Chapter 29: Coming Home Late
What did he mean, weak?
Could this kind of thing even be weak?
If his kidneys were weak, then how was Little Frog supposed to be a macho man anymore?!
After hearing that, An Yi hesitated for a few seconds and did not agree right away. After all, this concerned his dignity.
On the other end, Huo Beixing immediately became unhappy. Because of his nicotine addiction, the fingers of his right hand unconsciously rubbed against each other. “Wife, you don’t love me.”
The unusually serious tone startled An Yi. It was the first time he had ever heard Huo Beixing sound this solemn. Usually, when Huo Beixing spoke, there was always that silly, foolish air about him, like some carefree big dog running wild all over a lawn. But now that his tone had changed, it was probably because An Yi had not gone along with him, and his childish temper had flared up.
An Yi had grown up in a mountain ravine where feelings were expressed in a more reserved and closed-off way. Love and not love—how could something like that just hang casually on one’s lips? It was one thing to coax someone with a few words once in a while, but if he said too much, even he felt embarrassed. He rubbed his slightly hot ears, his voice lowering a little. “What do you mean… what do you mean I don’t love you.”
It was just that a macho man could not have weak kidneys, that was all.
Little Frog’s sincerity toward you could be seen by heaven and earth—filled to the brim with fatherly love!
How could that be denied with just a single sentence!
Huo Beixing refused to let it go. “Then say it. Say you love me most in the whole world, and like me most in the whole world!”
The moment he thought of the photo Zhao Ningzhuo had sent him, Huo Beixing grew agitated and restless, unable to control his emotions. Besides, his mental age right now was only five to eight. Even if he wanted to control himself, it was difficult.
An Yi felt his face heating up. It was one thing when the two of them were together at home, but now he was out working, in broad daylight, with nothing but a door separating him from the noisy vanity fair outside.
Even if there was not much actual feeling between them, An Yi still felt embarrassed. Muttering under his breath, he said, “I’ll tell you when I get home.”
Huo Beixing frowned. Looking at the two little birds sitting together in the tree, he had the urge to throw one to the south and one to the north. Like a brat throwing a fit, he said, “No. I want to hear it right now. And you have to call me by my pet name too!”
Love could not stand waiting.
If you were going to call him baby, then it had to be now.
Huo Beixing refused to relent. If An Yi did not say it, he would not let the matter rest easily.
His dog temper had obviously come out, and it was clear that not agreeing was not an option. An Yi flushed furiously, his face so hot it felt like it might catch fire. He glanced around, afraid someone might happen to walk past the door in a moment.
Blushing, his fingers hooking at the seam of his pants, he mumbled vaguely, “I love you most in the whole world. I like you most in the whole world.”
Huo Beixing asked, “Like who?!”
An Yi said, “Huo Dabao.”
The Huo Beixing who had just been boiling with anger instantly felt as if someone had poured cold water over him. The huge blaze inside him immediately turned into a flickering little flame of light. The silly smile reappeared on his face at once. Holding the phone, he was all honeyed sweetness again. If he had had a tail behind him, it could have wagged clear up to the sky. Coaxing him, he said, “Wife, I like you most too.”
He had woken up early that morning and failed to see An Yi beside him. Ever since the two of them got married, for the past few months, they had woken almost every day to the sight of each other. This morning, when he did not see An Yi, Huo Beixing had felt strangely unaccustomed to it.
Uncle Zhong had said his wife had gone out to work. After finishing swimming class and coming home at noon, An Yi was still nowhere to be seen.
Holding the phone, Huo Beixing asked, “Wife, when are you coming back?”
An Yi himself did not know what arrangements the brand might still have afterward for studios like theirs, so he gave a safer estimate. “I’ll probably get home around dinnertime.”
At that moment it was not even one in the afternoon yet. There was still half a day before dinner.
An Yi thought the time should be enough.
“Okay, then I’ll wait for you at home, Wife.” Then he added, reminding him, “If any girls come looking for you, don’t forget to tell them your kidneys are weak.”
An Yi: …
Who on earth would say that!!!
Only after An Yi said goodbye did Huo Beixing finally hang up the call with great reluctance.
The moment the call ended, the WeChat messages on his phone were still increasing.
Zhao Ningzhuo: “Your wife doesn’t want you anymore~”
Zhao Ningzhuo: “Your wife doesn’t want you anymore~”
Zhao Ningzhuo: “Your wife doesn’t want you anymore~”
Zhao Ningzhuo: “Your wife doesn’t want you anymore~”
Huo Beixing lowered his peach-blossom eyes and looked at the messages.
On the other side, Zhao Ningzhuo was still relentlessly being a pest. “Your wife doesn’t want you anymore~”
Sending failed. You are no longer this person’s friend.
Zhao Ningzhuo: …
Hadn’t they promised to be good friends for a lifetime?!
You’re such a sore loser.
Serves you right that your wife doesn’t want you!
After hanging up, An Yi stepped out of the stairwell. Seeing him return, Lin Jiu walked over to his side.
An Yi looked around him a few times and, not seeing Gu Lingling, asked, “Where’s Gu Lingling?”
Lin Jiu explained, “She just got word that the brand has arrangements for the studios that came today. No one from our studio was over at the reception hall, so she went ahead first to get the news and told me to wait here for you. Then we’ll go find her together.”
An Yi understood. Neither of them delayed, and together they headed to the hall where the various studios had previously been received.
The moment they stepped through the main doors, they found that the once spacious hall—which earlier had only contained a few sofas for people to rest on—was now full of tables. The people in the hall were more or less divided into three groups, not counting the brand staff and attendants.
The hall itself was huge and covered a great deal of space, but there were simply too many people, so it looked densely packed and much more crowded than before.
Of the three groups, the densest crowd was gathered around the assistant to the brand’s creative director. He seemed to be reviewing something. In front of him stood a long line of people, all digging through their phones for the previous design works of their respective studios to show him.
Those who passed the review went over to a long table not far away to fill out forms. Those who did not pass left with their studios.
The division in the other two streams of people was also very obvious. Most of them were heading straight back home. Only a scattering of studios remained filling out forms. As for why only a few studios were filling out forms, yet there were still many people there, that was because each of those studios had come with a lot of members.
By contrast, from chairman to cleaner, Pink Crystal Girl’s Heart had exactly three people total. 🙂
They had truly squeezed every last bit of value out of their manpower.
An Yi and Lin Jiu could not find Gu Lingling in the line of people waiting to be reviewed, which meant she had already been judged.
The two of them immediately swallowed nervously. All of a sudden, it felt a bit like they had just finished an exam and were about to check the results.
An Yi said, “Do you think our studio passed?”
Lin Jiu countered, “What do you think?”
An Yi said, “I think we should be a little more confident.”
Lin Jiu replied, “You mean Gu Lingling was self-aware enough not to bother getting reviewed and just left?”
An Yi: …
Just as the two of them were about to slip out through the side door to look for Gu Lingling, the backs of their collars suddenly tightened.
It felt as though their fates had been seized by the throat.
Lin Jiu clutched An Yi’s hand. “Baojuan, my throat.”
An Yi: …
The two of them turned around and saw Gu Lingling standing there, holding a form and looking at them. Both of them froze at the sight of the paper in her hand.
Gu Lingling waved the form in front of them with delight on her face.
Lin Jiu was shocked. “Whose did you snatch that from? Hurry and give it back! Otherwise you’re going to get beaten up! Be careful or they’ll report you!”
Grinding her teeth, Gu Lingling smacked Lin Jiu upside the head. “What do you mean snatched? Our studio passed! Get over here and fill out the forms!”
Passed!
An Yi and Lin Jiu obediently followed Gu Lingling over and took pens, filling in their personal information on the forms.
An Yi raised a hand. “Teacher, I have a question.”
Gu Lingling said, “Go ahead.”
An Yi asked, “Teacher, why do they want our studio to fill out forms for the brand?”
Gu Lingling began explaining in an orderly way. “It’s like this. Recently the brand has been selecting talent, and just so happens they hit it off with the investors and together set up a selection competition. The studios filling out forms now are the ones that have already been chosen and qualified to participate. After this, we’ll have to design clothing according to the brand’s requirements. But the competition environment will be fully closed off. We’ll have to stay in one place for half a month and hand in all communication devices. At night, we’ll only get half an hour to use our phones. The rest of the time will be spent thinking up inspiration and designing sketches.”
An Yi blinked. “Stay in one place for half a month?”
Gu Lingling nodded. “It’s kind of like training camp, but this competition is extremely important. The scale and profile are huge. I heard entertainment media may even be paying attention. We might even get interviewed at that time. This is an excellent chance to promote our studio!!”
The more she talked, the more excited she became. After the whole long speech, she had not even taken a breath.
“And if we win the competition, we’ll get to work with the brand’s chief designer and take part in next spring’s clothing design!”
The three of them draped arms over each other’s shoulders, bending down until their foreheads nearly touched, facing the floor.
Gu Lingling said, “Do you understand now what participating in this competition means for Pink Crystal Girl’s Heart?!”
If they won, there would be fame, money, and their dreams within reach.
Lin Jiu said, “Damn, we can finally hire a cleaner.”
An Yi: …
Gu Lingling: …
Well. Though… that somehow wasn’t wrong either.
After handing in the forms, the brand staff told them they would contact the studio later, probably in about a week, and told them to keep an eye on messages so they would not miss it.
By the time they finished all that and came out through the side door, it was already close to four in the afternoon. In their hands, they each held one ugly doll given by the investors. To celebrate qualifying for the competition, Gu Lingling decided to take the whole studio out to dinner.
Seeing how happy she was, An Yi did not refuse. He lowered his head, took out his phone, and planned to send Huo Beixing a message telling him not to wait for him for dinner. Head bent over his phone as he typed, he did not notice that over there Lin Jiu had already hailed a taxi. There were too many people in the area for cars to stop long. Lin Jiu grabbed An Yi and pulled him into the cab. In the confusion, An Yi hastily stuffed his phone back into his pocket.
By the time the dinner gathering was over, it was already after eleven at night. Slightly tipsy, An Yi took a taxi home, carrying the ugly doll with him. Though the lights in the Huo family foyer and on the first floor were still on, at this hour Huo Beixing was probably already asleep.
When the servants saw him return, they wanted to step forward and ask whether he needed anything, but An Yi waved a hand and told them to go rest.
At the entrance hall, An Yi changed his shoes, then quietly crept upstairs toward the bedroom, careful all the way not to make any noise and wake anyone.
In his own house, he somehow managed to walk like a thief.
The whole way went smoothly without incident. Satisfied, An Yi patted his chest.
Little Frog was just that light and graceful.
He twisted the handle of the bedroom door and slipped inside like a burglar.
But the moment he closed the door behind him and turned around, he crashed straight into a wall of flesh.
His head hurt from the impact, and An Yi let out a muffled grunt.
No light was on in the room. The tall figure in front of him stood with his back to the moonlight spilling in through the window, making his face impossible to see. The silhouette looked especially dark.
An Yi got such a fright that before he could even cry out, the dark shape in front of him bent down and, with familiar ease, hoisted him right up over a shoulder.
An Yi had drunk some alcohol outside and was a little tipsy. The moment he was thrown over someone’s shoulder, he instinctively started struggling. But before he could move more than twice, he was tossed in a graceful arc onto the bed.
Woohoo. Little Frog was airborne.
Huo Beixing was shirtless, wearing only a pair of gray sweatpants. Without saying a word, he leaned down and pressed over An Yi, lowering his head to sniff around An Yi’s collar.
The tip of his nose brushed lightly against his neck, making An Yi itch. He tried to push him away, but Huo Beixing unhappily caught hold of his arm. An Yi tilted his head back, trying to avoid him because it was just too ticklish, only for his backside to be seized in a hard squeeze the next second.
Huo Beixing said, “You’re still moving!”
The sudden pain in his backside made An Yi stare blankly. “You… you…”
Huo Beixing completely ignored him and said in a dissatisfied tone, “I’m angry! You smell like another woman’s perfume!”
An Yi: ???
Were you sure about that?
Since when did women use beer as perfume?
He had come home late, and on top of that there was another scent on him. Instantly, Huo Beixing was reminded of the cannon-fodder male lead number four from Where Does the Runaway Bride Run To. That was exactly how his wife had run away in that drama.
An Yi tried to get up and explain things to him.
The weak moonlight fell across Huo Beixing’s face, where the words I’m unhappy were practically written in full.
An Yi struggled up, and the moment he tried to get off the bed, Huo Beixing hauled him straight into his arms. He ended up seated on the other man’s lap, his upper body pressed against Huo Beixing’s chest. All he could feel was the frightening heat radiating from the other man’s body. An Yi felt this posture was too intimate and not very appropriate, and wanted to move, but the next second his backside was fiercely squeezed again.
After that squeeze, Huo Beixing’s hand did not move away at all. It stayed there over the fabric, cupping him.
An Yi: 🙂
Man, I advise you to stop while you still can.
You should know that a tiger’s backside is not something one can just touch.
An Yi leaned slightly backward, wanting to put some distance between them, but Huo Beixing gave him no chance. Between the alcohol he had drunk and the other man’s body heat, his own temperature instantly seemed to rise several degrees. Red-faced, he said, “It’s not… it’s not someone else’s perfume.”
Huo Beixing frowned at him, his tone much more serious than usual. “Then why did you come back so late?! You promised me before that you’d be back by dinner!!”
An Yi: !
He distinctly remembered that he had sent him a message saying he would be late.
An Yi was bewildered. “But I sent you a message, didn’t I?”
Huo Beixing reached out, grabbed the phone from the bedside, opened the messages, and showed him.
There was no message from An Yi at all.
An Yi’s scalp tingled. Could it be that the message he had started earlier had never actually gone through?
If the message had not gone through, then that really did count as breaking his promise. Looking at Huo Beixing’s angry face, An Yi swallowed hard. One hand quietly reached over to pry away the hand Huo Beixing still had on his backside.
The other man’s grip was strong. With just one squeeze, he could nearly crush Little Frog to death.
But after struggling to pry at it for a long time, he could not budge it at all.
So An Yi opened his mouth to explain. “I didn’t do it on purpose. I really meant to send the message, but it didn’t go through.”
Huo Beixing did not care about any of that. Having gone all day without seeing An Yi, his whole body was restless and irritable. His strong arm shifted, hoisting An Yi slightly higher in his lap. Leaning in, he spoke in a low voice by An Yi’s ear. “If there’s a next time, I’m throwing you in the trash can.”
The hot breath against his ear made An Yi hunch his neck at once.
Normally Huo Beixing could not bear to say that kind of thing to his wife. But tonight he had waited and waited, thinking his wife did not want him anymore. He had felt terrible.
If he made his wife afraid of him, then next time his wife would not dare do it again.
Seeing Huo Beixing in this completely impervious mood, An Yi knew that if he wanted to save his backside, there was no point in simply coaxing him along.
Using his wine-fogged brain, he thought desperately for a solution. Then he raised a hand, patted Huo Beixing’s arm, and tilted his head back to look at him. “I didn’t mean it.”
Looking down at his flushed little wife, Huo Beixing swallowed unconsciously, but he did not forget to keep scaring him. Tightening his hold and pulling him close, he asked, “Then what were you out doing?!”
An Yi answered, “I went to give birth to a child for you.”
As he spoke, he stuffed the ugly doll at the side into Huo Beixing’s arms.
“This is the child I gave birth to for you.”
After saying it, he felt a wave of guilt, not knowing whether the other man would actually believe him.
Huo Beixing stared blankly at the ugly doll. “Wife…”
An Yi’s heart drummed nervously. “Mm-hmm?”
Huo Beixing looked at it and said, “He looks a lot like me.”
It had a nose and eyes, after all.
An Yi: …
Author’s Note:
Huo Dabao: I’ll scare my wife so he won’t dare to do it next time.
Little frog: Will do it again next time 🙂
