Chapter 61: Heart Stirring
Huo Beixing pulled the other man’s hand down, defending his lawful rights within the marriage. “I’m not a grown-up either. I can do it too! Just like in TV shows!”
As he spoke, he tried to brainwash the other man with his eyes.
Really really really really really really really really really really really really…
Thinking back to his earlier declaration of “Is going to work even more fun than I am?”, An Yi already knew that whatever came out of Huo Beixing’s mouth next was definitely not going to be simple.
An Yi’s brain immediately went into emergency defense mode, determined to strangle all of Huo Dabao’s puppy-love behavior that did not fit an eight-year-old in the cradle.
“No.”
“Why?”
An Yi said, “Because TV dramas are fake. They’re actors acting for other people to watch. We’re not actors, so we can’t copy them.”
Huo Beixing held his wrist. “We can’t copy any of it?”
An Yi nodded.
“In TV shows, people breathe. Don’t we breathe too?”
The moment those words fell, An Yi didn’t answer.
But a few seconds later, his face turned redder and redder… and redder…
Huo Beixing: ……
The other man had just used his own actions to tell him: yes, they could.
“Huo Dabao, you seem to have gotten smarter.”
Huo Beixing’s body stiffened. Feeling guilty, he dodged the other man’s gaze and gave no reply, pretending he hadn’t heard. After all, the more he said, the more mistakes he’d make. Since An Yi had already started suspecting him, it was better to show as few flaws as possible.
An Yi suddenly felt that Huo Beixing really had gotten somewhat smarter—and he even had solid evidence for it. From the swimming center until now, over whether TV dramas were fake, he had noticed that before, whenever he fed Huo Beixing nonsense, the man would slowly believe it, then later believe it completely, never doubting a word. But now it was different. Not only could Huo Beixing react to the nonsense and see through it, he could even cite examples and point out what didn’t make sense.
Though the enemy was cunning, fortunately Little Frog was clever beyond compare, and had successfully saved himself from danger and escaped prison time.
But the one thing about Huo Beixing that never changed was this: smart or not, in the end he could still be talked around by him.
While analyzing him, An Yi also felt a little disgusted at himself for nearly stepping out of line just now.
Huo Beixing exercised regularly, and on top of that had a large frame. Sitting on the bed, his body alone could completely block An Yi from view. Looking at his dim-witted wife, Huo Er met the first complete derailment in his long romantic history.
The other man’s emotional experience was practically written all over his face: a big fat zero. He simply did not know how to fall in love.
But Huo Beixing quickly came back to himself. If the other man didn’t know how, he did. Even if most of it had only ever been for show to the media and spread around afterward, it was still better than nothing.
An Yi picked up the remote and turned off the room light, then prepared to collapse into bed and sleep. But Huo Beixing clung tightly to his wrist, not letting him move.
?
Stopping Little Frog from sleeping was going a bit too far, alright?
“Wife, let’s try it once.”
His voice was low. The warm yellow light from the bedside lamp barely reached his side, leaving half of his handsome, refined face hidden in shadow, dangerous and mysterious.
He looked down at the other man from above, peach-blossom eyes lowered. His posture and body size placed him clearly in the dominant position, yet his tone put himself very low.
“I’m curious, Wife.”
An Yi swallowed. Clearly, the Huo Dabao in front of him right now was not the same as the one he usually saw.
“What are you curious about?”
“I think it’s good.”
“Good in what way?”
“If it wasn’t good, it wouldn’t have passed censorship.”
An Yi: ……
He really had gotten smarter.
The kid had grown up. He wasn’t so easy to fool anymore.
An Yi corrected him, “It’s not good at all. Some bad people committing crimes also pass censorship.”
Huo Beixing shook his head. “That’s different. Bad people don’t look like they do.”
“How do they look?”
“Their faces are full of happiness.”
“……”
That actually sounded a little reasonable.
“So if we do it too, we’ll be happy as well.”
Nice try.
Don’t think I’m falling for that.
When An Yi held firm and refused to budge, Huo Beixing began acting pitiful. “Not even once?”
An Yi looked troubled and avoided his gaze. “But if I do that, it wouldn’t be right.”
“Then can I kiss you once?” Afraid of making things hard for him, Huo Beixing added, “Not on the mouth.”
Under the weight of those expectant eyes, An Yi fell silent.
What Huo Beixing probably felt for him was just the affection between close friends, without any impurity.
“Wife…”
After repeated assurances that he wouldn’t kiss his mouth, An Yi finally relented. “Just once. After the kiss, we go straight to sleep.”
The moment he agreed, Huo Beixing’s heartbeat started rising. He licked his slightly dry lips, his breathing growing heavier, his head starting to feel warm.
In the past, all his fake acting with others had never included anything like this. Even when little celebrities got emotional and enthusiastic, Huo Beixing would usually just push them away without much interest. What was there to kiss about?
But when facing An Yi, his tall figure carried a kind of careful hesitation.
He could see that the other man was embarrassed too. Before the kiss had even happened, An Yi already had his eyes shut tightly and the tips of his ears were bright red.
Huo Beixing bent down slightly. Both his hands held An Yi’s shoulders carefully, yet the kiss itself was nothing like that careful gentleness.
The moment his lips brushed against An Yi’s cheek, An Yi trembled. The tip of Huo Beixing’s nose pressed into the soft flesh of his cheek, and the force behind the kiss increased. An Yi was nudged by the pressure of that kiss until he kept shrinking his neck.
“Th-that’s enough.”
An Yi wasn’t used to it at all. In all his life, no one had ever kissed him like this before.
Huo Beixing wiped his cheek for him. “Wife.”
“Mhm?” An Yi looked up and saw Huo Beixing’s bright smile, dazzling in the dim light.
“I like you.”
For a moment, An Yi went blank. Then he suddenly grabbed the blanket and pulled it over himself, intending to play dead.
Little Frog is asleep.
Huo Beixing laughed, but didn’t tease him further. He simply reached over and turned off the bedside lamp, letting him sleep properly.
Once the light disappeared, An Yi still couldn’t fall asleep under the blanket. His heart seemed to be right beside his ear, every beat clear as day, thumping against his chest. He pressed a hand over his heart, trying to calm himself down faster.
He did have feelings for Huo Beixing, but he couldn’t really explain what kind. On Huo Beixing’s side, he had almost gotten everything he had dreamed of as a child: unconditional support, praise, and protection. It was enough to leave his heart in turmoil.
It wasn’t until the latter half of the night that An Yi gradually fell asleep.
The next morning, after breakfast, An Yi sat in the study and pulled up Huo Zhanlin’s number from his phone contacts.
There was now less than half a year left before the two-year marriage agreement expired.
Half a year would pass quickly. A blink, and it would be gone.
And Huo Beixing clearly showed no signs of recovering. Even if he did recover, the two of them would not continue married life.
That condition had been proposed by An Yi himself when the lawyer first drafted the marriage agreement. The Huo family had told him he could add anything he wanted. An Yi had said he had no particular needs, so he casually added that one clause.
At the other end, sitting in his office, Huo Zhanlin answered the call, not knowing what An Yi wanted with him.
They normally didn’t have much contact.
“An Yi? What is it?”
An Yi pressed his lips together and, after a bit of consideration, said, “Big Brother, I want to talk about divorcing Huo Beixing.”
Huo Zhanlin thought he had misheard. “Divorce?”
Looking at the sketches spread out on the desk, An Yi said, “Yes. The two-year period is almost up, and Huo Beixing still hasn’t shown any sign of getting better. I think some procedures should start being prepared.”
“There’s still half a year. There’s no rush.”
But An Yi didn’t think so. “Big Brother, I’d like to start preparing first.”
The moment the two-year term was up, he wanted to pick up his bag and leave. He wanted it to be decisive.
The main reason was that the pure “I like you” from last night had put pressure on his heart. Huo Beixing had a childlike mind, so his “like” was just a simple emotion. But An Yi himself had lain there with his heart pounding for an entire night.
If this kept going, it wouldn’t do.
Knowingly committing a serious wrong—his morals wouldn’t allow it.
Righteous Little Frog could not lose the first two words.
Huo Zhanlin had no right to interfere with a choice the other man was making for himself. He had originally wanted to persuade him a little, but after some thought, he didn’t say anything. The lawyer had already told him the same thing when the marriage contract was first drafted: whether Huo Beixing recovered or not, they would eventually divorce. There was no point in wasting words and burdening An Yi emotionally.
Whether An Yi could be kept or not would depend entirely on Huo Beixing’s own ability.
Huo Zhanlin didn’t beat around the bush and directly gave him a solution. “Alright. I’ll send the lawyer over so the two of you can have a divorce consultation.”
“Thank you, Big Brother.”
“No need to be polite.”
Once it was arranged, An Yi finally felt that stifling weight in his chest ease out.
His heart felt much steadier.
At the same time, Huo Beixing sat on the sofa and continued reading Eighteen Steps to Make My Husband Unable to Leave Me Alone. Though the book was improper, for him its contents were still somewhat effective.
Step Two: Give your husband or wife endless support. But most of it can just be verbal. It creates an effect that isn’t exactly empty promises, but is better than empty promises. As long as what they’re doing is still humanly acceptable, and you can stand looking at it, then you should say:
Go do it, I support you;
Of course you can do it, don’t listen to what other people say, I support you;
Sis, go ahead boldly, your brother’s here, your brother will always be your biggest fan (Village Li Tiezhu Version)
Huo Beixing closed the book and digested it for a while, then decided to put the plan into practice.
An Yi came out of the study intending to discuss the divorce consultation with Huo Beixing. After all, marriage involved two people, and Huo Beixing had a certain right to know. Besides, it wasn’t an immediate divorce—just a consultation to lay the groundwork for a future divorce and give him a bit of advance warning, so that when the day came, Huo Beixing would accept it more easily.
An Yi walked into the living room and handed Huo Beixing a peach.
“Here, have a peach-peach.”
Seeing him take it, An Yi coughed lightly. “About that…”
Huo Beixing looked over at him.
An Yi found it hard to know how to begin.
“Is there something you want to say?”
An Yi nodded, but it really wasn’t something easy to say. After all, the word “divorce” was still somewhat cruel for someone of Huo Beixing’s age.
“But I don’t know if you’ll agree.”
“I agree.”
An Yi froze. But he hadn’t even said it yet.
“Really?”
Huo Beixing’s face was extremely earnest. “Mm. No matter what Wife wants to do, I’ll support it unconditionally. So you don’t have to worry so much. Just go ahead and do it boldly.”
An Yi felt touched.
Dabao, you really are such a good child.
Seeing the other man so moved, Huo Beixing showed a victorious smile.
One hour later.
The divorce lawyer was sitting face-to-face with him.
The lawyer said, “Mr. Huo…”
Mr. Huo: Get out!
