Chapter 43: The Small-Time Star and His Short-Tempered Sugar Daddy (Part XLIII – End of Arc)
Because he had accompanied Xiao Ji for too long, once Xiao Ji finished his last check-up at the hospital and it was confirmed he had fully recovered, Fang Yinnian’s work returned to its normal track, and he was busy around the clock.
Idle at home, Xiao Ji began to devote himself to studying culinary arts.
His daily social partners were either Xiao Cui or the nanny at Fang Yinnian’s house.
He gradually mastered the standards of so-called “a pinch” and “an appropriate amount.”
It wasn’t until the nanny began to worry about being fired by Fang Yinnian due to Xiao Ji’s excessive diligence that Xiao Ji started wondering if he should do something else.
Upon learning of Xiao Ji’s plan, Fang Yinnian waved his hand and installed him in the company as the financial supervisor.
At first, everyone expressed incomprehension at this arrangement.
But soon, Xiao Ji single-handedly audited all the company’s finances, found all the loopholes, sent several high-level executives to prison, and even refined the system.
Thus, everyone shut their mouths.
Fang Yinnian was dumbfounded. “I just wanted to find something random for you to do.”
But Xiao Ji was like a ruthless computer. All numbers automatically settled and summarized in front of him. He made the finance department work overtime for a month straight, filling every loophole clearly and plainly.
Initially, perhaps because there was a lot going on in the company and both Xiao Ji and Fang Yinnian were busy, only a few people noticed that Xiao Ji and Fang Yinnian often went to the staff canteen for lunch together. Few noticed what happened after working overtime at night.
But once the busy period ended, everyone realized that the relationship between Xiao Ji and Fang Yinnian was not simple, and they didn’t avoid people at all.
For example, after lunch, Xiao Ji would go directly to Fang Yinnian’s office to rest. The door would close, and Xiao Ji wouldn’t be seen coming out until work started in the afternoon.
When getting off work at the normal time in the evening, if Fang Yinnian was early, he would watch Xiao Ji work in the finance department office and even bring him desserts and coffee.
Then the two would leave the company together openly, getting into Fang Yinnian’s car under everyone’s gaze.
Everyone relished talking about this matter, but no one dared to ask the parties involved.
It wasn’t until Fang Yinnian drank too much at the company’s annual party another year and introduced Xiao Ji to everyone as the “Lady Boss” that the crowd realized the two were truly together.
Xiao Ji often couldn’t distinguish what love was.
But Fang Yinnian taught him to enjoy the relationship, rather than constantly calculating the costs and returns in his heart just to hold onto it.
He taught him that he didn’t need to be obedient in everything.
Just kiss when he wanted to kiss, go to bed when he wanted to go to bed, say “I love you” when he thought the other was cute, do everything he wanted to do to the other person, and accept the other’s devotion with peace of mind.
In the first ten years together, Xiao Ji often made Fang Yinnian jump with rage because his expressions and responses weren’t enthusiastic enough.
But after realizing that after every quarrel, Xiao Ji would carefully use various foolish methods to please him, Fang Yinnian would return to his embrace, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
Xiao Ji also often sighed that such a domineering and irritable person as Fang Yinnian would, when facing him, bring out one hundred percent patience, forgiving him even while spewing profanities.
Many people said that because Fang Yinnian had a fiery temper and rarely considered others’ feelings, Xiao Ji only tolerated him for so many years because he was rich enough.
But in fact, only Xiao Ji knew that Fang Yinnian was the more tolerant one of the two.
But alas, time flows like water, traveling far without stopping.
Until Fang Yinnian, his hair full of white, lay on the reclining chair in the small courtyard, holding the still perfectly round and unchanged Xiao Cui in one hand, whispering a question:
“The turtle raised by the Lin family next door had its funeral last month, but you’re doing fine, still alive. Speak, have you become a spirit?”
At this moment, standing behind Fang Yinnian, Xiao Ji faintly sensed that Fang Yinnian was about to leave.
He went into the house to get a blanket, walked to Fang Yinnian, covered his legs, rescued Xiao Cui and released him to fly, then lowered his head to kiss his forehead.
“Are you hungry? I’ll go cook.”
Fang Yinnian waved his hand. “It’s been the same taste all my life. No appetite.”
Xiao Ji didn’t argue with him and squatted in front of him. “In a bad mood?”
“I dreamed last night. My sister called me, saying it was time to go home. I think I’m going to die soon,” Fang Yinnian said.
Xiao Ji felt the same way, so he didn’t speak.
Fang Yinnian continued, “If I die, you’re still hale and hearty. That sister from the Zhao family next door, over fifty, has been thinking about you ever since her old man was buried. Why don’t you just give in? At least it’s a companion.”
Xiao Ji coaxed him, “I don’t like women.”
Fang Yinnian saw many things clearly. “You didn’t like men before either.”
Xiao Ji held his hand. “I like you.”
“Now, is it sincere?” Fang Yinnian asked.
In the countless years of the past, Xiao Ji had never felt whether time passed quickly or slowly.
But in the decades beside Fang Yinnian, he suddenly understood why humans felt a lifetime was very long.
He had entered the galaxy from the deep sea, stepping into the human world for the first time.
Watching helplessly as he counted every new wrinkle on Fang Yinnian’s face that he couldn’t smooth out, watching life age like a river flowing away without the power to redeem it, only then did he finally understand what life was.
He took Fang Yinnian’s hand, placed it on his own chest, and asked him:
“Do you feel it?”
Fang Yinnian lowered his eyes and hummed softly.
Xiao Ji told him, “It beats because of you.”
Fang Yinnian smiled and raised a hand to pinch Xiao Ji’s face. “Alright, I’m content.”
“Do you have any regrets? Brother Nian.” Xiao Ji looked at Fang Yinnian’s familiar yet strange face, wanting to do something for him one last time.
Fang Yinnian did have regrets.
Xiao Ji wasn’t a passionate person. No matter how he tossed and turned, Xiao Ji was always calm and unruffled.
When he was young, Fang Yinnian had doubted Xiao Ji’s love countless times, only to overturn these malicious speculations with his own hands in the countless nights he was kissed and embraced by Xiao Ji.
He had forced Xiao Ji to say he loved him many times, but he himself had never said he loved Xiao Ji.
Xiao Ji had never made any requests of him, nor mentioned wanting to marry him.
Xiao Ji didn’t mention it, and Fang Yinnian didn’t mention it either.
But today, looking back, he was indeed regretful.
So he said:
“In the next life, Xiao Ji. If fate allows us to meet again, I have to marry you.”
Xiao Ji opened Fang Yinnian’s palm, pressed his cheek against it, closed his eyes, and rested on his knee.
“Okay. I’ll let you marry me.”
23rd Year of the Xuanhe Era, Early Winter, Great Yue Imperial Palace.
The Emperor was furious in the Imperial Study. He grabbed the golden jade tea cup at hand and threw it at the forehead of the old eunuch who came to deliver the letter.
“Bastard! I promised the Sixth Princess to him as a compliment! But he treats me like a vegetable vendor! Treating my princesses like cabbages! Picky and choosy! Showing off his power! Looking down on the Sixth, and naming the Ninth specifically! He truly doesn’t put me in his eyes at all!”
At this moment, lying on the ground was not only the innocent tea cup but also a letter from the Northern Frontier.
Stamped with the great seal of the Prince of Beichen, the content within was something no one dared to look at directly.
The old eunuch had only glanced at it hurriedly, but seeing just one sentence made his heart, liver, spleen, and lungs tremble.
[The Sixth Princess has small eyes and a flat nose, a face like a millstone, a waist like a tub, and is rather short. This subject does not like her. I have heard the Ninth Princess has a pure heart and spirit, and high talent like willow catkins. I hope Your Majesty will choose another candidate.]
The old eunuch cursed inwardly. What a “pure heart and spirit, high talent like willow catkins”! When the Ninth Princess reached the age of coming-of-age, she moved the capital with her fame—moved by her skin like congealed fat and appearance like a celestial being. Why didn’t the Prince of Beichen mention that?
Speaking only high-sounding, sanctimonious empty words.
And he belittled the Sixth Princess, who was average looking but definitely not ugly, as worthless. No wonder the Emperor was angered into such a state.
But the point right now wasn’t this at all.
The old eunuch rubbed his forehead, speaking with difficulty:
“Your Majesty… but the Ninth Princess isn’t a true princess. Great Yue absolutely has no precedent of marrying a prince off to a vassal king with a different surname.”
The Emperor had a splitting headache. “Get out. Let me think.”
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