Wondering how Jiang Mohai had found out the apartment’s new passcode, Rong Ning suddenly had zero desire to find out anymore and just wanted to leave as quickly as possible.
“Sleep here tonight, and we’ll go to work together tomorrow.” Jiang Mohai took a deep breath, attempting to persuade him to stay.
“I am not sleeping here!” Rong Ning flicked his arm and turned around without looking back. “I’m leaving.”
“Clack!”
Shutting the door to Jiang Mohai’s place, Rong Ning stood in a daze out in the hallway, feeling an eerie quietness all around him.
He stared blankly at the door of his own apartment across the way. Half a minute later, he clenched his fists tightly, then relaxed them.
Forget it, he still couldn’t remember.
Rong Ning rode the elevator downstairs, planning to hail a taxi to a hotel. He patted his pockets…
“Crap! I didn’t grab my phone or my car keys?”
Standing downstairs outside the apartment building, he looked up at the lit windows of Jiang Mohai’s apartment on the upper floor, let out a long sigh, gritted his teeth, and told himself, “If I go back up there, I’m a dog!”
Fuming with anger, Rong Ning had no choice but to walk on foot to a nearby hotel invested in by the Rong family and secured a room from the front desk clerk.
Just as he collapsed onto the hotel bed before he could even catch his breath, someone suddenly knocked on the door.
“Who is it? In the middle of the night.” Rong Ning dragged himself out of bed in deep reluctance.
“What are you running over here for?”
Opening the door to find Rong Chuhexuan, he turned right back around and flopped back onto the bed. “There’s only one bed, no space for you to sleep.”
“Get up and come with me.” Rong Chuhexuan walked right in after him.
Rong Ning froze in a daze. “Where to?” A naive, dazed expression surfaced on his exhausted face.
“You’re staying at my apartment tonight. Stop sleeping in a hotel.”
“Not going, I’m not used to it.” Rong Ning rolled over to face away from Rong Chuhexuan, buried his head beneath a pillow, and mumbled through it, “I’m going to sleep. If nothing’s going on, get out and pull the door shut behind you.”
“There’s nothing to not be used to. Once you stay there once, you’ll be fine.”
The moment the words fell, Rong Ning was hoisted straight up over Rong Chuhexuan’s shoulder, catching him completely off guard. “Hey, hey, hey, put me down!”
Even though Rong Chuhexuan was only two years older than him, he stood nearly as tall as Jiang Mohai at over 1.9 meters. His signature traits were sheer strength and doing whatever he pleased.
Carrying Rong Ning downstairs in one go, he shoved him into the car and drove away.
It was Rong Ning’s first time visiting Rong Chuhexuan’s apartment. Though not quite as massive as his own place, the interior decoration was rather tasteful.
Upon entering, Rong Chuhexuan placed a pair of brand-new slippers right in front of Rong Ning. “Hotels are too noisy; you won’t rest well there. At my place, you can sleep as late as you want.”
It was true; no matter how nice a hotel was, it could never match the comfort of sleeping at home.
“There are three empty bedrooms inside. Go take a look and see which one you want to sleep in.”
Rong Ning changed into his slippers and walked further inside. Passing by the master bedroom, he glanced casually inside, only to spot no one while faintly hearing the sound of running water coming from the master bathroom.
Frowning slightly, Rong Ning turned back to look at Rong Chuhexuan. “Is there someone else here?”
“Not an outsider.” Pausing for a moment, Rong Chuhexuan leaned casually against the wall and glanced toward the master bedroom. “Your sister-in-law.” His tone was casual, yet carried an inexplicable hint of quiet pride.
“Sister-in-law?!” Rong Ning widened his eyes in disbelief, looking Rong Chuhexuan up and down.
Rong Chuhexuan, who was always so quiet and taciturn, actually had a girlfriend? How on earth did he pull that off!
“You’re in a relationship?”
“Mn, for a long time now.” Rong Chuhexuan replied unblushingly.
“Do Dad and Auntie know?”
Rong Chuhexuan slowly shook his head. “I haven’t figured out how to tell them yet.”
“What’s there to figure out, just tell them! Parents are usually thrilled when their son is in a relationship. In a couple of years, they can hold a big grandchild, how wonderful is that?”
As Rong Ning turned his head to speak to Rong Chuhexuan, he failed to notice that the person from the master bedroom had already stepped out of the bathroom.
“Rong Ning’s here?”
A calm, unhurried, measured voice drifted into his ear, causing Rong Ning to freeze instantly.
Huh? The voice sounded off. Why did it belong to a… man?!
Snapping his head around, he saw that the man had already walked right up to them.
“Doctor Liang? Why is it you?” Rong Ning was shocked all over again.
Liang Chen was wiping his hair as he walked out, his tone languid and lazy. “Why couldn’t it be me?”
“You, you…” Rong Ning’s eyes widened into perfect circles as he began to stammer incoherently. “You… you’re the sister-in-law?”
“That’s right.”
“You guys…” Rong Ning’s gaze shifted back and forth between the two of them, still finding it completely inconceivable. “Cohabiting?”
“That’s right.”
Rong Ning cast a sidelong glance down at Liang Chen, who had just finished showering and was still wearing pajamas. It didn’t look like a joke at all.
Then he turned to look at Rong Chuhexuan, his incredulous gaze harboring a shred of newfound respect. “I really hand it to you. Turns out you’re a closet weirdo too! You hid it deep.”
Rong Chuhexuan twitched the corner of his mouth. “It’s fine. I didn’t want to keep it a secret from you, it’s just that Dad and Mom’s side…”
“Don’t worry…” Rong Ning waved a hand. “I don’t have the spare time to manage your affairs. Once you figure out how to come out of the closet, go tell them yourself.”
“Mn. Then get some rest early.”
Following that, Rong Chuhexuan took Liang Chen’s hand and walked back into the master bedroom.
From holding hands to drying hair and blow-drying, Rong Ning watched the entire scene unfold, his expression shifting from dull-witted blankness to a full-blown motherly smile.
The next morning, Rong Ning woke up quite late—not because he was lazy and wanted to sleep in, but because he had suffered from insomnia the previous night and fallen asleep far too late.
Crawling out of bed, it was already 10 AM. Rong Ning strolled leisurely toward the dining room hoping to find something to eat, only to discover that breakfast had been left for him in the kitchen.
He carried several plates over to the dining table and ate while pondering how to retrieve his phone and car keys.
Vaguely, he heard movement coming from the master bedroom.
Rong Chuhexuan didn’t go to work?
Slowing down the chewing motion in his mouth, he tilted his head, fixing his eyes squarely on the door of the master bedroom.
Before long, Liang Chen emerged from inside, his hair wet once again.
Rong Ning popped the final bite of his stuffed bun into his mouth, chewed rapidly to swallow it down, and teased Liang Chen, “Does Doctor Liang have a cleanliness obsession or something? You wash it at night, you wash it in the morning too—aren’t you afraid of scrubbing your skin raw?”
Massaging his lower back with a bizarre expression, Liang Chen walked toward the living room. “What do you know…” His mouth opened and closed as he stopped short of speaking, wearing an expression that screamed you wouldn’t understand even if I told you, before offering a sly, knowing smile. “You’ll develop the good habit of showering both morning and night in the future too.”
Rong Ning wore a look of utter disdain. “Bunk!”
“If you don’t believe me, just try it.” Supporting his lower back and sticking his bottom out slightly, Liang Chen lowered himself slowly onto the sofa.
He didn’t have a cleanliness obsession, so naturally he didn’t believe it!
Letting out a light scoff and too lazy to bother with Liang Chen, Rong Ning continued eating his late breakfast on his own.
“Did you eat?” Rong Ning looked at the half-bowl of porridge remaining on the table, then turned back to ask Liang Chen.
“It was all left for you; I already ate.”
“You woke up late, yet you ate quite early.”
“Your older brother fed me in bed. Got a problem with that?”
“Tsk, tsk, tsk. I’ve got pinkeye now, stop showing off your affection in front of me.” Rong Ning surveyed Liang Chen with a look of supreme distaste. “Besides, I never acknowledged that Rong Chuhexuan is my older brother. Right now, at most, I… don’t loathe him.”
Liang Chen curled his lip. “Not even that old, yet your mouth is so stubborn.”
After cleaning up the bowls and chopsticks, Rong Ning curled up on the sofa as well. Staring at Liang Chen, who was busy replying to messages beside him, he asked, “Does Doctor Liang not need to go to work?”
Keeping his head down without shifting his gaze, Liang Chen replied indifferently, “Mn, on leave.”
“Doctor Liang…”
“Tsk, stop with the Doctor Liang business. You’re not my patient anymore, call me sister-in-law.” Liang Chen kept his head down, focused entirely on the messages on his phone.
Uh… Calling him “sister-in-law” to his face felt utterly bizarre, especially since the person opposite him was a man.
It was too mortifying; he simply couldn’t bring himself to say it.
A look of distress crossed Rong Ning’s face. Hesitating for a moment, he dropped the honorifics and called him by name. “Liang Chen, did you chase after my brother, or did my brother chase after you?”
Hearing the two words “Liang Chen,” he slanted a look at Rong Ning out of the corner of his eye and slowly spat out a few words: “Want to learn from my experience?”