After My Rebirth, My Husband Pampers Me Everyday!

Chapter 149: YESTERDAY DIDN’T PARTICULARLY END WELL BETWEEN US

The monitor beeped steadily in the silence that followed. Ren Hao stared at the ceiling for a long time, and then he closed his eyes.

He didn’t say yes, and he didn’t have the strength for yes, but the rigid, calcified thing in his shoulders released, just slightly, just enough.

That thing had been braced against the whole world for so long that it had become structural, and its release was enough for tonight.

Liuxian checked his watch and slipped it back under his cuff.

"We should head home," he said. His voice was quiet but final, the kind that didn’t invite negotiation. He looked at Ren Hao. "My people will take care of everything from here. You don’t need to worry about anything tonight."

Ren Hao didn’t respond, but his eyes followed Liuxian briefly before closing again.

Liuxian turned to Haiyan, who had been standing near the wall this entire time, still and silent, his hands clasped in front of him.

"Go home," Liuxian said. "Take tomorrow off as well."

Haiyan opened his mouth.

"That’s not a suggestion.." Liuxian said.

Haiyan closed his mouth and nodded. "Yes, sir."

The car was quiet.

Beijing moved past the windows, lit up and indifferent at this hour, and Guiying sat in the back with his hands loose in his lap and said nothing.

His shirt had Ren Hao’s blood on it — dried at the hem, smeared across the front and he had been staring at it without really seeing it since they got in.

"Take that off," Liuxian said.

Guiying looked up at him.

Liuxian reached into the compartment behind the driver’s seat, pulled out a clean white shirt and handed it over without a word.

Guiying pulled his soiled shirt off without argument and took the clean one, shrugging into it slowly and doing up the buttons one by one, his movements a little mechanical, a little distant.

Liuxian watched him finish and then reached for his phone. "I’ll call Uncle Wang ahead and have him heat the tub before we get back," he said, already dialing, and said a few quiet words into the phone before ending the call and sliding it back into his pocket.

Liuxian reached over and pulled Guiying in without asking, one arm settling around his shoulders, and Guiying went without resistance, leaning into his side and staring at the city going past outside. He didn’t speak.

Liuxian looked down at him after a moment.

"Were you scared, my love?" His voice was very low. "Look at you, you’ve gone completely pale."

Guiying was quiet for a beat.

"I thought he was dead," he said. His voice came out flat and small. "When I got out of the car and saw him on the ground I thought —" He stopped, pressed his lips together and exhaled slowly through his nose. "There was so much blood."

Liuxian’s arm tightened around him and Guiying dropped his head back against his shoulder, closing his eyes briefly before opening them again and turning his gaze back to the window.

"I’m okay," he said, to Liuxian, to himself, to no one in particular.

Liuxian didn’t contradict him. He pressed his lips to the top of Guiying’s head and kept his arm exactly where it was.

After a moment Liuxian tilted his head down and pressed a kiss to Guiying’s temple, then another, slower, just below his hairline, his lips staying there for a beat before he pulled back.

"My rose," he murmured against his skin. "My most beautiful, most stubborn rose."

Guiying made a small sound that wasn’t quite a response.

Liuxian pressed a kiss to his cheek and then the corner of his jaw, unhurried and deliberate, working his way across Guiying’s face with the patience of a man who had absolutely nowhere else to be.

"Do you know," he said quietly, "that every room you walk into becomes a different room entirely."

Guiying said nothing but his fingers curled slightly against Liuxian’s sleeve.

"I noticed it the first time," Liuxian continued, pressing a kiss to the tip of his nose and feeling Guiying’s breath hitch slightly at the contact. "I didn’t want to. It was very inconvenient," and another to his cheekbone, "and you were extremely inconsiderate about the whole thing."

Guiying’s mouth twitched, pulling at the corner.

Liuxian caught it immediately and pressed on. "My darling. My most precious, most unreasonable —" a kiss to the corner of his mouth, "— most extraordinary person." He pulled back just enough to look at him properly and held his gaze. "Have I told you today that you are my everything?"

"You haven’t actually," Guiying said, his voice still quiet but something warming steadily at the edges of it.

"An oversight," Liuxian said seriously. "Completely unacceptable. You are everything." A kiss to his jaw. "You are my rose," and his cheek, "my mon étoile," and the corner of his mouth, "the most beautiful thing I have ever had the privilege of looking at, I look at you every single day and it still surprises me every time."

"Liuxian —"

"Every time," Liuxian repeated, entirely unmoved. "Without exception."

Guiying laughed.

It came out small and involuntary, surprised out of him before he could stop it, and Liuxian went still for just a moment with something in his expression softening completely, all the way down, in the way it only ever did when it was just the two of them and no one else was watching.

He pulled Guiying closer and pressed one last kiss to his hair, keeping his lips there for a moment before drawing back. "There," he said quietly. "That’s what I was looking for."

Guiying shook his head, still smiling faintly despite himself, and settled back against Liuxian’s side.

"Did you miss me?" Guiying asked after a moment, tilting his head up slightly without moving from Liuxian’s shoulder. "We didn’t see each other this morning."

"Of course I did," Liuxian said without hesitation. "I had to leave for work without my two kisses and it threw off my entire day."

Guiying considered this for a moment. "You could have called me. Or at least texted."

Liuxian was quiet for a beat, his thumb moving slowly against Guiying’s arm before stilling. "I thought you were still angry with me. Yesterday didn’t end particularly well between us and I didn’t want to push, so I held back."