Ruan Yan sat on the bed like a peacock that had won a beauty contest, thoroughly pleased with himself. He lifted one leg and let Jiang Tingnan crouch in front of him to rub his foot.
“You have no idea how far I walked today, dragging that suitcase, it was so heavy.”
Ruan Yan grumbled a couple of lines, and the temper he’d only just tamped down flared right back up. He planted his foot squarely on Jiang Tingnan’s chest. “And then you go playing the stranger with me. Didn’t you say you didn’t know me? So what were you sending me food for, hauling me hot water for?”
Jiang Tingnan let himself be kicked and let himself be scolded, only looking at his wife’s toes, rubbed a little red, and aching over it.
“Do the shoes not fit?” he said quietly. “Let me take you to buy new ones tomorrow, all right.”
“No!” Ruan Yan huffed furiously. “I’m leaving tomorrow. You think I have to hang around you? You don’t even want me, so what am I staying for?”
Hearing Ruan Yan say he’d leave, Jiang Tingnan’s eyes darkened. His lips moved, but no sound came out.
Ruan Yan hadn’t expected that he really wouldn’t ask him to stay. His eyes went round, the rims reddened, and the tears dropped with a plop. “Jiang Tingnan, what is that supposed to mean?”
“Do you want to divorce me?”
When Ruan Yan cried, the tears came down one after another, striking heavy. His lashes were soaked through, his eyes flushed red all over. “You don’t want to be with me anymore, do you? You’ve had this idea for a long time, haven’t you, and being reborn suits you perfectly……”
“Ruan Yan!”
There was a trace of real anger in Jiang Tingnan’s voice.
Only when he was truly furious did he call Ruan Yan by his full name. Jiang Tingnan’s expression was grim, and he crushed the anger down with everything he had, saying one word at a time, “We are never getting divorced.”
“And now you’re angry! What have you got to be angry about!”
Ruan Yan was beside himself, struggling to stand. “You’re the one who pretended not to know me. You don’t want me, so I don’t want you either!”
Jiang Tingnan clamped a hand hard around his ankle, then let go the instant he heard Ruan Yan cry out in pain.
“Baby. Baby.”
Jiang Tingnan wrapped his arms around Ruan Yan and refused to let go even as Ruan Yan pounded at him, his voice terribly hoarse. “How could I ever not want you. Never.”
Jiang Tingnan was a closed off sort, of the taciturn kind, and he almost never said anything tender. For him to get a sentence like that out was genuinely rare.
Ruan Yan’s struggling stopped, and he let Jiang Tingnan hold him. A few seconds passed before he spoke, muffled. “Then why did you pretend not to know me.”
The air went quiet at once.
Jiang Tingnan’s eyes were dark, and it was a long moment before he spoke. “Right now, I have no money. Baby, be good, go home first, start university when the term begins. Give me three years, no, two. I promise you, I will absolutely give you back the life you had before.”
Ruan Yan’s family circumstances were ordinary, but at least he was fed and housed at home, and once at university he’d have a dorm. Jiang Tingnan right now had nothing at all, couldn’t even afford to rent a place, and if Ruan Yan stayed with him, he could only temporarily live at the construction site.
The conditions here were far too poor. However much hardship Jiang Tingnan himself endured made no difference, but not Ruan Yan.
He’d barely finished speaking when a pillow came flying at his face.
Jiang Tingnan didn’t dodge. He simply stood there and let Ruan Yan hit him and throw things.
“Jiang Tingnan! What kind of thing is that to say!” Ruan Yan’s eyes were red. “Is that the sort of person I am to you! Someone who can only share the good days with you and can’t suffer alongside you?”
“You can.” Jiang Tingnan looked at him with dark eyes. “But I can’t bear it.”
He couldn’t bear it at all.
In Jiang Tingnan’s mind, Ruan Yan was meant for fine clothes and fine food, meant to spend money lavishly, meant to do exactly as he pleased.
Whatever he had been able to give Ruan Yan in the last life, this life would only bring more.
“Fine, Jiang Tingnan. Let’s get divorced.”
Ruan Yan’s small face was drawn tight. “Once I’m at university I’ll date two people every three days. I’ll start a relationship today and go to bed with them tomorrow!”
Only when you loved someone did you learn exactly where to put the knife in for the most pain.
Jiang Tingnan’s expression was terrible, nearly livid. He clenched his teeth hard. “Baby……”
Ruan Yan’s face was covered in tears. He tipped his head back to look at Jiang Tingnan, and those eyes, red with crying, simply looked at him, nearly grinding Jiang Tingnan’s heart to powder.
He spoke through his sobs. “I’m asking you one last time. Do you want me or not.”
Without a second’s hesitation Jiang Tingnan pressed Ruan Yan into his arms, exactly as he had when the crash came, when no thought at all had been needed for him to shield Ruan Yan there.
……
Close to midnight Jiang Tingnan made a trip to the site kitchen. There was nothing in it, only half a bag of dried noodles he managed to dig up. He quickly boiled a bowl of egg noodles and carried it back.
Ruan Yan was starving, and it had been some time since he’d tasted Jiang Tingnan’s cooking. He kept his head down and ate with relish.
Jiang Tingnan’s expression stayed grim. Aching for him on the one hand, on the other he was rapidly tallying up the money he had left. Since Ruan Yan meant to stay at his side, he had to plan their life over again, and give Ruan Yan the best conditions he possibly could.
After eating and washing up, it was already one in the morning by the time they went to sleep.
Jiang Tingnan had meant to go back to sleep. After so many days away from his wife, he didn’t dare put his self control to the test at all.
But then he looked at Ruan Yan, too sleepy to keep his eyes open, still working to tip his face up at him, saying softly, “Husband, when are we going to sleep.”
Jiang Tingnan’s heart melted into a puddle.
He went over and lifted him up, bowing his head to kiss Ruan Yan’s cheek. “Now.”
The bed they used to sleep in was a seven-figure Hästens. Now it was hard wooden boards with nothing but a thin mattress laid over them.
But Ruan Yan didn’t find it the least bit uncomfortable. He sprawled over Jiang Tingnan with all four limbs, made a pillow of his husband’s chest, nuzzled his face against it, and fell comfortably asleep.
Listening to that deep, steady breathing, Jiang Tingnan closed his own eyes tightly, and without meaning to, drew Ruan Yan in his arms closer.
……
It was the best night’s sleep Ruan Yan had had since his rebirth. The great stone in his chest had finally dropped, and he clung to Jiang Tingnan like a kitten, refusing to climb down.
Jiang Tingnan had been awake a while. Morning was already the easiest time to have a reaction, and with his wife pressed against him so utterly defenseless, Jiang Tingnan felt he was a hair’s breadth from going off.
He endured it, and with no room left for finesse, forcibly peeled Ruan Yan off him, then, afraid Ruan Yan would wake, swiftly stuffed the quilt into his arms instead.
Luckily Ruan Yan only mumbled a few sleepy words, rolled over and went back to sleep.
Jiang Tingnan picked his tank top up from the corner, pulled it on any which way, and strode out with his face taut.
Ruan Yan slept on with every appearance of meaning to sleep until the end of time.
Before, Jiang Tingnan would never have let him skip breakfast. However sleepy Ruan Yan was, Jiang Tingnan would haul him up, feed him, and only then let him go back to sleep. Ruan Yan had thrown no small number of fits about it, and when he was truly enraged he’d yanked Jiang Tingnan’s hair, and had even slapped him, more than once.
But Jiang Tingnan stayed silent through most of it, letting him rage and letting him hit, and no matter how Ruan Yan swung at him he would hold him firmly and feed him, and only once he judged Ruan Yan full would he let him go.
After all that commotion there was no way Ruan Yan could fall back asleep. Blazing with fury, he’d plant his hands on his hips and swear to go out and spend extravagantly.
Jiang Tingnan would still have to hurry off to a meeting at the company. He’d check the mirror, the handprint not too obvious, likely to fade before long, then turn back to hug Ruan Yan and kiss him. “Baby’s so good.”
First thing in the morning he had to be coaxed into eating, threw a tantrum and hit someone, then went off on a revenge spending spree, and in Jiang Tingnan’s accounting it all came down to two words: so good.
Ruan Yan sometimes thought that a very large share of the blame for how spoiled and difficult he was should be laid squarely at Jiang Tingnan’s feet.
But it was different now. Living in the low, squat bungalows of the construction site, and with all the walking Ruan Yan had done the day before, Jiang Tingnan simply hadn’t the heart to wake him.
After a morning of working himself gray and dusty at the site, Jiang Tingnan slipped away a little early, bought two stir fried dishes from a restaurant nearby, and picked up a pair of shoes at the closest shop.
To his surprise, Ruan Yan was still asleep when he got back.
He really was going to sleep himself into a little pig.
His whole body had turned around, and two pale, soft feet were poking out of the covers. Jiang Tingnan’s big hand closed over them and pressed gently at the soles.
Still hazy with sleep, Ruan Yan instinctively tried to pull his feet back, but Jiang Tingnan held them fast. “Baby, time to get up.”
That sentence again!
He’d been hearing it for as long as he’d been married!
Ruan Yan, deep in the suffering of being called up early, whined a couple of times and burrowed into the quilt. “Husband, please, let me sleep a little longer. You went too hard yesterday, my back still hurts.”
Clearly he’d slept himself past telling heaven from earth, and the lies came out the moment he opened his mouth.
Jiang Tingnan stood where he was, silent for a moment.
Little liar.
So everything he’d said in the past had been lies meant to fool him.
He hesitated no longer, threw back the quilt and scooped him up by the waist.
Forced awake, Ruan Yan swung a hand at Jiang Tingnan on angry reflex, but he’d only just woken and there was no strength in it at all. The soft slap landed on Jiang Tingnan’s face, and Jiang Tingnan instinctively chased after the palm to peck kisses into it.
After several kisses Ruan Yan pulled his hand back, and only then did Jiang Tingnan speak, plainly reluctant. “No more sleeping, baby, you need to eat something.”
The water for washing up was already prepared, the toothpaste already squeezed onto the brush, but Ruan Yan was still unhappy, so Jiang Tingnan carried him over, washed his face and brushed his teeth for him, and dressed him besides.
It was while his shoes were going on that Ruan Yan noticed. He wiggled a foot. “Husband, did you go and buy me new shoes?”
Jiang Tingnan gave an “mm.” “There aren’t any good malls around here. See whether they’re comfortable first.”
Ruan Yan took a couple of steps. “They’re good. Better than my old ones.”
He blinked, then suddenly burst out laughing. “Jiang Tingnan, look at this logo. Why has somebody drawn a cross over the check mark.”
Ruan Yan said it lightly, as a joke, but in Jiang Tingnan’s ears it was unbearable.
When had he ever let Ruan Yan live a life this hard. Everything Ruan Yan used to wear and use, which of it had not been the very best.
His throat bobbed, and he forced the words out. “Baby, wait for me a little longer. I’ll get you back the life you had before.”
Ruan Yan frowned. “Jiang Tingnan, stop saying things like that. It’s not as if I spend that much…… fine, even if I do spend a bit much, then whose fault is it that I’m like this!”
Jiang Tingnan bent his head and tied the laces for him. “Mine.”
He paused, then added, “And I’ll spoil you for a lifetime.”
The previous life, this life, the next life.
Author’s note:
For President Jiang it’s actually three lifetimes [helpless]
*Bonus scene
Because Jiang Tingnan didn’t like to talk, and Ruan Yan truly couldn’t take it any longer, he secretly recorded the things Jiang Tingnan usually said, edited them together, and played them back at night.
On one side, Jiang Tingnan was hard at work with his head down.
On the other, the audio started up.
“Baby, so good.”
“Baby, be good.”
Because Ruan Yan’s editing skills were genuinely awful, it sounded like a machine talking.
Jiang Tingnan drew a deep breath and wiped a hand down his face. “What is this?”
“It’s your soundtrack.” Ruan Yan encouraged him. “Keep going, husband. I edited two whole hours of audio just to keep up with you.”
It was dripping with sarcasm.
Ruan Yan had long been dissatisfied with how silent Jiang Tingnan always was in bed.
Other people got dirty talk or sweet talk. Around here it was no talk.
Jiang Tingnan stared at him for a long moment, then lowered his head and carried on.
Clearly he had missed the point.
Not one word all night, and on top of that he kept at it straight through to daybreak, until the phone ran out of battery and shut itself off.
Afterward Jiang Tingnan carried Ruan Yan off to wash up, saying mildly, “Next time record a few more hours.”
Useless.