Chapter 14: P. Secret Base

Hearing this, Ning Yixiao was slightly stunned.

In the future.

He could understand the meaning—he knew this was Su Hui’s answer to his intrusive question—but Ning Yixiao dared not dig deeper.

He knew it was more than just that.

The damp, dark rental unit, the dim yellow light of the refrigerator, the quiet that followed the intimacy, and Su Hui’s unwavering gaze.

Everything pointed to a subtext.

In this game of spin-the-bottle, there was always a loser.

“Sorry,” Ning Yixiao could only use an apology to mask his thoughts. “I misunderstood you.”

In truth, he didn’t believe those rumors. But at the time, he had subconsciously wanted to test him, wanted to hear Su Hui explain it himself.

“What?” Su Hui smiled, beginning to play dumb. “I’m finished.”

He turned around, washing his hands with his back to Ning Yixiao. “Let’s go back and sleep.”

Ning Yixiao paused for a moment before nodding. “Mm.”

This time, there was no noise from next door. Su Hui lay quietly in bed, yet it was as if he were suffering from auditory hallucinations; the intimate, sweet words of the couple next door played in his mind.

And the man’s voice, in the misty, rainy night, slowly morphed into Ning Yixiao’s deep, low tone.

Do you like me? You must like me a lot.

Do you feel good?

This caused Su Hui, who was on the verge of sleep, to wake up with a start, and he was unable to find sleep again.

The room without windows had a fatal flaw: with no sunlight penetrating the space, it was difficult for a person to wake up naturally.

Ning Yixiao was exhausted. He usually woke up on his own at 6:30 AM, but on his first day moving in, he had overslept.

He had a long, fragmented dream. Most of it consisted of his miserable childhood experiences, interspersed with some beautiful blooming flowers, followed immediately by soft, knife-like sunlight, and finally, Su Hui’s back.

The sunlight between them was so abundant that it felt as if a whole sun stood between them.

The moment he jolted awake, Ning Yixiao’s heart was racing. The room was pitch black, but he immediately noticed the bed was empty. He checked his phone—it was already nearly 11:00 AM.

He was covered by the blanket he had left for Su Hui—a cheap one, used for three years, washed over and over, now pilled and faded.

Hearing sounds outside, Ning Yixiao stopped daydreaming, stood up, and pushed the door open. The lights were on outside, and the sudden glare made him squint in discomfort.

“You’re awake?”

Su Hui’s voice came from the kitchen, muffled by the clattering of dishes.

Ning Yixiao walked over. His first sight was the messy kitchen counter and Su Hui’s slightly embarrassed face. He stood there, dazed.

“You’re cooking?” Ning Yixiao stared at the burnt egg, asking slowly.

“Ah… I suppose so.” Su Hui looked a bit sheepish, picking up two small ceramic plates from the table. “I made something to eat. You slept for a long time; you must be hungry.”

Finding there was no dining table outside, he had to take them into Ning Yixiao’s room.

What he called “something to eat” was merely a burnt fried egg, two slices of bread, and a carton of milk.

“Where did this come from?” Ning Yixiao hadn’t bought any food.

“I asked Wang Cong to buy it. I thought about going downstairs to the supermarket, but I looked it up and the nearest one is a bit far…”

Listening, Ning Yixiao realized Su Hui’s life experience was indeed limited—he didn’t know that the small stalls in this area sold eggs and that a supermarket wasn’t a necessity.

As he spoke, Su Hui handed him disposable utensils. “Wang Cong is a nice guy. He said he didn’t want my money, told me to use whatever was in the fridge, and even gave me two pairs of new disposable chopsticks—he said they were left over from his takeout. But I still slipped him some pocket change.”

Ning Yixiao frowned. It took him a moment to remember that Wang Cong was the roommate next door, but Su Hui kept mentioning him as if he had made a deep impression.

Perhaps because he was insecure about his cooking, Su Hui misinterpreted the frown. “Is it too bad? Maybe just eat the toast and drink the milk, skip the egg.”

Ning Yixiao rebelliously picked up the fried egg with his chopsticks and devoured it in a few bites.

“It’s fine. I like it burnt.”

He didn’t speak loudly, but Su Hui heard him and smiled, drinking his milk like a child.

“Why didn’t you make an egg for yourself?” Ning Yixiao asked.

“I don’t like eggs,” Su Hui said. “I only like steamed eggs; I don’t like them fried or boiled.”

“You don’t drink milk either?”

“Milk…” Su Hui rested his chin in his hand. “I take medication, and the doctor suggested I drink less.”

“Then what do you eat for breakfast?”

“Hmm… lots of options.” Su Hui thought for a moment. “I like yellow croaker noodles, spinach noodles, shengjian buns, and small wontons.”

“Young Master,” Ning Yixiao teased in a low voice.

Su Hui immediately countered, “I am not.”

Ning Yixiao imitated his tone, teasing him childishly, “I am not.”

He ate quickly, unlike Su Hui’s slow and elegant pace. He finished in a few bites, put down his chopsticks, and got up to help him clean the kitchen, which looked like it had been through a world war.

While washing the dishes, Su Hui several times tried to intervene, only to be stopped by Ning Yixiao without a word.

As he was finishing up, Ning Yixiao asked, “You must have a nanny at home?”

Su Hui felt the term wasn’t accurate. “There’s a woman who cooks, because my mom isn’t good at that either.”

Ning Yixiao smiled. “That’s convenient. You don’t look like you’re very good at it, either.”

Looking back, he saw the young master’s expensive shirt wrinkled from sleep, and he suddenly imagined Su Hui at home with servants ironing his clothes.

“And you?” Su Hui didn’t mind being told he was bad at cooking. “Can you cook?”

Ning Yixiao hummed. For him, it was a necessary life skill.

“Just passable. Edible, anyway.” He didn’t continue the topic, turning instead to ask, “Did you sleep well?”

“It was okay.” Su Hui lied naturally. “I thought I would have insomnia, but I fell asleep very quickly—much faster than at home.”

A young master who likes to suffer.

Ning Yixiao kept a smile on his face and didn’t speak further. He wiped the water from his hands and said he would take him home.

Su Hui immediately refused. “I’m not going back.”

Ning Yixiao had expected this, but he persisted in his advice. “You’ve stayed out all night. Your family will be worried about your safety.”

It wasn’t that Su Hui didn’t know. He had stayed out all night more than once. When he had an episode, he sometimes didn’t know what he had done or where he had run off to. When he finally came to his senses, finding himself in a completely strange place, regret would pour into his mind like a lake. When he returned home, the first question they asked was always the same.

“More than being worried, they are afraid that I’ll embarrass them,” Su Hui said.

Are you having an episode? Did you do anything shameful? Were you filmed by anyone? Where did you go? Did the surveillance cameras catch you? These were the eternal questions upon returning home.

“They care about you. Your family loves you,” Ning Yixiao said softly.

Su Hui just stayed silent; he didn’t even shake his head.

Faced with his silence, Ning Yixiao felt dejected. He looked at him. “A lot of people like you.”

Su Hui smiled. He had a face that looked innocent and easy to deceive, but he was actually very clear-headed. “Although it’s a bit arrogant to say, most of them only like my face.”

Under the dim light, Su Hui’s face was indeed beautiful—languid, pure, composed, and quiet. It needed no annotations, and it possessed a kind of melancholy that stirred the imagination.

He should be dating young women from high society, wearing formal attire at gorgeous freshman balls, with countless female companions waiting for his invitation, not sitting in a rental unit where he couldn’t even stretch his legs, using cheap disposable cutlery, laughing and saying no one liked him.

“Let’s go out for a walk.”

Hearing Ning Yixiao’s words, Su Hui agreed with a smile and suggested he treat him to something else—the fried egg had been too terrible.

Ning Yixiao knew he wouldn’t be carrying much money. Seeing a small roadside snack shop selling beef noodles and braised eggs, he suggested they just eat noodles.

He only ordered a bowl of plain noodles and looked for a seat. The table was covered in a film of grease from years of use—sticky. He wiped the spot where Su Hui was to sit repeatedly with paper dipped in tea, thinking to himself that white shirts were expensive and hard to clean if stained.

Su Hui returned. He seemed to be in a good mood, ordering a bowl of plain noodles as well, plus a plate of chilled spinach to share with Ning Yixiao. Ning Yixiao agreed, but didn’t eat much.

He already knew how to deal with Su Hui: just agree first, and he wouldn’t force him to do anything later. It was much easier that way.

Su Hui was a picky eater; he didn’t touch a single peanut in the spinach, and he carefully picked out the garlic and cilantro, eating only the leaves. He was much more talkative than when he was in Ning Yixiao’s bedroom, and the pace of his speech was faster. One of his questions kept repeating, asking if Ning Yixiao would go somewhere with him.

But he wouldn’t specify the location. Ning Yixiao couldn’t understand and assumed he was asking to be taken home, which was what he had intended to do anyway, so he agreed.

Once the noodles were finished, sweat beaded on Su Hui’s snowy forehead, and his cheeks and lips were flushed red. After stepping outside, they met a young boy handing out eyeglass shop advertisements. The boy offered a small fan printed with an ad, and Su Hui accepted it joyfully, shaking his wrist to fan himself.

When Ning Yixiao asked how they should get there, Su Hui said to take the bus without hesitation, but he didn’t seem familiar with this mode of transport. He searched for the route on his phone for a long time, struggling to wait for the bus and get on.

They transferred three times along the way. Only on the last leg did they manage to find two seats, though they were far apart. After Ning Yixiao sat down, he subconsciously looked toward Su Hui, finding him craning his neck, looking around, also searching for him.

The moment their gazes locked through the gaps in the crowd, Su Hui happily waved the small fan in his hand.

Just like that, Ning Yixiao was led to a very remote place.

It didn’t look like a district filled with mansions, nor did it look like some secluded military compound. It looked more like a factory that hadn’t been used in a long time.

Su Hui led him along a gravel road. Unlike before, he looked very happy, even reaching out several times as if he wanted to grab Ning Yixiao’s wrist, only to pull back. Finally, they arrived in front of a factory with red paint on the walls.

“Don’t tell me this is your house.” Ning Yixiao stood with his hands at his sides, looking at him with a judgmental posture.

“Something like that.” Su Hui went forward to open the lock, then turned back with a smile.

“This is the place that feels most like home to me. My secret base.”