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Actually, Shen Mingbei had already known that Qu Lang went to visit the crew for《Feng Yue》.
Yesterday, he called Qu Lang’s assistant to ask when Qu Lang would be free to come back. Assistant Xiao Chen told him President Qu was at the airport in preparation for the crew visit.
Xiao Chen had told him, “In order to empty out his schedule for these few days, President Qu had been working overtime in the company. He finally managed to empty his schedule for today, so he went to the airport as soon as he left the company building.”
Shen Mingbei knew it must’ve been to visit his White Moonlight, so he didn’t question it further.
After seeing today’s trending posts, he thought Qu Lang acted as a high-profile person. But after careful reconsideration, Lin was his White Moonlight after all; wanting to ‘perform’ a little was nothing out of the ordinary.
It had nothing to do with him anyway.
Qu Lang and the White Moonlight’s meeting must’ve felt like the reunion after a long period of separation; their surroundings must’ve been filled with two lovers’ consuming passion and a conglomeration of rich silk and beautiful bouquets or something like that. He must’ve had no time to care whether he wanted to manage the loquats or not. Shen Mingbei didn’t continue reading through the trending posts; instead, he hurriedly went to change flower pots for the newly-sprouted loquat seedlings.
The gardener wanted to help Shen Mingbei, but he rejected him.
“I’m just changing flower pots. If any loquats are produced in the future, I’ll send you some to eat.”
The gardener shook his head and said, “It’ll take many years for the loquat to bear fruit; to be kept in these flower pots, I’m afraid it won’t bear fruit.”
Shen Mingbei understood what the gardener meant. The gardener wanted him to plant the small seedlings in the yard; that way, it’d grow well. However, he didn’t want to do that. Shen Mingbei knew that he’d had to leave sooner or later, so if he planted it in the yard it’d be troublesome to dig out in the future.
It was different to raise it in a pot; this way, he could carry both the loquats and pots away.
Besides, now that these pitiful loquats were in his hands, they may not necessarily live for long.
En, when the time came, he’d have to find a house with good sunshine; it’d be best if it had a greenhouse too. Shen Mingbei checked the balance in his card, then thought about the housing prices in the urban cities before sighing with regret-
Unaffordable.
Comparing oneself to another was truly infuriating.
Qu Lang could buy a villa in places like Qingtan Bay, yet he couldn’t even afford a living space with two bedrooms and one living room.
When the time came for him to leave Qu Lang, he was afraid he’d have to spend some time becoming more accustomed to living in a small house.
After a while of pondering, Shen Mingbei finally opened his mind; since he couldn’t compare, he wouldn’t.
He carefully watered the flower pots and placed them beside the foot of the villa’s sunnier, more exposed walls. Five flower pots were neatly arranged – the contrast between the white wall and red pots even looked quite nice!
Squatting on the ground, he found a nice angle to take a picture of it before tapping on Weibo and posting it.
@ShenMingbei: Five pots of loquats; when it bears fruits in the future, there’ll be a lucky draw [doge]
Today’s business finished. Shen Mingbei checked the time and found it was still early; after some consideration, he decided to go and check out some houses. He could buy a new house and start a new life!
To clearly know his identity as the cannon fodder yet still stay in the villa to wait for Fate to pronounce his sentence wasn’t a very good feeling. Even if Qu Lang wasn’t coming back he shouldn’t wait here forever. Shen Mingbei dusted off the soil on his body and stood up to prepare for a shower and change clothes. His and Qu Lang’s room was very big; even their bathroom was a good twenty to thirty-metres squared.
Shen Mingbei moved a small stool over to sit down on; as he adjusted the water temperature and released hot water, he didn’t forget to one-handedly swipe on the comments under the post he’d just sent.
The comments were very harmonious; all the fans were actively expressing their love for their idol, saying how after the seedlings bore fruit they looked forward to eating the loquats their idol planted.
[Brother Shen is working hard today to enlighten us with your planting skills!]
[Why can’t vegetarian men harmoniously get along with plants? They’re clearly harmonious with each, one just has to die is all!]
[Are Brother Shen’s loquats delicious?]
[Are you sure Brother Shen’s pots aren’t filled with the remains of already-dead loquats?]
[I’d like to give kudos to all the comments embarrassing Brother Shen]
All this teasing gathered together, Shen Mingbei was very happy reading them, so he liked the [Brother Shen is working hard to enlighten us with your planting skills!] comment while he was at it. He also replied to the comment asking if the pots were filled with the remains of already-dead loquats.
[The loquats were newly-planted; the dead ones are the dragon-fruit seedlings.]
[Hahahahahahaha…]
[Brother Shen’s making an adaptation woo!!!]
Today’s interaction completed. Shen Mingbei put down his phone and began to shower properly. After he came out, he blow-dried his hair and changed into casual attire before going out to tell the driver he wanted to look at a certain real estate. Just as he finished speaking, he received a call from his aunt.
“Xiao Bei, are you at home today?” Shen Xin’s voice was slightly trembling with hidden undertones of hunger.
Shen Mingbei hesitated before saying, “…yes.”
Shen Xin hadn’t even said anything before Shen Mingbei could imagine what was coming next; sure enough, after his aunt sighed in relief as she said, “I- I’m coming over. I need to speak to you about something.”
Shen Mingbei was silent for a moment. Then he accepted it.
He got out of the car; he hadn’t even reached his yard before he heard footsteps behind him. Shen Xin was carrying a bag of apples; with an apologetic expression, she rushed over.
“Xiao Bei, wait for me.” Shen Xin had just finished shouting when she reached Shen Mingbei’s side with a jog.
Shen Mingbei opened the villa yard’s door, took the apples from his aunt, and led her inside.
“You arrived this quickly?”
Actually, he didn’t even have to ask to know that Shen Xin probably arrived early in the morning; she just never came in. Just then, she must’ve seen him come out and had no choice but to give him a call.
Shen Xin didn’t answer his question and instead said, “These apples were brought back by your uncle from his business trip. He said you work hard, so you have to eat more fruits to maintain your health…”
Shen Mingbei nodded, not exposing her.
How could he not understand his uncle? These apples were most likely bought by Shen Xin with the own money she saved.
As for the reason why Shen Xin came over to send him apples-
Shen Xin spoke in such a roundabout way that by the time she stated her purpose, the tea the servant poured had already become cold. “…Your uncle said that he and his friend are going to make a business partnership, and he needs half a million.”
……
The sky was still blue, the grass still green.
Shen Mingbei was still standing there dazedly after sending away his aunt. The day Shen Mingbei suddenly lost both his parents – he had no more support. His home was taken away as debt repayment and his second uncle sold the clan name, Shen. The almost-homeless Shen Mingbei was taken back home by his aunt to be taken care of.
All these years, his aunt lived a very hard life. Ran Yishen was a bastard, yet she didn’t have any intention of leaving him.
Shen Mingbei didn’t want to continue helping his aunt but, in the end, he couldn’t be cruel towards her.
Shen Mingbei suddenly lost his interest in buying a house; he might need to visit his aunt’s house tomorrow.
With this plan in mind, Shen Mingbei went back to search his cabinets and found several finance contracts he’d bought back then; he calculated which ones would cause smaller losses if sold.
He added and subtracted over and over before he finally finished calculating. Shen Mingbei discovered that after he gave his aunt the money, only a certificate of deposit holding a few hundred thousand remained.
He’d have to wait until he could buy a house.
If he didn’t know his uncle wasn’t capable enough of checking his own account, Shen Mingbei would’ve suspected Ran Yisheng knew about his deposit situation and was demanding him for money.
Shen Mingbei thought about it. If he wasn’t going to live in the Qingtan Bay villa as a celebrity, it probably wouldn’t be good to rent a place – what about the company’s dormitories? Or should he contact Xiao Zhang and ask if they could live together?
With all these concerning issues stuck in Shen Mingbei’s heart, he couldn’t sleep well that night.
Drowsy with sleep in the middle of the night, he suddenly felt a person crawl into bed and embrace him.
Shen Mingbei subconsciously thought it was Qu Lang, but on second thought, Qu Lang should’ve been out of town with his White Moonlight, so there shouldn’t be anyone crawling onto his bed at this time; he immediately felt nervous and began to struggle.
That person became aware of Shen Mingbei’s actions, and suddenly said, “It’s me.”
His low voice was still penetratively magnetic and the tremors in his chest directly stupefied Shen Mingbei’s mind-
It’d been so many years, yet he never managed to resist Qu Lang’s voice.
Shen Mingbei forgot to ask why he suddenly came back before he was suddenly pulled in the dark and fucked for one round.
……
When Shen Mingbei opened his eyes, Qu Lang was gone.
Qu Lang really considered this a hotel, only caring about his own pleasure…
Looking at the fairly messy bed, Shen Mingbei crawled up to wash off, still under a trance.
After opening the door, a servant asked Shen Mingbei if he was going to eat breakfast at home; when Shen Mingbei opened his mouth to talk, he realised his voice had become hoarse.
After making himself a cup of Malva-nut juice1 and moistening his throat, Shen Mingbei sat down and ate some boiled eggs with a cup of milk before going out for a walk.
Only after he saw it was almost time for him to take the certificate of deposit and finance contracts to the bank.
On his way, Xiao Zhang sent many pictures to Shen Mingbei, all of them to do with Qu Lang and Lin Xiang. Xiao Zhang’s messages almost never stopped sending, each text talking about what happened between Qu Lang and Lin Xiang yesterday.
Xiao Zhang: “He’s acting too unfair! This is directly trampling Brother Shen’s reputation!”
Xiao Zhang had been with Shen Mingbei for many years, so he’s one of the few people who knew the relationship between Qu Lang and Shen Mingbei.
Xiao Zhang: “I’ve seen pictures of Lin Xiang. I think his looks are inferior to Brother Shen.”
When Shen Mingbei heard Xiao Zhang compare him against Lin Xiang, he spoke in a slightly serious tone, “Xiao Zhang, speak with your fan-filter off.”
Xiao Zhang pretended to be wronged. “I just think Brother Shen is very good-looking.”
Xiao Zhang said it earnestly, causing Shen Mingbei to laugh from amusement; after he finished laughing, Xiao Zhang told him to properly rest his body and not think about fabricated and subjective things.
Seeing how calm Brother Shen was, he also felt calm; the private affairs between someone else and their husband had nothing to do with him anyway. He thought about it for a moment and said to Shen Mingbei, “Brother Shen, planting the loquats yesterday was really Zuan2 of you!”
Shen Mingbei: …?
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Footnotes
Malva nuts have medicinal properties that can treat sore throats and intestinal infections.First originated from LOL (League of Legends); a slang that refers to an Internet troll who randomly curses at people.