Honey Stewed Squid

He felt there was a need to pass on a piece of common knowledge to the kid: most men figured this sort of thing out without any teaching.

Especially adult men.

The tip of his tongue drew a circle as it traveled over her ear. He bit down. The little cartilage was very soft and slid back and forth between his teeth.

A current shot through her entire body until the very tips of her toes were tingly.

“This is by instinct, understand?” His voice was like a knife on sandpaper.

Blunt. Time after time, rubbing across it.

Rubbing across…

Her legs squeezed his hips as she repeatedly adjusted the position where she was sitting. Move close. Pull away. She could not say whether she felt good or not. That feeling where her bones seemed so limp they could snap off…

Ah! … Oh gosh, sat on that spot (⊙o⊙)…

She was stupefied…

Instantly, his muscles completely tensed. His chin hooked onto the back of her shoulder, and scooping her under her legs, he lifted up her entire body.

……

Alcohol made her anxious and impatient, and when she was impatient, she wanted everything. However, she was not truly clear on what exactly she had requested and gotten.

Those physical acts between two people that occurred in moments of intense love and tenderness as they pleasured one another were not merely the simple pictures that were described in written language…

She was picked up and flung onto the bed…

“Go to sleep now.”

(⊙o⊙)…

“I’m not mad and won’t break up, understand? Now sleep!”

The quilt enclosed her from head to foot. Even her face was covered.

She continued to (⊙o⊙)…

And so, the K&K members who had gone to Sanya to participate in the commercial event and only now just arrived back saw their leader storm out from the dormitory in a frenzied rage, fiercely slamming the door shut. Everyone was 0.0… Seeing Leader with his shirt covered in all sorts of wrinkles and even the waistband of his pants loosened…

Gosh, even the love-filled bang bang bang from Sister-In-Law could not soothe the defeat that Leader had felt in Sanya?

* * * * *

When she awoke again, the sky was already completely dark.

On the bed, Tong Nian felt all around, trying to find her mobile phone to check the time and, while she was at it, recall why she was sleeping here. And then… She sat up in alarm. The quilt was still draped over her, but she wanted to escape from there.

Alas, just as this idea arose in her mind, she saw that, right there in the darkness, he was leaning back in the chair beside the bed and resting.

……

She did not dare make a peep.

Speedily, she fastened up the buttons of her blouse and tied the bow. 𝐟re𝐞w𝐞𝒃𝓃𝒐𝐯𝚎𝒍.c૦𝚖

Then, she crawled down lightly, searching for the longest time in bare feet for her shoes.

“You’re awake?” Without even opening his eyes, he tossed out this sentence.

“Mm…” She dared not speak even one extraneous word.

Too scary…

Just…

Even without doing it, it was already so scary…

Too scary…

Gun let out a long breath. “Your mother called forty-seven times.”

“Huh?” Her brain had not caught up to speed.

“I didn’t pick up.” He would be hacked to death if he had answered.

“Oh…” She nodded woodenly.

“But you picked up.”

“Wha—?”

Gun handed her phone to her, meaning she should try to recall what she had said that had led to the forty-seven missed calls immediately following. After being in a drunken state, she normally was still able to remember things, but if that drunken state was followed by a deep sleep… She thought for a long time until finally, she recovered a tiny bit of her awareness. It seemed… “I said I was sleeping here at your place…”

The word choice… was very chaste…

He knew it—

Gun lifted his chin to motion in the direction of the bathroom. “Go wash your face. I’ll take you home.”

Tong Nian gave an “oh, okay,” then got off the bed, put on some slippers, and obediently slipped into the bathroom. Flipping on the light, Gun turned in a circle where he stood and selected a few relatively more proper-looking pieces of clothing—a casual button-up shirt, a blazer, trousers…

Swiftly, he began to change from bottom up.

When Tong Nian stepped back out, she saw him, his back to her, looking out the window as he slipped on a shirt. The buttons had not been done up yet… Eh? He had already changed into a whole new set of clothes?

Turning his head, he glanced at the kid.

Wearing a flat expression on his face, he began to fasten up his buttons one by one.

Tong Nian gnawed on her lip.

So his habit was to button from the bottom up… Wouldn’t he button them to the wrong hole?

Um… well, probably not.

When he had fastened up to the second one from the top, he stopped and did not button the top one.

Then, it was the cuffs…

Her cheeks flushed a little from watching. Lowering her head, she found her shoes at the foot of the bed, slipped them on, and pulled her backpack onto her back. Red-faced, she stood in one spot with her eyes cast downward, but still, she could not help peeping at him… This was the first time she had seen him wearing a button-up shirt.

Black. So handsome.

He picked up his jacket, grabbed his car keys and mobile phone, and walked over to her. Tousling her hair slightly with his hand, he asked, “Isn’t this a necklace? Why are you wearing it on your arm?” Since bringing her back here, all sorts of chaos had ensued, so he had not noticed this thing circling her wrist.

Huh? Allowing her thoughts to follow his words, she remembered the necklace she had wrapped around her wrist. “This? It’s too long and doesn’t look good worn around the neck. Wrapped around the wrist, though, it’s quite nice. Exactly four times around.” This was the very first gift he had given her.

In order to wear it for him to see, she had purposely gone home before the anime expo to retrieve it.

He gave an “oh” and asked, “Do you like it?”

“Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.” Even though it was a little long…

Gun had originally forgotten about it, but seeing this necklace caused him to finally remember the huge loss he had suffered this year.

Basically, an antique necklace once worn by who-knows-who had resulted in the evaporation of his last two years’ worth of savings, all of it transferred into Auntie’s[1] [stepmom’s] bank account. In the first place, these last two years, K&K China was just getting its foot off the ground and was still losing money. Fortunately, globally, K&K was making a profit; otherwise, he really would have had to pawn even his pants…

It was this necklace that had caused him to taste again that feeling he had once experienced back when he had been making his own way, drifting around in China, and the relationship with his family had been severed. That feeling of…

… having to tighten his belt in order to get through the days.

But from the look on the kid’s face, she was not lying. He supposed that girls just naturally liked these sparkly types of things?

He did not concern himself anymore with this necklace. Bringing her out of the K&K headquarters, he drove directly to her home.

Along the way, he had Tong Nian make a phone call to her parents to say that he would be going back with her to explain everything. Tong Nian did as he instructed. After hanging up the phone, she felt a little apprehensive…

It seemed Dad and Mom were both very displeased. Was he… really so bad?

Why did they keep asking questions on the phone along the lines of, hadn’t they already broken up? Why had they not broken up yet? …

Soon, they arrived at their destination.

Park the car. Grab the car keys. Get out of the car.

The two of them walked the entire way until they arrived at the front door of her home. Gun took out his mobile phone and set it to silent. Then, in that empty corridor, he told her, “Later on, no matter what I say, it is all true, got it?”

She was bewildered.

Mulling over the fact that her fibbing skills truly were sorely lacking, he rubbed her hair and instructed, “Don’t say anything. Don’t disagree with what I say. You can only nod.”

She gave an “oh, okay,” his words making her more and more nervous.

Pulling out her keys, she opened the door.

Inside the living room, her dad and mom both stood. Mom very quickly strode over and pulled Tong Nian, who had not even had the chance to change into slippers, over to her, questioning in low tones, “You make people worry too much. Didn’t you say you guys had broken up already? How come all of a sudden…”

Dad gave a cough. “Nian Nian, go upstairs.”

Huh?

No…

She lowered her head, unwilling to budge.

What if, when I go upstairs, you guys give him a hard time?

In his own home, he’s already always alienated (?), not really welcome, and always picked on (?). He doesn’t even have any friends (?). If even our family bullies (?) him…

In a small voice, she countered, “Whatever you guys talk about, I’ll just listen and won’t say anything.”

This was her matter, after all, so when her parents saw in her expression that she was insistent on listening to everything, they silently conceded.

“Little Han.” Dad’s tone could still be considered amiable. “You don’t have to change shoes. Just come straight over and have a seat. Let’s have a good talk.”

Stuffing his car keys into his pants pocket, he walked over with a solemn look. “My sincere apologies, Uncle, Auntie. I had better be the one to speak first. The two of you, please, have a seat.”

That was actually fine that he was speaking first.

Her parents exchanged a look. They would have to go through this step of the procedure anyway.

They would feel out the situation first, then see what both their stances were. In any case, they had not been together for long yet. The things that they each did, their lives and social circles, as well as their ages were all vastly different, so their relationship would not last long anyway. Still, it was best if they, the parents, expressed their position on this tonight, that they did not support—adamantly did not support—them being together. They had just met not long ago but were already sleeping together… This eldest son of the Han family really was too frivolous and irresponsible.

He watched the two elders take their seats first before he followed suit and sat down on the sofa.

The place he was sitting was just right so that he could look directly at them.

Silence. After a dozen or so seconds of silence, he folded his hands together and set them on his lap. His entire sitting posture emitted a sense of heaviness, that when you looked at him, he appeared to have matters troubling his heart and many things he wanted to say.

This particular state caused the atmosphere of the living room to freeze over in tension.

“The relationship between Nian Nian and me may be a little different from what the two of you are thinking.” His voice was steady and calm. “It was around… two years ago. I had just returned to China to found K&K eSports Club, and I saw her at an exposition. It was just a single encounter with her, and then I never forgot her.”

Tong Nian…

Didn’t we meet right before the Spring Festival? And I was the one who pursued you…

“Alas, in the vast sea of people, it would be difficult to ever see her again.” A wry smile appeared at the corner of his lips. “Fortunately, this year, when I led my team to Hangzhou for a competition, she happened to be participating in an anime expo, and I really did get a chance to meet her. To be honest, at the time, I was truly very excited and overcome with emotion. You may be thinking that I’m exaggerating a bit with what I’m saying. How could a man who’s nearly thirty behave like a young, immature boy? But please, trust me. It’s true.”

Tong Nian…

I was the one who was all excited. You didn’t even pay attention to me…

“Nian Nian, she… in the beginning, was not really able to accept that I’m ten years older than her. That’s why the whole situation at the Lunar New Year’s Eve dinner occurred. In regards to keeping all this secret from you, I’ve felt very guilty this whole time. At the time… Nian Nian did not really want to acknowledge my existence, so I also didn’t dare come pay a visit to you here at your home.”

When he finished speaking, the room fell into an even deeper silence.

Tong Nian (⊙o⊙)…

Her parents were rather quiet. All along, they had heard that the eldest son of the Han family was unwilling to get married, and they had thought that he had been spoiled by his family, to the point that pursuing only fun and pleasure had become part of his nature. Who would have thought… he had never been in a love relationship before? This was actually quite surprising.

Mom stroked Tong Nian’s hair.

Actually, thinking about it again, aside from being a little old, there were not any major issues with this child of the Han family.

His voice became even lower, and his manner became increasingly more sincere. “In the past, truly, the only thing that was important in my eyes was career. No successful career, no marriage for me. But since I met Nian Nian, nothing matters anymore.”

She continued to (⊙o⊙)…

“This time, when I brought the team to Guangzhou for a tournament, she suddenly said again that she wanted to break up. I basically broke down at that and deliberately rushed back. And that’s why… there was today’s incident. The reason I brought her back to the club was to tell her, if she really cannot accept how busy I am, I’m willing to transfer out all my shares in the club and completely change professions. For her, I am willing to give up the K&K that I founded with my own hands.”

She was completely (⊙o⊙)… What was he saying? …

At these words, he at last had the courage (?) to raise those deep black eyes to look at her parents. “She’s still young. To her, I may be just a romance, but to me, she is already a part of my life. So, I brought her back today and took the liberty to pay you this visit and say all these words, merely because I want a chance. If she wants to break up, I will not say a single thing and will immediately disappear. If she can accept me again, then, Uncle, Auntie, please rest assured and place her care into my hands. I will use a lifetime to shoulder the responsibility of caring for her.”

[1] Gun addresses his stepmom as 阿姨 “Auntie.”