Xi Yan pressed his lips together and did not answer, but he was clearly resistant.
Whatever he was thinking, the faint trace of warmth in his eyes vanished completely.
Bai Le took the fish net from the vendor, crouched down, and began scooping up goldfish.
He remembered that Xi Yan seemed to have kept pets when he was little. Dogs and cats would have been discovered, so he had secretly kept a few goldfish in his room and cherished and cared for them for a long time.
In the end, his younger brother had found them and stomped the goldfish into a bloody mess. Xi Yan had never kept anything since.
He rolled up his sleeves and, quick-eyed and quick-handed, caught several goldfish with precision.
The splashing water wet his hair, making the damp strands look even darker. He rubbed his head without a care, chuckled, and handed Xi Yan the bag of goldfish.
"Here, your birthday present."
What he had said while drunk earlier had not been very sincere. Since he had brought it up himself, he ought to do it properly.
Xi Yan stiffened at his words, a fleeting look of surprise appearing on his face.
He looked up at Bai Le, whose bright peach blossom eyes were fixed on him. Bai Le was smiling radiantly, waiting for him to take the bag of goldfish.
Quite a few people had already gathered on the riverside lawn to watch the fireworks festival, and the crowd around them was gradually streaming in that direction.
Only Bai Le and Xi Yan remained motionless.
Suddenly, a firework burst across the night sky with a bang. Its hazy, brilliant colors seemed to tinge Xi Yan's eyes, adding hints of emotion that were not usually there.
Author's note: I wrote this chapter while listening to "Fireworks." It really has that fireworks atmosphere.
It's only now that Fourth Master's heart has truly begun to stir a little, while our silly Lele is flirting without even realizing it and has no idea what's going on. For example, he's in a male pregnancy story, he's become the "female lead," and he's already pregnant [doge]. Thank you to the little angels who sent me overlord tickets or irrigated me with nutrient solution between 2020-02-08 01:05:55 and 2020-02-09 20:31:34~
Thanks to the little angel who sent a landmine: Badamumu, 1;
Thanks to the little angel who irrigated me with nutrient solution: Badamumu, 6 bottles;
Thank you all so much for your support. I'll keep working hard!
Chapter 11
After the trip to Japan ended smoothly, Bai Le took a flight back home.
At the festival, he had secretly taken a photo of Xi Yan, who was sitting in his wheelchair in a pure black kimono, his skin looking exceptionally pale even in the darkness.
He was holding up a bag of little goldfish, squinting slightly as he studied something. Though his face was still expressionless, for some reason, he seemed a little less cold and unapproachable.
He sent the photo to the group chat, where it immediately drew everyone's attention and got the chat buzzing.
"Holy shit, Lele, where did you get this private portrait of Fourth Master?"
"Get lost. I ran into him while I was in Japan on a business trip."
"Could you ask His Majesty when he's holding the consort selection? I'm planning to get my hair done."
Bai Le: "???"
"Consort Bai has already gotten a head start on building her relationship with His Majesty. Noble Lady Wu, aren't you going to compete for his favor?"
Wu Hua ignored the teasing from that bunch of disreputable friends and got straight to the point.
"Lele, it looks like you and Fourth Master Xi are pretty close, huh?"
"...Hard to say. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad." One moment, Bai Le felt that Xi Yan was someone he could talk to; the next, he found him unpredictable. Now that the matter between them had been settled, he could not say he either liked or disliked him.
Unless there was something necessary to discuss, he would not contact him for no reason.
Thinking of contacting him, Bai Le remembered the message he had sent last time, which had sunk without a trace. With that on his mind, he could not help glancing at his messages.
He froze when he saw a red dot at the upper right of Xi Yan's profile picture.
He opened the chat and found just two simple words.
"No, I don't."
Didn't what? So much time had passed that Bai Le did not understand at first. Only when he looked back at the message he had sent did he realize Xi Yan was answering his question about whether he liked Ye Feifei.
He doesn't like her?
Bai Le was a little bewildered and could not quite say how he felt. Too many factors had become uncontrollable as things developed, and he no longer knew what to do.
After returning home, his life got back on track, and he carried on as usual.
But a few days after his return, he and Ye Xiaosi had a conflict. Bai Yin had been skipping classes for a long time and had also failed courses for several semesters in a row. Her class adviser had finally run out of patience and called him, because Bai Yin had put his number in the parent contact field.
The class adviser arranged a time to meet him at the university and discuss what to do about Bai Yin.
Faced with Bai Yin's desperate pleading, Bai Le ultimately relented and decided to make time to go to the university, but it clashed with his scheduled itinerary.
As a result, Ye Xiaosi disapproved of what he was doing, but in the end, Bai Le's shameless persistence won out.
Early Thursday morning, Bai Le went to S University. As one of the country's top institutions of higher learning, S University had first-rate software and hardware facilities alike.
After parking his car, Bai Le swung his car keys as he walked into
the campus
. Being summoned as a parent was awkward, after all, so he had not brought anyone else.
"Excuse me, fellow student, do you know how to get to the central auditorium?" A few girls came up to him and asked, thinking he was a student there.
"I'm not a student here, so I don't know either."
He was wearing a light gray sweatshirt with a large cartoon design on it today. He was young to begin with, and the formal suits he usually wore to work had almost made people forget that he was only twenty-two.
"Are you here for the donation ceremony too, then?" the girls from another university asked.
"What donation ceremony?"
"It's for a senior who used to study here. My friend at this university says he's a big shot now, and he's really handsome."