Qiu Qiu's dormitory caught fire, and Fu Ruien's greatest worry was whether his precious boy was injured.
"He's not hurt, but there were a lot of valuable things in the dorm, all burned to ashes," Qiu Qiu said gloomily. Now the dorm only had two bare bed frames left, worse than a prison cell.
Fu Ruien breathed a sigh of relief. "Alright, as long as you're unharmed, that's what matters. Nothing in this world is more precious than you."
Qiu Qiu couldn't help but let a smile creep onto his lips at the soothing words, but then he thought of his three years' worth of hard-earned study notes turning to ashes, and the smile vanished again.
It was Fu Ruien who reminded him that with his excellent grades, there must be classmates borrowing his notes to photocopy every finals period. He could just ask for them back and make another copy.
With that, Qiu Qiu felt completely smoothed out from the inside out by his sugar daddy. His heart, which had been somewhat uneasy after the fire, finally calmed down, and his dimples reappeared on his face.
After hanging up, Da Xiong, who had been eavesdropping nearby the whole time, scooted over and anxiously demanded, "Were you just on the phone with your sugar daddy? Are you two moving in together??"
"What moving in together?" Qiu Qiu's heart skipped a beat, and he stammered an explanation, "The school dorm burned down, and there's no one at my house... I'm just going to stay at his place for a few days..."
"Crashing at a friend's place is one thing, but a young thing like you packing a little bag and running off to your sugar daddy... that's called actively offering yourself up to be taken advantage of." Da Xiong was genuinely worried that in a few days, his naive good roommate would be taken advantage of. He pondered hard for a moment, then said angrily, "Forget it, you'd better just let me take advantage of you instead. The school assigned us a standard room, but that bed's taken. We'll just have to squeeze together on my bed for a few nights."
"...But the standard bed is only 1.2 meters wide. Am I supposed to sleep on top of you?"
Da Xiong was so angry he lost his appetite. At noon, the school provided hand-pulled noodles to calm the nerves of the students who survived the disaster. He didn't eat a single bite, only downed three bowls of the braising sauce.
...
Because it happened so suddenly, when the fire broke out, Da Xiong ran downstairs empty-handed except for himself. The most valuable thing on his entire person was his bear whip.
Qiu Qiu was slightly better off. At least he was fully dressed and his backpack contained his laptop and two class notebooks. However, his wallet was burned to the point that not even ash remained. Without his bank cards, he couldn't withdraw money; without his ID card, he couldn't get his cards replaced... So until his dad finished his business trip and returned home with the household register, Qiu Qiu had no choice but to go freeload off someone well-off.
Fu Ruien was thoughtful and specifically sent his driver to take Qiu Qiu shopping for daily necessities.
The supplementary card that Qiu Qiu had returned after the "end" of their kept relationship had made a full circle and ended up back in Qiu Qiu's hands.
Looking at the thin plastic card, Qiu Qiu hesitated for a few seconds but ultimately accepted it.
He wasn't usually picky about food or clothes, wearing brands like H&M and Uniqlo. But the high-end stores the driver took him to had T-shirts costing three thousand yuan apiece. Qiu Qiu didn't let the capitalist sugar-coated bullets go to his head. He picked out two of the cheapest items, checked out hastily, and reminded the driver to keep the receipts safe so he could note them down in his little book later.
He had never been a kept boy; there was no reason for Fu Ruien to cover all his expenses.
Even if two people were dating, they should still go Dutch sometimes.
He bought quite a few miscellaneous items. Besides clothes and toiletries for himself, Qiu Qiu also picked up some useful little household items for Fu Ruien's home.
Fu Ruien's house was too neatly organized—no soft throw pillows, no fridge magnets marking travel destinations, no quirky-shaped mugs. Qiu Qiu also bought a bunch of snacks and instant drinks to fill the void during late-night study sessions.
Most importantly, Qiu Qiu bought a tent.
When he had come over to cook for his sugar daddy before, he had wandered through every room. This three-hundred-square-meter house was surprisingly divided into only three bedrooms and a living room, each as large as a classroom. One room served as a study, another as a gym. The sole bedroom contained a seemingly endless king-sized bed, even the bedsheets were custom-made to fit its dimensions.
Qiu Qiu was deeply concerned he might get lost on that bed, so he voluntarily gave up the chance to experience a king-size bed.
...
Meanwhile, Fu Ruien was full of drive today. Work that normally required overtime was all completed before 6 PM. With a good, soft, sweet, and clever Qiu Qiu waiting at home, who would want to stay at the office facing those middle-aged beer bellies?
Although Qiu Qiu said he would move back once the dorm was repaired, if Fu Ruien wanted to keep him, he had plenty of methods.
Before leaving work, he instructed his secretary, "Call A University. Tell them I heard about the fire in the male dormitory building number four and am deeply concerned about the students' safety. I'll fund a complete reinforcement of the dormitory building and a reinstallation of all fire prevention systems."
He tapped his fountain pen on the desk, making crisp sounds. "Make the construction period a long one. It shouldn't be completed for at least three months."
The secretary swallowed and whispered, "Boss, about the fire in dormitory building four... you didn't have someone do it, did you..."
“…Do I seem like that kind of deranged person?”
"Every bit like one."
If this secretary hadn't been with Fu Ruien for over a decade, he'd really consider firing him.
...
Fu Ruien's heart was set on returning home. On the way back, he kept checking his watch, feeling the driver was twice as slow as usual, though rationally he knew it was all in his head.
After getting out of the car, he picked up his briefcase and a gift and entered the elevator. As the doors slowly closed, the reflection in the mirror looked frighteningly unfamiliar. He was like any ordinary man who had fallen in love—whenever he thought of another person's figure, a foolish yet happy smile would appear on his face. He tried to press his lips down, but the smile remained stubborn.
He couldn't keep smiling like this.
If Qiu Qiu found out, he'd surely wag his tail with pride.
When he entered, Qiu Qiu was playing the guitar to relax. The boy was humming that little love song he wrote himself. The middle part had long been recorded as Fu Ruien's exclusive alarm tone, but he just couldn't perfectly complete the ending.
Luckily, Qiu Qiu had left his guitar here last time he came to cook, otherwise this treasure worth a hefty fifty thousand yuan would have perished in the fire alongside everything else.
Hearing Fu Ruien come in, Qiu Qiu quickly put down the guitar and sensibly went to greet him, buzzing around the locust tree like a little bee—taking his coat, putting away his briefcase.
Fu Ruien took the opportunity to pull him into an embrace, bending slightly to rest his chin on Qiu Qiu's shoulder, not saying a word. The warm breath he exhaled brushed against Qiu Qiu's ear, long and suggestive.
Qiu Qiu let him hold on for a while, then in a grown-up manner raised his hand to ruffle his sugar daddy's hair, saying cheerfully, "Sugar Daddy, work must have been hard!"
"Not hard at all. Thinking of my Qiu Qiu waiting for me at home, it wasn't hard at all."
Qiu Qiu chuckled softly, feeling bashful and unsure how to respond. He could only lift his arms to hug his sugar daddy's back in return, embracing those broad shoulders.
Fu Ruien didn't want to push him too hard. After all, they were living together now—things like cleaning his ears, sitting on his lap, giving massages, dropping towels, or drunken indiscretions... surely they weren't far off, were they?
