Early the next morning, Lu Shiming came knocking, thinking he could cry to Yu Qingchuan in advance and get his sister-in-law to persuade his brother not to hit him too hard.
He still remembered how his brother had beaten him to tears during their last sparring session. It was mortifying. He was already in his twenties. If he got beaten to tears again, how could he ever show his face?
But no one answered, even after he knocked for ages. Puzzled, Lu Shiming called Yu Qingchuan.
When the phone rang, Lu Shiyi had Yu Qingchuan pinned to the bed, kissing him.
The ringtone cleared Yu Qingchuan's hazy mind a little, and he tried to struggle. "Brother Yi, there's... there's a call..."
Lu Shiyi glanced over, saw that it was Lu Shiming, and said without blinking, "It's a spam call. Over ten thousand people have flagged it."
It never occurred to Yu Qingchuan that Lu Shiyi would lie. "Oh," he said.
He did find it a little strange, though. Were scammers so dedicated these days that they started calling first thing in the morning?
Lu Shiming called Yu Qingchuan twice. The first went unanswered, and the second was rejected outright. Refusing to give up, he called his brother instead, only to find that his number couldn't be reached. Clearly, his brother had temporarily blocked him.
Lu Shiming gritted his teeth in fury. His brother really was inhuman!
His stubborn streak kicked in, and he planted himself outside the door. He was going to find out exactly where his brother and sister-in-law had gone.
He even ordered takeout because he was hungry.
When the delivery guy arrived and saw Lu Shiming squatting outside the door, he was too frightened to say a word and ran off.
Once his legs went numb, Lu Shiming took out his boxing gloves and sat on them. It wasn't until nine that he finally heard movement from the elevator.
His brother and sister-in-law appeared together. His brother wore a smile, while his sister-in-law held a huge bouquet of roses. They had clearly gone out on a date and stayed out all night!
Yu Qingchuan paused when he saw Lu Shiming, then asked with concern, "Why are you here? You didn't tell me you were coming."
"I called you, Sister-in-Law. Didn't you hear it?" Lu Shiming accused.
Yu Qingchuan immediately remembered the two calls that had come through earlier. Lu Shiyi had said they were spam calls... He gave Lu Shiyi a reproachful look. How could he call his little brother's calls spam?
And claim that over ten thousand people had flagged them, too.
Lu Shiyi chuckled and murmured in his ear, "At a time like that, what else would you call them?"
Yu Qingchuan: "..."
Once he learned that Lu Shiming had already eaten, Yu Qingchuan relaxed. After entering the apartment, he found a vase, removed the roses' beautiful wrapping, and arranged them inside. He had a good eye, and even his casual arrangement looked lovely. Lu Shiyi stood beside him, handing him scissors and helping him trim and arrange all the flowers.
Watching the sweet atmosphere between them made Lu Shiming want a relationship even more.
Once he had a partner, he would make his brother endure their lovey-dovey antics, too.
Although they had spent the whole previous day out, Yu Qingchuan wasn't tired at all. Lu Shiyi found his boxing gloves and drove him and Lu Shiming to the boxing gym.
Lu Shiming felt his fighting spirit blazing. He could do this!
Yet once he stood in the ring, getting beaten by his brother without any chance to fight back, Lu Shiming felt that none of this made sense. Hadn't his brother only recently finished rehabilitation? Why did he seem even stronger than before?
Lu Shiming was forced back again and again, desperately looking for an opening to counterattack, but Lu Shiyi didn't give him a single chance.
Yu Qingchuan stood below the ring, watching their Muay Thai bout. That raw physical power made Lu Shiyi look intensely dangerous. His features were deep-set and sharp, and his punches flowed so smoothly that he seemed capable of stirring the air around him into a vortex.
Admiration for strength was something ingrained in the bones. Watching Lu Shiyi now, Yu Qingchuan was practically turning into a fanboy.
Brother Yi was so strong, so wild. He loved it!
Lu Shiming struggled through ten minutes and had completely lost the will to continue. His brother was holding back, but it still hurt terribly. No one could endure ten minutes of a one-sided beating.
"I'm done!" Lu Shiming sprang backward, pleading with a miserable expression. "Brother, I surrender. I'm not fighting anymore."
But that demon, Lu Shiyi, refused. He frowned at him. "How have you gotten this rusty?"
Lu Shiming answered with complete conviction, "I had to work and look after you. Where was I supposed to find time to practice?"
Lu Shiyi ignored his explanation and kept beating him. He even said, "If you cry now, I'll stop hitting you."
"What?" Lu Shiming stared, dumbfounded. What was wrong with his brother? He actually wanted him to cry? He was a grown man. How could he possibly cry?
But as long as Lu Shiming didn't cry, Lu Shiyi kept hitting him. In the end, he couldn't take it anymore. He let out a wail and started crying.
Yu Qingchuan had thought Lu Shiming looked pitiful getting beaten, but he hadn't expected his crying to be so high-pitched and piercing. It really did sound like a rooster crowing. It was both sad and funny.
True to his word, Lu Shiyi stopped. He walked to the edge of the ring, took the bottle of water from Yu Qingchuan, unscrewed the cap, and tipped his head back to drink half of it. The heat radiating from his body enveloped Yu Qingchuan, leaving him flushed and weak in the knees again.
After drinking, Lu Shiyi smiled at Yu Qingchuan. "Qingchuan, I wasn't lying, was I? I told you he could crow like a rooster."
Yu Qingchuan burst out laughing.
Lu Shiming was clever. Hearing his brother's words, how could he not realize that his brother had deliberately beaten him to make him cry for his sister-in-law's entertainment? He immediately cried even harder, accidentally letting out a sobbing hiccup.
Lu Shiming cried for a full three minutes, though more than half of it was fake. Yu Qingchuan handed him a towel and a bottle of water, and Lu Shiming gave him an aggrieved look. "Sister-in-Law, you've turned bad, too."
"Sorry, sorry." Holding back his laughter, Yu Qingchuan hurried to apologize.
Most brothers seemed to be like this, roughhousing one moment, then throwing their arms around each other's shoulders and having fun together the next.
Watching them, Yu Qingchuan felt a little envious.
Lu Shiyi noticed and suddenly said, "Qingchuan, I'll teach you a few self-defense moves. Come up here."
Yu Qingchuan paused, then smiled. "Okay, but Brother Yi, I can't take a beating."
"I know. I'm only teaching you self-defense." Lu Shiyi held out his hand to Yu Qingchuan.
Taking his hand, Yu Qingchuan climbed into the ring. Lu Shiyi removed his gloves and began teaching him how to fight back when he was in danger, and which spots would hurt badly enough to temporarily incapacitate someone.
Yu Qingchuan learned diligently, but he didn't have much strength, so the results were nothing special.
Still, Lu Shiyi said he would take him along to exercise from now on, which gave Yu Qingchuan something to look forward to.
They ate lunch out. Having burned through a lot of energy, Lu Shiming buried himself in his food. After exercising all morning, Yu Qingchuan also felt he had used up quite a lot of energy and ate more than usual.
After lunch, Lu Shiming said goodbye and went home, while Lu Shiyi took Yu Qingchuan shopping at a nearby mall.
The trench coat Yu Qingchuan had bought him earlier was perfect for the weather now, but he needed other clothes to go with it. Lu Shiyi had Yu Qingchuan choose them for him. Yu Qingchuan had a good eye, and Lu Shiyi looked even better than the models in the clothes he picked.
Yu Qingchuan wanted to pay. Keeping Brother Yi as his pampered lover actually sounded quite nice. But Lu Shiyi wouldn't let him, and afterward bought plenty of clothes for Yu Qingchuan as well. Passing a jewelry shop, he spotted a beautiful clip-on earring. Its pink diamond gave the wearer a sweet, delicate look. Lu Shiyi bought it on the spot and clipped it onto Yu Qingchuan's ear, adjusting it before asking whether it felt uncomfortable.
Yu Qingchuan shook his head and looked up at Lu Shiyi. "Will I look strange wearing this?"
But when he looked in the mirror, he thought the earring was beautiful and really suited him. He was rather vain and pleased with his own looks, too.
After receiving Lu Shiyi's reassurance, Yu Qingchuan simply kept the earring on.
Two men shopping together were very efficient. They bought a mountain of things in only an hour.
Although Lu Shiyi wouldn't officially return to work until Monday, Liang Xingyao sent him all the company's recent operational updates and several important projects on Sunday. So Yu Qingchuan and Lu Shiyi spent Sunday in the study.
Lu Shiyi sat at the computer reviewing projects, while Yu Qingchuan curled up on the sofa working on commissions.
The Qinglindu account now had over a hundred thousand followers. Yu Qingchuan felt it was time to shift his focus a little and start moving toward original work.
Publishing an art book, a vertical-scroll comic, or something else would all be good. In the future, he would take three to five commissions a month as a way to thank the authors who had supported him.
The spacious study held only the faint sounds of the pressure-sensitive pen moving across the screen and the mouse clicking. Although neither spoke, a warm, peaceful atmosphere still flowed between them.
Whenever Yu Qingchuan grew tired of drawing, he looked up at Lu Shiyi. The man was so focused and sexy while working that Yu Qingchuan couldn't resist drawing another picture of him.
Noticing Yu Qingchuan's gaze, Lu Shiyi got up and walked over, bending down to kiss his forehead and the corner of his mouth.
Yu Qingchuan felt that spending the rest of his life like this would be wonderful.
On that wretched Monday, both Lu Shiyi and Lu Shiming had to go to work. After seeing them off at the elevator, Yu Qingchuan returned home. He hadn't been drawing long when a message from Song Zhiran appeared in the class group chat.
@everyone, aaaaaah, we won! We won! Teacher Chen picked three outstanding works, and two of them are from our Z University!
Yu Qingchuan's heart instantly tightened. Was his work one of those two?
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