Chapter 30: 30

Ye Ci couldn’t sit still. He covered the camera with his fingertips, pressing hard until his fingers went white.

His voice went continuously lower as he spoke: “Like, like you’re hugging me……”

That night he took the initiative to hug Huo Tinglan, the solid firmness of his chest and the comfort like floating on ocean waves was unforgettable. 

He couldn’t help but think about a simple hug over and over again.

The memory entangled his thoughts, spreading like weeds, squandering nutrients. After just a few days of separation, his heart was so empty that he became agitated.

– – This was not in line with the situation he was worried about previously, and was even the opposite.

He had basically smoothed out the tangled mess.

When one’s heart was set, it was time to speak up.

He wanted to find a time to confess, and had thought about it all night, knowing that he was too introverted, his face was too thin, and it was especially difficult to speak when he was emotional. If he confessed to Huo Tinglan face to face, those good words would be incoherent and fragmented……

So he planned to say it from a distance first, so that when the two met, the news would already be digested in part, the mood would be calmer, and he wouldn’t be so nervous that he was unable to speak.

He planned the formula on his little abacus with a crackling, disordered rattle, not realizing how naive he was in his inexperience. “The temp, temporary mark you gave me is getting weaker and weaker……” Ye Ci swallowed and closed his eyes shyly, as if talking to himself. “But on the contrary……I miss you even more.”

His words were vague, but clear enough.

Not the effects of hormone fluctuations.

Not the confusion of physical attraction.

In the past few days away from Huo Tinglan, he had a lot of time to think independently.

He picked up his own bewildered heart from the warm and aching thoughts, like picking up a pebble from a spring stream. He drained the water droplets off his desire and dried it, only to find that it had been polished clean and soft by love, the texture as clear as an engraving – –

I like Huo-shushu.

I like Huo Tinglan.

I like him more with each passing day, no one else but him.

“……Why do you miss me?”

The question came through the phone, consuming the last bit of silence and patience.

“Because……” Ye Ci took a deep breath, and with the sacrificial sincerity unique to young people, he said, “I like you.”

After he finished speaking, as if he felt that his intentions mustn’t be questioned, he explained before he could be asked: “Not because of the temporary mark, or, or because of my mom……don’t have any doubt. I thought about it for, for days, I just……really like you.”

“……”

Really liked him.

It truly depended on him being far away.

Huo Tinglan loosened his tie and took a deep breath. The blue blood vessels in his temples pulsed slightly, and his sanity was on the verge of collapse.

The matters that he could originally endure were stimulated by Ye Ci’s “provocative” operation, and he feared he could no longer stand it.

The camera was still covered. He wasn’t sure if Ye Ci was looking at him from over there, and had to forcefully control the wicked fire and maintain a false calm: “You’re on video, so far away, and you’re saying this to me……”

He leisurely interrogated: “What sort of evil intentions do you have?”

“No, no evil intentions!” Ye Ci thought he was unhappy, and hurriedly removed his hand covering the camera. His face was burnt through, even his eyes were dyed with a light pink, and his lips were red.

He was so embarrassed that he licked his lips and inadvertently covered them with a layer of moisture, making him even more gorgeous.

He didn’t know that his beloved Huo-shushu was painfully holding back his feelings in private, and wasn’t aware of what it meant to be in a relationship in the adult world. He was also an adult, but after all, this was a recent development and he was still innocent. He used this childish method to analyze a thirty-year-old Alpha who had been single for a long time, as if he was playing youthful love games with boys and girls of the same age. So he thought about it a bit and tried to make up for the sense of ceremony that Huo-shushu might want: “I used, used video to confess, not because……I’m not sincere, or not serious about you. I want to confess again when, when I’m in front of you. I talk clumsily, and I’m afraid that I’ll be too nervous at that time. Since I can’t speak well, I told you over video first…….I’ll say it again.”

He was so sincere to his lover, and could not wait to open his young heart and shine a light on it as he described word by word: “And I felt, now that we’ve both……figured it out, that I should say it as soon as possible and not……leave you hanging.”

As if coaxing a disappointed little girlfriend, he lowered his body in a masculine and beseeching posture and said, “You……don’t be mad at me, okay?”

Huo Tinglan laughed dumbly in spite of himself, and was speechless for a few seconds. 

He was so far away from being angry……

He was clearly holding back his madness, enduring those vicious currents from head to toe. Forbearance on the left and forbearance on the right, he endured!

But Ye Ci didn’t understand this.

Huo Tinglan sighed, the boy’s mental journey as clear as the sun at midday. The workings of that brain and his thoughtful considerations were really green and cute. He was a total softhearted mess.

He could be softhearted, but others may not necessarily emulate that softness.

Rather, they could be as firm as iron and stone.

Huo Tinglan flattened the corners of his lips and threw out a sentence: “No good.”

“……Ah?”

Ye Ci wilted like a snowman in a preheated 200°C oven.

His shoulders collapsed and swiftly melted.

Oh no.

He had screwed up.

Huo Tinglan leaned back in the chair and tapped the table with his fingertips, as solemn as if he were in a business negotiation, but his words were not serious: “When we meet, tell me what you just said again……”

“En!” Ye Ci nodded hurriedly.

“When you’re done talking,” Huo Tinglan said in a low voice, “I’ll kiss you……is that okay?”

“Hmhm, okay.” Ye Ci at first responded wholeheartedly, and after a few seconds, his eyes trembled nervously. His Adam’s apple rolled, and inquired with feigned sophistication, “The same as, as last time? Then when you’re done kissing……you won’t be angry?”

Kiss the face, kiss the eyebrows, kiss the forehead……

He was familiar with these.

Relying on the fact that the other party couldn’t see where his eyes fell on the video call, Huo Tinglan stared at the two alluring, thin red lips on the screen, entirely unscrupulous and almost indecent.

“No.” He smiled, controlled his expression, and answered two questions in turn. “I won’t be angry anymore.”

Seeing that Ye Ci still appeared to consider himself lucky, with an expression that said, “Huo-shushu, such a decent person,” Huo Tinglan lifted his lips and said in a low voice, “I want to kiss your lips, may I?”

“ ! “

Ye Ci was so embarrassed that he almost threw away his phone.

May he?

It seemed like it shouldn’t be impossible.

They had confessed to each other. Ordinarily, this would count as a romantic relationship, and other than being in love, what more proof did they need……

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The two were married, and they were in love with each other. If even a kiss on the lips was too much, then life could not continue.

“Oh, I can’t.” Huo Tinglan’s tone was disappointed, but his forbearance remained.

It seemed that as long as Ye Ci didn’t allow it, he could really endure until the end of the world.

“No……you can.” Ye Ci sat cross-legged on the bed and held his forehead in embarrassment. At this moment, even the back of his hand was flushed.

Huo Tinglan took on the style of a rigorous business negotiation. As if he wanted to sign a contract with Ye Ci, he first emphasized the existing conditions: “We are already married in the true sense of the word.” He immediately verified with perfect enunciation, “So how many times can I kiss you?”

“Ah, how, how many kisses?” Ye Ci repeated apprehensively, his breathing uneven.

The way a gentlemanly person in love spoke turned out to be like this?!

You had to ask how many kisses you were allowed to have. Was it a foul if you kissed too much?

Only……

In fact, it was still better to just directly kiss……

Didn’t this make it more embarrassing?!

“Any, any amount.” It was hard for Ye Ci to say a specific value. 

If it was more or less, Huo-shushu would draw him into a negotiation.

“Any amount?” Huo Tinglan used a cough to hide his smile.

It was too much fun to tease the little gentleman.

Truly, endlessly fun.

In the last life, he never teased Ye Ci like that.

First, Ye Ci in the previous life was much more closed off and fragile than he was now. He couldn’t bear to go too far, and besides, twenty-two-year-old Ye Ci was much more mature than he was at eighteen. Unlike now, where he took the bait as soon as he was teased, over and over……

“There is no upper limit.” Huo Tinglan reflected for half a second, then his humanity disappeared and he summed up with a smile, “ That is, infinity.”

Ye Ci couldn’t understand what he was talking about, and nodded in confusion.

Seeing that Ye Ci was about to be played with to tears, Huo Tinglan mercifully hung up the video call.

As soon as the words “call ended” appeared on the screen, Ye Ci set aside his phone as if rescued, collapsed on the bed, and stared at the ceiling in a daze.

It was just a confession……who would have expected it to be like peeling skin.

But ultimately, not bad, Huo-shushu.

He himself was still too thin-skinned, too introverted. Things that were as normal as eating food and drinking water for other couples were difficult for him.

He had to learn to be outgoing, and just kiss him calmly and naturally.

Right!

This determination lasted for more than 40 hours.

He was a cheerful and outgoing person, facing the sea as spring flowers bloomed.[1]

Until sudden news from Huo Tinglan knocked Ye Ci back into his original shape.

It was nine thirty in the evening. After Ye Ci ate the fruit that Uncle He sent as a late-night snack, he wiped his mouth and wanted to hurry up and finish a set of papers.

By the time he was done, it would be past eight o’clock in the morning in San Francisco. He would make a video call, chat with his mom for a while and talk with Huo-shushu for a while……today, he had a lot of schoolwork. He didn’t touch his phone much all day in order to have time for the video call at night, so he didn’t realize that Huo Tinglan hadn’t contacted him for more than ten hours.

The exam paper had barely been spread out when the cell phone rang.

Ye Ci pulled it over and took a look.

His heart nearly stopped.

[Huo Tinglan]: I’ll be home in ten minutes.

[Huo Tinglan]: Wait for me.

“ ! ”

Gripping the phone, Ye Ci was stunned for a few seconds.

Ten minutes?

Ten minutes!

Had Huo-shushu fallen into a wormhole?!

Had time and space folded?!

[Huo Tinglan]: I was busy all night yesterday, and I’ve finished with the matter over there. I got on the plane this morning and didn’t say anything earlier for fear that you would be thinking wildly all day and not be able to study well.

– – Whether it was really considerate or an ill-intentioned attack to not give Ye Ci any chance to delay or regret, only Huo Tinglan could know.

With shaking hands, Ye Ci helplessly entered a word, squeezing out an “OK.”

Ye Ci put down the phone and was dazed for a moment, then jumped up and rushed to the bathroom to brush his teeth.

After brushing several times very thoroughly, his tongue was numbed by the toothpaste.

There were bright drops of water hanging from his chin as he held the toothbrush, blushing as he stared blankly into the mirror.

There was a sound on the first floor. Huo Tinglan was back.

How could he dare greet him when they would kiss on the lips in a moment?

How many minutes and seconds? Where should he wait? What posture should he wait with? What expression should he wear? What should he say?……In only a few minutes, his anxiety and thoughts were boundless. Every second felt like torture, and he even wished that Huo Tinglan would come to kiss him sooner.

……So why did he tell him in advance?!

Huo-shushu, was he……was he actually a little evil??

Ye Ci had nowhere to vent his shame and anger, and hit the washstand with a punch.

There was a loud bang.

Then, faint footsteps sounded.

Through the door panels of the second-story bedroom and bathroom, they reached his ears.

Ye Ci’s heart beat like a drum, and he listened in panic.

He bowed his head and waited for a kiss on the lips.

 

[1] This is a reference to a poem by the Chinese poet Hai Zi. The full line goes: “I have a house, it faces the sea, and flowers bloom in spring warmth.” The poem is about someone who makes future plans to become a different, better person, with warm feelings toward the world and its people. ⮐

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