Where Was I Supposed to Put It?

Li Yang and his team had all been put up at the Marriott and could finally show themselves openly.

The Xia Corporation covered all their meals, lodging, and transportation, but Li Yang had no interest in food money could buy. He only wanted Xia Qinghe's cooking.

He ambled up to the top floor and found Xia Qinghe's suit jacket tossed on the floor, his tie there too, and his shoes scattered everywhere.

He picked everything up along the way and finally found Xia Qinghe in the pitch-black living room. "...Playing hide-and-seek with Lin Fengmian?"

Xia Qinghe's hair fell over his forehead. He wore a soft white shirt, its cuffs casually rolled up to his forearms, exposing the luxury platinum watch on his wrist.

"Why didn't you throw the watch away too, so I could pick it up?" That watch was worth at least several million, more than their entire trip.

Li Yang slurped back his drool. Another day of envying the rich.

Xia Qinghe remained silent, without his usual smart mouth. The smile gradually faded from Li Yang's face. He draped the clothes over the sofa, sat down opposite Xia Qinghe, and asked softly, "What happened?"

As he spoke, he picked up the remote on the table and first switched on the small, softly glowing ceiling light.

Light spilled down, tracing Xia Qinghe's perfect jawline. His expression was indifferent, as though nothing in the world could catch his eye or move his heart.

But the bruises around both his eyes gave Li Yang quite a fright. "Did you fight with Lin Fengmian? Were you being an ass again?"

Xia Qinghe gave him a cursory glance.

Exasperated with him, Li Yang said, "Don't ask for it so many times in one go. He hasn't recovered yet. If you keep demanding more, of course you'll get beaten up."

"When did I?" Xia Qinghe protested. "I only asked for Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. Just four days, and he wouldn't even agree to that."

Li Yang said, "...With this sort of thing, you should put your partner's feelings first, and-"

"Wait." Xia Qinghe raised a hand to interrupt him. "Partner? What partner? Lin Fengmian and I are purely brothers. Don't use that filthy mind of yours to imagine our relationship."

Li Yang rolled his eyes at him. No wonder Lin Fengmian gave you two black eyes. You deserved it. You've already slept together, and you're still going on about being brothers. "Why did you have to be born with a mouth?" And such a foul one at that.

"What, are you jealous I have such a close buddy?" Xia Qinghe began to gloat.

"Who's jealous of you? I think you're jealous that I have Shui Feiyan. When he and I make love, he doesn't beat me up. Unlike you, getting beaten into a panda."

"..." Xia Qinghe's face darkened. "Have you misunderstood something about Mianmian and me? We haven't done the sort of thing you do with Shui Feiyan."

Li Yang didn't believe him. "If you haven't, why did you get beaten up? And you took him to the hospital just because I told you to? Besides, why does Mianmian lower himself so carefully onto a chair instead of just plopping down?"

Everything proved that this guy had no restraint.

The more Xia Qinghe heard, the stranger his expression became. He cleared his throat awkwardly. "I only borrowed his hand for a bit."

"And his legs."

Li Yang said, "..."

Still unwilling to give up, he asked, "You didn't put it in?"

Xia Qinghe's face instantly turned tomato red. "W-where was I supposed to put it?"

Li Yang found it a little unbelievable that Xia Qinghe could be this innocent, but how was he supposed to explain? He picked up a glass from the table too, found it empty, and went to the fridge for mineral water, tossing Xia Qinghe a bottle.

Xia Qinghe hastily twisted off the cap and gulped down half the bottle in one go. His face still burned. He glared at Li Yang, the culprit. It's all your fault, talking about putting it in. Was that somewhere I could put it?

At that thought, it seemed... Xia Qinghe couldn't take it. He drained the remaining half bottle, but his mouth still felt parched.

Li Yang looked perfectly innocent. He had seen Xia Qinghe holding Lin Fengmian and kissing his face and forehead countless times, so was it his fault he had misunderstood?

He had long forgotten why he had come, until his stomach growled a few times.

"How about making something to eat? You can't just stop eating because Lin Fengmian isn't here. Make me a portion while you're at it. I'm not picky. Noodles, rice, steamed buns, stuffed buns-anything's fine."

Xia Qinghe's head was full of jumbled images. He was in no mood to cook, so he ordered a lavish meal from room service.

Li Yang looked at the table laden with delicacies but had no appetite. Still, he said nothing.

He could tell Xia Qinghe was distracted. He felt that, thanks to his prompting, a certain someone might finally be about to catch on.

He had no idea whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

If Lin Fengmian found out he had been the one to give Xia Qinghe the idea... A chill swept over the back of his neck.

Halfway through the meal, Xia Qinghe drove all the filth out of his head and began asking about serious matters. "How's the survey going?"

"Feng Chuyue took the money, but he hasn't done absolutely nothing. At least the wetlands aren't as bad as they were during our first survey. A lot of areas have been cleaned up pretty well, but the environment is still nowhere near suitable for migratory animals to survive in, let alone endangered ones."

"Animals are actually very clever. They're more sensitive to their environment than humans are. The environment in the Lanhai wetlands still doesn't meet the requirements for Far Eastern Curlews to use it as a stopover."

Back when humans pursued economic development, they had always sacrificed animal habitats, never considering that both were living creatures of Earth. Humans had placed themselves high above the rest as intelligent beings at the pinnacle of life.

By the time they looked back, the environment had already been destroyed, and restoring it was not something that could be done in a year or two.

Restoration often required enormous investments of time, money, and manpower.

"When those factories were discharging pollutants, they never thought about how difficult restoration would be. And when someone tries to do it, they face every possible kind of obstruction." As a biologist, Li Yang always felt stifled by such things, yet powerless to change them.

He could only do what little he could to help Xia Qinghe.

"As long as I have your support." Xia Qinghe raised his wineglass to Li Yang. "Thank you."

Li Yang clinked glasses with him and downed his red wine in one gulp. "Right now, my team is the only one that can produce a survey report for you. But whether the higher-ups accept it and rescind the suspension order they issued is up to you."

"I have Mianmian. Anyone who dares obstruct me is going against the Lin Family, aren't they?"

"But haven't you two fallen out? He even beat your eyes swollen."

"Can you stop bringing that up?" Xia Qinghe was exasperated.

Lin Fengmian really had been angry. He had packed up overnight and returned to Shengjing, so Xia Qinghe had simply played along and spread the news that the two of them were at odds.

Quite a few petty clowns had come out of the woodwork, but he still hadn't traced things back to whoever was truly hiding behind it all.

That bastard really fucking knew how to lie low.

Fortunately, his Mianmian wouldn't abandon him just because he was angry. He had even contacted him in secret to warn him, easing the tension that had gripped Xia Qinghe for days.

He didn't have to pretend in front of Li Yang, but around outsiders, he still had to act as though the two of them had fallen out.

At the thought that it would take several more days to wrap things up in Lanhai, Xia Qinghe grew deeply irritated again.

After eating, taking a bath, and icing his eyes, Xia Qinghe lay down in bed. He had thought he wouldn't be able to sleep, but to his surprise, he fell asleep as soon as he closed his eyes. Except, in his dreams...