Chapter 50

Bai Ying was deeply troubled.

“Although I often hear that line—’we can’t be lovers, but we can still be friends’—how could anyone pretend nothing happened and act like before?” Bai Ying lowered his eyelashes, staring at the tips of his shoes as he rubbed them against the ground.

“So, Xiao Ying doesn’t plan to contact that person anymore?” Yun Ze asked him.

“I don’t know.” Just thinking about it turned Bai Ying’s mind into a sticky mess, like dealing with something even more troublesome than a demanding client. “Anyway… I don’t dare answer calls or reply to messages for a while.”

Bai Ying wasn’t assertive by nature, but he had firm ideas about relationships. How could love easily downgrade to mere friendship? If he kept answering Xiao Lu’s calls and replying to his messages like usual, it would only give Xiao Lu false hope that there was still a chance. Bai Ying didn’t want that.

He was even considering blocking Xiao Lu’s contact for a while. It seemed too ruthless, but a short sharp pain was better than a long one—it might help Xiao Lu forget him faster!

At the same time, he felt relieved that Lu Changjun’s internship had ended. Otherwise, he wouldn’t know how to face him back at the office.

Yun Ze fell silent for a moment, quietly wiping down the table and chairs.

For Xiao Ying to reject someone else’s confession was actually good news for him, but it also made him cowardly, afraid to take that step. As long as he didn’t confess, he could remain Xiao Ying’s good friend and big brother. But if he tried to cross that boundary and failed… Lu Changjun’s fate would be a cautionary tale.

Xiao Ying’s handling of this was too decisive, almost unlike him—as if someone had given him a push from behind.

“Besides me, has Xiao Ying talked to anyone else about this?” Yun Ze asked casually, sliding a wiped-clean stool toward Bai Ying.

No other people, but there was another demon.

“I talked to Mr. Liu about it.” Bai Ying tore open the pineapple bun packaging, reminiscing. “That day, I really didn’t know what to do. Luckily, Mr. Liu came to keep me company and even played with me all night.”

The little snake was completely oblivious to Liu Qingzhang’s rival-crushing maneuvers.

“Mr. Liu?” Yun Ze frowned imperceptibly. “The one who saved you on Wenxiang Mountain before?”

“Yes!” After saying it, Bai Ying realized that although he hadn’t known Mr. Liu for long, the man had already helped him so much. That night at the Zhong Family, if Mr. Liu hadn’t stepped in, he wouldn’t have known how to endure the triggered heat cycle. During the Wenxiang Mountain incident, if Mr. Liu hadn’t found him early in the storm, he’d probably still be in the hospital. Mr. Liu had taken him out for fresh air, reverted to his true form to carry him on his head, sunned with him, booked an entire amusement park to cheer him up…

Mr. Liu was just too good. Thinking about it, Bai Ying didn’t know how he’d ever repay him.

The big snake didn’t seem like he needed the little snake to take care of him in old age either…

Bai Ying thought the big snake was perfect in every way, but Yun Ze worried that Mr. Liu had ulterior motives. He’d already been upset when Bai Ying was hospitalized and Liu Qingzhang wouldn’t let him visit. Now, hearing that Liu Qingzhang had spent the whole night entertaining Bai Ying right after the confession rejection—when his heart was most vulnerable—Yun Ze grew suspicious.

Was this elder for real?

Liu Qingzhang was Bai Ying’s elder—or so Liu Qingzhang had claimed when he took Bai Ying away from Wenxiang Mountain and blocked others from visiting. The story about meeting at a banquet and discovering he was an old friend’s son didn’t hold up to scrutiny, and Yun Ze was one of the skeptics.

“I’ve heard my family mention this Mr. Liu from the Zhong Family before, but I never knew what he looked like,” Yun Ze said with feigned playfulness. “He wouldn’t happen to be some old grandpa, would he?”

If he were a grandpa, Yun Ze could relax a bit.

“No way!” Bai Ying quickly defended the big snake. “Mr. Liu looks very young. With his mature aura, people would believe he’s only in his twenties!”

Yun Ze instantly felt uneasy.

Yun Ze didn’t respond right away. Bai Ying thought he didn’t believe him and tried to prove the big snake’s innocence by pulling out his phone and opening his photo album. He quickly found his target—the photo he’d asked the big snake for.

He didn’t have a solo shot of Liu Qingzhang, but there was a perfect selfie with him.

“Look,” Bai Ying turned the phone screen toward Yun Ze. “Doesn’t he look young?”

The moment Yun Ze saw the photo, his expression changed.

It was a mirror selfie, taken with skill—the mirror framed the black-and-white duo cuddling like a painting. Who could guess it was snapped by a great demon still new to smartphones? The mature man in the black trench coat held the beautiful youth in a snowy white gauze skirt close, his strong arm around his waist. Yun Ze didn’t notice Bai Ying’s bare feet stepping on Liu Qingzhang’s shoes to avoid the floor; he only saw how intimately they pressed together, with no space between them—Bai Ying’s hand on the man’s chest, the man leaning down as if whispering in his ear.

Liu Qingzhang had told Bai Ying to look at the mirror.

The moment Bai Ying turned his head, Liu Qingzhang snapped the shot. In the frozen image, Bai Ying’s gaze toward the mirror seemed alive, rippling like water, full of spirit.

He did look young.

Yun Ze thought.

He saw no kindly elder doting on a junior in that photo—only a despicable man taking advantage of Bai Ying’s naivety!

His throat bobbed with anger. Yun Ze suppressed his rage and asked in as normal a tone as possible, “Why was Xiao Ying dressed like that?”

“After the ghost house, I saw this skirt in a shop window.” Bai Ying looked a bit embarrassed. “Mr. Liu asked if I wanted to try it on. I thought it looked pretty, so I did.”

What proper elder would suggest a male junior try on a skirt!

Even for females, it wasn’t always appropriate, but Bai Ying didn’t realize this at all. He looked at Yun Ze expectantly. “Doesn’t it look good?”

Bai Ying looked stunning, the skirt was beautiful—but the beast beside him was an eyesore. Yun Ze had already branded Liu Qingzhang as a predator elder scheming against his junior.

Yun Ze recalled rumors about Liu Qingzhang—the Zhong Family’s mysterious powerholder, a noble from old times persisting to now. Thinking back, Yun Ze could only sneer: just a beastly man!

Bai Ying waited a long time but got no praise from Yun Ze. Disappointed, he lowered his head and took a bite of his pineapple bun.

Then, the young man beside him grabbed his hand.

“Xiao Ying,” Yun Ze made him look at him and asked seriously, “Are you sure this Mr. Liu is an elder connected to your parents?”

Bai Ying panicked for a second. The elder part was true, but the parental connection was fake—he didn’t even know what snakes his parents were. But since he only knew this one snake demon, and Liu Qingzhang had said that with the depletion of heaven-earth spiritual energy, no other snake demons remained, Liu Qingzhang was his closest blood relative!

Bai Ying wasn’t good at lying and couldn’t explain their complicated identities and relationship. He could only nod vigorously.

“But this guy gives me a bad feeling.” Yun Ze frowned. “Xiao Ying, you’ve grown up to over twenty on your own, and he never showed up before. Now he suddenly appears—I worry he has other intentions.”

Bai Ying frowned too.

He deliberately put on a stern face, though it felt a bit forced, but his tone was utterly serious: “Xiao Ze, you can’t talk about Mr. Liu like that, or I’ll get mad.”

Yun Ze asked, “You trust him that much?”

They were both snake demons living in human society, so of course Bai Ying trusted Liu Qingzhang.

But he couldn’t say that to Yun Ze. Instead, he said, “Mr. Liu is good to me; he won’t harm me. You worry he has ulterior motives, but he’s powerful and influential. I’m poor and worthless—what could he possibly want from me?”

He couldn’t very well say the big snake wanted his tender little snake flesh for a snack—he wouldn’t even fill the gaps in those teeth!

Yun Ze wanted to blurt out: Of course he doesn’t want money or power—he wants you!

But he couldn’t say that. Even if Bai Ying believed him, Yun Ze didn’t want to taint Xiao Ying with such filthy matters. In the end, they stared at each other without speaking, just like when they sulked as kids.

And just like back then, Yun Ze was the first to yield every time.

“Sorry,” Yun Ze lowered his head. “Maybe I overthought it.”

“You’re forgiven.” The magnanimous little snake forgave him in a second. He broke the opened donut on the table in half and gave one piece to Yun Ze. “No more badmouthing Mr. Liu from now on, okay?”

Yun Ze mumbled an ambiguous agreement, unclear if he meant yes or no.

He desperately wanted to expose Liu Qingzhang’s fake-elder true face, yet he contradictorily hoped Bai Ying would never know. If she learned her admired elder had impure intentions toward her, how heartbroken would she be?

In the end, like when he was a kid, Yun Ze decided to protect Bai Ying in secret.

Back then, when Xiao Ying wanted to make up with the boy who pulled his braid, Yun Ze was reluctant but couldn’t defy him. He’d secretly watch the boy, ready to beat him again if he bullied Xiao Ying. Now, with Bai Ying staunchly defending Liu Qingzhang, Yun Ze could only bury his worries. If that man ever forced himself on Bai Ying against his will, no matter the consequences, Yun Ze would protect him.

They deliberately dropped the topic of Liu Qingzhang.

But Yun Ze couldn’t stop obsessing over that photo. He’d glimpsed thumbnails in Bai Ying’s album earlier and knew Liu Qingzhang had taken more than one—though the others were solo shots of Bai Ying.

“Xiao Ying looks especially good in skirts.” Yun Ze praised first, and sure enough, Bai Ying’s eyes lit up.

Little sister Xiao Ying was shy but loved compliments. Whenever the orphanage teachers praised him, he’d be perfectly obedient.

Grasping this, Yun Ze smoothly made his request: “Can you send me those skirt photos?”

Bai Ying sent them right away.

Liu Qingzhang could never have imagined the photos he’d taken for the little snake would end up on another man’s phone.