CH 26

Perhaps it was the bath before bed that had relaxed Lin Zhixia and made him sleep so peacefully. He didn’t dream at all and even woke up later than normal the next morning. 

Fortunately, Lin Zhixia had thought ahead and warned his staff at the restaurant that during this time living with Luo Qin, he would be late in coming to work. Because of this, he wasn’t in a rush when he got up. 

Lin Zhixia led Lin Keai down the stairs and saw that Luo Qin was sitting at the dining room table. 

Today was Monday. Based on what Lin Zhixia knew about Luo Qin’s schedule, it was odd that he hadn’t left for work already. Luo Qin was a workaholic and he would never allow himself to be late. Yet here he was, sitting at the table and taking his time. Lin Zhixia watched him eat a piece of toast very slowly…

Why was this so different from before?

There was a lot of noise and movement as they made their way down the stairs, especially with the way Lin Keai’s shoes made a loud clicking sound as he walked. The little guy thought that the noise was very fun so he stepped down harder and hummed a little tune that the kindergarten teachers had taught the students. He was in a very good mood. 

Luo Qin raised his head and watched Lin Zhixia and Lin Keai come down the stairs, holding hands. The morning sunlight streamed through the window and fell across Lin Zhixia’s face. The light became one with his face and made it shine. Luo Qin’s heart softened at the sight. 

Luo Qin liked the quiet. He had always disliked that Luo Yao was a loud, brash person. Since Luo Yao had gone off to college, Luo Qin had been able to live alone. He enjoyed the silence of his house after she left but now that Lin Zhixia and Lin Keai were here, he suddenly felt that it was a good thing to have some noise in the house. 

“Good morning.”

Lin Zhixia didn’t say a word but Xiao Ai responded enthusiastically. He waved his little plump hand and ran for Luo Qin, “Uncle Luo! Good morning!”

He stopped in front of Luo Qin and leaned into his lap, grinning up at him. Luo Qin glanced at Lin Zhixia with a look that he couldn’t place before reaching down to bring Xiao Ai into his lap. 

He asked, “Do you want some eggs?”

“Yeah!”

“Let Uncle peel it for you.”

Lin Zhixia sat on the other side of the dining table. The breakfast before them was very sumptuous, the table filled with many rich pastries. But Lin Zhixia preferred to eat a bowl of light porridge in the mornings. 

After a long moment, he reached out and picked up a glass of soy milk. Luo Qin noticed immediately. 

“You don’t want anything to eat?”

“That’s right.”

“What do you prefer? I can ask Sister Li to make it.”

“No need.”

Luo Qin went to say something else but at that moment, Lin Zhixia’s phone rang. He picked up the call and his voice immediately lightened, his mood obviously improved. It was very different from the polite and alienated behavior with which he treated Luo Qin. 

“Brother Qin.”

Luo Qin’s eyelids trembled and his face twitched. He seemed to be mentally allergic to the word Qin. 

“Don’t worry, I just woke up later today. I’ll be at the restaurant in a bit.”

Luo Qin couldn’t hear what Qin Zhe said but it made Lin Zhixia smile. His lips curled up and his eyes squinted. The expression made him very handsome. 

“No, Brother Qin. You think too much.”

Lin Keai had a shrimp cake in his left hand and a red bean bun in his right. He was very happy to eat and opened his mouth wide, waiting for Luo Qin to feed him an egg. But after Luo Qin had finished peeling the egg, he sat in a daze for a long time. 

Lin Keai opened his mouth wider and made an ‘ah,ah,ah’ sound to desperately get his attention. Luo Qin smiled softly at Lin Keai and fed him the egg, watching as he ate it. 

Lin Zhixia finished his phone call and looked up to see Luo Qin staring at him. He looked as if he wanted to say something. He hesitated to speak but Lin Zhixia didn’t care to wait. He turned to Xiao Ai and asked with a smile, “Are you all full yet?”

“Yeah!” Lin Keai nodded vigorously and then stretched out his fingers, showing a small gap between his forefinger and thumb, “But I can always eat a little more!”

“Nope,” Lin Zhixia shook his head, “You’re done.”

“Okay,” Lin Keai reluctantly looked at the red bean bun in his hand. Then his eyes lit up, “Dad, can I bring this bun to Xiao Xun?” 

“Of course you can.”

Lin Zhixia crouched in front of him, focusing on helping the little guy wipe his oily mouth. Then he took Xiao Ai from Luo Qin’s arms and said lightly, “We’re off.”

“Zhixia…” Luo Qin paused, “the weather forecast said it would snow today.”

Lin Zhixia nodded and left without a word. He stepped outside and looked up at the darkening gray sky. It really did look like it would snow. Lin Zhixia complained, “Why is there so much snow this year?”

Lin Keai heard the word ‘snow’ and instantly came to life, his big, beautiful eyes shining brightly. Lin Zhixia knew that Xiao Ai went crazy for snow and he leaned out to pinch his cheek, “Don’t even think about it.”

Lin Keai wailed in protest and buried his head in Lin Zhixia’s shoulder. 

Shortly after leaving, the snow really started to fall outside. By the time they got to the restaurant, the snow had already covered the ground with a thick layer.

Since the day those thugs showed up, Qi Mingyuan had been a frequent visitor to the restaurant. He made the excuse that his apartment was near the restaurant and that he lived alone. So he came to chat and pass the time with the staff and customers. Lin Zhixia couldn’t understand how the young man could get any entertainment out of hanging around his old, boring restaurant. 

Business was slow on snowy days and there was no one there to eat lunch at noon so Lin Zhixia sat down to chat with Qi Mingyuan. 

“Xiao Qi, shouldn’t you be in school at your age?”

“I dropped out of college,” Qi Mingyuan’s eyes shifted from the computer screen to Lin Zhixia. He laughed, “A month into freshman year, I dropped out of school. My family kicked me out because of that.”

Lin Zhixia was stunned by his casual attitude. Every day he saw Qi Mingyuan in here with his laptop computer, playing on the latest model of cell phone and wearing expensive looking clothes. He had assumed that Qi Mingyuan was a spoiled rich kid. He hadn’t expected him to have faced such challenges. 

“What kind of expression is this? Don’t be so blindly sympathetic! I wanted to drop out because I didn’t like the major I studied but my family tried to force me to keep going. So I dropped out,” Qi Mingyuan said, “I pick up jobs when I feel like it and play around when I want to. I’m much happier this way.”

“Pick up jobs? What kind of work do you do?”

“It’s not good to give too many details…”

Qi Mingyuan thought for a while and said, “But I can tell you a little bit. I’ve been helping Brother Luo investigate the incident with you and Qiao Mei.”

When Qi Mingyuan mentioned the name Qiao Mei, Lin Zhixia didn’t know who it was immediately. It took a moment for him to remember that person and when he did, his expression changed immediately.

“That girl, she’s cute but very poisonous.” Qi Mingyuan shuddered, “Fortunately, Brother Luo let me teach her a lesson.”

Lin Zhixia was curious, “What lesson?”

“Didn’t you know? Qiao Mei opened her own design studio. It looks nice on the surface and has won a lot of awards at home and abroad. But actually, all of her designs are stolen. She copied them from small designers, people who haven’t made a name for themselves yet. Isn’t she just shameless?”

“It’s not hard to prove she did it. It just takes filing a lawsuit but these small time designers can’t afford the fees to take her to court. She’s a rich kid and there was nothing they could do to her. She loved to mock them and some even ended up committing suicide because of this!”

Qi Mingyuan was very animated as he spoke, “My Brother Luo immediately started searching for all the small time designers as soon as he found all this out. He hired the best lawyers to help them. After all, he’s not short on money. The results of the lawsuit haven’t come out yet but I heard that her reputation has been ruined in all her social circles and her studio is failing.”

Lin Zhixia was stunned silent for a moment, “When did all this happen?”

“Just recently,” Qi Mingyuan said, “it didn’t take me long to look into the matter.”

Lin Zhixia’s eyelashes trembled slightly.

Lin Zhixia couldn’t dismiss something like this away with the excuse that he was being self-indulgent. It was clear Luo Qin felt regret at the misunderstanding from that night. Did Luo Qin go after Qiao Mei because of Lin Zhixia? 

Qi Mingyuan said meanly, “How about it? Brother Luo is not so bad, huh?”

Lin Zhixia didn’t respond and Qi Mingyuan smiled. 

The snow was getting heavier and heavier. There was no business in the restaurant for the rest of the day and the kindergarten closed early. Lin Zhixia closed the restaurant and went back with the little guy early.

Luo Qin came back early today as well and all three of them were surprised when they met at the front door of the manor.

Luo Qin was surprised, “You came back so early today?”

“On snowy days, there’s no people in the restaurant.”

There were snowflakes on Lin Zhixia and Luo Qin subconsciously wanted to help. He reached out but Lin Zhixia took a quick step back, avoiding the action. Then holding the little one close, he quickly retreated into his room.

Luo Qin’s hand hung awkwardly in the air for a long moment before he retracted it. 

A small failure was still a failure but Luo Qin didn’t feel too badly at the rejection. The way they were now was still better than before. He was content to have Lin Zhixia so near. 

Lin Zhixia took Xiao Ai back into their room and changed clothes. The little guy climbed onto his bed with ease and started playing games by himself, leaving Lin Zhixia awkwardly alone. 

Suddenly idle, Lin Zhixia had no idea what to do. 

“Dad,” Lin Keai played for a while and then remembered to eat again, “Want noodles.”

“Dad will make them for you,” Lin Zhixia tucked him into the little quilt, “Just wait here for me, okay?”

Lin Keai nodded obediently, “Okay.”

Not long after Lin Zhixia went downstairs, Lin Keai slowly climbed out of bed. He went over to push open the cracked door and ran out.

Grabbing onto the stair railing, he carefully went down, step by step. After counting the seventh step, Xiao Ai heard a chuckle from below. 

Luo Qin stood on the bottom floor and looked up to see a sneaky Lin Keai. He observed him for a while before he spoke, “Keai, what are you doing?”

“Uncle Luo!” Lin Keai opened his arms, silently asking to be picked up, “Come here! Quickly!”

Luo Qin gave in immediately and walked over to pick the little guy up, “Keai, where are you going?” 

“Uncle Luo, let’s make a snowman!”

Luo Qin reached up and pinched Xiao Ai’s nose, “You want to build a snowman?”

Lin Keai nodded, his big, bright eyes looking at him expectantly. Luo Qin thought for a while and then nodded back, “Okay, Uncle will take you to build one.”

Lin Zhixia was done cooking so he went upstairs to call down Xiao Ai to eat but the little guy was missing. He called out for him several times, getting no response from anywhere. Panicked, Lin Zhixia ran downstairs. 

Seeing him looking so frantic, Sister Li called out to him, “Sir, what’s wrong?”

“Have you seen Xiao Ai?”

“The master went out with the young master saying they were going to build a snowman.”

Lin Zhixia realized that Luo Qin had taken Lin Keai to play for a while. His first reaction was anger. The heavy snow hadn’t even stopped yet and Luo Qin thought it was safe to go out?

Lin Zhixia stomped to the front door but as he reached to open it, it swung out on its own. 

Frozen, Lin Zhixia stared at the person who entered. The other person paused as well, stunned. 

Then that stunned look turned into disgust and confusion, “Lin Zhixia? Why the hell are you here?”