Chapter 1

At 3:30 in the morning, Xu Qing Nuo was still awake.

Mai Yao, who was lying next to him, exhaled deeply. Today was the 15th. Xu Qing Nuo left the curtains open, and the bright moonlight was spilling into the room, shining on Mai Yao’s face and coating his long curled eyelashes with a light gold powder. His mouth was slightly ajar, and the whole person looked calm and harmless. Without the energetic aura from the day, now he seemed a few years younger.

His appearance reminded Xu Qing Nuo of the first time they met in his freshman year.

It was a sunny afternoon. After eating lunch in the cafeteria, he remembered he had left the book in the library. Going back, he unexpectedly saw Mai Yao lying on the table, sleeping soundly in the empty library.

A golden floating light enveloped his body; the refreshing autumn breeze blew through, slightly moving his hair and the pages of the book on the desk. That image was like a movie still, so beautiful that he was reluctant to blink.

The sudden ringing of the bell brought Xu Qing Nuo back to his senses, and it also woke up Mai Yao.

He sat up abruptly and stared around blankly with a dazed face from not knowing where he was. When he saw Xu Qing Nuo standing at the door, his expression remained blank. After a while, his eyes lit up. He blinked twice, gave Xu Qing a brilliant smile, and raised his hand to shake it: “Hi.”

Xu Qing Nuo didn’t know whether he was bewitched by his smile or hypnotized by his eyes. He involuntarily shook his hand: “Hey…”

This was how the 18-year-old Xu Qing Nuo and the 20-year-old Mai Yao first met.

Later, Mai Yao said he fell in love with Xu Qing Nuo at first sight, but, in fact, Xu Qing Nuo did so as well. When they met for the first time, they felt incredibly attracted to each other and quickly got acquainted with each other. After learning they were the same, they soon got together. They were serious about their relationship, and both came out after graduating from college.

Mai Yao’s parents died early, so there was no need to tell anyone. He had only a young brother, Mai Yuan, who was the same age as Xu Qing Nuo. Mai Yuan was rebellious and unruly since he was a child, and Mai Yao was worried he would have a poor school performance. During middle school, he often sternly taught him to not do this and that, with an attitude of “eldest brother is like a father,” (1) which made Mai Yuan very impatient. The relationship between the two brothers was not very close; instead, Mai Yuan was more friendly with the easygoing Xu Qing Nuo.

Compared with Mai Yao, Xu Qing Nuo’s road to coming out was much harder. His father was a calligrapher, and his mother was a middle-school teacher. They were so-called intellectuals with traditional thinking. They never thought that their only child, who was a good child, would be with a man. They first tried to influence Xu Qing Nuo with affection and reason, hoping that he could “change the evil and return to righteousness.” (2) Later, when they saw that it didn’t work, they locked Xu Qing Nuo at home and planned to use force to separate him from Mai Yao. Xu Qing Nuo reluctantly staged a hunger strike, betting that his parents would eventually feel soft. While they no longer objected to him being together with Mai Yao, they now ignored him, pretending that they never had him as a son.

To be with Mai Yao, Xu Qing Nuo gave up his family that loved him, abandoned his friends, and left his hometown to move to the city where the two went to university together.

He occasionally felt sad and guilty, but he never regretted it; he loved Mai Yao.

After seven years, Mai Yao became well-known in the advertising industry. He was already a manager, and he also made a lot of money in stocks and investments. While writing web novels, Xu Qing Nuo also opened a bookstore, but neither the bookstore business nor the novels he wrote were very good. His two incomes combined could not compare to Mai Yao’s earnings.

Xu Qing Nuo has never been a very ambitious person. His wish was very simple: have a home and a person to love, do what he liked every day, and make just enough money to be comfortable.

He could be easily satisfied.

Xu Qing Nuo originally thought that such a dull and happy life would last forever.

After spending the 7th-year anniversary with Mai Yao, Mai Yuan told him: “Be careful, remember to tickle my brother often.”(3)

He took it as a joke and smiled. Unexpectedly, this became a confession.

Mai Yao cheated.

The author has something to say:

This is a short story. It will end soon.

(1) 长兄如父 zhǎng xiōng rú fù | eldest brother as a father (idiom) – the elder brother should be responsible of educating and nurturing the younger brothers and sisters

(2) 改邪归正 gǎi xié guī zhèng | change the evil and return to righteousness (idiom) – stop doing bad things, mend his ways

(3) 挠挠痒 náo náo yǎng | tickle, scratch the itch – in this context, to satisfy his partner’s sexual desire