Chapter 14

A few seconds later, Ye Heng stepped into the room under the old lady's eager gaze.

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 automatically opened the wardrobe, took out a quilt, and chose a spot on the floor far from Tang Mingxi's bed to spread it out.

He made the bed with practiced ease. He did not look like the eldest young master of the Yunjing Ye family at all. Boys his age were probably still worrying about college entrance exams, while Ye Heng had already endured countless torments ordinary people could never bear.

His slightly worn white shirt had been rolled up to his arms, pressed into neat, even creases.

His features were understated, and he was tall, straight, and lean. Though still young and carrying a boyish immaturity, his brows already held the steady temperament of a future leader.

Tang Mingxi's gaze dropped to Ye Heng's knuckles, which were slightly 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. "The old lady is right outside. If I sleep in the hallway, she'll find out."

...That wasn't what I meant. I wasn't telling you to sleep in the hallway.

Tang Mingxi realized that because the original owner had left behind too much mess, anything he said could be misconstrued by Ye Heng into something else.

Since Ye Heng had put it that way, Tang Mingxi did not feel like he was the sort of person who enjoyed pressing his warm face against someone's cold backside.

Besides, suggesting they sleep in the same bed would easily ruin his image as the cannon-fodder scumbag second young master.

So he slept dreamlessly through the night.

Early the next morning, Tang Mingxi woke first. Perhaps Ye Heng had suffered too much these past few days and had not slept properly.

Tang Mingxi saw faint shadows under his eyes. Even in sleep, he did not seem particularly peaceful.

He crouched down and pulled Ye Heng's quilt a little higher. The male lead was asleep anyway; he would not notice Tang Mingxi breaking character.

Before leaving, he also placed the frostbite ointment on the coffee table.

The moment Tang Mingxi left, Ye Heng opened his eyes.

His gaze was perfectly clear, not at all 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 to the car beneath the old lady's even more eager gaze.

Once they got in, Ye Heng's smile completely vanished. Even Sichuan opera face-changing was not that fast.

Tang Mingxi had spent the whole day dealing with the old lady at full alert. His body was not tired, but mentally he was exhausted, and once 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 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 had stared at the patient for more than ten minutes before the patient finally, with an aloof expression that was also exceedingly strange and subtle, squeezed some onto his hands.

After discovering that it really was just an ordinary tube of frostbite ointment.

And not poison mixed with arsenic.

If frostbite ointment could speak one day, it would definitely leap up and curse Ye Heng, who had thrown it into the trash before digging it back out with mixed feelings: Are you insane?!

But besides his uncertain future, Tang Mingxi was also troubled by how to resolve the more than twenty million yuan in external debts the original owner had left behind.

There was no point hoping for that investment company that lost ten million every quarter. Tang Mingxi was quite confident in his investing ability, but he knew absolutely nothing about the market established in this novel. The chance of turning things around against the odds in the short term was zero.

Still, he found it strange. The original owner's lousy company lost money every year, and he went into debt every year. So how did he manage to owe an even twenty million every year, then start all over again the next 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 too busy with work to come back and keep you company. Don't be angry, Xiaoxi.]

...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 red packet has already been transferred to your card. Have fun, Xiaoxi.]

Tang Mingxi was speechless. Why was WeChat so convenient if he was not going to use it for transfers?

What a clingy old man. His little brother was already an adult, yet he still talked so mushily. So annoying.

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: [Thank you, Brother QVQ]

Tang Mingxi: [You're the best, Brother QVQ]

Wasn't it just acting cute? Who couldn't do that?

This was what a real man should do.

Tang Yun: [I also think Xiaoxi is the best. Before the New Year, I remember you mentioned wanting 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 sign for it.]

Tang Mingxi practically wanted to kneel before him. Was this really his biological brother? 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 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 might have started humming in the car.

Did this idiot pick up money or something?

He really had picked up money.

Tang Mingxi was in a good mood, so 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 had only given Ye Heng one hundred yuan a day as pocket money.

That was far too stingy. Tang Mingxi immediately decided to increase Ye Heng's allowance.

Ye Heng found Tang Mingxi's stare odd. Tang Mingxi took a thousand yuan from his wallet, looking like a nouveau riche who had suddenly become wealthy overnight and was preparing to keep a pretty young man: "I'm in a good mood, so I'm raising your allowance. Starting today, I'll give you a thousand a day."

Ye Heng: ...

For some reason, Ye Heng did not sense the same humiliation in Tang Mingxi's allowance as before.

Was it an illusion? Tang Mingxi's features were striking, and right now he looked like a little fox that had stolen a chicken, his face full of satisfaction.

"Why aren't you showing any appreciation?"

Perhaps money made him bold, because Tang Mingxi was not even afraid when facing the person who would kill him.

After all, money made people brave: )

Ye Heng's voice was cold. "How do you want me to show it?"

Like before, did Tang Mingxi want him to kneel on the ground and apologize with tearful gratitude?

Tang Mingxi looked surprised. "You got a raise. 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 paid 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 flamboyant rich second-generation heir, he was a VVVVIP customer of every major luxury brand and private membership club. Yet this year, he had remained completely silent for more than half a month without showing up at any parties or bars. Was that reasonable?

It was reasonable.

Because for the past half month, the famously difficult, bad-tempered, arrogant, unruly, and overbearing second young master of the Tang Family in Ningcheng—

Had been training diligently at the swimming pool without fail. With that attitude, if not for his age being wrong, who would not think he was aiming for the Olympics to bring glory to the country?

After swimming two laps, Tang Mingxi surfaced, leaned against the edge of the pool, and asked the coach, "How was that?"

The coach offered lavish encouragement. "Not bad. You're very talented. You're handsome, yet you work harder than everyone else!"

Tang Mingxi beamed at the flattery, thinking that swimming was not as difficult to learn as he had imagined.

Tang Yun had just bought him an island, too. When the time came, he could get there in advance