Reborn as a Good Child

125. Don't Give Him Hope

Was Jiang Hua really that exhausted? Had he grown that skinny? Well, Yan had given the man a lot of work. He was afraid any less wouldn't be able to stop the other man from appearing before him. Should Yan reduce the man's workload tomorrow? Why not just send the man off to a branch office? Out of sight, out of mind.

YiHan paid close attention to Yan's face as the man was stuck in his own thoughts. His brother's expressions didn't give him any good feelings. Deep in YiHan's heart, he sighed for Jiang Hua's future.

Yan shot his brother a glance and, in a seemingly nonchalant tone, asked, "He complained to you when you two ate at lunch?"

"Do you not know him?" YiHan hurriedly shook his head and replied. "He would never complain about anything to anyone, not even to me and we have such a close bond. He was sickly pale, thin as a stick and looked lethargic. I pulled the answer out of him. Only then did I know it was because of work. When we were leaving the restaurant, he was nearly knocked over by someone. It was obvious he was in a bad shape."

Unwittingly, Yan's heart was tugged and he reflexively asked, "Who knocked him over?"

"I don't know," YiHan answered, baffled. "That man didn't mean it. He merely wasn't paying attention to where he was walking and he had a big, muscular body. Thank goodness I was nearby to help support Jiang-ge."

"When did you two become so close?" Yan asked with one eyebrow raised.

"We've always been this close," said YiHan. "He doesn't have any family and he thinks of me as his younger brother. Is there anything wrong with that?"

For some unknown reason, Yan's bad mood vanished. "Of course there's nothing wrong with that," said Yan, gently patting his brother on the head. "Jiang Hua is a good man. Um, what do you two talk about when you meet up?"

"We'd just talk," YiHan answered, resting a hand on his chin as he recalled. "We would talk about work, our lives, what's going in the world; we'd talk about anything and everything."

Yan paused to gather his words, then asked, "Did he talk about...how he's been doing lately?"

YiHan glanced at Yan and down at the coffee table before them. "I noticed his face looking quite sickly," he said, a finger tapping on the wooden surface, "so I question him on it. He said he was rather tired from work but that was it. However, he seemed dead on his feet. As he talked to me, he'd be on the brink of nodding off."

"Is he that tired?" Yan frowned. "With his competence, he shouldn't be."

"He wasn't in a good mood from the start," YiHan commented. "Say, aren't you two together all the time? Why ask me? Also, you gave him more work but did you give him a pay raise?"

"Money has never been a big concern of yours," Yan asked, mystified. "Why do you care so much about his salary?"

YiHan picked up an orange from the bowl of fruits before him and rolled it around in his hands. "I've told you, that's his retirement fund."

"Just how old is he that he needs to start a retirement fund?" Yan wearily asked.

YiHan gave his brother the side-eye and said nothing.

Yan: ...Why did that gaze look so chastising?

Sick of rolling the orange around, YiHan threw it back onto the bowl and stood up. "Anyway, stop bullying him all the time."

Yan: Have I bullied him? Oh, I do seem to be doing it a bit lately. Ugh, it's best to just transfer Hua away.

YiHan headed towards the door, but then he looked back and said, "I didn't think you're like this, Big Brother. You would never have bullied anyone."

Yan: ...

YiHan opened the door to leave only to be met with a handsome face, a face that was inches away from him. Startled, he skipped back and glared at the man outside the room.

"JingYuan, why are you standing there without having made any noise?" YiHan said. "It's terrifying."

JingYuan used his unique natural (?) bass voice to reply, "I'm here to fetch you back to our room."

YiHan's heart raced. He cleared his throat and said, "Then, go. I, um, I was thinking of heading back for a while now but my brother insisted I stay behind and chat with him. I don't know what to do with him."

JingYuan chuckled. He nodded in greeting to Yan, who was staring at them with a gaping mouth. Then, with an arm across YiHan's shoulders, JingYuan led the young man back to their room.

Yan: He might be getting old. He couldn't understand them. YiHan would be going back to a room that was located in the same house as Yan's room. Did that require an escort? Also, YiHan, are you really okay with selling your brother out? You're the one who followed me over!

***

After their evening's harmonious exercise, YiHan was slumped over their bed, drenched in sweat and panting heavily. JingYuan's body hovered slightly above YiHan's, refusing to withdraw from YiHan's body. Kiss after kiss rained down on YiHan's ears and shoulders.

"Get off," YiHan huffed. "You're heavy."

JingYuan propped his body up higher and leaned in close to the younger man's ear to whisper, "How about this? Still heavy?"

"Aren't you tired?" YiHan tiredly said. "Get out."

"I don't want to," JingYuan said as he nipped along the back of YiHan's neck.

YiHan rolled his eyes at the man, unable to do anything more. "When did you learn to be so shameless?" he joked.

"I wouldn't act like this to anyone else," JingYuan crooned. "What does it matter?" He tenderly kissed a shoulder peppered with hickeys. "HanHan, you seem particularly concerned with Jiang Hua's affairs."

YiHan didn't bother turning around. "Jiang-ge's a good man," he sighed. "He just has a bad life and bad luck with love. What made him love my brother? It's just a disaster for people like us to fall in love with straight men. Jiang-ge is also a very stubborn man. When I was at lunch with him today, he looked drained." He sighed. "I can't do anything to help him either. I feel so powerless."

"HanHan," JingYuan said, suckling on the man's earlobe, "love is not something other people can help with. If you wish to help him, you can only do so in terms of his lifestyle, like you can ask him out for a meal when he's free or you can make sure he won't be all alone in this world when he's an old man."

YiHan let out another sigh, "That's all I can do. Aren't I useless? I wanted to make him happier but I don't even know what to do."

"HanHan, you must understand that if it's impossible between them, don't give Jiang Hua hope. Otherwise, he'll be even more hurt," JingYuan gently said.

YiHan thought about it and replied, "You're right. I only thought about making him happy. I didn't think about how much more upsetting he'd be to be disappointed after being given hope."