The power of an idol is incredible.

By the time they boarded the plane, although Ming Weiting was still dizzy, his condition was clearly much better than before.

Sitting in his seat, Young Master Ming fastened his seatbelt and very seriously discussed the licensing of the recipe with Huo Miao.

The temporary little bartender was in a dilemma, wanting to tell the truth but worried about affecting the drink’s efficacy. After much deliberation, he finally set the price as “one day of Ming Weiting’s time.”

Ming Weiting was a bit surprised by this answer: “One day of my time?”

Huo Miao’s ears were bright red. He looked out the window, not turning his gaze back, and nodded.

“Not just any day,” Luo Chi explained quickly in a low voice. “It’s a day under specific conditions.”

The condition was very special; it only took effect when Ming Weiting had said goodbye to him.

If the situation at that time allowed it, if there was nothing urgent or important to do, or if it was okay for the two of them to travel together.

…

If all these conditions were met, then he wanted to exchange it for one more day of Ming Weiting’s time after they had said goodbye.

Ming Weiting paused, turned his head, and looked at the little Huo Miao beside him who was evolving into a boiling kettle.

“It’s okay if you can’t.”

Luo Chi immediately added, “If—”

Before he could finish, the plane began to taxi on the runway.

The push-back from the seat behind him made Luo Chi let out a muffled grunt. He subconsciously gripped the armrest beside him, and before he could fully adjust, the plane began to ascend.

This feeling of ascent is somewhat difficult for a first-time flyer to get used to. Especially since Luo Chi’s ears had been injured, his sense of balance was somewhat affected, making this momentary imbalance particularly noticeable.

Ren Shuangmei was prepared. She turned back to check on the boys, and before she could reach out, she saw Ming Weiting turn sideways and cup his hands over Huo Miao’s ears.

Huo Miao opened his eyes, confirmed who was in front of him, and immediately closed them again. Remembering the position, he copied the action and pressed his hands over Ming Weiting’s ears.

Ming Weiting lowered his head so he could reach without having to lift his hands too high.

The plane soon reached its cruising altitude.

The airflow was good today. The flight gradually stabilized, and the discomfort quickly faded.

Luo Chi breathed a sigh of relief, opened his eyes, and whispered a few words to Ming Weiting.

Ming Weiting listened intently, helped him adjust his neck pillow, and gently pressed on the top of Luo Chi’s head, guiding him to lean back.

…

He looked especially steady and reliable, especially good at taking care of a younger brother.

Ren Shuangmei felt relieved. She raised an eyebrow slightly, smiled, and turned back to continue reading her materials for the business trip.

Ming Weiting lowered his head, still discussing the recipe with Huo Miao: “The pricing is indeed unreasonable.”

Luo Chi himself felt the request was inappropriate. It had been a whim when he said it, and he was prepared for Ming Weiting to disagree. He nodded: “Yeah.”

He nodded so readily that Ming Weiting was actually a bit surprised. He paused, not immediately continuing.

The two were sitting very close. Being stared at by him, Luo Chi subconsciously checked if his posture was hurting his back.

Since they met again, the weather had been very cooperative, and Luo Chi’s old injury hadn’t acted up at all.

But Ming Weiting still firmly remembered where he was injured. It seemed he had learned a lot from the ship’s rehabilitation specialist during his time back, paying close attention to Luo Chi’s posture when sitting, standing, and walking, and even teaching Luo Chi several ways to make his back hurt less.

Luo Chi had become accustomed to the reminders. He proactively adjusted his posture and waved a hand in front of Ming Weiting’s eyes.

He waited for a moment, and when the other boy still didn’t say anything, he took the initiative to ask, “What’s wrong?”

Ming Weiting came back to his senses, shook his head, and raised a hand to ruffle Luo Chi’s hair.

“That’s not how you do business.”

Ming Weiting said, “You have to haggle. I’ll teach you.”

Luo Chi was quite surprised. “Teach me to haggle with you?”

“Teach you to haggle with me.”

Young Master Ming nodded. “You should say, ‘In that case, let’s each take a step back.'”

Luo Chi couldn’t help but laugh, then cleared his throat, put on a straight face, and cooperated by mimicking his serious tone: “In that case, then let’s each take a step back.”

Young Master Ming continued to teach: “We’re not selling the recipe anymore, only the drink.”

“Not selling the recipe anymore, only the drink…” Luo Chi repeated, and his ears grew warm again. He coughed lightly. “You already know what I put in it.”

“My mistake,” Ming Weiting nodded. “Let’s start over. I don’t know.”

Although Luo Chi had never seen his mom negotiate a deal, he knew this was definitely not how it was supposed to be done. He coughed with laughter. “Okay, okay.” He sat up straight in cooperation. “You don’t know.”

“Only selling the drink,” Luo Chi sat up properly, professionally taking the initiative to consult. “What price should I set?”

Ming Weiting said, “One drink in exchange for one of my days.”

Luo Chi was taken aback and looked up at him.

…Young Master Ming didn’t seem to be very good at negotiating.

That price could have bought the entire recipe, but now it could only buy the drink, and only one drink per day.

The drinks and candies used for the mix were all from his backpack’s stash. Luo Chi had found them on the spot, using only a small portion of each, so the cost was almost negligible.

If it were that easy to trade for a day of him not leaving, then by the time they finished their trip and went home, Ming Weiting might be trapped in his snack room at the Seaview Villa.

Luo Chi calculated for a moment. Just as he was about to lecture Ming Weiting on the proverb “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,” he met the exceptionally serious and focused gaze in those eyes and was inexplicably unable to speak.

In that moment of distraction, the flight attendant had already come by to ask for their drink and meal preferences.

Luo Chi’s mind was currently full of Wahaha and Yakult. He even subconsciously took the opportunity to take stock of his personal little treasury, calculating how many bottles of drinks he could buy, and how many of Ming Weiting’s days he could buy.

The plan was just too tempting. He struggled to pull his mind back and stopped Ming Weiting, who was about to order coffee, reminding him in a whisper, “When you’re dizzy, drinking coffee will make it worse.”

Ming Weiting retracted his order. “What’s better to drink?”

Luo Chi thought for a moment and ended up ordering a Coke with ice for both of them.

Watching the flight attendant add ice cubes to the paper cup, Luo Chi couldn’t help but get distracted again, thinking about the one ounce of ice in his recipe.

…

He felt he was being so useless. He rubbed his ears and turned his head to speak. Just as he turned, he was met with Ming Weiting handing him the cola with ice.

Neither of them had anticipated the other’s movement. The cola in Ming Weiting’s hand was a bit too full. It wobbled heavily, and it looked like half of it was about to splash out.

Thinking fast, Luo Chi bent down and drank a big gulp straight from the cup in his hand.

The cola sloshed to both sides. The other side, which was about to spill, was caught by the quick-reflexed Young Master Ming, who copied the action and drank it down in time.

This time, the trajectory of their movements was not hard to predict, but it was completely unavoidable. With a dull “thud,” their foreheads knocked solidly together.

…Hopeless.

After being knocked, Luo Chi, while strictly scolding himself for not having done something like this since he was five, couldn’t help but lower his head and laugh uncontrollably.

Ming Weiting placed the half-empty cup of cola on the tray table, raised a hand to touch Huo Miao’s forehead, and was inexplicably drawn into laughing as well.

The two of them laughed inexplicably for quite a while. Luo Chi coughed a couple of times, rubbing his eyes. “Oh no.”

“This is ridiculous,” Luo Chi sighed. “I was only this childish when I was little.”

Ming Weiting touched Huo Miao’s head. “How old are you now?”

His voice was very low, and amidst the roar of the airplane, it sounded even softer than usual.

Ming Weiting already knew his age. Luo Chi blinked and said righteously, “Thirteen. What’s wrong?”

“Thirteen,” Ming Weiting said. “Still a kid.”

Luo Chi was unconvinced and immediately retorted, “Fifteen is a kid too.”

Ming Weiting looked at him, a smile in his eyes. “Okay.”

Young Master Ming didn’t play by the rules. Luo Chi was still waiting for him to argue back, but he didn’t expect him to just agree like that. He stared with wide, surprised eyes.

“Uncle Lu taught me.”

Ming Weiting raised his hand and gently touched his eyelashes. “When you’re young, you have the right to be childish.”

Luo Chi had grown up hardly ever touching the concept of “being childish.”

He had always tried to be more mature, more composed and cool. Sometimes in his dreams, he wished he could wake up already grown, old enough to immediately help his mom with everything, to do everything that would make his mom proud and relieved.

He had never considered what Ming Weiting was saying. He blinked instinctively and asked in a small voice, “How do you be childish?”

“For example, me,” Ming Weiting said. “Because I was worried you would refuse if I contacted you in advance, I just came to find you directly.”

Ming Weiting explained his plan: “This way, even if Auntie didn’t agree and I couldn’t get into the villa, I could still signal you from the pier with lights, and keep signaling until you saw it.”

He called her “Auntie” in a deadpan manner, paired with a very serious expression, and a rigorous explanation involving the refraction, reflection, and diffraction of light… If the topic of discussion wasn’t “How to make a searchlight shine into the terrace to wake up a sleeping Huo Miao on foggy, cloudy, and rainy days,” it would have been incredibly mature.

Luo Chi listened to his rigorous analysis of the data, and the more he listened, the more he couldn’t stop laughing. “Why did you have to wake up a sleeping me?”

“Light signals are most effective at night, and you’re most likely asleep at night.”

Ming Weiting’s logic was sound. “Also, Huo Miao said I’m a kid, so I’m allowed to be childish.”

Luo Chi was caught off guard by him throwing his own words back. He laughed so hard he clutched his stomach, muttering in protest, “Kids also need to sleep eight hours, or they won’t grow tall.”

He was just looking for a reason to protest Ming Weiting’s plan to wake him up with a searchlight, but he noticed the other boy had suddenly stopped talking. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s not important for now,” Ming Weiting shook his head. “…So.”

Luo Chi had already been convinced by the rigorous and detailed mathematical formulas and plans. He couldn’t help but sit up straight, waiting for the final “so.”

…When he sat up straight like this, staring intently with wide eyes, he made anyone he looked at feel incredibly soft-hearted.

Ming Weiting couldn’t resist raising his hand and gently ruffling Huo Miao’s hair.

“So,” he said. “If one day, Huo Miao doesn’t want me to leave, wants me to stay.”

Ming Weiting said softly, “You actually just have to say it.”

Because Ming Weiting also wanted to spend more time with Huo Miao.

He also wanted to chat more with Huo Miao, wanted to go to many places and do many things together.

Because he wanted to grow up with Huo Miao.

So, looking at the thirteen-year-old super-mature cool friend who was completely clueless about negotiating, Young Master Ming had to step in himself and teach him how to do business.

Luo Chi froze under the palm resting on his head.

His chest rose and fell gently for a moment. His eyes curved into a quiet smile as he pulled the small blanket he had prepared higher, burying half of his warm face in it.

There was still over an hour of flight time before they would land.

Looking out the window, the clouds outside looked like large cotton candies. It was like a scene only seen in dreams, as they traveled through the clouds, with light seeping through the gaps.

…He wondered if, after making the special non-alcoholic Yakult-Wahaha with peach popping candy, he could put a ball of cotton candy on top of the glass.

Luo Chi shared the other half of the blanket with Ming Weiting, then tugged at him, signaling for him to take a nap with him.

As Ming Weiting leaned over, Luo Chi fumbled under the blanket, found his sleeve, and gave it a gentle pull.

“If.”

For the first time, Huo Miao took advantage of his youth to be childish, learning from him. He took a deep breath. “If… I mix that drink for you.”

“It means I don’t want to say goodbye, it means I want you to stay a little longer.”

The boy sitting next to him, half his face hidden in the blanket, made a promise in a super quiet voice: “You have to wait until I wake up before you can leave.”