The noodles were very light.
But there was a poached egg and baby bok choy, and even a sprinkling of tiny dried shrimp for fragrance. It was nutritionally balanced and would not burden his stomach.
Lu Sili looked up at Su Yuan. Su Yuan knew what he was wondering and explained on his own, “I brought these things over. I might slowly fill up the kitchen. Would you mind?”
Lu Sili said, “No.”
“Oh, right.” Su Yuan had just turned away when he looked back. “I asked you before which room would be better for me. You said any was fine, so I chose that one.”
Lu Sili nodded. “That’s fine.”
That room was opposite Lu Sili’s. The two bedrooms were the same size and both had balconies, with an entire living room separating them. Once they went into their own rooms, neither would disturb the other. That was ideal.
Su Yuan adjusted his glasses. He was still wearing the apron Lu Sili had given him. Once Lu Sili started eating, Su Yuan went back to unpacking the two large boxes in the living room.
He had already finished cooking. Why was he still wearing the apron?
While finding it strange, Lu Sili also had the completely unimportant thought, He must really like it.
Lu Sili was not especially fond of noodles, but on a night when he had just thrown up, his stomach seemed quite happy with a bowl of soft, warm noodles.
The night passed peacefully. The next morning, Su Yuan left very early for work.
When Lu Sili got up, he found porridge in an insulated pot on the dining table. He hurriedly drank a little before leaving.
Because he was going away on Friday and would not be able to have dinner with his grandmother over the weekend, they moved the visit up to Thursday. But just before the end of the workday, Su Yuan had an emergency surgery and could not go. By the time Su Yuan returned that night, Lu Sili had already taken his medication and gone to bed. Early Friday morning, Lu Sili rushed off to work again.
And so, after living together for three days, the first time the two of them actually spoke was while waiting for their flight at the airport on Friday afternoon.
The directors of Production and Exhibition had already left earlier that afternoon. On this flight, there were only Lu Sili, Fiona, and Su Yuan.
“How have these past few days been?” Lu Sili asked.
Fiona was drinking coffee beside them and almost sprayed it out.
Since Su Yuan had no business matters to handle abroad, the clothes he had brought were more casual. Perhaps he had also left work too hurriedly to wash his hair. He was wearing a baseball cap, and he had changed to black-framed glasses.
He knew Fiona was aware of the contract marriage, but after three days of living together, for the two of them to meet and ask how the other had been was a little ridiculous.
Su Yuan could only smile. “A little busy. Yesterday’s emergency kept me working into today.”
Lu Sili did not know much about hospital work. Since he had nothing to do at the moment, he tried making conversation.
“What kinds of cases turn into orthopedic emergencies?”
“Mostly car accidents.”
“Mm.”
“Yeah.”
All right. They were not suited to small talk.
The VIP lounge had food and drinks, was warm and comfortable, and was not noisy. The three of them each looked at their phone, computer, or iPad while waiting to board.
When it was almost time, Lu Sili went to the restroom. Su Yuan and Fiona started packing up. Fiona saw Su Yuan checking his passport and chatted with him.
“Have you been to Japan before, Dr. Su?” Fiona asked.
Su Yuan shook his head, put his passport into the tote bag he kept close to his body, and said, “No.”
Fiona said, “Director Lu and I go abroad fairly often, but it’s always for work. We never really have time to travel.”
Su Yuan smiled and said softly, “I’ve only been to San Francisco.”
Fiona said, “Oh? When? Director Lu went to university in San Francisco. Were you there on vacation?”
“Something like that.” After answering, Su Yuan began gathering the things Lu Sili had left scattered across the table.
It looked completely natural, as though they really were an inseparable married couple.
After they landed in Hokkaido, a hotel car picked them up.
“Fiona, did you book the hotel?” Lu Sili was asking about Su Yuan’s room.
Fiona was coordinating the schedule and timing with Parker’s assistant, Alfonso. Without looking up, she said, “It’s booked. He’s right next door to you.”
Lu Sili said, “Good.”
Su Yuan said, “Thank you. Sorry for the trouble.”
This trip to Hokkaido was strictly work for Lu Sili, so his airfare and hotel were charged to the company. Su Yuan was not part of the official itinerary, so his arrangements had to be booked separately. He had adjusted his days off to come. Since the entire trip was only three days and they would return Monday, he did not even need to take marriage leave.
They were not a real married couple in the first place, and Fiona knew that. There was no need for some television-drama scenario where they were forced to share a room.
Thinking this was one of those management trips that mixed meetings with travel, Su Yuan had expected Lu Sili to spend most of his time with colleagues. Before coming, he had already prepared to explore on his own.
There were only three F&A branches in Asia: China, Japan, and Korea. Altogether, there were fewer than ten people at director level or above across the three countries. Once the fixed meeting sessions ended, the rest of the time was for sightseeing.
For senior executives, casual conversation and socializing while sightseeing were really part of the job too.
None of them knew that Lu Sili had brought his newlywed husband. They had barely settled into the hotel when they called to invite Lu Sili out for food and a soak in the hot springs.
Hot springs were one of Hokkaido’s specialties, and the hotel they had booked had baths of its own.
All of the executives had brought assistants on this trip. Executives socialized with executives, assistants with assistants. It was more or less an unwritten rule.
The entire China branch was busy preparing for next month’s year-end gala, so Lu Sili was the last to arrive on this trip.
He hurriedly changed clothes, then rushed down to the lobby to meet Parker and the others.
Fiona had always been more thorough than Lu Sili. She stayed in close contact with the various branches and headquarters. From the occasional accidental glimpse of her phone, Lu Sili knew she got along quite well with Parker’s Italian assistant, Alfonso.
They were short on time. After everyone exchanged a few greetings, Parker volunteered some gossip and jokes from headquarters, and the atmosphere quickly warmed.
Parker had a humorous personality and never put on airs. He wore his hair long. Before getting into the water, he hurriedly looked for something to tie it back and still did not forget to tease Lu Sili.
“Did you trade all the muscle on your body for box office numbers, darling?”
Everyone laughed. Lu Sili could only shake his head helplessly and answer, “Just tell me whether the trade was worth it.”
Parker laughed loudly. “China had outstanding results this past year, but I still hope you stay healthy.”
In terms of box-office scale, China was unquestionably number one in Asia.
Unfortunately, F&A was not a company that cared only about box office.
Soaking in the hot spring while half working and half chatting, Lu Sili found himself very comfortable too.
At the height of the conversation, Lu Sili laughed out loud. When he leaned his head back and turned, he unexpectedly spotted Su Yuan in the neighboring pool.
…Fuck. I completely forgot about him, Lu Sili could not help thinking.
Because there were several of them soaking together, they had not used a small private bath. They were in the large outdoor pools instead. There were three in total, and Su Yuan was in the one beside theirs.
He leaned against the edge of the pool with a folded hot towel covering his eyes, head tilted back as he enjoyed the natural hot-spring spa.
Since he was sitting on the steps inside the pool, everything from his chest upward was above the water.
Lu Sili could not help glancing over several times.
It was not that he was lustful. He was simply a little shocked. Su Yuan’s height and build were already completely different from his school days, but who would have imagined that beneath his slightly old-fashioned clothes was a body like that?
Broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and a light layer of pectoral muscle with elegant contours.
It was exactly the kind of build Lu Sili appreciated. Of course, he truly was not being lustful. He was analyzing it purely from an aesthetic perspective.
He did not like huge, overly muscular men. Too much chest made him a little dizzy.
“elio! Lu Sili?” The amusement in Parker’s voice was impossible to hide now.
Lu Sili snapped back to himself and discovered that the others had all followed his line of sight toward Su Yuan.
The Production Director of the Japan branch was a middle-aged Beta surnamed Otsu. He wore black-framed glasses, and combined with Japanese corporate culture, he radiated the unmistakable air of an overworked salaryman.
He smiled mildly. “He should be a Beta too.”
Parker said, “Still a handsome Beta. I like the sharp line of his lips.”
The Distribution Director for Korea was Korean American. Everyone called him by his English name, Jake. He was an Alpha and liked wearing shirts with the top buttons undone to show off his chest.
“He works out. The muscles aren’t big, but the definition is tight. Honestly, that’s a very good body.”
Parker said, “Oh? You’re probably the one here who understands men best, Jake. What do you think? Straight or not?”
Jake shrugged. “I don’t know. But even if he’s a boring Beta, I’d still date him.”
“My God.” Parker laughed. “You’re always too confident. He might not like you.”
Jake refused to back down. “A boring Beta getting to date me would be his honor.”
Parker said, “You’re too confident.”
Jake said, “If not me, then who? Lu Sili?”
Lu Sili secretly laughed.
Whenever Jake talked about things like this in private, he turned into an arrogant peacock. When he had first met Lu Sili, he had strutted and displayed himself in every possible way. Then Lu Sili had mocked him in Chinese, English, and Korean all at once, and he never dared do it again.
After knowing him longer, Jake had realized that Lu Sili looked like an Omega, worked like an Alpha, and seemed to have had the thread of romance stolen straight out of him. He was even more Beta than a Beta and impossible to flirt with.
The bored men joked around for several minutes. By the time they looked back at Su Yuan, the subject who had started all this, he had already removed the hot towel from his eyes.
Su Yuan looked toward the neighboring pool. When he saw Lu Sili looking over, he smiled and waved, then pointed toward the exit to indicate that he was finished and heading back.
Parker said, “I saw a wedding ring on his hand.”
They watched Su Yuan stand. The towel around his waist had soaked through and hung wet and loose.
As a serious, utterly unromantic Beta, he naturally pulled it up at once and held it firmly in place with one hand.
“His back muscles are good too,” Jake said.
Otsu pressed his lips together and shook his head. “I hope he doesn’t understand English.”
Parker said, “Who was he waving at just now?”
Lu Sili, who had always stayed out of conversations like this by maintaining the image of a man with no romantic nerve whatsoever, finally spoke.
“Me,” Lu Sili said.
Parker made his assessment. “That makes a certain amount of sense. Maybe when he looked over, all he saw was your face.”
Lu Sili had no intention of hiding it. “Actually, he’s my… my…”
The word husband in Chinese seemed to burn his mouth. It was so embarrassing that he could not make himself say it.
“What?” everyone asked in confusion.
Through gritted teeth, Lu Sili said, “Husband.”
A chorus of “whoa, whoa!” exploded through the pool.
Lu Sili was married?!
Lu Sili slowly raised his right hand. On it was a matching ring.
He laughed inwardly. I knew they wouldn’t believe me. Good thing I wore the ring.
Lu Sili had intended to let all his colleagues know he was married. Ideally, everyone would know. A married Omega sounded much more settled and would save him a great deal of unnecessary trouble.
Under the barrage of gossip from his colleagues, Lu Sili repeated the same story he had told his family.
If anyone asked, Su Yuan was his old classmate. They had fallen in love at first sight after reuniting. Betas were reliable and Lu Sili liked that. He did not care about status. Their love was sincere and pure. They had no plans to have children.
By the time he returned to his room, it was already after eleven. The next day was packed with formal meetings. Lu Sili showered, dried his hair, arranged with Fiona to head to the conference room together the next morning, then lay down and prepared to take his sleeping pill.
Knock, knock.
Lu Sili got up and opened the door. It was Su Yuan, wearing a light-gray loungewear set.
“You’ll be very busy tomorrow, right?” he asked.
Lu Sili had already changed into pajamas too. He preferred cotton, but cotton pajamas always wrinkled after being worn for a while, and these were no exception. Even the trouser legs had ridden up a little.
“Mm. Very busy,” Lu Sili answered.
Su Yuan said, “Okay. Remember to eat. I asked the front desk and the hotel can deliver breakfast to the room. You just need to call.”
Lu Sili said, “Okay.”
“I’m going to walk around Otaru tomorrow.” Su Yuan suddenly began reporting his itinerary.
“Oh, sure.” Lu Sili scratched his arm and, for no particular reason, reported his own schedule too. “I’ll be in meetings tomorrow. Here in Sapporo.”
Su Yuan said, “Good night.”
Lu Sili said, “Good night.”
“Oh, right.” Just before turning away, Lu Sili suddenly stopped him.
“Mm?”
“Don’t take what they said in the hot spring personally.”
At that, Su Yuan’s expression did not change, but Lu Sili felt a little guilty. That discussion really had been rude to the person being talked about. No one liked being appraised that way.
He was not sure whether Su Yuan had understood all of it anyway. English spoken with Chinese, American, Japanese, and Korean accents all mixed together was not exactly easy to follow.
The day’s packed schedule had left Lu Sili’s voice slightly hoarse. He said quietly, “Don’t be angry. I explained afterward. I told them you’re my… my… the person who’s with me.”
Husband in English was manageable. The Chinese word for husband still burned his mouth too badly.
Su Yuan laughed at his phrasing. “Okay. I know.”
Lu Sili thought he was inexplicable. What was so funny?
After lowering his head and finishing his laugh, Su Yuan’s expression settled again. He looked at Lu Sili and said, “I’m not angry. And I won’t get angry with you either.”