Contractual Marriage: We’re Meant to Be Together

236. Are You Here to Give Us Your Blessing?

Translator: Bryan

“I shouldn’t have acted impulsively.” Yan Chuyang lowered his head and, gripping a fistful of pant, murmured, “Actually, there was another way to handle that situation. We could’ve figured out something else. Maybe we should’ve called Shen Shimin over to get things straight. Anyway, I shouldn’t have recklessly waded in out of heartache and disclosed our marriage in the presence of all those reporters. I was…”

“Don’t say that,” Wei Qing interrupted him. “I don’t care.”

“But I do!” Yan Chuyang suddenly raised his eyes. “Wei Qing, I’ve told the truth. Do you know what that means?”

Wei Qing compressed his lips and he didn’t say anything.

Yan Chuyang sighed and continued, “It means you’ll spend the rest of your life with the label ‘gay’ on you. People who disapprove of gay relationships will tease you. You won’t be able to marry a woman or have a normal life. You’ll become the kind of people you used to loathe the most. You…” Yan Chuyang’s upset deepened with his every word. His eyes gradually reddened and his voice was choked.

“Why are you crying?” Wei Qing swept Yan Chuyang into his embrace. “I know that. I know all that.”

“I don’t want you to be like this.” Leaning against Wei Qing’s chest, Yan Chuyang sobbed hoarsely, “I don’t want you to suffer any of those injustices on my account. Besides, your reputation used to be flawless. What right did I have to stain it?”

“Stain…” The look in Wei Qing’s eyes flickered. He suddenly tightened his embrace and said, “That’s right! It’s stained. Yan Chuyang, my reputation’s stained because of you. You need to make it up to me.”

Yan Chuyang felt even more distressed. He clenched his fists and muttered, “Sorry. I’m really sorry…”

He shouldn’t have said it. No matter what, he shouldn’t have disclosed that. In the end, he had still forced Wei Qing onto the road. He had done it against Wei Qing’s will.

“That’s right.” Wei Qing lowered his head and gave Yan Chuyang’s ear a playful bite. “You stained my reputation, so you have to accept responsibility for it.”

Yan Chuyang froze, lifted his head confusedly and, eyes red, asked, “How do you want me to accept responsibility for it?”

Wei Qing’s heart lurched at the sight of Yan Chuyang’s teary eyes. He lowered his head and pecked Yan Chuyang’s lips. After a moment’s silence, he said in a terribly husky voice, “I want you to like me more than before.”

Yan Chuyang blinked his eyes and said in perplexity under his breath, “That’s not ‘accepting responsibility’. I’ve always liked you.”

“But I want you to like me more!” Wei Qing emphasized. “More than before. I want your liking for me to double, or triple, or expand a hundred fold.”

“Uh…” Yan Chuyang thought for a while and then said tentatively, “Will you forgive me if I like you more?”

“Yes.” Wei Qing lifted his hand and wiped the tears from Yan Chuyang’s eyes. “I’ll forgive you if you take a deeper liking to me, and I won’t blame you for anything.”

Yan Chuyang’s heart did a somersault and he said with a long sigh, “You may rest assured that I’ll try my best.”

Wei Qing pulled a wry face. “That’s reassuring.”

“Yeah.”

“Lift your face.”

“Hmm?”

“You said you’d try your best. Don’t you think you should start by giving me a kiss or two?”

Yan Chuyang was stunned for two seconds, and then he nodded heavily, stood on tiptoe and pressed his lips onto Wei Qing’s.

Wei Qing hooked his hand around the back of Yan Chuyang’s head to deepen the kiss.

Wei Qing knew that Song Huaiqi would undoubtedly come to him after seeing the news report, but it came as a great surprise to Wei Qing that Song Huaiqi was so impulsive as to come to visit him early in the morning of the next day after the interview was reported.

“Hello? Mr. Wei, there is a man at the front desk. He doesn’t have an appointment, but he claims to be your friend.”

“What’s his name?”

“Song Huaiqi.”

Wei Qing tapped at the table with his fingertips and, after a few moments’ silence, said in a deep voice, “Let him in.”

“Yes, Mr. Wei.”

After hanging up, Wei Qing lowered his head and, leaning against the back of his chair, resumed reading the document in his hand, circling important parts from time to time.

There was a knock at the door.

“Come in,” Wei Qing said in a commanding voice without lifting his head.

Song Huaiqi pushed the door open, bluffly strode over to Wei Qing’s desk, stooped slightly to brace his hands against the desk and, staring fixedly at Wei Qing, said, “Wei Qing, we need to talk.”

Gazing unhurriedly at the document in his hand, Wei Qing pointed at the sofa on the side without raising his head and said, “Have a seat. I need to read these two pages first.”

The sight of Wei Qing’s indifferent face filled Song Huaiqi with anger, but there was nothing he could do about it, for he was on Wei Qing’s turf, and he would only end up suffering if he played hardball on this issue.

After smoldering for a while, Song Huaiqi managed to restrain his anger and, face taut, turned around and settled himself on the sofa.

Minutes were ticking away.

The office was quiet except for the occasional rustle of Wei Qing writing on the document.

Ten minutes later, when Song Huaiqi began to run out of patience, Wei Qing put his pen into its cap with a click, lifted his head and said, “Mr. Song, may I ask why you made time in your busy schedule to visit me?”

Having noticed that Wei Qing was finally looking him in the eye, Song Huaiqi sprang to his feet from the sofa, smacked the newspaper that he had brought with him down onto the desk and demanded, “What’s this supposed to mean?”

Wei Qing frowned. “What do you mean by that?”

Subduing his rage, Song Huaiqi unfolded the newspaper and pointed to the headlines on the front page. “Was it you who had them report this? Does Yan Chuyang know you’ve gone public with your marriage?”

Wei Qing pulled the newspaper out of Song Huaiqi’s hand, stared at the news report on the front page for a moment and smiled contentedly, “Not bad. Journalists of Southern News are indeed well worthy of their reputation. Their wording is audacious, professional and gripping. My appetite’s whetted. In addition…”

Wei Qing stroked the blurred photo in the newspaper and said softly, “They did a good job handling Chuyang’s pictures. People can only see the contours of him. His face is blurred.”

Song Huaiqi smacked his fist down onto the desk and snapped, “That’s not what I’m talking to you about!”

Wei Qing raised his head innocently. “Then what is? Your blessing? You don’t have to offer us your blessing so soon. We’ll soon hold a wedding. You may wait until our wedding day to give us your…”