The little assistant, with his heart fully dedicated to President Xie, was cruelly and emotionlessly dismissed just like that. 

Xie Jianwei, in order to prevent him from saying too much, resourcefully reminded the bodyguards: “Block up his mouth, don’t let the racket disrupt the neighbours.”

Neighbours his ass, in this seaside villa of theirs – but Xie Jianwei had always taken the seabirds to be his neighbours, so the guards didn’t think too much of it; seagulls and Orioles were all of the bird species anyways, so there was nothing wrong with them being neighbours. 

At Xie Jianwei’s reminder, the guards hurriedly blocked the little assistant’s mouth. 

The little assistant’s eyes reddened, his expression basically like that of a great loyal court official, who had tried to offer remonstration to his bewitched and fatuous monarch, but hard ultimately failed; probably, in the next moment, he would run his head into the door post to die, dishing up a ‘remonstration by death’! [1]

For the sake of the safety of his life, Xie Jianwei well intendedly exhorted the guards: “Tie him up tightly, be careful that he runs.”

The guards nodded fervently, patting their chests, declaring that, for big men like them, defeating a small piece of fresh meat was truly a piece of cake.

With such a big ruckus here, Lu Li basically rushed over as soon as possible.

He caught sight of the little assistant immediately, tied up like a zongzi [2], his heart giving a violent lurch. 

He recognised this youth; he was one of Xie Jianwei’s most trusted subordinates – the job he was usually in charge of was bribing President Xie’s pile of flings, and his nickname was ‘Head Steward of the Imperial Household Department’, as given by the people. [3]

Even Lu Li had received quite a bit of his ‘care’ back in those days. 

As of now, when their eyes met, the little assistant Head Steward instantly exploded – this fox spirit of a man [4], without even mentioning how he had made President Xie dizzy with his bewitchment, he was even as greedy as a snake that wanted to swallow an elephant, holding delusions of taking the Xie family for himself!

The little assistant stared at Lu Li and started to make “wawawuwu” sounds. 

Lu Li: “…”

Xie Jianwei interrupted, saying: “And here I was wondering where this little thief had come from; looking at him now he must be your enemy? Did you offend him?”

Lu Li turned his head to look at him, his expression complicated. 

Yet Xie Jianwei was only worried for him: “You don’t have to explain in detail, I get it; you’ll always end up offending unimportant people while in the line of business, so, the security measures of our house need to be seriously worked over.”

At his words, Lu Li was stunned. 

Xie Jianwei devoted himself into digging his own grave, solemnly saying: “This fence should be made a little higher; our front gate doesn’t have any guards, it’s best if we install a row of cameras, and…” He glanced at the few bodyguards beside him, somewhat disdainful as he said, “Hire a few more guards, and best give them electric rods too.” 

As he spoke sedately, Lu Li’s heart slowly dropped back from where it had leapt to his throat. 

The little assistant, having been listening from the side, cried out with a ‘waah’: President Xie ah, this beast wants to imprison you already, aren’t your actions now basically walking right into the net / breaking your own wings / locking yourself up in this tatty house!! 

Xie Jianwei looked at the assistant, who was having a breakdown, and said: “Look, upon hearing that we’re going to strengthen our guards, he’s so sad that he’s crying – he must be despairing that there’s no more hope in the future of charging in and taking revenge on you.”

Lu Li: “…”

The little assistant heard his words and choked, almost angered to death. 

Originally, the little assistant had arrived to further the ‘plot’, probably wanting to plant misunderstandings in Xie Jianwei’s heart, making him slowly grow to distrust Lu Li, and then the abusing would start. 

But Martial Strategist Xie was too quick-witted, actually managing to counterattack this pile of broken glass pieces, turning them into crystal lollies so sweet that they almost melted the Lord Supreme Commander’s heart. 

That night, Lu Big Li buried himself in Xie Jianwei’s body, unwilling to come out.

Xie Jianwei was teased so much the base of his waist tingled: “Move, move a little ah.”

Lu Li licked at the tip of his ear, his voice low, making Xie Jianwei’s heart tingle too: “Ah Wei, I love you,”

That night, Lu Li was unreasonably gentle, attending to Xie Jianwei until he flew to seventh heaven; he didn’t even feel tired afterwards, and, like a madman, indulged with him for the entire night. 

What a pity that on the second day, he couldn’t get out of bed no matter what. 

Lu Li didn’t go out for the whole day, staying by his side and carefully taking care of him. 

Although Xie Jianwei knew long ago that Lu Li loved him very much, because there had been too many trivial problems back in reality, they had never actually shamelessly interacted like so before. 

And Lu Li had never before treated him like he was made of porcelain. 

The fault wasn’t Lu Li’s – it was mostly that Xie Jianwei was too strong; ten years had gone by like a single day, and apart from that time when Lu Li had fallen into imprisonment, Xie Jianwei had never displayed his vulnerable side to him. 

For a man who could complete millions of tasks with such ease, even if Lu Li wanted to hold him in the palm of his hands, hide him inside his mouth – it was a pity that there was no opportunity to do so. 

The Golden Oriole Xie pondered as he enjoyed his lover’s attention – could it be that he was too capable in reality, that Lu Li would feel so anxious over his gains and losses with him? 

Due to the infiltration of the little assistant and Xie Jianwei’s requests, Lu Li now had a just and honourable reason to arrange the house until it became an impregnable fortress. 

Xie Jianwei also received a just and honourable reason to help him fill in any holes in the plan. 

After all, in regards to security, Military Strategist Xie was much more of an expert than the Lord Supreme Commander, who was better at invading. 

Without even mentioning anything else, the most secure planetary prison in the Milky Way Galaxy was designed by Xie Jianwei, and, to this day, the alien moguls who had been imprisoned inside had all given up on escaping after failing to break out thousands of times, expressing that they would spend the remainder of their lives inside the prison with a smile. 

And so with this, those troublemakers ‘descending from the sky’ had basically been stopped outside the cage.

During this, Xie Jianwei went back to reality once. 

Even though the rate of flow of time in the dream was different from in reality, but Xie Jianwei had stayed in the dream for so long, there was a pile of things built up outside. Because this personality hadn’t been solved yet, Xie Jianwei didn’t plan on letting Lu Li wake up, and so he directly connected to the light interface [5], using his full-authority account that he had left abandoned for so long, at last. 

After the battle had ended, there were still a thousand tasks to be dealt with throughout the galaxy – but because they had planned very well in the earlier stages, as of today, they only needed to develop according to the plan, slowly moving back on track. 

Despite not having touched this stuff in a few years, Xie Jianwei didn’t feel out of practice. 

He was naturally inclined to dealing with all sorts of information and data. The speed of his flow of thought was the only one out of the entire galaxy that was on par with the speed of light, and the tasks that would take others a few days to complete, he could do in a matter of minutes, making his efficiency extremely high. 

Having more or less dealt with things, Xie Jianwei returned to the laboratory. 

Yan Ke asked him: “My lord, how is the treatment proceeding?”

Xie Jianwei replied: “Well enough. I’m figuring out the pattern.”

Yan Ke said, curious: “Just what must we do to…”

Xie Jianwei said: “We can only stabilise him at the moment.” 

“Ah?” Yan Ke didn’t understand.

Xie Jianwei said: “Every personality is Lu Li, so we can’t wipe them away; this would create deficiencies in his spirit, so we can only get them to combine. But combining, in itself, is a reciprocating condition, and needs all of the personalities to stabilise before happening.” 

Yan Ke understood – what Xie Jianwei said wasn’t wrong; they needed to find the root of the splitting, but so what if they found the crux of the problem? The final goal was to let the lord Supreme Commander recover, and the main condition of recovering was for the personalities to combine. 

But…Yan Ke furrowed his brows, saying: “The Lord Supreme Commander’s personalities have already started trying to kill each other, what must be done to stabilise them?”

Xie Jianwei gave a laugh: “I’ll let his wishes be fulfilled.”

Yan Ke blinked: “But he won’t let you love him…”

Xie Jianwei said: “Then I’ll just repeatedly prove it to him.”

For example, Lu Li in this dreamscape kept wanting to lock Xie Jianwei away in the small dark house – so he’ll let him lock; if one year wasn’t enough then ten years, if ten years wasn’t enough then twenty years; if twenty years wasn’t enough then they still had an entire lifetime right?

He would always be able to let him have what he wanted.

If he bluntly confessed, then Lu Li would collapse due to disbelief, but confessing by following his logic? He will make Lu Li believe that he loved him. 

Moreover, he really did love him.

After going back to his dreamscape, Xie JIanwei found an opportunity to secretly do something.

He contacted Grandmother Xie, ‘recuperating’ overseas. 

Grandmother Xie picked up his call, immediately asking straight up: “Who’s Lu Li?”

Xie Jianwei: ”…”

Grandmother Xie’s voice was very solemn: “Jianwei, you’ve always been smart, and Granny believes in you, but there are some things that you can’t take too far.”

“Grandmother.” Xie Jianwei directly confessed, saying: “Lu Li is my lover.”

Grandmother Xie: “…”

Xie Jianwei didn’t hide anything. Grandmother Xie was modelled off of Lu Li’s grandmother; Lu Li’s respect towards his grandmother was carved deeply into the marrow of his bones, and in the dreamscape, this was infinitely glorified even further, so Xie Jianwei was very clear on the personality of Grandmother Xie. 

She was wise and logical, and, compared to mere secular possessions, she placed more importance on her grandson’s happiness.

As long as Xie Jianwei confessed to her, even if she felt somewhat unable to accept things at the time, she wouldn’t act blindly either. 

Moreover, Xie Jianwei said to her such a sentence: “Grandmother, I love him – to be able to meet him in this lifetime, I am satisfied.”

In the end, Grandmother Xie was persuaded by Xie Jianwei. 

Xie Jianwei had basically eliminated all possible hidden dangers, wanting only to enjoy life inside the cage, free from all worries. 

But in the end, he may have guarded against the entire world, but he couldn’t guard against the person sleeping by his side.

En…who let his bedside person have personalities that were a bit numerous after all.

It happened at the beginning of the third year of Xie Jianwei’s life as a golden oriole.

Everything was pretty normal to start with, with Lu Li taking him out to watch a movie.

Clearing out the movie cinema of people was a definite, and even the waiters at the restaurant had all been changed to Lu Li’s personnel; after they dined, they wert out onto the street, and even amongst the pedestrians there were a few that looked familiar; probably a ‘mass acting’ hired by Lu Li. 

It wasn’t like it was the first time for something like this, Xie Jianwei was very used to it; originally, anyway, the entire dream was Lu Li’s script, adding on some plays within the play wasn’t any trouble. 

Except, this play-within-a-play gave him a huge surprise!

Xie Jianwei stood where he was, looking at the Lu Li by his side, then looked at the Lu Li in the middle of the road, his entire gaze filled with surprise.

What sort of situation was this?

The author has something to say: President of Drama Number 2: Fucking hell, this fucker number 1’s eaten enough benefits already, it’s time to wake up from the dream!

Happy weekend!

• • •

[1] 死谏: remonstration by death: When a court official, for the sake of justice, disregards his life in order to offer remonstration to his King – the example seen here would be the little assistant wanting to run his head into the door post in order to make his point, thereby using his death to convince his liege (XJW) to reconsider. 

[2] 粽子: from wikipedia: ‘A traditional Chinese rice dish made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves’. Possible fillings include meat, red bean paste, mung beans, mushrooms, salted eggs, etc. Traditionally eaten on 端午节, or the Dragon Boat festival. 

[3] 内务府大总管: Head Steward of the Imperial Household Department: ‘An institution of the Qing dynasty of China, whose main purpose was to manage the internal affairs of the Qing imperial family and the activities of the Inner palace’ – once again taken straight from wikipedia :3

[4] Calling someone a fox spirit is basically calling them a seductress. 

[5] 光脑: Basically computers that operate either on light, or at the speed of light. Pretty sure it’s on light, since normal computers are called 电脑, which translates to ‘electricity brain’, and 光脑 translates to ‘light brain’, so since computers operate on electricity I’m assuming that…these light brains operate on light. Light interfaces.