Chapter 6: Changing Clothes
What now? At this rate, it looked like the two of them were about to get divorced before they had even gotten married.
So what exactly had he come here for today?
His cheek, which had just taken an elbow from Huo Beixing, was still faintly aching.
Oh, right. He remembered now.
He had come here to suffer a workplace injury.
The lawyer sat properly on the sofa, hands on knees, and for a moment genuinely felt that even the poisonous mushroom he had eaten yesterday would have been a better fate.
Then he glanced over at An Yi, who was sitting to one side, having just finished the battle.
Life in a wealthy family really was exciting.
Actually, less than two minutes after Huo Beixing stormed off, An Yi had already calmed down. Although after watching that melodramatic TV drama, Huo Beixing had stubbornly declared that An Yi did not want to give birth to his child, and then launched into a whole series of bratty-child operations, he had not actually hurt him.
It was just that, with his current limited intelligence, Huo Beixing only knew how to solve problems with brute force.
After hoisting An Yi up, he tossed him around over and over, as if what he was throwing was not a person at all but a rag doll, doing it with shocking ease and making An Yi question his entire life.
Huo Beixing would throw him up and then catch him again, all while speaking with righteous confidence, uttering threats.
“If you won’t give me ten babies, I’ll throw you into the trash every single day!”
An Yi: Do you think you’re very impressive? 🙂
At the time, An Yi had felt exactly like a rubber ball, completely powerless except for his free-fall motion in the air.
The little frog’s pride had been tossed clean away.
They were both men, so why was Huo Beixing’s strength so outrageous?
When Nuwa had molded Huo Beixing, she had been biased to the extreme.
That body full of brute strength reminded An Yi of the giant black bear he had once accidentally seen in the mountains when he was little.
Back then, he had survived by lying flat on the ground and pretending to be dead.
At such a young age, his survival instincts had already been full marks.
But now, even playing dead was difficult.
Still, other than throwing him around, Huo Beixing did not seem to have done anything actually dangerous or harmful. An Yi had pinched his face, and Huo Beixing had not gotten angry. The only thing that truly made him angry was the matter of having children.
But still…
An Yi: A macho man does not give birth.
That wish of Huo Beixing’s was destined to fail.
At that moment, the lawyer cleared his throat.
An Yi turned to look at him, only then remembering that the man had come to draft the marriage agreement for him and Huo Beixing.
But now Huo Beixing had fled home in anger, and one of the parties involved was not even present, so the agreement clearly could not be drafted.
The lawyer pushed up his glasses with his middle finger. “Mr. An, shall we still draft the agreement?”
An Yi asked cautiously, “What do you think?”
The lawyer let out two dry laughs. “Haha, Mr. An, you’re quite humorous.”
He was not about to back out of the marriage, was he?!
If that happened, would his service fee not simply blow away with today’s southeast wind?!
No! Absolutely not!
The lawyer awkwardly forced out a line. “In The Runaway Bride and the Domineering CEO’s Fierce Love, the ending seemed to be that the runaway bride got caught and dragged back to get married.”
An Yi: …
Was this novel really that popular in the Huo family?
Actually, An Yi himself did not know whether Huo Beixing still wanted to marry him after what had just happened.
The lawyer hesitated for a while, but in the end decided he was still going to draft the agreement. After all, he had been sent by the Huo family. If he did not bring back at least some kind of agreement, what he would lose would not just be money, but also his professional reputation.
For the sake of both his fee and his reputation, these two absolutely had to get married.
At worst, later he could take a photo of the bruise on his face and collect another round of workplace injury compensation.
After readjusting his mindset, the senior lawyer from the nation’s top law firm began taking on the role of marriage mediator.
But before the lawyer could even speak, An Yi stood up from the sofa first.
An Yi said, “I’ll go look for him.”
At that very moment, the lawyer saw on An Yi’s body a light of hope he had never seen before.
“Really?” he asked.
An Yi nodded.
After all, macho men were broad-minded.
And so, the little frog set off along the route Huo Beixing had taken when he left.
Watching An Yi walk out through the floor-to-ceiling window, the lawyer thought:
Do neither of these newlyweds use doors?
The Huo family estate was not just ordinarily large. There were plenty of buildings and facilities too. After walking out, An Yi stared at the broad expanse of lawn in front of him and had no idea where to even begin looking for Huo Beixing.
So he entered an exploration mode much like stepping through a minefield, walking here and there, stopping every so often to see if Huo Beixing was anywhere nearby.
At the same time, he could not help admiring the floral carving designs on some of the buildings.
By the time he reached the area near an outdoor swimming pool, An Yi was already panting from exhaustion. The sunlight had baked his back until it felt hot, and his forehead was covered in fine beads of sweat.
He planned to rest there for a moment, but when he looked ahead, he discovered something strange standing in the swimming pool.
A long black shape was sticking up above the water and moving back and forth, sending ripples across the surface. After pausing for a few seconds, the black strip suddenly began shaking violently again.
An Yi was startled. It could not be some kind of unidentified creature, could it?!
He hurried over in a few quick steps and realized it was a dog’s tail. He immediately let out a breath of relief.
So it was just a dog’s tail—
Wait. Why was there a dog tail in the swimming pool?
An Yi: !
Could it be drowning?!
Looking at the dog in the pool with only its tail sticking above the water, An Yi instantly thought of the two Dobermans from yesterday.
And since those two Dobermans had already twisted the wrong hose connection before, An Yi had long since classified them as idiot dogs, unworthy of joining the Paw Patrol.
So now that a dog was drowning, An Yi did not find it surprising in the slightest.
Looking at the dog’s tail thrashing wildly across the surface, An Yi’s brain heated up. Without thinking further, he jumped straight into the pool and began the dog rescue operation.
An Yi: Don’t be afraid, doggy! I’m coming!
Yet the moment An Yi jumped in, the dog that had been under the water the whole time suddenly popped its head out.
An Yi: ?
For a moment, one man and one dog stared at each other, four eyes meeting.
Then the dog began paddling away with all four legs, doggy-styling its way out.
An Yi: wtf!
In his shock, An Yi’s body began sinking rapidly. In his rush to save the dog, he had forgotten that the little river he used to swim in back in the mountain village was only one meter deep.
Before An Yi could even react, the pool water had already risen over his mouth and nose. The sounds around him became heavy and muffled, water flooded into his nose, and he could not help opening his mouth, trying to cough it out—only for the water to rush straight down his throat instead. Flailing desperately in the pool, An Yi spread his arms and thrashed for his life.
But his feet could not find the bottom. There was nothing to brace against. His loose oversized T-shirt floated up halfway over his chest because of the buoyancy, and his body only kept sinking more and more. An Yi squeezed his eyes shut and tried to call for help, but the water blocked out all sound. He could not shout a thing, only slap frantically at the water’s surface.
The air grew thinner and thinner. Terror and helplessness flooded his limbs.
It was over.
Just when An Yi thought he was really about to die here, the legs he had been kicking wildly underwater were suddenly seized by someone. He felt a huge force shove him upward.
The next second, An Yi broke through the water’s surface.
Sunlight shone on him once more. An Yi opened his mouth wide and gasped desperately for air. His thin chest rose and fell violently, water dripping from the ends of his hair. His eyelashes trembled for a long while before his blurred vision finally cleared. His grape-like eyes were slightly red, and all four of his limbs had gone limp.
“So you can’t swim.”
An Yi lowered his head and met Huo Beixing’s smug smiling face.
At that moment, Huo Beixing’s two large hands were holding An Yi by both legs as he looked up at him.
His hair was slicked back behind his head, exposing a smooth forehead. Under the sunlight, his peach-blossom eyes gleamed, and his childish smile still somehow carried that inborn flirtatious charm.
An Yi stared at him in a daze for a few seconds before finally realizing that Huo Beixing was currently carrying him on his shoulders exactly the way a father carried a son.
An Yi’s hands were gripping Huo Beixing’s hair. His legs straddled either side of Huo Beixing’s neck, and his whole body was supported by him as he sat on the man’s shoulders.
The silver chain around Huo Beixing’s neck rested against An Yi’s thigh, making all of this feel vividly real.
“Th-thank you,” An Yi said instinctively, politely thanking him.
He had thought his beautiful life was about to end right there, but instead Huo Beixing had suddenly appeared and saved him, not ignoring him just because they had been arguing earlier.
For a moment, An Yi was genuinely touched.
Little Huo, you really are a good child.
Huo Beixing tilted his head up to look at him. “Thank me?”
An Yi nodded.
Huo Beixing’s lips spread into a grin. “Then give me a baby.”
An Yi: …
Suddenly, he did not feel like thanking him anymore.
Under Huo Beixing’s expectant gaze, An Yi guiltily looked away and muttered under his breath, “Can’t.”
Splash—
The other man let go, and the little frog plunged headfirst back into the water. Two seconds later, he was hoisted up again.
Huo Beixing: “This time, will you give me one?”
An Yi: …
I advise you not to be too arrogant.
Who would have guessed that Huo Beixing, whose mind was only between five and eight years old, would be so naturally skilled at this kind of threatening behavior? Truly, he had been born a total menace.
“Not giving.”
Splash—
“How about now?”
An Yi drew in a deep breath. “Not giving.”
Splash—
“You dog bi— glug glug glug glug glug glug glug…”
What exactly had he been touched by just now?
What exactly had he been touched by just now?!?!
For the third time, An Yi found himself sitting across Huo Beixing’s shoulders. Taking a deep breath, he reminded himself that he had come here to coax the man back so they could draft the agreement.
Before Huo Beixing could speak, An Yi quickly got there first.
“Let’s go back and draft the agreement first, okay?”
“Agreement?” Huo Beixing repeated.
An Yi nodded.
The next second, a smile once again appeared on Huo Beixing’s face.
There was hope.
Then Huo Beixing said cheerfully, “Nope.”
An Yi: …
Huo Beixing: “This time, will you give me a baby?”
An Yi: …
Meanwhile, back in the house, the lawyer had already finished his fifth cup of tea in the living room.
A servant came over and asked, “Would you like a refill?”
The lawyer raised a hand and declined, feeling that if he drank any more, the blood flowing through his body was about to be replaced entirely with tea.
An Yi had already been out looking for Huo Beixing for nearly half an hour by now. Presumably, the two of them should already have reconciled.
Yet the moment the lawyer walked not far out the main door, intending to go check on them, he saw An Yi and Huo Beixing in the swimming pool, fighting so fiercely they were practically inseparable.
Lawyer: …
What exactly had he been expecting?
In the end, by the time the lawyer left, the marriage agreement still had not been drafted.
The lawyer who had slaughtered his way across courtrooms without a single defeat had, for the first time in his career, met his Waterloo.
And even after the lawyer left, An Yi and Huo Beixing still had not determined a winner.
Only after the two of them had both gotten tired of fighting in the swimming pool did Huo Beixing finally carry An Yi back to the living room bare-chested.
Huo Beixing was full of energy. Even after fooling around with An Yi in the pool for so long, there was not a trace of fatigue on him.
On the contrary, he looked as if he believed he had won, carrying An Yi over his shoulder like a pig, positively glowing with vigor.
The noon sun in summer was vicious, but both of them were soaked through, so the sunlight on their bodies did not feel all that unbearable.
As for the little frog, he was already utterly exhausted and had no strength left to struggle. Draped over Huo Beixing’s shoulder, he hung there like a boneless strip of kelp swaying in the wind.
An Yi: As long as a person is alive and still able to breathe, that’s enough.
Water dripped steadily from An Yi’s clothes and Huo Beixing’s black trousers, leaving wet patches all along the path they passed.
When Butler Zhong saw the two of them, he was shocked. “Young master, what happened to you two?”
How had they gone out just fine and come back looking like this?
Huo Beixing, carrying An Yi like some hooligan bandit, walked over to the fridge and pulled it open, planning to grab himself a drink. Hearing Butler Zhong’s question, he turned around and smiled brightly. “Ah, nothing much.”
Seeing his relaxed face, Butler Zhong let out a sigh of relief.
Huo Beixing pushed his wet bangs back from his forehead, still smiling brightly. “He just drowned.”
As he spoke, he raised a hand and smacked An Yi squarely on the butt with a loud slap.
The moment the big palm landed on his backside, An Yi immediately coughed up a mouthful of water.
Butler Zhong: !!!
Drowned?!
The wrinkles on Butler Zhong’s face froze on the spot as he stared stiffly at the half-dead An Yi hanging limply over Huo Beixing’s shoulder. He nearly lost his breath entirely.
The happy event had not even been held yet, and already they were about to arrange a funeral!
“Q-quick! Someone! Get Doctor Zhong over here right now!”
Hearing Butler Zhong’s terrified voice, the servants scrambled in panic and rushed to grab the landline phone to call the doctor.
At that moment, An Yi weakly spoke up from Huo Beixing’s shoulder. “No need.”
Butler Zhong quickly hurried around behind Huo Beixing to look at him. “Young Master An Yi, are you alright?”
An Yi replied, “I’m still alive.”
Whether he was alright or not was beside the point. He was not greedy.
Being alive was enough.
Looking at his poor, thoroughly ravaged little white-flower appearance, Butler Zhong said, “If Young Master An Yi doesn’t know how to swim, it just so happens that our young master has been taking swimming lessons lately. There’s one tomorrow too. Why not have Young Master An Yi go together with him?”
No. He thought that, for the foreseeable future, he no longer wanted to be anywhere near a swimming pool.
An Yi weakly waved a hand, declining Butler Zhong’s kindness. “No need. Actually, I do know a bit about water. This was just an accident.”
Butler Zhong: “You know how to swim?”
An Yi nodded.
For example, soaking in a bathtub.
The two of them had only just finished making a fuss outside, so drinking carbonated beverages right away would not be good. Butler Zhong instructed a servant to close the refrigerator door Huo Beixing had opened.
Huo Beixing looked a little unhappy at that.
Butler Zhong hurriedly changed the subject, making everyone ignore the matter. “Young master, both your clothes and Young Master An Yi’s clothes are soaked. Go change first, then come down for afternoon tea later. Today there’s red grape cake.”
The moment Huo Beixing heard there was cake, his cloudy expression instantly turned sunny. With An Yi still over his shoulder, he headed upstairs.
An Yi did not struggle either. After all, he no longer had the strength to walk, and with such a human-powered vehicle available, there was no reason not to use it.
Once they reached the room, Huo Beixing finally put An Yi down, then walked into the dressing room to look for trousers.
An Yi himself was also soaked through. His T-shirt and shorts stuck unpleasantly to his skin, damp and clammy. So he followed Huo Beixing into the dressing room too, planning to change out of his wet clothes.
After finding a pair of trousers, Huo Beixing did not care in the slightest whether anyone else was nearby. He simply stripped off his pants and prepared to change.
Hearing the movement beside him, An Yi glanced over instinctively, and the hand holding his clothes froze.
His gaze flickered with shock and disbelief, his eyes blinking a couple of times.
Holy shit, was that thing a donkey’s?!
Back in the mountains, when the village boys bathed in the river, there was sometimes the usual comparing and showing off, but An Yi had never once seen anything as big as Huo Beixing’s.
When Huo Beixing noticed An Yi looking at him, he looked puzzled, wondering why. Following An Yi’s line of sight, he looked down too.
Oh. So An Yi was looking at his little brother.
Huo Beixing did not hide it. Instead, he turned around openly so An Yi could get a better look, then smiled and asked, “So? Is my little brother big?”
His tone was innocent, free of any teasing or suggestive meaning, just a pure and honest question.
An Yi immediately jerked his gaze away.
Huo Beixing: ?
Why had he turned away?
Holding the trousers he had not yet put on, he walked over to An Yi and asked, “Why aren’t you looking anymore?”
An Yi kept his eyes fixed stubbornly on the clothes in his own hands and refused to look at him. “I have one too. No need to look at yours.”
Huo Beixing asked, “Is your little brother very big too?”
An Yi replied at once, “Of course!”
“Really?”
“Really.”
An Yi said it with complete confidence. Huo Beixing’s mental age was only five to eight right now; there was no one easier to fool than him.
Huo Beixing said, “I don’t believe you. Unless you show me.”
An Yi: …
Author’s Note:
Huo Dashan: I’m an adult now, my wife must love me to death.
