Three thousand yuan in ten months.
Wang Huanxiu closed the file. His voice was low, carrying the exhaustion of long hours of work. “After I die?”
Even ten months after death, three thousand wasn’t enough to spend. Wang Huanxiu had indeed never seen so little money.
When the other party said they would support him, anyone who heard that would think it was shameless boasting.
As a result, three thousand yuan in ten months, which meant three hundred per month. Was this “support”…
Or abandonment?
On the other side, Bai Shuijin spread out like jelly. “Not enough?”
“Not enough.” Wang Huanxiu’s dark eyes looked at the person on the sofa.
Three thousand couldn’t even buy a piece of carpet in this house. Even if it was handed to Wang Huanxiu, he wouldn’t know how to spend it, because it simply couldn’t be spent.
Holding that little money was no different from waiting for death.
Bai Shuijin responded to every sentence. “Not enough, do you want more?”
The man replied perfunctorily, “Mm, I want more.”
As soon as Wang Huanxiu finished speaking, Bai Shuijin suddenly buried his face into the pillow he was resting his chin on.
Wang Huanxiu didn’t know why he was acting like this. “What are you doing?”
Bai Shuijin: “Laogong-ge, the way you talk is so lewd.”
“…”
He thought that since Wang Huanxiu had closed the file, today’s work would be over. Who would have thought he opened Word again. This little vixen, what he was looking at now?
Bai Shuijin was so sleepy his eyelids kept drooping, and had already started seeing Duke Zhou right in front of Wang Huanxiu.
** “To see Duke Zhou” is a way of saying “going to sleep” or “dreaming”. The idiom comes about because of the book “Duke Zhou’s Dream Interpretation” which Duke Zhou of the Zhou Dynasty made about dream interpretations, so his name is now associated with dreams and dream interpretation.
Half-asleep, he mumbled, “Laogong-ge, if I fall asleep, can you carry me back to my room?”
Wang Huanxiu: “Am I nature’s porter?”
“Okay, then I’m Nongfu Shanquan.”
**Nongfu Shanquan is one of China’s biggest bottled water companies. The brand is famous for its slogan: “We do not produce water, we are porters of nature.”
“……”
The number of weird plays has increased.
Wang Huanxiu ignored him. The study returned to silence, as if Bai Shuijin had never been brought here. The volume in the room dropped to nothing but natural noise.
The sound of pages turning and pen writing was very conducive to sleep, and Bai Shuijin couldn’t help but recall his senior year of high school.
Back then he barely slept. His academic performance wasn’t bad, even slightly above average. His science grades were especially good, particularly in math.
But because he excelled too much in math, his Chinese writing always suffered. After all, one can’t patch both east and west walls at once.
Relying on his academics, he could get into a 211 university, but he didn’t aspire to that. At that time, his heart held only one dream, dancing.
From childhood to adulthood, his dream had never changed. During high school, he worked part-time at a small restaurant, and painfully spent five hundred to buy a second-hand dance costume. When he got it, the crystal decorations glittered gold under the light.
He even wore that outfit during late-night study sessions, and it was his motivation to keep running forward.
Bai Shuijin turned over on the sofa with his eyes closed, sleeping comfortably with one leg thrown over the sofa back.
Seeing the other party’s head-down, feet-up sleeping posture, Wang Huanxiu went over and adjusted him to prevent him from suffocating himself.
He didn’t want his workplace becoming a murder scene.
Who knew, after adjusting his posture, Bai Shuijin opened his eyes drowsily. “Have you finished working?”
He stretched out his arms and naturally wrapped them around Wang Huanxiu’s neck. His hair was now dyed black, and although not as flamboyant as his previous rainbow hair, it was still very distinctive. His eyes were darker than most people’s, bright and clear like freshly washed black grapes.
He climbed onto the man’s shoulders, his claws scratching at solid muscle. His hands had never been well-behaved.
He wanted to climb onto the man, but didn’t want to get up himself, so he swung like a swing, trying to pull Wang Huanxiu down. “Come on, porter.”
“…”
The man’s tall figure bent down, sighing as if helpless. With a big hand stretched out, his strong arm steadily lifted Bai Shuijin up.
Bai Shuijin was hoisted up like riding an elevator. He flopped around like a fish, his last struggle before deep sleep.
His room was on the second floor. The house was big, so getting back to his room took a while.
Carrying him back could count as some light cardio for Wang Huanxiu.
He closed his eyes, looking completely at ease, as if he completely trusted the person beside him. When they reached the study door, he knew Wang Huanxiu had no free hand to open it, so he helpfully kicked it open.
Wang Huanxiu stood in front of the study door for a long time holding the person in his arms, as if building up mental strength, then finally stepped out.
Fortunately, it was already midnight. At this hour, the servants had all gone to rest in the staff quarters.
Wang Huanxiu carried the person all the way to the second floor. He had never been to Bai Shuijin’s room, and rarely even lingered on the second floor. Most of the rooms here were functional rooms, media rooms and such, but there were guest rooms too.
Looking at the seemingly dead-asleep Bai Shuijin, Wang Huanxiu asked, “Where’s your room?”
Bai Shuijin heard him and said, “It’s the one at the end.”
Wang Huanxiu raised his eyes and frowned in the dark. If he remembered correctly, the room at the end of the hall was a guest room.
The room at the end had a remote location on the second floor. Although it had decent lighting, it was pitifully small.
Either he remembered wrong about it being a guest room, or Bai Shuijin had been living in a utility room all this time.
He carried him over in large strides. The door wasn’t locked, and a gentle push opened it.
The scene inside came into view.
“You’re sleeping here?”
Bai Shuijin didn’t open his eyes, but gave a drowsy hum. By now he had no awareness to analyze Wang Huanxiu’s words, only instinctively responding.
A bedside lamp glowed softly. Wang Huanxiu hadn’t remembered it wrong, this had indeed been a storage room. It was pathetically small, like that cheap hotel he hated.
The clutter had been cleared and a bed had been brought in. There was a single closet, and nothing else.
In Wang Huanxiu’s eyes, such a cramped room was pitiful, yet Bai Shuijin had silently lived here for months.
He recalled the other party’s clingy, attention-seeking personality. As long as he was nearby, Bai Shuijin would do everything to keep attention on himself.
Always pestering, always finding topics to chat about, coming to the study late at night asking him to keep him company.
Yet about living in a storage room, Bai Shuijin had never once mentioned it.
He seemed like someone who couldn’t stand a bit of grievance, yet he never spoke a word of this one and swallowed it all.
He remembered when Bai Shuijin had just arrived, he had ordered the butler on the second day to prepare a room for him.
But the room prepared was the storage room.
Wang Huanxiu didn’t even realize that his expression was terrifyingly dark at this moment. He stood there without putting Bai Shuijin down.
One’s sense of value is shaped from youth. Wang Huanxiu had lived in luxury and privilege from childhood. To him, small rooms were uninhabitable, just like the hotel where the crew stayed before.
Storage rooms were even less fit for living, no matter how clean.
Bai Shuijin living in a storage room was undoubtedly humiliating.
This wasn’t his intention. When he married Bai Shuijin, he’d treated him like an employee living in his home. As long as he didn’t make trouble, he acted like he didn’t exist. But that didn’t mean he intended to mistreat him in life.
The task of arranging Bai Shuijin’s room had been handed to the butler. And Uncle Zhang, guessing his mood, had given Bai Shuijin a “warning” the moment he entered.
To blame it all on the butler wasn’t entirely fair. If his attitude towards Bai Shuijin had been better from the start, the butler wouldn’t have dared mistreat him for his sake.
Tracing it back to the source, the fault lay with him.
That night Bai Shuijin didn’t sleep in his room. The next morning when he woke, he felt as if he’d sunk into cotton, powerless.
Something felt off beneath him. He opened his eyes and saw the large crystal chandelier on the ceiling. His body instinctively rolled over, and sure enough, he moved.
This was Wang Huanxiu’s room.
Did the other party not bring him back to his own room yesterday? He vaguely remembered in his half-asleep memory that the other party had asked him where his room was.
Feeling for his phone, it was already ten in the morning. By this time, Wang Huanxiu should have already arrived at the company, working hard on his career blueprint.
He blinked as he looked out the window.
Hungry.
It was time to eat. He rolled off the bed like a dying crocodile and rushed straight to the dining room.
As a result, as soon as he came down to the first floor, he saw Uncle Zhang waiting at the stairway.
He raised his hand to greet him. “Good morning.”
The butler looked at him with a complicated expression, seemingly wanting to say something but holding back. In fact, he did feel a bit guilty toward Bai Shuijin.
Bai Shuijin noticed the butler’s conflicted look.
“Uncle, did you forget to close the window when you slept last night?”
The butler: ?
Bai Shuijin pointed at his twitching face. “It looks like you’ve had a stroke.”
“…”
“Young Master Bai, I didn’t have a stroke. I’m waiting here for you on purpose.”
“For me?”
Usually, the butler didn’t interact much with him, but today he waited downstairs for him to come down.
When something’s abnormal, there must be something strange behind it. But Bai Shuijin didn’t feel nervous at all. The old man couldn’t outplay him when it came to stirring things up.
The butler looked at Bai Shuijin. “Actually, today I waited for you to come down to apologize for making you move into the storage room before.”
‘Storage room?’ Was he referring to the room he was living in now?
As expected of the evil rich, even the so-called storage room wasn’t like a storage room at all. It was about the same size as a normal bedroom.
The butler also felt bad inside. Before this, he had already felt guilty about making Bai Shuijin sleep in the storage room. Some time ago, when Bai Shuijin went to Nancheng with Wang Muguang, he brought back some local specialties and gave him a share as a gift.
Even though he didn’t like him in this house, Bai Shuijin still counted him in when buying gifts.
He could tell Bai Shuijin was a child with sharp emotional intelligence, otherwise he wouldn’t have coaxed their Sir into spinning round and round. The other party could clearly feel that he didn’t like him.
Yet he never showed any hostility toward him. It was really him, getting older and more incapable of dealing with people, holding grudges with a child young enough to be his grandson.
Bai Shuijin smiled at him indifferently. “Such a small matter, it’s fine. That room suits me quite well.”
His nonchalance stunned the butler. He hadn’t expected the other party to forgive him so easily, or rather, Bai Shuijin had never even taken it to heart.
Seeing Bai Shuijin heading to the dining room, the butler hurriedly said, “Young Master Bai, Sir said when you wake up, you can pick a new room.”
“Pick a new one?”
At noon, Wang Huanxiu received a call from home. The voice on the other end was the butler.
“What’s wrong?”
He still had work to handle and had no time to care about other matters.
The butler hesitated on the phone. “Sir, Young Master Bai has chosen a new room.”
“Then change it for him. Don’t bother calling me for such trivial things in the future.”
“But…”
Wang Huanxiu: “It’s fine. I’m hanging up.”
“Sir, where should we move the extra bed?”
“Handle it yourselves.”
So when Wang Huanxiu returned home, he saw the big bed from his own bedroom placed in his study.
Wang Huanxiu: “…”
The butler stood behind him, trembling with fear. “Young Master Bai ate too much today and specifically said he wanted Sir’s room.”
He ate too much, you would think he drank too much.
The butler had also cautiously called to ask. After all, asking for Wang Huanxiu’s room…Bai Shuijin’s boldness really had no bounds.
However, Wang Huanxiu’s attitude on the phone was to give him whichever room he wanted. The butler dared not say more and led people to move Wang Huanxiu’s bed into the study.
It would work just as well. When tired from work, Sir could just collapse into bed and sleep.
But the master bedroom symbolized the master’s status, so the butler asked, “Sir, should we switch it back?”
Wang Huanxiu waved it off. “Forget it, let him have it.”
Moving things back and forth was troublesome. One could sleep anywhere. The study wasn’t small either, and there was a rest area inside, although Wang Huanxiu had never used it.
But since he already said he’d give it, there was no reason to take it back.
.
That night, Wang Muguang sat on the sofa scrolling through his phone, the screen filled with illicit literature.
“Sister-in-law is My True Love.”
“Me and Sister-in-law.”
“Brother Doesn’t Know.”
And so on.
He scrolled through the chapters, and the main text appeared on the screen.
Protagonist: “Sister-in-law! I love you!”
Sister-in-law: “Ah~ No, stop~”
Wang Muguang stared for a few seconds. “Ah~ No, stop~”
Beside him, Bai Shuijin: “…”
He silently watched the “lyrics” on the screen. If he’d known, he should have played it out loud.
Bai Shuijin turned his head, his eyes falling on Wang Muguang. “Why are you shouting? Your role isn’t even the sister-in-law.”
Wang Muguang: “It came up so many times, I just wanted to try saying it.”
Bai Shuijin turned away and put on his headphones. The world was instantly filled with the sound of Wanlai’s singing.
Wang Muguang read these trashy novels every day. He felt his whole being had turned yellow. Now when he saw him, Bai Shuijin felt as if countless 18+ trashy novels were walking toward him.
After finishing another trashy novel, Wang Muguang closed his eyes to rest. Staring at his phone for too long made his eyes tired. Suddenly remembering something, he picked up his phone again. Today was March 10th; in a few days, it would be his little sister’s birthday. By then, she would come home from school.
He started searching online for some new things, seeing if he could pick something as a gift for his sister.
But before he could settle on a gift, items to reward himself popped up first.
Hot spring resort.
Wang Muguang was busy with work. Not just him, but everyone in his family was busy with their own careers. Thinking about it, it had been a long time since they’d relaxed. Going to a hot spring sounded like a perfect choice.
He could already imagine himself surrounded by the hot water of the hot springs.
“Hey, do you want to go soak in a hot spring?”
Bai Shuijin didn’t hear with his headphones on, so Wang Muguang reached out and pulled them off.
“Do you want to go soak in a hot spring?”
‘Hot spring?’
He’d never been there.
He was quite curious. He carried anticipation for unknown experiences.
“Do I need to prepare anything for soaking in a hot spring?”
“No need to prepare anything. Just wear swim trunks and you’re okay.”
The hot spring date was set for this Sunday. The weather forecast said it would be sunny. The hot spring resort was halfway up a mountain, with a pleasant natural environment. Maybe at night, they could even watch the stars while soaking.
To prepare for the hot spring, Bai Shuijin specially bought a new pair of swim trunks. On Sunday morning, he stuffed them into his backpack with great anticipation and got in the car to head to the hot spring resort.
Today, Wang Huanxiu happened to be less busy and came along.
They soon arrived at the resort. Since soaking in the hot spring on an empty stomach was dangerous, Bai Shuijin ate heartily at the buffet area about an hour before entering the hot springs.
Wang Huanxiu and Wang Muguang also ate something. Even while eating, Wang Muguang didn’t forget to read his trashy novels, as if determined to read them until the end of time.
After rinsing off, Bai Shuijin entered the men’s bath area. Pushing open the wooden door, there was a small cobblestone path.
Wang Muguang and Wang Huanxiu hadn’t arrived yet, so he began searching for a hot spring pool he liked.
Mist rose around him. Bai Shuijin sat on a rock to test the temperature, cautiously dipping his toe into the water. At first, it felt a bit hot, but once he took off his bathrobe and fully immersed himself, a wave of satisfied relaxation swept through him.
Surrounded by hot water, he waited for Wang Huanxiu’s arrival. The stars in the sky were beautiful, but none as eye-catching as Wang Huanxiu’s figure.
Before long, Wang Huanxiu and Wang Muguang came over. The two brothers had just finished rinsing off, and their wet hair was swept back, exposing their distinct foreheads.
Bai Shuijin looked at Wang Huanxiu and blushed a little. Laogong-ge’s current appearance was kind of erotic.
He waited expectantly for Wang Huanxiu to enter the hot spring, but who would have thought the other party didn’t even take off his bathrobe and just stepped in directly. There were indeed quite a number people who soaked while wearing a bathrobe, but Bai Shuijin had never imagined that his laogong-ge would be one of them.
He looked at Wang Huanxiu’s bathrobe with grievance, and swam over to him. “Laogong-ge, by wearing so much, do you have something on your mind?”
Wang Huanxiu: “…”
Wang Muguang followed and got into the water too. He also didn’t dare take off his bathrobe. Their phones were placed on a stone nearby, and from time to time he picked his up to read some more of his trashy novels.
The white mist of the hot spring added a hazy feeling to the surroundings. Bai Shuijin folded a towel into a rectangle and placed it on his head, but noticed that Wang Huanxiu didn’t have one.
“Laogong-ge, you take off your bathrobe, I’ll fold it into a towel and put it on your head.”
He really had the look of someone who had been boiled silly by the hot spring. Wang Huanxiu didn’t say anything, rejecting his good intentions.
But Bai Shuijin’s gaze was practically glued onto Wang Huanxiu’s body. Right now, a man’s strong body was much more attractive than the stars in the sky.
After soaking for a while, Wang Huanxiu heard bubbling sounds from nearby. Turning back, the spot where Bai Shuijin had been soaking was already empty, with only a string of bubbles continuously rising to the surface.
……
“Splash!”
Wang Huanxiu grabbed his bathrobe and fished Bai Shuijin out of the hot spring. Long legs stepped ashore, water pouring off his body like rain.
Seeing that Bai Shuijin had fainted in the hot spring, Wang Muguang hurriedly stood up too.
It wasn’t because he was worried something might happen to Bai Shuijin, but because he was afraid he himself might faint too.
The three returned indoors. Bai Shuijin sat on a bench in the rest area, his face red as if drunk. His whole body felt thoroughly boiled, and was steaming like a dumpling.
Wang Muguang went to the side to fetch him some water.
Only he and Wang Huanxiu remained on this side of the wooden chairs.
Bai Shuijin tilted his head up, eyes misty. “Laogong-ge, was my voice sexy just now?”
Wang Huanxiu didn’t understand.
“The bubble sounds.”
……
Wang Huanxiu thought of the string of bubbles on the water’s surface. The sound of bubbles was indeed quite authentic.
Bai Shuijin sat blankly on the chair, his collar messy, hair sticking softly to his forehead, looking especially pitiful. Wang Huanxiu subconsciously reached out to tidy his collar.
At this moment, Wang Muguang came back with hot water, and the man withdrew his hand.
Wang Muguang, like presenting a treasure, held the water in front of Bai Shuijin. “Have some hot water.”
Bai Shuijin waved his hand. “No need.”
“You don’t like it?”
“It’s not that, I’ve had enough just now in the hot spring.”
……
Wang Muguang had no choice but to drink the cup of hot water himself. Then he remembered something. “Big Brother, it seems like you guys left your phones by the hot spring.”
When he got up earlier, he had only subconsciously grabbed his own phone. He just remembered while fetching the water, and after getting it, he had rushed over.
“I’ll go get them.”
Before leaving, Wang Huanxiu glanced at Bai Shuijin. Wang Muguang consciously took on the responsibility of looking after Bai Shuijin.
After all, the other party was only twenty years old, still a college student. College students could die easily.
However, not long after, a wave of stomach pain swept over him. Wang Muguang clutched his belly in pain and looked at Bai Shuijin with difficulty. “Can you manage on your own?”
He might have eaten something bad today and now his stomach was acting up.
Seeing his urgent look, Bai Shuijin said, “I can.”
“Okay, then I’ll head to the bathroom.” Wang Muguang double-checked that Bai Shuijin was fine on his own before rushing into the bathroom.
He usually didn’t eat seafood, but today at the hot spring resort, he ordered a bowl of fresh sashimi rice for a change. That bowl of sashimi rice was the culprit.
A few minutes later, Wang Muguang reached for the toilet paper next to him, but when he pulled, only one tiny piece came off. Looking at the almost empty roll, his pupils trembled.
He opened the toilet paper box, only to see a bare cardboard tube inside.
Wang Muguang: “…”
He had walked in here with such confidence, only to be met with betrayal.
Toilet paper was a lie.
At this moment, Wang Muguang almost wanted to die. Fortunately, he had brought his phone and could just message his brother for help.
The reason he didn’t ask others in the bathroom for help was because he didn’t want to end up on the news. A popular star stuck in the toilet… if it made headlines today, he’d be socially dead tomorrow.
No one cared about their face more than a narcissist. He could live, but not live without dignity.
Making a fool of himself on the news was no different from taking his life.
When he took out his phone to send the message, he realized he had grabbed the wrong phone when leaving the hot spring. He had taken his brother’s phone.
But it was all the same. If he used his brother’s phone to message his own phone, the other party would still see it.
Wang Huanxiu had already gone back to the hot spring to retrieve the phones.
Meanwhile, Wang Huanxiu successfully got the phones back from the hot spring. Just as the phone landed in his hand, a message popped up.
Wang Huanxiu glanced at the pop-up notification. He didn’t even open the chat. Wang Muguang’s message was short and clear and there was no need to open it to read.
“Big Brother, bathroom, help.”
After the message disappeared, Wang Huanxiu’s eyes fell on Wang Muguang’s phone screen, only to see it filled with dense text.
‘Ah~ No, stop’, and ‘I love you’ flew side by side.
Looking at the title…“Sister-in-law is My True Love.”
Wang Huanxiu: “…”
