Ruan Yan had been soothed until his fur was smooth again.
He gave a couple of huffs and sat down at the one small table in the room, where a boxed meal and two stir fried dishes sat, still warm.
Ruan Yan didn’t have much appetite when he got up that morning. He ate two bites and set down his chopsticks. “So greasy.”
Jiang Tingnan fetched a cup and filled it with warm water, and for every bite of food he picked up he rinsed it first, then fed it into Ruan Yan’s mouth.
This time Ruan Yan didn’t even have to lift a hand, letting Jiang Tingnan feed him a bite of vegetable, a bite of rice. But after two mouthfuls he found fault again. “Rinsing it like that takes all the flavor out.”
Ruan Yan turned his head away. “I’m full.”
Jiang Tingnan frowned.
After so many years of marriage, he knew Ruan Yan’s appetite better than Ruan Yan did himself. He didn’t say anything, only reached over to feel Ruan Yan’s lower abdomen, then lifted his eyes and fixed them on him.
Ruan Yan had a moment of guilt, but quickly glared back at Jiang Tingnan, all bluster and nothing behind it. “I don’t want any more!”
Jiang Tingnan weighed it for a few seconds. Food like this might genuinely not suit Ruan Yan’s tastes. He nodded and soothed him. “I’ll speak to the manager later, see whether I can borrow the kitchen tomorrow. I’ll buy groceries and cook for you.”
As he spoke, Jiang Tingnan tipped the dishes in with the rice. He shoveled it down with his chopsticks. He wasn’t fussy the way Ruan Yan was, too greasy one minute, too bland the next.
Before Ruan Yan arrived, he had eaten every meal on the site. Anything that filled his stomach was good enough.
The sight of it landed in Ruan Yan’s eyes, and his lashes trembled.
He’d known it!
Jiang Tingnan hadn’t bought a portion for himself at all.
If he’d gone and eaten all of it just now, was Jiang Tingnan planning to simply go hungry?!
Jiang Tingnan finished the food in a few quick mouthfuls and put the boxes away. Seeing Ruan Yan still sitting there sulking, he went over and lifted him up out of habit to soothe him, hands under his bottom, even bouncing him a little the way you would to amuse a child. “Baby, didn’t you eat well? What else do you want? I’ll go and buy it.”
Ruan Yan lifted his eyes and glared at him.
Only then did Jiang Tingnan see that the boy’s eyes were rimmed red, like a rabbit’s. His heart seemed to skip a beat, and a note of alarm crept into his voice. “Why are you about to cry, baby.”
Ruan Yan held the tears back and pounded twice on Jiang Tingnan’s shoulder, teeth gritted. “I still haven’t settled yesterday’s account with you. Why are you even here, shouldn’t you be at university! Why do you never tell me anything!”
Jiang Tingnan let himself be hit, watching Ruan Yan’s eyes closely, afraid the tears would fall.
Once Ruan Yan had vented enough, he explained in a low voice.
Jiang Tingnan had rarely spoken of his family before, because it was genuinely too awful to talk about. His mother had died early, his father had remarried, and had ordered Jiang Tingnan to quit school.
At the time Jiang Tingnan had been about to sit the college entrance exams, but his father pulled him out of school regardless and sent him off to work. Later Jiang Tingnan saved his own money and secretly repeated his exam preparation. Only two years later did he receive a university acceptance letter again.
But he had no money whatsoever to go and study.
And because of his family situation, his father’s income was fairly decent, so he couldn’t even apply for a hardship grant or a student loan. He had simply come out to work on the site, and counting what he’d saved before, it barely covered the tuition.
This was the point at which Jiang Tingnan had been reborn.
The moment in his life when he had the least of anything.
Which meant he didn’t even have the qualification to go looking for Ruan Yan.
He didn’t want his Yan Yan to suffer hardship alongside him.
But Jiang Tingnan could never in a hundred years have guessed that that pampered little darling, the Ruan Yan who complained the villa was too big and the stairs too tiring and made him install an elevator, would come hauling a suitcase under a blazing sun to find him.
Jiang Tingnan’s heart ached as though it were being crushed to pieces.
His Yan Yan had been spoiled by him. How could he bear even the slightest bit of hardship?
When Jiang Tingnan finished speaking, Ruan Yan fell silent for a while before saying sullenly, “Are you still trying to chase me off?”
“No.” Jiang Tingnan caught his hand and squeezed the palm, then couldn’t stop himself from bending to kiss it twice.
Ruan Yan couldn’t keep the corner of his mouth from curving. “So did you miss me, husband?”
Jiang Tingnan answered honestly, “I did.”
Ruan Yan smiled like a little fox and straddled Jiang Tingnan’s lap.
Because they were so familiar with each other, Jiang Tingnan knew at a glance that Ruan Yan was about to start making trouble for him.
But he didn’t feel put upon in the least, only an itch somewhere inside him, as though a kitten’s paw were scratching at it.
Jiang Tingnan sat there obediently, not moving a muscle, letting Ruan Yan’s hands roam wherever they liked.
He’d only just slipped a hand up under the work tank and made intimate contact with his husband’s chest, which felt every bit as good as it always had, soft and springy.
Lin Dong’s call came through right at that moment.
Ruan Yan had nearly forgotten about the job. He snatched his hand back and fumbled to answer.
“Hello, Lin Dong?”
At the way that greeting sounded, Jiang Tingnan frowned.
Such an intimate way to address someone?
Who was this person? More important than his husband feeling up his chest?
Jiang Tingnan knew every single friend in Ruan Yan’s life inside out. He searched his memory carefully, and this name was nowhere in it.
Jiang Tingnan’s face darkened.
What did that tell him?
It told him a blank patch had appeared in his knowledge of his husband.
And that was no small matter.
Ruan Yan hung up, turned around, and found Jiang Tingnan with a stony face, looking braced for battle.
He was startled. “What’s the matter with you? Has something happened?”
Jiang Tingnan paused, his expression easing, and shook his head. “It’s nothing. I heard you on the phone just now. Is somebody coming to see you?”
“Oh, Lin Dong, my classmate from high school.” Ruan Yan waved his phone. “This project is the one his uncle contracted. I asked him to help me find work here too.”
At the second half of that, Jiang Tingnan’s frown deepened. “No.”
“What do you mean, no.”
“You don’t need to work.” Jiang Tingnan’s words came out flat and final. “Baby, I can support you even now.”
The truth was that Ruan Yan really did hate having a job.
If you had money, who would want to be a beast of burden day in and day out?
Which was why, back then, he’d handed in his notice the moment he married Jiang Tingnan and settled comfortably into life as a freeloader.
But the situation was different now.
Married to Jiang Tingnan all those years, Ruan Yan understood the man’s temper thoroughly. There were times when a head on approach wouldn’t do.
He blinked, his voice going soft, and leaned in to peck kiss after kiss along Jiang Tingnan’s chin like a chick pecking at rice. “Husband, husband, it’s only to get a bit of experience. I haven’t worked in years, and the job Lin Dong found me is an office job, it’s very easy.”
With warm, soft, fragrant jade in his arms, Jiang Tingnan remained unmoved, expressionless, not making a sound.
After a few rounds of coaxing, Ruan Yan ran out of patience and hardened his small face. “Jiang Tingnan, who exactly gets the final say in this family.”
This time Jiang Tingnan answered quickly. “You decide the small things. I decide the big things.”
Ruan Yan huffed. “And what counts as big, and what counts as small?”
“Anything to do with you is big. Everything that isn’t about you is small.”
Furious, Ruan Yan grabbed at his hair. “Then you may as well just come out and say that everything concerning me is decided by you!!”
With his hair caught in Ruan Yan’s fist, Jiang Tingnan made no move to dodge. He leaned his head forward instead, to make it easier for his husband to pull, and only refused again in that same low voice. “Either way, I’m not agreeing to let you go to work.”