The show began at eight and itâs already nine-thirty when itâs over. The mother wants them to stay for the night, saying, âIâve tidied up your rooms beforehand.â
Though her husband is thinking, âyeah, tidied with her mouth blabbering, perhaps.â
âIâm heading back,â Liu Yuxi refuses. This house is no longer a safe place for a bachelor like him. Not just the dog food, but the marriage talk as well.
And recalling Liu Yuâanâs treachery when he had the talk, he swears to himself inside that heâd definitely get back at him for it.
As for Liu Yuâan, he turns towards Shao Yanxi.
âIâm fine with whatever.â In fact, it might be better if they stayed, since Liu Yuâan wouldnât be able to have his way with him under his parentsâ watchful eyes. He might be able to leave for work earlier too.
He failed to consider one thing, however. Liu Yuâan and Liu Yuxi actually have a whole floor to themselves in the mansion, therefore Liu Yuâan wouldnât need to hold himself back.
In any case, the mother declares unilaterally, âyou should all stay for the night if you donât have anything going on. Thereâs only one mid-autumn festival a year. You can go back tomorrow.â
Then she gives her husband the eye, meaning, âspeak!â
He quickly follows up, âlisten to your mother and stay the night, you wonât miss work for a few hours anyway.â
Liu Yuxi ââŠâ
Really? Mr. âI will scold you for half an hour for skipping a few minutes on workâ Liu?
But they still stayed in the end, because the mother employed her tears tactic, wailing, âoh! To have three sons that are worse than one daughter in another family⊠Not going home for years on end, and still making all the excuses when I ask them to stay a nightâŠâ
âFine, fine, weâll stay, weâll stay.â Liu Yuxi quickly says.
Heâd rather not have any of her wailing, thank you very much.
Maybe he should just find a man and settle down with him himself. Though, he glances over at Liu Yuâan and Shao Yanxi, and canât help but imagine what that stage of the cycle of life looks like for them, and becomes spooked⊠A female, a soft, gentle lady is the one he would prefer.
Anyway, since theyâre all staying for the night, the mother decides to hold a late-night family conference.
Besides Shao Yanxi, everyone else seems to be in pain at the suggestion.
Shao Yanxi, perplexed, asks Liu Yuâan quietly.
He shakes his head, âdonât ask. In fact, donât say anything until itâs over.â
A family conference, in other words, an emotional speech from the mother.
Speaker: Mrs. Liu.
Audience: Mr. Liu, Shao Yanxi, the Liu brothers.
Unfortunately for the speaker, only Shao Yanxi is an attentive listener. The other three have been blanking out since who-knows-when.
A while later, she realises only Shao Yanxi is properly responding to her. She is unhappy.
Thus, a section of impromptu moral class on the topic ârespectâ is inserted, before her speech can continue.
When she realises they are blanking out again, another section is inserted⊠With a very civil, non-swear-laden scolding of the father and sons, and a flowery praise for the well-behaving Shao Yanxi.
Shao Yanxi has, meanwhile, switched from an attentive listener to an attentive spectator. What an interesting family.
Just listen for half an hour or two until she needs her water for Christâs sake. The more defiant they are, the more time she wastes scolding them and the longer they prolong their own suffering.
⊠That Shao Yanxi is thinking so is because he doesnât know Mrs. Liuâs family conference is not a typical speech that ends whenever the things she wanted to say are said, but by a strict timeslot.
No matter what is happening, when the clock strikes ten and a half, she will stop in the middle of her track and wash up for her beauty sleep.
Before ten and a half? Try a national emergency or their house collapsing for things that will make her cut the âconferenceâ short.
The father and sons have already figured out her shtick and already have a solution for itââTo blank through it all.
After the conference, when itâs time to sleep, Shao Yanxi realises his predicament, as he looks at the condom and lotion in Liu Yuâanâs hands with a gaping jaw, yelling, âI canât believe you brought these along going to your family home! Shame on you, Liu Yuâan! Donât touch me, I wonât do it! Never never ever! Go do it yourself!â
âBut itâs been a weekâŠâ
âNot even if itâs been two weeks!â
âAlright, fine, then. Go shower up and weâll sleep.â
Shao Yanxi looks at him with suspicion â he gets let off that easily? He thinks for a while and can only come up with them being under the parentsâ roof as a reason for him holding back. He then goes to shower relaxed.
As expected, Liu Yuâan doesnât barge in on his shower nor when he is freshly out of the bathroom.
Then⊠Time for Liu Yuâan to shower.
When heâs out though, he says, with his face blushing, âbaby, help me a little? I really canât do it alone. You can help with your hand.â
Shao Yanxi was unwilling, but when Liu Yuâan looks like heâs constipating, he canât help but agree.
Then⊠Poke, but no home run.
Finally⊠Shao Yanxi is glaring fiercely at Liu Yuâan, his face drenched in his own tears, âLiu Yuâan! You bastard! You liar!â And even forcing him to call him âhubbyâ!
He doesnât say that though.
âYes, I lied,â Liu Yuâan says without remorse as he carries his love to the bathroom.
Shao Yanxi is fuming, but he doesnât dare move either, as he doesnât want to be dropped to the floor (by accident, of course. Heâs sure Liu Yuâan wouldnât throw him onto the ground).
After cleaning and changing the bedsheets, the time reads, 3:30.
And Shao Yanxi goes mad anew. He sets an alarm for 5 in the morning in his fury.
âFive? Why five?!â Itâd probably be 4 or something when theyâre asleep. Theyâd barely get one cycle of sleep before having to wake up.
âBecause I have to go to work,â Shao Yanxi pushes him away, not letting him hug him tonight.
Actually, itâs because he feels awkward, and so he wants to leave before the father, mother and older brother woke up.
âOk, ok, Iâll drive you home,â he says, locking Shao Yanxi into his embrace again.
Shao Yanxi tries to struggle free, but fails, and is too tired to try something else.
Liu Yuâan shuts off the alarm when he notices Shao Yanxi is fast asleep.
But perhaps because he is thinking it into his sleep, Shao Yanxi wakes up a few minutes after five himself without the alarm. Looking at the time and the unringing alarm clock, he quickly realises itâs Liu Yuâanâs doing. Though he seems to be in a good sleep right now, so even though heâs still a bit angry, he doesnât do anything.
He gets up to get changed, but he is tugged by Liu Yuâan, âwait for me.â
Shao Yanxi is in his embrace. Heâll have to be a pig to not feel him struggle free.
Shao Yanxi hesitates before hurrying him, âquickly.â Heâs going home and getting a few more zzzâs. Heâs really tired.
âSure,â Liu Yuâan is getting washed up when Shao Yanxi stops him, âletâs sleep some more at home.â
âI have to drive, so I need the cold water,â just in case he might doze off in the car.
Thankfully, nobody else is awake at this point. Shao Yanxi tells Liu Yuâan as they get into the car, âsend a message to them when weâre home, saying youâre busy so we left early.â
âAlright,â he then continues, âtake a nap first. Iâll wake you up at home.â
âDonât worry about it.â He says, before falling back asleep a few minutes later.
Liu Yuâan ââŠâ
After parking at home, he calls him quietly, but Shao Yanxi seems to be dead asleep. So he just carries him up like that. They run into someone else on the way who looks at them, spooked.
Though homosexual marriage is legalised in this novel world, settings-wise heterosexual romantic relationships are still the commanding majority. Itâs still rather strange to see such flagrant display of homosexual love in public.
Liu Yuâan hides Shao Yanxiâs head in his embrace a little more when he notices. Shao Yanxi is so shy, and if he knows he was seen being princess-carried in public, heâd definitely kill him⊠Or, ignore him for a few days or something.
Though he somehow conveniently forgot about himself. If that person recognises Liu Yuâan, then wouldnât Shao Yanxiâs identity also be immediately busted?
That interlude aside, when theyâre inside their home and Liu Yuâan has put Shao Yanxi back into bed, Liu Yuâan takes his phone out to look at the time⊠And realises it is still turned off.
He remembers now that last night he shut it down in fear of Ren Jianzhang, and turns it back on, feeling a bit guilty.
And the WeChat notifications start bombarding him, and thereâs even 99+ in his call history.
Itâs mainly from Ren Jianzhang, and some from Xu Qingqing and Xiao-Zhang, and even some from people like He Chengzhou and Ning Xi.
Ignoring them all, he opens up WeChat⊠Woah. Itâs all red, with numbers inside ranging from 1 to 99+. He could already imagine what theyâre talking about, and so after skimming a bit he closes WeChat to also sleep in himself, before remembering that he should send a message to his parents and tell Liu Yuxi to help put the⊠âsmellyâ bedsheets he packed up into laundry. He forgot to take them away earlier, and heâd rather not leave it to the poor domestic worker as itâs full of their âstuff,â because it would have meant his mother would hear about it given how friendly the domestic worker and his mother are. Itâll be embarrassing.
Since it is only 5:58 right now, Liu Yuâan chooses to tell Liu Yuxi everything instead, because he would rather not wake his parents at this point.
As for disturbing Liu Yuxiâs sleep⊠That is not something he would worry about as a good younger brother.
[Ge, when you leave throw away the bedsheets I packed in front of my room]
Then another message.
[Yanxi and I left early for work, tell mom and dad for us later thx]
And he sends a kowtow emoji over as well.
Liu Yuxiâs angry rant comes as soon as he has sent the emoji over.
âLiu Yuâan, you fucking shit! How the hell can I sleep with all the ding-dongs in the morning?!â
Anticipating a loud, un-sleep-friendly level of noise from the voice message, Liu Yuâan turns it into text to read instead. Then he replies, [Then go back to sleep]
And he shuts down his phone and hugs Shao Yanxi to sleep back in.
Liu Yuxi has calmed down a little a few minutes after continuously ranting, and finally has time to look at what he sent; his drowsiness is all gone after ranting so loudly in early morning anyway⊠Then he scrolls up to see Liu Yuâan telling him to throw away bedsheets he packed up in front of the room, and feels like just fainting instead. What the heck, younger brother!