Chapter 24

"My mom even said my brother should try to find someone in the next couple of years. God, who'd have to be blind to fall for him? The moment they got close, they'd be sprayed to death by that poisonous mouth of his."

Shi Jihan wholeheartedly agreed, nodding vigorously. "They'd have to be extremely blind. If such a person really exists, I'm willing to make a charitable donation to treat their eye disease."

This was the highest honor a miser could bestow.

Zhou Zeyang grabbed his hand. "A kindred spirit! Come on, let's finish another bottle!"

When Shen Qinghuai came back, he found the two of them sprawled neatly across the sofa, one on each side, dead drunk. Even so, they were still hooking pinkies and swearing oaths.

Shi Jihan's cheeks were flushed red, and he slurred as he held up a middle finger toward the sky. "I swea-swear! I absolutely won't tell anyone about today's con-conversation!"

Shen Qinghuai pressed a hand to his forehead, his temples throbbing.

The welcome party was only halfway through, yet there were already two drunks. Neither he nor Shi Bochuan could leave, so after some thought, he asked Zhou Jingcheng to pick up his younger brother and take Shi Jihan home as well. They lived in the same villa district anyway.

Once Zhou Jingcheng drove over, the couple stuffed their younger brother into his car.

"The live-in housekeeper isn't here these next few days, so sorry for the trouble, but please take him to his room. Don't let him collapse on the floor," Shi Bochuan said.

His wording was polite, but his tone did not carry much embarrassment.

After all, a certain Mr. Zhou had mooched plenty of meals off him and had even brazenly stolen the spotlight at the press conference.

Ordering him around gave Shi Bochuan a sense of triumphant satisfaction.

After closing the front passenger door, he even felt a little joy at having gotten rid of his younger brother.

God, life suddenly seemed bright and full of hope.

He left quickly with Shen Qinghuai.

It took Zhou Jingcheng quite a while to get Zhou Zeyang into the back seat. When he looked up, the others were gone. Speechless for a long while, he saw that Shi Jihan was badly drunk and pulled out a bottle of mineral water from the compartment. He patted him, trying to sober him up a little. "Have some water and recover a bit. I'll take you home first."

Zhou Zeyang struggled upright in the back seat. "Bro, give me a bottle. I want, want some too!"

"You?" Zhou Jingcheng shot him a sidelong glance and said irritably, "Drink your own saliva and recover."

Zhou Zeyang:?

His sluggish brain turned for a long time but got nowhere, and he flopped back down.

Zhou Jingcheng saw Shi Jihan looking at him with half-open, watery drunk eyes, as though he could not understand what he was saying. He did not cooperate either, merely blinking his long, curled lashes slowly, like a slow-motion replay after losing focus.

Zhou Jingcheng frowned, wondering which idiot had forced alcohol on him. Why had Shi Bochuan not kept an eye on him?

Yet his hands did not stop moving. He gently pinched Shi Jihan's chin and tipped it up, using his fingertips to pry his lips apart slightly. The mouth of the bottle touched his lower teeth. "Open your mouth."

Shi Jihan opened his mouth, then quickly shut it again. Zhou Jingcheng did not have time to pull back, and droplets of water slid down the corner of his lips, soaking both their collars.

"Tch." He shook the dampened front of his new shirt, suspecting this little runt was deliberately messing with him. Tugging his cheeks outward, he threatened, "Drink it already, or I'll feed you another way."

"Mmh..."

Shi Jihan lifted his eyelids, trying hard to focus on Zhou Jingcheng's face. He stared at Zhou Jingcheng's thin, damp shirt, and his muddled mind pondered for a long while before he lay back.

He mumbled, "Then change it."

Zhou Jingcheng:?

Zhou Jingcheng:???

Change what?!

Chapter 24

Zhou Jingcheng froze, unable to process it for a moment.

He had only been threatening Shi Jihan, but once Shi Jihan responded, his thoughts went elsewhere instead.

It was not until his unconsciously tightening fingers squeezed mineral water out of the bottle and spilled it over both their clothes that he suddenly came back to himself. Turning his face aside, he coughed lightly into his fist.

After receiving no response for too long, Shi Jihan impatiently shifted, lying flatter and urging, "Hurry up. Can you even do it?"

Zhou Jingcheng lowered his eyes, staring at his drunken, lopsided posture. He put a little force into the hand pinching Shi Jihan's cheek and tugged it back and forth. His voice echoed faintly through the enclosed car. "Who can't do it? Little runt, think before you speak."

Shi Jihan's head spun from being tugged around. He raised a hand to pull Zhou Jingcheng's hand away, but he had no strength while drunk. His hand only touched the back of Zhou Jingcheng's hand limply. As it slipped down, it struggled futilely and hooked Zhou Jingcheng's pinky.

His overheated drunken body temperature passed to Zhou Jingcheng through that fleeting brush of skin.

Zhou Jingcheng suddenly felt that the alcohol concentration inside the car was too high, enough to leave someone slightly tipsy.

He straightened up and rolled down the window on Shi Jihan's side.

The summer night breeze carried the lingering heat of the day, lazily sweeping past the treetops before drifting quietly into the car and dispersing between them.

Zhou Zeyang mumbled something in the back seat. The man, over six feet tall, curled up as he turned over, with half a leg still hanging off the seat.

Zhou Jingcheng watched coldly, thinking it was fortunate he had not shoved both of them into the back seat.

Otherwise, Zhou Zeyang, that sleeping god, would have kicked the little runt straight down.

Someone grabbed his soaked shirt collar and tugged it.

There was not much force behind it, but Zhou Jingcheng felt it and looked down at him.

"What are you doing?" Shi Jihan complained. "Weren't you going to feed me? Hurry up."

Lying there with his mouth open, he accepted someone else's care with complete peace of mind.

Zhou Jingcheng was utterly helpless. He brought the bottle to Shi Jihan's lips. "Drink, Your Highness."

Shi Jihan huffed in dissatisfaction, but water blocked his mouth, so he could not retort.

He gulped down several mouthfuls, then suddenly got an idea. His tug on Zhou Jingcheng became much stronger. "I'll show you something cool."

Zhou Jingcheng pulled out a tissue and handed it to him, signaling for him to wipe the water from his lips. "What?"

Shi Jihan's eyes sparkled as he loudly claimed credit. "A human sprinkler!"

Zhou Jingcheng did not even have time to stop him. Shi Jihan had already recovered all his strength, snatched the water bottle, and gulped down a huge mouthful, ready to perform without pause.

Zhou Jingcheng, sitting directly opposite him:!!!

At a speed fast enough to leave an afterimage, he clamped Shi Jihan's mouth shut!

[ Ding, Malice Points +3 ]

Shi Jihan, unable to spray the water out:?

"Mmph! Mmmph mmph!" His mouth was squashed as he struggled hard.

No, he had not shown Dianjia Bro his performance yet!

Zhou Jingcheng did not dare loosen his grip at all. He directly raised Shi Jihan's chin, forcing him to tilt his head back and swallow the mouthful of water. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief. "...Much appreciated, Master Sprinkler."

Shi Jihan was furious. He had not expected this person to be so incapable of appreciating art. When Zhou Jingcheng tried to make him drink more, he refused to cooperate no matter what.

"No, I'm not drinking! Did you poison the water?" he protested loudly in a drunken haze. "You mere favored concubine, how dare you plot rebellion? Withdraw!"

Zhou Jingcheng pressed his thumb hard against his temple, telling himself not to argue with a drunk... like hell.

"Shi Jihan, delete all that weird fanfiction you've been reading later."

Shi Jihan pretended not to hear. He snatched the water bottle and hugged it to his chest, turning his head to look out the window and ignoring him.

At last, Zhou Jingcheng's ears had some peace. He had taken Shi Jihan home before and already remembered the route, so he drove him all the way to his front door.

"We're here. Get out."

He waited for a while. No movement.

"Shi Jihan?"

Still no movement.

Zhou Jingcheng turned his head and found that he had fallen asleep long ago. The flush on his face had yet to fade, loose strands of hair sticking to the sweat-damp hollow of his neck. His collarbones rose and fell slowly with his breathing as he slept soundly.

He was still hugging that bottle of mineral water.

Zhou Jingcheng tried to pull it out but could not, so he simply gave up.

He glanced at Zhou Zeyang in the back seat. He was asleep too, and it did not look like he would wake anytime soon.

Zhou Jingcheng was silent for a moment before getting out and opening the front passenger door. Softly, he said, "When you wake up, don't turn around and accuse me of taking advantage of you."

Whether Shi Jihan heard him or not, he then scooped him up in his arms, kicked the car door shut with the toe of his leather shoe, and strode toward the Shi Family villa.

The Shi Family had a facial-recognition smart lock. Zhou Jingcheng lifted the fluffy head buried in his chest and aimed it at the camera.

With a click, the door slowly opened.

Only then did Zhou Jingcheng realize that the guy in his arms had his eyes open.

After the door opened, Shi Jihan even blinked at him, his head resting on Zhou Jingcheng's arm as he looked at him.

Their eyes met, and the air gradually froze.

Zhou Jingcheng looked down at him and broke the silence first. "Want me to put you down so you can walk yourself?"

The moment he finished speaking, Shi Jihan's limbs wrapped tightly around him. The hands around his neck nearly strangled him to death.

"What are you doing? Cough, cough." Zhou Jingcheng tried to save his own breathing by pulling those hands away, only to find that he could not move them at all. Where had this guy suddenly gotten so much strength?

"Shi Jihan, are you even drunk? Are you trying to strangle me so your brother can acquire my company?"

[ Ding, Malice Points +2 ]

"Shh—" Shi Jihan said. "You're so noisy."

Zhou Jingcheng:?

What a reversal of right and wrong.

Shi Jihan said mysteriously, "I can't get down. I'm a mermaid."

A flash of absurdity crossed Zhou Jingcheng's eyes. "So?"

Shi Jihan said, "I can't get down. I don't have feet. I can only crawl. Every step I crawl hurts like walking on knife blades."

Zhou Jingcheng listened to his nonsense with a blank expression, thinking he had truly had enough tonight. "No, you can roll too."

"If you don't have enough momentum, I can give you a free push... Hiss, did you pinch me?"

[ Ding, Malice Points +1 ]

Shi Jihan let go and looked at the red finger marks on his face, repeating seriously, "I'm a mermaid."

Zhou Jingcheng took a deep breath, then another. In his heart, he cursed Shi Bochuan and Shen Qinghuai back and forth eight hundred times. Adopting the attitude he used when facing those damn clients, he put on a professional fake smile. "Fine, Mr. Mermaid. Can I still get through this door?"

Fathead fish. One day, I'll stew you into fish soup.