Lu Ge opened the door and stepped inside, only to realize that there was an extra person in the room.
“Tsk,” he clicked his tongue, furrowing his brow in annoyance, and took a step back to close the door.
After being disturbed by that noisy group all day, he was utterly exhausted. Who was the blind fool that chose today to bother him?
Looking around, he noticed that the regular attendant was nowhere to be found, leaving the entire corridor empty except for him.
What bad luck. Lu Ge cursed under his breath and decided to reopen the door, ready to handle the intruder himself.
Upon entering the room, he didn’t even turn on the lights, fearing he might see something unpleasant.
A sliver of weak moonlight streamed in, and he vaguely saw a slender figure lying sideways on the pure white velvet blanket.
The person’s back was facing Lu Ge, and their prominent shoulder blades rose and fell noticeably.
Lu Ge had already forgotten Xu Chi Qiu’s name, but upon seeing this back, he couldn’t help but connect the frail youth who had been coughing in Qin Yan’s arms to the person in front of him.
Xu Chi Qiu’s breathing was rapid, occasionally punctuated by broken, labored gasps. His jacket was unbuttoned, though the rest of his clothes remained properly worn.
“Hey,” Lu Ge spoke casually, his tone biting. “You’re in the wrong bed. Qin Yan’s room is next door.”
The youth didn’t respond.
It was then that Lu Ge noticed that the person on the bed was clearly in a different state, as if they were unaware and couldn’t hear him.
Frowning, he took another look.
The person on the bed had an unusually flushed face; that usually pale and sickly complexion was glowing for the first time. It was as if life was burning on his cheeks, creating a stunning sense of destructive beauty.
Lu Ge quickly realized that the youth had been drugged. Moreover, it was evident that the person who drugged him had also brought him to this room.
He let out a long sigh. “Don’t you ever consider researching what type I like?”
Sending him a skeletal frame like this, who could possibly want it...
Lu Ge’s sexual orientation and preferences were never a secret in his circle.
His standards were very specific: he preferred someone pale, not too tall or too thin, with fluffy, soft hair, a clear voice, and bright eyes that could reflect a person’s image... and they had to be kind, to his taste.
Many who heard his criteria for a partner would first respond with disbelief: “Lu Ge must have been possessed!”
They could never imagine that this guy, whose tongue was sharper than anyone’s and whose personality was worse than anyone’s, would dream of someone like this, so different from his own character.
There were also many who, in an effort to please Lu Ge, tried various ways to cater to his tastes, sending him pure-looking boys and girls dressed in the whitest clothes and with the most natural makeup. Yet, Lu Ge hadn’t been attracted to any of them.
Everyone thought Lu Ge was too picky. Some joked, “What you like isn’t a person, it’s a celestial being from the heavens.”
In fact, Lu Ge’s description was even more beautiful and illusory than celestial beings.
Regardless of whether such a celestial being existed in this world, at that moment, the person lying on Lu Ge’s bed was entirely the opposite of his ideal type.
In terms of Lu Ge’s preferences, the only thing the youth matched was being “pale.”
“Hey, you’re from the Xu family, right?”
Lu Ge stepped closer, grabbing the collar of Xu Chi Qiu’s jacket and lifting his upper body to sit him up. “Young Master Xu, you have two choices.”
“Option one, I throw you into the hallway; option two, I toss you into the sea to feed the fish. Pick one.”
He waited for two seconds and, talking to himself, continued, “If you don’t speak, then I’ll assume you choose the second option.”
With one hand, he dragged the person off the bed.
Xu Chi Qiu’s frail body fell to the floor but made little sound due to his light weight.
Lu Ge held Xu Chi Qiu with one hand and opened the window with the other, a cool sea breeze instantly blowing in.
However, beneath the window was a deck and a cabin, not the ocean.
If he threw the person out, it would likely result in a youth with a head full of injuries.
Lu Ge pressed Ji Mian’s face against the window.
The damp chill helped to restore some of Ji Mian’s consciousness, and he opened his eyes.
He coughed a few times; the drug had left his lungs feeling hot. Xu Chi Qiu’s lips felt dry and burned, and he unconsciously licked them with his soft tongue, making his lip color appear surprisingly vibrant for the first time.
A mechanical voice in his head kept insisting that he stay awake, but Ji Mian couldn’t find the energy to blame it.
His brain was submerged in a twisted and blurry sea, and thinking felt like a luxury at that moment. He barely had the energy to analyze why he was in Lu Ge’s room; maintaining the fragile shell of “Xu Chi Qiu” had exhausted all of Ji Mian’s strength.
He bit his tongue hard, and the pain finally jolted him awake a little.
“Mr. Lu,” he spoke hoarsely, his dark eyes looking at Lu Ge, trying hard to keep his tone calm.
Lu Ge looked at the young man's face, which was close enough to see the extreme disarray he was in, yet he stubbornly clung to his useless pride, trying to maintain a semblance of composure and not appear any more disheveled than he already was. The other person had built a thin shell of useless pride around himself.
Xu Chi Qiu cared about appearances. Even in this predicament, he still valued his dignity.
Lu Ge's twisted sense of humor was piqued by the young man’s expression.
He let go of his grip and said to him, “Since you’re awake, could you please leave, Young Master Xu?”
“…” Ji Mian was even more eager to leave than he was.
But he didn’t even have the strength to stand upright, let alone leave on his own. Crawling out was his only option.
He faintly smiled, suppressing the rising humiliation within him. “Mr. Lu, I don’t have the strength for that.”
Lu Ge grinned with a mischievous satisfaction, feeling magnanimous as he offered his hand.
Thus, once again, Xu Chi Qiu’s coat was grabbed by Lu Ge.
After pulling Xu Chi Qiu out of the room, Lu Ge didn’t let go and turned his gaze to a room across the hall, deciding to carry out his good deed to the end.
He caught sight of the administrator patrolling the corridor and said, “Where’s Qin Yan’s room? Open the door.”
The administrator was momentarily stunned and stammered, “Th-this…”
Lu Ge spat out two words, “Open the door.”
“…”
No one here was someone he could offend.
Ji Mian's brain was sluggish, and he didn’t immediately grasp what was happening.
Until Lu Ge leaned in closer and spoke in a relaxed, teasing tone, “You seem to like Qin Yan?”
“I can help you get to his bed in one go.”
Ji Mian was taken aback. “You—”
“No need to thank me.”
“…” The flush on Ji Mian’s face hadn’t faded at all, but the misty depths of his dark eyes suddenly turned cold. “Let go.”
Lu Ge smiled, “I’m thinking of you.”
There was some truth to that statement.
There was nothing on the cruise ship to counteract the effects of the drug, and Ji Mian could only find someone to relieve him, which had to be a man since he couldn’t even stand upright at the moment.
Qin Yan was indeed the best option available.
“Or is it that Qin Yan isn’t interested in you?” Lu Ge scanned Ji Mian up and down.
He really was too thin; if he were Qin Yan, he wouldn’t be able to eat even if the person before him was truly an ethereal beauty.
Ji Mian took a heavy breath and warned him slowly, “I said, let go.”
His gaze was particularly frigid, like a venomous snake ready to strike, finally tearing off the mask of weakness and gentleness he had displayed the previous day.
Lu Ge studied him for a moment longer.
Ji Mian’s face was redder than before, but the reason wasn’t the drug; it stemmed from anger.
His chest rose and fell rapidly, and the skin on his neck was also flushed. A light touch would surely feel hot. The veins protruding from his neck and the flushed skin created a scene that was alarming yet unexpectedly harmonious.
Lu Ge suddenly began to doubt whether this person would survive until tomorrow in his current state.
He let go of his grip.
Without support, Ji Mian immediately wobbled. Fortunately, he leaned his weight against the wall just in time.
The effects of the drug were peaking, and his legs trembled, preventing him from collapsing in the hallway.
Struggling to move toward the door, he managed to retrieve the room key from his coat pocket with his nearly limp hand and swiped it to enter.
With a soft “click,” the door closed lightly behind him, and Ji Mian didn’t even have the strength to slam it shut.
Lu Ge casually withdrew his gaze and turned to the administrator, who stood frozen in confusion. “My bedding is dirty.”
The administrator was dazed for a few seconds.
“Apologies, sir, I will get that changed for you immediately.”
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