Tan Chen and Sang Suiyu were kicked out of the house.
Granted, this was indeed part of their original plan. The moment Sang Suiyu declared he was Tan Chen’s boyfriend, Tan Chen’s parents were supposed to fly into a rage and sweep them right out the door.
While the end result matched their expectations, the actual situation felt completely off.
Rather than looking furious, Tan Chen’s parents had worn expressions that were utterly bewildered, bizarrely uncanny, and completely frozen. Without saying a single word to them, they had simply shoved the two out the door.
Sang Suiyu had barely opened his mouth to say something when the heavy wooden door nearly slammed into the bridge of his nose, forcing him to drop the subject.
Still, he was entirely perplexed.
Frowning in deep thought for a moment, he couldn’t help asking, “What do you think your parents meant by that? Why didn’t they point at my nose and curse me out?”
“They probably just couldn’t process it in time,” Tan Chen explained. “In their mind, the partner I brought home was supposed to be a girl. Having it suddenly swapped for a boy they know so well was probably just too big of a shock.”
That was plausible, yet an indescribable sense of dissonance still lingered. It felt as if something had veered off his anticipated track and was continuing to drift further away.
The thought made Sang Suiyu inexplicably restless. But before he could investigate any further, Tan Chen was already ushering him forward.
Curiously enough, while Tan Chen had seemed furious during the argument with his parents, his mood had inexplicably brightened. A faint smile touched his lips as he said, “Don’t overthink it for now.”
“We achieved our goal today anyway. Right now, the most important thing is to figure out our next move.”
That was true.
Accepting this wasn’t going to be easy for his parents; it was bound to be a long tug-of-war. They really needed to carefully plan how to make a scene next time.
Perhaps because his nerves were overly taut—or because he was still lost in thought—Sang Suiyu failed to notice Tan Chen’s gaze on him.
Taking in every detail of his expression, Tan Chen reached out and stroked the nape of Sang Suiyu’s neck—a gesture that seemed like a gentle comfort, yet also like a desperately suppressed impulse.
At that exact moment, inside the villa.
Tan Chen’s parents rushed into the study.
This was where the couple usually held their brief work meetings. Countless business decisions had been finalized here, but today, an emergency far more critical than business had suddenly arisen.
“Our son’s girlfriend is actually Yuyu!” Qing Qing said, her face pale with shock.
“That’s boyfriend,” Tan Deming couldn’t help correcting her.
“I know that!” Qing Qing said anxiously. “What I mean is, was that really necessary? Fighting us so fiercely, acting like he’d rather sever ties with us if he couldn’t get his freedom—and in the end, it was all just to date Yuyu?”
The two looked at each other in utter disbelief, clearly still reeling from the shock.
Granted, compared to a strange girl of unknown origin, it was hard to say a boy they had known inside and out was any easier to accept. There was a specific reason they disapproved of men dating men.
When Tan Chen’s uncle was young, he had possessed the same preference. He had poured all his energy, wealth, and ultimately his very life into the man he loved, only to end up with nothing.
Back then, the couple had been driven out of their minds with frustration. No matter how much they tried to advise or help him, it was useless; they could only watch helplessly as he sank into ruin until his death.
In the end, they had bitterly sworn that nothing was crueler than a man deceiving another man, and that their future daughter-in-law absolutely could not be a man.
But people were different from one another.
How could Sang Suiyu be the same!
They had watched Sang Suiyu grow up. It was no exaggeration to say that from the very first moment they saw the child, their hearts had marveled at how remarkably pretty and well-behaved he was.
Back then, Sang Suiyu’s parents were frequently away on business trips, leaving only him and a housekeeper at home. Yet Sang Suiyu always acted far more independent than peers his age—packing his backpack on time, going to and from school, and maintaining his own goals and steady progress.
Moreover, his period of calm independence had lasted even longer than their own son’s rebellious phase. On many occasions when family arguments grew extremely heated, it was Sang Suiyu who stepped in at just the right moment to resolve the issue.
For a time, the couple’s affection for him had even surpassed that for their own son. They had secretly regretted not setting up a childhood betrothal to permanently bring Sang Suiyu into their family.
Therefore, not only did they lack the slightest prejudice against Sang Suiyu, but years of living alongside him had also added an eight-hundred-layer protective filter to their view of him.
Sang Suiyu becoming their daughter-in-law?
That was practically too good to be true!
To this day, they still found it somewhat hard to believe. Given Tan Chen’s foul, universally disliked temper, the fact that Sang Suiyu had remained his best friend for so many years was already a stroke of luck Tan Chen hardly deserved. How on earth had he managed to actually start dating him?!
They couldn’t rule out the possibility that Sang Suiyu was simply blind. After all, over all these years, everyone had witnessed how good Sang Suiyu was to Tan Chen and how he granted his every request.
“A win is a win,” Qing Qing declared resolutely. “Let’s just say he struck gold.”
“Fair enough.” Tan Deming tried to keep his emotions from swinging too far, taking a deep breath, but a chuckle still escaped his lips anyway.
“Hehe.”
Stepping out of the car, Sang Suiyu suddenly shivered for no apparent reason.
Perhaps the wind blowing past was a bit chilly, but almost instantly, a familiar warmth leaned in from behind—Tan Chen had wrapped his arm around him.
Tan Chen always did this. He was keenly attuned to Sang Suiyu’s feelings; often, before Sang Suiyu even noticed a subtle discomfort himself, Tan Chen would have already quietly taken care of it.
But if he actually ends up with someone else in the future, he probably won’t put this kind of care into me anymore, Sang Suiyu thought.
The thought flashed unbidden through his mind. By the time he snapped out of it, he had already followed Tan Chen into the house.
This was Tan Chen’s place, but because the two were together year-round, they kept a designated room for each other in their respective homes, furnished so identically it felt just like being in their own house.
Familiar with the routine, the two returned to Tan Chen’s bedroom. Sang Suiyu had calmed down significantly compared to earlier. “No matter what, I think your parents were still hit pretty hard this time.”
“I think so too,” Tan Chen agreed readily. “So, should we give them an even stronger shock next?”
Logically speaking, that made sense.
Even if there was an indescribable strangeness to Tan Chen’s parents’ reaction today, at the very least, they were shocked, and they had indeed swept them out the door.
Besides, their past declaration that they would never accept a man as their daughter-in-law was still vivid in his memory. There hadn’t been the slightest sign of them relenting, which meant deep down, they were likely still deeply resistant.
That meant the next time he went to see them, their attitude toward him might undergo a massive shift—no longer treating him with affection, but displaying disgust and demanding he stay away from Tan Chen.
At the thought of that scene, Sang Suiyu couldn’t help letting out a hopeless sigh in his heart. What else do we even need to do? Just standing side-by-side with Tan Chen is probably already a massive shock to them.
“They happen to not be too busy lately,” Sang Suiyu said thoughtfully. “Let’s go back home in a couple of days and act a bit more intimate in front of them.”
“How intimate?” Tan Chen took his hand. “Does this count as intimate?”
Before Sang Suiyu could answer, Tan Chen pulled him by the shoulder, pressing him into his chest. “Does this count as intimate?”
Sang Suiyu’s ear pressed abruptly against Tan Chen’s chest, where he could clearly feel the thrum within his ribcage. Tan Chen’s heartbeat was always steady and powerful, often giving him a deep sense of security.
Yet he subtly felt that something wasn’t quite right. When Tan Chen lowered his head, coming so close for a fraction of a second that his face was almost touching his own, Sang Suiyu’s eyelids twitched in surprise.
It wasn’t until a warm sensation touched his forehead that Sang Suiyu realized Tan Chen was merely resting his forehead gently against his.
“Does this count as intimate?” He felt Tan Chen’s dark eyes locked on him, his breath hovering over his eyelashes.
“…” Sang Suiyu understood completely now.
Purse-pressing his lips, he said, “It doesn’t.”
The two of them were simply too close to begin with.
These habits hadn’t formed out of nowhere. When they were little, Sang Suiyu was often home alone. Both Tan Chen and his parents were worried he would feel lonely, so they frequently invited him over to stay.
To make it easy for them to talk, Tan Chen’s parents always arranged for the two to stay in the same room. Sang Suiyu and Tan Chen slept in the same bed, sharing the same blanket, constantly clinging to one another like this.
As time went on, they hadn’t grown apart. On the contrary, because their relationship grew closer and closer, the boundaries between them blurred to the point where everyone around them took it for granted.
Thus, simple hand-holding or hugging would most likely be completely ineffective; it wouldn’t offer Tan Chen’s parents a strong enough shock.
Seeing him suddenly fall silent, his eyelashes trembling slightly, a surge of intense impulse flared up inside Tan Chen. He was almost tempted to voice the things he had been yearning for.
Ordinary intimacy wouldn’t work, but they didn’t just have ordinary intimacy. Over the years, taking advantage of Sang Suiyu’s cluelessness and tolerance, Tan Chen had crossed his boundaries more times than he could count.
He had kissed his hair while he was asleep, and whenever his emotions became truly uncontrollable, he would nip at his ears and the tip of his nose.
Sang Suiyu might not register the difference himself, but with his parents’ sharp intuition, how could they possibly fail to spot such an extraordinary level of ambiguity? The only prerequisite was convincing Sang Suiyu to accept this level of intimacy as part of their routine.
At the thought of this, Tan Chen’s blood coursed rapidly. Even the grip he had on Sang Suiyu’s hand tightened involuntarily. “Yuyu…”
Unexpectedly, Sang Suiyu suddenly raised his eyes.
At such close proximity, Tan Chen could clearly see the faint glint in his eyes—it was the composure of someone who had thought things through logically and regained complete control of the situation.
Tan Chen’s heart skipped a beat, faintly sensing that Sang Suiyu had something to say.
After a brief silence, Tan Chen’s boiling blood slowly settled, like an underground river forced to conceal its surging currents, stranding his desires once more.
If anyone were to peer into his eyes, they would undoubtedly discover the dark, heavy gloom hidden beneath the shadows—just as it had leaked out countless times in the past when he failed to suppress it.
“Yuyu,” he nevertheless asked softly, “did you think of a way?”
“Didn’t you say you were willing to sacrifice anything?” Then, he heard Sang Suiyu’s earnest, clear voice.
“Tan Chen, have you ever kissed anyone?”