Gu Yansheng had followed Xuan Chiyi to Jincheng without bringing a single thing. All the items he had painstakingly managed to put together before were completely burned up in that fire.
Fortunately, Gu Yansheng had an optimistic mindset. As long as people were safe, everything else could always be slowly replaced over time.
Therefore, after finishing their meal and resting for a little while, Xuan Chiyi took advantage of the remaining daylight to bring Gu Yansheng to the shopping mall to buy supplies.
The sales associate looked at Gu Yansheng, who was sitting on the sofa, and then at Xuan Chiyi, who was continuously picking out clothes. For a moment, she couldn’t figure out if these two were father and son or brothers.
If they were father and son, their ages didn’t seem to differ by all that much. If they were brothers, they didn’t look alike at all. One was gorgeous and looked very gentle, while the other was handsome yet looked fierce and rather unapproachable.
The sales associate couldn’t help casting a few extra glances at the beautiful Gu Yansheng. Xuan Chiyi put on a cold expression as he stepped between them, saying coldly, “Please fetch that set of clothes for us to look at.”
Only then did the sales associate snap back to reality. This was definitely not the time to be admiring a beauty. The man in front of her was a major client who had walked in and picked out several sets of clothes without even asking about the prices.
The temperature inside the mall was wonderfully comfortable. The moment Gu Yansheng sat down on the soft sofa, he started feeling sleepy.
Xuan Chiyi selected clothes tirelessly. Whenever he found something decent and suitable for Gu Yansheng, he would bring it over to ask if Gu Yansheng liked it.
When they first stepped into this boutique, Gu Yansheng had noticed that a single necktie displayed near the entrance cost five figures, which immediately told him the clothes inside must be exceptionally expensive.
When Gu Yansheng glanced at the price tags, a wave of secret astonishment washed over him. If it were up to him to buy these, he wouldn’t bear to spend the money across two lifetimes. It was simply too expensive. For just a single piece of clothing, such a high price could buy him so much food. He would much rather spend the money on delicious things to eat.
Gu Yansheng quietly checked the sales associate to make sure no one was paying attention to them, then whispered to Xuan Chiyi, “It is too expensive. Let us not buy it.”
A slight pang of heartache tugged at Xuan Chiyi’s chest, and he couldn’t help reaching out to stroke the young man’s head. “It is fine. It is not expensive.”
This trip out yielded many results. Xuan Chiyi bought a large number of items for Gu Yansheng and had the mall deliver them straight to his home afterward.
Following that, Xuan Chiyi took Gu Yansheng to the supermarket to buy groceries and daily necessities.
Seeing that Gu Yansheng looked a little sleepy, Xuan Chiyi smiled and asked, “Would you like to sit inside the cart? I can push you.”
Xuan Chiyi was pushing a shopping cart, and since Gu Yansheng was slender, fitting inside it was completely out of the question.
Moreover, there were several other couples in the supermarket doing the exact same thing. The girlfriend sat inside the shopping cart while the boyfriend pushed her along. Wherever the girlfriend wanted to go, the boyfriend pushed her there. Whatever the girlfriend wanted, the boyfriend immediately picked it off the shelf and handed it to her. It looked deeply affectionate.
Gu Yansheng instantly snapped wide awake. “No need, absolutely not.”
Just imagining himself, a grown male, sitting inside the cart and being pushed around by Xuan Chiyi made him feel terribly embarrassed.
“What size shoes do you wear?” Xuan Chiyi asked, standing before a large display of slippers.
“Size 39.”
Xuan Chiyi raised an eyebrow. “That is pretty small.”
Gu Yansheng pouted and glared at him. Xuan Chiyi quickly picked out several pairs of slippers and asked, “How about these?”
Gu Yansheng nodded. “Any of them are fine.”
When he was living alone normally, Gu Yansheng had almost zero demands regarding clothing, food, housing, or transportation. As long as he could survive on his own, that was enough. The money he earned was all saved up, and he usually couldn’t bear to spend it, always choosing items focused on economy and practicality. Therefore, he didn’t care much about outward appearances. After all, being pretty couldn’t put food on the table.
After finishing with the slippers, Gu Yansheng stopped in his tracks at the chilled fresh produce section. He stared longingly at the yogurt display and fell into deep thought.
There was strawberry-flavored yogurt, yellow peach-flavored yogurt, mulberry-flavored yogurt, and even cheese-flavored yogurt.
Gu Yansheng swallowed hard. He had tried all of these flavors before, and they were all delicious, but he couldn’t possibly buy so many at once. Right now, he was torn and had no idea which one he should choose.
Xuan Chiyi noticed Gu Yansheng’s gaze. “Do you like drinking yogurt?”
Gu Yansheng nodded. He used to like yogurt before, but it wasn’t nearly as intense a craving as this. He wondered if it was because of the pregnancy that his desire for yogurt had suddenly surged.
Seeing Gu Yansheng’s cautious demeanor triggered another wave of heartache in Xuan Chiyi. Just how difficult must Gu Yansheng’s life have been in the past?
Without missing a beat, Xuan Chiyi placed every single flavor of yogurt that Gu Yansheng wanted into the shopping cart. “No need to hesitate. We will buy all of them.”
Gu Yansheng’s eyes lit up.
Clearly, it was just some very ordinary items, yet Gu Yansheng looked as happy as a child.
Xuan Chiyi instructed, “If there is anything else you want to buy, just grab it.”
Encouraged by Xuan Chiyi, Gu Yansheng picked out quite a few snacks, all things he had wanted to eat in the past but never got the chance to.
When Gu Yansheng picked up a pack of spicy strips, Xuan Chiyi shook his head. “This has no nutritional value. We will not eat this.”
Gu Yansheng obediently put it back.
They proceeded to the fruit section to buy fruits. When Gu Yansheng saw the white strawberries, he looked thoroughly intrigued. “Are these unripe strawberries?”
When he checked the price tag and saw how expensive a pound of them was, he couldn’t help clicking his tongue in amazement. Without a word, Xuan Chiyi immediately bought two pounds of them.
Gu Yansheng protested, “But they are not even ripe yet.”
Xuan Chiyi explained, “These are called pineberries, and this is just their natural color.”
Realizing he had made a fool of himself due to his lack of experience, Gu Yansheng heard Xuan Chiyi say, “When I first saw these strawberries, I had the exact same reaction you did. I thought they were not ripe yet either.”
Afterward, the two of them headed home carrying bags upon bags of goods. Naturally, Xuan Chiyi carried every single item.
Gu Yansheng felt bad and wanted to share some of the weight, but Xuan Chiyi shook his head. “You just need to open the door.” However, Gu Yansheng knew that Xuan Chiyi’s front door didn’t require him to open it anyway.
Upon returning home, Xuan Chiyi registered Gu Yansheng’s fingerprints and iris data so that he could freely enter and leave the house from then on.
Not long after they got home, the clothes from the mall were delivered as well. There were over a dozen bags containing everything from outer coats and inner wear to shoes and socks. Xuan Chiyi had bought a complete, all-inclusive wardrobe for him.
He glanced at Gu Yansheng’s abdomen. “These should be enough to wear until your belly starts showing. Once your belly grows out, we will go buy new clothes, something a bit looser.”
Gu Yansheng noticed that whenever Xuan Chiyi looked at his stomach, his eyes shone with a bright light. The man really seemed to genuinely like children.
Someone who truly loved children couldn’t possibly be a bad person at heart.
After dinner that evening, Gu Yansheng finally got to drink his yogurt.
Xuan Chiyi’s home was extremely spacious, so the television screen was massive as well. The TV happened to be playing InuYasha, an anime series Gu Yansheng had never finished watching.
The last time he had watched this anime was back in the orphanage, where he only caught scattered episodes here and there. As he grew older and busier with making money, he never had the time to watch it properly, only managing an occasional glance now and then, meaning he had never seen the ending.
Who could have guessed that after transmigrating here, he still wouldn’t have finished watching InuYasha? He had even heard that a sequel focusing on InuYasha’s children had already come out.
To his surprise, this world was almost identical to the real world, and this anime existed here too. It was the perfect opportunity to catch up on it properly.
When he watched this anime as a child, Gu Yansheng especially liked InuYasha. As he grew older, however, he found that he preferred Sesshomaru much more.
Powerful, meticulous, gentle, and utterly devoted, having someone like that by your side gave you a profound sense of security.
Able to watch the anime he wanted while taking small sips of yogurt and watching the television screen, Gu Yansheng felt thoroughly happy.
Just as he had finished half of his yogurt, Xuan Chiyi walked over carrying a bowl of hot water and took the yogurt cup right out of Gu Yansheng’s hand.
Gu Yansheng was left speechless.
Xuan Chiyi placed the yogurt cup into the hot water to warm it up.
Xuan Chiyi said, “It is too cold straight out of the refrigerator. You should not eat things that are this cold.”
Gu Yansheng let out an “oh.” After all, he wasn’t alone anymore. He was carrying a tiny little life in his belly.
Xuan Chiyi really was attentive.
Although the yogurt tasted a little different after being warmed up, it was still delicious. There were still large chunks of strawberry pieces mixed inside the yogurt, and every bite brought a feeling of pure bliss.
Xuan Chiyi accompanied him until the episode finished, then went off to run a bath for him.
Gu Yansheng stared at the foreign characters on the bathtub’s control panel. He looked at them for a long time without managing to figure out what they meant. They didn’t even look like English, and even if they were English, he wouldn’t have understood them anyway.
His command of English was truly limited.
With no other choice, Gu Yansheng had to wrap a robe around himself and come back out.
Xuan Chiyi had been standing right outside the doorway all along, worried that Gu Yansheng might need him for something. He was already planning to install some safety features in the bathroom tomorrow out of fear that Gu Yansheng might accidentally slip and fall. He needed to consider everything from every possible angle.
Just as he finished a phone call with Song Ming to delegate this task, Gu Yansheng opened the door and came out.
Xuan Chiyi raised an eyebrow. “Done washing?”
Gu Yansheng wrapped a bath towel around himself, looking a little embarrassed. “Um, I don’t know how to use those functions. Can you tell me how they work?”
Gu Yansheng listened in a daze as Xuan Chiyi patiently and gently explained the corresponding functions one by one.
In the end, Gu Yansheng only managed to remember which side was cold water and which side was hot water, and that was plenty. The other advanced functions were completely useless to him anyway.
When Gu Yansheng emerged from his shower, his hair wasn’t completely dry, and water droplets were still trickling down the tips of his strands.
Xuan Chiyi turned around and fetched a clean towel to help dry his hair.
Wearing his newly bought pajamas, Gu Yansheng had a pair of eyes that were slightly red at the corners, while his cheeks maintained a soft pink hue. Xuan Chiyi paused in surprise. “Did you cry?” Was he feeling uncomfortable here?
Gu Yansheng shook his head. “It is just the hot water.”
Every time he took a hot shower, the outer corners of his eyes would turn red, making it look as though he had just been crying.
Only then did Xuan Chiyi relax and continue drying his hair. “From now on, this place is your home.”
Gu Yansheng gave a soft “oh” in response. In his heart, however, he was thinking that once the baby was born in the future, if Xuan Chiyi truly loved the child, he would leave the child behind with him and take his leave. But if Xuan Chiyi didn’t like the child, he would take the child and run away together.
When it was time to go to sleep at night, Gu Yansheng ran into yet another problem.
He did not want to share a room with Xuan Chiyi, nor did he want to sleep on the same bed as him.
Faced with such an insistent Gu Yansheng, Xuan Chiyi had no choice but to compromise and tidy up a guest bedroom for him.
Before leaving the room after setting everything up, Xuan Chiyi offered a final reminder, “Do not lock the door when you sleep. If anything happens, make sure to call me.”
Only after receiving Gu Yansheng’s agreement did, he finally takes his leave.
Gu Yansheng lay in bed feeling a little nervous. When he first brought up his demand, he had expected Xuan Chiyi to get angry or refuse outright.
Xuan Chiyi really didn’t seem as fierce as the characters in novels.
With that thought on his mind, Gu Yansheng gradually drifted off to sleep.
In the middle of the night, the door to Gu Yansheng’s room slowly crept open. Xuan Chiyi tiptoed inside, looked at the person sleeping soundly on the bed, helped tuck in the blanket, and stared at Gu Yansheng’s face for a moment before reluctantly retreating.
As soon as the bedroom door clicked shut again, Gu Yansheng opened his eyes.