Chapter 26 First Encounter: Heart-Fluttering or Fluttering Heart? [VIP]

Responsibility and obligation.

—You are the sole heir, and you must shoulder this responsibility.

—You are a child of the Qin family, you cannot lose to anyone!

—Control your emotions, don't act like someone from a humble background.

—You're different from others!

From birth, he was instilled with these ideas by his mother, and throughout his life, he always followed the rules and never made a single mistake.

He is exceptionally talented and outstanding.

So he won first place and became childhood friends with Xia Xiaoqiao, who was quite popular at the time. No matter what he did, he was successful.

He was confident and proud, showered with countless praises, and adoring gazes surrounded him like stars around the full moon.

But his heart remained a blank.

He didn't know why he lived, nor did he understand where he was headed. He was like a puppet, being controlled towards his predetermined end.

Until he met Ziyu.

A handsome and gentle young man stood quietly at the school gate, dragging his suitcase. His sideburns, which fell on both sides of his face, were slightly blown by the wind. He was quiet and didn't make a fuss, looking out of place among the freshmen around him. Someone offered to help him, but the young man smiled and declined.

The smile was faint, conveying a strong sense of distance.

With just one glance, Qin Yuzhen's usually calm mind was stirred as if a tiny pebble had been thrown into it, creating ripples that, though small, were very real.

"Is he a freshman?" Qin Yuzhen asked Xia Xiaoqiao, who was standing next to him.

Xia Xiaoqiao looked at the crowd and asked curiously, "Who? Today is freshman registration, so they must be freshmen. Why are you asking such a question, Yuzhen-ge?"

A red-haired young man appeared beside Ziyu. He greeted Ziyu, and Ziyu followed him.

Qin Yuzhen lowered his eyes and said in a calm tone, "Nobody."

His life continued as before.

Xia Xiaoqiao decided to study abroad a long time ago. Studying in China was just a transition. She would go to the library to study whenever she had free time.

Meanwhile, people from Qinyu Town were participating in competitions and learning about entrepreneurship...

Life went on non-stop, and the young man who had once stirred his heart was long forgotten.

He met the young man again on a rainy day when he went to the library to bring an umbrella to Xia Xiaoqiao, who had forgotten to bring one.

The young man frowned as he watched the rain intensify. It's always heartbreaking to see a beautiful person frown.

While waiting for Xia Xiaoqiao to come downstairs, Qin Yuzhen saw no fewer than ten people come up to the young man and ask if he wanted to walk together—both men and women.

"No need, thank you. My roommate will be here to pick me up soon."

Ziyu gently refused them one by one, and even in her refusal, her gentle, spring-like smile prevented anyone from feeling angry.

Those who had tried to flirt with him left disappointed when his red-haired roommate actually came to pick him up.

Qin Yuzhen pursed his lips.

He's a womanizer and a flirt.

He couldn't even explain where his unpleasant feelings came from.

"Alright, Brother Yuzhen, I'm here. Have you been waiting long?" Xia Xiaoqiao winked playfully. "You're getting impatient, aren't you? You're even frowning!"

Qin Yu Town was stunned.

Did he just frown?

Ziyu had no recollection of these two meetings.

However, Qin Yuzhen kept running into Ziyu afterward.

Sometimes I would pass by Ziyu in the car on my way to a competition, sometimes I would see her from the window of a high-rise building, and sometimes I would see her eating with her roommates near the cafeteria.

But no matter when, Qin Yuzhen noticed that Ziyu was always surrounded by different people.

Those people kept trying to win over the gentle young man and express their feelings. But the young man was clearly not the type to refuse people, and each time he could only furrow his delicate brows and look at them with troubled, watery eyes.

Qin Yu Town doesn't like this kind of person.

He doesn't like it at all.

He had a feeling the moment he saw Ziyu.

Ziyu is like an empty shell; he is designed according to the personality of a fixed person.

He always thought that his story with Ziyu would end there and there would be no possibility of them ever intersecting again.

It wasn't until a lecture that Ziyu saw him.

An excited light shone in the eyes of that young man who was always gentle and aloof.

The young man was no different from his former admirers; he was stunned at first sight, and then his face showed the familiar infatuation and surprise.

He said that Qinyu Town had helped him before, that he knew that Qinyu Town had achieved considerable success in starting a business, and that he had admired Qinyu Town for a long time.

Qin Yuzhen looked at the young man coldly, but what he was thinking was...

—If you truly admire me, why didn't you see me during all the previous encounters with you?

Ziyu, however, seemed completely oblivious to Qin Yuzhen's resistance and continued to talk to Qin Yuzhen.

He even took out his phone and showed his contact information when he escorted Qin Yuzhen back to his dormitory.

"Can I add it?" The young man frowned again and asked cautiously.

Qin Yuzhen added him as a friend by some strange twist of fate.

After that, he was entangled with Ziyu.

Perhaps because he was always the one being flattered, the young man rarely flattered others and awkwardly learned the 100 tips for pursuing his crush posted online.

—Maintain morning, noon, and night greetings; remember everything your crush posts on social media; bring him breakfast; give him small gifts and snacks…

Later, Qin Yu Town discovered that the so-called "100 Tips for Chasing Your Male God" was written by an elementary school student.

But Ziyu didn't know that he had been trying to win Qin Yuzhen's favor every day, rain or shine, and had been clumsily expressing his feelings for her, until Qin Yuzhen was about to graduate.

Everyone knows that Ziyu is a simp in Qinyu Town.

Xia Xiaoqiao joked, "Brother Yuzhen, if all else fails, just sleep with him. Maybe he'll get a taste and stop liking you?"

This was the first time Qin Yuzhen had ever been angry with Xia Xiaoqiao. Even though it was the day Xia Xiaoqiao announced she was going abroad to celebrate, he turned his back and left.

He didn't even know why he was angry.

When he returned to his dorm reeking of alcohol—he was supposed to move out in his second year, but he still didn't know why he was still there—Ziyu was squatting at his dorm door, already dozing off, holding a hangover soup in his hand.

He posted a message on his WeChat Moments before leaving home, saying that he was going to celebrate his childhood friend finally being accepted into his dream school.

That post on WeChat Moments received many likes and comments from their mutual friends, but Ziyu, who was always the first to speak up, strangely didn't send him a single message.

He never expected that the other party would bring him hangover soup.

Did he even realize that if Xia Xiaoqiao hadn't said those things that angered him, Qin Yuzhen might not have come back at all?

Qin Yuzhen kept his eyes downcast as he watched Ziyu, making sure not to wake her.

As the night deepened and the air grew colder, the early spring nights were still unbearable, and Ziyu woke up from the cold.

He looked up and met Qin Yuzhen's gaze.

Ziyu stood up in a panic, swaying helplessly. She wanted to hand over the hangover soup, but seeing Qin Yuzhen's calm eyes, she realized that the other party might not need it.

He stood there dumbfounded.

Qin Yuzhen suddenly laughed.

But the smile was cold, and the smile didn't reach his eyes.

"You like me?"

Ziyu's face instantly turned bright red. His skin was fair, and the slightest blush made him stand out even more.

Qin Yuzhen said, "Then let's date."

Ziyu was completely dazed, his eyes wide open and his mouth agape. He was like a poor man walking down the street who had been hit on the head with millions of dollars in cash, his head spinning from this incredible surprise.

"Interact with, interact with?" Ziyu stammered.

Qin Yuzhen opened the dormitory door and pulled the young man inside. He had always lived alone, and the room was empty except for a simple, plain bed.

He kissed the young man's lips—lips that always smiled aloofly, lips that were not good at refusing those who had ulterior motives towards him.

He thought that the alcohol had still affected his head a bit. Oh well, he would take responsibility. He would just consider it as having hired an obedient plaything.

After that, they became a couple.

But being in a relationship didn't change anything. Ziyu still chased after him as always, clumsily bringing him breakfast, gifts, and snacks.

He neither refused nor accepted.

It wasn't until he escorted Xia Xiaoqiao back to her dormitory that Ziyu appeared before him with a dark expression—he later learned that Qin Peng had made things difficult for him—that he saw Ziyu.

As Qin Yuzhen looked at the more vivid Ziyu, the little pebble he had once tossed aside at their first meeting leaped back into his heart.

After that day, Ziyu was like a piece of beautiful jade that had been missing a corner, now that it had been repaired. The gentleness in his eyes was still there, but he was more energetic. He would joke with his roommates, seriously reject other people's confessions, and get angry.

That empty shell finally welcomed his most important soul.

*

In the ward, Ziyu ate the apple that Qin Yuzhen had peeled down to the core with a numb expression. Every bite felt like a gamble, a gamble to see which bite would first get the unpalatable core.

This is his second time being imprisoned.

He's gotten used to being waited on by scumbag seme.

His lower leg was in a cast and hung high, and his back was also treated with medicine. He looked extremely miserable.

From the moment Ziyu entered the ward, Qin Yuzhen exuded a suffocating aura. He was like a withered tree after being struck by lightning, silent and radiating a sense of dejection.

He just secretly broke a bone, didn't he?

Ziyu thought to herself, "Why is this scumbag acting like he's about to die?"

"You should go back to the company first. There are people here to take care of me," Ziyu said understandingly. "Don't worry about me."

Qin Yuzhen looked up at Ziyu, his eyes filled with intense and turbulent emotions.

"……fine."

The troublesome case involving the internet celebrity just went to court a few days ago. The case was completely fabricated, and with the company's financial resources, they easily won the case.

All the negative rumors have been clarified under the management of the company, and Mingyu has developed quite well.

Qin Yuzhen told Ziyu all about these things, and Ziyu was very surprised.

So this is one of the main characters? Everything can be solved so easily.

After peeling the apple, Qin Yuzhen sat by the hospital bed and looked at Ziyu's face. He said, "Let me take care of you during this time."

Qinyu Town truly lived up to its word.

For the first month of Ziyu's treatment, she still had to stay in the ward, with her dressings and plaster casts changed at fixed times.

Qin Yuzhen did almost everything himself in the first few days, but later, because he accidentally hurt Ziyu several times, Ziyu strictly forbade him to help him anymore, so he had no choice but to find an experienced caregiver.

In terms of work, he usually works on his computer in Ziyu's hospital bed, and all meetings are online meetings held by Qinyu Town.

In short, Qinyu Town kept a closer eye on Ziyu.

Ziyu looked at Qin Yuzhen, who was sitting in front of her and seriously handling his affairs. She appeared gentle on the surface, but inside she was screaming.

The plot here should be that the scumbag protagonist keeps his first lover, leaving Ziyu alone in the hospital room, feeling melancholy and utterly desperate.

Qin Yuzhen is now so obsessed with Ziyu that he can't possibly have time to keep a mistress around!

How could he possibly wallow in melancholy now?!

[A friendly reminder: If the storyline is not completed within two months, the deviation rate will increase by 5%, rising to 15%.]

Ziyu: Ahhh!

A note from the author:

Actually, Ziyu has always been the same person! The core of the previous Ziyu hadn't been activated yet; you could say the previous NPC Ziyu was missing a part of his soul, and the current Ziyu has filled that gap, making him the complete Ziyu.