Yan Zhiyi smiled, the ruthlessness and obsession in his eyes gradually fading as he looked at Xia Shule with tenderness instead. "What would you like for breakfast tomorrow?"
At those words, Xia Shule suddenly realized something-not how controlling Yan Zhiyi had just been, but...
"Don't you have work tomorrow morning? Then what time do I have to get up?" If it was too early, he wouldn't be able to drag himself out of bed.
"Whenever you like. I don't have much to deal with in the morning."
"Then I..." Xia Shule thought it over, looking torn. "Eight thirty. No earlier!"
Yan Zhiyi chuckled. "Sure. I thought you meant much later."
Xia Shule popped a grape into his mouth. Juice burst out as he bit down, and he mumbled, "I want noodles. Any kind is fine, as long as they're noodles."
"All right."
"You can cook?"
"I used to enjoy cooking for myself when I lived alone abroad."
"Oh~ Then I'll look forward to it. With my cooking, I'm happy as long as nobody gets poisoned, hehe!" Xia Shule ended with a goofy laugh.
He had always admired people who could turn ingredients into delicious food. How could there be so many tasty things in the world? He could never get enough!
Yan Zhiyi laughed again. Since meeting Xia Shule, he had laughed far more than he had in the entire first half of his life. Somehow, Xia Shule always found the strangest ways to amuse him.
Remembering the matter of the Back Garden, he decided he ought to tell Xia Shule soon. After all, they would soon... be living together.
"Since you're going to be living at the Yan Residence, there are things I shouldn't keep from you. Do you know why the Back Garden is off-limits?" As he spoke, Yan Zhiyi took out a face mask and put it on Xia Shule, leaving only his sparkling eyes exposed.
Looking into those eyes, Yan Zhiyi couldn't resist brushing his fingers over the curve of Xia Shule's ear.
Xia Shule shuddered sharply, as though an electric current had shot through him.
Then his ears turned red, and even his voice trembled. "What? What was that?!"
The first question was about the Back Garden; the second was his startled response to his own shudder. What kind of physical reaction was that? Why had I never felt it before?
Yan Zhiyi took Xia Shule's hand, and they headed deeper into the Back Garden together. Following behind him, Xia Shule looked utterly dazed. I never even felt this with Jiang Gechen?!
Knowing full well that he liked men, Xia Shule wasn't quite brave enough to figure out what this reaction meant.
He obediently followed Yan Zhiyi, turning left and right, right and left, forward and back, this way and that. It was like a maze, and Xia Shule couldn't remember the route anyway.
At last, they stopped in front of a small villa.
It was eight in the evening, and no lights were on in the villa. Xia Shule couldn't tell whether it was empty or the person inside had gone to bed.
"My older sister is in there."
"Huh?" Xia Shule was stunned. He hadn't known! Even with his knowledge of the plot, he had known nothing about this!!
What was going on? I'd never heard that he had an older sister! Hey! Plot, what exactly were you hiding from me?
Xia Shule's shocked gaze met Yan Zhiyi's cool, unruffled eyes, as though the sister he had mentioned was merely an ordinary relative who happened to share his blood.
"What's... the story?" Xia Shule was nervous. Asking that wouldn't make him angry, would it? What if he chopped him into mincemeat?
Yan Zhiyi took a deep breath. "My older sister, Yan Zhishu, was already eighteen the year I was born, and she rarely came home. I never had a particularly good impression of her. Then one day, she said she wanted to get married. Our parents objected. They said one look at that man was enough to tell he was no good."
"She said she was pregnant and had to marry him. She already seemed to be on the verge of a breakdown then. Seeing the state she was in, our parents didn't dare refuse."
Sympathy showed in Xia Shule's eyes. "How old were you then? Who was that man?"
"I was twelve. Left with no choice, our parents agreed to the marriage. Her condition kept getting worse, and after giving birth, she completely lost her mind. Only later did we learn that the man had drugged her... and that was how she'd gotten pregnant. After they married, he locked Yan Zhishu in a basement. When she resisted and refused to eat, he kept her alive with intravenous nutrition."
"That man was an orphan to begin with. He used the Yan Family's power and standing to climb his way up, along with his own underhanded methods, and founded what is now the Jiang Corporation."
"That man is Jiang Shou. Their son is Jiang Gechen."
!!!!!!!!????????
His shock was no less overwhelming than his questions, and his questions were no less overwhelming than his shock.
Xia Shule stood frozen in place, not knowing how he should react.
This... how had I never heard any of this? I hadn't even known Yan Zhiyi was Jiang Gechen's uncle. I knew the entire original plot, and it never mentioned this, did it?
A plot device really couldn't see anything beyond his own little world.
Holy shit...
So in the original plot, Jiang Gechen hadn't simply been wary of him. It was because of... this relationship?
No wonder none of the old-established families had known Jiang Gechen when he first transferred schools. Xia Shule had thought as much: if Jiang Gechen had grown up in their circle, there was no way he wouldn't have known him.
"Holy shit..." After a long spell of stunned silence, Xia Shule finally managed those two words.
Talk about following in his father's footsteps. His dad drugged someone, and so did he!? How disgusting. Like father, like son.
The original plot had only said the male lead was a poor, miserable soul whose mother didn't love him and had run away. His father had been devastated and neglected him, too, leaving him in need of a little ray of sunshine to warm his life.
Could a plot lie, too? Could it fake things?
"Then does he... does he know the truth about his family? Does he know what Jiang Shou did?"
"He does. When he was little, our parents felt sorry for him and often brought him over. The room where you were drugged last time was Jiang Gechen's childhood room. Later, he found out everything, but chose his father and stopped having anything to do with the Yan Family."
"..." What... what the hell was this!?
This was way too different from the original plot, wasn't it? Hey! This wasn't right! The whole thing had gone off the rails, man.
If that was how it was, finding someone who could heal Jiang Gechen really wouldn't be easy. Who could possibly heal someone like that? Song Dimu, you had my respect. You were a real tough one!
Yan Zhiyi raised a hand and pushed Xia Shule's jaw, which had dropped in shock, back into place. The stretched mask finally returned to its original shape. He looked adorably dumbfounded.
"That shocked? It happened years ago. People of your father's generation should all know about it. It caused quite a stir..."
Xia Shule: Nope, I didn't know. The original author never told me any of this. I only read what the original plot gave me...
"Your sister, is she now...?"
"She has a live-in caregiver looking after her. She's often not in her right mind, so we settled her here. People aren't allowed into the Back Garden because we're afraid she might hurt someone."
Xia Shule had never imagined that this was why people couldn't wander into the Back Garden. He would need at least the whole night to process this news.
"Come on, let's go back." Yan Zhiyi took Xia Shule's hand again. "How are you feeling? Is your nose bothering you?"
Xia Shule shook his head vigorously. With the mask on, and having spent so little time here, he wasn't feeling much discomfort. "Let's go."
Once they went inside, Xia Shule headed straight for the sofa to sit down.
Yan Zhiyi caught him around the waist, stopping him from sitting.
Xia Shule's backside hung in midair. "What?" Why wouldn't he let him sit?
"Go wash up." Yan Zhiyi lifted Xia Shule. "You've picked up a lot of pollen. Wash it off, or it'll still make you uncomfortable."
"Mmm~~ So thoughtful~" Xia Shule hadn't even considered that himself and had almost taken off his mask.
The two of them were showering...