Chapter 163: Stealing Fragrance (18)
Xiao Ji knew that Pei Yinnian just wanted to test him; giving him his attitude was enough. He didn’t push the invitation and watched Pei Yinnian leave before turning back to the office.
From then on, Pei Yinnian would do this every few days. Xiao Ji remained perfectly adapted, never refusing to converse with Pei Yinnian in public at the school.
Before long, everyone at the National First High School knew that this Mr. Xiao, who was already difficult to provoke, might have an even more formidable background behind him.
In addition, Pei Yinnian took Xiao Ji out to dinner every other day. Just the two of them, in a private room with red wine, sitting for two or three hours at a time. Between two men with no official business dealings, such frequent private interactions inevitably sparked quite a bit of gossip.
Xiao Ji occasionally heard a bit of it, but he didn’t care at all.
During this period, Xiao Ji continued to live at the Pei Residence. He would occasionally go home, but he never stayed overnight; after a quick visit, he would be picked up and brought back by Pei Yinnian.
Neither Mother Pei nor Pei Xinyun were fools. Pei Yinnian’s treatment of Xiao Ji was truly unique. While Pei Xinyun turned a blind eye and stayed silent, Mother Pei was secretly worried.
Finally, one day after Xiao Ji had left, she caught Pei Yinnian.
“You and Mr. Xiao…”
Pei Yinnian was about to head out. Stopped by Mother Pei, he asked with some patience, “What about it?”
Mother Pei said tactfully, “Aren’t you two getting a bit too close…?”
Pei Yinnian looked at her. “Xiao Ji is my person. I kept him here specifically to be closer to him.”
Upon hearing this, Mother Pei’s expression turned quite ugly. “He’s a man…”
Pei Yinnian interrupted her, “You don’t need to tell me that. I know it better than you.”
He was in a hurry to leave and didn’t want to talk too much, only saying, “Don’t worry so much about my affairs. And you’d better not pull any stunts to provoke Xiao Ji. He is very important to me.”
Pei Yinnian always spoke to Mother Pei this way. After enduring it for a long time, she finally exploded.
“He’s important, but am I, your own mother, not important? If you keep messing around like this, are you planning to let the Pei family end with you?”
Pei Yinnian frowned and looked at Mother Pei. After a moment of silence, he said:
“I do indeed have that plan. In the current unstable situation with war everywhere, having no descendants might not be a bad thing.”
“In this life, my struggle for power and status was to survive and to ensure you and Pei Xinyun have a peaceful life—not for the sake of continuing the bloodline.”
“Living well is already difficult enough. Please try to be more open-minded and don’t lose sight of what’s truly important.”
With that, he said no more and pushed the door open to leave.
Although Mother Pei was unwilling, given her temperament, having the matter laid out so plainly was as far as she could push it. Pei Yinnian was strong-willed and stubborn; once he made a decision, nine bulls couldn’t pull him back. Mother Pei fumed for a long time, but ultimately, the matter was dropped.
Two months later, winter arrived in Huating.
The relationship between Pei Yinnian and Xiao Ji gradually warmed through their constant “testing.” Pei Yinnian finally began to feel, more than once, that perhaps Xiao Ji did indeed have some genuine feelings for him.
But what he didn’t expect was that ever since Xiao Ji appeared, the dreams that hadn’t troubled him for a long time resurfaced. Compared to the past, where he could only vaguely recall fragments, this time, the scenes in the dream were significantly clearer.
The man in the long gown still had Xiao Ji’s face. He could clearly remember what the man said, as well as his expressions and movements.
But that was exactly why Pei Yinnian felt it was even stranger. Because unlike the cold and reserved Xiao Ji he interacted with daily, the man in the dream was somewhat dull and deliberately subservient.
In the dream, Pei Yinnian sometimes stood from the perspective of a participant and sometimes from that of a bystander. Initially, he always felt that Xiao Ji was intentionally approaching him, seemingly harboring some unknown secret. Later, as the dream unfolded, he saw Xiao Ji using Pei’s influence to climb up step by step, only to turn around and stab him in the back.
Xiao Ji’s rest days were fixed. The night before, Pei Yinnian had agreed to spend a full day resting with him, doing nothing but lounging in the Pei Residence.
As a result, when Xiao Ji opened his eyes before dawn, he saw Pei Yinnian sitting on the edge of the bed with his back to him, looking as though he had been awake for a while.
Xiao Ji was a bit surprised. Usually, Xiao Ji was the one who woke up earlier, while Pei Yinnian would toss and turn for a bit before he could get up.
He reached out and pulled the newly seated Pei Yinnian back into his arms, his voice still carrying a hint of morning hoarseness.
“So early.”
Hearing Xiao Ji speak—even though his tone was warmer than in the past, it was still as calm and steady as ever—Pei Yinnian finally pulled himself back to reality.
He was naturally suspicious and often grew wary over mysterious or inexplicable clues. But at this moment, feeling Xiao Ji’s skin against his, he was certain that the man with Xiao Ji’s face in his dream was definitely an impostor.
He turned around to face Xiao Ji, staring at him for a long time.
“I had a dream.”
Hearing this, Xiao Ji reached out and patted Pei Yinnian’s back. “Dreams are fake.”
Pei Yinnian buried his face in the crook of Xiao Ji’s neck and closed his eyes. “I know, but I want to tell you about it.”
After he said that, Xiao Ji waited. But Pei Yinnian didn’t speak for a long while. Finally, he asked suddenly:
“Do you have a purpose for approaching me?”
Xiao Ji didn’t know what kind of dream Pei Yinnian had, but he replied righteously:
“You’ve got it wrong, Pei Yinnian. You were the one who approached me.”
Hearing this, Pei Yinnian first carefully recalled the process of how they met, then pursed his lips and asked again:
“Then why did you seduce me?”
Xiao Ji still refused to admit it. “If I remember correctly, you forced me at the beginning.”
Pei Yinnian went over the details of how they got together again, and after pondering for a moment, he tested him further:
“Do you want to leave the National First High School? I can arrange other things for you to do—for example, staying by my side.”
As soon as he said this, Xiao Ji suddenly had an idea. He suspected that Pei Yinnian’s dream was likely inseparable from the original world-line.
He was starting to test him again.
Xiao Ji hadn’t come here to make money or build a career. As for the fugitive fragments he was supposed to hunt down and clean up, 037 had only said they hadn’t been detected yet and he needed to wait.
Regarding the idea of staying by Pei Yinnian’s side to build a career, Xiao Ji felt it was indifferent, at his whim—completely up to Pei Yinnian’s arrangement.
But right now, with Pei Yinnian testing him like this, he immediately gave a firm rejection:
“I have no such plan. I’m not good at anything other than teaching. Don’t arrange anything for me.”
Recommended Reads
