Chapter 27
Jiang Mi paused slightly.
Of course he knew he was good-looking. But after the age of fourteen or fifteen, many people had praised him as handsome and refined, while very few used the word beautiful.
His features were smooth and harmonious. Although there was not much bluntness to them, the lines of his facial contours were clear, balancing out the gentleness of his features and making him appear approachable without lacking masculinity. In the past two years, as he grew older, his features had become more defined than when he was young, making him increasingly handsome and easygoing.
In short, there was still some distance between him and the word beautiful. Beautiful should be used to describe a flower, not a tall, upright tree.
Liang Jinyi, however, could be described as beautiful. Although his features were slightly sharp, they were delicate enough, so delicate they seemed to have been painted. And he was very fair too, even a little fairer than Jiang Mi.
As Jiang Mi thought this, his whole body suddenly shuddered. He couldn’t help moving a step forward and raising his voice. “Jinyi, what are you doing?”
Liang Jinyi smiled and stared at Jiang Mi’s fair earlobe. “Brother, you’re still the same as before. The moment someone touches your earlobe, your whole body trembles a few times.”
He tilted his head and asked innocently, “Is this what people call a sensitive spot?”
Jiang Mi used to think Little Brother was very hard to handle when he was little because he had been too clingy. But now, Jiang Mi felt that the grown-up Little Brother was also very hard to handle.
“All right, all right. I’m going to the study to read documents. Go to bed early.” After taking a deep breath, Jiang Mi lowered his head and walked toward his room while undoing the frog buttons on the dark-red groomsman outfit.
Liang Jinyi followed behind Jiang Mi. Jiang Mi stood beside the bed and took off the dark-red groomsman outfit, revealing the tank top and long pants underneath. Liang Jinyi leaned against the doorway, looking at the faintly visible butterfly bones beneath Brother’s white tank top, and asked him, “Brother, what day is Sun Tianwang getting married?”
“What do you mean, Sun Tianwang? You have to call him ge,” Jiang Mi reminded him.
Liang Jinyi said, “Then what day is he getting married?”
After taking off the groomsman outfit, Jiang Mi took a hanger and hung the dark-red outfit on the far right side of the wardrobe. He answered Liang Jinyi’s question. “October 3rd.”
There were still three days before September ended and the National Day holiday began. Sun Tianwang’s mother had asked a master to match Sun Tianwang and his girlfriend’s birth characters, and the result was that October 3rd was the most suitable day for the two of them to tie the knot.
“Brother, I’ll be on break that day. Take me with you,” Liang Jinyi said.
After hanging up the clothes, Jiang Mi found a set of pajamas. He planned to shower and then work overtime in the study. Hearing this, he turned his head and glanced at Liang Jinyi. “Sure. I’ll tell you the hotel location. You can come over around ten.”
Liang Jinyi frowned, not very satisfied with Jiang Mi’s answer. “Brother, aren’t you coming to pick me up personally?”
“Little Brother, Brother is being considerate of you. I’m going to be a groomsman, so I have to set out at four or five in the morning.” There weren’t many cars on the road at four or five in the morning, so he could drive faster. But even so, it would still take him an hour to get to Sun Tianwang’s house, and they had to arrive at the bride’s home at seven to pick her up.
“Brother, this time you don’t need to be considerate of me. I want to go with you,” Liang Jinyi said.
Since the child didn’t want to sleep in on a holiday, Jiang Mi naturally agreed. “All right. Wait for me to pick you up at four.”
Although they were only second-year high school students, Bei City Experimental High School still only gave them three days off for National Day.
October 3rd happened to be the last day.
Since Liang Jinyi was going to follow Jiang Mi to pick up the bride, Jiang Mi told him to dress more maturely and formally. After all, the people in the groom’s party represented the groom’s side’s face and how much importance they placed on the bride’s side.
At four-ten in the morning, Jiang Mi parked the car in front of the Liang family villa. He had placed the groomsman outfit in the trunk. The drive was not short, and he was afraid of wrinkling the outfit, so he planned to put it on after reaching the Sun house.
Not long after the car stopped in front of the Liang family’s large iron gate, someone walked out from the Liang villa. Jiang Mi lowered the car window and looked at the youth slowly walking toward him beneath the dim sky.
Because he had asked Liang Jinyi to dress formally, properly, and steadily, Liang Jinyi was wearing a black suit today.
During this period, Jiang Mi and Liang Jinyi had been seeing each other often. But Little Brother usually wore his school uniform. Experimental High School wasn’t an elite private school, so the school uniform was the nationally standardized loose blue-and-white tracksuit. Even when Little Brother didn’t wear his school uniform, things like hoodies, sweatshirts, and outdoor jackets were mostly loose and casual.
Jiang Mi could vaguely sense that Little Brother had a very good figure. But only when he watched Little Brother walking toward him in a straight, crisp suit, with broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and long legs, did Jiang Mi confirm that Little Brother’s figure was indeed excellent.
More than ten seconds later, Liang Jinyi opened the front passenger door and sat down. Seeing that Jiang Mi was still staring at him, he raised a brow. “Brother, is this outfit unsuitable?”
“No.” Jiang Mi smiled and started the engine.
“Then why were you staring at me like that just now?” Liang Jinyi stared at Jiang Mi’s side profile.
The early morning wind slipped through the car window and affectionately brushed against Jiang Mi’s cheek. Jiang Mi curved his lips slightly. “Actually, when you were little, I thought about a question.”
“What question?” Liang Jinyi asked.
Jiang Mi drove the Audi out of the villa district where the Liang family lived. The streets at four in the morning were indeed very quiet, so quiet that even the streetlights could hear the leaves talking. Jiang Mi stared at the wide roadway. “You know, many children are especially pretty and delicate when they’re little, but once they grow up, they become ordinary among the crowd.”
Liang Jinyi suddenly understood. “Brother was afraid I’d grow up ugly.”
Before Jiang Mi could answer, Liang Jinyi asked again, “Then does Brother think I grew up ugly now?”
Jiang Mi looked helpless. “Little Brother, you don’t seem like someone who lacks confidence this much.”
Not getting the answer he wanted, Liang Jinyi pressed again, “Brother, do you think I grew up ugly?”
“Of course not,” Jiang Mi could only answer.
“That’s it?” Liang Jinyi said, dissatisfied.
Jiang Mi discovered that seventeen-year-old Little Brother, just like seven-year-old Little Brother, still needed to be coaxed. He praised, “Whose young man is like white jade? His carriage turns back across Tianjin. He looks at flowers on the eastern road and startles all of Luoyang.”
He glanced at Liang Jinyi and said, “It’s to praise you, Little Brother.”
Liang Jinyi curled his lips in satisfaction, then pressed further, “Then does Brother like how I look now that I’ve grown up?”
Little Brother was simply endless, Jiang Mi thought.
“Liang Jinyi, you’re not a child who cares this much about appearance, are you?” Jiang Mi sighed.
“Brother, do you like how I look now?” Without getting an answer, Liang Jinyi continued asking.
Jiang Mi could only say, “I like it.”
“How much do you like it, Brother?”
Jiang Mi: “…Very much. The most.”
Liang Jinyi frowned and accused him, “Brother, you’re brushing me off again.”
They happened to encounter a red light at this moment. Jiang Mi stepped on the brake, turned his head to look at Liang Jinyi, and said sincerely, “Jinyi, I’m telling the truth.”
Liang Jinyi stared at Jiang Mi without blinking for several seconds, then laughed softly. “All right. I believe Brother.”
As soon as he finished speaking, before Jiang Mi could respond, Liang Jinyi leaned forward slightly, stared at Jiang Mi’s face, and said with a smile, “I also really like Brother’s looks.”
Jiang Mi caught sight of the red light turning green from the corner of his eye. He sat up straight and stepped on the accelerator while answering with a smile, “All right, all right. I know you like Brother. You already liked Brother when you were six.”
At five-ten, Jiang Mi arrived at the Sun house. He changed into his groomsman outfit in the car, then went up to the Sun family’s home.
The Sun family was extremely lively today. People came and went inside the house, and some were even wearing Hanfu.
Sun Tianwang had long since changed into his groom’s outfit. Jiang Mi’s groomsman outfit was dark red, while his groom’s outfit was bright red, and it was extremely gorgeous. Golden thread embroidered a dragon soaring across the nine heavens, and the fabric was made of some unknown material. Under the light, it even seemed to shimmer with flowing color.
A few pimples had appeared on Sun Tianwang’s face over the past two days. His younger female cousin used concealer to hide those pimples and also trimmed Sun Tianwang’s eyebrows.
After finally escaping from his cousin’s hands, Sun Tianwang saw Jiang Mi arrive, walked over with a smile, and greeted him. He also introduced the other two groomsmen to him. The other two groomsmen were also born in the Year of the Monkey. They were two people he had painstakingly found from his thirty years of friendships.
One was his distant younger male cousin, and the other was his university junior.
After they greeted each other, Sun Tianwang stared at the young man beside Jiang Mi and asked Jiang Mi, “This is Little Brother?”
Jiang Mi smiled and gave an “Mm.” Since he was bringing Liang Jinyi to attend Sun Tianwang’s wedding, naturally, he had told him beforehand.
Sun Tianwang sighed. “He really did grow very tall. Back then, you and Liang Xuping always worried that Little Brother wouldn’t grow tall.”
After mentioning Liang Xuping, Sun Tianwang added, “How is Liang Xuping doing?”
Although Liang Xuping had gone to explore the great mountains and rivers of the motherland, he had originally planned to come back for Sun Tianwang’s wedding. He had even bought his plane ticket in advance. But he had recently been in Yunnan, eaten a meal of wild mushrooms the night before last, and ended up in the hospital yesterday morning.
Now he was lying in the hospital and couldn’t come.
“He should be discharged tomorrow,” Jiang Mi said.
The two chatted for a few words before Sun Tianwang quickly called Jiang Mi and the other two groomsmen over and reminded them of a few things. A Chinese-style wedding and a Western-style wedding had some differences in etiquette. Of course, roughly speaking, different wedding companies also had slightly different ceremonies from one another.
Sun Tianwang’s wife was named Zhou Tian. She was also from Bei City. Her home was about a forty-minute drive from the Zhang family. However, from the Zhang house to the Zhou house, they would be driving out of the city, so there wouldn’t be traffic in the morning. But just in case, the bride-picking convoy set off toward the Zhou house before six o’clock.
After they arrived at the Zhou family’s residential community, there was still half an hour before seven. Everyone waited in the community for half an hour. When the auspicious time arrived, they went upstairs to pick up the bride.
Jiang Mi wore a dark-red robe with auspicious cloud patterns and carried a paper bag of the same color in his hand, filled entirely with small red envelopes. When they reached the Zhou family’s front door, he and the groom stuffed in countless red envelopes and answered several questions from the bridesmaids before the Zhou family’s door finally opened to them.
Then came the second door, the bedroom door of the bride.
After the red envelopes in their hands were nearly used up and the groom correctly answered all the bridesmaids’ questions about the bride, the second door also opened to them.
After that came the bride-picking games.
Since today was a Chinese-style wedding, the games were also traditional little games. The first was a “joy fruit returning to place” game, and the second was making a “makeup urging poem.” Although it was called a makeup urging poem, they didn’t actually require everyone to compose one on the spot. Any poem containing the bride’s name would do.
Sun Tianwang was a top student, and most of a top student’s friends were also top students. Although the bridesmaids required quite a lot of poems, after everyone racked their brains for a long time, they still completed the task successfully.
The third little game was the traditional pitch-pot game.
If they threw nine red-feathered arrows into the pot within one minute, they would pass.
Sun Tianwang was very self-aware. He didn’t have that skill. The other two groomsmen also didn’t exercise and had poor aim.
Jiang Mi took the arrow box the bridesmaid was holding, stood outside the specified pitch line, and said, “I’ll give it a try.”
After saying this, he gestured for the people surrounding him to spread out a little.
Everyone spread out slightly, leaving Jiang Mi some space.
The bride’s room was large. The red pot they had to hit was about three meters away from Jiang Mi. Jiang Mi bent slightly and threw the short red-feathered arrow in his hand.
It missed.
Jiang Mi took a deep breath, adjusted his posture, and threw another feathered arrow.
The feathered arrow entered the mouth of the pot with a faint sound.
Jiang Mi relaxed slightly and, keeping this posture, threw the second arrow, then the third.
Everyone held their breath and stared at the feathered arrows in Jiang Mi’s hand and where the arrows finally landed.
There was only one exception.
Liang Jinyi held two red paper bags in his hands, the ones that had contained the small red envelopes earlier. He had one himself because Sun Tianwang had told him to remember to give them to children who came forward. The other one was already empty. Jiang Mi had just finished giving out his own red envelopes, and with nowhere to put the paper bag, he had casually handed it to Liang Jinyi, who was following behind him.
Liang Jinyi wasn’t looking at the arrows in Jiang Mi’s hand.
He was staring at Jiang Mi’s hand.
Jiang Mi’s fingers were long and slender, his joints distinct, with flesh and bone evenly balanced. The dark-red sleeve slid slightly downward, covering a section of the back of his hand. Liang Jinyi watched as the back of his hand tensed, his wrist exerted force, and he threw that feathered arrow.
With a clang, it went in again.
Jiang Mi clearly relaxed a little more. He took another feathered arrow from the arrow box held by another groomsman, bent down, and prepared to throw again.
This time, Liang Jinyi’s gaze moved from his hand to his face, then followed the curve of his bending waist down to Brother’s buttocks, where the satin robe had been lifted into a full curve because he was leaning forward.
Liang Jinyi’s gaze couldn’t help lingering there for several seconds.
Another arrow was thrown in.
Nine.
The bridesmaid congratulated them for successfully passing the game and said they could look for the bride’s wedding shoes now.
Only then did Jiang Mi straighten up.
After everyone found the shoes in a chaotic rush, they could set off for the hotel.
The hotel was also decorated as a Han-style Chinese wedding hall. It was still early before the marriage ceremony, so the photographer reminded everyone that they could take some group photos. As a groomsman, Jiang Mi also went up and took several photos with them.
Liang Jinyi stood not far away and watched them. But when Jiang Mi looked over, he discovered that Little Brother’s gaze was not focused on him. Clearly, he wasn’t looking at Jiang Mi.
After taking a few group photos, Jiang Mi withdrew. He walked to Liang Jinyi’s side and asked what he was looking at.
At the center of the ceremonial stage, the bride and bridesmaids were still tirelessly taking photos. Liang Jinyi leaned his body against the edge of the dining table and said, “I’m looking at the bride’s outfit. Doesn’t Brother think those clothes are very beautiful?”
Zhou Tian’s wedding attire was a Ming-style phoenix crown and red ceremonial cape. The clothing was embroidered with all kinds of complicated and auspicious patterns in gold and silver thread. The patterns on the cuffs and collar were also inlaid with smooth white pearls. It was extremely elaborate and exquisite, and of course, very beautiful too.
“It is quite good-looking,” Jiang Mi agreed with Liang Jinyi. Then he asked strangely, “Jinyi, when did you start caring about clothes?”
If Liang Jinyi had been looking at Zhou Tian’s phoenix crown and cape just now, then he had been looking for more than ten minutes. That level of attention was truly not low.
“Because I think…” Liang Jinyi drew out his voice.
Jiang Mi looked at him in confusion.
Only then did Liang Jinyi stop keeping him in suspense. “I think if Brother wore a phoenix crown and red cape like Zhou Tian’s, you’d probably look even more beautiful.”
A phoenix crown and red cape were something only girls could wear, yet Little Brother actually said he would look even more beautiful wearing them. Jiang Mi felt that Liang Jinyi was truly becoming less and less obedient.
He smiled and decided to counterattack. He couldn’t indulge Little Brother without limits. “Little Brother, you said it wrong. You’re fairer than me. You would look prettier wearing it. Since you like that outfit so much, how about this? I’ll go buy you a set tomorrow.”
Hearing this, Liang Jinyi didn’t show the slightest displeasure. He stared at Jiang Mi standing beside him and asked in confusion, “Then if I wear the phoenix crown and red cape, what will Brother wear?”
Before Jiang Mi could answer, Liang Jinyi asked again, “Clothes like Brother Tianwang’s?”
After saying this, Liang Jinyi looked at Jiang Mi and laughed softly to himself. “That seems fine too.”
Author’s Note
Hahaha, so, babies, do you want Brother to wear the phoenix crown and red cape, or Little Brother?
