Zhou Chaosheng had noticed the four-way focus of his family and friends early on. Whether they were shocked or blamed him, it didn't matter. From the very beginning, he had the mindset of throwing caution to the wind and being affectionate with Jiang Yuanye in the forest as if no one was around. Having his parents catch him red-handed was part of his plan. He calculated that his father wouldn’t do anything drastic, and at the same time, he estimated that his mother wouldn’t be as conservative as his father. In short, he was prepared to face the consequences of being disowned or kicked out by his father and was determined to be with Jiang Yuanye no matter what.
"Chaosheng! Are you okay?"
Gu Qingqiu was about to run over to remind Zhou Chaosheng, but someone beside him rushed ahead first. Before he could stop him, he saw Zhao Xiaohui about to rush to Zhou Chaosheng's side.
"You scared the hell out of me. Thank God you're fine. Otherwise, I would’ve gone straight to stab Liu Huaichuan that bastard..." Zhao Xiaohui, with a look of lingering fear, wanted to put his arm around Zhou Chaosheng's shoulder but suddenly smelled a familiar scent, the lingering smell of raw sandalwood and nicotine from a cigarette smoked to cover up the aftereffects. He quickly retracted his hand and took a step back, distancing himself from a certain man, then chuckled awkwardly and muttered in a tone only the two could hear, "Damn, you’re really living it up, huh..."
Zhou Chaosheng stopped in his tracks, ignoring Zhao Xiaohui's disdainful tone, and his gaze shifted straight past his two friends to his parents. "Dad, Mom, I'm fine."
Zhou Yuanbo, who could no longer accept his son messing around with a man, couldn’t scold him immediately after his son had just escaped danger. He pressed his lips together and awkwardly responded, "It’s good you’re fine."
He Xiaowei noticed Zhao Xiaohui's actions and expressions and stopped herself from going forward to hug her son. She stood with her husband and said to her son, "Don’t speak so definitively. Let’s have a doctor check you over when we get home. Do a full examination to make sure you didn’t pick up any hidden illness..."
As she spoke, He Xiaowei suddenly choked up and buried her face in Zhou Yuanbo’s chest, her shoulders trembling. The people around them fell silent, and in the end, Zhou Yuanbo, holding his wife, said to Zhou Chaosheng, "Why are you still standing there? Didn’t you hear your mom? Hurry up and get checked."
Zhou Chaosheng nodded and said, "Okay, I’ll send the report to you after the check-up."
Zhou Yuanbo gently comforted his wife and took a moment to say, "Mm, go ahead."
"Mom, I’m leaving first." Before leaving, Zhou Chaosheng glanced at He Xiaowei. He knew he had caused his parents too much worry over the years. After this incident, in addition to eliminating potential dangers, he would have to strengthen the security around him.
After Zhou Chaosheng turned to leave, Zhao Xiaohui and Gu Qingqiu didn’t want to disturb the couple’s private moment, so they quickly said goodbye and chased after Zhou Chaosheng.
Zhou Yuanbo looked at his son’s receding figure and sighed deeply. His son had grown up, and it was hard to keep him.
"Dear, you knew about this, didn’t you?"
Zhou Yuanbo was startled by his wife’s sudden question. He looked down and met his wife’s eyes, which had once been filled with tears but were now unusually calm. "Uh, I..."
He Xiaowei hadn’t left Zhou Yuanbo’s embrace. She stayed in that position, staring at him intently, her tone almost like an interrogation. "Tell me, when did you find out? Why didn’t you tell me?"
Unable to withstand his wife’s repeated questioning, Zhou Yuanbo quickly confessed everything.
"It was when he came home recently. He confessed to me in the study. It’s not that I didn’t want to tell you, but I felt... this is...," Zhou Yuanbo, who had navigated the business world for decades, seemed to have forgotten his usual negotiating skills when facing his wife. His words stumbled, and he didn’t dare to speak loudly or be fully honest.
"This is hard to say?"
Zhou Yuanbo fell silent, as if he had tacitly agreed.
He Xiaowei sighed and said, "You know how Chaosheng is. Once he decides on something, even ten bulls can’t pull him away. Let alone being in a relationship with a man."
"I know, I know, but if his relationship with a man gets out, what will people think of our Zhou family? Where would my dignity go? What kind of behavior is this? Isn’t this going against the norms...?" Zhou Yuanbo lowered his voice under his wife’s increasingly stern gaze, and eventually fell silent, no longer speaking.
"This is what you still believe in this day and age? You’re still talking about continuing the family line? Even if our family has money, and the Zhou family business needs someone to inherit it, there are your siblings’ children, right? Why should all the responsibility fall on our son’s shoulders? What kind of father are you?" He Xiaowei’s voice was soft, and even when she was angry, it sounded almost coquettish. With the gentlest tone, she said the harshest words, piercing directly into Zhou Yuanbo’s heart, leaving him speechless.
"I... I’m just doing this for his sake... What if he regrets it in the future?" Zhou Yuanbo weakly tried to defend himself.
"That’s his business. Why do you care so much?"
"I’m his father. If I don’t care, who will?"
He Xiaowei shot him a glare, and Zhou Yuanbo immediately fell silent, saying sincerely, "I’m sorry, dear."
"According to you, should I, as his mother, not care?"
"You should care, you should care."
"I shouldn’t care. You have the most right to care."
Realizing he had misspoken, Zhou Yuanbo quickly corrected himself, "I’m sorry, dear. I shouldn’t have said that. Please don’t be angry. I won’t say it again, okay?"
He Xiaowei didn’t respond, keeping a stern face.
Zhou Yuanbo immediately bent down and lowered his posture. "How about this? I won’t interfere with our son’s matters anymore. He can do whatever he wants. If he likes men, let him like men..."
He Xiaowei lifted her eyelids. "You’re saying this?"
"I’m saying this." Zhou Yuanbo held his wife’s hand, affirming it.
"Alright." He Xiaowei finally relented, "It’s too cold here. Let’s go back."
"Okay, okay." Zhou Yuanbo put his arm around his calming wife and headed in the direction they originally got out of the car. As he caught a glimpse of his son opening the backseat car door, he couldn’t help but sigh inwardly. Alright, he wouldn’t interfere.
—
On the other side, after finishing discussing the follow-up arrangements with his two friends, Zhou Chaocheng opened the car door and sat beside the sleeping Jiang Yuanye.
He immediately reached out to press the button by the door, raising the partition between the front and back seats. Then, he reached over to pull the man, who was curled up in the seat, into his arms, leaned in, and kissed the corner of his lips. He continued kissing downward, inch by inch, as though he were stamping his own mark on the other’s body.
When he reached Jiang Yuanye’s Adam’s apple, the ticklish sensation disturbed Jiang Yuanye, who was in a deep sleep. He trembled a few times, fluttered his eyelashes, and slowly opened his heavy eyelids, meeting Zhou Chaocheng’s deep, beautiful eyes.
“You’re back.”
Jiang Yuanye’s voice was hoarse and tinged with post-activity fatigue.
The moment the words left his mouth, Zhou Chaocheng held him even tighter, lowered his head, and rubbed his slightly messy, dry hair against the other’s neck, saying, “Yes, I’m back. I’ll never leave you again.”
Jiang Yuanye lowered his eyelashes with a bit of a smile, “You never really left me anyway…”
Zhou Chaocheng murmured a response, and then silently thought to himself: I will never leave you in this lifetime.
“By the way, you’re holding me like this after coming out of the woods, won’t your parents say something to you?” Jiang Yuanye asked curiously, with some anxiety and unease in his heart, fearing Zhou Chaocheng’s parents might form a bad impression of him because of his actions.
“What do you think they’d say?”
“Can’t guess.”
“Take a guess.”
“I won’t guess. Say it if you want to.”
Zhou Chaocheng laughed lightly, reaching out to thread his fingers through the other’s hair, gently rubbing it between his fingers. His voice was soft, “They said you’re great and that I can’t miss you, even told me to hurry up and marry you, and bring you home to meet them someday.”
Jiang Yuanye fell silent for a moment, “You made that up.”
“No, they really said that.”
“Stop lying. Tell the truth.”
Zhou Chaocheng raised his hands in surrender, “Alright, alright, they didn’t say anything.”
Jiang Yuanye didn’t believe it, “They didn’t scold you?”
Zhou Chaocheng gave him a puzzled look, “Why would they scold me?”
“Just, with the mess we’ve made…” Jiang Yuanye turned his head slightly to avoid Zhou Chaocheng’s kiss, his tone somewhat dejected, “Your parents… would they blame me for leading you astray?”
“What kind of talk is that?” Zhou Chaocheng smiled and kissed the other’s uneasy lips, then his nose, cheek, and ear, finally trailing down to kiss the other’s restless eyes, before delivering a light kiss that fluttered like a butterfly's wings, “If anyone is to blame, it’s me. I couldn’t resist your charm, and I’d die tangled up with you.”
Jiang Yuanye smiled, wrapping his arms around Zhou Chaocheng’s neck lazily, saying, “Well, we’ve always been like this.”
From now on, it wouldn’t be bad to find a new way to be entangled.
The two exchanged a glance and simultaneously laughed aloud.
At this moment, the open window brought in a light breeze, lifting the stray hair from Jiang Yuanye’s forehead and fully revealing his amber-colored eyes.
It was like amber filled with an entire galaxy, with even his reflection inside, clear and bright.
Zhou Chaocheng couldn’t control himself and lowered his head, kissing him again, “So beautiful…”
Jiang Yuanye felt a bit ticklish from the kiss but didn’t avoid it, only squinting his eyes and smiling as he promised, “You can keep kissing.”
Zhou Chaocheng cupped Jiang Yuanye’s head, kissing every part of his face in a sticky, mushy manner, then leaned toward his ear, gently biting it, “You’re so clingy.”
Jiang Yuanye, like a Maine Coon cat being petted, stretched his body, squinting his eyes as he heard this, saying, “Then don’t touch me.”
“No.”
Zhou Chaocheng lowered his head to block the other’s silent lips, biting, sucking, nibbling, kissing until Jiang Yuanye’s face and neck turned red. Jiang Yuanye, stirred by the kiss, placed his hand on Zhou Chaocheng’s shoulder, gently pulling him closer to deepen the kiss.
They kissed for an unknown amount of time, only reluctantly parting when their lips finally broke away. A silver thread of saliva lingered between them. Zhou Chaocheng, not minding at all, stuck his tongue out to lick it up, while Jiang Yuanye’s slightly parted lips had a transparent trace of saliva, making him look strangely shy.
“I want to kiss you… forever,” Zhou Chaocheng said, resting his forehead against Jiang Yuanye’s, breathing heavily but speaking clearly.
“Kiss until we die?” Jiang Yuanye joked.
Unexpectedly, Zhou Chaocheng looked into his eyes seriously and replied, “Mm, kiss until we die.”
Jiang Yuanye: “……”
Zhou Chaocheng: “Don’t you want to?”
Jiang Yuanye didn’t answer. Instead, he reached up to grab the back of Zhou Chaocheng’s head and kissed him forcefully.
After some passionate entangling, Zhou Chaocheng finally heard Jiang Yuanye, in a voice filled with emotion and muffled by the kiss, say, “Mm… I want to…”
Zhou Chaocheng narrowed his eyes slightly, his gaze gradually darkening, filled with complex emotions and possessiveness.
"This is what you said."
No backing out now.