Chapter 34
Xi Qin reached out to steady Jiang Zhong’s waist, allowing him to kiss for a long time before gently pulling away.
“Baby,” Xi Qin said softly, “Haven’t seen you for a few days, and you’re this passionate?”
“Hmph,” Jiang Zhong took a moment to calm down, “Did you hear what I said?”
“I heard it,” Xi Qin tightened his embrace around Jiang Zhong, chuckling softly, “I heard it, you like me, I know.”
“And you?” Jiang Zhong asked knowingly.
Xi Qin let go of his hand around Jiang Zhong’s waist and instead cupped his face with both hands, staring into his eyes. “Do I still need to be asked?”
“Alright,” Jiang Zhong rephrased, “Then when did you start liking me?”
“Long, long ago,” Xi Qin kissed the tip of Jiang Zhong’s nose.
Thinking about it, Xi Qin hadn’t actually been keeping it from him. From the very first day they started dating, Xi Qin had said, “It’s been longer than you think.”
Xi Qin had liked him even in high school, which was indeed much longer than Jiang Zhong had imagined.
Jiang Zhong smiled knowingly, tilted his head back, and gave Xi Qin another short kiss on the lips. He whispered, “Happy birthday.”
Xi Qin found Jiang Zhong unusually proactive today and thought, “They say absence makes the heart grow fonder,” smiling contentedly, “Thank you.”
Jiang Zhong broke free from Xi Qin’s embrace, turned, and grabbed the three gift bags he had placed on the shoe cabinet when he entered. He handed them to Xi Qin. “Birthday presents, one from me, one from Peng Siyuan, and another from his mom for you.”
“So many,” Xi Qin laughed as he took them, “Why are Peng Siyuan’s gifts with you?”
“He’s busy with his internship and didn’t have time to come over, so he asked me to bring them to you,” Jiang Zhong bent down to grab slippers from the shoe cabinet. “His internship is not far from my house… huh? Did you change your slippers?”
“Yes,” Xi Qin placed the gift bags back on the shoe cabinet, crouched down, and began untying Jiang Zhong’s shoelaces. “I got two identical pairs.”
Jiang Zhong looked down at Xi Qin, who was crouching in front of him, and his heart softened completely.
“Do you still like the color?” Xi Qin asked.
The slippers Xi Qin had bought were both grayish-white, identical.
Jiang Zhong wiggled his toes, glanced at the slippers Xi Qin was wearing, which were the same as his own, and said, “I like them.”
“Let’s go,” Xi Qin picked up the gifts, took Jiang Zhong’s hand, and led him towards the bay window. “I want to see what you guys got me.”
“Just right,” Jiang Zhong said, “You can try to guess who gave each gift.”
Jiang Zhong and Xi Qin sat facing each other, legs crossed, on the bay window, with the three gift bags placed between them.
“Let’s start with this one.” Xi Qin picked up the smallest gift bag.
After removing the outer layer of the bag, there was another finely crafted gift box inside. Xi Qin slowly unwrapped it to reveal a simple yet elegant men’s watch.
He took the watch out and tried it on, then said confidently, “This is definitely from Aunt Shen.”
“It’s beautiful,” Jiang Zhong complimented, “It really suits you, Aunt Shen has great taste.”
Xi Qin smiled, put the watch aside, and grabbed another bag.
Inside this bag was another item wrapped in a minimalist, exquisite gift box. Xi Qin carefully opened the folds and found a DSLR camera, already assembled and ready to use.
“This is too easy to guess,” Xi Qin looked up and laughed, “It must be from you.”
“Why?”
Xi Qin turned on the camera, adjusted it, and aimed the lens at Jiang Zhong, capturing the moment with a click.
“Are you complaining that I didn’t take good pictures of you before?” Xi Qin glanced at the photo, frozen on the screen. “I’ll make sure to study it well next time, can’t disappoint my model’s good intentions.”
Jiang Zhong wasn’t bothered by how quickly Xi Qin had figured it out. He tilted his chin proudly and said, “You can only take pictures of me, and similarly, you will be my only model.”
Seeing Jiang Zhong’s “dominant” expression, Xi Qin felt a rush of affection and couldn’t resist leaning in to give him a kiss on the lips, softly saying, “Okay.”
The last gift was no mystery.
Xi Qin took it out of the bag, and the packaging clearly showed it was a keyboard, with a mouse as a bonus.
“Heh,” Xi Qin chuckled helplessly, “This is clearly Peng Siyuan’s style.”
Jiang Zhong laughed along, “Simple and direct.”
“Too easy to guess,” Xi Qin gathered the three gifts and put them away, “No challenge at all.”
“Yeah,” Jiang Zhong sighed in regret, “It was too predictable. You should have guessed wrong on purpose, then let me tell you the correct answer.”
“Sorry, I didn’t give you a chance to perform,” Xi Qin teased.
“Shut up.”
“Alright,” Xi Qin said, “It’s noon. Let’s go out for lunch. What do you want to eat?”
Jiang Zhong thought for a moment, “I don’t want to go out, I’ve had enough of eating out recently.”
“Then should I cook for you?”
“Mm…” Jiang Zhong looked at Xi Qin’s face, then excitedly said, “Let me cook! It’s your birthday today, so I’ll make you a bowl of noodles.”
Xi Qin seemed to think of something and, for a moment, his smile turned suggestive. “What about you eating something below?”
Jiang Zhong: “…”
“Fuck, have some decency, Xi Qin,” Jiang Zhong pushed him away, “What happened to you? How did you turn into this?”
“Alright, alright, I’m not teasing you anymore,” Xi Qin chuckled softly, “Will I get food poisoning if I eat the noodles you make?”
“What do you mean?” Jiang Zhong’s competitive spirit was fully ignited. He rolled up his sleeves, “I’ve told you so many times that I can cook, and you still don’t believe me. Just wait, I’ll show you what I’ve got.”
Jiang Zhong held his phone in one hand, looking at a tutorial for “homestyle egg noodle recipe,” while opening the fridge with the other hand. His tone was light as he said, “This is way too easy.”
Xi Qin followed him, nodding along in agreement, “Mm-hmm, you’ve got this for sure.”
Jiang Zhong glanced at him, then took out the ingredients he needed from the fridge.
Jiang Zhong used a spatula to lift the fried eggs from the skillet, hesitating, “I think this might be a bit overcooked.”
Xi Qin leaned in from behind him, quickly shaking his head, “It’s not overcooked, not at all. Give it to me, I actually like it a bit more well-done.”
Jiang Zhong gave him a doubtful glance, “Really?”
“Mm-hmm,” Xi Qin eagerly nodded.
Jiang Zhong, flustered, grabbed two large bowls from the cupboard to prepare the noodles.
Xi Qin thoughtfully handed him chopsticks, hesitating before reminding him, “Baby, I think… you forgot to add salt.”
“Really?” Jiang Zhong widened his eyes, “I remember adding it.”
Xi Qin: “…Why don’t you taste it?”
Jiang Zhong took a spoonful of the soup, chewing thoughtfully, “It really seems like I didn’t add any.”
Xi Qin: “…”
His boyfriend was so cute, he just wanted to kiss him.
So Xi Qin kissed him, leaning down and sucking on Jiang Zhong’s lips deeply.
“You really didn’t add salt,” Xi Qin said after the kiss, tasting it again. “But… did you add sugar? It tastes sweet.”
“…Get lost,” Jiang Zhong couldn’t be bothered, adding salt to the soup. “Stop messing around, the noodles are going to get soft.”
“It’s fine,” Xi Qin said, “I’m good with it the way it is.”
“Please just shut up,” Jiang Zhong was almost done dealing with him, “I’m begging you.”
After all the effort, the two bowls of hearty egg noodles were finally ready.
“It looks pretty good,” Xi Qin commented.
The main highlight was all the extras added to the noodles—each bowl had two fried eggs, two thick slices of luncheon meat, a few small pieces of vegetables, and two scoops of bright red meat chili sauce…
“See,” Jiang Zhong sprinkled some chopped green onions on top and said proudly, “I told you I can cook.”
“Yes, yes, yes,” Xi Qin chuckled, holding the bowl as he walked toward the dining table, “Just almost forgot the salt, that’s all.”
Jiang Zhong followed behind with his chopsticks, saying stubbornly, “Don’t mind those small details, I still added it in the end.”
Xi Qin took a few photos of the two bowls of noodles before sitting down to carefully taste the “egg luncheon meat vegetable and shredded meat noodles” his boyfriend had made for him for the first time.
“Is it good?” Jiang Zhong looked at him eagerly.
“It’s delicious,” Xi Qin gave a thumbs up, “Super, extra, mega delicious.”
Jiang Zhong smiled in satisfaction and happily dug into his own bowl.
Jiang Zhong: “…The taste is actually pretty average.”
“You don’t get it,” Xi Qin slurped some soup, “It has the taste of love in it.”
Alright, he really didn’t get it, Jiang Zhong thought. No matter what it turned out like, Xi Qin would probably always say it was delicious.
“It’s been years since I’ve had someone specially cook me noodles on my birthday,” Xi Qin looked at Jiang Zhong, “Thank you, boyfriend.”
“Ah,” Jiang Zhong didn’t know what to say, “Then I’ll cook for you every year from now on.”
“Every year from now on?” Xi Qin lowered his eyes to eat, hiding the panic in his gaze, “Sure, I’ll wait.”
Jiang Zhong finally noticed Xi Qin’s unusual mood: “What’s wrong with you?”
“Jiang Zhong,” Xi Qin was silent for a minute before speaking, “Sometimes I get really scared. You’re so good to me, but what if one day you don’t want me anymore and transfer all your goodness to someone else? I might not be able to handle that.”
“I won’t,” Jiang Zhong didn’t like the heavy atmosphere, pretending to be relaxed, “Didn’t you say before that if I dared to change boyfriends, you’d… make sure I couldn’t get out of bed? I definitely don’t want to try that.”
“That was just me scaring you,” Xi Qin gave a weak laugh, “How could I really hurt you?”
After a pause, Xi Qin added, “If you don’t like me anymore in the future, you must tell me directly. I’ll walk away on my own…”
“Why are we talking about this now?” Jiang Zhong couldn’t help but interrupt, “If we’re going by your logic, wouldn’t that mean you’re treating me even better? If you don’t like me in the future, I’ll be the one who suffers more.”
“I would never stop liking you…”
“Then why do you think I would?” Jiang Zhong interrupted again, getting a bit angry, “So you don’t trust me at all.”
“I don’t,” Xi Qin hurriedly explained, “I never doubted your feelings for me, I just fear that after a long time, you might get tired of me.”
Jiang Zhong sulkily ate his noodles, ignoring him, getting more and more upset. Just a little while ago, the first thing he said when he arrived was confessing his feelings to Xi Qin. Just minutes ago, they were happily preparing lunch together in the kitchen.
How did the conversation suddenly turn to this?
Damn Xi Qin, why does he keep overthinking things?
Why did Xi Qin think that Jiang Zhong would get tired of him in the future? Was it because Xi Qin had labeled him as “Little Scumbag”?
At this thought, Jiang Zhong suddenly chuckled.
Xi Qin, who had been observing Jiang Zhong’s expression, quickly apologized when he saw him smile: “I was wrong, baby, I won’t say these things again, please don’t be mad…”
“Don’t talk,” Jiang Zhong was still annoyed, afraid that if he said more, they would end up arguing, “I don’t want to talk to you right now.”
So the two of them finished their meal in silence.
Jiang Zhong, still upset, ate only half of the noodles, leaving nearly a third of it uneaten.
Xi Qin, knowing he had said the wrong thing, didn’t dare to provoke Jiang Zhong anymore. He quietly finished his portion, then moved Jiang Zhong’s unfinished bowl in front of himself, finishing it all, noodles and soup.
Jiang Zhong: “…”
“Don’t you think it’s disgusting?” Jiang Zhong’s lips twitched, “I actually bit into the food.”
Xi Qin shook his head and forced a smile, “We’ve kissed so many times, what’s the big deal?”
Jiang Zhong looked at Xi Qin’s expression and sighed inwardly.
Xi Qin rarely revealed his inner thoughts to him. Of course, the teasing words didn’t count, but Jiang Zhong had never thought that Xi Qin would fear that he might stop liking him in the future.
Maybe people in love are like that—they enjoy the happiness their partner brings, but at the same time, they worry about the future of the relationship.
The more you love someone, the more you fear separation in the future.
But Jiang Zhong didn’t seem to have this concern. He couldn’t imagine Xi Qin ever not liking him.
Was it because Xi Qin gave him enough sense of security, while he hadn’t given Xi Qin the same?
Jiang Zhong stood up from his chair, walked into the kitchen, and wrapped his arms around Xi Qin’s waist from behind: “It’s just two bowls, how long are you planning to wash them?”
“And the pot?” Xi Qin sighed in relief, “Aren’t you mad anymore?”
Jiang Zhong buried his face in Xi Qin’s back and mumbled, “I’m still mad, hurry up and comfort me.”
“I’m sorry, I was wrong,” Xi Qin immediately said, “I’ll never say that again.”
“Swear it.”
“I swear,” Xi Qin solemnly raised three fingers, “If I say it again, punish me by making me spend an entire day without kissing Jiang Zhong, without hugging Jiang Zhong.”
“Hmph,” Jiang Zhong wasn’t satisfied, “What kind of punishment is that?”
“For me, it’s already extremely cruel,” Xi Qin exaggerated, “Like a fish leaving the water, a bird leaving the sky, a plant without sunlight.”
“Fine,” Jiang Zhong lifted his face, resting his chin on Xi Qin’s shoulder, “Give me a kiss, and I’ll forgive you.”
Xi Qin quickly turned his head and kissed Jiang Zhong once, then again, and again…
“Enough, enough,” Jiang Zhong turned his face away, “It’s endless.”
Xi Qin smiled and continued washing the pot.
“I’ve got a question for you,” Jiang Zhong thought for a moment and decided it was better to solve the issue right away, or it would keep bothering him, “What do I have to do so you won’t overthink things?”