Chapter 93: Have You Abandoned Me?

Sheng Que ran out of the banquet hall, clutching his backside. His tousled chestnut hair was a mess, and the dark green formal suit he wore looked like wrinkled seaweed. Both timid and stubborn, he shouted loudly, "You scoundrel, just you wait!"

"I will never forget the humiliation my rear suffered at your hands today."

Zhou Yili's mind was still full of the interrupted kiss. Even in his drunken haze, he knew that getting Shen Jixing to kiss him was no easy feat. Zhou Yili narrowed his eyes, straightened up, and asked, "What did you say?"

Sheng Que, still holding his backside, darted away.

"......"

Shen Jixing pressed him down, amused. "Alright, you two childish fools."

Zhou Yili heard the word childish and felt it had nothing to do with him. He half-sat at the long banquet table, encircling Shen Jixing between his legs, half-buried against him like a lazy sloth.

"A childish fool," he insisted, breathing in the cool scent of white sandalwood. "Not me."

Shen Jixing was trapped, unable to move. Zhou Yili's prominent nose, like a puppy, sniffed around Shen Jixing's collarbone. He’d never known Zhou Yili became like this when drunk.

"Enough, let's go home," Shen Jixing said, tilting his head to avoid Zhou Yili's burning lips, his eyes clear and lucid. Shen Jixing rarely showed emotion; it was fleeting. That brief flutter in his heart made him distrustful of anywhere outside himself. He thought Bo Yu had arrived.

Zhou Yili sensed his resistance and lowered his proud gaze gloomily. "Oh."

He knew it. He hadn’t kicked hard enough, so Shen Jixing wouldn’t kiss him anymore.

Trailing behind, Zhou Yili checked his pockets. Empty—he had nothing left. The kiss he’d traded all his possessions for was gone as well. Zhou Yili hooked his fingers onto Shen Jixing's, sulking as he followed, stray blue locks drooping limply. "…It’s all Sheng Que’s fault."

"……"

Shen Jixing paused at the banquet hall's entrance, not understanding. "Hm?"

Zhou Yili said nothing.

The lights in the banquet hall went out instantly, replaced by bright lights from outside. Zhou Yili vaguely remembered his fear of the dark, so he gripped Shen Jixing’s fingers tightly. "Don’t be scared, I’m here."

He pulled Shen Jixing out into the light.

Behind him, footsteps stopped, and a helpless sigh drifted over. "Zhou Yili, sometimes you really are so annoying."

Shen Jixing casually tugged at the loose tie on Zhou Yili’s chest, wrapping it twice around his cold, slender fingers. He pulled the boy glittering with scattered light into the darkness.

His cool lips gently brushed Zhou Yili’s jaw, slowly rising, making up for the kiss he’d promised but hadn’t given. Zhou Yili’s heart pounded wildly, and suddenly he heard Shen Jixing say, "Don’t open your mouth."

"…?"

"You’ve been drinking." Shen Jixing traced Zhou Yili’s lip line, barely touching him, sending the little lion’s breath into chaos, his whole body tense.

"I need to drive."

...

Polly Seaweed sat in the stairwell. He felt he’d been wandering forever, only to return to where he started. Sheng Que, unaccustomed to adversity since childhood, pulled out his phone feeling a bit aggrieved, and dialed his emergency contact.

"Uncle, I’m lost..."

On the other end, Fu Chen was surrounded by the sound of water. After two seconds of silence, he shut off the shower. "Sheng Que, this is the Sheng family home."

Sheng Que leaned his head against the stairwell wall. "Oh, Uncle, I’m lost in my own house..."

Fu Chen: "......"

Heavy breathing came over the receiver.

Fu Chen grabbed his bathrobe. "Don’t hang up. What’s beside you?"

He was a bit angry, but always rational, never letting negative emotions torment him for long. After all, today was his birthday.

Fu Chen suppressed his emotions and searched the stairwells floor by floor.

On the third floor, he found Sheng Que asleep against the wall, long lashes casting shadows in the moonlight. The handsome, rakish face still held traces of innocence.

Sheng Que sat sprawled, hair in disarray, like a rag doll abandoned in the stairwell.

He looked utterly foolish.

"......"

Fu Chen picked up the little birthday boy, memories of their childhood meeting surfacing.

The Sheng family wasn’t quite like those legendary wealthy clans. Sheng Que was kind-hearted, soft and gentle.

"Brother, are you the illegitimate child my mom keeps outside?" the young boy blurted out, and his mother promptly smacked him.

"Uncertain intelligence, but kind-hearted," Madam Sheng smiled gently. "He means no harm, just has a loose tongue."

Fu Chen was always laconic. He glanced at Sheng Que. "Mm."

He’d never seen such a precious young master—round and rosy, chestnut-curl hair, adorable when smiling. Even when crying… he was cute, but it made your heart ache.

"Brother, do you want to come into my house?"

Fu Chen looked at his hand, paused for two seconds, then pulled back. "No."

His fingertips were rough from working in the orphanage.

"I’m just a student Madam Sheng sponsors. We’re not related," Fu Chen explained.

He knew big families cared deeply about illegitimate children, afraid outsiders would covet their inheritance.

Sheng Que looked disappointed. "Oh?"

Fu Chen couldn’t understand his reaction.

"I want a brother," Sheng Que tilted his head. "I have a pack of dog brothers—I like messing around, but I can’t beat them."

"Brother, join my family," Sheng Que clung to him like he’d found a lifeline. "You can help me crush them."

"……"

Indeed—uncertain intelligence, kind heart.

Fu Chen didn’t want to argue further. He laid Sheng Que on the bedroom bed. "If you truly dislike it, do whatever you want in the future."

As he straightened up, Sheng Que grabbed him. "Uncle… are you still angry?"

Sheng Que opened hazy, drunken eyes, shimmering with unshed tears.

"I didn’t mean it."

Fu Chen met his gaze. "Is that so?"

For those too rational, even drunk, their thoughts were clearer than anyone’s.

Alcohol hardly had that much power.

Words spoken in drunkenness are just truths hidden in the heart.

Sheng Que’s lips moved but he couldn’t say “yes.”

When he was punished most severely, he did wonder, you’re not really family, why do you control me so much?

But he was clever enough to know such words hurt and never intended to say them aloud.

"Go to sleep."

Fu Chen looked at the red-eyed little master, refraining from further scolding. He casually pulled up the blanket and added, "Happy Birthday, Sheng Que."

Fu Chen straightened up to leave.

His lowered hand was grabbed.

"You are still angry," Sheng Que had already forgotten he was the birthday star.

Because of a single sentence, it felt like everything was ruined. He’d hurt the uncle who protected him most.

"I don’t know why I said that…"

Perhaps it was immaturity, perhaps some subconscious belief that they weren’t truly related.

He remembered the stunned expressions when he blurted it out, even Second Uncle nervously urged him to go comfort Uncle.

Sheng Que was frightened, swept up in nameless panic, stubbornly holding Fu Chen’s hand.

Just like the day they first met.

Biting his lip, voice choked, he asked, "Uncle, are you going to leave me?"