RBNR Ch16: Fishing

After sending Tu Yisen off, Qin Bao completed several jobs, celebrated a birthday, and in the blink of an eye, it was the end of the term. Once he got busy, he couldn’t care about anything else. After the exams ended, before he even had time to catch his breath, he hurriedly flew to an island country for his first event as an adult model.

Xu Tangzhou was also there, but just accompanying his mother on a business trip, dropping by to hang out with Qin Bao.

When the two reunited after a long time, that guy’s cheeks were swollen. Qin Bao almost didn’t recognize him; upon asking carefully, he found out the pastry his mother bought in the morning contained cranberries.

Qin Bao scolded him with a dark face: “What’s the matter with Auntie Xie? So careless! And you too, are you a pig? Knowing you have a berry allergy, couldn’t you look first before you eat?”

Xu Tangzhou, scolded into shrinking into his scarf, was usually very vain. To come find Qin Bao with this face meant they were true friends.

“I was hungry,” Xu Tangzhou said aggrievedly. “We don’t know the words here, so I didn’t know what was inside. Stop scolding me.”

Daring to eat without knowing what’s inside?

Qin Bao was too tired to roast him. He took out a Tupperware container and waved it in front of Xu Tangzhou: “Stop being sour about me only washing bayberries for other people. I made this yogurt bowl with my own hands today, and I cut all the fruit myself. Don’t eat it in your current state.”

Saying that, he was about to stuff it back into the mini-fridge. The latter hastily lunged over, snatched it into his arms, and hugged it tightly: “I already took my medicine, it’s fine, I can eat this!”

Qin Bao was angry: “All you know is how to eat!”

Just like his family, Xu Tangzhou’s family was also falling apart. Mr. Qin and Ms. Rong separated peacefully and still had affection for each other—at least he felt Mr. Qin still thought of Ms. Rong—but Xu Tangzhou’s parents were different. A meeting meant a huge fight, and even apart, they bickered over little things. The father was an alcoholic, so Xu Tangzhou followed his mother running around all day. When there was truly no other way, he was fostered at that “older brother’s” house by his mother.

Qin Bao didn’t want Xu Tangzhou to end up in the same situation as himself, but apart from being angry, it seemed he couldn’t do much else.

The emperor isn’t worried, but the eunuch is anxious.

Xu Tangzhou was worrying about something else, clutching his scarf in distress: “Qin Bao, do you think my face will recover by tonight? My flight back is tonight. How can I see my brother when I look this ugly?”

Qin Bao: “If all he likes is your face, then it’s nothing worth being anxious over!”

Xu Tangzhou, this love-brained fool, blinked shyly: “Are you saying he likes me a little?”

Couldn’t take it anymore.

Qin Bao: “…I don’t know!”

He hadn’t even figured out his own situation, how could he understand someone else’s? What exactly was going on with Feng Chengyu? He couldn’t grasp a single clue.

Saying he didn’t date minors, saying to catch up to him—was he baiting him, or did Feng Chu completely misunderstand?

Qin Bao had been troubled by this for almost a month.

The door of the nanny van was suddenly opened. Li Nanyue stood outside the car, seemingly not expecting anyone inside, and definitely not expecting it to be Qin Bao. His expression was very awkward.

Being in the same company, it was inevitable to run into each other, not to mention they were participating in the same event this time.

Qin Bao had seen him on the flight over, but they were seated far apart, and there was no need to greet each other. However, there was only one vehicle assigned to them upon landing.

Since they were face-to-face, Li Nanyue couldn’t just close the door and leave. He forced a smile: “Qin Bao, you got in the car so early. I thought I was the first one.”

Qin Bao frowned slightly: “En.”

Li Nanyue then said to Xu Tangzhou: “Zhouzhou, long time no see. Are you here for work too?”

Because of Qin Bao, they used to be quite familiar.

If it were the past, Xu Tangzhou would definitely be very enthusiastic, but this time he actually just turned his face away, pretending not to hear.

Li Nanyue got in the car himself and headed straight for the back row.

Xu Tangzhou had just made a brief appearance. Checking the time, Qin Bao and the others were preparing to leave, so he whispered in Qin Bao’s ear, “I’ll call you,” then patted his yogurt bowl, waved, and left.

The others hadn’t arrived yet, leaving only two people in the car.

Who knows how Li Nanyue overcame the awkwardness, he was the first to start chatting: “I heard you transitioned to an adult model. You’ve been developing well recently, and An Qingyan even asked you to shoot a commercial. Congratulations.”

Qin Bao couldn’t tell if this was sincere or passive-aggressive.

Logically, Li Nanyue should be very happy that he transitioned to an adult model. After all, Li Nanyue had said he was “riding on the fact that he was young and hasn’t fully developed yet.” In Li Nanyue’s eyes, transitioning to an adult model meant “being picked apart and rejected by brands.”

Qin Bao did have a commercial to shoot.

Last time, because of half a shrimp, An Qingyan owed him a favor, and he hadn’t expected them to cross paths again because of this.

After fading from the runway circle, An Qingyan had founded his own beauty brand, which was developing very well. The perfume they were launching this time was taking a high-end route. They thought Qin Bao’s image suited it very well, so they contacted Brother Lu.

The commercial would be fully broadcasted online, on TV, and in physical stores. Qin Bao had only shot print ads before; this was his first time appearing on screen.

“I’m actually quite envious. You have a lot of fans, and good public favor,” Li Nanyue said. “Everyone says you have a true, straightforward personality. They don’t know that when you said you don’t like eating crawfish, it was actually just because you didn’t like peeling the shells. In the past, I always peeled them for you.”

Qin Bao was playing on his phone, not even turning his head: “What exactly are you trying to say?”

Li Nanyue seemed to smile bitterly, no longer bringing up those past events, but asked: “Are you planning to enter the entertainment industry in the future too?”

Qin Bao didn’t understand what Li Nanyue’s “too” meant until they wrapped up work and he heard Brother Lu say this was supposed to be Li Nanyue’s final event as a model.

Li Nanyue and Su He had terminated their contracts together. The two had agreed to sign artist contracts with the same company, but in the upcoming variety show, only Li Nanyue was included, not Su He. The reason was unknown.

Facing a scene of scheming and backstabbing again, with the protagonist behind the scenes being the same person, Qin Bao felt lucky that he had overheard that conversation back then.

After returning to the country, Xu Tangzhou indeed went to his older brother’s house in the capital. Qin Bao sneaked a moment from his busy schedule to meet him once, but most of the time they communicated via phone and Dingxun, being forced to eat their dog food.

Xu Tangzhou’s grades weren’t good, and he didn’t like studying hard. He always complained about being supervised by his brother to do homework.

Qin Bao himself had several exam papers to write. Towards this person who was ostensibly complaining but secretly showing off, he could only lay down harsh words: “If you still don’t do your homework, watch out or you’ll get dragged off to get your ears pierced again like last year!”

Having no time to deal with his friend, he had to rush to finish so he could attend February’s fashion week.

He worked until his head spun, only to grab his phone and find another message from Xu Tangzhou: [My brother fell asleep guarding me here. Look, he’s like an eyelash fairy.]

[Photo.jpg]

On top of the exercise book was a small half of an Alpha’s face. The contours were quite nice, and the eyelashes were indeed very long, looking mixed-race.

Qin Bao: “…”

These stinky couples!

Swiping away the Dingxun red dot notification, he searched for Feng Chengyu’s name on a webpage. He hadn’t seen Feng Chu in a long time and hadn’t heard any news about Feng Chengyu.

The other party wasn’t a celebrity, nor was he really a public figure. He just casually searched with a “give it a try” mindset out of sheer boredom, not expecting to actually find something on the web.

Clicking it open, the webpage redirected to Flow.

It was a news piece about the construction of a new overpass in the capital and the site selection for a new ski resort in Chunshan. It mentioned the names of the relevant persons in charge, and Feng Chengyu was among them.

Only the name, no photo.

Qin Bao was a bit disappointed. He opened his phone’s photo album and scrolled to that secretly taken graduation photo of Feng Chengyu.

He had looked at it so many times he could almost memorize the few trees in the photo’s background.

A few months had passed, the irritation in his heart had disappeared, and he had become calm. Having a secret crush on someone much older than him was very exhausting. After all, his age couldn’t skyrocket overnight, and it was impossible for him to run up to the other party and confess right now.

Moreover, maybe after a while, he wouldn’t like Feng Chengyu anymore.

The things he liked always changed. Who knew about matters of the heart?

He stared at the photo in a daze for a while, and when he returned to Flow, Qin Bao was dumbfounded.

Fuck.

He forgot to switch accounts just now and had actually “liked” that news post.

Fans started @ing him one after another.

[Does BB also pay attention to capital city politics?]

[Blind guess Bao Bao wants to go skiing, haha.]

[The planning map is really beautiful. With this, the roads will extend in all directions, and the Chunshan protected area will invisibly expand!]

[Giving a like to the plan +1, hope to randomly run into my Bao at the ski resort in the future!]

A heart that had jumped into his throat slowly settled back down. No one knew that his slip of the hand was just for one name in the news.

In June of the following year, the renovation of the Feng family’s old mansion finally began.

Following customs, early that morning they first offered sacrifices to heaven, earth, and their ancestors, and hung red cloth on the statue before allowing machinery and workers to enter the site.

The scorching summer weather changed at the drop of a hat. At noon, a torrential downpour fell.

Feng Chengyu and Shu Helan wore raincoats, standing on a high point looking at the continuously sinking foundation due to the rainstorm.

“If we didn’t touch it, it really would be hard to discover the problem was this big,” Shu Helan said. “You should take a video and send it to those uncles to completely shut their mouths.”

Feng Chengyu put his phone away: “Sent it.”

Shu Helan laughed.

The younger generation of the Feng family was not far away. On such occasions, the young people were also joking around, gathering with the construction workers under the shed to shelter from the rain and play cards.

A reporter ran out of the shed, making their way through the mud to the high ground.

“Mr. Feng! The rain is so heavy, you should hold an umbrella!”

The rain poured down like a waterfall. Although the two wore raincoats, their heads and faces were still drenched by quite a bit of rain.

That reporter was an Omega. In just that short distance, the umbrella was almost blown inside out. They were already soaked through, their pale face somewhat disheveled and rather pitiful.

Feng Chengyu didn’t take their umbrella, merely saying: “No need, we were just about to head inside. Thank you.”

After saying that, he turned and walked towards the main house of the mansion.

Seeing this, Shu Helan had to take the reporter’s umbrella and followed behind Feng Chengyu: “What’s the big deal about taking an umbrella? It’s not like they made any inappropriate moves, at most it can be considered commendable courage. You’re giving zero face.”

Feng Chengyu said, “It’s good that you took it, I saw you really wanted to take it.”

Shu Helan: “…With so many pairs of eyes watching, I couldn’t just leave them hanging in an awkward spot.”

The main house was a mess, but much drier than outside.

Feng Chengyu took off his raincoat. His damp eyebrows and eyes were ink-black. He shot Shu Helan a cool glance: “Central Air Conditioner.” (1)

“Yes, I’m not like you, starting to practice male virtue before anything has even started.” The ‘central air conditioner’ was left speechless and changed the subject. “By the way, you saw that perfume commercial, right?”

Feng Chengyu: “I saw it.”

It was overwhelming, it was everywhere, even on the opening screens of mobile apps. How could he not see it?

Feng Chu had even brought him a gift, a beautifully packaged bottle of perfume, saying Qin Bao specifically gave it to thank him for taking him in last time.

“How many times has he thanked you already? It’s obvious he just wanted to give you a gift, but felt embarrassed, so he had to give me a bottle too.”

Feng Chu had told him mysteriously.

“But I know yours is different, Brother. Look, only your bottle has a serial number, it’s a limited edition. Qin Bao thought I didn’t know!”

Shu Helan added: “And that dance video he posted on Flow, it stimulated a bunch of fans to howl below it. Is he really going to be a star?”

The main house was quiet, the plaque solemn. Feng Chengyu stood inside looking up at the high beams, the emotion in his eyes unclear.

The modeling circle isn’t necessarily linked to the real entertainment industry, but for a family like this to produce an entertainer was unprecedented. Shu Helan’s underlying meaning didn’t need to be spelled out.

Feng Chengyu turned his head back, but his expression remained as placid as ever: “What dance video?”

__

Author’s Note:

Feng Chengyu: Outstanding graduate of the Male Virtue Academy.

PS: For the plot where Xu Tangzhou was taken by Ling Che to get his ears pierced, please see the extras of “Little Asteroid”.

This time period is around that time.

(1) Central Air Conditioner (中央空调): Chinese internet slang for someone who is universally warm and flirtatious with everyone, rather than devoting their affection to just one person.