Yu Wanlai had long been used to this version of Yu Qingyue, so he didn’t mind much. His gaze focused on the side of Yu Qingyue’s face as he lazily spoke, “I drank the milk tea…”

Yu Qingyue’s gaze flickered for a moment, and his ears flushed a light pink. He waited for the follow-up, but Yu Wanlai remained silent for a while. Unable to resist, Yu Qingyue turned his head to look over, only to meet Yu Wanlai’s gaze, who had been watching him all along. Yu Qingyue lightly tugged at the hem of his clothes, his gaze indifferent as he turned back to the elevator door.

Yu Wanlai noticed Yu Qingyue’s ears becoming even more flushed and smiled lightly, realizing that the other person actually felt embarrassed. Yu Qingyue suddenly felt that his ears were hot. He raised a hand to lightly rub them, and the soft tips of his ears wobbled with the movement.

Yu Wanlai’s expression suddenly changed as he grabbed Yu Qingyue’s hand and raised it to his own eyes. The previously smooth and delicate back of his hand was now marked with large bruises. “What happened?”

Yu Qingyue’s eyes flashed with panic. He quickly pulled his hand back and coldly said, “None of your business.”

Yu Wanlai clicked his tongue, really defeated by this person. Why was he so angry? Wasn’t he the one who should be aggrieved? “Fine, if it’s not my business, then what’s with the sudden milk tea?”

“Is this an apology?”

“Or do you want to make up?”

“If it’s an apology, you can say it whenever…”

“As for making up… that’s a different price!” Yu Wanlai raised a hand, stroking his chin as if in deep thought. “Otherwise… how about you call me ‘bro’ and let me consider it.”

The more Yu Qingyue heard, the colder his face became. He snorted and bluntly said, “Stop deluding yourself. It was just to return what I owed you.”

Yu Wanlai: … This mouth really should be donated. How could such a person have such a sharp tongue?

Yu Wanlai didn’t say anything more. It wasn’t until the two of them were settled in the car and the vehicle started to move smoothly that the quiet interior was broken by the driver’s voice: “Young Master.”

Yu Qingyue crossed his arms and turned his head to look out the window. The sky outside had completely darkened, and the reflections of the two of them in the car window were blurred by the occasional streetlight.

Yu Qingyue glanced at Yu Wanlai’s reflection in the glass. Normally, this person wasn’t so quiet. He opened his mouth and after a long while, with a weak voice, muttered, “…I didn’t know Dad would hit you.”

He was just stating the facts, not exaggerating or intentionally guiding Yu Cheng to misunderstand him.

Yu Wanlai’s ears twitched. He turned to look at Yu Qingyue, but all he could see was the back of his head. He purposely said, “What did you say? I didn’t catch that.”

Yu Qingyue took a deep breath, holding back the urge to scold him, but remained silent.

Yu Wanlai sighed softly. Well, I guess this could be considered an apology.

At the dinner table, Yu Cheng mentioned the incident again. He placed some food on Yu Wanlai’s plate. Looking at the ginger chunks that resembled pieces of meat in his bowl, Yu Wanlai couldn’t help but twitch his mouth. Was this really how this family apologized?

Yu Cheng’s tone remained serious and solemn. “Dad knows he wronged you earlier, but you shouldn’t have just walked away without saying anything. Is it that hard to explain?”

Yu Wanlai: Heh, did I even have the chance to speak? But he didn’t bother to argue. These kinds of biases were deeply ingrained, and not all of them were even bias, so changing it wouldn’t happen overnight. He never liked arguing over useless right and wrongs.

“Yes, yes, you’re right,” Yu Wanlai said, and Yu Cheng fell silent, speaking much less from that point on. In the end, he mentioned giving him a raise next month, which was meant to put an end to the matter.

Yu Cheng: “…So this is the end of the matter. From now on, no one is allowed to bring it up again.”

Yu Wanlai placed the bowl with the ginger on the table, took a tissue to wipe his mouth, and said sarcastically, “Right, we won’t bring it up anymore.”

The others at the table: …

Qin Shuang had nothing to do with this matter, so she did not participate at all from start to finish.

In the evening, after Yu Qingyue finished his shower and came out of the bathroom with a towel draped over his head, he was about to get into bed when he suddenly heard a few short knocks on the door. Yu Wanlai, having finished washing up, went downstairs to get the first aid kit and brought it up. He originally planned to just hand it over to the person, but when the door opened and he saw Yu Qingyue in SpongeBob pajamas, his slightly curly wet hair hanging down on his forehead and temples, with a slightly flushed complexion, looking soft and cozy, he couldn’t help but smile.

Yu Wanlai: Alright~ he’s the most spineless person in the world. He shook the bottle of red flower oil in his hand and smiled, “Let me in.”

Yu Qingyue, who had been holding the door, lowered his hand and stretched it out to take the red flower oil. “I can do it myself.” Although he didn’t originally plan to apply any medicine, and his hand wasn’t that sore.

Yu Wanlai moved his hand away and pushed the door open, squeezing inside. He sat down on the small sofa and waved at the still-standing Yu Qingyue, “Come here, how are you going to apply it yourself?”

Yu Qingyue pursed his lips. He was too embarrassed to chase him away, so he closed the door and walked over to Yu Wanlai. Yu Wanlai tilted his head and looked up at him, his neck sore from the angle. He clicked his tongue and patted the spot beside him, “Sit down, my neck hurts from looking up at you!”

Yu Qingyue grunted lightly and bent down to sit on the sofa. The sofa was small, and as soon as he sat down, the space became a bit cramped. Yu Wanlai leaned forward and grabbed Yu Qingyue’s hand, placing it on his own lap. He poured a few drops of red flower oil into his palm, rubbed it, and then placed his palm on Yu Qingyue’s hand.

Yu Wanlai: He really is the most considerate brother in the world, even though we’re not related by blood…

The temperature on Yu Qingyue’s hand was quite high, accompanied by a touch of coolness that relieved the lingering pain. Yu Qingyue shook his wrist and couldn’t help muttering, “Your hands are so rough, they can scrape people…”

Yu Wanlai chuckled, closed the cap of the red flower oil, and tightened it with a “click,” tossing it into Yu Qingyue’s lap. “That’s not something a delicate little young master can compare to. You bumped into a table corner and ended up with a bruise this big. Are you cursing me out?”

Then he walked towards the bathroom to wash off the smell of the red flower oil from his hands. As he noticed the hairdryer hanging on the wall, he suddenly remembered the person’s collar getting wet from dripping hair.

Yu Wanlai leaned halfway out of the bathroom, calling to Yu Qingyue on the sofa, “Come here.”

Yu Qingyue took a deep breath, stood up, and walked over. “Can’t you go back to your room to wash your hands?”

Yu Wanlai, holding the hairdryer, shook his head. “No! I applied medicine to you, what’s wrong with me using the bathroom?”

Yu Qingyue: …

“Lower your head, my arms are getting tired holding it up!” Yu Qingyue took the hairdryer from him, “I’ll do it myself. No need for you.”

Yu Wanlai stepped back a few paces, avoiding Yu Qingyue’s hands, and raised an eyebrow, a playful smile in his eyes. “Are you sure you want to dry it yourself? And then go to work tomorrow smelling like red flower oil?”

Yu Qingyue’s hand, suspended in mid-air, froze. He looked away. Fine, he didn’t want to go to work smelling like red flower oil, and he definitely didn’t want to sleep with that scent all night, basically marinating himself in it.

The warm air from the dryer blew on Yu Wanlai’s hand, and as he looked at the obedient person lowering their head in front of him, a smile crept back into his eyes. This hair was surprisingly soft, much more obedient than its owner. He could mess with it however he wanted.

After Yu Wanlai finished drying his hair, he returned to his room, leaving Yu Qingyue free at last. Yu Qingyue turned off the light and covered himself with the soft blanket, quickly falling asleep.

Yu Qingyue slept well that night, but Yu Wanlai didn’t sleep peacefully. In his dreams, there wasn’t just one version of Yu Qingyue, but two—one was a darkened, wheelchair-bound Yu Qingyue with an unclear face, always speaking coldly, threatening to break his limbs; the other was the obedient Yu Qingyue standing before him, still smelling of red flower oil.

The two figures intertwined, causing Yu Wanlai to wake with a headache. He suddenly opened his eyes, his forehead slightly damp with sweat, a few strands of hair hanging limply over it. He reached out to wipe his forehead with his hand, sighing. He’d been having this same dream for the past three days, ever since that night when Yu Cheng slapped him. Although the slap wasn’t hard and his face was almost back to normal the next day, it still seemed to have had some lingering effect.

Unlike the previous nights, tonight’s dream also had another Yu Qingyue, one that seemed more like the person he had been interacting with in recent months.

He grabbed his phone and saw it was already 5:30 AM. Usually, he woke up closer to 7, but after such a dream, how could he go back to sleep? Even someone as laid-back as Yu Wanlai couldn’t sleep through it. So he got up and went for a run. Since he started working at the company, his daily exercise had noticeably decreased, and if it kept up, his muscles would start to deteriorate.

Perhaps because he was gradually becoming more attuned to this world, his body was beginning to feel more like his own, and naturally, this body was much stronger than the original one.

After his run, it was a little past 6:00. The house was quiet except for Wang Ma in the kitchen making breakfast.

He reached out to turn on the light in the room and walked to the bathroom in his slippers. Before long, the sound of running water could be heard from the bathroom, and he was sweating, feeling sticky and uncomfortable.

Yu Qingyue’s bed was just separated by one wall from Yu Wanlai’s bathroom, and he could hear the sound of the shower from the next room early in the morning. He rubbed his hair, sat up on the bed, and only when he saw the time on his phone did he realize it was Saturday, and he didn’t have to go to work.

Yu Qingyue: As expected, not a single word of truth came out of his mouth! If he hadn’t felt guilty yesterday, he wouldn’t have been deceived by Yu Wanlai’s clumsy lie and led around by the nose like this.

Annoyed, Yu Qingyue hit the bedboard, then got up to wash up. By the time Yu Wanlai finished his shower and went downstairs to the dining room for breakfast, Yu Qingyue was already sitting at the table, leisurely eating his fried egg. As soon as Yu Wanlai walked in, he was met with a harsh glare from Yu Qingyue. Yu Wanlai was confused—when had he ever angered him? Today, neither Yu Cheng nor Qin Shuang had come downstairs yet, so the two of them were the earliest to get up, and the dining room was much quieter than usual.