—

The camera moved back up, and Gu Zhao asked, fully knowing the answer: "Why is your face red?"

Ji Su, blushing, urged in a small voice: "Hurry up and put your clothes on."

Gu Zhao laughed and countered: "Why bother? You'll just have to take them off again later."

Ji Su blinked in confusion: "Why?"

"To sleep." Gu Zhao tilted the camera down again. "I like sleeping naked—didn't you know?"

Ji Su: "……"

It wasn't for sleeping naked at all—it was just more convenient that way…

Gu Zhao on the other end of the screen changed the subject: "Are you hungry?"

Ji Su raised a hand to touch his flat little belly: "A little, but not really."

"I ordered you some delivery, it should be there soon." Gu Zhao sat down in a chair. "Can delivery people get into your place?"

Ji Su paused: "How do you know my home address?"

"I guessed." Gu Zhao laughed, then explained, "That time your half-brother came to School, you told the taxi driver your full home address."

Ji Su's eyes widened slightly: "You remember that?"

Gu Zhao replied seriously: "When it comes to you, my memory has always been excellent."

Ji Su looked at the person in the screen, and his nose stung a little.

On one side, the so-called family who couldn't remember his allergens; on the other, a lover who carried every last detail of him in his heart—the gulf between them growing harder and harder to bear.

Just then, the delivery driver's call came in.

Delivery personnel weren't allowed inside the Villa. Ji Su slipped quietly down the stairs to the front gate to pick up the food.

Fortunately it wasn't far, and he was back shortly carrying the delivery.

Just as he reached the second floor, he ran into Ji Chen.

"gege, you're still up?" Ji Chen said, his gaze falling on Ji Su's hand. "What's that in your hand? Delivery?"

Ji Su nodded: "Yeah, it's delivery."

"Right, you probably didn't eat much tonight." Ji Chen paused, his tone puzzled. "But if you weren't full, why didn't you ask Zhang Ma to make you something else?"

"I didn't order it." Ji Su didn't want to explain too much. "I'm heading back to my room—get some rest early."

He walked straight back to his room, closed the door, and shut Ji Chen out when he tried to follow.

Ji Su set the delivery on the table, propped up his phone, and redialed the video call.

Gu Zhao picked up instantly: "Did you get the delivery?"

Ji Su held up the delivery to show him: "It's here, I'm about to eat."

"Good." Gu Zhao answered. "I'll watch you eat."

Ji Su began a mukbang for the camera. His table manners were refined and pleasant to watch—when he opened his mouth, neat white teeth showed, the tip of a rosy tongue peeked through, and his lips turned an even deeper red.

Gu Zhao watched for a moment, then suddenly praised: "Very pretty."

"Hm?" Ji Su lifted his lashes. "What?"

"The teeth are pretty, the tongue is pretty, the lips are pretty too." Gu Zhao replied in a slow, easy tone. "It'd be nice if I could have a taste of something else."

Ji Su swallowed the food in his mouth, darted out his tongue to lick the corner of his lip: "What something else?"

Amusement in Gu Zhao's dark eyes, his handsome face drew close to the screen, his thin lips parted, and he clearly enunciated four words.

The words were plainly quite vulgar, but spoken in that low, magnetic voice, they somehow sounded utterly bewitching.

"Gu Zhao!" Ji Su raised a hand to cover the phone screen. "If you keep this up I'm hanging up!"

"What?" Gu Zhao propped his chin on one hand, smiling half a smile. "I've tasted yours—don't you want to taste mine?"

Ji Su held back for several seconds, then forced out two words: "I don't!"

"Oh." Gu Zhao's smile didn't change. "Are you full?"

Ji Su nodded instinctively: "I'm full."

He got up, cleared the table, tossed the delivery containers in the trash, washed his hands, then returned to the table.

Gu Zhao hadn't hung up yet—he was leaning against the headboard, watching him.

Ji Su picked up his phone and lay down on the bed, patting his slightly rounded little belly: "I'm so full."

"Stuffed?" Gu Zhao narrowed his dark eyes slightly. "Want to do some exercise together to help it digest?"

"Together through the phone screen?" Ji Su asked innocently. "What exercise? Is it hard?"

"Not hard." Gu Zhao laughed low. "Just need your hands."

Ji Su sat up from the bed: "How do I do it?"

Gu Zhao's gaze dropped, landing on the pale skin exposed at his chest: "Take off your clothes first."

Ji Su was a bit confused: "What exercise requires taking off clothes?"

The moment the question left his mouth, the realization hit him belatedly.

Gu Zhao's voice dropped lower: "Baby, do you want me to help you take them off?"

The flush on Ji Su's face was visibly spreading: "I don't want to…"

Gu Zhao's gaze pierced through the phone screen, fixing on him: "Then take them off yourself."

Ji Su bit his lip, slowly raised one hand, and clumsily undid a button with his fingertip.

"Such a good baby." Gu Zhao praised. "Keep going."

Though Ji Su was dying of shame inside, under the patient guidance from the other end, he gradually lost his ground…

Gu Zhao clenched his back teeth, veins bulging at his temples, large beads of sweat dripping onto the screen with a sharp 'smack.'

Through the phone screen, Ji Su seemed to shiver as if burned…

That night, Ji Su eventually fell asleep holding his phone—the familiar breathing in his ear filling him with an incomparable sense of peace.

*

Early the next morning, Ji Su woke to find his phone had run out of battery and shut itself off.

He got out of bed, plugged in his phone to charge, and went to wash up.

Ji Su went downstairs for breakfast. At the table sat only Ji Zhenghai and Qin Auntie, chatting and laughing as they ate.

He walked over and greeted them: "baba, Qin Auntie, good morning."

Ji Zhenghai looked at him: "What time is it, and you're only just getting up?"

Ji Su didn't respond to that, and asked in a flat tone: "Where is Xiao Chen?"

Ji Zhenghai frowned: "How old is he, how old are you?"

"Oh, Susu is still young too." Qin Auntie's smile stiffened slightly at the corners as she gently smoothed things over. "Children love to sleep in—it's perfectly normal."

Ji Zhenghai started to say something more, but was stopped by a look from Qin Auntie.

Ji Su pulled out a chair and sat down, ate a few perfunctory bites, then went back upstairs.

At lunch he came downstairs again, and noticed that several of the usual seafood dishes were missing from the table.

"Gege!" Ji Chen ran over, threw his arms around Ji Su's, and announced proudly, "I specifically told Zhang Ma not to make a single seafood dish for lunch today!"

Ji Su was silent for a few seconds, then answered softly, "Thank you."

After lunch, Ji Su was about to bring up going back to School, when visitors happened to arrive at the house.

Fang Uncle was one of Ji Zhenghai's business associates, and he had brought along a daughter about the same age as Ji Su.

At first Ji Su didn't think much of it—until everyone sat down at the table.

"Ji Su, Xiaoyuan is a university student, just like you." Ji Zhenghai's face and tone were uncommonly mild. "Xiaoyuan studies art, isn't that right, Xiaoyuan?"

"Yes, Uncle Ji—I study dance at university." Fang Yuan replied with a bright smile, then turned and asked of her own accord, "Ji Su, what do you study?"

Ji Zhenghai answered for him, "He studies architecture, but in the end he'll still have to come into the company."

Ji Su pressed his lips together, lowered his lashes, and said nothing.

Fang Uncle picked up the thread: "Architecture is a fine field—you never have to worry about unemployment in that line, hahaha!"

"The real estate sector has been in decline for ages—where's the future in it?" Ji Zhenghai waved a hand. "Besides, are you really expecting him to spend his life running around construction sites?"

"Dad." Ji Su lifted his eyes, his face expressionless. "Architecture graduates have a wide range of career paths. Even if I really did end up on a construction site, that would be a perfectly respectable job—I don't see anything shameful about it."

From childhood on, Ji Su had grown used to being dismissed by Ji Zhenghai—everything he did was useless in his father's eyes. Even getting into A University had earned him no praise; instead, he was rebuked for choosing a major with no future.

Because of all that repeated rejection, he had once fallen into a spiral of self-doubt—wondering whether he truly was that worthless, whether he truly was undeserving of love.

Until he met Gu Zhao.

It was the first time Ji Su had talked back to Ji Zhenghai. His tone was not heated, yet the words landed like a slap across Ji Zhenghai's face—swift, unannounced.

Ji Zhenghai's face darkened, but with a table full of people, he couldn't bring himself to erupt on the spot.

It was a meal in which everyone at the table was chewing on different thoughts.

After a while, Fang Yuan had something to attend to and needed to leave first.

Ji Zhenghai ordered again, "Ji Su, see Xiaoyuan out."

Ji Su refused outright: "I'm sorry, Miss Fang, but I have other things to attend to."

"You—" Ji Zhenghai snapped. "What could you possibly have to do? Go!"

"Uncle Ji, I can see myself out." Fang Yuan took her leave politely. "I'll come visit again when there's a chance."

After an evening together, Fang Uncle had also seen that Ji Su had no such inclination, and rose to take his leave: "Lao Ji, I just remembered I have a meeting I haven't held yet—I should head back too."

Once the guests had gone, Ji Zhenghai called Ji Su to the study and finally lost his temper, cursing: "Ungrateful boy—are you trying to anger your father to death?"

Ji Su's face was calm. "So you called me back, in fact, to set me up on a blind date?"

"How old are you, and you still won't go on a blind date?" Ji Zhenghai slammed the table. "If you'd found a girlfriend on your own, would I need to bother?"

"Is this really about finding me a partner, or about something else?" Ji Su asked. "Are you trying to arrange a business marriage for me?"

Ji Zhenghai replied, flushed with anger and embarrassment: "What business marriage? What nonsense are you spouting?"

"What if it were Ji Chen?" Ji Su looked at him without blinking. "Would you have the heart to make Ji Chen give up the person he loves, for the sake of a company marriage?"

Ji Zhenghai barked: "I'm talking about you—why are you dragging your brother into it?"

Ji Su said, syllable by syllable: "Because you're too biased."

"Because I look too much like Mom, and my existence constantly reminds you of that failed marriage—so you don't like me. I can understand that." He gave Ji Zhenghai no chance to speak, and went on: "But was I the one who chose to be born?"

A flicker of astonishment crossed Ji Zhenghai's face; for a moment he was left speechless.

"Though the grace of birth and raising outweighs heaven, when I search my heart, all I've received from you over the years is money—no love." Ji Su pulled a card from his pocket and set it on the desk. "This card holds every penny I've saved over the years—two hundred thousand in total. From now on I'll transfer money into it every month, until I've paid off what I owe."

"You're settling accounts with me?" Ji Zhenghai, furious, snatched up a thick book and hurled it at him. "You're going to cut ties with your own father?"

Ji Su did not dodge, letting the book strike his forehead and leave a vivid scrape. He replied lightly: "For you, one son—Ji Chen—is enough, isn't he?"

"Good… good! Very good!" Ji Zhenghai slammed the table several times. "Your wings have hardened, have they? How magnificent! Get out! The farther the better! Once you walk out that door, never set foot in the Ji Family again!"

Ji Chen, who had been eavesdropping outside the door, could hold back no longer. He shoved the study door open: "Gege! Don't do anything rash!"

Ji Su walked toward the door. "Move aside."

"I won't!" Ji Chen gripped the door tightly. "If you don't like that girl, fine—but why are you fighting with Dad like this?"

"You don't know why, because since we were little, everyone in this household has given you whatever you wanted." Ji Su lifted his eyes to look at him. "So you'll never be able to understand how I feel."

Ji Chen stared at him with wide eyes, words tumbling out in a jumble: "Gege, I… I'm sorry, I…"

"You have nothing to apologize to me for." Ji Su lowered his gaze. "It's just that we were never going to walk the same road."

Ji Zhenghai roared: "Let him go!"

Ji Su repeated: "Let me out."

Ji Chen could only release his grip, reluctant and unwilling, and step aside a little.

After a few steps, Ji Su spoke again: "Oh, and the password is Ji Chen's birthday."

With that, he left the study without looking back.

Ji Zhenghai fell back into his chair, his face a mottled blue-white, wheezing heavily for breath.

Ji Su returned to his room, packed up the few things he had, stuffed everything he could take into his bag, then sent Gu Zhao a message.

Ji Su: [Gu Zhao, I'll be back tonight, but it might be a little late.]

There was no reply from the other end—perhaps he was busy with something else.

Ji Su took one last look at his room, slung his bag over his shoulder, and walked out the door.

Clattering sounds came from the study. He walked down the stairs unmoved, passed Ji Chen, who watched him with pleading eyes, and stepped out the front door.

He walked out of the cage that had given him life, raised him, and imprisoned him for years.

Ji Su walked to the roadside, about to call a car through an app.

Just then, he happened to lift his eyes—and his heart skipped a beat.

Under the streetlight, a black Audi was parked at the curb, and a tall, long-legged young man was leaning against the car door.

His posture was at ease, his expression calm, as though he had been standing there all along, waiting for him.

Their eyes met; Gu Zhao set his long legs in motion and walked toward him.

Ji Su's mind went blank for a few seconds. Only when the man stood before him did he manage to find his voice: "You… how did you get here?"

Gu Zhao opened his arms and answered in a low voice: "To take you home."

In an instant, the grievances Ji Su had kept hidden in his heart came flooding up. He dropped his bag and threw himself into that warm, broad embrace.

Like a child who had lost his way and, after endless hardship, finally found the road home, every pretense he had been holding up crumbled entirely.

Ji Su buried his face in Gu Zhao's shoulder; tears welled up in great drops, soon soaking the black shirt.

Gu Zhao slowly tightened his embrace, holding him close, his voice a touch hoarse: "It's alright now. I'll take you home."

Ji Su's throat tightened; he opened his mouth, and could only manage one word: "Okay…"

In that moment, he suddenly understood—

That the meaning of home was never a house, but a person.

Wherever there is someone who loves you, that place is home.