Ch4 - Can you rub it for me?

Special thanks to Petra for proofreading

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Seemingly aware of Xia Wan’s gaze, Huo Yu glanced at him and said in a low voice, “Keep your attention on the phone.”  

“Oh,” Xia Wan responded obediently. He was so dazzled by the villain’s smile that, without realizing it, he’d been sitting upright. At the same time, the loud voice on the line paused. Xia Yang deliberately lowered his voice to ask, “Are you and Huo Yu together?”

“Well,” Xia Wan complained innocently, “We were a bit busy with something until you interrupted us.” 

Xia Yang didn’t need to think very far about what exactly, at this hour, could keep them occupied – in the middle of the night, a lonely man and a green hat ignited the fire. 

Is Xia Wan blaming me for ruining his good moment? No wonder Huo Lin was so angry on the phone today, scolding me as if I were his son. Xia Yang gritted his teeth in anger. He had many things to say to his idiotic cousin but, in the end, he swallowed them all, because he was afraid of being overheard by Huo Yu. In the end, he could only threaten in a low voice: “I don’t want to have to repeat myself, so make sure you keep what I’ve said in mind and follow my advice.” With a snap, he ended the call.

The car returned to its previous silence. Xia Wan smiled, rubbing at his arms to comfort himself. He started to think about how the original story had progressed in the novel. In the book, although the original owner seldom made any appearances, every time he did it would end terribly. For example, the engagement banquet of the protagonist Gong and Shou, the entanglement with the protagonist Gong, and even the madness at the end; all these things followed the original owner till the end of the story like sticky candy. But after Xia Yang’s phone call, and the original owner’s chaotic memory slowly became clear, Xia Wan realized that the reason the original owner seduced Huo Lin might not be because he liked him. After all, when the other party got engaged, they had only known each other for a little over a month. Nothing special had happened during their entanglement for the original owner to become attached enough to that pathetic Gong that he would be so obsessed. So, Xia Yang figured that it was not the original owner who was at fault, but someone else who pushed him to the edge. If it is not of his own will, then there is only one possibility left, and it’s that all of the abnormal behaviors of the original owner are caused by the persecution of the Xia family. 

For example, Xia Yang’s call. If the original owner had been sitting in his place, he may have acquiesced to Xia Yang’s squealing. After all, Xia Wan and Xia Chengzhang were vulnerable in Beijing, and they had always been assisted by Xia Yang and his father Xia Chenglin. Without their support, they might not even survive a night in Beijing. The cousin’s family knew that the original owner was entirely dependent upon them, and made full use of this weakness to completely control him.

When Huo Yu grabbed his wrist at the engagement banquet and forced Huo Lin to call him “sister-in-law,” Xia Wan had a crisis sense that “there are wolves before and tigers behind”. Then, as more and more memory details were revealed to him, Xia Wan further realized that since moving to Beijing, the original owner had fallen into the predicament that there were wolves before and tigers later. Since you couldn’t escape the fate of facing tigers and wolves, it was better to choose who you would eventually face. Xia Wan turned his eyes and looked at Huo Yu in the driver’s seat. Because he’d given him his windbreaker, Huo Yu only had a thin black shirt on. With the slight movements of his hand on the steering wheel, the silk fabric outlined his smooth shoulders, neck, and arms.

( Translator note:- wolves before and tigers behind:- What Xia Wan means to say is that Xia Yang and his family were like wolves in sheep’s disguise and, on top of that, Huo Lin and Qui Qi were the tigers who are waiting in the dark to devour the OG) 

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Almost immediately, Xia Wan made a choice. First of all, he and Xia Chengzhang had to leave the Xia family, and they could no longer continue to let themselves be used as bargaining chips under somebody else’s thumb. Second, he had offended Huo Lin and Qiu Qi. Aside from today’s incident, Qiu Qi would still treat him as a thorn in his side even if he hadn’t attended the engagement banquet, eventually forcing him into an abyss of madness. If this was a predetermined thing, then he needed to have strong backing to evenly match his opponent. In which case, who could compare to Huo Yu, who had been able to push the protagonist to a breaking point in the original book despite suffering from a huge disparity in strength? Moreover, compared to those who had used and targeted the original owner for their own benefit, Huo Yu and Xia Wan not only had no conflict of interest but also had an enemy in common. Overall it didn’t matter even if he did look down on Xia Wan’s status, as after all, he still had other aces up his sleeve. In some of the plotlines in the book, there were clues between the lines that, if used well, could help him change the direction of the entire story. Then after everything was settled, he would find another chance to get out of this mess that was really none of his business. As for the rest, it was entirely out of his control nor of any interest to him who bit who in the end. His only real problem now was the life that he would lead with Xia Chengzhang after leaving the Xia family.

Xia Wan quickly thought of a few ideas, and finally concocted the worst plan he had ever come up with in his entire life: I have hands and feet, so it’s not a big deal to work a few odd jobs to support myself. What a perfect plan. Simply perfect! Xia Wan felt relieved with his detailed plan and fervently started to mentally sing his own praises.  

“Qts vb sbe xffq ibbxlcu ja wf?” Leb Te jrxfv klatbea rdelcalcu, jqqjgfcais jkjgf bo Wlj Qjc’r ujhf. 

“Pa’r cbatlcu,” Wlj Qjc mjiwis ibbxfv jkjs ogbw tlr ojmf. “P kjr bc atf qtbcf klat ws mberlc pera cbk, jcv P tjv ab mjii sbe ys sbeg olgra cjwf. Uifjrf vbc’a wlcv.” 

“Isn’t that what it’s for?” Huo Yu didn’t care much and turned the car into an old-fashioned villa area that was very familiar to Xia Wan. It was not too far from his real home, and on the only way to the hospital, but he had never paid much attention to it. He looked out curiously until the car pulled into Huo Yu’s garage.

Huo Yu lived in a three-story villa, located in the center of the community by the lake. Before entering the door, Xia Wan thought it would be full of dust. After all, Huo Yu had not returned to China in a long time. But not only were the windows bright and clean but there was also a faint warm smell of food in the house as if no one had ever left at all. As soon as the scent touched the tip of the nose, Xia Wan’s stomach cried out in disappointment, especially obvious in the silence. 

Xia Wan pursed his lips and quietly raised his hand to cover his stomach. He ignored his slightly hot cheeks, and asked softly, and curiously, “Is there a hidden fairy in your family?” 

If someone else had said this, Huo Yu might have understood it as a joke. But Xia Wan said it with a natural innocence as if he truly believed in fairy tales. Huo Yu glanced at him lightly, and the corners of his mouth curled up again. He had seldom laughed over years of hardship, and when he did so it was for convenience’s sake. But in the few hours that he had known Xia Wan today, he had lost count of how many times he’d laughed.

He didn’t know why, but Xia Wan had a very contradictory temperament. When he was on full alert, he was sharp, witty, and even scheming. But once he relaxed, he was artless and pure as though perfectly ignorant of the world. What was strange was that Huo Yu felt that these two temperaments were not antithetical to each other, as if Xia Wan had been born this way, bright and transparent, not at all like the submissive and meek that Shen Yan had told him. 

“No,” Huo Yu said.  

“Oh,” Xia Wan responded, immediately noticing the incongruity of these two conversations, and smiling subconsciously. 

After entering someone else’s territory, Xia Wan became more cautious. He followed Huo Yu closely, not daring to overstep.

“Do you want to take a bath or eat first?” Huo Yu stopped abruptly, and Xia Wan bumped into him without paying attention. His back was like a steel plate, hitting the tip of his nose painfully. Xia Wan’s eyes turned red from the pain but he was still worried about committing some mistake or indiscretion, so he raised his face cautiously. 

“Can I take a shower before eating?”  

Huo Yu looked at him and paused for a moment. “Yes.”

Xia Wan immediately clenched his fists and smiled unabashedly. The bathroom was very large, with a layout separated between dry and wet areas, and a huge full-length mirror by the door. After running around all day, Xia Wan finally had the time to spare to look at his new body. But once he stared at the person in the mirror, he froze.

The person in the mirror was still wearing a stained and messy white shirt, which looked a little humiliating, but the black hair and almond eyes, the high nose with diamond lips, and not to forget, the gentle curve of the tip of the nose… were the same as him in reality. The only difference was his skin color, which due to long-term illness had always been unhealthy and pale, with even paler lips. The young man in his reflection had healthy milk-white skin, warm and hale, with a slight amber luster in his eyes that, under the light, revealed a velvety warmth, and lips that were pink and natural. Although he was twenty years old, his eyes were full of youthfulness, which made him all the more lovable.

Xia Wan was silent for a moment until he remembered something and immediately raised a hand to roll up the sleeve of his left arm. There, on the same spot as his old body, there was a tiny mole on his wrist bone, light brown and shaped like a butterfly with wings. Xia Wan’s heart began to thump wildly. It was all too real, and if it weren’t for the completely unfamiliar environment, he would almost suspect that what he’d just experienced was an absurd dream. It would be so nice if it was a dream, Xia Wan thought. 

After soaking in the bathtub for a while, Xia Wan’s whole body relaxed. He yawned lazily, and just as he was about to stretch out a hand to have a bathrobe handed to him, he remembered his current situation. He had to sit up from the comfortable bathtub and get it himself. The bathrobe was so big that it almost reached his ankles. Xia Wan tied the belt around his waist and walked out slowly.

The youth’s jet-black hair was wet, and it still has small water droplets running down from the tips. His eyes were moist and soft with heat, and the ends were crimson, completely different from the wet feeling of crying that he’d experienced earlier.

“I didn’t find a hair dryer.” Xia Wan raised his face, his eyelashes thicker and darker due to the moisture, revealing an innocent look. Huo Yu glanced at him lightly, and without saying a word, turned around and entered the bathroom.

One thing Huo Yu was sure of was that Xia Wan didn’t know how to take a bath. From the bathtub to the door, there were puddles of water as if he’d been running back and forth in the whole bathroom naked. Huo Yu froze for a moment before bending down and pulling the hair dryer out from the lower level of the cabinet where the bathrobes and towels were kept. When he came back, he saw Xia Wan had put on the shirt and pajama pants that he’d left out for him to wear. He was sitting cross-legged on the sofa, waiting obediently for Huo Yu to return. 

“You changed your clothes in the room?” Huo Yu couldn’t help but tighten his fingers around the hair dryer. 

“Yeah.” Xia Wan nodded obediently, the water droplets hitting the tip of his nose, glittering in the light. “You were in the bathroom, weren’t you? So I had to change here.” 

Huo Yu pursed his lips silently and handed over the hair dryer. Xia Wan took it but did not move. His lower back hurt a little from when Qiu Qi had pushed him at the banquet earlier, where he’d bumped into the corner of a table. He’d been so tense and vigilant that he hadn’t felt anything at first, but after unwinding in the bath, and with all the distance they’d put between themselves and the drama, the place where he’d hit himself had started to become very painful. He had looked in the mirror in the bathroom, but could only see a vaguely bluish-purple bruise because of the angle.

“Do you have medicinal lotion in your house?” Xia Wan sat upright while holding the hair dryer, revealing a thin white ankle, feet as white as snow, and pink toes that were slightly curled up – perhaps because of the cold.  

“What do you want medicinal cream for?” Huo Yu asked in a low voice, looking away from the pink toes.

“My waist is injured,” Xia Wan whispered, his voice so soft that it seemed to be soaked in pity and woe. “It hurts.” He turned around naturally as he said so, raising a hand to lift the back hem of his shirt. Before being transported to this world, his family had never dared hurt him. Because of his poor blood circulation, it is a big deal for the Xia family if he was bitten by even an insect. Almost everyone in the family would help tend to him and care for his hurts, including his aunt, who’d been a certified nurse. So he instinctively turned to Huo Yu for help. 

“No.” Before his hand touched the hem, he heard Huo Yu’s voice behind him, cold and hard.

Xia Wan, who’d been so inadvertently relaxed and familiar with Huo Yu, suddenly woke up. This man was a villain, how could he forget it? Suffering such a setback, Xia Wan remained motionless like a monk chanting scriptures and concentrated on etching this crucial piece of information deep into his mind. 

“I’ve only asked my aunt to prepare daily necessities, not things such as medicine. Even if I had them at home they would all expire,” Huo Yu’s voice softened. ” You’ll have to bear it for today. I’ll buy some tomorrow.” 

Xia Wan fell short. Only when he realized that Huo Yu was not telling him no did he raise his face hopefully and look at Huo Yu. After a while, he asked cautiously, “Then can you rub it for me?.”

…. 

The author Note:- 

The reason why Xia Wan has a very contradictory personality: is that he was born into a high-profile family, and he understands what goes on in other people’s minds. But at the same time due to his lack of contact with people and less life experience sometimes he believes things easily and he is sort of a bit naive.