Tan Xiao had gone to sleep early, so he woke early the next morning too. He rolled one way across the large guest-room bed, then the other, buried his face under the blanket, and laughed muffledly into it.
This honestly felt like a dream. He had never imagined he would actually date someone in this life, let alone end up with a boyfriend.
He had already liked Zhang Xingchuan enormously when they were friends. Now that their status had changed, naturally he liked him even more. Before, he only thought Zhang Xingchuan had a fun personality and they got along wonderfully. Now he felt that if anyone claimed perfect people did not exist, Tan Xiao would drag Zhang Xingchuan out as evidence. What do you mean they don’t? Here’s one! Come look. Come admire. My boyfriend.
He heard movement outside. The housekeeper was probably already preparing breakfast. He got up immediately, washed and dressed at high speed, and opened the door. Zhang Xingchuan happened to be coming downstairs, adjusting the cuff of his shirt as he descended.
Tan Xiao stood at the bottom of the staircase and smiled. “Morning, President.”
Zhang Xingchuan smiled too. “Morning, kiddo.”
He came down the last few steps. They stood face-to-face at the foot of the stairs. The moment their eyes met, pink bubbles seemed to rise from every direction.
The kitchen was far enough away that food smells reached them, but their voices would not carry back.
“Sleep well?” Zhang Xingchuan asked. Right now tenderness was flooding through him like rivers into the sea. He wanted to pour all of it over Tan Xiao at once.
“Very well.” Tan Xiao maintained a righteous expression. “Your bed and pillows are very comfortable.”
“Then come sleep here more often.”
Tan Xiao said, “That would be too much trouble. I’d feel bad disturbing you.”
Zhang Xingchuan: “…”
In truth, the moment Tan Xiao saw him, he had already started automatically replaying yesterday’s wonderful kiss. So when he heard the invitation, he failed to process the deeper meaning and simply produced a reflexive polite response.
“No,” Tan Xiao said. “Sorry. My mind wandered.”
“Where did it go?”
Zhang Xingchuan obviously knew. In the last minute alone, Tan Xiao had pressed his lips together at least eighteen times. Where else could his mind possibly have gone?
Tan Xiao took half a step toward him and wrapped both arms around him. Zhang Xingchuan stayed still, waiting to see what Tan Xiao would do.
Tan Xiao traced Zhang Xingchuan’s features with his eyes and finally kissed him on the lips, then rubbed the tip of his nose against Zhang Xingchuan’s.
“There,” Tan Xiao said. “That’s where it went. Brother, does your house have some kind of drug in the air? Why are you the only thing in my head?”
Zhang Xingchuan was about to answer when Tan Xiao kissed him again.
This time Tan Xiao tried hard to imitate him. Whatever Zhang Xingchuan had done yesterday, Tan Xiao wanted to do back.
Ever since opening his eyes that morning, he had been replaying the details from yesterday. After reviewing the footage in his head, he decided the biggest flaw had been that he himself had not actively experienced enough of it.
Zhang Xingchuan understood what he was trying to do and cooperatively let himself be pushed backward until his back touched the wall beside the stairs. Whatever way Tan Xiao wanted to kiss, Zhang Xingchuan let him.
Tan Xiao had started with genuine excitement. Less than half a minute later, he pulled back in confusion and stared closely at Zhang Xingchuan’s lips.
Zhang Xingchuan resisted the urge to reverse their positions immediately and smiled. “What?”
“Why doesn’t it feel like yesterday?”
“What did yesterday feel like?”
Tan Xiao considered how to describe it. “Really happy. Like my soul was floating away. Does that only happen with a first kiss?”
If so, would yesterday have been the only time he could ever feel something that wonderful? He should have kissed longer. Though he would probably have needed supplemental oxygen halfway through.
In truth, he had imitated the technique very well. Zhang Xingchuan could not find any technical flaw.
But Zhang Xingchuan vaguely guessed the issue. “I don’t know. I’ve only kissed twice too. Today does seem less good than yesterday.”
Tan Xiao had a scientific spirit when controlling variables. “Then you kiss me again.”
Exactly. Zhang Xingchuan had wanted to do that from the beginning.
And exactly indeed. Within seconds of Zhang Xingchuan taking over, Tan Xiao flushed, his knees went soft, and the familiar happiness from yesterday rushed back.
So it was not about first kisses. But Tan Xiao had just done the same things Zhang Xingchuan did. What was the difference?
Although they were at home, Zhang Xingchuan was not shameless enough to wait for the housekeeper to come witness them. Mid-kiss, he half-embraced and half-guided Tan Xiao back into the guest room.
Once the door closed, Zhang Xingchuan kissed him with considerably less restraint. Still kissing, he backed Tan Xiao toward the bed and pressed him down beneath him.
Tan Xiao had slept here the previous night and had tidied up, so the bedding was neat rather than messy. Psychologically, however, Zhang Xingchuan felt the entire room carried Tan Xiao’s presence. This was the bed Tan Xiao had slept in. While kissing him, Zhang Xingchuan could not stop imagining what he looked like asleep here, completely unguarded.
Tan Xiao had no awareness of where Zhang Xingchuan was leading him. He was focused entirely on the kissing, all sensation concentrated around his lips. The kiss left him lightheaded and blissful. Countless tiny waves rose inside him, and he wished Zhang Xingchuan could keep kissing him like this forever, that the rest of their lives could consist entirely of kissing and nothing else.
Then he suddenly felt touch elsewhere and panicked briefly. Instinct told him to stop it, but almost immediately another thought followed: they had already established that they were dating. This was a natural part of it. So he did not resist. He even responded to the kiss in a way that seemed to encourage Zhang Xingchuan.
Zhang Xingchuan had only been testing the boundary. Realizing Tan Xiao did not object and apparently enjoyed being treated intimately, he became delighted and let the moment continue.
The end result was that Tan Xiao had to change his trousers that morning.
Zhang Xingchuan went upstairs and brought down a pair of his own sweatpants for him.
Tan Xiao had already cleaned up and was sitting in the room waiting. When Zhang Xingchuan knocked and entered, two long bare legs were dangling over the edge of the bed.
He really was pale, his skin almost dazzlingly white.
Zhang Xingchuan felt a little embarrassed and did not know where to look. He wanted to look, but that seemed excessively lustful.
Tan Xiao’s face was a little red because of what had just happened, but he did not care about showing his legs in front of Zhang Xingchuan. What was wrong with one man seeing another man’s legs? Had they never been to a public swimming pool?
Besides, after what had just happened, Tan Xiao felt even closer to Zhang Xingchuan. He would not mind letting him see anywhere.
“Don’t you need to change too?” Tan Xiao asked as he pulled on the sweatpants, looking pointedly downward at Zhang Xingchuan. “Has it calmed down already?”
Zhang Xingchuan was mortified. “Move your eyes. If you keep looking, it’s never going to be fine.”
Tan Xiao burst out laughing.
He still had one question he could not understand.
“Why doesn’t it feel that good when I kiss you?”
“Maybe because you’re a shou,” Zhang Xingchuan said.
He sounded completely certain, though internally he was not one hundred percent sure. Perhaps Tan Xiao only liked receiving during kissing. Other things might be different.
“That explains it.” Tan Xiao immediately accepted this logic and happily embraced the setting. “Then are you a gong?”
“To match you, I suppose I have no choice but to be a gong.”
Tan Xiao laughed too. “Don’t make it sound like you’re suffering some huge injustice.”
Zhang Xingchuan was still not entirely recovered and genuinely did feel somewhat aggrieved. “Why don’t you look again, then?”
Tan Xiao instantly turned his head away. “No chance. If I look and you never recover, you’ll blame me forever.”
Zhang Xingchuan walked over and hugged him, giving him a few kisses. Tan Xiao secretly expected more, but Zhang Xingchuan did not do anything else.
After breakfast, Zhang Xingchuan had to go to work. Naturally he wanted to see Tan Xiao safely back to school first, but Tan Xiao thought it unnecessary. “It’s not on the way. The subway is fast.”
There were things waiting at the company. Being a little late did not matter, but if they hit heavy traffic and were delayed too long, that could be a problem.
So Zhang Xingchuan asked the driver to take Tan Xiao to the subway station first.
He should have driven himself, Zhang Xingchuan thought as he watched Tan Xiao get out. If the driver were not here, he could have invited Tan Xiao to kiss in the car.
Over the following week, they met once for dinner. Tan Xiao also spent another night at Zhang Xingchuan’s home, again sleeping in the guest room. Before bed, however, he stayed with Zhang Xingchuan for a while.
This time kindhearted Tan Xiao helped Zhang Xingchuan too, so the president would not keep failing to calm down and later blame him for it.
“Say thank you,” Tan Xiao demanded.
“Thank you,” Zhang Xingchuan said. “Could you stop pinching me now?”
Tan Xiao had coveted his chest muscles for ages. Now that he finally had the opportunity, of course he was not going to waste it.
“Brother, can I bury my face here?”
“Please.”
Tan Xiao gave a little cheer, buried himself against Zhang Xingchuan’s chest, and reached a state of indescribable happiness.
“I like you so much,” Tan Xiao said happily, activating his sweet-talking skill while comfortably nestling there. “Brother, I like you best.”
Zhang Xingchuan thought: Stop talking. Keep this up and I’ll need to thank you again.
He was a man who liked plans. He loved making plans and loved executing them. He was not so rigid that any deviation caused a breakdown, but carrying out major life events according to a well-designed plan gave him a strong sense of order and satisfaction.
Their first kiss had already deviated from his original plan. The next step was even more important, so this time he wanted to follow the plan. He intended to give both Tan Xiao and himself a beautiful memory neither would ever forget.
“Your dissertation blind review isn’t due back until early next month, right?” Zhang Xingchuan asked. With one arm he adjusted Tan Xiao so the younger man lay fully across him. “Come away with me next week?”
“It could come back early.” Tan Xiao asked, “Where? Aren’t you busy? You have time to travel with me?”
“The company retreat is in Shangri-La.”
Tan Xiao assumed he meant the famous hotel chain. “Did they open a new flagship property somewhere? I’m not interested in hotel-resort vacations, and I don’t want to intrude on your corporate retreat. I’ll pass.”
The management retreat would last five days. Zhang Xingchuan did not intend to participate in the entire thing. At least three days could be left for Tan Xiao.
“I saw a copy of Lost Horizon on your dorm bookshelf,” Zhang Xingchuan said.
Tan Xiao lifted his head. Their eyes met. Zhang Xingchuan smiled and nodded. Yes. That Shangri-La.
“I’m going,” Tan Xiao said.
One week later, Yunnan, China. Paradise on earth. The sun and moon of the heart. Shangri-La.