Jiang Tingnan’s IQ emptied itself automatically the moment it came up against Ruan Yan, a phenomenon commonly known as minus one hundred IQ per Ruan Yan.
He had started driving along behind Ruan Yan out of fear that the walk home at night after work would frighten him, never imagining that the thing frightening Ruan Yan was him.
That black car had been tailing him for nearly a week.
Ruan Yan finally couldn’t take it. Partway home he ducked into a convenience store, flattened himself by the door and peeked out.
Only for that car to pull up right across from the convenience store.
Which frightened Ruan Yan clean out of his wits.
Oh my god, it really was there for him.
He holed up in the store for half an hour without daring to step out, until the door of that black car opened and a man in a black trench coat strode out.
Ruan Yan was stunned.
President Jiang?
“I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me! You scared me half to death back then!” Ruan Yan giggled and tugged at Jiang Tingnan’s hair at the same time.
“How can you be such a mean person, following me on purpose to frighten me? I even took a photo of your car and showed it to a friend, and my friend said it was a modified limited edition, twenty million at the very least. I even thought, who drives a twenty million car to stalk somebody?”
Jiang Tingnan frowned, missing the point yet again. “Which friend?”
Ruan Yan, “……”
Annoyed, he thumped Jiang Tingnan’s shoulder. “We’re discussing you frightening me.”
Ruan Yan thrashed about, and Jiang Tingnan, carrying him, had to split his attention to hold him steady, afraid he’d pitch himself off.
“I wasn’t frightening you.” Jiang Tingnan paused, and for once looked a little sheepish. “I was too embarrassed to come out and say I’d see you home, so I wanted to follow behind you instead. That day you went into the convenience store and didn’t come out for a long time, and I got worried, so I got out to go and look.”
Thoroughly satisfied, Ruan Yan laid his chin back on Jiang Tingnan’s shoulder like a languid kitten, and didn’t forget to admonish him very seriously. “Let me tell you, finding a wife these days isn’t easy, especially one like me, good looking and……”
Ruan Yan stalled, struggling for a while. “And especially good looking. So you have to cherish me all the more, understand?”
Jiang Tingnan nodded. “I understand.”
“What do you understand?”
“Getting a wife isn’t easy. I have to be good to my wife.”
It was rare to hear anything so gratifying come out of that block of wood’s mouth. Ruan Yan turned his head and planted a run of smacking little kisses on Jiang Tingnan’s ear. “Well now, my husband really does get it.”
All that indiscriminate kissing left Jiang Tingnan’s breathing unsteady, and he spoke with restraint. “Stop squirming, be careful you don’t fall.”
“Who are you pretending to be so proper for.”
Ruan Yan called him out without mercy. “You think I didn’t feel you squeeze my bottom just now?”
It wasn’t a short walk, but with the two of them chattering the whole way, they seemed to be back at the site in no time.
It was too late by then and Ruan Yan couldn’t be bothered to bathe, so Jiang Tingnan washed his little towel clean and wiped him down.
Enjoying being waited on, Ruan Yan sighed. “Husband, you could actually go and be a care worker. I hear care workers make a lot of money.”
Jiang Tingnan patted his thigh, getting him to part his legs a little.
“A chef one minute, a care worker the next. Do me a favor and pick a better profession for me.”
Ruan Yan kicked at him, displeased. “Could you not be so prejudiced. No profession is nobler or lowlier than another. I’ll go and be a care worker myself tomorrow.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
Jiang Tingnan looked up. His features were of the sharp sort, and even though he was young and slightly green, he still looked fierce when his face went blank.
Ordinarily he did whatever Ruan Yan told him, but where Ruan Yan himself was concerned, Jiang Tingnan was always the one whose word was final.
That dictatorial look of his infuriated Ruan Yan, who would have liked to plant a foot in his face, except he was afraid Jiang Tingnan would lick his sole.
Jiang Tingnan said nothing more, bending diligently to wipe his wife clean and tuck him under the covers, then leaning down to kiss his cheek. “Be good, go to sleep. I’m going to rinse off.”
Ruan Yan rolled over and presented him with the back of his head.
At this hour there was no one else around, and afraid Ruan Yan would be frightened alone in the room, Jiang Tingnan moved fast, rinsing off in a hurry and pulling his clothes on to go back.
But as he pushed the door open, he stopped.
At some point Ruan Yan had changed his clothes and put on Jiang Tingnan’s tank top, but his frame was small and the thing hung loose and slack on him. With the room small and the light dim, the sight made Jiang Tingnan want to turn straight around for another cold rinse.
His eyes darkened, his voice gone hoarse. “Why aren’t you asleep yet.”
Ruan Yan blinked. “Waiting for you, husband. Did you forget? Didn’t you say you were going to teach me a lesson?”
Jiang Tingnan’s breathing turned unsteady.
He came forward and stood at the side of the bed, eyes lowered, looking down at Ruan Yan from above. “Asking for a lesson, are you?”
Ruan Yan tipped his head back and pursed his lips. “Husband, smooch-smooch.”
Jiang Tingnan had absolutely no way of dealing with him.
For once he wanted to swear. He damn well wanted to chew Ruan Yan up and swallow him down.
Jiang Tingnan didn’t manage to hold back even for a second before he lowered his head and kissed him.
He kissed so fiercely. Ruan Yan had plainly asked for a peck, and here was Jiang Tingnan sucking at his lips instead, their two tongues wrestling, and Ruan Yan was certainly the one to fall first.
He was only good at talking big. Well, not even his mouth was that fierce, since a kiss or two turned him soft, and he needed Jiang Tingnan’s hand at his waist or he’d have folded onto the bed.
Every time he was the one making a great fuss, all noise and bluster, and once he was actually in bed all he could do was whimper and cry, “Husband, please.”
When Jiang Tingnan finally let him go, Ruan Yan looked about ready to melt into a puddle, his mouth terribly red, a film of moisture over those pretty eyes, lips parted, the tip of his tongue showing, calling out for his husband in a soft, obedient voice.
Jiang Tingnan’s chest heaved.
He clenched his teeth hard, lifted a hand to stroke Ruan Yan’s cheek, and said quietly, “Be good, go to sleep now. It’s late.”
Sleep?!
Ruan Yan sobered instantly.
Sleep, my foot.
The mood had been built all the way up to here, he’d changed his clothes, his little mouth had been kissed, and Jiang Tingnan was telling him to go to sleep?!
Ruan Yan’s eyes went round. “What’s that supposed to mean? We’re just going to sleep without doing anything?”
Jiang Tingnan soothed him. “Be good. Don’t you have work tomorrow?”
“What, having work means we don’t do it?” Ruan Yan was livid. “Didn’t you work every day before too? How come at night you were still wound up like you’d had a shot of adrenaline?”
Not once since his rebirth, and the more Ruan Yan thought about it the unhappier he became. “You don’t want to do it with me anymore? Are you looking for somebody else?”
The more he said the more outrageous it got.
Jiang Tingnan’s face darkened. “Nonsense!”
But looking at the reddening rims of Ruan Yan’s eyes, his tone softened without his meaning it to. “Be good, baby. I can’t do this with you here…… wait for me a little longer.”
He didn’t want to, and couldn’t, have the person he loved lying in a metal shed on a construction site, sleeping on a bed like this. This was not the life Ruan Yan was meant to live.
Jiang Tingnan couldn’t be that selfish.
He wanted to possess Ruan Yan, but that desire was founded on his love for Ruan Yan.
As Jiang Tingnan understood the world.
No one could make Ruan Yan suffer.
Not even him.