Chapter 5#
The Cowardly Office Worker 5#
Shen Xifu warned, “Xie Yuzhi.”
After a brief silence, the sound of a key turning in the lock came.
The door opened.
Shen Anyu watched the youth trailing reluctantly behind Shen Xifu, stepping into the house—a face full of arrogance, a black backpack slung over his shoulders, looking like he’d been wandering outside for days, every inch of him steeped in dishevelment.
And yet, despite that state, his face still carried an undiminished youthful brashness.
Rising to his feet, Shen Anyu looked at Shen Xifu, as if not understanding why “she” had suddenly brought a young man home, at a loss for what to do.
Shen Xifu set down the keys and explained, “He’s my younger brother. He got kicked out of the house. He’ll probably need to stay with us for a while.”
Shen Anyu nodded.
When it came to matters at home, he’d never had much say—he always listened to Shen Xifu.
Even if Shen Xifu had brought home a stray dog today, Shen Anyu wouldn’t have raised any objection. He would only nod obediently and agree after hearing Shen Xifu’s answer.
“Tch.” Xie Yuzhi let out a cold laugh.
His gaze landed on the “brother-in-law” standing before him. Ignoring Shen Anyu’s discomfort, the disgust between his brows nearly spilled over, and he treated Shen Xifu’s earlier warning as if it didn’t exist. “Brother-in-law?”
After the words fell, he gave a light “ha,” as if he found it amusing.
The scent of gunpowder surfaced.
“…”
Shen Anyu didn’t know how he should respond. It wasn’t that he hadn’t noticed Xie Yuzhi’s aversion to him. After a moment, he silently nodded, taking it as acknowledgment.
Only Shen Xifu, standing in front of Xie Yuzhi, turned his head back and gave him a cold look.
An instinct honed from childhood made Xie Yuzhi sense danger. He swallowed back the words he hadn’t finished, not daring to stroke the tiger’s whiskers in front of his elder brother.
“Apologize,” Shen Xifu said.
Xie Yuzhi looked at Shen Xifu in disbelief, the anger he’d been suppressing in his chest flaring up instantly. “Me, apologize? What do I have to apologize for? He’s the one who has you living in a shabby place like this! I’m already being generous by not making him apologize to you—”
“Ge—” The instant that syllable left his mouth, Xie Yuzhi’s neck went cold. Under Shen Xifu’s murderous gaze, he forcibly swallowed the rest. He didn’t dare let the old man sitting on the sofa hear even a trace of the word “brother.”
Shen Anyu looked at them, not understanding what was happening, only hearing Xie Yuzhi mumble an unwilling “Sorry” afterward, followed by a “brother-in-law” that sounded like compensation.
This time, there was none of the earlier hostility in Xie Yuzhi’s words, as if every thorn on his body had been plucked clean.
Though bewildered, Shen Anyu still gestured with his hands that it was fine.
After all, when he’d first married Shen Xifu, she had indeed given up a great deal and endured much grievance.
Not only had “she” cut ties with her family.
But he himself had also failed to provide “her” with a good living environment after the marriage, forcing “her”—who had been pampered and sheltered since childhood—to squeeze into this eighty-something-square-meter apartment with him, three years passing in that time.
At the thought, Shen Anyu gave Shen Xifu an apologetic smile, masking the loneliness in his heart.
At the secondary bedroom door.
Shen Xifu said to Xie Yuzhi behind him, “You’ll stay in this room for now. Once school starts, you’ll move out.”
Xie Yuzhi set down his backpack, aware that this wasn’t a home where he could have whatever he wanted. Having a room to stay in at all was already decent. He gave a quiet “oh” and raised no objections.
“And.” Shen Xifu looked at him. “If you ever say those things in front of him again, get out.”
“It was my choice to be with him. Xie Yuzhi, do you understand?”
“…” Xie Yuzhi opened his mouth, holding in the breath of retort he wanted to make, but the moment it touched Shen Xifu’s indifferent gaze, it fizzled out. He muttered, “Got it. I… I won’t say it again.”
Even now.
Xie Yuzhi still couldn’t figure out why, three years ago, Shen Xifu—who still bore the surname Xie back then—had been willing to risk severing ties with his family to marry a man who looked utterly unremarkable.
He’d even gone so far as to crossdress, and when his parents had repeatedly wanted to find a master to exorcise the “evil” from him, suspecting he’d been bewitched, he’d preemptively notified all the relatives and friends around him, inviting them to attend the wedding.
It caused an uproar in their social circle, rumors flying everywhere.
To this day, Xie Yuzhi still couldn’t understand how two men could even get married.
How his elder brother had managed to fool that old man outside the door.
By tricking him into holding the ceremony first without registering the marriage?
But three years into the marriage, had that man truly never once discovered that the wife lying beside him was a man?
Gazing around the room so crude it could barely be called furnished, Xie Yuzhi sighed, walked to the door, and listlessly closed it shut.
But before he could turn around, he heard a knock at the door from outside.
Xie Yuzhi thought it was Shen Xifu coming back. He pulled the door open, the calm on his face sinking the moment he saw Shen Anyu standing there, only to remember Shen Xifu’s earlier warning. He reluctantly forced out a “brother-in-law.”
Shen Anyu pressed his lips together, his overlong bangs covering his eyes. A quilt was bundled in his arms, leaving no free hand to gesture, so he could only hand the quilt to Xie Yuzhi first.
“Ah…” Shen Anyu pointed behind himself.
Signaling that this was the blanket Shen Xifu had asked him to bring over.
“Got it.” Xie Yuzhi said, his expression ugly, and “bang”—slammed the door shut.
Shen Anyu, standing outside, was jolted back two steps by the force of it. For a moment, he had nothing to say.
Evening.
At the dining table, Shen Anyu deliberately chose a seat far from Xie Yuzhi, afraid of provoking the boy’s disgust again.
If he couldn’t afford to offend, he could at least afford to avoid.
Seeing this, Xie Yuzhi initially wanted to sneer, but then remembered he was living under this brother-in-law’s roof, and silently shut his mouth.
When under someone’s eaves, one must bow one’s head.
The meal was eaten in utter silence, leaving only the sounds of chopsticks clinking against bowls and plates.
After the meal, Xie Yuzhi pushed back his chair and rose, turning to head back to his room to rest, when he heard Shen Xifu behind him say, “Wash the dishes.”
A very calm statement, yet carrying no room for argument.
“…”
Xie Yuzhi picked up the bowls and chopsticks with great reluctance, and Shen Xifu reminded, “And the plates.”
“Ji—” Xie Yuzhi tried, found he still couldn’t get the word out, and frowned in irritation, looking like someone owed him eight million.
“From now on, as long as you live here, you’ll do whatever chores you’re capable of.”
“Don’t forget,” Shen Xifu said, “this time it wasn’t you storming off in a huff—you were thrown out of the house.” Shen Xifu tore away Xie Yuzhi’s last shred of pretense.
“…Got it.”
Xie Yuzhi frowned, clattering the dishes noisily as he arranged them. Shen Anyu wanted to speak up and stop him—after all, no matter what, they shouldn’t make Shen Xifu’s family member do chores on the very first day he arrived.
But just as he tried to express this, he saw Shen Xifu glance at him expressionlessly.
He opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, and finally gave up.
Pathetically timid.
Xie Yuzhi, who’d half expected the man to say something, gave a light snort. His brows knit as he spoke in a harsh, hostile tone: “Brother-in-law, your bowl.”
“…”
Shen Anyu stiffly handed it over, then returned to the bedroom with Shen Xifu.
The door had just closed when Shen Anyu lowered his head and typed, placing the phone in front of Shen Xifu.
—Isn’t this a bit inappropriate?
—He’s your younger brother after all. If dishes need washing, I can do it too.
“Is that so?”
Shen Xifu looked down at his “husband” from above, and ultimately followed his heart, pulling Shen Anyu into his arms. He kissed the young man’s earlobe, his voice husky: “He’s an adult. Even if he’s staying at his sister’s place, he needs to contribute something. It’s only washing a few dishes—nothing much.”
“Besides, he did something wrong to get kicked out by our parents. Giving him a stable place to stay is already more than enough.”
Shen Anyu looked up, wanting to ask the specific reason, but his words were blocked by Shen Xifu’s sudden kiss.
“Mmn…” Shen Anyu tilted his head back, brows slightly furrowed, tears gradually welling in his eyes as Shen Xifu pressed deeper.
He turned his head, trying to pull away, but because he couldn’t speak, he was kissed all the deeper.
His fingertips had no choice but to grip the fabric of his wife’s clothes at her back.
Breath intertwined.
Shen Anyu often didn’t understand why, every time they drew close, Shen Xifu was like this.
Always needing to be in intimate contact with him.
Not a trace remained of her usual cold and aloof demeanor.
The questions he’d wanted to ask all melted away with that sudden kiss.
The light in the room was switched off at some point.
Just as Shen Anyu assumed it would be like before—unavoidable, inescapable—
“Knock, knock, knock—”
The door was knocked on.
Every surging emotion in the space froze solid.
“…”
Shen Xifu turned his head, his face ashen, and rose to go out.
Shen Anyu turned his head to the side, lashes wet, breathing hard. As the light came back on, he sat up, hurriedly buttoning the collar of his shirt, his fingers trembling so much he didn’t even notice he’d fastened several buttons wrong.
Only shame remained at the bottom of his heart.
Shen Xifu, already at the door, pulled it open and met the rigid gaze of Xie Yuzhi standing outside. He coldly spat out a few words: “You’d better have something of utmost urgency.”
Xie Yuzhi, who had vaguely sensed something the second after knocking: “…”
“I…” he said, “there’s no pillow in my room…”
He’d come in such a rush that Shen Xifu hadn’t had time to properly prepare his room. On the entire bed, apart from the quilt Shen Anyu had carried over that evening, there was nothing else.
It wasn’t until just before bed that Xie Yuzhi remembered to ask for one.
Only to stumble upon… this sort of thing.
Xie Yuzhi’s gaze couldn’t help but drift past Shen Xifu, toward the interior of the room.
He wanted to see whether that honest brother-in-law of his had ever discovered that his wife was a man just like him.
And how, exactly, he’d managed to… with her.
A hint of curiosity couldn’t help but rise in his heart.
Yet all he saw was the young man under the lamplight, hair mussed, his full features exposed.
For an instant.
Xie Yuzhi’s mind went completely blank. He stood rooted to the spot, unable to think.
It was hard to describe what kind of face that was.
But under the hazy lamplight, it was unquestionably beautiful.
A strange, unsettling beauty—one that made it hard to believe this was the same man who, during the day, had kept his head lowered, every gesture steeped in dullness and cowardice.
“Xie Yuzhi.”
Before Xie Yuzhi could look more carefully, his vision suddenly blurred, and that sliver of a gap into the room was completely filled by Shen Xifu’s frame.
“I—” Before he could explain.
The door was already shut in his face.
Shen Xifu was like a dragon unwilling to let any treasure be seen by another’s eyes.
Xie Yuzhi followed numbly behind his elder brother, a thousand thoughts churning through his mind, until the image finally froze on Shen Anyu’s lips, breath ragged from that moment before. In a daze, Xie Yuzhi thought he might finally understand a little—why Shen Xifu, who had been willing to sever ties with his family, had insisted on marrying Shen Anyu.
Then he snapped back to himself, startled by his own thoughts.
Shen Anyu was a man, after all.
In front of him, Shen Xifu said out of nowhere, “Keep thinking about it, and get out.”