Chapter 5

They lived together in harmony for ten more days.

On Friday morning at eight o’clock, Tong Yan was sinking into a beanbag chair after his bath, he hadn’t changed out of his pajamas. He’d heard Zhuo Xiang Ming moving around outside, so he didn’t plan to go out.

Lostin thought, the phone on top of the bed rang.

XuanGui had quietly left at dawn to prepare for Zhuo Xiang Ming’s departure. No onewas around to run errands for him, so Tong Yan had no choice but to walk as softlyas he could from the window to the bedside.

The name “Tong Yang” was flashing on the screen.

“What?” Tong Yan answered rudely.

“Ohmy,” Tong Yang said, “A few days without discipline and you’re alreadygetting an attitude.”

TongYan sat on the edge of the bed: “Then why haven’t you disciplined me recently? “

TongYang laughed and said: “Ahhh, so someone’s homesick.”

Originally, this feeling was a bit surprising. In the past, when he wasat home, Tong Li Qin and Tong Yang were always busy, it was normal to not seeeach other for half a month. Now, Tong Yan was busy adapting to a new life, andevery night before going to bed, there would be some shameful sadness and baselessresentment. Then the next day, when the sun came up, after pumping himself up, it’dfeel like nothing was wrong.

However, sending messages and calling were still very different things.When the two teased each other on OUKM, he only felt that it was fun. Now, hearingTong Yang’s voice, Tong Yan’s heart unexpectedly felt somewhat sore.

“Narcissist.” Tong Yan said.

On the third day after the wedding, Tong Yang went on a business trip. Sincehe finally called, he most likely had just returned home.

AsTong Yan thought this, Tong Yang confirmed: “I just came back today. Sinceyou’ve lived there for more than half a month, there should be no more paparazzi.Tomorrow’s Saturday, Dad said that you should come back for two days andprepare for school next week.”

After getting married, Tong Li Qin still hadn’t called him. Conversely,there have been several times when Zhuo Xiang Ming came back from work and saidthat he encountered Tong Li Qin during the day, and he’d asked after him.

Twoweekends had passed in between, and no one mentioned letting him go home, so,since the day he moved in, except for holidays, Tong Yan never thought that hecould go home during the fake marriage period: “I can go back home?”

“Yeah.” Tong Yang said, “After school starts, you’ll goto school from there, and come back home on the weekends.”

“Weekdays are one thing, but staying together on the weekends isn’tappropriate.”

TongYang also added, “Ah, did you think we’d sold you off?”

“That’s what it is, child selling!” Tong Yan rolledaround on the bed, “Ok!”

Aftertwo rounds of tumbling around, Tong Yan halted, asking in doubt, “Why is it notappropriate to stay together on the weekends?”

TongYang laughed sleazily: “Adults have adult business to take care of.”

“Shameless.” Tong Yan hung up the phone.

As soon as he hung up, Zhuo Xiang Ming, who probably heard the movementin his room, knocked on his bedroom door for the first time: “Tong Yan, areyou awake?”

TongYan hurriedly opened the door: “Brother.”

Zhuo Xiang Ming froze, Tong Yan followed his gaze and looked down athimself; his pajamas were crooked, and the top two buttons were undone.

Zhuo Xiang Ming was about to go out. His hair was neatly combed back, hewas carrying a briefcase, and he was dressed meticulously. The black suit was pairedwith a dark blue stripped tie, his trousers looked like they were made out of acozy material, and his leather shoes were shined to perfection, he gave off a solemnaura as he looked down at Tong Yan. The two were in sharp contrast. Tong Yan alsofelt a little embarrassed, quickly fastening his buttons, and haphazardly pushinghis hair back. Seeing that Zhuo Xiang Ming was still not talking, he could onlyprompt: “You’re heading to work?”

ZhuoXiang Ming made a sound of positive acknowledgment.

“Oh, okay.” Tong Yan said,“Then, have a safe trip, pay attention to the road.”

Zhuo Xiang Ming: “Try to get up early for breakfast, it’s not goodfor your stomach if you always eat brunch.”

TongYan couldn’t say that he woke up so late every day in order to avoid him, promising,“Okay, I’ll remember.”

ZhuoXiang Ming nodded, seemingly satisfied with Tong Yan’s obedience, his somewhattaut face also relaxed slightly: “Tomorrow’s the weekend, I’ll take youout to eat tonight.”

Tong Yan hurriedly said: “I’m going back hometoday.”

Zhuo Xiang Ming seemed very surprised, frowning slightly, but before hecould speak, his phone rang.

Heapologized softly to Tong Yan and answered the phone: “Tong Yang?”

“Not yet.”

“He’s right next to me.” Zhuo Xiang Ming glanced at Tong Yan andsaid.

“Youcalled just as he said it.”

“Okay.” Zhuo Xiang Ming said finally, “I’ll send him backafter work.”

TongYan had his heart set on speeding home, seeing him hang up, he hurriedly said:“Brother, I know all the roads here, I can pack things up in a jiffy and goback by myself.”

Zhuo Xiang Ming frowned even tighter: “I’ll send you.”

Tong Yan agreed.” OK.”

Zhuo Xiang Ming immediately realized that his tone was a bit misleading,so he explained, “I was so busy before that I forgot to accompany youback to your family. Since Tong Yang’s there today, we can go together tonight.”

When Tong Yan heard this, the slight fear he’dfelt immediately disappeared, smiling: “Then I’ll wait for you at home.”

Zhuo Xiang Ming also revealed a smile: “I’ll get off work early.”

–

TongYan sent Zhuo Xiang Ming off, then went up to pack his clothes. He recalledthat most of his things on this side were gifted to him by Zhuo Xiang Ming’smother, he simply hadn’t carried anything from home, so naturally, he didn’tneed to carry anything back.

He wandered from the second floor to the first floor, after eating,thinking about going back home, he didn’t have the mind to read a book, so hecould only browse his cell phone.

Zou Jing Yu sent out the daily question: How are you getting along withyour newlywed alpha? Is the marriage life satisfactory, happy?

Muscular-Hermit-Boy:pleasantly, satisfactory, happy

Beautiful-Teacher:Wow, look at this halfhearted answer

Muscular-Hermit-Boy:I’m being sincere

Beautiful-Teacher:hehe

Muscular-Hermit-Boy:I can see that you’re awfully bored

Beautiful-Teacher:I’m not bored at all, okay? I’ve made a major discovery

Muscular-Hermit-Boy:tellme_tellme.jpg

ZouJing Yu sent over a question and answer forum post entitled, ‘How to help olderadopted children adapt to a new environment.’

Muscular-Hermit-Boy:Do you want to adopt a child? Remember to make me the godfather

Zou Jing Yu sent a speechless emoji, then sent another screenshot.

Beautiful-Teacher:We needed to collect some information for a summer internship, and I found thiswhile searching, read it

The screenshotwas of the first half of the post: As adoptive parents, without a blood relationship,it’s not an easy task to cultivate feelings with an adopted child who alreadyhas extensive memories. Affection should first be built on a sense of securityand a relatively solid foundation, only then can the bond be healthy andstrong. So, how can you help your child feel safe after arriving in a new environment?

1. Family members should have a fairly mapped out schedule.

Makethe child understand that you’ll definitely come back home after you leave! Youshouldn’t call off work to stay home with your child when they move in. You justneed to let them get used to your work schedule, and know what time you’ll comehome from work. It’s a hundred times more effective for building up a sense ofsecurity, than staying home with them for a couple of days, then suddenly abandoningthem to go back to work.

2. Cultivate parent-child activities.

Try to do things together when the child moves in! It can be small things,such as having dinner together, watching a regular TV show, reading a booktogether before bed, and having a dedicated time to make crafts together…these collaborative activities will give a boost to affection between you two,and it will also help your child trust you faster.

…After a rough glance over, Tong Yan scrolled down to the chat log. In thelatest comments, a guest user with an id string of numbers asked: I go and comeback from work on schedule, but the child still refuses to do things with me,what should I do?

Asystem message reminded: If you need professional consultation, please askquestions after registering for a small fee.

After an interval of three minutes, a user with the id “ZXM”asked: Why would a child reject watching TV with their parent?

The following consultations belonged to the private category; Tong Yan couldn’t view them. He closed the web page and entered

mode.

Beautiful-Teacher: Your “adoptive father” is very interesting

Muscular-Hermit-Boy: Indeed

Beautiful-Teacher:Oh no, I can’t stop laughing again. Are the uncles nowadays so cute?!!

Muscular-Hermit-Boy:He’s not an uncle

Beautiful-Teacher:Oh myyyyyy, what do you call him?

………

Beautiful-Teacher:I_worked_so_hard_to_find_this.jpg

Muscular-Hermit-Boy:Change your handle first

As planned, Zou Jing Yu was admitted to anormal university in the city. The bustling high school days were over, and shewas about to start her ideal university student life, so she was very upbeat thiswhole summer vacation.

Beautiful-Teacher:What the heck? Your handle disregards the facts too. Yeah, you’re a hermit, butwhere’s the muscle?

Muscular-Hermit-Boy:I have big dreams

Zou Jing Yu wasn’t pushy, moving on, she asked in concern: Classes beginon Monday. How are your preparations going?

TongYan replied: I’ve recovered well. I’ve also finished all the summer homework.

Although he wasn’t required to do it as he was on leave from school, he’dwanted to return to school this semester, so Tong Yan had asked an old teacher aboutthe summer homework. He reviewed as he did the homework, so he wouldn’t fallbehind too much.

Beautiful-Teacher:What about the examination results?

Muscular-Hermit-Boy:I went to the hospital the day before yesterday, I think I’ll get the results tomorrow

Beautiful-Teacher:Tell me as soon as you get it, ‘kay?

Muscular-Hermit-Boy:Okay

–

After chatting with Zou Jing Yu, Tong Yan brought Xuan Gui to the secondfloor, and laid down on the big bed, playing with his tablet as he waited forZhuo Xiang Ming to get off work. At about twelve o’clock, he called Tong Yanand said that he would be home at about three o’clock.

XuanGui searched for some very old cartoons and they watched them together. TongYan looked on absent-mindedly, thinking about Zhuo Xiang Ming.

They had been getting along peacefully for more than half a month. Previously,Tong Yan always thought that this was because of his polite evasion. He wasthinking simply; less contact, less chances for contradiction.

Until this moment, he didn’t know that he wasn’t the only one trying. Itturns out that Zhuo Xiang Ming was also worried about them getting along.

Even though Tong Yan knew that this was simplydone to help ease his stress disorder, it didn’t stop him from honestly thinkingthat Zhuo Xiang Ming was a good person.

After all, Zhuo Xiang Ming was an adult who adhered to“celibacy”. He really did no other activities besides work-attendingcocktail parties and dinners were also included in his work. He did very fewpurely private activities, but now he was willing to search an unfamiliar socialsoftware for articles about child wellbeing, all for him.

Thisalone was enough to allow Zhuo Xiang Ming to become a gentle silhouette in TongYan’s heart.

TongYan felt a bit of regret. If Zhuo Xiang Ming wanted to, he would be able to whollyget along well with others, he had sufficient capital that people generallyliked.

Unfortunately, he was celibate.

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T/N:

Tong Li Qin – The raws says Zhuo ZengDe, ZXM’s father’s name, twice. But it makesno sense in this context. I’m 99% sure it’s a typo, so I fixed it. I hope there’sno more typos. This stuff is hard enough to translate accurately as it is….

accompany you back to your family – Chinese wedding custom. Chinatour.com “Three days after the wedding,the bride and bridegroom will pay a visit to the bride’s family, at which pointthe bride would be received as a guest as opposed to a member of her formerfamily.”

I’ll try to keep the online usernames accurate, but if they’re nonsensical, I’ll get as close as I can.

I don’t understandNow, hearing Tong Yang’s voice, Tong Yan’s heart unexpectedly felt somewhat sore.They have the same name?

His name tong yan..His brother also name tong yan?

ZXM is so sweet. Thanks for the great translation ♥️