Chapter 34: Embracing in Sleep Part 1

The Cullinan followed the familiar route home. Li Ran sat in the passenger seat, a path he had traveled countless times with Chi Mo. He could recite the street names with his eyes closed.

Now, he kept his eyes wide open, hands pressed tightly to his chest, gripping the seatbelt as if trying to push the strap into his ribcage to wrap around his heart and stop it from beating. If it kept pounding like this, it might shake the heavens apart.

The streets outside the window all seemed strangely unfamiliar. Li Ran stared blankly at them.

His mind was completely occupied by Chi Mo’s “I love you.” Those three words were formless yet resounding. They brushed against Li Ran’s exposed skin and burrowed uninvited into his pores, surging through his bloodstream to every limb, scaring him half to death.

His brother… loved him?

Love?!

Wasn’t it supposed to be like first?

…Had they skipped a step?

Why did Chi Mo love him?

Because he was an idiot?

On the road, a pair of lovestruck teenagers kissed at a red light, oblivious to passersby. Someone ran the light and nearly collided with a screeching green taxi, infuriating the driver who stuck his head out to curse. A family of three strolled along, the child holding Dad’s hand in his left and Mom’s in his right, swinging his feet off the ground like a swing. An elderly couple with silver hair walked arm in arm, chatting and laughing spiritedly…

Li Ran tried to distract himself with the fleeting sights outside, pressing half his body against the car window, not daring to glance at Chi Mo even with the corner of his eye.

His wide, bewildered, panicked eyes swallowed nervously from time to time. His breaths were shallow wisps, barely there. Li Ran sustained himself on this faint “celestial breath,” his cheeks and neck flushed red, the tips of his curly hair trembling.

He had no idea when they arrived home, when he got out of the car, or when he followed unsteadily behind Chi Mo to the front door.

He looked up and froze at the sight before him.

The bright, luxurious living room stood out starkly due to the presence of two unfamiliar men.

The man on the left dressed conservatively, his large hand on the handle of his suitcase, eyes lowered coldly as he glared at the floor. The lines of his profile were rigid with restraint. The man on the right wore a plain shirt and stared dumbfounded at the ground, utterly confused.

Their gazes didn’t settle anywhere but followed a black shadow darting back and forth across the floor.

As the weather turned cold, Cheng Ai Mei and Ye Ze stopped going out and stayed home all day. Hei Ge had finally gotten used to the two elderly folks who had never owned cats. They exchanged glances morning and night without incident—no one noticing the cat’s urge to pounce and claw their hair, the cat oblivious to their impulse to grab its scruff and toss it out. They had reached a peaceful coexistence.

But just two days into this calm, two strangers showed up. Hei Ge caught their unfamiliar scent. With Li Ran still at school, it grew anxious and wanted to grab his wife and run.

His wife was a bit smaller, but still a full-grown cat—not easy to carry. She didn’t cooperate, batting at him with her paws and ignoring him, so Hei Ge activated his “berserk” mode.

In the middle of the living room, he darted from left to right, then back again.

In less than a minute, he zipped back and forth over a dozen times.

Whoosh! Whoosh whoosh! Whoosh whoosh whoosh—!

No one could make out his true form.

Cheng Ai Mei laughed so hard she couldn’t stop, until Ye Ze nudged her, reminding her that Li Ran and Chi Mo were back and standing at the door. She rubbed her face, regaining her elegant poise, worried her grandson might think she was bullying the little cat and acting unbecomingly in her old age.

At that moment, Hei Ge got overexcited and tried a sharp turn in the middle of the living room, using Ye Chengwan as a boost. He leaped, kicked off the man’s knee, flipped in midair, and soared.

Ye Chengwan was stunned by the kick and looked to his mom for help. “Uh…”

“What the hell is this thing?” Chi Wei, at the end of his patience, dropped his suitcase, crouched down to brush the cat hairs from Ye Chengwan’s knee, then grabbed the lightning-fast black cat with his sinful hand. He precisely pinched its scruff, pinning it to the floor to stop its wriggling. Pressing it down, he faced it toward Ye Chengwan. “Apologize to him.”

Ye Chengwan laughed awkwardly. “How’s it supposed to apologize to me? By calling me the same species as it?” He nudged Chi Wei, who had squatted down as if to reason with the cat. “Get up. What if the kid comes back and sees you like this?”

“Good day, Little Uncle!” Sure enough, the kid who walked in shouted at the top of his lungs, bowing ninety degrees. “Good day, Little Aunt!”

“…”

Silence fell. Not a sound.

Cheng Ai Mei had just reached Li Ran’s side, beaming and about to make introductions, when she froze in shock. Her eyes screamed: Didn’t we say Little Ran is homophobic and we shouldn’t tell him about Chi Wei and Ye Chengwan’s relationship?

She scanned the room anxiously. Chi Wei frowned; Ye Chengwan was stunned; Ye Ze gaped even worse; Chi Mo’s face was expressionless—he was always good at hiding secrets, and this had been his idea anyway, so it wasn’t him.

And silly Li Ran was still bowed over like an idiot, eyes squeezed shut.

Looking like he couldn’t face reality.

Who had spilled the beans?

Cheng Ai Mei said shakily, “It wasn’t me…”

At noon, when they heard Chi Wei was coming back, Chi Mo had said treasonously, regardless of whether he was his little uncle, “There’s a homophobic kid at home. Keep it low-key.”

“If you can’t help pawing at Uncle Wan, better not come back. Grandpa and Grandma hate you anyway—they’d just call you a big pervert.”

Chi Wei sneered coldly. “Heh.”

Daring to make him hide. Impressive.

Ye Chengwan was happy to play along, teasing Chi Mo a bit before agreeing.

“It really~ wasn’t~ me~ who spilled it~~~” Cheng Ai Mei insisted dramatically, proving her innocence.

Chi Mo said flatly, “It was me.”

“What?!” Cheng Ai Mei was shocked.

Ye Chengwan blinked, snapping back halfway. “Didn’t you say your little friend is homophobic… and we should pretend to be boss and subordinate? So what’s my role now?”

He couldn’t help laughing; it felt weird. “Am I Chi Wei’s male secretary now, or your ‘little aunt’?”

Such teasing usually relaxed the mood, but Li Ran wanted to burrow into a hole. He didn’t even dare lift his face, unable to believe he’d caused such an awkward scene.

Chi Wei and Ye Chengwan’s names hadn’t come up much in this house. Cheng Ai Mei always called Chi Wei “big pervert,” so Li Ran had imagined him as a fierce demon. In person, he was indeed intimidating—from his looks to his aura, radiating impatience with the world’s fools. Chi Mo had inherited it strongly, even surpassing him.

But Chi Wei bullied the little cat.

And ordered it to apologize to Ye Chengwan.

This ridiculous behavior made Li Ran feel he was human after all. Better to have called him sooner. While trying to adapt on the fly, he also tried to ignore Chi Mo’s overwhelming presence beside him.

The dual mental pressures bent the boy’s waist. In his foolish way, he defaulted to a standard idiot bow.

The awkward atmosphere mostly dissipated. When Li Ran straightened up, he saw Chi Wei still hadn’t released Hei Ge and was rubbing his neck. The black cat bared his teeth, struggling fiercely, ears pinned back like airplane wings.

“Don’t bully my cat…” he said softly, twisting his fingers.

Chi Wei glanced at him. “Heh, who told it to bully my person.”

Ye Chengwan rubbed his forehead helplessly. “You’re almost forty. Can you stop acting like a kid? Let go of the cat.”

Chi Wei: “No.”

“…”

Li Ran instinctively turned to Chi Mo for help.

“Bro…” Before the word finished, he clamped his mouth shut, realizing their brotherly bond was no longer pure. A strange sadness hit him.

Then he noticed Chi Mo hadn’t heard him—his gaze was fixed on Li Ran’s waist.

When Li Ran had bowed earlier, his sweater had ridden up, exposing a strip of his lower back.

Li Ran’s body tensed instantly.

In the past, he wouldn’t have thought twice. But now things were different. Li Ran couldn’t help overthinking.

What was there to see on a man’s body?

Men dating meant just talking, holding hands, maybe kissing.

No fun in it.

Why like men at all?

Li Ran wondered why Chi Mo had gone astray. Had he done something wrong to tempt him into thinking it was…

A seduction?

“Fix your clothes.” Chi Mo reminded him in a low voice.

Li Ran hurriedly tugged down his hem.

“Oh.” He replied softly.

The white cat saw the black cat humiliated by a human, unable to break free. She lazily jumped from her nest, extended her retracted claws in a white cat paw, and patted Chi Wei’s hand—probably meaning: Two-legs, that’s enough. Don’t overdo it.

At first, with the two strangers, the white cat had been wary too. Especially when the black cat was subdued by the big hand, her fur bristled like steel caltrops. But seeing Li Ran return, her fur smoothed down. She ignored it all, flicked her tail, and nearly dozed off.