Face Blindness (33) (Continued)

He walked over to Qiu Yuan, who was standing in a dark corner.

Xin Hexue asked, "Can you see clearly?"

"Sure." Qiu Yuan's thin lips curved into a somewhat smug smile. "I'm an octopus, after all. Octopuses have much better night vision than humans, and I don't have any blind spots. I can see all three hundred and sixty degrees around me."

Like an animal courting a mate, he showed off his advantages.

Xin Hexue glanced at him.

That meant even a strategy of assassinating the octopus from behind would be highly unreliable. His three-hundred-and-sixty-degree vision would allow him to see an enemy approaching from behind.

That was extremely troublesome.

Xin Hexue spoke a little softly, or perhaps it was an illusion created by the night. His voice sounded softer and sweeter than usual to Qiu Yuan, who thought he was acting coquettish.

Of course, the content of his words was another matter.

"Do you have any objections to my performance today?"

The young man asked directly.

He wasn't being polite to him in the least.

Qiu Yuan smiled.

He liked him so much.

Qiu Yuan said, "You think I was deliberately picking on you?"

Xin Hexue said, "I didn't say that."

Qiu Yuan thought about it and shrugged. "All right, I suppose I really could do something like that."

"Mm, but not today," he added. "Don't you think there was something inconsistent about your performance?"

Xin Hexue looked at him with a serious expression, like a perfect top student waiting for a teacher's assessment.

This was really difficult.

Qiu Yuan lowered his head and rubbed the spot between his eyebrows. "It was easier to cover up in the earlier scenes from his school days. People wouldn't really notice it."

Xin Hexue waited quietly for him to continue explaining.

Qiu Yuan studied him.

The young man was calm and composed. After work, he had changed into a simple white shirt and black pants, the simplest of everyday clothes. Yet he had a tall, slender figure and a faintly cool air about him.

"You look like a prince."

Qiu Yuan complimented Xin Hexue out of nowhere.

He didn't look like someone who had struggled his way up from the Lower City.

Granted, Yi Si was a good student with excellent grades and a resilient character, but he had grown up in the Lower City. It would be unrealistic to insist that he had no flaws at all.

Having been exposed to the Lower City's chaotic society at an early age, Yi Si drank and smoked. Sometimes he had to use that kind of disguise to make himself look less approachable. To stay safe on his way to and from school, he even had to know a few basic fighting moves.

But in the Upper City, he soon realized that none of it worked. Even his ability to learn faster than ordinary people was worthless. Here, money and power were the only things that counted.

He was a little bird trapped in a cage, a performer walking a tightrope in a circus for others' amusement. The absolute authority of the upper class pressed down on him, leaving him unable to breathe.

"So, with no way out, Yi Si climbed upward to avenge his parents and avoid being sent back to the Lower City," Qiu Yuan explained. "He was determined to risk everything. When he met the Carter Brothers again, he didn't even know whether he would be arrested or whether he could survive. Standing against those in power, Yi Si initially had no confidence at all."

Qiu Yuan said, "But you look far too confident."

"Too clever, charming, and at ease. The Carter Brothers would be played around in the palm of your hand and reduced to dogs caught in the rain."

"You're a prince. No, you're a king. People can tell at a glance that you'll trample them underfoot."

His words sounded more like praise for Xin Hexue than criticism of his acting.

"Watching you perform," Qiu Yuan said frankly, with only the two of them in the secluded spot, "I got hard twice."

Xin Hexue said, "...I understand what you mean, but you really didn't need to say that last part. I'll pretend I didn't hear it."

The tips of the pink cat ears folded inward, as if afraid his ears would be sullied.

Whenever his host ignored him, K turned him into a cat. He also dutifully captured a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree image of how Xin Hexue had just looked and added it to the small category named [Disgust] in a folder.

Qiu Yuan summed it up succinctly. "You acted very well. You just lacked the sense of taking a desperate risk. I'm guessing you've rarely experienced things slipping out of your control before, right? And you've never tried the thrill of having your heart in your throat?"

Xin Hexue's lips pressed together slightly. He showed some resistance to Qiu Yuan's attempt to probe further into his past.

Qiu Yuan said, "It's all right. Everyone has secrets."

He took a step closer to Xin Hexue and was pleased to find that the young man didn't retreat. "Want to try it?"

Xin Hexue raised his eyes and met his gaze. "What?"

"Experience the feeling I just described."

Qiu Yuan recognized the ill-fitting coat draped over Xin Hexue's shoulders as Xi Zhengqing's. He pulled it off and tossed it to the assistant waiting by the van in the distance.

He handed him the hunting jacket he always kept on hand. "It's a little windy."

Seeing Xin Hexue put it on without a word, Qiu Yuan asked, "Shall we go?"

Qiu Yuan owned a motorcycle dealership in North City.

Compared with cruise ships and aircraft, motorcycles were inexpensive little toys for the children of financial magnates.

Qiu Yuan fastened Xin Hexue's helmet strap and made sure his elbow and knee guards were secure. "Don't be too nervous. I grew up racing through middle and high school, so I'm pretty good. If there's any danger, I'll have my tentacles wrap around you. They regenerate very well, so it doesn't matter if they break off."

Xin Hexue replied coldly, "...No. That's disgusting."

Qiu Yuan realized he meant being wrapped up in tentacles was disgusting.

The sound of a heart breaking came from his secondary brain.

"All right."

Qiu Yuan took off his sunglasses, revealing his dark blue eyes.

Xin Hexue watched him until Qiu Yuan tucked the sunglasses into his collar and put on his helmet.

Qiu Yuan warned him, "Don't stare into my eyes for too long. They disrupt people's minds and sometimes cause hallucinations. It's a passive skill, you could say."

So that was why he wore sunglasses late at night instead of colored contacts.

Xin Hexue said, "...Mm. Where are we going?"

Qiu Yuan asked, "Want to go see the sea?"

He told Xin Hexue where to put his feet when sitting on the back.

The motorcycle's rear seat was slightly higher than the front, so Xin Hexue had to lean forward and hold Qiu Yuan tightly around the waist.

A cool, extremely faint and gentle scent of green sandalwood lingered around Qiu Yuan.

It made Qiu Yuan involuntarily tense his upper body, hardening his abdominal muscles.

He couldn't help wondering whether the fabric of the shirt he wore today was too thick. Could Xin Hexue feel them?

Qiu Yuan had started courting again.

Xin Hexue gave the order. "Let's go."

When the motorcycle started, its roar sent his adrenaline surging.

Qiu Yuan rode out onto the nearest main road and chose a coastal route at a fork not far away.

There wasn't a single car in sight. A white guardrail ran only along the side facing the sea. As the speedometer needle passed 120 kilometers per hour, the ribbon-like coastal road became a dancing white line.

The motorcycle raced onward, its wheels spinning so fast it seemed to fling their souls behind them.

Lacking trust in the rider, Xin Hexue held on tightly and couldn't help saying, "Slow down..."

Qiu Yuan said nothing.

As they went around a bend, he even deliberately leaned the motorcycle inward.

Xin Hexue's eyes widened. He clutched Qiu Yuan's waist, pale blue veins standing out on the backs of his hands from the force of his grip.

His heart really was in his throat now.

The moment they rounded the bend, the motorcycle straightened in an instant, like an azure-winged magpie gathering power and taking flight in a straight line.

They were safe and sound.

A little sweat beaded on Xin Hexue's forehead.

It was actually quite thrilling.

But he drew in a mouthful of cold air and immediately began coughing, sounding as if he would cough his internal organs to pieces.

Qiu Yuan was so alarmed that he hurriedly asked, "How are you?"

The speedometer needle dropped rapidly, and the motorcycle slowed to a snail's pace.

The closer they got to the sea, the more dilapidated and chipped the white guardrail became.

Xin Hexue couldn't stop coughing.

Fortunately, they soon reached their destination.

The motorcycle climbed a slope on the coastal road, and when they reached the top, rippling pale blue moonlight gathered before them and enveloped them.

Qiu Yuan led Xin Hexue to a bench facing the beach and sat down with him.

Then he fetched the insulated cup from the motorcycle and handed it to Xin Hexue.

It held warm water.

Xin Hexue glanced at Qiu Yuan in surprise.

Seeing that he had stopped coughing, Qiu Yuan breathed a sigh of relief.

Xin Hexue lowered his eyes. "I really have rarely experienced things slipping out of my control. I don't do things I'm not confident about. That's the reason."

He was referring to his unhealthy body.

In the moonlight, his face was as pale as snow.

Deep down, he too longed for excitement and challenges, but much of the time, his body forced him to suppress that longing.

Qiu Yuan sat beside him.

A broad beach stretched along the coast, with a windbreak forest at its far end. The sea breeze blew the trees back and forth.

Qiu Yuan said, "What have you decided about what we discussed before?"

Xin Hexue said, "What?"

Qiu Yuan said, "Finding yourself a way out."

Qiu Yuan said, "Otherwise, are you really going to marry Xi Zhengqing, or Pei Guangji? You don't fancy either of them, do you?"

By the end, his tone was one of certainty rather than a question.

He could tell that Xin Hexue had no love for either of them. He was simply a very good actor.

"Before they go mad, or after you get tired of playing, you'll need to get away unscathed." Qiu Yuan clasped his hands together over his thighs, his knuckles rubbing against each other, showing that he was not at ease. "The news that you and Xi Zhengqing are getting engaged early next month hasn't been officially announced yet, but people inside the Core District already know."