Perhaps it was out of guilt, but at breakfast the next day, Ji Xinglan changed his attitude toward Yan Qiu.
âI thought about it last night, and I feel your opinions should be respected. We can discuss the marriage again.â
âHow so?â Yan Qiu spread some jam on a slice of bread and took a bite. He felt that Ji Xinglan, this treacherous villain, was trying to set him up. During these so-called negotiations, his words werenât as attractive as the food.
Ji Xinglan slowly persuaded him. âWell, we can get married first. If you still insist on it, we can get divorced after you give birth.
Shoving the last mouthful of bread into his mouth, Yan Qiu looked incredulous. âReally??â
âMmm.â Ji Xinglan appeared sanctimonious on the surface, but Yan Qiu was worried he had ulterior motives. If Ji Xinglan married him and allowed him to divorce after giving birth, what else could he want?
âYou⊠How can I trust you?â Yan Qiu said sharply, âThis is just a hunch, but I feel youâll lie to me unless thereâs a formal agreement of your promise.â
Thinking for a moment, Ji Xinglan nodded and agreed, âOkay. Iâll find someone to draft the agreement tomorrow.â
When Yan Qiu saw that he was earnestly negotiating, he felt a bit more bold. If Ji Xinglan was willing to sign an agreement, then this wouldnât be impossible.
âIâll say now that weâll get divorced after the baby is born. I donât want anything else from you. I donât want your property, I just ask that you keep your word.â
Ji Xinglan nodded slowly. âItâs not a question of money. If we really get to that point, I wonât ask anything of you. Iâll give you the chance to change your mind before the divorce, but I hope youâll stay.â
âThatâs not necessary, weâll divorce.â Yan Qiu grit his teeth. âAnd as for my estrus, cough⊠Thereâs really nothing we can do. We can help each other with our needs. Weâre adults, neither of us has anything to lose. The only thing is you canât mark me forever.â
Ji Xinglan stared at him for a moment before agreeing, âGood.â
Breathing a sigh of relief, Yan Qiu heard the man continue, âCan I mark you temporarily?â
Yan Qiu choked and couldnât breath for a second. He coughed twice, âThatâs not necessary.â
ââŠIt may be necessary if you have your estrus in public. Youâll still need me to mark you in the end.â Ji Xinglan put down his spoon, looking serious. âWell, what kind of relationship do we have?â
Yan Qiu spread some more jam on a piece of bread and replied without looking up. âWhat else are we? Weâre at most friends with benefits. Prospective friends with benefits.â
Only a prospective friend with benefits!
Sitting across from him, Ji Xinglan peered at his slender, beautiful neck and nodded, âOkay.â
Both of them stopped talking, and Yan Qiu buried himself in his breakfast. Ji Xinglan sent a message to his assistant, asking him to draft the agreement as soon as possible.
As Yan Qiu swallowed the last piece of bread, he sighed with satisfaction. It felt like he was going to gain a lot of weight if he stayed here for another few days. Wiping his mouth with a napkin, he crumpled it into a ball and threw it aside. With pretend carelessness he asked, âWhy canât I go to school today?â
Ji Xinglan was staring at a terminal screen. âI called in sick for you. If you want to go back to school, you can return at any time.â
On the surface, Yan Qiu wore an expression of annoyance, but in truth he was secretly delighted.
Weâre sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so weâre going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Boys, Yan-ge is back.
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Ji Xinglan heard the sound of the glass hitting the table and quickly put down his terminal. He took away the fallen cup and wiped the stain off of Yan Qiuâs arm with a napkin.
Luckily, he had reacted quickly and Yan Qiu was only slightly wet. As Yan Qiu wiped his sleeve with a napkin, Ji Xinglan moved all the tainted dishes off to the side.
When Yan Qiu folded his napkin and placed it on the table, he unintentionally glanced at Ji Xinglanâs extended wrists and immediately frowned.
Under the sleeves, he saw a couple of gruesome scars on Ji Xinglanâs left wrists. The sight startled Yan Qiu. He didnât look very carefully, but it looked like his hands had almost been cut off. It must have been painful and he couldnât help but frown.
He looked up at the other person with a trace of fear; he had never noticed such frightening scars on Ji Xinglanâs hands before.
His gaze became glued to the hands and Yan Qiu wanted to take a closer look. However, Ji Xinglan didnât appear to react to this and naturally retracted his hands. He pursed his lips and quietly pulled down his sleeves.
Servants quickly gathered and tidied up the table in front of him.
If he hadnât seen it clearly, Yan Qiu might have thought he was mistaken. How could such a perfect person like Ji Xinglan have such terrible scars on his wrists? They didnât seem like ordinary wounds at all. They seemed like mutilated madness.
The wounds had been placed in a position that could be concealed if he wore a terminal. If Ji Xinglan had been wearing a terminal, Yan Qiu wouldnât have noticed them.
He had always thought that Ji Xinglan was well-protected and had the temperament of a young master, and heâd never noticed such a wound on his body before.
In Yan Qiuâs eyes, the guy was an absolute perfectionist. The proud son of the sky, grown in a greenhouse. Yet what he saw a moment ago was like a crack in a beautiful piece of jade. It made oneâs heart wrench.
Yan Qiu continued to eat in silence, but the food in front of him had become tasteless. He peeked at Ji Xinglan, unable to repress the puzzlement in his heart.
This guy has changed too much compared to before.
âŠâŠâŠ.
At noon, Mrs. Ji returned. She was as enthusiastic as before, bringing Yan Qiu a bunch of snacks and toys. However, Yan Qiu was worried and couldnât be cheered up.
For most of the morning, Yan Qiu wondered if Ji Xinglan was mentally ill and whether he should tell his mother to take him to the doctor.
During lunch, Mrs. Ji listened to Ji Xinglan lay out their plans to get married. This time, Yan Qiu didnât object and sat at the side, very well-behaved. Both Yan Qiu and Mrs. Ji agreed with whatever Ji Xinglan proposed. Mrs. Ji was thrilled and took them out to pick out rings after lunch. Ji Xinglan actually didnât want Yan Qiu to go, but he couldnât beat his mother as she took the car keys.
The villa wasnât far from the commercial district where they were headed. Ji Xinglan didnât have a driver so he drove them while Mrs. Ji and Yan Qiu sat in the back seat.
Along the way, Mrs. Ji held Yan Qiuâs hand and chattered on and on like a pair of business partners. Yan Qiu was a little embarrassed by Mrs. Jiâs enthusiasm and didnât dare to look up at her.
After all, when he and Ji Xinglan became married, he would have to deal with her.
It was a warm autumn noon and there were plenty of girls in the mall sporting short skirts and high heels. Today, Yan Qiu had worn a white sweater, his slightly long black hair falling softly around his bright and shiny eyes, making him look very obedient.
Mrs. Ji had already prepared a wedding right so she simply brought them to the shop to see it. Although Yan Qiu didnât care much for it, he was almost blinded by the 20-carat oval diamond ring.
Then, Mrs. Ji happily took them shopping in the mall, buying diapers from the maternity store before stopping by an Hermes store to buy a few diaper bags for her grandson.
Yan Qiu: âŠ
As long as youâre happy.
After eating dinner at the mall, Mrs. Ji took them to measure their suit sizes, saying they would need to wear them for the wedding photos.
She couldnât wait any longer and insisted they receive their marriage license tomorrow and hold their ceremony the following month.
Yan Qiu hesitantly dismissed the idea of having a wedding ceremony yet agreed to receive the license tomorrow. Either way, he had to settle it sooner or later and this was no matter. The sooner you die, the sooner youâre reborn.
This entire day, he and Ji Xinglan were careful not to reveal his pregnancy.
Before returning home, Yan Qiu asked Ji Xinglan to take him to the barbershop for a haircut. His hair went over his shoulders and wasnât too long, but it was inconvenient. It also didnât show off his masculinity, so it was better to cut it short.
Yan Qiuâs aesthetics didnât allow him to buzz his hair or cut the ends too short, but it was much shorter than before. Compared to the long-haired sultry little beauty from earlier, he now looked like a delicate piece of school grass.
Ji Xinglan rubbed his head, âThis is pretty nice too.â
They both stood out amongst the crowd in the shop and within moments, people had already stopped to look at them. Feeling embarrassed, Yan Qiu touched his nose and pulled Ji Xinglan outside.
âŠâŠâŠâŠ.
After returning home, Ji Xinglan took Yan Qiu to study and showed him the agreement that his assistant had drafted.
Afraid of being tricked, Yan Qiu carefully read the agreement.
The general gist of the agreement was the following:
When the child is born, Yan Qiu could decide whether to divorce Ji Xinglan, and half of Ji Xinglanâs property would be ceded to Yan Qiu. During this period of time, if Yan Qiu was unwilling, Ji Xinglan would not permanently mark him.
Reading the agreement carefully three times, Yan Qiu felt Ji Xinglan would be losing out when they signed this deal, but he didnât find any problems with it when looking at it both horizontally and vertically.
He really made Ji Xinglan wait, and after confirming it once more, grabbed a pen and signed it, pushing the agreement back to Ji Xinglan.
He watched Ji Xinglan go through the agreement, leaving one copy for him and placing another in the drawer.
Yan Qiu leaned back in his chair, sighing with relief. However, he had a feeling in his heart that he had just sold himself.
âŠ..
The next day, Yan Qiu got up early. He changed into a brand new white suit and stood in front of the mirror wearing a tie. The suit had been ordered for him long ago by Mrs. Ji. The waistline fit him snuggly, and it came with a navy tie. Yan Qiu looked at the pretty boy in the mirror and tucked the ends of his hair behind his ears.
As he was fiddling with his hair, Ji Xinglan came out. He was wearing a white shirt with a black suit today, with golden cufflinks. The suit outlined his well developed figure, provoking an envious look from Yan Qiu.
After a simple breakfast, they drove to the Bureau of Civil Affairs.
Yan Qiu never knew that the process of marriage was so simple that he didnât need to make an appointment in advance.
They simply went to the Bureau of Civil Affairs, filled out a form, took pictures, waited a bit, and were handed a small stamped red book by one of the staff.
Thus, they were married within half a day.
Yan Qiu and Ji Xinglan glanced at each other. As a happy couple who had just received their certificate, Yan Qiuâs expression was complicated.
Mrs. Ji wanted to take them out for dinner, but Yan Qiu declined.
When he got home, he went upstairs to pack his things. He had to return to school tomorrow.
Ji Xinglan had excused him from returning to the dormitory this week under the pretext of illness. Nevertheless, Yan Qiu wanted to live in the dormitory and stay away from Ji Xinglan, as it was not appropriate for the alpha to live in the omega dormitory.
Yan Qiu was slightly excited and found the original ownerâs book bag and textbooks in the wardrobe. Flipping through the textbooks, he felt almost as if they were his own. Surprisingly, they were also blank.
It seemed that the original owner was a fellow student who didnât study hard. Yan Qiu was relieved. If his grade plummeted, he didnât know how to tell the teacher.
By the time heâd finished packing, he had to sit on the edge of the bed to rest. Yan Qiu took the marriage license out of his pocket and peered at the picture, feeling like he was in a dream.
It was weird that two people who looked down on each other were suddenly married like this.
Both of them werenât very old, and although Ji Xinglan was reserved, he was still only a teenager. Yan Qiu couldnât guess how Ji Xinglan would react if he knew the truth, but he didnât bother thinking about it either.
Letâs just go with the flow. Weâll have to leave in a few months anyways. Ji Xinglan would find someone better than him and they would both live a better life together.
Yan Qiuâs fingertips gently brushed the place where his name was printed in the red book. Then, gently pulling open the top shelf of the nightstand, he put his copy of the marriage license inside.
âŠ..
In the study, the portrait that had been hung on the wall for a long time was no longer in its place. Yet, the bouquet of daisies in the vase were still in full bloom as the maid placed fresh ones in there daily.
Ji Xinglan sat in the tall swivel chair with his long legs relaxed and folded over each other.
Under the rustic table lamp, the blond teenager looked at the marriage license in his hand, his eyes filled with undisguised joy.
No matter how heâd gotten it, he had obtained what he wanted and married the man heâd set his heart on. There was nothing that made him happier in the world.
The moment that he received news of Yan Qiuâs death, he thought he would never have another chance in this life.
Ji Xinglan looked at the man in the portrait and a glimmer of mad, paranoid love flickered in his deep-set eyes. He bowed his head and tenderly imprinted a kiss on the image.
You donât know how much I miss you or how much I love you.
If only you were really pregnant with my child.
Nei: DING DING DING ALARM ALARM RED FLAGS RED FLAGS