The Richest Man’s Boyfriend Lives in a History Textbook - Chapter 9

When Xingyuan sat back down on the cushion, he felt as though he had lived through another lifetime, and even his breathing became much lighter.

He kept his composure and quietly shifted his bottom upward a little.

The cushion instantly understood, and the massage function was silently activated — silent mode had long since become the default throughout the entire interstellar world.

Xingyuan closed his eyes in comfort.

….

The young man who had just shown such deference to Xingyuan was named Yue Xi.

At that moment, Yue Xi brought over an electronic screen, offering it with both hands, and said: “Young Master, this is Xingchen Crafts’ quarterly report for this season. Please look it over.”

Xingyuan smiled at Yue Xi, accepted it with both hands and said thank you, then placed the electronic screen in front of his chest.

When he lowered his head to read the document, his gaze immediately turned serious. His fingers slid across every line of text, deliberately pausing whenever he came across a word he didn’t understand to look it up. For a moment, his concentration was absolutely complete.

Yue Xi stood to one side and waited. The sight of Xingyuan reading with such attentiveness was reflected in his pupils, and his gaze was tranquil, full of warmth.

He had watched Xingyuan grow up from childhood. He was very fond of Xingyuan, though not in a romantic way.

To say something somewhat presumptuous and disrespectful — even though he was only a few years older than Xingyuan, in his heart he had long since come to regard his young master as his own child.

He watched with a warm smile as Xingyuan scrolled through the document, feeling both amused and touched.

In truth, it didn’t really matter whether the Young Master could understand the document or not, because the decision-making authority was not in the Young Master’s hands.

The Young Master was only responsible for collecting the money.

…..

Before Xingyuan left for school, Yue Xi had stuffed him with two bowls of congee, two portions of nutritional meat, and a glass of milk — it was only when Xingyuan’s cheeks puffed up and he waved his hands to signal he couldn’t eat any more that Yue Xi finally relented with reluctance.

Yue Xi was quite vexed. Why was it that no matter how much he fed the Young Master, he never seemed to put on weight? Even just a little more flesh on his bones would do.

After Xingyuan stepped off the aircraft, he suppressed the urge to burp — even if he truly needed to, he had to wait until he was away from people.

Xingyuan gazed up at the sky and thought to himself that this was probably why he had such a big appetite.

He pressed his hand to his stomach and stepped onto the transport disc, which carried him to the doorway of his classroom.

He always arrived early, and today was no different. The classroom was only sparsely populated with a few people here and there.

Xingyuan sat down at his own seat and took out a transparent book from his bag.

After unlocking it with his fingerprint, the book lit up, and an icon appeared right in the center with the words: “Adapt to timetable?” written beneath it.

Without hesitation, Xingyuan tapped “Yes,” and the transparent book gradually transformed into a mathematics textbook.

Xingyuan straightened the book in front of him, but his eyes secretly swept around the room. Every time a classmate walked in, he felt a surge of anxiety.

Last Friday, he and Xu Mo had gotten into a disagreement. In the end, Xu Mo had walked out of the Science Museum, while he himself had entered the Star-Scrying Device.

One minute passed after another, and Xingyuan grew more and more at a loss.

What was he supposed to do when the time came? Should he apologize to Xu Mo? But things hadn’t really reached the point where an apology was necessary — if he overdid it, wouldn’t that just make things awkward?

Xingyuan ran through all sorts of imagined scenarios in his head. Then, the moment Xu Mo walked in, Xingyuan’s back went instantly rigid.

He pretended he hadn’t seen anything, and obediently took out the breakfast milk that Yue Xi had stuffed into his bag, tore it open, and started drinking.

A shadow fell beside him. Xu Mo shoved his own bag into his desk drawer. Unlike Xingyuan, Xu Mo was a top student — even though he had only just arrived at the classroom, he immediately pulled out his textbooks to study.

Neither of them said a word. Xingyuan’s nerves were on edge. He acted as if nothing had happened and fished out another carton of breakfast milk from his bag, pushing it over to Xu Mo.

“This is for you…” Xingyuan kept a calm expression on the surface, but inside he felt a little uncertain. He worried that Xu Mo might coldly push it back over, or simply pretend not to see it.

However, Xu Mo calmly picked up the milk, as though nothing had happened at all.

No — there was still a difference. Xu Mo spoke more than usual.

He said to Xingyuan, “I’ve been researching interstellar civilizations lately. I found a planet that has gone without a civilization gap for tens of thousands of years. Do you know which one it is?”

Xingyuan let out a quiet breath of relief. He knew — they had made up.

Xingyuan shook his head, playing along. “I don’t know.”

That was enough to open the floodgates for Xu Mo. He lit up his smart-brain and pulled up an image. It was, however, a game poster.

He held the screen up in front of Xingyuan and asked. “Do you recognize him?”

The poster was incredibly striking — its dominant colors were yellow, green, and blue, surrounded by tidal waves, tornadoes, and lightning bolts.

The three great natural disasters divided the screen, and at the center stood a breathtakingly handsome and uninhibited man. He wore his hair in a short style, and his smiling eyes held a bone-chilling coldness.

The man was dressed in a magnificent black military uniform. The insignia of the highest military rank in the interstellar world sat upon his shoulders; a belt with silver buckles made him look all the more sharp and severe, while a pair of white gloves added a sense of ascetic restraint.

Xingyuan’s mouth fell open. His eyes lit up like starlight. “This! This is my husband…”

Xu Mo’s eyelid twitched. A torrent of words caught in his throat, and he swallowed them all back down, managing to squeeze out only a few sentences.

“All you ever think about is playing games. Don’t you ever think about actually reading a book?”

After finishing his complaints, Xu Mo began to explain.

“He is not your husband. He is one of the Four Great Deities of Ketan mythology — the War God Stahl.

I’m sure you’ve already guessed it — that planet is Ketan Star. Their civilization has been passed down continuously to this day, and their level of technological advancement is among the top in the entire interstellar world.

That is precisely why Stahl is more popular than deities from other belief systems.”

“I…” Xingyuan scratched his head. “I only knew his role in the game. I always thought Ketan was just the name of a mythological system.”

“The game’s backstory is fabricated,” Xu Mo said, visibly frustrated. “Because Ketan Star is so far from the Federal Empire, their influence on us isn’t particularly obvious.”

With that, Xu Mo opened the course list and pointed to A General History of Universal Civilizations. “Ketan Star has already come up many times in this book.”

Xingyuan’s cheeks went slightly red. “This class… you know I, this class…”

Xu Mo was at a loss for words for a moment. He took a deep breath, turned his head, and narrowed his eyes at Xingyuan. “Actually, I’m quite curious — why do you always fall asleep in this class?”

Xingyuan bit his lip, hesitating. “Maybe this class is a little boring?”

“This class is the most interesting class there is.”

Xingyuan: ……

Xu Mo looked at him for a long moment, then let out a sigh. “Then from now on, you absolutely cannot fall asleep in this class anymore.”

Xingyuan nodded eagerly.

“I promise!”

…..

Xingyuan was still full of enthusiasm during mathematics class, and by the time the next class — A General History of Universal Civilizations — came around, he had managed to pull himself together once more. He even finally got a look at what this teacher actually looked like.

He was fully focused and listened with remarkable attentiveness. He frequently raised his hand to answer questions, and even the teacher took notice of him in a new light.

Xingyuan was overjoyed. He turned around, wanting to report the situation to his deskmate — only to find that sitting in the seat beside him was a sheep.

The sheep gave a “baa,” and shot him a sideways glance.

A sheep?

Xingyuan: ……

He sensed that something was off. A jolt ran through him, and as his eyes slowly opened, he found himself staring at his own desk surface.

In front of him sat a half-finished carton of milk, not yet drunk.

Xingyuan swallowed. He lifted his head and looked at his deskmate.

His deskmate gave a “hmph” and shot him a sideways glance.

Xingyuan: ……

****

That evening, Xingyuan returned home. Though the house was full of servants, it still felt empty.

At the dining table, he was the only one who picked up his chopsticks to eat… No — Yue Xi was there too, helping him add food to his bowl.

On any ordinary day, Xingyuan would still have looked listless, barely picking at a few mouthfuls.

But today’s Xingyuan puffed out his cheeks and ate half a bowl more than he usually would in one go. By the end of it, he was leaning back in his chair with curved, satisfied eyes, rubbing his belly, unable to get up.

Yue Xi smiled warmly and had the dishes cleared away. He took out a digestive tablet, fed it to Xingyuan, and reminded him:

“Eat in moderation. Please don’t stuff yourself to the point of feeling ill.”

As he spoke, he helped Xingyuan rub his stomach, and Xingyuan leaned back comfortably with a vacant gaze.

After a while, two slender fingers traced down along Xingyuan’s forehead, coming to rest at his eyelids.

Xingyuan caught sight of his own hair tips. Then he heard Yue Xi say, “Young Master, your hair has grown. Shall I trim it shorter for you?”

For some reason, the word hair seemed to echo in his ears over and over again.

Gradually, the silhouette of a figure emerged in Xingyuan’s mind.

He turned around, tilted his head up, and looked at Yue Xi with an expectant expression. “This time when I get a haircut, can I have a different hairstyle?”

Yue Xi paused, and looking into the young man’s eyes, he gave a nod.

There were only a sparse few clipped strands of hair on the floor.

Yue Xi had just finished tying the hair tie, when it slid out of the hair on its own and fell.

Yue Xi caught it. The tips of his fingers trembled slightly, and at last he could not help but sigh. “Young Master, the little… the little tuft won’t stay tied. Your hair is just too smooth — it simply won’t hold.”

He could have tied it tighter, but he was worried about leaving a crease in the young man’s hair.

Xingyuan: Hm?

He was a little baffled. Noticing a small hair tie on the table, he tried gathering a tiny lock of hair and tying it himself.

It was no use — his hair was short, and it was smooth, and the little hair tie slid right off.

Xingyuan: ……

Yue Xi patted the young man’s shoulder to reassure him. “Young one, I know you admire the War God Stahl, but there are other ways we can pay tribute to him.”

Not wanting the young man to feel discouraged, he added. “I can have someone custom-make a cosplay costume for you — whichever skin you like, I can have it prepared.”

Xingyuan shook his head. He looked at the Stahl figurine on the table, but the image that appeared in his mind was of an entirely different man.

Thinking back on his experience inside the Star-Scrying Device, he said to Yue Xi, “Would you mind getting me a set of paper and pen?”

It had been a long time since anyone used paper and pen to write things down anymore.

Yue Xi guessed that Xingyuan probably needed to record something important. He immediately sent someone to fetch a fine set of paper and pen.

After Xingyuan said thank you, he chewed on the tip of the pen and stared at the blank page in thought.

After a moment, he wrote down his first line on the paper.

[New Year 2542, March 11th — Hua Xingyuan owes that gentleman one pot of crayfish, and one ton of Miaozai Milk. That same evening, Hua Xingyuan began lodging in the gentleman’s room. The end date is yet to be determined. Tentatively recorded: owes him one set of accommodation…]

When he was finished writing, he tucked the little notebook into his pocket and made a quiet resolution to himself.

From now on, every time he owed the gentleman something, he would write it down in the little notebook.

As someone who kept his word.

When the day came that they met again — he would most certainly repay every last debt.