BPDSB Chapter 45: So it turns out Mr. Qin has such a rich imagination.

Xu Xiliu stood at the bedroom doorway and noticed a flash of fabric disappearing by the stairs.
He recognized that corner of clothing as belonging to the butler. In the short time he had gone to the man’s room to fetch the medicine, the butler had briefly come upstairs and then left again. Even his retreating figure had looked hurried, as if he were rushing off to handle something.

Xu Xiliu found it a little strange.

But he did nothing about it. After pausing for a moment, he returned to the study.

Inside the study, after Qin Li had instructed the butler to take the medicine out for testing, he had maintained a cold sneer, his gaze gloomy and vicious, his mind already picturing the scene of the test results coming out and the young man looking at them in shock, pale and pitiful. It was only when footsteps sounded again at the study entrance that he suddenly realized he was supposed to be pretending to be ill, and so he swiftly reverted to that same weak state, as if tormented by a splitting headache.

Thus, when Xu Xiliu came back, he saw the man once again sitting on the floor, one long leg propped up, one hand bracing his head, his handsome face twisted into an especially painful expression.

He paused briefly before walking over and handing the medicine and water to him.

Then he said softly, “Mr. Qin, I’ve brought the medicine. You should take it quickly.”

Qin Li’s body was perfectly fine. Since he was not having an episode, he naturally did not have a headache. The only reason he had claimed he needed medicine was to use it as a pretext to divert the young man so he could send the pills out. How could he actually take them? But now the medicine had been placed directly into his hands, and the young man was squatting in front of him, looking at him with a face full of concern, making Qin Li feel an unprecedented sense of being stuck between advancing and retreating.

But there was no way he could take the medicine. He had no problem at all right now.

Qin Li lifted the dazed gaze he was pretending to have and met the young man’s eyes, only to see him blink once. Immediately after, words of concern sounded by his ear. “Mr. Qin, are you alright? Is there anywhere else that feels uncomfortable?”

A perfect opportunity!

Hearing this, Qin Li took advantage of the moment and lunged forward into the other’s arms. In the instant the other was caught off guard, he buried his head tightly into the hollow of the other’s neck, using this movement to knock over the water cup placed on the floor at his side. At once, warm water spilled out, spreading across a large area. Qin Li then went with the flow and pretended to accidentally drop the medicine that had just been handed to him. It happened to fall right into the puddle of warm water, and within just a few seconds, the pills soaked apart.

At the same time, Qin Li hummed and muttered to divert the other’s attention. “Doctor Xu, my chest feels tight too……”

Xu Xiliu was knocked straight down, landing on the floor.

Instinctively, he reached out with one hand to brace against the floor and steady himself, while the other hand came up to rest on the man’s back. In a daze, he murmured, “Weren’t you just having a headache a moment ago? How did it turn into chest tightness now……”

His words abruptly cut off when his gaze landed on the overturned water cup on the floor, and the pills soaking in the puddle of water.

Xu Xiliu raised an eyebrow.

Such a coincidence?

Having been pounced on twice in a row, Xu Xiliu was no longer as flustered as he had been at first. He tried pushing the other away, but could not move him at all. The man was holding him extremely tightly, with nearly half his body weight pressing down. While holding him, he rambled incoherently in a low voice about this hurting and that feeling uncomfortable. His speech was vague and muddled, sounding as if he had not fully woken up yet.

Xu Xiliu narrowed his eyes, then reached out without any courtesy and grabbed the man by the back of his collar, forcefully tearing him off his body.

He stood up. That gentle, soft smile still hung on his face, as if he were extremely concerned and worried. He looked at Qin Li, then tugged the man up from the floor as well. His hand brushed over the man’s handsome side profile, his expression puzzled and startled. “Both a headache and chest tightness? This episode is actually this serious?”

Qin Li froze.

Before he could even feel pleased that his act had spared him from taking the medicine, he sensed the young man’s hand touching his cheek.

Warm, soft.

He instinctively nuzzled against it.

But before he could make any further move, he saw his personal doctor, both anxious and composed, turn around to fetch a stethoscope. While hanging it over his ears, the young man smiled and brought the metal chest piece toward him. Without the concealment of the gold-rimmed glasses, those peach blossom eyes were sharp and piercing, stirring a subconscious sense of danger. Yet on closer inspection, it seemed not to be the case at all. He was clearly polite and proper, and the slightly upturned corners of his eyes carried threads of concern as he gently reminded him,

“Mr. Qin, don’t move. Just in case, let me listen and see if there are any other abnormalities.”

Qin Li froze. By the time he came back to his senses, the metal chest piece had already slipped open his half-unbuttoned collar and pressed against his chest.

“Thump thump.”

The distinct chill of the metal made Qin Li shudder, and his hand instinctively closed around the young man’s wrist.

When he lifted his eyes, he met his personal doctor’s disapproving gaze. “Mr. Qin, don’t move. Let me examine you properly……”

“Thump thump thump thump.”

Qin Li’s grip tightened even more.

Xu Xiliu smiled, polite, with just the right amount of concern in his eyes. He did not mind the man’s obstruction at all. To anyone else, he looked exactly like a good doctor worried about his patient’s condition. Only the hand holding the stethoscope seemed not to share that restraint, roaming wantonly over the man’s chest. The stiffer the other’s body became and the colder his expression grew, the more cheerfully it wandered, the corners of his lips hooked in a smile as he poked here and poked there.

Sometimes he would listen at one spot for a long time, lowering his gaze and lightly furrowing his brows. Other times, he would move continuously, never lingering in the same place, like a cat teasing a mouse.

“Thump thump thump thump thump thump thump thump——”

Qin Li felt that he was that stupid mouse.

At this moment, his body was rigid, his jaw clenched tight. The feigned daze deep in his dark eyes had long since vanished without a trace, replaced instead by stiffness and tension.

After quite a while, Xu Xiliu tilted his head and listened carefully, then suddenly smiled and said, “Mr. Qin, your heartbeat is very fast.”

Qin Li subconsciously swallowed nervously.

“I……”

He rarely stammered.

Originally, Qin Li’s mind had been full of probing and countermeasures, of going along with the plan to expose the true face of his personal doctor. However, when the other took out the stethoscope, it genuinely caught him off guard. As a result, in a moment of carelessness, he let that cold metal chest piece press against his own chest.

Everything after that felt like a dream. The young man was very close to him, holding the stethoscope. From time to time, his fingertips would slide across Qin Li’s chest. Every time he touched him, Qin Li felt as if he trembled slightly, and the places brushed over felt as though they had been set on fire, unbearably hot.

He lowered his gaze and saw the gentle, worried expression on the young man’s face. He suspected the other was putting on an act, yet still could not stop himself from sinking into it.

“What should we do then,” Xu Xiliu turned around to put the equipment back, then turned back again and carefully pulled the man’s shirt collar, whose buttons had been popped open, back into place, covering up the chest beneath that was tinged with red. His expression was regretful and troubled. “Mr. Qin has a headache, chest tightness, discomfort all over, and your heart rate is unbelievably fast.”

“My knowledge is limited, and I don’t know exactly what illness Mr. Qin is suffering from. I can only send Mr. Qin to the hospital first for a comprehensive examination……”

Xu Xiliu spread his hands and turned around as if to pack up his things.

The moment he turned away, the gentle look on his face turned into clenched-teeth fury.

Keep pretending.

Go on pretending.

Let’s see how long you, you dog bastard, can keep this up.

A cold smile curled at the corner of Xu Xiliu’s mouth.

From the very first time the man had suddenly hugged him, humming and whining about this hurting and that hurting just to avoid getting a sedative injection, Xu Xiliu had already felt a faint sense of suspicion. He simply had not confirmed it at the time, only thinking that it happened to be an episode followed by the man regaining consciousness. It was only after he went to fetch the medicine and returned that he became certain the other was pretending to be ill with him.

At the time, the other said his head hurt and he felt uncomfortable, asking him to go back and help fetch the medicine. Xu Xiliu did not think too much about it and went, until he came out of the bedroom and saw the butler leaving in a hurry.

The butler being in a rush was understandable, but the fact that he left made Xu Xiliu unable to make sense of it.

In the past, when Qin Li was in the middle of an episode, although the butler would not stay in the room and would leave space for him to deal with it himself, he would still wait not far outside, ready to help at any time, and would not leave lightly. Yet this time, the butler left without hesitation. That could only mean one thing, that the butler knew Qin Li had not actually fallen ill, and so could leave with peace of mind.

On top of that, after he returned, the other once again hugged him and hummed about this hurting and that hurting, while the medicine and warm water he had brought back were inexplicably ruined. Xu Xiliu thus confirmed that the other was pretending to be sick with him.

Under normal circumstances, Qin Li wished with all his heart to avoid taking medicine. How could he possibly take the initiative to ask him to fetch medicine? It was probably to send him away so he could do something else. Also, being hugged twice by the other in such a short span of time was not normal either. At a glance, it was clearly deliberate. Who knew what the other was plotting.

Xu Xiliu thought this through and gave a cold laugh in his heart.

Go on, pretend.

He would play along.

Being put through trouble was fine. In the end, the one who would suffer would not be him anyway.

Thinking this way, Xu Xiliu put that gentle, amiable smile back on his face. He picked up the metal-framed glasses that had fallen to the floor earlier, wiped them, and put them back on the bridge of his nose, then tidied up the medicine case and bag.

His gaze flicked to the candy jar placed inside the bag. Still irritated, he took it out, intending to eat a piece of candy to calm himself down.

Who knew that the next second, the candy jar would be snatched out of his hand.

Xu Xiliu froze.

When he turned back around, he met the man’s gloomy, chilling stare.

“Doctor Xu,” Qin Li’s voice was vicious. The feigned weakness on his body was gone, though deep in his dark eyes there was still a trace of dazed fury. He asked Xu Xiliu viciously, “What is this?”

Qin Li abruptly came to his senses.

All the earlier absent-mindedness vanished without a trace the moment he saw the young man take out the medicine bottle on the spot. He had never been so calm.

Qin Li could not help but think that just a moment ago, this person had been genuinely concerned about him, touching his forehead, using a stethoscope, gentle to an unbelievable degree. Yet the very next second, he could openly take out that bottle whose contents had been switched. What, was he planning to drug him right in front of his face?

The moment he realized this, all the stirrings in Qin Li’s heart were instantly transformed into surging anger.

Angry and furious, yet complicated beyond words.

It made him stride forward uncontrollably and snatch the medicine bottle the other had taken out of the bag.

Clutching that white bottle in his hand, Qin Li used so much force that he wished he could crush the damned thing on the spot. He stared at Xu Xiliu again and questioned him viciously, “Doctor Xu, why aren’t you talking?”

“Tell me, what is this?”

“……”

Xu Xiliu blinked, momentarily stunned.

He looked at the man’s vicious, ferocious expression, then at his own candy bottle clenched in the other’s palm, blinked again, and could not understand how things had taken such an absurd turn.

Qin Li kept his eyes fixed on the young man’s expression. When he saw the youth standing in front of him silent, the peach blossom eyes behind the gold-rimmed lenses blinking innocently, looking as if he were frightened and shrinking back, the nameless anger in Qin Li’s chest flared even more fiercely. Together with what had just been stirred up earlier, it surged so hard that Qin Li felt dizzy.

Yet the evidence of the other’s ill intentions was right there. There was no way to deny it.

The fire in his heart burned so strongly it made his whole body tremble. At this moment, Qin Li actually began to feel a bit of that hazy sensation that came before an episode.

He ground his teeth. The vicious sound of his voice seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth as he sneered.

“Heh heh. Not talking, is that it. Even if you don’t say it, I can guess.”

“This is what you used to replace my medicine, right. Is it a slow-acting poison, or something else. Or is it that kind of stimulant from last time?”

“Eat it, or be sent to pri|son by me. Choose for yourself!”

Qin Li enunciated each word slowly, his dark eyes chilling to the bone.

His personal doctor was trapped in this corner. Qin Li was not worried in the slightest that the other would escape. After saying this, he only lowered his head, savoring the expression that would appear on the young man’s face. As he watched his usually gentle personal doctor, the look in his eyes shifting from calm to deep shock, his smile grew even more vicious.

In this world, there was nothing that could escape his grasp.

This medicine, and this doctor as well.

After this matter was over, he would give the other an unspeakable lesson, one that would make him remember it for the rest of his life.

Qin Li brooded with pent-up fury.

However, Qin Li, who was single-mindedly thinking about what kind of lesson to give the doctor, failed to notice that after the initial shock, the expression on the young man’s face gradually turned strange.

Xu Xiliu was genuinely speechless.

If earlier the other had merely been pretending to be ill, then now, that vicious intensity really did look a bit like he was about to go mad.

He was even saying such bizarre things. Xu Xiliu was also worried that if he refused outright, it would provoke the other into truly losing control. That would really be more trouble than it was worth. In any case, no matter how eloquently or forcefully the other spoke, the bottle only contained candy that he himself had put in there, and it was even his favorite kind.

So Xu Xiliu chose to eat it without a second thought.

Without making a sound, he grabbed the man’s hand, rescued his candy bottle from the other’s palm, then unhurriedly opened it and poured out a single piece. Under the man’s vicious yet dazed stare, he put it into his mouth and slowly ate it. He bit down, letting the sweetness spread between his lips and teeth, squinting in pleasure because he liked it so much.

When Qin Li saw that his personal doctor had actually obediently done exactly as he said and eaten it, he lowered his head, his expression unclear. From this angle, he even looked a little pitiful, as if he were about to cry.

Qin Li could not help but feel both excited and inexplicably irritated.

If he knew this day would come, then why do it in the first place?

He told him to eat it, and he really ate it? Was he not afraid it would harm his body at all?!

The more Qin Li thought about it, the angrier he became.

He got angry when the other did not listen to him, and he got angry when the other did listen. Unable to help himself, he reached out and grabbed the other by the chin, wanting to see the trembling, fearful expression on his face.

Yet what he saw was the other squinting his eyes, eating happily. There was not the slightest trace of fear on his face, instead it was full of enjoyment.

Qin Li: “?”

…What was going on?

Xu Xiliu swallowed, looked at the man’s blank, dazed face, and finally could not hold back a cold snort as he cursed outright, “It’s candy tablets, idiot!”

Qin Li: “???”

What?

Xu Xiliu could not be bothered to pretend to be gentle and polite anymore. The corner of his mouth hooked into a mocking smile, every sentence merciless. “Chronic poison? Stimulant? What else. So Mr. Qin’s imagination is actually this rich.”

He snatched the candy bottle back irritably.

Damn it, good thing it was not damaged. He had just bought it not long ago and had not even eaten it for many days yet. If it had been ruined just because of this man’s delusions, he would have been furious to death.

Thinking of this, Xu Xiliu shot the other a glare.

By this point, Qin Li was completely dumbfounded. The thing he thought had a problem actually had no problem. Then what was the thing with a problem?

What did this little fox just say. Not chronic poison, not a stimulant. Then what was it. Candy tablets. What kind of thing were candy tablets?

…No, impossible. He must be lying to him!

Qin Li’s expression turned vicious again.

Seeing the man’s stubborn look of refusing to turn back until he hit the wall, Xu Xiliu laughed in anger. He thought for two seconds, then decisively chose to make the other sober up a bit, and also vent the pent-up frustration of being tossed around and even accused of poisoning someone. So he mimicked the other’s sinister expression and revealed a smile that was eerie yet carried a trace of his own distinctive gentleness.

“Actually, Mr. Qin isn’t wrong,” Xu Xiliu said. “I really am harboring ill intent. I want to use this to poison Mr. Qin to death, hehehe……”

Before the other could react, Xu Xiliu slammed him down onto the ground. In just a few quick moves, he fished out another piece of candy, continuing to smile with a gentle yet dangerous air. “This is good stuff. Mr. Qin will like it, right.”

Then, amid the man’s terrified, struggling gaze, he forcefully stuffed the candy tablet into the other’s mouth and covered it.

“Mr. Qin, have a taste. Taste what the poison you imagined actually tastes like……”

Qin Li’s dark eyes spat fire.

Damn it!

He had let this little fox succeed!

So that display just now really had been a smokescreen. It was to win his sympathy, then catch him off guard. This was the other’s true plan!

Qin Li looked at the young man riding on top of him, smiling smugly, and burned with rage.

As he was thinking about whether a gastric lavage could even wash something like this out after eating such a suspicious drug, he suddenly realized that the sensation in his mouth was very different.

It melted slowly, sweet, carrying an extremely familiar flavor.

It seemed to be rose lychee flavored……

Qin Li was shocked.

Do poisons nowadays have such rich textures and flavors?

Xu Xiliu smiled as he watched the man beneath him go from terror to shock to confusion. He narrowed his peach blossom eyes, withdrew that sinister expression, and returned to his usual gentle demeanor, though he still snorted irritably. “Well? Not bad, right? This is my favorite flavor, and you actually described it so horribly.”

Xu Xiliu did not know why the other had developed such a misunderstanding.

But thinking about it carefully, he could guess a bit.

There had once been an incident at the villa where a steward tried to drug him. The other might have developed a shadow from that. Then at some point, he saw this unfamiliar bottle of his and mistook it for some kind of medicine bottle, constantly guessing and suspecting that he too was planning to drug him.

Xu Xiliu even felt that today’s act of pretending to be ill was also a test aimed at him.

Although he had indeed been contacted by the villain, and the other’s suspicion was not entirely groundless, he ultimately had not done anything that betrayed the other. To be suspected and tested like this, it was impossible not to feel angry. But when it really came down to it, the other had not done anything wrong either……

The whole thing just felt utterly screwed up.

Xu Xiliu thought it over. The more he thought, the more it felt like a muddled mess, but by now, things were basically clear.

If the other had not pretended to be ill tonight, he would probably already be holding a recording and everything would have been laid bare.

But it was not too late now either. The other had personally tasted this candy. He should be able to react by now, right?

Thinking this, Xu Xiliu fed him another one.

“I’ll let you taste one last one. There aren’t any more. I don’t even have enough for myself.”

Another piece was suddenly stuffed into Qin Li’s mouth. But this time, he did not struggle as fiercely. He felt the doubled sweetness spreading in his mouth, and then watched with his own eyes as the young man pressing him down also ate one himself. He fell even more silent.

Would poison be sweet?

Would someone poisoning him eat it too?

All the clues now pointed to one result.

He had gotten it wrong.

This was not poison at all. His personal doctor had no intention of harming him whatsoever. This damned thing was just an ordinary piece of candy.

Qin Li fell silent and dazed.

After swallowing what was in his mouth, he could not help but ask in disbelief, “If it’s candy, why did you put it into that medicine bottle?”

Xu Xiliu shrugged. “It was a vitamin C bottle. After peeling off the label, it’s small and convenient to carry.”

“What does that have to do with you using a medicine bottle?!”

“……The outer wrappers of these candies are all colorful. I thought it would damage my image, so I peeled the wrappers off and put them in a bottle. Any objections?”

Xu Xiliu smiled.

Qin Li fell silent.

After a long while, he spoke with difficulty. “……So the colorful stuff I saw on your desk last time was not poison, but candy wrappers?”

“What else would it be?” Xu Xiliu shot back.

Qin Li sank into silence again, silent and reflecting at the same time.

……So what exactly had he been doing from start to finish?

Second guessing everything, misinterpreting his gentle and good looking personal doctor as having ulterior motives, and even tormenting him like this?

The other had been so angry that he had torn off his gentle facade entirely.

Once he realized what he had done, Qin Li felt both regretful and guilty. Especially when he recalled the things he had just said, it made his toes curl in secondhand embarrassment.

He could not help sneaking a glance at the young man.

Xu Xiliu noticed his gaze and inwardly sighed that this dog of a man had finally figured it out.

But on the surface, he did not show anything. He still wore that smiling yet coldly angry expression, his tone light and floating. “Mr. Qin has calmed down now? If you have, then I am getting up.”

“You are not going to keep grabbing my hand and accusing me of harboring ill intent, right?”

Earlier, when he had fed the other candy to keep him from struggling, he had directly sat on the other’s waist and abdomen to restrain him. Now he was preparing to get up.

Qin Li responded slowly with a low sound, his voice subdued, tinged with dejection and guilt.

However, just as Xu Xiliu was about to rise, the butler returned at the doorway. The moment he came back, he saw Qin Li lying on the floor, with Xu Xiliu sitting ambiguously on Qin Li’s waist.

Especially with the study in total disarray, Qin Li’s clothes wide open, and Xu Xiliu himself looking rumpled, as if things had gone too far.

Six eyes met, and all three fell silent.

……What kind of bizarre scene was this?

“……I just heard the sir’s voice earlier, so I came over to take a look.”

The butler explained first, waving his hands before quickly leaving. Xu Xiliu knew the other had misunderstood again. It was probably because earlier, when he had fed Qin Li candy, the other had thought it was poison, and the miserable cries had been loud enough to be heard across a whole floor.

Only then did Xu Xiliu belatedly feel the crushing weight of social death. The embarrassment was even stronger than being misunderstood by the man, and even more infuriating.

So he gritted his teeth, stood up, yanked the man up along with him, then ground his teeth as he said to him, “You explain this.”

Then he stormed off in a huff.

Qin Li tried to grab him but failed, only able to watch as the young man left in a gust of anger.

He thought to himself, this is bad. This is really bad.

---

T/N: Finally, the misiunderstanding is over!

Butler Zhong after once again catching them in the act: Hehe, please continue. I didn’t see anything.