Chapter 88

The moment Ji Wei heard those words, he was stunned.

It was as if a ray of light had torn through his world. The wildly growing weeds finally stopped spreading from beneath the tightly covered vegetation.

He saw it, light.

The young man’s face showed no emotion, but the next moment—

He gently dipped his brush in paint and added a stroke of light to the planet’s orbit.

Just as Lu Shenxing had said.

In the cold, silent universe, the planet stopped rotating. Its orbit was haloed with a long, elliptical glow, forever holding the light, even if that light was extremely faint.

***

The departure time was set for seven in the evening.

But aside from them and Huang Bo, everyone else said they weren’t ready. It was understandable for Mother Lu, but Ji Wei didn’t quite understand why his father wasn’t ready either.

Huang Bo made a call and politely asked, “Mr. Ji, are you not ready yet?”

He had it on speakerphone, so Ji Wei heard his dad’s voice coming from Huang Bo’s phone. “The luggage was packed a long time ago, but several of Weiwei’s aunts said that cosmetics in Russia are cheap and are giving me a list…”

Huang Bo then called Director Lu.

“Old Huang, you know I have OCD. I’ll just check my collection one last time and then I’ll go! Really, just one more time.”

Huang Bo: “…………You said the same thing an hour ago.”

Lu Shenxing stood up from the sofa, glanced at his watch, and said faintly, “We’re not waiting. Let’s go first.”

As the only elder who could go with them, Huang Bo felt proud but also couldn’t bear it. “Then I’ll book them a Sunset Glow Tour Group. My friend said Wansong Travel Agency is having a cruise event recently, perfect for old people like them.”

He emphasized the last three words.

Ji Wei knew that Huang Bo had two good friends in Hua Ting whom he went grocery shopping with every day, but ‘old people like them’…

Huang Bo didn’t seem to be aware that he was the oldest.

Ying Guanxiao’s car was parked downstairs. They went to the airport together. Since a private jet required an application several days in advance, they booked first-class tickets on a Russian airline, flying first to Yekaterinburg and then connecting to Kolis.

The style of the Russian airline was just like the temperament of Russia itself.

Extremely simple and crude.

When visibility was poor due to fog at night, all other flights were grounded, but the Russian airline’s plane took off as scheduled.

Ji Wei walked into the first-class cabin and sat down. Each row had only two seats, one on each side of the fuselage. Besides the four of them, there was an old man with a mixed-race child of about eight or nine.

The old man sat in the seat next to him and had been coughing nonstop since he boarded. He also had a bad temper.

He was wearing reading glasses and seemed to be writing something, constantly muttering and cursing. A slight delay in a flight attendant’s response would earn his criticism. A new Chinese flight attendant was even brought to tears by him and ran out of the cabin.

The child had curly hair and emerald green eyes. Perhaps because he was of mixed race, he was unusually cute. He didn’t know if he could speak Chinese. He sat quietly in his seat, not crying or making a fuss, looking rather timid.

Because he had just taken his medicine in the afternoon, Ji Wei felt a little drowsy and closed his eyes, preparing to sleep through the four-hour flight.

The flight wasn’t very stable; the fuselage often shook violently. Ying Guanxiao threw up directly. He was a little better off than Ying Guanxiao, but he still couldn’t sleep soundly and felt dizzy and nauseous.

“Do you have a pen?”

He heard the old man’s voice and thought he was talking to his grandson.

Then he heard a gruff voice again. “Didn’t you hear me talking to you? A pen! Do you have a pen?!”

He was startled awake from his sleep and only then realized that the old man was talking to him.

“Don’t mind him.”

Ying Guanxiao, sitting in front of him, said in a low voice, “Let him ask the flight attendant. People like him are the worst bullies.”

But Ji Wei saw that the old man was coughing badly and thought it was just a pen. He took a drawing pencil from his backpack and handed it to the old man.

The old man just glanced at him, took the pen without saying thank you, threw the empty ballpoint pen on the floor, and continued to write on the paper.

“Are you okay?”

Lu Shenxing’s low voice came from behind him. Ji Wei pressed his temples and replied, “I’m fine.” Just a little dizzy.

When another flight attendant walked in, Lu Shenxing called out to her, “A glass of warm water, please. Thank you.”

The flight attendant said, “Okay.”

Ying Guanxiao couldn’t take it anymore either. He threw off the blanket covering him to get some air. “Good thing this isn’t a direct flight to Kolis, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to stand a seven or eight-hour flight. Do you have any champagne?”

“Yes, we do.”

The flight attendant noted their requests, turned, and went out.

When she returned, she first served the champagne to Ying Guanxiao. Then, as she passed by Ji Wei to hand the warm water to Lu Shenxing, Ji Wei heard the man say calmly, “Please give it to the passenger in front.”

The flight attendant was stunned for a moment, then served the warm water to Ji Wei. “Your brother cares a lot about you.”

A flicker of astonishment also crossed Ji Wei’s eyes. He thought his idol wouldn’t have noticed, but it seemed he could never hide anything from him and was always treated with gentleness.

He took the water and let out a soft “mm.”

He silently corrected her in his mind.

Not brother.

Partner.

—A partner he wanted to spend his life with.

The flight was scheduled to arrive in Yekaterinburg at eleven at night, but it only took three hours. As soon as they got off the plane, many passengers were vomiting.

They still had to transfer to Kolis.

Ji Wei and the others didn’t leave the airport, waiting instead in the departure lounge.

Lu Shenxing sat next to him and suddenly reached out to touch his forehead. “Are you dizzy?”

Ji Wei nodded, then shook his head. “A little.”

“I forgot to bring the Diphenhydramine Tablets.”

The man’s brow furrowed.

Ying Guanxiao had gone to the restroom to throw up, but Huang Bo was full of energy, showing no signs of fatigue from the three-hour flight. “I didn’t bring any either. I never need them when I fly. Xiao Guan and Weiwei’s constitutions are still a bit weak.”

Just as Ji Wei was about to shake his head to say he was fine, Lu Shenxing’s hand rested on his shoulder, pulling him into an embrace. His elbow rested on his shoulder, and his hand gently massaged his head, back and forth.

The pressure was just right.

“Feeling better?”

After a while, the man asked.

Being held in Lu Shenxing’s arms, Ji Wei felt much better. But the overwhelming scent of cold grass and wood from the man’s body was like being tightly possessed. He let out an “mm” and couldn’t help but say, “But I think I’m even dizzier.”

“Being held by you.”

When he said the last sentence, for some reason his face turned a little red, and his voice became unsteady.

The man didn’t speak.

His head was resting right on Lu Shenxing’s heart. The man’s heartbeat was clearly audible in his ear. A normal person’s heart rate is between 60 and 100 beats per minute, but Lu Shenxing’s heart was currently beating at 100 beats per minute.

Incredibly high.

Lu Shenxing tightened his arms, holding the young man even closer. “Looks like I haven’t held you enough.”

Ji Wei silently thought about the number of times they had hugged since they got married. It couldn’t be considered a small number by any means, right? But in his idol’s arms, he couldn’t help but… feel shy.

Seeing that it was almost time to board, Ji Wei and the others stood up from the departure lounge and walked outside. They hadn’t gone far when they saw a commotion ahead.

The old man from the plane was anxiously pulling at an airport staff member, shouting loudly in very broken English. When he got agitated, he subconsciously used Chinese.

Ji Wei vaguely heard the words “child” and “lost.”

When they looked at the old man, he looked up and saw them. Perhaps it was the joy of finally finding a fellow countryman that made him completely forget the minor unpleasantness on the plane.

The old man hurriedly pulled the staff member towards them. “Chinese, they are also Chinese.”

Ying Guanxiao’s eye twitched, but he wasn’t a petty person. Seeing the old man’s anxious state, he took the initiative to ask, “Is there anything we can help with?”

As soon as he heard Chinese, the tears the old man had been holding back streamed down his face. “I went to the restroom while we were waiting, but when I came out, my grandson was gone. I’ve been looking for almost half an hour and can’t find him. I can’t explain it to these red-haired Russians…”

Ying Guanxiao could only be thankful that this old man couldn’t speak English, otherwise a fight would have broken out. He relayed the old man’s words to the staff member after some tactful rephrasing.

The staff member immediately understood. “We will broadcast an announcement throughout the airport immediately. But in case your grandson can’t hear it, could you provide a photo of him? Do you have one on your phone?”

The old man understood the word “phone” and took out a push-button phone for the elderly from his bag. When Ying Guanxiao asked if he had a photo, he shook his head.

“There are so many staff members at the airport. Can’t you even find a child? Brown hair, green eyes, very cute. How can you not find him?” he muttered, his eyes getting wet as he spoke.

Huang Bo handed him a piece of paper and comforted him, “He’ll be found.”

The airport had already started broadcasting announcements, but there was still no sign of the child. Ji Wei quietly opened his backpack. Because Huang Bo had packed a lot of food in the suitcase, his art supplies couldn’t fit.

But besides a sketchbook and pencil, he had also brought a tablet.

—He could draw.

While recalling the child’s appearance in his mind, he opened a drawing app and quickly started sketching with a pencil brush.

Compared to the graphics tablet at home that needed to be connected to a computer, the pressure sensitivity wasn’t as high, but it was sufficient for drawing a portrait.

After finishing the sketch, he didn’t create a new layer to re-ink the lines. Instead, he opened another layer and directly applied large blocks of color over the sketch—flesh tones, permanent red, stone yellow, and sap green were splashed on.

Among the crowd that had gathered, a few passengers noticed Ji Wei and moved closer to see what he was drawing.

With the help of the brushes, Ji Wei drew very quickly. In just five minutes, he had sketched out the general outline. He then spent another five minutes or so on the details.

In just a short moment, a mixed-race boy with brown hair and emerald green eyes appeared on the screen.

He could have drawn it in more detail.

Much more detail, in fact.

But it would have taken a lot of time.

Even so, the few passengers around him let out sounds of surprise.

“He draws so well. Is he drawing the lost child?”

“And so fast. He finished in the blink of an eye.”

“He must be a student studying in Russia.”

Ying Guanxiao and Huang Bo were still trying to comfort the old man. Gradually, they also learned more about him. His son-in-law was Russian, and his daughter and son-in-law were in the art business in Russia. He had come this time to bring his grandson back to the country, but he never expected this to happen.

Ji Wei walked over and asked, “Have you found him?”

The old man saw him still holding the tablet and gave him a sour look. “What’s it to you? It won’t delay your boarding.”

Lu Shenxing glanced at Ji Wei and said calmly, “It won’t be a delay? Then let’s go.”

Huang Bo and Ying Guanxiao exchanged a look and made a helpless gesture to the old man. This time, Yan Tai panicked and unexpectedly said to Ji Wei, “I’m sorry.”

Although his voice was still gruff, his attitude was much better than before.

Ji Wei was stunned for a moment, then sent the drawing to the staff member.

The staff member received Ji Wei’s drawing and showed it to the old man. “Does it look like your grandson?”

After seeing the drawing clearly, the old man excitedly said several times, “It does! It does! It does!”

The onlookers immediately let out soft gasps of amazement. Two of them wanted to see the drawing in the staff member’s hand, but they were afraid of disturbing them, so they could only stretch their necks and whisper among themselves about whether this Chinese teenager was from the Repin Academy of Fine Arts.

With a portrait, finding the person would be much easier.

Several staff members also breathed a sigh of relief. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have known what to do with this old man.

“Thank you for your assistance. If you don’t mind, our airline will upgrade your seats for free,” one of the airline staff members said, walking up to Ji Wei.

“That won’t be necessary.”

Lu Shenxing said faintly.

The staff member was about to say more, but Ying Guanxiao added, “We’re already in first class.”

Only then did the staff member give up, but before they left, they gave them a national travel guide.

The flight to Kolis was about to take off. As Ji Wei and the others were walking towards the boarding gate, they were suddenly called out to.

“Wait a minute.”

The old man walked up, wrote his name and phone number on a piece of paper using the same pen Ji Wei had given him. “You’re also going to Kolis, right? This is my son-in-law’s name and phone number. You can call him if you need anything.”

“We’re even now.”

He handed the pen and paper to Ji Wei and turned to walk back.

His already short stature seemed particularly stooped.

“The car has already been arranged. Someone will pick us up as soon as we leave the airport,” Ying Guanxiao said, not paying much attention to the old man’s words.

Huang Bo couldn’t help but say, “I hope he can find the child.”

Yekaterinburg had a long history and was considered economically well-developed among Russian cities, but its crime rate was high. A child this old could understand what was being said. If he couldn’t be found through the airport’s broadcast, he was likely in grave danger.

Only Ji Wei lowered his head to look at the paper.

—Aleksei.

There were a few lines of text on the back of the paper, but they had been crossed out with a pencil. It was clear that he had run out of paper.

But the handwriting was still faintly visible.

—My pet turtle died, I don’t know how. When I’m home alone, I always think of your mom. When she was around, she always argued with me. Now that she’s not arguing, I feel uncomfortable. By the way, I went to the hospital a few days ago and was diagnosed with lung cancer. I know you’re busy with work, but can you… come back for a visit.

He was so ill-tempered that he probably had no friends. His daughter and son-in-law were far away in Russia, and his pet turtle had also died.

He must be very lonely.

Ji Wei put the note away and thought silently.

Thinking of this, he suddenly turned to look at Lu Shenxing.

He used to think he was born too late. When Lu Shenxing was nineteen, he was only eleven. When he was nineteen, Lu Shenxing was already twenty-seven. There was always an eight-year gap between them.

Now he felt that being young wasn’t so bad.

At least he wouldn’t let Lu Shenxing grow old alone.

“What are you looking at brother for?”

Lu Shenxing noticed his gaze and suddenly asked.

Startled by the sudden question, Ji Wei’s heart jolted, and he couldn’t help but blurt out his thoughts. “I was thinking about which of us would die first.”

The man stopped and raised an eyebrow. “Why would you think about something like that?”

Ji Wei also felt that the thought was ridiculous and stopped the sudden idea in his mind.

But the man suddenly bent down, so that their eyes were level, and looked at him, saying, “Our Weiwei will live to be a hundred.”

“Live longer than me.”

Looking into the man’s dark eyes, Ji Wei’s heart seemed to skip a beat. Perhaps it was because his blood was warm, but a warm feeling couldn’t help but well up in his chest, spreading throughout his body.

It seemed that he would always be accepted.

Accepted by Lu Shenxing.

***

They took three hours to get from Yekaterinburg to Kolis, flying from the heartland to a border city. If it weren’t for Ying Guanxiao’s reluctance to take the train, this route would have been quite unusual.

As soon as they got off the plane and into the car, Ji Wei received a message from Mother Lu.

[Mother Lu] Baby, have you arrived in Kolis? I’m so angry that A-Xing booked us a Sunset Glow Tour Group. Am I that old?

[Ji Wei] We’ve arrived.

[Mother Lu] I’ve booked a hotel for you. You must stay there, okay?

Mother Lu sent a link.

Actually, Ying Guanxiao had already booked a hotel…

He looked up at Ying Guanxiao in the passenger seat. Huang Bo was sitting in the front, and he and Lu Shenxing were in the back.

Lu Shenxing was leaning back in his seat, resting with his eyes closed.

Ji Wei wanted to suggest changing hotels, but he didn’t know how to bring it up with Ying Guanxiao, so he could only sit closer to Lu Shenxing.

Even closer.

He looked at Lu Shenxing’s sleeping face from a close distance and suddenly didn’t want to wake him up. He just watched silently.

Just as he was about to sit back, the man suddenly said in a low voice, “I’m already asleep.”

Ji Wei was stunned.

“Go ahead and do what you want.”

Lu Shenxing suddenly opened his eyes.

His tone was full of meaning.

Their gazes met unexpectedly—

Ji Wei’s heart pounded. He took a deep breath to calm his thoughts and said in a small voice, “Can we change… hotels? It’s already been booked.”

The man looked at him for a while and said, “We can.”

Ji Wei breathed a sigh of relief and sent a message to Mother Lu.

[Ji Wei] Okay.

[Mother Lu] Mommy loves you.

The car changed direction.

The hotel Mother Lu had booked for them was a famous resort hotel in Kolis. There were three rooms in total: one for him and Lu Shenxing, and one each for Huang Bo and Ying Guanxiao.

There was no need to check in at the front desk. A bellboy helped them with their luggage as soon as they got out of the car, but Huang Bo refused.

Their rooms were all on the twenty-eighth floor.

Several people took the elevator together.

Ding-dong—

The elevator doors opened.

Lu Shenxing was still talking to Huang Bo in a low voice. Ji Wei went to the room first.

The room number was 2807, the one with the best lighting.

He opened the door.

It was pitch black.

Only after he inserted the room card did the room suddenly light up.

The room had a large floor-to-ceiling window, a heart-shaped bed, and the white sheets were sprinkled with rose petals. There were also a few candles by the head of the bed. He walked over curiously and found that there were also handcuffs, a whip, and other strange things on the bedside table.

He picked up the handcuffs and looked at them.

A guess suddenly popped into his mind. Could these all be pleasure items?

Just as he was about to put them down, the door to the room was pushed open.

Ji Wei subconsciously turned around. It was Lu Shenxing, carrying a suitcase.

Lu Shenxing’s gaze moved slowly down from his face, examining him inch by inch through his clothes, as if he could see right through him. His gaze finally stopped on the pleasure handcuffs in his hand.

The man lowered his eyes and said slowly and deliberately, “You like this kind of thing?”