No one was keeping track of how long that kiss lasted. It went on until Xiang Xi slowly pulled his lips away, and only then did Cheng Boyan suddenly realize that his breathing was a little laboured, his heartbeat irregular, and his waist and back twisted into a slight ache.

He looked into Xiang Xi’s dark eyes, still slightly misty with moisture, and felt inwardly amazed: a kiss that only involved lips touching, with no further action, could still make someone blush, make their heart race, and throw their breathing off… truly magical.

A car honked nearby, someone walked out of the tea house, and Xiang Xi cleared his throat, stepping back a couple of paces. He closed the car door, walked around the front, slapped the hood twice for good measure, and then opened the passenger door to get in.

“I thought you were going to slap me again,” Cheng Boyan said, looking at the person approaching the car, rubbing his nose.

“Ah?” Xiang Xi froze for a moment, then smiled. “Forgot.”

After laughing, he fell silent, resting his forehead against the car window. The sudden, overwhelming mix of embarrassment and awkwardness made him feel like he could smash the window with his forehead.

“What do you want to eat?” Cheng Boyan started the car and drove off.

Xiang Xi didn’t answer, still pressing his forehead against the window. Cheng Boyan drove for almost ten minutes before asking again: “What do you want to eat? Something simple or a big meal?”

Xiang Xi still didn’t move.

“I’m kind of craving steak,” Cheng Boyan glanced at him. “Do you want some?”

Xiang Xi remained as still as if he were part of the car window itself.

“Xiang Xi?” Cheng Boyan called him. Seeing no response, he reached over and pressed the passenger window switch.

As the window slid down, Xiang Xi’s head followed, dropping nearly ten centimetres, before he suddenly jolted up and turned to look at him, eyes full of confusion.

“You fell asleep?” Cheng Boyan was a little surprised.

“Ah,” Xiang Xi rubbed his eyes in a daze, then wiped the corner of his mouth. “Seems like it…”

“Only kissed without even daring to move the tongue, and you’re this tired?” Cheng Boyan closed the window. “Then sleep a bit. Recline the seat. I’ll wake you when we get there.”

“How do I…?” Xiang Xi bent over to examine the seat, only to stop after a couple of seconds. Turning to Cheng Boyan, he said, “You going a whole day without squeezing me is like not washing your hands—so uncomfortable, right?”

“Seeing you just makes my mouth itch,” Cheng Boyan smiled.

“Want to move your tongue? Do it yourself, I’m happy that way,” Xiang Xi muttered quietly, his hands searching under the seat for the lever. “Otherwise, you should file a report to request some tongue exercise… Ah, how do I adjust this!”

“…There’s a knob on the right.” Cheng Boyan said with a smile.

After fiddling for a while, Xiang Xi finally reclined the seat and lay down. “Such a hassle! Finally done just as we get there!”

“Should I take a detour?” Cheng Boyan glanced at him.

“You’re insane.” Xiang Xi closed his eyes.

After the car stopped, Cheng Boyan woke Xiang Xi.

“What do you want to eat?” Xiang Xi asked, glancing out the window.

“Steak… what about you?” Cheng Boyan said.

“Braised pork,” Xiang Xi scratched his head and lifted the seat back. “I can’t use knives and forks.”

“Then we’ll have braised pork.” Cheng Boyan got out of the car. “There’s a restaurant over there.”

“I also want fatty intestines, braised pork belly…” Xiang Xi said as he got out. “It’s really hot! How about we just have an ice pop first?”

Cheng Boyan didn’t answer. He locked the car and walked over, slapping Xiang Xi’s arm.

“Hey, hey!” Xiang Xi rubbed his arm. “It’s so hot! How about we just eat an ice pop first! Okay?!”

“I want ice cream…” Cheng Boyan looked around. “There’s some over there. Let’s go.”

Xiang Xi got a mung bean ice pop. He didn’t really like ice cream; he found it neither thirst-quenching nor cooling, and also cloying. Cheng Boyan hesitated. “I’ll have a mung bean ice pop too.”

“You’re not eating ice cream?” Xiang Xi looked at him.

“I’ll try the mung bean ice.” Cheng Boyan took one from the freezer, tore it open, and bit into it. “I’ve never had it before.”

“You’ve never had mung bean ice?” Xiang Xi was surprised, shaking the ice pop in his hand. “Mung bean ice… you’ve never had this?”

“What’s strange about that? I just haven’t eaten it before.” Cheng Boyan bit another piece.

“What kind of ice do you eat then? Sucking ice?” Xiang Xi asked.

“What’s sucking ice?” Cheng Boyan frowned. “I haven’t tried any of this stuff.”

“So when you’re hot or thirsty…” Xiang Xi said while eating, “what do you do?”

“Drink water, obviously. So silly,” Cheng Boyan said.

“Ah, right! Director Xu definitely wouldn’t let you eat these, not nutritious and unhygienic!” Xiang Xi nodded. “So now you’re officially spoiled, huh?”

“Just trying it, not eating it all the time,” Cheng Boyan smiled.

“Then your hand-washing obsession… you can just wash casually, don’t wash all the time, your hands are cold,” Xiang Xi said.

“Cold?” Cheng Boyan reached out and touched his face. “It’s only cold if the air conditioning is on; normally, it’s not.”

Xiang Xi jumped sideways suddenly, lowering his voice: “Don’t touch me randomly!”

Cheng Boyan bent down to take a bite of his mung bean ice, then suddenly reached out and touched Xiang Xi’s face again. Before Xiang Xi could react, Cheng Boyan turned and walked toward the restaurant.

Damn! Can’t say that.

Damn it! Definitely can’t say that.

Hell! Probably still not okay.

Any words expressing feelings could easily earn him a slap from Cheng Boyan on the arm. Xiang Xi glared at Cheng Boyan’s back, finally just yelling in frustration: “Ah!”

Cheng Boyan normally wouldn’t eat out. Small restaurants were definitely unhygienic, and even in a big restaurant, the mix of MSG, oil, and salt would be excessive.

But when he was with Xiang Xi, he preferred eating at restaurants. He would rather exceed standards than let Xiang Xi eat his “Where Did the Flavor Go?” meals. Of course, he also didn’t enjoy Xiang Xi’s messy, burnt-pot cooking.

Still, Xiang Xi’s interest in cooking hadn’t waned because of tea ceremonies. As soon as dishes were served, he would start examining them: how the braised pork was cooked, what ingredients were in the claypot yam, why the beef in the stir-fried strips was so tender…

“Really tasty, huh.” Cheng Boyan picked up a piece of braised pork and put it in his mouth.

“Mm,” Xiang Xi nodded and started eating. “I’ll try it when I have time.”

“…If you want to eat, just come over and eat.” Cheng Boyan said.

“Don’t underestimate me; maybe I can handle cooking and tea ceremony at the same time?” Xiang Xi smiled.

“Tea ceremony, maybe. Cooking, I doubt you could handle both. Just pick one; I’d be worried you’d pull your back trying double duty,” Cheng Boyan sighed.

After the meal, Xiang Xi originally wanted to go to Cheng Boyan’s place to save the nearly full memory of photos on the camera, but as soon as they got in the car, Cheng Boyan received a call—he had to go to the hospital to cover a shift for a colleague.

“Dr. Liu isn’t feeling well lately, had a fever today,” Cheng Boyan started the car. “Do you want me to drop you at the intersection so you can go back yourself?”

“You go straight to the hospital. I’ll take the transport back myself from there,” Xiang Xi said.

“Or you…” Cheng Boyan thought for a moment, took the keys from his pocket, and tossed them to him. “Go to my place yourself. When you’re done, just leave the keys with the security downstairs.”

Xiang Xi froze, looking down at the keys. Though it wasn’t his first time holding Cheng Boyan’s keys, this time he felt a bit unsettled.

He wanted to say: I’ll clear out your place.

He wanted to say: I won’t even change clothes at your place.

He also wanted to say…

But he felt that no matter what he said, he could predict Cheng Boyan’s answer.

“Oh.” In the end, he just said that.

“Water the mint a bit; I forgot this morning. If it sits in the sun all day, it’ll dry out,” Cheng Boyan added.

“Mm.” Xiang Xi nodded. Four pots of mint sat on Cheng Boyan’s small sunlit table, and Cheng Boyan actually let him go into the bedroom…

“Change clothes before entering the bedroom,” Cheng Boyan added.

That’s more like it. That’s Cheng Boyan’s style. Xiang Xi chuckled for a long time.

Cheng Boyan’s home was always spotless. Every time Xiang Xi entered, he felt like a big dust ball—touching anything, he dirtied it.

After changing clothes, he intended to water the mint first. He looked for a watering device but couldn’t find one, so he filled a bowl with water and brought it into Cheng Boyan’s bedroom.

The four pots of mint were all drooping miserably. He poured the water from the bowl into the pots. As he was about to leave, he noticed a tiny watering can on the windowsill.

He picked it up. It was tiny, barely bigger than a fist, shaped like an elephant, obviously a toy for children. Xiang Xi laughed at it for a long while.

Cheng Boyan was childish in many ways, though it wasn’t obvious unless you knew him well.

Xiang Xi went back and forth several times, watering all the pots with the little can.

Cheng Boyan’s bed was still so neat and tidy. With the weather warming, he had replaced the bedding with a cooler set. Xiang Xi stood by the bed for a while, then carefully leaned over to peek, reaching out to touch it.

He didn’t know the material of the sheets—they were a bit like straw mats, but not straw, nor cloth. They felt comfortable and cool to the touch.

High-quality stuff, Xiang Xi concluded. Cheng Boyan paid attention to details in life. Just judging by his cooking skills and knowing that even a random pot he used would cost two or three hundred yuan, it made sense.

For some reason, whenever Xiang Xi saw Cheng Boyan’s meticulously made bed, he wanted to lie on it, just like standing on a rooftop makes him want to jump, or seeing a pimple makes him want to pop it.

Hesitating a bit, he lay on the bed, then got up to look, and lay down again, closing his eyes and giggling quietly. Now, unlike in winter when thick quilts would leave impressions, no matter how he lay down, it left no mark.

The bed smelled nice—really, just lemon—but with Cheng Boyan’s scent added, it became special. He quite liked the smell.

The same went for being close to Cheng Boyan. The lemon scent, warmed by his body heat—Cheng Boyan-brand lemon, as it were—was even more relaxing.

He lay on the bed and kicked his legs like swimming, stretching his arms and flailing around a bit.

Pure bliss!

Cheng Boyan, when not busy at night, had originally thought to call Xiang Xi, but in the end didn’t. He sent a text instead, asking if Xiang Xi had finished.

Xiang Xi didn’t reply.

Later, he sent another one. Still no reply.

He checked the time—still before midnight. Xiang Xi probably hadn’t gone to sleep, so he tried calling.

The phone was off… out of battery?

Cheng Boyan sighed helplessly and peeled a banana that a patient’s family had given him, taking a bite.

His mood tonight wasn’t very good. Dr. Liu’s illness seemed serious; it had been going on for quite a while. He often said he had no appetite, frequently felt tired, had a few fevers, yet always said “it’s nothing, just tired,” and never found the time to get a proper check-up.

Cheng Boyan had called him before and finally, after some insistence, got him to agree to go to the hospital for an exam tomorrow.

When he arrived at the hospital, a colleague had already died of colon cancer—early symptoms had all been ignored. Just thinking about it made Cheng Boyan uneasy.

Late at night, there were two inpatients; after dealing with them, he had rested his head on a table for a while. At first light, he left the hospital to go home, change, take a shower, and continue work.

He tried calling Xiang Xi again. Still off.

When he got home, he went to the security guard downstairs and asked whether Xiang Xi had brought his keys.

“Nope,” the guard said. “I was on duty yesterday. No keys from your place came by, but the boy who usually comes with you went up and didn’t come back down.”

“…Oh. Then can you help me get my spare key?” Cheng Boyan paused. Xiang Xi hadn’t left?

The guard went inside, retrieved the spare key, had him sign for it, and Cheng Boyan took it upstairs.

The house was very quiet when he opened the door. No one in the living room. He changed his shoes and saw Xiang Xi’s clothes hanging in the entryway wardrobe. He rubbed a little disinfectant on his hands and glanced into the study—still empty.

Hesitating, he slowly walked to his bedroom door.

The door was open, and without entering, he saw Xiang Xi lying sprawled across his bed, sleeping like the dead.

Cheng Boyan frowned helplessly and leaned against the door frame.

“Xiang Xi.” He called softly.

Xiang Xi smacked his lips, eyes closed, unmoving.

“Xiang Xi, wake up,” Cheng Boyan continued, entering the room to open the curtains and let fresh air in. “Get up, lazybones.”

The few pots of flowers on the windowsill had probably been watered last night; the leaves were upright. Cheng Boyan took a small watering can to fill water, going back and forth a few times to water them again.

Xiang Xi still hadn’t woken. Cheng Boyan checked the time—he still had to go to work—so he grabbed a box of tissues from the coffee table and tossed one at Xiang Xi’s head.

When Xiang Xi opened his eyes, he didn’t know where he was. The pillow in front of him didn’t look like his own. He rubbed his eyes groggily, then realized his whole body ached terribly.

“You can sleep like this all night? Your survival skills are impressive,” Cheng Boyan’s voice sounded beside him.

Xiang Xi froze, still feeling his neck ache, and whipped his head around.

Seeing Cheng Boyan standing by the bed, arms crossed, with that half-smile, Xiang Xi instantly felt his back stop hurting, his legs stop aching. Forget climbing five floors in one go—he felt like he could jump straight to the fifteenth floor.

He flipped over to sit up, wiped his mouth, half his face covered in small red marks from pressure. “I… I just… don’t know when I fell asleep…”

“Get up. I still have to go to work,” Cheng Boyan flicked his forehead and left the bedroom. “I just made some soy milk; if you don’t want it, go get something yourself.”

“You’re still working?” Xiang Xi jumped off the bed, smoothing the twisted bedsheet he’d slept on, following him out. “Aren’t you supposed to rest the day after covering a shift?”

“Yesterday I covered for Dr. Liu. No rest today.” Cheng Boyan grabbed a glass bottle and poured some black beans into the soy milk maker.

“Oh…” Xiang Xi scratched his head, feeling a little embarrassed in the kitchen. “I slept on your bed…”

“Go ahead,” Cheng Boyan said, plugging in the soymilk machine.

“You’re not scolding me?” Xiang Xi asked.

“Can’t scold you here,” Cheng Boyan glanced back at him. “Next time, change into pyjamas, okay?”

“That outfit wasn’t for going out. I changed as soon as I got home,” Xiang Xi said.

“Still not for sleeping. You touch things, rub against things…” Cheng Boyan looked at him.

“Ugh,” Xiang Xi tugged at his clothes, sighed heavily, and went into the bathroom. “One set for going out, one set for indoors, one for the bed, one for the bathroom, one for cooking, one for cleaning…”

Cheng Boyan ignored him, turning on the soy milk machine.

Xiang Xi stood at the bathroom sink, looking at himself in the mirror: messy hair, half his face marked, his mole near his eye partly submerged in the marks.

He clicked his tongue and splashed water on his face.

Did he really sleep like this all night?

He twisted his waist—his back and spine all sore.

Cheng Boyan hadn’t gotten angry?

Unbelievable. He turned to see Cheng Boyan and felt like his arms were about to be dislocated…

He glared at himself in the mirror, pondering messily. Cheng Boyan knocked on the door. Flustered, Xiang Xi tugged at his clothes and pants, then remembered he hadn’t moved since entering—nothing needed adjusting.

He opened the door, twisting the lock back and forth twice. “Huh? Fixed now?”

“Mm,” Cheng Boyan handed him a towel and a toothbrush. “What were you doing in there so long…”

Before Xiang Xi could answer, Cheng Boyan squeezed halfway in: “Did you use my toothbrush?”

“Ah, no!” Xiang Xi yelled, startling himself.

Cheng Boyan glanced at him and patted the wall: “These tiles are really solid.”

Xiang Xi laughed at his teasing, then sighed: “You really dislike me, don’t you?”

“No,” Cheng Boyan said. “If I did, I’d have thrown you out by now.”

“But you said you’re not obsessed with cleanliness,” Xiang Xi continued, sighing. “Then how is this not obsessive?”

“Not sharing toothbrushes, having cleanliness issues or not, it’s the same, right?” Cheng Boyan smiled.

“Yeah, that’s why I wouldn’t use it,” Xiang Xi said. “You just assumed I would.”

“…Who knows with your weird brain,” Cheng Boyan laughed, hugging him, lightly patting his back. “I really don’t dislike you. At most, I will just change the sheets.”

“And use disinfectant bubbles,” Xiang Xi said, laughing. He liked Cheng Boyan holding him like this, resting his chin comfortably on his shoulder. “Do you want me to tell you where I touched?”

“No need for disinfectant, I promise I won’t use it,” Cheng Boyan said with a smile. “I was going to change the sheets anyway—they’ve already been slept on for half a month.”

“Half a month already?” Xiang Xi said. “I don’t even remember ever changing sheets before…”

“Well, you can help me change the sheets later,” Cheng Boyan said. “The thing I hate most in life is changing bed sheets and covers. Every time I change them, I think, maybe I should just sleep on the floor from now on.”

Xiang Xi laughed. Normally, talking about the past would make him a little down—like those cramped little rooms at Uncle Ping’s house, with beds lined with bricks that were falling apart, staring blankly at the mottled ceiling while lying there. Even now, those memories still appeared in his dreams, heavy and oppressive.

But Cheng Boyan’s sensible words immediately pulled him out of that mood. He rested his chin on Cheng Boyan’s shoulder and laughed for a long time.

Cheng Boyan was just that kind of person—he could handle everything calmly, almost unnoticed… though not everything. When it came to teasing Xiang Xi, he made quite a stir—a single slap could carry the force of wind.

“Go wash up.” Cheng Boyan loosened his arms, preparing to leave.

“Mm.” Xiang Xi responded, stretching his arms forward to wrap around Cheng Boyan’s waist.

Cheng Boyan stood still, letting him hug him for quite a while before finally saying, “Pour the soy milk yourself later. I probably won’t have time.”

“Huh?” Xiang Xi quickly let go. “I forgot! You still need to shower, right?”

“Forget it, we’ll just make do for the day,” Cheng Boyan said.

Cheng Boyan took his toothbrush and cup to the kitchen to wash up. Xiang Xi stood in the bathroom for a while in a daze before finally brushing his teeth and washing his face.

Afterward, he hung his towel on the rack next to Cheng Boyan’s.

“Leave the toothbrush there,” Cheng Boyan said, walking into the bathroom to put his toothbrush in place. “You might need it again someday.”

“Mm.” Xiang Xi placed his toothbrush next to Cheng Boyan’s.

“There’s bread on the table, eat it yourself,” Cheng Boyan said, going back to the bedroom to change clothes. “Lock the door when you leave. Also, your phone’s dead—remember to charge it.”

“You’re really naggy, Cheng Nai Nai,” (NT: granny Chen) Xiang Xi muttered, standing outside the bedroom door. Cheng Boyan didn’t close the door, and with his back to Xiang Xi, started taking off his clothes. Xiang Xi hesitated—should he keep watching or walk away?

“Wanna touch?” Cheng Boyan asked, pulling up his pants and turning around.

“Huh?” Xiang Xi froze.

“If watching isn’t enough, come over and touch a bit,” Cheng Boyan said, pulling a t-shirt over his head while walking toward him, leaning on the door frame. “A kiss works too.”

“You really hide a lot of things, huh! Director Xu wouldn’t even know all the waves and tsunamis you’re secretly causing!” Xiang Xi turned to leave.

Just a step out, Cheng Boyan grabbed his arm, pulling him back in front of him.

“Just one kiss,” Cheng Boyan said, looking at him, lightly lifting Xiang Xi’s chin with a finger. “And I’ll file a report while I’m at it.”

“What report?” Xiang Xi asked.

“A report to request some tongue exercise,” Cheng Boyan said with a smile. “Do you approve?”

 

Translator : DarNan