“Husband, I want to keep a lion.”
The words rang out abruptly inside the cabin.
The black Maybach S680 Pullman, a stretched, custom build, had two leather sofas in the back along with a small liquor cabinet.
There was plenty of room, but Ruan Yan seemed to have no bones at all, insisting on pressing himself against Jiang Tingnan, most of his body curled into the man’s arms.
He held up his phone to show Jiang Tingnan. “A white lion, look how cute. I could put a gold chain on it, so pretty.”
Jiang Tingnan was holding his laptop in one hand, answering emails, but at Ruan Yan’s words he still glanced over immediately. He looked, then nodded. “Not in China, but you could keep one in Xintai. Didn’t you happen to like it there on our last vacation?”
Ruan Yan’s eyes lit up. “I also want to buy another yacht. I don’t like the color of the last one anymore, I want to design the paint myself this time.”
Jiang Tingnan didn’t seem to think twice, one word coming out. “Buy it.”
Ruan Yan propped himself up and leaned in, pecking a kiss on Jiang Tingnan’s chin. “So, husband, when can you get some time off? Let’s go buy our little lion.”
For the second time, Jiang Tingnan lifted his eyes from the laptop. This time his dark gaze settled on Ruan Yan’s mouth, staring for several dozen seconds before he said, low, “I’ll arrange it as soon as I can.”
Ruan Yan was finally satisfied, his eyes curving with a smile.
Up front, the driver clicked his tongue.
No wonder President Jiang was a workaholic. The one at home really did spend money like water. Just last month it was a private jet, and now it was a lion. He was honestly afraid that tomorrow they would announce they wanted to buy a private island.
Only the little money pit in the back had barely stayed quiet for half a minute before he started making trouble again, his little mouth going nonstop. “Jiang Tingnan, why are you always working when you’re with me? Is work more important than I am?”
Ruan Yan was being completely unreasonable with this complaint. They were on their way to an auction, and the final lot was a ruby crown that Ruan Yan liked very much, so even though the auction was in the suburbs, nearly an hour away by car, Jiang Tingnan had still pushed back two meetings to accompany him.
But the man didn’t argue back, only closed his laptop with a calm expression, his big hand gripping Ruan Yan’s waist and pulling him wholly into his arms.
No telling what Jiang Tingnan had been raised on, he stood nearly six foot three. He liked this position, holding his wife on his lap, cradled like a doll, so that when he bowed his head he could bury his face right in the crook of his wife’s neck and breathe deep.
Ruan Yan was a fragrant baby. His family had an entire wall of display cabinets just for his perfumes, and that wasn’t even counting the top luxury brands, they even hired a personal perfumer to specially formulate and make scents for him.
But no matter what perfume he wore, whether strong or light, Jiang Tingnan could always pick out that scent that belonged to Ruan Yan alone.
The man’s breath fell against his neck, carrying a faint tickle, and Ruan Yan couldn’t help laughing and dodging at the same time.
Just then, a blinding light swung across in front of them, and right after, the driver wrenched the wheel hard. In the violent swerve, Ruan Yan looked up and saw a large truck crashing straight toward them.
Bang.
Ring, ring, ring.
The light was too bright.
Ruan Yan bolted upright in bed, covered in cold sweat. Last night the curtains hadn’t been drawn properly, leaving a gap, and sunlight was streaming through it, shining straight into his eyes.
He narrowed his eyes and lifted a hand to block it.
The alarm clock on the nightstand was still ringing incessantly. Ruan Yan reached out impatiently and shut it off.
He sat on the bed for a few minutes before finally hauling himself up lazily and going into the bathroom to wash up.
When he reached the doorway, his younger sister Ruan Han happened to be coming out. The door was too narrow, and Ruan Yan stepped aside, the two of them squeezing past each other, their shoulders brushing.
It had been three days since that car accident.
Ruan Yan still wasn’t used to this cramped old house.
After all, anyone going from a two-thousand-square-meter Hushan Villa to a sixty-square-meter shabby old flat would need some time to adjust.
Ruan Yan looked down at his hand, still feeling like none of this was real. His finger was missing an eight-figure blue diamond wedding ring.
One car accident, and he’d been sent back ten years.
The last thing he remembered was the two cars colliding, Jiang Tingnan shielding him in his arms, seeming not to feel the pain at all before everything went dark.
He washed his face, then squeezed at the toothpaste tube pinched shut with a clip, working hard to get out just enough of a small blob to brush his teeth.
The toothbrush bristles were so stiff Ruan Yan kept worrying he’d make his gums bleed, and the facial cleanser was hard to use too. His face felt tight after washing, so he rummaged around and found a bottle of Dabao, which he ended up smearing on his face.
After sighing eighty or a hundred times that morning already, he walked out to find charred black eggs sitting on the dining table, and Ruan Yan finally lost it completely. “Ruan Han! You burned the eggs again!”
Because their mother was too busy at work, the two siblings took turns with the housework, and today it happened to be Ruan Han’s turn.
His sister poked her head out of the kitchen. “Ugh, what’s with you lately, being such a princess? You used to eat this just fine. If you don’t want it, there’s bread in the fridge, just make do.”
The so called bread had been bought on sale at the supermarket, dry enough to choke a long-necked goose. Ruan Yan had taken one bite of it yesterday and nearly thought he’d been reborn again.
He looked around the table, the burnt eggs, the noodles boiled so long they’d turned to soup, and a stack of murky, ancient-looking pickles.
Ruan Yan had no appetite left at all, and in the end he settled for a cup of cold water to fill his stomach.
Back home, what day hadn’t breakfast filled the whole table, Chinese or Western, his to choose freely, and the chefs who made just his pastries alone numbered three.
They said it was hard to go from luxury to frugality.
This was way too hard.
Ruan Yan couldn’t help pulling out his phone again. What he had now was still a half-smart phone with actual buttons, passed down from his mother after she had stopped using it, the paint already worn off.
Three days ago, the moment he’d been reborn, he’d wanted to contact Jiang Tingnan, but he didn’t even know Jiang Tingnan right now. Still, he remembered Jiang Tingnan once mentioning that he used to be in S City too.
These past few days he’d been asking friends around, trying to find someone named Jiang Tingnan, but he’d gotten nowhere.
Ruan Yan felt a little restless deep down.
He had no idea whether Jiang Tingnan was hurt, or whether he’d come back through rebirth just like him.
If he had, then why hadn’t he come to find him yet.
While he was fretting over this, the door sounded, and his mother, Liu Zhen, walked in carrying a bag of vegetables.
There was a small produce market near their home, the vegetables fresh and cheap every morning, and Liu Zhen always went early to buy them.
Her husband had passed away, and raising a son and daughter alone wasn’t easy, so she saved wherever she could.
Ruan Han was the first to raise her voice and tattle. “Mom, big brother’s picky again, he didn’t eat anything this morning.”
Furious, Ruan Yan grabbed an orange and threw it at her.
Liu Zhen had no time to settle disputes between her son and daughter. She waved a hand. “Yan Yan, put the vegetables in the fridge. I’m working overtime tonight, you two make your own dinner, don’t wait for me.”
The siblings both stood up at once, exchanging a look with perfect tacit understanding.
Then they launched straight into rock paper scissors.
Ruan Han lost badly with scissors, and she stamped her foot in fury. “Best of three!”
“Who cares what you say.” Ruan Yan turned his head away deliberately, pretending not to hear. “You’re cooking tonight.”
While the two siblings bickered, Liu Zhen had already sat down at the table to eat breakfast, finally finding a moment to lecture Ruan Yan. “What’s gotten into you these past couple days, suddenly all picky. Where’d this bad habit come from.”
“Mom.” Ruan Yan looked at the half-black bananas bought at a discount on the table and chose his words carefully. “Could we maybe raise our standard of living a little?”
Liu Zhen looked at him, expressionless. “You give me money, then.”
Ruan Yan choked. “I’ll have money later.”
Liu Zhen only scoffed, saying nothing.
“Really. Someday you’ll move into a big villa, you’ll have servants to help you with everything, you won’t even have to run your own bathwater, and your safe will be so stuffed with jewelry it won’t all fit.”
Ruan Yan pulled out a chair and sat down across from her, his eyes shining. “You can go ahead and picture it now.”
That part, at least, was true.
Jiang Tingnan had no parents of his own, so he’d taken Ruan Yan’s family as his own, and he was even more attentive to Liu Zhen than Ruan Yan was himself.
He arranged for a doctor to come check on Liu Zhen at set times, personally reviewed every medical examination report, and visited every month to sit and talk with her over a meal. Sometimes Ruan Yan got so caught up having fun outside that he forgot, but Jiang Tingnan never once missed a visit, no matter how busy he was with work.
Liu Zhen didn’t want to listen to her son talk nonsense, and made a gesture telling him to scram.
Ruan Han, on the other hand, perked right up, skipping over cheerfully. “Then what about me, brother, do I get to live in a villa too?”
“You, huh…”
Ruan Yan looked his sister up and down. “You’ll go abroad, find yourself a foreign boyfriend, the drop-dead gorgeous kind.”
Liu Zhen really couldn’t stand listening anymore. “First it’s villas, now it’s going abroad. Did our family get relocated, or did we win the lottery?”
Ruan Yan straightened his back. “Well, of course, it’s all because I found myself a good old…” husband.
The word caught in his throat, and looking at his mother’s expression, he swerved. “…person.”
Liu Zhen was puzzled. “You found yourself an old person?”
Ruan Yan hurried to explain. “I mean I found a good person. A rich, good person.”
“Well, would you look at that, Ruan Yan, you’ve even got ideas about mooching off someone.” Liu Zhen was so angry she stopped eating altogether, coming over to grab him by the ear. “Have you really got no ambition at all?”
“Ow, ow, ow…”
Ruan Yan struggled hard to rescue his own ear, then held it, sulking silently.
What was the big deal.
Jiang Tingnan was his husband.
So spending his husband’s money was only right and natural.
Society’s little scrap, his husband’s little pride and joy.
Actually, right after they’d first married, even Ruan Yan himself hadn’t quite believed it was real. He never once dared to swipe the card Jiang Tingnan gave him, and every day he still diligently clocked in for work.
Less than half a month later, Jiang Tingnan had pulled him aside for a talk.
The company had a lot of people, and at Ruan Yan’s rank, he had no business attending upper management meetings, only getting to hear Jiang Tingnan speak at the year-end all-staff assembly.
When the man wasn’t smiling, his brow and eyes turned cold, carrying a kind of unspoken authority.
And now, at home, he’d been pulled in front of Jiang Tingnan, standing there head lowered awkwardly, like a schoolboy caught misbehaving.
The man held his palm, his tone even. “I’m setting you a task. This week, spend seven figures, buy whatever you like. If you don’t manage it, there’ll be a punishment.”
Ruan Yan blinked up at him, dazed. “Huh? Punishment?”
The man’s big hand reached back, giving his bottom a light pat, the implication unmistakable.
Ruan Yan’s face flushed instantly red.
And that was the foundation laid for a habit of spending money like water.
Without exaggeration, Ruan Yan’s whole habit of unrestrained spending was something Jiang Tingnan had personally spoiled into him, step by step.
The first fashion show of his life, Jiang Tingnan had been right there beside him. The first time he went abroad, Jiang Tingnan had taken him. The first plane he bought, Jiang Tingnan had held him in his arms while they picked it out together.
Countless times the man had told him, “I earn money just so Yan Yan can spend it. The more Yan Yan spends, the happier I am.”
Thinking of this, Ruan Yan felt even sadder.
Waa.
He missed Jiang Tingnan.
…
Liu Zhen finished eating and left with her bag for work.
The rest of the dishes still sat soaking in the sink.
The chores today were supposed to be Ruan Han’s, but she’d made plans with her girlfriends to see a movie, and she looked at her brother pleadingly.
Ruan Yan spoke coldly. “Next week, you can make it up to me by doing my share twice.”
Ruan Han silently cursed Ruan the Skinflint while smiling and agreeing.
Soon, only Ruan Yan was left in the house.
He mentally braced himself before standing at the sink. The last time he’d washed dishes felt like something from a past life. Since being with Jiang Tingnan, he hadn’t lifted a single finger for housework.
Forget housework, when Jiang Tingnan was around, Ruan Yan didn’t even put on his own socks.
Ruan Yan had been spoiled rotten. From behind, he’d wrap his arms around Jiang Tingnan’s neck and whine sweetly, “Husband, you’ve spoiled me so much, what am I supposed to do when you’re not around.”
Jiang Tingnan hoisted Ruan Yan up by the bottom, carrying him on his back, and said in a deep voice, “I won’t not be around.”
Satisfied, Ruan Yan rested his chin on the man’s shoulder, nuzzling against it like a little cat.
Jiang Tingnan said little, did much.
Every single thing he’d ever promised Ruan Yan, he’d carried through without fail.
“Plip.”
A tear fell, mixing with the cold water on the plate.
Both of Ruan Yan’s hands were covered in suds, and all he could do was lift an arm and wipe messily at his eyes.
He mumbled quietly, “Liar.”
You said you wouldn’t leave me.
The tears kept coming, falling like a string of beads with the thread cut. On top of missing Jiang Tingnan, there was worry and heartache too.
When the crash happened, he hadn’t felt much of anything. Jiang Tingnan had shielded him in his arms, and all he’d been able to hear was the pounding of Jiang Tingnan’s heartbeat against Jiang Tingnan’s chest.
So what about Jiang Tingnan?
Was he in pain?
Just then his phone rang, buzzing against the table.
Ruan Yan, deep in his sadness, hadn’t planned on picking up, but he glanced over and saw the caller ID.
Lin Dong.
His good friend, whose family ran a factory and who had wide-ranging connections. Ruan Yan had asked him to help find Jiang Tingnan.
Ruan Yan’s heart suddenly started racing. He quickly wiped his hands dry and answered, his voice still trembling a little.
“Dongzi?”
Lin Dong’s voice came through the worn secondhand phone, mixed with static, but it struck straight at Ruan Yan’s heart in that instant.
“Yan Yan, I actually found someone named Jiang Tingnan.”
Author’s note:
This one’s a boisterous little drama queen bottom and a quiet, taciturn dad-type top.
*Warnings, please read*
1. Strong top, weak bottom
2. The bottom is a little drama queen and an affection-seeking spoiled brat. Not for those who dislike that.
3. The plot is weak. It’s a story about a young couple being in love.
4. Sweet, sweet, sweet.