Chapter 15: The Ring
Looking at Huo Beixing standing before him, still giving off heat from the fight, An Yi recalled that straight punch the man had thrown on stage earlier, and even his brows started twitching.
He was absolutely certain that if nothing unexpected had happened, that punch could have killed him.
For something as dangerous and nerve-jangling as combat sports, An Yi had only ever casually watched it on TV when he had nothing better to do.
And even then, he was not watching the boxing.
He was watching the bodies.
Don’t ask. Ask, and the answer is: macho men like looking at this kind of thing.
But this was the first time he had ever watched it so directly and from such close range in person.
It left him completely dumbfounded.
Huo Beixing came down from the ring, his bandaged fists still splattered with the first blood of that big unlucky bastard from earlier. Yet when he looked at the blood on the bandages, there was not the slightest discomfort on his face. After the fight, his whole person looked refreshed and invigorated. There was even a trace of unconcealed excitement hanging around him, as though that intense activity that had stimulated his nerves and cerebral cortex had made him very happy, and the aftertaste of it had not yet fully faded.
A moment ago, when the opposing fighter had gone down, it had taken three people to stop Huo Beixing, who had still not had his fill.
An Yi took a deep breath.
He suddenly remembered the time, just after learning that he was going to marry into the Huo family, when he had secretly looked up Huo Beixing late at night.
The answer the internet had given him could be summed up in four words:
He’s a pervert. 🙂
And after seeing today’s scene, Huo Beixing had upgraded from just a simple pervert to a violent pervert.
An Yi’s soul instantly left his body.
It was truly too terrifying.
This refreshed the little frog’s worldview by a full hundred years.
It was the first time he had ever seen such a bloody combat scene in person, and the one doing it had been Huo Beixing, who usually looked so innocent and harmless. Naturally, it was hard for him not to be frightened.
He had thought two little yellow dogs fighting in the mountain village and biting each other’s fur off was already intense enough.
Who would have thought Huo Beixing fighting people was far more intense than that.
Other people fought to win.
He fought to kill.
An Yi silently glanced at the fighter being helped away nearby.
Good lord.
From the back, he looked like he had aged ten years in an instant, his legs buckling when he walked, practically a living example of time distortion magic.
An Yi swallowed.
He suddenly felt that even though this was a marriage alliance, Huo Beixing still did have a bit of affection for him.
Otherwise…
An Yi lifted his head and looked toward the sky.
Little frog me would already be on my way to the Western Heaven.
When Huo Beixing heard that An Yi had missed him, the smile on his face immediately deepened, his eyes filled only with the little wife he had not brought home all that long ago.
The first time An Yi had appeared before him, Huo Beixing had already thought he was good-looking. He was a little shorter than him, with snow-white skin that looked almost transparent standing in the sunlight.
He still remembered the very first scene when he saw him.
The other person had been carrying a lot of things, with a yellow hat pressed onto his head and a large water jug hanging in front of him. He had looked obedient to the extreme, like some elementary school kid on a spring outing. Although later he had been rather unwilling to give him children, that did not matter. Sooner or later, he would give him some.
More importantly, Huo Beixing liked the look in An Yi’s eyes when he looked at him.
An Yi’s eyes were rounder almond eyes. When he looked at people, they were bright like black grapes. When he looked at Huo Beixing, it was even more like there were stars in them.
The way he looked at him was completely different from everyone else.
He did not understand why, whenever other people looked at him, there was always something in their eyes he could not make sense of—difficulty, pity, schadenfreude, even reluctance. Those gazes made him feel extremely uncomfortable. He did not understand why they looked at him that way, as though they were looking at someone abnormal.
He was obviously normal.
He had always firmly believed that.
But ever since that little kid in the park had called him stupid, Huo Beixing had felt upset inside, and at the same time had grown to hate those looks even more. Only An Yi did not look at him that way. Only An Yi had told him he was not stupid.
He thought his wife was good.
Even if he did not give him children, he was still good.
Huo Beixing’s coach heard the two of them talking and deliberately teased him.
“Beixing, when he says he missed you, maybe he’s just coaxing you.”
An Yi: !
I’m warning you not to talk nonsense.
No one is allowed to harm the little frog, or I’ll extort eighty-eight thousand out of you.
Huo Beixing took the towel his coach handed over and ignored him. Lowering his head, he smiled at An Yi and said, “Wife, let’s go to the changing room.”
But the moment he lowered his eyes, he noticed the faint tremble in An Yi’s gaze.
Huo Beixing froze for a second, then stared at him in a silly daze.
Once the two of them entered the lounge, Huo Beixing raised a hand and took off his sports shirt. An Yi sat there blankly on the chair by the side, not daring to turn around and look.
Huo Beixing was a little puzzled. He stepped forward and bent down close to him, drawing in his arms. He did not touch him, but still enclosed An Yi within his space, not leaving him any room to move.
His breath was almost landing directly on An Yi’s face.
“Wife.”
Huo Beixing spoke, the distance between them absurdly close. If he leaned just a little farther forward, his nose would poke An Yi right in the face. Feeling the other man’s breath, An Yi’s eyelashes fluttered.
An Yi snapped out of it like waking from a dream. “Huh?”
Looking at him, Huo Beixing asked, “Are you scared I’ll hit you?”
An Yi’s heart immediately jumped.
Thinking of how he had looked in the ring, it would be a lie to say he was not afraid. After all, the frequency at which the two of them fought was basically once a day. If Huo Beixing was careless one time, the little frog would be off to report at the Southern Heavenly Gate.
But if he said that out loud, Huo Beixing would definitely be hurt. And before An Yi could even come up with an excuse, he heard him continue.
“I won’t hit you.”
Huo Beixing’s gaze was sincere as he spoke softly to An Yi.
“I like you the most. I won’t hit you.”
It was almost like he was coaxing a child.
Then, afraid An Yi would not believe him, he emphasized it again.
“You’re good to me, so I won’t hit you.”
If he treated him well, then he would not hit him.
An Yi wanted to clarify this future life-saving charm. “What counts as being good to you?”
Huo Beixing flashed a brilliant smile.
“Give me ten children.”
An Yi: )
No point living anymore.
I absolutely will not be having children for you!!!
The moment before, he had been scared.
Now he had instantly transcended life and death.
Honestly, the fear from just now had only been fear of how brutal that style of fighting was. If Huo Beixing had really wanted to hit him, he would have done it back at the swimming pool. It was just that An Yi felt this kind of activity was far too dangerous.
And as for the “like” in Huo Beixing’s words, An Yi categorized it under the pure fondness a five-year-old child had for a friend. After all, the liking of a child’s mind was the purest kind—simple, just because he liked playing with him.
Looking at Huo Beixing’s hand after he had unwrapped the bandages, his knuckles faintly bruised purple, An Yi pressed his lips together.
That looked like it hurt a lot.
“Do you have to fight in the ring every week during your sanda class?”
Huo Beixing never lied. “Sometimes yes, sometimes no.”
After saying that, he studied the expression on An Yi’s face. “Wife, you don’t like it?”
An Yi did not say he disliked it. After all, the Huo family had enrolled Huo Beixing in combat lessons so he could protect himself. If he said he did not want him to learn, then what would happen if danger came later? Was he supposed to throw himself out as a shield???
An Yi did not object. It was just that in his understanding, this kind of fighting technique was far too dangerous.
Huo Beixing said, “If you don’t like it, then I won’t fight anymore.”
An Yi hurriedly waved his hand. “No need. Learn properly. Just don’t go around getting into fights outside.”
Huo Beixing silently committed that to memory. “Okay.”
An Yi did not want to keep talking about fighting and combat, so he changed the subject and handed over the roses he had bought for him.
“These are for you.”
Huo Beixing took them, still not forgetting the lines from that over-the-top Mary Sue drama. “Wife, thank you for letting me see roses for the first time.”
An Yi: …
So that whole patch blooming in the garden—were those somehow Chinese roses instead?
He still vividly remembered the first time he saw that patch of roses. He had almost been watered to death by Huo Beixing with a hose.
But he had not forgotten the spoils he had brought back from work today either: a plastic ring suitable for children aged five to ten.
A perfect fit for Huo Beixing.
An Yi pulled the ring from his pocket and showed it to him.
Very clearly, the moment the ring made its entrance, it completely stole Huo Beixing’s attention away from the real roses.
Real roses: Pah!
Huo Beixing’s eyes were full of longing, his entire face writing out two words:
Want it.
Looking at An Yi with some embarrassment, he asked shyly, “Wife, is this for me?”
He had seen on TV that when the male lead proposed to the female lead, he always used a ring. The ring his wife was holding now definitely looked even better than the ones on TV. It even had a flower on it—it practically looked priceless.
Ring: retail price, four yuan.
A rose ring. Even macho men say they love it!
An Yi nodded. Looking at the surprise on Huo Beixing’s face, the corners of his own lips unconsciously curved into a smile as well.
In the other person’s understanding, this probably counted as being good to him, right?
Holding the ring out in front of him, An Yi asked, “Do you like it?”
Huo Beixing did not hesitate. “I like it.”
An Yi said, “Then put it on and let’s see.”
He took one of Huo Beixing’s hands and aimed the rose ring straight for his ring finger.
Then after moving forward exactly one centimeter, it met an immovable obstacle.
Hilarious. It would not go on at all.
In the end, he barely managed to wedge it around the middle of Huo Beixing’s ring fingernail.
The ring instantly transformed into nail art.
But Huo Beixing did not care in the slightest. He stared happily at the ring on his hand, as if he had just been given the best thing in the whole world.
In one burst of excitement, he picked An Yi up and spun him around a few times in the spacious changing room.
“I’ll treasure it properly.”
An Yi, being squeezed so hard he could not breathe: “Squeak…”
After wearing it on his finger for a while, worried that the ring was not secure enough and might get lost somewhere, Huo Beixing carefully took it off and tucked it into the inner layer of his sports bag like a great treasure. After changing clothes, he went out of the stadium together with An Yi.
When the driver saw the two of them come out, he got out to open the car door for them.
Once both An Yi and Huo Beixing were seated, he returned to the driver’s seat. “Young master, are we heading home?”
Huo Beixing said, “No. Go to the pig store.”
An Yi: ???
Pig store?
What kind of shop was that? A store that raised pigs?
He had heard of cat cafés. Was there really such a thing as a pig café too?
Little frog: The big city really is different.
The driver showed no great reaction. Based on Huo Beixing’s “pig store,” he immediately understood and drove the two of them to a luxury jewelry store in the city center.
An Yi tilted his head back to stare at the grand entrance of the luxurious jewelry store in front of him.
So this was what Huo Beixing called the pig store…
Truly, wealth dazzles the eyes.
An Yi looked puzzled and turned to Huo Beixing. “What are we here for?”
Pulling him out of the car, Huo Beixing said, “To buy rings.”
Right now, only he had a ring. His wife’s hands were empty.
How could that be allowed?
If he had one, then his wife had to have one too.
Ever since Huo Beixing had become foolish, Zhu Shu had felt deeply sorry for him and came to see him every few days. But his mind was immature now, and Zhu Shu really did not want to go back to the days of taking laser swords and slashing away at each other with him. So every time she came, she would find some excuse to drag Huo Beixing out shopping with her. Even if he wore a sour face and complained that he did not like shopping, she still insisted on believing he was happy.
Hah. As if the universal wish of every child wasn’t simply to make their mother happy.
Zhu Shu: I’ll grant your wish.
At the same time, those shopping trips also served as a kind of enlightenment for Huo Beixing. Otherwise, what if one day he wanted candy and did not know where to buy it, and somehow ended up buying rat poison instead? Once they had shopped enough times, Huo Beixing naturally learned what kinds of places sold what.
It was An Yi’s first time coming to somewhere this high-end, and he could not help feeling a little constrained. Huo Beixing, however, pulled him straight inside with long strides.
The staff at the entrance saw them and immediately came forward with smiling faces to welcome them in.
Huo Beixing had come here many times with Zhu Shu before. They already knew him well.
A very simple man.
Two words to sum him up:
Rich.
“Sir, how may we help the two of you today?”
Huo Beixing got straight to the point. “Buying rings.”
The staff led the two of them to the jewelry ring display cases, speaking in a warm tone. “All of these can be tried on.”
Looking at the dazzling display stand full of glittering jewelry and rings, An Yi nearly got blinded on the spot.
Meanwhile, Huo Beixing lowered his head and began choosing with complete seriousness.
Then he pointed and had the clerk take out ten designs, making An Yi try them on one after another.
Sitting in the VIP chair, An Yi had never in his life felt his fingers so heavy.
Then he looked at the price tags on the side and instantly sucked in a breath of cold air.
Damn! That’s an apartment.
No wonder they’re so heavy.
After he had tried them all, the staff member asked from the side, “The pieces you selected are all currently popular new designs, sir. Several of them have stones unique to this store, one of a kind. Which one would you like to choose?”
Huo Beixing said, “All of them.”
Clerk: ???
An Yi: ???
An Yi immediately spoke up. “No need.”
Not one was needed. Just looking was enough.
Wearing ten apartments on his hands was a weight his life simply could not bear.
The clerk looked at those rings—they were not exactly cheap—and also tried to persuade him. “Sir, wouldn’t ten be a little too many?”
“Not at all.”
Huo Beixing picked up An Yi’s hands.
“My wife happens to have ten fingers.”
“……”
Kid, your math is really good.
When Huo Beixing led An Yi out, the store manager and all the staff lined up at the entrance and bowed at a ninety-degree angle, voices rising from the dantian in perfect unison:
“THANK YOU FOR YOUR VISIT!!!”
This was not a customer.
This was a god of wealth.
Because wearing ten rings on his fingers was far too eye-catching, Huo Beixing even specially bought a silver chain, threaded the rings onto it, and made An Yi wear it around his neck.
In one instant, An Yi transformed from a simple rustic frog into a wealthy frog.
His whole person suddenly looked expensive.
He had given Huo Beixing one little rose ring.
The man had returned the favor with a whole pile of giant gemstones.
So this was what they meant by: I drip-drop for you, and you splash-splash for me.
Before An Yi had even managed to recover from the lingering shock, Huo Beixing had already brought him to an upscale restaurant, planning to have dinner.
—
When Zhao Ningzhuo entered with his friends, he saw Huo Beixing sitting not far away at a single glance.
The others all craned their necks to look as well. Ever since Huo Beixing became foolish, he had not appeared in public much, and among the rich young heirs in Beijing, most of them had treated his misfortune as entertainment.
They had lived this long, and still had never seen a fool before.
Not to mention a playboy like Huo Beixing suddenly becoming foolish.
“Damn, isn’t that Huo Beixing?”
“Didn’t he go stupid?”
“He actually looks pretty normal. Doesn’t really seem like it.”
The group chattered back and forth, but even as they talked, they did not forget to glance at Zhao Ningzhuo beside them.
Everyone in their circle knew Zhao Ningzhuo had always regarded Huo Beixing as his mortal enemy. No one knew exactly why, only that it stemmed from some grudge back in childhood.
What a narrow road for enemies. Zhao Ningzhuo had only just returned to the country today, and he had already run into him.
One of the men spoke up. “Who’s the one sitting beside him? He’s got kind of a vibe.”
People like them never lacked companions. They had seen every possible style, but the one sitting across from Huo Beixing gave off a feeling they had never quite encountered before.
He looked fair and clean, but he was not some fragile white flower.
Nor was he the cold and aloof type.
It was hard to describe.
Zhao Ningzhuo’s gaze also landed on An Yi. Looking at the smile on Huo Beixing’s face across from him, he narrowed his eyes.
A fan-shaped diagram began unfolding in his mind.
Steal away the person by his side. Humiliate Huo Beixing. Make him cry and run back to his mommy.
Now that he had returned to the country, this time, whatever belonged to him, he would take all of it back.
