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

In any other circumstance, Xi Zirui would love seeing Han Yu taking off his clothes but this whole situation is bizarre. 

Han Yu is no less confused. "Do you not want to?" he asks, disbelieving. "Because I'm not here for the great company, if you don't want to fuck I'm out."

Why are the other Xi Zirui's always fucking up his life? Honestly, when he isn't married to Han Yu's father, it's his employer. And with the exception of the previous world, they always have a terrible relationship to begin with.

What is it now? Hate-sex? It surely doesn't seem like they like each other.

"They don't!" Ni Ni chimes, ever helpful.

"Actually, I have a headache," Xi Zirui says, regretfully eyeing the sliver of skin at Han Yu's throat, admiring the teasing peek of his collarbones.

He feels ravenous for him, hungry for the way they fit together.

But he can't stand it if Han Yu fucks him like it means nothing, maybe back in the first world it would have been fun, but not now, not after everything they've gone through.

"A headache?" Han Yu asks, cocking an eyebrow.

Xi Zirui starts pushing him out of the room like an unyielding piece of furniture. 

"A big one, probably going to last all day."

Han Yu opens his mouth to ask something else, but Xi Zirui closes the door in his face.

He slides to the floor with a groan and hides his face between his bent knees.

"Ni Ni, give me the run through."

Things aren't all that different from what he expected.

Su Xueyi's company is technically still a "start up" despite raking in hundreds of millions yearly, allowing it to engage in all kind of shady business practices under that umbrella, and exploit their employees with incredible low salaries by dangling the opportunity of one day "owning company stock" whenever the company goes public. Which is looking like it's never going to happen.

Xi Zirui studied this kind of business model in his one and only business administration class, before he decided he would be happier doing literally anything else.

One day, when Su Xueyi thinks he has milked his company of all its worth and lined his designer pockets well and truly full, he's going to declare bankruptcy. 

Either by literally running the company into the ground, or by fabricating documents and hiding all of its actual profits in off-shore accounts. 

The result is the same: all of the company's assets (by then nonexistent) are seized to settle any outstanding payments and pay delayed employee salaries, and Su Xueyi is freed from any other responsibility. 

After that it's either up to an insurance company, or the state, to clean up the mess.

Usually the state, and the taxpayers, because the only thing Su Xueyi will insure is himself. 

All of his hundreds of disgruntled employees will be left twisting in the wind.

Even if he didn't hold a grudge against Su Xueyi for what happened in the previous world, his existence in this one alone would be enough to make Xi Zirui want to take him down.

It's so kind of Su Xueyi to make things easier for him, at least in this one regard.

It would be hard for Xi Zirui to get his revenge if Su Xueyi led an animal rescue or something of the sort.

An immoral, corporate tycoon? Xi Zirui has been wanting to take out one those since his Granny was "coerced" into selling her land back in the country for "rural development", which turned out to be an "eco-hotel and world's first sustainable golf course" that stayed open three seasons before declaring bankruptcy (surprise!), and which to this day, Xi Zirui is convinced was nothing but a money-laundering scheme.

"That's awful, Host's poor granny," Ni Ni says, her robotic voice filled with consternation.

His grandma still has a process running in court in order to have the land returned to her, on the basis that threats and intimidation were used in order to force her to sell, but his aunt has a lawyer friend who's been helping them pro bono.

"Yeah, well, that land developer died in a yacht accident not long after the hotel declared bankruptcy." Xi Zirui smirks. "In the end, karma comes for us all."

And Su Xueyi is about to meet his.

---

Xi Zirui gets dressed in something terrible and expensive. This world's original has a penchant for pastel silk shirts and either doesn't realize, or doesn't care, how much they scream 'Someone's trophy husband!'

In fact, his entire wardrobe seems to be comprised of pastel-toned clothing.

Xi Zirui looks at himself in the full-length mirror in dismay. He looks like a novelty moon cake.

Even his usual black hair has been lightened to a sort of caramel colour. 

He barely recognizes the face looking at him in through the mirror. Even when he was an actor his skin didn't look this flawless or poreless. During shooting he often looked and felt like a sweaty mess.

This Xi Zirui looks as if water will seep through his skin if someone presses down lightly on his cheek.

"I look like a doll," Xi Zirui says, inspecting his profile to confirm if his lashes are longer than usual or if he's just imagining things.

Eventually, he shakes himself away from the bizarre experience of looking at himself through a douyin filter, but in real life.

He makes his way down to the glass staircase, and into a vaulted ceiling foyer, where Han Yu is standing by the door, looking bored out of his mind.

He looks up as soon as he hears the sound of Xi Zirui's bare feet on the marble slabs. "Didn't you have an headache?"

"It's gone now," Xi Zirui says, self-conscious of the way he looks. "Uhm, could you give me a ride to the company."

Han Yu gives him a confused look. "You have a driver for that."

Right, of course he does. "No, of course, I meant could you come with me to the company, as my security detail."

Another incredulous look. "That's literally my job description."

Xi Zirui bites down on the urge to smile at Han Yu's confused frown. It makes him look like an angry husky. 

"Right, I'm glad we settled that,"Xi Zirui says, slipping on some awful designer loafers.

He makes his way around Han Yu to pull open the gigantic front door, which is easily four meters high.

Xi Zirui pulls on the vertical handle with all his strength making the door swing violently on its hinges and send him sprawling to the floor.

Despite its intimidating size, the door is somehow light as a feather. Fucking rich people.

Han Yu helps him up from the floor, his dark eyes shining with undisguised mirth. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Smoothing the front of his silk shirt and cashmere overcoat Xi Zirui gives him a pinched smile. "I'm fine, let's go."

Actually his ass hurts, but he would rather die than admit that.

---

The ride is atrocious, not five minutes in and they get stuck in traffic. 

Xi Zirui rides in the backseat by himself, while Han Yu sits in the front, with the driver, none other than Jin Ranyu, the Imperial Guard Captain from the previous world, and Cao Fei's unlikely lover.

He's as quiet and unobtrusive in this world as he was in the last, and he and Han Yu don't exchange a word.

Since he has nothing better to do, Xi Zirui pores over the details Ni Ni gave him.

This world's Xi Zirui's marriage to Su Xueyi is merely a matter of convenience. He doesn't have any feelings for Su Xueyi, other than a considerable aesthetic appreciation, and an even bigger financial one.

Two years into his marriage, someone tried to kidnap him. Their identity has never been found, but it prompted Su Xueyi to appoint one of his personal bodyguards to shadow Xi Zirui. Han Yu.

The dislike was mutual, and so was the attraction.

Han Yu despised the original for being a superficial rich plaything married to a shady businessman, but was attracted to his devious smirks, long legs, and tight waist.

The original despised Han Yu for being poor and therefore beneath him, but was attracted to his trim body, tight abs, and big co-.

Xi Zirui now finds himself in the awkward position of being kind of jealous of himself. Even if the only thing the original got was some intense hatefucking.

It does sound kind of hot, actually. He should talk Han Yu into roleplaying that, after he has seduced him into a mutual, loving relationship. Where they once again cuck Xi Zirui's spouse, but hey at least he's no longer Han Yu's father. Progress.

"Another positive thing is that Su Xueyi is no longer the supreme ruler of an entire nation!" Ni Ni chimes, optimistic as ever.

No, he's just the tyrant of a shitty tech company. Xi Zirui can work with that.

Speaking of which, it's been ages and they have barely moved.

Xi Zirui looks up the company, Greydot, and comes to the startling realization that it is not only incredibly close to the penthouse, withing walking distance if someone is in the mood for a stroll, but also near a metro station.

"Stop the car," Xi Zirui says, feeling stupid for not checking first, and assuming someone would ask him if he wouldn't rather walk if the distance was too short.

"Why?" Han Yu asks, turning around on his seat.

"I'm taking the metro," he says, eyeing the time on his mobile. He can't walk now, they've wasted too much time. "Mr. Jin can take the car home."

"The metro? You know poor people use that too, right?" Han Yu asks, smirking.

If Jin Ranyu thinks the informal way they address each other is odd, he doesn't remark on it. He's a man of very little words.

"Maybe I want to see how the other half lives," Xi Zirui says, annoyed at Han Yu's antagonism when they are on the same side.

Not that he has any way of knowing that, or that Xi Zirui can tell him in any way that makes sense.

Han Yu's smile disappear and he follows Xi Zirui out of the car without another word.

They cross the street and walk a few paces to the nearest metro station. Xi Zirui has only been to Beijing once when he was much younger, and he didn't ride the metro then. But he's more than used to doing it in Chongqing, and a metro is a metro anyway. You've ridden one, you've ridden all of them.

Well, that's not true, the bit of track going through the middle floors of a residential building is a pretty exclusive Chongqing experience(1).

Han Yu follows him down into the station, and watches in shock as he uses his mobile to get them both tickets.

"You know how to ride the metro," he says, astonished.

"Maybe some of your assumptions about me are wrong," Xi Zirui retorts.

Han Yu snorts. "Not likely."

While he's probably right about the original. This Xi Zirui is a whole 'nother creature.

Smirk curling at the corner of his lips, Xi Zirui spares him a challenging look from beneath his lashes. "We'll see about that."

---

Three stops later, they arrive at Su Xueyi's company headquarters, taking up a concerning number of floors in a glass monstrosity of a building in Zhongguancun. 

Xi Zirui gets on one of building's elevators with Han Yu, where a woman wearing the same terrible pastel tones as him is already inside.

They could have been the gender flipped versions of each other, Xi Zirui thinks while giving her a polite smile in the hopes of hiding his horror.

"What brings you here?" she asks, in a bubbly voice. "I'm bringing lunch to my hubby," she says, lifting a lunch box in front of her face.

"Uh, having lunch with mine," Xi Zirui says, pretty sure a muscle in his face is twitching.

The woman nods excitedly, and sighs, "Aren't we just the luckiest?"

"Super," Xi Zirui says, at the same time that Han Yu disguises his laughter as a cough.

Mercifully the elevator reaches their floor shortly after.

---

Xi Zirui is buzzed in straight away by a smiling receptionist who tries to ask him what brings him to their company, and would he like some tea, a magazine perhaps...

It would take an idiot not to realize the guy is stalling.

"I'm fine, I'm just going in to see my husband."

"President Su is in a meeting right no-"

Xi Zirui dodges the secretary and throws a flippant smile over his shoulder. "It's fine, I'm just going to say a quick hello."

He makes a beeline for the dark door with a gold plaque with Su Xueyi's name, in a large glass office with all the curtains pulled shut.

Xi Zirui smirks before opening the door without knocking.

Behind a large mahogany desk, sits Su Xueyi, dressed in narrow-legged pressed slacks, a form-fitting stripped shirt with the sleeves rolled up over his corded forearms, and his hair carelessly thrown over his sharp eyebrows.

His eyes widen when he spots Xi Zirui's smiling face, and his hand leaves the thigh of the young man siting with his legs spread on top of the desk in front of him.

---

(1) Look up Liziba station for something completely unnecessary but cool