Chapter 72: N. Sweet Surprise

Ning Yixiao’s meeting ran very late.

The collaboration on the new product line had come together suddenly, and he found himself briefly stepping back into the role of engineer, helping guide the research and development team at Edge through the system upgrade.

It was five in the morning before he could finally breathe after the heavy load of work and make his way back to the apartment.

When he opened the door, the dining area light was still on. A few steps in, he found Su Hui asleep at the table, head resting on his arms.

Su Hui had clearly expected him home sooner. There was a bowl of tangyuan sitting out, made as a late-night snack. In the kitchen, Ning Yixiao found an opened bag of glutinous rice flour and some leftover red bean paste in the fridge. He realized Su Hui had made them from scratch, and something warm moved through him.

He carried Su Hui to the bedroom, laid him down, and tucked the covers around him. Su Hui was deeply asleep, making soft, sticky little sounds through his nose. He looked exhausted and didn’t stir.

Ning Yixiao kissed his forehead, went back to the table, and ate the bowl of tangyuan, now cold. Then he showered and came back to bed, pulling Su Hui close. He was a light sleeper, and at some point in the night he felt the person in his arms shift. He woke.

Su Hui was visibly startled to find Ning Yixiao’s eyes open, his own going wide before blinking slowly, a beat behind.

“Did I wake you?” he asked, very quietly.

Ning Yixiao leaned in and kissed him. “No.”

Su Hui settled contentedly against his chest and rubbed his eyes. “When did you get back?”

“Around two or three.” He rounded it down on purpose.

“Liar.” Su Hui called it without mercy. “I was still awake at two.”

Ning Yixiao laughed. “Very sharp.”

Coming from him, the compliment had a slightly strange quality. Su Hui suspected it was sarcasm, but didn’t mind. “Yixiao, your work is so consuming. When do you actually get to rest?”

“Say that again.”

“Hmm?” Su Hui looked up at him, confused.

Ning Yixiao’s mouth curved faintly. He leaned in close, the clean line of his nose grazing Su Hui’s ear, then the sensitive skin along his neck, and murmured: “What you just called me.”

“Just… Yixiao.”

“Mm.” Ning Yixiao pulled him in by the waist and pressed a long kiss to the side of his neck.

Su Hui let himself sink into it, though some small part of him stayed tense, worried Ning Yixiao might notice the scar there. It was very faint now, barely visible, but still.

“You smell good,” Ning Yixiao said, low against his skin.

Su Hui laughed and held on. “You really are like someone sniffing a cat. Always smelling things.”

Ning Yixiao felt at peace. Even just holding him, doing nothing else, the fear of losing him was gone.

“I’ll still be dealing with the competitor situation over the next few days, but the groundwork is mostly done. Just waiting on the other party to push updates. Saturday I have a launch event roadshow in the Bay Area, mainly to announce the partnership.”

Su Hui nodded, feeling as though Ning Yixiao was reporting his schedule to him. He smiled. “You make me sound like your boss, briefing me on your calendar.”

“You are,” Ning Yixiao said lightly, kissing his nose. “You’re my boyfriend. Highest authority in this household.”

Su Hui went red immediately. He could not handle Ning Yixiao’s lazy, unhurried tone and expression at this hour, and he instinctively committed the very foolish act of burying his face in the pillow.

“Here we go again. Little ostrich.” Ning Yixiao settled in beside him, turned his face, and watched Su Hui from inches away, speaking softly into his ear: “Are you shy?”

“No.” Muffled and mutinous.

Ning Yixiao laughed. “Isn’t it a bit late to be shy? We’ve done basically everything at this point.”

“Stop talking.” Su Hui was fairly certain his face was generating heat.

“So do you want to be my boyfriend?” Ning Yixiao reached over and pinched the back of his neck, gently. “Hmm?”

Su Hui was quiet for a beat. His grip on the pillow loosened. He turned his head.

“…Yes.”

Ning Yixiao couldn’t resist squeezing his cheek, and then gathered him close.

“Does this mean you’re going to leave again soon?” Su Hui asked, feeling tired on Ning Yixiao’s behalf. All that flying, never enough sleep.

Ning Yixiao made an affirmative sound. “After this stretch it’ll ease up.”

Su Hui nodded, turning something over in his mind. After a long hesitation, he leaned close to Ning Yixiao’s ear and said very quietly: “Then… when you have time off, could you take me somewhere?”

“Of course.” Ning Yixiao stroked his silver-white hair. “Where do you want to go?”

“Africa.” Su Hui pressed his lips together, hiding a smile.

Ning Yixiao looked at him. Something about the way he was suppressing that smile suggested he knew something.

“You watched the video, didn’t you.”

He reached out a finger in mock reproach.

Su Hui dropped the act entirely. “Yes, I did.”

He had been about to bite the finger, but changed his mind and held it instead.

“Take me next time. Don’t go alone.” He pulled himself closer. “Going anywhere alone just makes you sad.”

Ning Yixiao thought about it and found it was true. In all those years on his own, he had gone to so many places Su Hui had wanted to see. And every time he arrived, a vast loneliness swallowed him. If he turned around, he could almost see Su Hui laughing and waving at him, but it was never real.

It was different now.

Ning Yixiao smiled, a weight easing from somewhere inside him, and kissed Su Hui’s ear. “Have you learned to play the harmonica yet?”

Su Hui paused, then honestly shook his head. “No.”

Ning Yixiao’s tone carried an unfamiliar pride. “I have. Only the seven-note scale, but still.”

“That’s impressive.”

“It is, a little.”

They lay talking like that, holding each other, and it felt more satisfying than most things. Eventually Ning Yixiao had to get back to work and Su Hui had to get back to the university, so they reluctantly separated. But neither of them had had nearly enough, so they stood in the dim underground parking lot and kissed for a long time, until Su Hui was starting to react and they had no real choice but to stop.

Su Hui returned to campus with his heart still going, cheeks flushed, feeling precisely like someone falling in love for the first time.

His whole life, it seemed, he could only ever fall into the same river. And he didn’t want it any other way.

Back at the faculty, Su Hui pulled together all the project work he had done for Bella, and three days later booked a small lecture hall to give a presentation to students.

When it ended, he was unexpectedly surrounded. A number of girls were holding out notebooks asking him to sign them.

“Sign? I…”

“Eddy, you’re famous now! There’s a massive billboard of you in Times Square. It’s huge and it looks incredible!”

Su Hui hadn’t realized Bella’s team worked that quickly. “Really?”

“I already pre-ordered the magazine! It comes Saturday!”

“Me too! The cover is so beautiful! I told my roommate that’s our teaching assistant and she didn’t believe me.”

He was ushered out of the lecture hall by a cluster of students and happened to run into Professor White on the way. The professor invited him to dinner, and Su Hui accepted, getting into his car.

“Your career is really taking off,” Professor White said, amused.

“Not really. It’s just a side thing.” Su Hui pulled at the end of his hair, a little embarrassed.

“My wife already knows. She was talking about it just yesterday, said she’d seen your photos.” Professor White shook his head warmly. “It’s wonderful. I always knew you’d go far. Seeing you like this, I’m happier than anyone.”

Su Hui felt it deeply. He would never forget how Professor White’s family had helped him. It was a kindness no one else could have given.

At dinner, the professor and his wife chatted enthusiastically, constantly getting up to bring things out. Mrs. White had also knitted Su Hui a grass-green toggle-button wool sweater.

“See, I told you it would fit perfectly.”

Professor White conceded. “Fine, fine. You were right.”

“And you see him every day, yet somehow I know him better.” Mrs. White was unapologetically smug, then immediately turned to praise: “Eddy, you look so wonderful in this color. Fresh and alive. Stop wearing all that black and grey. Listen to me, wear brighter colors. You’re so good-looking, you should show it.”

“I will. Thank you.” Su Hui smiled.

Since his grandmother’s health crisis, he had come here less often. But every time he did, there was that old feeling of being somewhere like home.

When he left, the couple walked him downstairs.

“Take these. Several kinds of cheese. Have them with bread.”

Su Hui took the bags she piled into his arms, gave her a hug, and smiled. “Thank you. The wind is picking up, please go back inside.”

“Come see her more often,” Professor White said. “She talks about you when you’re not around.”

“I know. I’ll come more.”

“And bring that boy you like,” Mrs. White said plainly.

Su Hui blinked, then understood.

“Don’t be embarrassed. We’re practically your parents at this point. We should meet him.” She smiled. “Anyone Eddy likes that much must be wonderful. Bring him over. Just a casual meal.”

“Okay.” Su Hui looked down. “When he’s not so busy, I’ll bring him.”

---

Ning Yixiao had thought about inviting Su Hui to come to the Bay Area on Saturday.

At first he wanted Su Hui beside him at the roadshow, but thinking it over, Su Hui worked hard enough as it was, and flying out just to sit in a venue for two hours seemed like too much. So he scaled the wish down: just have Su Hui come to the Bay Area and be with him.

The disappointing news was that Su Hui had work on Saturday, helping students with the spring art exhibition.

When Ning Yixiao heard this, he won’t deny there was disappointment, but he didn’t let too much of it show on the call. He performed the unruffled composure of a busy adult while privately imagining turning Su Hui into an actual miniature toy cat, keychain-sized, small enough to carry in his pocket every day, unable to go anywhere.

“Do you miss me very much?” Su Hui asked over the phone in that light, unhurried way of his.

Ning Yixiao looked out at the sea from his window. “I suppose.”

Su Hui laughed on the other end, genuinely delighted, like a child.

On Friday afternoon they had a video call, and Su Hui used his artist’s eye to pick out Ning Yixiao’s outfit for the launch event: a black turtleneck knit and jeans.

“What are you doing after this?” Ning Yixiao didn’t bother changing, just went with Su Hui’s choice.

“Mm… I’ll go visit Grandma, I think.”

That’s what Su Hui said. Less than half an hour after hanging up, he had packed a bag and was heading to the airport. His luck wasn’t with him: he had stayed up all night to finish everything in advance so he could surprise Ning Yixiao, only for the flight to be delayed.

He landed in the Bay Area at 9:20 Saturday morning, ten minutes before the event was scheduled to start. There was no possible way to make it, and with traffic on top of that, Su Hui arrived at the venue a full hour late, bouquet in hand.

Fortunately, he had coordinated with Carl in advance. With Carl running interference, Su Hui was able to slip in quietly, make his way to the last row, and sink into a seat without drawing too much attention.

He was crouching low as he settled in. On stage, Ning Yixiao was demonstrating the difference between the old and new functionality. It was the first time in years that Su Hui had watched him give a presentation like this.

For a moment he drifted back six years, to their first trip to New York, Ning Yixiao presenting at the academic conference.

He was more assured now. More polished. There was an ease in the way he moved and spoke, a magnetism that he wore without effort. His humor, subtle and slightly elevated, landed in ways that made the room feel less like a product launch and more like watching an exceptionally good-looking stand-up comedian do something quietly brilliant.

Midway through, Su Hui’s phone buzzed with a message from Carl.

[Carl: Eddy, it feels like things between you and Shaw are in a much better place. Really happy for you both.]

What a thoughtful assistant.

Su Hui typed back.

[Eddy: Thank you, Carl. You’ve helped me so much through all of this. I was in a depressive episode when we first met, and I know I was a bit cold toward you. I hope you didn’t mind.]

Carl didn’t mind at all. If anything, he felt Su Hui’s definition of “cold” differed significantly from his own, given that he worked daily with a genuinely cold boss. Being around Su Hui, by comparison, felt like standing in warm sunlight.

[Carl: Don’t think of it that way. You’re a kind person, and I was genuinely glad to help. You’re the most important people in each other’s worlds, after all.]

Su Hui was a little surprised reading that. He had assumed Carl didn’t know the full extent of things. Apparently he knew quite a lot.

[Eddy: I know. Thank you.]

The product demo portion began. Ning Yixiao scanned the audience from the stage. “I’ll be choosing two audience members to come up and try it out. Anyone interested?”

Su Hui immediately dropped his head, folded himself small, and tried to disappear into his seat.

He survived undetected. Two enthusiastic volunteers went up instead, and Su Hui exhaled.

After the demo, the event moved into its final stretch, and under Ning Yixiao’s closing remarks, the whole room broke into applause. Su Hui clapped quietly too, thinking he’d be able to go up with his flowers soon. But the moment it ended, a stream of audience members surged toward the stage with large, beautiful bouquets, wanting signatures and photos. It was continuous.

Su Hui waited. And as he waited, he noticed how impressive all those bouquets were, how large and elaborate. His own, purchased in haste, a small cluster of white roses, suddenly felt rather insignificant.

He looked down and tried to rearrange the stems into something more presentable, but the more he fussed, the less satisfied he felt.

He should have bought the biggest one. Even if he had to wait.

He even began to wonder whether he should have dressed more carefully. Thinking this, Su Hui reached up and adjusted the brown painter’s hat on his head.

He had worn the grass-green wool sweater Mrs. White had knitted, specifically to see Ning Yixiao, paired with the brown suede trousers he hadn’t touched in a long time.

Was this too much like an art student?

He was still somewhere in these thoughts when a hand appeared in front of him and knocked on the empty seat back ahead of him, like a knock at a door.

Su Hui snapped back. He looked up and met Ning Yixiao’s eyes, looking directly at him.

“Morning.”

Su Hui said it back without thinking. “…Morning.”

But it was nowhere near morning.

Ning Yixiao glanced at the bouquet in his arms. “Is that for me?”

Su Hui remembered himself, stood up, and held it out. “Congratulations on a successful launch.”

He paused, then added: “My flowers are a bit small, but they’re very fresh. I stood over the florist’s shoulder and supervised the whole wrapping.”

Ning Yixiao took them, smiling. “I thought you were going to say you grew them yourself.”

“I don’t have anywhere to grow flowers anymore.” Su Hui said it more to himself than to anyone.

Ning Yixiao smiled, thinking the hat suited him particularly well. He pulled Su Hui into his arms without any concern for who was watching, held him, then raised the bouquet to shield them and kissed his cheek.

Su Hui still felt self-conscious and stepped back out of the embrace, but kept hold of his hand, unwilling to fully let go.

“I thought you had work.” Ning Yixiao brushed the hair from his cheek. “What are you doing here?”

“I finished early. Wanted to surprise you.” Su Hui looked up at him with honest admiration. “You were incredible up there. I genuinely wanted to buy one.”

“You don’t need to buy it.” Ning Yixiao smiled and pulled him toward backstage, picking up his suit jacket from another assistant along the way and draping it over Su Hui’s shoulders. “It’s a bit cold here.”

“When did you spot me?” Su Hui was curious.

“When you came in. Sneaking around like a little thief.”

Like a cat that had snuck into a room full of humans holding a meeting.

Ning Yixiao spotted Carl busy at the back and stepped over to him quietly. “Go to my place. Lock the room with the installation art, then have the cleaners go through it. And light some incense.”

Carl considered this. “You don’t use incense.”

Ning Yixiao didn’t feel like explaining. “Just do it. I’ll send you the brand.”

“Understood.”

When he turned back, Su Hui was chatting animatedly with one of the female staff members nearby, and she had already taken out her phone to ask for a photo.

Ning Yixiao walked over. “Professor Su is famous now. Fans everywhere.”

Su Hui fired back immediately. “Not as many as the flowers you received.”

Ning Yixiao slung an arm around his shoulder. “You came all this way to the Bay Area. Should I take you around a bit?”

“Let’s.”

Su Hui didn’t know the area well, only Silicon Valley and the Golden Gate Bridge by name, so he left the planning entirely to Ning Yixiao. Ning Yixiao knew he loved the sea, so he chose a restaurant with a view of the water and the bridge.

The plan had been to walk to the Golden Gate after eating, but midway through the meal, Ning Yixiao noticed that Su Hui was visibly running low on sleep, drifting slightly, stifling one yawn after another.

“You didn’t sleep enough, did you?” Ning Yixiao cut the steak and traded plates with him.

“A little.” Su Hui had pulled an all-nighter and then waited at the airport for a long time. “Couldn’t sleep on the plane.”

“Let’s go home and rest first. Once you’ve slept properly we can go out again. The night view is worth it too.”

Su Hui always felt something move in him when he heard the word home, especially from Ning Yixiao. He ate the steak quickly, drank a little white wine, and floated in a state of quiet contentment, like a small sailboat drifting on the sea with no one watching.

After dinner, Ning Yixiao drove him to a residential area partway up a hill, calm and beautiful, surrounded by trees, facing a wide stretch of blue bay. The view was extraordinary.

Su Hui looked around with curiosity. “Is this where you live?”

Ning Yixiao corrected him gently. “Where we live.”

Su Hui felt a warmth that had nothing to do with the house itself.

“I have other properties elsewhere, but this one has the best sea view. Ten minutes on foot to the beach. There’s another place that isn’t as close to the water but has a lovely stretch of forest nearby. You’d like that one too.”

Su Hui understood then that Ning Yixiao really had remembered every small thing he’d ever said, without making a show of it. He didn’t carry it on his tongue but in his actions, quietly and entirely.

“Honestly, it doesn’t matter where we live. As long as it’s with you, I’ll be happy.”

Ning Yixiao stopped the car, leaned across, kissed Su Hui’s mouth, and unclipped his seatbelt in the same motion.

“Come see it.”

The exterior was all white, shaped like an enormous shell, with large floor-to-ceiling glass panels along the side, layered at different levels. It had a considered, architectural quality.

Ning Yixiao opened the door and led him inside by the hand.

“Do you like it?” he asked.

But Su Hui had missed him so much that what he actually wanted was simply to hold him. He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around Ning Yixiao’s neck, looking up into his face.

“Yes. I like it.”

The air carried a faint woody scent, with something soft and damp underneath it. Su Hui stood on his toes and pressed close to Ning Yixiao’s face, copying his habit, rubbing nose to nose. Ning Yixiao’s cologne filled his senses, layered and warm and close, and somehow it made him feel the heat.

“I missed you.” He tilted his face up and brushed his lips against Ning Yixiao’s chin, then the corner of his mouth.

No response came right away. Su Hui grew impatient and dropped his head, pressing his forehead against Ning Yixiao’s collarbone, nudging gently against him, the whole of him softened into something trusting and yielding.

“Don’t you miss me?”

“What do you think?”

Without any warning, Ning Yixiao lifted him entirely off the ground, facing him.

Su Hui’s feet left the floor and he grabbed instinctively at Ning Yixiao’s neck. Both of them were pulled along by the same current, nerves lit up, reason abandoned, lost entirely in each other.

Su Hui was pressed against the wall and kissed deeply, the sounds of it amplified in the quiet space, nowhere to hide. The further Ning Yixiao went, the more Su Hui came undone, legs unable to find the ground, dependent on him completely.

The wool sweater had somehow come half-off his shoulders, the white cotton shirt beneath exposed. The hat had fallen somewhere on the floor.

Su Hui was breathless, brain running low on oxygen, hands weak against Ning Yixiao’s shoulders, feeling unmoored, whispering small protests: “Yixiao, put me down…”

And then a sound. Something hitting the floor.

He thought at first it was his imagination, but when he looked up, Carl was standing motionless at the bottom of the spiral staircase, hands still held in the position of someone who had been carrying something.

The scented candle had tumbled out of its opened box and rolled three full rotations before coming to a stop.

Su Hui came back to himself in an instant.

Not a hallucination. The real Carl.

“You two…”

Carl was destroyed.

---

Author’s Note:

This surprise was a massive shock to Carl.

Carl: my entire worldview has collapsed.