Chapter 7#

Zhao Rong was woken up by Qiao Nanqi for a moment, and although he fell asleep later, he couldn’t sleep very deeply. He kept dreaming lightly, with some images flashing back and forth.

In short, it was all Qiao Nanqi.

Even in his sleep, he held a grudge against Qiao Nanqi for waking him up just now. Looking at Qiao Nanqi’s appearance in front of him, the words he didn’t dare to say during the day poured out all at once.

Dog thing.

Bastard.

I treat you as a boyfriend, as a marriage partner, you treat me as a male bed partner.

When you sleep, you don’t let me make noise; when I sleep, you disturb me every day.

Disturbing people’s dreams.

Hard to serve, and hard to coax.

…

Zhao Rong cursed to his heart’s content, and gradually slept soundly.

Early the next morning, Zhao Rong had just woken up, his head still groggy, when he was tormented by Qiao Nanqi for a long time.

This person had taken the wrong medicine somewhere, his movements not gentle at all. Zhao Rong originally went with the flow to solve the morning needs, but after a while, he wanted to push Qiao Nanqi away and repeatedly called to stop.

Qiao Nanqi ignored him completely.

In the end, the man pinched his chin and whispered: “Not in good spirits recently, health not good? Ask Sister Li to make you some tonic food after getting up.”

Sister Li was considered their family’s nanny, coming only when cooking.

Zhao Rong lay on the bed, his eyes still covered with a layer of haze. He blinked slowly, his eyelashes trembled, and looked up at Qiao Nanqi.

Qiao Nanqi looked down at him from above.

He didn’t think, just wanted to send this great Buddha away as soon as possible.

Tormented like this early in the morning, and having eaten nothing, his stomach was now faintly uncomfortable. He hugged the pillow, half of his face buried in the pillow, and whispered: “Okay.”

His obedience seemed to please Qiao Nanqi. The man patted his exposed cheek and said: “I’m busy these two days and don’t have time to manage you. Don’t go to those messy places recently.”

Zhao Rong was sleepy as hell, just wanted this bastard to shut up quickly, and still nodded without any objection.

Qiao Nanqi had already gotten up, ignoring Zhao Rong who was still in a mess.

He washed up and buttoned his white shirt neatly in front of the mirror. The light mole at the end of his left eye was even more faint in the daylight, but his dark brown eyes appeared deeper in the mirror.

After buttoning up, he looked back at Zhao Rong, who was completely buried in the quilt, thoughtfully.

Today’s Zhao Rong was as obedient as before.

The inexplicable irritability from last night finally dissipated in such obedience.

He hooked the corner of his mouth and said to Zhao Rong again: “If you want to play, play something clean. I’ll ask Xiao Wu to give you more money to spend this month.”

Xiao Wu was Qiao Nanqi’s personal assistant.

Zhao Rong rested with his eyes closed on the bed, thinking in his heart that Young Master Qiao was really strict with others and lenient with himself. Qiao Nanqi had seen more messy things than him, yet turned around to ask him to be a delicate flower staying at home.

But before he had time to say anything, this person arranged Sister Li and instructed Xiao Wu, then left after speaking.

The spacious bedroom fell into silence again.

A trace of daylight leaked from the slightly opened curtains, sprinkling on Zhao Rong’s body and paving on the European-style furniture. The furniture was spotless, the items neat and cold.

Looking outside, it was gloomy—a cloudy day.

Zhao Rong lay for a while longer, got up and endured the discomfort to take a shower alone, ordered a breakfast takeout, and took stomach medicine with hot water before feeling a bit spirited.

After finishing these, his phone vibrated.

It was a payment reminder message.

Xiao Wu’s efficiency had always been fast. Qiao Nanqi probably just said it there, and he received this month’s extra “pocket money” here.

And the amount was not small, much more than the money the Chen family sent him every month.

Even if shown to Liu Shun and that group of rich playboys, their eyes would straighten at this number.

Qiao Nanqi wouldn’t even send “pocket money” like a gift in the past.

This money transfer was already a rare care from Young Master Qiao.

But such charity-like giving wouldn’t exist between partners; only for unpresentable lovers would there be such a dismissal.

He glanced at it, smiled, and muttered to himself: “…Not bad, the price is quite high.”

If the old him received this money, he might have sent it back without moving a cent, and told Qiao Nanqi nicely that he had enough money.

Now, he felt it was good to keep it—money and goods cleared, right?

The Chen family was about to finish.

He was going to run away.

He likely couldn’t keep that money from before.

The money Qiao Nanqi sent him now shouldn’t be taken back. This was actually the safest sum of money in his hands; foolish not to take it.

As the saying goes, money or happiness, he always had to have one.

Humming a currently popular pop song, he opened the chat box with Xiao Wu on his phone, sent a “hard work” to this personal assistant with extremely high work efficiency, and sent a “thank you [heart]” to the generous Mr. Qiao.

Polite and thoughtful.

In the next few days, Qiao Nanqi was indeed busy going in and out, not returning home.

This period was the last half of the plot of “The Return”. It was normal for Qiao Nanqi, the big male lead of this refreshing novel, to be very busy now. Zhao Rong didn’t find it strange and never asked what Qiao Nanqi was busy with.

Qiao Nanqi was busy until no one was seen, staying at the company until midnight every day. Zhao Rong, however, didn’t go to the company during this time.

He stayed at the company for Qiao Nanqi initially. Going to work every day without absence except for unexpected situations was also for Qiao Nanqi, never for that little dividend or that idle position with no function. Now that this persistent goal suddenly disappeared under the waste of years, he certainly lost interest.

When he responded to Qiao Nanqi with “won’t go”, since he had said it, he was naturally serious.

When Zhao Rong indulged in wishful paranoia, he actually didn’t feel how stubborn he was. He just liked Qiao Nanqi, and Qiao Nanqi gave him hope that seemed reachable. He plunged into it unknowingly, and in the blink of an eye, it was ten years.

Time and habit are actually two very strange things.

When there was absolutely no end in sight, Zhao Rong could pursue Qiao Nanqi without hesitation for ten years, from student days to the silent present, trying hard to get close to Qiao Nanqi, understand Qiao Nanqi, and accommodate Qiao Nanqi. But just when they had signed the marriage agreement and lived together in this villa for less than a year, accustomed to no response, he suddenly pulled himself out at this moment.

No big event happened.

It was just that the past accumulated over the years pried a harmless string when passing this moment. He suddenly didn’t want it anymore, suddenly didn’t care in this day after day. The awakening was late, but as long as it was in the present, it wasn’t too late.

Zhao Rong didn’t go to work, nor did he go to fool around with Liu Shun’s group, staying at home alone.

The early autumn season still retained the rainstorms of late summer. After continuous sunny days, it had been raining continuously these days.

The window of the living room on the first floor was half open. The sound of pattering rain came from outside the window, and the air was filled with a cool scent of grass and trees. Low-flying birds occasionally glided across the mid-air, bringing crisp cries.

Zhao Rong nestled on the sofa in the living room, recalling the original plot of “The Return”.

Relying on the fact that he was afraid of nothing, he pursued Qiao Nanqi vigorously back then. Although it didn’t affect Qiao Nanqi’s biggest main line as the male lead, some small plots and his own plot were messed up.

Now that he wanted to retire, he should let everything return to the original trajectory. Qiao Nanqi continued to be a protagonist untainted by leaves, and he continued to be a little cannon fodder exiting quickly.

The biggest change in the plot between him and Qiao Nanqi was the marriage agreement signed by the two more than a year ago.

According to the original text of “The Return”, Qiao Nanqi actually never liked anyone from beginning to end. Even the part where he regarded Lu Xingping as the white moonlight was not in the original work.

His marriage was just a tool.

More than a year ago, the relationship between Qiao Nanqi and his father reached freezing point, and his voice in the Qiao family was also threatened. Apart from Qiao Nanqi’s father who had always been against Qiao Nanqi, other members of the Qiao family even wanted to hand over all inheritance rights to Qiao Nanqi’s cousin Qiao Ruoye.

In the original work, Qiao Nanqi reached an exchange of interests with a woman who had little screen time, using her family to help him stabilize the inheritance rights of the Qiao family. Then the two benefited individually and divorced at the end.

Zhao Rong knew this plot and also knew that Qiao Nanqi’s main purpose at that time was to stabilize the Qiao family’s inheritance rights. It didn’t matter who he married. Perhaps even without marriage, Qiao Nanqi as the protagonist had other methods.

But this was his chance.

So he rushed to propose to Qiao Nanqi proactively a few days before that part of the plot began, saying he could help and lend his identity in the Chen family to Qiao Nanqi. Moreover, Chen Zehe and these people were close to Qiao Nanqi’s father. If they were together, they could also numb Qiao Nanqi’s father, making the other party think Qiao Nanqi was compromising and giving in.

No matter how one looked at it, it was a good move.

His cousin Chen Zehe could be counted as one of the few named villains in the plot of “The Return”. Whether in private or in business, he tripped Qiao Nanqi up quite a bit; the relationship couldn’t be said to be not bad.

To accomplish this matter back then, Zhao Rong suffered quite a few hidden losses from Chen Zehe.

When he proposed it, Qiao Nanqi didn’t refuse. They signed the marriage agreement in this house at that time.

To show Qiao Nanqi’s father, Zhao Rong pretended to inject capital into the head office to obtain a small portion of shares. Qiao Nanqi sent him a sum of money that ordinary people couldn’t finish spending in a lifetime of squandering.

The money in the conditions was just a cover. At that time, Zhao Rong was going for the person. He had transferred that money back to Qiao Nanqi’s account long ago. Qiao Nanqi didn’t say anything back then, very indifferent.

His move affected not only Qiao Nanqi’s small plot in the marriage agreement but also his own trivial plot line.

After he returned to the Chen family, Old Mrs. Chen arranged a marriage contract for him just like in the original work.

Besides the same name, he and the “Zhao Rong” in the original work had another common point: sexual orientation. In the original plot of “The Return”, Old Mrs. Chen—that is, “Zhao Rong’s” grandmother by blood—knew “Zhao Rong’s” orientation, so she arranged Lu Xingping as the marriage partner.

And Zhao Rong fell in love with Qiao Nanqi after transmigrating. When he returned to the Chen family, he didn’t want to follow this plot even more, directly confessing to Old Mrs. Chen that he only liked Qiao Nanqi—but he was still arranged this marriage contract with Lu Xingping. Zhao Rong couldn’t change Old Mrs. Chen’s decision, nor did he care about the existence of this marriage contract, continuing to revolve around Qiao Nanqi.

But this marriage contract… was not a simple marriage contract.

Zhao Rong’s father, Chen Fengnian, was the first child of Old Mr. and Mrs. Chen, and also their most beloved son. It was just that Chen Fengnian didn’t have a legitimate child born until he died of sudden illness. The Chen family had no choice but to find Zhao Rong back.

Although Zhao Rong was an illegitimate son left outside, the old lady transferred her affection for Chen Fengnian to Zhao Rong.

The old lady was in her eighties or nineties and had seen everything. She naturally knew clearly what those people in the Chen family thought. She knew that giving Zhao Rong the inheritance rights directly might harm Zhao Rong instead, and Zhao Rong might not be able to keep those things. To ensure Zhao Rong’s second half of life, a few days before she passed away, she set a marriage contract for Zhao Rong and Lu Xingping, who had been excellent since childhood, and froze half of the Chen family’s property, making a will that as long as Zhao Rong and Lu Xingping got married, they could withdraw this frozen half of the assets together.

No one knew about this matter. Except for the lawyer who signed the confidentiality agreement at that time, even Chen Zehe didn’t know where that half of the property was arranged by Old Mrs. Chen.

His grandmother had been dead for several years now. This marriage contract was not fulfilled, and the frozen property was left unattended like this.

And in the original work, “Zhao Rong” for the property and grandmother’s will, and Lu Xingping because he had a beloved in his heart whom he could never marry in this life, went with the flow to fulfill the marriage contract with “Zhao Rong”, each taking what they needed.

Although later, this half of the Chen family’s assets was also obtained by Qiao Nanqi, the remaining fraction was actually enough for an ordinary person to have no worries about food and clothing for a lifetime.

Zhao Rong didn’t think about this money before because “Zhao Rong” in the original work didn’t keep this money either.

But Qiao Nanqi in the original work didn’t regard Lu Xingping as the white moonlight either.

And now…

He felt he could try to get this money.

There was a high probability that Qiao Nanqi, for Lu Xingping’s sake, wouldn’t touch these things.

Even if Qiao Nanqi still showed no mercy as in the original work, keeping the remaining fraction for him, he felt it was not bad.

He wanted everything to return to the original trajectory.

To walk back to his own path and obtain half of the Chen family’s assets, he had to fulfill the marriage contract with Lu Xingping.

Who is Lu Xingping?

He is the inviolable white moonlight in Qiao Nanqi’s heart.