Dr. Wu: “Hello? Mr. Chi, it’s me.”
“Are you alright? Your voice sounded off just a moment ago…”
Half an hour later, Dr. Wu called again to confirm the appointment time. He cleverly bypassed the subject of who had answered the phone last time and asked, “Let me confirm with you once more: are you still coming in for the consultation today?”
By then, Chi Qing had already extricated himself from the “entanglement” of Xie Lin and the wall, the flush on his ears taking quite a while to subside.
Xie Lin hadn’t left after entering. When he finally let Chi Qing go, he said, “Since we’re going to give this a try, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for me to stay here and have breakfast with you, would it?” After that, he walked into the kitchen to fuss over their morning meal.
Right now, he was wearing an apron, slicing steaming hot sandwiches fresh from the oven.
The cat, having finished eating to its heart’s content, let out a happy “meow” at Chi Qing, before turning to the unwelcome guest in the kitchen and baring its teeth: “Meow, meow, meow (When are you going to leave, you annoying ghost?).”
Xie Lin spared a glance for the fluffy ball at his feet: “Little thing, are you scolding me?”
As Xie Lin talked to the cat, he kept an ear on Chi Qing’s side of the phone conversation. He held the knife up and gestured toward Chi Qing: Don’t you dare agree.
Having dealt with Xie Lin coming over to feed the cat every now and then for the past few days, Chi Qing had actually grown accustomed to this lively, warm atmosphere. He retracted his gaze after receiving Xie Lin’s non-threatening threat and replied to Dr. Wu: “Sorry, I won’t be coming.”
Dr. Wu let out an “Oh” on the other end. He hadn’t spent all those years in psychological counseling for nothing, even if he had encountered a bottleneck in his career with Xie Lin and Chi Qing. He suddenly asked: “Have you found the answer?”
Xie Lin couldn’t understand this encrypted conversation, nor could he hear it. Having heard Chi Qing’s refusal, he had already turned his attention away. But Chi Qing immediately grasped what Dr. Wu meant.
Not long ago, because of his complicated feelings toward Xie Lin, he had sat in the clinic and told Dr. Wu that his recent behavior was abnormal. At the time, Dr. Wu had told him, “I’m afraid that’s something you need to find the answer to yourself.”
…
“Mm,” Chi Qing glanced at the man in the kitchen. “I think I’ve found it.”
In the kitchen, man and cat were having a cross-species conversation.
The cat was persistent in trying to chase the guest away: “Meow.”
Xie Lin: “I’m in a good mood, so I won’t hold it against you.”
Cat: “Meow!”
Xie Lin swept a glance at it: “In terms of our relationship, my reason for staying here is much more justified and sufficient than yours. The owner of this house is my ‘wife,’ while you? You’re just being temporarily fostered by him.”
“…”
Chi Qing had just hung up the phone when he heard that term—even more outrageous than “baby”—and his calm expression cracked. He shouldn’t have let Xie Lin have free rein just now.
The cat was incredibly angry, bristling and roaring like someone had stepped on its tail: “Meow!!!” But its voice was milky and high-pitched, sounding not at all fierce.
Xie Lin: “He doesn’t like you at all. He likes me.”
The cat shivered all over.
Xie Lin’s eyes crinkled with a smile, filled with the tenderness of a spring breeze as he looked at the little thing, yet the words coming out of his mouth were exceptionally cruel: “There are some things I didn’t want to say, but look—does he even let you touch him?”
The cat was furious. Human, are you! Very! Proud! of yourself?! I am just an innocent little kitten! Why do you have to come and hurt me like this? Is getting into a relationship really that great? And even though this person looks smiley, why doesn’t he say a single nice thing?!
Chi Qing sat on the sofa, listening to this dialogue, and felt nothing but a headache.
Xie Lin lived alone usually, so his cooking skills weren’t bad—on par with Chi Qing’s. He made two egg and ham sandwiches, warmed two cups of milk, and poured some nuts into another plate.
Chi Qing washed his hands and took a sip of the milk; the temperature was perfect. “Hey.”
Xie Lin was replying to messages from his company with one hand and holding a sandwich in the other. “Yeah?”
Chi Qing intended to clarify things with him: “What did you call me just now?”
Xie Lin: “What?”
Chi Qing: “When you were talking to it.”
That poor cat still didn’t have a name; Xie Lin either called it “Hey” or referred to it as “it.”
Xie Lin remembered. He put down his phone and chuckled softly: “If you want to hear me call you that again, you don’t have to go through all that trouble… ‘Wife’.”
“…” I asked you a question, I didn’t ask you to say it again.
Chi Qing declared that the word should be put on a blacklist: “This one isn’t okay either.”
Xie Lin knew that Chi Qing was embarrassed, uncomfortable, and unaccustomed to it, so he asked on purpose: “Why isn’t this one okay?”
Chi Qing didn’t know how to explain it. Finally, he just said: “If I called you ‘wife,’ would you be very happy?”
He forgot one thing. Xie Lin wasn’t a normal person; he was a psycho.
“I’d be happy.”
“…”
“Though I’d prefer to hear you call me another title starting with ‘Old’ [Husband],” Xie Lin said with a smile, possessing zero ego. “But if you like it, I don’t mind you calling me ‘wife’.”
Chi Qing almost crushed the nuts in his hand. The extent to which this man could bend and stretch was far beyond his expectations. He had held unrealistic expectations for a madman who could drive his car right into someone else’s.
Xie Lin truly didn’t care. To him, having an intimate, unique nickname for the two of them was enough. As for which “Old” title it was, that could be discussed later.
Xie Lin was quite keen on hearing him say it: “Why don’t you try calling me that now?”
Chi Qing endured and endured: “Once you finish your breakfast, get the hell out of here.”
Seeing Chi Qing’s reaction, Xie Lin laughed for a long time while holding his sandwich. Although the man laughed often, his laughter when looking at Chi Qing was clearly different—more authentic, lacking that habitual, ambiguous, and misty sense of distance.
Chi Qing was so stiff from being laughed at that he felt rigid all over. “Stop eating. Just roll out.”
Xie Lin did indeed have things to do later and needed to go to the company to sit in. He reported everything to Chi Qing in meticulous detail—the general situation of his company, what he was doing there today, how long he’d be staying, and when he would return.
“The secretary and driver by my side are all over 40, regardless of gender,” Xie Lin said. “Do you have anything else to ask?”
Chi Qing: “No.” Get out as soon as you can.
However, Xie Lin stood at the door for ages, spouting nonsense after nonsense, showing no intention of leaving.
Chi Qing and Xie Lin stared at each other for a moment.
Why is this guy still not leaving? he thought.
A few seconds later, he pondered whether Xie Lin had finished reporting, and if he was now waiting for him to report what he was going to do today. He recalled the unknown romance drama he’d watched last night, where the protagonist couple, blinded by love, seemed to do this all the time.
So, Chi Qing said somewhat unskillfully: “I, uh, I’m staying home. Nothing much to tell.”
“…”
“I wasn’t asking about that,” Xie Lin said, unable to laugh or cry. “I’m just worried that once I leave, you’ll turn around and pretend you don’t know me again.”
Chi Qing’s unpredictability was too high. He was harder to please than the cat in the house; who knew if the moment he left, Chi Qing would say, “Maybe you should go see a psychiatrist after all.”
Chi Qing never expected this to be what Xie Lin was worried about. After a long moment, he said, “I won’t.”
“Really, I won’t,” Chi Qing repeated.
But Xie Lin still didn’t leave.
Just as Chi Qing was about to ask “What now?”, Xie Lin reached out. Chi Qing watched without any defense as Xie Lin suddenly leaned in. The man’s cool fingertips, freshly washed from the dishes, lightly pressed against the back of Chi Qing’s neck, sending tremors like an electric current through him.
Xie Lin pressed his hand on Chi Qing’s neck, pulling him into his embrace: “Let me hold you for a bit before I go.”
Chi Qing leaned into his chest, blinking very slowly. Before him was the man’s disheveled hair and his protruding Adam’s apple. The other’s body heat transferred through the fabric of his clothes, and the space between their breaths was filled with Xie Lin’s scent.
If the things Xie Lin said while holding his hand and reading his mind yesterday felt unreal, and if coming over this morning to cook breakfast and eat together felt unreal, then this hug, filled with the other person’s scent, gave Chi Qing a total sense of reality.
Chi Qing: “How long is ‘a bit’?”
Xie Lin: “Three to five minutes, maybe.”
“…”
Three to five minutes later.
Chi Qing: “Time’s up.”
Xie Lin: “I underestimated the time. Can I hold you a bit longer?”
…
“Meow…”
The cat behind them didn’t seem to understand why the two were so close, letting out a weak meow.
Xie Lin stared straight into the cat’s eyes. A moment later, he raised an eyebrow at it in provocation, as if reiterating the point they had argued about during their “fight”: This person is mine. I can touch him. You, get lost.
The cat’s squirrel tail, which had finally managed to relax, bristled up again: “…!”
Xie Lin didn’t go to the company often; he belonged to the category of “legendary” bosses who looked great but were rarely seen. Furthermore, the most legendary thing about him was his highly unconventional side job—they said he spent most of his time assisting with cases at the Public Security Bureau.
Every time someone in the company mentioned their boss, they would sigh with the same sentiment: He’s a god-like man.
That day, when Xie Lin entered the company, the receptionists couldn’t help but whisper to each other: “He’s too handsome. I get dizzy every time I see him.”
Their discussions eventually culminated in one sentence: “…I wonder what our ‘boss lady’ must be like.”
The receptionist didn’t speak quietly. As soon as she finished, she didn’t notice Xie Lin—who had walked past a few steps—pause his stride. He rarely turned back to greet her: “Morning.”
Receptionist: “…Morning.”
Xie Lin glanced at the staff badge on her chest and said with a smile: “Your badge is crooked. Although a girl like you looks good no matter how you wear it, you should still pay attention.”
The receptionist quickly straightened her badge, her legs nearly giving out from Xie Lin’s smile: “Okay, sorry about that.”
“It’s fine. Do you want coffee? I happened to buy an extra cup,” Xie Lin said, handing her the coffee he’d bought outside, then “inadvertently” answering the question the receptionist had just mused about. “Your boss lady has very pale skin, is a bit of a clean freak, likes to wear gloves, has slender fingers, and is very good-looking. His personality is also very special.”
Receptionist: “…?”
Xie Lin almost just gave them Chi Qing’s ID number: “You can be more specific next time you talk about it.”
Chi Qing, who didn’t know his ID number had almost been leaked, was at home continuing to watch the romance drama he hadn’t finished the night before. However, he couldn’t watch it as intently as he had last night, because even though Xie Lin had left, he didn’t forget to send him messages every now and then.
At first, Chi Qing would reply with a few words.
But Xie Lin’s messages became more and more frequent. Eventually, Chi Qing simply stopped replying, clearly expressing his desire not to chat.
-Have you had lunch?
-Not hungry.
-What are you doing?
-Breathing.
-…
On the television, the plot moved to the next episode. It opened with a date between the two protagonists. Protagonist A asked Protagonist B to an amusement park, and the two of them bought a piece of cotton candy, acting all sticky and sweet. The plot wasn’t much to look at; it was even a bit boring.
Date…
Chi Qing fell into deep thought over the plot.
I guess falling in love requires going on dates.
As if he were watching the same show, Xie Lin sent a message a moment later: Are you free tomorrow?
