Page 40 of Two Thousand Promises

“Good evening, Gege,” Huli greeted in a low voice.

“There you are, Huli.” Xiao Dan’s voice was still rough from sleep, sending more delicious tingles through Huli’s body. Best voice in the world. “I wasn’t expecting to wake up and find you missing. Were you hungry?”

“No, I heard the gates open, and I went to investigate.” He pushed the door the rest of the way open and walked in with the boxes in his arms. “You received many orders.”

“Oh!” Xiao Dan blinked at the boxes that Huli set on the floor in front of him. “I forgot that stuff was scheduled to arrive today.”

“There’s more.” Huli zoomed out to the foyer and picked up the rest of the bags and boxes. He carried them to Xiao Dan’s room. When he walked in, the vampire had turned on a floor lamp and pulled on a T-shirt, which was disappointing. Huli had been enjoying staring at his bare chest and wide shoulders. At least he was still barefoot. Xiao Dan even had sexy feet.

“What did you order, Zhang-ge?” He set the rest of the delivered items on the floor and waggled his eyebrows at the vampire before wrapping him in a tight hug. “Presents for your Huli?” Not that he was expecting any gift from Xiao Dan. He’d already received the best gift of all—the vampire’s undying love. What else could he possibly ask for?

“Actually, all of this is for you.”

Huli jerked back and gazed up at the vampire, his mouth hanging open. “What?”

Xiao Dan chuckled and pressed a kiss to his lips. “I bought this stuff for you. Open it. I hope you like it.”

For a couple of heartbeats, Huli could only stand there gawking at all the boxes and bags, his brain unable to process what Xiao Dan was saying. The vampire had given him gifts of food and even his precious jade pendant in the past, but never this many things at once. He couldn’t even guess what they were.

A squeal of excitement escaped him as he flopped onto the floor and began tearing into the boxes and through all the protective plastic. Yet, with each box he opened, the more his excitement sank like stones in the pit of his stomach.

Xiao Dan had bought him clothes. Lots of clothes. And undergarments, toiletries, and other personal sundries. It wasn’t hard to tell that all the items were extremely well made and quite expensive. Some were even direct copies of what Xiao Dan owned, but with minor variations that made them different.

After the last box was opened, Huli sat in the middle of the mess, a large lump blocking his throat and his eyes burning with unshed tears. Did Xiao Dan not love him at all any longer? What had he done to deserve this? How had he upset him or insulted him?

“Huli?” Xiao Dan said to break the extended stretch of silence. “Do you not like any of it?”

“No!” he shouted louder than he’d meant to, but the tightness in his throat was making it hard to speak. “I hate it. Send it all back. I don’t want any of this!”

“Oh,” Xiao Dan whispered. “I’m sorry. I thought…” His words broke off and he swallowed hard. “I’ll return it all. Don’t worry.”

Before Huli could ask Xiao Dan why he was pushing him away, the vampire wordlessly rose and hurried out of the room.

Huli clenched his teeth and glared at the stack of clothes and pretty brush he’d received. The urge to shred these things rose in his chest, but he pushed it down. Xiao Dan had spent a lot of his money on these gifts, and Huli would not waste Xiao Dan’s money. The vampire could send these things away, and the stores would refund his money.

“So…you’ve had your first fight.”

The lazy drawl pulled Huli’s gaze to the open doorway. Yichen leaned against the frame with a dark look in his eye. Yichen had always been tolerant of Huli, but he didn’t appear very tolerant right now.

“I don’t know. Maybe. I guess.” Yichen’s eyebrows rose higher and higher up his forehead as Huli spoke until the fox threw up his hands. “I don’t know what I did to make Gege hate me.”

“Hate you?” Yichen repeated. “Didn’t he order these things for you?”

“Yes!”

Yichen shook his head as he pushed off the wall and strolled into the room. He stepped over the flotsam that covered the floor and inspected the different new things that were tossed here and there.

“He got you clothes?” A surprised noise escaped him as he poked into a box. “And some very nice soaps. Those are his favorites.” Yichen straightened and stared at Huli. “I think there’s been some kind of misunderstanding. Why do you believe he hates you?”

“Because this is his way of telling me he doesn’t want me wearing his clothes and using his shampoo. If I have my own things, I won’t have to use his. He doesn’t love me!”

Yichen closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. “If I didn’t have to deal with this same logic from Rei, I’d say you were being insane on purpose.”

Huli frowned at the vampire, but a new, niggling feeling was growing in his chest that was decidedly uncomfortable. Had he overreacted? Was this not what Xiao Dan was trying to tell him? It would be very bad if he was wrong.

“I’m not insane…on purpose,” Huli declared in something of a pout. He was confused.

“Xiao Dan is sitting in the dark in the green parlor, looking like his heart has shattered.”

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