Life-Saving Days by the Husky’s Side

Life-Saving Days by the Husky’s Side
Fireworks

Ji Tianyang’s actor title wasn’t for nothing. Ji Shaoyan observed him for most of the term and couldn’t find any flaws or problems.

However, when people encounter emergencies or are emotionally connected to the issue, they can often see the more intrinsic details. He wanted to hook the people in with the jade first, take a look at Ji Tianyang’s attitude, but he didn’t expect something to have come up.

After listening to Ji Shaoyan’s briefing, Zhou Li said, “But it could also really be just a coincidence.”

He tried to put himself in Ji Tianyang’s position, adding, “I feel that such a tactic is too simple and crude.”

If Ji Tianyang has really lived through multiple worlds by relying on jade to continue his life, at the very least, he shouldn’t be an idiot.

First of all, he chose the wrong timing. It has been more than a month since the day he offered to buy the jade. If he made his move now, the probability of others becoming suspicious of him will be high. Second of all, he looked to be completely innocent in this matter. The car accident was a small car accident, and the injury is also a small injury. He was just passing by and lent them a helping hand, thinking that the other party would be grateful enough to give him their treasured jade, which can be a reasonable assumption.

Ji Shaoyan also analysed this possibility in his mind, so he didn’t make a conclusion, wanting to find someone to look into the car accident first.

It turned out to be a very simple and clear reason.

Before he received the findings from one of his men, his mole quickly contacted him again and updated him with new information.

His father was cheated out of money not too long ago and owed a loan shark nearly one million. This car accident was a warning from the shark. However,  the current society is a society ruled by laws, and loan sharks are not as arrogant as they were in the past, so they could only cause a slight injury to people.

In this case, Ji Tianyang’s ‘helping hand’ act came into play.

One million may be a huge sum of money for ordinary families, but for them, rich young masters from big families, it can be considered pocket money.

Without thinking deeply——he saved his father and even helped the family settle the crisis. He was their great benefactor.

But if they did think deeper——he only showed up because he knew of the scheme in advance; he was related to this accident, he did it on purpose. If they didn’t give up the jade, there will be accidents even more serious than this one waiting for them later. This threat held some weight, dealt in such a calm and cool manner.

But normal people generally won’t think too deeply.

Because no one thought that Second Young Master Ji would do so much for a piece of jade, and Ji Tianyang only discussed buying the jade that one time, never mentioning it again after being rejected. Since then, he has been playing an act of an “although he may seem aloof, he actually values his friends” second generation teen. If it were another person, they would definitely think that Second Young Master Ji was a man all about loyalty.

The mole’s heart was frightened and angry. Trying to maintain his expression, he hurriedly found a place with no one around and contacted Ji Shaoyan.

Ji Shaoyan said, “If he offers to help you pay off the debt, just give him the jade. Have you forgotten what I told you before?”

The mole said, “I haven’t.”

Ji Shaoyan left a few more words of instructions then hung up the phone.

Zhou Li originally wanted to take a nap but after hearing this twist in plans, he suddenly lost his desire to sleep.

Saving someone in a car accident or whatever was simply artless, like something done by someone with deep intentions. He thought back to Lin Ye and his lot, asking, “Why does he always like to mingle with local snakes*?”

[T/N: regional underworld/mafia bosses]

“Maybe he was in this business before.” Ji Shaoyan leaned closer, pulling the boy into his arms to pet him. “Or he’s familiar with using them to execute his wicked deeds.”

Zhou Li looked at him. “You said he wanted to find and bring you back before, was that true?”

Ji Shaoyan said, “Who knows. Go to sleep ba.”

Zhou Li said, “Not sleepy.”

Ji Shaoyan thoughtfully offered, “Want to go out for a tour together?”

Zhou Li agreed without a second thought, hands linking together as they went out to watch the sea.

At a certain hospital in Qinglian City, Ji Tianyang heard the whole story and was immediately filled with outrage. His expression showed a habitual arrogance. “These loan sharks still dare to do stuff like this even now, do they still want to live? Don’t worry yourselves over it, let me see if I can deal with them.”

After a pause, he said, “But there is no evidence of your father being cheated. The repayment of debts is justified. The money must be paid back, and it must be paid back as soon as possible, otherwise the accrued interest will continue to increase.”

The family was dismayed.

The woman’s eyes were a little swollen from crying. “Then…then we can only sell the house.”

“Housing prices are so high, if you sell it now, it will be difficult to buy it back later.” Ji Tianyang said, “I’ll help you settle the debts first ba. Xiao Zhao and I are friends; you can pay me back slowly.”

He seemed to be indifferent to this matter. “Or, if you are tight financially, you don’t have to pay me back.”

The woman hurriedly said, “How can we not pay it back? Don’t worry, we owe you, we will definitely repay you.”

After Xiao Zhao called Ji Shaoyan, the first thing he heard when he returned to the house was this sentence. He glanced at Ji Tianyang.

The handful of people in the room looked at him.

Just then, he left the room with his phone, and they subconsciously thought he must’ve gone to borrow money from his classmates. Ji Tianyang also guessed the same. Mingying was far from lacking rich people, which was why he spoke up so quickly.

The woman said, “You…did you go borrow money?”

Xiao Zhao startled slightly, humming vaguely for an answer.

The woman said, “How is it?”

Xiao Zhao smiled bitterly and shook his head.

Ji Tianyang was very happy. With dissatisfaction plastered on his face, he said, “Say you don’t need it, but go to your classmates to borrow?”

Xiao Zhao smiled bitterly again without responding.

Ji Tianyang also knew that he might be feeling they have not reached that point of familiarity yet, so he walked over and hooked his arm over the other’s shoulder to take him to repay the debt.

The family was more than grateful. The man was lying on the bed with an injured foot and was unable to move, so the woman and the little daughter hurried to send them off.

Xiao Zhao looked at his family, resisting the urge to beat up the bastard next to him, and followed him out of the hospital. After watching him pay back the money, he fell silent and said, “Er-shao, do you remember how you wanted to buy the jade off me?”

Ji Tianyang said, “Ah?“

He seemed to think for a moment before he said, “Oh, it seems so, what about it?”

Xiao Zhao solemnly proposed, “That jade pendant is very important to me. I will give it to you and find another way to repay you.”

Ji Tianyang voiced his shock and waved his hand. “It’s fine, I believe you.”

Xiao Zhao said, “Please. It will at least make me feel better.”

Ji Tianyang reluctantly said, “Okay. We’ll do that.”

Xiao Zhao took him home to pick up the jade, thinking that fortunately, he hadn’t handed it over to Ji-shao, otherwise this situation would’ve been more difficult to handle.

Ji-shao has always been careful and he probably took into consideration that he may have to personally give the jade to another person, so the young master had him hide it.

He dug out the jade pendant while thinking about this, going out and passing it to Ji Tianyang who was sitting in the living room.

Ji Tianyang received it and inspected the jade, slipping it into his pocket. Before he left, he borrowed their bathroom and dangled the jade in his hand once he came out, saying, “This is fake.”

Xiao Zhao’s heart jumped, and he quickly brought out the excuse Ji-shao had told him: “Impossible, this is real jade. It cost a lot of money. If you don’t believe it, we can go to the appraisal shop to check!”

Ji Tianyang said, “You misunderstood what I meant. I didn’t say the material is fake.”

He reworded his discovery. “My mother has a piece of jade like this; an antique. I heard if all pieces were together, it would form a flower, so when I saw you wearing it, I wanted to buy it. Later, you said it was important to you and I figured it’ll be too hard to gather all the petals anyway, so I might as well forget about it. I took a closer look just now and saw that this isn’t an antique, it’s a later imitation.”

Xiao Zhao was stunned. “Even if it is an imitation, it’s still very important to me.”

Ji Tianyang: “I know, this jade pendant has special meaning to you.”

He leaned against the sofa armrest and smiled. “But, look at how perfect everything turned out. I gave up because this jade is important to you. Everything is lined up now. This is fake; I can find the real one through the fake, everyone is happy.”

He looked at the person in front of him. “Who gave you this jade?”

Xiao Zhao: “A very important friend. He is abroad now so he should be asleep at this point. I’ll call and ask him tomorrow morning.”

Ji Tianyang hummed “en”, but did not return the jade.

Because they had agreed to use it as a collateral, if he threw it back, his motive would be too obvious.

Xiao Zhao sent him to the car, and while walking back to the hospital, called Ji Shaoyan again.

Ji Shaoyan was silent for a moment. “I see. Proceed as planned.”

Right now, Zhou Li was sitting on the balcony with him to watch the sunset. When he heard this, he asked what was wrong.

Ji Shaoyan filled him in about the latest developments. Zhou Li raised his eyebrows. They were prepared for Ji Tianyang to realise it was a copy, but they didn’t expect it to be this fast.

“Something is wrong.” Ji Shaoyan analysed, “If you can quickly see that an item is fake, you won’t buy it.”

Ji Tianyang had seen and touched the jade pendant before, then decided to buy it. This showed that he can’t tell the real from fake at all. But today, he could recognise it only by going to the bathroom, which meant he might have another way to verify it, but the method wasn’t convenient to use in front of other people.

Zhou Li said, “Could it be that there’s something else on the jade that we don’t know about?”

Ji Shaoyan said, “You didn’t examine it?”

Zhou Li said, “Of course I’ve examined it. Back then…cough, I looked very carefully and didn’t see any problems.”

Ji Shaoyan gently asked, “What about ‘back then’?”

Zhou Li: “Let’s get back to topic.”

Ji Shaoyan knew that ‘back then’ was when he was thinking of returning to his original world using the jade. He glanced at him and didn’t bother confronting this silly fool for the time being. For this silly fool to think of pulling him out during the winter holiday to spend their days in a two-person world already surprised him very much; a very praiseworthy move.

He clasped Zhou Li’s hand and said, “The topic is over. Let’s see if we can block him with our next step.”

As it turns out, they could.

In the early morning of the following day, Ji Tianyang came to the hospital to check on the patient. Xiao Zhao made a voice call in front of him and pressed the speakerphone. First, he exchanged a few words before directing the conversation to business. He didn’t say that the pendant was fake, just wanting to know where he bought the jade since he has a friend who also wants to buy it.

The person on the other end has already been instructed. “In Nancheng.”

Xiao Zhao said, “Whereabouts in Nancheng?”

The other side said, “From the Jade Ware Centre* ah. It was a few years ago, so I’ve already forgotten which store I bought it from.”

[T/N: a shopping centre (loosely putting it, more like a market place but every stall is its own building) where all the shops sell jade products (i think?)]

Xiao Zhao looked at Ji Tianyang, who interjected, “How many pieces of this type of jade were there at the time?”

The other side: “Just this one, I bought it because it looked good.”

Ji Tianyang had no other questions. He and Xiao Zhao pretended to be good brothers in the ward for a while, then he left, bought tickets at the nearest station, and went straight to Nancheng.

Nancheng had the largest rock gambling* and jade trading market in China. There were many people who visit every year to pan for gold and the shop fundings were also thriving. Finding a jade merchant from few years ago is like finding a needle in a haystack, enough to keep Ji Tianyang busy.

[T/N: when jade is mined, it has a layer of weathered material on the exterior, so buyers don’t know the quality of the jade; hence, gambling]

Looking at the news from his mole, Ji Shaoyan put away his phone. His eyes narrowed slightly.

Judging from the current situation, while Ji Tianyang didn’t appear to be an impatient person, he seems to be a little too anxious about this whole affair. Why is that?

But this was also good.

The more impatient he was, the more they could see what kind of person he was.

From the corner of his eyes, Ji Shaoyan saw Zhou Li come out after showering. He smiled and gave him a good morning kiss, pulling him downstairs for breakfast.

They planned to play here for ten days, then go home for the New Year.

The water activities were exciting and fun. The two threw Ji Tianyang’s affairs to the back of their heads and began to concentrate on enjoying their holiday. Zhou Li even performed a surfing routine for Ji Shaoye on a whim, and eight days passed before they knew it.

On the night of the ninth day, there was a firework show nearby. They were staying in a room with a clear view of the display.

After eating, the two returned to the hotel, sitting on the balcony and chatting while waiting for the fireworks show. Zhou Li was a little bored, so he went into the room and took out a deck of playing cards, sliding them on the small round table on the balcony. “Wanna play?”

Ji Shaoyan smiled. “Stripping?”

Zhou Li said, “We only have these, let’s not ba.”

He thought about it for a while. “Let’s play with sticky notes ba.”

Young Master Ji was at such an age, yet he has never played a game with sticky notes with anyone. He nodded, agreeing.

Zhou Li took out a sticky note pad and transparent glue, then started dealing the cards.

After a few rounds, both boys had sticky notes stuck all over their faces.

Ji Shaoyan played the last card and won another round. He glanced at Silly Fool, tore a piece of paper off the pad and attached it to the boy’s earlobe, keeping his face symmetrical. He couldn’t help but let out a laugh.

This laughter was very pleasant, carrying his constant melodious timbre.

The next second, fireworks in the distance skyrocketed, exploding with fervour, dying his eyes with a thin layer of light.

Zhou Li felt his heart beat, obvious and bright.

He also couldn’t tell when it started. Those ‘caring’ emotions became stronger, transforming into ‘like’, and then this ‘like’ followed suit, then he was corrupted, never to return to the days before he became infatuated.

Liking Ji Shaoyan was really far too easy.

He watched Ji Shaoyan sit back and watch the night sky. Thinking about his intentions behind planning this trip, he called out, “Egg.”

Ji Shaoyan turned to look at him. “What is it, Mengmeng?”

As soon as his words fell, the view in front of him darkened.

Zhou Li supported himself on the round table with one hand and leaned to give him a kiss.

This kiss didn’t last for a long time, but it held a faint indescribable, endless lingering.

Zhou Li stared at him closely under the sky full of fireworks, both of their eyes dyed with the same light. With a soft laugh, he whispered, “A-Yan, I like you.”

Ji Shaoyan: “……”

The author has something to say:

Ji Shaoyan: When choosing such a place to confirm our relationship, I endured it. You finally chose an appropriate time to confess with the fireworks show, but even though it’s all set up, you still suggested playing with post-it notes or whatever! Can you at least get rid of the stickers on our faces first!

Zhou Li: Ah?

Ji Shaoyan: It’s fine. Don’t talk to me just yet.