Chapter 113: A Young Couple’s Daily Life
Extra Chapter 4

Zou Yang felt like he hadn’t slept this well in a long time. If it weren’t for the fact that he really couldn’t hold it in anymore and needed to pee, he probably could have slept another three hours.

He stretched his body straight, yawned twice in a row, and slowly came to his senses.

When he reached over to the side, he felt nothing. He turned his head and saw that the spot was empty—the pillowcase was smoothed out, and two sleep masks were neatly placed beside the pillow.

“Fan Jun!” Zou Yang stretched again and called out.

But no one answered him. Only Dahei in the living room let out a soft “meow.”

“Black, where’s your brother?” Zou Yang sat up. Of course, Dahei wouldn’t respond to him. He needed to find the one who went to college with him. “Xiao Bai—”

The only response was again Dahei’s “meow.”

“Damn, where is he?” Zou Yang felt something was off. He threw off the blanket, jumped out of bed, grabbed some clothes and put them on, then walked out of the bedroom.

The living room was completely empty. Neither Fan Jun nor Xiao Bai was there, and there was no food on the dining table.

Not giving up, he pushed open the kitchen door and scanned inside. No one.

Fan Jun had taken Xiao Bai out.

Today was his day off, and Fan Jun was also off. Before going to sleep last night, they had agreed to go out shopping together today. That new shop had been very busy lately, and Fan Jun hadn’t had any time off.

So when he woke up in the morning, Fan Jun was gone—both man and dog?

Zou Yang immediately felt annoyed.

He went back to the bedroom, grabbed his phone, and checked. No messages had been sent.

His annoyance instantly turned into anger.

He directly dialed Fan Jun’s number.

The phone rang several times before Fan Jun finally answered: “Hello?”

“Where the hell are you?” Zou Yang asked.

Right after asking, he heard Little Yang talking to a customer on the other end. He paused in surprise: “You went to the shop? Are you some kind of workhorse?”

“No,” Fan Jun said.

“No what?” Zou Yang could tell his tone was a bit stiff.

“No, I’m not a workhorse.” Fan Jun replied, still speaking stiffly.

“…Then why did you go to the shop!” Zou Yang raised his voice. “We said yesterday we’d go shopping today! What do you mean showing up out of nowhere without saying a word! And now you’re acting like you don’t even know who you’re mad at!”

On the other end, Fan Jun went silent.

Zou Yang waited for quite a while before Fan Jun finally spoke again: “Did you check the time?”

“Why would I check the time!” Zou Yang frowned.

“Check what time it is before you snap at me.” Fan Jun said.

Zou Yang didn’t speak. After a two-second pause, he held his phone up in front of his eyes.

11:40.

He pushed his glasses up, blinked a few times, and looked again. It was definitely 11:40.

Was it really that late?

He thought it was at most 8:30.

But even if it was 11:40…

“Don’t you get up at 6:30 every day, rain or shine?” Zou Yang said. “Didn’t you get up? You could’ve at least called me!”

Fan Jun didn’t speak.

“Did you call me or not!” Zou Yang shouted.

On a day they had agreed to eat and go out together, waking up at noon for no reason and wasting half the day was indeed annoying, but he still didn’t know who to direct this anger at.

“I called,” Fan Jun said.

“If you called, why didn’t I wake up?” Zou Yang didn’t believe him.

“I woke you up for one second,” Fan Jun said. “You turned over and fell back asleep.”

“Then call me again!” Zou Yang said.

“Why?” Fan Jun asked.

Zou Yang paused: “What do you mean, why?”

“Why should I call again?” Fan Jun said.

“If I didn’t wake up, you should’ve kept calling!” Zou Yang frowned, his nameless anger flaring up. “You call me every day, so why didn’t you call when we had plans to go out!”

“You knew we had plans to go out, and you still couldn’t wake up.” Fan Jun said.

“…So you did it on purpose, right?” Zou Yang asked.

Fan Jun didn’t speak.

“Just you wait.” Zou Yang hung up the phone.

Fan Jun put his phone back in his pocket, sat by the table at the Chunli store entrance for a moment, then turned and walked into the shop.

There weren’t many customers today. All morning he had been learning milk frothing from Little Yang. Although he felt it wasn’t very useful, he thought it was worth learning anyway.

Anyway, the sleeping god looked like he was going to sleep until afternoon.

Even though the sleeping god had just woken up and called to scold him.

“This level is fine,” Little Yang tapped the milk pitcher on the counter. “Let’s try it with real milk.”

“Record this for me.” Fan Jun turned on his phone’s video mode and handed it to Little Yang.

“Okay.” Little Yang took the phone, stepped back, and aimed it at him.

Fan Jun picked up the milk pitcher in one hand and the previously brewed coffee in the other.

“Starting now,” Little Yang said.

Following what Little Yang had taught him, Fan Jun first lifted the milk pitcher slightly and poured in a small stream while making circles. Then he lowered the pitcher, increased the flow to create a white base, then slowly pulled back while gently shaking the pitcher…

Little Yang moved the phone closer from a distance, focusing the lens on the cup.

White stripes appeared, gradually pushing out patterns. As the cup was about to fill up, Fan Jun finished the design, moved his hand forward, and pulled out a small pointed tip.

Little Yang slowly moved the phone away again, finally framing Fan Jun.

Fan Jun raised his cup.

“OK, that’s good,” Little Yang smiled. When handing the phone back, he glanced toward the door. “Zou Yang? When did you get here?”

“Mm.” Zou Yang’s voice came from the direction of the door, still carrying some sleepiness and nasal tone.

Fan Jun turned his head and indeed saw Zou Yang standing with his arms crossed, leaning against the doorframe.

Before their eyes could even meet and someone could speak, Zou Yang had already turned around, walked outside, and sat down at the table farthest from the door.

“How come…” Little Yang always made a cup of coffee for Zou Yang, but this time he hesitated, keep looking in Zou Yang’s direction. “I feel like he’s in a bad mood?”

“He’s not very good.” Fan Jun took the coffee in his hand and walked outside. He went over to Zou Yang and placed the coffee in front of him. “I just made it.”

It was really well made.

The latte art looked better than coffee from many random cafés.

Little Yang had taught him well.

It seemed this morning had been quite pleasant.

Zou Yang looked at the coffee but didn’t speak or move.

Fan Jun didn’t speak either. He just pulled out the chair opposite, sat down, and started looking at his phone.

“Go inside and make coffee,” Zou Yang glanced at him. “What are you doing sitting here?”

Fan Jun tapped on the screen but still didn’t say anything.

“You’re actually mad at me now?” Zou Yang looked at him.

Fan Jun seemed to be typing. Only after finishing did he lift his head and look at him: “Can’t I be?”

“You left this morning without calling me awake, wasting half a day of our time,” Zou Yang frowned. “And now you’re mad?”

“You probably didn’t really want to go shopping anyway.” Fan Jun said.

“…What do you mean?” Zou Yang stared at him.

Fan Jun’s phone rang. He didn’t speak, looked down and opened the message, then quickly started replying.

Zou Yang was practically boiling with anger. He grabbed the coffee cup in front of him.

But after holding it for a few seconds, he let go and changed targets.

He grabbed the bronze ashtray on the table.

Fan Jun glanced up at his hand. When Zou Yang picked up the ashtray, Fan Jun leaned back slightly.

Zou Yang slammed the ashtray hard back onto the table.

“Clang!”

Fan Jun’s gaze moved from the table to his face. After a two-second pause, he said: “You usually don’t want to go to school, don’t want to intern, but I can get you up at 6:30 every day.”

Zou Yang raised an eyebrow but didn’t speak.

“Today, after so much trouble to make time to go out,” Fan Jun looked at him, “you couldn’t be woken up even at nine.”

Zou Yang fell silent. For a moment, he couldn’t find any words to argue back.

“So you just left, came here and spent the whole morning with Little Yang, right?” He leaned back in his chair, staring at Fan Jun.

“Don’t change the subject.” Fan Jun said.

“How am I changing the subject?” Zou Yang asked.

“Right now we’re talking about why I’m angry,” Fan Jun said. “My anger has nothing to do with Little Yang.”

Zou Yang made a “tss” sound.

Fan Jun didn’t speak again. His phone rang, and he looked down to reply again.

“Who is it!” Zou Yang kicked the table.

“Confidential.” Fan Jun said without looking up.

“Fuck.” Zou Yang stood up, ready to leave.

He turned around and almost bumped into someone in a pizza delivery uniform striding toward them.

“Your pizza.” The person said to Zou Yang and placed a pizza box on the table.

“Who ordered it?” Zou Yang was stunned.

“I did,” Fan Jun said, then nodded at the person. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” The employee quickly walked back.

Zou Yang hesitated, then sat back down. “You ordered a pizza?”

“Yeah.” Fan Jun opened the box and pushed it toward him. “Eat.”

Inside was a small pizza, just right for one person. He took out a slice: “Aren’t you eating?”

“I already had breakfast.” Fan Jun said.

“Isn’t this lunch?” Zou Yang asked while eating.

“I had breakfast late, so I’m not eating lunch yet.” Fan Jun said.

Zou Yang was about to ask why he had breakfast late, but thought better of it and didn’t ask.

Why breakfast late? Because someone couldn’t be woken up in the morning.

Fan Jun had probably waited a long time, expecting this person to wake up on his own. They had also agreed to go to a newly opened brunch place in the city center today…

Maybe with food in his stomach, Zou Yang felt calmer.

After eating two slices of pizza, he took a sip of coffee. It was pretty good, more fragrant than the coffee they had at the café nearby before.

“So you’re mad today because I overslept.” Zou Yang said.

“It’s because you didn’t take our plans seriously at all.” Fan Jun frowned.

Zou Yang didn’t speak, just took another sip of coffee.

“Maybe you didn’t really want to go out and just wanted to sleep at home,” Fan Jun said. “You said you wanted to go out just to make me happy.”

Zou Yang put down his cup and looked at him: “No.”

Fan Jun also looked at him.

“So I said, if you have something to say, say it right then. Don’t figure it out by yourself,” Zou Yang said. “When you figure things out on your own, you get it wrong.”

“How was I supposed to say it then?” Fan Jun raised his voice slightly. “I couldn’t even wake you up!”

“Hit me awake. Would I hit you? I can’t beat you anyway.” Zou Yang said.

“I just didn’t want to.” Fan Jun said.

“You just want to prove I don’t want to go out with you.” Zou Yang said.

Fan Jun was silent for a moment, then nodded: “Mm.”

Zou Yang finished one slice of pizza, took a bite of the second, then put it down, leaned back in his chair, and sighed lightly.

“I really want to go out with you. Otherwise I wouldn’t have blown up like that right after waking up.”

Fan Jun looked at him.

His phone rang again. Just as Fan Jun was about to look down, Zou Yang shouted: “If you look at it one more time, I’ll smash your phone!”

Fan Jun put his phone on the table.

“I’m just used to it,” Zou Yang stared at his phone. “I feel like no matter what, you’ll always wake me up. And today… today’s outing time isn’t like going to work or class, it’s more flexible, so I’m more relaxed. Not as easy to wake up as usual…”

Fan Jun didn’t speak. He kept looking at him, listening very carefully.

“Also, I’ve been interning recently, getting up early every day and working all day,” Zou Yang frowned. “I’m especially tired. Once I fall asleep, I don’t want to open my eyes…”

His phone rang.

“So when I’m awake, I want to go out with you. When I’m asleep, I want to sleep.” Zou Yang said.

“Mm.” Fan Jun replied.

“Now that I’ve explained, are you still mad?” Zou Yang asked.

“No longer.” Fan Jun said.

Zou Yang picked up the half-eaten slice of pizza and continued eating. After thinking, he asked again: “Really?”

“I’m not actually that mad. I just feel…” Fan Jun hesitated for a long time before looking at him. “I need you much more than you need me…”

His phone rang again.

Zou Yang swallowed the pizza in his mouth and breathed out lightly: “If that’s all you’re worried about, then it’s fine.”

“Hm?” Fan Jun was stunned.

“Fan Jun,” Zou Yang leaned forward with his arms on the table, closer to him. “I really need you. I need your care for me, I need your worry about me, I need your sensitivity to everything about me. I need to come home after a tiring day and see you. I need to open my eyes and see you. I need to wake up and have breakfast you prepared…”

His phone rang again.

“Of course, I’ll pay attention in the future. When we have plans, I’ll try not to sleep in.” Zou Yang said.

“If you’re tired… then just sleep in a bit,” Fan Jun said. “I’ve probably never been as busy as you. School, work, I’ve always had fairly… flexible time. I didn’t know you were this tired.”

“Not exactly,” Zou Yang made a “tss” sound. “I think you’re especially good at enduring. You’re used to carrying all the tiredness and annoyance, pressing it down inside. In the future, let some of it out.”

“Then…” Fan Jun leaned closer to him. “If I can’t wake you up in the morning, can I hit you?”

The corner of Zou Yang’s mouth curled up, and he smiled: “Sure.”

“Do you want to see what you look like right now?” Fan Jun couldn’t help but smile too.

Zou Yang didn’t speak. While Fan Jun was still smiling, he suddenly reached out and grabbed for the phone on the table.

But Fan Jun, who looked like he was having fun, snatched the phone away just before Zou Yang’s fingertips touched it.

Zou Yang was instantly furious. He slammed his fist on the table: “Give it to me!”

His shout was very loud. Little Yang, who was setting tables inside the shop, suddenly turned and looked out the window.

“You never let me see your phone either.” Fan Jun smiled.

Zou Yang didn’t say another word. He took out his own phone, unlocked it, and threw it in front of Fan Jun. “Here.”

Fan Jun sighed, hesitated for a long while, then handed the phone over. “You insisted on seeing it yourself.”

“Obviously,” Zou Yang grabbed the phone. “Someone with a guilty conscience like you would never voluntarily let me see it…”

The notification bar showed unread messages. He directly tapped and opened them, glanced at them, then couldn’t help but shout again: “Liu Wenrui!”

Fan Jun didn’t speak.

When Zou Yang saw the content, he shouted again: “She sent you a bunch of recipes!”

After shouting, he froze.

“What the hell?” He looked at Fan Jun. “Liu Wenrui sent you a bunch of recipes?”

Just as he was about to scroll up, Fan Jun pulled the phone out of his hand. “Leave a little suspense, big nephew.”

Zou Yang’s mind spun through several possibilities, but he still couldn’t hold back: “Preparing for my birthday?”

“Ah,” Fan Jun turned his head and smiled. “You people.”

“Why didn’t you stop me just now?” Zou Yang asked.

“Could I have stopped you?” Fan Jun said. “If I didn’t let you see it today, this whole shop wouldn’t be safe.”

Zou Yang thought for a moment, then leaned back in his chair, smiling.

“Let’s go?” Fan Jun asked. “Go shopping.”

“Are we still going for brunch?” Zou Yang asked.

“If we go now, they’ll already be closed. It’s only open until 2 PM.” Fan Jun said.

“What should we do then?” Zou Yang frowned.

“Go somewhere else,” Fan Jun said. “I’m not particularly attached to that brunch place. I just want to be with you.”

“Is that so?” Zou Yang tilted his head. “Then why didn’t you stay at home all morning and came here to be with Little Yang…”

Fan Jun stood up, walked over beside him, grabbed the back of his head, and pressed his face against his stomach: “Shut up.”

“Trying to silence me.” Zou Yang shouted while buried in Fan Jun’s stomach.

“Little Yang!” Fan Jun directly shouted into the shop.

“What is it?” Little Yang answered and immediately walked out.

“Hey!” Zou Yang quickly struggled to his feet, turned around, and walked away, waving frantically at Little Yang who was already at the door. “Nothing, nothing, nothing. The coffee was very good.”

“That cup was made by Brother Fan.” Little Yang said.

“…You taught him well.” Zou Yang gave him a thumbs-up and walked forward with long strides.

“There are still two untouched slices of pizza left, still hot. If you don’t want to go out for lunch…” Fan Jun told Little Yang.

“Is that their new item?” Little Yang immediately walked over.

“Yeah.” Fan Jun nodded.

Zou Yang was still walking ahead with long strides. Fan Jun smiled and followed, asking from behind: “Can you still eat something?”

“I can,” Zou Yang said. “Didn’t you say that place is already closed?”

“Switch to another one. We didn’t have to eat at that place anyway. We just had to eat together.” Fan Jun went up and put his arm around Zou Yang’s shoulder.

“Okay.” Zou Yang stretched, leaned back on Fan Jun’s arm, and looked up at the sky.

“Still sleepy?” Fan Jun asked.

“No longer. You woke me up with all that noise…”

Although they didn’t get to have brunch, Zou Yang spotted a Huaiyang cuisine restaurant he had never seen before across from the brunch place.

“Never been there.” Fan Jun said.

“Then let’s eat there.” Zou Yang waved his hand.

Today was the weekend, and they were in a commercial district. Although it was a bit later than the usual meal time, there were still quite a few customers in the shop.

Luckily, a table in the corner had just cleared out. In order to stay away from people, they insisted on standing beside the table until the waiter finished cleaning, then sat down there.

“I’ll keep an eye on things.” Zou Yang said.

“Mm.” Fan Jun nodded.

Zou Yang ordered a string of items based on recommendations.

“You won’t be able to finish all this.” Fan Jun leaned over and looked at his phone.

“Pack the leftovers.” Zou Yang said.

“Carrying a bag of groceries while shopping?” Fan Jun asked.

“Then waste a bit? If we can’t finish it, we can’t finish it.” Zou Yang thought for a moment.

“Then just don’t order so much.” Fan Jun said.

“You haven’t tried it before,” Zou Yang flipped through the menu back and forth. “Look, lion’s head meatballs, dried tofu shreds, Huangqiao sesame cakes, WenSi tofu…”

“You ordered two lion’s head meatballs already?” Fan Jun also stared at the menu.

“They’re different. There’s the cleared-braised one, the red-braised one, and this crab-roe one…” Zou Yang said. “Order all of them so you can taste each kind.”

“Is this place only allowed to be visited once?” Fan Jun asked.

“Hm?” Zou Yang was stunned, looking at him.

“This time we eat three dishes, next time we come we eat three more, the time after that a few more,” Fan Jun said. “Will the boss not allow it?”

“Damn,” Zou Yang laughed and leaned back in his chair. “Fine, then you pick a few to keep, remove the rest.”

“Mm,” Fan Jun took his phone, removed several dishes, and left one cold dish, two meat dishes, one vegetable dish, and one soup. “Do you want any drinks or something?”

“No need,” Zou Yang said. “I just had coffee.”

“Was the coffee good?” Fan Jun, after finishing the order, put down the phone and asked.

“Pretty good,” Zou Yang made a “tss” sound. “I was too busy getting angry earlier, didn’t finish it, and just sucked off the latte art.”

“Next time I’ll make it for you at the shop.” Fan Jun said.

“Mm.” Zou Yang nodded.

“How much longer is your internship?” Fan Jun asked.

“About a week. By mid-this month, I’ll be back at school before my birthday,” Zou Yang leaned on the table, turned his face toward him. “Why ask?”

“If you become a teacher at a school in the future,” Fan Jun reached out and gently flicked the tip of his nose, “will it be this tiring too?”

“Not necessarily. It depends on which subject and whether I become a homeroom teacher. If I become a homeroom teacher, I might eat my students…” Zou Yang looked at him, then suddenly asked: “Do you think I’ve been in a bad mood lately?”

“You’ve never had all that great of a temper.” Fan Jun smiled.

“Then do you think my temper has been even worse lately?” Zou Yang asked.

“Mm.” Fan Jun nodded.

“I’ve been holding a nameless anger inside, so you need to let me vent…” Zou Yang frowned.

“What?” Fan Jun asked in shock, quickly glancing at the nearby tables. Luckily, they were all separated by at least one table.

“Seriously,” Zou Yang tapped the table. “What are you thinking?”

“Oh.” Fan Jun replied.

“This isn’t the main point… I just thought of something on the way here,” Zou Yang said. “I realized something very important. During the argument, I always felt something was different, but I didn’t have time to think about it.”

“What?” Fan Jun looked at him.

“Didn’t you notice?” Zou Yang asked.

“I… should I have noticed?” Fan Jun hesitated.

“So you didn’t notice, right?” Zou Yang sat straight up, propped himself on the table, and used his little finger to push his crooked glasses back into place.

“…Mm.” Fan Jun replied.

“You were the one who got angry first.” Zou Yang raised an eyebrow.

“…Hm?” Fan Jun suddenly couldn’t react, not knowing what attitude to respond with to Zou Yang’s “discovery.”

“It was you!” Zou Yang pointed at him. “You got angry because I didn’t get out of bed.”

“Yes.” Fan Jun, although he didn’t know what Zou Yang wanted to say, knew this was true. When he got angry, Zou Yang was still sleeping soundly.

“First time, right?” Zou Yang leaned back on the chair, very pleased. “You actively got this angry over something small that you would have normally tolerated, and you even wanted me to notice you were angry.”

Zou Yang especially emphasized the word “small thing.”

“Is that so?” Fan Jun was stunned.

“And you stayed angry for such a long time,” Zou Yang looked at him. “I even went to find you, and you didn’t plan to pay attention to me.”

“Yeah.” Fan Jun, giving up all pretense, said: “At that time, I wasn’t done being angry yet. I just didn’t want to talk to you.”

“That’s good,” Zou Yang put his arm behind the chair back and said softly. “That’s really good.”

Fan Jun didn’t speak, just looked at him.

As if slowly understanding the meaning of his words.

The waiter brought the cold dish: “The crystal jelly pork you ordered.”

“Thank you.” Zou Yang picked up a piece with his chopsticks, dipped it in some vinegar, and put it in Fan Jun’s bowl. “Taste it.”

Fan Jun looked down, picked it up, put it in his mouth, chewed a few times, then nodded to indicate it was delicious.

Zou Yang also picked up a piece for himself.

“But…” He thought for a moment, then looked at Fan Jun again.

Fan Jun put down his chopsticks and also looked at him.

“It’s not enough. When you’re angry, you should curse it out. The part that made me angriest today was when you didn’t argue with me,” Zou Yang said. “Just argue. Don’t be afraid you can’t win the argument. Not being able to argue is the scariest part. Be bolder. I wouldn’t dare let it get completely out of control with you anyway.”

“Why?” Fan Jun asked.

“What do you mean, why?” Zou Yang countered.

“Why don’t you dare.” Fan Jun said.

Zou Yang didn’t expect Fan Jun to focus on this point. He was stunned for a long while before saying: “Do you even need to ask? I’m afraid of losing you.”

He said this a bit hurriedly, his voice rising.

People eating at the table next to them glanced over.

“What,” Zou Yang didn’t care much. His main point wasn’t there. He just leaned closer to Fan Jun and asked again: “You don’t even know that? You still have to ask me?”

“I was just confirming, enjoying the feeling.” Fan Jun said softly, his eyes full of laughter.

“Weirdo.” Zou Yang laughed and made a “tss” sound.

After thinking for a moment, he put away his smile: “So don’t hold it in. No matter how small the thing, you can get angry, you can argue with me. When I get angry, you don’t have to endure it. I’m not Uncle Lu, not Auntie Li, not even Lu Ze. I’m Zou Yang. Your boyfriend.”

“Mm.” Fan Jun replied very softly.

“The same goes for me,” Zou Yang said. “In short… if you’re unhappy, try to argue with me as much as possible,” Zou Yang said. “When I’m angry, I’ll try not to argue with you.”

“Mm.” Fan Jun smiled.