Translator: Neko
Proofreader: DeviLaugh
The next day Wu Han Ying got sick... it was not due to that activity; Professor Xia was very gentle with him.
Actually Wu Han Ying has a weak acclimatization, plus he had consumed a lot of seafood at the same time which caused him to have a stomachache. Those factors got him a bit under the weather and triggered him to have a low fever. He had been bedridden for several days.
By the time his fever had gone down and he felt a bit better, they had already stayed in the hotel for four days. Even though they were on their vacation, they did not go see any attractions due to the cold weather; so they ended up making a nest in their room to play the game. The people in the game said that they are not being romantic after learning this.
{Guild}[Xiao Xiao Xie]: You two are really...
{Guild}[Oh Oh Oh]: Not normal...
{Guild}[Ying Han]: Because I got sick
{Guild}[Xiang Zuo Kan]: Brother, you two drove off to such far away place to just nestle in your hotel room ah
{Guild}[Xiao Xiao Xie]: I think I've just read something!!!! Sao Zi, you are sick!
{Guild}[Oh Oh Oh]: Got sick!! That is is is is...cover my face
{Guild}[Xiao Xiao Xie]: *wailing*~Lao Da V5!!
{Guild}[Xiang Zuo Kan]: Did he gobble you up completely?!
{Guild}[Oh Oh Oh]: Xiang Zuo Beauty V5!!
{Guild}[Qian Qian Junzi]: Haha
{Guild}[Xiao Xiao Xie]: Xiang Zuo Beauty V5!!
Wu Han Ying was sitting on the bed with his laptop, when he saw Xiang Zuo Kan's words, his face got flushed. Fortunately, Xia Chen was not in the room, the man went out to buy him food. He decisively decided to continue visiting the Nine Chamber of Commerce, the guild channel chat, uh, he pretended to not read it.
{Guild}[Qian Qian Junzi]: Sao Zi is being scared away by you
{Guild}[Xiang Zuo Kan]: Probably
{Whisper}[Xiao Xiao Xie] said to you: Sao Zi Sao Zi!!! Don't pretend you're dead ah
{Whisper}[Xiao Xiao Xie] said to you: Sao Zi Sao Zi! I want pictures, remember to take some pictures for us, we want some goodies!!
{Whisper}you said to [Xiao Xiao Xie]: Won't send out pictures, there won't be goodies
{Whisper}[Xiao Xiao Xie] said to you: ............
{Whisper}[Xiao Xiao Xie] said to you: This must be Lao Da, right Lao Da?! I can tell it's not Sao Zi with just one look. Sao Zi would reply with six dots!
{Whisper}[Xiao Xiao Xie] said to you: Lao Da Lao Da!! I heard you gobble him up?! Ao ao, you must be gentle to him! Sao Zi is sick! You beast! Next time Sao Zi must kick you off the bed!!
"Eat first, then play." Xia Chen took the laptop away and put it on the table after relying to Xiao Xiao Xiao. Wu Han Ying did not even take a look, half an hour later after he finished eating and returned to it, the private chat was being spammed by Xiao Xiao Xiao. It was about remember to use lubricant!! Must be gentle! Must clean it completely! And must give Sao Zi a ma.s.sage!
............
Wu Han Yiing got 囧囧, what are these ah......
They stayed at the seaside for a few days, where they only played the game all day; they only went out to get some fresh air when they got tired of it. Of course, Wu Han Ying was the one driving, with the speed limit of 40, and after a few days of practicing, his driving was getting a bit better. However, the requisite condition is that the road must be empty or have few cars on it. If there were a lot of cars, he would still get nervous and get the engine turned off. With such congested traffic in Beijing, he certain that he would never be able to operate the car.
When it was almost the festival time, they both drove back home. They got back to Beijing at around 6 to 7 o'clock. It was getting dark, plus it was at the peak of rush hour, so a traffic jam was inevitable. Wu Han Ying sat on the side and still felt nostalgic; he really missed the quiet small seaside town.
Wu Han Ying could not spend the thirtieth with Xia Chen; he had to go home.
Xia Chen also had to go home on the thirtieth; his father had stop nagging and said that he wants to meet Wu Han Ying. The boy took a long time to finally agree to come home with Xia Chen to meet the parents on the first.
Of course Wu Han Ying got super busy on the night of the thirtieth. His aunt and uncle would not leave their bed before 11 o'clock, even if they were to be struck with lightning. Wu Ning woke up and no one coaxed her; his grandma had to leave everything aside to go play with her. No one went out to do year end shopping, so he had to take on that task. When he came back he had to help with cooking. On New Year's Eve there should be various dishes with a.s.sorted food, so all and all he got particularly busy on that day.
When they finished dinner some time after 7 o'clock, he had to go prepare the dumpling to eat at midnight, by the time he finished with the wrapping it was already 9 o'clock.
A new message 【Xia Chen】:
Are you done with dinner? Happy New Year. Xiao Wu, I love you.
20:56:45
Wu Han Ying felt his phone vibrating, picked it up and saw a message from Xia Chen, he could not help but giggle.
People usually typed in a long text message of all kind of good wishes for the Spring Festival. They even can total it up into an encyclopedia. No one was like the older man who only said a few words, but within those few words, it was enough to make him feel happy.
Wu Han Ying held onto the phone and fumbled with it for a long time. He wanted to send over a text message but did not know what to write; he wanted to send over a happy new year text, but it sounded quite blank. So he just simply dialed the number.
"Xiao Wu? You finished eating?"
"Yeah, I finished, now I just wait to eat the dumplings." Wu Han Ying went to the living room to make the call, it was very noisy in the family room with the noises from the TV and the sound of little children crying, "And you?"
"I haven't yet, there are many people here, I might have to wait for another hour, then I can go home."
"Then you still pick up the call."
"It's a call from you, of course I must pick it up, I'll come back later."
"Then text me when you get home, I'll wait for you in the game."
"Okay."
"Then I'll hang up first."
Wu Han Ying heard Wu Ning began cause some commotions in the family room, saying that she doesn't want to watch the Spring Festival special show but want to watch her cartoon, her mother got impatient at coaxing her so started to scold her. His grandmother began to coax telling her to go play with brother. Looked like trouble is coming for him, he would not be free for a while.
"Come and draw with me. You take this pen." Wu Ning "thump thump thump" rushed to his side, with a handful of color pen on one hand, and gave one pen to him.
"Xiao Wu?"
"Ah?" Wu Han ying was about to hang up when he heard the other line called him.
"I love you, Xiao Wu."
Wu Han Ying got stunned for a moment. Outside the window, the sky got lit up by the neon light of the city. He felt a bit embarra.s.sed, but then remembered the older man would not see him through the phone, "Me too."
Xia Chen chuckled seeming to be very satisfied, "Go ahead and do what you need to do, we play game when I get back."
"Okay..." Wu Han Ying smiled, but he did not get to finish his sentence when someone tugged really hard on his elbow, causing him to lose hold of his phone and it directly fell down underneath the sofa.
"I told you to draw with me, stop playing with your phone!"
Wu Han Ying furrowed his brows, thinking he should not get angry on New Year days, so he squatted down to look for the phone under the sofa and said, "Wait a minute, go back to the room first, I'll come in after."
"Don't wanna, don't wanna! We're drawing, you're not allowed to pick up the phone." Wu Ning used up all her strength to push Wu Han Ying, would not let the boy pick up the phone, she reached out and pulled on his sleeve. After all she is just a little kid so she was not that strong, her tug didn't have any effect on him, so she opened her mouth and bit down on his arm.
Wu Han Ying was really angry, but still did not say anything. He carried her up to force her to let go of his arm, and then tried to look for his phone this time.
Wu Ning was being carried away, she immediately cried loudly, as she howled, "Brother does not want to play with me, you hit me. Every time you don't want to play with me! If you don't want to play with me, then why you come back here! Don't ever come back to our house again, you despicable person, get out now, don't ever come back here."
Wu Han Ying was checking his phone to see if it is broke, he pressed on the screen and was surprised to see the call is still connected. He was about to press hang up, he then heard Wu Ning's wailing and her despiteful words, his face immediately got gloomy.
Standing in the living room, he could hear his aunt and grandmother trying to coax the little girl.
His aunt picked up Wu Ning and wiped her tears, "Ning Ning, what's wrong, why crying so much during the New Year. If brother doesn't play with you, then I'll draw with you."
"No need, just tell him to leave. This is our house."
"This is our home, where should I tell him to go ah, come here let me draw with you."
Wu Han Ying was still standing in the living room, not even moving an inch, he also heard his uncle said how old she is now, even crying at this age. His grandmother said to not cry during New Year time, it won't be festive.
At hearing this, he felt his eyes got a bit tingly, a bit swollen up, as if something would come out if he lowered his head a bit. Then whose home is this now? So in the end this is not his home then? If to say a child is insensible, and always speak nonsense without understanding it, then why his aunt and uncle also went along with the child's words, and his grandmother did not even say anything...
Wu Han Ying tried to blink very hard, but they still got wet, the phone's light became like those neon lights outside the window, vague and grouping into colored bright spots.
"...h.e.l.lo, why you haven't hung up?" Wu Han Ying put the phone to his ear, he could still hear intermittent noises from the other line, it seemed to be very noisy yet quite far away.
"Xiao Wu, do you want to go out?"
"Why go out?" Wu Han Ying quietly cleared his throat, trying to calm his voice, but his nasal voice was quite heavy.
"Take you out to light up some fireworks."
"Want to burn money ah." Wu Han Ying smiled weakly, his face suddenly felt itchy as the tip of his tongue tasted a slight salty flavor at the corner of his mouth, he uttered out only four words next with a flutter at the ending, "I'll wait for you."
"Okay, I'll be there soon, I'm on the way now."
He hung up the call. Inside the family room it was very lively; Wu Han Ying did not go there and only headed to his room to grab his clothes, then headed out of the house. Once he got downstairs, he called home and only said that he is going out to see fireworks, then hung up.
It was very dark downstairs. It was the thirtieth so even the convenience store was also closed up; there was not even any source of light. Once he got out of the corridor, he was surprised to see it was snowing. One after another snowflakes started to shower down, which looked very pretty. But perhaps the road would be very muddy tomorrow after the snow melted away.
A bright light in a distant facing his way; Wu Han Ying squinted his eyes then directly bustled over to the light. He opened the door to get into the pa.s.senger seat. The warm air made him feel a bit flutter.
"Don't you have to stay for another hour or so, how could you get out so soon?"
"Uh, first let me take you to go buy firecrackers and fireworks, then we can go find a place with no one to light them up." Xia Chen said that then drove away, taking the boy to go buy firecrackers.
Beijing has just started to allow people to light up fireworks during the Spring Festival in the past two years. When it's time for the New Year, one could hear the deafening sound of fireworks at the windows and main doors, some even go on throughout the night. In the morning, people would find some black marks left on their house windows or entrance doors. Of course, the price for the legal fireworks and firecrackers is not that cheap, that's why to Wu Han Ying this tradition is like burning your own money. Within a few seconds, hundreds of yuan immediately flew out the window.
Xia Chen bought a bunch of firecrackers and fireworks; he also did not drive the car and just carried a few big bags with Xiao Wu to the nearby empty field and began to light them up.
Maybe it was quite early, so no one came to the empty field to pop some fireworks. Plus it was the New Year's Eve night; there was not even a soul on the road, and there was no car, so it was very quiet. It seemed the sound of the firecracker was quite loud, which caused a great buzzing to their ears.
Xia Chen lit up the firecrackers and then ran back to stand beside Xiao Wu. Wu Han Ying covered up his ears with both hands, his eardrums still buzzing due to the loud sound earlier. He turned to giggle happily to the person next to him. Xia Chen stretched out his hand to hug the boy, helping the boy to cover up his ears as well, which was quite warm. He suddenly remembered back when he was very young, so young that he has a vague memory of it, at that time when Beijing had not prohibited firecrackers, on the night of the thirtieth there would be blasting sound of firecrackers all night long, so loud that he could not sleep, so his parents helped him covering his ears...
"Be careful of the cold wind getting to your face." Xia Chen smiled and raised his hands to rub the boy's face, leaned down to kiss on the boy's lips.
Wu Han Ying only now realized his face was getting cold, a stinging cold from the biting cold wind. Xia Chen's gentle voice was a like a trigger switch to a machine, which caused him to let out his discomfort. He did not know whether it was due to grievance or being touched; he sniffed a few times as his tears would not stop rolling down.
"Chu Chu, don't cry anymore. Let's go buy some fireworks. Didn't you say that the fireworks look very beautiful."
"You're coaxing a little kid?" Wu Han Ying slapped him playfully on the arm, then took the man's sleeve to wipe his tears.
"I'm coaxing my wife." Xia Chen smile and took out a tissue to wipe the boy's tears, so it would not leave any scratch on the boy's face.
Wu Han Ying only made a "hmph", did not say anything, and obediently let the man wipe his face; then they both ran back to buy more fireworks.
As more and more people came to the empty field, the blasting sound also got louder, which triggered the alarm of nearby cars and caused them to ring along. The ground was filled with the red wrap of the fireworks which mixed together with the snow, creating a beautiful scenery.
The two of them popped the fireworks for a long time until 12 o'clock. They could not even hear themselves talking since it was the blasting firework sound that filled the place. Looking up, the sky was filled with colorful fireworks, which was very spectacular.
Wu Han Ying felt that he was about to freeze to death, but he did not feel like going back yet. He suddenly remembered that Xia Chen told him countless time that he loves him, but every time he only said "me too" or just vaguely nodded his head. No one can be cheeky like the older man though.
"Xia Chen, I love you."
Wu Han Ying shouted out, very very loud, but the firework blasting was even louder, so he did not know if the man hears him.
The other man turned, smiled at him, and mouthed something, then took him all the way to the front.
It was snowing heavily, covering up the whole path, everywhere was of one white color and very beautiful. But Xiao Wu had guessed it wrong; the snow did not stop the next morning. It was so clean and so white everywhere.
The other man said:
"I also love you."
---
End of Chapter 67