[曦澄 | XiCheng][MDZS Modern AU]: All The Things I Never Told You [~PART 1~]

〽️👁‍🗨 Chapter 48: The Sex Shop Insider 1.

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They were driving through town, running too late, even more so now, after this distraction, veering away from today's schedule. 

The traffic around noontime was awful, naturally, and Jiang Cheng was sitting quietly in his seat, listening to Lan Xichen's numerous phone calls again. The very first one was to someone he called "Mike",  and he went a little pale  –  he already knew who that was, even though he had never even seen the man. Lan Huan was seriously taking on his brother's case too, and now sounded surprisingly terse, sharp, even a little bit rude.

He sighed quietly. 

This probably meant he was going to have very little time for him in the next... what? Days? Weeks? 

He closed his eyes  –  the city was quite dirty and ugly to be looking at. He had no right to complain. He knew. He had always known.  He knew that he would forever have to be stealing time so that he could be with his love.

Deep in thought, he never really heard Lan Xichen calling out to him.

- Are you alright?  Wanyin?  Baby? Are you OK?

There was so much care and worry in this voice now that Jiang Cheng refused to believe that it belonged to the same person who had been yelling boorishly at the faceless policeman just minutes ago.

- Yea... A little tired. Sorry.  –  he said briefly with a heavy heart.

- Are you going to be OK? Today at work? It's one hell of a shift, Wanyin!  –  Lan Xichen frowned, looking right ahead, his eyes on the road.

- No worries, sweetheart.  -  Jiang Wanyin smiled for him, and reached out to caress his face, trying the new pet name out, tasting it in his mouth.  –  It will be good money tonight. Bobby said it's gonna be busy around Christmas. And this is good.

Lan Huan's frown deepened, he failed to enjoy the endearment. 

He dared not tell him his mind  –  how he didn't really want him to work any more, how he didn't need to  any more, how he craved for Jiang Wanyin to share with him what he needed all this money for. 

But it was too soon. He knew it was too soon.

- We are almost there, love.  –  he mumbled, taking a turn and now wondering where to park.

When they finally did get out of the warm car, Jiang Cheng realized, quite unhappy to find it out, that it was really cold outside. He was still wearing just his clothes from that fateful Sunday when the weather had been quite mild. 

Sunday; Lan Huan's birthday. He shuddered.

And then, yet again that day, he gaped, watching Lan Xichen yell at the police officers who were placed there to keep the crime scene from being disturbed, and from the curious by-standers too. He could almost believe that his lover enjoyed  yelling at people. Other people.

"Well, lawyers need to be thick-skinned."  –  he thought to himself.

Thick-skinned?  It was just yesterday that Lan Huan had been so soft with him, so vulnerable, so sensitive... There were so many layers to him that Jiang Wanyin felt dizzy. He had only had an impression of him as a customer to the bar, but now... it was like meeting at least 3 new people.

He smiled faintly  –  Lan Xichen managed to call someone important, and get rid of the cops; he never doubted that he'd succeed. Curious, he approached a little, still hesitating whether to enter at all. He still felt like an outsider of sorts.