CH 43

Pei Yi stood silently at the door and looked at the gleam of light shining from the crack at the bottom. Before his villainous heart could begin to bubble up and struggle, the closed door suddenly opened—

The four eyes met.

Both unprepared people were taken aback.

Pei Yi’s gaze wavered, and he quickly lowered his head to control his expression.

At the same time, Bo Yueming also recovered from the momentary shock. He had just gone to the bathroom to wash his face and drive away the drowsiness when he suddenly heard light footsteps at the door.

Because this was his first time staying in the new house, he feared it was a burglar in the middle of the night, so he approached softly and opened the door suddenly.

Seeing Pei Yi, Bo Yueming pretended at once to be blind and vigilant. “Who is it?”

“……..”

In just a few seconds, the acting skills of the two simultaneously came online.

Pei Yi fought against his inexplicably thumping heartbeat and looked up again—

Bo Yueming was wearing black pajamas, and the tight waistband outlined his lithe waist, raising his body proportions to the extreme.

His meticulously combed wet hair fell down across his forehead, faintly covering the faint cold proudness of his features, and there was trace of asceticism that couldn’t be explained to outsiders.

Pei Yi swallowed slightly, feeling that he was very thirsty. “Er, Er-ge.”

Even though this wasn’t the first time he had seen such a thing, he couldn’t help but sigh internally every time: the other party was the most attractive person in the book, and even Yan Cen and Qin Yishun had to stand aside a little bit.

Bo Yueming pretended to identify him by sound, and said knowingly, “Pei Yi? Why aren’t you sleeping? It’s late.”

Pei Yi thought of his purpose for leaving the room, and his series of embarrassing behaviors as he stood unknowingly in front of the master bedroom, and his whole body felt hot.

For now, he could only come up with a lame excuse. “I’m thirsty.”

“Thirsty?”

Bo Yueming’s expression was a little subtle.

The kitten was playing the fool, and wasn’t really stupid.

Even if he was thirsty and wanted to drink water at this point in time, he would go downstairs and pour it quietly. How could he walk in the opposite direction to his bedroom?

Unless……the other party just wanted to find him.

This thought suddenly popped into Bo Yueming’s mind, and he asked, “You can’t sleep in a new place tonight? Don’t you have your quilt?”

“……..”

How did he know?

He couldn’t sleep even with the quilt.

Still secretly depressed, Pei Yi took a deep breath and played the fool to the end. “Er-ge, I’m thirsty.”

Bo Yueming turned slightly to make room for him, and motioned, “Come in, I”ll get you some water.”

Pei Yi hesitated for two seconds, and then walked in as slow as a snail.

Bo Yueming trailed one hand on the wall and located Pei Yi’s position with the other. “Come on.”

When he was alone, he didn’t have to hide anything, but when the kitten came, he had to act!

Pei Yi was already accustomed to this bit of Bo Yueming’s fumbling and searching, so he naturally held his wrist while skillfully pretending to be very well-behaved.

The two played their own roles and walked inside together.

The area of the master bedroom here was not as big as the one in the Imperial Capital, but all facilities were in place. There were raised cushions on both sides of the large bed to sit on, and the black computer desk was densely covered with materials.

The reason Bo Yueming was up at this point in time was because he was busy with work.

Overturning the original bidding plan and coming up with an advantageous new one within two months undoubtedly came with enormous pressure.

Bo Yueming was not a hands-off boss with only a title, so he naturally had to put in more effort than others.

“…….”

Looking at the project information displayed on the tablet and the materials on the desk, Pei Yi became suspicious.

Bo Yueming’s heart tightened, and the rigorous workaholic became negligent the moment Pei Yi said he was “thirsty.”

He quickly “fumbled” for the bottle of mineral water on the corner of the table, and deliberately dropped a document due to “not being able to see it.”

“……..”

Not only that, but after unscrewing the bottle cap, he handed it out in an ‘uncertain’ direction. “Sit down and drink.”

Pei Yi took it, and cautiously stretched out his hand to wave it in front of Bo Yueming’s eyes. Seeing that there was no extraneous reaction from the other party, he sat on the cushion beside the bed.

Bo Yueming was conscious of his possible flaws, but he had to continue acting.

Slowly and carefully, he sat back in his seat and added, “I thought Lin Zhong had come back after leaving. Remember to ask Uncle Kai to prepare water for you before bed.”

As he spoke, he took out the bluetooth headset from his pajama pocket, put it on, and tapped it twice.

Not only did he have a guilty conscience, but so did Pei Yi, who had “asked for water.”

His doubts were dispelled, and his attention fell on the matter of “Bo Yueming working hard.”

It didn’t matter that he left early and came back late every day, but did he have to work until this point when he got home?

He let the assistant go back to his room to rest, but had to use the electronic text-to-speech function to continue? Wasn’t this a waste of his ears and ability to remember?

Bo Yueming didn’t know what Pei Yi was thinking, and the longer he was silent, the more guilty he became. “Pei Yi, do you want to go back to sleep? I still have some work to do.”

Pei Yi took a couple sips of mineral water and shook his head. “I, I accompany Er-ge.”

In any case, he may not be able to sleep if he went back to his room. It was better to stay here with Bo Yueming to pass the time, and it wouldn’t be too late for him to go back after the other party finished his work.

Wasn’t it just staying up late? This was no problem for him, a night owl!

“…….”

Bo Yueming hesitated for several seconds.

Facing the kitten who had delivered himself to his door, he couldn’t bear to refuse. “Okay, sleep when you feel sleepy.”

Pei Yi made a sound of acknowledgement.

He sat on the cushion on the side of the bed and leaned back against it in a comfortable posture. He could euphemistically call this “accompanying Er-ge,” but he was actually in a “dazed fugue.”

Pei Yi thought of the upcoming “The Last Fog” project, then the plots and characters in the original text and the final results.

It had almost been two months since he transmigrated.

Judging from the plot, Li Yuan and Pei Huan’s origins would be revealed in two months, and wouldn’t Bo Yueming’s eyesight enter the recovery period?

As for his canon fodder self, thanks to the foundation laid out by the original owner, he was able to rely on his mediocre acting skills to pretend until now.

Pei Yi knew that once Bo Yueming recovered his eyesight, he would likely not be able to escape the other party’s eyes.

After all, what Bo Yueming hated most in the original text was deception.

Deception?

Didn’t this count as deceiving him? If Bo Yueming found out, wouldn’t he be very angry?

Pei Yi’s thoughts were complicated and tangled for a while, but he was still steadfast in his original goal—

Save his life and start a career. He couldn’t change anything!

Pei Yi was full of thoughts, but his eyelids gradually grew heavier, and his gaze unknowingly froze in one direction.

Bo Yueming felt the focused gaze from the side, and he felt nervous and helpless at the same time—

It must be known that in the past, he was the only one who “supervised” others.

Unexpectedly, in the middle of the night, a kitten suddenly appeared to “supervise” his every move?

The more this was the case, the more Bo Yueming didn’t dare to show his usual work efficiency, and he honestly listened to the voice from his earphones.

The night gradually deepened.

There was suddenly a faint sound of sleep talking from the bedside. Bo Yueming was taken aback, and turned around to look—

At some point, Pei Yi had hugged a small round pillow and fallen asleep with his head tilted. The promised “accompanying Er-ge” hadn’t even lasted twenty minutes.

Bo Yueming looked at his cute sleeping face, and his heart relaxed slightly. “Pei Yi?”

No answer.

Thus, Bo Yueming simply turned off the tablet and earphones.

As early as the moment Pei Yi came to his door, his working mode was completely disturbed, and he also had a deceptive sense of revealing tension. 

Bo Yueming approached and called out twice. After confirming that the other party was asleep, he easily placed the other party on his bed.

Laying on the more comfortable pillow, Pei Yi let out a comfortable hum.

Bo Yueming became more cautious, covering him with a quilt silently.

The familiar calming scent lingered. Pei Yi habitually turned sideways in his sleep and wrapped his arms and legs around him. “Hmmn.”

Bo Yueming touched the back of his neck, comforting him to sleep with his cool fingertips. “Good. Sleep, ba.”

“…….”

Pei Yi didn’t respond, sleeping soundly.

Bo Yueming stared down at the sleeping person in his arms, joy on his face—

Pei Yi had gradually gotten used to living with him, and he was also ready to go further with the other party.

No matter what the result of this bidding project was, when he returned to the Imperial Capital, he intended to find an opportunity to confess his eye condition to Pei Yi.

Acting to tease the kitten was fun, but he would be noticed sooner or later, and it might even make the other person angry.

Although the relationship between the two was based on marriage, their future relationship could not be based on deception.

At the least, he didn’t want to hide it from Pei Yi and make the other person worry about him.

. . . . . .

It was a gentle, sleepy night, and birdsong sounded outside the window at dawn.

Pei Yi was awoken by the consistent morning calls. He opened his eyes in a sleepy daze, and was instantly alarmed by the scene in front of him—

He actually slept in Bo Yueming’s arms?

Not only that, but he also entangled the other person with his limbs and refused to let go!

“…….”

Having just woken up, it took a while for Pei Yi to recall what happened last night after his brain “crashed,” and more question marks popped up in his mind.

Wasn’t he sitting down lost in thought last night? When did he fall asleep? Why was he lying in Bo Yueming’s bed?

Also, what kind of position was this now?!

Pei Yi swallowed nervously, intending to withdraw from Bo Yueming’s arms, but unexpectedly found that his waist was tightly bound.

Bo Yueming’s arm was around his waist, very firmly.

“…….”

Pei Yi was dumbfounded.

He tried to peel off the fingers that were pressed to his body, and they finally loosened a little. But before he could retreat—

In his sleep, Bo Yueming hugged him back again with furrowed brows, saying in a faint, low tone, “Don’t move.”

“Ah?”

Pei Yi raised his head at these words.

The distance between the two was unexpectedly so close. The tips of their noses rubbed against each other suddenly, their warm breaths blended together, and even their lips seemed to touch.

“……”

Pei Yi’s brain restarted and went blank. He pulled his head back to distance himself.

The bedside lamp was still on, and the clutter on the desk was the same as the night before. It was naturally impossible for Bo Yueming to do everything, considering his eye condition.

Pei Yi stared blankly at the person in front of him for a while—

The sleeping Bo Yueming became softer and less fierce. His eyelashes were very long, the bridge of his nose was straight, and his thin lips were also very good-looking, especially suitable for kissing.

Kissing?

The extremely blurry picture in his dreams flashed through his mind and almost overlapped with his vision.

Pei Yi swallowed several times, and when he realized his burgeoning thoughts, he couldn’t worry about his shock anymore!

He quickly broke free from the firm embrace, and the kitten slipped out of the room with his tail between his legs.

Swish, click.

There was a trace of panic in the sound of the door closing.

Bo Yueming, who had been “soundly asleep,” slowly opened his eyes and looked helplessly at the empty right side of the bed.

As early as the first time Pei Yi moved around in his arms and peeled away his fingers, he had already woken up.

Bo Yueming didn’t get up immediately. He just raised his hand to cover his eyes, silently suppressing some unspeakable impulse.

He had originally tried to hook the kitten with his “sleeping face,” but it was a pity that the other party was very calm, not at all bewitched, and quickly made his escape.

“……..”

Bo Yueming pressed his nose against the quilt lightly. Pei Yi’s warmth still remained on it, and he sighed with a helpless chuckle—

This early in the morning, the kitten trap didn’t succeed, and his own true colors were almost exposed!

. . . . . . .

Pei Yi collapsed on the bed after returning to his room, his whole body filled with an inexplicable heat.

He had always been aware of his sleeping tendencies.

Honest?

It was practically impossible to be honest.

Wrapping up in a quilt before going to bed and throwing the quilt off while asleep were all very normal things.

Bo Yueming’s biological clock was always more on time than his own. During those days they first came to Wencheng and stayed in a hotel, Pei Yi slept until he woke up naturally every day, and each time he woke up, the bed was empty.

The other party never mentioned the commotion at night, so he forgot to consider it until he unexpectedly woke up early today.

Thinking of those nights when he slept in the same bed with Bo Yueming, it was very likely that he treated the other person like a big pillow to hug, and even took the initiative to get into the other person’s arms every night—

Pei Yi felt the emotion called “shame.” He grabbed the quilt and wrapped himself up, acting like a turtle early in the morning.

“…….”

The other party must have regarded him as a fool, so he was extra indulgent, right? But this was too shameful! 

Pei Yi, who learned the truth about his sleeping, was overcome by an indescribable and unfamiliar embarrassment. He didn’t know how to face Bo Yueming at the moment, so he had to “pretend to sleep” in order to avoid breakfast.

However, this one-sided hiding lasted all morning.

Because Bo Yueming was so busy leading the project team, it had become normal for him to leave early and return late, or even stay there overnight.

Pei Yi could imagine the pressure of the workload, and tried to considerately not cause any trouble for the other party.

Fortunately, the nature of his work had always been “home-based,” and he didn’t stop working while the other party was busy.

It took Pei Yi a month to complete the game structure of “Tracking Pros and Cons,” including the original eight levels, plus two additional ones required by Nebula—

Ten levels, a whole series, all at once.

Not only that, but another original mini-game designed by him was successfully sold three days ago, adding another sum of money to his small treasury.

“Teacher Will, the final payment has been sent to you through the forum background. Please check on it!”

Pei Yi looked at the message sent by the copyright team leader, and responded with a smile, “Thank you, Team Leader Gu, for a pleasant cooperation.”

The original 660,000 yuan was finally increased to 760,000 yuan, and he was quite satisfied with his earnings.

Team Leader Gu liked Pei Yi’s game very much, and through this month’s online contract, he found that the two people had a certain resonance regarding game concepts.

Although this short-term cooperation was over, he really wanted to make friends with this great god.

“Teacher Will, would you like to come to Haishi for development?”

“Whether it is our Nebula or our game headquarters in Weiyi, in fact, there is a lack of creative original game architects like you.”

“If you are willing to come, whether it is a guaranteed monthly salary or game shares, it will definitely not be low.”

Seeing the olive branch that was suddenly handed over, Pei YI raised his eyebrows. “Thank you, but I don’t like being controlled by others. I prefer to be my own boss to earn money.”

What’s more, G.M.’s investment was in place, and “The Last Fog 1.0” had officially launched.

Team Leader Gu on the other side was unaware of this, and only thought that Pei Yi preferred the identity of an unfettered freelance architect. “Then in the future, if you have a chance to come to Haishi, I will treat Teacher Will to dinner.”

Pei Yi readily agreed.

The two game company hotbeds in China — The Imperial Capital and Haishi, would definitely have a place for him in the future.

Pei Yi took the initiative to end this string of messages and opened another blank document. He planned to start the writing structure of a new game without pause.

You couldn’t become fat after eating one bite, but you could take one bite after another.

The first wave of pre-heat publicity for Cloud Realm had already begun and achieved initial results. Pei Yi wanted to take advantage of this wave of popularity to open up his reputation in the field as soon as possible.

After all, only his works could determine his capability and prospects.

Ding-dong.

The message notification sound appeared once more.

Pei Yi switched back to the chat interface of Youtu and found a message from his core work group.

Li Yuan: “Will, you there? I want to discuss something with you.”

Pei Yi immediately typed his response. “I’m here.”

The preparatory work for “The Last Fog” had already started. Compared with Pei Yi’s online remote work, Li Yuan had to be busy in the early stages.

Li Yuan said again: “You know that problem with Youming Studios some time ago? If nothing unexpected happened, Ke Ming and Xiang Nansheng should have fallen apart!”

Li Yuan paid special attention to news about their studio due to their past relationship.

Pei Yi stared at this string of news, a little surprised.

After all, when he was still in the Imperial Capital, he had thought about “poaching” and asked Xiang Nansheng to come to the “Last Fog” project team, and even gave him a month to think about it.

It was a pity that the other party didn’t come at the point that the “Last Fog” project was officially launched.

He had thought that Xiang Nansheng and Ke Ming had resolved their differences and continued to run the studio together, so why did they break apart?

Pei Yi returned to his senses and simply said, “Pear Garden, be more specific.”

His daily name for Li Yuan had changed from Little Boss Li at the beginning to his current ID nickname.

Likely finding it troublesome to type, Li Yuan directly sent a fifty-nine second voice message. Pei Yi clicked on it and listened carefully, finally understanding the whole story—

A week ago, Youming Studio’s most popular mobile game, “Search for Another World,” launched a brand new map and also opened a relatively high item charging channel.

However, within twelve hours of going online, many bugs such as character card withdrawal, garbled interfaces, duplicate charges, and undelivered props frequently appeared.

The technical department’s hard work on the servers was fruitless, and the repair process was also lengthy, which caused a large number of players and consumers to be dissatisfied in a short period of time.

It must be known that “Search for Another World” was the proudest work of Youming Studios since its establishment. There were no few players who loved this game. As a result, after this failed operation—

Individual players angrily called the Consumer Association to complain, and more players gave the game low scores on various software stores.

As insiders in the game circle, both Pei Yi and Li Yuan understood how much loss this would bring to a rising studio.

“I don’t know exactly how much Youming Studios lost, and don’t have time to research their subsequent solutions, but I’m sure of one thing now!”

Li Yuan took a screenshot of Youming Studio’s official website:

The “Technical Director” line above had been replaced by someone else’s name, and the name “Xiang Nansheng” no longer appeared in other technical positions.

Pei Yi guessed Li Yuan’s real purpose in expressing all this. “You want to poach Xiang Nansheng?”

Li Yuan said straightforwardly, “Isn’t this what you wanted? Since there is an opportunity now, why not try?”

Their “Last Fog” still lacked a competent and capable technical director.

Lou Yang’s ability was indeed very strong, but “The Last Fog” was a long-term game in terms of development, and it was impossible for her to supervise the art and technical aspects all the time, bearing double the pressure.

Li Yuan said again, “I asked Sister Yang, and she supports it.”

Pei Yi replied, “Okay, can you talk to him in person?”

For a successful game project, the basic core personnel were the most important—

If this “poaching” went well, then “The Last Fog” would be composed of his plot structure and Lou Yang and Xiang Nansheng working together in art design and R&D. As for Li Yuan, he was a good hand at external operations.

Li Yuan was quite confident. “En, we have G.M.’s investment in “The Last Fog,” and the double strength guarantee of you and Sister Yang. I think I should be able to convince him.”

Pei Yi raised his eyebrows with a smile. “Then, troubling our Little Boss Li.”

As soon as this line of words was sent, Lou Yang, who had not participated in the chat, also bubbled up: “You two bosses, review the logo of our studio. Is it satisfactory?”

The name of the studio was eventually chosen by Lou Yang.

Because she had been working abroad for a long time, she preferred simple letters names.  So Li Yuan and Pei Yi each chose an English letter—

Pei Yi chose “y,” from the initial letter of “Yi,” and Li Yuan also chose “y,” from the initial letter of “Yuan.”

Apparently, they were a pair of naming wastes.

Lou Yang had no choice but to make her own choice, and chose the initial letter “w” of “Will.”

Combining these three letters together looked like an emoticon with a crooked mouth next to two scissors.

As a designer, Lou Yang had a rich imagination. She regarded YWY as the expression of a cat, and added cat ears on top of the three letters, as well as an arc for the outline of a cat’s face.

The texture was that of black metal.

A studio logo resembling a black cat with a big face appeared on the screen.

Pei Yi looked at it for a few seconds, considering his words. “Sister Yang, isn’t this a little too cute?”

Li Yuan briefly said, “Seconded!”

“Game studios have always been associated with two-dimensional logos, and the cuteness of animals is easy to remember.” Lou Yang briefly explained her design concept. “Besides, how cute are cats, ah?”

“Don’t you want our studio to conquer the entire game circle like a kitty cat conquers people’s hearts?”

“…….”

“…….”

It made sense, and could not be refuted.

Lou Yang had the stubbornness of a designer, but also the self-consciousness of a subordinate. “How about you two partners, do you have some advice to offer? Or should we choose a more reliable studio name?”

Pei Yi and Li Yuan both fell silent.

In less than two seconds, the nominee was chosen, and the two voted in favor.

“Sister Yang has the final say.”

“Seconded!”