Shou-Switching System Has Been Bound - Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Into the Hole

Qi Youli was listlessly cleaning the shop. Since he didn’t hire anyone else besides the game companions, all the chores fell on him. He spent most of his time at the shop anyway, so he felt that hiring someone else to clean would be a total waste of money.

He swept the floor meticulously, not missing a single nook or cranny. Environmental hygiene was important.

Yesterday, to track the Uncle, he had asked a buddy to watch the shop for the whole day. He couldn’t keep troubling people, so he swapped his broom for a mop and began to scrub the floors.

By the time Yuan Yuan and the others arrived at the shop one by one, he had already taken out the trash. The moderately decorated shop was polished clean by his hands, and a faint fragrance floated in the air.

Ava noticed his split lip and his slightly swollen mouth. Thinking about how he hadn’t even come to the shop yesterday, she spoke in an exaggerated tone: “Oh my, oh my!  Brother Qi, did you finally bring the beauty home?”

The girls’ views on this were very unified: their boss was definitely a “1.” Whether in terms of appearance or temperament, the boss was very dominant. Without exception, the boys who frequently appeared in the shop trying to hook up with the boss were all delicate, pretty, and petite.

Everyone crowded around the cashier desk from all directions to tease him: “Brother Qi, your partner is quite fierce; they kissed your mouth into such a state.”

Yaya smiled, revealing two cute dimples: “Or maybe they just kissed for too long. They must have kissed at home all day yesterday.”

The girls’ laughter was crisp and pleasant.

Qi Youli: “…”

His face was darker than the bottom of a pot. They were really touching a sore spot, but he couldn’t vent his private emotions on his employees. He wasn’t that kind of cold-hearted boss.

Ava had a sudden inspiration and snapped her fingers: “Maybe the kissing technique wasn’t very good.”

The girls all showed a look of sudden realization.

Qi Youli couldn’t help but think of the kiss in the elevator. Was the technique bad? Hell no. In just that short while, the kissing, sucking, and biting had been done with such flair.

But then he thought that perhaps it was practiced with Xia Xu.

His face grew darker, and his head felt dizzier. He waved them off: “Alright, alright, stop surrounding me. Go get busy with your work. I’ll buy you milk tea in a bit.”

After driving away the chirping girls, he finally found some peace. He had been feeling unwell since the middle of last night, and right now, he didn’t want to think about or hear anything related to the Uncle.

Yuan Yuan was contacting her clients. She glanced at Qi Youli, who was propping up his head and spacing out, and secretly snapped a photo to send to Ji Lianyi.

He doesn’t look like he’s in a good state.

Ji Lianyi was in class. He leaned sideways against the lectern, his long legs crossed casually, revealing a section of ankle wrapped in black suit socks. He spoke with effortless humor about the knowledge he knew by heart.

The students listened with great interest, though some were distracted.

Yuan Lin was one of them.

He wasn’t listening to the lecture; he was obsessively staring at Ji Lianyi, the most perfect person in the world.

He would personally wipe that stain out of Professor Ji’s life.

He clicked on his chat box with Xia Xu.

Xia Xu: Prompt: You haven’t replied to Lord Xia Xu for a full 30 minutes.

Yuan Lin tapped his phone with a cold face: Please punish me, Lord Xia Xu.

Xia Xu looked at Yuan Lin’s reply and couldn’t help but smile. When he realized he was smiling, he felt a bit guilty and bit his lip. I just want to make one more friend…

Nothing more.

Lately, his “Brother” was always coming home. The time spent with him had decreased significantly, and he even came back with injuries. Clearly, the situation with his family was getting worse. Xia Xu had been unable to eat or sleep well for the past few days because of this, thinking about how to remind his Brother to get the property that belonged to him before a complete fallout with the family.

“I’m doing this for Brother’s own good.”

He murmured as he replied to Yuan Lin: I sentence you to treat Lord Xia Xu to dinner tonight.

Then he sent a message to Ji Lianyi: “Brother, I’m having a group dinner with my classmates tonight, but I’ll be thinking of you every second.”

Exiting the chat interface, he saw Qi Youli in his list. The guy had actually kept his word and stayed very quiet, which made him feel a bit uncomfortable. He clicked on Qi Youli’s social feed; it was still full of promotions for the shop.

He scoffed.

A tiny pool hall is just a tiny pool hall, no matter how much you fuss over it.

He deliberately sent an emoji over, followed by another message: Oops, sorry, that was meant for Uncle. I sent it to the wrong person.

Qi Youli, his head throbbing, gripped his phone: Piss off.

His body was alternating between cold and hot. Right now, he found the whole world unpleasant to look at. Yet Xia Xu had to jump out and be annoying, insisting on mentioning the person he wanted to hear about the least.

His eyes, more moist than usual, shifted slowly. The Uncle didn’t care about being cuckolded at all; otherwise, Qi Youli could have slept with Xia Xu again just to spite him.

But Xia Xu was useless now.

Xia Xu: Are you sick! How dare you swear at me!

Qi Youli: Shut your mouth, or I’ll tell your Uncle everything.

The other side went silent.

Qi Youli put down his phone, his head split by pain. He threw these messy affairs out of his mind and stopped thinking about them.

He didn’t even eat lunch.

Consequently, Ji Lianyi received another message from Yuan Yuan.

Brother Qi didn’t eat lunch.

Ji Lianyi was currently explaining an example from the lecture to Yuan Lin. The student was eager to learn and had come to find him right after class; as a model teacher, he was naturally willing to share his knowledge.

He taught seriously, and Yuan Lin listened even more seriously.

By the time he finished sorting things out for Yuan Lin, lunch hour had passed. Yuan Lin looked apologetic: “Sorry, Professor Ji, for taking up your time.”

Ji Lianyi pressed his phone: “It’s fine.”

Yuan Lin’s heart pounded. He plucked up his courage: “Professor… a new Cantonese restaurant opened in the snack street behind the school. The taste is quite good. You haven’t eaten either because of me, Professor. Let me treat you.”

Ji Lianyi turned off his phone and looked at Yuan Lin. The latter couldn’t maintain eye contact for even two seconds before averting his gaze, though his bright red ears betrayed him.

“There’s no reason for a student to treat a teacher. What’s the difference between that and a parent spending a child’s money? You go ahead and eat. I have to go feed a little stray dog in a bit.”

Yuan Lin felt a wave of disappointment at being rejected, but the thought of Professor Ji being with a dog felt cute: “You have a dog, Professor?”

“He isn’t mine yet. But my boyfriend played with him for a while, so I’ve decided to bring him home.”

Yuan Lin silently clenched his fists. Every time he talked to Professor Ji, the Professor would mention that damn boyfriend of his.

Ji Lianyi: “Then I’ll be going first. You go eat, too.”

Yuan Lin watched Ji Lianyi leave.

How does someone like Xia Xu deserve Professor Ji’s love!

Qi Youli, with a splitting headache, looked at the time and felt as if the sky had collapsed. It was only 8:00 PM. He had at least four more hours before he could close and that was optimistic.

This was peak time for customers. He forced himself to stay sharp, his face plastered with a weary “work smile.”

“Welcome.”

Qi Youli looked at the two new faces who had just entered two very high-quality mature men. To be honest, with their temperament, his small shop felt a bit unworthy of them.

“Is this your first time at our shop? There’s a new customer discount.”

He hosted them enthusiastically and successfully got them to stay. He gave them two bottles of water: “If you need anything, call me anytime. I’m at your beck and call.”

When he sat back down at the cashier desk, his vitality vanished instantly. He grabbed his water bottle to sustain himself, aiming to get them to sign up for a membership card when they left.

He was drowsy at the cashier desk when the door was pushed open from the outside.

Subconsciously, he looked over: “Welcome.”

The last word got stuck in his throat.

Ji Lianyi’s gaze lingered on his face only briefly before he walked toward the two new faces: “Traffic was heavy. Sorry I’m late.”

Shen Aoming looked behind him: “How come you didn’t bring your little tail?”

“Xia Xu is having a group dinner with classmates. Today, I’m the only one here to eat you two’s dog food (PDA).”

Shen Aoming leaned against Gu Shengjin, teasingly: “Then you might find it hard to finish all of it.”

Their conversation wasn’t very loud, but Qi Youli could hear it clearly. So these two were the Uncle’s friends. Did they deliberately arrange to meet at his place?

Was the Uncle setting another trap for him?

He stared gloomily at Ji Lianyi, who had his back turned while chatting and taking off his overcoat. Setting aside their grievances, the Uncle’s physique was truly good.

The old man must work out hard usually.

Although this was his territory, it was precisely because it was his territory that he couldn’t cause trouble.

Business had to be done.

He had to endure.

Ji Lianyi picked up a cue. The chalk looked even smaller in his large hand as he used his well-proportioned fingers to press it against the tip of the cue, rubbing it slowly.

Qi Youli, leaning on the cashier desk with only his eyes showing, stared at that perfectly normal movement, cursing the “big pervert” in his heart who rubs a pool cue in such an erotic way?

Ji Lianyi broke.

The position was directly facing the cashier desk. He slowly leaned down with the cue, his arm stretched straight, the cue resting on his braced hand aimed at the cue ball.

Behind the lenses, his thin eyelids lifted like sharp blades. His gaze passed over the pool balls and cut straight into the eyes staring at him.

A sudden eye contact.

The person leaning on the cashier desk didn’t look away, but the hand tucked under his arm curled instinctively.

The shop was quite full; everyone was doing their own thing. No one noticed their secret, competitive stare-down.

Ji Lianyi held the long pool cue, staring at Qi Youli poised for action. His thumb rose and fell slowly twice on the cue, pulling at the puppy’s heartstrings.

For a moment, Qi Youli even felt like the Uncle was aiming at him.

Unknowingly, he felt as if he had become the prey, making him involuntarily tense up.

At a certain moment, Ji Lianyi, hiding a fierce intensity, thrust the pool cue forward with extreme precision and speed.

Qi Youli’s pupils flickered. The scene before him overlapped with the scene from that night. He was the cue ball being violently struck out by the cue.

His Adam’s apple rolled silently.

The white cue ball struck the target ball with a thump.

Qi Youli’s heart also went thump, sending a roar through his already dazed head. His heart felt like it was about to jump out. His moist eyes stared unblinkingly at Ji Lianyi, who was slowly straightening up from the table. The other man’s gaze withdrew nonchalantly as he continued to chat and laugh with the people beside him.

The pool balls scattered under the heavy impact. The 6-ball rolled toward the pocket closest to the cashier desk.

A hole-in-one.

Qi Youli licked his split lip.

Old rogue…

“Boss, play a round with us.”

Qi Youli took a breath and propped himself up from the cashier desk. He walked through the middle of the two tables, twisting his head to avoid looking at Ji Lianyi’s side, afraid he wouldn’t be able to resist hitting him.

Under the table, a leather shoe was casually extended.

The distracted Qi Youli was tripped and lunged forward. A dry, warm, large hand grabbed his wrist, holding him steady.

Qi Youli lifted his gaze: “Tha—”

Ji Lianyi: “Careful.”

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