After Liang Huaiyu left, Xie An’yu asked Yu Feng, “Brother, you even photographed a collection for him before?”
Yu Feng nodded. “Mm, back in college. His studio had posted an ad online looking for a photographer, so I applied with a portfolio of my works.”
“You’re amazing.”
Yu Feng smiled at him: “Thank you for the compliment.”
Life’s circumstances had forced Yu Feng to become a versatile photographer back then—shooting anything and everything.
It was clear that Xie An’yu really liked Liang Huaiyu’s works. He lingered for a long time in front of each piece. Before leaving, Yu Feng asked Xie An’yu to wait in the car first. “I’m going to say goodbye to Teacher Liang. Wait for me a few minutes.”
Liang Huaiyu was talking with friends from the industry. Yu Feng waited until he was free before approaching him.
Noticing Yu Feng was alone, Liang Huaiyu asked, “Heading out?”
Yu Feng chuckled. “Yes, the younger one went ahead first.”
Yu Feng had long heard that Liang Huaiyu’s studio consisted only of himself and an assistant, and that he had never taken on an apprentice all these years. For Xie An’yu’s sake, he shamelessly asked, “Teacher Liang, if I may ask—is your studio currently accepting apprentices?”
Liang Huaiyu smiled gently: “Are you asking for that brother of yours?”
“I’m asking on my own behalf, but it is for him.”
“I’m still the same as before—I prefer working alone. It’s quieter.”
Yu Feng understood. “I see.”
Liang Huaiyu smiled and asked, “He’s not really your brother, is he? You don’t look alike at all.”
Yu Feng smiled faintly: “Couldn’t he be my cousin?”
“Cousins don’t look that different either. Don’t tell me he’s your sworn younger brother.”
Yu Feng thought for a moment and said, “He’s my lover.”
Liang Huaiyu joked, “Just say boyfriend—why put it so elegantly?”
Yu Feng glanced at him, a faint smile on his face. “You’re quite progressive. You don’t have any thoughts about this kind of thing?”
“My son is the same as you. What thoughts could I possibly have?”
Yu Feng was taken aback.
“You all really know how to pick, don’t you? Handsome guys all get snatched up by you gays.”
Yu Feng didn’t have deep interactions with Liang Huaiyu. Although he had always found him suave and humorous, he never expected him to speak so directly and amusingly.
Yu Feng smiled and said, “Your son is quite fortunate to have a parent like you.”
“Not fortunate.” Liang Huaiyu turned to look at the wooden sculpture in front of him. “I’ve let him down too much. Having a parent like me is anything but fortunate for him.”
Liang Huaiyu turned back and said, “Come by my studio for tea when you have the chance. Bring your ‘younger brother’ along. Isn’t he fond of wood carving? He should be happy to come, right?”
“He’d definitely be happy to. Then, Teacher Liang, I’ll take my leave now. Please take care of your health.”
Liang Huaiyu nodded. “Let’s meet again when we have the chance.”
***
The exhibition was the last thing Yu Feng did with Xie An’yu before leaving for Milan. The day after the exhibition, he flew to Milan.
Xie An’yu waited at home like a left-behind child, counting the hours. Once Yu Feng was gone, time seemed to crawl—each day of 24 hours felt as long as 240 hours, every second dragging like a year.
After seeing the exhibition that day, Xie An’yu searched for Liang Huaiyu’s name on a shopping app and found some collections of his works. He clicked on the best-selling one and scrolled down to the product details. The photography collection of works had been published seven years ago, and the photographer who provided the materials was none other than Yu Feng.
Xie An’yu placed an order for the collection. He bought it that day and received it the following evening.
While Xie An’yu was sitting on the sofa browsing through the collection, Yu Feng sent him a link on WeChat.
Yu Feng: 【It’s a wood carving competition. Take a look—do you want to sign up?】
Xie An’yu clicked on the link and saw it was a provincial wood carving contest. The age limit for participants was between 16 and 23 years old, and the gold prize came with a 50,000 yuan1T/N: Around 7,000 USD reward.
Such competitions were usually set up for unknown young wood carvers, hence the age restriction.
Xie An’yu: 【Where do you even find these news?】
Yu Feng: 【WeChat official account】
Xie An’yu stared blankly at his phone screen.
The things he loved and wanted to do—Yu Feng paid more attention to them and cared more about them than he did himself.
Xie An’yu: 【I’ll give it a try】
Yu Feng: 【Treat me to a meal when you win the prize money】
Xie An’yu: 【I’ll give all the prize money to you】
Yu Feng: 【Are you trying to support me in my old age again?】
Xie An’yu: 【This isn’t alimony, it’s a betrothal gift】
A certain person far away in a foreign country chuckled at his phone.
Yu Feng: 【You even know about betrothal gifts】
Xie An’yu: 【It’s a bit too little. I’ll make it up to you slowly in the future】
Xie An’yu: 【*3*】
Xie An’yu: 【When are you coming back?】
Yu Feng: 【I’ve only been gone for two days】
Xie An’yu: 【Why does it feel like two months?】
Yu Feng thought to himself that if he ever died one day, it would surely be from being charmed to death by this person.
***
Xie Li would call Xie An’yu from time to time, inviting him over for meals. In the past, Xie An’yu had brushed her off a few times, using work as an excuse, but this time he couldn’t get away with it.
He avoided going because he was afraid it would be awkward. He wasn’t good at socializing to begin with, and he wasn’t particularly close to his aunt and her family. Sitting at the dinner table would mean making small talk and engaging in awkward conversations, which he found rather dull. Besides, his aunt’s place was far away, making the trip quite inconvenient.
He could also sense a hint of reproach in his aunt’s tone. Refusing again would be too inconsiderate.
The meal went exactly as Xie An’yu had anticipated. His aunt did most of the talking at the table, asking about his recent life and chatting about trivial matters.
“You’ve become a print model?” Xie Li exclaimed in surprise.
Wu Jie laughed. “Isn’t it normal for him to be a model? He’s so handsome and has such a great figure.”
Wu Guosheng asked curiously, “Does modeling pay pretty well?”
Xie An’yu answered truthfully, “It’s indeed a bit higher than regular jobs, but it’s unstable.”
Wu Jie asked him, “So are you planning to do this long-term?”
Xie An’yu shook his head, “It’s just temporary.”
Wu Guosheng didn’t quite understand, “This job pays well, why not keep doing it? If not this, what do you want to do?”
Wu Jie clicked her tongue and shot her dad a look, “Everyone has their own aspirations, not everyone is just after money.”
Wu Guosheng closed his mouth.
Xie Li gave her husband a sideways glance and chimed in: “That’s right. The child wants to do what he likes, why say so much.”
Another somewhat painful thing about eating at someone else’s house was not being able to leave immediately after the meal.
Xie An’yu sat on the sofa eating fruit, staring blankly at the TV with his soul seemingly drifting away. Wu Meng sat beside him too shy to strike up a conversation. The young girl was shy and easily embarrassed, so an awkward atmosphere filled the entire living room, almost spreading into the kitchen.
Xie An’yu picked up his phone and sent Yu Feng a WeChat message: 【What are you doing?】
Xie Li brought over another plate of lychees and sat down next to Xie An’yu: “Have some lychees.”
“Dad,” Wu Jie called out from the kitchen, walking out with a jar of honey pomelo jam tea2蜂蜜柚子果醬茶 (fēng mì yòu ziguǒ jiàng chá): Honey Pomelo Jam Tea.
, “I can’t open this jar, can you help me open it—”
“Stop calling for dad, your dad’s taking a shower,” Xie Li said.
Xie An’yu casually put his phone down on the sofa and stood up, “I’ll help you open it.”
As soon as Xie An’yu left, the phone on the sofa vibrated. Xie Li glanced down—Xie An’yu had saved Yu Feng’s contact as ‘Brother Yu’. The message preview on the screen made Xie Li’s expression freeze—
Brother Yu: 【Thinking about my boyfriend】
Xie Li abruptly looked up and glanced at Xie An’yu. After helping Wu Jie open the jar, Xie An’yu walked back. Xie Li immediately averted her gaze and lowered her head, stuffing a lychee into her mouth.
When Xie An’yu sat back on the sofa, Xie Li handed him a lychee, pursed her lips, and asked, “Are you still staying at that friend’s place?”
“Mm.”
“Does he rent the place to you?”
Yu Feng had long stopped charging Xie An’yu rent, but to avoid too many questions from his aunt, Xie An’yu decided to keep it to himself, “Yes.”
“How old is he? Is he older than you?”
Wu Jie made a cup of honey pomelo tea and walked over, “What kind of question is that? Of course he’s older than An’yu. If he were younger, would he be able to rent out a place?”
Xie Li almost asked if that person’s surname was Yu but held back, “Next time invite him over for a meal. After all, he helped you out.”
Xie An’yu nodded: “Okay.”
***
After getting home, Xie An’yu took a shower. With nothing to do afterward, he suddenly remembered that Yu Feng had mentioned having ‘movies’ on his computer and told him to check them out when he had time.
Now that he had time, he might as well take a look.
Xie An’yu sneaked into Yu Feng’s study like a thief and stealthily turned on his computer. The computer was password-protected. He tried Yu Feng’s birthday—wrong. He tried 123456—still wrong. Finally, he tried his own birthday—correct. The desktop appeared.
Yu Feng’s computer was huge, with a vertical screen monitor next to the horizontal one. When it booted up, both screens turned on.
Xie An’yu had assumed that a top photographer like Yu Feng would have a desktop cluttered with files, but when it opened, it was cleaner than his own face.
Xie An’yu wasn’t sure if Yu Feng had anticipated he would come looking for adult videos on the computer, but the folder containing them was placed right on the desktop, blatantly named ‘Videos’. Since the desktop was otherwise empty, Xie An’yu spotted the folder at a glance.
Xie An’yu clicked open the folder, took half a minute to mentally prepare himself, then closed his eyes and randomly selected a video.
The foreplay dragged on. Xie An’yu watched with a furrowed brow for five minutes until the moment the protagonist tore off the other’s clothes. A shiver ran down his spine, and he hastily grabbed the mouse to close the video.
He sat blankly staring at the computer screen for a while, took a deep breath, and then mustered the courage to randomly open another one.
This time, too, he didn’t last until the main action started. He watched five or six videos without making it to the main topic.
Although he only watched the preparation action3前搖 (qián yáo): a popular internet term, originated from the terminology of action and competitive games. It refers to the preparation phase before a character launches a skill or action, which is expressed as the duration of the initial action from the input of the command to the skill taking effect. It was originally used to describe the skill release delay in the game mechanism, and later extended to the daily context to refer to the preparation process before the event begins. of each video, he noticed that the protagonists in these videos were all quite good-looking, with nice figures and pleasant voices.
Yu Feng likely had high standards for his video selection, rejecting anything ugly, fat, or with an unpleasant voice.
Thinking of this, Xie Anyu couldn’t help but smile, but after a while, his smile faded. If he kept going like this, how would he learn anything?
Xie An’yu scrolled to the bottom and, with a serious expression, clicked on the final video. This time, he dragged the progress bar directly to the one-third mark… The low moaning sounds coming from the speakers startled him. He froze in shock for two seconds, his face flushing as he watched the two people entangled on the screen.
Xie An’yu stared at the screen without blinking. At first, he was merely shy, but the receiving partner in the video had a figure that was seven-tenths similar to Yu Feng’s, even the outline of the back of his head was slightly similar. As he watched, his body began to react.
Xie An’yu closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair for a moment, his breathing gradually becoming heavier as he listened to the sounds coming from the video. Just as he reached his hand downward, the phone on the desk vibrated, he was so scared that his body trembled4虎軀一震 (hǔ qū yī zhèn): lit. tiger body trembles; shaking the body like a tiger; describe a state of physical trembling caused by extreme shock, surprise, or excitement; a dramatic way to say someone got frightened usually for the sense of humor; an internet slang term originally meant to express surprise, but it has taken on a different meaning in online novels. ‘虎軀一震，渾身散發出王霸之氣, the tiger’s body shook, and its whole body exuded a domineering aura’, often refers to the protagonist using their unique skills to boost their aura, exerting mental pressure on others to force them to surrender, or shocking the heroine into falling in love with them..
Seeing Yu Feng’s name flash on the screen, Xie An’yu’s breathing stopped. He paused the video, calmed his breathing, cleared his throat, and answered the call.
“Hello?”
It was currently afternoon in Milan, and Yu Feng was having dinner at the hotel’s buffet restaurant.
“I missed the sound of your voice, so I called you.”
Xie An’yu let out an ‘Mm’.
Yu Feng said from the other end: “Don’t just say ‘mm’. Say something longer; let your boyfriend hear your voice.”
“Mm… What are you doing?” The moment Xie An’yu spoke a longer sentence, his unsteady breathing gave him away. Yu Feng shared a bed with him every day and could instantly detect even the slightest change in his breathing pattern.
Yu Feng narrowed his eyes and countered: “What are you doing?”
Xie An’yu pursed his lips and didn’t make a sound.
Alone at home, what else could possibly have caused him to do that kind of thing?
Yu Feng asked him: “Are you perhaps in the middle of a ‘study’ session?”
Xie An’yu’s hand rested between his legs. He lowered his head, his voice tight in his throat, practically squeezing the words through his teeth: “I was so scared that I almost went limp…”
Yu Feng chuckled softly, “I apologize for interrupting your study.”
List of Idiom in Chapter 71.2
名不見經傳 (míng bù jiàn jīng zhuàn): lit. one’s name does not appear in classical works; to be unknown; to be a no-name; be unheard of; obscure; refers to people who have no reputation or arguments that have no basis.實話實說 (shí huà shí shuō): to speak the truth; to call a spade a spade; to tell it as it is; speak the plain truth; speak frankly; tell the truth; tell it like it is; talk straight; speak frankly; talk turkey. Its core meaning is to tell the truth in a straightforward manner.
人各有志 (rén gè yǒu zhì): every person has his or her own aspiration; different people have different aspirations; everyone has his or her own ambition; different people have different goals; to each his own. Everyone has his or her own ambitions, interests, and choices, and no one can be forced to do something he or she does not want to do.
密密麻麻 (mì mi má má): densely packed; dense and numerous; numerous and close together; thickly dotted; thick; dense; cramped.
面紅耳赤 (miàn hóng ěr chì): flushed with anger (or excitement); red in the face (from embarrassment, anxiety or anger); one’s/sb’s face reddens to the ears; describes a person’s face turning red due to excitement, shame or argument.
同床共枕 (tóng chuáng gòng zhěn): lit. share the same quilt and pillow—sleep together; to share the bed; fig. to be married; sleeping in the same bed, mostly refers to the life of a couple. This idiom is often used to describe the intimate state of a couple’s life together.
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