Cold rain fell on the top of his head. Lu Qi let go of Mu Nanqiao in embarrassment and pulled him toward the courtyard: “It’s raining, come inside first.”

The two walked across the cement-paved courtyard and entered the house.

Even though Grandpa was gone, Father Lu had still renovated the house. The floor tiles were all laid out, and the seams glittered with color. Together with the golden handles embedded in the white wall cabinets, everything sparkled in the illumination of the fancy ceiling lamp overhead.

Lu Qi was in no mood to pay attention to this at the moment. When the guest was brought in just now, he was shocked by the wealthy atmosphere of the room. He said after a moment: “This…..is my dad’s taste…..”

Mu Nanqiao gave him a sincere look: “Uncle has great taste.”

Giving him a strange look, Lu Qi lowered his head to find slippers for him. “My grandpa would be angry if he saw him decorate the house like this.”

Mu Nanqiao stood at the door with mud on his trousers, trying not to step on the floor and dirty it. He changed into slippers before following inside.

“How did you find it?” Lu Qi asked, baffled. “I said I was going back to Yuncheng, but how did you know about my grandpa’s place?”

“I asked Li Yimiao.” Mu Nanqiao took off his dusty windbreaker. He was wearing an apricot shirt with white stripes underneath, and asked as he rolled up his sleeves: “Is there somewhere I can clean my shoes?”

His deep, narrow eyes were filled with a helpless smile: “I have to return to Shanghai tomorrow, and I might not have time to go home and change before I attend the board meeting.”

Lu Qi: ……

Ah, that was a bit miserable.

He went to find a brush and a basin for Mu Nanqiao, and also found a small stool. As Mu Nanqiao bent his long legs and struggled to brush his shoes, Lu Qi thought of another question: “Li Yimiao? Where did you get his contact information?”

Mu Nanqiao lowered his head and brush brush brushed. After a moment, he coughed and said guiltily: “I’m sorry, I asked someone to investigate who you’ve been in contact with recently.”

Afterwards, he was very happy to find that the person he had contacted the most in recent days was himself.

But when it came to investigating someone’s private details, the person would be displeased. Sure enough, Lu Qi’s eyes widened vigilantly and the lock of hair on his head swayed. “You investigated me?!”

“Listen to my explanation.” Mu Nanqiao gazed up at him, his slender eyebrows slightly furrowed. Holding a brush and dirty shoes in his hands, he looked a bit pitiful. “I told you last time that Lin Group was going bankrupt. I wasn’t kidding, relevant departments verified the flow of funds. Lin Zhuang is Lin Yuan’s father. He sold out his family for his own benefit, and now Lin Yuan has been summoned twice in three days and has been restricted from leaving the country.”

Lu Qi was stunned. He didn’t expect that he had been home for several days, and Shanghai was about to be turned upside down. He had no sympathy for Lin Yuan, but was astonished at Lin Zhang decisively selling out his son.

“Lin Zhang also has an illegitimate son.” Mu Nanqiao understood his doubts, and returned to the original question: “These days, Lin Yuan has also been thinking of ways to reduce his sentence for a few years. He was splashed with dirty water by his father, but his hands are definitely not clean. I was afraid he would resort to desperate measures, and I began to lose contact with you this afternoon……”

Mu Nanqiao sighed and pointed at the corner of his lips, saying: “Baby, I was so anxious that the corners of my mouth got blisters. After landing in Shanghai, I contacted Li Yimiao. He said that if the signal wasn’t good, you had probably gone back to your hometown and the cell tower here is often in need of repair.”

Li Yimiao was somewhat concerned about his cousin’s affairs. It wasn’t until Mu Nanqiao took out the chat records between the two that he gave the address to Mu Nanqiao. 

Putting it like this, it was excusable. Lu Qi immediately felt embarrassed. “The signal isn’t good, and sometimes calls can’t be received. There isn’t a problem with your job?”

“There’s no problem.” Mu Nanqiao shook his head. “Lin Group’s matter is a foregone conclusion. My dad is in charge of the company tonight, so there won’t be any surprises.”

These were a father and son, Lu Qi thought. If there was a reason why Li Yuan was abnormal, it was probably a genetic defect.

When he returned to his senses and remembered that there were some blisters at the corners of this person’s mouth, Lu Qi pinched Mu Nanqiao’s chin with two fingers and raised his head. Looking at his thin lips under the light, he asked doubtfully: “Where are the blisters?”

He didn’t realize how suggestive this gesture was at all.

Mu Nanqiao averted his eyes and lowered his head, kissing Lu Qi’s knuckles with his lips. Feeling that it wasn’t enough, he opened his mouth and bit down gently, like a canine acting coquettishly while playing.

As if burnt by flames, Lu Qi quickly retracted his hand and hid it behind his back.

“You…..” He stuttered, “Where are your blisters?”

“Why do you believe everything I say?” Mu Nanqiao blinked slyly. “Little friend, don’t be so easily deceived.”

Lu Qi glared at him fiercely. With red ears, he turned around to get a quilt for Mu Nanqiao.

Mu Nanqiao laughed and raised a hand to touch his lips. He suddenly remembered that his hand had touched the shoe brush, and frowned in disgust.

But Lu Qi had not resisted such “crossing the line.”

From the moment Lu Qi ran out and hugged him, he knew that every seed he had sown had blossomed into beautiful flowers, and the deer attracted by the flowers had finally come to him.

Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but raise his hand to touch his lips again. The next second, he lowered his hand in disgust and continued brushing his shoes. 

And as for Lu Qi, his heartbeat calmed down at last and he discovered another problem: There were two quilts, because Mother Lu also stayed here when honoring the ancestors. He used his moms quilt, but there was only one bed with a mattress.

It was already autumn, so it was obviously inappropriate for Mu Nanqiao to sleep on the bed board.

So in the end, Lu Qi could only put both quilts on his own bed. He feared that Mu Nanqiao wouldn’t be used to sharing a bed with another person, so he stuck his head out and asked the person sitting in the hallway cleaning his shoes: “Mu Nanqiao, is it okay for you to sleep in the same bed as me?”

Plop—

The brush fell into the basin.

. . . . . . .

The quilts were laid out, and Mu Nanqiao also finished putting away his shoes. Standing tall and straight at the door, he asked Lu Qi awkwardly: “Lu Qi, did you bring trousers?”

His trousers were so dirty that he couldn’t even see them, let alone wear them to bed.

Lu Qi took out his shorts from his backpack. He thought of something and said with a blushing face: “I didn’t wear these when I came back this time. I wore pajamas from home, these are clean.”

Mu Nanqiao took the pair of cool black cotton shorts and looked around, but couldn’t find a place where he could change. In the end, he sat at the edge of the bed and removed his dirty suit pants.

Lu Qi swore that he didn’t look on purpose. He just wanted to remind Mu Nanqiao that he could use the hair dryer to blow the legs of his trousers after washing them, otherwise they might not be dry by tomorrow, but Mu Nanqiao happened to take off his trousers when he turned around.

En, black boxer briefs.

En?

En?!!

Without saying anything, and nearly biting his tongue, Lu Qi coughed and covered his mouth, attracting Mu Nanqiao’s concerned and questioning gaze.

. . . . . . .

The rain gradually intensified, hitting the windows, and the natural white noise made people drowsy. However, the two people laying side by side were not sleepy, and they whispered about what had happened in the past few days.

Hearing that Mother Lu had asked Lu Qi to go on a blind date, Mu Nanqiao frowned, but still comforted in a low voice: “Auntie is just splitting hairs. It will get better in the future.”

“I hope so.” Lu Qi let out a long sigh, and the quilt rustled. He turned sideways and asked softly: “So how did Auntie Talia take it?”

Mu Nanqiao didn’t know how to answer this question. 

He had returned to his parents back then, but even in a safe environment, he was still tense at all times. Long-term insomnia had caused him to become sensitive and manic-depressive, and he was also sent to the hospital to get his stomach pumped due to overdosing on sleeping pills.

Looking back now, Mu Nanqiao no longer remembered whether he had accidentally eaten them while in a trance, or whether he had wanted to purposely give up.

When he woke up, Talia was crying at his bedside.

Perhaps Talia realized that from that moment on, nothing was more important than keeping her child alive. If it could go one step farther and he could live happily every day, what else could she ask for?

Therefore, everything went as it should.

But he couldn’t say this, and didn’t want Mother Lu to have to go through such a thing to realize what was truly good for her child.

However, Lu Qi didn’t ask further. His mobile phone rang, ding-dong, ding-dong, and messages that had not been received likely because of the bad signal that afternoon poured in. On the contrary, Mu Nanqiao’s phone was rather quiet.

Lu Qi was worried that there was something urgent, so he turned over on his stomach and opened his phone to take a look at each item. 

Li Yimiao’s inquiry focused on describing how nice Mu Nanqiao’s voice was. He almost lost his principles, but his love for his cousin let him hold on long enough to ask for details before giving Mu Nanqiao his address.

And his dad sent him news that Aunt Su sent his mom home, and she cried a lot before falling asleep.

Finally, Xu Hengxing sent him photos of the four kittens’ new lives.

Lu Qi’s eyes shone brightly due to the light of the mobile phone, and he asked Mu Nanqiao to look at them together. So Mu Nanqiao lay on his side and moved over closer to him.

Perhaps fearing that Mu Nanqiao wouldn’t be able to adapt to the unfamiliar dark environment, Lu Qi found a small old-fashioned desk lamp that could be clamped next to the bed. The light shone down softly, enveloping him in a layer of warm color. His side profile was handsome and delicate, and the light passed over the straight bridge of his nose to fall on his pale lips.

Before he noticed, greedy eyes traced his profile over and over again.

“Xiao Hei and Xiao Bai were adopted by a family…..”

Before he could say more, a slender index finger touched his lips. Blinking his eyes, he turned his head to look. Mu Nanqiao regarded him with squinted eyes, looking lazy and sleepy, and the small red mole at the corner of his eye was so vivid that it was a bit sultry.

Lu Qi swallowed minutely. He thought it wasn’t obvious, but Mu Nanqiao, who was lying down, saw it cearly.

He didn’t want to talk about animals anymore. He wanted to talk about topics that adults should speak about late at night.

“Are you finding things to talk about because you’re worried about what I’ll do?” There was a smile in his tone, with just the right amount of hoarseness. “Isn’t it too late to worry about that now?”

Lu Qi scoffed. “I’m not afraid. I’m worried about embarrassing you when I speak, ah.”

“Oh…..” Mu Nanqiao asked again: “Then why were you coughing when I changed my pants?”

Lu Qi: ……

He clearly remembered something very impressive, and the tips of his ears instantly burned. He turned off the phone with a snap and slid under the quilt with his back to Mu Nanqiao. Only the back of his head was left for the big fox to see.

He whispered in a low voice: “Why not see it for free, you obviously took it off yourself……”

Mu Nanqiao was amused by his lack of clarity and raised his hand to touch his ear. As a result, Lu Qi shrank back into the quilt again, leaving only a curl of hair exposed.

He simply stretched out his arms and wrapped the little deer up like a sandwich, peeling the quilt off to let the person out for air. Realizing that Lu Qi was trying to inch away like a little caterpillar, he hugged the quilt forcefully and refused to let go. 

“I’m just hugging you through the quilt.” Mu Nanqiao sighed contentedly. “I’m so tired these days.”

Thinking that this person had flown for ten hours, then ran non-stop to the village after landing and even stepped in mud, then was delivered to his doorstep by tractor with a complete lack of grace…..

Ai…..

Lu Qi thought indulgently, then just hug him.

Mu Nanqiao was truly tired, and his breathing soon slowed. His arms were loosely placed around Lu Qi’s waist. The small quilt stirred, but he didn’t respond. The person in the quilt just turned over carefully to face him and stopped moving.