I'm Coming to Find You Now

On the way back, the four-person group chat kept buzzing with notifications.

You Ran: 【@Xie Qizhi, last time you lied to me and said he was your brother! You call *this* a brother???】

You Ran: 【Last night when I liked your Moments post, I thought it was just a simple birthday celebration. Turns out you were going public?】

Zhan Xinjie: 【What do you know? This is called "first he's my brother, then he's my boyfriend, and finally he's my husband."】

Xie Qizhi: 【That's not it.】

You Ran: 【Not your brother, or not your boyfriend?】

Zhan Xinjie: 【Or he won't become your husband?】

Xie Qizhi: 【He's my brother. Today he's my boyfriend, but tomorrow, who knows~】

You Ran: 【Tomorrow, who knows~】

Zhan Xinjie: 【Tomorrow, who knows~】

Xie Qizhi: 【face-palm emoji】

The long-unseen orange cat avatar suddenly popped up, asking out of nowhere: 【Are you and your brother in *that* kind of relationship?】

Xie Qizhi: 【Yeah, that's right.】

Orange Cat: 【hesitant-to-speak emoji】

Orange Cat: 【Never mind, you city folks really play wild.】

Xie Qizhi: 【Huh?】

Li Yi didn't say anything more. Xie Qizhi stared at the screen, thinking, *How is this playing wild?*

He looked at yesterday's photo again. Because of the power outage, the lighting was very dim and atmospheric. A few small lights cast a warm, gentle yellow glow over the cake, the coffee table, and the standee, also illuminating the curved smiles of the two.

It was so cozy. They hadn't even held hands yet. Li Yi really hadn't seen much of the world.

Having not heard from him in a while, Xie Qizhi proactively struck up a conversation, asking: 【How have you been lately? Are you still in Songcheng?】

A few minutes passed, but Li Yi still didn't reply.

Xie Qizhi clicked into his Moments, only to find a blank space beneath a gray line. Didn't You Ran say she saw a video of Li Yi playing guitar on his Moments before?

That meant he hadn't set it to "only visible for three days"...

So he had blocked me from viewing his Moments?

No wonder he didn't like his posts; he didn't even look at his Moments.

So who did he think "brother" referred to?

Could it be... his own biological brother, my brother?

In Li Yi's eyes, had he become his sister-in-law???

The Bentley drove into the residential area. Ying Huai stopped the car under the building and leaned over to look at Xie Qizhi.

Xie Qizhi was completely oblivious, still frowning at his phone screen as if pondering a difficult, world-class math problem.

Sitting in the driver's seat, Ying Huai chuckled as he watched him type away with his head down, even his nose wrinkling, not knowing who he was arguing with.

Another few minutes passed, and Xie Qizhi's attention was still glued to his phone. What on earth were they talking about that made him so absorbed?

Ying Huai lost his patience. He cast his eyes down to glance at the screen to see who he was chatting with. He leaned over to help Xie Qizhi grab his books from the back seat, casually ruffled his hair, and asked displeasedly, "We're here. Do you want me to roll out a red carpet to invite you down?"

Xie Qizhi took the books, looked up at Ying Huai for a moment, his eyes shining with amusement, and naturally tilted his face up to plant a quick kiss on his cheek.

Ying Huai froze, his long eyelashes drooping slightly as he looked at him.

Xie Qizhi turned his head back to look out the window, his expression somewhat wistful: "It's almost dark."

Ying Huai knew what he was thinking. He rubbed the soft white hair of the person beside him and asked, "Reluctant to part? Do you want to come back with me then?"

Xie Qizhi shook his head resolutely: "No."

Ying Huai asked, "Why?"

Xie Qizhi turned his head back, looked straight into his obsidian-like black eyes, and said seriously, "When I kiss you and you no longer treat it as just a joke, I'll move back."

Ying Huai looked at him: "Isn't that up to you to decide?"

"Yes, it's my decision." Xie Qizhi pushed the door open and got out of the car, waving at him through the window glass: "Brother Ying Huai, whether you love me or not, I can tell."

In the evening, Xie Qizhi heard the fat cat meowing and scratching at the door. Fearing that letting it in would ruin his brother's standee, he put on a mask and went out to play with it for a while.

When Sister Lin returned from working overtime, she carried the fat cat back with an apologetic look.

As Xie Qizhi was about to leave, she called him back: "Qiqi."

Xie Qizhi turned around and heard Lin Jianshan say to him, "Happy belated birthday. It's a day late, and yesterday you were left in a house with a power outage all night... You didn't feel unwell, did you?"

Xie Qizhi shook his head. He first thanked her for her concern, then said, "Brother Ying Huai came over to stay with me, so I had a pretty good birthday."

"That's good then," Lin Jianshan replied. "It's too late tonight. Come over to my place for dinner tomorrow evening; I'll make chicken soup stewed with mushrooms for you."

Sister Lin was very good at making soups. Xie Qizhi didn't want to refuse and didn't, accepting the invitation immediately.

After returning home, taking another shower, and changing into clean pajamas, he finally received a reply from Li Yi.

This guy completely avoided mentioning his own misunderstanding, and instead blamed Xie Qizhi for having a dirty mind and overthinking things.

Xie Qizhi was silent for a moment, feeling that Li Yi was like a mutated hybrid of his brother and Ying Huai—stubborn, overthinking, and homophobic.

Fearing he might accidentally trigger the straight guy's delicate and sensitive homophobic nerve, Xie Qizhi dropped the subject and asked: 【Have you been very busy lately?】

Li Yi: 【Busy working】

Xie Qizhi glanced at the clock. It was almost 10 PM. He couldn't help but ask: 【Now?】

Li Yi: 【Night shift】

Xie Qizhi: 【Didn't my brother say he gave you allowance? You spent it all so fast?】

Li Yi: 【No. Do you rich kids only know how to spend and not how to earn?】

Li Yi: 【Don't you understand the concept of depleting a mountain of wealth by sitting idle?】

Xie Qizhi: 【… Ah.】

Li Yi: 【What?】

Xie Qizhi: 【Nothing, just blinded by the noble aura of humanity radiating from you.】

Li Yi: 【Crazy.】

Xie Qizhi: 【How did your parents agree to let you work outside? Didn't they force you to go back to school?】

With those extremely strict demands their parents had for their children—where even his brother not getting a perfect score of 750 on the college entrance exam was considered a fault—how could they possibly leave Li Yi alone like this?

Li Yi: 【They did, but I didn't listen. What can they do to me?】

Xie Qizhi: 【Impressive.】

Li Yi: 【That's nothing. Are you that scared of your parents?】

Xie Qizhi: 【They're *your* parents.】

Li Yi: 【Hmph.】

Li Yi: 【Let me tell you, dealing with face-saving parents like them is easy. Just cry, make a scene, and threaten suicide. They forced me to go back, so I said fine, tie me up and take me back. Once I'm back, I'll jump off the building. Let's see who's more afraid.】

Xie Qizhi was astonished by his rogue-like mindset, but even more astonished that he would rather work hard on the night shift every day, or even jump off a building, than return home to his biological parents.

Why?

Was it the genes in his blood? Was he born hardworking and loving labor?

But his brother wasn't like that. When he could relax, his brother enjoyed life very well.

He wanted to ask for clarification, but Li Yi stopped talking.

Li Yi: 【That's all, I'm going to work.】

Xie Qizhi: 【Wait, where are you working now?】

Half an hour later, Li Yi still hadn't replied.

Xie Qizhi gave up and called his brother directly to ask what the situation was.

His brother replied, "Just as you said, Mom and Dad have looked for him over a dozen times, but it's like water off a duck's back. He won't listen to advice and refuses to come back. Other than demanding and receiving money, he has nothing else to say to us."

Xie Qizhi asked, "So we're just going to leave him be like that?"

"Do you think that's possible?" his brother asked back, explaining, "Mom and Dad believe the problem lies with his adoptive parents. They were the ones who stole Dongdong, ruining his life and turning a good child bad. So lately, they've been busy contacting lawyers."

Xie Qizhi didn't understand the connection and asked, "What do they need lawyers for? Brother Dongdong is already an adult. Even if they find a lawyer, they can't restrict his personal freedom, can they?"

"They're looking for a lawyer to sue his adoptive parents." His brother hesitated for a moment before telling him, "Dongdong didn't just wander off and get lost; he was abducted after getting lost. Otherwise, how could a child just over a year old travel all the way from Yizhou to distant Songcheng? And even become the son of the Li family?"

"Therefore, Mom and Dad plan to prosecute them criminally for the crime of trafficking abducted children."

Compared to them, Li Yi was still too naive.

He thought that by hurting himself to threaten his parents, he could make them pity him and soften their hearts, thereby leaving him to his freedom. But that short-lived victory would instead result in sending his adoptive parents to prison.

Li Yi didn't want to go home, so his parents wanted to destroy the only home he could return to.

The law is never wrong, and no one convicted is truly innocent. If his adoptive parents weren't innocent, and even deserved it...

Then what would Li Yi do?

Xie Qizhi's chest felt tight, and he suddenly felt uncomfortable. This feeling was exactly like returning to his childhood when only he and his brother relied on each other. Neither he nor his brother were naturally obedient children, but their parents always had ways to make them comply.

And Li Yi was the next version of them.

Although his brother had told Xie Qizhi about this, he also warned him to just know about it and absolutely not get involved.

Xie Qizhi replied with an "Okay" to reassure his brother.

However, tossing and turning in bed, unable to sleep, he suddenly sat up, changed out of his pajamas, put on a hat and a mask, and went out in the middle of the night.

Before hailing a taxi, Xie Qizhi stood in the cold wind and made several voice calls to Li Yi, but no one answered. He tried one more time.

A second before it disconnected, the call finally went through.

Li Yi's voice came through the crackling line, asking very irritably, "Young master, it's the middle of the night and you're not sleeping. What on earth do you want?"

"Where are you? Give me your address," Xie Qizhi said directly. "I'm coming to find you now."

Li Yi: "Huh?"