I Rely on My Versatility to Reach the Top of the Entertainment Industry [Ancient Times to Modern] - Chapter 41

If Lu Yuzhi thought that way, he was wrong!

Jing Yi wanted to reason with Lu Yuzhi again and gently pushed him.

Lu Yuzhi felt Jing Yi struggling but didn’t let go. Instead, he held Jing Yi even tighter, tentatively breaking through the soft lips to advance further.

Jing Yi was stunned.

How could there be such a thing?

He had opened his mouth to speak, not for… for…

The heat on his face rose, and Jing Yi pushed Lu Yuzhi away forcefully.

A silver thread of saliva connected them.

Jing Yi wiped his damp lips, feeling unaccustomed to it.

Seeing this, Lu Yuzhi gave a bitter smile.

“Jing Yi, just hate me.” Don’t smile at him, don’t look at him, don’t accept his closeness.

Lu Yuzhi moved past Jing Yi.

Jing Yi instinctively grabbed him. “Why should I hate you for no reason?”

Lu Yuzhi frowned and turned his head to look at Jing Yi.

Jing Yi’s fair face still had a faint blush, and his eyes were full of confusion. This expression was utterly innocent, so adorable it made one’s heart itch, and it transformed the pain in Lu Yuzhi’s heart into overwhelming helplessness.

Lu Yuzhi sighed softly. “What did I just do to you?”

“Just now?” Jing Yi touched his lips again.

Just now… just now was…

Visibly, Jing Yi’s ears began to turn red.

Lu Yuzhi caught sight of it and, the next moment, heard Jing Yi lower his head. “You… you kissed me… So, did you do that to make me hate you?”

What kind of logic was this?

Lu Yuzhi wished he could just swallow the little guy in front of him who kept asking questions. Gritting his teeth, he said, “No!!”

His voice was a bit loud.

Jing Yi looked up at Lu Yuzhi and, seeing his face darken even more, suddenly felt extremely sad.

He just wanted to understand things he didn’t know.

The senior brothers and uncles at the temple never scolded him like this.

Lu Yuzhi’s heart sank.

The mist in Jing Yi’s beautiful black eyes turned into teardrops, falling like broken strings.

Lu Yuzhi’s heart shattered into pieces. He reached out to wipe the tears from the corners of Jing Yi’s eyes and coaxed softly, “Don’t cry, don’t cry. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have scolded you.”

“You… you already scolded me,” Jing Yi accused in a small voice. “Why did you scold me? If I said something wrong, you… you could’ve just reasoned with me.”

“Alright, alright, let’s reason, we’ll reason.” Lu Yuzhi’s heart melted completely as he took Jing Yi’s hand and led him to the sofa. “Let’s sit down and talk it through, okay?”

“Okay.” Jing Yi wiped his tears forcefully and looked at Lu Yuzhi seriously.

Lu Yuzhi reached out to carefully wipe away the tears Jing Yi had missed and looked at him just as seriously.

Their eyes met, and after gathering his thoughts, Lu Yuzhi spoke. “I kissed you because I like you.”

Jing Yi immediately retorted, “If you like me, why do you want me to hate you?”

Lu Yuzhi: “I thought you didn’t like me kissing you.”

Confusion reappeared in Jing Yi’s glistening black eyes. “I never said that. How did you know I hated it?”

Lu Yuzhi fell silent. After a long pause, he asked cautiously, “Then, what are your feelings toward me?”

Jing Yi blinked.

After a long while, he tilted his head. “I think we’re friends.”

Well, back to square one.

Lu Yuzhi ran a hand through his hair, his emotions complicated.

After a long silence, he glanced up at the clock in the living room.

Eleven-thirty.

A sigh escaped Lu Yuzhi’s throat. “Friends it is then. You should sleep now, little one.”

“I’m not a child. I’m an adult in both worlds.” Jing Yi said before asking, “Don’t you want us to be friends?”

“Hmm.”

“What if I always think of you as a friend?”

“Earlier I wanted to leave, but now I don’t feel that way anymore.” Lu Yuzhi smiled. “Friends are fine—not too hard to accept.”

If he left, who knew who Jing Yi might cry in front of like that again? His smile was the most beautiful in the world, but his tears made one want to tease him just as much.

With that thought, Lu Yuzhi reached out and directly picked up the little one from the sofa.

The little one widened his damp eyes, still wearing that expression full of questions.

“Sleep. No more questions for today,” Lu Yuzhi said with a slightly firm tone. “Ask whatever you want tomorrow.”

“It’s still raining outside,” Jing Yi remarked.

Lu Yuzhi responded, “Hmm, I’m not leaving.”

“Then you should sleep on the bed too, or you might catch a cold.”

Lu Yuzhi looked down at the little one in his arms, surprised that his heart, which had been tossed into turmoil, still had the energy to beat so fiercely.

“Hmm,” he replied again.

Jing Yi smiled once more.

Lu Yuzhi placed Jing Yi on the bed and lay down beside him.

He tucked Jing Yi in and said softly, “Sleep.”

Jing Yi obediently closed his eyes.

How strange… Before Lu Yuzhi arrived and even after, his mind had been in chaos. So why did he feel so peaceful now?

Completely relaxed, Jing Yi’s breathing gradually steadied.

Only after seeing the little one on the bed fall asleep did Lu Yuzhi quietly get up and turn off all the lights.

He slipped into bed quietly, lay beside Jing Yi, and closed his eyes.

The night passed, and dawn arrived.

Jing Yi sat up and glanced at the sun outside the window.

He had overslept.

Jing Yi looked beside him and frowned.

Lu Yuzhi had listened to him and slept on the bed, but he hadn’t covered himself with a blanket. Now, Lu Yuzhi’s face was flushed, and his breathing was rapid—clearly, he had caught a chill and developed a fever.

It was his fault. He should have made Lu Yuzhi a bowl of ginger soup last night instead of sitting on the sofa, troubled by his inability to meditate.

Feeling guilty, Jing Yi checked Lu Yuzhi’s pulse and found that his illness stemmed from excessive worry combined with catching a cold, which only deepened his self-reproach.

“Hmm?”

Lu Yuzhi opened his eyes at that moment.

Seeing Jing Yi before him, he smiled and tried to sit up, only to realize his head felt heavy and dizzy.

“You’ve caught a cold,” Jing Yi said softly. “Rest. I’ll make you some ginger soup.”

Lu Yuzhi took a heavy breath and replied weakly, “Okay, thank you.”

The ginger soup was soon ready.

Jing Yi brought it to the bedside and called Lu Yuzhi’s name several times, but there was no response.

The fever was too severe.

Jing Yi helped Lu Yuzhi sit up, placed his hand on Lu Yuzhi’s back, and channeled his internal energy into Lu Yuzhi’s body.

Lu Yuzhi’s tightly furrowed brow relaxed slightly, and the chilling coldness seemed to dissipate with the warm energy flowing through him.

He opened his eyes.

“Yuzhi, drink the ginger soup to strengthen the effect.”

Lu Yuzhi took the bowl and drank it in large gulps.

After helping Lu Yuzhi lie down again, Jing Yi took the bowl to the kitchen and started cooking porridge in the rice cooker.

During his free moment, he picked up his phone and silently opened a search engine: What is love?

A flood of answers appeared, varied and diverse.

Jing Yi flipped through the pages one by one, only setting down his phone when he heard the rice cooker’s notification chime.

The freshly cooked porridge was too hot.

Jing Yi soaked the bowl of porridge in cold water for a while. When he felt the temperature was just right, he brought it to Lu Yuzhi.

Lu Yuzhi was already feeling somewhat better. He sat up and drank the porridge. After just two sips, he noticed Jing Yi staring at him with a strange expression.

“What’s wrong?” Lu Yuzhi asked.

Jing Yi went straight to the point: “Do you miss me when you can’t see me?”

Lu Yuzhi was taking his third sip of porridge and nearly choked upon hearing this.

He coughed twice, looked at Jing Yi, and replied, “Yes.”

Jing Yi nodded and asked another question: “Then, when you see me, do pink bubbles appear in your world?”

Lu Yuzhi didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

He quickly finished the porridge in a few large gulps, placed the bowl on the bedside table, and retorted, “Did you look up some strange information?”

Jing Yi replied seriously, “It wasn’t strange information. I found the answers using the same method I use to search for solutions to practice questions. It’s collective wisdom, and I think it should be correct.”

“Then why are you researching this?” Lu Yuzhi asked again, leaning against the wall, his breathing feverish. “We agreed to be friends. How could pink bubbles appear between friends?”

“I’m just curious,” Jing Yi said, lowering his gaze cautiously. “If you don’t want me to ask, then forget it.”

Lu Yuzhi had the feeling that the young man in front of him was afraid of making him angry.

He felt even more guilty about his loss of composure the day before and tried to make amends: “I don’t mind you asking. You can ask me anything. Pink bubbles are probably something girls experience, right? I don’t get them.”

“From the way you said that, it sounds like you’re not sure?”

“I’ve never liked anyone else. I only like you,” Lu Yuzhi gazed at Jing Yi, then paused and looked away. “But don’t ask me how I feel when I see you.”

Jing Yi wore a thoughtful expression.

After a while, he tilted his head and said, “But you just said I could ask you anything?”

His expression clearly implied he was calling out someone for contradicting themselves.

Lu Yuzhi felt his face grow even hotter.

If he had known Jing Yi would be so intensely curious about this topic, he wouldn’t have exposed himself. The feeling of being trapped was unbearable.

Wait… It had been a while since he last visited his godson.

Lu Yuzhi’s eyes lit up slightly as he changed the subject: “Shall we go see Lu Yi later?”

“Hmm, Yuzhi, not only are you contradicting yourself, but you’re also changing the subject,” Jing Yi nodded slightly, as if reaching a definitive conclusion. “You must want to take liberties with me every time you see me.”

With his thoughts exposed, Lu Yuzhi felt like banging his head against the wall.

He collapsed onto the bed and covered his face with the blanket: “Yes, I do want to take liberties with you. Didn’t you already experience that yesterday? I want to every time.”

“Oh, I see,” Jing Yi said calmly, staring at the human-shaped lump under the blanket. “Then why are you hiding? According to one female benefactor’s answer, when people see someone they like, they shyly hide away, their hearts filled with pink bubbles.”

Lu Yuzhi sat bolt upright, his face full of grievance: “Xuan Kong, I’m a patient right now.”

“You’re fine now,” Jing Yi reached out, grabbed Lu Yuzhi’s hand, and checked his pulse. “Your pulse is normal. In the future, don’t overthink things. If there’s something on your mind, say it directly, and we’ll find a solution together.”

Lu Yuzhi finally resigned himself to his fate.

He looked directly at Jing Yi and said bluntly, “If you marry me, that would solve it.”

Jing Yi: “The country doesn’t have same-sex marriage laws.”

“Let’s go to another country.” After answering reflexively, Lu Yuzhi’s numb brain suddenly started working again. A smile touched his lips. “Are you agreeing to marry me?”

Jing Yi shook his head: “I didn’t say that. I’m just telling you this doesn’t solve the fundamental problem.”

Lu Yuzhi’s heart trembled, feeling like he would eventually develop myocardial infarction.

But Jing Yi actually continued: “I haven’t figured out what to do yet. How could I easily agree to you?”

Lu Yuzhi asked in stunned confusion: “What do you mean?”

“Love really does make people foolish.” Jing Yi used his proven-successful tone again, putting his palms together. “Amitabha, sin, sin.”

Saying this, Jing Yi shook his head and left the bedroom with the empty bowl.

Lu Yuzhi stared at Jing Yi’s retreating back, closed his eyes and pressed his forehead.

It seemed… Jing Yi thought he had become stupid?

This… wasn’t exactly wrong either.

“Yuzhi, get some sleep. We’ll go see Lu Yi this afternoon.” Jing Yi’s voice came from outside the door.

“Okay.” Lu Yuzhi decided to stop thinking about it for now.

He lay on the bed and closed his eyes, trying hard to fall asleep when Jing Yi suddenly walked in again: “Is this considered a date?”

—Buddha, I was wrong.

Lu Yuzhi didn’t move.

Jing Yi looked disappointed.

“You’re pretending to sleep. It seems I said something wrong.”

“That’s not…” Lu Yuzhi spoke up, his voice sounding weak.

The topic of Buddhist practice was more suitable for Jing Yi’s thorough questioning. The topic of romance placed on Jing Yi was too exhausting.