Invitation to Stay

That advertisement had also brought a huge wave of new fans to Qu An and Xiao Ming's CP. When Xiao Ming logged into the supertopic, he found that it had already passed four digits and was still slowly growing. There were finally photos and videos in the supertopic too.

But that was not all. What surprised Xiao Ming even more was that someone had started editing "pairing" videos. He had seen the term in the comments.

That blogger had edited together his solo scenes from Only Me in the Martial World, then spliced them with a similar drama Qu An had acted in before, creating a past-life romance full of physical and emotional torment. At the end, it switched to the advertisement featuring him and Qu An, calling it their present life.

At the same time, the author who had written that little short story last time had added several more passages, still continuing the Mermaid story.

Xiao Ming had not read the continuation last time because of Qu An's sudden message. Now, he happened to scroll up a little.

[Their lips met, oxygen passed between them, sustaining both their lives. Even after Xiao Ming opened his eyes, it had not ended. Qu An seemed unwilling to leave.]

Oh my god, how had it turned into kissing?

Xiao Ming's face began to redden, his ears stained a vivid crimson as though they might drip blood.

He decisively exited the page, his face burning as if it were about to catch fire.

Out of habit, he opened one of Qu An's works that he had recently been catching up on. But after watching for only a little while, that description came back to him, and he simply turned off his phone.

This was too ridiculous. How could he think something like that?

Emotionally, Xiao Ming was a complete blank slate. He was not quite sure of his own orientation. Maybe it was because he did not feel much for either men or women. Besides, he himself looked better than plenty of people, and he was not someone who judged by appearances.

So at that moment, he only felt that doing something like that with someone else was deeply embarrassing, especially when that person was his friend.

It took Xiao Ming a long time to mentally prepare himself before he calmed down a little. Then he reminded himself that it was only the fans' imagination. As long as he did not care about it, it would be fine.

Although he and Qu An had not met these past few days, they occasionally exchanged a few messages on WeChat.

It was mainly because of the two times they had made the trending searches. They kept apologizing back and forth until even Qu An laughed.

Then, somehow, they began talking about other things. Though their personalities were completely different, some of their views unexpectedly aligned.

In interpersonal relationships, similar values also made it easy for two people to become good friends.

After that incident, Xiao Ming and Qu An's relationship improved somewhat. Sometimes, Xiao Ming would send him scenery from his travels, though not very often.

Qu An would reply with a few messages too, and the two maintained the perfect distance between new friends.

Xiao Ming had originally planned to take the high-speed rail the next day, so he checked out of his hotel room early that morning.

But when he left the hotel and prepared to call a taxi to the high-speed rail station, he opened the app and discovered that his train had been suspended. The message had been sent right when his phone got waterlogged, so he had not seen the text.

The typhoon was expected to make landfall tonight or tomorrow morning, and its projected landfall location was not far from Yue City.

He could not change his ticket now, and other places were just as dangerous.

He opened the hotel booking app again, intending to stay a few more days, only to find that every hotel online was fully booked. Not a single room remained.

His luck today truly seemed awful. Xiao Ming could only take a taxi toward the more crowded commercial districts, hoping to find some smaller inn where he could make do for a few nights.

There were a lot of people in the commercial district too. After checking several places, none had rooms left. Otherwise, there were quite a few in the old city, but they looked like dangerous buildings that would not be able to withstand a typhoon at all.

After dragging his luggage around the area for a long time, Xiao Ming rarely felt at a loss.

The sound of a car horn caught his attention. He looked up and saw Qu An's familiar face.

Why was Qu An here?

"Xiao Ming, why are you here?"

"A typhoon is coming, so the high-speed rail was suspended. But I didn't notice my phone at the time, and I'd already checked out of the hotel."

Seeing Xiao Ming's awkward manner, Qu An knew that he could not find a place to stay.

A voice suddenly came from the front passenger seat. It sounded like Xiao Le.

"At this time, all the available hotels seem to be fully booked."

Xiao Ming still looked expressionless, but Qu An felt as though he saw a drenched little cat shivering alone by the roadside. It looked so pitiful that his heart instantly softened.

"I have a place here with an empty room. If you don't mind, you can stay at my place for a few days. Xiao Le and I live there too. Don't worry, I'll charge you a friends-and-family rate."

Qu An knew that if he offered it for free, Xiao Ming would never agree. The more businesslike he made it sound, the more likely Xiao Ming was to accept.

Sure enough, Xiao Ming answered with a quiet, "Okay."

Qu An and the others were heading back to the house anyway, so they gave Xiao Ming a ride there.

"Do you have work in Yue City?"

"Yes. A drama I acted in before is doing some post-release promotion. I just finished there and was heading back to the house. My company is also in Yue City."

"I see." Xiao Ming responded, then caught sight of people on the street hurrying along with bags of all sizes and asked, "Have you stocked up on supplies? You might not be able to go out for the next few days."

"We already ordered some online, and it should all arrive today." Qu An sensed that Xiao Ming seemed to want to shop for supplies, so he changed the subject. "But we haven't bought any fresh ingredients yet. Since we're out, let's go to the mall."

Xiao Le in the front passenger seat looked as though he wanted to say something, but remembering that there was one more person now and the food might not be enough, he kept quiet.

The mall they arrived at was the kind with rather high-end spending. They headed straight for the supermarket without giving the luxury goods so much as a glance.

But when they reached the fresh produce section, Xiao Ming suddenly stopped and looked awkwardly at the person beside him.

"I don't know how to pick vegetables."

Qu An looked at Xiao Ming, the corners of his eyes drooping as the corners of his lips curved slightly upward.

"It's fine. Just pick whatever you want to eat. Xiao Le and I will help you check."

Only after hearing that did Xiao Ming feel at ease enough to start choosing.

Qu An stayed beside him, telling him which vegetables were fresher and which cuts of meat did not look particularly tender.

Watching their backs, Xiao Le's mind became active again. By the time he realized it, he had already taken a photo. After thinking it over, he still did not delete it.

After picking through things for quite a while, the two bought a lot of fresh food, then turned toward the snack section.

Xiao Le looked far more excited than the other two and even took the initiative to ask Xiao Ming about his preferences.

Since Qu An could not eat too many high-calorie foods, Xiao Le instinctively ignored him. Besides, Xiao Le and Xiao Ming's tastes were far too similar.

"Brother Xiao, what do you like to eat?" Xiao Le had originally called Xiao Ming Teacher Xiao, but Xiao Ming was not used to it and directly told him to call him by name. Xiao Le had gone back and forth with him for a long time before they finally settled on "Brother Xiao."

"Anything is fine." He had barely eaten any of it before.

At first, Qu An thought he was merely being polite, so he smiled and told him to choose whatever he wanted. He would pay.

"I haven't eaten any of these before, so I don't know whether they're good." Xiao Ming spoke quietly, his ears reddening in embarrassment, especially his earlobes.

Remembering that Xiao Ming had said he was from Peking University, Qu An pictured a small figure bent over a desk, studying hard—a cute little bookworm.

"Then let's buy a bit of everything and try them all. That way, we'll know what tastes better and can buy more next time." Qu An did not apologize. He simply spoke naturally of next time.

That made most of Xiao Ming's discomfort fade. He watched Xiao Le sweep up piles of snacks as though raiding the shelves.

But halfway through picking things out, Xiao Le suddenly turned to look at Qu An.

"Brother Qu, you can't sneak any, okay? Sister Fei specifically told me to keep an eye on you."

"Am I really that greedy?" Qu An was somewhat helpless. Then he received Xiao Ming's surprised gaze and felt that his image had probably become that of a snack-loving glutton.

"Oh! Got it. I'll hide the snacks properly." Xiao Le clutched the snacks and looked at Qu An warily. The snacks they bought before always seemed to be missing lots of candy!

Qu An could not explain himself at all now. He had never expected Xiao Le to mistake the candy he gave his little niece for candy he had eaten himself.

Xiao Ming secretly laughed beside them. He had not expected Qu An to be this sort of person, but it made him feel much less distant.

Although Qu An was always smiling, Xiao Ming had always felt deep down that he was not easy to approach. Now that feeling had faded considerably. Being a snack lover was really quite down-to-earth.

But halfway through their shopping, Xiao Le suddenly handed everything to the driver, then had Qu An walk ahead while he kept filming video.

"What happened?"

"I just told Sister Fei about the situation. When she learned we were shopping at the supermarket, she asked me to film some videos."

"Should we go back to the fresh produce section and film a little more?" Xiao Ming had caught up on quite a lot of Qu An's content lately, so he knew Qu An's studio occasionally released daily vlogs.

Qu An had previously followed the wholesome national-son route, but now he was gradually shifting a little toward the national-husband image.

"No need. I filmed some just now, but Brother Xiao got into the shot. We can just have the editor deal with it later."

After buying everything, the group left carrying bags of all sizes. Since they had all worn masks throughout, and the supermarket they visited had relatively little foot traffic, no one had photographed them yet. Besides, everyone was busy stocking up on supplies or hiding at home to wait out the typhoon.

The trending searches were all about the typhoon, with barely any entertainment news.

By the time the group returned to Qu An's house, it was not early anymore, nearly noon.

Because eating out had landed them on the trending searches twice, they had gotten smarter this time and simply ordered takeout.

Only after arriving did Xiao Ming realize that the house Qu An had mentioned was actually a two-story villa. Security in the area was excellent, and it was also a famous wealthy neighborhood where every inch of land was worth a fortune.

Several rooms were still empty. In the end, Xiao Ming chose a small room on the second floor, with only one room between it and Qu An's.

During these days of typhoon weather, only Qu An, Xiao Le, and Xiao Ming would be staying in the house. The driver would only come over when they needed rides.