Reborn as a Good Child

104. Would Rather He Wasn't a Good Kid

JingYuan swiftly resolved all urgent paperwork. He picked up his suit and strode off, leaving behind the shadowy figure of his back to everyone in the Mu Group. Chen Hong reached out in the famed Erkang gesture, a hand stretched out in an attempt to stop his boss from leaving: Boss, stay a while longer. When you're not around, I'd be run into the ground!

However, JingYuan can't read his poor secretary's mind. His determined strides brought him out of the office. He never looked back.

He returned to the Bai family home to find Ma watching television in the downstairs living room.

"Really, you. Why did you rush back in such a hurry?" Ma said with a smile. "You must have work just piling up."

"It's fine," JingYuan replied with a smile of his own. "When HanHan's not by my side, I just feel uneasy."

"Are you all done with work?" Ma asked.

"Not yet," said JingYuan. "I plan on taking HanHan with me to the office tomorrow. That way, I won't be missing out on either of them. He might find it boring though."

"That's a good plan." Ma nodded. "You won't be skipping out on work then. You can't be out of the office all the time. HanHan can't go out and play now and he can't just laze around at home all day long. It'd be good for him to go out with you. If he really gets bored, then go talk to him. He's a very good kid these days."

"I'd rather he wasn't," JingYuan sighed.

"Yes. HanHan was so much more carefree before. He was like a miniature sun. Wherever he went, he brought warmth and light with him," Ma sighed as she nodded again. "Let's not talk about it anymore. He's upstairs. He hasn't been down the whole afternoon. I wonder if he fell asleep. Go and check on him."

JingYuan nodded and walked up to YiHan's room. He knocked on the door and not long after, the door was opened. YiHan's smiling face appeared from behind the door. His eyes were shining bright. He didn't look like he had just woken up from a nap. The smile on YiHan's face made JingYuan's lips twitch up unwittingly.

"Were you waiting by the door?" JingYuan asked. "You're so quick to the door."

YiHan shifted to let JingYuan in. As he closed the door behind them, he said, "I knew it was you by the way you knocked on the door. Of course I'd be quick to open the door."

"Oh?" JingYuan curiously asked. "You knew it was me just by how I knocked? How could you tell?"

YiHan cheerfully bustled about pouring a glass of water for JingYuan.

"The way you knock and the way you walk sound so very different to other people's," YiHan said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Naturally, I could tell."

JingYuan felt like he was just shot through the heart with an arrow. It felt pleasantly numb. He had heard someone once said if couples could differentiate their partner's footsteps from other people's, that meant the love they held for each other was deeply ingrained into their bones. Everything about their other half would always be unique. His little lover knew him by the way he knocked. Was that proof YiHan truly loved him?

Overwhelmed by his emotions, JingYuan pulled YiHan into an embrace and lightly pecked him on the top of his head. In this very moment, he felt like he was the happiest man on earth.

YiHan blinked, dazed. Reflexively, his arms went around JingYuan's waist. He didn't know why his lover suddenly got so emotional. Still, a hug's a hug. He leaned into the hug and rubbed his cheeks against JingYuan's chest and took a deep breath, savouring his lover's scent. It made him feel so much calmer and grounded.

Gentle silences were meant to be broken, however. A WeChat notification soon interrupted the pair of lovers. In the silent room, it sounded extraordinarily loud. It made YiHan flinch. He reached out and tapped into the notification. It's from Yan Pei:

Last night, there was a power outage at the university. So they had to let us go early. By the time we reached the school gates, the power suddenly came back on. Everyone began sprinting out of the campus. At that moment, I felt like I'd just won a race against light.

A chuckle burst out of YiHan. He raised his phone up to show the message to JingYuan. "Look at this," he said while laughing. "It's hilarious."

JingYuan read through the message but he still didn't understand what was so funny about it. He pulled YiHan closer. The younger man was still busy laughing.

"Who is it?" JingYuan asked. "Who'd message you jokes?"

Translator's Notes:

Best buds: Beijing slang (铁磁) which means "bros" or "best bros". As with the English translation, this term is solely (often) used between male friends. MTL might translate it as "ferromagnetic/magnetic".
Amused huff/chuckle: The writer likes to write "smile" for a lot of things. It's mostly a Chinese-language issue though. It's often only implicitly told whether it's an actual smile, smirk, chuckle, huff or laugh.
Terminal disease known as being a serious fujoshi: The actual line reads "as someone with terminal fujoshi-ism" with "fujoshi-ism" being a mashed up word of "fujo" from the word fujoshi and the "disease" character commonly used for cancer.