Chapter 101

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The second floor had a guest room on the left, but since there were rarely any guests these days, it went unused most of the time, its door shut.

Yang Youming’s bedroom was on the third floor. It was also on the left side. In order to not alter the original room he’d lived in with his parents, the only newly built room on the left was a bathroom, while the right side had a study.

The room on the third floor was what Xia Xingcheng saw when he videocalled Yang Youming the other day. There was a soft bed in the middle of the room, with windows on opposite walls; one side of which was screened off by the fence while the other window faced the street, yet it was also completely closed off by the row of lush trees.

While it resulted in the room having poor lighting, it also gave Xia Xingcheng a sense of security. Even with open curtains, he wouldn’t have to worry about being seen.

Yang Youming set the suitcase down against the wall.

Xia Xingcheng changed into a pair of slippers, yet the wooden floor still creaked as he tread on it. He thus flopped onto the bed, sank into the soft bedding, then rolled over and sat up on one side and shook it.

Hearing the harsh creak of the wooden floor, he looked up at Yang Youming and said, “It’s loud.”

Yang Youming laughed, “You can’t hear it from the first floor, relax.”

Xia Xingcheng then laughed and laid back down, stretching his arms comfortably.

Yang Youming walked over to him and said, “Sleep for a bit if you’re tired, I’ll call you down when it’s time for lunch.”

Xia Xingcheng yawned, kicked off the slippers on his feet, and rolled to the middle of the bed. “Don’t call me down for lunch, I’m not hungry. I’ll eat when I wake up.”

Yang Youming said, “Okay.”

Soon after, Xia Xingcheng heard the sound of Yang Youming drawing the curtains and walking over to close the door. The room was thereafter completely quiet. Yang Youming had apparently gone out.

He fell asleep in a daze.

His sleep was well and truly restful without the pressure of filming, surrounded in warmth and comfort and a blanket that smelled of Yang Youming. Xia Xingcheng was sleeping senselessly at first, but once he turned over and started dreaming, it was filled with chaotic scenes.

When he woke up, Xia Xingcheng’s head was heavy with the haze of sleep. He glanced at his phone and found that it was already way past three in the afternoon.

He was the only one in the quiet and dusky room. Crawling out of bed, he clutched at his disheveled hair and put on his slippers before making his way outside.

Opening the door, Xia Xingcheng found that the door of the study right across the room was open, the sounds of movement lightly audible. He walked over and was met with the sight of Yang Youming crouching on the ground with his back to the door, tidying up the contents of a cardboard box. He then walked over and pounced on Yang Youming’s back, his arms encircling the man’s neck.

Yang Youming didn’t turn back despite the fact that he’d definitely heard Xia Xingcheng’s footsteps earlier, yet he reached back and held Xia Xingcheng’s waist, asking, “You’re up?”

Xia Xingcheng was a little dizzy from oversleeping, and he languidly let the full weight of his body press on Yang Youming’s back, burying his face into the bare skin of his nape and absentmindedly rubbing against it.

Yang Youming patted his ass and asked, “Have you washed your face?”

Xia Xingcheng giggled and said, “Not yet. I heard that the oil your face secretes is the best form of skin care, so I’m sharing some with you.”

Yang Youming spanked him.

Xia Xingcheng remained on Yang Youming’s back, hugging him silly.

A while later, Yang Youming said, “Get up, my legs are numb.”

Yet Xia Xingcheng replied, “Not going to, if your legs are numb then just sit down. I’ll die if I don’t hug you.”

Yang Youming said, “What are you saying.” Yet he still stretched out his legs and sat on the floor as per Xia Xingcheng’s words.

Xia Xingcheng then knelt down behind him, peering at the cardboard box on the floor over his shoulder. He asked, “What are you tidying up?”

Yang Youming answered, “I’m sorting out my father’s books.”

The cardboard box was full of neat piles of old books.

Yang Youming took them out and sorted them together by category. He said, “Actually, I should’ve tidied these up a long time ago.”

With a cloying voice, Xia Xingcheng asked, “Then why are you only doing it now?”

Yang Youming set the few books in his hands down and lightly smoothed down their folded corners before saying, “I never had time at first, but when I did have time later on, I always couldn’t bear touching them.”

Xia Xingcheng quietly leaned forward, thinking of Yang Youming’s lonesome appearance as he sorted through his father’s belongings. It felt painful, much worse off than the cause of his own loneliness.

“Let’s go find a photo studio and take pictures,” Xia Xingcheng said in Yang Youming’s ear.

Yang Youming slightly turned his face to the side. “Why a photo studio?”

Xia Xingcheng knelt and straightened up and away from Yang Youming’s back, turning to sit in front of him. He said, “It has the kind of atmosphere of taking wedding or family photos ah. There’s a backdrop behind us and a photographer going ‘here, a little closer’. It’s like we’re sitting side by side for a wedding photo.”

Yang Youming seriously pondered over it, looking as if he was considering Xia Xingcheng’s proposal. He said, “It’s inconvenient to go to a photo studio, I’ll invite a professional photographer friend of mine here to take our photo.”

Xia Xingcheng promptly said, “That’s fine too.” He then asked, “Can your friend be trusted?”

Yang Youming said, “We can trust him. But he’s a busy guy, so I’m not sure if he’s available. You ought to have heard of his name, Jiang Zihe.”

The name felt familiar to Xia Xingcheng. He tilted his head and tried to recall it, then said, “Is his english name Steven?”

Yang Youming nodded. “That’s him.”

Jiang Zihe was a famous fashion photographer who had shot many covers for top-tier domestic fashion magazines. Xia Xingcheng had previously worked with him on a shoot for an inside page and was left with a quite deep impression of the man. Just then, he almost blurted out, “The man is a little—”

He’d originally meant to say flirty, but as he was Yang Youming’s friend, he swallowed the words down halfway through.

“What?” asked Yang Youming.

Xia Xingcheng shook his head and said, “A little difficult to deal with.”

Yang Youming laughed; he’d probably guessed what Xia Xingcheng meant to say. He then stopped talking about Jiang Zihe and instead asked, “Are you hungry?”

It was only then did Xia Xingcheng realise that he hadn’t had lunch, his tummy rumbling with hunger. He said, “I am, I want to eat noodles.”

Yang Youming reached out for his hand and got up, pulling him outside. “I’ll ask Auntie Tian to cook a bowl of noodles for you.”

Xia Xingcheng yawned, dragging his feet as he followed behind Yang Youming. He said, “I wanna eat your cooking.”

Yang Youming then said, “Okay, I’ll go cook for you.”

Xia Xingcheng let out a sudden laugh and said, “I wanna eat yours.”

He wasn’t sure if Yang Youming understood what he meant. Instead of answering, he smiled and led him downstairs by the hand.

That very night, Xia Xingcheng realised that Yang Youming did, in fact, understand him.

Xia Xingcheng was extremely fond of this old building. He thought that everything about it was great—except for the loud flooring, which sounded particularly loud in the dead of the night.

He was afraid the people passing by on the street would hear.

These thoughts tormented him until it made his already spent self insist on putting on clothes and going outside, asking Yang Youming to rock the bed to test whether it was audible from the street below this late at night.

Yang Youming held him back. “You can’t hear anything, just sleep, okay?”

Xia Xingcheng said, “No. It distracts me every time we do it. It ruins the mood.”

Yang Youming had no choice but to let him go. “Then you go and listen from the first floor, you definitely won’t hear a thing from there, let alone from the street.”

Xia Xingcheng felt that this made sense, so he put on his slippers and went down to the first floor. He heard nothing from Auntie Tian’s room, so she must’ve gone to bed early. He thus sent Yang Youming a WeChat message to tell him that he’d reached the first floor.

When he heard no sign of movement a while later, he sent another message asking, “Did you shake the bed?”

Yang Youming replied, “I did.”

Only then did Xia Xingcheng run back up the creaky wooden stairs to the third floor.

Yang Youming leaned against the headboard, naked from head to toe, the thin blanket covering his lower body, and he held out his hand at Xia Xingcheng’s return.

Xia Xingcheng left his slippers at the foot of the bed, knelt on the bed, and quickly crawled into Yang Youming’s arms, hugging him and saying, “I couldn’t hear a thing.”

Yang Youming stroked his cold arm and covered him with the blanket. “Are you happy now?”

Xia Xingcheng nodded and pressed a kiss on his lips.

It wasn’t until they went to bed after, as he stared at Yang Youming’s face for a good while, that a question abruptly came to mind, “Ming ge, did you trick me? Did you really shake the bed?”

Yang Youming shut his eyes and drew Xia Xingcheng towards his body. “I really did shake it, I swear. Can we go to sleep now, baby?”

Xia Xingcheng hugged his waist and said, “Okay.”

To Yang Youming and Xia Xingcheng’s surprise, the next afternoon, Jiang Zihe appeared outside Yang Youming’s old house with his camera.

When Yang Youming called Jiang Zihe last night, he didn’t invite Jiang Zihe over with the expectation that he’d be available in the near future. He merely asked him when he’d be free and mentioned that he wanted to invite him to take pictures in his old home.

Jiang Zihe was very busy at the time. He asked Yang Youming where he was and where his old house was, and hung up in a hurry after Yang Youming answered.

No one thought that he’d come the following afternoon.

At that time, Yang Youming was in the study with Xia Xingcheng, arranging the books his father had left. When they heard Auntie Tian say that there was a guest surnamed Jiang, they were both startled for a moment before Yang Youming went downstairs.

Jiang Zihe was an out-and-open gay man, which wasn’t really all that strange in this industry. He had just finished up a job at the film and TV studio last night, and after receiving Yang Youming’s call, he simply acquired a car from the film and TV studio and directly headed over without wasting a single minute more.

It was a sunny day today. The early summer sun was already a menace as it shone upon the city.

Jiang Zihe wore a loose sleeveless knit-shirt and ripped cropped pants. He carried a camera bag on one shoulder and pushed a suitcase with his other hand. His bleached blonde hair was black at the roots, and he had light makeup on that wasn’t detectable unless one looked carefully.

He stood in front of the door, and once he saw Yang Youming coming down the stairs, he immediately showed a sincere brilliant smile, letting go of his suitcase and stepping forward to greet him with two words that had been shouted a thousand times over already: “Ming ge!”

Wearing a casual long-sleeved linen shirt and cotton pants at home, Yang Youming looked neat and warm, and while he seemed surprised, he smiled and said, “Why so sudden?”

Jiang Zihe grabbed his wrist. “Are you kidding me! Yang Youming invited me to his family home. It’s such an honour, how could I not come right away?”

Yang Youming chuckled. “It’s me who’s troubled you, I’m honoured to have you here.”

Jiang Zihe patted his camera bag. “What do you want to take photos of? I promise to take beautiful ones for you. Do you want photos of the house for a memento? Is Ming ge planning to publish an autobiography?”

Yang Youming said, “Don’t joke around, I want you to help me take a photo of me with someone.”

“A group photo?” Jiang Zihe mulled over this and found it a little strange. It was then that he heard the sound of footsteps descending the stairs. When he looked up, the person going down the stairs also peered around to look at him. As soon he saw the man’s appearance, Jiang Zihe’s mouth fell open in astonishment, his words changing its tune as he said, “Xia Xingcheng?”

☆ ☆ ☆

t/n – sorry if anything sounds weird! this chapter gave me a headache lol

and thank you to Jackile and anon for your kofis ❤

⟵ Chapter 100 | TOC | Chapter 102 ⟶

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