hand, his eyes full of interest.
“Oh, right. I’ve always been especially curious about the episode where you went to a primitive tribe to see the shaman. Did the medicine they gave you really work? It looked way too dark. I watched the whole thing with my brows furrowed.”
“Ah, how should I put it? Maybe it did work.” As Zhu Zhixi spoke, he stuck out his tongue. “But it really tasted awful.”
The two of them laughed and talked more and more enthusiastically. The conversation barely paused. Even Fu’s parents beside them became curious and occasionally joined in.
The only silent one was Fu Rangyi.
He stared fixedly at the pattern on the edge of his bone plate, his expression gloomy. Probably because of the influence of his pheromone cycle fluctuations, his appetite was poor, and the food tasted dull. He planned to find an excuse to leave early.
“Then Xiao Xi really has been to quite a few places.” Fu’s mother turned the lazy Susan and kindly placed a piece of Dongpo pork into each of the three children’s bowls. “This was braised especially well. Look at the color.”
When she gave it to Fu Rangyi, she even smiled and said, “Rangyi, eat more. Teaching must be tiring. Have you lost weight again?”
Fu Rangyi gave a very faint smile and softly said, “Thank you, Mom.” He lowered his eyes and stared at the glossy red piece of meat in front of him.
Just as he was about to move his chopsticks, suddenly, a pair of chopsticks reached over with no sense of propriety and picked the meat out of his bowl.
“It’s so delicious. Mom, can you lend me the auntie for a few days? This is made way too well.” Zhu Zhixi leaned over and tilted his head at him. “Can I have this piece too?”
Fu Rangyi was clearly a little stunned.
Zhu Zhixi knew this very well, so he shook his head smugly at him and smiled. “Fu Rangyi, you’re the most generous.”
No one else at the table noticed anything unusual. They were all tolerant of Zhu Zhixi’s willfulness and little temper, only smiling and teasing him a few times.
Fu Rangyi did not easily shift his gaze away from Zhu Zhixi’s face. When he finally looked back at his own bowl, he stared for a while and thought of that light sheet of paper filled out by Zhu Zhixi.
He also felt Zhu Zhixi’s swinging legs under the table.
His swinging knee accidentally bumped into Fu Rangyi’s, but very quickly moved away. This was how he acted when he was happy. Was he happy because he had done something right? Or because he felt he had performed well?
He did not know. It did not matter.
Fu Rangyi’s mind was clear, and he warned himself inwardly not to regard this as too important.
Yet in the next second, a hand climbed onto his knee. To be precise, it was an index finger and middle finger alternating upward, like the busy legs of some tiny person.
After reaching the top of Knee Mountain, the “little person” collapsed. The fingertips scratched a few times against the fabric of his trousers.
It took quite a while before Fu Rangyi realized that Zhu Zhixi was writing. It was a string of letters—Boring. After finishing, the hand silently withdrew. Strangely, his hand seemed different from everyone else’s. Wherever it brushed past as it left, it left behind a faint itch.
Fu Rangyi raised his eyes and looked at Zhu Zhixi. On the surface, this person was propping his cheek in his hand, chatting and laughing eloquently, interested in talking with everyone. Yet behind the scenes, he was complaining to Fu Rangyi that this meal was boring, smiling brightly and lively while doing small actions he himself did not think were ambiguous at all.
Truly contradictory.
But perhaps because he now had an “ally” and knew that he was not the only one feeling bored, Fu Rangyi’s appetite improved a little, and he drank half another bowl of soup.
After the meal ended, Zhu Zhixi drank a few sips of sweet soup and saw the housekeeper lead over a lilac-colored border collie.
Fu Liaoxing called it Ruby and affectionately waved. Ruby slowly walked over, sniffed Fu Rangyi, affectionately licked his hand a few times, and only then went to Fu Liaoxing’s side.
Zhu Zhixi could not move his eyes away whenever he saw an animal. He tugged on Fu Rangyi’s wrist and asked softly whether he could go walk the dog with his younger brother.
Honestly, the content of this question was something Fu Rangyi rather disliked.
However.
However, the sight of Zhu Zhixi asking him for permission at the very first moment was interesting.
So he tacitly allowed it.
He originally wanted to go straight upstairs and return to his room to read papers, but when he reached the stairs, he ran into the housekeeping auntie. She was carrying two baskets of large, red strawberries that looked extremely fresh.
When he asked, the auntie explained, “These were sent by Madam’s friend. They’re the best batch. Madam said no one is eating them, so she asked me to make some jam.”
Fu Rangyi nodded. His footsteps stopped on the stairs for a few seconds. In the end, he still changed direction and went to the kitchen.
The kitchen was filled with strawberries, a sea of bright red, giving off a very festive atmosphere. The two housekeepers were clearly somewhat at a loss because of his arrival.
Fu Rangyi did not mind. He took his phone out of his coat pocket and thought about whether to call Zhu Zhixi back.
But in the end, he still did not do so and put his phone down.
“These are all being made into jam?” Fu Rangyi’s tone was calm. “How many jars would that make? Would the fridge have room?”
“Madam said they’ll be given away after they’re made. She’s already told people, so we’re rushing to make them now.”
Fu Rangyi nodded, but he still did not leave.
The two aunties exchanged glances.
They had both worked in the Fu family for a long time and understood this eldest young master. He spoke little, was courteous and polite to them, rarely needed them to do anything for him, and was extremely fond of cleanliness. Now that he had suddenly stayed in the kitchen and refused to leave, they did not dare to act recklessly.
If they started working and splashed something on him, that would be trouble.
After half a long silence, one of them finally could not help speaking. “Um, Young…”
“They look quite good. It’d be a pity to boil them all.”
For the first time ever, Fu Rangyi rolled up his sleeves, washed his hands, and said, “I’ll pick a few.”
Three minutes later, when the auntie saw the mountain-like plate of strawberries in Fu Rangyi’s hands, she was a little surprised.
This was a few?
The other auntie was obviously better at reading the room and handed over a new basket. “There are white ones here too. They taste very good. Why not pick a few of these as well?”
Fu Rangyi looked straight at the basket, then lowered his head to look at the fruit bowl in his hands. After thinking for a moment, he took out an even larger fruit plate from the cabinet.
While he was washing the strawberries for the third time, somehow, Fu’s father also came looking for him.
He seemed very surprised that Fu Rangyi was washing fruit with his own hands. With a wave of his large hand, he told him to put them down.
“Let the auntie wash them. Why are you washing them?”
Fu Rangyi said nothing. He placed the last strawberry onto the strawberry mountain on the plate and wiped his hands. “They’re already washed.”
Fu’s father had just finished smoking. His body carried the smell of smoke mixed with Alpha pheromones. Fu Rangyi frowned slightly and stood in place, waiting for him to speak.
“Rangyi, you haven’t come home for dinner in a long time either. If we don’t call you, you don’t even know to come home.”
Fu’s father’s expression was much gentler than before. He smiled, his hand pressing onto Fu Rangyi’s shoulder. But in reality, Fu Rangyi was quite a bit taller than him, making the scene look somewhat comical.
The two aunties tactfully left. Only the father and son remained in the spacious kitchen.
Fu Rangyi said nothing. He only slightly curved his lips, his expression peaceful.
“Look, before, you kept refusing to get married. Isn’t it pretty good now?” Fu’s father smiled in a joking tone. “You only went on one blind date in total, and happened to meet someone you liked. That’s quite lucky.”
After saying this, he emphasized, “You’ve always been a lucky child.”
Fu Rangyi maintained his usual silence.
His father’s pheromones stirred up a certain physiological revulsion in him, and his words did the same. It was like throwing stones into a vast, dead-still lake, one after another, dizzying ripples spreading outward, expanding, then vanishing.
He half-lowered his eyes, staring at the strawberries in the bowl. The bright red, juicy-looking skin exuded a fruity scent, sweet and sour, making him think of the pheromone scent of an Omega Fu Liaoxing had dated before.
He could no longer remember what that Omega looked like. Nothing stood out. But Fu Liaoxing had liked them very much, enough to argue with his parents several times. The other person’s family background had not been bad either, but it could not compare with Zhu Zhixi’s—their father and brother held significant weight in the business world, and their family elders also had connections in politics and the military.
But after a few arguments, their father had stopped interfering with their relationship. In the end, the breakup was purely because Fu Liaoxing had changed his mind and no longer liked them.
A few months ago, when Fu Rangyi was going downstairs, he happened to hear his parents discussing things in the reception room.
“If Xiaoxing really doesn’t like it, let him date freely. We’ve all been through it. Blind dates, marriage alliances—how many of those relationships actually turn out well? How many can last to the end? Besides, the one you mentioned… I think forget it.”
“What do you mean forget it? I heard that child was spoiled growing up, treasured by the family like their heart and liver. They might not even look favorably on your son.”
“Whether they look favorably on him or not, the key is that they can’t have children. Maybe we should forget it. Don’t make it seem like we’re selling our son.”
“Let’s talk about it later. Put Liaoxing’s matter aside for now. I’ll ask Rangyi and see if he’s willing to give it a try. He should get married too. He’s dragged it on for so long.”
Thinking about it now, the “that child” they had mentioned back then might have been Zhu Zhixi.
Spoiled growing up. Little young master. Unable to have children.
So they had given up on matching him with Fu Liaoxing.
Pulling himself out of the memory, Fu Rangyi also prepared to leave. But Fu’s father was still smiling and teasing him. “I think this child Xiao Xi, although he’s a little delicate, since he was spoiled growing up, still has quite a good personality. He likes you too. You should also change your temper. Don’t be cold as ice like you are at home. I taught you long ago, speak more gently and please him appropriately. Otherwise, once time passes and the novelty wears off…”
“I know.”
Fu Rangyi calmly interrupted. “Dad, don’t worry. I’ll work hard to fulfill my duty as a husband, for everyone’s sake.”
He picked up the fruit plate and turned to leave, but then his footsteps stopped. He turned back and added in a low voice.
“Zhu Zhixi is not delicate. He is very independent and very sensible. Judging people by appearance is not advisable. You taught me that too.”
Author’s Note:
—Student Xiao En Has Something to Say After Reading This Chapter—
Liang Yi’en: Senior, don’t you think touching Teacher Fu’s leg under the dinner table and writing on his leg during a meal is very ambiguous?
Zhu Zhixi: I know. Proudly puffs out chest.
Liang Yi’en: …Then why did you still do it? I thought you didn’t think so.
Zhu Zhixi: Because I was really bored, and I knew Teacher Fu was bored too. Isn’t it fun to tease him a little?
Liang Yi’en: Aren’t you afraid he’ll get angry?
Zhu Zhixi: I just love repeatedly jumping back and forth on his bottom line. Bounce, bounce. Hehe.
Liang Yi’en, internally: If one day he gets beep—, he’ll have deserved it.
