Su Ke’s indignant voice came through.
“Who wants to sleep with you…?”
Finding him noisy, Ji Shifeng covered his mouth with one hand.
“It’ll probably be quite late when we get back. Having him stay with me would be more convenient”
Ji Shileng felt Su Ke’s wishes deserved some consideration.
“What about Su Ke? What does he think?”
Ji Shifeng glanced calmly at Su Ke, uncovered his mouth, and said with exquisite gentleness:
“Su Ke agrees, don’t you?”
On the surface, Su Ke had regained his freedom of speech. In reality, he was still trapped beneath the mountain known as Ji Shifeng.
This was exactly why he hated smiling tigers!
“I suppose I can reluctantly agree”
Su Ke gritted his teeth and glared at Ji Shifeng several times.
Having achieved his goal, Ji Shifeng accepted the glares with a beaming smile. He even remembered his manners at the end.
“Give Qin Si our regards”
“He’s right beside me. He probably heard you”
Ji Shileng inclined his head toward Qin Si, silently asking whether he had heard the conversation.
Qin Si came over.
“I did. Then I hope you and Mr. Su enjoy yourselves, Engineer Ji”
“Thank you. Get some rest, both of you”
With the practical matters settled, Ji Shileng was about to put on a show of brotherly affection and inquire into Ji Shifeng’s love life.
But Ji Shifeng hung up before he could get a word out.
Ji Shileng stared speechlessly at the disconnected call.
Never mind. He could question Su Ke tomorrow.
He had suspected something between them for ages. Now they were even going on dates.
“I’ll take you to Su Ke’s room”
Ji Shileng turned his wheelchair.
Qin Si did not move.
Hearing no reply, Ji Shileng looked up at him, puzzled.
Qin Si stood beside the coffee table, his back straight, his gaze resting on the box in the corner of the sofa.
“Is that box on the table your Outstanding Graduate certificate?”
Ji Shileng nodded and told him frankly:
“Yes. Though it’s just an outdated, useless Outstanding Graduate certificate”
The certificate was genuine. So was its uselessness.
“May I look at it?”
Rather than answering, Ji Shileng wheeled over to the sofa and picked up the presentation box wedged into the corner.
After receiving it from Shang Jianli yesterday, he had not yet had time to give it to his eldest sister.
He handed it to Qin Si.
“If you don’t mind, go ahead”
“Are you sure it’s all right?”
Qin Si checked again, his voice impossibly gentle.
Ji Shileng gave a faint, unconcerned smile.
“It’s fine. To me, it’s really just a roll of wastepaper”
After a moment’s thought, he decided to explain everything.
“My sister wanted it. Otherwise, I would have forgotten about it”
“Your sister wanted it?”
Qin Si quickly recalled something relevant: what Ji Shileng had said to Shang Jianli before leaving Balemate Royal Church.
“My sister invested a hundred million in Imperial University. Let’s call the two things even”
“So she invested a hundred million in Imperial University for this certificate?”
“Mm”
Ji Shileng yawned.
“Who knew the principal didn’t have it? Shang Jianli had taken it instead”
“He really has too much time on his hands”
Qin Si crouched beside Ji Shileng and remarked:
“Scumbags are always like that”
Then he murmured:
“So that news report was true”
His voice was quiet, but in the space between the two of them, Ji Shileng could hear him clearly.
Drowsiness was setting in. It took Ji Shileng a while to remember Imperial Capital News’s revelation that evening.
“You mean the story they broke tonight?”
“Yes”
There was little emotion in Ji Shileng’s lowered eyes.
His memory was too good. Inevitably, the contents of the report came back to him.
【Imperial Capital News】
#FeelingTheHeatImperialUniversityOnFire# We admit that the Bitcoin story was fabricated on orders from “above.” But Imperial University knew the truth and still revoked Ji Shileng’s Outstanding Graduate award. What does everyone think?
“It’s true. But what’s revoked is revoked. The dead can’t come back to life. Clearing my name now doesn’t mean much”
Resting his face on one hand, Ji Shileng watched Qin Si open the box.
“True. It’s only a certificate”
Qin Si agreed.
He suspected Ji Shileng had not even opened the box after getting it back.
At that moment, he was grateful Shang Jianli had preserved it so well. The paper bore no trace of the passing years.
A two-inch ID photo of Ji Shileng was attached to the certificate’s upper left corner.
The cream-colored paper made his red lips and white teeth stand out all the more.
Ji Shileng wore a white shirt, revealing a slender stretch of fair neck. His fresh, striking beauty immediately caught the eye.
The lower resolution of the camera from those earlier years only seemed to emphasize his presence.
Ji Shileng had been young then. Smiling brightly and boldly into the lens, his expressive eyes curved with delight. Confidence and youthful promise radiated from his very bones.
Qin Si lifted his eyes just enough to give him a long, searching look, then fell silent.
As the silence stretched, Ji Shileng grew puzzled. Just as he was about to speak, Qin Si suddenly said:
“If I’d known, I would have accepted Imperial University’s invitation back then”
Qin Si was a few years older than Ji Shileng.
While Ji Shileng was still at university, Qin Si had already fought his way to prominence in his own field.
Universities had competed to recruit him, hoping he would teach at their institutions. Even a nominal appointment would have satisfied them.
But Qin Si had no need of money. He had turned down every school outside Stegala.
“Hmm?”
Qin Si carefully touched Ji Shileng’s image in the photograph, as though meeting the eyes of his younger self across the long passage of time.
“Imperial University invited me to teach an open course. I turned them down”
Qin Si rarely regretted anything. Yet since meeting Ji Shileng, he had found himself regretting things again and again.
“Turning it down was fine. You could focus on your own work”
Ji Shileng remembered how the newspapers had been filled with reports about Qin Si then.
“I remember you were very famous at the time”
They had said that, despite his youth, he had advanced Stegala’s military technology by several levels.
During the few calls Ji Shileng had made home, Qin Si’s name had occasionally come up.
Qin Si remained unmoved.
“It wasn’t fine. If I hadn’t refused, I could have met you sooner”
Ji Shileng tilted his head. Seeing that Qin Si did not seem to be joking, he reassured him:
“It’s not too late to meet now, is it?”
Qin Si lowered his eyelids, concealing the tangled emotions in his eyes.
“No. It’s not too late”
Reluctantly, he put the Outstanding Graduate certificate away and handed it back to Ji Shileng.
He was even wondering whether there was some way to peel off the ID photo without anyone noticing.
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