Chapter 6 - Greeting Guests (1/2)

Chapter 6: Greeting Guests

Translated by Shiya of Exiled Rebels Translation

When they finally left the shop, no one was on the streets anymore, they only saw a few cars. The workers and even the students went home. This city was quieter around the New Years.

Their car was parked across the street, in between the car and them was a moderate width road, they could only get there by foot. The roads were encased in a thin layer of ice due to the lack of management. Both of Li Sui’s hands were occupied with merchandise they just bought. He didn’t notice the ice on the road and slipped, dangerously almost hitting a limousine that drove by.

Lu Shang heard sounds and turned back, he stopped and waited for Li Sui. When Li Sui was near him, he offered his hand to Li Sui. Li Sui froze in hesitation, then clumsily moved all the bags to one hand and held on to Lu Shang’s hand. Lu Shang’s fingers were really cold, there wasn’t any warmth to them. Holding it in a snowy winter day shouldn’t be something comfortable. Yet Li Sui stared at their interlocked hands, and he felt streams of warmth flowing to his ears.

When they returned home, Aunt Lu made them warm ginger pear juice. They each drank before going to bed. The juice kept them warm, it also helped Li Sui with the alcohol he consumed.

“You don’t have work tomorrow?” Li Sui had grasped Lu Shang’s habits already. The second Lu Shang came out of the bathroom, Li Sui handed medicine and water to him.

“Hmm.” Lu Shang dried his hair with a towel and took the medicine, “You are not going to test out your new phone?”

Hearing that, Li Sui immediately pulled out the bag of merchandise, as if he was waiting for this moment all his life. Lu Shang sat on the bed, he opened the packaging and threw them away. He inserted the sim card and added his phone number to the new phone, handing it back to Li Sui, “Try calling.”

Lu Shang set his name as “Lu Shang”, nothing more and nothing less, there were no other prefixes or suffixes. Li Sui stared at the contacts’ list, now there was a new contact. The emotions it aroused were much more complicated than he thought they would be, though they might be harder for normal people to grasp. Li Sui’s past was completely blank, just like this empty contacts’ list. But now, look, there was a person in that blank page, how amazing was that?

Most people would say “let’s chat more” when exchanging contacts. To leave this line of numbers behind, meant that you are accepting the person’s contact. In Li Sui’s little world, Lu Shang was the first such person.

Li Sui dialed the number but there were no sounds in the room. “Am I doing it right? There isn’t any reaction.”

Lu Shang opened the drawer with one hand, something glowed inside the drawer, “I turned it to silent mode, try again.” Lu Shang also handed the tablet to Li Sui.

This thing, however, was too complicated for Li Sui, but he did have some contact with it before, as they used something like this to order food in the bar. Li Sui was never interested in these electronic things, as he found them overly hard to use; their screens were too bright and messy. If he had the choice to not use them, he definitely wouldn’t.

The tablet Lu Shang handed over had a clean interface. A pure black background plus large words, and there were only a few icons on it.

“These two teach you basic English, and this one teaches you four-characters idioms.” Lu Shang taught him patiently, “This one is for doing exercises, ask your tutor about it after lessons, okay?”

“Okay.” Li Sui said.

Lu Shang touched the thing a few times, then asked, “When is your birthday?”

Li Sui didn’t reply; Lu Shang glanced at him and knew immediately that he asked a useless question. He just pulled Li Sui’s finger over and placed it onto the tablet button.

After Lu Shang registered the fingerprints into the tablet, he demonstrated opening the tablet to Li Sui, “Here, it will open just like this.”

The products company A made were very humanized and easy to use. Li Sui held the tablet on his lap and, in no time, he got the hang of it. He turned around, wanting to report to Lu Shang, but found the latter’s eyes shut; he was sound asleep already.

Li Sui remembered hearing Leung ZiRui talk about Lu Shang. He said Lu Shang had a strong will. Lu Shang always looked healthy and strong when facing others, but, in fact, he would get tired really easily. Now that Li Sui thought about it, Lu Shang didn’t get any rest at all for the whole day; he even drove Li Sui around in the snow at night. He must be exhausted.

Li Sui put the tablet and phone into the drawer quietly, then he turned the lights off.

The heaters in the bedroom were creating enough heat, but Lu Shang was still quite cold. Especially the lower parts of his body, his legs were always freezing; Li Sui couldn’t feel any warmth from them. Li Sui scooted closer to Lu Shang, trying to give him some warmth. Li Sui was used to the cold since he was still very young, that however gave his body a trait—— no matter how little he was wearing, he’d still be warm.

It became too hot under the blanket. Li Sui, who was still asleep, couldn’t take it anymore, so he moved to the side and curled up there. This action stirred Lu Shang; people’s restraints were often low during sleep, that included Lu Shang. Lu Shang reached his hand out to Li Sui as he frowned, wanting to pull the “heater” back. Satisfied only when the warm Li Sui was at his chest.

As they were hugging each other tightly, the situation when Li Sui woke up the next morning became awkward. Lu Shang was a normal human being, so he would have the physiological reactions a normal male would have in the morning too. Due to his health condition, he led a sexless life, but that didn’t mean he had zero sexual drive. Li Sui didn’t react to it at first, but when he realized what was occurring, cold sweat slid down his forehead. He was petrified, Lu Shang didn’t move, so he didn’t dare move either. Amidst his confused thoughts were what the owner of the shop said last night, ‘Pay with your body?’

God! Of all the things I should be studying, why are these erotic words the only ones I remember?

A bit later, Lu Shang woke up too, and his hands moved up to Li Sui’s forehead. Li Sui had no idea what Lu Shang was thinking. Lewd thoughts began to creep up in Li Sui’s mind again; he had stayed in that bar for years, of course he had seen a fair share of obscene scenes. Plus, Lu Shang joked about being his “sugar daddy” before, he began to feel like maybe he should prepare himself for the inevitable… Li Sui mustered up all his strength to turn around, raising his head to see Lu Shang face-to-face. But as quickly as the courage came, it disintegrated. Li Sui awkwardly tried to avoid Lu Shang’s eyes; he was like a swimming fish as he tried to slide down into the blanket. The fish however was caught at the chin by Lu Shang’s fast hand.

Lu Shang stared at him with eyes that clearly spelled “what are you doing”.

Li Sui’s slightly lifted up face was red, completely red. His eyes were always big, he also just woke up, so his black, shiny pearl eyes looked especially shaky. Seeing Li Sui like this, Lu Shang understood what was happening, he laughed. He seldom laughed with sound, same goes for crying; most of his smiles were out of politeness. This time Li Sui could sense Lu Shang’s breath up close, he sensed that the laughter was filled with true warmth and happiness.

“I will feel guilty.” Lu Shang patted Li Sui’s head, giving him an easy way out.

Guilty or not, Li Sui didn’t care, but now he was sure. He believed what Aunt Lu said was true. Lu Shang wasn’t a person who would just be with anyone, he had high requirements for his partner. If not, he certainly won’t still be single with such great personal conditions.

The sound of running water came out of the bathroom, Li Sui snugged his head into the covers of the blanket like an ostrich. He cringed for his own abruptness, but at the same time, he was calm. It seemed like Lu Shang really wouldn’t send him away.

The two of them woke up later than usual. Aunt Lu prepared porridge with a porcelain pot that morning, shrimp and mussels were added too. The porridge was served with some spring rolls, Li Sui could put the whole roll in his mouth in one go, making his mouth sticky with sweet sauce. Whenever Li Sui ate, he ate it like everything was sweet. It made everyone enjoy the meal more, bringing everyone’s appetite up. As the chef, Aunt Lu was of course always happy to have this kid around. Her skills were never wasted with Li Sui here.