Chapter 77 – Standing Up
Bai Jinyan raised an eyebrow and leaned over, pressing him down as he said, “Then I’ll rehearse it once now.”
Qiao Huaiyao: “?!”
The two were so close that Qiao Huaiyao had nowhere to hide. His phone slipped from his hand, falling into the soft blanket as he was halfway through sending a message.
His slightly raised neck was graceful, the necklace chain draped lightly over it.
The pendant hung between his collarbones, intertwined with mottled kiss marks.
“Mm…” The irregular breathing caused a layer of mist to form in Qiao Huaiyao’s eyes. He grasped Bai Jinyan’s collar with his fingertips, curling up and climbing onto his shoulder.
His palm pressed against Bai Jinyan’s shoulder, as if to push him away, but he was too weak and ended up wrapping his arms around Bai Jinyan’s neck, deepening the kiss.
‘Buzz buzz’
‘Buzz buzz’
…
The phone that had fallen into the blanket vibrated wildly, vying for attention.
Bai Jinyan squinted, hugging Qiao Huaiyao in his arms. He let go of his moist, kissed lips and instead kissed his cheek lightly, then casually picked up the phone nearby.
As he handed over the phone, he glanced at the caller ID, his fingers pausing.
Qiao Huaiyao pursed his lips, not noticing the change in Bai Jinyan’s expression. He slowly calmed his breathing but, hearing the persistent vibration, asked softly, “Brother, whose call is it?”
Bai Jinyan didn’t answer directly. Instead, he turned the phone screen towards Qiao Huaiyao.
Seeing the familiar avatar on the screen.
Qiao Huaiyao: “…?”
Crap.
He had forgotten about the half-typed message still in the chatbox, which he hadn’t sent yet.
Perhaps because it showed ‘typing…’ for too long without any message being sent, his dad had directly called via video.
Bai Jinyan straightened out Qiao Huaiyao’s somewhat disheveled clothes to avoid accidentally appearing on camera and got up, saying, “I’ll go prepare breakfast first.”
Qiao Huaiyao nodded, “Mm.”
The video call continued to vibrate persistently.
Qiao Huaiyao cleared his throat softly, fearing that his voice might sound hoarse and give something away when he spoke.
After feeling more composed, he finally tapped to answer the call.
Once the video call connected, Qiao Hengfei appeared on the screen with a stern, expressionless face.
He looked very serious, almost fierce.
Seeing this, Qiao Huaiyao helplessly said, “Stop pretending.”
Qiao Hengfei snorted, “Such a big thing happened, and you didn’t tell the family. Not telling me is one thing, but you could have at least contacted the company, the secretary, anyone. If it weren’t for Bai Jinyan keeping an eye on things, the situation could have escalated further. You should really thank him properly.”
“Yes.” Qiao Huaiyao pursed his lips slightly, leaning against the headboard. He pulled the pillow next to him and placed it behind his back, taking the warm water from the bedside table to soothe his throat. He said lightly, “I have thanked him.”
Very sincerely thanked him.
Extremely, sincerely.
With the issue resolved, Qiao Hengfei didn’t want to dwell on it further.
Looking at his son on the screen, whom he hadn’t seen in a long time, he sighed and then moved closer to the camera, scrutinizing the screen with a frown, “What happened to your mouth?”
“Ah-hem!” Qiao Huaiyao choked a bit.
His hand shook, causing the full cup of warm water to spill slightly. As he was about to put the cup down to grab a tissue, a tissue had already been placed on the blanket.
Bai Jinyan casually wiped it up, gesturing for him to continue with the call.
Qiao Huaiyao glanced at Bai Jinyan and then unobtrusively retracted his gaze. He subconsciously pursed his lips and, after a moment of silence, explained, “…I had something spicy for breakfast.”
Qiao Hengfei nodded, “What did you eat? Why did you suddenly want something spicy in the morning? Was it very spicy?”
“Yes.” Qiao Huaiyao glanced at the figure not far away who was opening the lid on the table and barely suppressed a small smile, “Very spicy.”
Before his father could say anything further, Qiao Huaiyao blinked and straightened his expression, subtly changing the subject, “Dad, aren’t you busy with work today? It seems quite late over there.”
Qiao Hengfei replied matter-of-factly, “Busy, of course. Why? Is something wrong?”
There were still files and documents in front of him. If Qiao Huaiyao had any issues, he could set his work aside and help his son first.
“No,” Qiao Huaiyao put down the water cup. “Dad, you go ahead and get busy. Rest early when you’re done.”
All the time spent now would mean catching up late at night, and working late nights was very exhausting.
“Got it.” Qiao Hengfei saw him drinking water and picked up his tea cup. “I have a meeting later. Next time something happens, make sure to contact me right away. Don’t keep it from me. Always tell Dad immediately, understand?”
After the recent news on Weibo, everyone knew about Qiao Huaiyao’s relationship with Jiayao Group.
The likelihood of anyone trying to cause trouble was extremely low.
Qiao Huaiyao didn’t mention this and instead responded to Qiao Hengfei’s concern, saying, “Okay, I understand.”
After ending the video call, Qiao Huaiyao lifted the blanket. Although Bai Jinyan quickly brought tissues to wipe up, the water had still seeped into the blanket.
Luckily, this was a hotel.
Hotels generally consider customer needs and prepare two or more blankets for replacement.
The top floor had few visitors, so there was no need to call housekeeping to replace these. There were sealed blankets in the cabinet inside the room.
These were new blankets, compressed and stored after being covered with duvet covers.
They weren’t just single duvet inserts, and unlike many other hotels, the blankets here weren’t just sanitized and reused for the next guest.
Bai Jinyan took the wet blanket out to dry, while Qiao Huaiyao unpacked a new one, spreading it on the bed to let it expand on its own.
The work was all scheduled for the afternoon.
The time for visiting the laboratory hadn’t been set yet. If they couldn’t finalize it soon, today’s visit might not happen.
Leaking experimental content and data before it’s released is a major taboo unless it’s just a conceptual idea like predicting the reaction between two solutions, which could be discussed publicly.
Anything else was strictly off-limits.
The international laboratory side would likely be very strict during this period. The planned few days of visits might not go as scheduled.
It depended on how the school negotiated.
December in New York was very cold.
The temperature difference between inside and outside caused a layer of mist on the glass windows.
In such cold weather, Qiao Huaiyao didn’t want to go out.
Feeling sore and tired, he just wanted to rest in the hotel.
Bai Jinyan stayed with him, giving him a meticulous massage. After doing it frequently, his technique had become increasingly proficient.
The pressure was just right.
Qiao Huaiyao absentmindedly scrolled through the messages in the group chat. The teacher updated the group about the international laboratory’s matters roughly every half hour.
Any new information was promptly forwarded.
To prevent message interruptions, each update came with a note reminding everyone not to reply with [received] and to message the teacher privately if needed.
Bai Jinyan, hugging Qiao Huaiyao from behind, thought about the thick snow outside and asked, “Do you want to go play in the snow?”
There hadn’t been any snow at Qingda since winter began, and the snow here was thicker, different from the kind that melted soon after landing.
Looking out the window, the snow seemed quite thick.
It was unclear when it started snowing, but by morning, it had stopped. It must have been a heavy snowfall that lasted all night.
“No,” Qiao Huaiyao had no interest, lazily saying, “Let’s go tomorrow.”
The low temperature meant that the hotel usually spread something on the snow to make it melt faster.
They could notify the butler in advance to leave a section of snow untouched.
They could go out to play whenever they wanted.
Bai Jinyan chuckled, teasingly asking, “Can we go tomorrow?”
“Hmm?” Qiao Huaiyao thought for a moment, “We can go out.”
He analyzed seriously, “The laboratory visits have scheduled intervals. If we can’t visit today, we likely can’t visit tomorrow either. If we go today, the next visit will probably be in the afternoon.”
So, regardless of the visit, tomorrow’s schedule should be more relaxed.
Besides, he had already bought the experimental materials he wanted and wouldn’t stay long on the lab’s fifth floor.
A quick tour of the lab wouldn’t take long.
With ample time, they could come back and play in the garden snow.
Listening to this, Bai Jinyan nodded slowly, kissed Qiao Huaiyao’s earlobe, and whispered affectionately, “That’s not what I meant.”
Qiao Huaiyao was startled. Before he could ask what Bai Jinyan meant, he felt a hand on his waist…
His eyes widened suddenly, and he grabbed Bai Jinyan’s wrist, “No…”
“Brother, I can’t take it anymore,” Qiao Huaiyao said, pushing his hand aside as he tried to get up.
Bai Jinyan laughed and pulled him back, “I’m just teasing you. Still feeling uncomfortable? Let me put some ointment on you.”
Qiao Huaiyao fell back into his embrace, resting perfectly on Bai Jinyan’s arm. He said softly, “No need for ointment.”
Bai Jinyan had already applied it once when he woke up earlier.
Applying it again so soon might not have any effect. Hearing Qiao Huaiyao’s words, Bai Jinyan replied, “Alright, but let me know if you feel uncomfortable.”
Qiao Huaiyao nodded, nestling into his arms and playing with his phone.
He always completed his tasks in the super topic forum on time, and with his frequent spending, his posts in the super topic were highlighted in gold.
However, apart from completing tasks by randomly posting punctuation marks, he didn’t say much else.
Due to his high level, his account often received comments while he was completing tasks.
Compared to the sparse messages on his secondary account, the activity on his main account was unprecedentedly high.
Previously, those who followed Qiao Huaiyao’s Weibo were mainly classmates and teachers from the same major, as well as fans of Bai Jinyan and viewers of the variety show.
Now, the range of followers had broadened.
Various notifications constantly maxed out at 99+.
The comments under his Weibo were bustling.
Many people started checking in from the early hours of domestic time.
[With a mighty roar, the loyal servant makes a dazzling entrance!]
[Young master, could you please take a picture of the servant’s quarters in the villa? I want to see where I’ll be living in the future.]
[Why are you so low-key, young master? I almost missed you.]
[Woo woo woo, the variety show is online. When I clicked on it, I couldn’t help but marvel: How did I get so lucky to see the young master of Jiayao Group on a variety show?]
[Qiao Huaiyao: Tsinghua University genius, rising star of the chemistry department, the only designated heir of Jiayao Group. Me: Fully functioning limbs, just bought a meat bun for breakfast with cash, the future looks bright!]
[I just saw that dog marketing account apologize with a new account. As soon as I clicked on the comments, the Weibo post disappeared, haha… serves them right, hitting a brick wall!]
[Exactly, how many new rookies have been ridiculed by him all over the internet? Those without power or influence couldn’t fight back. Now, he can’t even keep up a video of him crying and apologizing for more than two seconds.]
…
Each comment had a high number of likes and replies.
As he scrolled down, the page started to lag and slow down.
It could be that the server was overloaded; just opening the comments section made it incredibly slow.
Qiao Huaiyao paused for a moment, stopped scrolling, and switched back to the homepage to post a Weibo update.
He had taken many photos of the necklace he was wearing.
Qiao Huaiyao browsed through the photos, chose one of the necklace in its original box, and posted it.
Qiao Huaiyao V: [Good afternoon.]
Fans eagerly flocked to the comment section.
[Good afternoon, young master! I’ve cleared out the golf course, waiting for your visit.]
[The necklace looks amazing! But the color is hard to pull off; you need very fair skin to make it look good. Otherwise, it’s a disaster.]
[@BaiJinyan, what are you doing? Hurry up and greet the young master!]