Chapter 192
Chapter 192
Huo Lanxu had been at his lowest, but then the man he loved could not hold back his laughter.
It was like the first ray of spring sunshine piercing the gloom and reaching his heart.
He tried to look a little less wretched, but it was truly impossible.
At last, he muttered, “I didn’t expect him to hit my face either.”
Yang Nanqing fought back his smile and hauled Huo Lanxu to his feet. “Young Master Huo has more virtues than a handsome face.”
The gloom in Huo Lanxu’s heart vanished at once.
“Really?”
Yang Nanqing patted his head. “No.”
Huo Lanxu immediately wilted like a deflated ball, but Yang Nanqing quickly added,
“You’re so handsome that I’m jealous. That’s why your face doesn’t count as a virtue.”
Huo Lanxu burst out laughing. “Nanqing, I didn’t know you could say something like that.”
“Wh… what’s wrong with it? That’s how the storybooks say it.” Yang Nanqing rubbed his face awkwardly.
What a masterful attempt at consolation.
Even so, Huo Lanxu’s mood had steadily brightened from the moment he saw Yang Nanqing.
Huo Lanxu had been beaten plenty of times growing up. He was far too mischievous and did not conform to the Huo family’s rules in the slightest.
The Huo family’s young master was a notorious troublemaker. When his family could no longer manage him, they sent him to the Jinlemen Club.
The club belonged to the Old Master of the Huo family, and many students of the arts or martial arts trained there.
The first time Huo Lanxu saw Yang Nanqing, he stared in a daze.
He had never seen anyone with such large, beautiful eyes. They made Yang Nanqing look like a doll.
Later, however, Huo Lanxu discovered that this doll was nothing like his delicate appearance suggested.
Their teacher made them train together, and the doll hit hard enough to nearly make him cry.
Huo Lanxu assumed Yang Nanqing hated him and slunk away whenever he appeared.
Then one night, Yang Nanqing scaled the wall of his home and climbed the ivy to his window, startling him half to death.
That was the first time Yang Nanqing climbed through his window to find him.
The doll demanded, “Why did you stop coming to Master’s lessons?”
Those were the first words he spoke after entering the room.
“D-don’t you hate me? Even my mother has never hit me that hard.”
“I… I didn’t mean to.”
Yang Nanqing was simply too earnest. He approached everything he did with complete seriousness.
The two children stood in awkward silence for a long time.
Finally, Yang Nanqing extended a hand. “Why don’t you pinch me once, and then we’ll be even?”
Huo Lanxu raised his head in surprise. “Why?”
Why did they need to be even? Did Yang Nanqing not hate him?
Yang Nanqing lowered his head awkwardly. “You’re the only person my age at the Jinlemen Club. I want… I want to be friends with you.”
Huo Lanxu’s pupils contracted, and for some reason, his ears suddenly turned bright red.
*F-f-f-friends!*
Huo Lanxu had never had a friend. No one wanted to be friends with him. He had too many mischievous ideas, and everyone found him annoying.
Even when someone claimed they wanted to be his friend, it was always an adult.
Those adults hoped to reach his father through him.
He was only a child, yet he could still vaguely sense their ulterior motives.
Huo Lanxu scratched his head with his left hand and extended his right toward Yang Nanqing. “All right. This young master accepts!”
That one declaration became a promise for life.
Yang Nanqing accompanied him throughout his childhood. Whenever Huo Lanxu felt sad, Yang noticed at once and tried to cheer him with his clumsy methods.
Strangely, no matter how others coaxed him, Huo Lanxu remained unhappy. But the moment Yang Nanqing appeared, no matter how poor his attempt–even if he only pulled a funny face–Huo’s heart grew much lighter.
That was what friends did: encouraged and helped each other.
Yang Nanqing worked too hard. Huo Lanxu could not understand his love for the theater.
How did he wake so early every day to stretch his legs into positions Huo could not manage even in a dream? Did stretching not hurt?
To master all kinds of roles, Yang Nanqing had to study dance as well as martial arts.
His body was always covered in injuries.
Back then, Huo Lanxu kept plenty of medicine on him. Whenever Yang Nanqing was hurt, he eagerly rushed over to tend him.
After they grew older, Huo Lanxu did not know when his heart had begun pounding whenever he saw Yang Nanqing.
He did not know what that feeling was. Then, before he could understand it, his father sent him abroad to study.
He was gone for five years.
When they reunited after those five years, Yang Nanqing had become even more exceptional, a brilliant presence who shone onstage.
Huo Lanxu was happy for him from the bottom of his heart. At the same time, he could no longer deny the nature of his own feelings.
He liked him, old-fashioned as that might sound.
Perhaps… it had been love at first sight.
Yang Nanqing stepped closer. “What are you thinking about? You’ve been staring at me for ages.”
Huo Lanxu returned to himself. “I was wondering whether you read the letters I sent all these years.”
He raised his eyes and gazed deeply at Yang Nanqing.
Yang Nanqing fell silent.
The letters had crossed an ocean, their handwriting carrying love in its most unvarnished form.
Not one word said *I love you*, yet every line concealed it.
Yang Nanqing peeled open a medicated patch and gently applied it to Huo Lanxu’s forehead. As he raised his hand, his sleeve slid down his arm.
A long scar lay there, left by a stage prop during a performance.
Huo Lanxu’s heart lurched, and he instinctively caught Yang Nanqing’s wrist.
Yang Nanqing’s muscles tensed unnaturally as he sensed Huo Lanxu drawing closer.
The wound had already scarred, so medicine would do no good. Huo Lanxu stared at the scar for a long time, and before he knew it, he had pressed a gentle kiss to the mark.
Only when he came back to himself did he realize how discourteous he had been.
He sprang away. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.”
Perhaps deep emotion simply made restraint impossible.
Both men’s ears and necks had reddened.
Yang Nanqing did not speak for a very long time.
Huo Lanxu thought Yang Nanqing was about to leave.
Then he heard Yang Nanqing say, “I read them.”
He had admitted it.
Every one of those letters.
Each syllable and every trace of warmth carried through the moving air brushed the membrane around Huo Lanxu’s heart. His heartbeat quickened unconsciously, and a tingling current raced down his spine.
He met Yang Nanqing’s eyes. Deep within his blood, liquid fire began to boil.
Scalding hot.
Like an inferno that could no longer be hidden.
Even if it burned him to ash and consumed his life, he wanted to embrace the man he loved.
Huo Lanxu flushed to the tips of his ears. Lowering his head, he ventured softly,
“I… I can. Can you…?”
His world spun. What was he even saying? What did *can* or *can’t* mean?
He had intended to confess his love face-to-face. Instead, he stammered for an eternity and produced only several broken questions.
Yang Nanqing lifted his hand and hooked his finger around Huo Lanxu’s index finger.