☆、Thirty、Li Mianqiu (2810 words)
Li Yaxi didn't wake up suddenly like those who had nightmares; he simply opened his eyes slowly. Feng Zihao looked at him worriedly, "Had a nightmare?"
Li Yaxi shook his head, silently put on some clean clothes, and went into the bathroom. He wasn't lying; he wasn't dreaming, he had simply seen what had happened before.
He was simply experiencing it all again from an outsider's perspective. It wasn't that he hadn't considered asking Feng Zihao to help him get revenge, but he didn't want to use Feng Zihao. He could use anyone in this life, but not him.
Feng Zihao sat in the living room, suddenly feeling irritated and wanting a cigarette. He didn't smoke, but that didn't mean he couldn't. Since moving in with Li Yaxi, Feng Zihao had toned down all his previous bad habits. In his eyes, Li Yaxi was just a proud little peacock, innocent and naive, and he didn't want to corrupt her.
But now he really wanted one. He was woken up by Li Yaxi's sweat in the middle of the night. Feeling the dampness in his arms, Feng Zihao quickly turned on the light. He saw Li Yaxi biting her lower lip tightly to suppress any sound, her whole body soaked in sweat. He thought Li Yaxi had a stomachache, but after calling out twice, he realized she was having a nightmare.
Looking at the closed bathroom door and listening to the rushing water inside, Feng Zihao grew increasingly agitated. What kind of dream was it? Or perhaps it wasn't a dream at all, but it caused Li Yaxi, who was asleep, so much pain that she desperately tried to suppress it. He was in so much pain that he felt like he was suffocating, all for Li Yaxi.
Stepping out of the bathroom, he saw Feng Zihao sitting on the sofa, his face clearly pale. He chuckled softly, went over, and pinched Feng Zihao's cheek. "What's wrong? Are you getting angry because I woke you up? I never knew you were grumpy in the morning. It's still early, go to sleep."
He held Li Yaxi's hand in his own, his voice low and bitter, "Yaxi...I..."
"Zihao," Li Yaxi interrupted him, "I understand what you mean. I will try to rely on you, but please give me time. It's not that I don't want to tell you things, it's just... I don't want to lie to you."
Feng Zihao nodded, and without saying a word, pulled Li Yaxi upstairs to sleep. He simply wrapped one arm around Li Yaxi's waist and gently massaged his stomach with the other, worried he might be uncomfortable. Feng Zihao's actions seemed to have a hypnotic effect; Li Yaxi didn't have any nightmares that night.
After staying home for a few days, Feng Zihao returned to school, but the SARS outbreak was clearly not going to end anytime soon. However, he insisted on keeping Li Yaxi locked in her room. He kept a close watch on her, calling her three times a day and making phone calls over the landline. This was normally not allowed, but Feng Zihao had powerful connections, and Li Yaxi's grades and health were undeniable; the teachers had no choice but to agree.
So, during the SARS outbreak, while everyone else wore masks and lined up at the school gate to have their temperatures checked before entering the classroom, Li Yaxi was sprawled out on her bed, taking a nap after Feng Zihao left. While everyone else lined up to receive preventative medicine, Li Yaxi was leaning back on the sofa, eating fruit and watching TV. Life was incredibly comfortable. Li Yaxi decided that she would strive to live this way from now on—a "parasite"—what a glamorous phrase!
Although Li Yaxi's second work was also a long one, BL (Boys' Love) was not yet recognized and accepted by society, so it was not published as a book. However, the income from serializing it on the website and adding paid subscriptions was still quite good. Although it couldn't compare to the copyright fees for publishing a book, it was still a kind of recognition.
Li Yaxi has been bored out of her mind lately, so she's started considering writing another large-scale fantasy novel. What kind of novels do people like these days? They like Annie Baby's bright melancholy, and Guo Jingming's youthful pain filled with countless dreams. They like Han Han's hazy beauty, even though he's not that famous yet. However, she doesn't mind falling into some clichés and plans to write her third novel in a dark, gothic style, where the ambiguous and unclear emotional development might better ignite the reader's curiosity. Li Yaxi has put a lot of effort into this fantasy novel, and she has even gone to great lengths to consult many famous works of Western mythology.
Feng Zihao didn't know what Li Yaxi was doing, but he knew that he had recently become obsessed with some mythological stories. So after school, he would sometimes go to the bookstore to buy some mythological books. He had even bought Grimm's Fairy Tales and One Thousand and One Nights, earning countless eye-rolls from Li Yaxi. But this didn't dampen his enthusiasm for buying books for Li Yaxi at all; he felt that letting Li Yaxi immerse himself in books was much safer than letting him run around outside. Li Yaxi spent almost a month completing the story outline, but he was very satisfied.
Besides thinking about what delicious food to make for Li Yaxi to fatten her up, Feng Zihao spent his days tinkering with his company. Well, it wasn't really a company, since it only consisted of him, Zhan Xiaoyu, and the other two. Zhao Yi, having been through the ups and downs of life for some time, offered Feng Zihao a lot of advice on starting his company. He was quite direct in sharing insights that would otherwise be difficult to grasp.
According to Li Yaxi's memory, Feng Zihao started his company during his junior year of college. His family was in trouble; his father fell from power due to political corruption. To support his family, Feng Zihao had to start his own business early. Li Yaxi hadn't experienced that period, but she could easily imagine how difficult it must have been for him. He truly built his empire with his own two hands, only to end up bankrupt because of it all.
So, Li Yaxi spent his life trying to make money… well, not really trying. He didn't have that much ambition, nor that much ability to prevent the Feng family from falling. All he could do was stay by Feng Zihao's side, and when things happened, he would be able to share some of the burden with Feng Zihao. At least he could save Feng Zihao from some setbacks and avoid being looked down upon by some people.
Li Yaxi was quite pleased that Feng Zihao had started his business so many years early, at least for now the Feng family could allow him to have a smooth ride for a while. However, when giving Feng Zihao advice, Li Yaxi clearly told him that he could secretly use some of his family's connections, but he must not get too deeply involved with his family.
He was afraid that all his hard work would be wasted when the Feng family fell. He even suspected that Feng Zihao might have started doing business around this time in his previous life, but because he was too involved with his family, he would have started from scratch with nothing when the Feng family fell. Otherwise, why would he have been so successful later?
What he didn't know was that the company Feng Zihao registered in this life was under Li Yaxi's name.
Many years later, when Li Yaxi learned about this, her first reaction was, "When did you steal my household registration book?"
Feng Zihao rudely turned Li Yaxi away, giving her the back of the head. Li Yaxi, annoyed, bit Feng Zihao's shoulder. Feng Zihao pulled Li Yaxi down and held her in his arms, saying, "You're mine now, what does your household registration book matter?"
As the New Year approached, the streets were deserted and quiet, unlike the usual bustling atmosphere before the New Year, as many people from other places had left City B during the SARS outbreak.
If it weren't for exams, Li Yaxi would never leave the house. Every winter, he felt an intense urge to hibernate, especially when the roads were covered in a thick layer of snow. Even in his previous life living in City B, he had never once seen Houhai frozen over.
Li Yaxi was dressed in layers upon layers of clothing; Feng Zihao had prepared almost everything warm clothing for him, even the underwear and thermal underwear were bought back from Japan by relatives. Li Yaxi was already wearing a very warm down jacket, but he wore an even bigger down jacket on top of it—that was Feng Zihao's. With scarves and gloves, the gear was so thick that even if he were shot, it probably wouldn't even scratch him.
The previously noisy classroom fell silent and began to whisper after Li Yaxi appeared. Li Yaxi struggled to sit back in his seat, because he was wearing too many layers.
Zhan Xiaoyu stared at him for a while before bursting into exaggerated laughter, "You're so unconcerned about your image! Do you want to wrap yourself in a blanket for class? You look like a cotton ball, Li Cotton Ball!"
"Who's like you, prioritizing style over warmth? I'll just wear cotton balls, so what! It's none of your business if I want to!" Li Yaxi ignored his teasing and tried to find a comfortable angle in her seat; he was really wearing too many clothes.
Zhan Xiaoyu looked at Feng Zihao with great sympathy, "Brother, I admire you to the core!"
Feng Zihao raised an eyebrow. Li Yaxi was puzzled but didn't reply. He wasn't stupid enough to offer himself up and be laughed at. Since Zhan Xiaoyu didn't get the expected response, he had to answer himself, "Zihao, how did you manage to get him dressed like that? It must have been so difficult."
Feng Zihao didn't deny it; he really had a tough time. Li Yaxi thus earned yet another nickname: Li Cotton Ball!
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