Jiang Tongyan, this ‘domineering CEO’, was truly shameless!
But Qian Xiaoke liked it.
Qian Xiaoke said, “How can you be like this…”
As he spoke, his cheeks and ears were red. Without realising it, he began imagining the two of them doing this and that on that big executive desk. It was utterly improper, but he liked it so much.
“Sigh, I’m pretty shameless too,” Qian Xiaoke sighed sincerely from the bottom of his heart.
“That’s good,” Jiang Tongyan said as he clung to him. “Being shameless toward your own husband is worth encouraging.”
Qian Xiaoke chuckled. As he laughed, he started getting handsy with him.
Both of them were getting into the mood, planning to bid farewell to the year right there in a way that was ‘elegant yet not lacking in sexiness’, when Qian Xiaoke’s phone rang.
The caller was Zhou Mo.
“Ignore him,” Jiang Tongyan muttered.
“No, I have to answer.”
It was like this. Right now, Zhou Mo was extremely important to Qian Xiaoke, someone like the God of Matchmaking, a go-between, his very own little Cupid. He had to cherish him and try to grant any request he made.
After all, he and Jiang Tongyan had met at Zhou Mo’s birthday party.
Jiang Tongyan clung to Qian Xiaoke like a giant pendant, his face full of resentment as he listened to Qian Xiaoke on the phone.
“Sure, sure!” Qian Xiaoke said. “No problem, we’ll go!”
The moment he heard the words ‘we’ll go’, Jiang Tongyan was startled and suddenly had a bad feeling.
After Qian Xiaoke hung up, Jiang Tongyan asked, “Where are we going?”
“Tonight we’re going to spend New Year’s Eve with Zhou Mo and the others!”
Qian Xiaoke’s face was full of excitement. Jiang Tongyan’s face was full of refusal.
Jiang Tongyan had plans for New Year’s Eve.
His plan was to drag Qian Xiaoke into staying home and eat a big feast, then crawl under the covers together to watch horror movies. While watching, Qian Xiaoke would get scared and burrow into his arms, and then, accompanied by the shrill screams of the movie, the two of them would have sex like crazy.
How thrilling!
How wonderful!
Why did they have to crowd together with Zhou Mo and the others?
Why couldn’t affectionate couples be given a bit of private space?
“Qian Xiaoke, calm down,” Jiang Tongyan said. “Isn’t it nice for us to sleep together at home on New Year’s Eve?”
Wasn’t it nice?
‘Sleeping together’ at home, from this year into the next. How beautiful.
Qian Xiaoke held his phone, smiling until his cheeks puffed up. He said to Jiang Tongyan, “Since the two of us got together, we still haven’t properly had a meal with Zhou Mo and Cheng Sen… Think about it. Before, they were always showing off their affection in front of us. This time, we can show ours back.”
Qian Xiaoke really understood Jiang Tongyan. In this regard, Jiang Tongyan’s vanity was unimaginably strong. As long as he was told he could show off his affection, he would abandon everything and jump right in.
Sigh. A man in his thirties, in love for the first time, was just that fond of showing off.
Sure enough, Jiang Tongyan’s eyes immediately lit up.
Sleeping together could be done anytime, but showing affection required the right timing.
“Alright, we’ll go,” Jiang Tongyan said. “What time?”
“Zhou Mo is contacting restaurants. It’s not easy to book one today. He said he’ll tell me once it’s set.”
Jiang Tongyan suddenly had an idea. He snapped his fingers, then pulled Qian Xiaoke toward the door.
“We should get prepared before we go.”
“Prepare what?”
After locking the door, Jiang Tongyan put a hat on Qian Xiaoke and tied his scarf, treating his little darling like a child.
Hand in hand, Jiang Tongyan and Qian Xiaoke entered the elevator. “Let’s buy matching couple outfits. If we’re going to show affection, we need to get the details right. As the saying goes, details determine success or failure.”
Qian Xiaoke couldn’t help laughing at how childish he was.
“Then do you want to wear it with me?”
“Yes!” Qian Xiaoke raised his hand. “Can I choose the style myself?”
“Yes!” Jiang Tongyan didn’t even care about the camera in the elevator and directly kissed his cheek. “Your husband approves!”
Qian Xiaoke smiled and shot him a sideways glance, thinking: If you didn’t approve, I wouldn’t wear it.
Because Jiang Tongyan handed this ‘important responsibility’ over to Qian Xiaoke, it directly resulted in a thirty-year-old man, nearly one meter ninety tall, sitting in a high-end restaurant wearing a yellow Pikachu sweater and eating with Zhou Mo and the others.
Qian Xiaoke didn’t feel there was anything wrong with it at all. On the contrary, he thought that Jiang Tongyan like this was unbelievably cute and made him want to kiss and hug him immediately, regardless of the setting.
As for what Zhou Mo and Cheng Sen thought when they saw Jiang Tongyan dressed like that, it wasn’t important at all. Because they were not the main lead.
The main lead, Jiang Tongyan, was still in a pretty good mood. Even though he felt it was overly childish, as long as Qian Xiaoke liked it, he was happy. This man was just that principled.
The four of them sat in the restaurant eating steak and drinking red wine. Jiang Tongyan attentively cut Qian Xiaoke’s steak, practically wanting to feed it to him bite by bite.
Zhou Mo said, “I really didn’t expect Old Jiang to be like this when he’s in a relationship.”
Qian Xiaoke smiled so hard his eyes nearly disappeared. He chewed the meat in his mouth, swallowed, then asked Zhou Mo, “What was he like before, when he was with you guys?”
Qian Xiaoke was quite curious.
Because ever since they met, the Jiang Tongyan Qian Xiaoke had seen was basically a walking comedy act, always saying and doing amusing things with a straight face. Even now, when Qian Xiaoke thought back on everything that had happened between them, he could still laugh out loud.
Jiang Tongyan was really adorable. This wasn’t just lovers’ bias.
Zhou Mo looked at Jiang Tongyan, then said to Qian Xiaoke, “Before, I always thought of him as a career-focused social elite, a promising young man with a sharp mind and extremely high IQ and EQ.”
Qian Xiaoke’s head filled with question marks. He looked at Zhou Mo, then at Jiang Tongyan beside him, who was wearing a Pikachu sweater.
“Are you serious?” In Qian Xiaoke’s view, although Jiang Tongyan was three years older than he, the two of them together were just a pair of love-brained idiots. No matter how he looked at it, he couldn’t see Jiang Tongyan as someone with ‘extremely high IQ and EQ’.
Cheng Sen nodded from the side. “He really was like that before.”
There were even more question marks over Qian Xiaoke’s head.
He asked carefully, “Could it be that I lowered his intelligence?”
Jiang Tongyan, who was sitting there drinking red wine, nearly choked. To stop Qian Xiaoke from overthinking, he hurried to explain, “You enriched my life.”
Qian Xiaoke turned his head to look at him, not understanding.
“My life used to be too boring,” Jiang Tongyan said. “Life was dull, and I couldn’t find a partner, so all I could do was focus on my career.”
Qian Xiaoke asked quietly, “Then… once you start dating, you don’t focus on your career anymore?”
Jiang Tongyan thought to himself: If you can date, who still bothers with a career?
But that didn’t fit his domineering-CEO persona. A domineering CEO had to love both romance and career, and be strong at both.
Jiang Tongyan said, “In the past, I put one hundred percent of my energy into work. But after meeting you, because you’re just too cute, I reluctantly allocated eighty percent of my energy to you. Only eighty percent, don’t get too c0cky.”
He started spouting nonsense with a perfectly straight face, to the point that the two people across from him were rolling their eyes, while Qian Xiaoke beside him was smiling like a peach blossom in full bloom.
“Don’t be like that,” Qian Xiaoke said shyly, lightly punching him with a soft little fist. “You still need to put more thought into your work.”
“It’s fine, there’s no need,” Jiang Tongyan said as he grabbed Qian Xiaoke’s hand and kissed it. “The money in our family is enough for the two of us to squander all the way into our next lives. We’ve got money. No worries.”
After saying that, Jiang Tongyan suddenly seemed to remember something. He pulled Qian Xiaoke’s hand up for the two people across from them to see. “See that?”
Zhou Mo glanced at the diamond ring on Qian Xiaoke’s hand. “I’m not blind yet.”
Qian Xiaoke didn’t usually wear the engagement ring. It was really too flashy and inconvenient for work. But not wearing it didn’t mean he didn’t carry it with him.
His diamond ring was kept in his small double-strap backpack every day, ready to be deployed at any time, like right now.
“We’re preparing to get married,” Jiang Tongyan said with unmistakable pride. “After the New Year, we’ll take our Xiaoke back to the U.S. to get married.”
Cheng Sen sneered. “He doesn’t have marriage leave.”
“That’s fine,” Jiang Tongyan said. “No worries.”
He laid it out logically to Cheng Sen. “First, after New Year’s Day, he’ll be transferred upstairs and be under my management. If I say he has leave, then he has leave.”
Cheng Sen rolled his eyes.
“Second, even if there’s no leave, taking personal leave is still no problem. It’s just a pay deduction, right? Deduct it. We have money!”
Cheng Sen rolled his eyes again.
Qian Xiaoke felt embarrassed and secretly pinched Jiang Tongyan’s thigh, telling him to stop talking.
Zhou Mo was laughing so hard at the two of them that his head started to hurt.
“You two, that’s enough already. Why are you showing off your affection in front of us?”
“I’m not deliberately showing off,” Jiang Tongyan said with a faint smile. “It’s just genuine emotion spilling out.”
Cheng Sen mocked him. “Someone really should record you and let you see exactly what kind of face you’re making right now.”
Zhou Mo propped his chin on his hand and looked at the two of them across the table, muttering, “Come to think of it, it’s pretty magical. One birthday party of mine brought together two pairs of lovers.”
He sighed to himself. “Maybe I really am the reincarnation of the God of Matchmaking.”
“I think you were demoted to the mortal world for randomly matching people up,” Jiang Tongyan said. “The red strings you tied back then weren’t like this. We all relied on ourselves and brought this upon ourselves.”
“Hubby,” Qian Xiaoke said, patting him. “That’s not how ‘brought it upon ourselves’ is used.”
“Then how is it used?” The two of them started discussing idioms.
Zhou Mo laughed as he watched them and said, “That’s true. It was my poor judgment. If I had known you were this kind of person, I really shouldn’t have tried to match you up with Suo Yang. The vibes of you two were completely different.”
When he heard Suo Yang’s name, Qian Xiaoke nodded and said, “Right. One is a realistic-style handsome guy, and the other is…”
Jiang Tongyan turned to look at him. “Watch your wording!”
“One is a chibi-style mega cutie.”
Jiang Tongyan was very satisfied with that description and rewarded him with a passionate kiss.
“…I really messed up,” Zhou Mo said. “Why did I even call you all out to eat together?”
Cheng Sen smiled and rubbed Zhou Mo’s hair. “Let Old Jiang pay later.”
“I think that works.”
Jiang Tongyan was in a good mood that day. Paying the bill was no problem at all. Money wasn’t an issue.
To show that he was a wealthy and powerful domineering CEO, he even ordered an extra steak for Qian Xiaoke, afraid that his little darling wouldn’t get enough to eat.
A domineering CEO in love was just that considerate. Jiang Tongyan leaned close to Qian Xiaoke’s ear and whispered, “Eat more, baby. After we get home tonight, we’re going at it until dawn. You need to replenish your energy in advance.”
As for New Year’s Eve, Zhou Mo actually had other plans. He was the kind of person who couldn’t stay still, the type who would go clubbing if there was a holiday, and if there weren’t one, he would create a reason to go clubbing anyway.
Originally, he had planned for the four of them to go out and have fun after dinner, drink a bit and dance, and ring in the new year that way.
Of course, at first, this plan involved two more people, but they had refused his invitation. As for those two heartless men, one was named Shen Huiming, and the other was Suo Yang.
Zhou Mo had come to realise that among all his friends, Qian Xiaoke was still the cutest.
Little did he know that his sincerity was misplaced. The reason these two had agreed to come eat together wasn’t that they genuinely wanted to ring in the new year hand in hand with this ‘old married couple’, but simply to show off their affection.
When the meal was almost over, Zhou Mo brought up his plan to go clubbing for New Year’s. Qian Xiaoke turned his head and looked at Jiang Tongyan.
Qian Xiaoke only looked silly and dumb on the surface. In reality, he was pretty shrewd. He let Jiang Tongyan be the bad guy.
Jiang Tongyan didn’t mind being the bad guy at all. It wasn’t like he hadn’t been one before.
“No,” Jiang Tongyan said. “After we finish eating, Xiaoke and I are going home.”
“Home?” Zhou Mo’s fork nearly fell out of his hand. “Are you even human?”
Jiang Tongyan nodded righteously. “From a biological standpoint, we should be.”
Zhou Mo rolled his eyes. “Every last one of you, ungrateful.”
“What do you mean by that?” Jiang Tongyan asked.
“I’m your matchmaker! You two, and the couple who didn’t come. You all get partners and forget about me,” Zhou Mo muttered with a pout. “Doesn’t your conscience hurt at all?”
Qian Xiaoke stepped in to smooth things over with a grin. “Don’t you still have Chairman Cheng? The two of you can spend a sweet, cosy time together. How nice is that?”
Zhou Mo looked at Cheng Sen and sized him up.
“It is pretty nice,” Zhou Mo said. “But it’s the two of us every year. There’s no novelty anymore.”
See? That was the stark contrast between new and long-term couples.
Qian Xiaoke and Jiang Tongyan, as a newly formed couple, were at the stage where they wanted to cling to each other for every holiday. Zhou Mo and Cheng Sen, on the other hand, had been clinging to each other for years and had run out of new stuff to do, so they could only look for stimulation from the people around them.
Cheng Sen smiled, suddenly raised his arm to pull Zhou Mo over, leaned in, and gave him a quick kiss.
“Oh my!” Qian Xiaoke said dramatically, covering his eyes. “Improper sights should not be seen!”
Jiang Tongyan forcefully pried his hands away from his face. “What are you pretending for?”
Qian Xiaoke peeked through the gaps between his fingers at the two of them kissing, then said to Jiang Tongyan, “Those two never get affectionate in front of us usually. They’re very principled.”
Although Zhou Mo looked wild, compared to Qian Xiaoke and Jiang Tongyan, he and Cheng Sen were much more reserved. Cheng Sen was a proper boss and would absolutely never do shameless things like that in front of his company or employees.
Only Jiang Tongyan was thick-skinned.
“Chairman Cheng is my boss,” Qian Xiaoke said. “I actually saw the two of them kissing. Am I going to be silenced?”
He clung to Jiang Tongyan’s arm. “I’m so scared I won’t see the sun of the new year.”
Jiang Tongyan couldn’t help laughing at him. “I’m your boss too. When you get affectionate with me, why aren’t you worried I’ll silence you?”
Qian Xiaoke pressed his lips together and looked at him with a smile. With face full of smiles, he said, “Because you’re my husband.”
Over there, the other two had only shared a simple kiss, yet over here, these two had already started clinging to each other again.
Zhou Mo said, “Alright then. Looks like it’s a good thing we’re not spending New Year’s with those two. I really can’t stand them like this.”
Zhou Mo suspected the two of them had magnets implanted in their bodies, the kind that attracts opposites. One was a flirtatious top, the other a flirtatious bottom. Of course, they attracted each other.
After the four of them finished eating, Jiang Tongyan went to pay the bill very proactively. When they stepped outside, Cheng Sen mentioned the apartments he had been looking at recently, saying there were two that were pretty good and that they could take a look after New Year’s Day.
Once Cheng Sen and Zhou Mo had left, Qian Xiaoke asked Jiang Tongyan in a low voice, “Are you really planning to buy a place?”
“Yeah,” Jiang Tongyan said. “I’ll buy a house sooner or later after I come back to settle down.”
The two of them stood by the roadside and noticed light snow began to fall from the sky.
“Well, look at that,” Jiang Tongyan said. “Last day of the year, and the heavens are being pretty cooperative.” He raised his hand and caught the snowflakes in his palm. “Even throwing in a bit of snow to set the mood.”
Qian Xiaoke placed his own hand on Jiang Tongyan’s palm and held it, then said, “Old Jiang, I want to ask you something.”
“Sure,” Jiang Tongyan said. “Now, or when we get home?”
Jiang Tongyan clasped both of Qian Xiaoke’s hands, rubbing them and blowing warm air over them. “Cold?”
Actually, it was quite cold.
It was the end of the year, already deep into the twelfth lunar month. In the north, this season was genuinely cold.
“Let’s talk when we get home,” Qian Xiaoke said. “We can chat while we wait for the New Year, say some heartfelt things.”
Qian Xiaoke had actually already thought it through. Even if Jiang Tongyan had not turned down Zhou Mo’s suggestion to spend New Year’s together, he would still have found an excuse to say ‘next time for sure’, because he had started outlining and drafting a few days earlier. He had been preparing to have a proper conversation with Jiang Tongyan on this day of bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new.
Things had progressed quickly between them. From meeting to getting together, from bickering nonstop to being inseparable, all of it combined had not actually been very long. Although Qian Xiaoke had gradually come to accept that he was living a dreamlike, sweet life, he still felt that fate had been overly kind to him and that he needed to take things more seriously.
Qian Xiaoke and Jiang Tongyan rarely got together to say anything truly serious or heartfelt. The two of them were always laughing and fooling around, glued to each other. They had told plenty of cheesy things already, and Jiang Tongyan’s gift with words seemed to be fully spent here. But it could not go on like this forever.
They still needed to be more sincere.
Before, Qian Xiaoke had never been able to find a good moment, because neither of them had much self-control. They would barely start talking before ending up in bed.
That would not do. Tonight, no matter what, Qian Xiaoke was determined to finish saying what was in his heart before indulging in bodily pleasures with Jiang Tongyan.
The two of them got into a taxi. Jiang Tongyan said, “The day after tomorrow, let’s go look at cars.”
“Huh?”
“We should have bought one a long time ago,” Jiang Tongyan said, squeezing Qian Xiaoke’s hand. “Taking taxis to and from work every day is too inconvenient.”
Qian Xiaoke nodded. He admitted he knew nothing about cars. He only knew that Mercedes was expensive, and that a Chery QQ was more suitable for him.
That said, suitable or not, the old Qian Xiaoke had never really thought about buying a car. Putting aside whether he even had the money, he had not even gotten his driver’s license.
Over the years of working, his real wish had always been to buy a small electric scooter. It would be flexible and would not get stuck in traffic. How great would that be.
“What are you thinking about?” Jiang Tongyan noticed that he had been spacing out on and off ever since they left the restaurant. “What kind of car do you like?”
“An Aima electric scooter,” Qian Xiaoke said. “I did some market research before. This brand seems pretty good.”
Jiang Tongyan froze for a moment, then wrapped an arm around him and laughed.
By the time they got home, it was already close to eleven. According to Jiang Tongyan’s original plan, the two of them should have gone to shower and then done adult things. The timing would have been perfect. A half-hour shower, a bit of fooling around together in the water, then some proper intimacy afterwards. When the clock struck twelve, release on one side, New Year’s on the other.
Very enjoyable.
But that was not Qian Xiaoke’s plan for today. Today, he wanted to be sincere.
“I bought some alcohol,” Qian Xiaoke said. “Let’s shower first, then go out on the balcony, drink and talk while we wait for the New Year. Okay?”
Jiang Tongyan thought to himself that this was not the New Year’s Eve he had imagined.
He had been planning on getting dirty!
But since Qian Xiaoke said so, there was no reason for Jiang Tongyan to refuse.
“Do you have something on your mind?” Jiang Tongyan asked, a little worried, as he hung up Qian Xiaoke’s down jacket.
Qian Xiaoke grinned foolishly at him. “Yeah. I’m going to confess to you properly.”
Jiang Tongyan did not believe that for a second. He pinched Qian Xiaoke’s cheek and scooped him up in his arms. “Alright then. Let’s shower first. After that, you can give me a proper confession.”
Qian Xiaoke was very sincere. He had been planning this evening for more than a week.
After the two of them finished showering, they came out wearing matching pyjamas, took the alcohol, and went out to the balcony.
The alcohol Qian Xiaoke had bought was the kind of fruit wine with such a low alcohol content that it was almost negligible. It tasted good and was not overly sweet, perfect for setting the mood.
They sat on the small chairs on the balcony. Jiang Tongyan said, “When we buy a bigger place in the future, let’s make a big balcony.”
Jiang Tongyan remembered that Qian Xiaoke had said before that he liked big balconies.
Hearing this, Qian Xiaoke smiled until his eyes curved into little crescents. “Okay.”
He poured wine for Jiang Tongyan, pressed his lips together, and did not know how to start.
The two of them really were not suited to this kind of atmosphere.
From the very beginning, Qian Xiaoke and Jiang Tongyan had been a comedy duo. Suddenly switching to something heartfelt made Qian Xiaoke feel shy all of a sudden.
“You’re really strange today,” Jiang Tongyan said. He took a sip of wine and leaned over to kiss him. “So sweet.”
“Am I sweet, or is the wine sweet?” Qian Xiaoke asked.
“The wine isn’t sweet,” Jiang Tongyan said with a deliberate grin. “So tell me, which one is sweet?”
Qian Xiaoke smiled and pointed at himself. “Me.”
The two of them looked at each other and grinned stupidly. After laughing for a bit, Qian Xiaoke raised a hand and rubbed his nose. “I don’t know how to start.”
Jiang Tongyan held his wine glass and looked at him in confusion. After a few seconds of silence, he suddenly slapped his thigh. “Qian Xiaoke, don’t tell me you’re breaking up with me.”
“Huh?” Qian Xiaoke’s delicate frame jolted. “What?”
“No way, right?” Jiang Tongyan was so frightened that electricity shot from his tailbone straight to the top of his head. He even mentally prepared himself for crying, making a scene, and threatening drastic measures. “I don’t agree!”
“Huh?”
“Qian Xiaoke, you love scammer,” Jiang Tongyan cried dramatically. “You tricked my body and my heart, and now that you’ve had enough fun, you’re going to dump me. Are you even human?”
Watching Jiang Tongyan fake-cry like this, Qian Xiaoke felt that Jiang Tongyan had really chosen the wrong profession. If he had gone into acting back then, he would probably be a top star by now.
“I didn’t,” Qian Xiaoke said, poking Jiang Tongyan in the chest. “I just wanted to tell you that I really, really love you.”
Really, really love you.
Qian Xiaoke shed his usual joking demeanour and looked at Jiang Tongyan very seriously. “I actually wanted to say this a long time ago. Even though you don’t fit at all the image of my dream lover that I started imagining when I was twelve, that doesn’t matter at all. Because starting from when I was twenty-seven, my dream lover has been you.”
Back in college, Jiang Tongyan had a classmate who was some unknown rapper. When that rapper confessed to his girlfriend, he had specially written a song for her. Back then, everyone said, “It’s not scary when a rapper acts like a thug. What’s scary is when a rapper sings a love song.” Now Jiang Tongyan wanted to revise that saying.
It was not scary when a comedian was unserious. What was frightening was when a comedian spoke sweet words of love.
When Qian Xiaoke started saying things like this, Jiang Tongyan really could not handle it.
“Why did you suddenly think of saying all this today?”
“Because today is a very special day,” Qian Xiaoke said, hooking Jiang Tongyan’s little finger with his own. “It’s the end of the year.”
Jiang Tongyan smiled. “Yeah. Special.”
He scooted a little closer to Qian Xiaoke and held his hand. “You suddenly getting this serious actually makes me kind of embarrassed.”
Qian Xiaoke was embarrassed too. The two of them really were not suited to this kind of tone.
“Then I’ll say it quickly,” Qian Xiaoke said. “After I’m done, we can do some very inappropriate things.”
Jiang Tongyan laughed out loud. “As expected, you really are a minion1little yellow(pervert).”
Qian Xiaoke chuckled and leaned into Jiang Tongyan’s arms.
“I really liked a lot of people before,” Qian Xiaoke said. “But none of them liked me.”
“That’s because they were blind.”
“Yeah,” Qian Xiaoke said. “Daniel Wu, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Takuya Kimura, Shun Oguri. None of them liked me.”
“…?” Weren’t they supposed to be getting sincere here? What was this turning into?
“Of course, I also knew very well that, given my actual conditions, they wouldn’t have looked twice at me anyway.”
Jiang Tongyan honestly did not know how to respond to this.
“I thought I was going to die alone,” Qian Xiaoke said. “Because you know, I don’t want to settle.”
I didn’t know that.
But thank goodness you didn’t settle for someone else back then, or the two of us probably never would have ended up together.
Jiang Tongyan said nothing aloud, but his thoughts were extremely active.
“I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how we first met,” Qian Xiaoke said with a smile. “The first time was at Zhou Mo’s birthday party. I was actually already a bit drunk at the beginning.”
Even though everyone said fake alcohol ruined people, Zhou Mo’s real alcohol was no joke either. It had turned a perfectly good kid into a mess of snot and tears.
To this day, Jiang Tongyan still remembers that night, when Qian Xiaoke cried like a tear-soaked mess while clinging to him and shouting, “Gege! I’m so miserable, gege! I’m just a little napa cabbage in the field that no one loves, about to rot away!”
It had been ridiculous.
“But at the very beginning, I still had a bit of rationality left,” Qian Xiaoke said. “So I helped Mr Shen create an opportunity to be alone with that handsome guy Suo Yang.” After saying that, he laughed sheepishly.
That was true. They had all been at Zhou Mo’s birthday party. When it came time to dance, Qian Xiaoke was left without a partner. He happened to see that Shen Huiming was alone as well, so he went over to him. Later, he noticed that Shen Huiming’s eyes were glued to Suo Yang, while Suo Yang’s dance partner at the time was Jiang Tongyan. Tipsy Qian Xiaoke had plenty of little tricks up his sleeve. After all, he had read so many boys’ love novels. What tricks didn’t he know?
At the time, Qian Xiaoke helped Shen Huiming out, and only later did he realise that, in some unseen way, he had also helped himself.
When the song ended, and everyone switched partners, he deliberately switched with Suo Yang. That was the first time he got up close with Jiang Tongyan.
After the dance, Qian Xiaoke went off to drink again. After that, he remembered nothing. When he woke up, he was naked, lying next to Jiang Tongyan. At the time, he truly thought he must have gotten drunk and slept with this man.
And so the story of this pair of bickering lovers began.
As Qian Xiaoke reminisced, his eyes inexplicably grew sore and swollen, as if he might cry.
“Good thing you helped Shen Huiming back then,” Jiang Tongyan said with a smile. “Otherwise, the four of us would probably all still be single.”
Jiang Tongyan also knew in his heart that it was impossible for him and Suo Yang to be together.
Back then, Zhou Mo had wanted to set them up, and he had himself thought Suo Yang met every standard of his ideal partner. But ideals were ideals. When facing Suo Yang, he had never felt the kind of heart-pounding excitement he felt with Qian Xiaoke.
“So really, I’m actually very smart,” Qian Xiaoke said, rubbing against him. “Husband, I really think I’m incredibly lucky.”
Jiang Tongyan raised his hand and gently rubbed his hair.
“So am I.”
“No, no, I’m luckier than you,” Qian Xiaoke said. “Because you’re just too good.”
“What nonsense are you talking?”
“It’s not nonsense. I’m serious,” Qian Xiaoke said. “Let me say this first. I’m not feeling inferior.”
Jiang Tongyan laughed. “Alright. Go on.”
“I just think that, from an outsider’s point of view, no matter how you look at it, I’m not worthy of you.”
Jiang Tongyan frowned. “What worthy or not worthy? Don’t think like that. Besides, the two of us dating and getting married has nothing to do with anyone else.”
Qian Xiaoke bit his lip and smiled. “Right! That’s what I think too! And I think that even though my other conditions really don’t match yours, my love isn’t mixed with anything fake at all. That’s enough.”
“So good,” Jiang Tongyan said contentedly, giving Qian Xiaoke a loud kiss.
“Mmph! I’m not done yet,” Qian Xiaoke said, gently pushing him away. “But even so, I still have to work harder.”
“Work harder at what?” Jiang Tongyan teased him on purpose. “Giving me children?”
“You’re so annoying! Be serious!” Qian Xiaoke touched his stomach. “I’m already pregnant with twins, a boy and a girl. What more do you want from me?”
Here he went again.
Jiang Tongyan held him, laughing and crying at the same time.
But this was exactly the Qian Xiaoke he loved, like a little sprite, forever filling his life with vitality.
“I just think I need to become better too,” Qian Xiaoke said softly, held in Jiang Tongyan’s arms, his chin resting on Jiang Tongyan’s shoulder. “Husband, I don’t have any impressive degrees, no amazing background. I’ve always just muddled along, drifting through life. Even though it looks like I’ve been working hard and living seriously, in reality, I’ve already settled far too comfortably into the status quo.”
“Hm? Did someone say something to you?”
“No,” Qian Xiaoke said. “I just suddenly figured some things out.” He kissed Jiang Tongyan’s neck lightly. “You’re the one who made me want to become better.”
Qian Xiaoke had once seen a theory that said good love was something that allowed both people to become better. Truly loving partners did not have to look only at each other, but stood side by side, looking in the same direction.
Because of Jiang Tongyan, Qian Xiaoke wanted to become better.
Jiang Tongyan stood on a high mountain peak. Even if Qian Xiaoke could not climb all the way up to stand beside him, he still did not want to remain content with being ordinary and crouching at the foot of the mountain. At the very least, he wanted to try to walk up to the mountainside.
“I’m Jiang Tongyan’s wife,” Qian Xiaoke said with soaring morale. “How can I admit defeat? I’ve already made a study plan. In the new year, I’m going to start working hard.”
Jiang Tongyan held him tightly. He really wanted to tell Qian Xiaoke that there was no need to work hard, that any version of Qian Xiaoke was his treasure. But after a second thought, when he spoke, what came out were words of encouragement instead. “You’re the smartest, most badass seductive bottom in the whole world. The position of Chairman Jiang’s personal assistant is reserved for you. One day, you’ll earn the qualification to move your workspace from the front desk to the office next to mine, without having to trade your body to climb the ranks.”
Qian Xiaoke laughed, his eyes turning red. He acted spoiled in Jiang Tongyan’s arms, nodding and murmuring his agreement.
“I’m so happy,” Qian Xiaoke said.
As soon as he finished speaking, the bells outside rang.
In the small square not far away, many young people had gathered to count down to the New Year together.
The bells rang. Fireworks exploded.
The night was lit up.
The New Year arrived.
Jiang Tongyan gently kissed Qian Xiaoke. “Baby, Happy New Year.”
Qian Xiaoke’s eyes shone as he looked at Jiang Tongyan. “Husband, Happy New Year.”
The two of them kissed on the balcony and accidentally knocked over the wine bottle beside them. No one cleaned it up because the two of them held each other and went back inside to do very inappropriate things.
Before his clothes were taken off, Qian Xiaoke quietly slipped an envelope out of his pyjama pocket and tucked it under Jiang Tongyan’s pillow. It was a love letter he had written for him, a full two pages long.
He would let Jiang Tongyan read it after they were done.
This was the first gift Qian Xiaoke gave him in the new year.
At the end of the letter, Qian Xiaoke wrote:
Lu Xun once said: Jiang Tongyan must spend his entire life together with Qian Xiaoke.
Alright, Lu Xun never said that. Shakespeare actually said that line.
But no matter who said it, you still have to grow old with me together, understood?
[End of Main Text]
Author’s Note:
That’s the end of the main story. There will be a bonus chapter featuring Qian Xiaoke and Jiang Tongyan. Some readers previously said they wanted to see Zhou Mo and Cheng Sen as well, so they won’t be getting a separate novel, but they’ll be arranged into a bonus chapter too.
This story was written purely to be fun. There aren’t any complicated plot twists or heavy drama. The goal was simply to make people laugh, and I really did enjoy writing it.
Thank you to everyone for your support over the past two months. Thank you to readers who supported the official release, thank you all for your tips and comments. I hope Qian Xiaoke and Jiang Tongyan brought you some happiness as well.
The next story will probably be Liang Duo Who Pretends to Sleep. If we’re destined to meet again, I’ll see you in the extras. If we’re destined again, I’ll see you in the next story.
Thank you all very much for your support. I will continue to work hard.
T/N:
It’s long rightttt???? Loooonnnngggg
I’m dead, lol
Let me recuperate before doing the last 2 chapters
Also I’m not sure if I will translate any of the author’s work again but well… We’ll see~
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