Chapter 45: SHEN ZIHAO ISN’T JUST MAKING GENERAL INQUIRIES ANYMORE

Guiying looked at him for a long moment.

Then he closed the laptop, set it aside, and opened his arms with the resigned composure of someone making a reasonable concession under the circumstances.

Liuxian did not need to be told twice.

He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Guiying and stayed there, his face finding the curve of his neck, his breathing evening out almost immediately, the composed and unhurried CEO of Liu Corporation going boneless against his wife with the complete absence of dignity that only happened behind closed doors.

Guiying sat very still for a moment.

Then he put one hand at the back of Liuxian’s head, the same way Liuxian always did for him, and said nothing.

They stayed like that for a while.

"Better?" Guiying said eventually.

"Much," Liuxian said, without moving.

Guiying looked at the ceiling.

"You are heavy," he said.

"I know," Liuxian said, and did not move.

Guiying looked at the ceiling for another moment.

Then, because there was no one watching and no particular reason not to, he put his other arm around him too.

Eventually Liuxian lifted his head. He looked at Guiying with the expression of a man who had just remembered something worth saying and was going to say it regardless of how it was received.

"He who findeth a wife," he said, "findeth a good thing."

Guiying stared at him.

"I am not a woman," he said.

"Mm."

"I am your Omega," Guiying said, with great precision. "And your husband. We are both husbands. So do not go around calling me your wife as if I do not have my own designation."

Liuxian looked at him for a moment.

"Aww," he said.

Guiying’s expression said everything his mouth did not.

"It is so fun though," Liuxian said, entirely unbothered. He sat up properly and looked at Guiying with the easy energy of a man who had just been thoroughly hugged and felt considerably better about the state of the world. "I feel energetic just talking to you. You know that?" He tilted his head. "Tell me what you did today."

Guiying considered the full picture of his day.

His Real estate research. 404 and the Tang XiaoYu profile. Weibo trending because of his ring finger.

Shen Mingzhu, flooding his direct message.

The Omega Rights Foundation group chat, losing its collective mind before Bai Feng told everyone to calm down.

It was more chaotic now that he thought about it.

"Investments.m" he said. "The usual."

Liuxian looked at him with the expression of someone who suspected the usual was considerably more interesting than that and had decided to let it go for now.

"I am going out tomorrow," Guiying added.

"With Bai Feng and some of the others from the foundation. It is a support case."

Something in Liuxian’s expression shifted, attentive and careful at once.

"What time?" he said.

"Ten in the morning."

He nodded slowly. "Wang Chengli will arrange a car."

"I can arrange—"

"Wang Chengli," Liuxian said, with the pleasant finality of someone closing a door, "will arrange a car."

Guiying looked at him.

Then he reached into the bag of mixed nuts, put a handful in his mouth, and chewed in the pointed silence of someone who had chosen their battles.

Liuxian watched this with quiet amusement and stood.

"Get some rest," he said. "You have an early start."

He was at the door when Guiying spoke.

"Liuxian."

He turned.

Guiying looked at him. His expression was doing its best to be casual and was not entirely succeeding.

"Won’t you give me a goodnight kiss too?" he said.

The room was quiet.

Liuxian looked at him.

Guiying looked back, his ears already slightly pink, his expression arranged into something that was trying very hard to communicate that this was a perfectly normal and unremarkable thing to say.

It was not working.

Liuxian crossed the room. He took Guiying’s chin between his fingers, tilted his face up, and looked at him for just a second before he kissed him.

Slow and deliberate and warm, the kind that started as a goodnight kiss and became something more than that.

When he pulled back Guiying’s ears were fully red.

Liuxian looked at him.

"My," he said, with complete composure.

"What happened to not kissing my smelly morning mouth?"

Guiying stared at him.

"That was this morning," he said.

"And now?"

"And now it is night and your mouth is less smelly."

Liuxian looked at him in the tone of someone filing that away for future use.

"Are you going to make a thing of this?" Guiying said.

"I would never," Liuxian said, with the expression of a man who was absolutely going to make a thing of this.

He straightened up and looked at Guiying one more time.

"You know," he said pleasantly, "this morning you told me to go away. Tonight you are asking for kisses." He tilted his head slightly.

"I wonder what tomorrow will bring."

"It will bring me to mind my own business," Guiying said.

"Mm," Liuxian said. "We will see."

He walked out and pulled the door shut behind him.

Guiying sat on the bed and stared at the closed door.

He reached into the bag of mixed nuts, found it empty, and felt that this was a fair reflection of his situation.

Liuxian’s room was quiet at this hour.

He was at his desk, jacket off, sleeves rolled up, his reading glasses on. Two pain relief patches were stuck across his lower back, visible where his shirt had ridden up slightly when he leaned forward. His hands were flat on the desk, a habit he had when a conversation required his full attention.

The laptop screen showed a video call.

The man on the other end was leaning back in his chair with the relaxed energy of someone who conducted all his business from positions of deliberate comfort. His name was Jae, and he had the particular look of someone who found most things amusing and concealed it poorly.

"It’s starting to become alarming," Jae said, his tone shifting from casual to serious with the efficiency of someone who knew how to do both. "Shen Zihao isn’t just making general inquiries anymore. He’s putting real resources into finding out who Tang XiaoYu is and what his connection to you is. He’s serious about this."