When the car arrived at the bottom of the apartment building, the window belonging to Xu Miao was not brightly lit. Xie Ge, in a good mood, deliberately pinched Xu Miao’s finger.
The elevator dinged and opened, and the two of them walked to the door together. Xu Miao politely stepped back half a step, giving Xie Ge access to the keypad.
Like the elevator, the keypad made a sound and the door opened.
Xie Ge pulled the door open and, like the true owner of the house, turned on the entrance light, placed a pair of slippers at Xu Miao’s feet, and invited him inside.
“This isn’t mine,” Xu Miao looked down for a few seconds and said suggestively, “Mine’s the other pair.”
Xie Ge thought for a moment, struggled internally, then bent down and took out the other pair from the side cabinet—
Black ones, which had been occupied by Liang Dong in the afternoon.
Xu Miao didn’t move and still said, “These aren’t mine either.”
So Xie Ge quickly put the black pair back, closed the cabinet, letting them seem as if they had never appeared.
Actually, Xie Ge felt like Xu Miao was teasing him, deliberately saying nothing was right so he would keep searching, but he still followed along.
It wasn’t until a third pair of slippers was placed on the floor—almost identical to the first, only slightly different in size—that Xu Miao said yes, then put them on.
“Aren’t you changing your shoes?” Xu Miao asked naturally, as if today wasn’t the first day, but they had been living together for a long time. Xie Ge still hadn’t corrected his bad habit: “Next time at home, remember to change shoes. Little Yo works hard cleaning every day too.”
Little Yo was Xu Miao’s home cleaning robot.
Xie Ge muttered: “I took my shoes off when I went into your bedroom.”
Xu Miao, having smoothly fulfilled the small romantic wish they had once set, was in a good mood. He no longer made things difficult for Xie Ge, and spoke plainly and boldly:
“Before we met last year, I was already thinking about living together in the future. That’s why I didn’t continue co-renting with Liang Dong, and I prepared a lot of things.”
“All the duplicate items at home—one of each pair was bought for you. It’s not like what you thought before, and there’s no one else. You can use them freely, and even the single items are fine to use.”
“For example, me.”
Xu Miao’s tone remained calm, almost making it easy to overlook how astonishing those words were.
He quickly noticed Xie Ge zoning out again, obediently following instructions to change slippers like a robot with a corrupted program that occasionally ran normally.
So Xu Miao, just like in the office earlier, took Xie Ge’s hand and led him toward the bedroom.
“Do you want to shower first?”
Xie Ge briefly recovered his “program,” but overcorrected: “Now? I usually shower before going to bed. After I shower, I sleep. So… am I sleeping in the bed with you? Maybe I should just sleep on the sofa. But the sofa seems a bit small, maybe I should sleep in the bed. But would that be bad… maybe not, I think I can sleep in the bed.”
As Xie Ge talked, he obediently followed Xu Miao wherever he went. His free hand was filled with several pieces of clothing Xu Miao had picked out for him.
“If you don’t sleep in the bed with me, where will you sleep? My house doesn’t have a second bedroom. The sofa is for guests during the day. People sleeping on it would make it sag and look bad.”
It sounded like a fair and selfless reason. Xie Ge accepted it quickly—though even if it weren’t fair, he would have accepted it.
After showering, lying on the bed, Xie Ge hadn’t fully returned to himself. He pulled the covers over the lower half of his face and stayed in that position for a long time.
The water in the bathroom kept running. Xie Ge felt a little hot, probably because of too many covers.
The shower was on, but Xu Miao stood at the sink, head down, staring at his phone, lost in thought.
“Xu Miao, you actually dared to lie to me.”
“I even worried you’d be unhappy after we broke up. Using me as a dog, huh?”
“All the money you spent, I already tallied and paid back. If you need extra compensation, you can tell me.”
“After all, we’ve dated. You should know the last thing I lack is money.”
“Should I call you Xu Miao or Xu Miao, hmm?”
[TLN: “我该叫你许淼还是徐渺，嗯？” (“Should I call you Xu Miǎo or Xu Miǎo?”) The “徐”渺” (Xu Miǎo) is his real name and 许”淼”(Xǔ Miǎo) is his online name he used for dating.]
“Playing with me? You better believe I’ll kill you.”
“Too bad it’s a society governed by law now.”
After sending the last message, Xu Miao cleared all the text message records and blocked the number.
After a while, Xu Miao changed the lock screen password and deleted Xie Ge’s fingerprint record.
When the sound of water stopped, Xie Ge sat up with a jerk, pretending to start seriously playing on his phone.
When Xu Miao lifted the blanket, Xie Ge restrained himself from looking up. But when the mattress sank slightly under Xu Miao’s weight, he could no longer hold back.
He turned his head and stared at Xu Miao, seeing that Xu Miao’s expression was as usual, and he even had the leisure to open the computer to handle work, as if sharing a bed with someone was an ordinary, everyday thing.
Xie Ge didn’t disturb him and waited quietly. Only when Xu Miao finished organizing his materials and noticed Xie Ge’s gaze did he ask, “Aren’t you nervous? There’s suddenly someone next to you.”
“…” Xu Miao perhaps didn’t expect Xie Ge to ask such a question. His expression froze for a few seconds, looking at Xie Ge with a “what nonsense are you saying?” kind of disbelief, and threw the question back: “Why should I be nervous? Haven’t we already slept together?”
Xie Ge felt he had asked a very foolish question, but he still wanted to ask an even more foolish one: “So in the future, besides me, no one else will ever sleep with you, right?”
Xu Miao didn’t answer, only lowered his head and smiled lightly. He didn’t want Xie Ge to notice that he was laughing at him, but Xie Ge still noticed.
“What are you smiling at now?” Xie Ge asked, pretending to be angry but without any real threat: “I didn’t say anything hard to agree to. What’s so funny?”
Since he had been seen, Xu Miao didn’t hide it anymore. Smiling, he leaned closer to Xie Ge and continued teasing: “Where would I sleep with anyone else? It’s only you and me. I haven’t asked you yet—will you let me sleep?”
Xie Ge stayed silent for a long time, then blushed and said, “Yes, of course, anytime.”
Xie Ge really wanted to just stay at Xu Miao’s place without caring about anything. Unfortunately, his vacation was almost over, and Xie Hongming was also urging him to go home and start his company internship to prepare for the future.
He didn’t want to go to work.
Reluctantly, he had no choice but to go. Soon it was the day of parting. Xu Miao took half a day off to help Xie Ge pack his luggage.
Actually, there wasn’t much to pack. During these days, everything Xie Ge had worn or used had been newly bought by Xu Miao. In the end, Xie Ge only took one of Xu Miao’s shirts to bring with him.
When they were almost at the security checkpoint, Xu Miao stopped suddenly and said, “Xie Ge, let’s get married.”
The tone was so calm that it took Xie Ge a long time to realize that Xu Miao might actually be proposing to him.
He shook his head, his expression turning troubled, looking like he found it hard to speak.
“Do you think it’s too fast?” Xu Miao asked again. “Or you just don’t want to?”
Xu Miao had a pair of eyes that were hard to refuse—long, thick black lashes, bright irises, and when his brows furrowed slightly, there was a kind of pitiful, wronged look. And the culprit responsible for wronging him wasn’t in a great state either.
Xie Ge frowned, distressed: “I haven’t bought the ring yet. What about our wedding? I haven’t even met your parents.”
Xu Miao said, “I don’t care about that.”
“I care,” Xie Ge pleaded, “please wait for me, okay? I’ll come find you very soon.”
Xu Miao still insisted on his idea: “Let’s get married the next time we see each other. I don’t want to wait.”
Xie Ge had no choice but to agree.
Passing through the security checkpoint, Xie Ge kept looking back frequently and waved to Xu Miao, who also lifted his hand and waved back.
A week later, Xu Miao received a notice: the team he led would be merged with another team next week. His position seemed unchanged, but the company had added a new overall supervisor above him.
Colleagues felt it was unfair to Xu Miao and told him what they had learned.
The merger plan had been in the works for a while, but the overall supervisor position had originally been meant for Xu Miao. This new supervisor had been parachuted in and had unusual connections with leadership.
The surname seemed to be Xie or Xia, but he didn’t hear clearly.
