Price of the future

"Should I give you the gift now, or do you want it when you come back?" Yixing whispered to Huobai and awoke him from his reminiscing about that day. 

"It's for me?" Huobai asked, surprised. He didn't have anything now. He had no idea what to give them. And with Chao, he had a personal agreement to not give each other presents. 

"Yep, It's just something I designed. It was my first time," he said, excited. Huobai could see sparkles in his eyes. Just as he wanted to answer him, his phone vibrated.

Huobai pulled it out, and he was really surprised when he saw that the original singer commented on his post. It was something really rare. 

"Give me a second," he said to Yixing and opened the post to see what happened.

Huobai usually posted and then let it be. Only sometimes he wrote back or thanked for the comments. The voice acting profile was a bit barren, but he wanted them to hear his voice only. Not his action or face. 

That was the main reason he started to wear a mask. Together with that, he hated public attention. He wanted to walk around as he pleased and not be swarmed with people. He saw it too many times when he was a child. And once he even tripped and fell when he was with his mother. Since then, he rarely went out. And only told the name of his father, not his mother. 

So he never knew that the cover blew up. It had millions of reposts and many comments, and some of them were really known in the voice acting circle. They praised him and a lot of people wanted another song or cover. 

"Wow, thank god you don't sing often. Otherwise, I wouldn't have work," said one of the comments. It was one friend he talked to a few times in the ancient music circle. Huobai chuckled. 

"Put in on 5sing. I want to download and listen to it all the time…" Huobai winced. He actually had put in on 5sing for others but guessed it did not upload. 

"Lol, we need new Wi-Fi," he chuckled. But then remembered he was home when he uploaded it.

"I actually thought about buying a better modem and subscription. We are now lagging sometimes, and I don't like that a bit," Chao answered. Huobai looked at him, surprised.

"Oh, yes. I noticed that too. Is there an optical cable? I heard it's faster than normal," he said nonchalantly, but he looked back at the screen of his phone. 

"I will see what broadband we can use here… Oh, Yixing, I need to talk to you." Chao grabbed Yixing, who placed the box on the counter before Huobai and went involuntarily with Chao.

It was usually about money when Chao dragged him away like this. Because Yitian was sensitive to that talk, they went away from them and talked privately about it. 

"I need to ask how much money you have for now?" he went right to it and Yixing opened one of his bank apps. He already got paid by his father, he sold some stocks at a very high price… he told Chao the amount, but Chao still frowned. 

"My father said he will help us financially, but we need to agree to some terms." Yixing winced. Of course, that building was new, modern, and huge. It was a money eater. And those few millions he had, were nothing in it.

"What's the condition?" he asked and sighed. Not that he wanted to own someone, but better Chao's father than a bank. 

"We have to do endorsements for his company when we are a known team. He wants us to have his company logo on our clothes when we are in public and…" Yixing stopped him. 

"How can we be living ads for another game?" he asked, stunned that wasn't heard of.

"Well, apparently it won't be a gaming company. I knew he invested in restaurants and hospitals, but I never knew the restaurants got so big and international. So we will wear the restaurant name." They both moan in displeasure. It was so weird for them to be sponsored by a food chain. 

"And another thing. Because of the design and the need for constructing the building around the tree, and few other things. It's estimated that the construction will take more than 24 months. The sole building and a few more months will take the interior." Yixing's mouth fell open. He was speechless. Two years?

Huobai saw them with their mouths open and somehow, he was curious what they were talking about. 

"Do you know why they are so… frustrated?" he asked Yitian, who just looked up from his cooking and sighed. 

"It's probably about money. That's the only thing they don't want to talk about in front of me." Huobai raised his brows. Was there something wrong? 

"They are out of money?" Huobai flipped his phone to see how much he had in his account, so maybe he could help them.

"Well, I've seen and helped to make plans for that building when I was in the architecture office. So I think they are short of two hundred millions, or something like that…'' Huobai almost choked on the air he breathed in. That much? He tried to calm down and put down his phone.

"Building?" Yixing nodded and did not explain more. But Huobai was curious about it. What a building. And why haven't they told him anything… Then he remembered that he tried to conceal his identity.

He breathed in and walked to the two of them. He sat beside Yixing and faintly smiled. 

"Are you short of money?" he asked them. Chao was ready to agree because he was half nodding, but Yixing shook his head. They both spoke simultaneously, but one said yes, and the other no. 

"We are, but you don't have that kind of money. You are just a normal person." Somehow, being called normal by Yixing offended him. And he did not know why. Meanwhile, Chao was smirking at him, enjoying what he saw. That idiot knew. 

Huobai finally noticed why Chao was never speaking to him about his background. That little traitor did already do a background check on him. He knew who he was. But still, he never talked about family business or money to him. Huobai now knew that Chao could be trusted.

He looked at Yixing and even though he wanted to trust him, too. He was used too many times and Huobai didn't want to tempt him, or his father. What if he accidentally spilled his secret?

"Can I talk to Chao for a bit?" he asked Yixing. The look on Yixing's face could be described only as heartbroken. But he didn't ask, stood up, and walked away. 

He got the box from the counter and then walked into his room. In the faint silence, they could hear the door being locked. Huobai turned to Chao.

"How much do you need?" he asked, thinking if he should take out his savings.

"You hurt him…" Chao said, but Huobai waved his hand. 

"I will talk to him later. How much do you need?" he asked once more. There were other priorities right now.