"I’m okay," Limo said, pinching Guiying’s cheek with the particular fondness of someone who had been doing it since they were children and had no intention of stopping. "Stop making that face. I told you I’m fine."

Guiying swatted his hand away.

Liuxian had come further into the room and taken the chair by the window with the quiet ease of a man making himself at home, his briefcase on the floor beside him. He looked at Yang Limo with the same unhurried assessment he brought to most things.

Limo looked back at him with open and unashamed curiosity.

"So." Limo said, settling back against his pillow. "Liu Liuxian. In the flesh. In my hospital room." He looked at Guiying. "And you in bear slippers."

Guiying looked down at his feet.

He had forgotten about the bear slippers.

"They were the nearest shoes," he said.

"My baby came to the hospital in bear slippers." Limo said, to no one in particular. "I’m moved. Truly."

"And don’t call me baby," Guiying said.

"Why not? I’ve always called you baby."

"Because." Guiying said, with great precision, "my husband is sitting right there."

The word landed.

Limo looked at Guiying.

Then at Liuxian.

Then back at Guiying. Then at the ring, which he had clocked approximately thirty seconds after they walked in but had been waiting for the right moment to address.

"Husband..." he said.

"Husband." Guiying confirmed.

Limo was quiet for a moment, which for Limo was unusual enough to be notable.

Then he smiled, slow and genuine. "Okay. I have so many questions."

They talked for a while. Limo asked about his marriage life and whether Liuxian was as terrifying up close as he was in the financial news, and Liuxian answered the ones directed at him with the composed brevity of a man who was fine with being examined and had nothing to hide.

Eventually he glanced at his phone and looked at Liuxian.

"You should go," he said. "You’re going to be late."

Liuxian looked at him.

He clearly did not want to go. He looked at Guiying and then at Limo and then back at Guiying with the expression of a man doing a brief internal calculation about whether being late was actually so bad.

It was.

He knew it was.

He stood, picked up his briefcase, and came to where Guiying was sitting on the bed. He tipped his face up with two fingers under his chin and kissed him, unhurried and deliberate, the way he did with most things.

Then he straightened, nodded once at Limo, and walked out.

The room was quiet for a moment after the door closed.

Then Limo turned to look at Guiying with an expression that had shed all its lightness and settled into something considerably more serious.

"Do you actually like him?" he said.

Guiying looked at the door then shook his head. "I don’t hate him. He’s so good to me, I fear I might actually start liking him."

"Tell me what happened." Limo said. "Properly. Because knowing your family you shouldn’t even be in the same city as Liu Liuxian, let alone receiving kisses from him in hospital rooms." He folded his hands in his lap. "So what happened?"

Guiying told him.

Not all of it.

Not the parts he could not tell anyone. But the shape of it, how he had left the Xue household, how he had walked into the civil affairs bureau with one objective and walked out married to a man he had not recognized until he opened the certificate.

How it had started as survival and had become something he did not entirely have a name for yet.

Limo listened without interrupting, which was how Guiying knew he was taking it seriously.

When it was done Limo exhaled slowly.

"Your family," he said, shaking his head. "Your family, man." He looked at Guiying. "Do you want me to take care of them for you? I came back to take over my dad’s business. I can definitely cause some trouble." He smiled, and there was something in it that was not entirely gentle. "I’ll be running the entertainment industry soon enough. Anything you need, baby, just say the word."

"Stop calling me baby." Guiying said. "What if my husband thinks I’m cheating?"

Limo laughed, a real one, and reached over and pulled him into a hug.

"I missed you so much," he said. "My dear friend." He held him for a moment. "I should honestly be holding a grudge right now. After you left me hanging with my confession in the rain."

Guiying pulled back and looked at him.

"You didn’t tell me anything," he said.

"Didn’t you see my letter?"

"What letter?"

Limo stared at him. "The one I sent before I traveled."

"I never received any letter."

Limo was quiet for a moment. Then he sighed, long and resigned. "I should have just called. Knowing your family they probably tore it to pieces the moment it arrived."

Guiying looked at him.

Limo looked back, and something in his expression was soft in a way that had already made peace with itself. Three years was a long time. Long enough to grieve something quietly and put it somewhere it no longer hurt.

"Your husband is hot and rich," he said finally. "You should hug his thighs tightly and lick that golden finger whenever you get the chance."

Guiying looked at him flatly.

"I’m going to pretend you didn’t say that." 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Limo grinned.

Guiying looked around the room and then down at the bear slippers and then at the door.

"Am I actually free to leave?" he said. "Because I came here looking homeless and the one with the car has gone to work."

Limo smiled. "Don’t worry. I’ve got a car. I’ll drop you home." He paused. "We should meet up properly this week."

Guiying shook his head. "I have meetings. Saturday or Sunday works better."

"Saturday it is." Limo reached for his phone on the tray. "Give me your number. I called your old one for days.."

Guiying took the phone and saved his number, then handed it back.

"Don’t contact the old number," he said. "I’m not using it again. The Xue family can’t trace this one."

Limo looked at him for a moment with the particular expression of someone who understood more than was being said.

"Okay," he said simply.

He got out of bed, apparently entirely unbothered by the fact that he had been in a hospital since four in the morning, and reached for his jacket on the back of the chair.

"Come on then," he said. "Let’s get you home before your husband sends a search party."