Chapter 7 (1/2)

Chapter 6

His full name was Joseph Tang Shan. He'd entered the city because of a car accident.

As he had stayed up the previous night, he'd fallen asleep while behind the wheel, causing him to crash into a tree by the road. From what he heard from the police officer who found him, his car had been completely wrecked. There weren't any skid marks on the road, meaning the force of the impact must have been extremely large.

It was a miracle he was even alive.

He had no memory of that at all. All he knew was he'd been wrapped up very thoroughly and seemed to be in a dire state, what with all the casts and gauze. Unexpectedly enough, he didn't feel much pain.

An officer came by his hospital room to take a statement, and he immediately thought to himself,s.h.i.+t, what if they take my license? He needed to travel between other cities frequently for work and really needed his car.

He narrated the story to the officer, constantly trying to show how remorseful he was.

”Stop it, don't waste your breath.”

Seeing the officer ignore his efforts, Tang Shan had no choice but to give up.

Just when he'd given up, Li Yuanyu appeared. He pushed the door to his hospital room open, bringing in a strangely appealing smell. Li Yuanyu wore his hair short, giving off a fresh look when combined with his androgynous face.

Tang Shan thought this person was better looking than the celebrities on television, but was a bit too effeminate for a man.

The officer stood at attention and saluted to the man, “Mr Li!”

“Are you the newcomer?” Li Yuanyu introduced himself with a kind smile and extended a hand, “h.e.l.lo, I’m Li Yuanyu, the manager of this town.”

Li Yuanyu’s voice was deeper than he had expected. Tang Shan had envisioned his voice to match with his appearance, sounding high-pitched and girly. However, the reality was that his voice was a rich baritone.

Oh dear. What sort of trouble was he in for the big guy to be visiting him? Maybe he had crashed into a tree that was historically significant?

“H-h.e.l.lo, I-I’m Joseph Tang Shan. Nice to meet you.” Tang Shan shook his hand politely, only to quickly retract his hand at the man’s cold touch. He kept silent for a while from shock and unease. “I caused this town trouble, didn’t I?”

“No, you didn’t. Rest a.s.sured. I'm just here to check out the situation. This town is quite remote and we don’t get visitors often!” Li Yuanyu sported a very friendly smile.

“Thank you,” Tang Shan said, but he sensed that things weren’t that simple.

“Also, I came to help arrange your living quarters after leaving the hospital,” Li Yuanyu added,  “I just asked the doctor. He said you can check out in two days.”

This took Tang Shan by surprise. Wow, he thought, this manager sure is nice. He’s the epitome of someone with nothing better to do.

“No, thanks,” Tang Shan refused, “I can tell my family to come pick me up. It only takes half a day to get here from home. Could you just let me use the phone for a second?”

He then scanned the room, not finding his personal belongings. “Where are my belongings?” he asked the officer.

“How should I know?” The officer’s att.i.tude was bad, the complete opposite of his att.i.tude towards Li Yuanyu.

Tang Shan was taken back by the fact that all his belongings were gone. Now that he thought about it, it was strange that the officer had not asked for his identification earlier. He had a.s.sumed the officer had seen it already.

“Get a hold of your temper, Jake. Be nice,” Li Yuanyu mediated, “We’re too far out. Telecommunication is bad. There aren’t many phone calls with the outside and not many get through anyway. You probably won’t have luck there.”

“What about the internet? I could send an email.”

“The phone lines don’t work, let alone the internet!” Jake retorted, and mumbled “what an idiot.”

“What about mail? There’s got to be a post office.”

“Yes, but the mailman does not come often,” Li Yuanyu clarified. “It will likely take a month. Let me arrange lodgings for you for the time being.”

“But I don’t have money on me. I can’t pay the medical bill, let alone rent.” Tang Shan said worriedly.

“Why don’t you stay with me?” Li Yuanyu suggested.

“Mr Li?!” Jake cried out in disbelief.

Even Tang Shan was surprised by it.

“Just let him stay in the cells at the station,” Jake said through clenched teeth.

“No, Jake. He is my guest.” Li Yuanyu then gave a formal invitation, “Tang Shan, would you like to stay at my home?”

It appeared he had no alternatives since obviously didn’t want to have to live in a prison cell. He thanked this considerate manager from the bottom of his heart. “That would be great. Thank you so much.”

“Loosen up. Let’s drop the honorifics,” Li Yuanyu said with a smile.

What a nice person!

Tang Shan was touched that there was warmth and kindness left in this hideous world.

The morning he checked out, Li Yuanyu came to his room to pick him up. He even helped him with the hospital bill. Tang Shan swore he would return the money once he returned home.

To which Li Yuanyu only smiled.

Since then, he started living at Li Yuanyu’s villa. Besides he and Li Yuanyu, there was a cute housekeeper, Marie. She was one year younger than Tang Shan and an outgoing optimist. Tang Shan would banter with her to pa.s.s the time when the owner of the villa was away.

Tang Shan had sent a letter home the day he checked out of the hospital. After counting the days, he realised it had been nearly two weeks. He didn’t know if it had reached its destination yet, but no replies came, so he could do nothing but wait.

He had been extremely lazy recently, eating good food and sleeping plenty. Li Yuanyu took him out whenever he had time to. Tang Shan was starting to feel like a nuisance.

Li Yuanyu was easy to be with but this just couldn’t go on.

One day, Tang Shan went out to send another letter home. On the way back, it began to rain hard and he was soaked to the bones by the pelting drops. When he thought about it, he realised it had not once been sunny since he arrived. Hopefully, it wasn’t the sign of a deadly storm, because that would make his return even more difficult.

The umbrella he borrowed had broken in the wind along the way, and he looked absolutely awful now. When he finally made it back to the villa, however, he found it surrounded by police officers.

“Excuse me, what’s going on here?” he asked a female officer.

All of them looked over at his question, and when they saw that it was him, their faces turned into ones of shock.

What’s the matter? Tang Shan was confused.

“Go in!” Jake pushed his colleague out of the way of the door and dragged Tang Shan into the house.

The moment he entered, he heard Marie’s cry. “My goodness, you’re back, Mr Tang Shan! Hurry! The master is changing in his bedroom!”

Marie urged him and took Jake’s place as she led Tang Shan into the house.

“What happened? Shouldn’t I stay out if Mr Li is changing?”

“Just go in, alright! I can’t explain it properly right now.” Marie complained. “Where in the world did you go, sir? Why didn’t you tell us beforehand? You gave me a fright!”

“I left a note, though. Didn’t you see?” Tang Shan argued for himself. He did notify them before leaving.

“I did!” Speaking of the note, it made Marie even angrier. “The only thing you wrote was “I’m going out.” You didn’t say where you were going or if you were coming back! If you’d just left like that and never came back, I would get fired for sure!”

“No way. Mr Li is such a nice man.”

“Oh, you have no idea, sir!” She was extremely frustrated seeing the man’s easy att.i.tude. She let out a deep breath to regain her composure and gave him a hard look. She warned him against smiling before knocking the door.

“Come in.”

Receiving permission, Marie pushed it open after taking a deep breath for courage.

There was a forbidding tension in the room. It was so that even Tang Shan felt the man’s anger.

Li Yuanyu had his back to the door while b.u.t.toning his s.h.i.+rt in front of a mirror.

Tang Shan could see the man’s oddly pale skin from his spot by the door. He gulped without knowing it, not because of l.u.s.t but because of the intense aura Li Yuanyu was giving off.

“Master, Mr Tang Shan has returned.”

Tang Shan could see the falter in Li Yuanyu’s movement before he snapped around. When the man’s eyes caught sight of him, they stayed glued on him.

He saw a hint of surprise in the man’s eyes. He raised his hand and gave an awkward smile. “h.e.l.lo.”

Li Yuanyu stared at him as though to confirm his existence, until Tang Shan s.h.i.+vered. His clothes were still wet.

Finally, Li Yuanyu spoke, “Why are you soaking wet?”

“It started raining really hard on the way back.”

“Go wash up and get a change of clothes.” Li Yuanyu returned to his gentle self and the tension in the room dissipated.

Tang Shan wanted to leave but his eyes stayed locked with Li Yuanyu’s, unable to part.

Oh no. He felt as though something was gripping his heart, leaving him gasping for air.

Jenny. Jenny. Jenny – he recited his fiancée’s name, as though doing so could ensure his affections for her would never change.

Ever since those strange thoughts started to appear, he warned himself and stayed away from Li Yuanyu for a while. Coincidentally, the weather was ugly and it rained buckets for several days.

“If I may, Mr Tang Shan, could you please stop this? It’s really hard for me to go out for groceries with the weather like this.” Marie was complaining again because of the rain.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Marie. I have nothing to do with the rain. Stop blaming me for it,” Tang Shan retorted, trying to convey his innocence.

“Oh you! How oblivious! You're so blissfully oblivious!” Marie shouted, pointing at his nose.

This made Tang Shan more confused.

“Believe me, as long as you go out with Master, it will turn sunny! At least cloudy, if not sunny!” Marie proclaimed.

What kind of logic was that? This wasn’t some fairytale.

“What are you talking about?” Li Yuanyu came into the kitchen when he heard their voices after coming downstairs.

“Mr Tang Shan was saying he wanted to eat out with you this afternoon,” Marie said first.

Hey! I said no such thing! Tang Shan frowned, but Marie returned a look: Let’s bet on it.

“Really?” Li Yuanyu looked to Tang Shan with a smile.

“Uh, yeah.” Tang Shan mustered a reply. He simply couldn’t reject the man with a bright expression on his usually gloomy face.

The restaurant was near the villa. The owner was kind and stopped them for a photo before they could leave, saying it was rare that the rain stopped. Tang Shan wanted to turn down the offer but she was so quick that the photo had been taken before he could do anything.

“Hey!”

“It’s fine. Whatever.”

“Yeah, for you. You were looking at the camera but I wasn’t ready,” Tang Shan complained. Of course, he wasn’t so inconsiderate as to demand for the owner to destroy it.

Li Yuanyu was in a good mood even after the meal on their way home.

“Are you feeling better?”

“Yes. Because of you.”

“Me?” Tang Shan was puzzled.

“I noticed you’ve been avoiding me for the past few days and thought maybe you grew to dislike me. But now it’s all good,” he explained with a smile.

But he really was avoiding him. Tang Shan managed to smile back.

“Tang Shan,” Li Yuanyu called his name out of nowhere and stopped walking.

The man in question halted as well and looked at him. Li Yuanyu’s eyes twinkled brightly like stars, mesmerizing him.

“Joseph – can I call you Joseph?”

Joseph!

Tang Shan broke away from those eyes and returned to his senses.

“Joseph?” Li Yuanyu studied him with worry.