"Xiaoyuan?" Wei Qian was a little surprised and asked, "Didn't I say... why did you come back?"

But Wei Zhiyuan didn't say anything, just stared at him blankly, his eyes unfocused and his gaze so scattered as if it filled the entire room, with nowhere to focus.

Wei Zhiyuan went to Wei Qian's office to get some documents, and suddenly saw a key stuck in the bottom drawer of the desk.

Wei Qian never locked his cabinets, whether at home or in the office - and he generally didn't use drawers that required him to bend over to reach them.

Wei Zhiyuan didn't know why he suddenly felt so curious. Later he thought that it was probably because he had always been feeling uneasy. He quietly walked over and opened the drawer.

The drawer was indeed rarely used. It still had a peculiar smell of furniture that had not been opened for a long time. It was covered with a layer of dust. There was nothing else in it except a medical examination report.

The hospital service for the physical examination was very considerate. Not only did they bind the reports into a book, but they also provided detailed explanations of each indicator that most people would not understand. They even listed recommended treatment plans for a mild tooth decay.

So when Wei Zhiyuan saw the "lung shadow", he felt his heart was "fooled" and his mind was empty.

Fortunately, the doctor later listed a series of possible causes of lung shadows, and especially pointed out that people who have had pneumonia may develop pseudotumors due to inflammation.

This incident cast a shadow on Wei Zhiyuan's heart. He carried the things back with a heavy heart and was absent-minded. He almost ran a red light when he was about to get home. He slammed on the brakes and barely stopped behind the line.

As a result, his breath was blocked and before it could come up, Wei Zhiyuan heard Wei Qian's words at the door.

He stood at the door, turning a deaf ear to Wei Qian's question. Wei Zhiyuan only felt a buzzing in his ears and his vision began to darken. He couldn't help but reach out to hold on to the wall. His heart was beating like an autumn cicada, but he felt ice cold inside. A chill rose from the soles of his feet, instantly freezing the blood flowing in his body.

No matter what Sanpang was saying to him, Wei Zhiyuan stared at him blankly. His mouth was moving, and his hands were gesticulating so much that they almost poked his nose, but he didn't even blink, as if he had lost the ability to react in an instant.

His stiff legs didn't move for a long time. Wei Zhiyuan even felt that if he knelt down, he would never be able to get up again.

Something suddenly broke all his bones, leaving only the precarious joints still struggling to hold on.

He didn't have any internal energy, but he experienced what it meant to be possessed by the devil and what it meant to be completely hopeless.

Sanpang yelled, "Qian'er, come over here and take a look. What did this child hear? I think his face doesn't look right!"

Wei Qian came over and gently patted Wei Zhiyuan's face with his palm: "Xiaoyuan?"

Wei Zhiyuan's scattered gaze gradually condensed into a point under his touch. The look in his eyes was cold and deep, like two bottomless wells, gloomy and a little scary, without a single ray of light.

Suddenly, Wei Zhiyuan shook, and he seemed to take a deep breath. He seemed to be about to speak when he was choked by something. He suddenly turned his head to one side and started coughing violently.

Wei Zhiyuan covered his mouth, choking and unable to breathe. His eyes quickly turned red, and then blood flowed out through his fingers.

Sanpang yelled, "Oh my god! Why is there blood?"

Wei Qian was also startled: "Xiao Yuan, don't cover it, let me see."

Wei Qian tried to pry Wei Zhiyuan's hand apart, but he felt as if he had touched a dead body. Everything was hard and brittle. He suspected that he had used too much force and Wei Zhiyuan's arm might even fall off with a "bang".

At this moment, Wei Zhiyuan suddenly stretched out a hand and grabbed Wei Qian's uninjured wrist.

Wei Qian was pinched so hard that it hurt. He tried to pull his hand back several times, but he couldn't. The guy almost rubbed off his fat skin.

Wei Qian suspected that Wei Zhiyuan had misunderstood something. He didn't care that Sanpang was still there. He put his arm around Wei Zhiyuan's waist and tapped his stiff back gently with his wrist: "It's okay, brother is still here, Xiaoyuan, Xiaoyuan?"

The weather was dry in winter, and Wei Zhiyuan was stimulated so much that his blood pressure soared. The capillaries in his nose burst and he started bleeding from his nose. He choked on the blood and almost bled from all seven orifices.

After a long while, perhaps due to the feeble effect of Wei Qian's blunt comfort or because Wei Zhiyuan choked and coughed up his lungs, his sanity finally began to slowly return.

Wei Zhiyuan realized something and let go of Wei Qian's wrist. Then he staggered, pushed Wei Qian away slightly, turned and walked into the bathroom, rinsed the blood from his mouth, then took a wet towel and used the cold surface to cool his nose.

"How embarrassing." Wei Zhiyuan thought, putting his hand on the bridge of his nose. He felt dizzy in the dimly lit bathroom, so he closed his eyes and stood motionless for a while. He successfully blocked Wei Qian from his consciousness for a short moment, and his breathing and heartbeat gradually stabilized.

Wei Zhiyuan felt that his nerves usually only trembled slightly within a very small amplitude, and occasionally they would be stretched a little larger and stretched into a palm-sized membrane. He thought that these "occasionally" were the extreme, until just now...

That was really the critical point, and he almost couldn't come back. Until now, he could feel his tense nerves slowly contracting, and the pain was like needles pricking his whole body mentally.

Sanpang looked at Wei Zhiyuan awkwardly, then at Wei Qian, his eyes moving back and forth between the two of them, making faces and no one knew what he was thinking.

Ten minutes later, Wei Zhiyuan's nose cooled down and the bleeding stopped. He wiped it clean, walked out with a wooden expression, and picked up Wei Qian's wrist that he had grabbed. It looked like the wrist had been scratched by a female ghost, leaving a row of clear dark blue fingerprints.

Sanpang's face twitched, and he muttered, "Mom, how hard is it?"

Wei Zhiyuan said nothing, found the ointment for sprains and bruises from the drawer where he kept his medicines, scooped out a little and applied it on Wei Qian's wrist, then pushed it slowly and forcefully. Wei Qian twitched in pain, and then Wei Zhiyuan held him down motionlessly.

After an unknown amount of time, Wei Zhiyuan finally asked, "What's the matter with the physical examination report?"

His voice was hoarse and his tone was flat, like the calm before the storm, containing huge energy of impending storm. Wei Qian suddenly felt inexplicably guilty and couldn't help but look up at Sanpang.

Sanpang: "Why are you looking at me? It's all your fault. You can scare people into something bad. Stop talking nonsense and explain the whole thing to the organization honestly!"

Wei Qian could feel that Wei Zhiyuan's fingers were still cold, so he had to avoid the main point and told him that he was going to have an operation. At the end, he emphasized that the tumor was benign and he would be fine. After Sanpang's yelling, he learned to eliminate scary words like "mostly". With some verbal packaging, it sounded like he was really going to have his appendix removed.

Although Sanpang told him to explain himself, after hearing this, he couldn't help but look at Wei Zhiyuan's expression and added, "Yes, your brother is right. It's nothing. We were just chatting about an old story. You misheard it. Don't take it to heart."

"Third brother." Wei Zhiyuan interrupted Sanpang expressionlessly, rubbed the bruise on Wei Qian's wrist, took out a napkin from the table and wiped his fingers stained with medicine, and said in a flat voice, "Do you believe what he said?"

Sanpang: “…”

He touched his head and found that he seemed to be a little too honest.

"I don't believe a word you say." Wei Zhiyuan stared straight into Wei Qian's eyes and said word by word, "You don't have to explain anymore. I won't believe a word you say."

Wei Qian: “…”

"Third brother, please refund my ticket. If you are in a hurry, ask someone else to run the trip first."

Sanpang asked timidly: "What about you?"

"From now on, I will lock him up at home. He can't go anywhere except the hospital. Whether he goes to the hospital for examination or surgery, I will be there all the time. I will go to the doctor to explain the situation. I need to be the first to know everything." Wei Zhiyuan's expression and voice were oozing with coldness. After he finished speaking, he politely asked Mr. Tan for his opinion, "Do you have any objections to this?"

Sanpang decisively betrayed his friend and shook his head like a rattle.

"That's good." Wei Zhiyuan said. He didn't even look at Wei Qian. He stood up and said to Sanpang, "I'll see you off."

Kim Jong-un was "sent away" by him like a sleepwalker.

When they reached the elevator, Sanpang came back to his senses and looked at Wei Zhiyuan with mixed feelings: "Brother, think about the bright side of things. Your brother... Alas, his grandson is indeed not very good, but he is not so unreliable. I think this comrade can still be saved ideologically. If he says it's okay, it may really be nothing serious. You should relax a little, okay?"

As soon as these words fell, Sanpang clearly saw Wei Zhiyuan's expression cracked.

Wei Zhiyuan's brows quickly frowned together, his eyes turned red in an instant, the corners of his mouth twitched slightly and tilted to one side, and tears seemed about to fall.

However, the next moment, Wei Zhiyuan raised his arm and covered his face for a moment, then put it down after a moment. Except for his eyes which were still red, he had regained his previous almost numb calmness.

"Yeah." Wei Zhiyuan responded softly, "Thank you, Third Brother."

The elevator door opened and Sanpang walked in. He watched Wei Zhiyuan's tall body being shut outside the elevator door little by little, until only a gap was left and he disappeared without saying goodbye to him.

"What will happen to Xiaoyuan if something happens to him?" Sanpang couldn't help thinking this. He went downstairs in a blink of an eye, looked up at the tall and magnificent residential building, and thought in confusion, "Back then, I tried every means to stop Wei Zhiyuan and find a date for Wei Qian... Was it right?"

He couldn't imagine how deep one person's feelings for another could be, and he felt horrified after just a quick glance at them.

How much such true love is there in this world?

Sanpang stood there in a daze for a long time before he sighed, lowered his head, and left with a heavy heart.

"Forget it, let them be." Thinking this, Sanpang left.

When Wei Zhiyuan got home, he really locked the door and took the key with him, fulfilling his promise to lock Wei Qian in the house. Then he started a long, one-sided cold war.

At the beginning, although Wei Qian was not used to it, he also had his own things to do. It was a rare opportunity for him to stay at home doing nothing, so he watched TV, played computer games, and read books. He had many things to do to kill time. After two days of doing this, he finally couldn't stand it anymore.

Wei Zhiyuan treated him like a piece of air. Apart from asking him "Are you feeling unwell today" every morning and evening, and "I'm going out to buy something, do you want me to take it with me" when he went out, there was no other communication between them.

Wei Qian felt that he was a bit of a jerk who "would not move when led, and would retreat when beaten". In the past, Wei Zhiyuan was always under his nose, which made him very worried. Now, although Wei Zhiyuan is at home every day, he miraculously rarely appears in his sight.

"Will I get my tongue stuck if I say one more word?" Wei Qian thought indignantly, but he also felt that if he took the initiative to move forward, it would seem... a bit embarrassing.

Wei Qian tried to start a conversation indirectly several times but failed. Wei Zhiyuan used single words to get rid of him - "um", "no", "ok", "no" and so on, which were concise and to the point.

The first time, Wei Qian thought to himself, “That’s enough,” the second time, Wei Qian thought to himself, “Is this ever going to end?” and the third time, he thought to himself, “Fuck it,” and thus efficiently expanded the unilateral cold war into a mutual one.

The two of them hadn't talked to each other for several days. Sanpang, who came to see them out of concern, felt that the atmosphere was not right as soon as he entered the room. When he saw Wei Qian's arrogant and stinky face, he suddenly understood what was going on. Before leaving, he finally couldn't help but said to Wei Qian in a disappointed tone, "You, please be more careful!"

Finally, the night before leaving home, Wei Qian packed his things before going to bed and planned to be hospitalized.

He thought, what if the lights were green all the time, but when he went to the hospital for a check-up, he found that something had changed?

What if it's really malignant?

What if there is even a “99%” chance that he is the “1”?

For a moment, he was afraid.

However, when he was far away from home in the past, he was already accustomed to all kinds of fear and torture, so it only took a short while for Wei Qian to calm down.

"There aren't so many what-ifs, ugh." Wei Qian thought naively, reached out to turn off the light, and climbed back into bed to sleep.

Wei Qian fell asleep, but he was not serene and woke up once in the middle of the night. He turned over, stretched his curled legs, and inadvertently opened his eyes a little, and was awakened by a black shadow poking motionlessly at the head of the bed.

Wei Qian suddenly stepped back, sat up from the bed, and stared at the shadow for two seconds: "Xiao Yuan?"

Wei Zhiyuan said nothing.

Wei Qian sighed and threw the pillow at Wei Zhiyuan: "I didn't let you scare me into having a heart attack."

As he spoke, he reached out to turn on the bedside lamp, but Wei Zhiyuan grabbed his wrist and stopped him.

Then, Wei Zhiyuan slowly climbed up on top of him, and taking advantage of Wei Qian's half-lying position, he pressed him firmly on the bed. He put his hands around Wei Qian's shoulders and held him motionlessly in the dark. After an unknown amount of time, Wei Qian heard a sniffling sound similar to a cold. He raised his hand in astonishment and touched Wei Zhiyuan's face, which was surprisingly wet.

Wei Zhiyuan avoided his hand and buried his head in his neck, trying hard to suppress his still trembling breath and hitting Wei Qian's neck again and again.

Wei Qian finally raised his hand, patted his back gently, and whispered, "It's really okay. I really didn't lie to you this time."

His heart softened, and he even felt a little guilty. Wei Qian even felt that he was like a spoiled child in his emotions. He was used to others letting him have whatever they wanted, as if it was all natural.

Wei Qian lowered his head and kissed Wei Zhiyuan's hair carefully, and said softly in a coaxing tone: "I promise to quit smoking after the operation, okay, huh?"

Wei Qian has always been good at scolding people, so asking him to comfort others always feels a bit unprofessional and out of place. When this sentence is uttered, the effect is comparable to the "return home to get married after the war" in American movies. The ominous meaning is like a thousand crows circling in a chorus of howling.

Wei Zhiyuan couldn't bear it any longer and covered his mouth.

This was not a gentle and sweet kiss, but more like a venting of anger. Wei Qian had no way to avoid it and could only passively accept it without any resistance. His head tilted back involuntarily and pressed tightly against the headboard of the bed. The back of his neck was pinched by Wei Zhiyuan's hand and it hurt. Even his lips were numb.

After an unknown amount of time, Wei Qian felt like he was about to suffocate, and Wei Zhiyuan finally let him go.

Wei Zhiyuan seemed to have calmed down. He avoided Wei Qian's injured hand and supported himself on the bed, lying on the man who he had been thinking about day and night and who would stab him from time to time.

"The Highway Game is progressing smoothly. I can't go there these days, so I contacted a classmate from the team there, who is also Chinese, and asked him to handle the investment. We have now recruited a professional operation team and marketing team, and we may be able to launch a public beta by the end of next year." Wei Zhiyuan said softly, "I have also contacted you about the industrial park. We will probably set up a China office to save me from traveling abroad all the time."

Wei Qian didn't expect him to say this suddenly and was stunned.

"You don't have to think about anything. It's okay to be afraid." Wei Zhiyuan stretched out his fingers to push back the hair on his forehead that hadn't been taken care of for a long time, and lowered his head to kiss him lightly on the lips. "I was a little depressed the past two days, brother, I..."

He seemed to want to apologize, but Wei Qian pulled the quilt over and wrapped both of them, turned over and pressed Wei Zhiyuan down, not letting him finish his words.

"Okay," Wei Qian said, "I understand. Go to sleep and accompany me to the hospital tomorrow."

He understood what Wei Zhiyuan meant - if anything happens to you, I will inherit everything from you, manage your company, take care of Xiaobao, and follow the ins and outs of every investment... as if you were still alive.

Until that night, although Wei Qian pretended to accept it all calmly, he actually still felt that the strange relationship between himself and Wei Zhiyuan was a bit "intricate and confusing". The night was heavy, and the myriad emotions that were entangled in his heart finally sank together from mid-air.

"Xiaoyuan's life has been ruined by me."

Wei Qian felt almost grief-stricken as he thought about this. He tightened his arms around Wei Zhiyuan's waist and slowly leaned his head on Wei Zhiyuan's shoulder.

After Wei Qian was hospitalized and underwent a series of examinations, the doctor arranged surgery for him.

Wei Zhiyuan brought a tablet computer and consulted a Chinese medicine doctor while waiting for him. He recorded a lot of things and then carefully compared various materials to organize his notes. If someone who didn't know saw it, they might think he was a medical student preparing for a license exam.

Sanpang was worried, so he came over to take a look, bought a bottle of drink and handed it to Wei Zhiyuan: "Go eat something, it's still early."

Wei Zhiyuan glanced at the watch and shook his head: "I have no appetite. It's no good to force myself to eat. Let's wait. I'll be at ease."

Sanpang was silent for a moment, then sat down next to him, looking down at Wei Zhiyuan's computer screen. He suddenly said, "Qian'er... I always feel that your brother is like the kind of apple that farmers wrap in paper bags."

Wei Zhiyuan looked up at him in some confusion.

"You may not have seen it," Sanpang said, "We have a relative in the countryside who grows apples. They put a layer of paper bags on the apples to prevent pesticides from getting on the fruits and to make them look good. They take them off in the evening to expose them to the sun. The apples color very quickly and evenly. When they are sold, each one is more shiny and beautiful than the other. But if you buy one and try it, you will know that it is not delicious."

Sanpang said, sighing, "Your brother is the same. No matter how good he looks to outsiders, he is totally different when you really live with him. He is a worthless person - a fruit that tastes bad. Only those who eat it know it. You... know it clearly, yet you are willing to endure this suffering."

Wei Zhiyuan looked at him in surprise.

Sanpang avoided his gaze and said to himself, "You should treat it as self-cultivation and be more tolerant of him... Actually, it's unnecessary for me to say this. You have tolerated him for so many years. If I had such a bastard brother, I would have turned against him long ago."

Wei Zhiyuan: "Third brother, you..."

"That's what I mean." Sanpang stretched out his palm-leaf fan-like hand and patted his shoulder. "I'm going to go out and see if there's anything good to eat nearby. I'll let that guy eat sick food later. If he dares to pick a fight with you every day, you won't be able to rest in peace even after death."