Submission IV: A Love that Circled Back [BL]

Chapter 11 - “I want to live the kind of life you want to live”
This was blatant flirting.
Qin Mu maintained an unmovingly taut face, “Do I need to explain Article 238* of Criminal Law to you?”
Shen Liu laughed softly, “On account of those eight prawn dumplings, charging me with unlawful detention doesn’t seem very fair? How about we put this under negotiurum gestio* instead?” He glanced at his watch, “I have a few things I need to take care of. I’ll see you at night.” Having spoken, he lifted his hand and gently caressed the top of Qin Mu’s head.  
It was a subconscious movement. His hand moved first, out of habit, and then his brain arrived, with sluggish delay, at the conclusion that “this was out of place”. Shen Liu paused for a moment and then realised that Qin Mu hadn’t moved away.
Qin Mu was disoriented by that sudden flash of familiarity. The warmth of the hand that rested on his head felt the same as it had all those years before. And he forgot to react.
It was like the two of them had just pressed pause, frozen in the same frame.
In the next moment, Qin Mu slapped Shen Liu’s hand away. Shen Liu rubbed against his now reddening wrist and spoke with a smile, “Wait for me, we’ll have dinner together.”
Once he left, Qin Mu let out a low, pent-up sigh. He closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. If one looked closely, one would notice that the roots of his ears were flushed a faint red, incongruous against the stern expression on his face.
It was truly exhausting work contending with Shen Liu. Qin Mu was used to living with measured restraint. He weighed his words before speaking them. He weighed his actions before doing them. Every day, he lived in this equanimity as steady as a Bodhisattva statue. He beheld the rise and fall of the joys and sorrows of others, but remained as unmoved as a mountain himself. This one time, for the sake of Professor Xiao’s case, he let himself give in to impulsivity, and he immediately ran off course into the troublesome monster named Shen Liu. Lawless, reckless, stubborn and unreasonable, using all his powers to conjure up storms upon Qin Mu’s equanimous sea, ruining the cultivation he had practised for years.
The files were gone. He was being detained. What was he going to do next?
Run away?
This was Shen Liu’s lair. He had already witnessed the three layers of checkpoints upon his arrival. There were surveillance cameras in every corner of the courtyard. Not to mention, the people who worked on the premises…  Qin Mu recalled the group of men who had escorted him here last night; judging by the level of their coordination and reaction speeds, they were most certainly trained professionals. There were very likely others like them who worked within these walls. The entire mansion was secured like an iron barrel – even if he somehow grew wings, he wasn’t getting out.
Most importantly, his laptop and case files were not in his hands.
Deprived of his personal freedom and forced into ‘unemployment’, Attorney Qin found himself in a bind. As he was contemplating a strategy, he noticed a familiar face appear in the doorway of the dining room.
It was the man who greeted him yesterday.
“Good morning.” The person smiled politely as he greeted Qin Mu, “I didn’t get the chance to introduce myself last night. My name is Tao Ze. I am Director Shen's personal assistant.”
“Qin Mu.” He reached out and shook his hand.
“Director Shen gave me special instructions to make sure you are well taken care of. If there is anything you need, please tell me.”
Qin Mu briefly considered it and said, “Show me around then.”
“Certainly. Let’s begin from the basement level and make our way up.”
Attorney Qin specialised in financial cases. He was no stranger to the lives of the rich and powerful and had often been invited to lavish mansions. Now that he was walking through Shen Liu’s old lair, he was getting a full taste of what it meant that behind Wang Kai, there was Shi Chong*, and behind each summit was another higher peak. There never really was any limit to opulence.
This large house appeared quite unassuming from the outside. But on the inside, whether it was the arrangement of space and layout or the design of a decorative detail, without compromise to functionality or practicality, they all bespoke the refined aesthetic and architectural creativity of the owner.
The second basement floor was the garage. The first basement floor contained a heated indoor swimming pool, a sauna, a spa and a small wine cellar. On the first floor was a reception hall, dual kitchens, one Chinese style, one Western style, and a bar. On the second floor was a multipurpose activity room, guest suites, a game room and a gym. In the central courtyard were planted two large trees. The study on the third floor was exceptionally large and connected to the reception lounge. There was also a small private cinema to the side.
As they walked around, Tao Ze said, “Whether you need a personal trainer or a partner for a game of Mahjong, I can organise them all for you.” When they reached the staircase that led to the fourth floor, he stopped in his steps, “From the fourth floor onwards is Director Shen’s private area. Entry is restricted to everyone except a few select servants, including myself. So this is as far as I can take you.”

Qin Mu was shocked, “Isn't the fourth floor the guest suite?”
“It is Director Shen’s master bedroom.” Tao Ze replied with a small smile.
Qin Mu, “…”
What was bloody wrong with Shen Liu? He had this huge house, yet made him sleep in his own bedroom?
Qin Mu, “Where did he sleep last night?”
“The small bedroom at the end of the third floor.”
Alright then. The ‘small’ bedroom wasn’t that small anyway. The guest must follow the host’s lead. He didn’t care either way.
“Has he restricted me from any areas?” Qin Mu changed tack and chose a more direct question, “Are there any areas in this house I’m not allowed?”
“No.” Tao Ze replied, “Director Shen said, so long as you don’t leave the property, ‘go wherever you like’. Those were his exact words.”
Qin Mu was somewhat disappointed in the answer. Shen Liu hadn’t restricted his movements, which meant his luggage wasn’t in the house. As he was considering his next move, he heard Tao Ze ask tentatively, “Attorney Qin, can I use a few minutes of your time?”
“Something wrong?”
Tao Ze put on a professional smile, pulled out the iPad from under his arm, pen in his hand, and then asked, “To ensure the highest quality of service to you, I would like to know a few of your personal preferences. Do you prefer any cuisine in particular? Do you have any allergies? What requirements do you have for your attire? Do you prefer cotton or another type of fabric? What about colours? Do you prefer a certain brand of clothing and shoes? What are your sizes? How about underwear? What temperature and level of humidity do you find most comfortable?...”
Qin Mu, “…”
Shen Liu’s subordinates were as difficult to deal with as himself. Having finally satisfied the endlessly talkative personal assistant, Qin Mu felt like he had just been attacked by a swarm of wasps – his head was the size of two, and all he could hear was buzzing. He returned to the fourth floor, where he finally found some quiet. As he was about to open the bedroom door, he saw a stream of light at his feet.
The gentle light spread across the floor like a soft, plush carpet, drawing him towards the far end of the corridor.
The rain had stopped at some point. Wispy clouds meandered low across the sky, veiling a bashful sun. Compared to the endless drizzle of rain in K City, the rain in J City was more like a heartless man who came and went in a hurry.
There was a greenhouse beyond the corridor. Although it was late autumn, the plants inside were lush and thriving. Vines crept along trillises towards the ceiling, transforming the sunlight into a tapestry of dappled and mottled shadows.
Surprisingly, in the middle was a small vegetable patch. The tiny chillis were already ripe, hiding behind the leaves like mischievous children, shyly poking out their little red heads.
Qin Mu crouched down, plucked a small chilli, studied it for a moment and then took a bite. Instantly, a spicy heat numbed his tongue and exploded in his mouth, and then sharply split in two directions, one down the base of his tongue into his throat, the other shot up his scalp. He broke into a sweat. Even his tear glands were set off, wetting the corner of his eyes.
Qin Mu forced a smile. He thought, “What sort of breed is this?”
And then thought, “It was a good thing he only took a small bite.”
He swallowed the fiery bite of chilli and took a couple of breaths to ease the burn. Turning, he saw a hanging chair. The position seemed to have been carefully chosen; the sunlight was just right, soft, not glaring. On the shelf next to it sat an Agriculture Press book titled Techniques for Cultivating Common Vegetables. He leafed through it and couldn’t help laughing.
The book was filled with annotations and underlines. Shen Liu’s distinct, flamboyant and sweeping handwriting, squeezed between the printed lines, seemed awkwardly restrained.
He had actually grown the chilli with his own hands.
He had also grown bok choy, pumpkins, potatoes and eggplants in the past. He had carefully recorded the temperature, humidity, time of germination and even noted down little techniques he discovered himself.
Was this some insignificant pastime, or…
Qin Mu closed the book, as if trying to shut off some preposterous notion. But his mind acted of its own accord, pressed the button, and the rusted gears began to turn, fastening into place, slowly unlocking the sealed doors of his memory.
Under a flowing river of stars, they lay together in each other’s arms, speaking of an unknown future –
“Woodsy, what kind of life do you want to live?”
“Country life. Tend to a small vegetable patch. Live self-sufficiently. Harvesting in the autumn and storing things for winter. No need to deal with other people. The type of life where I can pick my own vegetables whenever I want. What about you?”
“I want to live the kind of life you want to live.”
“…corny.”
…
The youthful smiles of yesteryear pierced through the sky like an arrow, driving straight into the rusted seal. The old rust began to crumble and crack, fragments scattering and pouring out like butterflies through the fissures of his mind, shattering the seal entirely. The great beast that once lay at the bottom of the deep pool now tore through the sky and roared, revealing its rugged and grotesque face.
Qin Mu closed his eyes. Sunlight streaked across his eyelids like a fallen petal of red.
Chu Yu once said, Xu Ye* was the love of his life.
Fang Mingyan once said, he would hold Zhuo Yue*’s hand til death did them part.
How fortunate it was to be able to find a person, amid a sea of innumerable souls, to love and to hold until only white was left upon their heads.
But for Qin Mu, perhaps in the moment he met Shen Liu, he had already exhausted all the fortune of his life. This luck came too quickly and left too quickly; he had no choice but to submit to fate and let go of his hand.
The words “Shen Liu”, from that moment onwards, became this unbreakable knot within his heart, impossible to untie, impossible to cut, impossible to remove. He could only seal it away by forgetting it, pretending it never existed.
The year he met Shen Liu, he was seventeen, in his second-to-last year at K University High School.
Like all other high school students, for seventeen-year-old Qin Mu, the task of his life was to go to school on time and do his homework, unremarkable, ordinary. He did well academically and ranked in the top ten of his grade. He was a good son in the eyes of his parents, a promising student in the eyes of his teachers, a role model for other children to look up to.
However, even perfect role models had their own troubles and anxieties.
K High was a prestigious school. They maintained an impeccable university admission rate by gathering together the crème de la crème of students and were incredibly strict in all respects. But in the end, a school was not a monastery. Children of this age were already in their adolescence and eager to learn more about a certain aspect of their lives. But under the circumstance of parents refusing to talk about it and teachers refusing to teach it, they had to find their own way and be self-taught. The boys shared amongst themselves pornos to “gain experience”, the girls gathered to gossip and “discuss feelings”. The buds of young romance sprouted and flourished under the very noses of teachers.
But upon this meadow that grew lush beneath the spring wind, Qin Mu lost his way.
He began to vaguely realise that a feeling resembling “liking someone” had formed in his heart, and the arrow of this feeling landed awry upon another boy.
The boy’s name was Han Zhang. He was the sports captain and an excellent basketball player.
 
************
 
Author’s Note:
Article 238 – Crime of Unlawful Detention:
Whoever unlawfully detains another person, or by any other means unlawfully deprives another of their personal freedom, shall be sentenced to, of not more than three years, fixed-term imprisonment, criminal detention, public surveillance, or deprivation of political rights. Where the circumstances involve assault or humiliation, the punishment shall be more severe. (The remainder is omitted.)
Translator’s Note:
1. Negotiorum gestio is a civil law concept where a gestor acts ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) on behalf and for the benefit of a principal without the latter’s prior consent. The underlying principle being that negotiorum gestio is intended as an act of generosity and friendship. (from Wikipedia) Shen Liu is saying here that he is not unlawfully detaining Qin Mu, but keeping him safe on his behalf, without Qin Mu’s prior consent.
2. The story of Wang Kai and Shi Chong comes from a fifth-century compilation of historical anecdotes called A New Account of the Tales of the World. It speaks of how the extravagantly and corruptly rich families of Wang Kai and Shi Chong often competed in wealth using ostentatious and outrageous antics. Wang Kai often lost.
3. Xu Ye is the MC of Submission I. Chu Yu, the ML.
4. Zhuo Yue is the MC of Submission II. Fang Mingyan, the ML. Chu Yu, Fang Mingyan, Qin Mu, along with a couple named Cat and Mouse, form a very close-knit group of elite Doms at the Eastern Shore Club. In the previous novels, Qin Mu acted as a witness to the stories of their love.