Page 30 of He Is My Bride

“Alright, men out of the kitchen!” Madam Wang shooed them. “You’re in our way.”

Before Hanrong and Yiyi were chased out, Li Ying snuck them some pieces of duck breast from the plate, giving them a wink. Unlike his little brother who was sneakier and slipped out of the kitchen with his spoils, Hanrong got caught and got whacked with a kitchen towel by Madam Wang:

“Are you being starved, you poor child?” she mocked, but in good humor. “I knew you Wus weren’t as ascetic as you make yourselves out to be.”

Li Ying covered his mouth to hide his grin. Now he was even getting the other upright Wus in trouble!

Next arrived Wu Yiheng, likewise straight from work. He greeted the ladies from the door and went to change out of office wear. He hadn’t noticed the ring on Li Ying’s finger.

“Li Ying.” Grandmother Linming handed him a tray with a small bowl of broth from the borscht. “Go upstairs and give this to Yiheng, ask him if it’s to his liking. Second door to the left.”

Li Ying accepted the tray and the mission. “Yes, auntie.” He headed to the hall and up the spiraling staircase and went to Wu Yiheng’s door. He gave a knock.

“Mister Wu?”

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, U ncle. 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 fillings as 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.

“Of course it’s yours!” Li Ying stood on top of the bed and reached for the stuffed animal. Hanjun jerked as if to stop him, but halted.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle with him, he seems very old. What’s his name?” Li Ying asked while getting down from the bed, holding up the floppy-eared thing.

“…‘Bunny.’”

“Tch!” Li Ying held back a snicker, and Hanjun frowned.

“I mean, it’s a good name!” Li Ying hurried to assure him.

“Hello, Bunny!” He snuggled the plushie’s button nose.

Hanjun shifted in place awkwardly, growing ever redder, but Li Ying kept talking to Bunny, “I’m sorry, have I taken your place in Hanjun’s bed?

He slept with you, right? For how long, I wonder?

” Li Ying hugged the toy and peered at Hanjun.

“Huh? Did Bunny see your first-ever morning wood?”

Hanjun leaped at him, but Li Ying dodged.

“You’re so cute!” Li Ying laughed and threw himself back on Hanjun’s old bed.

The other man dived after him, landing on top of him. Hanjun was glaring at Li Ying, nostrils flaring like a dragon’s.

“This is where little Junjun slept?” Li Ying wiggled on his bed. “Wouldn’t it be kinky if we did something on—Nh?” Li Ying got silenced by a kiss.

Hanjun pressed his body tight against Li Ying’s, pushing him into the mattress and his tongue into his mouth.

Their snogging escalated against their better judgment, but soon Li Ying had to start pushing Hanjun off because he couldn’t get hard right now while he was tucked.

His resistance only spurred Hanjun on, and he grabbed Li Ying’s arm and pinned it down.

Hanjun, are you really going to do me in your childhood room while your family is downstairs?! Telling by how incredibly hard Hanjun’s cock was throbbing against his leg, Li Ying was sure he would. But then there was a gentle knock on the door, and the maid called to them:

“Sir, miss, the dinner is set.”

Hanjun parted their lips and answered in a voice more tense than usual, “Thank you.” He got up and drew a long breath, closing his eyes and looking deeply frustrated, having to ignore his erection.

“Hanjun…” Li Ying spoke quietly, in case the maid was still close enough to hear them. “You’re all hard, can you—”

“Yes.” Hanjun snarled from between his teeth, eyes still closed.

Damn, he’s so cute when he’s trying not to be aroused!

Li Ying wanted so badly to tease him, but he knew this was the wrong time entirely to be fooling around: Hanjun would take him if pushed, but then they would definitely get found out.

They shouldn’t have gotten so frisky to begin with, not in this situation.

“You go down first, tell them I’m coming,” Hanjun said.

Li Ying got up from the bed and went to check his hair and makeup in the hallway mirror before heading down.

“Hanjun is joining us soon,” Li Ying said as he arrived at the dining room.

The square table had been beautifully set for a banquet, with Wu Yiheng sitting next to his mother, closest to the door as the hosts, and for Li Ying, the seat of honor had been reserved between the eldest Wu cousins. Li Ying took his seat and hoped he didn’t look all snogged up.

Hanjun joined them as well. He seemed calm, but his cousin gave him a knowing smile as he sat down. Hanjun pretended not to notice .

“Now, we should start eating before the food gets cold, enjoy the meal,” Grandmother Linming said, but before they all set to filling their plates, Hanrong raised his cup:

“First, a toast to my cousin’s and Li Ying’s joyous betrothal. Ganbei!”

“Ganbei!” said everyone else except Wu Yiheng, who drank without raising his cup.

This is not good! Uncle Yiheng is not happy at all… Li Ying stressed, and he could see Hanjun was tense as well.

With more non-Wus at the table, the dinner wasn’t overly somber.

Madam Wang was very curious about Hanjun’s time in America and how he and Li Ying had met, wanting to hear his version of the story.

For the laconic Hanjun, it was easy to stick to the auntie-friendly version that Li Ying had told them.

Hanrong made sure to praise Li Ying’s signature Dan Dan noodles even as he was obviously struggling with the spiciness:

“It’s got a real depth of taste…”

But his brother Yiyi was more honest with his feedback, “I can’t feel my lips!”

“Then don’t eat it and stop complaining.” Hanjun scolded his younger cousin, his words stern but his tone gentle. He couldn’t forgo eating his own fiancée’s cooking before the family, so he was boldly working through his noodles even if it still brought a sweat to his brow.

The Wangs were more impressed with the bold use of spice, and little Madam Wu seemed to only have kind bones in her body:

“Li Ying keeps proving her many talents,” she said.

Wu Yiheng, who hadn’t even touched the Dan Dan noodles, spoke next, breaking his silence abruptly, “Cooking is a convenient skill to have, for one who can spare the time but not the expense.”

“ ‘Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship,’ ” Li Ying spoke and smiled coyly at Wu Yiheng.

“How profound. Is that Confucius?” asked Madam Wang .

“No. Benjamin Franklin, I think,” Li Ying said.

“Uncle, is that not more or less what you’ve taught us about prudence?” Hanrong looked at Wu Yiheng.

“And what, I wonder, does Missy Li understand as ‘small’ expenses and ‘big’ expenses?” Wu Yiheng now looked directly at Li Ying.

“Everything is relative, of course,” Li Ying said.

“As for myself, I believe that to attain one’s true desire, no expense is too great, but also that the most valuable things in life can’t be bought with money,” Li Ying continued in an equally light tone while a charged silence loomed over the table.

“Like this meal that we are sharing here. Money can buy the finest ingredients and dinnerware, but it’s the love that the aunties and I put into making the food, not the expenses spent or spared, that makes sharing it with family special.

What more could we do for our loved ones than spare them our time to put effort into something we make for them? ”

Sweet little Madam Wu spoke from the heart, “Wisely said.”

“Indeed, Miss Li seems to have a wise and kind heart,” Hanrong said, and Grandmother Linming smiled at Li Ying along with him.

A vein in Wu Yiheng’s temple throbbed and he sipped his tea in silence.

Hanjun’s and Li Ying’s eyes met, and they shared a smile.

Well done, Li Ying, Hanjun thought, proud of him. He knew his uncle wasn’t easy to get along with, but Li Ying was doing so well.

After dinner Hanjun, Li Ying, and other guests were making their leave, saying goodbyes to each other and their hosts, when Hanrong told his cousin:

“By the way, Hanjun, there’s a party tomorrow with the Antai college alumni. I know you don’t care about parties, but as you can take a plus one, I wondered if you would like to come with Miss Li?”

Li Ying looked at Hanjun with eyes that seemed to say it all: ‘Can we please please go? ’

“Do you want to go?” Hanjun asked him, even if he could read those eyes.

“I think it would be nice to meet your old schoolmates.” Par-ty! Woo!

“Then we will go.”

“Yay! I’m going ahead, I need to call Anne.” Li Ying thought he would want to design his own outfit for this one, with Anne’s guidance, of course. Now he could really leave an impression on the younger Shanghai socialite generation. “Goodbye for now, aunties, thank you for your guidance!”

“Goodbye, Li Ying!”

Once Li Ying was gone, Wu Yiheng sighed, shook his head, and left the hall after saying brief goodbyes to his family members. Grandmother Linming looked after him as he disappeared up the stairs. She then turned to her grandson.

“Hanjun, did you notice your stuffed rabbit was still in your room?”

“Mm. I would like to keep it,” Hanjun muttered.

“I thought so. That’s why I told Yiheng not to throw it away while you were gone.”

“Thank you.”

“He can be harsh,” Grandmother Linming said. “But I believe my A-Jun deserves to have something that makes him happy.”

Hanjun understood. He bowed from the waist, but his grandmother put her hand on his shoulder.

“No need to bow to me so formally, I’m not as old-fashioned as the Wus.” She fixed a hair behind Hanjun’s ear, or pretended to, as Hanjun was impeccable as always. “Your uncle will see it too, he just needs time. Go now, and have fun at the party tomorrow.”

“I’ll see you there, Hanjun,” said Hanrong, and they nodded at each other .

“See you, Cousin—Wu Hanjun!” Yiyi still couldn’t bring himself to address his older cousin so casually, even if with Big Sister Li around he seemed more like a human and less like an infallible immortal.

Hanjun himself thought the Wu household had begun feeling more like a family with Li Ying there to topple down the walls everyone had built around themselves over the years. He could only hope his uncle would come around.