Chapter 80: End of the Main Story (Part 1)
At that moment, Huo Beixing was downstairs from the apartment building, standing in the summer night breeze.
The flame at his fingertips flickered on and off as smoke drifted from his mouth, the emotion in his eyes unreadable.
It was time to think about diving into the sea for love.
Upstairs, An Yi was frantically counting his bankbooks, cash, and piggy banks.
The newly bought Macho Magazine lay beside him. At such a crucial moment, An Yi had decided to let it bear witness as well.
Back at the Japanese restaurant, An Yi had noticed that Huo Beixing’s ring finger was bare, without a ring.
As for him, forget one ring finger—he had ten fingers, each one worth a whole apartment set.
An Yi felt he had to get Huo Beixing one too.
Operation Codename: Little Frog’s Bestowal.
He counted everything carefully, with a calculator beside him.
Add add add add add…
Using the allowance An family and Huo Beixing gave him to buy something for Huo Beixing felt like it was not really from his own hands, so he decided to take out all the salary and bonuses he had earned over the past two years from work and use it to buy Huo Beixing a ring.
Being part of a well-known studio, and with more than two years of work, competition prize money, plus commission from his designs, the amount was quite considerable.
Buying one ring would be more than enough, but definitely not enough for two.
Downstairs from the apartment, after a bout of inner struggle, Huo Beixing took out his phone and called his secretary.
“Help me handle something.”
After giving his instructions, Huo Beixing hung up and checked the time. An hour had already passed.
Holding to the principle of if the mountain won’t come to me, I’ll go to the mountain, Huo Beixing lifted his empty suitcase and stepped into the elevator.
When he reached the floor and stepped out, he saw An Yi just coming out of the apartment.
Their gazes met.
A smile appeared on An Yi’s face. “You’re home.”
Huo Beixing kept a straight face. “You came to look for me?”
An Yi said, “No, the house is out of soy sauce. I’m going out to buy some.”
“…”
Huo Beixing had been about to turn back toward the elevator, but the two of them had already eaten dinner today. Why would he suddenly go check the kitchen for soy sauce?
Clearly, the other person had come out looking for him, he was just too embarrassed to admit it.
Sure enough, when Huo Beixing looked at An Yi again, the latter had already opened the door and was heading back inside.
Huo Beixing’s anger melted away, and he followed him into the apartment.
An Yi took the suitcase from his hand and gave it a hard shove into the room. “Since you’re home, go change. You’ve been in formal wear all day.”
Inside, Huo Beixing was delighted.
But the next second, An Yi turned to leave again.
Huo Beixing grabbed him at once.
An Yi turned back, puzzled. “What is it?”
“Where are you going?”
An Yi replied, “To buy soy sauce.”
Huo Beixing: ?
Looking at how stubborn An Yi was being, Huo Beixing said, “Weren’t you coming out to find me?”
An Yi shook his head. “No. I was going out to buy soy sauce.”
“Then why did you open the door and go back inside just now?” Huo Beixing took a key out of his pocket. “I have a key.”
Don’t use the key as an excuse.
An Yi said, “I went back because I forgot to bring money for the soy sauce.”
Huo Beixing: …
As he spoke, An Yi slipped past him and hurried out the door, and all Huo Beixing caught sight of was the bright red flush on his ears.
At the entryway, Huo Beixing changed into slippers and strode into the kitchen. The soy sauce bottle was brand new. Since neither of them knew how to cook, it had not even been opened yet.
And he still claimed he had not gone out to look for him.
When An Yi came back, he finally admitted it, embarrassed.
“I went out to buy soy sauce, and while I was at it, I was also looking for you.”
A very reasonable distribution of tasks for one trip outside.
After changing into loungewear, An Yi sat on the sofa and watched TV with Huo Beixing, glancing at Huo Beixing’s fingers now and then like a thief.
He wanted to design the ring himself, and he already had a rough design concept and inspiration in mind.
Before even one episode of Where the Runaway Bride Escapes To finished airing, An Yi used taking a shower as an excuse and hurried back to the bedroom.
When inspiration struck, it was best to write it down immediately.
Meanwhile, Huo Beixing also received a message from his secretary.
“President Huo, everything’s been arranged.”
Huo Beixing tossed the phone onto the sofa and got up to return to the bedroom.
During the shoot, he had to keep it hidden from An Yi as much as possible, yet even if they each went off to do their own things during the day, they still saw each other many times.
For example, dropping An Yi off for class, picking him up afterward and taking him to the studio, then picking him up from work in the evening.
All these things could have been left to a driver, but Huo Beixing never tired of doing them personally. Yet now, clearly, he needed someone to act as his substitute for a short while.
That person also had to chat with his wife and give him guidance on his studies.
The next day, college student Huo Xiao sat in the car waiting for An Yi to finish class.
When An Yi opened the car door and saw him, he froze for a couple of seconds.
“Brother An Yi.” Seeing the surprise on his face, Huo Xiao explained, “Brother Beixing’s busy with work these few days, so he asked me to come pick you up.”
An Yi got into the car and fastened his seatbelt. “Sorry to trouble you.”
“It’s summer vacation now anyway, and I don’t really have anything to do.”
An Yi asked, “What’s Huo Beixing busy with?”
Huo Xiao replied, “I don’t know either.”
Elsewhere, at the headquarters of Macho Magazine—
“President Huo, this issue is the collector’s edition. We’re setting the print run at five hundred copies.”
The assistant beside Huo Beixing added, “As far as I know, previous collector’s editions were only printed in runs of one hundred.”
The collaborator hesitated, but Huo Beixing’s online popularity and traffic were enormous. Their magazine was a niche publication aimed at women and gay readers.
Over all these years, it had always sold well, but it had never exploded in the way the top major publications in the industry did.
They selected their models with strict standards, and they had long wanted to do an elite-uniform series. That category was very popular, and though they had picked out some models, they still had not gathered enough, and had always wanted to find some actual industry professionals. The problem was that there were simply not many professionals with truly good bodies.
Huo Beixing showing up at their door was practically a pie falling from the sky.
Whether in appearance or physique, he was clearly one of heaven’s favorites.
And with his identity and status added on top, once the Macho Magazine issue was shot, the sense of immersion would definitely be very strong. The collector’s edition was for collection purposes only and would never be reprinted afterward, making every copy especially precious.
Raising the run to five hundred this time was also the magazine’s way of gambling on him—gambling that Huo Beixing would bring them an unprecedented level of fame.
For a magazine, five hundred copies really was not a large number, and Huo Beixing did not make things difficult for them.
But he still put forward a condition: only one of the photos where he showed skin would be included; the rest had to be the ones where he was dressed.
He only wanted to finish shooting this thing so he could go maintain harmony in his married life with An Yi.
Huo Beixing’s body proportions were exceptional, so the shoot went very smoothly. In the photos, he only showed the lower half of his face. After about a week of shooting, it was officially wrapped.
Very quickly, the news that Huo Beixing had shot a magazine spread like wildfire.
“Damn, it’s Macho Magazine.”
“What kind of blessing is this, getting a CEO to shoot something this sexy for us?”
“When’s it going on sale?!”
“Even if President Huo is trash, his face and body are seriously unbeatable.”
“I’m ready, I’m ready.”
“Why is he wearing so much?! Why is he wearing so much?!”
“Ahhhhhhh this cover—my nosebleed.”
“I heard President Huo shot this especially for his wife.”
“Well damn, Huo Beixing, so you’re actually a hopeless romantic.”
“But the uniform is still so sexy!!”
“I want to know whether President Huo’s wife managed to grab a copy.”
“Hahahahaha I got one, I got one!”
“Damn it, why did I only find out about something this good today?”
“No wonder President Huo’s wife likes looking at him. I’d like looking too. If it were me, I’d collect every issue!”
Just as the Macho headquarters had hoped, that night the magazine’s fame completely exploded.
Looking at the yearning look An Yi gave him, Huo Beixing produced a special version from behind his back.
An Yi looked from the cover featuring his not-wearing-clothes dog-man, then back at the versions being sold online.
Huo Beixing raised a brow. “One and only.”
An Yi hurled himself at him at once in a koala hug.
Huo Beixing enjoyed it immensely. “Happy now?”
An Yi asked, “Why did you go shoot this?”
“Because you like looking at it.”
Trying to slip into the ranks of wildflowers, while proving that the flower at home smelled better than the ones outside.
An Yi was a little touched and planted a fierce kiss on his cheek.
“Thank you.”
“Do you love me?”
An Yi replied, “Love!”
