Ch43 - Howling at the moon

That “hubby” not only made Xie Zhuxing freeze on the spot, but even Wang Chao himself was shocked too.

“What did you call me?” Xie Zhuxing said, his ears flushed with heat.

Wang Chao smacked his lips but couldn’t bring himself to call him that a second time.

Xie Zhuxing: “…I’m not leaving. I’m going to hang our clothes.”

Wang Chao had embarrassment written over his face, and he loosened his grip on the other man’s leg.

Xie Zhuxing went to hang their clothes. While doing so, he couldn’t stifle his own laughter. Sure, Wang Chao was a real idiot, but he had to be one cute little idiot.

Once he finished hanging their clothes, Wang Chao had already tucked himself in and was lying on the bed, posing as if he was about to fall asleep. His eyes were scanning around until he shut them in a hurry when the other man entered the room. He thought his facade was flawless.

Xie Zhuxing didn’t expose him. He got into bed and turned off the lights.

Half a minute passed. Wang Chao nudged toward him, his hot breath tingling on his neck and face.

He gulped silently in the darkness. This little idiot, is he asking to get fucked again?

Little idiot called him: “Xiao Xie, you aren’t asleep yet, are you?”

He replied: “Yeah, not yet.”

Wang Chao struggled to squeeze his sentence out: “Just now, how I called you…”

Xie Zhuxing beamed instantly, his eyes curved from joy.

Wang Chao: “…don’t take it seriously, okay?”

Xie Zhuxing’s grin froze in an awkward position. What does “don’t take it seriously” mean?

Wang Chao continued to trudge through his explanation: “I didn’t mean anything, it was only a slip of the tongue. Don’t be repulsed by me, I’m really not a sissy.” Even now, he still didn’t think of himself as not straight, and neither did he think Xiao Xie was not. They were two straight men who had casual sex. Calling the other “hubby” is too…you know.

Xie Zhuxing didn’t know what to curse him as. He said: “What if I say, I kind of like the way you called me?”

Wang Chao froze: “…What?”

If he had ten-thousandth of Xie Zhuxing’s brain, or if Xie Zhuxing had ten-thousandth of his shamelessness, their kid would’ve been borne a long time ago – if he could give birth, that is.

But waiting for him to understand is near impossible. It would be much faster for Xie Zhuxing to be a bit more shameless.

Since the lights weren’t on, it didn’t seem it’d be as embarrassing as if they were in broad daylight. Xie Zhuxing turned around, pressed his fingertips to Wang Chao’s lips, and leaned over to kiss the other man. This was both a natural expression of his affection and a gesture to boost his own morale.

Wang Chao didn’t understand the situation, but he was someone who was driven by sensory inputs beyond anything else, so despite his confusion, he’d rather enjoy the pleasant kiss first.

The two ended the kiss with Wang Chao hugging Xie Zhuxing’s neck and Xie Zhuxing holding Wang Chao’s waist.

Utterly in bliss after the kisses, he suggestively nudged Xie Zhuxing’s member with his knee and said: “How about we give it another go? We don’t have much going on tomorrow anyways.”

Yet, Xie Zhuxing refused: “Wait for a bit before you get horny again. I have serious business to discuss with you.”

He didn’t have the patience to listen. Unable to hold back his horniness, he hummed: “Don’t joke around, how could there be anything serious to discuss at this moment?”

Xie Zhuxing regretted kissing him and said: “If you continue to squirm around, I will slap your butt again.”

Wang Chao: “…If you lay another finger on me, I won’t forgive you!”

At least he suppressed his horniness for now.

Xie Zhuxing also let go of him and sat upright.

Wang Chao disliked how far the other man was from him and propped himself on his knees. He glued himself to the other man and asked: “What ‘serious business’ do you want to discuss with me?”

Xie Zhuxing was used to pretending to be mature at a young age. Thus, even though his heart was drumming rapidly, his voice was stable: “Last night in Guangzhou, after we came down from the tower and strolled along the river, why did you suddenly want to kiss me during the stroll?”

Wang Chao was confused, though he did remember how he felt and confessed honestly: “Because I was in a good mood.”

Xie Zhuxing continued to ask: “If you were with someone else, and you were in a good mood, would you kiss that person? Such as Ji Jie? Cheng Yao? Xiaomu?”

Wang Chao thought the question was strange: “I was in a good mood because I was having fun with you. Why would I kiss them?”

Xie Zhuxing asked him earnestly: “Why were you in a good mood because you were with me?”

Wang Chao answered matter-of-factly: “‘Cuz we are best friends.”

Do you see how infuriating this is! Xie Zhuxing continued: “When you were in college, you were best friends with that keyboard player. Did you two kiss and sleep together?”

Wang Chao didn’t even think before he replied: “He had a girlfriend.”

Xie Zhuxing was even more infuriated and said: “If he didn’t have a girlfriend, then you would have kissed him, right? Particularly since he’s asked you to masturbate together – did you rather regret that he had a girlfriend?”

Wang Chao never thought about doing anything with that classmate. He dismissed the other man with a tone of disgust: “Stop with this nonsense. Who wanted to do anything with him?”

Riding on the momentum, Xie Zhuxing tossed out another question: “Then why is it okay when it’s with me instead?”

…Why? Wang Chao gave it a serious thought, then patted Xie Zhuxing’s thigh and coaxed the other man: “He’s not as handsome as you. He’s way worse.”

Xie Zhuxing: “…” Kill me now.

He continued to raise other examples: “Liang Xi is quite handsome. You’re quite close to him too. Have you thought about kissing and sleeping with him?”

“Stop with this nonsense! Liang Xi is basically my brother,” Wang Chao was baffled and asked: “This is the serious business you wanted to discuss? What is with these random questions.”

Xie Zhuxing was near poisoned with death by the other man’s strange thought process. No wonder this dude believes that he’d be straight for as long as he lived – his thought process is way too “straight” – you can’t even bring any subtleties into your words.

He took a few deep breaths. Since he’s already said this much, he’s got nothing to lose. With a lowered voice, he confessed: “I’ve never kissed any other men. From the bottom of my heart, I couldn’t. But you’re different. You’re the only one who’s different. I never get enough of kissing you.” As soon as he uttered those words, he felt the heat rising to his cheeks.

Wang Chao, however, did not perceive the affection within his confession. He even began to laugh heartily and tease the other man: “Is your daddy here’s saliva delicious?”

Xie Zhuxing: “…Do me a favor and shut the fuck up.”

Wang Chao reluctantly shut his mouth, but his hand was defiant and stroked Xie Zhuxing’s thigh back and forth.

Xie Zhuxing grabbed that hand, squeezed it tight, and continued: “Yesterday along the Pearl River, after we kissed, did you see that there was a another couple next to us who were kissing?”

Wang Chao hurriedly answered: “Yeah, I did. That girl’s legs were real good-looking, long and thin, and she was tall too. That’s my favorite type of girls. Though I didn’t see what her face looked like.”

Xie Zhuxing: “…” He suddenly doesn’t want to confess anymore.

Wang Chao even urged him: “Continue.”

Xie Zhuxing inhaled and said: “At that moment, did you not think that us and that couple, beside gender, were not different at all?”

Wang Chao: “…What do you mean?”

Xie Zhuxing cursed the other man in his heart as he continued, suppressing his impatience: “I understand that you’ve never been in a relationship, nor do you have that concept. But with us two now, you love to glue yourself to me all day, and whenever you are out of sight, it’s as if I’ve lost my soul. Isn’t this a relationship?”

Wang Chao blinked and blinked again. He had some doubts: Is this a relationship? Why is it different from what he thought it’d be? Despite that, he was happy too, and replied: “In fact, whenever you’re out of my sight, it’s as if I’ve lost my soul too.”

Xie Zhuxing rejoiced. Gently caressing the other man’s hand with his thumb, he said affectionately: “No friends would treat each other this way, nor are there any friends who would kiss and sleep with each other. We’ve not been friends for a long time.”

Wang Chao asked obtusely: “Then what are we?”

Xie Zhuxing used his free hand to cradle the other man’s cheek and pressed his lips to the latter’s lips. He felt his face heating up, and his ears felt as though they were being set on fire. He forced himself to calm down when he stated: “Boyfriends.”

Wang Chao: “…”

He was so silent that it was abnormal. Xie Zhuxing couldn’t see his expression, nor could he guess what he was thinking about. While he was confident before, he suddenly felt his confidence disappear at this moment.

A long while had passed before Wang Chao opened his mouth again: “Alright. Sounds better than “husbands,” at least it doesn’t sound sissy.”

Xie Zhuxing: “…”

Was his confession successful?

Wang Chao continued to speak: “I’ve never even had a girlfriend, but now I have a boyfriend.”

Xie Zhuxing: “…Are you not willing?”

Wang Chao said: “No, it’s good.”

Xie Zhuxing still thought that his reaction was off. Yet, he couldn’t tell at that moment what exactly was wrong.

Wang Chao’s reaction was indeed off. He had no clue how to react because his brain was in a complete error state.

He only wanted to be best friends with Xiao Xie for his entire life. Eat together, sleep together, and have fun together. How did that become “a relationship”?

As friends, as long as you don’t deceive one another, you won’t separate. But in relationships, you do. He can’t marry Xiao Xie anyway.

The next morning, Xie Zhuxing woke him up. They had to go to the company for a meeting.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he uttered the question that had occupied his mind for a whole night: “If we break up in the future, can we still be friends?”

Xie Zhuxing frowned: “Do you hope for us to break up?”

Wang Chao seemed torn: “Once my eldest brother is no longer strict with me, I will be able to hook up with girls again. You will definitely be unhappy then, and sooner or later, we will break up.”

Instantly, Xie Zhuxing realized.

It’s not that he didn’t have the concept of being in a “relationship,” but that he never even had the concept of “liking someone.”

Confessing to him is like howling Shakespearean poetry at the moon – it doesn’t matter if the latter listened, he wouldn’t care for it anyway.

Their meeting at the company was for discussing the content of the fan meet in Shanghai occurring at the end of the month.

Once the meeting ended, Duan Yikun gestured for Xie Zhuxing to stay behind and told him about the holiday movie. Had it not been for the leak, Duan Yikun may have wanted to hide the information for a while longer since it was not ideal for the group when one of the six members is leapfrogging everyone else.

“You’ve probably seen the comments online,” Duan Yikun said, “I know that your mentality has always been stable, so I won’t spend time advising you. But, could you try to persuade Leo? His temper’s explosive; one negative comment from an anti could set him on fire. We can’t use the same excuse as the last time he argued with the antis, that his account got stolen, again, right?

Xie Zhuxing nodded to agree and said: “Since this was your request, I will oblige. I can’t promise that he will listen, though.”

Duan Yikun was extremely perceptive, however, and asked: “What happened? Did you two have an argument?”

Xie Zhuxing realized that he has let his irritation slip in his speech. Given that he truly was in a bad mental state today, however, he simply sealed his lips and made not another sound.

Duan Yikun smiled and said suggestively, “That’s his personality. You know, the majority of that leak online is probably true. It’s impossible for you to forbid him from fooling around outside. He grew up this way, what can you do? I received trustworthy information recently – his eldest brother quit for a better position at China Film Group. Once he starts, he will be the third most influential figure in the corporation. Compared to that, Wang Chao’s fooling around is nothing. Don’t be too strict with him.”

Xie Zhuxing was left speechless by the other man’s words. He realized that he could never clarify the latter’s misunderstanding at this point.

When he walked out of Duan Yikun’s office, the first thing he saw in the distance was Wang Chao, standing next to two girls, with one hand on one of the girl’s breasts.

…What can you say. A leopard cannot change its spots.