Chapter 24 — Xi Xingling
That single, sultry call of “hubby” scared Li Dong out of his wits. He truly, truly, truly could never predict what shocking surprises Xi Xingling would spring on him
Everything else he could stomach, but that “hubby” almost had him on his knees.
Even at the clingiest points of his past relationships, none of his ex-girlfriends had called him “hubby.” He never imagined the first time would be stolen by Xi Xingling.
Then again, there were plenty of things Xi Xingling had taken first from him. When he thought about it, this was hardly worth bringing up.
People say shous have extremely sensitive nerves. When they like someone, their attention borders on obsessive.
That was exactly why Li Dong’s scalp prickled.
Xi Xingling was a fighter jet among bottoms. He instantly sensed that his hubby, cough, cough, no wait, his prospective hubby, was not thrilled with the title.
So he became both wistful and uneasy, and stayed quiet the rest of the way like a little quail.
Docile and silent suited him, especially with that outrageously deceptive face.
“Second Young Master, I am a bit cold.” After they got out of the car, Xi Xingling took tiny steps and tried to lean against Li Dong.
“Then get inside. The heat is on,” Li Dong said, striding ahead.
Xi Xingling stumbled. When he nearly fell, Li Dong turned back in time to steady him. “You’re something else. Even walking, you’re this clumsy.”
If Li Dong wasn’t around in the future, how would someone as delicate as Xi Xingling manage to live? That fantasy world inside his head would surely get shattered anyway.
Li Dong suddenly doubted whether he could teach the man to be strong and independent. His advice came only from his own experience and temperament. He had never run a household or raised a child. Who knew if he could really guide anyone.
On the city’s high-end luxury row, every major international brand had a boutique.
“Second Young Master is so annoying. When he does not want to accompany me, he uses money to get me out of the way,” Xi Xingling said as he drove his freshly plated BMW to pick up his bestie for a shopping day. He chattered away, “I keep thinking he does not love me, but he treats me so well. I am going crazy.”
“Quit whining. He gives you a monthly allowance and bought you a 7 Series, and you still say he does not love you?” Qian Xiaozhun rubbed every surface of the car as if to test whether it was real. “If someone treated me like that, he could say to my face he did not love me and I would not care.” In his view, money solved everything.
“How shallow. My Second Young Master is not that kind of person. He is sincere.” Out in public, Xi Xingling never said “Dong-ge.” He did not want to share private little details with anyone.
“I do not care. You have flown up and become a phoenix now.” Qian Xiaozhun spoke with naked envy. “Do not forget good friends after you climb. If I had not bent you back then, how would you have ever met Han Second Young Master?”
Since he started dating Second Young Master, this was not the first reminder to “remember your roots.” He had heard it enough to grow calluses. “Alright, alright. Am I that type? If I were ungrateful, Second Young Master would not look at me twice.”
Besides, he had only this one awful friend. They might not be life-and-death brothers, but they had “turned together” at a young age and were battle-scarred comrades. There was no way he would forget him.
“Second Young Master was supposed to come with me, but something urgent came up. Work is work, so he could not. He gave me a blank check instead and told me to buy whatever I wanted on his tab…” Watching his friend’s jaw drop, Xi Xingling laughed in smug delight. “Pick anything. As long as it is under a hundred thousand, I will get it reimbursed.”
“Oh my God! Can I have cash instead!?” Cash could last much longer!
“No.” Xi Xingling flicked him on the forehead. “Have a little ambition, will you? Walking out with a hundred-thousand-yuan bag is way more glorious.”
“Easy for you to say now that you have money. When you were broke, there is no way you would carry a hundred-thousand-yuan bag,” Qian Xiaozhun gritted out.
“Of course not. Back then I would not even spend twenty thousand.” That was a month’s salary gone in a handbag.
Days of shopping and eating with his friend rolled by happily for about a month.
Before he knew it, the New Year was near, and the downtown apartment was finally set. It was the first unit he had fallen for.
Li Dong came to help him move. When he saw the guy tossing out all his old clothes and shoes, he said, “Sort them and pack them up. Donate them to a charity organization.”
Xi Xingling looked a bit confused. Seeing Li Dong roll up his sleeves and efficiently pack up clothes in his small room, the scene was quite stimulating.
“Dong-ge.” He launched himself forward, hugging Li Dong’s leg from behind and rubbing against them enthusiastically
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing. I just suddenly wanted to be flirty.” With his forehead pressed to Li Dong’s, he cooed, “You hardly come looking for me lately. It makes me anxious. I do not even know what I am to you…”
Was he a boyfriend or a partner?
Or maybe cutie, sweetheart, darling? His most precious little baby?
Li Dong’s face went as flat as a dead ox’s. “I hardly look for you? Are you serious?” He grabbed the front of Xi Xingling’s shirt. Did this brat have any sense of reality?
The truth was they met every weekend, and when they met, they had sex. Two whole days without getting out of bed!
On average, almost once a day. Who could handle that?
And this was called not looking for him much?
Then what the hell counted as looking for him often?
Spending all 365 days of the year inside his a**?
Could he get a break or not?
“Okay, okay. Maybe it is because I live far, so it is hard to be together on weekdays,” Xi Xingling said, eyes wide as Li Dong gripped his shirt. “Once I move downtown, we can see each other every day. I want to cook for you.”
“Get lost.” He could do nothing, except coo and play cute.
“Mm. I am getting lost toward you right now,” Xi Xingling said, hugging his thigh innocently.
“… F*ck.”
They boxed up the old clothes. Apart from things he had recently bought, he did not want the rest.
Li Dong drove the stuff to a nearby charity and swiped his card for a donation while he was there.
“Mr. Li Dong?”
“Oh, sorry.” He realized he had absentmindedly signed his real name. He struck it out and wrote “Han Yubai” instead.
“Thank you very much for your generosity,” the coordinator said, closing the signing book with both hands.
“You are welcome.”
He paused by the entrance, then got back into the car.
Xi Xingling was curled in the passenger seat asleep. Winter sunlight slanted through the window and lay on his fair face like silk, so delicate it looked like a breath would bruise it.
At moments like this, he inspired tenderness. Even a man like Li Dong, who did not know romance if it bit him, leaned down and kissed him.
“My god, you bought the apartment?” Standing inside the place he had wanted, Xi Xingling gaped at Li Dong, shocked and starry-eyed at once. His man. His god. “This is the golden district. Every inch costs a fortune.”
“Not bought yet. It is agreed. The deed will be in your name,” Li Dong said mildly. Since becoming Han Yubai, money had become just numbers. Spending did not feel like anything.
If spending money made Xi Xingling happy, so be it.
“Fantastic…” He was dumbstruck. “So this place is mine?” When Li Dong confirmed it, he grinned like an idiot. “Our love nest?”
Li Dong snorted. The word that flashed through his mind was “playroom.”
“Perfect. I want to change out all the furniture. I do not want anything the previous owner left.” With a keen eye, Xi Xingling instantly decided which style suited the place.
It was a small two-bedroom, so nothing grand or bulky would fit. Fresh, light pieces would be better.
He had always believed he was the fresh-and-artsy type. A tasteful, quiet beauty.
He wandered the little rooms in a blissed-out haze. He had toured it several times when house-hunting, but this felt different. Then, it had been the landlord’s apartment. Now, it was his.
Late at night, head pillowed on Li Dong’s arm, he messaged his bestie: “In half a year I now own a car and an apartment in the capital where every inch is gold. Call me the winner at life.”
Qian Xiaozhun: “???”
“Second Young Master bought me a place. XX District, XX Road. Two bedrooms and a living room. Secondhand, yes, but you know how precious anything on XX Road is. Impossible to buy. Only someone with his connections could get it.”
“In the middle of the night you choose to torment me. Could you wait until morning? I am going to be up all night. [angry]”
“Hahaha, could not help it. I am too happy. Also I am lying in Second Young Master’s arms right now. Behind me are his eight-pack abs. I could die of happiness.”
“You can die right now, thanks! P.S. Stop texting me. I am sleeping.”
“So fragile. No psychological endurance at all,” Xi Xingling muttered. If their roles were reversed and Qian bragged like this, he would… spit, and slap him flat.
January 8th, his solar birthday.
A week in advance he told all his friends in the gay circle to come to Club XX for his party.
Li Dong arranged the event to celebrate his twenty-third birthday.
He put real thought into it. He even had a custom piece made, supposedly worth tens of millions.
Xi Xingling wore it with bliss. Dressed in a bespoke tux that fit like a dream, he was as bright as a blossom turned to the wind. “Hubby!”
With a thud, Li Dong fell off the sofa.
… A man could only take so many jump-scares in a day.
“What happened?” Xi Xingling asked, twirling twice in front of him. “How is this for the party? Does it suit the Heart of the Ocean you gave me?”
On his pale collarbone, a blue diamond sparkled.
It was a rhombus cut edged in tiny colorless stones, dazzling from chain to clasp.
“I will say it again. It is not the Heart of the Ocean,” Li Dong said for the Nth time. The clown had obviously watched one too many movies and loved giving himself dramatic scenes.
“I do not care. It is the Heart of the Ocean. The one Cal gave to Rose. Hmph.” He kept preening at the mirror.
“Then you should know Cal did not end up with Rose. The king dreamt of the goddess, but she was never his.”
“… That is true.”
“Later Leonardo picked it up and gave it to Rose,” Xi Xingling insisted, clutching the gem.
“And he still did not end up with her. It is a famous tragedy.”
“Then what do you call this?” He plopped onto Li Dong’s lap, grumbling.
“Does it need a name to have ‘taste’?” Li Dong’s mouth twitched. Meeting the unwavering sparkle in his eyes, he gave up with a lazy hum. “Call it Xingling.”
The easy slouch, the unruly eyes, Xi Xingling’s heart melted.
“Second Young Master…” He purred, dropped the stone, and wrapped his arms around Li Dong’s neck for a kiss.
“Get out.” Looking at the male protagonist's face full of ripples, Li Dong had no interest in kissing him at all.
“Mm-hmm, getting lost right next to you.,” Xi Xingling said, sliding off his lap and down to his feet. “Dong-ge, thank you for throwing me a birthday party. I am really happy.”
…
“Even though you never give me a title and roll your eyes at me and tell me to get lost, I know you spoil me.” He laid his cheek on Li Dong’s knee and, a little shy, said, “Tomorrow is my birthday. Can you give me a present?”
“I have not given you enough?” Li Dong’s mouth twitched. Tens of millions in diamonds, and it did not count as a birthday present?
“That is different.” He smiled sweetly. “Acknowledge that I am your boyfriend, and that you are my hubby. Please?”
Li Dong glanced down at the goosebumps on his arms, utterly done.
“Please?” Xi Xingling pouted and pushed hard on Li Dong’s cheek to turn him back.
“Do you still like my brother?” Li Dong asked casually.
“Of course not.” His innocent eyes went wide. “I stopped liking him ages ago. Dong-ge, you are awful. I follow you around like a little puppy every day, and you ask me something that dumb?”
Li Dong was speechless. His original goal had been to help him reclaim basic self-respect and not love someone so cheaply.
He had stopped loving Han Tianlin, true, but his love style was still a three-view-wrecking mess. The second he liked someone, he went straight to his knees.
Kneel to do this, lie down to do that.
Never fought back when scolded or hit. At most, he sulked and acted cute, then went right back to it.
That was not what Li Dong wanted. He wanted Xi Xingling to be able to leave him and still find normal love with a decent man.
He wanted him not to collapse from breakups, not to derail his life because of romance.
So far he had tried providing a good environment: car, home, spending money, respectability, and so on.
Confidence, strength, independence. How hard could that be?
… Just as Li Dong was thinking, Xi Xingling suddenly started servicing him of his own accord.
Li Dong’s brain turned to mush. Whatever thoughts he had unraveled at once.
“…” F*ck.
After a debauched and crazy night.
The young man who worked hard for beauty spent the entire next day applying face masks like crazy.
He ate only fruit from morning to night, refusing grains and meat.
The tux had been tailored to a razor fit. Any tiny belly would ruin the line.
“Little Zhun, are you there yet? We are heading out. He is in the shower. Hehe, I accidentally seduced him again just now. Hehe. So sorry to keep you waiting. We will be right there.”
When he hung up, Qian Xiaozhun ground his teeth and spat out a breath.
“Stay calm. Stay calm. So what if it is tens of millions for an apartment. So what if it is tens of millions for a diamond. I will never have those, but I am not jealous. I am content…” No use. “I am dying. I am so mad!”
A hundred repetitions of “do not be angry” did nothing. He was still mad.
“Xiao Zhun, is Xingling here yet?” A friend in heavy glam strolled over. They were online buddies from the scene, meeting in person for the first time.
“He said he is on the way. Twenty minutes, tops.” Qian Xiaozhun put on a new face full of reflected glory. “His man is insanely handsome. I have had the honor of seeing him a few times, even at dinner. Up close, he is a top-tier heartthrob.”
This friend, usually cool and aloof, gave a small smile. “Then Xingling is lucky to have found a husband like that.”
“Bullsh*t.” Qian Xiaozhun snorted. “He got Second Young Master because he has a thick skin…” Oops, he accidentally said it out loud. Good thing he did not blurt out the three-thousand-seven. If he had, Xingling would have murdered him.
“Xingling, let’s go.” Li Dong stepped out of the dressing room in a black suit and white shirt, no tie, hair not overly set. It should have looked sloppy. On him it was sinfully sexy.
This kind of wild and unrestrained look would be sloppy and sleazy on others, but on him it was languid and charming.
“Dong-ge.” Eyes shining, Xi Xingling rushed over with Li Dong’s overcoat, rose on tiptoe, and helped him into it.
What a romantic and beautiful scene. Xi Xingling very much hoped to freeze time at this moment.
“You look very beautiful,” Li Dong said suddenly.
“What?” Those deep eyes met his, and his heart sparked like a live wire.
“I said your styling today is beautiful.” Li Dong kissed his forehead. “Shame I cannot kiss your lips. It would smudge your lipstick.”
“Thank you…” Xi Xingling beamed. “It is not lipstick. It is gloss. Calling everything on the lips ‘lipstick’ is a straight-boy thing.”
“Do you think I am straight?”
He clung to Li Dong’s arm as they walked. “Honestly speaking, Second Young Master is big and straight…”
“Going straight to dirty talk,” Li Dong muttered, which only made the youth at his side giggle, radiant.
“That little flirt, why is he still not here?” Qian Xiaozhun grumbled at the door, checking his phone. Twenty minutes were nearly up.
“Xiao Zhun!”
At last, the birthday star stepped out of a luxury car in his couture tux.
Qian immediately looked to the other side of the car and saw Xi Xingling trot over.
He opened the door with both hands. A devastatingly handsome man stepped out.
The boyfriend was the real main event. Looking at that face that could make knees buckle, jealousy split Qian Xiaozhun into pieces.
“He is explosively handsome. I am going to cry.” He wished the gaggle of flirtatious boys inside could come out and be hit by this scene with him.
“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Xi Xingling said, arm in arm with Li Dong. He kept apologizing to his friend as they approached. He knew he was not exactly punctual. “Come on, let’s go in. Do not keep the guests waiting.”
“Han Second Young Master…” Qian hardly heard Xi Xingling. His eyes were glued to the man.
Slurp. Too handsome.
“Hello.” Li Dong’s smile was easy. He was always polite to Xingling’s friends, as long as they did not drape themselves over him.
“Hello, hello…” Qian stared without blinking, worshipping the man’s face.
“Little Zhun, you are drooling over my man? You have some nerve,” Xi Xingling said, smacking him on the shoulder to knock the lust out. “Go be thirsty at your own boyfriend.”
“What the heck.” Mortified.
And in front of Han Second Young Master, who was not only big and good in bed but rich. He fled to the front. “My darling friends, our birthday boy has arrived.”
Every gaze turned toward the door.
Xi Xingling entered with Li Dong on his arm, smiling brightly. His suit and radiant smile instantly outshone everyone present.
The carefully made-up wildflowers who had come to peacock, well…
“I am honored to have you here for my birthday party. I am Xi Xingling. The person beside me…” He rose to kiss Li Dong beneath the chin. “This is my boyfriend, Han Yubai, my dearest Second Young Master.”
Li Dong’s lazy smile froze.
If Xingling had not introduced him on purpose, he would have forgotten his “real” name again.
Whistles rose and fell, applause pounded. In the capital’s gay scene, Li Dong’s qualities were diamond-grade.
“Dong-ge, it is my birthday. Say a few words,” Xi Xingling said, pushing the mic into his hand and looking at him with shining expectation. “Anything is fine. Of course, if you can fulfill my wish, I will be over the moon.”
He could not let go of the idea of a title. He wanted Li Dong to declare it aloud.
If Li Dong would announce them as a couple in front of everyone, that would be perfect.
“Today is Lingling’s birthday… so here, I wish my little cutie a happy birthday. May you always be this beautiful,” Li Dong said gently and calmly. “As your boyfriend, I hope I can host your party again next year.”
“Oh my god, oh my god~~” Xi Xingling cupped his face, joy exploding. “Dong-ge!” He threw himself into Li Dong’s arms and sobbed on the spot. “I love you. I love you so much. Lingling will be your little cutie for life.”
A wave of complicated feelings rolled through the room.
Seriously. They had not come all this way just to get emotionally wrecked.
“Ugh, I want a boyfriend who spoils me like that.” Even if he was not as handsome as Xingling’s husband.
“Forget it. You are not as pretty as Xingling,” a friend said coolly. The besties around here were masters at pouring cold water. They would love nothing more than everyone else dying alone at home.
The party was a hit. People ate and drank well. Aside from getting emotionally pummeled during the opening, everything was a ten out of ten.
Honestly, they would attend parties like this every week.
That night, countless socialites in the gay circle posted Stories about the party.
In a single night, Li Dong and Xi Xingling became famous as a pair in the capital’s scene.
“Crash!” A blue and white porcelain brush washer was lifted by Han Zhen and smashed to pieces. “Tianlian, look at what your brother has done! Now, immediately, right away, bring him back to me!”
Han Tianlian: “Dad, it’s just playing around with a man. What’s worth getting angry about?”
Han Zhen looked at his eldest son in disbelief. “What did you say? Are you saying I can’t order you around anymore?” He found that the other party wasn’t afraid at all, staring directly at him.
“You’ve never liked Yuebai. Instead, you’ve made countless demands of him. It’s only because he makes you feel embarrassed.” Han Tianlian said, “So what exactly do children mean to you? Tools to make you look good or tools for continuing the family line?”
Han Tianlian was thirty years old this year. In ten years of hard work, he’d already secured his own position in the business world.
Even if he went against Han Zhen now, it didn’t matter. Besides, they still had Wang Yunru.
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