The Escort

Min Yu didn’t say anything and just leaned on Shao Mingwei’s shoulder with his face turned sideways.
In a somewhat low voice, he said, “I think you’re hiding something from me.” 

“I…” Shao Mingwei’s voice was inaudible.

Min Yu raised his hand to smoothen the creases in Shao Mingwei’s shoulder, and asked again softly, “Are you hiding something from me again?”

Shao Mingwei took his hand.
“You know something?”

Min Yu didn’t hide it either.
He rubbed the tip of his nose against his neck and smelled the reassuring smell of fresh shower gel on him.
“Professor Xue told me that you don’t want to go to graduate school.” 

“En.” Shao Mingwei held his hand and rubbed it unconsciously.

Min Yu sat up slowly.
“Why? Is it because of the 300,000 yuan?”

Shao Mingwei pursed his lips.
“Yes… No.”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection.
If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

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“Qf’gf j ojwlis.
Tbe xcbk P vbc’a mjgf jybea atfrf.”

Shao Mingwei was enveloped in his gentle eyes.
Min Yu’s eyes looked at him with tolerance, seeing him as a beloved child, and at the same time an equal lover who was taken seriously.
As if he can give him all the attitudes that he wanted.
Shao Mingwei suddenly removed the pride and self-defense that had been corroding him for a long time and unexpectedly said in calm indifference, or rather a “let it be” attitude, “I’m very anxious.
I want to catch up with you.
You’re already outstanding and I have nothing.
I… am not worthy of you.
I want you to think that I am worthy of your love and can be relied on.”

Min Yu asked, “Then are you thinking that you’re unworthy of my love and cannot be relied on now?”

“No…” Shao Mingwei subconsciously refuted but got stuck, and said after a long pause, “Yes, I’m afraid I may not be as good as you think.
I’m too young.
I’m afraid I won’t be able to catch up with you.
I… I’m really worried.
I’m afraid you won’t like me by then.”

Min Yu’s eyes were bright and a little hot.
He paused and calmed down his racing heartbeat because of Shao Mingwei’s frank and straightforward love words.
Shaking his head, he said with somewhat self-deprecation, “But I rely on you so much, can you not feel it? In fact, I also feel worried every time.
I’m afraid you’ll think I’m too old for you and I’m afraid you’ll think I’m long in the tooth already.
At my age, I still like to be coquettish to my little boyfriend and like to be taken care of.
I am always afraid that you’ll think I’m obnoxious.” 

Shao Mingwei was a little surprised and then said decisively, “Absolutely not.
How can you say that you’re old when you’re only in your thirties? And even if you will become old one day, you’ll remain the best in my heart.
I will always love you and be willing to be someone you can rely on and will take care of you forever.”

“Me too.” Min Yu raised his hand, stroked Shao Mingwei’s young and handsome face, and looked straight at him.
“I sometimes feel regretful.
If I were born more than ten years later, we would meet at a very young age and be together.
That would probably be great.
But I’m still very fortunate.
At least we’ve met each other, and I did not miss your youth, and as someone who has ten years of experience, I can guide you so that you can take fewer detours.”

Shao Mingwei hugged him, buried his head on his thin shoulders, and said in a muffled voice, “I also want to meet the young you, but as what you’ve said, we have a lot of time and opportunities to recollect memories together.
So don’t feel regretful.
Although I wasn’t able to participate in your past, I will be by your side every minute and every second of your life in the future, that it’ll be impossible to feel any regrets.”

Min Yu felt his sadness and eagerness to appease him and showed a soft smile.
He held him in his arms and patted him on the back and said, “Okay, we have an agreement.
You see, we both have our worries, but does that prevent us from loving each other? It’s even because we love each other that we think so much.
But we all know that these things won’t shake the fact that we are together, so how can you change the right decision that should have been made because of that?” 

Min Yu gently pushed him away with a smile in his eyes.
“For example, about your postgraduate studies.”

Shao Mingwei went silent.

Min Yu didn’t directly persuade him, but instead asked, “If you don’t want to go to graduate school, what was your original plan?”

Shao Mingwei: “… XX company has a talent recruitment plan.
I submitted my resume, and they sent me an interview notice.
I think there’s a high probability of success.” 

Min Yu: “Compared with going to graduate school, which one do you think can give you more potential for growth and room for improvement?”

Shao Mingwei’s silence already represents his answer.

Min Yu smiled helplessly, then said with indulgence, “Actually, my dream before was to be a pianist.
I wanted to be admitted to a music school to specialize in music, but my father disagreed so I had to change and enroll in Q University.
Later, he fell ill, and I had to join the company as soon as I graduated.
Don’t look at me managing Huaining well right now.
When I first entered the company, the old man asked me to start as a small office worker, and no one knew me.
The old man was sick at that time.
He was anxious, and I was also anxious.
I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to manage his company properly if I wasn’t capable enough, so I took turns in various departments in the company within two years.
At that time, I rarely thought about playing the piano.” Min Yu asked him, “Do you know why?”

Shao Mingwei: “Why?” 

“Because the workplace is the best place to wear down a youth’s dreams and passion, especially when you first enter the workplace at the grassroots unit, the cruel reality will hit you in the face.
You will be surprised by the low work efficiency there.
You will disdain those colleagues who like to blame others for their irresponsibilities, you will hate those incompetent superiors who like to take credit and scold others, you’ll worry about your hypocritical interpersonal relationships, and you will resist those life-wasting bars and social interactions.
Maybe this is rarely the case in some large companies, but it is a fact that almost all small and medium-sized companies face.
At that time, in the first two years of working in Huaining, although there was no such extreme situation, it was indeed very hard and tiring.
At that time, I only thought of one thing, and that is to grow up as soon as possible and help my father support the entire family and the group.
I had no extra energy to think of other things.”

Shao Mingwei said, “I am not afraid of hardships.”

Min Yu looked at him.
“I know you’re not afraid, but we don’t have to do that, right? We don’t need to grow up in this way.
There are obviously better choices, right? And you are very talented and passionate.
I don’t want it to be worn out by work and become dispensable like my previous musical dreams.”

Shao Mingwei nodded hesitantly, and Min Yu’s eyes lit up—this proved that Shao Mingwei was thinking about his words seriously. 

Min Yu took his hand and said softly and coquettishly, “If our positions were reversed, what would you expect me to do? If you were me, would you regret and feel sad because I made a stubborn decision?” He opened his eyes big and looked at Shao Mingwei intently.
“Do you want me to be sad?”

Shao Mingwei said in a low voice, “I…don’t want.”

Min Yu smiled.
“You see, as long as you jump out and assume that it’s not happening to you, any spectator will make the right decision.” Min Yu’s reasoning was crafty.
“I’m very happy you’re too attached to me, but I hope you can also make good plans for yourself.
Thinking for your sake is also thinking about my sake.
After all, we have to live together for several years, dozens of years, decades, a lifetime… I don’t want you to say one day that you regret it, and then blame me.”

Shao Mingwei: “I won’t…” 

Min Yu pressed his fingers on his lips to block the words he wanted to refute, then cupped his cheeks with both hands and kissed him.
“I also don’t want that.
And you said you wanted to catch up with me… Why would we lovers need to catch up and compare? Where I am is also where you are.
We will be together for a long time.
Do we really have to keep competing? How tiring.”

He was holding Shao Mingwei’s face, and he was looking at him quietly and lovingly.

Min Yu blushed a little at his stare.
He turned his body into jelly and leaned into his arms in embarrassment.
“I was just expressing my thoughts.
I won’t force you to act according to them.
In the end, the decision is yours.
No matter what it is, I will support it.
But you have to promise me that you won’t go digging into the tip of a bull’s horn, and think about it seriously, okay?”

“En,” Shao Mingwei replied, and hugged Min Yu tightly.