Zhao Bing was already familiar with the road conditions around the university town. Following Yan Sui’s instructions, he quickly found a suitable restaurant. After eating, they drove directly to the airport.
“Where are we going?” Meng Ting had dozed off on Yan Sui’s thigh for a while. When he woke up, he thought they had arrived home, only to realize they were still in the car, and from the surroundings, it was not the home from the university town.
“Forgot?” Yan Sui ruffled his hair and pulled Meng Ting back into his embrace. “Didn’t we agree last week to go on vacation to F Country?”
“Ah, I remember now,” Meng Ting nodded, his cheeks flushing a bit more. Clearly, their discussion about this matter had been quite improper, and suddenly recalling it made Meng Ting unable to control his blushing and racing heart.
“How long are we staying this time?” Meng Ting tilted his head to look at Yan Sui, his long eyelashes fluttering, evoking an impulse to touch them. Yan Sui didn’t use his hands; he leaned in, and his lips gently brushed against Meng Ting’s eyelashes.
“We’ll stay as long as you want.”
“Okay,” Meng Ting nodded in agreement, his smile growing even brighter.
For the past three years, they had traveled to F Country every July to revisit their honeymoon destination and celebrate their wedding anniversary in their own special way. The Rose Manor, secluded from the hustle and bustle, boasted endless fields of flowers that Meng Ting adored.
***
After an eleven-hour flight, they arrived in the capital of F Country, then took a connecting flight to the city near Rose Manor. From there, they boarded a car sent by the manor’s elderly butler. By the time they reached Rose Manor, it was already 3 p.m. local time.
Yan Sui and Meng Ting had a light meal before lying down to rest.
Meng Ting had slept through most of the journey, so after a short nap, he woke up refreshed. He fetched a basket and scissors from the old butler and headed to the flower fields to gather flowers. Two cream-colored puppies—offspring of the butler’s mother dog—trotted at his heels.
“Diandian and Yuanyuan, be good. Don’t chew on the flowers.”
Meng Ting occasionally turned back to admonish the puppies, which slowed his progress a bit.
Meanwhile, Yan Sui had been extremely busy the past two weeks to free up time for this vacation with Meng Ting. He slept deeply, undisturbed even when Meng Ting returned to their room with the two little pups and a bouquet of flowers.
“Shh!” Meng Ting hushed Diandian and Yuanyuan again before tiptoeing to the bedside. He crouched down slowly, arranging white roses in the vase on the bedside table with meticulous care. Before he could even stand up, Yan Sui wrapped an arm around his neck.
“Ting Ting…”
“I’m here,” Meng Ting turned his head, pressing a kiss to Yan Sui’s cheek before patting his shoulder gently, coaxing him. “Go back to sleep. I’ll stay with you.”
Yan Sui released his neck but kept his arms outstretched. Understanding, Meng Ting straightened up and leaned in, letting Yan Sui embrace him fully.
He raised his hand, intending to continue coaxing Yan Sui back to sleep, but Yan Sui held him and rolled onto the bed. For a moment, the world spun. Meng Ting only managed to hold Yan Sui tightly. He met Yan Sui’s still somewhat sleepy gaze and then raised his face to nuzzle Yan Sui’s nose.
“Did you sleep well?”
Yan Sui didn’t answer. Instead, his hand slid to the nape of Meng Ting’s neck. Then, with half-lidded , he sought Meng Ting’s lips and began to savor them.
Meng Ting tilted his chin, cooperating with Yan Sui’s kiss. Earlier, he had nibbled on a couple of rose petals, leaving a faint floral and earthy bitterness on his tongue. Now, mingled with their shared breaths, it all transformed into an intoxicating sweetness that made one’s head spin.
Meng Ting probably couldn’t understand Yan Sui’s excitement at that moment, but Yan Sui had indeed fallen for Meng Ting all over again.
In his hazy sleepiness, a young man, flowers in his arms, came towards him, backlit by the sun, the sunset casting a halo around him, looking soft and beautiful. Yan Sui still felt a bit drowsy, but this drowsiness instantly deepened the heart-stirring and beauty of this moment.
Yan Sui’s eyes fully opened, his drowsiness completely dispelled by the lingering, passionate kiss. He met Meng Ting’s smiling gaze, and his heart skipped a beat again. In that moment, he suddenly understood why phrases like ‘hopelessly in love[mfn]愛慘了誰 (ài cǎn le shuí): lit. to love someone miserably. It means to like someone (or something) very much.[/mfn]’ existed.
He was hopelessly, irrevocably in love with Meng Ting—and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Yan Sui, what’s wrong?” Meng Ting asked confusedly after catching his breath. He truly couldn’t understand Yan Sui’s excitement just now, but he could sense Yan Sui’s mood. “Do you like me that much?”
“Yes, I like you so much.” So much that his heart races for him every moment.
Yan Sui turned to sit up, pulling Meng Ting along with him and continuing to hold him in his arms.
“You have to keep liking me this much,” Meng Ting took the opportunity to add a request to Yan Sui. He kissed Yan Sui’s lips. “And I’ll always like you this much too, only you.”
“Mm,” Yan Sui nodded, then glanced aside. Two little white creatures were trying to climb onto the bed, but their legs were too short, and after much scrambling, they still hadn’t made it up.
“These are Diandian and Yuanyuan.”
Meng Ting had given them these Chinese names with the old butler’s permission.
Meng Ting’s gaze shifted from the two little puppies back to Yan Sui. “Aren’t they adorable?”
“Adorable, all of them,” Yan Sui nodded, then leaned over to kiss Meng Ting’s cheek. By nature, he wasn’t someone who particularly liked small animals, but since Meng Ting did, he grew fond of them too—love me, love my dogs.
They lingered on the bed for a while longer before getting up to have dinner by the small lake in the manor. Afterward, they took a stroll in the sunset. Around nine in the evening, Yan Sui made Meng Ting a light midnight snack before they returned to their room to sleep.
***
They spent a passionate night, and Meng Ting made up for some of Yan Sui’s neglect during his busy study days. The next day, they slept until eight or nine in the morning before getting up.
After breakfast, they went biking in the small town. Following lunch, Meng Ting took Diandian and Yuanyuan to visit their father at the neighbor’s house.
The neighbor’s grandfather made exceptionally delicious financiers[mfn]T/N: So, in the raw, it was 茶餅 (chá bǐng), lit. tea cake, but in China, tea cake wasn’t a cake at all. It was dried tea leaves pressed into the shape of a disc. Since the setting of this place is F Country a.k.a. France; I changed it to a typical French tea cakes—financiers.
茶餅 (chá bǐng):
Financiers:
[/mfn]. Meng Ting would help him trim flowers, and in return, he would make financiers for Meng Ting. This wasn’t their first encounter; Meng Ting had met him last year. Yan Sui also knew the old man and didn’t object after Meng Ting informed him.
Their trip to F Country couldn’t be hidden from Yan Zhengbo in the first place. During a phone call home, Yan Sui inevitably brought up the matter of Yan Mu and Yu Meixuan. Yan Zhengbo had truly made up his mind—no matter how miserable Yan Mu’s life became, he never softened. Over the years, he had stayed firm.
At first, Yu Meixuan held onto hope, but the daily grind of life—groceries, oil, salt, and all the necessities—cost money, and the stark contrast between her past and present living standards was unbearable. After enduring for a while, she began to lose patience.
The arguments between her and Yan Mu grew more frequent, and in the heat of their worst fights, some hidden truths inevitably slipped out.
She had the skill to keep Yan Mu devoted to her, but some words, once spoken, could not be taken back. Moreover, her patience with Yan Mu dwindled day by day, and Yan Mu wasn’t oblivious to this. It was impossible for their relationship to remain as good as it once was.
As the eldest son of the Yan family in F Country, Yan Mu was accustomed to a life of luxury and spent money recklessly. Initially, some people were willing to lend him money, but as the situation became clear, they gradually distanced themselves. He truly experienced the fickleness of human nature.
Just two months ago, Yu Meixuan filed for divorce from Yan Mu. This was within Yan Sui and Yan Zhenbo’s expectations, but the fact that Yu Meixuan was able to endure for over three years before giving up also surprised them—yet it also highlighted how terrifying that woman was.
What truly drove her to abandon Yan Mu wasn’t complete disillusionment with him, but rather Yan Zhengbo’s formal confirmation of Yan Mingya’s status as the heir to the Yan family in F Country during a family gathering. Even if Yan Mu were to return to the Yan family now, he could no longer give Yu Meixuan what she wanted.
Last year, Yan Shuya’s submitted results completely paled in comparison to Yan Mingya’s. However, Yan Zhengbo still gave Yan Shuya another year as a token gesture.
However, without the connections that came with being the eldest young master of the Yan family, relying solely on Yan Shuya’s own abilities, how could he possibly produce decent results? Giving him another year only led to failure again—an even more complete failure than the previous year.
At this point, Yu Meixuan’s decision to give up could perhaps be considered wise. After all, after three years of torment, the gentleness and beauty she had once desperately clung to were slipping further away from her. If she didn’t make one last effort before they vanished completely, she would truly be finished.
Just as they were talking on the phone, Yan Mu and his men were staging a scene of catching an adulterer in bed. After completely giving up on Yan Mu, Yu Meixuan had quickly hooked up with a wealthy businessman from D Country, rumored to be descended from a noble family with meritorious achievements.
The businessman was around the same age as Yan Zhengbo, but Yu Meixuan, driven by her so-called pursuit of a good life, had gone completely mad. She felt no shame at all; instead, she berated Yan Mu for being useless before proudly walking off arm in arm with the wealthy businessman.
Yan Mu had stubbornly held on until now, but this final straw broke him completely. He was on the verge of collapse, yet at the same time, it was as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over him from head to toe. Reflecting on these past years, he realized how foolishly he had lived.
What love? What unwavering devotion? It was all just an act Yu Meixuan had put on for him. What she had loved was never him as a person, but his status as the eldest son of the Yan family. If he wasn’t the eldest young master of the Yan family, he was nothing to Yu Meixuan.
Yet even if he wanted to hate her, he couldn’t. He was no saint himself, and it was not an exaggeration to describe all of this as retribution.
Divorce between Yan Mu and Yu Meixuan was inevitable. Whether Yu Meixuan could live a good life with that wealthy businessman would ultimately depend on Yan Zhengbo. But after toying with his son for so long, how could Yan Zhengbo let her off easily?
Moreover, according to Yan Zhengbo’s investigations, the wealthy businessman already had a family, and his wife was a formidable woman. Once Yu Meixuan was exposed, she would be in for a rough time.
Yan Sui and Yan Zhengbo continued discussing some matters about the Yan Corporation before hanging up. Calculating the time, it was about time for him to go next door and pick up Meng Ting for dinner.
“Yan Sui!” Meng Ting spotted Yan Sui from afar and quickened his pace, running toward him. Meanwhile, Dandian and Yuanyuan rubbed against their dad’s legs before following Meng Ting in a sprint.
“Grandpa Mike, Yan Sui and I are heading back.”
Meng Ting waved, and the old man waved back, tugging at the restless large dog beside him as he turned to go inside.
Meng Ting stopped in front of Yan Sui, his smile growing even brighter. He handed one of the dog leashes to Yan Sui while taking hold of Yan Sui’s other hand. “Dandian takes after their mom, and Yuanyuan takes after their dad.”
Meng Ting’s affinity with cats and dogs had grown stronger by the day, and the two little ones immediately responded with soft whimpers.
As they walked, Meng Ting recounted his experiences at the neighbor grandpa’s house, while Yan Sui shared the details of his phone call with Yan Zhengbo. Hand in hand, they strolled through the pale golden twilight, slowly making their way back to the manor.
“Yan Sui, will we come again next year?”
Yan Sui lifted Meng Ting’s hand and pressed a gentle kiss to it before replying, “Yes, we’ll come every year.”
“Okay,” Meng Ting agreed. His gaze darted around briefly before he tilted his head and planted a loud peck on Yan Sui’s lips, then casually turned away as if nothing had happened.
However, that kiss from Meng Ting made Yan Sui’s steps slow even further. As they passed under a large banyan tree, he pulled Meng Ting to a stop in its shade, his gaze slowly lowering to rest on Meng Ting’s faint cherry-colored lips.
“We’ve kissed here before. Do you remember?”
“Mm,” Meng Ting nodded, then couldn’t help but purse his lips. “Should we kiss?”
Yan Sui didn’t respond with words. He lowered his head and answered Meng Ting with action.
Of course they should kiss—kiss for a lifetime, until they could kiss no more.
[dropdown title=”List of Idiom in Extra 2.2″]
天旋地轉 (tiān xuán dì zhuàn): the sky spins, the earth goes round (idiom); giddy with one’s head spinning; fig. huge changes in the world; to feel as if the sky and earth were spinning round; to feel very dizzy; the world is turned upside down (as the result of major political turmoil); fundamental changes; the sky and the earth swimming before one’s eyes; kick up a fierce row.愛屋及烏 (ài wū jí wū): lit. love the house and its crow (idiom); love for a person extends even to the crows on his roof—love one thing on account of another; love me, love my dog; love for a person extends even to the crows on his roof; involvement with somebody and everyone connected; he that loves the tree loves the branch; From Shangshu Dazhuan (《尚書大傳》): 愛人者，兼其屋上之烏。, One who loves someone also loves the crow on his roof.
柴米油鹽醬醋茶 (chái mǐ yóu yán jiàng cù chá): lit. firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy, vinegar, and tea; fig. life’s daily necessities; From a poem in the Yuan Dynasty dynasty play 劉行首.
死心塌地 (sǐ xīn tā dì): to be hell-bent on; to be dead set on (following someone); dead set on sth; unswerving; be utterly devoted; be unwaveringly loyal; be resolute; be determined; be steadfast; be unyielding; originally meant to be dead set on something and not make any other plans. Later it often means to make up one’s mind and never change it.
人情冷暖 (rén qíng lěng nuǎn): lit. the ups and downs of mankind; fickleness of human nature; changing of one’s attitude to another according to social status; men’s feelings are changeable; fickleness of worldly relationship between man and man; one’s attitude towards another changing with the latter’s social position; ways of the world; fickleness of human relationship; social snobbery; describes the dynamic changes in social interpersonal relationships. Its core meaning refers to the change in attitude caused by the change in the other party’s status in interpersonal communication, which is specifically manifested as the secular phenomenon of flattery when in power and indifference when out of power.
揚長而去 (yáng cháng ér qù): to leave with an arrogant swagger; to swagger off; to walk off (or drive off etc) without a second thought for those left behind; go away with a swagger; stride away with one’s head in the air; describes a person leaving without restraint and in a grand manner.
堅貞不渝 (jiān zhēn bù yú): faithful and unyielding; unyielding integrity (idiom); unwavering; be loyal/faithful through thick and thin; describes perseverance and chastity. In the current Chinese context, it can not only describe personal morality, but also express the firmness of political beliefs.
勢在必行 (shì zài bì xíng): to be imperative or necessary under such circumstances; circumstances require action (idiom); absolutely necessary/imperative; must be done; need to be carried out without delay; inevitable; action must be taken. It emphasizes the necessity of execution based on the development trend of things.
與日俱增 (yǔ rì jù zēng): to grow with each passing day; to increase steadily; be steadily on the increase; steadily increase; increase with each passing day; be daily on the increase; used for people’s thoughts and feelings, and refers to the continuous growth over time.
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