President Fu really did have a problem with Tan Xiao.
He and Zhang Xingchuan had known and worked with each other for more than ten years. They had managed to build a company together without falling out, which meant they were genuine friends whose bond had stood the test of time. More importantly, they were also bound together by shared interests.
And now Zhang Xingchuan had suddenly found himself a young, pretty university student for a partner. Worse, this did not look like a passing amusement. He seemed thoroughly smitten.
Wasn’t that a disaster waiting to happen?
Unlike Zhang Xingchuan, a hopelessly straight man with practically no romantic experience, President Fu knew a thing or two about relationships.
He had married young after dating his wife in university. They were still very much in love and had two children.
Once their startup succeeded and he had accumulated some wealth, Fu also developed a habit of spending a little money to make his wife happy. Along the way he had learned something about fashion. One glance was enough for him to recognize how much Tan Xiao’s understated, apparently logo-free outfit cost.
Well, well. His brother Zhang Xingchuan was quite the spender after all!
Usually he pinched pennies, calculated every expense, even spent ages working out whether he could afford a house before finally buying one with a mortgage.
So this was what all that hard work, earning and saving, had been for: pouring money into the pockets of a handsome little gold digger.
Yes, in President Fu’s private and increasingly foul-mouthed assessment, Tan Xiao was a gay little gold digger. Objectively speaking, though, he had to admit the boy was exceptionally good-looking.
His wife would probably like Tan Xiao too. That face appealed to women and men alike. What a beautiful, handsome young man.
And the more youthful and stylish Tan Xiao appeared, the livelier and funnier he was, the more intelligent and emotionally perceptive, the more universally likable…
The less Fu could stand him. Wasn’t that precisely the persona a gold digger would cultivate?
From an outsider’s perspective, this looked very much like a carefully engineered pig-butchering romance scam targeting Zhang Xingchuan.
On the first day of the team-building event, everyone gathered together. The two founders were seated side by side. The greatest advantage of holding an event at high altitude was that they had an entirely respectable excuse not to serve alcohol. Everyone toasted with tea instead: dignified and healthy.
An executive was giving a speech that was long on words and short on substance. Boring beyond belief.
Fu muttered a few criticisms under his breath, then asked Zhang Xingchuan, “Where’s that little doctoral student of yours?”
“Off having fun at Wudi Lake,” Zhang Xingchuan said.
The wording unexpectedly delighted him. My little doctoral student. Exactly. His. And wonderful at that.
Fu said sarcastically, “I thought you’d wait for some celestial beauty to appear. And in the end, you settled for this little boy.”
“Put your hand on your heart before you say that,” Zhang Xingchuan replied. “Isn’t our little doctoral student practically celestial? I think he’s a fairy descended to earth.”
Fu was speechless. “Since when did you start liking men? I never saw that coming.”
Zhang Xingchuan folded his arms and leaned back defensively. “Don’t tell me you’re about to confess that you’ve secretly loved me for years. Your wife over in the Greater Bay Area would be preparing to launch missiles.”
“Stop saying such disgusting things.” Fu wanted to punch the lovesickness straight out of the president’s skull. “Don’t you find anything strange about this doctoral student?”
“Plenty of things are strange,” Zhang Xingchuan said. “For example, your haircut is the strangest thing I’ve seen today. Did some Greater Bay chicken peck it into that shape?”
“What do you know about anything? First of all, the Greater Bay mascot isn’t a chicken. It’s a Chinese white dolphin. Second, this is called a Caesar cut. My wife heard I was going on a team-building trip and booked me an appointment with an extremely sought-after top stylist to get it done specially.”
Zhang Xingchuan delivered the shortest possible review: “Ugly.”
Fu took a deep breath. Zhang Xingchuan understood nothing about fashion. Nothing about beauty.
“Have you stopped to think for even a second?” Fu said. “A boy as fashionable and seemingly perfect as your doctoral student. Why, exactly, would he fall for you?”
“Obviously because I’m the perfect man,” Zhang Xingchuan said.
Serves you right if you get conned, you absurdly overconfident straight guy, Fu thought.
“President, don’t spend too much money on that kid,” Fu finally warned him, genuinely trying to help. “If you spread it out over time, he’ll keep loving you for longer.”
Zhang Xingchuan had understood his insinuations long ago. “President Fu, kindly stop calling the grapes sour just because you can’t reach them. Wouldn’t I know better than you whether he loves me?”
“What do you mean I can’t reach the grapes? You’ve seen how my wife treats me. That’s what genuine love looks like.”
“My little doctoral student and I are genuinely in love too. Why does a monster like you have to butt in?”
The two kept arguing under their breath until both wore sour expressions.
Nobody nearby could hear what they were saying. But everyone could read their faces, and alarm spread. Were WenCheng’s two great powerhouses, one overseeing the north and the other the south, about to split the company?
In reality, they were simply two men competing to prove that their own spouse loved them with one hundred percent sincerity.
Naturally, there could be no winner. People did not experience one another’s joys and sorrows in quite the same way.
Fu thought Zhang Xingchuan had fallen for a pig-butchering scam. Zhang Xingchuan pitied Fu’s wife for marrying a man with a pig’s brain.
Tan Xiao spent a wonderful day exploring and only came back that evening. He showed Zhang Xingchuan photographs he’d taken at the scenic spots. He had also met a few university students visiting from Beijing and arranged to hike with them the next day.
“It’s a beginner route, only a little over ten kilometers round trip,” he said excitedly, pulling hiking equipment out of his suitcase. “Good thing I hesitated right before leaving and packed it after all.”
When it came to planning, he and Zhang Xingchuan were opposites. Before any trip, Zhang Xingchuan would prepare a detailed itinerary and decide what he would be doing at each hour.
Tan Xiao never made itineraries. He went where the mood took him, following the weather and his own feelings. He would pick somewhere at random and happily enjoy whatever scenery chance placed before him.
“There’s a hike on the team-building itinerary too,” Zhang Xingchuan said. “Jiaxin wanted you to come along. If you’re hiking with your new friends, will you still go on ours?”
“I think I’ll skip it. What would I do with a bunch of old men? Take your pictures?”
“…” Zhang Xingchuan nearly fainted with indignation. “Who are you calling old men?”
“Not you!” Tan Xiao was sorting through his belongings in the walk-in wardrobe and could not see Zhang Xingchuan’s face. He kept joking, “Brother, as long as you don’t tell anyone, nobody can see you’re almost forty. You look so young!”
This time Zhang Xingchuan genuinely nearly fainted. “I don’t turn thirty-six until July. How am I almost forty?”
Tan Xiao had only been teasing and had not expected Zhang Xingchuan to mind. He put his things down and cautiously poked his head out of the wardrobe to check his expression.
But Zhang Xingchuan wasn’t actually angry. “Tell me one more time. How old am I?”
“Eighteen.” Seeing that he wasn’t upset, Tan Xiao resumed teasing him. “The handsome eighteen-year-old president has arrived to restore WenCheng to glory!”
Zhang Xingchuan looked baffled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Tan Xiao laughed. “Nothing.”
He abandoned the clothes altogether. Zhang Xingchuan was sitting on the sofa, so Tan Xiao walked over and sat sideways on his lap.
Taken by surprise, Zhang Xingchuan’s brain had not caught up yet, but his arms had already wrapped around Tan Xiao’s waist.
They stared at each other for several seconds.
Then Zhang Xingchuan laughed. “You sat down a little too naturally, didn’t you?”
“Am I not allowed to sit here? Then I’ll go.”
He said he would leave, but he was still sitting on the president’s lap.
Of course Zhang Xingchuan wouldn’t let him go either. Before Tan Xiao could stand up, Zhang Xingchuan would have pushed him back down.
Instead, Zhang Xingchuan played innocent. “And then?”
Tan Xiao knew exactly what he was doing and adopted a look of exaggerated disappointment. “Do I have to teach you this too? Am I supposed to kiss myself?”
So Zhang Xingchuan began kissing him.
Ten minutes or so passed. They were still thoroughly absorbed in one another.
There was no danger of oxygen deprivation in the room. If anything, the comfortable oxygen supply made kissing even better for Tan Xiao than on previous occasions. The feeling stirred a powerful impulse in him.
“Tomorrow,” Tan Xiao said, “I don’t want to go hiking tomorrow. Brother, I’m not going.”
Zhang Xingchuan brushed another kiss against his lips. “Are you missing some equipment? I’ll find a way to get whatever you need.”
“No. I’ve got everything.” Tan Xiao hesitated. “I just feel really good right now. I don’t want to wait until you’re finished with work. I mean… I want to do that. Could we do it tonight?”
Zhang Xingchuan was attending two days of team-building activities. They had both tacitly assumed they would wait until his work was over, perhaps until the following evening or later, before taking that next step.
Zhang Xingchuan had planned it that way because he wanted more unhurried time. Something wonderful deserved to be done slowly and enjoyed in detail.
Tan Xiao had assumed it for an entirely different reason. He had read online that first attempts had a high failure rate and thought Zhang Xingchuan was leaving room for trial and error.
“Shall we do a practice run tonight?” Tan Xiao suggested, noticing that Zhang Xingchuan was finding it difficult to hold back too. “If we don’t get it right, we can try again tomorrow. We’ll even have a notebook of mistakes to study.”
“Professor Tan, are you setting me a mock exam?”
“Well, are you taking it or not? Otherwise I’m going to play video games.”
“Don’t try to provoke me into it.”
“Then what should I do?”
“Say something sweet.”
Tan Xiao called softly, “Brother.”
Zhang Xingchuan, an extreme J-type who adored making plans, tore up his schedule on the spot once again.
The wind was strong on the plateau that night. Beyond the front window rose distant snowy mountains; beyond the rear window stretched an endless meadow.
When the wind swept past, the spring grass rolled in rippling waves.
The next morning, in the restaurant, Jiaxin saw Zhang Xingchuan arriving for breakfast alone. “Where’s Tan Xiao?” she asked. “Has he already left for his hike?”
Zhang Xingchuan lied without blinking. “He had too much fun yesterday and developed altitude sickness in the middle of the night. He’ll have to rest today.”
“Is he all right?” Jiaxin looked concerned. “I’ll go check on him later.”
“No need. Go take care of your work. Go on, do your job and stop involving yourself in other people’s business.”
Jiaxin had no idea what was going on, but she could tell the president did not want her to visit. She went to deal with her responsibilities and sent Tan Xiao a message of concern when she had a moment.
Tan Xiao had only just woken up. Lying on his stomach in bed and looking at his phone, he learned that Zhang Xingchuan was going around telling everyone he had altitude sickness.
What is this? Spreading false rumors? Tan Xiao was a little displeased, but after thinking about it, he decided not to hold something so trivial against his brand-new husband.
He also messaged the friends with whom he had arranged to hike and explained that he wasn’t feeling well enough to join them.
It turned out none of them had gone. One of their group really had developed altitude sickness, and the other hapless students were busy looking after him as he received oxygen at the hospital.
Friend: Did you get altitude sickness too? We really shouldn’t have been running and jumping around taking photos by the lake yesterday.
Tan Xiao had done neither and was not suffering from altitude sickness, but could only reply: We really shouldn’t have.
Friend: Rest up. Let’s meet again when we’re back in Beijing.
Tan Xiao: Sounds good.
The others were undergraduates at another university in Beijing.
Tan Xiao was about to close the conversation when the other person asked: Do you have a girlfriend?
What was this question about? Tan Xiao did not answer immediately.
Friend: We posted yesterday’s photos to Moments. One of our female classmates saw them and wants to get to know you. (She’s a solid eight out of ten!)
Tan Xiao typed out a reply. After a moment’s thought, he deleted Thanks, I’m already seeing someone and composed something new.
Tan Xiao: To be honest, I just got married.
It took quite a while before the other person sent back a sticker whose jaw had dropped to the floor.
Tan Xiao laughed into the bed.
If reality and all its complications were set aside, he would have loved to rush out right then and announce to everyone he knew that last night, he and the person he loved had [beep] together.
He and Zhang Xingchuan had successfully formed their bond. They were officially husbands in every way that mattered between the two of them.
The details of how the bond had been forged were not suitable for elaboration, but he could at least tell his friends, succinctly: My friend, do you understand the meaning of something so incredibly, shockingly wonderful?
President Fu, sporting his Caesar cut, spotted Zhang Xingchuan eating alone and came to join him.
Zhang Xingchuan gave him a mysterious little smile, wondering how best to brag about accomplishing a major life milestone last night.
Fu felt uneasy under that look. “What is wrong with you?”
“I’m in such a good mood,” Zhang Xingchuan said, “that even your ugly haircut is starting to look acceptable.”
“I heard your little doctoral student has altitude sickness.” Fu sounded delighted by the misfortune. “Poor thing. Can’t even get out of bed.”
Zhang Xingchuan seized his chance. “That’s right,” he said. “I’m the one who did it.”
Three seconds later, President Fu sprayed coffee everywhere.