The butler’s heart skipped a beat.
Why was he suddenly unhappy?! Just because he complimented Bai Shuijin for looking good?
He hurried to make amends. “But in this house, the best-looking one is still you, Sir.”
Wang Huanxiu: “…”
Wang Huanxiu: “Uncle Zhang, if I’m not mistaken, you’re sixty-two this year, right?”
“Yes.” The butler smiled cheerfully. “Sir even remembers my age.”
Wang Huanxiu gave the butler a look and walked straight off.
‘This old man is really starting to talk nonsense.’
Seeing that something was off with Wang Huanxiu’s expression, the butler shut his mouth and said no more, carrying Wang Huanxiu’s things as he followed him into the house.
As they stepped into the entryway, the Bai Shuijin who’d just been by the floor-to-ceiling window had already flashed over to the door, his little mouth slick with chili oil and panting heavily.
The two locations in the same house were so far apart, it was like ten thousand li. It felt like he’d just run a mini marathon and he was exhausted.
If they hosted a long-distance event here, they’d randomly kill a college student from exhaustion.
Because he ran too fast, his abdomen was cramped and the pain became more severe when he inhaled. Bai Shuijin held his stomach and, seeing Wang Huanxiu looking at him, tilted his head and said, “Laogong ge, I’ve got a stitch in the side.”
‘This pain is all for you.’
“Is that so?” Wang Huanxiu’s lips curled into a mocking smile. “I thought you just overate.”
Bai Shuijin: “…”
‘Damn it, bad man!’
Wang Huanxiu had been out working all day, but his suit still lay perfectly smooth, without a wrinkle. He left at 8 a.m. and didn’t return until 10 p.m., working a full fourteen hours. Just thinking about it was exhausting.
There were only twenty-four hours in a day. Excluding sleeping and eating, Wang Huanxiu had basically poured all his time into work.
Just like him who worked around the clock in his previous life. And even after coming home, Wang Huanxiu had the habit of reading documents for work.
This wouldn’t do. Aside from sleep, the body needed other forms of rest too.
While Wang Huanxiu was changing his shoes, Bai Shuijin scooted over next to him. “Laogong ge, isn’t work very tiring?”
Wang Huanxiu casually replied, “It’s alright.”
The next second, he suddenly got nudged…by a butt. Wang Huanxiu looked at the butt that bumped into him.
Bai Shuijin scooted even closer. “Laogong ge, stop pretending.”
“Pretending about what?”
Bai Shuijin glanced at the butler and the servants, then stood on tiptoe and whispered so only the two of them could hear: “Fourteen hours…you’re exhausted, right?”
Wang Huanxiu: “…”
Bai Shuijin knew all too well that high-intensity overwork puts a huge strain on the body.
Moreover, Wang Huanxiu was very good at enduring it, a kind of endurance beyond ordinary people. He ignored every signal from his own body. Even when he fractured a bone before, he didn’t even frown.
Among animals, rabbits have the highest tolerance for pain. Only in the most brutal situations would they cry out, and those cries usually signaled imminent death or danger.
Bai Shuijin felt that Wang Huanxiu’s endurance surpassed even rabbits’. He never cared about his own well-being, never exposed any vulnerability to others.
“Laogong ge, don’t go to the study and read documents tonight. Just go straight to bed.”
Wang Huanxiu looked at Bai Shuijin’s lips which couldn’t seem to stop moving. They were red and glossy, as if they had lip gloss on, moist and shiny.
‘Did he put on lipstick?’
Bai Shuijin had a habit of wearing makeup before, so having lipstick wasn’t surprising.
His lips were bright red. His skin was always good, and now with the added lipstick, he looked even more radiant and cute. The corners of his mouth curved up. He wore a beige knitted sweater, with a thin silver chain around his neck, resting delicately against his collarbone.
Bai Shuijin had particularly beautiful shoulders and neck. He seemed to know his strengths, always dressing to highlight them. His clothes rarely had restrictive collars, and since he was short, looking down at him from above, his neck and collarbone were a real treat for the eyes.
Wang Huanxiu’s black crow-like eyelashes drooped down, and his eyes gradually darkened.
“How old are you this year?”
“Twenty,” Bai Shuijin blinked. “What’s wrong, laogong ge?”
Wang Huanxiu’s next words struck like lightning. “You’re only this tall at the age of twenty?”
Bai Shuijin: “…”
Like a thunderclap from the heavens, Bai Shuijin turned to stone on the spot.
Only this tall at twenty?
Was the other party mocking him or insulting him…or both?!
What’s wrong with 1.76 meters?! That 1.76 was something he’d fought hard for! His bones sprouted little by little in the middle of the night!
Bai Shuijin nearly passed out on the spot.
‘What did you say? I’m asking you, what did you just say?’
Bai Shuijin was furious, indignant and outraged. He had to speak up for all the 1.76m tall people in the world. “I’m 1.76, that’s not short! Didn’t you ever have a time when you were 1.76?”
“That was when I was twelve,” Wang Huanxiu said, not sparing him another glance as he headed straight up to the third floor.
“…”
This time, Bai Shuijin truly choked on his breath.
‘Damn it, I’m calling the police on you!’
After Wang Huanxiu went upstairs, Bai Shuijin deflated like a balloon and plopped down on the sofa, viciously sucking at his milk through a fat straw.
He was only twenty. He could still grow! As the saying went, a man gets another growth spurt at twenty-three. If he kept drinking milk every day, by the time he was twenty-three, he’d shoot straight up to 1.8 meters!
The straw in his mouth became a stand-in for Wang Huanxiu, and he bit down on it hard.
Just then, the butler walked over carrying a large fruit platter, piled high with freshly washed fruit that exuded a refreshing, natural fragrance.
A scent that no chemical could replicate.
“Young Master Bai, can you help take these upstairs to Sir?”
‘Deliver fruit to Wang Huanxiu?’
Staring at the colorful fruit in front of him, Bai Shuijin gulped down the rest of his milk in one big slurp. “Alright.”
He tossed the empty carton into the trash and took the platter from the butler. It was getting late anyway, so he might as well bring the fruit up and convince Wang Huanxiu to rest a bit.
The man was a workaholic, but he wasn’t made of iron. He was just flesh and blood, so it was better for him to take a proper rest.
Otherwise, if his body broke down, no amount of wealth, luxury cars, or mansions would matter. Health was the foundation of everything.
Even though Wang Huanxiu mocked his height and showed no remorse, Bai Shuijin decided to be the bigger person and still brought him fruit.
After all, there were three great kind souls in the world:
Jesus, Shakyamuni, and Bai Shuijin.
**Shakyamuni is another name for Gautama Buddha, the historical founder of Buddhism.
Bai Shuijin smiled knowingly at his own kindness, carrying the fruit platter as he headed upstairs.
The servants nearby kept their expressions blank, noses to the air and eyes to their hearts. They looked at each other but didn’t say anything.
Young Master Bai was in trouble tonight. He might even be kicked out of the Wang household.
The butler had never had a good impression of Bai Shuijin. In the past few days since the marriage, they barely spoke or interacted with Bai Shuijin unless the other party took the initiative to look for him.
The third floor had always been marked as Wang Huanxiu’s private domain. The servants were only allowed up there to clean or air out the space. A few days ago, Bai Shuijin also moved to the storage room on the second floor and did not live on the same floor with Wang Huanxiu.
Now, with the butler asking him to deliver fruit upstairs, it could only be because Wang Huanxiu said so.
After all, the sir never allowed anyone on the third floor, and he never ate fruit at night.
No one knew how Bai Shuijin had managed to offend him, but this time, he was in trouble.
Bai Shuijin went up to the third floor in his slippers. The sound of them slapping the floor echoed, and he soon reached the bedroom door and pushed it open.
“Laogong ge, I’m here!”
The room was empty.
Bai Shuijin’s heart skipped a beat.
Damn it, could he be in one of the side rooms inside the bedroom?
Wang Huanxiu’s bedroom was practically a multifunctional zone. You could raise pigs in here and no one would find out. Remembering how he got lost in here before… At this rate, the apples would oxidize before he even found the other party.
Just then, a voice came from outside the room.
“What are you looking for?”
It was cold. Like ice hanging from the eaves.
Bai Shuijin backed out of the bedroom and turned his head to see Wang Huanxiu standing in front of the study door, arms crossed, watching him.
It was in the middle of the night and he was not sleeping, so of course he was working.
Bai Shuijin muttered in his head, ‘How could there be people in this world who love work so much?’
He was about to vomit from working so much in his previous life.
“Looking for you,” he said as he carried the fruit platter over, lips pouting as he opened with, “Laogong ge, why aren’t you sleeping yet?”
Wang Huanxiu took the heavy fruit platter from his hands with his long and distinct fingers. “Soon.”
“It’s just…” His jet-black eyes landed on Bai Shuijin’s face. “There’s a decision I’m not sure about.”
‘A decision he couldn’t make?’
Bai Shuijin followed him into the room, eyeing the lychees on the platter.
The skins were a deep, rich red, and they were plump, they looked delicious.
Lychees were on the expensive side when it came to fruit. He couldn’t afford them before.
Wang Huanxiu placed the platter on the desk. His desk was not very tidy. There were papers, pencils, rulers, computer etc, but somehow it still had that pretentious, neat aesthetic.
As expected of a domineering CEO. Even his desk had that “cool” aura.
Bai Shuijin glanced at the clock on the screen…11:20 p.m. It was quite late.
“Laogong ge, how much longer are you going to think about this decision?”
If he thought about it all night, wouldn’t that mean he wasn’t going to sleep at all?
Wang Huanxiu sat in his chair and lazily picked up a lychee, peeling it slowly. “I don’t know.”
Juice dripped from the shell onto his hand, revealing the translucent white flesh, glistening with a sweet fragrance.
Bai Shuijin licked his lips. “How about sleeping first tonight?”
“Or,” Wang Huanxiu said, “how about you help me think about it.”
Bai Shuijin stared fixedly at the lychee in his hand. “Okay.”
Suddenly, he felt a tug on his wrist. With a slight pull from Wang Huanxiu, Bai Shuijin stumbled forward and stopped beside him.
“Sit.”
Wang Huanxiu gestured with his eyes.
Bai Shuijin hesitated. “Laogong ge… is that okay?”
“What’s not okay?”
Bai Shuijin pouted. “Well… alright.”
The next second, he sat directly on Wang Huanxiu’s lap.
Wang Huanxiu: …
The air went dead silent for a few seconds, then Wang Huanxiu spoke in a dark tone. “Who told you to sit there?”
Bai Shuijin turned his head, aggrieved. “Wasn’t it you?”
Wang Huanxiu took a deep breath and gritted his teeth. “I told you to sit on the armrest.”
“Oh.” Bai Shuijin shifted to the armrest for a second, then immediately scooted back. “Laogong ge, it’s a bit uncomfortable.”
“…“
If you don’t know, you would think his butt was made of gold and jade.
Wang Huanxiu looked at the butt now planted on his thighs. “You really know how to pick your spot.”
Bai Shuijin replied bashfully, “One of the hundred ways to love yourself.”
“…”
