My Elite Boss Is Carrying My Child - Chapter 6

He typed: President Qu, I’m still at work.

It’s lunch break now.

Qi Jiezhi glanced at the time, and it was indeed almost the break.

He didn’t agree to go up, nor did he reply to Qu Mingluo. However, as soon as the lunch break started, Lin Shuangyu knocked on his door and walked in. “Xiao Qi, President Qu said he has something to discuss. He wants you to go upstairs.”

Qi Jiezhi was speechless. Qu Mingluo was using his professional authority so blatantly that even if others had opinions, they wouldn’t dare say a word. After all, he was the one who held the real power in this company.

Left with no choice, Qi Jiezhi went to the elevator, pressed the video call button as usual, and headed to the 28th floor. He knocked on the door and entered Qu Mingluo’s office.

“President Qu, you don’t need to be so formal,” Qi Jiezhi said. “I’m perfectly happy eating from the convenience store downstairs.”

“Fine,” Qu Mingluo replied. “Then I’ll go eat there with you.”

“No, no, no! That won’t be necessary,” Qi Jiezhi stammered. “I’m actually really looking forward to our lunch.”

He knew for a fact that if he took Qu Mingluo downstairs, they would not only be subjected to the stares of every colleague, but the lunch break of everyone else would be completely disrupted.

Qu Mingluo looked at him, then reached into a drawer and pulled out a thermal lunch box, placing it on the desk.

“This,” he said, “is better than the convenience store.”

Qi Jiezhi stared at the container. “Did you make this?”

“Xiao Xing’s family nanny did,” Qu Mingluo explained. “I noticed you like her cooking, so I had her prepare two portions.”

It took Qi Jiezhi a long moment to find his voice. “President Qu, you don’t have to do this.”

“Do what?”

“This,” Qi Jiezhi gestured toward the lunch box, then to the cashmere sweater he was wearing. “You’re being too good to me. It makes me feel like things aren’t normal.”

Qu Mingluo’s fingers tapped the desk, once, then twice.

“What do you think?” he asked Qi Jiezhi. “Why am I being good to you?”

Qi Jiezhi gripped his sleeves, unsure of how to respond.

“Because of Xiao Xing,” he said, his voice a bit raspy. “Because I’m Xiao Xing’s tutor.”

“Since you are good to Xiao Xing and I am his brother, there’s nothing abnormal about me being good to you,” Qu Mingluo said. “Xiao Qi, you don’t need to feel embarrassed. Without you looking after Xiao Xing while his parents are away, I wouldn’t even know how to take care of him.”

Qi Jiezhi searched Qu Mingluo’s eyes, trying to find a crack in his armor. But Qu Mingluo’s expression was too natural, as if he were stating a perfectly ordinary fact.

A brother thanking a tutor by providing lunch, what was wrong with that?

“Is that all?” he asked, his voice softer than he intended.

“What else would it be?” Qu Mingluo countered, his gaze calm. “What do you think it is?”

Qi Jiezhi couldn’t answer. He couldn’t exactly say that because he was gay himself, he suspected every man of having ulterior motives.

Qu Mingluo’s actions could all be explained away. He was simply used to being in control and taking care of people. It was Qi Jiezhi who had misunderstood.

“Nothing.” A hint of relief entered his tone as he took the lunch box. “Thank you, President Qu. I’ll go heat both of these up.”

Qu Mingluo didn’t respond, simply lowering his head to continue reading documents as if the conversation had never happened.

However, Qi Jiezhi noticed that the tips of the man’s ears were a faint shade of pink under the lights, like a silent giveaway.

A short while later, he brought the heated food back.

“Eat in the lounge,” Qu Mingluo told him.

“Okay.”

Qi Jiezhi followed him, waiting for him to scan his fingerprint to open the door and lead him inside. In that moment, Qi Jiezhi felt that Qu Mingluo wasn’t just Xi Xingyu’s brother.

The lounge was larger than Qi Jiezhi had imagined. There was a small round table with two chairs, a small tea station against the wall, and the city skyline visible through the window. Sunlight streamed in, casting warm patches of light onto the deep grey carpet.

Clearly, everything here was decorated according to Qu Mingluo’s personal taste.

Qu Mingluo sat across from him and opened the containers. Today’s dishes were clearly different from the previous time. These were carefully prepared by the family nanny, not Qu Mingluo himself.

He truly didn’t have the time for it anyway. Every day was filled with company business and looking after his younger brother, Xi Xingyu.

“The nanny said she understands your tastes now, so many of these are things Xiao Xing likes,” Qu Mingluo said. “She said she’ll cook more based on your preferences from now on.”

Qi Jiezhi looked at the chicken feet and wings in front of him. He remembered taking a few extra bites last night, and Qu Mingluo had noticed.

“What about you?” he asked. “What do you like to eat?”

Qu Mingluo paused, as if no one had ever asked him that before. He looked down at his bowl, his chopsticks poking at the rice.

“I’m not a picky eater,” he said.

“Everyone has a favorite. Acting like that makes it seem like you just don’t want to tell me.”

Qu Mingluo was silent for a long time, so long that Qi Jiezhi thought he wouldn’t answer. Then he said, “Sweets.”

Qi Jiezhi smiled. “Like cake?”

“Yes,” Qu Mingluo replied. “But my stomach isn’t great, so I can’t have much.”

Qi Jiezhi recalled the day on the 28th floor when Qu Mingluo had collapsed from low blood sugar. His black shirt had been soaked with sweat and his knuckles were white, yet he had stubbornly tried to pick himself up.

He remembered when he was feeding him glucose tablets, Qu Mingluo had bitten him, not hard, but like a sort of unconscious reliance.

Qu Mingluo wasn’t ignorant of his health. He was fully aware, he was just too busy with work to truly care for himself.

Qi Jiezhi remained silent. He lowered his head to eat. It was the same flavor as last night, and he felt an indescribable sensation in his heart.

“President Qu,” he couldn’t help but ask. “Do you usually, eat with Xiao Xing?”

“Of course not. You’ve tutored him for years, and before this, you had never even met me.”

“Then recently…”

“I just happened to have the time.”

Qi Jiezhi looked at his profile, sensing that this man was definitely hiding something. But since he wouldn’t speak of it, Qi Jiezhi wouldn’t ask. These were other people’s matters and had nothing to do with him.

Furthermore, someone like Qu Mingluo wasn’t someone Qi Jiezhi could just casually associate with.

The two of them ate in silence, with only the light clinking of utensils. When Qi Jiezhi didn’t know what to say, he always felt a bit awkward, so his gaze drifted toward the window to watch the changing clouds.

Qi Jiezhi thought of the place he rented, the sandwiches from the convenience store, and the silence of eating alone.

This was different. Here, someone sat across from him, and someone remembered that he liked chicken feet and wings. Yet he also knew that none of this belonged to him.

He was just a temporary guest, a passerby. But even so, he wouldn’t ignore the beauty of this moment.

Once he finished eating, he moved to clean up.

“Just leave it here, someone will come to collect it,” Qu Mingluo said. “Your lunch break is short, don’t waste it all on me.”

“Thank you, President Qu. But I wouldn’t call this a waste, I should be thanking you,” Qi Jiezhi said. “If you hadn’t prepared this food for me, I’d definitely still be at the convenience store downstairs.”

Qu Mingluo looked at him with a calm gaze. He seemed to want to say something, but in the end, he only uttered a soft “Mhm.”

Qi Jiezhi said his goodbyes. “I’m going back down now.”

He walked to the door, his hand on the handle, when he heard a voice behind him. “Don’t forget to leave with me.”

He turned back. Qu Mingluo was standing by the window, his posture as upright and steady as ever.

Qi Jiezhi told him, “Don’t worry, I won’t forget.”

When he returned to his department, his colleagues started prying, asking what business he had upstairs with Qu Mingluo.

Qi Jiezhi gave them the usual excuses about work. People in the company had already started assigning him all sorts of imagined identities anyway. He didn’t feel the need to explain or deny it to every single person. It didn’t matter if they misunderstood.

After heading back down, Qi Jiezhi took a short nap. When he closed his eyes, he could still see the scene from earlier.

Qu Mingluo was undeniably handsome, and being a few years older than Qi Jiezhi, he carried the steady, settled air of someone in a high position. It was hard for Qi Jiezhi not to be drawn to that aura.

However, he reminded himself that this was Xi Xingyu’s brother, not his.

He could only say that he had a few opportunities to spend time with him during this period, but he wouldn’t crave anything more. He knew that if he developed feelings for something that wasn’t meant for him, the consequences wouldn’t be what he wanted.

These things simply didn’t belong in his life. He wouldn’t hope for them, and he wouldn’t let himself be delusional. Because he refused to be the kind of person who let himself down.

When it was finally time to get off work, he hurried downstairs. Fortunately, he managed to catch the very first elevator after the clock struck.

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