Chapter 21 – Needing Company

On the second day of the holiday, Jiang Ruo woke up late.

Yawning as he left the guest room, he was surprised to see Xi Yufeng sitting at the dining table.

“Isn’t today Monday?” Jiang Ruo checked his phone, “It is Monday, aren’t you going to work?”

Xi Yufeng glanced at him, “Who said working means you have to go to the office?”

Jiang Ruo understood – working from home.

Being the boss had its perks.

Just as he rolled up his sleeves to head into the kitchen, he heard Xi Yufeng say, “Breakfast will be here soon.”

Jiang Ruo blinked, somewhat skeptical, “Can the delivery guy come up?”

Security was tight in high-end residences, and Jiang Ruo once tried ordering food delivery. The delivery man was stopped by security and couldn’t enter. After much negotiation over the phone and finally getting clearance, he still couldn’t access the elevator that required identity verification.

In the end, Jiang Ruo had to run downstairs to pick it up. Ordering takeout proved more troublesome than eating out, which led Jiang Ruo to abandon the idea altogether.

This made him particularly curious about the breakfast Xi Yufeng promised would arrive right at their doorstep. After washing up, he sat in the living room with his full attention on waiting. When the doorbell rang, he jumped, only to slump when he saw Xi Yufeng’s assistant at the door.

When Shi Mingxu placed a paper bag on the table, Jiang Ruo’s eyes lit up again.

The assistant was there to deliver documents and fulfill his superior’s command – to buy breakfast from the tea restaurant.

After the assistant left, Jiang Ruo bit into a warm char siu bun while asking, “Is President Xi using company resources for personal gain?”

It had been a while since he’d used that teasing title. Xi Yufeng thought about it, “No.”

After all, the assistant was paid, and today was a workday.

“Oh,” Jiang Ruo nodded, “Then it’s breaking the rules.”

Xi Yufeng: “…”

After breakfast, they truly did something rule-breaking.

It was Jiang Ruo who initiated, asking Xi Yufeng if they wanted to go for a dip in the pool together for a romantic bath.

His words were bold, and his actions even bolder. When a handful of water, smelling of disinfectant, splashed onto Xi Yufeng’s chest, he frowned instinctively. Another splash wet his pants before he reacted, pulling and hugging Jiang Ruo out of the water.

They fooled around by the poolside for a while, sharing a kiss that tasted of each other, then Jiang Ruo pushed Xi Yufeng towards work with great righteousness, “Didn’t you say you’re working from home? Where’s your computer?”

As Xi Yufeng opened his laptop and started reading emails, Jiang Ruo sat beside him, making idle conversation.

“Everything’s great here except that the delivery guys can’t come up. Do rich people not eat takeout?

“How did you know I like meat? But actually, I eat anything; I’m not picky.

“The new film crew isn’t familiar with me yet, I haven’t played cards in ages… Haven’t you had any team-building activities lately? Like the party last time.”

Xi Yufeng moved his gaze from the screen to Jiang Ruo, noticing his fingers tapping unconsciously on his leg, as if itching to touch some cards. He chuckled, “Addicted to playing?”

Jiang Ruo admitted candidly, “To be precise, I’m addicted to winning money.”

Unfortunately, it was Monday, and the sun was shining brightly. It wasn’t the best time for gathering a game.

Jiang Ruo spent half the morning reading the script, and during his break, he fiddled with the TV remote control he had found with difficulty, wanting to try voice control.

After Xi Yufeng finished handling his emails and opened a document delivered that morning, seeing Jiang Ruo’s eager expression, he said, “Voice control is enabled.”

Jiang Ruo immediately sat up straight, “Is there a special command phrase?”

“It recognizes voices.”

“Oh, I get it, like Siri.”

Xi Yufeng logged into the system as a manager, having Jiang Ruo speak to the system to record his voiceprint.

For the next half hour, Jiang Ruo enjoyed interacting with the intelligent system, giving commands like “Turn on the TV,” “Close the living room curtains,” “Sweep the floor,” and even asking, “What’s your name?” “Are you a man?” “But your voice is so sweet…”

Sometimes the system responded, sometimes it didn’t. Faced with its occasional silence, Jiang Ruo suggested to Xi Yufeng, “Why don’t we give it a name? Otherwise, it won’t know I’m talking to it.”

Xi Yufeng smiled but said nothing.

After playing for a while, Jiang Ruo suddenly had an idea and shouted, “Open Sesame!”

It was just a playful gesture; if doors could really open like that, wouldn’t they have been robbed long ago?

Unexpectedly, as soon as he spoke, the door beeped and opened.

Aunt Fang walked in carrying two large bags of groceries. She looked up to see the two people on the sofa staring at her in surprise, as if she had appeared out of thin air like a magician’s trick.

It took some time for Aunt Fang to understand why Xi Yufeng wasn’t at work on a Monday. As she unpacked the groceries, she observed Jiang Ruo helping with washing vegetables by the sink.

“Young man, you — ”

Before she could finish her question, Jiang Ruo introduced himself, “My name is Jiang Ruo, you can call me Xiao Jiang, Auntie. I’m Xi Yufeng’s… friend.”

The term “friend” was too broad, and Aunt Fang wasn’t stupid. Recalling the content of Xi Yufeng’s argument with his father and connecting it to the occasional “news” that Xi Wangchen brought back, she had a pretty good idea.

Considering herself merely a nanny, she didn’t intend to comment on Xi Yufeng’s love life. Aunt Fang calmly nodded, turned around, and put the prepared dishes into the fridge.

Near noon, Xi Yufeng went into the study to take a work call and held a brief video conference with a subordinate. When he returned to the living room, he could hear Aunt Fang’s laughter from far away.

Jiang Ruo hadn’t expected that just discussing cooking tips could make the aunt laugh so heartily.

“Xiao Feng left for studying abroad after finishing high school. During those years abroad, he didn’t have much good food.”

“He’s having it now, though at least half of it ends up in my belly.”

“I feel relieved with you around. When he’s alone, he often lets food spoil without thinking of eating it.”

“This is wasting food… Auntie, don’t worry. Even when I’m not here, I’ll remind him to eat the food in the fridge.”

The conversation revolved around Xi Yufeng, and Aunt Fang was always worried, asking Jiang Ruo how the dishes tasted and which ones Xi Yufeng favored more.

Jiang Ruo thought for a moment and said, “I feel like he doesn’t quite enjoy Chinese cuisine, and he doesn’t like heavy, greasy flavors.”

“How could that be!” Aunt Fang was surprised, “He likes red-braised pork, especially the fatty and lean parts of the five-layered pork, and he wants lots of sugar. That’s what Madam told me.”

Jiang Ruo had heard some gossip about the Xi family from Lin Xiao before, but he wasn’t sure which “Madam” Aunt Fang referred to.

Aunt Fang explained, “Madam is naturally Xiao Feng’s biological mother. She was such a kind person, unfortunately, her love was misplaced. Back then, because of the sake of Master, she could even neglect Xiao Feng…”

At this point, there was a sudden knock on the door. Turning to look, it was Xi Yufeng.

Their gazes met, and Jiang Ruo froze momentarily because of Xi Yufeng’s almost icy stare.

“I’m coming to get a glass of water.” Xi Yufeng said, picking up a cup from the nearby dish rack.

Later, Jiang Ruo remembered that there was water at the bar, no need to go out of his way to the kitchen.

The reason was obvious – he didn’t want Jiang Ruo to continue listening. In other words, what Aunt Fang was about to say, Jiang Ruo shouldn’t know.

It was a sign of treating him as an outsider, a guard against him. Although it was natural considering their shallow physical relationship, as the one being guarded against, it was inevitable to feel a chill.

After lunch, Aunt Fang left, entrusting Jiang Ruo to ensure Xi Yufeng ate properly.

“This child has suffered too much in the past.” Aunt Fang didn’t elaborate further, “Now that life is better and there are no restraints, I don’t want him to be unhappy all the time.”

Older people always consider eating as the most important thing, and Jiang Ruo once believed the same.

But he didn’t know what kind of “suffering” this was, nor did he know if Xi Yufeng had any real priorities in his eyes.

Jiang Ruo only felt a sense of helplessness, not knowing where to start.

But it was just a small incident, plus he was mentally prepared. After a nap, it was as if it never happened.

In the afternoon, Jiang Ruo went to the supermarket to buy food, drinks, and daily necessities.

At checkout, he grabbed several fruit-flavored ice pops. Returning home, he first stuffed them into the fridge. Afterward, Jiang Ruo casually tore one open and popped it into his mouth. Closing the fridge door, he noticed Xi Yufeng coming out of the study, and asked him, “Want an ice pop?”

Xi Yufeng glanced at him, “You eat it.”

So Jiang Ruo had two, including Xi Yufeng’s share.

His stomach began to ache faintly before dinner, probably due to the cold. He couldn’t entirely blame his greed; in the past two days, he slept on the couch, played in the pool, and even broke out in a cold sweat while dancing. This discomfort now gave Jiang Ruo a sense of finality, as if “the devil had finally arrived.”

He hadn’t planned to tell Xi Yufeng, but perhaps his reduced appetite was too noticeable. While tidying up the dishes, Xi Yufeng asked, “Not feeling well?”

Since he asked, Jiang Ruo didn’t hide it, “I ate too many ice pops, my stomach hurts a little. But it’s nothing, it should get better soon.”

Xi Yufeng said nothing. An hour later, Assistant Shi came for the second time that day, delivering medicine.

Seeing the full bag of stomach medication, Jiang Ruo’s eyes nearly popped out.

“President Xi didn’t specify what caused the stomachache, so to be safe, I bought all the stomach medicine available,” Shi Mingxu said.

After the assistant left, Jiang Ruo stacked the medicine boxes one on top of the other, then knocked them down with a sigh, “Now this is really misusing company resources.” He then turned to Xi Yufeng, “President Xi, remember to give Assistant Shi a raise.”

Xi Yufeng ignored him and walked over, searching through the pile of medicine boxes to find the appropriate one to hand to Jiang Ruo, saying simply, “Take the medicine.”

Jiang Ruo actually didn’t have the habit of taking medicine or going to the hospital when he felt unwell. He preferred to tough it out, after all, the human body had self-repair functions. Minor illnesses could heal on their own with time, saving money in the process.

Thus, throughout his life, he had hardly ever set foot in a hospital, and the number of times he took medicine could be counted on one hand. When he was a child learning dance, bumps and bruises were inevitable. Once, while spinning, Jiang Ruo got dizzy. When he stopped, his legs weakened, and as he fell forward, his head hit the corner of a nearby stool, causing blood to gush out instantly.

At the time, his dance teacher was so frightened that she didn’t dare move him and hurriedly called his parents. To save money, his parents didn’t take him to the hospital; they simply bandaged him up with gauze. Within two days, it healed.

A scar remained, located at the hairline near his left ear, the size of a fingernail, usually hidden by his hair. Jiang Ruo always suspected that his mediocre academic performance was due to that bump on the head; otherwise, he might have agonized over choosing between Qinghua University or Beijing Dance Academy back then.

Even if he ended up acting, he could have used his high IQ as a promotional gimmick during interviews. Wouldn’t that be better than the seventeen-year-old admission exam video?

Thinking about this, Jiang Ruo reluctantly followed the instructions on the label and extracted two capsules, asking at the same time, “That video… the promotional material, how did they end up making it?”

Xi Yufeng opened his laptop and played it for him.

It was evident that the publicity department had tried their best. Besides clips from stage performances during his school days, they had almost included every scene from the films and television dramas Jiang Ruo had participated in.

Including extras and bit parts.

In a video less than three minutes long, Jiang Ruo closed his eyes and listened to the last few seconds. Embarrassed to watch it himself, he also prevented Xi Yufeng from doing so, reaching out to cover his eyes, “Don’t watch, don’t watch, it’s all embarrassing history.”

Without hesitation, Xi Yufeng caught his hand, moved it away, and insisted on watching until the very end.

Finally, as the progress bar reached the end, Jiang Ruo sighed, “Leave the kid some underwear…”

Xi Yufeng shot him a puzzled look, as if asking – who didn’t give you pants to wear?

That night, patient Jiang Ruo was neatly dressed and lay honestly in the master bedroom’s bed, chatting under the covers with Xi Yufeng.

More accurately, it was a monologue by Jiang Ruo, with occasional responses from Xi Yufeng.

After several sentences went unanswered, Jiang Ruo had a sudden idea and tried shouting, “Turn off Xi Yufeng’s computer.”

The computer wouldn’t listen to his command, but Xi Yufeng laughed at the instruction. Then, he closed the laptop in his hands, placed it on the bedside table, and lay down.

On this rare evening when they did nothing, Jiang Ruo experienced the frustration of being caught on the spot several times when trying to make a move. A sense of emptiness arose in him, as if an old rogue was forced to turn over a new leaf.

Feeling empty, he craved food. Jiang Ruo sat up, but before his feet touched the ground, he was stopped by the person beside him.

“Where are you going?”

“To get an ice pop,” Jiang Ruo confessed, “My stomach doesn’t hurt anymore.”

Xi Yufeng asked, “Is it that delicious?”

“Yes,” Jiang Ruo said with a smile, “Unlike you rich folks, us poor people seize the opportunity to indulge ourselves when we can.”

After a moment of silence, Xi Yufeng said, “Eat it tomorrow, we can buy more when it’s gone.”

Unable to find a counterargument, Jiang Ruo had to give up.

But he still wanted to leave. Jiang Ruo picked up the pillow, “Okay, then I’ll go to sleep.”

Just as he turned, his wrist was gripped.

“It’s very late,” Xi Yufeng said in a tone that was not quite commanding, “Sleep here.”

That night, Jiang Ruo, who usually slept soundly, experienced insomnia.

Perhaps it was because he would return to the film set the next afternoon, with no rest for over a month afterward. Or maybe it was because he took medicine; he needed to check the ingredient list when he woke up the next day.

The city’s summer night lacked the sounds of frogs, replaced by faint cicada chirping.

When one couldn’t sleep, their mind couldn’t help but recall recent details that were previously overlooked.

Like the day Xi Yufeng was in a bad mood, he had also held Jiang Ruo’s hand, telling him to sit still.

It seemed he wasn’t considered special, but rather, he was needed for company.

Thinking this way, Jiang Ruo still felt grateful, grateful that Xi Yufeng would feel lonely, and grateful that when Xi Yufeng occasionally felt lonely, he was the one by his side.

Even if Xi Yufeng didn’t know, as a source of joy and sexual partner, Jiang Ruo occasionally wanted to hold him after sex, instead of returning alone to the cold bed in the adjacent room.

Suddenly recalling the conclusion that poor people seized opportunities to indulge themselves, which lacked scientific basis.

With a warm body pressed against him, as drowsiness washed over him, Jiang Ruo vaguely thought, if only companionship could also be indulged in to the fullest, it would be perfect.