Chapter 46 Published

As dusk fell, the sky dyed by the setting sun gradually faded, and a few lights flickered sporadically in the deep blue sky.

The curtains on the small balcony on the second floor of the homestay where flowers are planted are drawn, and a faint warm yellow light shines through.

"You want to live here?!" the boy's voice sounded slightly surprised.

Ji Ruan took a shower and sat on the bed. He saw that Mr. Gu, who had eaten a meal at his place, not only did not leave, but even asked Song Ling to move the suitcase over while he was taking a shower, as if he was about to take root.

Gu Xiuyi himself was very calm. He ran his fingers over the vine ornaments on the bedside and nodded slightly, as if he felt that settling here was the most normal thing.

He glanced at Ji Ruan's small room. Although the space was not large, it was very clean. The wooden structure looked simple and elegant, and the various small ornaments were also quite exquisite. It was much more romantic than the monotonous hotel suites.

Ji Ruan grabbed the swaying corner of Gu Xiuyi's clothes and said, "But shouldn't you go to the hotel? The bathroom in a suite of your level is bigger than my entire room. Why do you want to squeeze in with me?"

Gu Xiuyi turned around and saw Ji Ruan sitting cross-legged on the edge of the bed. She had to slightly tilt her head up to look him in the eye.

His bed sheets and quilt covers were all dark green, scattered behind him like ink splashes. There was a branch-shaped ambient light in the corner, lit up in dots.

From Gu Xiuyi's perspective, Ji Ruan looked like an elf living in the forest.

He sat down on the edge of the bed, did not answer the question, and put his hand on Ji Ruan's lower back.

Ji Ruan dodged immediately: "What are you doing?"

Gu Xiuyi met Ji Ruan's vigilant gaze without any restraint, and pulled him to his side: "Don't move, isn't your waist aching?"

Ji Ruan's struggle stopped for a second: "How did you know?"

Gu Xiuyi's expression remained unchanged, his eyes fixed on his face: "You can see it yourself if you look in the mirror."

“…”

Ji Ruan was speechless. He was indeed feeling tired and sore all over. After hearing what Gu Xiuyi said, he could probably guess how haggard he looked.

While he was in a daze, Gu Xiuyi pulled him into his arms again and patted his lower back: "Relax, I'll give you a massage, otherwise you'll have cramps again at night."

His hands were very hot, and just putting them on the waist made people feel comfortable, not to mention that Boss Gu's massage skills had been improving exponentially. It took only two seconds for Ji Ruan to surrender.

Ji Ruan had to admit that he really liked to enjoy life in the moment, which was reflected in his inability to resist anything that could make him feel comfortable.

Even if these things hide other motives or dangers, he would rather enjoy them first. After all, people may not live to the future, but they always live in the present.

The warmth came continuously, radiating from the lower back to the whole body. Gu Xiuyi's warmth was like some vague illusion, not strong, but invading slowly and gently and unquestionably.

Reason reminded Ji Ruan that he seemed to have forgotten something, but his mind quickly relaxed and he even subconsciously moved closer to the heat source.

Gu Xiuyi supported Ji Ruan's lower back with his palm and could feel the unnatural tension in the muscles there: "Why are you so stiff? How long have you been standing there?"

Ji Ruan was already feeling dizzy in the land of tenderness, his eyes half-closed as if he was drunk: "Well... most of the day..."

Gu Xiuyi's face darkened.

Ji Ruan suddenly frowned, curled up the fingers that were clenched around the corner of Gu Xiuyi's clothes, and couldn't help but hum.

Gu Xiuyi paused: "Is it a bit too strong?"

Ji Ruan nodded and rubbed his shoulder impatiently: "Be gentle."

In his daze, he felt that Gu Xiuyi's breathing was suspended for half a second, and then he spoke in a voice that sounded like he was laughing: "...Okay."

Ji Ruan's eyelids slowly closed, but suddenly opened again in the middle of the moment. His vision was blurred when he was extremely tired, but there was always a tenacious consciousness in his mind:

"Shouldn't you go back to the hotel?"

Gu Xiuyi held him and gently pulled him up. This slight rocking, which was comparable to the cradle, made Ji Ruan even more drowsy. He frowned and pulled Gu Xiuyi's finger: "Don't move."

"I can't go back to the hotel Ji Ruan." Gu Xiuyi whispered in his ear.

"You think we're already married, right? You're wearing my ring on your finger, and we should have lived together. Besides, there will be a lot of media reporters at the event tomorrow, and it won't sound good if it gets out."

Ji Ruan was dazed: "But...it's not good to sleep together..."

"It's not like I haven't slept before."

"But this time the bed is very small..."

"It's okay, there are two quilts."

Gu Xiuyi can be really gentle when he is gentle. His voice is low and shallow, lingering in the ear. He speaks in a tone like coaxing a child, as if telling Ji Ruan a beautiful fairy tale in her ear.

Ji Ruan had been rubbed on the waist by him and had unknowingly turned into a puddle of water, and now her head was a mess.

He blinked dreamily and lowered his chin, and was unexpectedly coaxed into falling asleep by Gu Xiuyi.

I don’t know how long it took, but when Ji Ruan regained his hazy consciousness, the lights in the room were all dimmed, and the only light was the vine ornaments on the bedside.

This ornament only symbolically has a small light bulb inside, and its purpose is only for viewing, but Gu Xiuyi insisted on leaving it there, letting its trembling light diffuse along the edge of the wall.

When Ji Ruan woke up, it was the moment when Gu Xiuyi finished taking a shower, lifted the quilt and got into bed.

With his unclear vision, he saw a dent in the mattress, and then he smelled the fragrance of shower gel, and the warm breath from Gu Xiuyite's body also rose up.

Gu Xiuyi's fingers touched the back of his ear, and he skillfully took out the outdoor unit and placed it on the bedside, then turned off the small light.

Ji Ruan turned over and turned his back to him. The noise beside his ears was vague and distant. Suddenly, Gu Xiuyi patted the top of his head. A warm breath rushed behind him and he said good night softly.

He might have really studied magic somewhere. These two short words seemed to light up Ji Ruan's heart.

Ji Ruan only heard a "ding!" sound in a trance, and then his consciousness fell into complete chaos. He couldn't even respond to Gu Xiuyi's "good night".

·

The next morning, the spring weather was beautiful.

The open-air balcony on the third floor of the exhibition hall was bustling with activity. The auction was proceeding in an orderly manner, and although there were many people coming and going, the venue did not seem chaotic.

Ji Ruan followed the teacher with his blue work badge, and walked around the place without saying a word when he passed by Gu Xiuyi or made eye contact with him several times. He even avoided his gaze without hesitation, with puffed cheeks and a look that said, "I'm angry, please don't flirt with me."

Gu Xiuyi didn't know whether to laugh or cry, he really didn't do anything.

Everything was fine until last night before going to bed. If you have to say something, he just teased Ji Ruan before going out in the morning, but the kid was thin-skinned and held grudges, so things developed like this.

As for what happened in the morning, it seemed normal to Gu Xiuyi - it was nothing more than them sleeping on two quilts as one, and the instigator was Ji Ruan.

But Ji Ruan couldn't accept it.

God knows how shocked and horrified he was when he opened his eyes and saw that he was holding Gu Xiuyi's arm as if he was holding a big chicken leg, and Gu Xiuyi was sleeping on his pillow, with the sheets and quilt covers changed to single size.

Not only that, what was even more horrifying was that Gu Xiuyi's pillow had been placed behind his waist at some point in time, and considering Ji Ruan's limited experience of only having theoretical knowledge and never putting it into practice, it looked very much like what had happened.

Ji Ruan almost jumped off the bed. His hypoglycemia and low blood pressure were cured in an instant.

He even really doubted for a short moment, and under Gu Xiuyi's confused eyes, he slipped into the bathroom, stretched his legs carefully, and searched Baidu for the reaction after that thing.

In a state of extreme mental tension, Ji Ruan confirmed it three times before he believed that he and Gu Xiuyi were indeed innocent all night.

Two hot-blooded single men slept in the same room and hugged each other all night, but they really didn't do anything?

Ji Ruan even admired himself a little.

No, he admired Gu Xiuyi more.

After confirming the established facts, Ji Ruan breathed a sigh of relief, but the hypoglycemia that had been ignored came back and knocked Ji Ruan to the ground, unable to get up.

In the end, it was Gu Xiuyi who had to carry him out, feed him water and sugar, and then let him lie unconscious at the bedside for five minutes as usual.

When his blood sugar level slowly returned to normal and Ji Ruan finally recovered and could wash himself, Gu Xiuyi was already dressed.

Ji Ruan was brushing his teeth in front of the sink while Gu Xiuyi was standing beside him tying his tie. His shoulders and neck were straight, his fingers were slender, and the wedding ring on his ring finger was still shining.

Ji Ruan subconsciously looked in the mirror and saw that he was wearing a wedding ring of the same style but thinner on the hand holding the toothbrush.

This scene was too weird. Ji Ruan immediately looked away, bent down, and spat out the disgusting toothpaste foam in his mouth.

But Gu Xiuyi's psychological quality is indeed incomparable to ordinary people, and even beyond the reach of ordinary people's comprehension.

The memory of sleeping in the same bed with their skin touching each other in the morning seemed unable to shake him in the slightest, and he remained extremely calm from beginning to end.

After he finished tying his tie, he looked at Ji Ruan in the mirror, who had just washed her face and whose eyelashes were wet, and said in a calm tone as if he was asking "What do you want to eat in the morning?"

"I slept very well at the villa, why did you keep moving around last night..."

Rather than asking Ji Ruan, these words sounded more like talking to himself.

Ji Ruan wiped his face and wanted to tell him that it was because the bed in the villa was big and the current bed was small.

The bed in the villa is a king-size bed of 2.5 meters, so it doesn't matter how he moves. But now saying that it is 1.5 meters is an exaggeration. It's all the bed's fault, not his.

But when he opened his mouth, Gu Xiuyi had already leisurely gone downstairs to buy him dumplings.

Ji Ruan could only swallow his excuses with gritted teeth, and he didn't want to talk to Gu Xiuyi for at least three hours.

So three hours later, Gu Xiuyi blocked Ji Ruan in the corner of the third floor of the exhibition hall.

The weather has been really good recently, with the sun shining brightly for a week in a row, as if the weather is about to skip over spring and head straight for summer. Even Ji Ruan, a kid who is most afraid of the cold, took off his sweater and put on a thin shirt.

Although the sun was strong, the wind was also very strong. The corners of Ji Ruan's open shirt were blown up high, the cotton T-shirt stuck tightly to his chest and abdomen, and his blue work badge fluttered in the wind.

Gu Xiuyi pinched the strap of his work ID card that was almost wrapped around his neck, slid it down and turned to the front, and Ji Ruan's photo suddenly appeared in his eyes.

It should be the ID photo taken at the beginning of the school year.

Ji Ruan in the video has straight shoulders, a round head, dimples on both cheeks, and a face full of the words "well-behaved and cute". He is completely different from the child now who has a sulky mouth and is sulking.

Ji Ruan pulled the work badge back by the strap, his voice muffled in the wind: "Don't look at my ID photo."

"Are you angry?... So cute." Gu Xiuyi's eyes were full of frankness.

Ji Ruan pursed her lips, looked back calmly, and said expressionlessly like Gu Xiuyi: "No, because I'm shy."

Gu Xiuyi's eyes showed a little surprise. He took a step closer and said seriously, "What about this morning? Were you angry this morning?"

In fact, Gu Xiuyi didn't mean to tease Ji Ruan when he said that. He was just telling the truth.

Ji Ruan slept very well when he was at the villa, but he was really uncomfortable last night. He looked at Ji Ruan's wet chin after washing her face, and he was inspired to say that.

But when he came back after buying the dumplings and entered the third floor where the auction started, Ji Ruan pursed her lips and didn't speak to him. Only then did he realize his problem.

"I'm sorry," Gu Xiuyi took out the hot milk he had prepared long ago, put a straw in it and handed it to Ji Ruan: "But I did tease you because I thought you were cute."

Ji Ruan glanced at the milk, and then glanced again.

Gu Xiuyi is really good at fortune-telling. How did he guess that he is dying of thirst now?

Ji Ruan looked at the time and it had been more than three hours. He was not such an unreasonable person. Since Mr. Gu had taken the initiative to offer a way out, he would not hold on to it.

He coughed lightly and took the glass of milk.

The sunlight was indeed bright. Gu Xiuyi was so blinded that he could hardly open his eyes. Ji Ruan looked so white in front of him that she seemed transparent.

He folded his hands naturally in front of his chest and asked, "The weather is so nice, what are you going to do this afternoon?"

Ji Ruan drank milk with a straw, his cheeks puffed up and down. Hearing this, he pointed behind him and said, "Isn't there a famous pavilion on the mountain? I heard that when the weather is good, you can see the North Watchtower. I plan to go there and take a look."

Gu Xiuyi had also heard of this pavilion. It was located halfway up Qingxi Mountain. When the air visibility was high, the landmark building of City A, the North Watchtower, could be seen across the river.

Gu Xiuyi nodded: "It's worth a look, who are you going with?"

Ji Ruan squinted at him in the strong light: "Teachers, and their apprentices, let's call it a team building."

"Can I go?" Gu Xiuyi Ji Ruan asked.

Ji Ruan was stunned.

Gu Xiuyi pulled Ji Ruan's work badge and led him forward: "Is it not possible?"

Ji Ruan's face suddenly turned red, and he grabbed the belt and pulled it back.

But his strength was no match for Gu Xiuyi. As long as that man didn't let him, there was no way he could break free.

And Gu Xiuyi seemed to want to get an answer from him.

Helplessly, Ji Ruan looked into Gu Xiuyi's dark pupils, his cheeks flushed:

"Well... no one else brings their families..."