Lu Sili froze. For some reason, the image of Su Yuan as a widower was a little funny, and he could not decide whether to be angry or laugh.
All he could do was stubbornly say, “It’s a contract marriage. What widower?”
Li Ya was so infuriated by this stubborn rock of a man that his lungs nearly exploded.
“You have a marriage certificate! If you’re gone and he marries someone else, it’ll be his second marriage.”
Lu Sili said, “What’s wrong with a second marriage? Are you prejudiced against remarriage?”
Li Ya said, “…”
“All right, sorry,” Lu Sili conceded.
“I shouldn’t have ignored my health, and I shouldn’t have lashed out. I just… really want to finish work that’s very important to me.”
Seeing Lu Sili soften, Li Ya felt sorry for his friend again.
He sighed. “I understand. And I think Su Yuan understands too.”
Lu Sili looked up at Li Ya.
The private hospital was much more comfortable than Municipal Hospital. Even the ward lacked that strange disinfectant smell, which made it easier to relax.
Lu Sili slowly lowered his lashes and asked softly, “Where is he?”
Li Ya said, “Back at the hospital. When something happened to you, I think he was just getting off the operating table. When I saw him earlier, he was still wearing his operating-room trousers.”
Lu Sili had always despised delaying work for personal matters. He had not expected to become the culprit himself.
“That’s not very good, is it? Leaving the patient there.”
He still had to be stubborn for a moment and push the blame elsewhere.
Li Ya said, “Keep being stubborn, my little princess.”
Several large bags of IV fluid went into Lu Sili’s body, diluting much of the high concentration of suppressants that had entered his system the day before and clearing his head considerably.
When he stood outside his own front door, he was so clearheaded that he had no idea how to face Su Yuan and ended up standing there for three or four minutes.
“Mr. Lu.” The property manager happened to walk past and saw him standing there. “Why aren’t you going in? Is the lock broken?”
Lu Sili said awkwardly, “No.”
He entered the password and pushed the door open.
No one was home.
Instead of feeling relieved, Lu Sili felt a little disappointed.
If Su Yuan was not home, either he had not gotten off work yet or he was still angry.
Either way, Lu Sili seemed to be responsible.
Having never imagined a fake marriage could come with this kind of trouble, Lu Sili stood in the empty living room and let out a faint sigh.
It was already nine-thirty that night, and Lu Sili had finished dealing with work in the study, when he finally heard Su Yuan unlock the door.
He came out of the study and met Su Yuan’s eyes just as Su Yuan stood in the entryway taking off his coat.
“…”
“Have you eaten?”
Lu Sili said, “No.”
Su Yuan said, “Then I’ll cook.”
Lu Sili said, “Oh.”
So dumb. Am I actually this much of an idiot? Lu Sili cursed himself inwardly.
And why am I making someone who just came home from overtime cook? Can’t I order takeout? Why did I just say “oh” instead of thank you? Why didn’t I smile?
Lu Sili, did you get so many sheep-placenta injections that your face froze?!
Elio’s Notes: Sheep-placenta injections have been marketed as rejuvenation and anti-aging treatments. Lu Sili is basically roasting himself for looking so stiff that his face seems frozen.
“Want some milk?”
“Huh?” Lu Sili snapped back to himself and turned toward the kitchen. Su Yuan was standing in the doorway, already wearing an apron. Lu Sili nodded. “Sure, thank you.”
After saying that, Lu Sili collapsed onto the sofa.
The atmosphere was so strange. Lu Sili was absolutely certain he did not like this.
At this point, Lu Sili no longer wanted to decide who was right or wrong. Or rather, his work-wired brain simply did not know how to process something that could not be submitted through an OA workflow.
His mind was a mess.
Su Yuan boiled some small wontons he had made and frozen earlier. Their wrappers were thin, there was not much filling, and each one was small enough to eat easily.
He also stir-fried some baby bok choy and a plate of beef with green peppers.
“Thank you.” Lu Sili sat down at the dining table.
Su Yuan said, “You’re welcome. I’m eating too.”
Lu Sili gave a soft hum. Still preoccupied, he picked up the cup beside him and drank some milk. He was thinking so hard that he did not taste a thing.
He could not read Su Yuan’s mood. He did not know whether Su Yuan was unhappy or simply tired.
For more than ten minutes, neither of them spoke. Su Yuan did not ask about his fainting, nor did he bring up making appointments with the private physician and nutritionist again.
Lu Sili’s phone chimed several times during the meal, but he did not check any of the messages.
It made no sense, but Lu Sili was a little afraid of Su Yuan like this.
From the little experience he had, Su Yuan cared a great deal about his health. Li Ya had even said that Su Yuan had run over straight from the operating table today.
So why isn’t he saying anything now?
“Drink some milk. It’s warm, and I added a little honey.” As Su Yuan spoke, he picked up the cup in front of him too.
Lu Sili had a habit of drinking water with meals and had actually already picked up his cup twice.
“Okay.”
Hm? This cup…
Lu Sili raised his eyes to the one in Su Yuan’s hand and only then realized that the cups they were using tonight came from the replacement set he had bought at the concept store after the original was broken in his checked luggage.
Lu Sili lifted his cup and took a sip, chiming in, “It really is sweet. Tastes good.”
Su Yuan said, “As long as you like it.”
Lu Sili rubbed the delicately patterned cup between both hands. He could feel the raised gold-stamped pattern on its outer wall. Warm from the milk, it carried a faint, sweet scent of honey.
All at once, he felt that the house was a little too empty. Even the faint clink of a cup being set on a tray seemed to echo.
Lu Sili badly wanted to say something, but after looking up several times, he still had no idea how to begin.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have treated you like that last night.”
No, that sounds terrible. Like I’d taken liberties with him or something.
“I didn’t take my medicine yesterday. My head wasn’t quite right.”
Even worse. My head is perfectly fine.
“You must be tired from work today. Don’t be angry. It’s bad for your health.”
What kind of nonsense is that? It’s all useless.
Lu Sili became so absorbed in thinking that he finished the entire cup of warm milk without noticing the white ring it had left above his upper lip.
His phone rang. Grandma was calling.
Lu Sili stared at the screen in distress. She had probably heard from somewhere that he had fainted today. He sneaked a glance at Su Yuan, who was still eating the remaining dishes.
“Hello, Grandma?” Lu Sili answered.
His grandmother first let out a heavy sigh, then said, “Lili, have you been lying to Grandma? Are you still overdosing on suppressants?”
Lu Sili said nothing.
“Don’t you know how dangerous that is? What if you faint one day and there’s no one around? If your mother and father knew, wouldn’t they be heartbroken?” his grandmother demanded in a rapid string of questions.
“Why would they be heartbroken?”
Lu Sili shot the question back without hesitation. Then he realized he should not have raised his voice at his grandmother and softened his tone. “People who can only be contacted twenty days out of an entire year aren’t going to know about things like this. Warships out on the open sea and spacecraft in space can’t receive Licheng’s gossip tabloids.”
His grandmother was still saying something on the other end, but Su Yuan could not make out the words. He merely tightened his fingers around his chopsticks and turned Lu Sili’s sentence over in his mind once again.
He had heard something similar before, beside the basketball court at Yingnan No. 3 High School.
“Warships on the open sea and spacecraft in space can’t get Licheng’s phone signal, so neither my mom nor my dad can come.”
Sixteen-year-old Lu Sili wore a proud expression. He tossed the basketball back onto the court, sat down, opened a bottle of mineral water, and drank as he explained to the friends around him why his parents never attended parent-teacher meetings.
Su Yuan was on cleaning duty. He sat on the highest step behind Lu Sili, holding a pair of tongs and picking trash out of the bushes.
He kept searching the same patch over and over, solely so he could secretly listen to Lu Sili chatting with his friends.
“Have you ever been on a warship? Is it cool?” one of the classmates around him asked.
Lu Sili shook his head and explained with a smile, “That’s all military classified information. But my mom said that when I grow up, I can join the navy too. Then I’ll stand on the deck of a warship, patrol the vast ocean, and defend my country.”
His classmates exclaimed enviously. One classmate who had already differentiated as an Omega said, “Wow, that’s amazing. I want to become an Alpha like that too.”
Lu Sili comforted him gently. “But you’re definitely going to become the best painter.”
Back then, everyone simply assumed Lu Sili would differentiate into an Alpha.
The afterglow of sunset fell across Lu Sili’s face. Sweat glimmered at his temples, and the boy’s body was strong, healthy, and full of vitality. At his classmates’ calls, he ran back onto the court.
He caught the ball, stepped back, turned sideways, and jumped. Against the golden light, the basketball traced a perfect arc through the air and dropped cleanly into the hoop.
And Su Yuan, who was destined to remain a Beta, could only stay behind him and secretly listen in on Lu Sili’s world. He believed just as firmly that someone as dazzling as Lu Sili would definitely become the person he wanted to be.
Maybe one day Su Yuan would see him in military news.
That would have been enough.
“All right, I was wrong, okay?!”
Su Yuan came back to himself and saw Lu Sili, a white ring of milk still around his mouth, raging helplessly into the phone. All at once, Su Yuan stopped resenting him.
He had gathered so much courage just to ask Lu Sili to marry him. It had not been so they could keep butting heads like this.
So many people around Lu Sili loved him so deeply that their concern came out as criticism.
I’m different. I’ll never reproach him, Su Yuan thought.
His grandmother’s lecture gave Lu Sili a headache. He agreed to go home for dinner the next day and promised that as soon as the gala ended, he would see a doctor immediately and start restoring his health.
After hanging up, Lu Sili tossed his phone aside and pinched the spot between his brows to ease the headache.
“Lu Sili.”
“Hm?” Lu Sili looked up at Su Yuan.
He had originally been agonizing over how to break the ice with Su Yuan, but now he truly had no energy for it. He only wanted to go into the study, open his email, and calm himself down with work.
Su Yuan gently set the cup in his hand onto the tray.
The crisp sound echoed through the room.
He said, “Tell me, what should I wear to the gala?”
Lu Sili did not react at first. “What?”
Su Yuan said, “For the gala. I’m your husband. I can’t exactly show up looking shabby and embarrass you.”