These strange words caused Su Yu to feel even more angry. He was just about to start struggling when Qi Chen suddenly loosened his grip and took a step back. His expression had already reverted to its previous calm. “My bad, I acted too rashly. I hope President Zhao won’t hold this against me."
He slowly blinked his eyes, and the turbulent emotions within gradually retreated, making way for a river of calm. Although the eyes still held a hint of profoundness, a veneer of restrained reservedness had already crept in.
This speed of recovery, even Su Yu would have been impressed with, if only the target of the other’s actions hadn’t been himself.
Forcefully gripping him, and now seemingly sincerely apologizing…. did Qi Chen think him an idiot?
But before Su Yu had time to start ranting, Round Ball began screaming and crying, "Master Host, you must remain calm! Since the main task has only just begun, you can't burn all bridges with the male protagonist!"
Su Yu directed a fake smile at the little ball. “It doesn’t matter, I can just buy him over to my company, and only allow him to act with me. This way, our task can be completed faster too.”
This kind of BDSM imprisonment play actually seemed quiet exciting, but it scared Round Ball so much that it just cried louder, as if it were the one about to be forcibly imprisoned.
Su Yu’s words were obviously only uttered to scare the little ball. In reality, while he was saying that, Su Yu had already controlled his temper. He gave Qi Chen a cold glance and directly left the room without saying anything.
Once Su Yu had gone, Lu Manni who had been watching the show with anticipation from the side decided to speak up. She began apologetically, “Senior Qi, President Zhao’s temperament really isn’t that good. However, you shouldn’t take it to heart, he is not…”
“Leave. [1]” A low-pitched, unkind voice interrupted Lu Manni’s words.
Lu Manni was instantly dumbfounded…. what she just heard couldn’t have been real, right?
How could Qi Chen, who’s always been so gentle and courteous, say such rude words? She must have misunderstood, and so Lu Manni tried again, “Senior Qi, I…”
However, her words were interrupted once again. Qi Chen slowly lifted his head, and stared unblinkingly at Lu Manni, “Now. Immediately. Right away. Get out and leave, thank you.”
This time Lu Manni was completely stunned, because she saw that Qi Chen’s eyes – which were usually courteous and friendly – had now condensed into pools of glacial ice, instantly freezing whoever dares look upon them.
Even more frightening was that those eyes were full of malevolence.
Lu Manni’s entire being trembled subconsciously, and even her heartbeat stuttered for a second. This person's eyes were too scary!
“Miss Lu, this same sentence, do I need to say it a third time?” Qi Chen covered his eyes with his right hand, but the corners of his mouth slowly morphed into a similarly filled-with-malice smile.
At this, Lu Manni finally regained her senses. Although her pounding heart felt akin to the trampling of a thousand grass mud horses [2], she was too afraid to say anything; she could only timidly grab her bag and flee the room.
After Lu Manni left, Qi Chen stood with his eyes covered for a few minutes. Then, he suddenly started laughing. The laughter was full of pleasure and contentedness, but paired with the gloomy mood just now, had a bit of a maniacal feeling to it.
After laughing, Qi Chen did not continue to wait in the private room, but rather, left the Drunken Moon and headed directly for a villa that he hadn’t visited in a long time.
The large villa was in a quiet suburb, with no other buildings around. In the still of the night, it looked quite eerie by itself.
Qi Chen's car stopped in front of the villa, and he slowly came out and walked up to the door, step by step. He pushed opened the heavy wooden doors and switched on all the lights, until the whole villa was bathed in light.
This whole time, Qi Chen’s movements were very light, very slow, and very solemn, as if he were performing some kind of ritual.
After doing this, Qi Chen sat down in the living room on the first floor. His back was very straight, his eyes were empty, and he looked like he was in a daze. However, his eyes flashed with a certain light.
After sitting for a long time, Qi Chen finally got up slowly. He went to the leftmost room on the first floor, and from there, entered every single room in a routinely fashion.
In the first room, there were many rocks and stones, all colourful and different in shape. They were carefully placed on tall shelves and appeared to be a very precious collection.
The second room, full of books, looked like a study but careful perusal would reveal that it was definitely not an ordinary study. Every book inside had been carefully placed into individual boxes, looking more like collectibles than books that one would regularly read.
In the third room, there were all kinds of feathers. Long, short, red, green – each were placed in transparent glass bottles.
There were a total of twelve rooms. The first eleven rooms appeared quite orderly, each housing a different category. However, in the twelfth room, there were all kinds of strange knick-knacks, following no seemingly common trait.
But it was in this room that Qi Chen stayed the longest. Like in the living room, he fell into a daze.
What nobody knew was that Qi Chen actually had an unconventional hobby – he’s a hoarder.
He liked to collect all kinds of things, whether they were useful or useless.
And he did indeed collect a lot of things – feathers, glass, stones, sand, water… but all these strange things still couldn’t satisfy him, probably because he hadn’t yet found the thing that would make him feel less bored.
A person who fears boredom to this degree.
A person who – out of fear of boredom – would continue to collect all sorts of strange things.
Even Qi Chen himself felt this was inconceivable, and yet that person was himself. He had a deep-seated fear of boredom. It was as if someone kept telling him that he must not be boring, because once he is bored, then he will lose his most important thing [3].
Qi Chen didn’t even know what his most important thing was, but he still instinctively had this feeling.
This feeling urged him to constantly search for novelty, to constantly accumulate things, and yet to constantly feel disappointed.
Whenever something is grasped in his hands, he can instinctively feel that it was not what he wanted.
And so, he has to continue living in fear, continue to search, continue to be disappointed, continue to feel desperation.
But this was already in the past, because just today, just now, he had found such a thing – a thing that would not cause him to feel bored, and also help him shed his fear of boredom.
He had checked as he held the other’s wrist, and knew instinctively that the other was exactly what he had been looking for.
All these things that he had accumulated in the past can now be discarded, because he has found what he’d been looking for, the correct answer to his yearning.
And, he will definitely grasp this correct answer, and seize that person.
Qi Chen stayed in the twelfth room for a long time. When he eventually left, he locked the door from the outside. The things in this room were different than those in the other rooms. They had – however briefly – once given him peace of mind and satisfaction.
But now, Qi Chen locked up this room. Then, he slowly locked up all the other rooms one by one, and eventually locked all the keys within the villa.
At he left the villa, Qi Chen not only did not feel lost, but rather, his heartbeat was like a drum and his eyes held a glint of anticipation.
At the same time, Round Ball – who had been secretly observing from the side out of worry that its host really messed things up – blew up with excitement upon witnessing these actions. “Master Host! Master Host! I’ve got important information!”
Su Yu, who was sitting on his bed drying his hair, glanced over coldly and asked, “What is it?”
With this cold response, the earlier light of excitement from the little ball all but vanished. It didn’t speak, but chose to show Su Yu the scenes it had just seen.
Su Yu initially only glanced over without real interest, but as the screen played on, he became more focussed and even the movements of his hands stopped.
“Master Host, haven’t I discovered a very interesting secret??” Round Ball ingratiatingly floated by and asked.
However, Su Yu only glared at it and commanded, “You shut up.”
The poor little ball who had thought it did something good and wanted to raise its host’s affection meter could only sadly float to a corner and start drawing circles.
Su Yu stared at the pictures in front of his eyes, and without him realizing, his gaze began to soften. Heart-shaped stones, fiery maple leaves, fine white sand, blue water, colourful coral, green feathers… And the most amazing thing is that there was even a screw with a note that it’d been taken from a ferris wheel.
These things associated with all kinds of memories all appeared at the same place, and Qi Chen’s figure was there in the middle.
Su Yu blinked his eyes, and the corners of his mouth slowly curved into a genuine smile. What were once cold peach-flower eyes lit up with happiness, but then a layer of fog seemed to dawn, making it impossible for one to interpret the emotions inside.
Even the little ball who had been hiding in the corner was stunned by the beauty and the profound feelings evident in Su Yu’s expression, and it stupidly spun around in a circle.
“Come here.” Su Yu beckoned at the little ball with his fingers.
Round Ball instantly woke up from its stupor of being enamoured, and asked with a shiver, “Master Host, is there something you need?”
Su Yu tilted his head, looking very innocent, and asked, “Do I look that scary?”
The little ball started crying in its heart, Master Host you don’t appear scary outwardly, but your insides are bad to the bone, okay?
However, this obviously could not be said aloud. Round Ball could only half cry inwardly, and half hesitantly start drifting over. Nevertheless, it still didn’t dare approach too closely, because although it felt like it just did a good thing worthy of praise, it inexplicably had an ominous premonition.
Su Yu looked at the little ball’s form filled with trepidation, and crooked a finger. “Come closer.”
The little ball swallowed its non-existent saliva and hesitatingly shivered before fluttering a little closer to Su Yu. In the next moment, it was captured in the palm of a host with sick tastes.
“…&*#¥%*!” Round Ball was so scared it started uttering profanity.
Su Yu pretended he was unaware of the little ball’s horror, and carefreely squished it a bit, before commenting objectively, “Mm, not a bad feeling.”
If it could, Round Ball would have preferred to just directly faint and black out.
However, as a ball of artificial intelligence, it didn’t even have the right to pretend-death. It could only cry and beg for mercy. “Master Host, whatever I did wrong, I am willing to change and make amends. Please stop squeezing me, I’m begging you. Ying ying ying…”
Su Yu’s eyes twitched. He smiled and said, “I have a question. I hope you can answer me truthfully.”
“Master Host please ask quickly ╥ _ ╥!” Round Ball felt like it was about to die.
“What is the relationship between Qi Chen and Chu Chengyan?” Su Yu asked with a fake smile.
[1] – 滚, “Roll” – a very impolite way of telling people to leave. Basically a command of ‘You roll out of here’.
[2] – 草泥马, “Grass mud horse” – ah, one of my favourite Chinese curse words. The grass mud horse – supposedly an alpaca – is a play on the words 肏你妈, which has a very similar pronunciation, except these three words literally mean ‘f*ck your mother’.
[3] – Remember why this seems so familiar?? Excerpt from chapter 12 [1.12]:
"Last question. In my life I hate boredom the most. If I become bored with you someday then I will leave. Can you accept that?" Su Yu's expression seemed careless, but the corner of his mouth subconsciously curled.
At first Chu Chengyan wanted to instinctively nod. However, when he processed Su Yu's words, he agitatedly stood up from the couch and looked deeply into Su Yu's eyes as he solemnly swore, "You can rest assured, I will never let you feel bored!"
Roamer –
I guess Qi Chen rescheduled with Liu Mingzhen? ¯\_(ヅ)_/¯
Also, poor little cabbage, once again being bullied~~
See ya next week~
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