Pei Yanchuan lay on the bed, straight as a stick, not daring to move a muscle.
He had no idea whether Ye Chu behaved himself when drunk, and silently prayed that he would not act up again. Pei Yanchuan had not been sleepy at first, but after lying there for a while, he gradually began to doze off.
Consciousness slowly drained from his body. He was almost off to meet Duke Zhou when, through the haze, he felt a gentle tug on the covers.
"Can I hold you while I sleep?"
Ye Chu's eyes were bright as he gazed pleadingly at Pei Yanchuan. They shimmered with moisture, as though he would burst into tears if refused.
Pei Yanchuan, who had nearly fallen asleep, jolted awake and met those innocent eyes.
I'm seriously going to lose my mind.
"Ye Chu..." Pei Yanchuan's voice was a little hoarse.
Unfortunately, the man was drunk, tilting his head as though he could not understand what Pei Yanchuan meant. Taking the lack of a refusal as permission, he slipped under Pei Yanchuan's covers and wrapped his arms around him.
Pei Yanchuan: "..."
I'm losing it. I'm seriously losing it.
"Will you praise me?" The man in his arms suddenly spoke. Pei Yanchuan did not dare move, turning back into a rigid stick.
"What?"
"Praise me."
"...You're amazing, and you're smart." Unsure what this childlike version of Ye Chu was up to now, Pei Yanchuan ventured an answer.
Ye Chu nestled his head in the crook of Pei Yanchuan's neck and nuzzled him like a kitten, sending a ticklish flutter through Pei Yanchuan's heart.
"Am I as good as my big brother?"
Pei Yanchuan froze. Big brother? So Ye Chu has an older brother. "Yes, you're just as good as your big brother."
Having received the answer he wanted, Ye Chu smiled contentedly. "Then can Mom and Dad praise me more from now on? Don't just notice my brother. Notice me, too."
Looking at the well-behaved man in his arms, Pei Yanchuan felt his heart ache. Had Ye Chu... never mattered to his family? Someone everyone else saw as a golden boy was nothing in his parents' eyes.
"Of course. Our Ye Chu is the best child, the sweetest child, the smartest child, the prettiest child..." Pei Yanchuan paused for a few seconds before continuing, "And my favorite child."
Ye Chu raised his head to look at him, his soft hair brushing Pei Yanchuan's cheek and his eyes shining. "Am I really... that good?" His tone was painfully tentative.
A wave of sorrow washed over Pei Yanchuan. Ye Chu seemed so gentle, yet deep down, he was this fragile.
"Yes. Our Ye Chu is the very best."
Ye Chu burrowed into Pei Yanchuan's arms, then suddenly began to laugh for no apparent reason. His laughter gradually faded into silence. He had fallen asleep.
Pei Yanchuan was the only one left awake in the room. He reached out and gently held Ye Chu.
"Ye Chu, I like you so much."
I fell for you the very first time I saw you.
Outside, everything was pitch-black. In the dark night sky, one star shone especially brightly.
Pei Yanchuan sighed. When would his star finally answer him?
When Ye Chu woke the next morning, his head ached a little. He had known he could not hold his liquor, but never imagined he was that bad.
Two sips had gotten him drunk, and he had even woken up with a gap in his memory. He had no idea what happened last night; he had simply opened his eyes to find himself back in his room.
Ye Chu glanced at the alarm clock beside the bed. It was only seven. He rubbed his hair and got up to wash.
He ran into Pei Yanchuan on his way out. The other man had two deep, dark circles beneath his eyes. Who knew what he had been through last night?
"Morning, Ye Chu." His voice was a little hoarse, too.
Looks like he drank quite a lot last night, Ye Chu guessed.
"Morning."
The two walked toward the stairs side by side. Neither spoke during the short walk, making the atmosphere rather strange.
Ye Chu had gone to bed early, so he did not know how late the others had stayed up, but he suspected it had been quite late. He intended to make breakfast today, yet just as he was about to enter the kitchen, he saw that Pei Yanchuan had already put on an apron.
"Ye Chu, what would you like for breakfast? Let me make it."
"Noodles, then. Sorry for the trouble, Xiao Pei."
"Sure!" Pei Yanchuan agreed confidently and walked into the kitchen without looking back.
Ye Chu sat on the couch and began clearing the cluttered coffee table, picking up the beer bottles scattered across the floor.
Once he had mostly finished tidying up, Ye Chu was about to lie on the couch and quietly wait for his breakfast when a boom suddenly came from the kitchen, as though something had exploded.
Ye Chu sprang off the couch, ran to the kitchen, and opened the door. A cloud of black smoke drifted out.
"Cough, cough, cough..." Pei Yanchuan ran out of the kitchen with streaks of soot on his face and tears in his eyes from the smoke.
"Ye Chu, cough, cough, cough..."
Ye Chu dragged him out and shut the kitchen door to keep the smoke from spreading any farther. Looking at the disheveled man before him, he asked uncertainly, "Did you... blow up the kitchen?"
"I don't know what happened." Pei Yanchuan hung his head, looking utterly innocent. "The flames suddenly shot up..."
Ye Chu sighed and told Pei Yanchuan to go back to his room and clean himself up. Then he went into the kitchen alone to tidy up the room Pei Xiaohu had blown up.
Su Fengzi got up and went downstairs, intending to wash some fruit in the kitchen, only to find a sheet of paper posted at the entrance:
[No Pei Xiaohu or dogs allowed!!]
Su Fengzi raised an eyebrow. The writing was unmistakably Ye Chu's, as neat and beautiful as printed text. What had that little wolf pup done in the kitchen to make Ye Chu use two exclamation marks?
He opened the door, saw the somewhat chaotic kitchen, and fell silent.
What the hell is that black patch on the wall?!
Wu You lay on the couch fiddling with the system tablet. She opened the shopping interface and browsed out of boredom, only to discover that the system had a pet section.
"Lu Rui!" Wu You's voice brimmed with excitement. "Can we buy a dog?"
Lu Rui emerged from the chaotic kitchen and wiped the sweat from her forehead. "I think one home-wrecker is enough." Beside her, Pei Yanchuan kept his head lowered, not daring to speak.
Su Fengzi poked his head out of the kitchen. "Why don't you just raise Pei Xiaohu as a dog?"
Pei Yanchuan: "Brother Fengzi!!"
"But I want one," Wu You wheedled. "We won't get a husky. We'll get a border collie. Border collies are really smart."
Pei Yanchuan: "..." Why does it feel like you're calling me a husky?
Seeing her shining eyes, Lu Rui could not bring herself to refuse. All she could say was, "You'll raise it and feed it?"
"Okay!" Wu You agreed, immediately turning back to choose her dog. She checked her points balance. Never mind one border collie-she could afford a hundred.
They had performed well in the livestream, earning plenty of points in audience tips. Compared with previous seasons, this season of "No One Survives" had been nonstop excitement so far. The players were also good-looking and intelligent, making the show extremely popular and placing it among the top three on the major variety-show rankings.
Wu You picked a border collie that caught her fancy, entered "Wu Lü" in the name field, and nodded in satisfaction.
A dog wearing a tag around its neck soon appeared in the living room. Unlike other dogs, it did not immediately race around excitedly upon arriving somewhere unfamiliar. Instead, it cautiously surveyed its surroundings.
Wu You checked the dog tag, which read "Wu Lü," and affectionately stroked its head. "All right, from today onward, you're my doggy son!"
"Woof!" Wu Lü barked at once, whether in agreement or protest, no one could tell.
"You don't want to be my son? Bark once if you do..." Before she finished, Wu Lü immediately barked twice.
Wu You: "..."
Watching from the side, Pei Yanchuan rolled around on the couch with laughter. "Hahahaha! It's way too smart! Hahaha!"
Unwilling to give up, Wu You tried asking a couple more times, only for the border collie to interrupt her before she could finish each time. It seemed it really did not want to be a human's son.
"All right, then. You can be my little brother, can't you?"
Only when it heard "little brother" did Wu Lü stop barking. It obediently settled beside Wu You and rubbed its head against her calf.
"What do we do when we enter an instance? There won't be anyone to feed it."
"It's fine," Wu You said, rubbing the dog's head by her feet. "I asked the system. Time in the Rest House pauses after we enter an instance, and only resumes once we come out. Wu Lü probably won't even know we were gone."
Pei Yanchuan nodded in understanding, finally reassured.
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