Jiang Tingnan was a man with no particular hobbies.
He had started at the very bottom with nothing, clawing and scrambling his way to the position he held today.
He was nothing like those young masters born with silver spoons in their mouths, who went in for racing cars or extreme sports.
Jiang Tingnan’s daily orbit was extremely simple.
Barring business engagements, it contained two places: the company and home.
In fact, if he hadn’t needed to go to work at all, he could have spent an entire day in bed wrapped around his wife.
Ruan Yan always called him a gourd with its mouth sawn shut, silent day after day, keeping everything locked away inside. But in truth, if you had fitted a display screen to Jiang Tingnan’s heart, the whole screen would only ever have shown the same few words.
Baby baby baby wife wife wife wife wife.
Spending money on Ruan Yan and dressing his beautiful wife up counted among the rare things capable of rousing his interest.
Every month Jiang Tingnan received a great many VIP invitations to auctions. He would usually skim the catalogues, and anything he thought suited Ruan Yan he would reserve directly with his card without blinking. A few especially precious pieces he went to the auction to buy in person.
If there was any moment that made earning money feel meaningful to Jiang Tingnan, it was probably while buying and buying and buying for his wife.
Piling every treasure in front of Ruan Yan. That was the sole purpose of Jiang Tingnan going out to “hunt.”
In the end Ruan Yan couldn’t win out over Jiang Tingnan. He got an entire new outfit from head to toe, and Jiang Tingnan bought him a whole stack of socks and underwear besides. When it came to his own turn, Jiang Tingnan spent two minutes picking up a short sleeved shirt and a pair of trousers and said that was plenty to wear.
Ruan Yan glared at him furiously. “Fine. I’m off to university anyway, and let me tell you, there are plenty of handsome men at school. You work it out for yourself.”
Jiang Tingnan wavered back and forth between saving money and falling short in his wife’s eyes, and in the end said obediently, “Then you pick, baby.”
Ruan Yan lifted his chin high. “Hmph!”
The eye he’d developed over years of sweeping through shops was nothing to sneeze at. While holding clothes up against Jiang Tingnan, he didn’t forget to KFC Jiang Tingnan. “Take a look. Whose wife is as good as me? You should be laughing to yourself in private. It took real luck for you to land a wife as good as me.”
Jiang Tingnan nodded in agreement. “Baby is good.”
When it came time to pay, Jiang Tingnan absolutely refused to let Ruan Yan spend his own pocket money. Letting his wife pay to buy things for him, what would the world be coming to.
Ruan Yan glared at him. “Isn’t your money my money? What difference does it make whose we spend?”
Jiang Tingnan had never once won an argument against his wife.
He couldn’t out talk him, but he held stubbornly onto Ruan Yan’s hand and wouldn’t let him hand over any money.
Walking out of the mall, Ruan Yan felt angry enough for his hair to stand on end.
He ignored Jiang Tingnan on purpose and turned toward the bus stop, but Jiang Tingnan caught his hand again.
“Stop pulling at me.”
Ruan Yan’s face was stiff.
Jiang Tingnan soothed him in a low voice. “I’m sorry, baby, I’ve made you unhappy again. Let me take you out to eat, all right? There’s a Western restaurant near here, and don’t you love Western food?”
Ruan Yan gritted his teeth in fury.
How many pennies did Jiang Tingnan even have in his pocket, to be talking about Western food.
Wasn’t hauling bricks exhausting, out under that sun? More than once he’d seen the sweat running off Jiang Tingnan like water. At every meal the man put meat into his bowl and kept his own head down over plain rice. He bought Ruan Yan fruit, bought him snacks, and had never once bought himself so much as a bottle of water.
Ruan Yan turned his head away. “When did I ever say I liked Western food? I’m not eating it, who eats that foreign stuff. Go home and make me gravy noodles.”
For once Jiang Tingnan was caught off guard. “You don’t like it? Then barbecue……”
Ruan Yan tugged Jiang Tingnan’s hand and walked on. “I want gravy noodles. And put two eggs in mine today.”
……
When they got back, Lin Dong was at the door, having come expressly to head him off.
He stood with his arms folded, looked at Ruan Yan for a while, then at Jiang Tingnan beside him, and said slowly, “Ruan Yan, I need a word with you.”
Jiang Tingnan frowned, gripping Ruan Yan’s wrist, his expression far from friendly.
Ruan Yan wriggled a couple of times. “Jiang Tingnan, go and start the cooking.”
The three of them held that standoff for several minutes before Jiang Tingnan finally walked off with a grim face.
The moment he was gone, Lin Dong seemed to breathe out in relief and spoke quickly. “Ruan Yan, what exactly is the situation between you and him.”
“We’re together.”
Lin Dong ground his teeth. “Don’t lose your head. He’s just some man hauling bricks on a site, all he’s got going for him is a decent face.”
Ruan Yan frowned. “He is not. He’s going to university too. He’ll be rich in the future, and he’ll buy me villas, and diamond watches, and antiques……”
Lin Dong’s head spun listening to it, and he cut in. “Is this the pie in the sky Jiang Tingnan’s been feeding you?”
“…… it really isn’t pie in the sky.”
But whatever Ruan Yan said, Lin Dong didn’t believe a word of it, plainly regarding him as a clear case of love-brain.
Ruan Yan stamped his feet in frustration. “It’s true, you wait and see. When he’s rich I’ll have him bring you a whole case of US dollars.”
Lin Dong shook his head in heavy sorrow. “Ruan Yan, he’s brainwashed you. You’ve only just graduated, you’re far too naive. Men like that make a specialty of deceiving boys like you. US dollars, honestly. Has he ever even seen a US dollar?”
Nothing Ruan Yan said made the slightest difference, and in the end he could only bow his head and take the lecture obediently. Once Lin Dong had talked himself hoarse, he waved a hand and let him go.
Inside, Jiang Tingnan had already brought out the gravy noodles. Seeing Ruan Yan come back, he chose his words carefully. “What did your friend say to you?”
Back when he was courting Ruan Yan, Jiang Tingnan had looked up a great many guides online and grasped the importance of the “best friend,” terrified of being marked down behind his back.
Ruan Yan moved one of the fried eggs from his own bowl into Jiang Tingnan’s and said carelessly, “He says I’ve got love-brain.”
He slapped his chopsticks down on the table. “What a slander! I’m nowhere near as love-brained as you!”
Jiang Tingnan, “……”
.
At the end of the month Jiang Tingnan quit the site job, received a sum of money, packed up both their bags, and planned to send Ruan Yan home for a couple of days to keep his mother company before the two of them went to register at the university.
Ruan Yan collected his own wages as well, spun happily around the room several times, then handed the money to Jiang Tingnan with his own “deng deng deng” background music. “Your Majesty rewards you.”
Jiang Tingnan took the money and tucked it straight into Ruan Yan’s bag. “Thank you for Your Majesty’s grace.”
“There you go again……”
“Be good.” Jiang Tingnan leaned in and kissed Ruan Yan’s cheek. “I’ll be staying at the inn across the way. Call me if anything comes up.”
Jiang Tingnan produced a box with a new model phone inside and handed it to Ruan Yan. “Use this one. Give me the old one.”
Ruan Yan’s eyes went wide. “Are you out of your mind, Jiang Tingnan, how much did this cost.”
“It wasn’t expensive, I bought a cheap one. You’re starting university, you should have a new phone.”
Ruan Yan wasn’t having it. “I don’t want it. Aren’t you about to start your own business? When you go out to talk deals you’ll need something better, don’t give people cause to laugh at you.”
“I don’t close deals with a phone.”
Jiang Tingnan pushed the box into Ruan Yan’s hands, allowing no argument.
Ruan Yan went to push it back again, but Jiang Tingnan caught his wrist, his brow low, his voice slightly hoarse. “Baby, don’t be so understanding.”
The more considerate Ruan Yan was, the more it felt to Jiang Tingnan like a knife carving into his flesh.
Who had asked him to be so considerate.
His Yan Yan should be utterly uninhibited, as willful as he pleased. That was how he was best.
Ruan Yan lost the exchange completely in the end and went home with the new phone in his pocket and bags large and small in his hands.
Ms. Liu Zhen was astonished. “One month away and you’ve turned considerate?”
Ruan Yan very much wanted to say outright that her son, his husband, had bought all of it, but remembering Jiang Tingnan’s instructions, he shut his mouth sulkily.
As it turned out, a month away earned him precisely a one hour trial card for maternal affection.
After dinner Liu Zhen went out for a walk with the neighbors, and Ruan Han was more direct still, not even coming home to eat.
Ruan Yan’s little idea popped into his head.
He texted Jiang Tingnan to say Mom and his little sister were both out, and told him to sneak in.
Jiang Tingnan replied with two words only.
【Not coming.】
Tsk.
What a cold man.
Ruan Yan huffed, walked over to the kitchen sink, stretched a hand out over the dirty bowls in it and took a photo, then sent it to Jiang Tingnan.
With the caption 【The water is so cold, husband.】
Within five minutes, there was a sound from the door.
Ruan Yan smiled smugly and went to open it. Sure enough, Jiang Tingnan was standing outside.
He came in without a word, rolled up his sleeves, washed an apple for Ruan Yan first and settled him on the sofa in front of the television, then ducked into the kitchen and started on the dishes. Once the dishes were done he swept and mopped, giving the whole home a thorough cleaning.
Ruan Yan curled up on the sofa, crunching away at his apple.
When only the apple core was left, he called out, “Husband, shoot.”
Jiang Tingnan lifted the bin.
Ruan Yan lobbed the core and landed it squarely inside.
Jiang Tingnan smiled faintly. “Three points.”
He fetched a wet wipe and came over to clean Ruan Yan’s hands, whereupon Ruan Yan seized the chance to slip a hand up under the hem of his shirt and get a feel of his abs.
Jiang Tingnan’s eyes darkened a shade. “Baby, don’t start.”
“You’re my husband. Am I not even allowed to touch you a couple of times?”
The words had barely left his mouth when the sound of a key turning in the lock came from the door.