Chapter 53 (1/2)
Translated by Karcessel of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
A silence fell after the kiss, and neither Lin ShuYi nor Shen Fu said a word. The room was quiet enough to hear a pin drop. Shen Fu sat with a glass of red wine in one hand, his eyes never leaving Lin ShuYi’s face. Lin ShuYi sat engrossed in his phone, and didn’t spare Shen Fu a single glance, as if he was empty air.
Although he just shared a kiss with Shen Fu, Lin ShuYi wasn’t the sentimental type. On the contrary, his mind was running through the logistics, wondering whether he should follow Shen Fu’s suggestions. Lin ShuYi had never been in a relationship before, and he didn’t even know whether he liked men or women, so his experience in progressing down this path was nonexistent. However, a relationship with Shen Fu wasn’t impossible. Far from it, in fact, because when Shen Fu kissed him, he didn’t feel disgusted at all. It was surprisingly pleasant, and heated his entire body up.
Thinking about it, Lin ShuYi’s feelings towards Shen Fu weren’t negative at all. However, Lin ShuYi knew that in these modern times, this path of homosexuality was a difficult one to walk. It wasn’t much different from Da Yan.
Although, in Da Yan, no one would bat an eye at a man with a male lover, it was still unheard of for him to marry that male lover. After all, a man needed to take a wife in order to sire children and continue his family name. Now, modern times were much more difficult than Da Yan, because in Da Yan, a married man may still have lovers and concubines, but today a man must stay faithful to one person and one person only until the end of his life.
Lin ShuYi didn’t mind the monogamy. In fact he liked the idea of being with one person for the rest of his life, thus he had to make his choices carefully. If the mutual intention wasn’t to grow old together, Lin ShuYi wasn’t interested in playing around with any relationships. The person he fell for must be someone who would last a lifetime. This was an ideal he held in his past life, and it still stayed deeply rooted in his core personality an entire world over.
Since Lin ShuYi didn’t feel any disgust towards Shen Fu’s kiss, the issue now wasn’t that Shen Fu was a man, but rather the details of his feelings for Shen Fu, and whether Shen Fu was really the kind of person who fit his criteria. Whether Shen Fu was the kind of person who he would want to stay with for the rest of his life.
While contemplating this, Lin ShuYi stretched out his body and slipped back into the hot springs, closing his eyes with a sigh and relaxing back into the warm, soothing water. He enjoyed the moment, and put away his worries. As things stood right now, it seemed that he didn’t have to do anything quite yet.
So, Shen Fu wanted to pursue him?
Then pursue away. He wasn’t against it.
The corner of Lin ShuYi’s mouth curved up, and he continued to treat Shen Fu as if he didn’t exist.
Shen Fu had exhausted all the wine in his cup. He licked his lips, savoring the aftertaste, though whether he was savoring the aftertaste of the wine or the kiss, he didn’t know. What he did know was that his eyes never left Lin ShuYi’s face.
It didn’t bother Shen Fu that Lin ShuYi didn’t want to deal with anything just yet, as long as Lin ShuYi didn’t dislike him. If Lin ShuYi had really disliked Shen Fu, then the moment Lin ShuYi was kissed, he should have reacted immediately and slapped Shen Fu away, right?
Shen Fu grinned, thinking to himself that his days of pinning were finally over.
With the sweet taste of success lingering on his tongue, although Shen Fu didn’t know what Lin ShuYi was thinking, he understood the concept of stopping before he went too far. He shouldn’t go chasing the taste of success endlessly, for if in his rush he pushed Lin ShuYi away, then the one who got hurt would end up being himself. Thus, if Lin ShuYi didn’t bring up the kiss, then neither would Shen Fu.
Instead, he picked up a round tray of pastries, and walked over to Lin ShuYi. “These sweets are really delicious, are you really not going to have a try?”
Lin ShuYi slowly opened his eyes, and looked over. After a moment, he raised his hand out of the water and dried it on a nearby towel, as he considered the two different kinds of pastries on the tray. One of the pastries, the one previously mentioned by Shen Fu, was sachima. Lin ShuYi had already tried this pastry once before, at a banquet in Da Yan. It seemed to be traditional to some of the nomadic people, sweet and chewy, melting in his mouth. The other pastry on the tray was unfamiliar and extraordinarily beautiful, in a variety of soft pastel colours. It looked like some kind of a stuffed cookie, with pretty ruffled edges.
The little cookie-like pastry was captivating, so Lin ShuYi gingerly picked one up and asked Shen Fu, “What’s this?”
Shen Fu smiled, and poured him a glass of wine. “Macarons. It pairs will with red wine.”
For Shen Fu, all the pastries on the tray were a bit too sweet to suit his tastes. Whether it was the traditional sachima or the western macaron, he didn’t like either. Lin ShuYi, however, Shen Fu knew loved these sweet, sweet pastries.
As expected, it only took one bite for Lin ShuYi’s eyelids to flutter closed, basking in the delicious sweetness of the dessert. With a thin yet crispy outer shell, soft and chewy on the inside, the texture was completely unique from the creams cakes Lin ShuYi had tried before, contrary to his expectations. The addition of almond flour gave the macarons a unique flavor, and matched the filling perfectly.
Shen Fu swirled the wine in the wineglass, and handed it over to Lin ShuYi once he opened his eyes again. “Try it with this.”
Lin ShuYi didn’t notice that this was the cup Shen Fu had just been drinking out of as he took a sip, too focused on how the tartness of the wine neutralized some of the overwhelming sweetness of the macaron, creating a unique flavour in his mouth. It really was a good pair.
Afterwards, Lin ShuYi and Shen Fu spent the rest of the night enjoying desserts together by the misty hot spring, a slight hint of sulphur in the air. Though the atmosphere between them was still uncertain, it was surprisingly amicable.
In two days, it would be time to return to S City, so of course Lin ShuYi and Shen Fu spent the last few days playing to their heart’s content.
The entire time, Chen Fang never did figure out just which stage these two had progressed to, but the constant smile on Shen Fu’s face told him all he needed to know. Something good had definitely happened.
Two days later, Lin ShuYi and Shen Fu bid their farewells to Chen Fang, and prepared to drive back to S City.
In the week since coming to H City, Lin ShuYi and Shen Fu had made several calls to Old Man Yang, keeping each other updated. Lin ShuYi had no idea where Shen Fu got the people, but the XiQin restaurant’s rebuilding was extraordinarily fast, to the point where it was almost finished already. This probably had something to do with how the restaurant was just being renovated, and not completely rebuilt from the bottom up, as well.
Before Lin ShuYi and Shen Fu left H City, they made a call to Old Man Yang, who was overjoyed to hear that they were returning. He asked them when they expected to arrive, ready to being preparing a meal ahead of time.
Once again, the two of them went shopping in H City, and went home with more than they came with, the car filled up to the brim.
On the way back, instead of taking Chen Fang’s nice luxury car, Shen Fu continued to drive the small, unassuming Hyundai he came to this city in. Although his own car had had been confiscated by grandfather Shen earlier, during grandfather Shen’s last visit, he gave the keys back to Shen Fu. The only issue was that, no matter whether it was a brand or the appearance, every part of his SUV was far too ostentatious. He didn’t want to cause any gossip if he drove it to Old Man Yang’s place, so he left it behind.
Lin ShuYi and Shen Fu had just entered S City when Lin ShuYi received a call from Old Man Yang.
Old Man Yang’s voice was joyously cheerful on the other end of the line, and in fact, he had been in this state since he found out the two would be returning home. “Are you in the city yet?”