Chapter 28: Are You Still Smoking?

When Qi Yu picked up those trousers, something fell out of the pocket and hit the floor with a "clatter"; he lowered his head and crouched down to pick it up.

It was a Cigarette Case and a Cartier lighter.

Ling Wu smokes?

Qi Yu picked up the Cigarette Case; the case was very new, entirely a bright blue, with a gilded pattern inlaid along the edges, appearing vintage and luxurious. The design in the center was the Magician from the Tarot Card, which symbolizes power and wisdom, and it was also printed with a string of foreign text he could not understand.

He picked up the Cigarette Case and the lighter and walked out of the bathroom.

Ling Wu was still playing a game.

Qi Yu placed the items on the coffee table and tapped on it with his knuckles; seeing Ling Wu look up, he then asked, "You smoke?"

It was not that Qi Yu was surprised, but rather that Ling Wu's appearance had a kind of pure, soul-shaking quality, like a melancholy prince or noble from the old century, possessing a noble, flawless exterior and a detached, indifferent elegance; he did not look like someone who would smoke.

Plus, his body did not seem to be in very good health either.

Ling Wu looked at the two items on the coffee table, his eyes darkening, but it only lasted for a fleeting moment before he returned to calm: "This... I rarely smoke."

Qi Yu: "I have never smelled smoke on you."

Not even a little bit.

This was also the main reason for Qi Yu's astonishment.

Ling Wu was like a clean sheet of white paper, always carrying the fresh scent of shampoo and body wash, as well as the smell of soap from his collars and cuffs.

"I smoke when I'm under a lot of pressure." Ling Wu's eyelashes fluttered lightly like feathers, his tone unhurried: "That hasn't happened recently."

Qi Yu followed up: "Then when do you get stressed?"

The air was silent for two seconds.

A smile bloomed on Ling Wu's cheeks: "Maybe I'll be stressed when I have exams next week."

He asked: "Did you put my clothes in the washing machine?"

"........." Qi Yu's expression was a bit ugly: "I don't have a washing machine at home... so I hand-washed them for you."

Hand-washed.

Hand-washed?

Hand-washed?!

Ling Wu was stunned by these two words; so, the future great villain who would dominate the world and trample over both the underworld and the righteous, was squatting in a dilapidated shack washing... washing his clothes?

This was truly insane.

So much so that when Qi Yu came out holding the basin of clean clothes, he saw Ling Wu still petrified in the wind.

Qi Yu: "I'll hang them up for you, they should be half-dry by tomorrow; I'll use a hair dryer to blow them dry when you need to wear them."

"Mm." Ling Wu had a thousand words in his heart, but when they reached his lips, they only converged into one sentence: "Thank you."

This person Qi Yu could handle the parlor and the kitchen, wash clothes and complete test papers; truly... terrifyingly impressive.

The two remained silent for a long time.

Until Ling Wu was the first to break the silence: "Qi Yu, find me a blanket; I'll just sleep on the sofa tonight. Teacher Zhang has something to discuss with me, so I have to go back to school early tomorrow morning."

"To avoid disturbing you."

Qi Yu disagreed: "You sleep in my room, I'll sleep on the sofa."

"How can that be." Ling Wu felt a bit embarrassed: "You are tall, sleeping on the sofa is very uncomfortable, and there are mosquitoes; I'll just make do for one night."

"Anyway, I'm leaving early tomorrow."

Qi Yu stepped back half a pace: "Then you sleep on the bed, I'll make a floor bed."

Meeting the youth's steady gaze, Ling Wu was stared at until he could not say a word of refusal: "Alright."

Qi Yu rummaged through the wardrobe, his lean, sturdy body with his back to Ling Wu, and he took out bedding to lay on the floor, then spread out a mat.

He touched the light switch and asked: "Should I turn off the light?"

Ling Wu: "Turn it off."

The two young men lay in the same room, the atmosphere very silent; Qi Yu pulled the quilt over his stomach, thinking about how Ling Wu was currently wearing his pajamas, lying on his bed, sleeping on his pillow...

Just thinking about it made Qi Yu's heartbeat accelerate rapidly, his blood feeling as if it were boiling, and the suppressed desire within his body clamored to break through.

Like drinking poison to quench thirst, he pulled open his collar and rubbed his fingertips back and forth over that slightly raised cigarette scar.

Ling Wu, Ling Wu... why brand him with a scar, yet save him; why be good to him; why... give him hope?

Qi Yu had lived in the streets since he was a child, growing up amidst beatings and torture, learning to compromise and be duplicitous, but he was definitely not a kind-hearted person; on the contrary, he held grudges.

Even in the Darkness private room, he had still been thinking about how to kill Ling Wu.

If the noble young master was accustomed to using power to crush people, then Qi Yu's methods were all schemes and tricks; he could make a young master like Ling Wu, who was ignorant of the world, die silently in a corner of the Slums.

He could guarantee that no one would be able to trace it back to him.

Later, he viewed Ling Wu with vigilance, but the other party never took the next step to harm him, and instead saved him from fire and water time and again.

His defenses gradually faded.

Until today, two enemies could actually turn from foes into friends, and even lie in the same room.

Truly, the ways of the world are unpredictable.

Qi Yu asked abruptly: "Ling Wu, why did you save me today?"

He could have clearly distanced himself from him, just by learning to act like everyone else, calling him a lowly person, a rat in the gutter, and then showing an expression of disgust would have been enough.

But Ling Wu did not do that.

—He said: "Taking the blame for a friend."

"It is said that every little boy dreams of becoming a superhero and saving the world when he is young." Ling Wu's voice was very soft at the end, but if one listened carefully, it was slightly off-key: "Just consider me as having a savior complex."

Qi Yu asked casually: "Then what ability of a superhero do you most hope to possess?"

Almost without hesitation, Ling Wu said firmly: "To travel through time and return to the past."

To return to that calm and peaceful night, and before the moonlight appeared, to cut the vines buried deep underground—which symbolized darkness, greed, and sin—out by the roots, and then welcome the arrival of dawn.

To travel through time and return to the past is how absurd.

Even quantum mechanics, the physical theory that studies the behavior of particles in the microscopic world, does not directly involve the concept of time travel.

This is based more on imagination and creativity than on scientific fact.

Ling Wu: "Then what about you?"

Qi Yu: "Probably the same as you."

Receiving no response for a long time, the room returned to silence, and the sound of steady, rhythmic breathing rose by the ear; Ling Wu had already fallen asleep.

Qi Yu also closed his eyes.

The night outside the window was silent, and the moonlight stretched the shadows long and thin...

The next day.

Qi Yu did not know how early he had to leave, so he woke up at five, silently closed the door, and sat in the living room blowing dry his slightly damp clothes.

By the time Ling Wu came out rubbing his eyes, the clothes were already completely dry: "Morning."

"Morning."

Qi Yu handed the clothes to him: "There is breakfast on the table; after you finish, I will see you out. The Lower City District is not peaceful, and it is dangerous for you to walk alone."

After eating, Qi Yu picked up the keys on the table and saw him back to school.