Valentine Extra

T/N: This extra was posted on the author’s Weibo for Valentine’s Day in 2020. Since the author’s Weibo account is set to only show posts for the past six months, the post can no longer be viewed. I’m translating from saved images shared by fans.

Big thanks to @moroposquare for helping with the images!

Please do not link this on NovelUpdates.

Translation posted on 28 August 2022.

Yi Zhe had been very busy recently. When he reached home at night, it would already be past midnight and he still had to write various analyses and reports in the study after he got home. Xu Tangcheng stayed up with him for a few nights and started to feel a pain in his chest. He mentioned it to Yi Zhe and it scared Yi Zhe into repeatedly pleading with him not to wait up for him anymore, and that he must sleep before eleven.

Hence, every night when Yi Zhe got home, he would see Xu Tangcheng already asleep on the sofa with a blanket covering him. In the past, as long as there was the barest glint of light in the room, Xu Tangcheng would not be able to fall asleep; now, no matter how late it was, there would always be a light on in the living room. It was the fretwork floor lamp that they’d bought together. Xu Tangcheng liked it a lot.

Today, it was two minutes past midnight when Yi Zhe entered the door. He took off his jacket and stood at the door, rubbing his hands together hard to get rid of most of the chill before walking gingerly to the sofa.

A slightly chilly softness landed on his lips. Almost at the same time, Xu Tangcheng slowly opened his eyes.

“Happy Valentine’s Day,” Yi Zhe said.

Xu Tangcheng looked at the man hunched in front of him, the cosy feeling and contentment in his heart boundless. To him, nothing could be more beautiful than opening his bleary eyes and Yi Zhe being the very first thing to enter his sight.

He lifted his head and returned the kiss, and also said softly, “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

Yi Zhe fished out a piece of chocolate from the pocket of his sweatshirt, peeled the wrapper and brought it to Xu Tangcheng’s mouth.

Xu Tangcheng moved his mouth. The chocolate melted, the sweetness overflowing to the seam of his lips and the gaps between his teeth. Yi Zhe again drew close and kissed him. It was only when Xu Tangcheng’s mind again became fuzzy and he was tugging on Yi Zhe’s wrist and dropping off into sleep that Yi Zhe half-supported and half-carried him into the bedroom.

As before, Yi Zhe had to stay up today. There was a bid defence the day after tomorrow and he had to complete the presentation for all the required software and produce a model suitable for demonstration today. There was relatively more work to do. When he was finally done, Yi Zhe looked at the watch–it was already seven o’clock.

Every time there was a bidding, their entire team would be worked to the bone. He still had to go to the office for a discussion at half past nine. Yi Zhe rubbed his head and decided to take a quick doze.

“You were busy until now?”

He had just lay down on the bed when Xu Tangcheng woke up. Yi Zhe saw the heartache on Xu Tangcheng’s face and quickly took away the phone in his hand that he was using to check the time, then hugged him.

“Two more days and it’ll be done.” Yi Zhe nuzzled his chin against Xu Tangcheng’s head. “Sleep with me for a while. I need to head to the office at nine.”

Xu Tangcheng let out a sigh. He rubbed Yi Zhe’s chin, his feelings complicated. When they’d kissed in the early hours, he’d already felt that it was prickly; touching it now, the stubble had indeed grown longer. Xu Tangcheng looked at the dark circles under Yi Zhe’s eyes and said, “Sleep. I’ll drive you over later.”

In the recent two years, Yi Zhe had been working exceptionally hard. Xu Tangcheng had been working for quite a long while and his state of exhaustion was actually a little better than the past. The two of them earned a fair amount but they’d never moved to a larger apartment. Yi Zhe had brought it up a few times, his reason being that this place was too far away from Xu Tangcheng’s current office and Xu Tangcheng typically had to leave for work by 6.20 a.m. to avoid Beijing’s horrifying morning rush hour. But Xu Tangcheng felt that their current place was sufficient and also contained quite a lot of their memories. He couldn’t bear to move away.

After sending Yi Zhe to his office, Xu Tangcheng went to the supermarket for some groceries. When he reached home, he saw a SF Express envelope, the kind for documents, at the door. He fished out his phone–indeed, there was a message from the delivery man saying that there was no one at home so he’d put the package at the door.

He picked up the envelope and took a look, and realised that the sender was a school senior that he was on good terms with. A while ago, he’d also taken Yi Zhe along for a meal with the senior.

Xu Tangcheng thought it was a little strange. He hadn’t heard anything about the senior sending him any documents.

Just as he thought that, he received a WeChat message from the senior.

–I sent you a Valentine’s present. Did you get it?

Xu Tangcheng entered the apartment. He tilted his head and sent a question mark in reply.

–Open it and you’ll know (naughty smile)

–I promise you’ll like it.

–If you don’t, I’ll pay you!

–Even when I saw it myself, I felt that I was so damned awesome.

This school senior was talkative. Xu Tangcheng heard his phone chiming non-stop and freed a hand while opening the envelope to put his phone on silent mode.

The envelope was empty. Xu Tangcheng opened it and peered inside, and finally found a bit of content in the murky depths. It was a photograph.

Xu Tangcheng finally recalled that this school senior’s hobby was photography. In the past, when that man had nothing to do, he would go to campus and snap photos randomly, and could even spend half a day taking photos of the ducks on the lake. He'd also frequently took sneaky, unflattering photos of the people sleeping in the lab, then printed them and gave them to the person as a keepsake.

Xu Tangcheng initially thought that he must be getting some sort of unflattering sneak shot of himself but when he turned the photo over with a resigned smile, he saw that in the photo was a winter’s day, at their campus.

Xu Tangcheng’s mind blanked out for a while. He brought the photo closer to himself.

The background in the photo was a little messy. There were quite a lot of people walking by, their paths disordered, but in the center, he could see very clearly the main subject of the photo: a young man wearing a black down jacket, head tilted up and looking at the statue in front of him.

Xu Tangcheng was familiar with the statue, and even more familiar with the young man.

His mind was suddenly pulled to a place very far in the past. He recalled a restaurant permeated with warm air; himself and Xu Tangxi sitting at a table; Yi Zhe returning to his side after leaving for a long while, panting for breath; himself wondering why Yi Zhe went to the washroom for so long; Yi Zhe telling him that he had lost his way.

They were in a warm restaurant, yet there had been a chill on Yi Zhe’s body. Thinking about it now, it was actually about the same as when Yi Zhe walked through the winter night on his way back every day and gently crouched beside him.

Xu Tangcheng spent a long time looking at Yi Zhe in the photo. He didn’t know what the person in the photo had been thinking, nor did he know what he had felt at that moment when he stood in front of the statue after passing through the streets surreptitiously to go to Xu Tangcheng’s university. But when Xu Tangcheng looked at that back profile, he suddenly wished fervently that he had a time machine and could return to the scene in the photo at that very moment.

His WeChat was still flashing non-stop with new messages. Xu Tangcheng picked up his phone and saw that his school senior was still rambling on and on in praise of himself.

–I found this by accident when tidying my photos. Back then, I took the photo randomly. I never thought I’d have taken a photo of your little partner, hahahahaha!

–This is what you call a genius.

–But, speaking of which, you guys truly have a beautiful love story that can make people cry! This photo is too heart-breaking!

The main character of the beautiful love story didn’t reply. Instead, he tapped on the pinned chat log and sent an emoji to his beloved young man.

–😘

Yi Zhe very quickly replied.

–? What is it?

Xu Tangcheng reclined on the sofa. He placed the photo right in the center of his stomach and continued to reply.

–😘 😘

The chat log kept showing that the other person was typing. Xu Tangcheng looked at the screen. After waiting for a few seconds, he received a very soft response from the other person.

–Miss you.