QT: Don't fall in love with the Male Lead

When Xi Zirui goes back to the bedroom, Su Xueyi is waiting for him.

He wouldn't do something as obvious as sprawl invitingly, but he's sitting up above the covers with his back against the headboard reading something on a tablet - in his underwear.

Xi Zirui ignores him, and walks straight into the ensuite to brush his teeth and wash his face.

When he comes out, Su Xueyi has turned off his tablet and is looking at the bathroom door expectantly.

Once again, Xi Zirui ignores him, takes off his clothes, and slips into bed in his underwear.

"Goodnight," he says, before switching off the lamp on his nightstand.

He turns his back to Su Xueyi and makes himself comfortable to sleep.

Not five minutes later Su Xueyi spoons him under the sheets, unnecessarily gluing himself to his back in the massive bed. 

"You're going to sleep already?" he says, whispering the words into the shell of Xi Zirui's ear. "It's still early, maybe we could do something else."

The smokiness of his words and his vicious grip on Xi Zirui's waist make his intentions clear.

Xi Zirui can be clear too. "Didn't Cao Fei tire you out, today?"

Behind him, Su Xueyi goes very still. "What?"

"Or was it Luke the waiter?" Xi Zirui asks, unruffled. 

He doesn't turn around to meet Su Xueyi's eyes, but he can feel him squirming around in the sheets behind him. 

Good, let him squirm.

"I-I-...baby, it's not like tha-"

Xi Zirui cuts him off with a derisive chuckle. "Do you think I'm stupid?"

Su Xueyi falls silent. The most obvious answer would be 'yes', Xi Zirui doubts the original was particularly sharp, but Su Xueyi isn't likely to admit that.

"Of course not, darling," Su Xueyi coos and hugs Xi Zirui closer, nuzzling the back of his neck.

Xi Zirui finally turns around but only to push Su Xueyi away. "Then don't pretend you aren't fucking all kinds of different people behind my back."

Su Xueyi can't hold Xi Zirui's fiery gaze for long and ducks his head on the pillow. "Things haven't been good between us lately...and I...I've been weak."

Xi Zirui hums thoughtfully. "That's one word for it."

Without warning, Su Xueyi throws the cover off himself and comes around the bed to kneel by Xi Zirui's bedside.

"What can I do to fix it?" he says, taking Xi Zirui's hand from beneath the pillow and kissing his knuckles.

Taking his hand back with a swift movement, Xi Zirui, says, "You'll know how you can make it up to me when the time comes." 

Su Xueyi braces himself on the mattress to kiss Xi Zirui's brow but he flinches away from his lips. "Let me sleep before I change my mind."

Once Su Xueyi is tucked back in on his side of the bed Xi Zirui allows himself to sprawl leisurely across the cold sheets. It's a crime against humanity that only rich people can afford sheets like these.

After a prolonged beat of silence Su Xueyi interjects, "Goodnight darling."

Xi Zirui grunts,"Night."

Ni Ni pings. "Congratulations Host, CEO favor went up +2 points. Now at 35 of a possible 100 points."

He falls asleep with a pleased smile on his lips.

---

The next day he wakes up feeling well-rested, and very glad for the cold spot beside him on the bed.

After a quick shower, he gets dressed in some more of the original's gym clothes, and goes downstairs to meet Han Yu for their day out.

"Date," Ni Ni corrects.

"Ni Ni, fuck off," Xi Zirui says, smirking when his words cut her off on an inhale.

To his surprise, there's a lavish food spread waiting for him on the dining room table when he reaches the ground floor.

"Don't get too excited," Han Yu says, pouring soy milk into a porcelain bowl. "Your husband told me to have breakfast ready for you when you woke up."

Xi Zirui sits down at the head of the glass table and wonders how he's supposed to eat all this food. There's a selection of baozi, with sweet and savoury fillings, deep-fried glutinous rice cakes, millet porridge, pancakes, not to mention the inexplicable presence of croissants and macaroons.

The original might have enjoyed it, but Xi Zirui really doesn't have the taste for western food, especially this early in the morning, nor does he have the stomach for everything else.

"Eat with me," he says, pulling the chair closest to him backwards with his calf, and breaking open one of the baozi.

Han Yu smirks. "Are you sure? Your husband wouldn't like that."

Xi Zirui rolls his eyes. "He isn't here right now."

Han Yu sits down and crosses his arms over the tabletop. "He wasn't in my room yesterday, and you wouldn't even come in."

Xi Zirui takes a bite out of the bean paste filled baozi. "That's different."

"Why? What did you think I was offering?"

Xi Zirui levels him with an unimpressed look. "We're not going to fuck again."

"Why not?" Han Yu whines, in that familiar way that almost makes Xi Zirui crack a smile.

"You don't even like me, why do you care?" Xi Zirui retorts and shoves the last bite of baozi into Han Yu's open mouth.

While Han Yu sputters and swallows Xi Zirui gets up from the table, leaving most of the food untouched.

"Let's go, you have to keep me entertained today," Xi Zirui says, as he takes the remaining food back to the kitchen to put it away.

"You almost didn't eat," Han Yu complains, watching Xi Zirui patter around the kitchen from behind the marble counter. 

"How could I, all this food...," he shakes his head. "It's so wasteful that it spoiled my appetite." 

He wraps the pastries in wax-paper and stores them in the walk-in pantry. "I just hope nothing spoils before someone can eat them."

Han Yu crosses his arms in front of his chest, and cocks one hip against the counter. "Who are you and what have you done with Xi Zirui?"

Smirking, Xi Zirui bridges the distance between them with long strides and bumps his shoulder into Han Yu's. "I'm actually from a parallel universe and I'm taking over his life," he whispers, resting his cheek against Han Yu's.

Holding on to his shoulder, Han Yu leans down to whisper back into Xi Zirui's ear. "You know I find that easier to believe than that you stopped being a spoiled brat overnight."

Xi Zirui throws him a wink over the shoulder as he walks out of the kitchen. "Maybe I had a really good sleep."

---

Han Yu takes him to Shichahai. Obviously Xi Zirui has never been there before, but he doesn't know whether or not the original would know the area, so he tries to appear unfazed about it.

It's kind of hard to do when the view of the early morning sun glinting off the surface of the lakes makes his heart speed up.

As does the sight of the weeping willows lining the canal Han Yu walks him through.

Their drooping branches whistle softly in the quiet breeze, but Xi Zirui can't help feeling a phantom touch along his spine every time they sway ahead of him.

Is this another coincidence? Or does Han Yu like this place because of the lakes and the willow trees?

Does it remind him of the Fragrant Spring Winds pavilion?

He walks leisurely besides Xi Zirui, not at all affected by the sight of the stark reminders of the world Xi Zirui recently left in a brutal fashion.

"How's your mother doing?" Xi Zirui blurts out, completely unprompted. He's feeling, perhaps, a little insane.

Han Yu gives him a look like he shares that sentiment. "She's fine...Why do you care? It's not like you've ever asked before."

Maybe if this world's Han Yu had a similar backstory to the previous world's, Xi Zirui could squash this fruitless hope once and for all. 

Maybe if his dead mother also spent a lot of time by lakes and under the shade of weeping willows, Xi Zirui's blood pressure wouldn't be so severely compromised.

"What do you like about this place?" Xi Zirui asks, after a beat of awkward silence.

Han Yu hums thoughtfully and kicks at a pile of leaves in front of him. "I can't put my finger on it, I just know it's the first place in Beijing I truly felt at peace in, as if I'd finally found my home in the city. I come here whenever I need to escape for a little while." He points at one of the wooden benches overlooking the lake. "I like to sit there and look at the lake. I don't know why but it fills me with a sense of misplaced nostalgia. Like I miss someplace I've never been to, a life I've never lived..."

Smiling, he shakes his head. "Pretty silly, uh?"

The sun is shining through the tiny leaves of the willow trees and painting a kaleidoscope of light over Han Yu's face. It's as if the sun too is enamored by the chiseled perfection of his features, the upswept corners of his smiling eyes, the straight angle of his jaw and the graceful point of his chin.

Xi Zirui's heart seizes painfully. To think he once looked at that face and felt nothing at all.

"I don't think it's silly," he says, holding Han Yu's gaze intently, willing him to believe his words. "Sometimes I feel like I'm out of place too. Like my life isn't my own."

Han Yu's eyes widen. "That's it! That's exactly it."

He returns Xi Zirui's probing gaze with one of his own. "What do you think that's all about?"

Xi Zirui shrugs. "Our past lives pushing down on us? Begging to be remembered."

"I never took you for a poet, or a believer."

"I'm neither." Xi Zirui says, which is the truth as far as he can make sense of it. "But I don't know how else to make sense of it otherwise."

He can't spend too long thinking about all the implications of the Transmigrator 4000 before his mind ties into knots. Is he also these Xi Ziruis across the multiverse? Are they just different versions of himself, or completely different people?

Where does he end, and where do they begin?

If Han Yu has any recollection of his lives in the other worlds his confusion must be even greater. At least Xi Zirui knows what brought him here.

Without noticing, they've made their way deeper into the winding streets, some of the few in Beijing which aren't perfectly grid-like and into a bustling area filled with street food carts.

Xi Zirui's nose is assaulted by a mixture of scents and smells and his stomach grumbles, reminding him that he didn't eat all that much.

Han Yu gives him an exasperated look and pulls him by the sleeve towards the nearest stall.

He's already fishing out his mobile before Xi Zirui can open his mouth. "Choose something."

The food stall has a remarkable selection of savory snacks, but Xi Zirui's eyes are immediately drawn to the bright red candied hawthorn skewers, shining wetly under the wan sunlight.

The eagle-eyed vendor notices him staring and takes the reddest skewer out of the stand. "Laoban, your boyfriend wants one of these." 

"He's not m-"

But neither the vendor or Han Yu are paying him any attention. Han Yu scans the QR code the vendor shows him, and transfers the amount he tells him.

The vendor hands the skewer to Han Yu who then gives it to Xi Zirui.

He narrows his eyes at Han Yu's smug smirk while they make their way back to the lakes and the canals. "You didn't need to do that. I have money."

"Su Xueyi's money," Han Yu ripostes, the corner of his upper lip curling upwards. "This is our date, I don't want him involved."

An ominous chime sounds off. "Ni Ni was right, it is a date!"

Xi Zirui takes a huge bite of berry to mask his annoyance at her. 

Han Yu's eyes travel to Xi Zirui's lips and the sticky glaze of syrup now coating them. He swallows around nothing. "Good?"

It is just as sweet and tart as Xi Zirui hoped, but looking at the glazed off look clouding Han Yu's eyes, he knows there's something even sweeter he'd like to taste.

Suddenly, he can't find a single good reason why he should continue to deprive himself.

Holding the skewer with one hand, he wraps the other around Han Yu's neck and brings their faces together.

"You can have some," he whispers, his breath ghosting over Han Yu's bottom lip, before he bridges the distance between their mouths.

He was right, the candied hawthorn can't compare.