MHWFYYTMDF Chapter27

At this moment, he clearly realized just how much he relied on He Muyan in that home.

They had only been apart for half a day, yet he was already starting to miss him.

Song Li felt utterly helpless and useless. A dull pain spread through his chest, leaving him so miserable that he almost wanted to cry.

He was afraid he would actually start crying, so he could only think of other things to distract himself. The nearby TV was currently broadcasting a comedy variety show that Xue Sang usually liked to watch. A light went on in his mind, and he immediately picked up his phone to make a call.

The ringtone rang for a long time, so long that he thought the other party wasn’t going to answer and it was about to hang up automatically, when he suddenly heard a click, and Xue Sang’s slightly raspy voice sounded.

“Hey, Lili.”

Song Li gave an “en” sound. “What’s wrong with your voice? Do you have a cold?”

Xue Sang said “no,” but in the next second, he suddenly let out a soft “ah.” The sound was damp, soft, and lingering, sounding incredibly strange indeed.

It took Song Li a second to react before he instantly realized what he was currently doing. His face flushed as he roared into the phone, “It’s still daytime, right? Can’t you guys wait until night!”

Xue Sang continued making muffled “en-en, ah-ah” sounds for a while longer. By the time he finally replied, his voice was already heavy with breathlessness. “So, what if it’s daytime? Today is the weekend, it’s rare for my husband to have a day off, en…”

Song Li really couldn’t bear to listen anymore. He covered the ear and pressed against the phone. “I’m about to die, come save me quickly.”

Xue Sang let out a “ah?” sound. “Ge, what did you say?”

“I said your brother is about to die, hurry up and come save me!”

Xue Sang’s voice returned slightly to normal as he asked in confusion, “Ge, where are you right now?”

“In my own apartment.”

“Why did you go back to your own place? Did you have a fight with your husband?”

“Stop talking nonsense. Are you coming or not?”

Xue Sang’s breathing grew heavy again, and he murmured back, “The arrow is already nocked, Ge… ha… just wait until we’re done, okay?”

Song Li ignored him, giving his final ultimatum in a cold voice, “One hour. If you still aren’t here in an hour, you can just come and collect my corpse.”

“How could one hour be enough! That’s not even enough for the appetizer. My husband is very durable; it takes at least two hours or more…”

Song Li ended the call without hesitation, tossed his phone aside, and shut his eyes, feeling a throbbing headache.

He was so angry his mind felt completely muddled. After hanging up, he fell back into a drowsy sleep at some point. In his hazy slumber, he felt someone whispering and muttering in his ear, which was so noisy he was forced to open his eyes.

Two figures were moving around in front of him. He was very familiar with the smaller, thinner figure—it was Xue Sang.

He didn’t recognize the tall figure standing beside him, whispering into his ear, but judging by how close and affectionate he was with Xue Sang, he was most likely his boyfriend.

“Xiao Sang…”

When Song Li spoke to call out to them, the hoarseness of his own voice even startled him himself.

How had his throat ended up like this after just one sleep?

Xue Sang immediately turned around and bent down to look at him. “Ge, you’re awake! How are you feeling? Do you have a headache? Does your body hurt anywhere?”

Song Li blinked hard, his blurry vision finally clearing up a bit. Looking at Xue Sang’s face full of concern and anxiety, he asked in confusion, “What happened to me?”

Xue Sang reached out to brush the hair away from his forehead and sighed. “You have a fever. The moment we walked through the door, we saw you slumping on the sofa sleeping like a corpse. We couldn’t wake you up no matter how we tried. When we took your temperature; good lord, it was nearly forty degrees! You scared me to death!”

He had a fever? Song Li shook his head. No wonder his head had felt so heavy and terribly dizzy before he fell asleep. Turning his head to look around, he realized he was currently lying on the bed in the bedroom; it looked like Xue Sang and his boyfriend had carried him inside.

Seeing that Xue Sang was still wearing a face full of worry and anxiety, Song Li smiled. “I told you that if you didn’t come, you’d be collecting my corpse. I wasn’t lying to you, was I?”

Xue Sang looked at him speechlessly. “What time do you think it is that you’re still in the mood to joke with me?”

Song Li shrugged, his gaze shifting past his shoulder to look at the tall man standing behind him.

“You must be Xiao Sang’s boyfriend. Hello, sorry to trouble you today.”

“Why are you being so polite with him?” Xue Sang pouted before getting up to walk over to the tall man’s side. Reaching out to hook his arm, he stood on his tiptoes and planted a loud kiss on his chin. “Let me introduce you. This is my boyfriend, Ye Yi. And this is my childhood friend, Song Li. He’s good-looking, right? But he’s a married man, so you’re not allowed to get any ideas.”

This kid, talking nonsense over there again.

Just as Song Li was about to scold him, Ye Yi already looked at him with a smile. “Hello. I often hear Xiao Sang mention you. He’s just like this, speaking without filtering himself. Please don’t be angry with him.”

Song Li nodded, thinking to himself that there was no way he would be angry. He had known Xue Sang for twenty years; they knew each other’s terrible habits far better than they knew their own.

Especially Xue Sang, due to his family situation, he had been a child starving of love and security since he was young. On top of that, he had a sexual orientation that differed from the mainstream. In the earlier years when male homosexuality wasn’t accepted by society, he had indeed suffered quite a lot of hardships.

Song Li had met every single boyfriend Xue Sang had ever dated. There was an elite lawyer working at a firm, a playboy who took pleasure in playing with other people’s feelings, and even an innocent young kid who hadn’t even graduated from university.

Of course, they liked Xue Sang when they were with him, but it also seemed as though they didn’t like him all that much as well, which was why they were able to cut ties so cleanly and decisively every time they broke up.

Song Li had seen it so many times that he had long since grown numb to it. Every time Xue Sang showed up in front of him with a new boyfriend, he actually didn’t even bother to remember the person’s face. After all, who knew if the person linked arm-in-arm with Xue Sang the next time they met would still be him?

But today, this Ye Yi seemed somewhat different. His temperament was different, he was far too honest and steady, and his appearance was different too. Putting aside how Xue Sang looked himself, he was an extreme member of the “looks department” club. While this Ye Yi wasn’t ugly, he could by no means be called very handsome. In the past, someone with this kind of appearance would absolutely never have made it onto Xue Sang’s candidate list.

His physique, however, was exceptionally good. He had broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and incredibly long legs. Perhaps because he was looking at him from the bed and the angle was different, he felt they might even be longer than He Muyan’s.

More importantly, the way he looked at Xue Sang was also very different. No matter where Xue Sang was or what he was doing, his gaze never drifted away from Xue Sang for even a second. It was indulgent and doting, so intense that it was impossible to ignore.

This Ye Yi seemed to truly, deeply love Xue Sang.

Looking at the foolish Xue Sang who was still clinging to Ye Yi and acting spoiled, Song Li let out a soft laugh and reached out to pat his stomach. “Xiao Sang, I haven’t eaten anything since this morning. I’m starving to death.”

Hearing this, Xue Sang turned around and glared at him. “Are you trying to achieve immortality or something? What do you have a stomach for if you don’t even eat!”

Song Li felt aggrieved. “I didn’t eat because I wasn’t hungry.”

“Then you—”

Before Xue Sang could finish scolding him, Ye Yi tugged his sleeve from the side and said with a smile, “It’s about dinner time now anyway. Let me go make something. Is there anything you guys want to eat?”

“I want to eat your zhajiang noodles.” Facing Ye Yi, Xue Sang instantly switched to a completely different face, his voice also turning sweet and syrupy. “And I want two poached eggs on top.”

Ye Yi reached out and pinched his nose. “Alright.”

He then turned his head to look at Song Li on the bed, and Song Li immediately replied, “The same as him is fine, thank you for the trouble.”

“It’s no trouble.” Ye Yi smiled and nodded, stole another look down at Xue Sang, and then turned and walked out.

Xue Sang’s gaze lingered on his retreating figure, unwilling to look away for the longest time.

Song Li called out to him from behind, “Alright, does he have hooks on him or is he covered in superglue? You can’t even pull your eyes back?”

Xue Sang turned back and snorted. “The zhajiang noodles my husband makes are absolutely unbeatable. You’re in for a real treat today.”

Amused, Song Li spoke from the bottom of his heart, “He really loves you. He’s different from all those people in the past.”

“En,” Xue Sang murmured while pulling over a stool to sit by the bed. He grabbed a mandarin orange and lowered his head to slowly peel it. “He is different.”

As for how different he was, he didn’t say. He merely pursed his lips and quietly peeled the orange, meticulously cleaning off every bit of the white pith on the orange segments with his slender fingers, before breaking off two segments and stuffing them into Song Li’s mouth.

The mandarin orange was very cold. Song Li couldn’t help but shudder slightly, but as he took a bite, the sensation of the juice bursting in his mouth was actually quite refreshing.

“It’s good, give me some more.”

Xue Sang stuffed two more segments into his mouth. Seeing him eating with such relish, he also felt a craving and casually tossed a segment into his own mouth as well.

The moment he bit down, he let out a yelp, his face twisting completely. “Damn it! This orange is way too sour! Is this even fit for human consumption? I paid seven-point-five yuan a jin¹ for this. What a bunch of goddamn unscrupulous merchants.”

Song Li took the remaining segments from his hand and kept stuffing them into his own mouth. “Is it sour? I think it’s okay. It’s really tasty.”

Xue Sang stared at him speechlessly, his eyelids still twitching from the sourness even now. “Lili, you’re not acting right. Don’t you hate eating sour things the most?”

Song Li finished the orange before realizing it afterward. “Oh, right. But it seems I can eat them now.”

He seemed to know the reason; it was probably related to the child in his stomach again.

Thinking up to this point, Song Li’s mood sank once more. Savoring the lingering, fresh fragrance of the orange in his mouth, he let out a heavy sigh.

Xue Sang narrowed his eyes at him, suddenly leaning in close to grab his face firmly with both hands, shouting right at him, “Song Li!”

Song Li winced from the fright, subconsciously placing his hand over his stomach as he said crossly, “Are you trying to summon my ghost?”

Xue Sang noticed the movement of his hand and frowned. “You’re not acting right. Lili, you’re really not acting right. Before I get angry, you’d better confess everything you’re hiding from me as soon as possible.”

Song Li looked at his beautiful face just inches away. With Xue Sang glaring and looking so fierce, his aura was far too overbearing. However, with his own face currently being squeezed, Song Li spoke with a slurred lisp, “Let go of me first, and I’ll tell you.”

Xue Sang released him, settled back into his chair, and crossed his arms and legs. “Spit it out, quickly.”

Song Li rubbed his face. This kid’s grip was way too strong, pinching his face until it ached.

He pondered for a moment, phrasing the words in his head while trying to think of how to say it without shocking him too much.

“I had a fight with my husband.”

Xue Sang rolled his eyes. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

Song Li let out a bitter laugh. “It’s not exactly a fight. Actually, I’m the one throwing a tantrum. I couldn’t take it anymore, so I ran back.”

Xue Sang smacked him on the head. “It’s not you throwing a tantrum, it’s your husband making things difficult for you. Stop always taking all the blame yourself. Who do you think you are, Liu Luoguo? Do you really have to go around carrying a pot on your back all the time²?”

Crude as the reasoning was, it made sense. Song Li nodded in agreement, pondered it for another moment, then raised his head to look at him. “Xiao Sang, just hypothetically, if you were pregnant, and Ye Yi’s ex came over specifically to flaunt and show off in front of you, what would you do?”

It took Xue Sang a moment to process his words, looking a bit dazed. “Wait, there’s a bit too much information in that question. Let me wrap my head around it…”

Before even two seconds of wrapping his head around it had passed, Xue Sang suddenly froze, jumped up, and kicked the stool straight away. “That bastard He Muyan brought someone back to your house?!”

Song Li hadn’t expected his reaction to be this violent. Startled, he hurriedly waved his hands in explanation. “No, no, He Muyan didn’t bring him over.”

“Then that person delivered himself to your doorstep? How cheap can you get! And you tolerated this? Did you slap him across the face?!”

Song Li: “……”

He suddenly regretted bringing this up.

Xue Sang couldn’t stand seeing him look so weak. Furious, he grabbed him by the collar. “Song Li, wake the f*ck up! How many days have you two even been married? He Muyan already dares to let those lingering exes of his flaunt right in your face. What’s going to happen in the future?!”

“No…” Song Li knew he had a fiery temper, but he hadn’t expected his reaction to be this extreme. He was already running a fever, and with all this rough shaking, how could his body take it? He couldn’t help but lean over the side of the bed and gag on the spot.

Xue Sang was startled and took a step back, still unable to fully process it. “Wait, I didn’t use that much force. Lili, since when did you become so fragile?”

Song Li dry-heaved for a long time, unable to throw anything up, but it was incredibly uncomfortable. He collapsed back onto the bed, completely drained of strength, his face as pale as wax.

“I… I hadn’t even finished speaking. Why are you getting so angry?”

Xue Sang reached out to rub his chest to soothe him. “Are you okay? Isn’t it just a fever? Why are you dry-heaving? Lili, your condition is really off. What on earth is going on?”

Song Li caught his breath and looked at him helplessly. “Have you calmed down now? If you have, think carefully about what I just said. Did you miss something?”

Frowning, Xue Sang racked his brain to recall the words just spoken.

After about ten seconds, Xue Sang’s eyes slowly widened. He stared down at the person on the bed with his mouth gaping so wide it could swallow a whole egg. It took a long while before he silently mouthed a single word, “F*ck!”

Ye Yi finished making the noodles and came in to call them for dinner. The moment he entered the room; he felt that the atmosphere inside was clearly different from before.

Song Li was still lying on the bed, but he had turned on his side to face the wall. The chair that was originally by the bedside had been kicked over onto the floor. Xue Sang stood at the window with his hands gripping the windowsill for support, while his hunched back shaking uncontrollably.

The air pressure in the room was terribly low.

Ye Yi didn’t know what had happened, but he still walked up behind Xue Sang, wrapping his large hands over the ones propped on the windowsill, and called him in a low voice, “Baby.”

Xue Sang’s body seemed to shudder violently. He turned his head to look at him, the rims of his eyes and his nose completely red.

Distressed, Ye Yi wrapped him in an embrace with his large hand gently stroking his back. “What’s wrong? You were perfectly fine just a moment ago.”

Cradled in his arms, Xue Sang seemed to turn fragile in an instant, utterly unlike the fierce, confrontational figure he had been moments ago with his sword drawn.

Pointing a finger at Song Li on the bed, he said, “Ask him! I’m about to be driven to death by his sheer stupidity. How can anyone be so dumb? And I was only doing it for his own f*cking good, I…”

“Baby,” Ye Yi interrupted him, gesturing for him to stop. “Let’s go out first and leave Song Li alone for a bit.”

Xue Sang looked up at him, sniffled twice, and nodded gently.

The bedroom door was gently closed, and the room instantly became terrifyingly quiet.

Song Li lifted his face from the throw pillow. He fought desperately to hold himself together, barely managing to keep the tears welling in his eyes from spilling over.