AFMWDX Chapter 28

TL: Hua

Chapter 28: Nightfall

“Ahhh! Help me, that’s so sweet!”

“The Pure Love Warriors have fallen!!”

“I believe in love again!”

“Marrying your first love? What kind of fairy tale is this!”

“Master Qingfeng must stay happy forever!”

“I’m totally shipping them; it’s so sweet!”

“They’re so adorable.”

In the midst of the uproar, Yu Qingtang felt a momentary flash of panic. He thought he spotted a familiar figure, but when he looked closer, it was just a sea of elaborately dressed cosplayers.

Yu Qingtang mocked himself; it was only his guilty conscience creating illusions. This was the first time he had ever told a half-true, half-fictional story in front of so many people.

When the host was interviewing Nian Jiang, Yu Qingtang had clearly sensed the boy’s anxiety. In that moment, he wanted to help his this little brother out of a predicament, didn’t want to disappoint the audience, and didn’t want to mess up the organizers’ event. In a moment of impulsiveness, he had spun this story—one he was actually quite satisfied with. The screaming hadn’t stopped, and the event reached its peak. It seemed to be well received.

As the interaction segment ended, Yu Qingtang declined requests for signings and photos and went straight backstage.

He received a call from Liu Siyan. “My dear Master Qingfeng, how was it?”

Liu Siyan had planned to accompany him, but right after they got in the car, something came up at the station, and she had to leave halfway. Since he’d just finished, she must have seen the livestream.

Yu Qingtang teased her, “Why ask? You didn’t even show up.”

“Oh, work came up! I’m upset too!” Liu Siyan sighed repeatedly. “I just finished and opened the stream only to see you walking off stage. Talk about bad luck.”

Yu Qingtang stopped joking. “You saw him, right?”

“Yeah, I saw him.”

One of the special guests at the convention today was “Sunny”—the Zhang Jiaming whom Liu Siyan had mentioned, the one involved with the underground casino.

Yu Qingtang held the phone, his gaze drifting over the partition wall to find Nian Jiang, who was looking for someone. He continued his conversation with Liu Siyan: “Should I go introduce myself and get his contact info?”

“No need. I already added him with my burner account; his WeChat Moments is just a bunch of jade sales posts, nothing much there,” Liu Siyan said. “Your status is special. Keep your distance so you don’t get exposed.”

“I get it. You too…” Yu Qingtang peeked from behind the wall and spotted Nian Jiang again.

Liu Siyan: “Hello? What’s wrong?”

“Talk later.” Yu Qingtang hung up and ran toward Nian Jiang’s position.

He snatched Nian Jiang’s phone; the screen showed a WeChat QR code business card.

Yu Qingtang locked the phone. “Nian Nian, didn’t we agree you’d come find me? What took you so long?”

Nian Jiang was stunned, but fortunately, he didn’t blow the cover. He turned to the other person and said, “Sorry, Brother Sunny, I have to go now.”

Yu Nian followed Yu Qingtang to a private dressing room.

Noticing no movement behind him, Yu Qingtang looked back.

Nian Jiang was standing obediently by the door, clutching the hem of his clothes, stealing glances at him every now and then.

Amused by how cute he looked, Yu Qingtang smiled and said, “Come in.”

He returned the phone, handed over a bottle of grape juice, and added, “Have a seat.”

“Thank you.” Nian Jiang found a corner and unscrewed the cap. “Brother Qingfeng, thank you for earlier.”

“Which earlier?” Yu Qingtang asked while tidying his things.

“On stage, for answering the question for me.” Nian Jiang gripped the juice bottle. “If it were just me, I really wouldn’t have known what to say.”

“It was nothing.” Yu Qingtang finished packing, his gaze falling on the boy’s face as he raised an eyebrow. “Just a small favor.”

Meeting his eyes, Nian Jiang suddenly realized something and hurriedly covered his face with his mask. “Ah! That—I, I…”

Yu Qingtang: “No need to hide. Your identity was exposed a long time ago.”

Nian Jiang blinked. “Huh?”

“Yu Nian, eighteen years old, a freshman in the Modern Dance department at Yangcheng University, lives in Dorm 208. Likes milk tea, grape juice, seafood, and Duffy the Disney Bear. Loves anime, cosplay, and otaku dance. Your only favorite idol is…” Yu Qingtang paused for two seconds before saying: “Me.”

Yu Nian gripped the plastic cap tightly, his eyes darting around nervously. “H-how did you know?”

Yu Qingtang tapped his phone case. “Your WeChat Moments… you might as well have posted your ID card.”

Yu Nian’s face flushed bright red instantly. He ducked his head like a child who had been caught hiding a secret. “Oh.”

Yu Qingtang said, “Pay more attention, little brother. You shouldn’t just add anyone as a friend, and you shouldn’t reveal your privacy to just anyone.”

“Brother Qingfeng isn’t a bad person, and I didn’t plan on keeping it from you anyway.” Yu Nian pulled his mask down. “Since you’ve seen me, can I also…”

Yu Qingtang interrupted him. “Little brother, don’t go getting any other ideas.”

Yu Nian lowered his head, looking dejected. “But I let you look at me.”

“Looking might scare you,” Yu Qingtang replied.

“Is it really that scary?” Yu Nian mumbled softly. “You’re exaggerating; it just makes me more curious.”

“It is. So, don’t think about it anymore.”

“Okay then.” Yu Nian noticed him picking up his things. “Are you leaving? You haven’t even walked around the convention yet.”

Yu Qingtang: “I have work; heading back now.”

Yu Nian’s eyes sparkled. “Is your husband coming to pick you up?”

Yu Qingtang: “No, I’m going back on my own.”

“Why not let him pick you up?”

“I didn’t tell him I was coming here.”

“Does your husband not know you’re into the 2D world?”

Yu Qingtang walked over and looked down slightly at him. “Little brother, don’t ask too many questions.”

“Mm, I got it.” Yu Nian waved. “Goodbye, Brother Qingfeng.”

Yu Qingtang helped him pull up his mask and opened the door. “Yeah. See you if there’s a chance.”

After leaving the exhibition hall, Yu Qingtang specifically changed his clothes before returning to the TV station.

It was his day off, and since the convention ended early and Xu Baizhang wasn’t home, he decided to work some overtime.

By the time he finished and got home, it was dinner time. The house was silent, and there was a sticky note on the fridge.

[Dinner is on the table, heat it up to eat. Baizhang 1.26]

A dinner for one was laid out on the table; his family’s Dr. Xu was even busier than he was.

At 8:00 PM, there was still no sign of Xu Baizhang. Yu Qingtang wasn’t sleepy at all, so he remembered the gift he had drawn in the convention lottery.

It was prepared by a fan; per the event rules, he had randomly picked one to take home.

The box was long and elegantly packaged.

Yu Qingtang peeled through seven or eight layers of plastic bags and wrapping paper until the contents were finally revealed. His face went as stiff as if it had been air-dried, and his palms felt numb.

The “behemoth” before him was half a meter long, flesh-pink, and made of soft rubber. It was as thick as a forearm, with an uneven surface covered in colorful plastic rhinestones.

Yu Qingtang: “…”

He remembered a silly audio drama he once voiced. The shou, while the gong was sleeping, played a prank by sticking rhinestones all over the gong’s equipment.

That entire drama was filled with cringey, hilarious, and nonsensical plots. Recalling it now, Yu Qingtang felt like digging his toes into the ground. That was a series from years ago.

What are these kids thinking?

The problem was, how should he handle this?

He couldn’t keep it, but he couldn’t just throw it away either.

Yu Qingtang stuffed the “behemoth” back into the box, wrapped it up layer by layer, and temporarily hid it in the bedside drawer.

He planned to take it back to the old house in a few days. It’s safer than leaving it here.

After showering, Yu Qingtang found a movie to watch. By 10:30 PM, Xu Baizhang still hadn’t returned.

He hesitated but didn’t call. If he was at a dinner party with friends, 10:30 wasn’t that late.

Back when the TV station had gatherings, playing until dawn was normal.

Yu Qingtang left a light on in the hallway and crawled into bed.

As he was drifting off, he heard the door open. He rolled over, burying half his head in the blanket.

He heard the click of a light switch in the living room, followed by all the lights in the room going out.

Although they slept in separate rooms, neither had the habit of closing their doors.

While Yu Qingtang was buried in his covers, a dark shadow slowly approached and stopped at his bedroom door.

The man’s shoulder leaned against the doorframe. He stood there, motionless, like a statue.

Yu Qingtang curled up his body. He was sweating from being muffled, and though his neck itched, he didn’t dare scratch it. He was too nervous to even breathe loudly.

The two of them were quite funny. They had been married for months, and not sharing a bed was one thing. But now one was too afraid to enter the room while the other was too afraid to wake up.

A few more minutes passed. The shadow disappeared, the footsteps receded, and the room returned to normal.

Yu Qingtang threw off the covers, tossing and turning, now completely unable to sleep.

This was the first time since their marriage that Xu Baizhang had a social engagement and returned so late.

Yu Qingtang got out of bed and found the man in the living room. Xu Baizhang was sitting alone on the sofa.

He was awake, head tilted to one side, one arm draped over the edge of the sofa. His languid posture, staring intently at him, was quite captivating.

In the dead of night, a strange excitement bubbled up.

His chest felt like a washing machine on the spin cycle, shaking violently. Yu Qingtang held his breath and walked over slowly. “Why aren’t you sleeping?”

“Thinking of you. Can’t sleep.”

Yu Qingtang had voiced so many audio dramas and heard every type of sweet talk imaginable. But the simpler the confession, the more it made the heart race.

“Dr. Xu, flirting recklessly in the middle of the night is very dangerous.”

Xu Baizhang averted his gaze, raising his hand to rub his brow.

Yu Qingtang stepped a few paces closer. The room was unlit, leaving only silhouettes visible, but he could smell the scent on him. “Have you been drinking?”

The man nodded from the shadows.

“No wonder.” Yu Qingtang reached out to click on the floor lamp. “I’ll go get you a glass of water.”

“I’m not thirsty.”

His wrist and waist were suddenly restrained. The light flickered on and off; Yu Qingtang had barely stood up before he was seated again, eventually pulled down into the sofa.

He leaned back, his breathing uneven, the lingering traces of panic yet to dissipate.

Xu Baizhang stood diagonally, with his left hand supporting the back of the sofa above his head and his right hand still holding him.

Even with his vision blurred, Yu Qingtang could recognize the possessiveness in the other man’s eyes—like a famished beast that could easily devour him whole.

Yu Qingtang was no naive “white rabbit” who had never seen the world; he met the beast’s gaze head-on. “Baizhang, are you drunk?”

“I wouldn’t dare.”

The breath fanning across his forehead was hot enough to sear skin.

Yu Qingtang: “Why the sudden drinking?”

Xu Baizhang: “I’m happy.”

“What is there to be happy about?”

Xu Baizhang: “It’s a secret.”

Yu Qingtang smiled. “Alright, I won’t ask.”

The suspense was agonizing, and Yu Qingtang’s hand was still gripped tightly.

He tried to turn his wrist twice to no avail, so he simply raised his other hand. “Do you want to bite my hand?”

A person who has been drinking has no sense of restraint. Yu Qingtang felt like a piece of meat stuck to a cutting board, yet he proactively offered a suggestion for the knife: “Or… bite my neck?”

This time, both of his hands were pinned down, pressed into the leather sofa.

Clearly, Xu Baizhang wanted to pin down more than just his hands.

“I won’t bite either.” Xu Baizhang leaned even closer, his breath wandering across the tip of his nose, his lips, and his chin.

Yu Qingtang tilted his head away, trying to stop the “annoying” heat from blowing on him. “It’s late; go to sleep.”

His face was forced straight again, his chin gripped tight.

Xu Baizhang’s gaze lingered on his lips. “I don’t want to sleep…”

“I want to kiss you.”