Page 98 of He Is My Bride

Li Ying’s room had been very different from Amy’s back in the day, but now much of the stuff that used to make the space Li Ying’s had been taken out.

His things had been sorted into boxes that were yet to be taken away, for now collecting dust: horror and slasher movie posters, classics, and some Korean and Japanese horror films that used to run at small indie theaters in town. There were also some of Li Ying’s masterpieces that used to sit on his desk: modified old dolls he’d thrifted and mutilated while playing nightmare surgeon from Hell. There were also some odd books and all his comics, bound for the antiquarian.

Maybe it should all have been discarded, but looking at his old stuff, Li Ying was feeling nostalgic, what with listening to his foster parents argue and Mrs. Qian making him feel like crap, then retreating to his old space where he could still view all this cathartically dark imagery that had once brought him strange comfort.

I should sort through these things so they can take out what I don’t intend to keep,Li Ying thought while looking at one of the dolls, a piece of its plastic belly cut out, and inside Li Ying had made organs from polymer clay and painted them with acrylic paints. He had gone to one of those tabletop wargame stores to buy a figure painting set, which was also still here among the other stuff, but the paints were probably all dried up now.

They were gruesome things, and Li Ying couldn’t imagine Hanjun wanting to display them at their future home, but Li Ying thought he might want to keep them anyway, as well as his old drawings. They were something he had made himself and might want to look at sometimes, to reminisce. Even if his memories from those years wereoften filled with teenage angst. In hindsight, it hadn’t been so bad, Li Ying thought. He had had a roof over his head, hadn’t he?

The drawings were all neatly put away in folders. Li Ying wondered who had done that. Amy, Uncle Qian, Grandma? He smiled as he realizedsomeonehad thought them worth saving. Li Ying looked at these things until he felt like he had reminisced enough, then made his bed and prepared to sleep.

—

Mr. and Mrs. Qian hadn’t slept in a shared bed since Kai moved out and they had remade his room into ‘guest bedroom’—Qian Hong’s bedroom. This had been Mrs. Qian’s wish. But now all three kids were staying the night, so she had to tolerate her husband sleeping next to her. She watched him take off his robe, her soft reading light bringing out the contours of his muscular body well. The man still worked out. He was still very handsome. Mrs. Qian still desired him, she discovered to her own disappointment, and turned her eyes back on her book before the man turned around. She felt his weight on the bed and was both repulsed and attracted. She wouldn’t allow herself such weakness.

“Your foster son is gay,” Mrs. Qian said bluntly.

“What makes you say that?” Qian Hong asked neutrally, sliding under his blanket and looking at his wife’s majestic, cruel profile. His heart was forlorn, but he still loved her. He just didn’t know how to fix things. They had been broken for too long.

“It’s obvious, and we should have figured it out sooner. He might be dating that Wu Hanjun.”

Qian Hong stared at his lap in silence. It hadn’t been obvious to him at all but now that Mrs. Qian had said it, it made all the sense. “Well, wouldn’t we be happy for them?”

“Do you realize what a scandal it would be ifthatWu Hanjun was dating a man? And an orphaned nobody at that! His family won’tallow it, and it won’t reflect favorably on us when they learn who raised Li Ying.”

“Arewenot people who live and let live? If they both liked each other, and I still believe you might be mistaken, who is anybody else to have a say in it?”

“Tch! Don’t try to make me look like the bad person here, you know I have gay friends. But what you seem to forget is thatyouropinion is not the only one that matters. I don’t care if Li Ying has a boyfriend or even many boyfriends, but becauseyouchose to raise him and are treating him like your own, would have adopted him if you cared any less for my dignity, if he’s linked to us in relation to such a scandal our reputationwilltake a hit. You seem to have forgotten how important it is to keep your face within the community. You only think about yourself, you’resowell integrated!”

Qian Hong closed his eyes and drew a deep breath before answering calmly, “What does it matter what they think of us back in the mainland? ”

“You’re so naïve. How do you think we can show our faces among relatives if it becomes public your foster son is buggering with Wu Hanjun!”

“If people talk, I can do nothing about it. But I wouldn’t always assume the worst of people. Like you do.”

“Hmph! You will see, Qian Hong.”

“I will. I would be interested in hearing what you suggest though.”

“Talk to the boy, ask him if he’s dating Wu Hanjun and if that man is who we think he is, and if that were the case, tell him to date his own class.”

Qian Hong answered immediately and firmly, “I won’t tell Li Ying, or anyone, who to date, who to love… or who to marry.”

“Get out,” Mrs. Qian hissed between her teeth.

Qian Hong got up and donned his robe again, not rushing, respecting his wife’s wishes but refusing to be ordered around like a dog in his own house, and left to sleep on the couch.

Chapter19: A Cock In Pocket

Hanjun called his uncle.

“Hello, Hanjun,” Wu Yiheng answered.

“Hello, Uncle Yiheng.”

“I was wondering when you would finally bother calling.”

Silence.