Chapter 45#

Lawyer Hua and her assistant did not stay in Beijing. They were scheduled to take a flight back to Hong Kong later that day, where new projects awaited their triumphant return.

Zhang Xingchuan arranged a hotel near the airport for them to rest for half a day. He shook hands with them, bid them farewell, and expressed his sincere gratitude once again.

Ever since getting off the plane, Tan Xiao had been holding Zhang Xingchuan’s hand. He knew it was not ideal, but he simply didn’t want to let go.

“Thank you for your hard work,” he said to Lawyer Hua and her assistant. “Next time you’re in Beijing, I’ll treat you to a meal.”

Lawyer Hua replied, “We’ll definitely be back.”

Tan Xiao, still holding Zhang Xingchuan’s hand, hugged Lawyer Hua with his other hand and said, “Senior Sister, thank you.”

“I just did my job,” Lawyer Hua said with a smile. “Junior Brother, remember to thank the school.”

Tan Xiao said, “Of course, I’ll love my alma mater for life.”

After bidding farewell to Lawyer Hua, he and Zhang Xingchuan went home together.

Zhang Xingchuan didn’t notify the driver to pick them up; they hailed a taxi outside the airport.

Tan Xiao looked left and right in the car, as if he hadn’t been back to Beijing in decades.

The driver, an elderly master, asked, “Are you two brothers returning from abroad?”

Tan Xiao said, “Yes.”

The driver asked, “Do you miss home when you’re away?”

“I miss it terribly,” Tan Xiao said. “Seriously, I’m never leaving again. In my next life, I still want to be Chinese.”

This left the old master speechless.

Zhang Xingchuan had been staring at Tan Xiao for over ten hours in the sky, barely sleeping. He couldn’t settle down until they arrived in Beijing. Once they landed, he started feeling sleepy and was now dozing off beside Tan Xiao.

Tan Xiao had seen enough of the scenery outside the window and started looking at Zhang Xingchuan again. After a while, he couldn’t resist leaning over and kissing Zhang Xingchuan’s face.

The master probably saw it in the rearview mirror, but Tan Xiao didn’t care. He pulled Zhang Xingchuan closer, letting his husband lean on his shoulder to sleep.

When they arrived home, the auntie was already setting out breakfast.

Before Zhang Xingchuan left, he had informed Ms. Jiang and Old Zhang about what he was going to do. The two immediately changed their plans, didn’t return to Australia, and waited at home for them to come back.

Ms. Jiang and the auntie came to greet them, hugging Tan Xiao one by one. Both cried and asked Tan Xiao, “Did they hit you? Did they starve you?”

Back home, Tan Xiao finally let go of Zhang Xingchuan’s hand.

He felt the genuine care of the two aunties and said, “I wasn’t hit, and I had good food every day. They just wouldn’t let me play with my phone.”

Ms. Jiang was furious: “That’s too anti-human!”

Old Zhang quietly asked Zhang Xingchuan how he resolved it, and then couldn’t help but sigh with a macroscopic perspective. Zhang Xingchuan was too sleepy to keep his eyes open and barely responded to Old Zhang’s comments.

The auntie called everyone to eat. Zhang Xingchuan said, “I ate on the plane, so I won’t eat now. I’m going upstairs to sleep.”

He came over, hugged Tan Xiao, kissed his lips, and then went upstairs to sleep on his own.

The three elders looked around, pretending not to see anything.

Tan Xiao ate breakfast with them and then went upstairs to rest.

After showering, he went to bed. When he lifted the covers, he found Zhang Xingchuan sleeping naked. He must have showered and been too sleepy to change into pajamas, falling into a deep sleep as soon as he got under the covers.

Tan Xiao also took off his pajamas and snuggled up to Zhang Xingchuan. They both smelled of the same shower gel, indistinguishable from each other.

Zhang Xingchuan felt his closeness in his sleep, unconsciously adjusted his posture, and held him in his arms.

Tan Xiao quickly fell asleep too, probably dreaming. When he woke up in the afternoon, he had forgotten all his dreams.

The two were still hugging. Tan Xiao had truly slept enough this time, but he didn’t want to get up. He wanted to hug Zhang Xingchuan like this forever, until the end of the world, with no one and nothing able to separate them.

He stared at Zhang Xingchuan’s face. Zhang Xingchuan looked a bit haggard, with some stubble and slightly thinner cheeks. He suddenly noticed something and leaned closer in disbelief.

A few white hairs had appeared at Zhang Xingchuan’s temples, which weren’t there before.

Zhang Xingchuan opened his eyes. Tan Xiao’s face was close, his eyes still filled with tears.

“We’re home now,” Zhang Xingchuan said. “Don’t be scared, we’ll never go to that dreadful place again.”

Tan Xiao said, “I wasn’t scared.”

Zhang Xingchuan asked, “Then why are you crying?”

Tan Xiao didn’t want to tell the truth; Zhang Xingchuan himself might not have noticed those few hairs. He said, “You… you don’t have any chest muscles left.”

Zhang Xingchuan was instantly exasperated and said, “Impossible, it hasn’t even been a month. Look again carefully.”

Tan Xiao laughed again and burrowed further under the covers. Zhang Xingchuan thought he was going to bury his face in his chest, but he was actually going to do something else naughty further down.

Zhang Xingchuan didn’t let him. He pulled him back, pressed him onto the pillow, and kissed him wildly.

“Did you miss me?” Zhang Xingchuan asked.

From the time Tan Xiao left the manor until they boarded the plane, only one day had passed. Tan Xiao had been sleeping soundly, and Zhang Xingchuan had to give a final report to all parties. They hadn’t had a chance to talk properly.

“I missed you a lot,” Tan Xiao said. “There’s a Great Dane at home, very handsome, only… one-tenth like you, but I’m going to love it to death.”

Zhang Xingchuan was a little touched, but a dog looking like him was truly absurd. He said, “I’m going to beat you up.”

“Why beat me up?” Tan Xiao said. “Don’t you want to [beep] me? I wanted you to… on the plane.”

Zhang Xingchuan didn’t let him finish, and started kissing him again. He kissed him from every angle, kissing him until he was breathless, his big eyes rolling back several times.

Zhang Xingchuan carried him to the bay window and kissed him. Although the curtains were drawn, outside the window, Ms. Jiang and the auntie were drying something in the yard downstairs. Their conversation couldn’t be heard clearly, but their voices made Tan Xiao nervous. He pushed Zhang Xingchuan, wanting him to go back to bed, but Zhang Xingchuan refused, wantonly bullying his hard-won wife.

His wife wouldn’t argue with him; she would love him to death.

In the evening, Zhang Xingchuan was shaving. He was a manual razor type.

Tan Xiao slowly brushed his teeth beside him, watching his movements in the mirror, feeling that everything he did was sexy.

“I want to change my surname,” Tan Xiao said suddenly after rinsing his mouth. “How about I also take the surname Zhang from now on?”

Zhang Xingchuan: “…”

Tan Xiao immediately changed his mind and said, “But Zhang isn’t cool at all. I want to be Xuanyuan.”

Zhang Xingchuan: “…………”

Tan Xiao said, “I’ll ask my mom for her opinion later.”

Zhang Xingchuan finally said, “Don’t take my surname. It’ll get confusing. People will think we’re into German incest.”

“?” Tan Xiao said, “I’m not taking your surname. My mom’s surname is Zhang.”

Zhang Xingchuan was embarrassed and pretended nothing happened, continuing to shave.

After two days of rest, the overseas storm came to an end. The two went back to work.

The CEO traveled thousands of miles to collect a debt and successfully brought it back, which was naturally a good story at Wen Cheng.

Tan Xiao had been delayed for some time and was late for his report. On the plane back, he had already made a major decision.

After officially joining the station, he soon donated a small target to each of the two schools.

Alumni donations are common. When discussing this in the class group, it was downplayed and not considered a big deal.

Only a few classmates who knew a little about the inside story privately teased Zhang Xingchuan, thinking that the couple had jointly presented a grand gesture to their alma mater and the neighboring school.

Zhang Xingchuan said, “I wish I could, but I still rely on my wife to pay off the mortgage.”

His classmates only took it as modesty. But what he said was actually true.

Tan Xiao went to work on time every day, living the life of a humble scholar. After leaving the Doria family, he still had a lot of wool he had pulled before. He planned to donate a little each year; donating it all at once wouldn’t be good. What if Zhang Xingchuan accidentally went bankrupt?

Soon it was the New Year, and Ms. Jiang and Old Zhang, unable to stand Beijing’s weather, had returned to Melbourne over a month ago. The auntie at home also went on holiday.

So Tan Xiao took Zhang Xingchuan to Zhejiang for the New Year.

As Zhang Xingchuan had said before, he let Tan Xiao play with his mother, while he accompanied the uncle to chat. The two indeed had common topics to discuss.

Tan Xiao told his mother that he wanted to change his surname. His mother said it was fine, whether he kept the surname Tan or not, it was just a surname, and who could it bind?

The symbol of kingship that passed this surname to Tan Xiao had long since completely dissipated in the dust of history, and the so-called Doria family, rich enough to rival a nation, would not be eternal. Our names are not that important; what matters is how we live our lives.

“My mom is right, but I still want to be Xuanyuan,” Tan Xiao told Zhang Xingchuan. “You people with the surname Zhang, don’t you know how cool rare surnames are?”

Zhang Xingchuan said, “Do you have an opinion on my surname Zhang?”

Tan Xiao said, “Look, with your surname Zhang, it’s hard for people to see you as an overbearing CEO. If your surname was Gu, your CEO value would immediately rise significantly, wouldn’t it, Gu Xingchuan?”

Zhang Xingchuan said, “Okay, CEO Xuanyuan, it seems Little Zhang isn’t worthy. Little Zhang will leave now.”

Tan Xiao laughed heartily, then hugged him again, using his撒娇大法 (coquettish charm) to say some insincere words like “CEO Zhang is actually very charming too…”

The two didn’t stay at Tan Xiao’s mother’s house, as there wasn’t a suitable room. They stayed in a hotel outside.

This was a port city, by the sea. It was New Year’s Eve, and there were celebratory activities somewhere, with fireworks rising from the sea.

Halfway through his coquettishness, Tan Xiao took out his phone to film the fireworks by the window. Zhang Xingchuan, who had just gotten into the mood, was displeased at being left hanging. He followed him and hugged Tan Xiao from behind.

Tan Xiao: “…Huh?”

His face was flushed. He didn’t want to film the fireworks anymore and was about to put down his phone. Zhang Xingchuan said, “Keep filming, don’t stop.” He even grabbed Tan Xiao’s hand and made him hold the phone up, still pointing it at the floor-to-ceiling window.

With the lights on in the room at night, the floor-to-ceiling window became a blurry mirror. Just now, Tan Xiao had only been focused on the fireworks, but now he couldn’t help but notice the overlapping figures reflected in the glass.

The New Year’s bell rang, and another spring was about to arrive.

It was past one o’clock, and Tan Xiao was lying in bed watching the video. He felt it was quite artistic; you couldn’t really see faces, so he didn’t know who it was, and he was a little reluctant to delete it.

“Watch it one last time,” Zhang Xingchuan said, “then delete it quickly.”

Tan Xiao said, “You told me to film it, and you’re telling me to delete it.”

Zhang Xingchuan said, “This could easily leak out. Just enjoy it and then delete it, be good.”

He reached over Tan Xiao’s back to delete the video, but Tan Xiao dodged, not letting him. In their playful struggle, they became intimate again, with the video on the phone next to them playing as background noise, adding a unique kind of fun.

Of course, it was eventually deleted.

After the New Year, Wen Cheng underwent a structural upgrade, establishing a new International Strategic Development Department. The purpose was clear: Wen Cheng was going overseas to expand its territory. This was not something that could be achieved overnight; the cycle for achieving results would not be short, perhaps five, ten, or even more years.

Zhang Xingchuan was very good at running; he approached life and work like a marathon, focused and determined, just running, continuously running.

“I won’t go to your strategic department; it sounds exhausting,” Tan Xiao suspected the CEO still wanted to train him as a little horse. He said, “I’m planning to go back to Tsinghua for a second station, not to move bricks for you.”

Zhang Xingchuan didn’t think that way. His previous idea was still the same: Tan Xiao could do whatever he wanted, and if he didn’t want to do anything, he could just relax and play. He could afford them… no, Tan Xiao could afford both of them himself.

He feigned anger and said, “Who said I wanted to be a workhorse for Wen Cheng my whole life?”

Tan Xiao pretended to have amnesia and said, “Who? That would be you.”

Zhang Xingchuan was about to grab him and teach him a lesson, but he slipped away like a fish, darting out the door, getting on his bike, and speeding off to work.

The peonies buried in the garden all winter had sprouted new shoots, bright in color and growing well.

They would surely bloom this year.

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