QT: Don't fall in love with the Male Lead

That night, he sneaks out of the master bedroom after Su Xueyi falls asleep, and into Han Yu's room.

He finds him asleep on his front, with the covers thrown off, both arms wrapped around his pillow.

Softly, Xi Zirui climbs on his back, and drops butterfly kisses all over the smooth expanse of his back. He wants to see how many times he can kiss Han Yu before he wakes up.

Not many, it turns out.

"What is gege doing?" he asks, his voice muffled by the pillow.

"Taking advantage of you while you sleep." Xi Zirui lowers his head to drop a kiss between his shoulder blades. "Isn't it obvious?"

Han Yu lets out a pleased hum and yawns into the skin of his arm. "That's all? Then by all means proceed."

Xi Zirui giggles, his next kiss has some bite to it. Han Yu shivers into the feeling of Xi Zirui's teeth dragging over his skin.

Han Yu bucks Xi Zirui off him, and reverses their position, pinning him down on the bed under the weight of his leg. "Coming down to my room to disturb my sleep...Gege better take responsibility."

Xi Zirui waggles his eyebrows. "I intend to, actually."

He lifts Han Yu's leg up and off him and shimmies down his torso, settling himself between his spread thighs.

He's lowering Han Yu's underwear, a hungry grin stretching his lips, when a voice rings out through the quiet house. Clear as a bell:

"Baby? Where are you?"

They only have time to exchange a single panicked look, before Xi Zirui is scrambling out of the bed and padding out of the room as silently as he can.

He peeks his head out of the hallway and finds Su Xueyi on top of the staircase, glass of water in hand, looking in every direction.

Waiting for him to turn around, Xi Zirui makes his way out of his hiding place and steals into the kitchen.

He comes out with a water bottle in hand. "I'm here," he says, smiling up at Su Xueyi's from the stair's landing. He points at the glass of water in Su Xueyi's hand. "Oh, we must have just missed each other."

Su Xueyi waits for him to make his way up the stairs before returning his smile. "Must have."

It's either the gloom of the house, with only a sliver of wan moonlight coming through the windows, or the general creepiness of the later hour, but Xi Zirui swears that for a moment Su Xueyi's smile looked more threatening than friendly.

---

The next day Xi Zirui decides he's going to the office. He tells Su Xueyi as much but his only reaction is a disinterested hum.

He isn't getting any closer to finding concrete proof of Su Xueyi's criminal dealings at the penthouse, and whether he likes it or not, Greydot is his best bet for learning more.

Su Xueyi doesn't say anything during the whole short ride, just taps away at his mobile in silence.

In the front seat, Han Yu remains tense and keeps chancing glances at Xi Zirui through the rearview mirror.

Xi Zirui barely slept the entire night, wondering if that threatening glint he saw in Su Xueyi's eyes would make an appearance. Now, in the cold light of day, he's happy to convince himself that his fear of getting caught made him imagine the whole thing.

Once they reach the company, he tries to ask Su Xueyi if he can help with anything regarding the "other side" of business, but Su Xueyi dismisses him with a curt "not now."

He goes to his private office to stew in anger.

"Well, look on the bright side, at least he doesn't know anything," Han Yu says, leaning his hip against Xi Zirui's desk.

Xi Zirui would like to be as optimistic.

He keeps trying to find something in the computer, but his accesses are laughably restricted, and he can't even be sure Su Xueyi would keep that kind of information accessible in work computers. 

If there was any kind of investigation into the company every computer would be apprehended, Su Xueyi is probably smarter than that.

"I had a funny dream yesterday," Han Yu says suddenly, fiddling with the zipper on his letter jacket.

Xi Zirui cuts his eyes up to his face and is surprised to find him blushing. He grins. "Was it an x-rated dream?"

Han Yu shakes his head, still oddly shy. "You would think that." He laughs a little to himself. "Honestly it would have been better if it was. I haven't even been watching any period dramas I don't know why I would dream of something like that."

Xi Zirui's fingers freeze on the keyboard. "What?"

"You can't laugh, no sex for a week if you laugh."

"I won't laugh," Xi Zirui says, his gaze unwavering.

"I dreamt I was playing the flute at night, and in the distance I could see you getting closer to me, your silhouette stark against the brightness of the moon." He lowers his head, a bashful smile playing at his lips. "For some reason we were both wearing fancy robes, I don't know where that came from. You were wearing this dangly hairpin, you looked like a pampered concubine in some period drama."

He laughs at the memory. "It's stupid, that's why I told you you couldn't laugh."

"Hey," Xi Zirui calls out softly, until Han Yu meets his eyes. "I'm not laughing."

His heart is beating frantically inside his ribcage. This is proof that on some level, Han Yu remembers their lives in the other worlds. Perhaps not in the same, clear, linear way Xi Zirui does, but he definitely remembers some of it. 

Xi Zirui gets up from his chair and wraps his arms around Han Yu in a crushing hug. "What else? What else happened in your dream?"

"I-I don't remember anything else?" Han Yu's arms come around Xi Zirui's waist, steadying him against his chest. "Is everything alright, gege?"

The shrill ringtone of his mobile rings out through the office, saving Xi Zirui from having to come up with an answer. 

When he looks down at his phone on the table, the number isn't one saved to the original's contact list.

He only debates for a moment before deciding to pick it up.

"Hello?" he says, into the static stillness of the other end of the line.

"Meet me in my office, and bring that bodyguard of yours. It's urgent."

"Bai Mi?" Xi Zirui asks, although he's pretty sure he recognizes her distinctive lyrical voice. He wonders about the urgency, though.

"No, the King of Thailand. Stop asking stupid questions and hurry." 

And then she disconnects. 

"What is it?" Han Yu asks, giving the now silent phone in Xi Zirui's hand a wary look.

"The Empress has summoned us."

Han Yu has no idea what he means.

---

They never make it to Bai Mi's office because they run into Su Xueyi on the way there. 

"Ah, I was just going to find you," Su Xueyi says, wrapping his fingers around Xi Zirui's upper arm and extricating him from Han Yu's side. "Let's go for a ride, there's something I have to show you."

"Bai Mi asked me to meet her," Xi Zirui says. "I'd rather not leave her waiting."

Su Xueyi hums. "She's the kind of person that is best not to leave waiting, that's true." He shifts his gaze towards Han Yu and claps him on the back with his free hand. "Han Yu can go on ahead and tell her you'll be along shortly."

Xi Zirui doesn't really have the time to say anything before he's being escorted to the elevator and into the office building's garage.

His first warning sign is seeing Su Xueyi's silver Tesla and no signs of Liao Min.

"I gave her the day off," Su Xueyi says, noticing where Xi Zirui's eyes have drifted. "The staff also need their rest."

Xi Zirui hums noncommittally. He has a very bad feeling about all this.

There's a manic glint in Su Xueyi's eyes that stops him from getting into the car. 

Su Xueyi opens the door on the passenger side for him. "Come now, we'll be quick."

"I don't see why we can't talk here," he says, walking one step backwards.

A chime. "Host? CEO's favor down -1 point. Now at 67 of a possible 100 points."

One day, that stupid chime will sound and Ni Ni will actually have something useful to tell him.

"Baby, stop stalling." Su Xueyi's smile never wavers, but the way he speaks sends a sharp shiver down Xi Zirui's spine.

In the end, he has no choice but to get into the car.

As soon as his seatbelt is on, Su Xueyi zips out of the garage at dizzying speed. 

"Why the hurry?" Xi Zirui asks, holding on to the seatbelt across his chest to steady himself.

Su Xueyi grins. "The faster we get this sorted, the sooner you'll get back to your meeting with Bai Mi."

He doesn't elaborate regarding where they're going, just keeps driving at dizzying speed through Beijing's broad avenues.

Xi Zirui's phone vibrates in his pocket. It's a message from Han Yu.

"Why aren't you back yet? Bai Mi is really stressed out."

It doesn't stop there, seconds later, a new message arrives:

"Gege, please hurry, you need to hear what she's saying."

Xi Zirui's heart climbs up to his throat, he darts a sideways glance at Su Xueyi who continues focused on the road and gives no sign of slowing down.

His phone vibrates with another incoming text:

"Gege, if you're still with Su Xueyi please find a way to leave. He knows. He knows everything."

He thinks he hears the sound of the air rushing out of his lungs in one breathless swoop. Belatedly he realizes it's actually the sound of Su Xueyi lowering the electric window.

"You won't be needing that." Su Xueyi's crisp voice startles Xi Zirui, who has no reaction as Su Xueyi yanks the phone out of his hands and throws it out the open window.

Whatever is going on inside Su Xueyi's mind, his shuttered eyes don't offer Xi Zirui a window into his thoughts. "Where are we going?" he asks, trying to inch his fingers discretely towards the door handle.

Moments later, he hears a clatter as Su Xueyi engages the automatic lock on the car doors from his side of the dashboard, away from Xi Zirui's hands.

"I've been working so much, I feel like we haven't been spending enough time together," Su Xueyi says, his tone deceptively cool, as if he isn't aware of the panic making its away across Xi Zirui's face. "I was thinking we could take a little break, away from everything."

"I don't think that's a good idea, considering all that's happening, with Shen Yu-"

Su Xueyi cuts him off. "You know, baby? That's your problem, you think too much."

His smile makes it clear that he would have no issue putting an end to that, for good.