“Baby, how about wearing a miniskirt for Hubby?”
Ji Han did not understand what Zhuo Yu’ang could possibly be annoyed about. The man did not lack money, possessed great looks, and had immense capability. People who liked him were a dime a dozen. What was there to be troubled about? However, it was clear that his friend truly had something on his mind.
From the perspective of a listener, Ji Han asked, “What are you annoyed about?”
Zhuo Yu’ang knit his brows again, the corners of his mouth pulling back slightly as he exhaled a thin cloud of smoke. His gaze was dark and heavy, even denser than the shadows in the corner of the room. He lightly licked his lower lip, appearing hesitant to speak.
His eyes were fixed on Ji Han.
Ji Han knew the real Zhuo Yu’ang, but this particular expression was still somewhat foreign to him. He scratched his hair and asked, “Why are you looking at me like that? You are not actually begrudging those instant noodles I ate while you were in the hospital, are you?”
Zhuo Yu’ang replied with light sarcasm, “Am I the kind of person to care about a few packs of noodles?”
It was because Ji Yan had been out of contact for three days.
Messages went unreturned. Calls went unanswered, and the phone remained off.
It had been three days, and his patience was reaching its limit. He was considering whether to come clean to Ji Han and have him make a call to find out exactly what was happening.
“Then what on earth are you bothered about?” Ji Han patted his chest in reassurance. “I will be a qualified listener. My lips are sealed; I absolutely will not tell anyone else.”
Zhuo Yu’ang looked down and crushed the cigarette butt, which had nearly burned to the end, into the soda can he held in his left hand. He said, “I have lost contact with him.”
“Who?” Ji Han took the can from his hand and shook it. It made a dull, clattering sound, and Ji Han was startled. Just how much had he smoked?
Zhuo Yu’ang said in a deep voice, “My Little Kitten. For no reason, she suddenly vanished. Her phone has been off the whole time.”
“Oh, I thought it was something major,” Ji Han helped analyze the situation. “Look, your objective qualities are so good that the possibility of someone wanting to break up with you is low. You do not need to worry about that.”
“Any other possibilities?”
“Is it not the holidays? Maybe she went traveling in some remote mountain valley where the signal is poor, or perhaps her phone is broken. Just like my younger brother; he got bumped into while buying cold medicine, and his phone hit the ground and cracked like a spiderweb.”
A dark shadow suddenly flashed past. The space in front of Ji Han was empty.
“Hey!” Ji Han shouted at Zhuo Yu’ang’s departing back. “Where are you going?”
“I have business.”
Only those words drifted back through the night.
“So sudden?” Ji Han was completely bewildered.
Ji Yan arrived at the shop earliest.
After taking his medicine that morning and having a nap, he felt much better upon waking. By the second day, his cold was mostly gone, and by today, he had fully recovered.
He hung the “Open” sign on the shop door.
Not long after, a delivery van arrived outside the coffee shop. An SF Express courier entered with a package. Because the recipient’s name was “Little Kitten,” which was clearly a pseudonym, he carefully verified the address and the phone number before handing it over.
Shan Juncheng, who usually did not speak much, glanced at it but asked nothing. Xiao Ma was off again today, and Xiao Hui was coming in late, so the shop was quiet with no customers yet.
Ji Yan said, “Brother Shan, I am going to the back for a moment.”
Shan Juncheng nodded. “Go ahead.”
Once in the breakroom, the first thing Ji Yan did was lock the door. He placed the package on the table and found scissors to open the outer packaging.
In fact, seeing the size and shape of the package, he had a faint feeling that Zhuo Yu’ang had mailed a phone, and it was exactly as he expected. What was unexpected, however, was that this specific brand of smartphone was one he had seen in television commercials just a few days ago.
The official retail price was 18,999. Nearly 20,000.
“Does this count as having a bit of sincerity?” Surprise surfaced in his dark eyes.
Last time it was an exaggerated 5,000 for a delivery fee, and this time it was a phone worth nearly 20,000. There is a saying that sincerity lies where the money is; while not entirely true, it was not exactly wrong either.
The plastic wrap on the phone box had already been removed. He opened it. The first thing that caught his eye was not the phone, but a sticky note attached to the screen. It had three words: “Call me.”
It had a somewhat commanding tone.
After a brief daze, Ji Yan took out the phone. The new device was fully charged and even had a SIM card already installed. The signal was excellent, and his number had already been saved in the contacts.
The name: Hubby.
As soon as he saw this title, Ji Yan’s face darkened. But regardless of whether he accepted the gift, this call had to be made. He cleared his throat and dialed.
The other party answered instantly. It was so fast that Ji Yan subconsciously remarked, “Brother, you are so fast.”
Zhuo Yu’ang had not left the dormitory this morning. He did not go for his morning run or eat breakfast at the cafeteria. Instead, he stood on the balcony with a grim face, waiting for Ji Yan’s call, only for the little rascal to open with a comment about him being fast.
“I cannot help it. It is also Brother’s first time.”
“Where the hell are you taking this conversation!” Ji Yan thought. He wanted to argue but was at a loss for words. He could only curse in his heart that as expected of a scumbag, he could turn any topic into something suggestive.
Breathing could be heard over the phone, somewhat heavy. A low, raspy voice spoke first. It sounded like an interrogation, but Ji Yan also sensed a hint of grievance from Zhuo Yu’ang. He wondered if it was a hallucination. “Finally willing to contact me?”
“Brother, my phone broke,” Ji Yan explained.
“If it broke, could you not have borrowed a family member’s phone to let me know? Hmm?” That “hmm” sounded quite fierce.
“I thought about it, but.” Ji Yan fabricated a reason. With a cold expression, he managed to sound even more distressed and aggrieved than Zhuo Yu’ang. “My family is very strict. They said I am not allowed to date until after university graduation. I was afraid they would find out and tear us apart, Brother.”
Zhuo Yu’ang was still annoyed and challenged him, “Call me Hubby.”
Ji Yan took a slow, deep breath and changed the address. “Hubby.”
The man, who used a command to coax himself, immediately softened his tone. “Mm, Hubby is here.”
Ji Yan asked him, “Why did you mail me a phone? Did you know I dropped mine?”
This was one of the things that startled Ji Yan. If Zhuo Yu’ang knew, where did the information come from? Had the revenge plan been seen through?
Zhuo Yu’ang simply said, “I guessed.”
Knowing his younger brother was pretending to be a girl but playing along was also a form of deception. Over the past few days of no contact, he had tasted what it meant to be anxious and irritable. Now that they were connected, he was restless with desire. Having saved up a belly full of mischief after several days of not teasing him, he was not going to reveal the truth so easily.
“I see,” Ji Yan believed him for now. If he knew Ji Yan was a man and still sent such an expensive phone, would he not be an idiot?
“Brother, the phone you gave me is too expensive. I cannot accept it. Let me mail it back to you.”
“You only have two choices,” Zhuo Yu’ang gambled. Of course, if he lost the bet, he could just act like a rogue; he had never claimed to be a gentleman. “Either accept it, or we can only say goodbye.”
Ji Yan, however, did not dare to gamble. If the other party was serious, all the effort spent would go down the drain. At any rate, he could return the phone on the day they met. “Um, alright then. Thank you, Brother.”
“Now, it is time to settle the score.”
“What score?”
“How many days have we been out of contact?”
Ji Yan calculated. “Um, two days.”
“Heh.” A light laugh came through the phone, born of exasperation. Zhuo Yu’ang stood on the balcony, looking at the air, yet it was as if his brother were right before his eyes. He wanted to pinch his face, preferably until it was sore and red.
“Two days?” His tone was dangerously playful. “Baby really knows how to trim the edges.”
Zhuo Yu’ang said emphatically, “It. Has. Been. Four. Days.”
Hearing that he sounded a bit angry, Ji Yan began to act spoiled. He did not know how effective it was, but it certainly worked. “I am sorry, Brother. You do not know how much I actually missed you. I missed you so, so much. But even though I missed you, I did not dare borrow a phone to call. I even cried at night. I cried for you!”
“Is that so?”
“Mm.”
“Did you cry until everything was wet?”
“Absolutely.”
“What was wet?”
“The pillow!”
“Anything else?”
Ji Yan paused, his lips twitching as he almost spat out a curse. “Brother is so bad! There was nothing else!”
“You have known for a long time that Brother is this bad.”
Ji Yan confirmed that while Zhuo Yu’ang might not have one hundred percent sincerity, he should at least have forty or fifty percent. If he coaxed him more to make up for the lost contact time, perhaps it could reach seventy or eighty percent. He made his voice even more high-pitched and delicate. “Brother, please do not be angry. I will play the guitar for you again tonight, okay? I am begging you!”
“You really know how to use that voice,” Zhuo Yu’ang ground his back molars and then curled his lips into a smile. From some unknown moment, the anger in his heart had vanished, leaving only mischief. “Baby is nearly driving Brother crazy with that voice.”
Ji Yan’s hand shook. He really wanted to smash the new phone and then cut off his own ears. His face was flushed with shame.
Before he could speak, Zhuo Yu’ang spoke first. “Did you not want to meet me? I originally wanted to meet next Wednesday, but since you missed me so much that you were wet, let us change it to next Monday instead.”
Setting aside the timing, Ji Yan corrected him first. “Brother, I said I missed you so much that I cried!”
“In my book, there is no difference.”
“Damn it,” Ji Yan thought.
“Be good. Do not fill your little head with nothing but suggestive things.” Zhuo Yu’ang laughed silently, intentionally shifting the blame. He also imagined how interesting Ji Yan’s blushing face must look.
Ji Yan felt like a scholar meeting a soldier, unable to make sense of things. And Monday was the day after tomorrow. He agreed, “Yes, I have time, Brother. We can meet on Monday. However.”
“However what?” Zhuo Yu’ang returned to the room and connected his Bluetooth earphones to hear Ji Yan more clearly.
Ji Yan acted as if he were in a difficult position. “Xin City is such a small place. If a shop sign falls down, it could hit several acquaintances. You know I am shy, so I want to meet in Nanhuai City instead? I can take the bus there myself!”
This was the honest truth. If he ran into an acquaintance with sharp eyes who recognized him, it would not only be embarrassing but would also ruin his plans.
Zhuo Yu’ang naturally agreed. “I am not comfortable with you coming alone. Give me an address; Brother will come to pick you up.”
Ji Yan thought this was fine as it would save on bus fare. Thus, he gave the location of the Starlight Mall in the city district. There was a bus stop outside the mall where he could wait and hop into the car as soon as it arrived.
“I have noted it down,” Zhuo Yu’ang pressed the screen with one hand, recording every word. “The time and place are settled. Next, let us talk about how to punish you.”
Ji Yan gave a cold laugh in his mind, though his tone and expression remained at opposite extremes of grievance. “Is Brother still not over his anger?”
“What do you think?”
“Then how will you punish me?”
Only Zhuo Yu’ang was in the dormitory; Ji Han had left long ago. Zhuo Yu’ang sat down slowly, his legs crossed leisurely and his arms folded across his chest. He lowered his voice, a mischievous smile hidden in his narrowed eyes. “Baby, how about wearing a miniskirt for Hubby?”
He added another sentence, “On the day we meet, wear it for me to see.”
Ji Yan’s lean, thin back stiffened inch by inch. A short skirt was one thing, but a miniskirt?! As expected, he is a total scumbag!