Dare to Take Me as a Stand-in? Are You Worthy?

The young man stood behind Xie Qing, looking at him with narrowed eyes. Rainwater that dripped from his hair fell on his shoulders, making a wet spot. It made the young man feel as if he could possibly see the porcelain white skin of the person in front of him through the thin fabric.

During their silence, the little black cat seemed to realize that it was safe and jumped out of the young man’s arms with a small whimper. It grabbed onto Xie Qing’s shoulders with its two paws and struggled to climb onto Xie Qing’s head.

After sitting down, it shifted its body around, as if trying to make itself comfortable in a nest.

Feeling the kitten weighing close to nothing as it layed on top of his head, Xie Qing blinked in confusion and reflexively reached out to touch the black kitten. However, his fingertips instead touched a piece of cold and delicate skin. He turned his head and saw that the young man was raising his hand, as if he wanted to take the kitten off his head.

Startled by them, the little black cat immediately returned to the young man’s palm obediently.

The young man raised his eyes.

His appearance was beautiful and his peach blossom eyes rippled when he blinked and smiled at Xie Qing. When the other person’s pale lips hooked up, Xie Qing felt as if there were flowers blooming.

This person’s appearance was indeed a bit too beautiful.

“Berry is a bit naughty, normally he’s also a bit sticky.”

“Berry?” Xie Qing’s eyes quickly shifted from the young man’s face to the little black cat with no expression on his face. His fingers gently caressed the kitten’s small head. The smooth and shiny fur of the kitten was enough to show that its owner really groomed it very carefully.

Coincidentally, the kitten that he and Wen Xu raised before in the other world was also called Berry.

The pair of brothers at that time were broad minded. When they picked up that little kitten, it howled at them. Later when they went up to the mountains, the little black kitten would also follow secretly, looking for bright red berries in the bushes to eat.

From that day on, Xiao Hei1 was named Berry.

“What about you? What’s your name?” Xie Qing asked him.

“Qi Huaiyu.” The young man said, “The Huai of the Huai River and the Yu of Jade.”

“My name is Xie Qing.”

Xie Qing led Qi Huaiyu to the sofa and turned around towards his room to get some clean clothes. Previously, there were a lot of messy clothes of different styles in his closet, all of which were prepared by Yu Kaize and the others for him under the delusion that every aspect of him must be the same as that of Xie Ling. After he came back, he had thrown away those things and now when he opened the closet, there were only a few old shirts.

Xie Qing, “…”

So why on earth did he even bring another person back home?

With a headache, he picked up a piece of clothing and a pair of trousers and went back to the living room. However, Xie Qing found that Qi Huaiyu was still standing. The latter was a head taller than him and Xie Qing wasn’t sure if he could fit in his clothes.

He thought about this and asked casually, “Why haven’t you sat down?”

“The sofa will get wet.”

Xie Qing froze for a moment as his thin lips curled up. Thinking to himself that although the both of them were pitiful, this kid was a bit better than his former apprentice. He handed the clothes to Qi Huaiyu and said, “It’s fine. These are the clothes I usually wear. I don’t know if you can fit in them. Go take a shower first so you don’t catch a cold.”

“Okay.” When Qi Huaiyu turned around, he seemingly hummed in a low voice. The sound was not loud, but it could easily be heard by Xie Qing, making him turn his eyes back to him just when he started paying attention to Berry.

When his eyes landed on the faint red on the young man’s shoulder, Xie Qing stretched out a hand to touch Qi Huaiyu.

“What’s wrong with your shoulder?”

The questioning tone was almost inaudible and all Qi Huaiyu could feel was the warm touch of Xie Qing’s hand. His fingertips were itchy as he took great lengths to hold himself back from touching Xie Qing’s hand.

The tip of his tongue unconsciously licked his canine teeth. With his back turned to Xie Qing, the latter was unable to see his eyes that were full of deep and invisible desire that flashed for a moment but soon disappeared in the blink of an eye. When he turned his head to look over, his eyes were clear, even his smile was a little shy, “I went out in a hurry and was accidentally scratched by a car on the road.”

“Then you——”

“There’s no problem. I’ll go change my clothes first.”

Qi Huaiyu leaned back against the door panel as he unbuttoned his shirt buttons one by one, revealing his clear skin. He stood under the shower as warm water slid down his face. Shower gel came into contact with the stab wound on his back, bringing stinging bursts of pain. Qi Huaiyu didn’t care, he just stretched out his hand to rub it vigorously.

The wound that had been washed white by the water became even more bloody and terrifying.

After he finished taking a shower, he dried himself off with a clean towel and changed into the clothes that Xie Qing had given him. Xie Qing’s clothes looked short and small on him. Although he himself looked very thin, his thinness was completely different from Xie Qing’s. He buttoned one or two buttons on the shirt haphazardly and wore the pyjama pants that only went down to above his ankles.

As soon as Qi Huaiyu came out of the bathroom, Berry ran to his feet and sniffed him back and forth carefully. Berry seemed shocked to find that the smell of its owner was exactly the same as the smell of that big brother who was playing with him just now.

Qi Huaiyu bent down to pick up the cat and walked to Xie Qing’s side. The wound on his shoulder looked faintly red and Xie Qing had obviously prepared a medicine kit for him. Looking at the quiet youth hugging a cat, he softly said, “Take off your shirt, I’ll help you disinfect and bandage your wound.”

The young man was very obedient.

Looking very much like a docile little puppy.

His exposed shoulders were fair and the scratch marks around his wound were particularly glaring. A large area around the wound looked purple and there were even tender bits of flesh exposed in more severe places.

Xie Qing took a look at it and frowned.

Most boys are rough and don’t really care about these kinds of wounds at all. Xie Qing paused for two seconds and couldn’t help recalling the unusual behaviour of his little apprentice in his mind. In the world of cultivation, injuries were quite common, especially for youths who only wanted to improve themselves at a young age.

He would have been bitten by a wolf in the mountains one day and the next day, he would go down the mountains to fight malicious spirits.

But Xie Qing never saw him show any weakness towards anything. If it weren’t for the fact that Xie Qing discovered it by accident one day, he never would have expected a child to have so many wounds.

Iodine rubbed on the wound, causing bursts of stinging pain. However, the young man in front of him didn’t respond at all. Xie Qing couldn’t help but lower his eyes to look at Qi Huaiyu’s hand that was on the sofa. His five fingers were clenched into a fist with visible force.

Xie Qing couldn’t hold back a laugh.

Qi Huaiyu froze and turned to look at him. His long and narrow peach blossom eyes were as clean and clear as a lake in a forest. But it looked sad and with a bit of imperceptible anger.

Hm.

Boys at this age are very thin-skinned. They would be embarrassed if they were seen through2.

Why was it exactly the same as his little apprentice?

However, his family’s apprentice was just 16 years old at that time.

Habitually as before, after applying medicine, he stretched out his hand to pat the youth on the head. When he met the young man’s eyes, Xie Qing suddenly realized that something was wrong.

“I’m sorry, it’s a habit.”

Qi Huaiyu didn’t feel offended by his actions. One person and one cat obediently blinked their dark and beautiful eyes at Xie Qing as the person asked curiously, “Ge, did you often pat other people’s heads before?”

“Not very often. I used to have a … little brother.”

Xie Qing put the medicine box back in its original position and went to the window to pull on the curtains. The rain hadn’t stopped and it was still raging on unscrupulously in the middle of the night. When it blew towards the window with a clatter, lightning could be seen in the distant sky as the area lit up in an instant.

It was unknown when Qi Huaiyu stood behind him. Through the light, two shadows could be seen, one tall and one short. They seem to be close to each other, embracing in an ambiguous and intimate posture. Xie Qing didn’t notice this. Only the young man behind him tilted his head slightly and raised his fingers, as if he was covering the hand of the person in front of him.

“Ge, can I leave Berry with you tonight? I’ll go find a hotel. I’ll check out some nearby rental places during the day and I’ll bring back Berry by then.”

Berry meowed softly, as if in response to Qi Huaiyu’s words.

Xie Qing looked at Berry that had been wandering around his feet and his heart felt so soft as if it was melting into a pool of spring water. He leaned down and picked up Berry, letting it see the lightning and thunder outside the window. Holding the soft paws of Berry, he made a mark on the window and the smile in his eyes didn’t fade.

“It’s too late. If you don’t mind, you can sleep on the sofa in the living room. Don’t worry, the door to my room will be locked and there’s 24-hour surveillance in the house.”

Xie Qing paused and pointed towards the direction of the gate, “There is also surveillance outside the gate.”

…

It was already late at night, the wind and rain coming from outside the window seemed to have gradually ceased. Xie Qing who slept in the bedroom fell into a peaceful sleep and had a rare dream. The scene of the dream was the Baiyu Peak of the Chaoyun Sect. Baiyu Peak was located in the most remote place of the Chaoyun Sect and was usually quiet and uninhabited. After Xie Qing joined the Chaoyun Sect as the sect leader’s student, Baiyu Peak became his residence.

The moon and stars couldn’t be seen clearly that night and there was an occasional breeze blowing. Xie Qing walked all the way back to his residence in the dark night with a teenage child in his arms. The strong wind and rain at the foot of the mountain caused branches to bend and break. When Xie Qing passed by, he happened to spot a child trying to cover his own body with a pile of branches and leaves, as if he wanted to use them to resist the violent wind and rain.

Xie Qing watched his actions for a quarter of an hour and finally picked the child up and returned to Baiyu Peak.

The child slept for a day and night. The scorching temperature coming from him made him murmur while he was in a coma. Xie Qing served him like a parent all night. The head of the sect came the next day out of curiosity.

In the sect leader’s impression, his student was not a troublesome person. Normally, when he’s asked to select a disciple from the sect, it would be exchanged with the words, ‘I don’t want to accept any disciples’.

Who would have thought that he would take the initiative to bring a child back in the end.

The child woke up in the evening of the second day. At that time, the sky had turned red and was cloudy as dusk approached. Xie Qing had been standing by the bed for less than a quarter of an hour when he heard a small sound from the child as his eyelashes trembled and his eyes slowly opened.

The moment their eyes met, Xie Qing suddenly woke up from his dream.

The weather outside the window had changed from yesterday and the sun shone brightly. Xie Qing sat on the bed for a few minutes, feeling dizzy. He then remembered that there was still a pitiful person at home, so he quickly washed himself and opened the door.

The living room was quiet, and only the sound of Berry’s soft meowing could be heard from the sofa.

At the same time, a young man came out of the kitchen with a bowl of porridge in his hand. When he noticed Xie Qing, his eyes lit up and he even quickened his steps a little, “You’re awake. I’ve made some porridge. Come and eat.”

Xie Qing thought that this kid was not bad.

A minute later, he sat at the dining table, taking a spoonful of porridge.

The liquid splashed.

Xie Qing was silent for two seconds as he then asked, “Did you learn (cooking) from your school cafeteria?” 

1

the cat was probs nicknamed Xiao Hei at first

2

their front of a tough guy