Lewis was locked up for half a day, and then he was released.

He left with a dumbfounded expression, returned to his room with a dumbfounded expression, and then came looking for Bai Yu with a dumbfounded expression.

Bai Yu's room was right across from his. Lewis pushed the door open and entered, saying loudly, "Bai Yu, I've been released. Did you find someone to help?"

He was full of suspicion. Locked in the cabin for half a day, Lewis had been burning with anxiety, wondering where to scrape together the huge gambling debt. But before the debt was even paid, he was let out.

Bai Yu's savings were obviously not enough to pay it off, yet Bai Yu was the only person he knew on the ship.

Bai Yu said flatly, "I asked someone for some."

Lewis sat down on the sofa with his legs spread wide: "Asked for some? So much money, where did you ask for it? I've known you for so long, I didn't know you were a hidden millionaire... Eh, where did the cat come from?"

Bai Yu was leaning against the floor-to-ceiling window, reading a book and newspaper. He held a cup of coffee in his left hand and hugged a kitten with his right.

The kitten was platinum all over with fluffy fur and a large squirrel-like tail swaying back and forth. It was currently sleeping in the doctor's arms. Hearing the sound, it lazily opened its eyes, glanced at Lewis with its lake-blue eyes, then ignored him and rested its head back down to continue sleeping.

The doctor scratched its chin and stroked the fur on its back.

"Wow, a kitten with such good appearance, it must cost tens of thousands, right? Where did it come from?"

Lewis walked forward, reached out his hand, and wanted to pet the kitten.

But before his hand touched the cat, the kitten suddenly flicked its tail, smacking his hand away with a slap. Then, it gave him a contemptuous look, shook its fur, stood up, and nimbly jumped onto the doctor's shoulder.

—Who do you think you are, daring to casually pet this Grand Duke!

"Whoa, this ancestor has quite the temper." Lewis was surprised. "It's really strange. Usually kittens like me and hate you. How come this one is exceptionally different?"

Bai Yu was a doctor and carried the smell of disinfectant all year round. Lewis was the boss who only petted cats and did no work, often opening a couple of cat treats to tease them. Usually, the kittens in the shop preferred Lewis.

The platinum kitten's uncooperativeness evidently aroused his competitive spirit. Lewis stood up: "Hey, I don't believe it."

He rolled up his sleeves, trying to grab the platinum kitten off Bai Yu's shoulder.

The kitten stood up and hissed at him, looking like it wanted to scratch him to death. Bai Yu, on the other hand, smacked his hand away and said coldly, "You can't touch this one."

The doctor was rarely this serious. Lewis embarrassedly withdrew his hand and sat back on the sofa; "Alright, but where exactly did this kitten come from? You didn't abduct some tourist's cat on this cruise ship, did you?"

Saying this, his expression turned serious: "Bai Yu, I have to make it clear to you. Pets are not allowed in the standard cabins of this cruise ship; only suites and presidential suites can bring them. The guests in these rooms are all wealthy or noble. If you abducted someone else's kitten, be careful that the owner comes looking for it.."

Bai Yu said absentmindedly: "Oh, okay."

Lewis patted the back of the chair: "No, Bai Yu, don't disbelieve me. This cat has a show-quality appearance and a very pure pedigree. It's the kind you can't get even if you have money. Its owner must absolutely be..."

Before he could finish saying how the owner was, Bai Yu picked up his coffee: "How does he compare to Imuel?"

Compare to Imuel?

Lewis froze: "How can you compare, there's no comparison! Imuel is already at the very top of our circle, at the top, do you understand? No, Bai Yu, why did you bring him up? Did that one glance at the bar really mesmerize you? You're not still pining for him, are you? I'm telling you, absolutely do not provoke him, absolutely do not! Otherwise, you won't even know how you died!"

Lewis spoke fast and urgently. When he said "at the top", the kitten in Bai Yu's arms proudly raised its tail. When he said "pining for him", the kitten's tail bent into a question mark. And when he said "absolutely do not", Imuel let out a purring sound, sharpened his hind claws, and assumed an attack posture.

Bai Yu comfortingly stroked the kitten's pricked ears and kissed its furry head, successfully calming the Grand Duke down: "Alright, Lewis, you've had a scare too, go back and rest early."

The doctor had never liked noise. Lewis didn't suspect anything else and stood up: "Okay... Oh right, to celebrate my successful release, I'll make a reservation for dinner tonight. You have to come."

Bai Yu paused: "I can't eat tonight, I have an appointment with someone else. Let's do it another day."

—Imuel had also booked a meal. He had forgotten his wife for almost half a year, and now he had to coax his wife first.

Lewis was full of suspicion: "No, Bai Yu, I was only in there for half a day. Who are you eating with? Who did you hook up with?"

Bai Yu sighed: "We'll talk about it later."

If he told Lewis now, he would definitely be scared to death.

Lewis looked Bai Yu up and down. Seeing that he wasn't going to explain, he smiled ambiguously: "Alright, it's rare for our Doctor Bai to take a fancy to someone. I won't disturb your night of passion. We'll make it another day then."

He picked up his trench coat, got up, and left.

The reservation couldn't be canceled. In the evening, Lewis came to the restaurant by himself.

This cruise ship had dozens of restaurants. Some had tight seating and required advance reservations, such as this three-star Michelin French restaurant.

He flipped through the menu, ordered casually, and then laid out his cutlery and knife, waiting for the waiter to serve his dishes. As a result, the drinks had just been served, and before he could even drink, he suddenly faintly heard a familiar voice.

The tone was cold, and there was an indescribable charm in the articulation.

...Bai Yu?

Through the stained glass partition, Lewis narrowed his eyes—

It was indeed Bai Yu.

The doctor wore a pure white trench coat over a smoky-grey turtleneck sweater, and his hair was slightly styled. He even paired his silver-framed glasses with a matching glasses chain. The chain hung down to the shoulder of his coat, reflecting fragmented silver light. His hands, which were used to holding a scalpel, were now holding a silver knife and fork, steadily cutting foie gras and steak, and then passing the cut food to his partner.

...

For the aloof and cold doctor to do this kind of action, it was quite... sudden.

Lewis picked up his red wine, his gaze slowly shifting horizontally, wanting to see which beauty had lured away the clinic's flower of the high mountains.

When his gaze fell on the person beside Bai Yu, with a pfft, he sprayed red wine all over the floor, and then began to cough violently. The knife and fork in his hands also fell to the floor with a clatter.

A waiter stepped forward: "Sir?"

Lewis hurriedly waved his hand: "...I'm f-f-fine, l-l-let me have a moment of peace."

Having said that, he took a fierce gulp of water, his brain no longer working.

Imuel? How could it be Imuel? How could it possibly be Imuel?

Bai Yu picked up Imuel?

That was the fucking head of the Holladriel Family!

The hand with which Lewis held his knife and fork kept trembling. For a moment, he had even thought of the ways the doctor could die.

Daring to flirt with the head of the Holladriel Family, what would be the doctor's end? —Thrown into the sea? Fed to the fishes? Chopped to pieces? Sunk in the lake?

The moment he thought of those bloody and terrifying scenes, this meal became utterly tasteless.

Lewis numbly stirred with his knife and fork. He mechanically swallowed, mechanically swallowed, mechanically returned to his room, waited for Bai Yu to return, and then mechanically entered his room.

Bai Yu was completely unaware of the shock he had caused to his boss's fragile little heart. He was still holding the platinum kitten of unknown origin, sitting at the desk writing and drawing something.

Meanwhile, that cat was seriously staring at Bai Yu's scratch paper, nodding from time to time, its expression as solemn as a student listening to a lecture.

Lewis stepped forward: "Bai Yu, come here and explain it to me... Hey, stop writing and explain things clearly first—wait, what are you writing?"

He snatched the draft in front of Bai Yu.

Bai Yu capped his fountain pen: "A plan for meeting the parents."

"???"

Lewis's worldview received a violent impact once again.

"Meeting whose parents?"

Damn it, they just met yesterday, and today it's already fast-forwarded to meeting the parents?

But aren't Imuel's parents both dead? Meeting what ghost parents? Could it be that the doctor hooked up with more than one person and is two-timing?

Lewis was about to pass out.

Bai Yu looked at him with disgust: "Of course we're meeting my parents, whose parents else could we meet?"

Although on the surface he and the kitten had just met, in reality, they were already an old married couple. They were destined to walk hand in hand for a lifetime. And since Father Bai and Mother Bai were open-minded people, Bai Yu naturally had to bring him home to meet the parents and finalize the marriage along the way.

"..."

Lewis wiped his face.

Fuck, they only met once, and Bai Yu is bringing the head of the Holladriel Family to meet his parents???

Not even a rocket is this fast, right?

Lewis broke down.

Under Bai Yu's baffled gaze, he walked back to his room like a wandering ghost.

During the rest of the voyage, he would always bump into Bai Yu and Imuel being intimate in inexplicable places. Sometimes they were cosplaying Titanic at the very front of the deck, sometimes they were romancing under the stars at the open-air observatory. In the end, Lewis watched helplessly as the cruise ship docked in China, and Imuel hooked his arm around Bai Yu's, disembarking with him.

"..."

He frantically sent a message to Bai Yu: "No, bro, are you really going to take him to meet your parents?"

Bai Yu: "?"

"Of course, could this be fake?"

"..."

Had this world gone crazy, or had he, Lewis, finally gone mad?

Lewis: "...Bro, you are truly fierce. When you die, don't ask me to collect your corpse."

Bai Yu: "...It won't go that far."

Lewis: "It won't go that far? What the fuck do you know to say it won't go that far, that's Imuel, Imuel, do you understand? The all-powerful head of the Holladriel Family!"

Bai Yu was expressionless and turned on the mute.

And in a place Lewis couldn't see, the all-powerful head of the Holladriel Family was actually very nervous.

Imuel pinched Bai Yu's sleeve anxiously, almost kneading that piece of fabric to pieces.

He wasn't raised by his parents. His mother was separated from him since he was young, and his father was like a sworn enemy to him. He didn't know how to handle this kind of relationship. Family happiness was too distant a term for Imuel. Perhaps when he was little, he too had yearned for an ordinary, warm family, and longed for the familial affection and tolerance found in stories. But as he grew older, he no longer had these unrealistic sweet dreams.

But now, he was about to meet Bai Yu's parents.

Bai Yu rescued his sleeve from the kitten's hands, leaned over, kissed him, and comfortingly clasped the kitten's hand: "Don't worry, they will like you."

Imuel raised his lake-blue eyes: "But what if they don't like me?"

His anxiety was visible to the naked eye.

Bai Yu sighed: "Then I'll take you away on the spot, hide you, and put you in a place where only we live, and never let them see you again, okay?"

With Bai Yu's promise, Imuel relaxed slightly. He tried to bring two boxes of money as gifts to bribe Bai Yu's parents into giving in, but was strictly stopped by Bai Yu.

The doctor looked slightly helpless: "Lord Duke, don't make it look like my parents are selling their son, okay?"

Imuel's brain was in a crashed state, unable to think. He desperately gripped the doctor's sleeve, as if afraid he would run away, and blurted out without thinking: "Then are they willing to sell? No matter how much money I'll... mmph!"

He was kissed.

Bai Yu: "Just what kind of strange things are you thinking about in your head."

In the end, the Grand Duke could only buy some traditional Chinese medicines and medicinal liquor, and paid a visit very "unpresentably".

Unlike his anxiety, Father Bai and Mother Bai were quite overjoyed, giving off the feeling that they had wished upon the stars and moon, and finally managed to wait for their child's partner to arrive.

Both of them were relatively open-minded and didn't mind whether their child's partner was male or female. What they worried about was that Bai Yu had a cold personality since childhood and had never been moved by anyone, looking as if he would never marry for his whole life. Now that he brought Imuel back, whose image and temperament were both excellent, the two elders were quite happy.

They cooked a table full of dishes and took Imuel along to tell him interesting stories from Bai Yu's childhood, making the stiff-bodied Grand Duke unconsciously relax as well.

After three rounds of drinks and five courses of dishes, finally, Father Bai accompanied Imuel in eating, while Mother Bai mysteriously pulled Bai Yu aside: "Son, can I ask a question?"

Bai Yu's eyelids twitched: "What is it?"

Mother Bai lowered her voice: "Are you the one on top, or the one on the bottom?"

Bai Yu: "..."

Under his mother's expectant gaze, he slowly raised a finger and pointed at the ceiling.

Mother Bai dragged out her tone: "Oh—"

She was thoughtful: "Then it's a daughter-in-law, such a beautiful tall daughter-in-law... Hmm, we must follow the etiquette for a daughter-in-law."

Bai Yu was left speechless, lines darkening his forehead.

And so, when Imuel left, he received a large, thick red envelope.

He was still in shock and his face had stiffened from smiling. He only recovered in the second half of the visit. Plus, not knowing what the etiquette was here, he blankly accepted the red envelope, blankly followed them out the door, and then returned to Bai Yu's apartment.

The kitten sat cautiously on the sofa and looked down to open the red envelope, only to find that 10,001 yuan had been stuffed inside.

He showed it to Bai Yu.

Bai Yu: "Mhm, it's a tradition here, signifying that you are one in ten thousand. They like you very much."

The doctor thought to himself absentmindedly: More than just one in ten thousand, he had abducted the most noble Grand Duke of Illyria.

Imuel let out a long sigh of relief and relaxed.

Bai Yu thought that this matter had passed peacefully. He would discuss with the kitten about where the two of them would work and live, and then find a country that allowed same-sex marriage to hold a wedding. But the next day, Bai Yu found Imuel stuffing money into a suitcase.

He had bought a large-sized suitcase and was stuffing it very violently, looking like someone packing his valuables to flee. It seemed he wouldn't stop until the suitcase burst.

Bai Yu asked suspiciously: "What are you doing?"

Imuel: "Sending it to your parents."

Bai Yu: "...?"

He paused subtly for a moment: "Do you really want to buy me? ...Human trafficking is illegal in our country."

Imuel tilted his head: "Isn't it your custom? One in ten thousand, you are also one in ten thousand."

The kitten's lake-blue eyes stared at him earnestly: "It's one in a hundred thousand, one in a million, many, many ten thousands... mmph!"

The kitten's serious look was silly and cute. Bai Yu was getting more and more skilled at this.

Having successfully kissed Imuel silly, Bai Yu touched his nose: "Where did this 'many, many ten thousands' come from."

The doctor was indeed very outstanding, but if Imuel continued, he would be saying he was the one chosen out of the entire world.

Imuel frowned in dissatisfaction: "...It's true."

Thinking about it, Imuel was miserable in his childhood, gained power in his youth, and reached the peak as a young adult. Over the years, he had tasted all sorts of bitterness and hardships and met all kinds of people, but the only one he fell in love with was Bai Yu.