Ruan Yan belonged to the most carefree, heartless sort of person.
No matter what happened, no matter where he was, so long as he was beside Jiang Tingnan, he could soon fall asleep, snoring away.
He pressed his whole face against his husband’s pectoral muscles, his mouth slightly open, as though to make it convenient to bite down at any moment.
Jiang Tingnan, by contrast, didn’t fall asleep so easily.
He had a great deal on his mind: his first funding, and the road he had to walk next.
Somewhere in that long tangle of thought, Jiang Tingnan suddenly remembered something he’d overlooked.
Ruan Yan was sleeping soundly, dreaming that Jiang Tingnan was getting a nipple piercing for him to look at, all but drooling over it, when someone shook him awake.
Hazy and too sleepy to lift his eyelids, he mumbled with his eyes shut, “Husband……”
“Baby, you said the other day that I frightened you driving behind you, and that you only found out what the car was after asking a friend. Which friend was that? Do I know them?”
“……”
The next day Liu Zhen left for work very early.
Ruan Han woke, yawned her way out of her room, and was immediately drawn by a delicious smell. She strode straight for the kitchen and found the little brother-in-law she’d met only yesterday standing there in an apron, cooking.
Heavens! What a domestic paragon!
Hearing her, Jiang Tingnan turned. “You’re up, little sister. Go wash your hands and have some breakfast.”
Ruan Han froze.
For no other reason than that on Jiang Tingnan’s handsome face there now sat a vivid red handprint.
It couldn’t be…… at the very least it shouldn’t be, from her brother.
Ruan Han felt a little awkward, unsure whether she was supposed to pretend she couldn’t see it.
Luckily Ruan Yan came out of his room at that moment.
Both of them turned to look at him at once.
One had a bright, piercing gaze, with words held back behind her teeth.
The other……
Jiang Tingnan simply walked over. He’d meant to kiss his wife, but with Ruan Han standing right there he only stroked his hair instead. “I made vegetable congee this morning. Go and wash up, then come and eat.”
Ruan Yan irritably brushed his hand away.
The absolute lunatic!! Shaking a person awake in the middle of the night to ask a question like that!!
He turned to go and wash, and Ruan Han scurried eagerly after him.
She draped herself against the door frame, head poking through, mouth opening and closing several times.
Ruan Yan washed his face with his eyes shut. “If you’ve got something to say, say it. If you’ve got to fart, fart.”
He was in a foul mood today. Even his own sister was getting a kick before she could leave.
“Ugh, you’re so crude.” Ruan Han blinked. “Did you hit Brother Jiang? Why be so vicious? He even got up early to cook for you.”
Ruan Yan opened his eyes and looked at her through the mirror with a cold smile. “Hit him? That was a reward!”
Ruan Han let out a “wow” and marveled, “You two are really wild.”
Over breakfast, Ruan Han got another education in what it meant to be spoiled by someone’s favor. Jiang Tingnan stopped just short of putting every single spoonful into Ruan Yan’s mouth, and through all of it her brother kept his face stiff, as though someone owed him eight million.
She shook her head, downed her last mouthful of congee at speed, grabbed her bag and fled. “I’m off to my tutoring class.”
Ruan Yan waved perfunctorily.
Jiang Tingnan beside him was still holding the bowl and coaxing him into one more spoonful.
Ruan Han had already left when her head swung back round. “Brother Jiang, you’re spoiling my brother until he floats off. I don’t think he even knows how to feed himself anymore.”
Ruan Yan brandished a fist at her roughly the size of a custard bun.
Once Ruan Han was gone, Jiang Tingnan grew bolder, leaning in to kiss his wife’s cheek outright and saying quietly, “I was wrong, baby. I won’t wake you again.”
Ruan Yan huffed.
Jiang Tingnan simply took his hand and pressed it to his own face. “Do you want to hit me again?”
Ruan Yan pulled his hand back. “In your dreams.”
Between coaxing and cajoling, the bowl of congee finally made it into Ruan Yan’s stomach.
Jiang Tingnan went to clear the dishes while Ruan Yan returned to his room to change. Today they both had to register at their schools.
The more Ruan Yan thought about it the more it upset him.
Going to school meant living on campus, which meant not sleeping with Jiang Tingnan anymore!
How was he supposed to not sleep with his husband?
How could he possibly fall asleep without Jiang Tingnan’s chest!
The two schools weren’t far apart, and Ruan Yan badly wanted to rent a place off campus, but he knew Jiang Tingnan had no money right now, and the more he asked for, the greater the pressure on him would be.
Ruan Yan could only swallow his grievance and his reluctance. By the time he’d changed and come out, Jiang Tingnan had already wheeled all the luggage to the door.
“Husband.” Ruan Yan changed moods by the minute, and wasn’t fierce at all now, sidling up soft and obedient, wheedling. “Give me a hug.”
Ruan Yan had only to move an eyelash and Jiang Tingnan knew what he was thinking, and it made his heart ache as though it were being crushed.
He bent down and rested his forehead against Ruan Yan’s. “Baby, I promise, just one month. I’ll rent a place off campus and we’ll live together again.”
Ruan Yan wanted to cry a little. He sniffed and said in a small voice, “Then hurry up about it. I can’t be away from my husband too long.”
Jiang Tingnan said quietly, “I can’t be away from my wife too long either.”
……
They’d bought train tickets. The distance wasn’t great and it took only a few hours.
Afraid Ruan Yan would be uncomfortable, Jiang Tingnan kept him leaning against him the whole way, until the auntie sitting opposite couldn’t help smiling. “You two brothers are very close, aren’t you.”
Jiang Tingnan said nothing.
Ruan Yan, on the other hand, smiled with his eyes curving and tipped his head up. “Brother!”
Jiang Tingnan ignored him, so he called it out again, crisp and clear.
In the end Jiang Tingnan had no choice but to lower his eyes to him. “What is it?”
Ruan Yan beckoned, and when Jiang Tingnan obediently bent his head, Ruan Yan planted a kiss squarely on his cheek.
It was a very loud one, and it startled the auntie opposite into staring.
Ruan Yan couldn’t have cared less what anyone thought.
He had always done whatever came into his head.
Jiang Tingnan smiled and reached up to pinch Ruan Yan’s cheek, saying quietly, “Making trouble again.”
They reached the station soon after and got off. The auntie walked away very fast, as though afraid of catching something unclean.
Ruan Yan burst out laughing.
Jiang Tingnan held him and instructed, “None of that once we’re at the dormitory.”
“Why not? In a few years same-sex marriage will be legal.” Ruan Yan pouted. “I’m going to call you that anyway.”
He flung himself against Jiang Tingnan, bouncing on his toes to stamp kisses all over his face, kissing him over and over with little smacking sounds. “Husband husband husband.”
Jiang Tingnan had no way of dealing with him.
Or rather, he had never had any way of dealing with Ruan Yan.
They went to Ruan Yan’s school first. Everyone else was being dropped off by parents and elders; Ruan Yan simply brought his husband along.
Jiang Tingnan made his bed for him. He did everything with complete seriousness, spreading a bed sheet exactly as he would sign a contract worth tens of billions, not letting a single crease past him.
Ruan Yan sat in a chair nearby eating fruit, which Jiang Tingnan had washed for him a moment ago.
The roommate making up the bed opposite couldn’t resist coming over to ask, “Is this your older brother?”
Ruan Yan answered at his leisure. “No, he’s my husband.”
The roommate was stunned.
Ruan Yan spun out nonsense off the top of his head. “He’s my child bridegroom. He’s waited on me since we were little. If I say east he doesn’t go west, if I say make the bed he doesn’t dare sweep the floor……”
Before he could finish, the “child bridegroom” turned a cool, faint glance on him.
Ruan Yan scurried over at once. “You’ve worked so hard, husband. Try this orange, it’s especially sweet.”