Chapter 39
Qu Xueyu carried a bag of dried fish and a few oranges before heading back to the maple forest. Just as he neared the edge of the forest, he saw Lu Bai standing there, panting. Qu Xueyu’s eyes narrowed, and his brows furrowed slightly: “Xiao Bai?” The young man’s face was so pale that his heart ached almost immediately—but he was clearly fine just a moment ago.
Thump.
Lu Bai pounced into Qu Xueyu’s arms, almost tackling the other man to the ground.
Qu Xueyu simply dropped the bag of dried fish and oranges on the ground, then wrapped one hand around the young man’s waist, before gently kneading the back of his neck: “Xiaobai, what’s the matter?” His voice contained worry.
“I hate this maple forest.” Lu Bai tightly clutched the other’s waist, his knuckles turning faintly white.
Qu Xueyu kissed the young man’s head; his tone sounded so gentle that it felt like a lullaby, “Then we’ll leave now.”
“But,” Lu Bai raised his head, meeting the youth’s beautiful dark eyes. “I want you to kiss me now.” Not waiting for an answer, he slightly stood on tiptoe and kissed the youth’s lips.
His heart felt numb and chaotic, and he desperately needed to touch this youth to confirm that he was really still there.
In this world, there was no ‘Ruan Jiangjiu’. Only ‘Qu Xueyu’ really existed. Truthfully, it didn’t matter to him if he was Ruan Jiangjiu or Qu Xueyu. Either way, they were his.
Nevertheless, whether it was a prank or something more sinister, it told him that something was threatening his man. No matter what, even if he had to gamble his freedom and life, he would never allow such a thing to happen.
Qu Xueyu responded to the teenager’s kiss, dotingly indulging the almost rough nibbling of his mouth.
“Xiao Qu,” Lu Bai panted slightly, his lips red and swollen, but tightly encircled the other’s neck. “When you are filming for that movie, I have to be there with your team for sure.”
Qu Xueyu gently touched the reddened edges of the teenager’s eyes and smiled, “Okay.” After a moment, he removed his windbreaker and draped it over the teenager, “Are you still cold?” Just now, he felt that the teenager seemed to be shivering against the chilly-autumn air.
The windbreaker contained the youth’s body heat, and Lu Bai felt much more comfortable and warm, yet he still shook his head without guilt, “No, I’m still very cold.” Taking a breath, he added, “That’s why you have to hug me more snugly.”
Qu Xueyu let out a light chuckle, then lowered his head and pecked the tip of the teenager’s nose. Then, he firmly gathered the other man in his grasp and made his way out of the maple forest.
“Xiao Bai, tell me. What happened?” Outside the forest and under the warm sunlight, there were no trees to shade them. Qu Xueyu cradled the teenager’s face and asked, his beautiful eyes showing worry.
Lu Bai sincerely regarded the young man’s dark eyes which were warmed under the amber hue of the autumn sunlight. The young man looked at him with those clear and love-filled eyes so exclusively, which made him so happy he was nearly delirious.
What happened in that clearing was just too weird, and he didn’t really want to ruin the youth’s mood with such a matter, so he decided not to say anything about it and changed the topic. “Xiao Qu, I truly love you.” He paused before adding, “Even more than you can imagine, I love you.”
Qu Xueyu’s pupils narrowed: The word ‘love’ was so official and ceremonious that he felt he had to pick the right time to confess it to the teenager. He was afraid of spooking him, even though he, himself, didn’t understand the reason why. In such a short period of time together, his feelings for the teenager were like an out-of-control blaze that was burning away inside of him, almost as if it was going to thoroughly consume his heart.
He had wanted to say such an important thing to the teenager, but he didn’t expect that the teenager had managed to say it first.
Qu Xueyu scooped Lu Bai into his arms and let out a low laugh as he brought his lips over the teenager’s ear and quietly whispered something, to which, the teen’s ears turned completely red.
“Shall we go back to my room?” Lu Bai was seemingly in a rare shyness, and his voice was a bit soft. He had come to the villa here a lot as a child, so he had a room on the second floor.
Qu Xueyu brushed a hand over the teenager’s adorable red and flushed earlobe, teasing the other with a raised eyebrow. “Why do you want to go to your bedroom?”
The young man he was holding in his arms raised his head to look at him and said without a trace of modesty, “Because I want to undress you and kiss you. But I don’t want anyone else to see your body—just because there’s no one here now, doesn’t mean there won’t be later on! In addition, I also want you to kiss me-” he waved his hand. “Not only on the mouth.”
Qu Xueyu: “…”
Lu Bai was still a bit morose even after he said this, “I ordered that no one was to come into the maple forest. We could have played there, but I hate it now.”
Qu Xueyu took a deep steadying breath while he kneaded the back of the teenager’s neck. He looked up at the clear fall sky and concluded, “That’s alright. We’ll just go up to your room then.”
Lu Bai smiled with satisfaction.
Qu Xueyu took the teenager’s hand again and held it as he walked along the path to the villa that was lined with ginkgo trees1For your mental imagery, They have walked out of fiery shades of red and yellow forest to a golden tree-lined path. Check the link for some beautiful pictures! (It is a Japanese tourism link and not a China link so there may be some slight differences, but still fairly close) https://hyperjapan.co.uk/tourism/maple-vs-ginkgo-japans-must-see-fall-foliage-rivalry/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginkgo_biloba, and right now, the path was awash with dazzling shades of gold. Lu Bai smiled happily as he gently placed a single beautiful golden ginkgo leaf on the top of the youth’s head, “Xiao Qu, you suit this very well, honestly.”
Qu Xueyu’s eyebrows twitched a little, but in the end, he did not remove the leaf. “Oh.” The teenager was in a better mood, and he didn’t want to spoil his fun.
He had caught a single golden leaf in his hand and was about to childishly place it on top of Lu Bai’s hair in revenge when he saw a figure emerge at the end of the path. Seeing him, Qu Xueyu’s eyes narrowed dangerously and subconsciously shielded the young man behind him.
“Lu Bai.” Qin Gu stared intently at the two holding each other’s hands. His heart felt like it was being gnawed by countless ants, and then he looked straight at Lu Bai with his reddened eyes and said through clenched teeth, “We need to talk.“
~~~~~~
On the v-blog, a post was quietly fermenting.
#Shocking exposé: A web drama appears to be the double of the movie star Qu!
#Noble son who loves movie emperor Qu has become obsessed with raising a stand-in – a clone of his very likeness!
The male lead of “The Immortal” felt that he had outdone himself this time. Not only did he create a flattering image of Emperor Qu, whom everyone sought out, but he also didn’t expose the young master of the Lu family, and he even provided the drama with a hot streak2In his opinion, he brought the drama a lot of attention. Getting it trending on this social media platform= Providing heat. More attention gives the topic a red color and most people associate red with warmth hence the jargon relating to heat or the opposite where they are cold/unpopular..
After the drama aired, that Ruan Jiangjiu guy would be torn to shreds by Film Emperor Qu’s fans and passersby-alike. Even if that young master of the Lu family were to speak up, the Lu family would hold him down, not letting him get into trouble for a canary who had already been exposed. What’s more, he did it especially subtly this time, no one would suspect him at all!
It was perfect, simply perfect. The male lead smiled from ear to ear, admiring his own wisdom.
“Is he stupid?” A small group of extras whispered surreptitiously to one another.
“Yeah-,” Another small actress smirked, “So stupid. He’s offended Movie Star Qu, offended Young Master Lu, and offended Mr. Lu! Mr. Lu already said that we’re not allowed to say anything about Movie Star Qu to the public right now.”
“He shouldn’t-” A small actress frowned sharply. “Even now, does he still think that Movie Emperor Qu is really just a stand-in for himself?”
It dawned on the young actress, “Maybe? But doesn’t he read the news? The fact that Movie Emperor Qu’s next role is called Ruan Jiangjiu has already been announced several times, right?”
The group of extras fell silent for a few seconds, “It turns out that there really is such a naive person in the circle.”
Edit: Krone
Proofread: Nitta
