The Night Before He Left… I Realized He Might Die

Xie Zhaozhou was stunned for a moment.

His dark eyes were thick as the night.
A mischievous look in them, he asked,
“Where?”

Ning Shixue was dizzy.
His fingers were weak.
He held Xie Zhaozhou’s hand and placed it over his own heart.
The heartbeat beneath his palm was weak, yet burning hot enough to be scary.

Xie Zhaozhou’s breath hitched.
He ground his teeth.
He almost suspected Ning Shixue was doing it on purpose.
But Ning Shixue’s face was bright red with embarrassment.
His eyelashes were wet, sticking together in a few strands.
His eyes were full of moisture.
No one looked more innocent than him.

Ning Shixue paid the price.
Xie Zhaozhou held him and pressed him for an answer, asking where his hand should be.
His tears were forced out.
Xie Zhaozhou lowered his head and kissed his tearful eyes.
But he still didn’t let him off.

“Baby,”
Xie Zhaozhou’s voice was gentle, a stark contrast to his rough, overbearing kisses.
He held him by the throat and bullied him.
“If you don’t tell me, how will I know?”

Ning Shixue’s tears flowed freely.
His whole body trembled.
He brokenly wrapped his arms around Xie Zhaozhou’s neck and tilted his head up to kiss him.

He didn’t let Xie Zhaozhou leave.
If Xie Zhaozhou tried to dodge, he would chase after him.
His lips were soft and burning.
He pressed against Xie Zhaozhou’s lips, licking and biting.
Not until his whole face was red, he couldn’t breathe, and his heart started to ache did he let go, dazed, staring at Xie Zhaozhou.

Xie Zhaozhou thought to himself that he had gone too far again.
But whenever he saw Ning Shixue, he couldn’t control being wicked.

And Ning Shixue indulged him.

Xie Zhaozhou picked him up and carried him to the bathroom.
He simply went all the way.
Ning Shixue was so weak he was like water, ready to be cupped and drunk.
He didn’t even have the strength to resist.

…

It wasn’t until two or three hours later that the sound of water started in the bathroom.

Xie Zhaozhou whispered countless wicked things in his ear.
Ning Shixue almost choked.
Finally, unable to bear the shame, he raised his hand and covered his mouth.

Xie Zhaozhou smoothly hugged him.
He rinsed them both off.
Then he picked him up and carried him to another bedroom.

It was late at night.
The old butler was asleep.
But Ning Shixue was still nervous, afraid of being discovered.
He buried his face in Xie Zhaozhou’s chest and said, muffled,
“Why not sleep in your bedroom?”

“That works too,”
Xie Zhaozhou said, his dark phoenix eyes curving.
His voice was low as he chuckled.
“Should I go change the sheets now?”

Ning Shixue’s face suddenly flushed.

Xie Zhaozhou pushed open the bedroom door and put him on the bed.
He firmly tucked him in.
But his eyes were still on Ning Shixue’s flushed face.
His thin lips curved as he said,
“The sheets are soaked through. Does Teacher Xiao Ning miss me that much?”

Ning Shixue was so embarrassed he wanted to cry.
He grabbed the little bear Xie Yaoyao had put by the bedside and viciously hit Xie Zhaozhou a few times.

Xie Zhaozhou hugged both him and the bear.
He lowered his head and kissed his cheek.
Ning Shixue kicked him a few more times under the covers.
He didn’t stop until his own feet hurt.

Xie Zhaozhou’s flight was at 6 AM.
He could still spend another hour with him.

Ning Shixue was so sleepy he could barely open his eyes.
But he didn’t really want to sleep.
Hugging the bear, he burrowed into Xie Zhaozhou’s arms and asked him,
“Second Brother, why are you going abroad?”

“Company business,”
Xie Zhaozhou explained.

Old Master Xie waking up wasn’t all good for Xie Zhaozhou.
If he had immediately become energetic and could take over the company again, Xie Zhaozhou could have breathed a sigh of relief.

But he hadn’t fully recovered.
He would be unconscious for a few days, then awake for a few hours.
He couldn’t even lift his eyelids or speak.

This gave people like Cheng Zhang an opportunity.

The problems with the overseas cargo ships had already started the internal factional struggles within the Xie Group again.
Before his death, Xie’s father had left a will, giving all his property, including his shares, to Xie Hanzhou.

Other high-level executives in the company, several of Old Master Xie’s brothers, and their children had long wished for Xie Zhaozhou’s downfall.

Xie Zhaozhou was now the target of everyone.
But he couldn’t leave the position of President of the Xie Group.
Otherwise, all his efforts would be wasted.

Too many people were trying to trip him up.
Problems kept arising in the company.
Even several overseas branches were having internal strife.
Xie Zhaozhou had no choice but to go abroad.

Ning Shixue’s lips moved.
He stared at Xie Zhaozhou’s handsome, sharp features.
His heart felt heavy, and he couldn’t breathe.

Xie Zhaozhou was still on the path of the original story.

Now, there were less than three months until the original story’s ending.
In the original, Xie Zhaozhou died this winter.

Xie Zhaozhou had been pinching the bear’s ear and rubbing it against Ning Shixue’s face.
He suddenly noticed Ning Shixue’s expression wasn’t right.
He asked quietly,
“What’s wrong, Ningning?”

“Nothing,”
Ning Shixue said, dodging because it tickled.
He asked, muffled,
“Second Brother, don’t you think there’s something wrong with Xie Xiangshan’s death?”

Ning Shixue still couldn’t figure it out.

Xie Zhaozhou and Xie’s father weren’t close, so he hadn’t taken care of him.
After Xie’s father was hospitalized, it was Xie Mengyuan and Xie Hanzhou who took care of him.
But they hadn’t been able to stop Jiang Xin.

The night of the Xie family fire, when the police arrived at the hospital, they had told Xie Mengyuan about their suspicions regarding Jiang Zhan and Jiang Xin.
They said they might have killed Xie Sui out of hatred for Xie’s father.

Shouldn’t Xie Hanzhou and the others have been very vigilant?

Wasn’t it hard not to suspect it was on purpose?

Ning Shixue thought Xie Hanzhou probably didn’t care enough about Xie’s father and was a bit stupid.
But what about Xie Mengyuan?

He had only met Xie Mengyuan a few times.
He was like a peacemaker, not participating in any factional struggles in the Xie Group.
Whoever was the head of the family, he followed.
And he had a good relationship with everyone.

Even if he really wanted Xie’s father dead, this method was too crude.
It would be easy to be suspected.

But he still felt Xie’s father’s death was very suspicious.

Ning Shixue was really too tired.
He was so sleepy he could barely lift his head.
Xie Zhaozhou’s eyes were dark.
In the end, he didn’t say anything either.
He held him in his arms and said quietly,
“Go to sleep.”

Xie Zhaozhou waited until he was asleep before getting up and leaving.
He got in the car in the pitch-black night.
Song Li had just arrived too.

His brow bone was deep, making his eyes look full of gloom.
He rested for a while with his eyes closed in the car.
Then he spoke to Song Li.
“First go to the film and television city.”

Every time He Lin made a movie, he stayed on set day and night.
It was already late at night.
When Xie Zhaozhou arrived, he was still reviewing footage.

“What are you doing here?”
He Lin asked, startled, a cigarette dangling from his lips.

He Lin had also attended Xie’s father’s funeral.
He had seen the faces of the Xie family.
He thought Xie Zhaozhou would be so busy he’d be nowhere to be found.

Xie Zhaozhou also lit a cigarette.
His dark features were shrouded in smoke.
He said quietly,
“I have to leave for a while. Look after him for me.”

“You don’t even have to ask,”
He Lin said, offering him a light.

What Ning Shixue had asked him about, Xie Zhaozhou had also thought about.
But he couldn’t be completely honest with Ning Shixue.
He had the blood of the Xie family in him.
He was just as vicious as them.

It was normal for Xie Hanzhou to suspect him.
He knew him well enough to suspect him.

He had indeed thought about using Jiang Xin’s hand to get rid of Xie’s father.

The night of the incident, when Jiang Xin stared at Ning Shixue for a few seconds at the hospital, that thought had suddenly appeared in his mind.

He didn’t care whether Xie’s father lived or died.
But if Xie’s father didn’t die, and the police couldn’t find enough evidence to arrest them, or if they were released from prison later, Jiang Xin and her brother would still be eyeing the Xie family.

They could kill Xie Sui.
They could kill Ning Shixue too.
And Ning Shixue looked weak and sickly.

He would be an easy target.

Xie Zhaozhou had thought about it.
If he just sent people to guard Xie’s father’s room, and then had them relax for a few minutes, Jiang Xin would seize the opportunity to go to Xie’s father.
Whether she poisoned him or strangled him, Xie Xiangshan would die for sure.

Even if the police suspected him, they would have no evidence.
Unless all his trusted men turned against him and reported him.

Liao Yanwan was already crazy.
With Xie’s father dead, she would completely collapse.
She would have to spend the rest of her life in a sanatorium.

She wouldn’t be able to fight him for custody of Xie Yaoyao anymore.

He had promised Ning Shixue that he belonged to him, and Xie Yaoyao belonged to him too.

But in the end, Xie Zhaozhou hadn’t done it.
He had left the matter to Xie Mengyuan.
The person he loved was the moon in the sky, a fallen star, the purest snow in this world.
If his hands were stained with blood, he couldn’t hold him anymore.

He wasn’t as good as Ning Shixue thought he was.
He didn’t even know why Ning Shixue liked him.

But Xie’s father’s death was indeed suspicious.
Xie Zhaozhou didn’t think it was a coincidence either.
Old Master Xie had just opened his eyes, and Xie’s father suddenly died.
It was so rushed, it seemed like silencing a witness.

Xie Zhaozhou always suspected someone was secretly manipulating things.
Maybe this person didn’t want Xie’s father and Old Master Xie to meet.

Xie Zhaozhou lowered his eyes.
The cigarette in his hand burned out.
He didn’t say any more to He Lin.
He left the set directly.

Ning Shixue had been tossed around for most of the night.

He regretted it now.
He didn’t need to find a boyfriend with zero experience like this.
Who knew what someone who had been holding back could do?

He slept like the dead.
When he finally woke up, a chubby little face was abruptly in front of him.

Xie Yaoyao was lying on his pillow.
The soft hair on his head was aggrievedly sticking up.
When he saw Ning Shixue open his eyes, he leaned over and grumbled,
“Baby, bad bad!”

Last night, they had agreed to sleep together.
But when he woke up, the baby was gone.
Why was it like this?

He had gone to ask the butler grandpa.
Even the butler grandpa didn’t know.
He thought the baby had been taken by the little black pig.
He called Big Daddy, wanting to fly a spaceship to save the baby.
Only then did Big Daddy tell him the baby was sleeping in another bedroom.

Ning Shixue guiltily rubbed his face against his.

Xie Yaoyao grabbed the little bear from the bedside.
The baby fat on his face puffed out.
How could the baby sleep with this little bear instead of him?
He didn’t even want to be friends with the little bear anymore.

But when he lowered his head and tugged at the bear’s ear, he suddenly noticed the back of the bear was a bit open, with some cotton showing.

“The bear is sick,”
Xie Yaoyao the Great Demon King said, tears streaming down his face.
He looked like he couldn’t bear the weight of life.
He crawled forward on all fours and collapsed into the baby’s arms.

Ning Shixue was confused.
He took it and looked.
He was instantly filled with guilt.

This must have happened last night when he picked up the bear to hit Xie Zhaozhou.
He was angry, but he couldn’t bear to really hit Xie Zhaozhou.
So he grabbed a soft bear.

“Sorry, I’ll sew it up for you,”
Ning Shixue said, proactively admitting his mistake.
“Or I’ll buy you a new one?”

Xie Yaoyao decided to let the baby sew it up for him.

Ning Shixue asked the old butler for a needle and thread and planned to perform surgery on the bear.

Xie Yaoyao lay on his lap, scratched his cheek, and asked blankly,
“Baby, why you fight with Big Daddy?”

“…”
The tips of Ning Shixue’s ears warmed.
It was hard to explain.
He could only say,
“Adults just have a lot of fights.”

Xie Yaoyao propped his chubby face in his hands and sighed.
It wasn’t just adults.
He had a lot of fights in kindergarten too.

Ning Shixue’s sewing wasn’t very good.
You could see the crooked stitches.
But Xie Yaoyao didn’t mind.
From now on, this bear was the one the baby had sewn for him.

Ning Shixue and Xie Yaoyao went downstairs for breakfast.
Then he held Xie Yaoyao and slept for a while.
When he woke up, he went to the set.

That night, Xie Yaoyao had a sick scene.
Wen Yu didn’t have much money.
He rented a broken-down single-story house for them.
It rained and leaked at night.
It was too cold.
Both children started to have fevers.
Mengmeng, played by Xie Yaoyao, had a fever, his little face flushed red.

Then Wen Yu hurriedly took them to the hospital.
This one trip cost him a month’s wages.

When Ning Shixue and Xie Yaoyao arrived at the set, He Miao was already there.
She already had her pigtails done and had changed into dirty little pants.
For the sick scene, she had makeup on.
Now she looked like she had a fever, her eyelids red, her face pale.

Tonight’s scene would be very tiring for Ning Shixue.
He had to run around carrying them.
She and Xie Yaoyao barely had to do anything.
They just had to lie listlessly in Ning Shixue’s arms.

Xie Yaoyao’s chubby little face was very serious.
His little hands were clasped in front of him, waiting for the makeup姐姐 to do his makeup.

The makeup sister couldn’t help smiling and teased him,
“So well-behaved?”

Ning Shixue also noticed that as soon as Xie Yaoyao got to the set, he became a different kid.
For some reason, he was especially well-behaved.

Xie Yaoyao nervously raised his little hand and shushed them.
He even anxiously said to the sister,
“Sister, hurry up, draw my face.”

Xie Yaoyao also got the same feverish makeup as He Miao.

“All departments ready!”
He Lin called out.

Late at night, Wen Yu held Xiaoyan’er’s hand and carried Mengmeng in his arms as they rushed to the hospital.
He didn’t even have an ID.
Taking two children with him made people suspicious.
But luckily, checks weren’t so strict back then.
The nurses quickly started IVs for the two children.

The hospital corridor lights were dim.
He lowered his head and counted his remaining money.
Xiaoyan’er’s eyes were full of tears as she lay on his shoulder and called him softly,
“Gege.”

She knew Wen Yu had a hard time earning money.
She and younger brother also picked up bottles to sell.
But now that they were sick, all the money was gone.

Wen Yu, however, curved his eyes.
He was already sick now.
His skin was paler than a normal person’s.
But he didn’t know it himself.

He lowered his head and said in a surprised tone,
“Gege didn’t know we still had so much money until he counted.”

None of them had gone to school.
Mengmeng was also illiterate.
His eyes were blank as he asked,
“Is this a lot of money?”

“A whole lot,”
Wen Yu said, holding the last fifty-something yuan.
He said it very firmly.

“Cut!”
The script supervisor clapped the slate.

After this scene was filmed, it was already past nine.
Ning Shixue was tired from carrying Xie Yaoyao and the others, his arms sore.
He slumped in a chair.
Xie Yaoyao and He Miao were next to him, massaging his arms.

He Lin took a photo of them.

There was still one last scene that night.
It was Wen Yu taking them back from the hospital.
He put basins under all the leaks.
It was still raining late at night.
Wen Yu held the two little ones and read a book under the lamplight.

Wen Yu thought he couldn’t earn money because he couldn’t read.
If he could write a few words, he could help out in a shop.
So he really wanted to learn.

But he had no money for school.
He could only use an old phone to listen to lectures on the radio.

While Ning Shixue was memorizing his lines, something stirred in his heart.
He had died at eighteen in his last life.
Then he was dragged into the instance.

He had never been to college.

He had originally wanted to slack off in this life.
Just survive a few days.
If it didn’t work out, he would just die.
But he suddenly had a family now.
He didn’t want to die anymore.
He wanted to live a few more years.

He also kind of wanted to go to school.

Ning Shixue searched for Xie Zhaozhou’s school.
He Lin said he was his senior martial brother.
He had thought Xie Zhaozhou also graduated from the Yan City Film Academy.
He hadn’t expected it to be different.

Xie Zhaozhou studied finance at Yan City University.

He must have learned filmmaking from Elder He.
That’s why He Lin said he was his senior martial brother.

Yan City University was one of the top universities in the country.
When Ning Shixue checked the cutoff score, he started to shrink back.

Bastard.

Why did he have to study so well???

But Ning Shixue was also a bit unwilling.
Tang He-an was filming next door on their set.
That night, Yan Ting brought Tang Haohao to visit.
Tang Haohao came to play with Xie Yaoyao and the others.
Yan Ting also came over.
Ning Shixue couldn’t help going to ask him.

Yan Ting was a professor at Yan City University.
He wanted to know if he had any chance of getting into Yan City University.

“I’ll give you a test paper,”
Yan Ting said, very supportive of him going to school.
“Do it first, and let me see.”

Tang He-an hadn’t been to college either.
He only went after marrying Yan Ting.
But he didn’t get into Yan City University.
He tried for two years and couldn’t do it.
Yan Ting only then let him apply to the Yan City Film Academy.

Ning Shixue lowered his head and worked on the problems.
Xie Yaoyao and He Miao were very pleased.
The baby was finally going to school.

Xie Yaoyao had watched a family drama with the butler grandpa.
He imitated the mom in the show.
He wobbled over and placed a glass of water beside Ning Shixue’s hand.
Maturely, he said,
“Rest a while before studying.”

Ning Shixue: “…”

Help, he was already nervous.
Why were so many people surrounding him?

Ning Shixue decided to turn his back and do the paper.

He finally finished.
When he handed it to Yan Ting, he inexplicably felt like an elementary school student facing his teacher.

“…”
Yan Ting looked down at it.
He hesitated, then couldn’t help rubbing the bridge of his nose.

Tang He-an’s foundation had been very poor.
Ning Shixue’s… was so bad it made him feel like Ning Shixue was an alien.

If it were anyone else, he would have coldly said, “Drop out.”

But facing Ning Shixue, Yan Ting paused and softened his tone.
“I’ll send you a reading list. Study from that first.”

Ning Shixue obediently agreed.

While they were doing the paper, Tang He-an also came over.
He was filming another police thriller and was wearing a police uniform.

Xie Yaoyao the Great Demon King instantly hugged the baby’s leg.

It was this police uncle again.

He saw the police uncle on the set every night.
The police uncle stared at him like he knew him well.
He would call him over with a dark face.

He had been good during filming every night.
He hadn’t just eaten meat in kindergarten and skipped vegetables.
He hadn’t even dreamed about fighting little monsters.

Why did the police uncle want to arrest him?

Xie Yaoyao was so scared.
Not only did the police uncle not leave, he even walked towards them.

Tang He-an was rough around the edges anyway.
Filming for the past half month had made his skin even darker.
He looked fierce and scary.

He felt he was already pretty familiar with Ning Shixue.
So he reached out to pat Ning Shixue’s shoulder.

Xie Yaoyao finally broke down.
Tears welled up in his eyes.
Before Tang He-an could pat Ning Shixue’s shoulder, he suddenly spread his chubby little arms and stood in front of Ning Shixue.

His baby was very good.

“Police uncle,”
Xie Yaoyao the Great Demon King said in his milky voice.
“If you want to arrest someone, arrest me!”

Wuwuwu, help.

He was going to be taken away by the police uncle.