Chapter 61

Ji Su's legs were already long to begin with; the high-slit qipao opened all the way to his waist, and along with the rounded curve of his hips it laid bare a pair of legs that were pale and straight in their entirety.

That pitiful scrap of fabric covered nothing at all, but somehow the very suggestion of it — the way it appeared and disappeared — was enough to make a person's eyes burn red.

Ji Su was so embarrassed he was practically steaming; his scalding, crimson cheeks were buried deep in the crook of Gu Zhao's neck, his legs twisted tight together, his slender fingertips clutching the hem of the qipao in a futile attempt to hide a little more.

Gu Zhao reached out, took hold of that slender wrist, and without allowing any refusal, moved his hand away.

The pad of a fingertip tapped lightly against a small crimson mole on the side of his thigh; it was reflected in those pitch-dark eyes, and the depths of those eyes seemed to have taken on a layer of red as well.

'Gu Zhao…' Ji Su trembled beneath his hand, tried to say something, but was cut off by him.

The fingertip pressing against the red mole applied just a little more force, and Gu Zhao's voice was hoarse beyond recognition: 'Baby, why aren't you calling me husband anymore?'

Ji Su had suffered for that before — how could he dare call out again? He could only ask pitifully: 'I've already given you the birthday present, can I take it off now?'

Gu Zhao said neither yes nor no; he gripped that narrow, slender waist and shifted them so Ji Su sat astride his lap.

Ji Su felt a chill beneath him; his palms pressed against the hard, unyielding chest, at a loss for what to do.

Gu Zhao took the burning lobe of his ear between his lips and spoke a single low, deep sentence against it.

In an instant, the flush on Ji Su's face spread across his entire body; even his curled toes took on a pale shade of red.

On an autumn night deep into the season, no one knew when the light, pattering rain had begun to fall outside the window.

A moment later, the drizzle suddenly turned into a downpour, smashing against the windowsills with a clatter that made the heart leap.

A flash of lightning split the black, heavy sky, illuminating the wreckage on the floor inside; then a rolling crash of thunder exploded, swallowing every other sound of the deep night.

The entire city of reinforced concrete was bathed in the rain; after only one night, the earth was thoroughly soaked through, turned loose and soft.

If one were to plant seeds now, even in late autumn, the land would bloom with flowers vivid and dewy.

*

Ji Su slept straight through until the following afternoon, when he at last drifted awake.

Gu Zhao was not on the bed; Ji Su opened his swollen, tear-reddened eyelids, looked around, and his gaze fell on the qipao discarded at the bedside.

No — what lay on the floor could no longer be called a qipao; it was simply a heap of torn fabric, stained all over with various suspicious marks.

The memories of last night's frenzy flooded his mind; Ji Su buried his face in the pillow, the tips of his ears red enough to bleed.

In the second half of the night he had been pressed against the floor-to-ceiling window, driven nearly to breaking, able only to cry out 'husband' over and over, trying to placate the man behind him.

But Gu Zhao had no intention of keeping his word; not only did he not let Ji Su off, he instead…

With a soft creak, the bedroom door was pushed open from outside.

Ji Su instinctively raised his face, met a pair of deep, dark eyes, then buried himself back in the pillow.

Gu Zhao walked into the bedroom, his long legs carrying him to the bedside, where he sat down: 'Does anything hurt?'

Ji Su refused to pay him any attention and quietly scooted a little to the side.

Gu Zhao gave a low laugh, reached out and stroked the shoulder exposed outside the blanket: 'Angry again?'

Ji Su shuddered all over, pulled the blanket up, and covered his own head.

Gu Zhao hugged him through the blanket; his deep, magnetic voice was filled with the satiated contentment of a man who had eaten his fill: 'Baby, yesterday was the most unforgettable, and the happiest, birthday I've ever had.'

Ji Su was quiet for a few seconds, then poked his head out from the blanket: 'Really?'

The moment he opened his mouth, he realized his own voice was terribly hoarse.

Although Gu Zhao had fed him water several times during the night, it was no match for all his crying and calling out — his throat had been worn raw.

'Really.' Gu Zhao took the chance to cup his face, kissed his eyes, then kissed the tip of his nose, 'If I'm lying, I'm a dog.'

'You are a dog.' Ji Su glared at him with eyes shimmering like rippling water, 'You really do love biting me too much.'

He didn't need to look to know how pitiful the legs hidden beneath the blanket had become.

'Mm, I love you too much.' Gu Zhao continued to kiss his lips, his voice carrying an oddly sinister edge, 'I love you so much that I want to eat you up.'

Ji Su's heart gave a tremor: 'Y-you mean that for real…'

'Don't worry, I won't really eat you.' Gu Zhao laughed again, 'There's only one baby — if I ate you, there'd be none left.'

'Gu Zhao!' Ji Su raised a hand and punched him in anger, 'Why do you say things like that to scare me!'

'Scared?' Gu Zhao caught that hand, brought it to his lips and brushed against it, 'Do I look that perverted?'

Ji Su: 'A little…'

Gu Zhao lifted an eyebrow slightly: 'Only a little?'

Ji Su was unwilling to answer; he pulled his hand back and buried his face in the blanket again.

'All right, I'll stop teasing you.' Gu Zhao asked, 'Are you hungry?'

Ji Su answered in a muffled voice: 'Hungry.'

Gu Zhao gathered him up, blanket and all, cradled him in his arms, carried him into the bathroom, and set him on the counter to sit.

With practiced ease he picked up the toothbrush, squeezed on the toothpaste, and put it in Ji Su's mouth to brush his teeth for him.

Ji Su kept his hands wrapped in the blanket, too lazy to pull them out, so he simply opened his mouth and let himself be arranged.

Behind those neat, white teeth hid a reddened tongue; the tip would occasionally poke out, touch the toothbrush, then pull back; the foam from the white toothpaste gradually filled his mouth.

Gu Zhao lowered his eyes; his long, straight lashes concealed whatever lay in their depths.

After the brushing was done, Ji Su spat out the foam and rinsed his mouth with clean water.

Gu Zhao tilted up that pointed little chin, leaned in to kiss him, and after the kiss still felt compelled to offer a verdict: 'Very sweet.'

Ji Su: '…'

After lunch, he curled up on the sofa reading a book while Gu Zhao sat beside him typing on his laptop.

The living room had an entire wall of floor-to-ceiling windows; the light was excellent, and on an autumn afternoon the warm sunlight spilled in, making a person feel all warm and languid.

Ji Su stretched, wanting to shift his position, but accidentally pulled on the overused place, and couldn't help but suck in a sharp breath.

'What's wrong?' Gu Zhao's hands paused; he set the laptop aside, drew the person into his arms, and began to knead gently.

Ji Su leaned against him for a while, then had a sudden thought: 'Gu Zhao, shall we get a cat?'

Gu Zhao looked down: 'Why the sudden urge to get a cat?'

'Look, I can't have children; if it's just the two of us at home in the future, won't it feel a bit empty?' Ji Su said seriously, 'If we raise a cat as our child, then if we ever want to break up, at least we'd have to consider—'

Gu Zhao's brow furrowed: 'What did you say?'

Ji Su patiently repeated: 'I said we should raise a cat, as our child.'

Gu Zhao pinched his cheeks, forcing him to look directly at him: 'The part after that.'

'Huh?' Ji Su blinked, then explained in a small voice, 'I mean, in case, in case we—'

'There is no in case.' Gu Zhao's eyes were dark as ink that could not be dissolved, and he spoke almost word by word: 'We will never be apart.'

Ji Su's heart went soft; a sweet, syrupy taste rose up in him, as though he had eaten an overly sweet piece of candy.

But he still asked deliberately: 'What if one day you don't like me anymore?'

'That won't happen.' Gu Zhao's gaze fixed on him without wavering, 'Not unless I'm dead.'

'Then what if…' Ji Su asked again, 'one day I don't like you anymore?'

Gu Zhao's grip on his fingers suddenly tightened, hard enough that the knuckles went faintly white.

Ji Su felt pain: 'Ow…'

Gu Zhao loosened his hand and replied in a tone that was hard to name: 'Then I'd hide you away, lock you to my bed with a chain, so that day and night you'd only know to cry and beg beneath me—'

Ji Su raised his hands to cover his ears: 'I don't want to hear any more.'

He had a gut feeling that Gu Zhao might really do something like this; after all, on the day Gu Zhao had confessed to him, he had said there would be no breaking up.

But for Ji Su, loving someone was also a lifelong matter, so he wasn't afraid in the slightest.

Gu Zhao laughed, his tone returning to normal: 'All right, I won't say any more.'

Ji Su tilted his face up in his arms: 'We've gotten way off topic; let's get back to talking about the cat.'

'Mm.' Gu Zhao used a finger to scratch at the soft flesh under his chin, 'You said just now that you can't have children?'

'That's right.' Ji Su's cheeks flushed slightly, 'I'm a boy; I can't have children for you.'

'Is that so?' Gu Zhao's large hand moved down, pressing against that thin belly, 'Then why does it sometimes puff up here?'

'Why are you like this again!' Ji Su was so angry he wanted to bite him, 'Can you say something proper?'

'All right, something proper.' Gu Zhao replied with perfect seriousness, 'You not being able to have children is my responsibility — I haven't been working hard enough.'

Ji Su: '…'

Before Ji Su could blow up, Gu Zhao steered the topic back in time: 'If you want one, then let's get one.'

Ji Su, just as expected, deflated like a punctured ball and slumped against him: 'You agreed?'

Gu Zhao smiled: 'Although I've already raised one little kitten, I don't mind raising another.'

'When did you raise one?' Ji Su was a little confused, 'Where are you keeping it?'

Gu Zhao pinched his cheek flesh, smiling faintly: 'Guess?'

Ji Su realized belatedly and opened his mouth to bite that hand.

'Tsk…' Gu Zhao didn't dodge; instead he pushed his finger into that warm mouth, 'The little kitten's biting.'

Ji Su mumbled around his finger, his words a little indistinct: 'I'm not a kitten…'

Gu Zhao used his finger to grip that soft, tender tongue, stirred it a couple of times, then leaned in to kiss him.

Before long, Ji Su had been kissed into softness.

'Let's wait a while before getting one.' Gu Zhao's large hand stroked his back in an unhurried rhythm, 'Take it slow; think first about what breed of cat you'd like.'

*

The first semester of junior year flew by in a blur of busy coursework.

Winter break was approaching; Ji Su submitted his resume online, preparing to find an internship at an architecture firm.

Gu Zhao also needed to do an internship, but he had no intention of interning at the Gu Family's group company — instead, he would go to a law firm opened by a senior from his own department.

Clearly he had no interest in inheriting the family business, even though Old Master Gu had long since transferred a great many of the group's shares to him, and had more than once tried to hand over one of the group's subsidiaries for him to manage.

'Running a company is too much trouble,' Gu Zhao remarked on the matter. 'Better to be just a shareholder and wait for the year-end payout.'

Ji Su nodded. 'That fits your style perfectly.'

Gu Zhao laughed and pulled him onto his lap. 'Still, my baby understands me best.'

Ji Su asked, curious: 'By the way, you never told me — why did you choose to study law?'

Gu Zhao replied, as if it were the most natural thing in the world: 'Of course, so I could better exploit loopholes in the law.'

Ji Su: '…'

Though it sounded absurd, on reflection it did rather suit Gu Zhao's style…

Gu Zhao laughed out loud. 'You really believed that?'

Ji Su couldn't help rolling his eyes and started to get up from the sofa.

Gu Zhao stretched out a long arm and pulled him back into his embrace. 'Fine, give me a kiss and I'll tell you the real reason.'

Though he had fallen for it countless times before, Ji Su hesitated a moment, then leaned in and kissed him of his own accord.

'Such a good boy.' Gu Zhao tightened both arms around him, his voice dropping low. 'When Grandfather brought me out of the basement, for a long while I refused to speak at all.'

But Old Master Gu had already begun to suspect that his daughter's death might not have been an accident, so he sent people to investigate in secret — and at last uncovered the truth.

Though Gu Zhao's mother's death had nothing to do with that scoundrel, Gu Zhao's father had indeed been killed by him.

'That man was charged with solicitation to commit murder and child abuse, and he spent a fortune hiring himself a lawyer.' Gu Zhao let out a cold laugh. 'That lawyer stood in open court and twisted black into white, defending a murderer.'

Ji Su's heart clenched. 'And then?'

'Then I took the stand. That man had confessed to his crimes before my mother died, and I was the witness who survived.' Gu Zhao narrowed his eyes slightly. 'In the end, he was sentenced to life in prison.'

Ji Su let out an involuntary breath of relief. 'Thank goodness…'

Gu Zhao lowered his gaze. 'Some say that justice delayed is no justice at all — but delayed is still better than never.'

'So the young you stood in that courtroom, and from then on took an interest in the law?' Ji Su took hold of that long-boned large hand, idly playing with his fingers. 'You swore that one day, when you stood at the defense counsel's seat, you would punish the wicked and exalt the good — let no villain go free, and condemn no innocent.'

Gu Zhao laughed. 'So in your heart, I'm the sort of person with such lofty ideals?'

'Yes.' Ji Su lifted his eyes, his tone certain. 'In my heart, you are the best person in the whole world.'

Gu Zhao held his gaze for a moment, then could not help leaning in to kiss him again.

Ji Su's lips and tongue had gone numb from the kiss, and a film of mist had gathered at the bottom of his eyes.

'Baby…' Gu Zhao pressed his forehead against Ji Su's, his voice hoarse. 'Tomorrow I'll take you somewhere.'

*

The next day, Ji Su slept once more until the middle of the day before waking.

He had gradually grown accustomed to Gu Zhao's rhythm; only his stamina still could not keep up.

After lunch, Ji Su drew for a while, then was carried out the door by Gu Zhao.

The weather was cold; Gu Zhao wrapped a thick scarf around him, then a fuzzy hat, bundled him up like a round little stuffed toy, and only then led him out the door.

Ji Su climbed into the passenger seat and yawned. 'Where are you taking me?'

Gu Zhao fastened his seatbelt for him. 'The road's a bit long — if you're tired, sleep for a while first.'

'No way, if I fall asleep you'll be bored driving all by yourself.' Ji Su declared with great conviction. 'I'm not tired at all — I'll keep you company and chat.'

Gu Zhao answered with a smile. 'All right.'

The result: before they had covered even half the journey, Ji Su had fallen asleep.

His sleeping face was very well-behaved; the long, dense lashes lay quietly closed, casting a fan-shaped shadow; his breathing was light and even — so lovely he seemed like someone who had stepped out of a fairy tale.

Gu Zhao rested one hand on the steering wheel, his gaze drifting to the road ahead; for one fleeting instant, he wished the road could be a little longer — a little longer still.

When Ji Su woke again, the sky had already gone dark.

He opened his eyes in a daze, and the name rose to his lips unbidden: 'Gu Zhao…'

'I'm here.' Gu Zhao, standing beside the car, opened the door. 'Awake now?'

Ji Su rubbed his eyes, his expression a touch sheepish. 'I think I accidentally fell asleep…'

'You looked like you were sleeping so soundly, I didn't want to wake you.' Gu Zhao reached out and pinched his cheek. 'Get out — I want to show you something.'

Ji Su climbed out of the car and threw himself straight into his arms, mumbling: 'You're wearing less than I am — how is it that your body still feels warmer than mine?'

Gu Zhao opened his thick overcoat and wrapped him inside. 'Because I need to be warm for you to touch.'

Ji Su turned his head in Gu Zhao's embrace, and only then realized with a start that they were, in fact, at the seaside.

Compared with the bustle of summer, the winter shore was very quiet, touched with a thread of desolation; only the waves, tireless, kept rolling in one after another.

'So you brought me here to see the sea.' Ji Su teased. 'Watching the sea in winter — Gu Zhao-gege is quite the romantic.'

'I didn't bring you here specifically to see the sea.' Gu Zhao reached out and tapped the tip of his nose. 'I brought you to see our home.'

Ji Su gave a small start. 'Ah?'

'On your birthday, didn't I tell you that one day we could buy a villa by the sea?' Gu Zhao held him close as they walked forward. 'You never came to collect on it, but I couldn't wait any longer.'

'You…' Ji Su found it almost impossible to believe. 'You really bought a villa by the sea?'

'More accurately, I had one built.' Gu Zhao took his hand and pointed in a certain direction.

Ji Su followed the line of their joined hands, and a villa truly appeared in his sight.

The villa was only a framework — neither the interior nor the exterior had been finished — but he recognized it at a glance: it had been built to the design drawings on his computer.

Those drawings sat in a folder of their own, and the file's name was a single character: 'Home.'

'I sneaked a look at the drawings you had hidden on your computer — don't be angry.' Gu Zhao leaned close to him as he explained. 'Originally I'd planned to have it finished and just move you straight in, but then I remembered you said you wanted to design and decorate your own home with your own hands, so I brought you to see it ahead of time after all.'

Ji Su stared blankly at the villa standing in the darkness, then turned his face and stared blankly at Gu Zhao.

'What is it?' Gu Zhao's brow creased, barely perceptibly. 'Don't like it?'

'I…' Ji Su felt his throat suddenly close up; before the words could come out, tears were already rolling down.

His tears were large and round, falling in a string like pearls, and in the moonlight they looked especially clear and crystalline.

Gu Zhao's heart gave a sharp tug; he cupped his face, his brow knotting with heartache. 'How can you start crying just like that?'

'I… no…' Ji Su was a little incoherent. 'I'm not crying — I'm happy…'

He had truly imagined, over and over, that one day in the future he would have a home of his own — that was why he had drawn those design plans again and again.

But he had never imagined that the day those drawings became reality would come so soon.

Gu Zhao used the pad of his thumb to wipe the tears from his face. 'From now on, except in bed, you're not allowed to shed tears.'

Ji Su laughed through his tears. 'You have the nerve to say that — the one who makes me cry the hardest is you.'

'All right, all right, it's my fault.' Gu Zhao pressed a kiss to his tear-bright eyes. 'As an apology, tonight I'll let you be on top — how about it?'

Ji Su shook his head. 'No.'

Gu Zhao's so-called letting him be on top would only make him suffer more…

'So delicate.' Gu Zhao brushed his cheek with the bridge of his nose. 'Come on, back to the car first.'

Ji Su sniffed, and cast one reluctant glance back at the villa. 'So when will we come back?'

'Whenever you want.' Gu Zhao tightened his grip on Ji Su's hand and tucked it into his own pocket. 'How about you skip the internship over winter break and finish decorating the villa first?'

Ji Su thought it over for a moment. 'I think that could work.'

After all, an architecture student interning at a building firm could only do odd jobs — what better experience was there than designing and decorating a villa with one's own hands?

'Good.' Gu Zhao's lips curved into a smile. 'Once Teacher Ji Su has finished the new home, we'll move in.'

Ji Su nodded firmly. 'Okay!'

The two of them walked on, shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand, all the way along the beach.

The winter sea wind was cold, but the hands locked together, finger by finger, were so very warm.

Ji Su tilted his head. 'Gu Zhao, how long did you drive to get here today?'

'A little over two hours, I suppose.' Gu Zhao answered in a low voice. 'Why?'

'Looking at it that way, it's not really that far — we could live here most of the time from now on.' Ji Su's tone grew excited as he imagined it. 'And the villa is so big — we don't have to stop at one cat; we could even keep a big dog.'

Gu Zhao answered. 'Mm. As many as you want.'

'Good,' Ji Su curved his eyes, and happiness slipped out, unbidden, from the corners of them.

He asked again: 'By the way, are we going home tonight?'

Gu Zhao led him by the hand toward the car. 'We're not.'

'Then are we sleeping in the car?' Ji Su was a little eager. 'I've never tried staying overnight in a car before.'

Gu Zhao opened the back-seat door and let him climb in. 'I haven't tried it in a car either.'

A few minutes later, from inside the black Jaguar came a pleasant low moan, threaded with a few low, muffled groans.

Where there are lovers, a winter night is as warm as spring.

— End of main text