Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Eight: The Correct Way to Wear An Engagement Ring

In the end, he stayed behind.

What could be done was not avoided.

He was supposedly very firm on his decision.

Xiao Yu laid on his stomach on the bed, his head plopped on top of the pillow as he watched from afar with gloom written all over his face.

From a certain point of view, it was his teacher’s,Zuo Wangyan’s or more like Yan Yixuan’s, fault.

He had planned to return to his place last night, but the sudden realization that his teacher was actually Yan Jin’s uncle was too surprising. Once a teacher, always a teacher. Moreover, the kindness that his teacher had given him was similar to how a parent would treat their child. Xiao Yu was successfully lured to stay at Yan Jin’s place because Yan Jin promised to show him his teacher’s past pictures and share about his gossips. As they talked late into the night, things started to happen.

What made it more hateful was that after he had stayed the night, Xiao Yu realized that there hadn’t been much interaction between Yan Jin and Yan Yixuan. After all, what memories could a child that had left the country as an eight-year-old possibly have when Yan Yixuan only returned to the country when Yan Jin was twelv . In the end, the majority of the night had ended up being Yan Jin listening to what Xiao Yu had to say.

Looking at the results, Xiao Yu not only sold his teacher off completely, he had even sold himself as well.

“You’re awake? Feeling uncomfortable anywhere? Are you hungry? Is there anything you want to eat?”

Yan Jin who was all refreshed pulled the curtains up and walked over to rub Xiao Yu’s depressed head, asking with a sweet, caring tone.

“A Napoleon slice and Parmigiano-Reggiano double ice cream¹,” Xiao Yu sourly recited his dessert choice.

Yan Jin hesitantly replied, “But right now you should eat something plainer, like green bean porridge, pumpkin porridge, or congee. I’ll add more sugar, okay?”

“Then why do you still ask me. Shoo shoo.”

After he had chased Yan Jin out of the room, Xiao Yu grumpily took out his mobile and browsed through the forums.

There were still people talking about the incident involving YL’s chairman so long after the fact. Even though people were not as enthusiastic as they had been previously, there were still many onlookers relentlessly predicting what would happen next in the industry. Among those topics, the most discussed question was regarding the fate of the driver who caused the incident.

When the incident was in the news before, Xiao Yu was not in the mood to look at the forum as he was spending all day and night cooped up at home. What made it worse was that some hasslers would send private messages to his Weibo account insulting him and calling him a murderer. It made Xiao Yu uninstall Weibo and completely lose interest in looking at any news online.

On the forum that Xiao Yu visited often, aside from professional design analysis, there were other topics such as insider news from hearsay and gossip. There was no actual meaning in reading them, so he instead turned to the news update from the public security bureau².

Even though the crash was blown out of portion, aside from the few times that Xiao Yu had met Lawyer Hu, that one time when he received the court summon, and the other time when he signed a confirmation document for the police admitting his responsibility for the accident, he did not even enter the police station. Perhaps from the police’s perspective, there were no actual casualties in the accident and only vehicle damages done, so the case was concluded when the investigation had finished saving Xiao Yu a lot of trouble.

And now that Xiao Yu had already explained himself to Yan Jin, it made things even more simple. Regardless of what Yan Jin wanted to investigate, it would not cause Xiao Yu trouble anymore.

It was only then that Xiao Yu finally was in the mood to settle the old scores. He reinstalled his Weibo app and planned to rebuke those trolls a few days later.

Xiao Yu randomly opened a few related topics and saw several accounts that he did not recognize claiming to be “SI’s internal staff”. They revealed “incidents that were hated by both man and god” that he had done during the years he was in SI which included but were not limited to exploiting interns, disrespecting senior employees, and disclosing company private drawings. They even highlighted that if it were not for the recommendation letter from the former chief designer, SI would definitely not have let him stay for so long.

The moment the topic was posted, there were immediate replies below asking if anyone knew whether the recommendation letter was authentic and stating that the former chief designer had been missing for many years and it was highly possible that it may have been forged by someone with ulterior motives.

Scrolling further, Xiao Yu could see there was a whole chain of agreement and comments.

If it was the Xiao Yu from before, he would have already gotten really angry by now. However, the Xiao Yu right now was comfortably lying on Yan Jin’s bed, covered in Yan Jin’s blanket, using Yan Jin’s pillow to anchor his mobile, and even using Yan Jin’s mobile to create a new account to log into the forum. He did not feel anything towards these hateful comments against him at all.

He had already gained the armour that he could use to protect himself with, so he had nothing to fear right now.

After Xiao Yu had used Yan Jin’s mobile to register his account, he took a deep breath and then began to reply under every comment that scolded him. As there were too many of them, Xiao Yu had drafted a “My apologies. That person is now living a very blissful life.” and pasted it into every comment he replied. In less than ten minutes, he had received countless private messages. Besides telling him off and calling him a sarcastic troll, they even declared that they would hunt him down.

This was the first time Xiao Yu realized how adorable a ‘manhunt’ sounded. If they could really dig out Yan Jin’s account, the image of them at that time would probably be enough to make him laugh for a long time.

Seeing that it was about time, Xiao Yu logged out of the forum and deleted all the verification messages from Yan Jin’s mobile. Pretending as if he had done nothing, he slipped back into the blanket and waited for Yan Jin.

When a person was alone, it was easy for their imagination to run wild. Especially after what had happened last night.

Xiao Yu wondered if this meant that his relationship with Yan Jin would be considered official and pondered about their future.

No matter what, he had to keep his family in the dark and go overseas to get married…

And then adopt a child…

And then…

Hold on.

Xiao Yu suddenly realized something extremely important – Yan Jin had yet to propose to him.

With everything done, when exactly would he be proposing? Could he be planning to cheat on me?

Urghh it cannot be that he wants me to take the initiative…

Actually, that’s possible. But I haven’t proposed before? What do I have to prepare?

A ring? And maybe a restaurant?

If I use Heartlock for the ring, that wouldn’t be too bad right?

*Rolling around* —

The door was push opened.

“How many times have I said not to roll around on the bed.”

Yan Jin hastily walked forward and placed the plate in his hand on the bed’s headboard. Then he caught the rolled-up blanket that was rolling towards him.

Xiao Yu slightly pulled the blanket downwards and revealed his pair of blinking eyes to Yan Jin.

“Get up and eat something. It’s already ten in the morning.” Yan Jin slipped his hand into Xiao Yu’s blanket and rubbed his stomach. “Your stomach’s all sunken already.”

“I’m not hungry at all.” Xiao Yu pestered endlessly. “I’m not eating anything other than desserts.”

Just as he finished his words, his stomach growled shamelessly under Yan Jin’s caress.

Xiao Yu immediately blushed as he cowered back into the blanket to hide.

Yan Jin chuckled as he pulled Xiao Yu out from the blanket and pressed him against the headboard, not allowing his lover to shrink back into the blanket again.

*Kiss*

“Hn.” Xiao Yu arrogantly turned his face to the side. “If it’s not delicious, I refuse to eat.”

“Shall I feed you?”

“No thank you. My limbs are intact.”

Xiao Yu reached his hand out.

One second, two seconds.

It was not the warm bowl of porridge he was waiting for. Instead, he felt a strange and cold object being slipped onto his ring finger.

Xiao Yu’s heart started to beat crazily.

He wanted to take his hand back, but it was too late –

His hand was already held on tightly by the other person.

Before the series of actions were completed, Xiao Yu had his head turned to the side, so he had not witnessed what exactly happened.

But, he knew what had happened.

Xiao Yu turned his blushing face over as his hand was grabbed onto tightly. He was unable to see how big that pink diamond³ on his ring finger was.

“That’s so cunning,” Xiao Yu mumbled.

“And your answer is?”

Yan Jin’s tone was as calm as usual.

However, Xiao Yu could tell from the slight pain in his hand that this man in front of him who was outstanding in everything he did was feeling nervous.

He was nervous because of him.

That Yan Jin.

Xiao Yu had waited for this moment for a long time. He thought he would feel indecisive and excited just like the main characters in television dramas. But, when the actual moment came, when Yan Jin really popped the question, he had never felt so peaceful in his life. it was like his heart that had been beating crazily before had suddenly calmed down. He was very sure of his own feelings.

No matter how things would turn out, he wanted to promise him.

To promise him.

He wanted to promise that they would be together forever.

Nothing could stop them.

This was their story, one that involved only him and Yan Jin. Nobody had the rights to tell him not to.

……

On the contrary, after he made his decision, Xiao Yu did not want to say his answer right away. He avoided his gaze and said, “If I must say, you’re taking this too lightly.”

Xiao Yu felt satisfied when he saw a very obvious frown on Yan Jin’s face.

“What else is missing?” Yan Jin cautiously probed Xiao Yu’s thoughts, completely afraid to act blindly without thinking.

“Where’s the cake, hotel, roses, and going down on one knee?” Xiao Yu pouted, “You don’t look sincere at all.”

“I can make it up to you if you want any of those, regardless of what you want.” Yan Jin was obviously feeling disdain for the normal routine. He raised his hand and cupped it on the side of Xiao Yu’s face, caressing him intimately, “And your answer is?”

Under Yan Jin’s gentle yet intensive gaze, the defense that Xiao Yu had painstakingly built up soon crumbled into pieces and revealed the soft, gentle, and easy-to-bully inner side.

“You don’t have to make it up to me. I’m not a woman after all. I won’t care about those things.”

“And your answer is?”

Yan Jin repeatedly asked that question. It was obvious that he was dedicated to finding out, as if he would not let Xiao Yu off if he did not say the answer personally.

Xiao Yu blushed even deeper as the redness spread to his ears.

It was as if Yan Jin had not noticed how shy Xiao Yu was feeling as he repeated his question again and again like a recording.

Urghhh. That jerk.

In the next second, Xiao Yu suddenly broke free and took his hand back before Yan Jin could realize what was happening. He hid back into the blanket and brought it over his head.

Then, Xiao Yu took a deep breath under the stuffy covers.

“I do I do I do I do… You’re so annoying.”

Translator’s note:

1 拿破崙蛋糕帕瑪森乳酪冰激淩雙層 – I found this link and I think it’s this but in ice-cream form?

2 公安局 – a government office similar in function to a police station.

3 鴿子蛋 – although we referred it as pink diamond, the shade looks more light pink-purple to me.