WP Chapter 53

The two days at the resort hotel were blissfully relaxing. It felt as if the world had shrunk down to just the two of them. No outside noise, no work-related worries, only complete physical and mental ease, soaking in the presence of each other.

During the day, they wandered through the scenic area, taking photos like any other tourists. They bought a few local souvenirs as gifts and even got invited by a group of students to go rafting together. Despite the raincoats, they still ended up soaked. A young girl on the boat kept screaming and inching closer toward Si Shaorong. It wasn’t until much later that Jiang Yibai realized what she was really after.

After getting off the boat, the girl tried to casually ask Si Shaorong to add her on WeChat. Just as he was about to politely decline, Jiang Yibai wrapped an arm around his waist. Facing the group of students, he gave them a dazzlingly innocent smile, then leaned in and kissed his boyfriend on the ear, murmuring sweetly, “Baby, I’m hungry.”

The students: “…”

The girl who had been holding up her phone to scan his contact flushed bright red, completely flustered, looking like she wanted to disappear into the ground.

Jiang Yibai, satisfied with the outcome, pulled Si Shaorong away. They had only walked a few steps when they heard voices behind them.

“Fuck, they’re gay? Like, real gay?”

“Scared the shit out of me. I’ve got goosebumps. That’s so disgusting.”

“If they’re gay, say so from the start. Why did they even get on our boat? Do they have some kind of disease?”

Jiang Yibai’s brows shot up. He turned on his heel, ready to teach those brats a lesson, but Si Shaorong tugged him back gently.

“People who think like that won’t listen no matter what you say,” Si Shaorong said softly. “No point getting yourself worked up.”

Jiang Yibai ground his teeth. “What’s the point of school if they’ve stuffed all that knowledge down a dog’s throat?”

Si Shaorong always found it strangely entertaining whenever Jiang Yibai cursed. He wrapped an arm around him and rubbed his back. “Weren’t you just saying you were hungry? What do you want to eat?”

Jiang Yibai looked over at him. There wasn’t a trace of anger on his face. It was as if he hadn’t heard a single word just now. That calmness made Jiang Yibai admire him—and ache for him—a little.

He reflected on it for a moment and admitted quietly, “Honestly, you were going to turn her down anyway. I didn’t have to be so… loud about it.”

If he hadn’t jumped in to claim his territory so obnoxiously, the girl would’ve just taken the rejection and left. None of that ugly talk would’ve happened.

But Si Shaorong raised an eyebrow. “You’re my boyfriend. You have every right to turn her down for me. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

They continued walking hand in hand, meandering down the mountain path. Jiang Yibai felt something warm stir in his chest. “So what if someone tried to hit on me? What would you do?”

Si Shaorong thought for a moment. “Probably the same thing you did.”

Jiang Yibai laughed. “I’d love to see you get jealous.”

Si Shaorong gave him a helpless look. “Haven’t you already?”

That brat Chen Yi had made him jealous. Even the exes he hadn’t met before had made him jealous. Hadn’t he gone through enough?

Then again… Si Shaorong glanced sideways, narrowed his eyes slightly, and asked, “Were you jealous just now?”

Jiang Yibai held up his thumb and forefinger, measuring a tiny sliver of distance. “Just a liiittle bit. Barely.”

Si Shaorong broke into a smile. In his eyes were the green hills and trees, and the person he kept at the center of his heart. Everything felt brighter and freer, like he had shed a decade off his shoulders.

It was off-season, and the scenic area was quiet. They picked a secluded path down the mountain. It took a little longer, but the scenery was beautiful, and the peace was priceless. Just the two of them.

They passed along old walkways through the woods, birds calling out with crisp, unfamiliar songs. A brook gurgled gently at the base of the mountain. The forest was hushed, the only sound the steady fall of their footsteps against the wooden path. Si Shaorong held his boyfriend’s hand and found himself wishing they could stay here forever. Just as the thought surfaced, Jiang Yibai murmured beside him, “This feels so good. I really want to live here with you.”

Si Shaorong paused for a moment, and Jiang Yibai continued, “Let’s find a place to disappear someday. Somewhere quiet and beautiful, away from people… Wait, no, finding somewhere with no people is too hard. At least somewhere with good scenery, like this, where it stays quiet during the off-season.”

A smile tugged at the corner of Si Shaorong’s lips. He nodded and gave his lover’s hand a gentle squeeze. “Alright.”

They had lunch at the foot of the mountain, then made their way slowly back to the hotel. They soaked in the hot spring, watched TV, lay in bed with their legs tangled together. Jiang Yibai’s hands wandered here and there, playful and restless. As his touch grew bolder, the mood shifted, and they slipped under the covers, kissing and caressing each other lazily. It didn’t feel particularly lustful. It was more like something soft and sticky, a warmth that came from being wrapped in one another, fingers linked and bodies pressed close, until the comfort of it made the world feel like heaven.

Outside, the greenery swayed gently. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, scattering dappled shadows across the floor. Light flickered and pooled, sometimes breaking apart, sometimes spilling wide and golden. Just like their bodies, sometimes apart, sometimes entwined.

That feeling of falling in love seemed like it would never fade. Emotion surged with heat, spilling over the once barren corners of their hearts. Flowers bloomed where there had once been nothing. Each one held a memory, a moment of sweetness between them. And every flicker of emotion was like a breeze passing over a sea of blossoms, carrying whispered words that tickled the ear and lingered like the softest love confessions. The kind that made you sink in and never want to leave.

Si Shaorong’s cheeks glowed with pink as he planted feather-light kisses on his lover’s eyes, then the tip of his nose, and finally his lips. His kissing had become skilled by now, tugging at Jiang Yibai’s lips and tongue in a deep, slow kiss. One hand gently kneaded the back of Jiang Yibai’s neck, as though soothing a little animal.

They clung to each other like a pair of octopuses, whispering quietly back and forth. Jiang Yibai would sometimes break into laughter mid-sentence, eyes misted over, face flushed, breath warm against Si Shaorong’s skin. “Why are you all over me like this?” he panted. “You just trying to get laid again?”

Si Shaorong laughed along with him.

By evening, the only sound in the room was heavy, ragged breathing. Jiang Yibai still wasn’t fully satisfied. He reached up to thumb the corner of his boyfriend’s mouth, then tilted his chin and kissed him again.

The light outside was dimming. It was their last day on vacation, but the time had passed in easy, blissful waves. They were like every other couple in love, talking endlessly about nothing, glued to each other, moving like conjoined twins. Wherever one went, the other followed. Neither could bear to part, and strangely, it never got annoying.

After dinner at the hotel’s buffet, they returned to their room and put on a movie.

Leaning against Si Shaorong, Jiang Yibai said, “I saw something on Weibo that I thought made a lot of sense. ‘Love is the long process of mutual need after the initial spark. So just feeling a spark isn’t enough.’”

Si Shaorong nodded. “That’s true.”

Then, without any warning or segue, Jiang Yibai added, “I love you.”

Si Shaorong: “…”

He let out a helpless laugh. “I love you too.”

“That was so unromantic!” Jiang Yibai couldn’t stop laughing. He slapped the pillow, wheezing. “Fuck, that was like me saying ‘I’m full,’ and then you go, ‘Yeah, me too.’”

Si Shaorong held his hand and replied, “I was romantic the first time I said it.” He lowered his voice. “When I was inside you, I said—”

Jiang Yibai kicked him immediately, shutting that down before he could finish.

“You really can’t judge a book by its cover,” Jiang Yibai said. “Give me back my cold, aloof male god!”

Si Shaorong wrapped his arm around his lover’s waist and chuckled. “I used to think I had a type. I couldn’t really define it, but I’d kind of base it on the kinds of people everyone else liked. But when I actually met them, I realized I wasn’t interested at all.”

Jiang Yibai rested on his chest and watched him. Si Shaorong stroked his bare shoulder, the skin warm and smooth beneath his palm. “It wasn’t until I met you that I started feeling things I’d never felt before. That vague idea of a ‘type’ slowly took shape… and in the end, it just turned into your face.”

Jiang Yibai smiled, his eyes glassy with emotion. “What an honor.”

Si Shaorong laughed, touching his forehead to his. “There’s that saying, ‘You have all the traits I like.’ But I think it’s the other way around. It should be, ‘Because I love you most, you’ve become the kind of person I like best.’”

Jiang Yibai, uncharacteristically flustered, blushed faintly. Even his ears were red. “You need to save that line for your next novel. If you waste it all on me, you’ll hit a writing block again.”

But Si Shaorong said with a straight face, “I only want to use those words on you. Putting them in a novel would be a waste.”

Jiang Yibai was left dazed by that. Then suddenly, he rolled himself up in the blanket, covered his face, and howled, “Oh my god—!”

Si Shaorong blinked. “???”

But peaceful moments never last long. Life always had its ups and downs, and more downs than ups. The next morning, Jiang Yibai was jarred awake by a phone call.

“Hello?” he mumbled, rubbing his face and trying to sound alert. “Sun Ying? What’s wrong?”

There was a lot of noise on the other end. Jiang Yibai frowned, listening for a while, his expression growing darker by the second. He was fully awake now.

“Slow down. Tell me properly. What do you mean Sun Chen’s at the police station? Do your parents know?”

He sat up. Si Shaorong also stirred and reached for a shirt, draping it over Jiang Yibai’s shoulders as he frowned in concern.

He mouthed silently, “What happened?”

Jiang Yibai waved a hand, still listening intently to the call. After a while, he gave a few short replies. “Don’t panic, I’m heading back now. He didn’t hurt the guy badly, did he?”

Sun Ying was sobbing on the other end, struggling to get words out through her tears. Jiang Yibai kept his voice calm, gently soothing her in between. “If the other guy’s not seriously injured, it’s nothing major. Worst case, you’ll have to cover the medical fees. Take a breath, it’s not that serious.”

After he hung up, he pressed his fingers to his temples and sighed. “Sun Chen got into a fight and beat someone bad enough to end up in the hospital. He’s at the police station now.”

“A fight? With who?” Si Shaorong was baffled. He glanced at the clock. “This early? Don’t tell me he got into it over breakfast?”

“It happened around three or four in the morning,” Jiang Yibai said while getting dressed. “Sun Ying only just found out. She didn’t dare tell their parents, so she called me.”

“The fight happened outside a gay bar.”

Si Shaorong: “…”

Thankfully, the resort wasn’t far from the city. Driving back took just over an hour.

By the time they rushed into the police station, both Sun Chen and Chen Yi were already there.

The two of them were sitting on opposite ends of a bench in the hallway, both bruised and scratched up, refusing to look at each other. Sun Ying, red-eyed, came over and whispered, “Mr. Jiang… They want to call the school and the parents. What do we do?”

Jiang Yibai frowned and glanced at the two troublemakers, then walked over to a police officer and said, “Hello, comrade. I’m… I’m their teacher.”

“A teacher?” The man flipped through his notes. “What kind of teacher lets this happen? Where are the parents? Two minors getting into a fight in the middle of the night outside a bar, do you have any idea how dangerous that is?”

The officer jabbed his pen toward Chen Yi, his brows deeply furrowed. “And this one, Chen Yi, right? He drank. Doesn’t he know minors aren’t allowed to drink?”

Jiang Yibai had nothing to say in his defense. All he could do was silently accept the scolding, lowering his head like a guilty child. “Yes, sir. You’re right.”

“We’ll wait for the parents to arrive before discussing further,” the man said, giving Jiang Yibai a once-over. “They’ll need to pay for medical expenses. We need an explanation for what happened.”

Jiang Yibai wanted to say something but bit his tongue. He didn’t want to make things worse for the kids. He turned and stepped out with Si Shaorong to wait by the entrance.

Before Jiang Yibai could speak, Si Shaorong raised a hand to quiet him and pulled out his phone to call Zhen Zhen.

He explained the situation briefly, then said, “Yes, they’ll need to contact the guardians, that’s protocol. But this happened outside a gay bar. If the families find out, it could hit them pretty hard. Don’t you have someone you know at the station? Could you help us out? Maybe let Yibai talk to the two of them first and find out exactly what happened. It’ll help him figure out how to deal with it.”