What answered him was Hu Guangtong’s soft chuckle.
The light drifting in from indoors seemed to gild the man from a distance, even the edges of his hair carrying a gentle glow.
Hu Guangtong cooperatively took his hand and went back to the bedroom with him.
Once inside, Yuan Mian ran a hot bath, soaking to wash away the chill and fatigue clinging to his body. Halfway through, Hu Guangtong pushed the door open, set down the bathrobe he had prepared and stepped into the warm water as well.
Hu Guangtong always gave off an impression of gentleness and reliability, as if he had no sharp edges at all. When he was with Yuan Mian, despite there being only a one year age difference between them, he carried a tolerance and composure that felt as though an extra zero had been added to that gap.
But in private, when it was just the two of them, Hu Guangtong also had a liveliness he didn’t show outside. After coming in, he moved closer, supported Yuan Mian by the waist and lifted him to the edge of the bathtub. When he noticed Yuan Mian’s gaze wavering, he lowered his head and touched Yuan Mian’s foot.
“Is it better now?” he asked.
Yuan Mian was thrown off for a moment by the feint, both amused and exasperated. “Aren’t you bad?”
“What?” Hu Guangtong said innocently. “I don’t understand.”
“You say you don’t understand yet you’re smiling.”
“I just thought of something happy.”
Yuan Mian flicked water at him. Hu Guangtong’s smile deepened. Only then did he lift his head and kiss Yuan Mian. They started with light pecks, gradually growing deeper.
From the way the two of them were wrapped up in each other, it was easy to guess that their daily intimacy was not at all rare.
And that was indeed the case. Yuan Mian and Hu Guangtong’s married life could be described as frequent. Due to physical limitations, if too much time passed between occasions, Yuan Mian would sometimes feel pain after just one experience but now, there was no pain at all, just from this alone, one could tell that something had changed.
From the very beginning, ripples spread again and again across the surface of the water.
Half an hour passed. The water cooled from hot to lukewarm and only then did the kisses come to an end.
“What a waste of water,” Yuan Mian said weakly.
He was exhausted, his arms and legs lacking strength. Unconventional places often came with unconventional postures and the drain on stamina was always greater than usual.
“It’s not wasted,” Hu Guangtong said as he dried his hair, his hair had gotten wet as well. “We’ve been soaking the whole time.”
“You clean up by yourself. I’m not going to you anymore,” Yuan Mian said, no longer bothering to argue.
Hu Guangtong agreed immediately. “Alright. You go lie on the bed.”
Apart from that, even certain household chores that weren’t convenient to hand off to others were all taken care of by Hu Guangtong. The first time Yuan Mian saw how much he liked taking care of people, he’d been surprised. Now, he was used to it.
After everything was tidied up, night had fallen completely. Yuan Mian stretched lazily under the covers, rolling around and extending his limbs until his whole body felt comfortably relaxed.
When he lifted his head, Hu Guangtong was still sitting there with his laptop open, reading through a proposal.
Yuan Mian leaned over to glance at it. The dense blocks of text and data made his head ache at a glance and he couldn’t help but sigh sincerely. “It’s impressive that you can stand looking at this.”
“If I can’t stand it, I just look at you for a bit,” Hu Guangtong replied calmly. “Once my mood improves, I can look at it again.”
The way Hu Guangtong spoke, using such an even tone to say things that made people unable to keep a straight face, was something Yuan Mian never could have imagined back when they first got together.
Hu Guangtong even asked, seemingly without realizing anything, “What’s wrong?”
With the experience he’d gradually accumulated lately, Yuan Mian genuinely couldn’t tell whether Hu Guangtong was doing this on purpose or not. He stared at him for a couple of seconds, then said nothing, lifted the blanket, covered his head and closed his eyes.
The sound of Hu Guangtong typing on the keyboard rang softly by his ear. Yuan Mian hadn’t intended to sleep but without realizing it, he drifted off.
He didn’t know how much time had passed when his awareness returned. Hu Guangtong was still holding the laptop and working but this time it wasn’t a proposal, it was the editing interface for their wedding video.
Seeing that he was awake, Hu Guangtong reached out and rubbed his head. “Too bright? I’m almost done too.”
Yuan Mian lifted his chin. “Let me see.”
Hu Guangtong moved the laptop closer to him. Yesterday’s wedding ceremony replayed quickly before his eyes in a very concise cut. The background music was a love song Yuan Mian had once sung himself. The editing wasn’t professional but it captured every radiant, joyful moment they had shared.
Hu Guangtong asked for his opinion, “Is it okay?”
“It’s more than okay.”
“Then once I finish editing it, I’ll post it?”
He meant making it public.
Many prominent figures from within the industry had been invited to their wedding but no media outlets were present.
Ever since Yuan Mian retired, speculation about where he had gone had never stopped. One could easily imagine that once Hu Guangtong released this wedding video, it would become huge news, stirring up waves. Whether people loved Yuan Mian or hated him, even casual passersby would probably jump in and passionately discuss it for days.
But Yuan Mian himself didn’t care at all. He closed his eyes and hummed in agreement, then thought for a moment and opened them again. “Post it at nine tomorrow morning. Save the office workers.”
Hu Guangtong laughed softly.
Yuan Mian looked at him. “What, thought of something happy again?”
“Yes,” Hu Guangtong admitted. “Just thinking about how the whole world is going to know I have such a beautiful wife makes me secretly happy.”
They shared another kiss. Hu Guangtong closed the laptop, slipped back under the covers with Yuan Mian and said softly, “Sleep.”
The room grew quiet.
“……”
Even without saying it, sleep was inevitable. Yuan Mian closed his eyes, drifting in a hazy half consciousness as a thought surfaced: tomorrow he still had to… still had to do something, didn’t he?
What was it again?
It seemed there really wasn’t anything so urgent, nothing that demanded to be done at all costs.
He was that free now, so free that the entire world felt as though it were waiting for him.
Waiting for him and for Hu Guangtong, together.
Yuan Mian stopped thinking, stopped speaking. He leaned against Hu Guangtong’s chest, breathing in the identical scent clinging to both of them, the same fragrance from the same bottle of cologne.
At only twenty four years old, with his life still just beginning, a deep sense of calm settled in Yuan Mian’s heart. His breathing gradually slowed and in that ease and comfort, he drifted peacefully into sleep.
The End
✦ ✧ ✦
Fleurveil
[Translator]
☕ A LITTLE SOMETHING FOR THE TRANSLATOR
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✧ (づ｡•ㅅ•｡)づ ☕ ✧
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← Previous
ChaptersChapter 1 · Why don’t you go and keep him company?Chapter 2 · He opened the door and left without looking backChapter 3 · Why Hu Guangtong of all people?Chapter 4 · Have you broken up with Fu Tianle?Chapter 5 · Hello, I am Yuan Mian’s fiancé.Chapter 6 · You liked Hu Guangtong from the beginningChapter 7 · I want to spend the rest of my life with you.Chapter 8 · Have you seen Yuan Mian recently?Chapter 9 · Yuan Mian has already started talking to someone elseChapter 10 · He wasn’t Yuan Mian’s first love?Chapter 11 · Are you comparable to Hu Guangtong?Chapter 12 · Yuan Mian would certainly love Hu GuangtongChapter 13 · They’re going home together for dinnerChapter 14 · Extra 1Chapter 15 · Extra 2Chapter 16 · Extra 3