Shao Wu stood frozen for several seconds before he managed to ask carefully, “So… you’re willing to let my mom know about us?”
“Of course I am, but—”
“Then that’s all that matters!”
“…”
“I just… thought you didn’t want her to know.” It felt as though he were standing on a cloud, something soft and weightless beneath his feet. Shao Wu opened his arms and slipped them around Yang Shuyi’s neck.
“Why wouldn’t I?” Yang Shuyi wrapped his arms around Shao Wu’s waist. “Of course I want your family to know… I’m just afraid they won’t think I’m good enough.”
Shao Wu buried his face in the hollow of Yang Shuyi’s shoulder and shook his head. “They won’t.”
“My brother’s birthday is this Sunday. He’s bringing his boyfriend home…” Shao Wu said against his shoulder. “Come back with me, okay?”
Yang Shuyi’s arms tightened around him all at once.
“Can I?” he asked softly.
“Yes. My mom has already… accepted it. And when you visited her in the hospital, she had a pretty good impression of you.”
“That time…” Yang Shuyi didn’t finish his sentence.
Shao Wu pulled open his collar and bit him on the shoulder, leaving a round tooth mark. This time he used real force.
Yang Shuyi neither cried out nor moved. He just held Shao Wu and let him bite. Once Shao Wu was done, he felt bad and licked the mark with the tip of his tongue. Only then did Yang Shuyi let out a low, strained sigh.
That night, Yang Shuyi had visited Wu Yan in the hospital. It was also the night when the air had been as cool as water and Yang Shuyi had begged Shao Wu to come to his wedding.
Looking back now, Shao Wu could barely comprehend how he’d endured it at the time. That bastard Yang Shuyi.
“Xiao Shao,” the bastard said cautiously, “I’m sorry.”
“What have you got to apologize for? You’re so clever, even my mom likes you, you…”
“I don’t know why.” Yang Shuyi lowered his head, burying half his face in Shao Wu’s soft hair. “Back then, all I wanted was to find you. I didn’t even care about saving face. I just wanted to tell you everything… I knew none of it had anything to do with you, but I…”
“But you still wanted to make things hard for me.”
Actually, make things hard for me was an enormous understatement. To describe what had happened truthfully, he would have to change just one character.
Yang Shuyi hadn’t merely made things hard for him. He had tormented him.
“I was too selfish.”
Shao Wu was silent for several seconds. “But I’m the only one you’re selfish with.”
Yang Shuyi accepted that without protest. “I don’t know why that is.”
Shao Wu fell silent again. A moment later he smiled.
“You know, when I was at my most… miserable, right after I got to Guangdong, I kept wondering why you treated me like that. You were so good to everyone else. Grandma, Longlong, even those girls who liked you. You were so gentle with all of them. Why were you so… cruel to me, of all people?”
Yang Shuyi said nothing, but the arms around Shao Wu tightened, as though he were afraid Shao Wu would push him away.
Shao Wu stroked his back and spoke fairly calmly. “Back then I thought I was going crazy. I kept telling myself, even if you weren’t good to me, that proved I was special, didn’t it? Can you call it that? If I was the only person in the world you could be that cruel to… God, how pathetic am I?”
Shao Wu gave a muffled laugh. “It sounds a little exaggerated, but Yang Shuyi, you know what? Maybe I’m the only person in the world who’d treasure even your cruelty.”
After a long time, Yang Shuyi murmured, “Mm.” Shao Wu raised his head and saw that Yang Shuyi’s eyes were red. He seemed to be holding back his tears; none had fallen.
“Then I have to thank you,” Yang Shuyi said. “It won’t happen again.”
Yang Shuyi held Shao Wu, and together they fell back onto the bed. The oak bed really was sturdy. Even with the weight of two grown men falling onto it at once, it didn’t budge.
The bedroom ceiling light was bright. They lay face to face, exploring each other’s bodies with their eyes. Shao Wu couldn’t help reaching out to caress Yang Shuyi’s forearms, shoulders, and chest. His skin was rougher than Shao Wu’s, and the powerful, balanced muscles lay close against his body like a bow drawn taut.
Yang Shuyi said nothing, moving with particular intensity. His body rose and fell against Shao Wu’s, the two of them joined together. In a haze Shao Wu felt himself rising and falling too, like one wave lifting another, his vision full of rippling light. He lost all sense of time. Only when Shao Wu was nearly too exhausted to think did Yang Shuyi finally finish his last series of thrusts and withdraw from him.
“Xiao Shao.” Yang Shuyi’s voice was a little hoarse and exceptionally gentle. “Shall we go rinse off?”
“Mm…”
They ended up making love again in the bathroom. By the time they finished, Shao Wu was practically asleep. He couldn’t tell how long they’d gone on. All he knew was that Yang Shuyi held him and washed his body, wrapped him in a bath towel and dried him off, then carried him to bed and kissed his cheek.
Two days later, Yang Shuyi went to Chengdu and returned that same evening.
Shao Wu teased him deliberately. “So now you’re officially unemployed, huh?”
Yang Shuyi nodded. With a smile playing at his lips, he lowered his eyes and put on an obedient expression. “Guess I’ll be depending on Teacher Shao to support me from now on.”
“Hey, that’s easy enough.” The red marks from last time hadn’t even faded, but Shao Wu was already getting ideas again. “Keep me properly satisfied tonight, and anything’s negotiable.”
To his surprise, Yang Shuyi shook his head seriously, dropping straight out of character. “Xiao Shao, not tonight.”
“Why not?” They didn’t even have to work tomorrow…
“We’re meeting Auntie tomorrow,” Yang Shuyi said. “I want us to be in good shape.”
Shao Wu hesitated for a couple of seconds. “So after we do it, you’re always… wiped out?”
Yang Shuyi looked up and smiled. “You didn’t know?”
His smile made Shao Wu’s cheeks burn. How was it that whenever this scoundrel started teasing, Shao Wu was always the one who got caught? Fortunately Yang Shuyi didn’t pursue the joke. He crouched and opened his suitcase.
Shao Wu leaned over to look. The case was packed with boxes of every size.
The most conspicuous item was… a whole Lancôme gift set.
“I bought some things for Auntie.” Yang Shuyi lifted the Lancôme set out. “Have a look. Are they all right?”
Shao Wu stared, dumbfounded. “All these… are presents?”
“It looks like a lot, but the boxes are just big.” Yang Shuyi picked up another box as he spoke. It was vermilion edged with gold and looked decidedly luxurious.
“What’s that?”
“A silk scarf,” Yang Shuyi said. “Shu embroidery. This design came in two colors, white and green. I didn’t know which one Auntie would like, so I bought both.”
Shao Wu: “…”
Yang Shuyi lifted a third box. This one didn’t need explaining. The label clearly read: Cold-Eaten Rabbit.
The fourth box was an iPhone SE.
“Why did you buy this?!”
“Oh, when Auntie called that day, her phone sounded a little crackly,” Yang Shuyi said. “This model’s just come out.”
“I know, but isn’t this… isn’t this a bit much?”
“It’s my first visit to your home. It’s only right.” Yang Shuyi considered for a moment. “Actually, I’m still wondering whether giving a red envelope directly would be inappropriate. It’s a first visit, after all. It might look like I’m bringing a betrothal gift…”
Shao Wu: “…”
“What do you think?” Yang Shuyi asked.
“I think,” Shao Wu said gravely, “I think you’re deliberately trying to outdo my brother.”
“Huh?”
“His boyfriend’s coming tomorrow too…” Wang Yujun had arranged this gathering in the first place, and it was his boyfriend who was truly paying his first formal visit to Mom. If Shao Wu and Yang Shuyi’s gifts overshadowed theirs, wouldn’t that make things awkward?
“Oh.” Yang Shuyi smiled, sounding perfectly innocent. “I barely bought anything. It’s fine, isn’t it?”