A few seconds later, under Madam Tang's eager gaze, Ye Heng stepped into the room.
The third-floor bedroom came with a garden room. To the right stood floor-to-ceiling windows, beyond which lay a tranquil little lake.
Ye Heng opened the cabinet on his own, took out a quilt, picked a spot far from Tang Mingxi's bed, and spread it out on the floor.
The way he made the bed was so natural that no one would have guessed he was the eldest young master of the Yunjing Ye family. Boys his age were probably still worrying about the college entrance exams, while Ye Heng had already endured countless hardships unbearable to ordinary people.
His slightly worn white shirt had been rolled up to his arms, its fabric pressed with several neat creases.
His features were on the understated side, and he was tall, lean, and straight-backed. He was still young and retained some youthful immaturity, but there was already a calm steadiness between his brows that spoke of someone who would one day take the helm.
Tang Mingxi's gaze dropped to Ye Heng's knuckles, which were somewhat red.
For some reason, Tang Mingxi touched the frostbite ointment in his pocket again.
"You're sleeping on the floor?" Tang Mingxi broke the silence.
Ye Heng's body visibly stiffened. "Madam Tang is right outside. If I sleep in the hallway, she'll find out."
...That wasn't what I meant. I didn't mean for you to sleep in the hallway.
Tang Mingxi realized that because the original owner had left behind far too much mess, anything he said could be misconstrued by Ye Heng as meaning something else.
Since Ye Heng had put it that way, Tang Mingxi was not the sort to press his warm face against a cold backside.
Besides, suggesting they sleep in the same bed might ruin his image as the scummy cannon-fodder second young master.
And so, he slept dreamlessly through the night.
Early the next morning, Tang Mingxi woke up first. Perhaps Ye Heng had suffered too much these past few days and had not gotten much proper sleep.
Tang Mingxi saw the faint bluish shadows beneath his eyes. Even in his dreams, he did not seem to be resting peacefully.
He crouched down and pulled Ye Heng's quilt up a little. The male lead was asleep anyway, so he would not notice Tang Mingxi breaking character.
Before leaving, he also placed the frostbite ointment on the coffee table.
The moment Tang Mingxi stepped out, Ye Heng opened his eyes.
His gaze was clear, nothing like someone who had just woken up.
He picked up the frostbite ointment from the table, glanced at it, then expressionlessly tossed it into the trash.
On the morning of the second day of the Lunar New Year, Tang Mingxi and Ye Heng were sent off in the car beneath Madam Tang's even more eager gaze than the night before.
Once they got in, Ye Heng's smile vanished completely. Even Sichuan opera could not change faces that quickly.
Tang Mingxi had spent the day dealing with Madam Tang at full attention. His body was not tired, but he was mentally exhausted, and once he got in the car, he could not be bothered to waste energy talking.
From the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Ye Heng's hands resting casually on his knees. His knuckles were covered in a thin layer of ointment.
Naturally, Tang Mingxi had no idea that his frostbite ointment had undergone the bizarre fate of being thrown into the trash, then retrieved and placed back on the table, where it spent more than ten minutes staring nose-to-nose with the patient, before the patient finally squeezed some onto his hands with an aloof yet exceedingly strange and subtle expression.
Only to discover that it truly was nothing more than ordinary frostbite ointment.
And not poison laced with arsenic.
If the frostbite ointment could speak one day, it would definitely leap up and curse Ye Heng out for throwing it into the trash and then fishing it back out with such complicated feelings: Are you insane?!
But apart from his uncertain future, Tang Mingxi was also in a bad mood because of the issue of how to deal with the original owner's more than twenty million yuan in external debt.
There was no point counting on that investment company that lost ten million every quarter. Tang Mingxi was fairly confident in his investment skills, but he knew absolutely nothing about the market as it was set up in this novel. The odds of turning things around against the current in the short term were zero.
Still, he found it strange. The original owner's lousy company lost money every year, and he owed money every year, so how did he manage to average twenty million in debt each year, only to start over from scratch the following year?
The next second, Tang Mingxi learned the reason.
Tang Yun's New Year blessing arrived on WeChat as promised: [Are you having fun at Grandma's? Your brother has been busy with work and didn't make it back in time to keep you company. Little Xi, don't be upset.]
...Thanks, bro. I'm twenty, not two. Do you really need to use that tone for coaxing children?
With a ding, another WeChat message arrived.
Tang Yun: [Your New Year's red packet has already been transferred to your card. Have fun, Little Xi.]
Tang Mingxi was speechless. Why was WeChat so convenient if he was not going to use—
WeChat transfer?
He was disgusted by how clingy this old man sounded. His little brother was already an adult, yet he still talked like that. Even more disgusting.
Then his phone sent a notification: Your account ending in xxxx has completed a transaction... ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten-thousands—
Eight zeroes.
Tang Mingxi immediately replied: [Thanks, big brother QVQ]
Tang Mingxi: [Big brother is the best QVQ]
Wasn't it just acting cute? Who couldn't do that?
This was what a real man should do.
Tang Yun: [Your brother also thinks Little Xi is the best. Before the New Year, I remember you mentioning that you wanted to see the aurora? Cities abroad aren't safe, so I had Assistant Chen buy you a small island in Northern Europe. Remember to make time to go sign for it.]
Tang Mingxi practically fell to his knees. This was really his biological brother, right? Would it be inappropriate not to kowtow three times during the New Year?!
Thinking of the twenty million he owed.
It suddenly did not seem like all that much anymore: )
Ye Heng watched as Tang Mingxi's mood visibly improved.
If Ye Heng had not been there, Tang Mingxi looked as though he would have started humming in the car.
Did this useless thing pick up money or something?
He really had picked up money.
Tang Mingxi was in a good mood, and even Ye Heng looked a little more pleasing to the eye.
Remembering that he had never given Ye Heng a red packet, he belatedly recalled that the original owner only gave Ye Heng one hundred yuan a day for pocket money.
That was far too stingy. Tang Mingxi immediately decided to raise Ye Heng's allowance.
Ye Heng found his stare strange. Tang Mingxi took out one thousand yuan from his wallet, looking like a nouveau riche who had gotten rich overnight and was preparing to keep a pretty boy: "I'm in a good mood, so I'm raising your allowance a little. Starting today, I'll give you one thousand a day."
Ye Heng: ...
For some reason, Ye Heng did not sense the same humiliation in Tang Mingxi giving him pocket money as before.
Was it an illusion? Tang Mingxi's features were striking, and at that moment, he looked like a little fox that had stolen a chicken, his face brimming with satisfaction.
"Why aren't you showing any appreciation?"
Perhaps because he had money in hand, Tang Mingxi was not even afraid when facing the person who would kill him.
After all, money made people bold: )
Ye Heng's voice was indifferent. "How do you want me to show it?"
Did Tang Mingxi want him to kneel on the floor and apologize in gratitude, as before?
Tang Mingxi was surprised. "Your pay just went up. Aren't you going to treat me to a meal?"
Ye Heng: ...
In the end, the two of them spent fifteen hundred at a Western restaurant.
Ye Heng even had to put in an extra five hundred himself.
Making the already not-so-wealthy young man even worse off.
Holding Hands
After the New Year, Tang Mingxi's fair-weather friends began contacting him one after another.
As Ningcheng's most extravagant rich second-generation heir, a VVVVIP customer of every major luxury brand and private members-only club, he had somehow gone completely quiet for over half a month this year, appearing at neither parties nor bars. Was that reasonable?
It was.
Because over the past half month, Ningcheng's famously difficult, bad-tempered, arrogant, spoiled, overbearing, and tyrannical Tang Family's second young master—
Had unwaveringly devoted himself to training at the swimming pool. With that attitude, if his age did not make it impossible, who would not say he was aiming for the Olympics and bringing glory to the country?
After swimming two laps, Tang Mingxi surfaced, leaned against the edge of the pool, and asked Coach, "How was that?"
Coach offered great encouragement. "Not bad. You're very talented. You're handsome, yet you work harder than everyone else!"
Tang Mingxi was delighted by the flattery, thinking that swimming was not as hard to learn as he had imagined.
Tang Yun had happened to buy him an island, so when the time came, he could get there ahead of time