Page 70 of He Is My Bride
After a while, Wu Yiheng came to open. He’d changed from his suit to a more casual white polo shirt and a blue blazer, still looking dapper.
“Yes?”
Still so stern,Uncle.Li Ying smiled with his utmost charm and presented the bowl of broth to Wu Yiheng. “We made borscht. Would uncle like a taste to see if it’s good?”
“You will address me as ‘Mister Wu.’”
“…Yes, Mister Wu.”Dude! Aren’t we already acquaintances, why do I have to be all ‘sir yes sir’ to you?!
But Li Ying kept a humble bearing while Wu Yiheng took the tray from him, giving him curt thanks before closing the door in Li Ying’s face.
Wu Yiheng had noticed the ring; his eyes had been upon it, but he hadn’t acknowledged it in any way.
Li Ying returned downstairs, worrying. Then he saw Hanjun: his fiancé was entering the hall, and the maid had hurried to help him take off his jacket.
“Junjun!” Li Ying squealed and ran down the last steps and crossed the hall. He caught Hanjun by surprise as he threw himself around his neck. “How was your day? Were you very busy? Did you miss me?”
Hanjun had only half-processed Li Ying’s cute outfit when the lovely young man was already all over him—as if they hadn’t seen each other just ten hours ago.
Hanjun hugged him back. He glanced at the two aunties, who had been carrying dishes to the table and stopped to watch them. Hanjun’s face grew pink as the aunties smiled knowingly amongst each other.
“I heard the news, Hanjun,” Grandmother Linming said from the kitchen door, wiping her hands with a tea towel. “Congratulations on your engagement.” Although her bearing was calm and collected, she smiled warmly.
“Thank you, grandmother,” Hanju said in his usual sedate manner, but Li Ying thought his eyes were glad.
“Why don’t you show your old room to Li Ying and then come down to eat?” Grandmother Linming suggested.
Hanjun nodded, took Li Ying’s hand and led him back upstairs.
“The aunties are taking the news well, I think, but Wu Yiheng didn’t even say anything,” Li Ying told Hanjun as they went.
Hanjun frowned, worried.
“So, you grew up in this house?” Li Ying asked, wanting to change the subject—no use worrying about the old man right now.
“Yes, since I was six.”
“It’s a very clean and quiet neighborhood.”The area even has its own school and shopping center. I wonder if Hanjun even went beyond these gates much before he started college.“Do you miss the peace and quiet?”
“I don’t mind either way.”
“You’re very adaptable.” Yet Li Ying wondered if Hanjun was hard-pressed to express his own opinion again. He could still be closed-off at times.
Hanjun opened the door to his old room. There were still some things that must have belonged to him: a violin case and a keyboard for one, but overall the room seemed ascetic, empty.
“Did you play a lot before?” Li Ying asked, looking at the instruments.
“Mm.”
There was also a writing desk where Hanjun must have done his homework. Li Ying brushed his hand across the light wooden top, imagining little Hanjun sitting there, hunched over a textbook. There was close to nothing on the walls, no posters, only a traditional scroll painting depicting clouded mountains, and a clock, ticking away quietly.
Li Ying himself used to hang all sorts of things on his walls: horror movie and band posters, funny pictures he’d printed from the internet, and some of his own drawings that he was particularly proud of. His room had been in a perpetual state of creative chaos, littered with school books, comics, and sketchbooks. Li Ying had had a small TV and a DVD player with which he used to watch pirated horror films late at night midweek, eating snacks from his secret stash and not brushing his teeth after—a habit he’d since corrected after getting his first fillingsas a teen.
Remembering all this and then looking around him, Li Ying couldn’t imagine Hanjun having led a similar youth at all. The only thing of any personal character in the room was something Li Ying noticed sitting on top of the bookcase:
“Hanjun, is that yours?” Li Ying asked and pointed: there, tucked almost out of sight, sat a well-loved rabbit plushie.
Hanjun’s cheeks flared red.
