I’m Face-Blind, But I Devoted Myself To Three Guys - Chapter 31

Chapter 31: “I like things that are beautiful yet fragile…”

“I’m home.”

The message sent half an hour ago still hadn’t received a reply.

Qi Xu had already finished his shower. While blow-drying his hair, he stared at his silent phone. After hesitating for a moment, he finally put on a coat and headed out.

“I’m at your front door right now.”

Another ten minutes passed. Qi Xu stood outside Xie Chengyan’s door, looking at the tightly shut entrance.

Xie Chengyan had sent the message two hours ago. It was the first time the other man had reached out proactively, briefly asking if he was at home.

Qi Xu had immediately thought of their previous agreement. It was just that at the time, he was busy revolving around Chi Hui and hadn’t noticed the text.

With his sent message sinking into the ocean again without a trace, Qi Xu picked at the edge of his phone and decided to ring the doorbell one last time. If there was still no response, he’d just go home.

Qi Xu pursed his lips and waited a few more seconds, certain there was no movement inside. He assumed Xie Chengyan wasn’t home.

The cold wind outside let out a whistling sound that felt a bit eerie. Qi Xu withdrew his hand, pulled his loosely draped down jacket tighter, and prepared to leave.

However, the moment he turned around, the door behind him swung open a crack without warning. Then, a damp, icy hand reached out and hurriedly grabbed Qi Xu’s wrist.

It held significant force.

The icy, confining palm startled the unsuspecting Qi Xu, making his eyelashes quiver violently. He turned his head in panic, only to see a tall silhouette standing in the shadows behind the half-open door.

Xie Chengyan kept his eyes lowered. Gripping Qi Xu’s hand, he let out a light gasp for air before slowly raising his eyes with visible restraint.

The lights weren’t on inside, making it pitch black. Yet, the gaze of the man standing against that darkness was unexpectedly scorching—direct, persistent, and stuck firmly to Qi Xu’s face.

Qi Xu blinked in astonishment. His long lashes cast a small shadow beneath his eyes, but they couldn’t hide the glimmer and earnestness in his pupils.

“I thought you weren’t home,” Qi Xu said.

Xie Chengyan stared into those eyes looking straight at him, his breathing tightening quietly. After a long while, he lowered his eyes again, pulled his lips into a smirk, and slowly released his grip.

“Little Young Master…”

This low, raspy sigh from Xie Chengyan contained a sort of suppressed helplessness, as if he were enduring something.

Qi Xu didn’t know what this ambiguous tone meant, but he instinctively reached out and caught the hand the other was trying to withdraw. Taking the initiative, he held Xie Chengyan’s icy hand and said curiously, “Your hand is so cold.” And very wet.

Qi Xu was puzzled; in his several encounters with Xie Chengyan, the man’s body temperature was either too hot or too cold. He rubbed the back of the other’s hand, and his own fingertips were soon dampened.

Qi Xu’s proactiveness made Xie Chengyan’s expression stall slightly. For a moment, a heavy look of desire flashed through his eyes as he looked down. Xie Chengyan inconspicuously tightened his grip and murmured something softly, but his voice was so faint it vanished from his lips the moment it escaped.

Qi Xu didn’t hear it clearly and tilted his head: “Hmm?”

Xie Chengyan didn’t answer. He just raised his eyes and stared intensely at Qi Xu’s face, his gaze deep. Qi Xu felt a bit uncomfortable being stared at and scratched his cheek.

The hands held between them soon grew warm. More accurately, Xie Chengyan’s hand became much hotter.

Feeling the body temperature that wasn’t his own, Qi Xu became even more curious: “Are you sick again? Do you need medicine?”

Why did this whole person act like a cold-blooded animal, with a body temperature that changed every other minute?

Qi Xu was looking down at their joined hands, so he didn’t notice the gaze scrutinizing him from above.

“Did you come here right after a shower?” Xie Chengyan asked instead of answering.

Qi Xu blinked and looked down at himself. He was wearing thin pajamas with a calf-length down jacket thrown over them; it wasn’t hard to tell he had just bathed.

Qi Xu nodded: “Yes.”

Xie Chengyan’s gaze fell on Qi Xu’s exposed white neck and a small portion of his collarbone before moving away subtly.

“Medicine is useless.”

“Huh?” Qi Xu was dazed for a second, but quickly realized the other was answering his previous question. If medicine was useless, it meant he truly was ill.

In the next moment, Qi Xu realized this was a great opportunity to… “save” him.

“…Then, can I help you?” Qi Xu looked at Xie Chengyan expectantly, intending to take the chance to “lick” some life points.

After he asked this, Xie Chengyan froze again, his breathing stopping for half a beat. His eyes, which looked like they were inspecting prey, narrowed slightly. His tight grip gradually loosened. Then, under Qi Xu’s puzzled gaze, he took a direct step back.

The hallway light could only reach a limited angle. The tall figure retreated completely into the shadows of the house. The two of them gazed at each other in silence like that.

After a long while, Xie Chengyan revealed an exceptionally handsome smile: “Are you going to help me?”

His voice was low and soothing, carrying an undetectable lure.

Qi Xu blinked as he looked at the distance between them. For some reason, even though the man had a smile on his lips, he felt that Xie Chengyan looked a bit dangerous at this moment. Like a soul-seducing demon.

The wind outside whistled again; the outdoor temperature at night was exceptionally hard to endure. Qi Xu pursed his lips, took a step forward, and stood at the threshold: “Can I come in?”

A hint of surprise flickered in Xie Chengyan’s eyes, quickly covered by a surge of interest. He then slowly raised his hand, inviting the defenseless boy in.

Qi Xu looked down at the open palm and unconsciously licked his lips. He had to admit, he really liked this protagonist’s proactiveness. He placed his hand in the other’s palm and stepped into the house.

With a click, the door closed. The interior fell into complete darkness. Qi Xu took a step forward in the dark but didn’t dare continue. The person behind him was standing very close.

“You have too little vigilance…” Xie Chengyan leaned in and let out a soft laugh by his ear.

Qi Xu covered his ear, feeling a bit flustered by the laugh: “What?”

“Nothing.” Xie Chengyan straightened up, reached over Qi Xu’s shoulder, and flicked on the entryway light.

The sudden brightness was hard for eyes adjusted to the dark to accept. Qi Xu closed his eyes uncomfortably. When he opened them again, Xie Chengyan had already walked ahead of him.

Seeing the other’s calm demeanor, Qi Xu even wondered if he had misheard earlier. Staring at the man’s back, Qi Xu rubbed his fingers together, feeling hesitant. Xie Chengyan was the one he could figure out the least among the three targets; he seemed a bit scary.

But the thought of dying because he couldn’t gather Lickspittle Points seemed even scarier. After weighing it, Qi Xu convinced himself. He wouldn’t actually eat him, right?

However, just as he took a step to follow, he almost slipped. Qi Xu leaned against the wall to steady himself and looked back at his feet, seeing a puddle of water on the floor where he had been standing.

How could there be so much water on a perfectly fine floor? Qi Xu blinked and couldn’t help but look up at Xie Chengyan. He then noticed that Xie Chengyan was wearing a black bathrobe; the fabric, which wasn’t very thick, was soaked and clinging to his skin. It looked like he had hurriedly thrown it on without drying himself after washing.

No wonder his hand was wet. Qi Xu realized as he remembered their joined hands.

Noticing the person behind hadn’t followed, Xie Chengyan stopped and turned back, raising an eyebrow slightly: “What’s wrong?”

Qi Xu didn’t think much more of it. He carefully stepped over the water stains and caught up: “Did you just shower too? Do you want me to help blow-dry your hair?” He had just helped Chi Hui earlier; one more person didn’t make a difference.

Xie Chengyan didn’t answer his question, only giving him a side glance. “Sit for a bit. I’m going to change.”

Qi Xu looked at the wet clothes on him and felt uncomfortable for him too, so he nodded: “Okay.”

Xie Chengyan poured him a glass of water before leaving. Qi Xu didn’t sit for long before standing up because he saw something interesting.

The layout of Xie Chengyan’s house was the same as his, but the living room had an extra partition. Built into that partition wall was a water tank over half a person’s height. However, it didn’t hold ornamental fish; instead, it held several jellyfish with long tentacles. Dark lights were installed at the top of the tank, shining blue and purple light onto the water, making the slowly pulsing jellyfish look dreamlike.

As if sensing someone’s approach, the jellyfish slowly swam toward the wall of the tank. Qi Xu couldn’t help but press his hand against the glass and scratch it with his fingertip.

“Those are Atlantic sea nettles.” Xie Chengyan, who had finished changing at some unknown point, suddenly appeared behind him and introduced them.

Qi Xu stared at the long, tassel-like tentacles, his eyes widening slightly as he praised happily: “So beautiful.”

“There are also Spotted Jellyfish, do you want to see?” Xie Chengyan asked, seeing that he liked them.

Qi Xu turned around and blinked: “Can I?”

The corners of Xie Chengyan’s mouth curled up: “Of course.”

He led Qi Xu to a room. According to the layout of Qi Xu’s house, this should be a study. Sure enough, when the door opened, the first thing that came into view was a row of solid wood bookshelves.

Xie Chengyan turned on the study light. When Qi Xu saw the room’s decor clearly, his eyes immediately widened.

So many butterflies.

The study was quite large. On the wall adjacent to the bookshelf, there were butterfly specimens everywhere. Xie Chengyan walked to a jellyfish tank by the desk and tilted his chin toward Qi Xu.

Qi Xu approached as signaled and saw several small blue jellyfish swimming in the tank. Their pulsing heads were scattered with small white spots; they were very cute. But compared to this, the wall of butterfly specimens was clearly more attractive.

Xie Chengyan also noticed his curiosity and proactively invited him to look at the butterflies. On the desk nearby was a half-finished piece; a butterfly shimmering with a metallic blue luster was pinned to a foam board with many pins.

Qi Xu looked at the wall of specimens and then at the man beside him, curious: “Did you make all of these yourself?”

Xie Chengyan gave a faint smile: “To pass the time when I’m bored.”

Qi Xu stood before the display wall, looking up to admire them closely. There were at least several hundred specimens, each with perfect wingspans and labeled with names and dates. It didn’t look like the work of someone just “passing time.”

“Do you like them?” Xie Chengyan walked over.

Qi Xu nodded: “Very beautiful.”

Xie Chengyan stood sideways. His gaze traveled slowly up Qi Xu’s pale neck and finally landed directly on Qi Xu’s focused face, saying meaningfully: “Yes, very beautiful. I like things that are beautiful yet fragile.”

Qi Xu sensed the gaze and only snapped back to reality after a delay. But by the time he looked at Xie Chengyan with doubt, the other had already looked away. Qi Xu stared at the man’s profile for a moment and then silently withdrew his gaze.

Just now… I felt like I was being insulted?

There were so many butterfly specimens on the wall it was dizzying. Qi Xu looked at them one by one, asking questions from time to time, which Xie Chengyan answered promptly. By the time he came to his senses, nearly half an hour had passed.

Xie Chengyan, who had been standing by his side, had fallen silent at some point. He was leaning against the edge of the desk with his arms crossed, his head half-lowered.

Qi Xu thought he was tired of waiting and felt a bit guilty: “Sorry, I think I took up too much of your time.”

Xie Chengyan didn’t react.

Qi Xu took another step closer, noticing the man’s tensed back and the veins bulging on his temples from gritted teeth. Realizing late that the person before him seemed to still be ill, Qi Xu reached out worriedly, wanting to wipe the sweat from the other’s chin.

However, before his hand touched the man, it was grabbed. The force was so great that Qi Xu’s pretty face instantly scrunched up.

Xie Chengyan suddenly looked up. His eyes were bloodshot as he stared fixedly at Qi Xu. After ten seconds, he seemed to regain a sliver of sanity. He gasped heavily for air and said through gritted teeth, “I gave you a chance…”

Before Qi Xu could understand what he meant, the grip on his wrist tightened. Suddenly, he was pulled into a scorching embrace.

The other man’s body temperature was very high. Qi Xu’s down jacket was open, so they were only separated by thin pajamas. Heat rapidly exchanged through their pressed bodies. Xie Chengyan trapped him in his arms, his chin resting on Qi Xu’s shoulder. The sudden sense of fullness made him let out an uncontrollable sigh.

“What’s wrong?” Qi Xu didn’t understand and didn’t dare move, so he asked softly. Although he wanted this kind of contact, he wasn’t used to being the passive one in his lickspittle role.

However, before Xie Chengyan could answer, Qi Xu noticed something unusual.

“…” “…???”

Qi Xu shifted his body uncomfortably, but the other was holding him too tightly. Instead of creating distance, he rubbed against him twice, making the situation worse.

Xie Chengyan’s breathing suddenly became heavy, and his waist bent deeper, forcing Qi Xu to lean backward as well. His slender waist was almost bent into the shape of a crescent moon.

Someone bumped into a vase on the table. The round vase tipped over, spilling water that soaked one of the butterfly specimens before it rolled off the table and shattered at their feet. The water splashed onto Qi Xu’s ankle, the coldness making him instinctively shrink into the man’s arms.

“Little Young Master, do you remember our agreement?” Xie Chengyan exhaled a deep breath and asked hoarsely.

Qi Xu remembered. That was the price for the car crash.

“I have a sex addiction.”

Those few words made Qi Xu’s brain stall. It took a long time for him to realize what he had heard. His originally stiff body suddenly began to shake uncontrollably.

Sensing the fear and reluctance of the person in his arms, Xie Chengyan slowly closed his half-lidded eyes. Contempt and frustration intertwined in his furrowed brows, difficult to resolve.

However, just as he planned to release his arms, he heard a very quiet question by his ear. The voice was also shaking: “Is… is this disease contagious?”

“…” Xie Chengyan clearly hadn’t expected such a question and was speechless for a moment.

After a long time, he sighed and explained: “This is a psychological behavior disorder. It’s a mental illness, not a sexually transmitted disease.”

Funnily enough, as his explanation concluded, the body in his arms gradually stopped trembling.

“…” Xie Chengyan was between tears and laughter. So the trembling just now was only because he was worried about being infected?

Qi Xu didn’t know that his single sentence had silenced a man who was usually composed in everything. He pursed his lips, gripped the clothes on the man’s shoulder, and asked hesitantly: “Then… can I just help you like last time?”

Xie Chengyan pulled him back a bit to look into Qi Xu’s eyes. Seeing he was serious, he suddenly felt like laughing. “You truly surprise me.”

Although Qi Xu hadn’t shown much resistance to helping him that night in the lounge, they hadn’t finished in the end. So, he had originally thought his agreement with Qi Xu would just end as a joke.

Not getting a definitive answer, Qi Xu stared at Xie Chengyan, his lashes blinking: “No?”

Xie Chengyan gave a helpless smile: “It’s not needed right now.” His explanation about STDs and addiction just now had made him calm down instantly.

Qi Xu’s arms were curled against their chests. His fingers twitched unconsciously as he realized something. “Am I still useful then?”

If he wasn’t useful, he wanted to go home and sleep. Although he didn’t know the exact time, his body, used to a regular routine, told him it was time to rest.

Xie Chengyan looked at Qi Xu’s slightly wilted expression, then at the shattered vase. After a few seconds of silence, he circled Qi Xu’s waist and picked him up.

“You are useful.”

The sudden lift scared half of Qi Xu’s sleepiness away. He gripped Xie Chengyan’s shoulders tightly, fearing he would fall. However, Xie Chengyan clearly exercised often; holding Qi Xu’s thigh with one hand and supporting his waist with the other, he carried him on his shoulder with great stability.

Xie Chengyan led Qi Xu out of the study. Qi Xu leaned on the other’s shoulder, staring at the blue morpho specimen soaked in water on the desk, feeling it was a pity. He was blatantly spacing out; by the time he regained focus, he had been brought into another room.

Xie Chengyan dropped him onto a soft bed. Qi Xu was a bit dazed from the drop, looking blankly at the room that had a similar layout to his own bedroom.

“?” This was clearly Xie Chengyan’s bedroom, but he didn’t know why the man had brought him here. Especially since he said he didn’t need help.

“Why did you bring me here?” Qi Xu asked, puzzled.

Ignoring the question, Xie Chengyan suddenly leaned in close, kneeling by Qi Xu’s leg, and took a deep sniff at his neck. But a hint of unfamiliar scent amidst the familiar fragrance made him a bit unhappy: “Did you change your body wash?”

Qi Xu shook his head: “No.” Wondering why he said that, he raised an arm and sniffed it himself. There truly was nothing different.

“There’s an extra scent of chamomile,” Xie Chengyan said with certainty, turning his head to look at Qi Xu.

Qi Xu froze, then felt a surge of alarm. He hadn’t expected that even after washing his whole body, the other could still smell the scent he had picked up at Chi Hui’s house.

Qi Xu scratched his cheek: “I don’t think so.”

Xie Chengyan didn’t comment on his denial, changing the subject: “Do you still want to help me?”

Qi Xu nodded hesitantly.

Xie Chengyan raised an eyebrow, sat down against the headboard, and patted his own leg toward Qi Xu. “Then come and sit.”

Qi Xu stared at those straight, sturdy legs and sat kneeling where he was, not moving.

Xie Chengyan looked at the undisguised hint of wariness in his eyes and let out a light laugh: “Knowing how to be afraid only now? …As compensation, serve as a body pillow for me for the night.”

Qi Xu stared into Xie Chengyan’s eyes, seemingly judging the truth of his words. However, Qi Xu couldn’t see through those smiling eyes. After scrutinizing them for a long time without a conclusion, he simply crawled over obediently.

As the saying goes, he couldn’t actually eat him; after all, he was a Child of the World.

However, Qi Xu didn’t have much energy left to complete his lickspittle duties; he just curled into the man’s embrace and stopped moving. It seemed that in the face of extreme sleepiness, Lickspittle Points weren’t as important as a good night’s sleep.

“Can’t hug for too long, I still have to go home to sleep,” Qi Xu said softly. “I’m a picky sleeper (recognize my own bed).”

However, his voice became smaller and smaller. When Xie Chengyan looked down, he found that the person who just said he was a “picky sleeper” had already closed his eyes in his arms.

Xie Chengyan froze, then couldn’t help but laugh after realizing it. After laughing softly for a while, he lowered his brows again, tightening his arms around the person in his embrace. His eyes were once again filled with heavy thoughts.

So, it could now be confirmed that contact with Qi Xu could help him alleviate the irritability and anxiety during an episode. But he couldn’t quite distinguish Qi Xu’s purpose for approaching him. At first, he thought that like those young masters and ladies from wealthy families in the past, Qi Xu just treated him as a toy with a handsome face. But later he found that Qi Xu couldn’t see faces clearly at all, let alone remember his appearance.

His agreement with Qi Xu regarding the car crash compensation was also a whim. Yet this afternoon during his episode, the first thing he thought of was this ridiculous trade. He even instinctively felt that Qi Xu wouldn’t refuse.

In his mental chaos, he couldn’t resist sending the message. After not receiving a reply for a long time, just as he was about to give up, Qi Xu’s message about being home arrived. He restrained himself from replying, intending to treat it as a joke, only to receive a message shortly after that Qi Xu was outside his door.

For the ten minutes Qi Xu stood outside, he had been standing behind the door. Until the end, when Qi Xu planned to leave, he finally couldn’t resist stepping out to keep the other there.

This was the first person to approach him during an episode who didn’t make him feel repulsed.

Xie Chengyan looked down at the sleeping person and narrowed his eyes.

Why? What makes you different?