Qiao Jiangyuan used force, as if he didn’t want him to break away.
“Come here, I want to talk to you.” After all, they were in a gambling house, and there were nobles around, so Qiao Jiangyuan lowered his voice, grabbed Shen Jue’s wrist again, and headed for the terrace.
Shen Jue frowned, but since he was here to talk business tonight and didn’t want Kong Fan, his business partner, to have a bad impression of him, he had to follow Qiao Jiangyuan to the terrace.
The heavy dark curtains separated the terrace and the hall, and as soon as Shen Jue entered the terrace, he tried to pull his hand back, but Qiao Jiangyuan wouldn’t let go, and even came forward to block Shen Jue against the guardrail.
The railing was at his waist, and the streetlights downstairs didn’t shine above, so Qiao Jiangyuan’s handsome face looked a little blurry in the night.
“What are you doing?” Shen Jue looked at the man in front of him with displeasure and jerked his hand hard again, but Qiao Jiangyuan still refused to let go, his strength was greater than Shen Jue’s.
“I should be the one asking you.” Qiao Jiangyuan said in a hushed voice, as if he was afraid of being heard, “You’re not even willing to say something to me now? We at least grew up together, if you want to alienate me, you have to give me a reason.”
Shen Jue frowned, “There is no reason, Qiao Jiangyuan, let go.”
Qiao Jiangyuan smiled but just stared at Shen Jue, the holes in his neck were so obvious he couldn’t ignore them, and there was more than one. He knew who made those marks, the person he liked. Now the person he liked was with his best friend, who had liked him a month ago.
He felt like he was going crazy, in just over a month, it was as if his world had changed drastically.
Qiao Jiangyuan closed his eyes and when he opened them again, a gentle smile appeared on his face, “I know you’re angry with me, you’re angry with me for playing dumb, right? But you shouldn’t use someone just because you’re angry with me, Xiao Jue, I was wrong, can you forgive me?”
After saying that, he also forced him into his arms and patted Shen Jue’s back, “Xiao Jue, I know that now that we’ve grown up, we both have our own thoughts and lives, but I’ve always cared about you, and it’s not that I couldn’t understand those hints you made before, it’s just that I was afraid I would hurt you, so I didn’t dare to respond, but now I realize that there’s no way I could accept you ignoring me, even though you don’t like me, can you not ignore me?”
Qiao Jiangyuan felt the struggle of the person in his arms, so he increased his strength without showing any signs of it. Shen Jue was really a bit annoyed. Qiao Jiangyuan’s stalking was completely unexpected by Shen Jue, who had thought that if he had refused explicitly, Qiao Jiangyuan would have the sense to stop looking for him, but it seemed that Qiao Jiangyuan’s feelings for Yu Qing were enough to make him lose face, and even if he didn’t like Shen Jue, he could still pretend to be a great friend.
But it was normal, Qiao Jiangyuan was able to secretly acquire his family’s properties in previous lives without even a whisper of it leaking out, which proved that he was extremely calculating, it wasn’t impossible to pull down his pride and apologize to him.
If Shen Jue softened a little and they reverted back to their original relationship, Qiao Jiangyuan would be able to continue to approach Yu Qing.
“Let go of me first.” Shen Jue hadn’t eaten anything since he’d gotten up, he was less interested in the food here, almost all of it had blood added to it, and because he was a noble, it was quite a lot. When he arrived at Huiying Pavilion, he drank some wine with Kong Fan, his stomach became a little uncomfortable. Now that Qiao Jiangyuan was holding him, all he wanted to do was throw up, his face was flushed with pallor.
Qiao Jiangyuan seemed to hear the wrong tone in Shen Jue’s voice, and hesitated, but let go of Shen Jue, seeing that his face wasn’t right, before asking in a low voice, “Are you not feeling well?”
Shen Jue reached out and pushed Qiao Jiangyuan back, the other half of the reason he wanted to vomit now was the complex smell of Qiao Jiangyuan’s body. Qiao Jiangyuan smelled of wine, smoke, and perfume, all mixed together, and it smelled awful.
He was pushed further away and the night breeze blew the smell away from his nose, so Shen Jue was able to get more comfortable.
Qiao Jiangyuan had been carefully watching Shen Jue’s expression, seeing that his frown relaxed a bit, he continued: “Did you not eat properly again? You can’t take care of yourself, why don’t you come stay with me for a few days? I recently hired a nutritionist who is very knowledgeable about diet.”
Shen Jue shook his head and looked up at Qiao Jiangyuan, “Let me tell you once and for all, I don’t want to be friends with you, so don’t look for me in the future.”
“Why?” Qiao Jiangyuan couldn’t accept it, he couldn’t accept that Shen Jue seemed to have changed overnight, he wrinkled his brows and suddenly took out a folded piece of drawing paper from his pocket.
He unfolded the drawing paper and inside was a sketch portrait of him, and the signature was written with Shen Jue’s name and the time on it, which was from a few months ago.
It was drawn by Shen Jue at his house, and was deliberately stuck in the book he was reading at the time. At that time, Qiao Jiangyuan had found Shen Jue’s behavior ridiculous and boring, but he hadn’t thrown the paper away, and in the past few days he had thought of it by accident and brought it with him.
“Look at this painting, Shen Jue, are you sure you want to cut me off like this?” Qiao Jiangyuan’s gaze was fixed on Shen Jue, his lips pursed tightly.
He had truly loved Qiao Jiangyuan in this realm, but this person had turned a blind eye to his sincerity and could even trick him into signing a deed of sale.
Qiao Jiangyuan noticed Shen Jue’s concentration and faint joy appeared in his eyes, but the joy didn’t last long. Shen Jue took the painting from him, and the next thing he knew, he was tearing it up in front of him.
The speed at which Shen Jue tore the painting wasn’t fast, slow and deliberate, as if to let Qiao Jiangyuan take his time to look and remember it.
Under the night, Shen Jue’s hands were so dazzlingly white that Qiao Jiangyuan was even confused as to whether his hands were whiter or the paper in his hands was whiter. The long, white hands slowly tore the paper into pieces, as if they were tearing all their memories into pieces as well.
When Shen Jue had finished tearing it, he took a step forward and approached Qiao Jiangyuan.
He gave a soft smile to Qiao Jiangyuan, his red lips curled slightly, but his eyes were very calm, “There’s no trash can here, so I’ll just have to return it to you.” He pulled open Qiao Jiangyuan’s pocket and stuffed those scraps of paper inside.
If he had no memory, he would naturally be moved by Qiao Jiangyuan’s words, but without his memories, he wouldn’t hear Qiao Jiangyuan’s words either. Qiao Jiangyuan was just wearing a mask to try to trick him and use him.
Shen Jue finished stuffing the paper and headed out.
People were like that, always thinking about what they lost, and when they had it, they never got excited about it.
……
Shen Jue returned to the hall, and Kong Fan, who had almost finished gambling, was looking for Shen Jue.
Kong Fan was quite pleased with the evening, and when he left, he said that he would talk about concrete cooperation in a couple of days, and Shen Jue sent Kong Fan to his car before he was ready to get in himself, but before he got in, he looked back.
Someone was looking at him.
Shen Jue glanced back and unexpectedly found a figure still on the terrace where he and Qiao Jiangyuan had stayed. Because there were no lights on the terrace, Shen Jue could only make out an outline that seemed to be Qiao Jiangyuan.
He was still standing there.
After a glance, Shen Jue withdrew his eyes and got into the car.
Five days later, Shen Jue signed a preliminary contract with Kong Fan, who invited him to take a look at the mine site. After thinking about it, Shen Jue agreed.
For this trip, Shen Jue only brought along Yu Qing, his bodyguard, and no driver, as their means of travel for this trip was the train.
When Xiang Wen found out that Shen Jue was going on a trip without him, he was depressed for a long time, but he didn’t dare to show it in front of Shen Jue, so he could only secretly hurt Yu Qing a few times, but Yu Qing was very smart, he didn’t argue with Xiang Wen, and he listened to what Xiang Wen said. Xiang Wen said a few words, then lost interest, he could only hatefully glare at Yu Qing.
The day of the trip, Xiang Wen took Shen Jue’s luggage to the rear compartment and put it away, as Yu Qing carried his own small suitcase out.
Yu Qing had never traveled before, the small suitcase was from a number of years ago, the corners were worn out.
“How can you carry that suitcase, if others see, they’ll think the Duke treats you poorly.” Xiang Wen couldn’t help speaking, “Why were you given a salary increase? You’re not even willing to buy a suitcase? Really embarrassing the Duke.”
Yu Qing was so embarrassed that he could only lower his head.
Shen Jue stood beside the car and glanced at the small suitcase in Yu Qing’s hand, he thought for a moment and turned his eyes to look at Xiang Wen, “I remember I have several more there, bring one for Yu Qing.”
Xiang Wen answered, then walked to Yu Qing’s side, “Come with me.”
By the time Yu Qing and Xiang Wen came back out, it was already ten minutes later. Yu Qing put the suitcase in the trunk and got into the car through the other side door. Shen Jue was already leaning back in his seat, resting his eyes. They had to go to the hotel where Kong Fan was staying first, and then take the train to A City with him.
Kong Fan’s eyes lit up when he saw Yu Qing, and on the train, he pulled Yu Qing to talk a lot. Yuk Qing was a little embarrassed, so he looked at Shen Jue, but Shen Jue seemed to be uncomfortable, and began to sleep when he got on the train, and his head would always hit the window because he was leaning against it.
Yu Qing then secretly held Shen Jue’s head to his shoulder and then made a shushing motion to Kong Fan. Kong Fan saw this, and was too embarrassed to continue speak.
The train would take eight hours to drive, Shen Jue seemed a little tired because of the long trip, he woke up and didn’t speak, only wrinkled his eyebrows as he remained in the seat. Seeing this, Yu Qing took out a few candies from his pocket. During this period of time that he had served beside Shen Jue, he discovered that Shen Jue liked to eat candy, so he had asked someone to buy a lot of high-grade candies outside.
These candies were expensive and had almost cost him a month’s salary.
“Duke, have a candy.” Yu Qing said softly, rattling off one of the candies.
Shen Jue looked wearily at the candy and didn’t move.
Yu Qing looked at the others in the box, everyone was a little tired, Kong Fan and his servant were asleep, while the bodyguard was sitting by the window, looking out at the view.
Thinking about it, he put the candy into his mouth, then held Shen Jue’s shoulder with one hand and kissed him, while his other hand grabbed the hat on the table, blocking the direction the bodyguard could look over.
The tip of his tongue pushed the candy in.
The sweetness dissipated and Yu Qing backed away, but couldn’t resist going up for another kiss when he saw Shen Jue looking at him.
Maybe it was more exciting to do this in front of everyone, and Yu Qing was no exception; he’d covered them with his hat, but the bodyguards could still find out what they were doing if they looked over, and that made Yu Qing even more excited.
Yu Qing fed all those candies to Shen Jue, who didn’t refuse, which made him a little happy, and this joy still lingered when he got off the bus. But when he arrived at the hotel, he was a little less happy.
Kong Fan, as the host, saw that Shen Jue looked tired, so he offered him a hot spring soak, which the hotel had. Kong Fan was a man who liked women, so he ordered several female bloods to wait on him while he soaked in the hot springs. Yu Qing, as a servant, wasn’t qualified to go into the water, but his eyes visibly sank when he saw a beautiful woman sitting on her knees next to Shen Jue after he got into the water.
Shen Jue didn’t want anyone to massage him, but Kong Fan was very insistent, and Shen Jue couldn’t say no, so he had to suffer, but he had really little contact with women, whether in the sky or in the realm of reincarnation, he was basically surrounded by men, and even if there were women, they had nothing to do with him.
This was the first time a woman had such close contact with him.
A woman’s hand felt completely different from a man’s hand, small and soft, he couldn’t describe what it felt like at all. Sitting in the water, Shen Jue couldn’t help but blush even though he wanted to ignore the hand on his shoulder.
Kong Fan found that Shen Jue was actually blushing and couldn’t help but laugh, “You’re really just like your father, you blush when you see a woman. By the way, I have a niece who has always wanted to know what’s the difference between the Imperial City and A City, but I’m not from the Imperial City, so I can’t tell her.” He splashed a handful of water on himself and smiled, “She’s a few dozen years younger than you, and just came of age this year.”
Shen Jue froze for a moment, he was just about to say no, when he heard the voice of Yu Qing ring out behind him.
“You’ve been pressing so hard for so long, let me help you take over for a while.”
Yu Qing whispered to the female who was helping Shen Jue with his massage.
The female Blood froze for a moment, but retreated. Yu Qing sat on his knees where the woman had knelt earlier, and while he massaged Shen Jue’s shoulders, he listened to the conversation between Shen Jue and Kong Fan, and when he heard Shen Jue refuse, he quietly smiled and pressed his hand down the spine.
“Hey, forget it.” Kong Fan saw Shen Jue’s refusal and didn’t force the issue, “I’d rather not get involved in you young people’s affairs.”
They soaked for a while, then got up and showered and went back to their rooms. Kong Fan had a home in A City, so he left the hotel and made an appointment to pick up Shen Jue tomorrow night to take him to the mine.
Shen Jue was in better spirits after his hot spring soak and drank half a cup of blood before going back to bed. His room was on the third floor, while Yu Qing and the bodyguard’s room was on the second floor. He hadn’t been lying down long when he heard a knock at the door.
Two soft knocks.
Shen Jue opened his eyes and looked at the door, and after a moment, he got out of bed and went to open it.
The person at the door was Yu Qing.
He had just finished his shower, his hair was still wet, and his snow-white face was unusually red, “Duke, can I sleep with you?”
Shen Jue glanced at him, then turned and walked inside.
It was a tacit approval, and Yu Qing eyes lit up as he immediately flashed behind the door and turned to close it.
He didn’t actually do anything, and laid down on the bed without moving.
Although Kong Fan booked a very good hotel in A City, the sound insulation wasn’t very good, Yu Qing always slept lightly, and was woken up at once. He listened to the sound coming from the side of the wall and was a little embarrassed. The bed in the next room seemed to be opposite their side of the bed, only separated by a wall, the bed there creaked and hit the wall, they could hear it clearly on their side.
Last time Yu Qing heard these noises, he was dealing with other things and didn’t have time to pay attention to others, this time, it was as if his ears became sensitive.
Yu Qing listened to the voices and couldn’t help but look at Shen Jue next to him. Shen Jue’s eyes were closed, his long, straight eyelashes gently hiked while the eyes beneath his eyelids gently rolled. Yu Qing thought that Shen Jue might have heard it too, and sure enough, when a high-pitched cry came from across the room, Shen Jue’s brow knitted .
Yu Qing thought for a moment and moved over to Shen Jue’s side. His voice was low, “Duke, do you want me to go over and knock on the door?”
Shen Jue jerked his eyes open, there was still some sleep in his eyes, “Is there a need to knock on the door? The soundproofing is so bad, if you say a word out loud over here, you should be able to hear it over there.”
Yu Qing pursed his lips and smiled, “Then I’ll just knock on the wall?”
Shen Jue stared at Yu Qing for a moment, then suddenly pulling him closer, and lightly nibbled on Yu Qing’s ear and said, “No, will you scream?”
Yu Qing’s earlobe reddened and his voice lowered even more, “I’ll …… try.”
It had to be said that Yu Qing might be gifted in that area, obviously he was the only one screaming, but it was as if there were two people screaming. Shen Jue leaned on the edge of the bed, watching Yu Qing scream with a red face, the two people over there tried to fight back at first, but they were soon defeated, and even Shen Jue heard one of them cursing, “Shit, what kind of person is that? What’s with all the shouting?”
Shen Jue couldn’t help but let out a laugh, and only when he saw that the opposite side had subsided did he lie down again, and when he saw that Yu Qing was still sitting, he waved to him.
Yu Qing immediately walked over at the sight, “Duke.”
“Well done.” Shen Jue said softly.
“Is there a reward?” Yu Qing said with bright eyes.
Shen Jue raised an eyebrow, “No.” He rolled over and went to sleep, and just a moment later, there was an extra hand on his waist.
Yu Qing was testing his boundaries, crossing the line step by step, as if he wanted to know where his bottom line was.
And Shen Jue was tacitly allowing Yuk Qing to do so, so to speak, both of them were testing each other, just like the tango, you enter I retreat, you retreat then I enter, until the end, no one knew who was the prey.
……
When they got up and went out, Shen Jue and Yu Qing happened to run into the couple going out together, a male and female couple. They couldn’t help but laugh when they saw Shen Jue and Yu Qing, and the woman even said to Yu Qing, “You have a nice voice.”
Yu Qing coughed and didn’t reply.
As they went downstairs together, they walked naturally and smoothly as if nothing happened, and the couple, seeing how fast they walked down the stairs, couldn’t help but tsk behind them.
Hearing it, Yu Qing blushed even more, and he couldn’t help but look at Shen Jue, accidentally noticing that Shen Jue’s earlobes were also a little red. This surprised Yu Qing a little, as if he had discovered a secret about Shen Jue.
The fortunate thing was that the couple had gotten up to check out, and Shen Jue had simply booked the two vacant rooms next door in order to prevent anyone from waking him up again.
……
This short trip was very satisfying for Yu Qing because he felt he had Shen Jue all to himself, unlike the usual with Xiang Wen around. When Shen Jue was in A City, he handled all the big and small matters, and the bodyguard would only be around to ensure Shen Jue’s safety, and would never come up and disturb him like Xiang Wen did.
And at the same time, when Yu Qing went to the mine with Shen Jue, Yu Qing also found that Shen Jue took good care of him, and took the initiative to hold his hand when he fell. Kong Fan noticed, his eyes flashed with understanding, and he didn’t mention anything about his niece on the way back.
After seeing the mine, Shen Jue signed a formal contract with Kong Fan and returned to the capital by train that day.
Back in the imperial capital, Yu Qing’s face changed slightly when he saw Xiang Wen and his driver waiting at the train station.
When Xiang Wen saw Shen Jue, he came forward with an extremely happy smile on his face and directly pushed Yu Qing aside. Yu Qing pursed his lips and silently followed, and at the side of the car, Xiang Wen eagerly walked Shen Jue to the car, then turned around and looked at Yu Qing behind him, “There is no place in the car, go back yourself, it isn’t very far. Here’s the money, if you meet someone kind, see if someone else is willing to bring you by the way.” He took out silver notes from his pocket and gave it to Yu Qing, when he saw that the other didn’t take it, he sneered and shoved it directly into Yu Qing’s hand, then he lowered his voice, “You don’t think that after a trip with the Duke, you’d become different, you can report to the Duke, let’s see what the Duke says.”
Yu Qing gripped the silver notes in his hand, his eyes flashed a hint of gloom, but it disappeared very quickly, so Xiang Wen didn’t notice.
Yu Qing took two steps back and said with his head lowered, “Brother Xiang Wen, I know, I will go back by myself .”
Xiang Wen saw that Yu Qing was sensible and didn’t bother responding, he turned around and got into the car.
But Yu Qing was hopeful, he hoped that Shen Jue would take the initiative to call him to get into the car, in fact, the back could carry three people, it would just be more crowded, but Shen Jue didn’t do it, the car drove away.
Yu Qing looked at the distant car and squeezed the money in his hand tighter, and it was only after a while that he moved.
By the time he arrived at the manor, Shen Jue and the others had long since arrived, and Xiang Wen had already served Shen Jue a bath, and when he saw him coming, he made a show of covering his nose, “Wow, what’s that smell? Yu Qing, did you take a ride with someone else? Why does your body smell?” He gave Yu Qing a disgusted look, “You’d better hurry up and take a shower before coming over.”
Yuk Ching’s face turned red then pale at Xiang Wen’s words, he had taken a ride from a kind person, and that truck was transporting chickens and ducks, so the smell was a little heavy.
He could only leave and take a shower first.
And when he finished his shower, Shen Jue was out again, and he took Xiang Wen with him.
When Yu Qing found out, he smashed the things in his room for the first time.
He was sick of this place, he was sick of Xiang Wen, and he suddenly had a whimsical thought that it would be nice to have a place where it was just him and Shen Jue.
Go take him away then 🤭🤭
NO I CAN’T FOCUS I LOVE THIS TROPE TOO MUCH. 😭😭😭