Ruan Yan was like a little tail that couldn’t be shaken off, stuck fast behind Jiang Tingnan, his mouth all sweetness, calling him good husband with every other breath, saying pitifully that he’d be frightened at home without his husband there.
How was Jiang Tingnan supposed to leave him behind after that.
There were no internet cafes near the site. The nearest was a twenty minute walk away. The two of them squeezed onto the last bus, which was rather full, and Jiang Tingnan sheltered Ruan Yan against him so nobody else could press in on him.
Ruan Yan’s face was against Jiang Tingnan’s chest muscles. He blinked, then buried his face in them on purpose, and after a few seconds lifted his head and said softly, “Husband, there’s a smell all over you.”
Jiang Tingnan frowned.
He’d showered before coming out. Could he still smell of sweat?
He asked quietly, “Smell of what?”
Jiang Tingnan’s body instinctively drew back a little.
But Ruan Yan wrapped both arms around his waist, tipped his head up and said in complete earnest, “You smell of Yan Yan.”
Jiang Tingnan, “……”
He could never keep up with the leaps Ruan Yan’s mind made.
But not keeping up made no difference. It did nothing to blunt the urge Jiang Tingnan had, right at that moment, to bend down and kiss him.
Only there were far too many people on the bus, so Jiang Tingnan had to hold himself back with everything he had.
By the time the bus finally swayed its way to the stop, Ruan Yan had wilted a little, gone slightly sick from all the rocking. Jiang Tingnan went to a stall nearby and bought him an ice lolly. Ruan Yan’s eyes lit up, and just as he reached for it Jiang Tingnan said quickly, “Only two bites.”
Ruan Yan had a bad stomach, and cold things gave him stomachaches easily.
Ruan Yan gave a small “oh” and took the lolly, opening his mouth wide as though he’d like to cram the whole thing in at once. Jiang Tingnan frowned and took it back from him after the first bite.
His tongue numb with cold, Ruan Yan mumbled, “How can you…… cheat like that.”
Jiang Tingnan lowered his eyes, staring at the lips left glossy and wet by the melting lolly, and it took a full several seconds before he looked away and said mildly, “And who cheated first?”
Ruan Yan had already swallowed what was in his mouth, and licked his lips. “But you never said how much one bite could be.”
Seeing him like this, Jiang Tingnan judged he must not be feeling unwell, and didn’t argue the point. He finished off the rest of the lolly in a few bites and took Ruan Yan’s hand to cross the road.
The internet cafe they were headed for was right across the street.
Ruan Yan was still muttering away to himself, and Jiang Tingnan simply behaved as though he couldn’t hear.
This was peak hour at the internet cafe.
The moment the door opened, the wave of stifling heat laced with cigarette smoke was almost suffocating.
Jiang Tingnan frowned.
He could smoke, but seldom did, because Ruan Yan disliked it and had an unfortunately keen nose. Let him catch so much as a trace of it and Jiang Tingnan needn’t bother coming to bed that night.
He handed over both their ID cards and got them a private room.
At which point Ruan Yan started up again. “What a waste. We could have sat in the main hall, this costs extra.”
Remarkable. The word waste had finally made it out of Ruan Yan’s mouth.
This was not the same Ruan Yan whose personal record was buying dozens of things in a single day.
Jiang Tingnan frowned, looking distinctly displeased. “Waste, not waste. Is that any sort of thing for you to be saying?”
It was rare for his tone to be so harsh.
As far as Jiang Tingnan was concerned, the concept of waste had no business existing inside Ruan Yan’s head at all.
Ruan Yan pouted and said nothing.
The two of them went into the private room, and once the door was shut and Jiang Tingnan saw that Ruan Yan still looked put out, he soothed him in a low voice. “Baby, I wasn’t trying to snap at you just now. I’m sorry.”
Even though he didn’t think he was in the wrong.
But when you’d made your wife unhappy you apologized first, without exception.
This was the precious wisdom Jiang Tingnan had distilled from the few days since their wedding.
Because among Ruan Yan’s many fine qualities was a gift for holding a grudge. On some night just before bed, at the precise moment Jiang Tingnan was preparing to take off his clothes and hold his wife to sleep, Ruan Yan would recite with perfect accuracy which day Jiang Tingnan had done what and said what to displease him, and use it to kick Jiang Tingnan out of the bed.
Ruan Yan gave a light huff, saying nothing about forgiveness one way or the other, sat down in the inner seat, and lifted his chin for Jiang Tingnan to switch the computer on for him.
Having turned it on, Jiang Tingnan didn’t forget to add, “Only for a little while, baby.”
Ruan Yan turned his head away and behaved as though he hadn’t heard. If he’d been a kitten, both ears would have folded back into the shape of airplane ears at this point.
No lectures, no lectures.
Seeing Ruan Yan settle in with total concentration to play Minesweeper, Jiang Tingnan left him to it, opened his own machine and got to work on his own things.
He had studied computer science at university, so turning out a few small things was nothing to him. Jiang Tingnan planned to make a couple of simple programs first and sell them for some money.
He had held a high position for so long that he hadn’t written code himself in years, but Jiang Tingnan seemed born with a certain capacity: whatever he turned his hand to came easily. Ruan Yan aside, there seemed to be nothing in this world he couldn’t handle without effort.
After a stretch of work Jiang Tingnan paused briefly to clear his head. He turned, and only then discovered that Ruan Yan had put headphones on at some point and was staring at his screen in deadly earnest, all but pressing his eyes to it.
Jiang Tingnan frowned and leaned over, and saw on the screen two bodies tangled together and covered in a mess of blurred blocks, writhing about.
His face darkened on the spot. “Ruan Yan! What are you watching!”
Ruan Yan jolted like a schoolboy caught daydreaming by his teacher, shot to his feet, fumbled the headphones off and looked at Jiang Tingnan in a panic.
“It’s not…… it was a pop up ad, it came up on its own.” Ruan Yan stammered through an explanation. “I was going to close it, I didn’t expect it to be two men……”
Jiang Tingnan’s expression was as grim as ever. “You’re looking at other men?”
Ruan Yan, “…… it’s censored to that degree, you honestly can’t make anything out.”
Seeing his face still set hard, Ruan Yan could only lean in and coax, kiss after kiss, up on his toes to smack them against Jiang Tingnan’s chin. “All right, I won’t do it again. Why would I look at other men when I have a husband, as if they could compare to my husband!”
Coaxing Jiang Tingnan was something Ruan Yan had thoroughly mastered. Two smacking little kisses and a couple of calls of “husband” were usually enough to make Jiang Tingnan lose all sense of direction.
Jiang Tingnan hoisted him up by supporting his buttocks and looked down at his wife’s beaming face, then couldn’t stop himself from bending to plant a quick kiss on his cheek.
“Little brat. I’ll deal with you when we get back.”
Far from being frightened, Ruan Yan blinked at this, the very picture of anticipation. “Really, husband? Woohoo!”
Jiang Tingnan was well and truly defeated by him.
The two of them checked out and went out. It was rather late by then, there were no buses, and a taxi back wouldn’t be cheap, so Jiang Tingnan simply crouched down, let Ruan Yan climb onto his back, and carried him home.
Ruan Yan hooked his arms around his neck, propped his chin on Jiang Tingnan’s shoulder and hummed smugly. “I remember when you were chasing me, driving along behind me every single day. It scared me at first, I thought I’d run into somebody out to rob me.”
Though on second thought, presumably nobody would drive a Panamera to rob someone.
It hadn’t occurred to him the man was after his body instead.